URGENT: N. Korean Fashion Update!

Little Kim Jong-Il rules the fashion world.
.
Strike the pose!
.
The trademark suit sported by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is now in fashion worldwide thanks to his greatness, Pyongyang's official website said Wednesday.
.
Uriminzokkiri, quoting an article in communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun, said the modest-looking suits have gripped people's imagination and become a global vogue.
.
The article quoted an unidentified French fashion expert as saying world fashion follows Kim Jong-Il's style.  "Kim Jong-Il mode which is now spreading expeditiously worldwide is something unprecedented in the world's history," the stylist was quoted as saying. - Full report here.
.
Vogue! Vogue! Vogue! Vogue! Vogue! Vogue! Vogue! Vogue! Vogue! Vogue! Vogue!
.
Photo:  Kim workin' the runway.

A week of Sundays

This is what Easter week is.
.
Today is my regular day of recollection so I'll be at adoration... like the disciples at Emmaus - my heart is already burning within me...
.
Consider this if you will, how Jesus gently reminded the two disciples on the way to Emmaus of what the prophets said in his regard.  The disciples were obviously scandalized by Christ's passion and death, and Jesus, still unrecognized by them, said to them, "Oh how foolish you are!  How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!  Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" - Luke 24: 13-35
.
"Do not be surprised that a trial by fire is occurring in your midst.  It is a test for you, but it should not catch you off guard.  Rejoice instead, in the measure that you share Christ's sufferings." - 1 Peter 4:12-13
.
Call to arms... Call to prayer.
.
Art: Velasquez: The Supper at Emmaus - c. 1620; Oil on canvas; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
.
Praying for all of you. :)

Man kills the man who sexually abused him.

Pleads no contest to manslaughter...
.
A California man pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter with the use of a gun Tuesday in the shooting death of a man who he claimed sexually abused him as a teen, a prosecutor said.
.
The plea comes less than a week before Aaron Vargas' first-degree murder trial was supposed to start for the slaying of Darrell McNeill, a neighbor from his childhood and a family friend whom Vargas claims began molesting him when he was 11 years old.
.
Under the terms of a plea deal, Vargas, now 32, faces anywhere from probation to 10 years in prison for shooting the former Boy Scout leader and local businessman last year in his home in the Northern California community of Fort Bragg.  - Story
.
One might editorialize this story on so many different levels.  Pointing out that the perpetrator wasn't a priest or a bishop, but a neighbor, a husband,  a Boy Scout leader and a community business man, a friend of the family.  The victim is now an adult married man with a child.  The secret was kept for years, and the perpetrator remained a family friend, making regular visits to the family, etc., etc..
.
No one has the right to murder another person or take the law into their own hands, yet even the murdered man's wife believes the shooter should be shown some clemency:  "I cannot condone what Aaron has done, but I do understand it. I believe he took the wrong avenue by taking the law into his own hands. Like most of this community, I do not feel he deserves 50 years in prison. Unlike most of this community, I feel he should serve some time, but not much."
.
That is an incredible position to take by this widow who just lost her husband.  Everyone else seems to believe the shooter needs therapy rather than a jail sentence.  In these cases, the best therapy can accomplish is for the victim to learn how to cope with life - the harm has already been done - the wounds never go away.
.
I know from experience how disgusting it is to live with the fact the perpetrator continues to visit the victim's family... that happened to me as well.  I never killed the guy - I moved far away from my family instead.  For me, the worst part of it was that everyone knew what happened, and yet he was still welcome in the house.
.
Sexual abuse kills.

Please pray for the coal miners in West Virginia.

MONTCOAL, W.Va. -- Rescuers at the site of the worst U.S. coal-mining disaster in more than two decades likely won't be able to resume the search for four missing miners until at least Wednesday evening, officials said this afternoon.
.
"I just don't think there is much hope held out at all [with the families]," McGraw said. "They made it clear to the families that it is not a good situation in there and probably not survivable." - Source

The Novena

"By this novena I will grant every possible grace to souls." - Words of Our Lord
.
I haven't noticed any Catholic blogs posting on the Novena to the Divine Mercy, which began on Good Friday and ends on the Feast of Mercy, the Second Sunday of Easter.  Of course I don't read that many blogs, so maybe it's just me, or maybe everyone knows enough about it already.  That can't be of course, since the Divine Mercy is inexhaustible - right?  :)
.
No doubt about it, the Divine Mercy is a very important devotion for our times.  As I mentioned, the novena began on Good Friday.  Most people use the prayers Jesus dictated to St. Faustina combined with the chaplet.  The novena of chaplets is the one by which Jesus promises his greatest graces to "anyone who prays it", while the prayers of Faustina may be substituted with our own.  Jesus told the Saint:
.
"On each day you will bring to my Heart a different group of souls; you will immerse them in this ocean of my Mercy; on each day you will beg my Father on the strength of my bitter Passion for graces for these souls."  Words of Our Lord
.
If you haven't started the novena, begin now, having confidence in the Divine Mercy.  Remember the parable of the laborers in the vineyard [Matt. 20:1-16]; those who were hired late received the same compensation as those who were hired early in the day.  Confidence - trust - is the essence of this devotion.
.
And most especially, go to confession, and on the Feast of Divine Mercy receive Holy Communion since the Lord promises:
.
"The soul that will go to confession, and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment... Let no soul fear to draw near to me, even though its sins be as scarlet." - Words of Our Lord
.
Links:
.
The Divine Mercy - Marians of the Immaculate Conception
.
Divine Mercy Devotion - EWTN
.
Cathedral of St. Paul, Minnesota:  Continue your Easter celebration by participating in the Cathedral’s Divine Mercy Sunday activities. Following the noon Mass on Sunday, April 11, we will have Eucharistic Adoration with music, meditations from Pope John Paul II & Saint Faustina, the Rosary, and confessions. At 3 p.m., the hour of Divine Mercy, we will sing the Divine Mercy Chaplet and have Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Happy Birthday Blessed Pier Giorgio!

Forever young.
.
If Frassati was still living on earth he would be 109 years old.
.
Pray for us Blessed Pier Giorgio that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ.  Amen.
.
Links:
.
A short biography.
.
Frassati USA
.
Photo:  Pier Giorgio is wearing the party hat.

Bunch of boobs.

Enraged over male voyeurism.
.
About two dozen women marched topless in Portland, Maine Saturday to protest the inequality of male/female nudity - after all, men can run around with shirts off.  No - that's not it - they were actually protesting the  double standard which exists over male/female nudity.  Historically, men have paid money to see women topless.  No - I'm sure that's wrong too.  Anyway...
.
"The women, preceded and followed by several hundred boisterous and mostly male onlookers, many of them carrying cameras, stayed on the sidewalk because they hadn't obtained a demonstration permit to walk in the street. About a thousand people gathered as the march passed through Monument Square, a mix of demonstrators, supporters, onlookers and those just out enjoying a warm and sunny early-spring day.
.
Ty McDowell, who organized the march, said she was "enraged" by the turnout of men attracted to the demonstration. The purpose, she said, was for society to have the same reaction to a woman walking around topless as it does to men without shirts on.
.
However, McDowell said she plans to organize similar demonstrations in the future and said she would be more "aggressive" in discouraging oglers." - Story
.
What the hell did she expect?

Anyway - no arrests were made for sexual harassment or bare-breasts; nudity is illegal in Maine only if genitals are exposed.
.
Oh, that's good.
.
Photo:  Ad for male bra.  This might placate things.

Easter memories...

Easter photo:  Me and my brother with Dad all dressed up.  (I'm the littlest one looking into my brother Skip's basket.)

Cardinal Sodano's pep talk: Yeah, I thought it was weird too.

Defending the Pope 'to his face'.
.
Cardinal Sodano addressed the Holy Father at the beginning of Mass yesterday...
.
It was not clear whether this greeting was actually part of the liturgy, as it seemed, coming after the entrance hymn, or was simply a preface to the liturgy, like an announcement at the beginning of Mass -- though such an announcement still ought to come before the entrance hymn.
.
If news is something that happens that is "new," this was news.
.
And when this cardinal (Sodano) rose to his feet and took the microphone to speak, every newsman within hearing pricked up his ears, thinking, "This is something new."
.
What did Sodano say?
.
Essentially, that Catholics around the world love and support Pope Benedict XVI, and will continue to do so no matter how fiercely he his attacked by the media.
.
Sodano, clearly referring to recent attacks on the Pope from the New York Times and other media outlets which allege that he did not do enough during his many years as an administrator in the Church to halt and punish priests accused of sexually abusing children, said the "people of God" would not be influenced by "petty gossip." - Inside the Vatican
.
Evidently, such a gesture is unprecedented - Moynihan says even the Pope looked surprised.  I watched it on the news and I think it was inappropriate and unnecessary to interrupt the Mass for such a display for the person of the Holy Father.
.
Don't get me wrong - I love the Pope, particularly this Pope - I pray for him and support him as best I can.  That said, I love the Papacy more, if you will.  Which means, when a Pope dies, I know another will be elected.  The Pope is Peter, he is Christ's Vicar on earth.  I wonder how much Catholics really appreciate that however?  With John Paul II we oftentimes witnessed over the top displays of affection and adulation by the crowds.  Sometimes his 'fans'  seemed to be more animated by the cult of personality which developed around him, rather than devotion for the Vicar of Christ.  I too loved John Paul II, but I wasn't so sad when he finally died after much incapacitating suffering, as I knew we would have a new Pope.  Just as when I was little and Pius XII died, I was thrilled we would have a new Pope.
.
I may be off in this, but it seems to me being off about things isn't all that uncommon these days - especially amongst the 'good' Catholics.  Consider how everyone got on Cantalamessa's case on Good Friday, as he attempted to compare the current media assault upon the Pope and the Church to the anti-semitism of Nazi Germany.  After which, self-appointed uber-Catholic bloggers rushed to judgement, along with secular media and the JDL, and criticized the hell out of the guy.  Right or wrong, one wonders just how devoutly some of these more Catholic than the Papal Theologian observed their Triduum, shooting their mouths off online.  Talk about "petty gossip".
.
Wanna buy a "Pray for the Pope" water bottle?  Golfshirt?

The most necessary 'call to arms' of all...

The spiritual combat.
.
"For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." - Ephesians 6:12  (So do not grow slack in your Easter celebration and relaxation.  The devil prowls like a roaring lion.)
.
I don't know about you, but it seems to me the real spiritual battle only now begins.  I'm so grateful to my friend who returned my book yesterday.  The title?  Cassian's, Monastic Institutes.  All I can think of is that he reads my blog and realizes how badly I need this instruction.  I opened to the chapter on vainglory, noting in particular the following counsels...
.
Of the Spirit of Conceit (or vainglory)
.
Chapter 9 - How conceit is more perilous when mingled with virtue.
.
Other disorders when they are opposed by their opposite virtues, are engaged in the open like battle in the light of day, and can easily be overcome or avoided: this alone when it is entwined with virtues is far more dangerously deceptive to the unwary warrior, as if battle were joined in confusion, fighting in the thick of night.
.
Chapter 14 - How conceit suggests they might rise in the hierarchy.
.
Often it instills an ambition for Holy Orders and the priesthood or diaconate.  If a monk has been chosen for ordination, it makes him imagine himself ministering with such piety and correctness that he can give an example of holiness to other priests, and winning many souls not only by his manner of life but also in his teaching and preaching.  Even one dwelling in the desert or in a cell is made to imagine himself travelling round different houses and monasteries, and converting many by the eloquence of his fantasy discourses.
.
Chapter 18 - How a monk should avoid women and bishops.
.
The consistent and still current teaching of the old Fathers (which I am embarrassed to repeat, I who failed to escape from my girl cousin, or elude the hands of the bishop) is that in all ways a monk should flee women and bishops.  Neither would allow him, once entangled in their company, either to apply himself to peaceful work in his cell, or to cleave to divine contemplation, in the consideration of holy things with undistracted eye. - The Monastic Institutes, John Cassian
.
Art: The Holy Communion of Mary of Egypt from the hands of the monk Zosimus.  St. Mary of Egypt's feast is observed on different dates at the beginning of April - I always observe it April 2.

Stalking the Great Easter Fire

Funny thing is, Father Erik never even noticed me there...  Oh - I have more photos - I have more!  Insane laughter...

Chocolate thoughts after Easter Mass...

BREAKfast - at last.
.
I can give up smoking, dope, and booze - but not chocolate.  Seriously - I'm letting a piece of Organic and fairly traded VERY DARK chocolate from "small-scale co-ops in Latin America" melt in my mouth as I write this...  Thank God for chocolate!  In moderation of course.
.
So anyway - I went to first Mass at St. Agnes this morning - ah!  How I miss attending Mass there.  The church is beautiful as usual, and I will say right now, I don't care how big the statues are - they fit!  The pastor, Fr. Ubel is pretty much the perfect parish priest as far as I'm concerned.  His homilies are excellent and lively, his decorum gentlemanly and elegant, his celebration of Mass ad orientem is faithful and reverent - without ostentation.  He's a wonderful priest and pastor - St. Agnes is fortunate to have such a fine, well-balanced priest.
.
I must say a special thanks to Lee, who returned a book - obviously waiting to do so for over a year, since that is how long it's been since I've been to Mass there - and a big thanks and promise of my prayers for his gift of Bishop Van Thuan's book which he included.
.
This morning I left the church feeling everything is okay.  How can I say that, what with everything going on in the world, in the Church?  I don't know... but I felt great peace.  There was something reassuring in Father's homily - he was reassuring.  He wasn't railing from the pulpit, condemning anti-Catholics - he spoke of Our Lady, Regina Coeli, of joy and peace... and I don't know what else right now - but his homily seemed to me to have been formulated in prayer, and spoken from his heart.  And his smile was real...  I sensed a wonderful freedom of spirit at St. Agnes today.  It remains the same church, however it felt fresh if you will, or perhaps renewed is a better word.
.
I think the cult effect is gone... Et unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam.
.
Photo: Juliette Binoche, Chocolat

Happy Easter!

Art: Lavinia Fontana "Noli me Tangere"

Some odd goings-on in my garden...

The Saturday before Easter...
.
So there I was... seated in my garden room ...overlooking the garden of course... listening to Prokoviev's Lt. Kije Suite.  Suddenly, tiptoeing through the hedges, I noticed a large brownish and henna colored rabbit, dressed in waistcoat, rose colored ascot, and tuxedo collared shirt, smoking a pipe.  I should mention he also was wearing a rather smart pair of midnight-blue and white stripped knickers - his little white tail puffing out the back nicely.  Upon one arm he carried what seemed to me to be quite a large basket for his size, woven from the branches and bark of my hedge.  "Ah, so that is why part of my hedge-row is dying off." - I grumbled to myself. 
.
Into the basket - which was really quite lovely - a rather plump female rabbit, dressed in a soft, yellow-pastel schmatta, protected by a lace-trimmed periwinkle print apron, and wearing a little white bonnet nicely fitted with ear-holes, placed what appeared to be gaily colored Easter eggs onto the pastel  grasses, mosses, and lichens which lined the interior.  Amongst these were foil wrapped chocolate bunnies and jelly bean eggs of every color one could imagine. 
.
As I rose from my chair to get a better look, I noticed several baby bunnies romping in the still sleeping hosta bed.  My movement must have alerted the adults, as Mr. Rabitowitz quickly took a sip from his flask - which seemed to come out of nowhere - kissed the Missus and hopped away in a flash.  I leapt to the window to see which direction he went, but he was gone, as were Mrs. Rabitowitz and the children.
.
"How very odd."  I mumbled to myself.

"Organized moral panic"

This morning Fr. Z posted a really interesting piece from Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne: Is priestly paedophilia a problem? Yes, says an Italian sociologist. Is it a big problem? No.  I think it is right on the mark.
.
Two characteristic elements exist: a fact which serves as a starting point, and an exaggeration of this fact by moral entrepreneurs.

.
The current discourse on paedophile priests – considered from a sociological perspective – represents a typical example of "moral panic". The concept was coined in the 1970s to explain how certain problems become the subject of "social hyperconstruction". More precisely, moral panics are defined as socially constructed problems that are characterised by a systematic amplification of the true facts in the media or in political discourse.
.
Two other characteristics have been cited as typical of moral panics. First, problems that have existed for decades are reconstructed in the media and political accounts as new or as the subject of a recent dramatic increase. Second, their incidence is exaggerated by statistics plucked from the air which, while not confirmed by academic studies, are repeated by the media and inspire persistent media campaigns. Historian and sociologist Philip Jenkins, of Pennsylvania State University, has emphasised the role of "moral entrepreneurs" in the creation and management of panics whose agenda is not always revealed.
.
Moral entrepreneurs (who) organize the panic...
.
This at a time when political, juridical and even electoral decisions in Europe and elsewhere are being made about the abortion pill RU-486, euthanasia, the recognition of same sex unions. Only the voice of the Pope and the Church is being raised to defend life and the family. The reading of certain articles in the media shows that very powerful lobby groups are seeking to silence this voice with the worst possible defamation—and unfortunately an easy one to make—that of favouring or tolerating paedophilia. - Read more here.
.
We have to be extremely discerning these days regarding the press - I believe this article from Fr. Z is helpful to keep in mind while reading and listening to all the sensationalized hype surrounding the attacks against the Church and the Pope.  I also think Elizabeth Lev's article, In Defense of the Catholic Clergy (Or Do We Want Another Reign of Terror?) compliments the theory of Massimo Introvigne rather well.
.
Image:  Nazi Anti-Catholic Propaganda Poster (Click the link and read the caption.)

A great silence...

Thoughts between Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday...
.
Technically I am offline - meaning I'm not reading the news or other blogs, neither am I posting - I assembled a few photos for Good Friday, but that is all.  Nevertheless, I thought I would jot down a few thoughts from my observance of these Holy Days - just personal reflections, nothing more, nothing important either.
.
Holy Thursday I prayed a rosary late, as if I was with him in the garden, and then like the disciples I went to bed.  I was actually awakened 3 or 4 times during the night, and each time my first thought was his prayer, alone, and I united myself to his prayer, wondering about it, until I fell back to sleep.  The last time I woke up it seemed to me Our Lord would have been arrested by then... at least confronted by Judas and the soldiers.  I wondered why the youth who ran off was wearing only a loin cloth, and in my sleepiness, I began to fixate on that question.
.
When I got up, my usual prayer, "Show us your face O Lord, and we shall be saved" seemed particularly poignant, recalling how Jesus looked at Peter after he had denied him 3 times... and naturally, I became distracted by the thought of trying to figure out at what time the cock first crows.
.
Later, my prayer focused upon the passage from Isaiah on the suffering servant... watching... following... listening in silence.  Throughout the first hours of the day I kept wondering precisely where Jesus would have been at each moment - unable to recall the exact timeline of specific events.
.
Somehow, Holy Week, and especially Good Friday, has always been very real for me - when I've observed it I should say - there was a time I wasn't practicing my faith.  These days seem to me to be timeless moments however - the Sacred Triduum that is.  There is no Mass, and I tell myself it is because we are living it as we solemnly commemorate the Passion, hence every moment is a sacrament, every thought of what went on in Jerusalem so many centuries ago, becomes a sort of transport back in time - as the events are re-presented for the soul.  Certainly the Passion is re-presented liturgically, and if one happens to be a mystic, perhaps they are re-enacted actually, but for the ordinary soul who just tries to pray - to be present to Christ in his sufferings - it seems to me time is suspended - and we are somehow there.  But I don't know how that is.
.
Thus, even as we go about our daily duties and occupation, amid all the distractions and diversions which comprise our days, sounded by all the debates and conflicts of our times "as we make our rounds of the city" - as soon as we think of him, we glimpse him looking at us, "standing behind our wall... gazing through the windows... peering through the lattices..." 
.
Nothing can separate us from his love...  "Stern as death is love, relentless as the nether-world is devotion; it's flames like the blazing fire of his heart...  Oh garden-dweller, my friends are listening for your voice... let me hear it!" * 
.

.
Art:  Christ Carrying His Cross - Giampietrino
.
*Scripture adapted from the Song of Songs

My people, what have I done to you?

How have I offended you?

Answer me! - Reproaches

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? - Ps. 22

They tear holes holes in my hands and my feet... Ps. 22

I am a man who knows affliction...

He has broken my teeth with gravel,

pressed my face in the dust... - Lamentations 3

Like a lamb led to the slaughter...

All who see me deride me... - Ps. 22

For all my foes I am an object of reproach,

a laughingstock to my neighbors, and a dread to my friends;

They who see me abroad flee from me... - Ps. 31

Maundy Thursday: Foot Washing For People On the Go.

That's meaningful, huh?
.
Photo credit.

I hate to see Lent end.

Maundy, Maundy...
.
St. Benedict wrote in his rule that the monk's life should always have the character of lent - thus as in year's past, I hope to  carry over my Lenten penance after Easter.  (I'm not always successful of course.)  I love Lent and the intense devotion to the Sacred Passion of our Lord it inspires.  One Easter, when I was in the monastery, I remember being surprised to see Dom Philip praying the stations as usual before Lauds in the chapel.  Later in confession, I asked him about it.  He simply said, "Some mystics and pious tradition hold that whenever Our Lady was in Jerusalem, she traced the steps of her Son on his way to Calvary each day after his death and burial.  So I try to keep her company." 
.
The Triduum begins with the Mass of the Lord's Supper this evening.  It is the holiest time of the year for Christians.  These are the days I especially miss the old liturgy - I find the innovations that have crept into the new rites to be generally distracting.  For instance the big production in many parishes over the washing of the feet.  At Larry's blog, Acts of the Apostasy, I commented on his post dealing with the subject of foot washing, "To be honest, I wish foot washing was limited to the Cathedrals and not the novelty it has become in nearly every parish.  In fact, I wish it wasn't the novelty it has become in some Cathedrals."
.
When I was young, the ritual seemed to be conducted with greater decorum and followed the rubrics, today it is often a bad theatrical production.  It's that active participation thing again I guess.  Nevertheless, I am Catholic and I am an obedient son of the Church.
.
Links:
.
Regulations for Washing of Feet Holy Thursday
.
Interesting link to a trad site tracing the history of liturgical reforms.
.

I know!

Just to be fair...

Cardinal Mahony went to bat for the Holy Father too.
.
It seems to me everyone freely castigates the Cardinal Archbishop of Los Angeles when he does something that doesn't suit their liturgical preferences, but when he gets on board defending the Holy Father, few seem to pay any attention.  That said - the Cardinal recently wrote his own defense of the Holy Father...
.
While I have no personal information on some of the specific allegations against our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, when he served the Church of Munich in Germany, I am able to assert without hesitation the action steps which he undertook in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith when he served as Prefect of that Congregation.
.
Beginning in that dark year of 2002, the then Cardinal Ratzinger responded quickly and affirmatively to all of our requests for assistance here in the United States.
.
Recall that Canon 1324, par. 4, states that in Canon Law a minor is a person under the age of 16 years. However, in the civil laws of the United States, a minor is deemed to be a person under the age of 18 years. After we brought this gap to the attention of Cardinal Ratzinger, the canonical age was also raised to 18 years to accommodate civil law in our country and in other countries.
.
With respect to the processes of dealing with cases of alleged sexual abuse by priests in our Archdiocese, Cardinal Ratzinger and his Congregation responded swiftly and gave us advice on how to proceed with each of these cases. We never had delays or a lack of proper response.
.
Whenever I proposed that a certain priest be returned to the lay state and no longer serve as a priest, the Congregation responded quickly and in accord with my recommendations. Whether the priest petitioned himself for a return to the lay state, or whether I insisted upon his return to the lay state, Cardinal Ratzinger and the Congregation responded in favor of the Church, not of the priest individually.
.
Without the proactive and helpful assistance of Cardinal Ratzinger and the Congregation over these years, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles would never have been able to move forward aggressively to remove priests from ministry who were proved to be guilty of the sexual abuse of minors. - Finish reading here.
.
As everyone knows by now, many Cardinals and Archbishops and Bishops (Cardinal Levada calls out the NYT) have rallied to the Holy Father's defense.  This is a wonderful sign of unity for the Church.  It makes me think of the prophetic vision of Don Bosco.
.
H/T California Catholic Daily

Told ya it was Weakland's fault...

The weakest link.
.
Furthermore, under canon law at the time, the principal responsibility for sexual abuse cases lay with the local bishop. Archbishop (Rembert) Weakland had from 1977 onward the responsibility of administering penalties to Father Murphy. He did nothing until 1996. It was at that point that Cardinal Ratzinger's office became involved, and it subsequently did nothing to impede the local process.
.
In August 1998, Archbishop Weakland writes that he has halted the canonical trial and penal process against Father Murphy and has immediately begun the process to remove him from ministry. That same month, Father Murphy dies.
.
The New York Times flatly got the story wrong. Readers may want to speculate on why. - Read more here.
.
Art:  Smoke of Satan