LifeSiteNews.com Life, Family and Culture News

ROME, March 28, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Efforts “to defend the poor, to defend those on death row, to defend human life at its earliest stages” are all part of the same “social justice” work for the Catholic Church, a top-level Vatican official…

This morning, I took an early train into the City and met up with some friends to walk around the Piazza, look up at the chimney and chat with the many hundreds of people in the Piazza. The Second Ballot of the conclave was scheduled for 9:30 or…

Tonight was my first time. Nearly everyone I know in Rome has been in the Piazza for at least one papal election, so even though we knew there would be no white smoke tonight, it was an exciting moment.

As my friend and I were heading down…

The media and pundits, as well as churchmen, use a lot of jargon that many ordinary readers, unaccustomed to romanità, the carefully encoded diplomatic language used by the Vatican and its cadre of experts, will not be familiar with. A lot of the…

ROME, March 8, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The secular media, with its obession with sex and politics, scandals and hidden agendas, often misses stories that would be of real interest to their audience. This week, as we all wait for the announcement…

ROME, March 7, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – As each day passes without a date set by the cardinals for the start of the conclave, the more than 5,000 journalists accredited to the Holy See in the last few weeks are growing more gloomy, bored, and…

ROME, March 2, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On the evening of October 16, 1978, thousands of people filled the Piazza San Pietro waiting to hear the name of their new pope. But when it came, there was reportedly a muted response from puzzled…

ROME, March 4, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The former head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, after resigning amid a flurry of controversy last week, has admitted to sexual misconduct in his past and apologised. Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the former…

CASTELGANDOLFO, February 28, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two hours before the end of Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate, the live feed from Vatican Radio’s webcam of the piazza shows that the lights are already off in the papal apartments. In the last…

ROME, February 26, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The abrupt resignation of the cardinal archbishop of Edinburgh, and his announcement that he will not be attending the conclave, has come as a surprise to most veteran Vatican observers. Cardinal Keith…

ROME, February 25, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – It is three days to the end of the pontificate of Benedict XVI and it is nearly impossible to keep on top of the rumours and speculation whirling around the Internet over his resignation and the…

ROME, February 22, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Italian and international media is consumed today by a story, of Machiavellian complexity, published in the daily La Repubblica, alleging that among the reasons for Pope Benedict’s shocking decision to…

ROME, February 21, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a highly unusual move, the Vatican curia’s highest official, the Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, has reportedly corrected the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith…

ROME, February 20, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Velasio De Paolis, an Italian cardinal and Curial official, has responded to calls for the former archbishop of Los Angeles, Roger Mahony, to decline to attend the upcoming conclave, saying, “The…