Two must-read articles on the abuse crisis

1.  Massimo Faggioli has a very good article up on the Commonweal site, entitled "Trent's Long Shadow / The Abuse Crisis and Seminaries, Dioceses and the Laity".  What I appreciate about it is its "root cause analysis": it attempts to go deeper than some of the rather superficial diagnoses and solutions that are commonly proposed, e.g. that it's a problem of gay priests and that therefore the solution is to drum gay priests out of the rectory and gay candidates out of the seminaries.   Faggioli brings a historical perspective that caused me to think anew about various aspects of the church that I normally take for granted or don't think about, such as "Why do we have parishes?" and "What was the laity's role in the church in past eras?"  I emerged from his article with the conviction that a new ecumenical council is needed.

2.  Rev. James Martin, SJ, on the America site: "The witch hunt for gay priests".  Among the many infuriating aspects of the McCarrick scandal is that it has enabled those members of the conservative commentariat who have long held the erroneous conviction that the waves of sexual abuse crises in the church should be understood as crises of homosexual abuse by gay priests.  Martin reviews some of this toxic commentary (some of which, unfortunately, is emanating from church officials), and then follows his now-customary practice of debunking it, calmly, precisely and faithfully.  Fr. Martin, who I believe has suffered quite a bit for his courageous advocacy for gay Catholics, is a blessing to the church.  I encourage all of us to pray for him and support his advocacy.

Embarrassed to Death

 At the men's group, the sheep are muttering like they did on the early pages of Animal Farm. They are tired of answering the question of whether they are still Catholic, and, if so, why. These are guys who, most of them, have been showing up at 6:30 a.m. every week for going on 20 years to hold each other accountable for discipleship. They now ask themselves the question they are tired of answering.
 I was meditating on our collective fate this morning when WBUR in Boston aired its report from El Salvador on how people we deport are processed. About 300 a week seem to be flying into El Salvador, where their wrist and ankle chains are removed and they are given their belts back so the country can welcome them "home." Great reporting. Made me want to puke.
 To clear my palate,  I had to crank up Joan Baez's "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon," better known as "Deportee."
 And when I got back to the radio, national NPR was interviewing the reporter of today's Washington Post story about Trump's latest birtherism, taking away passports from people who can't prove their mother gave birth legally in Texas 40 years ago and declaring them non-citizens. This is a genteel form of ethnic cleansing, but when you take up ethnic cleansing, it won't stay genteel very long.

Archbishop Vigano's letter: two episcopal reactions

I receive a Catholic news email blast from time to time called CWN Headlines.  Today's installment included two reactions, presented one right after the other, to Archbishop Vigano's recent letter.  I paste them here with no comment, except that, on one level I found the contrast pretty humorous; but on a deeper level, sobering.  It seems there are deep fissures running across church leadership, and Vigano's bizarre missive has made them stand out.

Not much, just great for 40 years

 Even with everything else going on, the death of Neil Simon should not go unremarked. Two hundred years from now,  there will be revivals of Antigone, Hamlet and The Odd Couple. I am not so sure about anything else.
 Cast your mind back to 1963 when someone told me I absolutely had to see Barefoot in the Park because it was the story of our lives. Simon had already written Come Blow Your Horn and Little Me. Five years later he wrote Plaza Suite, which was three one-acters set in the Plaza Hotel. Somehow that migrated to television, and Mimsey locking herself in the bathroom and not coming out  on her wedding day is something I can't think about without laughing.
 I was going to quote a line from that act. But there aren't any funny lines in it. I also thought about  quoting the funniest line I think Simon ever wrote -- it has to do with the floor an apartment is on -- but it would take two paragraphs to explain why it is funny, and explaining it would kill it.

And now for something not related to sex-abuse scandals ...

I have been reading the encomiums about the late Senator John McCain in these days following his death, and I see a tendency toward hagiography at times.

Kind, humorous, plain spoken, courageous, principled, all these are on display in this little vid clip from Late Night with Seth Myers. But McCain himself would have been the first to point out his own flaws--a failed first marriage, infidelities, quick temper, the Keating Five scandal, etc.

Cardinal Cupich's response

Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, and in a manner of speaking my clerical boss  - or boss's boss - has written a letter to the people of the archdiocese in response to the sexual abuse scandals.  It appeared in our church bulletin this week.  I'm not just currying favor in saying that I think it's one of the strongest responses I've read so far.  It's here:

https://www.archchicago.org/en/statement/-/article/2018/08/17/letter-from-cardinal-blase-j-cupich-to-the-people-of-the-archdiocese-of-chicago-in-response-to-the-pennsylvania-grand-jury-report

In addition, at two masses I attended this weekend, the celebrant (a different celebrant at each of the two masses) preached about the abuse crisis.  There was no applause nor much of a visible reaction in both cases. 

Former Vatican ambassador says Pope Francis, Benedict knew of sexual misconduct allegations against McCarrick for years

DUBLIN — A former Vatican ambassador to the United States has alleged in an 11-page letter that Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis — among other top Catholic Church officials — had been aware of sexual misconduct allegations against former D.C. archbishop Cardinal Theodore McCarrick years before he resigned this summer. 

The letter from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who was recalled from his D.C. post in 2016 amid allegations that he’d become embroiled in the conservative American fight against same-sex marriage, was first reported by the National Catholic Register and LifeSite News, two conservative Catholic sites. The letter offered no proof, and Viganò on Sunday told The Washington Post he wouldn’t comment further.

[Full story in The Washington Post]

Judgment at Tallahassee

 Most of the world probably only vaguely remembers the Rev. John Gallagher. He is the priest who went international with the claim that he was fired from his pastorate for turning in a priest who had a cell phone full of child porn. He first made the charge in an Irish newspaper.
 But he had been our pastor.  Actually, he was still in the testing year before his pastorate would be confirmed when the bishop removed him for let us charitably call innovative pastoring. That trial period didn't keep him from styling himself as pastor and remodeling the rectory to suit his corporal needs. In fact, his first complaint was that the bishop, in reassigning him, had kicked him out of "my home."
 That wasn't a very likely grounds for the lawsuit, so he turned to claiming he was bounced for blowing the whistle on his wayward assistant.
 How he got the wayward assistant is germane. I am not going to go into the other stories I could tell. But he arrived with a wonderful parochial vicar (assistant) in place. One day he changed the locks on the rectory so the assistant couldn't get in.  The bishop agreed to move the assistant (he is very happy and still doing great work) but supposedly (I didn't hear this from the bishop) said the pastor wouldn't get another priest because he didn't know what to do with them.
 So the pastor went on EBay or someplace to get the guy who wasn't here a month before the sheriff swooped in.  The chief deputy gives Gallagher high marks for cooperation. (I did hear that from the chief deputy.)
 So when Gallagher subsequently found out he wasn't owner of the parish for life, he sued for wrongful dismissal,  claiming it was because he was a whistle-blower. Suing a bishop because he gave a priest a new assignment is usually not a smart move for a priest. But Fr. Gallagher and his lawyer made a mighty noise about it and actually got some attention from the courts. Whereupon the bishop, who never before was heard to utter a mutter a mean word about anyone finally issued a press release saying Fr. Gallagher needed counseling. He also unbound the parish staff from the non-disclosure agreement which, although tacit, they followed much more scrupulously than Trump's girlfriends.  The result was the first public airing of the side of the story that hadn't been muddied by Fr. John's fantasy life. 
 Fr. Gallagher thereupon amended his suit to sue the bishop for slander.
 The case had been dragging on since 2015 but finally was decided last week by the Florida Supreme Court, which ruled, basically, that it was a Church labor matter beyond the reach of civil law. It could conceivably go further, to the U.S. Supreme Court, but that is unlikely. Fr. Gallagher has remained on the diocesan payroll, on sick leave doing nothing, since he and his lawyer cooked up this lulu.
 As and old friend used to say, I could tell you more, but I won't. I think you now know enough about the priest who made himself famous in the Irish Times and U.S. media to figure out why the bishop may have thought he wasn't pastoral material.

Show me

Two dioceses in Missouri have invited the state's attorney general to audit their sex-abuse records.

Pledge drives

57 years ago, Newton Minow described television content as a "vast wasteland".  And that was before PBS invented the pledge drive.

Shepherds pasturing themselves

 Following is the first reading for today, the memorial of the queenship of the BVM. It's Ezekiel 34: 1-11, and there is really nothing needed to add to it:

The word of the Lord came to me:
Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel,
in these words prophesy to them to the shepherds:
Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the shepherds of Israel
who have been pasturing themselves!
Should not shepherds, rather, pasture sheep?
 
You have fed off their milk, worn their wool,
and slaughtered the fatlings,
but the sheep you have not pastured.
You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick
nor bind up the injured.
You did not bring back the strayed nor seek the lost,
but you lorded it over them harshly and brutally.
So they were scattered for the lack of a shepherd,
and became food for all the wild beasts.
My sheep were scattered
and wandered over all the mountains and high hills;
my sheep were scattered over the whole earth,
with no one to look after them or to search for them.

Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:
As I live, says the Lord GOD,
because my sheep have been given over to pillage,
and because my sheep have become food for every wild beast,
for lack of a shepherd;
because my shepherds did not look after my sheep,
but pastured themselves and did not pasture my sheep;
because of this, shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:
Thus says the Lord GOD:
I swear I am coming against these shepherds.
I will claim my sheep from them
and put a stop to their shepherding my sheep
so that they may no longer pasture themselves.
I will save my sheep,
that they may no longer be food for their mouths.

Ending Clericalism: the Abuse of Sex, Power and Conscience

Letter of His Holiness Pope Francis to the People of God

"the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons"

has inflicted pain not only upon them by also their families, and the larger community of believers, and non believers. 
Francis powerfully identifies the cry of the victims with the Magnificat:

"The Lord heard that cry and once again showed us on which side he stands. Mary’s song is not mistaken and continues quietly to echo throughout history. For the Lord remembers the promise he made to our fathers: “he has scattered the proud in their conceit; he has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty” (Lk 1:51-53). We feel shame when we realize that our style of life has denied, and continues to deny, the words we recite."

He identifies sexual abuse, power abuse and conscience abuse with the betrayal of Christ by his disciples:

"How much pride, how much self-complacency! Christ’s betrayal by his disciples, their unworthy reception of his body and blood, is certainly the greatest suffering endured by the Redeemer; it pierces his heart."

What should be our response?

What shall we talk about?

Is it appropriate to preach about the unfolding sex abuse crises about Archbishop McCarrick and the Pennsylvania dioceses?  Is it necessary?

I don't want to be late until I'm dead

 I know I overdo promptness, but it seems as if society in general doesn't know such a thing exists. I am weary of being stepped on in passing while the show is in progress or sitting through a 20-minute recap of the first 20 minutes "for those who were late."
 Back in the Grant administration, or so, I reviewed all the professional theater in Philadelphia and everything in New York that had a central Jersey connection. It was not too unusual to see a show in Philadelphia on Thursday, another in New York on Friday and sleep in my own bed both nights. Now, back in those days there were different rules for different theater towns.
 (Stay with me; these thoughts will go to church.)
 In Philadelphia people came late. It was not unusual for an 8 p.m. opening night curtain to rise at 8:20 or 8:25 as people mingled in the lobby, waited for someone who was parking the car and debated checking their coats.
 In New York, the curtain went up at 8.p.m. ready or not. There may be a blizzard,  King Kong may be climbing the Empire State building, it didn't matter.  Starting at the stroke of 8 you couldn't get into the house until a scheduled slow-down in the action 15 or 20 minutes into the first act.
  Sort of as an aside, the opening number in "42nd Street" had of the curtain rise slowly to show 50 pairs of dancing feet, 50 pairs of dancing knees, 25 dancing torsos... well, you get it. A nice effect in New York. In Philadelphia most of the audience missed it as the late-late audience blocked the view.
 New Yorkers learned to be prompt. Philadelphians learned to be late. It can be taught.

Knowledge and wisdom

This is my homily for this weekend, August 18-19, 2018.  The readings are here.  Fun fact: I was scheduled for the early Sunday morning masses.  I was also scheduled for the Saturday evening mass, but didn't expect to preach that one because the presider was a visiting priest, and our rule of thumb is: visiting priests always preach.  But this particular priest asked me to go ahead and preach.  I usually preach from a print-out of the homily text, but hadn't printed it yet (truth to tell, hadn't completed writing it yet).  But I had emailed it to myself after drafting it on that 1% chance that I'd need it for Saturday evening, and so I preached the draft from a smart phone screen instead of a paper document.  First time I had ever done that before.  At any rate, here is the text.

Dorothy Day Quote

I came across this quote from Dorothy Day that seems pretty relevant to the present situation.  Amazing that she said it in 1968.  I find this bit encouraging and comforting; "It is the saints that keep appearing all through history who keep things going." However it is depressing to remember how many saints suffered at the hands of the powers that be who were supposed to be the shepherds. 

Let it be

Heaven's choir just got amped up about 20 percent with the passing of Aretha Franklin this morning at her home here in Michigan.

"Respect" and "Think" were songs we pulled out every time one of us broke up with some varmint of a boyfriend. She would rip the hearts out of our skinny white girl chests, bounce them around, stretch them out, and show us that we were a lot more elastic than we thought.

What we didn't understand at the time was the deep well of a confident faith that informed Franklin's music, that made her drag words like "temptation" and "Jesus" and "heaven" up from a place deep in her gut, up through her lungs, and out into the air so that the Spirit fairly vibrated in your ear.

Like Ray Charles, there was not a song Aretha could not make better by singing it. I wonder if I might have approached the Feast of the Assumption differently yesterday if I had first listened to this:

An Enemy of the People

 My former employer joined more than 300 newspapers around the country today with an editorial saying it is not an enemy of the people. Most readers never thought it was. (How long did you subscribe to Pravda?) Fifty-one percent of Republicans, according to the Quinnipiac  Poll,  think it is.
 Their minds won't be changed  since they heard that from their president.
 The tepid defense of its non-enemy status this morning was, like most of the paper's recent editorials, carefully crafted not to offend anybody. The MAGA folks will be neither offended or not offended. They will simply fall in line behind His Petulance. Who will take the coordinated self-defense as evidence of the plot against him.

Pennsylvania sex abuse

Pennsylvania's Attorney General has released an incendiary grand jury report on the sexual abuse of minors in six Pennsylvania dioceses.  Can you still muster outrage?

Back to school

Rev. Jan Michael Joncas, of "On Eagle's Wings" fame, once said something in passing on an old email list, the gist of which is as follows and is so true:  the passage of time in our lives is marked and measured by fiscal calendars, church calendars, sports calendars and the calendar hung by a thumbtack in my kitchen which claims that the year starts in January and ends in December; but in reality, most of us organize our lives around the academic calendar.

Charlottesville anniversary

I was out of town this weekend so I'm posting this a day or two late.  Last year, I was scheduled to preach a week or so after the racial violence in Charlottesville.  Here is the homily I preached on August 20, 2017, in the wake of that incident.

Publically shared grief

 I have become (and so have people who won't admit it) a connoisseur of "makeshift memorials" -- those agglomerations of flowers, candles, cards, posters, teddy bears and balloons that appear after mass destruction even before the TV anchors board their aircraft to report, in the days and weeks to come, from the site where the news has already happened.
 The Brits are weak on balloons, and the French are hopeless on teddy bears. You must have bears, or your mourning is dreary.
 The reaction is not the result of my cold-heartedness, but an outlet for the anger and frustration that comes from knowing that the candles will still be usable, and not all of the posters will be water-logged when it happens again. I don't feel a need to judge makeshift memorials when they respond to  real acts of God -- only the ones that are triggered, fueled or solely the result of human arrogance and ignorance.
 There has been a school shooting. There is a makeshift memorial. There will be another school shooting. There will be another makeshift memorial. A cop feels threatened and shoots an unarmed black man who is running away. A memorial ensues. Repeat. Repeat again.  Could more candles and flowers have prevented the second time?  The third time? No. Reasonable gun laws and learning to recognize humanity (start by not closing ports to refugees nor bureaucratically kidnapping their children) might at least reduce the numbers of times. But not the candles-and-flowers routine. That's no better than presidential "hearts and prayers."
 It turns out, people have been thinking non-despairingly about the subject. Lizette Larson provided a tour d' horizon of their thinking Friday at Pray Tell. There is even, I learn,  a new academic field of disaster studies, centered in the Netherlands.

Genuflection Season Opens

There is so much that could be said about the trend in the NFL to open games with a knee bend. I forebear.

However, the pre-season brought another bout with players from several teams joining the exercise. Of course, Trump responded. Could we put an end to this bickering and improve the agility of football players and fans alike by urging ticket holders to genuflect in place. Not only them, but at-home watchers could join in and send a selfie to the WH.

The Hill.

A couple of quick thoughts on the McCarrick scandal

... and they're related to one another:

Willow Creek update: Lead Pastor, Elder Board out

The dramatic next chapter in the story of Evangelical megachurch Willow Creek's efforts to address allegations of sexual misconduct by its founding pastor, Bill Hybels, was written yesterday when Lead Pastor Heather Larson and the entire Board of Elders announced their resignations.

And then there's Kansas

From Sabato's Crystal Ball 

"As of Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Jeff Colyer (R-KS) trailed Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) 40.6%-40.5% in Kansas’ gubernatorial primary. If Colyer’s deficit holds, it would mark the first primary loss for an incumbent governor in 2018.
"If the final outcome is similar to the current vote, Colyer’s defeat would make history: His present margin of defeat stands as the narrowest ever for an incumbent governor in a primary. Conversely, if Colyer wins based on the counting of outstanding votes and/or a recount, he could claim the record for narrowest primary win among incumbent governors."
I don't think I've ever read a good thing about Kobach. Even some younger friends who went to college with him have never said a good thing; in fact, some pretty critical things.
He headed Trump's "Illegal Voting Commission"; which it blew up in his face.

Question: How come he [Kobach] did so well? Even if he's not the winner?

Close to Home

We have felt fortunate that there hasn't seemed to be a lot of abuse cases in Nebraska; aside from some instances a number of years ago involving clergy who are no longer in ministry. I suppose it was only a matter of time until some more problems came to light.
I'm sure by now most of you have seen this developing story. And this article by Rod Dreher features an essay by a former priest of the Lincoln Diocese, Peter Mitchell. Both of these links discuss allegations of abuse and misconduct by longtime vocations director and University of Nebraska/Lincoln Newman chaplain, Msgr. Leonard Kalin, who died in 2008.  The Lincoln Diocese has been known for its conservative stance, and for the number of vocations to the priesthood it has produced.  Kalin was in this position for over 20 years, from the early 1970's to the 1990's.

Investigating Bishops

As Jim noted in his recent post, A Pledge of Commitment-Updated, Cardinal DiNardo, the president of the conference of bishops has started a process to strengthen the "Pledge of Commitment" likely by specifying more exactly what should happen when a bishop is accused. Part of the decision making process should include finding out just what happened (or failed to happen) in the McCarrick case.

For any decisions to be binding upon the bishops, they must pass by a 2/3rds vote and also receive the approval (recognition) of the Holy See. The debate is well underway among the bishops, and at least some of it in public.

Cardinal Wuerl promptly proposed a bishops only review panel in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter. This idea promptly met with objections. The proposal was not helped by the Wuerl saying that the report would go to either to the CDF or the Congregation of Bishops. Wuerl has a seat on both!

Bishop Scharfenberger of Albany promptly said that laity are essential  bishops investigating bishops is not the solution. Rather laity must provide the leadership

What is needed now is an independent commission led by well-respected, faithful lay leaders who are beyond reproach, people whose role on such a panel will not serve to benefit them financially, politically, or personally. These will be people with a deep understanding of the Catholic faith, but without an axe to grind or an agenda to push. It will not be easy, but it will be worth every ounce of effort, energy, and candor we can muster.

Anchorage Archbishop Etienne has proposed a mixed group:

1. The USCCB should immediately convene an ad hoc committee of the most respected leaders of our Conference – no more than seven (7) – to write a protocol to be placed before the body of bishops for review and approval as soon as possible.
2. Part of this protocol would require the development of a National Review Board for accusations of sexual misconduct against bishops. The membership of this body would include the seven bishop members of the ad hoc committee, the Papal Representative to the United States as an ex officio member, and an equal number of lay representatives.
3. This Review Board would examine all accusations against bishops and make their decisions and recommendations to the Holy See.
4. As a means of clear transparency, this Review Board would make its recommendations public within 60 days of submission to the Holy See if no public action or response has been taken by the competent authority.

What might seem a simple question of who belongs on at review group is likely to be complicated by the question of what really happened, not only in McCarrick's case by also in the case of Bishop Nienstedt (read on):

Martyrs and the death penalty

Sixtus II, Pope and Martyr, whose martyrdom is celebrated on August 7th

A few days ago, Katherine pointed us to a Commonweal article by B.D. McClay which suggested that Maria Goretti's death, originally presented to the faithful as a sort of heroic sacrifice in defense of virginal purity, has the potential to take on new and unexpected meaning in the wake of the scandals of the sexual abuse of children.  Could the communion of martyrs do the same regarding the death penalty?

How is Michigan responding to this news?

Progressives want Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign for Michigan governor to be their next big victory

VOX

"Sanders won Michigan in the 2016 primaries. Trump won the state in the presidential race. Tuesday’s primary in the 2018 governor’s race symbolizes the Democratic Party’s growing pains, pitting a progressive push for Medicare-for-all against the Obama legacies of the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion. It’s highlighted issues of race and identity — if El-Sayed wins the primary and the general, he could be the first Muslim governor in America...."

WIllow Creek - the reverberations continue

The New York Times has published new and more serious allegations of sexual misconduct against retired pastor Bill Hybels, which has spurred his co-successor to resign.

Taking a brief break from junk reading...

Ezra Klein at Vox has this today:

Amusing ourselves to Trump

We  are buried under ignorance disguised as information.

Nothing that hasn't been said here before, but a good comparison with Orwell and Huxley's metaphors back in the days of fascism.

 

First as tragedy, then as farce

As collective bargaining has been rolled back, efforts to suppress voting have returned, inequality has grown, and unregulated big money again dominates politics.

  I don't read any long articles on line, so I didn't see this until the August 10 issue of Commonweal arrived on old fashioned but much-appreciated paper. The quote is from Joseph A. McCartin's piece on the most recent mortal threat to labor unions. That would be Justice Sam Alito's 5-4 essay that effectively kills the states' power to make non-union employees to pay a fee (less than full dues) to unions for negotiating labor contracts covering them.

 Just another nail in the coffin of our democratic republic. If it is to be saved, there are exciting times ahead. I am almost sad to know I won't be around to see how it is done  and maybe help to do it.

Summer reading: Domestic thrillers

I presented a paper a few years ago on domestic thriller novels, mentioned in a previous post. The paper started like this:

Betty Friedan’s “problem that has no name” in The Feminine Mystique (1963) was the central issue of the Second Wave feminist movement. But before publication of Friedan's book, her “problem” had been pretty thoroughly worked over in the previous 15 years in popular domestic thriller novels written by women. Between 1946 and 1963, many first-rate women novelists in the U.S. and Britain were writing in this genre (also called domestic suspense or, more lately, chick noir). Patricia Highsmith, Shirley Jackson, and Daphne DuMaurier are still popular, but Vera Caspary, Valerie Taylor, Evelyn Piper, and others are less well known, and many of their works are out of print. However, all these writers were fascinated by the way post-War domesticity in white suburbia might drive women to insanity and crime, even as The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet was telling women that they were lucky to be living a life of domestic order and comfort with their time-saving Hotpoint appliances.

The tension in the church's death penalty teaching

As Tom reported yesterday, Pope Francis has declared that the death penalty is "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person."   I'd like to take take a look at the Catholic church's teaching on the death penalty in the two most recent revisions of the applicable paragraph in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  I'll try to identify the underlying principles present in those paragraphs, and touch on a tension that seems to be present in those syntheses.

Who will bear the tidings to the Supreme Court?

 The Church changed its teaching on capital punishment. I heard that this morning on NPR in a report that didn't say how or who said so. But the story turned out to be true enough when I chased it down on Zenit. And The Guardian even treated the news as a "challenge" to President Trump and a stumbling block to future  Vatican relations with China.
  It isn't going to be good news to a lot of American Catholics, either.
  The change is a new paragraph 2266 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Capital punishment has been a big problem for that book. The first edition of the Catechism allowed the death penalty if proper authority said it was needed. But then Pope John Paul applied brakes to that. The now-sainted pope said yeah, proper authority could use the death penalty if it had to, but there are hardly any conditions -- "rare, or non-existent" -- in the modern world when it would have to. That is how execution stood in more recent editions.
 Pope Francis removed the qualifiers, and the Catechism now says:
 

2267. Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.
Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.
Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.

A pledge of commitment - Updated

Update 8/3/2018 11:01 pm - Cardinal DiNardo, president of the USCCB, has issued a statement on the McCarrick controversy.  Scroll to the bottom of the post for more details.

-----

Less than two months ago, the American bishops reviewed and revised the documents known collectively as the Dallas Charter.   Those Charter documents include some specific promises by the bishops to hold one another accountable.  Their promises unexpectedly became both pertinent and important when, within a week of the Charter's revision, Cardinal McCarrick's allegedly abusive past was made public.   We hope and pray that the contents of the Charter documents are still fresh in the bishops' minds, because the church now looks to them to keep their promises.

Saint for the Abused

This article on the Commonweal site by B.D. McClay is worth reading, in view of our recent discussion of abusers in the Church.
Those of us who grew up Catholic in the 1950s and '60s are well acquainted with the story of St. Maria Goretti, who was canonized in 1950 by Pope Pius XII. As a girl, I had mixed feelings about her.  I respected her piety and virtue. But the main message I got from her story was that it was dangerous to be a girl.  My parents must have picked up on my uneasiness, or maybe they had some uneasiness themselves. I remember my dad saying something like, "I would rather have a living daughter than a dead saint."  And my mother's opinion was that Assunta, Maria's mother, was pretty clueless not to have know that Maria's attacker, Alesandro Serenelli, was up to no good.  "I'd have sorted him out with a 2 -by-4 before it ever got to the point that it did.  And then I would have taken my kids and left."  And she would have, too.  I was comforted by her reaction; but even then I knew that she had never been as disempowered as Maria's mother had been. We had never known life without a safety net, as they had.