Catholic Church

By Peter J. Leithart, First Things - Advent, which will begin in a little over a week, celebrates the coming of the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. The good news of his arrival is first announced to actual shepherds in the fields around Bethlehem. That’s a clue to the scope and aims of Jesus’s mission, a sign the coming of the Good Shepherd will produce a host of good shepherds... Bethlehem’s worshipful shepherds symbolize Israel. From the beginning, Israel was a nation of shepherds. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob cared for flocks of sheep and goats.

By AC Wimmer, Catholic News Agency - The Vatican has informed German bishops in writing that the ordination of women and changes in the Church’s teaching on homosexuality cannot be subjects of discussion in the upcoming meetings with delegates of the German Synodal Way in Rome... The letter, dated Oct. 23, also reminded the bishops of potential disciplinary consequences for anyone defying the teaching of the Church, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

By Courtney Mares, Catholic World Report - Bishop Robert Barron has said that he is in “frank disagreement” with the final report of the Synod on Synodality’s claim that advances in the sciences require an evolution in the Church’s moral teaching on human sexuality... (Barron) said it is “troubling” to see how members of the German bishops’ conference are already “using the language of the synod report to justify major reformulations of the Church’s sexual teaching.”... He called this language “condescending to the richly articulate tradition of moral reflection in Catholicism,” including the theology of the body developed by St. John Paul II.

By Dr. John Lamont, Complicit Clergy - Pope Francis has recently published answers to two sets of dubia submitted to him by members of the College of Cardinals: one set submitted by Cardinals Brandmüller, Burke, Sandoval, Sarah, and Zen on July 10, 2023, and the other set submitted by Cardinal Dominik Duka on July 13, 2023. Pope Francis responded to the dubia of the five cardinals on July 11 and made this reponse public on October 2. On September 25, 2023, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith responded to dubia proposed by Cardinal Dominik Duka .......