The youth ministry is an important feature of the Church and the real meaning of “synodality” is well understood by young people, Pope Francis says. Young people have lessons they could teach the Church about synodality, Pope Francis says. “They have asked us in a thousand ways to walk alongside them — not behind them Read more
“Young people don’t feel particularly welcome” in many church communities, says Isabella McCafferty. She said young people are looking for an encounter with each other, with the church and with the sacraments, in ways that are relevant for them. It requires a willingness to “interlink with each other more and hold each other up.” McCafferty Read more
Pope Francis has published a new document dedicated to youth, bringing full-circle a process of consultation that began last year when the Vatican reached out to young people around the world ahead of an October summit of bishops on how to better approach them. Called Christus Vivit, the document is 180 pages long and takes Read more
Women have legitimate claims to seek more equality in the Catholic Church, Pope Francis says. The Church has to acknowledge a history of male domination and sexual abuse of women and children and it must repair its reputation among young people or risk becoming “a museum”, he says. Francis made these comments in the 50-page Read more
The youth synod’s final report resoundingly endorses ‘synodality’. This could be a positive step – once bishops have worked out what it means Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has often expressed the desire for a more “synodal” style of Church life, and commentators on Catholic affairs now increasingly speak of “synodality”. What do Read more
If you’re an American Catholic, or an Australian, Irish, German, Chilean, or from pretty much anyplace else scarred by clerical sexual abuse scandals, news that a global summit of Catholic bishops in 2018 could walk up to the brink of endorsing a “zero tolerance” policy, only to pull back at the last minute, may seem Read more
Did a just-concluded meeting of Catholic bishops here open the door to rethinking Catholic teaching on homosexuality? The question was unexpectedly left hanging in the wake of the final report of the Vatican’s synod on young people, which ended Sunday (Oct. 28). Produced in a unique collaboration between 249 bishops and some three dozen young Read more
The final document of the synod on young people has been released. It showcases a Church which listens, “walks with” people, gives women a role in decision-making and ends governance by issuing edicts from on high. The document says it is a “duty of justice” that women become involved in decision-making in the Church. It Read more
Catholic women say there’s a clerical stained glass ceiling in the Vatican, and they want to shatter it. They want to vote in major policy meetings. They want Pope Francis to deliver on his promise to put more women in senior positions in the Holy See’s administration. And some of them say they want to Read more
China’s one-child policy is leading to human trafficking, says Cardinal Charles Bo of Myanmar. Speaking at the current synod on youth taking place in Rome, Bo says during synod he was reflecting on the situation for young people in Myanmar. He says the position young people in Europe are in is “quite different” from young Read more