Transcript from Rita Cassella Jones Lecture at Fordham of September 17, 2024. As you know, I belonged to the initial Pontifical Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women. We were named in August 2016 and first met in November of that year. I traveled to Rome several days in advance of the scheduled Read more
Although Pope Francis took it off the agenda, the appointment of bishops is still being discussed privately by members of the synod. The Pope took this and a number of issues off the agenda because he wanted the synod to focus on synodality and not be distracted by controversial and complicated issues. Discussions about bishops Read more
More than a century and a half ago, Christian missionaries from the West brought the Gospel message of Jesus Christ to the peoples of Africa. One of the inherent weaknesses of this evangelisation process was the imposition of Western ways of believing and thinking on the African people of God. However, since every church is Read more
Is the Church in decline? Some might draw that conclusion looking at data from the 2023 census. Reporting the results, one media headline said, “More than half the population has no religion”. It went on saying that the proportion of people with ‘no religion’ has increased from 48.2 per cent in 2018 to 51.6 per Read more
Most of us have grown up in a highly centralised European “Catholic” Church, and so we feel uncomfortable with many of the changes being promoted by Pope Francis. After his visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore last month, Francis was heard to remark that “some people are still too Eurocentric” when they Read more
Bishop Anthony Randazzo’s address, delivered as President of the Federation of Catholic Bishops conferences of Oceania to the synod media on October 6th, 2024, brought to light several crucial concerns. The significance of his address cannot be overstated, as it sheds light on key issues that demand our attention not only around his two niche Read more
As the last session of the Synod on Synodality continues its second week, an interview published on Tuesday gives more insight on Pope Francis’s vision of the role of synodality in the Church today. It highlights some of the inherent tensions between the use of synods and the power of the papacy in modern Catholicism. Read more
Since the COVID-19 crisis, there have been increasing concerns about the deterioration of mental health among teenagers and young adults. From surveys to reports, the statistics on young people’s mental health seem to depict a generation in distress—sad, anxious and discouraged. Professor Ludovic Gicquel, head of the child and adolescent psychiatry department at Laborit Hospital Read more
It is widely acknowledged healthy spirituality is good for mental health. Can the same be said for religion, Graham Redding asks. Awareness of the contribution that spirituality can make to health has come a long way. Spiritual care Aotearoa’s healthcare system adopts a holistic approach, often encapsulated in the Māori model of health, te whare Read more
This month, Yale University Press released “The Widening of God’s Mercy: Sexuality Within the Biblical Story,” a highly anticipated book coauthored by preeminent New Testament scholar Richard Hays and his son, Christopher, himself a respected Old Testament scholar. In this book they seek to make a biblical case for same-sex relationships and marriage. Ending the Read more