InfoVaticana is an independent information website about the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

since founded in 2013 by Gabriel Ariza and Fernando Beltrán. Information is published in two languages: the

Spanish language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

and the

Italian language Italian (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian language, Sardinian. It is ...

. The website takes a

Vaticanist Vaticanology is a term coined in the 20th century to describe the field of journalism and research studying and reporting about how the Holy See and the Roman Catholic Church operate. It is named after the Vatican City, the Holy See's sovereign ...

approach, discussing current affairs within the Church from an orthodox Catholic point of view. During the reign of

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

, the website has had legal action taken against it by the

Vatican City Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State (; ), is a Landlocked country, landlocked sovereign state and city-state; it is enclaved within Rome, the capital city of Italy and Bishop of Rome, seat of the Catholic Church. It became inde ...

for use of symbols related to the Vatican.

History

InfoVaticana was founded as a business with a balance of around 2,000 euros by Gabriel Ariza and was registered in the Mercantile Registry of Madrid in November 2013. Ariza is the son of

Julio Ariza Julio Ariza Irigoyen, born in Carcastillo, Navarra, Spain in 1957 is a Spanish entrepreneur who currently chairs the Grupo Intereconomia. He was part of the Spanish People's Party in Catalonia with Alejo Vidal-Quadras and an MP in the regional ...

, who was previously a member of the

Parliament of Catalonia The Parliament of Catalonia (, ; ; ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Catalonia. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 members, known as Deputy (legislator), deput ...

for the

Spanish People's Party The People's Party ( ; known mostly by its acronym, PP ) is a conservative and Christian democratic political party in Spain. The People's Party was a 1989 re-foundation of People's Alliance (AP), a party led by former minister Manuel Fraga. ...

and has since been the owner of the '' Intereconomía Group''. Since 2013, InfoVaticana has stood out as an information portal about the Catholic Church, with a clear orientation towards doctrinal orthodoxy. They have covered various news of some importance in the national ecclesiastical sphere like the situation of the channel Trece (belonging to the

Spanish Episcopal Conference The Spanish Episcopal Conference (, ) is an administrative institution composed of all the bishops of the dioceses of Spain and Andorra, in communion with the Roman Pontiff and under his authority. Its purpose is the joint exercise certain pastor ...

), or the controversial election of the last president of the '' Asociación Católica de Propagandistas'' and the judicial process of the ''miguelianos'' group. Although InfoVaticana began publishing in Spanish, in May 2015 the creation of an Italian version was announced. Gabriel Ariza, director of InfoVaticana, explained this decision to ''Religión en Libertad'': "The number of readers who follow us from Italy has not stopped increasing, and Italian is today the universal language of the Church: a large part of the more than five thousand bishops in the world have studied in Rome and many priests know that language well and completely ignore Spanish, so the Italian edition will be for them a way to get closer to the reality of the Church." In August 2017, InfoVaticana received a notification from

Baker McKenzie Baker McKenzie is an international law firm headquartered in Chicago. Founded in 1949 under the name Baker & McKenzie, it has 68 offices in 46 countries and employs 4,558 attorneys. History Co-founding partner Russell Baker, who had graduate ...

, a

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-based white shoe law firm, on behalf of

Pietro Parolin Pietro Parolin (, ; born 17 January 1955) is an Catholic Church in Italy, Italian Catholic prelate who has served as the Holy See, Vatican's Cardinal Secretary of State, Secretary of State since 2013, and has served as a member of the Council o ...

(the

Vatican Secretariat of State The Secretariat of State (Latin: ''Secretaria Status''; Italian: ''Segreteria di Stato'') is the oldest dicastery in the Roman Curia, the central papal governing bureaucracy of the Catholic Church. It is headed by the Cardinal Secretary of Stat ...

), asking them to transfer the domain to it, and stop using symbology related to the Vatican as it could be considered "a violation of the intellectual property of the Vatican". The case is part of a legal debate over whether the Holy See can claim full ownership of the "Vatican" brand and its derivatives.

Political positions

Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse (; AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. With 2,400 employees of 100 nationalities, AFP has an editorial presence in 260 c ...

characterizes InfoVaticana as conservative and critical of

Content

In addition to having their respective sections of blogs and news, InfoVaticana has the following sections: *Formation: with articles related to the Catholic faith, catechesis, prayers,

Marian devotions Marian devotions are external pious practices directed to the person of Mary, mother of Jesus, by members of certain Christian traditions. They are performed in Catholicism, High Church Lutheranism, Anglo-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Orien ...

, etc. *Profiles: of Spanish bishops, cardinals and members of the

Roman Curia The Roman Curia () comprises the administrative institutions of the Holy See and the central body through which the affairs of the Catholic Church are conducted. The Roman Curia is the institution of which the Roman Pontiff ordinarily makes use ...

. *Interviews: this section includes various digital interviews organized from the portal. This section includes interviews with readers by personalities such as

Santiago Abascal Santiago Abascal Conde (; born 14 April 1976) is a Spanish politician who has been the Vox (political party)#Presidents, president of Vox since 2015. He has also been the Patriots.eu#President, president of Patriots.eu since 2024, and has been a ...

Contributors

Infovaticana hosts several blogs on its website, highlighting: * ''La Cigüeña de la Torre'' by Francisco José Fernández de la Cigoña (also known as "Paco Pepe"), a Spanish secularist, commentator, and writer. * ''El Olivo'' by Father Tomás de la Torre Lendínez, diocesan priest of Jaén * ''Ite Ad Ioseph'', a blog of the Barcelona Catholic group ''Hijos de San José'', youth section of the Youth Association of San José. * The blog of Ftaher

Manuel Guerra Gómez Manuel Guerra Gómez (27 July 1931 – 25 August 2021) was a Spanish writer and religious figure. Biography Gómez was a consultant for the Spanish Episcopal Conference and a member of the . He specialized in classical antiquity, religious hi ...

, priest and doctor in classical philology and patristic theology. * The blog of Father José Antonio Fortea, Spanish exorcist, priest in

Alcalá de Henares Alcalá de Henares () is a Spanish municipality of the Community of Madrid. Housing is primarily located on the right (north) bank of the Henares River, Henares. , it has a population of 193,751, making it the region's third-most populated Municip ...

. * The blog of Father

José Luis Aberasturi José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...

, former professor, Fomento-Fundación chaplain, philologist, philosopher, and moral theologian. * ''Adoración y Liberación'' of the same name as the web portal founded by Vicente Montesinos, a judicial officer who is linked to various initiatives within the Catholic Church (catechesis, formation, youth, etc.). Also published are Spanish translations of articles by Italian ecclesiastical analyst

Sandro Magister Sandro Magister (born 2 October 1943) is an Italian journalist who writes for the magazine ''L'espresso''. Magister specializes in religious news, in particular on the Catholic Church and the Vatican. He has written two books on the political h ...

, and the American religious information magazine '' The Catholic Thing''.

References

{{Reflist

External links