Religion News Service

For Francis, it was not about the hot-button topics. It was always about the synodal process, which he hoped would overcome divisions in the church and recommit us to the mission of Jesus.

Recent polls report a swift and decisive drop in support for the president among Muslim and Arab American voters amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Support for political violence and concern over the state of American democracy are both on the rise, with 75% of Americans believing the future of democracy is at risk in the next presidential election, according to a report released Oct. 25 by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution.

The back-and-forth is dizzying, and it will not end soon. The synod is the synod. Parts of the Catholic world are involved. Some are not. 

After listening to all the reports, the groups meet again to reflect on what they have heard. Such a process is a far cry from a parish meeting presided over by the pastor who announces and defends his preordained decisions.

A new documentary from the National Museum of African American History and Culture explores the range of faith and spiritual expressions of Black millennials and the choices they have made to reject – or embrace – the religious rituals of their childhood.

When not leading prayers, attending marches or checking on community members, Anwar Arafat, an imam of a large Memphis, Tennessee, mosque, has been glued to his phone. His spare moments are consumed by reading the news and checking WhatsApp for updates from his sprawling Palestinian family in Gaza. So far, none of his family members have been killed. But the situation is only growing more tenuous.

Participants in the protest played guitars and blew shofars as they sang songs in English and Hebrew for at least three hours.

The Vatican wishes to project an image of prayerful harmony. The media, on the other hand, thrives on conflict. You will never read a headline saying, "Participants love one another; everything is fine."

Holy See officials this week rushed to remedy tensions with Israel, which criticized the Vatican's pronouncements on the outbreak of violence in the Holy Land as too impartial and lacking a clear condemnation of Hamas.

Laudate Deum is a move in the right direction. But we aren't there yet. Catholic concern for nonhuman animals, in our technocratic times, still has a long way to go.

Traditionalists don't like Pope Francis because he is the first truly post-Counter-Reformation pope, with perhaps the exception of John XXIII, argues Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese.

A new Public Religion Research Institute survey found that 31% of Hispanic Catholics, 22% of white mainline Protestants and 20% of white Catholics agree climate change is a crisis.

In Laudate Deum, Francis commends the U.S. bishops for having "expressed very well" in a 2019 declaration the "social meaning of our concern about climate change." Yet U.S. bishops are better known for activism that focuses on voicing opposition to abortion and LGBTQ rights efforts.

The Vatican has joined U.S. faith leaders and anti-death penalty activists in supporting the Louisiana governor's desire to clear the death row cells in his state.

During the synod Oct. 4-29, we will all need patience and humility as the delegates try to discern in what direction the Spirit is calling us to travel. It will take prayer, spiritual conversation and listening to hear the Spirit.

Too many U.S. Catholics don't know about the global discussion of the church's future, argues Phyllis Zagano.

The path of a pilgrim points to a future hope and reconciliation between God, man and creation. We must also take up the opportunity to partner with God in bringing "heaven to earth" through positive actions that restore creation and defend the most vulnerable from extreme climate harms.

In making cardinals, Francis has looked for bishops who are pastoral and close to the poor and marginalized. These men are firmly committed to the social teaching of the church, without necessarily being liberal on hot-button issues of concern to progressive Catholics in the West.

If we approach the climate crisis from the place of love, a spiritual perspective, a woman's perspective — a perspective that honors the Earth's body, its biodiversity and its own healing capacity — many more possibilities open up.