On November 22 five staff from America Magazine, two Jesuits and three laypeople, interviewed Pope Francis on topics ranging from polarization in the U.S. church to racism, the war in Ukraine, the Vatican’s relations with China, and...
On November 1, All Saints Day, the Catholic News Service reported on President Biden’s visit with Pope Francis. I’ll begin with a background note, then examine what the participants said about the meeting, and, finally, consider what message it sent...
Polls reveal that a large majority of Catholics have a positive view of Pope Francis. However, far fewer look to him for moral guidance. (In one study, only 11% did.) It is therefore difficult to know how many Catholics are...
President Biden has made clear his belief that everyone has a moral obligation to receive the Covid vaccine. The refusal of many citizens to act accordingly has, in his view, put the health of many Americans at risk. He therefore signed an executive...
There is a truism in science dating back several centuries that states the book of science is always open. Man-made global warming a.k.a. climate change, thanks to erstwhile President Barack Obama, is the first and the only scientific issue where...
If there is one issue of Catholic moral teaching that has wasted more time and energy of the faithful in the pews, it is the death penalty. Acceptance and approval of capital punishment within the Catholic Church has varied throughout history...
Pope Francis’ new book, Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future, was published on December 1, 2020. The publisher called the book, co-authored by Francis’ biographer Austen Ivereigh, “an epiphany” and “a call to arms” and noted that it...
Canonizing Joe Biden? I know my Republican friends will think this is a misprint. A week or so ago I would have thought the same thing. I regarded Biden as a man of little competence and less integrity whose most significant “achievement” was using...
