Pope enables Vatican to seek prosecutions of bishops, cardinals
ROME — Pope Francis has sent another message to Vatican-based cardinals and bishops that he intends to hold them accountable for criminal misconduct: He removed the procedural obstacles that had spared them from being prosecuted and judged by the Vatican’s lay criminal tribunal.
A new law published Friday makes clear that Vatican city-state prosecutors and judges have jurisdiction over Holy See cardinals and bishops and need only the pope’s consent to proceed with investigations and trials against them.
The law abrogated a regulation that said only the tribunal’s highest appeals court, which is made up of three cardinals, could judge cardinals and bishops accused of criminal offenses.
The reform is the latest sign that after eight years of preaching about ending corruption and other criminal activity in the Holy See, Francis is taking concrete steps to make it easier to hold his own cardinals and bishops accountable while emboldening Vatican prosecutors to go after them.
On Thursday, he passed a different law forcing Vatican superiors to declare their finances are clean, and set a $48 cap on work-related personal gifts received by any Vatican employee. The gift cap was seen as a way to cut down on the rampant practice of financial gift-giving to Holy See clerics.
Friday’s reform follows Francis’ decision last year to strip a senior Vatican official, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, of his privileges as a cardinal in a move seen as laying the groundwork for Becciu to possibly be put on trial.
The allegations against him aren’t clear, however, and Becciu hasn’t been charged with any crime.
The new procedural law Friday would presumably make unnecessary any move to strip other cardinals of their privileges before an indictment is handed down.
Bishop willing to chat with Biden:
The newly appointed bishop of Joe Biden’s home diocese in Delaware said Friday he would gladly speak with the president about his views on abortion but did not say whether he would allow him to continue receiving Communion, as his predecessor has.
During a news conference in which retiring Wilmington Bishop Francis Malooly introduced Monsignor William Koenig to his new flock, Koenig said he was open to having a conversation with the president on the issue and that as a bishop, he is called to teach “the fullness and the beauty of the Catholic faith.”
Koenig, who is 64 and a native of the New York City borough of Queens, is vicar for clergy in the diocese of Rockville Center on Long Island in New York. He was ordained a priest in Rockville Center in 1983 and held a series of parish and diocesan positions before taking up his current post.
Koenig replaces Malooly, who at 77 is two years beyond the normal retirement age for bishops. Pope Francis accepted Malooly’s resignation Friday and named Koenig as his replacement.
The appointment raised questions about Koenig’s position on the Communion issue, with U.S. bishops set to consider in a June meeting whether to send a tough message to Biden and other Roman Catholic politicians saying they should not take the sacrament if they engage in public advocacy of abortion rights. Mars copter: NASA’s little Mars helicopter has gotten a reprieve.
Instead of wrapping up flight tests at the beginning of May, NASA is giving its Ingenuity helicopter at least an extra month to tackle tough new terrain and serve as a scout for its companion rover, Perseverance.
Officials announced the flight extension Friday, following three short flights in under two weeks for the $85 million tech demo. Soon afterward, there was more good news: Ingenuity — the first powered aircraft to soar on another planet — had aced its fourth flight at Mars.
For Friday’s trip, Ingenuity traveled 872 feet at a height of 16 feet for two minutes — considerably farther and longer than before. An attempt Thursday had failed because of a known software error.
Designed to operate on Mars for 30 days, Ingenuity probably can survive the freezing Martian nights — and repeated flights in the extremely thin atmosphere — for at least another few months.
Newsmax apologizes: Newsmax apologized Friday for airing false allegations that an employee for Dominion Voting Systems manipulated machines or tallies on Election Day to the detriment of former President Donald Trump.
Eric Coomer, security director at the Coloradobased firm, in turn dropped Newsmax from a defamation lawsuit.
The conservative news network, in a statement published on its website and to be read on TV, said that while it aired the accusations against Coomer made by Trump’s lawyers and supporters, it found no evidence that they were true.
Newsmax also said it had found no evidence that Coomer had spoken to “antifa” or any partisan organization.
“We would like to apologize for any harm that our reporting of the allegations against Dr. Coomer may have caused to Dr. Coomer and his family,” the network said.
He said in his lawsuit that he had gone into hiding because of death threats.
Colorado cops resign: Three Colorado police officers involved in the rough arrest of a 73-year-old woman with dementia — and later seen on video talking about her arrest, laughing and joking at times — have resigned, police said Friday.
During a news conference, Loveland Police Chief Robert Ticer announced the departures of Officers Austin Hopp and Daria Jalali and Community Services Officer Tyler Blackett in connection with the arrest of Karen Garner. Ticer did not provide details about how they left. Tom Hacker, a department spokesman, later confirmed they had resigned.
Ticer noted that last year’s
treatment of Garner in the city about 50 miles north of Denver, revealed by the filing of a federal lawsuit this month, had led to an outpouring of concern and anger in the community, the country and around the world and apologized.
Josh Duggar charged: Former reality TV star Josh Duggar faces charges of downloading and possessing child pornography under a federal indictment unsealed Friday.
Federal prosecutors announced the indictment a day after Duggar was arrested by U.S. Marshals in northwest Arkansas. Prosecutors said Duggar possessed the material, some of which depicts the sexual abuse of children under the age of 12, in May 2019.
Duggar, 33, pleaded not guilty at a hearing Friday. His attorneys said they planned to defend his case “aggressively and thoroughly.”