Most modern constitutional states today describe themselves as republics. Such republics sound as though they have a lot in common with Catholic social teaching. They do.

Pope Francis' recent words to members of the synod on synodality included a strong condemnation of clericalism and a call to respect and honor of all baptized Catholics.

“Recognizing the divergences is unitive,” a bishop member of the synod told me. “It can provide healing.”

In a new letter to the People of God, the synod participants emphasized the importance of continued discernment for the Church's future.

A Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, by Father Terrance Klein

Today, Pope Francis prayed “for all those who suffer” and said he hoped that “paths of peace” may be found for the conflict in the Middle East.

A Reflection for Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time, by Molly Cahill

“Let us ask Saints Cyril and Methodius, apostles of the Slavs, that we may be instruments of ‘freedom in charity’ for others,” Pope Francis said at today’s general audience.

This week on “Jesuitical,” Zac and Ashley discuss a, if not the, big question hanging over the synod: Can it change church teaching?

James Dickey's public persona of fighter pilot, champion athlete and hard-drinking woodsman who wrote of “country surrealism” gave him an everyman appeal, even as he was perhaps the nation's greatest poetic talent.

What message does it send to women when the first synod to include them as full, voting members opts to forgo an actual vote in favor of approval by applause?

'Remembering the Forgotten Merton' is a brief biography of Thomas Merton’s brother John Paul, whom Merton fans know primarily through the powerful elegy that Merton composed to mark his brother’s death as a fighter pilot in the Second World War.

Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston is urging local Catholics to contribute resources for migrants arriving in Massachusetts, calling the situation a "major humanitarian and societal crisis."

A Reflection for Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time, by Kerry Weber

Throughout past two decades, America's editors have repeatedly called on political leaders to envision a future in which Israelis and Palestinians can flourish side by side.

It will not be enough to read any document that comes from the synod; Catholics must experience the synod, must do synod. The best place to do this is in your parish.

The Rev. Clarence Devadass, a Malaysian priest and synod delegate talks with hosts Colleen Dulle and Gerard O'Connell about the Asian delegation's contributions at the synod and the challenge of unifying such diverse experiences in a document.

Gabon military leaders claimed that electoral malpractice was one of the reasons for the coup, but another surely must be the growing frustration of the general public with a ruling elite who live in luxury while life for average Gabonese, despite its oil riches, remains a struggle.

Some humility about how much we really know can help prevent toxic rhetoric when we talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with family, friends and colleagues of different faiths.