At Communion and Liberation’s annual Rimini Meeting last week, Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, spoke about why he decided to become a Catholic and of his opposition to those elected officials who think they should keep their faith “in a safety deposit box.”

Bush also indicated he doesn’t think it’s likely his older brother, former President George W. Bush, will convert to Catholicism.

Answering a question put to him after he had delivered a talk strongly critical of big government, Bush said what primarily attracted him to the faith were the “sacraments of the Catholic Church, the timeless nature of the message of the Catholic Church, and the fact that the Catholic...READ MORE

Tony Blair was given star treatment at Communion and Liberation’s 30th annual Rimini Meeting yesterday evening in Italy.

Billed by the organizers as “The Day of Blair,” the speech took place in a packed auditorium of mostly Communion and Liberation members who gave the former British prime minister and recent convert to the Church a rousing welcome.

Several thousand people filled the huge hall and stood up to greet Blair as he walked from the back of the hall to the front amid wild cheers. His press spokesman said it was the largest single gathering the former British politician had ever addressed.

Blair made many commendable points in his speech. He began by explaining how he...READ MORE

An estimated 1,100 guests joined Msgr. Georg Gänswein yesterday in his home town of Riedern in southern Germany to celebrate 25 years since his ordination.

The private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass in Latin in the parish church where he was baptized, received First Communion and celebrated his first Mass. His homily focused on “the simple truth of the faith.”

The number of guests more than doubled the population of the small Black Forest town, which has just 450 residents. Among those present were Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela of Madrid, and Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, an old friend of Msgr. Gaenswein. The Pope sent a letter of congratulation in which...READ MORE

Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli, a veteran and well-respected Vatican watcher, reported on Saturday that Rome has initiated a major “reform of the reform” of the post-Second Vatican Council liturgical changes to the Mass.

H/t to the Rorate Caeli blog, which has posted a complete translation of Tornielli’s article, published in the Italian newspaper Il Giornale. It says that several “propositiones” for liturgical reforms of the Mass were approved in March by the plenary session of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

According to Tornielli,

The document was delivered to the hands of Benedict XVI in the morning of last April 4 by Spanish...READ MORE

Pope Benedict XVI’s phyisician, Dr. Patrizio Polisca, said today that the cast and pins used to help heal the fracture in the Holy Father’s right wrist have been removed and that an X-ray showed a “consolidation of the fracture.”

“The final result as a whole can be defined as optimal,” the doctor said in a statement.

He concluded by saying that the Holy Father will recover fully when he completes “an appropriate rehabilitation program.”

Benedict broke his right wrist on July 17 as a result of a fall in his bedroom while on vacation in the Italian Alps.

The Congregation for the Clergy has announced the official program for a large international convention of priests. The meeting, to be held in Rome June 9-11, 2010, will conclude the Year for Priests that began June 19.

The event, punctuated by moments of prayer, celebrations, and conferences, will see the attendance of Pope Benedict XVI on the evening of Thursday, June 10, and on the morning of Friday, June 11.  The general theme of the meeting is to be the same as that of the Year for Priests: “Faithfulness of Christ, Faithfulness of Priests.”

The convention begins June 9 in St. Paul’s Basilica Outside the Walls. It will open in the morning with a prayer and a conference on the theme...READ MORE

The Vatican is planning on issuing a new document on the formation of seminarians that could be published to coincide with the end of the Year for Priests.

Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, intends to hold a meeting of various permanent Vatican inter-dicastery commissions concerned with the formation of candidates to the priesthood.

“The purpose is to study the possibility, at the end of the Year for Priests, of publishing a short text, incisive and very clear, on the formation of candidates to the priesthood,” Archbishop Jean-Louis Brugues, secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, said in an interview with L’Osservatore...READ MORE

Pope Benedict XVI made the latest in a series of important changes within the Roman Curia today by appointing Msgr. Pietro Parolin as apostolic nuncio to Venezuela. The appointment has been speculated by Vatican commentators for some time.

Msgr. Parolin, originally from Schiavon in northern Italy, has been the Vatican’s deputy foreign minister since 2002 (officially titled under secretary in the Secretariat of State’s Relations with States section).

During that time he has built up a very good reputation as a diplomatic fixer, playing an important behind-the-scenes role in negotiating improved relations with a number of states, most notably China, Vietnam and Israel. 

Vatican...READ MORE