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

From the very first moment of his unexpected election as Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina has embraced a series of small departures from established tradition. ...

Pope Francis on Thursday washed the feet of 12 young inmates, including two girls and two Muslims, during a Maundy Thursday Mass at a youth detention center in Rome. VATICAN CITY ...

Shunning the spacious papal apartment used by his predecessors, Pope Francis has chosen to continue living in the Vatican guesthouse where he has been staying since the beginning of the conclave. ...

Pope Francis issued a powerful call for the protection of the environment and of society’s most vulnerable during his formal installation Mass at the Vatican, while qualifying his papal power as a “service” to ...

March 14, 2013 Sojo in the News Jim Wallis ...

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

On Wednesday, the white smoke got in my eyes, and rather than confusing my sight, it’s made things a little clearer. When I heard about the white smoke on Wednesday, I wrote on my ...

What, in fact, does the election of Francis say about the Catholic Church at this point in its history? VATICAN CITY — A hierarchy looking to make a clear statement about where th ...

White smoke billowed from the chimney atop the Vatican's Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, followed by bells ringing from St. Peter's Basilica — signaling the election of a new pope. ...

National Catholic Reporter’s John Allen, a top Vaticanologist, perceived four main camps pushing different types of candidates: a pope who would overhaul the Roman Curia, the pontiff’s dysfunctional civil serv ...

Tensions among the Roman Catholic cardinals meeting here to choose a new pope appeared to escalate on Wednesday as the American prelates in Rome canceled their daily press briefing under pressure from colleagu ...

You won’t find many Catholic churches named after Pope Benedict IX. You won’t find many Catholic churches named after Pope Benedict IX. Benedict IX squandered the papacy’s ...

As the 117 Roman Catholic cardinals walk into the Sistine Chapel next month for the election of a new pope, one hopes that they fully recognize the unfolding, dramatic pilgrimage of world Christianity: The dem ...

Who better to embody the Christ-like compassionate suffering alongside the poor than one who knows the experience first-hand? For the first time in six centuries, the head of the ...

Not all Catholics appreciated Pope Benedict XVI’s staunch defense of Christian orthodoxy, traditional marriage, and life from conception to natural death. But American evangelicals sure did. ...

Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s extraordinary visibility and popularity are being cited as factors that could make him the first American with a realistic shot at being elected pope when the College of Cardinals gath ...

Who will be the next pope? With the Pope's unexpected resignation , and consequent endless "Ex-Benedict" memes , millions have taken to the Internet to voice ...

Yet with the stunning announcement that he is resigning as the 264th successor to Saint Peter, Benedict may wind up fundamentally changing the way the church and the world view the papacy. ...

Following is a brief explanation of the process used in a conclave to elect a new pope. Following is a brief explanation of the process used in a conclave to elect a new pope. ...

Pope Paul VI, who guided the Catholic Church through a tumultuous period of change in the 1960s and 70s, took a crucial first step toward possible sainthood when Pope Benedict XVI last week recognized his pred ...

Fifty years after the Second Vatican Council revolutionized life inside the Roman Catholic Church, hundreds of bishops from around the world are gathered in Rome to confront an external threat: a mounting tide ...

Fifty years after Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council that revolutionized the Catholic Church, will the jolly man known as the "Good Pope" be declared a saint of the Roman Catholic Ch ...

Just one week after Pope Benedict XVI ended his successful visit to Lebanon, the country's most senior Catholic leader called for a United Nations resolution “that will ban denigrating religions.” ...

Catholic Bishop Robert W. Finn was found guilty Thursday of failing to tell police about a priest suspected of sexually exploiting children, an unprecedented verdict that is being hailed as a landmark in the e ...

Nearly lost amid ongoing reports about the Vatican leaks scandal, Rome’s battle with American nuns, the American bishops’ battle for religious freedom, and the priest on trial in Philadelphia, was the news tha ...

In the course of our <a href="http://blog.sojo.net/tag/glenn-beck/">various responses</a> and<a href="http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.contents&amp;issue=soj1009& ...

Late last week, the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales released an <a href="http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/catholic_church/media_centre/press_releases/press_releases_2010/statement_by_the_catholi ...

It is far too easy to blame the highly publicized priestly scandal for the alienation of Catholics in Europe or the United States. It is far too easy to blame the highly publicize ...

Writer James Carroll, in his recent book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0547336268?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=sojo_blog-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;cre ...

The <em>Washington Post </em>has a new op-ed page writer drawing scrutiny for his hearty endorsement of "enhanced interrogation," which translated from Orwellian into English means tortur ...

The World Summit on Food Security ended today in Rome, with words about cutting hunger, but no real progress on one of hunger's key causes: <a href="http://stopgamblingonhunger.com/?cat=17"&g ...

I have never really trusted those who are intolerant and condemning of other people's shortcomings. It makes me suspect they are likely hiding their own. I have never really ...

When the United States and the Soviet Union stared into the abyss of nuclear Armageddon during the Cold War, filmmaker Stanley Kubrick began reading obscure journals like the <em>Bulletin of the At ...

When Pope Benedict XVI meets with President Obama in Rome today, a shy German theologian and a charismatic leader known for his international rock star appeal will find plenty to agree on despite s ...

Jim Wallis has provided <a href="../2009/07/09/pope-benedict-on-the-global-economy/">a helpful summary </a>of the Pope's encyclical <a href="http://www.zenit.org/article-2638 ...

Ten years ago on Good Friday, the <a href="http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/criminal/appeal.shtml">United States Conference of Catholic Bishops</a> issued a statement and call to action ...

"<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5354862.stm">I am deeply sorry</a> for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address," <a href="http://www. ...

<p><a href="http://store.sojo.net/product_p/icnp_or.htm"></a>Twenty-nine years ago today, a Salvadorian government hit man assassinated Archbishop of San Salvador Oscar Romero as he ...

So there was a fascinating <a href="http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2009/03/impeach_the_pope.html" target="_blank">editorial</a> in <em>The Washingt ...