Desmond O'Grady, Author at Catholic Herald

Desmond O'Grady

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Russia brokers further step in peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan

January 13, 2021

Armenia and Azerbaijan reached an agreement this week to work together for the development of Nagorno-Karabakh -- an ethnically Armenian region -- which has been a major theatre in several conflicts, including the war the countries fought last year. The Armenian Ambassador to the Holy See, Garen Nazarian, spoke with the Catholic Herald late last year to provide the Armenian view of the most recent war with Azerbaijan, which broke out last September.

The most influential woman at the Vatican? An interview with Lucetta Scaraffia

February 14, 2019

The #MeToo movement arrived in the Vatican with Lucetta Scaraffia, the founding editor of the monthly magazine Donne Chiesa Mondo (Women Church World), which is distributed with its daily newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. Its February issue denounced the sexual abuse of nuns by priests. In a sign of the magazine’s influence, journalists questioned Pope Francis about

Cardinal Scola: the man who was nearly Pope

January 03, 2019

Cardinal Angelo Scola was considered a front runner at the last papal election. After the white smoke appeared, the Italian bishops’ conference mistakenly put out a communiqué congratulating him on his election. But he remained the man who, as the old line has it, entered the conclave as pope and left it as cardinal. Now

‘Beauty can lead to faith’ – an interview with the director of the Vatican Museums

December 20, 2018

Barbara Jatta, the first woman to direct the Vatican Museums in their 512-year history, says that she grew up amid the smells of solvent. Her father was a lawyer but, she pointed out when I met her at the Vatican, “it’s more important to my career that my mother is a painter – as was

Rome’s buried battle

September 13, 2018

Archaeologists have discovered remarkable physical evidence of Constantine’s defining victory at the Milvian Bridge A few years ago, an open-air food market I frequented near the Milvian Bridge in Rome was moved a short distance to a covered site where it is part of a shopping complex. Only recently I discovered the archaeological importance of

‘James Bond’ to the rescue

September 28, 2017

The Vatican Bank is well along the path to transparency, says René Brülhart. His opinion matters because he’s president of the Vatican Financial Information Authority (AIF), which oversees the bank’s progress towards international standards. Brülhart has been called “the James Bond of international finance”, not only because of his swarthy good looks and elegance but

Laity conference in Rome raises concerns over Amoris Laetitia

April 24, 2017

Six scholars gave talks on aspects of Amoris Laetitia and its aftermath

Rome’s memories of Peter and Paul come to life

April 20, 2017

Peter and Paul are attracting new interest in Rome. A multimedia museum, based on a decade of research, restoration work and recent archaeological findings, has been opened in what was once their prison. It stands in the Roman Forum near the end of the route ancient armies took to celebrate victories. Captured enemies were displayed