Faith · Observations · Society · Rome
The Desacralisation of Church Institutions and Pope Francis: on Saturday 19 March Pope Francis Allowed Any Baptised Lay Catholic, Even a Woman, to Head Departments in the Vatican Administration. For centuries these posts could be held only by high-ranking clergymen, men naturally. It turned out that this could be
NB! · Archive · Faith · People
Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, on the day of his ordination to the priesthood in July 1951. Here Joseph is 24 years old. The Pope Emeritus is now 94
Faith · Society
Pope Francis I and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia held a videoconference today. It was the first conversation between the two bishops since their personal meeting in Havana in 2016. They discussed the possibility that Patriarch Kirill might meet Pope Francis again this summer. Francis I spoke today
Archive · Architecture · Faith · Paris
Did Someone Send for Elena the Flying? The year is 1917, the First World War at its height. In France, empty churches are turned into workshops, parish buildings into homes, and chapels are fitted out as kitchens. The chapel on the rue des Barres in the Fourth Arrondissement of Paris
NB! · Faith · Observations · People · Rome
Exactly 9 years ago Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope and took the name Francis I. Bergoglio became the first Jesuit Pope, the first Pope from the New World and the first in twelve centuries not from Europe. What I mean to say is, I hope not the last
Faith · Reportage · Rome
Pope Francis I in the Jesuit Mother Church of Il Gesù in Rome at the service marking the 400th anniversary of the canonisation of St Teresa of Ávila, Ignatius of Loyola, Isidore the Farmer, Francis Xavier and Philip Neri. This time the Pope does not preside at the Mass: the
Archive · Faith · Art · Humour
A centaur complains to Saint Anthony. About the monkey, presumably. From a fifteenth-century manuscript on fantastic beasts
Faith · Art · Museums · Rome · Humour
The Stefaneschi Triptych in the Vatican Pinacoteca contains the so-called Droste effect, named after a tin of cocoa that bore an image of itself bearing an image of itself. If you look closely, on the central panel of the triptych Giotto depicted the patron of the work, Cardinal Stefaneschi,
Faith · Science · People
The author of these words, Thomas Aquinas, died on this day 748 years ago. Who would have thought how swiftly time flies!
Faith · Society · People · Rome
Pope Francis visited the Russian Embassy in Rome to express personally his concern over events in Ukraine. The Pope usually receives ambassadors and heads of state in the Vatican, so his stepping outside its walls shows the degree of his alarm at the situation that has arisen. Vatican spokesman Matteo
Faith · Art · Observations
Into my mind comes the image of the Bogolyubovo Icon of the Mother of God, commonly called the oldest iconographic depiction of the Protection. Created between 1158 and 1174, the icon is held to be the first ever painted on Russian soil. The story of its making is traced to
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Cardinal Bergoglio and Pope John Paul II. Jorge Mario Bergoglio became a cardinal on 21 February 2001; twelve years later he would be elected Pope.