Pope Francis
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The Smartphone has remade the papacy
Technology is transforming the papacy from a distant office into the Vatican in my top pocket.
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Priest’s porch confrontation says more than his sermon
A furious reaction to a climate homily uncovers a troubling divide between believing and genuine critical thinking.
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What if the Algorithm wears a Mitre?
A non-clericalist model is essential if the church hopes to keep the passion and creativity of lay believers.
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The point of Rome
King Charles walked into Congress amid dread and left having threaded a needle. Pope Leo’s doing something similar from Rome.
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Women’s Synod report longer with less to say
Drawing on Acts 10-15 and real testimony, one Synod group offered open questions and discernment rather than closing the door with a pronouncement.
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False news and discord demand urgent response
Global frustration with misinformation and the collapse of respectful conversation demand more than secular remedies. The World Day of Communications challenges the Church to model the unity it preaches by first healing its own internal Babel.
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Synodality won’t trickle down
Expecting clerics; hierarchical leaders alone to drive Synodality may be unrealistic. Parish communities in Australia already demonstrated their readiness for a synodal church during Plenary Council preparations. The path forward may require complementary action from the bottom up.
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How Iran broke Trump’s alliance with Catholic America
At an Easter vigil for peace, Cardinal McElroy preached that the United States entered the Iran war by choice, not necessity, and failed to exhaust negotiation. He called both its initiation and continuation morally illegitimate.
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Secret dinners and deal-making behind Pope Leo’s election
Two new books detail how private dinners, diplomatic alliances and backroom conversations among cardinals shaped the election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, revealing the conclave’s hidden power dynamics in unprecedented detail.
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Catholics and other Christians thanking God together: has the time come to change our practice?
When Pope Francis visited Rome’s Lutheran church in 2015, he reframed the Eucharist not as a doctrinal reward but as sustenance for a pilgrim people. That shift in language was small but significant, opening theological space that had been closed for decades under two conservative popes.
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