Legendry Australian broadcaster, John Laws, July 4, interviewed Fr Frank Brennan SJ on 2SM. The interview concerned Archbishop Philip Wilson’s refusal to stand down as Archbishop of Adelaide after his conviction for concealing child sex abuse. One of Australia’s leading radio personalities, the ever-popular Laws comments regularly on issues impacting life in Australia. Frank Brennan Read more
These days we will find out whether Monsignor Carlo Alberto Capella, the former advisor to the Washington nunciature that the Vatican sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for possession and distribution of “large quantities” of child pornography, will present an appeal against the sentence. A circumstance that various Vatican sources think very probable. The traffic in Read more
Sometimes we can use language to paint ourselves into a corner. For example, Catholics can’t be gnostic or agnostic. What was so wrong about the Gnostics? As I understand it, some were okay and some weren’t. If we think church division began with the reformation, we have to think again. Even in St Paul’s day Read more
Travel clears the head, offering a new perspective on some of our troubled U.S. institutions. In this case a visit to New Zealand made me ponder our US criminal justice system, too often dominated by punitive retributive thinking. A tall Maori man, with a heavy build, stood in the criminals’ box in Blenheim, New Zealand, Read more
Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson has been sentenced to 12 months’ detention for concealing child sexual abuse. Magistrate Robert Stone adjourned the matter to 14 August while Wilson’s home detention order is assessed for suitability. It’s very likely that he will appeal his conviction and sentence. An appeal may well succeed, but that’s not the end Read more
I never owned a Kate Spade fashion accessory, but I once almost crossed paths with Anthony Bourdain. What unites them in my mind (besides their celebrity status) is their death by suicide and the fact that they both left not only grieving friends and partners behind but also a child. Kate’s daughter is 13. Anthony’s Read more
What does pro-life, pro-family really mean? The idea behind that phrase has long been an important organizing principle for pro-life groups like Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council. For many who work for these organizations — or who vote for candidates endorsed by them — being “pro-life, pro-family” is not a euphemism Read more
The revelation that 87-year-old retired Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been removed from public ministry on charges that he twice molested a teenage boy in New York in 1970 and 1971 marks a new low for the Catholic Church in the United States. All these years, McCarrick apparently knew he was a ticking time bomb, a Read more
At least fifteen years ago, I wrote a confidential email message to a few trusted friends, telling them to brace themselves. Within a few days, I said, a major secular newspaper would break a sensational story about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. To my surprise, the newspaper never ran the story—which finally came out 20 June. At Read more
The retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, announced Wednesday in a letter hand-delivered to President Trump, could bring about sweeping changes to U.S. environmental law, endangering the federal government’s authority to fight climate change and care for the natural world. With Kennedy gone, a more conservative Supreme Court could overhaul key aspects of the Clean Air Read more