Catholic Reading Wednesday & Men's Bible Study

With many thanks to our wonderful and insightful curator, Karen Celano, you can explore faith-related news topics each Wednesday! Karen writes this week in Catholic news:

The Synod on the Family:
1) Major news from the Vatican this week concerns the upcoming Synod on the Family. Several groups have already staked out their positions, especially with regard to the pastoral care of the divorced and remarried:

a. Some cardinals, such as Walter Kasper, have argued that the rules regarding readmission to communion should be relaxed, while others such as Cardinal Gerhard Muller and Cardinal Raymond Burke, have taken more stringent stances.

b. Even Catholic laypeople and non-Catholics have gotten involved: Rick Warren, along with 48 other laypersons and non-Catholics, have written an open letter to the synod urging them to uphold traditional Christian teachings on marriage.

2) In light of this upcoming Synod, several columnists have written on the topic of marriage. In Ethika Politika, Timothy Kirchoff argues that a subtle cultural shift has occurred in which it is no longer “possible to take for granted that nearly everyone would have at least a basic understanding of. . . the importance of marriage and family not only for individuals, but for society as a whole.” He relates the support for same-sex marriages to the rise of a generation “for whom single parenthood and divorce are normal and for whom a successful marriage seems more like a product of luck than of mutual effort.” In the absence of a compelling reason to uphold “traditional” marital ideals, the “redefinition” of marriage seems only logical. However, Kirchoff says, this “cultural and legal redefinition has not been for the better.” Marriage, he writes, “is not an outdated institution in need of redefinition, but a foundational social practice in need of conscientious, compassionate, and determined defenders.”

Please consider making a daily devotion to pray for the Holy Spirit's guidance,

and our own individual humility, as our Church leaders discuss these important issues!

Vatican News:
In other Vatican news, Sister Luzia Premoli has become the first woman to be appointed to a Vatican congregation – the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. She says that her appointment “is a concretization of Pope Francis’ wish for more women in high-ranking positions in the Catholic Church.”

Pro-Life News:
The New York Times editorial board sees in the upcoming senatorial elections signs that the “culture war” is shifting away from the pro-life cause, as candidates more and more openly critique their opponents for taking pro-life positions and as formerly pro-life candidates start to “soft-pedal or even retreat from their ideology.”

Religious Liberty:
In this thoughtful piece in The Atlantic, Dawinder Sidhu examines a religious liberty case about to appear before the Supreme Court – this time with regard to a Muslim prisoner’s right to grow a beard.

Religion and Culture:
Also from The Atlantic, Jon Fortenbury writes of the “health effects of leaving religion,” speaking about the PTSD-like symptoms of those who have abandoned “strict” religious groups (such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Latter-Day Saints, or Christian fundamentalism). Although much of his piece comes off as anti-religion, it may be important to read the stories of what he calls “deconverts,” in order to improve our own outreach and catechetical teaching.

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