Interact: News

A spiritual retreat for women who have felt marginalized because of their orientation – is planned for July 29-31, 2011. The retreat begins at 4 PM on Friday and ends at 1 PM on Sunday.  $145 including meals. Sponsored by the Loretto Women’s Network, c/o 4000 S. Wadsworth Boulevard, Littleton, CO.

Space is limited, please register early.  Contact schisselje@aol.com for questions and registration.

Republican congressman and Speaker of the House John A. Boehner is scheduled to give the commencement address at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC today. He is also about to come in for a dose of the same harsh criticism previously leveled at some Democrats–including President Obama–who have been honored by Catholic universities: the accusation that his policies violate basic teachings of the Church.  More than 75 professors at Catholic University and other prominent Catholic colleagues have written a pointed letter to Mr. Boehner saying that the Republican-supported budget he shepherded through the House of Representatives will hurt the poor, the elderly and the vulnerable, and that he therefore has failed to unhold basic Catholic moral teachings.

“Mr. Speaker, your voting record is at variance from one of the church’s most ancient moral teachings,” the letter says. “From the apostles to the present, the magisterium of the church has insisted that those in power are morally obligated to preference the needs of the poor. Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs ofthe poor is among the worst in Congress. This fundamental concern should have great urgency for Catholic policy makers. Yet, even now you work in opposition to it.”

The letter writers criticize Mr. Boehner’s support for a budget that cut financing for Medicare, Medicaid, and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, while granting tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations.  They call such policies “anti-life,” a particularly biting reference because the phrase is usually applied by Catholic bishops and conservatives to politicians and others who support access to abortions.

Here’s the letter – http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/breaking-news-catholic-academics-challenge-boehner

He must really be smarting.

“God has created me

to do Him some definite service;

He has committed some work to me

which He has not committed to another.

I have my mission–I may never know it in this life;

but I shall be told it in the next.

I am a link in a chain,

a bond of connection between persons.

He has not created me for naught.

I shall do good, I shall do His work;

I shall be an angel of peace,

a preacher of truth in my own place,

while not intending it,

if I do but keep His commandments

and serve Him in my calling.

Therefore, my God,

I will put myself without reserve into your hands.

What have I in heaven,

and apart from you what want I upon earth?

My flesh and my heart fail,

but God is the God of my heart,

and my portion forever.

Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman

This heartfelt prayer speaks so much to the witness of lesbian and gay Catholics in the Church.

My earlier post about Cardinal Newman and his beatification controversy can be read on Nihil Obstat. Cardinal Newman – The Questions Continue

Plenty of English drizzle for the ceremony- love those nuns’ rain hats!

An athletic director at a high school in Springfield, Mass. says she was pressured to leave her position because she married her wife last month.

Christine Judd, dean of students and athletic director for Cathedral High School, stepped down after meeting with school administrators on Wednesday, according to The Republican newspaper.

Judd worked for the school for 12 years, where she rose from science teacher to dean of students and, three years ago, athletic director. While the state has allowed gay people to marry since 2004, same-sex marriage is still not sanctioned by the Catholic Church.

“Cathedral had nothing to do with this,” she said in the article. “This was a diocesan decision. In the end, the timing of this issue really affects the kids. That is where it has the most effect.”

Note: 40 Cathdral High students held a protest outside of St. Michael’s Cathedral in support of Judd.  Heartwarming.  More here.

“Victims deserve a church brave enough to confront its vulnerability and find a fair response,” said an independent commission investigating cases of sex abuse.  The commission was set up by the Belgian Catholic Church.  It was chaired by Dr. Peter Adriaenssens, a 53-year-old child psychologist.

As in many European countries, Belgium has been slow to confront sexual abuse. That changed this past April with the high-profile resignation of the former bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, who confessed to sexually abusing his nephew for many years. Outrage increased with the publication of transcripts of recordings of Cardinal Godfried Danneells advising the nephew not to go public with the story. Danneels, who has retired, admitted that advice was a mistake and apologized.

43% of the victims whose accounts are in the commission’s report came forward in the week after the Vangheluwe story broke. “The Vangheluwe case was a landmark because it was the first time people saw you could have a normal, famous person who was actually a hidden sociopath,” Dr. Adriaenssens said.

“Their stories help answer the question of how there could have been so much abuse and nobody said anything,” said Dr. Adriaenssens. He blames church leaders “for giving psycho-sociopaths a place to hide for many years.”