The Italian priest who created the only Vatican-approved prayer app has now slashed the price from $0.99 to gratis. Given the popularity of the iBreviary app, Don Paolo Padrini decided to give the current version away for free. (Profits from the app previously went to refurbishing a parish shelter.) Available in English, French, Spanish, Italian, [...]
Although many communal fonts in Italian churches have run dry because of the flu scare, one small parish church has a custom-designed font that dispenses holy water for making the sign of the cross in a more hygienic fashion. It works much like a touchless soap dispenser in a public bathroom: the faithful place their [...]
A new guide book for Catholics is designed to lead them back into church by reviewing the services. Journalist Camillo Langone, also a long-time restaurant reviewer, sat in pews all over Italy to write over 300 pages on weekly mass ceremonies. What makes a good mass (communion given in the mouth, incense) bad mass (electric [...]
Tired of looking out on a silent congregation, a priest in Southern Italy has launched Karaoke-style mass. Back in May, Father Antonio Russo was appointed parish priest in the church of Santa Sofia in Albanella, a town of about 6,000 some 300 kilometers south of Rome. Finding himself surrounded by mute parishioners, Don Russo decided [...]
Italians say that a confused person doesn’t know which saint to pray to. The process of finding a saint to appeal to for protection will be easier come next week when the Vatican launches a catalog of saints. The International Guide to Saints features over 2,000 patron saints in prayer card form hailing from around [...]
For Catholics who can’t remember their Hail Mary’s, there’s help: an electronic rosary. Long a joke in the tech community, two ingenious Italians are the latest to launch an e-rosary. I went to check it out a couple of weeks ago at one of the religious book stores here in Milan, where it sat on [...]
There is a lot to say about Pope Benedict XVI. He has taken the top off the popemobile, done away with the papal tiara, visited Auschwitz and taken a much harder line on contraception and same-sex marriage. The question is: will he ever be popular enough to become an air freshener?
by Nicole Martinelli A debate over war and religion in an Italian town has lead to the creation of a ‘pacifist’ statue of St. Michael, the archangel credited with defeating the devil. City council members in Monza, 12 miles north of Milan, voted last year to spend 150,000 euro ($183,000 USD) for a new statue [...]
zoomata staff posted: Wed Feb. 18 15:05 pm The most famous stray of the Catholic Church, African archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who rocked the Vatican by eloping then repenting, has returned to the fold again after reportedly fleeing to his native Zambia in late 2003. Milingo, crucifix slightly askew over his ample belly and hands together [...]
zoomata staff updated: Wed. Dec. 3 8:35 am For an extra 1.50 euro, Italians can pick up the symbol of the Catholic Church with their daily news. This is the latest installment in the national ‘crucifix soap opera,’which has been dominating media attention since late October after a Muslim in a small town won a [...]
