Pope Francis’ decision to establish ten working groups whose task goes beyond the Synod is worth considering. The individual groups are interesting when considered in terms of their subject-matter, both for what they include and for what they don’t. The players are also interesting to consider. Who gets a seat at one of the [...]

There’s plenty of grist for the mill in the excerpts of Pope Francis’s autobiography, published last week in Italy’s Corriere della sera. One thing, however, is particularly striking: Pope Francis feels hurt by the claim that “Francis is destroying the Papacy.”

The Pope’s response was this: “My vocation is the priestly one: first of [...]

That the trial on the management of the Secretariat of State’s funds would lead to consequences and difficulties for the Holy See was understandable from the moment the Vatican Tribunal issued the sentence. The court itself presented inconsistent choices and a line of judgment that seemed to vary depending on the situations. Only the [...]

Perhaps the biggest problem with the profile of the next Pope provided by Demos II is that it seems to be part of a disembodied world. Just as Pope Francis is elusive in his decisions, Demos becomes less concrete when he – and the debate he is trying to steer – should be concrete.

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