On the Canonization of John Paul II and Survivors of Clerical Sexual Abuse, John Allen and Thomas Reese Spectacularly Miss the Point

Käthe Kollwitz, "Mothers" ("Mutter"), 1919, lithograph in Princeton University Art Museum

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. 

Crux on Cardinal McCarrick's "Sexually Deviant Behavior": U.S. Catholic Church Continues to Be Unsafe for LGBTQ People

I went to bed last night more than a little troubled by something Crux reporter Christopher White states in his report on a presentation John Carr has just given at Georgetown's Initiative for Catholic Social Thought and Public Life. The presentation is entitled "Confronting a Moral Catastrophe: Lay Leadership, Catholic Social Teaching, and the Sexual Abuse Crisis." In his lecture, Carr, who was previously Director of the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Department on Justice, Peace and Human Development, and who has been a friend of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, revealed that he had been sexually abused by priests as a minor seminarian. John Carr is a married Catholic layman with children.

Francis Effect for Gay* Folks? Still Elusive, As Bishops Around Globe Throw His Harsh Words in Faces of Gay* People

Yesterday, I drew your attention to a just-published essay by Patricia Miller which suggests that the U.S. Catholic bishops have done less saber-rattling this election cycle than in previous election cycles, in part, "due to the influence of Pope Francis, who has let it be known that such blatant politicking is no longer welcome." And so, Patti Miller proposes, there's a discernible trend of church-going John-Paul-II-type white Catholics away from the GOP ticket this election cycle, since the bishops are behaving differently in a church now led by Pope Francis.

With Knights of Columbus Funding and Strong Connections to Well-Heeled Right-Wing Catholic Elite Groups, Crux Promises No Good New for LGBTQ Catholics

Last week, I commented on a recent statement by Kaya Oakes at Religion Dispatches raising critical questions about the choice of John Allen to fund his Catholic news journal Crux with Knights of Columbus funds, now that Boston Globe has announced it will no longer fund Crux. As I noted, Kaya Oakes points out that the Knights of Columbus have established quite a reputation for themselves by sending over a million dollars to California to help snatch the right of marriage from gay citizens of that state with proposition 8, and by making million-dollar-plus contributions to campaigns in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington to combat gay rights. 

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: "Instead, We Are Left with the Likes of John Allen and Rocco Palmo Who Are Just Pole Dancers at Bishop Conventions"

In response to Kaya Oakes's recent article about John Allen's decision to turn to the Knights of Columbus to fund his Crux journal, which I discussed yesterday, Tony Adams writes, 

As Crux Turns to Knights of Columbus for Funding, A Reflection on Catholic Heterosexism and Lack of Solidarity with LGBTQ People Among Heterosexually Privileged "Liberal" Catholics

Tomorrow's my birthday, but Steve has informed me that the Birthday Rules dictate that one's birthday begins at sundown the day before, so I'm settling into the start of my birthday celebration as I type this posting, and hope that will make me more douce than usual. I doubt it.

Robert Mickens on Bread, Circuses, and Dressed-Up Enbalmed Corpses for the Year of Mercy (and John Allen's Counter-Analysis)

Robert Mickens on bread and circuses (and dressed-up enbalmed corpses) for the Year of Mercy:

Ross Douthat on the Pope's Betrayal of Catholics Who Count: A "Small Minority" Have "Kept the Faith"

My family once belonged to a country club. I hated every moment we spent in that club, because its "old" members made it very plain to my family that we were jumped-up interlopers who didn't belong as they did. 

Taking A Close Look at the "Church Teaching" That Vatican Media Apologists Claim U.N. Attacks: There's Their World, and Then There's the Real World

For Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), David Clohessy responds to Austen Ivereigh's claim that the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child "ambushed" the Vatican with its recent report: 

Patricia Miller: Vatican Itself Argued That Sexual Abuse of Children Is a Culture-War Issue

Patricia Miller at Religion Dispatches on the Vatican's perfervid response (echoed by centrist media commentators) to the U.N. report:

Times Editorial on U.N. and Vatican, Plus Vatican Apologists Begin Their Spin: Ten Critical Questions

An editorial in todays' New York Times responds to the U.N. report on the Vatican’s handling of the abuse crisis in the Catholic church. As the editorial notes, 

AP Reports That Benedict Defrocked 400 Abusive Priests: Vatican Denies Report, Then Retracts Denial, John Allen Sums Up

In the News: Little Sisters of Poor vs. Obama, Frank Cocozzelli's Coughie Award, Fred Clark's "Daily Blog of the Day," John Allen Leaving NCR

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Now a grab-bag of news items and articles that have caught my attention in recent days, and which I'd like to bring to the attention of readers here:

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: "We Also Want Men--Including John Allen, Michael Sean Winters . . . --to Realise That There is a Problem with the Role of Women in the Church Today"

Writing in response to Dennis Coday's "Morning Briefing" column in National Catholic Reporter yesterday, which links to an op-ed statement by Elizabeth Tenety in the Washington Post about what Catholic women want, Sara_TMS_again says,

Right Reels at Pope Francis's Comments About Not Judging Gays: Scott Lively on Papal Choice to Say Gay

Scott Lively 'splains why Pope Francis's choice to say "gay" is bad news for anti-gay Christians who want to deny that gays even exist, since, as they maintain, we're talking about behavior and choices and not characteristics deeply rooted in the nature of a group of human beings:

Bill Tammeus's Predictions for World of Religion, 2012

Good for a smile: Bill Tammeus's bold predictions for the world of religion in 2012.

Advent, Hope, and the Current Situation of the Catholic Church

I like very much the gist of Maureen Fiedler's review of John Allen's book about U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference president Timothy Dolan (even if M. Fiedler did choose to censor a comment I made recently in response to her article about Hilary Clinton's defense of LGBT human rights--a comment supporting Fiedler's analysis).  Allen's book about Mr. Dolan is called A People of Hope.

Benedict XVI as Liberation Theologian?: "We Catholics" Aren't Buying It

Thank you, William Horan, TomC, John Church, Karen52, and many other respondents who join me in objecting to John Allen's recent attempt to present Benedict XVI as an advocate of liberation theology--when, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine for the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger effectively dismantled the liberation theology movement.  Ratzinger punished and silenced one liberation theologian after another.  

Media Coverage of Finn Indictment: An Authoritarian Culture in Serious Denial

In a posting yesterday, I linked to A.G. Sulzberger's recent New York Times article about how Catholic pastors in the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph seemed to tiptoe around the topic of their bishop's recent criminal indictment in the homilies they gave this past Sunday.  And now today, I find that theme becoming something of a meme at various blog and news sites.

John Allen on Religious Freedom: Premier Catholic Concern of 2011

Remember how, when 2011 began, I started blogging about the sudden discovery of the notion of religious freedom by Catholic pastoral leaders, and by the religious right in general?  I pointed out Pope Benedict's sudden preoccupation with the concept right as the year began, and then I noted how Cardinal Pell, ever the pope's loyal man and a darling of the Catholic right wing around the world, took up the theme that Catholics' religious liberty is under assault and that religious freedom is the Ur-value on which all other values rest, immediately after Benedict began pressing these points from the very beginning of the year.