The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has a new undersecretary, with Pope Francis appointing Monsignor Giacomo Morandi to be its second highest-ranking official. Morandi, who is from Italy, is a Biblicist (i.e. a person who interprets the Bible literally). He had already been chosen by the pope in 2015 to be the Read more
Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI’s aide Archbishop Georg Gänswein says it’s a “fantasy” to publish reports that set Benedict up against Pope Francis. Those who do so are “stupid people,” he adds. The reports originated after Gänswein read a message from Benedict at last week’s funeral of German Cardinal Joachim Meisner. In the message, Benedict alluded Read more
“You are forbidden to complain,” reads a notice attached recently to the door of Pope Francis’s apartment in Saint Martha’s House in the Vatican. The notice was reported by “Vatican Insider” and confirmed to ZENIT newspaper by the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Greg Burke, on July 14, 2017. Read more and click Read more
The Global Catholic Climate Movement aims to persuade a million Catholics to pledge their support for Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si. Signatories agree to pray with and for creation, live more simply and to advocate to protect the environment – our common home. Francis has given the “Laudato Si‘ Pledge Campaign” his Read more
The Church is doing whatever it can to strengthen all family types, including those often considered non-traditional, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn said during a recent visit to Ireland. Speaking last week at the “Let’s Talk Family: Let’s Be Family” conference in Ireland, Schönborn endorsed family life. “[Family is]the survival network of the future” and “will remain Read more
Pope Francis sent out an Apostolic Letter on Tuesday creating a new beatification category for a Servant of God to be declared Blessed. This category is distinct from martyrdom through “oblatio vitae, or “the free offering of their life” for love of God and neighbour. The letter’s title, Maiorem hac dilectionem, comes from Our Lord’s Read more
ROME — What do the Sistine Chapel, a used car with 186,000 miles on the odometer and a statue of Our Lady of Lujan made out of metal from an abandoned factory have in common? Besides being found in the Vatican Museums’ collections, the 1984 Renault, the Renaissance frescoes, and the recycled scrap all help Read more
“I entrust sailors, fishermen, and all those in difficulty on the seas faraway from home, to the motherly protection of Mary, Star of the Sea, says Pope François in a “Tweet” posted on his account @Pontifex_en, this Sunday July 9, 2017, Sea Sunday. On this occasion, the Vatican published a Message of the Dicastery for Read more
Bread used to celebrate the Eucharist during Catholic masses must not be gluten-free, although it may be made from genetically modified organisms, a letter sent to all diocesan bishops says. Furthermore, the bread “must be unleavened, purely of wheat, and recently made so that there is no danger of decomposition”. Bread made from products other Read more
Fifty years after Vatican II and the Church’s slow moves to solidify, clarify and reaffirm her teaching, Pope Francis wants all the “Pentecostal energy” the Vatican has unleashed to be used, Washington’s Cardinal Donald Wuerl says. Wuerl’s comments were made at the beginning of the ‘Convocation of Catholic Leaders: The Joy of the Gospel’ in Read more