Catholic World Report
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Editorial The importance of Pope Benedict XVI’s speech to the Roman Rota about annulments.By George Neumayr | March 2010 issue
 As dust collected on copies of canon law in chanceries after Vatican II, scandals multiplied—grim proof that the widespread indifference to canon law reflected not the presence of “pastoral” concern but its absence.
Even at this late hour, as the aftershocks of scandal continue to reverberate down chancery corridors, many bishops hesitate to apply canon law, regarding it as somehow incompatible with “pastoral ministry.” The victims of abuse, among others, would disagree. “Canon law, as an instrument of Church governance, declined hugely during Vatican II and in the decades immediately after it,” wrote Justice Yvonne Murphy, identifying one of the main causes of the monumental sex abuse scandal in Ireland. Pope Benedict XVI is also drawing attention to the malign neglect of canon law and its faithful application. In late January, he delivered an important speech to the Tribunal of the Roman Rota on the dangers of “pseudo-pastoral claims” that distort a proper understanding of canon law.
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Opinion Either it will be Christian or not at all.By Anthony Esolen “This year will mark a great opportunity for conservatives,” said the voice over the radio, by which he meant that one style of politician wholly committed to the cramped secular vision of man would triumph over another style of politician committed to the same thing. Which caused me to consider that any new conservatism in America will be Catholic, or Christian at least, in both its looking forward to the kingdom of God and its gratitude for the gifts of the past, or it will not be at all. What would such a conservatism look like? I suggest the following, at the least.
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Film James Cameron’s Avatar: Hollywood’s self-proclaimed “King of the World” is back.By Steven D. Greydanus  In the last weekend of a year of record box-office returns that broke the $10 billion mark for the first time, Hollywood closed out the decade in grand style with the biggest weekend box office in history. At the top of the charts, for the second weekend in a row, was James Cameron’s Avatar.
Barely losing steam in the early days of 2010, Avatar toppled Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen to become 2009’s top-grossing film—no mean feat for a sui generis film with no preexisting franchise appeal, no above-the-title major stars, and a director whose last film was a dozen years earlier.
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Special Report
Coinciding with the decline of marriage in the United States is the decline of sacramental marriage in the Church. Here’s a look at the US bishops’ efforts to address the collapse.
By Jeff Ziegler
 Addressing the societal collapse of marriage, the US bishops have issued a pastoral letter praised by defenders of the Church’s teaching on family life.
In an August interview, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York discussed the four greatest challenges he believes the Church in the United States is facing today. First on his list was the state of marriage.
“That’s where we have the real vocation crisis,” he said. “We have a vocation crisis to lifelong, life-giving, loving, faithful marriage. If we take care of that one, we’ll have all the priests and nuns we need for the Church.”
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Web Exclusive Pope Benedict XVI has harsh words for Irish bishops following summit on abuseBy Michael Kelly  Pope Benedict XVI has challenged Irish bishops to face up to the child abuse crisis with honesty and courage.
In a communiqué issued February 16 after a crisis two-day summit between the Pope, Irish bishops, and senior curial officials, the Holy See said the meeting “examined the failure of Irish Church authorities for many years to act effectively in dealing with cases involving the sexual abuse of young people by some Irish clergy and religious.” The Rome meeting comes amid public anger in Ireland after two separate judicial commissions found that Church leaders had for decades failed to report allegations of sexual abuse against priests to the civil authorities. The reports also found that in many cases senior clerics put the avoidance of scandal and the good name of the Church ahead of the rights of victims.
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Special Report
Recent judicial commission reports contain devastating findings about abuse and cover-up in the Irish Church.
By Michael Kelly
 For almost two decades, the Catholic Church in Ireland has struggled to come to terms with a punishing litany of revelations about sexual misconduct by priests and religious. The crisis continues to envelop Irish Catholicism and recent judicial reports have led to the resignation of four bishops, public squabbling by members of the hierarchy, and a promise of structural reform from the Vatican.
In 1992, the enigmatic bishop of Galway, Eamon Casey, was forced to step down after it emerged that he had fathered a child with an American divorcée some 20 years earlier and was using diocesan funds to pay for the upkeep of his son. Bishop Casey fled to Ecuador and his scandal was to mark the beginning of a long dark night for Catholic Ireland.
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Interview
Cardinal Arinze on the liturgy as public prayer.
Interview by Matthew A. Rarey
 Cardinal Francis Arinze has enjoyed a meteoric career, from becoming the youngest bishop in the world in 1965 at the age of 32, to serving in several of the most vital posts in the Vatican. The native Nigerian currently is prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, having served as prefect from 2002 to 2008. In that position, he helped oversee the process of preparing translations of the liturgy that are truer to the original Latin.
In November, Cardinal Arinze made a visit to Chicago, principally to give the keynote address at the annual fundraiser for the Chastity Education Initiative of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Respect Life Office. He spoke with CWR during the visit.
CWR: Upon sending to Rome the proposed new English translation of the Roman Missal, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, “There is a tremendous moment of religious renewal that is possible now.” What do you hope would be some of the fruits of the new translation, however it is finalized?
Cardinal Francis Arinze: My hope is that those who want the Mass in English will have a text which would be as near to the original Latin as possible. A faithful translation of the Latin, respecting also the character of English, helping the people to pray with the spirit of piety characteristic of the Latin rite. The best text that can be offered today to the English speaking world—that is my hope. Because the text of the public prayer of the Church guides our prayer—communal prayer, liturgical prayer—it should also inspire our personal prayer.
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