Personal attacks seem to have replaced conversation these days, Cardinal Wilton Gregory says. The top US cardinal (pictured) says meaningful dialogue is stifled because so many people enter conversations with their minds already made up. “One of the things that would foster better listening skills among young people – among all of us – is Read more
The first assembly of the Synod on Synodality saw a number of world firsts, perhaps none more surprising than the inclusion of 54 women as voters in what had, until now, been a synod exclusively of bishops. One of them was Sydney’s Professor Renée Köhler-Ryan, National Head of the School of Philosophy and Theology at Read more
We are now in the “between time”—when we can reflect on the synthesis of the first session, and prepare ourselves for the second session. I anticipate that the secretariat for the synod and the synod office of the [U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops] will be sending some resource material for us to use with our Read more
The first session of the Synod of Bishops’ assembly on the future of the Church has brought to the surface the gap that exists between Pope Francis’ idea of synodality and how some Catholic theologians understand it. Those Catholic bishops even include those theologians that have enthusiastically welcomed his pontificate as a much-awaited turn in Read more
“The criteria of Catholic ecclesiology have been lost, (…) it is not said openly, but the path that has been taken is that of Protestantisation”. Cardinal Gerard L. Müller’s assessment of the Synod on Synodality, which has just ended, is extremely worrying. The Daily Compass meets the Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine Read more
Blessings for same-sex couples and divorced and remarried couples in Germany’s Speyer diocese are now officially ‘allowed’. In his letter to priests, deacons and lay pastoral workers last week, Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann officially sanctioned the blessings. The same-sex blessings the Speyer diocese gave in the Speyer churches could also be given to remarried couples, he Read more
Following the closing Mass of the first session of the Synod on Synodality in Rome this October, Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago (pictured left), spoke with America’s Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell. Cupich told O’Connell about his experience of the meeting and the synod’s synthesis document, published Oct. 29. This interview has been edited Read more
While fallout from Pope Francis’s Oct. 4-29 Synod of Bishops on Synodality continues to fuel Catholic debate in the West, arousing disappointment in some quarters and cautious optimism in others, it’s different for most churchgoers in Brazil, Churchgoers in Brazil, the world’s largest Catholic nation, frankly don’t seem to have paid much attention to the Read more
For Pope Francis, the first session of the Synod on Synodality was never about resolving the controversial issues facing the Church. Even so, there were those who hoped for forward motion on married priests, women deacons and LGBTQ issues. They will be disappointed by the final report issued by the synod. For Francis it was Read more
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, voiced his apprehensions regarding the Vatican Synod on Synodality. At the heart of Müller’s concerns lies the worry that some changes, in his view, conflict with established Scripture and Tradition. Müller specifically cited the potential acceptance of homosexuality, the ordination Read more