Definition of Catholicism is changing in Ireland (Opinion)

Who (or what’s) a Catholic? 

Once we had no problem answering that question – and I’m old enough to remember it well. 

A Catholic was someone who attended Mass on Sundays and Holy days; performed their ‘Easter duty’ – in other words went to Confession and received Communion at least once a year; refrained from eating meat of Fridays; and said their morning and night prayers.

Now we’re not so sure.

For one thing, now there seems to be a variety of Catholics: common or garden Irish Catholics; a la carte Catholics; ‘Real’ Catholics; and now even excommunicated Catholics.

There are, however, two main types of Catholics today: first, the ordinary Catholics who have remained loyal to the traditional faith of their fathers (even though mainly it was Irish mothers who kept the faith alive) following the tried and trusted path that their parents and grandparents had faithfully followed before them. Ordinary Catholics usually follow a long defined path with a focus on ‘the way we were’.

Second, there are the a la carte Catholics who for a variety of reasons deflected in some measure from the tried and traditional path of institutional religion. This version of Catholicism is quite new and follows as diverse a track as the life experience of a la carte Catholics affords. Thus its variables are many and legion.

Recently at the Knock Novena, one of the speakers conceded that she was a convinced a la carte Catholic, taking and leaving different elements of traditional Catholic life but convincingly setting out her stall of respect for and commitment to fundamental Catholic values that underpin her life.

Mary Kennedy is a 71-year-old grandmother, a well-known broadcaster, RTÉ presenter and author who was raised in a Catholic home where the faith was very much part of the weather of her life to such an extent that the rosary was said every evening after tea. 

Her mother was a daily Mass-goer and her father a convinced Catholic who expressed his faith in practical ways like helping to found the Clondalkin Credit Union and volunteering with the St Vincent de Paul - an example Mary HAS followed in her own life. 

She raised her children – now in their 30s and 40s – in the Catholic faith, though now, she told Sarah MacDonald of the Irish Independent, that they are not weekly mass-goers – though she is happy that they live good lives.

Clearly, Mary Kennedy loves her Catholic faith, especially the ritual of the Mass which she finds ‘a very peaceful, serene, reflective time’. 

However, there are parts of the church that she is not too keen on – its chequered history and its male-dominated ministry. She would love, she said, ‘to see women priests’ though she doesn’t think this will change in her lifetime.

Mary Kennedy presented a realistic portrait of thousands of a la carte Irish Catholics today who for a variety of reasons find themselves in a disjointed relationship with the Catholic Church, many of them divorced as she is and many others in 'irregular' unions but she is convinced that although this does not sit well with Catholicism and the view that she shouldn’t be receiving Holy Communion, she feels that it is preferable to men and women ‘being caught in a horrible, sad, unloving situation’.

Apart from traditional and a la carte Catholics, there are too what I have called above ‘Real Catholics’, usually members of sectional groups within Catholicism who have a loyalty to a particular aspect of Catholic faith or practice and who regard everyone who disagrees with them as not being (like them) ‘Real Catholics’. 

An example is the members of the Latin Mass society whose focus on retrieving the earlier versions of the Latin Mass exactly as they were centuries ago is causing not just considerable irritation but is placing themselves in the ironic position of actually not being ‘real’ Catholics because of their refusal to accept the vernacular Mass introduced through the Second Vatican Council.

And finally, there’s the breakaway Catholics of St Pius X (SSPX), founded in 1970 because of objections to developments in Catholic teaching emanating from Vatican Two on religious liberty, ecumenism, the ‘new’ Mass and what they regard as discontinuities with earlier Christian teaching.

Of the ‘Catholics’ of the varied groups mentioned above, the two categories that prioritise the attention of the Church – the traditional Catholics and the a la carte Catholics – between them make up the vast majority of Catholic families. 

In numerical comparison the different sects of ‘real’ Catholics are minimal, though they make a lot more noise. As Irish society changes and the definition of Catholicism broadens, the space between traditional Catholics and a la carte Catholics narrows.

Once it was accepted that all marriages of baptised Catholics were in the Catholic church – not anymore. Once it was presumed that every baby of even nominal Catholics would be baptised (if only to satisfy grandparents) – not anymore. 

Once it was presumed that any form of blessing of LGBT couples was automatically disallowed. In truth, now many if not most Irish families reflect a blend if not a fusion of the two main groups.

Of course, the change is reflective not just of a changing society but of a changing church. That change was first mooted in the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) when a series of documents were agreed between the pope(s) and the bishops of the world – the highest teaching authority of the Catholic Church.

Subsequent popes, uncomfortable with some of the implications of the documents succeeded in temporarily shuffling the reform to the sideline but Pope Francis and now Pope Leo are giving the reform a fair wind.

Interestingly, some of the ‘Real Catholic’ groupings refuse to recognise the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and by so doing effectively place themselves outside the Catholic fold, as with the SSPX who imagine that they are the 'Real Catholics' when, in effect, after their recent excommunication, they are not Catholics at all.

Polish clergy condemn violence against Ukrainian refugees

CLERGY in Poland have demanded an end to assaults on Ukrainian refugees and migrants in their country, in the wake of a sharp deterioration in relations between Warsaw and Kyiv.

“Not a day goes by without the media reporting new acts of violence: against children and youth, against women and against migrants — particularly Ukrainians,” the Archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Grzegorz Rys, said.

“Seeing our status, authority, and influence slipping away, we become ever more determined to defend them — stamping our feet, shouting, and making demands. The weaker our position, the greater the aggression.”

The Cardinal was reacting to reports of a sharp rise in attacks this year on Ukrainians, who fled to neighbouring Poland in huge numbers after Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

He said that political and social relations in Poland were currently “rife with aggression, grievance, abuse of power and force”, and urged Poles to show concern “for the little ones rather than the great and powerful”.

Dozens of Roman Catholic clergy have signed an open letter, which praises the sacrifice of Ukrainians in “defending their freedom” and calls for an end to the “hatred and contempt”.

“Words of contempt lead to threats and acts of violence — a person becomes an enemy just because they speak a different language, pray by a different rite, or were born on the other side of a border,” the letter from “Ordinary Sisters and Ordinary Priests” says. “We do not want a Poland in which a person is afraid to speak their own language, send their child to school, or work honestly.”

Up to 3.4 million Ukrainians sought refuge in Poland, a country of 37.7 million, within months of the invasion, the Polish Metropolitan Union reported in May 2022, and they remain the country’s largest minority by far.

Bilateral ties have deteriorated this summer, after the Polish President, Karol Nawrocki, stripped his Ukrainian counterpart, President Zelensky, of Poland’s highest honour, the White Eagle, for naming a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA, held responsible for massacring Poles during the Second World War.

Anti-violence protests have been held across Poland, after police reports of a 30-per-cent rise in anti-Ukrainian hate crimes, fuelled by political rhetoric and social media.

The head of the Ukrainian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Germany and Scandinavia, Bishop Bohdan Dzyurach, wrote to thank Cardinal Rys and other clergy for “sounding a prophetic voice from the heart of the Polish Church and Polish people”.

Court sides with church in defrocked Orthodox priest dispute

After the American branch of the Russian Orthodox Church defrocked priest Alexander Belya, he (Belya) sued church officials for defamation, claiming they had wrongly accused him of forgery. 

But last week, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the denomination, finding that the doctrine of church autonomy barred the court from interfering further in the conflict.

Religious rights experts lauded the ruling, which upheld the church’s ability to select, discipline, and remove its leaders.

“It’s reassuring. The court got it right,” said Carl Esbeck, a religious rights professor at the University of Missouri’s law school. “It’s a solid backing of church autonomy doctrine.”

In 2020, Belya sued the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) after its officials suspended him pending an investigation. He had previously worked as a priest overseeing a parish in Miami. ROCOR has nearly 300 churches across the United States.

Belya contended that leaders told him during a 2018 meeting that he was elected to a bishop role, provided he would correct some of his ecclesiastical practices. He claims he received several letters confirming his election, but church leaders say that at the same meeting, they determined not to advance his role because of complaints about his conduct.

In 2019, Belya traveled to the Moscow Patriarchate in Russia, where he says that another leader submitted these letters to the Patriarchate. Months later, the Patriarchate announced on its website that it approved Belya’s election as a bishop in Miami.

ROCOR leaders contended that the Patriarchate’s affirmation caught them by surprise, as they said Belya had never been elected bishop. They alleged the letters the Patriarchate had received regarding Belya had numerous irregularities. 

In an internal letter, they discussed these irregularities and listed other alleged concerning behaviors of Belya’s, such as using information from private confessions to control his parishioners. The leaders called for an investigation into Belya and urged for him to be suspended from his role as priest.

After the leaders’ internal letter was leaked in a parishioner’s Facebook post, the dispute gained attention across Orthodox media. A couple of Russian Orthodox leaders ultimately shared links to articles discussing the claims against Belya, including the suggestion that the letters submitted to the Patriarchate were illegitimate.

ROCOR removed Belya as a priest in February 2020. The following August, he sued its leaders for defamation, claiming they damaged his reputation and standing within the ROCOR community by falsely accusing him of forgery. 

He sought legal protection against having his character dragged through the mud, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which represented Belya.

Belya argued that his lawsuit did not fall under the church autonomy doctrine, which bars courts from interfering in internal church decisions and governance. “Although this case involves religious institutions and persons of the cloth, this is a straightforward defamation action, the resolution of which entails no involvement whatever in religious dogma or practice,” his lawsuit said.

But ROCOR argued that the case would require courts to overstep their bounds by second-guessing the ministry’s internal governance decisions. A district court in New York ruled in favor of ROCOR. Belya appealed the decision to the 2nd Circuit in August 2025.

In last week’s decision, the 2nd Circuit upheld the lower court’s opinion, stating that ROCOR’s selection and supervision of its religious leaders are inherently religious acts that the First Amendment protects.

“Evaluating the merits of Belya’s claims would impermissibly require a jury to address numerous questions regarding ROCOR’s governance and protocols for selecting its bishops,” a panel of three judges wrote. A jury assessing the voting process of the ministry would render the First Amendment’s protections of the church meaningless, the panel said.

Even if the leaders’ internal documents contained false statements, the documents were “squarely within the protection of the church autonomy doctrine,” the appeals court said.

The court also extended these constitutional protections to the leaders’ social media posts about Belya. While Belya had argued these posts hurt his reputation, the court found that “church officials must be free to engage in speech regarding their protected employment decisions without fear of liability.”

WORLD reached out to Belya’s attorneys for comment but did not receive a response prior to publication.

A minister’s employment is intrinsically religious, explained Esbeck, whether that employment decision involves a religious issue—like doctrine—or a secular one—like gender or age.

Some defamation cases from church leaders can move forward if they involve purely secular disputes, such as embezzlement claims, said Douglas Laycock, a professor at the University of Virginia law school, who co-authored a brief in support of ROCOR.

“The court might take that [kind of] case,” Laycock said. “What you have to think about is if the make-up of the facts … really don’t go to their religious position, or any kind of religious question.” Laycock said he believed the 2nd Circuit got it right in this “straightforward” case.

The 2nd Circuit’s ruling protects church leaders across denominations, added Daniel Blomberg, an attorney at Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented ROCOR. Defamation cases have popped up in a variety of denominations as an attempted workaround to the church autonomy doctrine.

The 2nd Circuit also emphasized that religious leaders have the right to conduct internal investigations and then communicate this information to parishioners without court interference, said Blomberg.

“The members of a religious body need to know if there are concerns about the leadership. Religious communities are built on trust,” he said. “Churches need to be able to protect against shepherds who prey on their sheep.”

Diocese of Mallorca presented a contemporary dance and a semi-nude dancer during the Assumption liturgy

The Diocese of Mallorca presented this week as an artistic proposal «specifically conceived for the liturgical context» a contemporary dance intervention held on August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin, at the Church of San Juan Bautista de Muro, in Mallorca (Balearic Islands).

The performance, titled El Vol Màgic, was not a spectacle held in the church apart from the services. 

Both the official program and the information subsequently disseminated by the diocese explicitly place it within the celebration: the Diocese of Mallorca states that it was conceived for the «liturgical context of the celebration of the Assumption of the Virgin,» while the Consell de Mallorca announced it as an intervention «integrated into the liturgy.»

«Sound, body, space and ritual»

El Vol Màgic was directed by musician and anthropologist Txema González and was developed together with dancer and choreographer Mar Aguiló, with the participation of organist Rafel Riera.

According to the Diocese, the project was born from research on one of the rituals of Mallorcan cultural heritage and aimed to explore the relationships between «sound, body, space and ritual.» During the intervention, the diocese adds, dance, live sound composition and the organ «dialogued with the architecture of the church and with the liturgical celebration.»

The photographs released of the event show how this proposal materialized: one of the performers, barefoot and with a completely bare torso, dances before the attendees in the space immediately adjacent to the presbytery and the religious images of the church.

Sebastià Riutort, archivist of Muro, responsible for historical documentation, and Carlos Anguera, responsible for sound spatialization and technical support, also participated in the project. The ACA Foundation and the City Council of Muro collaborated.

The diocese itself specifies that the proposal had the support of Pere Gerard Bestard Muntaner, parish priest of San Juan Bautista de Muro.

An intervention scheduled for the liturgy of the Assumption

Nor was it an initiative improvised during the celebration. The performance was scheduled in advance for 8:00 p.m. on August 15 as part of the activities organized for the Solemnity of the Assumption.

The Consell de Mallorca’s program already described it at that time as «an intervention of contemporary dance and sound art integrated into the liturgy of the feast of the Assumption.»

Dance in the liturgy

The Holy See specifically addressed the introduction of dance into Western liturgy half a century ago. In a text published in Notitiae in 1975, the then Congregation for Divine Worship distinguished between those cultures in which dance retains a properly religious character and the Western tradition, where its incorporation into liturgical celebration introduces an element foreign to the nature that dance culturally has.

The general principle, in any case, is contained in number 22 of the constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium: «No one, not even a priest, may add, remove, or change anything on his own initiative in the liturgy.»

The instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, published in 2004 by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, again recalled that the celebration of the Eucharist is not at the disposal of the particular creativity of priests or the faithful.

Russian Orthodox Church denounces before Gallagher the "persecution" of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church has directly raised with the Vatican the situation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and what it describes as its “persecution” by the authorities in Kyiv. 

The matter was addressed on Tuesday afternoon in Moscow during the meeting between Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, head of external relations for the Moscow Patriarchate, and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations of the Holy See.

The official communiqué from the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate states that “the high-ranking Vatican representative received information about the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Ukrainian state authorities.” 

The Vatican Secretariat of State confirmed the meeting, although it limited itself to noting that both delegations had discussed “topics of common interest,” without specifically mentioning this issue.

The Patriarchate brings the Ukrainian religious conflict to the Vatican

Anthony received Gallagher on behalf of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. The Vatican side also included the Apostolic Nuncio to the Russian Federation, Archbishop Giovanni d’Aniello.

The Orthodox delegation also included Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, adviser to Patriarch Kirill, and Archpriest Igor Vyzhanov, deputy head of the Department of External Church Relations.

According to information from the Moscow Patriarchate, the participants examined “a number of urgent issues relating to the current situation in the world.” Among them, the Russian side specifically highlights the situation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The choice of this issue comes at a particularly delicate moment for this community. The Ukrainian authorities consider that it maintains canonical and organizational ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, while the Ukrainian Orthodox Church maintains that it took steps to become independent from Moscow after the Russian invasion of 2022.

The meeting concluded with an exchange of gifts between the delegations.

Ukraine continues to enforce the law on ties with Moscow

The complaint conveyed to Gallagher coincides with new actions by the Ukrainian authorities against various structures of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

In 2024, Ukraine passed the law “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Religious Organizations’ Activities.” The law prohibits the activity of the Russian Orthodox Church on Ukrainian territory and establishes procedures for determining whether religious organizations established in Ukraine are affiliated with it.

In August 2025, Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) declared that the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church. 

The decision came after the agency demanded the elimination of the ties it had identified and Metropolitan Onufriy rejected the demands made by the authorities.

The dispute has continued throughout 2026. In May, the Ukrainian state agency again confirmed the findings of its examination regarding the existence of a canonical-ecclesiastical link between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Moscow Patriarchate.

In July, the authorities also determined that the Pochaiv Dormition Lavra, one of the country’s main Orthodox monasteries, shows signs of affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church.

New actions this week

The measures continue while Gallagher is in Moscow.

On Monday, August 24, just one day before his meeting with Anthony, the Ukrainian state agency announced that it had found three signs of affiliation between the administration of the Zaporizhzhia diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Among the arguments used is that the diocese is part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and is integrated into the Kyiv Metropolis, which Ukrainian authorities have declared affiliated with a foreign religious organization whose activity is prohibited in the country.

Also this week, a similar procedure has begun regarding the Boryspil diocese, belonging to the same Church. The DESS announced that the examination began on August 24 and aims to determine whether there are signs of affiliation with a prohibited foreign religious organization.

These actions are part of the progressive implementation of legislation passed by Kyiv and provide immediate context for the issue raised by the Moscow Patriarchate with the Holy See representative.

The dispute over independence from Moscow

The relationship between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Moscow Patriarchate is one of the central points of the controversy.

In May 2022, just months after the start of the full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church amended its statutes and declared its “full autonomy and independence.” It also publicly expressed its disagreement with Patriarch Kirill’s position on the war.

The Ukrainian authorities maintain, however, that these changes did not completely sever canonical ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.

The State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience maintains that its investigations have confirmed the existence of this relationship. In May of this year, it again confirmed its conclusion regarding the canonical-ecclesiastical link, following a legal dispute over the procedure followed in examining the statutes.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church rejects this interpretation and maintains that it operates independently of Moscow.

Onufriy lost his Ukrainian citizenship

The tension directly affected the primate of this Church, Metropolitan Onufriy (Orest Berezovsky).

In July 2025, President Volodymyr Zelensky revoked his Ukrainian citizenship after Ukraine’s Security Service claimed that he had voluntarily obtained Russian citizenship in 2002 without notifying the country’s authorities.

The security service also claimed that Onufriy maintained ties with the Moscow Patriarchate. The metropolitan had previously stated that he had held a Russian passport but did not consider himself a citizen of Russia.

The position of the Moscow Patriarchate is substantially different from that held by Kyiv: it considers the actions of the Ukrainian authorities against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to be religious persecution and presented the matter to Gallagher precisely in those terms.

Gallagher, between the Patriarchate and the Russian Government

The meeting with Anthony took place after the more than one-hour meeting that Gallagher held this Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

During that conversation, the Vatican representative called for an end to the war. “To be clear: this war must end,” he later declared, while maintaining that “the conflict cannot be resolved by military means” and calling for the creation of conditions for a political and diplomatic process.

Gallagher also called for respect for international and humanitarian law and advocated progress on issues such as prisoners of war, civilians, minors, and family reunification.

The visit continues on Wednesday with the scheduled meeting between Gallagher and Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser. 

 On Thursday, the Holy See representative will dedicate the day to the Catholic community in Russia, with meetings with priests, religious, and bishops and a Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Moscow.

Pope Leo XIV asks bishops and priests to safeguard a liturgy that respects the norms and "shines with noble simplicity"

Pope Leo XIV dedicated this Wednesday’s general audience on 26 August to the motivations behind the liturgical reform promoted by the Second Vatican Council, in the final catechesis of his journey through the constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium. 

Before the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Pope stated that this reform stands “in the furrow of the Church’s living tradition” and maintained that its correct understanding also allows us to “reject the abuses” that arose in some sectors during the post-conciliar period and that, he warned, “unfortunately still occur today.”

The Pontiff recalled that it is especially the responsibility of bishops and priests to “safeguard and promote” a liturgy celebrated according to the norms and marked by “noble simplicity.” 

In his subsequent greetings, Pope Leo XIV also joined the renewal in Częstochowa, Poland, of the Jasna Góra Vows, drafted seventy years ago by Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński during his imprisonment, and asked that their programme of moral renewal—founded on the protection of human life, the care of marriage and the family, and the education of children and young people—continue to inspire society.

Complete Catechesis of Pope Leo XIV

The Documents of the Second Vatican Council. II. Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium. 8. The Motivations for the Liturgical Reform

Dear brothers and sisters:

In this final catechesis on the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, I wish today to dwell on the reasons why the Council Fathers wished to promote a reform of the liturgy. Illuminating in this regard is the third Letter from the Council that Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini, then Archbishop of Milan, sent on 28 October 1962 to the faithful of his Church. The liturgy, he wrote, “is a sincere expression of both the divine and the human. It is language. It is a vehicle of divine teaching on the one hand, and a voice of dialogue with God on the other. It is clear that it cannot renounce its didactic function and must not fail to offer faith and piety the possibility of expressing themselves with spontaneous intelligibility.”

Moved by these convictions, the future Pope Saint Paul VI affirmed that the faithful “can no longer and must no longer remain mute and passive. Their physical presence cannot be reconciled with their spiritual absence.”

These statements clearly resonate with those that would appear in no. 48 of the conciliar Constitution: “The Church, therefore, spares no effort in ensuring that, when the faithful attend this mystery of faith, they should not be there as strangers or silent spectators. On the contrary, having a good grasp of it through the rites and prayers, they should take part in the sacred action, actively, fully aware, and devoutly. They should be instructed by God’s word, and be nourished at the table of the Lord’s Body. They should give thanks to God. Offering the immaculate victim, not only through the hands of the priest but also together with him, they should learn to offer themselves. Through Christ, the Mediator, they should be drawn day by day into ever more perfect union with God and with each other, so that finally God may be all in all.”

In these words one perceives a renewed awareness of the value of the liturgy. Through the ritual actions of the Church, while the memorial of the work of salvation is being celebrated, the possibility is offered of living a true relationship with God, entering into contact with the saving event. Since the gestures and words of the sacred liturgy are decisive for this experience, the participation of the faithful cannot be passive.

The conciliar reform, by placing at the centre what constitutes the heart of ecclesial experience, wished to make the liturgy shine forth as “the primary source of that divine exchange in which the life of God is communicated to us.” From this conviction arose the need to make the richness of the biblical texts and prayers more accessible to all the faithful, and to render the celebratory order more linear than that provided in the liturgical books then in force.

The liturgy, being a living reality, has always been subject to developments and changes throughout the centuries. The Magisterium has adapted its forms to the needs of different times. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Second Vatican Council, with the utmost respect for the heritage of tradition and precisely in order to make it more accessible, considered a revision of the liturgical books necessary.

The objective the Fathers had in mind is set out in no. 21 of the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium: “In order that the Christian people may derive more abundant grace from the sacred liturgy, holy Mother Church desires to undertake a general reform of the liturgy itself. For the liturgy is made up of immutable elements divinely instituted, and of elements subject to change. These latter not only may but ought to be changed with the passage of time if they have suffered from the intrusion of anything out of harmony with the inner nature of the liturgy or have become less suitable. In this restoration, the texts and the rites should be drawn up so that they express more clearly the holy things they signify, and that the Christian people, as far as possible, are able to understand them with ease and to take part in them fully, actively, and as befits a community.”

The distinction within the liturgy between divine, immutable elements and human elements that “can undergo various modifications, approved by the sacred Hierarchy assisted by the Holy Spirit, according to the needs of the times, of things and of souls” (Acta Apostolicae Sedis 39, 1947, 541-542) goes back to Pope Pius XII’s encyclical Mediator Dei.

Moreover, the desire for a “general reform” did not arise suddenly, but had already been manifested in the action of the Popes who succeeded one another from the beginning of the twentieth century, in harmony with the aspirations of the Liturgical Movement. The affirmation of the need for the faithful not to attend celebrations “as strangers or silent spectators” had already been taken up by Pope Pius XI’s apostolic constitution Divini Cultus.

Furthermore, one may recall the interventions of Pius XII concerning the ordering of the rites of Holy Week, which he restored to the hours corresponding to the paschal events, after they had for centuries been anticipated to the morning hours.

Nor should it be forgotten that Saint John XXIII considered necessary a simplification of the rubrics of the Breviary and the Missal, approving it with the motu proprio Rubricarum instructum of 25 July 1960, in which he referred to the forthcoming Ecumenical Council the proposal of the fundamental principles for a reform of the liturgy.

The liturgical reform promoted by the Second Vatican Council therefore stands in the furrow of the Church’s living tradition. Its correct understanding also allows us to reject the abuses that occurred in some sectors of the Church during the post-conciliar period and that, unfortunately, still occur at times today, by absolutising or misinterpreting some of the principles that underlay the reform itself.

In this regard, it is worth recalling how the conciliar Constitution states that “liturgical services are not private functions, but are celebrations of the Church, which is the ‘sacrament of unity,’ namely, the holy people united and ordered under their bishops. Therefore, liturgical services pertain to the whole body of the Church; they manifest it and have effects upon it” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 26).

It is therefore the primary responsibility of pastors, of bishops, but also of every priest, to safeguard and promote a liturgy that, while respecting liturgical norms, shines with noble simplicity (cf. no. 34) and thus manifests the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

Such a liturgy will also be a fundamental vehicle of evangelisation, the instrument of grace through which, as the Council teaches, we can learn to offer ourselves and, through the mediation of Christ, be perfected in unity with God and with one another (cf. no. 48).

Greetings to Spanish-speaking Pilgrims

I cordially greet the Spanish-speaking pilgrims. Today we celebrate the memory of Saint Teresa of Jesus Jornet e Ibars, a Spanish religious, patroness of the elderly. Through her intercession, let us ask the Lord to bless all the elderly, as well as those who care for and accompany them. May God bless you. Thank you very much.

Pope Leo XIV Recalls the Jasna Góra Vows

I cordially greet the Polish faithful. I spiritually join all those gathered in Częstochowa, where today, after seventy years, the “Jasna Góra Vows of the Polish Nation,” drafted by Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński during his imprisonment, are being renewed.

May the programme of moral renewal of society contained in them—through the protection of human life, the care of marriage and the family, and the education of children and young people—continue to inspire the commitment to justice and fraternity. My blessing to all!

Final Greeting

I extend a cordial welcome to the Italian-speaking pilgrims. In particular, I greet the diocesan directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies, the participants in the summer meeting for seminarians, the guests of the “Regina coelorum” residence in Santa Marinella, and the various parish groups.

I also greet the newly confirmed from the diocese of Chiavari, accompanied by their bishop. Dear young people, with Confirmation you have received the most beautiful gift, the Holy Spirit: it is not a treasure to be kept hidden, but a light you must make shine every day.

Finally, my thoughts turn to the young, the sick and the newly married. Tomorrow and the day after, the liturgy commemorates two great saints, Saint Monica and Saint Augustine, united on earth by family ties and in heaven by the same destiny of glory. May their example arouse in each of us a sincere and passionate search for the evangelical Truth, so as to bear witness to it joyfully in daily life.

My blessing to all!

Pope receives Norwegian Lutherans and calls for seeking "concrete paths of reconciliation"

Pope Leo XIV received the bishops of the Church of Norway, the country’s Lutheran confession, at the Vatican on Wednesday, August 26, in a meeting initiated by the apostolic nuncio to the Nordic countries, Archbishop Julio Murat. 

In his brief address, the Pope appealed to the “common baptism” and the “shared mission” of Catholics and Lutherans and expressed his desire that they grow together in the service of peace and justice.

The meeting forms part of the ecumenical agenda promoted by Leo XIV, who, barely a year ago during the Ecumenical Week in Stockholm, stated that the Catholic Church had “fully embraced the ecumenical path” since the Second Vatican Council. 

The audience takes place, however, between communities separated by substantial doctrinal and moral differences. The Church of Norway has ordained women since 1961 and, since 2017, has celebrated marriages between persons of the same sex.

A journey centered on ecumenism

The Church of Norway explained before the audience that the meeting with Leo XIV had arisen at the initiative of the pontifical representative for the Nordic countries, Archbishop Julio Murat.

The Lutheran bishops are making their first study trip abroad in several years during the last week of August. After visiting the Community of Sant’Egidio in Rome, they will travel to the ecumenical community of Taizé in France. Young adults and ecumenism are the two main topics of the trip.

During their stay at the Vatican, they are also scheduled to meet with Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity.

Before the audience, Olav Fykse Tveit, president of the Episcopal Conference of the Church of Norway, described the invitation as “a great honor” and highlighted the existing cooperation with the Catholic Church in various fields, including peace work.

“Seeking concrete paths of reconciliation and fraternity”

Leo XIV began his address by recalling the first Christians and martyrs of Rome, whose witness of faith, he noted, continues to be a source of inspiration to give one’s life “for the glory of God and for the good of our brothers and sisters.”

The Pope then referred to the international and social climate, which he described as “particularly turbulent,” marked by growing animosity among peoples, international conflicts, and the acrimony that frequently characterizes political and social discourse.

“Given our fallen human condition, it is all too easy to adopt an attitude of hostility toward those with whom we disagree,” he observed.

In light of this situation, the Pontiff called for a joint effort to “seek concrete paths of reconciliation and fraternity” and affirmed that Jesus Christ shows another way by revealing that “goodness and charity have the power to disarm.”

Leo XIV also thanked the Lutheran representatives for their desire to “seek ways of building communion” and maintained that even small gestures can inspire and guide along the path of reconciliation.

Leo XIV appeals to the “common baptism”

The Pope then quoted Christ’s prayer for the unity of his disciples recorded in the Gospel of John: “May they become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (Jn 17:23).

“Founded on our common baptism and our shared mission in the world, I pray that we may always grow together in our service to the promotion of peace and justice,” Leo XIV stated.

The Pontiff did not address during his brief intervention the doctrinal differences that keep Catholics and Lutherans apart. In other ecumenical encounters of his pontificate, he has expressly pointed to the need for doctrinal unity. 

When receiving Catholicos Aram I of the Armenian Apostolic Church—See of Cilicia last May, Leo XIV affirmed that “there can be no restoration of communion between our Churches without unity in the faith.”

Women pastors and same-sex marriages

The Church of Norway maintains positions incompatible with Catholic doctrine on issues that go beyond the historical controversies arising from the Protestant Reformation.

The Lutheran confession itself recalls that Ingrid Bjerkås was its first woman ordained as a pastor on March 19, 1961. The decision at the time met strong opposition from a large number of Norwegian bishops and ecclesial circles.

The differences also extend to the understanding of marriage. In 2016, the Kirkemøtet, the highest representative body of the Church of Norway, decided to prepare a liturgy that would allow unions between persons of the same sex. The new rite was approved in January 2017 by 83 of the 112 representatives present and began to be used on February 1 of that year.

The bishops of the Church of Norway took another step in 2022. In a joint statement marking the 50th anniversary of the repeal of the law that had penalized male homosexual relations in the country, they maintained that the growth of “acceptance and equality” of homosexuals in Norwegian society and in their Church constituted “a great and positive change.”

St. Olaf and the upcoming millennium

Leo XIV then proposed to the delegation to look to the witness of the first martyrs and of saints such as St. Olaf and St. Sunniva, whose lives, he affirmed, “helped to unite peoples” and left a lasting testimony “of the transforming power of charity.”

The reference to St. Olaf coincides with preparations for the upcoming millennium. Before traveling to Rome, Fykse Tveit announced that he would take the opportunity of the audience to convey to Leo XIV that he would be welcome at the upcoming celebrations.

The Pope concluded the meeting by asking God to help Catholics and Lutherans to live “ever more truly as brothers and sisters” and to give “common witness to our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The encounter continues an ecumenical line that Leo XIV has developed since the beginning of his pontificate. In August 2025, in a message to the Ecumenical Week of Stockholm, he stated that “what unites us is much greater than what divides us” and recalled the rapprochement between Catholics and Lutherans developed in recent decades.

Below is the full message delivered by Leo XIV to the bishops of the Church of Norway:

Dear friends:

I am pleased to welcome you this morning to Rome and here at the Vatican, and I hope you have time, or have already had time, to visit the various holy places associated with the first Christians and martyrs, whose witness of faith in our Lord continues to be an enduring source of inspiration, also encouraging us to give our lives for the glory of God and for the good of our brothers and sisters.

There is no doubt that we face difficult challenges in our time, as the world goes through a particularly turbulent period. There seems to be a growing animosity among peoples, evident not only in international conflicts and disputes, as you have mentioned, but also within each country, as shown by the acrimony that frequently characterizes political and social discourse.

Given our fallen human condition, it is all too easy to adopt an attitude of hostility toward those with whom we disagree. For this reason, a joint effort is required to seek concrete paths of reconciliation and fraternity. In this regard, Jesus shows us another way, revealing to us that goodness and charity have the power to disarm. Therefore, I am sincerely grateful for your presence here and for your shared desire to seek ways of building communion. Indeed, even small gestures can inspire and guide us along the path of reconciliation.

As we well know, our Lord prayed to the heavenly Father for the unity of his disciples: “May they become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (Jn 17:23). Founded on our common baptism and our shared mission in the world, I pray that we may always grow together in our service to the promotion of peace and justice.

As we continue on this path, we can look to the example of the first martyrs and of saints such as St. Olaf and St. Sunniva, whose lives, dedicated to God and neighbor, helped to unite peoples and gave an enduring witness to the transforming power of charity.

Therefore, dear friends, dear brothers and sisters, I thank you once again for coming this morning and for your closeness. Let us ask God’s blessing so that, in his infinite goodness and wisdom, he may help us to live ever more truly as brothers and sisters and thus give common witness to our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you very much.

Chinese bishop claims that at least ten prelates have been secretly consecrated under pressure from Beijing

A Chinese Catholic bishop who remains outside the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the state-controlled body, claims that at least ten new bishops would have been consecrated secretly in Fujian province, in southeastern China, due to the fear of underground communities that increasing government control over the Church could compromise its continuity. 

The testimony is part of a wide-ranging report published by Catholic World Report on the current situation of Catholics under the Xi Jinping regime.

The author, historian and sinologist Anthony E. Clark, keeps the prelate’s identity confidential to protect his safety. 

According to his testimony, after the signing in 2018 of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China on the appointment of bishops, the situation in Fujian would have reached a state of “emergency” for Catholics who remain outside the official structures.

“At least ten new bishops”

The bishop cited by Clark states that among the faithful of the underground Church there is fear that, as government influence over bishops increases, “the integrity of the Catholic faith will suffer.”

According to his account, in order to “guarantee the survival of the Church in China,” secret episcopal consecrations have been carried out.

The prelate estimates that there would be “at least ten new bishops” in Fujian alone, although he does not provide their names, the dates of the ordinations, or the identities of the consecrating bishops.

The province holds special importance in relations between Rome and Beijing. It is home, among others, to the archdiocese of Fuzhou, where for decades government-recognized communities and underground Catholics have coexisted.

“Chinese first”

The testimonies gathered by Clark also describe the advance of the policy of “sinicization of religions”, promoted by Xi Jinping to adapt religious confessions to Chinese culture and, in the regime’s political practice, to socialism and the leadership of the Communist Party.

During a recent meeting, a Chinese religious sister told those present that she admired the Belgian missionary Vincent Lebbe (1877-1940) because, according to her, he would have understood that it was necessary to be “Chinese first and Catholic second.”

“We are Chinese first,” she stated.

Clark notes that other Chinese Catholics he later spoke with were scandalized by those words and maintains that they do not correspond to Lebbe’s thought.

The episode comes as Catholic structures recognized by Beijing have reinforced political adherence requirements for the clergy. The new code of conduct for priests, bishops, deacons, and religious sisters of the official Church requires support for the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, backing the socialist system, and advancing the sinicization of Catholicism.

The regulations also establish that Catholic doctrine and discipline must be interpreted under the guidance of “core socialist values” and traditional Chinese culture.

Political formation in seminaries

Clark also includes the testimony of a Chinese seminarian with whom he recently spoke outside the country.

The young man described a formation in which, according to his experience, he received virtually no spiritual direction, while courses required by the government occupied a considerable portion of the time meant for prayer and study.

He also said he barely saw a bishop and claimed that some priests are members of the Communist Party.

“Everyone in China knows that the Party penetrates the Christian community,” he told the author.

In recent years, authorities have developed various political formation campaigns also applied to religious communities. Among them are programs aimed at promoting the national flag, the Chinese Constitution, socialist values, and traditional culture within religious spaces.

Another campaign requires fostering patriotism, “love for the Party,” and “love for socialism.”

The situation of the underground bishop of Wenzhou

The report also pays attention to Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin, bishop of Wenzhou, in Zhejiang province, recognized by Rome but not by the Chinese government.

Shao has repeatedly refused to join the Patriotic Association and has suffered numerous detentions and periods of “re-education.”

The prelate was appointed by Benedict XVI in 2007 as coadjutor bishop and succeeded Bishop Vincenzo Zhu Weifang after his death in 2016.

Shao’s difficulties predate the Sino-Vatican agreement. Already in 2021, a Catholic from Zhejiang was fined 200,000 yuan for hosting a Mass celebrated by the bishop in a private chapel. The authorities classified the celebration as an illegal religious activity and described the prelate, appointed by the Pope, as someone ordained by a “foreign institution.”

Clark now states that authorities continue to detain Shao around major liturgical celebrations and that priests, religious sisters, and laity from Wenzhou have also suffered repressive measures.

According to information received by the author, up to 90% of the underground chapels in Wenzhou could have been seized and closed in campaigns against those who refuse to join the Patriotic Association. This too is an estimate conveyed to the author and not an officially verifiable figure.

Priests detained for making pilgrimages or distributing religious books

The report further states that some priests, religious sisters, and faithful who leave China on tourist visas and take advantage of the trip to make pilgrimages are later detained under the charge of “illegal border crossing”, as authorities consider that the religious purpose of their travel does not match what was declared on the visa.

Among the few positive developments is the recent release of priest Ma Xianshi, from Wenzhou, after serving an 18-month sentence related to the public sale of religious books.

According to AsiaNews, more than a hundred people came to greet him upon his release from the detention center. The priest has returned to his diocese and to his pastoral work.

Restrictions on minors

Another issue described is the ban applied in many areas of China preventing minors under 18 from receiving religious formation or participating in activities inside places of worship.

Clark clarifies that this prohibition does not appear in that form in a general national law, but states that local authorities apply it with varying intensity depending on the region.

Priests and religious sisters have developed mechanisms to maintain the formation and sacramental life of young people. One religious sister explained to the author that, since the instructions specifically refer to church facilities, some Masses and gatherings for minors are held in other locations.

“The government keeps one eye open and the other closed,” another religious sister summarized.

Episcopal appointments under Leo XIV

The report also addresses one of the most delicate issues in relations between Rome and Beijing: the selection of bishops.

The Provisional Agreement signed in 2018, most recently renewed in 2024 for four years, remains confidential. Its full content has never been published.

During the vacant see following the death of Francis, official Chinese structures elected Ignatius Wu Jianlin for Shanghai and Francis Li Jianlin for Xinxiang. Leo XIV later approved both candidacies.

Wu’s case was especially singular: he had been elected by Chinese structures on April 29, 2025, during the vacant see, and Rome later announced that Leo XIV had accepted his appointment on August 11.

In Xinxiang, Li Jianlin was finally consecrated in December 2025 after the Holy See accepted the resignation of Joseph Zhang Weizhu, the reference bishop of the underground community who had endured years of detentions and pressure from the authorities.

This summer two other appointments were made within the mechanism agreed between Rome and Beijing. Leo XIV approved on June 15 the candidacies of Giuseppe Chang Yanfeng, later ordained bishop of Chifeng, and Francisco Javier Duan Yongkun, coadjutor bishop of Bameng, both jurisdictions located in Inner Mongolia.

In Chang’s case, the communication from Chinese authorities omitted any reference to papal approval and instead highlighted that he had been elected by official bodies and authorized by state authorities.

The memory of those who refused to join the Patriotic Church

Clark explains that Chinese Catholics continue to pass on the memory of priests who suffered persecution during the Maoist period and refused to join the ecclesiastical structures controlled by the regime.

Among them he recalls Jesuit Zhu Hongsheng (1916-1993), from a Catholic family for more than three centuries. Ordained a priest in 1944, he was first detained in 1953 and spent, through successive imprisonments, more than 31 years in Chinese prisons without renouncing his faith.

He also mentions Jesuit Stanislas Shen Baishun (1903-1985), accused by the authorities of belonging to a “counterrevolutionary” group linked to foreign forces, a reference the regime used to point to the Vatican.

Both are remembered, Clark notes, among other reasons for having refused to join the patriotic structure.

The author qualifies, however, that the boundary between the so-called official and underground communities is much less rigid on the ground than it may appear from outside China. Catholics from both spheres recognize priests and bishops from the other, and according to his experience, there is practically no idea among the faithful that members of the official structure belong to “another Church.”

Visit of Leo XIV to France raises its budget to 20 million while Metz faces controversy over public spending

The organization of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to France, scheduled for 25–28 September, now faces a budget that has reportedly risen from the initial estimate of 12 million euros to nearly 20 million. 

The French Church is seeking to cover the costs of hospitality and celebrations through donations, while in Metz, in the Grand Est region, the City Council’s decision to earmark up to 500,000 euros for the Pontiff’s reception has sparked controversy over the use of public funds.

The initial figure of 12 million euros had been announced by the Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, but estimates released this month now place the overall cost at around 20 million. 

The scale of the events partly explains the increase: tens of thousands of young people are expected at the Stade de France, and up to 500,000 people are anticipated at the Mass that Leo XIV will celebrate on 26 September in Place de la Concorde and the Champs-Élysées.

The French Church seeks donations

The organizing committee has launched a dedicated fundraising campaign. The official visit website allows contributions to be made either for the national organization as a whole or specifically for the stages in Paris, Lourdes or Metz.

All religious events will be free for attendees. The organizers nevertheless recommend prior registration due to the size of the gatherings and the requirements for access and security.

The faithful have responded in large numbers. More than 200,000 people had already registered by mid-August for the Paris Mass, and the places available for the youth vigil at the Stade de France sold out.

Funding for the celebrations organized by the Church must be distinguished from the expenses that French public authorities will bear for matters such as security, public order, mobility and the institutional reception of Leo XIV, who, in addition to being Pope, is also head of state of Vatican City.

Metz earmarks 500,000 euros and opens the debate

The most concrete controversy has arisen in Metz, a city of about 120,000 inhabitants that will conclude the papal trip on Monday, 28 September.

The City Council included in its supplementary budget a provision of up to 500,000 euros to cover the extraordinary costs arising from the visit. The amount is split into 250,000 euros for capital expenditure and another 250,000 for operating costs.

This is therefore not half a million euros already spent, but a budgetary allocation set aside to meet the needs of the day.

The decision drew criticism within the Council. Jérémy Roques, councillor for the group that unites the left and the Greens, questioned whether Metz taxpayers should bear these costs and described the sum as high. The controversy has already moved beyond the municipal plenary session.

This Tuesday, the Union of Secular Families of Moselle (UFAL) announced that it had approached the Prefecture to challenge specifically a 250,000-euro allocation linked to the live broadcast of the Mass. 

The organization argues that this expenditure could conflict with French rules on public funding of worship.

The controversy occurs in a country governed by the 1905 Law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, whose Article 2 establishes as a principle that the Republic “recognizes, remunerates or subsidizes no religion.” 

The discussion therefore centers on which outlays legitimately correspond to the reception and security of a head of state and which might constitute funding of a strictly religious activity.

The City Council prepares a large-scale operation

For its part, the Metz City Council presents the Pontiff’s arrival as an exceptional event for the city and is preparing a specific operation covering hospitality, information, mobility and security in view of the arrival of several thousand pilgrims and visitors.

Leo XIV will arrive in Metz on 28 September. At 10:00 a.m. he will take part in an interreligious meeting at the Robert Schuman Congress Centre, and one hour later he will speak at an event entitled “At the Roots of Europe for Peace and Unity.”

In the afternoon he will travel through the city streets in the popemobile, and at 4:00 p.m. he will celebrate Mass in Saint Stephen’s Cathedral before heading to the airport to return to Rome.

A trip that had already aroused enormous anticipation

InfoVaticana published the complete program of the trip on 7 August; it will begin in Paris with the official reception of Leo XIV by President Emmanuel Macron, a visit to UNESCO, Vespers at Notre-Dame and the youth vigil at the Stade de France. After the large-scale Mass on Saturday, the Pope will travel to Lourdes and finally to Metz.

The visit, the first formal papal journey to France since Benedict XVI’s in 2008, will thus combine a significant pastoral dimension with institutional and diplomatic encounters.

One month before Leo XIV’s arrival, the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of people is increasing the logistical and financial demands of the organization. 

At the same time, the Metz case has shifted the debate from the Church’s internal costs to a different question: which expenses arising from a visit that is both apostolic and institutional should be borne by the French public authorities.

Latin Patriarchate warns about the future of Christians in the Holy Land: "Hope demands action"

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has issued an international appeal to support the continued presence of Christians in the Holy Land, amid economic and social conditions that are driving especially young people toward emigration. 

“The living stones must remain,” the Patriarchate maintains, warning that the Christian presence faces “one of the most critical turning points in its two thousand years of history.”

Under the title Hope Demands Action, the Patriarchate focuses on Christian families in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, affected by mobility restrictions, the loss of work permits and the halt of tourism and pilgrimages.

A 54% unemployment rate among Christians

According to data provided by the Patriarchate, Christian communities currently face an unemployment rate of 54%, roughly double the national average.

The impact is especially severe because of the historic dependence of many Christian families on the pilgrimage sector. Artisans, merchants, guides, drivers, hospitality workers and restaurant owners have for generations lived off the pilgrims who visit the Holy Places.

With tourism virtually at a standstill, many of these livelihoods have disappeared.

The Patriarchate particularly highlights the consequences for young people who finish their university studies or vocational training and find few opportunities to enter the labor market.

The lack of prospects makes emigration an increasingly difficult alternative to avoid. For these families, the text warns, leaving the Holy Land also means breaking a historical and religious continuity maintained since the first centuries of Christianity.

“What happens when an entire generation begins to believe that its future lies elsewhere?” the Patriarchate asks.

Only 541 Christians remain in Gaza

The most extreme situation is in Gaza, where the Patriarchate currently puts the number of Christians still in the Strip at 541.

Part of the community has left the territory, while other Christians have died during the conflict or as a result of the deterioration of healthcare and shortages of basic supplies.

Those who remain, the Patriarchate notes, “pray without ceasing,” help one another and resist. “Their presence is a daily act of courage.”

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, had already warned this month of the fatigue and loss of confidence spreading among Christians after years of violence and uncertainty. His concern centers especially on the Holy Land remaining trapped in a prolonged state of “neither war nor peace.”

The risk of the Holy Land becoming “an empty museum”

The Patriarchate warns that the gradual disappearance of Christian communities would not mean only a demographic change.

“What would it mean for the cradle of Christianity to become an empty museum of stones and archaeological sites?” it asks.

The document’s answer is summed up in one phrase: “The living stones must remain.”

The term refers to the Christian communities that have maintained a continuous presence for centuries in the places linked to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Patriarchate therefore calls for international aid not to be limited to covering immediate emergencies, but to create the conditions necessary for families to continue living in their land.

Schools, jobs and small businesses to curb emigration

One of the priorities highlighted is education. With the start of the academic year, the Patriarchate has launched an initiative to cover school expenses for children from the most vulnerable families in the region.

Keeping schools open—and reopening them wherever possible—is part of a broader strategy to support local communities.

The Patriarchate calls for investment in education, vocational training, the creation of small businesses and community institutions, with the aim of providing families with real opportunities for work and permanence.

“We must give families concrete reasons to stay, not because they are trapped, but because they can build a dignified and sustainable life in their homeland,” it maintains.

The goal aligns with what Pizzaballa recently expressed during his visit to Taybeh, a Christian town in the West Bank, where he assured that the Church will continue to do everything within its reach to preserve the Christian presence in the Holy Land.

“They do not wish to be preserved as a historical curiosity”

Despite the difficulties, the Patriarchate states that “the great majority” of Christians in the Holy Land maintain their desire to remain in the region.

“They do not wish to be preserved as a historical curiosity or reduced to a part of the past,” the document notes. What they demand is the ability to work, educate their children and practice their faith with dignity in the places where Christian communities have remained for generations.

“The Holy Land offered the world the greatest story of hope ever told,” the Patriarchate concludes. “Today, Christians need our help to keep that hope alive in them.”

Debate about sex ed guidelines for schools in German archdiocese continues after Vatican letter

The Dicastery for Culture and Education has confirmed to the parents of students at Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Hamburg in Germany that the Vatican document “Male and Female He Created Them” remains the authoritative guide for sex education.

With this, the Vatican appears to contradict a framework regarding sex education that the archdiocese’s vicar general said must be used in all Catholic schools and that some parents reject.

Father Sascha-Philipp Geißler, SAC, implemented the document “Male, Female, Diverse: Framework for Sexual Education at Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Hamburg” first in 2025, and all Catholic schools in the archdiocese are expected to use it beginning with the 2026–2027 school year.

The framework, in line with influential sexologist Uwe Sielert, describes sexuality as “general life energy.” On the issue of gender, it states: “Biological sex does not necessarily have to correspond to social identity.”

Regarding conflicts of values with parents, the document notes that it may be “the school’s role to ‘stand on the children’s side.’”

After receiving a response to their complaints to the Vatican, the Parents’ Network for Child Protection and Prevention asked Hamburg’s Archbishop Stefan Heße once again to withdraw the framework. They asked that it be replaced by guidelines that “in particular guarantee parental rights and child protection and are in full accordance with Catholic doctrine and the requirements of the Holy See.”

Monsignor Matthias Ambros, the undersecretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, wrote in the letter dated July 6, which was obtained by CNA Deutsch, the German-language sister service of EWTN News: “After due consideration of its contents, this dicastery confirms that, with regard to the question of possible guidelines on sex education, the position remains the one set forth in the document ‘Male and Female He Created Them’ … published by the Congregation for Catholic Education on February 2, 2019.”

According to the dicastery, the parents’ petition was received on July 2. The letter thanks the parents for their “commitment to Catholic education.” It does not explicitly mention the framework the Archdiocese of Hamburg wants Catholic schools to use. In fact, the dicastery did not comment on the substance of the parents’ objections at all.

Based on the answer from Rome, the parents’ network compared the Vatican document from 2019, which firmly rejects gender ideology, with the Hamburg framework. The comparison lists 20 contradictions the parents see. These relate to the view of human nature, the assessment of marriage and family, and parents’ rights to educate their own children. The framework concept “adopts, in essential parts, the premises of that gender ideology which the congregation’s letter … has expressly rejected in the spirit of respectful dialogue,” the parents’ network concluded.

“We ask you: Do not view our concern merely as the protest of a group of parents. Read the response from Rome and compare it with the concept that is to be implemented in Catholic schools in Hamburg. Rome has once again reaffirmed the Church’s continuing position on sexual morality. If you, too, recognize the contradiction we have pointed out, we ask you: Do not remain silent! This is not merely a matter of defending our children and families but also of standing up for the teaching of our Church and remaining faithful to what it itself proclaims,” the network’s spokeswoman, Varinia Arauco Vera, said.

When the framework first took effect in 2025, the archdiocese described it as a sign of “contemporary, values-based, and scientifically sound sex education.”

“We advocate for the acceptance of diversity with regard to sexual orientations and gender identity,” said Geißler, the vicar general, at the time.

Christopher Haep, head of the Department of Schools and Higher Education in the archdiocese, added: “We want Catholic schools to be safe places where sexuality is not treated as a taboo but is recognized in all its complexity and dignity.”

The department’s spokesperson, Christoph Schommer, told CNA Deutsch in March that “as the school operators, we are in regular and intensive dialogue with parents and parent representatives.”

When the policy was implemented, it received “broad approval from the general parents’ council, school administrations, and the representatives for school pastoral care.”

“But of course, we also engage constructively with critical voices,” Schommer said.