ROME -- Preventing further Vatican financial scandals was a key motive in the election of Pope Francis in March 2013. He appointed a Commission, whose acronym was COSEA, to investigate Vatican finance and administration.
Corinna Harrison
ROME -- To mark the fifth anniversary of the assassination of Pakistani Christian minister Shahbaz Bhatti, killed five years ago on March 2, there will be a remembrance prayers being held in the basilica on San Bartolomeo all’Isola on Friday, March 4 at 8.30 p.m.
2 Mar 2016
Corinna Harrison
ROME -- Economic growth reports in Italy have nourished hope that Italy's slow recovery from recession is at last accelerating with GDP on the rise by 0.8 percent, after a three-year downward trend, thanks to higher consumption, though some commentators accuse Renzi of fiddling the figures to his benefit, according to Istat statistics agency's 2015 report.
2 Mar 2016
Corinna Harrison
VATICAN CITY -- In this Jubilee year, Pope Francis is opening another service for the homeless in his tiny city state, to add to the ones already on offer there will be also be a doctor’s surgery. The homeless who make their way to the Vatican already have services such as the distribution of food, a barber, showers, a dormitory, a visit to the Sistine and a concert in the Aula Nervi.
2 Mar 2016
LORENZO SORBINI
ROME -- “Fishermen take everything that comes from the sea” said director Gianfranco Rosi, after winning the Golden Bear for his documentary Fire at Sea, about the migrant crisis in Europe at Berlinale International film festival.
Fire at Sea is an emotional, intimate documentary filmed entirely on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, known for being the first reach point for migrants attempting to cross in overcrowded boats the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa.
2 Mar 2016
Corinna Harrison
ROME -- Famiglia Cristiana, a Catholic weekly has attacked Nichi Vendola, the ex-governor of Puglia, over the arrival of a baby born in California via a surrogate mother, to Vendola and his partner Eddy Testa, saying “He’s made this child an orphan, away from his mother, he’s gone against the Constitution and the laws of the Republic.”
1 Mar 2016
Corinna Harrison
ROME -- The most recent survey for party popularity shows that the new Civil Union Bill has seriously dented the support of the Democratic Party, which has been overtaken by centre-right parties, losing almost one point, underlining the influence that the Roman Catholic Church still holds in Italy.
1 Mar 2016
Philip Willan
Rome -- Reports that the United States’ electronic spy agency beamed its rays onto Silvio Berlusconi have offered the former Italian prime minister a belated promotion to the rank of world statesman, alongside other
1 Mar 2016
Corinna Harrison
ROME -- The Federation of International Civil Servants (FICSA), along with UGSS (the Union of General Service Staff of FAO and WFP), have approved two resolutions on “the alarming status of Staff/Management Relations at FAO, calling for urgent remedial action” for what they say are the parlous state of staff management relations within the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
29 Feb 2016