As the second session of the Synod begins, it’s striking how little attention is given to the issue of women—not only within the Synod itself but also in church policy and in the behavior of women themselves. The exclusion of women from synodal debate is a papal decision, reaffirming their exclusion from “holy orders,” meaning Read more
The great educator and cultural historian Walter Ong, S.J., wrote an essay for America in 1990 in which he suggested the metaphor of yeast can serve as a powerful model for Catholic education. Yeast, he wrote, is an agent of infusion, of integration and penetration that transforms the flour into which it is introduced. He Read more
Is the Synod on Synodality the most important moment for the Church since the Second Vatican Council, as one high-ranking Vatican source believes? I’d love to tell you I know exactly what was in front of me October 2 at its reopening in the late afternoon, but that wouldn’t be accurate. For now, this synod Read more
“I did all the things,” said Carli, mom of four grown children who have stopped practicing the Catholic faith. “We went to Mass as a family. “We sacrificed to send them to Catholic school. They went to youth group. We did everything we thought we were supposed to do. What happened?” It’s one of the Read more
In my last blog, I reported on the enthusiasm that filled me and many other synod participants during the retreat days. The enthusiasm gave way to a certain disillusionment after two more days. That was to be expected. But the fact that it would happen so quickly and that this “sobering up process” even began Read more
As this year’s session of the Synod on Synodality gets underway in Rome, South African women and women religious have reached new levels of frustration with the church and Pope Francis himself. Theologian and spiritual director Annemarie Paulin-Campbell said Pope Francis has been a superb leader in many respects. “However,” she said, “when it comes Read more
During his visit to Belgium, Pope Francis was warmly received September 28 at the University of Louvain, which was celebrating its 600th anniversary. And yet, the event left a bitter aftertaste. Confronted by a group of students and faculty over “the invisibility of women” in his encyclical Laudato si’, “Christian ecofeminism,” and the role of Read more
Perhaps it is in the very nature of the Synod on Synodality to take steps back after having taken several steps forward. But the tone of the opening days of the synod’s final general assembly makes it apparent that, for the moment, there is no talk of revolution within the Church. That tone was set Read more
Can humanity survive the digital age? The answer — according to an Institute for Human Ecology panel convened Sept. 17 at The Catholic University of America in Washington — is basically this: It depends. There are “two big questions that hang over human life in digital reality right now,” announced Ross Douthat, a media fellow Read more
The Sunday after her confirmation, when young people raised Catholic are supposed to embrace their faith for themselves, Ellie Hidalgo’s niece begged her parents to not make her go to church. “She said, ‘I just don’t think this Church is set up for somebody like me,’” Hidalgo recalled in a recent interview. “‘I don’t think Read more