NAACP President Kweisi Mfume has denounced The Catholic University of America’s (CUA) decision to block student efforts to create a chapter of the NAACP on campus. At a rally on campus on Friday, Mfume called the CUA rejection “outright discrimination and intolerance all rolled into one,” and has threatened to sue if an agreement cannot […]
Democrats in the House of Representatives sent a letter last week to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington criticizing the recent decision of some bishops to deny communion to pro-choice Catholics. The letter, signed by 48 Catholic House members, including some with anti-abortion voting records, warned that the Church will suffer if bishops continue to speak […]
The panel of prominent lay Catholics charged with investigating the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church has accused US bishops of stalling on important actions and reneging on promises. The review panel this week made public letters between members of the panel (the National Review Board) and various bishops. At issue is the fact […]
California’s Supreme Court on Monday ruled that, in accordance with state law, Catholic Charities must cover contraceptives as part of its employee prescription drug coverage. This is “a huge victory for working women in California,” said state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, according to the Los Angeles Times. “It is plainly discriminatory for health and disability […]
Prompted by pressure from the Vatican, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is considering imposing sanctions against Catholic politicians who fail to adhere to Catholic teachings. On the opening day of the Conference’s four-day meeting in Washington, Bishop John Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida told fellow attendees, “Some Catholic politicians defy church teaching in their […]
The Roman Catholic Church is relaunching its opposition to condom use, arguing that the prophylactics are ineffective in blocking the transmission of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV/AIDS. In the BBC Panorama program “Sex and the Holy City” to air in Britain this weekend, President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso […]
As US Catholic bishops convene today for a biannual meeting in St Louis to discuss the status of the priest sex abuse scandal, the news appears less than promising. After a difficult year laden with legal battles, pricey settlements, disputes with lay Catholic groups, and diminishing financial contributions, the bishops opened their meeting faced with […]
In an attempt to regain lost credibility, the Archdiocese of Boston last week announced it would publicly disclose-via media, print, and online-details of its fiscal 2003 and 2004 budgets. Chancellor David W. Smith told the Boston Globe, “There have been people uncertain-or unconvinced-about where we’re spending the money that’s sent in… It’s fair to say […]
The San Bernardino diocese filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Boston archdiocese, alleging “misrepresentations and suppression of information” as well as “active misconduct and negligence” in recommending the 1990 transfer of Reverend Paul Shanley despite his history of pedophilia, reported the Los Angeles Times. The caseÑwhich seeks Boston’s full responsibility in paying damages resulting from […]
After protest from feminists, Roman Catholic authorities in Managua, Nicaragua decided to backtrack from their decision to excommunicate a nine-year-old rape victim, her parents, and their doctors for terminating the child’s pregnancy, the Guardian reports. Spanish feminists delivered a petition with 26,000 signatures to the Vatican headquarters in Madrid last week to protest the decision […]
Former Domino’s Pizza founder and right-wing philanthropist Tom Monaghan announced that he will spend $200 million to build a new Roman Catholic university in Florida. Ave Maria University will join Monaghan’s two Ave Maria colleges and the Ave Maria School of Law. Monaghan, who has actively participated in and sponsored anti-abortion causes, plans to have […]
The Roman Catholic Church in Poland is demanding that the treaty allowing its accession to the European Union (EU) contain language stipulating Poland’s freedom to set its own abortion policy. According to The Associated Press, Poland sent a declaration to Brussels saying that, “no EU treaties or annexes to those treaties would hamper the Polish […]
Catholic school systems throughout the country are witnessing uncharacteristic declines in student enrollment, reported the New York Times. Interviews with the eleven largest K-8 Catholic school systems in the US revealed enrollment drops between 1.5 and 7 percent. School administrators quickly downplayed any connections with the well-publicized priest sex abuse scandal, pointing instead to expensive […]
The Vatican last week issued guidelines reminding Catholic politicians of their “duty to respect and protect the rights of the human embryo,” according to the Associated Press. Released one week before the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the document asserts that Catholic politicians–particularly in light of recent medical and scientific developments–should abide by “nonnegotiable […]
A New York Times survey examining the US Catholic priest sex abuse scandal in the last 60 years further quantified the appalling magnitude of the problem–over 4,200 claims have been made against more than 1,200 priests, the newspaper reported. The most extensive collection of data available on the subject, the Times survey details disturbing trends […]
Nearly a year after its inception last January, Catholic lay group Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) finally won a meeting with Cardinal Bernard Law on Tuesday. The global organization, formed amidst the sex abuse scandal and described by its interim executive director Steve Krueger as “a group of concerned Catholics who love the church, and […]
Last week, the ex-wife of former Ohio Governor Richard Celeste admitted she was among the seven women ordained and then excommunicated as Catholic priests. After calling their ordinations “an affront to the dignity of women, whose specific role in the Church and society is distinctive and irreplaceable,” the Vatican excommunicated the women in early August. […]
In the sale of several Catholic hospitals to secular entities, the Catholic Church has imposed conditions of sale that stipulate a continued ban, sometimes indefinite, on healthcare options such as abortion previously forbidden under Catholic doctrine, according to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune. Under purchasing agreements, buyer hospitals adopt the church’s Ethical and […]
A panel appointed by the US Conference on Catholic Bishops to help US dioceses enforce the new sexual abuse policy recently urged the nation’s Catholic religious orders to follow the bishops’ more stringent policy rather than the one approved by the Conference of Major Superiors of Men. Of the 45,000 Catholic priests in the US, […]
After years of sexually abusing young boys while leaders of the Catholic church looked the other way, a prominent Irish priest was arraigned on 29 charges of sodomy, indecent assault and gross indecency Ð showing that the scandal that has rocked the church in the US extends even as far as the devoutly Catholic stronghold […]
