Washington D.C., Dec 4, 2018 / 02:05 pm (CNA).- Women have spoken about their personal and near experiences of abortion and the lack of resources and support which led them to the tragic decision.
A recurring theme in the responses to a surve… […]
Stephen K. Ray is the author of several books, including Crossing the Tiber, Upon This Rock, and St. John’s Gospel: A Bible Study and Commentary. He is also the host of the popular, award-winning film series […]
Harrisburg, Pa., Dec 4, 2018 / 12:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Citing due process, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday wrote that the names of 11 former and current priests in a grand jury report on allegations of clerical sexual abuse of minors are to remain permanently redacted.
The 11 names will be kept redacted as “the only viable due process remedy … to protect their constitutional rights to reputation,” Justice Debra Todd wrote in the court’s Dec. 3 majority opinion.
More than 300 priests were named in the report.
“We acknowledge that this outcome may be unsatisfying to the public and to the victims of the abuse detailed in the report. While we understand and empathize with these perspectives, constitutional rights are of the highest order, and even alleged sexual abusers, or those abetting them, are guaranteed by our Commonwealth’s Constitution the right of due process.”
Article 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution enshrines a person’s right to possess and protect their good reputation, placing it on the same footing as life and liberty.
Six of court’s justices were joined in the majority opinion, while Chief Justice Thomas Saylor filed a dissenting opinion.
Several individuals named in the report, including some priests, have objected to being included in the document. They argued that the grand jury report links their names to terrible crimes or cover-up efforts, but that they had not been afforded the chance to respond to allegations made against them, or given the benefit of due process of law.
A redacted version of the report was released Aug. 14. It detailed sexual abuse allegations in six of Pennsylvania’s eight Latin-rite dioceses, following an 18-month investigation into thousands of alleged instances of abuse spanning several decades.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro responded to the Supreme Court’s decision saying it “allows predator priests to remain in the shadows and permits the Church to continue concealing their identities,” and that “the public will not relent in its demand that anyone involved in this widespread abuse and cover up be named.”
The grand jury report was adopted and issued by the grand jury, but its text was drafted by Shapiro’s office.
In his dissent, Saylor argued that the petitioners’ due process concerns could be remedied by having a judge conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine whether disputed matters in the report were supported by the evidence.
This suggestion was rejected by the majority of the court because they held it is not authorized by the statute governing Pennsylvania’s grand juries, and because the supervising judge would be evaluating diverging types of evidence.
Paris, France, Dec 4, 2018 / 09:35 am (CNA).- French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced Tuesday morning that the government would suspend the imposition of a proposed fuel tax increase for six months. The planned increases, originally set to tak… […]
Shrewsbury, England, Dec 4, 2018 / 03:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a pastoral letter marking the first Sunday of Advent, Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury dedicated 2019 as the diocesan Year of Holiness, calling attention to the Second Vatican Council’s emphasis on the universal call to holiness.
“It is this universal call to holiness which I wish all of us, clergy and people, to focus upon anew. It is striking that, amid all the crises of the 20th Century, the central message of the Second Vatican Council was that every one of us, in every state of life, is called to the fullness of the Christian life and the perfection of love: that is, called to become nothing less than a saint,” Bishop Davies wrote.
“Advent is a time of renewed hope leading us to the light of Christmas,” he said. “It is a journey we make in the darkest days of our year. Such days evoke the dark shadows in the world around us, and those failures in the lives and witness of Christians which have at times cast dark shadows over the face of the Church, obscuring for many, the clear light of Christ shining from her.”
He said that “our renewal in holiness” is “the only renewal of the Church which will ever matter … It is why only saints resolved the crises the Church has faced throughout history and why they have proved to be the great evangelisers.”
“It is also why, today, amid the dark shadows of scandal and the challenge of a new evangelisation of western societies, it is urgent to recall this one goal of every Christian life for it is in the saints that the true face of the Church shines out. For, though they can have their place, no pastoral programme; no discussions amongst us; no re-organisation or re-structuring can ever accomplish this; only our striving for holiness to become the saints we have been called by God to be.”
Both “our Christian calling and the ultimate goal of every human life” is “to become, in the end, a saint,” said Bishop Davies, recalling that Christ told us “that this is the one thing which alone matters.”
The bishop noted that Pope Francis wrote in a recent letter that “the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.”
“A saint is someone who reaches the complete and everlasting happiness of Heaven. We might say that holiness is happiness … it is only by being holy that we can be truly happy.”
Bishop Davies said: “The Holy Father writes, ‘Do not be afraid to set your sights higher, to allow yourself to be loved and liberated by God’. For holiness, he writes, is ‘the extent that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we model our life on Christ’s’. We can never reach this goal by our own unaided efforts. By the grace of God we can!”
He encouraged everyone in the Diocese of Shrewbury to recall in the coming year that there is found in the Church, holy though composed of sinners, everything needed to grow in holiness.
“In daily prayer, frequent Confession and, above all, in the Holy Eucharist, we are given the Divine means, the grace to reach this goal,” wrote Bishop Davies.
“This is our purpose as we enter anew into Advent,” the bishop concluded. “Let us ask Our Lady, she who is ‘full of grace’, to accompany us along the path to the holiness, the true happiness to which we are called. In the beautiful words of the Second Vatican Council, we know that in the most Blessed Virgin Mary the Church has already reached perfection and in our struggle she shines out for us as a sign of certain hope and consolation until the day of the Lord shall come in splendour.”
Bogotá, Colombia, Dec 4, 2018 / 12:00 am (CNA).- The Diocese of Cúcuta, Colombia, has been awarded a Portafolio Award, an annual recognition in the country given to organizations and people promoting economic and social development.
The a… […]
Vatican City, Dec 3, 2018 / 08:44 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- For the 50th anniversary of a Jesuit college in Rome, Pope Francis challenged members of the college community to reflect on the origins of the Society of Jesus as they seek spiritual fruit.
&ldqu… […]
Islamabad, Pakistan, Dec 3, 2018 / 07:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A group of advocates for religious freedom have formed a commission for the protection of minorities’ rights in Pakistan, amid growing fears of intolerance toward religious minorities … […]
Syracuse, N.Y., Dec 3, 2018 / 06:49 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Diocese of Syracuse has released a list of 57 priests credibly accused of abusing a minor, with some of the charges dating back to the 1950s.
“It is my fervent hope and prayer that this effort will bring some peace and healing to those who have been directly harmed and to all members of our community of faith,” Bishop Robert Cunningham of Syracuse said Dec. 1.
Stressing that no clergy credibly accused of abuse of a minor are in active ministry, he said the list includes both deceased priests and living priests removed from all ministry.
The accused priests were ordained as far back as 1911.
Some abuse victims have not wanted the names of their abusers released. While the diocese previously yielded to their wishes, Bishop Cunningham said, “upon serious reflection and prayer, I have concluded this practice has become a roadblock to moving our local Church forward.”
The 75-year-old bishop, who has submitted his resignation upon reaching retirement age under Church law, added that it was not fair to leave such a decision about abuse disclosure to his successor.
“The news over the past few months of the tragic failings of the Catholic Church has been deeply distressing and has caused many to lose faith and trust,” he said. “It continues to weigh heavily on our hearts. Personally for me, as your bishop, I have prayerfully considered what I can do to help rebuild trust and forge a path to restoring and strengthening the faith.”
A credible accusation, the diocese explained in documents accompanying the bishop’s letter, meets one of several criteria: the allegation is “natural, reasonable, plausible and probable”; the allegation is corroborated with other evidence or another source; or the allegation is acknowledged or admitted by the accused.
Some additional allegations have been reported to the appropriate district attorneys and will be added to the list if found credible, the diocese said.
A compensation program run by the diocese determined that there are 85 known abuse victims, as of September. A diocesan compliance officer works with accused priests and regularly monitors them.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told Syracuse.com he has reviewed the list released by the diocese several times. His office and the diocese have taken steps to ensure that accused priests who are still alive do not pose any danger to children. There are 19 such priests in the diocese.
Bishop Cunningham told Syracuse.com that Catholic leaders had for a time taken the view that sex abusers were not criminals, but psychiatric patients suffering “a sickness that we thought was treatable.” Priests, including some in the Syracuse diocese, were sent to Catholic treatment centers like the Southdown Institute in Canada and St. Luke’s in Maryland.
The bishop also said previous generations had a poor understanding of the damage caused by sexual abuse.
“Not just in the Church, but in society at large, there’s been an evolving understanding of child sexual abuse, the trauma it causes, the difficulty it causes,” Cunningham said in his letter.
“I don’t think the church ever intended to cover anything up,” Cunningham continued. “They frequently handled situations as families wanted or as society was doing at that time. I think it’s a slow awakening to realize how serious this issue is. And it covers much more than the Church.”
The 2002 approval of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People ended the practice of treating priests and returning them to active ministry.
The U.S. bishops had intended to address sex abuse again at their fall general assembly, but the Congregation for Bishops ordered them to postpone voting on resolutions until a special global meeting of the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences to address the sex abuse crisis, set for this February at the Vatican.
Seattle, Wash., Dec 3, 2018 / 05:16 pm (CNA).- Coffee giant Starbucks and microblogging website Tumblr have each announced they will be taking steps to prevent the online access of pornography.
Tumblr announced Monday that sexually explicit content and nudity will be banned on its blogging platform, effective Dec. 17.
The policy comes after the site was removed from Apple’s App Store in November. Images of child pornography had reportedly been uploaded on the website, after the filters had failed to block them.
According to the new ban, GIFs, videos, and images exposing genitalia, along with illustrated sexual acts, will be prohibited. Art featuring nudity will be permitted, as will nakedness in some photos of public events like political protests.
In a similar move, Starbucks announced last week it will block access to pornographic material viewed through WiFi networks at the company’s stores beginning next year. The coffee chain banned in-store pornography in 2016, but did not install filters to prevent customers from accessing pornography.
The recent decision comes after an internet-safety group, Enough is Enough, pressured Starbucks to restrict the pornography accessed on the café’s WiFi.
The coffee company said recently that it had been looking for a way to block pornography on its network without thwarting access to other websites.
Details on the new filters have not been released, but Starbucks has said it will introduce them sometime in 2019.
“We have identified a solution to prevent this content from being viewed within our stores and we will begin introducing it to our U.S. locations in 2019,” the representative told NBC News.
Starbucks made the announcement shortly after Enough is Enough re-issued a petition Nov. 20 which has more than 26,000 signatures. The petition was a second attempt by the group to campaign against the lack of porn restriction on Starbucks’ WiFi.
In 2014, the non-profit pressured Starbucks and McDonald’s to create a porn-free environment on publicly accessible WiFi.
Donna Hughes, CEO of Enough is Enough, said McDonald’s quickly responded to fix the problem, while Starbucks promised to act but did not. At present, Starbucks has only filtered porn in its U.K. locations.
“Starbucks has had a tremendous opportunity to put its best foot forward in protecting its customers from images deemed obscene and illegal under the law, but they haven’t budged, despite their promise two years ago,” Hughes said in a Nov. 26 statement.
“We demand Starbucks do the right thing by keeping its promise of two and half years ago,” she said. “We applaud Starbucks’ commitment to protect children in its UK stores, but what about America’s children? …There’s no reason why Starbucks can’t offer that same level of commitment of WiFi safety to its loyal customer base here in the United States.”
Hughes said that because Starbucks did not follow through with its 2016 commitment, the company has kept open an for child pornography to be accessed under the radar, and for teens to bypass parental controls.
Enough is Enough ran a thank-you campaign for Starbucks after it promised to block porn in 2016. Hughes told NBC News that, this time, the group will withhold applause and continue to apply pressure until the changes are seen.
“They won’t get an applause until they’ve actually implemented safe Wi-Fi filtering,” Hughes said. “This time we’re going to wait and see, and we’re going to keep the pressure on.”
Major porn websites have issued statements in response to the decision. The pornographic video-sharing site YouPorn, released a memo which banned the Starbucks’ products from the organization’s offices, beginning in January 2019.
A similar site, Pornhub, also issued a statement, noting it would be rolling out “Safe for Work” content – nudity-free videos. The category contains topics like video game reviews and advice from porn stars.
However, sexual and obscene advertisements may still be encountered in the “SFW” webpages. It is unclear if the new ban will block entire domains containing pornography, or allow access to parts of the websites which do not have sexually explicit material.
© Catholic World Report