The message of Easter is not a mirage or a magic formula, Pope Francis said. But it does offer hope to a world suffering from the Covid-19 pandemic and many sources of conflict.

"Fraternity among Catholics is wounded," Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa said. "Divisions between churches have torn Christ's tunic to shreds.”

Perhaps the only real answer is in asking the questions.

Suffering is never the end in the Christian worldview and, more importantly, the Christian experience.  

Pope Francis celebrated the Mass commemorating the Last Supper in the private chapel of the demoted Cardinal Angelo Becciu, this Holy Thursday evening.

Vaccines are promising an end to the Covid-19 pandemic, but weekly Mass attendance may not yet be possible. And for centuries, many Catholics have maintained faith without it.

Going through old files, America's editors found a few interesting submissions (and rejections).

Pope Francis said today that he was deeply moved and encouraged at having received more than 100,000 small video messages of thanks and support on the eighth anniversary of his election as pope.

If Christians, especially white Christians, vilify Derek Chauvin, we absolve ourselves of our own complicity in the racist structures that permitted him to place and pin his knee on George Floyd’s neck. Surely it is not us, Lord?

Louise Glück’s poem, “Wild Iris,” begins with a description of death, the sort of death something made of earth and growing there might recount if it could speak.