Article Synodality? What’s Synodality? Synodality is essential for recovering the legitimacy of ecclesial spaces. But the U.S. bishops don’t seem to want to consider it.By Massimo FaggioliJune 15, 2021 Clericalism Pope Francis Bishops U.S. Catholicism
Article An Ambrose of Our Own Our current system of choosing bishops discounts the laity and local priests in favor of patronage from above. That must change.By Nicholas P. CafardiDecember 9, 2020 Bishops Clericalism
Article The Complicated Legacy of Bishop John England Bishop John England leaves behind a complicated legacy: a useful method of thinking beyond clericalism, and a warning about the application of natural law.By Paul LakelandNovember 25, 2020 Clericalism Bishops Race
Article The Double Agent McCarrick was both a product and a manipulator of a system of clericalism that desperately needs to be overhauled.By David GibsonNovember 13, 2020 Bishops Sexual-abuse Crisis Clericalism
Article What to Make of the McCarrick Report? Lessons from an investigation years in the makingBy Peter SteinfelsNovember 11, 2020 Bishops Sexual-abuse Crisis Clericalism
Article What to Expect from October’s Amazon Synod The October Synod for the Amazon sets out to hear from the periphery, to bring to birth what is already growing there: an indigenous churchBy Austen IvereighJune 18, 2019 Latin America Pope Francis Priesthood Liturgy Climate Change Social Justice Clericalism
PoliticsAll a Matter of Perspective? Can Catholic health care find a viable middle way between strident voices on both the Right and Left?By Bernard G. PrusakJanuary 27, 2023
ReligionRenunciation and Christian Happiness If union with God in self-sacrificing love is the highest end of a life, providing true happiness, how can we achieve it?By Zena HitzMarch 20, 2023
CultureOn Tradition and the Passion Play How a Bavarian village’s once-a-decade Passion play became a wrenching, intimate, sometimes chaotic psychological theo-dramaBy Susan Bigelow ReynoldsMarch 15, 2023
BooksTwo Sides of Dignity By letting civility happen, we take better care not only of others and of the world itself, but of ourselves.By Costică BrădăţanNovember 2, 2022
BooksWork of Human Hands We shouldn’t be fearful of further transformations in the appearance of the Bible. The Word of God can speak as well in a laptop as from a manuscript.By Luke Timothy JohnsonAugust 19, 2022
CollectionsPope Francis at Ten Years A wide-ranging collection of Commonweal’s coverage of the remarkable pontificate of Pope Francis.By The EditorsMarch 12, 2023