1. Portugal abuse cases mount amid questions over Nobel bishop, By Barry Hatton, Associated Press, October 3, 2022, 8:48 AM
Clergy sexual abuse cases are casting a pall over the Catholic Church in Portugal, ensnaring senior officials even as authorities scramble to explain why shelter was given to a Nobel Peace Prize-winning bishop at the center of sexual misconduct allegations.
Senior Catholic leaders apologized over the weekend for the hurt caused by decades of alleged abuse and cover-up — current estimates number around 400 cases — with the archbishop of Lisbon begging the faithful to not lose faith in the church.
“Be confident that for our part we will do our best, with respect to the law and the Gospel,” Archbishop Manuel Clemente said after Sunday Mass.
A spotlight fell on Portuguese church authorities, as well as the Vatican, last week when the Holy See’s sex abuse office confirmed a Dutch media report that in 2020 it had secretly sanctioned Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the revered independence hero of East Timor, a small former Portuguese colony in East Asia. Belo, who has been living in Portugal, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/portugal-abuse-cases-mount-amid-questions-over-nobel-bishop/2022/10/03/1e1ab890-4315-11ed-be17-89cbe6b8c0a5_story.html
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2. Vatican cardinal cancels trip amid backlash over synodal way remarks, Local media reported that Cardinal Kurt Koch pulled out of a planned visit to Germany for ‘security reasons.’, By Luke Coppen, The Pillar, October 3, 2022, 12:19 PM
A Vatican cardinal canceled a weekend visit to Germany after reportedly receiving threats related to his recent remarks about the country’s “synodal way.”
Cardinal Kurt Koch was due to celebrate Mass and give a lecture on Oct. 2 in the southern German city of Schwäbisch Gmünd. He was also expected to celebrate Mass in the nearby town of Ellwangen on Oct. 3.
But local media reported that the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity pulled out of the trip for “security reasons.”
The 72-year-old cardinal provoked anger in Germany when he invoked the Nazi era while criticizing the synodal way, a controversial initiative bringing together bishops and lay people to discuss hot-button issues.
Bishop Georg Bätzing, chairman of the German bishops’ conference, called on Koch to apologize publicly after the cardinal referred to the virulently anti-Semitic “German Christian” movement in a Sept. 29 interview with the newspaper Die Tagespost.
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/vatican-cardinal-cancels-trip-amid-backlash-over-synodal-way-remarks/
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3. How ‘serious’ is Pope Francis about peace?, Pope Francis has appealed to the Ukrainian president to be open to “serious proposals for peace.” But are serious proposals on offer? And how much moral weight does he have to throw behind them?, By Ed. Condon, The Pillar, October 3, 2022, 8:10 PM, Opinion
Pope Francis made an impassioned plea for peace during his Angelus address on Sunday. Speaking directly to the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, the pope’s plea for peace came after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions, and his threat to deploy nuclear weapons.
During his address, Francis made a “confident appeal to the President of Ukraine to be open to serious proposals for peace.”
But that plea left some observers – and many Ukrainians – asking: Are there serious proposals on offer in Ukraine?
And if there are, how much moral weight does Pope Francis have to throw behind them?
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But while Francis has begun to speak of “martyred Ukraine,” he has also continued to criticize what he considers to be “simplistic” narratives of the war.
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But a vacillating swing of papal tone, between sympathy for all sides and strident denunciations of Russian atrocities, will likely make it harder for Francis’ to gain support for “serious proposals for peace,” either in Ukraine or more broadly among international leaders.
The realpolitik of the war in Ukraine may require a choice between ever more dangerous escalation, albeit forced by Russia, and the sacrifice of Ukrainian land and families to prevent it.
Try as he might, Francis may find it impossible to make a case for peace without tacitly rewarding Putin’s war.
If the only realistic hope for a ceasefire will entail handing over Ukrainian territory — and the people living there — to Russian control, the pope will likely be expected to acknowledge frankly the injustice of what “serious” peace proposals actually entail.
Recognizing that injustice, and what it asks of Ukrainians, will be an essential first step toward convincing the pope’s doubters to take his call for peace seriously.
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/how-serious-is-pope-francis-about-peace/
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4. Europe’s top human rights court to rule on landmark euthanasia case, By AC Wimmer, Catholic News Agency, October 3, 2022, 6:30 AM
The European Court of Human Rights is set to rule in a landmark euthanasia case on Tuesday on whether Belgium wrongly allowed a woman to be euthanized by lethal injection on the grounds of “untreatable depression.”
Tom Mortier is the son of Godelieva de Troyer, who died in 2012 after she had approached the country’s leading euthanasia advocate, who ultimately agreed to euthanize her despite being a cancer specialist.
Before her death by euthanasia at age 64, neither her son nor any family member was consulted, according to a statement by the Christan legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF International).
Mortier says that Belgium violated the European Convention on Human Rights for failing to adequately protect the right to life of his mother, who suffered severe mental difficulties and coped with depression throughout her life.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252447/europe-s-top-human-rights-court-to-rule-on-landmark-euthanasia-case
__________________________________________________________TCA Media Monitoring provides a snapshot from national newspapers and major Catholic press outlets of coverage regarding significant Catholic Church news and current issues with which the Catholic Church is traditionally or prominently engaged. The opinions and views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect the views of The Catholic Association. |
