On October 24, Pope Francis released his fourth encyclical, titled Dilexit nos (“He Loved Us”), dedicated to the Sacred Heart. Unlike the widespread political and media interest surrounding Laudato si’ in 2015 or even Fratelli tutti in 2020, this encyclical received little attention beyond Catholic circles. An encyclical’s impact takes time. In 2015, Laudato si’ Read more
“I believe that this profound human thirst for infinite happiness, which we all feel at times, is the most real thing there is. “To hope for it is to live in the real world,” insists Timothy Radcliffe, the former Master of the Dominican Order (1992-2001), who Pope Francis named when he announced the nomination of Read more
From the beginning, one of the most persistent charges against Pope Francis’s Synod of Bishops on Synodality, which got underway in 2021 and wrapped up last night [26 October] in Rome, is that the deck was stacked with progressive voices, creating an unrepresentative sense of the totality of global Catholic opinion. To cite a classic Read more
Congratulations to the 350-odd participants in the Synod on Synodality for completing two long and intense sessions of work in 2023 and 2024. No doubt there are many angles to explore in the 28,000 word document. But let’s take a quick dive into it to see what it says about the role of lay people, Read more
Since it was founded nearly two decades ago, 23andMe has grown into one of the largest biotechnology companies in the world. Millions of people have used its simple genetic testing service, which involves ordering a saliva test, spitting into a tube, and sending it back to the company for a detailed DNA analysis. But now Read more
Transcript from Rita Cassella Jones Lecture at Fordham of September 17, 2024. As you know, I belonged to the initial Pontifical Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women. We were named in August 2016 and first met in November of that year. I traveled to Rome several days in advance of the scheduled Read more
Although Pope Francis took it off the agenda, the appointment of bishops is still being discussed privately by members of the synod. The Pope took this and a number of issues off the agenda because he wanted the synod to focus on synodality and not be distracted by controversial and complicated issues. Discussions about bishops Read more
More than a century and a half ago, Christian missionaries from the West brought the Gospel message of Jesus Christ to the peoples of Africa. One of the inherent weaknesses of this evangelisation process was the imposition of Western ways of believing and thinking on the African people of God. However, since every church is Read more
Is the Church in decline? Some might draw that conclusion looking at data from the 2023 census. Reporting the results, one media headline said, “More than half the population has no religion”. It went on saying that the proportion of people with ‘no religion’ has increased from 48.2 per cent in 2018 to 51.6 per Read more
Most of us have grown up in a highly centralised European “Catholic” Church, and so we feel uncomfortable with many of the changes being promoted by Pope Francis. After his visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore last month, Francis was heard to remark that “some people are still too Eurocentric” when they Read more