Posts Tagged second vatican council
Synod of Bishops 2014: The drama is back / Cruxnow.com
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, Synod of Bishops, Synod on the Family, Voice of the Faithful on October 16, 2014
True old-timers in the Vatican press corps still love to reminisce about how much fun it was covering the Second Vatican Council, a gathering of the world’s Catholic bishops from 1962 to 1965 that launched the Church on a course of modernization and reform …
“Underneath the drama was the sense that something momentous was happening — a Church that had seemed frozen in place was suddenly on the move. Whether it was doing so in a wise or haphazard fashion is a matter of debate to this day, but no one denied that the plates were shifting.
“Over the past two weeks, that kind of drama has been back on the Vatican beat.”
By John L. Allen, Jr., Cruxnow.com — Click here to read the rest of this news analysis.
Johnson to LCWR: Sisters ahead of hierarchy in living Vatican II renewal / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Religious Women, Voice of the Faithful, Women in Catholic Church on August 18, 2014
Sister Elizabeth Johnson, “… the tensions are ecclesiastical because women religious have undergone the renewal called for by the Second Vatican Council and the hierarchy has not.”
Johnson to LCWR: Sisters ahead of hierarchy in Living Vatican II renewal
The Vatican and women religious are caught up in a tension with historical, sociological and ecclesiastical roots, but a solution could be found, Sr. Elizabeth Johnson said …
“Johnson was honored Friday (Aug. 15) with the Outstanding Leadership Award by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the largest group of women religious leaders in the nation, representing about 80 percent of the 51,600 sisters in the United States …
“Johnson is widely admired by LCWR members, and she urged them to hang on despite an ongoing investigation by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
“‘Certainly, the LCWR and the sisters they lead are far from perfect, but they have got the smell of the sheep on them,’ she said to heavy applause. ‘Post-Vatican II renewal has not taken place at the [Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith].’”
By Dan Stockman, National Catholic Reporter — Click here to read the rest of this article.
The U.S. Sisters & the Holy See / Commonweal
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Pope Francis, Religious Women, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful, Women in Catholic Church on June 4, 2014
Why hasn’t Pope Francis stepped in to get the Vatican off the nuns’ backs? After all, he has said he wants a more collegial church, in keeping with the vision of the Second Vatican Council. He urges priests and bishops to focus on encounter and outreach. He talks about leadership roles for women.
“And yet the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 2012 “assessment” of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious stands, and the LCWR—composed of the heads of some 80 percent of U.S. sisters—is still under orders to reform its ways to the satisfaction of the CDF. If Francis really wants a less authoritarian, more mission-focused church, shouldn’t he have called this whole thing off already?”
By Mollie Wilson O’Reilly, Commonweal — Click here to read the rest of this article.
Canonization of Popes Focuses Attention on Decades of Change, Conflict, Record on Abuse / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in church reform, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on April 28, 2014
Wrapping Up Two Decades of Change, Conflict, Francis Saints Two Popes
“And just like that, 56 years of church history — from the unexpected calling of the Second Vatican Council through the sometimes tumultuous and radical response to its modernizing moves for Catholics around the world — were wrapped up in about six minutes.
“That’s how long it took Sunday (Apr. 27) for Pope Francis to formally declare his predecessors John XXIII and John Paul II saints of the Catholic church, from the first prayers of the formal canonization rite to the formal decree.”
By Joshua McElwee, posted Apr. 27, 2014, National Catholic Reporter — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Records Show That John Paul II Could Have Intervened in Abuse Crisis – But Didn’t
“Sitting on a bookshelf in my office is a red leather-bound copy of the Code of Canon Law. This isn’t just any copy of the church’s rulebook. It was signed by Pope John Paul II for me at the request of my former boss, the late Cardinal Pio Laghi. It is dated 6-6-1983 in the late pope’s own hand. I was definitely a fan in those days.
“On Sunday (Apr. 27) after John Paul is promoted to sainthood, it will become a second-class relic. I will not venerate it, nor will I join the cheering crowds.
“The past 30 years have led me to the opinion that his sainthood is a profound insult to the countless victims of sexual assault by Catholic clergy the world over. It is an insult to the decent, well-intentioned men and women who were persecuted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith during his reign, and it is an insult to the memory of Pope John XXIII, who has the misfortune being a canonization classmate.”
By Thomas P. Doyle, posted Apr. 25, 2014, National Catholic Reporter — Click here to read the rest of this column.
Pope Talks Openly about Reform, Sex Abuse, Dutch Bishop Says / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Pope Francis, Vatican II, Voice of the Faithful on December 9, 2013
Pope Francis told a group of Dutch bishops this week that the Vatican must continue reforms undertaken by the Catholic church in the 1960s and ’70s, according to one of the participants in the meeting. Bishop Jan Hendricks, who attended the meeting Monday (Dec. 2), later recounted that the pope said implementation of the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council is only half complete … The Dutch visit is one of the first for Francis, who has so far received visits only from bishops from several of the regions that make up the Italian episcopal conference.” By Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter — Click here to read the rest of McElwee’s interview.
Francis Is the Exclamation Point on Vatican II / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Pope Francis, Vatican II, Voice of the Faithful on October 23, 2013
I already hear concerns that the reformist church of 76-year-old Pope Francis might not survive his pontificate. I hear talk that the anti-reformists who took back the Second Vatican Council will likely do it again once Francis is gone from the scene.
“We ask: Will a church groomed by compassion and mercy, as Francis would have it, be the church of our future? Will our church be guided, as if with a compass, by the lives and needs of marginalized people? Can a pastoral Catholicism, embedded in the Beatitudes, be the Catholicism we offer the world?
“Viewed solely as a moment in church history, the Francis moment might not last. Post-Vatican II history teaches us that entrenched forces have ways of enduring. In this view, Francis could be a passing fancy. However, from the long view of history, the Francis pontificate could well be the exclamation point on Vatican II — change and reform is the default mode of operation, not a one-time activity.” By Thomas C. Fox, National Catholic Reporter
Read the rest of Fox’s column by clicking here.
Francis Sets a Date in April for Two Popes to Become Saints / The New York Times
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Pope Francis, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on October 1, 2013
Pope Francis said Sept. 30 that he would canonize two of his most influential predecessors, John Paul II and John XXIII, on the same day next spring, a highly unusual move that was taken as an effort to promote unity within the Roman Catholic Church.
“The two popes, who have disparate followings among reformers and conservatives within the church, will be declared saints on April 27, Francis said during a meeting with cardinals at the Vatican. Each achieved considerable international stature: John Paul II for encouraging the fall of Communism in his native Poland and across Eastern Europe, and John XXIII for assembling the liberalizing Second Vatican Council, which ran from 1962 to 1965.” By Elisabetta Povoledo and Alan Cowell, The New York Times
Rest the rest of the story by clicking here.
Romanizers vis-à-vis Judaizers: Is Overstressing Law as ‘Stupid’ Now as When Paul Applied it to the Galatians?
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in church reform, Voice of the Faithful on January 7, 2013
Stupid Catholics? Does Paul’s Adjective for the Galatian Church Apply Today?
Lately the term stupid has been used quite frequently. On the left, Chris Matthews of MSNBC called himself ‘not just stupid, but wrong’ for making remarks about Hurricane Sandy’s potential impact on politics. On the right, after the election, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said that Republicans should ‘stop being the stupid party.’ Beyond politics and after Sandy, Bloomberg Businessweek had a cover feature that pictured a flooded city street in virtual darkness with the words: ‘It’s Global Warming, Stupid … ‘
“Stupid has a religious meaning too. This insight came to me on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, Oct. 11, 2012. I live in a Capuchin Franciscan community, where we share faith around each day’s Scriptures. The readings for Oct. 11 came from Galatians 3:1-5 and Luke 11:5-13. Both involve the Spirit’s power in the community of believers. In this context, to undermine the power of the Spirit by an overstress on the law, Paul said, would be ‘stupid …’
“From the above texts [and others the author cites] it seems that anontos [the greek translation for ‘stupid’ in Paul’s text ] refers to believers who have reverted to some ‘other gospel’ or teaching that is undermining the integrity of the Spirit-grounded Gospel they once embraced. This certainly represents the case in Galatians. Unnamed ‘Judaizers’ (Galatians 2:14) had effectively undermined Paul’s Gospel about the death, resurrection and embodiment of the Spirit of the Risen One in the community by an overstress on the law. Today we might call them the ‘Romanizers … ‘”
By Michael Crosby, a Capuchin Franciscan priest who lives in Milwaukee, in National Catholic Reporter
Abbot’s call for Church reform receives attention throughout Europe
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in church reform, Voice of the Faithful on December 20, 2012
Swiss Abbot Makes Fiery Appeal for Church Reform
A fiery appeal for church reform by an influential Swiss abbot has attracted widespread attention throughout Europe, and has, moreover, been welcomed by the future president of the Swiss bishops’ conference. Fifty-year-old Abbot Martin Werlen, leader of the Abbey of Einsiedeln and himself a member of the Swiss bishops’ conference, first voiced his appeal in a sermon on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Council …
Titled ‘Discovering the Embers Under the Ashes,’ it echoes remarks by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini in his last interview before his death Aug. 31. Referring to the state of the church today, Martini spoke of his sense of powerlessness and how Catholicism’s ’embers’ were ‘hidden under the ashes.’
Werlen said he is alarmed by the present state of the church. ‘The situation of the church is dramatic, not only in the German-speaking countries,’ he said. ‘It is dramatic not only because of the rapidly decreasing number of priests and religious or because of plummeting church attendance. The real problem is not a problem of numbers. What is missing is the fire! We must face the situation and find out what is behind it.’”
By Christa Pongratz-Lippitt, National Catholic Reporter
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