Benedict has been a great pope. His Regensburg Lecture will be admired for centuries. His encylicals, though dense, are profound and illuminating. And he is arguably the world leader in helping rid an institution of child sexual abuse. That said, all popes are fallible. Even Peter denied Christ three times. In the case of Benedict, … Read more
Here are two items I’d like to bring to your attention: This is the third day of a novena for Pope Benedict initiated by the Knights of Columbus. It began on Divine Mercy Sunday and ends on Monday, April 19, the fifth anniversary of the pope’s election. It’s not too late to join in — … Read more
Last week, Peggy Noonan wrote that the media has done the Church a service in its reporting on the sex-abuse scandal. To a certain extent, I agree: Unfortunately, I believe that some in the Church would have continued ignoring or, in some cases, covering up instances of abuse. But the media has gone overboard with its misreporting … Read more
Last week, hell froze over when America‘s Michael Sean Winters complimented George Weigel’s criticism of the New York Times. Weigel, distinguished senior fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, also wrote a defense of Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church in The Philadelphia Inquirer today. Weigel points out that the Church, more than any … Read more
With the constant media barrage against the pope and the Church, we seem to be living our own Via Crucis this year. And even though I am celebrating Easter at home in Boston, I’m attuned to what is happening in Rome. Just before I left Rome last week, I offered the Vatican Radio commentary for Pope Benedict’s … Read more
Following up on Margaret’s morning post… Â John Allen, Jr., senior correspondent with the National Catholic Reporter, senior Vatican analyst with CNN, and author of The Rise of Benedict XVI, answered questions yesterday at the Washington Post about the pope and the ongoing sex abuse crisis. It’s a short read and Allen is typically fair … Read more
As new clergy sex-abuse allegations come to light in Germany, some in the media seem eager to tie them in whatever way possible to the German pontiff. Damian Thompson of the Telegraph points to a Times headline — “Pope knew priest was paedophile but allowed him to continue with ministry” — as just one of … Read more
On the third day of the conclave — October 28, 1958 — the white smoke signaled to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square the election of a new pope, Angelo Cardinal Roncalli, patriarch of Venice, who took the name of John XXIII. The Roman crowd was momentarily silenced; it could not put a face to … Read more
In his audience last Wednesday, Pope Benedict spoke about the model St. Francis provides for dialogue with other religions, particularly Islam. Francis met in 1210 with the leading Muslim leader, Sultan Malik al-Kamil, in Egypt: “I want to underline this episode in the life of St. Francis because of its great relevance. At a time … Read more
Catholic News Service reports that Pope Benedict has asked marriage tribunals not to grant annulments too easily. “We run the risk of falling into an anthropological pessimism which, in the light of today’s cultural situation, considers it almost impossible to marry,” the pope said in a speech Jan. 29 to members of the Tribunal of … Read more
In the 1930s, a young Catholic professor at Oxford University began writing stories to read his children at Christmastime. They were tales full of well-known magical creatures — elves, dwarfs, knights, wizards, witches — but what made them unique was a race of his own imagining: the noble, plump little halflings he called “hobbits.” The … Read more
In his “World Day of Communications” address released over the weekend, Pope Benedict encouraged priests to take advantage of the new media on behalf of the new evangelization: The pope, whose own presence on the Web has heavily grown in recent years, urged priests on Saturday to use all multimedia tools at their disposal to … Read more
Pope Benedict paid a visit to Rome’s main synagogue yesterday, where the canonization cause of Pope Pius XII — something of a sore spot in Catholic-Jewish relations these days — was almost guaranteed to come up. (Some in the Jewish community feel he didn’t do enough to combat the Holocaust, but others counter that he … Read more
On Friday, CatholicCulture.org reported that Pope Benedict met with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. At that time, the pope approved numerous miracles, allowing for the canonization of five Catholics and the beatification of five others. Additionally, ten people were declared “Venerable” — having lived lives of heroic virtue. Among … Read more
When Pope John Paul II visited Britain back in 1982, I went to meet him at the airport. I wasn’t the only one, of course: I went with a parish group that took a coach to the airport at three in the morning so as to be there on time, joining vast numbers of other … Read more
A friend wrote me about a school principal, a religious sister, speaking to a parent and requesting school funds. The gentleman was described as an “ultra-Catholic.” My friend asked me: “What is that, do you know?” Evidently, the “non-ultra” principal thought it all right to siphon needed cash from the “ultra” parent. No strings were … Read more
If our present existence were not sufficient proof, the irrefutable platitude that life goes on was evident in the summer months of 1942 in England when, coincident with the bombings and lengthening list of war casualties and stricter food rationing, Aloysius Roche published a preview of his study of the Egyptian Desert Fathers, and … Read more
The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, recently traveled to the Czech Republic in a journey he described as “both a pilgrimage and a mission.” The ancient land of Bohemia was once at the very center of Christian civilization. It was from here that the brother saints Cyril and Methodius launched their mission to convert … Read more
Finally, a leader has spoken about the real, essential differences in the struggle between the West and Islam, as it emanates from a contest within Islam itself over the most important things. With startling — indeed alarming — clarity, Pope Benedict XVI told his audience in Regensburg, Germany, in a 2006 lecture, that not only … Read more
Some readers cringe at the fact that I flesh out the Deadly Sins with examples, instead of sticking to abstractions. Then again, some people winced when Dante published his Inferno, which was full of the names of real people whom he’d known personally, and included in hell the pope who was reigning when it … Read more