Almost 27 years ago I attended a debate between Rowan Williams and Graham Leonard in Christ Church College at Oxford University. The debate was on the possibility of ordaining women to the priesthood. Pope John Paul II had ruled that the Catholic Church was not competent to change the tradition and
From the beginning of his rule, Vladimir V. Putin has assumed that his ability to govern Russia was highly dependent on the strength of the ideological justification of his power. Indeed, he was never elected according to even elementary democratic standards. For this reason, the state’s ideol
On Sept. 18, an electorate of 4.1 million people living in Scotland will participate in a referendum on the question: Should Scotland be an independent country?Behind that concise and apparently simple question lies a complex array of political, economic, social and emotive issues, many of which are
Concern for the poor is a major focus for Pope Francis, and it should be for each of us. The psalmist reminds us, “The Lord takes delight in his people, honors the poor with victory” (Ps 149:4). How many times have we heard Pope Francis say that he wants a church “that is poor and
Honoring Cardinal Ortega’s 50 years at the dangerous intersection of church and Cuban politics
Rus’ and RussiaIn “The West Knows Best?” (5/19), Margot Patterson writes that in the 13th century “Russia’s western neighbors took advantage of her weakness to seize portions of Russia and the western half of Ukraine and to annex these to Western Christendom.” Thi
Gaza is being reduced to rubble while the world watches on YouTube and CNN. It has been as dispiriting a display of inhumanity and failure as one can imagine, yet it has not been enough to compel either side to accept a halt to the carnage. Each night new images of what Israeli Prime Minister Benjam