The "Papal Discussion" Commences

Here’s the first post (from yours truly) on the New York Times’s special blog, "A Papal Discussion." (Be sure to check out the very first comment, which shows that while dissent is frowned upon within the church, in the blogosphere anything goes.) "Great Expectations" In addition to Laurie Goodstein and Ian Fisher, the Times’s two main religion correspondents, here are my fellow bloggers for the coming days: Alejandro Bermudez was born in Lima, Peru, in 1960. He studied in Argentina, Peru and the U.S. before becoming the editor of the largest Catholic news agency in Spanish, ACI Prensa. He is currently the director of Catholic News Agency. Colleen Carroll Campbell is an Ethics and Public Policy Center fellow, former speechwriter to President George W. Bush and author of "The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy." Rabbi James Rudin is the former National Interreligious Affairs Director of the American Jewish Committee, and currently serves as the AJC’s senior interreligious advisor. Peter Steinfels writes the biweekly "Beliefs" column on religion and ethics for The New York Times. He is co-director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture and the author of "A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America." Amy Welborn Amy Welborn is the author of 16 books on religion-related topics, most recently, "Mary and the Christian Life: Scriptural Reflections on the First Disciple." She lives in Indiana and blogs at amywelborn.wordpress.com. James Martin, SJ