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.
Friday 20 May 2022
1. The candidates to the presidency of the Italian Episcopal Conference
2. The friendship between a theologian pope and an atheist mathematician
3. The Church grows in North Korea despite persecution
4. In Germany, a questionnaire on the appointment of bishops leaked to press
5. How to think about the post-Christian era: the analyses of Jean-Luc Marion and Chantal Delsol
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The candidates to the presidency of the Italian Episcopal Conference
The Italian Episcopal Conference will elect its president between May 23 and 27, 2022, during the general assembly scheduled in Rome. The newly elected president will succeed Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti and will have the onerous task of addressing the issue of a historic investigation into the sexual abuse of minors in the Church in Italy. Pope Francis recently stated that he wanted the future president to be a “cardinal” and “authoritative.” Traditionally, it is the Pope who names the president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference. However, at the beginning of his pontificate, Francis asked that the bishops find their successor “themselves.” The bishops, opposed to this idea, asked the pontiff to allow them to vote and propose a “triad” of bishops from which he would choose. Cardinal Bassetti’s successor will have to decide whether or not it is time to launch a national investigation into pedophilia – a project that the ex-president put aside, explaining that “neither the injured community nor the Church would do a good service if we acted in haste, only in order to give numbers.”