Benny Lai, dean of Italian Vatican-watchers, during the last years of his life always insisted, “It’s not my Vatican anymore.” Lai – accredited since 1946 – especially missed the sense of symbols, the importance of gestures, the theological depth. Benny Lai was not a believer. But he grasped the core issue at the root of …
The latest interpretation of Benedict XVI’s resignation was given in recent weeks by Fr. Silvano Fausti, a Jesuit who was Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini’s confessor. Right before he died last month, Fr. Fausti granted a video interview and recounted that during their last meeting Cardinal Martini had told the current Pope Emeritus that the Roman …
Leggi tutto “Pope Francis, how the narrative behind him was constructed”
Pope Francis’ trip to Latin America may be epitomized in one image: the Pope’s disappointed face when the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, gave him a crucifix sculpted in the shape of a hammer and sickle that had been allegedly designed by the Jesuit Fr. Luis Espinal, assassinated by a death squad in Bolivia in 1980. …
The “Shadow synod” is a gathering of members from the Swiss, French and Germany Bishops’ Conferences dedicated to the issues to be discussed at the coming Synod of Bishops. Media representatives admitted to take part in the event were very few, and those few were told not to quote by name any of the speakers, and …
Leggi tutto “Pope Francis, between the shadow Synod and a new direction”
Pope Francis dedicated the week preceding Holy Week to finishing the draft of his much awaited encyclical on ecology. Despite this “institutional break,” the discussion on Church reforms is still ongoing in the media. Discussion is not merely about the need to reform Church structures. Already from the time of Benedict XVI’s pontificate, and even …
Leggi tutto “Pope Francis: Will His ‘Revolution’ Be Effective?”
To encounter the secular world or to shape a new civilization? Pope Francis’ Church is divided between these two poles. Despite the Pope’s continual appeals in favor of desecularization, of going against the grain and of fighting ideological colonization (especially in terms of the family,) his notion of ‘going to the peripheries’ has been misinterpreted …
Leggi tutto “Will Pope Francis’ Church be able to go Beyond the Secular Agenda?”
What if Pope Francis’ encyclical on ecology is in reality a text with a broader message, and ecology is just a papal pretext to ask the world’s rulers for further mutual collaboration and a greater commitment to peace, and to ask people of good will to adopt a more sober lifestyle? A few days before …
Leggi tutto “Pope Francis’ encyclical on ecology: what to expect and what not”
The encyclical “Laudato Si” not only reveals Pope Francis’ thought concerning the social teaching of the Church and good ecological practices. The genesis of its drafting also reveals the world around Pope Francis. True, the Pope makes his decisions himself. But is is also true that there is a world around him, composed of consulters, …
Leggi tutto “Pope Francis: the world behind the “Laudato Si””
There must be a hidden criterion by which Pope Francis chooses the countries to which he travels. As far as the Old Europe is concerned, after the trip to Sarajevo the criterion seems clear: going where God is needed and where the thirst for God has created what he calls – when speaking about dialogue …
Leggi tutto “To Go Where God Is Needed: Pope Francis’ Criterion for European Trips”
Charity in truth or truth in charity? This is the conundrum the more 300 delegates of the 133 associations under the Caritas Internationalis (CI) umbrella who voted May 14 for their new president. In the first general assembly that took place after the reform of the CI statutes, the delegates had to choose between two …
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Pope Francis is now facing the slowdown of his reforms. The establishment of a Commission for Communications to shape and implement the proposals of the Committee for Communications appointed some time ago by the Council of Cardinals may represent a further slowdown in the path of curial reforms. When it was time to make a …
Leggi tutto “Pope Francis, the Papacy of the media and the real Papacy”
Pope Francis gave an important speech this week to the joint committe of the Council for European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE) and to the Conference of European Churches (CEC). In the speech, the Pope asked Christians not to be divided on ethical issues, and above all he said his categorical no to legislation restricting religious freedom. …
Pope Francis’ opening address to the Italian Bishops Conference’s general assembly showed the spirit of the real Pope Francis. The Pope condensed his views about the Church into two pages of text that he personally wrote. His view is of a non-clerical Church, capable of educating lay people, with priests and bishops who act as …
More than a need for a reform, the Roman Curia needs better functionality and more vision – these are the conclusions one can draw from last week’s events in the Vatican. The week began with the meetings of the Council of Cardinals to discuss about Curia reforms and also with the international incident raised by …
There is a recurrent theme in all the conversations around curial reform as well as an eventual reform of Catholic doctrine on the basis of the outcome of the coming Synod of Bishops: the theme is ‘sensus fidei fidelium’ (literally, the sense of faith on the part of the faithful), that is, the intuition possessed …