When Italy recently celebrated a state funeral for David Sassoli, the President of the European Parliament who died unexpectedly from Legionnaire’s disease on January 11, the Mass was held in Rome’s Basilica of St Mary of the Angels and attended by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Mario Draghi, European President Ursula…
Presumably, when the prosecutors in the Vatican’s “trial of the century,” pivoting on a failed $400 million land deal in London, rang in the New Year a few days ago, like everyone else, they wished one another a happy 2022. They may have actually said “happier,” because, let’s face it, 2021 didn’t go particularly well…
Every year, certain storylines dominate news coverage of the Vatican. Some are largely positive, though many tend to be negative, such as the clerical abuse scandals that have been a strong contender for biggest Vatican story of the year for each of the last 20 years. Reporters being basically pack animals, the inevitable effect of…
Letter from Rome: The Pope’s answer on Paris prelate raised more questions than it answered John L. Allen Jr As the wise saying goes, “If you don’t want the answer, then don’t ask the question.” That adage doesn’t cover every situation, however, because there are also times you genuinely do want the answer, and still…
Letters from Rome T.S. Eliot may well be the greatest of all American poets, and his 1925 poem “The Hollow Men” contains perhaps the most-quoted lines of any 20th century American literary work, usually by people who have no idea where the lines come from: “This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang…
Letter from Rome Catholic history is a like a river fed by many currents, but one of the strongest and most perennial, undeniably and inextricably, is food. At the very heart of the sacramental system is a shared meal, and when we pray as Christ himself taught us, we ask for our daily bread. Over…
Letter from Rome It’s probably fair to say that over the centuries, the Pope’s criminal justice system hasn’t exactly enjoyed a sterling reputation. Nineteenth century French novelist and journalist Edmond About, whose 1859 book The Roman Question remains arguably the single best treatment of the papal court, wrote that in the unlikely event you were ever to…
Letter from Rome US President Joe Biden went before the United Nations September 21 and declared, “We are not seeking a new Cold War, or a world divided into rigid blocs.” The statement became necessary in the wake a week earlier of the new “AUKUS” pact among the US, the UK and Australia, seen precisely…
Letter from Rome There’s a famous scene in Woody Allen’s classic 1977 movie Annie Hall in which he and Diane Keaton are having separate sessions with a couples’ counsellor, and their exchanges are shown on a split screen. When the therapist asks how often they’re intimate, Allen says, “Hardly ever, maybe three times a week,”…
Having spent most of my adult life and career living in western Europe and covering Catholicism, I’ve developed three broad observations about the cultural landscape here vis-à-vis the Church. – First, the Church is undergoing a long-term transition from a culture-shaping majority to an optional subculture, sometimes in harmony with the broader majority and sometimes…