Cardinal Walter Kasper says some prelates who have taken a hard line ideological position prior to the synod on the family have got the Gospel all wrong. In an interview with America Magazine and Argentina’s La Nacion, Cardinal Kasper said some cardinals and bishops fear a domino-like collapse in the Church’s moral structure. “That’s their Read more
Although they have been common throughout history, prohibitions against incest (sexual relations between blood relatives) have become increasingly difficult to understand and defend. In part, this is a result of a misunderstanding. We often think that the primary reason to ban incest is to prevent genetic abnormalities or other harm to children who might be Read more
The Catholic Church has to turn the image of a punitive, judgemental God head over heels, the Archbishop of Dublin says. Speaking at a Mass in Dublin on the feast of Our Lady of Mercy, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said many in his generation grew up in a religion where this punitive image prevailed. “Mercy was Read more
A prominent American cardinal in the Roman Curia has accused the media of attempting to hijack next month’s synod on the family. Cardinal Raymond Burke, who heads the Apostolic Signatura, said the media has created an expectation of changes to Church teaching that can’t happen. The Apostolic Signatura is the highest judicial body in the Read more
Britain’s most senior Catholic has said that the Church has forgotten the importance of mercy during the past few decades. Ahead of next month’s synod on the family, Cardinal Vincent Nichols told a press conference that he grew up in a “Church that understood itself as a Church of sinners”. “[But] I don’t think it’s Read more
A Jesuit preparing for ordination has left the Catholic Church over the way LGBTQ people are being treated by the Church in the United States. Benjamin Brenkert has written an open letter to Pope Francis calling on him to tell the US bishops to make Catholic institutions not sack any more LGBTQ Catholics. The last Read more
Pope Francis has ordered a review aimed at simplifying the Church’s procedures for marriage annulments. An 11-member commission, announced on Saturday, will seek to “simplify the (annulment) procedure, making it more streamlined, while safeguarding the principle of the indissolubility of marriage”, the Vatican said. The commission is made up of canon lawyers and theologians and Read more
Cardinal Walter Kasper says hardliners opposed to his proposals for Communion for the divorced and remarried really have Pope Francis as a target. The German cardinal told the Italian daily Il Mattino that some of his fellow cardinals “. . . claim to know on their own what truth is, but Catholic doctrine is not a Read more
Cardinal George Pell says allowing Communion for Catholics who are divorced and remarried outside the Church is impossible. The cardinal said doing so would make pastoral practice incompatible with doctrine. The former Archbishop of Sydney wrote this in a foreword to a book titled “The Gospel of the Family” by Professor Stephan Kampowski and Fr Read more
A strong sense of exclusion and hurt is felt by many people who are living in situations not in accord with Church teaching in areas such as divorce and re-marriage, cohabitation, contraception and same sex unions. This information is contained in a Pastoral Letter from the New Zealand Catholic Bishops summarising the main themes that Read more