L’Osservatore Editor Speaks

Delia Gallagher has posted an in-depth interview with Gian Maria Vian, director of L’Osservatore Romano, at National Review Online.

In the interview, Vian replies in detail to charges that under his direction the Vatican newspaper has inaccurately represented President Barack Obama as not being pro-abortion. Edward Pentin reported about the controversy, in a Register article we titled, L’Osservatore Obama?

Vian’s answers to Gallagher’s probing questions don’t require much elaboration from the Daily Blog, but there is one area where we wish she had probed a lot harder. She didn’t press Vian for an explanation of how he can argue Obama’s presidential position on abortion is still uncertain, in light of Obama’s long string of appointments of pro-abortion individuals to posts where they will make key decisions involving the life issues, Obama’s repeal of the pro-life Mexico City Policy, Obama’s anti-life policy on embryonic stem-cell research, and other pro-abortion moves by the president since assuming office.

Given that clear pro-abortion record, we still can’t understand how Vian can defend his controversial statement that, “It is my clear conviction: Obama is not a pro-abortion president.”

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne attends a German Synodal Way assembly on March 9, 2023.

Four German Bishops Resist Push to Install Permanent ‘Synodal Council’

Given the Vatican’s repeated interventions against the German process, the bishops said they would instead look to the Synod of Bishops in Rome. Meanwhile, on Monday, German diocesan bishops approved the statutes for a synodal committee; and there are reports that the synodal committee will meet again in June.

Palestinian Christians celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City on March 31, amid the ongoing battles Israel and the Hamas militant group.

People Explain ‘Why I Go to Mass’

‘Why go to Mass on Sundays? It is not enough to answer that it is a precept of the Church. … We Christians need to participate in Sunday Mass because only with the grace of Jesus, with his living presence in us and among us, can we put into practice his commandment, and thus be his credible witnesses.’ —Pope Francis