Archive

One of the numerous pathologies infecting today’s communications ecosystem is Instant Analysis Syndrome, which has been raging here in Rome, and indeed around the world, since Pope Leo XIV...

This will be the last in the papal interregnum series of Letters from Rome 2025. The conclave to elect the 267th bishop of Rome will begin tomorrow with the...

On the Eve of a Conclave of Great Consequence:Some Reflections by George Weigel While some of the cardinal-electors have been living in various venues around Rome, the entire electorate...

The three essays in this sixth issue of Letters from Rome are thematically unified in that they address what Cambridge historian Richard Rex has described as the third great...

Notes on the Real Roman Conversations  by George Weigel Rome is always rife with rumors, never more so than during a papal interregnum, and the run-up to Conclave 2025,...

Successor . . . to Whom? by George Weigel In the first days of discussion in the General Congregations preparing for the conclave that will begin on May 7,...

Along the Tiber: Lessons from the Past for the Present by Francis X. Maier “It’s a perfect time to be here in Rome,” said a bishop friend this week,...

A Prayer for the Church of the Near Future by Cardinal Camillo Ruini Cardinal Camillo Ruini, born in 1931, was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Reggio Emilia-Guastalla...

Welcome to Letters from Rome 2025, which continues a tradition of “theological journalism” begun almost a decade ago during Synod-2015. Our goal, now as then, is to shed light...

Overhyped, Overmanaged, Underwhelming—and Providentially Heartening by George Weigel In a 1989 article, future cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J., agreed with Protestant historian Otto Dibelius that the twentieth century was the...

As Synod-2024 limps toward the finish line, with everyone experiencing Synod Exhaustion Syndrome—the exceptions being the indefatigable activists who came here to transform this month into the “Vatican III”...

Today, the Latin Rite Catholic Church celebrates the liturgical feast of Pope St. John Paul II. One of the many striking features of Synod-2024, as also of Synod-2023, is...

The Synod and the War Against Veritatis Splendor by George Weigel Although the progressive theologians’ guild imagines itself to be the cutting edge of Catholic thought, the guild actually...

Is “Shared Responsibility” the Answer? It Depends. by George Weigel Parish priests were in very short supply at Synod-2023; if memory serves, there was one present. Questions were raised...

In 1827 or thereabouts, Felix Mendelssohn attended G. W. F. Hegel’s lectures on aesthetics at the University of Berlin. Those were the days in which Mendelssohn was writing the...