MondayVatican
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 [...]
Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, went to an official visit to Norway to take «the solidarity of the Catholic Church and the solidarity of the Holy Father, in particular, to Norway at this tragic time, along with greetings for the great Feast of St Olaf, which was [...]
Benedict XVI will be visiting Benin the next 20th of November, and he will deliver the post-sinodal declaration of the Africa Synod, that took place in October 2009. In the Instrumentum Laboris of that synod, Aids was not a pivotal issue. The document just underlined the «necessity» of the education even in «health [...]
«G20 can be considered a club of friends. On the other hand, Holy See proposes a new world authority, in order to consider all the countries, the developing ones as well as the developed ones». Mons. Mario Toso, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, underlines the doubts the Holy See [...]
Would it be possible to eject the Holy See from the international organizations? This not such a new idea. In 2007, The Economist - English weekly which is widely read in government foreign offices – ended an article about the Vatican diplomacy with this advice for the Holy See: «It could renounce its special [...]
«In a particular way, in Asia and in Africa, the chief victims are the members of religious minorities, who are prevented from freely professing or changing their religion by forms of intimidation and the violation of their rights, basic freedoms and essential goods, including the loss of personal freedom and life itself». Benedict XVI [...]
Imagine this scenario: on one side you have Card. Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, stating that «according to the Gospel, intervention is necessary when somebody’s in difficulty». On the other side you have the Secretariat of State, where they prefer not to take an official, diplomatic stance. And, in the middle, you [...]
The crucifix exposed in Italian classrooms cannot be considered an «indoctrination». Furthermore, «a crucifix on a wall is an essentially passive symbol and this point is of importance in the Court’s view». Since every country can decide by itself «whether crucifixes should be present in State-school classrooms is, in principle, a matter falling within [...]
Benedict XVI, the Green Pope: this has been the name often used to call Joseph Ratzinger since he is Pope. He has paid much attention to the topic of environment since his very first speech. He wrote about it in the encyclical Caritas in veritate. He dedicated to this topic the 2010 World [...]
Does the Vatican still have any International weight?
If you look at its whole diplomatic network, spread all over the world, the answer would be yes. The last time Pope Benedict met his ambassadors, their number was of 178 diplomats and two special relationships. As for the number of diplomatic relations, the Holy See [...]
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