Posted inNews

Vatican theological commission defines ‘sin against creation and the Creator’ in new document

by Courtney Mares, OSV News September 3, 2026

Pope Leo XIV gestures as he celebrates Mass at the Borgo Laudato Si' center in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Sept. 1, 2026, marking the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. Credit: (OSV News photo/Guglielmo Mangiapane, Reuters)

ROME (OSV News) — The International Theological Commission published a new document Sept. 2 calling for ecological conversion due to “sin against creation and the Creator.”

The more than 29,000-word text, titled “Caring for Our Common Home: A Responsible and Fraternal Response to the Triune God,” was approved by a majority of members of the commission in a July vote and authorized for release by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, after being presented to Pope Leo XIV.

Posted inEditorials

A way out of the Vatican II liturgy wars: Priests should stick to the rubrics

by The Editors September 3, 2026

Pope Leo XIV elevates the Eucharist during Mass at the Shrine of Santa Maria della Rotonda in Albano Laziale, Italy, Aug. 17, 2025. Credit: CNS photo/Lola Gomez Illustration: America Media

The liturgy is at the center of Catholic culture wars for a reason: The stakes are high. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote in 1997, “the Church stands and falls with the liturgy…. The true celebration of the sacred liturgy is the center of any renewal of the Church whatever.” It is therefore not unexpected that Catholics will have strong, and sometimes divergent, opinions about the ars celebrandi, especially in the wake of the Second Vatican Council’s reform of the liturgy.

Mass for care of creation ready for US churches after Vatican finalizes translations

 

Mass for care of creation ready for US churches after Vatican finalizes translations

The Mass for safeguarding the environment that Pope Leo XIV first celebrated last summer is now available for Catholic churches in the U.S., just in time for the upcoming ecumenical Season of Creation.

ByBrian Roewe  ncr

Popular interest in nuns reveals something deeper about religious life

 

Guest Voices

Opinion

Popular interest in nuns reveals something deeper about religious life  ncr

 

News

Pope Leo: Catholics cannot be ‘unengaged spectators’ amid ‘injustice, discrimination and violence’

by Josephine Peterson, Catholic News Service September 2, 2026

Pope Leo XIV greets visitors and pilgrims from the popemobile while riding around St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican before his weekly general audience Sept. 2, 2026. Credit: (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The faithful are called to leave behind “all passivity and indifference” toward current events and the lives of others, especially amid the “rapid and profound changes we are experiencing today,” Pope Leo XIV said at his weekly general audience.

“We cannot remain as unengaged spectators; rather, we must listen with our hearts, allow ourselves to be challenged, and become involved,” the pope said Sept. 2 in St. Peter’s Square.

Posted inFaith in Focus

We are expecting too much from the Lindsay Clancy trial

by Colleen Jurkiewicz September 2, 2026

Defendant Lindsay Clancy wipes away tears as she listens to testimony during her murder trial in Plymouth Superior Court, Plymouth, Mass., on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. Credit: Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool

On Aug. 20, when Lindsay Clancy’s former mother-in-law Sue Clancy took the witness stand, Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham asked her if she was aware that murder is a mortal sin in the Catholic Church.

Judge William Sullivan moved swiftly to strike the reference from the record, but I almost wish he would have let Ms. Buckingham continue. What line of questioning was she pursuing here? It left me considering what God asks of us in the face of such tragedy, what the law requires and where it falls short. 

 

The U.S.-Born Pope Is Changing U.S. Catholicism

Leo takes up issues on which the American polity is hungry for moral guidance.

E. J. Dionne Jr.

September 1, 2026

Please email comments to letters@commonwealmagazine.org.

Pope Leo XIV in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 19, 2026 (OSV News photo/Matteo Minnella, Reuters)

Pope Leo XIV is changing the public voice of American Catholicism. He is building on the legacy of Pope Francis, but has turned out to be better placed than Francis was to shift the direction of the U.S. Church, and not only because of his national origin (or the fact that he’s a baseball fan). Leo has focused his papacy on a series of issues—immigration, economic justice, war and peace, and the moral challenges of artificial intelligence—on which the American polity is hungry for moral guidance. He is lending support to bishops who were named by Pope Francis to shift the priorities of the American Church. His desire to give cardinals a larger role in governance has empowered some of the strongest progressive voices in the U.S. Church’s leadership. The outspokenness of Cardinals Robert McElroy, Blase Cupich, and Joseph Tobin on immigration, the Iran War, and other questions has begun to alter public perceptions of where the Church stands and what its priorities are.

During the Season of Creation, remember the living water that sustains all life

 

During the Season of Creation, remember the living water that sustains all life

Daniel P. Horan   ncr