With the appointments of the new archbishops of Paris and Mexico City, Pope Francis has once more shown his ecclesial “realpolitik”. In general, he prefers to choose bishops with a pastoral profile, not cultural warriors. However, these two latest choices show contrasting signals.

Michel Aupetit, the new Archbishop of Paris, replaces [...]

During his trip last week to Myanmar and Bangladesh, Pope Francis never used the word “Rohingya,” with the only exception of the private meeting he had with a group of them in Bangladesh. Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, the Archbishop of Yangon, suggested to him not to use the term for a [...]

The establishment of a Third Section in the Vatican Secretariat of State has shed light on three themes of Pope Francis’s pontificate. The first: the fact that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, has gradually achieved an ever more central role. The second: that Pope Francis keeps on making reforms and [...]

How should we interpret Pope Francis’s moves? Guzman Carriquiry, Pope Francis’s long term friend who has worked for the Holy See since Blessed Paul VI’s time, speaking during the presentation of his latest book, “Memory, Courage and Hope. In Light of the Bicentennial of Latin America,” described Pope Francis this way: “Priest, and [...]

It might seem just a coincidence that some appointments completing the Curia roster took place in the same week that in Rome, at the Pontifical Gregorian University, two conferences shed light on the life of Christians under the Soviet Union. However, the link between the theme of the Curia reform, the choice of [...]

The case of Fr. Thomas Weinandy, OFM Cap., provides food for thought. Consultor of the Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith of the US Bishops’ Conference, Weinandy was asked to resign from his post after a letter he had sent to Pope Francis was made public. In the letter, Weinandy criticized [...]

A private audience recently granted to Msgr. Guido Marini, who since 2007 has been Master of Pontifical Ceremonies, might mark the moment of transition within Pope Francis’s pontificate.

During this year the five-year terms of Pope Benedict XVI’s last appointments expire. There are also many key posts that are vacant in Vatican dicasteries. Pope [...]

In a platform of dialogue to “rethink Europe” and look toward the future, various members of parliaments, bishops and diplomats will meet in the Vatican at the end of this week in order to understand how Europe can be rethought. It is an important event, and not only because Pope Francis will draw [...]

Pope Francis’s address for the 25th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church made a strong impression both for its hint of a possibility of changing Catholic teaching on the death penalty (still permitted acording to the Catechism, though only as an extrema ratio) and for the Pope’s statement that doctrine [...]

“May the voice of Jesus return in Europe.” The final message of the plenary assembly of the Council of European Bishops Conferences (CCEE) that gathered in Minsk from September 27 – October 1 relaunched the Christian mission of Europe. The move came after a silent shift of paradigm that took place over time [...]