In a surprise announcement this morning, Pope Francis has announced that the final, Roman phase of the ongoing Synod on Synodality will extend over two sessions from October 4-29, 2023, and in October 2024.
Pope Francis
Posted inFaith, Short Take
Vatican II didn’t fail. It’s just getting started.
We experience now a church where the laity matter—where, for example, a New York Times columnist without any church title can have a voice.
Posted inEditorials, Faith
The Editors: The three most important lessons from the synod (so far)
We should not be surprised when any notion of the church as a perfect society is not embraced by people who have real wounds and struggles.
Posted inFaith, Speeches
Pope Francis on discernment: Our desires are signs of God’s presence in us
Desire is the lack of a reference point that orients the path of life; it evokes a suffering, a lack, and at the same time a tension to reach the good that we miss.
Posted inFaith
Pope Francis marks 60th anniversary of Vatican II by warning against worldly ‘progressivism’ and backward-looking ‘traditionalism’
Catholics must be careful, he said, because “both the ‘progressivism’ that lines up behind the world and the ‘traditionalism’ that longs for a bygone world are not evidence of love, but of infidelity,” the pope said.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Pope Francis calls Thailand daycare massacre an act of ‘unspeakable violence’
In a message sent Oct. 7 by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, the pope offered prayers for the victims “of the horrific attack” that claimed the lives of 36 people, including at least 24 children, Oct. 6.
Posted inFaith, Interviews
Interview: U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican on Joe Biden and Pope Francis’ relationship, Ukraine and Catholic polarization
In an exclusive interview, Joe Donnelly, U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, discusses his diplomatic work with the Vatican—including on the war in Ukraine—with America associate editor Colleen Dulle.
Posted inFaith, Speeches
Pope Francis: The devil knows the passwords to our heart. We must know them too.
“It is important to know ourselves, to know the passwords of our heart, what we are most sensitive to, in order to protect ourselves from those who present themselves with persuasive words to manipulate us.”
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
In historic first, Pope Francis approves an ‘ecclesial conference’ with lay people instead of a bishops-only leadership body
Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno, S.J., explained that the now officially recognized body “involves bishops, priests, women and men religious and the lay faithful from the nine countries of the Amazon region.”
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis makes dramatic appeal to Putin: Stop the war in Ukraine
Reflecting his profound concern at the danger of an escalation of the war in Ukraine and the potential use of nuclear arms, Pope Francis called today for “an immediate ceasefire” to that war.