First Things RSS Feed - Douglas A. Sylva https://www.firstthings.com/author/douglas-a-sylva en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:53:54 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/douglas-a-sylva 60 Is Benedict in Favor of World Government? https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2009/08/is-benedict-in-favor-of-world-government https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2009/08/is-benedict-in-favor-of-world-government Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:57:00 -0400 As observers continue to decipher the meaning of Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate , all appear to agree that the passage of note, the passage that may prove historic in its implications, is the one that is already becoming known as the “world political authority” paragraph:

Continue Reading »

]]> The Pope’s Plan for the U.N. https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2008/04/the-popes-plan-for-the-un https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2008/04/the-popes-plan-for-the-un Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400 Pope Benedict’s address to the U.N. General Assembly possessed no obvious and immediate Regensburg passage, no startling phrase to shake observers from comfortable assumptions and to foster debate about the institution. This was all the more troubling for those who know—and who know that Pope Benedict knows—that for all the good it may do on humanitarian grounds, the United Nations is a primary political opponent of the pope in his effort to defend three bedrock values, values he himself has labeled as nonnegotiable: the protection of human life from conception to natural death, the protection of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and the protection of the right of parents to control the education of their children. None received explicit mention in his speech.

Continue Reading »

]]> The Pope and the United Nations https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2008/02/the-pope-and-the-united-nation https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2008/02/the-pope-and-the-united-nation Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500 The pope has John Allen worried. In a column published in the New York Times , Allen, senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter , frets that Pope Benedict will offend during his upcoming address to the United Nations General Assembly. After all, “this cerebral pope has a track record of blurring . . . compelling arguments during his biggest turns on stage.” He makes “cosmetic missteps that distract attention from his message” and exhibits a “worrying insensitivity to how unfamiliar audiences are likely to hear what he says.”

Continue Reading »

]]>