Topics

A Time of Reckoning

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

The priestly sex-abuse scandal will bring the Church in America to the same sad state as her counterpart in France: discredited and depopulated, a shell of her former self.

Sexual Abuse: A Personal Reflection

BROKENNESS, EMPTINESS & HEALING

Agnes Martin

Does the hierarchy understand how much victims suffer? Could they even imagine what it must be like to have a child subjected to clerical abuse?

Dispatch from the Dead Letter Office

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

The McCarrick report is a historical accounting that doesn’t hold anyone accountable, and it will have no practical consequences.

Spendthrift Shepherds & Pervert Priests: Where Are They Now?

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

Here we follow-up on some disgraced prelates and their inner circles who did the dirty work of covering fraudulent, criminal behavior.

A Deficit of Heroes

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

We must maintain an emotional distance even from those who project an aura of holiness. Often, God’s holy ones are known only to Him.

Million-Dollar Bishops

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

It’s no coincidence that financial corruption walks hand in hand with sexual immorality. Where you find one, you’ll often find the other.

A “Deeper Understanding” of the Priesthood?

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

No temporal or civilizational events can override the sacramental necessity of the Catholic priesthood’s being reserved to men.

Father Figuring

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

The Catholic Church's sex-abuse problem is caused by predators who wear clerical collars and who are protected by a clericalist culture.

The Hollywood Scandal Behind the Clerical Scandal

STATE JUDICIAL SYSTEMS AND MEDIA HOLD A DOUBLE STANDARD

Jesse Russell

U.S. media and the American judicial system will gladly go after a high-ranking Catholic priest or bishop but will run cover for powerful Hollywood directors and actors.

Wuerl, the Flesh & the Devil

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

The whole Wuerl saga goes to show — yet again — that many of the leaders of the Church aren’t so much interested in professing the truth as they are in protecting their prestige.

Letter to a Friend on Church Scandal

BREAKING UP IS BAD TO DO

Frederick W. Marks

The Church still teaches everything taught by the first generation of Christians; it still conforms to the specifications laid down by Jesus for His Church.

An Outcast Among Organization Men

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

Few are the churchmen who are willing to speak publicly about the root cause of the sex-abuse crisis: the scourge of homosexuality in the priesthood.

Ecce Papa Franciscus!

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

The Pope convened a summit for February 2019 with the presidents of all bishops’ conferences to discuss "protection of minors."

At Last, a Reckoning?

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

Archbishop Viganò has cracked open the Vatican cone of silence and exposed what might be a Church-wide cover-up of McCarrick’s crimes.

Uncle Ted McCarrick: Queen Pin of the Lavender Mafia

Many, many priests and bishops knew Theodore McCarrick was a serial molester and yet, somehow, McCarrick got the ultimate appointment to the Archdiocese of Washington D.C., and was elevated to the rank of cardinal.

A Loss of Nerve?

If the Pope is serious about curbing clerical sexual abuse before it happens, then it is high time he took off the pastoral gloves.

The Perennial Crisis of Clerical Sexual Abuse

Paul Bower

An attitude found among much of the laity is that an abused child will simply "bounce back" from grave sexual abuse once he grows up.

Blaming the Victim -- Again

The underlying attitude amongst most bishops that fostered the environment of abuse, secrecy, and clerical privilege still remains.

Why the Church Should Not Oppose Extending Statutes of Limitation

AN INVERSION OF PRIORITIES

Charles Molineaux

Instruments that were created for a mission morph into institutions directed toward their own preservation.

The Pastoral Problem of Priests in Prison

"Ordinary" criminals -- murderers and thieves -- still retain a sense of moral outrage against the hideous evil of child sexual abuse.

Through a Crucible to Spring

A SURVIVOR'S STORY

Lindy Morelli

After my attempts to contact Church officials had been rebuffed, I asked a lawyer to send a letter on his firm's official letterhead to my local bishop.

Nothing Distinctive About the Church

The U.S. bishops are relieved that the Church's record on the sexual abuse of minors is no worse than that of our society as a whole.

Paul Shanley, Pervert Priest

JUSTICE IS DONE

Theresa Marie Moreau

Despite Shanley's repeated warning, "If you tell, no one will believe you," the jury of 12 men and women believe Ron.

My Soul-Shattering Experience in the Seminary

SILENT NO MORE

Martin Heinz

I threatened to break the nose of one priest after he propositioned me, but word got around. I, not the homosexual, was made out to be the bad guy.

Priestly Pedophilia: Soul-Murders or Merely "Incidents"?

Bishop Moynihan, your Freudian slip is showing.

This Man Has No Shame

Yep, we're talking about the disgraced Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland.

Devious "Gay" Priests

An (anonymous) homosexual priest "speaks out" in Commonweal.

What About Predator Lesbian Nuns?

It would appear that sexual license in women's religious orders is much worse than among priests.

The Catholic Bishops & the Crisis of 2002

THE FOLLY OF GOING BACK TO "BUSINESS AS USUAL"

Kenneth D. Whitehead

One function of the Catholic bishop is to insist upon the doctrinal integrity of the whole of the Church's teaching. Today's bishops have too often forgotten this.

When Minimizing the Priestly Sex Scandals Boomerangs

Tom Hoopes and the Register are trying mighty hard to pull the wool over our eyes.

Can We Please Change the Subject!

Forget the scandals? (Uh, not so fast, pal!)

"A Regime of Hypocrisy & Indifference"

Can the sorry performance of many of our U.S. bishops with regard to the priestly sex scandals be traced to a "culture of silence"?

Goodbye, "New Evangelization"

Fr. Neuhaus thinks the whole priest scandal thing can just be brushed off.

Priest-Psychologist Hangs Himself

If anyone doubts the veracity of Goodbye, Good Men, just contemplate Fr. Franco Imoda's words.

Killing Michael Rose

Why were moderate Catholic papers such as Our Sunday Visitor so desperate to discredit Michael Rose’s book Goodbye, Good Men?

The Glorious Shame of The Catholic Church

EDITORIAL

Dale Vree

These are times of chastisement for the Catholic Church. Christ will simply not allow His wayward Bride to become a slut.

The Register Steps Into the Ring

Why is David Pearson "hopping mad" at Michael Rose and the NOR?

Show & Tell for Priests

America magazine blames the scandals on "a repressive clerical culture."

Sheer Effrontery

This dude has figured out how to solve the priestly sex crisis. His humble recommendation: ordain dudettes.

Desperately Jesuitical

Fr. James Keenan, S.J., is worried that the "scapegoat" for the priestly sex scandals will be "gay priests."

Understanding the Pedophilia Crisis in the Boston Priesthood

THE ISSUE IS HOMOSEXUALITY

G. Thomas Fitzpatrick

The foolish policy of playing musical chairs with pedophile priests was not Cardinal Law’s to start with. He inherited it.