The forced resignation of the widely respected Tony Spence, who had a long history of serving the Catholic press, raises questions about changes at the USCCB.
Pope Francis appoints new archbishop of Havana, releases new document on the laity in the church (in Spanish), and rumors say McDonald's is opening in Vatican city.
How media shunned Eastern Orthodox leaders visiting refugees with the pope; Which title Francis prefers; Why U.S. bishops fired Catholic News Service editor-in-chief
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.
With Pope Francis lifting up what can be called social justice Christianity, clichés that religion lives on the right end of American politics might be overturned.
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.
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.
Rome responds to attacks in Brussels; Francis breaks with tradition to wash feet of asylum seekers for Holy Thursday; New Vatican directory has revealing findings.
Holy See Press Office rushes to defense of priest abusers; New papal diplomats appointed; Cardinal tells journalists priests are "not obliged" to wash women's feet.
The body of Padre Pio was recently paraded through Rome in a glass coffin, followed by thousands. What is it that makes people gather around a desiccated corpse?
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."
Francis visits tomb of Don Samuel Ruiz, bishop of the of San Cristóbal de las Casas, and indigenous people whom he empowered with ownership of their local church.
Pope Francis's "seemingly ambivalent" attitude toward clergy sex abuse; Canadian archbishop calls for the church to involve women in all levels of ecclesial life.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pope Francis kicked off the Jubilee Year of Mercy with the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s. I started my observance with a brilliant black comedy from HBO.
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.
The environmental movement gets criticized for neglecting social and economic injustice. But California is seeking to align climate and economic policy-making.
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.
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.
