“During these past two weeks, I have heard many voices: the voices of great pain and suffering of the survivors of abuse; their shame; their anger. I have also heard voices of discouragement, voices of honesty and the integrity of the people and good priests.
“I have also heard voices of faith and a determination to persevere in the building up of the Church in this diocese by prayer and the Holy Eucharist and the Word of God and the service of others.
“Above all, I have listened to the voices of hop… that there will be renewal in this diocese and an assurance of the presence of the Lord as we walk along this road.”
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, retired archbishop of Westminster, who was among those responsible for investigating child abuse by Irish priests and cover-up by Church leaders.
Confirmation before First Communion
The Sacrament of Confirmation will be celebrated before First Communion in the archdiocese of Liverpool, UK. This change in the order in which young people receive the sacraments of Christian initiation will begin in 2012.
Children above the age of eight will be invited to receive Confirmation and First Communion between the feasts of the Ascension and Corpus Christi. They will be encouraged to make their first confessions later in the year, during Advent.
No automatic right to Church wedding
Pope Benedict said that the natural right to marry enjoyed by men and women does not extend to the right to marry in the Church.
“The right to contract marriage presupposes that one is able to, and intends to truly celebrate it, that is, in the truth of its essence as taught by the Church,” Pope Benedict told members of the Roman Rota.
The Pope said marriage is a sacrament for the Catholic Church. A priest or deacon witnesses marriage, but it is the couple itself who performs it and who pledge their union will be forever, and that they will be open to having and educating children. He said Catholic marriage preparation programmes are a bureaucratic hurdle to overcome before the wedding.
“In fact, often it is assumed that the priest must act with largesse, since the natural right of people to marry is at stake,” the Pope said, but for the Catholic Church, there exists only one kind of marriage – sacramental – and the right of Catholic couples to celebrate the sacrament can be exercised only if they fully understand what they are doing.
Social networks can spread the Gospel
“Entering cyberspace can be a sign of an authentic search for personal encounters with others, provided attention is paid to avoiding dangers such as enclosing oneself in a sort of parallel existence, or excessive exposure to the virtual world,” wrote Pope Benedict in his message for the 2011 celebration of World Communications Day.
He invited Christians to join online social networks in order to spread the Gospel through digital media and discover “an entirely new world of potential friendships”.
However, the Pope also warned of the limitation and possible risks in this search: “In the search for sharing, for ‘friends’, there is the challenge to be authentic and faithful, and not give in to the illusion of constructing an artificial public profile for oneself,” he said.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)