A senior cardinal reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's celibacy rule for priests, which some reform groups have suggested should be relaxed as a way to attract more people to the priesthood.
Cardinal Angelo Scola, speaking at the opening of a meeting of the world's bishops on Monday, played down the shortage of priests -- which has left many churches without clergymen to celebrate Masses -- and said access to the Eucharist was a gift, not a right for Catholics.
Scola, the relator, or key moderator of the Synod of Bishops, also reaffirmed that divorced people who remarry without getting an annulment cannot receive Communion. But he said the synod would have to study the issue and hinted that certain aspects of it should be rethought.
The comments by the Venice patriarch came in a lengthy introductory speech, delivered in Latin, to the bishops on the first day of the meeting on the Eucharist. Some 250 bishops from 118 countries will discuss a host of issues surrounding the Catholic Mass and make recommendations to the pope.
Scola's comments drew immediate, if nuanced, criticism from two bishops who appeared with him at a news conference -- a hint of the debates that will likely ensue behind closed doors over the next three weeks.
Monsignor Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines said the synod had to "squarely" confront the priest shortage, recounting how on his first Sunday as an ordained priest he celebrated nine Masses -- and that that was the norm in his country.
"People long for the Eucharist and they believe that it is the Eucharistic gift that will make them fully the church," he said. "Our seminaries, thanks be to God, are fuller, but the Catholic population is increasing at a rate which is much higher and faster than the increase of the priests."
He said he didn't have an answer to the problem, but many church reform groups have called on the synod to discuss the celibacy rule for priests, saying the priesthood would grow if men were allowed to marry.
Scola, however, repeated what the church regards as the benefits of a celibate priesthood and said the synod should instead talk about better distributing the priests there are.
He said the church wasn't a "business" that had a quota of priests to fill, and preferred to speak about "communities waiting for priests" rather than a priest shortage.
He said the Eucharist was a "gift, not a right or a possession."
"Even if it provokes great suffering, the lack of the Eucharist doesn't confer to the faithful and the people of God any right to it," he said.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS