In a big PR win for victims’ advocates, the retired Colombian cardinal who praised a French bishop for not reporting an abusive priest to police has withdrawn from a big Mass at the National Shrine in DC to celebrate the 5-year anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s installation. Organizers say they’ll find someone other than Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos (left) to lead the Mass.
Also in DC, members of a tight-knit German Catholic community are trying to make sense of what happened to their pastor, the Rev. Michael Schapfel, who has returned to Germany to face abuse allegations. Speaking of Germany, a bishop in Augsburg has offered to resign after allegations of physical abuse and financial misdeeds.
The Arizona lawmaker who drafted that get-tough immigration bill says Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has no business comparing his bill to Nazi techniques because Mahony is a “guy who’s been protecting child molesters and predators all of his life.” Prominent victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson says he’s suing the Vatican and the pope for failing to defrock Lawrence Murphy, the Wisconsin priest accused of molesting some 200 deaf boys.
From the WSJ (because they say it better than I ever could): “Employees and retirees of Minneapolis publisher Augsburg Fortress are suing their employer, alleging in their complaint that it allowed their pension plan to fail, and used its connection to the Lutheran church as a legal shield to avoid paying them all their pensions.”
The Washington Times says President Obama won’t be able to avoid a “full-scale eruption of abortion politics” when he finally names his second Supreme Court nominee. Virginia officials have recalled a license plate that read “14CV88” because of alleged links to Hitler and white supremacy. A Texas man has been indicted for vowing to use “deadly force” to stop abortions. Scott Roeder, the anti-abortion activist who was convicted of murdering Kansas abortionist George Tiller, wants to be released because of alleged mistreatment in prison.
A Miami lawyer says he’s successfully pressured Miami-Dade transit officials to keep displaying “Fatwa on Your Head?” bus ads that some Muslims considered offensive. The lawyer, David Yerushalmi, says his client’s 10 ads will be back up, along with 20 additional ads for free as part of the agreement. A BU professor who testified in the ongoing Canadian case of two men charged with smoking pot as part of their religion says cannabis may have been used to anoint Jesus’ body.
Pentagon officials are mulling whether to rescind evangelist Franklin Graham’s invite for the National Day of Prayer (May 6) because of his description of Islam as an “evil and wicked” religion. Mennonites in Georgia (who knew?) are close to getting the right to self-insure their cars rather than buy coverage through state-mandated plans like everyone else. Young Muslims are looking at post-9/11 political involvement.
Civil rights crusader Benjamin Hooks was laid to rest yesterday in Memphis. The Baltimore woman who starved her infant son to death on the orders of a charismatic cult leader won’t have to serve jail time, but must report to a residential treatment facility for troubled women. The 83-year-old Catholic priest in Brazil who was caught on tape molesting young boys was moved to house arrest.
The Lebanese man who was scheduled to be beheaded by Saudi officials on charges of sorcery will be able to keep his life, his lawyer says. Two Chinese lawyers who represented the banned Falun Gong sect now face the loss of their legal licenses. And Tibetan monks who were among the first to respond to the recent earthquake that killed more than 2,000 are now being ushered off the scene, courtesy of Beijing. Indonesia‘s constitutional court has upheld a blasphemy law.
