the factor has been the catholic church's emphasis on traditional rituals. >> the catholic church adieu to the economic situation of the churches, that they have been luring people [ inaudible ] >> for the patrons of the catholic church here, it's not a race of one upmanship. they continue to try to reach out to more people, but the only way for them to grow, they say, is to remain consistent and true to their values. >> off the deserts of west africa, where the searing heat of the sun has met. the sun's energy has been used. as part of the power switch series, nicholas heart reports from long pu and senegal. >> growing tomatoes in the desert. surrounded by sand dunes this is an oasis powered by the sun. pumps draw water from 100 metres underground. the arid land it fer tile. >> it's a miracle. we haven't seen rainfall since october. we are growing onions, tomatoes, all sorts of vegetables. 74% have no access to electricity. the state distributed the panels to 13 villages as part of a project funded by international donors. each costs 400,000 to install. >> electricity now, to organise

. >> stephen: in last night's show, i'm-- you also took a couple of potshots at my catholic church.ade the slanderous accusation that the catholic church was responsible for the death of scientists an people without did not agree with the church where. did you get these accusations other than from history books? >> in fact, the people who put geedoneo bruno to death who was our hero of that story, was not the catholic church t was the roman authorities and we say that. >> oh really. >> yeah. so-- with. >> so the catholic church has been good for-- accept your apology. >> technically their hands are clean of his death because they didn't burn him at the stake, the roman authorities burned him at the stake, technicallyment but they were executing the-- i mean that was the punishment. >> stephen: they were just obeying orders. >> so, so the point is we made it clear, it was the inquisition that was responsible here. so that's a piece of what was then the catholic church and it is a piece that is no longer. >> stephen: okay. so you're not afraid of being burned at the stake for this sho

so, the church encompasses the whole order of europe, if you asked a medieval european, what they were, they wouldn't say, i'm french or i'm german or i'm italian. they usually say i'm catholic and i'm from this town. and that sense of the church, ordering the whole of society, meant that the idea of the mystical body could transfer from the eucharist to the church to society as a whole. and so he tracks as does the political historian from berkeley, this history of the migration of the mystical body as i call it, or the migrations of the holy, and that migration moves from uke crist to church to society. then in the early modern period i trace how that problematically begins to transfer to state societies in which early nation state formations gather up a lot of these ideas about the mystical body and attribute them to early ideas about nation state formation. >> host: so, professor, is this a primmer for activist, for christian activists? >> guest: i don't think so. it's really just -- i wrote it for my students so that i wasn't simply throwing a bunch of primary texts about them because i want them to learn the sources, but i wanted them to have some sort of easily digest

it started from the moment the votes that made him the head of the worldwide catholic church were countedn enormous crowd gathering in st. peters square, the cheering throng was waiting for the new pope to pray for them. in his first request was that they pray for him. the first pope from the global south has brought an abrupt departure in style from his predecessor, said striking and surprising things blown like a strong breeze of his tiny state. and maybe hasn't changed all that much. yet. an old church, a new pope, the what we don't know yet what could be an era of change in the word's largest group on this edition of inside story. we will start this look forward with a look back at a momentous year. who am i to just, five small worlds and a seemingly simple answer to a tough question, but this phrase among many others catapulted the new pope to media stardom, and has catholics asking if francis is a pontiff u.s. line many of his predecessors. it was july, the new pope had only been installed four earl year, and with a flight back when he was asked about gays in the church, pope fran s

he's been credited with breeding new life into the catholic church. we have this report from the vatican. >> a good evening and history was head. it was the first time the catholic church had a leader from south america. it's clear his nationality was not the only thing that would make pope francis stand out. his popularity was immediate. he practised what he preached. strong statements against inequality, matched by a choice to live in a modest guest house. rather than the grand papal apartments. he witnessed poverty and prime, and one of his first acts as pope was to kiss the feet of inmates. his warmth draws crowds to his weekly audience and modest ways earnt him the covers of time magazine and rolling stone. pope francis's appeal seems global. >> then you have a pope to whom you can identify yourself with. he's in a better position to understand that, you know. when we talked to him, then he - he can connect with us. so this is like he's with us. >> pope francis inherited the church beset by corruption and child abuse scandals. how much change you

church. for us as catholics we're saying that's not how we understand god's design. e francis is saying we've got to the restore the luster, the appeal, the intrigue, the mystery, the romance, the vin have itation to the church and he's doing it on steroids. that's his major agenda i think. >> your eminence, i always enjoy talking to you. >> happy st. patrick's day. >> thank you. >> all right. >>> and you can see more of my interview with cardinal dolan including how the pope plans to strengthen the faith of catholics and noncatholics alike on our website at "meet the press" @nbc.com. >> coming up, paul palin, christie, santorum, will one of these names be on the republican ballot in 2016? our roundtable weighs in with their insight and analysis on the fight for the soul of the gop. >> you may think i'm talking about electing republicans. i'm not. i'm talking about electing lovers of liberty. >> "meet the press" is brought ♪ [ woman ] i will embrace change... everything life throws my way. except for frown lines. those i'm throwing back. [ female announcer ] olay tota

year it has been for pope francis as he approaches his one-year anniversary as leader of the catholic church. the pope created some controversy a few days ago when he said no one has done more than the vatican to address the abuse scandals that have plagued the church for years. he also said the portrayal of him as some sort of superman, a star, is offensive i sat down with timothy dolan and his revealing interview. he spoke his mind about the pope, the abuse scandals and same-sex marriage. >> thank you for having us to your home. >> david, you're always welcome here. thanks for taking me seriously when i said come on in. >> we're here, and what a year it's been for the catholic church and pope francis. what a reception one year later. pope francis giving an interview this week saying, look, it's been a great reception but i'm not superman. he almost found it offensive. yet at the same time, that reception is certainly something he would like to use for the benefit of the church, wouldn't he? >> he's a good teacher. you're right. he knows the power of symbol. he knows the power of audio visu

he's disgraceful for the catholic church, for this matter and other things he has done. r church as much as it belongs to the archbishop. we are the leyte, but we all have a stake. >> maria says the church was her world. she was president of the catholic youth organization and became a catholic school social worker. years of scandal and disappointment left her feeling disillusioned and this brought things to a boil. >> i feel they are being hippo crits and it's difficult for me to sit in a pu and listen to someone who i think is a hip crit. i don't need them as an intermediary to speak to god. i'm ashamed i don't go to church, i would like to, but i can't find the good feeling i used to have in going to church on sunday or any other time. >> for those in positions of authority, who seek to place the needs of vulnerable before the homeless, unemployed, above their own, we prayer to the lord. >> john is pastor of the st. aloysius church in jackson, more than an hour outside of newark. he said myer's actions carry long-term cost. >> we have eight acres. do we believe he'll l

pope francis marks one year as the leader of the roman catholic church today. r-old propertyive from argentina has phone used his first year on sweeping church reforms. those are the headlines. i am tony harris. "real money" with ali velshi is coming up next on al jazeera america. ♪ >> it's a the china syndrome but instead of a nuclear meltdown it's a an economic slowdown that could impact your investments. also the turmoil in turkey and the economic factors feeding the unrest there. plus zombies and vampires in your neighborhood. how these real estate monsters could effect your ability to sell your home. i'm ali velshi. this is "real money." ♪

>>> with exactly a week to go before the answer ver of pope francis becoming leader of the catholic churchrch center finds 85% of catholics in the u.s. and 66% overall have a favorable view of the pope. and 71% of the catholics feels he represents a major change in the church with 68% saying it's a change for the better but that survey comes after the pope during comments he made in a new interview, this time involving the sex abuse scandal surrounding the catholic church. the pope told an italian church that the catholic church is possibly only the public institution that acted with transparency and responsibility. nobody else did more. still the catholic church was the only one to come under fire. those remarks were part of a wide-ranging interview that touched on several key issues including civil unions and the role imwomen in the church. the host of the catholic guy, thank you for joining us again. >> nice to see you again. >> i'm curious what your listeners and what you think of the pope's comments that the catholic church acted with transparency and responsibility and that the churc

however, i do think it goes some way to showing his good will towards the catholic church and some ofd with them. in fact, the president did say that he pledged to continue to work with the u.s. catholic bishops on some of those issues to strike the right balance. so an important occasion for the president because there have been some difficult differences with the catholic church, but certainly doesn't hurt quite outside of the catholic vote to be seen with as you say a very popular pope. erin? >> delia, thank you. some of the controversial things delia is talking about include contraception and women in the church. those were some of the issues i spoke about earlier this week with former president jimmy carter. he has a new book out called "call to action." he writes about religious discrimination some leaders take by distorting the bible. he talked about issues of women to the pope. the pope wrote him back. here's carter. >> i typed it myself and i mailed it to him through his representative in washington. it pointed out the basic em elements i described in my book about the horrib

behavior all the way from rome to your local parish church. >> the catholic church of the 21st centuryis a global financial power. may be one of the biggest landlords of the world. >> the church is spending heavily on political lobbyists. >> 21% of the diocese tell us they never audit their parishes. we found that 85% of the parishes have experience ed an embezzlement, more than one. >> john webb joins us from london and charles zeck is also featured in the film, joins frus us from villa nova. nova. holy money premiers on al jazeera america on sunday night at 9:00. the breadth of the wealth is astonishing. >> it surprised even me. but remember that's not how it's experienced by many front line priests who are you struggling to mend the roofs on their church and whatnot. but within the vast organization that is the church there are pockets of enormous wealth. >> that extends from the vatican bank to real estate. the bible says, you can't serve both god and money. and we of course know that money can be a corrupting influence. you found evidence of all sorts of corruption not only at the

pope francis has acknowledged the priest abuse sex scandal calling it the shame of the catholic church. he set up a new commission to help protect children from abuse. alfonso van marsh, cbs news. >> pope francis earned the nickname the people's pope and the pope of the poor. and "time" magazine named him man of the year for 2013. >>> more americans could soon be making more overtime pay. today president obama is directing the labor department to strength overtime pay protection. it's meant to help salaried workers like fast food supervisors or convenient store managers who may work more than 40 hours a week without getting the extra pay. the white house says the move will help fix income inequality and strengthen the middle class. >>> your next metro ride could cost a little more. this afternoon a metro board committee is expected to vote on a possible fare increase. that proposal calls for a 3% hike on metrorail, the base fare for a bus ride would be $1.75 with a smartrip card and $2 if you pay cash. daily parking in prince george's county would go up 50 cents or go up by 50 cents, l

the presence of the catholic church is apparent.hey run a music school, a nursery, a home for old people. it was an area that the young father was responsible for as well - visiting here on a regular basis, getting to know the people and working in this neighbourhood where he's well-known. the people here, a poor neighbourhood are following the pope's progress in the vatican closely. he is staying in regular contact with his old friends here. just a few days ago he gave an exclusive interview to a local radio station, which is being transmitted for the first time, the first anniversary of his election as the bishop of rome. >> that storey and the rest of the news can be found on the website. ♪ . >> hello, i'm ray swarez, the man who used to be jorge mario is cardinal arch bishop has shown he is a master of flipping the script. it started from the moment the votes that made him the head of the worldwide catholic church were counted an enormous

what the pope makes clear in this interview is while he will listen the basic teachings of the catholic churchre not up for review. on birth control banned by the church but used by many catholics, the pope said it is not a question of changing the doctrine but going deeper so that pastoral concern takes into account situations and what can be done for people. he reit rated the support of traditional marriage but opened the door on civil unions saying we need to look at different cases and evaluate them. the pope trying to take a new approach to the issues dividing many catholics. anne thompson, nbc news, new york. >>> and still ahead tonight, the surprising news about alzheimer's disease and how it is taking a much higher toll than we first thought and first reported. >>> and later, wheels up, the incredible underground recovery that so many people have been following tonight. we sent our cameras down into the sinkhole. >>> back as promised with new numbers on alzheimer's disease, now responsible for many more deaths than anyone thought at first, rivaling cancer and heart disease, in fact. th

it was the first time the catholic church had a leader from south america.s clear his nationality stood out. strong statements against equality were matched by a choice to live in a modest guest house rather than the grand papal apartment. he witnessed poverty and crime, and one of his first acts as pope was the kiss the feet of inmates from a young offenders institution. from the rich and powerful to the less blessed. pope francis's appeal seems global. then you have a pope that you can identify yourself with. >> he's in a position to understand. when we talk to him, then he - he can easily connect with us. this is like he's with us. >> pope francis inherited a church beset by child abuse. over the past year he's been able to change your the image of the church. how much real change your has he achieved behind the scenes at the vatican. critics would say not much. a u.n. report published in february accused the church of failing to properly deal with child abuse. the vatican bank is being audited. no results have been released. while issues of gay rights an

>> the catholic church cooperated -- let's take the example of uganda with a government effort calledine with church teaching for the most part because the a part was to abstain, that sexuality is proper to marriage and to family. b, be faithful within marriage and c, use a gone done. that was the government's approach. it's true that we wouldn't agree with every secular viewpoint on how to deal with population issue, but it's not the case that the church has been indifferent to it or hasn't been a part of successful parts. uganda deals with aids and with population issue and that was with the cooperation of the church. being engaged in the dialogue doesn't mean agreeing with everyone but being part of the dialogue is how we are not indifferent too and show our love to the people in these places that face so much social challenges. >> i will push back slightly and say, i've had conversations with these people in african catholic majority countries where there's still a principle of ab stinance and in the midst of epidemics. you don't think it's irresponsible that there's not more leew

do you think that this will be the papacy that empowers women in the catholic church in a way we've not's reform of the curia, i think you'll see a lot of different characters involved in the central governance of the church. laypeople, men and women. the pope has said that the question of ordination is a settled question, it's not on the table. but there are all sorts of talents that laypeople bring to the church, women and men, and he'll deploy those. i think the pope is also like john paul ii determined that we not identify priesthood being a bishop with power. these are offices of service -- >> right. >> -- and to suggest that people have no authority, power in the church, if they're not ordained, is a bit -- >> does he feel he has to modernize the perception of the church to make it feel relevant in the 21st century? >> he has created an earthquake in the vatican that's gotten very little attention, by taking finance, administration, and personnel policy away from the old bureaucracy, creating a new office to deal with this, and putting one of the toughest, shrewdest churchmen in t

. >> i think catholic church does not quite get it. the catholic church is our chur ofch. they are slow learners. >> archbishop meyers was appointed a caretaker of our church. >> maybe what they are is arrogant, self-absorbed greedy selfish men who perhaps never should have been ordained. we intend to distribute to as many parishioners and parishes that we can reach. if you have the nerve or the guts a reply would be welcome. thank you for consideration, jim. >> it is sunday morning in newark. time for family and god. but in recent weeks, a crisis of faith has been testing this community. the men and women in these pews have begun to question their leader and the institution that binds them. >> at age 73 archbishop john meyers is just two years away from retiring. he is getting ready. these satellite images show his retirement home, what is known as meyers mansion. a four and a half,000 square foot property with 3,000 square feet under construction. this is the house at the center of the controversy. an estate built on 8 1/2 acres of land. paid for by the archdiocese, all

and pope francis' home country celebrates the first anniversary of the head of the roman catholic church. ♪ we begin in syria where 94 women and children belonging to assad mine tear alawites are being held hostage by rebels and there is footage of the prisoners they are holding them for prisoner swat and erica wood has more. >> taken by sunni rebels last august from village in the northeast. the region is a stronghold of president assad alawites, a branch of islam. they are ready to free the 94 women and children in exchange for release of prisoners being held by governor forces and made demands over which prisoners should be freed and should be mainly coastal regions and at least half of them must be women and children. and prisoner swap last week saw the release of 14 greek orthodox nuns from the al-qaeda linked front. in this video one of the kidnapped women accuses assad of allowing release of members of another religion but for getting his own but these women are clearly under control of captors. they shouted at the government for dropping barrels packed with bombs. >> assad you st

you have been critical with the catholic church but communicated with pope francis. >> i have. i think he's a great leader and i have great hopes for him. i met with pope john ii, i found almost complete inflexibility there. i wrote pope francis a letter describing issues in my book and asking him to help with them to prevent, minimize the abuse of women and girls. i didn't ask him to change the click position on women priests for instance. he wrote me a very nice letter back and he said that he was convinced that a future role of women in the catholic church needed to be strengthened and would be. he appointed a committee of eight people to decrease the abuse of women by priest and four of those eight were women, which is a very wonderful thing to do. >> i want to get to a couple of current affair questions that we're seeing this terrible can't recovery in crimea. >> i don't think there was anything that would have prevented put tune from taking crimea. most of the crimean people agreed with it and wanted to be part of russia. i think it needs to be stopped at this point. i do

in part because he is emphasizing the social justice aspects of the catholic church. about reaching out to people. about welcoming all to the church. about lifting people up. he has moved this faith from being a faith about rules, back to being a faith about people. and it's really caught the public's imagination. >> as we mentioned before, the cameras now it seems have been ushered out of the private study of the pope. the door will be closed. that meeting will take place, 45 minutes or so, frank discussion, perhaps nuanced discussion of some of the key subjects of the day, the situation in the middle east, syria, ukraine, crimea, hunger, humanitarian aid to the poor, income inequality all on the table. secretary of state kerry. there will be another meeting following the president's private meeting with the pope. and then we should listen and read carefully the statements this come out of both the vatican and the white house following these meetings. >> we will get a very clear idea of what each side wants to emphasize. and whether it is about immigration, poverty, o

francis is intention for another papal visits demonstrates that the relationship between the catholic church. i'm a jewish community is going to be improving. i still must hike jail on rome. i eye the loan. you should just go lee hanson has been speaking to british newspaper the observer about the latest film under the skin a big budget film based in scotland in which to place an alien johnson said teachers' union to grow because it brings up some new questions such as the productivity of going when the story and since the sixteenth of april but no middle ground cumin seed that cheat on their butts with the fall. the film she ups the dv tapes updates to sell at the actions that you had to hit the headlines recently with the decision to promote his radio and treats them so just read. he told the observer that she's done by the decision to increase our history is being criticized the base and a major production on an assessment of the palestinian west bank rate in the back to winning actress said she was aware that the perfect tree before she started it. when asked what the israeli sentiments

doing and what the pope is doing, too. >> interestingly, president obama worked in chicago for a catholic churcha community organizer and someone who is very steeped in catholic social tradition, so he understands those things. he's on the same page, as you said, in terms of poverty and the marginalized. and i think where they are united is greater than where they're divided. >> the pope has been tough on this issue of income inequality. this at a time of a domestic win on the president's side. connecticut just raised their minimum wage, something the president is really pushing. can the president use the pope's message, including his pretty tough language about the rich versus the poor, to sort of move forward his domestic agenda? >> i think he can, and i think he should. i think because he's using, as he said, someone with great moral authority, and he's using someone who also can speak to not only american catholics and bring them into this idea of income fairness, but also someone who speaks to people who might not be catholic, but who look to the pope for his moral authority. >> now let's t

church, recruiting young men in great numbers from countries across the world. the order was founded in 1941 by marcial maciel, a young man with powerful family connections to mexico's conservative catholic elite. >> maciel was the greatest fundraiser of the modern church. the man had a gilded touch. >> narrator: journalist jason berry spent years investigating maciel and the legionaries of christ. >> he could get millionaires and the wives and widows of multimillionaires to support his movement of renascent orthodoxy. and he was bringing in a great many young men to this religious order that saw itself on a crusade to save the church from the decay of the modern world. >> the maciel case is one of the darkest chapters in the history of the contemporary church, without a doubt. without a doubt. >> narrator: in 1947, 10-year-old juan vaca was personally chosen by maciel to enter one of his seminaries. like all the other boys, he had to swear before god that he would never speak ill of maciel. >> i was enrolled with that mentality maciel gave us that we were a very selected group, an elite, chosen by god to conquer the world, but at the same time he started to control our minds, to control

but you have to verify where we are in the relationship on tuesday the relationship between the catholic church in the roman jewish community as a lesbian women take over the centuries. she is being persecuted and discriminated against but back to camp until eighteen seventy there were crews didn't make it to a nineteen forty three who placed it won't look the other way when thousands of were deported from the city but things changed chairman of the postal this relationship of respect the french it would. before there was real contempt. now there is french the importance of one another is respected. and there's a relationship of brotherhood. one couple to do with the nuance that sense of brotherhood was confirmed for the historical papal visit in nineteen eighty six in april thirteen hundred years don't call the second was the first pope to have a set book and the romans to go in to confirm that good intentions in the spring of two thousand and ten. with eight to sixteen also visited a synagogue in his room at low prices will soon follow provided saying you discuss it with a hearty father confe

now what's really interesting is that the child abuse scandal was the worst that hit the catholic church. we're see that go report by the united nations published only a month ago saying that effectively, the church hasn't done enough. why didn't francis see it as a priority? >> he does. the question is he's got so many priorities -- >> surely that would have been the main one. >> the protection of children as one of the top priorities of the church. he is determined to clean out whatever problem. >> what has he actually done? >> first of all, he said what my predecessor did, zero tolerance line on abusers, that's going to be my line. also said that the abusers, the local church should denounce the abusers to the local authorities. that will happen. he's also decided to set up a commission which will look at how they can help the many people who's lives have been affected. >> no details have been released yet. >> i think we'll see it in the next few weeks, it's coming. he hasn't put this on the back burner. >> we've seen how much support he has around the world. let's talk about his detr

marriage, and i support a woman's right to .hoose >> in a country where the separation of church and state sacred, the catholic hierarchy says religious freedom is under assault because of obama's policies. still, it's unlikely to be a topic at the meeting between obama and the pope. >> the core values of the church are really the gospel, mercy, love, compassion, and i think the pope is trying to remind us we can be focused on certain be focusede can not on certain issues to the exclusion of the others. >> it's places like this where the main concern of the catholic church is alleviating poverty, so president obama's economic policies would seemingly make him a natural ally. here at the jesuit middle school is saint ignatius, underprivileged students are taught that education is their way out of poverty. for them, the pope's desire for a poor church for the poor is seen as refreshing change. therom the moment he took papacy, he seemed very humble. >> for these minority students, a meeting between the first black president and the first latin american pope is symbolic of what they can achieve. >> they do see co

most important, the catholic church had survived the rise of protestantism and its challenge to rome'suthority. it was an extraordinary period of expansion as european colonization and exploration took its influence to the farthest corners of the earth. this roman catholic renewal, which historians call the counter reformation, was given added purpose and vigor by a remarkable group of visionaries. the spanish mystic and philosopher teresa of avila insisted that everyoneuld ee intense and personal knowledge of god. igus loyol founder of the juiteachi order, inspired his followers to go to work with spiritual fervor in the real world, and the missionary francis xavier rried to india and japan the message of the roman church. to fulfill the needs of the resurgent church, artists and architects all over europe flocked into rome. they came to design and ornament the churches that were built in the explosion of activity inspired by the counter reformation. the church reformers called for works of art and architecture that would bring people into the churches, inspire faith and religious com