Blog - March 2010 RSS Feed

Noted author George Weigel wrote an insightful piece in First Things about the current reporting on the sexual abuse situations. Here is an excerpt from the article: The sexual and physical abuse of children and young people is a global plague; its manifestations run the gamut from fondling by teachers to rape by uncles to kidnapping-and-sex-trafficking.

As you may know, in addition to serving as Archbishop of New York, I am also the Chairman of the Board of Catholic Relief Services. In that role, I joined last week with the Chairman of the USCCB Subcommittee on Latin America, Archbishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio, in updating our brother bishops on the on-going situation in Haiti.

In some ways, Holy Week is hardly the time I would choose to make the following comments. Still, the matter is so pressing that I feel compelled to address it. Last week I asked for some fairness in the seemingly unappeasable criticism of the Church over the catastrophe of clergy sexual abuse.

Many of you have undoubtedly seen or heard about the story that appears on the front page of today’s New York Times concerning a priest from Wisconsin who sexually abused hearing impaired children in the 1970’s, and the response of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by Cardinal Ratzinger, when this matter was brought to their attention in the late 1990’s.

Fridays of Lent are days of special sacrifice anyway, so I guess maybe the anguish caused by that day’s headline in our city’s newspaper should have been accepted as an invitation to further penance.

On Monday I posted some thoughts on the health care reform bill being considered by Congress, and the need to make certain that reform is truly universal by not eliminating the protection of the unborn currently found in the Hyde Amendment.

Saint Patrick’s Day Letter to the Archdiocese of New York Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan 17 March 2010 My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ in the Archdiocese of New York! This is the day which the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it!

This is a very significant week for a cause championed by an overwhelming majority of Americans: health care reform. Our prayers are with our president and elected officials in D.C. as they work hard at bringing about a bill that is just and good for the country we love.

We are just about half-way through Lent, making this the perfect time to recommit ourselves to a real spirit of prayer, fasting, and charity. My column this week in Catholic New York , the Archdiocesan newspaper, is all about Lenten Penance.

Today is Public Policy Forum Day , sponsored by the New York State Catholic Conference, and the second of two days that I am spending in our state capital, Albany, New York. I’ve enjoyed getting to meet many of the leaders of our state government, and having the opportunity to discuss with them some of the issues that we believe are of critical importance to the state.

Last week I celebrated an anniversary I cherish. It’s not the kind of day you light candles on a cake or pop champagne corks — I couldn’t do that anyway since I gave up desserts and drinking for Lent.