Refocusing Perspectives

There are people— powerful or sometimes ordinary—who seem constitutionally incapable of living in a world that is not a mirror of their own minds. Their intolerance is not merely ideological; it is intimate, cellular, as if a differing opinion were a foreign body their psyche must reject to survive.  Fine Arts of America. This chronic rigidity often begins in the slow, silent shaping of personality, in the bruises of childhood, in the unyielding grip of ideology, or the invisible architecture of culture. But when this intolerance hardens, calcifies, and starts to corrode the bridges between one human and another, it may drift into the realm of pathology; of a life seemingly in a constant siege.  Disagreement becomes betrayal; alternative views become conspiracies. They see shadows where there is shade; daggers where there are questions; and the pervading need for control in a world of relations that require liberty. All these, whether disorders or just sharpened traits, remind...

Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost becomes the 267th pontiff. He chose Pope Leo XIV as his regnal name and as such honored Pope Leo XIII (Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci). How Pope Leo XIII inspired Cardinal Prevost might probably interest some scholars who are in a perpetual curiosity to know the trajectory of continuing the reformation within the church. Perhaps, we may begin to understand by getting to know a bit of Pope Leo XIII's life in the 18th century. As such, this commence as arguments within the continuum of absolutes to recognize the variation of probabilities. About Pope Leo XIII Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci, later known as Pope Leo XIII, was born on 2 March 1810 in Carpineto Romano, Italy. Ordained in 1837, he began a distinguished ecclesiastical career, serving as Apostolic Nuncio to Belgium (1843–1846), where he honed his diplomatic skills and met prominent European intellectuals. Returning to Rome in May 1846, he found Pope Gregory XVI on his deat...

The sunset rays were basking the Saint Peter Square of Vatican City when the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel emitted white smokes with a seagull of heart-shaped wing-plumes next to it, signaling that the Cardinal electors have successfully chosen a new Pope to succeed Pope Franciscus on May 8, 2025 (Thursday | May 9, 2025 at 12:08 am; Philippines Time ). In Christian tradition, birds, particularly doves, have long been associated with the Holy Spirit — gentle, free, and descending from above. The hundred and thirty-three cardinals invoked the intervention of the Holy Spirit during the papal conclave by solemnly singing "Veni Creator Spiritus" before the election. While a seagull is not traditionally symbolic in sacred imagery, its presence at such a profound moment becomes metaphorically rich. The heart-shaped dark plumes of the bird's wings evoked divine love: the love that the Holy Spirit embodies, the love that binds the community of believers, and the love that should...