Last weekend, “the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in the Holy Land, including the Latin Rite Roman Catholic Church, issued a statement condemning ‘Christian Zionism.’” The document provoked an online firestorm, with religious commentators claiming the full authority of tradition to denounce Zionism. Gavin D’Costa points out that the document has some problems.

There’s a question of which churches/churchmen actually endorsed the statement; “The signatories are not listed and not all the Churches have published the statement on their official websites.” Also, D’Costa takes issue with the fact that the document fails to distinguish between harmful and benign types of Christian Zionism, as past statements have.

From the February issue: The idea that Mark Twain was an athiest comes from deceptive editing. His supposed final work, The Mysterious Stranger, was really a patchwork creation of different drafts. This is signicant because The Mysterious Stranger, in which a man is convinced that God is not real, is frequently used as evidence that Twain was a nihilist. Instead, Eutsey argues, Twain belonged to a liberal tradition in American Christianity.

“Contrary to the assumption that Twain’s criticisms of religion expressed mocking skepticism or hostile atheism, he possessed a religious sensibility that was deeply informed by . . . heterodox theologies.”

Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon has been nominated for two Oscars. The film follows lyricist Lorenz Hart on the opening night of his former partner’s megahit: Oklahoma! It is an occasion for much self-pity.

“We come to care for Hart, but we care for him as we might a boxer who has lost a bout or a candidate for political office who has gone down in noble defeat.”

Catholic analyst and corespondent John Allen Jr. passed away. Tod Worner, who knew and worked with him, remembers his friend.

“As a Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, a senior Vatican analyst for CNN, and editor in chief of the Catholic news website Crux, John spent decades telling us about the operations of the Church in the modern world. He never shied away from explaining the Vatican’s mechanisms of power and operators of influence. After all, the Vatican, run by human beings, was not devoid of faction and frustration, intrigue and machination. 

But John didn’t stop there. 

He also reminded us that the Church is the locus of God’s mission on earth. Somehow, John’s analysis could uncynically blend sausage-making with the Sacraments, politicking with praying, clay feet with a heavenward gaze. His sense, conveyed so well in his reporting, was that while the disciples walk in the grit of the trenches, they are forever trying to journey toward God. John’s reporting asserted one thing above all else—there is nothing so majestic and so intriguing as the Church on Earth. Nothing.”

Listen: Daniel McCarthy joins Mark on the Conversations podcast to talk about his recent Spectator article. McCarthy is a keen commentator on the right; in November he wrote “The Right’s Thirty-Year War.”

Upcoming Events

• February 1, 2026: Second Annual Neuhaus Lecture at the New College of Florida: “Recovering the University’s Soul” ft. Bishop Robert Barron | Sarasota, FL. Register here.

• February 3, 2026: Second Annual Angelicum Aquinas Lecture: “A Conversation with the Theologian of the Papal Household” ft. Fr. Wojciech Giertych, O.P. | New York, NY. Register here.

• March 5, 2026: Annual D.C. Lecture: “Our Crisis is Metaphysical” ft. Mary Harrington | Washington, D.C. Register here.

Until next time,

JACOB AKEY

Associate Editor