Pope Francis gave a very clear indication of the method the synod should follow: bishops should speak frankly. Without any reverential fear. Even without being afraid of not coinciding with the Pope’s own opinion. The synodal fathers, instead, have opted for confidentiality. Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, General Secretary of the Synod, warned them, «You [...]
The visit Pope Francis wanted to privately pay to the Evangelical Pastor Giovanni Traettino in Caserta (Southern Italy) is not simply a visit the Pope is paying to a friend. Pope Francis wanted this visit to be private and unique and – as the news of his arrival in Caserta spread – he [...]
That Pope Francis is very attentive to the dialogue with non-believers is clear from his most recent conversation with Eugenio Scalfari, the founder of the Italian leftist newspaper “La Repubblica”. Scalfari, a self-proclaimed atheist, who even wrote a book entitled “Me and God”, on his being a non-believer. The conversation published by [...]
Communicating the faith. This is the number one priority, as it is outlined in the “Instrumentum Laboris” of the next extraordinary synod on the family. Amid strong points of view, some of which can be discarded at a political level (the ones the secular media have been writing about), the Instrumentum Laboris is [...]
As the establishing of a Secretariat for Communication among the offices of the Roman Curia seems imminent, the closing of a missionary magazine has again led to questions about the very communication of faith to the peripheries of the world, Pope Francis’ favorite theme. While communications are ever more professionalized (a needed [...]
Pope Francis established a group of Eight Cardinals to advise him about a reform of the Curia and the government of the universal Church. He has several people he trusts working with him, like Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the Pope’s vicar for the diocese of Rome. But the most influential adviser is in fact Pope [...]
It was probably not by chance that Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the Pontifical Household, dedicated the first of his Advent presentations to the Roman Curia to the theme of the reform of the Church. He did so from a particular angle: that of Francis of Assisi, of his extraordinary conversion and [...]
It is a sort of advisory board for Pope Francis. Eight cardinals, and a bishop as their secretary, will meet periodically to infuse energy to the Curia reform that the cardinals asked for, during their pre-conclave meetings.
Criticism of «Roman centralism» came from the cardinals farthest away from Rome, in the outer rings [...]
There is a hidden Church. It is made up of young people committing for a better world; of believers that live the Gospel; of people who simply try to lend an hand to their neighbour. It is hidden only because big medias focus on gossips, power struggles and (true or false) plots and scandals. [...]
The Social Doctrine must be read and lived every day. Its key points come directly from the Gospel – the first and only source of inspiration of the Social Doctrine – and from there get to the key-words: person, subsidiarity, justice and peace, integral human development. These are the key words of the [...]