by sjchurchadmin | Jan 6, 2017 | Vatican Corner
VATICAN CORNER In 1508 Pope Julius II invited the Italian painter Raphael, a student of Leonardo da Vinci, to Rome and commissioned him to paint religious frescos in the Vatican Palace. He found several artists already at work on different rooms, many painting over...
by sjchurchadmin | Jan 1, 2017 | Vatican Corner
VATICAN CORNER A calendar is like a chain that emerges out of the waters of oblivion and holds the ship of history to its moorings. Beneath the surface of the waters, there must have been sunk some kind of an anchor. — P.W. Wilson. There are six principal...
by sjchurchadmin | Dec 23, 2016 | Vatican Corner
VATICAN CORNER The Christmas tree and Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square this year, while very beautiful, also highlight social issues such as care for the environment, inspiration for the sick, and the plight of migrants. The 82 ft. high spruce tree came from the...
by sjchurchadmin | Dec 15, 2016 | Vatican Corner
VATICAN CORNER Since July, 2016, a white and blue-striped RV style van marked with a Vatican City license plate and coat of arms has been running around Rome bringing free medical care to the poor. The RV was converted into a mobile medical unit and donated by the...
by sjchurchadmin | Dec 9, 2016 | Vatican Corner
VATICAN CORNER On September 19, 2016, four prominent cardinals wrote a letter to Pope Francis and to Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, citing conflicting interpretations of the Apostolic Exhortation on Love in the...
by sjchurchadmin | Dec 2, 2016 | Vatican Corner
VATICAN CORNER Pope Francis formally ended the Jubilee Year of Mercy by saying a prayer thanking God for the gift of the Jubilee year and then pulling the tall gilded Holy Doors to the Basilica closed. Workers immediately removed the door handles and then later...