Richard Bennett and Stuart Quint The Vatican officially teaches that the Pope is the substitute for Christ Jesus. “The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter’s successor, ‘is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful.’  ‘For the Roman Pontiff, by reason Read More

By Richard Bennett and Jim Whitley People Are Departing the Roman Catholic Church The Roman Catholic Church faces a grim future in today’s Ireland, formerly one of the most devout Catholic countries in Europe: “In 2009, the Murphy report on the sexual abuse of children in the archdiocese of Dublin revealed that the Catholic Church’s Read More

“…better to marry than to burn…”: Boston and the Catholic troubles “Sex, shame and the Catholic Church” was Newsweek’s cover story for March 4th, 2002, the subtitle of which was “and new soul-searching across America.” One would have hoped that exposure of the Catholic teaching on virginity and celibacy would have been discussed. Instead, the Read More

By Richard Bennett and Stuart Quint “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”[1] “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Read More

One might wonder what remains of the glory of the Catholic priesthood in face of the worldwide scandals, and in particular those that have occurred recently in the U.S.A.  For example, on July 7th 2003 under the heading “Clergy Sex Abuse: Justice Must Come for the Bishops,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported, “That there are Read More

“Sex, shame and the Catholic Church was Newsweek’s cover story for March 4th, 2002, subtitled “and new soul-searching across America.”[1]  One would have hoped that exposure of the Catholic teaching on virginity and celibacy would have been discussed.  Instead, the article focused on quoting some facts and figures, and who says what, with no reference Read More

While the USA is entangled in a Catholic sex abuse scandal similar events are being revealed in other nations.  “Of all the countries where sexual-abuse revelations have scandalized the Roman Catholic Church, Ireland has been among the hardest hit.  In the past decade, this predominantly Roman Catholic nation of 3.8 million people—which has exported priests Read More