“Some have likened the state of the Church to Shakespeare’s state of Denmark. “It is hardly an exaggeration”, says a Vietnamese-born former boat refugee, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse and Paramatta Bishop, Vincent Long. There’s an “unprecedented momentum for deep reform, the model of the Church based on clerical hegemony has run its course”, Read more
The NZ Catholic Bishops’ Conference says the views of all New Zealand Catholics will be sought during an expanded Synod of Bishops’ process announced by the pope. “Pope Francis has frequently called for the bishops, priests and people to walk together in a common mission of the Church,” says Conference president Cardinal John Dew. “He Read more
When we mention the Spirit work in the creation we think his bringing unity, drawing together, and reconciliation: the Spirit is unifying. Any such stress carries with it twin dangers. First, that we then assume that somehow that is all the Spirit does, the Spirit is there – almost functionally – to produce unity and Read more
A synodal church is “fundamental” to Pope Francis’ vision for women in the Church, papal biographer Austen Ivereigh says. In such a church, women challenge clericalism without being co-opted by it, Ivereigh told a webinar on the role of women in church leadership. Ivereigh said Francis had indicated the vital need for those women to Read more
Attacks against Pope Francis are “a fight between those who want the church dreamed of by the Second Vatican Council and those who do not want this,” says the Superior General of the Jesuits. Commenting on various issues where the Pope is currently under attack from his critics, Arturo Sosa SJ says there is no Read more
There has been attention on Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis’ 2016 apostolic exhortation that elaborates on discussions regarding marriage and the family, which took places in 2014 and 2015 within the Synod of Bishops. But something has largely been neglected. It is the reception of the pope’s focus on synodality and its importance for the Church Read more