Christa Pongratz-Lippitt
NCR
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Past articles by Christa:
Pope Francis discusses married priests, women deacons with German newspaper
The church needs to discuss the ordination of proven married men as the lack of vocations has become an "enormous" problem, Pope Francis told the German weekly Die Zeit. → Read More
German group at family synod finds their suggestions in pope's exhortation
Suggestions made by the co-leaders of the German-speaking group at the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the family -- Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna and German Archbishop Heiner Koch of Berlin -- have made their way into Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia. Schönborn and Koch are delighted and "not a little proud" that certain suggestions their discussion group made in… → Read More
Austrian Cardinal Schonborn addresses Europe's refugee crisis
In a 50-minute interview as "Guest of the Week" on Austrian state television, Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn spoke of the mounting refugee crisis in Europe as well Pope Francis' work in his third anniversary of his pontificate. The flood of refugees struggling to flee to Europe from the Near East had been foreseeable, Schönborn said. The moment international financial aid to refugee camps… → Read More
Muller on 'Spotlight' cover-up: Most priests 'bitterly wronged' by abuse generalizations
Questioned on his reaction to the unveiling of systematic cover-up of priestly sexual abuse in the Oscar-winning film "Spotlight," the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, said that only a number of individuals not motivated by their priestly office but instead "disturbed or immature," have been proven guilty of sexually abusing minors. "The vast… → Read More
Cardinal Marx: Refugee problem will not grow smaller if borders closed
Cardinal Reinhard Marx has called for a reduction in the number of refugees Germany takes in. The president of the German bishops' conference has been, at the same time, one of the staunchest supporters of Chancellor Angela Merkel's "Open Doors" policy. Asked how long he thought Germany would be able to keep up its compassionate policy towards refugees, Marx told the German daily Passauer Neue… → Read More
Reform groups accuse Switzerland's nuncio of publicly criticizing Pope Francis
Twelve Catholic reform groups have accused the papal nuncio in Switzerland, U.S. Archbishop Thomas Gullickson, of publicly criticizing Pope Francis and have called on the Swiss bishops' conference to proclaim that the Swiss church is fully committed to the Second Vatican Council. The reform groups have formed an alliance entitled "Enough is Enough," and have warned the Swiss bishops that… → Read More
German bishops condemn sexual assault of women, warn against Muslim suspicion
The sexual harassment of women, some of whom were allegedly gang raped by immigrant men on New Year's Eve in Cologne and other German cities, has been sharply condemned by German bishops, who have, at the same, warned against general suspicion of Muslims. "There must be no room for sexual violence or sexism anywhere in our country. Marauding hordes of men violated human dignity in the most… → Read More
231 German boys choir members abused, three times the diocese's reported number
Two hundred and thirty-one young members of the famous German "Regensburger Domspatzen" boys choir were abused between 1953 and 1992, three times the official number published in the diocesan report of February 2015, according to an independent lawyer. At a press conference in Regensburg on Jan. 8, Ulrich Weber, an independent lawyer called in by the diocese in May 2015 to undertake further… → Read More
Müller denies that CDF received heresy accusations against pope
It is a great joy to witness Pope Francis' steadfast commitment to the poor, Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith Prefect Cardinal Gerhard Müller, told the German weekly Die Zeit in a lengthy, stocktaking interview on the state of the church in 2015. "The pope's espousal of the poor and his unflinching adherence to the fact that theologically the periphery is not the margin but the center [of… → Read More
Switzerland's new nuncio discusses Communion, same-sex marriage, divorced and remarried Catholics
Switzerland's new nuncio, U.S. Archbishop Thomas Gullickson, 66, called himself the Swiss church's advocate in matters beyond the competence of local bishops in a long interview in the Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger. One of the most influential Swiss dailies, Tages Anzeiger is based in Zürich and has a circulation of 457,000. During the October Synod of Bishops, Gullickson linked to sites which… → Read More
Evangelicals should not allow controversies over homosexuality to separate them
German Evangelicals should not cut themselves off from their fellow Protestants because they do not share their liberal approach to homosexuality, but should instead seek dialogue, said Michael Diener, the leader of the German Evangelical Alliance. Although Diener was "classically conservative" and could see no indication in the Bible for blessing homosexual partnerships and putting same-sex… → Read More
'Synodality must once again become a structural practice in the church,' German cardinals and theologians insist
Pope Francis has "given the bishops' synod back its freedom" so that this freedom not only applies to the synod but "particularly to the participation of the laity at consultations on the future of the faith," German Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz said at a three-day international theological congress entitled "Opening the Council -- Theology and Church under the Guiding Principle of the Second… → Read More
Pope’s concept of a synodal church must be put into practice, Marx says
The pope's concept of a synodal church, which Francis outlined in his address on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Synod of Bishops on Oct. 17, must be put into practice, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, the president of the German bishops' conference, has emphasized. "In this striking address in the middle of the synod, Pope Francis made it quite clear that the church's future path… → Read More