The Vatican has announced the excommunication of certain members of the Army of Mary, a sect in Canada whose teachings have been deemed dangerous and erroneous by church authorities. … Read more »… À suivre »
Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the excommunication of four bishops ordained against papal orders in 1988 by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The move was considered a major concession to the archbishop’s traditionalist followers. The Vatican said the decree removing the excommunication, signed Jan. 21 and made public three days later, marked an important step toward full communion with the Society of St. Pius X, founded by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1970.
Anglican leader’s concern for unity reflects Vatican concerns
Vatican concerns about how some recent decisions of the U.S. Episcopal Church will impact the search for full Anglican-Roman Catholic unity are echoed in a reflection by Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican Communion. … Read more »… À suivre »
Cardinal asks dialogue partners if an ecumenical catechism might work
A Vatican official has floated the idea of a shared “ecumenical catechism” as one of the potential fruits of 40 years of dialogue among Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists and members of the Reformed churches. … Read more »… À suivre »
Pope Benedict XVI and Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury knelt together before the tomb of an 11th-century Christian king after affirming the need for Catholics and Anglicans to give a united witness to society. St. Edward the Confessor, who is buried in the Anglicans’ Westminster Abbey, reigned five centuries before English Christians became divided.
The pope and the primate of the Church of England paid homage together to the Christian king Sept. 17 at the end of an afternoon that included public speeches, a 30-minute private meeting and a joint ecumenical prayer service in Westminster Abbey. Archbishop Williams welcomed Pope Benedict as the first pope ever to visit Westminster Abbey, which was home to a community of Catholic Benedictine monks until 1540 when King Henry VIII dissolved the monastic community. … Read more »… À suivre »
A top Vatican ecumenist said different types of divisions affect Catholic relations with the Orthodox churches and with those that were born from the Protestant Reformation, but both can be resolved with dialogue.
He also criticized the “anti-Catholic attitude” displayed by some Pentecostals and said Catholics must resist a temptation to adopt the “sometimes problematic evangelical methods” of those churches.
With a view toward the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, a pontifical committee has launched a worldwide treasure hunt.
Many of the more than 2,800 cardinals and bishops who participated in all or part of the 1962-65 council kept diaries, or at least notes; some wrote articles for their diocesan newspapers and most — in the days before emails and relatively cheap trans-Atlantic phone calls — wrote letters home.
The Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences is asking church archivists, and even the family members of deceased council fathers, to look through their papers to find reflections that can add a personal touch to the historical research already conducted on the official acts of the council. … Read more »… À suivre »
Remembering the common roots of the Christianity they share, Roman Catholics and Anglicans should renew their commitments to praying and working for Christian unity, Pope Benedict XVI said.
The Pope and Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, held an evening prayer service March 10 at Rome’s Church of St. Gregory on the Caelian Hill, the church from which Pope Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine of Canterbury and his fellow monks to evangelize England in 597.
The service was part of celebrations marking the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of the Camaldolese branch of the Benedictine order. Camaldoli monks and nuns live and pray at the Church of St. Gregory and have an active program of ecumenical contacts. … Read more »… À suivre »
Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – CNS photo By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service [Rome] The Catholic Church’s relationship to Judaism as taught by the Second Vatican Council and the interpretations and developments … Read more »… À suivre »
The discovery of a new sub-atomic particle — the so-called Higgs boson — may help scientists discover how the hidden structure of all matter in the universe works, a Vatican astronomer said. … Read more »… À suivre »
Fifty years after the Second Vatican Council launched a new Catholic commitment to interreligious dialogue, work continues on clarifying the church’s attitudes toward other religions. While some Catholics still look on other religions with disdain, other Catholics seem to believe Vatican II taught that all religions were equally valid paths to God and to the fullness of truth. The new prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recently said both extremes are wrong. Archbishop Gerhard Müller, the Vatican’s doctrinal chief, gave a speech in Assisi in late October in which he tried to explain the differences between Catholic respect for every religion’s honest search for God and the error of thinking Christianity has nothing essential to add. … Read more »… À suivre »
The head of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X said he has been receiving mixed messages from the Vatican for years over if and how the group might be brought back into full communion with the church. Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the society, claimed that top Vatican officials told him not to be discouraged by official statements from the Vatican, because they did not reflect Pope Benedict XVI’s true feelings. The Vatican press office declined to comment Jan. 4 on the claims. … Read more »… À suivre »
Pope Francis and Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, pledged to support each other with their prayers and to continue the search for full unity between their communities.
Meeting at the Vatican June 14, praying together in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel in the Apostolic Palace and eating lunch together in the papal residence, both remarked on the fact that Pope Francis’ inaugural Mass was celebrated March 19 and Archbishop Welby’s installation was March 21.
“Since we began our respective ministries within days of each other, I think we will always have a particular reason to support one another in prayer,” Pope Francis said. He also thanked the new Anglican leader for praying for him during his installation at Canterbury Cathedral.
Archbishop Welby told him, “I pray that the nearness of our two inaugurations may serve the reconciliation of the world and the church.” … Read more »… À suivre »
Pope Francis, who recently spoke of a need to increase the common responsibility all bishops hold for the universal church, told a delegation of Orthodox leaders that the Catholic Church can learn from the synod structure of the Eastern Christian churches.
Dialogue for Christian unity is not a theoretical exercise for theologians, but an essential, practical tool for growing in faith and for evangelization, Pope Francis told a delegation from the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople.
“This is not merely a theoretical exercise, but one of getting to know each other’s traditions in order to understand and even learn from them,” the pope said during the meeting June 28.
Pope Francis said he was referring particularly “to the reflection of the Catholic Church on the meaning of episcopal collegiality and the tradition of synodality, so typical of the Orthodox churches,” in which the synods function as a symbol of the unity of the local churches and as a governing body united to the patriarch or spiritual leader of the church. … Read more »… À suivre »
Many Catholics who identify themselves as either conservatives or progressives will be disappointed in Pope Francis, whose program of spiritual renewal, doctrinal continuity and emphasis on the poor fits none of the traditional moulds, a top German cardinal said.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, a theologian and retired president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said Pope Francis will also face resistance within the curia, which needs both organizational revamping and a change of mentality.
Attempts at reform will bring resistance and difficulties “just like with every big institution,” he said in a July 16 interview with the Italian newspaper Il Foglio.
Pope Francis is leading the Catholic Church on an extraordinary campaign to prevent President Barack Obama’s proposed military strike on Syria.
On Sept. 4, the pope appealed to leaders of the G-20 nations to “lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution” to the Syrian civil war and promote instead a “peaceful solution through dialogue and negotiation.” The next day, his foreign minister sent the same message in a special meeting with the Vatican diplomatic corps. And on Sept. 7, the pope was scheduled to lead a prayer vigil for Syria in St. Peter’s Square — an event that the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, said would be unprecedented, in both scale and importance of setting, as a papal gesture for peace.
Exceptional as they are, however, Pope Francis’ actions have followed in close continuity with the spirit and record of his predecessors.
On the first visit by a pope to the United Nations, in 1965, Pope Paul VI memorably called for “No more war, war never again.” Blessed John Paul II was a constant campaigner for peace, calling the interfaith meetings in Assisi, praying for an end to violence in the Balkans, and doing everything he could, publicly and privately, to prevent the 2003 invasion of Iraq. … Read more »… À suivre »
Writing in one of Italy’s major secular newspapers, Pope Francis called for a “sincere and rigourous dialogue” between the Church and non-believers as an “intimate and indispensable expression” of Christian love.
The Pope’s words appeared in a 2,600-word letter published in the Sept. 11 edition of the Rome daily La Repubblica, in reply to recent articles by Eugenio Scalfari, a co-founder and former editor-in-chief of the newspaper.
An “open and unprejudiced dialogue” between Christians and those of no religious faith is “rightful and precious” today for at least two reasons, Pope Francis wrote. Such a dialogue could “open doors for a serious and fertile encounter” between secular culture and Christian culture, which have lost the ability to communicate due largely to modern views of faith as the “darkness of superstition opposed to the light of reason.” … Read more »… À suivre »
As top-level domain names are being rolled out and up for grabs, the Vatican has scored control of .catholic.
by Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which coordinates the assignment of Internet domain names and addresses around the world, has been allowing entities to apply for ownership of hundreds, and soon thousands, of new domain names such as .london, .insurance and .xbox, among others.
The Pontifical Council for Social Communications completed the application process last summer and just received approval that it will now control the new Internet address extension .catholic and decide who is allowed to use it.
The Vatican will control .catholic and its equivalent in other languages using Latin letters, as well as the equivalent of the word “Catholic” in the Cyrillic, Arabic and Chinese alphabets. Its request for .catholic in Chinese is number one on the ICANN list of priority domain names, right above .Amazon in Japanese. … Read more »… À suivre »
Church officials in Germany defended plans by the country’s bishops’ conference to allow some divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion, insisting they have the Pope’s endorsement.
“We already have our own guidelines, and the Pope has now clearly signalled that certain things can be decided locally,” said Robert Eberle, spokesman for the archdiocese of Freiburg.
“We’re not the only archdiocese seeking helpful solutions to this problem, and we’ve had positive reactions from other dioceses in Germany and abroad, assuring us they already practice what’s written in our guidelines,” he said. … Read more »… À suivre »
The Vatican will restart its stalled dialogue with Sunni Islam’s main theological centre, Al-Azhar University, said Fr. Rafic Greiche, spokesman for Egypt’s Catholic Church.
Talks between the Vatican and Al-Azhar were suspended by the Muslim university in 2011 following a series of remarks made by now-retired Pope Benedict XVI.
Greiche spoke to Catholic News Service in Cairo Dec. 4, a day after Comboni Father Miguel Ayuso Guixot, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, met at the prominent Muslim university with Abbas Shouman, deputy to Al-Azhar’s grand imam, Sheik Ahmad el-Tayeb.
“There was a meeting in a positive atmosphere, and both (sides) agreed to continue,” Greiche said. … Read more »… À suivre »
Read the 2015 joint statement of the Evangelical-Roman Catholic dialogue in Saskatoon, Called to Common Witness
Reshaping Ecumenical Theology
RSS feed for CNS
Permanent link: https://ecumenism.net/?p=346
Remembering the common roots of the Christianity they share, Roman Catholics and Anglicans should renew their commitments to praying and working for Christian unity, Pope Benedict XVI said.
Fifty years after the Second Vatican Council launched a new Catholic commitment to interreligious dialogue, work continues on clarifying the church’s attitudes toward other religions. While some Catholics still look on other religions with disdain, other Catholics seem to believe Vatican II taught that all religions were equally valid paths to God and to the fullness of truth. The new prefect of the 
The head of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X said he has been receiving mixed messages from the Vatican for years over if and how the group might be brought back into full communion with the church. Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the society, claimed that top Vatican officials told him not to be discouraged by official statements from the Vatican, because they did not reflect Pope Benedict XVI’s true feelings. The Vatican press office declined to comment Jan. 4 on the claims. 
Pope Francis and Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, pledged to support each other with their prayers and to continue the search for full unity between their communities.
Many Catholics who identify themselves as either conservatives or progressives will be disappointed in Pope Francis, whose program of spiritual renewal, doctrinal continuity and emphasis on the poor fits none of the traditional moulds, a top German cardinal said.
Pope Francis is leading the Catholic Church on an extraordinary campaign to prevent President Barack Obama’s proposed military strike on Syria.
Writing in one of Italy’s major secular newspapers, Pope Francis called for a “sincere and rigourous dialogue” between the Church and non-believers as an “intimate and indispensable expression” of Christian love.
Church officials in Germany defended plans by the country’s bishops’ conference to allow some divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion, insisting they have the Pope’s endorsement.
The Vatican will restart its stalled dialogue with Sunni Islam’s main theological centre, Al-Azhar University, said Fr. Rafic Greiche, spokesman for Egypt’s Catholic Church.