Samuel Gregg on contradictions in the papacy

Journalist and Harvard alumnus Philip F. Lawler is no stranger to spotting inconsistencies in the Catholic Church. After the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse crisis unveiled in 2002, Lawler released his highly researched book, The Faithful Departed, tracing the Church’s history of corruption while maintaining an “attention to facts” and a “calm tone.” Continue Reading...

The Pope’s Limited Influence on Foreign Affairs

Pope Francis has made support for migrants and refugees a priority of his pontificate, and has encouraged nations to adopt an open-door immigration policy. But few countries, especially in Europe, appear interested in adopting his approach, underscoring just how limited an influence the pope has on foreign policy. Continue Reading...

Bill McKibben, Climate-Change Opportunists, and the Pope’s Encyclical

I recently enjoyed a brief back-and-forth with 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben in which he claimed that I accused him of lacking religious faith. That most assuredly was not the case. I told him so, but also stood by my initial assertion that he and other environmental activists are cherry-picking Pope Francis’ Laudato Si for religious and moral firepower on climate-change while ignoring those elements that are core Roman Catholic teachings with which they disagree. Continue Reading...

Pope Economically Confused in Bolivia

Today at the Library of Law & Liberty, I examine Pope Francis’s recent speech in Bolivia, in which he calls for “an economy where human beings, in harmony with nature, structure the entire system of production and distribution in such a way that the abilities and needs of each individual find suitable expression in social life.” Continue Reading...

EcoLinks 06.02.15

Cardinal Turkson: together for stewardship of creation Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson, Vatican Radio Despite the generation of great wealth, we find starkly rising disparities – vast numbers of people excluded and discarded, their dignity trampled upon. Continue Reading...

Radio Free Acton: George Weigel on Pope Francis

On this edition of Radio Free Acton, we’re joined in studio by eminent Catholic scholar George Weigel of the Ethics and Public Policy Center to discuss the pontificate of Pope Francis, his coverage by the global media, and his upcoming trip to the United States. Continue Reading...

On the Universal Common Good

Today at Ethika Politika, I examine the longstanding claim of the Roman Catholic Church that the universal character of the common good in our present era necessitates a world political authority. Continue Reading...