Weekend Edition -- March 13-14

Children denied Catholic schooling, lesbian couple speaks out

The women talk with NCR in their first media interview
NCR sits down with the lesbian couple whose children are being denied attendance at a Catholic parish school in Boulder. The couple explained they agreed to speak with NCR because they wanted to clear up misconceptions in the media and specifically wanted Catholics to better understand their situation.
 

Sex abuse reports spread in Europe; focus on pope

Pope Benedict XVI was implicated in the deepening sex abuse scandal for the first time late Friday following disclosures that he was involved in the transfer a priest who had reportedly forced an 11-year-old boy to have sex.
 

Mel Gibson, revenge and redemption

Director Martin Campbell's new film, "The Edge of Darkness," is a blessing of sorts for Academy Award-winning director/writer/actor Mel Gibson. Aside from its entertainment value, the film provides a study of Gibson several years after the religious epic he directed, "The Passion of the Christ." One could say that Gibson as actor and director and producer has been walking on the edge of darkness for sometime.
 

Sex abuse requires rethinking of mandatory celibacy

With the same openness with which the church is at last coming to terms with the abuse cases, it is now time to deal with one of its essential structural causes, the celibacy rule. Courageously and emphatically, the bishops should propose this to Pope Benedict XVI.
 

The nun and Glenn Beck: a standoff

Joan Chittister
I got an invitation today. It wasn't to me. It was to Glenn Beck. Let me give you a little background so you can understand how it happened. There is a nun in the country this week, a Sister of the Good Shepherd, from Syria. Now, that may not seem much like international news to you but it is. And not only to me.
 
 
 

The new spin on Vatican II

To downplay the council's impact, dividing Catholics into 'hermeneutic' camps has become a favorite tactic
Dividing people into hermeneutic camps has become a favorite tactic of conservative commentators and some bishops, especially those who most want to downplay the idea that the council altered the teaching or attitude of the church in any significant way. Others, however, see the categories as artificial and overstated, attempts at marginalizing as extreme anyone convinced that Vatican II ushered in important changes.
 

Contours of the daily and domestic

Women writers bid us to stand still and be astonished
My life has been largely spent at home, caring for my family. It is a small world, but a rich and complex one, for all its short distances from stove to bed and bathtub to couch. Perhaps that is why I am drawn to these writers -- they are women -- who observe the contours and appreciate the significance of the daily and the domestic.
 

Appointment inspires hope in beset diocese

The beleaguered diocese of Scranton, Pa., has a new bishop, a native son who wasted no time in his first news conference in setting a tone distinctly different from that of his predecessor. Msgr. Joseph Bambera has been handling the day-to-day running of the diocese since the abrupt and early retirement of Bishop Joseph F. Martino in August.
 

Apostolic Visitator details on-site visit guidelines

Reiterates request of visited communities to pay travel, accomodation costs
Mother Mary Clare Millea last month sent out the first wave of letters to U.S. women religious communities being visited this spring as part of a three-year Vatican study, officially called an Apostolic Visitation.
 
 

Degree programs unite business, sustainability

An earth-hugging environmentalist fad or the next industrial revolution? In 2002 Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Mich., began an undergraduate degree program in sustainable business. Duquesne University in Pittsburgh has instituted a master’s degree program in sustainable business. Dominican University of California offers a master’s degree in sustainable enterprise.
 

Liberals dying or hiding?

The proposition that liberal Catholicism is dying has been offered from time to time, for decades now, often in a way that reminds one of the schoolyard scuffler more interested in the fight than in any point being made.
 

Should Catholic chaplains be board-certified?

Mission Management Sick patients want to be treated by the best-trained doctors and nurses available. But is that enough or do patients need pastoral care as an integral part of holistic health care? While most hospitals offer spiritual care to their patients, do patients really need professionally trained and board-certified Catholic chaplains? One organization thinks so.