St. Michael's Church

• In the past six months, hundreds of congregations voted to leave the United Methodist Church over same-sex marriage and whether LGBTQ+ people should be clergy.
• With over 80 million believers in 160 countries, the Anglican Communion has been grappling with LGBTQ+ issues since the 1970s.
• It is a long-standing process for navigating disputes called the “via media,” or middle way, which has thus far succeeded in holding together people with contradictory beliefs.

Controversies in the Anglican Communion

• For decades, diverging points of view over homosexuality and rumors of schism have both confused and polarized believers in the global Anglican Communion.
• This is part of a larger struggle within the Anglican Communion to renegotiate imbalances of power and authority left over from the colonial era of the British Empire.
• In the 21st century, these churches still have most of the money in the Anglican Communion, but congregational numbers are dwindling.
• That is the orthodox Anglican position.” Views like these carry great weight in the Anglican Communion, even today.

• But they remain within the Anglican Communion.
• The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has ordained openly gay bishops – most controversially Gene Robinson, former Bishop of New Hampshire, in 2003.
• In 2016, the primates – the most senior leaders of the Anglican Communion – voted to suspend the Episcopal Church from decision-making on Anglican governance and policy for three years.

The via media

• Despite such heated conflicts, the Anglican Communion holds together through the via media.
• Via media was first mentioned by English reformers who broke from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century.
• It is this Church of England that eventually spread globally with the British Empire to become the Anglican Communion.
• In the 19th century, via media became a way of thinking about internal, rather than external, challenges, such as resolving debates over how to interpret scripture.

Holding together

• It is this understanding of via media, I argue, that is holding the Anglican Communion together thus far.
• Instead, it seeks to include people with deeply held but contrary beliefs within the same church through common worship and life.
• The Church of England, for example, made plans for negotiations between people holding differing viewpoints before the Synod meets again in July 2024.

Lisa McClain is affiliated with her local Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Idaho. She is a professor of Gender Studies and a member of the international think tank The Inclusion Crowd as a gender expert.

• Also on Monday morning, March 18, University President Julie Sullivan had a private audience with His Holiness Pope Francis.
• Dicastery leaders sought Santa Clara’s insight and partnership for initiatives to better equip K-12 Catholic school educators with AI literacy guidelines, and to convene thought leaders to explore the ethical and humanistic dimensions of AI.
• On Tuesday, the delegation is expected to further explore the vision in Impact 2030 for Santa Clara to become a University that better serves the world.
• Rector of the Santa Clara Jesuit Community Luis Calero, S.J.

• Pope Francis has provoked fury by suggesting in a television interview that Ukraine should find “the courage to raise the white flag”.
• As Pope Pius XII, Eugenio Pacelli led the Catholic Church throughout the second world war.
• However, while Hitler’s determination to eliminate the Jewish people was brought to his attention, he did not publicly condemn it.
• Though he admired the authoritarian regimes of Franco in Spain and Salazar in Portugal, Pius XII was not pro Nazi.

‘Catholics will be loyal’

• He told the German chancellor:
  I am certain that if peace between Church and state is restored, everyone will be pleased.
• The German people are united in their love for the Fatherland.
• I am certain that if peace between Church and state is restored, everyone will be pleased.

• He feared that criticism of Hitler’s regime would provoke harm to German Catholics.
• In August 1942 Pius XII received a letter from Andrej Septyckj, a Ukrainian Cleric, bearing news of the massacre of 200,000 Jews in Ukraine.
• Pius XII flirted with public criticism of Nazi inhumanity in his 1942 Christmas Eve broadcast.

Evil then and now

• As I discovered while researching my book, Reporting the Second World War - The Press and the People 1939-1945, he could have learned as much by reading British newspapers.
• In autumn 1942, titles including The Times and Daily Mail reported the World Jewish Congress’s belief that a million Jews had already died.
• Today, his successor might contemplate the damage inflicted on his wartime predecessor’s reputation by his meek collusion with the wrong side.
• Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba responded caustically to Pope Francis’s crass comments with: “Our flag is a yellow and blue one.

Tim Luckhurst has received funding from News UK and Ireland Ltd. He is a member of the Free Speech Union and the Society of Editors

• Water technology is playing a crucial role in an urban regeneration project to connect Rome and the Vatican City for the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee.
• The historic project will extend the Lungotevere in Sassia underpass to enable the creation of a new pedestrianized zone that connects Castel Sant’Angelo with St. Peter’s Square.
• The extension will be completed as the City of Rome prepares to welcome 35 million visitors for the Jubilee - a special year of grace in the Catholic Church.
• To support the project, Xylem (NYSE: XYL) provided advanced technology that diverted two major sewer collectors using a custom hydraulic bypass, a solution that redirects wastewater.