The prayer of Father Sam Wilson is that more of his brother Jesuits will answer the call to serve in assignments on the peripheries like southern Belize. “It’s where we should be,” he says.

When gang members were asked about what they must do to exit the gang, a little over half said they must join a church or follow God.

Bishop Howard Hubbard admitted that he consistently transferred abusive priests without informing local police, families of abuse victims, or Catholics in parishes where the men were reassigned.

Last week in Chicago, bishops from throughout the United States and a few from other parts of the world engaged in dialogue with theologians, scholars and journalists about the state of the church.

To face the challenge of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, Canada’s bishops will need to reinvent themselves.

The portrait of Pope Francis that emerges from conversations with his friends is that of a man as resolutely down-to-earth and dependably Argentinian as his immigrant neighborhood.