The Catholic Church’s teaching that in vitro fertilization contradicts God’s design for marriage is controversial. To some couples who are unable to conceive by normal means, IVF seems like an opportunity to get the child they desire. But the Our Sunday Visitor
The Catholic Church says in Unam Sanctum (A.D. 1302), “Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” But Lumen Gentium (A.D. 1963) says, “Those also can
"Donum Vitae" is a document that, nearly 40 years ago, made explicit the church's teaching about in vitro fertilization and related practices, including gestational surrogacy -- a teaching that in January 2024 made headlines after Pope Francis called for a worldwide ban
Did Pope Francis change Catholic teaching on gay marriage? The short answer is no, writes Father Patrick Briscoe, editor of Our Sunday Visitor. Despite the number of headlines and photos you’re seeing all across the media, Catholic teaching understands now and always
A reader asks: “Does the pope have the authority to overturn pronouncements of previous popes, for example, in matters of contraception and the ordination of women?” As Monsignor Charles Pope explains, we must distinguish between different types of law and teaching. There
When former intelligence official David Grusch testified before Congress in July that the U.S. government had retrieved crashed UFOs and covertly attempted to reverse engineer their alien technology, some Catholics already were primed to debate the compatibility of extraterrestrial intelligence and church
A reader asks: “Why are ‘Catholic’ universities, colleges and high schools allowed to bestow honors on pro-abortionists? Does this not violate Church directives? In his latest column, Monsignor Charles Pope explains the Land O’Lake gathering, and its document, where many Catholic college
Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and archbishop of the Archdiocese for Military Services, preached a homily at a Mass held at the National St. John Paul II Shrine in Washington, D.C., on March 13, the night
What would it mean to reach out to those who feel alienated from the Church? In a recent article in America Magazine, Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, bishop of San Diego, called for, among other things, “radical inclusion” of “L.G.B.T. persons” to the
Columnist David Mills looks at what many think of the Church in theory versus the Church’s reality: “The friend, like many friends in the Protestant world I left two decades ago, felt strongly attracted to the Church and its distinctive doctrines, but