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.
In a new collection of essays, Colm Tóibín brings his trademark doggedness to matters of faith, from the politicking of Pope Francis to Marilynne Robinson’s fiction.
There is an obvious tension between how to be “successful” on social media and how to represent the Catholic faith. Why is the Vatican ignoring this fact?
For filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi, Pope Francis is a revolutionary, a man who calls on us to imagine a better world. But being a revolutionary comes with loneliness.
These priests who argue endlessly against washing the feet of women during the Mandatum on Holy Thursday, I wonder, do they ever look up during the ritual?
Vatican II was a time of rising expectations for theology, for how much it could transform the Church and the world. Have those expectations been betrayed?
