Category Archives: Religion

The Political Religion of Jorge Mario Bergoglio

This intriguing piece by Claudio Ivan Remeseira is a (very) long read, but (very) well worth it. It underlines yet again how much Pope Francis remains shaped by the intellectual and religious traditions of his homeland. That might be disappointing … Continue reading

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The Cult of Suffering

In the course of commenting over on the Corner to a list of the ‘ten best revolutionaries’ (yes, the list was as dumb as you can expect), I included an extract from Paul Berman’s excellent Slate response to The Motorcycle … Continue reading

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Bangladesh: Darkness Falls

When a sub-headline begins like this…: Niloy Chakrabarti was only the latest atheist blogger to be hacked to death in the country this year. That refers to the murder of Chakrabarti, slaughtered by a group of attackers in his appartment … Continue reading

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The Pope and Peronism

Cross-posted on the Corner. Uki Goñi has written an article for the New York Times on Pope Francis’s Peronist roots.Here’s an extract: Less known is that Perón took his cue from the politicized Catholic leaders of ’30s Argentina. Church leaders … Continue reading

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The Francis Effect?

I’ve no doubt that Pope Francis’s visit to the US will be a great success (and I have very little doubt that Speaker Boehner will come to regret having invited the pontiff to speak to a joint session of Congress). … Continue reading

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Pope Francis in Bolivia: The ‘Dung of the Devil’ and Other Matters

Cross-posted on the Corner. Even by the standards of this pontiff, Pope Francis’s speech yesterday in Bolivia to a crowd that included the country’s president wearing a jacket emblazoned with the face of a mass-murderer (Che Guevara, in case you … Continue reading

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Pope Francis and the “Poverty of Ambition”

Writing for the Daily Beast, Joel Kotkin on Pope Francis’s Laudato Si: With Francis’s pontifical blessing , the greens have now found a spiritual hook that goes beyond the familiar bastions of the academy, bureaucracy, and the media and reaches … Continue reading

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The Encyclical – Old Nonsense in New (Green) Clothing

Writing in Reason, Brendan O’Neill takes a more secular look at the Pope’s eco-encyclical: Here’s an extract: [W]hat will be the end result of our wicked urge to own things? Mayhem, of course. All the pollution produced in the making … Continue reading

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Britain’s Government: #PasCharlie

The presence of British Prime Minister David Cameron, no friend of free speech, at the march in Paris after the Charlie Hebdo killings was, in the scheme of things, a comparatively minor moment of hypocrisy. Nevertheless, it’s always helpful to … Continue reading

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Laudato Si?

Cross-posted on the Corner: There’s been some smart commentary in The Spectator from Damian Thompson, a former editor-in-chief of the Catholic Herald, on Laudato si the Pope’s eco-encyclical, due to be released tomorrow, but already extensively leaked. It’s (obviously) fair … Continue reading

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