In many countries, hundreds or thousands of cases of clerical sexual abuse have made the need for conversion in the church painfully obvious.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne will take a “spiritual sabbatical” after a Vatican investigation found he did nothing illegal in his handling of clerical sex abuse allegations, but he did contribute to a “crisis of trust” in his archdiocese.

While some bishops have called for rapid and dramatic changes to the German church, representatives from the Vatican have underscored the need for unity and deliberation.

Pope Francis has a broad—and brave—vision of what being a pastor means, writes Sam Sawyer, S.J. And that vision has room for bishops to disagree with each other about the best way forward.

More pressing than the question of whether women can be ordained to the priesthood is the reality that clericalism and sexism have created and sustained a system in which women are treated as second-class citizens.

The best argument against just war theory’s continuing place in Catholic teaching may not be that it is necessarily wrong in theory, but that it misunderstands the realities of war and peace today.