In response to a question about his recent declaration that he’s honored when “Americans are attacking me,” Pope Francis said September 10 that while he prays to avoid a schism in the Catholic Church, he’s not afraid of it either, because such rifts have occurred throughout history.
I got a call Saturday to come on air from my friends at CNN, where I serve as senior Vatican analyst. The producers wanted me to join a morning news program, following a recent interview with Pope Francis in which he compared populist rhetoric about “us” and “we” to the kind of talk associated with the Nazis.
