Priests

New York archbishop: An article about the appointment of Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan as archbishop of New York in Tuesday's Section A referred to him once as a monsignor. While the title is also used to refer to a specific ecclesiastic rank, in this case it was used in its more general sense, as a title of respect for priests of distinction.

The founder of a religious order that treats Roman Catholic priests who molest children concluded in the 1950s that offenders were unlikely to change and should not be returned to ministry, according to his letters, which were obtained by plaintiffs' lawyers. The Rev. Gerald Fitzgerald, founder of the Servants of the Paraclete, was so sure of the priests' inability to control themselves that he tried to buy an island to isolate them. Fitzgerald discussed the issue with Pope Paul VI and in correspondence with several bishops, according to the National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper that reported the content of the letters.

Members of a support group for victims of alleged clergy abuse distributed leaflets in front of St. Columbkille Catholic Church in South Los Angeles on Sunday, urging parishioners and church employees who have information about sex crimes to speak out. St. Columbkille is the former parish of defrocked priest Michael Stephen Baker, who in 2007 was sent to prison for sexually abusing two boys, and who authorities have identified as a prolific child...

Gunmen kidnapped a Chaldean Catholic archbishop and killed three of his guards Friday in the latest attack targeting Iraq's dwindling Christian minority in this northern city. The armed group intercepted Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho as he left the Church of the Holy Spirit after celebrating Mass, said Iraqi Brig. Gen. Khalid Abdul Sattar, a spokesman for Nineveh province security forces.

Re "Pope exhorts church to fight sexual abuse," April 17 If Pope Benedict XVI wanted to show us what a great spiritual leader he is, he could hold a Mass exclusively for the Roman Catholic Church's child-abuse victims. Doug Raleigh Woodland Hills -- I cannot take Pope Benedict speaking out about miscreant priests at face value. Were he sincere in his position, the first thing he would do to send a signal throughout the priesthood would be to dismiss Cardinal Roger Mahony from his position as the leader of the church in Los Angeles.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis reached a financial settlement with six men who claimed they were sexually molested by five priests as far back as the 1960s, victims' advocacy group SNAP said. The men will be paid $312,500, with individual settlements of $20,000 to $90,000, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests reported. The group said the settlements were finalized in recent weeks through mediation. An attorney for the archdiocese confirmed that several abuse cases had been resolved.

Father Miguel d'Escoto stopped saying Mass 23 years ago when the Vatican suspended his priestly functions for refusing to quit Nicaragua's revolutionary government. But he never stopped preaching. From university lecterns, slum soup kitchens and diplomatic forums, he has voiced moral wrath over the plight of the poor and the might of wealthy nations, particularly the United States. Today he is being promoted to a far bigger pulpit: the presidency of the United Nations General Assembly.

Still in a daze from the crash, Donald Ashman walked over to the first body. Ashman knelt down and lifted a corner of a white blanket covering the body, placed his hand on the man's forehead and said the words he had said so many times before, almost always at a hospital: "May God Almighty have mercy upon thee, forgive thee thy sins and bring thee to everlasting life." The prayer took just a few seconds.

A week ago, Father Geoffrey Farrow stood before his Roman Catholic parishioners in Fresno and delivered a sermon that placed him squarely at odds with his church over gay marriage. With Proposition 8 on the November ballot, and his own bishop urging Central Valley priests to support its definition of traditional marriage, Farrow told congregants he felt obligated to break "a numbing silence" about church prejudice against homosexuals.

The murder 19 years ago of six Jesuit priests by a U.S.-trained army unit was the turning point in El Salvador's long civil war, an atrocity so grave that it helped force an end to the fighting. But the soldiers and officers convicted or implicated in the slayings are free under a controversial amnesty law that is receiving new attention thanks to election politics here and a potentially landmark court case in Spain. Relatives of the priests, who were killed along with their housekeeper and her young daughter, have joined with two human rights organizations and today plan to file suit in Madrid against the generals, colonels and soldiers blamed for the killings.