Knights ride to the rescue of Crux
The Catholic news platform Crux is to become an independent news outlet run in partnership with the Knights of Columbus. The announcement comes just days after The Boston Globe announced that due to a lack of advertising revenue it would no longer support Crux financially; the Globe is turning its assets over to veteran Vatican reporter John Allen, associate editor for Crux, and will help him with the site’s transition to its new arrangement. Vatican correspondent Inés San Martín will remain with the site, but Michael O’Loughlin, who has reported on US-related Church affairs, and spiritiuality columnist Margery Eagan will be leaving.
The Knights of Columbus’ own news and commentary website, Catholic Pulse, will merge with Crux, with the new Crux website featuring the tagline: “Keeping its finger on the Catholic Pulse”. The new site will aim to enhance the tone for discussion of Catholic affairs in the US and around the world, Mr Allen said, noting that its editorial independence will be guaranteed.
US-based friars face court charges
Three US-based Franciscan friars have been charged with allowing a suspected sexual predator to hold jobs where he molested more than 100 children.
Robert D’Aversa, 69, Anthony Criscitelli, 62 and Giles Schinelli, 73, served in turn as ministers provincial of a Franciscan religious order in Pennsylvania between 1986 to 2010. As ministers provincial, they assigned and supervised the order’s members, one of whom was Bro. Stephen Baker, who according to authorities molested numerous children, most of them at Johnstown’s Bishop McCort High School, where he was assigned from 1992 to 2000.
Bro. Baker killed himself at the Franciscan monastery near Hollidaysburg in January 2013, nine days after Church officials announced settlements involving 11 students who accused Baker of molesting them at schools there in the late 1980s.
US ‘exploiting category of genocide’, argues Syrian bishop
A Syrian bishop has criticised as cynical the announcement by US Secretary of State John Kerry that ISIS’ actions in the Middle East constitute genocide.
“In my judgment,” Mr Kerry said in the aftermath of a 393-0 vote in the US House of Representatives in favour of classifying as genocide ISIS’ actions against Christians, “Daesh (ISIS) is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yezidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims.”
Adding that any potential criminal charges against the militant group must result from an independent international investigation, Mr Kerry said he hoped victimised groups would take comfort from the fact that the US “recognises and confirms the despicable nature of the crimes committed against them”.
However, Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo, who heads the Syriac Catholic archeparchy in Hassaké-Nisibis, dismissed Mr Kerry’s announcement as “a geopolitical operation” on the part of the US that “exploits the category of genocide for their own interests”.
The archbishop said it was a response to Russia’s intervention in Syria which, he said, “has increased the authority of Moscow in a large sector of the Middle Eastern peoples”.