On March 17, in the midst of the Wuhan Coronavirus crisis, the USCCB’s Executive Committee took time out to issue a statement defending Catholic Relief Services. “In the name of our Catholic faith, the donors, staff, and volunteers of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) deliver life-saving food, medicine, shelter, and training to the most vulnerable of … Read more
USCCB “Deep State” Employees Defy Their Bosses At the USCCB’s annual meeting last November, America’s bishops considered updating their document entitled Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizens. The text, published every four years, represents a classic in the genre of boring, meandering memos prepared by large and cumbersome committees. Nonetheless the November debate on the document … Read more
The ugly and shameful topic of clerical sexual abuse has once again hit the headlines over the last year, prompting renewed questions about its causes. The authoritative John Jay College of Criminal Justice study (1) found that about 81 percent of clerically abused minors between 1950 and 2002 were males. Indeed, if we focus only … Read more
“It would be a good Lenten practice to try to stop gossiping about others, criticizing them, and instead look at our own faults, and then remain mute,” Pope Francis said last week. Clearly there are issues that the Holy Father doesn’t want to talk about. “I will not say a word about that,” he famously … Read more
In a recent New York Post front-page article, Timothy Cardinal Dolan asks “why” Gov. Cuomo signed a permissive abortion law. Virginia, Rhode Island, and other states are now also discussing doing the same. What would be the reason for asking a question which neither he nor anybody else may ever be able to answer? That’s … Read more
In the terrible crisis our Church is struggling with today, we have an obligation, at the very least, to try to understand what is happening, not just spout clichés. A cliché that particularly irritates me is this one: “The Church has been through many things like this, and survived. This is nothing new.” This is … Read more
Expanding just a bit on last week’s discourse regarding the tête-à-tête between Bishop Joseph Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, and Fr. James Martin, SJ — author of Building a Bridge and consultant to the Vatican Communications Office — it seems as if Strickland’s critique earned a rather lengthy response from Martin that is … Read more
When the USCCB meets next week in Baltimore, their website tells us they will “vote on a series of concrete measures to respond to the abuse crisis.” As usual, these “measures” comprise updated policies, protocols, programs, and procedures. Call them “The Four P’s.” That’s what the bishops voted on in their historic 2002 meeting in … Read more
“In a little-noticed, single paragraph released May 15 [2006] on its website, the USCCB reversed the policy adopted by numerous dioceses across America that had subjected Catholic schoolchildren to mandatory ‘sex-abuse education’ classes. “New regulations issued May 15 by the U.S. bishops allow parents to remove their children from diocesan-sponsored training programs in child sex-abuse … Read more
On Sunday, April 3, 2005, the day after the death of St. John Paul II, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick and at least a dozen other priests concelebrated the ten a.m. Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C. In attendance were, among other dignitaries, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy. Cardinal McCarrick … Read more