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Last week saw yet another instance of Pope Emeritus Benedict giving an interview and insisting upon his unconditional support of Pope Francis and his work. EWTN reported on 28 August 2016 about this new statement of the former pope as follows: Speaking about Pope Francis, Benedict said that obedience to his successor “was never in discussion,” but that since Francis’ election, a feeling of “deep communion and friendship” has arisen between the two. “At the moment of his election I experienced, as many, a spontaneous feeling of gratitude toward Providence,” he said, explaining that after having two Pope’s [sic] from...

A group of parishes is preparing what could be the first step towards a formal split in the Church of England over issues such as homosexuality, with the creation of a new “shadow synod” vowing to uphold traditional teaching. Representatives of almost a dozen congregations in the Home Counties are due to gather in a church hall in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, later this week for the first session of what they say could eventually develop into an alternative Anglican church in England. Organisers, drawn from the conservative evangelical wing of Anglicanism, say they have no immediate plans to break away...

Joseph Enkh will be ordained to priesthood by His Exc. Mgr. Wenceslao Padilla, CICM, Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar on August 28. The new priest has chosen for his ordination the motto: "Deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me" (Lk 9, 23). According to Fides, "More than 1,500 people have confirmed that they will participate in the celebration, which will be a very special moment for the Catholic Church in Mongolia and for the whole society", says Fr. Prosper Mbumba, CICM a Congolese missionary in the Asian country. Don Joseph Enkh was ordained a deacon on 11 December...

Sometimes leaders learn more from crowds than from polls about how passionately people are feeling something, and in his preface to a new biography of Benedict XVI, Francis suggests crowds have taught him that ordinary Catholics are just fine with the two-pope arrangement.Arthur Schlesinger once said that President John F. Kennedy could look at all the polling numbers he wanted, but he didn’t really grasp how deep public support was for a nuclear test ban treaty until he hit the road and heard from the crowds. Surveys are useful for assessing opinion, but to gauge intensity and depth of feeling,...

Justin Welby has opened up about how his own failings make him angry and said that he spends "a lot of time feeling a fraud" in a personal and at times emotional interview at the Greenbelt Christian festival in Northamptonshire. Speaking to the 'vicar of Gogglebox', television star Kate Bottley in front of hundreds of festival-goers, the Archbishop of Canterbury said that wherever he went he found people who could do his job "infinitely better" than he could. And in surprisingly frank comments about same-sex relationships, Welby said that he "can't see the road ahead" for the Church. Before the...

The bishops who oversee Ireland's national seminary have acknowledged serious concerns about St. Patrick's seminary in Maynooth, and announced a review of policies and an independent audit of seminary administration. The trustees met at Maynooth on August 24, in a special session called to address rampant criticism of the seminary, arising from charges of an aggressive homosexual subculture. In a public statement released after their meeting, the bishops did not directly address the question of homosexuality, concentrating instead on the damage done by anonymous accusations. However, they did ask seminary officials to review their policies regarding internet use: an apparent...

In a study released today, the Cardinal Newman Society reported significant flaws in the high school sex education program made available during World Youth Day by the Pontifical Council for the Family. The Society concluded that this program is “not ready” for use in its target market of Catholic high schools, parishes and homes. The program, entitled The Meeting Point: Course of Affective Sexual Education for Young People, is currently available online. Responding to early doubts about the program, the Cardinal Newman Society decided to closely examine The Meeting Point as part of its mission “to promote and protect faithful...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation on the family is an example of the "ordinary magisterium" -- papal teaching -- to which Catholics are obliged to give "religious submission of will and intellect," said an article in the Vatican newspaper. Father Salvador Pie-Ninot, a well-known professor of ecclesiology, said that while Pope Francis did not invoke his teaching authority in a "definitive way" in the document, it meets all the criteria for being an example of the "ordinary magisterium" to which all members of the church should respond with "the basic attitude of sincere acceptance and practical implementation."...

The Pope Emeritus talks to Elio Guerriero: “What [Francis] says about being close to other people are not just words. He puts them into practice with me”. Razinger says the fact he did not feel up to the visit to Rio for WYD was a decisive factor in his resignation“Obedience to my successor has always been unquestionable. Then there is a sense of deep communion and friendship,” the Pope Emeritus said ahead of the publication of Peter Seewald’s book-length interview with Benedict XVI in a few days time. The conversations in this book, titled “Latest conversations”, took place after Benedict...

Berlin, Germany, Aug 23, 2016 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The plummeting number of priestly vocations in the Catholic Church in Germany is raising questions about the roots of the problem, and whether the situation has been manufactured to promote non-priestly ministry. According to figures published by the German bishops' conference, never before have so few priests been ordained in the Church in Germany: a total of 58 men became priests in the country in 2015. Within the last decade, the number of ordinations has dropped by half: In 2005, a total of 122 diocesan priests were ordained. And five...

Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas initially thought it was a prank when he was told in May that Pope Francis was on the line, but it was really him, telling Farrell to head up a new Vatican department. In part, his marching orders are to make sure lay people hold prominent Vatican positions, and to help the pope hear directly from the laity.Sometimes when new Vatican appointments are announced, it’s a bit opaque who actually called the shot. That’s definitely not the situation, however, with Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas, named last week to be the first-ever head of a...

Alexander Kissler – the well-respected, often subtly ironic, conservative German journalist and editor of the culture section of the German journal Cicero who recently wrote a piercing critique of Pope Francis – has now written another important article on Catholic matters. This time, he reports on the fact that, last year, “in 2015, only 58 men have been ordained as priests in the whole of Germany [with 23,8 million Catholics].” Kissler makes the strong claim that this standing shortage of priests is actually wanted by the guiding progressives of the German Church. “The priests,” says the German journalist, “are in...

August 22, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – In a new interview, Cardinal Raymond Burke has revealed that he and other “serious-minded” Church leaders are calling on Pope Francis to release a document correcting the confusion emanating from his recent apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia. He also decried characterizations that he is an "enemy" of Pope Francis. The cardinal says clarification of Amoris Laetitia is essential “for the sake of souls” because of the rampant confusion right now. “I trust that something will have to happen also because some very formal calls for clarification are in process and they simply will...

Several gay ministers will write to church leaders to say they are already in same-sex marriage and want official position reconsideredA group of gay Church of England clergy are set to reveal that they have married their partners, defying the official line taken by church leaders on same-sex marriage. A dozen gay ministers are to sign an open letter that also urges the church to allow clergy to carry out blessings for parishioners entering into same-sex marriages. Half the signatories have already declared themselves to be in a gay marriage, including Andrew Foreshew-Cain, who was one of the first priests...

THE Catholic Church needs to have an open discussion on celibacy and welcome LGBTQ people as priests in the fallout from the Maynooth affair. That is according to Cork senator and former Fine Gael TD for Cork South Central, Jerry Buttimer, who trained for the priesthood for five years in Maynooth before returning to lay life. Mr Buttimer became the first openly gay Fine Gael TD in advance of the fight for marriage equality in last year’s historic referendum. He is a committed Catholic, despite the opposition within the faith to homosexuality, which is regarded as sinful. He was speaking...

Since the beginning of this year, I have been sharing with you the growing concerns of Cardinal Zen of Hong Kong as regards the Vatican’s increasingly conciliatory stance with the Chinese government, which controls the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, an ersatz replacement for the true Chinese Catholic Church, which has been forced underground, and is regularly persecuted. In January, Cardinal Zen warned about a new “formula” allegedly under discussion at the time for the appointment of new Chinese bishops: A recent article “A winter of darkness for religions in China” by Bernardo Cervellera on AsiaNews, says: “From information that has...

Catholic Priests rail against Archbishop Charles Brown over selection of bishops A group which claims to represent almost a third of Ireland’s Catholic priests has severely criticised papal nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown over his selection of bishops. It just stopped short of asking for him to be replaced. The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) said it was “reluctant to call for Archbishop Brown’s removal” but felt it “instructive that his appointment was a central part of Rome’s response to the problems of the Irish Church”. Archbishop Brown’s appointment by Pope Benedict in November 2011 followed the publication of four reports...

Vatican City, Aug 19, 2016 / 06:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The annual meeting of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's former students will discuss Europe's spiritual crisis during their gathering later this month, according to the group's organizer. The Ratzinger Schuelerkreis has gathered to discuss topics in theology and the life of the Church since 1978, shortly after their mentor was pulled from academia to become a bishop. The theme of spiritual crisis in Europe was approved by Benedict himself, Fr. Stephan Horn told CNA. Fr. Horn, a Salvatorian, was Joseph Ratzinger's academic assistant at the University of Regensburg from 1971 to...

Metro Vancouver Christians are colliding over the coming crusade of televangelist Franklin Graham, who is known for criticizing homosexuals, Muslims and U.S. President Barack Obama. Saying that Graham is often “incendiary and intolerant,” some evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics are opposing his participation in the three-day Festival of Hope event at Rogers Arena in early March, 2017, that many of the city’s mega-churches are supporting . “Rev. Graham is a polarizing figure … His ungracious and bigoted remarks have the potential to generate serious negative impact on the Christian witness in Vancouver,” says a statement from five prominent evangelical and...

Commenting on sobering demographic and financial trends, Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that “the number one priority has to be, ‘We need to make our worship better.” “Second of all, we need to do the best job that we can to get not only more ordained leaders, but we really have to open up lots of doors for the lay leaders of the Church,” he said. Since 2000, diocesan Mass attendance has declined by 40%, and K-8 Catholic school enrollment has fallen by 50%. The newspaper also reported that nearly half of Pittsburgh parishes are the...