At his Wednesday General Audience on February 12, 2020, Pope Francis discussed the second of the eight beatitudes, those eight blessings and teachings made by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, found in the Gospel of Matthew (5:3-11). The second beatitude is - Blessed...

In Argentina in 1954, Jesuit Father Mauricio Jiménez Arteaga, SJ, a beloved priest, preacher, teacher and confessor died. He had been well-know, and had a reputation for holiness. His legacy lasting over the years and in 1974 an investigation of him began with the...

Over time, the Christian Religion has separated into many different branches. The red lines in the adjoining chart show the Roman Catholic branch with its Western and Eastern Rites. The chart shows the division that took place in the 16th century, when German...

As part of his Friday of Mercy initiative, and just before the World Day of the Poor, Pope Francis on January 31, 2020 blessed the Vatican’s new Night and Day Center for homeless people .The Center is in a four-story palace that was constructed in the 1800s, and...

On Sept. 29, 2019, the first new sculpture since the mid-19th century was installed in St. Peter’s Square. Pope Francis wanted it located at the busy tourist area in front of St. Peter’s Basilica “so that all will be reminded of the evangelical challenge of...

Pope Benedict XVI, was the first pope in the modern era to retire. He promised when he stepped down in 2013 and took the title of “Pope Emeritus” that he would remain “hidden to the world. However, he has not remained hidden entirely. A 6,000 word essay by the former...

Pope Francis’ Apostolic letter of Sept. 30, 2019 established that “the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time is to be devoted to the celebration, study and dissemination of the “Word of God.” This will be the first time the “Sunday of the Word” will be celebrated and it will...

The Vatican Observatory in partnership with the University of Arizona operates a 1.8 meter telescope built in the 1980s named the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope or VATT. It is located 10,000 feet high on Mount Graham, AZ where the skies are among the clearest,...

After the time of Galileo, when the Catholic Church wrongly condemned him for his astronomical proof that the sun and not the earth was the center of the solar system, the Church developed a keen interest in astronomy. The papacy founded three early observatories:...

More than 400 books have been written about the Star of Bethlehem and how its story could fit within modern astronomy. In a recent article in Evening Standard Magazine, Guy Consolmago, the director of the Vatican Observatory, an American Jesuit brother with a...

On the first day of Advent on Dec. 1, 2019, Pope Francis traveled to the Italian town of Greccio – where St. Francis of Assisi in the year 1223 created the first nativity scene. Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter on the meaning and importance of nativity scenes,...

Telling about when he was a young Jesuit, Pope Francis In the book “El Jesuita”, published in 2010, said that “over time, I felt the desire to go as a missionary to Japan, where the Jesuits have always carried out a very important work.” In 1549 Jesuit missionary St....