Pope Francis is warning Catholics not to demonize those who are not members of the church, and he specifically defended atheists, saying that building walls against non-Catholics leads to “killing in the name ...

Rose Marie Berger To have the "poor one" at the center of the Catholic faith is right and just. I W ...

Conservative and liberal religious leaders may not agree on much, but both are expressing displeasure with the Boy Scouts’ proposal to accept gay members but reject gay leaders. ...

How far can one go in retelling a Bible story, adding things that are not in the original? In The Testament of Mary, Colm Toibin goes a long way. NEW YORK — How far can one go in ...

Nearly a year after the Vatican announced a makeover of the largest umbrella group for American nuns, Pope Francis has directed that the overhaul of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious continue. ...

He has been Pope Francis for less than a month, but the keep-it-simple prelate from Argentina is a wow with American Catholics — at least for now. He has been Pope Francis for l ...

Marie Dennis A prayer for the new pope to fulfill, in fresh ways, the promise of Vatican II. WHEN POPE BENEDI ...

Jews worldwide welcomed newly elected Pope Francis as a friend on Wednesday, and pointed in particular to his sympathetic and strong reaction to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in his native Argentina — th ...

February 18, 2013 Sojo in the News Ellen Teague ...

Lutheran leaders have warned the Vatican that the creation of a structure to welcome conservative Lutherans into the Catholic Church would harm dialogue and damage ecumenical relations. ...

Jim Rice Before the election, several bishops went so far as to threaten their parishioners with eternal damnation if they voted for Obam ...

Jim Wallis Attitudes toward capital punishment are changing, including among conservatives. I AM AGAINST the ...

September 7, 2012 Sojo in the News Michael New ...

The Catholic bishops gathered here for their annual meeting couldn’t agree on a statement on the economy on Tuesday morning, but with a unanimous voice vote that afternoon they easily backed a measure to push ...

A divided Catholic hierarchy on Tuesday failed to agree on a statement about the economy after a debate that revealed sharp differences over the kind of social justice issues that were once a hallmark of the b ...

After sweeping setbacks to the hierarchy’s agenda on Election Day, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan on Monday told U.S. Catholic bishops that they must now examine their own failings, confess their sins and ref ...

Clearly the political strategy of the bishops is not working. So where do the bishops go from here? As the bishops gather in Baltimore this week for their annual meeting, they li ...

A number of Roman Catholic bishops are making forceful last-minute appeals to their flock to vote on Election Day, and their exhortations are increasingly sounding like calls to support Republican challenger M ...

More American Catholics believe their religious leaders should be focused on issues related to poverty and social justice during this election season, rather than spending time and energy on other issues such ...

The Rev. Benedict Groeschel, a well-known Catholic author and television personality, has given up his longtime spot on the conservative cable network EWTN following comments in which he appeared to defend cle ...

In a move that could recast the reigning political narrative about the Catholic bishops, Cardinal Timothy Dolan has accepted an invitation to deliver the closing benediction at the Democratic National Conventi ...

After the movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colo., and a deadly shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., Americans are divided on gun control, and within certain religious groups, attitudes are far from a ...

By tradition, the storied Al Smith Dinner has provided a few hours of comic relief from the angry volleys of the campaign trail. But this year's event is drawing criticism. N ...

A new poll shows that American Catholics tend to agree with their bishops’ concerns that religious liberties are at risk in the U.S. Nevertheless, Catholics seem to be warming to President Obama. ...

Joan Chittister The Vatican attacks on Catholic sisters will sap the church's impact in the world. AFTER ...

A group of Catholic Sisters set off for the Nuns on the Bus tour, speaking out against the House Republican budget that cuts funding for safety net programs and hurts those already in poverty. ...

Though today’s gender roles are hardly perfect, Mad Men does help point out how much progress has been made in a couple of generations. But it also serves to point out how out of step the Catholic Church is wh ...

In an unexpected blow to the Obama administration and a major boon for America's Catholic bishops, the influential Catholic Health Association on June 15 rejected White House proposals aimed at easing fai ...

Amid continuing headlines about cover-ups of child abuse in the Catholic Church, an oversight board of lay Catholics on June 13 warned the nation’s bishops that they must follow their own policies against abus ...

Ten years ago, the Roman Catholic sex abuse scandal dominated the headlines with horrific stories of priests preying on vulnerable youths and a church hierarchy more concerned with protecting clergy instead of ...

Catholics around the U.S. are coming together for prayer vigils as a show of support for America's nuns, whom the Vatican accuses of having "serious doctrinal problems." ...

The film shows a burning crucifix, gun-toting priests and the torture of a young boy. And the Roman Catholic hierarchy is loving it. The film shows a burning crucifix, gun-toting ...

Tensions between the Archdiocese of Washington and Georgetown University are escalating ahead of an address on Friday (May 18) by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a conflict that is becom ...

CHICAGO—Two months ago, I went to the Maryknoll motherhouse, a massive stone building in Ossining, N.Y., to interview 93-year-old Sister Madeleine Dorsey for a book I am writing. This was a sister who had chosen to stay with the poor in El Salvador afte ...

A group of professors and administrators is joining the chorus taking Ryan to task for claiming his budget proposal falls in line with Catholic teaching. Rep. Paul Ryan is slated ...

As Pope Benedict XVI marked his seventh anniversary as pope, many Catholics were wondering if the pontiff is finally becoming the papal enforcer that some feared – and others hoped – he would be when he was el ...

In response to Rep. Paul Ryan’s recent comments justifying the Republican budget plan on Catholic grounds, 60 prominent Catholic leaders today released a statement saying his claims “profoundly distort” Cathol ...

The Obama administration is offering to expand the number of faith-based groups that can be exempt from the controversial contraception mandate, and proposing that third-party companies administer coverage for ...

A majority (56 percent) of Americans say religious liberty is not threatened in the U.S., according to a new poll released Thursday by the Public Religion Research Institute, which conducted the survey in part ...

The White House has surprised observers and disappointed some liberal allies by signaling that it is willing to compromise and provide a broader religious exemption in its controversial regulations requiring a ...

A new poll released this morning by Public Religion Research Institute shows that a majority of white evangelicals are opposed to cutting federal anti-poverty programs for the poor and nearly three-quarters of ...

Is Halloween a prime time for evangelism? Are religious tracts passed out along with (or in lieu of) "treats" really the best way to spread the gospel message? Is ...

More than 150 Roman Catholic priests in the United States have signed a statement in support of a fellow cleric Roy Bourgeois, who faces dismissal for participating in a ceremony ordaining a woman as ...

Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and high-profile conservative intellectual, announced that he is officially in the running for the Republican nomination for president. New ...

President Obama spent <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/state-of-the-union-2011-breakdown/" target="_blank">4 percent</a> of his State of the Union ...

This past week I was afforded a sneak peek at the forthcoming PBS documentary <a href="http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/calling/" target="_blank"><em>The Calling</em>< ...

<p><a href="http://blog.sojo.net/tag/it-takes-a-movement/" target="_blank"></a></p> [ Editor's Note: Today is ...

Dear Glenn,</p> Dear Glenn, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I listened to your speech last Saturday and heard a lot of things that we agree on. In fact, I have u ...

<strong>[<em>Editor's Note<span style="font-weight: normal; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">: In anticipation of the anniversary of the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, God& ...

Korean-American youth. Soldiers vs. Schools. Movies. Here's a little round-up of links from the web you may have missed this week:</p> Korean-American youth. Soldiers v ...