Opinion

An innumerable multitude of holy men have always held it dear. They have used it as a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight, to preserve the integrity of life and to acquire virtue more easily. More than once have We asserted – and We recently repeated this in the Encyclical Letter Divini Redemptoris – that there is no...

Acting under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Blessed Pius IX declared, pronounced and defined the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception as dogma. By means of it the Church jubilantly exalts the figure of Her who triumphantly crushed the head of the devil. From all eternity ineffable God chose and prepared for His Only-begotten Son a Mother in whom the...

The three Wise Men did not see the Child ruling over demons or raising the dead. Rather, they found a child placed in the care of his Mother. In this way, what the sound of His voice did not yet proclaim, the simple sight of Him taught them. The remembrance of the actions performed by the Saviour of the human...

Christian teaching reveals God and His infinite perfection with far greater clarity than is possible by the human faculties alone. Only it reveals the truly remarkable dignity of man as the son of the heavenly Father. Our Predecessor, Benedict XIV, had just cause to write: “We declare that a great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment suffer...