Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] German Bishop: Laypeople Preach in My Diocese — and I Won’t Sanction Them The Vatican's reasoning for the ban on lay preaching is "not entirely consistent," Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz told Katholisch.de on August 11."The letter from the Prefect for Liturgy states that only the priest celebrating Mass may preach. But taken to its logical conclusion, that would mean a concelebrating priest or an assisting deacon shouldn't be allowed to preach either."Lay Preaching Is No ProblemIn the Diocese of Mainz, occasional lay preaching has become an established practice and Bishop Kohlgraf has no intention of changing that.In...

[Catholic Caucus] Why does God allow error and confusion among the bishops?It's not so that good Catholics go to hell, but so that they have a higher place in heaven.Many Catholics think that “Catholic” means “universal,” and they are correct, but they make the mistake of thinking this is universal not through history but just today in this current Church crisis. We look to the great saint and Doctor of the Church of the 5th century, St. Vincent of Lerins, for how to navigate a Church crisis when many bishops believe and teach different things. St. Vincent of Lerins was...

Leo XIV's New Archbishop in Addis Ababa: Synodality, Islam Dialogue, Universal FraternityOn June 12, Leo XIV has appointed Monsignor Abune Tesfaye as the Archbishop of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.His precedessor, Cardinal Souraphiel, has led the Archeparchy of Addis Ababa since 1999.Entire Formation about Islam-DialogueMonsignor Tesfaye is a member of the Comboni Missionaries. He was born in 1969 in Harar, one of Ethiopia's historic centers of Islam.Virtually his entire formation points in the direction of Islam-dialogue.He was sent after ordination to study Arabic in Cairo, served as a missionary in Sudan, and later earned a licentiate from the Pontifical Institute for Arabic...