Pope and prelates get crash course in joys of sex

Nicole Winfield
Associated Press
October 7, 2014

Pope Francis, cardinals and bishops from around the world have gotten an unexpected lecture on the joys of sex, from a Catholic couple brought in to talk about what makes a marriage last.

Ron and Mavis Pirola, parents of four from Sydney, Australia, told a Vatican gathering of some 200 prelates that sexual attraction brought them together 57 years ago and that sex has helped keep them married for 55 years.

"The little things we did for each other, the telephone calls and love notes, the way we planned our day around each other and the things we shared were outward expressions of our longing to be intimate with each other," the couple said in a joint statement to the closed meeting late Monday.

"Gradually we came to see that the only feature that distinguishes our sacramental relationship from that of any other good Christ-centered relationship is sexual intimacy, and that marriage is a sexual sacrament with its fullest expression in sexual intercourse."

The audience of celibate men was a bit taken aback.

"That's not what we bishops talk about mostly, quite honestly," a sheepish British Cardinal Vincent Nichols told reporters Tuesday. "But to hear that as the opening contribution did, I think, open an area ... and it was a recognition that that is central to the well-being of marriage often."

Francis called the two-week meeting of bishops to try to figure out how to make church teaching on a host of Catholic family issues - marriage, divorce, homosexuality and yes, sex - more relevant to today's Catholics. The debate will continue in October, 2015, and culminate when Francis issues a final document with recommendations offered by the synod.

Several of the bishops complained that the Vatican's own teachings on sexual matters are often impenetrable to ordinary people. The Vatican's main document on sex, the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, lays out the church's opposition to artificial contraception with complicated moral theological arguments and 41 footnotes.

The Pirolas told the gathering that they occasionally read church documents on family matters, "but they seemed to be from another planet, with difficult language and not terribly relevant to our own experiences."

The Rev. Tom Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, said several bishops argued that the church had to find a "new language" to both explain its teaching and invite people in.

"Language such as `living in sin,' `intrinsically disordered' or `contraceptive mentality' are not necessarily words that invite people to draw closer to Christ and the church," he said, citing one intervention.

Many observers have credited Francis with drawing people closer to the church precisely because of the simplicity of his language, compared to the dense theological treatises often laid out by his predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, who as a cardinal was responsible for penning many of the Vatican's major documents on hot-button issues, including homosexuality.

The Vatican hand-picked the Pirolas and other model Catholic couples to participate in the synod to give bishops a sense of what real live Catholic families go through and proposals for how the church can help support them. Their intervention showed just how different a synod this is with Francis and his message of welcome running the show.

The Pirolas told the story of how devout Catholic friends reacted when their gay son wanted to bring his partner home to a Christmas gathering.

"They fully believed in the church's teachings and they knew their grandchildren would see them welcome the son and his partner into the family," they said. "Their response could be summed up in three words: `He's our son.'"

Nichols said the synod gave them a round of applause.

In an indication, though, that opposition to such a welcoming position remains high, a group of conservative Catholic groups blasted the Pirola's example as "damaging" to the church.

"The unqualified welcome of homosexual couples into family and parish environments in fact damages everybody, by serving to normalize the disorder of homosexuality," said Maria Madise, coordinator of Voice of the Family in a statement.

John Smeaton, of the London-based Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said the welcome that the Pirolas' statement received from the synod was disturbing.

"The homosexual agenda is forcing its way into schools, universities, workplaces and sports clubs," he said in a statement. "The last thing families and parishes need is for church leaders to tell them to welcome homosexual couples."

Wisconsin couple to Catholic bishops: the church is failing to address marital issues

Josephine McKenna
Religion News Service
October 7, 2014

Pope Francis and his bishops got a wake-up call Tuesday (Oct. 7) from a Wisconsin couple who said the Catholic Church was failing to deal with the collapse of the traditional family.

Jeff and Alice Heinzen of La Crosse told the pope and 180 bishops attending a synod devoted to family issues that they were alarmed by the number of young people born out of wedlock or living with divorced parents.

The couple are one of 14 married couples invited to give their testimony.

“We have seen the number of marriages decline each year and the rate of cohabitation increase,” said the Heinzens, who have been married 34 years. “We know countless divorced adults who have joined other faith communities because they do not feel welcomed in the Catholic Church.”

What’s more, the couple added, the church’s pastoral programs were failing to address the forces impacting marriage and family life.

In a statement released earlier, the bishops’ synod noted that marriage is an “indissoluble sacrament” but stressed that “imperfect situations must be considered with respect.”

“For instance, de facto unions in which couples live together with fidelity and love present elements of sanctification and truth,” the bishops said.

Acknowledging the church’s declining clout, the bishops called for greater humility to deal with the “rejection of clericalism.”

“At times the church seems more concerned with power than with service, and for this reason she does not inspire the hearts of men and women,” the bishops said.

As the bishops continue to debate the definition of marriage the head of the German bishops said a majority of his colleagues supported the position of Cardinal Walter Kasper on allowing some divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

Kasper is well known as a liberal theologian and was appointed by Pope Francis as a synod speaker for the two-week event that officially opened Sunday (Oct. 5). His views have already provoked an intense reaction from conservative cardinals.

Under current church law, divorced Catholics who remarry without first obtaining a church annulment — a complicated and sometimes expensive venture — are barred from Communion because they are considered to be living in sin. Critics say the practice alienates otherwise faithful Catholics and perpetuates the stigma around divorce.

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Pope opens synod criticizing 'bad shepherds'

Joshua J. McElwee
National Catholic Reporter
October 5, 2014

Pope Francis opened a worldwide meeting of Catholic bishops Sunday -- a possible landmark of his papacy -- by warning against "bad shepherds" who unduly burden the faithful and who "thwart" God by not being guided by the Holy Spirit.

Francis was speaking in a homily during the opening Mass for the meeting, known as a Synod and focusing on modern struggles of family life, in St. Peter's Basilica.

Referring to the Mass readings for the day and to the prophet Ezekiel’s warning about shepherds who care for themselves and not their sheep, the pontiff said some shepherds become tempted by "greed for money and power."

"To satisfy this greed bad shepherds lay intolerable burdens on the shoulders of others, which they themselves do not lift a finger to move," said Francis.

The pontiff also laid out clearly what the Synod is not to do.

"Synod Assemblies are not meant to discuss beautiful and clever ideas, or to see who is more intelligent," said the pontiff. "They are meant to better nurture and tend the Lord's vineyard, to help realize his dream, his loving plan for his people."

Francis' words Sunday are likely to be met with much speculation over what direction the pontiff hopes the Synod, in which some 190 bishops and cardinals will discuss family life topics in closed-door sessions Oct. 6-19, will take.

Preparations for the event, the first of two synods on the topic in 2014 and 2015, have raised expectations that some of the church's pastoral practices regarding family life might change, particularly about how the church cares for the divorced and remarried.

Referring to the Gospel reading Sunday -- a parable from Jesus in Matthew's Gospel about tenants who take over the owner's vineyard -- Francis said bishops can also "be tempted to 'take over' the vineyard, because of that greed which is always present in us human beings."

"God's dream always clashes with the hypocrisy of some of his servants," said Francis. "We can 'thwart' God's dream if we fail to let ourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit."

"The Spirit gives us that wisdom which surpasses knowledge, and enables us to work generously with authentic freedom and humble creativity," he continued.

Francis' words Sunday followed similar remarks the pontiff made Saturday evening in a prayer vigil in St. Peter's Square for the opening of the Synod.

Addressing tens of thousands of people in the Square, the pontiff called for the group to "invoke an openness toward a sincere discussion, open and fraternal, which leads us to carry with pastoral responsibility the questions that this change in epoch brings."

The bishops' work during the Synod, which will take place behind closed-doors in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall, starts formally Monday morning with opening addresses from the prelates leading the event.

There are some 190 prelates who will be present and will be able to vote in the discussions. Some 60 others, mainly non-prelates, have been selected in other roles and will be able to contribute to discussions but not to vote.

Monday afternoon through Thursday evening, the bishops will open each of their meetings with an announcement of the theme for that session, followed by a testimony by a married couple on the theme.

After one week of their meetings, the bishops are to create a draft of a working document for the synod that will then be worked on during the second week of meetings to result in a final document for the synod, to be delivered to the pope.

One cardinal speaking to NCR Saturday said the Synod was to focus on the lived realities of people today.

"In the end, what we're talking about always are people's lives," said Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who is the archbishop of Westminster and is attending the Synod as the president of the bishops' conference of England and Wales.

"We have to be dealing with these things sensitively, pastorally -- and giving ourselves the space to accompany individuals, real people, in their actual situation," he said.

The Conry affair has exposed a crisis in Church governance - over to you Francis

Fr. Alexander Lucie
Catholic Herald
October 3, 2014


The print edition of the Catholic Herald makes very interesting reading today. On Monday, Bishop Kieran Conry, who had earlier spoken to the Daily Mail, spoke also to this paper. The Herald report also carried a quotation from a member of the diocese, a voice from the pew, if you like.

I am struck by the ‘disconnect’ between what he has to say and what the member of his flock has to say. What this boils down to is something that we have heard many times: there is a lack of accountability and transparency in the governance of the Catholic Church. In a way, the sad outcome of Bishop Conry’s career is not really what is important here: what is important is to consider how we arrived at this point in the first place. What is needed now is something very simple: an investigation into the way bishops rule their dioceses, and the checks and balances that are in place, and the way that bishops are chosen, and supervised and supported after they are chosen. This does not simply concern England: this seems to be a universal problem, given the way several bishops have been sacked of late.

Of course, we all know that canon law and the customs of the Church make provision for all of these matters. But this is the real point: canon law is not working. Bishop Conry’s appointment as bishop was made according to the processes laid down in canon law, but these processes, which should have brought to light several red lights, or at least amber ones, on his path to the episcopate, failed to work.

Now that the current disaster has overtaken us, all these points might seem like shutting the door after the horse has bolted. But it is important to make sure that this sort of thing does not happen again. That it will not happen again, and that there will be an investigation as to why it happened in the first place, are the two things that the lay people of the diocese would, if I read them correctly, most like to hear.

Pope Francis, over to you!

Pope accepts resignation of British bishop after report of affair

Phillip Puella
Reuters
October 4, 2014

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a leading British Roman Catholic Bishop who acknowledged that he had broken his vows and who was believed to have had an affair with a married woman, the Vatican said on Saturday.

Bishop Kieran Conry of the diocese of Arundel and Brighton, one of Britain's largest, disclosed in an announcement posted on the diocese's website last week that for years he had been "unfaithful to my promises as a Roman Catholic priest" and had decided to offer his resignation.

He apologized for the "shame that I have brought on the diocese and the Church" but he said his actions were not illegal and did not involve minors.

Neither Conry's statement nor the Vatican statement gave any details of how the 63-year-old bishop had broken his vows, but British media reported that he had had a long-running affair with a married woman some 20 years his junior.

Roman Catholic priests take a life-long vow of celibacy. Bishops normally retire at age 75 but Church law says they should offer to step down earlier if their actions have brought shame on the Church.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor says he would ordain married men

Liz Dodd
The Tablet
October 3, 2014

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has said that priestly celibacy is not a dogma and “can be changed”.

Speaking to the BBC’s Director of News and Current Affairs, James Harding, for a programme charting Francis’ papacy, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said that a shortage of vocations could “impel” bishops’ conferences to ordain married men.

“If I were a bishop of a diocese that had a very small number of priests … I would ask permission I think of Rome to ordain suitable married men. But I think it’s got to be done very carefully because I think celibacy is a great gift to the Church,” he added.

In the programme, broadcast last night on BBC Radio 4, Mr Harding anticipated the Synod on the Family by examining how Francis operates and whether he can live up to expectations. Gay and lesbian members of the Catholic community in London contributed to the programme.

Benedictine Sr. Christine Vladimiroff dies

Tom Roberts
National Catholic Reporter
September 30,2014


Benedictine Sr. Christine Vladimiroff, who as prioress in 2001 refused to follow a Vatican order that she prohibit another member of her community from speaking at a conference advocating ordination of women, died Sept. 25 at Mount St. Benedict Monastery in Erie, Pa., following a long illness. She was 74.

Vladimiroff, an accomplished woman who earned a doctorate from the Universidad Internacional in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and who did postgraduate studies at several U.S. universities, was a teacher and administrator at various points in her career at the elementary, secondary and college levels.

In the 1980s, she served first as multicultural coordinator and later as secretary of education for the Cleveland diocese. In 1991, she was appointed president and CEO of the Second Harvest National Food Bank Network in Chicago. She remained in that position until 1998, when she was elected prioress of the Erie community.

She became most widely known, however, for leading her community through a high-profile confrontation with the Vatican in 2001. In March of that year, she received an ominous communication from the Vatican's Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, ordering her to "forbid and prohibit" Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister from participating as a principal speaker at a conference on women's ordination scheduled for late June in Dublin.