NEWS BRIEFS•NEWS BRIEFS
Pastoral Leadership Project Receives New Lilly Grant. The Lilly Foundation has given a $1 million grant to the Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership Project to research parish leadership. Issues to be addressed include lay ecclesial ministry, ministry in linked parishes and multicultural and generational diversity. The project is an initiative of the Washington-based National Association for Lay Ministry with the Conference for Pastoral Planning and Council Development; the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators; the National Catholic Young Adult Ministry Association; and the National Federation of Priests' Councils. (Catholic News Service 4/16/09)
Newly Appointed Bishop Calls for Married Priests. Bishop Karl Golser, who has just been appointed a bishop to the bilingual diocese of Bozen-Brixen on the Austrian Italian Border has publicly called for ordaining married men and increased decision making for women and bishops conferences in the church. Golser said: In the future we will have a pastoral structure which is no longer as clerical and as concentrated on priests as it used to be. The question of ordaining proven married men-whose marriages have proved stable…will come up more and more often.” (The Tablet 4/11/09)
Half of Polish Priests Support Married Priesthood. Research conducted by professor Jozef Baniak at Poznand University in Poland found that 54 percent of Polish priests support an end to mandatory celibacy. Nearly one-third are in relationships with women with 12 percent admitting they are living with a woman. Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, a senior Polish bishop, said he distrusted the survey. (The Tablet 2/14/09)
Rome Delaying Romero Beatification. At a recent lecture tour in Westminster, England, Fr. Dean Brackley, SJ said that leaders in the Vatican and in El Salvador are blocking the cause of Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated in 1980 for his defense of the poor. Brackley, who is professor of theology and ethics at the University of Central America, said officials were nervous about publicity highlighting the archbishop’s identification with the poor and the political motives behind his murder. However, said Brackley, the new archbishop of San Salvador, Jose Luis Escobar Alas, favored Romero’s cause and that the delay was more on Rome’s end. (The Tablet 2/21/09)
Pius X Society Defies Benedict XVI. Even though Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications for four Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) bishops in January, it is doubtful that any real reconciliation will ever be possible. In late March the SSPX ordained several subdeacons in Econe, Switzerland going against the express wishes of the Pope. In a March 10 letter the Pope said: “As long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church.” In late April, Cardinal Kasper said he did not think the group would accept the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (The Tablet 3/28/09, 5/2/09)
European Theologians Petition For Vatican II. A group of European theologians have called for the full implementation of Vatican II and for rehabilitation of other “lost sheep” in the wake of Rome’s decision to rescind the excommunication of four Bishops from the Society of St. Pius X who denied the teachings of the Council. The theologians have launched an internet petition. To read and sign it, visit http://www.petition-vaticanum2.org/pageID_7327623.html
Lawsuit Against Vatican Can Proceed. In early March, a Federal appeals court rule ruled that a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Holy See may be able to proceed. An Oregon man alleges abuse by Fr. Andrew Ronan, a now deceased Irish priest. The plaintiff argues that the Holy See was negligent because after admitting to molesting a minor in the Irish Archdiocese of Armagh in the 1950s, Ronan was transferred to Chicago where court documents say he abused another child. He was then sent to Portland, Oregon where the plaintiff says Ronan abused him in 1965. Normally sovereign states cannot be sued in US courts. The appeals court said an exception could be made if the accuser can prove that Fr. Ronan was an employee of the Vatican acting “within the scope of his employment.” (The Tablet 3/14/09)
Vatican Investigates US Organization of Leaders of Women Religious. On March 10, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) received a letter dated February 20 from Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, announcing the group would be the subject of a doctrinal investigation. LCWR represents about 95% of the 68,000 women religious in the United States. The letter noted that in 2001 LCWR was invited “to report on the initiatives taken or planned by the conference” to promote the reception of three areas of Vatican doctrinal concern: the 1994 apostolic letter on the non-ordination of women Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, the 2000 declaration Dominus Iesus from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and “the problem of homosexuality.” Levada said that “the tenor and the doctrinal content” of various addresses given at LCWR’s annual assemblies showed that “problems continue to be present.” The investigation will be conducted by Leonard P. Blair, bishop of Toledo, Ohio, a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine. This investigation is a separate issue from the Apostolic Visitation being conducted by the Vatican’s Congregation on Religious life. (National Catholic Reporter)
Legionaries of Christ in “Civil War”. A former Legion priest, Fr. James Farfagli, a pastor in Corpus Christi, Texas, recently said that “civil war is starting to emerge” in the Legionaries of Christ in the wake of revelations that the order’s now deceased founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, was a pedophile and fathered a daughter. According to Farfagli, many American members of the Legion are outraged by the deceit of Legion leadership who hid the scandal for decades. The Vatican recently announced an investigation, to the relief of many members. Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver is one of the visitators. Baltimore Archbishop Edwin O’ Brien banned the Legion from his diocese because of its cultlike propensities. The order has 800 priests and 70,000 lay people. (The Tablet 5/9/09)
