Tag: American Catholics
Pope Francis may soon release his greatly anticipated response to a key bishops’ meeting on family issues that took place last fall. At that meeting, bishops discussed the church’s response to a host of issues, including some that are very controversial. The bishops were especially divided over whether the church should change its rules against communion for divorced Catholics who have remarried. Many American Catholics have been pushing for that change and others. More
“The pope looks at the world in a different way. He looks at the world, he looks at economics, he looks at the environment, politics from the bottom up, from the outside in, and those aren’t Washington’s priorities or Washington’s ways. So we’ve had an alternative vision and a great example, and my hope is we listened, we learned, and we maybe even might follow his example,” says John Carr, director of Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life. More
American Catholics, says Rev. Thomas Reese of National Catholic Reporter, live out their faith in the local parish, and “they want to meet somebody like Pope Francis. And if the clergy and the bishops and the people aren’t like Pope Francis, or namely like Jesus, more welcoming, compassionate, loving, they’re going to turn around and never come back.” More
The Roman Catholic Church’s understanding of the permanent nature of marriage “is really meant to be a countercultural position,” says Professor Susan Ross of Loyola University Chicago’s theology department. “The Church’s challenge is to find a way to hold marriage as this sacred bond, while recognizing the very human situation in which it falls apart.” More
Pope Francis arrives in the US on Tuesday, September 22nd, for five busy days in Washington, New York, and Philadelphia. Managing editor Kim Lawton asks American Catholics about the beliefs that shape the Pope’s view of the world, and Stephen Schneck and Tom Roberts joins host Bob Abernethy in the studio for a conversation about their expectations for the pope’s trip. More
Watch excerpts from a panel discussion at Georgetown University examining the influence of Pope Francis’ leadership on American public life six months after his election. More
Sister Maureen Fiedler, host of the public radio program “Interfaith Voices,” asks if lurking among the papal candidates there is “a pope who will look at the human equality of all persons, including men and women.” More
On Ash Wednesday, outside St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., we spoke with Catholics about their reaction to the news that Pope Benedict will step down at the end of February, and what they hope to see in his successor. … More
Managing editor Kim Lawton discusses what the latest polls say about which candidates religious voters are supporting in the close race between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney. More
The co-chair of Catholics for Obama explains how he believes Catholics can reconcile supporting President Obama despite his abortion position and his administration’s policy directing employers to provide free contraceptive services. More