Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world
He was a rarity: a Brooklyn priest (who grew up down the road from me in Queens) who became a cardinal. The definitive obit, from Rocco: He was the ultimate man of the law. How bitter the irony, then, that his days would end under a cloud of court scrutiny. At 9.15 tonight, Anthony Cardinal [...]
He was cleared of charges against him — but hasn’t had much luck having his reputation cleared, as well. Details: In 2005, as the Catholic clergy sex abuse crisis continued to grab headlines all over America, even the St. Raphael-Holy Angels parish was not immune to scandal. One of their own priests was accused of [...]
Details: Tens of thousands of Dutch children were sexually abused by priests and other Roman Catholic religious figures in the last 65 years, but church officials failed to take adequate action or report problems to police, an independent commission said Friday. Many of the victims spent part of their childhood in Catholic institutions such as [...]
But it’s unclear how much he was able to say. Details: A retired Roman Catholic cardinal testified behind closed doors for about three hours Monday as lawyers prepare for a groundbreaking priest-abuse trial in Philadelphia. Prosecutors deposed Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua in case he cannot appear for the March trial of three accused priests, an ex-teacher [...]
One of the most famous — or infamous — leaders of the American Catholic Church has retired: Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace as Boston’s archbishop in 2002 after the priest sex abuse scandal exploded in the United States, has retired from his subsequent job as head of a major Roman basilica. The Vatican [...]
An interesting observation, from the New York Times (h/t Marcel): A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted in 2008 found that Americans who had left Catholicism had done so for many reasons, including unhappiness with the church’s position on abortion or homosexuality, disagreement with teachings on birth control, and the feeling [...]
He turned 80 over the weekend, and the Boston Herald takes us to the celebration in Rome: Cardinal Bernard Law was treated to a lavish birthday spread, the company of a conclave of clerics and even the music of a mariachi band in a four-star Italian hotel, where guests rolled up in Vatican Mercedes sedans [...]
It’s a precedent-setting ruling out of the Royal Court of Justice in London. From the Guardian: Victims of clerical sexual abuse will find it easier to bring compensation claims against the Catholic church after a judge ruled it can be held responsible for the wrongdoings of its priests. In a test case heard at the high [...]
Details: Calls for Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Finn to resign started even before last week, when he became the highest-ranking church leader in the sex abuse scandal criminally charged with sheltering an accused priest. The bishop of Kansas City, Mo., had acknowledged in May that he waited five months to tell police about the hundreds [...]
How does a diocese deal with having its bishop indicted? The New York Times visited a parish in Kansas City — the former parish of Fr. Shawn Rattigan, the priest at the center of the scandal — to find out. The Rev. Justin Hoye was struggling to figure out what, if anything, to say on [...]
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