Campaigning against Richard Nixon in 1960, John F. Kennedy puckishly spoke of an editorial in the Wall Street Journal that took the Republican nominee to task: "That's like L'Osservatore Romano criticizing the Pope."  He was pointing to the fact that the Journal in those days was viewed as the Big Business voice of the Republican Party.  And he was acknowledging for nervous Protestants that he knew that L'Osservatore Romano was the house organ of the Vatican. That JFK could so tweak the Vatican in a political speech was no small part of the charm of this first Catholic president.  No doubt, the warm, engaging Pope John XXIII, Kennedy's Holy Father, helped immeasurably to change the world's view of Catholicism. We have to go back in history to find some perspective on today's headlines.  The New York Times is to liberalism what L'Osservatore Romano is to the papacy.  But whereas the popes issue infallible statements on matters of faith and morals only with...(Read Full Post)