While much ink has been spilled by Vatican watchers interpreting how the pope’s writings and structural changes will shape the church for years to come, Pope Francis’ gestures may do even more to define his legacy.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, named today to the influential Congregation for Bishops, has been known as a “Pope Francis bishop”—one who generally follows the pope’s lead in prioritizing social justice issues and dialogue over culture war flashpoints.

Whenever dioceses choose to lift dispensations, like with other difficult pandemic-related decisions, individual believers will have to decide for themselves when they feel safe going back to church.

No matter how many times you hear it described thus—jokingly or not—an annulment is not just “Catholic divorce.” Church teaching is not that the marriage in question failed, but that the marriage never existed in a sacramental sense.

Maintaining the relationship between the United States and the Holy See is vital to advancing the interests of each government.

Archbishop Gadecki, president of the Polish bishops’ conference, called for protestors and lawmakers to have further talks “on how to protect the right to life and women’s rights.”