News

Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga bestowed with the Order of the Quetzal of Guatemala

A sign of friendship between the Vatican and Guatemala

Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, President of the Pontifical Commission of Vatican City State and President of the Governorate, has been awarded with the highest national honour of Guatemala, the Order of the Quetzal. The award ceremony was held on Thursday morning, 20 June, in the Palace of the Governorate. Guatemalan Minister, Ambassador Carlos Ramiro Martínez Alvarado, and Alfredo Vásquez Rivera, Ambassador of Guatemala to the Holy See, attended the ceremony as representatives of the Guatemalan government.

Pope meets with participants in a conference promoted by the Vatican Observatory

Faith and science united in charity

“Faith and science can be united in charity, provided that science is put at the service of the men and woman of our time and not misused to harm or even destroy them. I encourage you, then, to press forward to the outer limits of human knowledge. For there, we can come to experience the God of love, who fulfils the deepest yearnings of the human heart”, Pope Francis said on Thursday morning, 20 June, to participants in the second international conference dedicated to Msgr. Georges Lemaître (1894-1966), the Belgian physicist who developed what is today known as the Big Bang theory.

General Secretary participates in a workshop on transparency and responsibility in the Catholic Church

The financial reform has brought great changes

“The financial reform that Pope Benedict began and that Pope Francis continued with dedication has brought great changes to the structures and procedures of the Holy See and Vatican City State”, said Sister Raffaella Petrini, Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist and General Secretary of Vatican City State, in her address to participants in a workshop on “Transparency and Accountability in the Catholic Church: A Practical Journey”. The meeting was held on Wednesday morning, 19 June, in the Old Synod Hall in the Vatican.

Presentation of a commemorative stamp for the 160th anniversary of the Foundation of the Italian Red Cross

Everywhere for everyone

Solidarity, fraternal help, assistance without distinction are the values that the Vatican Post Office wished to celebrate with the joint issue of the commemorative stamp for the 160th anniversary of the foundation of the Italian Red Cross, with the postal administrations of Italy, San Marino and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The stamp depicts Italian Red Cross volunteers involved in  rescue operations at the site of the collapse of the Polcevera Viaduct, known as the Morandi Bridge, in Genoa on 14 August 2018. The stamp was unveiled by the engineer, Antonino Intersimone, Director of the Directorate of Telecommunications and Information Systems of the Governorate.

The Vatican Specola promotes a scientific conference dedicated to Monsignor Georges Lemaître

Black holes, gravitational waves and space-time singularities

An international scientific conference on “Black holes, gravitational waves and space-time singularities” will be held at Castel Gandolfo from 17 to 21 June to celebrate the legacy of Msgr. Georges Lemaître (1894-1966), the Belgian physicist who developed what is now known as the Big Bang theory. The conference is promoted by the Vatican Observatory, the scientific body of the Governorate, and supported by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), one of Italy’s most important public research institutes.

Visit of Sister Raffaella Petrini to the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) in Tucson

Fruitful and continuous dialogue between faith and science

An opportunity to "to appreciate in a very tangible way the complexity of the new technology used by the Vatican Observatory, in collaboration with the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona, to carry out long-term research programmes in the field of astronomy".  So Sister Raffaella Petrini, Secretary General of the Governorate, during her visit to the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (Vatt) on Mount Graham, in Arizona (USA), Saturday, March 16, 2024.