Top Vatican diplomat says decline of the West not irreversible
- Apr 14, 2021
Sister Nathalie Becquart believes Pope Francis is using synods to gradually build consensus and preserve Church unity.
According to Mexican Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes no one in Mexico “can claim that they didn’t know how to act” when it comes to clerical sexual abuse.
Poor people from the Amazon have shown that God’s creation must be treated “not as a resource to be exploited but as a home to be preserved, with trust in God,” Pope Francis said.
With the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon in the final stretch, the Vatican Museums unveiled a new exhibit dedicated to the people, customs and Catholic faith in the Amazon.
On the heels of a bold call by Amazon region bishops for married men to become priests, Pope Francis is urging openness to new ways, and in a possible slap at conservative critics who fear he is weakening the Catholic Church’s foundations, he cautions faithful against entering the “swampy waters of ideologies.”
Capping off the Synod, Pope Francis directed the attention of the global Church to the poor of the Amazon.
On the eve of the conclusion of the Oct. 6-27 Vatican summit on the Amazon, one of the participants said he regrets that too much of the discussion has been about ordaining married men to the priesthood and women to the diaconate.
Saying he was speaking as the “Bishop of Rome,” meaning the head of the local church in the Eternal City, Pope Francis requested “pardon” Friday from anyone who was offended by the theft of the indigenous statues of a naked pregnant woman and their being thrown into the Tiber River.