The Synod on Synodality has released a “working document” for the continental stage of the multiyear Church process. For the theme of the document, a synthesis of the texts produced at the regional stage, the synod organizers chose an image taken from the book of the prophet Isaiah: “Enlarge the space of your tent.” The … Read more
We at Rorate Caeli are gratified and edified by the generous paternal and pastoral approach that many bishops, particularly those in the Anglo-French sphere, have taken as a response to the horror that is “Traditionis Custodes”. To those good shepherds who read this we express, from the depths of our souls, our heartfelt gratitude. In … Read more
The Vatican scandal over a gone-wrong London property investment has proved difficult for one of the Vatican’s senior Cardinals, but in a bizarre twist it has also lead to a sun-bathing lawyer representing the Cardinal to lose his job too. Cardinal Angelo Becciu is at the center of a dispute over a luxury Chelsea property, … Read more
Two years after the former cardinal’s sexual predilections were revealed, the Vatican still hasn’t released its report. It has now been two years since Pope Francis accepted Theodore McCarrick’s resignation from the College of Cardinals, shortly after allegations of his sexual abuse of a minor and evidence of other sexual exploitations first detonated into public … Read more
A FEATURE of the Catholic Church’s rippling sexual abuse scandal is that past predations and coverups are often revealed by journalists, government authorities or victims and their advocates, but rarely by the church itself. That has been the case whether the alleged abusers were small-town priests, prominent bishops or the most renowned of the church’s … Read more
It has now been a year since the devastating scandal surrounding the sexual misconduct by former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick exploded into public view, disastrously undermining the credibility of the Catholic Church in the United States and eroding the confidence of faithful Catholics in their own shepherds’ leadership. And while some remedial actions have been taken, … Read more
For months now, the St. Louis Archdiocese has been saying it intends to follow the lead of its counterparts around the nation and publicly identify its clergy who have been credibly accused of the sexual abuse of children. Since last year, the Missouri Attorney General’s office, under two consecutive office-holders, has said it will complete … Read more
It was a conspiracy and someone should pay. Attorney General Letitia James is the one to make sure it happens. As disturbing as it is to know that Buffalo police and the Catholic Church were engaged in a depraved and illegal policy to shield priests from criminal prosecution, it doesn’t really come as a surprise. … Read more
THE ESSENTIAL problem that gave rise to decades of clergy sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church was that bishops, whose authority over their domains is all but absolute, were too often complicit in enabling pedophile priests, covering up their crimes, and looking the other way as countless young victims were raped, molested, harassed and … Read more
IN A recent letter to U.S. bishops, Pope Francis called for a “change of mindset” to regain credibility forfeited by the Catholic Church after nearly two decades of temporizing, equivocation and half-measures to address clerical sex abuse. In fact, the pontiff himself, whose response to the scandal has been a fog of mixed messages, would … Read more