Copies of George Weigel's book have been sent to all 222 cardinals across the globe, courtesy of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan.

In doing so, he broke with a longstanding practice that the Church's highest prelates refrain from publicly lobbying for possible candidates for the papacy.

Four cardinals in various parts of the world have confirmed they received the book, with an accompanying note from Dolan.

All four, whose names have been kept private, said they were concerned about the propriety of a member of the elite College of Cardinals sending such a book while the current pontiff is not known to be ill or considering resignation.

"Many of us were left speechless that this American cardinal sent us the book," said one of the cardinals.

"We have a pope, and our beloved St. Pope John Paul II gave us clear norms about a future conclave."

It says: "I … forbid anyone, even if he is a Cardinal, during the Pope's lifetime and without having consulted him, to make plans concerning the election of his successor, or to promise votes, or to make decisions in this regard in private gatherings."

Dolan addresses the recipient as "Your Eminence, my brother cardinal," and states: "I am grateful to Ignatius Press for making this important reflection on the future of the Church available to the College of Cardinals."

Weigel says the book "does not contain a single sentence about a future conclave.

"No potential candidates are named and no conclave strategy is discussed," he says.

"The book is a reflection on the future of the Office of Peter in what Pope Francis has called a Church 'permanently in mission.' Period."

Weigel says those concerned about Dolan's action could consult with members of the so-called "Sankt Gallen group," a loose association of cardinals who strategized together after John Paul's 2005 death about who might be the best papal successor.

Although Weigel does not name cardinals who could considered as a future pope in his book, he suggests characteristics and qualities that would be desirable in the next pontiff.

He also makes several veiled criticisms of Francis, including the pope's decision not to directly respond to a 2016 letter from four retired cardinals questioning his teachings on family life in Amoris Laetitia ("The Joy of Love").

That exhortation was Francis' response to two Synods of Bishops, held in 2014 and 2015.

Dolan was part of a group of 13 cardinals who wrote a letter to Francis expressing concern about the way he had organised the second of those synods.

Upon the death or resignation of a pope, all cardinals under the age of 80 are tasked with gathering in Rome to elect his successor. At present there are 122 such cardinals, including Dolan.

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Wall Street Journal

John Meyer, the Executive Director of the Institute, says the conference will be an opportunity to discuss "Catholic renewal in a time of great crisis in the Church".

Among the speakers is one of the "dubia cardinals", Cardinal Raymond Burke, who challenged Francis about opening communion for divorced and remarried couples in the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia.

Other conservative Catholic figures - George Weigel, Jim Daly and Father Robert Spitzer - will also speak at the conference.

In terms of the "crisis of accountability in the Church," Meyer says the Institute plans on putting a special emphasis on the role of laity in the Church.

He denies the conference and its organisers are against Francis and his pontificate.

Rather, Meyer says he welcomes the opportunity for dialogue with progressive and liberal Catholics instead of being stuck "in echo-chambers".

"It's wrong and it's really the work of the devil that we are divided over these issues, instead of working together for the common good," he says.

"We choose to bicker about small things, rather than fight together for the big ones."

Meyer says the idea for the conference itself came out of a letter Archbishop Chaput wrote 10 years ago, where he said that it was going to be difficult if not prohibitive to live out the Catholic values for a Catholic leader in this country, especially for a secular Catholic leader.

"We try to inform people on these issues so that they know how to meaningfully defend the faith, not just knowing what the Church believes on critical issues but why, Meyer says.

Explaining the Catholic Moment theme of next month's conference, Meyer says it has been chosen as the overarching theme "because we are kind of at a critical point in our Church history and we want to look at this Catholic moment, and how to renew the Church from various aspects".

The theme, as he describes it, will move from personal renewal to society and then the parish as a model of renewing the Church at a difficult time.

Meyer says the conference will open with Weigel and Burke offering their thoughts in the state-of-the-Church address.

Then the discussion will move to the true role of the laity - "not the kind of role that has been thrown out there, but the need for lay saints in this time and the role of the laity in the universal call to holiness," Meyer says.

"The second day we are going to be looking more at the cultural issues, renewing the culture as well as the Church, so we are going to have a conversation with Jim Daly from Focus on the Family and Alan Sears [Founder of Alliance Defending Freedom]."

Meyer says the final day will focus on practical issues, such as parish renewal.

Source

• Crux Now
• napa.institute.org

I noted with interest your recent announcement of a "binding synodal process" during which the Church in Germany will discuss the celibacy of the Latin-rite Catholic priesthood, the Church's sexual ethic and clericalism, these being "issues" put on the table by the crisis of clerical sexual abuse.

Perhaps the following questions will help sharpen your discussions.

Local binding Synod

How can the "synodal process" of a local Church produce "binding" results on matters affecting the entire Catholic Church?

The Anglican Communion tried this and is now in terminal disarray; the local Anglican churches that took the path of cultural accommodation are comatose. Is this the model you and your fellow-bishops favor?

Celibacy and sexual abuse

What does the celibacy of priests in the Latin-rite have to do with the sexual abuse crisis?

Celibacy has no more to do with sexual abuse than marriage has to do with spousal abuse.

Empirical studies indicate that most sexual abuse of the young takes place within (typically broken) families; Protestant denominations with a married clergy also suffer from the scourge of sexual abuse; and in any event, marriage is not a crime-prevention program.

Is it cynical to imagine that the abuse crisis is now being weaponized to mount an assault on clerical celibacy, what with other artillery having failed to dislodge this ancient Catholic tradition?

Sexuality and personhood

According to a Catholic News Agency report, you suggested that "the significance of sexuality to personhood has not yet received sufficient attention from the Church."

Really?

Has St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body not been translated into German?

Perhaps it has, but it may be too long and complex to have been properly absorbed by German-speaking Catholics.

Permit me then, to draw your attention to pp. 347-358 of "Zeuge der Hoffnung" (Ferdinand Schoeningh, 2002) the German translation of "Witness to Hope," the first volume of my John Paul II biography.

There, you and your colleagues will find a summary of the Theology of the Body, including its richly personalistic explanation of the Church's ethic of human love and its biblically-rooted understanding of celibacy undertaken for the Kingdom of God.

Sexual behaviour today

You also note that your fellow-bishops "feel...unable to speak on questions of present-day sexual behavior."

That was certainly not the case at the Synods of 2014, 2015, and 2018, where German bishops felt quite able to speak frequently to these questions, albeit in a way that typically mirrored today's politically-correct fashions.

And I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering just when the German episcopate last spoke to "present-day sexual behavior" in a way that promoted the Church's ethic of human love as life-affirming and ordered to human happiness and fulfillment, at least in the years since its massive dissent from "Humanae Vitae" (Pope St. Paul VI's 1968 encyclical on the ethics of family planning)?

But that, as I understand Pope Francis, is what he is calling us all to do: Witness to, preach, and teach the "Yes" that undergirds everything to which the Church must, in fidelity to both revelation and reason, say "No." Continue reading

• George Weigel is an American author, political analyst, and social activist. He currently serves as a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Weigel was the Founding President of the James Madison Foundation.
• Image: Jonah in the Heart of Nineveh