Should an Admitted Pedophile be Honored at a High School?

Amy graduated from this high school in Knoxville. Look for her to offer a more personal commentary upon this. The article is from the Palm Beach Post where O'Connell was bishop when the allegations were made public. He was the founding bishop of the Knoxville diocese and its a little harder to wipe him off the slates in a Stalinist style. But he doesn't have to be enshrined either...



From Place of honor for a pedophile:



"Leaders of the Knoxville diocese are choosing to ignore the disgraceful part of O'Connell's past and focus instead on the positive things he did as bishop there from 1988 to 1999. So they proudly display his pictures, keep his name alive and send him 'prayer bouquets' from church services. Months after his public confession, church leaders are doing much to rehabilitate his reputation.



Susan Vance thinks this is appalling. A former Dominican nun and parishioner at St. Mary's, Ms. Vance led the campaign to remove O'Connell's name from the life center building. She prevailed, but only after a yearlong struggle that brought her hate mail, nasty phone calls, scornful looks at Mass and the disdain of the new bishop, Joseph Kurtz.

'Only the church would allow a building to be named after a pedophile,' she says. 'You tell someone who's not Catholic this happened and they look at you as if you're kidding.'



Ms. Vance, whose son attends the high school, believes it is wrong to memorialize O'Connell's image. Her supporters include victims of sexual abuse and their advocates, as well as SNAP (Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests), which she has joined. The diocese's reasoning for keeping the pictures is that people should forgive, not cast the first stone, and remember the good.



'They do not understand the tremendous pain he caused his victims,' Ms. Vance said. 'Remembering him like this is another way to keep victims powerless. It is hurtful.'



A church that has used symbolic messages for centuries should recognize the consequences of enshrining pedophiles in the presence of children. The issue is less about forgiveness than it is about prevention. A young victim of abuse who looks at O'Connell's heroic portrait will wonder what good it would do to come forward and report crimes when criminals are revered. Who would listen?"

Bishops Propose Day to Remember Sex Abuse Victims

In Ireland...



From online.ie: news:



"The Catholic Church is reported to be planning a national day of atonement as a way of acknowledging and seeking forgiveness for the sins of the Church.



According to a report in today's Sunday Times newspaper, the Catholic Bishops are to publicly seek penance and offer a definitive apology for decades of clerical sexual abuse.



The plans for the day of atonement are at a very early stage and a number of options are being considered, including a televised ceremony and the creation of a 'healing garden'. "

Hooray for Archbishop Burke!

Hopefully, Archbishop Burke will do this in St. Louis as well. This clarification is needed badly in this country where a person's faith is often treated rather superficially as though a person could believe in the sanctity of life and then vote for anything that would extinguish it. It is my sincere prayer that all Catholics will be converted to be for life and that they will do everything within their realm of influence to change the laws of this country to reflect that stand.



This means voting for most of us...and if we vote for politicians who are not "representative" of our beliefs then we probably shouldn't be going to communion either.



From CNS STORY: BURKE-POLITICIANS Jan-8-2004 (840 words) xxxn:



"Archbishop Raymond L. Burke has formally notified Catholic lawmakers in the La Crosse Diocese that they cannot receive Communion if they continue to support procured abortion or euthanasia.



The four-paragraph canonical notification, published in the Jan. 8 edition of The Catholic Times, the La Crosse diocesan newspaper, called upon Catholic legislators in the diocese 'to uphold the natural and divine law regarding the inviolable dignity of all human life.'



'To fail to do so is a grave public sin and gives scandal to all the faithful,' it said."

Great Quote and Highly Recommended Read

First here is the quote in reference to the conversion of St. Paul when Christ asks "Why do you persecute me?":



"Christian conversion is always this question that Christ himself asks. Because of the simple fact that we live in a world whose structure is based on mimetic processes and victim mechanisms, from which we all profit without knowing it, we are all accessories to the Crucifixion, persecutors of Christ"



Rene Girard I See Satan Fall Like Lightning



This is a must read!!!

Miami Proposes Linking Ballpark to Orange Bowl

Interesting plan proposed to keep the Marlins in South Florida.







From Herald.com - Your Miami Everything Guide



Miami city leaders on Thursday proposed building a baseball-only stadium for the Florida Marlins at the site of the Orange Bowl that would adjoin the existing football facility along its northern flank.



Consultants working for the city said the cost of the two-in-one sports complex would run at least $375 million, including a major overhaul of the historic city-owned stadium, home to the University of Miami football team.



But the ballpark proposed by the city would not include a retractable roof -- a feature Marlins team officials have said is vital to the team's financial success in South Florida.

A Great Title

A book being published in the UK this May...



Get Off the Cross-Someone Else Needs the Wood: The Experiences of a Roamin' Catholic Priest



by Father Ken Deasy

3: The Dale Earnhardt Story

If you've seen The Junction Boys, you'll understand my comment "We're going to drive now..."



From Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage:



"3: The Dale Earnhardt Story," chronicling the life of the NASCAR star who died in a crash at the 2001 Daytona 500, is scheduled to bow in late summer.



It will be ESPN's third original longform production, following 2002's "A Season on the Brink" and "The Junction Boys." Russell Mulcahy ("Skin") will direct. Casting is expected to be announced soon.



"It really is an inspirational story," said Rob Semiao, senior vp ESPN Original Entertainment. "We tried to capture the inner drive of who he is."



Tailing "Earnhardt" in various stages of development are "Hustle: The Pete Rose Story," which will examine the baseball star's gambling-related downfall; "Four Minutes," a tale of track star Roger Bannister, the first person to break the four-minute mile barrier; and "October Men," an adaptation of a book about the 1977-78 New York Yankees.