Wednesday 13 April 2022
1- New American ambassador arrives amidst a unique geopolitical context
2- Ukrainian nuns open their monastery doors to the displaced
3- The Franciscan monk helping the Vatican take on artificial intelligence
4- Israel offers to rediscover the Passion sites during Holy Week
5- Meet Fr. Stu: the real priest and story behind Mark Wahlberg’s new movie
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New American ambassador arrives amid a unique geopolitical context
On April 11, Joseph Donnelly presented his credentials to Pope Francis as the 12th Ambassador of the United States to the Holy See since 1984. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan wanted closer ties with the Vatican because of perceptions that the US and Polish Pope John Paul II shared the same enemy in the Soviet Union; today “Donnelly steps into the ambassador’s role when that common enemy is back with a vengeance amid the ongoing crisis in Ukraine,” explains Vatican expert John Allen. The American journalist retraces the Vatican/US relations in the past years, highlighting how “Pope Francis has made his personal ambivalence about the United States clear,” especially during the Trump administration and with regards to American conservatism amongst some Catholics and Evangelical protests. Allen underlines that although “Donnelly arrives at a moment of deep global upheaval,” for once the exchanges between the US and the Pontiff “won’t be contentious” but rather, as the USA and the Holy See are on the same side, it “creates the possibility of all sorts of new partnerships between the world’s most important hard and soft powers, respectively.”
Crux, English.
And today we celebrate...