The comment was made by Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga (pictured with Pope Francis) while talking with participants at the Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Maradiaga is the coordinator of the council of cardinals that advises Pope Francis on the reform of the Catholic Church's central government, while the assembly comprises 20 percent bishops, 20 percent religious, 20 percent clergy and 40 percent lay men and women.

Some participated in person, some online.

The proportion of laity "corresponds to what can be called the peripheries, so within the assembly, they will carry the voices of migrants, refugees, victims of trafficking, as missionary disciples, to vindicate their role within the Church," Maradiaga says.

The assembly intends to find innovative ways to respond to the basic question - what are the new challenges for the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean?

The assembly's objective is "to revitalize the Church in a new way, offering ideas that reform and reanimate," to be an ecclesial event that is synodal, involving all roles in the Church and with a representative, inclusive and participatory methodology, Maradiaga said.

It also aims to allow for a renewed appreciation of the ideas discussed at the 2007 meeting of Latin American bishops in Aparecida, Brazil.

This will enable it to plan for the future with an eye to progress made in the past and themes that are ever-relevant today.

The assembly is part of the Latin American Church's tradition. It meets every 15 years or so to determine the region's major pastoral orientations.

Maradiaga hopes the current assembly will be a sign that can be shared with other continents and can help bring about fruitful outcomes.

He told participants the methodology of seeing, judging and acting is a central way to achieve greater synodality "in all areas of our Church".

He reminded them also that the 70,000 participants in the recommended personal, community, group and thematic forums did not just consist of a collection of data and statistics.

They are also a compassionate encounter of dialogue and contemplation with the people and communities.

"Two pre-assemblies have already been held and the end of this process brought about the publication of the Document for Discernment ten days ago. It was drafted from the multiple contributions of the People of God taking part in the listening process."

The active participation of so many people "has been a grace, a strong experience of synodality," he said.

As the document states: "Let us walk together as pilgrims, in love with the Gospel, open to the surprises of the Spirit!"

Source

• La Croix
• Vatican News

Pope Francis and the council of cardinals propose all activity in the Roman Curia should be united under a simple mission: evangelisation.

The new constitution, "Praedicate Evangelium" ("Preach the Gospel"), is expected to set up a new "super dicastery" for evangelisation that would give it prominence among all Vatican bodies.

This would mean a lesser role for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly the Holy Office of the Inquisition, the oldest institution in the Curia and known as "La Suprema".

For years it policed theologians, set out the boundaries of Catholic doctrine and vetted all major Vatican documents.

Under Francis, the congregation has taken more of a back-seat role.

"Pope Francis always emphasises that the church is missionary. That is why it is logical that in first place we have put the Dicastery for Evangelisation and not the Doctrine of the Faith," said Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, the coordinator of the council of cardinals.

"In this way the Holy Father has sent a significant message of reform to the people of God."

The new constitution puts evangelisation at the heart of the Roman Curia's mission. This means every aspect of Catholicism's civil service must flow from it.

The changes also send a signal to dioceses around the world to follow suit.

Along with evangelisation, the constitution makes clear that the Curia is there to serve both the pope and the local church. This means that diocesan bishops are going to be placed at the same level as prefects in Vatican departments.

Other changes in the new constitution include the establishment of the Pontifical Council for the Protection of Minors as part of the Curia.

This would give the child-protection body greater authority and make it more effective. One of the difficulties the commission has faced to date has been a lack of any legal status in the Vatican.

In addition, it is rumoured that the constitution will set up a new dicastery that carries out charitable works in the name of the pope.

Source

• America Magazine
• Chicago Catholic
• Image: NCR

In the first year of his pontificate, amid a hectic schedule, Pope Francis did not have a break and did not even spend time at the traditional papal summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo.

Church officials have said that Francis not staying at Castel Gandolfo arose out of his desire to throw off the trappings of papacy and to save money.

"We have been asking him to have holidays this year," Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga told journalists in Washington last week.

"Because last year he didn't and sometimes he's very tired."

"So I think that during August he's going to retire to rest," the cardinal said.

But Cardinal Maradiaga, who heads a council of cardinals advising the Pope, ruled out any notion that the 77-year-old Francis might holiday in his native Argentina.

"Not now, because [Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de] Kirchner wants to use this for her propaganda," the cardinal explained.

According to a Religion News Service story, papal aides say that Francis "eats work" and thrives on a hectic pace, despite having had part of a lung removed in his younger years.

The Pope also wears orthopaedic shoes to help alleviate chronic lower back pain.

But he is conscious of his limitations, papal aides say, and has occasionally cancelled events if he is feeling tired or ill.

The Newsmax website quoted a medical specialist who suggested recent reports of weight gain and fatigue for Francis indicate he may be slipping into a form of chronic heart failure.

But before the Pope's recent trip to the Holy Land, Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi played down any papal health fears.

Earlier this year, Cardinal Maradiaga said he had heard opponents of Pope Francis say they are praying for the Pontiff to die as soon possible.

Sources

• Religion News Service
• Newsmax
• Image: Aleteia

Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga said the synod's focus will be mainly on "pastoral conversion" in how the Church forms and nourishes marriage and families.

The cardinal explained that Pope Francis has identified the "lack of family" is the "most important problem affecting the world nowadays".

October's synod has raised hopes that a change might be considered in the Church's pastoral practices in areas like Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics.

Cardinal Maradiaga said: "The doctrine [on marriage] is not going to change because indissolubility of marriage comes from Jesus."

"It's the word of God that says what God has united men do not separate."

But the cardinal did expect to see some changes in pastoral practice relating to care of families.

A key question is whether some couples who are divorced every truly experienced the sacrament of marriage, Cardinal Maradiaga continued.

"It's not a matter of giving or not giving the Communion, that's another subject. It's not the most important. The main concern is: Is there a sacrament or there is not?"

Giving the example of a couple that gets married out of pressure because they are having a baby together, Cardinal Rodríguez said: "We cannot talk of a sacrament there because one of the conditions of a sacrament is freedom, freedom of choice."

He also suggested that the synod may consider some way of streamlining the process for Catholics who seek annulments of their marriages by "trying to give more possibilities to the local tribunals to take the cases of people".

Cardinal Maradiaga heads the council of eight cardinals that advises Pope Francis on reform of Church governance.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• National Catholic Register
• Image: LAC Press

Speaking in Washington on June 2, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga also defended Pope Francis's critiques of free market capitalism.

Cardinal Maradiaga was speaking at an event titled "Erroneous Autonomy: The Catholic Case Against Libertarianism".

The cardinal, who heads the so-called "C8" papal advisory panel, critiqued global inaction in the face of poverty around the world.

"A system has been built now as a new idolatry and it's only the true God that has to be served and not worshipping idols, even if that idol is called market economy . . . or the idol of libertarianism," the cardinal said.

"The libertarianism deregulation of the market is much to the disadvantage of the poor," Cardinal Maradiaga continued.

"This economy kills. This is what the Pope is saying."

Repeatedly citing Pope Francis's Evangelii Gaudium, Cardinal Maradiaga said the pontiff "analyses the economy from the point of view of the poor, which is in line with Jesus' perspective".

The cardinal said the main point of this apostolic exhortation is that a wrong anthropology is creating a wrong distribution of wealth.

As someone who has lived with the poor, Francis "does not let himself be deceived by trickle down economics", the cardinal added.

"Elimination of the structural causes of poverty is a matter of urgency that can no longer be postponed," he continued.

"The hungry or sick child of the poor cannot wait."

The cardinal argued that personal charity was insufficient to solve global problems.

"Solidarity is more than a few sporadic acts of generosity," he said.

The cardinal stressed that the Church "by no means despises the rich", and he said Francis "is also not against the efforts of business to increase the goods of the earth".

"The basic condition, however, is that it serves the common good," he said.

Cardinal Maradiaga called on Catholics to "hold the government responsible and accountable in the years between the elections".

The cardinal also called on Catholics to educate their children in the principles of Catholic social teachings at a young age, and not to wait until teenage years or later.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Religion News Service
• Image: ABC News

Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga said this during an address to Franciscan provincials in Florida, according to the National Catholic Reporter.

The cardinal said Pope Francis is seeking to build a "new way of being church", as St Francis of Assisi did in the 13th century after God commanded him to repair his church.

However, Cardinal Rodríguez said, while Francis is popular among people around the world, he is facing opposition in the Roman Curia.

"We have to be prepared, since this beautiful but strange popularity is beginning to strengthen adherences, but equally to awaken deaf opposition not only in the old Curia, but in some who are sorry to lose privileges in treatment and in comforts," Cardinal Rodríguez said.

"Expressions like 'What can it be that this little Argentine pretends?', or the expression of a well-known cardinal who let slip the phrase, 'We made a mistake,' can be heard," the cardinal added.

This was an apparent reference to a cardinal who regrets electing Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope last year.

Cardinal Rodriguez heads the council of cardinals (C8) appointed to advise Pope Francis.

He told the Franciscans that St Francis of Assisi "caused great scandal" from church leaders who wanted "to maintain their privileges" in the 13th century.

Saying the Pope is creating "a new way of being church" Cardinal Rodríguez said Pope Francis "feels called to construct" a Church that is, among other things.

• "At the service of this world by being faithful to Christ and his Gospel";
• "Free from all mundane spirituality";
• "Free from the risk of being concerned about itself, of becoming middle-class, of closing in on self, of being a clerical Church";
• Able to "offer itself as an open space in which all of us can meet and recognise each other because there is space for dialogue, diversity and welcome in it";
• A Church that pays "just attention and gives importance to women in both society and its own institutions".

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Image: Aleteia

Vatican authorities provided the New Zealand officials with the wrong arrival date and he arrived a day before he was expected.

Cardinal Rodriguez survived a not unusual "bumpy" arrival into Wellington, which is well known for its high winds, but there was no one to meet him at Wellington airport.

So he caught a taxi and asked the driver to take him to the Catholic cathedral. The taxi driver went to a Baptist church, and Cardinal Rodriguez had to advise him to use his GPS device to find the Catholic destination. continue reading

Source

• Michael Otto CNS
• Image: Mark Mitchell. Supplied by NZCBC

Wellington's Catholic newspaper, Wel-Com reports that Cardinal Rodriguez said the C8 plans to help the pope to reform the Roman Curia, making it more simple and effective and 'closer to the people'.

These plans include consideration of a new dicastery or department to represent lay people in the Church. 'There is a dicastery for the bishops, for the priests, for religious but only a council for lay people who make up the greater part of the Church.'

Cardinal Rodriguez said The Catholic Church in New Zealand is likely to have more representatives at the highest echelons of church governance.

Source

• Wel-Com
• Image: Derek Johnson/Wel-Com

The Telegraph quoted Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras saying the cardinal have received suggestions on Vatican reform from around the world.

The current Church constitution was drawn up in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.

The pope and the cardinals are scheduled to meet from Oct. 1-3. After the meetings, Pope Francis will review proposals for changes to the constitution, according to Rome Reports.

The Telegraph said Cardinal Maradiaga announced that the cardinals were planning to go much further that just changing "this and that" in the Constitution.

"We need to write something different," Maradiaga was quoted as saying.

Gerard O'Connell, a Vatican analyst at the Vatican Insider, said that in the past the Vatican has just revised existing rules, "so this is a rupture after a century of increasing centralization.

The seven other cardinals who will attend the meetings are Francisco Javier Errazuriz from Chile, Oswald Gracias from India, Reinhard Marx from Germany, Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya from Congo, George Pell from Australia, Sean Patrick O'Malley from the United States and Giuseppe Bertello of Italy.

Sources

The Telegraph

Fox News

Image: Fox News