SAT, SEPT 21 -- Father Fessio, S.J. observed that while sexual abuse is an abomination, the most damaging aspect of the current Catholic crisis was, in his view, spiritual abuse, which he defined as the widespread failure by American Catholic Church leaders to teach and defend Catholic truth. It is a crisis that has many facets. "What we are seeing today is a crisis in fidelity to Catholic truth: in accepting that truth on the part of the faithful and the priests, and on enforcing and defending that truth on the part of Bishops."

FRI, SEPT 20 -- Canadian scandal: pro-abortion speakers highlight Catholic events. [September 19, 2002 (LSN.ca)] - The fact that pro-abortion Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark endorsed legal marriage privileges for homosexuals one day before giving the keynote address at the Red Mass Dinner is par for the course in scandal-ridden Canada.

SAT, SEPT 7 -- A constructive critique: The Church needs a book like Goodbye, Good Men. But it needs that book to be unassailable. (Crisis, September 2, 2002)

FRI, SEPT 6 -- Detroit's Cardinal Maida Pressured to intervene after pastor defended pro-abortion candidate / parishioner (Jim Burns, CNSNews.com, September 03, 2002) -- Pro-lifers in a Detroit suburb Tuesday increased the pressure on the region's Roman Catholic leader to repudiate the pro-abortion views of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jennifer Granholm.
     A letter, requesting a condemnation of Granholm's views, was delivered to the residence of Cardinal Adam Maida, nearly a month after Rev. Doc Ortman, the associate pastor of the church where Granholm worships, defended the candidate's political views in a letter published in the church bulletin.
     Nancy Restuccia of Canton, another Detroit suburb, led a protest Saturday (August 31) at Maida's residence and joined other pro-life activists in delivering the letter to the cardinal Tuesday. Restuccia said her group decided to make a public request because e-mails, other mail and phone calls to the cardinal were not returned.
     "We delivered a letter this morning (Tuesday) that basically contained a request. This is not a demand," she said. "We are obedient Catholics and he is our leader in the faith. This is not a demand because the church is not a democracy. We did this to publicly reiterate the church's teaching." Full article.

Boston Globe Op-ed (9-6-2002) by John Mallon on "Voice of the Faithful": "The recent scandals in the Catholic Church have created a free-for-all for those who wish to vent against the church. They employ cliches over facts and agendas over genuine healing. It is one thing to criticize the bishops' handling of this affair, but it is another to continually bash teachings that Catholics believe come to us from Christ."

FRI, AUG 30 -- A Roman Catholic church in Alberta, Canada refuses to marry a couple because the bride-to-be works for Planned Parenthood! The wedding was 29 days away at St. Patrick’s parish. Then a story was published in the local paper reporting that the bride-to-be is a coordinator of volunteers at the local Planned Parenthood. That prompted a call from the parish to inform the bride that her livelihood is incompatible with the Sacrament of Matrimony.
     This resulted in the usual whining from the usual suspects like Frances Kissling, complaining that the bride’s rights were being violated. Amazingly, people are very quick to claim rights vis a vis God and His Church, but are quite indignant regarding any reciprocal responsibility. The bride-to-be offered the following nuance: "I’m not pro-abortion, I’m pro-choice."
     Our hat is off to the alert and vigilant pastor who acted with all-too-rare fortitude and fidelity. He has also banned the woman from receiving Communion, and from a Church burial!  -- Toronto Star, Aug. 27.

WED, AUG 20 -- Priest defends "pro-choice" politician (CWNews.com, 8/16/2002) -- Michigan gubernatorial candidate and Our Lady of Good Counsel (OLGC) parish member Jennifer Granholm has caused an uproar in her church after her parish priest defended her "pro-choice" views in a Sunday bulletin. After Granholm was permitted to leaflet parishioners, Father Doc Ortman, associate pastor at OLGC, responded to parishioners' concerns: "The concern has come from a mistaken notion that being pro-choice is equal to being pro-abortion. However, choice is part of the very foundation of our Catholic Christian Community," said Father Ortman (!!). Someone should remind Fr. Ortman that "choice" is also foundational to Hell. National Catholic Register article.

Heresy from Bishops' committee: Jews need not be converted; 
USCCB document.

"The future holds little promise for those who still look to the embattled cardinal (Law) for moral leadership" (Rod Dreher, National Review Online, Aug. 15).

TUE, AUG 13 -- Robert Sungenis (Catholic Apologetics International) answers Deal Hudson (Crisis magazine) on his "Ten myths of priestly pedophilia."

THU, AUG 8 -- Actual text of letter: The lay editors of Crisis magazine have released the full text of a dramatic letter in which a group of US bishops propose a Plenary Council for the Church in America, in order to deal with the clergy abuse scandal.

FRI, AUG 2 -- Crisis magazine editor Deal Hudson has e-mailed an article discussing a letter from eight U.S. bishops calling for a plenary session of the U.S. bishops to correct conditions that lead to the clergy abuse crisis.

THU, AUG 1 -- Mr. “Catholic-American” politician
What are the Catholic bishops thinking? By Kathryn Jean Lopez / National Review -- Last week the Catholic bishops' conference announced the names of the members of their lay "National Review Board" dealing with the scandals. [S]ome eyebrows were raised when the bishops announced last month after their Dallas conference that Robert Bennett, Clinton's impeachment lawyer, would be on it. But it has gotten worse: Why is Leon Panetta on their panel? We all know he was a Clintonite, chief of staff to the man himself, earnest defender of the president who held America hostage to his selfish ways. We also know he's got a solid record of supporting abortion while in Congress. He co-sponsored the Freedom of Choice Act in 1990. While in the White House, he had the honor of defending the president's opposition to a ban on partial-birth abortion.

SAT, JUL 27 -- Boston's Cardinal Law, at World Youth Day, defended Church teaching on chastity, male-only ordination, Transubstantiation, and homosexuality.
     "Gays" didn't like the cardinal's affirmation of heterosexual married love and his admonition to not even be present at a homosexual "wedding": ``It seems to me the Catholic church should be celebrating the love of two people,'' Chuck Provancher, president of Dignity/Boston, said. ``Now the cardinal is saying that somehow that is wrong?'' (Boston Herald). Yes, he is, Chuck.

Father Groeschel interviewed on scandals (National Catholic Register, July 14-20)

THU, JUL 25 -- VATICAN CITY -- Seven women, under threat of excommunication by the Vatican if they don't repent for calling themselves priests, have asked for more time and say they want to have dialogue with a top cardinal. Earlier this month, the Vatican's guardian of orthodoxy, Joseph Ratzinger, a German cardinal, set a July 22 deadline for women to acknowledge they erred in being "ordained" priests by Romulo Braschi, an Argentine who calls himself an archbishop but who is branded by the Vatican as the founder of a schismatic community.

TUE, JUL 9 -- Some direction on clergy sex abuse cases, by a saint, before our age of "tolerance"!

MON, JUL 8 -- Crusaders or Opportunists? (Insight on the News, July 8) -- Two of the most active lawyers square off in separate interviews on the issue of sexual abuse lawsuits targeting the Church.

FRI, JUN 27 -- "The Elephant in the Sacristy" by Mary Eberstadt -- The Weekly Standard, June 17, 2002. "Beneath the scandals now consuming the Catholic church is a cluster of facts too enormous to ignore." 

A critique of the book Goodbye! Good Men by Michael S. Rose, which argues that the situation in the seminaries is no longer as dire as Rose describes; critique by Rev. Robert J. Johansen in the May 2002 issue of Culture Wars magazine. Rebuttals by Michael S. Rose and two others.

PRO-ABORTION CANDIDATE BANNED IN CORPUS CHRISTI
AUSTIN — Bishop Edmond Carmody, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Corpus Christi, Texas has banned Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez from speaking at church facilities, due to his pro-abortion position.  Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, John Sharp is also banned because for the same reason. 
    Sanchez was questioned about about the correctness of the Church's pro-life position at a luncheon last week. In reply, Sanchez said, "That's a very difficult question." He added, "But I think the only thing that is really important to me is how I think about abortion. I consider myself a devout Catholic. I go to Mass and communion a couple of times a week. I don't feel I'm wrong in my position."
    John Sharp, who once voted pro-life,  issued the now-formulaic statement Monday: "I am absolutely opposed to abortion, but unlike the people who wrote the Republican platform, I do not believe in using government to make other people adopt my moral position." 
    The pastoral guidelines of the Corpus Christi diocese, in effect since 1999, forbid Catholics who declare themselves in support of abortion to hold Church positions or speak at any Catholic institutions in the region.
    Unfortunately, there is no such ban in the Austin diocese, according to spokesman Helen Osman. Bill Ryan, spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he knows of no widespread enactment of such bans. Source: AP in Austin American-Statesman,

THU, JUN 20 -- Father Richard Neuhaus reflects on the scandal in the June/July First Things.

Joe Fitzgerald brings some balance to scandal story -- Boston Herald, Wed., June 19.

National Review's Rod Dreher on Archbishop Weakland and the bishops' Dallas meeting:

"For some conservative Catholics, the defining moment in the bishops' Dallas conference came when Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., proposed that the bishops commission a study of the role, if any, theological dissent and clerical homosexuality has played in bringing about this scandal."

THU, JUN 13 -- Rome: "No crisis in America"!!  Report by Crisis editor Deal Hudson.

The radical, anything-goes philosophy of famed "sexologist" Alfred Kinsey, a reputed pedophile, has triumphed over traditional teaching in Catholic institutions across the U.S., creating a flourishing environment for priests who abuse teens and children.

FRI, JUN 7 -- Joseph Sobran for the defense: "The anti-Catholic mentality defies logic. Today it blames the Church for the homosexual predators who have seduced boys in direct violation of the most basic Catholic teachings; the orthodox Catholic press, notably The Wanderer, has been complaining about these appalling betrayals long before the secular press picked up the story, distorting it with the insinuation that the Church somehow approves of the very perversions she has always condemned. (It’s usually the secular press itself that approves of them!)"

MON, JUN 3 -- An article by Dale O'Leary on some dissenters who are riding the wave of the abuse scandals. 

Family Research Council Debunks Pedophilia Myth:
There's no doubt that children have become the last sexual frontier.  FRC's newest report, "Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse" by Dr. Tim Dailey, reveals that there is a body of evidence indicating a link between homosexuality and pedophilia.  This publication is an important tool for those entrusted with protecting our nation's children.  For example, statistics show that disproportionate numbers of homosexual men (between 1 and 3 percent of the population) commit one-third or more of the cases of child sexual molestation.  Look up these and other important findings in Dr. Dailey's paper:

* Pedophiles are invariably males: Almost all sex crimes against children are committed by men.

* Significant numbers of victims are males: Up to one-third of all sex crimes against children are committed against boys.

* The 10 percent fallacy: Studies indicate that, contrary to the inaccurate but widely accepted claims of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, homosexuals comprise between 1 to 3 percent of the population.

* Some homosexual activists defend the historic connection between homosexuality and pedophilia: Such activists consider the defense of "boy-lovers" to be a legitimate gay rights issue.

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