Nuns founded and led Catholic hospitals to treat sick and poor people. But over time, a focus on margins led the hospitals to transform into behemoths that operate for-profit subsidiaries and pay their executives millions.
"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.
The president of East Timor sees Pope Francis' upcoming visit as a prime opportunity to promote Asia's youngest country on the world stage, not a time to confront the legacy of abuse by influential members of the clergy in the deeply Catholic nation. Many Timorese doubt or are willing to look past the serious charges involving Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, who was secretly sanctioned by the church and is banned from voluntary contact with minors. The pope has met with abuse victims in other countries, but it's not clear if he will do so or address the matter publicly in East Timor.
