A Catholic priest who sexually assaulted an altar boy in Louisiana is in prison, and a diocese has paid a settlement to the victim’s family. Now the diocese’s bishop has punished the victim’s father, a former deacon, with the Church’s highest censure: excommunication. It was the latest turn in a yearslong battle pitting the former […]
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At St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a Funeral Was Held for Cecilia Gentili, a Transgender Activist
The pews of St. Patrick’s Cathedral were packed on Thursday for an event with no likely precedent in Catholic history: the funeral of Cecilia Gentili, a transgender activist and actress, former sex worker and self-professed atheist whose memorial functioned as both a celebration of her life and an exuberant piece of political theater. Over 1,000 […]
Read MoreThe Friar Who Became the Vatican’s Go-To Guy on A.I.
Before dawn, Paolo Benanti climbed to the bell tower of his 16th-century monastery, admired the sunrise over the ruins of the Roman forum and reflected on a world in flux. “It was a wonderful meditation on what is going on inside,” he said, stepping onto the street in his friar robe. “And outside too.” There […]
Read MoreTania Tetlow Is Fordham University’s First Woman President
Tania Tetlow, the newish president of Fordham University, was in New Orleans, isolating with a case of Covid over winter break, when she learned that Claudine Gay had been forced to resign as Harvard’s president. She did not know all the facts of the case, but it was still a sobering moment. Dr. Gay had […]
Read MoreNicaragua Frees Jailed Catholic Bishop and Other Clergymen
The Nicaraguan authorities said on Sunday that they had released 19 clergymen who had been jailed and handed them over to the Vatican, the latest development in the autocratic government’s longstanding persecution of the Roman Catholic Church. Among those set free was Bishop Rolando Álvarez, one of the most prominent critics of the government left […]
Read MoreVatican Defends Gay Blessings, but Offers Critics Some Leeway
In the weeks since Pope Francis approved a rule allowing the blessing of same-sex couples, some bishops in conservative corners of the church, such as Africa, have said they wouldn’t allow priests to perform the practice, which they believe contradicts church doctrine. On Thursday, the Vatican said in a statement that any bishops opposed to […]
Read MoreThe Church, Living in Christmas Past
My mom loved Christmas so much, she would sometimes leave the tree up until April. She dyed a sheet blue for the sky behind the crèche and made a star of tin foil. The cradle would stay empty until Christmas morning; when we tumbled downstairs, the baby would be in his place, and the house […]
Read MoreNo Better Time to Be a Catholic
These are general questions, not just Catholic ones, but they are distilled in specific ways in the clash between Francis’s liberalization project and the conservative and traditionalist resistance. And how the world’s largest hierarchical religious institution passes through this crisis, how these questions are fought over and resolved inside a billion-member church, will play a […]
Read MoreFor Archbishop of Canterbury, Heading Anglican Church Is ‘High-Wire Act’
When the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, welcomed friends to sing Christmas carols at his London residence last week, his remarks ran, as they often do, to his coronation of King Charles III in May. The vaulted chamber in which his guests were gathered, he told them, had been used to rehearse […]
Read MoreU.S. Catholics Split on Pope’s Blessing for Same-Sex Couples
Pope Francis announced on Monday that he would allow priests to bless same-sex couples, a shift that angered some conservatives but was celebrated by those who said that the decision was a substantial step in moving the church toward greater acceptance of L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics. “It really is a landmark and milestone in the church’s relationship […]
Read MorePope’s Critics Feel the Sting After His Patience Runs Out
As Pope Francis smiled warmly at the circus performers spinning and flipping in front of him at his weekly general audience in the Vatican on Wednesday, he looked every bit the grandfatherly figure who has for the last decade sought to make the church a kinder, gentler and more inclusive place. Except for the people […]
Read MoreTexas Bishop Loudly Critical of Pope Francis Is Removed
Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, one of the loudest American voices against Pope Francis within his own church, recently responded to a Vatican investigation into his leadership and talk of his potential resignation with a public letter stating, “I cannot resign as Bishop of Tyler because that would be me abandoning the flock.” He […]
Read MoreWanda Poltawska, 101, Who Forged a Friendship With a Future Pope, Dies
Wanda Poltawska, a Polish psychiatrist and author who after World War II sought spiritual help to cope with the horrors she had experienced in a Nazi concentration camp and became a lifelong friend of her counselor, a priest who would one day be Pope John Paul II, died on Oct. 24 at her home in […]
Read MoreWomen Will Vote at a Vatican Meeting for the First Time
When Helena Jeppesen-Spuhler, an advocate for the ordination of women, joined a major Vatican meeting this month, she was skeptical that an institution dominated by men for 2,000 years was ready to listen to women like her. The gathering of some 300 bishops from around the world also included for the first time nuns and […]
Read MoreVatican Conference Draws All Stripes to Rome, Welcome or Not
Rome is a Catholic menagerie these days. An excommunicated woman dressed in red bishop’s robes is marching toward the Vatican behind a procession of would-be female priests. Conservative culture warriors are headlining theaters, delivering screeds against Pope Francis before marginalized cardinals and exorcists sitting in velvet seats. The abortion-rights leader of Catholics for Choice is […]
Read MoreThe Pope Francis Era Has Made the Extraordinary Feel Normal in the Catholic Church
The Francis era in Roman Catholicism is a good example of how the abnormal and even extraordinary can come to feel, with enough repetition, old hat and status quo. The wildness of the last decade is undeniable: the first papal resignation in centuries, the elevation of a new pope who began casting about for the […]
Read MoreCatholic Conservatives Criticize Pope Francis’ Synod
Sitting under the bright house lights of a theater near the Vatican, Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, the de facto leader of the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to Pope Francis, displayed a theatrical sense of timing on Tuesday for the adoring conservatives in the red velvet seats. The day before, Cardinal Burke and other traditionalist prelates […]
Read MoreVatican Synod Puts Catholic Church’s Most Sensitive Issues on the Table
Throughout his decade as leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis has allowed debates on previously taboo topics and set in motion subtle shifts toward liberalizing changes that have enraged conservatives for going too far and frustrated progressives for not going far enough. This month, starting on Wednesday, Francis’ desire for the church to […]
Read MoreWhat Is a Synod in the Catholic Church? And Why Does This One Matter?
Even for a Roman Catholic Church rife with esoteric terminology that often defies comprehension by the uninitiated, this month’s Synod on Synodality at the Vatican — essentially a major workshop for church leaders and lay people on how to work together for the good of the church — has proved mystifyingly meta for many of […]
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