An Italian startup is launching a web advertising platform that aims to provide Catholic websites with Catholic-approved advertisements, Religion News Service reported. The platform, called AdEthic, was presented on Thursday in Rome as part of a Church project to engage in social media. The platform wants to tap into the vast Catholic online market that Read more
The Coptic Christian Archdiocese of America has distanced itself from an anti-Muslim film “The Innocence of Muslims,” that has sparked protests in more than 24 countries. “We reject any allegation that the Coptic Orthodox community has contributed to the production of this film,” the Coptic Orthodox Archdiocese said in a statement Friday, denouncing the Copts who reportedly Read more
In May of 2005, Archbishop William Levada—who had headed the Archdioceses of Portland (Oregon) and San Francisco—was appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In July of 2011, having reached the age of 75, Cardinal Levada duly submitted his resignation from that important curial post. Almost a year later, on July Read more
The Vatican has hired a Swiss anti-money-laundering expert to advise it as it moves into a new phase of trying to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The announcement Tuesday came two months after the Holy See passed a key European financial transparency test, but received failing grades for its financial watchdog agency and its Read more
The Vatican II council, which began 50 years ago next month, was the most momentous religious event in 450 years. On January 25, 1959, the newly elected Pope John XXIII invited 18 cardinals from the Vatican bureaucracy to attend a service at the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. He told them Read more
Alarmed by the decline in the use of Latin within the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict is planning to set up a new Latin school. Latin is the language of the Vatican and Benedict is looking to breathe new life into the dead language by developing a new academy “to better promote the knowledge and speaking Read more
The Vatican publishing house has reached agreement with Apple to make the works of Pope Benedict XVI available in electronic form, accessible to a variety of high-tech devices. The Libreria Editrice Vaticana will work with Apple to produce eBooks and i-Tunes containing the Pope’s catechetical talks from his Wednesday public audiences. A series on “Prayer Read more
The German Bishops’ Conference says the Vatican has quietly dropped its lawsuit against a satirical German magazine over a cover that depicted Pope Benedict XVI with a yellow stain on his robe. A Hamburg court had granted an injunction barring the magazine, Titanic, from distributing the image that fronted its July edition, headlined “Hallelujah at Read more
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini believed the Catholic Church 200 years behind the times. The former archbishop of Milan and papal candidate said this in the final interview he gave before his death last Friday at the age of 85. In the interview Martini gave a scathing portrayal of a pompous and bureaucratic church failing to move with Read more
“Be careful what you wish for,” as the saying goes, “because you will surely get it.” In light of a couple of recent Vatican stories, the corollary also seems to apply: Be careful what you try to avoid, because it might actually be good for you. A stringent European money laundering exam in July and Read more