Clerical power thwarts victims in Poland

Priest abusers receive light sentences, most still serve in parishes
By Jonathan Luxmoore
WARSAW, POLAND -- When Ewa Orlowska, a mother of nine, decided to confront her local priest for sexually abusing her as a child, she had little idea what was to follow. The priest, Msgr. Michal Moskwa, had been the parish pastor for three decades in the southern town of Tylawa, and Ewa had been just one of his victims. But when she’d told her mother about the abuse, her mother beat her and ordered her to apologize.
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Vatican summit speaker says abuse caused 'death of respect' for church leaders

An Irish victim of sexual abuse bluntly told a Vatican summit this morning that her experience of being ignored, and her suffering minimized, by church leaders caused “the final death of any respect” she once felt for ecclesial authority.
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As warden, she oversaw executions; now she fights to stop them

By Jacqueline Gilvard Landry
OAKLAND, CALIF. -- The woman who oversaw four executions by lethal injection is fighting to make sure it never happens again. Jeanne Woodford served as warden of San Quentin State Prison in California from 1999 through 2004. Now she is the chief law enforcement spokesperson for SAFE California, a ballot initiative that would replace the state’s death penalty with life in prison without parole, require inmates to pay into a victims’ compensation fund, and allocate $100 million over three years to solving crime.
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'Let it begin with me': Parishioners work for peace in Juárez

By Joseph J. Kolb, Catholic News Service
CIUDAD JUÁREZ, MEXICO -- In a city that has become synonymous with violence and despair during a four-year drug war that has claimed more than 12,000 residents, parishioners at a small church are trying to change the image of Ciudad Juárez -- one person at a time.
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The best way to describe our prison system? 'It's nuts'

By Bill Tammeus
Bill Tammeus
Several weeks ago, I saw an exhibit of photos featured in the compelling new book Grace Before Dying, by Lori Waselchuk and Lawrence N. Powell, and I wrote about it on my daily blog, "Faith Matters." The book is about the hospice care program at the Angola State Prison in Louisiana -- a program in which prisoners help other prisoners who are dying.
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Ruling on 'ministerial exception' has limits

Protestant church-vs.-state case lacks nuance found in Catholic structures
By Nicholas P. Carfardi
The Supreme Court of the United States, in its Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC opinion, upheld the “ministerial exception” that the U.S. circuit courts had long recognized. Basically, this exception states that churches cannot be sued over employment decisions regarding those whom the church hires to “preach their beliefs, teach their faith and carry out their mission.”
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Catholics silent on football risks

While studies raise alarm about long-term effects of repeated blows to head, there is little discussion of ethics
By Ken Briggs
Growing scientific evidence that football players can suffer permanent mental disease has so far stirred no broad discussion among Catholic colleges and high schools or national church organizations about the ethics of continuing to sponsor the game.
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Curial horror greeted John XXIII's announcement of ecumenical council

By Desmond Fisher
Wednesday, the Catholic church should have celebrated -- but didn't -- an important anniversary, the day 53 years ago when Pope John XXIII invited 18 Curia cardinals to accompany him to a ceremony at St. Paul Outside the Walls. It was the feast day of St. Paul, who is believed to have been executed in Rome about 67 A.D. and buried where the basilica named after him now stands.
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Victims caught up in Milwaukee's 'shell game'

Archdiocese's move to shield cemetery assets pits the living against the dead
Dead Catholics have a vested interest in reducing settlements to clergy abuse survivors in Milwaukee, thanks to a shift of $55.6 million on the church balance sheets by then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan in 2008. Dolan’s move in the twilight of his seven-year tenure in Milwaukee has emerged as a major issue in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy, which his successor, Archbishop Jerome Listecki, filed last February. One expert who has done extensive research on diocesan financial statements has described the move as “a shell game.”
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Religious dreams in Africa face stark realities

COMSAM meets for its second general assembly
KAMPALA, UGANDA -- As a gathering of Catholic religious leaders began its first full day of deliberations here they found themselves caught between their dreams and harsh realities that could very well overwhelm those dreams. Hope and good intentions run up against quite modest resources in Africa.
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Deported wife's absence shadowed ordination

By Eloísa Pérez-Lozano
MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA -- March 2009. That was the last time Felix Hernandez saw his wife, Cynthia, in the United States. Immigration and Customs Enforcement picked her up during a raid at her workplace, the former Swift & Company, a meat-processing plant in Marshalltown, for working without documentation. She was deported to Mexico and has been there since.
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Catholics denounce ruling on religious exemption

By NCR Staff
WASHINGTON -- Religious groups -- notably the U.S. Catholic bishops -- felt rebuffed by the Obama administration’s decision not to change a provision in the Affordable Care Act that requires employers to offer contraceptive services in their health care packages without charging copays, coinsurance or deductibles.
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