Weekly Summary: 11/1/2025
The week in review, through the eyes of a veteran Catholic journalist
• As the Church of England prepares for the formal installation of the first-ever female Archbishop of Canterbury, some folks wonder whether that historic moment will trigger a new influx of tradition-minded Anglicans into the Catholic Church. I suspect not, because any Anglican who has stayed on board despite the radical changes of the past several decades can probably accept one more departure from tradition. But the unraveling of the whole worldwide Anglican communion is a possibility.
• In his apostolic letter on education, Pope Leo writes: “Where educational communities allow themselves to be guided by the Word of God, they do not retreat, but are revitalized.” So why do so many Catholic schools downplay their religious commitment? They are in retreat, I conclude. Meanwhile the proudly Catholic Catholic schools are booming.
• Vatican diplomats are reluctant to acknowledge that militant Islam is responsible for much of the persecution of Christians around the world, I observe on the CatholicCulture site. Moreover the Vatican’s organizational chart gives diplomats— not evangelists, not doctrinal authorities— the final say in policy matters. That’s a curious set-up, at best.
• The Vatican has its own “deep state,” I argue, also on the CatholicCulture site. The entrenched bureaucracy of the Roman Curia resists healthy reforms. And there’s one powerful cardinal who exemplifies the defense of the status quo.
• This week’s topic for my Just-War Seminar was non-combatant immunity. It’s generally accepted that in wartime, the innocent should be spared. But how do we define who is a non-combatant?
• Bottle-feeding of babies brought some profound (and not good) changes to our culture, Leila points out on this week’s Home Front podcast. But first I reflect on why the Vatican takes such a quiet approach to the killing of Christians in Nigeria, and the repression of the Church in China.