The first Latin American pope, Argentina’s Jorge Bergoglio is a moderate known for his strong negotiating skills as well as a readiness to challenge powerful interests. He is a modest man from a middle class family who is content to travel by bus. Described by his biographer as a balancing force, Bergoglio, 76, has monk-like…
Even before he utters his first words in public, the new pope who emerges from the conclave this week will send Roman Catholics around the world a message encoded in the name he chooses. It may not be one they immediately understand. Picking an unlikely one from the distant papal past – for example, Hilarus…
Pope Benedict ended his eight-year reign on Thursday, becoming the first pontiff in six centuries to resign instead of ruling for life. The papacy became officially vacant at 8 p.m. (1900 GMT/2 p.m. ET) in keeping with the pope’s wishes when he announced his decision to resign on Feb. 11. The yellow and white papal…
Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, went to shul Shabbat yesterday. Not for the usual davening. Cardinal Dolan, who is considered papabile (a candidate, albeit a very dark-horse candidate, for the papal throne recently vacated by Pope Benedict XVI), immediately captured the standing-room-only crowd in the Manhattan’s Lincoln Square Synagogue by greeting the congregation…
] In a letter to the editor of the Miami Herald, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said that one of the leading candidates to replace Pope Benedict XVI is an anti-Semite. Responding to a list published last week after the resignation of Benedict, which identified Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras as a possible…
Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world with his announcement that he will step down at the end of February. Though resignations are permitted by a little known paragraph of canon law, no pope has submitted one in six centuries. Historians will now begin asking about Benedict’s legacy. In the field of Jewish-Christian relations he will…
There are indications that the Vatican and Israel may resolve outstanding bilateral issues and finalize the Fundamental Agreement governing relations between the two states. A joint communiqué following a meeting in Jerusalem Jan. 29 of the Bilateral Permanent Working Commission between the Holy See and Israel said “significant progress” had been made. It said the…
Pope Benedict tweeted in Latin for the first time on Sunday, taking his mission to revive the Catholic Church’s official language to a very 21st-century medium. “Unitati christifidelium integre studentes quid iubet Dominus? Orare semper, iustitiam factitare, amare probitatem, humiles Secum ambulare,” the pontiff wrote. Baffled? So were many Twitter users. “Benny, nobody understands a…
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