The Pope’s universal prayer intention for November is: “That the countries that take in a great number of displaced people and refugees may find support for their efforts which show solidarity”.
His intention for evangelisation is: “That within parishes, priests and lay people may collaborate in service to the community without giving in to the temptation of discouragement.”
Church split an ‘immense source of suffering’
At an ecumenical prayer service in Lund, Sweden, last Monday, Pope Francis said: “As Catholics and Lutherans, we have undertaken a common journey of reconciliation. Our separation has been an immense source of suffering and misunderstanding, yet it has also led us to recognise honestly that without [Jesus] we can do nothing.
“We too must look with love and honesty at our past, recognising error and seeking forgiveness, for God alone is our judge. We ought to recognise with the same honesty and love that our division distanced us from the primordial intuition of God’s people, who naturally yearn to be one, and that it was perpetuated historically by the powerful of this world rather than the faithful people, which always and everywhere needs to be guided surely and lovingly by its Good Shepherd.”
‘We wounded the unity of the Church’
At a joint Lutheran/Catholic commemoration of the Reformation it was stated that: “Lutherans and Catholics have wounded the visible unity of the Church. Theological differences were accompanied by prejudice and conflicts, and religion was instrumentalised for political ends…
“Today, we hear God’s command to set aside conflict. We recognise that we are freed by grace to move towards the communion to which God continually calls us. We experience the pain of those who share their whole lives, but cannot share God’s redeeming presence at the Eucharistic table. We long for this wound in the Body of Christ to be healed.”
US court ruling upholds seal of confession
In an important decision about the seal of confession, the Louisiana Supreme Court in the US has ruled that priests are not required to report child abuse when they hear about it during confession.
The ruling is part of the case in which Fr Jeff Bayhi, a priest of the Baton Rouge diocese, had been asked to testify about what a 14-year-old allegedly told him in confession. The young woman said she had told Fr Bayhi about being molested by a member of his parish. Fr Bayhi refused to testify, citing the inviolability of the confessional seal.
The court decreed that a “priest when administering the sacrament of confession has no duty to report any confidential communications made during the confession that, by the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church, he is authorised to hear and is also duty bound to keep confidential.”
Accept deal, Colombian bishops tell President
The bishops of Colombia, through Mgr Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga, president of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, has asked President Juan Manuel Santos to accept the proposals that different sectors of society are making to change the peace agreements signed between the government and Farc.
“We ask the President of the Republic and the institutions responsible, to accept the contributions that emerge from the various groups of society to develop this project (of peace), which must at the same time favour national unity, and respond to the many problems we have,” said Mgr Castro Quiroga, according to the statement sent to Catholic news agency Fides.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)