Articles

The Pope Who Tried, (The Pope and Mussolini), New York Review of Books, April 23, 2015

The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe by David I. Kertzer Random House, 549 pp., $32.00; $20.00 (paper) Hulton Archive/Getty Images Monsignor Francesco Borgongini-Duca, Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, Francesco Pacelli, Benito Mussolini, and Dino Grandi at the signing of the Lateran Treaty between Italy and the…

Why French Law Treats Dieudonné and Charlie Hebdo Differently, The New Yorker, Jan. 15, 2015

On the same day that the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdoimmediately sold out an initial run of five million copies of its latest issue—which featured a cover image of the prophet Muhammad—French police arrested the comedian and activist Dieudonné M’bala M’bala for writing on his Facebook page, “Je me sens Charlie Coulibaly.”* Dieudonné was charged with “incitement…

The French Obsession with National Suicide, The New Yorker, Dec. 11, 2014

There are few things the French find more annoying than what they call “French bashing”—a term they use in English, despite their insistence on finding French equivalents for foreign words. When Jean Tirole was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, Prime Minister Manuel Valls sent out a tweet of congratulations to “another Frenchman to…

Scandali del sesso: Liscia, Gassata o Ferrarelle?, 30 Gennaio, 2014

Mi scuso con i lettori di Repubblica per il mio lungo silenzio. Mi sono spostato da New York a Parigi e trovandomi in un paese nuovo non sapevo cosa scrivere. Per molto tempo mi sono abituato a vedere il mondo da un’angolazione particolare: di uno che si muoveva tra gli Stati Uniti e l’Italia. Aggiungere…

A BOMBSHELL DOCUMENT AT THE VATICAN SYNOD, New Yorker, October 13, 2014

Since Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis, a little more than a year and a half ago, the Argentine has radically changed the tone and the mood surrounding the Catholic Church. But the question remained: How would he handle the difficult doctrinal issues of sexuality and family life that have divided the Catholic world? We are…