Vatican City

The pope as a retiree

2013-02-27 10:40:00

Pope Benedict XVI retires Thursday, and he leaves the workplace the way many of us would like to — on his own terms. He wasn't laid off at 50 with few transferable skills, required to retrain or reinvent himself and then compete for work with...

A 'reformed' Catholic hopes Francis can heal the church

2013-03-19 11:29:00

By coincidence, last Easter I was in St. Peter's Square in Rome as Pope Benedict XVI delivered what turned out to be his final Easter Mass as head of the Catholic Church. A week from Sunday, the new pope will deliver his first. Expectations for Pope...

Pope Francis: New salesman, same old product

2013-03-19 03:00:00

For the first time in history, the Roman Catholic Church has a pope from the New World, but liberal American Catholics should not expect Pope Francis to stray far from the old theology. Some things are excitingly different about this new pontiff. On...

How Pope Francis can reinvigorate the church

2013-03-14 10:52:00

Newly elected Pope Francis represents change in many respects. He is the first pope from the New World (and the first from outside of Europe in 1,200 years), the first Jesuit and the first Francis. But for American Catholics, who in poll after poll in...

How to fix the Catholic Church

2013-02-27 06:45:00

The Roman Catholic Church is at the most perplexing time in it's storied, at times sordid, history. For the first time in more than 600 years, a pope has chosen to retire, due mostly to deteriorating health issues. Is that truly the most prominent...

Catholic laity needs to be heard in selection of new pope

2013-03-06 12:00:00

Since the resignation of Pope Benedict, we have been treated to the truly tawdry spectacle of life in the Vatican at this time in history. There are stories of Papal shoes, rings, palaces and castles. We see pictures of old men dressed in ecclesiastical...

Election of first South American as pope excites local Catholics

2013-03-13 13:45:00

Gail Liss, the front desk receptionist for Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, went to a dentist appointment at noontime Wednesday, confident that a new pope would not be chosen before she got back to work. Liss was wrong. While she sitting in the dentist...

Awaiting the white smoke of papal announcement

2013-03-11 18:12:00

As their church's cardinals gathered in Vatican City to select a new pope, Catholic schoolchildren in the Baltimore area joined the worldwide buzz over the secret balloting process in an online chat with a fairly well-placed source: Archbishop William E....

You think your workplace is bad

2013-03-02 12:44:54

Let's say the CEO of your company is retiring, but he's going to keep an office at headquarters and the services of the same secretary as the new guy. Awkward! Or how about working at a company where the boss just decided you can no longer work from...

Benedict leaves stage with dignity

2013-02-13 09:40:00

You have to wonder what kind of fun Vatican mystery writer Dan Brown would have with the startling resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. As would be the case when any well-known CEO suddenly steps down "for health reasons," we are immediately suspicious....

The mortal pope and eternal Rome

2013-02-16 08:15:00

Growing up in Rome, not far from Saint Peter's Basilica (whose dome I could see from my parents' bedroom) I did not think much of my circumstance. I thought it was just normal to drive my scooter by the Vatican walls and to see the Swiss guards...

Catholics surprised by Benedict's resignation

2013-02-11 18:38:47

Crystal Sewell knows what she wants to see in the next pope: a combination of the last two. "I'm a conservative soul," the 29-year-old Reservoir Hill woman said Monday after the midday Mass at St. Alphonsus Church in downtown Baltimore. "I feel like John...

A painting by artist Lawrence Carroll, who has roots in Southern California, for the Vatican's pavilion at the prestigious Venice Biennale.

2013-05-14 07:06:32

A 15th-century fresco that has gathered dust at the Vatican may contain the first European renditions of Native Americans, two years after Columbus' voyage to the New World.

2013-05-03 08:53:17

Pope Francis holds a candle during the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday at the St Peter's basilica on March 30, 2013 at the Vatican. Easter Vigil, also called the Paschal Vigil is a service held in traditional Christian churches as the first official celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus.

2013-03-30 00:00:00