Category: Popes
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Saint Malachi Predicts the Election of Pope Benedict XVI
Deal W. Hudson April 15, 2005 The election of Benedict XVI set predictable cries of joy and sorrow. Fortunately for the Church, the cries of joy far outnumber the cries of sorrow, even if the media refuses to see it. But another aftershock of April 19th is buzz sweeping the country about the medieval prophecies…
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Pope Receives Muslim Critic of Osama bin Laden
Deal W. Hudson March 24, 2008 A few days ago, Osama bin Laden released a message threatening Benedict XVI for leading a “new Crusade” against Islam. Whether he meant to or not, the Holy Father issued a ringing answer to the architect of 9/11 by receiving into the Church Europe’s most vocal Muslim critic of bin Laden and Islamic…
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The Face of Pope Benedict XVI
Deal W. Hudson April 21, 2008 His Holiness came to America known as the “enforcer” of Catholic doctrine. He left America as the face of the Church, the face of peace. Benedict XVI arrived in the midst of swirling controversies, but in addressing them, he raised our hearts and minds to the place where all…
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Benedict XVI and the Future of the Holy Land
Deal W. Hudson April 6, 2009 Over dinner at the Ambassador Hotel in East Jerusalem, I talked with Danny Seidemann, a Jewish man from upstate New York who moved to Israel as a youth more than 30 years ago. Danny is recognized worldwide as an expert on the religious and cultural differences that divide and…
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The Pope Should Go to Gaza
Deal W. Hudson April 13, 2009 “The Holy Father should not be coming to the Holy Land without visiting Gaza.” The bitterness in his voice was obvious as the professor at Bethlehem University talked to me about Pope Benedict XVI’s visit next month. I found that his attitude is the rule, rather than the exception,…
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Sed Contra: John Paul the Great
Deal W. Hudson November 1, 1997 It has been a great privilege to edit the pages that follow. Imagine having dozens of reflections on our Holy Father, written by the best Catholic minds of our age, with which to arrange a fitting tribute to this Man of the Century. We at Crisis dedicate this issue…
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Sed Contra: Il Papa!
Deal W. Hudson April 1, 1998 I never thought I would be part of a cheering, waving crowd. After all, I was too old, too sophisticated. Then John Paul II walked out on the stage. It was his Wednesday public audience, and together with my family and six friends, I sat only a few rows…
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Will Benedict XVI Challenge Palestinian and Israeli Extremism?
Deal W. Hudson May 7, 2009 An op-ed published in the New York Times on Tuesday by veteran Vatican reporter John L. Allen Jr. lists four ways Pope Benedict XVI can “move things forward in the Middle East.” He recommends the Holy Father endorse the two-state solution, call upon Palestinians to reject extremism, urge support for Holy Land Christians,…
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Vatican Newspaper Editor Digs Deeper Hole
Deal W. Hudson June 18, 2009 In an interview published at National Review Online, Gian Maria Vian, editor of L’Osservatore Romano, responded to his critics. Vian makes it clear that he doesn’t have a high opinion of writers, like me, who have taken him to task for his treatment of President Barack Obama: I think that if American Catholics could…
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Benedict XVI Tightens Up the Church’s Social Teaching
Deal W. Hudson July 7, 2009 Pope Benedict XVI’s third encyclical – Caritas in Veritate – arrived today containing 30,468 words: an introduction, six chapters, conclusion, and 159 footnotes. It’s not thrilling reading, even by encyclical standards, but as the latest papal statement on the Church’s social teaching, “Love in Truth” will be a work of lasting significance. Those…
Deal W. Hudson 