Vatican: Bishops Must Consult ‘Grass Roots’ on Family Synod

“In responding to a Vatican directive to listen ‘as widely as possible’ to Catholics’ views on issues like contraception, same-sex marriage and divorce, bishops globally must gather information from the ‘grass roots’ of the faithful, the Vatican official overseeing the process said Friday. The consultation, being taken in preparation for a 2014 Vatican meeting of Catholic bishops from around the world on issues of family life, cannot be limited only to the bishops’ advisers, Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri told NCR.” By Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter — Click here to read the rest of McElwee’s report.

To help ensure your voice heard, Voice of the Faithful® and 14 other organizations are conducting a survey based on the original survey sent out by the Synod of Bishops to collect Catholics’ opinion in preparation for the 2014 synod on the family. The deadline for submitting this survey is Dec. 15, so you still have a few days to submit yours. Click here to go to the survey.

Editorial: Things Are Different Under Pope Francis

“In Francis, we see a great deal of discontinuity with Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II. And it is about time. How can Francis’ Nov. 24 apostolic exhortation, ‘The Joy of the Gospel,’ be seen as anything but a clarion call for discontinuity?” Editorial in National Catholic Reporter — Click here to read the rest of this editorial.

A Pope’s New Path on Child Abuse

After decades of Vatican indifference and evasion, Pope Francis has ordered the creation of a commission to study the rape and intimidation of schoolchildren by priests and to recommend measures for effective reform. The new commission, long overdue, will be composed of international experts, both lay and religious, reflecting the global scope of the scandal. Its task is to propose concrete recommendations for firmer safeguarding of schoolchildren and better training of Roman Catholic priests.

“A comparable study panel of laity and clergy was created over a decade ago by the American hierarchy to report on the abuse of schoolchildren in the United States, a scandal in which 700 priests had to be dismissed in a three-year period. The panel’s pointed recommendation was that “there must be consequences” for diocesan leaders who shielded offending priests from criminal prosecution and authorized hush money to victims. But no effective mechanism to make powerful diocesan offenders accountable was devised by the bishops, and only a few diocesan leaders faced criminal investigation.” Editorial, The New York Times — Click here to read the rest of this editorial.