Christ the Protector under construction near Encantado, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. / Cristo Protetor de Encantado via Facebook.
Porto Alegre, Brazil, Jan 7, 2022 / 15:36 pm (CNA).
A statue of Christ is being built in Brazil that will be larger … […]
Father David Huneck, who has has agreed to plead guilty to two felony charges of child seduction and sexual battery. / Whitley County Sheriff’s Department
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 7, 2022 / 14:30 pm (CNA).
Father David Huneck, a former high school chaplain in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, has agreed to plead guilty Jan. 27 to two felony charges of child seduction and sexual battery after six allegations were brought against him for sexual crimes committed against both a 17 and a 19 year old girl.
The other four misdemeanor charges — contributing to the delinquency of a minor, furnishing alcohol to a minor, and two counts of battery — would all be dropped if the court accepts the plea agreement.
According to the plea agreement, which has the possibility of being amended before the change of plea hearing on Jan. 27, Huneck’s sentence for child seduction would amount to one year with between 10 and 90 days to be served in jail. The court will address the conditions and rules of the remainder of Huneck’s one year sentence during the hearing.
The sentence for sexual battery would also be between 10 and 90 days served in jail concurrent to his first sentence. A concurrent sentence allows Huneck to serve both sentences simultaneously, so he would only have to serve his longest sentence.
During sentencing, Huneck is able to request that his felony charges be counted as misdemeanors. The agreement also includes the possibility of Huneck serving his jail time on work release.
A probable cause affidavit shows that Huneck, 31, invited the two girls to his home on two separate occasions, in which he got intoxicated and groped and sexually harrassed the girls multiple times. The girls knew Huneck from their time at Bishop Dwenger High School, while he was chaplain. He was ordained in 2018.
The first night, Jun. 30, 2021, Huneck invited the girls to celebrate his birthday with cake. Huneck offered them alcohol, which they accepted. They did not become intoxicated, the affidavit said.
Huneck then became seriously intoxicated and began groping the older girl, despite her efforts to slap his hands away. He then asked the older girl about her sexual encounters and inquired if she would have sexual encounters with him. He became so intoxicated, he lay down on the kitchen floor. While the two girls assisted him to his bed, he pulled the younger girl into bed with him and groped her, to which she asked him to stop. Huneck fell asleep, then the girls left.
The girls said they returned to his home the second time because he apologized for his misconduct and had several normal encounters with him after the first night. Both girls considered him a spiritual advisor, friend, and central figure in their faith and were willing to forgive him. The older girl, however, said she “would not forget,” the affidavit says.
Their Sept. 17 visit was similar to the first. Huneck offered the girls alcohol and invited them to watch a movie. They accepted. Huneck became intoxicated and began groping the older girl. He then exposed himself to the two girls. The two girls then left. Huneck then texted the older girl the next day apologizing, adding that he may be relegated to the “bad priest list.”
In a Sept. 28 statement, the Diocese of Fort Worth-South Bend said it immediately referred the incident to authorities when it was made aware of the abuse. Huneck subsequently resigned as pastor of St. Paul of the Cross Catholic Church and as chaplain of the high school. He was also suspended from all public ministry.
In a follow up statement on Oct. 8, the diocese said its internal investigation resulted in finding the allegations against Huneck credible. Huneck has been added to a list of clergy credibly accused of the sexual abuse of a minor.
In a press conference on Sept. 28, Bishop Kevin Rhoades called the incident “tragic news” and “a shock to us all.”
“Sexual abuse or misconduct by clergy, as you know, has caused enormous pain, anger, and confusion for victims, their families, and the entire Church,” Rhoades said. “We have worked so hard here in our diocese to strengthen a safe environment within the Church for our young people and we’ll continue to do so.”
He added that the diocese will continue to do its best to provide healing and help for the victims and said that caring for the victims is his priority.
Cologne Cathedral in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. / Rudolf Gehrig/CNA Deutsch.
Cologne, Germany, Jan 7, 2022 / 12:05 pm (CNA).
The Vatican has said that an external review of contracts in Germany’s Cologne archdiocese must wait until Cardin… […]
Pope Francis meets with French Catholic entrepreneurs at the Vatican’s Clementine Hall, Jan. 7, 2022. / Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Jan 7, 2022 / 07:30 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Friday offered advice to business leaders who want to live out the Gospel in the workplace, where he said “the Church needs your witness.”
In a meeting at the Vatican with French Catholic entrepreneurs on Jan. 7, the pope said that he wanted to share some teachings to help “carry out your role as leaders according to the heart of God.”
“I realize how demanding and difficult it can be to implement the Gospel in a competitive professional world,” Pope Francis said.
“Nonetheless, I invite you to keep your gaze fixed on Jesus Christ through your prayer life and the offering of your daily work. He had the experience on the cross of loving to the end, of fulfilling his mission to the point of giving his life.”
The pope said that Christian business leaders had their own crosses to bear, but encouraged them to endure them with the grace and confidence of knowing that Jesus has “promised to accompany us ‘to the end of the world’ (Matthew 28:20).”
“Do not hesitate to invoke the Holy Spirit to guide your choices,” Francis added.
The pope met with entrepreneurs participating in a conference entitled, “The Journey of the Common Good,” which brought 200 people together in Rome for discussions on “how to transform your company to put it at the service of the Common Good.”
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, papal preacher Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, and French bishops’ conference president Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort attended the conference, along with a number of other French bishops, including Bishop Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon.
Pope Francis outlined pairs of concepts that he said appeared to be in tension but can help bring unity to the life of a Christian. One example he gave was “authority and service.”
“Exercising authority as a service requires sharing it. Here too, Jesus is our teacher, when he sends his disciples on mission endowing them with his own authority,” he said.
“You are invited to put into practice the subsidiarity which enhances the autonomy and the capacity for initiative of all, especially of the least. … Thus, the Christian executive is called to carefully consider the place allotted to all people in his company, including those whose duties may appear to be of minor importance, because each is important in God’s eyes.”
The pope also encouraged Christian executives to be close to their employees, “to take an interest in their lives, to become aware of their difficulties, sufferings, anxieties, but also their joys, projects, hopes.”
“The mission of the Christian leader resembles, in many respects, that of the shepherd, of whom Jesus is the model, and who knows how to go before the flock to show the way, knows how to stand in the middle to see what is happening there, and also knows how to stay behind, to make sure no one loses contact,” he said.
“I have often urged priests and bishops to have ‘the smell of sheep,’ to immerse themselves in the reality of those entrusted to them, to get to know them, to be close to them. I believe this advice also applies to you.”
Last April, Pope Francis recognized the heroic virtue of Venerable Enrique Shaw, an Argentine businessman with a cause for sainthood.
Shaw was born in Paris, France, in 1921, and emigrated to Argentina, where he established himself as a businessman of outstanding integrity. He founded the Christian Association of Business Executives in 1952 and sought to apply Catholic social teaching in the workplace.
The businessman had nine children, including one who became a priest. He wrote numerous books and articles, and established a pension fund and a healthcare plan to provide 3,400 workers with financial support in the case of illness, and loans for important life events such as marriage, birth, and death.
Pope Francis oversaw the diocesan phase of Shaw’s cause while he was serving as archbishop of the Argentine capital.
“I find it very beautiful and courageous that, in today’s world often marked by individualism, indifference and even the marginalization of the most vulnerable people, some entrepreneurs and business leaders have at heart the service of everyone and not just private interests or inner circles,” Pope Francis told the entrepreneurs.
Nurse Mary Onuoha holds the cross on her necklace. / Christian Concern.
London, England, Jan 7, 2022 / 06:00 am (CNA).
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Father Mike Schmitz is the host of the podcast "the Bible in a Year," produced by Ascension. / Courtesy of Ascension
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 7, 2022 / 04:00 am (CNA).
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