pope francis

The U.S. Catholic bishops have now gathered four times for their semi-annual meeting since Pope Francis was elected in March of 2014: twice for the fall plenary and twice for their spring meeting. It…

Intersex Awareness Day was observed around the world on October 26. In what one advocate has called a “life-saving” move, the U.S. State Department has indicated that it will include same-sex partners…

The topic of Ross Douthat’s Erasmus Lecture for First Things magazine this week was “ The Crisis of Conservative Catholicism,” a timely one given the recent public tussles over the Synod of the Family…

As the much-ballyhooed family synod lurches into its final days, with no clear consensus on even the most mild of reforms suggested by Pope Francis and lots of backbiting and political posturing (one…

It’s official—with Ross Douthat’s conspiracy-drenched Sunday column, the idea that the synod is somehow a “plot to change Catholicism” has leapt from the far-right Catholic fringe to the conservative…

While most reactions to the 13 conservative cardinals who sent a letter to Pope Francis complaining that the outcome of the family synod was rigged in favor of progressives focused on the intrigue…

In the wake of his September visit to the United States, a great deal was written about Pope Francis’s “audience” with Kim Davis, the county-court clerk from Kentucky who has become (in)famous for…

As the first week of the second installment of the bishops’ synod on the family draws to a close, it seems that some of the bishop participants haven’t gotten the memo from Pope Francis that they’re…

Last week I took an urgent phone call from my brother who was seething about the pope’s visit with Kim Davis. A gay man who refuses to vacate his Roman Catholic pew, Robby’s Facebook post on the topic…

Now that Pope Francis has concluded his historic US visit, all eyes turn to Rome for the second part of the Synod of Bishops on family life. Opening the synod yesterday, Francis demonstrated the…