Pope Benedict XVI’s foreign visits this year appear to be taking shape, with the Vatican yesterday publishing details of his forthcoming visit to Malta and media reports that preparations for his trips to Cyprus and Britain are proceeding well.

The program for his April 17th-18th apostolic voyage to Malta will include a visit St. Paul’s Grotto in Rabat, a large open-air Mass, and an arrival by boat to greet young people in the Maltese capital, Valetta. The main purpose of the visit is to mark the 1950th anniversary since St. Paul was shipwrecked off the coast of the archipelago, which according to tradition took place in 60 A.D.

Also during the visit, the Pope will celebrate Mass in...READ MORE

Pope Benedict XVI revealed today that the Vatican is preparing a handbook of preparation for marriage inspired by the ideas of John Paul II.

Addressing members of the Pontifical Council for the Family currently taking part in their annual plenary assembly, the Pope said the document will be based around three main preparation stages: “remote, proximate and immediate” (more detail on these below).

Elsewhere in his speech, the Pope praised other initiatives of the Council which seek to raise awareness of the benefits the family brings to society. He also recalled the World Meeting of Families in Mexico last year and looked forward to the next one, in Milan, Italy, in 2012.

Referring to the...READ MORE

Pope Benedict XVI has again shown just how necessary and effective it can be to speak out in the face of unjust legislation against the Church.

The British government today backed down from pursuing parts of its Equality Bill, legislation which would have removed the Church’s right to refuse employing certain lay staff including, for instance, the right of a Catholic school to employ a Catholic as a head teacher. The government’s decision came after a furore in Britain following the Holy Father’s remarks to the bishops of England and Wales over such legislation.

According to The Times newspaper: “Ministers were astonished on Monday when the Pope said that the Bill violated...READ MORE

Sometimes during the year, so many papal, Vatican and other Church events take place in Rome that it can be hard to keep up.

To help readers keep tabs with what’s going on, I’ve put together a list of the most significant engagements scheduled to take place over the next seven days.

Other unforeseen events may arise, of course, but these are the major ones planned for the moment.

Tuesday, 2nd February - Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the 14th Day of Consecrated Life.

Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to preside over the celebration of Vespers on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord at St. Peter’s basilica at 17.30 CET. At the celebration will be members of religious...READ MORE

At least two Italian newspapers have today claimed that John Paul II will be beatified in October this year, although the date remains highly speculative.

Without naming sources, Il Sole 24 Ore and La Stampa are confidently predicting the ceremony will take place on October 10th in St. Peter’s Square.

Il Sole 24 Ore says the date cannot be formally announced as “four steps” still need to be taken, but the “organizational machinery for the event, which promises to be of enormous proportions, needs to be set in motion in time, albeit with much discretion.”

The paper says confirmation of a miracle is still needed, although one has already been identified: the healing of a French...READ MORE

Pope Benedict XVI today encouraged priests to make good use of digital media to spread the Gospel, and stressed that competence in using it should be part of a seminarian’s formation.

The Holy Father made the statement in his message for the 44th World Communications Day whose theme this year is The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word.

The message was released with tomorrow’s date, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists.

The full text of his message can be found here.

An accompanying message from Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, is here.

The text...READ MORE

In case you hadn’t heard, or been tweeted, the Vatican is now on Twitter. To see its Twitter page, which has tweets in various languages, click here: @vatican_va (h/t Diane Korzeniewski of Te Deum laudamus blog).

The move is the latest effort on the part of the Vatican to evangelize using digital media. Tomorrow, the Vatican will host a press conference which will highlight this very theme.

Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, will present the Pope’s message for the 44th World Day of Social Communications (16th March 2010) on the subject: “The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in the Digital World: New Media at the Service of the...READ MORE

After a week in which Pope Benedict XVI visited the Great Synagogue of Rome and the Vatican and the Rabbinate of Israel held their regular annual meeting, Catholic-Jewish relations are looking considerably healthy – much more so than it might appear in some of the mass media.

As mentioned in an earlier post, whatever the controversies affecting the dialogue, relations usually continue much as they did before, largely thanks – as the Holy Father noted in his synagogue address – to advances in dialogue emanating from the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate.

Rabbi David Rosen, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Department for Interreligious Affairs, called...READ MORE