If you have to ask a Jesuit to straighten out your finances, you are in big trouble. Yet that is what Pope Francis has done. True, some of us can balance our chequebooks, but that is not our charism. In the late 1980s, I was handed the books by the director of a Jesuit think Read more
As the synod on the Amazon region enters it final week, the bishops gathered here to discuss the region’s challenges and make recommendations to Pope Francis will begin preparing their final report. Their words could have profound impact not only on the Amazon but the entire church, as the ideas they present about protecting the Read more
With the upcoming Amazon Synod, some people are only focused on whether it will recommend that the priesthood be opened to the ordination of married men, but there is a lot more at stake. True, the synod will discuss the possibility of ordaining married men because there is a shortage of priests to serve such Read more
There has been a lot of clerical hand-wringing of late about Catholics who don’t believe what the church teaches about Christ’s presence in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. According to the Pew Research Center, only one-third of Catholics agree that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ. Almost 70 percent believe Read more
If there is any truth to the leaks concerning the Vatican’s forthcoming proposal to reform the Curia, it is going to be a disappointment and a disaster. A draft of the proposal, expected to be published at the end of June, was obtained by a Spanish weekly, Vida Nueva, and as the Vatican has not Read more
The cardinals who voted in conclave to elect Pope Francis did so hoping he would reform the scandal-plagued Vatican Curia and make it more responsive to the concerns of the universal church. Six years later, his Curia reform proposals are reportedly to be promulgated at the end of June, although they will probably be leaked Read more
As fire devastates the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, the building is as much a symbol of the recent history of the Catholic Church in Europe as it once was a symbol of the Church’s power and cultural supremacy. The church had been in disrepair for decades. Calls for its restoration went mostly ignored Read more
The appointment of Wilton Gregory as archbishop of Washington, D.C., is good news for the church, the city and the country. The only drawback is his age. Gregory, 71, will have to submit his resignation when he reaches 75, the age when every bishop must submit his resignation. Whoever the pope is in December of Read more
Six years ago, on March 13, the College of Cardinals surprised the world with the election of the Argentine Jesuit Jorge Bergoglio as pope. Taking the name Francis, he won the admiration and respect of Catholics and non-Catholics alike with his simplicity and concern for the poor and marginalized. With each passing year, however, criticism Read more
This month’s meeting in Rome, called by Pope Francis to deal with the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, may well be a failure before it even starts. The stakes for the meeting have been ratcheted up, at least for the American church, as the Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy sex abuse has summoned Read more