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Where Peter Is

Formaggi! (My first “conversation” with Pope Francis)

Back in Spring 2022, I had the opportunity to stay in Pope Francis’s residence, Casa Santa Marta (also referred to as the Domus), for a week. It was in many ways an otherworldly and at times exhilarating experience to know that I was staying under the same roof as the Holy Father. A...

Which Pope said this?

However, what impressed me was that even before the conclave, many cardinals have exhorted the one who would be elected, so to speak, saying he must — even if he doesn’t feel up to taking the cross upon himself — submit himself to the two-thirds majority, and see that decision as a sign....

Francis: A Pope of “Firsts”

From the moment he stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in 2013, Pope Francis signalled a different kind of papacy, as he was the first pope in living memory to present himself to the crowds without the traditional red mozetta and stole. His unique personality—with an openness to break precedent—and the...

Conclave: There is no faith without doubt

Conclave is an award-winning 2024 film directed by Edward Berger, starring Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Lawrence — a man wracked by doubt but whose job it is to organise a conclave after the death of a progressive pope whose legacy some cardinals wish to continue, against a reactionary backlash from conservative cardinals wanting...

Between conciliar memory and synodal future

Rupture, continuity or moving forward from a “new” to a “further” phase in the maturation of the reception of the Council? Francis assumed Vatican II as a Council of reform. On November 9, 2013, at Santa Marta, he spoke of an Ecclesia semper reformanda, in continuity with John XXIII (aggiornamento) and Paul VI...

The Princes of the Periphery

In the upcoming papal conclave we are seeing a lot of talk about “peripheral” or “Global South” cardinals—recent creations from Africa and Asia who are perceived as potential wild cards, often with eclectic views on the issues facing the Church today and mostly unfamiliar (geographically and in terms of mindset) with Rome. There...