News

By Carl E. Olson, The Catholic World Report - Referring to a “dry morality” imposed upon “the morality of the People of God,” the pope expressed concern about any ideology that is “so Pelagian” that it leads to rigidity. “Today we have many, many schools of rigidity within the church that are not schisms but are pseudo-schismatic Christian ways.”… Pope Francis concluded: “When you see Christians, bishops, priests [that are] rigid, behind this there are problems. There is not the holiness of the Gospel. For this we must be meek.” Of those who are rigid, he said, “They are going through a problem, and we must accompany them with meekness.”

By Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing - Things aren’t looking great for Bishop of Buffalo Richard Malone. A federal grand jury is investigating his diocese’s handling of clerical sexual abuse cases. That on top of the ongoing, state-wide investigation of New York’s eight Catholic dioceses being conducted by the state’s attorney general. And then there are the scores of civil suits filed recently under the Child Victims Act, seeking damages in cases previously beyond the statute of limitations. It seems likely that an ecclesial investigation of Bishop Malone will be next.

By Matt Gaspers, Catholic Family News - “Now, with the passage of a year, Archbishop Viganò has a still deeper concern: that the clerical sexual abuse crisis is only one aspect of a deeper and wider crisis of the Christian faith in our age. … This deeper and wider crisis, Viganò believes, involves, theologically, an illegitimate rejection (that is, not a legitimate development) of traditional Catholic doctrine. The aim: to construct a more modern ‘new church,’ marked by a faith and practice in many areas of Catholic moral and sacramental life different from the Church of the past… Viganò sees this rejection of traditional teaching as a matter of grave concern.