Free Republic

ON GLOBAL GOVERNMENT: Community, Hierarchy, and Fratelli TuttiThe distribution and balance of power found in Western governments is attributable in part, the late Brian Tierney argued, to the Catholic Church. One Catholic contribution identified by Tierney was the corporate form of authority exercised in medieval institutions like monasteries and cathedral chapters. The fact the head of such an institution was selected by the members and existed to serve them, "ensured that community always offered an alternative to hierarchy as a model of right order in human societies." Religion, law and the growth of constitutional thought 1150-1650, 106 (Cambridge University Press,...

Brothers All. But With the Muslims, for Francis, All Is More ComplicatedFraternal dialogue among all the religions and doors open to immigrants of any faith. These are the two main avenues of the religious geopolitics of the pontificate of Jorge Mario Bergoglio.The first was put to the test with the pope's trip to Iraq, from March 5 to 8. And it had its culminating moments in the visit of Francis to Shiite grand ayatollah Al-Sistani and in the meeting in Ur between “the sons of Abraham” (see photo).But in Ur the Jews were missing, due to a veto by the...