The “Inside the Vatican” team is together in Rome—live and in person—for the Synod on Synodality’s final week. They cover last week’s most contentious story: the meeting with Study Group 5, which is considering ways to increase participation for women in the Church, including the possibility of women deacons.

A ‘Jesuitical’ conversation with Michael Sean Winters of the National Catholic Reporter about the ways the synod is (and isn’t) taking root in the U.S. church

Recognizing the doctrinal authority of bishops’ conferences does not mean allowing them to reject the teaching authority of the pope, said the head of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, didn’t think much of bishops’ conferences. Among those who disagreed with the cardinal was Francis A. Sullivan, S.J.

The Synod on Synodality has raised the question of the role and authority of bishops’ conferences. In 1998, another moment when the question gained prominence, a leading authority on ecclesiology weighed in.

The Vatican and the Chinese government are renewing their agreement on the appointment of bishops for four years.