Chinese Catholics who belong to the country’s underground churches are worried. They think the Vatican and Chinese government’s plan to sign an agreement about appointing bishops will mean legitimate bishops will have to step down in favour of state-appointed ones. The agreement, which is only “a few months” away, would allow the Vatican to help Read more
The Vatican has banned former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, from speaking at a “Voices of Faith” conference. The conference has been held at the Vatican on International Women’s Day – celebrated on 8 March, since 2014. The list of potential speakers at the conference required approval from a cardinal. Mrs McAleese and two other Read more
A new multimedia communications hub for the Vatican will be launched before Christmas. The prefect of the Secretariat for Communication, Monsignor Dario Vigano, says vaticannews.va – would be launched in beta form “in the coming days.” (According to Google, Beta software is usually the first version – a product preview stage. End users and testers Read more
Former Vatican altar boys have been threatened with criminal defamation charges for publicly accusing a senior seminarian of sexual misconduct when they lived together at the Vatican youth seminary. The claims originated from an ex-student identified as “Marco”. He says a seminarian, who is one year older than he is, would come into his dorm Read more
Vatican visitors may be Islamic State’s (ISIS) next terror targets. A pro-ISIS propaganda channel has made a poster depicting a car attack. The poster – reading “Christmas blood” – shows a masked jihadi driving a BMW at high speed towards St Peter’s Basilica. An assault rifle and a rucksack can be seen on the seat Read more
John B. Buescher offers an entertaining history of tobacco use in the Vatican. It turns out that rolled tobacco (cigars and cigarettes) has been especially favoured by recent pontiffs: Pius X took snuff and smoked cigars. Benedict XV did not smoke and did not like others’ smoke. Pius XI smoked an occasional cigar. Pius XII did not Read more
An Italian journalist known as the “Vatileaks’ author is about to publish a new book revealing fresh secrets about sex, crimes and money in the Holy See. Gianluigi Nuzzi faced court over his last book (Vatican SpA) for leaking confidential Vatican documents. His new book is called Original Sin: Secret Accounts, Hidden Truths, Blackmail and Read more
Two new postage stamps will be released by the Vatican on 23 November. One is a 2.55-euro stamp celebrating the 450th Anniversary of Saint Francis de Sales’s birth. The other is a 1.00-euro stamp marking the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Read more
China’s President Xi Jinping says he wants to make the country’s many religions more Chinese-oriented by instilling socialist core values. Speaking at the country’s five-yearly Communist Party conference, Xi said religion poses threats to national security. He told the conference that separatism promoted under the guise of religion would not be tolerated. Although China officially Read more