The long-standing Curia Cardinal Walter Kasper has advocated for a greater transfer of church leadership tasks to non-ordained Catholics (“lay people”). One of the most urgent tasks of bishops and priests is to “proclaim the Gospel in accordance with the requirements of the time,” he said in a conversation with the Viennese theologian Jan-Heiner Tück Read more
Posts Tagged ‘lay people’
Lay people permitted to officially baptise
Thursday, December 8th, 2022
A mother of a 5-month-old is pleasantly surprised that a woman would officially baptise her child in a Catholic parish church. The Baptism occurred last Sunday at St Hedwig’s Parish in the Catholic Diocese of Essen, in the Ruhr region of Western Germany. I had no particular expectations on this issue. Still, the fact that Read more
Women Cardinals
Thursday, April 28th, 2022
Pope Francis is reorganizing the Vatican Curia — the church’s administrators and his senior staff — and may name new cardinals in June. Francis’ new apostolic constitution, “Praedicate Evangelium” (“Preach the Gospel”), issued last month, noted that the heads of dicasteries and other offices that manage the church need not be ordained. This highlighted Francis’ Read more
Archbishop of Paris sets pastoral priorities including lay people
Monday, September 10th, 2018The Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit has set new pastoral priorities for the coming year that include lay people for the coming year. Aupetit has called for a study into the possibility of housing families and lay people in the buildings of the Paris seminary building. Sharing meals and time for communal prayer, “seminarians will Read more
Single Catholics Church’s blind spot
Monday, November 13th, 2017
The Church should do more for single people, says French journalist Claire Lesegretain. “This is the Church’s blind spot. It’s there, very present, but nobody talks about it. We don’t see them,” she says. Lesegretain, who is single, believes the relationship between the Church and single people should be looked at from a vocational perspective. Read more
Pope Francis hits out at clericalism and lay elites
Friday, April 29th, 2016
Pope Francis has again hit out at a clerical mindset which obstructs the laity from taking its proper role. The papal criticism came in a letter from Francis to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. Cardinal Ouellet is also the Prefect for the Congregation for Bishops, which plays a Read more
Lay coalition proposes replacements for embattled US archbishop
Tuesday, August 5th, 2014
A lay coalition in an American archdiocese has drawn up a list of potential successors to an embattled archbishop, who is being called upon to resign. The Catholic Coalition for Church Reform in St Paul-Minnesapolis has identified seven nominees to replace embattled Archbishop John Nienstedt. During the first half of November, an “election-like process” will Read more
Church council will work with Aust. sex abuse commission
Tuesday, December 4th, 2012
Australia’s Catholic bishops have decided to set up a special council — including bishops, religious and lay people — to work with the forthcoming royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse. At the end of their twice-yearly conference in Sydney, the bishops said they had formed a supervisory group of representatives from the Read more
Aust. bishops to let lay people handle sex abuse issues
Friday, November 30th, 2012
Australia’s Catholic bishops are ready to step aside and let a special committee composed mainly of lay people, including some from outside the Church, handle sex abuse issues, according to the head of the national organisation for religious orders. “A committee is being formed — I don’t know all the details about it — but Read more
Church’s top staff cost more than €1.5 million
Friday, June 8th, 2012At least £1.5 million a year is spent on the salaries of senior executives in the Church in England and Wales. In the tough economic climate it is feared that dioceses will increasingly to turn to priests to fill top jobs to save money, fuelling clericalism in the local curias. Continue reading