The National Catholic Review

Dispatches

A blog on national and international affairs from America's correspondents, including Gerard O'Connell in Rome, Judith Valente in Chicago, David Stewart, S.J., in London, Jim McDermott, S.J., in Los Angeles and Steven Schwankert in Beijing.

February 2015

  • Pope Asks Bishops and Religious Superiors to Cooperate Fully with Commission for Protection of Minors

    Feb 5 2015 - 8:09am
    1 comment
    Gerard O'Connell

    In a new and important initiative aimed at protecting minors from sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, eliminating all such abuse and assisting the victims of past abuse, Pope Francis has sent a letter to the Presidents of the Bishops Conferences and the Superiors of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life asking for their “close and complete cooperation” with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors that he set up in March 2014.

  • 'Archbishop Romero is a Martyr of the Church of Vatican II'

    Feb 4 2015 - 1:31pm
    2 comments
    Gerard O'Connell

    Archbishop Oscar Romero “is a martyr of the Church of the Second Vatican Council. In killing him, they wanted to hit the Church that flowed from the Second Vatican Council,” Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the postulator of his cause for beatification, told a press briefing in the Vatican on February 4. 

  • Pope Recognizes that Archbishop Romero is a martyr

    Feb 3 2015 - 9:41am
    2 comments
    Gerard O'Connell

    Pope Francis has ordered the promulgation of the decree recognizing that Archbishop Oscar Arnolfo Romero Galdamez is a martyr, and that “he was killed in hatred of the faith” on March 24, 1980, in San Salvador.     

    He made his decision known when he received the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints in audience this morning, February 3, the Vatican said in a press communique issued shortly afterwards. Francis has thereby given the green light for Romero’s...

  • Pope Francis Confirms Romero's Martyrdom

    Feb 3 2015 - 9:14am
    2 comments
    Kevin Clarke

    In a brief statement today, Pope Francis set Archbishop Oscar Romero on a course to canonization by confirming his death as a martydom

    According to the Vatican release, "Promulgation of Decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints":

  • Merton As Writer: Echoing Silence

    Feb 2 2015 - 4:26pm
    2 comments
    Judith Valente

    Chicago was one of the many cities across the world where people gathered this weekend to celebrate the 100th birthday of one of the most intriguing figures of the 20th century, Thomas Merton.

  • A South African Martyr

    Feb 2 2015 - 9:47am
    0 comments
    Russell Pollitt, S.J.

    Twenty-five years ago, on Feb. 2, 1990, Benedict Daswa (44) was murdered in a small village called Mbahe, near Thoyandou, in the North West of South Africa. On Jan. 22, 2015, a few days before the anniversary of his death, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree of martyrdom. 

  • Domestic Abuse, Death and Lovin’: How Not to Make Socially Conscious Super Bowl Ads

    Feb 2 2015 - 3:14am
    2 comments
    Jim McDermott

    A few hours before the Super Bowl I happened upon some tweets from the Ignatian Solidarity Network, opining over the kinds of advertisements they wish we’d see during the game – ads about how climate change is real, or the need for comprehensive immigration reform. They even did some mock-ups (see right). 

    But we all know advertising on Super Bowl Sunday is not about “raising awareness,” it’s about consumption. I settled in for an evening of beer, cars and M&Ms, thank you very...

  • Mercy or Madness? Freeing Eugene de Kock in South Africa

    Feb 2 2015 - 2:36am
    1 comment
    Russell Pollitt, S.J.

    The South African Minister of Justice, Michael Masutha, granted notorious South African apartheid-era death squad commander, Eugene de Kock, parole after spending 20 years behind bars. De Kock was sentenced to two life sentences and a further 212 years in prison in 1996.