Category: Vatican

My trainer likes to have us do tightrope walking – just on the floor – to improve our balance. I’m not very good at it, especially when we are to look left and right as we walk toe to heel. This comes to mind as I read the tremendous volume of articles being generated about…
Read more

Of course, you know what I mean. The Synod. I have been collecting articles but not writing about them, so today you get a smorgasbord of summaries that might set you searching for one or two that sparks your interest. Claire Giangrave for Religion News Service in NCR summarizes the state of the women’s ordination question by effectively…
Read more

Last week, I wrote about five – and ultimately, six – “non-bishop” delegates from the United States to the Synod. All were delegates to the North American Continental Assembly, as were four other non-bishops chosen from Canada. You probably remember that Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean Islands were made part of the Latin American…
Read more

The last time I tumbled the bin of Synod delegates, I got two cardinals. This time, five “non-bishops,” as the USCCB characterizes them, popped out. These delegates from the United States convince me that Pope Francis had a hand in picking them. They all have characteristics that suggest they are on the margins in one…
Read more

This is my response to the list of Synod participants followed in short order by 21 new Cardinals late last week. I’m sure the Synod office had a lot to say about the first group, but I wonder if anyone other than Francis tapped the Cardinals on the shoulder. Impulsive, that list seems to me.…
Read more

I have given so much space to supporting the Synod process, I think it’s about time to acknowledge that there are skeptics. Maybe that includes you, your friends and family, those you share liturgy with – lots of others. Who could not be a little skeptical after all we’ve been through? Joan Chittister opined a…
Read more

The Synod process has created its own momentum, it seems. The publication of the Intstrumentum Laboris, which I began to discuss last week, has lured commentators into the arena, mostly online, I realize. Like me. But I’m not in the boys’ club. Ross Douthat in his New York Times newsletter uses the opportunity to blame…
Read more

Oh, our dear, impulsive Pope. I have long felt that if women could get Francis’ ear, we would see change. I wonder who got to him about women voting at the Synod. Maybe he saw the photo of the German Benedictines from 2018, and was reminded of the scandal of sisters who lead religious orders…
Read more

The actual anniversary is next Monday, March 13, but pundits have been ruminating for a month. Amidst this effusion of commentary, I am going to highlight the articles in which the analysis advances the conversation about Francis and women. First, of course, is Kate McElwee’s in NCR. What McElwee does is document particular changes over…
Read more

Moral theology has always made a great deal of sense to me. As a well-educated but non-specialist lay person, I like thinking seriously about issues in a way that is not simply political. Again this week, America has provided us with a continuing conversation about gender theory, with essays by two theologians: Abigail Favale of…
Read more