evangelicals & catholics
Mission impossible?
Leonardo De Chirico
Date posted: 1 Apr 2024
Evangelicals have known for centuries that Rome is a ‘mission field’.
It is no coincidence that as soon as the breach of Porta Pia opened in 1870 (when Rome was liberated from Papal power and the Pontifical State ended), Bibles and Christian tracts were immediately smuggled in to further the evangelisation of the city. Rome was a mission field because it prevented the free circulation of God’s word in the vernacular language and suppressed any attempts to bring about a Biblical reformation.
evangelicals & catholics
Who will be the next Pope?
Leonardo De Chirico
Date posted: 1 Oct 2021
There is a general perception that Pope Francis’s pontificate has entered an irreversibly declining phase.
It is not just a question of age: yes, Pope Francis is elderly and in poor health. But aging aside, the pontificate finds itself navigating a descending parabola. It started with the language of ‘mission’ and ‘reform’. Francis’ reign, now nearly ten years old, was immediately engulfed in difficulties, particularly within the Catholic Church.
evangelicals & catholics
Are we all ‘Children of Abraham’?
Leonardo De Chirico
Date posted: 1 Jun 2021
Whenever we talk about lands tormented by decades of wars and violence, sometimes perpetrated in the name of religions, we must do so with sobriety.
This is to say that commenting on Pope Francis’ recent trip to Iraq (5-8 March 2021) can become a pretext for easy criticism if one does not try to enter the complexity of the situation. Therefore, it must be acknowledged that the Roman pope’s call to religious freedom, his appeal to respect for minorities, and his invitation to national conciliation were commendable.
evangelicals & catholics
Pope Francis, United Nations Chaplain?
Leonardo De Chirico
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
In observing the recent global activities of Pope Francis, the Argentinian philosopher Rubén Peretó Rivas asked whether Pope Francis aims at becoming the ‘Chaplain of the United Nations’.
His 2020 ‘universal’ initiatives indeed look like those of the United Nations in language, scope and content. While the encyclical ‘All Brothers’ reiterated the Roman Catholic universalism two (en, December 2020), other projects deserve to be mentioned in this respect.
evangelicals & catholics
Roman Catholic universalism?
Leonardo De Chirico
Date posted: 1 Dec 2020
It has been rightly called the ‘political manifesto’ of Pope Francis’ pontificate.
In fact, there is a lot of politics and a lot of sociology in the new encyclical All Brothers, a very long document (130 pages) that looks more like a book than a letter. Francis wants to plead the cause of universal fraternity and social friendship. To do this, he speaks of borders to be broken down, of waste to be avoided, of human rights that are not sufficiently universal, of unjust globalisation, of burdensome pandemics, of migrants to be welcomed, of open societies, of solidarity, of peoples’ rights, of local and global exchanges, of the limits of the liberal political vision, of world governance, of political love, of the recognition of the other, of the injustice of any war, of the abolition of the death penalty. These are all interesting ‘political’ themes which, were it not for some comments on the parable of the Good Samaritan that intersperse the chapters, could have been written by a group of sociologists and humanitarian workers from some international organisation, perhaps after reading, for example, Edgar Morin and Zygmunt Bauman.
evangelicals & catholics
Packer’s papal mistake?
Leonardo De Chirico
Date posted: 1 Oct 2020
The global church owes a debt of gratitude to James I. Packer (1926–2020). During the second half of the 20th century he has embodied Evangelical theology at its best, especially on issues like the authority of Scripture, penal substitutionary atonement, and the interplay between theology and spirituality. This is to say that, if I dare critique one minor – albeit significant – instance of his theological involvement, I do so out of immense respect.
It is no secret that in Packer’s theological biography his involvement with the ‘Evangelicals and Catholics Together’ (ECT) initiative has puzzled many of his admirers. How such a solid theologian could be prone to sign theologically-blurred documents and encourage confusing ecumenical activities has been a standing question in many people’s minds.
evangelicals & catholics
The unsettled legacy of Pope John Paul II
Leonardo De Chirico
Date posted: 1 Aug 2020
Karol Wojtyła (1920–2005), since 1978 better known as Pope John Paul II, has been one of the most influential men of the 20th century.
The centenary of his birth is a useful opportunity to reflect on his legacy. His life was at the centre of the major affairs of the 20th century: the tragedy of Nazism and the trauma of the Second World War, the apex and fall of Communism, the Second Vatican Council and its debated implementation, the apparent triumph of Western democracy and the oppressive costs of globalisation for the Majority world, the fracture of ideologies and the rise of secular hedonism. Supporters have acclaimed his achievements in terms of navigating, surviving and overcoming the dangerous streams of our post-something world. Critics have pointed out the double-faced, contradictory trajectory of his life and his very backward-looking Catholic outlook.
How evangelical is the Pope?
Leonardo De Chirico
Date posted: 1 Dec 2016
Leonardo De Chirico uncovers the particular brand of Catholicism that Pope Francis advocates and gives a biblical assessment
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as Pope Francis on 13 March, 2013.
Ubicumque et semper
Leonardo De Chirico
Date posted: 1 Dec 2010
Setting up a new Pontifical Council is not something that happens often in the Vatican, given the conservative nature of the institution.
Yet Pope Benedict XVI has just released the motu proprio document entitled Ubicumque et semper (‘Everywhere and always’) that establishes the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation.