Pope Francis has confirmed that three bishops are being investigated for sexual abuse and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone is being investigated over financial transactions. Bertone denies any wrongdoing. The Pope said: “We must go forward with zero tolerance” to clerical abuse.
Regarding priestly celibacy, he said while this not a “dogma”, it is a discipline “I value very much and see as a gift for the Church”.
The Pope lamented what he described as over-emphasis on the question of reception of communion by divorced Catholics. He reportedly “emphasised the synods would consider the pastoral care of the family in its totality”.
Schonborn backs excommunication
Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, president of the Austrian bishops’ conference, supported Bishop Manfred Scheuer of Innsbruck who said two leaders of the dissident group We Are Church had ‘automatically’ excommunicated themselves. We Are Church chairwoman Martha Heizer and her husband had ‘celebrated’ Mass without a priest.
Schonborn said Scheuer had been “mild” in handling the case and had “tried everything” to persuade the Heizers not to proceed. He added that “the door is always open to the return of those affected”.
The Heizers said they will continue to work with great energy for reform in the Catholic Church.
UN report on Vatican reforms re child abuse
A report of the UN committee applying the Convention against Torture (CAT) was considered by many to present a more balanced assessment of the Vatican’s handling of child abuse than a February report by the UN committee on the rights of children in February.
The latest report said the Vatican implements universal policies obliging Church leaders to cooperate with civil authorities to prevent and prosecute sexual abuse of children.
The Vatican recognised the balanced report and said it “into serious consideration”. It also noted that UN committee had recognised the steps already taken by Church leaders to protect children from abuse.
Vatican representative Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, who had given testimony before the committee, had said critics of the Church were “fossilised in the past”, failing to appreciate the extent of reforms already in place.
Banquet irks Pope
Pope Francis was reportedly angry when he learned that a Vatican agency had organised an expensive VIP dinner following the celebration of the canonisation for Popes John XXIII and John Paul II.
It was reported that a ‘sumptuous’ meal was served to about 150 guests on a veranda of the offices of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs. About €18,000 were spent on the dinner which the Pope considered to go against his policy that the Church should be more poor. Prefecture head Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, who was not present for the dinner, confirmed that the Pope was not pleased and that an investigation is under way.
Over 20,000 Chinese baptised at Easter
Over 20,000 people, most of them adults, were baptised in the Catholic Church in China at Easter this year. The number of conversions is on the rise notwithstanding the efforts by the Communist government to destroy the Church’s influence in China. The 20,000 figure comes primarily from the churches recognised by the government.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)