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
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
Pope Francis I’s weekend announcement of a new council, the Group of Eight (G8), to advise him on Catholic Church governance and reforming the Church’s central administration (the Roman Curia) has been called the “most important step in the history of the church for the past 10 centuries” by Church historian Alberto Melloni. The group includes Australian Read more
The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has approved the beatification of Pope Paul VI, the pope who led the Church through most of the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar period, and who wrote the encyclical Humanae Vitae. Two steps are necessary before a date for his beatification is announced — a decree from Read more
While the Catholic Church teaches that “the whole body of the faithful . . . cannot error in matters of belief”, this does not mean Catholic beliefs are open to popular vote, Pope Benedict XVI has told a group of theologians. The Pope said an authentic “sensus fidei” (“sense of faith”) can come only when Read more
The Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments has been restructured. The main change is an office to promote the development and use of appropriate liturgical art, architecture and music. The office will provide advice, encouragement and guidance, but it will not attempt to impose specific styles, according to Marist Father Anthony Ward, undersecretary Read more
The future Blessed Pope John XXIII, born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli’s vision stretched far, very far. Vatican II had to return to its evangelical roots and get rid of the shell that had built up around it over the centuries, driving it further and further away from its Master. “There will never be a Pius XIII”: to Read more
As my recently deceased spiritual guide, Peter Steele, would never tire of saying: ‘There are only two conditions in the spiritual life — you’re either growing or you’re dying.’ What makes for spiritual growth? In my childhood and adolescence, it was all about going to Sunday Mass, confessing your sins once a month at least, going Read more
Pope Benedict XVI marked the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council on Thursday with a Mass and the re-enactment of the great procession into St. Peter’s Square that launched the council in 1962. A report by the Associated Press said the anniversary comes as the church is fighting what it sees as a wave Read more
Catholics have been arguing about the Second Vatican Council—about what it did and didn’t do, about what it meant and still means or what it never meant and could never mean—for half a century. Many reform-minded Catholics today are disappointed by what they see as a retreat, under the papacies of John Paul II and Read more