ROME
Crux
January 7, 2016
By John L. Allen Jr., Associate editor
john.allen@cruxnow.com
Pope Francis is famously a pontiff who seems to be missing an “off” switch, but the first quarter of 2016 shapes up as a period so dense with activity it may tax even his prodigious reservoirs of energy.
From foreign policy challenges to a potential turning point in Catholic/Jewish relations, from a six-day trip to Mexico that includes a stop at the US border, to a jam-packed schedule for his jubilee Year of Mercy, the opening part of the year promises to be full of drama.
No doubt it will all seem memorable and consequential at the time, but looking back, those moments may be recalled as no more than early tremors of what could be the new year’s first papal earthquake: Francis’ much-anticipated apostolic exhortation drawing conclusions from his two tumultuous synods of bishops on the family.
That document is now expected sometime in late February or March, with one hypothesis being a release date of March 19, the feast of St. Joseph and a patron of the family.
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