201108.01
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August 1, 2011 – The Linacre Quarterly “Responding to the Abuse Crisis”

http://journals.sagepub.com/toc/lqra/78/3 The Linacre Quarterly, The Journal of the Catholic Medical Association devoted Volume 78 in August 2011 to the general topic “Responding to the Abuse Crisis”. The issue contains seven articles and one book review on questions that remain relevant in light of the situations in Chile, Honduras and the USA concerning active homosexuality of…

201005.12
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May 12, 2010 – Making sense of the sex abuse crisis

http://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/pravin/making-sense. Some sections of the media have decided that the Catholic Church is riddled with paedophile priests. I will argue otherwise. However, given that one act of abuse by one priest is a grave scandal, a full evaluation of the psychological and spiritual formation of priests is required.

200706.22
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June 2007 – The Pope’s Peace and Security Council Resolution 1325

INTRODUCTION (Saint) Pope John Paul II, the late head of the Holy See, which is the governing organ of Vatican City and the Roman Catholic Church, (1) commenced an important conversation with women on January 1, 1995. On that day, he delivered the annual World Day of Peace message, inviting women “to become teachers of…

200606.29
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June 2006 – Judging Marriage: An Experiment in Morals and Conduct

Judge Maura D. Corrigan sets forth a principled understanding of natural marriage and explains the negative consequences upon children when natural marriage is devalued.  She is careful to clarify that judges in the United States are restricted in their authority, that is, they are to interpret and apply the law, not make laws.  Nevertheless, she…

200606.23
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June 2006 – If Marriage is Natural, Why is Defending It So Hard? Taking up the Challenge to Marriage in the Pews and the Public Square

INTRODUCTION Alfonso Cardinal Lopez Trujillo presents a rich and deep vision of marriage as “a natural institution which precedes the sacrament.” (1) The essence of marriage, so understood, is unity and indissolubility. Marriage does not ratify or celebrate a preexisting relationship. It transforms the relation between man and woman because it comes into existence only from the moment a man and woman decide, via a free act of the will, to give themselves to each other in this unique way. (2) Unity implies a community in the whole of life, including the gift and acceptance of the whole sexual self, and therefore an openness to giving and accepting from one another the gift of motherhood and fatherhood. (3) A woman who gives herself to a man at the altar as a wife, but secretly reserves the right to have sex or children with another man, is not really giving herself at all. A ceremony in which a man promises to stay with a woman until someone better comes along is not really making a marriage promise at all, whatever his legal certificate says. The task is to explain the obstacles to achieving this vision of marriage and also the ways to overcome such obstacles. Practically speaking, the strongest resistance to this vision of marriage as a natural institution clusters around three areas: contraception, divorce, and gender. (4) What is the deep source of these obstacles to marriage? There are many possible answers, many of which Cardinal Trujillo touches upon: legal positivism, individualism, false anthropologies, self-created spiritualities, and the accompanying decline in religious and/or moral authority. (5) Most intriguing is that Cardinal Trujillo identifies ideology itself as the enemy of the family: [T]he various historical attempts to eliminate the family as a   natural institution have perhaps contributed to the decline,   apparent now more than ever before, of the proper understanding   of the “natural character” of the family. Such attempts have   been produced particularly in countries following a Marxist   ideology, in a world pursued…