Tuesday, October 22

Ex-wife of former Ohio governor one of those ordained in Germany

A former Ohio first lady said she is one of the seven women who were ordained as Roman Catholic priests in late June and then excommunicated by the church.Dagmar Braun Celeste said she has not yet celebrated Mass or performed other priestly duties, but would do so if asked.Celeste said she didn't consider the possibility of becoming a priest until after her 1995 divorce.Richard Celeste was Ohio's governor from 1983 to 1991.

Former seminarian charged with soliciting sex with a female minor over the internet.

He graduated from The Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus in 2000 and studied to be a priest at the North American College in Rome until earlier this month when he went on leave, according to the Columbus Catholic Diocese.

Thank goodness he left. Too bad he got as far as he did.

California priest apologizes for anti-Islam remarks

At a Sept. 11 memorial service at the Chico church, Fulton spoke out against Islam, reportedly calling it a religion that fosters violence and saying that Muslims in general represent a threat.

One person who heard Fulton's homily on Sept. 11, Bonnie Roy, a student at Chico State University, said she was shocked by the priest's words "in a setting where you expect people to be open-minded and reflective and tolerant."

She complained about the sermon to Bishop William Weigand, who heads the Sacramento Diocese of the Catholic Church.

Fulton said Weigand responded to the complaint by having the diocese's staff theologian talk to him. That discussion convinced him he'd been somewhat ignorant about Islam and Catholic teachings on that religion, he said.

"I acknowledge that Islam 'has a long history of tolerance,' and that among its central tenets are forgiveness and returning good for evil," he wrote to the E-R. "I acknowledge that it was wholly wrong to blame all Muslims and Islam itself for the heinous actions of a few."

After talking to the diocese's theologian and re-reading certain church documents, Fulton said he realized his statements on Sept. 11 were "totally contrary to Catholic teaching and conduct, and to the efforts of both the Holy See and the diocese to promote harmonious relationships between (Christianity and Islam)."

Well. Were the Detroit 4 called in to talk to a "diocesan theologian?" Have they apologized for misrepresenting Church teaching yet?

David saw The Ring last night and came home pretty nerved up. Said it was really scary.
The Diocese of Rochester plans for the future with fewer and fewer priests

While it’s too early to know precise details, the reordering of resources ordered by Bishop Matthew Clark likely will lead to hard decisions on a wider scale than Catholics have known. The planning comes as the diocese struggles to deal with shifting demographics and a steadily falling number of priests.

Decisions will be made on a number of issues: whether to consolidate a number of adjacent parishes and staff, how to trim the number of daily and Sunday Masses, how to spread the wealth of money and talent from bigger suburban parishes to poorer ones, and whether to close some church facilities.

At the same time, the process will catapult an ever-increasing number of lay people -- more highly trained than ever before -- to leadership of parishes.

Along with this rise of the laity, the area’s 360,000 Catholics also will see a major shifting of priests toward a more sacramental role, and away from their traditional role of pastor-administrator and doer-of-all-things.

From the NYTimes (LRR): A piece on Bishop McCormack of New Hampshire. Sketchy to those who've been following this since February, but not helpful to McCormack's cause, nonetheless.
Pope sees art as tool of evangelization
Three receive what's referred to as the "Missionary's Nobel".