This week was bursting at the seams with things happening inside Vatican walls. Several key meetings were lined up back to back. The Council of Cardinals, known colloquially as “the C9”, met again this week to continue their work towards a reformed curia. This time they had a more immediate task: presenting the fruit of ...read more

On this week’s Vatican Connections, we look at the long-awaited beatification decree for Archbishop Oscar Romero. We talk to Father Frank Desiderio, a Paulist priest who worked with the producer of the 1989 film about the martyr, and we look at the reaction of Salvadoreans who have long referred to their slain archbishop as “el ...read more

The Franciscan revolution continues, piece by piece. This week, it was revealed that Pope Francis is changing the process by which metropolitan archbishops are invested with their pallium. The new process highlights the importance of the local church and its connection to the wider church. In a letter to papal nuncios around the world, the ...read more

Pope Francis’ second Asian voyage ended the way all of his trips have ended: with an extensive press conference on board the return flight and flurry of headlines – some accurate, some not. The voyage also delivered unscripted moments typical of the Jesuit pope. Twice Pope Francis ditched his prepared text to speak off the ...read more

It is not unheard of for non-Catholics to visit Catholic churches and shrines. It is less common to have non-Catholics visit those sites, pray alongside the faithful and claim to have received graces through the experience. Sri Lanka’s Madhu Shrine is such a site, and it had a profound effect on Pope Francis. The shrine ...read more

Eight people were appointed to the Vatican’s Commission for the Protection of Minors this week, including an abuse survivor. With the appointments the commission is now fully formed and set to begin working in early February. The new members come from different parts of the world and have expertise in some aspect related to sexual ...read more

This week the Council of Cardinals met again in Rome, a consistory was announced, a papal interview was published, and Pope Francis delivered a powerful homily for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe . The Guadalupe homily, delivered in Spanish during a mass Pope Francis celebrated at St. Peter’s, packs a powerful punch and ...read more

How Bishops are Appointed Last week on Vatican Connections we talked about how a bishop gets appointed. It’s a rather long process, and some viewers wrote in asking if there was a text explaining the process. (I talk fast sometimes!). Step one: The process begins at the local level. The bishops in a region submit ...read more

Three priests and a layperson where arrested in Spain after Pope Francis encouraged an abuse victim to take his case to authorities. The victim, a 24 year old, male,  Opus Dei supernumerary, wrote to Pope Francis after hearing the pontiff statements about zero tolerance for abusers and people who cover up abuse. Upon reading the ...read more

The Vatican bank has repatriated twenty three million euros that were frozen for more than three years, by Italian authorities. The Institute for Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican bank, announced the repatriation of the money in a statement released November 18. The funds were unblocked in 2011 but was not repatriated because ...read more