Cardinal rebukes 500 priests over ‘no change at synod’ letter

Cardinal Vincent Nichols has rebuked the almost 500 priests in England and Wales who have signed a letter resisting any change to church teaching at the next Synod on the Family, saying that discussions between a priest and bishop before the gathering are “not best conducted through the press”, write Christopher Lamb and Abigail Frymann Rouch.

Almost 500 priests in England and Wales have signed a letter calling on October’s Synod on the Family in the Vatican to proclaim the Church’s “unchanging” moral teaching and resist any move allowing Communion for the divorced and remarried.

The 461 priests endorsed a letter, reported earlier this month by The Tablet and published in the Catholic Herald, that was initiated by a group of a dozen conservative-minded clergy. The 12 had circulated a letter and a covering note to priests in England and Wales. The note invited priests to sign the letter that was composed for publication in the press.

The letter expresses fidelity to the Church’s traditional doctrines of marriage and sexuality, and affirms the traditional discipline “regarding the reception of the sacraments” (which bars Communion for the divorced and remarried). The letter with 461 signatories appeared on the Catholic Herald website on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Cardinal Nichols issued a statement saying every priest in England and Wales has been asked to reflect on the synod discussion and that their pastoral experience and concern are of “great importance”. He added, however, that the “dialogue between a priest and his bishop, is not best conducted through the press”. The number of signatories to the letter totals around 12 per cent of active priests in England and Wales.