John Allen and Thomas Reese appear not to understand what it means for the Catholic church to declare someone a saint — as it did so with reckless speed when Pope John Paul II was canonized immediately after his death, to the consternation of not a few Catholics who thought that John Paul's papal legacy was more than a little mixed.
News outlets are now reporting that Polish television broadcaster TVN24 has just aired a report stating that "Pope St. John Paul II knew about sexual abuse of children by priests under his authority and sought to conceal it when he was an archbishop in his native Poland." This statement is from Monika Scislowska in an AP report picked up by National Catholic Reporter with the title "Polish TV report: John Paul II knew of abuse as archbishop."
On 8 February, Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and Brookings Institution released the results of an important national survey entitled "A Christian Nation? Understanding the Threat of Christian Nationalism to American Democracy and Culture." As PRRI's press release announcing the report states,
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On 30 January, a study commission convoked by L'Arche International to look into the question of reports of sexual abuse of vulnerable women by L'Arche issued its report. Vanier founded L'Arche as a ministry supporting physically and mentally challenged people. The report produced by an interdisciplinary group of French academics after lengthy probing and study of the evidence, found the following, as Michael Atencio reports:
As Rod McGuirk reports, as Cardinal Pell's funeral is held today, police have refused to permit LGBTQ-rights protesters outside the Catholic cathedral in Sydney, and have sought a court injunction against them.
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| "Catholic Church Tells Bishops They Are Not Obliged to Disclose Child Sex Abuse: Report," Time (11/2/2016) |
Earlier this week, the Catholic archdiocese of Paris announced that after investigation of charges made against influential French priest Tony Anatrella, a previous sanction of Anatrella remains in place and and he continues to be banned from celebrating Mass publicly or hearing confessions. He is also forbidden from continuing his work as a psychotherapist.
Today, Public Religion Research Group (PRRI) published results of a study it has just done entitled "Are Immigrants a Threat? Most Americans Don’t Think So, but Those Receptive to the 'Threat' Narrative Are Predictably More Anti-immigrant." Some key findings of this report:
I've refrained until now from commenting here about the death of Emeritus Pope Bendict, because...well, to be honest, I'm not sure what more I might say about Ratzinger/Benedict than I've already said here in the past.
Wishing you all a very happy 2023, and apologizing that I have been absent from this blog. My spouse Steve had surgery on 19 December, then Christmas came along as he recuperated and I did nursing duties, and I have been stretched — though still posting routinely at my new Mastodon account, where you can find my "real time" commentary on various items I've been reading and want to share.
For anyone looking for music to listen to as you celebrate the new year, here's my YouTube playlist for New Year's day, developed over a number of years.
Here are some valuable articles I've read in the past week or two about religion and politics and their intersection:
So much to say about the ongoing débacle that is Twitter under Elon Musk's ownership. As with Donald Trump, the minute you think he/it has gotten the worst that is possible, a new low arrives — with Musk and Twitter yesterday, shutting down the accounts of journalists who have dared to criticize him. I'm chronicling the Musk-Twitter story on my new Mastodon page, where you're welcome to follow me if you wish. Here's a selection of items I've shared there:
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| Altar of Veit Stoss, descent of the Spirit at Pentecost, St. Mary's Church, Krakow, Poland, photo by Robert Breuer at Wikimedia Commons |
As Virginia Saldanha, "Why I find pope’s ideas on women priests disturbing," notes, Pope Francis recently nonsensically (and all over again) said that men in the Catholic church are meant to follow a "Petrine principle" that allows men — but not women — to be ordained, run things, and mirror Christ. Women are called to follow a "Marian principle" and mirror the feminine church, not — heaven forfend! — the male Christ. (Translation: women are called to serve).
The final two segments of Jemar Tisby's valuable "White Nation Under God" series discussing white Christian nationalism and its role in U.S. political life now have been placed online. Episode 4, entitled "How Christians Can Resist White Christian Nationalism," features Amanda Tyler, executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. Amanda Tyler focuses on how white Christian Nationalists use Christianity as cover for their anti-democratic and repressive ideology, in that way challenging other Christians to resist this misuse of their religion.
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| Photo of stack of newspapers by Daniel R. Blume, Wikimedia Commons |
Jay Kuo, "There Is No Joy in Trumpville":
This has been a disastrous week—one for the record books, truly—in Trumpland. Three separate calamities went down this week, and we would be remiss to focus on just any one of them.
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| President Donald J. Trump 2 March 2019, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, MD; official White House photo by Tia Dufour, at Wikimedia Commons |
Heather Cox Richardson, "Letters from an American: December 3, 2002":
The leader of the Republican Party has just called for the overthrow of our fundamental law and the installation of a dictator.
I've now succeeded in setting up an account on Mastodon.
My handle there is @wdlindsy@toad.social
Please feel free to connect to me there if you wish. I'm hoping to reconnect via Mastodon to as many of the friends and conversation partners I had on Twitter, with whom I've lost touch after I left Twitter when Musk acquired it. I'm a total novice at Mastodon and don't yet fully understand how it works, but I'll try to get up to speed quickly. Hope to connect there with readers of this blog who are on Mastodon.
Lawrence O'Donnell states,
This is the day when every apologist for Kanye West, everyone who blames his medication, everyone who blames Kanye West's claimed mental health issues which have never actually been medically documented — this is the day those people are out of apologies for Kanye West. No more pleas for sympathy for mental health issues that have never been medically documented publicly by anyone. No medical records, no physicians, no one who has treated him has ever spoken publicly about these conditions. If you believe he has mental health conditions, you believe Kanye West. That's who has told you that he has mental health conditions, and these mental health conditions that he claims under no circumstances cause antisemitism.
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| Merriam-Webster dictionary |
Heather Cox Richardson, "Letter from an American, December 1, 2022":
Today, Ye, also known as Kanye West, appeared with right-wing white supremacist Nick Fuentes on Alex Jones’s show InfoWars, and was so vile even Jones began to push back. Eventually, Ye praised Nazis and Adolf Hitler. Then, and only then, did the Twitter account of the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee delete its tweet of October 6, 2022, that read: “Kanye. Elon. Trump.”
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| Detail from Rogier van der Weyden's "Descent from the Cross," 15th century, Prado Museum, Madrid, at Wikimedia Commons |
Mark Wingfield writes, "Colorado Springs clergy speak out against religious hate speech that leads to violence":
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