Michael Severance earned his B.A. in philosophy and humane letters from the University of San Francisco, where he also studied at the university's St. Ignatius Institute, a great books program. He then pursued his linguistic studies in Salamanca, Spain where he obtained his Advanced Diploma in Spanish from Spain's Ministry of Education before obtaining his M.A. in Philosophy and Modern Languages from the University of Oxford. While living in Italy, Michael has worked in various professional capacities in religious journalism, public relations, marketing, fundraising, as well as property redevelopment and management. As Istituto Acton's Operations Manager, Michael is responsible for helping to organize international conferences, increase private funding, as well as expand networking opportunities and relations among European businesses, media and religious communities, while managing the day-to-day operations of the Rome office.
Posts by Michael Severance
April 08, 2019
The 8th of April is a wonderful day. Surely, it is not a special day for everyone. But for me it is.
Full disclosure: April 8th is the undersigned PowerBlogger’s birthday and he is not alone.
Continue Reading...
March 28, 2019
There is a longstanding liturgical and spiritual discipline practiced in Rome during Lent. It involves celebrating mass at the crack of dawn each day at a different church in various corners of the ancient quarter of Rome.
Continue Reading...
March 21, 2019
On March 18, in a meeting with representatives from the Camillan Charismatic Family of healthcare operators, Pope Francis said that Christianity simply “does not work” without practicing tenderness. He said tenderness is a virtue so little exercised in our charitable “encounters” with the sick, poor and suffering that it “risks being dropped from the dictionary” of our everyday language.
Continue Reading...
March 08, 2019
This week’s Ash Wednesday marked the first day of Lent – a period of intensive spiritual renewal in many Christian liturgical calendars. Lent is a season lasting exactly 40 days, as we imitate the time Jesus spent on retreat in the desert in preparation for the giving of his life to us on the cross, the ultimate act of love or
caritas for all humanity.
Continue Reading...
March 01, 2019
In a private audience Francis had yesterday with St. Peter’s Circle, a social action group serving Rome’s poor since 1869, the pope gave some excellent advice. He said that it is best for them to pray hard prior to administering charity to those in need.
Continue Reading...
February 22, 2019
In a recent move that garnered little public attention amidst the tense media coverage enveloping this week’s Vatican summit on clerical sexual abuse and the protection of minors, Pope Francis restored priestly faculties to a Nicaraguan Jesuit and poet, Ernesto Cardenal, a liberation theologian and former militant Marxist.
Continue Reading...
February 14, 2019
Alright, I’ll confess: I am often accused of being a miser on St. Valentine’s Day. This is because I usually buy three roses for my Italian wife. Never a dozen like everyone else.
Continue Reading...
February 09, 2019
The Venezuelan bishop of Merida and current apostolic administrator of Caracas, Cardinal Baltazar Porras Cardozo, stood tall and firm while rejecting the validity of President Nicolas Maduro’s recent appeal for Vatican diplomacy.
Continue Reading...
December 06, 2018
On Tuesday, the Acton Institute and its Rome office concluded another very successful international conference, Freedom, Virtue and the Good Society: The Dominican Contribution. The 380-person overflow attendance at the Pontifical University of St.
Continue Reading...
December 03, 2018
As our Acton Institute prepares for its Rome conference tomorrow, December 4, on the Dominican contribution to “Freedom, Virtue, and the Good Society”, extraordinary men and women from the Order of Preachers come to mind: Albert the Great, Catherine of Siena, and perhaps the most famous of all, the Angelic Doctor, Thomas Aquinas.
Continue Reading...
