Politics Archives

A decade of championing Church teaching on economics, immigration, and poverty
- Church in the US
- May 31, 2017
Just as Americans are divided culturally and politically, they’re divided in the pews, as well. For 12 years, Steve Schneck and the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies has worked to bring people together from across the political spectrum to speak about the social teaching of the Church.
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Francis will seek to forge a relationship “to do good” with Trump
- Commentary, Pope/Trump
- May 20, 2017
Pope Francis wants to be in relationship with world leaders, whomever they are, and whatever their views, so that when the opportunity to work together arises, the bond is there. That doesn’t mean he won’t have an agenda when he meets President Donald Trump on May 24. He is conscious that Trump, by virtue of his office, holds the well-being of millions of people in his hands.
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The ‘Benedict Option’ is not enough
- Church in the US, Interviews
- April 26, 2017
Theologian Michael Baxter offers a critique of “The Benedict Option,” in which writer Rod Dreher proposes Christians withdraw from political life in America. Baxter says Dreher is right to seek a more robust form of Christian commitment shaping how we live, but has a flawed understanding of how “Christian” the United States has been in the past.
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Vatican’s top African challenges Trump to think globally

Arguably the most important African in the Vatican today, Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, head of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human development, says Trump is caught in a conflict of values on immigration — does pursuing an ‘insular’ version of American security, he asks, really contribute to making the world safer?

Cardinal says African Church ‘substitutes’ for failed states

Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo of the Democratic Republic of Congo says that in many African societies, the Catholic Church historically has served as a substitute for the state, especially when those states have failed, explaining why Catholic prelates on the continent play such a directly political role in African affairs.

Religious leaders at inauguration stress piety over politics

Six religious leaders, five Christians and one Jew, prayed at Friday’s inauguration ceremony for President Donald Trump, and for the most part, they stressed piety over politics, offering prayers that could be shared by Americans of virtually any political persuasion.