Catholic Transcript Online

Bishop says revised norms expand ways Church responds to sex abuse

LONDON (CNS) – The largest Anglo-Catholic group in the Church of England is expecting an exodus of thousands of Anglicans to Catholicism after a decision to ordain women as bishops without sufficient concessions to traditionalists.

Stephen Parkinson, director of Forward in Faith – a group that has about 10,000 members, including more than 1,000 clergy – told Catholic News Service in a July 13 telephone interview that a large number of Anglo-Catholics are considering conversion to the Catholic faith.

WASHINGTON (CNA) – The Catholic Health Association (CHA) has applauded President Obama’s recess appointment of Harvard pediatrician Dr. Donald Berwick as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Sr. Carol Keehan, D.C., CHA’s president and chief executive officer, said Dr. Berwick is needed to work on the health care mandates created by the recent health care legislation. In a CHA press release July 7, she reported that CMS has not had a permanent administrator since 2006.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Benedict XVI named Italian Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, an expert in Church law who specializes in religious institutes, to be his personal delegate with authority over the Legionaries of Christ.

The 74-year-old canon lawyer will act as an interim leader while the Vatican investigation of the Legionaries proceeds.

WEST HARTFORD – Holy Family Passionist Retreat Center has suspended the sacrament of reconciliation for the month of July.

It will be offered again beginning on Aug. 2. The hours are 10 a.m. to noon and 2-3:30 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays only. Those receiving the sacrament are being asked to enter through the retreat center. The monastery elevator is available for people with special needs.

BLOOMFIELD – Before a priest can minister effectively, he must be a good communicator. In a world that is growing increasingly diverse, being fluent or conversant in more than one language is a valuable commodity, said Father Michael J. Dolan, director of the Vocation Office and vicar for seminarians.

"There are 70 identifiable ethnic groups in the Archdiocese of Hartford. That’s 70 different languages," he said. There are 400,000 Hispanics and 100,000 Asians living in Connecticut, he said. With the help of the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal and other funding sources, many of the more than 40 archdiocesan seminarians are learning the languages those groups speak, he added.

Of the 70 languages spoken by people in the Archdiocese of Hartford, priests here are fluent in only seven, according to first-year seminarian Sean Hoffman. "We’re trying to stretch the number of languages that the Archdiocese knows," he said in a recent interview.

Mr. Hoffman will be studying Bosniac this summer, if a suitable teacher can be found for this language spoken by about 1,000 Bosnian families in the Hartford area. He said Bosnians form a recent immigrant wave here, and while most are Muslims, there are Bosnian Catholics here also.