News - March 2019 RSS Feed

On Friday, March 15, 2019 there was an armed attack on worshippers at the Noor and Linewood mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. As of Monday, March 18, 2019, the death toll had risen to fifty with thirteen people injured in the attack still in critical condition. Pope Francis spoke to the faithful gathered in Rome for the Angelus on Sunday, March 17, 2019.

From February 21-24, 2019, over two hundred bishops representing 180 Bishops’ Conferences from all over the world met in Rome to discuss the sexual abuse of minors. Cardinal Séan O’Malley, as the President of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, attended this meeting and reflected on his experience in attending this meeting with the Holy Father, the other bishops, and other religious leaders. He summarized the eight points of action gives by the Holy Father. Last week I gave the first four points. Today I want to give the other four points made by the Holy Father:

From February 21-24, 2019, the Vatican hosted a Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church. Over two hundred bishops representing 180 Bishops’ Conferences from around the world were in attendance. In addition several different bishops or patriarchs in charge of different Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church participated in this historic gathering.

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a statement upon the completion of a four day meeting with the Holy Father in Rome attended by Presidents of Bishops’ Conference from all over the world. I want to present his statement in this column, as we as a parish have prayed for the success of this meeting. Now that the meeting is concluded, I hope that we shall soon have specific protocols for handling accusations against bishops, user-friendly reporting mechanisms, and a commitment to greater transparency so that the healing process might occur.