John L Allen Jr/ Crux, Author at Catholic Herald

John L Allen Jr/ Crux

Is the Pope above the law? More questions as Vatican ‘trial of the century’ continues

November 12, 2023

ROME – At one level, the question facing the three judges overseeing the Vatican’s long-running “trial of the century,” who are expected to deliver a verdict next month, is extremely straight-forward: Are the defendants innocent or guilty of the various forms of financial crime with which they’ve been charged? Yet lurking beneath and beyond the

Explaining Pope Francis’s perceived ‘ambiguity’ on Israel and Judaism

November 09, 2023

ROME – Leaders often speak at least as loudly by what they don’t say as by what they do, and such would appear to be the case in recent days regarding Pope Francis’s approach to Israel and the broader Jewish world. A series of perceived papal slights began in late October, when a group of

Vatican has unique role to play in tempering Iran

November 07, 2023

ROME – As the war between Israel and Hamas intensifies on the Gaza Strip, so too does diplomatic activity intended to prevent a wider regional conflict. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, for instance, currently is setting new records for frequent flyer miles in a single week, visiting virtually every Middle Eastern capital of note.

Welcome questions only? The dubious art of the modern papal interview

November 05, 2023

ROME – In 2010, Nevada senatorial candidate Sharron Angle, a right-wing Tea Party stalwart, briefly became a national sensation due to some fairly self-parodying comments about the press. In an interview with Fox News, complaining about the way negative media coverage had damaged her poll numbers, Angle delivered her immortal line. “We needed to have

Francis and Rupnik: ‘people are going to want an explanation’

October 29, 2023

ROME – Back in 1980, William Casey, then the campaign manager for candidate Ronald Reagan, coined the phrase “October surprise” to refer to the possibility that incumbent President Jimmy Carter might try to do something dramatic, such as freeing the American hostages in Iran, to boost his prospects ahead of the November elections. In the

Does the same fate await ‘synodality’ as befell ‘new evangelisation’?

October 17, 2023

ROME – As the Synod of Bishops on Synodality continues to unfold in Rome this month, it’s increasingly reminiscent of another synod just over a decade ago: The Synod of Bishops on New Evangelisation, which took place under Pope Benedict XVI Oct. 7-28, 2012. Consider the following parallels: Those similarities are already matters of record.

Conflict in Holy Land puts increasing strain on Israeli-Vatican relations

October 15, 2023

ROME – Wars, especially in the 21st century, are fought on multiple levels. Beyond what happens on the battlefield, there’s also the “soft power” contest to claim the high moral ground, and in that sense, one of the emerging fronts in the bloody conflict in Gaza now pits Israel against the Christian leadership of the Holy

Pope’s Synod media blackout backfires as Cardinal Zen is handed a platform

October 06, 2023

ROME – Yesterday’s big news out of the Synod of Bishops really did come from outside, i.e., it didn’t emanate from within the Paul VI Audience Hall where the event is taking place, but rather from someone who isn’t even there: 91-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen, the retired Bishop of Hong Kong, whose September 21 critical

Synodal secrecy: is Pope Francis relying on murmuring, rather than megaphones?

October 01, 2023

ROME – In the annals of church affairs, some synods are sufficiently famous – or, as the case may be, infamous – as to merit their own informal title. In the late 9th century, for instance, Pope Stephen VI decided to dig up his dead predecessor, Formosus, and put him on trial, which ended with the

Rome prepares for pre-synod frenzy with packed schedule starting this week

September 26, 2023

ROME – The Synod of Bishops on Synodality is this autumn’s Catholic equivalent of the American Super Bowl. As a result, the next few days are similarly chock-full of what might be described as pre-game activities, creating an extremely busy period in and around Rome. Things kick off Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. Rome time,

“Putin’s Pope”? A just or unjust title, there may be trouble ahead

September 10, 2023

ROME – Yesterday Crux carried two stories which, at first blush, appear unrelated. The first concerned the latest Ukrainian backlash against Pope Francis’s praise of “Great Mother Russia,” while the second covered the discovery of a previously unnoticed bit of anti-fascist graffiti from the WWII years in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. Yet pushing beyond the headlines, the two stories

Mongolia and the papacy: thinking in centuries

September 03, 2023

ROME – Legendarily, the Vatican thinks in centuries. There’s a sense in which Pope Francis’s visit to Mongolia this week, the first ever by a pontiff, is a voyage that’s been almost 800 years in the making. It was in 1245 that an emissary of a pope first made his way to the court of

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