With the news that Pope Francis might relax the rule of priestly celibacy in certain regions, there has been much celebration in certain quarters of the Catholic world. Many of those celebrating see celibacy primarily as a burden that forces unnecessary loneliness onto priests. What they fail to see is that such loneliness can have…
John Phillips of The Telegraph (UK) reported this morning that Pope Francis has now “placed a request for Roman Catholic priests to be allowed to marry in Brazil on the agenda of a forthcoming synod on the Amazon region”. Phillips, citing Vatican sources in the Italian paper Il Messaggero, says that the decision to put “a partial lifting…
According to the Austrian Catholic website Kath.net, Pope Francis is considering allowing the ordination of so-called viri probati. These “tested men” are said to have “proved their worth” by living virtuously in their marriages and in parish life, indicating a proposed relaxation of the requirement of celibacy in the priesthood for these men who would…
Image: a modified photo taken from House of Ilona, a UK-based clerical apparel store. We have become aware of a story — an anecdote published three years ago in a Swiss Capuchin journal and never denied by the Vatican — relating a conversation between the pope and an unnamed archbishop in which the pope is alleged…
Editor’s note: This article is Part II of a series. For Part I, click here. The traditional Mass can be compared to a tournament. At the beginning of a High Mass, the priest (knight) processes in with the deacon and sub-deacon (squires) and all the acolytes, torchbearers, and other servers (pages). The priest is arrayed…
Photo credit: Paweł Kula Editor’s note: This article is Part I of a two-part series. For Part II, click here. Author’s note: This article dwells particularly on the vocation to the priestly life. For the most part, the things said about the priesthood are also applicable to the religious life in general. Also, even though about…
Dr. Heinz-Lothar Barth is a professor of Latin and Greek Philology at the University of Bonn, a 200-year-old institution boasting over 30,000 students. On the University website, the school is described as “one of Germany’s most prestigious universities and also ranked among the top hundred in the world”. Founded in 1818 as Rhein University, the school has offered programs in…
Today, the German Bishops’ official website, Katholisch.de, published an interview with Cardinal Walter Kasper on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of his own priestly ordination. In this context, the German cardinal also made some significant statements regarding the question of the viri probati — that is to say, on the ordination of married and morally…
(Image: Screenshot of the papal interview as it appears [with Google translation] in Zeit Online) Today, 8 March, the German newspaper Die Zeit published an interview with Pope Francis which was conducted at the end of February at the pope’s residence Casa Santa Marta in Rome. In this somewhat lengthy interview, the pope speaks about…
(Image: Prassede Mosaic depicting “Episcopa” Theodora, believed by feminist theologians to be an example of women’s ordination in the Early Church; Source) On May 12, 2016, during a meeting with 800 women serving as general superiors of religious orders from around the world, Pope Francis surprised Catholics everywhere when he announced that he was preparing to…
Editor’s note: the following letter was submitted to us by a young man currently studying for the priesthood in the United States. Sadly, expressing even these measured thoughts on some of the difficulties facing seminarians in the current ecclesiastical climate could provoke retribution. For this reason, we have agreed to keep his identity anonymous. While…
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