Kenyan bishop to sue RTE over 'Mission to Prey'

A THIRD cleric is taking legal action against RTE claiming serious defamation as the fallout from the 'Mission to Prey' programme continues.

The Irish Independent has learned that papers were lodged earlier this week at the High Court by Kenyan Bishop Philip Sulumeti. 

It was the first step in a defamation case which, if successful, will add to the seven-figure bill which RTE -- and the taxpayer -- is already facing as a result of the one-hour 'Prime Time Investigates' programme.

The bishop is seeking damages from the state broadcaster as a result of his inclusion and portrayal in the programme.

It is understood that he will argue that his good name was damaged by including his reference supporting Fr Kevin Reynolds' character alongside statements of Fr Reynolds' supposed guilt.

The programme falsely accused Fr Reynolds of raping a woman and fathering her daughter -- sparking a series of events that led to a damning report from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and the resignation of reporter Aoife Kavanagh. 

Now Bishop Sulumeti, a Kenyan native who was ordained a priest in 1966, is taking the new case. It comes as RTE bosses are to appear before the Dail Communications Committee today for a grilling.

The false claims against Fr Reynolds led to a huge libel settlement, believed to be in the region of €1m, and an RTE apology.

A second case -- involving allegations a former archbishop had sex with a 14-year-old girl - is set to come before the High Court in November.

The former Archbishop of Benin, Tipperary-born Richard Burke, is claiming that allegations he had sex with an underage girl in Nigeria are false.

Fr Burke claims he was defamed by allegations he had sex with Dolores Atwood when she was 14. 

He admits he had a sexual relationship with her but claimed it began when she was an adult and it was consensual.

Now married with a family in Canada, she said she felt "angry" when she realised she had been abused.

Now the third case is being prepared, focusing on how Bishop Sulumeti was portrayed in the four-minute 40-second segment, which focused on Fr Reynolds. 

Dr Sulumeti, who is Bishop of Kakamega -- about 400km from the capital Nairobi -- became involved in the programme after Fr Reynolds provided a reference that the bishop had given him in 2003 at the end of his time working in Kenya.

The 74-year-old said the priest, who is now based in Ahascragh, Co Galway, was "above suspicion". 

The statement said: "Fr Kevin has never been involved in any kind of abuse, controversy whatsoever. . . His relationships with young people and those of the opposite sex are proper, respectful and above suspicion."

But the BAI noted that this was summarised by producer Brian Pairceir as "most peculiar . . . it says Fr Reynolds is not a sexual predator".

This was given as an example of the disastrous "groupthink" mentality which made the production team firmly believe they were correct about the paternity allegation.

A portion of the bishop's statement was ultimately included in the programme alongside allegations made by Ms Kavanagh about Fr Reynolds' alleged crimes.

Confrontation

More than 500,000 people watched the programme, which showed Ms Kavanagh confronting Fr Reynolds to falsely accuse him of sexually abusing a teenage girl in Kenya in 1982 and fathering a child by the woman before abandoning them both. 

Allegations were also made to the 'Prime Time' team that Bishop Sulumeti, acting as an intermediary for Fr Reynolds, had been paying the school fees for his alleged daughter, Sheila. 

While Ms Kavanagh did not name the individual in the programme who was allegedly paying Sheila's school fees, the BAI report shows she asked the bishop about the payments. 

"Ms Kavanagh asked Bishop Sulumeti's office for a response on the allegations about payment of school fees; this was denied and a character reference for Fr Reynolds provided," the report states. 

The family of another cleric featured in the programme had asked Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte to investigate allegations of child sex abuse, which they say are false. 

Br Gerard Dillon, originally from Clarecastle, Co Clare, died in South Africa in 2005.

Treblinka survivor donates Pope sculpture to Poland

Polish-born Israeli artist Samuel Willenberg, a Holocaust survivor, has donated his sculpture of Pope John Paul II to Warsaw.

 

The eighty-nine-year-old artist was visiting Warsaw with his wife for the screening of a documentary about his war-time experiences.

Willenberg told the Catholic Information Agency that even though he is an atheist, having lost his faith while in the Nazi German extermination camp of Treblinka, the death of Pope John Paul II was for him like the loss of a family member.

The artist said he hoped that the sculpture would be installed in front of St Augustine’s Church on the territory of the former Jewish Ghetto.

The sculpture shows the Polish pontiff with his eyes set on the Torah and the tablet of the Ten Commandments.

“I had the highest respect for the Polish Pope and I made the sculpture as a gesture from my heart,” the artist said.

“To see it in front of a church in what once was the Jewish Ghetto would be a beautiful crowning moment of my life’, he said.

Samuel Willenberg was born in Częstochowa in 1923.

In 1942, in spite of possessing false documents identifying him as an Aryan, he was arrested and sent to Treblinka.

Upon arriving at the camp, he claimed to be a brick mason and thus succeeded in avoiding death in a gas chamber.

He participated in a prisoners' revolt in August of 1943, during which he was able to escape.

He later fought in the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupiers, receiving several military distinctions for his valour.

In 1950 he left Poland for Israel with his family. There he worked for many years in the Ministry of Land Development.

Upon retiring, he enrolled in the People's University, where he studied painting, sculpture and art history.

In 1994 he was once again granted Polish citizenship.

His book Revolt in Treblinka, published in 1986 in Hebrew, has been translated into many languages, including Polish.

The documentary Just the Two of Us, by Israeli film-maker Tzipi Baider, tells the story of Willenberg and Kalman Taigman, the last living survivors of the revolt in the Treblinka extermination camp.

The film shows them revisiting the place from which they fled 68 years ago. 

Samuel Willenberg lost his two sisters in Treblinka, while Kalman Taigman lost his mother there.

 

The film was included in the programme of the ‘Jewish Motifs’ Festival recently held in Warsaw.

Society shouldn’t be afraid to talk about death – Archbishop

The Archbishop of York has called for society to be more open in speaking about death and the end of life.

Writing in The Telegraph at the start of Dying Matters awareness week, Dr John Sentamu said the reluctance to talk about death meant that people were losing sight of the fact that “a good death is also part of a good life”.

“To die with dignity has become inextricably associated with a campaign for ‘assisted dying’, but for me, dignity is actually about valuing life – life, as Jesus demonstrated, ‘in all its fullness’,” he said.

“In a society where people are living longer and medical science is enabling us to add more years to our span of life, we should not have to live in fear – we should celebrate and live life to the full. But in evading one of the most important discussions of our lives, we lose sight of the fact that a good death is also part of a good life.”

The Archbishop called for more open discussion about the way society deals with dying, saying that he wanted to ensure “the fears and taboos surrounding death are challenged”.

The Dying Matters week has been organised by the Dying Matters Coalition to encourage discussion about death, dying and bereavement.

The Church of England, hospices and care professionals are among the coalition’s 16,000 members.

The Archbishop said that death was “too often shut away” on a hospital ward or within a care home, rather than in a familiar place such as home.

He warned that the “out of sight” nature of death today meant that society has “developed a culture that is increasingly lost for words when approaching the subject of dying”.

He continued: “We are collectively far too prone to medicalise and institutionalise dying, rather than accepting it into our homes and communities, where most of us would choose to die. We also fail to value end-of-life care appropriately.”

The Archbishop said there was a need for proper funding in order to ensure decent care for people in old age and at the end of life.

He said he would like to see clear proposals from the Government in response to the Dilnot Commission, which called for a £35,000-cap on the amount an individual would have to pay towards their own care costs during their lifetime.

He also contended that support for alternatives to assisted dying should not be construed as being uncaring or out of touch with the suffering of families.

“We fail to value end-of-life care properly.”

 

He continued: “We all have to die, but we can go some way towards dying with dignity if we first articulate our choices, such as the place where we want to die, the kind of spiritual support we may want, how we wish to be cared for and what our funeral plans may be.”

Leaked SSPX letters reveal internal discord over Vatican negotiations

Recently leaked documents reveal the correspondence between four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X, which show disagreement over reconciliation efforts with the Vatican.  

The breakaway society gave its assent on April 13 to a statement of doctrinal belief presented to it by the Holy See but with some suggested amendments to the text.

It will now be for Pope Benedict XVI to decide whether the traditionalist group's response is sufficient to permit them back into full communion with the Catholic Church. 

Newly leaked correspondence from early April, however, shows discord among the bishops shortly before the superior of the society, Bernard Fellay, delivered his response Vatican's doctrinal Preamble which was issued to the group in 2011.

The documents consist of a first letter sent by three bishops – including Richard Williamson, known for his downplaying of the Holocaust – to Fellay dated April 7. 

The group claims that a “doctrinal agreement with present-day Rome is impossible,” and that they therefore formally oppose “a practical agreement” with the Church.

Addressing the stance of some of the society's top leaders, who are more favorable to an agreement with the Holy See, the bishops said they are “leading the Society to the point of no return, to an irreversible profound division.”

In a subsequent letter responding to the group, Fellay condemned “the lack of supernatural vision and of realism” of those criticizing him.

After affirming that Benedict XVI is the legitimate Pope and saying that that God speaks through the pontiff's words, Fellay asked, “If he expresses legitimate will towards us, which is good, and that is not against God’s commandments, do we have the right to ignore or reject that extended hand?”

“The Pope has told us that the concern for fixing our situation for the good of the Church was at the heart of his Pontificate, and likewise that he was aware that for him and for us it would have been easier to maintain the status quo.”

Fellay said that the society in general “would much prefer the status quo for now, but it is obvious that Rome no longer accepts that.” 

“There is a change in the attitude of the Church, backed by the gestures and the acts of Benedict XVI towards Tradition,” he added.

In his letter, Fellay expressed regret that he did not have the support and advice of the bishops who wrote him “in order to endure such a delicate time of our history.”

The Society has had a strained relationship with the Vatican since its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebrve, consecrated four bishops against the orders of Pope John Paul II in 1988.

Archbishop Lefebrve founded the Society in 1970 as a response to what he described as errors that had crept into the Catholic Church following the Second Vatican Council.

In 2009, Pope Benedict remitted the excommunications of the Society’s bishops and set talks in motion aimed at restoring “full communion.” 

The Pope said at the time that to achieve full communion the members of the Society would have to show “true recognition of the Magisterium and the authority of the Pope and of the Second Vatican Council.”

Society headquarters reacted to the leaking of the documents in May 11 statement, calling the move a “grave sin.”

The full text of the letters can be found at:

http://www.riposte-catholique.fr/summorum-pontificum-blog/documents-summorum/lettre-de-mgr-fellay-aux-eveques-de-la-fraternite-saint-pie-x#.T62R3J_SpEy

New bishop appointed to lead troubled Toowoomba diocese

Pope Benedict XVI has named Monsignor Robert McGuckin to lead the Diocese of Toowoomba, Australia – one year after the previous bishop was removed for dissenting from Catholic teaching and practice. 

“I’m honored and humbled to be appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as Bishop of Toowoomba,” said Msgr. McGuckin, who is presently the vicar general of the Parramatta diocese.

“I would hope to build upon the good work of my predecessors and look forward to working with the clergy, religious and everyone in the diocese. I ask for your prayers as together we strive to fulfill the mission entrusted us in building up the Kingdom of God,” he said on May 14.

In May 2011, Pope Benedict removed Bishop William Morris from his post in Toowoomba after the failure of years of negotiations aimed at correcting the bishop’s abuses of Church doctrine, governance and liturgy.

Msgr. McGuckin was born in in the Marrickville suburb of Sydney in 1944 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1973. 

An expert in canon law, he has served as a lecturer, judge and president of the Canon Law Society of Australia and New Zealand. He has also ministered in numerous parishes. 

In 2011 he was named a Prelate of Honor by Pope Benedict XVI. In his spare time, Msgr. McGuckin is an avid fisherman.

Bishop Brian Finnigan, Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Toowoomba, said that Msgr. McGukin’s “ministry over the years in Australia and overseas has given him deep insight into the beauty and mystery of human relationships and the struggles which many individuals endure in their journey of life.” 

“He is well equipped to lead people to a deeper liturgical and spiritual life. He has had years of involvement in the daily life of parishes.”

Bishop Morris’s dismissal after 18 years at the helm of the diocese was precipitated by comments he made in a 2006 pastoral letter. 

In it, he called for the ordination of women and married male priests, as well as suggesting that Protestant ministers could offer Mass to compensate for the dearth of priests in Toowoomba. 

During his 18 years, the diocese had produced only one new priestly vocation.

The incident provoked the Vatican to order an investigation led by the respected Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia.

Critics of Bishop Morris said the problems in Toowoomba went far beyond the bishop’s public disagreement with Catholic doctrine on the priesthood.

They claimed that Bishop Morris – who preferred a shirt and tie to a priestly collar and bishops’ attire – did much to undermine Catholic identity and teachings during his term of office.

Among the criticisms leveled were “communion services” being co-celebrated by lay people and priests and the widespread use of communal “general absolution” rites as an alternative to personal confession in the diocese.

Following Bishop Morris’ departure in May 2011, a vocal group of both clergy and laity in Toowoomba launched a campaign to support him and advance their agenda. 

Despite such a legacy, Bishop Finnigan said he was “confident that the priests, religious and lay faithful” of Toowoomba “will give a warm welcome to Msgr. McGuckin so that his gifts and skills can flourish.”

The Diocese of Toowoomba, which is situated to the west of Brisbane, spans more than 188,000 square miles and has a Catholic population of roughly 77,400, served by 35 parishes.

Msgr. McGuckin’s ordination will take place at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Toowoomba on July 11, the Feast of St. Benedict.

US clinches World Cup for seminarians

Seminarians from the Pontifical North American College in Rome have won the clerical equivalent of soccer’s World Cup for the first time ever.
 
“We are very happy. We did everything we could, and by the grace of God we got to this final game and we were able to play well,” said seminarian and team captain Nick Nelson in a May 12 interview with CNA, just moments after lifting the 2012 Clericus Cup. 

The U.S. team beat the undefeated (3-0) Pontifical Gregorian University team thanks to one goal from Scottie Gratton and two from John Gibson.

“I thought we played really well,” Gibson said, right after the final whistle was blown. “We started out a little bit flustered with the nerves a bits. But we calmed down, we played our game, we just played simple and smart football. We worked really hard, so I think we played well.”

Now in its sixth year, the Clericus Cup in the annual soccer tournament for the pontifical seminaries and universities in Rome. The United States team goes by the name of the North American Martyrs. Despite two runner-up finishes in previous years, the Martyrs had never before won the title – until Saturday. 

“We have trained twice a week, first semester and second semester,” said Nelson, who was a member of the runner-up squad in 2010. 

“So, the guys give a lot and sacrifice a lot for the team, in order to get this far. We are definitely very grateful to God and proud of what we were able to do.”

Saturday’s final took place on the Knights of Columbus playing fields, which are located behind the Vatican and in the shadow of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica.

On the coaching bench for the United States team was the seminary rector, Monsignor James Checchio, along with Cardinal George Pell of Sydney. He was there to watch one of his own seminarians, Lewi Barakat, who impressed the crowd by providing assists for all three goals.

“We have a great team, we have great men, they have practiced hard and worked hard,” said Msgr. Checchio, “so, we are really proud of them.”

“They’re making a really good contribution to the Church now, and even more in the future. I have no doubt.”

As the referee blew the final whistle of the match, the U.S. team ran to greet their numerous and noisy fans, many of whom were dressed in costumes for the occasion.

“I think that God gives us a gift to work on being able to praise him through sport and through our bodies,” Gibson remarked.

“We work hard at being good Christians on the field but also trying to win, so it’s going to be a great opportunity to praise God for this win.”

Austria's pastoral Cardinal Schonborn works to hold his church together

When discontented Austrian priests mark the first anniversary of their "Call to Disobedience" in June, it will highlight the difficulties facing Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna in holding his disparate Catholic community together.

In the nearly 17 years since Cardinal Schonborn became the spiritual leader of the Vienna Archdiocese, he has had to face organized dissent from clergy and laity seeking several church reforms including admitting women to the priesthood. Both supporters and critics agree the cardinal has responded in a pastoral spirit.

"There's no doubt he's under strong pressure," said Herman Bahr, treasurer of Austria's Laity Initiative launched in 2009 as a "loyal opposition."
 

"He's also a kind and generous man, who's in too strong a position to be pulled by either side. Although he can't tolerate open defiance, he clearly favors change himself," Bahr said.

Bahr's comments came in reaction to an April 5 Holy Thursday homily by Pope Benedict criticizing — without specifying the European country — a group of priests who issued a call to disobey certain aspects of church teaching.

In Austria, there's little doubt that the pope was referring to the "Initiative of Parish Priests."

In an April 19 interview with Catholic News Service, Paul Wuthe, spokesman for the Austrian bishops' conference, predicted the dissenting priests would modify their stance after the pope's intervention.

However, Father Hans Bendorp, a representative for the priests' initiative, denied there would be any change in their stand. He said the priests planned to request an audience with the pope in response to the homily.

"We're taking responsibility for renewal in the church," Father Hans Bendorp said.

"Although our bishops can be sympathetic, they always give stereotypical answers and insist the issues we're talking about can only be decided by the whole church," he added.

Such polarization has posed challenges for the 67-year-old cardinal, who studied at Regensburg, Germany, under then Father Joseph Ratzinger after joining the Dominican order in 1963. Cardinal Schonborn was widely viewed as a papal candidate after Pope John Paul II's death in 2005.

Cardinal Schonborn's career looked impressive when he succeeded Cardinal Hans Herman Groer in September 1995 following his resignation amid allegations of sexual abuse.

Appointed professor of dogmatics at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland in 1975, he joined the Vatican's International Theological Commission five years later. He served as editorial secretary for the Catechism of the Catholic Church beginning in 1987. He belongs to several Vatican congregations and councils today and he also sits on the recently created Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization.

The Austrian prelate, born the second of four children into a noble family, has not shied away from controversy either.

In 1996, he said in an interview on Austrian television that a person with AIDS might use a condom as a "lesser evil," and in 2009 he criticized the pope's lifting of an excommunication order on Holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X.

In January 2010, the cardinal apologized to a bishop in Bosnia-Herzegovina after preaching at the shrine of Medjugorje without his knowledge. 

Two months later his spokesman issued a clarification after he called for priestly celibacy to be re-examined in the light of recent abuse scandals.

That element of critical loyalty may have helped Cardinal Schonborn respond to demands for change at home, which have surfaced repeatedly since 1995, with the most recent being the priests' initiative urging women clergy, "priestless eucharistic liturgies" and Communion for non-Catholics and remarried divorcees.

In a November 2011 statement, the Austrian bishops said the summons to disobedience had "triggered alarm and sadness," and called on the priests to avoid demands which "contradict the church's identity and seriously risk its unity." 

But some experts say the demands reflect anxieties about steadily falling numbers in the church, which traditionally makes up 78 percent of Austria's population of 8.1 million.

This might explain why the pope's Holy Thursday homily, though critical of the group for "disregarding definitive decisions of the Church's magisterium," appeared conciliatory in tone.

"We would like to believe the authors of this summons are motivated by concern for the church, that they are convinced the slow pace of institutions has to be overcome by drastic measures," Pope Benedict said.

"But is disobedience really a way to do this? Do we sense here anything of that configuration to Christ which is the precondition for all true renewal?" he added.

In a website statement, the priests initiative said it could not "in good conscience" withdraw its call, adding that "disobedience to various existing strict church rules and laws" had "for years been part of our life and work as priests."

"We are, however, aware that 'disobedience' can be understood as an offensive word," noted the group, which claimed 405 priests, nearly a tenth of Austria's 4,200 clergy, and 73 deacons as members by mid-April.

"Therefore we are willing to explain that we do not mean general disobedience for opposition's sake, but the graduated obedience where we first owe obedience to God, then to our conscience, and lastly also to church order."

Jesuit Father Paul Zulehner, one Austria's leading social scientists, cited survey evidence that two-thirds of Austrian priests and lay Catholics now "broadly support" the priests' initiative.

He also defended Cardinal Schonborn's readiness to talk with the group and pastoral approach to Catholics seeking to change church doctrine.

"Many of the best young and engaged priests are backing this campaign. Although there's no Martin Luther-threatening-schism here, they're showing a new way to reform the church by switching from words to actions," Father Zulehner told CNS.

"But the cardinal points out that, on many issues, we're all actually saying the same things. The themes and issues highlighted by the priests' initiative are open, and we can and should be talking about them," he said.

Like other priests, Father Zulehner was struck when Cardinal Schonborn overruled one of his parish rectors and approved the March 18 election of a 26-year-old practicing gay Catholic to a parish council in Stutzenhofen.

Wuthe, the Austrian bishops' spokesman, agreed that the vast majority of Austrian Catholics had reacted positively to the unusual gesture, which had "explained the church's teaching" but also highlighted "respect for homosexuals in the church."

"The cardinal said he'd asked himself what Jesus Christ would have decided in this situation," Wuthe said. "He'd concluded this person was in the right place, and was truly trying to live as a Christian according to the Gospel in his own circumstances."

It was, Wuthe explained, a measure of the cardinal's style, as well as of his capacity to follow his judgment, sometimes in unexpected directions.

Italians find mystery bones in tomb linked to Vatican scandal

Enrico De Pedis, the leader of a murderous gang known as the Banda della Magliana, was gunned down aged just 38, by members of his own crew. 

Detectives investigating the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, 15, in 1983, believe De Pedis is linked to her kidnap.

The body of the Vatican employee’s daughter has never been found.

Last month the diocese of Rome, on orders from the Vatican, granted investigators permission to open up the tomb in the Sant’Apollinare basilica close to Piazza Navona in the centre of Rome.

Their decision was the result of an anonymous call to a missing person’s programme on Italian television which said the riddle of Orlandi’s kidnap would be solved ”if De Pedis tomb was opened”.

The church was ringed by police keeping back onlookers, as stonemasons arrived to perform their macabre task, accompanied by lawyers representing the De Pedis family and his widow.

A team of forensic scientists wearing overalls and masks was on hand as the tomb was opened with sources saying a ”foul stench” filled the air of the crypt, while outside a large crowd of onlookers gathered, mixing with priests from the next door college.

Officials said that De Pedis body was ”well preserved” and that he was recognised by detectives present. He was still dressed in a dark blue suit and black tie.

His body was inside the last of three coffins and the forensic team lifted his arm out of the casket to take fingerprints, which were a positive match.

But another mystery was revealed as a box of bones was found inside the tomb which officials said were ”not those of De Pedis” and were removed for examination.

Officials said that several boxes of bones were also recovered from elsewhere within the crypt which they explained could date from 200 or more years ago.

Despite his criminal past, it was said that church officials allowed De Pedis to be buried in one of the capital’s most notable churches because he had “repented while in jail and also done a lot of work for charity”, including large donations to the Catholic Church.

De Pedis, whose name on the the £12,000 tomb is spelt in diamonds, was gunned down in 1990 in Campo De Fiori, a central square that is a popular destination for tourists.

He and his gang controlled the lucrative drug market in Rome and were also rumoured to have a ”free hand” because of their links with police and Italian secret service agents.

The disappearance of Orlandi has produced few clues. After a mystery tip-off 12 years ago a skull was found in the confessional box of a Rome church and tests were carried out to see if it was Orlandi but they proved negative.

In 2008 Sabrina Minardi, De Pedis’s girlfriend at the time of Orlandi’s disappearance, sensationally claimed that the now dead American monsignor Paul Marcinkus, the controversial chief of the Vatican bank, was behind the kidnapping.

In the early 1980s, Monsignor Marcinkus used his status to avoid being questioned by police probing the collapse of a Banco Ambrosiano which the Vatican had invested heavily in.

The collapse was linked to the murder of Roberto Calvi, dubbed God’s Banker because of the Vatican links, whose body was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London in June 1982.

Emanuela Orlandi’s brother Pietro, who in the past has accused the Vatican of not co-operating fully with the police and prosecutors, was at the scene and said: “I never expected my sister’s remains to be found in the coffin. Personally I also doubt that the Magliana gang had anything to do with my sister’s disappearance. I just hope that with the opening of the tomb there is transparency and collaboration between the investigating authorities and the Vatican.”

Maurilio Prioreschi, a lawyer representing the De Pedis family, said: ”His wife Carla has told me that once this operation is over she wishes that her husband’s remains are cremated or buried elsewhere. We now hope that this matter is closed.”

Return of property not decisive for church, Prague archbishop says

The question of the return of property to churches is not and was not the decisive factor for the life of Catholic church in the Czech state, Prague Archbishop Cardinal Dominik Duka said Saturday.

The life story of Prague Archbishop Antonin Brus who was appointed to the post in the 16th century was a guarantee of this, Duka said.

The Prague archbishopric was renewed 450 years ago, after a 140-year pause caused by the Hussite war in the early 15th century.

"The story of Archbishop Antonin Brus is also the guarantee that the question of return of Church property has not been the decisive factor for the life of Catholic church in the Czech state," Duka said.

"A partial compensation and settlement of property affairs only occurred 100 years later, when the post of Prague archbishop was held by Cardinal Arnost Vojtech Harrach," Duka said in the pastoral letter published on the occasion of celebrations of the 450th anniversary of the renewed Prague archbishopric.

Under the government bill, churches should get back more than a half of the property worth about 75 billion crowns that was confiscated from them under the Czechoslovak communist regime and 59 billion crowns are to paid to them in compensation for the rest over a period of 30 years starting next year.

Simultaneously, the state will gradually cease to finance the churches. 

The transitional period is to last 17 years.

The left-wing opposition sharply criticises both sums. 

Public opinion polls have showed that a majority of Czechs are also against the proposed settlement.

Church of Ireland Synod blasted for 'homophobia' after vote on marriage

The churches have been branded “the last bastion of homophobia” following a Church of Ireland vote to back the traditional Christian view of marriage alone. 

The ruling General Synod voted to pass a controversial motion that “faithfulness within marriage is the only normative context for sexual intercourse”.

Gay rights campaigner Gerry Lynch, of Changing Attitudes Ireland and a member of St George’s Church in Belfast, said: “Nobody says that my love life is not ‘normative’ when the collection plate is passed round, or when I come in on a Saturday to get the church ready for Sunday, or spend time with distressed people who often turn up at a city centre church. The General Synod vote confirmed many gay people’s experience of the churches as the last bastion of homophobia.” 

Dr Paul Rowlandson, a parishioner from St Columb’s Cathedral in Londonderry, said the synod had “rushed to judgment on its gay members”.

“The vote will make the Church of Ireland a colder house for gay people like my daughter,” he said.

David McConnell, a Dublin member of the CoI, said the motion on sexuality had been passed with “unnecessary haste”.

“The General Synod’s decision to accept it in controversial circumstances has added to and not reduced the hurt and exclusion caused by the Church to its gay and lesbian members,” he said.

The vote in Dublin on Saturday came after days of complex procedural matters at the General Synod — three resolutions were withdrawn on Thursday and then redrafted, with an amendment, into one motion for debate.

The motion included a call by the Church for its members to show mutual understanding and respect — but the challenge of same-sex relationships is not going to diminish any time soon.

The synod also declared a willingness to increase awareness of the complexity of human sexuality, and agreed to put forward proposals to try to form a select committee on same-sex relationships this time next year.

A number of gay clergy, particularly in Northern Ireland, have spoken of their fear of making their sexual orientation known, and the marriage stance could cause division along North-South lines, as well as between liberals and conservatives.

No murder in the cathedral - just sex

Anglicans have a great capacity to agree to disagree agreeably and, hastening slowly, adapt.

NOT FOR the first time, Joe Joyce was right on the money in his choice of report for the From The Archives column in this newspaper last Saturday. 

He chose from the edition of May 12th, 1982, all of 30 years ago, when the Church of Ireland General Synod was wrestling with its conscience on another issue and procedure got in the way, so to speak.

Then, it was women priests. 

Now, it is gay priests. 

Back then there was suspicion on the part of unworthy souls that slow progress towards women’s ordination was not just a matter of procedure.

Similar thoughts crossed minds in Christ Church Cathedral when a point of order blocked a motion affirming the church’s traditional teaching on marriage, but particularly when the same motion was reintroduced, almost intacta, on Friday.

But those gay members of the church and their supporters who were disappointed at the outcome of the General Synod which has just ended can take consolation from that 1982 news report.

Where they see a setback, older heads will recognise another step on a road to change where the motto must always be a simple “hasten slowly”.

It is, of course, the Anglican way. It is how our Anglicans sustain their remarkable capacity to repeatedly do what so few others can do here in Ireland.

As Archbishop of Armagh Most Rev Alan Harper put in one of his many wise asides on Saturday, it is that capacity “to agree to disagree, agreeably”.

So those who had expected murder in the cathedral on either Thursday, Friday or Saturday, even on all three, were predictably disappointed. 

What they got instead was . . . sex!

It is such a preoccupation with the churches these days. 

As Bishop Paul Colton of Cork, Cloyne and Ross said on Saturday, in his 14 years as bishop he has not yet attended a meeting of bishops where sex was not discussed.

He regretted this, as there were so many other important things to be done, such as proclaiming the gospel, tending to the sick and dying, and teaching children.

Even his 83-year-old mother had noticed. 

“All you did in Cavan was chat, chat, chat about sex and now you’re going to Dublin to chat, chat, chat about sex. I wish ye’d get on with it,” she said.

Bishop Colton added, promptly, “With the work of the church, of course!”

Nor was everyone comfortable with all this sex. 

Archbishop of Dublin Dr Michael Jackson admitted to being “as squeamish as is any of you about using the two words ‘sexual intercourse’, particularly in addressing the General Synod.” 

In such a setting too. 

But “it had a legally defined meaning”, in the context, he said.

One of the more impassioned speeches against change of any sort where sexuality was 

concerned came from Rev Alison Calvin, rector of Killeshandra, Co Cavan. 

She spoke of the hurt and distress felt by ordinary church members by such talk. 

“They feel betrayed,” she said.

Yet, as she spoke, it was difficult not to wonder how such church members felt on the very first occasion they saw a woman like her with a Roman collar around her neck leading prayers in their church.

Traditional teaching on marriage endorsed

THE GENERAL Synod of the Church of Ireland has reaffirmed the church’s traditional teaching on marriage as “of one man with one woman”, while welcoming all people as members in a motion passed by two-to-one majority in Dublin on Saturday.

It also requested the standing committee to progress work on the issue of human sexuality and to bring proposals to next year’s synod for the formation of a select committee. It asked that it prepare terms of reference and include reporting procedures for that select committee.

The motion was proposed by Archbishop of Dublin Michael Jackson and the Bishop of Down and Dromore Harold Miller. It was supported by 81 clergy and 154 laity but opposed by 53 

clergy and 60 laity.

When the general vote had been taken, the church’s bishops then voted also, by standing. All but the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross Paul Colton and the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory Michael Burrows supported the motion.

The vote by the bishops was the sixth of the day and concluded proceedings which extended for 4½ hours, from approximately 10.30am until shortly after 3pm that afternoon.

Archbishop Jackson said that as bishops of the church they had the “firm and fervent desire of enabling members of our church to engage with what are some of the more complex, pressing and, to many, private aspects of contemporary life, understood from a sexual perspective.” The motion was “the next stage of engagement with one another around these issues”, he said.

Bishop Harold Miller said the motion had emerged “from the corporate thinking of the bishops” and was “all about creating a ‘safe place’ . . . for our ongoing conversation.”

Bishop Richard Clarke of Meath and Kildare recalled how he and Bishop Miller were on opposing sides at the 1998 Lambeth Conference in a resolution on sex, “but our relationship was never tainted, never damaged”.

He continued: “Friendships must never be broken on this . . . if Harold and I can do it, I think the rest of us can as well.”

Much discussion surrounded four proposed amendments to the main motion, all of which were defeated. Voting was by division, the first time this has been done at a General Synod since 1990 when the issue was women priests.

A form of the motion passed on Saturday had first been introduced at last Thursday’s session of the General Synod but was withdrawn by Synod president Archbishop Alan Harper, following a point of order. It was announced on Friday that the motion had been slightly modified and would be reintroduced with the debate and vote to take place on Saturday.

The motion emerged after a special two-day General Synod conference on human sexuality at the Slieve Russell hotel in Co Cavan on March 9th and 10th last.

It was called by the church’s bishops last October following disclosures the previous month that the Dean of Leighlin (Carlow), the Rev Tom Gordon, and his male partner of 20 years had entered a civil partnership last July.

Gay members of the Church of Ireland have reacted strongly against the General Synod decision. 

David McConnell of the church’s pro-gay Changing Attitude Ireland group said the motion had been presented with “unnecessary haste” and the decision to accept it “in controversial circumstances has added to, not reduced, the hurt and exclusion caused by the church to its gay and lesbian members”.

Gerry Lynch of the same group said that “the way the motion on sexuality was submitted and the vote itself confirmed many LGBT persons’ experience of the churches as the last bastion of homophobia”.

Pope Likely To Allow Breakaway SSPX to Rejoin Church

Pope Benedict XVI may reach a decision by the end of May to allow the ultraconservative Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) to rejoin the Catholic church.

At a meeting this past Wednesday, the four cardinals of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, which oversees Catholic Church doctrine, planned to agree a proposal for reuniting the society with the Catholic Church, and submitted it to the pope.

 

The Swiss-based SSPX, rejects some of the reforms made at the historic 1962 Second Vatican Council. 

It defied Rome in 1988 by illegally consecrating four bishops, which led to their excommunication by the late Pope John Paul.

The Vatican said last month that it had received an answer SSPX to the Holy See's ultimatum that the group clarify its doctrinal position or risk a painful break with Rome. 

"The response is encouraging, it is a step forward," said Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi.

Radio Vatican recently cited Lombardi as saying the pope's top priority this year is "to successfully conclude the dialogue with the Priest Brotherhood Pius X and thereby to overcome a painful rift."

Dispute in SSPX Over Whether to Return

 

However, a fierce row has broken out among the four bishops of SSPX over the planned agreement. 

British bishop Richard Williamson in particular, who caused outrage in 2009 by denying the scale of the Holocaust, has taken an uncompromising stance towards the Vatican and wants to prevent SSPX from returning to the Vatican's fold. 

But the majority of SSPX supports the policy for its head, or superior general, Bishop Bernard Fellay, who has just written a letter urging Williamson and all SSPX bishops to end their isolation, to accept the pope's offer, and to abandon a stance that was splitting the Church. 

"You cannot know how much your attitude over the last few months -- quite different for each of you -- has been hard for us," wrote Fellay in the letter, addressing the bishops.

 He added that "for a certain time now, you have been trying -- each one of you in his own way -- to impose on him (the superior general) your point of view, even in the form of threats, and even in public."

"This dialectic between the truth and the faith on the one side and authority on the other is contrary to the spirit of the priesthood. He might at least have hoped that you were trying to understand the arguments driving him to act as he has acted these last few years in accordance with the will of divine Providence."

Eilis O'Hanlon: Adams is in no position to lecture anyone on abuse

THERE are some subjects on which Gerry Adams would score highly on Mastermind. 

The activities of the Belfast Brigade in the 1970s, for example.

Then there are topics, such as economics, about which he is manifestly less knowledgeable. 

It's worth wondering how much better the "No" campaign might be doing if it didn't have Sinn Fein heading it up. For every voter persuaded by the fiery anti-austerity rhetoric, there must be at least three who, whilst unconvinced by the fiscal treaty, run screaming at the prospect of Adams & co being the alternative. 

Another area about which Gerry Adams can be said to know little is Christian ethics, though he wastes no time in constantly reminding interviewers that he is a practising Catholic -- and here's hoping he keeps practising and finally gets the hang of the Fifth Commandment one day, sufficient to explain it to his erstwhile colleagues. 

It didn't stop him throwing his oar into the debate about Cardinal Brady's role in the investigation of clerical abuse last week.

Adams did admit that he was unsure about the wisdom of politicians poking their noses into the internal affairs of the church, but then he jabbed his proboscis in anyway, by saying that Cardinal Brady should, in that tiresome cliche, "reflect" on his position.

Though what if, after considering his position, Brady concludes that it is no less tenable than the Sinn Fein leader's own? Adams, alas, did not say.

Gerry could hardly cast the first stone. Not simply because of his involvement in IRA violence, well documented though that is. Car bombs. No-warning bombs. Human bombs. A string of shootings just to stop the glorious struggle from getting dull. 

The IRA carried out its own special form of abuse on innocent people for three decades, and Adams clearly considers it no obstacle to his involvement in public life. As for reflecting on the lessons of the past, if only that was so. His various memoirs bear fewer signs of meaningful reflection than the Irish Sea bears the indent of the last raindrop. 

Of course, he's not unique in that. Martin McGuinness, last year's "Man Who Would Be President", boasts the same bloody credentials. His response is equally bare-faced. Petulant when questioned. 

Dismissive when caught out. 

Yet he too has added his voice to the chorus calling for Cardinal Brady to consider his position for not passing on information about child abuse to the police in 1975.

These being the same policemen that the IRA was murdering in 1975; the same policemen that many ordinary Catholics were punished brutally for "collaborating" with if they dared report wrongdoing. 

The message in the North was clear in the 1970s. 

You didn't report crime to the police because the RUC was an "illegitimate" force. End of story. Adams and McGuinness helped enforce that injunction. 

Cardinal Brady was an amateur by comparison. 

It's the hypocrisy of Adams which stands out most sickeningly. Brady conducted a very imperfect and disturbing investigation into sexual abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth. He then passed the matter on to his superiors and, to all intents and purposes, forgot about it. He didn't have Fr Smyth around as a reminder of his crimes, because he had never met the man, and didn't subsequently either. 

Gerry Adams's experience of abuse was much closer to home. When she was only 14 -- the same age as Brendan Boland when he was sworn to silence by Cardinal Brady -- Adams's niece, Aine Tyrell, came to her uncle and told how his brother had been sexually abusing her from the age of four. 

Adams said he believed her from the start, but nothing was done about Liam Adams. 

Ms Tyrell has claimed she was willing to forego her anonymity, but Mr Adams was apparently concerned with the effect the publicity would have on the young woman. The police were not informed at the time. There was no apparent attempt to investigate the possibility of other victims. 

Liam was simply dispatched away quietly, just as the church dealt with paedophile priests, and did not face justice until December 2009 when he handed himself in to guards in Sligo and was subsequently extradited back North to face charges..

At that time, Gerry Adams also chose to reveal that his own father had sexually and physically abused his children over a long period. Again, not only was nothing reported or done about it, but Adams Snr was accorded a full republican funeral with honours in Belfast when he died at the age of 77 in 2003. 

The Sinn Fein leader's excuse when all this came out was that none of the victims wanted the abuse to be reported, and that the crimes were "historic" so no children were at current risk. 

If that sounds like the same excuse which the church makes for its own inaction, that's 

because it is.

Cardinal Brady never saw Fr Smyth or his victims again. Adams was surrounded by reminders in his own family. Many people would baulk before reporting a member of their own family to the police, especially in Ireland, where blood ties have been allowed to take on an often unhealthy importance in the culture. 

But, by the same token, a man who himself is far from perfect should refrain from lecturing others about their failings, especially when he wrote so glowingly about his father in his memoirs, despite knowing of the abuse.

All this raises the question of what Sinn Fein in the Republic thinks it gains from having Gerry Adams as leader. Murder and child abuse are the two most heinous crimes imaginable. 

Their leader is linked, by association to one, and, like the then Fr Brady, by a failure to report, to the other. 

Cardinal Brady says he told his superiors but they did nothing. Gerry Adams says he told a Belfast Youth Project, but it says it has no record to corroborate that.

Impressive and articulate TDs such as Mary Lou McDonald, Pearse Doherty and Peadar Toibin have been reduced to bit players in the vanity project of ex-terrorists who have been at the head of their organisation for longer than any other political or religious leader, save for Third World dictators. 

Does no one ever suggest to them that it may be time to step aside, for the good of party and country alike?

Adams is one of the few leaders in Irish politics who is unable to claim moral superiority over those who caused the economic crash. That's some achievement. 

He couldn't even utter the words "money laundering" in the Dail last week without provoking mocking laughter and catcalls about the IRA Northern Bank raid. 

He has liability written all over him. 

If the "No" side narrowly loses the fiscal treaty vote in three weeks' time, many will surely question the wisdom of letting a damaged and discredited man with little grasp of European politics and economics head the campaign.