Vatican Insider

It’s summer and vacation time, of course, and in recent weeks, on what is normally the interview segment of VI, I’ve been providing glimpses into what one should see and how to visit various places in and around Rome: Castelgandolfo, the Vatican Observatory and look at how Italians celebrate the lazy, hazy days of August! Join us for this edition of Vatican Insider.

Welcome to Vatican Insider on a weekend of scorching temperatures in much of the northern hemisphere of the world, with big time heatwaves in Europe and the United States!

And welcome to a special I’ve prepared for what is normally the interview segment of VI – I call it the lazy, hazy summer days of ferragosto – life in Italy in August which, of course, starts this weekend. You learn the origin of the name August and the meaning of a very important word in the Italian language – Ferragosto!

August is not just a month in Italy. It is THE month and life in Italy in August is very different from so many other countries from stores, offices, pharmacies, movie theatres, cafes and restaurants, and many more spots closing for a holiday period – chiuso per ferie. If that’s not enough, doctors and other medical personnel can take weeks, maybe even a month, off at ferragosto…situations we’d never think of finding in the US, for example.

Not to mention the annual snowfall in Rome on August 5!

It’s a fun special so stay tuned after the news segment.

Welcome to Vatican insider on a special weekend – special for me as I’m spending it in Castelgandolfo where, among other things, I intend to be at the Angelus on Sunday with Pope Leo who will be spending his last full day of vacation in the Apostolic Palace. He returns to Rome on Monday, July 27.

For the past several weeks, as you know, in the interview segment of VI, I’ve been offering specials on the history of the Apostolic palace in Castelgandolfo as well as the very celebrated Vatican observatory, although the observatory officially in use now is on mount Graham in Tucson, Arizona.

This weekend, especially for those of you currently visiting Rome or who will be here in coming months, I offer another special I’ve prepared on the scavi, the excavations in the Vatican that bring you to the tomb of Saint Peter which, as it happens, in a magnificent architectural calculation, is directly under the center of the papal altar in Saint Peter’s Basilica which, if one were to drop a plumb line, is directly under the very center of the basilica’s dome!

I have been personally filled with joy since learning that Pope Leo will be spending some vacation time in the historic Apostolic Palace of Castelgandolfo, the beautiful building constructed many centuries ago that overlooks Lake Albano and the town’s main square, Piazza de la Liberta, Liberty Square.

During Pope Leo’s weekly visits to Castelgandolfo over year the past year, he has actually been residing in an adjacent papal property called Villa Barberini. However, the palace in which popes have resided for many centuries is the one the Pope moved to over the weekend.

I so love the town and its history linked to popes and the papacy for centuries. In fact, this weekend on my EWTN radio show, Vatican Insider, I offer a special I’ve prepared on the history of this wonderful Apostolic residence, a residence that Pope John Paul called Vatican Two.

Today, we revisit a piece Joan did on the Vatican Observatory. Enjoy the show!

Welcome to Vatican Insider on another scorcher of a weekend in Italy and throughout Europe with temps in many places hitting triple digits. Yesterday on my blog, Joan’s Rome, I posted some links to some pretty amazing stories about the heatwave as well as something that might make you laugh – HUMOR DURING A HEATWAVE.

I want to tell you about the Special I’ve prepared for what is normally the interview segment of Vatican Insider.. There are some delightful traditions in the Vatican that come to a head at this time of year as we near the June 29th solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul. I’ve called this special ST AGNES, BABY LAMBS AND PALLIUMS.

Sounds like a mystery but it is a great story woven with those 3 threads, a saint, baby lambs and woolen palliums. So stay tuned for that after the news.

It was a very big and important week here, especially with the presentation on Monday May 25 of Pope Leo’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas. I’ll look at that, of course, but now just a line about my special guests in the interview segment – Frank and Mary Frost, film producers whom I met not long ago in Rome at the screening of one of their premier documentaries “Teilhard, Visionary Scientist.” That’s French Jesuit scientist, paleontologist and scholar, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. A truly amazing story!

We met again at Georgetown University when I was in Washington, D.C. earlier this month, and spoke about their work and this documentary in particular as both Frank and Mary feel it is time to introduce Teilhard de Chardin to a new generation.Founded in 1985 by Frank and Mary Frost, Frank Frost Productions is, as their site says, an award-winning film and television production company dedicated to producing entertaining and informational programming and independent documentaries. More than 100 million viewers have watched over 30 high-caliber FFP documentaries focusing on historical, biographical, cultural, and religious subjects in pursuit of human understanding across cultures, nationalities, and religions.

What is the Teilhard project and film about?

In their words: “A captivating human story (Indiana Jones meets Galileo) about scientific adventure (discovery of Peking Man), religious repression, and a love story, with a seemingly tragic end.”

Anyone in Rome with even a remote link to the Church – people working in the Vatican, the Roman Curia, our seminary here in Rome, etc – will have at some point crossed paths with Ashley and John! They have wonderful individual stories but together, as a couple, their story is the Truth and Beauty Project. So tune in this weekend to learn about immersion in Truth and Beauty!

Welcome to Vatican Insider at an exciting time for Pope Leo as we follow him in Africa on his third international apostolic trip, traveling in Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. He returns to Rome on April 23. After the news summary, stay tuned for my special guest this week in the interview segment – Andreas Widmer, an Associate Professor of Practice in Entrepreneurship at CUA’s (the Catholic University of America) Busch School of Business since the fall of 2012.

This week, in what is normally the interview segment of Vatican Insider, I bring you on a pilgrimage with the Via Lucis! After the news segment, stay tuned for the special story about the Via Lucis, the Way of Light, basically a post-Easter journey through 14 stations of light, the light that fills our life because of the Resurrection.