Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia recently released pastoral guidelines in the wake of Pope Francis's post-synodal exhortation Amoris Laetitia.

In the guidelines, one of the topics addressed was divorced and civilly remarried Catholics living as brother and sister, without having sexual intercourse.

"Undertaking to live as brother and sister is necessary for the divorced and civilly remarried to receive reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance, which could then open the way to the Eucharist," the new guidelines read.

The guidelines also emphasised the parts of Francis's document that essentially told clergy not to give up on people whose lives don't adhere strictly to Catholic teaching.

Philadelphia's mayor Jim Kenny reacted negatively to aspects of the guidelines.

The mayor tweeted: "Jesus gave us gift of Holy Communion because he so loved us. All of us. Chaput's actions are not Christian."

The Catholic League's Bill Donohue said the tweet was an abuse of the mayor's office.

Veteran Vatican journalist John Allen predicted that approaches on to how to put Amoris Laetitia into practice will take two paths.

"My suspicion is that those who are inclined to a more progressive reading [of Amoris Laetitia] are not going to put out documents to say so.

"It will quietly be made clear to priests that it is OK under certain circumstances, for example, to allow some people to quietly come back to Communion," Allen said.

"My suspicion is that the more traditional line [adopted by some bishops] will be more public."

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• The Guardian
• Washington Post
• Philadelphia guidelines
• Image: Philly Voice

The Church is lobbying against proposed state legislation that would give victims of sexual abuse more time to sue their abusers.

Archbishop Charles Chaput inadvertently sent an email to a state representative accusing him of "betraying" the Church.

In the email received by Jamie Santora, the archbishop warned of "consequences" of supporting the legislation.

Archbishop Chaput had intended to send the email to a staff member in his own office only.

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The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia will lead a working group of five bishops.

The group's purpose is "to support our Holy Father in furthering the reception and implementation of the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia", the USCCB said in a statement.

The working group will help bishops in "the positive reception and ongoing implementation of Amoris Laetitia", as well as staying in touch with local pastoral initiatives and updating the Holy See.

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In an article to be published in the journal First Things next month, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia criticised pastoral approaches that ignore the call to conversion.

He wrote about divorced and civilly remarried people receiving Communion when they continue to live together, have sexual relations and haven't received an annulment.

Archbishop Chaput wrote that the Church doesn't want to punish such people and doesn't in fact exclude them.

The divorced and civilly remarried remain welcome members of the believing community, he stated.

But the Church cannot be merciful without being truthful, the archbishop wrote.

"And the truth is, we are called to conversion.

"A pastoral approach that ignores this truth out of a thinly veiled pastoral despair and accommodationism will result in less faith, not more."

Archbishop Chaput cited Henri de Lubac's saying "The one who wants to adapt himself too much risks letting himself be dragged along".

"Indeed, this is what we see happening in Europe," Archbishop Chaput continued, "in those churches where the pastoral practice regarding divorce, remarriage, and reception of the sacraments has departed from authentic Catholic teaching."

"What ensues from an untruthful teaching about and practice of the sacraments is not a more zealous evangelical life but its collapse."

The Philadelphia archbishop wrote "authentic mercy is evangelical".

"It proceeds from the belief that God's grace has the power to transform us.

"Ironically, a pastoral strategy that minimises sin in the name of mercy cannot be merciful, because it is dishonest."

Archbishop Chaput wrote that: "The moral law guides us toward choices that are life-giving, and true mercy is always intimately linked to truth.

"Indulging our own or another's flawed choices in the supposed service of mercy defeats mercy's true goal."

Archbishop Chaput is a member of the council preparing for the next synod of bishops.

Sources

• First Things
• LifeSiteNews
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: IB Times

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia spoke to media about Ms McAleese's recent claim that the Church's description of homosexuality as "instrinsically disordered" with a tendency to "evil" led to homophobia.

The archbishop stated: "I've read the documents and the Church has never said that homosexual persons are disordered."

He said the Church states "that being attracted to a person of the same gender sexually is a disorder of our sexual nature".

"A lot of people have disorders. In fact we all do. Some of it would be less serious than sexual, like me and glasses or not being able to hear well, or having a tendency to overeat, those are all disorders that a person may have but it doesn't destroy their dignity."

Ms McAleese cited the 1975 CDF document Persona Humana to support her case.

She also cited a 1986 statement from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and a 2005 statement by Pope Benedict XVI.

Ms McAleese said: "Now if as Archbishop Chaput says the Church teaches that homosexuality is no more ‘disordered' than myopia or being hard of hearing then I would be happy to be directed to those Church documents which say so."

"I have not been able to find them."

Archbishop Chaput said Ms McAleese was trying to control the faith of the Church.

She had "a very narrow point of view that's trying to control something she shouldn't try to control, that is the faith of the Catholic Church", he said.

Ms McAleese said Archbishop Chaput's statement is "slightly hysterical".

"I acknowledge I like many others wish to see my Church's teaching on this subject change before it causes any more damage," she said.

Ms McAleese has a son who is homosexual.

Addressing the synod on the family on Saturday, Archbishop Chaput warned of the dangers of disunity in the Church.

Sources

• Irish Times
• The Tablet
• Persona Humana
• Irish Times
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Irish Independent

In a blog post on the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference website, Bishop Drennan said there is a "marked air of openness" at the synod and no topics are off limits.

"Better put, the range of views on the same topics are far fetching and, understandably, this has already led to some impassioned interventions of quite differing positions," he wrote.

"For some, openness invites fear; for others it incites new possibilities.

"And already there is talk of factions, but I think it is fairer to say that already vast differences in pastoral circumstances, preoccupations, and needs are evident.

"All of that though against a backdrop of globalisation," he added.

Speaking to media on Wednesday, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia said bishops at the synod are dividing amongst themselves to form lobbying groups in favour of various positions.

But this wasn't unusual at a Church gathering, Archbishop Chaput said.

"We shouldn't be scandalised or surprised by that, as long as it's done open and honestly and not in a way that tries to win than to arrive at the truth."

"We're not here to win anything, we're here to arrive at the truth that the Lord, through his Holy Spirit, is guiding the Church towards," he said.

Dr John Kleinsman from New Zealand, who is at the synod as an auditor, wrote that he had been amazed at the breadth of the interventions so far.

"For many of the countries represented, the issues affecting the family centre on the basic struggle to survive" Dr Kleinsman wrote.

Cardinal John Dew wrote about an intervention that had identified the family as the first place where the "dance of grace" is discovered.

Sources

• NZCBC
• National Catholic Reporter
• NZCBC
• NZCBC
• Image: Catholic Herald

John Romeri resigned as head of liturgical music for Philadelphia archdiocese, effective on June 30.

It was a role Dr Romeri held for five years.

It is unclear what role he will have in preparations for an outdoor Mass to be celebrated by Pope Francis in Philadelphia in late September.

The Mass at the Ben Franklin Parkway is expected to draw more than 1 million people.

Concerning his resignation, Dr Romeri said "there are simply irreconcilable differences" with Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput over the role and style of music at Mass generally.

Dr Romeri indicated that he and the archbishop had clashed almost from the time the archbishop was appointed to Philadelphia in 2011.

The music specialist wrote that these "several years of discontent" on Archbishop Chaput's part culminated with the music Dr Romeri arranged this April for Holy Week and Easter.

The approach, he said, "was not well received by the archbishop".

A spokesman for Archbishop Chaput said he could not comment on personnel matters and "there are no additional updates".

But he said that the archdiocese "will be prepared for the visit of the Holy Father on all fronts, including music for the Mass on the Parkway".

Dr Romeri is said to have more of a "high church" sensibility in liturgy than Archbishop Chaput.

In 2010, Archbishop Chaput said he was grateful to Pope Benedict XVI for allowing a wider use of the extraordinary form of the Mass, " . . . because we need access to all of the Church's heritage of prayer and faith".

But Archbishop Chaput stated that he personally found the Novus Ordo form, "properly celebrated, a much richer expression of worship".

Dr Romeri will continue as music director for Philadelphia's Cathedral Basilica of Sts Peter and Paul throughout the US summer.

The resignation has sparked online debate among Catholic liturgists.

Sources

• Religion News Service
• First Things
• Image: Stltoday.com

He will travel to the World Meeting of the Families, said Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi.

The Catholic public event, which celebrates the family as the basic building block of society, will be held in Philadelphia next year.

Conservative Philadelphia Archbishop, Charles Chaput, who has publicly criticised Pope Francis' Synod on the Family is welcoming the Holy Father's visit, calling it "the answer to countless prayers". Continue reading

Archbishop Martin said he was "quite surprised at the remarks of some commentators within church circles about the recent synod of bishops, often making accusations of confusion where such confusion did not exist and so actually fomenting confusion".

He did not identify specific comments along these lines.

But Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, who did not attend the gathering, did broach the topic just after the synod.

"I was very disturbed by what happened" at the synod, Archbishop Chaput said.

"I think confusion is of the devil, and I think the public image that came across was one of confusion."

A mid-point report from the synod pressed for a more welcoming approach by the Church to divorced people and homosexual persons.

The final report toned down the language used.

Archbishop Martin said he believed that "a longing for certainties may spring from personal uncertainty rather than strong faith".

"A strong - and indeed orthodox faith - is never afraid of discussion," he said.

"They [critics] fail to see how Pope Francis shows that his concern for people who suffer is far from being a sign of dogmatic relativism, but rather is a sign of pastoral patience," Archbishop Martin said.

The archbishop also said that "a church which becomes a comfort zone for the like-minded ceases to be truly the Church of Jesus Christ".

Archbishop Martin said this while preaching at a Mass marking the refurbishment of a church at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

The archbishop attended the synod and spoke of the need for new language with which to communicate with married couples, according to excerpts of his remarks published by the Irish bishops' conference.

Many people "would hardly recognise their own experience in the way we present the ideals of married life", he told the synod.

"Indeed many in genuine humility would probably feel that they are living a life which is distant from the ideal of marriage as presented by Church teaching," he said.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Religion News Service
• Image: Irish Independent

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia urged the US bishops to consider this in response to what he called the "new marriage regime" of same-sex civil marriage.

In a lecture in New York on October 20, Archbishop Chaput said he wasn't necessarily endorsing that move yet, the Religion News Service reported.

But "in the spirit of candour encouraged by Pope Francis", he said the American bishops should "discuss and consider it as a real course of action".

By long-standing practice, US Catholic priests act as agents of the state when signing a couple's marriage certificate.

"It's hard to see how a priest or bishop could, in good conscience, sign a marriage certificate that merely identifies ‘Spouse A' and `Spouse B,' " Archbishop Chaput said.

"Refusing to conduct civil marriages now, as a matter of principled resistance, has vastly more witness value than being kicked out of the marriage business later by the government, which is a likely bet," he said.

Earlier this month, the US Supreme Court decided not to review state appeals against gay marriage.

Archbishop Chaput said this was a "tipping point" that confirmed that traditional believers are now a minority in society and on the defensive.

More than 30 US states now allow same-sex marriage.

Archbishop Chaput also expressed concerns about "confusion" coming out of the synod on the family.

"I was very disturbed by what happened" at the synod, Archbishop Chaput said.

"I think confusion is of the devil, and I think the public image that came across was one of confusion."

Archbishop Chaput said the final synod report was an improvement on a preliminary report.

But he was still concerned that it did not go far enough in clearly restating Church teachings on marriage and homosexuality.

Archbishop Chaput is expected to host Pope Francis in Philadelphia next September for a World Meeting of Families.

Sources

• Religion News Service
• Image: Thomas More Prep Marian

A study found that, while gay men shared similar genetic make-up, it only accounted for 40 per cent of the chance of a man being homosexual.

But scientists say it could still be possible to develop a test to find out if a baby was more likely to be gay.

In the most comprehensive study of its kind, Dr Michael Bailey, of Northwestern University in the United States, has been studying 400 sets of twins to determine if some men are genetically predisposed to being gay.

The study found that gay men shared genetic signatures on part of the X-chromosome - Xq28.

Dr Bailey told The Telegraph: "Sexual orientation has nothing to do with choice."

"Our findings suggest there may be genes at play - we found evidence for two sets that affect whether a man is gay or straight.

"But it is not completely determinative; there are certainly other environmental factors involved.

"Although this could one day lead to a pre-natal test for male sexual orientation, it would not be very accurate, as there are other factors that can influence the outcome."

Dr Alan Sanders, associate Professor of Psychiatry at Northwestern University, who led the study said that it was it was an "oversimplification" to suggest there was a "gay gene".

"We don't think genetics is the whole story. It's not. We have a gene that contributes to homosexuality but you could say it is linked to heterosexuality. It is the variation."

No similar genes have been discovered which influence female homosexuality.

Dr Bailey said environmental factors were likely to have the biggest impact on homosexuality.

Meanwhile, more than 350 people attended a US conference on supporting people with same-sex attraction who want to live according to Catholic teaching, as well as those close to them.

The Courage/EnCourage Conference 2014 in Philadelphia last month had as its theme "Move beyond the confines of the homosexual label to a more complete identity in Christ".

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who celebrated the opening liturgy, spoke of the challenge of doing what is right even when we know it is difficult to do it.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• Catholic Philly
• Image: MD Salaries

City prosecutors had charged Lynn with felony child endangerment, but the state Superior Court ruled that the law that existed at the time did not cover people who did not directly supervise children.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams this week said he would appeal the ruling.

Williams criticised the archdiocese for helping Lynn post his $250,000 bail.

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests also criticised Chaput.

"Here's the message Chaput sends ... by bailing out Lynn: 'No matter how egregiously you misbehave and how many kids you endanger, we in the church hierarchy will continue to support you even if you're found guilty at trial,'" Clohessy said.

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput defended his postion.

In a letter to clergy and parishioners Chaput said that helping Lynn come up with $25,000 to post 10 percent of his bail was "both reasonable and just."

Chaput described the appeals court decision as a matter of legal substance rather than technicalities.

Lynn "presents no danger to anyone," the archbishop wrote.

"He poses no flight risk. The funding for his bail has been taken from no parish, school or ministry resources, impacts no ongoing work of the church and will be returned when the terms of bail are completed. Nor does it diminish in any way our determination to root out the possibility of sexual abuse from the life of our local church."

Lynn remains on administrative leave and may not function in public as a priest.

Lynn recently won an appeal of his landmark conviction in the priest-abuse scandal was released from custody Friday after being fitted with an electronic monitoring device.

Lynn is the first U.S. church official to have been charged for hiding complaints that priests were molesting children.

He has spent the last 18 months in prison.

Source

• U-T San Diego

"I think the question is: Is there a discontinuity between the leadership of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict, and the new kind of leadership of Francis?

I think no," he said in an interview.

"Francis keeps saying he is a son of the church, which means he's not going to abandon the church's teachings."

To conservatives alarmed by some of Francis' recent remarks - such as "who am I to judge" homosexuals, or assurances that atheism is no bar to heaven - Chaput proposed that "we should look at him after a year, rather than trying to size him up at each speech."

He predicted that if Francis perceived that the laity was misconstruing his message, he would "adjust his style."

Criticism that Chaput had publicly faulted Francis as voicing tolerant views toward homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and artificial contraception, all of which the Catholic Church has long opposed, is "not fair," he said.

"I was not criticizing the Holy Father," Chaput said of remarks in June to the National Catholic Reporter.

However, he cautioned against those who "want to use the pope to further their own agendas, and others [who] want to ignore the pope so they can promote their own agendas." Continue reading

The archbishop, who is known for speaking plainly, made this comment in an interview with National Catholic Reporter correspondent John Allen during World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro.

Allen had asked Archbishop Chaput if the initial enthusiasm for the new Pope would fade "when the honeymoon wears off".

"This is already true of the right wing of the Church," the archbishop said. "They generally have not been really happy about his election, from what I've been able to read and to understand. He'll have to care for them, too, so it will be interesting to see how all this works out in the long run."

Archbishop Chaput was asked whether there was a concern over the fact that Pope Francis had not used the words "abortion", "gay marriage" or "euthanasia" in his first 120 days.

"He hasn't expressed those things in a combative way, and perhaps that's what some are concerned about," he said, "but I can't imagine that he won't be as pro-life and pro-traditional marriage as any of the other popes have been in the past."

Back in Philadelphia, the archbishop said, he had a sense that practising Catholics love Pope Francis and have a deep respect for him, "but they're not actually the ones who really talk to me about the new Pope.

"The ones who do are non-practising Catholics or people who aren't Catholic or not even Christian. They go out of their way to tell me how impressed they are and what a wonderful change he's brought into the Church."

Part of this enthusiasm, the archbishop thought, was "genuine appreciation for the Pope's extraordinary friendliness and transparency.

"But also, I think they would prefer a Church that wouldn't have strict norms and ideas about the moral life and about doctrine, and they somehow interpret the Pope's openness and friendliness as being less concerned about those things."

Source:

National Catholic Reporter

Image: CathNewsUSA

"We need to stop cloaking the ugliness of abortion with misnomers like ‘proper medical coverage' or ‘choice'," he said. "It's violence of the most intimate sort, and it needs to end."

The president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, Michael Geer, said the case of Dr Kermit Gosnell posed a big question: "How is it murder to kill a late-term baby outside the womb, but legal to kill it minutes earlier while still in its mother's uterus?"

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"We're Catholics before we're Democrats. We're Catholics before we're Republicans. We're even Catholics before we're Americans because we know that God has a demand on us prior to any government demand on us," Chaput was quoted as saying.

"And this has been the story of the martyrs through the centuries," he added.

He said Church teaching against abortion "requires absolute adherence" on the part of Catholic voters, who must "stand united" in opposition to the practice regardless of party affiliation.

"(Abortion) really is a big issue today, and I think what it requires of Catholics is a loyalty to the church prior to their political party," Chaput told Catholic News Service Oct. 20 in Rome.

"If we don't stand united on this issue, we're bound to failure, not only in the area of protecting unborn human life but in maintaining our religious freedom," he said.

Archbishop Chaput echoed the calls of other American bishops to have their flocks consider their faith in the voting booth.

"We do believe in the separation of church and state, but we don't believe in the separation of faith from our political life," he said.

"It's very important for Catholics to make distinctions when voting that they never support intrinsic evils like abortion, which is evil in all circumstances. That's a lot different from different economic policies" that people can reasonably disagree on, the archbishop said in another interview with the Catholic News Agency.

His remarks come as an Oct. 22 Gallup poll shows the "economy in general" is the issue rated most important by Americans as the election nears.

"But people who are practicing Catholics cannot have alternate views on abortion," he said. "Such foundational issues have a huge impact and it's important that Catholics make those distinctions."

Sources

• Catholic News Service
• Catholic News Agency
• The Washington Post
• Image: Catholic Vote

The first independently managed Catholic school system in the United States will be run by the Faith in the Future Foundation, created by concerned Catholics in conjunction with the archdiocese last February following an outpouring of support for four high schools targeted for closure.

The foundation's original mission was to strengthen local Catholic secondary schools through fundraising and marketing. Now it will take over the management of 17 secondary and four special education schools, with a total enrolment of 15,000 students and an annual budget of $NZ158 million.

Catholic parishes will continue to operate 123 elementary schools.

The foundation is headed by H. Edward Hanway, a former chief executive officer of the CIGNA insurance company, who said the move "clearly establishes the role of the laity here to bring significant expertise and capabilities".

"While this decision reflects a paradigm shift, it serves to change the organisational structure for Catholic education, not its mission," said Archbishop Charles Chaput, who will choose a third of the foundation's executive board.

The archdiocesan education office, which formerly ran the high schools, will continue to provide religious and academic curricula but will now report to the foundation's CEO.

Turning over the high schools to an independent foundation comes after a tumultuous year for the archdiocese. A high-profile child sex abuse scandal cost an estimated $NZ13.5 million and properties had to be sold to head off a $NZ7.5 million budget deficit.

Philadelphia's Catholic schools have seen a 72 per cent decrease in enrollment since 1961. The drop has been blamed on smaller family size, increasing tuition costs and alternative forms of education such as charter schools.

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

Associated Press

Image: CatholicPhilly.com

Ten months on, people are left confused as to whether Morris was sacked chiefly for what he wrote in his 2006 Advent letter about women's ordination, for what was reported by the Apostolic Visitor, Archbishop Charles Chaput, or for what was reported to Rome by those sometimes described as 'the temple police'. Now more details have come to light showing how threadbare and confused the processes were.

In his 'Statement of Position' to the three Cardinals gathered in Rome in January 2008, Morris said, 'At the end of the Apostolic Visitation, when Archbishop Chaput was being driven back to Brisbane, he remarked to Fr Brian Sparksman, our diocesan Chancellor, that he would be astounded if our diocese were to lose its bishop.

'He also asked John Bathersby (Archbishop of Brisbane) why he thought he was asked to investigate me because as far as he could see from the material provided to him things that I had reportedly said and done were happening in other places as well.'

Continue reading: Revelations shed new light on Bill Morris dismissal

Image: ABC

In interviews with Catholic News Service and in their statement, the bishops said they had a special meeting with Cardinals Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to discuss the pope's decision to remove Bishop Morris from office in May. They also met both cardinals separately.

"Our discussions with them were substantial, serious and candid," and gave the bishops "a more adequate understanding" of steps taken by the Vatican over a decade to resolve difficulties with the Toowoomba bishop, the statement said.

Bishop Morris was asked to resign six times by three different Vatican congregations, according to news reports. But matters became even more serious in 2006 when he said in a pastoral letter that he would be open to ordaining women and married men if church rules changed to allow such a possibility.

In 2007, the Vatican asked Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, who was archbishop of Denver at the time, to conduct an apostolic visitation of Toowoomba.

The Australian bishops' Oct. 21 statement said, "What the Holy See did was fraternal and pastoral, rather than juridical in character. Although efforts continued over many years, a critical point came when Bishop Morris failed to clarify his position to the satisfaction of the Holy See" and declined to resign when the pope asked him to do so.

The pope removed Bishop Morris as head of the Diocese of Toowoomba but imposed no other sanctions.

"What was at stake was the church's unity in faith and the ecclesial communion between the pope and the other bishops in the College of Bishops," the statement said. "Eventually Bishop Morris was unable to agree to what this communion requires and at that point the pope acted as the successor of Peter, who has the task of deciding what constitutes unity and communion in the church."

The Australian bishops said they accept the pope's exercise of his ministry and they reaffirm their communion with him.

Source: CNS

Image: Australia InCognito

The congregation overflowed from the cathedral into outside marquee where the service was broadcast live.