Catholic News 2
NEW YORK (AP) -- The cocker spaniel arrives at the animal hospital with a police officer, whimpering and shaking. He has a pus-filled pink socket for a left eye and is so skinny his spine and ribs show through his caramel-colored fur....
LONDON (AP) -- The International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday that a British exit from the European Union could inflict severe damage to the world economy by disrupting international trade....
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- A series of sexual abuse scandals is forcing a reckoning at some of New England's most exclusive boarding schools and sending a shudder through similar institutions around the country that have long been training grounds for members of America's elite....
BRUSSELS (AP) -- Two men have been charged with offenses related to the Brussels bombings, and three others have been detained in Brussels in connection to the Paris attacks, Belgian authorities said Tuesday....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley had breakfast Tuesday with the man whose elevation to the Supreme Court he has vowed to block and told him the Senate won't advance his nomination "during this hyper-partisan election year," the lawmaker's office said....
BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian troops and their allies launched an offensive Tuesday to retake an important hilltop village south of the city of Aleppo from militants, including al-Qaida's local affiliate, as President Bashar Assad's government was preparing for parliamentary elections the following day....
(Vatican Radio) To commemorate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death there will be a performance here in Rome of ‘Hamlet’ by Shakespeare’s Globe. It will take place in the heart of the city on Thursday 13th of April at the 'Palazzo della Cancelleria'. A building which stands in Vatican extra-territorial territory. You may already know how Blessed Paul VI was often likened to Hamlet, this most famous of Shakespeare’s characters. And how in the 1960’s, before being elected to the papacy, he attended a performance of Hamlet in Stratford- on- Avon.The story Veronica Scarisbrick recounts begins in December 1964. When during an impromptu press conference, Paul VI unleashed an unusual self-deprecating sense of humour, showing an awareness of a specific journalistic quirk: that of repeatedly reporting a quote likening him to this most famous of Shakespeare's characters: “The press wh...
(Vatican Radio) To commemorate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death there will be a performance here in Rome of ‘Hamlet’ by Shakespeare’s Globe. It will take place in the heart of the city on Thursday 13th of April at the 'Palazzo della Cancelleria'. A building which stands in Vatican extra-territorial territory.
You may already know how Blessed Paul VI was often likened to Hamlet, this most famous of Shakespeare’s characters. And how in the 1960’s, before being elected to the papacy, he attended a performance of Hamlet in Stratford- on- Avon.
The story Veronica Scarisbrick recounts begins in December 1964. When during an impromptu press conference, Paul VI unleashed an unusual self-deprecating sense of humour, showing an awareness of a specific journalistic quirk: that of repeatedly reporting a quote likening him to this most famous of Shakespeare's characters: “The press which you represent can be a most important instrument of great good, always be faithful to the truth, that is the question”.
“That is the question”... The words of Pope Paul VI provoked hilarity among the journalists gathered around him. They immediately understood that reference to Hamlet’s famous soliloquy.
A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick:
This likening of Paul VI to Hamlet goes back to the days when he was still Cardinal Archbishop Montini of Milan. And the Roman Pontiff, his predecessor John XXIII, enquired after the Cardinal in his home diocese of Milan saying: “Well, how’s your Hamlet Cardinal?"
A shrewd remark never to be forgotten by the press. One which re-surfaced when the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan was himself elected to the See of Peter in June 1963. And not just by the Italian press, the “Newsweek” issue marking Paul VI’s recent election to the papacy, which had his photograph still dressed as a cardinal on the cover, quoted it. And ran an editorial on 'The Hamlet Cardinal' in this same issue.
No surprise then that when the Royal Shakespeare Company came to Rome in November of 1964 not only did Paul VI attend their performance but also received the Company in private audience . Highlighting on this occasion the impression of “fantastic riches and psychological truth” Shakespeare affords us expressing the thought that this commemoration is particularly adapted to Rome, always avid and prompt as she is to honor the high achievements of the human spirit, and happy as she is today to celebrate, in this supreme writer, the magnificent cultural tradition and artistic genius of the English people”.
Adding on this occasion how. “ ..The profound humanity of Shakespeare, ever open to adventurous and poetic exploration, leads to the discovery of the moral laws, which make life great and sacred, and lead us back to a religious understanding of the world...His lofty genius and powerful language induce men to listen with reverence to the great verities he expounds, of death and judgement, of hell and heaven. The plots of his plays are a salutary reminder to modern man that god exists. That there is a life after this life, that evil-doing is punished and good rewarded... Our enjoyment of the poet’s vision of humanity should not make us overlook the high moral lessons and admonitions contained in his words”…
(Vatican Radio) “To be or not to be”, all the world’s a stage”, and “we have seen better days”. You may not know what plays these phrases come from, but these commonly used quotes are all part of Shakespeare’s vast legacy to the English language.This year the 400th anniversary of the English playwright’s death is being marked and to celebrate this milestone, Britain’s Globe Theatre has been performing the play “Hamlet” around the world. On Wednesday April 13th the company will be treading the boards in the Vatican in this production which will take place at the Palazzo della Cancelleria in the heart of Rome.Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s interview with Professor Emma Smith So, after 400 years, what makes Shakespeare and his works so relevant today? According to Emma Smith, professor of Shakespeare Studies at Oxford University, it is his ability to hold up a mirror to what people are interested in today. &ldquo...
(Vatican Radio) “To be or not to be”, all the world’s a stage”, and “we have seen better days”. You may not know what plays these phrases come from, but these commonly used quotes are all part of Shakespeare’s vast legacy to the English language.
This year the 400th anniversary of the English playwright’s death is being marked and to celebrate this milestone, Britain’s Globe Theatre has been performing the play “Hamlet” around the world. On Wednesday April 13th the company will be treading the boards in the Vatican in this production which will take place at the Palazzo della Cancelleria in the heart of Rome.
Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s interview with Professor Emma Smith
So, after 400 years, what makes Shakespeare and his works so relevant today? According to Emma Smith, professor of Shakespeare Studies at Oxford University, it is his ability to hold up a mirror to what people are interested in today. “There’s actually been a recent example, the British Library in London has published a very small snippet of Shakespeare’s writing in a play called the book of Thomas Moore, where the character Thomas Moore… urges people to be sympathetic to refugees and to migrants and it’s a really amazing way in Shakespeare suddenly seems to speak to 2016 very directly.”
Shakespeare and religion
Shakespeare’s play are positively littered with scenes of tragedy, comedy, love, revenge, and reconciliation, but what was his take on faith and religion? Emma Smith says that “Shakespeare obviously is writing in an era where questions of faith and religion are absolutely at the top of everyone’s consciousness. Having said that, Shakespeare’s explicit religious engagement is probably a little bit less than that of most of his contemporaries…”
As audiences continue to flock to and quote his plays, and experts continue to dissect his works and his legacy, it is fairly certain that his popularity won’t be waning any time soon.
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Tuesday appointed Archbishop Christophe Pierre as the new Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America. Archbishop Pierre, a native of France, was previously Apostolic Nuncio to Mexico. He replaces Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who reached the age of retirement earlier this year.
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Tuesday appointed Archbishop Christophe Pierre as the new Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America. Archbishop Pierre, a native of France, was previously Apostolic Nuncio to Mexico. He replaces Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who reached the age of retirement earlier this year.
