Sarah Numico

Ahead of the Concistory/2

“Whoever has met bishop Anders recognizes his extreme mildness and the simple yet profound spirituality that radiates from him. Anders Arborelius rarely utters a redundant word. Some time ago I had the great pleasure of being his guest at Götgatan. He was very generous and humble, more interested in listening than talking about himself.” The […]

Young people and the Church

The good news is that on the whole, the number of vocations – of men and women alike – in Catholic religious orders of England and Wales is increasing, and that the trend of candidates to the priesthood has been positive in recent years. The bad news is that in 2016 the number of new […]

Outlooks

In Genoa Pope Francis returned to address the issue of labour, with a reflection focused on the dignity of work. The starting point of the Holy Father’s analysis appears to be the suggestion whereby against the backdrop of increasing economic interdependence, fragmented production processes and technological developments, the new conflicts characterising the working environment rather […]

Balance

The G7 summit in Taormina ended with various tensions, few concrete outcomes and an inevitable veil of rhetoric marking official statements. Those are the elements that contributed to an overall poor result, which was widely expected. Thus it would be wrong to describe it as a veritable disappointment, nor would it be right to accuse […]

Memory

25 years have passed since that tragic 1992. It seems yesterday. It’s a lifetime ago. I will never forget the feelings of anger, despair and sorrow of that tragic May 23d when I learned that a bomb containing some five-hundred kilos of TNT had transformed that street of Capaci in a war scenario. Nothing will […]

Pilgrimage

Each one of Francis’ apostolic journeys has a special hue. Fatima is the “journey of prayer”, the encounter with the Face of Jesus and with that of His Mother. On far too many occasions Marian devotion was branded as overly sentimental and even as a theological deviation. In his questions, Francis does not elude or […]

Political analysis

The Western Balkans represent the most problematic area of Europe, exception made for Ukraine. Indeed, all six Countries of the Western Balkans – namely the four official candidates (Montenegro, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania and Serbia) and the two potential candidates (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo) – after Croatia’s adhesion in 2013, are on the track […]

Territories of the former Soviet Union

This year Catholic and Orthodox faithful will celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection on the same day. It happens every three years, when the date for Easter according to the Gregorian calendar coincides with that of the Julian calendar. The joy of celebrating side by side is deeply felt especially in those places where Catholic and Orthodox […]

International perspective

The heinous blood-soaked weekend that coincides with Palm Sunday, from Syria, to Sweden, to Egypt, reconfirms how difficult it is to unravel the garbled situation of international relations. It has become evident that the narration and the interests of financial-driven globalization, from one bubble to the next and of liberalistic nature, show signs of weakness, […]

Negotiations kick off

It was a sad moment, Wednesday last week, when the British ambassador delivered the letter to President Tusk. It’s true, the relationship between Britain and Europe was never easy. It was never a love affair, and certainly not “wild passion”. More a marriage of convenience. And that was already clear from the beginning. In the […]