Welcome to Monday. A Vatican office has acknowledged that the Catholic Church should not have asked its members to keep silent when they heard about priests fathering children. An NCR commentator writes that the teachings of St. Augustine, quoted by President Joe Biden in his inauguration speech, can contribute to unifying our country.

Vatican office admits silence about children of priests was a mistake

A Vatican office has acknowledged that the Catholic Church erred over previous decades in asking its members to keep silent when they heard about priests fathering children.

"Before our times, the Church did like most institutions and avoided addressing publicly matters regarding its members' behavior, about which it kept silent," said Norbertine Fr. Bernard Ardura, president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, in a recently published document.

"This was a mistake, which can be explained by the context, but it remains a mistake," said Ardura.

The priest, whose office is responsible for fostering cooperation between the Vatican and outside historians, was writing in a letter to Vincent Doyle, the child of a priest and the leader of Coping International, a global campaign for the recognition of priests' children.

You can read more of the story here.

More background:

• For years, Anne-Marie Mariani and the group she founded, Enfants du Silence, have asked the French Church to recognize children of priests, many of whom felt illegitimate and were often rejected.

Love in a time of insurrection: St. Augustine on the unity of the American people

The crucial moment in President Joe Biden's inaugural address, says David DeCosse in a commentary for NCR, was when he wrapped his moving call for the unity of the American people in the words of 4th century Catholic theologian St. Augustine.

Biden said: "Many centuries ago, St. Augustine, a saint of my church, wrote that a people was a multitude defined by the common objects of their love." And Biden enumerated what he thought those common objects are: "opportunity, security, liberty, dignity, respect, honor, and, yes, the truth."

St. Augustine can contribute to the challenge of American unity not by telling us what our objects of love should be, as much as by showing us how we ought to love, DeCosse says. "For Augustine, love both unmasks injustice and creates a people."

You can read more of the commentary here.

More headlines

• NCR political columnist Michael Sean Winters says that Catholics with a liberal disposition, a liberal heart, and/or liberal politics have remained active in the life of the church even if the rise of conservative Catholics, aided by gobs of money, have increased their influence throughout the church's many institutions.

• At EarthBeat, Davi Kopenawa, a Yanomami Indigenous leader and shaman, is the first indigenous leader elected to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.

Final thoughts

We have wrapped up our Building a Common Future series, in which we asked Catholic politicians, activists and scholars to offer advice to President Joe Biden. It's not too late to take a look at our entire series, and watch our livestream videos with guests Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky; Social Service Sr. Simone Campbell and Sen. Tim Kaine; and Dwayne David Paul and Michael Vazquez.

Until Tuesday,

Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Managing Editor
[email protected]
Twitter: @ncrSLY

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