In 1981, the Holy See launched an apostolic visitation of American seminaries and named the late Bishop John Marshall of Burlington (Vermont) as apostolic visitator. Two decades later, the Holy See found need to intervene […]
In 1987, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under the leadership of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, published Donum Vitae, an instruction on respect for human life in its origin and on the dignity of […]
As epic events shook Europe in the sixteenth century, the evangelization of Latin America took place quietly. Today, 510 million of the world’s 1.13 billion Catholics live in Latin America. As equally epic events shook […]
In the first general audience of his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI explained that he chose his name “in order to create a spiritual bond with Benedict XV, who steered the Church through the period of […]
Over the past 45 years, women’s religious communities in the United States have suff ered a freefall in membership. There were 181,241 American nuns in 1965, 153,645 in 1970, and 92,107 in 1995. According to […]
Among the most moving events in the annals of ecclesiastical history are mass conversions to the Catholic faith. In the seven years following the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe, eight million sought baptism in […]
The Czech Republic is contemporary European secularism on steroids. Two decades after the Velvet Revolution, the nation of 10.2 million is wealthy, its per capita gross domestic product equaling South Korea’s and surpassing neighboring Poland’s […]
Addressing the societal collapse of marriage, the US bishops have issued a pastoral letter praised by defenders of the Church’s teaching on family life. In an August interview, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York discussed […]
Addressing a group of African bishops less than a year before his death, Pope John Paul II rejoiced in the vitality of the Church on that continent—a vitality that continues to this day. In 1978, […]
In 1928, when the future Pope Benedict XVI was 11 months old, the Holy Office, under the leadership of the vigorously anti-modernist Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, decreed that “the Catholic Church has always prayed […]
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