This morning I was writing on the so-called “war on Christmas” as it played out in December 2004. Some of this stuff will probably make it into my next book. Here is a taste: For his December “Holiday Party” at […]
Italy
A writer for The Atlantic discovers pizza
Over at The Atlantic, Saahil Desai calls our attention to Ora Dodd’s 1949 piece on pizza. Here is a taste of Dodd’s essay: The waiter moves aside the glasses of red wine, and sets before you a king-sized open pie. […]
Lunchtime in Italy
Over at Boston Review, Jonathan Levy writes; “Lunchtime in Italy is not only about what to eat for lunch. It is also about time.” The lunchtime tradition, he adds, “allows private and public life to meet, maintaining a baseline of […]
What can the United States learn from Italy’s abortion policy?
Here is Massimo Faggioli at Commonweal: Legge 194 (or “The 194,” as Italians call it), which the Italian Parliament passed in 1978, allows women to receive abortions through the first ninety days of pregnancy, after getting counseling in a public […]
The Author’s Corner with Stefano Villani
Stefano Villani is Professor of Early Modern European History at the University of Maryland. This interview is based on his new book, Making Italy Anglican: Why the Book of Common Prayer Was Translated into Italian (Oxford University Press, 2022). JF: […]
Pope Francis reaches out to Italian Pentecostalism
As someone shaped by Roman Catholicism, evangelicalism, (though not Pentecostalism), and Italian-American culture (which I realize is quite different from Italian culture), I was pleased to see this. Here is Vatican News: Pope Francis has expressed his closeness to the […]