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Pope Francis celebrated the closing Mass of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, in St. Peter’s Basilica, Oct. 27, 2019. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA) This would have been the most likely time of his pontificate for Pope Francis to endorse viri probati, women deacons or an Amazonian rite — yet he declined to do so. On Feb. 12, Pope Francis released a document responding to the October 2019 Synod of Bishops on the Amazon. The document has been expected for several months and has been the subject of intense speculation on several controversial topics. These included proposals to ordain married men to the priesthood, to ordain women to the permanent diaconate, and to create a special Amazonian rite with its own form of liturgy. Pope Francis did not accept any of these proposals. Here a...

> Italiano> English> Español> Français > All the articles of Settimo Cielo in English * What is most striking in the post-synodal apostolic exhortation “Querida Amazonia,” made public today, February 12 2020, is its total silence on the most anticipated and controversial issue: the ordination of married men. Not even the word “celibacy” appears in it. Pope Francis desires “to configure ministry in such a way that it is at the service of a more frequent celebration of the Eucharist, even in the remotest and most isolated communities” (no. 86). But he reiterates (no. 88) that only the ordained priest can celebrate the Eucharist, absolve from sins and administer the anointing of the sick (because it too is “intimately linked to the forgiveness of sins,” footnote 129). And it sa...

St. Anthony’s RCIA class of 2019. Courtesy | Phil Bernston At a college where more than 90% of stu­dents actively practice a religion and where debates about tran­sub­stan­ti­ation versus con­sub­stan­ti­ation, the sig­nif­i­cance of Christ’s incar­nation, and, most con­tentiously, Mary’s per­petual vir­ginity echo through the halls, Catholicism seems to be gaining new ground.  Between 2016 and 2019, 76 people con­verted to Catholicism at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church and were con­firmed after under­going the Rite of Christian Ini­ti­ation of Adults. Many of them were Hillsdale stu­dents. In 2019 alone, 12 out of 24 con­verts were Hillsdale stu­dents.  Nationally, the per­centage of Catholics declined from 24% to 21% of the pop­u­lation since 2014. Approx­i­mately 2% of U....

Pope Francis at the Opening Mass of the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon region, Oct. 6, 2019. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA) “The entire letter is written in a personal and attractive tone. The Successor of Peter [wants] to win all Catholics and Christians of other denominations, but also all people of good will, for a positive development of this region,” so that “all living there may experience the uplifting and unifying power of the Gospel.” A Document of Reconciliation On Pope Francis’ Post-Synodal Letter Querida Amazonia  By Cardinal Gerhard Müller Amid great hopes and anxious fears, the post-synodal letter has arrived. It refers to the final document of the Amazon Synod on October 6-27, 2019, and the Pope does not draw from it any dramatic and disconcerting conclusions.  Rather, ...

My friend is a Southern Baptist pastor and his statement about the Catholic Church floored me and it wasn’t about what you are probably thinking it was. He told me a story about when he was in seminary in the 80s. One of his seminary professors was teaching a class on missiology, which is the study of Christian mission. They did an exhaustive historical study on the spread of the Gospel. Toward the end of the class, one student asked what we could do to reach the world with the Gospel. Was it a matter of greater missionary zeal? His response was, “it isn’t just missionary zeal. We will reach the world with the Gospel when the Catholic Church recaptures her mission given to her by Jesus.” In other words, the Catholic Church holds the key to reaching the world with th...

ROME – We’re now fully immersed in election season in America, even if the Democratic caucuses in Iowa weren’t exactly the most promising beginning, and once again it seems likely the “religious vote” will be a contentious and important force in the outcome. Every time religion and politics collide in the U.S., someone is sure to object that church and state are supposed to be separate, that religion is a private matter that shouldn’t be injected into the public bloodstream, etc. That’s always been a rule more honored in the breach than the observance, but Western societies nonetheless pride themselves on a strong sense of distance between the religious and political spheres. In other parts of the world, however, religious leaders often show no such reticence about wading into political de...

Over the past eighteen months, we’ve heard a great deal about the need for lay activism and lay collaboration in the management of Church affairs.  I’m all for it.  Such action items are, in principle, good and necessary.  And also admirably American in their practical focus.  But a caution:  They also risk obscuring a deeper problem.  The chronic, underlying illness of the Church in our country, in our day, isn’t prone to quick fixes, and real lay “power” doesn’t reside in money or professional skill or positions of influence within or over a Church bureaucracy.  It proceeds from a personal witness of holiness. The abuse scandals of the past two decades are a brutal indictment of those priests and bishops who helped create the catastrophe.  Nothing ...

When my father lay dying, I remember that one of the losses I began to grieve was that he was the keeper of so many family stories. He was the one who could look at an old family photograph, identify all the people, and tell you something about each one. As I saw him lying there, no longer able to talk much, I thought of all the memories stored up in his mind, all the stories, all the people he once knew and had spoken of so vividly. And it was not just the family stories he held; he was also a great historian and a great wellspring of the classics. He had read all of the “Great Books,” all of Shakespeare, all of Sacred Scripture, and so many other worthy writings. And he had memorized many lengthy quotes from each. Such an encyclopedic mind! He was full of vivid thoughts and vivid memorie...

Jordan Peterson is recovering from a severe addiction to benzodiazepine tranquilizers and was recently near death in an induced coma, his daughter Mikhaila said. He is being treated at a clinic in Russia after being repeatedly misdiagnosed at several hospitals in North America, she said. The University of Toronto psychologist who became an intellectual hero to a global audience by aligning self-help theory with anti-progressive politics was first prescribed the medication a few years ago to treat anxiety after what Mikhaila described as an autoimmune reaction to food. His physical dependence on it became apparent to his family last April, when his wife Tammy was diagnosed with cancer. The last year, which saw him retreat from public life after swiftly becoming one of the most famous author...

By Tom Hoopes, February 6, 2020 “You are accountable not only for your own life but also for that of the entire world.” That is how St. John Christendom sums up what Jesus says in the Gospel for the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, Year A. Jesus calls Christians “the salt of the earth,” and “the light of the world” — showing what he respects and what he expects. Take salt, first. Food feels tasteless without it, but eating salt alone is unpleasant. Thus, as St. John Chrysostom puts it, “It is not for [a Christian] then to flatter and deal smoothly with men, but, on the contrary, to be rough and biting as salt is.” That’s why, “If salt loses its taste,” says Jesus, “it is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” And in fact we see this all around us. If eve...

A type of black fungus that eats radiation was discovered inside the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. In 1991, the strange fungus was found growing up the walls of the reactor, which baffled scientists due to the extreme, radiation-heavy environment. Researchers eventually realized that not only was the fungi impervious to the deadly radiation, it seemed to be attracted to it. A decade later, researchers tested some of the fungi and determined that it had a large amount of the pigment melanin — which is also found, among other places, in the skin of humans. INCREDIBLE NASA VIDEO SHOWS WHAT EARTH WOULD LOOK LIKE IF OCEANS DISAPPEARED Ruined reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in in 2016 (iStock) SKELETON UNEARTHED ON TINY ISLAND MAY BE 18TH-CENTURY ROYAL NAVY SAILOR...

Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel The Readings for this Sunday remind me of the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, which I’ve had the privilege of visiting a couple of times.  This beautiful church is built on a hillside and is easily visible from much of the modern city of Nazareth.  The architect designed the dome of the basilica to look like a lighthouse, symbolizing the light of Christ going out to all Nazareth and the rest of the Galilee region, in keeping with the theme of last week’s Gospel, “Those walking in darkness have seen a great light.” The theme of light continues in this Sunday’s Readings, in which Jesus calls the people of God, the Church, to be a kind of lighthouse or beacon calling the whole world to the safe harbor with God. 1. The First ...