The precipitous decline in the number of women in religious life and what it means to the church has people thinking about how to prepare for the future.

“I was surprised that they even listened to me,” said Rev. Martina Viktorie Kopecká. “I am quite young and a woman. I wore a white stole. They are not pushing me away.”

“We take people where they are, walking with them, moving forward,” Cardinal Blase Cupich said.

Catherine Pakaluk, who currently teaches at the Catholic University of America and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, describes her tweet to Mr. Macron as “spirited” and “playful.”

The proposed statement, "Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love -- A Pastoral Letter Against Racism," will be considered for approval during the bishops' Nov. 12-14 fall general meeting in Baltimore.

Three men and one woman who say they were sexually abused by priests decades ago filed a lawsuit Thursday against every diocese in Illinois for an alleged ongoing scheme to cover up sexual assault by priests.