Vatican City, Oct 28, 2018 / 11:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis closed the 2018 Synod of Bishops Oct. 27, calling the meeting’s final document the work of the Holy Spirit.
The 167 paragraph text on young people, the faith, and vocational discernment was voted on paragraph by paragraph Saturday, following nearly a month of discussion on the topic.
“We have made the document, we have studied it, we have approved it. Now the Holy Spirit gives us the document to work in our heart,” Pope Francis told the 250 bishops, nuns, and young people in synod hall at the conclusion of voting.
The final document of the fifteenth ordinary synod touches on controversial topics, such as homosexuality and the concept of “synodality.”
“It was Spirit to work here,” Francis said.
Two hundred forty-nine bishops voted in two sessions, passing the the synod document in its entirety Oct. 27.
The Synod “is a protected space for the Holy Spirit to work,” the pope said, reminding the participants that “the Synod is not a parliament.”
“It is a difficult time,” continued Pope Francis. “Constant accusations dirty the Church.”
“Now is the time to defend Mother church from the great accuser with prayer and penance,” said Pope Francis, and reiterated his call for Catholics to pray the Rosary and pray to St. Michael the Archangel.
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President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi (center) attends the consistory for the creation of new cardinals at St. Peter’s Basilica on Aug. 27, 2022, in Vatican City. / Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images
Rome Newsroom, Jul 17, 2023 / 05:25 am (CNA).
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the Italian prelate tasked by Pope Francis to head a peace mission between Ukraine and Russia, is traveling to Washington, D.C. this week, the Vatican announced.
The cardinal’s visit comes only weeks after the Biden administration announced it was sending an additional $800 million in weapons to aid Ukraine’s counteroffensive — including morally problematic “cluster bombs” that have been banned by most countries, including the Holy See.
Zuppi, who has already visited both Ukraine and Russia, will be in the U.S. capital from July 17-19 and will be accompanied by an official from the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.
“The visit will take place in the context of the peace promotion mission in Ukraine and aims to exchange ideas and views on the current tragic situation and to support humanitarian initiatives to alleviate the suffering of the most affected and most fragile people, especially children,” read the Vatican statement announcing Cardinal Zuppi’s visit.
The Vatican has not disclosed with whom Zuppi will meet during his three-day visit.
Pope Francis’ envoy to Ukraine Cardinal Matteo Zuppi on June 6, 2023, finished a “brief but intense” two-day visit to Kyiv, which included a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Credit: Vatican News/YouTube
The United States has been a major provider of military support to Ukraine since the country was invaded by Russia on Feb. 24, 2022. To date, the U.S. has sent $41.3 billion in military aid to the Eastern European country, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
The latest round of support has drawn criticism from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), as well as bishops conferences from other countries, for its inclusion of cluster bombs in the military package. Cluster bombs present an especially grave threat to civilians given that they impact indiscriminately large areas and often do not explode until long after impact.
One hundred twenty-three countries signed the 2008 Convention on Cluster Bombs, which explicitly bans the use, transfer, production, and stockpiling of the munitions. The U.S., however, along with Russia and Ukraine, are not signatories of the convention.
In a statement following the Biden administration’s announcement, Bishop David Malloy, head of the USCCB’s international justice and peace committee, underscored that the U.S. bishops have long advocated the U.S. government to sign the convention.
“Pope Francis has addressed the conventions on antipersonnel mines and cluster munitions, exhorting all countries to commit to these conventions ‘so that there are no more mine victims,’” Malloy wrote.
“While recognizing Ukraine’s right to self-defense, we must continue to pray for dialogue and peace,” he added. “I join with our Holy Father in supporting and sharing in his moral concern and aspiration.”
Cardinal Zuppi has played a prominent role in promoting peace between Ukraine and Russia since Pope Francis asked him in May to lead a peace mission on behalf of the Vatican. The cardinal, who is the archbishop of Bologna and the president of the Italian bishops’ conference, has strong ties to the influential peace-building community Sant’Egidio, a lay Catholic association that has taken part in peace negotiations in many countries including Mozambique, South Sudan, Congo, Burundi, and the Central African Republic.
As part of his peace mission, he visited Kyiv June 5-6, meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other political and religious leaders. The papal envoy then visited Moscow from June 28-29, a trip that included a meeting with Patriarch Kirill, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.
(T)his final document have nothing to do with the Holy Spirit.
If whole world says so, I am sure, it is not!
“There is a kind of papalotry going around. It acts as if no matter what comes out of Rome, it must have been inspired by the Holy Ghost. This line of thinking holds, for example, that if Vatican II was called, it means that the Holy Ghost wanted to call it. But this is not necessarily the case. Convoking Vatican II was a personal decision of John XXIII. He may have thought god was telling him to call it, but who knows? He has no special charism that guarantees he would recognize such a decision as coming from the Holy Ghost with theological certitude.
We can say that the Pope has the power to call a council. We can say that the authorities in the Church can call upon the Holy Ghost to guarantee, in a very narrow set of cases, that what comes from this council is de fide (And nothing in Vatican II was pronounced de fide, Ed.)
The glory of the Church is that it has supernatural help to define Truth. It has supernatural help to guarantee that its sacraments are efficacious and so on. But who said that the decision to call the council (or synod) was protected by the Holy Ghost?” – http://salbert.tripod.com/Papalotry.htm
At best, this whole extravaganza was a complete and utter waste of time, money and energy. May the final document and everything else about this ridiculous papacy be forgotten soon.
(T)his final document have nothing to do with the Holy Spirit.
If whole world says so, I am sure, it is not!
“There is a kind of papalotry going around. It acts as if no matter what comes out of Rome, it must have been inspired by the Holy Ghost. This line of thinking holds, for example, that if Vatican II was called, it means that the Holy Ghost wanted to call it. But this is not necessarily the case. Convoking Vatican II was a personal decision of John XXIII. He may have thought god was telling him to call it, but who knows? He has no special charism that guarantees he would recognize such a decision as coming from the Holy Ghost with theological certitude.
We can say that the Pope has the power to call a council. We can say that the authorities in the Church can call upon the Holy Ghost to guarantee, in a very narrow set of cases, that what comes from this council is de fide (And nothing in Vatican II was pronounced de fide, Ed.)
The glory of the Church is that it has supernatural help to define Truth. It has supernatural help to guarantee that its sacraments are efficacious and so on. But who said that the decision to call the council (or synod) was protected by the Holy Ghost?” – http://salbert.tripod.com/Papalotry.htm
At best, this whole extravaganza was a complete and utter waste of time, money and energy. May the final document and everything else about this ridiculous papacy be forgotten soon.
And who are you, the above commentators, to know whether the Holy Spirit was at work or not?