However, Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, who was involved in drafting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, has reinforced Church teaching on LGBTQ+ issues.

Speaking at a press briefing during the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, Schönborn stated that the Pope has the prerogative to modify the catechism.

He cited a precedent in Pope Francis' 2018 revision of the Church's stance on the death penalty.

Pope Francis changed the catechism's language to say that capital punishment is "unacceptable".

LGBTQ+ issues have been a major point of interest during this month's Synod of Bishops.

It is one of the most frequently asked about topics alongside other hot-button issues such as women's priestly ordination and the married priesthood.

In terms of whether there will be further changes to the catechism's language, Schönborn said he does not know.

He added that "the pope is the only one who can decide because he's the one who promulgated the catechism."

The cardinal recommended viewing the text holistically, stressing the importance of respecting all individuals despite their sins.

"Human beings always have the right to be respected, even though they sin, which we all do.

"I personally, you, all of you, we all sin, but we are entitled to be respected; we have a right to be respected" Schönborn said.

Global shift in the Church

Cardinal Schönborn pointed out a shift in the Catholic Church's centre from Europe to the global south.

This included regions in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Schönborn said what had struck him throughout the synod process was "the fact that Europe is no longer the main centre of the Church."

He noted the Catholic Church's centre had shifted to the global south including regions in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

He remarked that these regions have more developed continental bishops' conferences and more synodality.

Europe is "lagging behind a bit in the way in which we live synodality among the local churches in Europe. I think we need some stimulus to move forward," Schönborn said.

Sources

Crux

CathNews New Zealand

In his 'First Things' magazine article, conservative prelate and canon lawyer Thomas Paprocki (pictured) cites an unnamed cardinal's views on how the Church should minister to LGBTQ people and divorced and remarried Catholics.

While he doesn't name Cardinal Robert McElroy, Paprocki quotes directly from a 24 January article the cardinal wrote for America magazine.

In it, McElroy called for a Church that favours "radical inclusion" of everyone, regardless of circumstances and conformance with Church doctrine.

To back his views, Paprocki's essay cites several passages in the Code of Canon Law and draws on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and St Pope John Paul II's Ad Tuendam Fidem ("To Protect the Faith").

Pointing to these, he said anyone who denies "settled Catholic teaching" on issues like homosexuality and "embraces heresy" is automatically excommunicated from the Church.

The pope has the authority and the obligation to remove a heretical cardinal from office, or dismiss outright from the clerical state, Paprocki wrote.

Referencing McElroy's critique of "a theology of eucharistic coherence that multiplies barriers to the grace and gift of the eucharist," Paprocki claimed: "Unfortunately, it is not uncommon today to hear Catholic leaders affirm unorthodox views that, not too long ago, would have been espoused only by heretics."

Although McElroy and Paprocki were both available for comment, in a 28 February interview Paprocki said he did not intend to single out a particular cardinal for criticism. Rather, he "intended the discussion to be more rhetorical.

"I think the reason I did this is because this debate has become so public at this point that it seems to have passed beyond the point of just some private conversations between bishops."

The bishop's explanation struck some observers as disingenuous.

Jesuit Fr Tom Reese, a journalist who has covered the US bishops for decades, says Paprocki's essay reflects deep divisions in the US Catholic hierarchy, plus a level of public animosity, open disagreement and strident rhetoric among bishops.

Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI would not have tolerated it, he says.

"On the other hand, there wouldn't have been this kind of discussion under John Paul II because the Vatican would have shut it down.

"Francis has opened the Church up for discussion again and [conservative bishops] just don't like it. They're trying to shut it down by using this kind of inflammatory rhetoric, even against cardinals," Reese said.

Cathleen Kaveny, a law and theology professor, says Paprocki "should know better as a canon lawyer" than to accuse someone of heresy - which is a formal charge.

Paprocki is running together statements and teachings of different levels of authority in the Church and claiming any disagreement amounts to heresy. "And that's just false," Kaveny says.

"The underlying question ... is whether development in church doctrine can take place.

"I would recommend people read John Henry Newman on that, and look at the history of the church's teaching on usury while they're at it."

Source

• NCR Online

Francis made his views on the death penalty clear during his first speech in Bahrain last Thursday.

He chose the country's royal palace to address two of the most contentious political issues in the country.

One was Bahrain's treatment of prisoners; the other, its practice of capital punishment.

"I think in the first place of the right to life, of the need to guarantee that right always, including for those being punished, whose lives should not be taken," Francis said.

His words were a direct challenge to his host, Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

The King invited the pope to Bahrain. He also ended the kingdom's de facto moratorium on capital punishment in 2017. Since then, six people have been executed.

At present there are 26 prisoners facing execution in Bahrain.

The Government has repeatedly denied any human rights violations or mistreatment of prisoners. "I was so happy to hear these words," said Zainab Ibrahim, whose husband Ramadhan has been on death row since 2014.

Ramadhan also heard the pope's speech live while watching BBC Arabic from prison.

"... This is really a moment that gave us hope, gave us joy for our family," Ibrahim said. "There are no words to describe the pain we go through as a family,"Ibrahim says.

Ahead of the pope's arrival for his 3-6 November visit to Bahrain, representatives from the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy met with officials from the Vatican embassy in Great Britain.

Their aim was to raise awareness of the situation of political prisoners and death row inmates in the kingdom. The institute also passed along letters from several inmates, directly appealing to the pope to take up their cases with the king, who has the authority to commute sentences or grant pardons.

"Your Holiness, ... you believe in spreading love and peace and in the message of Jesus, who always sought to lift the injustice and suffering of the oppressed and the needy who did not find anyone to help them," Ramadhan's letter said.

Sayed Ahmed AlWadaei, director of advocacy for the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, says he wasn't expecting Francis to directly address the issue, especially on his first day in the country.

Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of US-based Catholic Mobilising Network against the death penalty, says "even as a small number of nations like Bahrain continue to execute and condemn their citizens to death, most of the world is moving in the other direction.

"More than 140 countries have rejected the death penalty either in law or in practice,"she says.

"Pope Francis' consistent witness...echoed Popes John Paul II's and Benedict XVI's opposition to the death penalty, but he "has gone on to clarify the Church's teachings against capital punishment, including with a historic revision to the Catechism in 2018" that it is now considered "legally unnecessary and morally inadmissible."

Source

• NCR

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) is of universal importance to Catholics, the change will spread the church teaching about capital punishment throughout the world. It will also require Catholics to work towards abolishing the death penalty.

The decision to alter Paragraph 2267 of the CCC was announced last week by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in a ‘Letter to the Bishops.'

The letter was signed by the Congregation's Prefect, Cardinal Luis Ladaria.

Ladaria says the death penalty revision "expresses an authentic development of doctrine that is not in contradiction with the prior teachings of the Magisterium."

The change in the CCC has been developing over the past 25 years or so, with St John Paul II asking for the teaching on the death penalty to be reformulated.

Francis's changes continue the work initiated by St John Paul and takes into account concerns expressed by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI.

Ladaria says St John Paul's aim was for the CCC to better reflect the development of the doctrine that centres on the clearer awareness of the Church for the respect due to every human life, which affirms:

"Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity, and God himself pledges to guarantee this."

Ladaria said that in many occasions St John Paul intervened for the elimination of capital punishment describing it as "cruel and unnecessary."

However, at the time, some in the Vatican were concerned about how the church would explain its change in teaching.

As a result, St John Paul altered the CCC to say the death penalty was permitted only "if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor."

It goes on to say cases requiring the execution of the offender "are very rare, if not practically nonexistent."

Ladaria says Benedict's contribution to the change included appealing for "the attention of society's leaders to the need to make every effort to eliminate the death penalty."

He encouraged "political and legislative initiatives being promoted in a growing number of countries to eliminate the death penalty and to continue the substantive progress made in conforming penal law both to the human dignity of prisoners and the effective maintenance of public order," Ladaria says.

Source
NCR
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/signs-times/pope-francis-pushes-catholics-actively-oppose-death-penalty
Vatican News
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2018-08/pope-francis-cdf-ccc-death-penalty-revision-ladaria.html
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