“The first Jew to address a Vatican synod said on Monday that wartime Pope Pius XII should have done more to help Jews during the Holocaust.” That’s the lead on the incisive Reuters story about Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen of Haifa, in Israel, who told Reuters he might have stayed away if he had known the…

In the week since Paul Newman died I’ve been looking for the Catholic “hook” to write something here about the great movie star. Providentially, and not surprisingly, thanks to its punchier new style, the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, gave me an opening. The Sept. 29 edition carried an appreciation of the actor, writing:”In his…

Finally. And it’s thanks to lay people who are leading the way. Business Week has an excellent story on the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management (NLRM) and its founder and guiding light, Geoffrey Boisi: Along with issuing guidelines for a financial audit of all 195 dioceses (the territory under the authority of a bishop),…

Who’s afraid of Sarah Palin? And her faith? I’m one of those who thinks all the hand-wringing about her supposedly ideological right-wing faith is way overblown. Could she be a right-wing religious ideologue if in office? Perhaps she’d follow the script if that’s what she was told to do. But what really emerges from a review of her statements…

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