Is the Order of Malta still sovereign? • The first woman vice-postulator of the cause for the sainthood of a Pope • and more…
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1. How can the Pope justify the extension of the agreement with China regarding the appointment of bishops? (Opinion)
2. Is the Order of Malta still ‘sovereign’?
3. Response to Cardinal Brandmüller’s suggestion to limit the conclave to cardinals living in Rome
4. After Francis’ trip to Canada, the work of reconciliation was still needed — and not by Indigenous people
5. The first woman vice-postulator of a cause for the sainthood of a Pope
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While visiting the Vatican on the occasion of the beatification of John Paul I, Taiwanese vice-president Chen Chien-jen, who is Catholic, asked the Pope to “pray for Taiwan”. The local Catholic Church, as well as the entire population of this island threatened by annexation by Beijing, is very concerned about the agreement signed in 2018 between the Vatican and the CCP, who agreed to cooperate in -choice of Bishops to form a united Catholic Church in China. In reality, the agreement is used as an excuse by Beijing to strengthen its surveillance of the churches, accusing underground Catholics of disobeying the Pope. China also uses the agreement as a way to strengthen trade channels with the Catholic countries of Latin America. Cardinal Zen, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong and the biggest opponent of the agreement, recently said that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the architect of this rapprochement with the Chinese regime, was “manipulating ” to the Pope. “I do not trust this person. He believes in diplomacy, not in our faith,” said the Chinese Cardinal, who accused the Secretary of State of the Holy See of “telling a series of lies”. As the deadline approaches for a possible renewal of the agreement, Cardinal Zen’s trial, which begins on September 19, could be the moment that the Pope “at least commits to conditions – such as the release of the clergy – for any renewal of the agreement, if not scrap it altogether,” the Catholic herald he hopes “Anything less would be an insult to Chinese Christians, Taiwan and the moral authority of the Church itself,” warns the British newspaper.
Catholic heraldEnglish
2Is the Order of Malta still ‘sovereign’?
Pope Francis has completed his reform of the Order of Malta, at the end of a five-year process to reorganize the leadership structures of the religious order, which also works as a global aid organization recognized as a sovereign entity. under international law. The Pillar he questions the persistence of this concept of “sovereignty”. By promulgating a new constitution with immediate effect, without a vote, the Pope made a radical arbitration to neutralize two rival camps within the order. However, his decision raises the issue of the “unique legal space” in which the Order of Malta has been operating for 900 years, with a sovereign status that allows it to intervene in areas that are difficult for NGOs to access, such as Burma Lawyers, canonists and ecclesiologists have often debated the hybrid status of this order, which is both religious and sovereign, since the previous constitution established religious obedience to the Pope through the Great Master, but also governmental independence from the Holy See through the appointment of an ambassador. The reform effort initiated by the Pope in 2017 led to great internal tension, and several knights said that it is now impossible to claim that the order is still sovereign if the Pope can exercise direct and total authority over the constitutional order and its governing offices. While some of the ousted leaders privately denounce a “papal putsch,” others acknowledge that the decisions were necessary to overcome internal divisions. “The extent to which all the knights accept them, both in private and in public, will probably show how Catholic the order is, and determine how sovereign it will remain,” he says. The Pillar.
The PillarEnglish
3Answer to Cardinal Brandmüller’s suggestion to limit the conclave to cardinals living in Rome
In response to German Cardinal Walter Brandmüller’s suggestion that the election of the Pope be limited to Cardinals living in Rome, journalist Gabriele Höfling sees a “problematic” vision, too focused on the Roman Curia. If the right to vote were to be reduced to “a few Roman administrative officials,” it would lack “the link with the different realities of life in the world,” she argues. Moreover, in this case the power of the Curia is strengthened, which is in contrast to synodality. “The election of a Pope,” she insists, “should not designate the best administrator of the apparatus of the Roman curia, but the best representative of Christ on earth.” Gabriele Höfling would also like to see more reforms in the Church, but moving towards an increase in democracy. She proposes to give a vote to the Presidents of the Bishops’ conferences in the conclave. “Who knows,” she concluded, “maybe one day the people of the Church will be involved in the election of the Pope – and then, please, don’t forget the women.”
Katholisch.deGerman
4After Francis’ trip to Canada, the work of reconciliation was still needed — and not by Indigenous people
In an opinion article published in the National Catholic Reporter, Kirby Hoberg, a mixed Native and white Catholic from the United States, explains that her takeaway from Pope Francis’ trip to Canada is that “white Catholics still don’t feel that Native people have any claim on the church.” “The general negative reactions that dominated the coverage of the intersection of Indigenous life and Catholicism were disheartening,” she explains, citing for example erroneous articles that led to the Pontiff’s trip that called common Indigenous practices “pagan .” Commenting on the fact that investigations into the effects of the US indigenous boarding system have only just begun, Hoberg emphasizes that “healing can be a lonely and varied endeavor, but reconciliation it’s a two-way street.” Although she appreciates the Pope’s apology as an act of reconciliation, she laments that the pontiff did not use the word “genocide” earlier in the trip or that the Doctrine of discovery “is still in its legitimacy soaked with blood.” “Reconciliation about something that happened over such a long period of time, with a cost and victims that are not yet determined, requires the involvement of each one of us,” she concluded.
National Catholic ReporterEnglish
5The first woman vice-postulator of a cause for the sainthood of a Pope
“Pure misogyny,” is how Franca Giansoldati, Vatican correspondent for the Italian daily The Messenger, describes a photograph from the beatification ceremony of Pope John Paul I that shows, in the sector reserved for celebrants among Bishops and Archbishops, a woman “in a corner, sitting almost in the background” who seems “almost asking for solitude her”. The woman is the journalist Stefania Falasca, the vice-postulator of the cause for the sainthood of Pope John Paul I, and the first woman to occupy this position in the cause for the pontiffs. She has a PhD from the University of Rome Tor Vergata in the precise writings of Albino Luciani, has written several works on the “Smiling Pope” and has worked tirelessly to share his magisterium, the article explains. Falasca also continued his cause for beatification without rest, especially since in 2020 she became vice president of the John Paul I Vatican Foundation, despite the skepticism she encountered, continues Giansoldati. It was also Falasca who conclusively denied the false news that said that John Paul I had been killed. With patience and deep research Falasca showed that the Italian Pope was “a Christian out of the ordinary. […] with a valid message for the Church and for today’s world”. “In that photo her petite silhouette could not pass by, all it took was a glance and one could say that if she was there it was because of something big, much bigger than that apparent loneliness that she certified once again “other than around the Tiber the condition of women has yet to really begin,” writes Giansoldati.
The MessengerItalian