Vatican to boycott — or not?

ROME  – That is the question vexing many Hollywood film reporters these days: What will the Vatican do now that the prequel to the controversial “The Da Vinci Code” is set to hit theaters next month?
Headlines here and there have been claiming either the Vatican was calling for a worldwide boycott or was cautioning against a boycott over fears it [...]

Archbishop Chaput Pew transcript now available

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver was in Washington on March 17 where he was the principal guest at the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion in Public Life. The event was one of an occasional series the center holds in which they examine where religion and the political life come together. This one focused on the [...]

Apostolic visitation for Legionaries of Christ

Pope Benedict XVI has ordered an apostolic visitation of the Legionaries of Christ and its institutions, in the wake of disclosures of sexual impropriety by the late founder of the order, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado.

Heads up! Spiking in St. Peter’s Square

VATICAN CITY — It’s not very often that St. Peter’s Square is turned into a hoops court or a soccer field. But on rare occasions the world of sports comes to the See of Peter.
Tomorrow, 300 children will be digging, setting and spiking during the first volleyball rally ever to be played in St. Peter’s Square.  
Kids aged eight to 11 will [...]

The Michelangelo Code

VATICAN CITY — Art buffs won’t want to miss the latest piece of work attributed to Renaissance master, Michelangelo Buonarroti.
Rome’s Pontifical Lateran University and its rector, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, will present the wooden statue of Christ to the public tomorrow afternoon.
Experts from Rome’s Tor Vergata University and the Pontifical Gregorian University will speak at the event, which also will feature [...]

Updated: The papal preacher, Obama and a medieval monk

UPDATE: Father Cantalamessa has written to CNS to further clarify the point of his remarks.
“I was not as interested in the citations of Obama as I was in clarifying my position on Joachim da Fiore,” Father Cantalamessa said Tuesday morning.
“Some have used this to insinuate that I consider Obama to be a heretic like Joachim, when I have deep [...]

Speaking up about conscience protections

In an interview with CNS deputy editor Nancy Frazier O’Brien, Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y. , chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, says the effort to end conscience protections threatens all rights.
After today there will be just 10 days left of the 30-day period open for public [...]

‘The honeymoon is over’

Jack Smith, editor of  The Catholic Key, newspaper of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., has a link on his blog to an article headlined “The honeymoon is over,” by George Wesolek, longtime director of Public Policy and Social Concerns for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Wesolek writes that for him his “personal ’honeymoon’ with President Barack Obama is over,” [...]

Catholic actor plays a role in racial healing

U.S. voters may have elected the first black president, but race issues haven’t disappeared from the county.
So I was pleased to see this article about a Catholic actor in Ohio in The Catholic Telegraph, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, who sees his role as famed author Samuel Clemens as a way of making a [...]

Wrapping Western minds around African culture

Amid the ongoing discussion of Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks on condoms and AIDS comes a highly nuanced, well-thought-out piece by Jesuit Father Michael Czerny, director of the African Jesuit AIDS Network.
He believes what Pope Benedict said about condoms not being a good strategy to reduce AIDS is a true statement.
“There are two distinct issues here: [...]