Ambrogio A. Caiani— On the night of 5 July 1809 French forces kidnapped Barnabà Chiaramonti, Pope Pius VII, from his private apartments in the Quirinal Palace in Rome. He would spend the following five years as a prisoner of Napoleon. Ultimately, the Pope refused to renounce his central Italian kingdom,
Leslie Woodcock Tentler— The streets of my suburban childhood were peopled by two religious tribes—the Catholics, who were in the majority, and the Protestants, a quasi-tribe to which every non-Catholic belonged. (This was back in the 1950s, when suburban Jews generally settled among their own and “nones” were an endangered
Piotr H. Kosicki— The year was 1947. The Cold War was just beginning. Much of Europe still lay in ruins following the devastation of the Second World War, and displaced persons were struggling to find their place in a world riven by the Holocaust, atomic warfare, and collapsing colonial empires.
Follow @yaleRELIbooks Last week, President Obama and Pope Francis met for almost an hour in a much-anticipated private visit in which they discussed, among other issues, income inequality and global peace. Indeed, in his first year as Pope, Pope Francis has emphasized the necessity to care for the poor, both
What role does religion play in developing countries today? Does it hinder or contribute to global health care, education, and social justice? In Earthly Mission, Robert Calderisi thoughtfully addresses these difficult questions as he examines the Catholic Church’s successes and failures in the developing world over the past 60 years. A
Today, October 4, is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the Catholic Church’s patron saint of animals and the environment. On this special day, many people celebrate by taking their pets to churches for a special blessing ceremony. Here at Yale Press, we’re marking the occasion a little