Benedict XVI will be like a Moses for the Church. Moses went to a mountain and interceded for the People of Israel while the latter were combating against Amalek. So will the Pope do after his retirement – the President of Pontifical Council for Culture, Card. Gianfranco Ravasi, said in a Lent meditation [...]
Just one day after the death of Pope Pius XI, on February 10, 1939, Msgr. Angelo Pomata stood in front of a cahier’s window at Religious Works (the “ancestor” of the Institute for Religious Works). The cashier was Massimo Spada. Pomata was dispatched there by Eugenio Pacelli – who, after the death of the [...]
Just when the Vatican Secretary of State seems to be the only mark for a series of attacks, two news show that the Holy See is making important steps toward a reform intended to bring the Vatican City State to be a fully modern State with full financial transparency. The steps are [...]
Sheriff defends law. He brings everybody into line. And honest people is happy. This is what could happen in an ideal world. But many discontent the arrival of a sheriff. Honest people feel in peril: they work behind the curtain, they know that the only way to change the balances of a «corrupted» place [...]
One year ago – it was the 30th of December 2010 – the publication of the Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio for the prevention and countering of illegal activities in the area of monetary and financial dealings was considered one of the most important news. The Motu Proprio extended to the Holy See the [...]
When he was appointed as Papal nuncio in Israel, he had a Muslim barber. For years, this barber asked about Abouna Boutros, Father Pietro. This is how Pietro Sambi was known in Jerusalem. Since 2005, Sambi was Papal nuncio in Washington, and this year he was ready to be nominated Prefect of [...]
Within the next 4th of September, the Vatican Authority for Financial Information will be finishing a report to deliver to the GAFI – the International Financial Action Group against money laundering – and to the financial organisms of European Union. It will be one of the steps toward the enrollment of the Holy See [...]
Porta San’t Anna, Vatican City. It’s the 1st of April and a non-Catholic patriatch is crossing the border between the Italian and the vatican States. He is known there, and familiar with the environment. He is carrying a suitcase. Just after passing the Vatican Gendarmerie, he turns left towards the Torrione Niccolò V, the [...]
