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.

The promise of eternal life must lead to greater forgiveness and reconciliation, not passivity in the face of injustice. Such reconciliation can come about only when judgment is left in the hands of God.

Human suffering crosses all ethnic, racial and political borders. Efforts to alleviate it must do the same.

It is difficult for a thoughtful Catholic to separate the wheat from the chaff in assessing secular social movements and causes. But we owe it to each other to try.

While Catholics generally are prone to religious switching, Black Catholics have the highest rates. Only 54 percent of U.S. Black Catholics who were raised in the faith remain so as adults.

John Steinbeck, who won the 1962 Nobel Prize for Literature, had many fans—and a few detractors—among reviewers in America over the years.

What is it that draws so many people to a church’s pews week after week?

When it comes to the “Synod on Synodality” initiated by Pope Francis, Bishop Daniel E. Garcia says we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

The vast majority of young, self-identified Catholics describe themselves as at least slightly spiritual and religious—but they practice their faith in ways that might not be familiar to older believers.

“Do not allow the humanity, the human sin of the church to blot out who it is that we believe in and who [it is that] comes to us, Jesus Christ,” Bishop Shelton said in a recent conversation with Gloria Purvis.