Vatican II was a time of rising expectations for theology, for how much it could transform the Church and the world. Have those expectations been betrayed?
From 2015: For those listening carefully in the House chamber, Pope Francis will have presented some quandaries that they are more ready to ignore than to engage.
From 2020: Pope Francis addresses the English-speaking world as the coronavirus pandemic now reaches the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
From 2016: Francis offers a practical approach to the challenges of married love that gives us a surprisingly moving exhortation to a courageous way of life.
Becoming a Christian is like the process of moving from childhood to adulthood. The realities of both are much more complex than the caricatures presented to us.
An FBI memo rightly highlights the extremist rhetoric of some “Rad Trad” Catholics. But its proposal to infiltrate churches reveals a failure to learn from the past.
Remembering the deceased is an act of hope. Sharing our faith and experiences together can pull us out of the darkness and into the beauty of Jesus’ life.
“Even before Ash Wednesday, our lifestyle was rather Lenten. A kind of full-time fasting: vigilance when we’d like to rest, discipline when we’d like to indulge.”
What seems like a never-ending state of crisis has paralyzed Catholicism. This is not the Church of mercy that Francis has been talking about for the past ten years.
Nothing in the tragic history of Catholic anti-Jewish action rivals the blood libel for horror and folly. How can we understand these accusations of ritual murder?
“Benedict really cared about the job he had to do, and in resigning demonstrated that the responsible use of power sometimes requires a willingness to give it up.”
El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz speaks with Commonweal about his meeting with Joe Biden—and what leaders in Washington need to know about the reality on the border.
Pope Francis has made it plain that he doesn’t like “casuistry.” But this form of moral reasoning can be made consistent with Francis' teaching on God’s grace.
Joseph Ratzinger was a brilliant theologian whose anti-progressive views became inseparable from his persona. Few committed Catholics will be indifferent about him.
From 2019: The imaginary encounter between Ratzinger and Bergoglio is imaginative, and emotionally satisfying. But we need to remember that it never happened.
In this 1985 piece, George Lindbeck offers his thoughts on the Ratzinger Report, a compilation of interviews with Cardinal Ratzinger published in 1985.
His 2019 essay departs not only from the current pope’s analysis of the sex-abuse crisis, but also from that of almost everyone else who has studied it.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI didn’t turn his back on Vatican II: he endorsed its core ideas, emphasizing the person of Christ and our role as Christ’s body.
Poet Rodger Kamenetz’s search for God expands the spiritual vocabulary of our time, crossing the borders of faith, driven by compassion and a self-sustaining wit.
In 2022, our contributors covered a lot of ground, from the synod on synodality, to the Ukraine war, to the threat of climate change. Here are some of our favorites.
