During a question and answer session with Jesuits, Pope Francis lamented, among other things, the “rigidity” that he finds in many seminarians.
The Pope said he was concerned about the legalistic approach to morality that he encounters in seminary students. “The whole moral sphere was restricted to ‘yes you can’, ‘you cannot’, ‘up to here yes, but not here’,” he said. He likened this approach to the “decadent scholasticism” which, he said, was widespread in seminary training prior to Vatican II.
He said that moral principles should be applied to real life situations, rather than the re-statement of abstract rules. This is what he said he did in his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, that is, putting primary emphasis on pastoral applications rather than general rules.
In seminary training, the Pope continued, students should be exposed to “academic study, contact with real life, prayer and personal community discernment.” He added: “When one of those things is missing, I start to worry.”
Nichols lauds Misericordia et Misera
Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, described the Pope’s apostolic letter Misericordia et Misera (Mercy and Misery) as a “rather wonderful” closing of the Year of Mercy. He noted that the Pope is exhorting the whole Church “to grow in its culture of mercy” and stressing this should be practised on a “perennial” basis rather than just over one year.
“The emphasis in this letter is that we understand and create a clear grasping of the mercy of God as what gives us hope,” he said.
The cardinal believes that for “the vast majority of Catholics”, the main significance of this letter is about the need to understand “more deeply” and continue to celebrate “the gift of mercy” rather than the part headlined by the secular media about extending the faculty for all priests to absolve the sin of abortion.
EU bishops want to protect Sunday
In a statement by COMECE, the bishops of the EU Member States said: “As in times of digitalisation of the economy, the boundaries between private and work-life become increasingly blurred, COMECE proposes to incorporate decent working hours and the right to a common weekly day of rest. This day should be, in principle, Sunday, which is recognised by tradition and custom in most of the Member States or regions.
The economic and financial crisis has shaken the firm belief of Europe growing together. It has showed that without cooperation and dialogue at EU and global level, the nation state alone is no longer able to address the pressing social and economic challenges of our societies. In a globalised economy, COMECE therefore hopes that the European Pillar of Social Rights will renew social convergence in Europe and contribute to the creation of a culture that “drives globalisation towards the humanising goal of solidarity”.
Rwandan bishops beg for pardon
The Catholic bishops of Rwanda have issued a public apology for the involvement of Catholics and Church officials in the genocidal massacres of 1994: “We apologise for all the wrongs the Church committed. We apologise on behalf of all Christians for all forms of wrongs we committed. We regret that Church members violated their oath of allegiance to God’s commandments. Forgive us for the crime of hate in the country to the extent of also hating our colleagues because of their ethnicity,” the bishops pleaded.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)