A Reflection for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, by Jim McDermott, S.J.

Pope Francis has not weighed in on the new show. (As he doesn’t watch television, this is not unexpected.) But on his behalf, we have a couple of notes we’d like to share from a Catholic perspective.

Canon lawyers are proposing new laws that will delineate the rules on papal retirement. Retired Pope Benedict XVI has had to trailblaze a path, as the last pope to step down was in 1294.

It is time to defund the police. I haven’t called them in years, and I need that tax money back to subscribe to Disney Plus.

Rather than using jokes to make a larger point, Nathan Fielder’s “The Rehearsal” derives its humor from making fun of ordinary people.

The consistent quality of Catholic schools attracted new students during the Covid pandemic. Now the challenge is to extend our mission and welcome more families in disadvantaged areas.

Sacred Heart Catholic School in Uvalde, Texas, will receive scholarship money for new students that transferred from Robb Elementary School.

Nicaraguan police burst into Matagalpa diocesan headquarters and removed an outspoken bishop who had been under house arrest for more than two weeks.

Last year, the Jesuits pledged to raise $100 million to support the work of the Descendants Truth and Reconciliation Foundation. Yet, according to Joseph M. Stewart, the president of the foundation, progress has been far too slow.

The recent expansion of Arizona’s school voucher program will make it easier for Catholic schools there to fulfill their mission.

Bishop Robert W. McElroy of San Diego asked in the July/August issue of America whether synodality could “become a deeper element of Catholic life in the United States?” Our readers had a lot to say.

We are not in ultimate control of our faith journeys, any more than we control our ultimate destinies.

For the last decade we have tried to help counter the effects of ideological partisanship by breaking down the echo chambers it relies on; to host a different kind of discourse, a forum for a diversity of viewpoints.

It is crucial that church leaders are trained to be good communicators, which also means being good listeners. This training is especially important for priests, whose communications skills (or lack thereof) often set the tone for a parish.

As the first phase of the worldwide synod concludes, there is great opportunity to consider what graces have been poured out, what we have learned and how we can continue the momentum we have created.

I want this for my own children and their classmates, that they will feel the prayers of their community as they navigate a world that views our faith as old-fashioned, ridiculous and even malicious.

A professor reflects on the difficulties and opportunities presented by teaching reluctant students.

As modern-day evangelists, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien are simply unrivaled.

Must art always promote a particular idea or ideology? Jed Perl argues that “the artist in the act of creation must stand firm in the knowledge that art has its own laws and logic.”

Katy Carl's debut novel traces the slow growth of love between two people thirsting for something more out of life.