History Archives

Korea exhibit at Vatican shares history, peace through art
- Catholic News Agency, Vatican
- September 20, 2017
An exhibit at the Vatican, called “Come in cielo cosi in terra” (“On earth as it is in heaven”), is the first-ever collaboration between the Vatican Museums and the Seoul archdiocese. It is also sponsored by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the South Korean embassy to the Holy See. The exhibit outlines, chronologically, the history of Catholicism in Korea from its start through the present time. It includes religious books and objects, as well as Korean religious art.
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Catholics tangled with KKK during Klan’s 1920s resurgence
- Catholic News Service, Church in the US
- September 6, 2017
The intersection of the KKK with Catholics came to an ugly head in the 1920s, when the second version of the Klan was making inroads not just in the South but throughout the nation. In the 1920s, the Klan mushroomed in membership. Estimates put its number at between 3 million and 5 million — staggering numbers when the total U.S. population in 1920 was 106,021,537.
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Haunted by its history, Berlin debates restoring kaiser’s gilded cross
- Global Church, Religion News Service
- June 11, 2017
Catholic Archbishop Heiner Koch said the cross was “the sign of the good news of the Christian faith for all people” and should not become a political football. “By putting the cross on the cupola, its builders showed they had a special responsibility to be rulers accountable to God,” he said. “Even today, recalling this attitude would mean a lot for Berlin.”
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In a changing city, look back at the Irish archbishops who built the Church in New York

Ireland has played an important role in the life of the Catholic Church in America, and nowhere is this more apparent than in New York City, where every archbishop has been of Irish heritage. A new book – ‘Sons of St. Patrick: A History of the Archbishops of New York from Dagger John to Timmytown’ – looks at this history.

For the ex-slave who blessed Denver, a path to sainthood opens

Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of Denver opened a cause for the canonization of Julia Greeley during an early morning Sunday Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. Greeley was born into slavery in Hannibal, Missouri where her life of devotion and service continues to inspire.

Maybe Nero didn’t persecute Christians after all

Commentary

December 18, 2016

Although a persecution of Christians under Nero after a fire in Rome is part of the Christian imagination, one scholar says the evidence is thin both for the persecution and even for the possibility that Romans could so early have recognized Christians judicially or religiously.