Church turns pastoral care center into COVID ward (Reuters) The Catholic Church has converted a pastoral centre in Jakarta into an isolation ward to care for COVID-19 patients in the Indonesian capital as it battles an devastating second wave of the pandemic that has overrun hospitals. Nearly 90 nuns, priests and other carers are looking after around 60 patients in the Samadi centre, said Father Yustinus Ardianto, a Catholic priest in charge at the facility…
Chilean priest at center of abuse scandal dies (AP) Fernando Karadima, a Chilean priest who was at the center of a sexual abuse scandal that has recently shaken the Catholic Church in Chile and who was eventually defrocked by the pope, has died. He was 90. Karadima died Sunday of bronchopneumonia and kidney failure in the Santiago nursing home where he was living, according to his death certificate. After being defrocked in 2018, Karadima was sanctioned to a lifetime of penance and prayer for having sexually abused minors in a parish in Chile’s capital…
Lawsuit: wealthy donor offered money to make charges against deacon go away (WDSU) A prominent donor to the Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans offered $400,000 to an alleged sexual abuse victim to settle his claims and stop cooperating with police in a criminal investigation, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Jefferson Parish. The court complaint details allegations against Virgil Maxey “V.M.” Wheeler III, a local attorney and former deacon at St. Francis Xavier Church in Metairie who was arrested in March. The Jefferson Parish district attorney has not yet determined whether it will pursue charges against the 63-year-old…
Facebook’s next target: the religious experience (The New York Times) Facebook, which recently passed $1 trillion in market capitalization, may seem like an unusual partner for a church whose primary goal is to share the message of Jesus. But the company has been cultivating partnerships with a wide range of faith communities over the past few years, from individual congregations to large denominations, like the Assemblies of God and the Church of God in Christ. Now, after the coronavirus pandemic pushed religious groups to explore new ways to operate, Facebook sees even greater strategic opportunity to draw highly engaged users onto its platform…
Notre Dame alum becomes first American to win gold in foil fencing (CNS) “Golden is thy fame, indeed,” the University of Notre Dame in Indiana tweeted July 25 after Lee Kiefer, class of 2017, won the gold medal in women’s foil fencing at the Tokyo Games. She beat defending champion Inna Deriglazova of Russia 15-13. Kiefer, 27, is the first American, male or female, to win an individual Olympic medal in foil fencing. “It’s such an incredible feeling that I share with my coach, I share with my husband, with my family, just everyone that’s been a part of this,” Kiefer was quoted as saying in an Indianapolis Star story. “I wish I could chop it (the medal) up in little pieces and distributed it to everyone I love…”
