Church Reform

James Kavanaugh, a former Catholic priest who came to fame in 1967 with his controversial bestseller calling for reform in the church and later wrote bestselling books of poetry and other works, has died. He was 81. Kavanaugh, who underwent surgery for an aortic aneurysm in July, died Dec. 29 in a hospice in Kalamazoo, Mich., said his wife, Cathy. Ordained in 1954, Kavanaugh served as a parish priest in Lansing and Flint, Mich., and earned a doctorate at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., before the publication of "A Modern Priest Looks at His Outdated Church" in 1967.

"To live is to change," wrote the 19th century English Cardinal John Henry Newman, "and to be perfect is to have changed often." Pope Benedict XVI will preside over Newman's beatification — sainthood's honorific antechamber — when he visits Britain in September, but between now and then he's likely to hear growing demands for change in the governance of an ancient but scandal-ravaged institution In a stunningly blunt editorial, for...

Re "Priest Scandal Could Set History in Motion," Commentary, March 21: James Pinkerton's understanding of the current crisis within the Catholic Church, and indeed of the church itself, is so limited that I will find it hard to take him seriously on other issues in the future. That the church will suddenly change many of the doctrines that it has defended through fire and blood for 2,000 years because a vast minority of its priests have committed the sin and crime of pedophilia is just plain silly.

James Kavanaugh, a former Catholic priest who came to fame in 1967 with his controversial bestseller calling for reform in the church and later wrote bestselling books of poetry and other works, has died. He was 81. Kavanaugh, who underwent surgery for an aortic aneurysm in July, died Dec. 29 in a hospice in Kalamazoo, Mich., said his wife, Cathy. Ordained in 1954, Kavanaugh served as a parish priest in Lansing and Flint, Mich., and earned a doctorate at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., before the publication of "A Modern Priest Looks at His Outdated Church" in 1967.

The white-brick monastery across a busy street from a Shell service station seems an unlikely place for a confrontation that now involves Mother Teresa, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, and that ultimately may be decided by Pope John Paul II. It is a dispute so heated that police have been summoned twice to separate feuding nuns.

In a year of scandal, few Catholic congregations have been tested as severely as the 5,000 families of St. Edward Church in Dana Point. Their charismatic pastor was ousted after admitting several affairs with women. Later, the church paid $1.2 million to settle allegations that he impregnated a 16-year-old girl in the early 1980s and paid for her abortion. There was more: A beloved senior priest was removed amid allegations that he sexually abused a teenage boy two decades ago.

With prayers and sadness, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops convened Thursday for what one leading prelate called "a pretty sober gathering," determined to regroup after a tumultuous week of controversy. The bishops defended their record and accomplishments on fighting sexual abuse in the year since they met in Dallas and adopted a landmark set of rules to prevent priests from molesting children. They vowed to press ahead to fulfill their commitments.

In an unadorned parish hall in this posh Boston suburb, a woman spoke evenly, clearly trying to control her emotions. "I'm concerned about my children, who are making decisions about the future for my grandchildren," Claire Megan said. "I want them all to remain Catholic. But not in the church the way it's been." This faithful churchgoer has found herself rethinking her world these days as new accusations continue to surface about sex crimes and cover-ups within the Catholic priesthood.

The head of one of the most prestigious Jesuit schools in the United States said declining numbers of men entering the priesthood means that the Roman Catholic Church either must consider having a married clergy, ordaining women or giving a greater role to lay people.

The United Methodist hymnal committee put the finishing touches this week on a revised songbook for the 9-million-member denomination after almost three years of debate, research and prayer. Committee members weathered storms of controversy to produce the book of 624 hymns, which will be presented in April to the denomination's General Conference meeting in St. Louis. If the revised hymnal is approved by the General Conference, it will be published by December, 1989, church officials say.

Like Catholic priests everywhere, Bishop Peter Hickman dons a white tunic each Sunday to celebrate Mass in a sanctuary laden with incense and crosses. Unlike most, he'll often have lunch with his wife and children afterward. "Marriage promotes growth," says Hickman, 50, who has fathered five children, been married three times and divorced twice. "People who've never been married have a hard time knowing themselves."

With little debate, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops Friday extended by five years safeguards to protect children and youth from sexual predators within the church. The decision by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, meeting here for their spring session, reaffirmed the U.S. church's "zero tolerance" policy hammered out at the height of the sexual abuse scandal in 2002.

The nation's Roman Catholic bishops were expected today to reauthorize a 3-year-old "zero tolerance" policy to prevent the sexual abuse of minors and to weed offending clergy out of public ministry. But protesters outside the Fairmont Hotel, where the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is holding its annual spring meeting, charged that proposed changes in the policy would weaken the church's commitment to safeguard children and youth from sexual predators.

After months of resistance and round-the-clock vigils at several churches, archdiocese officials Tuesday reversed a decision to close one parish, and will reevaluate four other planned closings. Archbishop Sean Patrick O'Malley's decision to shutter or consolidate 83 churches by year's end came in response to declining attendance, a shortage of priests and financial pressure caused in part by the clergy sex abuse crisis.

Moving to assert control over three breakaway parishes, the Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles on Friday appointed two assistant bishops to serve the congregations and said he would appoint new lay governing boards. The move by the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, communicated in letters dated Sept. 1 but delivered Friday, escalated what probably will be a protracted legal battle over ownership of the parish property and Bruno's jurisdiction over the breakaway priests.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, recently criticized by a national Catholic panel for his legal tactics in sexual abuse cases, received a vote of confidence this week from the Los Angeles Council of Priests, an elected body representing the Roman Catholic archdiocese's 850 clergymen.

On the screen of a laptop computer, unmanned boats race through San Diego Harbor and crash into floating barriers designed to thwart terrorists' attacks on Navy ships. The speedboats then smash through the walls or simply jump over giant inflated tubes built to stop them. Alex Metherell, 63, explains how simple physics doomed each of the attempts to block the simulated attacks.

In the first public penance by Roman Catholic priests since the church's national sex scandal broke 11 months ago, 16 clerics in Santa Ana began Wednesday to perform acts of contrition suggested by molestation victims. Under the glare of television lights and before a crowd of reporters from as far away as Boston, the priests met at a homeless shelter to decide how to show they are sorry for what some of their brethren have done.

A panel of scientists and psychiatrists, in a long-awaited report released Monday, offered recommendations for preventing the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests but emphatically rejected the U.S. church's "zero-tolerance" policy of defrocking offenders. The policy can discourage abusive clerics from seeking help or recklessly unleash pedophiles into society once they are ousted from the church, the report said.

Turning to an ancient method of public notice, Bishop Tod D. Brown on Sunday nailed to the doors of Holy Family Cathedral a document proclaiming a commitment by the Diocese of Orange to help heal the wounds caused by the Roman Catholic sex abuse scandal.