Leon J. Podles :: DIALOGUE

The comments in the previous blog raise the interesting question of whether the ordination of an unbeliever is valid. That is, if I man was baptized, but has lost his faith and seeks ordination anyway, is he validly ordained a priest or consecrated a bishop? 
In two cases (including Rudy Kos) I have come across memos [...]

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In reading the cases of sexual abuse, I pity the victims, but I often pity the abusers, who are often psychopaths on a straight path to hell. They must be punished, both to affirm  justice and to waken them to the enormity of their acts. Punishment is necessary for justice, and justice is necessary if [...]

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When we were at my wife’s college mini-reunion in Sedona, my brother-in-law gathered up brochures from the visitors’ center. 
The first is from “Down to Earth Psychic Readings.”  These are “famous for being authentic, accurate, and fun” (I can’t abide inauthentic psychic readings). 
The Center for the New Age offers Aura Photo, 15 (count’m, 15) Certified Psychic [...]

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The recession has compounded Europe’s demographic problems. The riots in Greece are just the beginning. The French hate to work, and would probably have a revolution rather than work until 65. Not that a revolution would do any good, but that never seems to have stopped the French. 
The New York Times reports: 

With low growth, low [...]

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 Richard Cross at Catholic Culture has dose some thoughtful guessimating about the rates of sexual abuse among the clergy in the Catholic Church and the clergy in the Anglican Church. 
It has to be guess work because the Anglican churches are not very forthcoming with statistics. However, I have collected material on the Anglican Church in [...]

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I have been reading more accounts of those who were abused by priests and who then committed suicide.
 
 “…les pauvres, les paumés, les malades, les suicidés
En qui j’ai vu Ton visage.
Eux aussi présent tous les jours.
Élève-les jusqu’à Ton épaule pour les consoler.” (Michael Lonsdale)

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Although words are not everything, they are a beginning, especially if they reveal the heart. Perhaps we can take some hope from these words of Pope Benedict: 

In terms of what we today can discover in this message, attacks against the Pope or the Church do not only come from outside; rather the sufferings of the [...]

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Mothering Sunday
 
It is the day of all the year, of all the year the one day,
When I shall see my mother dear and bring her cheer, a-mothering on Sunday.
It is the day of all the year, of all the year the one day,
And here come I my mother dear, to bring you cheer, a-mothering on [...]

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Credo Ut Intellegam has been suffering through the news from the German Church, and I feel largely the way he does: 

Wenn mir etwas Angst macht, dann ist es die Naivität, mit der momentan die üblichen Patentrezepte als Allheilmittel ins Spiel gebracht werden: vox temporis - vox Dei, verheirateter Weltklerus, Laienmitsprache und -mitverantwortung, innerkirchliche Frauenförderung etc. [...]

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In 2000 I organized a trip to Germany for my sons’ scout troop. I had attended conferences in Eichstätt for several years and knew the area, so we spent most of our time there.
 
Ever since Anglo-Saxon missionaries came to convert their pagan brethren, the prince-bishops of Eichstätt have enjoyed a long run of good taste [...]

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The two-week hiatus in posting blogs and comments was caused by my trip to the Southwest. While there I found a Navajo guide who took me into Canyon de Chelly.
First of all, never tell a Navajo guide you are up to a challenging hike. The only time I have ever come close to puking [...]

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As I said in the previous post, justice must be satisfied. Some Catholics believe that charity does away with justice, that it is wrong to punish sinners and criminals. John Zmirak examines this idea at Inside Catholic in the context of Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos’ 2001 letter praising a bishop for not turning over to the [...]

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Julián Carrón, the president of Communion and Liberation, in a letter to La Republica, has written the most profound reflection on sexual abuse in the Church I have seen so far.

None of us has ever been as dismayed as we are in front of the heart-wrenching story of child abuse. Our dismay arises from [...]

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