In a major address on confronting the sin of racism and working for racial harmony, Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, the nation’s first African American cardinal, said a “healing of America’s soul” is needed.

More than 230 professors of Catholic theology have signed a statement protesting the Vatican’s recent pronouncement that priests cannot bless same-sex unions, adding to dissent over the document.

Jesus does not condemn the woman caught in adultery, and he does not condemn us. But he challenges her, and he challenges us, to sin no more. 

The freedom we find in Christ can lead us to act on behalf of the marginalized.

According to three sources, it was significant that Francis called on Christians and the church to give witness to Jesus “not with theoretical condemnations but with gestures of love.”

A second Catholic cardinal has questioned the legitimacy of a recent decree by the Vatican to restrict the celebration of the old Latin Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and forbid private Masses in its side chapels.