The growing number of those who claim that Pope Francis is making a mess of things can hardly be accused of disrespecting the Roman Pontiff.  After all, it was Francis himself

who in July 2013 famously said, "I want a mess."  I count myself among those who prudently suspect most of this Pope's "off the cuff" remarks of being more planned [...]

Today, 18 December, the Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) announced that it had extended its second seminar on the mandatory reporting; a summary report of

the first seminar was also published. A copy of the Press Release is reproduced below.  [...]

Opinion here; Inside Higher Ed commentary here.  The ruling is, put simply, nuts.  (Or, put more gently, "entirely incompatible with Supreme Court precedent.)  The Ninth

Circuit acknowledged that: [The fifth-grade teacher's] contract stated that she would work “within [St. [...]

Historians have often remarked on the affinity between intellectuals and authoritarian rulers during the Enlightenment. Lots of factors explain this affinity, but one stands

out in particular: the two groups shared a common enemy in traditional Christianity, which placed restrictions on both of them. [...]

Satisfying the singular requirements of the PCC of St George’s, Headstone… … or possibly not. The events surrounding the following Report will probably be incomprehensible

to most non-Anglicans as well as to many within the Church of England, and there appears to be little empathy with the extreme but sincerely held views of the parish [...]

This past weekend in Kiev, two independent Orthodox bodies united to form a new communion, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and elected a 39-year old bishop as the church’s

patriarch. The patriarch will travel to Istanbul next month to receive a tomos of autocephaly from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople — a recognition that [...]

Here is my contribution to a symposium sponsored by the good folks at SCOTUSblog on the upcoming memorial-cross case.  Here are the opening grafs: About four and a half years

ago, here at SCOTUSblog, commenting on the Supreme Court’s then-recent decision in Town of Greece v. [...]

I wanted to direct a little notice to the very fine "Judicial Power Project" run by Professor Richard Ekins. The project has put together a few very interesting programs. Here

are two: First, an online collection of essays, the lead piece of which is by John Finnis ("Judicial Power: Past, Present, and Future"), and subsequent responses [...]

So it’s not exactly “Goodbye, Mrs May” just yet… Brexit Inevitably, the biggest news of the week was that the Prime Minister had survived a confidence vote in a ballot

of Conservative MPs by 200 votes to 117. But in a last-minute, pre-vote concession, she promised her MPs that she would step down before the next election. [...]

Authored by the incisive Peter Augustine Lawler (he died tragically and untimely last year) and by our friend, Richard M. Reinsch, here is a very interesting book to conclude

the week, published by the consistently excellent University of Kansas Press: A Constitution in Full: Recovering the Unwritten Foundation of American Liberty. [...]