At Easter Vigil Saturday, thousands of people across the globe will be received into the Catholic Church: Those who have not been baptized before are formally converts, and will be baptized, confirmed, and will receive the Eucharist at the Mass. Those already baptized will be received into the fullness of the Church, usually with the initiation sacraments of confirmation and ...

On September 15, 1963, The New York Times declared on its front page that Pope Paul VI’s admission of some handpicked “qualified laymen” to the Second Vatican Council was “the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic Church that laymen have been admitted to such a council.”

India’s Hindu nationalist-led government paused consideration of a new bill this week after Church leaders and opposition parties argued it would give the authorities excessive powers over NGOs.

Happy Good Friday friends,

I intend this to be a short newsletter, since this of all days is better spent in contemplation before the Cross than reading (or writing) my opinions on anything.

For myself, the great temptation of the day is to give in to a kind of pious sentimentality, to consider the Cross only as mawkish spectacle and Christ as a figure somehow des...

During my years serving in prison chaplaincy I was asked one particular question over and over again: “Will God forgive me for what I have done?” We might think this question is more relevant to people who have been publicly convicted of a crime. Yet it will no doubt resonate with each of us: “Will God forgive me for what I have done?”