It is a disturbing fact of Catholic history that the magisterium only gave its full endorsement to democracy as recently as 1991. That year Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Centesimus Annus broke this awkward silence with a detailed defence of it, but with no explanation of why it had taken so long. Now Pope Francis has removed any lingering doubt during his visit to Athens, its birthplace, where he put his full authority behind a defence of democracy. He warned against various threats to it from populism and authoritarianism. Regimes moving in those directions which might once have looked for support from the local Catholic Church should now be disappointed – provided his words are heeded.