When faced with infertility, Amanda and Jeff Walker had a baby through in vitro fertilisation but were left with extra embryos — and questions. Embryo adoption Tori and Sam Earle “adopted” an embryo frozen 20 years earlier by another couple. Matthew Eppinette and his wife chose to forgo IVF out of ethical concerns and have Read more
Secularism has been brought into the international spotlight by the ban on hijabs for French athletes at the upcoming Paris Olympics. France’s unique approach to “laïcité” — loosely translated as “secularism” — has been increasingly stirring controversy from schools to sports fields across the country. The struggle cuts to the core of how France approaches Read more
Few American cities face a more daunting homeless crisis than San Francisco, where on any given day 38,000 people walk the streets and settle into doorways and back alleys without food or shelter. On top of that challenge, the Bay Area is home to a rapidly growing immigrant population from a host of countries, whose Read more
The Key So much of Pope Francis’ pastoral teaching is summed up in the very first sentence of the recent Declaration on Human Dignity issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Every human person possesses an infinite dignity, inalienably grounded in his or her being, and this dignity prevails in and beyond Read more
Our national Catholic newspaper will cease publication this month after 27 years in print. The loss of NZ Catholic is actually more significant than recent cuts to some secular media, such as the closing of Newshub. This is because NZ Catholic has been the only consistent source of local reporting of events and issues in Read more
Two recent events frame the many discussions within the Church reform movement, while many of its constituent groups continue to engage with the international Synod on Synodality. Pope Francis suddenly announced in a major interview with an American television network that ordaining women deacons, a long-held aspiration of the movement for women’s equality in the Read more
Like his predecessors, Pope Francis dedicates his Wednesday general audiences at the Vatican to thematic cycles. He recently devoted 20 audiences (December 2023 to May 2024) to the theme of vices and virtues. “The spiritual life of the Christian is not peaceful, linear and without challenges; on the contrary, Christian life demands constant struggle,” says Read more
One curious feature of the modern papacy is the informal, but very real, PR safety net which grows up almost spontaneously around every pontiff. It’s forged in part by the Vatican’s own official communications channels, but even more so by outside commentators and media platforms heavily invested in selling a given pope’s story to the Read more
In a May 21 interview with CBS, the Holy Father confirmed the exclusion of women’s diaconal ordination from the scope of discussion at the Synod on Synodality in the Catholic Church. There are undoubtedly many reasons for this authoritative decision, and it can be legitimately reduced to the pope’s personal conviction formed in prayer, which Read more
The full ambivalence of Pope Francis’ pastoral approach to the issue of homosexuality has come into view, first during his television interview with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell, and now with the news that he told the Italian bishops’ conference that gay men should not be allowed to enter the seminary. Is this the same pope who, early Read more