Day: April 20, 2012

Wheeling WV cathedral rector has to testify in Phila. abuse case

A Wheeling WV judge says an aide to the Wheeling bishop must appear in the criminal trial of two Philadelphia priests.

A West Virginia judge has ordered a Catholic church official formerly from Philadelphia to testify at the clergy sex-abuse trial now under way in the city.

The ruling late Thursday by Ohio County Circuit Judge Ronald E. Wilson ends a weeklong stalemate over testimony by Msgr. Kevin Michael Quirk.

Quirk served as a judge in the the 2008 church trial of one of the defendants, Rev. James J. Brennan, in which Philadelphia prosecutors say Brennan made “inculpatory” statements usable against him.

Brennan is charged with attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996. Prosecutors seek corroborating testimony from Quirk, who objected to his being required to testify. But the Wheeling judge ruled Quirk a material witness and said his testimony in Philadelphia “is essential in ascertaining the truth.” He ordered Quirk to appear in Philadelphia when requested between April 29 and May 1.

A decided wrinkle to the contest over requiring Quirk to testify is that in the Philadelphia trial a witness has implicated Quirk’s boss, Bishop Michael Bransfield of Wheeling, accusing him of sexual abuse, which Bransfield has denied.

The Trayvon case made him do it

Mugging of white man in our fair village:

 Alton L. Hayes III, of Oak Park, and a 15-year-old Chicagoan both black walked up behind the 19-year-old victim and pinned his arms to his side early Tuesday, police said.

Alton:

He said, Empty your pockets, white boy,” robbed him, threw him down and punched him out, he and his friend.

He was mad about the Trayvon business and took it out on the white man, he told police. It didn’t pay.

Hayes was charged with attempted robbery, aggravated battery and a hate crime, all felonies, Oak Park police Detective Cmdr. Ladon Reynolds said.

He was still in jail Friday.

St. Pius X Catholics will return to a struggle

SSPX Mass in St. Jude's Church, Philadelphia.
SSPX Mass in St. Jude's Church, Philadelphia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The way things used to be.

Natl Catholic Register’s Pat Archbold welcomes the Society of St. Pius X people’s expected return from the wilderness of papal interdict, but sees no promise of a rose garden in that return:

Bringing the SSPX back into the fold is a great thing for the souls involved and I think that they will help be an example to others. But their integration will be very painful, very. So if this really happens as it appears it will, let us rejoice. But let us also be realistic. The gates of hell will never prevail, we have the Lord’s promise on that. But in the meantime, things may even get worse before they get better. But at least now we will have some really good people bearing it with us.

He refers to those returning, and they would rightly scoff at the wilderness motif. Rather, it’s a return to the big, bad world of what Archbold neatly terms 1965-2012 Catholicism. I have heard their priests (not all) rail against the contemporary church, more often in support of strict practice in faith and morals and liturgical practice.

They and their flock are not going gentle into that good night, as they see it, of this era. But they are third-generation pre-1965 Catholics, firm in all they espouse, and will more likely rage against the dying of the light, as they see it, of this era. Catholics will continue to live in interesting times.

More: At the same time, keep in mind that the SSPX leadership calls this “a stage and not a conclusion” of return.  Which they would, of course.