The Inquisition Tribunal by Francisco Goya (PD-Art). Bartolomé de Las Casas (c.1484–1566)—the first Catholic bishop of the Americas—commented on many of the controversies of the Spanish Empire of his day. While he never evaluated the Inquisition in writing, his life intersected with it several times. (Curiously, though Las Casas was possibly descended from conversos, or…
Scenes from the Life of Saint Augustine of Hippo via Metropolitan Museum of Art (US-PD). On June 21, Pope Leo XIV delivered one of his first statements on Catholic social teaching. Addressing members of the International Inter-Parliamentary Union, he emphasized themes that are emerging as focuses for his papacy: unity, dialogue, and the challenges presented…
Miraculous Fishing by Lodewijk Toeput (PD-Art) Does the Book of Genesis authorize human beings to ruthlessly exploit nature? Many environmentalist critics of Christianity, and some Christians who are overly skeptical of environmentalism, think so. However, a careful reading of the key passage where God gives human beings dominion over creation—Genesis 1:28—reveals this to be a…
Basilica of Saint Peter by Carlo Armanni from Pixabay. Pope Francis envisions human fraternity in his 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti. This essay explores how “fraternal pluralism” guides the Church’s respect for personal conscience. This teaching reflects aspects of earlier Church history and the Vatican II document Dignitatis Humanae, and it can be illustrated by examining…
Image by David Vives from Pixabay. American politics have taken increasingly surprising turns in recent years. One of the more surprising of these has been the recovery of a nineteenth-century Catholic political theory known as integralism. Its proponents reject secular governance and free institutions (lower-case “l” liberalism) in favor of “political rule that must order…
“From the Pope’s Hand to Indigenous Lands: Alexander VI in Spanish Imperialism”Matthew P. Cavedon The following is an introduction followed by an adapted excerpt from Matt Cavedon’s new book, “From the Pope’s Hand to Indigenous Lands.” With permission from Brill Academic Publishers, 2023. In 1493, shortly after Christopher Columbus returned from his first voyage to…
Image: Church Altar Pews (Pixabay) This article is part of our “Reassessing Democracy: Contemporary Perspectives” series. If you’d like to explore other articles in this series, click here. T here is no single Catholic political philosophy. Some intellectuals, like twentieth-century philosopher Heinrich Rommen, have even suggested that “Catholic political philosophy” is a contradiction in terms, given the…
Archbishop Adrian Tync. Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0 This article is part of our “200 Years of Johnson v. M’Intosh: Law, Religion, and Native American Lands” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. Shortly before Thanksgiving 2016, Episcopalian priest John Floberg held up a copy of Pope Alexander VI’s 1493 papal bull Inter…
European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg with Flags by Cédric Puisney (CC BY 2.0). Last year, Dr. Mia Brett wrote on Canopy Forum about the ways in which American law has demonstrated insensitivity to Jewish religious liberty. I found much to criticize in her characterization of Christian involvement in the pro-life movement. But her…
Cloisters of Norwich Cathedral by Arjen Bax (CC BY-SA 2.0). Introduction: Easter with the Easterns? The Christmas season hadn’t even begun when Pope Francis announced a potential change to future Easters: if Eastern Christians unite around a single date for celebrating the holiday, he said, Catholics will adjust their calendars accordingly. This might be mistaken…