Following a court order, the Los Angeles archdiocese released the personnel files of 87 clergy accused of sexual abuse. The files, which were also posted online, were described as containing “brutal and painful reading” by the Archbishop of Los Angeles José Gomez.
Mgr Gomez, who has led the archdiocese since 2011, took the unprecedented step of relieving his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, of all administrative and public duties. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry also resigned from his duties.
Mgr Gomez said the Church had to acknowledge that there were terrible failures in the way it handled the child abuse cases. Cardinal Mahony has expressed sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care.
US Catholic hospital in ‘foetus not people’ gaffe
Leaders of the Catholic Health Initiatives, the Catholic hospital in the middle of a controversy after arguing in a wrongful-death lawsuit that a foetus is not a person, have publicly apologised. The public apology was issued following a meeting with Colorado’s three bishops.
The leaders acknowledged it was morally wrong for lawyers representing the hospital to cite the state’s Wrongful Death Act which “does not consider foetuses to be people, which directly contradicts the moral teachings of the Church”.
They affirmed the hospital’s belief that every person is created in the image and likeness of God and that life begins at conception.
SSPX priests can’t say Mass in Switzerland
Priests from the conservative Society of St Pius X (SSPX) do not have permission to celebrate Mass in churches in Lausanne, Switzerland.
This announcement was made by Bishop Charles Morerod, secretary of the International Theological Commission and a member of the Vatican commission engaged in doctrinal discussions with the SSPX.
The decision has to be understood within a policy statement on the use of diocesan churches and chapels by ministers of other faiths.
Defend marriage but protect gay couples
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, said the state must defend traditional marriage for the good of society. He said that while the Church opposes recognising gay unions as ‘marriage’ it is for the full dignity of homosexual men and women. He added that the Church is against outlawing homosexuality and is in favour of the giving of legal protection to unmarried people living together.
Mgr Paglia called for greater efforts to ensure legal protection and inheritance rights for people who live together but are not married. He said legal means must be found to guarantee rights and regulate inheritance “to promote justice and to protect the weak... but do not call it marriage.”
Skyscraper built near cathedral is doomed
The Catholic Church in Romania won an important victory in court after a seven-year legal battle. Archbishop Ioan Robu presented the Church’s case, saying a skyscraper built just a few metres away from the cathedral endangered the church’s stability and detracted from the beauty of its façade.
A Romanian court decreed that the offices were built without the necessary permits and ordered that the 19-storey building to be demolished.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)