The Synod on the Family

Article

Unforced Errors?

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.

November 9, 2015

Article

Let's Talk About Authority

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.

By Karen Kilby

November 5, 2015

Sexuality

Article

Conspiracy of the Faithful

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.

November 2, 2015

Article

'Just a Revelation'

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.

October 30, 2015

Article

Walking Together

Engagement rather than denunciation marked the synod’s formal pronouncements, a pastoral style deeply rooted in Vatican II, and embodied in everything Francis does.

October 27, 2015

Article

The Zoghby Affair

Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics was debated, and dismissed, at Vatican II. Fifty years later, the debate continues, but with a difference.

October 8, 2015

Article

Family Ties

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.

October 6, 2015

Article

Off Script

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.

September 28, 2015

Article

Mercy for the Remarried

Secular law can help us grapple with questions about when wrongdoing begins, when it ends, and how people can put it behind them and move on with their lives.

August 2, 2015

Article

Contraception & Honesty

The starting point for the unraveling of Catholic confidence in the church’s sexual ethics is contraception. Shouldn't the next synod finally meet the issue head-on?

By Peter Steinfels

May 14, 2015

U.S. Catholicism

Pope Francis

Contraception mandate

Article

Hearing Cardinal Burke

Much of what the cardinal says is unpersuasive and unappealing, but he speaks frankly, just as Pope Francis has asked of his bishops.

November 18, 2014

Pope Francis

Editorial

Synod on the Family

Article

Married to the Past

Laws that once upheld the "traditional views" of marriage social conservatives advocate were dismantled piece by piece because they inflicted other moral costs.

November 3, 2014

Article

Pope Frank

October 28, 2014

Article

Great Expectations

The synod comes at a time when a huge gulf has opened up between the teaching of the church on sex, marriage, and the family and the practice of many Catholics.

September 10, 2014

Sexuality