Saturday, February 27, 2021
Friday, February 26, 2021
Hazel Johnson was also Catholic
'Spotlight' editor on retirement: Clergy abuse coverage has permanently changed church
When Martin Baron, one of the most consequential newspaper editors in America, announced his upcoming retirement, he cited his work overseeing the Boston Globe's coverage of clergy sexual abuse and cover-up as a highlight of his journalistic career.
"I think the impact has been really quite profound on several levels," he told NCR ahead of his retirement. "One on investigative journalism, the other on the Catholic Church and then more broadly on institutions that are facing allegations of abuse of various types, but particularly sexual abuse."
His Spotlight team's pioneering work in 2001 and 2002, which earned the Globe a Pulitzer Prize in Public Service for chronicling decades of abuse in the Boston Archdiocese and subsequent cover-up by the most powerful Catholic cleric in the country, Cardinal Bernard Law, was turned into an Academy Award-winning film in 2015 in which Baron was memorably portrayed by Liev Schreiber.
While Baron may be a newspaperman's newspaperman, he doesn't mind the fact that it was a movie that increased his prominence beyond the newsroom, telling NCR it was gratifying to see the way "Spotlight" elevated the importance of journalism.
You can read more of the interview here.
More background:
- NCR has been covering clerical sexual abuse since 1985. In 2015, we published a series called 30 years later, looking back at 30 years of coverage.
- You can read all of NCR's coverage of the movie 'Spotlight' here.
Hazel Johnson, the mother of environmental justice, was Catholic
For more than 30 years, Hazel Johnson worked to clean up her corner of Chicago's southeast side. Her relentless advocacy made her a fixture in local news, and her story has been told in profiles and books and kept alive among her peers in the struggle for environmental justice. But one aspect of her life that's been less explored is her faith.
Hazel Johnson was also Catholic.
"It was her faith that got her to the place where she is today," said her daughter Cheryl Johnson.
Ten
years after her death in January 2011, at age 75 from congestive heart
failure, Johnson's contributions to environmental justice continue to
resonate — at a time when the movement has reached new heights around
the country and in the White House.
You can read more of the story here.
More background:
- Poor air quality from an oil well. Contaminated drinking water from a chemical plant. Low-income housing located in a floodplain. These are all examples of environmental injustice.
More headlines
- NCR political columnist Michael Sean Winters writes
about a recent column by Fran Maier, the longtime senior advisor to
former Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, in which he presents the
results of confidential interviews he conducted with 29 U.S. bishops.
The problem is, the interviews are all anonymous.
- Boston College is investigating the chairman of its theology department, Richard Gaillardetz, following allegations he sexually assaulted a former classmate nearly three decades ago.
- At EarthBeat, the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, who tried to stop a natural gas pipeline from crossing their land by building a chapel, are now seeking damages in court from the energy company that constructed it.
We can’t think our way out of this mess
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, newly vaccinated, return to church in Georgia*
The New York Times: The Carters have long been devoted members of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga. -- both of them as deacons, and he, for decades, as a Sunday school teacher.
The New York Times: The Carters have long been devoted members of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga. -- both of them as deacons, and he, for decades, as a Sunday school teacher.
I’m a philosopher. We can’t think our way out of this mess.*
Christian Century: James K. A. Smith is throwing in his lot with the poets and painters, the novelists and songwriters.
Christian Century: James K. A. Smith is throwing in his lot with the poets and painters, the novelists and songwriters.
John Baker, founder of the Christian support group Celebrate Recovery, has died
Religion News Service: Baker started the Christian 12-step group to bridge the gap between churches and 12-step groups.
Religion News Service: Baker started the Christian 12-step group to bridge the gap between churches and 12-step groups.
General Conference postponed until 2022
United Methodist News: General Conference organizers announced that the denomination’s top lawmaking assembly -- long postponed by pandemic -- must wait to meet another year.
United Methodist News: General Conference organizers announced that the denomination’s top lawmaking assembly -- long postponed by pandemic -- must wait to meet another year.
Deseret News: The Equality Act would add sexual orientation and gender identity-based protections to federal civil rights law.
God’s Law of Love
New book highlights inspiring, challenging stories of six Black Catholics
By Carl E. Olson on Feb 25, 2021 08:28 pmMichael R. Heinlein is editor of Our Sunday Visitor’s Simply Catholic and author of several OSV booklets and pamphlets. He is also author of a forthcoming children’s book series on theology and a forthcoming biography [...]
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House passes Equality Act, which bishops warned would ‘punish’ religious groups
By Catholic News Agency on Feb 25, 2021 07:58 pmWashington D.C., Feb 25, 2021 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- The House on Thursday passed the Equality Act, a bill that the U.S. bishops have warned would trample religious freedom protections while codifying gender ideology in [...]
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Fathers, Sons, and Sacrifices: On the Second Sunday of Lent
By Carl E. Olson on Feb 25, 2021 06:00 pmOn the Readings for February 25, 2018, the Second Sunday of Lent [...]
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The Germans’ “Synodal Path” is a walk into lunacy
By Russell Shaw on Feb 25, 2021 10:41 amBelieving as I do that synodality holds out much promise for the Church, I have watched with growing dismay–shared with many others–as a German concoction called the “Synodal Path” lurched erratically forward during the last [...]
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In confidential interviews, Catholic bishops talk COVID, Joe Biden, Pope Francis
By CNA Daily News on Feb 24, 2021 04:23 pmDenver Newsroom, Feb 24, 2021 / 03:23 am (CNA).- A series of one-on-one interviews with more than two dozen bishops has revealed significant concern among the Church leaders over the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and political tensions.The interviews... [...]
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Finding the path to renewal in the Church: An interview with Brandon McGinley
By Paul Senz on Feb 24, 2021 01:00 pmBrandon McGinley has written a book, The Prodigal Church (Sophia Institute Press, 2020), which analyzes what has happened within and to the Catholic Church in recent decades, and how the Church can best respond to [...]
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Remembering Lives of Consequence
By George Weigel on Feb 24, 2021 09:00 amAll lives are consequential, for every human being is an idea of God’s, and everyone is a someone for whom the Son of God, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, entered history, suffered, died [...]
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God’s Law of Love: A Spirituality of the Ten Commandments (Part 1)
By Peter M.J. Stravinskas on Feb 23, 2021 08:00 pmIn an effort to assist CWR readers in their Lenten journey, we shall be offering weekly reflections on the oh-so-maligned but oh-so-necessary Ten Commandments (commandments, we should note at the outset, not suggestions!). Our point [...]
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New collection reflects on the theology behind our concept of the cosmos
By Brian Welter on Feb 23, 2021 05:41 pmIn the modern imagination, the difference between a complex machine such as a computer and a living thing such as a dog … is merely one of degree”, writes Michael H. Storck in his chapter, [...]
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German Catholic bishops call for change to Catechism on homosexuality
By Catholic News Agency on Feb 23, 2021 05:04 pmCNA Staff, Feb 23, 2021 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- A German Catholic bishop has publicly defended his support for a book of blessings and rites for homosexual unions. Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz also suggested [...]
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Outside your programming
By Nick Olszyk on Feb 23, 2021 04:01 pmDistribution Service: Netflix MPAA Rating: R USCCB Rating: NR Reel Rating: 3 out of 5 reels Disclaimer: The following review contains spoilers. Outside the Wire tries to be many things: a gritty commentary on the [...]
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Archbishop Cordileone commends prosecution of Serra statue vandals for working justice
By Catholic News Agency on Feb 23, 2021 01:24 amDenver Newsroom, Feb 22, 2021 / 07:01 pm (CNA).- Amid calls from California activists to drop vandalism charges against five assailants who destroyed a statue of St. Junipero Serra last year, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of [...]
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President Macron and the real source of France’s identity crisis
By Mary Dudro Gordon on Feb 23, 2021 12:15 amLast October, just over a week before the brutal murder and beheading of Parisian high-school teacher Samuel Paty, French President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech about the actions his administration has taken to root out [...]
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Modernity, medievalism, and the reckless spirit of Carnival
By Dr. Christopher Shannon on Feb 22, 2021 09:54 pmModern urban life has detached most people in the developed world from a visceral experience of the rhythms of nature. Snowstorms such as much of the country has recently experienced represent one of the few [...]
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Scholar’s critique of transgender movement reportedly de-listed by Amazon
By Catholic News Agency on Feb 22, 2021 04:28 pmWashington D.C., Feb 22, 2021 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- One scholar’s critical book on the transgender movement has reportedly been removed from Amazon.com. On Sunday afternoon, Ryan Anderson—the current president of the Ethics and Public [...]
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The educational pilgrimage of St. John Paul II and its impact on the world
By George Weigel on Feb 22, 2021 04:00 amEditor’s note: The Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based public policy research center, has just published a groundbreaking study, A Vision of Hope: Catholic Schooling in Massachusetts. The book explores the history and achievements of Catholic education [...]
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A Decade for Our Lady
By Keith Rothfus on Feb 21, 2021 06:42 pmFour years ago, a story from Western Pennsylvania shocked a nation already numbed by the epidemic of opioid overdoses. Shortly before Christmas 2016, a young couple was found dead nearly a week after they had [...]
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“It’s the Mass that matters”
By Fr. Charles Fox on Feb 21, 2021 06:26 pmIn early 20th-century England, a certain politician railed against English Catholics at a time when they were largely ostracized. His rallying-cry found a ready audience, not only with those sympathetic to the politician’s anti-Catholic position, [...]
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The Jesuit martyr who inspired Shakespeare
By Joseph Pearce on Feb 21, 2021 03:01 amSt. Robert Southwell, Jesuit priest and martyr, was hanged, drawn and quartered on February 21, 1595. To commemorate the anniversary and to celebrate the legacy of this great Catholic saint and poet, Joseph Pearce was [...]
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Newman’s classic work on relationship between the Church and the World
By CWR Staff on Feb 20, 2021 06:19 pmEdward Short is the author of Newman and his Contemporaries (2011), Newman and his Family (2013), and Newman and History (2017). His critical edition of Difficulties of Anglicans has just been published by Gracewing. He [...]
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Pope Francis accepts Cardinal Robert Sarah’s resignation from divine worship congregation
By Catholic News Agency on Feb 20, 2021 12:03 pmVatican City, Feb 20, 2021 / 04:50 am (CNA).- Pope Francis on Saturday accepted the resignation of Cardinal Robert Sarah as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Sarah, [...]
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The First Sunday of Lent: Deluges and Deserts, Sin and Salvation
By Carl E. Olson on Feb 19, 2021 09:10 pmOn the Readings for Sunday, February 18, 2018, the First Sunday of Lent [...]
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Opinion: Is taking the COVID-19 vaccine a moral duty?
By Fr. D. Vincent Twomey, SVD on Feb 19, 2021 08:03 pmThe long-awaited anti-COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out1. It is presumed that they have been tested under the usual rigorous conditions, since they have been declared safe by the appropriate medical and governmental authorities. Only those suitably [...]
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Pro-life leaders sound alarm about Health Secretary nominee
By Catholic News Agency on Feb 19, 2021 12:00 pmWashington D.C., Feb 19, 2021 / 08:30 am (CNA).- Pro-life leaders and scholars are warning against the nomination of California’s attorney general to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In December, then-President-elect [...]
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