Latest news with #Synod
Herald Malaysia
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Herald Malaysia
Cardinal Grech urges religious men to be ‘engines of hope' for synodal Church
Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, urges religious men to draw inspiration from the Church's desire for synodality, as he meets with members of the Union of Superiors General. May 24, 2025 Cardinal Mario Grech speaks to the USG Assembly in Sacrofano on May 23, 2025 By Devin Watkins'Pope Leo XIV encourages us to advance on the path of synodality, making fruitful the many seeds planted in the soil of the Church during the 2021–2024 Synodal process.' Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, offered that invitation to members of the Union of Superiors General (USG) on Friday during their Assembly. The heads of male religious orders held their 103rd General Assembly in Sacrofano, near Rome, on May 21-23. In his address, Cardinal Grech reflected on the theme 'Consecrated Life: Engine of Hope in a Synodal Church,' recalling Pope Francis' call for the Church to listen well. Pope Leo XIV, he noted, has already spoken frequently of synodality, most notably in his address on the evening of his election to the papacy: 'We want to be a synodal Church, a Church that moves forward.' Cardinal Grech said the Church has concluded the 'celebratory' phase of the Synod on Synodality with its Final Document, noting that the most important phase is its 'reception' by the people of God. 'The protagonist of reception is the Holy Spirit, who acts in the depths of the people of God and gradually leads them along the path of reform, of which He Himself is the divine engine,' he said. The Cardinal went on to highlight the role of consecrated life in the Church as a form of prophecy, one which assists in the inculturation of the Gospel in local cultures and societies. He pointed out that the Synod on Synodality's first phase involved in-depth consultation with various realities of local Churches, in the hope of giving Catholics a chance to walk together. Consecrated life, he added, have long employed the principle of synodal listening and communal discernment for their shared life and mission. Cardinal Grech said religious orders also carry out a 'prophetic exercise of authority,' with many religious expressing their appreciation at the Synod for a transparent and accountable form of leadership. However, he noted, religious authority has sometimes degraded into abuse of conscience and personal freedom, resulting in deplorable cases of sexual abuse. Confronting patterns of abuse require both sanctions and, more importantly, a change of 'mentality, style, and ecclesial culture,' said the Cardinal. Cardinal Grech then highlighted Pope Leo XIV's focus on the Church's missionary zeal. Mission, he said, stands as the external expression of the synodal drive to involve everyone at all stages through 'participation and communion.' 'In this new stage of the Church's journey,' concluded Cardinal Grech, 'you consecrated men and women, belonging to ancient and modern Institutes, must feel entrusted with the task of being the vanguard of the Church's missionary renewal.'--Vatican News
Herald Malaysia
14-05-2025
- General
- Herald Malaysia
General Secretariat of Synod welcomes election of Pope Leo XIV
In a letter addressed to the new Pope, the General Secretariat of the Synod says it 'looks with confidence' to the directions Pope Leo XIV will provide to help the Church grow as 'a home and family of God open to all.' May 14, 2025 Archive photo - participants at the General Assembly of the Synod on Synodality ( foto Agência Ecclesia) By Christopher WellsThe General Secretariat of the Synod has expressed its 'joy at walking together' with the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, in support of his 'service to the communion of all the Churches.' Growing as a missionary Church In a letter addressed to Pope Leo as 'Most Blessed Father,' the Secretariat recalls that the Synod is 'an ecclesial journey led by the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Risen Lord, who helps us grow as a missionary Church, constantly undergoing conversion through attentive listening to the Gospel.' Already, the letter notes, the indications contained in the Final Document of last year's General Assembly can be 'implemented in the local Churches and groupings of Churches' with due regard for different contexts as well as 'what has already been done and what remains to be done, so that the style proper to the missionary synodal church can be ever-better learned and developed.' The Secretariat also points to the work of the study groups established by Pope Francis, which will be submitted to Pope Leo, who will make determinations that will involve the entire Church.' Open to all 'Now that the [synodal] journey continues under Your Holiness' guidance,' the letter concludes, 'we look with confidence to the directions you will indicate, to help the Church grow as a community attentive to listening, close to each person, capable of authentic and welcoming relationships—a home and family of God open to all: a missionary synodal Church.' The next phase Earlier this year, Pope Francis initiated the next phase of the Church's synodal journey with his approval of a 'special, post-synodal Ecclesial Assembly' that will be held in the Vatican after a three-year process of implementation of the outcomes of the Synod on Synodality. In a letter announcing the decision, the Synod's General Secretary, Cardinal Mario Grech, explained that the assembly is not a new Synod, but is part of the work of 'reception' on the part of the Church of the conclusions of Synod.--Vatican News
NZ Herald
07-05-2025
- Politics
- NZ Herald
Catholic women release pink smoke near Vatican to protest male domination
Duignan was briefly detained in 2011 after she attempted to enter the Vatican to deliver a petition in support of a priest backing the activists' cause. Had the activists taken their Wednesday protest – a nod to the black and white smoke used by the Holy See to announce voting results – to the Vatican, they believe a similar fate would have awaited them. 'Whenever we go down to St Peter's Square, we are detained by the police ... and we are certainly not invited to go into the conclave,' Duignan said. 'The only women that those 133 men will see in the next few days will be nuns who are cleaning their rooms and serving them food and tidying up after them.' The cardinals meeting on Wednesday behind closed doors in the Sistine Chapel will not hear any female opinions during deliberations expected to last days, with multiple rounds of voting. The only women they will see before white smoke rises to announce their decision will be the nuns who cook, clean and serve them in the Santa Marta guesthouse. In the global church as a whole, women have begun to take some senior lay roles, a process that accelerated a little under Pope Francis' papacy. But even those who have studied theology and church ministry are excluded from the priesthood, and only priests hold the most senior leadership roles. 'Yes, Pope Francis elevated and promoted a few women into roles of responsibility, but they are always lower in status and authority than a man,' said Duignan. 'Even the youngest priest in the room is the boss of the oldest, more experienced woman.' A sin and a scandal The campaigners say women took equal roles in worship in the early Church, before medieval reforms, and, in Duignan's words, 'the men who are going into the Sistine Chapel this afternoon know that, and they don't want everyone else to know that'. Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference campaign group, described this as an injustice and a 'crisis' for the Church. 'While the world may wait for white smoke or black smoke, we send up pink smoke as our hope that the Church may someday welcome women as equals,' she said. French activist Gabrielle Fidelin called it 'a sin and a scandal that women are kept out of priesthood and the conclave'. According to Duignan, even after Francis' relatively reformist 12-year pontificate, only one of the 133 cardinal electors to be sequestered in conclave has taken a positive stance on women's ordination. And she was reluctant to identify him by name, in case he found himself expelled from the gathering. This despite the once taboo issue being given an airing in the Synod – an assembly of clergy, clerics and laypeople – which under Francis has included female members. In October last year, a report was issued after Francis approved a working party to look into the idea of allowing women to become deacons – a step before the priesthood. It acknowledged that 'the question of women's access to diaconal ministry remains open' but concluded that it was too soon to make a decision.
RTÉ News
06-05-2025
- Politics
- RTÉ News
Mario Grech - Maltese cardinal an empowerment czar
A contender to be pope? With no official campaigning or list of candidates, there is much speculation about who will succeed Pope Francis. Here is one cardinal cited by some as a potential frontrunner. Maltese Cardinal Mario Grech, who played a key role in Pope Francis's efforts to empower ordinary Catholics, is a peace broker and potential compromise candidate for the papacy. Grech, 68, is secretary general of the Synod, heading the body that gathers information from local churches on crucial issues - such as the place of women or remarried divorcees - and passes it on to the pope. Francis, in 2021, asked Catholics their views on what needs to change in the Church, and two years later allowed lay people and women to vote in Synod assemblies, alongside bishops. Both acts - intended to create more co-responsibility in the Church's governance and make it relevant to today's faithful - have alarmed traditionalists who defend the all-male, clerical-based hierarchy. Appointed Synod chief in 2020, Grech managed to perform a delicate balancing act, following Francis's lead on creating an open, attentive Church while acknowledging the concerns of conservatives. Still, Grech has also described the "fraternal dialogue" between Catholics of all levels as essential to "help all assemblies - political, economic, scientific - to become places of encounter and not of confrontation". The periphery Grech was born on 20 February 1957, in Qala, a village on Gozo, the second-largest island in the tiny Mediterranean archipelago of Malta. He was ordained in 1984 and travelled to Rome for a doctorate in canon law. Back in Malta, he served at the Gozo Cathedral and at the Ta' Pinu national Marian shrine before becoming a parish pastor. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him bishop of Gozo in 2005, and he was made cardinal by Francis in 2020. Grech - who held a more conservative stance earlier in his career before becoming more progressive - has warned that Catholicism cannot be reduced to praying in church, but must be practised in everyday life, such as by helping others, reconciling with neighbours and living a life of service. "The large community church is made up of small churches that gather in homes," he said in a 2020 interview with the Civilta Cattolica magazine. "If there is no domestic church, the church has no future," he said. Listening Grech had already shown an affinity with liberal-leaning Francis in 2017, when he and another Maltese bishop released pastoral guidelines broadly favourable to opening the door to remarried divorced people. While in line with Francis's call for such flexibility and compassion, Grech's move was seen as trailblazing by the Church's liberal wing and sparked anger among conservatives. The same tensions emerged over the Synod, particularly following the release by the Vatican in June of a document showing ordinary Catholics were calling for an opening to the LGBTQ community. Grech has brushed off accusations there is a "hostile takeover" of the Church underway, and says his department has merely listened - to everyone, including those who "could not or did not want to" speak.
Toronto Sun
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
Cardinals wrap up pre-conclave meetings still uncertain about who should follow Pope Francis
Published May 06, 2025 • 5 minute read Cardinals Ruben Salazar Gomez, left is flanked by Cardinal Luis Jose Rueda Aparicio as they arrive in the New Hall of the Synod at the Vatican, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, the last time before the start of the conclave starting in the afternoon of Wednesday, May 7, when they will elect the successor of Pope Francis. Photo by Gregorio Borgia / AP Photo VATICAN CITY — Cardinals wrapped up their pre-conclave meetings Tuesday, trying to identify a possible new pope who could follow Pope Francis and make the 2,000-year-old Catholic Church credible and relevant today, especially to young people. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Although they come from 70 different countries, the 133 cardinal electors seem fundamentally united in insisting that the question before them isn't so much whether the church gets its first Asian or African pontiff, or a conservative or progressive. Rather, they say the primary task facing them when the conclave opens Wednesday is to find a pope who can be both a pastor and a teacher, a bridge who can unite the church and preach peace. 'We need a superman!' said Cardinal William Seng Chye Goh, the 67-year-old archbishop of Singapore. It indeed a tall task, given the sexual abuse and financials scandals that have harmed the church's reputation and the secularizing trends in many parts of the world that are turning people away from organized religion. Add to that the Holy See's dire financial state and often dysfunctional bureaucracy, and the job of being pope in the 21st century seems almost impossible. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Francis named 108 of the 133 electors and selected cardinals in his image. But there is an element of uncertainty about the election since many of them didn't know one another before last week, meaning they haven't had much time to suss out who among them is best suited to lead the 1.4-billion-strong church. The cardinals held their last day of pre-conclave meetings Tuesday morning, during which Francis' fisherman's ring and his official seal were destroyed in one of the final formal rites of the transition of his pontificate to the next. The cardinals will begin trying to find the new pope Wednesday afternoon, when those 'princes of the church' walk solemnly into the Sistine Chapel to the meditative chant of the 'Litany of the Saints.' They'll take their oaths of secrecy under the daunting vision of heaven and hell in Michelangelo's 'Last Judgment,' hear a meditation from a senior cardinal, and then cast their first ballot. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Assuming no candidate secures the necessary two-thirds majority, or 89 votes, the cardinals will retire for the day and return on Thursday. They will have two ballots in the morning and then two in the afternoon, until a winner is found. Asked what the priorities of the cardinal electors were, Goh told reporters this week that the No. 1 issue was that the new pope must be able to spread the Catholic faith and 'make the church relevant in today's time. How to reach out to young people, how to show a face of love, joy and hope.' A pope for the future But beyond that, there are some real-world geopolitical concerns to take into consideration. The Catholic Church is growing in Africa and Asia, both in numbers of baptized faithful and vocations to the priesthood and women's religious orders. It is shrinking in traditionally Catholic bastions of Europe, with empty churches and the faithful formally leaving the church in places like Germany, many citing the abuse scandals. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Asia is ripe for evangelization and the harvest of vocations,' said the Rev. Robert Reyes, who studied in the seminary with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the Filipino prelate considered a contender to be the first Asian pope. But should the pope necessarily reflect the new face of the Catholic Church, and inspire the faithful especially in the parts of the world where the momentum of growth is already underway? Does it even matter? Pope Francis was the first Latin American pope, and the region still counts the majority of the world's Catholics. Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the retired archbishop of Mumbai, said the church needs to become more Asian, culturally and spiritually. The 'centre of gravity of the world is shifting toward Asia,' he said. 'The Asian church has much to give to the world.' At 80, Gracias won't be participating in the conclave, but India has four cardinal-electors, and overall Asia counts 23, making it the second-biggest voting bloc after Europe, which has 53 (or likely 52, given that one is not expected to participate for health reasons). This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. One of the big geopolitical issues facing the cardinals is China and the plight of the estimated 12 million Chinese Catholics there. Under Francis, the Vatican in 2018 inked a controversial agreement with Beijing governing the appointment of bishops, which many conservatives decried as a sellout of the underground Chinese Catholics who had remained loyal to Rome during decades of communist persecution. The Vatican has defended the accord as the best deal it could get, but it remains to be seen if Francis' successor will keep the policy. The church in Africa According to Vatican statistics, Catholics represent 3.3% of the population in Asia, but their numbers are growing, especially in terms of seminarians, as they are in Africa, where Catholics represent about 20% of the population. Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, the archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo, said he is in Rome to elect a pope for all the world's Catholics. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'I am not here for the Congo, I am not here for Africa, I am here for the universal church. That is our concern, the universal church,' he told reporters. 'When we are done, I will return to Kinshasa and I will put back on my archbishop of Kinshasa hat and the struggle continues.' Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, the chatty French-born archbishop of Algiers, Algeria, lamented last week that there hadn't been enough time for the cardinals to get to know one another, since many of them had never met before and hail from 70 countries in the most geographically diverse conclave in history. 'Every day, I say to myself, 'Ah! Oh my God! There we have it!'' he said. The role of the Holy Spirit For the cardinals, there is also the belief that they are guided by the Holy Spirit. There is a famous quote attributed to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1997, in comments to a Bavarian television station. The future Pope Benedict XVI said the Holy Spirit acted like a good educator in a conclave, allowing cardinals to freely choose a pope without dictating the precise candidate. 'Probably the only assurance he offers is that the thing cannot be totally ruined,' Ratzinger reportedly said. 'There are too many contrary instances of popes the Holy Spirit would obviously not have picked.' — Associated Press correspondent Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, and Silvia Stellacci, Trisha Thomas and Giovanna Dell'Orto in Rome contributed.
