John L Allen Jr Weekly Column

Atheist scholar is ally (with reservations) in Benedict’s fight against relativism

John L Allen Jr Weekly — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:21:45 -0400

All Things Catholic by John L. Allen, Jr.
	Friday, May 16, 2008 - Vol. 7, No. 28

Ever since his famous warning about a “dictatorship of relativism” shortly before his election three years ago, Pope Benedict XVI has been trying to kick-start a global conversation about truth. In particular, Benedict yearns for a new look at truth within the Western secular academy, that exotic region where Jacques Derrida’s relativist maxim “there is nothing outside the text” has, ironically, achieved the status of a near-absolute.

This weekend, in the enchanting Alpine setting of Lugano, Switzerland, a cross-section of prominent Western intellectuals is taking up the papal challenge. Organized by the Balzan Foundation, which each year awards the Swiss-Italian equivalent of the Nobel Prize, this unique gathering of scientists, philosophers, and eggheads of all stripes, most of them without any specific religious conviction, is titled, simply, “The Truth.”

I’m in Lugano covering the event. In effect, the two-day summit represents the most intriguing test to date of how Benedict’s effort to restore confidence in truth is playing among secular makers of opinion.

Lessons to learn from the papal trip

John L Allen Jr Weekly — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:13:22 -0400

All Things Catholic by John L. Allen, Jr.
	Friday, May 9, 2008 - Vol. 7, No. 27

On Wednesday I spoke at the annual World Communications Day luncheon of the Diocese of Brooklyn, hosted by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio. For this group of media professionals in the New York area, as well as local Catholics, I was asked to ruminate on lessons to be learned from the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States.

Interview with Ambassador Glendon; A possible papabile

John L Allen Jr Weekly — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:50:39 -0400

All Things Catholic by John L. Allen, Jr.
	Friday, May 2, 2008 - Vol. 7, No. 33

Mary Ann Glendon is the eighth Ambassador of the United States to the Holy See, and by most measures she's probably the nominee least in need of on-the-job training. Glendon is a veteran Vatican insider, having represented the Holy See at the 1995 Beijing conference of the United Nations on women, and having served as president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences -- the first woman to head a pontifical academy. A professor at the Harvard Law School, she's also an expert on international legal theory.

The story behind the pope's meeting with sex abuse victims; Cardinal O'Malley interview

John L Allen Jr Weekly — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:17:17 -0400

All Things Catholic by John L. Allen, Jr.
	Friday, April 25, 2008 - Vol. 7, No. 32

Prior to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States, some handlers worried that the American media would impose the sexual abuse crisis as the trip's dominant storyline. As it turns out, those fears were misplaced -- the media didn't impose the crisis upon the pope, he imposed it on us.

Notice about John Allen's Friday column

John L Allen Jr Weekly — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:32:50 -0400

John Allen's coverage of Pope Benedict's trip to the U.S. has kept him from writing a column today, but Allen is filing audio reports on the pope's trip twice daily at NCRonline.org.

You can see some of his daily writing here: johnallen.ncrcafe.org.

Check NCRonline.org and read National Catholic Reporter for Allen's extensive analysis of the trip all next week.

Benedict on America: In his own words

John L Allen Jr Weekly — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:16:06 -0400

All Things Catholic by John L. Allen, Jr.
	Friday, April 11, 2008 - Vol. 7, No. 31

As Pope Benedict XVI's arrival in the United States approaches, the media is chock full of pieces outlining the challenges the pope faces in America, and trying to anticipate what he might do or say to address them. Perhaps it's fitting that the last word before the curtain goes up, however, should belong to Benedict himself.

By that, I'm not referring to the brief video message to the American people from the pope released by the Vatican this week. Instead, I have in mind the various reflections on the United States offered by Joseph Ratzinger over the years, much of which dates from the period before his election to the papacy.