John L Allen Jr/ Crux, Author at Catholic Herald

John L Allen Jr/ Crux

Listening to whom? Time to hear from those affected by easily-abused anti-blasphemy laws

August 20, 2023

ROME – In just a little over a month, the curtain will rise on a keenly anticipated Synod of Bishops on Synodality in Rome. Though notoriously difficult to define, “synodality” generally refers to the idea of the whole Church journeying together, with members listening to one another in establishing priorities and policies. To date, much

Sicilian bishop dedicates parish to ‘martyrs’ of the Mafia

August 11, 2023

ROME – In the heart of Italy’s mob country, a new Catholic parish is being dedicated to the premier patron saints of the anti-Mafia effort, one a Catholic priest and the other a lay judge, both murdered in the 1990s. Bishop Giuseppe Marciante of Cefalù, located on the island of Sicily near Palermo, announced the

“A stone in the shoe”: the Francis revolution

August 06, 2023

ROME — A broad consensus regards Pope Francis, who today wraps up a five-day trip to Lisbon for World Youth Day, as a revolutionary figure. His ambitious agenda over the last decade has aroused both delight and division, both inside and outside the Catholic Church. However, the pontiff’s most recent blockbuster media interview – and

Careful what you wish for: synodality and the latest Syro-Malabar controversies

July 23, 2023

Cardinal George Alencherry after being given his distinctive red hat by Pope Benedict XVI. Getty Images. ROME – Though it’s always presumptuous to assert what Pope Francis must be thinking, I’m still willing to bet good money that when he sat about the “synodalization” of Catholicism, the current tempest raging in India’s Syro-Malabar Church is

The day when American planes rained 4,000 bombs upon the Eternal City

July 20, 2023

ROME – Rome is a city that prides itself on having seen it all over the course of its millennia-long history, so much so that “Been there, done that” might well be the unofficial civic motto. Here’s how journalist Fabrizio Roncone summed up Roman reaction to the record heat this week, which reached an official

US President meets a papal envoy pleading for peace, and a cruel case of déjà vu

July 18, 2023

ROME – Though all analogies are inexact, it’s nevertheless tempting to say that with regard to Cardinal Matteo Zuppi’s meeting today with US President Joe Biden regarding a war, we’ve been down this road before. The question is whether this journey will end the same way, or whether another outcome is possible. Twenty years ago,

Too close for comfort: the lessons of the Russian Orthodox Church for the Vatican’s status as a sovereign state

July 16, 2023

ROME – Back in 2007, the prestigious English news magazine The Economist carried an article on Vatican diplomacy, which concluded with a bit of unsolicited advice: The Vatican, the journal opined, “could renounce its special diplomatic status and call itself what it is – the biggest non-governmental organization in the world.” The Vatican was not amused. The

The consistory of a pope in a hurry

July 10, 2023

ROME – A consistory, the event in which a pope creates new cardinals, is always a carefully choreographed bit of theatre, with production values rivaling any Broadway musical. In that spirit, if the September 30 consistory announced today by Pope Francis were to be set to music, there would be a clear choice for its

← 1 2 3 4

Sorry, no search matching search results found. Please try again.