The announcement came as Francis was in his bed in the Gemelli Hospital being treated for an infection of the respiratory tract. A Vatican spokesman said "the Holy Father passed a good night and slept well.”

This week, Zac and Ashley chat with Dr. Gina Zurlo, a scholar of world Christianity at Harvard Divinity School, about her groundbreaking research on women outpacing men in worldwide church participation.

In her new book, "The Mystics Would Like a Word: Six Women Who Met God and Found a Spirituality for Today," Shannon K. Evans beautifully articulates how the spirituality developed by women mystics still inspires and applies to us today.

Pope Francis broke one of the Vatican’s “stained-glass ceilings” on Monday by appointing an Italian sister as the prefect of a Vatican dicastery for the first time. Here’s what you need to know.

If we are to be a synodal church, are all of us ready to hear and honestly reckon with the sacrifice being asked of women and L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics?

The unique perspectives and gifts that women bring, in collaboration with clergy, enrich the church in ways that go beyond what ordination could offer.