Pope Francis opened the new year by highlighting in his homily for the feast of Mary, Mother of God, and his Angelus message the same day, the central role women have played in salvation history and that they still have for bringing peace to the world.

Bronwen McShea’s recent book La Duchesse chronicles the life of Marie de Vignerot, the niece, protégé and heiress of Cardinal Richelieu.

Gender roles in the church need not be a zero-sum game.

Speaking International Theological Commission at the Vatican, Pope Francis told theologians that "One of the great sins we have witnessed is ‘masculinizing’ the church.”

The ongoing sexual abuse scandal involving the Rev. Marko Rupnik is another reminder of what the church needs to do to deal with this continuing plague.

Catherine Clifford, an ecclesiologist and North American voting member in the Synod on Synodality, joins Colleen Dulle, the host of “Inside the Vatican,” in Rome to discuss the synod's implications for church structures and hierarchy.