Apostolic Palace

It's May 20th, 1571, in the Vatican in Rome, five months before the Battle of Lepanto.

In a grand marble hall in the Papal Palace, Pope Pius V scratches his signature onto a vellum document, formally committing the church he leads to the new Holy League of Christian Powers.

For Pius, this alliance is the greatest achievement of his papacy so far.

Elected pope five years ago in 1566, Pius has always taken a firm line against the Catholic Church's enemies.

Actually, now that I think about it, first let's maybe talk about what the painting looks like.

You've almost certainly seen it, but it is a fresco in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

And imagine a really classical looking kind of square, like a city square that has in the background doorways that are kind of infinitely receding.

It's not actually infinite because on the last one, you can see the sky in the background, but there's one huge kind of arched doorway.

And he was known as a fully trained master by 1500.

And then he was in Florence for about four years learning about the artistry there.

And then the Pope, who was Pope Julius II, invited him to come to Rome to work on the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

And so he was going to do a bunch of paintings.

By now, the number of cardinal electors had grown.

In the past, they would all live during the conclave in the apostolic palace, as we call it, you know.

But there couldn't be any more.

There were too many.

So this new, call it a hotel, called Santa Marta was built, which meant that they would not be voting in the same place where they lived because the Sistine Chapel is in the apostolic palace.

So there were isolated, you might say, in the Apostolic Palace, and there was very little chance of them being disturbed.

But once you put people to live in one place and to do what they have to do, the voting in another place, you know, it becomes a little difficult.

And other things as well.

Pope Leo XIV will personally award a theologian who challenged Samorum Pontificum With this year's Ratzinger Prize, Vatican News announced Tuesday that Dr. John C. Cavadini, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, of course, had been selected by the scientific committee of the Joseph Ratzinger Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation to receive the award named in honor of Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope Louis XIV has approved the award and will personally present it to Cavadini in the Apostolic Palace on December 19th.

Cavadini, who has dedicated his studies especially to the Church Fathers, and to St. Augustine, was co-author of a series published in 2022 by Church Life Journal that argued that those who attend the traditional Latin Mass should cease doing so, returning to the Novus Ordo Missae instead.

You see the message Leo is sending with this.

Scientific cooperation is a public good at the service of peace.

With this conviction, which is also a hope for the future, Pope Leo XIV addressed around 140 members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.

The members are meeting for two days in the Vatican for their plenary session with the theme, The Future of Science in a Changing World.

The starting point of the Pope's address was one he has repeatedly emphasized in his encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas.

I earnestly hope that your reflections during these days will offer valuable guidance for the future of science.

I'm Kelsey Gussie.

Pope Leo XIV received the President of Portugal, António José Martín Seguro, in audience at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace on Thursday morning.

Following the meeting, President Seguro met with Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See's Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations.

The Emperor annexed Rome and the lands of the Church.

When the Pope excommunicated him, French soldiers broke into the Papal Palace at night, arrested the old man and carried him off.

He would be held as a prisoner for years.

And now the emperor turned to a question that had troubled him for a long time.