Francis, who knows the 67-year-old cardinal well, took less than three weeks to reach his clear-cut decision.

In the assessment released on June 9th, the European Watchdog committee states that the Vatican's efforts towards investigating potential crimes committed by senior officials needs improving.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s offer to resign as archbishop of Munich and Freising hit the church in Germany and Rome like an earthquake. And while survivors welcomed the move, not everyone agrees with the cardinal’s analysis of the abuse crisis.

How we picture our souls matters. Uncolored cartoons and geometrical points do not change or weather. They do not grow in response to what happens in the world around them. But we do.

“A prayer that is alien from life is not healthy. A prayer that alienates itself from the concreteness of life becomes spiritualism, or worse, ritualism.”

In this era of viral videos and the cult of social media personalities, understanding mental health and also the effects of celebrity priesthood is a conversation we must have.