Bishop Says Priest Abused Him as Teenager (Washington Post):
Breaking ranks with his peers, a Roman Catholic bishop called yesterday for state legislatures to temporarily remove the time limits that have prevented many victims of sex abuse from suing the church.
In making that extraordinary appeal, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit also unburdened himself of a secret. As a teenager 60 years ago, he said, he was “inappropriately touched” by a priest.
For those looking for a photo of the bishop with a Creative Commons license, I’ve put one below the fold here, along with the rest of the items. We’ve been getting lots of Google image searches today because we have a borrowed picture of Bishop Gumbleton on one of our Darfur trial pages. My heart goes out to all those hurt by abuse.
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, May 2005, in Baltimore. Photo by Mike Benedetti. Subject to a Creative Commons license.
MLK Day in Worcester: Worcester Peace Works is having an event to remember Martin Luther King, Jr., on MLK Day at the African Cultural Center from 7-9 pm. This morning I told someone about Kaihsu’s post about Bonhoeffer, and he said, “You mean the guy who allied himself with the softcore-Nazis against Hitler?” Most great figures who weren’t cloistered have plenty of bad points–Sir Thomas More was all about burning heretics, MLK slept around, etc. I think we honor them because although they were as imperfect as the rest of us, they were willing to sacrifice for the rest of us when God called.
Good news: The 2005 Human Security Report found that “The number of armed conflicts around the world has declined by more than 40% since the early 1990s.” Worldchanging comments on why this sort of optimistic news is hard for us to handle.
The Rosary: In recent years, Garry Wills has written too many books for me to keep up. The latest is The Rosary. From an interview:
GW: I have not seen many young people saying the rosary, but I hope this book will encourage them to do so. I must say that most people I have shown it to so far have said they will begin or renew the practice.
Some will disagree that young people don’t say the rosary, but it matches my own observations. In recent years I’ve been to rosary groups across the country, from big cities in Massachusetts to small towns in Montana. I’ve never seen young people at these. Even back when I was a young person at a non-religious college, I was always the youngest person at the campus rosary group. I had a pretty intense rosary practice as a teenager, but this is one of those things, like confession and eucharistic adoration, that plays much less of a role in my life than it should. Maybe reading Wills’s book will inspire me to “renew the practice.” I’ll let you know.
Bush Adminstration Wiretapped Catholic Masses without Warrants: Yes, it’s a joke. No, it’s not much of a stretch.
On the radio: Worcester artist/activist Tom Lewis will be on WCUW (91.3 FM) Friday, January 20, for a long interview sometime between 9am and noon.