How has the church traditionally dealt with political figures who have run afoul of the church, or at least of churchmen?

John W. O’Malley, S.J.: The ‘how’ of the church changed during the council.

Why and how did the celibate state became a requirement for ordination?

Cardinal Walter Kasper on the relationship between the universal church and local churches.

Everyone has been trying to see the big picture. We have been bombarded with a certain type of question. Who is the man or woman of the century—better, of the millennium? What are the happenings in the past thousand years that most changed the course of history?

From 1957, a classic essay by Flannery O'Connor, who died 50 years ago on Sunday.