Will Pope Francis visit Ukraine in 2025?

Cologne, Germany, Jun 27, 2018 / 05:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Following months of controversy, the German bishops’ conference have said they will further explore, in accordance with a letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the topic of whether to allow Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Communion.

“We would like to offer the Holy Father and the Roman Curia our assistance in this matter,” the permanent council of the German bishops’ conference said June 27. The council added that the topic of intercommunion will be taken up again at the September 2018 autumn plenary assembly of the German bishops’ conference.

The CDF letter provides “indications and a framework for interpretation,” the permanent council said, characterizing the letter as “an aid to orientation” for individual bishops.

The council stressed the importance of being on “an ecumenical quest to achieve a more profound understanding and even greater unity among Christians,” adding, “we consider ourselves to be obliged to stride forward in this matter courageously.”

“Inter-denominational married couples and families are very close to our heart,” said the council. “We would like to emphasise that Eucharistic communion and church fellowship belong together.”

The council said the bishops want to provide “spiritual assistance” for those addressing questions of conscience for Catholic-Protestant married couples who have “a grave spiritual need to receive the Eucharist.”

“They have a very close mutual bond resulting from baptism, faith and the Sacrament of marriage, and they share their entire lives,” said the council about Catholic-Protestant married couples.

“It is important for us that we are on an ecumenical quest to achieve a more profound understanding and even greater unity among Christians, and we consider ourselves to be obliged to stride forward in this matter courageously.”

In February Cardinal Marx of Munich and Freising, president of the German bishops’ conference, had said the German bishops’ conference would publish a pastoral handout that allows Protestant spouses of Catholics “in individual cases” and “under certain conditions” to receive Holy Communion, provided they “affirm the Catholic faith in the Eucharist.”

Seven German bishops questioned the proposal and asked the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith whether a bishops’ conference may decide the question or whether the matter requires “a decision of the Universal Church.”

When several bishops from Germany visited Rome May 3, an inconclusive meeting ended with the Vatican sending the German bishops back, saying Pope Francis wanted the bishops to come to an agreement among themselves.

The pope later approved a May 25 letter from Archbishop Luis Ladaria S.J., prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to Cardinal Marx.

Admission to Holy Communion for Protestant spouses married to Catholics is “a topic that touches the faith of the Church and has relevance for the universal Church,” the prefect’s letter said. Allowing non-Catholics to receive Holy Communion, even in limited circumstances, would have an impact on ecumenical relations with other Churches and ecclesial communities “which should not be understated.”

Archbishop Ladaria’s letter to Cardinal Max noted that while there are “open questions” regarding the admission of Protestants to Communion, “the competent dicasteries of the Holy See have already been charged with producing a timely clarification of these questions at the level of the universal Church.” It would be left up to diocesan bishops to judge when there is a “grave impending need” regarding the reception of the sacraments.

In a June 21 interview on the papal flight from Geneva to Rome, Pope Francis discussed the topic of intercommunion, saying the matter should be decided by diocesan bishops, rather than bishops’ conferences. Approval by a bishops’ conference would make the matter “universal,” he said.

“The conference can study and give direction and opinions to help the bishops to manage the particular cases,” he added, saying that communion for Protestant spouses of Catholics “in special cases” is not a “novelty.”

The Code of Canon Law provides that in the danger of death “or if, in the judgment of the diocesan bishop or conference of bishops, some other grave necessity urges it,” Catholic ministers may licitly administer penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick to Protestants “who cannot approach a minister of their own community and who seek such on their own accord, provided that they manifest Catholic faith in respect to these sacraments and are properly disposed.”

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Pope Francis prays in front of the tomb of St. Mark the Evangelist inside St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice on April 28, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).

Pope Francis had a full slate of events Sunday during his day trip to Venice, a trip that tied together a message of unity and fraternity with the artistic patrimony of a city that has been a privileged place of encounter across the centuries. 

“Faith in Jesus, the bond with him, does not imprison our freedom. On the contrary, it opens us to receive the sap of God’s love, which multiplies our joy, takes care of us like a skilled vintner, and brings forth shoots even when the soil of our life becomes arid,” the pope said to over 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Mark’s Square. 

Framing his homily during the Mass on the theme of unity, one of the central points articulated throughout several audiences spread across the morning, Pope Francis reminded Christians: “Remaining united to Christ, we can bring the fruits of the Gospel into the reality we inhabit.”  

“Fruits of justice and peace, fruits of solidarity and mutual care, carefully-made choices to preserve our environmental and human heritage,” the pope continued, seated center stage in a red velvet chair and vested in a white cope.

Pope Francis arrived in Venice early Sunday morning for a day trip to the prestigious Biennale art exhibition — which is celebrating its 60th anniversary — where the Holy See’s pavilion, titled “With My Eyes,” dovetails with this year’s broader theme: “Foreigners Everywhere.”

The pope’s visit also holds a deep meaning as Francis is the first pontiff to visit the Biennale — where the Vatican has held a pavilion since 2013. 

In his homily, Pope Francis pointed out that our relationship with Christ is not “static” but an invitation to “grow in relationship with him, to converse with him, to embrace his word, to follow him on the path of the kingdom of God.” 

Francis built upon this point to encourage “Christian communities, neighborhoods, and cities to become welcoming, inclusive, and hospitable places,” a point he linked to the image of the city of Venice as a “a place of encounter and cultural exchange.” 

Pope Francis observed that Venice “is called to be a sign of beauty available to all, starting with the last, a sign of fraternity and care for our common home,” the pope continued, highlighting the tenuous situation of Venice, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which faces a myriad of problems ranging from excessive tourism to environmental challenges such as rising sea levels and erosion.

After the recitation of the Regina Caeli, the pope entered St. Mark’s Basilica to venerate the relics of the evangelist before leaving by helicopter to return to the Vatican as pilgrims and tourists bid farewell from land and sea.

Earlier in the morning the Holy Father met with female inmates, staff, and volunteers at Venice’s Women’s Prison on the Island of Giudecca, where he spoke on the topic of human dignity, suggesting that prison can “mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others.“

The deeply symbolic visit was followed by a brief encounter with the artists responsible for the Holy See’s pavilion at the Biennale, where the pope encouraged artists to use their craft “to rid the world of the senseless and by now empty oppositions that seek to gain ground in racism, in xenophobia, in inequality, in ecological imbalance and aporophobia, that terrible neologism that means ‘fear of the poor.’”

The Holy Father traveled by a private vaporetto, or waterbus, bearing the two-tone flag of Vatican City, to the 16th-century baroque Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute, which sits on the Punta della Dogana, where he met with a large group of young people. 

Reflecting on the visit as a “beautiful moment of encounter,” the pope encouraged the youth to “rise from sadness to lift our gaze upward.” 

“Rise to stand in front of life, not to sit on the couch. Arise to say, ‘Here I am!’ to the Lord, who believes in us.” Building on this message of hope, which the pope emphasized is built upon perseverance, telling them “don’t isolate yourself” but “seek others, experience God together, find a group to walk with so you don’t grow tired.” 

The pope made his way to St. Mark’s Square in a white open-top golf cart bearing the papal seal, where he closed his visit with Mass. At the end of the Mass Archbishop Francesco Moraglia, the patriarch of Venice, thanked the pope for his visit. 

“Venice is a stupendous, fragile, unique city and has always been a bridge between East and West, a crossroads of peoples, cultures, and different faiths,” Moraglia noted. 

“For this reason, in Venice, the great themes of your encyclicals — Fratelli Tutti and Laudato Si’ — are promptly reflected in respect and care for creation and the person, starting with the good summit of life that must always be respected and loved, especially when it is fragile and asks to be welcomed.”

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CNA Staff, Nov 18, 2020 / 07:00 am (CNA).- A cyber security expert has urged the Vatican to take immediate action to strengthen its defenses against hackers.

Andrew Jenkinson​, group CEO of Cybersec Innovation Partners (CIP) in London, told CNA that h… […]