Catholic Transcript Online

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (CNA/EWTN News) – A professor who was recently fired for explaining the Catholic teaching on homosexuality will be reinstated, according to the University of Illinois. Dr. Kenneth Howell's position at the school was terminated at the end of the spring semester this year after teaching in a class on Catholicism that the Church believes homosexual behavior violates natural law.

A letter Jully 29 from the University of Illinois Office of University Counsel told Professor Howell’s lawyers at the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) that "The School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics will be contacting Dr. Howell to offer him the opportunity to teach Religion 127, Introduction to Catholicism, on a visiting instructional appointment at the University of Illinois, for the fall 2010 semester. Dr. Howell will be appointed and paid by the university for this adjunct teaching assignment."

LONDON (CNS) – An American who was inexplicably healed from a crippling spinal condition after praying to the intercession of Cardinal John Henry Newman will read the Gospel and serve as a deacon when Pope Benedict XVI beatifies the Cardinal in September.

Deacon Jack Sullivan of Marshfield, Mass., told Catholic News Service he was asked to participate in the Sept. 19 Mass by Father Timothy Menezes, the master of ceremonies for the beatification, when the English priest recently visited the United States.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) –  Just under two weeks ago Russian officials accepted the credentials of Archbishop Antonio Mennini as the first papal nuncio to their country. The event ushers in a new era of full diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Russian Federation.

The Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano (LOR) newspaper reported that Foreign Affairs minister Sergei Lavrov met with Archbishop Mennini on July 15 in Moscow to seal full diplomatic relations, which Pope Benedict XVI and president Dmitry Medvedev had agreed to last December. Just a month ago, on June 26, the Holy See accepted the credentials of Mr. Nikolai Sadlichov as ambassador from Russia.

CNS/photo illustration courtesy Frontline

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Along with its revised norms for dealing with priestly sex abuse, the Vatican in mid-July released a detailed, five-page history of its treatment of such crimes over the last century.

The background report, prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, traced the evolution of Church law and papal decisions on the issue, acknowledging that a comprehensive legal approach to clerical sex abuse has been a relatively recent development.

The history of the Vatican's handling of sex abuse has been like a jigsaw puzzle, and the report for the first time pieced the puzzle together. In doing so, it sought to counter allegations that the Vatican has for decades been orchestrating an effort to cover up cases of sexual abuse by priests.

WASHINGTON (CNS) – The Vatican's decision to declare the attempted ordination of women a major Church crime reflects "the seriousness with which it holds offenses against the sacrament of holy orders" and is not a sign of disrespect toward women, Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington said July 15.

The Archbishop, who chairs the U.S. bishops' Committee on Doctrine, spoke at a news briefing in the headquarters of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops hours after the Vatican issued new norms for handling priestly sex abuse cases and updated its list of the "more grave crimes" against Church law, including for the first time the "attempted sacred ordination of a woman."