Emeritus Pope Benedict is in poor physical condition and he is fading fast, reports say. “Benedict is in a bad way” and “we won’t have him for much longer” according to a veteran Spanish Vatican reporter, Paloma Gomez Borrero. Borrero has visited with Emeritus Pope in April and again late May in Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, inside Read more
“I live like a monk and I’m fine. I pray and I read,” Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI has told a German friend who visited him recently at his new residence in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in Vatican City. Manfred Lutz, a German scholar who is a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity and Read more
Pope Francis intends to complete an encyclical on faith that was begun by his predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi confirmed that Pope Francis would complete the encyclical on the virtue of faith, but said it would be “premature” to guess when it would be completed. He denied a previous report Read more
Who could have imagined what has happened in the last weeks? When I decided, months ago, to resign all of my official duties on the occasion of my 85th birthday, I assumed I would never see fulfilled my dream that — after all the setbacks following the Second Vatican Council — the Catholic church would Read more
When Pope Francis visited his predecessor at Castle Gandolfo in March, he said to Benedict XVI that “we are brothers.” This image nicely frames the differences between them. It underscores that the election of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was not a rupture in the Church (as some suggest) but an unexpected lesson in apostolic continuity. Specifically, Read more
Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI has said he is “happy to be back at the Vatican” after moving into his new quarters in a restored convent in the Vatican Gardens. A Vatican statement said the retired Pope intended to “dedicate himself to the service of the Church, above all with prayer”. But Vatican correspondent John Allen Read more
The Catholic bishops of Austria have stipulated that the only currently permitted translation of the Latin words “pro multis” in the Eucharistic Prayer is “for all”. Last year Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI told the German-speaking bishops that their new translation of the Missal — due to come into use on the first Sunday of Advent Read more
In one of the last acts of his pontificate, Benedict XVI gave an address to the clergy of the Diocese of Rome on the Second Vatican Council. In the address he drew a distinction between what he termed the Virtual Council, or Council of the Media, and the Real Council or Council of those who actually produced Read more
The Vatican has denied a Spanish report that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is seriously ill. On the contrary, said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, Benedict XVI “does not have any illness” and “this has been certified by his doctors”. The report in El Mundo quoted Spanish Vaticanista Paloma Gomez-Borrero as saying: “Benedict XVI has something very Read more
As a somewhat old-fashioned, traditional type, I welcomed the engaging presence and comment of Dame Lyndsay Freer to my radio and TV during the recent papal conclave. Long before the advent of television, St Thomas Aquinas said, “faith comes from hearing“, and the Catholic Church in New Zealand, once again, at least for a limited Read more