In his 1975 ballad Thunder Road, Bruce Springsteen tells his imaginary paramour that she can either waste her summer “praying in vain for a saviour to rise from these streets,” or seize the realistic if flawed option in front of her, i.e. him. While no one probably would tout the Boss as an expert on the Middle…
John L. Allen Jr.
The hope for Orthodox unity is facing a setback
On June 19, Christian history is supposed to be made on the island of Crete when the leaders of all the world’s independent Orthodox Churches are to begin meeting in a ‘Holy and Great Council’ for the first time in a millennium. “Supposed to” being the key phrase, in light of the latest hints of…
Is a ‘governance gap’ emerging under Francis?
Pope Francis just keeps on truckin’ as the most compelling moral point of reference in the world today, most recently capping a last-minute trip to the Greek island of Lesbos to make a statement on refugee rights by bringing 12 of those refugees back to Rome with him, thereby offering Europe a pointed lesson about…
Partnership that’s more Lennon & McCartney than Frazier & Ali
From the beginning, part of the narrative about Pope Francis has been that he’s sort of the anti-Pope Benedict XVI. Where Benedict was cold and aloof, Francis is seen as warm and populist; where Benedict was rigid and dogmatic, Francis is open and flexible; where Benedict was a man of the system, Francis is the…
Remembering India’s Christian martyrs should be a Church priority
Survivors of sexual abuse who have summoned the courage to come forward have taught us many things, but one clear truth is that, in terms of its consequences, abuse is not an event, but more akin to a permanent condition. It’s not that abuse happens at a specific time and place, and then is over.…
Telling the whole story: an Australian lesson
A human rights lawyer and anti-death penalty activist named Julian McMahon, who was recently proclaimed ‘Australian of the Year’ in his home state of Victoria, is every bit as much a part of the Catholic story in Australia today as the embattled Cardinal George Pell. You really wouldn’t know that, however, from coverage of the…
Pope takes the classic Vatican approach to birth control and the Zika virus
You know it was a scintillating papal press conference when, in reply to a question about Donald Trump, the Pontiff described the GOP candidate’s stance on immigration as “not Christian”, and arguably it wasn’t even the most important thing the Pope said. In the same news conference, Francis suggested he’s open to the idea of…
Holy hands across the ancient divide must reach all of the people
On any list of the biggest religion stories of the 20th Century, the positive revolution in Catholic-Jewish relations that unfolded post-World War II, accelerating after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, would have to finish near the top. Sunday brought a reminder of this, as Pope Francis visited the Great Synagogue of Rome, becoming…
Pope answers the question: What might have been?
Pope Francis wants Catholics to understand that the Church does not exist to condemn people, writes John L. Allen Jr In 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and Americans ever since have pondered what might have been. Fifteen years later, the Catholic Church faced the same question about Pope John Paul I, the ‘Smiling…
Empty promise
Is the Pope’s jubilee year going to be a flop? Philosophy’s classic head-scratcher asks if a tree falls in the forest but no one’s there to hear it, does it make a sound? In 2016, Pope Francis may face his own personal version of that conundrum: If a Pope calls a jubilee year but no…