Rome, Italy, Jan 13, 2010 / 17:32 pm
The prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, explained that the Church welcomes all expressions of “legitimate diversity” in reference to ministries. He also called on priests to always fulfill their commitments and for those in irregular situations to bring them to a resolution.
In an interview with L’Osservatore Romano, the cardinal said the Catholic Church “is quick to receive in her bosom all legitimate diversity. She is not concerned with human categories that focus on right, left, progressive, conservative. Ours is not a sectarian Church. She is Catholic, one, holy, apostolic, and quick to embrace all, like a great mother.”
The Church “offers to all the possibility to take diverse paths in the common witness of the Gospel. If one thinks of the history of religious orders, of their different spiritualities, one sees they are all diverse but capable of carrying the riches of the charisms in the one Church of Christ. Naturally, they should all walk in unity. But unity does not mean uniformity,” the cardinal said.
Openness to Anglicans