ASIA/LEBANON - Maronite Patriarch concerned: priests with less theological grounding and deplorable media hyper-activism

Tuesday, 13 June 2017 oriental churches   media   evangelization   theology  

OLJ


Bkerkè (Agenzia Fides) – The Maronite Church sees a “weakening of theological, dogmatic and spiritual grounding” among the clergy, but a growing phenomenon of priests who appear eager to catch the attention of the media and who devote themselves to media hyper-activism “without any formal permission” on the part of their superiors. These remarks about the condition of the Maronite Church are part of a speech by Patriarch Bechara Rai when he opened on Monday 12 June the annual synod at the patriarchal see in Bkerkè. The Primate of the Maronite Church speaking explicitly of “evident lacuna in the human and spiritual formation of priests and exaggerated sought after media presence on the part of priests and religious, deplored cases of priests and religious causing scandal among the faithful with public affirmations and opinions.
The work of the Synod will include the drafting of a theological-pastoral “compendium” to diffuse and serve as a tool of reference regarding Church teachings. In his address Patriarch Rai mentioned also the activity of ecclesiastic courts, deploring the growing tendency to “be more lenient in granting the annulment of marriage for psychological reasons when there is disagreement among man and wife”. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 13/6/2017).


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