NCR Today

I wonder what stereotypes you have of the religious in Africa? I had some when I came, imagining them, perhaps, as a bit stodgy. That was until one of the first nights when they began spontaneously dancing along with some entertainers who were showing some cultural dances. In Africa (I should have known better) music touches everyone, and the livelier the music the deeper the impact.

Rarely have I felt so torn about an issue as I do in this current debate on contraceptive coverage in the health care law. On the one hand, I have never understood the official church position on contraception, and apparently, neither have 98 percent of Catholic women of child-bearing age who use it. It always struck me as something out of the Dark Ages.

On the other hand, I believe in religious freedom. I don't think anyone should be forced by anyone to do something that violates his or her conscience.

If you haven't been following the news, here is the nub of the story: Under a ruling from the Department of Health and Human Services, based on the new health care law, employers must provide contraceptive coverage in employee health care plans without a co-pay -- unless they have a "religious exemption."

"Religious exemptions" can be granted to institutions that employ and serve mainly those of their own religious tradition. So exempt Catholic institutions would include the USCCB, diocesan agencies, religious orders (they need contraception?), Catholic parishes and parish schools.

From the Boston Herald:

ROME -- As the final act of a four-day Vatican summit on the sexual abuse crisis, a new internet-based “Center for Child Protection” was unveiled this afternoon in Rome, designed to educate priests, deacons, and other church personnel in fighting child abuse.

According to German Deacon Hubert Liebhardt, an educational scientist who serves as director of the new center, its aim is “to promote a culture of vigilance in Catholic environments.”

With a budget of $1.6 million over its first three years, the center will provide on-line training and certification programs in German, English, Italian and Spanish. It’s a joint project of the Jesuit-run Gregorian University in Rome, the Munich archdiocese, and the University of Ulm in Germany.

Information on the center can be found here: www.elearning-childprotection.com

The launch of the center formed the conclusion of the Feb. 6-9 Vatican summit, titled “Towards Healing and Renewal.” It brought together more than 100 bishops and religious superiors from around the world to discuss the church’s response to the clergy abuse scandals.

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Analysis: Obama contraceptive mandate has a price By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer

ROME -- Yet another financial scandal threatened to engulf the Vatican today, in the form of charges that four Italian priests, none of them Vatican officials, are under investigation by Italian prosecutors on charges of money laundering related to accounts they allegedly held at the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), better known as the “Vatican Bank”.

An article outlining the charges against the four priests ran today in the left-wing Italian newspaper l’Unità, and a report focusing, among other things, on the same charges aired tonight on the widely watched Italian TV program, “The Untouchables.”

The newspaper article ran under the headline, “Money-laundering, Four Priests Investigated: The Silence of the Vatican on Controls.” The suggestion was that the Vatican has refused to cooperate with investigation of the charges.

“The Untouchables” is the same program which, in late January, revealed confidential letters from Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, today the pope’s nuncio, or ambassador, to the United States, complaining of “corruption and dishonesty” in Vatican finances.

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ROME -- Two American experts told a Vatican summit today that the full costs of the sexual abuse crisis – including financial payouts, emotional distress, alienation among both clergy and laity, and damage to the church’s moral authority – is essentially incalculable, but massive beyond any doubt.

Focusing on the United States, the two speakers provided estimates suggesting that the American church has spent at least $2.2 billion settling litigation related to the crisis, and that there may have been as many as 100,000 total victims of clerical sexual abuse.

Before surveying the damage, Michael Bemi and Pat Neal rejected what they described as four “myths” about the crisis, which were:

• The crisis is an American problem.
• The crisis has been exaggerated by a Godless media that is antagonistic to people or institutions of faith.
• The crisis has been instigated by avaricious attorneys whose only objective is to enrich themselves financially.

ROME -- To all those critics who have clamored for greater accountability for Catholic bishops who drop the ball on sex abuse cases, the Vatican’s top prosecutor this morning had a simple message: You’re absolutely right.

“We need to be vigilant in choosing candidates for the important role of bishop, and we also need to use the tools that canonical law and tradition give us for the accountability of bishops,” said Maltese Monsignor Charles Scicluna.

ROME -- Throughout the arc of the sexual abuse crisis, Vatican officials have often complained about media sensationalism and bias. In 2002, Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos famously took a series of questions in English during a press conference, and then snarled that fact alone “already says something about the problem and gives it an outline.” As recently as 2010, Italian Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the former Secretary of State, appeared to compare media criticism to “petty gossip.”

The tone out of this week’s abuse summit has been strikingly different. If not quite fulsome gratitude, speakers have at least offered an acknowledgment that whatever progress the church has made, has often come as a result of media pressure.

To be sure, those concessions have usually been coupled with insistence that church leaders should now get ahead of the curve, rather than waiting for yet another media firestorm. Moreover, trace elements of resentment over perceived media hostility haven’t been entirely absent.