Posts By Date - Catholic Herald

October 09, 2019

Nun’s canonisation delays major congressional vote in Brazil

October 09, 2019

The canonization of the first Brazilian-born female saint is making headlines across the country, putting news coverage of the country’s current political and economic difficulties on the backburner. The canonization has even delayed approval of the government’s most important Congressional bill, the social security reform. Brazil’s Senate has delayed the final vote until October 22,

Did Pope Francis really say that Jesus isn’t God?

October 09, 2019

The Vatican said on Wednesday that an Italian journalist it has previously corrected was not speaking accurately when he claimed that Pope Francis denied Christ’s divinity. “As already stated on other occasions, the words that Dr Eugenio Scalfari attributes in quotation marks to the Holy Father during talks with him cannot be considered a faithful

Amazon synod bishop: ‘Indigenous people do not understand celibacy’

October 09, 2019

A contributor to the working document for the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops on the Amazon region made his case Wednesday for the priestly ordination of married men in the region. “I’m saying this with great sincerity – there is no other option,” Bishop Erwin Kräutler, the retired head of the Xingu prelature in Amazonian Brazil,

Cardinal Sarah: To oppose the Pope is to be outside the Church

October 09, 2019

Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, said the people who portray him as an opponent of Pope Francis are being used by the devil to help divide the Church. “The truth is that the Church is represented on earth by the vicar of Christ, that is by

Pope Francis: Catholics should not profess ideology over faith

October 09, 2019

In his general audience Wednesday, Pope Francis warned Catholics to not turn their faith into an ideology, as he said St Paul did when he was persecuting Christians before his conversion. St Paul, called Saul before his conversion, was “an ideologist; for Saul, religion had become ideology, religious ideology, social ideology, political ideology,” the Pope

Bishop’s plea to protestors: stop ‘destroying the country’

October 09, 2019

Haiti “is dying” – according to a leading bishop – who has called on protestors to stop violent demonstrations, which have brought the country to a standstill. Echoing calls by other Church leaders for the government to act, Bishop Désinord Jean of Hinche spoke out against demonstrators who, he said, were making a bad situation

Married priests may look like a solution, but they could raise a whole host of new problems

October 09, 2019

If one thing has become abundantly clear over the past several days, it is that the Synod of Bishops is not (even) a debating society. The rules governing proceedings in the full chamber are carefully crafted, and are being enforced to ensure that no actual debate takes place. Rather, there is talking in turns —

Morning Catholic must-reads: 09/10/19

October 09, 2019

Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions has urged Australia’s High Court to refuse to hear a final appeal by Cardinal George Pell. A human rights group has said it is “deeply concerned” for the Christian and Yazidi communities of northeast Syria. Archbishop Peter Loy Chong has criticised Fiji’s “coup culture”. John Allen, Maureen Mullarkey, Brother Mark

Letters from the Synod – October 9, 2019

October 09, 2019

THE TENSIONS OF A PONTIFICATE Formally opening Synod-2019 at Mass in the Papal Basilica of St. Peter on October 6, Pope Francis preached a moving homily focused on the nature of the episcopate, during which he drew heavily on the second reading assigned for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday of the Year (2 Timothy 1. 6-8, 13-14).