A recent Pew survey found that overall Catholics show a higher degree of worry about the impact of climate change than other Christian denominations, but the issue appears to divide U.S. Catholics along the same political and racial lines as within the wider public.

One of the more remarkable things in a pontificate full of surprises is the fact that Pope Benedict XVI's major writings involved a significant engagement with the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche.

Pope Benedict never ceased to argue that democracy must be judged by truth, a criterion it cannot measure but can only be measured by.

Our readers offered a variety of perspectives on Pope Benedict XVI and his ministry after the publication of America's articles on his life and passing.

Pope Francis hit out strongly against the way people have sought to manipulate Benedict’s death. “People who instrumentalize such a good person, [a man] of God, almost I would say a holy father of the church, have no ethics,” he said. “They are of a party, not of the church.”

Calls for the canonization of Pope Benedict XVI follow the trend of 20th and 21st century popes, but this "santo subito" process is not as common as it may seem today.