This year has been the year of two Popes, and it ended with the «image» of two joined Popes. On December 23, Pope Francis went to visit the Pope emeritus Benedict XVI: Christmas wishes, sunrises and photo opportunity, together with a Pope Francis invitation for lunch to Pope Benedict. This latter obviously accepted: [...]
After three days of discussions, the Council of Eight Cardinals advising Pope Francis on the Curia Reform made official its first proposal: establishing a specific commission for the protection of children who have been victims of abuse. The proposal represents one further step in the fight against clergy pedophilia, a fight pushed forward [...]
The new statute of the Vatican Financial Information Authority (AIF) better aligns the Authority with new Vatican legislation, and with international standards. It also develops a new kind of Authority. Conceived by the drafter of the first Vatican money laundering law as a sort of «monocratic» authority (a Vatican dicastery presided by a [...]
That the common good is at the center of the Holy See international agenda has been proven once again. This time, in the book «La diplomazia pontificia in un mondo globalizzato» (Pontifical Diplomacy in a Globalized World), a selection of the diplomatic interventions of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone during his seven years as Secretary of [...]
The preparatory document of the extraordinary synod for the family grabbed headlines only because of the questionnaire attached to it. It was comprised of 38 questions, posed in an unusually straightforward manner, addressing issues very pragmatically.
This pragmatic style is the only reform that has taken place under Pope Francis so far. There [...]
The most recent proposal floating is that of creating a Congregation for the Laity. After all – Cardinal Oscar Andrés Maradiaga has maintained – there is a Congregation for the Clergy and one for Bishops, but there is not one for the lay people, who are the biggest part of the Church. [...]
Pietro Parolin was discharged from the hospital and should arrive in Rome after a short convalescing period at home. This is the first piece of news released about the new Secretary of State’s health. Parolin could not take part in the ceremony by which he formally assumed his new position because he needed [...]
Next Oct. 15 the awaited change at the top of the Vatican Secretariat of State will take place. Tarcisio Bertone will leave his post to Pietro Parolin, who had been Bertone’s number four until 2009. That year, Parolin was promoted archbishop and sent as Papal nuncio to Venezuela.
The change is awaited for two reasons.
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Pope Francis said it during the trip back from Brazil: «I feel a nostalgia for the Curia of the old days.» With every major appointment, it is becoming more clear who is that Pope Francis is referring to, when he mentions the old days’ Curia. There are no groundbreaking appointments. Pope [...]
The confirmation of Gehrard Ludwig Mueller as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith can lead to the conclusion that Pope Francis is following the paths traced by Benedict XVI. But appearances can be deceiving. Pope Francis is putting the Church in a completely different path. If Benedict XVI was [...]