Leon J. Podles :: DIALOGUE

Somene asked for the PDFs of the letters about the Portland, Oregon, cases. They are at BishopAccountability.org.
For the Laughlin letters, go here
and for Steigerwald letter, go here.

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Arturo Vasquez over at the ever-fascinating Reditus spends a great deal of time, perhaps a little too much, in the curious corners of Catholicism, or perhaps semi-Catholicism: the bandit saints, popularly-canonized dogs, curanderos, Hermeticism, etc. I love it. He posited one explanation for his identity: 

3. Arturo Vasquez is a witch: We are surprised that people [...]

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On July, 8, 1988, Archbishop Levada of Portland , Oregon, wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger, then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, about the case of the Rev. Thomas Laughlin.
 
Laughlin, Levada explains, was ordained in 1948 at the age of 23. Levada continues, “he began homosexual contacts with boys shortly after his [...]

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The Irish Times examined the failure of the Vatican to handle the news about the meeting with the Irish bishops. 
It also gives an explanation, all too probable, for the failure of the Vatican to cooperate with the Irish government or to admit any responsibility for clerical abuse: 
Which brings us to one of the bottom lines [...]

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The New York Times each day publishes the names of the soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. I read them each day and say a prayer for them. It is the least I can do for those who have died to keep me and my family safe. 
The names and home towns reveal a [...]

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What could the Pope do, as one person asked? 
Many, many things: 
He should immediately remove from the clergy all bishops who are known to be corrupt and abusers. There are about twenty, starting with Mr. Sanchez of Santa Fe (he of girlfriends A, B, C, D, E…). 
He should immediately remove from the cardinalate, and probably from [...]

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Pope Benedict will write a letter to the faithful of Ireland.

Ecclesiastical bureaucrats and professors (and Pope Benedict was both) live in a world of words, and think that saying the correct thing is equivalent to, even better than, doing the correct thing. Having said the correct words, they cannot understand why people want them to [...]

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My discussion of the Schmidt case has obvious relevance to clerical sexual abuse. The abusers may have been, in some sense of the word, “sick”; they certainly had distorted personalities. But whatever the source of their desire to have sex with minors, they were guilty when they acted on that desire. 
As Joe said, a good [...]

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Pope Benedict and the Irish bishops have issued a communiqué. 

For his part, the Holy Father observed that the sexual abuse of children and young people is not only a heinous crime, but also a grave sin which offends God and wounds the dignity of the human person created in his image. 
 The Holy Father also pointed [...]

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The Naples Daily  News reports

A Brevard County woman claiming to be God’s messenger has been charged with attempted murder after reportedly shooting at a family on their back porch.
The sheriff’s office reports that 47-year-old Kathleen Aceto showed up with a gun and began shooting Friday morning. A man in the house grabbed a gun and [...]

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Commonweal is having a discussion in the decades-old topic “Why Catholics Can’t (or Won’t) Sing.” 
The lack of singing at Mass is a symptom that the liturgical renewal was not a popular movement: it was developed by a small group of enthusiasts and scholars and imposed on the laity without any consultation. Catholics have a strong [...]

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