Vatican Corner 07-18-2021
On July 4, 2021, the 84-year-old Pope Francis had surgery to remove a portion of his left colon in what has been described as a planned procedure. A 10 person team of doctors and nurses at Rome’s Gemelli hospital performed the operation in about 3 hours’ time. That...
Vatican Corner 07-11-2021
On Thursday July 1, 2021, Pope Francis hosted a day of prayer for Lebanon with 10 senior Lebanese Catholic and Orthodox leaders. They spent the day discussing the future of Lebanon which is currently in a very serious economic crisis. Throughout its existence, it has...
Vatican Corner 07-04-2021
Standing In the Courtyard of the Pinecone at the Vatican Museum is a tall contemporary sculpture known as Sfera con Sfera or Sphere within a Sphere. It is the work of Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, born June 23, 1926. He is known for his geometric bronze works and...
Vatican Corner 06-27-2021
On Sept. 27, 2019, the then former Vice President Joe Biden was denied communion at a Catholic church in Florence, South Carolina over his support for abortion rights. Father RobertMorey said “any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself...
Vatican Corner 06-20-2021
German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, 67, of Munich and Freising, German submitted his resignation to Pope Francis and that news was made public on June 4, 2021. The reason Marx gave was that he is taking responsibility for the failures of the Church in handling clerical...
Vatican Corner 06-13-2021
The Vatican’s daily newspaper is the L’Osservatore Romano, founded in 1861with the approval of Pope Pius IX. It details the pope’s activities and appointments, prints the text of papal speeches and is widely and carefully read for insights into the attitudes of the...
Vatican Corner 06-06-2021
Leaders from around the world have applauded the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza strip. The United Nations called for concrete actions to address the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in order to achieve true peace and reconciliation in...
Vatican Corner 05-30-2021
On April 13, 2021, it was Memorial Day in Jerusalem, and the Israel president gave a night speech at the Western Wall, a sacred Jewish site. He honored those who died fighting for the country. It was also the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and nearby,...
Vatican Corner 05-23-2021
In some southern areas of Italy, the Catholic Church and the Mafia have had a long and complicated history. Over the years, some Catholic priests have courageously opposed the crime families, and paid with their lives. However other priests have attended weddings,...
Vatican Corner 05-16-2021
Rosario Livatino was a Catholic judge who was brutally killed by the mafia in 1990. He worked as a prosecutor in the 1980s at the Court of Agrigento, Sicily, dealing with the corrupt system of mafia bribes and kickbacks used on public works contracts. He became a...
Vatican Corner 05-09-2021
Research conducted by the Vatican’s Bambino Gesú Children’s Hospital of Rome has made an important breakthrough in cancer research and has now discovered the one missing piece of information about the process through which cells, including cancer cells, mature and...
Vatican Corner 05-02-2021
In 1869, the Bambino Gesú Children’s Hospital of Rome was founded from the initiative of the Salviati family with the help of friends and benefactors. Duchess Arabella Salviati was deeply moved when seeing young patients hospitalized alongside adults without any...