In a powerful rebuke to the culture war mentality that has often marked the public witness of the Catholic hierarchy, Pope Francis told bishops gathered for a major church meeting on families not to blame others for the changes to marriage today, and said a church that constantly explains doctrines without providing real support to families “is dangerously unbalanced.”
Source: Pope to bishops: Don’t blame others for gay marriage, family problems – Religion News Service
Pope Francis ended his exhaustive six-day, three-city tour of the U.S. Sunday with a strong exhortation to American Catholics to be unafraid of trying new things, even if they seem to threaten long-practiced traditions or existing church structures.In a homily to hundreds of thousands at an outdoor Mass packing Philadelphia’s iconic Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Francis said that Jesus’ disciples were also afraid of new things — but that Jesus broke down all barriers to allow the Spirit to do its work.
Source: Francis’ last message to America: Don’t be afraid of new things! | National Catholic Reporter
Pope Francis came here to the city of Brotherly Love to talk about his vision for the future of the family – not about abortion, or contraception, or same-sex marriage, but love. He has been increasingly unscripted and unpredictable in Philadelphia, which is making conservatives from inside and outside the Catholic church very, very nervous. This pope is taking his church from the culture wars into the streets – and that’s a good thing.
In a powerful rebuke to the culture war mentality that has often marked the public witness of the Catholic hierarchy, Pope Francis told bishops gathered for a major church meeting on families not to blame others for the changes to marriage today, and said a church that constantly explains doctrines without providing real support to families “is dangerously unbalanced.”“We need to invest our energies not so much in rehearsing the problems of the world around us and the merits of Christianity, but in extending a sincere invitation to young people to be brave and to opt for marriage and the family,” Francis told bishops gathered at a seminary here on Sunday morning (Sept. 27), the final day of the pontiff’s grueling nine-day visit to Cuba and the U.S.
Source: Pope to bishops: Don’t blame others for gay marriage, family problems – Religion News Service
Para que vea “la fuerza del amor pese al rechazo”“Parejas unidas durante décadas con respeto y rezando”Los gays católicos de Estados Unidos invitaron el martes al papa Francisco a conocer personalmente su comunidad, aprovechando la visita del sumo pontífice a ese país.Francisco ha dejado claro que quiere que la Iglesia tenga una actitud más inclusiva hacia los creyentes que, según los criterios católicos, tienen estilos de vida “irregulares” como los gays y los divorciados.Las organizaciones Dignity USA y Human Rights Campaign, que defienden los derechos de gays, lesbianas, transexuales y bisexuales, esperan que la Iglesia dé un paso más hacia la inclusión.
Source: Cristianos Gays » Gays católicos de EEUU quieren reunirse con el papa
Speaking at a cathedral completed during the American civil war, in a diocese riven by changing politics and failing schools, Pope Francis sketched a vision for a more open, unified and adaptable Catholic church on Saturday morning in Philadelphia.Presiding over mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Sts Peter and Paul before an audience of about 1,600 people, the pope urged priests and lay Catholics to embrace a more personal, dynamic and active version of their faith.“I would like to think,” he said, “that the history of the church in this city and state is really a story not about building walls, but about breaking them down.”Pope in Philadelphia: message of love says family is the ‘future’ of church – as it happenedFree-wheeling remarks at World Meeting of Families focus on children and grandparents, not abortion or same-sex marriage Read morePope Francis spoke in particular about the importance of young people and women, saying it was time the church valued “the immense contribution” of lay and religious women, and suggesting that the church could not afford to stay mired in old ways. Reinvigorating people’s faith, he said, was “one of the great challenges facing the church in this generation”.
Source: Pope praises women and lays out vision to reinvigorate Catholic church | World news | The Guardian
Homosexuality was such a combustible topic at the World Meeting of Families, a four-day Catholic gathering under way here, that it was doused twice.First, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput earlier this month barred LGBT Catholics from holding a workshop at a Catholic parish near the event. It moved to a local United Methodist Church instead.
Then, just as the single session on homosexuality at this Vatican-approved meeting of Catholic families was to begin on Thursday afternoon (Sept. 24), a conference official took the stage in the main hall, capable of seating at least 10,000, and announced the location had been moved.Thousands of people got up and made their way up one floor to another room capable of seating only about 1,000. Hundreds of others were turned away, the doors shut on them by convention center officials citing fire code regulations.
Source: Hundreds shut out of sole session on gays at World Meeting of Families – Religion News Service
Les apparences sont trompeuses. Avec sept candidats à l’élection présidentielle de 2016, issus de ses rangs, l’Eglise catholique n’a jamais été aussi bien représentée au plus haut niveau de la politique américaine. Six candidats républicains – dont deux convertis, venus du protestantisme et de l’hindouisme – et un démocrate sont sur les rangs.Au Congrès, où le pape est attendu, jeudi 24 septembre au matin, les 164 élus catholiques constituent la deuxième force religieuse derrière la majorité protestante et totalisent 30 % des sièges alors qu’ils ne composent que 21 % de la population américaine. Plus frappant encore, six des neuf juges de la Cour suprême américaine sont catholiques, les trois autres étant juifs. Enfin, le vice-président, Joe Biden, de même que le « speaker » républicain de la chambre des représentants, John Boehner, sont tous deux des fidèles de l’Eglise catholique.
Source: Le Monde
Fr. Gil Martinez, CSP, the pastor of the parish whose members organized the video, “Owning Our Faith,” revealed that he personally handed Pope Francis a copy of the DVD in which LGBT Catholics discuss their identities and relationship with the church. The pope’s reaction was amazingly positive. Martinez spoke with The Huffington Post, telling about his visit to the Vatican where he had the chance to briefly meet the pontiff: “I gave [the DVD] to him and I said, ‘This is from the gays and lesbians of the of the United States. . .He thanked me very much and he said, ‘I would love to visit and talk to gay and lesbian people and please tell the gays to pray for me and I shall pray for them. . .It was a really great, great moment.”
Source: Pope Francis: “I Would Love to Visit and Talk to Gay and Lesbian People” | Bondings 2.0
