National Catholic Reporter sample issue

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NATIONAL CATHOLIC

REPORTER THE INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE

NCRonline.org

FEBRUARY 1-14, 2013

Vol. 49, No. 8 | $2.95

Irish priest reveals Vatican threat

WORLD NEWS MAGISTERIUM IN HISTORY Teaching authority has shifted over centuries

By JOHN COONEY

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DUBLIN . Irish Redemptorist

APPRECIATION Sri Lankan theologian Tissa Balasuriya was a loving, gentle rebel

—Newscom/Reuters/Brian Blanco

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Store owner Brooke Misantone shows his last two AR-15 semi-automatic rifles to customers at the Bullet Hole gun shop in Sarasota, Fla., Jan. 16.

Fr. Tony Flannery broke a year of silence Jan. 20 to reveal that the Vatican had threatened him with excommunication and removal from his religious congregation because he advocates for open discussions about church teach-

Roy Bourgeois receives Vatican’s official, final notice of dismissal

I

SPECIAL SECTION DEACONS A teacher’s vocation; formation; deacons’ kids; and more

Tough gun measures Obama proposals align with religious leaders’ pleas

PAGES 1a-8a By JERRY FILTEAU

WASHINGTON . A wide coalition of 47 national

COLUMN MISSION MANAGEMENT

Catholic and other religious leaders urged an assault weapons ban and other tough measures against gun violence the day before President Barack Obama announced gun control proposals that largely matched their pleas. “Every person who buys a gun should pass a criminal background check,” the religious leaders said in a letter to Congress that was released Jan. 15. The next day, Obama, announcing executive decisions and legislative proposals based on recommendations of a task force headed by Vice President Joe Continued on Page 10

—CNS/Reuters/Jason Reed

President Barack Obama signs executive orders on ways to address gun violence Jan. 16 at the White House in Washington.

See Page 12 ings on ordaining women, clerical celibacy, contraceptives and homosexuality. The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith removed Flannery, 66, from public ministry last February, pending the outcome of its inquiries into views he expressed in Reality, a Redemptorist-run magazine. Flannery also said that he has had no direct contact in person or writing from the congregation. All communication has come through the Redemptorist superior general in Rome, Fr. Michael Brehl. Flannery described the actions against him as Continued on Page 8

Catholic Medical Mission Board takes care worldwide

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Another Catholic funeral on the sidewalk

—East Harlem Preservation/Marina Ortiz

Carmen Villegas

Carmen Villegas occupied the church years before “occupy” became a movement. Six years ago, she and a group of parishioners made local headlines when they protested the closing of Our Lady Queen of Angels, a church that had served their East Harlem community since 1886. The parish was among 21 churches and nine schools in the New York archdiocese that were casualties of Cardinal Edward Egan’s cost-saving closures in 2007. When almost 40 parishioners assembled for a peaceful witness on the sidewalk outside of the church on East 113th Street on the evening of Feb. 12, 2007, the archdiocese saw fit to send in private security guards to “pro-

tect” the church from its lifelong members. Villegas managed to find an unlocked door on the side of the church and led two dozen parishioners into the building. They sang hymns and prayed the JAMIE rosary, planMANSON ning to keep vigil in the cold, dark church until archdiocesan officials would be willing to dialogue with them. But after 90 minutes of negotiations between the NYPD, the parishioners in the pews, and the Continued on Page 19


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