Archdiocese

RE RONNIE Polaneczky's column "Your e-mail can help fight sex abuse of kids": The Archdiocese of Philadelphia encourages efforts to strengthen state laws that would result in greater protection for children, in particular, lifting the criminal statute of limitations, increasing penalties for offenses against children, enhancing the Child Protective Services Law's reporting requirements, amending the law to require background checks in non-school organizations...

NEGOTIATORS for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the union representing lay Catholic high-school teachers were expected to continue contract talks late into last night and over the holiday weekend. The two sides remain "at a stalemate" on substantial proposals regarding educational issues in the classroom, said Ken Gavin, a spokesman for the Archdiocese. He said the two sides exchanged proposals on salary matters yesterday. Also yesterday, Heather Cummings, a spokeswoman for the Association of Catholic Teachers, Local 1776, said the union is hopeful there will be a contract proposal to present to more than 700 teachers at a general meeting at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Penn's Landing Caterers, on Columbus Boulevard.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has announced it is seeking to permanently remove the Rev. John H. Mulholland from priesthood after finding credible evidence that he sexually abused a minor in the mid-1970s. Mulholland was removed from active ministry in September 2005, soon after a Philadelphia grand jury report on clergy sex abuse in the archdiocese reported that Mulholland had a history of sadomasochistic activity with teenage boys in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His case now goes before the Vatican, which can decide to laicize him. Donna Farrell, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, could not immediately confirm yesterday whether Mulholland had admitted having sexual contact with a minor.

Customarily the various parishes in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia have operated as independent bodies, answerable only to their pastors and the Archbishop. But a new reorganization plan, to be outlined this week, will change all that. Regionalism, in the form of six new vicariates to be headed by six episcopal vicars, has come to the archdiocese. Starting Thursday and continuing for the next two weeks, Archbishop Anthony Bevilacqua will meet with members of the laity and parish pastors in the five- county archdiocese to discuss the reorganization.

Bucks County Judge Michael J. Kane said Nancy Washo's agreement with the pastor of a Newtown church to build a preserve for endangered birds was noble. But after a week of testimony, he said Tuesday that it was also invalid. Kane dismissed Washo's contention that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia reneged on a 1986 deal to sell her 23 acres of land for $6,500 an acre. The land was part of an estate willed to St. Andrew's Church by a former parishioner. The judge accepted defense arguments that Washo's makeshift agreements with Msgr.

Msgr. David E. Walls, the vicar for Catholic education for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, has resigned for reasons of health, and a committee has been appointed to find his successor. His departure was announced in the current issue of the Catholic Standard and Times, the weekly newspaper published by the archdiocese. Marie Kelly, assistant director for communications for the archdiocese, said yesterday that Msgr. Walls had submitted his resignation May 13. The nature of his illness was not disclosed.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia on Friday suspended its top lawyer, less than two weeks before a trial that could shine a spotlight on the role he and other church lawyers played in the handling of decades of child-sex-abuse allegations. In an e-mail to employees and pastors, archdiocesan officials said general counsel Timothy R. Coyne was placed on administrative leave but did not say why. Coyne could not be reached late Friday. Representatives for Archbishop Charles J. Chaput declined to comment.

HACKENSACK, N.J. - A judge on Tuesday ordered a New Jersey priest held while a grand jury considers whether he violated a legal agreement to stay away from children. The Rev. Michael Fugee, who recently resigned from the Archdiocese of Newark, flouted a 2003 order he reached with the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office that allowed him to return to ministry after being convicted on charges that he fondled a boy, authorities said. The major stipulation of the agreement was that Fugee be barred from having unsupervised contact with minors or a job that required him to oversee or minister to children under 18. Despite that, Fugee became a fixture at a youth group in Colts Neck, hearing confession from minors and attending overnight retreats.

Sister Marie Kramer, 98, a teacher and administrator in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for more than 50 years, died Saturday, May 11, in Assisi House in Aston. She was a professed member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia for 79 years. She was baptized as Marie, but took the name Clare Albertine upon entering the convent. When nuns were given the option of returning to their baptismal name after the Second Vatican Council, she did so. Born in Easton, Pa., she was a graduate of St. Joseph's Commercial Institute.

Bishop Joseph P. McFadden, 65, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg and a former auxiliary bishop of Philadelphia, died Thursday, May 2, of an apparent heart attack. In Philadelphia for the annual Pennsylvania Bishops Conference, of which he was president, he had spent the night at St. Christopher's parish in the Northeast, where he reported feeling ill Thursday morning. He was taken to Holy Redeemer Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 7:40. "He was 100 percent a priest," said the Rev. Kevin Gallagher, the archdiocese's director of vocations and a longtime friend.

This story has been updated. AS A CHILD, VIVIAN Ortiz spent many a Sunday with her parents at a small chapel on Spring Garden Street, a place where Ortiz learned about faith and community. Now, decades later, that same chapel - and plans to close it - are challenging her faith and that of hundreds in the city's Latino community. On Sunday morning, Ortiz joined more than 100 protestors outside Capilla Católica Hispana de la Medalla Milagrosa, or La Milagrosa, on Spring Garden near 19th, for a vigil to protest the looming closing of the historic church.

A tiny church that has served Spanish-speaking Philadelphians for a century will be closed in June, leaving behind a history that stretches from Spain to Spring Garden Street and is marked by the benevolence of a future saint with a keen sense of inflation. Katharine Drexel, the daughter of a Philadelphia investment banker who was canonized as a Catholic saint in 2000, contributed $1,080 toward the $12,250 purchase in 1912 of a Spring Garden property that became a cherished chapel, called La Milagrosa, where generations of Hispanics have worshiped.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput has permanently removed three more parish priests from public ministry over allegations of sexual abuse or misconduct around minors, including one whose accuser killed himself in 2009, allegedly after church officials first declared his claim unsubstantiated. That priest, the Rev. Joseph J. Gallagher, has been deemed "unsuitable for ministry due to violations" of church standards, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said Sunday. A second priest, the Rev. Mark Gaspar, was removed for the same reason, officials said.

THERE WILL be no more masses, no nervous couples to wed or babies to baptize, and no more white collars against a simple black suit for three Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests implicated in sexual-abuse scandals. In a statement released Sunday, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said the Rev. Joseph J. Gallagher, 78, and the Rev. Mark S. Gaspar, 43, will have no further public ministry in the Archdiocese "due to substantiated violations of The Standards of Ministerial Behaviors and Boundaries.

Parishioners attending the Spanish-language Mass on Sunday at St. Veronica Church in North Philadelphia were ecstatic about the election of Pope Francis, even using affectionate nicknames to refer to the first Latin American pontiff. "Papa Pancho" and "Paco" are among the Spanish references to Pope Francis that Martiza Delgado said she was hearing in her heavily Latino neighborhood. "It's marvelous," Delgado, 48, who immigrated from Ecuador two decades ago, said of the new pope's Latin American roots.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput has decided to allow girls to play football in Philadelphia's Catholic Youth Organization league next season, rejecting the recommendation of a panel he directed to review the league's policy banning them. That rule was subject to scrutiny this winter after Caroline Pla, 11, of Doylestown, was told by the archdiocese that she would not be allowed to play next fall. She played the 2011 and 2012 seasons due to an oversight. Caroline, who started an online petition in December urging the archdiocese to reconsider the rule, said she was surrounded by an elated cluster of classmates, friends, and neighbors when she learned the news from her mother after school.

THE PHILADELPHIA Archdiocese announced plans Thursday to sell off or lease most of its Lower Merion seminary property as the church deals with prolonged financial woes, but area realty agents say that a white-hot market may be the answer to their prayers. "What we're doing is ensuring future viability and sustainability," said Gerald Davis, a Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary trustee. "We're right-sizing, if you will. " The school plans to keep only 30 acres out of 75 as part of a consolidation meant to take place over the next few years, said Archdiocese spokesman Kenneth Gavin.