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149. Do Atheists Go to Heaven? Pope Francis Says Yes

May 1st, 2018 Recent weeks have seen Pope Francis attracting media attention for statements that sound controversial even among Roman Catholic circles. Recently he was quoted using ambiguous language –...

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150. Pope Francis’ Re-Interpretation and Actualization Of Gnosticism and...

June 1st, 2018 Pope Francis is hardly known for his interest in historical theology. Unlike his predecessor, Benedict XVI, Francis’ speeches and writings usually contain no reference to patristic,...

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151. Eucharistic Hospitality? Between a Catholic “Yes” and a Roman “No”

July 1st, 2018 “Can a non-Catholic be given the Eucharist in the Catholic Church?” When asked this question by a Lutheran woman married to a Catholic man during his 2015 visit to a Lutheran Church in...

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152. “Either Ecumenical or Proselytizer”? No, There is a Better Option

August 1st, 2018 Proselytism has become a bad word. Like fundamentalism or exclusivism, in today’s religious language, only the negative overtones of the term are retained and are used to convey a...

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153. A Few Remarks on the Evangelical Fascination with the “Sacramental...

September 1st, 2018 In some evangelical circles, “sacramental theology” attracts a growing attention and, in a few cases, makes converts to Roman Catholicism. For many of those coming out of a...

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154. The Loss of Credibility of the Roman Catholic Church and the Theological...

October 1st, 2018 The public image of the Roman Catholic Church emerging out of the sexual abuse scandals is that of a disrupted institution going through a season of internal turmoil. Having several...

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155. Roman but Not Catholic: A Book Review

November 1st, 2018 What remains at stake with the Roman Catholic Church 500 years after the Protestant Reformation? This question is of capital importance given the general ecumenical climate, which...

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156. She is My Mamá – Pope Francis and Mary

December 1st, 2018 “Ella Es Mi Mamá” (She Is My Mum) is the title of a 2014 book written in Spanish that contains a long interview with Pope Francis by the Brazilian priest Alexander Awi Mello. During...

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157. What is at Stake with Roman Catholic Mariology?

January 1st, 2019 This is going to be a more personal Vatican File, based on some observations gathered in the last twelve months. After writing a book on Mary, I knew that I was going to present it on...

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158. The Annus Horribilis (Terrible Year) of the Roman Catholic Church

February 1st, 2019 Stable. Traditional. Consistent. For many this has been the image of the Roman Catholic Church. But that was ages ago. The present-day situation appears to be quite different:...

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159. “Confusion” and “Failure”: Other Roman Catholic Blows Against Pope Francis

March 1st, 2019 The turmoil in the Roman Catholic Church has reached a further disruption point. At the beginning of February, two independent but influential texts circulated widely that expressed...

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160. Is the Nicene Faith the Basis for Ecumenism?

April 1st, 2019 This article is adapted from La fede nicena è la base teologica dell’ecumenismo?, “Studi di teologia” 61 (2019) pp. 65-69. The Council of Nicaea (325 AD) is often studied by church...

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161. Are there two Popes of the Roman Catholic Church?

April 19th, 2019 Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus) has spoken, and his voice is loud in the confusion that reigns in the Roman Catholic Church. His 5,000 word text, which is entitled “The...

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162. Deciphering Vatican II: A New Book Especially Helpful for Evangelicals

May 1st, 2019 Reading Vatican II has often been a daunting experience for evangelicals. While navigating Vatican II, evangelicals are puzzled to find the restatement of traditional Roman Catholic...

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163. Five Principles for Interpreting the Church Fathers

June 1st, 2019 This article is an excerpt from my Letture patristiche (II-III secolo), “Studi di teologia” N. 54 (2015), pp. 139-141. Recent decades have seen Evangelical theology express a renewed...

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164. From the Mary of the Bible to the Mary of Manifold Devotions

This review of Stephen J. Shoemaker, Mary in Early Christian Faith and Devotion (New Haven, CT; London, UK: Yale University Press, 2016) pp. 289, was published in “Credo Magazine”, Volume 9, Issue 2...

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166. Pope Francis Fears for the Planet, But Where Is the Gospel?

Europe, sovereignism (the “us first” type of politics), migrants, glaciers, the Amazon … these are the topics covered in a recent interview given by Pope Francis to the Italian daily newspaper La...

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168. Contested Catholicity: In What Sense Is the Church Catholic?

October 1st, 2019 This is a summary of a paper given at the Giornate teologiche (Padova, Italy, 6-7 Sept 2019), the annual theological conference of the Istituto di Formazione Evangelica e...

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169.“Baptized and Sent”: Is This the Biblical Mission?

November 1st, 2019 “Baptized and Sent: The Church of Christ on Mission in the World”. This is the theme chosen by Pope Francis for the Missionary Month that he called for this past June. “For the month...

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170. Totus Christus (The Whole Christ) or Solus Christus (Christ Alone)? On...

Solus Christus (Christ Alone) versus Totus Christus (the Whole Christ). If one wants to capture the difference between the evangelical faith and Roman Catholicism, here it is. On the one hand, the...

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