The cause for the beatification of Chiara Lubich, founder of the international Focolare Movement, was opened on Jan. 27 in a celebration in the Cathedral of Frascati, near Rome. • Shower facilities for homeless people in Rome will open in St. Peter’s Square on Feb. 15, but the service wil

Are our leaders ready for Pope Francis’ challenge to business as usual?

If the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down federal subsidies that have helped millions of people obtain health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act, it will be “an incredible cruelty,” said Carol Keehan, D.C., the president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Associatio

Past editors were no mere chroniclers of The Troubles but active participants as well.

Mandated by the cardinals in the pre-conclave meetings to reform the Roman Curia, Pope Francis is taking his task very seriously and moving in a more radical direction than anyone had expected. His aim is not simply structural reform of the Vatican offices, though that is part of it; his primary goa

No clear guidance emerged from last fall’s Synod of Bishops on the Family for divorced and remarried Catholics who wish to receive holy Communion. Cardinal Sean O’Malley, O.F.M.Cap., among others, has suggested that streamlining the annulment process may be the best way to provide relief

No Simple Solutions“The Feminist Case Against Abortion,” by Serrin M. Foster (1/19), is one of the more reasoned and thoughtful approaches to the thorny abortion issue that I have read. And it is a thorny issue. At times it seems that abortion opponents are on the opposite of a

Violence against women, cultural pressures regarding women’s physical appearance, attitudes that subjugate women or that ignore male-female differences and the growing alienation of women from the church in some parts of the world are themes the Pontifical Council for Culture is set to explore

As this winter gets underway in earnest, I say, go ahead and break me. Plunder me, take me down, so I can be made new. Maybe that is exactly what I need—not merely a rest but a reinvention.

The world’s first Jesuit community college—Arrupe College of Loyola University Chicago—is scheduled to open at the university’s Water Tower Campus on Aug. 17. The college, named for the late Pedro Arrupe, S.J., a former Jesuit superior general, aims to provide prospective stu

Skin color is a evolutionary accident of geography. That does not mean racism isn't real.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of the Diocese of Munich and Freising, is head of the German bishops’ conference, a member of the Council of Cardinals that advises Pope Francis on church governance, coordinator of the Vatican’s Council for the Economy and author of Das Kapital: A Plea

The late Rev. Richard McBrien said he didn't "hold things back.” We are richer for it.

Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero will be beatified in San Salvador "certainly within the year and not later, but possibly within a few months," said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the postulator or chief promoter of the archbishop's sainthood cause.Speaking to reporters Feb. 4, the day

Archbishop Oscar Romero ldquo is a martyr of the Church of the Second Vatican Council In killing him they wanted to hit the Church that flowed from the Second Vatican Council rdquo Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia the postulator of his cause for beatification told a press briefing in the Vatican on

Pope Francis rsquo s daily homilies offer spiritual nuggets He offered one sleeper on January 26 when he said that it is women who transmit the faith The concept has been offered before but sometimes it has seemed to be a mere platitude to appease women who may feel underappreciated in the church

Republicans and Democrats sanctify individual choice in different ways.

Peer-to-peer ministry reaches students at primarily secular colleges.

Those serene-looking saints we see depicted in those plaster or wooden figurines on exquisite pedestals in our churches can be very deceiving Looking at their calm demeanor on their fine-crafted faces can lull one into thinking that the sainthood process is a rather placid affair a sudden expres

Sometimes I 39 m asked to recommend a Bible one that provides an accurate translation along with helpful annotations that illuminate the complexities of the stories and text I am no biblical scholar so I don 39 t mean to offer any definitive opinion However I can say that for New Testament rea