"To hope for it is to live in the real world," insists Timothy Radcliffe, the former Master of the Dominican Order (1992-2001), who Pope Francis named when he announced the nomination of 21 new cardinals during his Sunday Angelus address October 6. They will be created during a consistory on December 8.

Pope Francis selected the 79-year-old priest and friar to lead a retreat last October for the 363 members of the Synod assembly just before they began deliberating on synodality and the future of the Catholic Church. The theme he chose for that retreat was "Hope against all hope."

In this exclusive interview published by La Croix International January 2, 2024, Fra Timothy, also a best-selling spiritual writer and preacher, explains why — even in our perilous times — there is reason for hope as we begin 2024.

La Croix: How would you define hope?

Timothy Radcliffe: During the general chapters of the Dominican Order to which I belong, we have always noticed a fascinating difference between "Latin" and "Anglo-Saxon" cultures.

Latin cultures generally begin a discussion by defining terms. We Anglo-Saxons find it more fruitful to let the full meaning of words emerge gradually.

So, I am delighted that you are faithful to your French cultural heritage! And, out of courtesy, I must propose something: for a Christian, hope consists of believing that we will attain the fullness of the happiness we aspire to, namely God.

During the retreat you gave last October to the members of the Synod assembly, you meditated on the phrase "Hope against all hope." Isn't that a bit crazy, reckless, and audacious to hope against all hope?

On the contrary, I would say it would be strange - even crazy - NOT to hope for this infinite happiness. Human beings are sometimes touched by the thirst for limitless, unconditional love. If we reject this as an illusion, then we are saying that at the core of our humanity, there is deception.

I believe that this profound human thirst for infinite happiness, which we all feel at times, is the most real thing there is. To hope for it is to live in the real world. Children know this.

I hope that education does not destroy this hope, which is the secret core of our humanity.

The world is currently being shaken by conflicts in Palestine and Ukraine. How can one not be worried and affected by this climate of war? One cannot remain indifferent...

Of course not! It would be scandalous to remain indifferent.

The difficulty is that we so often see violence in the media that it is easy to escape its reality and think that all of this is just a game as if the world's wars were harmless baseball games. If only we could catch a glimpse of the true horror of war, we would weep deeply and strive for peace.

I saw a video of a young Russian soldier being hunted by a drone. He realised it was the end and shot himself in the mouth. I cried for an hour.

The reasons to worry are also related to the climate crisis. Can humanity still save our planet?

That deserves a very long answer! I would simply say that one of the causes of our destructive behavior is the myth that we must pursue endless growth. That is an illusion. We need a new model of a healthy economy.

The second problem is that politics and business focus on the short term - the next elections, the year-end financial report. To get elected, politicians are forced to promise what they cannot deliver. Every politician is therefore a failed messiah.

In Britain, at least, the major political parties always insist that the other party is not trustworthy. So, it's not surprising that we are witnessing the rise of authoritarian regimes. We certainly need a renewal of responsible local democracy, in which we are trained in mutual responsibility.

How do we avoid fear in a world gripped by violence?

It is natural to be afraid in a dangerous world. Courage does not consist of not being afraid but of not being a prisoner of fear. Some of the bravest people I know are those who are afraid but still do what needs to be done.

I think of a Canadian Dominican, Yvon Pomerleau, who dared to return to Rwanda during the genocide at the risk of his life.

The army came to our community to look for him: all the brothers had to lie on the ground, interrogated to reveal his whereabouts. He told me that he was there, trembling with fear, but he did not run away. That is true courage."

The Dominican theologian Herbert McCabe said, "If you love, you will be hurt and even killed. If you don't love, you are already dead."

Yes, we will be hurt, but the risen Lord appeared to the disciples and showed them his wounds. We are the brothers and sisters of our wounded Lord, and our wounds are a sign that we dared to live and share his hope.

How can we trust in the face of an uncertain future?

"Trust" is a beautiful word. It literally means "to believe together" - con-fidens in Latin. We do not hope alone but in the community of faith.

When I have doubts, another person may have the confidence to support me. When they lose hope, I may be able to help them. So, the more perilous the future, the more urgent it is for us to seek the common good together and not to lock ourselves into our own survival.

Is placing one's trust in God a refuge or an escape?

I have had the great privilege of living with people like Blessed Pierre Claverie, who was martyred in Algeria in 1996.

He devoted his life to dialogue with his Muslim friends. He knew he was going to be killed, but he faced the future with confidence in God, and he gave us, his brothers, sisters, and friends, confidence.

I also think of Albert Nolan, a Dominican who courageously fought against apartheid at the risk of his life in South Africa.

It is also so encouraging to live with people who face terrible diseases and ultimately death with courage and joy.

Where can we find hope? From prayer? Meeting others? Reading the Gospel?

Everything can contribute to it! Saint Oscar Romero was afraid of dying, but he was not defeated by that fear because he was a man of deep and silent prayer with the Lord. It was the foundation of his life. Everything he said stemmed from it.

With our closest friends, we can be silent and thus speak more deeply and be led to an even deeper silence. Some of my most precious memories are moments spent with friends in silence, in the presence of beauty, perhaps with a glass in hand!

What are your New Year's resolutions?

I would like to listen to more music. I am convinced that music is essential in our search for peace and harmony. It opens the door to transcendence. My life has often been a frantic race where I tried to do a hundred things. I should devote more time to music.

It is also good preparation for eternity, which is probably not so far away!

• First published in La Croix International
• Christophe Henning is a journalist for La Croix International

Random House Publishing announced the memoir's unprecedented global release on Wednesday. According to the publisher, the original plan was to release it after his death. However, the pope decided to publish it in light of the upcoming 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope.

A jubilee year occurs every 25 years in the Catholic Church - although the Holy Father can declare them more often - and is a year of special grace and pilgrimage for members of the faithful.

The memoir, which the Holy Father began work on in March 2019, will be available in more than 80 countries on Jan 14, 2025.

Read More

Catholic youth groups are experiencing a resurgence. Hundreds of young Catholics are being drawn to faith-based activities and community service, the word from youth groups says.

Hope is in the air

Bishop Fintan Gavin of Cork and Ross says the resurgence makes him feel hopeful.

"I am very hopeful.

"We had last Sunday the Eucharistic procession (pictured) and we had more than 4,000 people.

"Many of them were young people who were living their faith on the streets.

"It is not about numbers, but it is about being there… We need to find a way where young people can be in the culture of today and be a life-giving force within that culture.

"Not running away from the culture but not embracing every aspect of the culture either. That is why young people need the support of one another."

Counterculture recognised

Presentation Brother Martin Kenneally who works with youth leaders says he sees "a young Catholic counterculture emerging in Ireland.

"They are genuine young people searching for meaning."

Some of the young Catholics he works with are involved in a Leadership Education and Formation project.

There are also several prayer groups. Like Kenneally, organisers say they also are seeing a resurgence of interest among young people.

A parish catechist in County Dublin says about 60 young people packed into a small café for a talk on ‘Does God exist?'

"We as a Church need to be creative in our apologetics and getting back to what it means to be a Christian…" he says.

"The younger people who are making the jump to come to church want community, but they also want the answers to their faith. We are in the position to give 2,000 years of philosophy and theology on the good life."

Be signs of hope

Gavin notes that "Maybe we come from a picture in the past that we had too much support from the culture, and we keep contrasting things.

"This is where we are called to be ‘the Church of the here and now' as St Joan of Arc said.

"We need to be signs of hope. A Christian without hope is not really a Christian."

Source

• Irish Catholic

The once-every-quarter-century event is likely to bring about 32 million pilgrims to Rome

Last Thursday at St Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis presided over a ceremony where the papal bull, or official edict, for the Jubilee was read.

It lays out his vision for a year of hope and asks for gestures of solidarity for the poor, prisoners, migrants and Mother Nature.

Behind scenes chaos

Despite the pomp-filled event's majesty and prayerful hope for the upcoming year, there is still much to be done in the seven months until 24 December.

That's when Francis will open the basilica's Holy Door and formally inaugurate the Jubilee.

Just now though, completing preparations and public works projects in time are knife-edge priorities.

As occurred in the months before Jubilee 2000, pre-Jubilee public works projects are overwhelming Rome.

Reports speak of flood-lit construction sites operating around the clock, entire swathes of central boulevards rerouted and traffic jamming Rome's already clogged streets.

Vortexes of work aside, those in charge have faith it will all come together in time. And anyway - Rome's a fabulous place.

"In a beautiful city, you live better" said the Vatican's Jubilee point-person, Archbishop Renato Fisichella. Jubilee funding is helping make it more so for visitors.

"Rome will become an even more beautiful city, because it will be ever more at the service of its people, pilgrims and tourists who will come."

Jubilee years

A Jubilee Year - also known as a Holy Year - has been a tradition since about 1300, originating during Pope Boniface's papacy.

They happen usually once every quarter century, though they can be called more often.

Sometimes a pope calls an extraordinary one - to call attention to a particular issue or celebrate a momentous event for instance.

Francis called the last extraordinary Holy Year in 2016.

He wanted to emphasise his desire to present the Church as merciful and welcoming rather than moralising and remote.

Next year's Jubilee will be the first ordinary one since 2000 under Pope John Paul II's papacy.

The Vatican website says it should also be a time of reconciliation with adversaries and an occasion to promote solidarity, hope and justice in the world.

The Holy Doors, symbolising the doorway of salvation for Catholics, are opened only during Jubilee years.

There are four in Rome - in St Peter's Basilica, St John Lateran, St Mary Major and St Paul Outside the Walls.

Their openings will be staggered, with St Peter's door opening on December 24 this year and closing on January 6, 2026.

We need hope

The Jubilee is necessary, says Francis.

"Hope is needed by God's creation, gravely damaged and disfigured by human selfishness" Francis said in a vigil service after launching the Holy Year.

"Hope is needed by those peoples and nations who look to the future with anxiety and fear."

Source

• AP News
• Reuters

Urging hope seems to ignore charred bodies in a kibbutz and bombed refugee camps, to mock victims of hate crimes, to disregard the failed peace agreements and war machines that crisscross the sky.

Countering rhetoric and policies

At the Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign, we have worked for 13 years to counter the rhetoric and policies that demonise American Muslims and others perceived to be Muslim — Arab, Palestinian, Sikh and South Asian Americans.

Our coalition draws people of faith and goodwill beyond the Muslim community, primarily Christians and Jews, to take responsibility and take action to counter anti-Muslim discrimination.

Our coalition is diverse, spanning the political and theological spectrum.

It requires us to meet communities where they are, holding space and creating plans for their next steps.

This could be lobbying Congress, advocating for inclusive school holiday calendars, caring for recent immigrants and refugees, or having meals and conversations with Muslim neighbours.

Keeping the faith

Interfaith groups in the United States like ours have too often avoided discussions of Israel and Palestine, choosing to go quiet or pause programmes as violence erupts in the Middle East.

In recent years and now with the sheer violence and division of the past seven months, many involved in interfaith engagement have felt this stance was untenable.

We and others in our space know that in this moment we have a choice between giving up all hope, stopping all of our work and conversations, or continuing to fumble together toward some future we can barely, if ever, see.

We're choosing to find strength in a different kind of hope, one that keeps us connected to our deepest ideals and each other.

In the last seven months, our team has had countless one-on-one calls and meetings with Muslim, Christian, Jewish and interfaith leaders, organisations and congregations.

Our conversations have included people in small interfaith coalitions in rural communities, large interfaith organisations in big cities, corporations, universities, and parents desperate for ways to address the rise in bullying at K-12 schools.

These conversations went something like this:

An organisation or faith leader would reach out, looking for guidance on how to counter the sharp rise in anti-Muslim discrimination, while also addressing the rise in anti-Jewish discrimination.

Some made or shared statements condemning the horrific violence of Hamas and were quickly made aware of how the statements were sometimes playing into well-rehearsed Islamophobic tropes.

Others condemned the horrific violence and bombardment of Gaza's civilians and communities, only to hear that those statements sometimes played into well-rehearsed anti-Jewish tropes.

Many felt caught between a swiftly changing landscape and communities believed to be friends.

Most of us had difficulty disentangling the geopolitical dynamics from the religious drivers of this moment.

It has been bewildering to decouple religious and cultural identities from support for particular governments, armed groups and political parties.

Grief, anger, helplessness

As we, interfaith and community leaders, held space for historical trauma, current fears and systemic injustice, we were also experiencing grief, anger and helplessness as the news on the ground grew darker:

Hostages were not freed, nor was Gaza spared bombardment.

Many communities have questioned whether interfaith relationships and coalitions were even real.

Some decided not to host their annual interfaith iftars; others decided to retreat from engaging, focusing on internal communal needs, which are important to address.

Which brings me back to what hope means, and what it does in our lives.

Hope

In my tradition's Christian and Hebrew Scriptures, hope is concrete — something we stand on, and something that can be ripped away in a disaster, like the roots of a tree in a storm.

These Scriptures were written by and about people who repeatedly had everything taken away, who looked at the setting sun certain that this would be their last day.

For many of them, it was.

From these Scriptures I've learned that when the ground has fallen out from under us, hope, as recorded by our ancestors, is something we practice.

As the activist Mariame Kaba says, hope is a discipline.

This is the hope our ancestors testified to amid hopelessness.

To make way for a practice of hope to grow, we have helped guide individuals and organisational leaders to shift from public statements to private conversations.

We've helped them to tend to relationships with people from different political and theological perspectives and to create space for those with shared identities to process generational trauma and dehumanising narratives.

Communal care like this is foundational when powers and principalities are warring around us and between us.

We have seen Christians and Jews give dates and flowers to Muslims in Ramadan.

Muslims invite Jews and Christians to iftars in their homes for intimate conversations.

People of all faiths gather in silent, prayerful vigil to mourn together in a shared search for peace and to work shoulder to shoulder against discrimination.

What we've learned from leaders around the country is that practicing hope means caring for every life lost in violence.

It means showing up in grief, joy and anger.

It means grounding the struggle for dignity, justice and liberation in the hope for a future in which oppressor and oppressed are liberated from the cycles of oppression.

It is to call out anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim narratives and policies with equal force.

It is to make visible the threads of hope that connect every person to a future with everyone at the table.

Practice hope

To build this future, we need this practice of hope.

We must continue to reach out to our neighbors, elected leaders and faith leaders of every tradition.

Those who want to participate in this practice of hope should call elected officials to demand a nonviolent and permanent resolution to the current violence and demand that our budgets reflect life, not death, funding humanitarian aid, not more weapons.

We should demand that security not be dependent on oppression. We need to learn more about anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish tropes and how to counter them effectively.

We should also support peaceful student protesters who deserve every right to demonstrate and advocate for institutional divestment from war.

We should support creating spaces of safety on campuses for people who disagree, without the use of armed police.

More personally, we need to reach out to neighbours, friends and colleagues who are directly impacted in this moment, including Palestinians, Israelis, Arabs, Jews and Muslims.

Even saying "I'm thinking about you and your family" can begin a connection based on mutual care.

We know this practice transforms the world because we have witnessed it in people who, against all odds, changed the trajectory of their communities.

One iftar, or one cup of tea, will not counter anti-Muslim or anti-Jewish discrimination, but we cannot hope to address our joint concerns if we're strangers to each other.

We've learned from the despair of our communities, ancestors, saints and martyrs that hope is anything but hollow.

In fact, interfaith relationships are the fruits of equally hopeless times past, when interfaith and community leaders in the civil rights and labour movements worked together.

From those leaders and from our Scriptures we've learned that hope is the promise of a future full of life, love and dignity.

Hope is the ground beneath our feet that keeps us planting, reaping, building and growing.

Hope is our connection to the promises of a God who sits in the ash heap with Job, a God who cares for the elderly and the orphan when everything has been lost.

Hope is the practice and the thread that connects us to a future we cannot see when all hope is lost.

So we must keep on reaching out and fumbling forward together, searching for the threads of dignity, equity and justice that will lead us toward communities of mutual flourishing and belonging.

First published in Religion News Service

The Rev. Cassandra Lawrence is a United Methodist provisional deacon and director of strategic communications for the Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign: Standing With American Muslims, Advancing American Ideals, a multifaith coalition committed to countering anti-Muslim discrimination and violence in the U.S.

Pope Francis selected the 78-year-old priest and friar to lead a retreat last October for the 363 members of the Synod assembly just before they began their deliberation on synodality and the future of the Catholic Church.

The theme he chose for that retreat was "Hope against all hope".

How would you define hope?

Timothy Radcliffe: During the general chapters of the Dominican Order to which I belong, we have always noticed a fascinating difference between "Latin" and "Anglo-Saxon" cultures.

Latin cultures generally begin a discussion by defining terms. We Anglo-Saxons find it more fruitful to let the full meaning of words emerge gradually.

So, I am delighted that you are faithful to your French cultural heritage!

And, out of courtesy, I must propose something: for a Christian, hope consists of believing that we will attain the fullness of the happiness we aspire to, namely God.

During the retreat you gave last October to the members of the Synod assembly you meditated on the phrase "Hope against all hope". Isn't that a bit crazy, reckless, and audacious to hope against all hope?

On the contrary, I would say it would be strange - even crazy - NOT to hope for this infinite happiness. Human beings are sometimes touched by the thirst for limitless, unconditional love.

If we reject this as an illusion, then we are saying that at the core of our humanity, there is deception.

I believe that this profound human thirst for infinite happiness, which we all feel at times, is the most real thing there is.

To hope for it is to live in the real world. Children know this. I hope that education does not destroy this hope, which is the secret core of our humanity.

The world is currently being shaken by conflicts in Palestine and Ukraine. How can one not be worried and affected by this climate of war? One cannot remain indifferent...

Of course not!

It would be scandalous to remain indifferent. The difficulty is that we so often see violence in the media that it is easy to escape its reality and think that all of this is just a game, as if the world's wars were harmless baseball games.

If only we could catch a glimpse of the true horror of war, we would weep deeply and strive for peace.

I saw a video of a young Russian soldier being hunted by a drone. He realized it was the end and shot himself in the mouth. I cried for an hour.

The reasons to worry are also related to the climate crisis. Can humanity still save our planet?

That deserves a very long answer! I would simply say that one of the causes of our destructive behavior is the myth that we must pursue endless growth. That is an illusion. We need a new model of a healthy economy.

The second problem is that politics and business focus on the short term - the next elections, the year-end financial report. To get elected, politicians are forced to promise what they cannot deliver. Every politician is therefore a failed messiah.

In Britain, at least, the major political parties always insist that the other party is not trustworthy.

So, it's not surprising that we are witnessing the rise of authoritarian regimes.

We certainly need a renewal of responsible local democracy, in which we are trained in mutual responsibility.

How do we avoid fear in a world gripped by violence?

It is natural to be afraid in a dangerous world. Courage does not consist of not being afraid but of not being a prisoner of fear.

Some of the bravest people I know are those who are afraid but still do what needs to be done.

I think of a Canadian Dominican, Yvon Pomerleau, who dared to return to Rwanda during the genocide at the risk of his life. The army came to our community to look for him: all the brothers had to lie on the ground, interrogated to reveal his whereabouts. He told me that he was there, trembling with fear, but he did not run away. That is true courage.

The Dominican theologian Herbert McCabe said, "If you love, you will be hurt and even killed. If you don't love, you are already dead."

Yes, we will be hurt, but the risen Lord appeared to the disciples and showed them his wounds. We are the brothers and sisters of our wounded Lord, and our wounds are a sign that we dared to live and share his hope.

How can we trust in the face of an uncertain future?

"Trust" is a beautiful word. It literally means "to believe together" - con-fidens in Latin. We do not hope alone but in the community of faith.

When I have doubts, another person may have the confidence to support me.

When they lose hope, I may be able to help them.

So, the more perilous the future, the more urgent it is for us to seek the common good together and not to lock ourselves into our own survival.

Is placing one's trust in God a refuge or an escape?

I have had the great privilege of living with people like Blessed Pierre Claverie, who was martyred in Algeria in 1996. He devoted his life to dialogue with his Muslim friends. He knew he was going to be killed, but he faced the future with confidence in God, and he gave us, his brothers, sisters, and friends, confidence.

I also think of Albert Nolan, a Dominican who courageously fought against apartheid at the risk of his life in South Africa.

It is also so encouraging to live with people who face terrible diseases and ultimately death with courage and joy.

Where can we find hope? From prayer? Meeting others? Reading the Gospel?

Everything can contribute to it! Saint Oscar Romero was afraid of dying, but he was not defeated by that fear because he was a man of deep and silent prayer with the Lord. It was the foundation of his life. Everything he said stemmed from it.

With our closest friends, we can be silent and thus speak more deeply and be led to an even deeper silence. Some of my most precious memories are moments spent with friends in silence, in the presence of beauty, perhaps with a glass in hand!

What are your New Year's resolutions?

I would like to listen to more music.

I am convinced that music is essential in our search for peace and harmony. It opens the door to transcendence.

My life has often been a frantic race, where I tried to do a hundred things. I should devote more time to music.

It is also good preparation for eternity, which is probably not so far away!

Source

• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

"When we think of human tragedies, especially the suffering of the innocent, we too can echo some of the Psalms and ask the Lord ‘Why?' At the same time however, we can also be part of God's answer to the problem" the pope said.

Addressing the theme of "Rejoicing in Hope," the pope's message precedes the upcoming diocesan World Youth Day, scheduled as the Solemnity of Christ the King.

"Created by him in his image and likeness" he continued, "we can be signs of his love, which gives rise to joy and hope even in situations that appear hopeless."

The annual World Youth Day, established initially by St John Paul II in 1985, fosters unity among young Catholics across the globe.

The next international World Youth Day is planned for Seoul, South Korea in 2027.

Young adults are also invited to attend a Jubilee of Young People in Rome during the 2025 Jubilee Year.

"Sadly, many of your contemporaries who experience wars, violent conflict, bullying and other kinds of hardship are gripped by despair, fear and depression" he said.

"They feel as if they are in a dark prison, where the light of the sun cannot enter."

He pointed to the high suicide rate among teens and young adults in some countries as a dramatic sign of the level of depression in the world.

"In such situations, how can we experience the joy and hope of which St Paul speaks?" Francis said.

Faith-driven optimism

In response to such desolation, Pope Francis called for an adherence to faith-driven optimism and becoming beacons of hope.

He stressed that authentic Christian joy emanates from encounters with Christ, not from human endeavours.

The pope gave two pieces of advice for keeping hope alive: to spend time daily in prayer and to make the decision to live in hope.

"When you feel surrounded by the clouds of fear, doubt and anxiety and you no longer see the sun, take the path of prayer" he said, recalling Benedict XVI's words in the encyclical Spe Salvi:

"For ‘when no one listens to me anymore, God still listens to me'."

Sources

Catholic News Agency

Every single one of them offered encouraging words of hope.

But if one wants to know what is happening at this synodal assembly, those words of hope are pretty much all we have for now, given that Pope Francis has chosen a policy that limits the media's access to what is going on behind the closed-door meetings.

Paul VI instituted the Synod of Bishops in 1965 and the next year issue its first Ordo, the set of regulations and procedures.

It made clear his desire that the Synod assemblies would be a hortus conclusus, a protected moment shielded from the press and public scrutiny.

Only later did Synod assemblies gradually become more open to the press and the public.

Francis' current policy therefore marks a strange return to the past - but not to the days of John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Ironically, compared to "Synod 2023", the various assemblies that were held during those two pontificates actually featured more openness in revealing the contents of the discussions that took place in the Synod Hall.

There could have been other methods

The new lack of openness is problematic, because it could hamper the Synod assembly from becoming the spark that ignites synodality in the global Church.

Journalism has been called "the first draft of history", and without more openness and less secrecy it will be difficult, in years to come, to write a history of this synodal assembly.

Historiographical accounts of ecclesial events are different - but not separated - from the continuous making of the tradition in a community, including the Church.

Pope Francis has not been precise (to say the least) in outlining his expectations of the role journalists should play in the Church.

For example, there are some differences between the Church's relationship with journalists, per se, and its relationship with Catholic journalists.

The Synod is not a conclave; there could have been other methods to preserve the freedom of synodal members (such as some version of the "Chatham House Rule").

It's not just Francis' fear of what journalists, of whom he has always tried to make a very attentive and strategic use, could say that could perturb this retreat-like assembly of the Synod.

In fact, the assemblies held during previous pontificates were not just of a different kind.

They were also carefully controlled by the Roman Curia and, in some sense, already scripted to achieve a specific outcome.

And this Synod has been structured more as a retreat of a small ecclesial community than a meeting of delegates of the global Church.

More photos to look at than texts to read

This is also a different era in the history of the mass media and of the use and misuse of the media in the Church and by Catholics.

The "culture war" narratives have changed the role of the media with polarising effects in the ecclesial conversation.

But there is also a change in the technology that this Synod assembly is evidencing.

In the more than two weeks that it's been in session, we have been given more photos to look at than written texts to read! There's a real temptation to call this the "Synod of selfies".

It is true that photos provide a narrative as well. But they can also be very misleading.

Our culture today is one of images in ways that the culture of twenty years ago was not. That was before smartphones and social media changed our daily relationship with reality, including ecclesial reality.

There's now a whole new iconography - not paintings of dead saints, but self-made instant icons of living ecclesial leaders in our ubiquitous celebrity culture.

There is a whole psychology and spirituality of selfies (especially selfies taken by and with Catholic celebrities - the pope, cardinals, bishops, etc.) that the policies of the Synod and self-discipline of Synod members could and should take into account.

On the other hand, this policy and the world media's relative silence about the Synod are strangely fitting in this moment when so many lamps are going out in our world.

It makes sense that news on the Synod is being overshadowed by other world events such as those in Israel and Gaza, without forgetting Ukraine and the situation in the Caucasus.

Moreover, the policy concerning the media and the Synod is also a failure to understand or appreciate that if synodality is to work the Church must engage the media's quest for news-making narratives in ways that are different from the recent past - especially from the time of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

The pope's big gamble

Synodality entails redefining the roles of the characters on the stage of the religious and spiritual drama that should be at the center of the Christian story.

In its coverage of the Catholic Church, the media will always place much attention on the ecclesiastical game, that is, on Church politics.

But this does not mean that the Church should provide the media with the usual script.

At the same time, it is also important to note that in the Synod assemblies that preceded Francis, there was greater separation between those who are members of the assembly and those who craft a media narrative on the Synod.

Among those whom the Jesuit pope has appointed as members of the current assembly, are individuals well known for their ability to influence narratives on the Church in both the Catholic and mainstream media.

They have been quite visible in these days.

There are also elderly and eminent theologians at this assembly - some of them octogenarians who have been real fathers of the theology of synodality since the 1970s.

But, since they don't take selfies like those in the hall who are savvier with social media, we don't see many (if any) photos of them participating the Synod. It's almost as if they are not even there.

Francis' new policy concerning the Synod and the media must also be seen in light of the relationship between the news and the truth. We are now at a new stage of the "post-truth" age.

It's not they we are uninterested in truth, it's that many now believe it is impossible and futile to know the truth, or to trust the media - and other institutions, the Church included - in their presentations of the truth.

Through his new Synod-media policy, the pope has taken a huge gamble on what type of reception synodality among the world's Catholics during the long period between the current session of Synod assembly and its second session in October 2024.

It's also big gamble for the papacy, which has come to rely more and more on mainstream media to tell its story - not the Church's, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

• Massimo Faggioli is a Church historian, Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University (Philadelphia) and a much published author and commentator. He is a visiting professor in Europe and Australia.
• First published in La Croix. Republished with permission.

I am old - white - a Westerner - and a man! I don't know which is worse! All of these aspects of my identity limit my understanding. So I ask for your forgiveness for the inadequacy of my words.

We are all radically incomplete and need each other. Karl Barth, the great Protestant theologian, wrote of the Catholic ‘both/ and.'
For example, Scripture and tradition, faith and works.

He is said to have called it the ‘damned Catholic "And"', ‘das verdammte katholische "Und"'.

So when we listen to each other during the coming weeks and disagree, I pray we shall often say, ‘Yes, and…..' Rather than ‘No'! That is the Synodal way.

Of course, No is also sometimes necessary!

"In the second reading at Mass today, St Paul says to the Philippians: ‘Complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing'. (Philippians 2.2).

We are gathered here because we are not united in heart and mind.

The vast majority of people who have taken part in the synodal process have been surprised by joy. For many, it is the first time that the Church has invited them to speak of their faith and hope.

But some of us are afraid of this journey and of what lies ahead.

Some hope that the Church will be dramatically changed, that we shall take radical decisions, for example about the role of women in the Church. Others are afraid of exactly these same changes and fear that they will only lead to division, even schism.

Some of you would prefer not to be here at all.

A bishop told me that he prayed not to be chosen to come here. His prayer was granted! You may be like the son in today's gospel who at first does not want to go to the vineyard, but he goes!

At crucial moments in the gospels, we always hear these words: ‘Do not be afraid.'

St John tells us ‘Perfect love casts out fear.'

So let us begin by praying that the Lord will free our hearts from fear. For some this is the fear of change and for others the fear that nothing will change.But ‘the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.[1]''

Of course, we all have fears, but Aquinas taught us that courage is refusing to be enslaved by fear. May we always be sensitive to the fears of others, especially those with whom we disagree.

Like Abraham, we leave not knowing where we are going (Hebrews 11.8). But if we free our hearts of fear, it will be wonderful beyond our imagination.

To guide us during this retreat, we shall meditate on the Transfiguration.

This is the retreat Jesus gives to his closest disciples before they embark on the first synod in the life of the Church, when they walk together (syn-hodos) to Jerusalem.

This retreat was needed because they were afraid of this journey they must make together.

Until now they have wandered around the north of Israel. But at Caesarea Philippi, Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ.

Then Jesus invites them to go with him to Jerusalem, where he will suffer, die and be raised from the dead. They cannot accept this. Peter tries to prevent him.

Jesus calls him ‘Satan', ‘enemy'. The little community is paralysed. So Jesus takes them up the mountain. Let us listen to St Mark's account of what happened.

"Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them.

"And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

"Then Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

"He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.

"Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!"

"Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them anymore, but only Jesus." (9.2 - 8).

This retreat gives them the courage and hope to set off on their journey. It does not always go well.

They immediately fail to free the young lad from the evil spirit. They quarrel about who is the greatest. They misunderstand the Lord. But they are on their way with a fragile hope.

So we too prepare for our synod by going on retreat where, like the disciples, we learn to listen to the Lord.

When we set off in three days' time, we shall often be like those disciples, and misunderstand each other and even quarrel. But the Lord will lead us onwards towards the death and resurrection of the Church.

Let us ask the Lord to give us hope too: the hope that this synod will lead to a renewal of the Church and not division; the hope that we shall draw closer to each other as brothers and sisters.

This is our hope not just for the Catholic Church but for all our baptised brothers and sisters. People talk of an ‘ecumenical winter'. We hope for an ecumenical spring.

We also gather in hope for humanity.

The future looks grim. Ecological catastrophe threatens the destruction of our home. Wildfires and floods have devoured the world this summer. Small islands begin to disappear under the sea.

Millions of people are on the road fleeing from poverty and violence. Hundreds have drowned in the Mediterranean not far from here. Many parents refuse to bring children into a world that appears doomed. In China, young people wear T-shirts saying, ‘We are the last generation'.

Let us gather in hope for humanity, especially hope for the young.

I don't know how many parents we have at the Synod, but thank you for cherishing our future.

After a difficult time in South Sudan, on the frontier with the Congo, I flew back to Britain beside a child who screamed without interruption for eight hours.

I am ashamed to confess that I had murderous thoughts! But what more marvelous priestly ministry than to raise children and seek to open their minds and hearts to the promise of life.

Parents and teachers are ministers of hope. Read more

• Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP, is an English Catholic priest and Dominican friar who served as master of the Order of Preachers from 1992 to 2001. This is Part 1 of the reflection he shared with those about to attend the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which began yesterday.

But there is another source of tension. Our understandings of the Church as our home sometimes clash. Every living creature needs a home if it is to flourish. Fish need water and birds need nests. Without a home, we cannot live.

Different cultures have different conceptions of home.

The Instrumentum Laboris (IL) tells us that ‘Asia offered the image of the person who takes off his or her shoes to cross the threshold as a sign of the humility with which we prepare to meet God and our neighbour.

Oceania proposed the image of the boat and Africa suggested the image of the Church as the family of God, capable of offering belonging and welcome to all its members in all their variety.' (IL B 1.2).

But all of these images show that we need somewhere in which we are both accepted and challenged.

At home we are affirmed as we are and invited to be more. Home is where we are known, loved and safe but challenged to embark on the adventure of faith.

We need to renew the Church as our common home if we are to speak to a world which is suffering from a crisis of homelessness. We are consuming our little planetary home.

There are more than 350 million migrants on the move, fleeing war and violence. Thousands die crossing seas to try to find a home. None of us can be entirely at home unless they are. Even in wealthy countries, millions sleep on the street. Young people are often unable to afford a home.

Everywhere there is a terrible spiritual homelessness.

Acute individualism, the breakdown of the family, ever deeper inequalities mean that we are afflicted with a tsunami of loneliness. Suicides are rising because without a home, physical and spiritual, one cannot live. To love is to come home to someone.

So what does this scene of the Transfiguration teach us about our home, both in the Church and in our dispossessed world?

Jesus invites his innermost circle of friends to come apart with him and enjoy this intimate moment. They too will be with him in the Garden of Gethsemane.

This is the inner circle of those with whom Jesus is most at home. On the mountain he grants them a vision of his glory. Peter wants to cling to this moment.

‘ "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." '.

He has arrived and wants this intimate moment to endure.

But they hear the voice of the Father. ‘Listen to him!'

They must come down the mountain and walk to Jerusalem, not knowing what awaits them. They will be dispersed and sent to the ends of the earth to be witnesses to our ultimate home, the Kingdom.

So here we see two understandings of home: the inner circle at home with Jesus on the mountain and the summons to our ultimate home, the Kingdom in which all will belong.

Similar different understandings of the Church as home tear us apart today.

For some it is defined by its ancient traditions and devotions, its inherited structures and language, the Church we have grown up with and love. It gives us a clear Christian identity.

For others, the present Church does not seem to be a safe home.

It is experienced as exclusive, marginalising many people, women: the divorced and remarried. For some it is too Western, too Eurocentric. The IL mentions also gay people and people in polygamous marriages.

They long for a renewed Church in which they will feel fully at home, recognized, affirmed and safe.

For some the idea of a universal welcome, in which everyone is accepted regardless of who they are, is felt as destructive of the Church's identity. As in a nineteenth-century English song, ‘If everybody is somebody then nobody is anybody.[1]'

They believe that identity demands boundaries.

But for others, it is the very heart of the Church's identity to be open.

Pope Francis said, ‘The Church is called on to be the house of the Father, with doors always wide open ... where there is a place for everyone, with all their problems and to move towards those who feel the need to take up again their path of faith.'[2]

This tension has always been at the heart of our faith, since Abraham left Ur.

The Old Testament holds two things in perpetual tension: the idea of election, God's chosen people, the people with whom God dwells. This is an identity which is cherished.

But also universalism, openness to all the nations, an identity which is yet to be discovered.

Christian identity is both known and unknown, given and to be sought.

St. John says, ‘Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. 'What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.' (1 John 3. 1 - 2).

We know who we are and yet we do not know who we shall be.

For some of us, the Christian identity is above all given, the Church we know and love. For others Christian identity is always provisional, lying ahead as we journey towards the Kingdom in which all walls will fall.

Both are necessary!

If we stress only our identity is given - This is what it means to be Catholic - we risk becoming a sect. If we just stress the adventure towards an identity yet to be discovered, we risk becoming a vague Jesus movement.

But the Church is a sign and sacrament of the unity of all humanity in Christ (LG. 1) in being both. We dwell on the mountain and taste the glory now. But we walk to Jerusalem, that first synod of the Church.

How are we to live this necessary tension? Read more

• Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP, is an English Catholic priest and Dominican friar who served as master of the Order of Preachers from 1992 to 2001. This is Part 2 of the reflection he shared with those about to attend the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which began yesterday.

"Hope needs to be restored to our European societies, especially to the new generations" he told people gathered in St Peter's Square for his weekly general audience on September 27.

"In fact, how can we welcome others if we ourselves do not first have a horizon open to the future?" he said.

"Our societies, many times sickened by individualism, by consumerism and by empty escapism, need to open themselves, their souls and spirits to be oxygenised, and then they will be able to read the crisis as an opportunity and deal with it positively," he emphasised.

Human-centric outlook

Reflecting on his recent visit to Marseille, France for the "Rencontres Méditerranéennes," or Mediterranean Encounter, the Pope highlighted the importance of fostering a human-centric outlook when confronting issues in the Mediterranean region, such as immigration.

He noted the emergence of hope and fraternity, even among those who have endured inhumane conditions.

He encouraged the continent of Europe to cultivate this passion and enthusiasm so that the Mediterranean region could be "a mosaic of civilisation and hope" rather than "a tomb" or a "place of conflict".

"The Mediterranean Sea," the pope said, "is the complete opposite of the clash between civilisations, war and human trafficking."

The Pope's visit to Marseille left a lasting impression of hope and humanity. He thanked the people of Marseille and President Emmanuel Macron for their warmth and support during his visit.

"Today's liturgical memorial of St Vincent de Paul reminds us of the centrality of love of neighbour" the pope said. "I urge everyone to cultivate the attitude of caring for others and openness to those who need you."

Sources

Catholic News Agency

National Catholic Reporter

CathNews New Zealand

Even when something positive happens in the Church, they will say, "Not enough!" or "Too little, too late."

In his opening address to the Second Vatican Council, Pope St. John XXIII mentioned "prophets of doom, who are always forecasting disaster."

Of course, it's not surprising that LGBTQ people might feel discouraged — even despairing—from time to time when Church leaders and others put so many stumbling blocks in their way.

But this can also betoken a reflexive focus on the negative, a pattern that can seem hard to break.

Reflecting on the story of the Raising of Lazarus, from John's Gospel (11:1-44), can offer all of us, not just LGBTQ people, some clues in how to move away from the focusing on the negative.

When Jesus asks Martha to remove the stone that covers her brother Lazarus's tomb, a thrilling moment of possibility, she says something odd: "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days."

Martha, who has already professed her faith in Jesus as the "Messiah," is focused on the negative.

Jesus's reassuring response to Martha's mention of the stench, however, is puzzling: "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

This comment functions less as a direct response to Martha's question and more as a general reassurance to this troubled sister and to the crowd mourning with her.

His reassurance is reminiscent of the Angel Gabriel's response to the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation.

In Luke's Gospel, Mary, "much perplexed" by the news that she will give birth, asks, "How can this be?" (1:34). Mary is also focused on the practical: she's a virgin.

In response, the angel reassures Mary by reminding her that her cousin Elizabeth, previously thought to be unable to give birth, is pregnant.

"For nothing will be impossible with God," says the angel.

God reassures Mary, as Jesus reassures Martha by Lazarus's tomb.

In moments of confusion, doubt or fear, such reassurance can jolt us out of our focus on the practical, the negative or the seemingly impossible.

This is what Jesus does in both cases for Martha in front of her brother's tomb.

In our own lives, there are several antidotes to a misdirected focus on the obviously negative, the purely personal or the seemingly impossible.

To be clear: I'm not saying that we should never feel sad or discouraged. Sadness, frustration and discouragement are natural reactions to times of loss, pain or a disappointing turn of events.

What I'm talking about here is a frequent, persistent or habitual tendency to focus on the negative to the exclusion of all else.

What can help counteract those tendencies?

First, gratitude. Nothing counters negativity as much as gratitude. As St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, said, ingratitude is the worst, most abominable of sins and the origin of sins.

Ingratitude blinds us to the blessings that God is giving us, even in the middle of tough times. Ongoing ingratitude can make us tetchy, negative, complaining and even despairing.

In those moments of negativity, doing an honest inventory on the blessings in our lives can help restore some balance. Read more

• James J. Martin SJ is an American Jesuit Catholic priest, writer, and editor-at-large of the Jesuit magazine America.
• Article first published in Outreach.

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

Yet the long history of American—mostly Protestant—hymnody, set to the cadence of the King James Bible, is embedded in our collective religious consciousness. (Think Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" or "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.")

From there it moved into folk music, most notably Pete Seeger's "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and a huge chunk of Bob Dylan's ever-expanding catalog.

We are living in the twilight age of significant singer-songwriters who have worked in a biblical idiom.

Willie Nelson just celebrated his 90th birthday with a two-day series of tribute concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. Bob Dylan turned 82 last month; Paul McCartney will be 81 this month.

Paul Simon, another octogenarian songwriter, has just released a new album entitled "Seven Psalms."

The Psalter is the Bible's songbook, and tradition attributes most of the Psalms to King David, whom the Bible dubs "the sweet singer of Israel."

And while Paul Simon is not known for a large number of biblically inspired songs ("Bridge Over Troubled Water" being the notable exception), he has touched upon biblical and religious themes before.

I refer the reader to "Jonah" from the 1980 LP "One Trick Pony," or his use of the melody from the old hymn "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" for his 1973 song "American Tune," or the heartbreaking yet uplifting story of the refugee family who finds shelter in the church from life and death in "The Coast," from 1990's transcendent "Rhythm of the Saints."

This list can be easily extended.

"Seven Psalms" is different, though.

The entire 33-minute record is one musical piece without pause, with sparse instrumentation and production, built around minor chords.

Its sad and reflective music suits Simon's wobbly high tenor.

John Pareles describes the record as "a last testament" in The New York Times, and while it has an air of finality in terms of this world, it hints at an open door that leads into much larger rooms.

The Psalter, strictly speaking, is not God's word to us, but rather our words about God, and as such it is rich in metaphors for the divine: rock, tower, light, shepherd, a mother's comforting breast.

Like its namesake, "Seven Psalms" piles up its own imagery for God, encompassing the biblical God of both comfort and destruction:

The Lord is my engineer
The Lord is the earth I ride on
The Lord is the face in the atmosphere
The path I slip and I slide on

The Covid virus is the Lord
The Lord is the ocean rising
The Lord is a terrible swift sword
A simple truth surviving
In this cosmic vision, Simon also sees the Lord in the human world in terms of stewardship, vulnerability and care. One such example is this repeated stanza that the radical priest in "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" would no doubt approve of:

The Lord is a virgin forest
The Lord is a forest ranger
The Lord is a meal for the poorest of the poor
A welcome door to the stranger

But it is the last ten minutes of the record, beginning with the movement entitled "The Sacred Harp," where "Seven Psalms" takes flight.

Here, Simon's wife, Edie Brickell—a wonderful singer in her own right—joins in counterpoint and harmony as Simon paints a picture of the two of them picking up a hitchhiking, unhoused young couple.

The girl says, "We're refugees of sorts/ From my hometown/ They don't like different there/ They would have moved us down," while the boy says nothing, struggling with the unnamed but all-too-common traumatic exclusions that occur in this country. Continue reading

Seven Psalms

0​1 The Lord
02 Love Is Like a Braid
03 My Professional Opinion
04 Your Forgiveness
05 Trail of Volcanoes
06 The Sacred Harp
07 Wait

Seven Psalms

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• Thomas M. Bolin is a theology and religious studies professor at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis.

Soon after, as the reality of her situation emerged, the mindset shifted.

That's when she realised how lucky she was just to be alive.

Now, as time has gone on, and the full extent of her injuries have been assessed, treatment undergone, rehabilitation kicked into gear, this 26-year-old Canterbury and Tall Ferns basketballer has found a familiar place in her mentality.

The competitor in her, the achiever, has taken over.

Survival mode has been replaced by a fierce determination that she is going to make it back on to a basketball court.

"The Mary Goulding story is not finished," she says with a smile that lights up the small room she's calling home in the rehabilitation facility in Auckland where she's working at becoming whole again.

Goulding has agreed to speak to Stuff exclusively from the treatment centre, still early in her recovery process, because she has people she is desperate to thank, a story she wants to tell.

She has also been nothing short of overwhelmed by the outpouring of love, support and prayers she received from all around the world following the harrowing accident she suffered in Rangiora, just north of Christchurch, on May 20 whilst driving for a training session between camps with the Tall Ferns.

Understand this: Goulding has just waded through a minefield of trauma she now knows could have killed her.

Very nearly did.

She has only just regained the ability to speak above a whisper, to swallow and taste soft food, to drink water.

She is in the very early stages of a recovery process that will take months, maybe years to get where she wants to.

Yet she has invited us into her little sanctum of healing because this shining, beautiful soul understands the importance of sharing.

"I'm not sure what God has planned for the rest of my life, but I have no doubt He didn't really have a choice with all the prayers," she says.

"But there must be something else I'm meant to be."

There must be.

For when she lay in critical condition in Christchurch Hospital, for 12 days kept in an induced coma because of the severity of her injuries, grave fears were held for her life.

Scans showed a brain injury, not to mention serious damage to her left leg, and neck and shoulder on the right side.

Father Tim, mother Jennifer, and siblings Georgia, John Paul, Bernadette and Celine (oldest sister Lara could not make it from Toronto but was in daily contact) all feared for the worst, even while they prayed for the best.

Then, when she finally transitioned out of critical condition, and was judged ready to take the most important step of her recovery, opening one eye, then the other, what emerged was nothing short of a miracle.

Sure, the body was battered and mind confused, but it soon became clear to a delirious Goulding family that their Mary had emerged from that dark place as well as could have been expected.

Undoubtedly their prayers had been answered. Continue reading

It's the sentence that lifts off the page.

It's a few spoken words that go directly to the heart.

We all have these experiences.

One gift that has stayed with me, came from an old Jewish rabbi.

He wrote: "It's a sin to read the Torah as fact. It is parable."

That came like a bolt of lightning to someone who read the Gospels as history and fact.

The clue was there in Matthew: "Jesus spoke all things in parables. Without a parable was not anything he said."

There it was. A statement made twice for emphasis.

But it took a historic rabbi to bring its importance to heart.

I don't believe reading the Gospels as history and fact is wrong. I would call that a "head" way of understanding.

It's when we read the Gospels as parable that we open our hearts to Jesus.

What we receive will be personal and absolutely right for the moment.

Like most of you, I have always celebrated Easter in the Church with fellow lovers of Jesus.

Good Friday is a time of sadness. Easter Sunday is resurrection and rejoicing.

The two events have separation in the tomb.

This year brought me an extra gift that I would like to share with you.

Covid was a blessing. It kept me housebound, just me, the cat and the crucifixion journey in all four Gospels.

It was a journey done with the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

With that, came the knowing that crucifixion and resurrection could not be separated.

They are a way of growth.

Jesus demonstrated that what is resurrected is always greater than what has died.

I thought of the desolate times in my own life, times when I seemed that everything I valued was taken from me.

Those situations were worsened by my inability to retaliate. To do so would have been against Christian principles.

I had times in the tomb.

Then resurrection came, and with it, the realisation that I was in a larger place.

You may wish to look at this in your own life.

When did your life seem to take a cruel turn?

When were your plans destroyed, leaving you helpless?

How did you feel?

Then what happened afterwards?

You may return to Easter and realise that Jesus did more than "die for our sins."

He demonstrated that he was "The way, the Truth and the Life."

And when he added, "No one comes to the Father except by me," he was not making a political statement. He simply told us that this was what God's life school is about.

He lived his life for us, and continues to do so.

If you doubt this, just take a close look at the beauty in your own growth.

• Joy Cowley is a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and retreat facilitator. Joy Cowley is a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and retreat facilitator.

Instead of cataloguing and discussing his past decade's wins and losses, Francis has been speaking of his hopes for the future.

"It's not for me to decide what I've achieved", he told media when questioned.

"The Lord will do the appraisal when he sees fit."

He says certain the criteria for judgment will be drawn from the Gospel of Matthew 25: feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick and visiting prisoners.

His eye isn't on death anyway. Yes, he thinks of it often, but "very peacefully" because "it is necessary to remember" that no one lives forever.

A more lively future-focused view is what he's concentrating on right now, he tells media.

It's one involving three hopes: fraternity, tears and smiles

These hopes are encapsulated in a short 10th anniversary "popecast" Vatican News has released about his dreams for the Church, the world and humanity.

"We are all brothers and sisters," he says. We need to make more effort to live like brothers and sisters.

"And to learn not to be afraid to weep and to smile," he said.

"When a person knows how to cry and how to smile, he or she has their feet on the ground and their gaze on the horizon of the future.

"If a person has forgotten how to cry, something is wrong," Francis said.

"And if that person has forgotten how to smile, it's even worse."

The pope's upbeat take on the future continues in other media reports.

The current Synod of Bishops on synodality is important, he tells journalists. He has tried to revitalise the synods, including more voices is an ongoing process.

That includes ensuring women's voices are included.

In past synods, while the input of many was essential, it was for bishops to discern and vote. Ten priests — and occasionally a religious brother — traditionally were elected as full voting members of the synod.

Francis altered this in 2021 when he appointed Xavière Missionary Sister Nathalie Becquart as one of the undersecretaries of the synod general secretariat.

This means she is an automatic voting member of the assembly.

"Everyone who participates in the synod will vote," Francis says.

Each participant member "has the right to vote. Whether male or female. Everyone, everyone. That word everyone for me is key."

Everyone, including LGBTQ Catholics "is a child of God and each one seeks and finds God by whatever path he or she can."

He supports the legal rights guaranteed by civil unions for gay couples and others who share a life. Nor should homosexuality be criminalised, he says.

It's sinful like any sexual activity outside of marriage; Francis doesn't think those sins will see a person in hell.

But pastoral outreach to LGBTQ Catholics and accepting "gender ideology," are different, he stresses. Gender ideology is one of the most dangerous ideological colonisations.

Francis also has a horror or war and is deeply concerned for Ukraine.

If he could have anything for his anniversary it would be: "Peace. We need peace".

Source

• OSV News

Have the courage to follow Jesus despite the fears and insecurities you might have, Francis said.

He began his speech after riding around in his popemobile greeting youth before the event started, listening to testimonies from several participants before offering his own remarks.

"Life is for living and giving to others," he told the crowd.

"It is important that you move forward."

Staying isolated and closed off from others doesn't help, but talking to and confiding in others about your fears does.

"Illuminate them, say them. Discouragement? Win it with courage, with someone to give you a hand. And the nose for life: don't lose it, because it's a beautiful thing."

Acknowledging the many reasons making young people afraid, Francis reminded the 80,000-strong crowd that Easter marks Jesus' victory over death.

This year, "the clouds that darken our time are still dense," he said.

"In addition to the pandemic, Europe is experiencing a terrible war, while injustices and violence continue in many regions of the earth that destroy mankind and the planet."

It is often young people who pay the highest price as they lose their hope and dreams for the future, he said.

"Sometimes life puts us to the test, makes us touch our frailties, makes us feel naked, helpless, alone…We must not be ashamed to say: ‘I'm afraid of the dark!' We are all afraid of the dark," the pope said. "Fears must be said, fears must be expressed in order to be able to drive them away.

"When the fears, which are in darkness, go into the light, the truth bursts out," he said. The important thing about moments of crisis is not the crisis itself, but "how I manage this crisis."

Closing his speech, the pope told the young crowd not to be "ashamed of your outbursts of generosity."

"Don't be afraid of life, please! Be afraid of death, the death of the soul, the death of the future, the closure of the heart, be afraid of these things. But of life, no. Life is beautiful."

Called "#Seguimi (#Followme)," from Chapter 21 of John's Gospel and promoted on social media under the same hashtag, the pilgrimage marks one of the first major public gatherings to take place in St Peter's Square since 2020.

Source

• CruxNow
• Image:

‘The purpose of the Synod, and therefore of this consultation, is not to produce documents, but to plant dreams, draw forth prophecies and visions, allow hope to flourish, inspire trust, bind up wounds, weave together relationships, awaken a dawn of hope, learn from one another, create a bright resourcefulness that will enlightened minds, warm hearts, give strength to our hands' - Pope Francis

Thank you for the invitation to be involved with preparations for the forthcoming Synod of Bishops.

It has come at a critical time in the history of the planet and of the Church. We believe our Church needs a paradigm shift in its structures and approach to mission if it is to unleash the fullness of the Gospel message to our threatened planet.

Our current tamed tired Church is often a hindrance to proper evangelisation.

As members of a longstanding Catholic Worker community, like you, we take as our starting point the mandate from God given to Jesus, recorded in Luke 4/18-19.

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and give new sight to the blind, to free the oppressed, and announce the Lord's year of mercy.'

In so doing, sadly it seems we part company to a large degree with many for whom the Catholic tradition is wedded to the promotion of the Constantinian Church in the 4th century with all the compromises that went with that and subsequent developments.

Context - a planet under siege

If we accept, as do most scientists and world religions including the Catholic Church, that everything is interconnected, that the whole of life forms a cloak of woven fabric with each part dependent on the other, that one strand unravelling can undo all the others, then we need to make these connections ourselves every day in every way.

The August 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report (IPCCR) and the subsequent COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow have issued massive wake-up calls for the human community highlighting the damage we are continuing to do to the planet.

Their warnings were stark, graphic, urgent.

They came from the best sources - the IPCC Report reflecting the combined work over decades by more than 200 scientists from 60 countries, and COP26 bringing together the world's political leaders and the frontline groundwork of tens of thousands of climate activists and experts. They all agree we are living on a rapidly deteriorating planet.

The People of God - a vision undermined

For many centuries, the Church has taught that its teaching authority was built on Scripture and Tradition. Yet the Church generally has failed to disseminate our up-to-date scholarship in these matters leading to them becoming largely irrelevant to modern minds.

The Decree on the Church agreed to at Vatican II was a transformational document, filled with challenges and alive with expectation.

Along with other documents on ecumenism, the Church in the Modern World, the Laity, Liturgy, Religious freedom and Revelation, a new vision of Church emerged from the Council.

Had it been implemented, it could have charted the Church on a road to a sustainable meaningful future in tune with the rapidly changing times and flowing from the initial mandate in Luke Ch 4 to Jesus and the practice of the early Church itself.

Alas, the clerical powerbrokers decided to undermine this Vatican II model in subsequent years, minimising its implementation, resulting in the broken model we have today.

Clericalism, condemned so often as one of the major sins of our time, re-asserted its powerful voice.

With bureaucratic power centralised at the Roman centre, control by clergy has become almost absolute in some countries. Canon Law has become the guiding ‘bible' of the Church, not the original guides: the Holy Spirit, sacred scripture and a dynamic Tradition.

The fallout has been dramatic.

Nearly sixty years after the Council, the ignorance of the vast majority of Catholics of an in-depth understanding of scripture is appalling.

We have failed to liberate them with the very Word that the early Church gave us as a vital tool. And the teachings on social justice, which form a substantial section of ‘the love of neighbour' Tradition, have always been marginalised. They have proven to be too challenging.

As the saintly and prophetic Cardinal Carlo Martini said in his final interview (NCR, 2013), ‘The Church is 200 years behind the times. Why doesn't it stir? Are we afraid? Is it fear rather than courage?

"In any event, faith is the foundation of the Church: faith, trust, courage.

"Only love defeats exhaustion. God is love.

"The Church is tired, in the Europe of well-being and in America. Our culture has become old, our churches and religious houses are big and empty, the bureaucratic apparatus of the Church grows, our rites and our dress are pompous. Do these things, however, express what we are today?

"Well-being weighs on us.

"We find ourselves like the rich young man who went away sad when Jesus called him to be a disciple. Theologian Karl Rahner often used the image of the embers hidden under the ash. I see in the Church today so much ash under the embers that often I'm hit with a sense of impotence. How can we liberate the members from the ash, to reinvigorate the fires of love?"

A timid, ineffectual Church

Catholicism has become largely irrelevant within the modern consumer culture.

This is partly because we have not presented our message in ways that are transformative and have too often placed our emphasis on complicity with the culture.

For too long, we have developed a corporate model of Church, rather than a sacramental model of community, with participation and spiritual growth at its centre.

For example, money, control and appearance have grabbed centre stage instead of our care for the earth and the poor, witnessing to social justice, promoting community development and providing prophetic leadership.

We have failed since Vatican II to make the three-pronged approach necessary to an adult understanding of faith and commitment, where the teachings of Scripture and the Church's social teachings, (love of neighbour), sit alongside the dogmatic truths.

The result is we have produced generations of Catholics inadequately grounded in the basics necessary for a life commitment to a Church built on Scripture and Tradition and capable of supporting its members and reaching out to the wider world.

Instead, many clergy have found it easier to foster a Church of supplementary devotional practices which in many dioceses take priority over the real food that truly nourishes.

They fail to see that the Word becomes flesh only when it is not left as newsprint!

Church buildings have been used to protect medieval theology as if the divine presence wasn't manifest everywhere. And leadership has been left in the hands of celibate clergy too often with little understanding of family pressures and of the mature relationships needed to develop and expand Christian communities.

We have often talked about community without allowing people the tools and theology to develop it.

We have also become badly wounded by the sexual abuse scandals which have surfaced in recent decades and which, in some countries, have almost gutted the Church to a point beyond repair eg Ireland, Chile.

Too often, we have failed to tackle the issue of abuse of power that clericalism portrays and simply tried to reshuffle the card pack to adjust and hope the problems might disappear.

They won't.

We haven't addressed the core problems associated with the abuse of power and underdeveloped sexuality. We still have structures in place and follow teachings that led to these scandals occurring in the first place.

To a considerable extent, we have also lost our sense of sin and redemptive grace to the point where our moral teachings are no longer meaningful to the average Catholic. We have always been clear about personal sexual ethics but failed miserably to recognise more prevalent and damaging sin in its structural forms.

We have virtually ignored the teachings of successive popes going back more than a century who have condemned unfettered capitalism, environmental degradation, war, the arms race, economic exploitation, racism and gender inequality as being unworthy of God's people. And we have failed to teach the non-violence and radical nature of Jesus and his teaching and highlight the presence of grace everywhere.

Placing social justice at the heart of the nature of God as Vatican II did has proved too challenging for most.

Women in the Church

Go to any parish in the world and the main force holding it together will be its women members.

How ironic - considering how badly the official church structures have treated women over the centuries.

Gospel accounts confirm that, besides the male apostles and disciples, Jesus was also accompanied (against the cultural norms of the time) by a group of women who alone remained as witnesses to his crucifixion when the men fled. In addition, they were the first to experience and proclaim the Risen Christ, even when they were doubted by the men.

One could even argue that they fulfilled the criteria for apostleship far better than the chosen Twelve!

They clearly played a leading part in the early Church.

Yet, in subsequent centuries, their role has been discounted in the official tradition that has historically affirmed the authority of an all-male sacramental and governance leadership.

Even in the face of a hugely influential modern women's movement, we have continued a patriarchal power structure to limit women's full recognition and participation.

In the wider world, such male structures are maintained now only by groupings like the Taliban and Isis and in countries like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iran.

How dare we claim as they do that this discrimination somehow has divine authority?

While cultural arguments about the roles of men and women may have held sway in earlier centuries, this clearly is no longer the case.

Yet we continue to deny women full participation in sacramental and governance roles in the church. In so doing, we are continuing to treat women as second-class members.

This is sinful.

Among many things, for the past 50 years, the Church has been tone-deaf in the matter of inclusive language about which we still have insulting debates.

Our credibility has been shot to pieces by self-inflicted wounds.

The miracle is that any women at all have stayed with the Church!

Transformative

But stay many have because they, like many men including a strong minority of priests, have found within the tradition, despite its shortcomings, a road to holiness in a message of life and hope for our times.

Many Christians in their discipleship journeys still find and commit to the transformative message Jesus brought.

They meet the Risen Christ in their daily lives and seek to find in a hopefully nourishing community a source of grace, support and transforming love.

They recognise how essential belonging to a collective ecclesial community is for the development and sustenance of their faith.

Their response to the question of St Peter, ‘to whom do we go?' is the same as his to Jesus - ‘you have the words of eternal life'.

They stay and they persevere.

Ministries should not be controlled by gender.

Both women and men, through their baptism, qualify for such roles.

Other Christian Churches - including both Protestant and Anglican - have already pioneered the way forward and opened their ministries to all.

The Catholic Church is called to humbly acknowledge these ground-breaking prophetic journeys others have undertaken, learn from them and implement similar appropriate changes.

Conclusions

Just as the tectonic plates of the earth shift from time to time and bring about realignment, so do the Catholic Church's structural plates need a paradigm shift at this time.

Our planet is in crisis.

So is our Church.

Our Catholic tradition of Church continues to ignore many signs of the times and the desperate need for change.

For the first time in centuries, as pope, you have created a Kairos moment of opportunity to change before it is too late. We dare not squander it.

Thank you and blessing on your ministry in abundance.

• Catholic Worker Community, Suzanne Aubert House, Christchurch, New Zealand.
• First published in the Catholic Worker Community Journal. Republished with permission.

This caesura is not only tied to his decision in 2013 to voluntarily resign the papal office but even more so to the fact that he has now been retired longer than he actually served as Bishop of Rome.

This has marked an extraordinary moment in the life of the Church and now Benedict's recent penitential letter concerning historical cases of sex abuse in the Munich archdiocese he briefly led (1977-1982) must be added to the picture.

The letter was in response to a report on clergy abuse cases between 1945-2019 that said the former pope mishandled at least four such cases during his tenure as head of the Bavarian archdiocese.

Benedict's letter has been received in different ways in different countries.

Some have criticized the former pope's attempt to shift his own direct or indirect involvement in criminal actions to the spiritual dimension, and to make personal conscience decisive in a twist that makes a crime a moral fault to be confessed before God - and God alone.

Echoing the ways German Catholicism has dealt with guilt

As in everything that has been published under Benedict XVI's name in the last few years, we cannot be sure about the true authorship of this letter. We do not know if he really wrote this, or maybe just part of it, or if he is fully aware of what is published with his signature.

But the letter echoes the ways in which German Catholicism has dealt with its historical responsibilities over this past century.

During the years the young Joseph Ratzinger was studying for the priesthood in Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's Germany, there was "collective silence" on the German Church's participation in the Nazi regime.

Not all Germans were silent, however. In 1946, immediately after World War II ended, the German-Swiss philosopher Karl Jaspers published a collection of the lectures he gave at the University of Heidelberg between the end of 1945 and the beginning of 1946.

The book, which was called The Question of German Guilt (Die Schuldfrage), examined the culpability of Germany as a whole in the atrocities of Hitler's Third Reich.

Jaspers, who had to leave his university post in 1937 mainly because he was married to a Jewish woman and was subject to a publication ban, distinguished between four different kinds of guilt.

From criminal to moral guilt

There is criminal guilt, where "jurisdiction rests with the courts". There is political guilt which "results in me having to bear the consequences of the deeds of the state whose power governs me […] jurisdiction rests with the power".

There is moral guilt: "I am morally responsible for all my deeds […] jurisdiction rests with my conscience". And finally, there is metaphysical guilt: "jurisdiction rests with God alone".

Despite the obvious and enormous differences between the culpability of Germany and of German Catholics as a whole in the Nazi regime on one side and of Catholics in the abuse crisis in the Church on the other side, there are lessons to be drawn which has not escaped German theologians. See, for example, a recent book by Julia Enxing.

Benedict's letter can be seen as an attempt to reduce the question of guilt to sin, and therefore to metaphysical guilt.

This fits a certain pattern, not just of the German Catholicism in which Joseph Ratzinger grew up, but also of institutional Catholicism as a whole in dealing with the revelations of abuse.

In the Church's relationship with the public square in the context of the abuse crisis over the past decades we have seen

1.) the dominance of criminal guilt (the legal strategies and courtroom approach) and

2.) especially after the shift of 2017-2018 (from Australia to Chile, to the McCarrick case, to Germany), the rise of political guilt (given the consequences of the nationwide investigations on the relationship between Church and State).

What is still largely missing is moral guilt, because it is something that involves a much larger number of Catholics.

Germany's fundamental contributions to dealing with abuse

The history of abuse in the Church is not just a history of the small number of perpetrators and Church leaders who knew about the abuse, covered it up and protected criminals from justice.

It's also the history of the much larger number of Catholics who for a long time knew something about the problem of abuse in the Church, but only much later became touched by those stories and decided to become part of the solution.

German Catholicism has, since 2010, become a model of constructive response to the abuse crisis. Look, for instance, at Germany's fundamental contribution to the creation in 2012 of the "Center for Child Protection", now "Institute of Anthropology: Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care" at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Led by the German Jesuit Hans Zollner, it is the most important centre for forming the future generations of Catholic leaders in best practices for dealing with the issue of abuse.

This initiative happened during the pontificate of the German pope, Benedict XVI. And, to a certain extent, it is fair to say that was also thanks to his pontificate.

German history is instructive in helping us understand the trajectory of the Church's reckoning with the abuse crisis.

The ways in which Catholics have dealt with the Holocaust are distinctly different from the ways in which they are dealing with the abuse crisis, given the uniqueness of the Shoah. But there are parallels that can teach us a few important lessons.

Lesson No. 1

The first is that the process of elaborating collective responsibility in tragedies involving the Church is a long one, with different phases, and with temporary setbacks due to the tendencies of the institution to defend itself.

A case in point is the major statement the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews issued on the Holocaust in 1998.

The text, called We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah, included some problematic declarations that undercut a clear affirmation of the Church's responsibility for some of what occurred during the Nazi era.

Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy, the commission's president, was well aware that some of the additions that that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — then led by Cardinal Ratzinger — insisted be added to his text as a condition for its release were inaccurate, if not outrightly false.

Cassidy decided wisely that the value of that document outweighed the inclusion of what he knew were misleading assertions.

The process of the Catholic Church dealing with its responsibilities in Nazi anti-Semitism has continued. There are setbacks in the Church dealing with the scandal of abuse, but it is no longer possible to go back to the denialism that was typical up until a few years ago.

Lesson No. 2

The second lesson is that the Church dealing with the abuse crisis must take into account different dimensions of guilt.

For Catholicism today, the most difficult is the moral guilt, which must be translated in changes in theology and doctrine. It is the most difficult because it is not something that can be outsourced to the mass media, the police and justice system, or the power of states and governments.

It is something Catholics must do themselves, listening to the victims and survivors, their families, and outside experts (historians of psychological and social sciences, of medicine, of mentalities etc.).

This breadth of expertise is necessary to develop a deep theological comprehension of the phenomenon of abuse in the Church as something that is common to all human communities, but with distinct features in terms of institutional failures and spiritual consequences.

It takes time but this is the right path.

Lesson No. 3

The third lesson is a disturbing difference from the post-World War II period.

Now the question of guilt is not just about what happened in the past.

It is also something like proleptic guilt for what we fear or know is about to happen: more scandals and revelations of abuses in the context of the apocalyptic mood of contemporary culture — especially the looming environmental disaster.

Now the dominant disposition is existential anxiety about the future — not just the future of the Church, but also the future of the world. Vatican II was intent on reading the "signs of the times", but we are now intent on reading the signs of end times.

Catholics must reject shallow optimism and instead look for hope.

Christian hope recovers the tragic dimension of history, in a deeper appreciation of the past - looking at the past as suffering seeking redemption.

We have barely started to recognize that the tragedy of abuse in the Church is a locus theologicus, a key source for the development of the Christian tradition.

• Massimo Faggioli is a Church historian, Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University (Philadelphia) and a much-published author and commentator. He is a visiting professor in Europe and Australia.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.