Friday, March 8

Here's an interesting graphic from USA Today: a state by state breakdown of religious affiliation. The Indiana stats surprised me - I expected Lutherans to be second to Catholics, and I don't see Amish on there anywhere - I'm not joking. They must be under "other." Too bad they don't get a category of their own!
I guess it's going to just keep getting worse before it gets better.

Bishop O'Connell of Palm Beach admits to a past incidence of sexual abuse of a minor. (This link will probably expire soon. I'll post a new one as soon as I find one).

Now. Here's the insanity at work here:

This claim was settled by the Diocese of Jefferson City, MO. in 1996. In 1998, O'Connell, who was already a bishop - of the Diocese of Knoxville, my home town - was PROMOTED to be the bishop of Palm Beach. (A promotion because while Palm Beach is not a huge diocese, it has more Catholics and is certainly wealthier than Knoxville).

You know The Powers must have known about this settlement. But they gave him the diocese anyway!!!!

And do you know the kicker? Here it is: In moving to Palm Beach, O'Connell replaced a bishop who'd resigned because of revelations about past sexual abuse of minors!

I'm at a true loss of words with this one. I think our Church has some hard lesson-learning ahead of it. That's what it's going to take, and that's probably what's going to happen.

You may remember the sad story of that Wisconsin college student who died giving birth in her dorm bathroom back in January. Well, here's a more thorough look at the situation, through the eyes of the girl's parish priest. Terribly sad for all concerned.
Just what we need: A television-movie about Flight 93 (that crashed in PA on 9/11) developed by Goldie Hawn.
Go here to see if your local KMart is one of the 227 to be closed down. One of ours is, which is just as well. It's a wretched store - dirty, cluttered and just down the road from a big shiny Super Wal-Mart and big shiny Meijer (which is like a Super Wal Mart). It's no mystery why K-Mart has declared bankruptcy, with these older, messy stores that they refuse to upgrade.
See what happens when you stop being Catholic?

A street evangelist originally from Grand Rapids, who was raised Catholic and attended a Catholic high school is implicated in the criminal nuttiness that was the Yates household.

This article also goes a bit into the relationship and how influential Woroniecki was on Rusty Yates who really should be tried and convicted for something in this horrible crime.

We have walking. Real walking this time. In the space of one day, Joseph went from being able to take a step or two as he swung between coffee table and sofa to being able to take 5-10 steps (depending on how sure his original balance level was) at a time. Knowing it, loving it, so proud of himself. And that, to me, is even more miraculous than the steps themselves: an eleven-month human already so self-aware, so conscious of achievement and change.
Blogger's been down all morning, so I took advantage of the time to clean out my e-mailbox. In other words, if you wrote to me a month ago, you might have received a response today, at last.
Former Boston mayor, Ambassador to the Vatican, and Really Bad Novelist Raymond Flynn on Scandal-o-Rama in a CNN interview with Paula Zahn.

Doesn't think Law should resign:

When there is trouble in a family, the last thing you want to see is the leader of the family abandoned by family. You want that person to stay there and bring about the change and the reform and the stability that a family needs. Cardinal Law is a good man, but he made a big mistake in this particular case, didn't protect innocent young children from pedophile priests.

And look, the easiest thing in the world for Cardinal Law to do now would be to walk away, throw up his hands and say, look, this is too complex for me. I think the more difficult thing to do would also be the most courageous thing for him to do is to stay here in Boston, bring about the level of change and reform, deal with this issue of compensation for victims and bring the Catholic Church back to its always cherished and respected position.

First, a diocese is not like a family. Parents are irreplacable. Bishops are not. Nor are pastors. Christ is the head of the Church, and He sticks around no matter who's coming or going. Maybe, just maybe, Christ's work is being impeded by Law and all his baggage. I like what a reader wrote in a letter to the editor of Our Sunday Visitor: Law should retire to a monastery. That's an excellent idea, and an eminently traditional Catholic solution to this kind of screw-up: Get thee to a monastery and do some penance for the harm you've done.