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The Vatican sealed off part of St Peter's Basilica after chunks of plaster rained down on worshippers at the height of the Easter holiday season. No one was injured by the falling plaster, which fell near Michelangelo's famed Pieta statue, near the main entrance.

The incredible show on St Peter's Basilica: a Neo-Pagan obscenity for the Feast of the Immaculate! The sense that St. Peter's Basilica has been profaned is strong. The symbolic significance of the event is a Church immersed in darkness, but illuminated by the world, by the new climatist-religion-ideology (all financed by the World Bank Group which will now have to explain to us what politics compatible with the teaching of the Church it is promoting..) The holy place par excellence, the heart of Christianity transformed on a maxi-screen for the show of the New World Power Ideology ...and the Nativity...

The current St. PeterÂ’s Basilica is one of the most beautiful churches in the whole world. With parts of it designed by such greats as Michelangelo and Bernini, it was was built over a 120 year period in the 16th and 17th centuries and remains the largest church in the world.But it was not the first St. PeterÂ’s Basilica.Before the current St. PeterÂ’s Basilica there was another church in roughly the same location with the same name, now often referred to as the Old St. PeterÂ’s Basilica.Here is a 19th century drawing of how the old basilica is believed to...

November 18, 2014Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Rv 3:1-6, 14-22 I, John, heard the Lord saying to me:“To the angel of the Church in Sardis, write this: “‘The one who has the seven spirits of Godand the seven stars says this: “I know your works,that you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.Be watchful and strengthen what is left, which is going to die,for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.Remember then how you accepted and heard; keep it, and repent.If you are not...

Pope Benedict XVI's resignation came like a bolt from the blue overnight. And the weather around the Vatican was eerily appropriate, with lightning striking St Peter's Basilica, one of the holiest Catholic sites, on the same day that Pope Benedict announced he would be stepping down. Global news agency Agence France-Presse published an image of lightning striking the basilica's dome, which it said was taken "on the day the Pope" announced his resignation. AFP said the striking image was captured by photographer Filippo Monteforte, who works for Italian national news and photo agency ANSA. Monteforte's website shows that he has...

Benedict XVI's Homily on Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul "It Is Only in the Unity Represented by Peter That We Truly Lead People to Christ" VATICAN CITY, JUNE 29, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the homily Benedict XVI delivered today at a Mass for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, which he presided over in St. Peter's Basilica. At the Mass, the Pope conferred the pallium upon 41 new archbishops, and recalled his 60th anniversary of priestly ordination. * * * Dear Brothers and Sisters, "Non iam dicam servos, sed amicos" -- "I no longer...

Dear Brothers and Sisters, “The time came for Mary to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Lk 2:6f.). These words touch our hearts every time we hear them. This was the moment that the angel had foretold at Nazareth: “you will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High” (Lk 1:31). This was the moment that Israel had...

ROME, NOV. 2, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Sadly, many people who don't know the name of the present Pope turn out to be quite well versed in the more scandalous papacies of centuries past. Yet that same mentality that takes a gossip magazine as seriously as a history text, never fails to be taken aback by the number of people thronging St. Peter's Square today, traveling thousands of miles to see the Successor of St. Peter. For them, it seems inexplicable that after such human frailty, the Church can still be vibrant and active 2,000 years later. For Catholics, however, this comes...

Benedict XVI's Homily for All Saints' Day "Holiness Demands a Constant Effort" VATICAN CITY, NOV. 1, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the homily Benedict XVI gave during the Mass he presided over in St. Peter's Basilica today, the solemnity of All Saints. * * * Dear Brothers and Sisters, Our Eucharistic celebration opened today with the exhortation "Let us rejoice in the Lord." The liturgy invites us to share the heavenly jubilation of the saints, to taste the joy. The saints are not a restricted caste of elect but a crowd without number toward which, today, the liturgy...

On Feast of Chair of St. Peter "A Privileged Sign of the Love of God" VATICAN CITY, FEB. 22, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of Benedict XVI's address at today's general audience, on the feast of the Chair of St. Peter. * * * Dear Brothers and Sisters! The Latin liturgy celebrates today the feast of the Chair of Peter. It is a very ancient tradition, witnessed in Rome since the end of the fourth century, which renders thanksgiving to God for the mission entrusted to the Apostle Peter and his successors. "Cathedra" literally means the established seat of...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- For every sack of cement that was purchased, for every block of stone quarried and hauled to Rome, architects in charge of building St. Peter's Basilica filled out and filed away receipts and penned detailed notations in thick, bound ledgers. Even every artisan and worker hired, every on-the-job accident, lawsuit and progress report on the construction of the world's largest church were recorded and stored away in a little-known -- but priceless -- Vatican archive. The archives of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the Vatican office responsible for the basilica's construction matters, certainly do not carry...

ROMA, January 5, 2006 – A book published recently in the United States lifts the veil on a crucial aspect of Islam, one which too many understand poorly and know too little about: jihad, the holy war. It is an aspect that meets with widespread silence, as if it were a taboo. Even among Christians, there are wide gaps on this topic in the general awareness of Church history. An example? Many recall what happened in Rome, at St. Peter’s Basilica, the night of Christmas Day of the year 800. After the Mass, pope Leo III solemnly placed upon the...

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 24, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's inaugural Mass was the first one to incorporate new symbolic gestures that finalize the process of updating the installation rites of a new Pope. The solemn Mass for the beginning of the pontificate replaced the coronation ceremony, which had been abolished by Paul VI in which a new pope received a tiara. The process of updating the rite began during the Second Vatican Council, but hadn't been finalized when John Paul I was elected in 1978, or when John Paul II became Pope about a month later. Substitute measures were used in...