During COVID “we have discovered a new ecclesiology, perhaps even a new theology, and a new ministry”, affirms Bishop Mario Grech
In view of their recent Plenary Assembly, the Presidents of the National European Bishops’ Conferences prepared for the meeting by completing a questionnaire on “The Church during the COVID-19 pandemic” with information from their respective Bishops’ Conferences.
A co-author of a German paper on shared Communion with Protestants has rejected the Vatican criticism of the document, saying that “the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is one voice among many in theological discourse”.
The German Bishops are remaining defiant in the wake of the Vatican refusal of a proposal for Catholic intercommunion with Protestants.
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has fought back against what he called a “very serious distortion” of a Vatican document on returning to in-person Masses post-pandemic.
A German Catholic bishop is resisting a new Vatican prohibition on shared Communion with Protestants.
An Irish priest has warned that bishops’ cozying up to the alt-right is “reaping a bitter whirlwind”.
The “most urgent” issue for the Church today “is to correct its gender imbalance”, an Irish nun has pleaded.
There is an urgent need to return post-COVID-19 to a normal experience of Christian life through the physical presence of the faithful at Mass, said Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
Women are to take to pulpits in a German diocese, saying “it is not enough to give testimony only in the family or at work”.
A German priest has urged the Church to shed the “ballast” of those traditions he believes are “hindering” it.
Pope Francis has praised a new Italian edition of the Roman Missal as being in line with Vatican II.
Amid the recently heightened awareness of racism and inequity in society, I recognized a trend of classism in Catholic spirituality and liturgy permeating throughout the history of the Church that is ever present today.
“Jesus was… very hard on those who condemned others or excluded people on the basis of neat divisions”, the Bishop of Derry in Northern Ireland, Donal McKeown, warned Catholic “Pharisees” in a sermon Sunday August 16.
Cathedrals and chapels have played vital roles in the development of Christian culture.
A German missionary has warned that establishing a true democracy in Church is the “only way out” of the “dead end of feudalism, clericalism and traditionalism” in which the institution is stuck.
The pandemic we are suffering is not only a misfortune but also a great teacher which is teaching us important things we could not have imagined.
A theologian has proposed a solution to the shortage of priests: that the Church recognise the “wealth of vocations” of all the baptised.
A priest theologian has questioned the veto on Eucharistic hospitality, saying that as Christians “if we talk about unity, but do not eat together, we are not being truly human”.
A group of German nuns has denounced that their “dependence” on priests as female religious “takes away our dignity”.
The following text was written by ten religious women of the group “Religious Women for Human Dignity”, which was formed in Munich in autumn 2018. It reflects how the challenges of the corona pandemic were creatively taken up and overcome by religious women. Their experiences are especially related to the understanding of the sacraments, of the Eucharist and of ministry, or rather the image of the priesthood.
An Irish priest has urged the Church to learn lessons from the “dress rehearsal” of COVID-19-related suspensions of public liturgies, warning that “in a decade or so Sunday Mass will not be celebrated in every parish”.
In his homily today at Mass for the Feast of Corpus Christi, Pope Francis pleaded for “urgent” help for “those who hunger for food and for dignity, those without work and those who struggle to carry on”.
“One cannot participate in the Eucharist and be racist”, a Portuguese bishop has stressed.
A German bishop is urging a “spiritual revolution”, saying that “we have to break out of the prison of a perfect Church”.
The Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, Eamon Martin, called in his sermon for Trinity Sunday for help from young people to manage the transition back to full parish life after COVID-19.
An Iraqi Patriarch has hit out at Cardinal Robert Sarah for creating “confusion” on COVID-19 Masses, accusing the Vatican liturgy tsar of holding to a position both “superficial” and “neither bold nor heroic”.
Three out of every four Spanish priests are seeking a “new pastoral model” after COVID-19, with a group suggesting holding Masses without bishops or priests.
A Portuguese cardinal has discouraged communion on the tongue, recalling that “Christ said, ‘Take and eat’, not ‘Open your mouth'”.
A theologian has proposed the Church overhaul the idea of a Sunday Mass “obligation” incumbent on Catholics.