Center

ROME – One of Pope Francis’s signature innovations is the World Meeting of Popular Movements, a kind of Davos from the bottom up intended to give voice to grassroots organizations, including workers who are at risk or lack job security, all striving to correct what the pontiff has called an “economy of exclusion and inequality.” From the beginning, Francis has been the world’s leading moral critic of a sort of savage free-market global capitalism, an “economy that kills,” and has relentlessly argued for embracing the ordinary working poor left behind by such a system. When such workers take to the streets to protest government measures that leave them unable to do their jobs, and thus impoverished and alone, under ordinary circumstances one would expect Pope Francis to be the cheerleader-i...

Happy Friday friends, And a special Happy Birthday to the pope emeritus Benedict XVI, who turns 94 today. History will remember the theologian formerly known as Joseph Ratzinger for many reasons, but for me he will always be the pope who came to my office one day and changed my life. In 2010, I was working in the House of Commons and Pope Benedict was making a state visit to the UK. By chance or by grace, I was given two tickets in the seventh row for his address to the joint houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall. “The fundamental questions at stake in Thomas More’s trial continue to present themselves in ever-changing terms as new social conditions emerge,” the pope said.  “If the moral principles underpinning the democratic process are themselves determined by nothing more solid ...

My 13 year old daughter and I went fishing recently. I was looking forward to this time with her, but after about 30 minutes of not catching any fish, she gave up. No coaxing could get her to fish anymore. Since she wasn’t catching anything, she thought fishing was pointless. Of course everybody who fishes will have times when no fish are caught. This is just a reality of fishing. You might have the right gear, the right location, the best weather, and be an expert fisherman and yet you still might get skunked some days. While having expertise, training, strategy, and experience are all valuable (and may increase the odds of catching fish) you can strike out on any given day. This is just one of many reasons Jesus connected evangelizing to fishing. The ones fishing aren’t in control of the...

It’s a short scene from second season of “The Crown,” but certainly one the illustrates what the creators of the Netflix series thought of Prince Philip Mountbatten-Windsor — at least at one stage of his dramatic life. In 1955, while Graham was in Scotland leading a crusade in Glasgow, the Billy Graham received a note from Buckingham Palace inviting him to preach on Easter morning in the private chapel at the Royal Lodge. It’s a poignant scene, especially when paired with another in which Graham visits the queen to discuss an important subject — the need to forgive others. In the chapel, Graham discusses Christian faith in highly evangelical language, describing the need to have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. Queen Elizabeth listens attentively. Prince Philip is clearly bored, ups...

In his runaway 5 million copy bestseller “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos” (Random House Canada, $25.95), Jordan Peterson emphasized the need for order. In his new book “Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life” (Portfolio / Penguin, $29), he worries about the opposite danger: the attempt to eliminate chaos.  A meaningful life, Peterson argues, is lived on the border of order and chaos, of conservatism and liberalism, of preserving the wisdom of the past and creating transformation for the future. Without order, the present is too tumultuous, dangerous, and unpredictable. Without chaos, the present is too stultified, stifling, and sterile. We need yin, but we also need yang. Peterson is known for his simple piece of advice, “Clean your room.” But cleaning your room is not enough.&...

Whenever I’ve written about hygiene theater, some people have responded with the same objection: “Hey, what’s the matter with washing our hands?” That’s an easy one: Absolutely nothing. “Pandemic or no pandemic, you should wash your hands, especially after you prepare food, go to the bathroom,” or touch something yucky, Goldman said. But hygiene theater carries with it an immense opportunity cost. Too many institutions spend scarce funds or sacrifice scarce resources to do microbial battle against fomites that don’t pose a real threat. This is especially true of cash-strapped urban-transit authorities and school districts that have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on soap technology rather than their central task of transporting and teaching people. Hygiene theater also muddles the pu...

In one sense, the latest numbers from Gallup on religious membership in the U.S. are hardly newsworthy. The rate of membership has been dropping steadily since the turn of the 21st century, and the 3% decrease between 2018 and 2021 is simply par for the course. But while the incremental drop isn’t especially significant, the threshold crossed in the process is.  For the first time ever, fewer than half of Americans say they belong to a church or other religious community. The rate, which hovered around 70% for decades before beginning its gradual decline in 2000, is now only 47%. Stephen Bullivant, a professor of theology and sociology as St. Mary’s University in the United Kingdom, described the sub-50% figure as a “symbolic marker.” “This is one more little data point alongside a gr...

There are endless rankings of the US states: whether they are the best places to live, the best places to do business, how much fun they are. Such judgements are made by economists, companies, and journalists – but what do Americans themselves think?  We asked people to choose the better of two states in a series of head-to-head matchups. States are rated based on their “win percentage”, that is: how often that state won the head-to-head matchup when it was one of the two states shown.  All 50 states were shown, in addition to Washington, D.C., but territories were not included.  Hawaii, which is well-known for its beautiful beaches and warm weather, took the top spot by winning 69% of its matchups. With its scenic mountains, hiking paths, and recreational marijuana industry...

Officials in the Brazilian city of Encantado have embarked on the construction of a statue of Jesus set to be roughly 16 feet taller than the famous Christ the Redeemer statue that has overlooked Rio de Janeiro for decades. CNN reported Monday that a Brazilian organization called the Friends of Christ Association is leading the project in southern Brazil, which has already begun the construction of a 141-foot-tall statue of Jesus Christ with outstretched arms like the Cristo Redentor statue. The new statue is set to be titled Christ the Protector and will be the third-tallest statue of Jesus in the world following a 172-foot statue in Poland and a massive 253-foot statue being built in Mexico. ADVERTISEMENT The goal of the project...

A Catholic charity at the center of a recent video from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has strongly condemned the accusations they are involved in “smuggling children” at the U.S-Mexico. The Infowars host uploaded a video in which he confronts a driver outside Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in the city of McAllen, Texas, while repeatedly accusing him of trafficking the migrant children he is transporting. At one point, Jones steps in front of the car to stop it from driving away after noticing the children do not have seatbelts in the back of the vehicle. “You are violating Texas law,” Jones yells. “We know you’re smuggling these kids. You’ve got them in the back of [the car] without children’s seats.” Jones and other membe...

As we all know, this was perhaps the strangest Easter that any of us have experienced  at least collectively. The liturgical calendar shouts new life and victory over the grave, and yet throughout the world, many are hunkered down in the fear of death. Despite the Easter glow these are dark days for many who suffer illness or economic stress. But, to be sure, the first Easter was experienced in great uncertainty and danger.  Recent readings from Scripture have this theme. The readings in daily Mass this past week (from the Acts of the Apostles) show the joy of a poor, lame man healed by Peter and John at the Gate called Beautiful. By week’s end Peter and John were arrested for the “dangerous” act of glorifying Jesus and forced to appear before the Jewish court...

ROME – Yesterday morning, I found myself in the check-out line at our local Roman supermarket. I like to do the weekend shopping fairly early on Saturday, because the stores here won’t restock again until Monday morning and, if you wait too long, they’ll run out of a few basics. Thus it was that I was next in line to pay, with a groaning full cart, when an old lady hobbled up holding just a few items. I waved her ahead, and, now on friendly terms, we began chatting. At one point she asked what I do for a living, and when I told her I’m a journalist covering the Vatican, it was off to the races. “The Vatican?” she scoffed. “What a joke.  The monsignors always have their hands out when they’re not looking for little boys, the bishops get fat while people suffer, and the cardinals are st...