Female cardinals
The idea of female cardinals was mooted by French Bishops Conference president Eric de Moulins-Beaufort. In an interview with the magazine Noosphère, he said he was “flabbergasted” that non-ordained religious brothers can vote at the synod of bishops’ meetings, but women cannot.
He said that according to Church theology, all the baptised “find themselves on an equal footing before Revelation, since bishops and priests are in principle neither more learned nor closer to God than the laity”.
He argued: “Our governing bodies should always be shaped by a concrete fraternity in which there are men and women, priests and laity. …Until there is progress on fraternity, I fear that dealing with the issue of ordained ministries will only make the structure more cumbersome and impede progress.”
Addressing the racism problem
Archbishop Stephen Brislin, president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said: “We commit ourselves to a credible and comprehensive conversation on racism. This will mean acknowledging the presence of racism in the Church before and during the apartheid era and in these years of democracy. In humility, we your pastors, prostrate before God and before all who are in pain, [and] ask for forgiveness for our historic complicity with racism in the Church.
“We challenge ourselves as your pastors and we call upon all the faithful and all people of goodwill to do all in our power to address the problem of racism in our society and in the Church.”
Seeds on rock
In his Angelus last Sunday, Pope Francis said: “The seeds on rocky ground spring up quickly, but they soon wither away. This is the image of momentary enthusiasm, though it remains superficial; it does not assimilate the Word of God.”
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)