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Man to be tried in priest assault

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 11 (UPI) -- A California judge ruled Thursday a San Francisco man should stand trial for allegedly assaulting the Catholic priest he says molested him decades ago.

Judge David Cena also rejected a defense motion to reduce the charges against Will Lynch, 43, to a misdemeanor, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Lynch's lawyer, Mark Geragos, told the newspaper his client believes the trial will be an opportunity to hold the Rev. Jerry Lindner morally responsible for his actions. The statute of limitations prevents any criminal charges from being brought against the 65-year-old priest, who has been accused of abuse by others as well, including his own brother and sister.

"I think the truth will come out," Geragos said. "I don't think this guy will ever take the stand. I don't think he's got the guts. He's a coward. He's just retreated into this church-sponsored anonymity."

Lynch allegedly assaulted Lindner last year at a Jesuit center in Los Gatos where the retired priest is now living.

A woman testified at the preliminary hearing Wednesday that she saw the assault. But she also acknowledged under cross-examination that Lindner is on a list of priests suspected of molesting children.

Lynch and his brother settled a civil case with the Jesuit order. They said Lynch abused them at a church camp in Portola State Park in the 1970s. Read more at www.upi.com

 

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Two priests with Delco connections among those indicted for abuse in Philly

By Patti Mengers

Two men who formerly served as priests in Delaware County were among three suspects named today by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams in the sexual assault of children in a northeast Philadelphia Roman Catholic parish as a result of a grand jury investigation. The grand jury accused the Rev. James J. Brennan, 47, who was on the faculty of Cardinal O’Hara High School in Marple from 1991 to 1996, of assaulting a 14-year-old boy at St. Jerome’s parish in Philadelphia in 1996. He surrendered to authorities this morning according to Tasha Jamerson, director of communications for the Philadelphia District Attorney. Brennan had been on leave of absence and restricted from performing priestly duties since Jan. 16, 2006 according to officials in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Edward V. Avery, 68, who was dismissed from the priesthood March 8, 2006, has been charged with assaulting a 10-year-old boy in St. Jerome parish from 1998 to 1999. He surrendered to civil authorities this morning. Avery was assistant pastor at St. Bernadette Church in the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby from June 1970 to June 1972 and assistant pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Chester from June 1972 to February 1976. The Rev. Charles Englehardt has been charged with assaulting the same St. Jerome parish boy during the same period as Avery’s alleged assault and Bernard Shero, a 48-year-old Catholic school lay teacher, is charged with assaulting the same St. Jerome boy in 2000. Neither Englehardt nor Shero have served or taught in Delaware County, according to archdiocesan spokesman Kenneth Gavin. "The report recommended that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia overhaul its procedures for assisting victims and for removing from ministry, priests accused of molesting minors. The grand jury encouraged victims to report their abuse first to law enforcement," according to a statement released by Williams’ office. The grand jury also accused the Rev. Msgr. William J. Lynn, a former parochial vicar of St. Katharine of Siena parish in the Wayne section of Radnor, with endangering the welfare of children while he was responsible for investigating clerical sexual abuse from 1992 until 2004 under former Philadelphia Archbishop, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua. Brennan was in residence at St. Mary Magdalen parish in Upper Providence from June 1995 to April 1996 and at Divine Providence Village, a facility for developmentally disabled women and girls in Maple from June 1991 to June 1995. Brennan served as parochial vicar at St. Jerome’s, where the alleged abuse occurred, from July 1997 to June 1998. Officials in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said they received allegations that Brennan committed sexual abuse on Jan. 13, 2006 and reported the allegations to the Bucks County and Chester County district attorneys on Jan. 18, 2006. He was parochial vicar at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish in Feasterville, Bucks County, in 1998, when he was accused of abusing a minor who was not a parish member. He served as parochial vicar at St. Andrew’s parish in Newtown, Bucks County from 1989 to 1991. On Aug. 21, 2006 the archdiocesan review board determined there was sufficient evidence to substantiate the sexual abuse allegations against Brennan. He was living in a private residence being supervised through the archdiocese’s Prayer and Penance Program Monitor, awaiting the results of a canonical trial, before he surrendered to civil authorities this morning. Archdiocesan officials received an allegation that Avery committed sexual abuse in September 1992 and Cardinal Bevilacqua then made him chaplain at Nazareth Hospital in Philadelphia from December 1993 to Dec. 5, 2003. The Vatican removed Avery from the priesthood in 2006. In September 2007 archdiocesan officials said they turned a new allegation of sexual abuse by Avery over to the Delaware County District Attorney, but determined there was insufficient evidence to substantiate the abuse. Archdiocesan officials turned another allegation of abuse by Avery over to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office Jan. 30, 2009. Archdiocesan officials said they received an allegation of abuse by Engelhardt, who is a member of the Oblates of St. Francis DeSales, Jan. 30, 2009 and turned the allegations over to the Philadelphia District Attorney and ordered Engelhardt to leave his residence at Resurrection of Our Lord parish in Philadelphia the same day. He was living in a residence supervised by the Oblates before surrendering to civil authorities this morning. Archdiocesan officials also received an allegation of sexual abuse by Shero on Jan. 30, 2009 and reported the allegation to the Philadelphia District Attorney the same day. He was removed from his teaching assignment at St. Thomas Aquinas School in Croydon, Bucks County and his contract was not renewed for the 2009-2010 academic year, according to archdiocesan officials. Jamerson said Shero was expected to surrender to civil authorities today as was Lynn, the Secretary for Clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 until 2004. The 60-year-old monsignor has been charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child in connection with the assaults. A woman who answered the phone at St. Joseph’s parish in Downingtown, Chester County, where Lynn has been pastor since 2004, referred all requests for comment from Lynn to archdiocesan officials. Avery, Brennan, Engelhardt and Shero have all been accused of rape, indecent assault and other criminal charges and each face a maximum of 67 years in prison if convicted on all charges. Lynn faces a maximum of 14 years in prison if convicted on all charges. "The grand jury found that Monsignor Lynn endangered children, including the victims in these most recent cases, by knowingly allowing dangerous priests to continue in the ministry in roles in which they had access to children," according to a press release from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office. In a prepared statement released this morning, Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, said he had not yet had the opportunity to review the grand jury report so he could not comment on its contents. "It is my intention to consider carefully and take very seriously any observations and recommendations of the grand jury. I also welcome the opportunity for ongoing collaboration with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office in the vital work of protecting children," Rigali wrote. A grand jury investigation launched by former Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham in 2002 revealed in 2005 that 63 priests allegedly abused children as far back as the 1940s, 43 of whom had connections with Delaware County. All of them escaped criminal prosecution at that time because Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations had expired by the time civil authorities became aware of the alleged abuse. In 2006 the Pennsylvania Legislature attempted to address the issue by expanding the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse to age 50 for victims. Previously, charges had to be filed within two years of the alleged abuse and no later than age 18. The Philadelphia District Attorney today urged alleged victims of clerical sexual abuse to call 215-686-8783 or to e-mail da.victimservices@phila.gov. Read more at www.delconewsnetwork.com

 

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Philippine church celebrates 100 years of Protestantism

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Philippine church celebrates 100 years of Protestantism

Maurice Malanes

Baguio City, Philippines (ENInews). A Philippine church, which traces its start to American colonisation in the early 1900s, is now 100 years old and leaders and parishioners are celebrating the legacies of Protestantism for "a century of God’s faithfulness and love." "Protestantism definitely helped uphold our right to religious expression," Bishop Marino Inong told ENInews. "With Protestantism, the Bible was opened to people for study and scrutiny." Inong is the senior pastor of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, located in Baguio, a northern Philippine mountain city of 400,000 that was first established as a summer capital by Americans in 1909. The church traces its roots to the works of early American missionaries whose Filipino disciples "came together in fellowship" on 11 February 1911 to establish the forerunner of what is now the UCCP-Baguio. After almost 400 years under Spanish rule, the Philippines' dominant religion was Roman Catholicism until the United States took control in 1898. "For over three centuries, Roman Catholicism was the imposed religion," Inong said. He said the introduction of Protestantism "opened the eyes of Filipinos to other expressions of the Christian faith." Still, during the early decades of Protestantism, there was "an atmosphere of animosity between Roman Catholics and Protestant converts," said retired UCCP-Baguio Bishop Juan Marigza. ENInews spoke to Marigza before he delivered a homily during a special centennial thanksgiving service on 11 February. "Since we Protestants stress strengthening our faith through Bible study, Roman Catholics then would taunt us, even claiming we were heretics, because for them, only authorised Catholic clergy should interpret the Bible," he said. However, he said, Protestant churches such as the UCCP-Baguio "persevered in stressing studying the Bible, not only during Sunday Schools, but also in the homes of members." Protestant-Roman Catholic animosity gradually ebbed beginning in the late 1960s after the Second Vatican Council's reforms, led by Pope John XXIII, said Marigza. He recalled that the pope had said that the church should "open the windows to let the fresh wind of the Holy Spirit come to all people." In 1961, the Vatican created the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity and appointed the first representative to the Assembly of the World Council of Churches, held that year in New Delhi. This development led to Roman Catholic-Protestant collaboration in translating the Bible into various Philippine languages, starting in 1976, said Marigza, who was part of the translation team. "So as we celebrate a century of the Lord's faithfulness and love, we are also happy that in our hundred-year journey as a church, we have witnessed in our lifetime the seeds of Christian dialogue and unity," he said. The UCCP-Baguio, with about 4,000 members, is among the mainline Protestant churches – which include Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran and Salvation Army. Read more at www.eni.ch

 

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Medjugorje is generating what the Devil loves most: disobedience

St Bernadette lived a holy and humble life. I don’t think the same can be said for the Medjugorje seers

By Francis Phillips

Pilgrims gather around a statue of Mary in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina (CNS/Damir Sagolj, Reuters)

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. I have been to Lourdes on several occasions, largely drawn by the personality of St Bernadette herself. Being chosen by Our Lady as her messenger did not make Bernadette holy; it was how she lived her life afterwards, especially during the 13 years she spent at the convent in Nevers: often in pain, unable to take part in the regular life of the community because of her ill-health, lonely, isolated and constantly belittled by the mistress of novices, she nevertheless bore her crosses with exemplary patience.

St Bernadette has been on my mind ever since I got sent a YouTube film recently, advertising Medjugorje. J Edgar Hoover once said that the only certainties in life were death and taxes. I would add a third: controversy over Medjugorje. It seems that Catholics today are divided into two camps: you are either “for” Medjugorje or “against”. This, needless to say, has led to much unseemly in-fighting within the Church.

What annoyed me about the YouTube presentation (apart from the muzak and the hushed and reverential voice of the narrator) was its blatant way of referring to the alleged apparition as “Our Lady”, as if this were a foregone conclusion. It isn’t. I was further nettled by statements seeming to show that the late pope, John Paul II, as well as Mother Teresa, both “believed” in it, as if to demonstrate that the apparitions must be true, simply because of the witness of these two holy heavyweights.

I am not an expert on the subject of these alleged apparitions. But I have read enough of St John of the Cross to know what he means by “spiritual gluttony” in my encounters over the years with adherents of the place. One lady told me excitedly of her rosary turning to gold; another had been overwhelmed by watching the sun dance; a third became very angry very quickly when I expressed a little caution in my response to her assertion that Medjugorje only brought forth good fruits.

My own instinct is to think that Our Lady has not appeared thousands of times to the supposed seers, or given them dozens of different “secrets”. Nor do the seers themselves live lives like St Bernadette. Of course, you don’t have to be a saint to see Our Lady, as I said above; but there seems to be nothing humble, holy or hidden about the later lives of the Medjugorje “seers”.

Actually, what I think as a private person, or what the late pope wrote in a private letter to two friends who had sent him literature about Medjugorje, or indeed what the saintly Mother Teresa is said to have said, is neither here nor there; it is what the Church thinks that matters. What the Church thinks about alleged apparitions is left to the local Ordinary to investigate and pronounce.

Four years after the Lourdes apparitions of 1858, and after a lengthy investigation, the local bishop pronounced them authentic. In the case of Medjugorje, both Bishop Zanic of Mostar and his successor, Bishop Peric, fully investigated the phenomenon and decided that nothing supernatural was taking place. So why are bandwagons of pilgrims still going there? The answer probably lies in Understanding Medjugorje: Heavenly Visions or Religious Illusion by Donal Foley, available from Theotokos Books. Foley has his vociferous detractors, naturally enough, but he has done his homework and reading his book reinforced my own sceptical instincts. In particular, the scandalous behaviour he describes of some of the Franciscans closely associated with the place, seems shocking: Fr Slavko Barbaric, who died in 2000 and who I was told by one of the faithful at the time “has been taken by Our Lady straight to heaven”, had actually had his faculties for hearing confession withdrawn by Bishop Peric several months before his death; Fr Zovko, who was refused permission to celebrate Mass in Washington in 2002, had had his faculties also revoked; worst of all, Fr Tomislav Vlasic, deeply involved in the early years of Medjugorje, was laicised and dismissed from the Franciscan order very recently, in July 2009, for various misdemeanours including some against the Sixth Commandment.

Bishop Peric has spoken of other problems, apart from disobedient Franciscans: religious communities established without diocesan permission and ecclesiastical buildings erected without approval. What is going on? A sound Canadian priest once said to me, when I asked him about the “good fruits” of Medjugorje: “The Devil doesn’t mind a few thousand people becoming better Catholics after going there if, as a result, he’s got millions of Catholics being disobedient to the authority of the Church.”

Obedience is the issue. It’s what the Devil (you can’t get away from him – and my thanks to “paulpriest”, who pointed out at length to me after my last blog how very busy Old Nick is behind the scenes today) hates like poison. You can imagine Screwtape rubbing his hands with glee. St Bernadette was once asked what she feared most; her reply was: “Bad Catholics”.

Read more at www.catholicherald.co.uk

 

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Esquire Magazine should be investigated

On the front page of the website of Esquire magazine, there is an article by its executive editor, Mark Warren, titled, "Investigate the Vatican". Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments.

By William Donohue

Mark Warren's article gives new meaning to the word "rant," for it is the most turgid declamation on the Catholic Church in print. He begins by applauding the New Yorker for its critical piece on Scientology, founded by L. Ron Hubbard. But he is angry nonetheless. "Wouldn't the resources and time of journalists be better directed at the finances, earthly corruption, and raw power of the Catholic Church, an institution that wields influence incalculably greater that L. Ron Hubbard's itty-bitty religion?" Then the rant begins in earnest. "I mean, I grew up believing that every breath I drew sent a god-made-man named Jesus Christ writhing on the cross to which he had been nailed...so that he might die for my sins so that I might live. And yet, I was born not innocent but complicit in this lynching, incomprehensibly having to apologize and atone for this barbarism for all my days and feel terrible about myself and all mankind."

Only an ex-Catholic would be capable of writing something like this. Then, of course, he laces into the pope blaming him for the homosexual scandal. Having never heard of this guy, I quickly found out that Warren's hero is poor Christopher Hitchens. More revealing is his characterization of Osama bin Laden as merely "ridiculous." By contrast, he speaks of "the dashing Bill Donohue" in comparatively worse terms, provoking him to ask "what on earth have we done to deserve [him]?" Much, I would say. The time has come to "Investigate Esquire." You know it's in trouble when it features screeds like this, and when it flags such penetrating articles as, "How to Sew a Button Easily" and "How to Hit a Softball." Now we know why GQ has a circulation more than double that of Esquire's. http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/scientology-vs-catholicism-520443 Read more at www.speroforum.com

 

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Investigate the Vatican

ENOUGH WITH THE SCIENTOLOGY FASCINATION /// Wouldn't the resources and time of journalists be better directed at the finances, earthly corruption, and raw power of the Catholic Church, an institution that wields influence incalculably greater than L. Ron Hubbard's itty-bitty religion?

I just finished Lawrence Wright's long and ambitious piece in this week's New Yorker on Scientology, and on writer/director Paul Haggis's recent break with the religion. As a magazine editor, I applaud Wright's impulse to do the story, and I'm kicking myself for not calling Haggis myself the day I heard of his defection from Scientology, back in the fall of 2009. Unlike me, Wright did call Haggis, and he's written an important piece. I will say that the resulting piece is by turns fascinating and boring, as the story of Haggis's experience of finding himself increasingly under the sway of what he would later come to describe as a cult is interspersed with a long recitation of what might be described as the liturgy of Scientology, which entails accounting for the history of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. This description of the founding myth of a religion that now claims eight million adherents worldwide is familiar to anyone who's been paying attention to the occasional long and ambitious pieces on Scientology that one enterprising journalist or other produces every few years or so. Quoting from Wright's piece:

"A major cause of mankind's problems began 75 million years ago," the Times wrote, when the planet Earth, then called Teegeeack, was part of a confederation of ninety planets under the leadership of a despotic ruler named Xenu. "Then, as now, the materials state, the chief problem was overpopulation." Xenu decided "to take radical measures." The documents explained that surplus beings were transported to volcanoes on Earth. "The documents state that H-bombs far more powerful than any in existence today were dropped on these volcanoes, destroying the people but freeing their spirits — called thetans — which attached themselves to one another in clusters." Those spirits were "trapped in a compound of frozen alcohol and glycol," then "implanted" with "the seed of aberrant behavior." The Times account concluded, "When people die, these clusters attach to other humans and keep perpetuating themselves."

The Times Wright mentions is the Los Angeles Times, which had gotten hold of a secret doctrinal scribbling left by Hubbard. Between the thetans and the volcanoes and the implantation of aberrant behavior and the dreaded Xenu, this is either a treatment for the worst movie ever made, or... it's your basic bewildering founding myth of any religion found anywhere on earth.

I mean, I grew up believing that every breath I drew sent a god-made-man named Jesus Christ writhing on the cross to which he had been nailed — an execution for which he had been sent to earth by his heavenly father thousands of years ago, so that he might die for my sins so that I might live. And yet I was born not innocent but complicit in this lynching, incomprehensibly having to apologize and atone for this barbarism for all my days and feel terrible about myself and all mankind. And not only that, but every day when I went to Mass, we would solemnly re-create this human sacrifice by drinking Christ's blood and eating his body in delicious wafer form. This was not an exercise in metaphor. As long as I shall live, I will never forget the look of spiritual transport on the face of my mother every time she received Communion. This was not a symbol of Christ's body; this was his body, through the miracle of transubstantiation. "You better believe it, boy," she'd say to me. And so I did. Oh, and then we'd wrap up each Mass by celebrating the fact — fact — that three days after Jesus had died, as any mere mortal would have after having been set up by your father and nailed to a cross by a mob, his spirit had risen on a cloud into heaven to rejoin the same god in the sky who had sent him on this errand in the first place.

Now, I ask you: Why is that story no less ridiculous than Hubbard's mumbo jumbo? Is it because we have invested it with the power and majesty of myth for a far longer period, giving it now the air of the ordinary, and because of the veneration of that myth by generation after generation of people whom we love, and who have power over our young minds as we were coming up? Because certainly, in the twenty-first century, the story I grew up believing is every bit as risible as all the Scientology nonsense that Wright dutifully details, as did Janet Reitman in Rolling Stone before him, as have dozens of very good journalists before her. I say this not to denigrate this area of inquiry in any way, for these are examples of good and even brave journalists doing their jobs, and covering a subject that has shown a ruthless willingness to sue reporters into submission. (And incidentally, I also say it not to denigrate the scores of ordinary people, such as my dear mother, who have reaped astonishing and tangible benefits from the simple act of belief.)

Rather, I mean here to instead ask a question: Why all the fuss over Scientology, when your resources and time might better be directed at the finances, earthly corruption, and raw power of, say, the Catholic Church, an institution that wields influence incalculably greater than Hubbard's itty-bitty religion?

For all of the well-documented creepiness and horrible secrecy and paranoia and the forced detention and reeducation of wayward members and the cult-like imperative to deny even the most obvious truths about the religion, Scientology, compared to the "great" religions, statistically doesn't even exist. Again, I quote from Wright's piece:

A survey of American religious affiliations, compiled in the Statistical Abstract of the United States, estimates that only twenty-five thousand Americans actually call themselves Scientologists. That's less than half the number who identify themselves as Rastafarians.

Obviously, any religion that cultivates "celebrity centres" for its elite members deserves a good whacking in the press every once in a while. And frankly, it is Scientology's A-list membership (as well as its state-of-the-art, police-state tactics for dealing with critics) that makes it an evergreen subject of fascination for the press. I understand this.

But it is an outsize attention that Scientology attracts, akin to routinely and pitilessly investigating Djibouti for its role in confecting the flawed intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq, rather than giving Dick Cheney a call.

Can not some of this journalistic industry be trained on the church of my birth, whose chief vicar, an infallible man, lives in a palace in the middle of his own city-state while still claiming a vow of poverty and a simple Christ-like existence? The same vicar who presided over revelations — long-known but secretly guarded, that many of his employees were criminals and child molesters — not with the mien of the keeper of his flock but rather with the ruthless demeanor of the CEO of a massive corporation lawyering up against the barrage of lawsuits to come? The same vicar who successfully claimed that his canonical law (whatever that is) superseded civil law when it came to prosecuting the despicable crimes perpetrated by his subordinates, which is the only thing that explains why so few priests are in prison — unless you count those being harbored at the Vatican. The same vicar who presides over a church which holds homosexuality as an abomination (ironically, the same position held by L. Ron Hubbard, this being Paul Haggis's reason for bolting).

As much good and necessary journalism as came out of the Catholic pedophilia scandal, it still has been just piecemeal and fragmentary compared to the monstrous size of this global crime. And when compared to the ink spilled over Scientology during the same period, the coverage of Rome shrinks even smaller. As much as I applaud Lawrence Wright for his piece on Paul Haggis, and as much as I greatly admire Wright's work generally, I call for a moratorium on coverage of the Scientology creeps, for, say, five years. There are simply so many other, bigger creeps in the world who more richly deserve the scrutiny. Photo Credit: Robert Edwards/Newscom (Pope); Michael Montfort/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty (Hubbard) Read more at www.esquire.com

 

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Amplify’d from www.agi.it

POPE: MEETING WITH LEBANESE PRESIDENT ON 23 & 24 FEBRUARY

13:58 11 FEB 2011 (AGI) Vatican - President of Lebanon, Maronite Christian Michel Suleiman, will be in the Vatican on 23 and 24 February. On the 23rd the Pope will bless the state of Saint Maron, founder of the Maronite rite mainly practised in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and the Holy Land. The following day the Benedict XVI will receive Suleiman in a private audience. . .   Read more at www.agi.it

 

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Vatican strips two former South Shore priests of clerical roles

The Patriot Ledger

BRAINTREE — The Archdiocese of Boston announced Friday that the Vatican has stripped three former priests of their clerical roles. Frederick J. Cartier, Louis J. Govoni and Frederick Guthrie are no longer in the clerical state, a release from the archdiocese said. All three men sought, through a voluntary process, to be removed from the clerical state. They may no longer function in any capacity as priests, with the exception of offering absolution to the dying, according to the statement. Govoni was working as a substitute teacher at Duxbury High School in 2002 when church records were made public that he had been accused of molesting a male student when he was a religion teacher at Archbishop Williams High School in Braintree in the early 1970s. Govoni, who was then living in Marshfield, was fired from his job in Duxbury. He had been ordained in 1972, but had not been in ministry and had been absent without permission since 1978, the archdiocese said. He was assigned to St. Joseph Church in Quincy until 1974. Guthrie was ordained in 1962 and took a leave from the archdiocese in July 2001. Later that same year, he was charged in New Hampshire with using a computer to solicit sex from what he thought was a 15-year-old boy. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced in 2004 to serve three months in jail. Guthrie served in Weymouth’s Immaculate Conception parish during the early 1970s. Cartier was ordained in 1963 and was first accused in 2002 of sexually abusing a minor in the early 1970s. By the time this allegation was received, Cartier had been out of ministry for more than 20 years having been granted a leave of absence in 1979 and then leaving the Archdiocese of Boston without permission in 1980, the statement said. READ MORE about this issue. Read more at www.enterprisenews.com

 

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"White is Black, Black is White" Leader Visits U.S. Feb 13-19

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"White is Black, Black is White" Leader Visits U.S. Feb 13-19

from Endr Times: The hand is quicker than the eye... .... As they say in the world of the Magicians. So, while we are 'engrossed' with the minute to minute developments in Egypt: Father General Visit to America. Father General will take part in the meeting of the Jesuit Conference USA and visit the Jesuits and Jesuit ministries of Jamaica (a dependent Region of New England) February 13-19. Every two years Father General attends a meeting of the Provincials to get first-hand information about the mission of the USA Assistancy and to present his perspective and vision regarding the universal Society. In addition to their usual and ongoing work for promoting the apostolic live lihood of the men and ministries of the USA Assistancy, the Provincials will discuss implementation of two parts of the Assistancy's strategic discernment plan: communications and vocation promotion. Father General's visit to the Jamaica Region will include an opportunity to visit some of the Society's ministries, meet about 100 of the Society's collaborators and benefactors, and join the Jesuits of Jamaica for an evening of prayer and conversation. . Related: From the Curia From January 31 - February 3, meeting at the Curia Offices in Rome were the members of the Permanent Interprovincial Commission, known as CIP, which advices on the government of the interprovincial Roman houses. Numerous themes were discussed and studied. Topics discussed included: the context of the Mission of the DIR (concerning the international houses in Rome), with the participation of rectors of the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute; the community life of the Jesuit professors and scholastics of the Roman houses. The discussion was also attended by numerous members of various communities in collaboration in the "Consortium" which includes the three above mentioned Papal institutions, as well as discussion, with the deans and faculty of the Pontifical Gregorian University, regarding research professors to replace the more senior members of the faculty, the move of these senior Jesuits to their respective Provinces, and other related topics. There were also many meetings with the communities of individual institutions and the exchange of ideas with professors and students. Source http://www.sjweb.info/news/index.cfm?LangTop=1&Publang=1&Tab=2 Read more at continuingcounterreformation.blogspot.com

 

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10% U.S. Congress Openly Jesuit Educated

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10% U.S. Congress Openly Jesuit Educated

From Vox Populi- Georgetown's Blog of Record http://fwix.com/dc/share/bfaf7bcb13/jesuit_college_alumni_make_up_one-tenth_of_us_congress found at Good Jesuit, Bad Jesuit http://goodjesuitbadjesuit.blogspot.com/2011/01/elected-leader-of-republican-party-is.html Jesuit college alumni make up one-tenth of U.S. Congress Geoffrey Bible Despite there being only 28 Jesuits colleges and universities in the country, nearly one in every ten members of the 112th Congress has attended a Jesuit school for undergraduate or graduate studies. A total of 53 members—41 in the House and 12 in the Senate—have attended a Jesuit secondary education institution. In the House of Representatives leadership, the new Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer(D-MD) are both alumni of Jesuit universities, having attended Xavier and Georgetown, respectively. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), a Georgetown alumnus,remains as Assistant Majority Leader. “With the many challenges facing our nation, we are happy that our Jesuit college and university alumni/ae continue to play important roles in Congress and the Administration. Their commitment to lead and to serve is in the best Jesuit tradition,” Fr. Charles Currie, S.J., president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities said in a statement. Of the Jesuit schools represented, Georgetown leads the pack with 18 alumni, followed by Boston College with 7 alumni, and the College of the Holy Cross with 4 alumni. Of the significantly large number of new members in Congress, three are Georgetown alumni. There are also more than 30 alumni serving in roles in the Obama administration. Read more at continuingcounterreformation.blogspot.com

 

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