Christmas and Easter are the two most important liturgical seasons in the Christian Church. And in a sort of symbolic way they served as bookends to the life and death of Joseph Ratzinger, the priest and theologian who eventually became Pope Benedict XVI — the first Roman Pontiff in 600 years to voluntarily renounce the Read more
At the very start of his pontificate nearly ten years ago, Pope Francis distinguished himself from his most recent predecessors by adopting an informal and colloquial way of communicating. He showed early on that he had no intention of merely reciting prepared speeches or sticking to the stodgy old Vatican script pertaining to protocols and Read more
It’s all Pope Francis’ fault (or merit). Those who fiercely criticize the Synodal Path that the Catholic Church in Germany embarked upon in 2019 — and even those who enthusiastically support it — cannot deny that the Jesuit pope is responsible. The only reason the Germans have been able to spend the past three years Read more
We’re all guilty, at least many of us whose job it is to report or comment on the Catholic Church. Let’s just admit it: we are obsessed with bishops. It seems like they are almost always the main focus or at least a significant part of whatever we write or talk about. And why not? Read more
The Catholic Church has always been very good at baptising, marrying and burying people. Those who avail themselves of the liturgies that celebrate and solemnise these key moments of our Christian existence are often called cradle-to-grave Catholics. And if you believe the Vatican’s statistical office, we are growing in number. Its latest figures claim that Read more
Pope Francis has had a fair amount of success in getting people to look with new eyes at major issues or problems in our world. He has been helped out in this thanks to generally friendly media coverage. Of course, that doesn’t mean people always agree with what he says or that those who do Read more
Pope Francis is preparing the public for his stepping down in 2025, by constantly talking about his ill health and possible resignation, according to a Vatican expert. Robert Mickens is the editor of the Roman Catholic newspaper La Croix International. He has lived, studied and worked in Rome for 30 years. Mickens told inews he Read more
It’s always been a challenge to read the Vatican tea leaves in the idiosyncratic pontificate of Francis, the first Jesuit pope in the history of the Catholic Church and the first Roman Pontiff in more than a century who had never before worked or lived in Rome. But in the last several months it’s basically Read more
“Over new plan to elect pope, 3 cardinals threaten to quit.” That headline appeared in the October 6, 1972 issue of the National Catholic Reporter. “If insiders’ reports are accurate, Pope Paul is faced with a threatened palace revolt over proposed changes in the procedures used to elect a pope,” wrote Desmond O’Grady, the now-deceased Read more
The Vatican announced on Friday that Pope Francis has been forced to cancel his July 2-7 visit to two countries in Africa due to a knee ailment, the exact nature of which it has never made public. The abrupt cancellation of the trip, which had just been confirmed on May 28, intensified concerns over the Read more