As representatives of the global Church in the Synod in Rome enter an intensive phase of debate on contentious issues such as women priests and same-sex blessings, participants have heard pleas to avoid taking divisive stances. As delegates commenced work on their hotly-anticipated final document meeting due this weekend, Dominican theologian Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP…
The issue of understanding tradition is a major theme at the synod, writes Michael Kelly from Rome The Church must understand Catholic teaching as a “living tradition” rather than legalism, a theological adviser has told the global synod meeting in Rome. Australian Fr Ormond Rush — one of the world’s leading scholars on Vatican II…
The general consensus here at the Synod of Bishops in Rome is that it’s good to talk. Some people are even learning that it can also be good to listen. The beauty of the papacy as we now understand it in the Church is the ability to transform ecclesiastical culture and even ecclesiastical speak, and…
The first woman to preside over a Synod of Bishops described the experience of sitting with Pope Francis at the head table as “a gift and a grace” – and a sign of things to come in the Church. Speaking at a press briefing today, Sr Maria de los Dolores Valencia Gomez, a Sister of…
The historic synod gathering in Rome which gets underway next week, being seen as the most significant Church gathering this century, is a “big moment” for the Church in Ireland to galvanise the Faithful to communicate “the richness of our tradition”, Irish participants have said. However, the Synod of Bishops on Synodality which begins on…
The Catholic culture of our childhood memories is unlikely to return, whether we would wish it to or not writes Fr Eamonn Conway When I was growing up in Tuam, Co. Galway in the 1960s, the town was a ‘mini-Vatican’. The diocesan boarding school, St Jarlath’s College, had over a dozen priests on staff. Both…
Thomas O’Loughlin While the image of ‘the pilgrim People of God’ has been central to formal understanding of the church since Vatican II – an event now more than two generations ago – its impact on the pew-level ecclesiology has been marginal. It was intended to be a biblically rich vision to replace the political…
At the weekend the Pope surprised a gathering of journalists in the Vatican by making an appeal to them for help, “not for money” he assured them, but to fight against disinformation and the denial of facts and reality. This appeal for help came as a prominent Cardinal in America heavily criticised the proposed Synod…
In just a little over a month, the curtain will rise on a keenly anticipated Synod of Bishops on Synodality in Rome. Though notoriously difficult to define, ‘synodality’ generally refers to the idea of the whole Church journeying together, with members listening to one another in establishing priorities and policies. To date, much of the…
In the foreword to a new booklet by a conservative group criticising Pope Francis’s looming Synod of Bishops on Synodality, American Cardinal Raymond Burke has slammed the process surrounding the synod, calling it deeply harmful and potentially schismatic. Cardinal Burke, a hero to the traditionalist wing of the Catholic Church, has been a frequent Francis…
Michael Kelly
Ruadhán Jones
John L. Allen Jr.