Analysis Archives

Explaining papal calm on security, plus a note on the convert debate
- Analysis
- August 20, 2017
In the wake of the latest spike in violence across Europe, the Vatican says it’s not taking extra security precautions, in part because safeguards were already “very strong.” Popes often feel a greater degree of calm about their safety than other public figures, because, let’s face it, from their point of view, they’ve got the ultimate safety net.
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Why do Christians hesitate to rise up on anti-Christian persecution?
- Analysis
- August 18, 2017
In general, when communities experience hatred or persecution, enlightened people want them to speak out, knowing we need them to hold our feet to the fire. So why do some Christians hesitate to do precisely that about the global pattern of anti-Christian persecution, documented again this week in a new State Department report?
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Verdict on first religious freedom report under Trump: Great rhetoric, what do we do?
- Analysis
- August 16, 2017
Given that President Donald Trump repeatedly has vowed to make defending religious freedom a key element of U.S. foreign policy, release of the first State Department International Religious Freedom Report on his watch was keenly anticipated. Overall, observers say there’s good stuff in it, but it still leaves the basic question unanswered: Having named the problem, what are we going to do about it?
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Post-Charlottesville, ending ‘invisibility’ of African-American Catholics

August 14, 2017

In the wake of Saturday’s carnage in Charlottesville, Virginia, it’s clearer than ever that American society desperately needs help on race. The Catholic Church has unique resources to deploy, but it can’t afford to allow its own African-American community and leadership to remain “invisible”, as one African-American bishop recently described it.

Amid nuclear fears, remember a pope once helped avert Armageddon

Analysis

August 13, 2017

Though comparisons with North Korea’s threat to fire ballistic missiles near Guam and the Cuban Missile Crisis may be premature, the anxiety level is undeniable. The situation evokes memories of a pope in many ways cut from the same cloth as Francis, St. John XXIII, who helped prevent a nuclear war with a timely and passionate appeal for peace.

More and more, Parolin’s the face of authority in Francis’s Vatican

Analysis

August 10, 2017

At the beginning, expectations were that “Vatican reform” under Pope Francis would mean a substantially diminished role for the Secretariat of State, traditionally the place’s 800-pound gorilla. Of late, however, things have been trending in the other direction, and in Cardinal Pietro Parolin, we may be looking at the most powerful Cardinal Secretary of State since Eugenio Pacelli in the 1930s.