LGBTQ advocates say many Catholic secondary schools are working to support students. But they also believe there's a harmful trend: new diocesan-approved policies or guidelines on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Michael Sean Winters: This World Meeting of Families is not the spectacle we saw in previous years. It has gained in depth anything it lost in breadth, mostly because of what Pope Francis said at the event.
Analysis: Pope Francis' limited mobility, and news of an August trip to L'Aquila, have fueled speculation that he may resign. But he is just the latest in a series of popes who have endured physical decline in the spotlight.
The U.S. Catholic Church should face our difficult past neither intent on saving national myths nor on vindicating postmodern identity theory. The essential inspiration should come from convictions of Christian faith.
Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Phil Lawler misquotes Benedict XVI; Fr. Robert Sirico's laughable take on Benedict and John Paul II; a journalistic mess; Connecticut wins best pizza.
Commentary: On Dec. 1 Los Angeles County held an annual service called the Burial of the Unclaimed Dead for 1,780 persons. The service sought to comfort the spirits of the abandoned and address a tangible failure: How could we let such abandonment happen?
Biden's visit to the Vatican will be only the second time in history that a sitting U.S. president who is Catholic has met with the pope. But the centuries-old Vatican diplomatic corps has such VIP meetings "down to a science."
Anne Tropeano has chosen to be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest, thus breaking the Catholic Church's ban on the ordination of women and crossing the threshold of formal excommunication. "God is asking me to do this," she says.
With about three weeks before Catholic prelates worldwide open a first-of-its-kind consultation period for the Vatican's Synod of Bishops, many U.S. church officials are still figuring out exactly what that process will look like.
