Is hell empty? Pope Francis hopes so. Among the thinkers of the past century who speculated it could be so was Hans Urs von Balthasar, a favorite of the past two popes and a prominent theologian of his time.

In just three months at the helm of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Victor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández has rapidly changed what was once the Vatican’s most formidable department.

After failing to administer the lethal injection to Kenneth Eugene Smith in 2022, the state of Alabama is facing pushback from advocates affiliated with the Rome based Sant’Egidio on its decision to instead use nitrogen hypoxia, the first execution of its kind in the U.S.

God sending Jonah to Nineveh would be like telling a modern-day rabbi to preach in Iran or Gaza.

The struggle for faith ‘is a struggle from which everything else emanates,’ says the storied director.

There can be no separation between the confession of Christ and the transformation of life, between Christian thinking and Christian living, and between theology and spirituality.

"It brought a lot back from my own abuse, because some of the things I read were similar to what my rapist would say -- sort of combining abuse with things of a spiritual nature," clerical abuse survivor Faith Hakesley said in an interview.

In an audience with the International Association of Journalists, Pope Francis reminds journalists of the vocation to seek and share the truth of the church.

Miss the Zoom webinar? Watch the recording. [Subscriber-only]

Dominicans celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Altagracia on Jan. 21. The image, which depicts an infant Jesus, Mary and Joseph, is the most popular devotion in the Caribbean nation. It has been for centuries.