The head of the Vatican synod office says both doctrinal concerns and pastoral considerations are important when it comes to hot-button issues. Questions about the reception of Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics and the blessing of same-sex couples are examples Cardinal Mario Grech (pictured) mentions. “These issues are not to be understood simply in Read more
A group of Belgian Catholic bishops have defied the Vatican by introducing blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples in their dioceses. The bishops of Flanders also published a liturgy for the celebration of homosexual unions. “In doing so, they are going directly against the Vatican,” reported the Dutch newspaper Nederlands Dagblad. The Vatican clarified in March Read more
A report on the 10-month US synod process has highlighted that Catholics are hurting from clergy abuse cases, and seek a church focused on lifelong spiritual, pastoral and catechetical formation as disciples. Participants were also concerned about the division between US Catholics and their bishops. They voiced a need for a welcoming church of “lived Read more
Several US Catholic bishops slammed the actions of Republican politicians who have recently begun to ship migrants seeking refuge out of their states, saying using them as political pawns “offends God”. The bishops said these politicians are falsely telling the migrants that work, food and other benefits await them if they get on planes to Read more
Inviting an English Catholic cardinal to take part in the Queen’s funeral signals the new King’s openness to ecumenical and interfaith dialogue. Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster’s inclusion was the first time for hundreds of years a Catholic cardinal or bishop has had a role in a royal funeral. Nichols is the president of the Read more
Pope Francis’ recent three-day visit to Kazakhstan seemed not to have been widely reported in the general media, including here in Italy where there’s news about him almost every day on TV and in the press. Most people around the world, including most Catholics, probably don’t even know that the pope made the September 13-15 Read more
Only the most myopic would deny that a kind of mushroom cloud has covered the Catholic Church for the past half-century. A small, but quite significant part of that spiritual nuclear winter has been the profound collapse of Sacred Music. Votaries of the “spirit of Vatican II” (in today’s au courant vernacular, “the New Paradigm”) Read more
The French Catholic Church is much diminished. Yet French Catholicism remains a powerful creative force. The Lazarus Association is one expression of its continuing inventiveness. The organization is pioneering a new approach to homelessness that has transformed the lives of hundreds of people, won papal approval, and spread across Europe. It began in 2006, when Read more
Cardinal Konrad Krajewski and those working with him emerged unscathed after they came under fire on Saturday, near the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia. Krajewski, was sent by Pope Francis to Ukraine to show the pope’s “closeness” to the Ukrainian people. “It would be good if you could go again to Ukraine, to the war zones, Read more
On Friday Germany’s Synodal Way approved a text on the role of women in the Catholic Church, one that challenges the exclusion of women from sacramental ministry. The vote took place on the second day of the plenary session. The document “Women in ministries and offices in the Church” was facing its second reading. The Read more