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Pope Names New Head for Disgraced Order
By Dana Kennedy - AOL News(July 9) -- Pope Benedict XVI has appointed an outsider to revamp one of the Catholic Church's richest, most conservative and most disgraced orders, the Vatican announced today. Velasio De Paolis, the archbishop of Thelepte in Tunisia and president of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See, will assume command of the Legionaries of Christ as part of an overhaul of the order that began in May. De Paolis, 74, is a canon lawyer who will be an interim leader of the Legion, an enormous and influential order with priests in 22 countries. Along with two vice-delegates, De Paolis is ...
Supreme Court Declines Vatican Sex-Abuse Appeal
By Dana Kennedy - AOL News(June 28) -- The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to review a lawsuit that challenges the Vatican's immunity from prosecution in clerical sex abuse cases. Minnesota lawyer Jeffrey Anderson, who filed the case in 2002, called the high court's decision to allow the lawsuit to go forward "an enormous breakthrough for the movement of sex abuse survivors." "The Vatican has hidden behind a wall of immunity and acted as if they are above the law," Anderson told AOL News today. "Now we have a crack in that wall, and we will move forward in our fight against the Vatican." Anderson said the court's ...
Let Priests Marry? Austrian Cardinal Schönborn Roils the Vatican
By David Gibson - Politics DailyAustrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn is a former student of the current pope whose efforts in the 2005 conclave were key to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's election as Benedict XVI. But these days Schönborn has the Vatican and conservative Catholics wondering whether he's helping his friend, given the independent-minded streak Schönborn has shown amid the ongoing clergy sexual abuse crisis. In March, Schönborn set off alarm bells in Rome when he said that mandatory celibacy -- the longstanding rule that priests must not marry -- should be included in an "unflinching examination" of the ...
Vatican's Handling of Clergy Sex Abuse Gets Failing Grade in Survey
By David Gibson - Politics DailyAmerican Catholics by a nearly 2-1 margin think the Vatican has done a "poor job" handling the clergy sex abuse crisis, a dim view that follows months of embarrassing revelations and reports of persistent inaction by top church officials, including then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. Yet there is some good news for Rome as perceptions of Benedict have improved markedly of late, with 43 percent of Catholics now saying they view the pontiff favorably, up from just 27 percent in March. ...
Priest Sex Abuse Survey: Catholics See Links to Celibacy, Homosexuality
By David Gibson - Politics DailyGays in the priesthood and the ban on married priests are significant factors contributing to the sexual abuse of children by clergy, according to American Catholics surveyed in a new poll -- though researchers note there is little evidence to support such views. In the CBS News/New York Times poll released Tuesday, 31 percent of Catholics said they thought celibacy was a major factor leading to sexual abuse, while almost the same number (30 percent) said they believed homosexuality played a major role. Some 28 percent called celibacy a "minor factor" and 23 percent said homosexuality was a ...
Giving Pope Some Love on Anniversary: Italian Media Have Different Take Than U.S.
By Elizabeth Lev - Politics DailyROME -- From my perch in Italy this week, I've been wondering whether the New York Times and I were at the same celebration for Benedict XVI's fifth anniversary as leader of the Roman Catholic Church. The indictment of his pontificate printed in the Times would have us believe that the occasion was marked by scowls and howls, but from St. Peter's Square, things looked quite different. The festivities got a running start in Malta, where the Pope was greeted by throngs lining the streets to show their support and appreciation. Archbishop Paul Cremona of Valetta welcomed the pope with the ...
Which Leaders Rock Our World? Drumroll, Please ...
By David Knowles - AOL News(April 23) -- President Barack Obama is still the world's most respected leader, according to a new six-country poll. Released today by France 24 and Radio France Internationale, the Harris Interactive Poll asked 6,135 adults between the ages of 16 and 64 who live in the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Germany or Spain to name their favorite world leaders. Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed chose Obama, which is one percentage point higher than when Harris Interactive asked the same question in November. Getty Images President Obama and the Dalai Lama rank at the top of a new ...
Pope Sued in Wisconsin Clergy Sex Abuse Case
By Lisa Holewa - AOL NewsMILWAUKEE (April 22) -- A man who says he was molested by a priest while a student at a Catholic school for the deaf filed a federal lawsuit today against Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican and senior church officials, saying the Vatican knew the priest was a pedophile and could have stopped the sexual abuse. The plaintiff was identified only as John Doe 16, an Illinois man who said he was sexually abused by the Rev. Lawrence Murphy at St. John's School for the Deaf in a suburb of Milwaukee. The lawsuit asks that the Vatican be forced to release secret files with the names of clergy sex abusers ...
Debate: 4 Things the Pope Needs to Do
By not in system - AOL News(April 20) -- My entry for the topic "pedophilia" in the 2007 Encyclopedia of Catholicism states: "Nothing has damaged the Catholic Church at the turn of the millennium more than the pedophile scandal. Many observers remain perplexed by the Vatican's continuing obtuseness toward the seriousness of the scandal." Unabated, the damage continues and the perplexity remains. And instead of addressing the problem, its leaders in the Vatican's inner sanctum offer lame explanations and excuses. _____________________ OPPOSING VIEWThere is no organization in the world that has admitted its mistakes, ...
Pope's Exit Strategy on Clergy Sex Scandal: Prayerful and Quiet
By David Gibson - Politics DailyVATICAN CITY -- Monday was an official holiday in the Vatican, with the city state's regular employees (there are about 4,600 of them) getting a day off and a small bonus to mark the five years since their boss, Benedict XVI, was elected pope. Benedict himself was taking it easy as well, enjoying a low-key luncheon with 46 cardinals and resting after his emotional 24-hour visit to Malta the day before, a visit that included a brief but intense closed-door meeting with eight men who as children had been sexually abused by priests at their orphanage. At the lunch in the Vatican, the embattled ...
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