Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jan 4, 2019 / 04:40 pm (ACI Prensa).- Archbishop Marcelo Daniel Colombo of Mendoza, Argentina has temporarily closed the Christ at Prayer Monastery in the town of Tupungato, after two of the community’s founding monks were arrested on sexual abuse charges.
“Without pre-judging the guilt of these priests, which is being evaluated by the canonical and state criminal justice system, it becomes necessary for us, right now, to consider the way to continue this experience of religious life in this context,” the archbishop said in a statement.
On December 27, a police delegation entered the monastery and arrested Fr. Diego Roque and Fr. Oscar Portillo, two priests from Buenos Aires who have led the monastery since 1996.
The priests are accused of sexual abuse, including abuse of a minor, and abuse of authority between 2009 and 2015. They allegedly abused a man who tried to enter the monastery.
Both priests maintain their innocence. They will remain in custody while the facts of the case are being determined.
In his statement, Archbishop Colombo said that the monastery was left with only four brothers and authorities. As a result, he is closing the monastery until further notice.
“The youngest brothers, who very recently entered will return to their family homes and will continue to be spiritually accompanied in their vocational search,” the archbishop said.
The two older members, “one professed and the other a novice, already a priest, will from now on live in a parish community to be designated and will be able to continue discerning their vocational call in a climate of spiritual recollection.”
As for the administration and management of the monastery, Archbishop Colombo said that it will be the direct responsibility of the Archdiocese of Mendoza in the person of Fr. Aldo Vallone, who will serve as Diocesan Moderator of the Christ at Prayer Monastery.
“Sharing the pain that these events cause us, I ask you to accompany us with your prayers,” the archbishop said. “I know of many people who love the Monastery…I ask them to try to understand the unprecedented situation this poses and the indispensable prudential action which is expected of the Church in cases like these.”
Colombo asked for prayers for all those who have suffered abuse. He and called on Our Lady of the Rosary to accompany the community.
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Toronto, Canada, Apr 17, 2019 / 05:56 pm (CNA).- A Canadian priest’s controversial 2018 characterization of Pope Francis was plagiarized, according to a recent media report. The priest, Fr. Thomas Rosica, SDB, apologized in February after he was discovered to have committed acts of plagiarism serially.
Rosica, a long-serving English language press aide at the Vatican Press Office, and the CEO of Canada’s Salt+Light Television network, wrote in July 2018 that Pope Francis “breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants because he is ‘free from disordered attachments.’ Our Church has indeed entered a new phase: with the advent of this first Jesuit pope, it is openly ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture.”
The passage had been taken from a 2014 blog post written by Richard Bennett, a former member of Dominican Order and an apparently laicized priest, who is now active in a fundamentalist Protestant organization which says it “places particular emphasis on the evangelization and conversion of Roman Catholics.”
Bennet’s post was intended as criticism of a video about Pope Francis released by Fr. James Martin, SJ, according to the National Post.
In one section of Bennet’s blog, which aimed to both summarize and critique Martin’s synopsis of Ignatian spirituality, Bennet wrote that: “Without the Gospel and locked into subjective mysticism, both the priests and the lay people are then without biblical authority – except as mediated to them by their Roman Church. Francis having completed the Spiritual Exercises is now ‘detached,’ i.e., free from any ‘disordered attachments’ so that all his attachments or desires are supposedly ‘ordered toward God.’”
“Therefore, it is not surprising, as Jesuit priest Martin points out, Pope Francis breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants – because he is ‘free from disordered attachments’ according to the subjectivity of his own mindset rather than worshiping and serving God according to the authority of Scripture,” Bennet added.
“Clearly, the Roman Catholic Church has entered a new phase: with the advent of its first Jesuit pope, it is obviously ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture,” he concluded, suggesting that Francis’ Ignatian spirituality contradicts Catholic doctrine regarding the binding authority of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.
Each passage of Rosica’s controversial 2018 paragraph was nearly identical to a parallel passage in Bennet’s blog post, though no attribution was given. Rosica’ paragraph was part of an essay, “The Ignatian Qualities of the Petrine Ministry of Pope Francis,” published July 31, 2018 at Salt+Light Media’s website. The essay has since been removed from the site.
Rosica’s essay was met with immediate criticism by some theologians, who said that the priest incorrectly characterized the pope’s spirituality in a manner contrary to Catholic doctrine regarding the binding authority of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.
Those critics, Rosica tweeted in response, should read the full text “then go to confession.”
Rosica was first reported by Life Site News Feb. 15 to have plagiarized sections of text in lectures and op-eds from a variety of writers, among them priests, theologians, journalists, and at least two cardinals.
Subsequent reports found pervasive plagiarism in academic articles, essays, speeches, and op-eds by Rosica, dating back more than a decade. Rosica was reported in March to have misrepresented his academic credentials, claiming falsely in his official biography to have earned an advanced degree from École Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem.
“I realize that I was not prudent nor vigilant with several of the texts that have surfaced and I will be very vigilant with future texts and compositions,” Rosica told The Catholic Register Feb. 18.
“I take full responsibility for my lack of oversight and do not place the blame on anyone else but myself.”
Rosica told the National Post Feb. 22 that “What I’ve done is wrong, and I am sorry about that. I don’t know how else to say it.”
Rosica also told the National Post his plagiarism was inadvertent and not malicious. He explained that “it could have been cut and paste,” apparently meaning that he had mistakenly included passages of text written by others in his texts without remembering to attribute them.
The priest added that he would “apologize that this came to light, and it’s wrong, and it’s not going to happen again.”
On March 14, the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation announced that Rosica would take a “sabbatical of several months for rest and renewal.”
Salt and Light’s Board of Directors said it had “accepted the apology and deep regret of Chief Executive Officer, Fr. Thomas Rosica, for instances of plagiarism where passages and texts were not properly attributed. Fr. Rosica understands the gravity of his actions, accepts full responsibility for them and has pledged to the Board that this will not occur again.”
The Virgin of Guadalupe in the new Basilica / Photo credit: David Ramos / ACI Prensa
Puebla, Mexico, Dec 12, 2024 / 15:15 pm (CNA).
Between Dec. 8–12, an estimated 12 million pilgrims are expected to have visited the shrine of Our Lady of Guada… […]
Roger Foley enjoys taste-testing three different kinds of hummus, his favourite food, on the day of a video shoot with Amanda Achtman of the Dying to Meet You project in Canada. The two spoke about Foley’s difficulty accessing quality care for his needs and being offered Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) “several times.” / Courtesy of Amanda Achtman
CNA Staff, Jun 23, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Amid ongoing efforts to expand euthanasia in Canada under the name of “medical aid in dying” (MAID), one Ottawa man says he has been offered euthanasia “multiple times” as he struggles with lifelong disabilities and chronic pain from a disease called cerebellar ataxia.
Roger Foley, 49, shared some of his story in a recent video interview with Amanda Achtman of the Dying to Meet You project, which was created to “humanize our conversation on suffering, death, meaning, and hope.” The project seeks to “[restore] our cultural health when it comes to our experiences of death and dying” through speaking engagements and video campaigns.
Roger Foley, a Canadian man with disabilities, says he’s been offered euthanasia “multiple times.”
Listen to him speak out against being devalued as he fights for the support he needs to live. pic.twitter.com/yY8N4NILkS
In the video, the fourth of a series, Foley said he has struggled with subpar medical help in his own home, where he is supposed to be getting quality care. Canada has a nationalized health care system but Foley said that individuals with illnesses are “worked at … not worked with.” He spoke out against being devalued as he fights for the support he needs to live.
In one case, he said, a home worker helped him into his bathtub and then fell asleep in the other room; Foley was left to crawl out of the bathroom on his own. “I reported to the agency, and then he confessed, and the agency, they really didn’t care,” he said.
Asked by Achtman if he has ever been offered euthanasia, Foley said: “Yeah, multiple times.”
“One time, [a doctor] asked me, ‘Do you have any thoughts of self-harm?’ I’m honest with them and tell them I do think about ending my life because of what I’m going through, being prevented from the resources that I need to live safely back at home.”
“From out of nowhere, he just pulls out, ‘Well, if you don’t get self-directing funding, you can always apply for an assisted.’”
Foley said the offers from doctors to help end his life have “completely traumatized me.”
“Now it’s this overlying option where in my situation, when I say I’m suicidal, I’m met with, ‘Well, the hospital has a program to help you with that if you want to end your life.’”
“That didn’t exist before [MAID] was legalized, but now it’s there,” he said. “There is not going to be a second within the rest of my life that I’m not going to have flashbacks to [being offered suicide]. The devaluing of me and all that I am.”
Noting that he’s “not religious,” Foley said: “Saying that it’s just religious persons who oppose euthanasia in society is completely wrong.”
“These people who usually say it, they have an ableist mindset,” he said. “And they look at persons with disabilities and see us as just better off dead and a waste of resources.”
Achtman told CNA there is a need for euthanasia-free health care spaces, not only for protecting the integrity of Catholic institutions but also because many patients — including nonreligious patients like Foley — want to be treated in facilities that do not raise euthanasia with patients.
“Having euthanasia suggested, in a sense, already kills the person. It deflates a person’s sense of confidence that doctors and nurses are going to truly fight for them,” Achtman told CNA. “When euthanasia is suggested ostensibly as one ‘treatment’ option among others, there are all-too-frequently no other real options provided.
She continued: “This is why I always say that a request for euthanasia is not so much an expression of a desire to die as it is an expression of disappointment. Responding to such disappointment with real interventions that are adequate to the person is demanding, but that’s what people deserve. It is wrong to concede or capitulate to a person’s suicidal ideation — instead, every person deserves suicide prevention rather than suicide assistance.”
Roger Foley enjoys taste-testing three different kinds of hummus, his favorite food, on the day of a video shoot with Amanda Achtman of the Dying to Meet You project. The two spoke about Foley’s difficulty accessing quality care for his needs and being offered Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) “several times.”. Courtesy of Amanda Achtman
Canada has become one of the most permissive countries in the world when it comes to euthanasia. The country first began allowing doctors to help kill terminally ill patients nearing death in 2016; the law was then expanded in 2021 to include patients whose death is not imminent.
In February the country paused a proposal to allow mentally ill individuals access to MAID, with the proposal set to be reconsidered in 2027. Earlier this year, Canadian health researchers alleged that MAID will “save” the Canadian health care system between $34.7 and $136.8 million per year.
A couple in British Columbia is currently suing the provincial government, as well as a Catholic health care provider, after their daughter was denied euthanasia while suffering from a terminal illness. The suit demands that the government remove the religious exemption from the Catholic hospital that protects them from having to offer MAID.
A judge in March, meanwhile, ruled that a woman with autism could be granted her request to die by MAID, overruling efforts by the woman’s father to halt the deadly procedure.
Asked what gives him hope, Foley told Achtman that he aspires one day to “be able to break through [the health care system] and get access to the resources that I need and to live at home with workers who want to work with me and I want to work with them and that we can work as a team.”
“I have a passion to live,” he said. “I don’t want to give up my life.”
Please God, let sexual abuse crisis come to an end. Let all the clerics who committed abuse and covered it up be expelled from their positions of power and handed over to civil authorities for judgment. This is one of my pleas I will be giving whenever I recite the rosary.
Please God, let sexual abuse crisis come to an end. Let all the clerics who committed abuse and covered it up be expelled from their positions of power and handed over to civil authorities for judgment. This is one of my pleas I will be giving whenever I recite the rosary.