Like all human institutions, the Church has often failed. But it is more than its failures—and much more than the endless quarrels over Vatican II or sexual morality.
The Trump-Vance presidency has the characteristics of an “übermagisterium” aiming to replace the teaching of the Church with a political-religious ideology.
This jubilee’s theme, “Pilgrims of Hope,” is meant to offer a message of comfort to victims of international warfare, the pandemic, and climate change.
The synodal process and the Final Document suggest that Catholicism is moving in the direction of a more participatory and missionary Church—if slowly.
‘Fiducia supplicans’ seems written to reinforce very stubborn ideas: that there is a proper place for liturgy and that married gay people do not belong there.
If the Church really believes in the indelible dignity of LGBTQ+ persons, it can’t just express sorrow for past abuses or offer words of welcome. It has to actually do something.
The Vatican’s failure to carefully distinguish between “gender theory” and the varied experiences of actual transgender people risks further alienating those that already feel rejected by the Church.
‘Laudate Deum’ does not merely restate Pope Francis’s commitment to the environment. It calls us with greater urgency to change the systems feeding climate change.
In the early decades of the twenty-first century, historians will say, the Church sought a new way of operating that would allow it to travel into a new era.
The Synod needs every bit of constructive help it can get. But mischaracterizing the Instrumentum is not helpful. Nor is raising the specter of Joachim of Fiore.
The false argument against restoring women to the ordained diaconate—that women cannot image Christ—is the cause of the disrespect for women on every continent.
