Could a pope resign? Would a retired pope still be infallible? If a pope resigns and another is elected, are there in effect two popes?

I like to tell folks that I have a little black nun inside of me. She’s my muse, my spiritual guru, my inspiration. She’s a patron saint who leads me and guides me when I call on her to lend me a hand. She’s the late Sister Thea Bowman (1937-90). Now I never met Thea in the flesh,

Cardinal Says Boff’s Ideas Still Alive 15 Years After SilencingFifteen years after the Vatican silenced a Brazilian theologian for holding that the one true church can exist outside the Catholic Church, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said the idea continues to circulate. The cardinal, who is prefec

During the last tense years of South Africa rsquo s apartheid regime the University of Notre Dame awarded a number of fellowships to members of the South African clergy to study at the university During their stay they boarded at Moreau Seminary and the halls rang with their laughter Their laug

In what may signal a crack in the wall of support for the death penalty, a number of states have begun to question whether it can ever be fairly applied. Illinois provides the most dramatic example. Since 1977, 13 men have been released from its death row. One, Anthony Porter, came within two days o

During the last three days of January, after an 18-month exploration of the topic, The Kansas City Star published a series of articles on cases of AIDS among Catholic priests. Propelled by the assertion that "priests are dying of AIDS at a rate at least four times that of the general U.S. popul

Should public high school students be permitted to engage in a public opening prayer before the game of their football team? That question will be resolved in a case accepted by the United States Supreme Court on Nov. 15, 1999 [see editorial, "Public Schools and Religion," 1/15.] The facts

Bob Chase, president of the country’s largest teachers’ union, the 2.3 million-member National Education Association, has nothing good to say about school vouchers.Mr. Chase occasionally writes brief essays that the N.E.A. inserts as paid advertisements in selected newspapers. In one tha

Only last year pundits were pronouncing the sitcom on its last legs. After all, "Seinfeld" and "Home Improvement" were gone, and even popular shows like "Frasier" seemed increasingly tired. (How often can you watch Niles pursue Daphne, Frasier avoid Lilith and Eddie act