Within hours of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s blockbuster claims that Pope Francis knew about former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s history of abuse, the bishop of Tyler, Texas, issued a statement saying he found those claims to be credible, asking that it be read at all Masses on Sunday.
The thing I remember most about St. Mother Teresa, whose feast is Sept. 5, was her joy. I met her three times in my life. Once when we were giving talks on the same program; once at a Vatican Seminar on Family Life, and once when she asked me to give a week-long retreat to her contemplative novices on joy. She founded two distinct orders, the one she picked for me was her cloistered contemplative community in New Jersey.
Photos from Pope Francis’ trip to Ireland
We are told that the Church is a family and that we, though many, are all part of one body, the Church. We, as Catholics, participate in a larger family – a global one – one which we are reminded of each and every time we attend Mass.
This past week, Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, made his journey to the World Meetings of Families, sponsored by the Vatican dicastery responsible for ministry to families, laity and life, headed by Cardinal Kevin Farrell. The Diocese of Brooklyn was blessed by a representation of priests and parishioners.
It would be a shame if last week’s papal trip to Ireland was judged simply as a referendum as to how the Church is handling the sex abuse crisis. While Pope Francis went to Ireland to affirm the World Meeting of Families, most of the headlines of the week surrounded the recent grand jury report about clergy sex abuse in Pennsylvania and Cardinal McCarrick’s resignation from the College of Cardinals as well as the history of abuse in Ireland.
Nearly a year ago, Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico as a category 4 storm, and afterward 11-year-old Marco Lebron’s first thought was about the monks who teach at his school, Benedictine-run San Antonio Abad School and Abbey in Humacao.
In an extraordinary move, our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has written a “Letter to the People of God” regarding the historical sex abuse cases of six dioceses in Pennsylvania, sadly a past problem which extended throughout the United States and even throughout the world.
Pope Francis spent 90 minutes meeting privately with eight survivors of sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy or in Catholic-run institutions.
In a stadium of Catholic families from around the world, Pope Francis told the laypeople they are the vast majority of Church members and that, without them, the Church would be cold, a collection of statues.
