Some of the people who convert to Catholicism, come from other Christian traditions. Others are simply hi-jacked by God. I’m privileged to share a story of the latter kind, the experience of a young woman who had never had any interest in religion. Her passion was architecture, and she was in Rome with a camera, Read more
In modifying a 1972 essay on divorced and remarried Catholics, Pope Emeritus Benedict may be breaking his retirement vow to not the play an active role in Church affairs. In 1972, Fr Joseph Ratzinger originally wrote that marriage was indissoluble in the eyes of the Church, but if a “second marriage has proven to have Read more
An English cardinal says that during the synod on the family, he developed his thinking on ways towards Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried. Cardinal Vincent Nichols said he had developed his understanding of how the divorced and remarried could undergo a penitential path. This in turn could lead them being re-admitted to the Read more
A senior German cardinal has emphasised that Church doctrine can change over time. Speaking at a press briefing last Friday, before the synod on the family delivered its final report, Cardinal Reinhard Marx said the Church’s doctrine can develop. “Saying that the doctrine will never change is a restrictive view of things,” Cardinal Marx said. Read more
One third of divorced and remarried Catholics, who have not had their first marriage annulled, receive Communion, according to a Tablet survey. More than 4300 people from around the world completed a questionnaire on www.thetablet.co.uk between 3 and 14 October about what they’d like to see from the synod on the family. Nearly 85 per Read more
The final report from the synod on the family has narrowed down aspects of a “welcoming” preliminary report, especially concerning gay people. The preliminary report, issued half way through the synod, asked if the Church community was welcoming to gay people. It noted that gay people have “gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian Read more
German Cardinal Walter Kasper has said that African prelates should not tell the rest of the Church what to do about homosexual people. In an interview with Zenit on October 15, after the evening working groups’ discussions at the synod on the family, Cardinal Kasper said homosexuality is a taboo subject in Africa. “Africa is Read more
A prominent American cardinal in the Roman Curia has accused the media of attempting to hijack next month’s synod on the family. Cardinal Raymond Burke, who heads the Apostolic Signatura, said the media has created an expectation of changes to Church teaching that can’t happen. The Apostolic Signatura is the highest judicial body in the Read more
Britain’s most senior Catholic has said that the Church has forgotten the importance of mercy during the past few decades. Ahead of next month’s synod on the family, Cardinal Vincent Nichols told a press conference that he grew up in a “Church that understood itself as a Church of sinners”. “[But] I don’t think it’s Read more
Cardinal Walter Kasper says hardliners opposed to his proposals for Communion for the divorced and remarried really have Pope Francis as a target. The German cardinal told the Italian daily Il Mattino that some of his fellow cardinals “. . . claim to know on their own what truth is, but Catholic doctrine is not a Read more