Ad Maoirem De Gloriam

Rome-based News Agency Launches Freedom Campaign ROME, JAN. 18, 2012 (Zenit.org).- The Rome-based AsiaNews agency has launched a campaign to appeal for the release of three bishops and six priests who are detained by the Chinese government. The agency has written a letter to President Hu Jintao and the Chinese ambassador in Italy, Ding Wei. "Their release could be a gesture of friendship and hope for Catholics and human rights activists, as well as a sign of true hope for the upcoming Chinese New Year," said the AsiaNews appeal, published Monday. According to the agency, the bishops and priests have not been charged with any crime. Moreover, they have never been given a trial or been convicted by a court. In spite of this, they have been placed in forced labor camps, or have simply disappeared after being seized by the police A day after the announcement of the campaign AsiaNews published an interview with the highest-ranking Chinese prelate, Archbishop Savio H...

Vatican City, Jan 16, 2012 / 05:46 pm ( CNA/EWTN News ) .- Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, D.C. called to mind the Pope’s “living continuity” with St. Peter at the start of his “ad limina” visit in Rome. “All of us in this chapel have a special bond to Rome because Peter continues to live and exercise his ministry here,” the cardinal said in his Jan. 16 homily for a Mass he presided over in the Crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica. Jan. 16 marked the beginning of the visit for the bishops of Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia, the Virgin Islands and the U.S. Archdiocese for Military Services. The group traveled to Rome as part of an ongoing series of visits for U.S. bishops that will last into 2013. The trips take place every five years and involve a meeting in which the bishops brief the Pope on the Church in their individual dioceses, visit with various Vatican departments, and make a pilgrimage to the tombs of Sts. Peter and Paul. ...

The Vatican Museums broke attendance records in 2011 with just over 5 million people entering its doors. "It is, in a particular way, objectively amazing," wrote Antonio Paolucci, Director of the Vatican Museums, in L'Osservatore Romano newspaper on Jan. 10. By way of comparison, Paolucci said that Florence's Uffizi Gallery is Italy's "most famous and most popular" museum but it is only able to accommodate 1.5 million people in a year. The visitor numbers for the Vatican Museums put it in the same bracket with British Museum in London, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Prado in Madrid. Meanwhile, the Louvre in Paris remains the continent's most visited museum with 8.5 million guests every year. While he is delighted by the popularity of the Vatican Museums, Paolucci also stressed that "it is wrong to measure the importance of a public art collection based on the number of visitors," particularly in Italy where ...