Last week, the report from the Pennsylvania Grand Jury described the abuse by hundreds of Roman Catholic priests of well over a thousand victims, and the systematic ecclesial covering up of the abuse. This week Pope Francis has responded with a Letter to the People of God (full text). The systemic issue will need more
Pope Calls Roman Catholicism an “Ecclesial Community” because of Abuse Read More »
Pope Francis certainly stirred things up last week by changing the teaching in the Roman Catholic Catechism on the death penalty. It is now inadmissible in all situations. Some saw it as a great distraction from Cardinal Theodore McCarrick bringing the RC Church into the headlines for all the wrong reasons. [Others had tried different
Changing Christian Teaching Read More »
An agreement has been reached to move Easter to April 1, “whatever day of the week that might happen to be”. A committee has been meeting several times a year for three years. It has had representatives from the Vatican, Eastern Orthodoxy (2 reps: Constantinople and Moscow), the Copts, Armenians, Anglicans, and The World Council
There are a number of ethical debates before our New Zealand parliament this term: abortion, euthanasia, medical marijuana,… There are a lot of polls, plenty of articles (in newspapers, magazines, and online), news reports, and social media posts… “I feel” (or “I think” which is essentially “I feel” without being as honest that it’s a
I’m grateful to regular commenter here, Deacon Chris Sullivan, who pointed to the statement from the New Zealand [Roman Catholic] bishops welcoming Pope Francis’ edict on translations of liturgical texts. For those not (fully) up to speed on this, let’s just recap: Liturgiam authenticam was promulgated by the Vatican in 2001. It had a very
New Missal Translation? Read More »
From 1 October 2017, there will be a change in Roman Catholic canon law that will mean that local Conferences of Bishops will be the final arbiters of the liturgical translation used in their region. Currently, Pope Francis’ motu proprio, Magnum Principium is only available in Latin and in Italian. There is an unofficial English
Pope Francis Reinforces Subsidiarity Read More »
After this teaching, after this long path we can affirm with certainty and magisterial authority that the liturgical reform is irreversible. Pope Francis to the 68th Italian National Liturgical Week. In Pope Francis’ message to the Liturgical Week, the Pope noted that reform of the books was one thing, renewing the church is related: “it
Someone once said to me, “I have no problem believing that it’s Jesus, it’s believing that it’s bread that I find difficult!” Another time I heard someone explaining, “it’s not supposed to be bread, it’s just supposed to symbolise bread.” In the early church, Christians used the same baking techniques and same ovens for both
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Jesus!
Gluten and Alcohol-Free Christ Read More »
