The Vatican is selling stamps to raise funds for an ambitious restoration of the 17th-century St Peter’s Square colonnade, estimated to cost $NZ22 million. The Vatican’s Philatelic and Numismatic Office, which sells commemorative coins and stamps featuring popes, saints and the like, is offering a special 20-euro ($NZ31.50) stamp and certificate package to help offset Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Vatican’
Vatican may eventually limit Sistine Chapel visits
Friday, November 2nd, 2012
The Vatican may eventually limit the number of visitors to the Sistine chapel to protect Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoes, Reuters reported. The Sistine Chapel ceiling celebrated its 500th anniversary on Wednesday. Pope Benedict XVI marked the anniversary of what he dubbed as the “liturgical classroom” with vespers. He said “the works of art which decorate [the Read more
McAleese: Vatican silencing of Irish priests ‘consumes the truth’
Tuesday, October 30th, 2012
Popular former Ireland President, Mary McAlese has criticised the Catholic Church’s treatment of five silenced Irish priests, accusing Rome of operating through fear and imposing strictures on clerics “which consume the truth”. McAlese described Marist Fr Sean Fagan and Redemptorist Fr Tony Flannery as “good men who have loved this Church with a passion” who are Read more
Was the trial of the Pope’s butler just for show?
Tuesday, October 30th, 2012
In the end it was the butler, and only the butler, who did it – or so the Vatican would have the world believe. Paolo Gabriele, the Pope’s personal valet, was convicted of stealing secret papers from the Holy See on Saturday and sentenced to 18 months in prison. But there was growing suspicion that Read more
Vatican cannot remove Jimmy Savile’s knighthood
Tuesday, October 30th, 2012
The Vatican cannot remove the papal knighthood granted to Jimmy Savile despite allegations the British TV star was a child sex predator. Last week, the Catholic Church of England wrote to the Holy See asking it to consider to posthumously remove the honour awarded to Savile because of the many recent child sex abuse allegations Read more
Vatican to send peace delegation to Syria ‘as soon as possible’
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi on Monday said the peace mission to Syria will will take place “as soon as possible” but may be delayed by recent events. Several prelates, including New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, were set to leave for Syria later this week, but Lombardi said recent fighting in Damascu and unrest in Beirut Read more
50 years ago young Benedict XVI was a harbinger of hope at Vatican Council
Tuesday, October 16th, 2012
Fifty years ago, on October 11, 1962, Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council. There were number of fearful and vocal bishops at the first session of the Second Vatican Council says Christchurch priest, Father John O’Connor, “but they were were overwhelmed by voices of hope.” And, he says, “among those harbingers of hope Read more
Q&A on the synod for new evangelization
Friday, October 12th, 2012
The 25th Synod of Bishops began Sunday, this one dedicated to “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.” New evangelization is the apple of Pope Benedict XVI’s eye, so the synod, held every couple of years or so since 1967, is being touted by the Vatican, along with the Year of Faith Read more
Vatican II continued
Friday, October 5th, 2012
Catholics have been arguing about the Second Vatican Council—about what it did and didn’t do, about what it meant and still means or what it never meant and could never mean—for half a century. Many reform-minded Catholics today are disappointed by what they see as a retreat, under the papacies of John Paul II and Read more
Can the Vatican survive the age of digital media?
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012
Some institutions may not adapt to 21st-century radical transparency. The papacy’s turn to inflammatory rhetoric while hit by a series of damaging leaks suggests that it’s struggling. Strange things have been happening at the Vatican this year. Beginning in January, documents written by high-level figures in the Catholic Church began finding their way into the Read more