Catholic Church

One of Roman Catholicism's most tantalizing secrets came to an anticlimactic end Monday as the Vatican unveiled a 62-line handwritten account by Lucia de Jesus dos Santos of what she saw as a 10-year-old shepherd in a pasture near Fatima, Portugal, on July 13, 1917. The text describes a radiant Virgin Mary, a flaming sword and a "Bishop dressed in White," presumed to be a pope, who leads a sad procession of priests and nuns up a mountain through a half-ruined city strewn with corpses.

Responding to letters to the editor on the dust-up between the Vatican and a group of American nuns, reader Joseph S. David of Brea wrote: "Is it liberal bias that The Times had one columnist and four letter writers castigate the Vatican for its recent call to liberal American nuns to reform, but no one to defend it? "In truth, defense is unnecessary for the offense that is the liberal nuns: flaunting of Roman Catholic doctrines, unfaithfulness to religious vows and a misinterpretation of Vatican II. They forget that when the church's Magisterium (its teaching office)

The first Filipino American bishop in the United States was ordained Tuesday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. The ordination of Oscar Azarcon Solis, 50, was attended by about 3,600 people, including about 400 priests and 40 bishops from the U.S. and the Philippines. Solis is now one of five auxiliary bishops for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which represents Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Taking sides Re "Vatican says nuns' group must reform," April 20 Thousands of women who have given up marriage and money to work tirelessly to help the poor, the sick and the needy - just as Jesus asked them to - are being blasted for doing so. Just because they show Scriptural leadership and love rather than meekly pushing someone else's political agenda, they are being vilified by male Roman Catholic Church leaders. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, we see remarkable, devout female leaders - Deborah, Miriam, Esther, Mary, Martha, Lydia and many more come to mind.

Soon after he died two years ago, Pope John Paul II was practically declared a saint by vox populi. Banners demanding "Santo Subito!" (Sainthood Now!) crowned the crowds of people who filled St. Peter's Square to mourn the pontiff. Today, on the second anniversary of his death, John Paul will take a significant step closer to sainthood.

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed a Riverside priest as an auxiliary bishop in the far-flung Diocese of San Bernardino. Father Rutilio J. Del Riego, 64, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Riverside, will be ordained as a bishop on Sept. 20 at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Chino Hills, the diocese said Tuesday. The diocese's previous auxiliary bishop, the Most Rev. Dennis Patrick O'Neil, died in 2003.

Southern Californians who were sexually abused by priests left in ministry by Bishop Michael P. Driscoll want him to resign or be fired. But in Idaho, where Driscoll now serves as bishop of Boise, Roman Catholic opinion appears far more divided after the release last week of internal church documents that detailed his past handling of clergy sexual abuse allegations in Orange County.

Betty Schaefer was 19 when she put on a white wedding dress provided by the convent of the Dominican Order of Sisters and took her first religious vows. She became Sister Davida, taking her mother's maiden name, and every day wore a black veil and long white tunic. She taught at Catholic schools. At night, even while she slept, she was required to keep her head covered.

Twenty-five years ago today, Pope Paul VI stunned the Roman Catholic Church by issuing an encyclical against artificial birth control that set many of its members and priests on a course of defiance. A generation later, most have not turned back. According to the National Catholic Reporter, nine out of 10 U.S. Catholics continue to practice artificial birth control--confident that they can still be good Catholics and determined to keep the church out of their bedrooms.

The Vatican's influential Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who upset Jewish leaders last year with published remarks suggesting that Judaism finds its fulfillment in Christianity, told reporters here that Roman Catholics do respect the Jews' understanding of their own Scripture and faith. "They are the owners of the Old Testament," he said.

PEWAUKEE, Wis. — Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum each sought to shore up their standing with religious conservatives Saturday as the two leading rivals for the Republican presidential nomination battled for support in the Wisconsin primary. Their latest appeals to the party's conservative wing come as Romney is trying to take on the role of presumptive Republican nominee, which would normally require a pivot toward the center. Romney's prolonged combat with Santorum is not only blocking him from making what he had hoped would be a smooth and quick transition to a general election campaign, but also spotlighting the shifts on social issues that led much of the party's conservative base to distrust him. "I want to protect the sanctity of human life," Romney told hundreds of conservative Christians on Saturday at a gathering of the Faith and Freedom Coalition in this Milwaukee suburb.

Fourteen years after Pope John Paul II made his landmark visit to Cuba, his successor, Benedict XVI, arrives Monday in a changed country where the Roman Catholic Church occupies its most influential role since the communist revolution half a century ago. The once-marginalized church's new position owes to the careful diplomacy of charismatic Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the most senior Cuban prelate; the political ascension of Raul Castro, more pragmatic...

The Roman Catholic Church in Mexico this year took the unusual step of issuing guidelines on how Mexicans should vote in the upcoming presidential election: Candidates should value marriage as a bond between a man and a woman and should place prime importance on "the right to life, starting at conception. " Both ideas were clearly aimed at leftist parties and others who have backed same-sex marriage and abortion, legalized in recent years in Mexico City. Pope Benedict XVI arrives Friday to a Mexico that, officially, is a strictly secular nation.

Power vs. the desert Re "The power compromise," Feb. 5 If people want renewable energy, they should understand it must come from somewhere. In this case, the desert ecosystem is the somewhere. Although the Ivanpah Valley solar site and similar projects represent a devastating loss to this environment, if we continue to depend on fossil fuels, there will be devastation just as bad elsewhere in the world. It seems that we Southern Californians are unable to deal with the devastation being so close to home.

The Catholic Church reacted strongly Friday to a White House defense of new rules that will force many religious employers to provide contraception to their workers in government-mandated health insurance plans. "The White House information about this is a combination of misleading and wrong," said Anthony Picarello, general counsel of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He said the bishops would "pursue every legal mandate available to them to bring an end to this mandate.

Tens of thousands of Dutch children were sexually abused by priests and other Roman Catholic religious figures in the last 65 years, but church officials failed to take adequate action or report problems to police, an independent commission said Friday. Many of the victims spent part of their childhood in Catholic institutions such as schools and orphanages, where the risk of abuse was twice as high as in the general population, the commission said. But complaints were often ignored or covered up by authorities who were more intent on protecting the church's reputation than providing care for abuse victims.

Church member J.H. Brittain worried about the spread of disease caused by hundreds of parishioners drinking from the same Communion cup. The Englishman wrote to the editors of the Lancet, an international medical journal: "I venture to think that there is a strong prima facie case against the use of one cup, but the task of the hygienic innovator would be made much easier if he could cite actual example of contagion."

MAYNOOTH, Ireland -- The black-and-white class portraits arrayed along the nearly deserted corridor of the seminary at St. Patrick's College here tell the tale. Year by year, the group of graduating seminary students gets smaller. Slowly, the number of young men willing to replenish the priesthood of the once-mighty Roman Catholic Church in Ireland is shrinking. In the future, the priests celebrating Mass in the Emerald Isle's churches may well be from South America or Africa, not Cork or Kerry.

A new and intriguing prospect for the Crystal Cathedral emerged Wednesday when the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange said it was considering buying the bankrupt church in Garden Grove and converting it to a Catholic cathedral. The announcement by Orange Bishop Tod Brown came one day after Chapman University made a $46-million bid for the 40-acre site. The Crystal Cathedral had earlier reached a tentative agreement for a sale and lease-back deal with a real estate developer, subject to approval by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Kwan.

A New York message Re "Medicare plan may have cost GOP a seat," May 25 Democrat Kathy Hochul took a House seat away from the Republicans in a very conservative district in New York, and most folks think it was because Republicans want to turn Medicare into a private voucher program. There were, in fact, many other issues. Polling in the district showed that voters were equally concerned with the lack of jobs created by the newly elected House majority. In addition, voters throughout the country are upset that Republicans refuse to discard the huge tax cut for the very wealthy and their refusal to end big tax breaks for oil companies.