Leon J. Podles :: DIALOGUE

A Discussion on Faith and Culture

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Entries from June 2010

Sauce for the Political Gander?

June 30th, 2010 · 4 Comments

Although the good people of Massachusetts were revolted by the behavior of Catholic priests with (mostly) teenage boys, and they sent Cardinal Law packing to a sinecure in Rome for having tolerated such an orgy, they seem to have had (perhaps not unreasonably) lower standards for congressmen.
 
In 1983 Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts took under [...]

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Tags: clergy sex abuse scandal

El Camino - The Way

June 27th, 2010 · 3 Comments

Martin Sheen (who is in fact Spanish - or rather Galician) has done a very moving movie on the Camino de Santiago - “The Way.” It will be released July 25 (the Feast of St James) in a Holy Year for the Camino, because this year the Feast of St. James falls on a Sunday.

I, Deo volente – Dios mediante, will begin [...]

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Tags: Camino · Camino de Santiago

BishopAccountability, Mexico, and Murders

June 19th, 2010 · 3 Comments

The archival project with which I am associated, BishopAccountability, is collecting all documents, articles, legal cases, and other material, associated with sexual abuse by clerics in the United States. We have close to a million pages of documents now, and will probaly end up with 3 to 5 million pages. 
No one else is collecting this [...]

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Tags: Mexico · clergy sex abuse scandal

To an Intemperate Critic

June 19th, 2010 · 5 Comments

I have occasionally let anger blind me and have let myself become confused about the facts of a case, so I will not be too hard on a critic by posting his intemperate and inaccurate criticism (he should watch his language)
 
He claims that I called a leader of the Sancta Muerte cult a “Catholic Bishop.”
 
If [...]

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Tags: Uncategorized

Pope John Paul’s Policies on Child Molesters

June 7th, 2010 · 6 Comments

The diocese of Stockton, California bought convicted child molester Rev. Oliver O’Grady a pension (at the cost of 94,000) that would begin when O’Grady turned 65. Bishop Blaire of Stockton explained to his diocese: 

When Oliver O’Grady was in prison, he refused to apply for removal from the priesthood, also known as laicization or defrocking. Already [...]

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Tags: clergy sex abuse scandal

Visible and Invisible Channels of Salvation

June 7th, 2010 · 3 Comments

Several people have raised the question of the effects of “invalid” sacraments. 
Underlying this question are two views of God’s offer of salvation:
1.     The existence of the Church and the sacraments narrows God’s offer of salvation (Augustine). That is, only those who are in the juridical boundaries of the Church and therefore receive valid sacraments [...]

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Tags: Catholic Church · sacraments

Cultivating Narcissism

June 1st, 2010 · 3 Comments

While I suspect that many priest sexual abusers and even some bishops may be true, congenital psychopaths with a different brain structure than the average person, most of their failure to feel the pain and damage that abuse was causing victims was brought about by the culture of clerical narcissism, Priests considered themselves other Christs, [...]

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Tags: Narcissism · clergy sex abuse scandal · clericalism