Pope canonizes new saints during synod
On World Mission Sunday, during the synod on synodality, the pope created 14 new saints, including the Canada-born founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family and 11 men martyred in Syria.
Posted on 10/22/2024 09:30 AM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
CNA Newsroom, Oct 22, 2024 / 05:30 am (CNA).
The Catholic Church’s final session of the multiyear Synod on Synodality is in its final week. Here’s what’s happening during the last week of the Synod on Synodality.
Watch the EWTN News special from the Vatican covering the last week of the Synod on Synodality. Hosts Catherine Hadro, Fr. Thomas Petri and Matthew Bunson analyze the latest developments from the Synod with special guests.
Cardinal Víctor Fernández reaffirms Pope Francis’ position against women’s access to the diaconate, an issue that will continue to be evaluated by a specialized commission while the Synod on Synodality continues to reflect on the role of women in the Church outside of ordained ministry. Almudena Martínez-Bordiú has more.
Pope Francis canonizes 14 new saints, including a father of eight and Franciscan friars killed in Syria for refusing to renounce their faith and convert to Islam.
Presiding over a Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, the pope declares three 19th-century founders of religious orders and the 11 “Martyrs of Damascus” as saints to be venerated by the global Catholic Church, commending their lives of sacrifice, missionary zeal, and service to the Church. Courtney Mares reports.
Much rejoicing at the canonization of 14 new saints in the Catholic Church!
— Courtney Mares (@catholicourtney) October 20, 2024
Saints Giuseppe Allamano, Marie-Léonie Paradis, Elena Guerra, and the holy Martyrs of Damascus, pray for us! pic.twitter.com/PrpxfybM2l
Sources confirm to CNA over the weekend that there is significant frustration among synod delegates over Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández’s absence from the Friday meeting about the study group on women’s roles in the Church. This includes questions surrounding the possibility of female deacons, notes AC Wimmer.
How the meeting was conducted caused outrage, too, as paper slips with an email address were reportedly distributed.
Two prominent Catholics — Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong and American author George Weigel — level sharp criticisms at the Synod on Synodality, focusing particularly on the Vatican’s approach to China.
The synod takes place against the backdrop of the ongoing debate over the diplomatic relationship between the Holy See and Beijing, particularly the Sino-Vatican deal on bishop appointments, AC Wimmer writes.
Cardinal Zen and George Weigel voice sharp critiques of the Synod on Synodality 🇻🇦🇨🇳🇭🇰 Zen questions voting legitimacy, while Weigel warns against #Sinicization of the Church. #CatholicChurch #Synod2024 https://t.co/iBFQ2Q0aHD
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) October 19, 2024
After two and a half weeks, the last of two assemblies for the Synod on Synodality is now in its final stretch before officially concluding on Oct. 27.
As conversations on the agenda set by the Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, wrapped up last week, the focus going forward is on the writing and editing of the Synod on Synodality’s final document. Hannah Brockhaus has more.
More than 30 students — most of whom were from the U.S. — from over 10 universities attend “The University Students in Dialogue with Synod Leaders,” an event organized by the General Secretariat of the Synod held in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.
The event was moderated by four young staff members of the Synod on Synodality’s communications team who presented questions to four guest panelists participating in the second global synodal session at the Vatican. Kristina Millare reports.
The head of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference (FABC), Cardinal Charles Bo of the Archdiocese of Yangon, Myanmar, said diocesan synods are an effective means to “build a vision and mission” for local Churches.
The high-ranking prelate from the country also known as Burma tells journalists that synodality on a diocesan level is not a new concept for the Catholic Church, reports Kristina Millare.
The Catholic Church’s newest saints will include a priest whose intercession led to the miraculous healing of a man mauled by a jaguar, a woman who convinced a pope to call for a worldwide novena to the Holy Spirit, and 11 men killed in Syria for refusing to renounce their faith and convert to Islam. Courtney Mares reports.
While not household names, the 14 people who will become the Catholic Church’s newest saints on Sunday each exemplified heroic virtue and witnessed to holiness within their unique vocations, including two married men. https://t.co/OtOQCTRCOP
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) October 17, 2024
Decentralizing doctrinal authority, or deciding certain doctrinal questions at local levels rather than universally, has been seen as a pivotal step for those aiming to make dramatic changes to Catholic teaching, writes Jonathan Liedl for the National Catholic Register.
In the most dramatic day yet of the Synod on Synodality, delegates gave "tremendous pushback" against a proposal to give bishops conferenences doctrinal authority. Organizers even had to have a theologian give an impromptu speech to assuage concerns.https://t.co/DgQjg7NU0c
— Jonathan Liedl (@JLLiedl) October 16, 2024
A Dutch cardinal cautions against misguided reform efforts within the Catholic Church, warning that regional solutions to contentious issues could undermine the Church’s credibility.
Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk, archbishop of Utrecht, emphasizes the importance of maintaining unity with the universal Church: “We must walk a common path and not deviate from the world Church,” he said, reflecting Pope Francis’ 2019 letter to German Catholics. “If unity in proclamation is lost, the Church loses its credibility,” Eijk says.
We cannot “reinvent the Catholic faith” or “teach a different Catholicism in different countries,” Australian Archbishop Anthony Fisher, OP, of Sydney and a delegate at the Synod on Synodality tells EWTN News.
Should bishops’ conferences “have the authority to teach a different Catholicism in different countries or to decide a different liturgy in different countries or different Mass for different countries? Do they bring their own local culture to questions in the area of morals, for instance?” Fisher says in his interview with “EWTN News Nightly” Associate Producer Bénédicte Cedergren.
Cardinal Leonardo Steiner, the archbishop of Manaus in Brazil who is participating in the Synod on Synodality, said during a daily press briefing at the synod on Tuesday that “many of our women are true ‘deaconesses’” and pointed out that Pope Francis “has not closed the question” of the ordination of married men. Almudena Martínez-Bordiú has more.
The cardinal is known for being a defender of the poor, Indigenous people and is also considered “pro-LGBTQ.” In the past he has stated that “there will be a way” to end mandatory priestly celibacy.
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich asks participants to maintain energy levels at the gathering, reports EWTN Vatican Bureau Chief Andreas Thonhauser for “EWTN News Nightly,” as participants delve into the theme of “places,” exploring relationships between cultures and diverse Church needs worldwide.
Meanwhile, Bishop Robert Barron, in an exclusive interview with EWTN’s Colm Flynn, defined synodality as encompassing wider consultation, greater accountability, and transparency.
The synod’s universal nature is highlighted by the presence of Eastern Catholic Churches, with Archbishop Fülöp Kocsis sharing insights on the richness of diverse experiences. Jonathan Liedl, senior editor for the National Catholic Register, points to a significant discussion on decentralization: The proposal under consideration could potentially grant national bishops’ conferences more authority in doctrinal decision-making, marking a potential shift in the Church’s governance structure.
Don’t be surprised to see a fresh round of news stories about support for ordaining women at the Synod on Synodality. It’s a reasonable expectation — writes Jonathan Liedl in his analysis for the National Catholic Register — given an advocacy group blasted out an email, obtained by the Register, inviting synod delegates to join them at an event promoting the cause.
In so doing, they are following a familiar script that’s being used to influence the Synod on Synodality — or at least perceptions of it, he explains.
“The Synodality Tent” is the title of an initiative promoted by the Amerindia Network and the Latin American Observatory on Synodality whose objective is to reflect on the presence of Latin America in the Catholic Church as well as to continue promoting the synodal process.
This place for encounter and dialogue, which also aims to offer an experience of faith, opened in Rome in the context of the second session of the Synod on Synodality, writes Almudena Martínez-Bordiú.
Prayer groups are sponsoring an online platform through which you can “adopt” a Synod on Synodality member to pray for during the month of October.
After submitting an email address on the webpage oremusprosynodo.org, the name of one of the 368 voting members of the 2024 meeting of the Synod on Synodality appears with the exhortation to pray for them. Hannah Brockhaus has more.
At a theological forum held at the Jesuits’ world headquarters in Rome this week, an influential canon lawyer argues that the Catholic Church should be governed by synods balanced according to gender, among other factors, and empowered to make decisions, not merely recommendations. Jonathan Liedl reports for the National Catholic Register.
At an official Synod on Synodality event earlier this week, an Italian canonist who's previously presented before Pope Francis's Council of Cardinals put forth a vision for a Church governed by decision-making, gender-balanced synods.https://t.co/yBAAackM6z
— Jonathan Liedl (@JLLiedl) October 13, 2024
Pope Francis and Synod on Synodality participants pray together at the site of the first Christian martyrdoms in Rome on Friday evening.
As attendees hold candles with drip protectors imprinted with an image of the 15th-century painting “Mater Ecclesiae” (“Mother of the Church”), Pope Francis leads those present in praying the Our Father but does not give the meditation prepared for the event, Hannah Brockhaus reports.
Pope Francis and Synod on Synodality participants, including non-Catholic delegates, prayed together Friday evening at the site of the first Christian martyrdoms in Rome. #Synod2024 #SynodOnSynodality #WalkingTogether https://t.co/4xQJiTtpWd
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) October 11, 2024
Synod sources tell EWTN News that Bishop Joseph Yang Yongqiang of the Diocese of Hangzhou spoke to synod participants about the history of Chinese Catholicism, China’s agreement with the Vatican on the appointment of bishops, and cultural exchange. Andrea Gagliarducci has more.
Archbishop Jaime Spengler, OFM, at a briefing for the Synod on Synodality confirms plans for a trial run of an Amazonian rite of the Mass and urges “openness” to the idea of married priests to serve certain communities.
The 64-year-old prelate, a descendant of German immigrants, is a prominent figure in the Church in his home country and throughout South America, heading both the Catholic bishops’ conference of Brazil and the Latin American bishops’ conference (CELAM), writes Hannah Brockhaus.
Soon-to-be cardinal Brazilian Archbishop Jaime Spengler, OFM, confirmed plans for a trial run of an Amazonian rite of the Mass and urged “openness” to the idea of married priests to serve certain communities facing a shortage of priests. https://t.co/6KzNu1c8EF
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) October 10, 2024
News media has a built-in tendency to downplay nuance and highlight novelty, and this is arguably accentuated at the Synod on Synodality, writes Jonathan Liedl for the National Catholic Register. Two synod members say synod communications head Paolo Ruffini overstated the strength of calls for “women’s ordination.” Read the full analysis here.
Three fraternal delegates — non-Catholic representatives of Christian churches participating in this year’s session of the Synod on Synodality — take center stage at Thursday’s Synod on Synodality press briefing held at the Vatican’s Holy See Press Office.
Speaking about “the great importance of relationality” among Christian churches, Anglican Bishop Martin Warner of Chichester — co-chair of the English-Welsh Anglican-Roman Catholic Committee — speaks about the “sense of family” that has developed between the Catholic Church and the Church of England, particularly during the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Kristina Millare reports.
Synod on Synodality events open to the public give a glimpse Wednesday evening into the private debates happening among delegates and theological experts on the issues of a bishop’s authority and his relationship to the laity in light of synodality.
Thomas Söding, vice president of the lay organization promoting the German Synodal Way, argued that bishops shouldn’t control or dictate discipleship but should encourage diverse expressions of faith.
Italian canonist Donata Horak criticized the Roman Catholic Church’s current structure as “monarchical” and out of step with democratic sensibilities. She suggested that the Latin Church adopt deliberative synods, as seen in Eastern Catholic churches, although she did not note that these do not allow lay voting, notes Hannah Brockhaus.
Australian Bishop Anthony Randazzo, a synod delegate and president of the Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania, says St. John Henry Newman famously showed “that the Church would look foolish without the laity” and should help ease fears that collaboration with the laity is heterodoxical.
“I think that this way of thinking should liberate us in the Church from believing that any one group or vocation alone drives the bus,” the bishop of the Diocese of Broken Bay, Australia, emphasizes. Randazzo made a powerful statement against pushes for so-called “women’s ordination,” explains Jonathan Liedl for the National Catholic Register.
Synod Delegates Look to St. John Henry Newman as Theological Guide
— National Catholic Register (@NCRegister) October 10, 2024
‘At heart, Newman was a disciple ...’https://t.co/3ucejv7wC5
Oct.
In an interview with CNA, the first Indigenous bishop of Taiwan says he met with the two bishops from mainland China taking part in the synod and plans to meet with them again. “It’s very important to dialogue with them, to respect each other. I think it’s good … not only for the Chinese, for the whole Church,” Bishop Norbert Pu of Taiwan tells Courtney Mares.
Paolo Ruffini, the synod’s communications head, announces the 14 members of the Final Document Commission. The seven continental delegates are:
Catherine Clifford, a theologian from St. Paul University in Ottawa, for North America
Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, for Africa
Father Clarence Davedassan of Malaysia is the pick from Asia
Bishop Shane Mackinlay of Sandhurst, Australia, for Oceania
Cardinal Luis José Rueda Aparicio of Bogotá, Colombia, for Central and South America
Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, France, for Europe
Bishop Mounir Khairallah, a Maronite prelate, for the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Middle East
The other members include three direct picks from Pope Francis and four automatic appointments, writes Jonathan Liedl.
In a video played for journalists at the Holy See Press Office on Oct. 8, Gaza parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli thanks synod participants for both prayers and financial help, because in Gaza, “everyone is in need of everything.”
The pope’s charity office announces that synod participants donated 32,000 euros (about $35,000) for the Catholic parish in Gaza from synod participants on Oct. 7, the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel.
The synod donations were combined with another 30,000 euros (about $33,000) from Pope Francis’ charity coffers and sent to Holy Family Parish, the only Roman Catholic parish in the Gaza Strip, which is sheltering hundreds of Palestinian Catholics.
Since the beginning of the Synod on Synodality, synod delegates and participants have echoed Pope Francis’ pleas for prayers and solidarity with communities across the war-ravaged region. As the second week of the synod gets underway, on the World Day of Prayer and Fasting held on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Pope Francis addressed Catholics in the Middle East on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel. Kristina Millare has more.
While the topic of “women deacons” is not formally up for discussion at the Synod on Synodality assembly this month, the official Vatican press conference for the synod showcases a female delegate who spoke about women experiencing “a call to priesthood,” Courtney Mares reports.
Invoking the intercession of the Virgin Mary for peace in the world amid an escalating conflict in the Middle East and the ongoing war in Ukraine, Pope Francis presides over a rosary prayer in Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major on Sunday evening, Courtney Mares reports.
A Lebanese bishop makes an impassioned plea for peace and forgiveness at the Synod on Synodality’s daily press briefing on Saturday as the assembly’s first week draws to a close.
Bishop Mounir Khairallah of Batroun shares his personal experience of violence and forgiveness, recounting how his parents were murdered when he was just 5 years old.
Meanwhile, a dialogue with study groups is announced for Oct. 18 after synod delegates vote for more interaction with the groups established by Pope Francis.
At #SynodOnSynodality briefing, Lebanese Bishop Khairallah shares personal story of forgiveness, urges end to violence: 'Let us build peace.' #Lebanon #Synod24 #WalkingTogether https://t.co/slfKpXNNrG
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) October 5, 2024
Pope Francis sits before the historic relic of St. Peter’s chair in the Ottoboni sacristy of St. Peter’s Basilica after celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Square ahead of the second session of the Synod on Synodality. What is behind this viral image? Madalaine Elhabbal explains.
CNA explains what was behind the viral photo of Pope Francis sitting before an ancient wooden chair during the first day of the Synod on Synodality earlier this week. #synod2024 #synodonsynodality #WalkingTogether https://t.co/fEUMIGjd8q
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) October 4, 2024
Closing the first week of meetings, participants from different continents put a spotlight on the plight of the world’s poor and vulnerable on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, Kristina Millare reports.
Vaticanist Andrea Gagliarducci analyzes the first days of the gathering in Rome. He writes: “It seems clear that while the delegates may discuss many things over the next three weeks, nothing will be decided. There will be no doctrinal changes. No diminution of the role of the bishop. No rush to resolve the question of opening the diaconate to women.”
Cardinal Mario Grech, general secretary of the synod, says at a press conference that “every believer, man or woman, and every group, association, movement, or community will be able to participate with their own contribution” via the synod’s 10 study groups.
Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, tells journalists the work of participants in the second session of the Synod on Synodality is to find the “cohesive voice” that expresses the life of the Church.
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, on Oct. 3 shuts down speculation regarding further theological study into the possibility of women being ordained as deacons. Father Giacomo Costa, special secretary of the synod, says this month’s discussions held in the Vatican should serve as “laboratories of synodal life,” Kristina Millare reports.
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández shut down speculation regarding the possibility of women being ordained as deacons before the second day of Synod on Synodality meetings got underway. #synod2024 #synodonsynodality #WalkingTogether https://t.co/1HeaUgPjcf
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) October 3, 2024
A study group appointed by Pope Francis to explore a synodal approach to the Church’s most debated issues — including sexual morality and life matters — proposes “contextual fidelity” and a “new paradigm” that downplays long-standing Church teaching, Jonathan Liedl notes.
At the first meeting of the full assembly of the Synod on Synodality on Wednesday, Pope Francis says a bishop’s ministry should include cooperation with laypeople and that the synod will need to identify “differing forms” of the exercise of this ministry.
At the first meeting of the Synod on Synodality on Wednesday, Pope Francis said a bishop’s ministry should include cooperation with laypeople. #Synod2024 #synodonsynodality #WalkingTogether https://t.co/jQZErFlnCn
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) October 2, 2024
Pope Francis opens the second and final session of the Synod on Synodality, which is meant to deepen the missionary perspective of the Church, explains EWTN Vatican Bureau Chief Andreas Thonhauser.
“Let us be careful not to see our contributions as points to defend at all costs or agendas to be imposed,” the pope says at the synod’s opening Mass on Oct. 2, Courtney Mares reports. The pontiff warns: “Ours is not a parliamentary assembly but rather a place of listening in communion.”
Pope Francis opened the second assembly of the Synod on Synodality on Wednesday with a Mass concelebrated by over 400 priests, bishops, and cardinals in St. Peter’s Square. #synod2024 #synodonsynodality #WalkingTogether https://t.co/6wACV6OH4N
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) October 2, 2024
“More candor about the motivations of the German Synodal Path and its vision of the Catholic future would be helpful in determining what, if anything, it has to offer the world Church at Synod 2024,” comments George Weigel in the National Catholic Register.
On the eve of the second session of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis says the Catholic Church must first acknowledge its sins and ask for forgiveness before it can be credible in carrying out the mission Jesus Christ entrusted to his Church, Kristina Millare reports.
Pope Francis: We must acknowledge our sins to become a missionary Church#synod2024 #synodonsynodality https://t.co/GXx28Y77ml
— Hannah Brockhaus (@HannahBrockhaus) October 2, 2024
Since Pope Francis’ 2015 speech, synodality has grown from a theological concept into a guiding principle of Church governance. Analysis from Jonathan Liedl in the National Catholic Register.
In the aftermath of Francis's programmatic 2015 speech, a set of theologians "flooded the zone" with systematized accounts of synodality.
— Jonathan Liedl (@JLLiedl) October 2, 2024
Unlike "synodality," their ideas weren't new. And many of them are the experts guiding the Synod on Synodality today.https://t.co/H3mlfJKSZe
Posted on 10/22/2024 09:00 AM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Vatican City, Oct 22, 2024 / 05:00 am (CNA).
You probably know that St. John Paul II was the second-longest-serving pope in modern history with 27 years of pontificate, and he was the first non-Italian pontiff since the Dutch Pope Adrian VI in 1523.
But did you know that he also changed the Catholic Church forever during those 27 years? Here are five ways he did that:
The pope’s official biographer, George Weigel, who for decades chronicled the pope’s engagement with civic leaders, noted that the way Pope John Paul II influenced the political landscape was enormous. His political influence is seen best in the way his engagement with world leaders assisted the downfall of the U.S.S.R.
Just days before President Ronald Reagan called on Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down” the Berlin Wall, he met with the pope. According to historian and author Paul Kengor, Reagan went so far as to call Pope John Paul II his “best friend,” opining that no one knew his soul better than the Polish pontiff who had also suffered an assassination attempt and carried the burden of world leadership.
In the course of 38 official visits and 738 audiences and meetings held with heads of state, John Paul II influenced civic leaders around the world in this epic battle with a regime that would ultimately be responsible for the deaths of more than 30 million people.
“He thought of himself as the universal pastor of the Catholic Church, dealing with sovereign political actors who were as subject to the universal moral law as anybody else,” Weigel said.
“He was willing to be a risk-taker, but he also appreciated that prudence is the greatest of political virtues. And I think he was quite respected by world political leaders because of his transparent integrity. His essential attitude toward these men and women was: How can I help you? What can I do to help?”
More than anything, John Paul II understood his role primarily as a spiritual leader.
According to Weigel, the pope’s primary impact on the world of affairs was his central role in creating the revolution of conscience that began in Poland and swept across Eastern Europe. This revolution of conscience inspired the nonviolent revolution of 1989 and the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, an astounding political achievement.
One of John Paul II’s most enduring legacies is the huge number of saints he recognized. He celebrated 147 beatification ceremonies, during which he proclaimed 1,338 blesseds, and celebrated 51 canonizations for a total of 482 saints. That is more than the combined tally of his predecessors over the five centuries before.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta is perhaps the best-known contemporary of John Paul II who is now officially a saint, but the first saint of the new millennium and one especially dear to John Paul II was St. Faustina Kowalska, the fellow Polish native who received the message of divine mercy.
“Sister Faustina’s canonization has a particular eloquence: By this act I intend today to pass this message on to the new millennium,” he said in the homily of her canonization. “I pass it on to all people, so that they will learn to know ever better the true face of God and the true face of their brethren.”
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, whom Pope John Paul II beatified in 1990 and nicknamed the “man of the beatitudes,” is another popular saint elevated by the Polish pope who loved to recognize the holiness of simple persons living the call to holiness with extraordinary fidelity. At the time of his death, the 24-year-old Italian was simply a student with no extraordinary accomplishments. But his love for Christ in the Eucharist and in the poor was elevated by John Paul II as heroic and worthy of imitation.
It bears noting that Pope Francis would later surpass John Paul II when he proclaimed 800 Italian martyrs saints in a single day.
John Paul II visited some 129 countries during his pontificate — more countries than any other pope had visited up to that point.
He also created World Youth Days in 1985 and presided over 19 of them as pope.
Weigel said John Paul II understood that the pope must be present to the people of the Church, wherever they are.
“He chose to do it by these extensive travels, which he insisted were not travels, they were pilgrimages,” Weigel said.
“This was the successor of Peter, on pilgrimage to various parts of the world, of the Church. And that’s why these pilgrimages were always built around liturgical events, prayer, adoration of the holy Eucharist, ecumenical and interreligious gatherings — all of this was part of a pilgrimage experience.”
In the latter half of the 20th century — a time of enormous social change and upheaval— John Paul II’s extensive travels and proclamation of the Gospel to the ends of the earth were just what the world needed, Weigel said.
John Paul II was a scholar who promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992, reformed the Eastern and Western Codes of Canon Law during his pontificate, and authored 14 encyclicals, 15 apostolic exhortations, 11 apostolic constitutions, and 45 apostolic letters.
This is why Weigel said the Church has only begun to unpack what he calls the “magisterium” of John Paul II, in the form of his writings and his intellectual influence.
For example, John Paul’s theology of the body remains enormously influential in the United States and throughout the world, though Weigel said even this has yet to be unpacked.
John Paul II’s legendary evangelical fervor took fire in Africa.
He had a particular friendship with Beninese Cardinal Bernadin Gantin and visited Africa many times. His visits would inspire a generation of JPII Catholics in Africa as well as other parts of the globe.
“John Paul II was fascinated by Africa; he saw African Christianity as living, a kind of New Testament experience of the freshness of the Gospel, and he was very eager to support that, and lift it up,” Gantin said.
“It was very interesting that during the two synods on marriage and the family in 2014 and 2015, some of the strongest defenses of the Church’s classic understanding of marriage and family came from African bishops. Some of whom are first-, second-generation Christians, deeply formed in the image of John Paul II, whom they regard as a model bishop,” Gantin said.
“I think wherever you look around the world Church, the living parts of the Church are those that have accepted the magisterium ... as the authentic interpretation of Vatican II. And the dying parts of the Church, the moribund parts of the Church are those parts that have ignored that magisterium.”
John Paul II’s influence in Africa and around the globe transformed the world. It also forever transformed the Church.
This story was first published on Oct. 22, 2021, and has been updated.
Posted on 10/22/2024 08:00 AM (CNA - Saint of the Day)
Feast date: Oct 22
Saint John Paul II is perhaps one of the most well-known pontiffs in recent history, and is most remembered for his charismatic nature, his love of youth and his world travels, along with his role in the fall of communism in Europe during his 27-year papacy.Posted on 10/21/2024 20:00 PM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Vatican City, Oct 21, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
Cardinal Víctor Fernández on Monday reaffirmed Pope Francis’ position against women’s access to the diaconate, an issue that will continue to be evaluated by a specialized commission while the Synod on Synodality continues to reflect on the role of women in the Church outside of ordained ministry.
During his speech at the general congregation on Oct. 21, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith recalled that for the Holy Father the question of the female diaconate “is not ripe,” and for this reason he specifically asked the members of the synod not to get sidetracked on this possibility now.
However, the cardinal indicated that those who “are convinced that it is necessary to go deeper” into this question can send their considerations to the commission established by the Holy Father in 2020 to further study the subject. The commission is chaired by Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi.
In a similar way to what he said at the beginning of the synod, Fernández emphasized that “rushing to ask for the ordination of deaconesses is not today the most important response to promote women.”
However, he underscored that the pontiff “is very concerned” about the role of women in the Church and therefore called for further reflection “without concentrating on holy orders.”
Fernández referred once again to the reflections led by group 5, charged during the synod with exploring, among other things, “the question of the necessary participation of women in the life and leadership of the Church.”
He pointed out that this group has analyzed different forms such as the lay ministry of catechists in communities without priests, an option that emerged after Querida Amazonia and was not widely accepted.
The prelate recalled that Pope Francis has pointed out that priestly power, linked to the sacraments, “is not necessarily expressed as power or authority, and that there are forms of authority that do not require holy orders.”
Continuing his reflection, he renewed his invitation to send to the dicastery “testimonies of women who are truly community leaders or who perform important functions of authority.”
“I ask especially the women members of this synod to help collect, explain, and send to the dicastery various proposals, which we can hear in their context, on possible paths for the participation of women in the leadership of the Church,” he added.
Likewise, after the “misunderstanding” that was caused by his absence from a meeting of synod delegates in which they interacted with the Vatican study group on this issue, the cardinal confirmed that there will be a new meeting on Thursday, Oct. 24, at 4:30 p.m. local time where he will listen to ideas and proposals.
He also expressed his hope that concrete steps can be taken to understand that “there is nothing in the nature of women that prevents them from occupying very important positions in the guidance of the Churches. What truly comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped.”
Paolo Ruffini, secretary-general of the General Secretariat of the Synod, reported during today’s press conference that the draft of the final document was delivered this morning to the members of the synod.
The document, which will be presented to Pope Francis, is being prepared by a commission made up of a president, three secretaries, seven members representing each continent, and three members appointed by the pope.
Present at the briefing at the Holy See Press Office, cardinal-designate Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP, urged against seeking “headlines” in this document, as he “this would be a mistake.” He also noted that “the synod is a profound renewal of the Church” and a “new way” of imagining it.
For her part, Sister Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod, stated that the synod also represents a “new way of articulating the primacy” of the Petrine ministry.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Posted on 10/21/2024 11:49 AM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Vatican City, Oct 21, 2024 / 07:49 am (CNA).
Pope Francis will publish the fourth encyclical of his pontificate on Thursday on “the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ.”
The encyclical, titled Dilexit Nos, meaning “he has loved us,” will be published Oct. 24.
The pope had announced in June that he was preparing a document on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, noting that meditating on the Lord’s love can “illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal and say something meaningful to a world that seems to have lost its heart.”
Pope Francis then described the document as something that “brings together the precious reflections of previous magisterial texts and a long history that goes back to the sacred Scriptures in order to re-propose today to the whole Church this devotion imbued with spiritual beauty.”
“I believe it will do us great good to meditate on various aspects of the Lord’s love, which can illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal and say something meaningful to a world that seems to have lost its heart,” Francis said at the end of his general audience on June 5.
The encyclical is being published amid the celebrations of the 350th anniversary of the apparitions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, which began on Dec. 27, 2023, and will conclude on June 27, 2025.
The Vatican will hold a livestreamed press conference on Thursday, Oct. 24, on the encyclical: “Dilexit Nos: Encyclical Letter on the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.”
Archbishop Bruno Forte, an Italian theologian and a new member of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, will present the encyclical to the press together with Sister Antonella Fraaccaro, the head of the Italian religious order Discepole del Vangelo (“Disciples of the Gospel”).
Dilexit Nos will be Pope Francis’ fourth encyclical after Fratelli Tutti, published in 2020, Laudato Si’ published in 2015, and Lumen Fidei, published in 2013.
Posted on 10/20/2024 17:06 PM (Interrupting the Silence)
Posted on 10/20/2024 15:00 PM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Vatican City, Oct 20, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis canonized 14 new saints on Sunday, including a father of eight and Franciscan friars killed in Syria for refusing to renounce their faith and convert to Islam.
In a Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 20, the pope declared three 19th-century founders of religious orders and the 11 “Martyrs of Damascus” as saints to be venerated by the global Catholic Church, commending their lives of sacrifice, missionary zeal, and service to the Church.
“These new saints lived Jesus’ way: service,” Pope Francis said. “They made themselves servants of their brothers and sisters, creative in doing good, steadfast in difficulties, and generous to the end.”
The newly canonized include St. Giuseppe Allamano, a diocesan priest from Italy who founded the Consolata missionary orders, and St. Marie-Léonie Paradis, a Canadian nun from Montreal known for founding an order dedicated to the service of priests.
Also among the saints are St. Elena Guerra, hailed as an “apostle of the Holy Spirit,” and St. Manuel Ruiz López and his seven Franciscan companions, all martyred in Damascus in 1860 for refusing to renounce their Christian faith.
The final three canonized are siblings, Sts. Francis, Mooti, and Raphael Massabki, lay Maronite Catholics martyred in Syria along with the Franciscans.
Thousands of pilgrims prayed the Litany of the Saints together in St. Peter’s Square before Pope Francis declared the 14 as enrolled among the saints “for the honor of the Blessed Trinity, the exaltation of the Catholic faith, and the increase of the Christian life, by the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the holy apostles Peter and Paul.”
“We confidently ask for their intercession so that we too can follow Christ, follow him in service, and become witnesses of hope for the world,” the pope said.
In his homily, Pope Francis highlighted how service embodied the lives of each of the new saints. “When we learn to serve,” he said, “our every gesture of attention and care, every expression of tenderness, every work of mercy becomes a reflection of God’s love. And so we continue Jesus’ work in the world.”
The Gospel for the Mass was chanted in Greek in addition to Latin in honor of the 11 Martyrs of Damascus.
Father Marwan Dadas, a Franciscan friar from Jerusalem, was among those who attended the canonization. He said the testimony of the martyrs from the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land is especially meaningful to people who are suffering due to the ongoing war and violence in the region today.
“This is a good message to say that even though we have challenges — and it seems we have death continuously — we still have the light of God that is helping us and guiding us through these difficult periods,” Dadas told CNA.
“It’s an important message for me, and I hope it will be the message for all the people of the Holy Land, not only the Holy Land but for everybody. It is a message from God saying that he is always with us.”
One of the most celebrated figures among the new saints is St. Giuseppe Allamano (1851–1926), an Italian diocesan priest who founded the Consolata Missionaries and the Consolata Missionary Sisters. Allamano, though he spent his entire life in Italy, left a global legacy by training missionaries who carried the Gospel to remote corners of Africa, Asia, and South America.
Allamano told the missionaries in the order he founded in northern Italy in 1901 that they needed to be “first saints, then missionaries.”
The medical miracle that led to Allamano’s canonization involved the healing of a man who was attacked by a jaguar in the Amazon rainforest. In 1996, a man named Sorino Yanomami, a member of the Indigenous Yanomami tribe in the Amazon, was mauled by a jaguar and left with life-threatening injuries.
As doctors treated his skull fractures, Consolata missionaries prayed in the hospital with a relic of Allamano, seeking his intercession. Miraculously, Yanomami recovered without any long-term damage, according to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
Allamano, whose spiritual director was St. John Bosco, emphasized the importance of holiness in priestly life, telling his priests: “You must not only be holy, but extraordinarily holy.” His influence has endured through the orders he founded, present today in 30 countries across the globe.
St. Marie-Léonie Paradis (1840–1912), a Canadian religious sister, also took her place among the new saints. She founded the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, an order whose spirituality and charism is the support of priests through both prayer and by taking care of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry in rectories in “humble and joyful service” in imitation of “Christ the Servant.”
During his homily, Pope Francis praised Paradis’ faith and underlined that “those who follow Christ, if they wish to be great, must serve by learning from him” who made himself “a servant to reach everyone with his love.”
Born in the Acadian region of Quebec, Paradis also spent eight years in New York serving in the St. Vincent de Paul Orphanage in the 1860s and taught French at St. Mary’s Academy in Indiana before founding her religious order in New Brunswick, Canada.
Paradis’ canonization was supported by the miraculous healing of a newborn in Canada attributed to her intercession.
Among the canonized was St. Elena Guerra (1835–1914), known for her ardent devotion to the Holy Spirit. Guerra, who founded the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, was instrumental in promoting the first-ever novena to the Holy Spirit under Pope Leo XIII in 1895. Her writings and spiritual leadership inspired many, including St. Gemma Galgani, a mystic and saint who was her student.
For much of her 20s, Guerra was bedridden with a serious illness, a challenge that turned out to be transformational for her as she dedicated herself to meditating on Scripture and the writings of the Church Fathers. She felt the call to consecrate herself to God during a pilgrimage to Rome with her father after her recovery and went on to form the religious community dedicated to education.
During her correspondence with Pope Leo XIII, Guerra composed prayers to the Holy Spirit, including a Holy Spirit Chaplet, asking the Lord to “send forth your spirit and renew the world.”
“Pentecost is not over,” Guerra wrote. “In fact, it is continually going on in every time and in every place, because the Holy Spirit desired to give himself to all men and all who want him can always receive him, so we do not have to envy the apostles and the first believers; we only have to dispose ourselves like them to receive him well, and he will come to us as he did to them.”
🎥HIGHLIGHTS | The Catholic Church has 14 new Saints! During the Holy Mass in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis canonized Manuel Ruiz López and 7 companions, Francis, Abdel Mohti, and Raphaël Massabki, Giuseppe Allamano, Marie-Léonie Paradis, and Elena Guerra. pic.twitter.com/QDyyG24yKs
— EWTN Vatican (@EWTNVatican) October 20, 2024
The solemnity of the ceremony was heightened as Pope Francis canonized the Martyrs of Damascus, a group of 11 men killed in 1860 for refusing to renounce their Christian faith and convert to Islam. The martyrs, including eight Franciscan friars and three laymen, were attacked in a church in the Christian quarter of Damascus during a wave of religious violence.
The canonized Franciscan friars include six priests and two professed religious — all missionaries from Spain except for Father Engelbert Kolland, who was from Salzburg, Austria.
Franciscan Father Manuel Ruiz, Father Carmelo Bolta, Father Nicanor Ascanio, Father Nicolás M. Alberca y Torres, Father Pedro Soler, Kolland, Brother Francisco Pinazo Peñalver, and Brother Juan S. Fernández were all declared saints.
The three laymen were brothers — Francis, Abdel Mooti, and Raphael Massabki — known for their deep piety and devotion to the Christian faith. Francis Massabki, the oldest of the brothers, was a father of eight children. Mooti was a father of five who visited the Church of St. Paul daily for prayer and to teach catechism lessons. The youngest brother, Raphael, was single and was known to spend long periods of time praying in the church and helping the friars.
According to witnesses, the brothers were offered the chance to live if they renounced their faith, but they refused. “We are Christians, and we want to live and die as Christians,” Francis Massabki reportedly said. All 11 were brutally killed that night, some beheaded, others stabbed to death.
“They remained faithful servants,” Pope Francis said. “[They] served in martyrdom and in joy.”
The canonization ceremony was attended by pilgrims from around the world, including Catholics from Kenya, Canada, Uganda, Spain, Italy, and the Middle East. More than 1,000 members of the Consolata order traveled to Rome to witness the canonization of their founder.
And bagpipers from Galicia in northern Spain played traditional music at the end of the Mass to honor the Spanish Franciscans canonized among the Damascus martyrs.
“I thank all of you who have come to honor the new saints,” Pope Francis said. “I greet the cardinals, the bishops, the consecrated men and women, especially the Friars Minor and the Maronite faithful, the Consolata Missionaries, the Little Sisters of the Holy Family and the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, as well as the other groups of pilgrims who have come from various places.”
Pope Francis led the crowd in the Angelus prayer at the end of the Mass and asked people to pray in particular for the gift of peace for “populations who are suffering as a result of war — tormented Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, tormented Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, and all the others.”
The pope also greeted a group of Ugandan pilgrims who traveled from Rome to mark the 60th anniversary of the canonization of the Ugandan Martyrs and urged people to pray for missionaries on World Mission Sunday.
“Let us support, with our prayer and our aid, all the missionaries who, often at great sacrifice, bring the shining proclamation of the Gospel to every part of the world,” he said.
“May the Virgin Mary help us to be like her and like the saints courageous and joyful witnesses of the Gospel.”
Posted on 10/20/2024 12:30 PM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Vatican City, Oct 20, 2024 / 08:30 am (CNA).
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), has reportedly apologized for what he called a “misunderstanding” regarding his absence from an Oct. 18 meeting of Synod on Synodality delegates about a Vatican study group on women’s roles in the Church.
Attendees confirmed to CNA over the weekend that there was significant frustration among synod delegates over both the cardinal’s absence from the meeting and how the meeting itself was conducted.
More than 90 synod delegates attended the encounter expecting to engage with Fernández and members of study group 5, one of 10 announced in February to examine theological questions that emerged out of the first session of the Synod on Synodality last year.
This group is charged with exploring “some theological and canonical issues around specific ministerial forms,” in particular “the question of the necessary participation of women in the life and leadership of the Church.” This includes the questions surrounding the possibility of female deacons.
Instead, attendees on Friday were greeted by two officials from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith who were not members of the study group, according to sources. The officials reportedly distributed slips of paper with an email address for submitting feedback and could not answer most questions posed by delegates.
The Pillar reported that in a statement to synod participants late on Oct. 18, Fernández said he was “sorry for the misunderstanding” and that his absence was “due not to any unwillingness but to my objective inability to attend on the scheduled day and time.”
The cardinal added that he had previously indicated two dicastery officials would attend the meeting in his place. He offered to meet with interested synod members on Oct. 21 “to listen to their reflections and receive any written documents from them.”
Earlier this month, Fernández announced that study group 5 had shifted its focus away from the question of women deacons as an ordained group.
On Oct. 2, the cardinal said: “Based on the analysis so far ... there is still no room for a positive decision” on ordaining women deacons “understood as a degree of the sacrament of holy orders.”
Fernández said the group was instead examining historical ways women have exercised authority in the Church apart from ordained ministry.
The question of women deacons has been studied and debated in recent years.
In July 2024, Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops, said the DDF was studying “the women’s diaconate” within the context of its in-depth study of ministries.
However, Pope Francis has repeatedly reaffirmed that holy orders remain reserved for men.
In an interview published in October 2023, the pope said: “The question of whether some women in the early Church were ‘deaconesses’ or another kind of collaborator with the bishops is not irrelevant, because holy orders is reserved for men.”
Meanwhile, Pope Francis held two private audiences over the weekend, including participating women and the synod’s lay members. No details have been released about the content of these meetings.
He also received Grech and Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the relator-general, and Special Secretary Riccardo Battocchio.
Posted on 10/20/2024 08:30 AM (USCCB News)
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis called on the faithful to yearn to serve, not thirst for power, as he proclaimed 14 new saints, including Canada-born St. Marie-Léonie Paradis, founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, and 11 martyrs.
"Those who dominate do not win, only those who serve out of love," he said Oct. 20.
"When we learn to serve, our every gesture of attention and care, every expression of tenderness, every work of mercy becomes a reflection of God's love," he said. "And so, we continue Jesus' work in the world."
The pope said the new saints lived Jesus' way of service. "The faith and the apostolate they carried out did not feed their worldly desires and hunger for power but, on the contrary, they made themselves servants of their brothers and sisters, creative in doing the good, steadfast in difficulties and generous to the end."
On World Mission Sunday in St. Peter's Square, during the synod on synodality, the pope created the following new saints:
-- Italian missionary Giuseppe Allamano (1851-1926) founder of the Consolata Missionaries.
-- Eight Franciscan friars, including Manuel Ruiz López, and three Maronite laymen who were martyred in Syria in 1860. Seven of the Franciscans were from Spain and one was from Austria while the Maronite laymen were blood brothers. They were murdered in St. Paul's Church and convent in Damascus the night between July 9 and 10, 1860, by Druze militants.
-- Canada-born Mother Marie-Léonie Paradis, founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family. Born in L'Acadie, Quebec, in 1840, she had various teaching assignments in Canada before being sent to teach at St. Vincent's orphanage in New York. She died in 1912 in Sherbrooke, Canada.
-- Sister Elena Guerra (1835-1914), an Italian nun who founded the Oblates of the Holy Spirit.
Tens of thousands of people attended the Mass, including the more than 300 cardinals, bishops and others taking part in the Oct. 2-257 synod on synodality. Dignitaries from Canada, Spain and Italy, including Italian President Sergio Mattarella, were present for the canonization and Mass.
In his homily, the pope pointed to the new saints as inspiring examples of "men and women who served in martyrdom and in joy" and who remained faithful servants "throughout the troubled history of humanity."
"This is what we should yearn for: not power, but service. Service is the Christian way of life," he said.
Jesus listened to his disciples and asked them questions that revealed what was truly in their hearts, the "hidden expectations and dreams of glory" they secretly cultivated, the pope said. "Many times in the church, these thoughts (desiring) honor, power emerge."
But Jesus helps change their perspective by revealing he was not the Messiah of worldly power and victory, the pope said. "He is the God of love, who stoops down to reach the one who has sunk low, who makes himself weak to raise up the weak, who works for peace and not for war, who has come to serve and not to be served."
Jesus' teachings about service, Pope Francis said, "are often incomprehensible to us as they were to the disciples, yet by following him, by walking in his footsteps and welcoming the gift of his love that transforms our way of thinking, we too can learn God’s way of service."
Serving others is "not about a list of things to do" that can be checked off and completed so that person can say he or she did his or her part, he said.
Service isn't a job, it does not "just do things to bring about results, it is not occasional," he said. It is "born from love, and love knows no bounds, it makes no calculations, it spends, and it gives."
Before leading the recitation of the Angelus after Mass, the pope urged Catholics to support the world's missionaries with their prayers and concrete assistance. These men and women bring the Gospel message "often with great sacrifice."
And, he said, every Christian is called to take part in this mission by being courageous and joyful witnesses to the Gospel in every aspect of their life.
"We continue to pray for people who suffer because of war," he said, such as "martyred Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, martyred Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and all the others."
The pope also appealed to political and civil authorities in the Amazon region to guarantee the protection of the Indigenous peoples in the Amazon, including their fundamental rights, "against every kind of exploitation of their dignity and their territories."
The pope highlighted the presence at the Mass of representatives of the Yanomami people, an Indigenous ethnic group living in the forest between Brazil and Venezuela. The second miracle needed for the canonization of St. Allamano involved a member of the community, Sorino Yanomami, who had been seriously wounded in the head by a jaguar and survived.
Posted on 10/19/2024 15:05 PM (CNA Daily News - Vatican)
Vatican City, Oct 19, 2024 / 11:05 am (CNA).
Two prominent Catholics — Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong and American author George Weigel — have leveled sharp criticisms at the Synod on Synodality, focusing particularly on the Vatican’s approach to China.
In a blog post published on Oct. 18, Zen, the 92-year-old bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, issued an urgent appeal for prayer as the synod enters its third week.
“We must pray for the successful (decent) ending of this synod,” Zen wrote, outlining three fundamental concerns.
The cardinal questioned the gathering’s legitimacy as a Synod of Bishops, given the inclusion of non-bishop voting members.
“With the ‘non-bishops’ voting together, it is no longer a Synod of Bishops,” Zen argued.
About the controversial declaration Fiducia Supplicans and LGBTQ issues, Zen wrote: “I think endless debate should be avoided at least on the issue of blessing same-sex couples“ and urged synod delegates: “If this issue is not resolved in the synod, the future of the Church will be very unclear, because some clergy and friends of the pope insist on changing the Church tradition in this regard.“
The bishop emeritus of Hong Kong also warned against granting individual bishops’ conferences independent authority over doctrinal matters. “If this idea succeeds, we will no longer be the Catholic Church,” Zen cautioned.
This is not the first time the cardinal has voiced concerns about the synod.
In a critique published on Feb. 15, he argued that the synod presents “two opposing visions” of the Church’s nature and organization.
Meanwhile, Weigel, a distinguished senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Oct. 17 criticizing the presence of two Chinese bishops at the synod.
Weigel argued that Bishop Vincent Zhan Silu of Funing/Mindong and Bishop Joseph Yang Yongqiang of Hangzhou are “bent on ‘sinicizing’ the Catholic Church.”
The biographer of St. John Paul II also pointed out that Zhan Silu was previously excommunicated for accepting consecration without papal approval. Weigel noted that Yang Yongqiang is vice president of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which Weigel describes as “a tool of the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.”
The synod takes place against the backdrop of the ongoing debate over the diplomatic relationship between the Holy See and Beijing, particularly the Sino-Vatican deal on bishop appointments.
The provisional agreement was first signed in 2018 and renewed in 2020 and 2022 and is likely due for another renewal this October.
As of this report, the Vatican has not yet announced whether the agreement has been extended, though observers widely expect it to be renewed.
While critics have raised serious concerns over the Vatican’s diplomatic approach to Beijing and the Chinese policy of Sinicization, the Holy See has publicly doubled down on the diplomatic strategy of supporting Beijing.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin has praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s campaign of “Sinicization” of religion and culture in the country, saying it relates to the Catholic concept of inculturation “without confusion and without opposition.”
Weigel strongly rejected this interpretation in a commentary for the National Catholic Register.
More recently, Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of Vatican News, wrote on Oct. 17 that the Chinese bishops at the synod emphasized their communion with the universal Church.
Tornielli quoted Yang as saying: “The Church in China is the same as the Catholic Church in other countries of the world: We belong to the same faith, share the same baptism, and we are all faithful to the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.”
The Vatican News director also reported Yang stating: “We follow the evangelical spirit of ‘becoming all things to all people.’ We effectively adapt to society, serve it, adhere to the direction of the Sinicization of Catholicism, and preach the good news.”