Arguably few countries in the world have faced the scope of the Catholic clerical sexual abuse crisis as has Australia. The president of the country’s bishops’ conference believes that the only way to understand the drama is to speak with survivors, whom he compared to Jesus crucified.
The most profound example of forgiveness that many of us New Yorkers had the chance to witness up close and personal has to be that of the late NYPD Detective Steven McDonald forgiving the teenager who in 1986 shot him in Central Park and left him paralyzed from the neck down.
Anyone who reads this column regularly knows that I have long been interested in film. When I was in grammar school and high school, I loved all types of movies. When I moved on to college, I became interested in serious films. I also developed a strong interest in foreign films by directors such as Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Eric Rohmer and Robert Bresson.
Despite Pope Francis’ lecture on the subject at Synod-2015, and notwithstanding the passages on it in Synod-2018’s final report, there is little agreement in 21st-century Catholicism on what “synodality” means. In practical terms, perhaps synodality ought to mean something roughly analogous to what our British cousins mean by “horses for courses.” There, the phrase is a homely caution against one-size-fits-all remedies to problems.
In the midst of the current crisis in our church – with a once-admired cardinal accused of heinous acts, bishops widely judged incapable of policing themselves, investigators poring through church archives and ordinary Catholics in fits of anger and despair – Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, asked a very brave question recently: Where might the Holy Spirit be leading us?
The release by the Diocese of 108 names of ordained men credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors has caused great concern and consternation. The clergy sexual abuse crisis has been revived at a time when the Church has been making great strides to heal the wounds caused by this sorry chapter in its history.
Dear Editor: It was with deep sadness we heard about the recent death of our late mother’s nephew, Father Vincent Keane (“Msgr. Keane, Teacher and Pastor, Served As Priest For 60 Years,” Feb. 9).
Dear Editor: Seeing the children on a school bus, we get a good feeling. What if you are in Queens and saw over 300 empty buses? And in Brooklyn, 400 empty buses?
Dear Editor: Andrew Cuomo has now joined the ranks of Herod and Pontius Pilate. That governor washed his hands of the murderous act the crowd was crying out for.
Dear Editor: Very sad about Mary Queen of Heaven in Brooklyn (“Three Brooklyn Diocese Schools Slated to Close, Two Will Merge,” Feb. 9). Great school, great teachers – why not give them more time?
