“Jerusalem, especially the Old City with its shrines holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians, is like a powder keg waiting to explode! However, until it does explode, many prefer to simply ignore it.”
Gerard O’Connell
Gerard O’Connell is America’s senior Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History. He has been covering the Vatican since 1985.
Posted inInterviews, Politics & Society
Israeli Jesuit David Neuhaus on the country’s election turmoil and the forgotten plight of the Palestinians
Israelis will go to the polls on Nov. 1 for the fifth time in less than four years. Will the elections bring any significant change in this divided country, or offer any hope for a resolution to the more than 70-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis extends Synod on Synodality’s Roman phase to two sessions in Oct. 2023 and 2024
In a surprise announcement this morning, Pope Francis has announced that the final, Roman phase of the ongoing Synod on Synodality will extend over two sessions from October 4-29, 2023, and in October 2024.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
Giorgia Meloni is a Christian and a right-wing nationalist. How will she relate to Pope Francis?
There is much speculation about how Pope Francis and Giorgia Meloni, the future prime minister of Italy, will relate to each other. Their positions on the migrant question appear to be diametrically opposed.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
In historic first, Pope Francis approves an ‘ecclesial conference’ with lay people instead of a bishops-only leadership body
Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno, S.J., explained that the now officially recognized body “involves bishops, priests, women and men religious and the lay faithful from the nine countries of the Amazon region.”
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis makes dramatic appeal to Putin: Stop the war in Ukraine
Reflecting his profound concern at the danger of an escalation of the war in Ukraine and the potential use of nuclear arms, Pope Francis called today for “an immediate ceasefire” to that war.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis names Portuguese cardinal new head of Vatican office for Culture and Education
The cardinal who, until now, served as the Vatican’s chief archivist and librarian, had long been rumored to be named prefect of this newly created Vatican office.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
Italy could elect its first woman prime minister—and its most right-wing government since becoming a republic
For the first time in the nation’s history, a woman, Giorgia Meloni, 45, could become prime minister. She would lead Italy’s 70th government since 1946.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
Cardinal Grech: The synod ‘needs time’ on the question of married priests
In the second part of this exclusive interview, Cardinal Grech reveals in new depth the plans for the continental and Roman phases of the global synodal process.
Posted inFaith, Interviews
Exclusive: Cardinal Grech on drafting the first global synod synthesis—and what’s in store for phase 2
Starting Sept. 21, a team of 35 people “summoned from all continents” went to Frascati, outside Rome, to synthesize the reports from phase one of the synod.