[Kolokotronis]

Incredible man, this Pope!

[Rutles4Ever]

Great article, NYer!

[Theophane]

As I recall it, Joseph Ratzinger was a founder of, and frequent contributor to, Communio.

Mr. Weigel perhaps is thinking of his own critics here, as he has been described by Tracy Rowland, among others of the Communio group in this country (and elsewhere, Ms Rowland is in Australia), as a "Whig Thomist", a term applied to Weigel, Neuhaus and Novak.

One cannot suppress a grin upon recalling Dr. Johnson's aphorism that the Devil was the first Whig.

[AlbionGirl]

(2) The American Revolution, which institutionally separated Church and state while affirming the transcendent origins of the “truths” on which democratic politics had to be based, was an entirely different matter than its French counterpart. Thus “1776” helped compel the development of doctrine that eventually led to Vatican II’s Declaration on Religious Freedom (a point that might be pondered, not only by Lefebvrists, but by Communio contributors convinced that America is, at bottom, an ill-founded republic).

I feel so blessed to have been able to grow up here in America. And, to me, the Founding Fathers are a gift like no other.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Natural sciences...realized ever more clearly that (their scientific) method was not comprehensive of the totality of reality and thus opened again their doors to God, knowing that reality is greater than what a naturalistic (scientific) method can embrace.

When did this happen?

[Christopher Lincoln]

The pope suggested that “Catholicism-and-modernity” got off to a bad start when the Galileo trial opened a fissure between the Church and natural science.

That's putting it very gently. There is need to recognize that, in the modern world at least, when science and religion have collided science has not come off the loser. The condemnation of Galileo was a tragedy for him, but only a slight check to science; it was Catholicism that suffered lasting harm.

Natural sciences began...to reflect (on) their own limits, imposed by their own method which, while achieving great things, was nevertheless not able to comprehend the totality of reality.

Galileo surely never doubted this.

It was becoming clear that the American Revolution had offered a model of the modern state that was different from that theorized by the radical tendencies that had emerged from the second phase of the French Revolution.

Not the least of the differences was that the American model worked.