Recent Editorial

Taking care of the sick, learning what it means to love

Sep 26, 2020

The Church’s teaching on the end of life is re-proposed in “Samaritanus bonus” (Good Samaritan) in pastoral tones: the person is to be taken care of and surrounded with affection until the end.
An encyclical for all brothers and sisters

Sep 26, 2020

While waiting to know the contents of the document, there has been some discussion about the title and how to translate it inclusively. An encyclical, though, is per se a universal text, and Pope Francis truly wants to speak to the heart of each and every person. The Holy See Press Office announces that the text will be published on 4 October.
The CDF and euthanasia

Sep 26, 2020

The Vatican’s doctrine congregation, for decades feared for its investigations into theologians, is starting to flex its muscles once again.
The Global Economic Crisis

Sep 19, 2020

Since last December, a new coronavirus, COVID-19, has been putting our lives at risk. At the same time, it has paralysed most of our systems of production, the survival of which is now under threat. This unprecedented health emergency has triggered a very serious economic crisis, the depth of which will be determined by the duration of the pandemic.
Fear of Sino-Vatican Agreement: Echoes of the Church and Hitler

Sep 19, 2020

The situation of the Church in China has become increasingly worse since the signing of the agreement. The concordat with Nazi Germany in 1933 gave the Church freedom for a few months. Then crucifixes were removed from the schools; Catholic associations were brought back under the Nazi party; everyone was obliged to study Nazism. Fritz Stern: The concordat with the Holy See boosted Hitler’s respectability in Germany and abroad.
China stifles underground Church as Vatican looks to extend pact

Sep 19, 2020

As the Vatican looks to extend its pact with China on bishops’ appointments, the Communist nation has accelerated efforts to arm-twist underground priests to join the state-sanctioned Open Church.
Worldly gaze and Spiritual gaze

Sep 12, 2020

Today the temptation into which some commentators and analysts risk falling is to imagine a pope who builds a roadmap of institutional reforms, elaborated with a planning, functionalistic and organisational spirit.
Francis is a discerning Pope, without a pre-set programme

Sep 12, 2020

Jesuit Fr Antonio Spadaro published an essay in La Civiltà Cattolica on Sept 5 examining the question “What kind of government does Francis exercise, and how do we interpret it in the light of these seven years?” As we await what will be the Holy Father’s second encyclical (not counting Lumen Fidei, which was largely written by Francis’ predecessor Pope Benedict XVI), and the promulgation of the long-awaited apostolic constitution reforming the Vatican curia, the question could scarcely be more important.
Discussions and Discernment

Sep 12, 2020

One of the proposals that was most heatedly debated, both inside and outside the Synod hall, was the possibility of ordaining married men into the priesthood to try to address the shortage of priests in the Amazon region.
The art of China’s Vatican deal

Sep 05, 2020

Next month, the 2018 Vatican-China deal expires. Those close to the negotiations, both in Rome and in Beijing, now confidently predict a one-year extension to the two-year deal to be agreed.