1. Clerical Sexual Abuse: The Case of Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado
On Friday, April 30, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI met with a group of bishops and archbishops who had been appointed to investigate the situation of the Legion of Christ, an organization founded in 1941 by Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado (commonly known simply as Father Maciel). The investigation had been ordered by Pope Benedict in March 2009, 14 months after the death of Father Maciel, who had been accused repeatedly for decades of sexual abuse against young boys and seminarians and who reportedly fathered as many as six children with three different women.
2. Clerical Sexual Abuse: Is Pope Benedict XVI Taking the Fall?
Any close observer of the mid-2010 media firestorm over clerical sexual abuse has to have asked himself the question: Is Pope Benedict XVI taking the fall for the actions of others under the reign of Pope John Paul II?
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3. Reader Question: How Do I Get Confirmed?
If an adult was baptized and received First Communion but was never confirmed, how can he get confirmed? And does it make a difference?
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4. Pope Benedict's Apostolic Journey to Portugal
On May 11, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI arrived at Lisbon International Airport to begin his four-day apostolic journey to Portugal. The highlight of his trip was a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, to celebrate the 93rd anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady of Fatima to three shepherd children, Lucia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto.
5. Reader Question: Baptism and Communion
Can any baptized Catholic receive Communion, or must he first be catechized? The answer may surprise you.
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6. The Third Secret of Fatima and Clerical Sexual Abuse
When Pope Benedict XVI makes an official visit to a country, journalists accompany him on his airplane, and the Holy Father takes the opportunity to hold an impromptu press conference. Strangely, though, the secular media paid little attention to a rather interesting exchange during the Holy Father's press conference on his way to Portugal on Tuesday, May 11, 2010. This lack of attention is all them more remarkable considering that it concerned the only Catholic topic that the media seems interested in these days: clerical sexual abuse.
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7. Italian Catholics Rally in Support of Pope Benedict XVI
On Sunday, May 16, 2010, 200,000 Italian Catholics, including members of the Italian parliament and local elected officials, gathered in Saint Peter's Square to show their support for Pope Benedict XVI in the face of unprecedented media attacks.
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8. The New York Times Finds Another Target
After two months of unrelenting attacks on Pope Benedict XVI, alleging that he has engaged in cover-ups of clerical sexual abuse, a New York Times/CBS News poll found that the Holy Father's approval rating among Catholics had increased, from 27 percent in March to 43 percent at the beginning of May.
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9. Reader Question: Confirmation and Communion Together
After a Reader Question about Confirmation, and another about the relationship between Baptism and Communion, this question completes the circle of the Sacraments of Initiation: Can Confirmation and First Communion be received at the same time?
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10. No Catholic Burial for Woman "Priest"
The first line of the story on the website of CBS 2, a television station out of Chicago, is provocative: "There are tough questions for the Archdiocese of Chicago after it denied a lifelong Roman Catholic a church funeral." But as Gertrude Stein famously remarked of Oakland, California, "There's no there there."
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