The Vatican’s big fraud and extortion trial resumes Friday with a new spy story taking center stage that is more befitting of a 007 thriller than the inner workings of a papacy.

As the three-year synodal process that will culminate in the 2023 World Synod of Bishops gets underway, John W. O'Malley, S.J., offers some historical context for what synodality is all about.

The Rev. Andres Arango’s error was in saying, “We baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” when he should have begun the sentence by saying, “I baptize you.”

The Vatican is hosting a three-day symposium on the Catholic priesthood amid renewed public attention on clergy sex abuse scandals involving both children and adults and fresh research into the abuses of priestly power.

There is only a slim chance of Vatican approval for resolutions calling for a relaxation of celibacy rules for priests and for permitting women to be deacons.

In an important move, Pope Francis has issued a decree, published “motu proprio” (on his own initiative), in which he has modified the internal structure of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.