Pope convokes world-wide meeting of bishops on abuse crisis

Vatican City, Oct 17, 2018 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- The synod of bishops on young people, the faith, and vocational discernment is being held at the Vatican Oct. 3-28.

CNA plans to provide a brief daily summary of the sessions, provided by the synodal fathers from Poland.

Please find below the Polish fathers’ summary of the Oct. 17 session:

The social context of young Catholics living in multicultural and multi-denominational societies was at the center of the Synod assembly on October 17th. The Synod Fathers also stressed the importance of the World Youth Day, including the meeting in Cracow in 2016.

During the morning session, many voices from Africa and Asia were heard. “People from Africa emphasized the poverty there and the lack of educational opportunities. This has led to vast emigration either inside their own homeland, from the countryside to the cities, or outside their homelands. Every emigration of this kind is a challenge for young people because, lacking education, they do not have the possibility to shape their own identity. On the other hand, Asian voices stressed the need for interreligious dialogue, because many young people from Asia belong to minority churches. Therefore, the young must engage in interreligious dialogue against a variety of dangerous fundamentalisms,” said Msgr. Grzegorz Ryś, Metropolitan Archbishop of Lodz.

During the deliberations, various social contexts in which young people are living were evoked. “In today’s discussions, I was positively surprised by the voices that emphasized the importance of widening reflection on the social context in which young people live, that is, school, universities, politics. Representatives from different countries spoke about these contexts. Some young Catholics living in a context of multiculturalism and multi-denominationalism must face the fact that they are a minority and are sometimes persecuted for that reason,” said Bishop Marian Florczyk.

Attention was also paid to the value and the importance of the World Youth Days. “

“Evoking the origins of the World Youth Days and, so, John Paul II, the great good that flows from these meetings was emphasized. Cracow, which hosted the World Youth Day in 2016, was also put into the spotlight. This meeting has largely contributed to the integration of young people,” said Bishop Florczyk.

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Vatican City, Jun 16, 2017 / 05:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As rumors abound concerning a Vatican commission to reinterpret Humanae vitae in light of Amoris laetitia, the controversial president of the Pontifical Academy for Life has rejected these rumors.

“I can confirm that there is no pontifical commission called to re-read or to re-interpret Humanae vitae. However, we should look positively on all those initiatives, such as that of professor Marengo of the John Paul II Institute, which aim at studying and deepening this document in view of the 50th anniversary of its publication,” Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia told CNA.

Vatican reporter Marco Tosatti first reported in May, citing unnamed Vatican sources, that Pope Francis had, or was about to, form a “secret commission” to examine and suggest modifications to the Church’s teaching on contraception, as laid out in Bl. Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae.

And on Wednesday, Roberto de Mattei of Corrispondenza Romana reported that Msgr. Gilfredo Marengo, a professor at the John Paul II Institute, would coordinate the commission.

Corrispondenza Romana said the commission was composed of Msgr. Pierangelo Sequeri, head of the John Paul II Institute, Professor Philippe Chenaux, a professor of Church history at the Pontifical Lateran University, and Msgr. Angelo Maffeis, head of the Paul VI Institute in Brescia.

Citing Msgr. Marengo’s previous writings, de Mattei presented the priest as someone who would be in favor of reviewing Bl. Paul VI’s teaching against the use of contraceptives.

Speaking to CNA, Msgr. Marengo dismissed what he described as the “imaginative report” about him heading a commission to review Humanae vitae, and referred to his own writings on Amoris laetitia to “fully understand my theological path.”
 
He has written that Amoris laetitia shows Pope Francis’ path “toward a decentralization of doctrinal issues,” and that “whenever the Christian community falls into the error of proposing models of life derived from too-abstract and artificially constructed theological ideals, it conceives its pastoral action as the schematic application of a doctrinal paradigm.”

Msgr. Marengo told CNA that “the issue of a conciliation between Amoris laetitia and Humanae vitae is not in the agenda.”
 
“I have found it always harmful to invent answers to useless questions,” said Msgr. Marengo,  though he added that “theological and pastoral reflection have still a long way to go in order to gain a proper and fruitful understanding of both Paul VI’s and Pope Francis’ texts.”

Archbishop Paglia also told CNA that “there is in fact no doubt that the heart of Humanae vitae – the value of human procreation – is a theme on which we all need to reflect with much attention; the breaking of the marriage-family-procreation triptych is a risk which the Church and all of human society cannot take.”

The archbishop was appointed head of the Pontifical Academy for Life in 2016, and he has come under sharp scrutiny and criticism from former members who are concerned by his actions.

And while Archbishop Paglia was head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, the dicastery organized seminars on marriage and family life in which many of the participants suggested a “penitential path” that would allow the divorced-and-remarried to receive sacramental Communion while still engaging in sexual relations. The seminars’ lectures were published with a foreword by Archbishop Paglia.

Interest in the reception of Humanae vitae is increasing, as the encyclical nears the 50th anniversary of its publication. In view of the anniversary, papers and studies on the text will be prepared and published.

A source in the Pontifical Lateran University, speaking on background, told CNA there is ongoing research in the university archives on the encyclical’s genesis.

It may be that what has been reported as a “papal commission” is one of the many study groups on Humanae vitae created as its major anniversary approaches.

In fact, the source at the Pontifical Lateran University told CNA that “many studies are underway” and that “Pope Francis has been informed of them, and has encouraged them.”

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Rome Newsroom, Dec 3, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Giuseppe Dalla Torre, a jurist who retired last year after more than 20 years as president of the Vatican City tribunal, died Thursday at the age of 77.

Dalla Torre was also the longtime rector of Libera M… […]