Analysis

I think that Chapter 8, “Accompanying, Discerning and Integrating Weakness”, is the most problematic section of Amoris Laetitia (AL) for three reasons: 1) Pope Francis seems almost (not quite, but almost) incapable of acknowledging that an individual is sinfully […]

There are as one might expect in a document of this length and written with access to the kinds of resources a pope commands, many good things said about marriage in Amoris. Whether those things […]

In recently musing about what Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis’ much anticipated post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation, might (or might not) contain, I wrote:  I don’t think Francis is going to try to change doctrine. Even if he […]

My initial judgment: The Joy of Love (Amoris Laetitia) is the best of Francis’ official documents yet—probably because he defers a great measure to bishops’ interventions at the synods on the family—even while it remains […]

A decade ago, a 79 year-old soft-spoken, white-haired German theologian returned to visit a university at which he had spent much of his academic career. On such occasions, it’s not unusual for a distinguished professor-emeritus […]

While President Obama is correct in saying the war on terror is not and mustn’t become a war against Islam, it would be foolish to ignore the religious dimension of Islamic terrorism as now reflected […]

Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Little Sisters of the Poor’s legal challenge to the Obama administration’s mandate on contraception and sterilization coverage in health insurance plans. The Little Sisters’ attorneys […]

News that Pope Francis will travel to Sweden in October for an event marking the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation underlines the fact that the Catholic Counter-Reformation is over. Whether Protestants are prepared to […]

Almost 500 years after Augustinian monk Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Cathedral of Wittenberg, Swabia (October 1517), and 494 years after the bull of excommunication issued by Pope Leo […]

The movie Spotlight’s Best Picture win at the Academy Awards has brought renewed attention to the Catholic sex abuse scandals that broke in 2002. But while the Church’s failures are well-known, it is also true […]