Most Popular News Within Last 30 Days
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Vatican News highlights cardinal’s opposition to US bishops’ document on Eucharist
The Vatican News service has posted an interview with retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, giving prominent coverage to the cardinal’s view that a document on “Eucharistic coherence,” which will be discussed at this week’s meeting of the American hierarchy, is “totally unnecessary.”Invoking the familiar argument about separation of Church and state, Cardinal Mahony argues that it is “almost impossible” for a Catholic politician to make decisions consistently based on Church doctrine. He praises a June statement issued by 60 Democratic representatives, saying that when he read it, “I said, ‘This is us! This is the Church!’” In that statement the lawmakers had objected to “the weaponization of the Eucharist to Democratic lawmakers for their support of a woman’s safe and legal access to abortion.”
Cardinal Mahony’s arguments are not original or surprising. But it is noteworthy that the Vatican’s official service chose to call attention to these views—expressed by a prelate who resigned under pressure ten years ago—on the eve of the US bishops’ debate.
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Australian archbishop issues vaccine mandate: no conscience exceptions
Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, Australia, has ordered all clerics in his archdiocese to receive vaccination by December 15. Priests and deacons who are not “doubly vaccinated”...3
Turmoil in Syro-Malabar Church after Vatican reportedly dispenses from liturgical changes
Tension within the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church increased after a senior church official met with Pope Francis and said that the Vatican had offered a dispensation from liturgical changes scheduled...4
‘Our Church is a place of serious crimes,’ France’s leading prelate says, as bishops adopt reforms
In his closing address at the French bishops’ meeting in Lourdes, Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, the president of the episcopal conference, said that “our Church is a place of...5
US bishops approve statement on the Eucharist, National Eucharistic Revival
In a 222-8 vote, the US bishops approved “The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church,” as well as a three-year plan for a National Eucharistic Revival. In a 201-17 vote, the bishops approved a national Eucharistic congress in Indianapolis in summer 2024.The bishops’ statement “does not contain reference to pro-abortion Catholic politicians, though it does mention the possibility of prohibiting Catholics from Holy Communion,” The Pillar reported.
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Survey explores why Catholics leave Church
Although the total Catholic population of the US has risen by near two-thirds since 1960, the number of infant baptisms has fallen by more than one-half.That is one of many revealing statistics produced by a survey of the country’s Catholics, commissioned by Pillar.
In a preliminary analysis of the survey results, Pillar points to a number of interesting responses—some surprising—showing which Catholics are statistically most likely to remain active in the Church, and which most likely to leave the faith.
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Archbishop Roche: ‘Let us go back to what the Council required of the Church’
Responding in English to an Italian interviewer, Archbishop Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said that Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI’s documents on a wider use of the traditional Latin Mass “were established in order to encourage the Lefebvrists above all to return to full unity with the Church.“It’s clear that Traditionis Custodes is saying, OK, this experiment has not entirely been successful,” he continued. “And so let us go back to what the [Second Vatican] Council required of the Church.”
The archbishop’s interpretation of Summorum Pontificum conflicts directly with the published thoughts of that document’s author. In his Last Testament, Pope-emeritus Benedict says:
The reauthorization of the Tridentine Mass is often interpreted primarily as a concession to the Society of Saint Pius X. This is just absolutely false! It was important for me that the Church is one with herself inwardly, with her own past; that what was previously holy to her is not somehow wrong now.
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Most US Catholics do not accept Church teaching on Eucharist, poll finds
Only 41% of American Catholics—and just half of those who attend Mass weekly—believe that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ, according to a new Pillar survey.In 2019, a Pew survey found that only 31% of American Catholics—but 63% of those who attend Mass weekly—accept the Church’s doctrinal teaching.
The Pillar survey results were made public just before the November meeting of the US episcopal conference, at which the bishops will discuss a proposed document on proper reverence for the Eucharist.
On other questions, the Pillar survey found that American Catholics generally trust their bishops and pastors, with the level of trust significantly higher among regular Mass-goers. An even stronger majority (76%) trust Pope Francis, with the results fairly consistent across the ideological spectrum.
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Pope accepts resignation of Archbishop of Paris, appoints administrator
Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris. The 70-year-old prelate, who was appointed Archbishop of Paris in 2017, offered to resign following the publication of a report about his relationship with a woman.The Pontiff appointed Archbishop Georges Pontier, 78, retired Archbishop of Marseille and former president of the French episcopal conference, as apostolic administrator.
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