"Downton Abbey" has been vivid, suspenseful, and often funny, but it has always remained a soap opera with pretentions, a show obsessed with the passage of time.
Word is Pope Francis will visit Turkey a second time; Jesuit-run Vatican Radio is merging with non-Jesuit CTV; First events for Jubilee Year were not "jubilant."
Paul Lisicky's book is a memoir of love and friendship, and how sometimes their boundaries blur. But it's also a book about literary ambition and its discontents.
The Vatican announces world tour for holy corpses; Relics arrive in Rome escorted by paramilitary police; Francis calls religious to "pray more" to raise vocations.
Imaginary American flags, ballots on sticky notes, turkey dressing sandwiches, and beer: Two Iowa caucus-goers with their first-hand accounts of democracy in action.
Francis said though it's impossible to “cancel out” faults of the past, this should not “continue to contaminate” relations with various other Christian communities.
With little fanfare, President Obama is embarking upon an ambitious $1 trillion program to enhance U.S. nuclear striking power. How will his successor proceed?
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 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, traditionalists disagree with Pope Francis's “polyhedron ecumenism”; In the U.S. they highlight the faults of married deacons.
The contrast between the response in Europe—reactive, ill-tempered, and chaotic—and that of the countries bordering Syria ought to be a cause of shame.
Pope Francis commissions specially selected "Missionaries of Mercy" for Holy Year while record numbers of Italian Catholics are seeking "annulments" of their baptism
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.
At the end of his address to the Roman Curia, Pope Francis quietly invoked the memory of one of the most important reform-minded bishops in the United States.
Vatican confirms details of Francis's trip to Mexico; Francesca Chaouqui claims some cardinals want the pope dead; and globalization brings Christmas trees to Rome.
Pope Francis opened the Jubilee Year of Mercy heralding "mercy before judgment" in the spirit of Vatican II. But did the liturgy symbolically contradict the message?
Almost without exception, students respond favorably to René Girard’s work. In some cases, the encounter with Girard changes their lives--as it has changed mine.
Vatican translators edit piety into pope's speeches; Francis plans 'twelve big gestures to demonstrate God’s mercy' for Jubilee Year; More on 'Vatileaks II' scandal.
What Pope Francis is doing during his first trip to Africa, despite security threats; who among the cardinals thinks the pope is "wobbly" on church teaching, again.
It seems that Bernie Sanders does not share F.D.R.’s vision entirely. In fact, he usually leaves out a key component of New Deal Liberalism: the part about liberty.
Francis to ordain bishop at the Lateran, not the Vatican; Two new books based on Vatican-insider leaks to be published this week; The Dominicans turn 800 years old
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.
The election of Justin Trudeau resoundingly closes what many observers view as a dismal era in modern Canadian politics personified by conservative Stephen Harper.
While several cardinals in his own curia voice opposition, Pope Francis apologizes to church for "scandals that have occurred recently both in Rome and the Vatican."
The horrors suffered by Christians in parts of the Middle East can't be overlooked. But in Jordan, the historic coexistence of Islam and Christianity continues.
Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics was debated, and dismissed, at Vatican II. Fifty years later, the debate continues, but with a difference.
U.S. Paulist Fathers give moral prescription for Synod; Priest fired for announcing gay partnership reveals more in upcoming book; Families in Rome welcome migrants.
The best-selling author and founding pastor of the House for All Sinners and Saints Lutheran congregation talks about unsaintly saints, purity codes, and more.
Italian bishops join Francis in strongly denouncing European handling of migrant crisis; Are opponents of Cardinal Kasper's proposal releasing yet another book?
Traditionalists grumble Francis is stacking the Synod assembly with "lefties"; 2016 World Day of Peace theme is announced, along with a long list of global issues.
In the short run, Obama simply has to win enough votes for his Iran deal. For the long run, he has to persuade Americans that diplomacy is a safer path than war.
Francis sat before the Special Olympics athletes as though among heroes. Instead of us being there as his “audience,” he became the audience for athletes to address.
Even if her new novel gives us pleasure, shouldn't we be able to remember Harper Lee as a member of one of the most unusual groupings in literary history?
Articulating a basis for the Court’s judgment that's preferable to the somewhat diffuse mix of rationales on which Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority relies.
Whether or not U.S. support for LGBT rights goes beyond the rhetorical, societies still viewing themselves as “under God” will bridle at this sudden turn about.
As Francis plans to overhaul the Holy See's media management, a bishop-psychotherapist is assigned to help remove "playboy priests" from an infamous Italian diocese.
The core liberal conviction about the Supreme Court still rings true: it is most constructive when power is used to vindicate the rights of beleaguered minorities.
The countryside is the bedrock of Chinese traditions and of Chinese Catholicism. But urbanization and government pressure are threats to these enduring communities.
Francis's week: talking church reform with cardinals and peace with Vladimir Putin. And saints' bodies are en route to Rome. Is Francis reviving medieval devotions?
A preview of upcoming papal visits at home, abroad and with Italian protestants. And the press turns Francis's list of "attacks on life" into an abortion debate.
The award-winning author of the story collection 'Night at the Fiestas' talks about her influences, the importance of empathy in fiction, and washing altar cloths.
Pundits will have great fun with a socialist in the race. But before laughing Bernie Sanders off, a short primer on socialism in the United States might be useful.
