Bishop Antonio Bello of Molfetta Pope call s German cardinal to Rome to discuss eucharistic sharing
Pope Francis has asked the president of the German bishops’ conference to come to Rome to discuss pastoral guidelines for possibly allowing some non-Catholics married to Catholics to receive the Eucharist, the conference spokesman has said. Reports that “the document was rejected in the Vatican by the Holy Father or by the dicasteries are false”, said Matthias Kopp, the conference spokesman.
Members of the German bishops’ conference were asked to submit proposed amendments to the draft document by Easter; the heads of the conference’s doctrinal and ecumenical committees and the president of the conference were to formulate a final draft and present it to the conference’s permanent council this week.
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, conference president, had announced in February that three-quarters of the German bishops approved the development of pastoral guidelines for determining situations in which a non-Catholic spouse married to a Catholic could receive Communion.
During Pope Francis’ visit to Sweden in 2016, Cardinal Koch, the Vatican’s chief ecumenist, was asked about the situations in which such sharing would be permitted. In reply, he said a distinction must be made between “eucharistic hospitality for individual people and eucharistic communion”.
Pope remembers beloved bishop who served poor
The Church needs courageous men and women like Italian Bishop Antonio Bello of Molfetta, who imitated Jesus’ closeness to the poor and the downtrodden, Pope Francis has said. Visiting the birthplace of the beloved bishop affectionately known as ‘Don Tonino’, the Pope said Bishop Bello’s life and ministry “remind us to not theorise closeness to the poor but to be close to them as Jesus did”.
“Don Tonino did not do this because it was convenient or because he was seeking approval, but because he was moved by the Lord’s example. Out of love for him, we find the strength to rid ourselves of the garments that get in the way so that we can dress ourselves in service, to be ‘the church of the apron, which is the only priestly vestment recorded in the Gospel’,” he said.
Pope Francis arrived in the morning by helicopter in the town of Alessano, where Bishop Bello was born and buried.
Born in 1935, Don Tonino spent his first years of priestly ministry as vice-rector of a seminary while collaborating with the Catholic charitable organisation, Caritas.
Vatican hosts experts to discuss tenderness
Close to 100 financiers, philanthropists, artists, tech experts, physicians, politicians and religious leaders spent more than an hour in a Vatican meeting room last Friday talking about tenderness.
A project called ‘Humanity 2.0’, supported by the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, designed the day-long event to kick off a process of connecting people with different resources, but who all are committed to improving the lives of others.
During the April 20 meeting, the discussions moved from the concept of tenderness to ways tenderness becomes action and to a multi-session discussion about the worrying state of maternal and prenatal medical care and ways to address it.
“Healthier mothers are an investment in the health and well-being of our communities and our world,” Marie-Louise Coleiro, president of Malta, told the gathering. She particularly challenged Humanity 2.0 participants to brainstorm concrete ways to improve holistic care for pregnant women and new mothers who are migrants or refugees.