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Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria strongly defended the Catholic faith against the proposal put forward by one influential Synod Father who said last week that it is “unrealistic” for the divorced-and-remarried to refrain from sexual activity – what the Church following Christ calls “adultery.” Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich & Freising and a leading advisor to Pope Francis, had said such activity should be judged according to “lived context,” and that such persons should be able to receive Holy Communion. However, Cardinal Arinze told LifeSiteNews in a video interview on Saturday, “The Ten Commandments are given to us by...

ROME, October 21, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria strongly defended the Catholic faith against the proposal put forward by one influential Synod Father who said last week that it is “unrealistic” for the divorced-and-remarried to refrain from sexual activity – what the Church following Christ calls “adultery.” Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Berlin and a leading advisor to Pope Francis, had said such activity should be judged according to “lived context,” and that such persons should be able to receive Holy Communion. However, Cardinal Arinze told LifeSiteNews in a video interview on Saturday, “The Ten Commandments are...

The question of whether Catholic politicians who support abortion should receive or be denied Holy Communion has been a source of contentious debate amongst many bishops and theologians. But according to one of the Vatican’s most senior cardinals, the answer to the question is so simple that even schoolchildren intuitively know it. In an exclusive video interview with LifeSiteNews.com this week, Cardinal Francis Arinze observed that he is often asked about pro-abortion Catholic politicians and Holy Communion. “Do you really need a cardinal from the Vatican to answer that?” the cardinal said he tells his questioners. “Is that really a...

Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, retired prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, is pictured in front of an image of Blessed Cyprian Michael Tansi in his residence at the Vatican Feb. 12. (CNS/Paul Haring) By Francis X. RoccaCatholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI's decision to resign the papacy was a "surprise, like thunder that gives no notice that it's coming," said one of the cardinals who was in the room when the pope announced his decision Feb. 11. "We were about to get the blessing and he said, 'Please sit down. I...

Pope Benedict XVI Vatican City, Nov 18, 2011 / 01:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze says Pope Benedict’s upcoming visit to Benin will leave behind a positive and lasting legacy for all Africans. “Catholics, other Christians in Africa and, indeed, those who are not Christian are all concerned in this visit,” the cardinal told Vatican Radio on Nov. 17.Cardinal Arinze, 79, will accompany Pope Benedict on his three day visit to the small West African state which starts tomorrow. The Cardinal served as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship until 2008 when he retired. The primary...

Cardinal Francis Arinze has enjoyed a meteoric career, from becoming the youngest bishop in the world in 1965 at the age of 32, to serving in several of the most vital posts in the Vatican. The native Nigerian currently is prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, having served as prefect from 2002 to 2008. In that position, he helped oversee the process of preparing translations of the liturgy that are truer to the original Latin.In November, Cardinal Arinze made a visit to Chicago, principally to give the keynote address at the annual...

Cardinal Arinze Defines a Truly Catholic College Says Intellectual Formation Must Be Accompanied by Morals MANASSAS, Virginia, MAY 19, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The mark of a good Catholic university is success at turning out model Christians who are good citizens, says Cardinal Francis Arinze. The cardinal, former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, affirmed this May 10 in a commencement address he delivered at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire. He said that a Catholic college that adopts an attitude of "courageous creativity and rigorous fidelity" contributes much to promoting a "healthy synthesis...

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 18, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The recently retired prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments will preach Benedict XVI's spiritual exercises this year. Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze was selected to preach the annual retreat for the Pope and the Roman Curia, scheduled for March 1-7. The theme of the meditations will be "The Priest Encounters Christ and Follows Him." During the retreat, the Holy Father suspends his meetings and audiences and dedicates himself entirely to prayer. The days of retreat will follow the rhythm of the Liturgy of the Hours and include three meditations. Each evening,...

As has been expected for several months, what could be called the ultimate "lex orandi est lex credendi" appointment has formally, finally, come to pass: the Pope has named the primate of Spain, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera of Toledo, as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Dubbed the "Ratzingerino" -- the "Little Ratzinger" -- as a collaborator of the then-prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the 63 year-old prelate succeeds Cardinal Francis Arinze, who reached the retirement age of 75 in November 2007. Born in Valencia, the global...

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 25, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Erroneous applications of liturgical reforms implemented by Vatican II are generally not due to bad intentions, but simply to ignorance, says the Vatican official in charge of liturgy. Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, affirmed this to L'Osservatore Romano on Saturday. The cardinal celebrated 50 years as a priest last Sunday. The cardinal spoke with the Vatican daily about the responsibilities of his dicastery and its role in promoting and protecting the worship of God. "The liturgy is the heart of the Church," he said. "If the...

The long-awaited, much-debated, new translation of the Order of the Mass has been approved by the Vatican, signalling the direction weekly Masses are to take in Catholic parishes across the English-speaking world. On 25 July the United States bishops' conference announced that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW) had granted recognitio for the first, most important and most often-used section of the re-translated Missal, which contains the eucharistic prayers and prefaces, the Penitential Rite, the Gloria, the Creed, acclamations, the Lord's Prayer and other prayers and responses used daily. The intention of the new...

Vatican City, Dec. 01, 2006 (CNA) - Pope Benedict XVI has sent a message to Cardinal Francis Arinze ahead of the Congregation for Divine Worship’s study day on the Sunday Mass.  The Holy Father told those involved in the study group that Sundays remain the central focus of the Church’s liturgical year and that there is a need to, “reiterate the sacred nature of the Lord’s day and the need to participate in Sunday Mass. Cardinal Arinze, who serves as Prefect for the congregation called the study day under the theme: “Sunday Mass for the sanctification of Christian people." The Pope’s...

October 31, 2006 CDW On Purification Of Vessels (Jimmy Akin) The following is the text of the letter sent by Francis Cardinal Arinze to Bishop William Skylstad, president of the USCCB, concerning the liturgical change in America such that extraordinary ministers will no longer be permitted to purify the vessels used at Mass. CONGREGATIO CULTO DIVINO ET DISCIPLINA SACRAMENTORUM Prot. n. 468/05/L Rome, 12 October 2006 Your Excellency, I refer to your letters of 9 March 2005 and 7 March 2006, in which, in the name of the Conference of Bishops of which you are President, you requested a renewal...

A joyous African celebration filled St. Charles Lwanga parish yesterday as boys drummed and girls danced to welcome Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, who came from the Vatican to visit schools supported by the Extra Mile Foundation of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. Four "Extra Mile" schools serve a black, non-Catholic student body in impoverished neighborhoods. The foundation, supported by many non-Catholics, subsidizes about 60 percent of operating costs, keeping tuition low. "The school is a community of love, of caring, of training. The school ... wants to build you up in character so you will be a joy to your...

Annunciations of a New Springtime came across a 2003 Adoramus article of Cardinal Arinze's speaking on liturgical dance that I had not seen before.Now, some priests and lay people think that Mass is never complete without dance. The difficulty is this: we come to Mass primarily to adore God -- what we call the vertical dimension. We do not come to Mass to entertain one another. That's not the purpose of Mass. The parish hall is for that.So all those that want to entertain us -- after Mass, let us go to the parish hall and then you can dance....

...or, to respond in ICEL-ese, "And also with you, pal." A letter from Cardinal Arinze shows that, while the liturgy wars continue, the old tactics just aren't doing it. In the latest round of the Roman Missal translation battle, the U.S. bishops dug into their playbook and tried to run Pastoral Hardship Left in order to out-flank Liturgiam authenticam (they explained to Rome, you see, that we faithful are so besottedly in love with the 1974 ICEL Sacramentary that it would be cruel for the Holy See to make us change it for a translation closer to the Latin). Arinze...

Through a letter sent to the Bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico, the Holy See has called for an end to the so-called “Indigenous Church,” influential especially in southern parts of Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. The letter to Bishop Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, is signed by Cardinal Francis Arinze (bio - news), prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship. He deplores the influence of the ideology of the "autoctonous church,” inherited by Bishop Arizmendi from his predecesor, Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia. Cardinal Arinze remarks that the new policy should supress the overreliance on the ordination of permanent...

Andrea Tornielli runs his summary of yesterday's meeting in today's Il Giornale, reporting that the summit ran "several hours." The summit of the dicastery heads "did not solve the argument," Tornielli writes, saying that a second meeting of its kind -- scheduled for 23 March -- "represents a novelty in the Vatican and indicates that the Pope intents to listen to and value the work of his collaborators in the Curia, just as he did when he led the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," while at the same time not letting slip one bit of his own desision-making...

Today the Pope’s meeting with the Capidicasterio  about the SSPX finished with the decision of “keeping the discussion open” until the next meeting in late March.According to some sources, the canonical aspect of the possible agreement that would bring the Lefebvrists fully back to the Church is well under way, but Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation of the Liturgy and the Discipline of the Sacraments seems to be hesitant about making easier the use of the old Missal.According to the sources, the Cardinal fears that if the Mass of Pious V would be made available without the need...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican's top liturgy official said he expects Pope Benedict XVI to move against liturgical abuse with firm teaching and a gentle manner, recognizing that such mistakes often reflect ignorance, not ill will. At the same time, the pope wants to offer reconciliation to followers of the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre -- but not at the cost of "disowning" the Second Vatican Council, said Cardinal Francis Arinze, the Nigerian who heads the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. Cardinal Arinze spoke about the direction of the new papacy in an interview with Catholic News...