When dozens of Catholic bishops from Oceania gathered in Suva, Fiji, earlier this month, plans to hold a prayer service next to the ocean were derailed by stormy weather, offering a natural illustration of how the very location of the meeting underscored one of the region's most urgent concerns: the environmental crisis.   "The very fact that the meeting was held in one of these small nations in the Pacific, Fiji, which is being affected in certain areas by climate change, was really helpful in raising the awareness on how climate change is so real and therefore calling for global response," said Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi of Tonga.

https://www.ncronline.org/earthbeat/faith/oceania-bishops-assembly-spotlights-climate-crisis

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During an event earlier this summer inside the Vatican's synod hall, I noticed that the restrooms just off of the main exit included eight stalls for men and two for women.   In a church dominated by an all-male hierarchy, this makes sense. When the new synod hall was inaugurated in 1971, it was likely inconceivable that a venue designed for semi-annual meetings of Catholic bishops from around the world would need to accommodate the needs of women, except perhaps a translator or two.  That's why when Pope Francis extended the participation of the synod to include lay members — with a right to vote on the synod's final document — it seemed likely that the venue for the gathering would likely change, as was announced on July 7, along with names of more than 400 participants that will take part in one of the most closely watched events in the life of the church since the Second Vatican Council.

https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/view-vatican/synod-will-meet-different-vatican-hall-could-be-groundbreaking

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In 2013, Pope Francis made his first trip outside of Rome to the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa to spotlight what he termed the "globalized indifference" toward migrants. Ten years later, as he travels to Marseille, France, this weekend — for what will be his 44th visit abroad — Lampedusa will still likely be on the forefront of his mind. Earlier this month, some 8,500 migrants from North Africa arrived on the shores of Lampedusa — more than the entire population of the island — over the course of just three days.

https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/ahead-marseille-trip-pope-francis-pro-migrant-message-ignites-debate

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When prelates and lay delegates gather in October for the Synod of Bishops, they will be asked to directly confront a number of pressing questions — including the possibility of women deacons, access to the priesthood for married men, the integration of LGBTQ+ Catholics, and penance for sexual abuse and the abuse of power, conscience and money — in consideration of how the Catholic Church might transform and expand its structures to become more welcoming to all its members.  In a much anticipated document released June 20, the Vatican's synod office set the stage for a wide-ranging discussion for the first session of a high-stakes meeting that is attempting to respond with "missionary urgency" to the challenges of church life in the modern world.

https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/synod-document-sets-stage-wide-ranging-debate-women-catholic-ministries-and

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"I can't do this." It was a wail from the bowels of the Archdiocese of Detroit chancery office by a promising young priest, tasked with framing the agonies of failed marriages into bloodless canonese so that couples might please the powers in Rome to grant their annulment. It was a necessary penance and rite of passage for the clerically upward bound, chosen ones already by virtue of this assignment, some fantasizing about that oh-so-tall bishop's miter that could someday be theirs — when it would be received, of course, "in all humility.

https://www.ncronline.org/culture/book-reviews/no-guilty-bystander-celebrates-bishop-gumbletons-radical-legacy

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Skip to main content Dealing with the climate crisis will require developing renewable forms of energy such as solar and wind power, decreasing greenhouse gases and creating more sustainable lifestyles. It also requires a change of heart, says Swami Rameshwarananda, a Hindu spiritual leader from Spain. While many people know that immediate action needs to be taken to address rising global temperatures, said Rameshwarananda, most of us would rather protect the comfortable life we have than make needed changes.

https://www.ncronline.org/earthbeat/faith/faith-leaders-call-repentance-and-spiritual-reformation-address-climate-change

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They sang, they danced and they clapped. As world leaders gathered at the United Nations climate conference to figure out how to deal with climate change, faith organizations found their voices through protests. The Christian youths from across the world were out to dramatize the hurt the environment was going through, and with it, the entire human race. Joe Bongay of the Catholic Youth Network for Environmental Sustainability in Africa told Catholic News Service the protests were meant to draw attention to the need to care for the earth, in line with Pope Francis' encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home.

https://www.ncronline.org/earthbeat/politics/climate-activists-find-their-voices-cop27

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Passionist Fr. Donald Senior, president emeritus and chancellor of Catholic Theological Union and an internationally known biblical scholar, died Nov. 8 following a stroke. He was 82. He also who wrote dozens of books and articles that are used widely in Scripture study. A funeral Mass will be celebrated Nov. 15 at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Chicago. Burial will be in All Saints Cemetery. Widely honored for his work on biblical studies and promoting interreligious dialogue, Senior was eagerly sought as a speaker on biblical topics, especially the New Testament, which was his area of expertise.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/passionist-fr-donald-senior-renowned-biblical-scholar-dies-82

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Pope Francis said June 22 he was short of breath and still feeling the effects of anesthesia from abdominal surgery two weeks ago. Francis made the comments to explain why he chose not to deliver a prepared speech to visiting charity workers for Eastern rite churches. Instead, the speech was handed out. "I'm still under the effect of anesthesia," Vatican News quoted Francis as saying. "My breathing isn't good." The 86-year-old pontiff underwent three hours of surgery under general anesthesia July 7 to repair a hernia in his abdominal wall and remove intestinal scar tissue.

https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/pope-francis-short-breath-says-hes-still-feeling-effects-surgery

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Exactly 40 years after the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee disappeared, the Vatican said June 22 that new leads "worthy of further investigation" had surfaced hopes of finally getting to the bottom of one of the Holy See's enduring mysteries. Emanuela Orlandi vanished June 22, 1983, after leaving her family's Vatican City apartment to go to a music lesson in Rome. Her father was a lay employee of the Holy See. Over the years, her disappearance has been linked to everything from the plot to kill St.

https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/vatican-says-new-leads-are-worth-pursuing-disappearance-employees-daughter-40

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The life of Emmett Till ended with a lie.  There have been discrepancies over the decades about what was alleged to have transpired that fateful day in Chicago, Illinois, when a 14-year-old Black boy crossed paths with a white woman. He whistled at her; he said something slick at her; he assaulted her.  But at the end of the day, it was all a lie. Even before the damning revelation directly from Carolyn Bryant — the white woman in question — would come out about her recanting her allegations while noting that there was "nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him," it was always a lie.

https://www.ncronline.org/culture/movie-celebrates-emmett-till-beloved-black-boy-lynching

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The pope's cathedral in Rome, St. John Lateran Basilica, acknowledged April 20 that an Anglican bishop and 50 priests celebrated an Anglican service on the main altar and blamed the "unfortunate" incident on a miscommunication. A statement from the office of the archpriest of the basilica expressed "profound regret" and said the Anglican celebration April 18 in the Catholic basilica violated canonical norms. As the seat of the pope in his capacity of bishop of Rome, St. John Lateran ranks highest among the four Vatican basilicas in Rome.

https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/popes-cathedral-regrets-anglican-ceremony-main-altar

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Pope Francis will travel to Portugal for World Youth Day in the first week of August and include a stop at the popular Marian shrine in Fatima, the Vatican said May 22. The Aug. 2-6 visit is longer than originally expected and covers almost the entire week of the big Catholic rally that St. John Paul II inaugurated to try to invigorate young people in their faith. Francis is staying in Lisbon for the length of the visit but will make a day trip to Fatima on Aug. 5. Francis previously  traveled there in 2017  to mark the 100th anniversary of one of the most unique events of the 20th-century Catholic Church: the visions of the Virgin Mary reported by three shepherd children and the "secrets" she told them.

https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/vatican-confirms-august-trip-pope-lisbon-world-youth-day-including-fatima-stop

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The Vatican's secretary of state has dismissed the claim that clergy sexual abuse is linked to homosexuality, labeling it a "serious and scientifically untenable association."  "Homosexual orientation cannot be considered as either cause or aspect typical of the abuser, even more so when it is decoupled from the general arrangement of the person," wrote Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The cardinal's remarks were published as the preface to a new book, Il dolore della Chiesa di fronte agli abusi ("The Pain of the Church in the Face of Abuse"), a volume that includes contributions from a number of Catholic theologians, psychologists and other experts on clergy sexual abuse.

https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/vaticans-secretary-state-clerical-abuse-not-linked-homosexuality

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A historic, late-hour deal reached at the United Nations climate change summit, COP27, to establish a "loss and damage" fund for countries vulnerable to the devastating impacts of a warming world represented "a real breakthrough," said Catholic and other religious groups who called it an answer to their prayers and a sign of some progress as negotiations fell short in other areas. But they added that the new fund will fail to aid those already suffering from more extreme heat and storms if it follows the path of past pledges — including eliminating heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions and long-promised financing for climate mitigation and adaptation — that have not yet been delivered or implemented.

https://www.ncronline.org/earthbeat/politics/last-minute-cop27-deal-loss-and-damage-called-real-breakthrough

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Pope Francis on Feb. 21 reaffirmed that the Vatican's worship office has been given full authority to limit the celebration of the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass, in what may be seen as a major blow to some U.S. bishops seeking to circumvent the office's decisions on the matter. In a brief rescript published in the daily bulletin, the Vatican reiterated that the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments was first given the authority to reimpose restrictions on the Latin Mass in the pope's July 2021 law, Traditionis custodes , which was later reconfirmed in Dec.

https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/pope-francis-reaffirms-authority-vaticans-worship-office-limit-latin-mass

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With a degree of credibility that "seems to be very high," another 14 women and one man have reported to the Jesuits that they were spiritually, psychologically or sexually abused by Jesuit Fr. Marko Rupnik, a well-known mosaic artist and spiritual director. Jesuit Fr. Johan Verschueren, Rupnik's immediate superior in Rome, issued a statement Feb. 21 saying the new allegations involve incidents that took place between the mid-1980s and 2018. With a "firm intention to proceed with measures to ensure that situations similar to those reported will not occur again," Verschueren said the Jesuits will begin an internal process that "may result in disciplinary action," but in the meantime, he has strengthened the restrictions on Rupnik's ministry by forbidding him from doing any artistic work in public, and especially not in churches or chapels.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/jesuits-report-new-accusations-against-influential-vatican-artist

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Skip to main content As the town of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt prepares to host COP27, the latest United Nations climate change summit, some faith and civil organizations have already created a long wish list of what they expect the convening will achieve. Among the issues they want delegates at COP27 — shorthand for the 27th Conference of the Parties of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change — to address during their two weeks in Egypt (Nov. 6–18) are tangible action plans to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, transform energy systems to renewable sources, embrace agroecology, and provide funding to developing countries for both climate adaptation and "loss and damage," which refers to unavoidable or already occurring climate impacts.

https://www.ncronline.org/earthbeat/politics/what-religious-and-civil-leaders-africa-expect-cop27

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What began as a private message on Twitter resulted in a private meeting with Pope Francis.  It was seven years ago when Servant of God's Love Sr. Dorcee Clarey reached out to the American artist Makoto Fujimura after being inspired by one of his paintings. Clarey and Fujimura, who has written extensively on the intersection of faith and art, soon became pen pals, with the artist treasuring the prayers of a religious sister living in Michigan whom he'd never met. There was one form of art that Fujimura specialized in that Clarey found especially meaningful: kintsugi.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/news/pope-meets-artists-whose-work-reveals-how-god-touches-brokenness

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At the start of the 2014 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, Baptist Minister Chu Yiu-ming and retired Cardinal Joseph Zen were among the activists forced to eventually surrender to police for their efforts in calling for free elections.  Now, You-ming's son, Samuel Chu, has taken his case for Hong Kong democracy to Rome, warning Vatican officials of what he believes are the consequences of its 2018 bilateral agreement with China over the appointment of Catholic bishops in the country. For Chu, the Vatican's controversial China deal has come at the cost of remaining silent on threats to human rights and diminishing religious liberty, both in Hong Kong and mainland China.

https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/hong-kong-activist-warns-vatican-against-faithwashing-china

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