He may be a lion in winter today, but under St Pope John Paul II no one had a more vital role than Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who next week will be hosting an estimated 1.5 to 1.8 million young people in the city of Krakow for World Youth Day. If you want a window into…
John L. Allen Jr.
Framing the bottom line on opposition to Pope Francis
There’s no novelty in the idea of opposition to Popes, either from the Catholic hierarchy or the grassroots. What’s likely new today is the Pope’s own style, the media universe, and the accelerating polarisation of the culture, which makes everything seem louder and nastier. Anyone with eyes can see that there’s alarm and opposition to…
Vatican’s old guard may have notched a Pyrrhic victory
On July 9, Pope Francis issued an edict restoring several financial powers to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), taking them away from Australian Cardinal George Pell and his Secretariat for the Economy. With power, however, also comes the blame if something goes wrong. There are many ways of analysing the…
Egypt’s Christians already have a Saviour – they need a friend
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…
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…