Pope Francis has apologised for what has been taken as a vulgar, homophobic slur. He “never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he apologises to those who felt offended” says Holy See press office chief Matteo Bruni. The remarks are at odds with the pope’s track record to date. He has Read more
Catholic bullying is spreading. In the latest example of a bully is Minnesota Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire organisation threatened Commonweal magazine and theologian Massimo Faggioli over Faggioli’s April 22 essay, “Will Trumpism Spare Catholicism?” The commotion is too weird to behold. Sticks and stones It began like all schoolyard fights. Barron, or someone Read more
The Week of Christian Unity, the church celebrated this week, supports an unfashionable cause. It encourages the healing of divisions between churches. Divisions rule In culture, politics and religion, however, division provides most of the news of the day. The religious headlines emphasise fractures within churches. They tell of discrepancy between the professed values of Read more
Pope Francis seems to have changed his mind about female deacons. This week, in a CBS TV interview, he explained that ordaining women has never been on his agenda, but non-ordained female deacons could be. Female diaconate supported In February, one of Francis’ theological advisers, Sr Linda Pocher, said while the Church wasn’t considering women’s Read more
In the era of smartphones and social media when our attention is constantly drawn downwards, this weekend saw an event so spectacular it made much of the planet pause and look upwards to marvel at creation. It was a sign of God’s action and beauty in the world. Global wonder The past week has been Read more
The Vatican has updated its process for evaluating alleged visions of supernatural phenomena. As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, claims of weeping and bleeding statues, mystical visions and stigmata are officially just claims until proven otherwise. Furthermore – the faithful are never obliged to believe in these particular events, says head of the Read more
Pope Francis said in a CBS 60 Minutes news interview that his conservative critics have a “suicidal attitude”. It is one thing “to take tradition into account, to consider situations from the past, but quite another to be closed up inside a dogmatic box” Francis said. He was responding to a probe into his thoughts Read more
Dear Brother Priests, The International Meeting “Parish Priests for the Synod”, and the dialogue with all of you who have taken part, provide me with the opportunity to pray for the parish priests the world over. To all of you, I address these words with great affection. It is so obvious as to sound almost Read more
Grassroots synodality needs priests to inform it. Pope Francis knows this. He wants more synodality in the universal church. He wants clericalism replaced with pastoral care and equality, a katholisch.de article says. That has led the Pope to rethink his ways too. Francis has decided not to admonish or exhort priests any more. Those aren’t Read more
Germany — a nation whose history is entangled with the Catholic Church — has become a “mission country” its Bishops’ Conference says. Conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing says under half of Germany’s citizens still belong to Christian denominations. Evangelisation in Germany has been a central theme since the time of Pope St John Paul II Read more