The mission of a seminary “is not to form ‘supermen’ who pretend to know and control everything,” but to help seminarians become priests who are humble servants, Pope Francis said.

In 1993, America executive editor Thomas H. Stahel, S.J., interviewed the prominent political pundit Andrew Sullivan on, among other issues, homosexuality and the Catholic Church.

Homosexuals have a right to church support and blessing, said Bishop Helmut Dieser, who is the spokesman on abuse issues for the German bishops’ conference.

French Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, former head of the French bishops’ conference, admitted to abusing a 14-year-old girl 35 years ago

“Even if you leave the ordination question aside for a moment, there is still a great need to explore ways of engaging women in all other levels of the life of the church in significant roles. There is still a lot of work to be done.”

Besides casting votes in the flashier congressional races, Catholic voters will get to speak up on any number of local and regional concerns through local ballot measures.