Carrying on in the same old way won't achieve this, he points out. But churches can be "sparring partners for those seeking meaning" or "midwives of hope" in a world filled with fear, he suggests.

Catholic without attending Mass

Zulehner sees a future where the usual worship gatherings in ageing parish communities won't be sufficient.

The Catholic Church is in the midst of a "turning point" he says. It's going from a church of priests to one of baptismal vocations.

He refers to an online survey which the Austrian Partners Initiative set up and conducted earlier this year.

Kathpress says Zulehner presented the study's first results in lectures in Vienna and Salzburg. He found in the "priestly church" the parish community centres on the priest, while in the "baptismal vocation church" it centres on the people of God.

Those who represent the former prove to be far more resistant to structural reforms.

The image of the Church has changed, he says.

The study pointed to strong agreement with the statement "You can be a good Christian even without Sunday Mass" - a blatant contradiction to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).

In the baptismal vocation Church, celebrations of the Word led by women and men were accepted enthusiastically he says. The celebration of the Eucharist was called into question as the "source and culmination of Christian life" according to the Vatican Council.

Get on with it, reinvent

Zulehner would like to see more honesty in the Church.

It is better to admit that the main motive for structural reforms is a lack of money than to conceal dwindling resources and to put forward religious reasons, he says.

As the Kathpress press agency reported on Tuesday this week, the Viennese theologian and sociologist of religion explained: "Then it will be easier to be honest about who decides and what priorities play a role in the decisions".

He also notes the Church is losing its political power, which harms people and society.

The Church must not "manage the downfall", but must "shape the transition". In this way, he opposed an "exhausting, even paralysing church depression".

Challenges like wars, the climate crisis, migration and "robotisation" are issues Churches should engage with from a political perspective, he suggests.

To achieve this, Zulehner says "convinced Christians" are needed.

Their role will be to go into municipal councils, the Council of Europe, and the UN and bring the Gospel into concrete politics.

"Churches are not party-political, but politically partisan" he says.

Source

• Katholisch.de
• Katholisch.de
• CathNews NZ

His visit showcased his focus on global peripheries and the Church's need to navigate complex political and interreligious issues in today's world.

Pope Francis is arguably at his best when far from Rome.

His apostolic trips to the Middle East and the Far East are prime examples, and the exhausting September journey to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore is no exception.

Promoting interreligious dialogue in Indonesia

In Indonesia, where Christianity is a minority, Pope Francis spoke about the importance of working for peace and interreligious coexistence, particularly with Islam, in the "Istiqlal Declaration" signed on September 5.

He repeated his vision of a dialogical Christianity that rejects religious extremism and fundamentalism.

He encouraged the inculturation of the faith, making clear that the post-Vatican II inculturation of liturgy, theology, and catechesis is here to stay and that there is no prospect of a re-Latinisation or a new Romanisation of global Catholicism.

Francis walks in the footsteps of St. John Paul II, updating and bringing to the antipodes the "spirit of Assisi" (the first World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi, Italy, on October 27, 1986, and called by the Polish pope), which is still seen by some traditionalist Catholics as a sacrilege.

Francis traveled to Asia and Oceania not to announce new policies or reshape local churches but to bring the Pope's presence closer to those Christians and their fellow citizens, allowing lived Catholicism to flourish while also teaching something to the global Church.

He has done all this in a moving display of joy, tenderness, and simplicity, which also sends a powerful message to those who identify Catholicism with an outburst of grievances against modern culture and secularisation, against the institutional Church, and against fellow Catholics on the other side of the ideological barricades.

A journey to the peripheries

This trip is the quintessential embodiment of Francis' closeness to the peripheries. It is the longest and farthest from Rome for Francis.

It is a trip that once again redefines the Catholic imagination of the world map in the third millennium: the north-south and east-west relations and where the center of the world and the Church are today in this post-European global order.

Papua New Guinea is 19,047 kilometers away from the Vatican. It is closer to New Delhi, Beijing, and Tokyo than a trip to Los Angeles and New York.

And yet, in some sense, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore represent the closest places Francis could go to find an experience of the Church that he has in mind.

There are three issues that this trip keeps hidden or does not show but are at the heart of the crisis of Catholicism today.

The challenge of Catholicism in a post-European world

The first element is political.

By beginning this trip with Indonesia, it carries an echo of the new "Non-Aligned Movement".

During the Cold War, countries of the developing world abstained from allying with either of the two superpowers (the United States and the Soviet Union) and instead joined together in support of national self-determination against all forms of colonialism and imperialism.

The foundational moment was the 1955 conference in Bandung, Indonesia.

This was viewed with sympathy by some Catholics in Europe and the West, foreshadowing the shifts brought about by Vatican II and the Popes since John XXIII in repositioning the Holy See and Catholicism away from a political and ideological identification with the West.

"Francis' papacy is still longing for a third option between the United States and Russia—one that rejects both the neoliberal, American-dominated world order and the illiberal ethno-nationalism and authoritarian regimes that have taken hold in many countries."

Today, Francis' papacy is still longing for a third option between the United States and Russia — one that rejects both the neoliberal, American-dominated world order and the illiberal ethno-nationalism and authoritarian regimes that have taken hold in many countries, some still formally part of what remains of the Non-Aligned Movement.

For example, the Republic of Belarus, Putin's Russian neighbor and staunchest ally, has been a member of the Non-Aligned Movement since 1998.

The 19th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement was held this past January in Kampala, and the movement is currently chaired by Uganda, a country with one of the harshest anti-gay laws in its criminal code.

What the Non-Aligned Movement has become says something about where the Vatican is (and isn't) on today's ideological world map and the lack or scarcity of viable political interlocutors for the Holy See.

Finding Comfort in Asia-Oceania's non-aligned Catholics

The second element is ecclesial.

This September trip to Asia and Oceania brought the Pope as far as possible from the historical borders of the Roman Empire (in all its possible dispensations, from Augustus to the Holy Roman Empire until Napoleon), from Washington D.C., and from the international liberal order once dominated by the West.

But Asia and Oceania also provide an ecclesial environment that is for Francis much more comfortable than the one in Europe and the West today.

Francis' visits to these peripheries signal his preference for the non-aligned Catholics in our intra-ecclesial cold wars.

They are those who do not align with a particular agenda on issues such as the diaconate for women, the different theories of synodality, the policies to fight clericalism and the abuse crisis.

(This is despite the case of Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, a hero of the independence movement in his native East Timor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, whom Pope Francis indirectly acknowledged on September 9).

"Francis' visits to these peripheries signal his preference for the non-aligned Catholics in our intra-ecclesial cold wars — those who do not align with a particular agenda on issues."

Catholics in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore differ from the images of Catholicism in mainstream media in the West. But they are Francis' people, more than the activists for Church reform, feminist theologians, or, for that matter, most academic theologians.

And yet, the issues that are not visible in this trip will continue to be central issues for Catholicism in the Western world and, in the not-so-distant future, also in these Churches of the peripheries.

Interreligious dialogue in the context of global tensions

The third element is interreligious, and it has to do with Islam and Judaism.

The Istiqlal Mosque in Indonesia sits across from Jakarta's cathedral, linked by a "tunnel of friendship" as a symbol of religious fraternity. Francis visited the tunnel before the meeting, offering blessings and signing a section of it.

On that September 5, it was hard not to think about other tunnels that tragically connect and divide today, like the tunnels of Gaza, where Israeli hostages, taken on October 7, 2023, were held and murdered by Hamas.

"Forging a new relationship with Islam requires confronting the intentionally unaddressed issues of the pre-Francis era, from the Vatican II declaration Nostra Aetate onwards: political and religious Zionism, the land and state of Israel."

As delicate as the relations between Christians and Muslims are in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, the immediate challenge today lies in dealing with Islam and Judaism in the Middle East.

Francis' pontificate is trying to do for the relationship between the Church and Islam what St. John Paul II did for the relationship with Judaism.

The challenge is that forging a new relationship with Islam requires confronting the intentionally unaddressed issues of the pre-Francis era, from the Vatican II declaration Nostra Aetate onwards: political and religious Zionism, the land and state of Israel.

The interfaith dialogue led by the Vatican has become incredibly more difficult since Hamas' terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, and Israel's indiscriminate war against Gaza.

Interreligious dialogue is key to the credibility of Catholics and Christians in many parts of the world where they are a small minority.

The situation in Israel and the Middle East threatens not only world peace but also the survival of minority Churches, which often do not appear on social media, in Catholic pundits' columns, and the agendas of "cultural Christians" in European and Western politics.

This will likely be a major part of the agenda for the next conclave that elects Francis' successor. Whenever it happens, it will take place in the Vatican, 19,047 kilometers away from Papua New Guinea.

• First published in La Croix
• Massimo Faggioli is an Italian academic, Church historian, professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, columnist for La Croix International, and contributing writer to Commonweal.

That is what Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich (pictured), the relator general for next October's synod, said in this exclusive interview with America's Vatican correspondent.

He emphasised the importance of the working document's attention to affirming and promoting the role of women in the Church in the 21st century and said, "If women do not feel comfortable in the Church, we have failed our living as Christians."

He explained that "synodality is the path the church has to follow in order to fight the polarisation" that exists in the Church and world today by seeking to harmonise differences.

Cardinal Hollerich presented the instrumentum laboris together with Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary general of the synod, at a press conference in the Vatican on July 9.

I sat down with him afterward at the office of the synod's secretariat on Via della Conciliazione.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich

The Luxembourg-born cardinal, who will turn 66 in August, is a member of the Japanese province of the Jesuits.

He lived in Japan from 1985-89 and again from 1994 to 2011, when Benedict XVI appointed him to be archbishop of Luxembourg.

Pope Francis made him a cardinal in 2019, named him relator general for the synod in 2021 and appointed him to his council of nine cardinal advisors in 2023.

He is one of the most influential figures at the October synod, together with Cardinal Grech. As relator general, he will deliver the keynote address to the synod's opening plenary assembly in October and will preside over the drafting of its final text. Read more

• Gerard O'Connell is America's Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History.

Yet others have partially removed themselves from in-house discussion by opting for a "spirituality" more or less independent of the Church.

Confusions that come to us from the wider secular culture are another matter again.

Some of the polarisations within the Church can be described as "push-back."

It is important to understand the reasons for push-back - from whichever direction it comes.

It needs to be made fruitful. Otherwise, it just degenerates into culture wars. These have already reached fever pitch in some parts of the world. We don't need that.

But, first the good news: the common ground between polarised positions within the Church is that people's faith really matters to them.

Perhaps we should be more concerned about those who seem not to notice.

Above all, however, small family arguments should not be given more time than we give to reaching out to people in need and working to transform society.

Push-backs and pendulum swings

Some of today's push-backs are residue from previous pendulum swings.

In its day, feudal society had found an echo in the Church, some of the bishops being princes and lords.

That kind of society is what the French Revolution pushed back against by calling for liberty, equality and fraternity - and by persecution.

Persecution rebounded in the form of many new religious orders, expanded missionary work, and a revival movement, which was known as Ultramontanism because it was centred on Rome ("over the mountains" from northern Europe.)

Features of this revival included parish missions and multiple devotions, processions, apparitions, miracles, pilgrimages, scapulas, medals, and novenas - which have their place, though not as bargain for salvation.

It is the era of neo-Gothic and baroque architecture, and exuberant adornment of churches. Clergy became a group apart even more, and later, with dress to match.

The First Vatican Council (1869-70) was the first to which no lay people were invited.

The era featured a theology that became increasingly unable to address modern questions, culminating in the anti-Modernism of Popes Pius IX and X.

Intellectual enquiry was not encouraged, and complete subordination to Church authority, especially the Pope's, was the order of the day.

With some variations, this gave us our experience of Catholicism up until the 1960's.

The much-needed corrective came with ressourcement: better methods of studying the ancient scriptures, and the liturgies, theologies and practices of Christianity's earlier centuries, gradually emerged, and fed into the renewal mandated by the Second Vatican Council.

Some of today's push-back is a hankering for features of Ultramontanism; and some of those features are mistaken for "tradition."

Different experiences

Push-back can also arise from different generations' experience.

Some of us grew up within a Church that was controlling, paternalistic, clericalist and conformist.

The post-Vatican II Church included push-back against that way of being Church. There were good reasons for this - based on what it means to be a person and what it means to fully respect the primacy of conscience:

The dignity of the human person is a concern of which people of our time are becoming increasingly more aware.

In growing numbers people demand that they should enjoy the use of their own responsible judgment and freedom.

They want to decide on their actions on grounds of duty and conscience, without external pressure or coercion. (On Religious Liberty -Dignitatis Humanae, n.1.)

A true appreciation of personhood and of conscience fosters personal responsibility in others. It relies more on catechesis and moral formation than on regulation and penalties.

It is more akin to authorising or enabling others to grow as persons. It requires a formation aimed at helping them to understand the issues and to choose well.

It moves away from social patterns and leadership styles that were more typical of feudal societies, and that prolonged over-dependence and personal immaturity.

This accounts for different expectations of how Church leadership should be exercised.

There has been push-back from some who fear that respect for the autonomy of persons and the primacy of conscience involves a failure to uphold church teachings.

Those who grew up since the 1960's have not experienced a highly authoritarian and conformist way of being Church.

But they have experienced the emptiness of secular ideology and the triteness of consumerism, and they are pushing back against that.

They rightly look to the Church for a strong sense of the transcendent and clear markers against false ideologies, and are concerned when it seems to them that the liturgy renewal involves a diminished sense of mystery and of the transcendent.

From ceremony to ritual

Conversely, of course, some of their efforts to emphasise transcendence can seem to others like an over-emphasis on secondary matters and externals.

After all, even the Church's teachings do not all have the same level of importance:

The "... biggest problem is when the message we preach seems identified with secondary aspects which important as they are, do not in and of themselves convey the heart of Christ's message…" (Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel, n.34)

That applies also to Church practices. In his scholarly article, One Hundred Years of the Discipline of the Liturgy (Australasian Catholic Record, Oct 2023), Gerard Moore reminds us of the difference between "ceremony" and "ritual".

We watch a ceremony, and we participate in a ritual (acknowledging some overlap).

Before the Second Vatican Council, it was assumed that the congregation "attended" Mass, which the priest "celebrated."

It was the priest's responsibility to ensure the ceremony was correctly performed, and there were manuals that spelled that out in much detail.

It easily became a preoccupation with rubrics, vestments, birettas, mitres, candles etc.

But the Council reminded us that the Mass is not a ceremony which the congregation attends, it is a ritual in which they participate.

Although the priest has a special ministry, it is the whole congregation that celebrates Eucharist.

There are also polarised expectations resulting from how we think of "mystery" and "reverence."

The confusion derives from pre-Council times when we did not have a good understanding of the difference between "devotions" and "liturgy" - they were all "what we did in church."

Our understanding of "reverence" derived mainly from our demeanour before the Blessed Sacrament.

That kind of reverence, proper to Eucharistic devotions, can inhibit the sense of mystery and of reverence that properly belong to liturgy.

(That is why official sources prefer the reserved Sacrament to have its own sacred space, apart from the sanctuary. It is not part of the liturgy of the Mass.)

In liturgy, properly understood, the "mystery" is indeed Christ's real presence, and "reverence" is the way we respond to what He is doing for us, which is different in each of the sacraments and at different moments in the celebration of Eucharist.

An example might help:

For Polynesian Catholics, the Gospel procession involves song, dance and expressions of joy at Christ's coming among us in his word, and the congregation rises to its feet out of respect.

When I explained this to a group of seminarians, one commented that this could be "a distraction."

That good man was still thinking of the kind of reverence we express in the presence of the reserved Sacrament and in private prayer.

The Gospel procession invites us to come out of our private time to join a worshipping community - to participate in a ritual.

Intrusions

Where the difference between devotions and liturgy has not yet been well understood, efforts are still being made to re-insert various devotions into the liturgy, and objects of devotion into the sanctuary.

But nothing is more striking than the "noble simplicity" of which the Introduction to the Roman Missal speaks.

There have been sporadic efforts to re-introduce the maniple, the biretta, etc, but these are more usual with fringe groups, which tells its own story.

Good ritual doesn't need things that have lost their meaning.

For example: when the priest had his back to the congregation and prayed the Eucharistic Prayer quietly, in Latin, the people had no way of knowing where he was up to. And so, a bell was rung at various stages of the Mass to help the people know.

The current rubric allows that a small bell may be rung "if appropriate," "as a signal to the faithful" (it has no other meaning) - e.g. in a large congregation where it may be difficult for people to see or hear.

But in a small building, where the people are carefully following the prayer which they can hear clearly, the sudden interruption of a bell can be quite a distraction.

Some ways of not causing distraction during the Eucharistic Prayer seem to be little more than common courtesies.

But many of them come back to the fact that one voice prayerfully proclaiming the Eucharistic Prayer helps the prayerful participation of the people, and so the less shuffling around at the altar the better.

This led priests and bishops, some years ago, to forgo options that are open to them, sharing different parts of the Eucharistic Prayer among the concelebrants, all concelebrants saying the words of institution out loud, bishops putting mitres off and on during the Mass…

Forgoing such options occurs naturally to those who think of the congregation's needs more than their own prerogatives.

Same signs, different meanings

Of course, "secondary things" and "externals" are often intended to point beyond themselves.

Signs are a kind of language. Clerical dress is an example of this, and of a recent push-back. Dress can be a sign of being different, separate, apart.

Alternatively, it can indicate closeness to people, being one with them.

What counts is not what our signs means to ourselves, but what they mean to those we want to communicate with.

Up-to-date research by the Wilberforce Foundation (Faith and Belief, 2023) confirms that it is not status or position that attracts New Zealanders to explore the faith:

People living in Aotearoa New Zealand value authenticity with 66 percent of respondents being attracted to explore spirituality if they see people living out a genuine faith or spirituality first-hand.

"Authenticity around faith and spirituality in conversations is … a key factor in leading individuals to consider faith or spiritual matters…" (p.28)

Then, more pointedly, it says: "the number one repellent to exploring faith and spirituality" was hearing it from people who publicly and officially represent it.

The reasons for this might not be recent scandals, because the Wilberforce Study goes on to say that:

… the above finding does not hold for the younger generation, who are more open to influencers. Gen Z are the most likely generation to investigate faith or spirituality if they hear it from a representative public figure…

Gen Z are also the most likely to be attracted to exploring spirituality further because of stories or testimonies from people who have changed because of their faith or spirituality… (p 28).

So, perhaps the research is saying, as many Catholics do, that ministry is not helped by regalia, customs or titles that symbolise power - the remnants of Christendom.

Adaptation to pastoral need goes with being incarnational - being not of the world, but truly in it nevertheless - not just physically, but also socially.

In 1971, the International Theological Commission had warned against "the tendency to form a separate caste".

I have been struck by the coincidence of two unrelated events: in order not to re-traumatise victims, the NZ bishops knew better than to wear clericals when they came before the Royal Commission.

Nearly fifty years earlier, one of our most pastorally dedicated priests had been visiting a hospital, and he told the nurse that a patient he visited had seemed agitated.

She told him that the monitoring machines often showed a rise in blood pressure and pulse rates when "you men come in dressed in deep black".

After that he was always smartly dressed and identifiable as a priest, but never again in "deep black."

We need to be sensitive to these matters because how we come across is meant to be for the benefit of others and not just to satisfy some inner need of our own.

Throughout the Church, pastoral savvy has resulted in many different forms of clerical dress.

It's the mission that doesn't change.

Some push-back on this account comes out of a pious exaggeration relating to ordination which led Pope St John Paul II to remind us that "what one becomes through ordination is in the realm of function, not dignity or holiness" (Christi Fideles Laici, 51).

It is the function that is special.

The importance of belonging

Our "small family arguments" do not cancel our belonging. They take place within the context of family bonds that go deeper than differences.

There is a Catholic culture formed through the inter-action the Church's scriptures, liturgies, devotions, hymns, literature, art, pilgrimages, parishes, Religious communities, schools, work for justice, peace, development and health care, personal sacrifices, faithfulness…

Within this culture, the desire to belong is mysteriously stronger than anything that offends.

But I could be accused of avoiding the more serious issues if I omitted to acknowledge the kind of differences that can threaten unity within the Church.

At one level, the continued use of the unrevised Missal might seem harmless enough - live and let live.

But it can also smudge reality: a General Council of the Church mandated a revision of the Missal, and every Pope since has emphasised that continued use of the unrevised Missal is a special concession for specific pastoral needs.

In other words, the revised and unrevised Missals are not just alternative, ordinary, ways of celebrating Mass.

What matters here is not just the difference between two Missals; it is our Catholic practice of accepting the mandate of a General Council, and its endorsement by all subsequent Popes.

There is no point in blaming Pope Francis: he is the one charged by the Holy Spirit to preside over the unity of the Church.

Fortunately, he can be unfazed by small family arguments, but he is also clear about the boundaries of unity. Our prayers for him need to be accompanied by our loyalty.

• Peter Cullinane is Emeritus Bishop of Palmerston North, New Zealand and a respected writer and retreat leader who, in his retirement, is still busy at the local, national, and international levels.

Being able to celebrate Mass isn't the only way people can undertake leadership roles in the Church, she says.

That global mission has led her to Australia to hear what Australian Catholics have to say about the big decisions the Church has to make about its future and seeking a consensus.

"I am here, ready to listen, to learn more about the reality of the Church here," she says.

"What is very important for me is the Catholic Church has to speak the language of the people."

Speaking in Sydney on Friday, Becquart acknowledged women have hit a stained glass ceiling in the Church. Women's ordination into the priesthood is not up for negotiation, she says.

"At this moment, at the Vatican and from the point of view of the official teaching of the church, it is closed."

But the former marketing and advertising consultant also notes she can still follow a fulfilling leadership path.

The Pope's right-hand woman and the undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops believes there are other ways for females to play a bigger role in the Church.

"There is a strong call today for more women in leadership, more women's participation, especially in the decision-making process," Becquart told her Sydney audience.

She also said there is a need to rebuild trust following the child sex abuse crisis, but said it will be a long process.

"We are more and more aware in many countries that the Church has failed because there have been abuses and cover ups," she said.

Becquart accepts the Catholic Church faces a public relations challenge in rebuilding trust. In this respect, she says her background in communications and project management has been useful in her pastoral work and team leadership.

When the Pope asked her to become an undersecretary in 2021, Becquart says saying "yes" was an easy decision. Her appointment is now seen as a watershed moment.

As one of two undersecretaries, she is the first woman to have the right to vote in the synod, making her the most powerful woman in the Vatican.

In December, Becquart was named on the BBC list of the 100 most inspiring and influential women in the world.

Source

• Sydney Morning Herald

One of the dominant models of perceiving the Church is the model of institution.

This model's decision-making structure is more oligarchical than collegial, and its approach to contemporary questions is preservationist rather than integrationist.

Whether we like it or not, the Western Church's operating model as a hierarchical edifice is challenged by the forces of institutional collapse.

Its failure is seen in the continual struggle to manage the collapse of our diocesan and parish infrastructure through "pastoral" workarounds.

However, the clarion call to change is the scandal of abuse by clerics because this, more than anything, exposed the institutional decision-making processes that enabled this institutionalised behaviour.

Secular states, victims' groups and lay Catholic groups are leading the hierarchy by the nose through the humiliating process of change as they challenge the substance and value of hierarchy and magisterium.

In many Western societies, "Rainbow Rights" evangelize the Church by calling for significant theological change to the anthropological underpinnings of the institutional model's understanding of humanity, sexuality, gender, morality, ethics, salvation, sacramental mediation, and more.

We are hearing the call for a new ethos or worldview because the Church's institutional place in life or in the world has radically changed.

In these instances, the Church's self-understanding as God's institution is being questioned even by loyal Catholics.

These are forces of theological and anthropological renewal.

We are now at a crossroads: do we continue to feed the dinosaur of the current institutional model or do we change? And if we change, which elements of the current model do we retain?

Identifying crisis experiences and managed workarounds

Across the Western Church, the institutional model is breaking down because our organisational infrastructure is collapsing; for most people in the pews, the absence of a priest in the sanctuary is the most obvious example of this collapse.

This experience is called an "identifying crisis experience".

While the impact might be seen in 2022, the roots of the crisis are much older.

An identifying crisis experience is a "slow burn" event whereby individuals and communities slowly realise that they are living in an ongoing experience of crisis.

The most profound and interlinked "slow burn" experiences have been the continual loss of practicing Catholics since the 1970s and the lack of vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

For local Churches—as in New Zealand—that were founded during the 19th century by European clergy and migrants and are now being re-missioned by clergy and migrants from South-eastern Asia and India, the collapse of institutional infrastructure at diocesan and parish levels is a genuine concern.

Faced with identifying crisis experiences, we have initiated "managed workarounds" to slow the structural collapse.

While each workaround maintains the façade of institutional stability, in a perverse sense, it actually contributes to the infrastructure's collapse because it functions like scaffolding around a crumbling stone building.

As in restorationist architecture, the scaffold holds up the roof and stops the walls from falling in. The scaffold gives the preservationist time to figure out how to blend new grout with old grout and keep the wall standing for another few years.

When the builder finds the stone has lost its substantive strength, the restorationist must decide whether to rebuild the wall to look as if it is original, introduce new materials that show change, or demolish the wall.

The agendas of the restorationists and preservationists conflict because the preservationist approach expresses a dysfunctional sense of obligation, while the restorationist approach is a deep, melancholy romanticism.

Trigger events: the abuse scandal

Trigger events are abrupt, earth-shattering events that breach an institution's walls and expose the institutionalised thinking and decision-making processes that created, enabled, and maintained the infrastructure's deceit. Like an earthquake, a trigger event moves the organisation's tectonic plates, creating rift valleys where once there was the sea.

The abuse of minors acts like an "event" insofar that it exposes the organisational mindset that placed the institution before everything and everyone else.

In the Church, "child abuse thinking" is an example of a deep-seated preference for the institution over people, which has spawned a host of dysfunctional organisational workarounds.

Because trigger events lay bare the organisational thinking underpinning institutional structural systems, they put the institution at risk and lead to a dramatic decline in public confidence and heightened negative public scrutiny.

These events require serious and strategic mitigation because they can alienate previously loyal parishioners and members of the public.

Once people see the darker side of an organisation's thinking and how it is used in managing the institution, they also see the institutional incapacity to change.

Regarding the Church, both the baptised and society onlookers question everything the Church teaches.

They challenge the Church's right to represent the divine authoritatively.

The abuse scandal, acting as a trigger event, has exposed a deep-seated preservationist mindset that drives our response to the institutional crisis.

I suggest that the same mindset is operative in managing our collapsing institutional infrastructure.

In this context, the abuse crisis is not a moral problem to be solved or a sin to be forgiven but a critical indicator of a more profound structural crisis for all Catholics.

Changing people: the way to a new institutional infrastructure

The collapse of any institution's organisational infrastructure impacts everyone associated with it.

Those impacted respond in various ways, from hurt and resignation to joy and excitement, depending on what they stand to lose or gain.

Generally, organisational structures and infrastructure reflect the needs of the members of the organisation who are its beneficiaries.

Members design organisational structures to deliver the organisational outputs they have previously decided.

In charitable organisations, the challenge is to give the person receiving help what they want and need rather than what the organisation wants to give them.

How change happens is complex.

Vested interests show themselves under different guises.

In terms of the Church, those who have benefitted from a preservationist mindset because it maintained their desired status quo have the most to lose and are generally the loudest critics of the change. Those who seek change also do this for their advantage; concupiscence is always a factor.

The different approaches depend on personalities and their understanding of the depth of change necessary and the best way to achieve it.

Where there are still change agents in the Church—and this is not to be presumed—some will seek to change the mindset from within the organisation and others from outside.

The distinction between these two approaches is evident in the synodal process and the difference in the approach of episcopal and lay groups.

Challenging the institutional model of Church

Before the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the institutional model offered a reliable, robust ecclesial identity.

Its hierarchically structured visible society was the means of salvation that offered a respected and dominant magisterium and an ordered sacramental mediation and preaching system.

It was an unassailable organisational structure where everyone had their place in the hierarchy, and it worked as long as everyone kept the adage "keep the rule, and the rule will keep you".

No one looking at the present state of affairs can avoid questioning the institutional thinking that has contributed to the current situation.

Neither can they propose an enduring solution without addressing the "institution" and its need for reform.

The current situation begs the question: "how did we think ourselves into this mess?"

Part of the answer lies in accepting that, in both instances (abuse and crisis), the hierarchy placed the institution before anyone else.

We did this because we believe more strongly in the Church as a hierarchical reality that provides spiritual services to people than in the Church as the People of God, in a communion of faith.

Consequently, our crisis identifies us as a group that accepts an exaggerated understanding of Holy Orders and for which ordination justifies incompetence.

Society evangelizes the Church

Covid has recently taught us four things about organizations, infrastructure, workarounds and people.

• First, organizations must communicate with people through various media and channels. Those who run organizations must use a post-Covid paradigm.
• Second, infrastructure needs to be mobile, adaptable and accessible because these are the foundations of contemporary, globalized, technological existence.
• Third, workarounds have a limited value. They do not work as an ersatz for human community, touch and physical proximity.
• Fourth, people need to be given agency in their ecclesial life.

We need to change our operating model of the Church.

The ethical, anthropological and sociological values of contemporary people (secular and religious alike) are being forged in a context of religious irrelevancy.

The irrelevancy of magisterial teaching for Catholics and the irrelevancy of God for a large and growing number of people are driving the change in our operational model from institution to some blend of institution, communion and servant.

The pressure for change from society groups, the media, royal commissions, and court cases is not going away soon because these are the only tools capable of breaking through the fossilized institutionalist mindset that created this problem.

While we don't like them now, in years to come, Roman decrees will begin: "from the earliest times, and in keeping with the Church's oldest tradition, the Church is a communion of people sharing hierarchical unity."

• Joe Grayland is a theologian and a priest of the Diocese of Palmerston North. His latest book is: Liturgical Lockdown. Covid and the Absence of the Laity (Te Hepara Pai, 2020).

Finlayson says he has vigorously chided church leaders who try to intervene in politics.

On one occasion the Archbishop of Wellington, Cardinal John Dew, invited him to a picnic on Parliament's lawn.

Finlayson says Dew wanted to demonstrate that through the sharing of food collectively we have sufficient resources to ensure all New Zealanders a moderate standard of living.

Appalled, Finlayson declined in writing, saying the picnic was almost as "gimmicky" as the antics of the Anglican leadership.

Quoting a Thatcher Bible favourite, 1 Timothy 5-8 Finlayson says St Paul warns that people who do not provide for their own families were disowning their faith. The former Cabinet Minister's letter also said he deplored Catholic teaching being used "as a cover for extreme left-wing redistributionist views."

He says that former Prime Minister John Key later said he'd had complaints from some bishops that Finlayson had been rude to them.

"I didn't think I'd been rude - rather, I was attempting to tell them how to do their jobs," he says.

Finlayson says it makes him cringe when other politicians discuss their faith publicly.

In fact he advised one new MP, Paulo Garcia, "not to talk about Jesus" in his maiden speech.

"He did.

"It's not New Zealand, is it?

"I just think it jars in this country.

"Often it doesn't seem authentic," he says.

Finlayson says that New Zealand is a secular country and when dealing with matters that impact on religion it's important to find a secular response.

Asked by The Spinoff's Ben Thomas whether it is really possible to ring-fence belief from politics, Finlayson says politicians have to.

"I mean, my view on abortion is that I don't know when life begins and I don't know when life ends because there are these blurry periods.

"I acknowledge that my views, which come from mainstream Catholicism, are in many respects out of place in a secular New Zealand.

"And so I can't go around imposing my views on people.

"This is where I think the United States have got it completely wrong.

"On the one hand, you have people who would be in favour of partial-birth abortions, and then there are those who say nothing from the moment of conception.

"I would have thought sensible people could get together and work out some kind of compromise which would get the damn topic out of the headlines."

A former Cabinet minister's memoir - Yes, Minister - is now out on the shelves.

Subtitled "An insider's account of the John Key years," Finlayson's book makes positive comments about his former boss and nice things about other politicians too - not all of them on the same side of the House.

Sources

• NZ Herald
• The Spinoff

The UN refugee agency says by March 14, almost 1.8 million people had entered Poland from Ukraine since the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24.

The Council of Major Superiors of Congregations of Women Religious (the Major Superiors) in Poland says as at March 14, sisters in 924 Polish Catholic convents and 98 in Ukraine were offering "spiritual, psychological, medical, and material help."

All of the nearly 150 religious congregations operating in Poland and Ukraine have responded.

Some are helping a few people, while others have offered assistance to as many as 18,000.

The sisters' work includes almost everything - from transporting people from areas affected by war to providing mother and baby classes.

One of their bigger tasks involves organising housing for the refugees.

To date, the Major Superiors say 498 convents in Poland and 76 in Ukraine have organised housing. About 3,060 children, 2,420 families and 2,950 adults have received shelter so far. In addition, 64 Catholic institutions offer 600 places for orphans.

Besides these, there are 420 institutions with places for around 3,000 mothers with children.

Elderly and disabled people are also among those who have found shelter in institutions run by sisters.

The Major Superiors say the religious sisters have also been helping prepare and distribute hot meals, food, sanitary products, clothing and blankets.

They have also been helping the newcomers find work in Poland, creating additional jobs in their centres, coordinating assistance to refugees at aid headquarters, helping Ukrainian children enrol in Polish schools and serving as Ukrainian language translators.

Other assistance religious communities are providing includes constantly collecting food and hygiene products to be sent to Ukraine, given directly to refugees in Poland or to houses run by congregations.

The congregations also make financial donations and transmit funds through their foundations.

Poland, a country of 38 million people that borders both Russia and Ukraine, was already home to an estimated two million Ukrainian workers before the war began.

Source

• CNA
• Image: Vatican News

The vigil of the First Sunday of Lent was the day chosen to celebrate the historic Mass.

The last Mass celebrated at St Pierre Cathedral took place in 1535.

After the Reformation, the building was taken over by John Calvin's Reformed Protestant Church.

All the cathedral's statues, paintings and stained-glass windows were destroyed and Catholic worship was banned.

Around 1,500 people attended the Mass, led by the episcopal vicar of Geneva Father Pascal Desthieux.

Among those present was a representative of the Protestant community, who faced the congregation and formally asked pardon for historic actions against Christian unity.

Desthieux said Geneva's Catholics were touched by the Protestant community's invitation to celebrate Mass at St Pierre Cathedral.

He also asked for forgiveness for "faults against unity": acts of mockery, caricature, or challenge to the Reformed community.

He underlined the desire to "enrich each other with our differences."

Couples from religiously mixed marriages "live ecumenism in the most intimate way," he said.

He urged everyone to "resist the forces of division in our lives between us and among us Christians."

Once a stained-glass window, it was replaced after the Reformation.

The Mass has been planned for two years but delayed because of COVID quarantine restrictions.

In a letter published on the vicariate's website in 2020, Desthieux described the cathedral as the "central and symbolic location of Geneva's Christian history."

It has its Catholic history and following the Reformation, it became a location "emblematic of the Calvinist reform," he said.

While acknowledging that the return of the Catholic Mass to the cathedral was a cause for rejoicing, Desthieux cautioned against "triumphalism," as well as any language suggesting that Catholics were looking to "take over" the building.

"With our Protestant brothers and sisters, who welcome us in their cathedral, we want simply to make a strong ecumenical gesture, a sign that we all live together in Geneva," he said, adding that the Mass was a "gesture of hospitality" within the city's Christian community.

Source

• CNA

Woelki has been facing strong criticism for several months for his responses to allegations of child abuse in the Church.

He chose to take a five-month break from his duties last September after the Vatican report accused him of "major mistakes" in his handling of reports of sexual abuse at the hands of priests.

The Pope will make a decision about Woelki's resignation "in due course".

In the meantime, Woelki is expected to remain in his post.

The reports leading to Woelki's offers of resignation were both commissioned by him.

In 2019, the Cologne archdiocese commissioned the law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl to examine relevant personnel files from 1975 onward.

The aim was to determine "which personal, systemic or structural deficits were responsible in the past for incidents of sexual abuse being covered up or not being punished consistently".

Woelki cited legal reasons for not releasing the information after archdiocesan lawyers raised concerns about "methodological deficiencies" in the study.

He then commissioned criminal law expert Professor Björn Gercke to write a new report.

The 800-page Gercke report examined 236 files in detail with the aim of identifying failures and violations of the law, as well as those responsible for them.

It found hundreds of cases of suspected sexual abuse in the archdiocese between 1975 and 2018. Most victims were under 14 years old.

In a Lenten pastoral letter published on Wednesday, Woelki said "Certainly, I realise that the situation has not become any easier since October last year. A time-out in itself does not solve any problems".

He added that any reconciliation could "only be contemplated, attempted and concretely undertaken in cooperation", not by taking time out from each other.

Source

• CNA
• DW
• Image: DW

Across the globe people are horrified by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

In a region that learnt the devastating lessons of war last century, the pattern has the tragic possibility of repeating. It flies in the face of much of the progress in peaceful coexistence that Europe has made in recent decades. Read more

Then in November, the French Catholic Academy published a 15-page critique of the report.

The Academy has about 70 members.

"The most serious defects of the CIASE report, in addition to a faulty and contradictory methodology and serious deficiencies in the theological, philosophical and legal fields, concern its recommendations," the Academy claimed.

The Academy's analysis led to a December 9 meeting between Pope Francis and CIASE being cancelled.

Sauvé has now rebutted the Academy's charges in a 50-page response.

"The Catholic Academy was not trying to have a debate and contribute to the truth, but rather to engage in a trial against the accused and in a smear campaign," he said.

"At the end of the careful examination of the analysis ... nothing remains of the very serious criticisms ...".

Offering a nuanced assessment of the figures it presented, the CIASE report said an estimated 216,000 children were abused by priests, deacons, monks, and nuns from 1950 to 2020.

When abuse by other Church workers was included, the report said "the estimated number of child victims rises to 330,000 for the whole of the period".

We cannot ensure "there is no significant bias affecting these estimates," the report explained. Furthermore, "we cannot affirm that the estimates produced are far from the true values".

It said, "as a matter of principle, all statistics derived from a survey are subject to errors ... and all reasoning about quality is done ‘on average' ... there is never a total guarantee, because there is always an error due to sampling and non-response and, at most, it can be said that the estimate is '(very) probably' close to reality".

He said he had called upon expert advisors to confirm the validity of the Independent Commission's working method and results.

"The chosen method is used by all polling institutes and our researchers took precautions to reduce bias," he said.

"Our results are comparable to those of probability surveys conducted on very similar subjects over the last ten years.

"The main risk is that of underestimating the number of victims".

The report identified negligence and institutional failures - these are systemic elements common to any institution that welcomes minors, while some are specific to the Catholic Church.

Sauvé noted the Academy does not accept that the Church has entrusted the subject of pedocriminality in its midst to persons other than clerics.

For the Academy, reparation can be decided only by a court.

This is exactly the opposite of what all the episcopal conferences in the world have decided in terms of reparation for the consequences of abuse.

"The Academy is going against the very clear teachings of the pope himself on priesthood, clericalism, reparation and being self-referential. This is shameful for people who thought they had to denounce us to him."

Source

• CNA
• La Croix
• Image: Dierso.com

The synod's diocesan phase is expected to last until 15 August.

"Many of the faithful perceive the synodal process as a crucial moment in the Church's life, as a learning process as well as an opportunity for conversion and renewal of ecclesial life," a statement from the Vatican said on Monday.

The statement followed a meeting of the ordinary council of the Synod of Bishops last month.

The statement continued, saying "various difficulties have also emerged. In fact, fears and reticence are reported among some groups of the faithful and among the clergy. There is also a certain mistrust among the laity who doubt that their contribution will really be taken into consideration".

The pandemic is creating a further obstacle. People can't gather in person for communal discernment. This reiterates that the local synodal process leading up to the 2023 Synod on Synodality "cannot be reduced to a mere questionnaire".

Despite these concerns, organisers say participation among Catholic bishops' conferences worldwide has been high and efforts have been made to translate the synod documents into many local languages.

According to the council, "close to 98% of the Episcopal Conferences and Synods of Eastern Churches worldwide have appointed a person or an entire team to implement the synodal process.

"The synodal process has been particularly welcomed with joy and enthusiasm in several African, Latin American, and Asian countries," it said.

The Vatican statement says that the five "recurring challenges" the current diocesan phase is facing are:

• Formation "in listening and discernment" is needed to ensure that the synod remains a spiritual process
• There is a temptation to be "self-referential" in group meetings rather than being open to others
• Getting young people to participate
• Reaching out and involving "those who live on the margins of ecclesial institutions"
• Some clergy are reluctant to participate.

"There is growing awareness that the synodal conversion to which all the baptised are called is a lengthy process that will prolong itself well beyond 2023," the Vatican statement said.

"The desire all over the world is this synodal journey which has begun at the local level will continue well beyond Synod 2021-2023 so that tangible signs of synodality might increasingly be manifest as constitutive of the Church".

The statement also said the Vatican will be sending a note to dioceses and bishops' conferences with further details on how to format reports on the local consultation. These will then be sent to the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.

"The note proposes the idea that the drafting of the report is itself an act of discernment, i.e. the fruit of a spiritual process and teamwork," the statement said.

The Synod of Bishops has invited Catholics to read its weekly newsletter and visit its website for prayers for the synod and to view the synod resources page.

• CNA
• Image: Catholic Diocese of Hamilton

The "historical situation" must be interpreted by the standards of the time, Francis says.

The October report from an independent commission of inquiry confirmed extensive sexual abuse of minors by priests in France. The abuse dated from the 1950s to 2020.

"When we do this kind of study, we must be attentive to the interpretation we make of it," Francis (84) told reporters onboard his flight back from a trip to Greece.

"Abuse 100 years ago, 70 years ago, was brutality. But the way it was experienced is not the same as today.

"For example, in the case of abuse in the church, the attitude was to cover it up - an attitude that unfortunately still exists today in a large number of families."

Although Francis says the report's contents are shameful and that he will be discussing it with French bishops when they visited him later this month, Francis admits he had not read it yet.

Francois Devaux, head of a victims' association in France says Francis's "distressing" lack of interest in the French inquiry is "will show everyone that the pope is at the heart of the problem,".

In his opinion, Francis's comments show "ignorance, stupidity and denial".

During the flight, Francis also condemned the "injustice" surrounding the resignation of Michel Aupetit, archbishop of Paris.

Aupetit, 70,resigned after media reports of an intimate relationship with a woman.

He had categorically denied the report, but admitted to having "had ambiguous behaviour with a person he was very close to".

It was "not a loving relationship", nor sexual, he emphasised.

"When the gossip grows, grows, grows and takes away the reputation of a person, that man will not be able to govern... and that is an injustice," Francis said.

"This is why I accepted Aupetit's resignation, not on the altar of truth, but on the altar of hypocrisy.

"I ask myself, what did Aupetit do that was so serious he had to resign? If we don't know the accusation, we cannot condemn," Francis said.

He urged journalists to investigate the truth of the story.

The rumours and gossip leading to Aupetit's resignation are baseless - and his public condemnation is a sin, Francis said.

In a statement last week, when the pope accepted his offer of resignation, Aupetit said he wanted to "protect the diocese from the division that always provokes suspicion and the loss of confidence".

Source

• RFI
• Image: The Times of Israel

On Tuesday, Pope Francis publicised adaptations to the "Norms on the delicts reserved for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith".

The following day on 8 December (the feast of the Immaculate Conception) a revised version of Book VI of the Code of Canon Law went into effect.

Although the definitions of the crimes themselves have not been changed, the new version of the norms - or ways of dealing with transgressions - aligns with recent laws Francis has issued and with the revisions to Book VI.

These revisions include Francis's motu proprios "As a loving mother" and Vos estis lux mundi.

The new norms include the possibility of the pope decreeing an individual's dismissal from the clerical state directly, without a trial. Situations where this could occur include crimes against the faith, such as heresy, apostasy and schism.

In addition to the crimes against the faith, the doctrinal congregation also judges crimes against the sacraments.

These crimes include desecrating a consecrated host, simulating the Mass, solicitation to a sin against the sixth commandment (adultery) during confession and violating the confessional seal.

Other crimes include attempting to ordain a woman, clerical abuse of a minor and a cleric possessing child pornography.

"The changes that have been introduced mostly concern procedural aspects, aimed at clarifying and facilitating the proper conduct of the Church's legal workings in the administration of justice," Vatican News says.

The norms were first promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 2001 and amended by Benedict XVI in 2010.

Benedict first commissioned the revisions to improve the efficacy of the code's penal sanctions.

Msgr. C. Michael Padazinski, president of the Canon Law Society of America, is pleased with the changes.

"This reinvigoration of canon law is a welcome necessity to our member canonists' work on behalf of the Church and will be, as the Holy Father says, an instrument for the good of souls.

"Recategorizing the crime of sexual abuse of a minor from a delict against celibacy to a delict against the dignity of the human person is a remarkable development.

"It shows a shift from a mindset of concern focused primarily on an accused cleric to a concern for the individual who has been harmed," Padazinski, says.

The revisions coming into effect on the feast of the Immaculate Conception is significant, he comments.

This is because the date "reaffirms that life itself and the protection of human dignity begin at the instant a child is conceived in the mother's womb."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Simply Catholic

The festival strives to embrace, encourage and empower every young person to become the voice of hope and solidarity.

"You, young people, are the architects of the future, signs of hope. And we have great hope in all of you. With you, we want to dream and build a better tomorrow," said Salesians head, Fr Angel Fernandex Artime to potential paricipants.

"With your creativity, you can truly help to change the world. I invite you, come and participate in this festival of short films. This is your festival, come and let us move the world with hope," he said.

Conceived in December 2020 and premiering last week, the first annual Don Bosco Global Film Festival received 1,686 short film submissions from 116 countries.

Chosen by an international jury, the best films were streamed last week in 135 different countries.

The film festival sought short film submissions from filmmakers aged 15 to 30. The films could be in any genre within five categories: One-Minute Short Films, 10-Minute Short Films, One-Minute Animated Shorts, 10-Minute Shorts and Music Videos.

Entrants competed for the top spots in all five categories, which awarded prizes amounting to 100,000 euros. A diverse jury of professional filmmakers from around the world was lined up to judge the films.

In addition, films were awarded cash prizes in categories such as global bests, continental bests and category bests - such as narrative, screenplay, sound design and editing.

In addition, there were individual awards for best actor and actress, best writer and best director.

The festival was organized by the Salesians of Don Bosco, whose aim was to create "a world-class film festival platform to showcase ... young creative filmmaking talents."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Salesian Institutions of Higher Education

This remark made by Bishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort (pictured) completely contradicts the comments he made last week when he suggested priests should not violate the confessional seal.

He sparked outrage last week among victims' groups when he said the secrecy of confession was "above the laws of the Republic".

His comments followed the publication of a report saying during the past 70 years Catholic clergy and lay members of the church had sexually abused 330,000 children.

De Moulins-Beaufort, who is the president of the French bishops' conference, now says protecting children is an "absolute priority" for the Catholic Church.

On Tuesday he was summoned to a meeting with Gerald Darmanin, who is France's Minister of Religious Affairs and the Interior Minister - at the request of President Emmanuel Macron.

At the reportedly lengthy meeting, Darmanin says he made it clear that while French law recognises the professional secrecy of the sacrament of confession, this does not apply to disclosures that could lead to criminal cases of child sexual abuse.

"I told him ... no law is superior to the laws of the National Assembly and the Senate ... France respects all religions providing they respect the Republic and the laws of the Republic."

After the meting De Moulins-Beaufort issued a statement highlighting the "determination of all bishops, and all Catholics, to make the protection of children an absolute priority, in close cooperation with the French authorities".

He apologised and asked for forgiveness for the "clumsy" wording of his answer during last week's interview and said:

"The scope of the violence and sexual assaults against minors revealed by the report demands that the Church revise its practices in light of this reality," he said.

"It is, therefore, necessary to reconcile the nature of confession with the need to protect children".

He also reiterated his "shame and consternation" over the report's findings and promised to "carry out the reforms necessary for the French Church to gain everyone's trust".

He said he had asked the pope to meet with the report's authors in the Vatican.

One of the report's recommendations included a request for the Church to reconsider the seal of confession in cases of abuse.

While Francis has expressed his "shame and horror" over the report, to date the Vatican has strongly defended the secrecy of confession.

Source

• RFI
• Image: New Ways Ministry

He repeatedly stressed the Holy Spirit's role in decision-making.

The three-phase synod opens next month with a diocesan phase, which will run until April.

A second, continental phase will take place from September 2022 to March 2023.

The third, universal phase will begin at the Vatican in October 2023 with the Synod of Bishops and will be themed: "For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission."

Synodality, is a concept at the heart of Francis's pontificate.

Some Vatican commentators say the upcoming synod is the most significant Catholic event since the Second Vatican Council in 1962-65.

Speaking to Catholics from the Diocese of Rome of his hopes for the synod, Francis said: "The theme of synodality ... expresses the nature of the Church, its form, its style, its mission.

"And so we speak of a Synodal Church, avoiding, however, to consider that it is just one title among others, a way of thinking about it that foresees alternatives."

This way of thinking isn't simply a "theological opinion" or merely a "personal thought," but rather the blueprint for the Church contained in the Acts of the Apostles, which shows the early Christian community "walking together."

The New Testament shows how the first Christians resolved their seemingly irreconcilable differences by gathering together and listening to each other to make decisions, Francis noted.

Describing how the faith is passed on from one generation to the next, Francis recalled fidelity to tradition does not consist of "the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire."

Earlier this month, the Vatican released a preparatory document and handbook to help dioceses worldwide to take part.

The pope said the initial listening phase was critical because it sought to involve "the totality of the baptized."

"There are many resistances to overcome the image of a Church rigidly distinguished between leaders and subordinates, between those who teach and those who must learn, forgetting that God likes to overturn positions," he commented.

Meditating on the meaning of belonging to the "people of God," Francis said it is not a matter of "exclusivity" but of receiving a gift that comes with the responsibility to witness to God."

The Holy Spirit knows no boundaries and parishes should therefore be open to all and not limit themselves "to considering only those who attend or think like you," he said.

"Allow everyone to enter... Allow yourselves to go out to meet them and allow yourselves to be questioned, let their questions be your questions, allow yourselves to walk together: the Spirit will lead you, trust the Spirit. Do not be afraid to enter into dialogue and allow yourselves to be disturbed by the dialogue: it is the dialogue of salvation."

"I have come here to encourage you ... and to tell you that the Holy Spirit needs you...".

"It will be good for ... the whole Church, which is strengthened ... if it rediscovers that it is a people that wants to walk together, among ourselves and with humanity."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: SkyNews

"Our concern was not in relation to Fr. David's views themselves, but the manner in which these views have been expressed in the context of our diverse community of people of many faiths," the university says.

Palmer had been named as chaplain to the Catholic community at the University and as Catholic chaplain to Nottingham Trent University.

Nottingham Trent University accepted the appointment. However, after interviewing Palmer, the University of Nottingham wrote to McKinney about concerns regarding the appointment.

It later explained the concerns related to Palmer's social media posts, highlighting one on assisted suicide and another on abortion.

"They referenced a tweet where I had referred to the proposed ‘assisted dying' bill [introduced in Britain's Parliament in May] as a bill to allow the NHS ‘to kill the vulnerable,'" Palmer says.

"I was told it was fine for me to have this opinion, but they were concerned with how I expressed it. When I asked how they would suggest I express it, quite remarkably, they suggested I should call it ‘end of life care,' which is a completely unacceptable policing of religious belief."

Palmer tweeted last week that the university also objected to a second post in which he described abortion as the "slaughter of babies,". His comment was made in the context of the debate over U.S. President Joe Biden's reception of Holy Communion despite backing legal abortion.

Palmer says he defends both posts as reflecting Catholic belief.

He says after the university rejected his placement, the bishop declined to nominate another priest. The university then agreed he could offer Mass on campus on Sundays as a "guest priest."

Stressing that the university supported its Catholic community, a university spokesperson said: "We have no issue with the expression of faith in robust terms, indeed we would expect any chaplain to hold their faith as primary."

"The University of Nottingham remains committed to supporting staff and students of Catholic faith and continuing our 90-year tradition of providing Catholic chaplaincy for them," the spokesperson said.

Tweeting about the issue, Palmer noted that the university does not pay for chaplains. He also said most pastoral work with Catholic students would take place at the Newman House and St. Paul's in Lenton, a parish that includes the university within its boundaries.

Palmer rejects the university's explanation.

They say they have ‘no issue with the expression of faith in robust terms,' but this is precisely what they had an issue with, he says. It appears "diversity only goes so far, certainly not as far as the Catholic chaplain being able to express ‘robustly' mainstream Catholic beliefs."

"The suggestion that they are grateful for the bishop's ‘solution' almost seems to imply that the bishop somehow agrees with the university ‘policing' the expression of Catholic teaching on pro-life issues."

"His ‘solution' was an attempt to ensure that the university didn't end up barring sacramental ministry to the students entirely. It wasn't tacit approval of their behavior."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: British Council

Ballyfermot Assumption Parish Church in Dublin erected both an Irish Tricolour and an LGBT+ Pride flag last week.

The flags were flown last week by decision of the parish pastoral council and parish priest Fr Adrian Egan to show that everyone is welcome in their church.

On 17 June, a spokesperson for the church shared a photograph of the flags along with a message which read:

"Just an effort by a parish pastoral council to say to our gay brothers and sisters, ‘God loves you, your parish loves you, and you are welcome here'.

"Applies to all of you too! That's all it is folks, but conspiracy theories abound these days!"

But, within days, the church was ordered by the Dublin diocese to remove the flag.

The diocese claimed the church could not fly any flag on the grounds apart from national or Papal flags on appropriate occasions.

The church received many messages of support following the initial photo and announcement.

One man wrote that he "never thought I would see" an LGBT flag flying on Church property, writing: "As a religious person and a person who is gay, this is a lovely sight."

But, Ballyfermot also received others fuming that the message was 'anti-Catholic'. One person wrote that the church was "not following Christ's teaching."

"This is not truth. It is not love. This is false teaching and causing huge suffering," they wrote.

Fr Egan told the congregation on Sunday Mass that the Church had "received a lot of messages in various forms. Many were aggressive, hostile, nasty, loud, accusatory and condemnatory. They were also claiming we were up to all kinds of things."

"Because I'm the parish priest, some of it came directed at me. I was the anti-Christ, the heathen, I should be ashamed, I should be removed, I should be dismissed."

"Somebody said to me, ‘enjoy the next time it snows because you won't see it where you're going to'. It did get to me, I will admit," he said.

The Ballyfermot Anti-Racism Network and the Ballyfermot Youth Service have organised a vigil at the roundabout near the church. They want to show they are "in solidarity with all the Pride community and young people in Ballyfermot".

People Before Profit Councillor Hazel de Nortúin said that the hateful responses about the Catholic church flying a Pride flag sent by some were "not a true reflection of the people of Ballyfermot."

The local community will come together "to show we will not be tolerating that sort of behaviour" and to support "those in the area who would have been affected by this."

Sources

Irish Post

Irish Times