Leaked letter adds intrigue, confusion to Vatican bishops meeting

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

World | Mon Oct 12, 2015 4:11pm EDT

Leaked letter adds intrigue, confusion to Vatican bishops meeting

VATICAN CITY | BY PHILIP PULLELLA

A gathering of world Roman Catholic bishops was thrown into confusion on Monday with the leak of a letter from conservative cardinals to Pope Francis bitterly complaining that the meeting was stacked against them.

It was published by the same Italian journalist whose press credentials were stripped by the Holy See last June after he ran a leaked copy of the pope's major encyclical on the environment.

The gathering, or synod, of more than 300 bishops, delegates and observers, including some married couples, is discussing how the 1.2 billion-member Church can confront challenges facing the modern family.

The bishops are debating ways to defend the traditional family and make life-long marriage more appealing to young people, and at the same time reach out to disaffected Catholics such as homosexuals, co-habiting couples and the divorced.

L'Espresso newsweekly, which published the English-language letter in full, said 13 cardinals signed the letter and one of them hand-delivered it to the pope last week.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/12/us-pope-synod-idUSKCN0S623520151012

[Yorktown]

1. a letter from conservative cardinals to Pope Francis

a letter from conservative cardinals to Pope Francis bitterly complaining that the meeting was stacked against them.

Boo hoo hoo, what do they want?

A more reactionary doctrine?

[Cartoonist]

2. Retreat!!!!

Four of the conservative cardinals cited by the magazine later disassociated themselves from the letter. Several said private letters should remain so and one said he signed a similar but different version. And one said his dog signed it.

[Iggo]

3. "...how (to)...confront challenges facing the modern family."

But, but, but the catholic church IS one of the challenges facing the modern family.

[trotsky]

4. LOL

Very well played.

[Eugene]

5. Vatican seeks to quell talk of letter to pope on family

Source: Associated Press

Vatican seeks to quell talk of letter to pope on family

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Oct. 13, 2015 2:57 PM EDT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican spokesman on Tuesday denounced the leak of a private letter to Pope Francis by conservative cardinals complaining about the way his big family meeting is being run. But he reminded those responsible that the meeting procedures are set and they're duty-bound to stick with them.

Spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi sought to end discussion about the latest controversy to roil Francis' synod on the family after an Italian journalist published the letter Monday and named 13 cardinals who purportedly signed it.

Four of those said they never signed it. But the Vatican's finance manager, Cardinal George Pell, confirmed he was behind the initiative by conservatives to bring complaints straight to the pope about a perceived lack of openness in the synod that they felt would create "predetermined results."

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And the letter warned if the synod muddied church teaching about marriage, the Catholic Church risked going the way of "liberal" Protestant churches which, according to the letter, had collapsed because they had abandoned "key elements of Christian belief and practice in the name of pastoral adaptation."

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Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/0518b65dd2924103b5e6906dfbeecf24/vatican-seeks-end-case-letter-pope-family