Pope Leo XIV’s choice of papal name is profoundly significant. What might the new pontiff have to say about the social and technological challenges facing us in the 2020s?
The complex, sometimes romanticized, but ultimately prophetic Catholic peace movement has critical lessons to teach today's America amid a genocidal war in Gaza.
"From where I was standing, the pope was a tiny white speck. That was okay. Having been granted eyes that could really see, I was finally using them in Rome."
The process of selecting the next Vicar of Christ has evolved considerably since the founding of the Church. Here is a guide to the mysteries of the conclave.
Pope Francis thought of the Church as a polyhedron, comprising many faces that meet each other along sharp lines yet always maintain their individuality.
Pope Francis was among the most famous and the most outspoken advocates for climate justice and integral ecology on the planet. Here, 'Commonweal' authors explore Francis's environmental legacy.
"Ceasing to attend to the inner theater and looking instead at the Christian story of death would place Christians where they belong: in the open before their God."
The 1950 Jubilee Year was a landmark moment for American Catholics, who were coming into their own power—and wealth—during an era of Cold War upheaval.
The risk of nuclear war is higher now than it has been since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Catholic principles of just peace can move us back from the brink.
In Burma and Thailand, humble faith-based organizations respond to a humanitarian crisis borne of civil war, a devastating earthquake, and Trump's foreign-assistance cuts.
Lent is a season of reflection—but also a season to prepare for the work ahead, to sweep aside everything that has not worked and find new ways through the desert.
The final twist in 'Conclave' is hardly sensationalistic: it raises real questions about how the Church accommodates people outside binaries of sex and gender.
