Lay people and "women in particular must be given a more active role in the life of the church" Radcliffe said in an interview with Ordo Praedicatorum.

Radcliffe, who served as a spiritual assistant at last year's synod, also addressed the issue of clericalism. He highlighted Pope Francis' view that it "poisons the Church".

He stressed the importance of fostering an "attractive and positive theology of the ordained priesthood" to ensure active clergy support which he believes is currently insufficient.

The Dominican priest also called for theologians' full involvement in the synod's discussions.

"We need their help to recognise what is a healthy development of the doctrine and practice of the Church and what would be a deviation," said Radcliffe, a former Master of the Order (1992-2001).

Open differences are fine

Acknowledging the varied opinions on synodality, Radcliffe noted that while some view it as a waste of time, the Church is responsible for supporting the global synodal process.

"At the last session of the Synod, I felt that many of our brothers and sisters in the Global South did not feel fully heard. How can the Church become a sign of unity for the world, a community in which every culture is able to offer its gifts and be liberated from its biases?

"Open differences of opinion are therefore fine" he emphasised.

"Pope Francis is always saying 'The Holy Spirit is the protagonist of the Synod'. We cannot tell the Spirit to hurry up! We can beg God to hurry up, but grace works as He wills" Radcliffe commented.

The Synod on Synodality will conclude next autumn with a final plenary assembly at the Vatican.

To guide the discussions, a working document known as "Instrumentum Laboris" is expected to be prepared in the coming months.

Sources

English Katholisch

OrdoPraedicatorum

Chocolate's acceptance in the Catholic diet was clearly less the result of what theologians or canon lawyers did or said than of the decisions of ordinary clergy and laity who drank it regardless, says Australian Catholic University academic Dr Miles Pattenden.

There are lessons in that for other things that the Church would have Catholics abstain from, he says.

Chocolate has a history but, for Catholics, it also has a theology.

Long and learned treatises were written about whether it was licit to consume it - and when, writes Pattenden in a piece on History Today.

The Church was initially uncomfortable with its adherents drinking chocolate because the drink had been used as part of Aztec religious rituals. The Aztecs regarded chocolate as a gift of the gods and associated it with the human heart, and many Maya and Mixtec images of human sacrificial victims show those victims as anthropomorphic cacao pods.

Such ideas and images hardly endeared chocolate to the first friars who crossed the Atlantic to convert indigenous peoples to Christianity.

Some wondered whether it could be appropriate for Christians to drink something so intimately associated with idolatry and ritual murder.

On the other hand, some priests thought the use of chocolate in rituals could be effectively converted along with its users, and in some American indigenous communities chocolate replaced wine.

Another problem created by chocolate was how it should be treated in relation to laws of fasting and luxury, and the question of whether fasting religious ought to be allowed to drink chocolate was a matter of debate.

For more than 100 years the debate continued - was chocolate food or drink? Did it break the spirit of the laws against luxuries even if it was not technically forbidden?

An Augustinian theologian came out in favour of chocolate as a fast-busting refreshment, while an Inquisition lawyer disagreed.

The Dominicans were at the forefront of the campaign to limit it and sent a representative to Rome in 1577 to seek Pope Gregory XIII's opinions on a beverage he had neither seen nor tasted.

But eventually, in 1664, it was the Jesuits who had developed commercial interests in cacao production and distribution, and who secured a 16-page opinion from Cardinal Francesco Maria Brancaccio on the use of chocolate.

With the printing press now around 200 years old, the Jesuits immediately published the opinion, reprinting it at least four times in the next decade.

In the end, none of the Church's attempts to manage or restrict the consumption of chocolate was effective.

Canon lawyers' squabbles, the theological opinions and moral arguments all proved academic because chocolate consumption became so popular that the Church could do little to shape the behaviour of its faithful in the matter.

Heaven forbid it confused even the holy, with the Carmelites in Madrid seeking dispensation to drink chocolate behind the walls of their convent.

Pope Innocent refused the request and it was not until almost a century later that Pope Pius VI issued a definitive ruling that clerics could drink chocolate; albeit only away from Church premises.

Yet, by then, at least three 18th-century popes, Benedict XIII, Clement XII, and Benedict XIV, had been keen chocolate drinkers.

So while for a time the Church's attempts to manage or restrict the consumption of chocolate was effective, however, the processes surrounding its theological and canonical acceptance holds lessons for how the Church works in practice.

• The Church takes time to incorporate new things and ideas into its worldview.
• Those who set the Church's rules only have partial control over them.
• The acceptance of chocolate into the Catholic diet was less a result of theological and canonical opinions than it was of the decisions of ordinary clergy and laity who drank it.
• Despite all the moral and legal positioning, some popes have a broader view. It is said that when asked for permission to consume chocolate Pope Gregory burst into laughter at the absurdity of the request.

Pattenden suggests there are lessons in this for other things that the Church would have Catholics abstain from.

• Supplied: Dr Miles Pattenden, Senior Research Fellow in Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the Australian Catholic University.
• History Today: The Theology of Chocolate.

Sr Mary Anna Beard, OP, leaves for new pastures on Saturday, reported the Otago Daily Times.

"There is a sadness in our presence not being here, but the people will carry this charism on," Sr Mary Anna said.

"That's the way God works through communities. Our spirit will be carried on through the lives of these people."

Twelve members of the Dominican order attended Mass at St Patrick's in Arrowtown on April 3.

This was followed by a luncheon at the town's bowling club.

"I looked at the children at the service this morning and thought ‘Who's educating who?"' Sr Mary Anna said.

"They are so lovely, local kids whose parents want their faith nurtured.

"They might step away from it, then perhaps come back, who knows? But you plant the seeds. That's what's important."

Sr Mary Anna, originally from Invercargill, has lived in the resort for 10 years, living in Arrowtown, after serving in Asia.

"I simply devoured this place; the scenery, the people, just God's presence here."

Sr Mary Anna said she had not yet been told where her next posting would be.

"A neighbour said to me: ‘Isn't there a certain age where you don't have to move around?'

"But I said life is not about that. It is important to live fully, rather than think, now I'm 75 I better just sit down and start knitting."

St Joseph's Primary School principal Trisch Inder said Sr Mary Anna would be greatly missed.

"Her attitude about change is amazing.

"She says there's a reason for it and God knows what he's doing. We're all really sad that she's leaving, but it's part of her journey, too."

Sources

• Otago Daily Times
• Image: Waymarking.com

The reconstruction by a team of specialists used research based on the saint's skull.

The result was unveiled on November 3 in Lima, Peru.

The reconstruction revealed that the Dominican brother would have had trouble eating later in life, because he was missing most of his teeth.

When St Martin died, he had only two teeth, and would have had great difficulty chewing, said Dr Paulo Miamoto, pointing to the distortions in the saint's upper jaw.

Thousands of people packed the Basilica of the Most Holy Rosary in Lima to hear about the project.

The specialists gave details on how they were able to reconstruct - in digital 3D - the face of St Martin.

Designer Cicero Moraes explained that when he made the graphic representation of the saint's face, the result coincided closely with an old painting and a statue of the saint by unknown artists that are kept at St Dominic's convent.

The research was a collaborative effort between the NGO Ebrafol, St. Dominic's Convent and the universities of St Martin de Porres and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega in Peru.

The group has previously recreated the faces of St Rose of Lima and St Juan Macías.

The son of a Spanish nobleman and a black slave woman, St Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru in 1579.

A talented medical apprentice, he sought to enter the Dominican Order, but was initially prevented from becoming a religious brother due to a Peruvian law at the time that prevented people of mixed race from joining religious orders.

Instead, he lived with the community and did manual work, earning the nickname "the saint of the broom" for his diligence and care in cleaning the Domincans' quarters.

Eventually, he was permitted to join the order despite the Peruvian law, and he worked with the sick in the infirmary.

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Catholic News Agency

Master of the Dominicans between 1992 and 2001, Fr Radcliffe will serve as a consultor on the pontifical council.

The council is the Vatican body devoted to social justice and human rights.

Fr Radcliffe said justice, peace and mercy are at the centre of Francis's pontificate.

The Dominican said it is an honour to offer whatever support he could.

Fr Radcliffe helped launch a social justice institute at Blackfriars College at Oxford University, where he lives.

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