In this week's episode, environmental activist Bill McKibben speaks to John Dear about how to respond to catastrophic climate change with grassroots movements.
Everything outside the Sistine Chapel is, now, pure conjecture and everything inside is up to the cardinals and the Holy Spirit, writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters.
Despite the firestorm surrounding his "Pope Trump" post, President Donald Trump claimed that the outrage was not from the millions of Catholics offended by his actions, but instead engineered by the "fake news media."
We may be stuck with labels drawn from the political world. But the cardinals who enter the conclave tomorrow need to select a new pope who recognizes how those labels distort, writes Michael Sean Winters.
For those tuning in late, there will be a conclave starting Wednesday, May 7, to elect the new pope. My columns have focused on some of the deeper issues, and insights drawn from history, to make sense of this secretive and momentous event.
As different as a papal election is from every other kind of election in the modern world, each conclave nonetheless has an internal dynamic that is revealed in the voting, writes columnist Michael Sean Winters.
Thanks largely to the United States' unique civil justice system and robust free press, bishops here have been forced to adopt more prudent policies on abuse than bishops in any other country have.
The universal church is on full display during the waiting-for-white-smoke period. Watchers who gather at St. Peter's Square are brought together by curiosity but also hope the church's new leader will be the right person for this time.
