Benedict deserves applause for his work on abuse – Francis
Pope Francis has praised the work of his predecessor Pope Benedict in tackling abuse in the Church.
Speaking on his February 18 return flight from Mexico to Rome, the Pope said he wanted “to honour the man who fought in moments when he had no strength to impose himself” and said “Cardinal Ratzinger deserves applause”.
In a response to a question about abuse by the late Msgr Marcial Maciel, the disgraced Mexican founder of the Legionaries of Christ, the Pontiff detailed how while still a cardinal Pope Benedict did as much as was possible to investigate allegations about Msgr Maciel. Ten days before the death of St John Paul II, Pope Francis continued, the then Cardinal Ratzinger “said to the whole Church that it needed to clean up the dirt of the Church”, repeating this before the conclave that elected him Pope.
The Pontiff also said that any bishop who moves a known abusive priest to a new parish should resign his position. The clerical abuse of children, he said, is “a monstrosity” and “a diabolical sacrifice”.
Call for lay faithful to have more input into synods
Future synods of bishops should have more input from the lay faithful, Church experts at a seminar in Rome have said.
A renewed understanding of the role of the people of God and their bishops “warrants considering not just the Bishop of Rome and the episcopate in the synodal process, but also the lay faithful”, according to a statement from the synod’s secretary general, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri.
The seminar, which drew together academics and experts in ecclesiology and canon law from across the world, had examined how the Synod of Bishops could serve a “synodal Church”.
Reflecting on bishops as representing both their dioceses and – when gathered together – the whole Church, the seminar concluded that while lay Catholics cannot vote in synods, they should play a bigger part in discernment and decision-making throughout the synodal process.
Grand imam to meet Pope
In an effort to give impetus to dialogue between the Vatican and the Muslim world Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, has invited Ahmad el-Tayeb, the grand imam of al-Azhar University, to come to Rome to meet Pope Francis.
Cardinal Tauran said he hoped “to receive the grand imam and officially accompany him in an audience with the Holy Father”.
A decades-old dialogue between between the Vatican and the leading Muslim institution was halted in 2011 after Pope Benedict said Christians in the Middle East were facing persecution; relations had been difficult since the then Pope’s 2006 Regensburg address.
‘You shall not kill’ has value – Pope
Pope Francis has called for the global abolition of the death penalty. “The commandment ‘you shall not kill’ has absolute value and applies to both the innocent and the guilty”, he told the crowd gathered for the weekly Angelus in Rome’s St Peter’s Square on Sunday, February 21.
Calling on Catholic politicians around the world to “make a courageous and exemplary gesture” by working for a moratorium on executions during the Jubilee Year of Mercy, he spoke more broadly when he said, “I appeal to the consciences of those who govern to reach an international consensus to abolish the death penalty”.
The Pontiff pointed out that the modern world has means to “efficiently repress crime without definitively denying the person who committed it the possibility of rehabilitating themselves”.
Head of Vatican Radio to step down
Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi is to step down as head of Vatican Radio at the end of this month, after 25 years working with the station. Alberto Gasbarri, the station’s director of administration, is also to leave his post. Neither position will be replaced, as both men are stepping down to facilitate a broader effort to streamline Vatican communications. Fr Lombardi will continue in his role as director of the Holy See press office.