Thomas Reese

Now is the time for the proponents of religious liberty to offer to negotiate a grand compromise with those who promote women’s rights.

The word "church" has multiple meanings. One theologian counted more than a dozen different ways "church" was used in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, referring to everything from a building to the Mystical Body of Christ.

Signs of the Times: The U.S. bishops, meeting in Baltimore, felt their house was burning down, and the Vatican was asking them to delay turning on the fire hoses.

As the U.S. Catholic bishops gather in Baltimore to discuss controversial issues such as clerical sexual abuse and racism, some people are talking about the threat of schism.

For those looking for Pope Francis' synod of bishops on young people to settle the current divides in the Catholic Church between bishops and laity, conservatives and reformers, LGBT Catholics and those who regard that group as an oxymoron, the synod's final report is bound to disappoint.

Signs of the Times: These bishops see young people as empty vessels into which they will pour content. Or worse, vessels filled with garbage that must be removed to make room for the church's content.

The canonizations of Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Óscar Romero did not occur without controversy.  

As the Catholic church's monthlong synod on young people reaches its halfway point here, there has been more excitement outside the synodal hall than inside.

A high-ranking Vatican cardinal has blasted Archbishop Carlo Viganò for calling for the resignation of the pope and accusing a dozen Vatican officials of covering up the sexual abuse of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

Pope Francis urged bishops to reject conformism and frames of mind that "paralyze, separate and alienate us from young people," leaving them "orphans without a faith community to sustain them."

Signs of the Times: The future of the Catholic Church is with the young, which is why Pope Francis has called bishops from all over the world to meet in Rome Oct. 3-28 for a synod on young people. If the church cannot attract and keep young people, it has no future.

Were Brett Kavanaugh a Catholic priest being considered for promotion to bishop, or a bishop looking to become cardinal, his promotion would be dead in the water until his name was cleared.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., has done the right thing. He has asked Pope Francis to accept his resignation, which he submitted three years ago when he reached 75, the age at which all Catholic bishops submit their resignations.

There is only one way the bishops can begin to regain credibility, and that is to give a full and credible account of past abuse. 

It is hard to know what to think of the bombshell dropped by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who released a scalding letter on Sunday calling on Pope Francis to resign.

People are not satisfied that the Catholic Church has vigorously responded to the sex abuse crisis. After seeing the crisis covered in The Boston Globe and elsewhere since at least 2002, they are surprised to see reports once again in the media. What does the church need to do to get its house in order and satisfy its critics?

Awful, disgusting, horrifying, sickening — one runs out of adjectives in describing the actions of abusive priests chronicled in the just-released Pennsylvania grand jury report.

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court has approved the release of a grand jury's report on sexual abuse of minors in six Catholic dioceses across the state.

Pope Francis has decided to change the catechism of the Catholic Church to make clear the church's opposition to the death penalty. By including it in the catechism, the pope ensures that the church's teaching against capital punishment will spread throughout the church.

The recent sex abuse scandal involving Cardinal Theodore McCarrick raises once again the question of how the church can punish bad priests and bishops, especially when the state cannot because of the statute of limitations or other reasons.