“April is the cruelest month,” Eliot said in his poem “The Wasteland”. Perhaps no one more than Benedict XVI understands this: he was born on a Holy Saturday in mid-April, baptized on the same day, and he turned 90 on April 16, Easter Sunday. It is the fourth year since he retired to [...]

Last week opened with an international congress celebrating the 50th anniversary of Blessed Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio. The congress is not only noteworthy because of the quality of the interventions, which were characterized by an interdisciplinary approach. It is noteworthy also because the congress is the first one fully organized by the [...]

The logo of Pope Francis’s upcoming trip to Egypt shows a Muslim half-moon and a cross displaced over the pyramid and Nile River, while a dove anticipating the Pope’s blessing flies over them. The theme of the visit is also meaningful: the Pope of peace in Egypt of peace. Certainly, the presence of [...]

A series of clues points to June as a possible turning point in Pope Francis’s pontificate. After four years the Pope might finally give definitive shape to his Church, and this coming June might be the right month.

That the Pope wanted June to be a free month can be noticed by the fact [...]

There is a series of four articles, written by Gianni Valente that probably explains better than any other recent piece of writing the state of the art of Pope Francis’s pontificate. This is not by chance. Gianni Valente is considered among the closest friends of the Pontiff, whom he knows since he was [...]

Last week Rolling Stone magazine (Italian edition) put Pope Francis on the cover with the description “A Pop Pope.” This is the umpteenth proof that the secular world loves Pope Francis. The striking fact, however, lies in the motivation behind the Pope making this magazine cover, as was the case back in [...]

Why are sacraments so important for the Church? Why doesn’t the Church grant access to sacraments to all? These are the implicit questions in the debate that arose around Amoris Laetitia. This debate bears the same limit of all the debates swirling around Pope Francis’s pontificate: it creates a division among the parties.

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Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the Archbishop of Genoa, strongly addressed the issue many times: there is a plot to build a world order without God. The outgoing President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Bagnasco said this in his capacity as President of the Council of the European Bishops’ Conferences. In this way, he focused [...]

Pope Francis’s visit to Roma Tre University – the 3rd public university in Rome – took place almost nine years after Pope Benedict XVI’s cancelled visit to La Sapienza University.

Benedict made the decision not to go because a series of protests by a small groups of professors impeded the conditions for [...]

Today the 18th meeting of the Council of Cardinals begins. Its goal is that of carrying forward an ongoing reform started almost four years ago. In the end, the Curia reform was one of the mandates Pope Francis’ received during the pre-conclave meetings from the cardinals who elected him. It is not by [...]