Morning Briefing

The pope is getting some positive press around the world with an editorial in the New York Times editorial that praises his recent actions as a “welcome step” in addressing not only sex abuse but the hierarchy that covered it up. The Guardian calls the pope’s asking for forgiveness “an authoritarian U-turn,” while the Canadian Globe and Mail is running an opinion piece, “Pope Francis sets a new tone of accountability.”

Breaking: the pope is planning another round of meetings with victims of clergy sexual abuse from Chile, this time the victims are priests too.

But reports on the economic ethics document released by the Vatican last week are less stellar. Fr. Tom Reese complains that obscure writing makes the important message inaccessible, while Stephen Schneck of Catholic U was hoping for more critique of markets. (ICYMI: Eric LeCompte and Michael Sean Winters had more positive reviews of the document.)

The economic story of Appalachia’s poverty told in the bestselling Hillbilly Elegy is challenged by two new books on the region. Our reviewer finds a “new story” in these two histories that shows that Appalachia isn’t all poor, or all white, or all passive.

The second week of the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington D.C. focused on voting rights. “Our democracy is in trouble,” a pastor said. Catholics are joining the predominantly Protestant group of protestors who are resurrecting Dr. Martin Luther King’s campaign.

The church should tread carefully with Basque separatists in Spain who are apologizing for their use of violence, according to report on the latest “peace pledge” from the nationalists.