News from around the Catholic world for the week ending 25 Oct.
DOWNLOAD (Right click to save)(6 mins)
• Prefect of CDF publishes article on marriage
• German Bishop suspended
• Federal Government challenges ACT same-sex marriage law
• St Vinnies reaches out to bushfire victims
• Jonathan Doyle in Sydney to address the problem of pornography.
TRANSCRIPT
SARAH: Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith Archbishop Gerhard Müller has this week published an article in L’Osservatore Romano defending the Church’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage.
The article, entitled ‘The Power of Grace’, follows the recent announcement that Pope Francis has called an Extraordinary Synod for the Pastoral Care of Families next October. News of the Synod has sparked widespread speculation that the Church’s current stance on reception of Holy Communion for those who have divorced and remarried outside of the Church may change.
In his extensive article Archbishop Müller reaffirms Church teaching on the indissolubility of sacramental marriage and inability of the illicitly remarried to receive Holy Communion, drawing from the teachings of Christ, Church Fathers and magisterial documents. Archbishop Müller acknowledged that while the understanding of marriage as a Sacrament has become difficult due to popular cultural distortions, the Church must hold fast to God’s plan for marriage.
“The Church cannot respond to the growing incomprehension of the sanctity of marriage by pragmatically accommodating the supposedly inevitable,” Archbishop Müller said.
“But only by trusting in the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God,” he said.
You can read the full article on the L’Osservatore Romano website.
Pope Francis has this week suspended a German bishop over a scandal involving renovations to his residence and Diocesan Centre.
A statement from the Vatican Press Office on Wednesday said, “A situation has been created in which Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst currently cannot exercise his episcopal ministry.”
Pope Francis announced that he would remove the Bishop of Limberg from his position for the time being. The decision came two days after the Pope held a private audience with the bishop.
Vicar General Wolfgang Rösch has been appointed the temporary caretaker of the Diocese.A German newspaper has reported it is expected the suspension would last two to three months.
Bishop Tebartz-van Elst reportedly spent 31 million euros or about 44 million Australian Dollars on the renovations, far beyond the estimate of 5.5 million euros, about 7.8 million Dollars. The issue is of widespread concern in Germany where parish funds are not only collected through donations, but also through a “church tax” paid by registered parishioners to their denominations. Bishop Tebartz-van Elst has defended the costs, citing the breadth of the project as the main reason for the exorbitant bill.
The ACT Legislative Assembly passed its same-sex marriage law on Tuesday 9 votes to 8, with Labor MPs and one Greens member voting in favor.
The Federal Government has already issued a challenge in the High Court and has urged same-sex couples to put off their wedding plans until a decision has been made.
Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson said it was wrong for Australia’s smallest government to change the meaning of marriage for all Australians.
“We do not see the ACT Legislature as a vehicle to drive national and social agendas,” Mr Hanson said.
No date for the hearing has been set, but a spokesman for the High Court said a directions hearing could be held next week. The Federal government hopes the case will start by late November.
The writ documents state that the ACT Marriage Equality Act 2013 is inconsistent with the Commonwealth Marriage Act 1961, which states that marriage is the union of one man and one woman entered into voluntarily for life.
If the challenge fails in the High Court, there is one further avenue the Commonwealth can follow if it chooses to, which is to overturn the law. Because the ACT is a territory and not a state, the Commonwealth has the power to overturn any law passed by the Assembly as in the case of the Northern Territory’s 1997 euthanasia law. The Abbott Government may face challenges, however, with Labor and the Greens maintaining control the Federal Senate until July next year.
The St Vincent de Paul Society of New South Wales has launched an appeal to assist those affected by continuing bushfires in the state’s Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Newcastle-Maitland regions.
The fires have claimed one life and hundreds of properties so far, including the historic Elmhurst House at the former St Columba’s College seminary, now St Columba’s High School in Springwood.
Last weekend Pope Francis offered his blessing for bushfire victims in a message from the Holy See’s Secretary of State Archbishop Pietro Parolin.
“[The Holy Father] prays especially for those who have died and for those who have lost their homes and workplaces,” Archbishop Parolin said,”as well as for the numerous personnel working to combat the fires and to provide comfort and care for those who are suffering.”
Donations to the St Vincent de Paul Bushfire Appeal can be made by visiting vinnies.org.au or calling 13 18 12.
In other news, popular author and speaker Jonathan Doyle is visiting Sydney on Saturday to present two free seminars on the problem of pornography.
The seminars are open to all and will provide the latest statistics and information on the detrimental impact of pornography, as well as some pastoral solutions.
With pornography addiction becoming increasingly widespread and boys now being exposed at an average age of 11, Jonathan Doyle says it is not an issue we can afford to ignore.
JONATHAN: “I think it’s a culture that’s deeply conflicted… the sexual revolution, peaking in 1968, opened a huge pandoras box around how we understand and experience sexuality as a culture. And culturally we don’t know what to do with it because we’ve sort of created a culture where we say “everything goes, anything goes”, the relativist mantras of “as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else”. So for people to begin to say “look this is causing harm”, part of what the culture has to do is shut that discussion down really fast. If you look at masculinity studies, men can’t even really come out and say “hey this is destructive, this is damaging me”, because men are supposed, if they’re red-blooded males, they’re supposed to be happy to use it.
SARAH: The seminars will take place this Saturday the 26th of October at 9am in Parramatta and 2pm in Chatswood.
Music Credit: Waking Up Instrumental – Dexter Britain
