The incomperable John Allen has a list of the most neglected Catholic news items of last year. http://ncrcafe.org/node/2348 It's a good list. I was particularly interested in three items:

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10. Benedict's "Second Act" in France While the pope's trip to America drew bell-to-bell coverage, his Sept. 12-15 visit to France might as well have been on the dark side of the moon in terms of American media interest. That's too bad, because it offered "volume II" of Benedict's reflections on church/state relations. In the States, Benedict praised a model of church/state separation that, in his view, means freedom for religion rather than freedom from religion. In France, he closed the loop by challenging their model of laïcité, which the pope sees as exiling religion from public life. That's likely to be a battleground for some time to come, since laïcité is more or less presupposed by the architects of the new Europe.

I was particularly interested in this trip because its focus was on the interaction of the religious and secular realms. This is a hard balance for 21st Century believers to walk: how to be in the world without being of the world.

Related link: International Herald Tribune: Pope addresses secularism in France

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6. Benedict's Unique Shade of Green Throughout '08, the pope continued to craft his distinct form of Christian environmentalism, in a way seemingly destined to give everybody heartburn. To conservatives, Benedict insisted that the doctrine of creation requires engagement from the church on issues such as the rainforests or climate change, whatever fears they may have about baptizing Greenpeace; for liberals, Benedict asserted that ecology cannot be separated from the church's defense of other aspects of creation, such as unborn life and marriage. One sign that this budding environmentalism has made some people nervous is that Benedict felt compelled to lay it out one more time in his year-end address to the Roman Curia, where popes often try to reassure their lieutenants about aspects of their activity which have raised eyebrows in the Vatican.

My wife and I were actually just talking about this last night; neither one of us would consider ourselves to be environmentalists. But we are both pretty big on recycling. When we're buying stuff at the grocery store, we'll turn the plastic bottles over to see if they're a #1 or #2 (the two types of plastic easiest to recycle) and it affects which products we buy; we drink our beverages out of cans rather than glass bottles because they're easier to recycle; we save our newspapers to take to the church drop-off center; when we walk our dog, we take along a bag to pick up recyclable litter from the curb. We compost. An Energy Star label matters to us. But we don't think of ourselves as enviornmentalists; I mean, I'd never chain myself to a spotted owl and I've never cried over a tree.

But we both consider that making environmentally-wise decisions is just a good idea. I think of it this way: when the Lord gave man dominion over the Earth, it means we have to take care of his creation. Imagine giving someone a fancy present, then finding out that the recipient just treats your present like garbage. You'd be ticked. I see God's green earth similarly.

Related link: Newsweek: The Green Pope

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2. The Jesuits Come in from the Cold The John Paul years were occasionally marked by tension between the Society of Jesus and the papacy -- which, to the outside world, offered a symbol of the alienation of moderate-to-progressive Catholics from the church's leadership. The election of a new Jesuit superior in January created a chance for Benedict XVI and the Jesuits to turn a new page, and by most accounts, it worked. Some Jesuits said they actually wept with joy after a Feb. 21 audience when Benedict told them, "The church needs you, counts on you, and continues to turn to you with confidence." Benedict has also put his money where his mouth is, naming Jesuits to key posts such as Vatican spokesperson and secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. While this rapprochement doesn't mean everything is sweetness and light, it at least suggests that the order is back on good speaking terms with the Shepherd-in-Chief.

The Society of Jesus was once among the most highly respected clerical organizations in the Church. Even still, Jesuit colleges are known (in the USA anyway) as some of the nation's finest schools. But the Order has wandered in the last few years. It's a shame. We all know our share of Jesuit jokes; ask me in person sometime and I'll tell you a few. Hopefully this new news is a sign that the Jesuits are on the right path again.

Related link: Time Magazine: "Will the new 'black pope' work?"

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2008 was a big year for Catholics, but we've had to go out of our way to seek out our news regarding Church issues. I wonder how much the dissident National Catholic Reporter has to pay Mr. Allen to stay working for their otherwise embarassing paper? He must be so lonly there.

Hat tip: American Papist