Cardinal Victor Fernandez, head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, issued an apology on Friday after missing a critical meeting of a synod group focused on women’s roles in the Church. The absence, confirmed to the National Catholic Reporter by multiple sources, triggered frustration among some delegates. Fernandez absence sparks discontent Fernandez was notably absent on Read more
One of the outcomes of a Zoom meeting attended by more than 100 church reform advocates representing thousands of Catholics from Australia and New Zealand, was a call for the Australian bishops to appoint a woman as co-chairperson of the upcoming Plenary Council in that country. The Zoom meeting took place on July 16. Among Read more
The first woman to be appointed to a Vatican congregation sees the move as a realisation of Pope Francis’s wish for more women in official Church positions. Sr Luzia Premoli, superior general of the Combonian Missionary Sisters, was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples on September 13. She told the Read more
In an interview, Pope Francis has discussed artificial contraception, non-marital civil unions, clergy sex abuse and the role of women in the Church. The wide-ranging interview, marking the first anniversary of Francis’s pontificate, was published in Italy and Argentina. Pope Francis praised Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae”, which prohibited the use of contraception. Read more
I am one of a rapidly growing group – a woman in the second-half of life, struggling to find a place of belonging in the institutional church. The mainstream churches are hemorrhaging committed, gifted, passionate, knowledgeable, prayerful, spiritual seekers. Women who have given twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years in the service of their spiritual or Read more
The gong for the Most Bizarre News this week surely goes to the Anglican Church, whose men at the top have decided women need to be reminded of their position – one of submission. Positively kinky, quite hilarious and maybe just a touch offensive. Having seemed one of the most progressive of the larger church Read more