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An Official Declaration Concerning the Criminal Jesus of NazarethJesus of Nazareth was executed on the orders of the Roman State. Method of execution: Crucifixion. The charge under Roman law was treason, and under Herodian law blasphemy against the Temple.The evidence against this anarchist was so strong that authorities of both the Roman State and the Kingdom of Herod concurred with the arrest and execution, and Jesus was subjected to trial by both governments. And in a rare uprising of spontaneous collective justice, the mass of people who were gathered for Passover called for his execution as well. The mob affirmed...

Though officials at the World Health Organization are feverishly working to stop the spread of the Ebola virus in what is now seven African nations, their efforts may be for naught. In Guinea, a hot spot for the deadly contagion, government health officials have said that the outbreak is nearly under control. Yet, Reuters reports that the government “planned to stop publicly releasing the death toll to avoid causing unnecessary panic.” But panic may be in order. Despite the best efforts of emergency health workers it appears that virus may have crossed out of Africa into Europe.

The researchers have been using an established technique known as magnetometry, which involves systematically and rapidly scanning the landscape with small handheld instruments in order to identify localised magnetic anomalies relating to buried ancient structures. These are then mapped out with specialised computer software, providing images similar to aerial photographs, which can be interpreted by archaeologists. In antiquity, the landscape in this recent study was known as the Isola Sacra and was surrounded by a major canal to the north, the river Tiber to the east and south, and the Tyrrhenian sea to the west. At the southernmost side of...

Next week, the city will celebrate its official, 2,767th birthday. According to a tradition going back to classic times, the brothers Romulus and Remus founded the city on 21 April in the year 753BC. But on Sunday it was reported that evidence of infrastructure building had been found, dating from more than 100 years earlier. The daily Il Messagero quoted Patrizia Fortini, the archaeologist responsible for the Forum, as saying that a wall constructed well before the city's traditional founding date had been unearthed. The wall, made from blocks of volcanic tuff, appeared to have been built to channel water...

London just witnessed the release of a newly restored version of Rome, Open City (Roma città aperta).Roberto Rossellini’s Italian Neo-Realist classic emerged from the smashed debris of what was left of the Eternal City as the German armies retreated and the Allies slowly crept towards it.Watching the movie today it lacks none of its emotional punch, not least because of the almost documentary feel of what is being viewed. The pacing and use of hand-held cameras, to say nothing of the city itself as character, all make for something that in many ways hardly seems dated. That said, filmed at...

North Korea 2014 meets Rome AD 65 In Kim Jong Un's accession to power and brutal purge of his uncle, parallels are evident between the two societies. By James Romm March 14, 2014 This week, as the Ides of March approaches — the March 15 anniversary of the assassination of Julius Caesar, a determined but ultimately fruitless attempt by Roman senators to stop their government from sliding toward dictatorship — the minds of some ancient historians may turn in a seemingly unlikely direction: toward modern North Korea. The dark and menacing regime of Kim Jong Un seems a long way...

Pontiff dumps the Popemobile in favor of a more humble mode of transport Pope Francis left the Popemobile at home on Sunday to travel by bus to a week-long spiritual retreat with cardinals and bishops.The Pope is about to celebrate his one year anniversary, and will ring in the occasion on a Lenten retreat with the Roman Curia–the administrative branch of the Catholic Church. This year’s retreat is being held in the town of Ariccia, which is located in the hills of southern Rome. This is the first time in decades that the Pope’s Lenten retreat is held outside...

Roman Pilgrimage by George Weigel. Credit: Kerri Lenartowick/CNA. Rome, Italy, Mar 4, 2014 / 04:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Author and scholar George Weigel says his newly-released book offers readers the opportunity experience a centuries-old Lenten practice from Rome in their households across the globe.   Weigel called his recent work “Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches,” an “invitation to people all over the world to spend Lent in Rome, at home.” “This book is a way to make the ancient station church pilgrimage in Rome, really without coming to Rome,” he told CNA on Mar. 3. The station church pilgrimage is...

An ancient Roman gladiator school has been discovered in Austria, complete with cell blocks, a training arena and a bath complex, archaeologists say. The buried remains of the school — at the site of Carnuntum, near Vienna — were detected not through excavations but through remote-sensing techniques. Based on these findings, researchers reconstructed the gladiator center in virtual 3D models. Archaeologists have been studying Carnuntum, which is on the south bank of the River Danube, for more than 100 years. Previous excavations at the ancient military city had revealed parts of the civilian town, the legionary fortress and an amphitheater....

Italy's historic capital is on the brink of bankruptcy as its mayor plans to plead for a bailout from the national government. Mayor Ignazio Marino told the Wall Street Journal that he is in daily discussions with Italy's national government. But he stressed the parties "just needed to identify the right amount of money the government should give to Rome".

At 5:00pm Pacific Time, Ethiopian Flight 702, a Boeing 767-300 was flying over Sudan when it started squawking 7500. The transponder code, is supposed to indicate a “hijacking.” (snip) The flight, operating from Addis Abba to Rome has been confirmed by Rome Airport not to have arrived yet. As of now, it is over France, but has recently taken a steep northeast heading. Based on flight tracking, it appears the plane is headed to Geneva. Emergency crews are standing by.

hat caused the fall of the Roman Empire? A devastating plague that struck during the reign of Emperor Justinian in 541 AD, killing a quarter of the population, seems to have landed the final blow, but the identity of the infection was a mystery. Now sequencing of DNA taken from two skeletons buried in Bavaria, Germany, in the 6th century has uncovered the complete genome of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria also blamed for the Black Death that struck Europe in 1348. The find suggests that Y. pestis may have emerged to ravage humanity several times. Hendrik Poinar at McMaster University...

Pro-lifers who had just finished the third annual Italian March for Life on Sunday were surprised to see Pope Francis coming toward them in the popemobile. “It was a great joy for us because we didn’t expect this at all, we just expected his message,” said March for Life organizer Virginia Coda Nunziante. “It was extraordinary because I met the people who unexpectedly saw him coming,” she told CNA on May 13. The popemobile brought the Pope down the first block of Via della Conciliazione after he finished his first canonization Mass and the weekly Regina Caeli prayer on Sunday....

To the delight and surprise of about 40,000 participants in Rome’s Marcia per la Vita (March for Life) Internazionale in Rome on Sunday, Pope Francis left the Apostolic Palace to join them in the popemobile as they gathered in the street. In an interview with LifeSiteNews, Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro, head of the Rome office of Human Life international, said that it was highly unusual for the pope to have effectively joined the March for Life with the other participants. Though, in his short papacy, Pope Francis has developed a reputation for a fair amount of spontaneity, it appears the Vatican...

Italian police say they are searching for the sender of pig heads to Rome’s main synagogue, the Israeli Embassy and a city museum hosting an exhibit on the Holocaust. […] The deliveries were made Friday, three days before an international memorial day for Holocaust victims. …

It seems that the A&E Duck Dynasty controversy has come to a conclusion. In the aftermath of this dispute, after all the words exchanged have been reviewed, what can we learn? I believe that the public responses surrounding this recent chain of events reveal several observable trends and ideologies about us as a society. Thus, the following theses presented below are based upon what I believe is the trending American ideology and ethos towards scripture, ethics, and what it values. Thesis #1: Society is unable to apply the simple rules of grammar to scripture. In the debated GQ Interview, it...

The embrace between Rome and Constantinople is renewed. But a document from the patriarchate of Moscow freezes the discussion between Catholics and Orthodox on the powers of the pope over the universal ChurchROME, January 8, 2014 – Exactly half a century since the embrace in Jerusalem between Paul VI and the patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras, Pope Francis has announced that he too will go to the Holy Land, next May 24-26, to repeat that ecumenical gesture with the successor of Athenagoras, Bartholomew. On Saturday, January 4, the eve of the anniversary, “L'Osservatore Romano" republished the complete text of the conversation...

......"The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life has put hard numbers on the anecdotal evidence: One out of every 10 Americans is an ex-Catholic. If they were a separate denomination, they would be the third-largest denomination in the United States, after Catholics and Baptists. One of three people who were raised Catholic no longer identifies as Catholic........."Thankfully, although the U.S. bishops have not supported research on people who have left the church, the Pew Center has. Pew’s data shows that those leaving the church are not homogenous. They can be divided...

December 1, 2013. History, religion and archeology are all nestled in the Roman catacombs of Priscilla. One of the most recent discoveries is a fresco depicting Lazarus rising from the dead. The fresco is centuries old, but now thanks to new technology it has been restored with the use of lasers.    BARBARA MAZZEI Restorative Museum, The Catacombs of Priscilla  “In one of the areas we restored we found a representation of Lazarus rising from the dead. In addition to that, it's also interesting to see that they drew images of Peter and Paul accompanying the dead. Two martyrs of...