Only nineteen months have passed since Francis became pope. So much has happened it's easy to forget how different things might be if not for his personality.
Republicans have been effective at turning the anger that working-class whites feel about being left behind against liberals, Democrats, and President Obama.
Since the Synod of Bishops was instituted in 1965, no pope has ever begun an assembly’s first working session with an address like the one Pope Francis gave.
China's Xi Jinping insists he will tolerate no concessions to the calls for electoral and governmental reform now being made in mass demonstrations in Hong Kong.