Catholic News Service

December 13, 2010

WikiLeaks cables show Vatican as horrified by Irish clergy's sex abuse

By John Thavis


VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A spate of U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks portray the Vatican as horrified over clerical sex abuse in Ireland but also deeply concerned that the procedures used by Irish investigators of the scandal were "an affront to Vatican sovereignty."

The cables, released Dec. 10-12, touched on a wide range of issues, from the Vatican's efforts to deal with leftist governments in Latin America to its recent moves to welcome disaffected Anglicans into the Catholic Church.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1005075.htm

Catholic Online

12/12/2010

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebrated Throughout the Americas

Many American cities join in the festivities

By Randy Sly

 KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ, Special to the National Catholic Register 09/27/2010

Fifty years ago Sept. 12, in a famous speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, John F. Kennedy announced his belief “in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.” He said he believed that a president’s religious views should be “his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation, or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.”

Which is absolutely the wrong approach for the Catholic in public life. Kennedy’s principle, of course, has a rich history, with even Catholic politicians expressing such things on Catholic campuses; by now, being merely personally opposed to evil on the Notre Dame campus might be among the least outrageous of its fruits.

This is why, 50 years later, another Catholic politician, considered a long shot for president, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum gave a response to Kennedy in a Houston speech, at the University of St. Thomas there.