Skin color is a evolutionary accident of geography. That does not mean racism isn't real.
Pope Francis has decided that the public ceremony of investiture of metropolitan archbishops with the pallium will henceforth take place in the prelates’ home dioceses, not in the Vatican as has been the case under recent pontiffs.He believes that in this way the ceremony “will greatly f
Violence against women, cultural pressures regarding women’s physical appearance, attitudes that subjugate women or that ignore male-female differences and the growing alienation of women from the church in some parts of the world are themes the Pontifical Council for Culture is set to explore
The cause for the beatification of Chiara Lubich, founder of the international Focolare Movement, was opened on Jan. 27 in a celebration in the Cathedral of Frascati, near Rome. • Shower facilities for homeless people in Rome will open in St. Peter’s Square on Feb. 15, but the service wil
When the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in on the constitutionality of the executions by lethal injection in Oklahoma, its ruling will probably not be a tipping point toward the elimination of capital punishment in the United States, but some experts say it could be the beginning of the end of this pract
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of the Diocese of Munich and Freising, is head of the German bishops’ conference, a member of the Council of Cardinals that advises Pope Francis on church governance, coordinator of the Vatican’s Council for the Economy and author of Das Kapital: A Plea
Mandated by the cardinals in the pre-conclave meetings to reform the Roman Curia, Pope Francis is taking his task very seriously and moving in a more radical direction than anyone had expected. His aim is not simply structural reform of the Vatican offices, though that is part of it; his primary goa