Writing for the Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano, Fr Radcliffe acknowledged the complexity of applying Church teachings. This is especially challenging for young people trying to accept their sexuality.

"The challenge, for gay people and everyone, is to learn to express love appropriately" Radcliffe wrote. He emphasised respecting the dignity of others as children of God.

"I am convinced of the fundamental wisdom of the Church's teaching" Radcliffe stressed. "But I still do not fully understand how it should be lived by young gay Catholics who accept their sexuality and rightly desire to express their affection."

Radcliffe emphasised the importance of love and respect in the context of faith. He suggested that the Church's teaching is not about denying desire but directing it towards God. Citing St Thomas Aquinas, he noted that desire plays a role in spiritual growth and the return to God.

Shift in Church's understanding

Fr Radcliffe also pointed to what he sees as a shift in the Church's understanding of gay people. He highlighted Pope Francis' view that gay people should be recognised as brothers and sisters who can be blessed. This is opposed to them being seen solely through the lens of sexual acts.

"My intuition is that most gay Catholics in mature, committed relationships usually go beyond a great interest in sex" Radcliffe continued.

He added that mature gay Catholics in committed relationships are often more focused on the virtues of "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness", referencing Galatians 5:22.

Fr Radcliffe further noted the struggles of gay people worldwide, reminding the Church of its responsibility to fight for their dignity, especially in countries where they face persecution and even capital punishment.

Radcliffe, 79, a former Master of the Dominican Order, will lead a pre-Synod retreat starting on 30 September.

Sources

Catholic Culture

AP News

CathNews New Zealand

"It's useful on earth, not for heaven," said Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the prefect, when asked, "What is the use of proclaiming saints?"

In an interview published May 4 in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, the cardinal noted how the Second Vatican Council spoke of the "universal vocation of holiness."

"To proclaim saints helps convince us that this vocation really exists, that the Gospel works, that Jesus does not disappoint and that we can trust in his word," Semeraro said in the interview the day after Pope Francis and cardinals resident in Rome held a consistory to approve the canonization of seven men and women.

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The paper, which was founded in 1861, will continue publishing online and most of its staff of about 60, including 20 journalists, will work from home, editor Andrea Monda said.

"A newspaper and the paper on which it is printed are inextricably intertwined so it is sad that this is happening but the reality is that we are all facing a crisis," Monda told Reuters. Read more

In the final editorial and open letter to Pope Francis, released to news media ahead of the magazine's 1 April publication, chief editor Lucetta Scaraffia complains of feeling "surrounded by a climate of distrust and progressive de-legitimization."

So far, there has been no comment about the letter from the Vatican.

The glossy monthly is listed on Vatican daily newspaper L'Osservatore Romano's website as one of its eight published sections.

Since Women Church World's inception - first as a supplement in 2012 and then as a magazine in 2016 - L'Osservatore has offered Scaraffia editorial freedom.

According to a 2016 edition of L'Osservatore, the magazine would "delve into the role of women in the Church" with editorial independence.

In February this year Scaraffia denounced the sexual abuse of nuns by clergy and the resulting scandal of religious sisters having abortions or giving birth to children who are not recognized by their fathers.

The article prompted Francis to acknowledge, for the first time, that abuse of nuns is a problem and that he is committed to doing something about it.

Also in February, L'Osservatore's new editor Andrea Monda said he would also take over as editor of the women's magazine. (Monda became editor of L'Osservatore last December.)

However Scaraffia says Monda reconsidered after the editorial board threatened to resign and the Catholic weeklies that distribute translations of Women Church World in France, Spain and Latin America, told her they would stop distributing it.

"After the attempts to put us under control, came the indirect attempts to delegitimize us," she says.

Monda says he did not interfere "in any way" in the printing of the monthly magazine but only suggested topics and persons for the publication.

He also says he guaranteed the magazine "complete autonomy" and "total freedom," and its budget had been confirmed.

Scaraffia disagrees.

Women were brought in to write for L'Osservatore "with an editorial line opposed to ours," she says.

Scaraffia says that resulted in obscuring the magazine's words, "de-legitimizing us as a part of the Holy See's communications.

The Vatican is "returning to the practice of selecting women [writers] who ensure obedience," to a "clerical self-reference" that surrenders "parrhesia (freedom to speak freely) that Pope Francis so often seeks.

"We are throwing in the towel because we feel surrounded by a climate of distrust and progressive de-legitimization," Scaraffia says.

Thanking Scaraffia for her "valuable work," Monda says "in no way" did he choose anyone "with the criterion of obedience" but rather with "the sign of the openness and parrhesia requested by Pope Francis, with whose words and with whose Magisterium we all identify."

Source

• Daily Mail
• La Croix
• CBS News
• National Catholic Register
• Image: Washington Post

Scaraffia says the "implacable and pitiless" nature of the coverage is "born from disappointment."

In her view, in societies affected by the sexual revolution, this disappointment stems not so much from the discovery of "the sexual infraction or human weakness" but from the discovery of the abuse of power, cover-ups and inaction against perpetrators.

"There are one or more news items about the church in various regions of the world nearly every day," Scaraffia said.

Rather than publishing news about the many initiatives for aid and assistance (to victims) and backing the justice system, the media prefers to focus on cases of sexual abuse that have been scandalously covered up through silence and 'omerta,'" she said.

Scaraffia appealed to readers to not target their anger at the media, even when the media took pleasure in examining the sexual behaviour of the clergy.

Instead, readers should be venting their distress on the problem of sexual abuse and the cover-up by the church hierarchy, she said.

"We should not look at this wave of media interest as a malevolent attack on the institution.

"There is a real scandal involved, which is not so much a matter of sexual transgression as an abuse of power, followed by silence and a lack of sanctions against those responsible as well as a silence and impunity that humiliates victims.

"The media with their polls and interviews force those who seek to cover up and forget to do the right thing, to remember that victims have a dignity that needs to be respected and protected," she said.

Source

• La Croix
• Catholic Culture
• Image: 10Donna

Wednesday's L'Osservatore Romano carried a front page essay by Italian Catholic historian and politician Rocco Buttiglione.

He insisted that the document is in line with teaching by previous popes on divorced and civilly remarried Catholics receiving Communion.

Amoris Laetitia has been interpreted by some as Francis giving a cautious opening on the issue.

Using strategically placed footnotes, the document seemed to suggest that bishops and priests could open a door on a case-by-case basis after accompanying people on a spiritual journey of discernment.

Buttiglione said the Church has always taught that there can be cases in which the faithful might not believe themselves to be in a state of mortal sin or might not be fully responsible for it, which can mitigate their culpability.

"The path that the pope proposes to divorced and remarried is exactly the same that the Church proposes to all sinners: Go to confession, and your confessor, after evaluating all the circumstances, will decide whether to absolve you and admit you to the Eucharist or not," he wrote.

Earlier this month, the Vatican-approved magazine La Civilta Cattolica ran an interview with Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn in which the Vienna archbishop pointedly rejected claims that Francis's work didn't count as an authoritative teaching document.

The document, Cardinal Schoenborn said, "is an act of the magisterium that makes the teaching of the Church present and relevant today".

In May, German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller said decisions about whether someone can receive the sacraments cannot be arrived at purely in the realm of individual, private discernment.

"A privatisation of the sacramental economy would certainly not be Catholic," he said in a speech in Spain.

Cardinal Mueller is the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Sources

• Associated Press
• Image: Catholic News Agency

Marcelo Figueroa is a personal friend of the Pope's.

Beginning in September, Mr Figueroa will edit an Argentine publication that combines material from the weekly Spanish-language edition of L'Osservatore Romano with local content.

The publication is an attempt to ensure that the Pope's messages arrive in his home country as they were intended, without any filter or spin.

The paper will be supervised by the local bishops' conference.

Continue reading

The new monthly magazine "Women-Church-World" was launched this week by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See's secretary of state.

His department oversees L'Osservatore Romano, in which the new magazine has previously featured as a separate section.

During the launch, Cardinal Parolin said: "A woman could become secretary of state [at the Vatican], in the sense that the role of the secretary of state is evidently not bound to the sacraments or the priesthood."

Speaking to journalists after the event, the cardinal said he did not believe women wanted a quota system in the Church.

Rather, "they want to move forward through their merit and their capabilities, without having institutionally reserved spaces".

The co-ordinator of "Women-Church-World", Dr Lucetta Scaraffia, wrote in the new magazine's first editorial that a "hidden revolution" had taken place in the last century.

This has seen women make an increasingly important contribution to the intellectual life of Catholicism.

This intensified in the years following the Second Vatican Council, when more and more women started to study theology.

But this contribution by women has been "almost ignored" by the Church, Dr Scaraffia wrote.

The theme of the first edition was the Visitation.

Dr Scaraffia stated this event shows the prophetic role of women and should not just be reduced to a moment of solidarity.

"Both [Mary and Elizabeth] are able to see the true and profound meaning of the events that they are living through and are able to perceive the divine even when it is hidden," Dr Scaraffia wrote, "and they do it earlier than men and before the priests and sages".

Dr Scaraffia, a feminist journalist and professor, has been a regular writer in the Vatican's newspaper despite being an outspoken critic on the male-dominated leadership of the Church.

In March, the Women-Church-World section in L'Osservatore Romano called for women to be able to preach at Mass, currently exclusively reserved for priests and deacons.

On the same day the magazine was launched, Pope Francis released his prayer intentions for the month of May, which he dedicated to women.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Catholic Herald
• Crux
• Image: Il Casertano

On Sunday, two gunmen, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, allegedly shot and wounded a security guard near the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest at Garland, Texas.

The two gunmen were subsequently killed by local police.

Media reported that the men attended a mosque in Phoenix, Arizona.

A front-page headline in L'Osservatore Romano decried the artwork at the event as "blasphemous".

The accompanying article stated that "ultraconservative European politicians" were expected at the exhibition, with its portrayals of the "prophet Muhammad".

Geert Wilders, a right-wing Dutch politician, was a keynote speaker at the event in Garland.

Speaking of the "need to approach the religious experience of the other" with a respectful attitude, the unsigned article in L'Osservatore Romano criticised the exhibit's "provocative intent, almost wanting to throw gasoline on the fire".

The event, organised by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), featured a "draw the prophet contest".

AFDI's Pamela Geller maintained her event was simply a celebration of free speech.

On her blog soon after the attack, she declared that "this is a war".

The AFDI, which also goes by the name Stop the Islamization of America, is designated a hate group by civil rights organisation the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project at SPLC, which tracks hate crimes, said "Speech has consequences, though that doesn't mean that people don't have a right to speech."

"Of course the violence is unacceptable and outrageous, but that doesn't excuse Pamela Geller," Ms Beirich said.

"She's still responsible for the hate speech she's propagated."

This was a sentiment echoed by Muslim community leaders and local residents.

"The depiction of the prophet in the worst of ways is asking for these crazies," local lawyer Khalid Hamideh said.

Muslim leaders in North Texas condemned the gunmen's actions.

The incident came four months after gunmen in France killed 12 people in the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in what was said to be revenge for its cartoons.

Sources

• L'Osservatore Romano
• Catholic World News
• Vatican News
• The Guardian
• Yahoo News
• Image: Fox4News

In a brief article, L'Osservatore Romano called the comedian and actor an "unforgettable clown with a heart of gold".

Williams had recently been battling severe depression , according to his publicist. He was known to have bipolar disorder, depression and drug abuse problems.

"Born in Chicago July 21, 1951 and raised in Michigan, he graduated from the Juilliard School in New York," L'Osservatore Romano noted.

It pointed to how "Williams came to popularity in the late seventies interpreting the hyperactive alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy".

The publication recalled Williams' numerous memorable roles - in both comedy and drama - including "Good Morning, Vietnam" (1987), "Dead Poets Society" (1989), "Hook" (1991) and "Mrs Doubtfire" (1993).

It also noted the Academy Award that he won in 1998 for Best Supporting Actor in "Good Will Hunting".

Mental health experts said that the fact that a universally loved figure like Robin Wllliams could commit suicide "speaks to the power of psychiatric illness".

Ken Duckworth, medical director of the US National Alliance on Mental Illness, said the tragedy "speaks to the need for better treatments and the need for society to be more welcoming to people who have these conditions".

Oblate priest Fr Ronald Rolheiser, OMI, who writes an annual article about suicide, stated in 1998 that suicide is the most misunderstood of deaths.

For most suicides, it is not true that it is voluntary, he wrote.

"A person dying of suicide dies, as does the victim of physical illness or accident, against his or her will," Fr Rolheiser wrote.

"People die from physical heart attacks, strokes, cancer, AIDS and accidents. Death by suicide is the same, except that we are dealing with an emotional heart attack, an emotional stroke . . . an emotional fatality."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide (CCC#2282)".

Lifeline 0800 543 354

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Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• Religion News Service
• Ronrolheiser.com
• Vatican website
• Image: Empire Online

Surrogate mother Pattaramon Chanbua from Thailand is caring for seven-month-old Gammy after an Australian couple chose his healthy twin sister, but abandoned him.

The couple, David and Wendy Farnell, are the biological parents of the twins.

They say they did not know about Gammy, but news reports contradict this, with one having Ms Chanbua say the father had met the twins.

Other reports say when the couple found out about problems with Gammy, they asked Ms Chanbua to have an abortion, which she refused.

But the Farnells deny this.

In a strongly worded comment piece the Vatican's semi-official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano warned that other cases will follow.

The newspaper stated: "We should not be surprised that if parents have ordered a baby renting a woman's womb they will reject a child that is not healthy and perfect."

"If a child becomes a product to buy, it is obvious that as with any acquisition it must be to the purchaser's liking."

"People have no cause to be indignant that the couple refused a child that was ‘imperfect'," the article said.

"In realty there is little to be indignant about - if you accept the logic of a child a as product this is the obvious consequence."

The case has made international headlines, causing uproar in Australia.

Adding fuel to the fire are revelations that the father has child sex abuse convictions in the 1990s.

West Australian state authorities told the BBC they were now conducting a "full investigation" to assess Mr Farnell's "suitability" to have a young child in his custody.

Ms Chanbua has insisted Gammy's twin sister be returned to Thailand.

Both the Australian government and Thai health authorities are now looking into the case and the larger issue of commercial surrogacy in Thailand, which is mostly unregulated.

An online fundraising campaign so far has raised tens of thousands of dollars to help Ms Chanbua with Gammy's medical expenses.

He has a congenital heart condition and a lung infection.

Sources

• The Tablet
• The Independent
• BBC
• Daily Mail
• Image: Sydney Morning Herald

Speaking on behalf of the England and Wales bishops' conference, Archbishop Bernard Longley said the commitment to further dialogue between the two churches remains.

"The decision of the Church of England to admit women to the episcopate therefore sadly places a further obstacle on the path to this unity between us," he said.

L'Osservatore Romano editor Giovanni Maria Vian, who is also an historian, said the decision will have "an extremely negative impact" on the path to ecumenical unity.

He said: "It's a decision that complicates the ecumenical path. The problem is not only with Rome but also with Orthodox Churches, and that the Anglican Church is itself divided on the issue."

Archbishop Longley said the Catholic bishops appreciate the pastoral provision the Church of England's General Synod made for Anglicans who did not support ordaining women bishops.

Continue reading

Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano newspaper devoted an entire page and five articles in praise of the fictional British spy in its Oct. 31 edition.

The Osservatore film critic Gaetano Vallini wrote that the James Bond in "Skyfall" is "less of a cliché, less attracted by the pleasures of life, much darker and more introspective."

"And because of this he is more human, even able to be moved and to cry," Vallini wrote.

To honor James Bond is to recognize the character's role in popular culture, said the paper's editor in chief, Giovanni Maria Vian.

He said L'Osservatore Romano's mandate is "to pay attention to the cultural phenomena of our time," whether comics, pop music or film.

James Bond "may be a stylized hero, but he's on the side of good," Vian said in a New York Times report.

"To celebrate 50 years of the world's most famous secret agent - which even the Queen paid homage to at the Olympics - we needed a film that rose to the occasion," said the paper in its review of the latest Bond movie.

"'Skyfall' does not disappoint. The 23rd Bond film is one of the best in the longest cinematic story of all time," the paper added.

The paper also ran an interview with Daniel Craig, who was described as "the 44-year-old Anglo-Saxon actor with deep blue eyes".

Skyfall represented an attempt to bring "more realism" to the Bond formula, the actor said in the interview.

Craig said that his Bond was "very different" from those played by previous actors but that Sean Connery was the main "point of reference."

L'Osservatore Romano, which was founded 151 years ago, used to run only turgid editorials on Catholic saints, articles on theology and notices of the Pope's official engagements.

The Telegraph, however, noted that since a new editor was appointed in 2007 and urged by Pope Benedict XVI to make the publication more relevant, the paper has ventured into popular culture, commenting on everything from Harry Potter to The Blues Brothers.

Sources

• The New York Times
• The Telegraph
• The Guardian
• Image: Columbia Pictures/NYT

"Substantial reasons would lead us to conclude that the papyrus is actually a clumsy counterfeit," the newspaper said in an editorial.

"In other words, in any case it is a fake," wrote L'Osservatore Romano editor-in-chief Gian Maria Vian.

The fragment referring to Jesus wife was written in Coptic, a language used by Egyptian Christians, and says in part, "Jesus said to them, 'My wife ..."

The paper is generally thought to reflect the views of Vatican officials, a report on CNN said.

Karen King, a Harvard Divinity School professor, earlier announced the findings of the 1.5- by 3-inch honey-colored fragment in Rome.

King, in a draft of her analysis of the fragment, said the text "does not, however, provide evidence that the historical Jesus was married."

"This fragment, this new piece of papyrus evidence, does not prove that (Jesus) was married, nor does it prove that he was not married," King told reporters last month. "We don't know if he was married or not."

The New York Times in a report said suspicions that the papyrus was forged grew last week after Francis Watson, a New Testament scholar at Durham University in England, posted a paper online arguing that the text was cobbled together from phrases in the Gospel of Thomas.

That text was discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945 among a cache of ancient manuscripts thought to have been written by early Christians known as Gnostics. However, experts say that kind of cobbling does not prove it was forged, because such amalgamations show up in authentic ancient texts as well.

The Vatican newspaper also published an analysis by a Coptic scholar Alberto Camplani who raised some issues with the papyrus and King's reading of the text. Other ancient sources make no mention of Jesus' conjugal situation, he wrote.

Camplani said he was also suspicious because the papyrus had been found on the antiquarian market and not through a dig. "Such an object demands that numerous precautions be taken to establish its reliability and exclude the possibility of forgery," the New York Times report quoted Camplani.

Sources

• CNN
• The New York Times
• The New American
• Examiner.Com
• Image: Harvard Divinity School

Journalist-historian Lucetta Scaraffia is campaigning for women's rights in the male-dominated Vatican and pushing for women to teach in seminaries to give future priests the social and cultural skills to help them handle celibacy.

In an interview with AFP, Scaraffia said the new women's supplement she edits in the 150-year-old Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, has ruffled feathers, despite having the support of Pope Benedict XVI.

"There are those who say ‘I have not read it'," said the 64-year-old journalist. "They don't want to say it's not good. They prefer to say ‘it doesn't interest me'. The indifference is terrible."

But, she added: "It was the Pope who decided to have women work at L'Osservatore Romano."

Scaraffia, who lost her faith in the 1960s and became an ardent feminist, returned to the Church 20 years ago.

"There is misogyny in the Church," she said. "It's a closed world, caught up with issues of power. Many in the clergy are afraid that if women come onto the scene there will be less room for them."

Scaraffia also believes the Pope Benedict is changing attitudes to Church scandals by tackling the Holy See's long-standing policy of secrecy.

The Pope "is very alone and has a very difficult papacy because all the problems which were hidden have now come to light...problems which took root in the Church 30 or 50 years ago," she said.

"He has the courage to see things as they are," she said.

"We have always covered scandals up, he lets them come to light. Many people believe it is better to hide things. He says the Church is not protected by silence," she added.

"He thinks that, for purification, there needs to be shame."

Source:

Agence France-Presse

Image: Alleporteditalia

Women, Church, World will be edited by women and published withL'Osservatore Romano, the newspaper founded in 1861 and published by the Holy See on the last Thursday of every month.

The new section will promote a keener understanding of the "under-appreciated treasure" of women in the church, according to editor Giovanni Maria Vian. Continue reading

Scaraffia draws parallel attempts from history such as the imposition of the French Calendar dating history to the day of the French Revolution and similar attempts by Lenin and Mussolini.

The editorial concludes, "In sum, the idea of removing the Christian calendar has very bad precedent, leaving numerous failures in its wake. It should be noted that this time, the BBC has limited itself to changing only the description, rather than the computation of time, but in doing so, it cannot be denied that it has made a hypocritical gesture: the hypocrisy of those who pretend not to know why years began to be counted precisely from that moment."

Scaraffia argues that the terms BC and AD are not just a statement of religious importance, but that they mark a significant cultural and historical moment in time. She states, "...from that moment was the idea affirmed that all human beings are equal because they are children of God? A principle upon which human rights are founded, and on the basis of which people and leaders are judged. A principle which, until that moment, no one had supported and upon which the Christian tradition is based.

"Why should it not be recognized that from that moment the world was changed? That taboos and material impurity disappeared and that nature was liberated from the presence of the supernatural precisely because God is transcendent? Out of this was born the possibility for European peoples to discover the world and for scientists to begin the experimental study of nature which led to the birth of modern science"

Full Article: L'Osservatore Romano

The full version of L'Osservatore Romano, "The Roman Observer" is available in Italian and English. Until now the full daily version was printed only in Italian.

A weekly version in English is also published.

The newspaper says it eventually wants to expand the available languages to include German, Spanish, French, Polish and Portuguese. These would be weekly updates.

The online version of L'Osservatore Romano is free until 1 September when it will become a subscription service. The Guardian reports the price will be very low.

Though it relies on analysis more than reporting, L'Osservatore's foreign coverage has always been extensive. Its particular speciality is focusing on issues in parts of the world ignored by mainstream outlets.

A statement from the paper, announcing the online edition, said: "We publish what the others ignore and ignore a lot of what the others publish."

L'Osservatore Romano is 150 years old in July. There is no word yet of an iPad App.

Sources:

• Catholic News Agency
• The Guardian
• Image: L'Osservatore Romano

It is reported that L'Osservatore Romano said Taylor was the "last remaining star in the firmament of old Hollywood" and it praised her contributions on AIDS and other charitable Causes.

Lauding her as a "great actress who became too soon an icon of the star system," the article noted that Taylor's career, which began in childhood, was later marked by an "impressive series of health problems and accidents on the set."

Author Emilo Ranzato lamented Taylor's turbulent life but said that "Taylore managed to redeem herself thanks to an ever more decisive commitment to charity work, often in tandem with her friend Michael Jackson."

"In recent years her great contribution to the struggle against AIDS would win her important prizes and honors, but above all a newfound energy," Ranzato wrote. That success allowed Taylor "to be stronger despite poor health, and despite the label of living legend that always weighed on her shoulders."

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Huffington Post
• Vatican Radio
• Elizabeth Taylore AIDS Foundation