Why was Jesus condemned to death?

Francisco Varo

Jesus of Nazareth was becoming a more and more controversial figure as his public ministry progressed. The religious leaders in Jerusalem were uneasy about the commotion that had been aroused among the people by the arrival of this teacher from Galilee for the Paschal feast. Tags: Doctrine, Holy Week

What happened at the Last Supper?

Francisco Varo, Dean of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre

Joachim Jeremias says that this is one of the best-testified episodes in his whole life. At the Last Supper, Jesus was alone with his twelve Apostles (Mt 26:20; Mk 14:17, 20; Lk 22:14) Tags: Doctrine, Church, Jesus Christ

How can the Resurrection of Jesus be explained?

Francisco Varo, Dean of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre

Christ’s resurrection is a historically documented event. The Apostles bore witness to what they had seen and heard. Around the year 57 AD, St Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve” (1 Cor 15:3-5). Tags: Doctrine, Jesus Christ

What is the significance of holy pictures and statues?

Paintings and sculptures reflect the progress of thought, the shades of feeling of each stage in history. A picture or statue may suggest very different ideas in different eras. Christian art: it is also a projection of a meditative, lived faith. Tags: Beauty, Benedict XVI, Iconography, Pictures and statues of St Josemaria Escriva

Could Jesus’ body have been stolen?

Francisco Varo

When people who did not want to accept that Jesus had risen from the dead saw that the tomb where his body had been laid was empty, the first thing that occurred to them to think and say was that his body had been stolen (cf. Mt 28:11-15). Tags: Doctrine

Who was Caiaphas?

Francisco Varo, Dean of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre

In 1990 two ossuaries were discovered in the Talpiyot necropolis at Jerusalem. One of them bore the inscription “Yosef bar Kayafa”, the name attributed to Caiaphas by Josephus. Tags: Doctrine, Easter, Holy Week

How did Jesus die?

Francisco Varo, Dean of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre

Jesus died, nailed to a cross, on the 14th day of Nisan, Friday April 7 in the year 30 AD. This can be deduced from a critical analysis of the Gospel accounts compared with the allusions to his death contained in the Talmud (cf. Sanhedrin 6, 1; fol. 43a). Tags: Doctrine, Faith

What was the Sanhedrin?

Francisco Varo, Dean of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre

The Sanhedrin was the supreme court of the Jewish Law, whose function was to administer justice by interpreting and applying both the oral and written tradition of the Torah. At the same time it represented the Jewish people before the Roman authorities. Tags: Doctrine, Holy Week

Address by John Paul II to the Symposium, Pontifical Atheneum of the Holy Cross. October 14, 1993

John Paul II

Dear Brothers and Sisters, I am pleased to welcome you on the occasion of the theological symposium on the teachings of Blessed Josemaría Escrivá, which has been taking place these past days at the Roman Atheneum of the Holy Cross, a little more than a year [...] Tags: Church, Pope John Paul II, Holiness, Work, Ordinary life

Cardinal Ratzinger. Rome, May 19, 1992

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

St John’s Apocalypse, which tells us of so many terrible events both past and future, also opens up Heaven upon the earth and shows us that God still holds the world in his hands. However great the power of evil, God’s victory is assured in [...] Tags: Ratzinger, Holiness