The church, while not taking sides in the political contests, went all in on the referendums to stop drilling on oil Block 43 inside the Yasuní and to end mining in the Chocó Andino, a highland biosphere near the capital.

“I am writing a second part to Laudato Si’ to update it on current problems,” Pope Francis told the lawyers Aug. 21 during a meeting in the library of the Apostolic Palace.

The Holy Spirit’s work in the world is to orient and nurture creation continually toward the God of life and beauty.

It may appear strange that a Catholic moral theologian (me) would interact with an atheist philosopher who has consistently rejected the sanctity of human life while demanding we respect the lives of nonhuman animals.

The fate of Maria Lanakila Church was for several days the subject of rumor.

The mystics and the wilderness teach the same thing: forsake the illusion of control, pay attention to where you are, abandon yourself to the divine.