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Pirates, poaching or privacy? When fishing boats go dark at sea, they’re often committing crimes. We mapped where it happens…..
In January 2019, the Korean-flagged fishing vessel Oyang 77 sailed south toward international waters off Argentina. The vessel had a known history of nefarious activities, including underreporting its catch and illegally dumping low-value fish to make room in its hold for more lucrative catch. At 2 a.m. on Jan. 10, the Oyang 77 turned off its location transponder at the edge of Argentina’s exclusive economic zone – a political boundary that divides Argentina’s national waters from international waters, or the high seas. At 9 p.m. on Jan. 11, the Oyang 77 turned its transponder back on and reappeared on the high seas. For the 19 hours when the ship was dark, no information was available about where it had gone or what it did. In a recent study, I worked with colleagues at Global...
The day Pope Benedict ‘gave’ me a message…
“I’m calling on behalf of the Holy Father.” The priest from New Jersey working in the Vatican prefaced his words with a plea: “Please don’t hang up on me when I say what I’m about to say.” He had learned from experience that day. Someone else thought his call was a prank. It was just a week before the opening Mass of the Year of Faith at St. Peter’s Basilica, also the 50th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council. I was being invited to receive a message for all the women in the world (I kid you not). As the official invite from the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization put it: “The Holy Father has invited you to be present … in order to receive from him a copy of the message as the representative of women throughout the world.” The message was a rep...
Pope’s Francis: Find Out the Date of Your Baptism And Celebrate It ‘Like a Birthday’…
The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord commemorates Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River by St. John the Baptist. Pope Francis baptized babies in the Sistine Chapel on Sunday and encouraged parents to teach their children to celebrate their baptism anniversary each year. On the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord on Jan. 8, the Pope baptized 13 babies and presided over Mass beneath Michelangelo’s frescoes. In a brief off-the-cuff homily, the Pope said that baptism is like a rebirth in Christ and therefore should be celebrated “like a birthday.” “Dear parents, thank you for bringing your children here to have them enter the Church. This is a good day,” Pope Francis said. “It is like a birthday because baptism makes us reborn in Christian life. That is why I advise you to teach your ch...
I shared breakfast with Cardinal Ratzinger every Thursday morning for nearly three years in the 1990s…..
For reasons too complex to go into, while completing a doctorate in the German College in Rome in the 1990s, I shared breakfast with the then Cardinal Ratzinger every Thursday morning for nearly three years. Those breakfasts were often initially awkward because, although the Cardinal was always gracious, he had no ‘small chat’ at all and was fairly hopeless at making casual conversation. Ratzinger was a painfully shy man who did not find socialising easy. At those breakfasts, therefore, I would engage him in theology – at which point he would come alive. I was writing a thesis on the great German theologian Karl Rahner, with whom Ratzinger had taught, and so it was easy to draw him into theological conversation about Rahnerian themes. For Ratzinger was, above all else, an intellectual. He ...
Wassailing in Rome, goodbye to ‘Father Benedict,’ and how I got here…
Happy Friday friends, And a very happy Epiphany to those of you who celebrate it today. I know that in many places the feast is transferred to the Sunday, but here in Rome they still keep the day on the day, so to speak. It’s been an interesting few days for JD and me, here in Rome to cover the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI. We’ll get to all of that in a second. And hopefully we have a few more friends to see and catch up with before we head home over the weekend. But I have to admit to a certain sadness to being away from home today. As JD has mentioned on the podcast more than once, I take the celebration of Christmas very seriously, and I make a real effort to keep making merry right through until today’s feast, when my wife and I usually host a Twelfth Night party at our house. We had t...
Arkansas monastery’s altar desecrated with sledgehammer, 1,500-year-old relics stolen…
“Throughout this, our monks continued with our regular communal prayers. Now that the gentleman has been caught and justice will proceed, may we also offer a prayer for him,” the abbey said. “Due to the desecration of the altar, Abbot Elijah and the monastic community will undertake the penitential rite, reparation for the desecration, and offer a Mass of Reparation,” the abbey said. The altar has been “stripped bare” and “all customary signs of joy and gladness have been put away,” the abbey said. A portable altar will now be used until repairs are made, the abbey said. More in US The vandalism of the altar took place under the Crucifix gracing Subiaco Abbey. Subiaco Abbey Police said that Farnam also entered a vacant house near the abbey. An item from the house was found in Farnam’s truc...
Benedict desired that, after his death, the world would hear one more time that the faith was reasonable…
The “reasonableness of faith” is what Pope Benedict XVI taught to an age hostile to faith and lacking confidence in reason. In his “Spiritual Testament,” written in 2006 and released upon his death, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote about faith, which was to be expected, but in a way unusual for a final testament. He desired that, after his death, the world hear one more time that the faith was reasonable and that philosophical and scientific approaches that claimed otherwise were themselves deficient in their reasoning. In Life and Death: Faith! Benedict, the consummate scholar, makes an argument from the grave in his “Spiritual Testament”: “It often seems that science — the natural sciences on the one hand and historical research (especially exegesis of Sacred Scripture)...
Meeting (the future) Pope Benedict…
After my first year as a graduate student at the University of Notre Dame, I had the chance to meet then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in person. I attended his small Mass for a group of about 25 German pilgrims in the Vatican and got to receive Holy Communion from him. After Mass, he knelt alone in prayerful thanksgiving. As he arose from prayer, I approached him, along with a couple other graduate students. I wasn’t sure what to expect. At that time, after only Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa, he was the most well-known Catholic in the world. He had no entourage, no security, and no plan to start his day with lowly graduate students. We introduced ourselves, and then he asked us individually about our studies. I’m sure he must have had much to do, a schedule packed with meeting thos...
Pope Francis Issues Apostolic Constitution ‘In Ecclesiarum Communione’ Reorganizing Diocese of Rome in Face of ‘Epochal Change’…
Cardinal Angelo De Donatis is vicar of Rome, which has seven auxiliary bishops. Pope Francis on Jan. 6 appointed Rome auxiliary Bishop Baldassare Reina the vicariate’s new vicegerent. The pope also, with a decree, changed the assignments entrusted to each auxiliary bishop. In the reorganization, Pope Francis emphasized a synodal approach, including the operation of an episcopal council, “the apex place of discernment and of pastoral and administrative decisions concerning the Diocese and Vicariate of Rome.” According to the new constitution, the council, which consists of the vicegerent and auxiliary bishops, should meet at least three times per month, and be presided over by Pope Francis, or, in his absence, Cardinal De Donatis. Article 1 of the constitution states that “every activity ca...
What do we make of this viral video that apparently shows a kneeling man being refused Holy Communion at Benedict’s funeral?
Soon after the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI, a video began circulating online, which appeared to show a man being denied Holy Communion at the Mass, as he knelt before a priest distributing the Eucharist and attempted to receive on the tongue. The video was apparently an excerpt from Vatican Media’s own broadcast of the funeral. And, of course, the video is without sound or context — any possible extenuating circumstances or additional information is not available to those who view it. There is only a story told in a few seconds of video — a man kneels, removes the hood of jacket, a priest says something to him and pulls back the sacred host, the man seemingly attempts again to receive it as he rises from the ground, and the priest seems to rebuke him. The man, and a woman behind him in li...
My friends returning to the Church say they can receive Communion without going to Confession first. What should I do?
From a reader… QUAERITUR: After a number of years away from the faith of my childhood, I made the decision to return to the Catholic church. After attending a few masses, my heart longed to receive the Eucharist, so I made the necessary appointment to go to confession at the parish. In my youth, we were instructed to go to confession every 2 to 3 months or as the need arose after an examination of conscience. And I have done this. Each time I received absolution and prayed my penance and reread Psalm 51. During mass, I would repeat my prayers and my Act of Contrition before receiving Jesus again.Recently people I know who have also been away from the church for years asked me to take them to mass. I did so. But when it came time for communion, they...
How the James Webb Space Telescope changed astronomy in its first year…
As Christmas approached last year, astronomers and space fans around the globe gathered to watch the much-anticipated launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. Though a wondrous piece of engineering, the telescope was not without its controversies — from being way over budget and behind schedule to being named after a former NASA administrator who has been accused of homophobia. Despite the debates over the telescope’s naming and history, one thing has become abundantly clear this year — the scientific ability of JWST is remarkable. Beginning its science operations in July 2022, it has already allowed astronomers to get new views and uncover mysteries about a huge range of space topics. The most pressing aim of JWST is one of the most ambitious projects in the recent history of...
