is at the root of what Father Benedict calls the “Italian economic disaster.” Rather than encourage further individual and national debt, the monks have elected to forgo government assistance.

Cassian Folsom is the founder and prior of the Monks of Norcia, an order of Benedictine monks in the Italian hometown of Saint Benedict and his sister Saint Scholastica. The monks — who ...

The last Italian pope died in 1978. Now, among the papal candidates ahead of next week’s conclave, there are several Italian contenders.