I am guilty of instantly running to the defense of American nuns after the Vatican announced that women religious in the United States had “a prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.” Like most people, I remembered American nuns working with the most dejected among us – helping the poor, the sick, the…Continue reading Another Disconnect: Nuns, Sex Abuse, and Vatican Investigations
St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN calls itself a “College of Distinction.” But in courtrooms in California and Minnesota, the Benedictine university also being called a predatory fundraiser and has been slapped with allegations of elder abuse. Patrick Marker at Behind the Pine Curtain broke the story that: Employees of the Order of Saint Benedict…Continue reading Allegations at St. John’s University: Elder Abuse and Predatory Fundraising
This week, three prominent priests have been arrested and/or investigated for sexual abuse: In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles: Father Luis Jose Cuevas, 67, a pastor of St. Athanasius Church on Linden Avenue, faces eight misdemeanor charges of sexual assault and one felony count involving lewd acts with a child, according to a complaint filed…Continue reading A Week of Arrests, Investigations and Shameful Responses
I am sitting in Chicago at the SNAP national conference. And I can’t get the notion of spirituality out of my mind. One of the more common questions I get from reporters is: How are you doing spiritually? For years, I didn’t know how to answer that. Friends like William Lobdell wrote books about it,…Continue reading The Ruby Slippers Worked All Along: Spirituality in Spite of Religion
This weekend marks the five-year anniversary of the 2007 Los Angeles Archdiocese’s $660 million settlement with more than 500 victims of child sexual abuse by priests, religious, employees and volunteers. While the financial settlement has allowed many Los Angeles victims to get therapy, healing and a sense of justice, the real reason many of these victims…Continue reading A Bittersweet Anniversary