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Featured Term (selected at random):CHAMBERLAIN Over the centuries, the title of several classes of prelates of the Holy See, including: privy chamberlains, who compose the college of masters of pontifical ceremony; privy chamberlains to His Holiness, who are honored for special service to the Church; chamberlains of honor extra urbem, who are priests chosen from cities outside of Rome, who have the title of monsignor, and who in turn are subdivided into various classes; and chamberlains of honor of sword and cape, who may not be persons of distinction but nevertheless are deserving of recognition. (Etym. Latin camera, a chamber.)...

In a new book, Father Amorth, the exorcist for the diocese of Rome, gives a bizarre account of how he and two assistants brought a pair of "possessed" Italian men to one of the Pope's weekly audiences in St Peter's Square in May 2009. In his book, "The Last Exorcist – My Fight Against Satan", he claimed the mere presence of the pontiff cured the men of their demonic afflictions. Father Amorth said his two female assistants escorted the two men into St Peter's Square as the Pope was driven between crowds of faithful in the white "Popemobile" jeep. The...

Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Madrid for World Youth Day 2011. Credit: Official WYD Flickr.com-Madrid11 Vatican City, Jan 23, 2012 / 04:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Lebanon later this year is “very possible,” according to the Vatican’s official spokesman. The Pope would use the visit to deliver a document – known as an apostolic exhortation – that is the fruit of the discussions that took place at last October’s Synod for the Middle East. “In the context of the publication of a synod document, it is very possible and reasonable for the Pope to...

Saint Peter the Apostle Also known as Simon and Cephas, his feast is celebrated with St. Paul on the 29 th of June. The feast of the Chair of Peter, which stands for the World Unity of the Church is celebrated on the 22nd of February. He was a fisherman, brother of Saint Andrew the Apostle who led him to Christ. The Lord gave him the name of "Peter" to indicate that he would be the rock on which the Church would be built. He had miraculous healing powers, so that people were cured even by his shadow. (Acts 5:15)...

Pope Benedict XVI Vatican City, Jan 15, 2012 / 11:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has emphasized need for good spiritual counsel for those who are discerning a vocation to the priesthood or religious life. “I would like to emphasize the critical role of spiritual guidance in the journey of faith and, in particular, in response to the vocation of special consecration for the service of God and his people,” the Pope said during his Jan. 15 Sunday Angelus address.“God’s call to follow Jesus more closely, giving up forming their own family to dedicate themselves to the great...

Apart from the newly-crowned national football champions (Go SEC!), there's been another tide of crimson on the horizon in the news: Earlier this week, Pope Benedict announced a consistory in which he will raise 22 prelates to the Sacred College of Cardinals. Among the newly named cardinals are two Americans: Timothy Dolan, the current archbishop of New York and Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, the former archbishop of Baltimore and the current Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. I was gonna post that news and leave it at that. But it occurred to me that for...

Cardinals attend mass in St. Peter's Basilica for the Epiphany on Jan. 6, 2012 Vatican City, Jan 10, 2012 / 03:27 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- When Pope Benedict XVI creates 22 new cardinals next month, he will use a revised and simplified version of the ceremony to avoid any impression that becoming a cardinal is a sacrament.“The creation of new cardinals had to be inserted into a context of prayer, while at the same time avoiding anything that could give rise to the idea of a ‘cardinalatial Sacrament,’" the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff said Jan. 10....

Featured Term (selected at random):THEOLOGIAN OF THE PONTIFICAL HOUSEHOLD Until the present title was established by Pope Paul VI, the person was called Master of the Sacred Palace. Originating in the thirteenth century and traditionally a member of the Dominican Order, from Pope Leo X to Pius XI he gave the Imprimatur to books published in Rome. He is now the Theologian of Trust of the Pope, consultor to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, prelate of the Congregation of Rites, and generally consultor of the Commission for Biblical Studies. He belongs to the Pontifical Family and lives...

LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy — For the second time in a week, Pope Benedict XVI has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, reasserting the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church and saying other Christian communities were either defective or not true churches.

For on demand video of the Mass click HERE. The video opens with the lead up to the Mass, with lots of panning around the basilica, inside and out.The entrance procession, which begins with the super-Italian cheesy trumpet fanfare and the singing of Tu es Petrus! A fine tradition restored.His Holiness wore a Roman chasuble and a very tall gold miter. A fine tradition restored!The Gregorian chant Introit (too slowly, I think, and there was a stumble but… beh…), and three-fold Kyrie was sung. A fine tradition restored!Brick by brick.During the entrance procession, as His Holiness went by, you could...

The Pope will on Sunday launch a renewed attack on the "moral relativism" that he has blamed for Britain's summer riots.In a message for the 2012 World Peace Day of January 1, Pope Benedict said that neither peace nor justice was obtainable if the objective norms of morality expressed in the Ten Commandments continue to be rejected. His words represent another severe criticism of moral relativism, the humanistic creed that holds there can be no objective standard on which to base morality. They come just months after the Pope told Nigel Baker, Britain's Ambassador to the Holy See, that the...

Rome, Italy, Dec 8, 2011 / 04:28 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI reflected on the biblical description of a “woman clothed with the sun” in his remarks at Rome's Spanish Steps on the 2011 Feast of the Immaculate Conception. “What is the meaning of this image? It represents the Church and Our Lady at the same time,” the Pope told the crowd assembled before the nearby statue commemorating the 1854 definition of Mary's Immaculate Conception. “Before all, the 'woman' of the apocalypse is Mary herself.” The 12th chapter of the Biblical Apocalypse – also known as the Book of...

From Vatican Information Service:VATICAN CITY, 22 DEC 2011 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father received  cardinals along with members of the Roman Curia and of the Governance of the Vatican City State for the traditional exchange of Christmas and New Year's greetings. Speaking for those present, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, greeted the Pontiff.   In his following address [which can be read in its entirety on the Vatican website], Benedict XVI reviewed the major events of this year, which has been marked by "an economic and financial crisis that is ultimately based on the...

An 11-year-old boy's survival from a near-fatal battle with a flesh-eating bacteria has been declared a miracle by the Vatican. Jake Finkbonner, of Ferndale, Washington, made a stunning recovery from a tissue-destroying disease that gnawed away at his young face and nearly took his life in 2006. Pope Benedict XVI attributed the miracle attribute to The Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, clearing the way for the 17th century Mohawk-Algonquin woman to become the first American-Indian saint. She could be canonised as early as February, becoming America's first indigenous saint. Mrs Finkbonner told MSNBC her son, meanwhile, is 'doing fantastic' and is playing...

Vatican City, Dec 18, 2011 / 02:17 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI said today that the virginity of Mary guarantees Jesus’ divinity because it proves the Incarnation is solely the work of God. “The human being that begins to live in her womb takes the flesh from Mary, but his existence is derived entirely from God,” the Pope said Dec. 18 in his final Sunday Angelus address before Christmas.“The fact that Mary conceived while remaining a virgin is, therefore, essential to the understanding of Jesus and our faith, because it witnesses that it was God’s initiative and above...

People who have spent time with him recently say they found him weaker than they'd ever seen him, seemingly too tired to engage with what they were saying. He no longer meets individually with visiting bishops. A few weeks ago he started using a moving platform to spare him the long walk down St. Peter's Basilica.

Pope Benedict XVI offered a word of encouragement Wednesday to the Legionaries of Christ order, which has been reeling since revelations that its revered founder was a fraud and pedophile. The Legion ordained 49 new priests this week in Rome, and many Legionaries and their families attended the pope's general audience inside the Vatican. In remarks at the end of the audience, Benedict said he was praying that God would support the new Legion priests "so that you can carry out with joy and loyalty your mission." Benedict named an envoy to take over the Legion last year after the...

Pope Benedict moves through the crowd in his popemobile at World Youth Day in Madrid. Credit: Official WYD flickr.com-madrid11 Freiburg, Germany, Dec 3, 2011 / 05:36 pm (CNA).- In a case that brought amusement to the Vatican, a German court decided to throw out charges against Pope Benedict for not wearing a seat belt during his recent papal visit to the country.“There will be no fine for the Pope,” city spokeswoman Edith Lamersdorf told German news agency Badische Zeitung on Nov. 30. “The charges were quashed.”Lawyer Christian Sundermann had filed a complaint on behalf of an unnamed Dortmund resident...

From Our Store: Essays in Apologetics, Volume I (eBook) What is finally emerging as the sticking point between the Vatican and the Society of Saint Pius X is the question of the assent owed to the Second Vatican Council. This is now the subject of an important essay in L’Osservatore Romano by one of the key negotiators for the Vatican, the vicar general of Opus Dei, Msgr. Fernando Ocariz. Note that there is a link to the full text at the end of our news story, which itself includes substantial quotations.I hate to say I told you so, but Msgr. Ocariz...

Bishop Armando X. Ochoa Fresno, Calif., Dec 1, 2011 / 01:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop Armando X. Ochoa of El Paso, Texas was named today as the new bishop of Fresno, Calif. by Pope Benedict XVI.“I am humbled and deeply honored that the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, would offer me this new challenge at my age,” said Bishop Ochoa, who will fill a position left vacant by the death of Bishop John Steinbock in December 2010. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Vatican's recently appointed representative to the U.S., made the announcement in Washington D.C. on Dec. 1.Bishop Ochoa...

eatured Term (selected at random):UNIVERSAL BISHOP Applied to the Pope as having truly episcopal power over the whole Church. He is therefore just as much a universal bishop of the entire Church as he is bishop of his diocese of Rome. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Vatican City, Nov 21, 2011 / 05:55 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict accepted the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, former Archbishop of Boston, and appointed Spanish Archbishop Santos Abril y Castelló as the new archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major. Cardinal Law, who resigned in 2002 as Archbishop of Boston in the wake of the sex abuse scandal, turned 80 on Nov. 4.A Vatican official explained to CNA on Nov. 21 that although the official retirement age for a post such as archpriest is 80, it is customary for cardinals to hold their positions for a longer period of time....

Pope Benedict XVI Vatican City, Nov 18, 2011 / 01:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze says Pope Benedict’s upcoming visit to Benin will leave behind a positive and lasting legacy for all Africans. “Catholics, other Christians in Africa and, indeed, those who are not Christian are all concerned in this visit,” the cardinal told Vatican Radio on Nov. 17.Cardinal Arinze, 79, will accompany Pope Benedict on his three day visit to the small West African state which starts tomorrow. The Cardinal served as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship until 2008 when he retired. The primary...

ROME – The Vatican said Thursday it would take legal action against Benetton after the Italian fashion label used a photo purportedly showing Pope Benedict XVI kissing a leading imam in a publicity campaign. The Vatican "has instructed its lawyers, in Italy and abroad, to take appropriate action" to prevent the circulation of the image, including in the mass media, it said in a statement. The image offended "not only the dignity of the Pope and the Catholic Church, but also the sensibilities of believers," the statement added. The picture, used in the company's "Unhate" publicity campaign, showed the pope...

Italian clothes company Benetton backed down and pulled a photo montage showing the pope a leading imam from its new global ad campaign on Wednesday after the Vatican issued a stern condemnation. The company, which is no stranger to controversy over its advertising campaigns, said it was "sorry that the use of the image had so hurt the sensibilities of the faithful." The statement came shortly after the Vatican expressed "the firmest protest for this absolutely unacceptable use of the image of the Holy Father." Benetton's poster showed Pope Benedict XVI kissing on the lips Egypt's Ahmed el Tayyeb, imam...

The Holy See is the oldest continuing international organization in the world. Its Secretary of State office was established in 1486, and that is also when its first permanent representatives were established in Venice, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and France. Today, the Holy See maintains diplomatic relations with 176 states. It is also the only Permanent Observer State at the United Nations, and it participates in various internationals conventions and agreements. While it is officially neutral, it is not silent.The Holy SeeÂ’s diplomatic prowess was tested severely during the twentieth century. Nevertheless, it played a crucial role in maintaining...

Pope Benedict XVI Vatican City, Nov 10, 2011 / 12:50 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI is expected to visit both Mexico and Cuba in the spring of 2012. “The nuncios in Mexico and Cuba have been instructed to inform the highest civil and religious authorities that the Pope is examining concrete plans to visit those states, in response to invitations he has received,” papal spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., said on Nov 10. Fr. Lombardi said it is “well-known that expectations among people in Mexico are high,” while “Cuba also has great desire to see the Pope, having never forgotten...

ROME, ITALY, November 4 (CNA/EWTN News) - The Jewish New Yorker who has made it his life's work to clear the name of Pope Pius XII of being anti-Semitic believes the wartime pontiff actually went undercover to save the lives of Jews in Rome. Gary Krupp came across the evidence in a letter from a Jewish woman whose family was rescued thanks to direct Vatican intervention. "It is an unusual letter, written by a woman who is alive today in northern Italy, who said she was with her mother, her uncle, and a few other relatives in an audience with...

On Monday, the Vatican called for creation of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to regulate the world’s financial institutions. As Reuters reported, “The document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.” The Vatican got very specific in its recommendations. It condemned the “idolatry of the market” and called for global wealth redistribution, asking nations of the world to participate in an “ethic of solidarity.” In a passage that could have been ripped from Marx, the Vatican...

An extract from Eamon Duffy’s new book, "Ten Popes Who Shook the World"For 100 years or more, most western countries have worked on the axiom that our common life together ought to be deliberately secular. Religion in a free society may be acceptable as a private activity, like knitting or going to the gym, but it has no proper place in the spheres of politics, economics or citizenship. The rise of militant Islam, like the influence of the Christian Right on American foreign policy and, perhaps more encouragingly, the role of the Catholic Church in the overthrow of Polish Communism,...

Just a vanity post of a funny video. "He be rollin..."

“Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish,” says voice therapist Lionel Logue to King George VI as the brassy Australian walks the about-to-be-crowned king through a particularly orotund part of the coronation ceremony in The King’s Speech. Logue’s comment nicely sums up the media and Catholic Left commentary on a “Note” released today by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary System in the Context of Global Public Authority.” Drudge got it wrong: “Vatican Calls for ‘Central World Bank’.” CNBC got it wrong: “The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a ‘global public authority’ and...

In a scenario which will surely strike some as deja vu, the liberal jesuit Fr. Tom Reese previewed the contents of the document last week, in much the same way that the liberal jesuit Fr. Charles Curran “previewed” Humanae Vitae for the mainstream media before the document was actually released (the pope overruled Fr. Curran’s claims that the Church would endorse contraception — but the media had already made up its mind and few bothered to actually read what the pope had to say). Here’s Fr. Reese on MSNBC “explaining” the news: Notice that Fr. Reese does NOT correct the...

The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn... more at http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/24/idUS264245887020111024

The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn. “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions. “The economic and financial crisis which...

I've heard the accusations, but is it true? I don't support him for POTUS by the way, I'm just curious what others think.

Over the weekend, actress Susan Sarandon discussed her 1995 movie, “Dead Man Walking�; the film was based on a book by Sister Helen Prejean that condemns the death penalty. Sarandon said she sent a copy of the book to the pope, saying, “The last one, not this Nazi one we have now.�Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented on this today:Susan Sarandon’s ignorance is willful: those who have hatred in their veins are not interested in the truth. The fact is that Joseph Ratzinger (the pope) was conscripted at the age of 14 into the Hitler Youth, along with every...

Susan Sarandon, who won an Oscar for playing a nun, has called Pope Benedict XVI a Nazi. In response, the Catholic League has called her dumb. Actor Bob Balaban was interviewing Sarandon, 65, onstage Saturday at Long Island's Bay Street Theater when she mentioned she sent the pope a copy of Sister Helen Prejean's book "Dead Man Walking." "The last one (John Paul II), not this Nazi one we have now," she said. When Balaban raised an eyebrow at the remark, Sarandon merely repeated it. Some in the audience laughed. "Perhaps only in the Hamptons could Sarandon get a laugh...

Happy Oktoberfest 2011!

World Youth Day pilgrims during the storm that swept across Cuatro Vientos airfield. Credit: Official WYD Flickr.com-madrid11 Rome, Italy, Oct 13, 2011 / 03:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As thunder, lightning and wind whipped through the World Youth Day prayer vigil this past August, Pope Benedict XVI was advised to leave the event three times. But he insisted that if the young people stayed, then he would too. The revelation comes from a young Honduran woman was who stood next to the Pope throughout the event. “The masters of ceremony were asking him if the wanted to leave because it was raining,...

  Blessed Pope John XXIII On October 11, 2011, in Catholic Saint of the Day,   Although few people had as great an impact on the 20th century as Pope John XXIII, he avoided the limelight as much as possible. Indeed, one writer has noted that his “ordinariness” seems one of his most remarkable qualities.The firstborn son of a farming family in Sotto il Monte, near Bergamo in northern Italy, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was always proud of his down-to-earth roots. In Bergamo’s diocesan seminary, he joined the Secular Franciscan Order.After his ordination in 1904, Angelo returned to Rome for canon...

Benedict XVI recently visited again his native Germany, but this time with a different agenda. Five years later, the Vatican adopted a pro-Islam course and has capitulated to fundamentalists. In a recent book written by German journalist Peter Sewald, Pope Ratzinger expressed “regrets” about the Regensburg lecture. The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, buried the Pope's lesson about Islam as “an archaeological relic.” “The default positions vis-à-vis militant Islam are now unhappily reminiscent of Vatican diplomacy’s default positions vis-à-vis communism during the last 25 years of the Cold War,” writes George Weigel, a leading US writer about the Vatican....

Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Sep 30, 2011 / 12:51 am (CNA).- A leading Russian Orthodox official says the Eastern Orthodox churches have yet to resolve the question of authority among themselves, a condition for future progress on the issue of the papacy. “I would say that there are certain divergences, and there are different positions, of the Orthodox churches on the question of the primacy,” said Metropolitan Archbishop Hilarion Alfeyev of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, in a Vatican Radio interview following his Sept. 29 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at Castel Gandolfo. “As we...

There is one front page news story that will certainly not go unnoticed: that is, that the Pope is thinking about resigning during the Spring of 2012. Journalist Antonio Socci has confirmed the same in the Italian daily, Libero.  "For now,” Socci writes, “he is saying that this may be true (Joseph Ratzinger’s personal assumption), but I hope the story does not reach the news. But this rumor is circulating high up in the Vatican and therefore deserves close attention. The Pope has not rejected the possibility of his resignation when he turns 85 in April next year.”  Socci recalls...

(Reuters) - Pope Benedict's visit to his German homeland was bound to provoke harsh words from his critics. The surprise of the event was how bluntly he took his own Church to task and disappointed Protestants ready to work with him. Despite his frail physique and soft-spoken style, the 84-year-old pontiff delivered a vigorous defense of his conservative views and brusquely rejected calls for reforms, some of which even had cautious support from some bishops. At the end of his four-day visit on Sunday, Benedict predicted "small communities of believers" would spread Catholicism in future -- and not, he seemed...

...If one scene could define Benedict's four-day Germany trip, it would be one that took shape on Saturday evening on a field in a Freiburg industrial area. Tens of thousands of young people held an overnight vigil until the big mass the following morning, the last of his trip. The next morning, before Benedict arrived in his popemobile -- he was racing through Freiburg in a limousine, having just met with former Chancellor Helmut Kohl -- the young believers on the field were getting into the mood, having been given green and red inflatable clap sticks. In the style of...

<p>SINEAD O'Connor sparked widespread anger today after suggesting she would shoot the Pope.</p>

Some 100,000 faithful gathered under a warm German sun to celebrate the Holy Mass Sunday with Pope Benedict XVI. Our correspondent Veronica Scarisbrick tells us they gathered at Freiburg's touristic airport just outside the south-western German city, on this, the fourth and last day of the Holy Father's visit to his homeland: An unusual venue for the Holy Mass Benedict XVI presided over on Sunday morning in predominantly Catholic Freiburg, a local airport strip not far from the city .And not far from the venue of the previous evening's Prayer Vigil with young enthusiastic Germans to whom, when evening faded...

Pope Benedict met with members of the Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches at the Freiburg Seminaryon Saturday evening. He told them "the Christian Churches in Germany – including Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Christians – are walking side by side along the path of peaceful witness for understanding and solidarity among peoples, on the basis of their faith in the one God and Father of all." Full text of Pope Benedict XVI's remarks during his Meeting with Representatives of Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches Dear Cardinals, Brother Bishops,Distinguished Representatives of Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches! It is a great joy for...

On the third day of his pastoral journey to his native Germany, Pope Benedict's packed programme included an ecumenical encounter, a meeting with seminarians, private talks with one of the nation's best known statesmen and a very public greeting for the people of Freiburg. Veronica Scarisbrick is in Germany and sent this report on the events of Saturday afternoon......A change of gear is always demanding and when you're 84 it must prove even more so. Just think six engagements and four speeches in less than three hours. But why don't I attempt to tell you about Benedict XVI's Saturday afternoon...