St. Pope John Paul II Archives

In tempest over Benedict XVI and book on celibacy, ‘It is as it was’

Jan 15, 2020

The current fracas surrounding Benedict XVI and a new book on priestly celibacy is eerily reminiscent of the tempest that erupted in 2003/2004 around St. John Paul II’s alleged endorsement of Mel Gibson’s movie “The Passion of the Christ,” expressed in the infamous soundbite, “It is as it was.”

By John L. Allen Jr.

Why Greta, not Boris, may be the right way to assess Francis’s political impact

Dec 15, 2019

Perhaps we can’t judge the impact of Pope Francis on politics by the usual measures, because, befitting his Argentinian populist outlook, he’s more interested in horizontal rather than vertical change.

By John L. Allen Jr.

Church now faces ‘Sheen dilemma’ in evaluating saints and their halos

Dec 8, 2019

Going forward, in order to claim a halo, any candidate who was in a leadership position in the Church – meaning, usually, a bishop or religious superior – will have to be shown to have had “clean hands” on the abuse scandals.

By John L. Allen Jr.

New book on the rosary highlights St. John Paul II’s devotion to it

Nov 30, 2019

If the use of the rosary as a devotion fell off at some point in the past, that’s not the case now, according to Gretchen R. Crowe, Our Sunday Visitor’s editorial director for periodicals.

By Mark Pattison

In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Pope Francis bids to be “norm entrepreneur”

Nov 24, 2019

Every pope over the last seven decades has supported nuclear disarmament, so there’s nothing novel in Francis doing the same.

By John L. Allen Jr.

On Catholicism, Key West, and taking comfort in the present

Nov 10, 2019

One way the Catholic instinct seeps through in Key West is a tendency among locals to compare the present state of the place unfavorably to a half-remembered, half-imagined past.

By John L. Allen Jr.