The Church has a duty to accompany gay people on a personal path of spirituality, providing that accompaniment is within the framework of the Catholic Church rules, he told reporters on the plane returning to Rome from World Youth Day (WYD) in Portugal.

He made the comment after a reporter reminded him that during WYD he said the Church was open to "everyone, everyone, everyone".

The reporter challenged the sense of that statement about openness when some Catholics, like women and gay people, did not have the same rights and could not receive some sacraments.

That comment seemed to refer to women not being allowed to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders to become priests of the Catholic Church.

It also referenced same-sex couples not being allowed to contract marriage, which is also a sacrament.

"The Church is open to everyone but there are laws that regulate life inside the church," Francis explained to the reporter.

"According to the legislation, they cannot partake in (some) sacraments. This does not mean that it is closed. Each person encounters God in their own way inside the Church."

Ministers in the Catholic Church must accompany everyone with the patience and love of a mother. That includes those who don't conform to the rules, he explained.

Church law

The Catholic Church teaches that women cannot become priests because Jesus chose only men as his apostles.

Neither does the Church allow same-sex marriage or blessings for same-sex couples. Same-sex attraction is not sinful but same-sex acts are, it teaches.

However, Francis supports civil legislation giving same-sex couples rights in areas such as pensions, health insurance and inheritance.

A welcoming Church for everyone

During one WYD event, Francis said the Church has room for everyone - "including those who make mistakes, who fall or struggle".

He then led the crowd in a chant of "Todos, todos, todos!" (Everyone, everyone, everyone!).

"Who among us has not made a moral error at some point in their lives?" he asked.

Since the start of his papacy 10 years ago, Francis has consistently tried to make the Catholic Church more welcoming and less condemning.

He has sought to welcome all people, including members of the LGBT community, while not changing Church teachings which urge people with same-sex attraction to be chaste.

While pushing through a series of reforms, Francis has constantly walked a delicate line between appealing to more liberal believers and upsetting conservatives.

Among these reforms, he has given more roles to women, particularly in high-ranking Vatican positions.

Pope rejuvenated

On the plane, the Pope said he was rejuvenated by what he had seen at WYD Portugal.

About 1.5 million people attended his closing Mass at a park in Lisbon on Sunday.

Francis said he was impressed with both the size of the crowds at WYD and their behaviour.

He also told reporters who asked after his health, that he has been well since his surgery for an abdominal hernia in June.

Source

• US News

Gracias is one the eight-member Council of Cardinals Pope Francis established in 2013 to help with governing the Catholic Church and reforming its central administration.

Women may perform most of the roles currently undertaken by men, he maintains.

Noting that while it's true a woman may not hear confession, say Mass or administer the sacrament of Confirmation, "she can do practically everything else," Gracias says.

"Women can even be in charge of a parish according to Church law."

Speaking at a press conference about last month's Synod on the Amazon, Gracias said women's role in the Church was a frequently raised theme in discussions about how the Church can better respond to the Amazon region's pastoral needs.

Other representatives from the Amazon spoke of the need for concrete and tangible action.

They stopped short of addressing the question of women's ordination to the diaconate. It is anticipated this will be addressed in some form in the Synod's final document.

Bishop Ricardo Ernesto Centellas Guzmán of Bolivia is calling for a change in "mindset" when it comes to women in the Church.

"We all have to change our mentality to make sure participation of women becomes authentic and that it is equitable and fair," he says.

At the moment, the role of women who are involved in decision-making power is "very low," and in some places it is "almost invisible," he says.

"Things must change by starting with the smaller things."

Guzmán says work at parish level and in local communities is the place to start.

This includes pastoral councils that only give women consultation status, without any real decision making abilities.

Describing what he called a "walking Church," Guzmán says such a church includes "walking together and deciding together".

Otherwise "we will be limping together, not walking," he says.

Sister Roselei Bertoldo from Brazil says the Church structure often focuses on men when it comes to questions of authority.

"We want to become the protagonist in this process," she says.

"We will not keep silent. We want space, and we will start building a space."

Source

• Matters India
• Image: America Magazine
  

The Holy Father was celebrating mass on Saturday in Calabria, a mob-heavy region in southern Italy, when he deviated from his prepared remarks and announced that the mafia are excommunicated.

"Those who go down the evil path, as the Mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated," he said.

The thousands who had gathered underneath the hot sun cheered.

Calabria is home to the ‘Ndrangheta, a global drug trafficking syndicate.

Reports suggest that the group turns over $72 billion per year in the cocaine trade and uses that wealth to entice young people in the region—where the unemployment rate is 50% or higher—to work for it.

Last week Pope Francis also reaffirmed his position against recreational drug use and the drug trade.

Francis has condemned corporate financial sins throughout his papacy, particularly for their socio-economic consequences.

His pronouncement on Saturday yet again shows how seriously he takes those consequences.

"When adoration of the Lord is substituted by adoration of money, the road to sin opens to personal interest…Your land, which so beautiful, knows the signs of the consequences of this sin," Francis explained.

"The ‘ndrangheta is this: adoration of evil and contempt of the common good. This evil must be fought, must be expelled. It must be told no." Continue reading.

Source: Time

Image: VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images