The “nota verbale” (verbal note) sent by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State to all the ambassadors accredited to the Holy See represents Pope Francis’ most recent initiative to promote peace. It is through persuasion, dialogue and prayer that Pope Francis hopes to influence current armed conflicts, to bring them to an end. In [...]
Silvano Maria Tomasi, the Holy See Permanent Observer at the UN office in Geneva, provided the figures that tell better than anything else the presence and impact of the Church in the world. He did so in Geneva last week, during the 23rd session of the Human Rights Council. At the time of [...]
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 [...]
The Holy See’s International agenda? The common good. Dominique Mamberti, Secretary for Relations with States of the Vatican Secretariat of State, explained it in an insightful lecture on «The Social Doctrine of the Church in International Relations» to the young students of the Studium Aquinatis-Workshop on the Social Doctrine of the Church [...]
Next year, an important anniversary will be celebrated in the Vatican: it will be the 50th anniversary of the promulgation of the encyclical Pacem in terris, by John XXIII. And the Vatican decided to celebrate the anniversary his way: inviting the General Secretary of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon in Rome, [...]
The 6th of January, Benedict XVI announced a consistory – to be held in February, 18th – during the one he will create 22 new cardinals. Four of these new cardinals will not take part to the next conclave, since they are already 80. And good part of the new cardinals got [...]
There is the official Message for the World Day of Peace. And there is the message that could have been, and has not. There are Benedict XVI’s words – that in Benin «blessed» the events that have produced the «Arab springtime» and independence in Southern Sudan; and there is a message that [...]
The last document released by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace was delivered to the participants to G20. Some of the proposal contained in the document were also part of the agenda of the summit. For example the tax on financial transactions, called a “Tobin tax” after the name of its [...]