Born in 1936, Ortega was ordained in 1964, while the Second Vatican Council was still underway and just five years after Fidel Castro had swept to power.
Born in 1936, Ortega was ordained in 1964, while the Second Vatican Council was still underway and just five years after Fidel Castro had swept to power.
The Holy See Press Office said that the results of a morphological analysis of bones and bone fragments found at an ossuary in a Vatican cemetery concluded that none belonged to Emanuela Orlandi, a young Italian woman who has been missing for more than 30 years.
It is widely understood that Pope Francis is not a big vacation guy, preferring to spend his Summer in the Domus Sanctae Marthae where he lives. But as a heat wave breaks records across Europe, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI decided to visit the cooler papal estate of Castel Gandolfo on Thursday.
For years the credibility of the Eastern European Marian pilgrimage site of Medjugorje and the miraculous happenings that allegedly occur there, have been the subject of questioning and doubt. But its continued following and devotion have pushed the Vatican into recognizing its validity.
One former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican has been tapped to lead the State Department’s new Commission on Unalienable Rights. Another has signed a letter calling for it to be dismantled.
Pope Francis appointed Matteo Bruni to serve as director of the Vatican press office, replacing Alessandro Gisotti, who had been serving as interim director since Dec. 31.
Vatican foreign secretary Archbishop Paul Gallagher hailed the relationship between the United States and the Holy See as “strong and solid” on July 17 during a visit to the nation’s capital.
U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Callista Gingrich announced on July 17 that the United States and the Vatican will co-host a summit on religious freedom in October of 2019.
Christianity, of course, is founded on the discovery of an empty tomb. Perhaps it’s only fitting, therefore, that Christ’s vicar on earth now has his own “empty tomb” ferment on his hands.
The Vatican opened on July 11 two graves in the Teutonic Cemetery next to St. Peter’s Basilica in hopes of finding the remains of Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican bank employee who has been missing since 1983, and found that Orlandi’s remains weren’t there.