For high school seniors, existential angst about what schools they will get into, how much aid they will receive and how much debt they will need to take on to get a degree has become a national rite of passage.

“Our nation is better than infanticide,” the archbishop said. “Babies born alive during the process of abortion deserve the same care and medical assistance as any other newborn.”

Ms. Scaraffia described the spaces women have carved out for themselves to speak freely as “a hidden schism in the church, where the religious are separating themselves from the church.”

Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., responded to a question about his religious views by talking about his own faith and what he sees as a distortion of Christianity among U.S. conservatives.

Everything about the death penalty system seemed to be designed to deny hope. 

Survivors of abuse and their advocacy organizations had expressed frustration with the lack of specific recommendations at the conclusion of the Vatican summit.