lifesitenews--2020-03-03--Francis’ closest collaborators prove how Pope has reinvented priesthood in Amazon exhortation

March 3 , 2020 ( LifeSiteNews ) – In the recent days , several key people who are either closely working with Pope Francis or who are otherwise closely linked to his reform agenda – Cardinal Michael Czerny , Archbishop Víctor Fernández , Austen Ivereigh , and Father Antônio Almeida – have now come out insisting that Pope Francis did not close the door to married priests in the Amazon in his post-synodal exhortation Querida Amazonia .
They go even farther in stating that Pope Francis actually conducted a broader “ transformation ” than merely admitting married priests : a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Church , ” as Fernández puts it .
This transformation reduces the priesthood to two functions – the administration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and of Penance – and hands the broader aspects of leadership into the hands of the laity .
Archbishop Fernández , in his February 26 in-depth analysis of the new papal document , points out that actually the progressivists have missed out on key reformative elements of the Pope 's writings already in 2016 , when he published Amoris Laetitia , his post-synodal exhortation on marriage and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Fernández writes , “ progressive theologians did not sufficiently take advantage of or accompany the new proposals that appears in chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia.
” While Francis did “ open a door ” with regard to “ practical proposals ” ( that is to say , Communion for the “ remarried ” divorcees ) , the Argentine prelate adds , that chapter would actually have given occasion for a new “ fundamental morality.
” However , as the author writes , “ few , too few were the articles that accompanied @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it.
” We are here reminded of the four dubia cardinals who , indeed , had noticed that Amoris Laetitia is about much more than just admitting the “ remarried ” and divorced to Holy Communion .
One of their five dubia which they had sent to Pope Francis in 2017 was , for example , about the very nature of moral acts .
They asked whether the Church 's teaching “ on the existence of absolute moral norms that prohibit intrinsically evil acts and that are binding without exceptions ” is still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this concept .
Others , too have pointed out the very problematic statement of this document which says that “ no one can be condemned forever ” ( AL 297 ) , something that goes against the Church 's perennial teaching on the existence of hell .
In any event , it is significant that Archbishop Fernández , with his new essay , gives his progressivist collaborators a sort of “ interpretive key ” with regard to several papal documents .
He is known as a ghostwriter of Amoris Laetitia and as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now says that , just as the progressivists missed out on some key novelties in Amoris Laetitia , so did they overlook the novelties in Querida Amazonia .
States the prelate : “ In the case of Querida Amazonia , the same weakness seems to be repeated .
If there is a path that is opening up , the most fruitful and generous option is to take advantage of that possibility , ( … ) with courageous creativity.
” “ Once again , ” Archbishop Fernández says , “ it is striking that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to think of much deeper and more significant transformations than ordaining some married men has not been noticed.
” The papal ghostwriter also then gives the progressive theologians the key elements of this transformation as proposed by the Pope .
The target of this transformation is the priesthood .
For Fernández , a “ conservative clericalism ” needs to be overcome which “ reduces Christian life to worship , ” from which stem a “ laity without any impact on society and completely concentrated on the worship that the priest presides over.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is the priesthood as instituted by Christ , the priest who acts in the person of Christ at Mass , thereby calling down the graces we all need in our daily lives to be good Catholics .
“ According to the Pope 's mind , ” the prelate explains , “ it will be difficult to have lay people with freedom of action and power if the priestly figure is overloaded with thousands of functions that make him indispensable for everything.
” Thus , the idea is a truncated priesthood , which is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Eucharist and of Penance , while most of the other duties – and even Sacraments – that were administered so far by the priest could be given to the laity , male and female .
Further proposing to explain the Pope 's mind , Fernández says : “ He asks that the priesthood be thought of being concentrated more on the Eucharist than on the exercise of power.
” So much about this fundamental transformation of the priesthood as it is proposed by Pope Francis – arguably something that is impossible to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has just reminded us , the Sacrament of Holy Orders bestows upon the priest , by virtue of ordination , three offices – the teaching , the sanctifying , and the governing office .
But for advocates for a new church , it is about the “ demystifying of the priesthood ” : This separating of the priest from power , explains Fernández , “ could free us from the obsession with forming priests who are excessively prepared and made capable for thousands of tasks and would allow us to demystify a priestly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Thus , as a consequence of the above , Francis asks that greater power be given to the laity and they be given 'authority ' ( 98 ) .
” Referring also to Querida Amazonia 's paragraph 87 about the priest being mainly the source of grace and not the authority , the prelate whom Pope Francis made archbishop of La Plata in 2018 , asks us : “ Do we not see the consequences of this approach , together with the proposal of the laity [ empowered ] with authority ?
Do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and ecclesial problems lies the way of exercising power ?
” Here , by the way , the Argentine prelate argues in a way similar to those German intellectuals who argue that , because of the clerical sex abuse crisis , the priest 's authority needs to be reduced , since this authority and power is the root cause of the abuse crisis .
In light of this diminishment of the priesthood and the fundamental laicization of the Church as proposed by the Pope , Fernández then says that married priests still can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pope “ has not excluded this possibility [ of ordaining married men ] , either , which should be analyzed within the framework of the elaboration of an Amazonian rite.
” It would have been perhaps inappropriate if the Pope would thus “ hasten a decision.
” With regard to the Amazonian rite , it is important to note that Pope Francis merely mentions it in a footnote .
When speaking about an inculturated liturgy in paragraph 82 , he explains in a footnote ( 120 ) that the Synod also discussed the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the archbishop from Argentina explains , this is significant , inasmuch as “ Francis preferred only to present the final document of the synod , and not to repeat it or even to quote it , he nevertheless wanted to make at least an explicit mention of the proposal of the Amazonian rite in footnote 120.
” When quoting at length no .
119 of the Synod 's final document which refers to this “ Amazonian rite , ” Fernández depicts a reference to the married priesthood similar to the one existing in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : “ The rites [ of the Catholic Church ] do not only include liturgical norms or celebrations , but also incorporate canonical norms on other matters that we in some way related to the celebrations and the ministers.
” It takes quite some straining of the mind to follow the indirect ways of how , potentially , the married priesthood is being tucked in under a new Amazonian Rite in the Pope 's new document .
But in light of the experience with footnotes in Amoris Laetitia , alert Catholics had better @ @ @ @ @ @ @ papal biographer who has made it his mission to defend Pope Francis and his reform agenda , is now also speaking up once more , attempting at pointing out the key reform elements of Querida Amazonia .
He even titles his February 25 article : “ How to Read 'Querida Amazonia , ' ” thus effectively joining Fernández in his own essay pointing the way to a fundamental reform in the Church .
In his own article , Ivereigh writes as if he were speaking on behalf of Pope Francis .
At the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was “ dismayed ” at the “ politicking ” in favor of mandatory priestly celibacy , but that he was also “ upset ” at some of the Amazonian bishops who acted as if “ simply ordaining more people would somehow resolve the deeper challenges facing the church.
” Whenever such contradictions happen , the British journalist continues , “ Francis sees a sign that the bad spirit had prevailed , ” thereby causing tensions .
In this case , Pope Francis chooses a “ resolution ” of the conflict “ which takes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ here Ivereigh quotes from the papal document Evangelii Gaudium .
This is actually the same line of argument that can be found in both Archbishop Fernández and Father Antonio Spadaro 's writings on Querida Amazonia , both of whom are very close collaborators of the Pope .
Spadaro is even known as the “ unofficial spokesman ” of the Pope .
Thus , these three men close to the Pope 's reform agenda explain that the Pope responds to moments of conflict within the Church – which others would say are matters of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ path that represents a synthesis of them both , thereby providing analogues of Hegel 's own concept of the dialectic , according to which progress takes place when a synthesis is found between two opposing elements .
To return to Ivereigh 's explanatory article .
He goes on to quote Fr .
Augusto Zampini Davies , an Argentine official from Buenos Aires who works at the Vatican 's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development .
Before we go into what this priest has to say , let us be reminded that he used @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Aires under Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio and that he is the one who , early in this pontificate , had revealed that in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires , the issue of Communion for the “ remarried ” divorcees was handled in a liberal manner .
This is what Newsweek reported in 2014 : “ In the slums of Buenos Aires he [ Bergoglio ] learned to see the world differently , says Father Augusto Zampini , a diocesan priest from the city , who has taught at the Colegio Máximo where Bergoglio was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not alter his doctrinal orthodoxy on matters like the church 's ban on divorced and remarried Catholics taking communion .
But he did not allow church doctrine to overrule his priority of pastoral care for the troubled folk he met in the slums .
'When you 're working in a shantytown 90 % of your congregation are single or divorced , ' Zampini says .
'You have to learn to deal with that .
Communion for the divorced and remarried is not an issue there .
Everyone takes communion . '
Bergoglio 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the poor , rather than focussing on obedience to unbending rules.
” Let us now return to what Ivereigh has to tell us about Zampini .
This clergyman claims that Querida Amazonia is actually meant as a parable – similar to the ones presented by Our Lord Himself – and that “ if you do n't get inside Francis ' dreams , they wo n't change you.
” “ But if you do , ” he continues , “ you are changed.
” That then applies not only to the Amazon region , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this new “ conversion ” include ?
The acceptance that each of our places where we live “ is the place of our encounter with our Creator , ” and that “ our place is the locus theologicus of incarnation and therefore inculturation.
” This line of argument has already been used , in light of the Amazon Synod 's working document – which also claims ( in paragraph 19 ) that the Amazon is a “ source of God ’ s revelation ” and a “ theological place ” – by some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a prominent Catholic journal .
They understood that , by claiming that Germany is a specific theological place that needs inculturation , one might well allow for this region female ordination , married priests , as well as a stronger involvement of the laity in Church leadership .
It might very well be that this concept of inculturation in a specific “ theological place of incarnation ” will turn out to be an “ anything goes , ” especially in light of the fact that Pope Francis insists on diminishing the importance of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ specifically in Querida Amazonia .
Says Ivereigh : “ It would be a shame , says Francis , if people received from the church merely a doctrinal code or a moral imperative , and not 'the great message of salvation . '
” That message is seen in “ incarnating the Gospel in culture ” ; by each inculturation , “ the church grows , ” the book author explains .
Under this concept of inculturation then comes , as in Fernández ' article , the introduction also of new forms of ministry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ married priests .
After quoting Francis ' words that “ there is a need for ministers who can understand the Amazonian sensibilities and culture from within , ” Ivereigh points out that “ it is worthy spelling it out : the sacraments are part of the means , but the end is the inculturation of the Gospel .
The purpose is not the expansion of an institutional presence .
What matters is inculturated ministry that performs the Incarnation.
” This inculturated form of presence in the Amazon – according to the rule of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Lord has sown in every people ” – would therefore be not necessarily to concentrate on ordained offices , but , rather , on the establishment of a new Church structure where the laity – and here dominantly lay women – “ can lead and do run communities.
” Here , Ivereigh says that the local bishop could recognize these women and give them an official commission .
Therefore , the listening to the voice of the Amazon might very well turn out to completely transform the Church there , from a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lay-run ” organization .
Since this is quite a fundamental change that is proposed here , let us consider Ivereigh 's words at length : “ Much of the action , in these passages [ of Querida Amazonia ] is happening in the footnotes [ … ] Who , in this scenario , is inculturating the Gospel ?
Is it the clergy or the lay leaders , the women , who are really running the show ?
Is it possible that the real issue here is a hermeneutic one – that the church @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the clerical institution , and not seen what gifts are already being poured out on the People of God ?
” This new concept of having the laity “ run the show , ” could then well be applied to other regions as well .
Concludes the book author : “ If you ask that question again but replace 'Amazon ' with your own parish or diocese , then you 'll get Francis ' larger point .
But not everyone will : these are new wineskins.
” That is to say : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be soon very well much attenuated and diminished under the Bergoglian pontificate .
Interestingly , Cardinal Michael Czerny – who was recently made a cardinal by Pope Francis , was named a Special Secretary of the Amazon Synod as well as a member of the drafting committee of the Amazon Synod 's final document – uses the same expression as Ivereigh in a February 12 interview that had been published also by L'Osservatore Romano .
He says that Pope Francis “ dreams of Christian communities capable of becoming incarnate in the Amazon and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ face.
” He , too , stresses that “ the Church learns and is enriched by contact with what the Spirit has already sown in that particular culture.
” The Pope also “ asks that the values present in the original communities be recognized.
” This inculturation includes “ knowing how to receive some pre-existing indigenous symbols , without immediately qualifying it as a pagan error.
” Cardinal Czerny goes on to expound on two important elements .
First , he refers to Pope Francis and insists that “ the possibility of ordaining @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Church .
And it already exists , for example , in the Eastern Churches.
” Secondly , Czerny discusses the same matter as discussed by Fernández and by Ivereigh : the separation of the priest from power and authority .
When speaking about the role of women , Czerny says that “ we have to read this in the broad Magisterium of Pope Francis , which points out the need to separate the power from the priestly ministry , since this combination is what gives rise to clericalism.
” The women are stunted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the Canadian prelate explains : “ This relationship of ministry and power is what leaves women without a voice , without rights , and without possibility of making decisions in many cases.
” Therefore , it is not about establishing an ordained ministry for women , but about attenuating the Catholic priesthood 's duties and sacred offices .
But at the same time , Czerny still says that “ women should have access – says the Pope – to ecclesial functions and services that do not require Holy Orders ” and which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ local bishop .
“ Perhaps it is time to review the lay ministries that already exist in the Church , to return to their foundations and bring them up to date ( … ) and at the same time to create other new stable ministries.
” About the Synod 's final document which had proposed married priests and the further discussion of the female diaconate , Czerny says that the Pope presents it “ officially ” and that in the Amazon , “ all the pastors , consecrated men and women and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Lastly , let us briefly consider the words of Father Almeida who is an expert on Bishop Fritz Lobinger 's proposals for the ordination of married men and women and who participated at a key and quite revolutionary conference in Bogotá in preparation of the October 2019 Amazon Synod that is even mentioned in the Amazon Synod 's working document .
The Brazilian priest spoke in União da Vitória ( Brazil ) at a February 21 diocesan conference about the Amazon Synod and Pope Francis 's exhortation .
He stressed that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ duties to the distribution of the Sacraments of the Eucharist and of Penance – which would make him a sort of traveling dispenser of these two sacraments – while at the same time giving “ other functions to the laity , such as celebrating the Sacrament of Baptism , and assisting at Marriages.
” Again , we see here a truncated concept of the priesthood and a strong role of the laity which would essentially run the local parishes .
The priesthood would be pushed to the side .
At the same time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ordaining married priests is still on the agenda .
“ Even some bishops and theologians let themselves be carried away by the opinion of the media that the Pope was against what the bishops suggested at the Synod on the question of married men , but this is not true , ” he states .
The question is “ a question of interpretation , ” Almeida explains , because the Pope “ says that he is 'presenting ' the final document , without discussing what was proposed at the Synod.
” Therefore , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ final document .
“ Bishops who feel the need may ask the Holy See to authorize them in more special cases to ordain married men – having this backing in canons of Canon Law where administrative rights are spoken of – and with regard to canons that reserve the authority to the Pope , [ they may ask ] that he may return this authority to the diocesan bishop ” the priest concludes .
All these four men are convinced of one thing : the deeper reform and transformation of the Church is @ @ @ @ @

They demonstrate how the Pope's new document is about more than a simple yes or no to married priests and female deacons.
March 3, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – In the recent days, several key people who are either closely working with Pope Francis or who are otherwise closely linked to his reform agenda – Cardinal Michael Czerny, Archbishop Víctor Fernández, Austen Ivereigh, and Father Antônio Almeida – have now come out insisting that Pope Francis did not close the door to married priests in the Amazon in his post-synodal exhortation Querida Amazonia.
They go even farther in stating that Pope Francis actually conducted a broader “transformation” than merely admitting married priests: a “new theology of power in the Church,” as Fernández puts it. This transformation reduces the priesthood to two functions – the administration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and of Penance – and hands the broader aspects of leadership into the hands of the laity.
Archbishop Fernández, in his February 26 in-depth analysis of the new papal document, points out that actually the progressivists have missed out on key reformative elements of the Pope's writings already in 2016, when he published Amoris Laetitia, his post-synodal exhortation on marriage and the family. “At the time,” Fernández writes, “progressive theologians did not sufficiently take advantage of or accompany the new proposals that appears in chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia.” While Francis did “open a door” with regard to “practical proposals” (that is to say, Communion for the “remarried” divorcees), the Argentine prelate adds, that chapter would actually have given occasion for a new “fundamental morality.” However, as the author writes, “few, too few were the articles that accompanied this step and knew how to exploit it.”
We are here reminded of the four dubia cardinals who, indeed, had noticed that Amoris Laetitia is about much more than just admitting the “remarried” and divorced to Holy Communion. One of their five dubia which they had sent to Pope Francis in 2017 was, for example, about the very nature of moral acts. They asked whether the Church's teaching “on the existence of absolute moral norms that prohibit intrinsically evil acts and that are binding without exceptions” is still valid since Amoris Laetitia seemed to undermine this concept.
Others, too have pointed out the very problematic statement of this document which says that “no one can be condemned forever” (AL 297), something that goes against the Church's perennial teaching on the existence of hell.
‘Path that is opening up’
In any event, it is significant that Archbishop Fernández, with his new essay, gives his progressivist collaborators a sort of “interpretive key” with regard to several papal documents. He is known as a ghostwriter of Amoris Laetitia and as a personal theologian of Pope Francis.
Fernández now says that, just as the progressivists missed out on some key novelties in Amoris Laetitia, so did they overlook the novelties in Querida Amazonia. States the prelate: “In the case of Querida Amazonia, the same weakness seems to be repeated. If there is a path that is opening up, the most fruitful and generous option is to take advantage of that possibility, (…) with courageous creativity.”
“Once again,” Archbishop Fernández says, “it is striking that Francis' proposal to fly higher, to think of much deeper and more significant transformations than ordaining some married men has not been noticed.”
The papal ghostwriter also then gives the progressive theologians the key elements of this transformation as proposed by the Pope.
The target of this transformation is the priesthood. For Fernández, a “conservative clericalism” needs to be overcome which “reduces Christian life to worship,” from which stem a “laity without any impact on society and completely concentrated on the worship that the priest presides over.”
That is to say, the problem is the priesthood as instituted by Christ, the priest who acts in the person of Christ at Mass, thereby calling down the graces we all need in our daily lives to be good Catholics.
“According to the Pope's mind,” the prelate explains, “it will be difficult to have lay people with freedom of action and power if the priestly figure is overloaded with thousands of functions that make him indispensable for everything.”
Thus, the idea is a truncated priesthood, which is concentrated on the Sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and of Penance, while most of the other duties – and even Sacraments – that were administered so far by the priest could be given to the laity, male and female.
Further proposing to explain the Pope's mind, Fernández says: “He asks that the priesthood be thought of being concentrated more on the Eucharist than on the exercise of power.”
So much about this fundamental transformation of the priesthood as it is proposed by Pope Francis – arguably something that is impossible to do since, as Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes has just reminded us, the Sacrament of Holy Orders bestows upon the priest, by virtue of ordination, three offices – the teaching, the sanctifying, and the governing office.
But for advocates for a new church, it is about the “demystifying of the priesthood”: This separating of the priest from power, explains Fernández, “could free us from the obsession with forming priests who are excessively prepared and made capable for thousands of tasks and would allow us to demystify a priestly figure who is overburdened with functions.” Thus, as a consequence of the above, Francis asks that greater power be given to the laity and they be given 'authority' (98).”
Referring also to Querida Amazonia's paragraph 87 about the priest being mainly the source of grace and not the authority, the prelate whom Pope Francis made archbishop of La Plata in 2018, asks us: “Do we not see the consequences of this approach, together with the proposal of the laity [empowered] with authority? Do we not recognize that behind many limits and ecclesial problems lies the way of exercising power?”
Here, by the way, the Argentine prelate argues in a way similar to those German intellectuals who argue that, because of the clerical sex abuse crisis, the priest's authority needs to be reduced, since this authority and power is the root cause of the abuse crisis.
In light of this diminishment of the priesthood and the fundamental laicization of the Church as proposed by the Pope, Fernández then says that married priests still can be introduced. He says that the Pope “has not excluded this possibility [of ordaining married men], either, which should be analyzed within the framework of the elaboration of an Amazonian rite.” It would have been perhaps inappropriate if the Pope would thus “hasten a decision.”
With regard to the Amazonian rite, it is important to note that Pope Francis merely mentions it in a footnote. When speaking about an inculturated liturgy in paragraph 82, he explains in a footnote (120) that the Synod also discussed the possibility of an Amazonian rite. As the archbishop from Argentina explains, this is significant, inasmuch as “Francis preferred only to present the final document of the synod, and not to repeat it or even to quote it, he nevertheless wanted to make at least an explicit mention of the proposal of the Amazonian rite in footnote 120.”
When quoting at length no. 119 of the Synod's final document which refers to this “Amazonian rite,” Fernández depicts a reference to the married priesthood similar to the one existing in the Eastern Churches. And he adds: “The rites [of the Catholic Church] do not only include liturgical norms or celebrations, but also incorporate canonical norms on other matters that we in some way related to the celebrations and the ministers.”
It takes quite some straining of the mind to follow the indirect ways of how, potentially, the married priesthood is being tucked in under a new Amazonian Rite in the Pope's new document. But in light of the experience with footnotes in Amoris Laetitia, alert Catholics had better pay attention.
Getting ‘inside Francis' dreams’
Austen Ivereigh, the papal biographer who has made it his mission to defend Pope Francis and his reform agenda, is now also speaking up once more, attempting at pointing out the key reform elements of Querida Amazonia. He even titles his February 25 article: “How to Read 'Querida Amazonia,'” thus effectively joining Fernández in his own essay pointing the way to a fundamental reform in the Church.
In his own article, Ivereigh writes as if he were speaking on behalf of Pope Francis. At the beginning, he explains that Pope Francis was “dismayed” at the “politicking” in favor of mandatory priestly celibacy, but that he was also “upset” at some of the Amazonian bishops who acted as if “simply ordaining more people would somehow resolve the deeper challenges facing the church.”
Whenever such contradictions happen, the British journalist continues, “Francis sees a sign that the bad spirit had prevailed,” thereby causing tensions.
In this case, Pope Francis chooses a “resolution” of the conflict “which takes on a higher plane” – and here Ivereigh quotes from the papal document Evangelii Gaudium.
This is actually the same line of argument that can be found in both Archbishop Fernández and Father Antonio Spadaro's writings on Querida Amazonia, both of whom are very close collaborators of the Pope. Spadaro is even known as the “unofficial spokesman” of the Pope.
Thus, these three men close to the Pope's reform agenda explain that the Pope responds to moments of conflict within the Church – which others would say are matters of truth and salvation – by choosing a path that represents a synthesis of them both, thereby providing analogues of Hegel's own concept of the dialectic, according to which progress takes place when a synthesis is found between two opposing elements.
To return to Ivereigh's explanatory article. He goes on to quote Fr. Augusto Zampini Davies, an Argentine official from Buenos Aires who works at the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Before we go into what this priest has to say, let us be reminded that he used to work in the slums of Buenos Aires under Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio and that he is the one who, early in this pontificate, had revealed that in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, the issue of Communion for the “remarried” divorcees was handled in a liberal manner.
This is what Newsweek reported in 2014: “In the slums of Buenos Aires he [Bergoglio] learned to see the world differently, says Father Augusto Zampini, a diocesan priest from the city, who has taught at the Colegio Máximo where Bergoglio was once Rector. The future Pope did not alter his doctrinal orthodoxy on matters like the church's ban on divorced and remarried Catholics taking communion. But he did not allow church doctrine to overrule his priority of pastoral care for the troubled folk he met in the slums. 'When you're working in a shantytown 90% of your congregation are single or divorced,' Zampini says. 'You have to learn to deal with that. Communion for the divorced and remarried is not an issue there. Everyone takes communion.' Bergoglio's priority became understanding the problems faced by the poor, rather than focussing on obedience to unbending rules.”
Let us now return to what Ivereigh has to tell us about Zampini.
This clergyman claims that Querida Amazonia is actually meant as a parable – similar to the ones presented by Our Lord Himself – and that “if you don't get inside Francis' dreams, they won't change you.” “But if you do,” he continues, “you are changed.” That then applies not only to the Amazon region, but the whole world.
What does this new “conversion” include? The acceptance that each of our places where we live “is the place of our encounter with our Creator,” and that “our place is the locus theologicus of incarnation and therefore inculturation.”
This line of argument has already been used, in light of the Amazon Synod's working document – which also claims (in paragraph 19) that the Amazon is a “source of God’s revelation” and a “theological place” – by some German professors writing in Herder Korrespondenz, a prominent Catholic journal. They understood that, by claiming that Germany is a specific theological place that needs inculturation, one might well allow for this region female ordination, married priests, as well as a stronger involvement of the laity in Church leadership.
It might very well be that this concept of inculturation in a specific “theological place of incarnation” will turn out to be an “anything goes,” especially in light of the fact that Pope Francis insists on diminishing the importance of irreversible doctrine in general, but also specifically in Querida Amazonia.
Says Ivereigh: “It would be a shame, says Francis, if people received from the church merely a doctrinal code or a moral imperative, and not 'the great message of salvation.'” That message is seen in “incarnating the Gospel in culture”; by each inculturation, “the church grows,” the book author explains.
Under this concept of inculturation then comes, as in Fernández' article, the introduction also of new forms of ministry, that is to say, possibly married priests. After quoting Francis' words that “there is a need for ministers who can understand the Amazonian sensibilities and culture from within,” Ivereigh points out that “it is worthy spelling it out: the sacraments are part of the means, but the end is the inculturation of the Gospel. The purpose is not the expansion of an institutional presence. What matters is inculturated ministry that performs the Incarnation.”
This inculturated form of presence in the Amazon – according to the rule of listening to “seeds of the Word the Lord has sown in every people” – would therefore be not necessarily to concentrate on ordained offices, but, rather, on the establishment of a new Church structure where the laity – and here dominantly lay women – “can lead and do run communities.” Here, Ivereigh says that the local bishop could recognize these women and give them an official commission.
Therefore, the listening to the voice of the Amazon might very well turn out to completely transform the Church there, from a “clericalist” one to a “lay-run” organization. Since this is quite a fundamental change that is proposed here, let us consider Ivereigh's words at length:
“Much of the action, in these passages [of Querida Amazonia] is happening in the footnotes […] Who, in this scenario, is inculturating the Gospel? Is it the clergy or the lay leaders, the women, who are really running the show? Is it possible that the real issue here is a hermeneutic one – that the church in the Amazon has focused too much on the clerical institution, and not seen what gifts are already being poured out on the People of God?”
This new concept of having the laity “run the show,” could then well be applied to other regions as well. Concludes the book author: “If you ask that question again but replace 'Amazon' with your own parish or diocese, then you'll get Francis' larger point. But not everyone will: these are new wineskins.”
That is to say: the importance of the Catholic priesthood might be soon very well much attenuated and diminished under the Bergoglian pontificate.
‘Building a Church with an Amazon face’
Interestingly, Cardinal Michael Czerny – who was recently made a cardinal by Pope Francis, was named a Special Secretary of the Amazon Synod as well as a member of the drafting committee of the Amazon Synod's final document – uses the same expression as Ivereigh in a February 12 interview that had been published also by L'Osservatore Romano. He says that Pope Francis “dreams of Christian communities capable of becoming incarnate in the Amazon and of building a Church with an Amazon face.” He, too, stresses that “the Church learns and is enriched by contact with what the Spirit has already sown in that particular culture.” The Pope also “asks that the values present in the original communities be recognized.” This inculturation includes “knowing how to receive some pre-existing indigenous symbols, without immediately qualifying it as a pagan error.”
Cardinal Czerny goes on to expound on two important elements. First, he refers to Pope Francis and insists that “the possibility of ordaining married men can be discussed by the Church. And it already exists, for example, in the Eastern Churches.”
Secondly, Czerny discusses the same matter as discussed by Fernández and by Ivereigh: the separation of the priest from power and authority. When speaking about the role of women, Czerny says that “we have to read this in the broad Magisterium of Pope Francis, which points out the need to separate the power from the priestly ministry, since this combination is what gives rise to clericalism.”
The women are stunted by a strong clericalism in the Church, the Canadian prelate explains: “This relationship of ministry and power is what leaves women without a voice, without rights, and without possibility of making decisions in many cases.” Therefore, it is not about establishing an ordained ministry for women, but about attenuating the Catholic priesthood's duties and sacred offices.
But at the same time, Czerny still says that “women should have access – says the Pope – to ecclesial functions and services that do not require Holy Orders” and which would be recognized and commissioned by the local bishop. “Perhaps it is time to review the lay ministries that already exist in the Church, to return to their foundations and bring them up to date (…) and at the same time to create other new stable ministries.”
About the Synod's final document which had proposed married priests and the further discussion of the female diaconate, Czerny says that the Pope presents it “officially” and that in the Amazon, “all the pastors, consecrated men and women and the lay faithful be committed to its application.”
Truncated concept of the priesthood
Lastly, let us briefly consider the words of Father Almeida who is an expert on Bishop Fritz Lobinger's proposals for the ordination of married men and women and who participated at a key and quite revolutionary conference in Bogotá in preparation of the October 2019 Amazon Synod that is even mentioned in the Amazon Synod's working document.
The Brazilian priest spoke in União da Vitória (Brazil) at a February 21 diocesan conference about the Amazon Synod and Pope Francis's exhortation. He stressed that the new concept is to reduce the priestly duties to the distribution of the Sacraments of the Eucharist and of Penance – which would make him a sort of traveling dispenser of these two sacraments – while at the same time giving “other functions to the laity, such as celebrating the Sacrament of Baptism, and assisting at Marriages.” Again, we see here a truncated concept of the priesthood and a strong role of the laity which would essentially run the local parishes. The priesthood would be pushed to the side.
At the same time, Almeida insists that the plan of ordaining married priests is still on the agenda. “Even some bishops and theologians let themselves be carried away by the opinion of the media that the Pope was against what the bishops suggested at the Synod on the question of married men, but this is not true,” he states.
The question is “a question of interpretation,” Almeida explains, because the Pope “says that he is 'presenting' the final document, without discussing what was proposed at the Synod.” Therefore, the Pope “is validating” the final document.
“Bishops who feel the need may ask the Holy See to authorize them in more special cases to ordain married men – having this backing in canons of Canon Law where administrative rights are spoken of – and with regard to canons that reserve the authority to the Pope, [they may ask] that he may return this authority to the diocesan bishop” the priest concludes.
All these four men are convinced of one thing: the deeper reform and transformation of the Church is not off the table.
Follow Maike Dr. Maike Hickson was born and raised in Germany. She holds a PhD from the University of Hannover, Germany, after having written in Switzerland her doctoral dissertation on the history of Swiss intellectuals before and during World War II. She now lives in the U.S. and is married to Dr. Robert Hickson, and they have been blessed with two beautiful children. She is a happy housewife who likes to write articles when time permits. Dr. Hickson published in 2014 a Festschrift, a collection of some thirty essays written by thoughtful authors in honor of her husband upon his 70th birthday, which is entitled A Catholic Witness in Our Time. Hickson has closely followed the papacy of Pope Francis and the developments in the Catholic Church in Germany, and she has been writing articles on religion and politics for U.S. and European publications and websites such as LifeSiteNews, OnePeterFive, The Wanderer, Rorate Caeli, Catholicism.org, Catholic Family News, Christian Order, Notizie Pro-Vita, Corrispondenza Romana, Katholisches.info, Der Dreizehnte, Zeit-Fragen, and Westfalen-Blatt.
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lifesitenews--2020-03-03--Biden botches famous quote on ‘the thing’ that created all men equal

March 3 , 2020 ( LifeSiteNews ) – The U.S .
Declaration of Independence ’ s statement , “ we hold these truths to be self-evident , that all men are created equal , ” is one of the most ubiquitous hallmarks of American civic literacy .
Yet on Monday it proved to be the latest fodder for gaffe-prone Democrat presidential candidate , former Vice President Joe Biden .
During a campaign stop in Texas , Biden attempted to quote the inspirational line for a stirring stump-speech moment , but appeared to draw a blank when he got to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be self-evident : all men and women are created , by the , you know the , you know the thing , ” he said .
Biden has long been known for rhetorical flubs , but their increasing frequency this this election season has sparked a marked increase in speculation from friends and foes alike as to the 77-year-old contender ’ s mental fitness for the presidency .
“ How could you be easier to beat than Joe ?
The guy ca n't put two sentences together , ” President Donald Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Political Action Conference ( CPAC ) over the weekend .
He joked that if Biden were to win , he ’ s “ not going to be running the government .
He 's just going to be sitting in a home someplace and people are going to be running it for him . ''
Such speculation has apparently rattled the Biden campaign enough that last month , Biden pledged to only serve one term “ if anything changed in my health , making it incapable for me to fully exert all the energy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be done.
” Long assumed to be the frontrunner for the 2020 Democrat nomination , the pro-abortion , pro-transgender Biden quickly fell behind socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders once actual voting began , but enjoyed a comeback this weekend with his commanding victory in the South Carolina primary .
He received another boost soon after in the form of endorsements from former South Bend , Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar , soon after they suspended their own presidential bids .

'We hold these truths to be self-evident: all men and women are created, by the, you know the, you know the thing,' the gaffe-prone former vice president said.
March 3, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – The U.S. Declaration of Independence’s statement, “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” is one of the most ubiquitous hallmarks of American civic literacy. Yet on Monday it proved to be the latest fodder for gaffe-prone Democrat presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden.
During a campaign stop in Texas, Biden attempted to quote the inspirational line for a stirring stump-speech moment, but appeared to draw a blank when he got to the Creator. “We hold these truths to be self-evident: all men and women are created, by the, you know the, you know the thing,” he said.
Joe Biden tries to quote the Declaration of Independence, failspic.twitter.com/ULzGB0XtQK — Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) March 2, 2020
Biden has long been known for rhetorical flubs, but their increasing frequency this this election season has sparked a marked increase in speculation from friends and foes alike as to the 77-year-old contender’s mental fitness for the presidency.
“How could you be easier to beat than Joe? The guy can't put two sentences together,” President Donald Trump quipped to attendees of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over the weekend. He joked that if Biden were to win, he’s “not going to be running the government. He's just going to be sitting in a home someplace and people are going to be running it for him.”
Such speculation has apparently rattled the Biden campaign enough that last month, Biden pledged to only serve one term “if anything changed in my health, making it incapable for me to fully exert all the energy and mental acuity that was needed to be done.”
Long assumed to be the frontrunner for the 2020 Democrat nomination, the pro-abortion, pro-transgender Biden quickly fell behind socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders once actual voting began, but enjoyed a comeback this weekend with his commanding victory in the South Carolina primary. He received another boost soon after in the form of endorsements from former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, soon after they suspended their own presidential bids.
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lifesitenews--2020-03-03--Coronavirus makes Vatican postpone Global Education Pact promoting Pope’s ‘new humanism’

March 3 , 2020 ( LifeSiteNews ) — The Vatican has announced that it is delaying its Global Compact on Education event , which had been scheduled for May , until October due to “ the uncertainty linked to the spread of Coronavirus.
” Pope Francis launched the initiative last September , saying that “ a global educational pact is needed to educate us in universal solidarity and a new humanism.
” A week-long program of events related to the “ education pact ” was scheduled to take place in Rome from 10 to 17 May .
The event will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with the pact due to be signed on 14 October .
The Congregation for Catholic Education , responsible for organizing the event , released a statement today saying : “ The uncertainty linked to the spread of Coronavirus , along with the decisions taken by public authorities on a global scale , have led to the decision to postpone the anticipated meeting in order to allow the widest and most serene participation possible.
” Italy has been hit harder than any other European country by the Coronavirus , with , as of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to have contracted the virus , 52 of whom have died .
Pope Francis has described his vision for the global event as the creation of an “ educational village ” to face new challenges , with “ the human person at the center , investing creatively and responsibly in long-term projects ” that “ train individuals willing to offer themselves in service to the community.
” Last month , Archbishop Vincenzo Zani , the Vatican prelate tasked with organizing the Global Education Pact , explained that the theological vision at the heart @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” is one in which God “ withdraws ” so that man can be free .
Last month , Jeffrey Sachs , the American economist and population control proponent told a Vatican workshop on the Global Education Pact , that the project should seek funding from individuals and organizations including U.S. billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates , China ’ s wealthiest business magnate , UNESCO , the EU , various United Nations agencies , and the Islamic Development Bank .
In his annual New Year ’ s audience with the diplomatic corps accredited to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Vatican officials that the sexual abuse crisis had prompted him to call for the global event and signing of the education pact .
He told diplomats that “ given the gravity of the harm involved [ in the sexual abuse crisis ] , it becomes all the more urgent for adults not to abdicate their proper educational responsibilities , but to carry out those responsibilities with greater zeal , in order to guide young people to spiritual , human and social maturity .
”

The event will be moved from May to October due to the 'uncertainty linked to the spread of Coronavirus'
PRAYER PLEDGE: VP Pence is right. We need prayer to fight coronavirus, not political antics! Sign the petition here.
March 3, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican has announced that it is delaying its Global Compact on Education event, which had been scheduled for May, until October due to “the uncertainty linked to the spread of Coronavirus.”
Pope Francis launched the initiative last September, saying that “a global educational pact is needed to educate us in universal solidarity and a new humanism.”
A week-long program of events related to the “education pact” was scheduled to take place in Rome from 10 to 17 May. The event will now take place 11 to 18 October, with the pact due to be signed on 14 October.
The Congregation for Catholic Education, responsible for organizing the event, released a statement today saying: “The uncertainty linked to the spread of Coronavirus, along with the decisions taken by public authorities on a global scale, have led to the decision to postpone the anticipated meeting in order to allow the widest and most serene participation possible.”
Italy has been hit harder than any other European country by the Coronavirus, with, as of yesterday, more than 2,000 people confirmed to have contracted the virus, 52 of whom have died.
Pope Francis has described his vision for the global event as the creation of an “educational village” to face new challenges, with “the human person at the center, investing creatively and responsibly in long-term projects” that “train individuals willing to offer themselves in service to the community.”
Last month, Archbishop Vincenzo Zani, the Vatican prelate tasked with organizing the Global Education Pact, explained that the theological vision at the heart of Pope Francis’ “new humanism” is one in which God “withdraws” so that man can be free.
Last month, Jeffrey Sachs, the American economist and population control proponent told a Vatican workshop on the Global Education Pact, that the project should seek funding from individuals and organizations including U.S. billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, China’s wealthiest business magnate, UNESCO, the EU, various United Nations agencies, and the Islamic Development Bank.
In his annual New Year’s audience with the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, Pope Francis told Vatican officials that the sexual abuse crisis had prompted him to call for the global event and signing of the education pact.
He told diplomats that “given the gravity of the harm involved [in the sexual abuse crisis], it becomes all the more urgent for adults not to abdicate their proper educational responsibilities, but to carry out those responsibilities with greater zeal, in order to guide young people to spiritual, human and social maturity.”
With files from Diane Montagna
PETITION: Catholics call on the Vatican to affirm all salvation comes through Jesus Sign the petition here.
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lifesitenews--2020-03-03--Ban on killing babies born alive during failed abortion becomes law in West Virginia

CHARLESTON , March 3 , 2020 ( LifeSiteNews ) – West Virginia Republican Gov .
Jim Justice signed legislation Monday banning the killing of infants who survive attempted abortions , a state-level version of an effort which remains stalled nationally .
The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act requires abortionists to administer basic medical treatment to children delivered alive after failed abortions .
Violators would face discipline from their medical licensing board , up to and including potential revocation of their license .
The bill passed the state House in January , and unanimously cleared the state Senate last month .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ lingering differences between the text of both versions , the bill was signed into law by the governor , ABC News reports .
Calling it “ unbelievable , to tell you the truth , that we have to do such a thing , ” Justice declared that “ today we 're going to put a stake in the sand that says for us , for us at least we stand for life and we stand for the right stuff.
” Abortion defenders have attempted to discredit born-alive laws by arguing that infanticide is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ already suffice to deter it .
In fact , several former abortion industry insiders and policy scholars have told Congress that many cases of infanticide are not captured by the official numbers .
Further , the existing federal laws on the subject do not contain specific criminal penalties for withholding medical treatment from newborns .
Over the past year , Democrats in the US House of Representatives have repeatedly blocked a similar born-alive law that would have applied nationwide .
Last month , that bill failed to pass the GOP-controlled US Senate because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 60 votes for most legislation rather than a simple majority .

'Today we're going to put a stake in the sand that says for us, for us at least we stand for life and we stand for the right stuff'
CHARLESTON, March 3, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice signed legislation Monday banning the killing of infants who survive attempted abortions, a state-level version of an effort which remains stalled nationally.
The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act requires abortionists to administer basic medical treatment to children delivered alive after failed abortions. Violators would face discipline from their medical licensing board, up to and including potential revocation of their license.
The bill passed the state House in January, and unanimously cleared the state Senate last month. After returning to the House to reconcile lingering differences between the text of both versions, the bill was signed into law by the governor, ABC News reports.
Calling it “unbelievable, to tell you the truth, that we have to do such a thing,” Justice declared that “today we're going to put a stake in the sand that says for us, for us at least we stand for life and we stand for the right stuff.”
Abortion defenders have attempted to discredit born-alive laws by arguing that infanticide is a myth, and that existing laws already suffice to deter it. In fact, several former abortion industry insiders and policy scholars have told Congress that many cases of infanticide are not captured by the official numbers. Further, the existing federal laws on the subject do not contain specific criminal penalties for withholding medical treatment from newborns.
Over the past year, Democrats in the US House of Representatives have repeatedly blocked a similar born-alive law that would have applied nationwide. Last month, that bill failed to pass the GOP-controlled US Senate because the chamber’s current rules require 60 votes for most legislation rather than a simple majority.
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lifesitenews--2020-03-03--There’s undeniable proof for God’s existence. Most people just ignore it

March 3 , 2020 ( LifeSiteNews ) — Surveys indicate that the number of atheists and agnostics in the modern West is ever on the rise .
Materialists and secularists regard this as a victory of “ reason ” over the prejudices of credulity .
But is it really so ?
Or are we not seeing rather a rise in the foolishness caused by lack of attentiveness to reality and a laziness in reasoning about the world we experience ?
One of the most important kinds of argument for the existence of God is the “ teleological , ” from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , purpose .
The teleological argument seeks to establish the existence of God on the basis of the way natural things act for the sake of an end , or on the basis of order and beauty in the world .
The argument can take three basic forms : from the nature of desire and the good , from the directedness of things to ends , and from the beautiful design of natural things or their parts .
All things — it ’ s obvious , at least , with living beings — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , something good for them .
A thing would not begin to move unless it was moved by a desired end .
Yet it is impossible to maintain that this is good for that , and that again for something else , unless there is a first and most desirable good that draws all other things to itself .
Without somehow having a likeness to or sharing in that supreme good , no inferior good could have the character of an end to be sought .
In one of his famous “ Five @ @ @ @ @ @ @ demonstrations of the existence of God — St. Thomas Aquinas , whose feast is traditionally celebrated on March 7 , the day of his birth into eternal life , appeals to the consistently purposeful behavior of non-intellectual beings : We see that some things which lack knowledge operate for the sake of an end ; which is apparent from this , that always or more frequently they operate in the same way , so that they may attain to that which is best ; hence it is clear that it is not by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they arrive at the end .
But those things which do not have knowledge do not tend towards an end except as directed by something which is knowing and understanding , as the arrow is shot to its mark by the archer .
Therefore , there is some intelligent being by which all natural things are ordered to an end , and this we call God .
( Summa theologiae , I.2.3 ) The crucial premise in this argument is that intelligence alone can be responsible for directing one thing to another in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grasps the proportion between the end to be attained and the means to be employed .
In other words , intelligence compares existing means to an end not yet existing in reality but only in thought or intention .
If someone asks me to cook breakfast , I have to know several things : there are eggs sitting in the refrigerator ; they can be cracked and beaten ; the pan can be heated up and the eggs cooked in butter with a spatula ; and finally , they can be served as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and we take such things for granted , but it takes only a moment ’ s thought to appreciate how complex the activity is .
I have to understand multiple available means and their relationship to one another and then execute the actions in an orderly manner to reach the goal successfully .
If I put the carton into the pan , or crack the eggs over the floor , or put the heat too low or too high , or make any number of other blunders , the project will fail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is enough to make us realize anew the intelligence and skill required for even elementary kitchen work , let alone gourmet cooking .
Now consider the natural world .
From birth , a spider “ knows ” how to weave webs according to a sophisticated geometrical pattern that takes into account tension , wind , visibility , size of prey , and other such variables .
Although lacking intelligence to understand , deliberate , and execute actions freely , the spider perfectly attains its end of capturing insects as food — and this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a larger program of maintaining its life and perpetuating its species .
Just as the arrow would never reach the target unless directed to it by an archer , so the spider could not weave its web and perpetuate its species unless it were directed by an intelligent being who implants in the spider its well ordered instincts .
Observation of the behavior of the hunting wasp in particular convinced the famous entomologist J. Henri Fabre that the modern theory of instinct , which derives the highly intricate behavior of animals from a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the worst of all “ just-so stories.
” This wasp has to sting its prey in nine precise places along the principal nerve in order to paralyze rather than kill it , so that the wasp larva can feast on a living caterpillar .
If the caterpillar is not stung in precisely this way and these places ( and the probability of doing that by chance is vanishingly small ) , the larva will not have proper food , and the species will die out .
Since the adult wasp dies before the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be born with the ability to perform this sophisticated act .
If the ability or “ know-how ” does not pre-exist , the species will not be able to exist .
The same thing can be seen in any plant or animal .
All arrive on the scene of nature with a manner of operating suited to their needs , the result neither of internal intelligence nor of chance .
Each insect , bird , flower , tree “ inherits ” this inborn behavior from its progenitors , who inherited it from their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ among higher animals , a certain amount of learning that takes place , but it is always within the realm of their inborn capacities and tendencies , and it never goes beyond the level of sensation of singulars . )
It is impossible to attribute such perfection of design to the factors mentioned above — learning , chance , reason in the creature itself .
The only possible explanation is that it has been inscribed in their being by the supreme Artist of nature .
Truly , then , as the Psalmist says @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” who “ hath said in his heart : There is no God ” ( Ps 13 [ 14 ] :1 ) .
Next week , I will address some objections to this line of argument .

Truly, as the Psalmist says, it is only 'the fool' who 'hath said in his heart: There is no God.'
March 3, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Surveys indicate that the number of atheists and agnostics in the modern West is ever on the rise. Materialists and secularists regard this as a victory of “reason” over the prejudices of credulity. But is it really so? Or are we not seeing rather a rise in the foolishness caused by lack of attentiveness to reality and a laziness in reasoning about the world we experience?
One of the most important kinds of argument for the existence of God is the “teleological,” from the Greek telos: goal, end, purpose. The teleological argument seeks to establish the existence of God on the basis of the way natural things act for the sake of an end, or on the basis of order and beauty in the world. The argument can take three basic forms: from the nature of desire and the good, from the directedness of things to ends, and from the beautiful design of natural things or their parts.
All things — it’s obvious, at least, with living beings — act for the good — that is, something good for them. A thing would not begin to move unless it was moved by a desired end. Yet it is impossible to maintain that this is good for that, and that again for something else, unless there is a first and most desirable good that draws all other things to itself. Without somehow having a likeness to or sharing in that supreme good, no inferior good could have the character of an end to be sought.
In one of his famous “Five Ways” — that is, five demonstrations of the existence of God — St. Thomas Aquinas, whose feast is traditionally celebrated on March 7, the day of his birth into eternal life, appeals to the consistently purposeful behavior of non-intellectual beings:
We see that some things which lack knowledge operate for the sake of an end; which is apparent from this, that always or more frequently they operate in the same way, so that they may attain to that which is best; hence it is clear that it is not by chance, but by tendency, that they arrive at the end. But those things which do not have knowledge do not tend towards an end except as directed by something which is knowing and understanding, as the arrow is shot to its mark by the archer. Therefore, there is some intelligent being by which all natural things are ordered to an end, and this we call God. (Summa theologiae, I.2.3)
The crucial premise in this argument is that intelligence alone can be responsible for directing one thing to another in an orderly way, because only intelligence grasps the proportion between the end to be attained and the means to be employed. In other words, intelligence compares existing means to an end not yet existing in reality but only in thought or intention.
If someone asks me to cook breakfast, I have to know several things: there are eggs sitting in the refrigerator; they can be cracked and beaten; the pan can be heated up and the eggs cooked in butter with a spatula; and finally, they can be served as food on plates. It seems simple, and we take such things for granted, but it takes only a moment’s thought to appreciate how complex the activity is. I have to understand multiple available means and their relationship to one another and then execute the actions in an orderly manner to reach the goal successfully. If I put the carton into the pan, or crack the eggs over the floor, or put the heat too low or too high, or make any number of other blunders, the project will fail. Experience with small children in kitchens is enough to make us realize anew the intelligence and skill required for even elementary kitchen work, let alone gourmet cooking.
Now consider the natural world. From birth, a spider “knows” how to weave webs according to a sophisticated geometrical pattern that takes into account tension, wind, visibility, size of prey, and other such variables. Although lacking intelligence to understand, deliberate, and execute actions freely, the spider perfectly attains its end of capturing insects as food — and this, moreover, as one step in a larger program of maintaining its life and perpetuating its species. Just as the arrow would never reach the target unless directed to it by an archer, so the spider could not weave its web and perpetuate its species unless it were directed by an intelligent being who implants in the spider its well ordered instincts.
Observation of the behavior of the hunting wasp in particular convinced the famous entomologist J. Henri Fabre that the modern theory of instinct, which derives the highly intricate behavior of animals from a long sequence of chance events, is the worst of all “just-so stories.” This wasp has to sting its prey in nine precise places along the principal nerve in order to paralyze rather than kill it, so that the wasp larva can feast on a living caterpillar. If the caterpillar is not stung in precisely this way and these places (and the probability of doing that by chance is vanishingly small), the larva will not have proper food, and the species will die out. Since the adult wasp dies before the larva grows up, every wasp must be born with the ability to perform this sophisticated act. If the ability or “know-how” does not pre-exist, the species will not be able to exist.
The same thing can be seen in any plant or animal. All arrive on the scene of nature with a manner of operating suited to their needs, the result neither of internal intelligence nor of chance. Each insect, bird, flower, tree “inherits” this inborn behavior from its progenitors, who inherited it from their progenitors. (There can be, among higher animals, a certain amount of learning that takes place, but it is always within the realm of their inborn capacities and tendencies, and it never goes beyond the level of sensation of singulars.)
It is impossible to attribute such perfection of design to the factors mentioned above — learning, chance, reason in the creature itself. The only possible explanation is that it has been inscribed in their being by the supreme Artist of nature.
Truly, then, as the Psalmist says, it is only “the fool” who “hath said in his heart: There is no God” (Ps 13[14]:1).
Next week, I will address some objections to this line of argument.
Peter Kwasniewski, Thomistic theologian, liturgical scholar, and choral composer, is a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College in California (B.A. Liberal Arts) and The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC (M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy). He taught at the International Theological Institute in Austria and the Franciscan University of Steubenville’s Austria Program, then helped establish Wyoming Catholic College in 2006. There he taught theology, philosophy, music, and art history and directed the choirs until leaving in 2018 to devote himself full-time to writing and lecturing. Today he contributes regularly to many websites and publications, including New Liturgical Movement, OnePeterFive, LifeSiteNews, Rorate Caeli, The Remnant, and Catholic Family News, and has published thirteen books, including four on traditional Catholicism: Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis (Angelico, 2014, also available in Czech, Polish, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Belarusian), Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness (Angelico, 2017), Tradition and Sanity (Angelico, 2018), and Reclaiming Our Roman Catholic Birthright: The Genius and Timeliness of the Traditional Latin Mass (Angelico, 2020). His work has been translated into at least eighteen languages. Kwasniewski is a scholar of The Aquinas Institute in Green Bay, which is publishing the Opera Omnia of the Angelic Doctor, a Fellow of the Albertus Magnus Center for Scholastic Studies, and a Senior Fellow of the St. Paul Center. He has published over a thousand articles on Thomistic thought, sacramental and liturgical theology, the history and aesthetics of music, and the social doctrine of the Church. For news, information, article links, sacred music, and the home of Os Justi Press, visit his personal website, www.peterkwasniewski.com.
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lifesitenews--2020-03-03--Ripping the mask off porn and the Canadian company that’s fueling the industry

March 3 , 2020 ( LifeSiteNews ) — It might come as a surprise to Canadian readers of LifeSite but one of the biggest promotors of the porn industry is a company not located in the United States but right here in Canada .
Jason Evert , a popular Catholic speaker who has continuously warned about the real harm porn has on people , joined me on this week ’ s John-Henry Westen Show to discuss the dangers of watching it .
MindGeek.com is a Montreal-based IT company established over a decade ago by student programmers from Concordia University — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Buscemi , president of Campagne Quebéc-Vie , looked into the history of MindGeek and discovered that it essentially founded the online porn industry in the mid 2000s .
“ They were able to take an industry that was kind of behind the times technologically and they brought it to the next level , ” Buscemi told me on this week ’ s John-Henry Westen Show .
“ When YouTube really hit the mainstream , they started PornHub.
” Today , PornHub.com is one of the biggest porn sites in the world , generating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of views each and every day .
Buscemi recently went to the MindGeek headquarters , which is located in a multi-cultural neighborhood in Montreal .
What he found was a company trying to hide its real self under the mask of professionalism .
“ They want to portray themselves as a run of the mill bland startup tech company and that they 're just a bunch of geeks and that they like programing…they want to keep it that way because they do n't want anyone to be embarrassed or uncomfortable with the situation.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ located in a nondescript building .
It ’ s website is also super chic .
In many ways , it ’ s a perfect symbol of the porn industry — trying to look attractive on the outside but hiding something ugly and evil on the inside .
The real crime of MindGeek , other than rotting the minds and souls of millions , is that they are complicit in broadcasting sex trafficking and rape victims across the internet .
They don ’ t police themselves and don ’ t follow the laws , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t cracking down on them .
Jason Evert told me about the psychological damage being done to people who consume porn .
“ The parts of the brain that are impacted from pornography use are the same as when taking a heroin or cocaine .
And so it 's not simply a spiritual battle or a , you know , emotional battle or whatever — temptation , lust .
It 's a physiological thing that we 're tapping into here , ” he told me on this week ’ s episode .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ think of MindGeek , I ’ m reminded of when Our Lady of Fatima said more souls go to hell because of sins of the flesh than any other sins .
People not just in the United States but also and especially Canada must stand up and call on the authorities to shut down these rotten businesses once and for all .
The John-Henry Westen Show is available by video on the show ’ s YouTube channel and right here on my LifeSite blog .
It is also available in audio format on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and ACast .
We are awaiting approval for iTunes and Google Play as well .
To subscribe to the audio version on various channels , visit the ACast webpage here .
We ’ ve created a special email list for the show so that we can notify you every week when we post a new episode .
Please sign up now by clicking here .
You can also subscribe to the YouTube channel , and you ’ ll be notified by YouTube when there is new content .
You can send me feedback @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emailing [ email protected ] .

MindGeek.com is a Montreal-based IT company that serves as the parent company of PornHub, one of the biggest porn sites in the world.
PETITION: Authorities must shut down Pornhub after showing rape videos of 15-year-old trafficking victim. Sign the petition here.
(Editor’s note: The original version of this article, which was published on or about March 3, 2020, misstated that Stephane Manos and Ouissam Youssef established MindGeek. In fact, Manos and Youssef established a company known as Mansef, the assets of which were sold to Fabian Thylmann, who made them part of a company he owned called Manwin, whose name was later changed to MindGeek.)
March 3, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — It might come as a surprise to Canadian readers of LifeSite but one of the biggest promotors of the porn industry is a company not located in the United States but right here in Canada. Jason Evert, a popular Catholic speaker who has continuously warned about the real harm porn has on people, joined me on this week’s John-Henry Westen Show to discuss the dangers of watching it.
MindGeek.com is a Montreal-based IT company established over a decade ago by student programmers from Concordia University — Stephane Manos and Ouissam Youssef.
Georges Buscemi, president of Campagne Quebéc-Vie, looked into the history of MindGeek and discovered that it essentially founded the online porn industry in the mid 2000s.
“They were able to take an industry that was kind of behind the times technologically and they brought it to the next level,” Buscemi told me on this week’s John-Henry Westen Show. “When YouTube really hit the mainstream, they started PornHub.”
Today, PornHub.com is one of the biggest porn sites in the world, generating over $800 million dollars and millions of views each and every day.
Buscemi recently went to the MindGeek headquarters, which is located in a multi-cultural neighborhood in Montreal. What he found was a company trying to hide its real self under the mask of professionalism.
“They want to portray themselves as a run of the mill bland startup tech company and that they're just a bunch of geeks and that they like programing…they want to keep it that way because they don't want anyone to be embarrassed or uncomfortable with the situation.”
Buscemi told me that MindGeek is located in a nondescript building. It’s website is also super chic. In many ways, it’s a perfect symbol of the porn industry — trying to look attractive on the outside but hiding something ugly and evil on the inside.
The real crime of MindGeek, other than rotting the minds and souls of millions, is that they are complicit in broadcasting sex trafficking and rape victims across the internet. They don’t police themselves and don’t follow the laws, Buscemi said. Moreover, politicians aren’t cracking down on them.
Jason Evert told me about the psychological damage being done to people who consume porn.
“The parts of the brain that are impacted from pornography use are the same as when taking a heroin or cocaine. And so it's not simply a spiritual battle or a, you know, emotional battle or whatever — temptation, lust. It's a physiological thing that we're tapping into here,” he told me on this week’s episode.
Jason is absolutely right. When I think of MindGeek, I’m reminded of when Our Lady of Fatima said more souls go to hell because of sins of the flesh than any other sins. People not just in the United States but also and especially Canada must stand up and call on the authorities to shut down these rotten businesses once and for all.
The John-Henry Westen Show is available by video on the show’s YouTube channel and right here on my LifeSite blog.
It is also available in audio format on platforms such as Spotify, Soundcloud, and ACast. We are awaiting approval for iTunes and Google Play as well. To subscribe to the audio version on various channels, visit the ACast webpage here.
We’ve created a special email list for the show so that we can notify you every week when we post a new episode. Please sign up now by clicking here. You can also subscribe to the YouTube channel, and you’ll be notified by YouTube when there is new content.
You can send me feedback, or ideas for show topics by emailing [email protected].
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lifesitenews--2020-03-03--New head of German bishops was behind document defending contraception, masturbation, homosexuality

MAINZ , Germany , March 3 , 2020 ( LifeSiteNews ) – The new president of the German Bishops ’ Conference , Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg , was responsible for a working document on sexual morality published ahead of the Synodal Path in 2019 defending use of contraception , masturbation , and an active homosexual lifestyle .
Last year , Bätzing had asked Catholics to discuss the question of blessing homosexual unions .
A diocesan official wrote in a letter , “ Bishop Georg Bätzing asks that this important question [ of a blessing for couples who can not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discussed in the diocese of Limburg in an open and uncontroversial manner .
He has established a process group in order to accompany and structure this discourse.
” Bätzing , who was made a bishop only in 2016 , also supported making celibacy optional .
“ I believe that it does not harm the Church if priests are free to choose whether they want to live in marriage or remain celibate , ” he said in an interview .
“ Celibacy is worth a lot to me , for that is how Jesus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As a priest , I don ’ t want to be just a functionary and a civil servant , but I want to follow in [ his ] footsteps.
” His expectation was that most priests would be married , though .
“ Celibacy is not substantially connected to the priesthood .
And if it becomes more and more of an obstacle , then we must reconsider it , ” Bätzing said in 2019 .
In that context , the bishop showed his openness for making celibacy optional in Germany , as long @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ I ’ m very much in favor of doing this , ” he emphasized .
Earlier today , Bätzing was elected at the spring meeting of the German bishops in Mainz .
He succeeded Cardinal Reinhard Marx , who announced in January that he would not be available for a second term as president of the German Bishops ’ Conference .
While Marx was bishop of Trier from 2002 until 2008 , Bätzing headed the diocesan seminary ( from 1996 until 2010 ) .
In preparation for the Synodal Path , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the Central Committee of German Catholics , Bätzing was one of two people overseeing the work of the committee on sexual morality .
He was recently confirmed in that position .
The 21-page working document served as a basis for discussion at the first assembly of the Synodal Path in Frankfurt earlier this year .
It demands that sexual morality must develop “ on the basis of insights of the human sciences , including the life experience [ … ] of ( faithful ) loving people.
” The document encourages the Church @ @ @ @ @ @ @ namely “ psychology , sociology , anthropology.
” That would open up the many prohibitions of sexual morality as proposed by the teaching authority of the Church , “ which sees sexual activity only within marriage , and still directed strongly towards procreation.
” Consequently , the document justifies the use of contraception , the practice of masturbation , and an active homosexual lifestyle .
Regarding contraception , the working document states , “ Not every sexual act must remain open to procreation : the principle of responsible parenthood is extended to include @ @ @ @ @ @ @ free choice of a means of contraception appropriate to the respective life situation .
Family planning , even by means of artificial contraception , is not a hostile act , but supports the right of a couple to make a responsible joint decision on the number of children , the intervals between births and the concrete means of family planning.
” The Catechism of the Catholic Church , on the other hand , refers to the encyclical Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI , teaching “ that ‘ each and every marriage act @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the transmission of life.
’ ” The Catechism adds , “ This particular doctrine , expounded on numerous occasions by the Magisterium , is based on the inseparable connection , established by God , which man on his own initiative may not break , between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act ” ( CCC 2366 ) .
Pope John Paul II wrote in Familiaris Consortio , “ When couples , by means of recourse to contraception , separate these two meanings that God @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of man and woman and in the dynamism of their sexual communion , they act as ‘ arbiters ’ of the divine plan and they ‘ manipulate ’ and degrade human sexuality – and with it themselves and their married partner – by altering its value of ‘ total ’ self-giving.
” Without using the term “ masturbation , ” the working document in preparation of the Synodal Path in Germany states , “ The joyful experience of one ’ s own body ( self sex ) can also mean a responsible approach @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Again , the Catechism teaches on this , quoting from a document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , “ ‘ Both the Magisterium of the Church , in the course of a constant tradition , and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action.
’ ‘ The deliberate use of the sexual faculty , for whatever reason , outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose.
’ For here sexual pleasure is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved ’ ” ( CCC 2352 ) .
Finally , according to the working document , “ homosexual acts also realize positive meaningful values , insofar as they are an expression of friendship , reliability , loyalty and support in life.
” Homosexuality , it adds , should no longer be considered as intrinsically evil .
A blessing of homosexual unions is not excluded by the working @ @ @ @ @ @ @ teaching of the Church as expressed in the Catechism .
There , it says , “ Basing itself on Sacred Scripture , which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity , tradition has always declared that ‘ homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.
’ They are contrary to the natural law .
They close the sexual act to the gift of life .
They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity .
Under no circumstances can they be approved ” ( CCC 2357 ) .
While not endorsing women ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said he recognizes the issue .
“ But as a bishop I must take seriously that the exclusion of women from ordained ministries is perceived as fundamentally unjust and inappropriate in a social environment that has long since placed women and men on an equal footing in their right , ” he said in a sermon on New Year ’ s Eve 2019 .
“ The arguments , which are presented in an honest way , for a sacramental ministry in the Church only for men have long been subject to critical consideration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ longer accepted by many of the faithful.
” At the press conference following his election as president of the German Bishops ’ Conference , Bätzing voiced his support for the Synodal Path .
“ I stand for this completely and utterly , ” he affirmed , adding , “ I am very convinced that this is a way of practicing a new togetherness of laity and bishops in the German church.
” Asked about the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia , Bätzing only said , “ He may not have taken a position @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not mean that we can not do so.
” Cardinal Marx took a similar approach after the document was published in February .
He stressed that the apostolic exhortation “ neither wants to replace nor to repeat ” the final document of the synod , which had called married priests .
“ By no means is it off the table with the publication of the exhortation !
Rather , Pope Francis speaks of his desire ‘ to officially present the final document ’ together with the Apostolic Letter , and invites us ‘ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Marx said .

PETITION: Join faithful German Catholics in resisting bishops’ plan to ‘Protestantize’ Church Sign the petition here.
MAINZ, Germany, March 3, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – The new president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, was responsible for a working document on sexual morality published ahead of the Synodal Path in 2019 defending use of contraception, masturbation, and an active homosexual lifestyle.
Last year, Bätzing had asked Catholics to discuss the question of blessing homosexual unions. A diocesan official wrote in a letter, “Bishop Georg Bätzing asks that this important question [of a blessing for couples who cannot marry in the Catholic Church] be discussed in the diocese of Limburg in an open and uncontroversial manner. He has established a process group in order to accompany and structure this discourse.”
Bätzing, who was made a bishop only in 2016, also supported making celibacy optional. “I believe that it does not harm the Church if priests are free to choose whether they want to live in marriage or remain celibate,” he said in an interview.
“Celibacy is worth a lot to me, for that is how Jesus lived,” Bätzing admitted. “As a priest, I don’t want to be just a functionary and a civil servant, but I want to follow in [his] footsteps.”
His expectation was that most priests would be married, though. “Celibacy is not substantially connected to the priesthood. And if it becomes more and more of an obstacle, then we must reconsider it,” Bätzing said in 2019.
In that context, the bishop showed his openness for making celibacy optional in Germany, as long as the Pope allows for that option.
“I’m very much in favor of doing this,” he emphasized.
Earlier today, Bätzing was elected at the spring meeting of the German bishops in Mainz. He succeeded Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who announced in January that he would not be available for a second term as president of the German Bishops’ Conference.
While Marx was bishop of Trier from 2002 until 2008, Bätzing headed the diocesan seminary (from 1996 until 2010).
In preparation for the Synodal Path, which the German bishops launched in cooperation with the Central Committee of German Catholics, Bätzing was one of two people overseeing the work of the committee on sexual morality. He was recently confirmed in that position.
The 21-page working document served as a basis for discussion at the first assembly of the Synodal Path in Frankfurt earlier this year. It demands that sexual morality must develop “on the basis of insights of the human sciences, including the life experience […] of (faithful) loving people.”
The document encourages the Church to rely upon the human sciences, namely “psychology, sociology, anthropology.” That would open up the many prohibitions of sexual morality as proposed by the teaching authority of the Church, “which sees sexual activity only within marriage, and still directed strongly towards procreation.”
Consequently, the document justifies the use of contraception, the practice of masturbation, and an active homosexual lifestyle.
Regarding contraception, the working document states, “Not every sexual act must remain open to procreation: the principle of responsible parenthood is extended to include the element of family planning through the free choice of a means of contraception appropriate to the respective life situation. Family planning, even by means of artificial contraception, is not a hostile act, but supports the right of a couple to make a responsible joint decision on the number of children, the intervals between births and the concrete means of family planning.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, on the other hand, refers to the encyclical Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI, teaching “that ‘each and every marriage act must remain open ‘per se’ to the transmission of life.’” The Catechism adds, “This particular doctrine, expounded on numerous occasions by the Magisterium, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act” (CCC 2366).
Pope John Paul II wrote in Familiaris Consortio, “When couples, by means of recourse to contraception, separate these two meanings that God the Creator has inscribed in the being of man and woman and in the dynamism of their sexual communion, they act as ‘arbiters’ of the divine plan and they ‘manipulate’ and degrade human sexuality – and with it themselves and their married partner – by altering its value of ‘total’ self-giving.”
Without using the term “masturbation,” the working document in preparation of the Synodal Path in Germany states, “The joyful experience of one’s own body (self sex) can also mean a responsible approach to one’s own sexuality.”
Again, the Catechism teaches on this, quoting from a document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “‘Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action.’ ‘The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose.’ For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of ‘the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved’” (CCC 2352).
Finally, according to the working document, “homosexual acts also realize positive meaningful values, insofar as they are an expression of friendship, reliability, loyalty and support in life.” Homosexuality, it adds, should no longer be considered as intrinsically evil. A blessing of homosexual unions is not excluded by the working document.
These statements also contradict the teaching of the Church as expressed in the Catechism. There, it says, “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved” (CCC 2357).
While not endorsing women’s “ordination,” Bätzing has said he recognizes the issue.
“But as a bishop I must take seriously that the exclusion of women from ordained ministries is perceived as fundamentally unjust and inappropriate in a social environment that has long since placed women and men on an equal footing in their right,” he said in a sermon on New Year’s Eve 2019.
“The arguments, which are presented in an honest way, for a sacramental ministry in the Church only for men have long been subject to critical consideration in theology, and are simply no longer accepted by many of the faithful.”
At the press conference following his election as president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bätzing voiced his support for the Synodal Path.
“I stand for this completely and utterly,” he affirmed, adding, “I am very convinced that this is a way of practicing a new togetherness of laity and bishops in the German church.”
Asked about the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia, Bätzing only said, “He may not have taken a position on some issues, but that does not mean that we cannot do so.”
Cardinal Marx took a similar approach after the document was published in February.
He stressed that the apostolic exhortation “neither wants to replace nor to repeat” the final document of the synod, which had called married priests.
“By no means is it off the table with the publication of the exhortation! Rather, Pope Francis speaks of his desire ‘to officially present the final document’ together with the Apostolic Letter, and invites us ‘to read it in full,’” Marx said.
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