FaithFaith and Reason

Cardinal Cupich: 3 ways the synod’s ‘conversations in the Spirit’ can revolutionize the church

Blase J. CupichApril 24, 2024

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Before the month-long meeting of the Synod on Synodality last October in Rome, delegates were invited to a pre-synod retreat led by Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. Part of the purpose of the retreat was to prepare us to participate in “a conversation in the Spirit,” to use Pope Francis’ definition of the synodal process.

I consider this reframing of synodality to be nothing short of revolutionary. Father Radcliffe’s reflections convinced me that the pope’s reframing of the scope and meaning of synods will also have staying power because this reframing opens up a new “model for the church,” to use a term coined by the late Cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J., 50 years ago.

Will Trumpism Spare Catholicism?

Emerging alignments are cause for concern

Massimo Faggioli

April 22, 2024

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland, then head of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, speaks from the floor during the 2019 fall general assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore (OSV News photo/CNS file, Bob Roller).

In a hopeful but also worrying article published in the April issue of this magazine, Thomas Geoghegan wrote that “as a Catholic, I can take some comfort in the fact that Trump has yet to liquidate the U.S. Catholic Church.” Trump hasn’t absorbed it the way he has conservative white Evangelicals (in a kind of para-Christian political-religious entrepreneurialism), and that is something to be thankful for. But Catholicism hasn’t been totally spared by Trumpism. And there’s little comfort to be gained from the fact that his main opponents in the Catholic political realm—President Biden and Pope Francis—are increasingly at odds over the wars in Ukraine and Israel and Gaza. The other looming concern: What happens after Biden and Francis are no longer on the stage?

Catholic students, theologians, ministers write an open letter to Pope Francis

Catholic students, theologians, ministers write an open letter to Pope Francis

Guest Voices  ncr

 

'It's a different time': Relations between US sisters, Vatican have changed radically

 

'It's a different time': Relations between US sisters, Vatican have changed radically

ncr

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton: When failing to succeed is success

April 25, 2024

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton: When failing to succeed is success

Joan Chittister  ncr

 

Cardinal Pierre warns against U.S. church not working with the universal church

Justin McLellan – Catholic News ServiceApril 22, 2024

French Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, sprinkles holy water before celebrating Mass in Rome April 21, 2024, to formally take possession of his titular church, the Church of St. Benedict Outside St. Paul's Gate. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza)

ROME (CNS) -- The Catholic Church in the United States is grappling with a tendency to become more “auto-referential” and withdraw itself from the international stage and universal church, Pope Francis’ representative to the United States said.

Speaking with Catholic News Service before formally taking possession of his titular church in Rome April 21, Cardinal Christophe Pierre described the reality of the church in the United States as a “paradox.” He said that while the U.S. church has “always been very faithful to the Holy Father,” he also noted that “the difficulty in America, like in every country in a world which is globalized but becomes more and more individualistic, (is) to receive the message of the pope, especially to work together.”

“The pope feels that if we don’t work together, we are not a church,” he stressed.

FaithNews

Cardinal Grech in Ireland talks LGBT issues, the synod and the Vatican’s same-sex blessings doc

Sarah Mac Donald - Catholic News ServiceApril 22, 2024

Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, poses April 20, 2024, with Father Richard Gibbons, rector of Ireland's National Marian Shrine in Knock, County Mayo. (OSV News photo/Sinead Mallee, courtesy Knock Shrine)  

KNOCK, Ireland (OSV News) -- Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the synod, has said he was not informed about the publication date or the contents of “Fiducia Supplicans,” the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s December 2023 document authorizing non-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples and others in irregular situations.

Speaking to OSV News at Ireland’s National Marian Shrine in Knock, County Mayo, where he delivered the keynote address at and April 19-20 conference “Synodality Explored: Facing the Future Together,” the Maltese prelate said he learned about the document “like everybody else when it was published.”

Sisters bid farewell to a beloved bishop and friend, Tom Gumbleton

 

Guest Voices

Opinion

Sisters bid farewell to a beloved bishop and friend, Tom Gumbleton

Christine Schenk  ncr