For centuries, the archbishops of Constantinople could credibly claim to be the “Ecumenical Patriarch”. Their see was the “New Rome”, centre of the oikoumenç, the “inhabited world”. Today, their successor, Patriarch Bartholomew, looks beleaguered. The guards around his residence in the Phanar quarter of Istanbul reveal his threatened position in an increasingly Islamified Turkey. But now he seems poised to gain other powerful enemies, this time within the Orthodox Church itself, by unilaterally recognising a Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent of Moscow.

The renascent Church of Russia, thought to comprise more faithful than all the other Orthodox Churches combined, covets Constantinople’s leadership role. Styled “the Third Rome” since Tsarist times, Moscow believes geopolitical reality should give it more weight than Bartholomew’s aura of the Byzantine past.

Moscow has long sought to expose Bartholomew’s weakness, as when it tried to wreck the Pan-Orthodox Great and Holy Synod of 2016. The Russians and other Churches under their influence stayed away, greatly reducing the impact of the long-planned assembly where Constantinople had hoped to bolster its prestige.

But perhaps Bartholomew now has an opportunity to strike back. Since Ukraine gained independence in 1991 two distinct groups have separated from the Moscow patriarchate, seeking to establish a distinctively Ukrainian Church. One of these groups has established a patriarchate based in Kiev, while the other group, older but much smaller, makes the less radical claim of being the autocephalous (self-governing) Church of Ukraine. So far, neither has received recognition from any other canonically recognised Orthodox Church. But conflict with Russia since the 2014 revolution has reportedly enhanced the standing of these groups with patriotic Ukrainians.

Bartholomew has announced his intention to recognise an autocephalous Ukrainian Church, uniting these groups – and anyone else who will join them – into a single jurisdiction looking to Constantinople rather than Moscow as the Mother Church.

The families of Eastern-rite Catholic priests give an important witness to what is healthy and wonderful about family life, Pope Francis said.

Speaking to laypeople, clergy and religious of the Slovak Catholic Church – a Byzantine-rite Church that has maintained its tradition of ordaining both celibate and married men – the Pope said, “the families of priests live a unique mission today.”

“When the very model of the family is called into question, if not attacked outright, you offer a healthy and exemplary testimony of life,” he said in his talk on October 6.

The Pope encouraged the small Slovak Catholic Church, which also has a diocese in Canada – the Eparchy of Sts Cyril and Methodius of Toronto – to safeguard its Byzantine tradition, “which I, too, came to know and love when I was younger.”

“Rediscover it and live it to the full just as the Second Vatican Council taught,” he said.

“The European continent, both east and west, needs to rediscover its roots and vocation; and from Christian roots, only solid trees can grow which bear the fruits of full respect for the dignity of the human person in every condition and every phase of life,” the Pope said.

Pope Francis began the Synod on young people Oct. 3 with a homily call-ing for the Holy Spirit to renew hope and dynamism in the Church.

Hope can “broaden our horizons, expand our hearts and transform those frames of mind that today paralyze, separate and alienate us from young people,” said Pope Francis. The Synod of Bishops commenced its fifteenth ordinary general session with Pope Francis asking to begin the assembly “anointed by hope.” “Hope challenges us, moves us and shatters that conformism which says, ‘it’s always been done like this,’” he continued.

In a historic first, two bishops from mainland China are participating in the Synod of Bishops due to the Holy See’s provisional agreement with China on the appointment of bishops in September. One of the bishops at the Synod, Bishop Giuseppe Guo Jincai of Chengde, was among the seven bishops recognized by the Vatican on Sept. 22.

“The communion of the entire Episcopate with the Successor of Peter is yet more visible thanks to their presence,” the Pope said as he welcomed the delegates from China.

“Hope asks us to get up and look directly into the eyes of young people and see their situations,” said Pope Francis, “This same hope asks us to make efforts to reverse situations of uncertainty, exclusion and violence, to which our young people are exposed.”

More than 300 participants are gathered in Rome, including clerics and religious, as well as 49 auditors, among them 36 young people from five continents.

The German prelate who serves on Pope Francis’ advisory body of cardinals has called for the Catholic Church to adopt “fundamental, systemic change” in order to address the continuing clergy sexual abuse crisis. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, one of nine members on the Council of Cardinals, suggested discussions about such change could focus on three areas: adoption of “good governance” practices, compliance with safeguarding norms, and a focus on creating a “higher degree of accountability” for church leaders. “There can be no restoration of the church’s credibility without fundamental, systemic change,” Marx told participants of an Oct. 5 event at the Pontifical Gregorian University for the inauguration of the institution’s new graduate-level degree in safeguarding.

The cardinal also praised survivors of clergy abuse for coming forward.

“We must be grateful to the public pressure, the criticisms and the voice of the survivors… which help us to improve,” he said. Marx, the archbishop of Munich and Freising, also serves as the president of the German bishops’ conference, which recently released a report indicating there had been an estimated 3,700 sexual abuse cases in the country over the past seven decades.

At the Sept. 25 press conference releasing that report, the cardinal apologized for the abuse, saying it had been “covered up for far too long.”

During his address at the inauguration of the new degree program at the Gregorian, being offered by the university’s Centre for Child Protection, Marx said the abuse scandals “have plunged the church into one of its most serious crises worldwide, raising many questions and challenges for the future.” “This is challenging, exhausting, but at the same time without alternative,” said the cardinal. “We must help together to promote a variety of constructive initiatives and create synergies.”

“Leadership must be learned and practiced,” said the cardinal, adding that it is “absolutely unacceptable to say” that those who are ordained become leaders “simply by being ordained.”