Austen Ivereigh, The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope, Allen and Unwin, London 2014. Deeply disturbing I found this book when I first read it last year and I remain disturbed. Yet everyone I have read so far has given it glowing reviews. I am confused. Most likely I am like the Read more
The Vatican has denied that Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment had been delayed over doctrinal fears. Veteran Vaticanista Sandro Magister claimed on his blog Settimo Cielo on May 11 that the Pope had “binned” the first draft of the encyclical in March. Magister said the Pope feared the first draft would have been “demolished” Read more
The Vatican has concluded its first treaty that formally recognises the State of Palestine. The treaty is an agreement on Catholic Church activities in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority. The agreement will be signed by representatives from both entities in the near future. Vatican officials stressed that although the agreement was significant, it did Read more
The Vatican under Pope Francis gave out aid worth 1.5 million euros (US $1.6 million) in 2014, an increase of 25 percent over the previous year. Refugees, prisoners, the homeless, the sick and the elderly benefitted from the aid. Direct Vatican aid helped 8000 people in 2014, along with religious communities which used it for Read more
German Catholics have criticised Vatican questions ahead of the synod on the family as proceeding from an idealised image of the family. This was the main criticism in a summary of replies of German Catholics to the 46 questions of the second Vatican questionnaire on the family. Germany’s Catholic bishops released the summary of responses, Read more
Two separate, highly embarrassing Church scandals have generated lurid coverage in the Italian press. A north Italian priest has been removed from office after allegations he looked for gay lovers on the Internet and had been involved in gay orgies. The priest admitted online to sexual relationships with other religious figures – as well as 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
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
Professor Tracey Rowland is the Dean and Permanent Fellow of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family in Melbourne, Australia. In 2003, she published Culture and the Thomist Tradition: After Vatican II, establishing herself as a bold, fresh voice in international Catholic theological circles. A member of the editorial Read more
Artist Shen Jiawei’s paintings of Chinese soldiers during the Cultural Revolution were so popular with Mao’s regime that 250,000 copies of his most famous work were made into propaganda posters and distributed throughout the country. Four decades later, Shen now has a different patron commissioning his work: He has become, somewhat inexplicably, the unofficial portrait Read more