What form of Christianity is coming? What will the Church look like in the new era? To begin to find an answer to that question, please join me at a recent gathering of parish delegates from the two adjacent Welsh dioceses of Cardiff and Menevia. It was in a parish hall in Miskin, outside the Read more
Do you know that the Catholic Church is now “more fractured than at any time in her recent history”? And do you realize that it’s all the fault of just one man — Pope Francis? That claim was made this past week in the latest attack on the 87-year-old pope, a declaration written (anonymously, of Read more
On February 15, more than 1,000 mourners — predominantly LGBTQIA+ people of colour — gathered for the funeral of Argentine American activist Cecilia Gentili at St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. Gentili was a transgender woman of colour who advocated for the health and dignity of sex workers and LGBTQIA+ people. She was also Read more
Women in key roles at the Vatican and Catholic universities in its close orbit have been leading an effort to raise women’s standing and visibility in church governance, creating a growing network of experts, diplomats and scholars like them around the world. “Today we still have a lot to do to promote women. There are Read more
In the past 11 years, it has become clear that the United States is the capital of the organised opposition to Pope Francis. There is an institutional opposition that seeks to maintain the institutional status quo, a theological opposition that’s resisting “synodality”, the newest phase of the reception of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), and Read more
As a rule, evangelists from Texas don’t go shopping for bourbon before a speech. But that’s what Marcel LeJeune and some friends did when the Catholic Missionary Disciples leader spoke at a Franciscan University conference last summer in Steubenville, Ohio. Things turned serious while chatting with a saleswoman when he asked how she was doing, Read more
Without the Eucharist, it seems obvious: There is no Catholic Church. It feeds us as a community of believers and transforms us into the body of Christ active in the world today. But according to Catholic theology, we cannot have the Eucharist without priests. Sadly, in many parts of the world there is a Eucharistic Read more
February 28 marks four years since COVID-19 was first reported in Aotearoa New Zealand. Many of us are probably surprised this virus is still causing a pandemic. The World Health Organization refers to COVID-19 as a continuing pandemic. As Scientific American put it recently, it “has been the elephant in every room — sometimes confronted Read more
Earlier this month, the Peoria Diocese in Illinois announced it had closed its diocesan newspaper, to be replaced with eventual “new strategies in a wider communications plan,” according to its bishop. What “plays in Peoria,” however, is already part of a trend unlikely to slow: Bishops are cutting print publications or shuttering operations altogether, only Read more
The recent Vatican letter to the German Bishops’ Conference highlights the tension between a synodal, inclusive approach to Church governance involving bishops and laity and the traditional structures of clerical authority. This letter, and the broader debate it represents, is emblematic of a Church at a crossroads. It’s a Church grappling with the need to Read more