The 2019 Notre Dame fire is remembered as one of France's darkest days. But for the historically Catholic country, it served as a harbinger of things to come. Now, the cathedral's reopening offers the church some positive news.
As the yearslong synod on synodality inches toward its Oct. 27 conclusion, the resistance has effectively gone silent, a stark contrast to last year's summit, as well as to Pope Francis' earlier synods.
"In 1869, when Pope Pius IX convened the First Vatican Council, no one dreamed of inviting women, but they were nonetheless there," writes Carol E. Harrison, a Professor of History at the University of South Carolina.
The pope just announced a new consistory that will take place Dec. 8 appointing 21 new cardinals from around the world. Eleven of these new cardinals are from religious orders. Only one of them is older than 80 so will not be eligible to vote in the conclave.
"Campaign coverage this year has certainly been light on attention to the religious lives of the candidates and their running mates," writes Mark Silk, Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College. "The journalistic posture has pretty much been: 'If you don’t tell, we won’t ask.'"
Trump's speeches for years have hewed to divisive "us" versus "them" messaging, but tying those themes to specific religious Americans who oppose him is out of line and even dangerous, according to rhetoric experts, religious leaders and academics.
The survey also found that Francis’ popularity has dropped throughout Latin America in the last decade, though significant majorities of Latin American Catholics still view him favorably.
Pope Francis' Sept. 2-13 trip to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore revealed themes of his pontificate and steps the church can take moving forward.
The shroud remains an object of faith, intrigue and controversy that reappears periodically in the public sphere, as it has in recent weeks. As a scholar of early Christianity, I have long been interested in why people are motivated to create objects like the shroud and also why people are drawn to revere them as authentic.
