Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Inside the VaticanJune 17, 2021
Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, Germany, speaks Jan. 30, 2020, during a news conference for the opening of the synodal assembly in Frankfurt. (CNS photo/Harald Oppitz, KNA)

Take Inside the Vatican’s Listener Survey!

On May 21, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the archbishop of Munich and Freising and a top advisor to Pope Francis, submitted his resignation to the pope, saying he wanted to take “institutional responsibility” for the sexual abuse crisis.

“It is important to me to share the responsibility for the catastrophe of the sexual abuse by Church officials over the past decades,” the cardinal wrote in a letter to the pope. Cardinal Marx has never been accused of sexual abuse or cover-up but expressed that he wanted to take responsibility for helping to mold church structures that failed to prevent sexual abuse.

In a decision that came as a surprise to Cardinal Marx, Pope Francis refused to accept the resignation, using the opportunity to tell the world’s bishops to take action on abuse.

The offer of resignation sent shockwaves through Germany and the Vatican. This week on “Inside the Vatican,” host Colleen Dulle and veteran Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell discuss the aftereffects of Cardinal Marx’s offer to resign.

Tune in next week for a special deep dive episode on the German Synodal Way.

Links from the show:

We don’t have comments turned on everywhere anymore. We have recently relaunched the commenting experience at America and are aiming for a more focused commenting experience with better moderation by opening comments on a select number of articles each day.

But we still want your feedback. You can join the conversation about this article with us in social media on Twitter or Facebook, or in one of our Facebook discussion groups for various topics.

Or send us feedback on this article with one of the options below:

We welcome and read all letters to the editor but, due to the volume received, cannot guarantee a response.

In order to be considered for publication, letters should be brief (around 200 words or less) and include the author’s name and geographic location. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

We open comments only on select articles so that we can provide a focused and well-moderated discussion on interesting topics. If you think this article provides the opportunity for such a discussion, please let us know what you'd like to talk about, or what interesting question you think readers might want to respond to.

If we decide to open comments on this article, we will email you to let you know.

If you have a message for the author, we will do our best to pass it along. Note that if the article is from a wire service such as Catholic News Service, Religion News Service, or the Associated Press, we will not have direct contact information for the author. We cannot guarantee a response from any author.

We welcome any information that will help us improve the factual accuracy of this piece. Thank you.

Please consult our Contact Us page for other options to reach us.

City and state/province, or if outside Canada or the U.S., city and country. 
When you click submit, this article page will reload. You should see a message at the top of the reloaded page confirming that your feedback has been received.

The latest from america

Trump, who has pledged to carry out “the largest deportation program in American history,” plans to scrap the longstanding ICE policy preventing immigration arrests at what are seen as sensitive locations.
People celebrate next to a sculpture of Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, a Druze warrior who led a revolt against French rule in 1925, after Syrian rebels announced that they had ousted President Bashar Assad, in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, Dec. 9, 2024. (OSV News photo/Shir Torem, Reuters)
Many Syrians remain apprehensive about how religious minorities, including Christians, will be treated in a new political reality being established by a Sunni militia that is still listed as a terror organization by the U.S. State Department.
Kevin ClarkeDecember 11, 2024
Preparing the way of the Lord? Then lose some baggage.
Terrance KleinDecember 11, 2024
The Nativity scene generated headlines when it was unveiled Dec. 7 because of the presence of the keffiyeh, the black-and-white checkered headscarf that has become a potent symbol of the Palestinian cause.