An 18-year-old woman is rapidly becoming one of the most powerful voices against transitioning children at a moment in which most politicians and media outlets lack the courage to speak out. Chloe Cole is a self-described “former trans kid” who de-transitioned after undergoing years of puberty blockers and an irreversible double mastectomy at the age Read more
The synodal vision that is emerging in region after region of the Catholic Church worldwide stresses that many different voices need to be heard if we are to fulfil our vocation to be the pilgrim People of God. A door to a synodal Church But if voices are to witness to the truth, the speakers Read more
No Western institution so skilfully orchestrates elaborate, arcane and profoundly moving rituals as the Vatican. With the exception, of course, of the British monarchy. Evidence of such mastery of panoply and sacred theatre has been in abundance these past weeks, culminating with the funeral of the Queen. And there will be more to come with Read more
My kids didn’t learn about the Uvalde shooting until Sept. 6, the first day Uvalde students went back to school after a gunman entered Robb Elementary and murdered 19 fourth graders and two teachers. Even though I’d spent the summer reporting, driving the 90 miles back and forth for interviews, protests and church services, I Read more
If the vast Catholic community in Africa is to truly become an “adult Church,” then “we must reimagine the participation of the laity”. That’s the belief of Alain Clément Amiézi, a theologian who was appointed by Pope Francis last June to lead the Diocese of Odienné in northern Côte d’Ivoire. Bishop-elect Amiézi, who has been Read more
Pope Francis returned from his brief trip to Kazakhstan, a country nestled between Russia and China, having failed to sit down with his Russian counterpart Patriarch Kirill or the delegation of Chinese President Xi Jinping. With the pope surrounded by empty seats in Kazakhstan, critics questioned the efficacy of his diplomacy of encounter and his Read more
Pope Francis’ recent three-day visit to Kazakhstan seemed not to have been widely reported in the general media, including here in Italy where there’s news about him almost every day on TV and in the press. Most people around the world, including most Catholics, probably don’t even know that the pope made the September 13-15 Read more
Only the most myopic would deny that a kind of mushroom cloud has covered the Catholic Church for the past half-century. A small, but quite significant part of that spiritual nuclear winter has been the profound collapse of Sacred Music. Votaries of the “spirit of Vatican II” (in today’s au courant vernacular, “the New Paradigm”) Read more
The current synod, whose title may seem abstruse — a “Synod on Synodality” —, is perhaps best expressed by the three words that follow its title: “Communion, Participation and Mission”. I want to emphasize the call to mission. This is indeed what the Lord asks for in the final lines of the Gospels, including that Read more
The French Catholic Church is much diminished. Yet French Catholicism remains a powerful creative force. The Lazarus Association is one expression of its continuing inventiveness. The organization is pioneering a new approach to homelessness that has transformed the lives of hundreds of people, won papal approval, and spread across Europe. It began in 2006, when Read more