Italian and Vatican authorities have signed an agreement on taxation entailing “full cooperation” and “transparency,” including financial activities operated by entities that have accounts at the Vatican Bank.
A Vatican statement released on Friday from its UN representative, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, denounces a series of atrocities committed by the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) against children in Syria. The statement follows the release of a similar speech on Thursday, which was the first Vatican document to mention the Islamic State by name, rather than the more generic “religious fundamentalism.”
An official Vatican communiqué Friday conveyed the Pope’s sorrow and solidarity with the families driven from their homes by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq. He likened their suffering to that of Jesus Christ during His passion, and sent them financial assistance, as well as Italian Easter cakes, as a sign of his closeness to them.
Employing its harshest and most candid language to date, the Vatican has condemned the actions of the Islamic State by name, declaring it guilty of “unspeakable crimes” and “repulsive and damnable” atrocities.
On March 8, Pope Francis visited the parish of Santa Maria Madre del Redentore, in the poor Roman neighborhood known as Tor Bella Monaca. Now he has sent a thousand pounds of food as well as medicine to the poorest families of the area.
Amidst the enthusiasm for the upcoming Jubilee year of 2016 proclaimed by Pope Francis, Cardinal Camillo Ruini has added a sobering note of caution. “Terrorism is the greatest threat looming over the Jubilee proclaimed by Pope Francis. You cannot ignore it after what has happened in Tunisia,” he said in an interview this weekend with the Italian daily La Repubblica.
Pope Francis returned to the topic of the West’s ageing population Wednesday, insisting that when the birthrate of a society barely makes it to one percent, “we can say that this society is sad and gray because it is left without children.”
Recent years have seen an increasing reluctance on the part of the Vatican to speak of the traditional “Just War Doctrine,” as Church officials have urged the exhaustion of diplomatic solutions before even considering the use of force. This reluctance seems now to be giving way to a grittier realism in the face of a relentless enemy with whom constructive, rational dialogue is impossible.
In an interview Wednesday with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Emeritus Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun accused the Vatican of being naïve in its dialogue with Beijing, saying that the Church is preparing to give away too much. “Italians in the Roman Curia don’t know the Chinese dictatorship,” he said, “because they have never experienced a Communist regime.”
Vatican spokesman Father Tom Rosica had his lawyers send a letter threatening to sue a Catholic blogger in Canada for the man’s ongoing criticism of Rosica and his influence on the Extraordinary Synod of Catholic Bishops last fall in Rome. But now, after considerable media attention, Father Rosica has backed off and says he never really meant it.
In a rare interview, the head of the Vatican police force, or “Gendarmerie,” Commander Domenico Giani, said this weekend that the Islamic State (ISIS) threats against Pope Francis are “real” and not just media propaganda. “This is what emerges from the talks I have had with Italian and foreign colleagues,” he said.
Though it was reported widely in the mainstream press this week, the dissident LGBT group, New Ways Ministry, did not receive VIP treatment from the Vatican. In fact, Vatican officials did not even know the group was there.
Father Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman who works in the media, has sent a menacing legal letter to a little-known Canadian blogger, threatening a lawsuit for allegedly criticizing him unfairly.
“What happened in Paris with the Charlie Hebdo attacks could also happen at the Vatican. We are ready to intervene to ensure Francis is protected,” says the new commander of the Swiss Guard, Colonel Christoph Graf.
Father Tom Rosica, frequent official voice of the Vatican and Pope Francis, has sent out a tweet that seems to suggest the Vatican considers American Cardinal Raymond Burke a dissenter from Church teaching.
This morning, Pope Francis condemned the brutal slaying of 21 Coptic Christians perpetrated by ISIS in Libya over the weekend, proclaiming them martyrs killed out of hatred of their Christian faith.
Pope Francis’ reform of the Vatican departments, one of the priorities of his pontificate, seems to be nearing completion. The 165 Cardinals in Rome for meetings with Francis were briefed Thursday on a proposal to shrink the Vatican Curia, merging several existing departments into just two.
Two high-ranking Vatican officials who were slated to address the national assembly of India’s Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCBI) in Bangalore this week have been denied visas by the Indian government.
When the hastily written interim report was read aloud before all the bishops gathered for the Vatican marriage summit last October, it was met with consternation and disapproval. At the time, it was generally assumed that Pope Francis had never seen the text, but now the Cardinal in charge of organizing the summit has claimed that the document was “seen and approved by the Pope.”
The Vatican has announced a new program of giving free haircuts, showers, and even a shave to Rome’s homeless population, a report says. This month the new services were added to last year’s announcement that church officials were adding showering facilities in
Though both China and the Vatican have made efforts in recent months to better diplomatic relations, Beijing’s recent announcement of its intention to ordain Catholic bishops in 2015 without the Pope’s approval is sure to extinguish whatever good will had been achieved.
The relationship between the Catholic Church and China is “an open wound, which must be treated and cured,” says Joseph Wei Jingyi, the underground bishop of Qiqihar, in northeast China.
As a backdrop for his marriage proposal to his boyfriend, Vito Cammissano, NFL defensive end Michael Sam chose Saint Peter’s Square in Vatican City.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church has been published for the first time in Farsi (modern Persian), the official language of Iran and Afghanistan, and includes an introduction by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio gave Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State who is the second most important official at the Vatican, a mock-up of New York’s new municipal identification card and said the cards will influence the
