These Central European brothers find themselves amid the type of calamity inevitable in all bilateral relationships. Yet, history, geography, politics, and economics all ensure they will continue to raise glasses together, as they have for centuries.   

Nations are no longer defined by their geography, or past, or history. They can imagine a new destiny for themselves with technology.

Pope Francis missed this opportunity to embrace a country that has charted a remarkably Catholic course in the heart of secular Europe.