Cardinal-elect Víctor Manuel Fernández, set to lead the Vatican’s chief doctrinal office, has expressed his readiness for theological debates, emphasising their role in deepening the Church’s grasp of the Gospel. In an interview with the National Catholic Register, Fernández (pictured) acknowledged that while the core doctrine remains unchanged and the Gospel is immutable, the Church Read more
A liturgy row is threatening to split India’s Syro-Malabar Church. The Eastern-rite Church in the southern Indian Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese is refusing to say the synod-approved Mass. The refusal is in open defiance of a pontifical delegate’s directives. The liturgy row The archdiocese’s priests and the laity want celebrants to face the congregation throughout the Mass. Read more
The Catholic Church in the US is undergoing a “silent schism”. Some American Catholics are just “sitting out the papacy of Francis”, the Tablet newspaper reports. Some bishops are using social media to inflame “a uniquely toxic situation”, author and theologian Dr Dawn Eden Goldstein (pictured) says. Speaking to the Tablet about “The Church and Read more
A schism with the Vatican is possible in the Syro-Malabar Catholic archdiocese in the southern Indian state of Kerala. The priests and laity are demanding a liturgy variant status to their traditional Eastern rite Syro-Malaba Mass. Regardless of the outcome, they’ll do what they think is right, even if it means splitting with the body Read more
The Vatican has warned the German Catholic Church of the potential for a schism if it pursues new moral or doctrinal norms during its Synodal Way process. Members of the Synodal Way, a group made up of equal numbers of German bishops and lay Catholics, meet regularly. In February, they called on the Catholic Church Read more
A schism that developed in 2018 over same-sex marriage blessings in the NZ Anglican church is being further inflamed by what is seen as meddling from Sydney’s ultra-conservative diocese. The Sydney diocese, which opposes same-sex marriage blessings, has indicated to the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand & Polynesia (ACANZP) that organised religion in New Zealand Read more
Every Christian must preserve the communion of the Church; it does not mean uniformity but rather a way of living with differences. So says Father Sylvain Brison, ecclesiologist, assistant professor at the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic Institute of Paris. Brison unpacks the pope’s comments about schism in the Church with Anne-Bénédicte Hoffner. Are we Read more
Europe is sick. Despite its apparent material success, a spiritual sickness pervades it that politics will not cure. Pope Francis shares this view. In the United States, the pope may be known as a sharp critic of President Trump, but he has also been vocal about the trends that have led to populist backlashes in Read more
Pope Francis spoke openly for the first time this week about the possibility of a US Catholic conservative-led schism. His frank comments were made during a press conference while he was flying home after visiting Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius. There have been many schisms in the Church’s 2,000-year history, he noted. Although he said he Read more
I have a modest proposal for the U.S. bishops’ conference. They should scrap their entire agenda for the upcoming November plenary and address a single question: To what degree are the seeds of a de facto schism being sown within the U.S. church? Last week, a friend called my attention to a website called “Faithful Read more