For nearly 350 years, anti-Catholic bias was a reliable and powerful presence in the political and religious culture of the United States. Today, when the Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, for example, insists that Muslim immigrants ‘want to use our freedoms to undermine… freedom’, it can be easy to forget that for most of US history, Read more
A Portuguese priest has been honoured for his wartime actions in saving of dozens of Jews during the Nazi holocaust. Fr Joaquim Carreira risked his life to save others while at a Rome pontifical college during the Second World War. A nephew of Fr Carreria, also a priest, received a medal on his behalf from Read more
It’s 8.10 pm at the Vatican City and just a few meters away from Saint Anne’s Gate (Porta Sant’Anna) is a grey Fiat Ducato van. Its boot is filled with canned food, milk, juices, crates of fruit and toothbrush and toothpaste kits. Before getting in, a small group of people recite the Our Father. There Read more
John XXIII at the Opening of Vatican II, the 21st Ecumenical Council: The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another. Further, the Pope said that it is necessary first of all that the Church should never depart from the sacred Read more
A small, inconspicuous cemetery inside the Vatican walls made headlines recently with the burial of a Belgian homeless man, Willy Herteleer. “The pilgrims’ tomb” is a common grave, just a few yards from the tombs of bishops, royalty and intelligentsia. Herteleer is buried there, his name engraved on the tombstone of plot No. 106, along Read more
Pope Francis has said that the issue of married men working as priests in the Latin-rite Catholic Church is “in my diary”. Speaking to priests of the diocese of Rome on February 19, the Pope responded to questions on the issue, according to a report in the Italian bishops’ paper L’Avvenire. At the meeting, a Read more
Militants claiming loyalty to the Islamic State (ISIS) have declared that they intend to conquer Rome. The warning came in a video apparently showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians next to the Mediterranean Sea in Libya. In the video, an English-speaking militant said they are sending a message “from the south of Rome”. At Read more
Here’s where most-first time visitors to Rome get it wrong: they head straight for St Peter’s Cathedral. St Peter’s is a magnificent building, containing superb works of art; however its size – not to mention the size of the crowds – can be so overwhelming, visitors don’t set foot in another church for the rest Read more
As I was saying last time, before I was interrupted, Pope Francis is facing resistance to the fresh air and change of ethos he’s trying to bring about inside the Church. And those with eyes to see can detect this opposition especially among the current crop of seminarians and younger priests, as well as a Read more
Pope Francis has presided over the marriages of 20 couples in St Peter’s Basilica, the first weddings he has officiated at as Pontiff. Several of the couples already had children and some had been living together before being married. It was a rare act for a Pope, with the last time a pontiff presided at Read more