Seminar for Bishops
A theological seminar for bishops on preaching has been scheduled at Notre Dame for many months entitled: Eloquence of Teaching: Doctrine, Scripture and Preaching in the Life of the Church. This seminar is jointly sponsored by the Committee on Doctrine of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame. Speakers include Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the post most recently held by Pope Benedict XVI before his election to the papacy. Most of the speakers are professors of theology at Notre Dame along with some from other universities.
Because of the likelihood of the presentation of the play, "The Vagina Monologues," at Notre Dame this year, the bishops made a collective decision to move the seminar off campus.
The bishops are very grateful to Professor John Cavadini and the Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame for making this event possible.
Response to inquiry from Observer, South Bend Tribune concerning presentation of play
Rev. John Jenkins, CSC, and I have been communicating on the matter of the presentation of this play since before Christmas, first through a personal visit, and more recently through correspondence and telephone.
It is my understanding that a final decision has not yet been made as to whether or not this play will be performed on campus during this school year. Father Jenkins is aware that if the decision is made to perform the play, I will make a statement, as I have done each year when Notre Dame has sponsored this play. These past statements can be found on our diocesan Web site, www.diocesefwsb.org.
While I pray that it will not be performed on campus, it is my intention to maintain a strong relationship between my pastoral office on the one hand and President Jenkins on the other. I strongly believe that this is Father Jenkins' intention as well, and this is a requirement of the Apostolic Constitution "Ex Corde Ecclesiae."
On the Feb. 9 News-Sentinel article
On Friday afternoon, Feb. 8, the Associated Press issued a report stating Vermont's Roman Catholic bishop considered suing the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend to make it pay part of a settlement in a priest molestation case in Vermont.
Among the inquiries to the diocesan Catholic Communications Office regarding the AP story was a call from a reporter for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, at about 3:45 p.m. on Friday. The reporter was asked to e-mail his questions to the Communications Office. We also told the reporter that Bishop D"™Arcy was preparing a statement for inquiries on the AP story, which would be sent to him yet that day. Bishop D'Arcy's statement (see below) was, in fact, sent to the reporter via e-mail that same evening at 8:54 p.m. along with a second response from Bishop D"™Arcy"™s Office at 8:55 p.m. to the reporter indicating nearly all of the reporter's questions had been answered through 2005 and shared with local media, including the News-Sentinel. The reporter was referred to the diocesan Web site for diocesan policies and Bishop D'Arcy's past statements.
In Saturday afternoon's (Feb. 9) edition of the News-Sentinel, the reporter's story stated "(Bishop) D'Arcy did not respond to the e-mailed questions or issue a statement by press time this morning."
On Monday, Feb. 11, we contacted the News-Sentinel reporter as well as the editor and managing editor concerning the fact that we had indeed responded to the questions and sent Bishop D'Arcy's statement on Friday evening long before their Saturday morning press time. We were told by the managing editor we were "correct." In addition, the managing editor apologized for any problems the situation might have caused, and indicated they "would like to provide fair treatment and would like to continue to have a solid working relationship with the local diocese."
However, no promise was made to correct the inaccuracy of the story published in their Feb. 9 edition, nor did Bishop D'Arcy's statement appear in the Monday, Feb. 11, edition of the News-Sentinel.
We also regret the incident happened. Fair treatment is what we expect, and generally receive, from the local press. We make every attempt, in fact, to keep the diocese's Catholics advised on the diocesan response to matters of such seriousness. We hope that this statement in Today's Catholic will resolve for them any confusion that the News-Sentinel article may have caused.
