Pope Francis has no scheduled commitments this week. He was supposed to be outside of Rome to participate in the Lenten Spiritual Exercises for the Curia, but he caught a cold and stayed at home. There will be no activity in the Vatican, either. It might be a good break. After Querida Amazonia, the [...]

Pope Francis has always shown admiration for Paul VI. He revealed it for the first time in an interview granted to the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera in 2014. Pope Francis’s response can also be considered a good summary of what he thinks and does.

Asked about Humanae Vitae, Pope Francis [...]

The post-Synod exhortation Querida Amazonia did not even mention the possibility to ordain married priests in exceptional cases. Nor it suggested the possibility of having deaconesses or the establishment of an “Amazonian rite”. Concluding the Pan-Amazonian Synod, Pope Francis instead described his dreams for Amazonia, which are, in fact, dreams for the whole [...]

A Benedict XVI text has passed almost unnoticed, unlike the book he wrote with Cardinal Robert Sarah on priestly celibacy: it is the letter that the Pope emeritus wrote last November to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the International Theological Commission.

Benedict XVI’s text is of great importance to [...]

The news that Pope Francis chose, as his new personal secretary, the Uruguayan priest Gonzalo Aemilius is particularly surprising both for the announcement and for timeliness.

The Holy See Press Office had never given before news of who was the Pope’s secretary, since the position is not even included in the Roman Curia organizational [...]

The appointment of Archbishop Cyril Vasil as apostolic administrator sede plena of Kosice eparchy in Slovakia is part of the Vatican reform by to Pope Francis. Archbishop Vasil, a Slovakian, has served for ten years as secretary of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches. According to the draft of the Curia reform – [...]

The destruction of Benedict XVI’s vineyard in the Papal Residence of Castel Gandolfo is the symbol of the closing of an era. Benedict XVI received the vineyard from the farmers of an Italian national association. The Pope emeritus wanted it planted under the statue of Jesus the Good Shepherd, in the gardens. The [...]

The first Papal speech of the year is by tradition the speech delivered to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. The address provides the guidelines of the pontifical diplomacy for the coming year. For this reason, it is often described as “the speech on the state of the world.”

Pope Francis [...]

The seventh-year itch is a well-documented phenomenon in weddings. We do not know if there will be a seventh-year itch between Pope Francis and the faithful. It seems certain, however, that in his seventh year of the pontificate, Pope Francis can finally shape his idea of Church.

Pope Francis is expected in 2020 to [...]

An old Latin adage notes: motus in fine velocior, movement is faster toward the end. We do not know if we are approaching the end of Pope Francis’ pontificate. This will only depend on God’s will or the Pope’s intention to ever decide to renounce the papacy. Yet it is noteworthy that Pope Francis [...]