Pope Francis

No Picture
News Briefs

Synod on Synodality next steps: Pope to choose ‘big questions’ for further study

December 12, 2023 Catholic News Agency 5
Bishops process into St. Peter’s Basilica for the closing Mass of the first assembly of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 29, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Dec 12, 2023 / 12:45 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis will provide input on the “big questions” to focus on at the next session of the Synod on Synodality next October, the Vatican revealed in a new document Tuesday.

Examples include questions related to the ordination of women to the diaconate, revisions to canon law pertaining to the Oriental Churches, and a review of the Vatican document Ratio Fundamentalis, which serves as the basis for the formation of priests and deacons.

Those were among the topics deemed “matters of great relevance” that came up during the synod’s first session in October and require consideration “at the level of the whole Church and in collaboration with the dicasteries of the Roman Curia,” according to the new document.

A list of these topics will be sent to Pope Francis for review, and the pope will indicate sometime in January which topics require further study. The new document does not detail who the experts are or how they will be selected.

Released on Dec. 12 by the General Secretariat of the Synod, the Vatican office coordinating the ongoing synodal consultative process, the four-page document, titled “Towards October 2024,” details “the steps to be taken in the months between now and the Second Session of the Synodal Assembly.” 

The first monthlong session of the Synod on Synodality, a multiyear process initiated by Pope Francis to enhance the communion, participation, and mission of the Church, concluded on Oct. 29 with the finalization of a 42-page synthesis report. The October 2024 session is expected to produce a final report, which will be presented to Pope Francis for his consideration in issuing any related teaching. 

The new document calls for feedback on the synthesis document from local and national levels. Emphasizing that this is not to be construed as a “a question of starting the synodal process from scratch or repeating the process of listening and consultation undertaken during the first stage,” it notes that “each local Church is invited to focus on those aspects that enable it to make a contribution in the light of its own situation, character, and experience, sharing good practices that represent visible and concrete signs of synodality.”

According to the document, this process will be a moment for dioceses to reflect on the “fundamental questions” that are to be guided by the central aim of the synod’s central question: “How can we be a synodal Church in mission?”

“The local Churches are also invited to go through the entire Synthesis Report and collect the requests that are most consonant with their situation,” the document states. “On this basis, they will be able to promote the most appropriate initiatives to involve the whole people of God.”

Once this process is complete, these various reports submitted by the dioceses will be compiled into an eight-page document and sent to the General Secretariat of the Synod by May 15, 2024, forming the basis of the Instrumentum Laboris (or working document) that will be used by assembly members of the synod’s second session in October 2024. 

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Hearing the Pope’s Confession: Vatican Confessor Reflects on Sacrament

December 10, 2023 Catholic News Agency 1
Pope Francis confessing in St. Peter’s Basilica. / L’Osservatore Romano

CNA Newsroom, Dec 10, 2023 / 11:15 am (CNA).

A 91-year-old Franciscan has spoken about his time as confessor to Pope Francis and stressed the enduring and essential role of the sacrament of reconciliation.

Brother Otmar Egloff served for several years as chief confessor at the Lateran — the storied cathedral of the bishop of Rome — according to CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language partner agency.

He recalled being asked to move from his native Switzerland to serve at the basilica in 2004, towards the end of Pope John Paul II’s pontificate. “It was probably my talent for languages that was decisive, as I speak Italian, German and French,” the priest said in an interview published Dec 7. 

The friar recalled being told, “tomorrow the pope is coming for confession!” — but that the experience was not so different from hearing confessions from other Catholics.  

“The only difference was that my confessional was cleaned very thoroughly beforehand,” the Franciscan said. 

“When you come to the confessional in the morning and see a whole team cleaning and scrubbing your confessional, that’s really something else. I used to go and dust it myself with a cloth.”

Brother Otmar said, “it was also special that Pope Francis confessed kneeling in public and used my confessional afterwards to hear confessions from other priests.”

Penance for the Pope

Upholding both the sacred seal of confession and his sense of humour, when asked by the Swiss interviewer what penance Pope Francis would receive from him today, the Franciscan answered with a laugh: “Today, I would give the pope a different penance. A penance of the tongue. His tongue is sometimes too quick.”

Asked by the Swiss journalist where priests live when appointed a confessor at the Lateran, the priest replied: “Above the roof of the church are the apartments of the eight Franciscan friars who sit in the eight confessionals during the day.” 

Brother Otmar added Franciscans from all over the world had always been assigned to this service in the Lateran, “that has always been the case and will remain so.”

Celibacy and Vocation

From his long experience as a confessor, Brother Otmar stressed that the sacrament “remains important”.

Noting “a decline of the practice in German-speaking countries,” the Swiss religious added: “This is a human need and gives you the chance of a real new beginning. Your conscience shows you what was wrong. God forgives.”

Pope Francis, who has encouraged Catholics to go to confession, recently reiterated his call on German Catholics to remember “the importance of prayer, penance, and adoration.”

In his interview, Brother Otmar also said that celibacy and abuse have nothing to do with each other: “It’s more because unsuitable candidates were accepted due to a shortage of priests. Paedophilia is a serious disorder and an atrocity.”

Asked whether you can already know in your mid-20s whether you can spend your whole life celibate, the Franciscan said: “You do know. You know whether you’ve had relationships, whether you long for a partnership or not. You have to deal with these issues. That was probably not discussed enough [in the past]. For me, it was always important to help the respective priests and candidates to the priesthood — and, if necessary, to advise them against it.”

[…]