What happened?
Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga said there was a “gay lobby” in the Vatican. The Honduran newspaper El Heraldo asked the cardinal whether there had been an “infiltration of the gay community in the Vatican”. Cardinal Rodríguez replied: “Not only that, also the Pope said there was even a ‘lobby’ in this sense.” He added: “Little by little the Pope is trying to purify it … There is pastoral legislation to attend to them, but what is wrong cannot be truth.”
What the media are saying
Two years ago a Chilean Catholic website claimed that Pope Francis had told a meeting of the Latin American Confederation of Men and Women Religious that there was a “gay lobby” in the Church and “we have to see what we can do [about it]”. In a later in-flight interview he said: “So much is written about the gay lobby. I have yet to find anyone who can give me a Vatican identity card with ‘gay’ [written on it]. They say they are there.” But the idea gained more credence on the eve of the last family synod when a Vatican official, Mgr Krzystof Charamsa, declared he was gay and had a partner. The Catholic News Agency noted that Cardinal Rodríguez quashed any suggestion that Pope Francis wanted support for same-sex marriage. He said: “The natural law cannot be reformed.”
What the vaticanisti are saying
At Crux John Allen argued that the “gay lobby” that Pope Francis reportedly said he had to deal with is neither gay nor a lobby. He wrote: “When Italians say there’s a ‘gay lobby’ in the Vatican, they don’t mean an organised faction with the aim of changing Church teaching on homosexuality or same-sex marriage. Instead, what they have in mind is an informal, loosely organised network of clergy who support one another, keep one another’s secrets, and help one another move up the ladder. The group is perceived to have a vested interest in thwarting attempts at reform, since they benefit from secrecy and old-guard ways. In that sense, the term ‘gay lobby’ is often synonymous … with corruption, secrecy and a sleazy sort of personal patronage.”
The most overlooked story of the week
✣Catholics asked to thank God for Reformation
What happened?
The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Lutheran World Federation have devised a joint prayer service for Catholics and Lutherans in advance of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. One reading thanks God for the “insights” received through the Reformation.
Why was it under-reported?
Catholic-Lutheran relations are not a live political issue for the media and the 500th anniversary is still a year away. But the “common prayer” breaks new ground and is alarming to many Catholics. Rorate Caeli, the traditionalist site, said: “This is the first time that the drive for Catholic-Lutheran union and the glorification of the Reformation has taken a quasi-liturgical shape, intended not just for relatively rare ‘ecumenical encounters’ but for Catholics and Lutherans worldwide.”
What will happen next?
There are lots of events planned next year to mark the anniversary, most notably a joint pilgrimage to the Holy Land by German Catholic and Lutheran leaders. Also, on the eve of the Second Sunday in Lent 2017, the two commissioning intend to combine penance and prayer for forgiveness in a joint service of reconciliation. In September another ecumenical service will be led by German Catholic and Lutheran leaders. For Catholic bishops the challenge will be to mark the anniversary jointly without celebrating it.
✣The week ahead
The annual March for Life will take place in Washington DC today. The pro-life rally occurs each year around the anniversary of the US Supreme Court’s decision to legalise abortion in the Roe vs Wade case in 1973. Last year an estimated 800,000 people attended the march, which begins at the National Mall. This year’s theme is “Pro-Life is Pro-Woman”.
A nun who was imprisoned for breaking into a nuclear weapons plant will speak at Saints John and Martin church hall, Balsall Heath, Birmingham, tomorrow. Sister Megan Rice, 85 (right), painted peace slogans on the walls of a bunker in 2012.
Two auxiliary bishops will be installed in the Diocese of Westminster on Monday, the feast of the Conversion of St Paul. The episcopal ordinations of Canon Paul McAleenan, a priest of the Diocese of Westminster, and Mgr John Wilson, a priest at the Diocese of Leeds who had served as diocesan administrator, will take place in Westminster Cathedral.
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