IN BRIEF
Nun excommunicated
A Catholic nun, who was a member of a Phoenix Catholic hospital’s ethics com- mittee, was excommunicated and reassigned last week for her role in allow- ing an abortion to take place at the hospital. The surgery, considered neces- sary to save the life of a critically ill patient, took place at St Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. The decision, involving Sister of Mercy Margaret McBride, physicians and the patient, drew a sharp rebuke from Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, head of the Phoenix Diocese, which issued a statement saying Sr McBride had “automatically excommu- nicated herself from the Church”.
Call to reject constitution
Catholic bishops have rejected Kenya’s proposed new constitution on the grounds that a clause shifting the beginning of life from conception to birth is a step towards legalising abortion. They are also unhappy about recognition given to Islamic Kadhi courts. Catholics have been advised to vote against ratification of the constitution – backed by the Obama administration – in this summer’s nationwide referendum.
New Pax Christi presidents
Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg in South Africa and a senior laywoman at the Maryknoll mission movement, Marie Dennis, were selected last weekend at the Pax Christi International Triennial World Assembly in Strasbourg as co-presidents of the peace movement.
‘Righteous’ bishop’s anniversary
The only living Catholic Church leader to be honoured by Israel for saving Jews dur- ing the Holocaust has celebrated his fortieth year as a bishop in Poland. Mgr Albin Malysiak, 93, was ordained in 1941 and rescued Krakow Jews from the Nazis in 1943 with a local Catholic nun. He was awarded a “Righteous Among the Nations” medal in 1994 by Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Institute.
Lesbian bishop ordained
The Anglican rift over homosexual clergy deepened last Saturday after the ordina- tion of the Episcopal Church’s first lesbian bishop. Mary Glasspool, 56, was made an assistant bishop at a ceremony attended by 3,000 people in Long Beach, California, despite warnings from the Archbishop of Canterbury that the move threatened Anglican unity. Bishop Glasspool’s partner of 19 years was in the congregation for a four-hour service enlivened by hip-hop dancing, a Mexican mariachi band and Japanese-style taiko drumming.
For daily news updates visit
www.tablet.co.uk
Legionaries of Christ (LC), whose late founder – Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado – was discovered to have led a double life as sexual abuser, drug addict, plagiarist and father of illegitimate children. In the 1990s, several former members of the rigidly conservative order had tried in vain to get the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) to discipline Fr Maciel for sexually abusing when they were young seminarians. The story until now has been that opposition to the investigation came from forces outside the CDF. But could it have come from within the Congregation as well? For it seems that Pope Benedict’s current Secretary of State and his former deputy at the doctrinal office from 1995 to 2002 – Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone SDB – was entirely supportive of Fr Maciel and without scepticism about the Legionaries. In 2004, as Archbishop of Genoa, he
T
praised Maciel in the preface of a book-length interview with the LC founder. “The answers that Fr Maciel gives are profound and simple and have the frankness of one who lives his mission in the world and in the Church with his sights and his heart fixed on Christ Jesus,” wrote Cardinal Bertone. The Maciel interview book, My Life is Christ, was authored by Jesús Colina, a Regnum Christi member who founded the Rome-based (and Vatican-favoured) ZENIT news agency. Mr Colina has been a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications since 2007 and his book was successfully published in several languages. “The key to this success is, without doubt, the attractive force of the love of Christ. This has always propelled Fr Maciel and his institute and helped them not to be conquered by controversy, which has not been lacking in their history,” Tarcisio Bertone wrote in the preface.
A
professional nurse and pastoral counsellor who has spent more than 50 years in religious life has
been chosen as the new president of the International Union of Women Superiors General (UISG) here in Rome. Sr Mary Lou Wirtz, the American-born general director of the Franciscan Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (FCJM), was elected to a three-year term at the conclusion of the UISG plenary assembly which took place here from 7 to 11 May. She takes over from Sr Maureen Cusick, superior of the Daughters of Sion. Last summer, Sr Wirtz marked her golden jubilee as a member of the Wheaton, Illinois, community of the FCJM. She has been serving at her international order’s Rome
here is still no word on whom Pope Benedict XVI will name as his personal delegate to reform the
headquarters the past 13 years, first as the assistant director and, since last year, as its general. The election of an American as UISG president is considered significant in light of the controversial visitation the Vatican is conducting among all the women religious communities in the United States. The UISG has been supportive of the American sisters and has voiced concern over the lack of consultation and secrecy that has characterised the investigation. In a final decree at the end of its plenary assembly the UISG vowed to “engage in truthful dialogue with the hierarchical Church at all levels in order to achieve greater recognition of the role of women”. But it has not been easy. The 800 superiors who came from all over the world had hoped for an audience with the Pope, but he evidently could not fit them into his schedule.
ust a little more than half of all Italians between the ages of 18 and 29 identify themselves today as Catholics. That’s a drop of 14 per cent since 2004, according to a recent study on young adults and their relationship to faith. The study was commissioned by the northern Diocese of Novara and conducted by IARD RPS, an institute which researches trends and issues among the young adult population. The group’s findings are the result of a
J
survey of 1,000 people last March. They are not likely to thrill Italy’s bishops or Italian officials at the Vatican, who often see their country as the last Catholic bastion in Europe. Young adults simply do not want to be part of the “official Church” or any other religious institution. And yet more than 70 per cent of them still think religion is important. That glimmer of hope is not so bright when one notices that this represents a drop of 8 per cent from the last survey six years ago. “On the one hand this supports the do-it-yourself religiosity that sociologists have been talking about for decades,” said IARD RPS researchers. “On the other hand, it shows a polarisation of choices: those who remain Catholic are more and more convinced, while those who have never been or who are no longer Catholic demonstrate a greater detachment from the Church of Rome and, at times, a downright hostility, while still cultivating a certain interest in the spiritual dimension,” the researchers said. Italian church leaders have remained quiet about this survey and another poll among the general population that indicated a drop of confidence in the Church as an institution. Perhaps they are consoling themselves with the knowledge that they still wield a powerful influence over major players in Italian society, especially in the media and politics.
Robert Mickens
22 May 2010 | THE TABLET | 37
Letter from Rome
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44