After unrest and anger, new Washington archbishop wants to rebuild trust

By Rhina Guidos
HYATTSVILLE, Md. (CNS) – Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, set to become the new head of the Archdiocese of Washington, promised to serve with truth, love and tenderness in a region where he acknowledged “unrest and anger,” after the downfall of former Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick and the church’s current sex abuse scandal.
“I want to offer you hope. I will rebuild your trust,” Archbishop Gregory said during an April 4 news conference. “I cannot undo the past, but I sincerely believe that together we will not merely address the moments we’ve fallen short or failed outright, but we will model for all the life and teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and we will reclaim the future for our families, for those who will follow us. That is my greatest, indeed, it is my only aspiration.”

Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory smiles during a news conference in the pastoral center at the Archdiocese of Washington April 4, 2019, after Pope Francis named him to head the archdiocese. He had headed the Atlanta Archdiocese since 2005. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)

Archbishop Gregory was introduced to media gathered for the announcement at the Archdiocese of Washington’s pastoral center in Hyattsville by Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl. Pope Francis accepted Cardinal Wuerl’s resignation as Washington’s archbishop in October and named him apostolic administrator. The cardinal, now 78, had submitted his resignation, as is mandatory, to the pope when he turned 75, but it had not been accepted until last fall.
Cardinal Wuerl had faced pressure to resign following an Aug. 14, 2018, grand jury report detailing past sexual abuse claims in six Pennsylvania dioceses, which showed a mixed record of how he handled some of the cases when he was bishop in Pittsburgh from 1988 until 2006.
Cardinal Wuerl also recently faced questions about what and when he knew about past accusations involving McCarrick, who was stripped by Vatican officials of his clerical status Feb. 16 after months of accusations that he may have sexually molested minors and abused seminarians at various times and places in his 60 years as a priest.
Cardinal Wuerl remains apostolic administrator until the scheduled May 21 installation of Archbishop Gregory, who offered kind words for his predecessor while acknowledging shortcomings.  
“It’s difficult to come into a situation where there is unrest and anger,” Archbishop Gregory said. “I’ve known Donald Wuerl for over 40 years. He is a gentleman. He works very hard for the church. He’s acknowledged that he’s made mistakes. That’s a sign of the integrity of a man. If I can shed light on what I think we need to do in response to some of the mistakes that he’s acknowledged and asked forgiveness for, I’ll do that.”
As he begins his tenure in Washington, following a 14-year stint in Atlanta, Archbishop Gregory said he wants to spend time “in the field.”
“For the foreseeable time, I’m not going to spend too much time in the office,” he said. “I have to be in the parishes, I have to meet with my priests. Why? Because I can’t be their archbishop if I don’t give them an opportunity to tell me what’s in their hearts, to come to know me and to establish a bond.”
He said he wanted to communicate to them his support, affection and yearning to work for Catholics of the region. He acknowledged that Washington, as the country’s seat of political power, may ask for political savvy from its archbishop.
“I see this appointment to be the pastor of the Archdiocese of Washington, I was not elected to Congress and so I intend to speak and promote the church’s moral and doctrinal teaching that comes with the job, but I think my involvement with the political engines that run here has to be reflected through that prism,” he said. “I’m here as pastor. The pastor must speak about those things that are rooted in the Gospel but I’m not going to be at the negotiating tables. That’s not my place. My place is in the pews with my people.”

Bishop looks forward to serving, being ‘part of God’s church’ in Memphis

By Catholic News Service
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Bishop David P. Talley, named by Pope Francis March 5 to be the next bishop of Memphis, said that being at a news conference on the day of his appointment marked his fifth visit to Memphis.
“The next time, I come to live with you and love with you and serve with you and to be a part of God’s church with you,” he said.
Bishop Talley, 68, has headed the Diocese of Alexandria, Louisiana, since 2017. He was named coadjutor in 2016 and automatically succeeded Bishop Ronald P. Herzog when he retired. A former auxiliary bishop of Atlanta, Bishop Talley will be installed as the sixth bishop of Memphis April 2.

Bishop David Talley wears a University of Memphis hat March 5, 2019, as he is introduced as the bishop of Memphis at the Catholic Pastoral Center in Memphis. He will be installed April 2. (CNS photo/Rick Musacchio, Tennessee Register)

Bishop Talley’s new appointment came just over four months after Pope Francis forced Bishop Martin D. Holley to step down as bishop of Memphis.
Joining Bishop Talley at the news conference were Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, who was named apostolic administrator of the diocese after Bishop Holley’s resignation in October 2018, and Nashville Bishop J. Mark Spalding.
Archbishop Kurtz said Bishop Talley brings to Memphis a “wealth of experience” as pastor and bishop, and “most importantly, he brings the heart of a pastor and a sterling reputation as a good shepherd.”
“It’s a wonderful appointment for the Diocese of Memphis, and I can’t wait to work with him on the issues concerning the state of Tennessee,” Bishop Spalding said.
Born Sept. 11, 1950, in Columbus, Georgia, Bishop Talley was raised a Southern Baptist and decided to become a Catholic while a student at Auburn University in Alabama. He was received into the church when he was 24. He was ordained a priest of the Atlanta Archdiocese in 1989.
Bishop Talley received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Auburn University and a master’s degree in social work from the University of Georgia. He worked as a social worker for several years before becoming a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Atlanta, studying at St. Meinrad School of Theology in St. Meinrad, Indiana. He also has a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
He was presiding over confirmations Feb. 9 when he received a call from Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio, Bishop Talley said at the news conference.
When Archbishop Pierre informed him of his new appointment, “I was in shock. I said yes immediately to the Holy Father and his nuncio. But I was reeling,” Bishop Talley said. “I had been in Alexandria for two-and-a-half years and we were just getting our wings.
“He heard my shock,” the bishop said, and Archbishop Pierre suggested he call Archbishop Kurtz, who is the metropolitan for the province of Louisville, which includes the three dioceses of Tennessee and the four of Kentucky.
“From that day, he’s done everything he can to support me and prepare me for this day. So publicly today I want to thank Archbishop Kurtz,” Bishop Talley said.
Bishop Talley also thanked Pope Francis and Archbishop Pierre. “He loves our bishops,” he said of the apostolic nuncio.
The new Memphis bishop said he had not yet visited the Memphis grave of Sister Thea Bowman, who is being considered for sainthood, “But I will.”
He also pledged to visit the National Civil Rights Museum in the Lorraine Hotel, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. “From the time I was a tiny little Baptist boy, Dr. King was a hero of mine,” Bishop Talley said. “He was then, he is now. He is a mentor for me about how you take the Gospel into the streets to bring about justice.” Bishop Talley takes over a diocese demoralized after the two-year tenure of Bishop Holley, who was forced to resign by Pope Francis for mismanagement.
According to a report in the Commercial Appeal, Memphis’ daily newspaper, Bishop Talley promised to begin healing the diocese by listening.
The paper quoted him as saying, “Usually, when people have gone under crisis or stress and it’s held in and not expressed, there is tension and stress in that. I don’t come here to fix anything. We have a Savior and he brings us together. My work is to be one instrument of his.”
The Diocese of Memphis comprises 10,682 square miles. Out of a total population of over 1.5 million, about 60,320, or 4 percent, are Catholic.
It was established in 1971, carved out of the Diocese of Nashville, which before then included the entire state of Tennessee.
The Diocese of Memphis includes the western third of the state, roughly between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers.

(Contributing to this story were staff members of the Tennessee Register, newspaper of the Diocese of Nashville.)

Abuse protocols in place since ’02

JACKSON – Bishop Joseph Kopacz speaks to the media on Tuesday, March 19, about the release of the names of clergy and ministers accused of abuse. (Photos by Tereza Ma)

By Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON – Surveys show that many Catholics are unaware of the steps that the bishops have taken since 2002 to prevent child abuse and to monitor its own performance.
In 2002, the U.S. bishops first approved their “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” to spell out protocols for how U.S. Catholic dioceses and eparchies must address sex abuse.
The charter, which is revised regularly, spells out strict procedures for removing from ministry those credibly accused of abusing minors. It also called for training children and all adults who work with them in church and school settings to recognize and appropriately handle possible sexual abuse, and created diocesan and national mechanisms for monitoring compliance.
The charter established the position of victim assistance coordinator in every diocese and eparchy “to coordinate assistance for the immediate pastoral care of persons who report having been sexually abused as minors by clergy or other church personnel.” The coordinator in the Diocese of Jackson is Valerie McClellan.
The charter directs action in:
– Creating a safe environment for children and young people.
– Healing and reconciliation of victims and survivors.
– Making prompt and effective response to allegations.
– Cooperating with civil authorities.
– Disciplining offenders.
The charter mandated the creation of the Office (now Secretariat) of Child and Youth Protection, which assists office assists “in the consistent application of principles” adopted by the charter and provides “a vehicle of accountability and assistance” to dioceses and eparchies. Vickie Carollo heads this office in the Diocese of Jackson.
In 2002, the bishops also established the lay-run National Review Board, to monitor implementation of the charter. Francesco Cesareo has been the board’s chairman since 2013. He is president of Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The full text of the U.S. bishops charter can be found in English and Spanish, respectively, at https://bit.ly/2QNZgh5 and https://bit.ly/2WWBnH4.
Under the charter, each diocese and eparchy undergo an annual audit to ensure compliance with it. Each audit report includes recommendations for corrective action where shortcomings are discovered.
Last June, the 15th annual report on implementation of the charter showed a decrease in allegations of clergy sex abuse from the two previous years but also indicated the need for continued vigilance since charges were raised by more than 650 adults and 24 minors.
The audit also showed that dioceses/eparchies provided outreach and support to 1,905 victims/survivors; training on abuse prevention and safe environment was provided to more than 4.1 million children and more than 56,000 priests, deacons and candidates for ordination; and background checks have been administered to 97 to 99 percent of all adults serving in ministry with children.
“That’s no small feat,” Cesareo told attendees at the Child and Youth Protection Catholic Leadership Conference in New Orleans last June. “Yet, we are not finished. We can never be finished.”
During the U.S. bishops’ general fall assembly in Baltimore in November, Cesareo called for broadening the scope of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” to include bishops. He also urged publishing complete lists of credibly accused clergy in all dioceses; improving the audit process; and enhancing accountability for bishops regarding cases of abuse.

Summer Institute classes announced

MOBILE, Alabama – Spring Hill College announces the lineup of classes for its Summer Institute of Christian Spirituality. The one or two-week sessions offer a chance to delve into a particular topic. They take place on campus in Mobile June 3-7 and 10-14 or in Atlanta June 14-16 and 21-23.
Established in 1993, the annual institute offers a unique blend of academic challenge and spiritual enrichment, specifically designed for adults seeking to deepen their faith, exploring the vast traditions of Christian spirituality and, if the student would like, for pursuing one of the school’s certificate or degree programs.
The curriculum is made up of a series of one-credit courses offered in one-week or intensive weekend sessions, studying a variety of spiritual masters and mystics, along with biblical, liturgical and social themes.
Taught in the Jesuit tradition of excellence, courses may be taken for graduate or undergraduate credit or on an easy listening basis (no required assignments, no grade, no transcript record kept). While rooted in Catholic theology, the program is fully ecumenical and welcomes persons of all faiths.
Course topics this year include: Unity and Jesus Forsaken: Theology of Chiara Lubich and the “Work of Mary” (Focolare Movement); Joseph and His Brothers: Resentment and Reconciliation; Spiritual Discernment in Time of Crisis: Thomas Merton in the 1960s; and Spirituality of Inter-Religious Dialogue.
Visit www.shc.edu/sics for course and registration information.

Bless me Father for I have sinned

By James Tomek
The following is a review of Stephen Rossetti’s The Priestly Blessing: Rediscovering the Gift (Notre Dame U: Ave Maria P, 2018). Sacraments are signs or events that are imbued with the presence of God. Rossetti substitutes sanctifying grace for God — the grace that allows us to transform material earthly presences into a more divine presence. Whenever we use any material resource like water and food for the benefit of humankind, we transform these resources into the body of Christ. Sacramentals are sacred signs that resemble the sacraments like blessings, crucifixes, rosary beads, and holy water. They are instituted by the Church rather than directly by Christ. They do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit the way sacraments do. Stephen Rossetti’s book is a discussion of how blessings join into the nature of sacrament.
Father Rossetti’s elements of Blessings conform to Richard McBrien’s three essential elements of Catholicism: sacramentality, mediation and communion. Sacramentality sees all creation as sacred. Mediation adds that sacraments cause what they signify – like Mary, transforming worldly things into heavenly things. Communion sees us as Church being the sacrament of Jesus and, acting as a community, working together to achieve a heavenly communion of all saints, living, dead, and to come. (McBrien, Catholicism 9-13).
Father Rossetti defines priestly blessings as acts of singling out or consecrating persons, places, events, or things to a sacred or liturgical use. When we bless, we approve or God approves! Rossetti is talking mostly to priests, citing the greatest blessing when the priest imparts God’s consecration of the gifts of bread and wine at the Eucharist.
Stephen Rossetti begins with the use of blessings in the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, blessing is a reciprocal action. We first bless or praise God. The berekah is the source of all blessings. Jesus continues this idea with the beatitudes, telling us what we should bless. Jesus lays hands on the food and on the apostles, giving them the power, in turn, to continue to set things aside for sacred use. Father Rossetti counsels us to be generous with blessings so we can evangelize or encourage others to pray.
A major theme of the former collection or book of blessings was exorcism, driving out evil (apotropaic) from things blessed. The newer book of blessings, revised at Vatican II, emphasizes that we bless the people using the objects blessed, de-emphasizing magical elements and encouraging more positive actions rather than just eliminating evil. Rossetti does not include the blessing of graves, but here is an important synthesis of where we not only bless the people, but also the ground where we all will be buried. The Church encourages us to be a community when receiving blessings stressing the liturgical prayer aspect.
Who can bless? Clergy vs Laity? As a lay ecclesial minister at Sacred Heart in Rosedale, how can I properly preside over the final blessing at our services in the absence of a priest? The priests “impart” blessings. The laity “invoke” them. While priests are more direct sacraments of Jesus in Holy Orders, imparting blessings directly, I feel no inferiority in that I have to ask God to bless us. Blessings are sacramentals. Are they “lower” than sacraments in imparting grace? Father Rossetti sees sacramentals as radiations of the sacraments with blessings standing in the fore front. I surely hope I can evolve to be a sacramental, clutching on to a grace from Jesus. Father Rossetti prays for “piety,” A BIG WORD. Joan of Arc says that we bless because Jesus did, and He commanded us to do his work. Piety’s root word goes back to compassion or sensitivity to those who are hurting (pity’s root meaning). When we feel piety for others we are close to blessing our neighbors. Saint Joan – Pray for us that we may feel this piety. Bless us Father for we have sinned.

Palms to ashes: A few things to know about Ash Wednesday

By Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Ash Wednesday is March 6 this year. Here are some things to know about Ash Wednesday and the kickoff to Lent:
In the Table of Liturgical Days, which ranks the different liturgical celebrations and seasons, Ash Wednesday ties for second in ranking – along with Christmas, Epiphany, Ascension, Pentecost, Sundays of Advent, Lent and Easter, and a few others. But Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation, though it is a day of prayer, abstinence, fasting and repentance.
Top ranked in the table are the Paschal Triduum – the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil – along with Easter Sunday. Good Friday isn’t a holy day of obligation either, but Catholics are encouraged to attend church for a liturgy commemorating Christ’s crucifixion and death.
Ash Wednesday begins the liturgical season of Lent. There are hymns that speak to the length of the season – one of them is “Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days” – but the span between March 6 and Easter Sunday, which is April 21, is 46 days. So what gives?

JACKSON – Wesley Lindsay places ashes on the forehead of Paul Byrne as Janna Avalon waits in line on Ash Wednesday 2018 in the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle. (Photo by Maureen Smith)

“It might be more accurate to say that there is the ’40-day fast within Lent,'” said Father Randy Stice, associate director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Divine Worship.
“Historically, Lent has varied from a week to three weeks to the present configuration of 46 days,” Father Stice said in an email to Catholic News Service. “The 40-day fast, however, has been more stable. The Sundays of Lent are certainly part of the time of Lent, but they are not prescribed days of fast and abstinence.” There are six Sundays in Lent, including Passion Sunday.
The ashes used for Ash Wednesday are made from the burned and blessed palms of the previous year’s Palm Sunday.
“The palms are burned in a metal vessel and then broken down into a powder. I believe ashes can also be purchased from Catholic supply companies,” Father Stice said.
“As far as I know, palms from the previous year are always dry enough,” he added. “Parishes normally ask parishioners to bring their palms shortly before Ash Wednesday, so there is no need to store them. People usually like to keep the blessed palm as long as possible.”
Almost half of adult Catholics, 45 percent, typically receive ashes at Ash Wednesday services, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.
You might not have noticed, but the use of the word “Alleluia” is verboten during Lent. What is known as the “Alleluia verse” preceding the Gospel becomes known during Lent as “the verse before the Gospel,” with a variety of possible phrases to be used – none of which include an alleluia.
“The alleluia was known for its melodic richness and in the early church was considered to ornament the liturgy in a special way,” Father Stice said, adding it was banned from Lenten Masses in the fifth or sixth century.

SOUTHAVEN – In this 2018 photo, Sister Margaret Sue Booker shows Sacred Heart students how last year’s palms from Palm Sunday become this year’s ashes for Ash Wednesday. Sister Booker has made a tradition of bringing the students outside to watch the fire and talk about the Liturgical seasons. (Photo courtesy of Laura Grisham)

Ash Wednesday also is a day of abstinence and fasting; Good Friday is another. Abstinence means refraining from eating meat; fish is OK. Fasting means reducing one’s intake of food, like eating two small meals that together would not equal one full meal.
“Fasting during Lent followed the example of Jesus’ 40-day fast in the wilderness. It also recalled the 40 days that Moses fasted on Sinai and the 40 days that Elijah fasted on his journey to Mount Horeb,” Father Stice said.
“In the second century, Christians prepared for the feast of Easter with a two-day fast. This was extended to all of Holy Week in the third century. In 325 the Council of Nicea spoke of a 40-day period of preparation for Easter as something already obvious and familiar to all.”
The U.S. Catholic Church’s Collection for Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe is taken up on Ash Wednesday, as it has been since its inception in the early 1990s.

Ashes wait for their blessing with holy water at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle on Ash Wednesday 2018.

Católicos en el Mundo

PANAMA CITY (CNS) – El Papa Francisco oró por encontrar una solución pacífica a la inestabilidad e incertidumbre que reina en Venezuela. (Por Junno Arocho Esteves)
CARACAS, Venezuela (CNS) – La conferencia episcopal venezolana dice que el nuevo gobierno de Nicolás Maduro es ilegítimo y ha pedido un cambio de gobierno. (Por Cody Weddle)
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Al no ser escuchados en su país, nicaragüenses piden ayuda de la OEA. (Por Rhina Guidos)
PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba – La Parroquia del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, en el poblado de Sandino fue inaugurada en febrero 27 y es una de las únicas tres iglesias que el Gobierno cubano ha autorizado construir.
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (CNS) – La conferencia de obispos mexicanos confirmó que 152 sacerdotes en los últimos nueve años han sido suspendidos de su ministerio por abusar sexualmente de menores. En una declaración publicada el 12 de febrero, la conferencia publicó la figura preliminar, aunque prometió que: “En los siguientes meses se continuará con el esfuerzo por tener el diagnóstico completo de casos de abuso sexual infantil en México”. (Por David Agren)
CUCUTA, Colombia (CNS)—Iglesias en la frontera de Colombia trabajan para asistir a venezolanos desesperados. En Colombia, agencias de caridad católicas están haciendo todo lo posible para ayudar a los venezolanos que entran al país buscando medicina, comida, y trabajo. El comedor social de la Divina Providencia en Cucutá, proporciona unas 4,000 comidas diarias para migrantes y refugiados, cuatro veces más de lo que hacía cuando se abrió en 2017. (Por Manuel Rueda)

A damaged church is seen Jan. 28, 2019, the day after a tornado ripped through a neighborhood in Havana. An EF3 tornado and pounding rains smashed into the eastern part of Cuba’s capital, toppling trees, bending power poles and flinging shards of metal roofing through the air. (CNS photo/Reuters)

40 Days founder to speak at Mississippi kickoff event

JACKSON – Shawn Carney, the national president of the peaceful, prayerful, effective 40 Days for Life project, will tell the story of this groundbreaking effort in Jackson on March 6. Carney will be speaking at 40 Days for Life Kickoff, which is set for 6 p.m. at 2903 North State Street in Jackson, the site of the state’s last abortion clinic.
“People in Jackson have made extraordinary sacrifices to expose the abortion industry and to protect pre-born children and their mothers from abortion,” Carney said. “I’m honored to be able to join these folks in prayer. Their efforts illustrate why we’re seeing historic changes – more mothers choosing life, more abortion workers experiencing conversions and leaving the abortion industry, and more abortion centers closing their doors for good.”

GREEN BAY, Wisconsin – Shawn Carney, president and founder of 40 Days for Life, at right in stocking cap, speaks at a 2018 event. Carney will speak at the kickoff to the prayer vigil to end abortion in Jackson on March 6. (Photo courtesy of 40 Days for Life)

“We are tremendously pleased that Shawn will be here to support our 40 Days for Life effort,” said Barbara Beavers, spokesperson for the local 40 Days for Life campaign in Jackson. “He’s an energetic, enthusiastic speaker and we know he will be an inspiration.”
Jackson is one of 6,020 communities around the world conducting simultaneous 40 Days for Life campaigns from March 6 through April 14.
40 Days for Life is an intensive campaign that focuses on 40 days of prayer and fasting for an end to abortion, peaceful vigil at abortion facilities, and grassroots educational outreach. Since 40 Days for Life began, 15,256 mothers have chosen life for their children; 186 abortion workers have quit their jobs; and 99 abortion centers where 40 Days for Life vigils have been held have gone out of business.
Carney led the first-ever 40 Days for Life campaign outside a Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Bryan/College Station, Texas in 2004 and has helped coordinate more than 20 national 40 Days for Life campaigns that have engaged communities coast to coast – and internationally.
Planned Parenthood recognized the effectiveness of Carney’s efforts when it labeled Bryan/College Station “the most anti-choice place in the nation.” Following more than a dozen 40 Days for Life campaigns at that location, Planned Parenthood closed that abortion center in the summer of 2013.
To learn more about 40 Days for Life, visit: www.40daysforlife.com. For information about the Jackson campaign, visit: www.40daysforlife.com/Jackson-2
For assistance or for more information, please contact Barbara Beavers at plm@prolifemississippi.org or 601-956-8636.

Mississippi moves toward more restrictions while other states expand abortion

By Jacob Comello
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Since the end of January, the legislatures of New York, Virginia and other states have made headlines by approving or introducing policies that relax abortion restrictions, even in the third trimester and during labor.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Mississippi passed a pair of bills that would prohibit abortions as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected — which can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant indicated earlier this year he would sign such a bill into law.
Similar bills are making their ways through the legislatures in five other states, mostly in the Southeast.
Last year the state passed one of the most restrictive laws in the nation to ban abortions after 15 weeks, but that ban was halted by a federal judge. State Attorney General Jim Hood said at that time he would appeal to have the law reinstated.Pro-Life Mississippi immediately praised the passage of the bills. “We thank all our representatives and senators who helped on the Mississippi Bill HB732 and SB2116 to ban abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected. We pray that others will check their heart and see the importance of saving lives in Mississippi,” organization president Laura Duran wrote in a press release.
Now New Mexico is one step closer to passing a similar bill that loosens the state’s already liberal abortion laws and would erase virtually all abortion restrictions in the event that the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade is overturned.
The “Decriminalize Abortion Bill,” or H.B. 51, has now made its way through the New Mexico House of Representatives, receiving the body’s overall approval in a 40-29 floor vote Feb. 6 after being confirmed by several committees. It is now headed for the Senate, where it will be the subject of further debate and another vote.
According to the Santa Fe New Mexican daily newspaper, there are three main parts of New Mexico’s pre-Roe abortion law that would be invalidated by the act: a prohibition that makes abortion a felony; language that permits abortions in some circumstances as determined by a physician, such as rape or threat to a mother’s life; and an opt-out provision for hospitals or providers that register moral or religious objections to performing the procedure.
Most of these were invalidated already by Roe v. Wade or the New Mexico Court of Appeals, giving New Mexico some of the laxest abortion policy in the country.
But if Roe v. Wade is eventually overturned, this state law would ensure that abortion would be available on-demand in New Mexico.
In multiple statements, the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops has condemned the bill and urged Catholics in the state’s three dioceses to take action against it.
In one statement released before H.B. 51 had passed the House Judiciary Committee, the bishops criticized the bill as a whole but especially the portions that would be in effect even without a Roe v. Wade repeal. For example, as per the Jan. 31 release, “H.B. 51 guarantees that parents will NOT be involved in their minor daughter’s abortion,” which the bishops see as extremely damaging and opening the door to abuse.
Additionally, in that statement the bishops lamented the lack of protections for doctors who object to abortion on moral or religious grounds: “H.B. 51 strips away the only explicit conscience protection for doctors and other medical professionals that protect them from being forced to participate in abortions. … Medical professionals should not have to worry that the state of New Mexico and private companies could have the power to force them to choose between their faith and their profession.”
The statement included statistics collected from the New Mexico Alliance for Life, which seemed to demonstrate that the principles of the bill are not attuned to New Mexican opinion. Included were claims that “67 percent of New Mexicans support parental involvement in a minor’s abortion” and that “70 percent of New Mexicans oppose allowing abortions after five months up to birth.”
After H.B. 51 had cleared the House, the bishops released another statement, again denouncing the elimination of religious protections, which would be enforceable without a Roe overturn: “Two parts of the statute are not void by the U.S. Supreme Court and are enforced. We oppose H.B. 51 and urge our legislators to protect the conscience of our health care workers and protect women by maintaining the conscience clause and requirement of the doctor.”

McCarrick removed from priesthood, convicted of abuse

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis has confirmed the removal from the priesthood of Theodore E. McCarrick, the 88-year-old former cardinal and archbishop of Washington.
The Vatican announced the decision Feb. 16, saying he was found guilty of “solicitation in the sacrament of confession and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.”
A panel of the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith found him guilty Jan. 11, the Vatican said. McCarrick appealed the decision, but the appeal was rejected Feb. 13 by the congregation itself. McCarrick was informed of the decision Feb. 15 and Pope Francis “recognized the definitive nature of this decision made in accord with law,” making a further appeal impossible.

Former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, arrives for the Jan. 1, 2017, installation Mass of Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, N.J. On Feb. 16, 2019, Pope Francis confirmed the removal from the priesthood of McCarrick. Even though the decision was not unexpected, the news cast a somber mood over the faith communities in the dioceses and archdioceses where he had served. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)

By ordering McCarrick’s “dismissal from the clerical state,” the decision means that McCarrick loses all rights and duties associated with being a priest, cannot present himself as a priest and is forbidden to celebrate the sacraments, except to grant absolution for sins to a person in imminent danger of death.
The only church penalty that is more severe is excommunication, which would have banned him from receiving the sacraments. The other possible punishment was to sentence him to a “life of prayer and penance,” a penalty often imposed on elderly clerics; the penalty is similar to house arrest and usually includes banning the person from public ministry, limiting his interactions with others and restricting his ability to leave the place he is assigned to live.
McCarrick’s punishment is the toughest meted out to a cardinal by the Vatican in modern times.
McCarrick’s initial suspension from ministry and removal from the College of Cardinals in 2018 came after a man alleged that McCarrick began sexually abusing him in 1971 when he was a 16-year-old altar server in New York; the Archdiocese of New York found the allegation “credible and substantiated” and turned the case over to the Vatican.
At that point, in June, then-Cardinal McCarrick said he would no longer exercise any public ministry “in obedience” to the Vatican, although he maintained he was innocent.
In late July, the pope accepted McCarrick’s resignation from the College of Cardinals and ordered him to maintain “a life of prayer and penance” until the accusation that he had sexually abused a minor could be examined by a Vatican court.
In the weeks that followed the initial announcement, another man came forward claiming he was abused as a child by McCarrick, and several former seminarians spoke out about being sexually harassed by the cardinal at a beach house he had in New Jersey.
Since September, McCarrick has been living in a Capuchin friary in rural Kansas.
The allegations against McCarrick, including what appeared to be years of sexual harassment of seminarians, also led to serious questions about who may have known about his activities and how he was able to rise to the level of cardinal.
At least two former seminarians reported the sexual misconduct of McCarrick to their local bishops as far back as the 1990s. The Archdiocese of Newark and the dioceses of Metuchen and Trenton made a settlement with one man in 2005, and the Diocese of Metuchen settled with the other man in 2007.
A spokeswoman for the Diocese of Metuchen told Catholic News Service in August that both settlements were reported to the Vatican nuncio in Washington. The two archbishops who held the position of nuncio in 2004 and 2006 have since died.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who served as nuncio in Washington from 2011-2016, made headlines in mid-August when he called for Pope Francis to resign, claiming the pope had known of allegations against McCarrick and had lifted sanctions imposed on McCarrick by now-retired Pope Benedict XVI.
The former nuncio later clarified that Pope Benedict issued the sanctions “privately” perhaps “due to the fact that he (McCarrick) was already retired, maybe due to the fact that he (Pope Benedict) was thinking he was ready to obey.”
In an open letter to Archbishop Vigano released in October, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops since 2010, said that in 2011, “I told you verbally of the situation of the bishop emeritus (McCarrick) who was to observe certain conditions and restrictions because of rumors about his behavior in the past.”
Then-Cardinal McCarrick “was strongly exhorted not to travel and not to appear in public so as not to provoke further rumors,” Cardinal Ouellet said, but “it is false to present these measures taken in his regard as ‘sanctions’ decreed by Pope Benedict XVI and annulled by Pope Francis. After re-examining the archives, I certify that there are no such documents signed by either pope.”
Cardinal Ouellet’s letter was published a few days after the Vatican issued a statement saying that it would, “in due course, make known the conclusions of the matter regarding Archbishop McCarrick.”
In addition, Pope Francis ordered “a further thorough study of the entire documentation present in the archives of the dicasteries and offices of the Holy See regarding the former Cardinal McCarrick in order to ascertain all the relevant facts, to place them in their historical context and to evaluate them objectively.”
The Vatican statement said it is aware “that, from the examination of the facts and of the circumstances, it may emerge that choices were made that would not be consonant with a contemporary approach to such issues. However, as Pope Francis has said: ‘We will follow the path of truth wherever it may lead.’ Both abuse and its cover-up can no longer be tolerated, and a different treatment for bishops who have committed or covered up abuse, in fact, represents a form of clericalism that is no longer acceptable.”
McCarrick had been ordained to the priesthood in 1958 for the Archdiocese of New York. James, the first child he baptized after ordination, claimed that from the time he was 11 years old and for some 20 years, McCarrick sexually abused him.
In 1977, McCarrick was ordained an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of New York and, in 1981, St. John Paul II named him the first bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey. Five years later, he became the archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, and in November 2000 St. John Paul named him archbishop of Washington, D.C., and made him a cardinal early in 2001. McCarrick retired in 2006.
At least three other cardinals have been accused of sexual abuse or impropriety in the past 25 years. In the 1990s Austrian Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer was forced to step down as archbishop of Vienna and eventually to relinquish all public ministry after allegations of the sexual abuse and harassment of seminarians and priests; he died in 2003 without having undergone a canonical trial.
Pope Benedict XVI forced Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien to step down as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh in early 2013; after an investigation, Pope Francis withdrew his “rights and duties” as a cardinal, although he retained the title until his death in March 2018.
Australian Cardinal George Pell, facing charges of abusing minors, has been on leave from his post as head of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy since mid-2017; he reportedly was found guilty of some charges in December, but the court has imposed an injunction on press coverage of the trial. Pope Francis told reporters he would not speak about the case until the court proceedings have run their course.