First Philadelphia, Now Los Angeles: David Clohessy on Rotten Culture of Lies, Secrets, and Silence at Heart of Abuse Crisis

David Clohessy, writing about the indictment of three Philadelphia priests on charges of rape, indecent assault, and other criminal charges, and the arrest of a former Secretary for Clergy for the diocese of Philadelphia for knowingly permitting priests dangerous to children to remain in ministry:

Jennifer Wright Knust Takes Down Argument That Bible Condemns Homosexuality

In line with my first posting this morning about our need to keep educating ourselves: I highly recommend a valuable educational resource that CNN placed online yesterday--Jennifer Wright Knust's essay about the complex, multi-faceted approach of the Jewish and Christian scriptures to issues of gender and sexuality.  I'm particularly struck by Knust's take-down of the argument one hears so often from Christians who claim they are struggling with love and tolerance for their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters: the argument that, well, the bible does, after all, condemn homosexuality and define it as a sin.

Joanna Brooks: Mormon Leaders Also Using Religious Freedom Rhetoric to Attack Gay Rights

Since the new year began, I've been writing about a theme that Pope Benedict moved to the center of Catholic magisterial rhetoric in 2011 with his new year's statement for World Peace Day, which is now being echoed by Catholic pastoral officials around the world.  This is the claim that religious freedom is the fundamental human right, and that this fundamental right is now under attack.  Catholic leaders are arguing on this basis that faith communities have a "right" to discriminate against those who are gay and lesbian which trumps the alleged human rights of those who are gay and lesbian.

Philadelphia Catholic Official Arrested: Survivors to Catholics--Get Educated!

Some readers may know that yesterday, Philadelphia's district attorney announced the indictment of three priests on charges of rape, indecent sexual assault, and other criminal charges.  Also arrested was Monsignor William Lynn, the Secretary for Clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia under Cardinal Bevilacqua. Msgr. Lynn is charged with endangering the welfare of a child due to his handling of cases of abuse and allegations about abuse.  (Here's the DA's presentment.)

Eugene Kennedy on Benedict's Liturgical "Reform of the Reform": Reverence Demands a Sense of Imperfection

Eugene Kennedy writing, as always, with wonderful élan about theological issues--in this case, about Pope Benedict's "reform of the reform" and his top-down, heavy-handed imposition of liturgical "reforms" for which the faithful have not asked, and which many lay Catholics (and many priests) find clumsy, unwarranted, and not in the least conducive to the reverential worship at which Benedict claims to be aiming:

Women's Ordination and Abolition of Celibacy: Probing the Theological (and Gender) Issues

 

It's instructive to read Mary Hunt's latest essay at Religion Dispatches, which asks if women priests will change the Catholic church, side by side with a number of articles that have appeared in the days following the Thomas Euteneuer story, all of which focus on the need of the Catholic church to reconsider its ban on non-celibate clergy.  Recently, Alberto Cutie, a former Catholic priest in Miami who left the Catholic church to marry last year when his relationship to a woman became known, and who is now an Episcopal priest, published a statement about his new book Dilemma: A Priest's Struggle Between Faith and Love.

Readers Write: Peter Seewald and Theologians' "Rebellion in a Nursing Home"--Really?!

Some of the discussion that developed in response to my posting yesterday about further commentary on the recent petition of German theologians to the Vatican notes that Peter Seewald's dismissive reduction of the theologians' call for reform to a "rebellion in a nursing home" significantly distorts key facts about the damage the restorationist project has inflicted on the Catholic church.  As some readers noted, Seewald is pushing a meme that has become standard among reactionary Catholics today: Vatican II eroded faith and practice among Catholics, and the restorationist project of the last two popes have made the church flourish again.  Young people are rejecting the liberal ideas of the Vatican II generation, who are now outmoded hippies ridiculously rocking in their nursing homes and trying to foment ineffectual rebellion as they rock away.