A German bishop is backing blessings for gay couples, asking: “How can I refuse?”
Irish Catholics are calling on their bishops to ensure “real and meaningful” lay participation in the “new” Church post-pandemic.
Bishop Giuseppe Marciante of Cefalù, on the Italian island of Sicily, has entrusted the “participation in the pastoral care of the parish of St Paul the Apostle” in the town of Isnello to a “Family Pastoral Service Team” that includes laypeople.
A pioneering German layman is taking on the role of ‘pastor’ of a parish, saying that his appointment to a role usually reserved for priests “is only the beginning of new paths we are taking” in the Church.
A layman has taken joint charge of a parish in the German diocese of Münster as an auxiliary bishop there has admitted “there are simply not enough priests” to take on the duties of pastor.
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”.
The Vatican Synod Pro-Secretary has warned the Church against the “suicide” of returning to old pastoral models post-COVID-19.
On gays in the Church, “we must never forget that every difference is embraced by the love of God, who does not discriminate”, Italian cardinal Matteo Zuppi has said.
An Italian archdiocese has warned people locked down over coronavirus against the dangers of digital “drugging”.
“There are tears, yes, but great hope too that something new will come from this”, a Spanish chaplain on call 24/7 for coronavirus patients has said.
Two Spanish clerics – one a victim himself of coronavirus, the other a hospital chaplain tending to patients with the disease – have told of days of “intensive priesthood”.
A Spanish bishop has hit out at the “bombardment” of the faithful with coronavirus TV broadcast and livestreamed Masses, asking: “Aren’t we treating believers as if they don’t know how to pray, and should depend on the clergy to do so?”
“Human, Christian and pastoral closeness” to all those affected by the earthquake and the coronavirus epidemic is what Cardinal Archbishop of Zagreb Josip Bozanic expressed March 23 in a video message transmitted by Croatian radio and television.
Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, Eamon Martin, called in a homily Sunday for “generosity and flexibility” from lenders and landlords amid a spike in coronavirus cases across the island to over 1,000.
Pope Francis on Sunday called for all Christians to respond to the coronavirus pandemic “with the universality of prayer, of compassion, of tenderness”.
Despite the more than 265,000 positive cases and 11,000 deaths now recorded worldwide, there’s relative ‘good news’, too, on the coronavirus front: the hero priests going beyond the call of duty in the battle against COVID-19.
“Today we pray for the deceased, those who have died because of the virus”, Pope Francis began the liturgy on Wednesday morning in the Casa Santa Marta chapel.
Refugees in France and Greece are at special risk of contracting coronavirus as the pandemic sweeps through the entire continent of Europe, to Russia and beyond.
“In this situation of pandemic, in which we find ourselves living more or less isolated, we are invited to rediscover and deepen the value of the communion that unites all the members of the Church.”
A French bishop has ripped providentialist Catholics who he says are “tempting God” by their reckless behaviour in seeking Communion at all costs in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Beginning his Mass on Friday morning at the Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis reminded everyone that we are “uniting ourselves to those who are ill and to their families”.
The cardinal known as ‘the Pope’s Robin Hood’ is defying a decree closing Rome churches due to the coronavirus pandemic, opening his own titular one for prayer and explaining: “Home should always be open to its children”.
Pope Francis introduced Tuesday’s morning liturgy by asking that we pray for “all those who are sick, medical personnel, all those suffering from the coronavirus epidemic”.
Bologna cardinal Matteo Zuppi has railed against Church “prophets of calamities who confuse conversion with relativism”.
Pope Francis has decided to include a year spent in mission territory in the training curriculum of future Vatican diplomats.
Pope Francis urged Church and society today to fight the “indifference and rejection” the elderly suffer with a “revolution of tenderness”.
The Polish Church has plunged to new lows of public trust, and priests are knocking door-to-door for donations.
The Vatican Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life has organized an International Conference on the pastoral care of the elderly.
An Irish bishop has warned of “a new culture which is trying to undo the truths of the entire Judeo-Christian system from the ground up”.
“War kills everything. To defeat it, we need love”, Pope Francis told a group of children Sunday, as he also expressed yesterday in his recitation of the Angelus prayer his concern for the serious pollution in areas of Italy and for the “just protection” of inhabitants’ health.