Posts Tagged Holy See
Vatican hits sour note with women, but progress may come / Associated Press
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Voice of the Faithful, Women in Catholic Church on February 2, 2015
A new Vatican outreach initiative to listen to women hit a sour note before it even got off the ground: The sexy blonde on its Internet promo video came under such ridicule that it was quickly taken down.
“But the program is going ahead, and an inaugural meeting this week will study women’s issues in ways that are utterly new for the Holy See.
“No, there is no talk of ordaining women priests.
“But the working paper for the Pontifical Council of Culture’s plenary assembly on ‘Women’s Cultures: Equality and Difference’ speaks about opening the church’s doors to women so they can offer their skills ‘in full collaboration and integration’ with men.”
By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Also of interest from the Vatican Information Service today —
Vatican City, 2 February 2015 (VIS) – A press conference was held in the Holy See Press Office this morning to present the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Culture on the theme “Women’s Cultures: between equality and difference,” which will be held in Rome from 4 to 7 February. The speakers were Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture; Anna Maria Tarantola, president of RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana); Monica Maggioni, director of RAI News; and Nancy Brilli, actor.
The Assembly will be divided into four sessions in which the following themes will be considered: “Between equality and difference: the quest for equilibrium,” “Generativity as a symbolic code,” “The female body: between culture and biology” and “Women and religion: flight or new forms of participation in the life of the Church?” The Congress will be attended only by members and consultors of the Pontifical Council by pontifical appointment, with the exception of the session on Wednesday 4 February, when there will be a moment of public participation at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. For a period of 50 minutes there will be a series of videos, brief interviews, readings and images, and live music. Entry will be free, subject to capacity.
Paraguayan bishop who shielded priest abuser removed from office / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Clericalism, Pope Francis, Voice of the Faithful on September 25, 2014
Pope Francis has removed a bishop from his diocese in eastern Paraguay following an apostolic visitation that found he had shielded a priest from accusations of sexual abuse of minors.
“Bishop Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano, 69, has been removed from heading the Ciudad del Este diocese, a statement from the Vatican press office said Thursday (Sept. 25).
“‘This was a difficult decision on the part of the Holy See, taken for serious pastoral reasons and for the greater good of the unity of the Church in Ciudad del Este and the episcopal communion in Paraguay,’ the Vatican statement said.”
By Dennis Coday, National Catholic Reporter — Click here to read the rest of this story.
The Catholic church & Sex Abuse: Looming Shadows / The Economist
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on May 16, 2014
POPES and their officials have long benefited from the Vatican’s unique dual status in international law. As the Vatican City State, it can shelter prelates wanted for questioning elsewhere and play host to offshore financial institutions such as the Vatican Bank. But when world leaders visit the pope in Rome it is to meet the absolute ruler of a global entity, the Holy See. As the Holy See, the Vatican engages in diplomacy, holds observer status at the UN and signs most treaties. The Holy See is sometimes called a sovereign entity without territory, although its sovereign, the pope, is also the ruler of the Vatican City State. It is a legal expression of the Catholic church’s leadership, yet American lawyers for the church have successfully argued that the Vatican is not responsible for Catholic clerics’ wrongdoing.
“On May 23rd the Vatican’s split personality will be put to a new test when a UN committee releases the findings of an inquiry into the Holy See’s compliance with the Convention against Torture, which it signed in 2002. Most of the questions put to the pope’s representative, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, in the public hearings were about the sexual abuse of children and adolescents by Catholic clerics. If the committee decides it was torture, a wave of prosecutions of historic offences could follow: there is usually no time limit for bringing torture charges, as there generally is for sex crimes. And if it judges the Holy See accountable for priests’ and bishops’ misconduct, victims’ lawyers may challenge existing jurisprudence and demand compensation from Rome.”
By The Economist — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Vatican: 848 Priests Defrocked for Abuse since ’04 / Associated Press
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Clericalism, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on May 7, 2014
The Vatican revealed Tuesday that over the past decade, it has defrocked 848 priests who raped or molested children and sanctioned another 2,572 with lesser penalties, providing the first ever breakdown of how it handled the more than 3,400 cases of abuse reported to the Holy See since 2004 …
“The Vatican statistics are notable in that they show how the peaks in numbers over the years – both of cases reported and sanctions meted out – roughly parallels the years in which abuse scandals were in the news. And they showed that far from diminishing in recent years, the number of cases reported annually to the Vatican has remained a fairly constant 400 or so since 2010, the last year the scandal erupted in public around the globe. These cases, however, concern mostly abuse that occurred decades ago.”
By John Heilprin and Nicole Winfield, Associated Press — Click here to read the rest of this story.
U.N. Panel on Torture Presses Vatican Envoy on Abuse / The New York Times
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on May 6, 2014
The Vatican faced sharp questioning by a United Nations panel on Monday (May 5) about whether it failed to abide by an international treaty against torture in its response to the sexual abuse of children by priests.
“In the hearing, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s representative in Geneva, immediately found himself at odds with members of the panel, the Committee Against Torture, over the Holy See’s view that it is responsible for applying the treaty only to the few hundred inhabitants of the Vatican City state.”
By Nick Cumming Bruce, The New York Times — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Vatican Facing UN Showdown on Sex Abuse Record / Associated Press
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on January 15, 2014
The Vatican is gearing up for a bruising showdown over the global priest sex abuse scandal, forced for the first time to defend itself at length and in public against allegations it enabled the rape of thousands of children by protecting pedophile priests and its own reputation at the expense of victims. The Holy See on Thursday (Jan. 16) will be grilled by a U.N. committee in Geneva on its implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Among other things, the treaty calls for signatories to take all appropriate measures to protect children from harm and to put children’s interests above all else.” By Nicole Winfield and John Heilprin, Associated Press — Click here to read the rest of this article.
Not a Happy Day in Hartford / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, church reform, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on October 31, 2013
“Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you,” we read in 1 Peter 3:15. We are called to be “a people of hope.” Some days, watching and listening to Pope Francis, being hopeful comes easy, even naturally.
“Today (Oct. 29) is not one of those days. In naming Bishop Leonard Blair to become the next archbishop of Hartford, Conn., the Holy See has sent what can only be described as a counter-sign. This was a missed opportunity to send a signal to all the bishops in the United States that the Holy Father is calling for a different style of pastoral leadership in the Church. In June, Pope Francis spoke to the nuncios from around the world assembled in Rome. He sketched the type of pastoral leadership he expected in the appointment of bishops. The pope said he wanted pastors who would serve their people, not serve as overlords. They were, he famously said, to be men who “have the smell of the sheep.
“The good news is that Archbishop-designate Blair has the smell of the sheep. The bad news is that one suspects he thinks the sheep stink.”
By Michael Sean Winters, National Catholic Reporter — Read the rest of Winters’ article by clicking here.
Arrested Monsignor Charges Corruption in Vatican Finances / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Church Finances, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on October 3, 2013
Just days after the Vatican bank attempted to project a new image of transparency with a first-ever audited financial statement, another Vatican financial department faced fresh charges of corruption and shady practices. Italian newspapers today contained extracts from testimony given to Italian investigators by Msgr. Nunzio Scarano, a former accountant at the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA), who was arrested in June for alleged involvement in a plot to smuggle $26 million in cash into Italy from Switzerland at the behest of a family of shipping magnates.” By John L. Allen, Jr., National Catholic Reporter
Read the rest of John Allen’s story by clicking here.
America Magazine Commentary Sees Hope for the American Nuns
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Religious Women, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on April 18, 2013
Pope Francis, the CDF and the LCWR by James Martin, S.J., in America magazine
Today (April 15) the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement about the ongoing oversight and “reform” (to use their word) of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the main umbrella organization of women religious in the United States, which represents roughly 80% of American Catholic sisters and nuns. In their statement, the Congregation noted that the new prefect of the Congregation, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, as well as Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, the Holy See’s Delegate for the Doctrinal Assessment of the LCWR, met with the Presidency of the LCWR. Archbishop Müller also noted that he had spoken with Pope Francis, who “reaffirmed” the findings of the Assessment, and the “program of reform.” The LCWR issued a statement, which listed the participants in the meeting in full, and said that the meeting was “open and frank.” Several things need to be kept in mind before people jump to conclusions about what this may or may not portend.
Voice of the Faithful
A lay movement for governance reform in the Roman Catholic Church, responding to the clergy sexual abuse scandal and supporting survivors.
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