The Vatican’s new declaration, “Dignitas Infinita” (”Infinite Dignity”), garners praise from U.S. Catholic leaders for its comprehensive addressing of key issues surrounding human dignity, including poverty, migration, abuse, gender issues, and digital violence.

The Major Penitentiary is sometimes referred to as chief confessor of the Catholic Church because he has broad faculties that are reserved to the Holy See to grant pardon and forgiveness for sins for which an ordinary priest or bishop cannot grant absolution.

It appears Pope Francis did not want the story of his relationship with Benedict XVI to be told by others, least of all by Archbishop Georg Gänswein.

The Vatican press office announced that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith’s declaration on human dignity, said to include a faith-based critique of “gender ideologies” and surrogacy, will be released April 8.

The meetings of Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinal Advisors generally do not garner much attention, but since last year’s synod, they have made headlines thanks to a series of presentations organized by Sister Linda Pocher, F.M.A.

The Vatican announced the creation of 10 study groups to focus on themes that arose at last October’s Synod on Synodality, an announcement that prompted mixed reactions: Are the groups “kicking the can down the road” or opening a “new horizon”?