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A Time of Great Uncertainty
Articles Chris Knowles Articles Chris Knowles

A Time of Great Uncertainty

Toward the end of March I suggested to Pope Francis that this might be a good moment to address the English-speaking world: the pandemic that had so affected Italy and Spain was now reaching the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. Without promising anything, he asked me to send some questions.

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‘Come and See’: The encounter that becomes news
Articles Chris Knowles Articles Chris Knowles

‘Come and See’: The encounter that becomes news

An experienced Vatican journalist texted me when the Pope’s World Communications Day message was released over the weekend. She was bowled over by it and wanted to know if I knew who had had a hand in it (I didn’t). “This message is just so much more concrete, real, and knowledgeable about the business,” my friend wrote. “It’s not just pious platitudes.”

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Beyond the pandemic
Articles Chris Knowles Articles Chris Knowles

Beyond the pandemic

In his new book Let Us Dream, the Pope shares a very personal vision of a fairer world in the aftermath of Covid. In one of the most moving passages, he describes coming to see that the call to live in friendship with God and our neighbour is inseparably bound up with care for our environment.

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Defending Marriage Is Not Enough
Articles Chris Knowles Articles Chris Knowles

Defending Marriage Is Not Enough

At a vast outdoor Mass in Medellín, Colombia, in September 2017, Pope Francis gave one of the best homilies of his pontificate: on how Jesus showed his first followers what it meant to do God’s will rather than stop at law and morality.

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The Pope & the Plague
Articles Chris Knowles Articles Chris Knowles

The Pope & the Plague

It was perhaps the most liturgically dramatic moment in the long history of the papacy. A solitary figure in white, stumbling from sciatica, climbed the long steps to the dais above a rain-sodden St. Peter’s Square. “Behold our sorrowful condition,” Pope Francis began.

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