The grand assembly of Catholics in Mangaluru region on February 2 drew more than 30,000 people from three rites who reiterated their allegiance to India and its Constitution while asserting their Christian faith.
Bishops and Catholics belonging to the Latin, Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara rites attended the rally that show cased the community’s unity and strength in the region.
A leading lay Catholic in the German city of Cologne has openly condemned his own archbishop for voicing concerns over the ongoing “binding synodal process” underway in the country. Tim Kurzbach, chairman of the Diocesan Council of Catholics in the Archdiocese of Cologne issued a public denunciation of Cardinal Rainer Woekli, accusing the cardinal of “destroying the authority of his episcopal office” by failing to support the so-called “synodal way.”
The statutes for a “synodal way” were formally adopted by the German bishops’ conference in September last year, despite repeated warnings and interventions from the Pope Francis and the curia. The two-year process proposes to debate and reform issues of universal Church teaching and discipline, including clerical celibacy, Church-approved blessings for same-sex couples, and the sacramental ordination of women.