ROME – On August 21, a large part of the United States will witness one of the most stunning and awe-inspiring spectacles offered by nature: A total eclipse of the sun. Those who will be looking up on the path of totality, where the eclipse is best visible, will watch as the light turns gradually Read more
The former Belgian prime minister, Herman Van Rompuy, has tweeted his rejection of Pope Francis’ authority to ban euthanasia, and says the time when Rome had the final say is “long past.” Van Rompuy, who was prime minister from 2009 to 2014 and is also the first President of the European Council, was responding to Pope Read more
The Vatican’s former representative to the United Nations says Pope Francis is closely following the situation between the United States and North Korea. The two countries are trading insults, with North Korea threatening to send four missiles into the sea off Guam, as a response to President Donald Trump’s escalating rhetoric. “The only way forth Read more
Cardinal Pietro Parolin will visit Moscow at the end of August. The Vatican secretary of state’s diplomatic visit aims to formalise Pope Francis’s peacemaking efforts to President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church. Read more
The Vatican office for justice has set anti-corruption goals for 2018. The goals, which were released on Monday, emerged from an International Debate on Corruption. The debate was organised by the International Consultation Group for justice, corruption, organized crime and mafias, which is part of the Vatican dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. The Consultation Read more
A young woman’s startup to map the global Church has secured Vatican approval. Using geographic information system software Molly Burhans is aiming to make the first known map of the global Catholic Church. This will start with diocesan boundaries, followed by layer upon layer of data about the church and its social and environmental contexts Read more
On the heels of one controversial Vatican article alleging an “ecumenism of hate” between conservative Evangelicals and Catholics in America, another potential eyebrow-raiser emerged Saturday claiming that the “main obstacle” to implementing Pope Francis’s vision is “closure, if not hostility” from “a good part of the clergy, at levels both high and low.” The term Read more
The Vatican has released a limited edition medallion marking the fifth year of Pope Francis’s pontificate. There are 50 copies in gold, 1,000 in silver and 1,500 in bronze, as well as 50 “triptychs” (in gold, silver and bronze). Read more
A nuclear disarmament conference will be held at the Vatican in November this year. Archbishop Silvano Maria Tomasi says the Vatican is working to convince the public that the world is safer without nuclear weapons, rather than with them. Tomasi is the delegate secretary to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, which is working Read more
The Vatican fountains are unusually quiet at present. That’s because Pope Francis has had them turned off to show solidarity and conserve water during the drought affecting much of Italy. Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si denounces wasteful practices and highlights the importance of clean drinking water. The prolonged drought has hit two-thirds of farmland and has Read more