Word From Rome, that excellent column by the excellent John Allen, will soon be no more. John Allen is heading back to the good ‘ol US of A according to this article in the National Catholic Reporter.
Not that we are to be deprived of John Allen’s reflections and reporting on “All things Catholic”, as his column in NCR will continue under this title. We are told that this will allow him to “report more extensively on the Catholic church in the United States as well as to travel and report on the Catholic community worldwide”.
Yeah, well, that’ll be the hard part, won’t it? Keeping a balance between what’s going on in the States and what’s happening in the Catholic community worldwide.
No one reading JA’s columns over the years will have missed the fact that he has done a lot of growing and personal development in the time he has been in the Vatican (just compare his writing on Ratzinger before in 2000 to his writing today on Pope Benedict). His point of view has broadened to at least being able to see with both eyes, something that most of the journalists at NCR are incapable of doing, since they were either 1) born blind in one eye, or 2) find the light so bright in the US that they have to squint a lot…
I can’t say that I welcome his announcement to return to the States, but I will pray that the defect affecting his fellow US progressives does not reinfect his vision of “All things Catholic”.
David, welcome! I was just reading your bio at your Year of Grace blog and even without getting into the posts themselves yet I have to say, What a journey! Peace to you and your supportive wife and kids and God bless you in your work, which, with Rick’s approval gladly does not prevent you from being an Amateur Catholic ;-)
P.S. I see the quote from Trollope in the sidebar which is nifty as our almost University aged daughter {my convert cohort} and soon to be English/History major recently discovered Trollope and is devouring all the novels.