Pope Benedict XVI told cardinals yesterday, on the fifth anniversary of his papacy, that he doesn’t feel alone atop the “wounded and sinner” church he leads. Church watchers wonder if the pope’s meeting with abuse victims in Malta could be a turning point in his pontificate.
The abuse crisis continues to spread through Latin America, however. Ireland’s prime minister says religious orders should pay $200 million euros to a fund for abuse victims.
Abuse survivors are protesting the celebration of a Mass this Sunday at Washington’s National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception by a former top cardinal who praised a French bishop for protecting a pedophile priest from the police. The Bishop of Aberdeen, Scotland, said it’s “stupid” to blame the sex abuse crisis on homosexuality in the priesthood. The head of the Vatican’s office in charge of clergy invited all priests to gather in Rome to conclude the Year for Priests and said “it is absolutely unacceptable to use the crimes of a few in order to sully the entire ecclesial body of priests.”
Speaking of priests, the annual survey on American ordinands was released this week. Among the highlights: More than 90 percent of men being ordained to the priesthood held down a full-time job before entering the seminary. Three in five completed college before seminary school. The median age is 33; 11 men are 65 or older. Nearly one-third was born outside the U.S.
Schismatic Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson says he will appeal the fine a German court levied for his Holocaust denial. Miami has a new Catholic archbishop.
The Archbishop of Canterbury said the Episcopal Church has “deepened the divide between itself and the rest of the Anglican family” by confirming a second openly gay bishop. He also said he is “in discussion” with a number of people about “what consequences might follow that decision.”
The Supreme Court seemed sharply split during oral arguments Monday in a case concerning a college group that wants to receive university funding and exclude gays. Tennessee’s attorney general says the state’s “Jesus is Lord” license plates violate the establishment clause of the Constitution. President Obama called the late Dorothy Height “the godmother of the civil rights movement.” Obama will deliver a eulogy on Sunday for the 29 West Virginia miners killed in the explosion earlier this month.
A bipartisan group of 18 members of Congress wrote to the State Department expressing concern over abductions, forced marriages, and exploitation of Coptic women and girls in Egypt. A Christian techie at a jet propulsion lab is suing, saying he was demoted after he distributed DVDs on the job promoting intelligent design.
Tibetan Buddhist monks are cremating the nearly 1,400 dead in last week’s earthquake, which, according to a senior Islamic cleric in Iran, was probably caused by women who wear immodest clothing. A Detroit church included test drives in its Sunday service.
