Note from the Assistant Editor:

The Synod is the Church that journeys together to read reality with the eyes of faith and with the heart of God; it is the Church that interrogates herself with regard to her fidelity to the deposit of faith, which is a living source.

"Catholic divorce does not exist. Nullity is granted if the union never existed. But if it did, it is indissoluble."

In order to be meek, we need to become small like children and our Guardian Angel is a companion who teaches us this humility and just like children we should listen to him.

A "culture of encounter" demands that we see the whole person before us, not simply an ideology, or a category of social standing, or even as a unit of sin, but as a whole person, beloved of God, and in need of mercy and redemption, just like everyone else.

Wahlberg showed that even when sin is paying off, even in the midst of it, we are not entirely fooled. The truth is: we are made for better things than our sins.

After the dust settled, CNA had the chance to interview Archbishop Chaput, who offered his take on the historic papal trip, the challenges facing family in the US, and the upcoming Synod of Bishops in Rome.

I think one of his most powerful witnesses is his refusal to let the hierarchies of the world determine his ministry and the spiritual attention he gives to others.

In Catholicism, this kind of diversity in unity is often described using the biblical image of the Church as the body of Christ: we are many parts, but one body. Throughout the Pope's visit, the phrase that came to my mind was e pluribus unum.

There's no denying that his words posed a challenge to conservatives. But it's a challenge conservatives can and should meet.

A revitalized religious left, a Christianity that doesn't feel like the province of a single political faction, would be a sign of religious vitality writ large.

Pope Francis made it clear in his speech to Congress that he opposes the death penalty in all cases, saying that "a just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation."

The Supreme Court is beginning to take cruel and unusual punishment seriously — just like Pope Francis.

If God has called me to the Christian life, it is not because he is flexing his arbitrary power to save "whomsoever he will": he chooses me for my neighbor. To be saved is to be for.

Nye wants his viewers to believe that moral and legal disagreements about abortion stem from a clash between science and religion, and that those in favor of abortion are on the side of science, while pro-lifers have nothing more than "deeply held beliefs," based on some sacred text. This is false.

The most obvious problem with basing sexual morality on consent is that we can consent to things that are bad for us.

"Banned Books Week" claims to celebrate books, but it really shows contempt for them. If we don't think that books can do evil as well as good, we don't really believe in their power.

The "weakness" of the Doctor is the same weakness he has had since the beginning: he has compassion. In the eyes of the powerful, this compassion is nothing but foolishness.

On the face of it, believing and questioning are antithetical. Yet I believe that they go hand in hand. Questioning may lead to great loneliness, but if it co-exists with faith — true faith, abiding faith — it can end in the most joyful sense of communion.

The icon represents the martyrdom of the Coptic Martyrs of Libya, a group of Egyptian Copts who were working in Libya when they were captured by Islamic fanatics, and had their throats cut on the seashore this past February.

Photographer Dave Yoder spent six months documenting the life of the pope and the Vatican for National Geographic.