"The 'Man From the End of the World'"

"The papacy has for centuries brought with it a place on the world stage. Francis, who from the off gave the impression of being a man in a hurry, was determined to use that platform to push a bottom-up agenda for the world. He insisted that Catholicism would henceforth be 'a poor church for the poor', and returned time and again in his pronouncements to the need to close the economic gap between developed and developing nations."

Peter Standord at The Guardian writes an obituary for Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis.

"The Magic Theories of 'Spillover' or 'Trickle'"

"Francis calls this economic theory an 'impoverished and repetitive school of thought' that 'does not resolve the inequality that gives rise to new forms of violence threatening the fabric of society', instead eroding the trust that enables human economies to flourish. He cites as an example the manifest failure of market capitalism and consumer individualism to support a large-scale community response to the coronavirus pandemic."

Mary Harrington at UnHerd reacts to Pope Francis's "Fratelli Tutti" encyclical.

"To Tear Francis Down"

"When Benedict, a Bavarian theologian nicknamed 'God's Rottweiler,' stepped down earlier that year, he still had significant support in the Vatican for his most extreme conservative stances—he once quoted fourteenth-century texts that criticized Islam as 'evil and inhuman'; lifted the excommunication of a British bishop who denied the Holocaust; and claimed condoms worsened the fight against AIDS. Since then, conservative dissenters in the Catholic hierarchy have formed a resistance of sorts, pushing back against Francis's pronouncements on divorce, immigration, climate change, and poverty. 
"Much of this resistance comes from the United States."

Kaya Oakes at The New Republic describes how "[s]ome Catholic leaders are using the sex abuse crisis to unseat Pope Francis."

"It's Never Been More Obvious That This Is Precisely What Pope Francis Has in Mind"

"But I think the pope's strategy for a longer game displays greater psychological acuity—and Machiavellian cunning. Francis may be betting that once the church stops preaching those doctrines that conflict most severely with modern moral norms, the number of people who uphold and revere them will decline rapidly (within a generation or two). Once that has happened, officially changing the doctrine will be much easier and much less likely to provoke a schism (or at least a major one) than it is in the present."

Damon Linker at The Week discusses Pope Francis's "strategy of stealth reform."

"'You Either Have It or You Don't Have It. And If You Have It, You Can't Get Rid of It.'"

"Prejudices borne of past violence are difficult to overcome. For more than a century following Luther, Christian reformers and their political allies across Europe battled with the Catholic Church-aligned Holy Roman Empire. Catholics slaughtered Protestants; Protestants slaughtered Catholics; and both persecuted groups like the Anabaptists, who championed adult rather than infant baptism. Most traditions did not develop their distinctiveness by accident; many religious leaders staked their lives on their particular interpretation of the Bible."

Emma Green at The Atlantic looks at the state of ecumenism five hundred years after Martin Luther.

And at The Nation, Elizabeth Bruenig reviews new books on Luther.

"A Fanatic, a Fundamentalist, and a Fraud"

"MT was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction. And she was a friend to the worst of the rich, taking misappropriated money from the atrocious Duvalier family in Haiti (whose rule she praised in return) and from Charles Keating of the Lincoln Savings and Loan. Where did that money, and all the other donations, go? The primitive hospice in Calcutta was as run down when she died as it always had been—she preferred California clinics when she got sick herself—and her order always refused to publish any audit. But we have her own claim that she opened 500 convents in more than a hundred countries, all bearing the name of her own order. Excuse me, but this is modesty and humility?"

In light of Pope Francis canonizing Mother Teresa as a saint, Slate re-runs a 2003 article by Christopher Hitchens.

"Yet We Have to Acknowledge That Pope John Paul's Warnings About the Excesses of Untrammeled Finance Were Deeply Prescient"

"Over a century ago, Pope Leo XIII highlighted economic issues and challenges in Rerum Novarum that continue to haunt us today, such as what he called 'the enormous wealth of a few as opposed to the poverty of the many.'
"And let us be clear. That situation is worse today. In the year 2016, the top one percent of the people on this planet own more wealth than the bottom 99 percent, while the wealthiest 60 people–60 people–own more than the bottom half–3 1/2 billion people. At a time when so few have so much, and so many have so little, we must reject the foundations of this contemporary economy as immoral and unsustainable."

Time publishes a transcript of Bernie Sanders's speech at the Vatican.

Is Donald Trump "Bringing Anti-Catholicism Back"?

"The fear that Catholic politicians are pawns of Roman bishops and will pay homage to a foreign potentate rather than supporting their own republic is well established, and anti-Catholic bigotry has a rich lineage in the United States and elsewhere. Evangelical Protestants, a consistently Republican-leaning group that Trump hopes to court, are historically mistrustful of Catholicism and have grown increasingly wary throughout Francis's tenure—going so far as to warn conservative Catholics that the Pope is moving the church to the left."

In The Washington Post, Christine Emba identifies a new, but old, development in the presidential race.

Is the Pope Democratic?

"To greatly oversimplify, Democrats believe the U.S. needs to regulate the economy and the environment, while allowing people to make their own choices about whom they marry and whether to have an abortion. Republicans—again, oversimplifying greatly—think people should generally be able to do what they want with their money and their carbon footprint, but social behavior should be regulated by the state. Francis aligns more with Democrats than Republicans on other issues: He favors immigration reform, played a major role in the Obama administration’s détente with Cuba, and supports the Iran nuclear deal. No wonder the president and other American liberals are trying to claim him—and conservatives see him as a threat."

Molly Ball in The Atlantic answers the above question in the affirmative.

"A Participant in European Colonialism—or Even Genocide—Against Indigenous People"

"Some have suggested Francis may feel a kinship with Serra, who left a cushy academic position in Spain for a remote and often grueling posting, but the canonization seems odd from a pope who has made a point of apologizing for the church's 'many grave sins' against indigenous peoples. He's widely expected to address this dark history during the canonization today, but for many descendants of those Serra was sent to convert it will ring pretty hollow."

Joshua Keating in Slate discusses the elevation of Junipero Serra to sainthood.

The People's Pope

"The pope's religious message—that the Gospel should be joyful, merciful, and embrace everyone, especially the poor—is plain and direct. And yet the political strategies he uses to enact that vision are sophisticated and even wily. Inside the Church, he has set out to modernize the Vatican, rooting out corruption and careerism and placing the pastoral care of ordinary people before dogma and rules. Love and inclusion now come before judgment and condemnation. In the larger world, his mission is just as radical: to realign global policy to better aid the poor and excluded. That has included pushing nations to address the prickly issues of climate change and economic inequality."

Paul Vallely in New York discusses Pope Francis ahead of the pontiff's visit to the United States.

Nathan Schneider at Reuters looks at Pope Francis's "economics of cooperation."

"What Is Within His Power to Do"

"But for Francis, this might not be a bad thing in the long run. As the world grows wearily acquainted with the pontiff, the greatest source of collective frustration seems to be that he is, at the end of the day, a rather traditional Catholic. His great success as a Pope has arisen not from his willingness to import new or extra-doctrinal ideas into standing Catholic doctrine, but from his ability to present classic facets of Christian theology and Catholic tradition in a way that makes them relevant and exciting. His credibility within the Church (however grudgingly conservatives regard his choice of subjects) depends on this steadfast commitment to the Church's long tradition. And the credibility of the Church depends, in large part, on that as well."


Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig in The New Republic looks at Pope Francis's declining popularity in the United States.

"Dynamists and Catastrophists"

"This is a document aligned with the scientific consensus on climate that excoriates the modern scientific mind-set as, in effect, a 500-year mistake. It's a document calling for global action, even a 'new world political authority,' that's drenched in frank contempt for the existing global leadership class. It's a document that urges a rapid move away from fossil fuels while explicitly criticizing the leading avenue for doing so—a cap and trade regime—as too 'quick and easy,' too compromised by greed and self-interest, to 'allow for the radical change which present circumstances require.'
 

And while it includes hopeful passages, the encyclical's most pungent lines are apocalyptic: 'Doomsday predictions can no longer be met with irony or disdain. We may well be leaving to coming generations debris, desolation and filth.'"

Ross Douthat in The New York Times reads Pope Francis's "Laudato Si'."

"Reaganites Should Be Embarrassed"

"It was eventually revealed by The New York Times that the Reagan administration knew more about the Salvadoran regime's complicity and participation in atrocities than it had led Congress to believe. Soon after the truth commission published its findings, the Times reported that the 'Reagan Administration withheld its own evidence of Mr. D'Aubuisson's death squad activities from members of Congress who argued that Washington should have no dealings with terrorists.'

"Suspicion that D'Aubuisson was involved in Romero's death didn't stop U.S. officials and other conservatives from praising him."

Joel Gillin in The New Republic reacts to Pope Francis's declaration of martyrdom for Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador.

"We'll Keep Searching for the Truth"

"I give you: Pope Francis himself, Bishop of Rome. In a recent interview in The National Catholic Review he said:
     'The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left      
     room for doubt. You must leave room for the Lord, not for our
     certainties; we must be humble. Uncertainty is in every true discernment
     that is open to finding confirmation in spiritual consolation.'"


James Fallows at The Atlantic reacts to President Obama's National Prayer Breakfast speech.


David M. Perry at The Guardian reacts to the reactions.

"He Wanted the Full Debate, and He's Getting It"

"The synod document, a concrete reflection of the Francis papacy, in effect takes the weapons out of the hands of the hierarchical culture warriors. One might measure its significance in the pushback by groups who in the past prided themselves on their orthodoxy and adherence to papal and hierarchical teaching. They are in a fury and are not hiding their disappointment and rejection of the synod's thinking. Voice of the Family, which identifies itself as a coalition of 15 international pro-family Catholic groups, termed the document 'nothing short of a "betrayal" of Catholic and family values. And the blog Rorate Caeli, an extreme conservative Catholic site, described the document as a 'heresy, the homoheresy,' and in contradiction of the Gospel and Catholic tradition."


Tom Roberts in The New Republic reacts to the Vatican's continuing Extraordinary Synod on the Family.

"This Is the Defining Challenge of Our Time"

"So the basic bargain at the heart of our economy has frayed. In fact, this trend towards growing inequality is not unique to America’s market economy; across the developed world, inequality has increased. Some--some of you may have seen just last week, the pope himself spoke about this at eloquent length. How could it be, he wrote, that it’s not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?
"But this increasing inequality is most pronounced in our country, and it challenges the very essence of who we are as a people."

The Washington Post publishes a transcript of President Obama's speech on inequality.

Paul Krugman in The New York Times praises the speech.

And in the Los Angeles Times, Michael Hiltzik writes that "Obama gave the most important speech of his presidency."

"A 'Self-Styled Revolutionary' who Wants to Change the Church Fundamentally"

"'It seems he’s focusing on bringing back the left that’s fallen away, but what about the conservatives?' said Ms. Kurt, a hospice community educator. 'Even when it was discouraging working in pro-life, you always felt like Mother Teresa was on your side and the popes were encouraging you. Now I feel kind of thrown under the bus.'       

"In the eight months since he became pope, Francis has won affection worldwide for his humble mien and common touch. His approval numbers are skyrocketing. Even atheists are applauding.

"But not everyone is so enchanted. Some Catholics in the church’s conservative wing in the United States say Francis has left them feeling abandoned and deeply unsettled."

Laurie Goodstein in The New York Times writes about conservative Catholics who worry about Pope Francis.

"Both God and Expensive Political Consultants Are Seeing This as a Season for Preferential Treatment of the Poor"

"And while here in New York, de Blasio's affection for it will surely be used to paint a picture of him as a class warrior, it's a philosophy meant to be constructive rather than destructive. Pope Francis has talked about how he has tried to listen, above all else, to what the world needs right now, and concentrate on "reading the signs of the times" in his spiritual discernment."

Noreen Malone at The New Republic discusses liberation theology in relation to Bill de Blasio and Pope Francis.