Bazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes clarified the working document’s purpose for the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon. It is is not official church teaching, he says. It is a way for bishops to listen to the local church’s concerns. The working document ( also called the Instrumentum Laboris) “isn’t a document of the synod, it Read more
German Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, widely seen as a key opponent of Pope Francis, has penned a rare essay openly criticizing the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, saying the official preparatory document breaks with Catholic teaching. According to Brandmüller’s essay, the synod’s recently-published preparatory document “burdens the Synod of Bishops, and finally the Pope, Read more
Italian Catholic priest Alessandro Minutella has been excommunicated for spreading “heresy and schism.” The Archdiocese of Palermo has published the formal decree concerning Minutella’s “latae sententiae” excommunication. In canon law, once certain crimes are committed, they are punished latae sententiae, or “automatically,” by force of the law itself. According to the Code of Canon Law, Read more
Cardinal Walter Brandmüller says people who insist on ordaining female priests “fulfil the elements of heresy.” He says they will be excommunicated from the church. Brandmüller is one of the four “dubia” cardinals who has repeatedly asked Pope Francis to provide doctrinal clarity about some elements of Amoris Laetitia. He was responding to comments by Read more
A leading Irish theologian has described the Vatican’s actions to censure a founder of Ireland’s Association of Catholic Priests as “theologically inept”. In a new book, Augustinian Fr Gabriel Daly examines the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 2012 silencing of Fr Tony Flannery and its suspending him from ministry. Flannery, a Redemptorist, had Read more
It is difficult for us to understand the Spanish Inquisition because we are so used to the separation of church and state in modern times. During the time in which the Inquisition in Spain was most active (1480-1600s), however, heresy was considered a crime similar to political treason because the monarchies of Europe and the Read more
First of all, I would like to congratulate Pope Francis I on his election, becoming the first South American to head the Vatican. Although the Church has been having some serious trouble over the last decade with numerous scandals and harsh although often warranted criticism, I feel his election is an appropriate step in the Read more
No matter how much my Mum tried to speak softly about the outrageous goings on in the Presbyterian Church with ‘that man Geering’, I could hear her telephone whisperings. One of the great advantages of my childhood bedroom was its proximity to the telephone. A significant cream instrument with braided cord, set upon a clever combination Read more