Brian Doyle's essays, fiction and poetry all offered powerful reflections on finding the beautiful and the divine amid life’s struggles.

“The synod is not a council. It does not take decisions as a council does. Its task is to discern, not decide,” one synod member explained to me.

Can I get an amen?

As a superior general and then as a bishop, the cardinal said he had attended six previous synods, and this is “the most diverse synod I’ve ever participated in.”

A Reflection for Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week of Ordinary Time, by Joe Hoover, S.J.

“We behave completely unjustly, unjustly toward the pope because the opposition to him is always based on one or two phrases taken out of context,” Cardinal Ryś said in an exclusive interview America.

In this episode of “Inside the Vatican,” Colleen Dulle and Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell discuss the first week of the Synod on Synodality, and the strong emphasis from Pope Francis and the synod team to maintain discussions between participants confidential, both during and after the synod.

A Reflection for Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time, by Ryan Di Corpo

The synod secretariat has gone to extraordinary lengths to encourage each member into a disposition of openness so that maybe, just maybe, the Holy Spirit can act.

Israel’s Embassy to the Holy See underlined the need for the church to condemn “the hideous crime,” name the perpetrators and acknowledge “Israel’s basic right to defend itself against the atrocity.”

When Catholic same-sex couples seek a blessing from a priest, it often flows from a deep faith in God.

The Catholic Church is called to be an instrument of communion, Anna Rowlands told synod participants. But it requires grace and “learning to ‘bear with’ reality, gently, generously, lovingly and courageously.“

Before the Rev. James Martin, S.J., set off for the Synod on Synodality currently underway at the Vatican, he shared with “Preach” host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., some of his insights for preaching the message of the synod in parishes.

As the death toll rises in Israel, Pope Francis prayer for the families of the victims and “for all those who are living through hours of terror and anxiety.”

The synod on synodality is not geared to “resolve particular problems” in the Catholic Church, such as the blessing of same-sex unions or women’s ordination, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of Kinshasa, Congo, said.

"The operation launched from Gaza and the reaction of the Israeli Army are bringing us back to the worst period of our recent history," the patriarchate, led by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said in a statement.

In the new podcast, “Strike Force 5,” Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and John Oliver all admitted to a desire for Holy Orders.

A tragic fire reminds us that sometimes the aftershocks of war feel even more cruel than war itself.

In 'Laudate Deum,' Pope Francis takes direct aim at the failure of human action on climate change on the global level.

The archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, released a lengthy statement on Thursday, praising the late Senator Dianne Feinstein’s “civility.”