While several cardinals in his own curia voice opposition, Pope Francis apologizes to church for "scandals that have occurred recently both in Rome and the Vatican."
The horrors suffered by Christians in parts of the Middle East can't be overlooked. But in Jordan, the historic coexistence of Islam and Christianity continues.
Standing in that endless, pointless line, I realized, wasn’t communicating our affection for the pope but our acceptance of the authority of the security state.
Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics was debated, and dismissed, at Vatican II. Fifty years later, the debate continues, but with a difference.
U.S. Paulist Fathers give moral prescription for Synod; Priest fired for announcing gay partnership reveals more in upcoming book; Families in Rome welcome migrants.
Reducing faith to political checklists can neither lift Christianity above the superficiality of bourgeois religion nor reverse the disaffiliation of the young.
Francis knows there's no such thing as a perfect family. Yet he also knows it's within families where we learn what it means to be responsible for one another.
The series presents a view of medieval Catholicism as the realm of cranks and fanatics, while Thomas Cromwell is shown as distinctly rational and reasonable.
After news of secret visit with Kim Davis, could the affection that Pope Francis generated with his visit to the United States last week vanish in a cloud of smoke?
Are Catholics still obligated “under pain of mortal sin” to follow what the church teaches? It seems nowadays most believers prefer to focus on grace and Eucharist.
The bishops and the church as a whole are about to take an honest look at the gap between that which cannot be changed and that which can and sometimes ought to be.
Preachers have told stories in a variety of ways over the centuries. But preaching in the U.S. has seen a shift from typology to illustration as the prevailing mode.
Adult baptism in the United States fell 43 percent between 2005 and 2013. Does it suggest a stagnation of our collective imagination about baptism itself?
For Jon D. Levenson, the main form that the love of God in Judaism takes—and, by extension, the form that mature adult love ought to take—is covenantal love.
The strangeness of Freeman’s title commands attention; Kaplan constructs a microhistory of religious conflict; Lipton presents a learned study; Manseau on diversity.
Does Montaigne resemble the contemporary essayist who writes about faith? The short answer is that he does not—at least not in easily recognizable ways.
The best-selling author and founding pastor of the House for All Sinners and Saints Lutheran congregation talks about unsaintly saints, purity codes, and more.
Francis's encyclical contains a fundamental lesson: We are not the source of meaning or value; if we believe we are, we exchange the real world for a virtual one.
The American media have discovered that a Catholic church exists beyond the sex abuse and financial scandals. But as others have said: The church is not the pope.
The departure of Scott Walker from the presidential campaign should come as a relief to American working people. But the hostility toward labor he embodied remains.
As important as hearing Francis’s words will be paying close attention to whom he chooses to visit while he’s here. In his value system, the last really are first.
Vatican announces who will and will not be attending round two of the Synod; Hungarian cardinal silent on refugee crisis; Heated debates over paving stones in Rome.
According to Catholic discipline, there is only one kind of person who can offer anointing of the sick: a priest. But there aren’t enough priests to go around.
Economist Diane Coyle and Pope Francis don’t speak the same language but address the same problem. The “haves” need to recalibrate over-use of the world’s resources.
Dying is an adult activity. This has been one of its bigger surprises for me. I find I need to leave behind the child side of myself to go where I now need to go.
