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.
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.
As a way of being church, synodality might be thought of as collegiality resurrected, but without all the baggage that encumbered collegiality over the years following Vatican II, writes Fr. Thomas Reese.
At the close of an inaugural summit on climate change hosted this week by the African Union and the government of Kenya, activists who had demanded more than carbon credits and other glossy solutions to deal with climate justice issues rejected the declaration issued Sept. 6 by the political and corporate leaders in attendance.
If we continued as usual with just different people in charge, then we missed the revolution Pope Francis is calling for, says Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese.
Dealing with the climate crisis will require developing renewable forms of energy such as solar and wind power, decreasing greenhouse gases and creating more sustainable lifestyles. It also requires a change of heart.
The good news is there are ways to reduce and eliminate the growth in global warming; the bad news is I am not sure we will implement them fast enough.
Faith groups are teaming up with liberal secular organizations to combat white Christian nationalist ideology, which they say is a threat to democracy — and, for many, to their religion.