In her eight novels and many short stories, Alice McDermott has brought a distinctly Catholic imagination to her fiction—but not in the same way as her forebears.

No, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is not dead. No, Pope Francis is not resigning. And no, the Vatican is not hiding a secret time machine.

According to a rash of new polls, Americans have come together over the belief that the country’s major institutions are seriously out of whack.

Pope Francis said he would not live in the Vatican or return to his native Argentina if and when he ever retires, but would instead like to find a church in Rome where he could continue hearing confessions.

Were a papal document forthcoming it could lead to a new and definitive papal teaching document on issues as polarizing as contraception, assisted procreation and palliative care.

Every ticket scooped up by scalpers is one less ticket available to the very people that the pope is going to Canada to see.

“Sow integrity for yourselves,” urges Hosea. Right now in the U.K., that feels like the most urgent political task.

The pope joined the Sri Lanakan Catholic bishops in an “appeal for peace” and to the country’s political leaders “not to ignore the cry of the poor and the needs of the people.”

A Reflection for Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time, by Ricardo da Silva, S.J.

“This rush to execute would be reckless in any state, but Oklahoma in particular has a horrendous track record for problematic executions.”