More than 120 employees of the Catholic Church in Germany publicly outed themselves as queer on Monday, saying they want to “live openly without fear” in the church and pushing for it to allow the blessing of same-sex couples.

It is appalling to see an organization that claims to be Catholic project pro-abortion messaging onto a structure that celebrates the conception of the Mother of God. What am I supposed to take from this?

A campus minister at Notre Dame has a message for gay students: We can challenge one another without thinking that disagreement is moral failure, bigotry or hatred.

The Vatican has included a group that advocates for women’s ordination on a website promoting the 2023 synod, indicating that Pope Francis wants to hear from all Catholics during the process.

Have the “nones” consciously rejected religion, or have religious institutions failed to involve them and respond to their needs? The only way to find out is by asking.

Catholics uncomfortable with a synodal model of the church, Cardinal Tobin said, may be put off by the messiness dialogue often unearths. But, he said, refusing to live with tension can be a form of heresy.

“My hope for L.G.B.T. Catholics is that they all feel welcome and comfortable in any parish in the world,” Sister Gramick says. “That they might feel just as much a part of the church as anyone else.”

In a handwritten letter, Pope Francis congratulated Sister Gramick on “50 years of closeness, of compassion and of tenderness” in a ministry that he described as being in “the style of God.”

Covid-19, the 2020 election and racial justice remained hot topics in 2021. But the past year also brought new debates within the Catholic Church, including over the Latin Mass.

The apology drew immediate praise Monday from New Ways Ministry as a “historic” move to repair the painful rift between the Catholic hierarchy and the gay community.