Campaigner criticises 'very disappointing' update to Catholic Church penal code

Veteran campaigner Marie Collins has expressed her disappointment at the changes to the Catholic Church’s penal code announced by the Vatican on Tuesday.

“It's a very disappointing document, no zero tolerance, no mandatory reporting,” she told Newstalk’ Pat Kenny show.

Ms Collins said she had been hoping the church’s attitude that children and women were “temptresses” would be “dead and gone”, however she said that attitude was still there, adding the Vatican was further behind than any other part of the church.

Parts of the penal code “jumped out” at her, one being that clergy could be punished very severely if they did not report internally to the church authorities: “But there was no mention whatsoever of them having to report to civil authorities so nothing has changed there sadly", Ms Collins said.

“The problem with it from my view is that there are lists of penalties for various infringements and offences, but nowhere does it say they will be applied, or they must be applied.

“The one that really sticks with me is, as far as where abusing a child is concerned, is it says that a priest can be removed from office, he can be laicised, where the case calls for it. Now that wording for me means that it will be left to a judgement call to the individual bishops, how they actually punish a priest, which means you don't have any consistency or standard across the church," Ms Collins added.

“One bishop could decide something is serious while another bishop could decide it's a minor offence. By putting in they can be punished by being laicised, deprived of office, or whatever, where you put in 'where the case calls for it' and then don't define where a case calls for it, you're leaving it up to the judgement of the individual bishops and that's where it's always been, there's no change, it depends on the goodwill of the bishop in the area of the priest,” Ms Collins said.

'Heat of passion'

One section of the document, which Ms Collins said upset here was where a penalty could be diminished if the offence occurred 'in the heat of passion' - “That really has no place in a document like this in my view,” she said.

Ms Collins said caveats “litter” the document: “If you take the headlines out of it, it looks very good, it looks as if the church is moving on, but when you read it in detail, it's not.”

She said many survivors would be angered by the section regarding children, in which it says “if a person, a priest, commits an offence against the sixth commandment of the decalogue with a minor - the sixth commandment is 'thou shalt not commit adultery' and it's saying that if a priest commits an offence against the sixth commandment with a minor, what has committing adultery got to do with child abuse?

"By saying with a minor it's suggesting that the minor is a willing participant or has somehow given consent - to commit an offence, to commit adultery under the heading of adultery with a minor - that's just inappropriate and absolutely has no place here," she said.

Ms Collins pointed out that the bishops in England and Wales had put in a formal request to the Vatican not to use this language as they had used it before.

“They were asked at a press conference in the Vatican yesterday why they used it, and they said it was tradition. That just shows where we're still at with the Vatican.

“To consider abuse against a child as being an offence against the sixth commandment - thou shalt not commit adultery, is offensive to any child who has been abused, any person who has been abused as a minor, yet it’s still in there, that makes me very angry.

'Provocative'

Ms Collins also raised concerns regarding the use of the work provocative in another section of the code.

“Provocative? Who judges that? It shows the mindset still, in the case of something against an adult female 'well she could have been a temptation' because she was so provocative, and they also think that way about children, nothing in the wording there shows any change of attitude.

“It's all emphasising how you can reduce the penalty - it even says in one section that if there's been a criminal trial it may be thought that the civil punishment is enough and no further punishment might be necessary.

“Survivors over the decades have been looking for zero tolerance and that is that any priest or religious that abuses a child no longer remains a priest and there was a summit some years ago in Rome with all the bishops from around the world and zero tolerance was promised, and it has not shown up in this.

“There's no promise that someone will be removed as a priest if they abuse children,” she said.

Penalties

In Ms Collins' view, some parts of the document were good, such as extending the abuse to grooming and pornographic images, but there was nothing as far as penalties are concerned, she said.

“They're still not mandatory, they're still up to an individual to decide whether they should impose them or not. In some cases penalties don't have to be made public and that if someone gets a remission of their penalty that doesn't have to be made public either.”

Ms Collins said she did not think the church would make any changes to the document: “In the Catholic Church, Canon law is the ultimate ‘go to’ document - it is the rule, it is an absolute, it won't be tinkered with around the edges, this is set down now for many years to come.

“As a survivor of abuse as a child, it bothers me that I'm still being lumped in under the ‘shalt not commit adultery’. The fact that priests can be removed from office, but don't necessarily have to be.

"That the judgement of whether a case is serious or not is left down to the local bishop and the fact that right the way through it constantly talks about remitting the offence even reducing the penalty if the religious or the priest is remorseful.

“I'm a Christian, I'm a Catholic, and I'm very happy to see someone remorseful about their offence, but it doesn't mean they don't deserve to be punished for it," Ms Collins said,

"And yet that is still here in this, it seems they haven't learned anything - they've learned enough to be able to add more offences and to expand what is covered, but as far as penalties are concerned they have pulled back from the brink of making the changes that were so necessary, and it's very disappointing and the attitudinal things that are still there, like if someone is provocative - it's still looking at the female or the child as tempting the religious,” she added.

Priest accuses Minister of having ‘ABC, Any But Catholic’ attitude

A Co Wicklow priest has accused Minister for Health Simon Harris of having an "ABC, Any but Catholic" attitude after the Wicklow TD praised a school for ceasing its involvement with a Catholic agency in the provision of sex education.

Parish priest of Arklow Fr Pádraig Ó Cochláin was engaged in a testy Twitter exchange with Mr Harris on Sunday in the wake of the decision by Castleknock Educate Together, Dublin to cancel plans to have Accord, the Catholic Bishops' marriage advisory service, teach the Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) programme to its pupils.

In a tweet Mr Harris described the decision on foot of parental protests as: “Positive news. Sexual and relationship health is integral to overall health and wellbeing. Important our children have access to unbiased information. We must respect religious belief but all health education must always be based on facts, not ethos.”

Fr Ó Cochláin tweeted in response: “Beware of those who kill body and soul together. Simon’s statement has its own inherent ethos which is ABC, Any But Catholic! Health includes body AND (his emphasis) soul. Simon rejects Jesus’ teaching given by HIM to His Church and embraces the culture of Death ABCD.”

To which Mr Harris replied: “Thanks Fr Ó Cochláin for message. Judging my morality is probably above your pay grade. I’m happy to leave that to the man upstairs. Spreading division & judging others so harshly without ever having met them is not the Christianity that I know & respect. Every good wish, Simon.”

Speaking to The Irish Times Fr Ó Cochláin said: “Look, I’m not a nasty man I hope. In the heat of battle people can make statements.”

‘Humble priest’

In Arklow two years, he did not think he had met Mr Harris but “if he ever wanted to meet I’d be absolutely delighted to do so,” he said.

"I'm only a humble priest, only a servant of the people," he said, "but I believe diversity should include the Catholic Church. I don't see what harm Accord was going to do. It's a different church today. It had its difficulties in the past," said Fr Ó Cochláin.

He referred to commentary that today the Catholic Church in Ireland has been described as one of the safest places for children due to its enforced child protection measures.

“But I don’t want to add fuel to the fire,” he continued. “We can all be sensitive and people are allowed to be sensitive, but it seems that we can be diverse as long as we are not being Catholic,” he said.

Redemptorist priest Fr Gerry O’Connor, of the Association of Catholic Priests’s leadership team, also responded to Mr Harris’s “Positive news” tweet.

He tweeted: “Minister, so your argument is that there is One truth, One way. There are Nonnegotiable certaintities [sic]. It really sounds like an attitude that prevailed when a certain organisation was very powerful in Ireland. Perhaps you are right. However my instincts veer differently.”

The decision by Castleknock Educate Together school not to continue using Accord to provide its RSE programme followed protests by parents since last month and threats that they would withdraw their children from the school.

Court Hears Ennis Man Told Parish Priest He’d “Cut His Throat”

A court has heard how an Ennis man told a parish priest he would cut his throat in the grounds of the town’s Cathedral.

At Ennis District Court yesterday, Judge Patrick Durcan jailed 37-year-old Jamie O’Connor for three months for the assault on Fr Tom Hogan on March 22nd last.

In a statement to Gardaí, Fr Hogan he was was fearful for his own safety in a way that he has never been before during his 20 years in the town.

Ennis District Court has heard that at around 6:30 pm on March 22nd last, Fr Tom Hogan came into the Cathedral grounds and saw three homeless people including Jamie O’Connor.

Fr Hogan went about his business when minutes later, Mr O’Connor burst through the door of the church and tackled him, hurled abuse and threatened to cut his throat.

Insp Tom Kennedy told the court that Mr O’Connor had been living in a nearby tent in the church grounds for the previous three months, which Fr Hogan had asked him to remove, as there were works being carried out by a contractor.

He said Fr Hogan and a caretaker then removed the tent and stored Mr O’Connor’s belongings.

The Inspector said that when Mr O’Connor confronted Fr Hogan over the tent removal, he prevented Fr Hogan from putting the key in the door of the priests’ house, 10 metres from the church.

The court heard Mr O’Connor placed his hand very forcibly on the upper arm of Fr Hogan, who was very fearful he was going to be punched and harmed and that this went on for a number of minutes.

Another priest, Fr Ger Fitzgerald, arrived on the scene and defused the situation by placing his arms around Mr O’Connor and physically removing him from the area before calling Gardaí.

Judge Patrick Durcan imposed a three month prison term, back-dated to March 28th, and also banned Mr O’Connor from the the Cathedral and its environs for two years.

Church using police to try and silence me, claim Buckley

A controversial former Catholic priest has accused the hierarchy of the Church in Ireland of using the PSNI to conduct a vendetta against him over an online religious affairs blog he runs.

Larne-based independent bishop Pat Buckley said that a potential case against him involving accusations of incitement to hatred has been dropped, but the 11-month long saga has convinced him that his former Church is attempting to silence him by closing the site down.

Mr Buckley was excommunicated in 1998 as a result of his ordination as a bishop into an independent church.

A year later he came out as gay, and in 2010 married his partner in a civil ceremony.

In 2013 he admitted his involvement and was convicted for his part in 14 sham marriages in Northern Ireland with the purpose of flouting immigration laws.

He received a three-and-a-half-year jail term, suspended for three years.

"I run a blog called 'Thinking Catholicism', which is critical of the Catholic Church hierarchy and they don't like it," Mr Buckley told the Belfast Telegraph. On the 6th of January this year Archbishop Eamon Martin reported a comment made on the blog to the PSNI as incitement to hatred. This comment wasn't made by me, but someone who comments on the blog.

"It involved scandals in the Catholic Church, namely the 'gay sex scandal' at Maynooth. It was something like 'a flamethrower should be taken to the lot of them'. It was figurative language. No one would have thought this was to be taken literally.

"So, on January 17 I was interviewed under caution at Larne police station by two officers and was told I would be informed whether or not I would be prosecuted within 14 days. The police told me that I had nothing to worry about and I wouldn't be prosecuted. But, despite repeated requests, it took 11 months before I received a decision from the Public Prosecution Service.

"The police were sent to my home on three separate occasions about three different blogs after that. There are people out there, probably pro-Catholic Church people, who do not like the blog and who are using the PSNI to close the blog down.

"Depending on the topic being discussed, there are between 4,000 and 15,000 people on the site each day. It's quite clearly a waste of police time."

Mr Buckley was pressed by the Belfast Telegraph on whether he was sure that he had been told the identity of the complainant by the PSNI.

He said: "Archbishop Eamon Martin sent the Church's child protection officer Aidan Gordon to the police station to make the complaint even though there were no child protection issues involved in this. I suppose if you stretch his job description this complaint would fall under a kind of safeguarding in regard to this complaint."

When this allegation was put to the PSNI, it said: "Police received a complaint in relation to content posted on a blog in January, 2017. A file was sent to the Public Prosecution Service in relation to the matter in March, 2017."

The PPS said: "The PPS can confirm that a file relating to this case was received from police in February, 2017.

"After careful consideration of all the available evidence, the rest for prosecution was applied in line with the PPS code for prosecutors. It has been decided not to prosecute anyone in relation to this incident on the basis that the case did not pass the evidential test."

Mr Buckley added: "It was a worry that elements in the Catholic Church used the PSNI to target me. It could start a fashion that is very unhealthy in terms of freedom of speech etc, particularly over the Maynooth issue."

The Belfast Telegraph contacted the Catholic Church for a response on numerous occasions by phone and email over a number of days, but received no reply.

Bishop Pat is streets ahead on Shankill as he sups in the Rangers' Club

Rebel Catholic bishop Pat Buckley enjoyed a pint yesterday in one of Ulster loyalism's most hallowed halls - the Shankill Rangers Supporters' Club.

The maverick clergyman had been invited to the club after donating two signs from long-demolished Shankill streets to a local museum.

The signs for Blaney Street and Brennan Street honour Catholic priests who had nursed Protestants from the area in 1832 during a cholera outbreak.

Bishop Buckley and a clerical colleague liberated the signs back in the 1970s when the old terraced streets of the area were being knocked down.

There were originally four Shankill streets named after priests who had helped the local people, but two of the signs - for Loftus Street and Meenan Street - have since disappeared. But for almost 40 years, Bishop Buckley had kept his two hanging in his kitchen

And yesterday they returned to their origins at the museum housed in the premises of Action for Community Transformation (ACT), a loyalist conflict transformation project. 

"I think the signs are going on display fairly quickly," Bishop Buckley said.

"They'll be on display at the premises of ACT. The signs are there now."

The cleric had asked ACT representatives to take him to the most loyalist drinking spot on the Shankill Road for a pint after the handover, a wish they were very happy to fulfil.

After the brief handing over ceremony, he accompanied ACT representatives - including co-ordinator Stephen Pollock - to the the Rangers Supporters' Club for a pint.

The clergyman said he had been made to feel at home in the loyalist redoubt.

"Obviously, it's on the Shankill, and I wouldn't think there are too many Catholics who go in and out of it," he said.

"I was made very welcome by the staff and by everyone present.

"I was shown around the club, and I was pictured standing around beside the UVF plaques and memorabilia."

However, the visit didn't run completely smoothly.

Bishop Buckley explained: "I was looking for a pint of ale - but they didn't have any.

"So I had to settle for what is probably the best beer in the world, a Carlsberg!"

Still, it was a satisfying way to toast the memory of four 19th century Catholic priests who came to the aid of the Shankill's poor at a time of need.

"Everything passed off well. There was no third world war," he laughed.

USA : Chicago archdiocese agrees to pay another $3.15 million to McCormack victims

The Archdiocese of Chicago has agreed to pay $3.15 million to settle the latest in a series of lawsuits stemming from sexual abuse by the laicized priest Daniel McCormack.

The archdiocese has now committed to pay over $10 million to victims of McCormack. 

In separate lawsuits, these victims have demonstrated that church officials had evidence that McCormack could be a threat to young people as far back as 1994 — before he was ordained by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin — but allowed him to continue in ministry until 2006. 

McCormack was jailed in 2007 after pleading guilty to several counts of sexual abuse. 

When he became eligible for parole in 2009, prosecutors invoked an Illinois law that allowed them to keep him under confinement, saying that he remained an imminent threat. 

He was laicized in 2007.

EUROPE : Cause opened for beatification of French priest slain at altar last year

The Archdiocese of Rouen has opened a formal cause for the beatification of Father Jacques Hamel, who was killed by Islamic terrorists last July while he was celebrating Mass in the church of St. Etienne du Rouvray.

Ordinarily the Vatican requires a five-year waiting period after the death of a candidate before a cause can be opened. 

But Pope Francis waived that rule in the case of Father Hamel, responding to pleas from French Catholics. 

Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen announced the opening of the cause during the Chrism Mass in his archdiocese on Holy Thursday.

PALESTINE : Leader hopes papal visit to Egypt will strengthen moderate Muslims

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has written to Pope Francis, offering his best wishes that the Pope’s visit to Egypt later this month will strengthen moderate Muslims.

Abbas said that the Pope’s plan to visit Egypt “reflects your commitment to achieve justice and peace and encourage moderate voices all over the world, especially in our region.”

SYRIA : 2 Franciscan friars minister in area under ISIS control

Two of the 15 Franciscan friars who minister in Syria do so in territory controlled by the Islamic State.

As a condition for staying with the families, ISIS imposed upon the friars the condition of removing Christian symbols.

The friars “are living in two villages, 25 and 40 kilometers from Aleppo,” Father Michael Perry, minister general of the Franciscan order, told Catholic News Service.

“They have been able to negotiate space and pay what is necessary,” he said, in order to remain with “those who are too poor or too weak to find another place to go.”

April - Prayer to The Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit, be with me today.
Be my teacher, my guide, my counselor, my friend.

Fill me with your gifts, especially the gifts of
wisdom, discernment, knowledge, understanding, compassion,
love, and awe in God's presence.

In all that I think, say, and do, let it be in accordance
with your most holy and perfect will.

I ask this in Jesus' name.

AMEN.

Lent calendar prayer and reflection for 16 April - Easter Sunday

“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb” she said “and we don’t know where they have put him.”

John 20:1-9

It can be hard to identify with Mary and the disciples when we listen to the Easter story because we know the ending: we know that Jesus has risen! At this point in the story Mary seems angry, distraught, confused. 

All of us can identify with these feelings when we go through dark times in our lives. And often it needs the support and understanding of others for our despair to turn into hope.

The Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Mbala, Zambia, often meet people who have lost everything including their money and homes, looking for someone who will ‘cure’ them of their HIV. 

Sister Yvonne says: “Once they’ve exhausted everything and they are very sick – they’ve no energy or strength – then they are taken to the hospitals and most of the time this is when we come into contact with them, at the point when they are really ill and have lost everything. 

“So we support them in that state, then we will provide medication, counselling, and once they are healthier, then there is that great need to support with a livelihood to bring them back to where they were.”

The Sisters are there to meet those who are despairing and to walk with them on their transformational journey of body, mind and spirit; a journey from near-death to life in its fullness.

Easter Sunday prayer

Almighty God, on this day when we remember and celebrate your resurrection, your triumph over death, inspire us to reach out to others, sharing your joy and your hope. Let us pray for the flourishing of all your creation. Amen.

USA : Jailed former head of St. Luke Institute agrees to mental-health counseling

A laicized New Hampshire priest, the former chancellor of the Manchester diocese, has agreed to undergo mental-health counseling, as a condition for his release from prison, where he is completing a four-year term for misappropriating church funds.

Edward Arsenault entered a guilty plea in 2014 to charges that he took more than $300,000 from the Manchester diocese. 

He reportedly used the money to support a homosexual affair.

The diocese announced last week that Arsenault had been laicized. 

Arsenault’s agreement to undergo counseling was ironic because he once served as the chief executive of the St. Luke Institute, the Maryland facility that has provided counseling for many priests charged with sexual abuse.

VATICAN : Papal liturgy will honor ‘New Martyrs’

Pope Francis will preside on April 22 at a special Liturgy of the Word to honor the “new martyrs” of the past century, the Vatican has announced.

The ceremony, organized by the Sant’Egidio community, will be held at the basilica of St. Bartholomew in Rome. 

The Sant’Egidio community, announcing the event, noted that the basilica was designated by St. John Paul II to honor recent martyrs during the Jubilee Year 2000.

VATICAN : New stamps for 90th birthday of Benedict XVI, 100th anniversary of Fatima apparitions

The Vatican will issue new stamps in May to commemorate the 90th birthday of Pope-emeritus Benedict and the 100th anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima.

The stamp honoring Benedict XVI, which shows the retired Pontiff praying the Rosary, is “our affectionate tribute to him,” the Vatican numismatic office announced. 

The former Pope will turn 90 on April 16.

The Fatima stamp shows a representation of the Virgin Mary, clothed in brilliant white, speaking to the three children at Fatima. 

The first apparitions at Fatima took place on May 13, 1917. 

The Vatican will also issue a stamp marking the 1,950th anniversary of the martyrdom of Sts. Peter and Paul.

USA : Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel to close, as her religious order shrinks

The National Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel, in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, will be closed at the end of this calendar year, its administrators have announced.

The shrine, which contains relics of St. Katharine Drexel, is located alongside the motherhouse of the order she founded, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. 

The order has been forced to sell properties, primarily because of a drop in the number of members. 

The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who once boasted 600 members, now have only 100, most of them living in retirement.