As I write, there is a Catholic Press Conference being held at the Vatican, sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Three representatives were invited from each country, and one of them was Greg Erlandson, president of Our Sunday Visitor. Erlandson is an astute and experienced observer of Catholic media, and his comments to … Read more
Pope Benedict was in Palermo, Sicily, yesterday, encouraging the locals to resist the evils of the Mafia: “The temptation toward discouragement, to resignation, comes to those who are weak in faith, to those who confuse evil with good, to those who think that, faced with often profound evil, there is nothing to do,” Benedict told … Read more
In Ross Douthat’s Sunday New York Times column, he explains why — despite the insistence that the Church today is irrelevant for failing to keep up with the times — hundreds of thousands of Catholics came out for the UK papal visit: [I]n turning out for their beleaguered pope, Britain’s Catholics acknowledged something essential about … Read more
Last week at the National Catholic Reporter, John Allen Jr. took aim at the “religious illiteracy” that still reigns among his fellow journalists (h/t Get Religion): On Tuesday a piece in the U.K.-based Telegraph carried the following headline: “Muslims will become majority in Europe, senior Vatican official warns.” An alarmist subhead added: “European Christians must have more … Read more
It hardly needs pointing out that the Vatican isn’t always adept at managing its own PR (to put it mildly). An article in the UK Guardian today by Paul Donovan raises a good question: Is the Holy See’s press office ready for the firestorm that could very likely accompany the pope’s visit to Britain next … Read more
In my 15 years with Crisis Magazine, the Morley Institute, and now InsideCatholic, the conversation that most often reoccurs is the one about the fate of the Catholic university and college. It begins inevitably with alumni complaining about the latest anti-Catholic outbreak on the hallowed grounds of their former college campus and ends with their … Read more
As a highly-if-not-quite-exclusively visual person, this story from the University of Villanova really caught my attention: A team from Villanova University has made touring the Sistine Chapel a reality with just the simple click of a mouse. For the last two years, students and faculty from Villanova have been granted rare clearance to photograph some … Read more
Man’s inborn religious instinct tells him that there is more than the sensible world; indeed, it “never feels natural to accept only natural things,” as Chesterton said. But about the afterlife we have more than just an intuitive inkling. Throughout history there have been manifestations — some vague, others more concrete — to support this … Read more
The Telegraph’s (UK) Damian Thompson is once again lamenting the seemingly tone-deaf Vatican PR “machine:” If I’d been put in charge of the Vatican press office with a specific brief to provide ammunition for the Church’s enemies, I don’t think I could have come up with anything better than this. Increase the penalties against abusers … Read more
Since at least last March, the New York Times has been obsessed with a question: “What did Joseph Ratzinger know, and when did he know it?” At issue, of course, is the role played by Cardinal Ratzinger — now Pope Benedict XVI — in relation to the scandal of clergy sex abuse. It’s a fair … Read more
The Associated Press reported today that Pope Benedict has appointed a senior Vatican official, Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, to serve as papal delegate of the Legionaries of Christ. De Paolis, an Italian, currently heads the Holy See’s financial office. The news report says it is not known what this means for Father Alvaro Corcuera Martinez … Read more
John Allen reports that the Vatican will be streamlining the process by which sex-abuse cases are handled: The church’s current law in sex abuse cases was laid out in a 2001 document, known as a motu proprio, meaning under the pope’s personal authority, from Pope John Paul II, titled Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela. Sources say the new revisions … Read more
It’s not every day that the Supreme Court makes headlines because of the cases it chooses not to hear: The US Supreme Court has declined to hear the Vatican’s appeal of an Oregon judge’s decision allowing a sex-abuse victim to proceed with a lawsuit against the Vatican. The Supreme Court made no decision on the … Read more
This time last year, the Vatican announced that it had discovered the oldest known icon of St. Paul in the catacombs of St. Tecla in Rome. Now, with the excavation of the tomb complete, they’ve discovered even more: Vatican archaeologists announced the image of Paul was not found in isolation, but was part of a … Read more
Over at Get Religion, Mollie Ziegler points out this Pew Forum study on the media coverage of the recent wave of clergy sex abuse allegations — the most scrutiny the Church has received since the story first broke in 2002. From mid-March (when the pope’s role in a decades-old abuse case in Germany came under … Read more
Although we’re back to ordinary time in the liturgical calendar, there’s never a time — liturgically speaking — when it the life of the faithful is dull, much less ordinary. As if to remind us of this, ordinary time is frequently punctuated by celebrations, something that breaks up the daily routine. This week, to mark … Read more
This, I think, is a great idea: The Vatican is planning a new initiative to reach out to atheists and agnostics in an attempt to improve the church’s relationship with non-believers. Pope Benedict XVI has ordered officials to create a new foundation where atheists will be encouraged to meet and debate with some of the … Read more
A few links to get the Friday morning rolling: News: Copernicus’s grave and remains are identified, and he is reburied in Frombork Cathedral with honors. Not news: Media accounts breathlessly declare that the Vatican is “rehabilitating” the “heretical” scientist, in “repentance for its treatment of [him] over his theory that the Earth revolves around the … Read more
Today the Vatican released details of its upcoming sex abuse defense. The AP has learned the Vatican will argue that bishops are not its employees and were not required to remain silent by a 1962 document, “Crimen Sollicitationes,” meaning “crimes of solicitation.” The Vatican attorney in the U.S., Jeffrey Lena, will argue not only that … Read more
Today the Vatican released details of its upcoming sex abuse defense. The AP has learned the Vatican will argue that bishops are not its employees and were not required to remain silent by a 1962 document, “Crimen Sollicitationes,” meaning “crimes of solicitation.” The Vatican attorney in the U.S., Jeffrey Lena, will argue not only that … Read more