Vatican police have detained a former employee on charges of attempted extortion after he allegedly tried to sell a 17th-century gilded manuscript describing Bernini’s designs for the altar canopy of St. Peter’s Basilica back to the Holy See. Vatican prosecutors said that the 18-page manuscript, which apparently contains the first known specifications for the gilding of Read more
ROME, Italy — Pope Francis has changed the name of St. Peter’s Basilica to “Tiber Creek Community Church,” Vatican spokesperson Fr. Federico Lombardi announced this morning. “The greatest church of Christendom, built on the holy grave of the martyr-prince of the Apostles, has been known as ‘St. Peter’s Basilica’ for 1700 years,” Fr. Lombardi explained. “It was long overdue for Read more
Today, just hours after Pope Benedict announced his resignation as pope, a freak thunderstorm swept over Rome and a lightning bolt struck St Peter’s dome. The thunderstorm was labelled a ‘freak occurrence’. While not unknown in winter, thunderstorms are more likely to hit Rome in spring or summer. Benedict shocked the Consistory and the world saying Read more
Restoration is slowly but steadily proceeding on a Vatican project so ambitious it has been likened to the decades-long cleaning up of the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. Guy Devreux, who directs the Vatican’s workshop for marble and limestone structures, says cleaning the Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s statue-topped colonnade that cradles St. Peter’s Square should take Read more
Westminster Abbey’s world-famous choir has been invited by the Holy See – through the Maestro of the Cappella Musicale Pontificia “Sistina” – to sing at St Peter’s in Rome. The Choir of Westminster Abbey will sing alongside the Cappella Musicale Pontificia, the Sistine Chapel Choir, at the liturgies of the Solemnity of St Peter and Read more