Best in the business

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Aug 10, 2004

It's an enduring source of frustration for us at CWN that the best English-language reporter at the Vatican works for the National Catholic Reporter. But the fact is that if you don't read John Allen's weekly "Word from Rome," you miss quite a bit.

This past Friday's "Word" begins with a very good treatment of the threat on Iraqi Christians, and follows with a discussion of how the debate over "inclusive language" has again slowed the progress of producing a new English translation of the Missal. In between, Allen makes this provocative observation:

...as the pope ages, more and more of his capacity to make decisions at the level of detail is indeed slipping away, but it is not transferred to any single eminence grise. Instead it gets fractured across a number of senior aides, mostly in their areas of competence.

And if you're looking for a general primer on Vatican affairs, it's tough to beat Allen's new book, All the Pope's Men