Emmanuel Macron: Catholique zombie? Catholic News Agency asked whether France’s new president Emmanuel Macron could be considered a “zombie Catholic”. The term was invented by two French sociologists, Emmanuel Todd and Hervé Le Bras, to describe an important and emerging political constituency.
Todd and Le Bras describe the average “Catholique zombie” as “Highly educated and meritocratic”, and characterised by “a traditional ordering of professional and domestic duties between husbands and wives; strong attachment to social, community, and family ctivities; and a general wariness over the role of the state in private and community affairs.”
Does Macron fit the description? In the final round of the elections, he won three out of four votes in the “zombie Catholic” stronghold of Brittany. And, intriguingly, “Although born into a secular family, Macron asked to be baptised at age 12.”
There is at least one reason to doubt the designation, however: Macron has stated that “When one enters the public realm, the laws of the Republic must prevail over religious law.”
A cardinal’s curious views on Anglicanism Earlier this month, Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio was reported as saying that Anglican orders might be valid. At catholicworldreport.com, the canon lawyer Edward Peters scrutinised the cardinal’s remarks.
Peters noted that Leo XIII had declared Anglican orders “absolutely null and utterly void”. This might well be an exercise of the extraordinary papal magisterium, ending all debate.
But there were two even clearer objections, said Peters. First, Leo’s words “coalesced with several centuries of other ordinary exercises of papal-episcopal magisterium.”
Second, Catholic authorities have given an “effectively unanimous rejection of Anglican orders over the centuries”, even in recent times: Cardinal Ratzinger included the doctrine as one of the teachings “to be held definitively by Catholics”. This seems to leave little room for manoeuvre.
If Cardinal Coccopalmerio’s remarks were reported accurately, Peters wrote, one has to wonder whether his situation was that described in canon law when a Catholic is “opposed to the doctrine of the Catholic Church”.
The teenagers who gather at the Vatican
At the National Catholic Register, Rachel Lanz introduced the Allievi Group, “a group of young men, ranging from 15 to 18, who willingly make a three-year commitment to wake up at 6:30 am every Sunday morning to pray and study in the house of the Pope.”
The teenagers go to Mass and have classes in serving Mass, cultural formation and education in the faith. Eventually, they join the service of the Pope in the Association of Ss Peter and Paul.
One said: “Thanks to this group, I have the ability to speak about my spiritual life with others.
For me, this is the most important thing.”
✣Meanwhile…
✣ Fortune seemed to be shining on Portugal last Saturday as it achieved its first Eurovision win on the same day it celebrated the centenary of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima.
Just hours after Pope Francis canonised Francisco and Jacinta Marto, the country won the Eurovision Song Contest with the highest vote any country has received. Thousands of pilgrims gathered at the shrine, wondering if Our Lady would give some sort of sign on the 100th anniversary of her appearance to three shepherd children. They probably did not expect a victory for Salvador Sobral with Amar Pelos Dois. Even the Financial Times said the weekend lifted Portugal’s spirits “to a degree the country has rarely enjoyed” in the past decade.
✣ When watching a football match, pray that one of the players is called to the priesthood, Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth has suggested. In a pastoral letter read out last Sunday, he said: “We are short of priests, but priests do not come out of thin air. They come from prayer and fasting. Please pray for more priests. Why not say the rosary for this intention? Or offer up your Friday abstinence? “Or if you watch a football match, ask God to call one of the players or one of the fans?”
✣The week in quotations
Many young people in the Church today … have fallen into the temptation of rigidity Pope Francis in a homily at the Domus Sanctae Marthae Catholic News Service
With Mgr Fellay I have a good rapport … I don’t like to hurry things Pope Francis on talks with the SSPX In-flight press conference
A revised narrative [is] that religious ethos cannot be good for democracy Archbishop Eamon Martin Newman lecture at the University of East Anglia
They don’t answer the phone President Nicolás Maduro blames Venezuelan bishops for refusing to engage in dialogue Crux
A godless life risks leading to hell Pope Francis Fatima canonisation Mass homily
✣Statistic of the week
105 The number of suicides or accidental deaths in prisons in England and Wales in just one year MoJ’s 2016 figures
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