Pope Francis did not cross that much of a distance going from the European institutions to Turkey. The two Papal trips are linked in many ways, and not only because of some of the common themes they addressed. They are linked because of a central challenge: defending human nature. To face this challenge, ecumenical [...]
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 [...]
In front of the Roman clergy, he spoke for one hour off-the-cuff, with no hesitation and with a certain serenity. And he denounced one of the “issues” with the Church, probably for him the pivotal one. Which is that there had been two Second Vatican Councils: one of the Fathers [...]
In four points, the Holy See has presented «the Catholic Church’s freedom and institutional autonomy» to the European Court of Human Rights. Four paragraphs to underline that «the Church is in no way to be confused with the political community and is not bound to any political system»; that «the distinction between [...]
The food crisis, «which is more grave than the financial crisis». The promotion of human life, because «those who insufficiently value human life perhaps do not realize that in this way they are proposing the pursuit of a false peace». And then, the affirmation of social rights, beginning with the right to work; [...]
The Church is 200 hundred years out of date. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini’s words in his last interview have travelled the world. Interpretations multiplied. In what, exactly, is the Church out of date? Is it because of the issue of communion and divorcees – even when the Pope wrote comprehensively about it [...]
There is more than meets the eye in the trial of His Holiness Chamber Assistant Paolo Gabriele (for aggravated theft) and the Vatican Secretariat of State computer specialist Claudio Sciarpelletti (for abetting) that has just begun in the Vatican. The case reveals a guiding thread that links the Vatican City State legal order [...]
Young Muslims were also among those who attended the Holy Mass that Benedict XVI gave in the waterfront in Beirut, on Sunday, September 16. And young Muslims took part in the Pope’s meeting with the Lebanese Youth in Bkerké, one of the many Marian sanctuaries in the Land of Cedars, which is [...]
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 [...]
To do away with Vatileaks polemics and rumors, Benedict XVI decided to make a personal public statement. At the end of the General Audience of Wednesday, May 30th, he read a brief and significant declaration about the Vatileaks scandal. «The events – the Pope said - which have occurred during these [...]