This synod, more than any other, is built on the premise that realities are greater than ideas.

A Reflection for the Optional Memorial of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, virgin, by Ashley McKinless

The Catholic Church’s highest ranking prelate in the Holy Land offered his “absolute availability” to be exchanged for Israeli children taken hostage by Hamas.

Until the early 20th century, the Catholic Church in the United States was “the recipient of help from the church in other lands,” recalls Anthony Andreassi, C.O., in his homily for World Mission Sunday. “Now it is our turn to reach out to support others so that this important work of evangelization can continue."

Francis did not say whether this “compañero” was in fact among those killed, injured or taken hostage.

Published Oct. 15, the pope's letter is titled, "C'est la Confiance," the opening words of her phrase, "It is confidence and nothing but confidence that must lead us to Love."

Pope Francis has called for the respect of “humanitarian rights…above all in Gaza,” as well as the guarantee of “humanitarian corridors” and the release of the hostages.

A Reflection for Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time, by Molly Cahill

Sandesh Gonsalves, who leads the Jesuit Refugee Service team in Afghanistan, reports that Afghans are struggling in the wake of a “massive” earthquake that struck on Oct. 7. According to U.N. sources, the humanitarian aid system in Afghanistan is already desperately overstretched and underfunded, with over 29 million Afghans in need of assistance.

While outright war conditions pertain in Gaza and along its border in southern Israel, in the north, in Jerusalem and the West Bank, conditions are also fraught. Violence between Palestinians and Israeli settlers has broken out sporadically.

The baseball world recently mourned the loss of former Red Sox ace Tim Wakefield, but news of his grave illness was shared in an inherently anti-Christian way.

I love Eucharistic processions—not because they trigger some kind of fond nostalgia for the good old days (how old do you think I am?), but because it is literally Jesus and people following him. What's not to love?

“Let the Right One In” is about loneliness, the type society imposes on us and the type we impose on ourselves.

Yesterday, the participants in the Synod on Synodality made a pilgrimage through the St. Sebastian catacombs, the burial place of at least three early Christian martyrs.

Why can’t Hollywood reinvent ‘The Exorcist’? Money, lots of it, can be the only reason why any studio would invest in this franchise.

Emilce Cuda, the highest ranking lay woman working in the Vatican, joins “Jesuitical” to explain how “el pueblo”—ordinary, working class people—are at the forefront of a burgeoning synodal church.

A Reflection for Friday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, by Christine Lenahan

Let me help you, Jews and gentiles alike, bridge the gap that’s keeping us from really being there for each other.

In his new document, 'Laudate Deum,' Pope Francis gives us more hope about humanity’s right relationship with other animals, even if it lacks specifics.

Pope Francis has spoken regularly about the devil and has reminded us that the devil is not simply a pop-culture trope.