Ash Wednesday Audience

The long wait begins...

Amy with Michael:

Pope Benedict says, "Heil Amy, I'm over here."



"O'kay, well I kiss this baby instead."

Much to Come!

I have to organize all of my thoughts on this trip in some kind of orderly fashion and hopefully provide some photographic evidence along with it. For now, thanks to Amy's quick work, here is Joseph and I at the Colisseum:

Pope...The Marriage of Christ

I was there....(Joseph spent the time picking at grass between the rock pavement of the Vatican)

From Pope Benedict's Angelus message;

"With these words, Christ reveals His identity as the Messiah, Bridegroom of Israel, Who has come for the wedding with His people. Those who recognize Him and welcome Him with faith celebrate. However, He must be rejected and killed by His own people: at that moment, during His passion and His death, will come the time of mourning and fasting."

Can You See Me?

Off to Roma (in imitation of NBC) Vatican City Web Cam

Indiana nun moves closer to sainthood

From the Journal Gazette :

The 19th century foundress of a community of nuns in western Indiana has edged closer to Roman Catholic sainthood with the Vatican’s approval of a second miracle – the reputed curing of a man’s damaged eyesight.

Mother Theodore Guerin, who founded the Sisters of Providence community near Terre Haute, is credited with helping restore the eyesight of Phil McCord, an employee at the order’s mother house, Sister Ann Margaret O’Hara, the community’s general superior, said Wednesday.

“The Sisters of Providence have received the joyous news from the Vatican that the way is now open for the canonization of our foundress,” O’Hara said at a news conference. Guerin started the order in 1840.

New Cardinals Named by Pope Benedict

You may notice that my "source" was wrong...

"The List" from WBSB:

Pope Benedict XVI named 15 new cardinals on Wednesday, 12 of whom are under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote in a conclave to elect his successor. Here are the names of the new cardinals who will be elevated at a Vatican ceremony March 24:


_Monsignor William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

_Monsignor Franc Rode, prefect of the Congregation for the Institutes for Consecrated Life.

_Monsignor Agostino Vallini, prefect of the Vatican's Supreme Tribunal for the Apostolic Signatura.

_Monsignor Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino, archbishop of Caracas, Venezuela.

_Monsignor Gaudencio B. Rosales, archbishop of Manila, Philippines.

_Monsignor Jean-Pierre Ricard, archbishop of Bordeaux, France.

_Monsignor Antonio Canizares Llovera, archbishop of Toledo, Spain.

_Monsignor Nicolas Cheong-Jin-Suk, archbishop of Seoul, Korea.

_Monsignor Sean Patrick O'Malley, archbishop of Boston.

_Monsignor Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow, Poland.

_Monsignor Carlo Caffarra, archbishop of Bologna, Italy.

_Monsignor Joseph Zen, bishop of Hong Kong.

The three cardinals who are over 80 are:

_Monsignor Andrea Cordero Lanza Di Montezemolo, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls, in Rome.

_Monsignor Peter Poreku Dery, archbishop emeritus of Tamale, Ghana.

_Rev. Albert Vanhoye, the former Jesuit rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute and secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.

Say "Cheese"