Magazine

Our Own Penance

To add to the tragedy of pedophile priests (Signs of the Times, 3/18), there have been no words of sorrow, no admissions of complicity, no words of compassion from the pope or his Vatican officials addressed directly to the victims (and their families) of sexual

It is helpful to understand the sexual abuse of children by priests within the broader context of child victimization.

The painful news of priest sex offenders is back, emerging with the familiar tale of suffering, shame and sorrow. Even though most of these stories are about events that took place over a decade ago, they have the effect of re-wounding. The pressing questions: How frequent are cases of priest-offend

It began one Sunday in September when we noticed an unfamiliar priest celebrating Mass. The monsignor, who introduced himself as the director of priest personnel for the diocese, had bad news. A family in the parish had filed a lawsuit against our pastor, charging inappropriate behavior toward their

In this issue, America deals with a crisis that is causing enormous pain and great scandal in the churchsexual abuse by priests. These crimesthere is no other word for themhave physically, psychologically and spiritually damaged hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children and their families. They have

During the Easter triduum this year, homilists will find themselves, sadly, with a great deal of contemporary material that echoes the story of Good Friday. The events of Sept. 11, the continuing war in Afghanistan, the conflict in the Middle East, the turmoil in places like Nigeria and Pakistan, as

Cardinal Law Hears Concerns of Boston Catholics On the verge of tears, a sorrowful Boston Cardinal Bernard F. Law told more than 2,500 area Catholics who gathered March 9 to discuss clergy sex abuse of minors, "In my most horrible nightmares I would never have imagined that we would have come to th