The Lorient tribunal on April 3 ruled in favour of the nun, Sabine de la Valette, known at the time as Mother Marie Ferréol. The court issued a scathing denunciation of the secretive process the Vatican used to kick her out of the order, the Dominicans of the Holy Spirit, after an internal investigation.

The case is highly unusual because it represented a secular civilian court essentially determining that the Vatican's in-house canonical procedures grossly violated the nun's fundamental rights.

In a statement on Saturday, the Vatican said it had formally protested to the French embassy that it had received no notification of any such verdict. However, the ruling nevertheless represented a "grave violation" of the right to religious freedom.

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The bishops met on 18 November with the heads of Vatican dicasteries to discuss the Synodal Path.

The German bishops' conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics launched the path in 2019 in response to the clerical abuse scandal.

The meeting, at the end of the bishops' "ad limina" visits to Rome, was chaired by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state. Formal presentations were made by Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.

Ladaria focused his remarks on Pope Francis' letter to German Catholics in 2019 about the Synodal Path and on how the local church and the universal church flourish together.

"If they find themselves separated from the entire ecclesial body, they weaken, rot and die. Hence the need always to ensure that communion with the whole body of the church is alive and effective," the pope had written.

Ladaria acknowledged how, because of the abuse crisis, many Catholics "feel deeply betrayed by men and women of the Catholic Church" and "no longer have any trust in us bishops.

"It goes without saying that everything that can be done to prevent further abuse by clerics against minors must be done, but this must not lead to reducing the mystery of the church to a mere institution of power or to a prior consideration of the church as a structurally abusive organisation that must be brought under the control of super controllers as soon as possible."

Ladaria also objected to the Synodal Path's treatment of sexuality, which gives the "general impression" that in church teaching on sexuality "there is almost nothing that can be salvaged, that it all must be changed.

"How can one not think of the impact this has on many faithful who listen to the voice of the church and try to follow its indications in their lives," he asked the bishops.

Both Ladaria and Ouellet expressed concern that the entire Synodal Path process has eclipsed the role of the bishops as successors of the apostles, called to guide the local churches and "authenticate the witness of the other disciples of the Lord".

Ouellet also praised the seriousness with which the church in Germany was trying to confront the abuse crisis and its attendant crisis of trust, and he lauded the involvement of the laity in the Synodal Path, although he said they seemed to "have played an equal if not preponderant role".

While saying he knows the bishops do not want to create a schism and are committed to making the preaching of the Gospel more credible in Germany, he said much of the Synodal Path seems to have responded more to "very strong cultural and media pressure" than to the Gospel.

Ouellet also told the bishops he found "surprising" the attitude taken by the Synodal Path "toward the definitive decision of St John Paul II concerning the impossibility for the Catholic Church to proceed with the ordination of women priests".

Questioning that decision, he said, "reveals a problem of faith with regard to the magisterium and a certain intrusive rationalism" that has more to do with personal opinions rather than faith.

And, he said, along with other questionable positions adopted by the members of the Synodal Path, the position on women's ordination "undermines the responsibility of the bishops" to guide the church and "appears to be strongly influenced by pressure groups".

Sources

National Catholic Reporter

The Pillar

CathNews New Zealand

"I think my knees were knocking," now-Archbishop Wester of Santa Fe, N.M., told America's "Inside the Vatican" podcast.

The Catholic bishop said his parishioners told him, "‘You don't look very good, Father!'

"Well, I don't feel very good right now!' Wester replied.

It was kind of a shockeroo."

Archbishop Wester's story is not unusual.

Most bishops are appointed without ever knowing they were being considered for the job and are caught by surprise when chosen.

The selection process for appointing Catholic bishops is perhaps the most secretive hiring process in the world, shielded from both the candidate and the priests and people he will serve.

Those who are consulted about possible candidates are required to return the list of questions they've been sent, because even the questions, which reveal no particulars about a candidate, are protected under the Vatican's top confidentiality classification: the "pontifical secret."

There is a joke among the hierarchy that "a pontifical secret is a secret you don't tell the pope," but the secrecy around this process has been chipped away in recent years.

On this episode of "Inside the Vatican," working from a copy of the revised survey that he obtained, America's Vatican correspondent Gerard O'Connell summarizes some of the questions that the Vatican is now asking about possible bishops.

This isn't the first time details of the secret questionnaire have been revealed: In 1984, Thomas J. Reese, S.J., then the editor of America magazine, obtained the survey that the nuncio sends out to gather information on candidates. (1984 Article and survey is different to today's version.)

He published it, in full, in America.

The biggest blow to the secrecy around how Catholic bishops are appointed, though, came from the Vatican itself.

Last fall, it took the unprecedented step of revealing how former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was removed from the college of cardinals and from the priesthood for abusing minors, managed to rise through the ranks despite rumours circling about his sexual misconduct. Continue reading

Sources

• Inside the Vatican - Gerard O'Connell
• Image: Cardinal Marc Oullet Prefect for the Congregation of Bishops

He should rank alongside early Christianity's great thinkers, Cardinal Marc Ouellet says.

Ouellet, who is the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and a respected theologian, told the 20,000-strong crowd at the canonistaion that Newman is eligible for the title "Doctor".

This is because of his contribution to developing Christian teaching.

Doctors of the Church are saints who have helped deepen understanding of the faith.

Only 36 people (32 men and four women) have been granted this title in Christian history.

"It seems to me that the English master [Newman] ranks among such Doctors of the Faith as Athanasius and Augustine, whose lives were confessions of faith at the cost of great sacrifice, and who provided decisive insights on either its content or its act," Oullet said.

"The depth of this man of God and the place he now occupies in Catholicity, make us aware of the void his absence would have left if he had not been."

Oullet told the crowd Newman's legacy encourages the unity of Christians, in an "ecumenical impetus towards reconciliation".

A conversion is required "from all confessions, starting from the Roman Church, which must be open to eventual transformations that can clear the path towards unity, so desired by the Lord," he said.

Newman spent years as an Anglican priest and theologian where he became the leader of the Oxford movement, which sought to return the Church of England to its patristic sources.

"It is not a question of using Newman's figure to depict the return to the fold," Oullet said.

"Rather, his life and his theology challenge us to carefully examine the internal difficulties of reconciliation."

Newman saw faith as being an emotional "personal encounter," as well as "a rational adherence which involves a unique certainty as well as a non-delegable responsibility," Oullet said.

As a theeologian, scholar and poet, he was regarded as one of the most influential figures of the Victorian age.

He is still highly regarded in Rome for his prophetic theology which paved the way for the Second Vatican Council, in 1962-65.

His work on how the Church's understanding of divine revelation deepens over time and call for greater involvement of the laity saw him run into opposition in Rome during his lifetime. Today, his ideas are part of the Church's mainstream.

Prince Charles also spoke at the canonisation ceremony. He described Newman as a "fearless defender of the truth".

Source

• The Tablet
• The Guardian
• Image: The Irish Times