In 2001, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was a rapporteur for the summit of bishops at the Vatican — and he did not like what he saw. The Catholic Church had adopted a top-to-bottom approach that stripped local churches of any decision-making power, and the synod of bishops was reduced to nothing more than a stamp of Read more
“Some have likened the state of the Church to Shakespeare’s state of Denmark. “It is hardly an exaggeration”, says a Vietnamese-born former boat refugee, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse and Paramatta Bishop, Vincent Long. There’s an “unprecedented momentum for deep reform, the model of the Church based on clerical hegemony has run its course”, Read more
There are many aspects to reform in the church. Different people and different reform groups, have their own take on what, or who, needs reform the most urgently. I must admit the recent article by Antonio Spadaro on Pope Francis has prompted me to think more about it.[1] I would like to share some of Read more
A new group called Concerned Catholics Tasmania is calling for a more accountable and transparent Church. “There’s a culture of unaccountable clericalism where the power of the Archbishop and clergy in general is really exercised with very little consultation and accountability to the people that the church is meant to serve,” Board member Carey McIver Read more
The Church’s relevance in today’s society is diminishing, says Bishop Heiner Wilmer of Hildersheim, Germany. Last year, a record 272,771 Catholics in Germany formally left the Church. While Wilmer is concerned there could be a further drop in church attendance due to the coronavirus crisis, his main concern is the Church’s apparent irrelevance in today’s Read more
German bishops are looking for ways to halt the massive exodus from the Church in Germany caused by the clerical abuse crisis. The bishops’ conference launched a two-year “synodal procedure” for church reform last weekend, on the first Sunday of Advent. Working together with the lay Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), special synodal candles Read more
Theologians in Germany were recently invited to speak to the nation’s Catholic hierarchy about the clergy abuse crisis and they used the rare opportunity to chastise the more than 60 bishops for being too slow in pushing for major Church reform. The theologians were given an entire “study day” to address the German Bishops’ Conference Read more
Bishop Charles Morerod, who is recognized as one the leading intellectuals among the Catholic hierarchy of Europe, recently told La Croix “the Church reforms itself under the influence of seemingly adverse forces.” The 57-year-old Swiss Dominican, head of the Diocese of Lausanne-Genève-Fribourg since 2011, was referring to the sexual abuse crisis and how it is Read more
Nathanaël Lamataki, a New Caledonia University student (4th-year Law) from Païta parish, is the official representative of the CEPAC Youth at the Bishops Synod. He is pictured above in St Peter’s Square, on the opening day, with a diocesan priest of New Caledonia, Fr Jean-Paul Pouillet, who is having a 3-week break in France. “A great honour Read more
A lay coalition in an American archdiocese has drawn up a list of potential successors to an embattled archbishop, who is being called upon to resign. The Catholic Coalition for Church Reform in St Paul-Minnesapolis has identified seven nominees to replace embattled Archbishop John Nienstedt. During the first half of November, an “election-like process” will Read more