pope francis

The U.S. bishops’ semi-annual meeting, which concluded in Baltimore on Thursday, was one giant raspberry to Pope Francis’ agenda. The meeting was heavy on the bishops’ favorite culture war themes, but…

Pope Francis finally dropped the long-expected axe on Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the curia’s cultural warriors-in-chief, on Saturday. Burke was removed from the powerful position of head of the…

Apple CEO Tim Cook, who heads what is certainly one of the most visible global corporations, came out as gay this week. His statement included a phrase that brought joy to LGBT religious activists: “I…

In the New York Times, Ross Douthat cheers the conservative rebuff at the recently concluded family synod of the “implied papal position” favoring liberalization both “in the church’s attitude toward…

Changes in tone are no substitute for changes in substance.

How you view the no-consensus outcome of the just-concluded Extraordinary Synod on the Family very much depends on whether or not you are rooting for Pope Francis to change the Catholic Church. The…

Will the Francis revolution be lost in translation?

The big story this week is the ideological warfare and spin-control struggles that broke into the open after the public reading on Monday of a working document called a relatio that was intended to…

The surprisingly conciliatory tone regarding gay Catholics in the working document for the family synod released yesterday is being described by some as an “earthquake” and “revolutionary.” But it’s…

The biggest news to come out of the bishops’ synod in Rome so far is the acknowledgement that when it comes to talking about issues of family and sexuality, language matters. Among the examples of…