Journeys of a Catholic Poster Girl

From WBCSTV in NYC:

After nearly four years of fighting sex abuse charges, Monsignor Charles Kavanagh will have his day in a Church court. It’s what the Vatican ordered. It’s what Kavanagh wants. “This is what I prayed for,” Kavanagh said. “I understand the need in this climate for significant review. All I want is a full and fair hearing and I’ll be fine.” In 2002 a former student accused Kavanagh of abusing him more than 20 years ago, when Kavanagh was head of Cathedral Prep Seminary in Manhattan. The claims were made beyond the statute of limitations. The Archdiocese of New York suspended Kavanagh, then pastor at St. Raymond Church in the Bronx, and pressed on with an internal investigation. They sent their findings to the judicial arm of the Vatican, which found the evidence merited a full trial by a Church Tribunal. “It’s good for the people of faith of the Archdiocese of New York,” said Joseph Zwilling of the Archdiocese of New York. ” They know I hope now that the Church takes those allegations very seriously.” While not overconfident, Kavanagh says the facts should exonerate him. “I feel that if I do this honorably my name will be cleared,” he said.

I’m glad to see a priest actually challenging these claims in court. I’ve been getting kind of tired of dioceses just rolling over and accepting these charges without a detailed investigation, especially ones past the statute of limitations like this one is. I don’t know how it will turn out, but I’m glad it’s been challenged in court.

Comments to follow:

Via Yahoo!

Pope Benedict XVI stressed his commitment to bringing Christian churches closer together during a meeting with a delegation of Presbyterian and Congregational church leaders at the Vatican. The pontiff made the point that the meeting with the World Alliance of Reformed Churches came on the 40th anniversary of the “Unitatis Redintegratio” papal decree committing the Catholic Church to dialogue with other churches to overcome “the tragic divisions which arose among Christians in the 16th century”, according to a statement released by the Vatican. The pope said he intended to pursue the strategy of his predecessor John Paul II who stipulated that “purification of memory” and “inner conversion is the prerequisite for all ecumenical progress”.
“Dear friends, I pray that our meeting today will itself bear fruit in a renewed commitment to work for the unity of all Christians. The way before us calls for wisdom, humility, patient study and exchange,” Benedict XVI said.

Well I am all about Christian unity as long as major theological points are sacrificed. I want a “good peace” but not at the expense of theological truth. Happily, I don’t believe B XVI will allow that (especially based on the title of his last book, Truth and Tolerance , which I’ve got to read soon….it’s in the pile). But any dialogue is good, and hopefully it will lead us closer to fulfilling Jesus’ prayer that “all may be one.”

A round-up of news from the Catholic world…with pithy comments ….

–The man who shot JP II will be released from prison this month. “Agca served 19 years in Italy for the assassination attempt before being pardoned at the Pope’s behest in 2000. He was then extradited to Turkey to serve a separate sentence in an Istanbul jail for robbery and murder. “Agca is expected to be released between January 10 and January 15,” Anatolian said, adding that he may then be required, like all Turkish men, to perform his military service.”

Given that JPII officially forgave him, and it seems that Agca experienced a conversion while in prison, it seems fitting to the late Pope’s memory that he is being released. I’m sure that his time in the military would curb any still-existing tendencies toward violence. (or so one would hope).

–B XVI elegantly ties scraments with theology at his first baptism; while baptising 10 babies (five boys, five girls) in the Sistine chapel (appropriately before Michaelangelo’s Last Judgement , he decried the “culture of death” (yay!), stating that:

“In our times we need to say ‘no’ to the largely dominant culture of death… “(There is) an anti-culture demonstrated by the flight to drugs, by the flight from reality, by illusions, by false happiness … displayed in sexuality which has become pure pleasure devoid of responsibility,” he added. He singled out ancient Rome’s Colosseum amphitheatre and the gardens of the emperor Nero, where Christians were once martyred, as a “real perversion of joy and a perversion of the sense of life.”
“The anti-culture of death was a love of lies and of deceit. It was an abuse of the body as a commodity and as a product. Even in our times there is this culture and we must say ‘No’ to it,” he said. (information from Yahoo! News)

The article also mentions this was the first time that B XVI spoke “off-the-cuff” to reporters (which, as I gathered from the article, was sort of unexpected and not exactly welcomed). I’m glad he talked about this issue, instead of the generic “importance of baptism” on which he was supposed to discuss. Too many priests and bishops in our Church do not discuss the important of this issue enough. It should be preached with regularity and passion, reminding us all of the importance of protecting all human life as our duty as Catholic Christians. It is of vital importance. Kudos to B XVI for continuing this important work.