In remarks to the Italian Theological Association, Pope Francis said theological reflection requires creative fidelity, communion, and the eyes of faith in order to confront the challenges facing humanity today.
The appointment of a bishop is a very important issue in the study of theological doctrine relating to the Catholic Church. According to the Code of Canon Law, "the Supreme Pontiff freely appoints bishops or confirms those legitimately elected." It also stipulates that "in the future, no rights and privileges of election, nomination, presentation, or designation of bishops are granted to civil authorities" by the church.
The rising number of adult catechumens living in increasingly “complex” matrimonial situations raises many questions for Catholic leaders. The Catholic Institute of Paris recently hosted a study day to examine the issues and seek ways forward.
Looking back over my theological life has been a thought-provoking and sometimes humbling experience. At the conclusion of my primary studies for the priesthood in the late 1940s and early 1950s, I was regrettably incurious about what was going on in the wider theological world – beyond the then mandatory narrow and legalistic scholasticism.
Dear young people of Myanmar, hearing your young voices and listening to you sing today, I want to apply those words to you. Yes, you are "a welcome sound;" you are a beautiful and encouraging sight, for you bring us ‘good news’, the good news of your youth, your faith and your enthusiasm. Indeed, you are good news, because you are concrete signs of the Church’s faith in Jesus Christ, who brings us a joy and a hope that will never die.
“A tradition, if it is not to die, must express its convictions in the language of the time: a language that will, therefore, be new.” “Evangelical values enter the consciousness of human beings over time,” adds the Jesuit theologian Bernard Sesboüé, “and the Church has sometimes had to follow a long road in order to increasingly clarify the element of ‘infallible truth’”.
Catholic Church leaders worried about religious hate crime in Scotland, is to hold talks with the Scottish government to help curb the violence.“They have urged ministers to acknowledge the frequency with which Catholics are being targeted,” reports www.scotsman.com.
There are slightly more than 5,000 bishops in the Catholic Church – far more than the Pope can possibly know personally. Last year 193 new bishops were consecrated. That is very nearly four a week, from five continents, speaking God alone knows how many languages. Each one is appointed personally and directly by the Pope, and he is free to select anyone he likes – a right not fully established until it was included in the Code of Canon Law in 1917 and confirmed at the Second Vatican Council.
(Vatican Radio) Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, is just returned from a 4-day state visit to Russia, with which he says Pope Francis is “pleased”. In an exclusive interview with Vatican media on Friday, Cardinal Pietro Parolin reviewed his state visit to Russia this week, pointing out its highlights and the issues as yet unresolved between the Holy See and the Russian Federation.
Irish teenagers just don't 'do religion': Will Pope's Dublin visit bring renewal of faith to young catholics. There are hopes that Pope Francis’ arrival in Dublin next year will bring renewal of faith to lapsed young Catholics. Yet many worry that they may now be lost to the Church for good.
Can Catholics deepen their faith even as the Church appears to be shrinking in size and losing confidence? It’s a question the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle is currently attempting to address. Three years ago, on 16 July 2014, the bishop, Séamus Cunningham, announced what appeared to some to be an audacious programme, not of rescue and survival, but of development and renewal.
When a diocese decided to explore strategies for evangelisation, the results were more positive than many had anticipated. One key discovery was the deep and neglected spiritual hunger in the general population
The Archbishop of Canterbury warned that a line must be drawn between cultural conservatism and extremism. Terrorist attacks are to do with religion says Welby, urging faith leaders to take responsibility. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has said that the terrorist attacks are to do with religion and that to claim otherwise is “not getting us anywhere.”
ALMOST HALF of the adult population in England and Wales now claims to have no religion,although the number of Catholics has remained stable,according to a new analysis,writes Carina Murphy. The report, The “No Religion” Population of Britain, shows that the proportion of the population who identify in the British and European Social Attitudes surveys as having no religion has reached 48.6 per cent, compared to the 43.8 per cent who identify themselves as Christian – Catholics, Anglicans and other denominations.
Pope Francis will welcome this afternoon Prince Charles of Wales in the Vatican. The two have many issues in common: From the protection of the environment and persecuted Christians, to their reservations about the rise of scapegoating populism. But Austen Ivereigh suggests the two might want to talk about an issue they both consider important, but on which they might not always see eye to eye.
Teacher shortages are hitting Catholic schools hard, with some unable to recruit for long periods. Dorothy Lepkowska examines the problem and discovers one solution that may be paying dividends
There are few Dalit church officials despite the group making up nearly two-thirds of India's Catholics More Dalit priests needed in India, Cardinal Gracias says
Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay has appealed to Dalit Catholic lay leaders to promote priestly vocations in their communities as a way to end discrimination they face within the church.
A wide-ranging sociological study commissioned by the Bayard group and published jointly by La Croix and Pèlerin sheds unprecedented light on the makeup of French Catholicism. The two authors have distinguished six profile types, which provide tools for understanding the logic of a Catholic world that is far more diverse than may have appeared.
