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This morning’s news is all about who will meet with Pope Francis on sex abuse:
- For the first time, a pope has summoned all the presidents of the world’s various conferences of Catholic bishops to Rome. The topic of the February meeting will be sx abuse.
- Cardinal Wuerl also announced, in a letter to Washington priests, that he will travel to Rome soon to discuss his possible resignation with the pope.
- And, ICYMI: the president and vice president of the U.S. bishops have gotten their requested meeting with Pope Francis to talk about McCarrick and other abuse scandals. It will be tomorrow, Sept. 13.
Some anonymous Chicago seminarians, after spending a retreat day with Cardinal Blase Cupich before Labor Day, leaked some of the cardinal’s comments to the Chicago Sun-Times. The paper also reported that a Chicago auxiliary bishop, now 90, who has admitted that he moved abusive priests while working under Cardinals Bernardin and George, is living in the “cardinal’s mansion.” (Cupich does not live there.) An editorial in the paper yesterday said the archdiocese is sending “mixed signals” on the issue of abuse.
In other news related to sex abuse:
- Church reform groups in Philadelphia and other cities protested outside cathedrals last weekend, demanding accountability and a bigger role for lay people.
- In Chile, the church is responding with practical measures, such as trainings and workshops that help prevent and address not only clergy sexual abuse, but domestic and other kinds of abuse.
- A new church in the Baltimore Archdiocese that was to be named for former Archbishop William Keeler will now be named after the founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence.
Meanwhile, residents of the Carolinas and Virginia are evacuating in advance of Hurricane Florence, but some prisoners, guards and staff will be left behind.
The director of Fordham University’s Center for Religion and Culture received a surprising letter, from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who praised an upcoming conference on the centenary of Cardinal Avery Dulles’ birth. More info on the Sept. 24 conference here.
The “nones” may have left organized religion, but they’re still looking for meaning. One place they’re finding it: at the gym. Read about it in “CrossFit is my church.”
Religion reporters from around the country will gather in Columbus later this week for this year’s Religion News Association conference. NCR will have three representatives there.
Lots of religion podcasts are starting up again after their summer hiatus, including NCR in Conversation, which launched Season 3 last Friday. One that that didn’t take a summer vacation is “Things Not Seen” with Chicago’s David Dault. In August, he talked with Steven Millies of Catholic Theological Union, and over Labor Day posted a rebroadcast with Timone Davis of Loyola University
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