I was recently asked to write a ldquo white paper rdquo draft for the California Catholic Bishops for possible voting on the issue of life-sentence without parole for juveniles The United States Supreme Court currently is adjudicating two petitions from incarcerated prisoners from the State of

Whom should President Obama nominate to replace Justice John Paul Stevens The question is today Washington rsquo s favorite parlor game Last year I somewhat mischievously suggested Obama nominate Al Gore to the Court and lo and behold tonight on MSNBC rsquo s The Ed Show my suggestion was t

The second part of Jason Berry s gruesomely compelling expose of the sordid life of Maciel Degollado pictured founder of the Legionaries of Christ has been published by NCR Part 1 is here It contains more evidence of how Maciel suborned his opponents through lavish funds What is sad is how c

The misinterpretation and misreporting of the 1985 Ratzinger letter in the Kiesle case -- my points in this BBC TV interview over the weekend are similar to those in MSW s excellent analysis -- indicate not just poor quality coverage but something altogether nastier It was the great theorist Ren ea

The whole world now knows about Father Stephen Kiesle of Oakland the priest who tied up young boys and molested them sexually and whose request to be defrocked came before then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger The press is swarming with assertions that as the Washington Post headlined its story Future

One factor you don t see listed by the National Review Board in their 2002 report to the U S bishops on the causes of clergy abuse is celibacy Because celibacy does not cause pedophilia But that hasn t stopped otherwise thoughtful pundits and commentators and among them even some Catholics from