Pope Francis Sets Guidelines for Removing Bishops Who Mishandle Sex Abuse Cases

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO JUNE 4, 2016

 

Pope Francis leading a Mass for priests at the Vatican on Friday. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

ROME — A year after approving the creation of a new tribunal to discipline bishops who covered up child sex abuse by priests, Pope Francis scrapped that plan on Saturday and issued new guidelines to oust those who have been “negligent” in handling such cases.

Under the new guidelines, issued in an apostolic letter, Roman Catholic bishops who have failed to properly handle sex abuse cases will be investigated by four Vatican offices. If the bishops are found to have betrayed their mission, they will be removed “to protect those who are the weakest among the persons entrusted to them.”

Canon law already provides for the removal of bishops “for serious causes,” the pope acknowledged, but he said his letter was meant to “clarify that the serious causes include the negligence of bishops in the exercise of their office,” in particular in the case of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.

The decree sought to appease the growing frustrations of victims of abuse and their advocates who say that despite Francis’ promises of zero tolerance toward abuse and past pledges to hold bishops accountable, not enough has been done.

For some, the decree — issued on the pope’s own initiative — was a strong signal that Francis was paying attention.

 

“This is a major step to ensure that no bishop can fail in his duty to protect children and vulnerable adults, and if he does fail he can be removed,” said Gerard O’Connell, a Vatican expert who writes for America: The National Catholic Review. “I think it goes a long way to respond to what was still seen as a big loophole in the system. It closes that loophole.”

The decree states that a “diocesan bishop, or eparch” or the superior of a religious congregation can be “legitimately removed from his office” in cases where he has, “through negligence, committed or omitted acts that have caused grave harm to others, either with regard to physical persons, or with regard to the community itself.”

In the case of minors or vulnerable adults, “it is sufficient that the lack of diligence be ‘grave,’” Francis wrote in the decree.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the director of the Holy See Press Office, wrote in an explanatory note on Saturday that the measure “effectively lowers the standard necessary for a bishop to be removed from office when there is negligence with regard to cases of sexual abuse.”

With the new guidelines, Francis put into action what he promised last year when he approved a Vatican tribunal to judge bishops accused of covering up or failing to prevent the abuse of minors. That tribunal never materialized, amid a series of juridical and bureaucratic problems.

The tribunal “was complex from a legal point of view, so after further studies and in-depth analysis, this solution emerged, which is linear, clear and follows already established practices,” Father Lombardi said in an interview.

The accused bishops will have the right to defend themselves, and the final word will be that of the pope, the decree states. He will be advised by a panel of legal experts, most likely made up of cardinals and bishops, Father Lombardi said in the note.

The decree will go into effect on Sept. 5.

Some victims of child sex abuse and their advocates remained skeptical.

“Over the decades, we’ve seen so many policies and procedures and protocol that sound good on paper but are rarely followed,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, the director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

 

In the case of the abuse of minors, “no new process should be required,” Mr. Clohessy said.

“The pope and his predecessors should have removed dozens of bishops long ago with the powers they already have,” he added. “It’s not a lack of policy but courage and will that prevents popes from acting.”

Above is from:  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/05/world/europe/05popeabuseupdate1pix.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

Are conservatives at high-stakes Vatican summit overplaying their hand? - Religion News Service

 

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Ever since a Vatican summit last year raised the possibility of making the church more open to those whose family lives may not mirror the Catholic ideal, conservative foes have been in uproar, waging an intense campaign to block any reforms from being adopted.

Yet as a follow-up meeting this month has progressed, the enthusiasm of the traditionalists could be overwhelming their tactical judgment — annoying and even angering  enough of their fellow bishops they may have weakened what was once considered a strong position.

Still, the conservatives may also have created enough disarray and disagreement to ice any significant moves toward change, or taint any proposals they may offer to Pope Francis when the meeting, called a synod, concludes on Oct. 25 after three intense weeks.

The most public, and, for the conservatives, embarrassing episode came earlier this week with the leak of a private letter to the pope from 13 cardinals opposed to reforms.

In the letter, the senior churchmen complained that Francis had set up this meeting of 270 bishops from around the world in a way that would favor reformers who want, for example, to adopt a new approach to gays and lesbians or find a way that divorced and remarried Catholics could receive Communion.

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Several cardinals quickly denied signing the letter, and others said the letter they signed was a bit different from the leaked version, though they did not say how.

That sent synod delegates and Vatican-watching media into a frenzy of speculation, until it was reported that there were in fact 13 signers, only some of them were different from those originally claimed.

Moreover, one of those newly revealed to have signed was Houston Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, a top official of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

DiNardo’s participation in the secret campaign was seen as a knock at Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl. That’s because Wuerl is a member of the committee named by Francis to draft the synod’s final report — a group whose composition had irked the conservatives.

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan was also a signer, and after initially declining to comment, Dolan gave a radio interview, set for broadcast Saturday (Oct. 17), that offers a circuitous rationale for the letter. At the same time, Dolan pegs conservative Australian Cardinal George Pell — a top Vatican official and outspoken opponent of reforms — as the ringleader of the effort:

“Cardinal Pell in his good shrewd way said, ‘Am I correct in summing up some of the concerns?’” Dolan says in the interview. “And some of us, myself included, said, ‘Boy, that sounds good to me. If you have a letter to the pope, count me in.’ And, sure enough, I signed it.”

• LISTEN: Cardinal Dolan interviewed about the letter he signed:

But, Dolan added, the letter was in Italian, and he said he “had forgotten about it” and was stunned when it emerged.

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READ: Who rules in Rome: Pope Francis or the Roman Curia? A papal blueprint faces red tape

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With all these twists and turns the saga was quickly becoming as absurd as it was convoluted, and it might have been seen as just another chapter in the legacy of Vatican intrigue that stretches from the era of the Borgia popes to the novels of Dan Brown — except that the plot seemed so backhanded it made the synod look faithless as well as foolish.

“The general opinion I detected among the bishops was a sense of disgust,” Bishop Marcello Semeraro, an Italian who is on the final drafting committee along with Wuerl, told Vatican Insider.

Another synod delegate, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Australia, called the leaked letter affair a “typically Roman melodrama” that was “not untinged with psychodrama.”

The problem, Coleridge wrote on his blog, is that episodes like this tend to “aggravate the sense that the Synod is not much more than a political caucus, with ideological riptides swirling around us and the odd stinger drifting by.”

Already, he said, the deliberations are struggling to battle against “a fear that can become a kind of paranoia.”

“My reading of all this is that the ploy has backfired,” wrote veteran Vaticanista John Thavis. “I suspect most synod participants are not amused at this rather obvious attempt to pre-emptively discredit the synod’s outcome.”

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READ: Pope Francis asks forgiveness for scandals at the Vatican, Rome

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The synod participant who counts most, of course, is Pope Francis, and he, too, was apparently not happy.

Pell had delivered the protest letter to Francis on Oct. 5, the first day of the synod meetings, and apparently made reference to it in comments on the synod floor.

The next morning, Francis made a brief, unscheduled speech in which he warned the bishops against buying into “the hermeneutic of conspiracy” — basically, conspiracy theories. Such fears, the pope said, are “sociologically weak and spiritually unhelpful.”

The pope’s rebuke, as well as details of the letter, only emerged days later.

But those aren’t the only examples of potential overreach by the right.

Shortly after the synod began, for example, the Polish bishops at the meeting — a solidly conservative bloc that has vocally opposed any suggestion of changes to church practices — began publishing on their website summaries of the speeches of individual participants along with each bishop’s name.

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That was a clear violation of synod rules on privacy that Francis expressly wanted to allow the bishops to speak freely. The Polish bishops took down the postings after Vatican officials complained.

At the same time, nearly every day conservative churchmen or their allies are holding press conferences to denounce their opponents or their arguments in the strongest terms, or are delivering hard-line speeches in the synod hall that seem to provide little space for compromise.

And those moves follow a year of public lobbying against changes and regular charges that the reformers are manipulating or “rigging” the synod to achieve a desired outcome.

In lectures and interviews, in columns and blog posts, traditionalist churchmen and conservative Catholic pundits have also warned darkly of schisms and heresies if any changes are made, and leading cardinals, some from within Francis’ own Roman Curia, have written books blasting the reformers or rejecting proposals to lighten the off-putting language the church often uses to refer to gay people or cohabiting couples.

Ultimately, it’s unclear whether the irritation over the pressure tactics will lead enough delegates to try to move ahead without the hard-liners on board.

They probably don’t have enough support, or the desire, to go it alone. And as the synod enters its final and decisive week, there appears to be little consensus on reforms and no clear path to a resolution.

In the end, if the bishops cannot agree on opening pathways to change, as may well happen, then the status quo camp can claim victory. And if the reformers do manage to win some victories, then the prebuttal complaints by the right may serve to discredit any compromise — or leave a mess for Francis to sort out.

YS/MG END GIBSON

Are conservatives at high-stakes Vatican summit overplaying their hand? - Religion News Service

The Pope is finally addressing the gaping hole in the Judaeo-Christian moral tradition - Comment - Voices - The Independent

 

The word momentous is over-used, but we can apply it with justice to the pronouncement coming out of the Vatican on Thursday from Pope Francis about poverty, the environment and climate change.

The Pope’s forthcoming encyclical, or teaching letter, entitled Laudato Si, is addressed to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics and is expected to be a dramatic intervention in the international political process, insisting that the fight against global warming, no less than the fight against misery and destitution, is a moral issue which must be addressed by the whole world.

The timing is remarkable. In essence, the 78-year-old Argentinian Pontiff is throwing the entire moral force of the Church into the negotiations for a new climate treaty to be concluded – it is hoped – at the UN climate conference in Paris in December. There has never in modern times been such a decisive involvement of the spiritual with the political – and certainly not with regard to the environment.

For even though Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, the German Joseph Ratzinger, acquired the nickname of the Green Pope for his enthusiasm for matters environmental – he sought to make the Vatican carbon-neutral and installed solar panels – it is Francis, the former Jorge Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who may come to be the true long-term bearer of that title.

He took Francis as his papal name after Saint Francis of Assisi, the 13th century Italian saint who was devoted not only to the poor, but – almost uniquely for a Catholic prelate in the past – to the natural world. The encyclical’s title, meaning Be Praised, is not in the normal Latin, but is actually medieval Italian, and comes from “The Canticle of The Sun”, St Francis’s famous poem in which he refers to Mother Earth who feeds us.

In aligning himself with St Francis, the Pope addresses what has always been a gaping hole in the formidable Judaeo-Christian moral tradition – the absence of reverence for the earth itself (in contrast to some other religions, such as Buddhism).

 

For centuries, the Church’s view of the earth was that of The Bible in Genesis 1:28 – “Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over… every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” In recent decades, however, Catholic theologians have sought to move away from ideas of domination and subjugation towards an ethic of stewardship, the stewardship of God’s creation – and Pope Francis’s encyclical is the culmination of this shift, likely to move the church decisively into line with environmental thinking.

But it is the direct effect it will have in the outside world, the real world of international politics, which is likely to be the explosive aspect of Laudato Si.

The encyclical will throw the Church’s enormous moral endorsement behind the longstanding position of climate scientists that global warming is a real, urgent and terrible problem for the world. It will thus be a colossal slap in the face for those most inveterate opponents of action on climate change, those determined pretenders that the whole thing is a huge left-wing hoax, America’s Republicans. Their discomfiture will be increased substantially by the fact that they are overwhelmingly Christian (and not a few are Catholics) and attacking the Pope aggressively over his views will be very difficult.

If the encyclical is as trailed, it may prove a tipping point in international opinion about climate change, and be a powerful force for the successful conclusion of a climate treaty in December. It can certainly be described as momentous. “Pope Francis is saying the environment is a moral issue, because if we don’t rethink our relationship with God’s creation, the consequences will disastrous,” says Catherine Pepinster, editor of Britain’s Catholic weekly, The Tablet. “It’s an unprecedented intervention in a political debate.”

The Pope is finally addressing the gaping hole in the Judaeo-Christian moral tradition - Comment - Voices - The Independent

Archbishop John C. Nienstedt, Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis resigns

 

Date: Monday, June 15, 2015

Source: Tom Halden, Director of Communications

From Most Rev. Bernard A. Hebda, Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I am humbled by Pope Francis’ decision to appoint me to serve as Apostolic Administrator for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. I am grateful for his confidence and I look forward to working with Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens and the leadership of the Archdiocese. I pray that I will be able to be of some service to you, the priests and faithful of the Archdiocese, as you prepare for the appointment of a new Archbishop.

Fondly recalling my years as a Bishop in Northern Michigan, where I first came to know the vibrancy of the faith shared by Catholics of the upper Midwest, I am hopeful that there will be opportunities to meet many of you in the weeks ahead. Mindful of Pope Francis’ challenge to bishops to be true shepherds who walk in the midst of the flock to the point of developing “ears open to listening to the voice of the sheep entrusted to their care”, it is my intention to be as available as possible, while still fulfilling my responsibilities as the Coadjutor Archbishop of Newark. As the Universal Church prepares to embark on a Year of Mercy, I look forward to getting to know this local Church and experiencing in a new context the marvelous ways in which the Lord works through His people to make His grace and healing presence known and felt, even in the most challenging of times.

Our loving God frequently finds ways to remind us that even those who exercise leadership in the Church do so as laborers and not as the Master Builder: the Church is not ours but Christ’s. While it is always true that we are merely stewards for a time in a vineyard that is not our own, the role of an Apostolic Administrator is particularly temporary. The law of the Church reminds us that an Administrator is not to introduce change, but rather to facilitate the smooth continuation of the ordinary and essential activities of the Church, while advancing those positive initiatives to which the Archdiocese is already committed.  It is my hope that I might be able to be faithful to that vision so that whenever a new Archbishop is appointed, he will find in this local Church a vibrant community of missionary disciples that is growing in its knowledge of the love of Jesus and in its shared commitment to the Gospel.

For this to happen, I realize that I will need the prayers and support of you, the priests, deacons, religious, and laity of the Archdiocese. In this time of transition, please join me in asking for the intercession of Our Lady of Mercy. May she not only seek God’s blessings for those who have given themselves to the service of this local Church in the past, but also draw us ever closer to the Heart of her Son so that we might more perfectly radiate His healing love in the days to come.

Sincerely in Christ,

Most Rev. Bernard A. Hebda

Apostolic Administrator

Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Above from:  Letter from Archbishop Hebda - Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

 

From Archbishop John C. Nienstedt, Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

In order to give the Archdiocese a new beginning amidst the many challenges we face, I have submitted my resignation as Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis to our Holy Father, Pope Francis, and I have just received word that he has accepted it. The Catholic Church is not our Church, but Christ’s Church, and we are merely stewards for a time. My leadership has unfortunately drawn attention away from the good works of His Church and those who perform them. Thus, my decision to step down.

It has been my privilege the last seven years to serve this local Church. I have come to appreciate deeply the vitality of the 187 parishes that make up the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. I am grateful for the support I have received from priests, deacons, religious men and women and lay leaders, especially those who have collaborated with me in the oversight of this local Church.

I leave with a clear conscience knowing that my team and I have put in place solid protocols to ensure the protection of minors and vulnerable adults.

I ask for continued prayers for the well-being of this Archdiocese and its future leaders. I also ask for your continued prayers for me.

Above is from:  http://www.archspm.org/archspm_news/statement-june-15-2015/

From Bishop Lee A. Piché, Auxiliary Bishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

The people of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis need healing and hope. I was getting in the way of that, and so I had to resign.

I submitted my resignation willingly, after consultation with others in and outside the Archdiocese.

It has been a privilege to serve this local Church and I will continue to hold everyone in the Archdiocese in my prayers.

Above is from:  http://www.archspm.org/archspm_news/statement-from-bishop-piche-regarding-the-future-of-the-archdiocese-of-saint-paul-and-minneapolis/

For the first time, Vatican will judge bishops for sex abuse

JUDY WOODRUFF: Pope Francis has made his most significant move yet to deal with the sexual abuse scandals that have plagued the Catholic Church for more than three decades.

Yesterday, the Vatican announced an unprecedented step that victims have long sought: a tribunal to judge and discipline bishops accused of covering up or failing to act on reports of child sexual abuse.

Hari Sreenivasan has the story.

HARI SREENIVASAN: More than 800 priests have been defrocked over the years, and 2,500 have been penalized. But, until now, no pope has publicly confronted or punished a bishop himself for such offenses.

Several bishops here and aboard are under investigation after being accused of covering up such crimes. A number of victims’ groups supported the move, but some also said it didn’t go far enough.

John Allen closely covers the Vatican. He is an associate editor of The Boston Globe and the Crux, The Globe’s Web site covering the Catholic Church.

So, John, I remember how momentous it was when Pope John Paul II apologized for sexual abuse. How big of a deal is this tribunal that will go after bishops?

JOHN ALLEN, Associate Editor, The Boston Globe: Well, Hari, I think it’s an enormously big deal, if it works as it’s been described.

The central bone of contention among survivors of abuse and their advocacy groups over the years has been that the Catholic Church has adopted very stern policies for abuse. They have officially embraced zero tolerance. Today, if a priest is accused of abusing a minor, he’s going to be yanked out of ministry and probably ultimately kicked out of the priesthood relatively quickly.

Their complaint has been that there hasn’t been a similar system of accountability for bishops who covered up these crimes. And that’s, obviously, the hole that Pope Francis is trying to fill.

We should say, Hari, that Vatican officials have been at pains to insist that this new system is not intended to replace criminal liability in terms of secular law enforcement. That is, if a bishop’s failure to act on a complaint of child abuse constitutes a crime in the place where he lives, the Vatican is saying he still has to face the music for that.

This is intended to ensure that, in addition to that criminal exposure, there is also internal ecclesiastical liability, which typically in practice means that the bishop would lose his job.

HARI SREENIVASAN: OK. So those bishops that could lose their job includes some bishops in the United States that have been caught up in this and accused of covering things up, right?

JOHN ALLEN: Yes, that’s right.

I mean, up until very recently, many people would have argued that the first logical case for this tribunal to take up would have been the case of Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri, who became the first American bishop to be criminally convicted on a misdemeanor charge of delaying to report a charge of child abuse, and yet for another 2.5 years continued to sit, with no apparent church consequences, as the leader of that dioceses.

Now, in February, Pope Francis accepted his resignation, so Finn has now already lost his position. But another situation that a lot of people would have their eyes would be in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul-Minneapolis in Minnesota, where the archbishop there, Archbishop John Nienstedt, has been accused of knowingly allowing at least two priests, one of whom has been accused of child abuse, the other actually convicted of it, to continue to serve as recently as 2013-2014, which, if true, would be a clear violation of the church’s zero-tolerance policy.

Many people believe that that might be one of the first cases this new tribunal takes up.

HARI SREENIVASAN: OK. So, since this announcement came out, you have had a chance to talk to survivors groups. What do they say?

JOHN ALLEN: I think the reaction is mixed, Hari.

On the one hand, I think there are many survivors who would say that to them this comes off as church officials judging other church officials, and they, frankly have, relatively little confidence in the integrity of those procedures.

Others think there is something new about the commitment of Pope Francis to get this right. Pope Francis has vowed that, on his watch — and this is his language — he has said there will be no be daddy’s boys, that is, church officials who get special treatment because they’re higher up the food chain. And they want to believe that that’s going to be translated into action.

I spoke recently with a survivor by the name of Peter Saunders in Great Britain, who actually sits on a papal commission advising the pontiff on sex abuse matters, who described this as a very positive step that indicates the pope is listening to survivors.

For the first time, Vatican will judge bishops for sex abuse

Pope Francis approves new tribunal to judge bishops accused of covering up sex abuse

By Michelle Boorstein and Abby Ohlheiser June 10

Ppe approves new office to investigate bishop sexual abuse(1:14)

Pope Francis has approved the creation of a Vatican department to judge bishops accused of covering up or not preventing sexual abuse of minors. (Reuters)

The Vatican on Wednesday announced the creation of a new tribunal for holding accountable bishops who fail to deal properly with clergy sexual abuse.
The changes were aimed at improving what many see as a key deficit in the church’s handling of abuse: accountability for the bishops who oversee abusers. Bishops in the Catholic Church traditionally have significant autonomy and independence from one another. The new system shifts investigations into alleged bishop coverups to the Vatican’s powerful doctrine-enforcing body.
“It’s a major thing because it’s putting bishops on notice. It’s saying: ‘If you don’t deal with this, you have to face the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,’ and no one wants to face the CDF,” said Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist and professor at the Catholic University of America who used to head St. Luke’s Institute — a key treatment center for priest-offenders.
Rossetti called the issue of accountability for bishops who oversee or cover up abusers “the cutting edge” for the church. Long ago, he noted, the Vatican established that abusers had committed the “gravest of crimes … but I think it’s true that this issue of accountability [for their bishop-bosses] was not as nailed down. This nails it down very clearly.”
The proposal was submitted to the pope by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley and was drafted by a high-level body Francis created to suggest improvements in dealing with abusers and their superiors.
Major improvements have been made — particularly in the United States — in the past decade in creating a system to prevent clergy abuse, and some experts say the U.S. Catholic Church is a model for other institutions on things like background checks and volunteer training. However, bishops who oversaw the many priests removed for abuse are still very rarely held accountable.
It appears that the Vatican has yet to explicitly attribute the removal of a bishop to a coverup of sex abuse. However, two months ago, Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn stepped down – three years after he was convicted criminally in an abuse coverup.

The new system gives the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith the authority to “judge bishops with regard to crimes of the abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors,” Vatican spokesman the Rev. Thomas Rosica said in an e-mailed statement to The Washington Post.
The proposal doesn’t appear to include new penalties for bishops who are found guilty of covering up abuse.
Marie Collins, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, tweeted her initial response to the approval on Wednesday.

Some victims groups remain cautious in their response to the new accountability tribunal.
Terence McKiernan, president of a group that compiles worldwide data on clergy abuse, said the new process was a positive development but far from sufficient.
McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability, praised the process for putting bishop accountability cases into the CDF. Accusers “will be treated more respectfully and their cases acted upon if there are people dedicated to this topic, and that’s good. This was an obvious next step,” he said.
However, he called the CDF itself “a black box” that is usually not transparent to the general public regarding its decisions and investigations into priest-abusers, adding that transparency remains a “huge problem in the Catholic Church.”
Others questioned whether internal oversight was an adequate way to address abuse coverups in the church. “As long as clerics are in charge of dealing with other clerics who commit and conceal child sex crimes, little will change,” said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, in an emailed statement. SNAP, Blaine said, would prefer to see church officials support reforms in “secular abuse laws so that clerics who hurt kids and hide predators will be criminally charged.

From:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/06/10/pope-francis-approves-a-new-process-for-governing-bishop-accountability-in-abuse-cases/

Vatican to Recognize Palestinian State in New Treaty - NYTimes.com

 

ROME — The Vatican said Wednesday that it had concluded a treaty to recognize Palestinian statehood, a symbolic but significant step welcomed by Palestinians but upsetting to the Israeli government.

Formal recognition of a Palestinian state by the Vatican, which has deep religious interests in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories that include Christian holy sites, lends a powerful signal of moral authority and legitimacy to the efforts by the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, to achieve statehood despite the long paralyzed Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Israel has grown increasingly alarmed about the increased international acceptance of Palestine as a state since the United Nations upgraded the Palestinian delegation’s status in 2012 to that of a nonmember observer state. A number of European countries have also signaled their acceptance of Palestinian statehood.

A statement from a joint commission of Vatican and Palestinian diplomatic officials, posted on the Vatican news website, said “the work of the commission on the text of the agreement has been concluded,” and that it would be submitted for formal approval and for signing “in the near future.”

Hanna Amireh, head of a Palestinian committee on church affairs, said the treaty was a broad one regarding the Vatican’s interests in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, including the standing of churches and church courts and taxes on church charities, institutions and lands, as well as other cultural and diplomatic matters. He said it had been under negotiation for about a year.

“The Vatican is the spiritual capital of the Catholics, and they are recognizing Palestine, that’s the chief importance,” said Mr. Amireh, who is also a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee. The move counters an image of Palestinians as militants or terrorists, he added, as a “recognition of the Palestinian character that has a clear message for coexistence and peace.”

A senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under diplomatic protocol, said Israel was “disappointed to hear” about the Vatican’s use of the term “state” in its new treaty.

”This step does not advance the peace process and pushes the Palestinian leadership further away from returning to a direct and bilateral negotiation,” the official said in a statement, echoing Israel’s reactions to a series of recent parliamentary resolutions on Palestinian statehood in European nations. “Israel will study the agreement and consider its next steps accordingly.”

Pope Francis, the leader of the world’s 1 billion Catholics, has long signaled his wish for a Palestinian state. For the past year, the Vatican had informally referred to the country as “state of Palestine,” in its yearbook as well as in its program for Francis’ 2014 visit to the Holy Land.

During that visit, Francis gave an additional boost to Palestinian sovereignty by flying directly to Bethlehem from Amman, Jordan, rather than stopping first in Israel as his predecessors had done. Francis later hosted the Palestinian and Israeli presidents in a prayer for peace.

 

It is not the first time Francis has shown a willingness to offend political sensitivities in the name of doing what he thinks is right. Exactly a month ago, for example, the pope angered the Turkish government by calling the 1915 slaughter of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks a genocide. Turkey recalled its Vatican ambassador in response.

A Palestinian spokesman, Xavier Abu Eid, said 135 nations now recognize…

Read the entire article by clicking on the following:  Vatican to Recognize Palestinian State in New Treaty - NYTimes.com

Editorial: Finn's resignation is a bitter but necessary reckoning | National Catholic Reporter

 

NCR Editorial Staff  |  May. 4, 2015

 

The resignation of Robert Finn as bishop of the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., is a bitter but necessary moment of reckoning for leaders of the Catholic church if they hope to begin to deal seriously with their long betrayal of the community's trust.

Let's be clear that this is only a beginning. Finn was removed for cause, we have been told. Finn was criminally convicted for failing to report Fr. Shawn Ratigan, who ultimately pleaded guilty to possessing and producing child pornography. Ratigan received a 50-year prison sentence.

Finn also violated the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, commonly called the Dallas Charter, which the U.S. bishops themselves wrote to guide their response to the violation of children by clergy.

Upholding the Dallas Charter is the one clear signal the bishops can use to ensure deeply skeptical Catholics, not to mention the general public, that they have broken with the despicable practices of the past, when they hid and covered up sexual predators. The Dallas Charter is an imperfect document, but it is the only yardstick the bishops have for measuring their integrity on this issue. That is why Finn became the test case of church resolve to hold bishops accountable.

It may seem unfair that Finn had to take this role. Bishops and cardinals who should have faced criminal prosecution for covering up crimes more extensive and horrible by many degrees than those ignored by Finn have avoided, via legal technicalities, such scrutiny and gone quietly to either retirement or the grave.

"Bishops overseeing the crisis dismissed themselves for decades from any responsibility in the scandal. It was a brazen attempt to sidestep the mountains of evidence revealing that they had long ignored the plight of child victims while engaging in elaborate schemes to hide the heinous behavior of thousands of priests. Any lack of fairness is the result of nothing more or less than the clerical culture that looked first to protect itself and its privileges. Only when forced by legal processes and public pressure did bishops deign to consider the deep wounds inflicted on the most vulnerable in the Catholic family.

Finn's example shows how easily those in authority can ignore even the most basic steps in prevention. The church has made tremendous strides in such areas as requiring background checks, educating both adult ministers and children appropriately regarding proper boundaries, and creating safe environments for children. However, the recently released annual Report on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People makes clear that continued diligence is essential -- but is in some places lacking.

"While substantive progress has been made, it should not be concluded that the sexual abuse of minors is a problem of the past that has been adequately addressed," wrote Francesco Cesareo, chairman of the National Review Board. He warns against "Charter drift," referring to instances of laxity in some dioceses of upholding the standards of the bishops' charter. Any bishop who thinks he can relax on this issue should look carefully at Kansas City.

Cesareo also particularly notes that the Lincoln, Neb., diocese and five eparchies stubbornly refuse to cooperate with auditing procedures. Herein lies the final lesson in the Finn case.

Finn has resigned, and we are told it's because of his mishandling of a child abuse case, but we don't know that for certain. We don't know that, because there are no established procedures for removing a bishop who mishandles child abuse cases. If there were such procedures, all the provisions of the Dallas Charter could be enforced, and the Lincoln diocese would either comply or its bishop would be sanctioned.

Now we've been told that under the auspices of Pope Francis' sex abuse commission such procedures are being worked on, and we were told last month that Francis' Council of Cardinals has put the issue of bishops' accountability "on the table," but we've seen no concrete evidence of this yet. Until we see actual procedures in writing and actual cases prosecuted, we'll remain skeptical.

The Council of Cardinals needs to hear from Teresa White, an abuse survivor who was part of a 2008 settlement with the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese.

She said on April 21, the day of Finn's resignation, that it is important to know the process that led to that resignation. "I want full accountability, I don't want partial accountability," she said. "I don't want any more smoke and mirrors with the church. I want them to own up to their responsibilities to protect children and young people."

For 30 years, we've heard these same sentiments from many other survivors. It is long past time for the church to have in place a clearly delineated process to hold bishops responsible for their actions and inactions in this tragedy.

Editorial: Finn's resignation is a bitter but necessary reckoning | National Catholic Reporter

Pope Francis Names Rabbi Arthur Schneier Papal Knight Cardinal Dolan Confers the Papal Knight of Saint Sylvester to Founder and President of The Appeal of Conscience Foundation and Senior Rabbi of Park East Synagogue

 

Rabbi Arthur Schneier has been conferred the title of Papal Knight of Saint Sylvester by Cardinal Timothy Dolan in the presence of top religious leaders and elected officials.

According to Archbishop Bernardito C. Auza, the Apostolic Nuncio, and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, who hosted the ceremony, “Pope Francis is bestowing the honor on Rabbi Arthur Schneier who has worked unceasingly to promote peace and mutual understanding, in the firm conviction that respect for fundamental human rights, including religious freedom, are indispensable values for all peoples of the world to enjoy peace, security and shared prosperity. A Holocaust survivor, Rabbi Schneier has always held this conviction in his heart and made it a principle of life.”

Born in Vienna in 1930, Rabbi Schneier survived the Holocaust in Budapest, Hungary in 1945 and arrived in the United States in 1947.  Rabbi Arthur Schneier has been the Senior Rabbi of the 125-year old Park East Synagogue, one of New York City’s historic landmark houses of worship since 1962; he founded the Appeal of Conscience Foundation in 1965.

“The rare honor bestowed upon me by Pope Francis as Knight of Saint Sylvester marks the 50th anniversary of my meetings in the Vatican and the beginning of the cooperation between the Holy See and the Appeal of Conscience Foundation in helping advance religious freedom and human rights,” said Rabbi Arthur Schneier. “It is also the year that we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, a turning point in Catholic Jewish relations.”

According to Rabbi Schneier, “The visit of Saint Pope Paul John Paul II to the Rome synagogue, Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to synagogues in Europe as well as Park East Synagogue, the first papal visit to a synagogue in the United States, are historic events that have contributed to the evolving relationship between Catholic Church and the Jewish people. With great joy I helped welcome Pope Francis at the Wall in Jerusalem. I am greatly honored to be recognized by His Holiness, a voice of conscience who has embraced humanity with his outreach, compassion, love and mercy to all of God’s children.”

Rabbi Schneier also stated that, “As we remember the 70^th anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe, sadly, the hope for a new world order of peace has not materialized. We face once again a volatile world in conflict with radical extremist having hijacked religion to legitimize their barbarism inflicted on religious minorities particularly, Christian minorities who are in the front line of persecution being oppressed, uprooted and decapitated.”

Rabbi Arthur Schneier renewed his plea to stop those who abuse their role as religious leaders, “We clearly must rebut the preachers of hate who incite violence, demonize other faiths and help spread anti-Semitism, Christianophobia, Islamophobia. ‘A crime perpetrated in the name of religion, is the greatest crime against religion.’ Join me in awakening a public in the slumber of indifference and apathy to these heinous crimes. May God protect and shield us and help our joint efforts in pursuit of peace and security.”

Rabbi Arthur Schneier was awarded the U.S. Presidential Citizens Medal for “his service as an international envoy for four administrations, devoting a lifetime to overcoming the forces of hatred and intolerance by encouraging interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding and promoting the cause of religious freedom around the world.” Rabbi Schneier has also received the U.S. Department of State Special Recognition Award and has been nominated for the Congressional Gold Medal.

Rabbi Arthur Schneier was named as one of the 100 most trustworthy people in the U.S. by the Readers’ Digest magazine poll and listed as one the most influential rabbis in the U.S. by Newsweek Magazine. He is the recipient of eleven honorary doctorates from U.S. and European universities and was awarded the Legion of Honor, high awards from Germany, Austria, Russia, Hungary, Croatia, Italy, Poland and Spain .

The ceremony was attended by former United States Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D- NY). Former New York City Mayor, David Dinkins. Former New York City Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly. Archbishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Archbishop Barsamian, of the Armenian Church of America. The Reverend Dr. Fred R. Anderson, of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church-Trustees of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation-Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, The Executive Vice President of the New York Board of Rabbis and Imam al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid, The Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, Abraham Foxman, The National Director of the Anti-Defamation League and Rabbi Michael Miller, The Executive VP & CEO of The Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

Pope Francis Names Rabbi Arthur Schneier Papal Knight Cardinal Dolan Confers the Papal Knight of Saint Sylvester to Founder and President of The Appeal of Conscience Foundation and Senior Rabbi of Park East Synagogue

Pope Francis to Stop in Cuba Before US Trip - Yahoo News

 

Vatican has confirmed that Pope Francis will stop in Cuba before his visit to the United States this September.

The Holy See said earlier this month that a stopover was being considered. Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi officially confirmed the stopover today but gave no further details.

Pope Francis is said to have helped speed up reconciliation between the U.S. and Cuba by encouraging leaders of both nations and hosting some of the final negotiations.

Some Vatican watchers have already questioned why the pope would chose to visit the United States and Cuba before Mexico, which has the second-largest Catholic population in the world.

Pope Francis to Stop in Cuba Before US Trip - Yahoo News

Robert Finn, Missouri Bishop Convicted of Shielding Pedophile Priest, Resigns - NYTimes.com

 

• ​​NYT Now

Robert Finn, Missouri Bishop Convicted of Shielding Pedophile Priest, Resigns

By LAURIE GOODSTEINAPRIL 21, 2015

Pope Francis accepted the resignation on Tuesday of Bishop Robert W. Finn as head of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri, heeding pleas from parishioners and priests that the bishop had lost the credibility to lead after being convicted three years ago of failing to report a priest who took pornographic pictures of girls.

It was the first time that Francis had taken action against an American bishop who neglected to protect children from pedophiles in the priesthood. Although the Vatican did not state why Bishop Finn resigned, the circumstances were clear-cut because Bishop Finn had received international notoriety as the first Roman Catholic prelate ever criminally convicted of shielding an accused priest.

 

Now Francis faces a much tougher call: whether he will take concrete steps to keep bishops worldwide accountable for protecting the children in their flocks from sexual abuse by clerics and church workers. In the long history of the abuse scandal, the Vatican says, it has defrocked more than 850 priests and penalized at least 2,500 more, but the matter of discipline for bishops has remained the great unfinished piece of business, and the pressure to act is only growing.

In the last month, Francis has faced bitter protests from Catholics in Chile over his decision to install Bishop Juan Barros in the Diocese of Osorno despite claims that the bishop witnessed abuse years ago and did nothing.

And on Tuesday, Marie Collins, a member of the Vatican’s special commission on clergy — which Francis appointed to advise him on handling sexual abuse — said that the group had presented him with a plan for instituting standards and procedures to keep those in the hierarchy accountable.

“The commission has put forward a proposal to the Holy Father to advance bishop accountability, not just of bishops, but of all church leadership,” Ms. Collins said.

A survivor of abuse from Ireland, she added that the proposal was supported by the entire commission, which includes priests and Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, who also serves on a separate cardinals’ advisory board to the pope. But she declined to provide details.

“It’s with the Holy Father, so it’s basically up to him now what he decides on that proposal,” she said, adding, “We await his response.”

She described the resignation of Bishop Finn as “good news” that “has taken too long, obviously, but is the way that anyone, I think, who is concerned about child protection wants to see things go.”

Parishioners and priests in Bishop Finn’s diocese had been petitioning the Vatican for three years to remove him. In September, the pope sent a Canadian archbishop to Missouri to investigate, and several local Catholics and priests said afterward that the archbishop had asked them whether they thought that Bishop Finn had lost the confidence of the faithful.

Speculation that Bishop Finn would be removed grew when he was absent last week for a confirmation, and was then spotted in Rome.

Such a resignation is extremely rare when a bishop is not ill or close to the retirement age, 75. Bishop Finn is 62 and has served in his diocese just short of 10 years.

The Vatican announced the resignation in a brief note in its daily news bulletin Tuesday and did not give a reason. But the Vatican cited a provision in church law under which a bishop is “earnestly requested” to resign because of ill health or “some other grave cause.”

In a statement released by the diocese, Bishop Finn said, “It has been an honor and joy for me to serve here among so many good people of faith.”

Francis appointed Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, who leads the archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, to administer Bishop Finn’s former diocese but did not name a successor.

Bishop Finn was convicted in 2012 on a misdemeanor charge involving the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, a charismatic parish priest who Bishop Finn had been warned was behaving inappropriately with children. When Father Ratigan took his laptop computer in for repairs in December 2010, a technician immediately told church officials that the laptop contained what appeared to be sexually explicit photographs of young girls.

After Father Ratigan attempted suicide, Bishop Finn reassigned him to live in a convent and ordered him to stay away from children. But Father Ratigan continued to attend church events and take lewd pictures of girls for five more months, until church officials reported him to the police in May 2011, without Bishop Finn’s approval.

The bishop was convicted after a bench trial, and sentenced to serve two years of court-supervised probation.

Jeff Weis, a parishioner who helped to lead the petition campaign pushing for Bishop Finn’s removal, said in a statement that with the resignation, “the prayers of this hurt community have been answered.” But he added, “The damage done is immeasurable.”

Bishop Finn is not the first to resign under a cloud for mishandling sexual abuse. Cardinal Bernard Law resigned the leadership of the Boston Archdiocese in 2002 after The Boston Globe revealed he had failed to remove priests accused of abuse and simply reassigned them to new parishes. The cardinal later received an appointment in Rome and continued to serve on influential Vatican committees. It is unclear where Bishop Finn will be assigned next, but he remains a bishop.

In September, Francis dismissed a Paraguayan bishop, Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano, who had been accused of giving a promotion to an Argentine priest accused of sexual abuse. But a Vatican spokesman said the dismissal had more to do with conflicts with his fellow bishops than with his handling of the accused priest.

The removal of Bishop Finn will now put pressure on Pope Francis to act against Bishop Barros in Chile, said Anne Barrett Doyle, a director of BishopAccountability.org, an advocacy group that maintains an online database of sexual abuse cases. She said that, as with Bishop Finn, no pope had ever confirmed that the reason for a bishop’s removal was negligence in handling child abuse cases.

“We urge Pope Francis to issue such a statement immediately,” Ms. Doyle said. “That would be unprecedented, and it would send a bracing message to bishops and religious superiors worldwide that a new era has begun.”

As for the commission’s proposal on accountability for bishops, the challenge for Francis is what standards he would adopt to determine when to discipline a bishop, said Kurt Martens, an associate professor of canon law at the Catholic University of America, in Washington.

“You might have busloads of European bishops you’re going to remove if you have very high standards,” Professor Martens said. “Where do you draw the line and what happens if the standards evolve?”

Robert Finn, Missouri Bishop Convicted of Shielding Pedophile Priest, Resigns - NYTimes.com

Cardinal Burke Responds to Recent Criticisms | Daily News | NCRegister.com

 

by RICCARDO CASCIOLI 04/17/2015 Comments (40)

Cardinal Raymond Burke

– Joaquín Peiró Pérez/CNA

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, 66, is troubled by the negative campaign that has been waged against him. Ordained a bishop by Pope John Paul II in 1995, the respected expert in canon law was called to Rome by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 as prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura before being appointed cardinal in 2010.

In recent months, critics have described him as an “ultraconservative fanatic,” “anti-Conciliar,” “in conspiracy against the Pope” and even ready for a schism should the upcoming family synod open up unwelcome changes.

The criticism has been so defamatory that in Italy several bishops have even refused to host his lectures in their dioceses. Where he has been allowed to give a conference — as recently in some cities in the north of Italy — there are invariably priests who oppose him and accuse him of spreading propaganda against the Pope.

“It’s total nonsense; I don’t understand this attitude. I have never said a single word against the Pope; I strive only to serve the truth, a task that we all have. I have always seen my talks and my activities as a support to the Petrine ministry. The people who know me well can witness to the fact I am not anti-papal. On the contrary, I have always been extremely loyal and wanted to serve the Holy Father, as I am doing now.”

Indeed, meeting him in his apartment, a stone’s throw from St. Peter’s Square, with his friendly manner and spontaneity, Cardinal Burke bears no resemblance to that hard defender of “cold doctrine” as he is described by mainstream media outlets.

Cardinal Burke, in the debate that preceded and followed the first synod on the family, some of your statements did sound like criticisms of the Pope, or at least that is how they were interpreted. For example, quite a stir was caused by your recent remark, “I will resist; I’ll resist,” as a response to a possible decision of the Pope to grant Communion to the divorced and remarried.

That comment was misrepresented, and there was no reference to Pope Francis. I believe that because I have always spoken very clearly on the issue of marriage and the family, there are people who want to undermine what I say by depicting me as an enemy of the Pope or even ready for a schism by using that answer I gave in an interview with a French television channel.

How should we interpret that answer?

Quite simply. The journalist asked me what I would do if, hypothetically, not referring to Pope Francis, a pontiff were to make decisions contrary to the Church’s doctrine and practice. I replied I should resist, because we are all in the service of the truth, starting with the Pope. The Church is not a political body, in the sense of power. The power is Jesus Christ and his Gospel. Therefore, I replied I would resist, and it would not be the first time that this has happened in the Church. There have been several moments in history where someone had to stand up to the pope, beginning with St. Paul against St. Peter, in the matter of Judaizers who wanted to impose circumcision on the converted Greeks. In my case, I am not resisting Pope Francis at all because he hasn’t done anything against the doctrine. Nor do I see myself in a fight against the Pope, as they try to depict me. I’m not pursuing the interests of a group or party. I am simply trying, as a cardinal, to be a teacher of the faith.

Another criticism made against you is your alleged passion for “lace,” a comment used in a demeaning way to criticize your preferred clerical and liturgical vestments as something that the Pope cannot endure.

The Pope has never made me aware that he disapproves of the way I dress, which, anyway, has always been within norms of the Church. I celebrate the liturgy also in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, and there are vestments for this which do not exist for the celebration of the ordinary form, but I always wear what is required for the rite that I am celebrating. I am not making a political statement against the Pope’s way of dressing. It has to be said that every pope has his own style, but he does not impose this on all the other bishops. So I don’t understand why this should be a cause for controversy.

But newspapers often use a photo of you wearing a hat clearly out of date.

Yes, I know, but it’s just incredible. I can explain: That photo was spread around after Il Foglio published it alongside the interview I did at the time of the synod. The interview had been done well, but, unfortunately, they chose a photo that had nothing to do with it, which I regret, because, in this way, they gave the mistaken impression of a person who lives in the past. The truth is that, after being named cardinal, I was invited to a diocese in the south of Italy for a conference on the liturgy. For the occasion, the organizer decided to give me as a gift an old-fashioned cardinal’s hat. I have no idea where he got it from. I held it in my hand and obviously had no intention of wearing it regularly, but he asked me to put it on to take at least one photo. This was the only time I put that hat on my head, but, unfortunately, that picture has been published all over the world, and some use it to give the impression that I go around like that. But I’ve never worn it, not even for a ceremony.

You have also been named as the inspiration if not the promoter of the “Petition to Pope Francis for the Family,” which has been circulated to collect signatures by a number of traditionalist websites.

I did sign that petition, but it is not my initiative or my idea. Nor did I write or collaborate in drafting the text. Anyone who says otherwise is affirming something false. As far as I know, it is an initiative by laypeople. I was shown the text, and I signed it, as have many other cardinals.

Another of the charges against you is that you are against the Second Vatican Council.

These labels are easy to apply, but there is no basis in reality. All my theological education in the major seminary was based on the documents of Vatican II, and I am still trying to study these documents more deeply. I’m not at all opposed to the Council, and if one reads my writings, he will find that I quote the documents of Vatican II many times. What I don’t agree with is the so-called “spirit of the Council,” which is not faithful to the Council texts but purports to create something totally new, a new church that has nothing to do with all the so-called aberrations of the past. On this matter, I wholeheartedly follow Pope Benedict XVI’s enlightening presentation to the Roman Curia for Christmas 2005: It is the famous discourse in which he explains the correct hermeneutic, which is that of reform in continuity, as opposed to the hermeneutic of rupture in discontinuity that many sectors promote. Pope Benedict XVI’s presentation is brilliant and explains everything. Many things that happened after the Council and are attributed to the Council have nothing to do with the Council. This is the plain truth.

Did Pope Francis “punish” you by removing you from the Apostolic Signatura and entrusting you with the patronage of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta?

In an interview with the Argentine newspaper La Nacion, the Pope already answered this question by explaining the reasons for his decision. This already says everything, and it is not up to me to comment. I can only say, without revealing any confidential information, that the Pope has never told me or given me the impression that there was anything he wanted to punish me for.

Perhaps your “reputation” has to do with what Cardinal Walter Kasper called the “synod battle,” which also seems to grow in intensity as we get closer to the ordinary synod this coming October. At what stage are we now?

I would say that there is now a much more extensive discussion on the topics covered by the synod, and this is a good thing. There is a greater number of cardinals, bishops and laypeople who are intervening, and this is very positive. Therefore, I don’t understand all the fuss last year made over the book Remaining in the Truth of Christ, to which I contributed, along with four other cardinals and four specialists on marriage.

That was when the theory of a conspiracy against the Pope was born, a view echoed recently by the well-known Italian historian Alberto Melloni, co-author of a famous history of the Vatican Council II that pushes for a progressive interpretation of the Council. Melloni wrote an article for the most popular Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, blaming the five cardinals of a conspiracy against the Pope.

It is simply absurd. How can you possibly accuse of plotting against the Pope those who uphold what the Church has always taught and practiced on marriage and Communion? The book was certainly written as an aid for the synod to answer Cardinal Kasper’s thesis. But it is not polemical, it is a presentation completely faithful to the Tradition, and it is also of the highest scholarly quality possible. I am absolutely disposed to receive criticism on the content, but to say we conspired against the Pope is unacceptable.

Who is behind this witch hunt?

I do not have any direct information, but there is definitely a group that wants to impose on the Church not only Kasper’s thesis on Communion for the divorced and remarried, or for those in irregular situations, but also other positions related to the themes of the synod. I think, for instance, of the idea of identifying the positive aspects of extramarital or homosexual relationships. It is evident there are forces pushing in this direction, and this is the reason why they want to discredit those of us who are trying to defend the Church’s teaching. I have nothing personal against Cardinal Kasper; for me, the question is only to proclaim the Church’s teaching, which in this case is tied to words spoken by the Lord.

Looking at some of the themes that emerged strongly in the synod, there is talk again about a “gay lobby.”

I can’t precisely identify it, but I see more and more that there is a force moving in this direction. I can see people either consciously or subconsciously driving a homosexual agenda. How it’s organized, I don’t know, but it is evident there is a force of this nature. At the synod, we said that homosexuality had nothing to do with the family; rather, a synod should be convoked on the subject if we wanted to speak about this theme. And, instead, we found in the relatio post disceptationem this theme which had not been discussed by the fathers.

One of the theological arguments that is frequently repeated to justify Cardinal Kasper is that of the “development of doctrine.” It isn’t change, but a deeper understanding that can lead to new practice.

Here, there is a big misunderstanding. The development of doctrine, as, for example, Blessed Cardinal [John Henry] Newman put it or other good theologians, means a deepening in appreciation in the knowledge of a doctrine, not the change of doctrine. Development in no case leads to change. An example of this is Pope Benedict’s post-synodal exhortation on the Eucharist, Sacramentum Caritatis, where he presents the development of the knowledge of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, also expressed in Eucharistic adoration. There have in fact been some who were contrary to Eucharistic adoration, because the Eucharist is to be received within us. But Benedict XVI explained — also citing St. Augustine — that if it is true that the Lord gives us himself in the Eucharist to be consumed, it is also true that you cannot recognize this reality of Jesus’ presence under the Eucharistic species without worshipping these species. This is an example of the development of doctrine, but it is not the case that the doctrine on the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist changed.

One of the recurring themes in the controversy on the synod is the alleged opposition between doctrine and practice, doctrine and mercy. The Pope often insists on the pharisaic attitude of those who use doctrine to keep out love.

I think you have to distinguish between what the Pope says on certain occasions and those who affirm an opposition between doctrine and practice. The Church can never allow a contrast between doctrine and practice, because we live the truth that Christ communicates to us in his holy Church, and the truth is never something cold. It is the truth that opens to us a space for love; to love, really, you have to respect the truth of the person and of the person in the particular situations in which you find him or her. Thus, creating a kind of contrast between doctrine and practice does not reflect the reality of our faith. One who supports the thesis of Cardinal Kasper — a change of discipline that does not touch doctrine — should explain how this is possible. If the Church allows Communion for a person who is bound by marriage but who is living with another person in a matrimonial relationship, that is in a state of adultery: How can the Church allow this and maintain at the same time that marriage is indissoluble? The contrast between doctrine and practice is a false contrast that we must reject.

But it is also true that you can use doctrine without love.

Absolutely, and this is what the Pope is condemning, the use of doctrine or law to promote a personal agenda in order to dominate people. But this does not mean there is a problem with the doctrine and discipline; only there are people of ill will who commit abuses, for instance by interpreting the law in a way that harms people. Or they apply the law without love, insisting on the truth of a situation of a person but without love. Even when someone is in a state of grievous sin, we have to love that person and help him or her like Our Lord did with the adulteress and the Samaritan woman. He was very clear in announcing the state of their sin, but at the same time, he showed great love by inviting them to come out of this situation. This is not what the Pharisees did; instead, they showed cruel legalism: denouncing the violation of the law without offering any help to the person on how to turn away from sin so as to find peace again.

Riccardo Cascioli is editor of the popular Italian Catholic website Nuova Bussola Quotidiana,

where this interview originally appeared in Italian. Translated for the Register by Patricia Gooding Williams.

Cardinal Burke Responds to Recent Criticisms | Daily News | NCRegister.com

Pope Francis Accepts Resignation of Bishop Robert Finn | Daily News | NCRegister.com

 

The resignation of the bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., takes effect immediately.

by ELISE HARRIS/CNA/EWTN NEWS 04/21/2015 Comment

Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph

– CNA file photo

VATICAN CITY — Nearly two and a half years after being the first U.S. bishop convicted of a misdemeanor in failing to report suspected child abuse by a priest in his diocese, Kansas City-St. Joseph’s bishop has resigned.

The Vatican confirmed Pope Francis’ acceptance of Bishop Finn’s resignation according to Canon 104 Article 2 in the Code of Canon Law in an April 21 statement, released at noon local time.

Article 2 of Canon 104, according to the Vatican’s website, refers to a situation when “a diocesan bishop who has become less able to fulfill his office because of ill health or some other grave cause is earnestly requested to present his resignation from office.”

Bishop Finn’s resignation will take effect immediately, and although he will still be a bishop, he will no longer lead a diocese. It is up to Pope Francis to choose his successor.

The brief Vatican statement gave no word as to what Bishop Finn will do following his resignation.

Last September, two years after Bishop Finn’s trial and guilty verdict, an archbishop held a visitation on behalf of the Vatican and met with Bishop Finn.

The reasons for the visitation were not revealed, however some reports indicate that the visitation was intended to evaluate the bishop’s leadership of his diocese.

In September 2012, Bishop Finn, now 62, was convicted on a misdemeanor count of failure to report suspected child abuse after he and his diocese failed to report that lewd images of children had been found on a laptop belonging to Father. Shawn Ratigan a priest of the diocese, in December 2010.

The diocese’s vicar general had told Bishop Finn about one of the images, but the bishop did not see them himself.

Father Ratigan attempted suicide after the images were discovered and initially had not been expected to live. Diocesan officials told law enforcement officials about the images in May 2011, months after their discovery.

A diocese-commissioned independent investigation said diocesan officials conducted “a limited and improperly conceived investigation” into whether a single image, which the vicar general did not see, constituted child pornography. The diocese’s legal counsel also said that that single image did not constitute child pornography.

Further investigation revealed that the photos had been taken in and around churches where the priest had worked. In 2012, Father Ratigan was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison on child pornography charges.

Bishop Finn was sentenced to two years’ probation for failing to report suspected abuse.

The diocese settled two lawsuits from the parents of two girls photographed by Fr. Ratigan for a total of $1.8 million in February 2014.

The Father Ratigan case has also triggered further legal action from an arbitrator who levied a $1.1 million penalty against the diocese, on the grounds that the diocese violated the terms of a 2008 abuse lawsuit settlement in which Bishop Finn and the diocese agreed to report suspected child abusers to law enforcement.

The diocese objected to the arbitrator’s penalty, but it was upheld in court and the diocese paid the fine

Pope Francis Accepts Resignation of Bishop Robert Finn | Daily News | NCRegister.com

Vatican Ends Battle With U.S. Catholic Nuns’ Group - NYTimes.com

 

The Vatican has abruptly ended its takeover of the main leadership group of American nuns two years earlier than expected, allowing Pope Francis to put to rest a confrontation started by his predecessor that created an uproar among American Catholics who had rallied to the sisters’ defense.

Anticipating a visit by Francis to the United States in the fall, the Vatican and the American bishops were eager to resolve an episode that was seen by many Catholics as a vexing and unjust inquisition of the sisters who ran the church’s schools, hospitals and charities.

Under the previous pope, Benedict XVI, the Vatican’s doctrinal office had appointed three bishops in 2012 to overhaul the nuns’ group, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, out of concerns that it had hosted speakers and published materials that strayed from Catholic doctrine on such matters as the all-male priesthood, birth control and sexuality, and the centrality of Jesus to the faith.

But Francis has shown in his two-year papacy that he is less interested in having the church police doctrinal boundaries than in demonstrating mercy and love for the poor and vulnerable — the very work that most of the women’s religious orders under investigation have long been engaged in.

Ending the standoff with the nuns is one of several course corrections that Francis has set in motion. He has also worked on reforming the Vatican Curia, the Vatican’s central administration, instituting tighter oversight of Vatican finances, and has created a commission to deal with sexual abuse by clergy members.

He has made no changes in doctrine — on Wednesday, he reiterated the church’s teaching that marriage can be only between a man and a woman — but Catholics worldwide say he has done much to make the church’s tone more welcoming.

On Thursday, that included calling an unexpected meeting with four of the leaders of the Leadership Conference. The four women were photographed in his office and said afterward in a statement that they were “deeply heartened” by Francis’ “expression of appreciation” for the lives and ministry of Catholic sisters.

“He met with them himself for almost an hour, and that’s an extravagant amount of papal time,” said Eileen Burke-Sullivan, a theologian and consultant for women’s religious orders and vice provost for mission and ministry at Creighton University, a Jesuit school in Omaha. “It’s about as close to an apology, I would think, as the Catholic Church is officially going to render.”

Francis has never talked explicitly in public about the imbroglio with American nuns. But he has spoken about creating “broader opportunities” for women in the church, and the value of nuns and priests in religious orders. He is a member of the Jesuit order.

A clear signal that the Vatican under Francis was taking a more conciliatory approach to American sisters came in December with the announcement of the conclusion of another, separate investigation of American women’s orders, which was known as an apostolic visitation. That process involved sending questionnaires to 350 religious communities and teams of “visitors” to 90 of them, asking about everything from their prayer practices to living arrangements.

Continue reading the main story

Both of these investigations of American women’s religious orders began at the urging of American and some foreign prelates who accused the sisters of disobeying the bishops and departing from Catholic doctrine. It set off protests by Catholic laypeople across the country, who signed petitions and sent letters to the Vatican in defense of the sisters.

It even became a movement with its own anthem, “Love Cannot Be Silenced,” composed by a folk-singing sister in Chicago.

The news came in a brief report issued jointly by the Leadership Conference and the three American bishops who had been appointed by the Vatican three years ago to take over and overhaul the organization.

The report cast the process as one of collaboration, saying, “Our extensive conversations were marked by a spirit of prayer, love for the church, mutual respect and cooperation. We found our conversations to be mutually beneficial.”

It was a far cry from three years ago, when the Vatican’s doctrinal office, led by an American cardinal, William Levada, issued a report finding that the Leadership Conference had “serious doctrinal problems.” It said the sisters were promoting “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.” It also accused the nuns of spending more time working against poverty and social injustice than abortion and same-sex marriage.

The Vatican’s doctrinal office in 2012 appointed Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle, with assistance from Bishop Leonard Blair of Hartford and Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., to spend as many as five years assessing and overhauling the Leadership Conference.

Leaders of the nuns’ group, which represents about 80 percent of Catholic sisters in the United States, insisted all along that the accusations were unfounded and that the Vatican simply did not understand the culture and process of American women’s religious orders, many of which emphasize open discussion and communal decision-making.

 

Vatican Ends Battle With U.S. Catholic Nuns’ Group - NYTimes.com

Pope Francis trip to Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay set for July 6-12 | Star Tribune

ITO, Ecuador — Pope Francis' trip to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay is set for July 6-12, though he will only spend six hours in Bolivia's capital due to the altitude, church officials say.

The 78-year-old pontiff is to arrive in Quito July 6 and meet that day with President Rafael Correa. He will say Mass the next day in Quito's Bicentennial Park, the Rev. Luis Cabrera, archbishop of Cuenca, told The Associated Press on Friday.

Francis will meet later on July 7 with educators and the public, Cabrera said, and will consult with priests and seminarians on July 8 at the Quinche shrine near Quito.

The pope is to fly that afternoon to La Paz, where Roman Catholic officials say he will spend just six hours due to the 13,100-foot (3,993-meter) altitude. He is to say Mass at the capital's sister city, El Alto.

  

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to offer details, said Francis would spend two days in the eastern lowlands city of Santa Cruz.

Read the entire article by clicking on the following:  Pope Francis trip to Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay set for July 6-12 | Star Tribune

Pope Francis’s new ‘Climate Change Encyclical’ sneak preview - MarketWatch

 

 Reuters

Here’s a sneak peak of Pope Francis’s historic “Climate Change Encyclical,” soon to be released, complete with talking points for his upcoming address to the joint session of Congress. We’ll analyze them:

The encyclical’s likely headline: “Safeguard Creation ... We are the custodians of Creation ... If we destroy Creation ... Creation will destroy us,” a public warning often repeated by the pontiff this past year, a message certain to intensify the anger of GOP climate-science deniers, Big Oil, Koch Bros, Exxon Mobil and most fossil-fuel firms, as well as their banks, investors owning their stocks and capitalists everywhere. Here’s why:

Pope Francis’s much-anticipated encyclical will be broadcast worldwide to billions, including 5,000 bishops, 400,000 priests and 1.2 billion members of the Roman Catholic Church. He will be encouraging his army of the faithful to take strong action, fight climate change and global warming threats to the environment.

The encyclical will also be translated into hundreds of languages and broadcast worldwide. At the same time, Pope Francis will be lobbying heads of state and religious leaders, and inspiring billions of people worldwide, encouraging them to join this revolution.

This historic encyclical will also set the stage for everything else Pope Francis has planned in 2015. He’s a man with a mission to save the world from the accelerating threats to the planet’s natural resources. More immediate, the encyclical will serve as major talking points for his address to the joint session of Congress in September, his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York and his December message to the historic UN Climate Conference in Paris. Many of his points on the environment are already well known.

When Pope Francis addresses the U.S. Congress he will confront a hostile caucus of 169 hard-line GOP climate-science deniers who dismiss the idea that global warming is human-caused, in part because collectively they have received more than $52 million in career contributions from Big Oil, coal and fossil-fuel interests, three times what the other members of the Congress, who agree climate change is a threat the survival of our civilization, received.

GOP climate-science deniers in Congress include Catholics like House Speaker John Boehner, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a likely 2016 presidential candidate, as well as former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Committee, all of whom will be listening to Pope Francis. Sitting with them will be Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, author of “The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future.”

Also listening to Pope Francis will be the GOP’s Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who recently tried to “undermine international negotiations aimed at combating climate change” by publicly “telling other countries not to trust President Obama’s promise to significantly reduce the United States carbon emissions.”

And in yet another desperate act, McConnell also sent a letter to the governors of all 50 states encouraging them to ignore federal laws enforcing the Environmental Protection Agency’s “clean air regulations designed to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.” His state is a big coal-mining state.

Key talking points in pope’s historic encyclical on climate change

The ever-smiling, upbeat Pope Francis, a former boxer, loves a good fight. But he’s laser-locked on his real target — encouraging action — inviting hundreds of millions of the Catholic faithful, in fact inviting all seven billion people worldwide, to join a global economic revolution.

Here are eight of the pope’s public warnings edited in the Catholic Climate Covenant, from his “Apostolic Exhortation,” from the Guardian and other news sources, warnings on the rapidly accelerating climate change and global warming risks to the environment, along with our individual responsibility to “safeguard Creation, for we are the custodians of Creation. If we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us.” Listen to the pope’s warnings:

To continue reading click on the following:  Pope Francis’s new ‘Climate Change Encyclical’ sneak preview - MarketWatch