On behalf of the Bishops, clergy, religious and lay faithful of Aotearoa New Zealand we send you our prayerful good wishes and congratulations on your election to the See of Peter. You are someone chosen to be Bishop of Rome from a country far away; we too are very far away deep in the Southern Read more
Minutes after his election, Pope Francis began giving the world a foretaste of his pontificate, signalling that some change is likely. As he appeared for the first time, Francis’ choice of a simple white cassock made a very clear and immediate statement. BBC reports that soon after the election result was declared in the Sistine Read more
Pope Francis has decided that all top administrators in the Vatican bureaucracy will keep their posts while he reflects on any necessary changes, the Vatican said on Saturday. There had been speculation that the new pope could make swift changes to the Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy that has been at the center of allegations of Read more
Born in Argentina, Pope Francis is the first Latin American to lead the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the first Jesuit. “It seems my brother cardinals went almost to the end of the world [to choose a pope],” he told the crowd in St Peter’s Square in his first address, a joke which belied Read more
The election of a new pope is always an exciting moment for the Church and the world. After weeks of uncertainty, it seems there is good reason to celebrate the election of Pope Francis I, and to congratulate and offer support to him in the immense task ahead. The excitement of the election of a Read more
A conclave which began with no clear front-runner has come to a unexpected and surprisingly quick conclusion, Cardinals electing Jeorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope. He has taken the name Francis. Archbishop Bergoglio is a man who gave up his official house for a small apartment, he cooks his own meals, and travels to work by Read more
Gianluigi Nuzzi, the Italian journalist who last year published leaked confidential papal documents supplied by the Pope Benedict’s former butler, Paulo Gabrielle, has been denied media accreditation by the Vatican to cover the upcoming conclave. “This is a choice for obscurantism, far from transparency and press freedom,” Gianluigi Nuzzi said on his Twitter account. In the Read more
Pope Benedict’s last words and gestures are worth noting. Take four of his last decisions, for example. 1) Nine months after the sacking of the President of the scandal-ridden Vatican bank, he appoints a new President: a lay man and a non-Italian. 2) He appoints a man of promise to a diplomatic post in a Read more
It would be entirely understandable if Benedict XVI wanted “business as usual” signs to go up at the Vatican as soon as possible after his retirement, and for the new man in charge to carry on the good work of the old though perhaps with extra energy. What is emerging is something rather different – Read more
The Vatican says the United Nations puts human rights at risk when it starts recognising “new rights” that stem from private interests rather than human dignity. Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, said recent attempts to reinterpret certain terms in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to introduce “ambiguous expressions Read more