Oprah Winfrey and Meghan Markle are reportedly among those being considered to replace late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. 

Winfrey's name is among those being floated for the role, according to Newsmax and The Desert Sun, but the successful TV host-turned-billionaire book publisher and entrepreneur indicated as recently as in May that she "is not considering the seat should it become vacant," according to the Los Angeles Times. 

It was announced Friday that Feinstein died at age 90. All eyes have since turned to Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will appoint someone to serve out the remaining 13 months of Feinstein's term. The two term governor, who attended the second GOP debate in Simi Valley last week on behalf of President Biden's re-election campaign to lead counter Republican messaging, has stated in the past he will appoint a Black woman to the Senate in the event of Feinstein's passing. 

Newsom reportedly has national ambitions of his own amid rumors of a potential 2028 presidential run. As recently as earlier last week, Newsom insisted he would not challenge Biden in 2024. Meanwhile, sources told The Daily Mail that the Duchess of Sussex's name has also been thrown in the ring as Feinstein's potential replacement. 

She and Prince Harry reside in Montecito, California. 

TRIBUTES POUR IN FOR SENATOR FEINSTEIN FOLLOWING DEATH AT 90: 'A POLITICAL PIONEER'

"Meghan is definitely a long-shot but in the craziness that is US politics these days it's not an impossibility. Crazier things have happened," a major Democratic donor told the Mail. 

Markle's name was reportedly considered for the U.S. Senate before the 2020 election when Biden chose Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate. At that time, a senior Labour Party source told the Mail that Markle had been "networking among senior Democrats" on the venture of building a grassroots campaign eventually targeting a presidential bid of her own. 

Markle has grown a close friendship with Gloria Steinem. A friend fo Steinem's told the Mail, "Gloria has been introducing Meghan to pivotal people within the party."

"Meghan is interested in politics more than anything else. That's where she believes her power is, but she has had to focus on making money," the unnamed source is quoted to have said. 

Newsom has said he would avoid the field of candidates already campaigning for Feinstein's post, which will be on the ballot next year and includes Rep. Barbara Lee, one of the state's most prominent Black women currently serving in elected office. In the hours after Feinstein's death, Newsom quickly faced calls to honor his commitment to name a Black woman for the role, with some leaders calling on him specifically to name Lee to the post, a reminder of the fraught dynamic Newsom faces with a key Democratic constituency.

NEWSOM CLAIMS DESANTIS TOOK 'BAIT' IN AGREEING TO DEBATE 'GUY WHO ISN'T EVEN RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT'

For Newsom, any choice he makes risks alienating key allies at home, including those he would need for a future national campaign. Should he follow through on his pledge to avoid picking from those already running in the Senate primary, he could select a true caretaker who would be replaced by whomever voters select in next year's election. A handful of Black women in office have been floated as possibilities, including Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell.

But Lee and others lashed out at Newsom earlier in the month after he indicated he would select a caretaker instead of picking from the current slate of candidates.

"The idea that a Black woman should be appointed only as a caretaker to simply check a box is insulting to countless Black women across this country who have carried the Democratic Party to victory election after election," Lee posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

That was echoed by Aimee Allison, who founded She the People, a political advocacy network for women of color, who said, "Black women are not mere caretakers, but the voting and organizing center of the national Democratic Party."

Lee on Friday posted that Feinstein was "a champion for our state, and served as the voice of a political revolution for women." She did not address the open seat.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

The Catholic Church is in a precarious cultural moment in history as it balances the need to stay true to its teachings but also to live out its mission to be a welcoming church, as Pope Francis has emphasized.

There's hardly a more reasonable voice out there to aid in the venture than Bishop Robert Barron, bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota. 

Beyond his clerical position, Barron is the popular priest behind Word On Fire, a global Catholic media ministry. 

HALLOW PRAYER APP ACCOMPLISHED ITS GOAL DURING THE GOP DEBATE: ‘PRAY WITH ME REAL QUICK’ 

A leading thinker and on-demand speaker, Barron is also the author of several best-selling books on theology and Catholic teaching, helping millions of Catholics, young and old, to navigate the difficult journey of living out their faith in a secular world.

He's also quite humble. He announced only recently that he is one of the delegates chosen by Pope Francis to partake in the monumental event called the Synod on Synodality, which is taking place at the Vatican in Rome for most of October. 

The Synod on Synodality is the largest so-called readjusting, perhaps, of the Catholic Church since Vatican II in the early 1960s.

A handful of Vaticanistas have all but called it a Francis version of Vatican III.

What's different is that these next few weeks of discussions not only involve men of the cloth, bishops and priests — but many more lay leaders, women and advocates for LGBTQ Catholics.

And they won't just be poring over documents from the Magisterium, the official and authoritative teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. As Barron has written, "Our discussions will be based on what they call an Instrumentum laboris or 'working document,' which for this synod represents the culmination of two years of listening sessions with Catholics from across the globe."

‘IN GOD WE TRUST’ IS ESSENTIAL TO AMERICA'S FUTURE AS NATIONAL FAITH APPEARS TO WANE, SAYS WASHINGTON PASTOR

This, then, is the controversy. 

Conservative Catholics have heavily criticized Pope Francis, calling the synod a "trojan horse" bent on changing the Church's core teachings on gender, sexuality and marriage.

Fr. Gerald Murray, a canon lawyer and pastor of the Church of the Holy Family in New York City, wrote about the synod in The Catholic Thing.

He said, "It unapologetically calls into question various Catholic doctrines under the guise of listening to the Holy Spirit who, remarkably, is somehow speaking through the complaints and criticisms of those who reject what the Church teaches and has always taught."

BLACK CONSERVATIVE FATHER AND FAITH LEADER HOMESCHOOLS 6 KIDS TO ‘GET GOD IN’: ‘WHAT COULD BE MORE IMPORTANT?’

Gavin Ashenden of the Catholic Herald has written, "It would be a serious mistake not to realize that the progressive liberal mindset wants to change the ethics of the faith. So, it replaces the categories of ‘holiness and sin’ with "inclusion and alienation ... Sin and separation from God are not as alarming as alienation, angst and separation from society. The supernatural is replaced by the political."

Vatican expert George Weigel, talking about the difference between Vatican II and the Synod on Synodality, said on the "Lighthouse Faith" podcast, "Vatican II was far more about sanctifying the world, or, if you will, Christ defying the world than it was about reinventing the Catholic Church."

Barron, although not really a liberal or conservative, said on "Lighthouse Faith" recently that the real issue is that the Church must decide what it means by being a "welcoming church."

Said Barron, "If by welcoming you mean — [as] the pope did in Lisbon" for World Youth Day — [in] his famous homily where he said, 'Who's welcome in the church? … Todos, todos, todos. Everybody, everybody.' Well, of course, everyone's welcome in that sense. We want to invite you to share the life of the church. But I think for a lot of people on the left, ‘welcoming’ means — well, ‘your lifestyle is just fine and we totally approve of your lifestyle.’ And the church, it seems to me, can't say that."

Barron's main focus is helping young Catholics understand their faith and not succumb to the indoctrination into a secular worldview that often happens when they go off to college. 

FLORIDA PASTOR REVEALS WHY THE FAITHFUL WHO STAY FOCUSED ON JESUS CAN EXPERIENCE THE ‘GREATEST MIRACLE’

Word On Fire has raised thousands of dollars to give every incoming first-year student a Bible with study outlines that challenge them to see the depths of how Scripture applies to their life.

Said Barron, "We've dumbed down our faith for way too long. We presented the faith in a way that's just not very intellectually compelling. And we've got a very rich intellectual tradition."

So "I would say jump into that arena, jump into that fray, and propose to give young people a different vision of things."

FAITH DILEMMA IN FOCUS: 'IT'S SUNDAY AND I HAVEN'T GONE TO CHURCH — WHAT DO I DO?'

Barron was actively involved in helping actor Shia LeBoeuf in his recent conversion to Catholicism. 

Said Barron, "He was in my pastoral region when I was out in California. Because he was researching the role of Padre Pio, and he went to this Capuchin monastery that was in my region."

He added, "And so I ran into him during that period. Most of them didn't know Shia LaBeouf from Cab Calloway. ... But they saw this young guy who was struggling and questioning and they took him in and ... they treated him kind of like as one of their own."

And "they talked to him and they instructed him. They listened to him. And it was the compassion of the friars that really, I think, brought him more deeply into the faith."

AS SUICIDE RATES INCREASE, FAITH LEADER SHARES 3 KEY POINTS, NOTING, ‘HOPE IS AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE’ 

Barron downplayed his own involvement, but he talked about it a lot more in a sitdown podcast with LaBeouf that can be seen on the Word On Fire website. 

It is in how Barron approached the actor that he revealed his belief about the Church and the term "welcoming." 

He thinks the term should be changed altogether.

"I don't like the word ‘welcome’ as much. I like the word ‘love,'" said Barron. "Love means to will the good of the other, right? So the Church is loving toward everyone. The Church reaches out in a loving embrace to the whole world. It's the Bernini colonnade in Rome outside St Peter's. It's like two great arms reaching out."

But Barron said it's a definition of love that is far more nuanced.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER

He said, "Love means, 'What's really good for you? What's objectively good for you?' So that doesn't mean I just affirm everything you're doing … It might mean I'm going to deeply challenge what you're doing and saying."

His hope for the Synod on Synodality is that this kind of love prevails.

And he prefers "love or compassion or charity language to ‘welcoming’ — because ‘welcoming’ is too vague."

The Catholic Church is not about being vague — but about preaching the truth in love.

For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.