Every day, Aleteia offers a selection of articles written by the international press about the Church and the major issues that concern Catholics around the world. The opinions and views expressed in these articles are not those of the editors.
1A group backing women’s ordination is included on the Vatican’s Synod site
The Vatican has included the group Women’s Ordination Conference on its website offering resources and information on the 2023 Synod. The article by the agency AP explains that this is significant since the Vatican has long held the group at arm’s length, as it is a movement that promotes the ordination of women as priests, which is forbidden by Catholic doctrine.
Right now the synod is in its local phase, meaning the Vatican has encouraged dioceses, associations, and Catholics to organize listening sessions where the faithful can share their hopes, needs, and concerns regarding the church. To adhere to this, the Women’s Ordination Conference had launched “Let Her Voice Carry,” a campaign which provided a toolkit to understand the synodal process and participate in it, and organized online listening sessions.
Associated Press, English
2The last bishop who participated in the 4 sessions of Vatican II has died
On January 18, the last bishop who had participated in the four sessions of the Second Vatican Council, Bishop Eloy Tato Losada, died at the age of 98 in the diocese of Astorga, Spain.
In 1962 he was one among around 2,000 priests called by Pope John XXIII to participate in the Second Vatican Council. Bishop Losada was born in 1923 in Villadequinta (Spain) and ordained in 1946. During his lifetime he was a parish priest and professor and rector at several seminaries. In 1960 he was named Apostolic Vicar of São Jorge (Colombia), becoming the youngest bishop in the world. Later in 1969 he was named as the first Bishop of Magangué (Colombia).
ACI Digital, Portuguese.
3Patriarch Kirill admits that part of the Orthodox world may go into schism
Tensions are growing between Moscow and Constantinople. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has not excluded that certain parts of the Orthodox world could pass into the camp of "schismatics," reports the Russian agency Interfax.
At the heart of the discord: the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in 2018. The fault line deepened further after more than a hundred clerics of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, who disagreed with the creation of the UCO, declared their desire to move closer to the Patriarchate of Moscow. At the end of December 2021, reports the agency, they were admitted to the Russian Orthodox Church, whose Synod established its exarchate in Africa, which provoked the indignation of the Greek bishops.
Interfax, English.
4A flag with a cross on it creates controversy in Boston
It is to defend a certain "neutrality with regard to religion" that the city of Boston wanted to ban flags with religious connotations. In 2017, a Christian movement, Camp Constitution, had been informed by the city officials that it could not fly its flag on the poles of the city reserved for various associations. The reason: a Latin cross on the flag, which could be interpreted as the city supporting the Christian religion. But on January 18, Supreme Court justices ruled in favor of Camp Constitution, saying that banning them from flying their flag could violate the right to free speech.
CNS, English
5The Order of Malta’s sovereignty will be ‘totally preserved,’ assures the Pope’s special delegate
In a letter issued on January 20, Cardinal Silvano Tomasi, Pope Francis’ special delegate charged with overseeing the reform of the constitution of the Order of Malta, has assured the leadership that the Order’s sovereignty will be “totally preserved.”
This came after a draft constitution was circulated among senior knights, causing criticisms. The main objections concerned the fact that this constitution would make the Order a subject of the Holy See, thus affecting its status under international law. The draft was not supposed to be shared widely and Cardinal Tomasi emphasized that neither his commission nor the Pope intend to “undermine the sovereignty of the Order.”
The Pillar, English.
