CNA Staff, Jul 1, 2020 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- A German historian says that recently opened Vatican archives include documents that suggest the German founder of the Schoenstatt ecclesial movement engaged in manipulative and coercive behavior among the sisters of the movement. But the Schoenstatt community says those allegations have long since been addressed.
According to German Catholic newspaper Die Tagepost, theologian and Church historian Alexandra von Teuffenbach has reviewed Vatican assessments of the Schoenstatt movement, which reportedly portray Fr. Josef Kentenich, founder of the movement, as manipulative and coercive.
The Holy See reportedly began to receive reports from alleged victims of the priest in the early 1950s, and dispatched an apostolic visitator, or Vatican observer, to assess the situation. According to von Teuffenbach, Kentenich was sent to the United States after that visitation, but no reforms of the community were subsequently enacted.
“The church under Pius XII protected the abused woman and the Mary Sisters, who at that time, instead of obeying the official instructions of the church, preferred to follow a questionable figure, as clearly described in the files,” Von Teuffenbach wrote.
Kentenich went to the U.S. in 1951, and was permitted to return to Germany in October 1965. He died three years later. A beatification process for the priest began in 1975.
Additional details of the allegations against Kentenich are expected to be published Thursday.
In a statement Wednesday, Fr. Juan Pablo Catoggio, superior of the Schoenstatt movement, said that “during the 1950 ecclesiastical visitation to Schoenstatt, some individuals made accusations against the founder of Schoenstatt to the Vatican authorities, which led to the 14 year long exile of the founder. These issues were discussed and clarified during the process of beatification opened in 1975. Back then, all the documents and testimonies that were in any way pertinent where made available to the competent Church authorities.”
“If doubt regarding the moral integrity of the Schoenstatt founder would have remained, his exile would not have finished and the Vatican would have not published a nihil obstat to open his process of beatification,” Catoggio added.
Kentenich was born in 1885 and ordained a priest in 1910. In 1914, he founded a new ecclesial movement in a chapel in Schoenstatt, Germany. The movement, which now includes priests, consecrated women, and lay involvement, is active in 42 countries, and focused on spiritual formation and Marian spirituality.
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US bishops ask Trump administration to reconsider federal executions
CNA Staff, Jul 1, 2020 / 06:43 pm (CNA).- The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has asked the Trump administration to halt several scheduled executions after the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from four death row inmates.
Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, head of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development at the USCCB, emphasized the Church’s position on capital punishment and urged the administration to reconsider the three executions scheduled for July 13.
“Now that the Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeals of four federal death row inmates, and the Justice Department has set new execution dates beginning July 13, I reiterate the call made last July for the Administration to reverse course,” he said in a June 30 statement.
“As articulated to the Supreme Court in another case earlier this year, the bishops have been calling for an end to the death penalty for decades,” he said. “Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis have all called for an end to the death penalty around the world.”
In July 2019, Attorney General William Barr announced that the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Prisons would resume federal executions for the first time in nearly 20 years, and named five people who would be the first group of federal death row inmates to be executed.
“Under Administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals, including these five murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his peers after a full and fair proceeding,” said Barr.
Three of the executions are scheduled to take place on July 13. The last federal execution occurred in 2003.
Four of the plaintiffs, who were sentenced to death for multiple murders, challenged a new execution protocol, which permits the use of only one lethal drug instead of the three drugs normally used.
In November 2019, U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan issued an injunction delaying the executions until the Supreme Court ruled whether or not to take up the case. Chutkan pointed to a rule under the Federal Death Penalty Act that requires federal executions to be administered “in the manner prescribed by the state of conviction.” Two of the four plaintiffs had been convicted in states using the three-drug protocol.
On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear the inmates’ challenge, clearing the way for the executions to take place as planned.
Archbishop Coakley reiterated the Church’s opposition to the use of the death penalty in modern society.
“As Pope Francis articulated through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the death penalty is unacceptable as an affront to the Gospel and to respect for human life,” he said. “At their June 2019 meeting, the Catholic bishops of the United States voted overwhelmingly in affirmation of this position.”
“Two of my brother bishops and I wrote. . . last year: ‘To oppose the death penalty is not to be “soft on crime.” Rather, it is to be strong on the dignity of life.’ To this end, I implore Attorney General Barr and President Trump to abandon this path to preside over the first federal executions in 17 years.”
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And now, from California, this bit of satirical news…
Los Angeles, CA. (Image: Martin Adams | Unsplash.com)
Editor’s Note: The following is mostly fake news. For now. Stay tuned.
News Anchor: In other news, following the toppling of two Junipero Serra statues in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the state of California has approved the demolition of California’s oldest surviving structure, the Serra Chapel, on the grounds of Mission San Juan Capistrano, founded by Serra and his Franciscans in 1776. This act followed new legislation approved by the state, called the Clean Slate Bill, in which anyone who wishes may destroy symbols of California’s heritage free of charge and without fear of prosecution.
We go to our field correspondent, Chester Cromwell, for more on these fast-moving events. Chester, while many Californians are sympathetic to bringing down the monument to Junipero Serra, why the growing concerns about other heritage landmarks?
Field Correspondent Cromwell: Good evening, Peter. I am told by sources that it is simply the next step in freeing the state of California from oppressive and insulting images, and that this removal of statues is both liberating and cathartic. Of course, care must be taken. As one art historian recently noted in the New York Times, some protesters “have already been severely injured tearing down statues,” and that’s of some concern. We don’t want to see anyone hurt as these people take out their frustrations on statues and other monuments. But, overall, this appears to be a healthy, communal activity.
As you can see, there are large groups of chanting protestors behind me; I am standing on the former site of Mission San Juan Capistrano, one of twenty-one Franciscan missions that defined for so long California’s history, architecture, and religious roots. Today, all those missions—ranging from San Diego in the south to Sonoma in the north—were pulverized due to their association of the Euro-centric oppression wrought by Franciscan missionaries.
News Anchor [listening to producer in his ear]: Ummm…Chester, to clarify, you said the Spanish-style buildings and chapels, some of them from the eighteenth century, were destroyed?
Cromwell: That’s right. A generous donor donated twenty-one wrecking balls for this project, each spray-painted with various signs and symbols. These buildings include other famous missions such as Santa Barbara, San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel, and San Juan Bautista, the latter featured in Alfred Hitchock’s Vertigo. All mission-related references are to be banished from the state as per the new mandate.
News Anchor: Chester, I also understand the Franciscan missionaries were only a subsidiary of a larger Spanish colonization of Alta California in the late eighteenth century, is that correct?
Cromwell: I do not know. Military members of that expedition, such as Juan de Anza and Gaspar de Portola, have not been mentioned by protestors and rioters, and monuments to these individuals — many stone placards that populate obscure trails — have so far apparently remained ignored and unread.
News Anchor: I understand. Very interesting. We turn now to Blaise Bixby outside the National Shrine of St. Francis in San Francisco. Blaise, Chester just mentioned the razing of several major California landmarks. What is the situation outside the National Shrine?
Blaise Bixby: The situation outside the National Shrine of St. Francis is that it is no longer a shrine, but now the Peoples’ Museum of Social Wokeness, here in the former city of San Francisco—
News Anchor: What was that?! I’m sorry, Blaise, your connection was fuzzy; you said former city of San Francisco?
Bixby: Indeed. An emergency order was passed just moments ago redefining the name San Francisco, which was named of course after St. Francis of Assisi, over objections that the 13th-century saint tried to convert an Egyptian sultan, imposing his white privilege on the man’s own customs.
News Anchor: That is big news, indeed! Has a new name been chosen, Blaise?
Bixby: Yes, apparently so. I’ve just been told that the new name for the city and bay, as I understand it, is now Zorin, named after the villain from the James Bond movie filmed largely in, um, San Francisco and portrayed by Christopher Walken.
News Anchor: Such interesting times! Well, I suspect this is just the domino effect we see with these sort of trends. Have other names changed, Blaise, from Catholic-rooted names to carefree, new names, perhaps after the whales in Star Trek IV, also set in San Francisco?
Bixby: Yes, in fact. All of California’s Catholic-themed names are being changed so as not to appear religiously bent, thus, according to a statement from California’s governor, “liberating this great state from the specter of racism, white supremacy, religious oppression, xenophobia, use of Latin, and Romanist propaganda.” This includes the state capital, Sacramento, since its association with the sacraments of the Catholic Church is offensive. Here in the Bay Area other city managers have reversed the names and seals of such cities as Santa Clara, San Leandro, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Mateo, and San Benito since all evoke the patronage of a Catholic saint.
News Anchor: I gather that this includes dozens of other cities as well as mountain ranges and valleys, such as San Gabriel, Santa Ynez, Santa Anita?
One moment. Out in Los Angeles for an update is, uh, Chester Cromwell. Weren’t you just down at Capistrano, Chester?
Cromwell: Well, I’m actually reporting in front of a green screen next to you, Peter, given the prospect of falling statues, fires, assaults, and other activities. But at any rate, as of today “Los Angeles” is no more. The city council, after discovering the original name of the nation’s most populous region was actually El Pueblo de la Reina de los Angeles—
Peter: “The Town of the Queen of the Angels”, correct?
Cromwell: That’s right, Peter.
Peter: Oh, that’s just — so L.A. was essentially named in honor of the Mother of God?
Cromwell: Apparently, if you say so. But the council is voting on a new name. I’m told that “JusticeLand” and “CopFreeZone” are the two leading candidates.
Peter: Keep us posted on that. Now, one more time, back to Blaise Bixby, outside the Museum of Woke in San Fran—or, rather, Zorin—Blaise, where are all of California’s Catholics during this transition?
Bixby: Peter, I hear from an anonymous source that many Catholics have moved underground in designated zones below the San Andreas Fault — named after the apostle Andrew — and a portion of the San Onofre nuclear site, named after desert hermit Saint Onophrius.
Peter: Fascinating! Thank you. Finally, tonight, inter-league play begins down at Petco Park in San Diego with two California teams facing off. (Turns to someone off camera.) Is it still called that? Somewhat ironic. (Faces camera again.) Anyway, Chester Cromwell is in front of a green screen shot of the baseball field. Chester, what can you tell us about the match-up between the, ummm, the Padres and the Angels?
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