archives

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

Over the course of the next six days, there will be much good reporting and probing analysis of Pope Benedict XVI's trip to the United States and the challenges facing the Catholic church in America. There will also, however, occasionally be rumors and false leads, which are inevitable with any big story being covered in real time.

Among other things, I’ll try to use this space to perform some “rumor control,” in the hope that inaccurate or overblown material can be put in its proper context before it spins out of control.

...so others can follow. American bishops have surrendered so much of their role either to the USCCB or to advisors that taking individual action seems to phase many of them. Enter Archbishop Burke, who is blazing a trail through the headlines, and an attempted ordination of a Southern Minnesota woman.

Her bishop, Bishop Harrington of the Winona Diocese, is a nice guy, not particularly forceful. And he praises Redig's work as a chaplain and as a Christian. But he is choosing to do the hard thing, in part thanks to Archbishop Burke, in making it clear that she has excommunicated herself. “She, by her actions, has excommunicated herself,” “Archbishop Burke did something that formally had already taken place. It means my job is easier.”

"We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever-widening circle will reach around the world," wrote Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement. On May 1, the Catholic Worker celebrates its 75th birthday, and to mark the occasion, Marquette University Press will publish Dorothy Day's diaries, The Duty of Delight. Meanwhile, a beautiful new DVD documentary, "Don't Call Me a Saint," has been released, offering rare interviews and footage of the heroic woman whose reach has indeed embraced the world.

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Aboard Shepherd One

The following is a rush transcript of comments made by Pope Benedict XVI to reporters aboard the papal plane, on his way to his first pastoral visit to the United States.

Late last week, the Vatican asked reporters travelling with the pope to submit questions for the pope by 3:00 pm Monday afternoon, the day before the trip began. Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson, selected four of these questions and asked four different reporters to put them to the pope aboard the papal plane. There was no opportunity for follow-up.

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Aboard the Papal Plane

Wielding his strongest language to date on the sexual abuse crisis, Pope Benedict XVI today said that he is “deeply ashamed” by the scandals, stressed that pedophiles must be “absolutely excluded” from the priesthood, and vowed that the church will strive to bring “justice and healing” to victims.

In brief remarks to the press aboard the papal plane, Benedict also tackled immigration, the role of religion in the United States and Europe, and what he sees as the need for a moral consensus among nations about fundamental human rights.

Judging by experiences of my late mother and my wife at Saint Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, I can say if you have to go to a hospital, Saint Luke’s is a good choice. For 17 years, it has received a rating as one of America’s Best Hospitals.

St. Luke’s and the Houston area hospitals did not get high acclaim by accident. There was a lot of work. Now, I am asking St. Luke’s to be a leader in the nutrition and environmental fields.