Marcelo Figueroa Archives

A pastor explains his politics after saying Trump has authority to attack North Korea
- Church in the US, Religion News Service
- August 15, 2017
Pastor Robert Jeffress says people have overreacted to his statement that God has given President Donald Trump the authority to “take out” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The Baptist leader said the Bible has given government the authority to use whatever force necessary, including assassination or war, to topple an evil dictator. The remarks came just a month after an article in a Vatican-approved journal said an Evangelical fundamentalism that was “not adverse to conflicts” was exerting influence on U.S. politics.
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Trump advisor seeks meeting with Pope Francis after “incendiary” article in Jesuit journal
- Church in the US
- August 8, 2017
An Evangelical leader aligned with Donald Trump has called an article about U.S. politics in the Jesuit-run journal La Civiltà Cattolica “incendiary,” but says “rather than being offended, we have chosen to attempt to make peace,” and asked for a meeting with Pope Francis.
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A Latino/a take: Vatican’s ‘ecumenism of hate’ essay is onto something
- Commentary
- August 7, 2017
Theologian and former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, Miguel H. Diaz, contends that the central theological insights and socio-political implications for American society voiced by Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro and Reverend Marcelo Figueroa in a controversial article on U.S. politics in a Vatican-affiliated publication find a home within the hearts of Latinos/as and other “underrepresented” communities in the United States.
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Vatican article on ‘ecumenism of hate’ in U.S. was long overdue

Recently two intrepid souls, both of whom reportedly hold Pope Francis’s confidence, sought to advance a long-overdue conversation on the division of the Church in America along political lines. They’re Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, editor–in–chief of the Jesuit publication “La Civilità Cattolica”, and Presbyterian Rev. Marcelo Figueroa, editor–in–chief of the Argentinean edition of “L’Osservatore Romano”, and whatever the gaps in details may be, the heart of their argument is long overdue.

A note on the ‘ecumenism of hate’ and papal rhetoric

Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro and Reverend Marcelo Figueroa caused controversy by using the expression “ecumenism of hate” in a La Civiltà Cattolica article to describe the relations between Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States. It’s not fair to criticize Spadaro/Figueroa for inflammatory rhetoric without conceding that it is of a piece with the pontifical style which they are proposing as a model for Christian engagement. And it would be dismissive to consider that style to be just loose talk, without a pastoral purpose.

‘Ecumenism of hate’ unjustly defames real Catholic/Evangelical dialogue

A recent article in a journal with close ties to the Vatican published an article asserting an unhealthy “ecumenism of conflict” between Catholics and Evangelicals on the right, claiming they are pushing a dangerous theocratic vision on America. However, those who have carried forward the fairly successful Evangelical-Catholic ecumenism in the United States have been some of the best and the brightest of mainstream Catholics.