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.
Was Fr. Spadaro’s metaphor such a big mistake—or a mistake at all? I don’t think it was, but even if he did fall off the theological high wire, these things happen.
One of the most important contributions Pope Francis is making to the church concerns his efforts to exercise the kind of pastoral magisterium Pope John hoped for.
Some of the anxiety pervading reception of 'Amoris laetitia' invites misconstruals of the text that dwarf whatever legitimate worries that critics may have.
It is worth stopping to reflect on what Francis has described as “the very foundation of the church’s life,” now, while the Year of Mercy remains fresh in our minds.
Pope Benedict XVI resigned over three years ago; Francis is undeniably the only pope.Yet in some ways the transition is ongoing and continues to affect the Church.
Cardinals grapple with Francis's unclear "but-also" logic; Bishops hesitate to implement changes pope called for three years ago; What will happen to Vatican Radio?
Some conservatives tend to confuse fidelity with a one-size-fits-all legalism. If there's one thing you can say about Pope Francis, it's that he's no legalist.
To understand Francis and support the direction he has been setting for the Church, we need to think more deeply about the ways and means of “forgiveness.”
Francis regards the sacrament's indissolubility as a “gift” rather than a “yoke,” and chides those whose efforts to defend marriage reduce the gift to a “duty.”
The exhortation is a valiant and powerful exercise in the Petrine ministry of upholding church unity. Is it another starting point in Francis's pontificate?
How and why Bernie Sanders was invited to the Vatican; Cardinal Burke's backlash and the pope's "bodies"; the important difference between "the Synod" and "synods."
If John Paul II was the philosopher and Benedict XVI the theologian, Pope Francis is the poet pope, giving voice to the dreams and wisdom of migrants and the poor.
Who's revealing Francis's exhortation on marriage and the family; What some speculate it says about divorced and same-sex couples; How corrupt Cardinal Bertone is.
Anticipation builds for release of Francis's document on marriage and family; impatience with his speed for reforming the Curia and replacing top Vatican officials.
The initial euphoria of Pope Francis's election was being replaced by the realization that we women would continue to be joked about, romanticized, and patronized.
Papal infallibility is utterly misunderstood. Nowhere is it decreed that the pope is infallible; the Catholic Church has never taught that any pope is infallible.
Engagement with vexing questions is part of the life of a pilgrim church. It is strangely un-Catholic to assert that doctrine does not and cannot change.
In 2016 Francis will be focusing more on calling to the episcopacy and promoting to the cardinalate men who have the charism and willingness to be pastoral bishops.
Responses from readers about our collection of articles on the Synod on the Family, Rita Ferrone's exegesis of the gospel of John, and the entire December 4 issue.
Selected articles, interviews, and video from our coverage of the Synod on the Family—and the continuing dialogue about sex, marriage, and Catholic family life.
So this, I realized as I watched, was still a church of surprises. Vatican II lived on. A weight accumulated over thirty-five years dropped from from my shoulders.
Process, papacy, and accompaniment: It may not be too early to wonder how Pope Francis's handling of the Synod on the Family fared on these three considerations.
Francis has introduced the possibility that the spotlight of moral judgment can can be shone back on those who make the judgments, and on their very act of judging.
John Henry Newman once said of the laity that the church would look foolish without them, and from the beginning the synod did indeed look foolish without us.
Aside from restatements of the teaching on sexual morality, there were glimpses of how a spirituality of discernment could infuse the church in its mission of mercy.
Engagement rather than denunciation marked the synod’s formal pronouncements, a pastoral style deeply rooted in Vatican II, and embodied in everything Francis does.
Synod Fathers prepare to vote on final document; Pope reminds bishops of Vatican-II hope for episcopal collegiality; More "servant-leader" pastors appointed bishops
