National Catholic Reporter

Pope Francis’ rottweiler: Cardinal Fernández charts new, uncertain course for Vatican’s doctrinal office

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(National Catholic Reporter. Christopher White).

When Pope Francis tapped Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández to head the Vatican’s doctrinal office on July 1, 2023, he wasn’t just naming his longtime Argentine theological adviser to one of the church’s most powerful roles. He was also reenvisioning how that department would operate in the modern world and attempting to ensure that his reforms might outlast his own papacy. Accompanying the announcement of Fernández’s appointment in the Vatican’s daily bulletin was a letter articulating that as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, he should actively promote the work of theology and new ways of evangelization rather than replicating past “immoral methods” that sought to control or punish theologians. “The text of the letter that the pope wrote to the new prefect is in some ways an epoch-making event,” Italian theologian Andrea Grillo told the National Catholic Reporter. “It marked the official beginning of a new understanding of the function of the dicastery, moving away from the inquisitorial and censorious styles of the past.”

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An insider’s guide to the Vatican’s inner workings

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(National Catholic Reporter. Christopher White).

The antiquated and often secret inner workings of the Vatican’s bureaucracy have been compared to the government of North Korea in its difficulty to make sense of and understand.  That challenge, however, is a bit easier now thanks to a new book penned by a true Vatican insider that has made the complicated web of Vatican operations much more accessible to outsiders. In The Roman Curia: History, Theology, and Organization, just out by Georgetown University Press, Msgr. Anthony Ekpo admits that for centuries, the work of the Vatican’s governance has often perplexed Catholics and non-Catholics alike, leaving some to ask: “Can anything good come from the Roman Curia?”

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This Pride Month, celebrate Queer Youth of Faith Day

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(National Catholic Reporter. Emma Cieslik).

Sid High wants Beloved Arise — the five-year-old organization dedicated to empowering queer youth of faith — to be available in every school, therapist’s office, mental health website and worship space across the country. With Queer Youth of Faith Day and National Day of Prayer for LGBTQ+ Youth right around the corner on June 30, it seems like a lofty goal, but trans Christian and Beloved Arise youth ambassador High, who organized the first day of prayer with fellow ambassador Sabrina Hodak, argues that this organization is essential suicide prevention for queer young people across the United States. According to a 2009 Statista research study, 47.1% of gay men and 46.5% of lesbian women report growing up in a moderately or somewhat religious environment, and many of these religious spaces and values their families attend and hold influence the queerphobia they encountered at home.

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A statement the US bishops should issue – but likely won’t

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(National Catholic Reporter. Mark Rondeau).

It’s time for the Catholic bishops of the United States to begin regaining their lost credibility by taking a courageous stand for democracy before the 2024 election. As former NCR editor Tom Roberts writes in the March 29 issue, “Here in the US, Catholicism is for sale.” The bishops have ceded their teaching authority to a host of well-funded right-wing political groups who have embraced the “Catholic” brand to advance their economic and partisan goals. “Mirroring the civic reality of the moment, extremists have taken over much of the public square in the name of Catholicism,” Roberts writes. “They preach a crimped and narrow church, one that is retributive and rule-bound, willing to contort teachings and tradition in the interest of money and political power.” Let’s take a step back. The bishops last fall again issued their quadrennial election guide, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.” The document closely follows those that have gone before, especially since the guide was last approved in 2015. Abortion remains the bishops “preeminent” concern, though this was not always the case in these documents. Democracy is mentioned once in the text, in passing.

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On Juneteenth, a noted DC Catholic church asks forgiveness for its racist past

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(National Catholic Reporter. Rhina Guidos).

Not far from a plaque marking it as a place where the nation’s first Catholic president worshiped, there’s now a less auspicious marker outside Holy Trinity Catholic Church, in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood, recalling its past in the dark history of the country. “Hundreds of Black parishioners left Holy Trinity,” one of its four painful paragraphs explains, “because of the ongoing segregation and discrimination they found here.” On June 19, a descendant of one of those families helped unveil the marker, which also asks for forgiveness “for these sins of racism and the pain they have caused.” “This truth is ugly and painful,” said Linda Gray, whose ancestors were among those who became part of Epiphany Catholic Church, the new parish Black families founded, also in Georgetown, after they left Trinity in the 1920s because of the racism they experienced there. “The truth hurts, it does, but the truth also has the power to heal.” On the steps of Trinity, Gray talked about how those who left did so “with no place to go,” but with the promise that God would help.

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I’m a Notre Dame peace studies student. I was arrested calling for peace in Gaza

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(National Catholic Reporter. Joryán Hernández).

What does it mean to be a premier Catholic university? One that cultivates “a disciplined sensibility to the poverty, injustice, and oppression that burden the lives of so many” and aims “to create a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good that will bear fruit as learning becomes service to justice”? One that contains one of the leading peace studies programs in the world? And what does it mean when that university refuses to discuss whether its investments support the killing of nearly 38,000 people in Gaza? To an unaware outsider, it may have appeared like a splendid picnic on the campus lawn. On May 2, several students hunched over laptops, class notes spread out on fuzzy blankets, everyone preparing for finals. To the side of the lawn, a custom-made banner depicted two women, with lettering below that read “Nahida & Samar Lawn,” in honor of a Catholic Palestinian mother and daughter killed in Gaza.

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Step Into Religious Freedom Week as Proud People of Faith

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(National Catholic Register. Andrea M. Picciotti-Bayer).

The Catholic Church in the United States has always had a knack for responding not just to the needs of the faithful but of society at large. Consider, for example, the U.S. bishops’ Religious Freedom Week, running from June 22-29. By asking Catholics across the country to promote and protect religious freedom here at home and abroad, the Church is championing individual freedom and the common good. And never more so than now. The focus of this year’s Religious Freedom Week is a subject that desperately needs addressing. Catholics are being asked to consider the importance of sacred spaces. Why? Because they are under threat.

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Amazon religious sister: Francis hasn’t given final word on women deacons

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(National Catholic Reporter. Christopher White).

A leading religious sister in the Amazon region believes Pope Francis’ recent interview that seemed to close the door to women deacons isn’t the final word on the much-discussed topic that has repeatedly been raised during the ongoing synodal process. “Francis’ speech caused some perplexity, but an interview is not the magisterium of the church,” Franciscan Catechist Sr. Laura Vicuña Pereira Manso told NCR via email. Her remarks come just weeks after an interview with CBS News where Francis said he was opposed to women deacons, if it’s connected to the sacrament of holy orders. “We’re living through the second stage of a synod on synodality, and I know that it won’t resolve all the necessary issues of change in the church,” Pereira Manso added. “But it will open up ways for us to continue the conversation and for all of us.”

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Deceased Spanish Jesuit accused of abusing ‘hundreds’ of Indigenous girls

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(DAVID AGREN. ncronline).

A Spanish Jesuit has been discovered to have documented his abuse of hundreds of Indigenous girls while serving as a missionary in rural Bolivia — atrocities which the Society of Jesus has known about since at least 2019 and did not immediately report to the civil authorities.

Jesuit Father Luis María Roma wrote in a diary of abusing girls, whom he often lured to a river and photographed inappropriately, according to the Spanish newspaper El País. The Jesuit province in Bolivia compiled a report on Roma’s acts in 2019, but withheld it from prosecutors, according to El País, which obtained a copy of the priest’s diary and the Jesuit’s investigation.

Roma died in August 2019, shortly before the report’s completion. El País published a notarized confession by the priest signed in May 2019, which read, “I got carried away, in some situations, by libidinous acts, inappropriate for a religious person, with girls from eight to 11 years old.”

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Indigenous reactions mixed after US bishops’ apology: ‘They won’t ever forget’

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(National Catholic Reporter. Katie Collins Scott).

“A deep sadness.”

That was the first emotion Jay, a member of the Gros Ventre Tribe, said he felt as he read an apology issued by the U.S. bishops for the Catholic Church’s mistreatment of Indigenous people. Jay attended the now-closed St. Paul Mission Grade School on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana, where he says he was sexually abused by a religious sister, often in front of a statue of Jesus, and by a priest in a remote location in the mountains. He was 11 years old. “I thought of those small little children, younger than me, at boarding schools miles from home,” said the 70-year-old, whose nickname is being used to protect his privacy. “It’s an awful thing.” His own horrors have not left his head or heart, he said. “I will never really get away from them. Not until I die.” Jay was among a number of Indigenous individuals, including survivors and tribal leaders, who spoke with NCR after the bishops issued a document acknowledging, in a circumscribed manner, the Catholic Church’s culpability, especially through church-run boarding schools, in the intergenerational trauma of Indigenous people.

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This Pride month, LGBTQ+ Catholic women speak

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(National Catholic Reporter. Emily Claire Schmitt).

In the weeks leading to Pride month, I had the privilege of speaking candidly with several of my LBGTQ+ Catholic women peers about their experience of faith, community and the church. While their perspectives differ dramatically, they all share a singular ache: to love God and to be accepted wholly into the body of Christ. Cecilia, a Filipina immigrant living in New York, loves marching openly in the Pride parade with her “Catholic Lesbians” group. Meanwhile, Becca must keep her romantic partnership a secret or lose her job teaching at a midwestern Catholic school. Ana, a Catholic school teacher in Mexico, finds great joy in a life of celibacy. Tamara, a bisexual woman, wrestled with claiming a faith where she could marry and others could not. Angela sees grace and God’s providence in her mixed-orientation marriage, while Steff is deeply unhappy in her mixed-orientation marriage and hanging onto her faith by a thread. Sarah has found a thriving Catholic LGBTQ+ community, but avoids talking about faith in queer circles. Grace yearns to come out to her Catholic friends and family.

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Germany’s Synodal Path faces backlash from the outside and inside

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(National Catholic Reporter. Renardo Schlegelmilch).

For years, the “Synodaler Weg” (Synodal Path) reforms in Germany have caused a rift between reformers and conservatives. Its latest working session showed more conflicts than ever — both with the Vatican and among German Catholics themselves. It was an uncharted path German Catholics embarked on back in 2019. The abuse scandal had just devastated trust in the church as an institution, and everyone was looking for solutions and a way out of the crisis. The answer: A “Synodal Path” for the church in Germany. For the first time ever, bishops and laypeople were planning to discuss and vote on far-reaching reforms — as equals. Everything seen as factors contributing to the sexual abuse crisis was put on the table, including priestly celibacy, a lack of women’s ordination, and the church’s stance on homosexuality. From the beginning, critics contended there was a threat of schism. Five years into the process, those critical voices are getting louder — outside and within the project. On June 14-15, reformers gathered in a so-called “Synodal Committee” meeting in the city of Mainz, the next step toward a permanent Synodal Council for Germany. Whether this council and many other changes will be implemented seems more uncertain than ever.

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Vatican ambassador supports bishops’ plans for eucharistic revival

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(National Catholic Reporter. Brian Fraga).

Taking a different tactic from his previous addresses to the U.S. Catholic bishops, the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States on June 13 affirmed the prelates’ preparations for a National Eucharistic Revival and National Eucharistic Congress. In his opening address to the bishops’ annual spring assembly, Cardinal Christophe Pierre told the U.S. bishops that Pope Francis shared their desire that Catholics in the United States “rediscover the power of the Eucharist” and that they embrace practices meant to reinforce eucharistic piety, such as adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. “We want our people to come to a renewed and deeper appreciation of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. We want them to know that Christ is there for them in the Eucharist, to accompany them in their earthly journey, and to feed them with the bread of life,” Pierre said. The nuncio’s remarks signified a departure in tone and substance from his most recent speeches to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is meeting June 12-14 in Louisville, Kentucky. At both the spring and fall meetings in 2023, Pierre appeared to reference the resistance among conservative U.S. Catholics and some bishops as he challenged the American hierarchy to embrace Francis’ vision for a synodal church.

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No longer a victim: Dawn’s Place provides a home for sex trafficking survivors

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(National Catholic Reporter. Dan Stockman).

Ann Marie Jones, residential coordinator at Dawn’s Place, has a special connection to the women in the long-term residential program for survivors of sex trafficking. She understands their journey in ways no amount of professional training could ever provide. Because she is a graduate of the program. In 2011, Jones was freed from the bondage that had held her for 14 years. But just being free doesn’t heal the damage that’s been done, and it was the program at Dawn’s Place that let Jones rebuild her life. But don’t tell her you’re sorry she went through those years of hell. “Don’t be sorry,” she said. “I went through something like that to be who I am today.” Who she is today is no longer a victim, but a healer, and a professional who developed a 12-step sexual exploitation recovery group. “Ann Marie never really left here,” said Sr. Meaghan Patterson, a Sister of St. Joseph of Philadelphia and executive director of Dawn’s Place. “She graduated and five months later they offered her a job.”

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McElroy speaks to those on the culture war’s frontlines: Catholic health care officials

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(National Catholic Reporter. Michael Sean Winters).

The bishops are still in executive session this morning, but one issue has become a perennial and central part of all of their discussions: synodality. Of all the initiatives Pope Francis has begun, and which the U.S. bishops’ conference has ignored, synodality is the one that can’t be shunted aside. Laudato Si’ was passed off to outside groups and Amoris Laetitia received no real attention from the bishops’ conference, but the body has been required to engage in the synodal process and it permeates almost every discussion. So, while we wait for the public session this afternoon, I thought I would discuss the keynote address Cardinal Robert McElroy delivered Monday at the Catholic Health Association meeting in San Diego on the theme “The Synodal Challenge for Catholic Health Care in the United States.” McElroy began by outlining some of the general characteristics of the synodal process, along with specific reflections on his participation at the synod’s general assembly in Rome last October. He then sketched four fundamental questions about the synodal process for Catholic health care to ponder, and while this sketch dealt with health care, it also showed how this process can be applied to other ministries and areas of church life. 

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The Catholic brand is under new ownership

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(National Catholic Reporter. Steven P. Millies).

Not long after Joe Biden became the nation’s second Roman Catholic president of the United States, I wrote for America magazine about something that had occurred to me many years earlier: Much of the difficulty about Catholics in U.S. politics owes to how worried I think our bishops are that they’ve lost control of the narrative. Because of changes in communications technology, media and how we live in this contemporary world, bishops and pastors are only one voice among many with the power to define what is “Catholic.”  Catholics like President Joe Biden or former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who hold highly visible public offices, simply have a greater reach. Most Catholics probably would have trouble naming a bishop other than their own, and few outside the church can name any. The issue is both about ecclesiology and also about public theology. When I wrote about it for America, I put it in the form of a question: “Who owns the brand?” The honest answer probably is that it no longer is owned (at least in the same way it used to be) by the successors of the apostles, our bishops and pastors. This is not a new problem. It has been taking shape since the beginning of the television age and the Kennedy presidency. But there also is a far more troubling way that this transformation has manifested itself. Across the last 20 years, the Catholic brand has come to be appropriated in a more worrying way by organizations with uncertain ties to the structure of the church. The most prominent of these organizations is the Eternal Word Television Network, or EWTN, but there are many others.

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Walk into the light: A Catholic take on Pride parades

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(National Catholic Reporter. Jim McDermott).

I recently attended Queens Pride, the Pride parade in the New York borough of Queens. Queens is actually the largest borough in New York City by area, 109 square miles, and the second biggest by population at about 2.2 million. And yet what was most noticeable about the parade was its small-town feeling. Rather than some kind of summer variation on Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, this was a Main Street USA-kind of affair, filled with LGBTQ marching bands, cheerleaders, street performers, politicians, community groups and even the Girl Scouts.  Pride parades have become a contentious issue in some quarters. In fact, just the idea of Pride is getting blasted by some these days as somehow offensive, including by some Catholics. I find that opposition so baffling. Who denounces a group for celebrating their community and its history, or for advocating for their civil rights? Could you imagine a city shutting down a St. Patrick’s Day parade? A San Gennaro feast? The Puerto Rican Day parades which also occur in June across the nation? (Boricua de Corazón!)

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New book examines conservative Catholics, and it isn’t pretty

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(National catholic Reporter. Michael Sean Winters).

Francis Maier, longtime aide and amanuensis to former Archbishop of Philadelphia Charles Chaput, tells the reader of his new book, True Confessions: Voices of Faith from a Life in the Church, that it is “a snapshot of the Catholic Church in the United States in the third decade of the 21st century: Who she is; where she is culturally; how she got there; and her prospects for the future, with a special emphasis on the lay vocation.” What Maier does not tell you, but which becomes evident pretty quickly, is that the lens of his camera only takes in a small — I had almost written narrow — slice of the picture of that church in this moment. The book consists of a series of interviews with bishops, clergy, laity who work in the church, parents, donors and new Americans. Maier starts with the bishops. Oddly, he doesn’t include the questions he posed to the bishops, only their replies, and they are not identified by name. This anonymity soon becomes deeply problematic.

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Trial of Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai continues; dissidents recall Tiananmen Square massacre

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(National Catholic Reporter. Osv news).

Catholic activist Jimmy Lai’s trial on charges of violating a Chinese-imposed national security law is nearing the 100-day mark. He is the highest-profile Hong Kong resident to be tried under the law, and his case is considered a landmark case. The trial of the 76-year-old pro-democracy advocate was suspended for a day June 3 after Lai’s lawyers said he was not feeling well. They told the judge that Lai, who is being held in Hong Kong’s Stanley Prison, had seen a doctor the previous night and had been prescribed painkillers. The trial resumed June 4, with one judge telling Lai he could notify the court if he felt unwell again. Lai’s son, Sebastien, has said his father suffers from diabetes and was diagnosed with high blood pressure while in prison in 2021. For decades Lai, who founded the now-defunct pro-democracy Apple Daily, campaigned for freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Hong Kong, which was designated a Special Administrative Region of China in 1997, when British rule ended after more than 150 years. Hong Kong’s Basic Law was supposed to allow the region “to exercise a high degree of autonomy and enjoy executive, legislative and independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication.”

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Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, seen as unusual fit for Francis’ Vatican, leaves the scene

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(National Catholic Reporter. Christopher White).

When Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet turns 80 on June 8, the prelate who was touted as a potential future pope in both the conclaves of 2005 and 2013, will no longer be able to participate in the next papal election. Ouellet, who was archbishop of Quebec from 2003-2010 and then prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops until his retirement in 2023 at age 78, has been a pivotal player under three papacies. And in two of those he played an outsized role in shaping the Catholic hierarchy throughout the world. The Canadian cardinal’s retirement last year brought about an end to an incongruous era, where a prelate much more identified with Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI was kept on by Pope Francis to lead the powerful Vatican office tasked with vetting potential candidates for the Catholic episcopacy.

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