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Italian journalist publishes book of Vatican leaks
Rome, Italy, May 18, 2012 / 09:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi reveals private Vatican correspondence in a new book containing a collection of letters titled, “Sua Santita (His Holiness).”
Nuzzi, whose coverage of Vatican affairs is scant, was responsible for leaking two private letters in January that the Pope sent to the current Apostolic Nuncio to the United States and former secretary of the Vatican City Government, Archbishop Claudio Maria Vigano.
He also leaked other private letters from the Holy See, contributing to series of breaches of confidentiality dubbed “Vatileaks” by the media.
The journalist is also known as the host of the television program “The Untouchables,” and has been a collaborator with various Italian newspapers, including Espansione, Il Corriere della Sera, Il Giornale and Panorama. He is the author of the books “Vatican S.p.A.” and “Metastasis.”
Last month, Pope Benedict XVI launched an investigation to determine the source of the internal leaks by creating a special commission of cardinals.
The group includes Cardinal Julian Herranz, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts; Cardinal Josef Tomko, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi, Archbishop emeritus of Palermo in Italy.
According to the publisher Chiarelettere, the book was titled “His Holiness” since “that is how the letters that are addressed to Pope Benedict XVI begin.” The publishing house noted that apart from an introduction by the author, the new book only features the leaked letters, most of which have already been published or refer to past events.
One leaked memo that emerged over the last few months concerns a cardinal’s complaint about another cardinal who reputedly spoke of a possible assassination attempt against the Pope within 12 months and speculated upon his successor.
In January, an Italian television show broadcast private letters to Pope Benedict XVI and Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone from Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former deputy governor of Vatican City, who is currently the apostolic nuncio to the U.S. The archbishop contended that other Vatican officials have conducted a smear campaign against him because of his changes to purchasing procedures.
Other leaks center on the Vatican’s financial institution, the Institute of Works of Religion, which is also trying to reform and comply with international norms.
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Law professor says flawed view of sex threatens religious freedom
Washington D.C., May 18, 2012 / 04:09 am (CNA).- A law professor at George Mason University believes that current threats to religious freedom are intrinsically connected to the modern understanding that “sexual freedom is about shaping yourself.”
Helen Alvaré, who has formerly worked with the U.S. bishops' pro-life office, spoke on May 10 at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C. She observed that many modern threats to religious freedom “are coming by way of a newly strong government position on human sexuality.”
This view holds that sex is unrelated to procreation or the union of man and woman, but is simply about “expressing oneself” and forming one’s identity through various sexual acts, she explained.
Alvaré traced this understanding of sexuality through court decisions in the last 50 years.
In 1965, the Supreme ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut that the Constitution implicitly protects the “right to marital privacy” and that married couples therefore have a right to contraception. At this point, Alvaré observed, the union of the married couple was still intact in the understanding of sex.
By 1992, however, the court upheld the “right” to abortion by describing sexual decisions as a means of shaping one’s identity, she said.
In its Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, the plurality opinion affirmed “the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”
At this point, Alvaré said, sex has been “completely disconnected from the other person” and is solely about expressing oneself and building identity.
This view is reflected today, she explained, pointing to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S., which distributes information to young people encouraging them to explore and express themselves in different sexual ways.
This disconnected idea of sexual expression as an individual right can also be seen in a careful reading of the court cases supporting a redefinition of marriage, Alvaré added. In these court opinions, “same-sex marriage is not about the two people in the marriage. It’s about the individual expressing themself sexually.”
It is in this context that the Obama administration’s contraception mandate comes into being, with “no hesitation in divorcing sex from everything” that it physically, emotionally and spiritually means, she continued.
The mandate has been heavily criticized as a major threat to religious freedom because it will require employers to offer health insurance plans that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, even if doing so violates their religious beliefs.
Alvaré views the mandate as a “culmination” of a view of sexuality that has become more and more disconnected from marriage, procreation and the natural unity of man and woman.
She explained that this way of thinking began with the argument that taking the babies out of sex would allow couples to flourish, women to escape poverty and children to avoid being raised in bad situations.
But this has changed drastically, in a way that is evident by the “models of freedom” used to defend the contraception mandate, she said.
Rather than a woman facing poverty or a married couple overwhelmed by a dozen kids, the iconic figures in the sexual freedom debate today are unmarried, highly educated, and fairly well-off financially.
She pointed to Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student who has become a leading figure in the push for free birth control.
These women are not talking about marriage, poverty or the wellbeing of children, Alvaré observed. Rather, they are simply saying that they want a regular sex life with a constant supply of contraception, and they want someone else to pay for it.
This “right to a commitment-free, child-free sexual experience” has become so elevated that no religious conscience is permitted to object to it, she said, explaining that when disconnected sexual expression becomes a basic and fundamental right, religious liberty suffers.
This can be seen today, as Catholic individuals and institutions are told that they shouldn’t “even be able to have a critical stance” on issues such as contraception, she said.
She also observed that proponents of the mandate are making claims of a “war on women” and using “language of discrimination,” as if religious individual seeking to follow their conscience were violent members of the Ku Klux Klan, who should not have a voice in the public square.
The Catholic Church’s idea of sexuality as being connected to marriage and new life is “absolutely contrary” to the modern understanding, Alvaré explained.
As Catholics step up to defend religious freedom, she noted, they also have a chance to help change the way that human sexuality is viewed.
“I really see this time as an opportunity,” she said.
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Parish threatened, harassed over sign opposing 'gay marriage'
Acushnet, Mass., May 18, 2012 / 02:29 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A Massachusetts Catholic parish has received threats of arson and other harassing messages after posting a sign with the Church's position on same-sex “marriage.”
“It went viral,” said Steven Guillotte, Director of Pastoral Services at Saint Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet, recalling an “explosion” of responses to the message displayed on the sign in front of the church earlier this week. It read: “Two men are friends, not spouses.”
Guillotte posted the message on the morning of May 15, and responded within hours to an e-mail “saying that it was hateful.” Later that day, Guillotte's e-mail response ended up being posted to Facebook.
“Next thing you know, the nasty telephone calls started to come, and they were coming every few minutes,” said the pastoral director in a May 17 interview with CNA.
After local media took an interest, there were “some horrible e-mails overnight,” and a phone call from a woman “saying the church should be burned down.”
“We had a group of three young men and a woman who were upset. They were actually planning on going into the church,” he recounted. Guillotte steered them away, while trying to field an inquiry from a reporter.
“She witnessed one of the guys scream across the parking lot that he was going to burn the church down. We hear that, here and there.”
Guillotte said the sign was intended to clarify Catholic beliefs after President Obama's recent support for redefining marriage. After the president's announcement, he recalled, “there were a lot of Catholics out there misrepresenting, or even maligning, the Church's position on gay marriage.”
“So I came in on this past Tuesday morning and just decided to put up a sign expressing the Church's teaching in a very concise way … saying that the proper relationship between two men – or for that matter, two women – is friendship, and not marriage.”
Opponents of the message starting posting their own signs on or near the parish property. One of them contained an invitation to “spread LOVE, not hate,” while another used a sexual insult to describe the Virgin Mary. Others read “Jesus Freaks, come to your senses,” and “Pray for death.”
Many of the phone calls “were just f-words and people hanging up,” along with others “saying they were disgusted with the sign” and asking “how could we do it, because it was so 'hateful.'”
But Guillotte said the expressions of “hate” or “intolerance” seemed to be coming from the Church's critics in this case.
“If the Methodist church down the street put a sign up that said they were in favor of gay marriage,” he observed, “you wouldn't see me down their with a hammer and nails on their property.”
Another phone call came from a concerned Catholic, who worried that the sign would drive people away from the Church. Guillotte disagrees.
“We have a pastor who's taken a firm, orthodox stand on Church teaching, and our staff is the same way,” he said. “Unlike some parishes in the area, our census has actually gone up this last year.”
Although the Church sign has since been changed, Guillotte continues to stand by Tuesday's message as one that should be brought into the public square. He said Catholics should show patience and love in the debate over marriage, but also be “firm in our presentation of what the truth is.”
Otherwise, he warned, “next thing you know, you're agreeing with the other side, which is exactly what they're really striving for.”
He believes advocates for sexual radicalism “don't really want tolerance, in my opinion; they want us to agree with them.”
“When we do that,” he said, “we give up our Catholic faith, and I think we turn our back on Christ.”
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Senator proposes adding prayer to WWII memorial
Washington D.C., May 18, 2012 / 12:01 am (CNA).- U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) has introduced a bill to place President Franklin D. Roosevelt's D-Day prayer on the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C.
“On D-Day, courageous Americans risked and sacrificed their lives to preserve our freedoms and end tyranny abroad,” said Portman. “That morning, President Roosevelt asked our nation to come together to pray for the men overseas.”
A senator in the key swing state of Ohio, Portman is considered one of the top potential picks for Vice President on the 2012 Republican ticket.
In a May 10 statement shortly after he introduced the legislation, he explained that Roosevelt’s prayer “brought strength and comfort to many during one of the most challenging times for our nation.”
Those words “will forever be etched in our history,” he said.
The World War II Memorial Prayer Act of 2012 would commemorate D-Day, June 6, 1944, when more than 150,000 American, British and Canadian troops landed along a 50-mile beach stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline.
More than 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded, but the invasion allowed many others to begin the march across Europe to fight Hitler’s forces.
On that day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt invited the nation to prayer through a national radio address.
In his historic prayer, Roosevelt asked the Lord to watch over those who were fighting “to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.”
He called on America to join with him in praying for guidance to fight “greed and racial arrogances” while seeking true freedom and lasting peace.
The president called for the blessings of Almighty God in the fight for justice and freedom, saying that “by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.”
Although many people had asked him to call for “a single day of special prayer,” Roosevelt said that he instead wanted to encourage the people to “devote themselves in a continuance of prayer.”
Acknowledging that the road ahead would be long and difficult, he prayed for the gifts of faith, courage and strength, both for the soldiers and the American people at home.
“As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts,” he said.
The president also beseeched the Lord to embrace those soldiers who would not return, welcoming them into his kingdom.
Asking that God’s “will be done,” Roosevelt prayed for those at home “to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.”
Portman said that his bill ensures that Roosevelt’s prayer “will become a permanent reminder of the sacrifice of those who fought in World War II,” as well as a modern remembrance of “the power of prayer through difficult times.”
A companion bill, introduced by Congressman Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year.
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Legion leaders regret not acting sooner in Fr. Williams case
Rome, Italy, May 17, 2012 / 04:15 pm (CNA).- Leaders of the Legionaries of Christ have apologized for not acting more quickly in the case of Father Thomas Williams, who acknowledged on May 15 that he fathered a child several years ago.
In a statement published on its website, the Legionaries said the priest's superiors “suggested to Fr. Thomas to act in an appropriate way and to withdraw himself from public appearances … Nevertheless, it would have been better to act faster and more forcefully.”
“The General Director and his council are deeply sorry for not having acted earlier and more firmly, and they assume the responsibility and ask pardon for not having done everything possible to limit the scandal,” the order said.
It was out of concern for “the legitimate interests of all concerned, especially the privacy of the mother and child,” that the facts were not made public earlier, according to the statement.
Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, the papal delegate appointed to oversee the order's reform efforts in 2010, told Reuters he “only heard about it this year,” when he was informed several months ago.
In its statement, the Legionaries said the papal delegate had helped them to “sort out difficult issues like this.” They also stated that future cases of a similar kind will be handled “with canonical firmness.”
In the case of Fr. Williams, the order says it knows of “no other inappropriate relationships.”
Known for his numerous books and frequent television appearances, Fr. Williams apologized on Tuesday for the events that took place “a number of years ago.” He has withdrawn from public ministry for a year “to reflect on the wrong I have done and my commitments as a priest.”
Citing “respect for the privacy of the mother and child,” his order said it had no further details to provide regarding the time frame of Fr. Williams' relationship with the woman, nor about the age of their child, or how long the priest's superiors knew of the situation before taking action.
Fr. Williams, who was ordained in 1994, is also a professor at the Legionaries' Regina Apostolorum University. In Tuesday's clarification notice, the order said the woman was not one of his students. Their relationship, according to the Legion, involved no “abuse of authority.”
“Despite the moral seriousness of this transgression against the priestly vows, it is not a case of abuse or a criminal action,” the order stated, explaining that the case had been reported to a representative of the Pope but not to civil authorities.
The child, meanwhile, “is being cared for, as required by natural law.” No further details were disclosed.
Canon law does not provide a single set procedure for cases in which a priest fathers a child with an adult woman. Priests may be released from their vows in some cases, though they may also choose to continue serving as clergy after appropriate repentance and other steps to address the situation.
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Spain would save over $72 million by axing abortion funding
Madrid, Spain, May 17, 2012 / 04:09 pm (CNA).- The spokesman for the organization Right to Life in Spain, Gador Joya, said eliminating abortion funding from the federal budget would save Spain nearly $72 million.
According to Europa Press, Joya suggested the funds be used for a comprehensive maternity program, with special emphasis on women with “unexpected pregnancies.”
She criticized the government for continuing to provide funding for abortion, while at the same time arguing that the health care system is too poor to pay for treatments such as hip replacements.
“At times we have the sensation that the government does not want to confront the harsh reality. Abortion is the cruel and violent death of a human being. It does not cure or prevent an illness, and therefore it cannot be recognized as a health care benefit,” she added.
Joya said the Spanish government needs to take action quickly “because each day 300 children are dying, and since the new government has taken office, more than 40,000 lives have been lost.
Right to Life, together with the Forum on the Family, have issued an “urgent” appeal to the government to cut funding for abortion, after the country’s Health Minister, Ana Mato, said Spain’s national health care system would continue to cover the procedure.
The president of the Forum on the Family, Benigno Blanco, underscored that many Spaniards find it “totally unacceptable” that their tax dollars are being used to pay for abortions, and he said the laws that force public hospitals to cover abortions should be struck down “as soon as possible.”
Blanco said it was particularly incongruous that the law itself has separated abortion for any issue related to health and has turned it into a right that can be exercised by a woman without any medical reason whatsoever.
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Vatican laicizes Canadian bishop convicted for child pornography
Ottawa, Canada, May 17, 2012 / 12:32 pm (CNA).- The Vatican has dismissed from the clerical state a Canadian bishop who pleaded guilty to the possession of child pornography.
“Raymond Lahey has accepted the Decree of Dismissal, which also requires him to pray the Liturgy of the Hours in reparation for the harm and the scandal he has caused, and for the sanctification of clergy,” the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said May 16.
Bishop Raymond Lahey of Antigonish, Nova Scotia was arrested in 2009 after Ottawa airport workers found hundreds of images of child pornography in his possession on his return from a trip abroad.
In May 2011 he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and was immediately jailed.
After the disgraced bishop was jailed, the Vatican responded to the case with a condemnation of “sexual exploitation in all its forms, especially when perpetrated against minors.” It also voiced pastoral concern for those who experienced “great pain” as a result of the scandal.
The latest Vatican decree is the response to the bishop’s crime under Church law.
The bishop’s dismissal from the clerical state means that he loses the rights and duties of the priestly state, except for his obligation of celibacy. He is prohibited from exercising any priestly ministry, except in case of emergency.
In January the former bishop was sentenced to 15 months in jail and two years of probation. However, he was given double credit for his time in custody before sentence and was released upon probation at the close of his trial, CTV News reports.
Bishop Lahey’s successor, Bishop Brian J. Dunn, in January announced a diocesan gathering scheduled for October 2013 to address questions and concerns about the direction of the Church and to give a clear focus for pastoral care.
Bishop Dunn said the gathering will give “a new impetus and new direction as we live out our faith.”
“The recent events that have touched every person in our diocese have led to a great deal of reflection upon the Church’s need to bring justice, compassion, healing, hope and new life to the people of God,” he said Jan. 6.
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Lima archdiocese issues clarification on priest stripped of faculties
Lima, Peru, May 17, 2012 / 12:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Archdiocese of Lima issued a statement clarifying the decision by Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani to strip local priest Father Gaston Garatea of his ministerial faculties.
On May 16, the archdiocese condemned what it called a “campaign of misinformation and discredit” launched against the cardinal by some in the media, stating that the priest is still able to exercise priestly ministry outside the cardinal's jurisdiction.
Father Garatea – a member of the religious order titled the Congregation of the Sacred Heart – was privately sanctioned in recent days by Cardinal Cipriani over his public support for homosexual activists and criticism of priestly celibacy.
The priest has also maintained a tense relationship with Church officials in Lima over his promotion of liberation theology.
Adding to the controversy, the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru named Fr. Garatea an honorary professor on May 14, saying his new role would be as an advisor to the school on “social responsibility” due to “his commitment to the defense of human rights, equality and tolerance.”
The archdiocese clarified that the cardinal's handling of the case and the decision to strip the priest of his faculties “has been conducted with utmost prudence regarding the Church’s norms, and in a climate of charity.”
Below is the full statement from the archdiocese:
“In response to the obvious campaign of misinformation and discredit that has been launched over the decision not to renew the ministerial faculties of Father Jorge Gaston Garatea Yori, SS.CC., in the Archdiocese of Lima, out of respect for the truth and for his own good, we feel obliged to state the following:
According to the proper norms of the Catholic Church, religious priests who belong to a religious Institution of consecrated life report to their Superior General, with regard to the internal regimen of the religious community in question.
However, in order to carry out pastoral work in a specific jurisdiction, they require that the local ordinary, the bishop, grant them the corresponding ministerial faculties (cf. Canon 265). In this sense, the local bishop, for sufficient reasons made known ahead of time to the Superior General of religious community in question, may determine that a religious priest can no longer work in his ecclesiastic jurisdiction. This action, as in the case of Father Jorge Gaston Garatea Yori, SS. CC., does not suspend the religious priest or prohibit him from exercising his priestly ministry in other places.
The universal praxis of the Church is fully recognized by Canon Law and is a very important expression that reinforces the unity of priests with their own pastor and local ordinary (cf. Canons 273 and 275).
We disapprove that some persons, whose aims are totally unrelated to this situation that has been handed with utmost prudence regarding the Church’s norms, and in a climate of charity, now seek to victimize a priest for the sole purpose of sowing confusion, damaging his priestly identity and at the same time in order to publicize the ideological reasons that motivate them and distance them from fidelity to the Church, with statements and manifestations that reflect their rejection, or at least, their lack of respect, for the Magisterium of the Church and her pastors.”
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Austrian chancellor’s son tells how faith helped him survive Nazis
Washington D.C., May 17, 2012 / 04:19 am (CNA).- Kurt von Schuschnigg Jr., son of the former chancellor of Austria, says that his Catholic faith helped him get through difficult times during World War II and now guides the way that he looks back at past events.
“Faith is always a big thing when you are in trouble,” he observed. “Unfortunately today, not too many people hold on to faith anymore.”
Von Schuschnigg was a first-hand witness of many of the atrocities committed during the Second World War. His father, who has the same name, was chancellor of Austria when Germany invaded the country in 1938.
On May 9, Kurt von Schuschnigg Jr. and his wife, Janet, spoke with CNA about their new book, “When Hitler Took Austria” (Ignatius, $24.95).
The book tells the story of the German takeover of Austria, as experienced by young von Schuschnigg.
He explained that his father opposed the takeover when German troops entered the country but also realized that they were not equipped to fight.
To avoid a massacre of the Austrian people, he resigned from his position as chancellor and was later sent with his wife to Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
Von Schuschnigg Jr. was able to complete his education and was then stationed on a naval vessel before deserting the German military and fleeing from the Gestapo, making a harrowing escape to safety.
He and his wife – both of whom are Catholic – worked together on the new book. Janet, who grew up in Atlanta, Ga., said that over their years of marriage, her husband told her stories about his life in Austria.
She realized that the story of Austria’s takeover by the Nazis was not being taught in schools, and she decided to record the events that her husband had recounted.
The book is not a plea for anything, she explained, but is simply trying to explain how life was for people in Austria during that difficult time.
“America should know it,” she said. “The rest of the world should know it.”
Kurt von Schuschnigg believes that God’s providence was helping him during that difficult time, sometimes manifest through the kind and daring gestures of other people.
He recalled an instance in 1945 when a German doctor in Munich saved his life. Due to the family responsibility laws, he should have been turned over to the Gestapo and would have been taken to a concentration camp or executed. But the doctor – whose name he does not even know – allowed him to escape.
He also remembered how his Austrian governess had courageously taken him in when his father was arrested, risking her own safety in doing so.
“She could never get a job again,” he reflected.
Janet von Schuschnigg describes her husband’s family as “centered on God.” Even after all they’ve been through, she said, they are still good Catholics.
“You don’t find so many good Catholics in Austria anymore,” she continued, explaining that the Church has undergone heavy persecution.
Her husband added that while there are many good people leading “a happy life” in Austria, they have largely been forced to “forget their past” in order to do so.
For him, however, faith has played a significant role in both good and bad times.
He recalled a hand-written papal blessing that was given to his family that gave him confidence and helped him trust in God during difficult circumstances.
One time, he recounted, he was able to smuggle the Eucharist to his father in the concentration camp.
This was only possible, he explained, because the guards had been there for four years, and they had become friends.
The guards were “kind” and “decent” people, he reflected, although they would have shot his parents without hesitation if ordered to do so.
When von Schuschnigg attempted to tell some family friends about the things he had witnessed in the concentration camp, they brushed him off, refusing to believe his stories and defending the Nazis.
Kurt von Schuschnigg does not consider his actions particularly heroic, especially since at the time no one thought of themselves a a heroe.
“We were survivors,” he said.
After World War II, von Schuschnigg’s family was liberated and moved to America, where they became citizens.
While he has not forgotten the atrocities he witnessed and experienced, von Schuschnigg has forgiven those responsible for causing his family pain – an ability that his wife says “impressed me incredibly.”
Kurt von Schuschnigg explained that he does not blame those who hurt him because he knows that “they did it out of fear.”
He described the “terror” that pervaded the atmosphere of a country in which one could never trust the people around him.
You have to be able to forgive, he said. “You cannot carry things with you.”
He compared the situation to a fight with a good friend. After a while, you let go and forgive, and you return to being friends, he said.
Kurt and Janet von Schuschnigg hope that “When Hitler Took Austria” will inspire people to reevaluate their lives.
Janet explained that the book is an example of discipline and faith, virtues that are sorely needed today, as many people seek immediate gratification but find that they are not truly happy.
“The world’s a mess right now,” she said. “It’s frightening.”
She lamented that so many people today have lost a sense of balance in life, forgetting the importance of virtues like discipline and duty.
“People don’t go to Church anymore,” she added.
Her husband agreed. He said that many of the values that were strong in his childhood have been lost by society.
Restoring these values is critical, and it must begin in the home, Kurt von Schuschnigg said.
“It cannot all be done by the schools,” he explained. “It comes from the family.”
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Cardinal Dolan's arrival on Twitter draws thousands
New York City, N.Y., May 17, 2012 / 02:08 am (CNA).- Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York debuted on Twitter last week, adapting his engaging, humorous style to the popular microblogging site and quickly becoming the third most followed cardinal.
“Hey everybody. It's Timothy Cardinal Tebow. I mean Dolan,” the cardinal’s first tweet said May 8, alluding to the new New York Jets quarterback and football star Tim Tebow.
The cardinal uses Twitter to talk about his daily actions, his appearances on SiriusXM Radio’s The Catholic Channel, and events like Mother’s Day.
Although limited to 140 characters per tweet, he has also touched on spiritual matters.
“St Therese of Lisieux reminds us that doing the ordinary things of life extraordinarily well, for the glory of God, is the path to sanctity,” he said May 10.
“Every person or institution will eventually let us down. Our ultimate trust must be in God and we will never be disappointed,” he said the day before.
Cardinal Dolan also uses Twitter to send his readers to the full texts of his speeches and statements. He published a link to his full commencement speech for the Catholic University of America and sent out a link to his May 9 statement which called President Obama’s support for same-sex marriage “deeply saddening.”
As of Wednesday, more than 7,500 people were following the cardinal, who heads the U.S. bishops’ conference. By comparison, the bishops’ conference itself has attracted about 18,700 followers on Twitter since its January 2009 debut.
The cardinal added over 2,500 followers on each of his first two days on Twitter, according to the website TwitterCounter.com.
At least six other cardinals have taken to Twitter. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council of Culture, has 18,600 followers, Cardinal Odilo Scherer of Sao Paolo has 13,700 and Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan has 7,200.
After Cardinal Dolan come Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, who has 3,800 followers, Cardinal Norberto Rivera of Mexico City with 2,800, and Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier of Durban, South Africa, who has 1,300 followers.
Cardinal Dolan’s Twitter page is at twitter.com/CardinalDolan.
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