Vatican Says U.S. Bishops' Abuse Policy Contradicts Church Law

Vatican says abuse policy goes too far The Vatican will issue a formal rejection of the American bishops’ “zero tolerance” policy on clergy accused of abuse, all the country’s major papers report today.

“The Holy See, above all, would like to convey full solidarity with the Bishops of the United States in their firm condemnation of sexual misdeeds against minors and is deeply concerned about the distressing situation that has arisen in recent months in the Church in the United States,” says a letter from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation of Bishops, to Bishop Wilton Gregory, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: “Despite these efforts, the application of the policies adopted at the Plenary Assembly in Dallas can be the source of confusion and ambiguity, because the ‘Norms’ and ‘Charter’ contain provisions which in some aspects are difficult to reconcile with the universal law of the Church.”

The Vatican therefore has suggested a joint commission to adapt the American bishops’ rules to existing church law.

One unnamed Vatican official quoted in The New York Times spoke a bit more plainly. The American bishops, he said, “have passed from a situation in which they hardly wanted to intervene at all into one in which they want to intervene too much. … If zero tolerance means justice, I agree. But more than fulfilling justice, this might be an effort to make the American media happy.”

Gregory told the Associated Press he wasn’t surprised or disappointed. “We’re dealing with basically a sound document that needs modification rather than recasting,” he said.

Victims groups are upset, the AP reports.

So far, the only major opinion piece comes from John L. Allen Jr, the National Catholic Reporter‘s Vatican correspondent. In The Boston Globe, he writes, “It is possible that a ‘derogation,’ the technical canonical term for a blanket waiver, might be given to allow US bishops to operate outside of canon law for the two year review period established in Dallas. Yet that would delay the problem, not resolve it. Victims of sexual abuse have a right to know the law by which cases will be judged. Otherwise, the ‘closure’ bishops offer them when a priest is removed from ministry may well be illusory; that priest can appeal to Rome and might be reinstated. Accused priests have the right to know the law by which their case will be judged.” Thus, he says, the Vatican still has a lot of questions to answer.

More on abuse:

Canadian bishops to address sex abuse scandals | Gathering will debate whether to reset guidelines. (The Toronto Star)
Concerned priests try to rediscover voice | After 10 months of headlines about clergy sex abuse, Boston’s priests are also, increasingly, regaining their voice. (The Boston Globe)
$300m lawsuit claims Catholic bishop covered up for paedophile priests (The Guardian, London)

More articles on Catholicism:

Pope hints he plans to stay `until the end’ (Chicago Tribune)
Man of mystery | The pope changes the rosary (Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal)
The Pope’s belief in daily prayer | His decision to amend the Rosary brings an unexpected change to one of the church’s oldest forms of prayer (BBC)

Billy Graham’s Texas mission begins A packed out stadium? Check. Thousands responding to the altar call as others sing Just As I Am? Check. Articles suggesting this may be “Billy Graham’s last crusade“? Check. On that last point, however, note that Graham hasn’t announced any plans for future missions.

President Bush Sr. introduced Graham last night, and also talked briefly about how “our president” is doing all he can to “find a peaceful solution to this latest conflict with Iraq.”

Jerry Falwell:

Backlash feared over slams at Islam | Tensions between evangelical Christians and Muslims, on a low boil for years, could overheat with the string of recent comments attacking the prophet Muhammad, experts warn, with possible ramifications for President Bush and the war on terrorism (Newhouse/Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Falwell’s fatal words | Not only was Mr. Falwell’s statements foolish and hurtful, but his apology was incredible. But Mr. Falwell is not a bad man. (Tony Blankley, The Washington Times)
Falwell’s comments seem un-Christian | Christianity, as I know it, represents peace, love, forgiveness, charity, inclusiveness, struggle for the good of mankind as a whole, and hope (G. Jefferson Price III, The Baltimore Sun)
Falwell’s contempt | Fundamentalist leaders like Jerry Falwell are a threat to democracy not because of their claims of exclusive truth but because they attempt to ignite religious wars (Qamar-ul Huda, The Boston Globe)
Rev. Jerry Falwell trips over his own tongue | “To call the holy man of millions a ‘terrorist’ on national television was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a swift move.” (Elizabeth Schuett, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Think before speaking | Jerry Falwell has an obligation to consider the consequences of his words (Editorial, The Orlando Sentinel)
Falwell’s follies | When the Rev. speaks, s*** happens (Bill Berkowitz, WorkingForChange.com)
Silence is golden, Mr. Falwell | The world is troubled enough without the likes of Mr. Falwell launching a culture war (Editorial, The Hartford [Conn.] Courant)
Falwell tries to peddle hatred as comparative theology | His latest proclamation that the Prophet Muhammad was a terrorist devoted to violence was calculated to win the televangelist global publicity and the praise and tithes of those who share his narrow, bigoted views (Editorial, Houston Chronicle)
Beware Christ’s zealots as they fan the flames | Like it or not, religion is again a dangerous factor in global affairs (Chris McGillion, The Sydney Morning Herald)

Politics and law:

Romney: Religion should not be campaign issue | He declines to reconcile his financial support of Brigham Young University, which bans homosexual conduct, with his opposition to discrimination against gays and lesbians (The Boston Globe)
Gambling line already crossed | So says the Republican nominee for Maryland governor (The Washington Times)
Christian political flier draws ire of some | A flier promoting Christian candidates that was distributed outside a prayer breakfast hosted Wednesday by Mayor Ed Estes Jr. has prompted debate over whether religion should be mixed with politics in city campaigns (North County Times, Escondido, Calif.)
Day loyalists call Manning a ‘sore loser’ | MPs respond to anti-Day comments in Manning memoir (The National Post, Canada)
Democrats may fear loss of party faithful | Bush’s faith-based initiative changing political landscape? (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Pakistanis accept rise in power of religious parties with mix of hesitance and triumph | Business owners worry that recent gains by religious parties will be bad for business. (Associated Press)
Faith confusion in Canada | An immigration judge in Montreal—by definition a secular official—questioned the validity of a convert’s baptism and decided that she was not really a Christian and must be deported to Iran, where she may well be imprisoned or even executed (Uwe Siemon-Netto, UPI)
China may release prisoners to placate U.S. before summit | But which ones remains unclear (The Wall Street Journal)
State of chaos | An assisted-suicide ruling creates deadly confusion (Wesley J. Smith, National Review Online)

Christian author nominated to FDA panel:

Lawmakers protest possible women’s health appointee | David Hager, an outspoken evangelical who has written books on the power of prayer to cure disease, already serves on two other FDA advisory panels, and is reportedly under consideration to head the FDA’s Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee (Reuters)
Also: Groups blast FDA candidate (Associated Press)

Church and state:

10 Commandments monument defended | Chief Justice Roy Moore testified for a second day Thursday (Associated Press)
Lawyers: Display offends `outsiders’ | Ten Commandments trial testimony begins (The Birmingham News)
Also: Trial begins of lawsuit challenging Ten Commandments monument (Associated Press)
An irreverent look at law and politics | The man whose lawsuit struck ‘under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance gives his musical take on the Constitution and personal pronouns (Los Angeles Times)
One nation, many gods | Vouchers, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the separation of church and state (Cathy Young, Reason)

Religious freedom:

Public librarian in Pike fights suspension | Says her First Amendment right to free speech was violated when her supervisor suspended her for talking about God (Associated Press)
Boost for religious freedom | Backed by local representatives from a variety of faiths, Gov. George Pataki signed into law a bill that requires employers to make reasonable efforts to accommodate their employees’ religious observances (Newsday)
Juarez symbol honoring slain women divides community | Businessmen want cross removed (The Dallas Morning News)
Religious leaders back right to pray at work | Muslim worker says he’s not given time to pray (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Road to conversion: the Chakwada detour | Hindutva organisations are outraged over conversions, and their outrage prevents them from entering into negotiations with Muslim and Christian leaders. But have they ever bothered to understand the plight of Dalits? (Udit Raj, The Indian Express)

Sudan peace talks:

Sudan government and rebels agree to cease-fire | A hopeful sign in a 19-year conflict comes as negotiators for both sides resume peace talks this week in Kenya (The New York Times)
Also: Sudan peace talks resume (BBC)

Evangelicals and Israel:

Alliance between conservative U.S. Christians and Israel worries Muslim leaders (Voice of America)
Christian generosity becomes a rabbinical nightmare | Chief Rabbinate Council in Israel forms a special committee to look into the Jerusalem Friendship Fund (Ha’aretz, Israel)
Church group urges journalists to choose their words carefully | Conference says the term “Christian Zionism” reflects negatively on Christians worldwide (The Daily Star, Lebanon)

War:

Going to war: What would Jesus do? | Doesn’t a simple reading of the Sermon on the Mount preclude violence as a way for us who follow Jesus to deal with threats to our well-being? (Tony Campolo, Winston-Salem Journal)
What is just war? | How religious leaders – Christian, Jewish and Muslim – interpret the concept of the debate over Iraq (Paul Moses, Newsday)
Clerics question whether pre-emptive Iraq strike would be ‘just war’ (San Francisco Chronicle)
Iraq war not justified, Church leaders say | Heads of U.S., British organizations make appeal to Bush and Blair (The Washington Post)
Where to put the faith | Juneau Christians struggle with use of U.S. force in Iraq (Juneau Empire)

Crime and violence:

Moody Bible student is shot in campus attack | Had pulled over to check a tire at 1:30 a.m (Chicago Tribune)
No charges in church’s fake assault rifle incident | Church says it was training missionaries (WMGH, Denver)
Facing up to the omnipresent evil | Perhaps the massive bomb blast on the Indonesian island of Bali will cause some second thoughts — or perhaps first thoughts — by those who blamed the United States for having provoked the September 11 attacks by its actions and policies in the Middle East (Thomas Sowell, The Washington Times)
Terror’s not new to Indonesia | In the last three years, growing attacks by Islamic militants have left thousands dead. What is different is that this attack was aimed largely at foreigners. (Paul Marshall, New York Post)
Angela Shanahan: Church views leaves us open to attack | The Islamic-Western polarity is not just a result of U.S. cultural and foreign policy dominance. It’s also a result of our abandonment of values and core institutions such as the family and the church (Angela Shanahan, The Australian)
Religious code goes beyond keeping peace | Religious and community leaders are glad that the code to promote peace is a pledge rather than list of do’s and don’ts. (The Straits Times)

Child discipline:

Canadian Supreme Court to consider spanking | The court granted the Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law leave to appeal in the spanking case yesterday, setting the stage for a final battle over the issue (The Globe & Mail, Toronto)
Church members sent to jail for whipping kids | House of Prayer pastor says he’ll follow the Bible (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Also: Judge pleads for compliance from subdued Allen (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Earlier: Strong words end church trial | House of Prayer case goes to jury in Fulton court (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Anglican church:

Carey speaks up for successor | Williams under fire from some evangelical groups (The Guardian, London)
The archbishop’s tale | The informal leader of 80 million Anglicans prepares to visit Toronto (The Globe & Mail, Toronto)
Anglican same-sex ‘schism’ spreads | Several hundred Christians representing 19 denominations and 84 churches in the Lower Mainland gathered at Sevenoaks Alliance Church in Abbotsford to protest the decision to bless same-sex unions in the Anglican diocese (Canada.com)

Sexual ethics:

MPs aim to overturn adoption defeat | The Adoption and Children Bill will now return to the Commons but faces a tight timetable (BBC)
Also: Peers reject adoption by gays | ‘Socially irresponsible plans’ thrown out. (The Guardian, London)
Also: Adoption for gay couples rejected by peers (The Daily Telegraph)
Pro-gay group wants police chaplain removed | Rev. Tom Hansen of the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Ferndale volunteers as a police chaplain and last May objected to the city hosting the state’s largest annual gay pride festival (The Daily Tribune, Royal Oak, Mich.)
Supreme Court hears challenge to Georgia’s fornication law | Only 13 states still have similar laws on the books. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Church life:

Flock strays from U.S. churches | The number of churchgoing Americans who have quit attending has grown to 14 percent of the population in the past decade, up from 7 percent, and millions of them are baby boomers who were part of the “Jesus movement” of the 1970s (The Washington Times)
Divine cheat | We recently discovered that the senior pastor at our large parish has never written his own sermons, a requirement of his job. Is this man to be trusted with a congregation? (The New York Times Magazine)
Church bells are silenced in fear of EU law | A small group of residents – believed to be newcomers – have protested that the chimes stop them sleeping at night (The Daily Telegraph, London)
Afrikaans church won’t apologize for land policy | The biggest Afrikaans church voted on Tuesday not to apologize for historical events that led to unfair land distribution. (The Mail & Guardian)
Apology for racial sin was more than words | Presbyterian Church’s resolution had effect on at least one Baptist (Simeon Spenser, The Dallas Morning News)

Pianist: Church fired her for bar gig | Side job catered to largely gay clientele (Wilmington Star-News, link via Romenesko’s Obscure Store)
Orchestra banned from church concert over swearing and smoking fears | A leaflet for the event entitled “Murder In The Cathedral” advertised “music murder, shouting, smoking, swearing, laughter and leathers” (Ananova)

Missions and ministry:

Faith and freedom | Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer continue speaking, this time at Valparaiso University (The Times, Munster, Ind.)
‘Hell House’ closed this Halloween | Has been feature at Abundant Life Christian Center in Arvada since 1995 (Associated Press)
Mugabe stops charities’ famine work | The Zimbabwe government has banned Oxfam and Save the Children from distributing urgently needed food aid, UN officials confirmed (The Guardian, London)
Jesus film enrages Orthodox Church | A press statement from the Orthodox diocese warned that organizers “want to attract you into a new Christian sect” (Vladivostok News, Russia)
MOSES leads the way in Detroit | Churchgoers believe that building a mass transit system could save the Motor City. But how will they get to that promised land? (The Christian Science Monitor)

Money and business:

Taxes haunt TV evangelism’s best-known pair | IRS says Bakker, Messner owe $3 million from ’80s (The Baltimore Sun)
Good-faith investments gone bad | SEC files fraud suit after parishioners lose funds (The Washington Post)
The business of religion | Silvio Berlusconi is only one of a long line of Italian businessmen who have an almost Messianic self-belief – only he has been more successful than most. (The Guardian, London)
Power Team founder files bankruptcy | John Jacobs blames 9/11, but personal troubles may have contributed (Charisma News Service)
Earlier: Evangelist ends brief second marriage (Charisma News Service, May 15, 2002)
Earlier: Power Team founder assault case to go to grand jury (Charisma News Service, Oct. 1,, 2000)

Science and ethics:

Cloning team looks to human embryos | Ian Wilmut, leader of the team which cloned Dolly the sheep, is to plunge into uncharted scientific waters by trying to clone human embryos for research (The Guardian, London)
Grand designs | Not only is the United States scientific but it is also deeply religious – certainly more so than any other country of the West. And, as everyone knows, science and religion are enemies (The Washington Post)

Bible:

Call it the year of the upgrade | There are new Bible translations, but for the most part publishers are putting a fresh face on the old Good Book (Publishers Weekly)
Even Bible is censored these days | In Saskatchewan last year, a newspaper was fined for publishing an ad that quoted Bible verses on homosexuality (John Leo, New York Daily News)

Books:

Exploring the power of Abraham’s legacy | Bruce Feiler, the bestselling author of “Walking the Bible,” has brought his winning mix of insight, passion, and historical research to focus on one man whom all three monotheistic faiths trace their roots. (The Christian Science Monitor)
Shared kinship of religions a key to peace? | Bruce Feiler, author of Abraham, thinks so (The Miami Herald)
The listening church | For 1,500 years, it has been assumed that to be good and to be Christian were synonymous. That is simply not true now, says the author of God Outside The Box: Why Spiritual People Object To Christianity. (Richard Harries, The Guardian, London)
Age of the beast? | How do we rate the growing awareness that “the dry grit of secular humanism and empirical scientific knowledge cannot sustain us,” as Lutheran theologian Frederic W. Baue observes? (Uwe Siemon-Netto, UPI)

Pop culture:

The new faces of Satan | As the devil is ridiculed in popular culture, serial killers—such as Hannibal Lecter— replace him as the embodiment of evil (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Christian entertainment spreading | Faith-based movies, music books moving into cultural mainstream (The News-Press, Fort Myers, Fla.)
Yeah, yeah, minister | Sex and death are his themes, the church his sanctuary. Barry Divola meets the Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Other stories of interest:

God becomes Who I Am | Vietnam war veteran loses legal bid to change his name to God; chooses I Am Who I Am instead. (BBC)
The peacemaker gives a lesson | In Sunday school, Nobel laureate and former President Carter talks about justice, Jamaica, and Jeremiah (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Belief in witchcraft rescues prisoner from death sentence (The Post, Lusaka)
Israeli Tribes: Once lost and now found? | Searching for the lost tribes of Israel in India and Afghanistan (Newsweek)
Embracing sensuality and transports of the spirit | All but unheralded, “The Ages of Mankind: Time to Hope” at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine seems to have dropped into place like an unbidden gift. (The New York Times)