NCR Today

Welcome to NCR Today

by Joe Feuerherd on May. 13, 2009

NCR Today is the group blog of the National Catholic Reporter. Our diverse team of bloggers has different interests -- the politics of the church and secular society (and the interaction between the two), culture, management of the institution, and more.

Website maintenance could affect posting of comments

by Pam Cohen on May. 25, 2012

We've been having some server trouble in the last few weeks here at NCR, and to (hopefully) fix the problem, NCRonline.org will undergo some site maintenance between 3 and 4:30 p.m. CST.

Comments posted, and comments approved, between those times might disappear in the process of the site maintenance, so loyal commenters, please be aware of the time frame and adjust accordingly. We're not censoring you, we promise!

As always, thanks for spending time with us today and for all of your feedback. Hopefully the website will experience much less downtime in the future with this afternoon's fix.

Oh, and have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Kick it off with a preview of one of our Weekend Edition stories, a look at both LCWR and CMSW and a history of their relationship. Find it here.

All Hell breaks loose in the Holy See

by John L Allen Jr on May. 25, 2012

To say that the Vatican seems in turmoil would be putting things mildly, with two stunners in the arc of twenty-fours: Yesterday’s announcement that the president of the Vatican Bank has been unceremoniously fired, and today’s revelation that a longtime personal servant of Benedict XVI has been identified as the alleged “deep throat” behind the torrid Vatican leaks scandal.

New missal's lack of inclusive language is jarring

by Isabella R. Moyer on May. 25, 2012

Don't worry your pretty little head about mere words, dear. Of course "men" includes you. Only feminists worry about these petty details.

Despite those who fail to see the importance of it, inclusive language is now expected in academic writing and journalism. But it is glaringly absent in the revised Roman Missal. Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, a doctor based in Mumbai, has written a thoughtful blog for The Tablet called, "New Missal makes women invisible."

She provides a commentary on the New Missal from the church in India, where inclusive language has become the standard:

Lugar defeat sends shockwaves around the world

by Thomas C. Fox on May. 25, 2012

This from a statesman in Canberra, Australia. He writes in part the following:

With the defeat of Lugar, and the simultaneous exit of the last Republican moderates, like Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, who were prepared to put national interests ahead of partisanship, the Senate is unlikely to produce the 60 votes needed to ratify further US-Russia arms-control treaties, should they be negotiated. Moreover, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which would replace a fragile international moratorium, cannot come into force without US Senate ratification.

Morning Briefing

by Dennis Coday on May. 25, 2012

'Philadelphia -- Another tough day on the stand for Msgr. Lynn

Charleston, S.C. -- Dispute over communion wine keeps chaplain out of jail

Lafayette, La. -- John Paul the Great Academy may lose its 40-acre campus before next school year if donors aren't able to quickly pool together enough money to buy the land and facilities that currently house the small Catholic school.

Opinion: Obama administration alienates Catholic voters by Michael Gerson

A crack in the ranks of the bishops

by Maureen Fiedler on May. 24, 2012

In his Washington Post column today, EJ Dionne discusses the public disagreement among the U.S. bishops about the lawsuit challenging the contraception mandate in the Obama administration's health care law. Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, Calif., went public Tuesday in an interview with Kevin Clarke of America magazine. He expressed his concern that some groups "very far to the right" are turning the controversy over the contraception rules into "an anti-Obama campaign."

Blaire smells, quite rightly I think, the aroma of partisan politics in this lawsuit, and perhaps in the whole campaign about "religious freedom." At the very least, it can be used by the far right to try to defeat Obama.

It's the bishops against the poor

by Mary Ann McGivern on May. 24, 2012

I was at a fundraiser the other night for my state representative, a Democrat. He's a criminal defense lawyer, listens to my concerns about prison reform, gives me sound advice about the ways of the Missouri legislature, and follows through on his promises.

I was introduced as a Catholic sister to one of the state party leaders. He asked me right away about the Vatican investigation of nuns. I gave a vague comment about not worrying too much, that we nuns were all continuing our work. He, the Democrat, said it appeared to him the bishops were tough Republicans and that Missouri is likely in the next few years to grant nonpublic school scholarships, which would take even more money from the education of poor children and children with disabilities.

The two bills promoting scholarships did not move along in the Missouri bill process. But The New York Times ran a lengthy analysis of this movement last Monday.

Hildegard of Bingen: no ordinary saint

by Robert McClory on May. 24, 2012

It took more than 800 years for the church to formally canonize Hildegard of Bingen. Her elevation by Pope Benedict XVI was announced May 1 at the Vatican. The 12th-century German Benedictine abbess and mystic has been venerated for centuries by Christians, but the delay in her official recognition could have had something to do with her very unorthodox kind of sanctity.

At a time when two ecumenical councils were dissolving the marriages of all priests and cutting adrift their wives and children, Hildegard was proclaiming the special dignity of women in her speeches, books and music. She was, in fact, so far ahead of her time that she was neither understood nor taken seriously by the hierarchy, thereby avoiding for most of her life sanction or investigation. Here are a few of her positions on scripture and theology.

There exists in the inner being of God an almost erotic balance of feminine and masculine, which is mirrored in the complementary relationship of men and women.

Since Jesus took his body from a woman, it is woman rather than man who best represents the humanity of the Son of God.

Philly abuse trial: Lynn takes the stand

by Brian Roewe on May. 24, 2012

This morning, Msgr. William J. Lynn took the stand for the second day in his landmark abuse trial in Philadelphia.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

During hours of tense testimony in a Common Pleas courtroom, Lynn tried to counter charges that he spent a dozen years burying sex-abuse claims and shuffling accused priests around the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

He repeatedly told jurors that his bosses, notably Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, directed the church's response to child-sex abuse allegations, and he denied knowingly putting children in harm's way.

"I thought I was helping people," Lynn said. "I thought I was helping priests, and in those circumstances, I thought I was helping victims, as much as I could."

Lynn, 61, is accused of child endangerment for his role in recommending assignments to priests accused of past abuse. He is the first U.S. church official to stand trial for his role in the cover-up of abuse.

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