The Papal rescript that confirmed the reform of the canonical procedures for marriage annulments and harmonized the norms concerning local tribunals was published by the Holy See Press Office on December 11, together with an article that Msgr. Pio Vito Pinto, President of the Rota, drafted for L’Osservatore Romano. However, the rescript [...]

Pope Francis has deconstructed the narrative on his own pontificate. In the view of the news media (especially the secular media), Pope Francis’ election opened a new season in the life of the Church. Under Pope Francis, the Church reportedly started to combat corruption, to tackle scandals and to live in poverty as [...]

The trial that began last week in the Vatican over “the passing on of classified documents” represents the strongest ever defense of its state sovereignty by the Holy See. This defense comes along at a good time. At the same time that this trial was beginning, the Holy See spoke in Geneva [...]

Marked by shock over the Paris attacks, the past week began with Pope Francis’ visit to the Christuskirche Lutheran Church in Rome on Sunday, November 15. What he said during the visit – completely off the cuff – has apparently established the primacy of conscience over doctrine and over things Pope Francis called [...]

Certainly this new Vatileaks season prompts us to reflect on the way Pope Francis is carrying out his reform. Three years after the first big Vatileaks episode, it seems that the same old Vatican world that opposed Benedict XVI is still alive and active behind Pope Francis. The only difference is that [...]

Perhaps the latest leak of confidential Vatican documents is also the latest act of a war being waged on the Vatican – Italian border. But beyond Italians concerned with the Vatican, there are other international powers, lobbies and multinationals involved. On the one side the Holy See defends its sovereignty, that is, in [...]

The appointments of Bishop Matteo Zuppi as Archbishop of Bologna and of Father Corrado Lorefice as Archbishop of Palermo prove that Pope Francis does not have curial reform primarily in mind. Pope Francis’ real reform is the profile of new bishops. More than well-known individuals, he prefers candidates with the smell of the [...]

The Synod of Bishops ended with a speech by Pope Francis which seemed to be a rubberstamp, detached from the conclusions of the Synod. In the speech, he underscored that “in the course of this Synod, the different opinions which were freely expressed – and at times unfortunately not in entirely well-meaning ways [...]

There is at least one certainty at the end of the second week of the Synod of Bishops: the bishops, with almost no exceptions, do not like the Working Document (“Instrumentum Laboris”) that the Synod’s General Secretariat prepared as a basis for the Synod’s work. This is demonstrated by the small group [...]

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia gave probably the best description of the Synod’s Working Document – and by extension of the Synod’s discussion so far. In his October 7 speech at the Synod, published on the archdiocese web site – Archbishop Chaput said that the working documents “present us two conflicting views: [...]