By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
News Analysis
Debates over when life begins are by now wearily familiar, if no closer to resolution ? witness Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama?s recent comment that pegging a precise moment is ?above my pay grade.? Yet a Sept. 2 article in L?Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, suggests that an equally agonizing debate is brewing at the other end of the biological continuum ? not over when life begins, but when it ends.
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
When news broke yesterday that Republican presidential candidate John McCain had named little-known Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate, religion writers across the country and the curious in the blogosphere scrambled to figure out her denominational affiliation.
Palin was briefly touted as the first Pentecostal to run on a major party ticket. A spokesperson, however, told the Associated Press yesterday that although the 44-year-old mother of five grew up in the Assemblies of God, the largest organized Pentecostal denomination in the world with an estimated 57 million members, she does not consider herself a ?Pentecostal.?
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Denver
As the Democratic National Convention opens in Denver, here?s an irony worth pondering: Perhaps the most disappointed group in America over the choice of a Roman Catholic as the party?s nominee for Vice-President may well be the country?s Catholic bishops.
That?s not necessarily any reflection on the personal merits of Delaware Senator Joseph Biden, but rather what kind of Catholic he is, and what that means for the American bishops between now and November 4 (and perhaps for four or eight years after that).
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Summer 2008 is chock full of Catholic anniversaries, from the 40th birthday of Humanae Vitae to the 30th observance of the death of Pope Paul VI. One such milestone, however, does not appear on any official church calendars: it?s now been 25 years since the June 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old girl and Vatican citizen whose fate has become one of the most enduring Vatican mysteries of the 20th century.
The morning of Wednesday, August 6, Pope Benedict XVI met with some 400 priests of the diocese of Bolzano-Bressanone in the local cathedral. He was welcomed by the local bishop, made some brief opening remarks, and then took six questions. The pope spoke in German and Italian; the following is a rush NCR translation of the transcript of the exchange released this morning by the Vatican.
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Pope Benedict XVI told a group of priests yesterday that he was once ?more severe? in terms of administering baptism and confirmation to ill-prepared or lukewarm candidates, but today he?s inclined to be generous wherever there is even ?a flicker of desire for communion in the faith.?
The pope also conceded that, over the centuries, Christianity?s commitment to environmental protection may not always have been sufficiently clear. He argued, however, that belief in God is essential to sound ecology, because ultimately a materialist philosophy places no limits on humanity?s exploitation of nature.
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Several leading lights among Catholic communicators, including the Vatican spokesperson and both the current and former heads of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, discuss the role and the future of Catholic media in a new program produced by Salt and Light TV, the national Catholic television network of Canada.
The program may be found on-line here: Salt and Light FOCUS
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
According to a Vatican statement released early Monday morning in Australia, Pope Benedict XVI has met with four victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, listening to their stories and celebrating Mass for them.
The meeting came at the end of Benedict's July 12-21 visit to Sydney, Australia, for World Youth Day. On Saturday, the pope delivered a public apology for the sex abuse crisis, saying he was "deeply sorry" and that he shared the suffering of the victims.
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Pope Benedict XVI announced today that the next World Youth Day will take place in Madrid, Spain, in 2011.
The pope made the announcement at the conclusion of his Sunday Angelus address, delivered after the closing Mass of World Youth Day in Australia, held at Sydney?s Randwick Racecourse.
The choice of Madrid as the setting for the next international gathering of Catholic youth was first reported by NCR earlier this week.
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
In language that was at turns almost lyrical, Pope Benedict XVI today offered a paean to ?new age? spirituality ? though, to be sure, certainly not of the ?tune in, turn on and drop out? variety.
Instead, Benedict described a vision of the ?new age? proclaimed by Christ, and animated by the Holy Spirit, in which:
? ?Love is not greedy or self-seeking, but pure, faithful and genuinely free, open to others, respectful of their dignity, seeking their good, radiating joy and beauty?;