Category: Visit
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BREAKING: Pope Francis not a “cafeteria Catholic” either.
Remember when I said that whether you considered yourself a conservative Catholic or a liberal Catholic or a (any other adjective) Catholic, eventually the gospel would make you choose whether you were more loyal to the descriptor or the Catholic part? Suppose you are Pope Francis, and you believe in the entirety of the Catholic…
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No analysis. Just an invitation.
Pope Francis has left the country. Commentators will spend a lot of energy talking about what his visit to the US meant, what changes might happen, and what’s next. The pope returns to the Vatican to prepare for a synod of bishops on the family that is expected to be a significant event that will…
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The serious theological discussion about politics and economics that we won’t have on this papal visit.
No “Home Alone Francis” on this one. Real quick: Maybe I can expound later, but there are two key theological points that undergird the angst around Pope Francis and his social teachings. Look for them deep in the arguments you hear pro and con about whatever he says in the US this week: Theological anthropology…
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Pope Francis Blowback, Part 2: the George Will edition
This was a tough week. An idol of sorts got knocked off his pedestal, and really just about defenestrated. When I was in seminary, I had to defend my honors thesis to a committee, which is nothing unusual. What was, in retrospect, funny, was that the highest compliment I got from the committee (other than…
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A Catholic Congressman is Boycotting Pope Francis. Let me count the reasons this saddens me.
As Pope Francis prepares to make history by becoming the first pope to address a joint session of Congress, one Congressman has made news by declaring he will boycott the pope’s visit, because the Congressman believes the pope is going to focus on climate change (which is probably a fair bet) instead of other Catholic…
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Welcome to America! Let us shower you with unrealistic expectations!
Apparently, Pope Francis is coming to the United States. Because this pope has been so surprising, so candid, and so open, just about everyone has some sort of expectation of what he will do and say – in his unprecedented address to Congress, in his White House visit, in his time in Philadelphia coinciding with…
Reading Francis 