News Briefs

Letter acknowledges Vatican receipt of allegations against McCarrick in 2000

September 7, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, Sep 7, 2018 / 03:45 pm (CNA).- Catholic News Service on Friday published a redacted version of a letter sent in 2006 from a high-ranking official of the Secretariat of State, which implicitly acknowledges receipt of allegations made against then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

The Oct. 11, 2006 letter is from then-Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, who was Substitute of the Secretariat of State, to Fr. Boniface Ramsey, who had been on the faculty of Immaculate Conception Seminary in South Orange, N.J., from 1986 to 1996.

Sandri’s letter refers “to the serious matters involving some of the students of the Immaculate Conception Seminary, which in November 2000 you were good enough to bring confidentially to the attention of the then Apostolic Nuncio in the United States, the late Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo.”

Fr. Ramsey has said that when McCarrick was appointed Archbishop of Washington in 2000, he contacted Archbishop Montalvo to report allegations of McCarrick’s misconduct with seminarians he had heard from his own seminary students.

At the nuncio’s request, he said, he put his concerns in writing.

Fr. Ramsey told CNS that in his letter, “I complained about McCarrick’s relationships with seminarians and the whole business with sleeping with seminarians.”

“My letter [of] November 22, 2000, was about McCarrick and it wasn’t accusing seminarians of anything; it was accusing McCarrick,” he said.

CNS reported that though Fr. Ramsey has said he did not receive a formal response to his letter of Nov. 22, 2000, “he was certain the letter had been received because of the note he got from then-Archbishop Sandri in 2006 acknowledging the allegations he had raised in 2000.”

The immediate purpose of Sandri’s 2006 letter was to inquire about a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark who had studied at Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University. The priest was being considered for a post at the Vatican.

Sandri is now prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, and a cardinal.

Fr. Ramsey’s account accords with details of that offered by the testimony of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who was apostolic nuncio to the US from 2011 to 2016.

Archbishop Viganò had written that Montalvo (and his successor, Archbishop Pietro Sambi) “did not fail to inform the Holy See immediately, as soon as they learned of Archbishop McCarrick’s gravely immoral behavior with seminarians and priests. Indeed, according to what Nuncio Pietro Sambi wrote, Father Boniface Ramsey, O.P.’s letter, dated November 22, 2000, was written at the request of the late Nuncio Montalvo. In the letter, Father Ramsey, who had been a professor at the diocesan seminary in Newark from the end of the ’80s until 1996, affirms that there was a recurring rumor in the seminary that the Archbishop ‘shared his bed with seminarians,’ inviting five at a time to spend the weekend with him at his beach house. And he added that he knew a certain number of seminarians, some of whom were later ordained priests for the Archdiocese of Newark, who had been invited to this beach house and had shared a bed with the Archbishop.”

Viganò also stated that on Dec. 6, 2006, he wrote and delivered to Sandri a memo which detailed accusations of sexual abuse against McCarrick by Gregory Littleton, a laicized priest, which included “absolution of the accomplices in these depraved acts.” The former nuncio said he proposed in that letter that “an exemplary measure be taken against the Cardinal that could have a medicinal function, to prevent future abuses against innocent victims and alleviate the very serious scandal for the faithful.”

 

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Russians hacked Catholic, Orthodox clergy amid Ukrainian push for autocephaly

September 7, 2018 CNA Daily News 3

Kyiv, Ukraine, Sep 7, 2018 / 11:27 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Russian hackers infiltrated the email inboxes of Orthodox, Catholic, and other religious leaders connected to Ukraine amid conflict between Kyiv and Moscow over Ukraine’s political and religious independence.

Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, was among the 4,700 global targets of the “Fancy Bear” cyber espionage group, the same Russian hackers who were indicted in the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, according to the Associated Press.

Gugerotti and unnamed Ukrainian Greek-Catholic clergy were hacked by this group, along with other foreign diplomats, journalists, intelligence personnel, and Hillary Clinton.

Kyiv is the site of the 988 baptism of Vladimir the Great, Grand Prince of Kiev, which resulted in the Christianization of Kievan Rus’, a state whose heritage Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus all claim.

The Christianization of Kievan Rus’ forms the roots of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, and several Orthodox Churches in Ukraine.

In addition to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), which is linked to the Russian Orthodox Church, there are two other Orthodox Churches which have claimed autocephaly, but are not recognized by other Orthodox Churches: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

These two latter Churches have asked the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, for recognition as autocephalous Churches. The request has been supported by the Ukrainian parliament and its president.

The Ecumenical Patriarch is regarded as the primus inter pares or “first among equals” among the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Bartholomew’s staff were particularly targeted by the cyber-espionage group aligned with the Russian government. Several Greek Othodox metropolitans were hacked, including Bartholomew Samaras, Emmanuel Adamakis, and Elpidophoros Lambriniadis.

In a highly-anticipated meeting, Bartholomew hosted Russian Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in Istanbul Aug. 31. There was no statement released as a result of the meeting, leaving many Ukrainians wondering whether their request for an independent national Church will be accepted by Eastern Orthodox leaders.

The Russian Orthodox Church has strongly opposed the proposal of a Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent from Moscow’s control. One representative for Patriarch Kirill told AP that Ukrainian Orthodox independence would lead to the biggest Christian schism since 1054.

Granting autocephaly to the UOC-KP and UAO would end “Russia’s four-century-long monopoly on the ancient Kyivan heritage and modern Ukrainian Orthodox spirituality,” Myroslav Marynovych, a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic and vice-rector for university mission at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, told Catholic News Agency.

Marynovych added that he understands that “this sine qua non solution might create new problems in the inter-Church relations in Ukraine and in the world.”

However, he maintains that the Russian Orthodox Church’s willingness to cooperate with the Russian government’s “practice of evil” necessitates a split. The hacking is just one example.

The AP reported that “The Soviet Union slaughtered tens of thousands of priests in the 1930s, but the Communists later took what survived of the church and brought it under the sway of Russia’s secret police, the KGB, with clerics conscripted to spy on congregants and emigres,” a connection which has outlasted the fall of the Soviet Union.

The hacking of Orthodox and Catholic clergy took place from 2015 to 2016, but the AP reported that other evidence gives reason to believe that Russian attempts to compromise Bartholomew are ongoing.

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Speak out against injustice, Pope Francis says

September 7, 2018 CNA Daily News 5

Vatican City, Sep 7, 2018 / 04:14 am (CNA/EWTN News).- God needs Christians to be his hands and feet on earth, and to speak out about injustice wherever it happens, especially when hidden by silence, the pope said in an interview published Friday.

Spe… […]

Names of accused bishops scrubbed from Pennsylvania schools

September 6, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Harrisburg, Pa., Sep 6, 2018 / 04:32 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The names of accused clerics are being removed from the buildings of several colleges and high schools in Pennsylvania in the wake of the grand jury report detailing sex abuse cases in six dioceses in the state.

The University of Scranton, a Jesuit school, announced last month that “with sympathy for and in solidarity with victims of sexual abuse,” the honorary degrees and names of campus buildings recognizing Bishops Jerome Hannan, J. Carroll McCormick, and James Timlin would be rescinded.

“As documented in the report, these Bishops covered up the crimes and misdeeds of men who were under their jurisdiction and placed children in harm’s way,” President Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., said in a statement announcing the changes.

King’s College, a Catholic college in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. also announced that the name of Bishop McCormick would be removed from one of its buildings and an honorary degree would be rescinded from Bishop Timlin.

North Catholic High School in Cranberry Township, Pa. removed “Cardinal Wuerl” from its name at the request of Cardinal Donald Wuerl himself, after signs at the school bearing his name were vandalized.

According to a diocesan statement, Wuerl wrote to Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh requesting the removal of his name “lest we in any way detract from the purpose of Catholic education.”  

His name is also being removed from the parish hall at St. Rosalia Church in Pittsburgh, according to the Tribune-Review.

Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington  and successor of former-cardinal Theodore McCarrick, came under increasing scrutiny in August because of his role in sex abuse cases listed in the Pennsylvania grand jury report and because he has been accused of negligent oversight of McCarrick.
 
Students and staff at the University of Scranton who spoke with NPR said they supported the removal of the names from the school.

“I don’t think it’s being disrespectful to the church,” Adam Pratt, an assistant history professor at the University of Scranton, told NPR in August. “What these men have done is beyond the pale. And it’s not the values that we teach here at the University of Scranton.”

In his statement, Pilarz announced that McCormick Hall will be renamed MacKillop Hall in honor of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop, an Australian nun “who publicly exposed the sexual abuse of children by a priest. In her life, she faced persecution and excommunication, during which she was assisted by the Jesuits until later being absolved.”

Another plaza named after Timlin will be renamed after Bl. Oscar Romero, who was killed while celebrating Mass in San Salvador, and is to be canonized Oct. 14.

A hall named after Hannan will be renamed to honor two former Scranton students who have died – Brendan J. Giblin, who was killed while on spring break his senior year, and William H. Kelly Jr., who died Sept. 11, 2001 in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

“In choosing to honor St. MacKillop, Archbishop Romero, Brendan and Bill, we hold up the example of their lives as a reminder always to be a voice against abuse and violence no matter the cost, to champion the poor and oppressed, and to treasure the bonds of friendship and community that are at the heart of The University of Scranton,” Pilarz said.

DeSales University and Misericordia University, both in Pennsylvania, have said they are considering taking similar action in removing the names of accused bishops from campus facilities.

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Chilean Church celebrates National Day of the Migrant

September 6, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Santiago, Chile, Sep 6, 2018 / 02:07 pm (ACI Prensa).- The Church in Chile’s capital celebrated the National Day of the Migrant September 2 with a Mass of Thanksgiving and a charitable collection for the more than one million displaced people who currently live in the country.

In Santiago, Catholics of more than 20 nationalities gathered at Our Lady of Pompeii parish to celebrate the Eucharist and share their traditions. The parish is locally known as the “Latin American parish” because its members hail from many different Latin American countries.

Auxiliary Bishop Cristián Roncagliolo of Santiago presided over the Mass. He noted that the Church “is a migrant people which traverses the world and announces the Gospel, which constantly calls us to conversion.”

The bishop highlighted that in the midst of different charisms, gifts, nations and rites, “the unity of the Church comes through faith – we’re different but we are members of one and the same faith.”

In his homily, Bishop Roncagliolo encouraged those present to take up the challenge of working for communion, integration and welcome.

“In Chile in recent years, we have taken in a great number of migrants. For us Chileans, this is not just a sociological issue but an issue of charity, to help our brothers from different parts of the world feel at home,” he said.

After Mass, participants enjoyed more than 20 stands with typical food from different countries, cooked by migrants as a way to share their culture and thank the Chileans who have welcomed them.

As part of the observation of the National Day of the Migrant, a collection was held in all dioceses throughout the country, raising money for the Chilean Catholic Migration Institute, which assists migrants, primarily from Venezuela and Haiti.

The fund-raising campaign will last the entire month of September through online donations.

In neighboring Argentina,  the Church commemorated the Day of the Migrant and Refugee September 2 with a call to “welcome, protect, assist and integrate those experiencing this situation.”

The Argentine Bishops’ Committee on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People offered a series of online resources including Pope Francis’ message for the 2017 World Day of Migrants and Refugees, and liturgical suggestions for the day.

 

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

 

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