Its name is “Iuvenescit Ecclesiae” (The Church rejuvenates) and it is a small – but long time in the making – document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It was presented June 13, and aims at reiterating the importance of ecclesiastical movements within the Church, while asking them to be [...]

What is Pope Francis’ modus operandi for governing the Catholic Church? After three years of this pontificate, after the 15th meeting of the Council of the Cardinals, the question must be posed. The Council is not called upon to make decision, but simply to advise the Pope, while all decisions are left to the [...]

Pope Francis’ decision to extend by an additional day his visit to Sweden in order to celebrate a Mass with the Swedish Catholic community explains a lot about how decision making in the Domus Sanctae Marthae takes place. And it also shows that there are collaborators around Pope Francis able to intercept certain kinds [...]

While the meeting between Pope Francis and Grand Imam of al Azhar is being prepared – the meeting will re-open a dialogue with Sunni Islam – we should ask ourselves what is Pope Francis’ diplomatic model, beyond the slogan of the culture of the encounter? Certainly, Pope Francis’ “pastoral visits” to Lampedusa and [...]

In a nutshell, what happened last week probably represents well Pope Francis’ Pontificate. Meeting with the General Union of Superiors General, that is, the plenary assembly of more than 800 leaders of religious sisters from all over the world, Pope Francis held a Q & A session. The sisters posed five questions, and [...]

A Europe made of bridges, not of walls. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, described this way Pope Francis’ idea of Europe at the eve of the Charlemagne Prize Award Ceremony in honor of the Pope. Since 1950, the prize is conferred to a person who has promoted European integration. Pope [...]

The Financial Intelligence Authority is the Vatican’s financial watchdog. Its annual report, released April 28, is one of the many proofs that the “hidden Vatican” has been continually working within the Vatican. Here’s why.

The figures of the report showed that suspicious transactions tripled in the course of the last year; that [...]

News of the suspension of the agreement with Price Waterhouse Cooper (= PwC) for the external auditing of Vatican accounts came out like an earthquake to strike the idyllic picture of Pope Francis’ reforms. The hiring of the international firm as external auditor was announced December 5, 2015 from Cardinal George [...]

What does Pope Francis really have in mind? The best response is probably found in a paper, published in the latest issue of the Italian magazine Il Mulino. The paper is titled “A Populist Pope”, and it is authored by Loris Zanatta, professor of the history of Latin America at the University of [...]