Ulrich Lehner is an associate professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. He knew Pope Benedict XVI personally and studied in his department at the University of Regensburg in Germany. His areas of expertise include the history of Christianity after 1500 and global Catholic studies, as well as gender and race in the […]

Rabbi Abie Ingber is executive director at the Center of Interfaith Community Engagement at Xavier University in Cincinnati. He can discuss the pope as a world leader in Catholic-Jewish dialogue.

The Rev. Thomas Worcester is a history professor at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., where he teaches a course on the papacy. He is co-editor of The Papacy Since 1500: From Italian Prince to Universal Pastor (2010).

Paul Lakeland holds the Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J., Chair in Catholic Studies at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Conn. His areas of expertise include the role of the laity in the church and recentralization of authority under recent popes.

Nancy Dallavalle is an associate professor of religious studies at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Conn., where she teaches a course on the papacy. She is an expert on popes and the papacy, the pope as a world leader and media treatment of the pope.

Read “‘Whatever is necessary’: Obama defends war, again,” a post at Vox Nova from June 24, 2010, a liberal-leaning blog on things Catholic that in this essay criticizes Obama’s commitment to the Afghan war effort.

Read “Endless war, a recipe for four-star arrogance,” a June 27, 2010, op-ed in The Washington Post by Andrew J. Bacevich. Bacevich is a Vietnam veteran, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, and a Catholic who often writes on issues of war and peace from a faith perspective. His book Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent […]

A.W. Richard Sipe is a former priest who is also a psychotherapist and leading researcher on issues relating to clergy and sexuality. He is a widely cited commentator and the author or co-author of several books on the topic, including Sex, Priests and Secret Codes: The Catholic Church’s 2,000-Year Paper Trail of Sexual Abuse. He lives in […]

Joseph Chinnici is a Franciscan friar and professor of history at the Franciscan School of Theology, which is affiliated with the University of San Diego. He is the author of When Values Collide: The Catholic Church, Sexual Abuse and the Challenges of Leadership.