Angelus News | May 17, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 18
A priest waits while sitting in a confessional box in the Cathedral of Barcelona. A new bill making its way through the California legislature would seek to force priests to break divine law in order to follow civil law. But would requiring priests to break the seal of confession in cases of alleged child sexual abuse really prevent abuse? On page 10, editor Pablo Kay weighs both sides of the debate surrounding SB 360 and looks at how similar legislation has fared in other places. On page 13, contributing editor Mike Aquilina recounts the history of confessional secrecy as a key part of the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation in the Catholic faith. And on page 3, Archbishop José H. Gomez writes why the bill is a “mortal threat to the religious freedom of every Catholic.”
A priest waits while sitting in a confessional box in the Cathedral of Barcelona. A new bill making its way through the California legislature would seek to force priests to break divine law in order to follow civil law. But would requiring priests to break the seal of confession in cases of alleged child sexual abuse really prevent abuse? On page 10, editor Pablo Kay weighs both sides of the debate surrounding SB 360 and looks at how similar legislation has fared in other places. On page 13, contributing editor Mike Aquilina recounts the history of confessional secrecy as a key part of the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation in the Catholic faith. And on page 3, Archbishop José H. Gomez writes why the bill is a “mortal threat to the religious freedom of every Catholic.”
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MARIA CASTILLO VIA INSTAGRAM<br />
NATION<br />
Kendrick Castillo<br />
A son of a Knight’s<br />
ultimate heroism<br />
Friends and family are drawing<br />
attention to the Catholic faith of<br />
<strong>18</strong>-year-old Kendrick Castillo,<br />
the Denver teen who gave his life<br />
to protect his classmates from a<br />
school shooter in Colorado.<br />
Along with another boy, the high<br />
school senior threw himself at the<br />
shooter who entered his classroom<br />
at STEM School Highlands<br />
Ranch <strong>May</strong> 7, giving classmates<br />
enough time to escape or hide.<br />
“I wish he had gone and hid,”<br />
said his father John Castillo in<br />
an interview with the Denver<br />
Post. “But that’s not his character.<br />
His character is about protecting<br />
people, helping people.”<br />
Kenrick was known to usher at<br />
the Saturday night vigil Mass at<br />
<strong>No</strong>tre Dame Church in Denver<br />
and participate in the Knights of<br />
Columbus with his dad.<br />
Friend Cece Bedard (whose<br />
father was also a Knight) told<br />
Catholic <strong>News</strong> Agency that<br />
Kendrick “loved his Faith and he<br />
really loved to serve others.”<br />
It was not just that Kendrick did<br />
one heroic act, Bedard said, but<br />
“he lived the life of a hero, always<br />
helping others to the point where<br />
I’m not quite sure what he did for<br />
himself.” <br />
ICE sparks interdenominational project<br />
A year after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in a<br />
small Iowa town, Catholics and Protestants are working together to help<br />
support a broken community.<br />
A <strong>May</strong> 9, 20<strong>18</strong>, ICE raid in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, led to 32 arrests. Today,<br />
seven deportations and 25 cases are still awaiting trial. A small community<br />
with families who depended on these immigrants as breadwinners, Mount<br />
Pleasant now is joining together in faith to support the families that ICE left<br />
behind.<br />
Bishop Thomas Zinkula of Davenport has helped lead the ecumenical<br />
effort to supply aid to the families, offering Masses and leading interdenominational<br />
prayer services. Together with other leaders, Zinkula and the<br />
Davenport Diocese have raised more than $300,000.<br />
“We are called to welcome our neighbors and to welcome the newcomer,”<br />
Zinkula told Crux <strong>May</strong> 6, following a prayer service on the anniversary of<br />
the ICE raid. “That’s who we are as Catholics.” <br />
Father Michael Pfleger<br />
talks with Nation of<br />
Islam leader Louis<br />
Farrakhan <strong>May</strong> 9.<br />
Chicago cardinal condemns Farrakhan’s ‘slander’<br />
An outspoken Chicago pastor’s decision to invite Nation of Islam founder<br />
Louis Farrakhan to speak at his parish has earned him criticism from his<br />
archbishop.<br />
Father Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Church, invited his “brother<br />
and friend” Farrakhan to speak <strong>May</strong> 9 in response to a <strong>May</strong> 2 decision by<br />
Facebook to ban Farrakhan due to his history of “hate speech.”<br />
The minister, who has been frequently criticized for anti-Semitic language,<br />
said in his speech that he “was here to separate the good Jews from<br />
the satanic Jews.”<br />
“Minister Farrakhan could have taken the opportunity to deliver a unifying<br />
message of God’s love for all his children,” Chicago Cardinal Blase J.<br />
Cupich said in a <strong>May</strong> 10 statement. “Instead, he repeatedly smeared the<br />
Jewish people, using a combination of thinly veiled discriminatory rhetoric<br />
and outright slander.”<br />
In the statement, Cupich said that Pfleger had not consulted him before<br />
inviting Farrakhan.<br />
Cupich has had a warmer relationship with Pfleger than did his predecessor,<br />
Cardinal Francis George.<br />
In 2002, Pfleger threatened to leave the priesthood when George tried to<br />
reassign him to another parish. In 2008, he censured him over comments<br />
on the presidential election, and in 2011 he briefly suspended Pfleger from<br />
ministry. <br />
KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>17</strong>, <strong>2019</strong> • ANGELUS • 5
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