In the film Full Metal Jacket, which is set during the Vietnam War, there is a scene where a platoon of American soldiers is pinned down by a sniper. Two soldiers have already been hit. They writhe in pain, and perhaps death throes, out in the open. The newly christened platoon leader, “Cowboy,” tells his […]
A former Catholic priest at DeSales University has been indicted on federal charges that he smuggled child pornography, including some images investigators characterized as “torture” porn, into the U.S. from overseas. U.S. Attorney William McSwain announced Thursday that the charges were filed against William McCandless, 56, of Wilmington, Del., in federal Eastern District Court in […]
A New York man says the Catholic Church shielded a priest who sexually abused him for years beginning when he was 13 and homeless in Queens in the 1970s, new court papers show. Evan Manderson, 63, says the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn failed to report the Rev. Coleman Costello to law enforcement — and […]
Cardinal George Pell has spoken of his surprise at the apparent extent of “criminality” involved in recent Vatican financial scandals. Speaking in an interview with Associated Press Monday, the cardinal, who led the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy from 2014-2017, said that he regretted that his efforts to bring tough mechanisms for financial transparency and […]
Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., is basking in the praise of the mainstream media. Reports of his elevation to cardinal have generated such gushing headlines as: “Archbishop Gregory stood up to Trump. Now he’s about to be the first Black cardinal in U.S.” In June, Gregory blasted Trump for trying to “silence” the […]
Dear friends and enemies of Stilum Curiae, now that the din of the McCarrick Report has died down a bit – the report written by the Secretariat of State ad usum Delphini – I will softly allow myself to glean from a few details, which however are not details. We all recall the interview that […]
With the release of the Vatican’s McCarrick report, it’s time to take stock not only of his personal crimes but also of the wide-ranging influence he continues to have on the Church’s approach to politics and pastoral practice. In 2004, many Catholics were insisting that Catholic presidential candidate John Kerry be excommunicated — or at least […]
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the McCarrick Report, and what can be learned from it that could be applied to similar cases in the future? Father John Lavers, a Canadian priest of the Diocese of Portsmouth in England, currently serves as the director of chaplaincy with Stella Maris (Apostleship of the Sea) in […]
I’m trying to describe my experience in the seminary, dejection at the state of the Church, and my latest decision to try to leave. There is something good in these developments, but I don’t know how to express it best. Here’s what I wrote: In the Church, truth and falsehood, good and evil have been […]
Father Michael Suhy of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Plymouth, Michigan was told that he is being removed from the parish he led, according to Detroit Free Press. Church leaders of the Archdiocese of Detroit say Fr Suhy is “overwhelmed with responsibilities” associated with the parish and the parish school. Father Suhy and […]