One of Britain’s leading lay Catholics has called on the Catholic Church to allow Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried. Lord Patten of Barnes cited the example of parents unable to receive the Eucharist when their children made their first Holy Communion. “I’ve been thinking about that recently because one of my grandsons is Read more
A French theologian has proposed an updated version of an ancient penitential tradition as a way forward for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. Dominican Thomas Michelet has suggested an updating of the ancient order of penitents (ordo paenitentium) for people who find themselves in a persistent condition of discrepancy from Chruch teaching. For several reasons, Read more
A German cardinal has warned not to expect dramatic changes in Church practice from October’s synod on the family. Cardinal Reinhard Marx told a Munich meeting the synod may not be ready to approve allowing divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion. The cardinal said “it will not be simple” to bring this about. Cardinal Read more
Cardinal Walter Kasper says Pope Francis wanted him to raise the question of Communion for the divorced and remarried, but this doesn’t mean papal approval. The cardinal has long promoted a proposal to allow divorced-and-civilly-remarried Catholics to receive Communion after a period of repentance. He raised the topic during a talk at a consistory of Read more
American Cardinal Raymond Burke has said Cardinal Walter Kasper wants to change the Church’s magisterial teaching. In an interview with German daily Die Welt, Cardinal Burke said “we are all bound by the Magisterium”. “But some synod fathers, above all Cardinal Kasper, want to change it.” Cardinal Kasper’s “merciful” solution for remarried divorcees who wish Read more
Honolulu diocese is planning to return to the traditional order of the sacraments of initiation because Confirmation of teens isn’t working well. In a pastoral letter, Bishop Larry Silva said Confirmation is “often experienced more as a graduation from the Church than as a free gift of God’s grace”. He cited Pope Francis’s 2013 description Read more
A German cardinal has said that those who insistently demand changes in the Church’s teaching on marriage are heretics, even if they are bishops. Cardinal Walter Brandmüller said this in an interview with LifesiteNews last month. The cardinal discussed the issue of Communion for those whose marriages are not recognised by the Church. He was Read more
Nearly 500 priests in England and Wales have signed a letter calling on the synod on the family to uphold the Church’s “unchanging” moral teaching. The letter also calls on the synod, to be held in October, to resist any moves to allow Communion for the divorced and remarried. A draft text of the letter Read more
Priests in England and Wales are being urged to sign a letter calling on the family synod to resist any move to allow Communion for the civilly remarried. The letter also calls on the synod to proclaim the Church’s “unchanging” moral teaching. The initiative comes from a group of dozen priests, dubbed by The Tablet Read more
All churches in a French diocese have been ordered to keep consecrated hosts in secure places, rather than tabernacles in some cases, after thefts. Bishop Pascal Roland of Bellay-Ars diocese told priests to leave tabernacles open to show they contained no valuable ciboria. But hosts could be left in a tabernacle if it is made Read more