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Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Week of November 1, 1999

Canadian and Foreign News Highlights

RCs, Lutherans to sign historic pact:

After a procession from a Catholic cathedral to a Lutheran church, representatives of the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation will sign a joint declaration on the doctrine of justification. The brief walk Oct. 31 will mark the end of a long, sometimes difficult journey from mutual Lutheran-Catholic condemnations to agreement that justification and salvation come by faith alone. The signing will take place at an ecumenical prayer service in Augsburg, Germany, a city chosen for its place in the history of Lutheran-Catholic relations.

Curia blocked synod discussion - bishop:

While some members of the Synod of Bishops for Europe would favour admitting more married men to the priesthood, the suggestion will not find its way into the synod's conclusions, a Scottish archbishop said. "In our group, it certainly was discussed, as it had been during the synod for Oceania, but it didn't get very far" because of opposition from synod members from the Roman Curia, the Vatican's central offices, said Archbishop Keith O'Brien of St. Andrews and Edinburgh. O'Brien said married clergy was just one issue that highlighted a gap between diocesan bishops and curial officials in the synod's small working groups.

Vatican urges recovery of Byzantine traditions:

The Holy Year renewal of the Catholic Church must include the recovery of traditions the Eastern Catholic churches have lost or allowed to lapse, said a new Vatican document. Msgr. Claudio Gugerotti, undersecretary of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, said, "Latinization" - or adaptation to the practices of the Latin-rite Church - has led to the almost complete abandonment of "authentic Eastern practices: Baptism by immersion and the Eucharist under the species of bread and wine, not under the species of bread alone."

Bishops committed to justice:

The Catholic bishops of Canada have reaffirmed their commitment to social justice after cutting the budget of the social affairs office, laying off the department's French-sector director and reducing the number of members on their social affairs commission. The renewed commitment to the work of the commission, established by the bishops over 50 years ago, was made by the more than 80 prelates attending the annual plenary meeting of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in Cornwall Oct. 14-19. The plenary marked the 50th year that the CCCB has received a report from its social affairs commission. To celebrate the event, a short history of the actions of the bishops on behalf of social justice in the last half century was released.

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