The Myanmar Minister for Foreign Affairs, Aung San Su Kyi, Nobel Prize laureate for peace, visited Pope Francis on May 4. The visit was aimed at finalizing the opening of diplomatic ties between the Holy See and Myanmar (Burma), one of the few countries that did not enjoy full diplomatic ties with the [...]

During the last meeting of the Council of Cardinals, decentralization was one of the issues on the table, and the possibility of giving more autonomy to bishops’ conferences on some topics was also discussed. Pope Francis loves to talk about the notion of synodality. But in the end, it is he alone [...]

Perhaps a way to look at Pope Francis’s pontificate lies in only one question: how to tackle the cultural shift of our times? This was the question at the base of the 2013 General Congregations – the pre-conclave meetings of cardinals – and it is likely at the base of Pope Francis’s entire pontificate.

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“April is the cruelest month,” Eliot said in his poem “The Wasteland”. Perhaps no one more than Benedict XVI understands this: he was born on a Holy Saturday in mid-April, baptized on the same day, and he turned 90 on April 16, Easter Sunday. It is the fourth year since he retired to [...]

Last week opened with an international congress celebrating the 50th anniversary of Blessed Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio. The congress is not only noteworthy because of the quality of the interventions, which were characterized by an interdisciplinary approach. It is noteworthy also because the congress is the first one fully organized by the [...]

The logo of Pope Francis’s upcoming trip to Egypt shows a Muslim half-moon and a cross displaced over the pyramid and Nile River, while a dove anticipating the Pope’s blessing flies over them. The theme of the visit is also meaningful: the Pope of peace in Egypt of peace. Certainly, the presence of [...]

A series of clues points to June as a possible turning point in Pope Francis’s pontificate. After four years the Pope might finally give definitive shape to his Church, and this coming June might be the right month.

That the Pope wanted June to be a free month can be noticed by the fact [...]

There is a series of four articles, written by Gianni Valente that probably explains better than any other recent piece of writing the state of the art of Pope Francis’s pontificate. This is not by chance. Gianni Valente is considered among the closest friends of the Pontiff, whom he knows since he was [...]

Last week Rolling Stone magazine (Italian edition) put Pope Francis on the cover with the description “A Pop Pope.” This is the umpteenth proof that the secular world loves Pope Francis. The striking fact, however, lies in the motivation behind the Pope making this magazine cover, as was the case back in [...]

Why are sacraments so important for the Church? Why doesn’t the Church grant access to sacraments to all? These are the implicit questions in the debate that arose around Amoris Laetitia. This debate bears the same limit of all the debates swirling around Pope Francis’s pontificate: it creates a division among the parties.

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