The ongoing synod on synodality is an opportunity for the church leadership to become more accountable towards sexual abuse cases, increase laity participation, and bring more transparency within the Catholic Church, says an expert. “A synodal Church is a listening Church… but it needs to go a step further: a synodal Church is an accountable Read more
Cherie Blair is challenging traditional Catholic teachings, calling on the Church to understand family needs more and open a debate on birth control. Blair is a barrister and women’s rights advocate. She spoke by video at a parallel Synod event, Spirit Unbounded, an assembly organised by the international reform network Blair began her speech praising Read more
The Vatican Synod assembly, a month-long event determining the Catholic Church’s future, kicked off on October 4. As the 364 attendees gathered at 35 round tables in the grand Paul VI Audience Hall, the initial three days were an intriguing mix of experimentation and camaraderie. “If we act like Jesus, we will testify to God’s Read more
Vatican officials have clarified that media engagement during the Synod of Bishops is a personal decision, and those who choose to give interviews will face no punishment. The clarification followed a recent interview given by German Cardinal Gerhard Müller to EWTN, raising questions about Pope Francis’s call for a media ‘fast’. Italian layman Paolo Ruffini, Read more
Maintaining synod confidentiality was one of Pope Francis’s particular requests of delegates during this month’s synod on synodality in Rome. But one delegate, German cardinal Gerhard Müller, immediately defied the pontiff’s request. Müller, a former head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, is known as a vocal critic of Francis’s synod on synodality. During an Eternal Read more
The synod on synodality could cause a schism in the Church, a leading conservative Catholic cardinal says. A new book, “The Synodal Process Is a Pandora’s Box: 100 Questions and Answers,” addresses the “serious situation” brought on by the synod, Cardinal Raymond Burke (pictured, centre) says. Pope Francis is risking confusion and even schism in Read more
Not long ago, every U.S. cleric — bishop, priest and deacon — received a reprint of Cardinal Raymond Burke’s 2007 essay from Periodica de Re Canonica, the annual 700-page canon law journal of the Gregorian University in Rome. Burke documents the church’s history of legislating against giving Communion to persons “obstinately persevering in manifest grave Read more
“The schismatics” is not the name of a new Broadway musical, but it might as well be. Some senior cardinals, deeply unhappy with the 2021-2022 round of the Catholic Church’s worldwide Synod on Synodality, seem to want the entire project to go away. It will not. The synod is projected to be a new-old way Read more
Catholics, especially in the German-speaking world, were surprised to hear that Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, once strongly favoured the ordination of married men. Not only in remote areas but also in large city parishes. More recently, on 11 October, Müller told the Tagespost that “not even the Read more