The clock starts today for a very important week for the reform of the Church...

[Michie]

Walter Cardinal Kasper (80) addressed the Extraordinary Consistory on the family recently. Though his speech is not publicly available and the media were not permitted access, Vatican Insider reports some details of the goings on.

According to Vatican Insider's Andrea Tornielli, His Eminence ruled out an "easy" and "general" rule regarding the possibility of receiving the Sacraments after divorce and remarriage. It was, however, possible to examine the individual case closely and rethink their handling, based on the practice of the Early Church.

Cardinal Kasper is said to have offered an example as follows:

Kasper then referred [to the] example of the early Church and to a practice to which Joseph Ratzinger had referred to back in 1972 when he was still a professor. He recalled what happened to the apostates, those Christians who denied their own baptism out of weakness, during persecution. For these special cases, the Church came up with a Canonical penitential practice, sort of like a second baptism, but not with water, with “tears of penitence”. After their ship had sunk in sin, the castaway could not have another ship, but they were given a life raft.

In the case of marriage too, some local Churches introduced a practice according to which, Christians who separated from their still living partner and had entered into a second union, did not after a certain period of penance get to marry a second time (in other words they didn’t get a new ship), but they were given a life raft in the form of communion. Origen, Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus all spoke of this.

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en.../kasper-32230/

 

[Michie]

Bottom line, two people are either married or they aren’t. If someone has ideas toward improving how the Church determines who is married and who is not, I’m all ears. But if anyone thinks that what the Church really needs is a palatable way to avoid treating married people as married—and brother...

No stroke of a pen will change the question underlying the problem of divorce and remarriage...

 

[Michie]

"We need men who can fascinate the world with the beauty of love": Pope gives marching orders to the Congregation for Bishops...

 

[Michie]

Watch, judge, act. These are the three steps put into action by Pope Francis. After almost one year of pontificate, Pope Francis has decided on a way forward on how to reform the Curia. Those who were thinking of a wide reform, built on a solid legal framework, will be perhaps disappointed.

Watch, judge, act. The beginnings of the Pope's parallel curia...

 

[Michie]

Vatican official: mercy comes first in approach to divorced/remarried

Looking forward to the October meeting of the Synod of Bishops, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family has said that the status of Catholics who are divorced and remarried “should be looked at with a merciful eye.”

“Mercy is not blind, and does not oppose the truth,” added Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia in an interview with Vatican Insider. However, he said, “mercy is the suprema lex.”

Archbishop Paglia said that the plight of poor families also called out for attention at the Synod. He added that Church leaders should address the role of the elderly, noting that although modern society has enabled people to have longer lives, it has not shown appreciation for the wisdom of the elderly.
The Vatican official said that in today’s society “the family is the first stumbling block that hinders the dictatorship of individualism.” Moreover, he said, healthy families are crucial to the health of society. “Problematic families need healthy families to give them an open and generous welcome,” he said.

Paglia: "Open the floodgates of mercy," for remarried divorcees as well (Vatican Insider)

 

[Michie]

It was almost taken for granted that a reform of the Roman Curia, and in particular of the Secretariat of State, was going to take place. The General Congregations (i.e. the pre-conclave meeting) seemed to believe that the bad organization of the Curia was at the root of the poor management of the Church.

Is there a timeline for the reform of the Roman Curia?