In addition to the critique of Cardinal McElroy’s focus on welcome and inclusion, critics are also reacting to the process through which that could happen: the ongoing synod of bishops.

“Our sexual lives have many areas of sinfulness and I’m not challenging that,” Cardinal McElroy says this week on the Jesuitical podcast. “All I’m saying is that in the Christian moral life, they don’t automatically represent mortal sin.”

The pope warned there's a risk that a reform process in the German Catholic Church over calls for married priests and other possible liberalizing reforms might become harmfully "ideological."

We must examine the contradictions in a church of inclusion and shared belonging that have been identified by the voices of the people of God in our nation and discern in synodality a pathway for moving beyond them.

Our leaders spoke to their development as public persons, worthy of recognition in civil society and local democracy.

As the pope’s step faltered, his cries for peace increased, although not without controversy and criticism.