Tag Archive for ‘Pope’
God’s Traveller – Blessed Pope John XXIII (1881 – 1963)
Today, Pope John XXIII is mostly remembered as the instigator of Vatican II. His sometimes controversial “new Pentecost” tells us little of the man behind the reforms he brought about. Yet there’s so much more to tell of this extraordinary man. He was born Angelo Guiseppe Roncalli on a cold, wet November day in 1881 […]
May
When the Cardinals entered the Sistine Chapel for the Conclave, the last thing 1.2 billion Catholics expected was a Pope who would identify closely with pensioners in the Church by riding the bus and paying his bills in person! An Historic Photo or a Pious Forgery? This picture of Pope John Paul II with […]
A Jesuit Pope named Francis
After an eventful month the Church has a new Pontiff embodying two great spiritualities of the Church – the first Jesuit Pope and the first Pope called Francis. Not a young man or the first black Pope, but the first Pope from South America, an arena where some of the sharpest dilemmas of the modern […]
April
Unhelpful Comment Just when we are getting used to the Pope being able to resign comes a voice out of Poland, that of the Krakow Cardinal and long-time secretary of Pope John Paul II, Stanislaw Dziwisz, saying that the Holy Father has “come down from the Cross” by resigning, implying he should stay there and […]
Benedict’s Resignation Speech in full
VIS 11/02/2013 “I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are […]
Pope’s Resignation a Gift to the Church
No one saw it coming. Out of the blue at a Consistory summoned to announce three new saints, the Holy Father stunned his audience by dropping a bombshell – his resignation from the papacy at the end of the month. The reasons given were he lacked the strength to fulfil the office of Pontiff. The […]
The Holy Face of Manoppello
A friend and I recently made a two and a half hour journey from Rome in the direction of Italy’s Adriatic coast, to a small hilltown in the Abruzzo region, called Manoppello. What drew us there is a shrine which is home to a 24cm x 17.5cm cloth which bears an image of the face […]
On Carpe Diem, Ecumenism and Social Media
CHRISTIAN MEANING OF ‘CARPE DIEM’ 27 January 2013 (VIS) – “Each moment can be the auspicious ‘today’ of our conversion. Each day can be the salvific ‘today’ because salvation is a continuous story for the Church and for each of Christ’s disciples. This is the Christian meaning of ‘carpe diem’; seize the day that God […]
Seafarers, Sistine Chapel
The Care of Seafarers – VIS 8 Nov “The Year of Faith present a challenge to the chaplains and volunteers of the Apostleship of the Sea who will meet at this congress in order to seek adequate pastoral responses to the problems faced by seafarers”. Among these problems, Cardinal Veglio identified the use of modern […]
Monday 31 December
St Sylvester, Pope 1 John 2:18-21, Ps 96, John 1:1-18 “The word was made flesh, he lived among us and we saw his glory.” The beginning of the fourth gospel is a sublime statement of the great Christian truth that God became a human being in Jesus. He, like all people, experienced the opportunity to […]
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