This week I chose to write about The New York Times article, “The New Catholic Truce.”  The article details some of the ongoing internal conflicts that are occurring inside of the Roman Catholic Church.  The author also discusses the pope’s new letter on marriage and family, “The Joy of Love,” which encourages readmission of the remarried and divorced to come and receive communion and discusses family structure.  He interprets this as a more liberal step for the Catholic church.  I chose to read this article because I was interested in reading about how the author would interpret this papal letter. Having been Catholic all my life, I am used to getting a very negative reaction half the time from people when they find out my religion. People typically have some sort of pre-notion that I am bigoted and believe I am self-righteous (which is not true in the slightest.)  So, I was interested in what the author had to say about this letter and how the Church would be portrayed in a national news article. The author was not as bias as I thought and did an okay job of summarizing Pope Francis’ letter- which was relieving to me.  It’s really hurtful to see some of the things published about the Roman Catholic Church in the news and hear about what others believe. On a spiritual level it is very important to me that the Church is taking steps to modernize and be as welcoming as possible.  I think this letter from Pope Francis shows that the Roman Catholic church is evolving and truly is showing people that all are welcome. While I may not be directly affected by this letter, it still affects me indirectly because it’s helping to shape people’s idea of my religion and what it says about me.