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Vatican orders further investigation into Crookston’s Bishop Michael Hoeppner…
Crookston, Minn., Feb 4, 2020 / 12:45 pm (CNA).- The Diocese of Crookston announced Tuesday that the Vatican has ordered additional investigation into the conduct of Bishop Michael Hoeppner, the first U.S. bishop to be investigated through a process developed by Pope Francis last year. Hoeppner will not be permitted to oversee sexual abuse cases in his diocese during the follow-up investigation. “Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has recently been authorized by the Congregation for Bishops in Rome, to conduct further investigation” concerning Hoeppner, the Crookston diocese announced Feb. 4. The follow-up investigation is “related to claims that Bishop Michael J. Hoeppner had engaged in ‘acts or omissions intended to interfere with or avoid civil ...
The devil devours his own…
The sordid life of Jeffrey Epstein serves to highlight the decadence of the deplorable epoch in which we find ourselves, as do the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death. The web of vice and viciousness that he had spun was widespread, serving to entrap not only underage girls but also the rich and famous who preyed upon them. Using the allure of underage sex to lure his wealthy associates into his web, Epstein secretly filmed them in the act of sexually abusing minors, thereby turning his “associates” into his blackmail victims. Epstein seems to have believed that the powerful people whom he’d entrapped in his “insurance policy” would have a vested interest in keeping him safe from the law, a strategy which worked for a while. In 2008, Epstein was convicted in Florida of sexually ...
Baltimore museum showcases medieval missal once used by St. Francis of Assisi…
Hoping God would send them a message, the wealthy young men prayerfully consulted the manuscript once for each person of the Holy Trinity. Remarkably, each of the three Gospel passages they landed on contained the exact same command: Give up worldly possessions and follow Christ. Taking the words to heart, St. Francis established a rule of life governing what would become his Order of Friars Minor. The Franciscans embraced radical poverty to draw closer to Christ while also evangelizing others. The same book that inspired St. Francis in 1208 is expected to inspire thousands of others as the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore places it on public display for the first time in 40 years Feb. 1 through May 31. The Latin missal, which contains Gospel readings and prayers used at Mass, underwent a p...
Behind the European bishops’ reluctance to acknowledge Brexit…
By Phil Lawler ( bio – articles – email ) | Feb 04, 2020 In case you missed the announcement, despite Brexit the Catholic bishops of the United Kingdom will continue to participate in COMECE. COMECE, in case you’ve forgotten (or never knew) is the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union. So the bishops of the UK—which is not a member of the EU—will remain active in an umbrella organization for bishops of countries in the EU. There are precedents for this, actually. For example, the bishops of Northern Ireland are members of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, although Northern Ireland is politically separate from Ireland. This odd sort of arrangement usually reflects a tacit belief among Catholics (or at least among Catholic bishops) that the political boundarie...
A prayer at the tomb of St. Paul…
I write these words on the airplane taking me home from my first visit as a bishop ad limina apostolorum (to the threshold of the apostles). This is the pilgrimage, required by canon law of every bishop, to pray at the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul and to meet personally with the successor of Peter. In an earlier column, I wrote of the extraordinary visit to the tomb of Peter and an even more extraordinary conversation with the Galilean fisherman’s successor, Pope Francis. As I head home, I want to reflect on the sojourn I made with my fellow bishops of Region 11 to the tomb of St. Paul, an encounter that moved me even more than I thought it would. Paul’s sarcophagus is situated in the heart of the magnificent Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, so called because it stands on a sit...
Vatican has ‘no information’ on Gänswein leave of absence report…
Vatican City, Feb 5, 2020 / 08:10 am (CNA).- After a German Catholic weekly reported that Archbishop Georg Gänswein was asked to take a leave of absence from his position as head of the papal household, the Vatican has said it cannot confirm the report, and the archbishop is still in his job. Die Tagespost reported Feb. 5 that the German archbishop had recently been asked by Pope Francis to “focus on his role as private secretary to pope emeritus Benedict XVI.” A Vatican source told CNA that the Die Tagepost report was on the mark. Gänswein has been requested to “stay away from his office [as prefect of the papal household] indefinitely,” the source said. But the Holy See press office told CNA Wednesday that it has “no information” regarding Ganswein being on a leav...
Prayers for a priest after suicide…
A terrible thing happened recently. A young priest, almost certainly reacting badly to medication, committed suicide. Fr. Evan Harkins, of the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph, had been on medication for an ailment. It seems to have affected him in a profoundly negative way. I know I can count on you readers to pray for him and for his family and friends. There is a lesson that comes from this. Medications can do really strange things to your mind. In the wake of Fr. Harkins’ death, the Abbess of Gower – you will remember the great consecration of the Abbey and Abbess – sent out a letter which described the bad experience of some of the sisters who had some medication. HERE She writes about how medications for other things induced in her sisters...
The sexual revolution is destroying lives by the millions. Are we to believe that Sodom is the answer?
Back in 2014, I wrote a book called Defending Marriage: Twelve Arguments for Sanity. I spoke not as an interpreter of Scripture or of the teachings of the Church. My arguments were based on observation, logic, history, anthropology, and culture. As far as I know, no Catholic on the left has taken them up. My arguments included analyses of what we have already done wrong and why, and predictions as to what must happen if we yield to the lures of Sodom. Opponents at that time fell into two groups. By far the larger of the two predicted that nothing would happen. The re-definition of marriage would only extend to a relatively small number of couples a good that was available to everyone else, and that would be no less available to them for being so extended. A development unprecedented in hum...
“It’s the end of an era” — Buffalo to shut down Christ the King Seminary in May…
Christ the King Seminary, which for 163 years trained men to become Catholic priests, will be shut down in May at the end of the current academic year, as the Buffalo Diocese slashes costs amid a clergy sex abuse scandal that’s led to a dramatic downturn in giving. The Rev. Kevin Creagh, seminary rector and president, announced the decision on campus this afternoon to faculty, staff and students, following votes of the board of trustees and members of the seminary corporation. Creagh cited diocesan financial constraints and “uncertainties surrounding future vocations” in explaining the closure. “This is very difficult for us. It’s a very sad and disappointing moment in our history. It’s the end of an era,” he said. Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger, chairman of the se...
Ecclesiastical judgment: What about those saints who left their spouses or children for consecrated life?
By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Jan 28, 2020 The ways of God in the formation of saints are indeed mysterious. This was impressed upon me again by an article on Rose Hawthorne by Patricia Snow in the January issue of First Things. Under the title Hawthorne’s Daughter, Snow explores what she calls the “shadow” hanging over Rose Hawthorne’s cause for canonization. That shadow is the set of circumstances under which she left her husband, George, who had converted to Catholicism with Rose in 1891. (Perhaps most readers already know that Rose was the daughter of the great American novelist, Nathaniel Hawthorne.) In time, Rose felt a strong call to serve the poor who were suffering from cancer. Her only child had died at the age of five and, after a period of depressio...
One again, Argentina has dug itself into a financial hole — and this time, the new Argentinian president is hoping the Pope can help dig them out…
In the presidential election in October, Alberto Fernández, who heads a coalition of Peronists that includes former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, handily beat the conservative incumbent, Mauricio Macri. Mr. Macri was a market darling whose “take debt first, reform later” program was felled by financial panic halfway through his four-year term. The pope did not hide his disapproval of Mr. Macri’s efforts. When Mr. Fernández, who was sworn in as president in December, meets the pope at the Vatican on Friday, they are expected to discuss a recurrent problem: how to save Argentina from another debt default. The president hopes to kick off his relationship with the pope with the right foot, even despite his pledge to push for the legalization of abortion. In his first six weeks in o...
A dramatic moment in Bible history that almost everyone missed…
Presentation in the Temple – L. Carracci (1605) I want to anticipate Sunday’s feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. Let’s consider an event that was glorious in its significance and fulfilment, yet was missed by nearly everyone. Joseph and Mary had brought Jesus to the Temple to present Him there. As they ascended the glorious steps to the Temple Mount, they were fulfilling a requirement of the Law. You are to give over to the LORD the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the LORD. Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons. In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out o...
