Friday, June 7

Cardinal Egan one of five appointed to the Apostolic Signatura, the supreme tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church.



Canon Lawyer, does this mean anything? Is this just a part-time gig?

Update: Here's my answer from the New York Times: (LRR)



Joseph Zwilling, the spokesman for the archdiocese, said that the added duty would not mean more trips to Rome for the cardinal. "Much of the work can be done via the work being sent to him, and he can review it and render an opinion," Mr. Zwilling said.


Never mind.

I guess this was just looking too nice n' easy.

Bishops revoke invitation to victims' group that's suing them.


Roman Catholic bishops on Friday revoked their invitation to a leading advocate for victims of clerical sex abuse to address their convention, saying a lawsuit he joined against them created a legal barrier to discussion.



The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said the suit in Minnesota makes it impossible for them to hear from David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

...

Plans for the meetings had been finalized late Thursday, the same day Clohessy's group filed the class-action lawsuit against the bishops' conference and several dioceses, seeking to void confidentiality agreements in settlements with victims.



Bishop Wilton Gregory, the conference president, said he had been working with SNAP for more than a month to arrange the group's participation in the Dallas convention and was upset his efforts were "met with a lawsuit."



Public Service Announcement

As you might have heard, the Roman Catholic Bishops of the United States are meeting in Dallas to discuss some important matters next week. At this writing, the proceedings are still scheduled to be broadcast live on EWTN. Here's what I'm going to do:

Since many of you don't have EWTN, and most of you have, like, real jobs in offices and stuff, I thought I'd help by providing an ongoing report on the meeting. Every hour or so, I'll post a blog entry on what's been said in the preceding hour, who said it, and who's just sitting there praying not to be noticed. Barring trips to the grocery store or other essentials, I'll try to give you a complete report.

Oh - and you don't have to pay me for this. Just buy my books! Surely you know some deserving Catholic child who needs one.....or two.....

A tragic ending:

Missionary Martin Burnham killed in the Philippines

Sean Gallagher has a fitting reflection at Nota Bene.

He had his chance...

But he didn't take it. Back in 1993, Cardinal Law met with experts in sexual abuse, but didn't take their advice:

Carol Nadelson said the experts tried to emphasize that the treatment programs the church had relied on were essentially useless. She remembers saying that the chance of recidivism among abusive priests was ''almost 100 percent.''


'They talked about sending these priests to various places. We made it clear that this wasn't treatable. But the cardinal said that they operated in a different system,'' she said.


...As Carol Nadelson recalled, ''What struck me was that the cardinal and the other clergy kept talking about what to do about the priests, not the children. What had been done to the children just didn't enter into their equation..."


Had to write a quick piece yesterday on "Ways to Encourage Your Teens to Pray."

My husband's answer was excellent, but unfortunately, probably not suitable:

"Tell them the doctor called and they have two weeks to live."

There's a piece in NRO this morning about the disgraced Bishop Ziemann of Santa Rosa in which the author points out the value and necessity of episcopal resignation. Unfortunately, the author also drastically underreports the bishop's failures, oversights and cover-ups, both in regard to finances and sexual abuse cases. For details go here.
What a mess

At St. John's in Collegeville.