As a reporter, it is my job to follow along as individuals and communities try to figure out who they want to be and how they want to live.

A perennial social crisis affecting many other issues, Pope Francis has called for a poor church for the poor. What does poverty in America look like in 2020? And will the political parties finally tackle the issue plaguing tens of millions of Americans?

A conversation with Irish poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama on faith, poetry, peace and reconciliation.

Dr. Anna Rowlands told America that Pope Francis "“gets populism. He gets what is the drive toward it and he rescues the notion of what it means to be ‘a people’ from the hands of the populists."

The church has faced repression—including attacks on clergy and places of worship and constant surveillance from police outside parishes—as it has tried to pay a mediating role, but has come to be seen by the regime as an opponent.

Pope Francis, who enacted new transparency laws in June covering contracts for the purchase of goods, property and services for both the Roman Curia and Vatican City State offices, welcomed the experts and said their work “is particularly dear to my heart.”

The health care issue looming over the debate was the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It was illustrated by the 12 feet between the seated debaters and the panels of protective plexiglass barriers installed next to them.

Since 1988 Armenia and Azerbaijan have had an undeclared war over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies inside Azerbaijan, but has an ethnic Armenian majority.

As part of our larger coverage of “Fratelli Tutti,” the latest encyclical letter from Pope Francis, America asked a number of theologians and church experts to contribute a brief response, including their perspectives on its potential impact and its particular areas of import.

The Trump administration has lowered refugee admissions to an all-time low. Giulia McPherson of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA explains why this is both inhumane and shortsighted.

A highly politicized issue that is central to the teaching of Pope Francis. The science and the moral framework are clear. Will American Catholics respond at the voting booth?

Listening to the lives of others, the confessor sees the work of the unseen Spirit. He sees saints in the making, holy ones in the flesh.

Francis reminds us that it is always people who suffer from these injustices: the poor, the disabled, women, racial minorities, migrants, refugees, the elderly, prisoners, the unborn, the lonely.

We could turn the temperature down if we acknowledge that anti-Catholicism is a real, multifaceted phenomenon that needs to be understood but does not always require sharp denunciation.

"I'm extremely concerned about the food shortage and the inability of people to purchase food for their families or to pay their rents. To deprive them of their well-being and the well-being of their children in this time seems to me to be extremely cruel," Sister Markham said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has administered the Nonprofit Security Grant Program since its creation by Congress in 2005. The program initially received $25 million in funding, and Congress provided $90 million for the program in fiscal year 2020.

In his message, the pope said that COVID-19 not only affects people's health, but also "the entire social, economic and spiritual fabric of society, paralyzing human relationships, work, manufacturing, trade and even many spiritual activities."

“This gesture by people who are used to living with pain and suffering, and yet manage to relieve it and help, tells us that there is still a lot of greatness among us,” the pope said.

This week on the “Inside the Vatican” podcast, Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell and producer Colleen Dulle unpack their takeaways from Pope Francis’ new encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti.”

Sister Platte would be overjoyed to see just war theory challenged and nuclear weapons condemned at the level of a papal encyclical, a moral vision she championed for over 40 years.