Word: vaticans
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Concerned, the Vatican issued a highly unusual public explanation. In a document sent to U.S. bishops two weeks before the Washington meeting, papal Pro-Nuncio Pio Laghi detailed the matters on which Hunthausen lacked the "firmness necessary to govern the archdiocese." Besides homosexuality, the list included divorce, sterilization, sacramental rules and church employment of ex-priests. Laghi also charged that Hunthausen had agreed to cede the powers to Wuerl and then reneged on the deal...
...bishops devoted nearly six hours of closed-door discussions to the affair. At the start, the Archbishop's colleagues gave him a long ovation -- but only three minutes on the floor to reply to Laghi's account. Hunthausen then handed out a lengthy statement, protesting that under the Vatican's secretive procedures he was never given the opportunity to answer any of the specific accusations and that some of the shortcomings had long since been remedied and other charges made against him were inaccurate...
...Archbishop freely admitted other points in Rome's indictment, including the charge that he allowed Dignity, a group of Catholic homosexuals, to celebrate Mass in his cathedral. But he pointed out that "many bishops" had permitted similar services. (Only three weeks ago, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in a tough statement, insisted bishops avoid recognition of Catholic groups that implicitly treat homosexuality as benign or oppose church teaching that homosexual behavior is sinful...
...right to intervene in Seattle and said its procedures properly protect both individual rights and the good of the church. Indeed, the bishops declared that they "affirm unreservedly their loyalty to and unity with the Holy Father." Hunthausen's allies managed one triumph: deletion of the assertion that Vatican treatment of the Archbishop of Seattle was "just and reasonable." The bishops also offered their future "assistance" to all parties...
...president of the U.S. bishops' conference, James Malone of Youngstown, Ohio, had opened the meeting with a warning of his own: there is "growing and dangerous disaffection" between sectors of the U.S. church and the Vatican. He remarked that "some persons," mistakenly, are now questioning the "timeliness and utility" of the Pope's tour of the U.S. next September. Malone also announced he had asked that bishops be granted the opportunity to brief the Pope in person on the situation he will face...