Developing and using your conscience is of prime importance when working your way around moral questions, Pope Francis told the Italian Bishops Conference on Saturday. His comments aimed to help the bishops explore their conference theme: “The Gospel of Love between Conscience”. Drawing on Amoris Laetitia (AL), his 2015 post-synodial document, Francis defended AL’s stance Read more
An Italian Jesuit says Pope Francis thinks the Church can no longer issue one general rules that apply to whole categories of people. Jesuit Fr. Antonio Spadaro who was one of the first people to interview Francis as pope in 2013, told a conference of bishops and theologians considering how to implement Amoris Laetitia that Read more
Pope Francis has reappointed Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke to the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s highest court. Burke had earlier served as a prefect of the court for six years. It is nearly three years since Francis removed him. Over that time Francis has removed or failed to reappoint Burke as a member of the Vatican’s Read more
Pope Francis may have indirectly answered the four “dubia” cardinals who challenged him last year over Amoris Laetitia, his 2016 teaching on family life. In a question and answer session with members of the Jesuit order in Colombia earlier this month, Francis referred to the dubia, saying: “I want to repeat clearly that the morality Read more
Some conservative Catholics say parts of Amoris Laetitia amount to heresy and have sent Pope Francis a medieval “filial correction”. Pope Francis published Amoris Laetitia last year after two synods on the Family. Sixty-two clergy, theologians, academics and a bishop from the Society of St.Pius X – a Catholic break-away cult – have written to him Read more
Pope Francis has updated the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family. One of the most obvious changes Francis has made is to the Institute’s name. It is now called the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for the Sciences of Marriage and the Family. Francis says the Institute needs Read more
Carlo Caffarra is the second of the four so-called dubia cardinals to die. He was 79. Caffarra was an Italian moral theologian. He, along with the Cardinals Raymond Burke, Walter Brandmüller and Joachim Meisner (who died in early July) publicly questioned Pope Francis’s teaching in his encyclical, Amoris Laetitia. The four cardinals’ questions, called “dubia”, Read more
Same-sex marriage is alright. That’s the message put out by two of Australia’s elite Jesuit schools, St Ignatius’ College, Riverview and Xavier College. Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart is declining to comment on remarks made by the schools last week that seemed to support gay marriage. The Australian Bishops Commission for Catholic Education is also Read more
I am not a moral theologian or a canon lawyer, so I do not feel qualified to comment on the content of Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis’s controversial document on the family that includes a cautious opening to Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried. Being caught up in busy parish life, I also don’t have the time Read more
Cardinal Raymond Burke, says it’s “necessary” to correct Pope Francis’s teachings in Amoris Laetitia on marriage and the family. Since Francis has not answered the five questions, Burke and three other cardinals put to him last June, he has developed plan to correct Francis’s teachings. “It seems to me that the essence of the correction Read more