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 [...]
Paul VI will be beatified Oct. 19 at the end of the extraordinary synod on the family, being the synod a body the late Pope wanted and promoted. A Paul VI that is to be proclaimed saint, probably as soon as 2015, through an accelerated process pursuant to Pope Francis’ wishes. Pope Montini is [...]
To canonize John XXIII and John Paul II at the same time, Pope Francis has not hesitated to slightly bypass canonization procedures in not waiting for confirmation of a second miracle attributable to John XXIII. And this was most certainly the right course to take. John XXIII and John Paul II are of [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]