Vatican City, Nov 2, 2017 / 03:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Nestled in Rome just outside the Vatican, a small unassuming museum dedicated to the souls in Purgatory displays simple items such as prayer books and clothing.
Nothing too unusual, until you real… […]
Denver, Colo., Nov 2, 2017 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- One month after an avalanche of sexual assault accusations were lobbed against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, another Hollywood scandal broke.
This week, actor Anthony Rapp accused actor Kevin Spacey of sexually assaulting him as a minor. Spacey apologized, but said he didn’t remember the encounter, and also took the opportunity to come out as gay.
In the early 2000s, the Catholic Church in the United States was also reeling from a sex abuse crisis when the Boston Globe broke the story of a former priest who was accused of molesting 130 minors, mostly young boys, over the course of more than 30 years. This led to a large-scale uncovering of thousands more allegations of abuse in dioceses throughout the country.
Since then, the Church has put into place numerous policies and practices to protect children from sexual abuse, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Charter for Child and Youth Protection.
The charter, implemented in 2002, obligates all compliant dioceses and eparchies to provide resources both for victims of abuse and resources for abuse prevention. Each year, the USCCB releases an extensive annual report on the dioceses and eparchies, including an audit of all abuse cases and allegations, and recommended policy guidelines for dioceses.
Dr. Elizabeth A. Heidt Kozisek is a psychologist and the director of the Child Protection Office for the Diocese of Grand Island, which is in compliance with the charter.
Her diocese, like most throughout the country, has an abuse prevention program called Safe Environment training that is required for all adult employees and volunteers within the diocese, which trains them in preventing abuse, recognizing warning signs, and reporting incidents of abuse.
They also provide children in the diocese with education on appropriate relationships, Kozisek said.
“We educate children and youth in the qualities of right relationships and what to do when a relationship isn’t right; and provide continuing education for youth and adults with a goal of helping all experience right relationships throughout their lifespan,” she said.
“We strive to create a culture of healing and protection, where fostering right relationships, building resilience, and promoting healing are an integral part of who and how we are with children and youth, rather than merely a series of programs.”
Kozisek added that the USCCB charter provides the basic guidelines and principles for child protection in the U.S. dioceses, which then implement them with some specific considerations for their individual communities and the resources available within them.
When abuse allegations are reported, Kozisek said the protocol is first to report the abuse to local law enforcement authorities and to Child Protective Services. The accused person is immediately suspended from ministry pending a legal and internal investigation.
If someone is legally charged, they are immediately barred from ministry. Even if an accused individual is not legally charged, but the internal investigation still finds them “unfit for ministry”, they are removed from their employment or volunteer position, Kozisek said.
The Archdiocese of New York is also compliant with the USCCB charter, and has trained more than 100,000 people in providing a safe environment for children.
Edward Mechmann, director of public policy for the New York archdiocese, told CNA that the local Church has a “zero tolerance” policy when it comes to sexual abuse of minors, and that they also follow the protocol of having both legal and internal investigations of each allegation of abuse.
“At the conclusion of our investigation, if the accused is a cleric we submit the case to the Advisory Review Board for evaluation,” he said.
“If they determine that the allegation is substantiated, then a recommendation is made to the cardinal that the cleric be permanently removed from ministry. If the accused is a layperson, and we determine that the allegation is substantiated, then they are discharged from employment or volunteer service and permanently barred from any ministry. As a result, we have a zero tolerance policy that applies equally to clergy and laity.”
Last year, the USCCB found widespread compliance throughout the country in their annual report on the implementation of the charter.
The report, carried out by the bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection and the National Review Board, found that 189 dioceses and eparchies were compliant with the charter and one diocese was partially compliant, specifically with Articles 12 and 13, which require proof that training programs are in place and that background checks are conducted on employees, clerics, and volunteers.
The one diocese not fully compliant is that of Lincoln, though according to the report the diocese plans to fully participate in the audit next year.
According to the 2016 report, 386 out of the 838 people who reported past abuse as minors accepted diocesan outreach and healing, and continued support was provided to 1,646 victims.
Mechmann said the key to combating abuse is combating a culture of abuse, which the Church has worked hard to do since the scandal of the early 2000s. The Church continuously reviews and updates recommended abuse prevention and reporting procedures and strives for full disclosure and a zero-tolerance policy of abuse.
“In the area of child protection, the corporate culture is the most important element. In the Church, we have successfully made child protection a key part of our regular course of business and we have made it unequivocally clear that any kind of sexual sin against minors is utterly unacceptable,” he said.
“We have put into place strong policies that are aimed to prevent any abuse. These policies are taken very seriously by the leadership of the Church (laity and clergy alike) who have all demonstrated repeatedly that they are committed to the program. We have demonstrated over and over again that we are open to receiving complaints, we take all allegations seriously, we vigorously investigate them, and we are firm in correcting any problem,” he said.
Hollywood, he noted, could learn from the Church’s work in combating a culture of abuse.
“The contrast with the entertainment industry couldn’t be more stark – there is clearly a corporate culture of sexual vice, there is no commitment to cleaning out the bad elements, and they are doing little or nothing to prevent further abuse.”
The USCCB declined to comment on this story.
Washington D.C., Nov 1, 2017 / 05:14 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission has resigned his position as a consultant to the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine, following the publication of a letter written to Pope Francis asking the Pope to correct the “chronic confusion” of his pontificate, which he says “fosters within the faithful a growing unease.”
Father Thomas Weinandy, OFM, Cap., who previously served as Executive Director of the USCCB’s Secretariat for Doctrine, sent the five-page letter to Pope Francis July 31, the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Weinandy told Crux that he sent the letter after a powerful experience of discernment convinced him that “Jesus wanted me to write something” that would “be of help to Pope Francis, to the Church, and to the faithful.”
In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, James Rogers, Chief Communications Officer of the USCCB, said that “after speaking with the General Secretary of the Conference today, Father Thomas Weinandy, OFM, Cap., has resigned, effective immediately, from his position as consultant to the USCCB Committee on Doctrine. The work of the Committee is done in support of, and in affective collegiality with, the Holy Father and the Church in the United States. Our prayers go with Father Weinandy as his service to the Committee comes to a close.”
Weinandy’s letter, published by Crux on Wednesday, addressed five points. Weinandy told the Pope that his pontificate had fostered confusion, diminished the importance of doctrine in the Church’s life, appointed bishops who teach and act in harmful ways, fostered a culture of fear among bishops, and caused faithful Catholics to lose confidence in the papacy.
The letter also expressed Weinandy’s “love for the Church and sincere respect” for the office of the Pope. The priest expressed hope that by recognizing “darkness, the Church will will humbly need to renew herself, and so continue to grow in holiness.”
Father Thomas Petri, OP, academic dean of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC, told CNA that Weinandy “is a theologian of the highest caliber,” and that the “letter to His Holiness is quite obviously written with a deep filial piety and loyalty to both our Holy Father Pope Francis and to the Church.”
“There is no need to continue to litigate theological points in the public square and so Father Weinandy says directly but, I think, charitably what he believes is on many people’s minds. Many priests are confronted daily by members of the lay faithful expressing confusion and concern in reports they read or hear about Pope Francis and his advisors,” Petri added.
Chad Pecknold, professor of theology at the Catholic University of America, agreed. Weinandy “is arguably the most distinguished Franciscan theologian working in the English language today,” Pecknold told CNA. “He is a theologian centered in the Church, and not at all at her outermost fringe. So his letter carries the weight of the center.”
“Rather than presume to correct, Father Weinandy describes the current situation, and informs the Holy Father that what seems to many like ‘intentionally ambiguous’ teaching has led to confusion, leading some of his own advisors to publicly advance error….There is something admirable about the impassioned plea of a son of St. Francis writing to Pope Francis, in truth and love, as a son to a father. His love for the pope is evident throughout his appeal.”
While Pecknold called Weinandy’s letter “deferential,” he told CNA “it is certainly reasonable to ask whether it should have been published in the media.”
Jacob Wood, theology professor at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, raised similar concerns. “If Father Weinandy’s intention is fraternal correction, publishing his letter might not be the best way to go about it,” Wood told CNA. “It is easy for our intentions to get warped when treated in the mass media by people who don’t share the perspective of faith. There does exist some danger of scandal.”
Weinandy told Crux that he published the letter because it “expresses the concerns of many more people than just me, ordinary people who’ve come to me with their questions and apprehensions,” adding: “I wanted them to know that I listened.”
RR Reno, editor of First Things magazine, and formerly a professor of theology at Creighton University, told CNA that publishing letters like Weinandy’s can be helpful to Catholics.
“Weinandy’s letter is an attempt to clearly state problems we face,” Reno said.
“Everyone in the Church has a role – priests laity and bishops – and each of us is going to have to make a discernment how best to serve the Church in the current climate. We have to discuss how to move forward in this pontificate as loyal members of the Church,” he said, adding that Weinandy’s letter is a helpful catalyst for such discussion.
Reno also said that publicizing letters like Weinandy’s “aids people who are in positions of responsibility,” in the Church, “providing some support for those who want to address the challenges the Church is facing.”
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the USCCB, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon, “on the nature of dialogue within the Church,” which he said was occasioned by the publication of Weinandy’s letter and his resignation. DiNardo said that theological debates are often the subject of media attention, which “is to be expected and is often good.”
DiNardo added that theologians and bishops should make every effort to interpret the Holy Father’s teaching charitably, and that all Catholics should “acknowledge that legitimate differences exist” among Catholics, “and that it is the work of the Church, the entire body of Christ, to work towards an ever-growing understanding of God’s truth.”
Father Charles L. Sammons, OFM Cap, told CNA that he lived with Weinandy in 2015. “I experienced Fr. Thomas as an uncomplicated and earnest person who simply loved the Lord and his Church, and didn’t seem to have many concerns apart from that. I remarked to myself more than once that this seemed like a blessed way to live,” Sammons told CNA.
Sammons said that time with Weinandy “had been given to me as a grace of good example, for my own religious life as a Capuchin friar.”
South Bend, Ind., Nov 1, 2017 / 04:55 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The University of Notre Dame has announced to its employees and students that it plans to end birth control coverage in 2018, following broad religious exemptions recently added to the federal contraceptive mandate.
According to Indiana Public Media, the University sent out letters to staff and students Oct. 27 informing them of the coming changes, which will go into effect in January 2018 and August 2018 respectively.
Notre Dame is taking advantage of recently-added religious exemptions to the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act, which were announced by the Department of Health and Human Services Oct. 6.
Father John Jenkins, president of the university, welcomed the changes because “critical issues of religious freedom were at stake.”
“For that reason, we welcome this reversal and applaud the attorney general’s statement that ‘except in the narrowest circumstances, no one should be forced to choose between living out his or her faith and complying with the law,'” he said in an Oct. 6 statement.
Previously, the Catholic university was one of several organizations that sued the government over the federal contraceptive mandate, which required most organizations to provide birth control coverage either directly or through a third party service.
As a Catholic institution, Notre Dame objected to this mandate on the grounds that all forms of contraception are against Catholic moral teaching. The university, along with dozens of other Catholic institutions, argued in the lawsuit that the third party option would still make them cooperate in an act to which they were morally opposed.
A federal judge ruled that the mandate did not infringe on the university’s religious freedom, and Notre Dame was legally obligated to allow for contraceptive coverage through the third party service.
Now, the new broadening of exemptions to the contraceptive mandate on religious or moral grounds will allow the university to drop all coverage of birth control.
Notre Dame will still cover birth control medications or procedures if they are being used as a treatment for other medical problems, such as endometriosis.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging the new religious exemptions.
The recent expansion of religious and moral exemptions to the contraceptive mandate was issued the same day that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions outlined new principles of religious freedom that federal agencies and departments were to adopt.
Speaking to CNA Oct. 6, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore said the new religious freedom protections, including the contraception exemptions, were a “victory for the First Amendment, and a victory for all Americans, even those who don’t agree with the Church’s” teaching on contraception.
“I think it restores a balance that was lacking,” said the archbishop, who is chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Religious Liberty. “It permits us to do our ministries” without violating Catholic moral principles, he added.
Washington D.C., Nov 1, 2017 / 03:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a new pastoral letter on racism, the Archbishop of Washington has encouraged Catholics to recognize the dignity of every human person, and to address the challenges – both subtle and ob… […]
“First,” says the noted Capuchin priest and theologian, “I decided to write Pope Francis a letter, which I intended then to publish unless he adequately […]
In the moral universe of Bolshevism, two plus two could indeed equal five – or seven, or three, or whatever the Revolution required. […]
Washington D.C., Nov 1, 2017 / 11:53 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic and pro-life groups are welcoming the Senate’s confirmation on Tuesday of Amy Coney Barrett to the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. Barrett had faced hostile questions about her Catholic faith during her confirmation hearing.
“Amy Coney Barrett will make an excellent judge and we welcome her confirmation despite unprecedented and unconstitutional attacks on her faith,” Ashley McGuire, senior fellow with The Catholic Association, said Oct. 31. “Catholics were alarmed by the anti-Catholic bigotry on display from Democrats during her hearings, but her confirmation is a testament to the enduring constitutional principle that there can be no religious test for office.”
President Trump’s nominee was confirmed by a 55-43 vote, largely along party lines.
Barrett, a professor at Notre Dame Law School, was pointedly questioned by Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee in September on how her Catholic faith would influence her decisions as a judge on cases of abortion and same-sex marriage.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), ranking member of the committee, told Barrett outright that her Catholic beliefs were concerning, as they may influence her decisions as a judge on abortion rights.
“I think in your case, professor, when you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you. And that’s of concern,” Feinstein stated.
Reacting to Barrett’s confirmation, Americans United for Life said it is “especially encouraged,” and added that her scholarship has “demonstrated her dedication to preserving the originalist legacy of her former boss, the late Justice Antonin Scalia.”
Pro-life group the Susan B. Anthony List also welcomed the confirmation, calling it “a victory for the pro-life movement as well as for the fundamental freedom of all Americans to live out their faith in the public square.”
SBA List’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, added that “We thank President Trump for keeping his promise to nominate judges who will respect the Constitution and not impose a pro-abortion agenda from the bench. We also thank Leader McConnell and Senator Grassley for their commitment to getting these excellent judges confirmed.”
During her confirmation hearings Barrett repeatedly said that as a judge, she would uphold the law of the land and would not let her religious beliefs inappropriately alter her judicial decisions.
She told Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that “it’s never appropriate for a judge to impose that judge’s personal convictions, whether they derive from faith or anywhere else, on the law.”
In 1998, Barrett co-authored an article in the Marquette Law Review with then-Notre Dame law professor John Garvey, now president of The Catholic University of America. The article focused on Catholic judges in death penalty cases.
Catholic judges, if their consciences oppose the administering of the death penalty, should, in accordance with federal law, recuse themselves from capital cases where a jury recommends a death sentence, Garvey and Barrett wrote. They should also recuse themselves from cases without a jury where they have the option of granting a death sentence, they wrote.
During her confirmation hearing Barrett said she continues to uphold “that if there is ever a conflict between a judge’s personal conviction and that judge’s duty under the rule of law, that it is never, ever permissible for that judge to follow their personal convictions in the decision of a case rather than what the law requires.”
Barrett has twice been honored as “Distinguished Professor of the Year” at Notre Dame, and had clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
The Senate also confirmed, on Nov. 1, the confirmation of Joan Larsen to the US Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, by a 60-38 vote. Larsen is also a former clerk for Scalia, and her confirmation was also welcomed by SBA List.
Vatican City, Nov 1, 2017 / 06:17 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After nearly 40 people were killed in terrorist attacks this week in Somalia, New York and Afghanistan, Pope Francis voiced his sorrow for loss of innocent life, and prayed for an end to the “murderous” hatred that spurs violence.
During his Nov. 1 Angelus address on All Saints Day, Pope Francis voiced his sorrow for the various attacks, saying he is “deeply saddened” by the loss of life.
“In deploring these acts of violence, I pray for the deceased, for the wounded and for their families,” he said, and prayed for the Lord to “convert the hearts of terrorists and free the world from hatred and the murderous folly that abuses the name of God so as to spread death.”
On Oct. 29, five Islamic extremists stormed a hotel after a suicide bomber detonated a vehicle filled with explosives at the entrance gate, killing some 23 people. The attack, which was claimed by Africa’s most deadly Islamic extremist group, Al-Shabab, took place just two weeks after another deadly blast in Somalia killed 350 people, marking the country’s worst-ever terrorist attack.
Three days later, on Oct. 31, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul, killing at least 5 and wounding around 20 others. In a video posted to social media, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, but did not specify what its target had been.
Also on Oct. 31, eight people were killed and at least 12 injured in New York City after a man in Home Depot truck plowed through a crowd on a pedestrian and bike path on West Street in lower Manhattan, before striking a school bus.
In a statement after the incident, New York Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan said the city and the nation “are stunned and horrified by another act of senseless violence.”
“While details continue to emerge, one thing is clear: once again, no matter our religion, racial or ethnic background, or political beliefs, we must put our differences aside and come together in faith and love,” he said, and encouraged New Yorkers of all faiths “to support those who are injured, pray for those who have died as well as their families and loved ones, and work towards greater respect and understanding among all people so that heinous and evil acts like this become a thing of the past.”
Vatican City, Nov 1, 2017 / 05:54 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday Pope Francis marked the feast of All Saints Day saying the saints are honored not because they were perfect or did everything right, but because they allowed God to touch their lives and fought hard against sin.
“The Solemnity of All Saints is ‘our’ feast: not because we are good, but because the holiness of God has touched our lives,” the Pope said Nov. 1.
Saints, he said, “are not perfect models, but are people whose lives God has crossed,” and can be compared with the stained glass windows of a church, “which allow light to enter in different shades of color.”
The Saints above all are our brothers and sisters “who have welcomed the light of God into their hears and have passed it on to the world, each one according to their own ‘tone’,” he said, but stressed that no matter the “color” they give, “all of them are transparent.”
“They have fought to take away the stains and darkness of sin, so as to let the gentle light of God pass through,” he said, adding that “this is the purpose of life, even for us.”
Pope Francis offered his reflection in an Angelus address marking the feast of All Saints Day, which the Church celebrates each year on Nov. 1. Since the solemnity is a national holiday in Italy and the Vatican, the Pope offered the special Angelus address, rather than giving his typical Wednesday general audience.
Pointing to the day’s Gospel reading from Matthew, in which Jesus outlines the Beatitudes, Francis said the world “blessed” with which Jesus begins his preaching is in itself an announcement of the “good news,” because it points to the path of happiness.
“Whoever is with Jesus is blessed, is happy,” he said, explaining that happiness “is not having something or becoming someone,” but rather, “true happiness is being with the Lord and living for love.”
The “ingredients” for a happy life, then, are what Jesus calls the beatitudes, he said, explaining that the blessed ones “are the simple, the humble who make room for God, who know how to weep for others and for their own errors, those who stay meek, who fight for justice, who are merciful toward all, who guard purity of heart, who always work for peace and remain in joy, not in hate, and, even when suffering, respond to evil with good.”
The beatitudes, then, are not “sensational acts” reserved only for “supermen,” but are attitudes for those who live through the trials and fatigues of everyday life.
Even the Saints are like this, he said, explaining that like everyone, “they breath the air polluted by the evil that’s in the world, but along the way they never lose sight of Jesus’ path, the one indicated in the beatitudes, which are like the map of Christian life.”
And the feast of All Saints, then, is not celebrated only in honor of those who have reached the “goal” this map leads to, but it is also for the many “simple and hidden people” who we may know, and who, through everyday holiness, help God to “carry the world forward.”
Francis highlighted the importance of the beatitude “blessed are the poor in spirit,” which he said does not mean living for success, power or money, since “whoever accumulates treasures for themselves is not rich before God.”
Rather, those who are poor in spirit believe that “the Lord is the treasure of life, and that love of neighbor is the only true source of income.”
“At times we are unhappy about something we lack or are worried whether or not we are though of as we would like (to be),” he said, and urged pilgrims to remember that true beatitude is not found in these things, but only “in the Lord and in love.”
Pope Francis closed his address pointing to a final “beatitude” that is not found in the Gospel, but in Chapter 14 of the Book of Revelation, which reads “blessed are the dead who die in the Lord henceforth.”
Looking toward tomorrow’s celebration of All Souls Day, Francis said Christians pray for their departed loved ones, “so that they enjoy the Lord forever.”
After leading pilgrims in the traditional Angelus prayer, Pope Francis voiced his sorrow for the terrorist attacks that have taken place over the past week in Somalia, Afghanistan and New York, saying he is “deeply saddened” by the attacks.
“In deploring these acts of violence, I pray for the deceased, for the wounded and for their families,” he said, and prayed for the Lord to “convert the hearts of terrorists and free the world from hatred and the murderous folly that abuses the name of God so as to spread death.”
He noted how for tomorrow’s Nov. 2 feast of All Souls Day, he will visit the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial in Nettuno, where he will celebrate Mass to remember the faithfully departed, and how afterward he will stop at the Fosse Ardeantine Museum and memorial commemorating the site of a Nazi massacre during World War II.
Pope Francis asked that pilgrims and faithful accompany him in prayer as he remembers the victims of war and violence honored in the two locations.
“Wars do not produce anything other than cemeteries and death. This is why I wanted to offer this sign at a time when humanity seems to have not learned it’s lesson, or does not want to learn it,” he said, and asked for prayer.
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