Vatican News

Pope Francis decries ‘predatory models of development’ in Amazon synod closing Mass

Vatican City, Oct 27, 2019 / 04:55 am (CNA).- Pope Francis denounced exploitation and “predatory models of development” that plunder the poor and wound “sister earth” in the Amazon Synod closing Mass Sunday. 

“In this Synod we have had the grace of listening to the voices of the poor and reflecting on the precariousness of their lives, threatened by predatory models of development,” Pope Francis said in his homily Oct. 27.

Pope asks for focus on 'diagnosis' of Amazon synod report; warns against ‘elite Christians’ focusing on the ‘little things’

Vatican City, Oct 26, 2019 / 01:10 pm (CNA).- In his closing remarks for the Amazon synod Saturday, Pope Francis urged the media not to give undue attention to aspects of the assembly's final report addressing Church discipline  while ignoring the assembly’s “diagnoses” of cultural, social, pastoral and ecological issues in the Pan-Amazonian region.

Analysis: Why 'Pachamama' took a dip

Vatican City, Oct 26, 2019 / 10:21 am (CNA).- Last week, Vatican Media interviewed Fr. Paulo Suess, a German priest who has served for decades among the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. Fr. Suess is in Rome as an official of the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, and is regarded there as an expert on the region.

The priest was asked about a ceremony held in St. Peter’s Basilica Oct. 7, which seemed to use both traditional Christian symbols and unexplained symbols of indigenous Amazonian culture.

Pope Francis apologizes that Amazon synod 'Pachamama' was thrown into Tiber River

Vatican City, Oct 25, 2019 / 10:43 am (CNA).- After controversial statues were thrown into Rome’s Tiber River, Pope Francis has issued an apology during Friday’s afternoon session of the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops on the Amazon.

“As bishop of this diocese,” Pope Francis, who is Bishop of Rome, said, “I ask forgiveness from those who have been offended by this gesture.”

‘A path is open for the ordination of women’ synod bishop claims 

Vatican City, Oct 25, 2019 / 10:20 am (CNA).- A Brazilian bishop has called for the ordination of women to the diaconate for service in the Amazon region. The bishop said that 2009 revisions to canon law could allow for the ordination of women deacons, but a leading canon lawyer in the Vatican has disputed that idea.

Bishop Evaristo Pascoal Spengler, OFM leads the territorial prelature of Marajó in Brazil and is participating as a member of the Synod on the Pan-Amazonian region in Rome.

Cardinal Koch: the Gospel must incorporate and purify culture

Vatican City, Oct 24, 2019 / 05:10 am (CNA).- The head of the Vatican’s Christian unity office says inculturation of the Gospel is a necessary part of evangelization, but also requires discernment of what in that culture may need “purification.”

“Evangelization always needs inculturation, so that the Gospel will be understood in different cultures,” Cardinal Kurt Koch told EWTN News Oct. 23.

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