I was pleasantly surprised to realize that amid all the polarization and turmoil found online among Catholics, we can still come together to pray for an old man who happens to be our pope.

Becquart has been traveling the globe in recent weeks as an ambassador for the Synod on Synodality, planned for October in Rome.

Former Missouri senator John Danforth said he has revisited his 1999 report since learning about the Trump rally in Waco and noticed similarities between the rhetoric of Mr. Trump and the conspiracy theorists of the 1990s.

Charles Taylor, the Canadian philosopher and social theorist who has become one of the world’s most prominent thinkers in the last few decades, continues to influence American religious dialogues, including in the pages of 'America.'

What is the way out of polarization? And why does that question—along with the now-commonplace observation that society suffers from deepening divisions about everything from gun control to abortion to public funding for religious schools—seem so exhausting?

“Our communion is unsure of itself.” We must “recover a sense of what holds us together.” The stakes are very high for our church, and listening to one another is the first step on a much longer journey.

Reflecting on Pope Francis’ 10 years at the Vatican, Cardinal Robert McElroy says that “there has been a fundamental shift in perspective, of cultures and sometimes of priorities within the life of the church.”

How many are willing to have their minds changed, to desire for something from this synodal process that goes deeper than their pre-existing agenda?

“Top-down” ecumenism has not reduced the distance between the Catholic church and other churches. We need grassroots ecumenical relationships now.

Cardinal Wilton Gregory said that Pope Francis has made it difficult for Americans to be comfortable with just one aspect of Catholic Social Teaching—“you’ve got to have them all.”