there is the Church
The pope’s official response to the Amazon Synod was released on Wednesday. Entitled Querida Amazonia (“Beloved Amazon”), it is said to complement rather than supercede the synod’s own Final Document (my analysis of which you can read here) (QA 2). The pope recommends everyone read that document in its entirety, and he says he “officially present[s]” it (QA 3). In addition, Francis says he has chosen not to respond to everything in the document (QA...
The final document of October’s synod of bishops on the Amazon has finally received an official English translation (here). Among its themes and proposals stands out its emphasis on caring for creation (ecology). News coverage of the synod was dominated by the side-show of “Pachamama” (which WPI covered more thoroughly than any other site, thanks to Dr. Pedro Gabriel, e.g., “Our Lady of the Amazon: Solving the Contradictions,” “Pachamama — the missing piece of the...
Yesterday Pope Francis, during his historic first-ever visit of a Roman pontiff to the Arabian peninsula, again made big news by signing a joint statement on “Human Fraternity” with the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb. He’s sort of like the Sunni Muslim pope, if you keep in mind that Islam isn’t a centralized religion and so has no pope. This is the most significant document on Catholic-Muslim relations since Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate. Rather than being a...
Wake up and smell the newest apostolic constitution from the Holy Father: Episcopalis Communio. Released Tuesday morning, it re-writes some of the rules for the Synod of Bishops. The stand-out feature is that it for the first time invests the Synod with formal teaching authority. Instead of simply submitting recommendations to the pope (usually but not always publicly), the Synod will produce a final document, co-signed by the pope, that will of itself constitute “ordinary...
Big news from Rome! Pope Francis has officially emended the text of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) to declare the death penalty (DP) “inadmissible.” This replaces the previous version, which held that cases in which it is legitimate, in the words of St. John Paul II, “are very rare, if not practically non-existent” (CCC #2267).[1] In this post I will: put this change into the context of previous revisions to the Catechism compare...
In my previous post, I examined the introduction to Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones, the new Vatican document on “economic and financial issues.” Now I will examine part one, entitled “Fundamental Considerations.” It is a complete rejection of libertarianism (laissez-faire economics) in favor of what I would call “person-centered” economics. This document does not contain any detailed policy proposals (7). Figuring those out is our job, not the Vatican’s. Instead, the document expounds key principles that should form the basis of...
Last week, the Vatican released a new magisterial (= authoritative teaching) document about “economic and financial issues” (Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones, the opening words and thus title). Co-signed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the office for “Integral Human Development” (Vaticanese for social justice), it is a synthesis of the teachings of the bishop of Rome, Pope Francis, on this topic. It is “offered to all men and women of good...
Adam Rasmussen
Brian Killian
John Cavanaugh-O'Keefe
Claire Domingues
Daniele Palmer
David Wanat
Daniel Amiri
D.W. Lafferty
Henry Karlson
Joe Dantona
John Paul Shimek
J. Patrick Yodzis
Mark Hausam
Massimo Borghesi
Matt Palmer
Mike Lewis
Nate Tinner-Williams
Nathan Turowsky
Paul Fahey
Pedro Gabriel
Pete Vere
Rachel Dobbs
Robert Fastiggi
Stephen Walford
Toni Vercillo
