Parsing the Pontiff
No matter how much the Vatican rightly insists that the primary purpose of Benedict XVI’s journeys outside Rome is to “strengthen the brethren”—as Christ instructed Peter to do—papal travel is
Mr. Blair’s Cafeteria
This past Lent, in the course of an interview with Attitude, a gay magazine, Tony Blair said that Pope Benedict XVI’s “entrenched attitude” toward homosexual behavior was less tolerant than
Sisters on a Different Mountaintop
On Jan. 30, an apostolic visitation of religious orders of women in the United States was announced. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), whose membership includes most of the
A Calumny against the Cardinal
It would be difficult to imagine a more mindless misrepresentation of the right relationship of church and state in these United States than that proffered by the Chicago Tribune on
The Pope Versus the Vatican
As the events of recent months have made painfully clear, Curial incapacity can impede and even damage the evangelical mission of the most intelligent pope. It was nothing short of
The N.Y. Times Flunks Ecclesiology 101
The quaint notion that the New York Times is the nation’s paper-of-record took another hit on Feb. 23, when the Grey Lady ran a commentary on Milwaukee archbishop Timothy Dolan’s
Pope Benedict Explains — and Challenges
One wishes that Pope Benedict XVI’s letter to the world’s Catholic bishops on the controversy surrounding the lifting of the excommunications of four dissident Lefebvrist bishops — which was dated
Were They at the Same Meeting?
From the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: It is with great joy that my husband, Paul, and I met with His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, today. In
Saving What Can Be Saved
In May 2006, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) made public its decision to “invite” Fr. Marcial Maciel, founder of the religious order the Legion of Christ
The Word and the Church
Although it was one of the signature innovations of the Second Vatican Council, the Synod of Bishops rarely receives the rapt attention of the people of the Church. Yet Synods
Rome’s Reconciliation
What do the Cardinal Richelieu and King Louis XVI, the Bastille and the Reign of Terror, the Bourbons and Robespierre, the revolutionary depredations in the Vendée, the Dreyfus Affair, the
Born in the Midst of Daily Life
The Roman basilica of Sts. Cosmas and Damian tends to elude the casual tourist and the hurried pilgrim, although it’s right off the Via dei Fori Imperiali between Trajan’s column
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