In January, two Vatican cardinals wanted to summon the president of the German bishops’ conference to Rome and correct him about a media interview in which he expressed his dissent from Church teaching in a number of areas. Such a meeting, which some believe should have been used to give the Vatican’s formal opposition to the Synodal Path, never happened and now the German bishops are blazing ahead unfettered, drawing grave concerns of possible schism.
Jesuit Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Kurt Koch, the Swiss president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, were concerned about comments Bishop Georg Bätzing made in a lengthy interview with the German publication Herder Korrespondenz published at the end of December.
In the largely overlooked interview, headlined “I Want Change” and published over the New Year, Bishop Bätzing of Limburg began by describing himself as a “good conservative because I love this Church and gladly give my life and energy to it. But I want it to change.” He then went on to directly challenge the Church’s teaching and tradition regarding women’s ordination to the priesthood, the blessing of same-sex unions, priestly celibacy and Holy Communion for Protestants. Limiting ordination to men seemed to him “less and less convincing,” he said, adding that “there are well-developed theological arguments in favor of opening the sacramental ministry to women as well.”

Women of faith celebrated International Women’s day with discussions on women’s future in the Catholic Church and by exploring if women have been written out of scripture.
“We are talking about the survival of the Church,” said Joanna Moorhead, The Tablet’s Arts editor, who has written widely on the subject of women in the Church for publications including The Guardian, The Observer and The Times.
She told more than 200 participants in The Tablet’s webinar, Do Women have a future in the Catholic Church? that the issue was no longer a women’s issue but an issue for everyone. The question is – does the Church have a future without women?
“Of course it doesn’t. The church has no future without us,” she stated. She also noted the implications of younger catholic women falling away as the Church needs a membership to survive.
During The Tablet’s webinar, Zuzanna Flisowska-Caridi of Voices of Faith recounted her experience of the German Church’s synodal path of reform.
The process has brought together lay people, religious and bishops to discuss four major topics: the way power is exercised in the Church; sexual morality; the priesthood; and the role of women in ministries and offices in the Church.
Zuzanna Flisowska-Caridi, who is part of the commission working on women’s issues, described her experience in Germany as “quite extra-ordinary.”
She said: “Obviously, the process has its limits. But for me, it’s been a really wonderful experience in which lay people, theologians, male and, and female, religious sisters, are all sitting together at the one table, and they’re really trying not to have this hierarchical view. Everyone has his or her voice.

“You are truly blessed! The Lord is with you,” Gabriel the Archangel tells Mary, in a greeting traditionally called the Annunciation, which is remembered today, March 25, in many churches that follow a church calendar.
This week Pope Francis has reminded Catholics that Mary is honoured as the mother of Jesus but “not as co-redeemer”.
“Speaking at his general audience on March 24, the Pope said that while Christians had always given Mary beautiful titles, it was important to remember that Christ is the only redeemer,” the Catholic News Agency reported.
“He was addressing a theological debate about whether the Church should issue a dogmatic definition declaring Mary ‘Co-Redemptrix,’ in honour of her role in humanity’s salvation.”
Pope Francis has previously called that idea ”foolishness.”

A senior Churchman in Vienna and member of the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, says he is “not happy with this statement from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith” – the watchdog’s official name – regarding the Church’s power to bless same-sex unions.
The Church has no such power, the CDF said on Monday of last week – and explained why in a detailed letter that secular media outlets and Catholic punditry have frequently either cherry-picked or largely ignored.
Cardinal Schönborn, Abp of Vienna, distinguished blessings given to persons from those given to couples or their unions, saying that the Church – like a mother – can and should bless persons who seek her blessing whenever possible.
“The Church, as is traditionally said, is Mater et Magistra, mother and teacher,” Cardinal Schönborn offered. “She has to teach, but she is a mother first,” he added, “and many people living and feeling same-sex [attraction] are particularly sensitive to this question: ‘Is the Church a mother to us?’ And they remain children of God,” he went on to say. “They, too, want to see the Church as a mother – and that is why this declaration hit many so parti-cularly painfully: because they feel that they are being rejected by the Church.”
The distinction of individual blessings from those given to unions, however, was one the CDF letter explanatory was also at some pains to make.

An Iranian Christian convert couple faces summons for their prison sentences any day. Homayoun Zhaveh, age 62, and his wife Sara Ahmadi, age 42, were sentenced in November 2020 as members of a house church on national security charges.
Homayoun, who also suffers from advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease, was sentenced to two years, while Sara was originally given 11 years. In December 2020, their appeals reduced Sara’s prison sentence to eight years. All other aspects of their sentencing were upheld including bans on foreign travel and membership of social or political groups.
Intelligence agents originally arrested the couple along in June 2019 while they were on vacation with a few friends. Agents questioned everyone, but only Homayoun and Sara were detained. They released Homayoun after one month, while Sara spent 67 days in prison, 33 of those in solitary confinement, and faced intense psychological torture.
On March 14, the couple was notified that the enforcing agents would soon summon them to serve their prison time. With their appeal process completed, the couple waits anxiously and nervously for their summons.

On March 9, Pope Francis appointed Spanish biblical scholar, Sister Nuria Calduch-Benages, as secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. She expressed her surprise and gratitude in this interview with Vatican News.
Sister Nuria has dedicated her life passionately to the study of the Bible. She teaches Old Testament at the Pontifical Gregorian University and is a renowned ex-pert on Sacred Scripture. Hailing from Barcelona, Spain, Sr Nuria is a member of the Congregation of Missionary Daughters of the Holy Family of Nazareth. She has also taken part in the work of the Study Commission on the Diaconate of Women (2016-2019). She has been a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission since 2014. Her new term will last until 2025.
Among other positions, she is a guest professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, an assiduous collaborator of the Catholic Biblical Federation, a prominent member of specialized journals, serving on the scientific committee of the journal History of Women (University of Flo-rence) and collaborating on the series “Tesis y Monografías” pu-blished by Verbo Divino (Estella). In 2008 she participated as an expert in the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops focusing on “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church.”

Sri Lanka will soon ban the burqa or face veil, a Cabinet Minister said on Saturday, as he announced the Rajapaksa administra-tion’s latest policy decision impacting the minority Muslim community.
Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekara said authorities would henceforth use the controversial Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) law — that human rights defenders have termed ‘draconian’— to deal with religious extremism, with wide-ranging powers to detain suspects for up to two years, to ‘deradicalise’ them.
At a media conference, Mr. Weerasekara said: “The burqa is something that directly affects our national security…this [dress] came into Sri Lanka only recently. It is a symbol of their religious extremism.”

Almost one in eight Russians intend to observe Lent this year, and the proportion among Orthodox Christians reaches 17%, according to the findings of a VCIOM poll obtained by Interfax.
Asked whether they had heard about Lent, 51% of respondents said they had heard something, but did not know exactly on which dates it falls this year. Among those who are religious, such respondents accounted for 45%. Sixteen percent said Lent starts after pancake week, and 14%, or one in seven, said March 15. Nearly one-fifth of Orthodox Russians, or 19%, know the correct start date this year. Meanwhile, 22% are undecided as to whether to observe Lent. Among religious Russians, the proportion is 30%, the pollster said.