Critics feel rebuffed by bishops
Earlier meeting in Dallas now seen as ‘an aberration’
By Caryle Murphy
"WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 – As scores of U.S. Catholic bishops left a downtown Washington hotel Monday evening to board buses for a Mass, a group of nearly 100 demonstrators – including several who had been sexually abused by priests years ago – offered candles to each of the prelates and asked for their prayers."
Scandal Is Stirring Lay Catholics to Push Church for More Power
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and SAM DILLON
"INDIANAPOLIS – As the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops prepare to meet in Washington on Nov. 11 to complete their policy on sexual abuse by priests, they are confronting the most organized and widespread challenge to their power from the laity in the church’s modern history. "
Facts of priest sex abuse at odds with perception
Cathy Lynn Grossman and Anthony DeBarros
"When the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops meet today to decide how to deal with priests accused of sexually abusing children and teens, they’ll start with a handicap. Nearly a year into the scandal, the bishops have yet to compile a detailed accounting of the problem they face. They have collected no national data on how many priests have been accused, how many are serial offenders, how many are still in the church, or even how many are dead."
Editorial: Good guys vs. the bad guys
"Old-timers might recall the name of Paul Blanshard. In the late 1940s, Blanshard published a book called ‘American Freedom and Catholic Power.’ It was an anti-Catholic polemic that would become a runaway bestseller."
Rare sanction imposed on priest
Ties to priesthood severed by Vatican
By Ann Rodgers-Melnick, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
"Anthony Cipolla, the Catholic priest and accused child molester at the heart of a battle between Bishop Donald Wuerl and the Vatican 10 years ago, has been involuntarily laicized by Pope John Paul II, a rare sanction that strips him of all ties to the priesthood."
"(CBS) For Catholic Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh, the debate in Dallas over pedophilia and the Church is one he has faced before – and alone."