The pope set aside his prepared text during his address and spoke candidly to the audience.

Using an analogy, Francis said "All religions are a path trying to reach God".

"They are like different languages in order to arrive at God, but God is God for all" he said.

"Since God is God for all, then we are all children of God."

No religious fights

In a moment of reflection, Pope Francis warned against religious division.

"If you start to fight, ‘my religion is more important than yours, mine is true and yours isn't', where will that lead us?" he asked.

"There's only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sheik, Muslim, Hindu, Christian and they are different paths [to God]."

When at war, first strategy is to take out communication

The pope's address was directed mainly at the youth, encouraging them to actively promote interfaith dialogue that maintains peace and understanding between religions.

"For interreligious dialogue among young people, it takes courage because youth is the time of courage in our lives" he said.

"You can also have this courage and use it for things that don't help you, or you can use it to move forward and engage in dialogue.

"One thing that helps a lot is to respect dialogue.

"I want to tell you something historical: every dictatorship in history, the first thing they do is take away dialogue" he said, urging the young people to be brave in engaging with those of different faiths.

"Why do I say this? Because overcoming these things helps in your interfaith dialogue since it is built upon respect for others. This is very important.

"If you dialogue as young people, you will dialogue more as adults, as citizens, as politicians" he said.

Giving further encouragement, Francis said "Do not be afraid", noting that fear is a dictatorial attitude that "can paralyse you".

Singapore: A religious mosaic

According to Pew Research Center, Singapore is ranked as one of the most diverse countries in the world in terms of religion.

Approximately 26% of Singaporeans identify as Buddhist, 18% as Muslim, 17% as Christian and 8% as Hindu. An additional 22% of Singaporeans do not identify with a specific religion.

Controversial comments

While the pope's message was welcomed by many, it has also sparked controversy among conservative Catholics.

Some fear that his remarks undermine Catholic doctrine, particularly the belief in Christ as the sole saviour of the world, and could discourage missionary efforts.

Despite this, the pope remained steadfast in his call for respect and dialogue.

Sources

• Vatican News
• Crux
• CNA

Bishops, priests, and laypeople will vote on new consultation and decision-making processes in the Catholic Church.

The working paper, Instrumentum Laboris, is the crucial guideline for this process and is expected to be available soon.

The Synod Secretariat announced at the end of June that the working paper should be available from the beginning of July.

It will serve as the basis for the reform debates needed across the Universal Church, and the decisions made then will serve as a foundation for the Pope's decisions that follow.

Once the Working Document is available, it will have undergone several consultation stages with bishops' conferences across the globe.

Hopefully, the bishop's consultation reflects their local consultations with parishioners and clergy.

From June 4 to 16, twenty theologians from four continents gathered in Rome to compile the Working Document, based on feedback from more than 100 bishops' conferences, so it is clear that not every bishop's conference has taken the opportunity to participate.

In addition, the consultation material was sent to around seventy people worldwide who represent the diversity of the positions.

This group included priests, religious, laypeople, and theologians.

The last part of the preparation is reviewing the current draft document by the Council of Cardinals. After the Synod Council reviews the Cardinal's feedback, the final draft version of the document will be submitted to the Pope for approval.

Consultation and feedback

Consultation with parishioners, religious and a wide range of church groups was crucial in the first round of the synodal process.

Various methods were used, and specific vital sometimes challenging ideas emerged internationally, such as

• Gay rights and participation in the Church,
• priestly celibacy and lifestyles, and
• the admission of women to the ordained priesthood.

In many countries, these issues were backgrounded by the clergy abuse scandal and the episcopal avoidance of responsibility over many decades.

The lack of clergy feedback prompted this year's meeting with parish priests from April 28 28 to May 2 near Rome.

This meeting's focus was parish life, with particular attention on mission, participation and discernment as aspects of parish life and renewal.

The feedback from the English-speaking participants (Parish Priests for the Synod - Group 7 Report, April 30 2024) reported the participants "renewed understanding that the Synodal Church is the community of all believers open to transformation and change, which happens through the reciprocal accompaniment and confident acceptance of the journey we are already walking with the Risen Christ and each other."

Where this is true, the practice of synodality, as the shared participation and collaborative voice of all the baptised in the life of the Church, will go a long way toward fulfilling Vatican II's liturgical precept of Active Participation, which was affirmed in the Novus Ordo but missing in the performance of the 1962 Rite.

The parish priests wrote of their "excitement" in participating "in Christ's saving mission present and fulfilled in a renewed culture/mindset, attentive and inclusive of all people, their diverse gifts, needs, cultural backgrounds and life situations."

Here is an apparent reference to the purpose of the synodal process and an antidote to a harking back to a past ideological or idealised age that is counterproductive to the spread of the Gospel today.

Synodal consultation

The synodal process's use of consultation as a critical platform for ecclesial change is only sometimes well-defined.

Synodal consultation has four characteristics:

• dialogue
• discernment
• decision-making, and
• communication, which are elements in the more extensive process of ecclesial change.

In his work, 'I and Thou,' Martin Buber describes dialogue as the prerequisite of an authentic relationship between people, humanity, and God.

Buber characterises "true dialogue" as open, honest and mutual. Vatican II also emphasised dialogue with the world, other Christians and political authorities.

In the English translations, the Latin words colloquium, meaning discussion and dialogus, meaning dialogue these terms became fused.

Physicist David Bohm wrote of dialogue as a conversation between people that explores their assumptions on meaning, values, society and communication.

In this process, the participants do not debate but seek to listen and consider what they hear.

An authentic dialogue starts with a question and the intention of discovering the answer.

Dialogue is inclusive and, at times, time-consuming.

Finding the answer to the question in dialogue also means that the answer is not a single given but a response to various influences.

Dialogical answers are not set in stone but will be further discussed as situations and needs change.

Discernment, as in the Ignatian concept, is a process of contemplation, meditation and prayer, individually and in groups, to consider if the one calling to change is the Holy Spirit.

Discernment is judging between right and wrong, truth and error.

It involves making careful distinctions, not only in significant matters but also in seemingly insignificant areas. It concerns paying attention to the small things, inner peace or disquiet, and external realities as positive or negative influences.

Discernment enables an individual or a group to evaluate information, test it against God's Word, and make wise choices that honour God and, in doing so, guide us in the journey of holiness.

The first phase of the synodal process firmly focused on discernment, which surprised many participants.

Still, in preparing for October's Working Document, there has been very little communal discernment at the parish and diocesan levels.

Synodal decision-making is about power-sharing, but unfortunately, these are not always free from power games!

Consultative decision-making models in the Church tend to drift between being

• a consultative conversation with the laity and priests, where the bishop listens to the opinions of others and then makes his decision, and
• a consultative decision-making process, where the bishop and others jointly discern, decide and share the responsibility for the decision's outcomes.

The tension is between a pastoral view of the world and a clericalist one.

Parishioners and clergy get caught in the middle of this process, as the common-sense world says the clergy are not skilled to make all parish decisions, and the clericalist view says that clergy are ordained to make decisions.

In New Zealand, this is further confused by the discrepancy between the parliamentary establishment of the dioceses, where all the goods and wealth of a diocese and its parishes are invested in the person of the bishop and the Church's Canon Law that separates the rights, ownership and decision-making between a bishop, a parish priest, a diocese and a parish.

Consequently, decision-making through power-sharing is complex in highly clericalised, hierarchical institutions such as the Latin Rite and Catholic Church, where so much of the historical lived Tradition.

The dogmatic formulations support a particular worldview where decision-making is a function of the ordained clergy.

It is not easy when partners are not seen as equal, and in this context, shared decision-making based on shared power almost always fails.

Consultation is a form of communication.

Communication is about sharing information and providing opportunities to include voices.

It is more than just giving information about events; it is about engagement.

Communication is the first job of any management group in the Church; indeed, the sacraments themselves are forms of communication that we revere, but they are, as the Second Vatican Council teaches authoritatively, not the only form of communication.

Synodal communication processes seek to communicate and engage the baptised through dialogue, discernment and decision-making in difficult conversations about how we live our Christianity in our current, unique contexts.

Communication opens up conversations on complex issues but does not resolve them or shut down irritating conversations.

Communication is about giving people a voice and allowing different opinions to be heard, except those opinions framed in hate language or ideological rhetoric.

According to Cardinal Grech, Secretary General of the Synod, the purpose of the synodal process is "not about solving individual problems" in each country or every instance.

Instead, it is about achieving synodality as a form of being Church.

The object of the exercise is to move away from being a clericalist or clericalising church to a church that talks and decides together.

Thus, a Synodal Church doesn't want to be a clericalist church.

As a result, its management functions (parish, diocese, bishops' conference) also want to be consultative at their core.

This means reshaping decision-making, management, communication, and pastoral dialogue processes to reflect this change.

Where this is possible (where it is wanted), it will provide what Cardinal Grech describes as "a dynamic of pastoral conversion."

Consultation frees us from the bind of "knowledge is power", and that power belongs to some and not others because they have the power to know and decide.

• Dr Joe Grayland is a Liturgical Theologian and is currently a visiting professor at the University of Tübingen (Germany). He has been a priest of the Diocese of Palmerston North for nearly thirty years. His latest book is: Catholics. Prayer, Belief and Diversity in a Secular Context (Te Hepara Pai, 2021).

The meeting sought to understand the challenges transgender people face. It included discussions with transgender individuals, their families, theologians, medical professionals and church ministry workers.

The move came against the backdrop of increasing state-based legislation and Catholic diocesan policies that critics argue negatively affect transgender individuals.

The meeting was organised by New Ways Ministry, a Catholic LGBTQ advocacy group.

New Ways Ministry, co-founded in 1977 by Loretto Sr Jeannine Gramick, has been at the forefront of advocacy for LGBTQ Catholics, despite facing historical opposition from the Vatican.

A step toward understanding

The day-and-a-half-long event, closed to both the public and press, sought to equip bishops with insights that would assist in enhancing pastoral care within their dioceses.

According to participants, the initiative reflects the varied reception and treatment of transgender individuals across Catholic dioceses and parishes nationwide.

Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky highlighted the consensus among attendees about the legitimacy of transgender experiences.

"After hearing from medical experts and from transgender people, we are not talking about something that is fabricated. People have a right to be called as they wish to be called" he said.

Engaging in dialogue

The meeting, attended by some 40 individuals, marks a significant moment of engagement between church leaders and the LGBTQ community.

"We've all encountered pastoral situations related to transgender persons and for the most part felt inadequately prepared to deal with them" Stowe noted, underscoring the bishops' eagerness to attend and learn.

This gathering is the second of its kind following a previous event in January 2023 that focused on LGBTQ issues more broadly.

Moving forward

Participants shared their stories and experiences at the meeting, providing a platform for open and heartfelt dialogue.

Dominican Fr Charles Bouchard, a previous attendee, lauded the meetings as a "safe space" for bishops to discuss and explore these complex issues candidly.

While the meeting did not aim to produce a unified statement or theological plan, it represents a significant step in the church's ongoing efforts to engage more inclusively with LGBTQ individuals.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops continues to revise its ethical directives for Catholic health care institutions, with expectations to align closely with doctrinal stances on gender-affirming treatments.

Source

• NCR

In his historic first visit to Mongolia, the pope spoke to about 2,000 people at Ulaanbaatar's Steppe Arena and emphasised God's presence in difficult times.

Francis drew parallels with life in Mongolia, where about 30% of the land is desert.

"It is precisely in those deserts that we hear the good news that we are not alone in our journey; those times of dryness cannot render our lives barren forever; our cry of thirst does not go unheard," he said at Mass on the final day of his four-day visit.

In an evocative homily, Pope Francis captured the attention of both locals and the international community.

The pontiff used Mongolia's rugged landscapes and nomadic traditions as a metaphor to discuss the universal human journey towards happiness, love and spiritual fulfilment.

Drawing a parallel between Mongolia's arid steppes and the sometimes barren spiritual journey people face, Pope Francis proclaimed "In a spiritual sense, all of us are 'God's nomads,' pilgrims in search of happiness, wayfarers thirsting for love."

Speaking from the heart, Francis acknowledged the challenging aspects of spiritual life, stating that it can often feel as desolate as a hot desert.

He reassured the faithful that God provides the "clear, refreshing water" needed to sustain them in these moments of existential drought.

"Our hearts long to discover the secret of true joy, a joy that even in the midst of existential aridity can accompany and sustain us," the Pope said, adding a layer of hope to his poignant message.

While Mongolian Catholics number about 1,500, those attending Mass swelled by visits from neighbouring countries.

In particular, there are reports of Chinese Catholics facing travel restrictions to attend the papal visit and the possibility of investigation on their return.

In the course of his homily, Pope Francis encouraged people in the importance of embracing the Christian faith as the answer to our thirst for meaning and love, cautioning against worldly pursuits.

In a message of gratitude, he commended Mongolian Catholics as proof that great things can come from being small in number.

Religious leaders unite for peace

Earlier, Pope Francis joined representatives from 11 different faiths in Mongolia to promote peace, tolerance and harmony in the shadow of China's tightening grip on religious freedoms.

Gathered in a yurt-shaped theatre in Ulaanbaatar, the diverse group included Buddhists, Mongolian Catholics, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, evangelicals, Adventists, Latter-Day Saints, Shamans, Bahai, Shintoists and Orthodox Christians.

This event highlighted Mongolia's religious diversity and acceptance, a stark contrast to its history of religious persecution under communism. Since democracy emerged in Mongolia in the early 1990s, faith leaders have been welcomed back, ushering in a new era of religious tolerance.

The visit of the 10th reincarnation of Jevzundamba Khutugtu, an important figure in Buddhism, symbolises this hope for a more harmonious future.

The Pope's visit to Mongolia, a country nestled between China and Russia, sends a message of hope and unity in the face of religious oppression.

During the course of his visit, Francis urged religions to come together for the common good, emphasising the importance of harmony and cooperation. He highlighted the social significance of religious traditions in fostering unity and peace when sectarianism and violence are set aside.

While acknowledging the challenges humanity faces, the Pope stressed the potential for hope for the world through interreligious dialogue and cooperation.

Sources

CruxNow

Religion News Service

CathNews New Zealand

With the pope surrounded by empty seats in Kazakhstan, critics questioned the efficacy of his diplomacy of encounter and his strategy of silence when it comes to outright condemning human rights violations in China, Russia and Nicaragua.

But Vatican diplomacy insiders urge patience, arguing that even as the pope remains silent, the institution's diplomatic corps is hard at work behind the scenes, advancing the cause for dialogue.

Soon after being elected, in 2013, Pope Francis scored a major win for Vatican diplomacy efforts. As the United States and its allies prepared for an offensive against the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria, the pope beseeched all parties involved — including Russia — to stop the conflict.

According to the memoirs of the then-foreign minister of Australia, Bob Carr, the tensions were diffused as Russian President Vladimir Putin urged U.N. member states to "listen to the pope."

Three years later, Francis sat down with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in the airport of Havana for a meeting that seemed to pave the way for the pope to be the first Catholic leader to visit Moscow.

Vatican observers marvelled at the peacemaking prowess of the pope from the Global South. But today, as Ukraine enters its seventh month of war with Russia, Francis seems to have lost his touch.

The pandemic forced a meeting between Francis and Kirill to be rescheduled, and the two met instead in an online conference in May where the pope warned the patriarch not to become "Putin's altar boy."

But even as Pope Francis refused to openly condemn Putin and Russia for the war in Ukraine, relations with the Kremlin and the Orthodox Church chilled.

Victor Gaetan, author of "God's Diplomats: Pope Francis, Vatican Diplomacy, and America's Armageddon," thinks that's only half the story.

"The Holy See is the only Western institution that has an ongoing dialogue with the Russian state and the Russian Orthodox Church," Gaetan said, speaking to Religion News Service on Tuesday (Sept. 20).

"It was actually the Western states, and especially the United States, that have failed in the path of dialogue with Russia and its state religion," Gaetan said.

Gaetan said that Metropolitan Anthony, chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church's foreign relations department, has kept a steady relationship with the Vatican and even met with Pope Francis in May to tell him that while Kirill wouldn't be going to Kazakhstan, there would be a Russian Orthodox delegation in his stead.

While "any leader could be accused of not having done enough," Pope Francis could have probably been more outspoken at the international level, said Mario Aguilar, professor of religion and politics at St. Andrews Divinity School.

Aguilar, the author of "Pope Francis: Journeys of a Peacemaker" and a political adviser for the Vatican, told RNS that the Vatican "is a finite institution" and its foreign policy is no stranger to failure. "I have seen Pope Francis say many times: ‘Let's pray and let's try again.' But he's not bothered by failure," he said.

Francis' struggle to gain traction on the path toward dialogue was also evident when Xi, the Chinese president, reportedly refused to meet him while they were both in Kazakhstan. "I didn't see him," Francis said, vaguely answering questions by journalists while on the flight returning from Kazakhstan on Thursday.

In 2018, the Vatican and China signed a controversial and secretive deal on the appointment of bishops that is up for renewal in the coming weeks. One of the major critics of the deal, Cardinal Joseph Zen, a human rights activist and former bishop of Hong Kong, was arrested by Chinese authorities and put on criminal trial on Monday.

"Here at the Vatican, there is a dialogue commission that is doing well," Francis said during the in-flight news conference, but he added he doesn't "feel like qualifying China as antidemocratic because it's such a complex country."

Francis has remained quiet on the persecution of Uyghur Muslims and the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in order to support the Sino-Vatican deal, which promises to breach the historical rift between the state-recognized Catholic Church in China and the "underground church" approved by the Holy See.

William McGurn, the former speechwriter to U.S. President George W. Bush, wrote an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal on Monday declaring, "The Pope Abandons Cardinal Zen." Cardinal Gerhard Müller, formerly at the head of the Vatican's doctrinal department, criticized Rome's silence on Zen's arrest during a summit of cardinals at the Vatican in late August.

"Nobody has raised the grave question of our brother Zen," Müller told fellow cardinals and the pope. "I hope he won't be abandoned."

According to Gaetan, critics of the pope's diplomacy are part of "a campaign against Pope Francis' diplomatic approach with relations with Russia and China."

Gaetan pointed to the fact that a long-standing group studying Holy See-Chinese relations might soon move from Hong Kong to Beijing and that the Sino-Vatican agreement will likely be renewed in October.

"The pope and his diplomats will not change because of this criticism," Gaetan said. "Their mission is clear and has been practiced for centuries," he added, pointing to the fact that even the fiery St. John Paul II did not interrupt dialogue with Beijing after the events at Tiananmen Square.

Aguilar believes it's a mistake to expect a public pronouncement by Pope Francis on international diplomacy. "It will be the very ancient, slow cup of tea of Monsignor Paul Gallagher that will solve everything without a press conference," he said, referring to the Vatican's head of relations with states.

Instead of "a soft diplomacy," Aguilar added, the Vatican operates a "very hard diplomacy" by leveraging its numerous faithful in the world through its nuncios and the Vatican's foreign office.

In Catholic-majority Nicaragua, Pope Francis has not publicly denounced the oppressive government of President Daniel Ortega, which has been openly hostile toward the Catholic Church by arresting clergy members and banning feasts and processions.

But Aguilar foresees "a regime change, because in a very Catholic country when you oppose the Catholic Church, you are opposing your people. If your people cannot celebrate Mass, go to processions or say prayers and celebrate the feasts. Eventually, they will not vote for you."

In countries where Catholics are a majority, like Nicaragua, the Vatican's efforts are more impactful. But in places such as China or Russia, where the Catholic faithful represent but a tiny fraction of the population, it's much more difficult for the Vatican to promote its interests and create the basis for dialogue.

"People expect the Vatican, the oldest diplomacy, to act very rashly," Aguilar said.

After the attack on Pearl Harbour, Pope Pius XII kept diplomatic relations with Japan, angering the Allied forces. Years later, the Catholic Church became instrumental in recovering English and American prisoners in the Eastern country.

"The basics of diplomacy at the Vatican is a continuity of at least one century," Aguilar said. "It looks very slow, but only because it's not public."

• Claire Giangravé - Vatican Correspondent RNS. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

He made the comments to Catholic Church clergy and lay leaders in St Martin's Cathedral, Bratislava during his pastoral visit to Slovakia.

"The centre of the Church is not the Church itself" the Pope said encouraging the leaders to avoid "self-absorption" and attempts to "make ourselves look good."

Francis urged the leaders to foster dialogue with both believers and those who do not believe.

"How great is the beauty of a humble Church, a Church that does not stand aloof from the world, viewing life with a detached gaze, but lives her life within the world," he said.

"Living within the world, let us not forget: sharing, walking together, welcoming people's questions and expectations. This will help us to escape from our self-absorption, for the centre of the Church ... is not the Church."

Warning against becoming nostalgic for the past or defending Church structures, Francis "We have to leave behind undue concern for ourselves, for our structures and for what society thinks about us".

"The Church is not a fortress, a stronghold, a lofty castle, self-sufficient and looking out upon the world below," he said.

"Here in Bratislava, you have a castle and it is a fine one!" he exclaimed.

"The Church, though, is a community that seeks to draw people to Christ with the joy of the Gospel, not a castle!" he emphasized.

Francis said the Church throughout Europe must face the challenges in front of it and find "new languages for handing on the Gospel," asking, "Isn't this perhaps the most urgent task facing the Church"?

The Holy Father told the leaders that it was useless to complain and to hide behind a defensive Catholicism that blames the evil world.

Calling for creativity in name of the Gospel, Francis suggested the solution is a fine balancing act.

What the solution is not is on one hand being "content doing what we did in the past" nor on the other hand falling prey to "what the media decide we should do".

He went on to praise a Church that leaves room "for the adventure of freedom", rather than "becoming rigid and self-enclosed".

"In the spiritual life and in the life of the Church, we can be tempted to seek an ersatz peace that consoles us, rather than the fire of the Gospel that unsettles and transforms us," the pope said in Bratislava.

In concluding his address Francis encouraged the Church leaders to develop people for a mature relationship with God and not to control them too much.

"If you watch how a plant grows all the time, you kill it," he said in an impromptu aside from his written text.

Returning to his call for creativity Francis said Catholic preachers and those responsible for pastoral care of people "can no longer enter by the usual way, let us try to open up different spaces, and experiment with other means".

"No one should feel overwhelmed. Everyone should discover the freedom of the Gospel by gradually entering into a relationship with God, confident that they can bring their history and personal hurts into his presence without fear or pretense, without feeling the need to protect their own image."

"A Church that has no room for the adventure of freedom, even in the spiritual life, risks becoming rigid and self-enclosed. Some people may be used to this.

"But many others — especially the younger generations — are not attracted by a faith that leaves them no interior freedom, by a Church in which all are supposed to think alike and blindly obey."

He offered three words to help guide Catholics: freedom, creativity, and dialogue.

Then addressing the priests he urged them to "Please think of the faithful… A homily, generally, should not go beyond ten minutes… unless it is really engaging."

Those gathered in Bratislava's cathedral for the pope's address vigorously applauded the remark.

Sources

• La-Crox International
• CNA

He is encouraging Christians to create bridges of hope rather than hostility.

The comments were made by Pope Francis during his weekly general audience on November 6.

"Paul does not look at the city of Athens and the pagan world with hostility but with the eyes of faith," he said.

"And this makes us question our way of looking at our cities: Do we observe them with indifference? With contempt? Or with the faith that recognizes children of God in the midst of the anonymous crowds?"

Francis said the paganism of the Greeks did not cause St Paul to flee.

Instead, "Paul observes the culture and environment of Athens from a contemplative gaze that sees God dwelling in their homes, in their streets and squares."

"In the heart of one of the most famous institutions of the ancient world, the Areopagus, he realizes an extraordinary example of inculturation of the message of the faith," the pope said.

"He proclaims Jesus Christ to idol worshippers and doesn't do it by attacking them, but by making himself a 'pontiff,' a builder of bridges."

Francis said St Paul engages with empathy and it is in this way that he builds bridges of hope with culture, with those who do not believe or with those who have a different creed from ours.

Calling on tradition, Francis, cited Pope Benedict XVI, saying that acting with empathy is not proclaiming the unknown god, but rather "proclaiming him whom people do not know and yet do know - the unknown-known".

According to tradition, St. Paul preached to the Athenians at the Areopagus, an area that was not only a symbol of Greek political and cultural life but also the location of an altar to the "unknown god."

Source

• NCR

Fr. Suess is in Rome as an official of the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, and is regarded there as an expert on the region.

The priest was asked about a ceremony held in St. Peter's Basilica Oct. 7, which seemed to use both traditional Christian symbols and unexplained symbols of indigenous Amazonian culture.

"It is definitely the case that there is a noticeable sentiment against the synod on the part of certain media here.... Someone wrote that it was a pagan rite," Fr. Suess responded.

"So what?" the priest asked. "Even if that had been a pagan rite, what took place was still a worship service. A rite always has something to do with worship.

"Paganism cannot be dismissed as nothing".

"What is pagan? In our big cities we are no less pagan than in the jungle. That's something to think about," he said

Vatican Media eventually removed those comments from its interview with the priest, with no note or indication of the redaction.

Anyone who wants to understand how the Vatican's synod of bishops on the Amazon has become such a flashpoint for controversy, or why five carved statues were removed from a Roman church and tossed into the Tiber River, should think carefully about Fr. Suess' comments, and their publication by the official media organ of the Holy See.

On Oct. 21, five statues were taken, apparently quite early in the morning, from the Carmelite Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, four blocks from St. Peter's Basilica. They were thrown off a nearby bridge into the Tiber River.

On Friday the pope announced that they had been recovered, apologized to anyone offended by their submersion in the Tiber's waters, and said they might make an appearance at Sunday's closing Mass for the synod.

The statues had become recognizable to Catholics around the world. They were featured prominently in an Oct. 4 tree-planting ceremony that kicked off the Amazon synod. They have been a part of daily "moments of spirituality" at the Carmelite church. They have been inside St. Peter's Basilica, at an Amazonian Stations of the Cross, and at many other events surrounding the Amazon synod and they have been alternatively described as symbols of the Blessed Virgin, the Andean pagan idol Pachamama, and ambiguous symbols of "life."

At the synod, they are symbols of controversy.

Figures used prominently in unexplained and unfamiliar rituals or spiritual expressions, even with persons prostrating themselves in front of the statues, led journalists to ask what connections the figures have to indigenous religious rituals.

In short, to ask whether they have a pagan provenance, and, if so, what it means for them to be used in a Catholic context, and in the sacred space of a church.

The Church's long-considered and nuanced views on inculturation are complex, and the Gospel is always expressed in the context of some culture. Continue reading

A few days ago, my colleague Joshua McElwee reported on the pope's homily at the Mass celebrating the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Monday, the pope marked the sixth anniversary of his trip to Lampedusa with a Mass for migrants, at which he delivered the sermon.

These three texts highlight this pope's penetrating theological vision, why it is so suited to our times, and why it so disturbs a certain kind of American Catholic.

The talk at Naples was, as Mickens noted, remarkable because of the pope's focus on theology in the Mediterranean as it is today, not only as the historic source of Greco-Roman philosophic ideas which so shaped the early church. The conference was considering theology in the wake of Francis' apostolic constitution Veritatis Gaudium that dealt with the renewal of ecclesiastical faculties and universities. In Naples, he said:

"When in the Foreword of Veritatis Gaudium the contemplation and presentation of the heart of the kerygma is mentioned together with dialogue as criteria for renewing studies, it means that they are at the service of the path of a Church that increasingly puts evangelization at the center.

"Not apologetics, not manuals, as we heard, but evangelizing.

"At the center is evangelizing, which is not the same thing as proselytizing.

"In dialogue with cultures and religions, the Church announces the Good News of Jesus and the practice of evangelical love which He preached as a synthesis of the whole teaching of the Law, the message of the Prophets and the will of the Father.

"Dialogue is above all a method of discernment and proclamation of the Word of love which is addressed to each person and which wants to take up residence in the heart of each person.

"Only in listening to this Word and in the experience of love that it communicates can one discern the relevance of kerygma.

Dialogue, understood in this way, is a form of welcoming.

Dialogue, he acknowledged, is no magic formula, but a methodology of respect for persons as well as ideas and the only path to peaceful and just social relations.

Francis also pointed to dialogue as a kind of academic self-corrective.

"We need theologians ― men and women, priests, lay people and religious ― who, in a historical and ecclesial rootedness and, at the same time, open to the inexhaustible novelties of the Spirit, know how to escape the self-referential, competitive and, in fact, blinding logics that often exist even in our own academic institutions and concealed, many times, among our theological schools."

"That phrase "blinding logics" is certainly an incisive description of certain ideologically driven norms in the academy, and it can be found on both the left and the right.

The pope's sermon at the great feast day Mass was one of my favorites of his entire pontificate because of its bold anti-Pelagian challenge:

"There is a great teaching here: the starting point of the Christian life is not our worthiness; in fact, the Lord was able to accomplish little with those who thought they were good and decent.

"Whenever we consider ourselves smarter or better than others, that is the beginning of the end.

"The Lord does not work miracles with those who consider themselves righteous, but with those who know themselves needy.

"He is not attracted by our goodness; that is not why he loves us.

"He loves us just as we are; he is looking for people who are not self-sufficient, but ready to open their hearts to him. People who, like Peter and Paul, are transparent before God."

The conflation of the moral with the holy is a great temptation for the Christian.

In other religions, it may be different, but in ours, holiness consists in a reliance on the grace of God in all circumstances and in every decision.

There is an ecclesiological angle to this anti-Pelagianism as well.

The other day, I came across an article at Patheos about Hans Urs von Balthasar and why he remained a Catholic.

Speaking against the Puritans of his day, he wrote:

If they [the emotivist Puritans] refuse, I fail to understand how they can assert they are in the Church and not outside fighting against her.

However, let us leave them to their fate or, better, to a gentle Providence who may open their eyes to this truth: a sinless, all-knowing Church that would sell off the old dusty one would be no Church at all but only a Montanist-Donatist-Pelagian sect not worth remaining in and having nothing in common with the Church of Jesus Christ.

We leave them to draw that simple conclusion, and proceed to positive argumentation.

I remain in the Church because the old catholica still resembles the Church which leaps to the eyes from the pages of St. Paul's Epistles and the Acts.

Indeed, the resemblance is so striking as to be offputting.

The very Corinthians whom Paul lauds "for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, because in everything you have been enriched in him" (I Cor.1 ff.), he proceeds to denounce in chapter after chapter for forming cliques, for their arrogance and their incontinence, for loveless behavior at the Eucharistic party (the expression comes from a Swiss parish bulletin), finally for their denial of the Resurrection by attempts to rationalize it.

QED.

Finally, we come to the Mass for the migrants.

There the pope preached on Jesus' preferential option for the outcast and his mission of liberation and salvation. Continue reading

• Michael Sean Winters covers the nexus of religion and politics for NCR
• Image: Lifesite News

"Male and Female He Created Them: Toward a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education," issued June 10 by the Congregation for Education, in large part repeats church teaching found elsewhere.

It addresses issues of education in schools, the role of parents as primary educators and what the authors refer to as "gender ideology."

Bishop Michael C. Barber of Oakland, Calif., chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee for Catholic Education, issued a brief statement welcoming the document.

He said, "in a difficult and complex issue, the clarity of church teaching, rooted in the equal dignity of men and women as created by God, provides the light of truth and compassion that is most needed in our world today."

The authors of the document point to areas of agreement in the gender debate, including the need to "respect every person in their particularity and difference, so that no one should suffer bullying, violence, insults or unjust discrimination based on their specific characteristics (such as special needs, race, religion, sexual tendencies, etc.)" (No. 16).

"Every school should therefore make sure it is an environment of trust, calmness and openness, particularly where there are cases that require time and careful discernment," according to the document.

"It is essential that the right conditions are created to provide a patient and understanding ear, far removed from any unjust discrimination" (No. 56).

In terms of the dialogue surrounding the issue, the authors prescribe "following the path of listening, reasoning and proposing" (No. 52).

"I can certainly agree with a portion of the title which calls for dialogue, and the opening paragraphs which stress the importance of listening," said Luisa Derouen, a Dominican sister who began serving the transgender community in 1999.

The rest of the document, she said, lacked grounding in lived experiences.

"I found it quite jarring...that after those initial paragraphs there was abundant evidence that those writing this document had certainly not engaged in open, reverent, listening dialogue with transgender people," Sister Derouen said.

"I have accompanied them for 20 years and I do not recognize the people I know from the harsh and dangerous description of them in this document."

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago also noted the invitation to engage in a dialogue about transgender issues.

"The document points out that dialogue must be free of ideologies, whatever their origins," he said.

"We should also keep in mind the essential principle Pope Francis has often articulated—that realities are greater than ideas. This principle is especially important when dealing with pastoral situations, which always require us to be in touch with the experience of people's everyday lives."

The Rev. Bryan Massingale, a moral theologian at Fordham University, also stressed the importance of experience and called the document an "interim response" from the Vatican on questions of gender and gender identity. Continue reading

• Image: America

Pope Francis typically meets with the local Jesuits whenever he visits a country and the conversations really show the wisdom and the personality of this pope.

For example, we know the first pope from Argentina likes colorful metaphors and stories.

The nation that gave the world the tango would not give us a dull pope. When asked about where he finds consolations, he said:

I'll tell you a story. I like to spend time with children and the elderly. Once, there was an old lady. She had precious, bright eyes. I asked her, "How old are you?"

"Eighty-seven," she answered.

"But what do you eat to be so well? Give me the recipe," I said.

"Everything!" she answered.

"And I make my own ravioli."

I said to her, "Madam, pray for me!"

She says to me, "Every day I pray for you!"

And joking, I add, "Tell me the truth: Do you pray for me or against me?"

"Of course, I pray for you! Many others inside the Church pray against you!"

The story illustrates that he means it when he talks about accompanying people.

He clearly takes delight in meeting this elderly woman and he remembers her specific age.

He remembers her "precious, bright eyes."

He engages with her like a real person: "Give me the recipe."

But, he also makes a very clear point, adding: "True resistance is not in the people of God who really feel they are the people."

His comments about dealing with difficult times demonstrate a different attitude towards evangelisation than, say, what we heard about last week from Bishop Robert Barron at the U.S. bishops' conference meeting.

The pope says:

What to do? It takes patience, it takes hupomeno, that is, carrying the weight of the events and circumstances of life. You have to carry the burden of life and its tensions on your shoulders. We know that we must proceed with parrhesia and courage. They're important. However, there are times when you can't go too far and then you have to be patient and sweet. This is what Peter Faber did, the man of dialogue, of listening, of closeness, of the journey.

Today is a time more for Faber than for Canisius, who was the man of the dispute. In times of criticism and tension we must do as Faber did, working with the help of the angels: he begged his angel to speak to the angels of others so that they might do with them what we cannot do. And then you really need proximity, a meek proximity. We must first of all be close to the Lord with prayer, with time spent in front of the tabernacle. And then the closeness to the people of God in daily life with works of charity to heal the wounds.

The contrast of Faber and Canisius illustrates that these divergent approaches are not new in the experience of the church.

But, whereas Barron calls for a new apologetics, revels in arguing with atheists, and holds up Jordan Peterson as some kind of icon of effective communication, Francis counsels against following the model of the disputatious Canisius, states that we need a "meek proximity" to the people of God, and goes on to say:

The Church is so wounded, and today it is also so wounded by tensions within it. Meekness, it takes meekness! And it takes a lot of courage to be meek! But you have to go forward with meekness. This is not the time to convince, to have discussions. If someone has a sincere doubt, yes, one can dialogue, clarify. But don't respond to the attacks.

It is very hard to be quiet in this age of Twitter, but can we doubt that the pope is right, that aping the culture which has marginalized the Christian faith, as Barron does, is no way to proceed, and that we must bear witness to the suffering of people more than we should try and convince them by argumentation. Continue reading

• Michael Sean Winters covers the nexus of religion and politics for NCR
• Image: Lifesite News

He also identified an aggressive defence of doctrine as unhelpful as it seeks to impose its beliefs on others.

Fidelity to the Gospel "implies a style of life and of proclamation without a spirit of conquest, without a desire to proselytise and without an aggressive intent to refute," the pope said.

Francis warned opposing sides of theological discussion of the "Bable syndrome".

"The confusion that comes from not understanding what the other says," the "Babel syndrome means not listening to what the other says and believing that I know what the other person is thinking and what the other will say," the pope said.

"This is a plague."

Welcoming theology is fostered through dialogue, Francis told participants at a conference on "Theology after Veritatis Gaudium in the context of the Mediterranean".

Francis said a more "welcoming theology" is fostered through dialogue, particularly with Judaism and Islam, in order "to understand the common roots and the differences of our religious identity and thus contribute efficaciously to the building of a society that appreciates diversity and promotes respect, brotherhood and peaceful coexistence."

Departing from his prepared notes, Francis said that during his seminary days he and his colleagues played a game which went like... "First, things seem this way. Second, Catholicism is always right. Third, therefore ...."

"I studied in the time of crumbling theology, of crumbling scholasticism, a time of manuals. And among ourselves we would joke around and would prove theological theses with this pattern, a syllogism," he said.

"It was the kind of theology that was defensive apologetics closed in a manual. We joked around but it was how things were presented to us in the time of scholasticism in decline."

Rather than recite formulas by rote, he said, theologians must be "men and women of compassion" who are touched by the social ills of war, violence, slavery and forced migration and who are nourished by prayer.

The pope added that when theologians lack communion, compassion and prayer, "theology not only loses its soul, but loses its intelligence and its ability to interpret reality in a Christian way."

"Without compassion drawn from the heart of Christ, theologians risk being swallowed up in the condition of privilege of those who prudently place themselves outside the world and share nothing of risk with the majority of humanity," he said.

Mercy, the pope said, is not solely a pastoral attitude but the backbone of the Gospel.

"Without mercy, our theology, our law, our pastoral work run the risk of collapsing into bureaucratic pettiness or ideology, which by its very nature wants to tame the mystery," Francis said.

"Theology, through the path of mercy, defends itself from taming the mystery."

The pope traveled to Naples to deliver the closing address at the two day conference.

Sources

• NCR
• Where Peter is

Francis said bullying is an issue that concerns him.

He made the comments to participants in the online conference #StopcyberbullyingDay.

Francis called on participants to find their own identity but not at the expense of others.

"An issue that concerns me a lot is that each one of you should find your own identity, and without the need to diminish or obscure the identity of others.

"Finding your own identity is a path, it is a path of dialogue, it is a path of reflection, it is an inner path."

Francis told the conference that bullying is born; it is a phenomenon of self-compensation.

He said the only time to look down on someone else is when helping them to get up.

"Any other way of looking from above downwards is not legitimate.

"And when it occurs in youth groups, in schools, in neighbourhoods, wherever, in these expressions of aggression, bullying, you see the poverty of the identity of the person who attacks, who needs to attack in order to feel that he or she is a person."

The Pope said there is no chemical remedy for bullying; "The pharmacy does not sell remedies", he said.

"Each of us has something to give", said Francis as he encourages young people to begin dialogue.

"The only way is to share, to live together, to dialogue, to listen to the other, to take time to walk together, to take time because it is time that makes the relationship.

"Each one of us has something good to give to the other, each one of us needs to receive something good from the other."

Francis ended his message to the #StopcyberbullyingDay participants by saying that it is only in declaring war on bullying that peace will be strong.

"Stand up for dialogue; walking together, with the patience of listening to the other.

"The peace will then be strong, and that same strong peace will let you discover your own dignity, your own dignity.

The #StopcyberbullyingDay online conference took place on 21 June and was sponsored by WeZum, the international youth observatory of the Pontifical Scholas Occurrentes Foundation, in collaboration with Time4Child Cooperativa Sociale ONLUS.

Sources

• Vatican

There is virtue-signaling, to be sure, but turn on the news or log onto Twitter and you will undoubtedly find politicians and pundits engaged in verbal combat or thinly veiled self-congratulation.

In times like these, the "virtuous speech" counseled by St. Francis de Sales in his Introduction to the Devout Life is downright countercultural (Part III, 26-30).

His writings on cultivating this unfashionable virtue are a good place to start if we as Catholics wish to help restore a degree of civility to our public life.

Weigh your words

The saint encourages modesty in speech and respect for each other in our speech.

He writes: "Be careful never to let an indecent word leave your lips, for even if you do not speak with an evil intention those who hear it may take it in a different way."

Weigh your words and the thoughts that ultimately produce those words. This is truly good advice for each of us.

"The more pointed a dart is, the more easily it enters the body, and in like manner the sharper an obscene word is, the deeper it penetrates into the heart."

De Sales teaches that nothing is so opposed to charity as to despise and condemn one's neighbor.

"Derision and mockery are always accompanied by scoffing, and it is therefore a very great sin."

He does encourage, however, good-humored and joking words—pleasant conversation, if you will: "By their means we take friendly, virtuous enjoyment in the amusing situations human imperfections provide us."

Rash judgments

Francis de Sales is particularly hard on "rash judgments" of others. He states that judgments are offenses against God for they usurp the office of the Lord.

"Many men," he writes, "make a habit of rash judgment merely because they like to play the philosopher and probe into men's moods and morals as a way of showing their own keen intelligence."

Others, he writes, "judge out of passion. They always think well of things they love and ill of those they dislike."

For de Sales, "the sin of rash judgment is truly spiritual jaundice and causes all things to appear evil to the eyes of those infected with it."

De Sales provides a remedy for this infection: "Whoever wants to be cured must apply remedies not to his eyes or intellect but to his affections, which are feet in relation to his soul.

"If your reflections are kind, your judgments will also be kind. If your affections are charitable, your judgments will be the same."

A degree of self-awareness is useful in this regard: "Those who look carefully into their consciences are not very likely to pass rash judgments. Just as bees in misty or cloudy weather stay in their hives to prepare honey, so also the thoughts of good men do not go out in search of things concealed among the cloudy actions of our neighbor. To avoid meeting them they retire into their own hearts and make good resolutions for their own amendment."

Slander

Francis de Sales refers to slander as "the true plague of society." He says further that "the man who could free the world of slander would free it of a large share of its sins and iniquity." Slander robs a person of his good name, and it requires reparation. Continue reading

Image: CatholicTV

He was responding to a newspaper article alleging he favoured missionising the Jews and called Jewish-Christian dialogue into question.

Benedict's correction affirms Christians are called to a "dialogue" with the Jews rather than a "mission," as theologian Michael Böhnke claimed in German theological journal "Herder Korrespondenz."

He also explains Judaism and Christianity are "two ways of interpreting the Scriptures."

He says for Christians, the promises made to Israel are the hope of the Church, and "those who abide by it are in no way questioning the foundations of the Jewish-Christian dialogue."

Böhnke had argued that Benedict XVI, in an article for the theological journal Communio, had demonstrated a problematic understanding of Judaism and had ignored the suffering Christians had inflicted upon Jews."

Benedict says Böhnke's accusation is "grotesque nonsense and has nothing to do with what I said about it. I therefore reject his article as a completely false insinuation."

Regarding the Church's "mission" to the Jews, Benedict says "A mission to the Jews is not foreseen and not necessary."

Benedict explains that while it is true Christ gave His disciples a mission to all peoples and all cultures, "the missionary mandate is universal - with one exception:

"A mission to the Jews was not foreseen and not necessary because they alone, among all peoples, knew the ‘unknown God'."

Benedict's explanation continues, saying for Israel, the disciples' responsibility was not a mission, but a dialogue about whether Jesus of Nazareth was "the Son of God, the Logos," for whom, according to the promises made to His people, Israel, and the whole world without knowing it, was waiting.

This is "the duty given us at this time," Benedict says.

Source

• The Tablet
• Vatican News
• Image: Catholic News Agency

The separation of powers in the U.S. Constitution, novel for its time, is a good example of this theo-political balancing act: No single person can be trusted to wield power; therefore, power must be shared among many and policed by a legal system of checks and balances.

Yet our founders also recognized that the U.S. Constitution is but one part of a larger whole called the American political economy.

As I have previously noted in this space, while the United States does have a single document called "The Constitution," with an uppercase T and C, the American system also presumes nonconstitutional values and customs that are just as vital, if not more vital to the health of our democracy.

Among these indispensable customs are decorum and civility in public argument, which largely distinguish a polity from a mere mob.

A presupposition of our political economy is that reasonable people can and do disagree about important public matters and that they will do so through spirited yet civil public argument.

Americans have not always been civil or decorous with one another, of course; but until recently this was the minimal expectation, and when one failed to meet it, some social penalty was often applied.

Yet the words of the previous paragraph now seem as quaint as a telegram.

The public discourse has devolved to such an extent that the value of civility itself is now openly questioned as often as its conventions are routinely violated.

"You talk about somebody that's a loser," President Trump recently said about a journalist.

"She doesn't know what the hell she's doing…. But she's very nasty. And she shouldn't be. She shouldn't be. You've got to treat the White House and the office of the presidency with respect."

That last bit is true.

But the president should be treated with respect because all people should be treated with respect.

That is the value that justifies civility.

Embedded in the very notion of democracy, of a free and fair society, is the principle that we are all worthy of respect or none of us is.

When challenged about his lack of decorum, Mr. Trump responds by telling us that he is the victim of slander and is therefore justified in employing a bombastic style.

People hit him, so he hits them back, his handlers tell us.

Yet that is the moral reasoning of a 12-year-old.

Few parents would accept the excuse "Everybody else is doing it" from their children.

So why do we accept this justification from the president?

Why do some offer it in defense of his actions?

I am well aware that Mr. Trump is not the only demagogue in the country.

A quick glance at my Twitter feed is enough to establish that sad fact.

But Mr. Trump is the only one who happens to be president of the United States and, as such, has a greater duty than most to deploy his rhetoric with prudence, decorum and moral clarity, an extra-constitutional but nonetheless essential duty of his office, one he consistently fails to execute.

While Mr. Trump is far from the only culprit in the demise of the civic discourse, he is the most visible; and, whether we like it or not, he establishes the standard for others.

As we used to say growing up on Cape Cod, "a fish rots from the head."

It is unlikely that Mr. Trump will change his ways.

But we can—if we want to.

I fear that too many of us, while loudly complaining about the polarization and coarseness in our public discourse, quietly rather enjoy it, even if only subconsciously.

Deep down in places we don't like to talk about, we seem to get a thrill from the politics of destruction. Continue reading

• Matt Malone, S.J., is the President and Editor in Chief of America Media.
• Image: America

The Catechism of the Catholic Church provided the answers to all of my questions concerning faith and morals.

It was the definitive voice of the church, and I believed everything that voice said. And then my black-and-white world began to fall apart.

Dysfunctional leadership at the local and diocesan levels left me questioning my place in the church and its place in my life.

Disillusionment with the institutional church brought on a dark night of the soul for me, and previous certainties vaporised in clouds of doubt.

This forced me to dig deeper into the core of my faith.

• What do I believe?
• Why do I believe it?
• How can I regain the joy in my belief when I am feeling so much pain and unease within the four walls of my church?

During this time of painful exile, a Benedictine friend introduced me to the lectio divina form of prayer.

I began to listen for the Word of God speaking to me personally in the scriptures.

I slowly learned to balance the knowledge of the mind with the emotions of the heart, for we need both.

Our faith is neither solely about black-and-white pronouncements, nor is it simply about warm, fuzzy feelings. It is about knowing what we believe, loving what we believe, and putting that belief into concrete action in the messiness of everyday life.

It is also about acknowledging that faith is a lifelong journey.

Because the Church says so is not enough

We will often find ourselves struggling with some aspect of our belief or unable to live up to the high standards set before us.

Sometimes we know what the church teaches but still do not understand or accept the reasoning behind a specific teaching.

The answer of "because the church says so" can be as ineffective as a parent's "because I said so."

Today, the accusation of being a "cafeteria Catholic" is flung around with the same zealousness as the term "heretic" was at one time.

Doctrinal police

Passionate traditionalists troll online discussion boards and blogs seeking to attack women and men who do not give their full assent to each and every teaching of the Catholic Church.

These self-appointed gatekeepers of orthodoxy believe it is for the glory of God and the good of the church that all questioners be denounced and told if they don't like it they can—and should—leave.

I have no desire to be part of the smaller, purer church envisioned by these doctrinal police.

The church must keep its doors open for all of us who are on an imperfect, bumpy, and often messy journey toward holiness.

As a writer, I have been the object of some mean-spirited attacks online. I once wrote an article questioning the derogatory use of the term "cafeteria Catholics," stating that in some ways we all pick and choose from the great buffet table of Catholicism.

I once wrote an article questioning the derogatory use of the term "cafeteria Catholics," stating that in some ways we all pick and choose from the great buffet table of Catholicism.

Several months later I discovered that I had been personally attacked on some Catholic blogs. My words were taken out of context, and I was denounced as a "militant atheist" who "spread calumny and false witness" and believed that we are all "irrational animals."

My words were taken out of context, and I was denounced as a "militant atheist" who "spread calumny and false witness" and believed that we are all "irrational animals."

I tried to shrug it off, but I had to admit that the attacks upset me. These people knew nothing about me, my relationship to the church, or my personal faith life. Nevertheless, based on a few written words of mine, they had

These people knew nothing about me, my relationship to the church, or my personal faith life.

Nevertheless, based on a few written words of mine, they had labelled me a heretic and dissenter.

In the Middle Ages, the church attempted to keep its purity by aggressively cleansing the ranks of all traces of unorthodoxy.

Inquisitors enforced loyalty oaths and sent spies to sniff out the slightest odour of heresy from pulpits, pews, and back streets.

It was a time of malicious accusations, unjust trials, and raging bonfires. Zealousness for the faith inspired crusader armies to battle heathens in the name of Jesus Christ.

It was a time of "if you're not with us, you're against us."

And, if you are against us, we believe that it is God's will that you experience the earthly wrath of the church now and eternal damnation in the hereafter.

It was a time of "if you're not with us, you're against us." And, if you are against us, we believe that it is God's will that you experience the earthly wrath of the church now and eternal damnation in the hereafter.

Here and now in the 21st century, the new evangelization calls us to put aside such a militant defence of the faith. Continue reading

• Isabella R. Moyer is the past president of the International Organization of Marianist Lay Communities
• Image: Twitter

This was one of the solutions offered by participants in Fiji's first ever discussion on crime and violence

Members of faith-based organisations and NGOs gathered in Pacific Harbour in Serua On Wednesday to participate in a three-day dialogue about the root causes of crime and violence

They appear to be on the increase in the rapidly populating Great Suva Area.

Organisers of the talks, Dialogue Fiji, said sexual assault cases were up from 718 cases reported in 2005 to 2714 last year.

There were also noted increase in cases such as theft with 6447 reported last year compared with 3380 in 2005.

Burglary was up from 850 in 2005 to more than 2300 in 2015.

Dialogue Fiji's executive director, Nilesh Lal, said convening independent spaces for dialogue on social issues and facilitating engagement between state, non-state and citizen groups was useful to devising sustainable and effective solutions to issues such as crime.

"Security is an important element of the social contract that citizens have with the state, and with the growing populations and increasing crime incidences, innovative approaches to tackling crime in a rapidly changing landscape is necessary," he said.

"As experiences from other contexts have shown, community engagement can be an effective tool to achieve this."

Dialogue Fiji has been working in the area of inclusive and participatory decision making, democratic transition, good governance, conflict analysis and peace-building since 2009.

Source

• fijitimes.com
• fijitimes.com
• facebook.com
• Image: facebook.com

The University of Notre Dame from the US will oversee the initiative at University Church, Dublin.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin announced the establishment of the "Notre-Dame Newman Centre for Faith and Reason".

Earlier this month, Archbishop Martin lamented the dearth of Catholic intellectuals able to engage with public issues in Ireland.

Continue reading

Cardinal Peter Turkson said proposals to drop the concept of just war were "legitimate".

He called for a "broad and deeply felt" debate on the question of just war theory.

"A possible encyclical is plausible only as the fruit of much dialogue, not as a starting point," he said.

Continue reading