He agrees reforms are necessary but says the Church should not become "a mass that can be kneaded and shaped to suit the situation".

The proposal to create a permanent Synodal Council to govern the Catholic Church in Germany is "not a renewal, but an outrageous innovation," he says.

It would mean bishops could "de facto no longer exercise the task and authority vested in them if they voluntarily renounce it in an act of self-obligation and declare that they will follow the decisions of the synod or the future Synodal Council.

"Ultimately, such a self-obligation would be tantamount to a collective resignation by the bishops."

The Synodal Way's aim is to change the bishop's ministry as the "fundamental pillar of the old Church," he says.

"Whoever saws away at this pillar will break the neck of the Church."

To avoid this, Kasper says the bishops must heed the objections raised by a growing number of bishops around the world.

In February, a strongly-worded letter from the president of Poland's Catholic bishops' conference raised serious concerns.

In March, an open letter from the Nordic bishops expressed alarm at the German process.

In April, more than 100 cardinals and bishops from around the world released a "fraternal open letter" to Germany's bishops. They warned that sweeping changes to Church teaching advocated by the process may lead to schism.

Reiterating the synod's role, Kasper says any Synodal Way reform proposals must hear what the Holy Spirit has to say to the Church today about "corrections we need to make and the direction we should take.

"There can be no ideologically predetermined answers to these questions that are imposed by majority votes."

It was "the original sin of the Synodal Way" that it did not base itself on the pope's letter to the Church in Germany.

Francis had proposed a synod where people were to be guided by the Gospel and the basic mission of evangelisation.

However, the German process, initiated by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, "took its own path with partly different criteria".

German bishops' conference president, Bishop Georg Bätzing, has repeatedly rejected all concerns. He made it clear he was disappointed in the pope in May this year.

Earlier this month Francis reiterated that he told Bätzing that Germany already has "a very good Evangelical Church" and that "we don't need two.

"The problem arises when the Synodal Way comes from the intellectual, theological elites and is much influenced by external pressures."

Bätzing, who is president of the Synodal Way, is also a signatory to the "Frankfurt Declaration". This petition demands German bishops should declare their commitment to implementing resolutions passed by the process.

Kasper decried this push for "commitment" saying it was "a trick and, moreover, a lazy trick."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• America Magazine

It also poses two big challenges to the global Church.

War is everyone's responsibility

"First, there is a need for a new reflection on the social doctrine of the Church on the theme of war and peace," Shevchuck says.

"The other ... is the relationship between the Church and the State.

"There is an obvious need to work out the correct language to describe the new challenges in these areas but also to have the courage at the ecumenical level to find the right answers."

Pope Francis agrees.

"We must ask ourselves - what have the churches done and what can they do to contribute to the development of a world community, capable of realising fraternity starting with peoples and nations that live social friendship?

"It is a question that we must think about together."

Ukraine unity

The spirit of common cause in the majority Orthodox nation starts with Ukraine's Council of Churches and Religious Communities (CCRC), Shevchuck explained to the Pontifical Council.

He is the head of the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine, the largest of the 23 Eastern churches in communion with Rome.

The Council "represents 95 percent of religious society," and striving for peace is its principal aim, he explained.

As an example: "on the eve of the Russian attack ... the Council made an appeal to the Russian president to stop.

"We proposed ourselves as mediators...of peace.

"The ecumenical reaction to this war has been one of explicit condemnation."

He specifically named and thanked Pope Francis, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the Ecumenical Council of Churches and Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, who have voiced solidarity with Ukraine.

He also noted the only Christian group to stand apart from the CCRC is the Russian Orthodox Church under Patriarch Kirill.

This poses a serious danger for Christianity in the modern world, Shevchuck said.

Breaking communion

The Sunday after the war began, Kirill explained the war is justified and must be fought to defend Orthodoxy.

At least 15 of the 53 eparchies in communion with Moscow now refuse to commemorate Kirill during the liturgy, Shevchuck said.

The Moscow Patriarchate community in Ukraine feels "neglected and forgotten,". Most of the churches destroyed by the Russian army were theirs.

So far, about 100 churches, monasteries and religious buildings have been destroyed.

Humanitarian catastrophe

The Ukraine situation is a "humanitarian catastrophe," says Shevchuk.

He offers facts: 10 million Ukrainian citizens have fled their homes. Nearly five million have abandoned the country. Mass graves have been found. People have been violated.

Putin has two goals for Ukraine, Shevchick said: demilitarisation and denazification.

Demilitarisation would help fulfil the second goal - proving the war is aiming to eliminate the Ukrainian people.

The instructions given to the Russian army on what to do with the Ukrainian people can be compared to "a textbook genocide," where "the whole people had to be eliminated."

Source

• Crux Now
• Image: NCR

During a meeting on 6 May with members of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Pope Francis said "Ignoring the divisions among Christians, whether out of habit or out of resignation, means tolerating that pollution of hearts which makes fertile ground for conflict."

While the COVID-19 pandemic forced many ecumenical initiatives to be cancelled or moved online, he said.

It also had the benefit of creating a "renewed awareness" among Christians that they belong to one family, an awareness "rooted in the experience of sharing the same fragility and of being able to count only on God's help."

He said the pandemic proved the wisdom of 50 years of ecumenical work emphasising that "for a Christian it is not possible, it is not viable, to go it alone within one's confession.

Either we go together, fraternally, or we do not walk."

But, he said, even before the pandemic was truly over, "the entire world was faced with a tragic new challenge — the war currently underway in Ukraine."

The war in Ukraine, he said, "cannot fail to question the conscience of every Christian and every church."

"We must ask ourselves: What have the churches done and what can they do to contribute to the ‘development of a global community of fraternity based on the practice of social friendship,'" he said, quoting from his encyclical, "Fratelli Tutti."

"Today, in the face of the barbarity of war, this longing for unity must again be nourished," Pope Francis said.

The Christian mission to proclaim "the Gospel of peace, that Gospel that disarms hearts even before armies," he said

"Will be more credible only if it is proclaimed by Christians who are finally reconciled in Jesus, the prince of peace," and who are "animated by his message of universal love and brotherhood."

Pope Francis also provided encouragement to council members in their efforts to plan the 2025 ecumenical celebration of the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, "an event of reconciliation," which formulated the creed and settled basic questions about Christ's identity.

Pope Francis also reminded council members at their national bishops' conferences that in preparing for the Synod of Bishops in 2023, they should "look for ways to listen also to the voices of brothers and sisters of other confessions on issues that challenge faith and ‘diakonia' (Christian service) in today's world."

"If we really want to listen to the voice of the Spirit, we cannot fail to hear what he has said and is saying to all those who are born again ‘of water and of the Spirit,'" the pope said.

Sources

Crux Now

Although several news sources say Francis has already rejected a draft plan to allow non-Catholics who are married to Catholics to receive Communion in certain circumstances, it seems this is not the case.

German Bishops' Conference president, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, says he has "welcomed the request of Pope Francis who proposed a discussion in Rome" about the draft plan.

Marx says the draft was adopted by a three-quarters majority of the German Bishops' Conference after an "intense debate" on 22 February.

However, on 22 March, seven bishops wrote to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity seeking their "assistance" and "clarification."

They questioned whether the draft plan was outside the competence of an episcopal conference.

In particular, they asked if it was of a pastoral nature, as Marx had suggested, or of a doctrinal nature.

If it is doctrinal, unanimous adoption and Roman approval are both required.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, says "Neither the Pope nor we bishops can redefine the sacraments as a means of alleviating mental distress and satisfying spiritual needs.

"They are effective signs of the grace of God."

The Code of Canon Law already provides that in the danger of death or if "some other grave necessity urges it," Catholic ministers licitly administer penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick to Protestants.

This can only be in cases where the person "cannot approach a minister of their own community and who seek such on their own accord, provided that they manifest Catholic faith in respect to these sacraments and are properly disposed."

Source

• La Croix
• Catholic Herald
• Catholic News Agency
• Crux Now
• Image: LifeSiteNews

"We cannot follow a truly ecumenical path while ignoring the crisis of faith affecting vast areas of the world, including those where the proclamation of the Gospel was first accepted and where Christian life has flourished for centuries," he said.

"On the other hand, we cannot ignore the many signs indicating a persistent need for spirituality, which is made manifest in various ways. The spiritual poverty of many of our contemporaries, who no longer perceive the absence of God in their lives as a form of deprivation, poses a challenge to all Christians."

The Pope was speaking at a private audience held in the Clementine Hall of the apostolic palace at the Vatican. The theme of the assembly was "The importance of ecumenism in new evangelisation".

In this context, the Pope said believers in Christ "are called upon to return to the essential, to the heart of our faith, to bear witness to the living God before the world . . . . We must not forget what it is that unites us: our faith in God the Father and Creator, revealed in His Son Jesus Christ, effusing the Spirit which revives and sanctifies."

He emphasised that the aim of ecumenism is "visible unity between divided Christians". To this end, Christians must "dedicate all our forces, but we must also recognise that, in the final analysis, this unity is a gift from God, and may come to us only from the Father through his Son, because the Church is his Church.

"From this perspective we see, not only the importance of invoking the Lord for visible unity, but also how striving after this end is relevant to the new evangelisation."

Sources:

Vatican Information Service

L'Osservatore Romano

Image: Rome Reports