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November
7, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 19Oakland,
CA
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Earthquake
anniversary RNS PHOTO/REUTERS/Jose Manuel Ribeiro |
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Murdered
priest RNS PHOTO/REUTERS/Jorge Duenes |
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Confronting
AIDS RNS PHOTO/REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly |
Judge finds decades of sex abuse
in Ireland
DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) – Former bishops, police and state agencies
did far too little to prevent the alleged sexual abuse of more than 100
children by Catholic priests in southeast Ireland over a 36-year period,
a report published Oct. 25 charged.
The two and one-half year probe, led by retired Irish Supreme Court Judge
Frank Murphy, found that two former bishops protected – and helped
to promote – abusers within the clergy. The report also found that
Ireland’s national police force rarely investigated complaints of
abuse properly – and kept no records of any such cases before 1988.
In addition, it said officials at government-appointed health boards sometimes
failed to act on reports of abuse.
Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, whose archdiocese faces its own fact-finding
probe into how Catholic leaders mishandled more than 100 abuse cases,
said the Church accepted Murphy’s findings, which he called “horrific.”
“Many people would not have suffered abuse had the people with knowledge
about it acted in a timely matter,” he said. “It’s only
when the whole truth about this comes out that we’ll be able to
pick up the pieces.”
Teacher dismissed for abortion-related
activity
SACRAMENTO — Officials at Loretto High School in Sacramento fired
a drama teacher in mid-October after they were presented with evidence
that she had recently been volunteering as an escort at a local Planned
Parenthood clinic.
Marie Bain, who had taught at the all-female high school since August,
was dismissed after a parent complained to school officials, presenting
photos of Bain earlier this year escorting clients into the clinic in
Sacramento.
After school officials consulted the diocese’s schools department
and Bishop William K. Weigand regarding the complaint, the bishop sent
a letter to Loretto Sister Helen Timothy, president of the high school.
The letter restated the longstanding diocesan policy regarding the disqualification
of persons participating in abortion-related activities from teaching
in Catholic schools.
House bill denies funds to non-profits
WASHINGTON (RNS) – The U.S. House has approved a measure that would
deny new federal housing funds to any non-profit group – including
churches – that have engaged in voter registration or get-out-the-vote
activities in the previous 12 months..
The Republican-backed provision, attached to the Federal Housing Finance
Reform Act, also prohibits any voter activity after a grant has been awarded.
The bill also denies funding to organizations who don’t list housing
as their “primary purpose.” Catholic Charities USA, for example,
said that it would make most churches ineligible because housing is only
a portion of their ministries.
Vatican asks Russia for diplomatic
ties
VATICAN CITY (RNS) – The Vatican’s foreign minister has called
for Russia to establish full diplomatic ties with the Holy See, a step
that could further strain relations between the Catholic Church and the
Russian Orthodox Church.
“I think both the parties should work to progress onto full diplomatic
relations,” Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo told the Catholic newspaper
Svet Evangelja.
The Vatican and Moscow established “relations of a special nature”
in 1990, allowing the Holy See to send a Vatican diplomat to Moscow. Russia
maintains an embassy in Rome, Italy, that has informal relations with
the Vatican.
Judge says Vatican lacks status
to limit questions
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) – A federal bankruptcy judge has ruled that
the Holy See has no standing to seek to limit questioning of Archbishop
William Levada to his knowledge of child abuse allegations within the
Portland archdiocese during his tenure as archbishop from 1986 to 1995.
Judge Elizabeth Perris is presiding over the Portland Archdiocese bankruptcy
proceedings in the face of hundreds of millions of dollars in sex abuse
lawsuits.
Archbishop Levada, most recently the archbishop of San Francisco, is the
prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome. He
was scheduled to give sworn testimony in August, but won a five-month
extension when he agreed to return to the United States in January. Portland
archdiocesan attorneys have objected to any questions that go beyond actions
he took during his tenure in Oregon.
School tells students to remove
blogs
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta
has ordered its students to remove personal blogs from the Internet in
the name of protecting them from cyberpredators.
Students appear to be heeding the directive to remove personal postings
about the school or themselves from Web sites like myspace.com or xanga.com,
even if they were posted from the students’ home computers.
Officials with the Diocese of Paterson say the directive is a matter of
safety, not censorship. But constitutional experts say the case raises
interesting questions about the intersection of free speech and voluntary
agreements with private institutions.
Church officials say Miers was
never a Catholic
DALLAS (RNS) – Catholic officials in Dallas say they have no record
of former Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers ever being Catholic, despite
reports that she was raised in that church before attending an evangelical
Christian church.
Catholic News Service reported that church officials examined “all
known sacramental records,” including baptism certificates, and
found no evidence that Miers, who withdrew her nomination to the Supreme
Court Oct. 26, was ever a Catholic.
“The Diocese of Dallas has no record of Harriet Miers or her immediate
family ever having been a member of the Catholic Church,” church
spokesman Bronson Havard told CNS.
Much had been made of Miers’ evangelical faith, including her apparent
born-again experience in the late 1970s and membership at Valley View
Christian Church. Critics accused the Bush administration of focusing
too heavily on Miers’ religion.
Pope Benedict XVI canonizes his
first saints
VATICAN CITY (RNS) – In the first canonization Mass of his papacy,
Pope Benedict XVI has added five men to the Catholic canon of saints on
Oct. 24.
They are Josef Bliczewski, archbishop of Lviv, Ukraine; Father Zygmunt
Gorazdowski, founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph, an order devoted to
care for the sick and poor; Jesuit Father Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga of
Chile for his charity work with the poor; Capuchin Friar Felice da Nicosia,
admired for his asceticism; and Father Gaetano Cantanoso, who founded
the Veronican Sisters of the Holy Face in 1934.
Religious schools can get FEMA
aid
WASHINGTON (RNS) – Religious schools and faith-based community service
organizations that suffered damage during the recent hurricanes are eligible
to receive federal disaster grants
The Archdiocese of New Orleans suffered significant damage to its schools
and will be eligible for FEMA grants. It has exhausted private insurance
and sought low-interest loans from the Small Business Administration.
Other faith-based organizations, including those providing assisted living
and critical health care, will also be eligible.
