The talks began, Monday, October 26.

On this historic Monday, unprecedented high-level theological discussions between representatives of the Society of St. Pius X and of the Holy See got underway to discuss “all the unresolved doctrinal questions” (”grandi temi dottrinali non…

First, the breaking news — Cardinal Peter Turkson, 61, the Archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana, the eloquent “relator” or general secretary of this month’s Synod for Africa, will succeed Cardinal Renato Martino (photo below), 77, as the head of the Vatican’s…

About 200 African bishops have been meeting in Rome since the beginning of October. [On Friday,] they released their final message. What were the main points?

“Where Is the Shame?”

I attended the Vatican press conference this morning which presented the final…

This evening I was invited to dine, along with a dozen other journalists, with Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, 61, the Archbishop of Cape Coast in Ghana, in West Africa.

Turkson is not just any cardinal.

He is the youngest African cardinal.…

"The first real task of the Council was to overcome the indolent, euphoric feeling that all was well with the Church, and to bring into the open the problems smoldering within." —Father Joseph Ratzinger, in a talk on the Second…

The excommunicated African archbishop, Emmanuel Milingo, was in Rome [Thursday] morning.

I met him and spoke with him for about half an hour.

Years ago, Milingo became known in Africa and Italy for his dramatic exorcisms (he performed them though he was…

What is the Pope doing? He is thinking, and writing, about Jesus…

Computer Assistance

My flight back to Rome was a bit like a scene out of a spy film.

As I walked down the passageway toward the plane, I was still talking…

[Originally posted Wednesday 9/16/2009.]

Sometimes you can takes a wrong turn… and end up in the right place.

And this is one deep reason, perhaps, that we should not entrust our entire lives to Global Tracking Devices, and similar technologies, existing or…

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 (written 9/9/9, it is a date which has attracted considerable comment around the internet), Pope Benedict XVI came in from his summer palace at Castel Gandolfo to Rome for his Wednesday General Audience, held in the…

Some years ago, a Vatican monsignor said to me: “What is your goal?”

We were sitting in a Vatican office, in rooms where other men had sat and talked in other centuries, and, God willing, will sit and talk in times…