If a Catholic child steals a candy bar, church doctrine calls this a small sin.But if a priest embezzles a large amount of money, this act is much more serious -- a sin that severely corrupts and threatens the soul.Both of these acts involve theft, but Catholicism does not believe they have equal weight. They do not have the same "parvity of matter," noted Father Donald Cozzens of John Carroll University, who once led a seminary in Ohio."It doesn't help to look that up in a dictionary," said … [Read more...]
Layers of Catholic denial
January 1, 2003 By Leave a Comment
Every day the headlines and cartoons seem to get worse.Every night stand-up comics crank out more nasty one-liners.So it's sad, but not shocking, that a Catholic priest told the Boston Globe about a partygoer who dressed up as a pedophile priest at Halloween.It's open season. Even though priests know they shouldn't take it personally, it's hard not to, said Father Donald Cozzens, a veteran Catholic educator who led a graduate seminary in Ohio."It's hard to imagine how this can end any time … [Read more...]
For God’s sake, let’s tell the truth
December 25, 2002 By Leave a Comment
Archbishop John Foley was speaking to an audience of Catholic communications officers and editors, so he made sure that he didn't bury his most important statement.The first principle of dealing with the news media, he told a Vatican conference in 2001, was simple: "Never, never, never tell a lie." Then the president of the Pontifical Office for Social Communications offered more advice that would prove to be prophetic."Truth will always come out," he said. "Failure to tell the truth is a … [Read more...]
Fathers, mothers & Catholic sons, Part II
March 13, 2002 By Leave a Comment
Few Catholic boys grow up to be men of the cloth without drawing inspiration from their parish priests and receiving the blessing of their mothers.Both halves of that equation have to work or the church suffers."When you talk about how young men enter the priesthood, you are talking about the future of the church," said Father Donald B. Cozzens, former vicar for clergy in the Diocese of Cleveland and then rector of a graduate seminary in Ohio. "At some point, it becomes terribly important what … [Read more...]
Fathers, mothers & Catholic sons, Part I
March 6, 2002 By Leave a Comment
The Chicago news was full of sex, children and Roman collars.This wasn't part of the first national "Sins of the Fathers" furor in the mid-1980s. This was the early 1990s and the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago eventually opened its files on all 2,252 priests who had served in the previous four decades. The powers that be hunted for pedophiles and they found one.The key word is "one." One priest had been accused of assaulting a prepubescent child. The other allegations involved priests and … [Read more...]
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