Georgetown Summit Looks to Pope Francis in Overcoming Polarization

More than 80 prominent and emerging Catholic leaders gathered this week in an effort to see how a unified American Catholic Church might offer a better way forward.“Though Many One: Overcoming Polarization through Catholic Social Thought,” hosted by the Initiative for Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, served as an attempt to break across current divides within the Church and to take advantage of the momentum of the Pope Francis papacy to positively influence public life.

Exhortation’s Pro-Life Stance Garners Mixed Reactions

While Pope Francis’ new apostolic exhortation, “Gaudete et Exsultate,” is broadly focused on holiness in everyday life, that won’t prevent various constituencies from reading the document through their own specific lens. One group that may feel especially challenged is the pro-life movement, since the pontiff makes a point of saying that the lives of the poor and of immigrants are as “equally sacred” as unborn lives.