Francis X. Rocca
Francis X. Rocca is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by Francis X. Rocca
Now let every tongue adore thee
By Francis X. Rocca — December 18, 2008
The new head of the Vatican’s liturgical office, known in his native Spain as the “Little Ratzinger,” has praised the traditional practice of receiving Communion on the tongue while kneeling-a practice that Pope Benedict has made the norm at papal liturgies. According to Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, receiving Communion this way “means adoration … respect … […]
Whither interreligious dialogue?
By Francis X. Rocca — November 25, 2008
RNS contributor David Gibson considers Pope Benedict’s latest statement on the subject here. John F. Cullinan reflects on the recent Vatican seminar with Muslim leaders here.
Let it be
By Francis X. Rocca — November 21, 2008
Tomorrow’s edition of the official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano marks the 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ “White Album” (released November 22, 1968) with this informal absolution: “‘The Beatles are more famous than Jesus Christ’: the sentence pronounced by John Lennon, which provoked profound indignation above all in the United States, after so many years sounds […]
Diversity in the newsroom
By Francis X. Rocca — November 20, 2008
Sandro Magister reports that the official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, which already has two Jewish writers among its regular contributors, is about to give a voice to yet another Abrahamic religion: For now, there is no Muslim among the columnists for the pope’s newspaper. But there will be soon. His name is Khaled Fouad Allam, […]
Vatican vs. Wall Street
By Francis X. Rocca — November 18, 2008
“Managers who won’t give up their bonuses,” reads a front-page headline in tomorrow’s edition of the official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. The article reports that Citigroup is laying off 52,000 employees while still paying their executives year-end bonuses-in contrast to Goldman Sachs and UBS, where top executives have chosen to go without. No prizes for […]
Ratzinger’s rules for the road
By Francis X. Rocca — November 17, 2008
Pope Benedict marked the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims yesterday by urging everyone to drive safely. The statement brought back fond memories of the Vatican’s Ten Commandments for the Road, published last year. As serious as the topic is, that was a pretty amusing document. But I shouldn’t laugh, or I might […]
Organ notes
By Francis X. Rocca — November 7, 2008
Addressing a conference sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life, card-carrying (potential) organ donor Benedict XVI celebrated recent progress in transplant technology and praised organ donation as an “act of love.” But he warned of the ethical dangers posed by “market logic” in the allocation of needed organs, and of the temptation to extract parts […]
What did Benedict write to Obama?
By Francis X. Rocca — November 7, 2008
I figure it was about abortion. Think about it. The pope sends the president-elect a congratulatory telegram, but the Vatican reveals only two partial sentences, saying the rest is “personal.” Considering that the two are not old buddies, that suggests substantive-sensitive-content. And what could be of greater import, from the pope’s point of view, than […]
To “evolve” means “to unroll a scroll”
By Francis X. Rocca — October 31, 2008
Pope Benedict reminds the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, as it contemplates evolution, that “there is no opposition between faith’s understanding of creation and the evidence of the empirical sciences.”
Answering the call at the Vatican
By Francis X. Rocca — October 28, 2008
Good thing for these nuns’ job security that they don’t speak Italian in Bangalore.
The Pius wars continue
By Francis X. Rocca — October 23, 2008
The long-running controversy over Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust flared up again last weekend; and now an Israeli cabinet minister says it would be “unacceptable” for the Catholic Church to make its controversial wartime leader a saint.
Upon this rock
By Francis X. Rocca — October 21, 2008
Modernization of the official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano (described in this recent Wall Street Journal article by RNS alumnus Stacy Meichtry) proceeds apace. Tomorrow’s edition of the once-stodgy publication features an essay on Biblical allusions in American popular music, with references to Woody Guthrie and Bruce Springsteen, and a focus on the work of temporary […]
Clinching the Catholic vote
By Francis X. Rocca — October 14, 2008
Never mind Kmiec and Cafardi. Millions of former parochial school pupils will feel compelled to pull the lever for Obama after this endorsement.
Wanted: 4,546 translators
By Francis X. Rocca — October 10, 2008
The Bible, as everyone knows, is the world’s all-time bestseller. So you might be excused for thinking that there is no shortage of it. But according to tomorrow’s edition of the official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, after all these millennia the Good Book has still been translated into only 2,454 of the world’s 7,000 existing […]
TV producers take note
By Francis X. Rocca — October 7, 2008
First came the news that the Vatican had established two anti-terrorism units; now the announcement that it has joined Interpol. How long before the world’s smallest state gets its own cop show? The chase scenes alone would make it worth watching.
