Denouncing cases of clerical sex abuse as "egregious crimes", Pope Benedict has told Irish bishops that they must find out the truth, seek justice and do whatever is necessary to prevent abuse from occurring again. Reacting to the Federal Government's pledge to fund chaplains in every Australian school, NSW Catholic Education Commission head, Brian Croke, says that a government veto over Catholic school staff especially in religious matters "would be unprecedented". Calculations by an economic research centre appear to back concerns expressed by Catholic Social Services that the Fair Pay Commission approved wage rise would not even compensate for inflation since the last pay rise almost 18 months ago.
Days ahead of Nicaragua's presidential election, the Central American country's legislature has unanimously passed a law banning all abortions including those for rape victims and women who risk death in childbirth. Four staff members, including a nun, from Caritas University, Nigeria, have been charged with conspiracy to murder a first year science student at the religious congregation-owned institution. After raising $5000 to fund lifesaving medical treatment in Australia for an Ethiopian student, a Melbourne Mercy college has succeeded in persuading the Federal Government to grant residence to the student who requires ongoing treatment.
The bishops were among five French bishops and 30 priests to make public their fears over Pope Benedict's anticipated revival of the old Latin Mass, according to a Washington Post report. "We can be charitable and welcoming but we also have to be honest," Besancon Bishop Andre Lacrampe told the French daily L'Est Republicain. "I'm not ready to receive them because one cannot erase Vatican II with a stroke of a pen.
" "There are very deep and painful theological reasons behind this schism," Angouleme Bishop Claude Dagens told the Catholic weekly La Vie. "You can't pretend that Archbishop Lefebvre's break with the church was only caused by the liturgy." Lille Archbishop Gerard Defois said some SSPX faithful were linked to far-right political movements and noted in a statement that some had "resorted to violent means to occupy churches.
" The bishops say that unswerving loyalty to the old Latin, or Tridentine Mass, often goes hand in hand with a rejection of the Vatican II reforms, which opened the church to respect for and cooperating with other faiths and switched to a modern Mass conducted in local languages. The protests printed in the Catholic press highlighted serious issues the Vatican faces if, as church sources have reported, it announces soon that priests are free to say the Latin Mass as an alternative to the modern liturgy. "This could create grave difficulties, especially for those who have remained loyal to Vatican II," Toulouse Bishop Robert Le Gall told the Catholic daily La Croix.
In an open letter, the bishops and priests said Pope Benedict should encourage the SSPX "to work in the world as it is ...
rather than plunge us back into the liturgical life of another age." Dating back to 1570, the Tridentine Mass was dropped in the 1960s and can now be said only with a bishop's special permission. But the SSPX, a Swiss-based group launched by the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre to oppose 1960s reforms, has demanded a blanket permission, or indult, for the Tridentine Mass as a condition for its return to the church.
In a different response to the latest events, Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, Bordeaux archbishop and head of the French Bishops' Conference, has urged French Catholics to welcome rebel priests who return to the church.
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