VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Three days after the papal household’s preacher called on Catholics to repent of the way they divide the church, the Vatican’s secretary of state said the division was real and harmful. is.
“Everyone who sees the situation of the church today should worry about these things, because it is there,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, told the Spanish COPE radio network in the church on April 5. “It does a lot of damage to the church. ”
Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household, spoke on April 2 about the divisions in the church when he preached in the liturgy of the passion of Pope Francis.
Cardinal Parolin told COPE he believes part of the problem “stems from the fact that the pope places a lot of emphasis on church reform”, but too many people do not understand the difference between teachings and practices that remain unchanged should not stay it can and should be updated and renewed.
Three days after the preacher of the papal household called on Catholics to repent of the way they divide the church, the Vatican minister said that the division is real and that it is harmful.
‘There is a level that cannot be changed; the structure of the church – the deposit of the faith, the sacraments, the apostolic ministry – these are the structural elements, ‘he said. But because the church is made up of people who are prone to sin, there is a whole life in the church that can be renewed. ‘
“Sometimes this division and these oppositions are born out of the confusion of these levels,” he said. “There is no distinction between what is essential and what cannot be changed, and what is not essential, which must be reformed, must be changed according to the spirit of the Gospel.”
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José Luis Restán, editorial director of COPE, told Cardinal Parolin he would not ask about the Vatican and China’s preliminary agreement on the appointment of bishops, which was extended in October, but said he had the impression of the cardinal of the Catholics’ life wants to hear Church in China and “what is at stake for the church in that great and complicated country in the future.”
The future ‘is the perspective from which we must look at this issue’, the cardinal replied. “The church in China is definitely a fundamental part of the Catholic Church, and all that has been tried and what is being tried is to secure this community, which is still small but has a lot of power and vitality.”
‘One cannot distinguish between what is essential which cannot change and what is not essential which must be reformed must change according to the spirit of the Gospel. ‘
“Everything that is done is done to ensure a normal life for the church in China,” he said, and part of a normal life for any Catholic is communion with the pope, who wants to ensure the agreement. by having the bishops recognized. both by the Vatican and by China’s communist government.
The suffering and persecution that Catholics have endured in China must always be respected and remembered, he said. But their perseverance in the faith must also give the church hope for the future.
‘The steps taken, even if they have not solved all the problems that are still there and that will probably take a long time to solve, in the right direction towards reconciliation within the church because of this problem of distinctions – that is too much to say about separation – of distinction ”between those who accept a governmental role in the life of the church and those who do not, the cardinal said.