Archbishop of Canterbury says he deals with sex abuse issues ‘on a daily basis’ From The Independent: Disgraced vicars convicted of child sex attacks have abused their former Church titles by posing as respected members of society, victims claimed last night, after the Archbishop of Canterbury warned that new cases of abuse by clergy were Read the full article…
Wake Up Vatican: The Scandal of Sexual Abuse by Priests is Far From Over
June 22, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Once again the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has loudly and clearly insisted that the Vatican and Pope Francis remove all priest child abusers and report them to local law enforcement. The committee further insisted the Vatican open all associated records so that Bishops and other church officials who have contributed Read the full article…
Pope John Paul II – Sainthood
June 22, 2014 by 3 Comments
We all do some great things in life and some not so great things. That is how it was with Pope John Paul II. Yes, he took a stand on communism and was an effective leader on many levels. However, the fact that he neglected, during his three-decade reign, to seriously address the rampant crimes Read the full article…
Swift action needed from Pope Francis on child sex abuse
April 15, 2014 by 2 Comments
Vatican Law Respects Italian Law – To the Detriment of Vulnerable Children Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, head of the Italian Episcopal Conference, has defended the Vatican’s policy of not requiring clergy to report child sex abuse to the authorities. “The Vatican requires national laws to be respected, and we know that there is no such duty Read the full article…
Homosexuality and the Church
January 19, 2014 by Leave a Comment
There’s so much going on in the priest abuse scandals right now that it’s easy to forget there are other issues regarding sexuality and the Church. With the recent forced resignation of a gay Catholic school administrator in Bellevue, Washington, the great folks at KUOW invited me for an interview about my own forced resignation Read the full article…
Cardinal Mahony, still covering up abuse
January 19, 2014 by Leave a Comment
A recent series of articles about Cardinal Roger Mahony in the LA Times drew a strong response from readers. So strong in fact, that the response itself was deemed worthy of a follow up article on reader feelings about Mahony. My letter to the editor was one of five quoted in the follow up piece. Read the full article…
KIDS FOR KINDNESS
November 15, 2013 by 2 Comments
My friend, Sue and I do a workshop for teachers called Kids for Kindness. It helps teachers identify and deal with bullying in their classes. We presented the workshop at the Washington Association for the Education of Young Children conference this weekend. The session was one of many trainings provided for parents and teachers by Read the full article…
Jerry Brown, SB 131 and the Statute of Limitations on Childhood Sex Abuse
October 31, 2013 by 17 Comments
Jerry Brown and Me I’ve always had a lot of respect for Jerry Brown, starting back before he was Governor and I was a hippie nun. Governor Brown has more political smarts than I, but I have a keener understanding of the effects of childhood priest abuse than he. We’ve lived very different realities. Our Read the full article…
The Healing Power of a Letter to the Editor
September 24, 2013 by 3 Comments
The Power of Bearing Witness Over the years, as I’ve come to grips with the things that happened to me as a child, I’ve learned to take my responsibility to tell the truth about the church and abuse very seriously. In religious circles it’s often called bearing witness. Though usually that term is reserved for Read the full article…
Does celibacy cause priests to abuse?
September 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
From Today’s Irish Independent: “Nobody within the official church has looked at the deeper issues and seriously asked the question why so many priests and religious did these things, because it raises fundamental questions about the lifestyle of priests.” “Can they say with any degree of definiteness that the fact that so many priests abused Read the full article…
