Other Dioceses to Declare Bankruptcy?

From State News - StatesmanJournal.com:



"The Portland Archdiocese is the first, and probably not the last, U.S. Roman Catholic diocese to seek bankruptcy protection from multimillion-dollar judgments in clergy sexual-abuse cases.



"I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier," said Father Thomas Reese, editor-in-chief of America, the weekly Catholic magazine published by the Jesuit Society. "Given the judgments, someone had to run out of money. I don't think this is the last diocese."



The Tucson Diocese in Arizona has set a mid-September deadline for deciding whether to file for bankruptcy, and the Boston Archdiocese sold the former archbishop?s residence and surrounding land to raise $90 million to help pay a settlement with sexual-abuse victims.



The Boston Archdiocese is closing schools and parish churches to cut costs because donations and attendance at Mass dropped after revelations of sexual abuse by priests. The Boston Archdiocese's Web site states that the properties will be sold and the proceeds will be shared with remaining parishes and used to support health and pension funds for church employees.



Tucson Bishop Gerald Kicanas has publicly considered Chapter 11 bankruptcy as one way to deal with possible judgments in the cases of more than 20 alleged victims. Lawyers representing people with possible claims have asked the courts to stop the diocese from selling any property before Kicanas decides whether to file for bankruptcy."

Accused Priest Dies

From The Rev. Joseph Romansky dead, was priest accused of child abuse:



"The Rev. Joseph Romansky, 52, the Cleveland priest accused of abusing dozens of boys in Cleveland over 20 years, died Saturday night.



A spokesman for the Cleveland Catholic diocese confirmed his death, but declined to comment on any details, including how he died.



'The family has requested privacy,' said Robert Tayek. 'We have to honor that. The funeral and burial are already over. He was buried Tuesday.'



Romansky had been on administrative leave since April 2002 and was living in an apartment near his last assignment, chaplain at St. Augustine Manor, a nursing home on Detroit Road.

Romansky was among 15 Cleveland diocese priests suspended in 2002 pending lawsuits and investigations into child-molestation charges. "

Insight Scoop 2004

The Ignatius Press blog at Insight Scoop 2004

McCarrick Says Leaked Ratzinger Memo Not Whole Story

From CNS STORY: Cardinal McCarrick says leaked Ratzinger memo is not whole story:



"Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington said July 6 that the leaked text of a recent memo he received from a top Vatican official, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, on Catholic politicians and abortion appeared to be 'an incomplete and partial leak' not reflecting 'the full message I received.'



The memo outlined principles of moral and sacramental theology that should be taken into account in determining whether Catholic politicians who take public policy stands contrary to fundamental church teaching in areas such as abortion and euthanasia should be allowed to receive Communion or asked or ordered not to receive the sacrament.



Cardinal McCarrick is head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' task force studying how bishops should deal with Catholic politicians in those areas."

New Bishop for Jamaica

From The Vatican Information Service:



The Holy Father has..



- Appointed Bishop Gordon Dunlap Bennett, S.J., auxiliary of the archdiocese of Baltimore, U.S.A., as bishop of Mandeville (area 3,319, population 576,000, population 8,200, priests 37, permanent deacons 6, religious 41), Jamaica. He accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese presented by Bishop Paul Michael Boyle, C.P., upon having reached the age limit.

The Kerry Affair: What Ratzinger Wanted from the American Bishops

From www.chiesa | The Kerry Affair: What Ratzinger Wanted from the American Bishops:



"Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was clear with Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, archbishop of Washington and the head of the "domestic policy" commission of the U.S. Catholic bishops' conference. He was more than clear, he set it down in writing: no eucharistic communion for the politicians who systematically campaign for abortion.



Read: no communion for the Democratic candidate for the White House, the Catholic John F. Kerry.



Ratzinger's memorandum is presented in its entirety below. It was sent as a confidential letter, during the first half of June, to cardinal McCarrick and to the president of the bishops' conference, Wilton Gregory.



But the bishops of the United States made a different decision. After months of discussion, and after days of wrangling at their conference's general assembly, held in Denver from June 14-19, they published a note entitled "Catholics in Political Life," which leaves to each individual bishop the decision of whether or not to give communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians."

New Bishop

From the Vatican Information Service:



The Holy Father has...



- Appointed Msgr. Thomas Mitchell Rozanski, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Severna Park, U.S.A., as auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Baltimore (area 12,430, population 2,972,083, Catholics 500,179, priests 497, permanent deacons 171, religious 1,446), U.S.A.