“In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe — and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.  —Blaise Pascal.

Lights and Shadows

And so it comes to the time of leaving, and of summing up.

Who can sum up…

The icon we are going to see is the icon of Our Lady of Kazan.

It is the icon which was kept by Pope John Paul II in his own apartment for 11 years, from 1993 to 2004. I personally saw…

I left off my last report, driving to the train station, and snapping a blurry photo of St. Basil’s Cathedral in the rain.

As I rode the overnight train to Kazan, I remembered that St. Basil’s Cathedral, on the edge…

The Russian Orthodox have set up a vehicle to work with Catholics, Protestants and others to promote traditional Christian values in Europe. It’s name: The St. Gregory Foundation.

The Founding

“We were on Mt. Athos on the 11th of August this year,…

Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. Lord, hear my prayer…” —King David, Psalm 130.

World Premiere in Moscow

It was called “A Song of Ascents,” and the song did rise, inexorably, from a first, lonely, low note from…

I am in Russia — not Rome. Why?

Because, born in the middle of the 20th century, no country has seemed more mysterious, more romantic, and, yes, more vaguely sinister, to me than Russia: Holy Russia, cultured Russia, the Russia of…

[Yesterday there was] historic news: the Vatican has issued the official text of the document, Anglicanorum Coetibus (”Groups of Anglicans”) which sets up an unprecedented structure to allow Anglican congregations to reunite with Rome but still keep their Anglican traditions.

This will…

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…

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…

Dramatic news today [this was written on Tuesday October 20th -- ed.] — as dramatic as the decision earlier this year to “un-excommunicate” the four Lefebvrist bishops, as dramatic as the decision on July 7, 2007 (in the motu proprio Summorum…