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ROME – During the Roman Empire, the entire Mediterranean region was known as Mare Nostrum, “Our Sea.” It was an imperial assertion of dominance, of course, but it also reflected the idea that the peoples of the Mediterranean are linked by geography and destiny, sharing a common fate. In a nutshell, that’s the same intuition that will carry Pope Francis to the Italian costal city of Bari on Sunday, to wrap up a Feb. 19-23 assembly of more than 50 Catholic bishops from 19 Mediterranean nations, hosted by the über-powerful Italian bishops’ conference. (As an aside, one could make the case that after the Vatican, the two most powerful Catholic entities in Europe are the German and Italian bishops’ conferences, both of which benefit from Church tax collections in their countries that allow them...

In 1778, two decades before he became the second president of the United States, John Adams nearly died at sea. Actually, by his own count, he came close to dying six different times. I discovered this while researching my new book, Author in Chief, which traces the history of U.S. presidents and the books they wrote. Adams, it turns out, wrote America’s first presidential memoir shortly after leaving office. Autobiography has always been popular in this country. Of the first five presidents, three others besides Adams tried writing their life stories, though they usually focused on their public roles and refused to share anything too personal. Adams’s book was different because Adams was different. He was emotional and impulsive, and those traits pushed him to write an autobiography that ...

Geneva, Switzerland, Feb 17, 2020 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- The first Catholic Mass in nearly five hundred years will be celebrated at a cathedral in Geneva later this month. Mass will be said in the Cathedral of Saint-Pierre de Genève on Feb. 29, in a decision announced by the Diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg’s episcopal vicariate for the city. The cathedral was the seat of the Catholic bishops of Geneva from the fourth century until the Protestant Reformation. The last Mass celebrated at the cathedral took place in 1535. After the Reformation, the building was taken over by John Calvin’s Reformed Protestant Church, which destroyed the cathedral’s statues and paintings, and banned Catholic worship. Fr. Pascal Desthieux, the Catholic episcopal vicar for Geneva, described the cathedral as ...

Pope Francis delivers his Sunday Angelus address from the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square, Feb. 16, 2020. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images) I am convinced that just as we were spared from serious error in Humanae Vitae, so the Holy Spirit spared the Church in Querida Amazonia. On Wednesday, Feb. 12, Pope Francis released his apostolic exhortation on the Amazon Synod, Querida Amazonia. I was greatly relieved when I read the carefully penned document, as I saw in it an answer to our prayers. You may recall I wrote the following in the National Catholic Register back on Oct. 27 at the close of the Synod: In the final document of the synod are included proposals for married priests on a wide scale and women ‘deacons.’ The Church is currently deeply divided an...

A young girl at the time of the war, Maïti Girtanner was arrested for her collaboration with the French Resistance. She had endeared herself to the occupying German soldiers, partly because she spoke German, partly because she was a talented pianist who played music for them, and partly because she gave the impression that she could not be bothered with the war. She used the freedom won by these affections to carry messages for the resistance through restricted areas.  In 1943, Maïti was arrested in Paris and imprisoned. During her incarceration, the Gestapo brutally tortured Maïti. One particular doctor inflicted torments and abuse which left her unable to play the piano.  The injuries dealt to her spinal cord left her with permanent damage to her nervous system and constant pai...

This is such a beautiful letter! The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien is one of the greatest and most popular writers of the 20th century. He was also a Catholic husband and father to four children. He passed away 1973, but his works continue to inspire millions throughout the world. The author’s third child Christopher Tolkien was also an author, illustrator, and academic. He edited and published many of his father’s literary works. He was the last of J.R.R.’s three boys to pass away on Jan. 16, 2020 at age 95. One letter written in 1944 by J.R.R. Tolkien recently surfaced on Reddit. The letter truly reveals the fatherly love Tolkien had for his son. Here’s a portion of the letter below: u/ratazuka, Reddit Here’s what this portion of the letter reads: “I sometimes feel appalled at ...