Francis X. Rocca
Francis X. Rocca is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by Francis X. Rocca
Spirit of St. Francis lives strong in Assisi
By Francis X. Rocca — October 3, 2012
ASSISI, Italy (RNS) Some 6 million visitors come to this hillside town every year -- and the biggest draw is the legacy of its most famous native son, St. Francis, who remains a figure of unmistakable relevance to many of today's most pressing social concerns. By Francis X. Rocca.
“Blessed” John Paul II in 2011?
By Francis X. Rocca — January 5, 2011
The well-connected Italian Vaticanista Andrea Tornielli reports that the stage is set for the beatification of Pope John Paul II sometime this year. John Allen picks October 16 as the likeliest date.
The steady drip, drip, drip of WikiLeaks
By Francis X. Rocca — December 23, 2010
Britain’s Guardian newspaper has released four more WikiLeaks documents from the U.S. embassy to the Vatican, from 2001, 2002 and 2009, all somehow related to Catholic-Jewish tensions over the possible canonization as a saint of Pope Pius XII. One of the cables, from last October, reports that the Vatican backed out of an agreement to […]
Liturgy leaks
By Francis X. Rocca — December 11, 2010
Catholics in the United States won’t start using the new English-langauge translation of the Mass until next November, but they can read it now, thanks to a very unauthorized posting of the text on a site called Wikispooks. The site also offers some “semi-confidential very strong criticism” of the translation, which has been controverisal for […]
Wacky leaks
By Francis X. Rocca — November 30, 2010
Much of the coverage of the latest Wikileaks release has noted a silver lining for the embarrassed State Department: abundant evidence that U.S. diplomats are insightful and informed observers of other countries, and in some cases even excellent writers. But some diplomatic correspondence simultaneously published by an Italian newspaper reveals that foreign service officers can […]
Thank God it’s Friday
By Francis X. Rocca — April 26, 2010
Michael Jackson’s former rabbi (and the author of “Kosher Sex”) has a big agenda for his upcoming rope-line handshake with Pope Benedict XVI: pitching his plan for a jointly sponsored “global family dinner night.” Rabbi Smuley Boteach writes that the Catholic church, with its image suffering from the clerical sex abuse scandal, “must return to […]
A shady kind of green
By Francis X. Rocca — April 22, 2010
Back in 2007, we reported on the Vatican’s plan to become the world’s first “carbon neutral” sovereign state, by planting trees in a Hungarian national park to offset the carbon-dioxide emissions and energy use of Vatican City. Last year, we noted reports that the project was more than a little behind schedule. Now it turns […]
Naysayer no-show
By Francis X. Rocca — April 15, 2010
The Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson, whose readmission to the Catholic Church by Pope Benedict XVI last January aroused heated controversy (which now seems almost mild, compared to the current scandal over clerical sex abuse) was expected to miss his court date in Germany today, by order of his superiors in the ultraditionalist Society of Saint […]
Raising questions
By Francis X. Rocca — March 11, 2010
The spreading scandal over sexual abuse by Catholic priests in several European countries has provoked serious questions about a number of church practices and traditions. And some of the questions are coming from some of the most traditional quarters. A cardinal close to the pope seems to have suggested a possible link between priestly celibacy […]
Not so fast?
By Francis X. Rocca — March 9, 2010
The Polish report is unsourced, and the Vatican panel of doctors won’t meet before next month, but suggestions that a miraculous cure attributed to the intercession of John Paul II might not be so miraculous after all — and maybe not even a cure — have raised doubts for some about the late pontiff’s fast-track […]
Sideshow
By Francis X. Rocca — March 4, 2010
Italian newspapers are making much of an apparent Vatican connection to an ongoing government corruption-and-sex scandal. If you really must know more, try here.
The Enemy within
By Francis X. Rocca — March 4, 2010
“Yes, also in the Vatican there are members of Satanic sects,” says the former president of the International Association of Exorcists. “There are priests, monsignors and also cardinals!”
Handicapping the red hats
By Francis X. Rocca — March 3, 2010
Italian media outlets are predicting that Pope Benedict will call a consistory to create new cardinals this November, and that among those receiving red hats will be Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York and Archbishop Raymond Burke, late of St. Louis and now head of the Vatican’s supreme court. A consistory in November is very […]
Fast for Lent
By Francis X. Rocca — February 26, 2010
A Catholic priest in Ireland has boosted daily Mass attendance this Lenten season by pledging to get worshippers out the door in 15 minutes flat.
The miracle worker
By Francis X. Rocca — February 25, 2010
Most barbers are happy with a nice big tip, but the man who used to trim Pope John Paul II says the late pontiff miraculously cured him of a hernia. But as the Times of London notes, even if the Vatican were to recognize the cure as miraculous, it would still not count toward John […]
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