John Chilton was in the courtroom today when the Virginia Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the dispute over property between the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and CANA over church property. Read his account at The Lead.
The Loudoun Times reports on the day in court with brief commentary from both sides in the dispute.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
NOW FROM SAN ANTONIO
From San Antonio.com:
Archbishop José Gomez takes up his office in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Los Angeles under a cloud of litigation.
Besides which, he is a member of Opus Dei, which some say is a cult. I'm inclined to agree.
H/T to Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish.
A Catholic priest from a rural parish west of San Antonio is accused in a lawsuit filed Thursday of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy at gunpoint and during private catechism sessions two years ago.
The suit, which names outgoing Archbishop José Gomez as a defendant and claims he sought to conceal the matter, comes three days after the Vatican named Gomez as the next archbishop in Los Angeles.
He is transferring to California next month. Gomez said recently through a spokesman that his five-year tenure involved no new sex-abuse allegations.
The suit claims that Father John M. Fiala repeatedly assaulted the youth from January to August 2008 while Fiala was working as administrator at Sacred Heart of Mary in Rocksprings.
Archbishop José Gomez takes up his office in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Los Angeles under a cloud of litigation.
Besides which, he is a member of Opus Dei, which some say is a cult. I'm inclined to agree.
H/T to Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish.
LETTER FROM THE BISHOPS IN CONNECTICUT
The Roman Catholic bishops in Connecticut posted a "legislative alert" letter on the website of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport.
If you think I'm persecuting the Roman Catholic Church, you should read Andrew Sullivan.
Dear Parishioners and Friends:
As the Bishops of the Catholic family of the State of Connecticut, we are requesting your immediate attention to House Bill 5473, which may be voted on in the General Assembly during the next week or two.
This bill would retroactively eliminate the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits related to allegations of child sexual abuse. Connecticut already has the longest retroactive statute in the United States – 30 years past the age of 18. Over the past several years in states that have even temporarily eliminated the statutes, it has caused the bankruptcy of at least seven dioceses. House Bill 5473 would make Connecticut the only State without a statute of limitations. This bill would put all Church institutions, including your parish, at risk.
The nature of bankruptcy litigation puts all assets at risk, even if your parish has had no past incidents, reports or allegations of child abuse. That is why it is important for you to join other Catholics across Connecticut in opposing this legislation.
If you think I'm persecuting the Roman Catholic Church, you should read Andrew Sullivan.
VATICAN GUIDE FOR HANDLING REPORTS OF CHILD ABUSE
The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith posted an online guide for handling allegations of child abuse.
IT'S BAD
From NOLA.com:
If my count is correct, three people are dead and 15 were wounded, some critically, from gunshots during the weekend and on Monday. What's going on? There's a vacuum at the top. Ray Nagin seems to be MIA. He's pretty much departed from his job as mayor before the next mayor is sworn in, except for his attempts to commit the new mayor to as many contracts as possible before he leaves office. The New Orleans Police Department is demoralized, and Chief Warren Riley seems unable to implement a strategy to stem the violence.
May 3, the date of Mitch Landrieu's swearing into the office of mayor of New Orleans, can't come fast enough for me. I know he's no savior, but he'll be a better mayor than Nagin if he only half tries. He faces the daunting challenge of reducing violence in the city.
Ormonde at Through the Dust keeps count of the murders in New Orleans. He'll have more names to add to the list for his next post in his series, "Murder capital of the US of A".
Seven people were shot in New Orleans on Monday, two of them fatally, on the heels of a violent weekend that saw 18 people shot in the New Orleans area, eight in a single high-profile incident on Canal Street as the second night of the French Quarter Festival wrapped up Saturday.
Police responded to a call of shots fired Monday around 1:20 p.m. at Law and Desire streets, where they found Terence Butler, 36, dead. Two other men were taken to the hospital, where one of them, Derrick Jones, 32, died, said John Gagliano, chief investigator for the coroner's office. A third person was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
Minutes later, police responded to a separate shooting three blocks away at Clouet Street and Lausat Place and found a man who had been shot several times. He too was transported to a hospital in critical condition, said New Orleans police spokesmen Garry Flot and Jannsen Valencia.
If my count is correct, three people are dead and 15 were wounded, some critically, from gunshots during the weekend and on Monday. What's going on? There's a vacuum at the top. Ray Nagin seems to be MIA. He's pretty much departed from his job as mayor before the next mayor is sworn in, except for his attempts to commit the new mayor to as many contracts as possible before he leaves office. The New Orleans Police Department is demoralized, and Chief Warren Riley seems unable to implement a strategy to stem the violence.
May 3, the date of Mitch Landrieu's swearing into the office of mayor of New Orleans, can't come fast enough for me. I know he's no savior, but he'll be a better mayor than Nagin if he only half tries. He faces the daunting challenge of reducing violence in the city.
Ormonde at Through the Dust keeps count of the murders in New Orleans. He'll have more names to add to the list for his next post in his series, "Murder capital of the US of A".
IN THE BLOOMIN' GARDEN - 2
A bridal wreath bush in bloom. It's planted beside the garden shed, which I cropped out of the picture.
Another variety of azalea. We have white azaleas, too, but I don't have a picture.
My favorite of all the pictures. The rosebush is a transplant from New Roads, where it grows and flourishes with little care. The bush does the same here. Grandpère stopped planting roses, because most rose plants require frequent treatment for black spot because of the humidity. However, we have two varieties here in Thibodaux, both of which came from New Roads, the pink above and a white rosebush, which grow and bloom well here without spraying. I'm guessing the roses are old varieties and not hybrids and are thus hardier and more resistant to disease than hybrids.
And last, but not least, the red geraniums in pots near the back door. They're beautiful now but will be less so in the height of the summer heat.
Monday, April 12, 2010
BISHOP ALAN - THE COOLEST BISHOP IN ALL ENGLAND?
Possibly. Read his commentary on his night out at 606 titled Soul Food in Chelsea.
Feeding the soul is not just for Lent. The highlight of this post-Easter break has been a visit with an old friend and Stephanie to the 606, one of my loved and inceasingly loved sources of soul food.
....
This is not ego food, but soul food — graceful, passionate stuff.
A. N. WILSON - A VOICE FROM THE PAST
From the Telegraph in June of 2003, when Jeffery John had been chosen as bishop-elect of Reading in England, but before he was pressed to step down by his good friend, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, comes this charming and quite moving piece by the writer, A. N. Wilson.
The quoted text does not at all do justice to Wilson's entire column, which is titled, "Tawdry Audrey, Bobo, Maud, Pearl . . . all better men than I".
If you recall, in my post on Bishop Barry Morgan's Easter sermon, the bishop quotes Wilson. Wilson grew up in the faith, grew out of the faith, and later returned to the faith.
Thanks to Lapin for the link to Wilson's piece.
Cathy sent me the link to the lovely story of Wilson's return to the faith in the New Statesman in April of 2009.
Here's a snippet from Wilson's story, which includes a reference to Bonhoeffer:
The Bishop Elect of Reading, the Revd Jeffrey John, has attracted a lot of notice, particularly in this newspaper. The reason is that he has been brave enough to admit that he is a homosexual. He lives with his friend, but tells us that he will in future be celibate.
I was asked recently whether I had been at the Oxford theological college St Stephen's House at the same time as he was.
As it happens, I think I'm a bit older than Dr John. In the mists of time, I remember meeting him, and I think he was chaplain of Magdalen College, Oxford. He asked me to give a talk to the undergraduates, and I seem to recollect a fairly earnest evening discussing religion and literature. He is certainly not the wild gay revolutionary depicted in the media.
....
At Staggers (as St Stephen's was known), they gave most of the students "names in religion". This meant that the young men called one another by girls' names. Young homosexuals of my acquaintance aren't camp in this way any more. That whole Colony Room, Francis Bacon tradition of calling one another a silly bitch has rather gone out, to be replaced by earnestness of one kind or another.
The quoted text does not at all do justice to Wilson's entire column, which is titled, "Tawdry Audrey, Bobo, Maud, Pearl . . . all better men than I".
If you recall, in my post on Bishop Barry Morgan's Easter sermon, the bishop quotes Wilson. Wilson grew up in the faith, grew out of the faith, and later returned to the faith.
Thanks to Lapin for the link to Wilson's piece.
Cathy sent me the link to the lovely story of Wilson's return to the faith in the New Statesman in April of 2009.
Here's a snippet from Wilson's story, which includes a reference to Bonhoeffer:
I haven't mentioned morality, but one thing that finally put the tin hat on any aspirations to be an unbeliever was writing a book about the Wagner family and Nazi Germany, and realising how utterly incoherent were Hitler's neo-Darwinian ravings, and how potent was the opposition, much of it from Christians; paid for, not with clear intellectual victory, but in blood. Read Pastor Bonhoeffer's book Ethics, and ask yourself what sort of mad world is created by those who think that ethics are a purely human construct. Think of Bonhoeffer's serenity before he was hanged, even though he was in love and had everything to look forward to.
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