Joshua J. McElwee's blog

In light of historic criminal trials of church officials this year in Philadelphia and Kansas City, that's the question many Catholics are asking.

Both trials find church administrators on the defensive for not utilizing their lay review boards, which were set up by the U.S. bishops' in 2002, when they passed the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, and were designed to help bishops evaluate allegations of clergy sexual misconduct.

Yet, as a report in U.S. Catholic today makes clear, the Kansas City and Philadelphia cases show a key flaw: The value of the boards hinges entirely on how bishops choose to use them.

A reminder:

In Philadelphia, a grand jury report released last year (the third such governmental investigation into the archdiocese's handling of abuse cases) found the archdiocese had left 41 priests who had been credibly accused of abuse in ministry.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The lawyer representing the priest at the center of the first criminal trial of a bishop in the decades-long clergy sexual abuse crisis has requested the priest's federal trial be delayed.

The priest, Fr. Shawn Ratigan, is charged with 13 federal felony counts relating to the possession and production of child pornography.

Ratigan's bishop, Robert W. Finn, and his diocese, that of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., face separate criminal trials in a local jurisdiction on charges of suspicion of child abuse, stemming from questions surrounding when they reported Ratigan to police.

The motion for a continuance, filed in federal court today and first reported by The Kansas City Star, would delay Ratigan's trial from June until Aug. 27. Assistant Federal Public Defender Robert Kuchar says in the filing that he only recently received some 1,000 pages of material from prosecutors and needs time to study it.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Bishop Robert Finn, the first bishop to be criminally charged in the decades-long clergy sex abuse crisis, may face another charge of failure to report suspected child abuse when he stands trial in September.

Prosecutors in Jackson County, Mo., who charged Finn and his Kansas City-St.Joseph, Mo., diocese each with one count of failure to report suspected child abuse last October, have filed a request for separate second charges against both, The Kansas City Star reports this afternoon.

According to the Star report, prosecutors have also requested access to a “secret archive” of documents detailing the diocese’s responses to child abuse allegations both before and after Finn began serving in Kansas City in May 2004 as a coadjutor bishop.

According to the Star:

The U.S. bishops’ conference’s lead bishop in charge of domestic issues of peace and justice stands by his criticism of Congressman Paul Ryan’s controversial federal budget plan in a lengthy interview with the National Catholic Register today.

The interview is with Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, Calif., the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice, Peace and Human Development. Last April, Blaire issued a letter that called the GOP’s proposed cut in benefits for children of immigrants “unjust and wrong.”

Blaire’s criticism was among the most vocal of those opposing Ryan’s budget and was echoed by others. Before a speech by Ryan at Georgetown University last week, 90-plus faculty and administrators there referenced Blaire’s letter in opposing Ryan’s plan.

“Our problem with Representative Ryan is that he claims his budget is based on Catholic social teaching,” Jesuit Fr. Thomas J. Reese, one of the Georgetown letter’s organizers, told NCR then. “This is nonsense. As scholars, we want to join the Catholic bishops in pointing out that his budget has a devastating impact on programs for the poor.”

The leadership of the largest organization representing U.S. women religious announced this afternoon that the board of the group will meet in an "atmosphere of prayer, contemplation and dialogue" in May to discuss news that the Vatican has ordered it to revise its statutes and has appointed an archbishop to oversee the revision.

Last week, Patrick Murphy-Racey, who is a deacon for the Knoxville, Tenn., diocese, found himself in Des Moines, Iowa, for a trip and wondered what he could do in a free afternoon.

Murphy-Racey realized he wasn't too far from the Des Moines Catholic Worker community. He found his way over there and spent the afternoon with the workers.

As anybody who is familiar with the Catholic Worker movement knows, Catholic Worker houses are normally a hodgepodge of things -- a place where a community of people responds to the needs of those around them in any number of ways.

Sometimes that includes bread lines for people experiencing hunger, shower houses for those forced to live on the street, or even just an open door for those who need to vent.

Writing about his adventure to the Des Moines house on his blog, the deacon reflects a little on how that community responds to those around them.

The Kansas City Star is reporting:

According to Mark Morris of the Star:

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. bishops' conference, posted a link on his blog this afternoon to a statement from Bill Donohue, the head of the Catholic League, which suggests the director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests may be a "con artist."

The post comes as the victims' advocacy group and its director, David Clohessy, have found support in recent days on the editorial pages of several national papers in light of attempts by attorneys representing priests accused of abuse to obtain 23 years of the group's documents.

Dolan's post came on his "The Gospel in the Digital Age" blog at the New York Archdiocese website. It quotes in full three paragraphs of a statement by Donohue before providing people a link to read the rest.

Donohue's statement, titled "SNAP Unravels," is a long rehash of some of the facts surrounding the attempts by priests' lawyers, which resulted last January in Clohessy's deposition in a case involving a priest accused of abuse in Kansas City, Mo.

The leadership of Maryknoll’s three orders -- the sisters, fathers and brothers, and lay missioners -- announced together today that after reflecting with “great care,” they have found that the threats inherent in nuclear energy “far outweigh the benefits.”

The announcement came in a press release this morning from the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, a joint project of the three orders.

Writing that they felt the need to address the use of nuclear energy as governments around world consider building nuclear energy plants as a way to address global climate change, a statement associated with the release says that “Based on the Gospel, the tradition of Catholic social thought, and new insights into the inextricable dependence of humans on the long-term sustainability of the entire community of life, we believe that these threats far outweigh the benefits of using nuclear energy to mitigate global warming.”

As part of the statement, Maryknoll also mentions that their orders’ experience with the issue is “deep and important.”

For many of us, there's just no way to call to mind the devastation of nuclear fallout. How does the mind comprehend whole cities abandoned, or generations of lives affected by radiation?

For the residents of Chernobyl, which commemorates the 26th anniversary of the 1986 accidental meltdown at its nuclear power plant this April, those images are all too real.

And now, Gerd Ludwig, a photographer who has repeatedly gone back to the area over the decades to document the dramatic consequences, shares that reality with us.

Over at The Boston Globe, Ludwig shares some of his images. Consider taking a look. As we continue to consider our own energy needs, we do well to remember what happens when our pursuit of nuclear goes wrong.

Fair warning: Some of the images are graphic, and include nudity.

Over at his site Chiesa, Sandro Magister today calls attention to a recent article in Concilium, the international journal of theology.

Among nine articles in the latest issue of the journal, which focuses on the topic of "Economy and religion," Magister writes that one, written by Johan Verstraeten, a professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, asks whether Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Caritas in Veritate is too deferential to capitalism.

In response, Magister publishes a commentary by professor Stefano Ceccanti, a tenured professor of comparative public law at the Sapienza University of Rome.

A discussion that's a bit esoteric to be sure, but interesting in light of the continuing European debt crisis and questions regarding the state of the U.S. economy.

For those of you who have trouble sleeping:

Longtime NCR contributor Joan Chittister will be participating in the tenth anniversary celebrations for the Global Peace Initiative of Women from Kenya tomorrow morning.

The program, which will be streamed live starting at 9:00 AM Kenya time tomorrow morning (1:00 AM on the East Coast), is named “Awakening the Healing Heart” and is being held at the UN headquarters in Nairobi.

Chittister will be giving the closing remarks at the event. You can find more information here.

Grab yourself a late night snack (or early, early breakfast) and enjoy.

Action comes after arrest of 15 activists at earlier test

A unarmed nuclear missile test launch scheduled for early this morning (Thursday) has been postponed, the Lompoc Record, the local newspaper in Lompoc, Calif., where the missile was set to be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, is reporting.

The Record reports that the Air Force has blamed postponement of the launch, which was to come on the anniversary of the 1954 testing of the largest nuclear device ever detonated by the U.S., on technical problems.

“The test launch is delayed in order to replace a test-unique tracking component used only on test missiles,” said Air Force Global Strike Command officials.

Peace activists have been quick to say that the postponement may have been due to negative reaction regarding the timing of the launch on the anniversary of the 1954 test.

Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, a progressive lay-led political advocacy group, released a voter guide this morning that calls for Catholic voters this election cycle to “spurn...those sins of selfishness and pride that afflict the human heart and frustrate our common endeavors as one people.”

Named “The Common Good in America Today,” the guide takes on the lens of the Catholic notion of the common good to address seven different topic areas Catholic voters might consider in the November elections, including the economy, pro-life issues, healthcare, and religious liberty.

Opening with a quotation from Pope Benedict’s encyclical letter Caritas in Veritate, the guide states that while it recognizes that “no candidate and no party completely adhere to the vision of Pope Benedict XVI,” its aim is to “take up the call” issued by the U.S. bishops in their own voting guide, named Faithful Citizenship.

The basic summary of the contraception mandate debate, according to Stephen Colbert?

“Obama is forcing priests to hand out condoms at Mass."

The reason the mandate is gaining so much attention?

“There is nothing we American Catholics enjoy more than defending our church’s stance on contraception. It is a central tenet of our faith. As deeply held as our belief in marble, Jesus on snack food, and unintentionally hot school uniforms.”

Those we just a few nuggets of humor found in a bit Colbert did on his show on Tuesday, which I've embedded below.

Fair warning: The video contains language and imagery that is a bit crude at points. It is a late-night cable program, after all.

Depending on who you believe, either President Obama is employing a "divide and conquer" strategy, pitting Catholic leaders against one another regarding his compromise over a controversial mandate regarding coverage of contraceptive services in health care plans, or the Catholic bishops "are moving the goal posts" in their supposed fight for religious liberty.

The dichotomy between the two views was highlighted yesterday in a flurry of statements and reports from bishops and other Catholic leaders concerning the compromise.

The archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Francis George, argued for the first option in a written statement posted on the archdiocese's website yesterday, writing that there had been attempts to "weaken the unity between the bishops and the faithful."

A letter calling President Barack Obama’s revision of a controversial mandate regarding coverage of contraceptive services in health care plans “morally obtuse” has gained some 215 signatures from a number of notable professors and religious leaders.

Among the signees are Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia and Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Ken.

The letter, titled “Unacceptable,” says the revision of the mandate “fails to remove the assault on religious liberty and the rights of conscience which gave rise to the controversy.”

“The simple fact is that the Obama administration is compelling religious people and institutions who are employers to purchase a health insurance contract that provides abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization,” it continues. “This is a grave violation of religious freedom and cannot stand.”

Also among the signees to the letter are professors from several Catholic universities, including Villanova, Gonzaga, Loyola University Chicago, the University of San Diego, The Catholic University of America, and the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Activists and friends of an 83-year-old priest who is imprisoned for an of civil disobedience are expressing relief after he announced he has ended a 15-day fast to protest his placement in solitary confinement.

Jesuit Fr. Bill Bichsel is serving a three-month prison term in the Federal Detention Center near Seattle, Wash., for a July 2010 action at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., where a new nuclear weapons manufacturing facility is being planned.

While Bichsel was moved Jan. 10 to a prison transition facility in Tacoma, Wash, he was sent back to the federal detention center in Seattle the next day because authorities said he had received an unauthorized visit at the transition facility.

After his return to the detention facility, friends of the priest first expressed concerns when he told visitors he had been placed in solitary confinement, had started a fast upon his re-imprisonment, and was not receiving an adequate number of blankets to keep warm.

In questions of abortion in the Catholic church, it sometimes seems as if there’s no room for civility. Most of us are familiar with the rhetoric. You’re either pro-life or pro-death, for us or against us.

As the annual March for Life takes place today in Washington, it was refreshing to notice a blog post this morning that didn’t fit the paradigm.

An undated photo provided by Ursuline Sr. Madeline Welch shows Sr. Claire O'Mara holding a protest sign.Ursuline Sr. Claire O’Mara, a Massachusetts native who spent 17 years in Latin America with her order before later spending time in jail in protest of the School of the Americas, passed away Jan. 8, the feast of the Epiphany, in New York. She was 89.

O’Mara, who entered the Ursulines in 1945, was known for her dedication to the people of Mexico, Peru, and the Bronx, and to issues of social justice.

Compelled by the story of fellow Ursuline Sr. Dorothy Kazel, O’Mara was arrested at the gates of Fr. Benning, Ga., at the age of 74 in November, 1994, along with twelve others.

Asked on the eve of her trial for the action whether she was scared of possibly going to jail, O'Mara said in a 1996 interview with NCR that she was “too old to be nervous” about going to prison.

O’Mara also said it was partly the Kazel’s story that inspired her to make a 25-hour train ride to join the protest.

The women appointed to head up the Vatican’s visitation of U.S. women religious says that the three-year study gave her “great hope for a new flourishing of vibrant religious life” in an interview posted this morning.

Mother Mary Clare Millea’s comments come three days after news that reports of the apostolic visitation have been quietly submitted to Rome.

The email interview, posted at the National Catholic Register’s website, seems to show Millea, who is also the superior general of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with a fairly positive outlook on the continued role of women religious in the U.S.

In answer to one question on the decline of communities of women religious, Millea responds that she was “encouraged to note” that “many congregations have increased their efforts to present the consecrated life as a viable and joyful way of serving the Church.”

“Conversations on this topic are taking place among religious within their own communities as well as with members of other congregations,” writes Millea.

In a statement this morning, the leadership of Pax Christi USA reacts to the news yesterday that their bishop-president, Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala, has resigned from ministry after acknowledging he is the father of two teenage children:

The unmanned aerial U.S. attack drone that was downed in Iran was felled by exploiting a navigational weakness, an Iranian engineer studying the craft has revealed to the Christian Science Monitor.

The engineer, not named in the report, tells the Monitor that the Iranians knew to exploit a weakness in the craft's GPS navigation system to force it to land.

The report also notes that news of Iran's ability to down the drone comes as the U.S. and some other nations appear to be engaged in a covert-war with the the country.

The first hearing in the criminal case against Bishop Robert W. Finn, head of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese, has been postponed until Jan. 12.

Both Finn and the diocese were charged in October by authorities in Jackson County, Mo., with separate counts of failing to report suspected child abuse in the case of Fr. Shawn Ratigan, a diocesan priest who was arrested in May for child pornography.

The hearing was originally scheduled for Dec. 15. Mike Mansur, the communications director of the Jackson County prosecutor’s office, told NCR the delay came at the request of the bishop’s lawyers.

News of the delay comes about a month after Finn dodged separate charges of failing to report abuse in Clay County, Mo., by agreeing to give the prosecutor there wide-ranging oversight of diocesan review procedures in the county.

The diocesan chancery is located in Jackson County. The parish where Ratigan last served as pastor is in Clay County.

Vatican Radio has the text of a telegram sent to Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia on the death of Cardinal John Foley, who passed away last night:

Those interested in nuclear disarmament issues may be glad to hear that Cardinal Roger Mahony, Los Angeles' retired archbishop, yesterday wrote that disarmament should be the "long term basis for security" across the world.

The cardinal's comments came the same day that new questions were raised about a planned new nuclear weapons facility in Los Alamos, Nevada.

The United States, Mahony wrote, "has an especially heavy moral burden to bear" in terms of the pursuit of total nuclear disarmament.

Our county, he writes, "has a responsibility to take the lead in nuclear disarmament and to develop the institutions and practices of cooperative security that will make that more likely and more sustainable."

Titled "The Ethical Imperative of Disarmament," Mahony's piece appeared yesterday for Peace Policy, a web publication of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Two other articles focused on disarmament issues were also featured yesterday for the publication.

Despite the continuing Occupy protests taking place across the country, some have observed that those of us of the Roman bent aren't quite as involved as those of other faiths.

That observation has Tom Beaudoin, a theologian at Fordham University who blogs over at America magazine, asking "Where are all the Catholics?"

Noting that a meeting of Occupy Faith NYC, a coalition supporting the Occupy Wall Street protests, saw few Catholic churches or organizations show up yesterday, Beaudoin encourages people to support a new group: Occupy Catholics.

Take a look at the group's website. They're organizing a novena to St. Nicholas in support of the occupy movement until the saint's feast day, Dec. 6.

The organizers calling forth of Nicholas may be particularly appropriate. A fourth century saint, Nicholas is of course most remembered as the inspiration for Santa Claus because of his gifting of coins in shoes.

At the cathedral of the San Jose, Calif., diocese Sunday, the first use of the new translation of the Roman Missal was met with a mix of indifference and creative interpretation.

While the domed ceiling of the mission-style Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph echoed with a mix of "And with your spirit" and "Also with you" responses from the congregation at several points, many of the other changes went off smoothly, with many parishioners bowing their heads to read from an instruction pamphlet.

Yet in one noted change, the cathedral's pastor told parishioners after his homily that while they'd be saying the Nicene Creed this week, they might not in the future.

Instead, Msgr. J. Patrick Browne said he'd rather use the Apostle's Creed, which is "shorter and easier to understand."

Joking after the recitation of the creed, Browne said that next week "there will be a test on the meaning of the work consubstantial."

After Mass, one parishioner said she thought the new prayers would lead to a deeper appreciation for the Mass.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- There's only "one question worth asking" about religious life today, Holy Spirit Fr. Anthony Gittins told a crowd of some four hundred gathered for the Religious Formation Conference's congress here this morning.

Amidst continuing talk of diminishment of religious orders, and worries about how ministries will continue with fewer numbers, the professor, social activist, and hospital chaplain put it bluntly:

“Numbers and age are of little consequence," said Gittins. "The only question worth asking…is whether we are running, standing still, or just twitching nervously as we wait for death.”

Instead, Gittins, who is a professor of mission and culture at the Catholic Theological Union, said “now is the moment for religious to stand up and to stand fast." Otherwise, he said, “it remains a serious danger that the church of poverty and prayer will disappear.”

Offering concrete examples for how to do forward, Gittins said members of religious communtities must seek out the markings of "spirit-led" people to answer their call, including "looking for trouble" and leading lives that are "full and worthwhile and never boring."

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The key theme of religious life in the 21st century is not diminishment but transformation, says Marist Br. Sean Sammon.
Marist Br. Sean Sammon (NCR photo/Joshua J. McElwee)
In face of reduced numbers of vowed members, and with many religious growing older, orders have a unique opportunity to reexamine their identities -- breathing new life into the charisms of their founders and challenging the church to stay true to the central precepts of the Gospel, Sammon, the former Superior General of the Marist Brothers, told a crowd assembled here this afternoon for the Religious Formation Conference's congress.

"The future of religious life is in our hands," Sammon told the crowd, which was composed mainly of leaders and formation directors of religious orders, gathered from across the country for the weekend conference. "Let us choose to renew ourselves, to reexamine the charisms of our orders, and to be nothing more and nothing less that the presence of the Holy Spirit."