In the Press · Faith · Society

Pope Francis expresses shame before the victims after the report

Pope Francis has learned the findings of the French report on child abuse in the Church, and has called it "a moment of shame" "Shame on me, shame on us, for the Church's far too long inability to place the victims at the centre of

Archive · Faith · Society

In France, a shocking report has been published following almost three years of work by the Commission on Child Abuse in the Catholic Church

The investigation included interviews with victims and witnesses, and the study of church, court, police and news archives going back to the 1950s. The French report states that around 330,000 children have been subjected to sexual abuse in one form or another over the past 70 years by some

NB! · Faith · Observations

A Bedtime Reminder That Everyone Ought to Know at Least One Prayer

Architecture · Faith · The East · Humour

The wooden crocodile in Seville Cathedral, a gift from the Egyptian sultan to Alfonso X

In Seville Cathedral, the largest Gothic church in Europe, there hangs a crocodile. There are, of course, many treasures and relics there, such as paintings by Velázquez, Goya and Murillo and the sarcophagus of Christopher Columbus, but the crocodile is the most memorable of them all. Not a real one,

Faith · Art

Saint Jerome in a cardinal's hat and the meaning of his books in a work by Giorgio Schiavone

Saint Jerome with a cardinal's galero (the name of the hat is spelt precisely with an "a", and the plural is galeri) slung over his shoulders: from beneath his beard peeps the red tassel of the hat's cords. Work by Giorgio Schiavone, 1556-61.

Faith · Art · London · Monarchies · Museums

Angels in lapis-lazuli robes and white chaplets of roses, gathered about the Virgin and Christ Child on the right-hand panel of the Wilton Diptych, the celebrated monument of Gothic panel painting of the late fourteenth century, have become a riddle for a

The principal explanations come down to the personal iconography of King Richard II, who is himself portrayed kneeling on the left-hand panel with his patron saints John the Baptist, Edward the Confessor and Edmund the Martyr. Eleven was the number of gold coins that Richard offered to the Virgin

NB! · Faith · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

At a meeting with the Hungarian clergy, Pope Francis recalled Rubik's Cube and said it was a good game but not a model for life

At a meeting with the Hungarian clergy, Pope Francis recalled Rubik's Cube and said it was a good game but not a model for life. As ever, I agree with His Holiness, for everyone knows perfectly well that the finest model for life is Cindy Crawford

NB! · Faith · Observations · Humour

A bedtime reminder from the Prophet Ezekiel: do not forget to dress your dry bones in something decent, having not only clothed them with flesh but also endowed them with spirit

Archive · Faith · Monarchies · Society

Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, known for his Euroscepticism and anti-migrant views, has presented Pope Francis with a copy of a letter of 1243 from King Béla IV of Hungary to Pope Innocent IV, in which the king informs the pope…

As is well known, Béla IV warned the pontiffs of the Mongol menace more than once; he wrote to Gregory IX as well, begging for help, but these pleas went unanswered. Nor did any European state respond to the call to defend Hungary, and in the end the whole country

Faith · Cinema · Monarchies · Humour

Horns on the helmet of Alexander the Great and their link to the cult of Zeus and Amon

The helmet of Alexander of Macedon in the film "Gentlemen of Fortune" is made from a fireman's helmet. Alexander did in fact have a horned helmet, but the point is not whether it bore even the faintest resemblance to a firefighter's hard hat painted

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Liberale da Verona, Saint Jerome and the Lion

NB! · Faith · Books · Moscow · Society Pages

Alexey Dmitrievich Dostoevsky, Captain of the Valaam Monastery Fleet and Bass Guitarist, at the Unveiling of the Monument to His Great-Grandfather, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, Outside the Dostoevsky Bookshop on Sapozhkovskaya Square by the Walls of th

Alexey Dmitrievich Dostoevsky, Captain of the Valaam Monastery Fleet and bass guitarist, at the unveiling of the monument to his great-grandfather, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, outside the Dostoevsky bookshop on Sapozhkovskaya Square by the walls of the Kremlin. In the photograph, both Dostoevskys stand behind the substantial figure of Igor