Alice von Hildebrand is a Belgian-born Catholic philosopher who retired from the classroom in 1984 after teaching at Hunter College in New York City for 37 years In September 2013 Pope Francis awarded her a Dame Grand Cross of the Pontifical Order of St Gregory the Great on the occasion of her 90

Escalating violence between Israel and Palestine has left at least 213 Palestinians and 12 people in Israel dead since the outbreak of hostilities on May 11. In 2014, we spoke to Israeli Jesuit Father David Neuhaus on the more than six decades of conflict in the Holy Land.

"There is a future for individual gay people in the Catholic Church that doesn’t require repression, or self-hatred, or being totally alone."

The Office of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is reached by staircase or elevator up one level from the inner courtyard at Piazza del Sant’Uffizio, 11, near the end of the colonnade that wraps around the Piazza San Pietro. The dome of St Peter’s Basilica, designed six centuries ago by Michelangelo, is in partial view from all the office windows.

"It was truly amazing how Martin Luther King could sustain his hope for a beloved community at a time when nobody, black or white, seemed to believe in it or even care."