Many women at a US Women of the Church conference have expressed pain, frustration and hurt by experiences of sexism in the Church. The Women of the Church conference was for Catholic women leaders. It took place recently. All was not bleak, as highlighted by Women of the Church keynote speaker, theology Professor Kristin Colberg Read more
The question of women, ministry and leadership echoed loudly in parishes and bishops’ assemblies when Pope Francis called two years ago for a worldwide discussion among rank-and-file Catholics about the Church’s main challenges and issues. The question is resounding more loudly as the summit of bishops and lay Catholics known as the Synod on Synodality, Read more
What do Cardinal Gerhard Müller and the Reverend James Martin SJ have in common? They are both members of the Roman Catholic clergy who tend to be polarising figures in the Church. The first is a hero of traditionalists, while the second is a champion of those who want reform. And now the German cardinal Read more
It has been a little more than a year since I started brushing up on my Italian. An unlikely invitation had landed in my Whatsapp messages, and yet again, my plans to spend a few months writing a new book were interrupted. This time the invitation was to help with the work toward the Synod Read more
Pope Francis has appointed a like-minded Argentinian to lead the doctrine office at the Holy See. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith is one of the Vatican’s most influential departments. Known as an influential papal theological adviser, Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez will take up his appointment in September this year. That’s just a Read more
Theologians and Catholic Church reform groups are overjoyed lay men and women will be full voting members at the upcoming Synod of Bishops. This is the first time any Pope has allowed lay people to do this. It is a substantial development, say several prominent experts. The changes “make the synod more rooted in the Read more
The validity of the Vatican’s Oceania Synod Continent phase of Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality is being questioned by the report itself. “The Vatican’s fictional construct, a new continent it calls Oceania, may have been a step too far” a seasoned observer of Church politics told CathNews. The Vatican’s “Oceania Continent” occupies 33% of the Read more
It is not new for Catholics to wield the authority of pope as a weapon against their perceived ideological opponents — as long as the pope is in their corner. For decades the Catholic right referred to the positions of Popes St John Paul II and Benedict XVI; now the Catholic left points to Pope Read more
Representatives of the four Catholic bishops’ conferences in Oceania have approved the region’s final response to the Continental Stage working document published last October for the Synod of Bishops for a Synodal Church. The Oceania response will be sent to the Synod Secretariat in Rome before this week’s deadline, and be published during the week Read more
Pope Francis has been upbeat and future-focused during his tenth anniversary this week. Instead of cataloguing and discussing his past decade’s wins and losses, Francis has been speaking of his hopes for the future. “It’s not for me to decide what I’ve achieved”, he told media when questioned. “The Lord will do the appraisal when Read more