Religious Freedom, Equality, and Non-Discrimination in Employment Cases: Interview with Cole Durham

W. Cole Durham, Jr. is Emeritus Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University, where he held the Susa Young Gates University Professorship and Founding Director of the Law School’s International Center for Law and Religion Studies. He was interviewed by Dmytro Vovk.

Before the interview, we asked you to think about a case of a line of cases you have modified your views about. What have you chosen?

My plan is to talk mainly about Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (2012) and the follow-up case, Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru (2020). These are both cases that deal with the religious autonomy doctrine, and I think they represent a concerning trend.

(more…)

Continue Reading Religious Freedom, Equality, and Non-Discrimination in Employment Cases: Interview with Cole Durham

Women and Church Governance: What Pope Francis’s Reform Changed—and What it Left Open

Francisca Pérez-Madrid is Professor of Law and Religion at the University of Barcelona.[1]

Pope Francis once described clericalism as “one of the greatest deformations” in the life of the Catholic Church. It is a strong diagnosis. What is striking, then, is how resistant that clericalism has proven to reform—even after Praedicate Evangelium, the most ambitious overhaul of the Roman Curia in decades.

(more…)

Continue Reading Women and Church Governance: What Pope Francis’s Reform Changed—and What it Left Open

Pope Francis and Gender Issues: An Ambivalent Legacy

Martina Bär is professor of fundamental theology at the University of Graz (Austria).

Pope Francis, who passed away on 21 April 2025, made notable strides in addressing women and discrimination within the Catholic Church, though his efforts were often characterized by a balance between progressive appointments and adherence to traditional doctrine.

(more…)

Continue Reading Pope Francis and Gender Issues: An Ambivalent Legacy