St. Pope John XXIII Archives

Amid nuclear fears, remember a pope once helped avert Armageddon
- Analysis
- August 13, 2017
Though comparisons with North Korea’s threat to fire ballistic missiles near Guam and the Cuban Missile Crisis may be premature, the anxiety level is undeniable. The situation evokes memories of a pope in many ways cut from the same cloth as Francis, St. John XXIII, who helped prevent a nuclear war with a timely and passionate appeal for peace.
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Cardinal Bertone talks about the third secret of Fatima
- Catholic News Agency, Pope in Fatima, Vatican
- May 13, 2017
The “third secret of Fatima” refers to a message during the apparitions predicting suffering and persecution of the Pope and the Church. Unlike the first two secrets – a vision of hell and a prediction of World War II – the third secret was not initially revealed by Sister Lucia, one of the three children Mary visited in 1917.
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Letter to dying girl shows pope remains a pastor at heart
- Analysis, Vatican
- December 1, 2016
Pope Francis’s moving letter to a dying nine-year-old girl echoes St. John XXIII’s famous moonlight speech, and shows that, whatever else he has become as pope, he remains, at heart, a pastor, reaching out to one soul at a time.
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Accepting reality key to beating the maze of pessimism

October 15, 2016

Pessimism, a dark force in the spiritual life, often stems from refusing to accept a basic truth: Reality always beats out personal desires, and life is not always what we want. Seen that way, life becomes a mystery to be unraveled rather than a problem to be solved.

Three (more) reasons why Mother Teresa’s halo matters

Mother Teresa’s holiness is the primary reason she’s being declared a saint on Sept. 4, but the canonization also has something to say on other levels — about what mercy looks like in practice, about how to defend the faith from its critics, and about the role of women in the Catholic Church.