Massimo Faggioli is professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University. His most recent book is The Oxford Handbook of Vatican II, co-edited with Catherine Clifford (Oxford UP). Follow him on Twitter @MassimoFaggioli.
Vatican II was a time of rising expectations for theology, for how much it could transform the Church and the world. Have those expectations been betrayed?
What seems like a never-ending state of crisis has paralyzed Catholicism. This is not the Church of mercy that Francis has been talking about for the past ten years.
Joseph Ratzinger was a brilliant theologian whose anti-progressive views became inseparable from his persona. Few committed Catholics will be indifferent about him.