Faith · Society · People · Rome

CBS report on a boy with autism and a miracle attributed to Pope Francis

CBS has aired a report on a miracle attributed to Pope Francis. A 10-year-old boy suffering from autism and epilepsy ran up onto the stage to the Pope and began to talk with the pontiff. For his mother, it was already a miracle that her son had climbed

NB! · Faith · Society · Rome

Pope Francis announced that this year the Church has lost 17 cardinals and 191 bishops, some of whom died of coronavirus

NB! · Faith · Society · Rome

After meeting Pope Francis, Biden said the pontiff had called him a good Catholic and acknowledged his right to Holy Communion

Faith · Observations · Society · Rome

Biden's closed-door meeting with Pope Francis and the discussion in the Catholic world

Biden's visit to the Vatican, the second Catholic president in US history, and especially his private meeting with the Pope behind closed doors, has provoked debate in the Catholic world. A conservative American bishop, Strickland, even called Francis a serpent, though he has since deleted the insult and

Faith · Observations · Society · Rome

Nothing out of the ordinary, just snipers on the roof of the Church of Saint Patrick in Rome during the Bidens' attendance at Mass in that church

The Church of St Patrick is the church of the American Catholic community and of the English-speaking community in Rome generally, and this year it turns one hundred

Faith · Mores · Rome · Humour

Historians regard the story of Pope Joan and her exposure as fiction

You will of course know that most historians agree on the fictional character of the tale of a woman on the Papal throne, Pope Joan. Most likely, the myth was devised as an irony at the expense of the dominance of courtesans, kept women and concubines of every description in

Faith · People · Rome

Francis I recognises a miracle of John Paul I, who was Pope for only 33 days

Francis I has issued a decree recognising a miracle wrought through the intercession of Pope John Paul I. This brings a Pope so adored by the people closer to canonisation. The process of beatification began in 2003, in 2017 Francis approved the canonisation of John Paul I, in 2021 his

Archive · Faith · Rome

Pius XII proclaims the dogma of the Assumption of Mary at St Peter's on 1 November 1950

A not-so-old photograph from Saint Peter's Basilica, 1 November 1950, when Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the taking up of the Mother of God into heaven, body and soul, at the end of her earthly life.

NB! · Faith · Society · Pop Culture · Rome

Pope Francis I blesses the UEFA trophy held by the President of the Union of European Football Associations, Aleksander Čeferin, on 10 June 2021

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Argentina have won the Copa América, Italy the European Championship; all that remains is for the Argentine Bishop of Rome to emerge victorious from his bout with illness (yesterday, incidentally, he was already addressing the faithful from the balcony of

And yes, before the match it was worth bearing in mind that Roberto Mancini had symbolically admitted Pope Francis to the Italian squad the year before last

In the Press · London · Observations · Pop Culture · Rome · Humour

The Daily Star comes out with a statue of Augustus bearing the England captain's face and a CAESAR MOMENT splash

Well, well... What might it signify, to portray Harry Kane as a Roman before England's match against Italy? Can the image of Kane as a statue be taken as mockery of his immobility? And is the Caesar moment, by any chance, a reference to the occasion when you

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Byron on Rome and the Colosseum, and lines from “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”

Byron visited the Roman Colosseum in 1817, when the ruins were still wholly overgrown with thick vegetation and a veritable carpet of flowers. He wrote of it: "I have passed some days in wondrous Rome, and am delighted with Rome. As a whole, Rome, both ancient and modern, is