Confidential letters and memos to and from Pope Benedict and his personal secretary have just been published in a book by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi entitled “His Holinesss”. The book refers to power struggles and corruption inside the Holy See and the approach of its top banker who has been under scrutiny. Vatican spokesman Rev. Read more
At the moment there is not a great deal of interest in who the next pope will be as Pope Benedict XVI seems to be in good health. According to John L Allen Jr, though, “with an 85-year-old pope beginning to show his age, speculation about who might come next is always in the background, Read more
The Fiji Sun has reported that in meetings with Fiji’s new non-resident Ambassador to the Holy See, Naivakarurubalavu Solo Mara, Pope Benedict and Vatican officials wish Fiji well The Pope received Mara in an official audience for the presentation of his Letters of Credence on Friday 5 May at the Clementine Hall in Vatican City. He Read more
ROME — When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected to the papacy in April 2005, the popular forecast called for stormy weather ahead. This was, after all, the Vatican enforcer who had been leading a “smack-down on heresy since 1981”, in the words of T-shirts and coffee mugs marketed by a Ratzinger fan club. His rise elicited Read more
On 13 May Benedict XVI, the 85 year old Pontiff, who has in the past written about retiring, is scheduled to make a pastoral visit to Arezzo, La Verna and Sansepolcro, three Italian localities with a long history of monasticism and contemplative life. Continue reading
For Benedict XVI, this has been a week of milestones. The pontiff turned 85 on Monday, making him the oldest pope in the last 110 years and one of just six to reign past 85 in the last half-millennium. On Thursday, Benedict also marked the seventh anniversary of his election to the papacy in April Read more
The celebration of Pope Benedict’s 85th birthday on April 16, makes him the oldest pope for over 100 years; Pope Leo XIII died in 1903 aged 93. The Holy Father told his aides that he wanted “no major celebrations”, the Pope’s personal secretary Georg Gaenswein told the Italian weekly Gente. Benedict was however later joined Read more
The secretary for the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, Monsignor Giampetro dal Toso, says Pope Benedict and Syrian Church are helping sustain locals amid continuing violence in the country. In an interview with CNA on April 13 in Rome, Msgr. Dal Toso explained that when the Pope sent a donation of $100,000 to help Catholics in Read more
Cuban police carried out 1,158 political detentions in March – mostly to keep dissidents away from Pope Benedict XVI – the most since the mass roundups during the Bay of Pigs invasion five decades ago, a human rights group reported Tuesday. The report by the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation in Havana Read more
Pope Benedict XVI’s brother is spending the weekend at the Vatican ahead of the pontiff’s 85th birthday. The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano published photos of the two sitting side-by-side in prayer after Mass on Saturday in the Pope’s private chapel. It said Benedict on Friday night cut short an Easter week vacation at the papal Read more