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.
Rome & the World: Queen’s reign like the priesthood • Pope on TV: losing the sacred?
Credit: Antoine Mekary | ALETEIA
“It is priestly – the language, the structure, it’s very similar to an ordination of a priest or a bishop,” says Anglican Primate Justin Welby of the coronation of the Queen of England, who celebrated her 70th year on the throne on February 6, 2022. Speaking to the BBC, the Archbishop of Canterbury praises Elizabeth II's courage. He says the clearest example of her qualities was when she sat alone at her husband’s funeral. “That was leadership, it was doing the right thing, it was duty, it set an example,” commented the Archbishop. At 95, he says, the Queen " takes her duties seriously, but she doesn't take herself very seriously. She laughs in private, she has an absolutely superb sense of humor."
BBC, English
2The Pope on TV? A loss of the sense of the sacred, says journalist Lucetta Scaraffia
Do we really need the Pope to be a successful media figure? Lucetta Scaraffia, the former "Vatican feminist" who founded the monthly women's magazine of L'Osservatore Romano, criticizes the participation of Pope Francis in the program "Che tempo che fa" on the Italian television channel Rai 3. The head of the Catholic Church is becoming, she points out, "a celebrity like so many others" and even "a man like any other." In the "very difficult" moment that we are living, the historian believes, we do not need the Church to present itself as "a copy of society" but rather "to give us back the relationship with this mysterious force that is the sacred." In other words, since the sacred is what is "separate," "if we want to raise our eyes to the stars, if we want to awaken the desire for God within us," watching the television program in question "is not of much use," she concludes.
La Stampa, Italian
3A reflection on the link between justice and mercy, in the context of the abuse crisis
"Justice must be done - as for any crime - first of all for those who have been abused in any way," explains Father Pietro Messa in Il Cattolico before continuing in a more critical way. Justice must also be done when it comes to the accused, because until a trial is completed, an investigation does not necessarily mean guilt, the article explains. Every accusation must be subject to a regular trial. This was explained by the editorial director of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, Andrea Tornielli, who pointed out that the Munich report "is not a judicial investigation, let alone a final sentence." A final judgment must be accompanied by an investigative conclusion with supporting evidence. The same applies to journalists, who are entitled to information, but who must pay damages financially and criminally in case of false accusations. The link between justice and mercy remains unclear, notes the author, the fault of a polar opposition between these two fundamental values?
Il Cattolico, Italian
4The Spanish government attributes to the Church assets that do not exist
Churches that don’t exist anymore or premises that are underwater : these are some of the issues found in the list the Spanish government has created of properties owned by the Church in the country. For example a number of properties are listed in the city of Arguesino, which was destroyed in the 1960s to make space for the Almendra reservoir. Today these territories are either underwater or covered by concrete structures. There are similar cases in the cities of Nagore and Granadilla. The Spanish weekly Alfa y Omega says these are only three of the 2,575 issues in the list, including properties that are listed twice or that actually belong to other religious entities.
Alfa y Omega, Spanish
570 years of Comboni presence in Brazil and their commitment to the Amazon
In an interview published by Vatican News, Father Dario Bossi, coordinator of the Comboni Missionaries in Brazil, talks about the group’s mission and trajectory in light of their 70th year of action in the country. Father Bossi acknowledges that being a missionary carries “the risk of an evangelization that imposes its models and categories, of a colonial church.” However he states that the Comoboni have always tried to “to trust in the strengths and capacities of the people of God, so that they themselves are the protagonists of their own history, organization, journey.” Father Bossi is also an advisor to the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network, REPAM-Brazil, and explains that the Amazon is a priority for the Comboni in Brazil. Their work there focuses on operating “schools of mission and life.”
Vatican News, Portuguese
