Katie Collins Scott

NCR analyzed the biographies, background, articles, speeches, homilies and media interviews of members of the College of Cardinals, to provide an in-depth look into the views of the men who will select the new pope.

"Some say he did not do enough; others criticize him for even meeting with people like me," said one transgender Catholic. "But he led by example. And in doing so he brought more hope, more love to the Catholic Church."

Lay Catholics in the U.S. reflected on Pope Francis' legacy as a pastor who sought out those on the peripheries and tried to make the Catholic Church a more welcoming space for the marginalized.

This Lent, a new version of a Catholic devotion seeks to acknowledge the traumas experienced by Native people, including those inflicted by the Catholic Church, and to offer spiritual reflections on both suffering and healing.

'Being trans is not an ideological position,' says Br. Christian Matson, who has collaborated with DignityUSA and Fortunate Families, which launched a transgender ministry last year.

The Catholic Health Association issued pleas to lawmakers, asking them to reject funding cuts and structural changes to Medicaid.

A report by Do No Harm, a group that opposes gender-affirming care, has caught the attention of U.S. bishops. The Catholic Health Association says that the report is flawed and contains false assumptions.

When Matthew LaBanca was fired by the Brooklyn Diocese in 2021 for marrying his same-sex partner, he lost two jobs, health insurance and a cherished Catholic community. He stars in a play about his experience that opens Nov. 7.

John Eastman, who faces criminal charges for his efforts to aid former President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election, was invited by a California chapter of Legatus to speak at its meeting Oct. 8.

While the international community shifts its focus to Israel's mounting attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, a Catholic Relief Services representative reflects on one year of war in Gaza.

A naval base less than 30 miles from Seattle has one of the world's largest concentrations of deployed nuclear weapons. Five billboards in the area highlight Pope Francis' words on the immorality of such weapons. 

Conservative Catholics who support the demise of the Chevron deference cite agency overreach and religious freedom. But some Catholics say the SCOTUS ruling undermines the common good and Catholic social teaching.
 

As the Palestinian death toll in Gaza surpassed 40,000, Catholics joined a delegation that spent Aug. 13-20 in Israel and the Palestinian territories. They helped fleeing farmers, and spoke with organizers aiding families of hostages.

Black voters, and especially Black women, long have been the Democrats' most steadfast voting bloc and could be crucial to determining the outcome of this year's presidential election.

An investigation commissioned by the St. Labre board of directors found it is likely "many other" Native students died, yet their deaths were not documented in the archival material reviewed during the investigation.

The Portland Archdiocese's Ministerio Hispano went from an office with two staff members and a website to an inaccessible website and one staffer with the title "director" but who has full-time work elsewhere.

Catholic agency and church leaders told NCR the answer to the complexities of homelessness is not fines or jail time, an approach many cities could adopt following a major ruling on homelessness by the Supreme Court.

Survivors and tribal leaders spoke with NCR after the U.S. bishops issued a document acknowledging, in a circumscribed manner, the Catholic Church's culpability in the intergenerational trauma of Indigenous people. 

Some Catholics, including a psychologist, theologians and a mother of a transgender child, told NCR the website contains inaccuracies, does not reflect LGBTQ people's experiences, and overall fumbles in its mission. 

Holy Cross Fr. Dan Groody gave a June 12 talk at the University of Portland on a "theology of migration," attempting to reframe often contentious narratives through the liturgy and people's connection with God and one another.