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Bishop John M. Dougherty / Bishop Joseph F. Martino Scranton, Pa., Aug 31, 2009 / 10:32 am (CNA).- At a press conference in Scranton this morning, Bishop Joseph Martino announced that he and auxiliary bishop John Dougherty are stepping down from their posts. Bishop Martino explained that he is resigning because of "crippling physical fatigue," while Bishop Dougherty is retiring upon having reached the age limit.Last week, CNA reported that Bishop Martino, 63, would be resigning from his post in Scranton. The Vatican announced today that Pope Benedict has accepted the resignation of Martino in accordance with canon 401...

The chairman of the city Democratic Party was charged with public drunkenness after allegedly intervening in a police investigation of an assault at the Parker House bar late Wednesday. "Do you recognize the name? Do you know who I am?" the party chairman, Art Moran, asked Patrolman Robert Hegedus, according to an affidavit filed by the officer. Officer Hegedus, who reported smelling alcohol on Mr. Moran's breath, didn't recognize him and asked, "Should I?" "Remember my name," Mr. Moran replied, the officer reported. Mr. Moran, 47, a former Scranton school director, denied in an interview Friday he tried to intimidate...

Bishop Joseph F. Martino Scranton, Pa., Aug 28, 2009 / 11:12 am (CNA).- Most Rev. Joseph F. Martino, Bishop of Scranton, will resign as head of the Diocese of Scranton next week, sources within the diocese confirmed to the local press today.The sources did not explain the reason for the 62-year-old bishop’s decision. The sources also did not specify if the Bishop’s resignation was going to be presented or if it had been already submitted and accepted by the Vatican.When asked by CNA to confirm Bishop Martino's resignation, diocesan spokesman William Genello said that the diocese will hold a...

The four police officers who went to Brenda Williams' apartment the evening of May 28 were ready to wrap up, awaiting only the completion of a citation charging the North Scranton woman with disorderly conduct before calling it a night. Then Ms. Williams emerged from her kitchen holding a knife with a wooden handle and an 8-inch blade, and suddenly everything changed. Within seconds, as the 52-year-old woman ignored commands to drop the weapon as she moved toward one of the officers, three of them fired, fatally wounding Ms. Williams in what Lackawanna County District Attorney Andy Jarbola ruled Monday...

A man who rode his bicycle 180 miles to have sex with a Scranton teen he met on the Internet will serve one to four years in prison, a judge ruled Wednesday. William Wagner, 26, 414 Battery Drive, Havre de Grace, Md., met the 15-year-old girl through the social networking Web site MySpace. In June, he biked to Scranton to meet the teen. In February, Mr. Wagner pleaded guilty to unlawful contact with a minor. He slept at Pine Brook baseball field, Sanderson Avenue and Green Place, while he was in Scranton. He took the teen to the baseball field...

SCRANTON (Catholic Online) Dr. James Calderone was a permanent deacon in the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania. The Diocese is led by Bishop Joseph Martino, a staunch defender of the Catholic Faith and a Pro-Life Hero. Our readers recall Bishop Martino’s regular and persistent pastoral corrections to Senator Bob Casey concerning his repeated failure to defend the Right to Life. They will also recall the Bishop’s strong defense of orthodoxy on Catholic College campuses in his Diocese. The good Bishop has had an ongoing battle with the so called ‘Diversity Institute’ of Misericordia University, a Catholic University in the Diocese. In...

Vice President Joe Biden’s sister and mother will be honored by the Society of Irish Women at its annual St. Patrick’s Day dinner, a society founder confirmed Friday. Valerie Biden Owens, Mr. Biden’s sister and lifelong campaign manager, will be a principal speaker at the event. Jean Finnegan Biden, Mr. Biden’s mother, will be an honored guest. She will sit at the head table but will not give a speech, said Evie Rafalko McNulty, one of the society’s founders. “Oh, my God, it’s wonderful, because she is Scranton; she’s from Scranton,” Mrs. McNulty said about the confirmation that Mrs. Biden...

Bishop Joseph Martino Scranton, Pa., Feb 26, 2009 / 03:06 am (CNA).- Following controversy over the Diversity Institute at Misericordia University’s hosting of a homosexual activist, Bishop of Scranton Joseph F. Martino has asked the university to seriously consider discontinuing the institute and to explain its efforts to teach Catholic sexual morality.Bishop Martino had warned before Keith Boykin’s appearance that he had “absolute disapproval” for the institute’s invitation to have him speak at its annual dinner and as part of Black History Month. The bishop charged that the university was “seriously failing” to maintain its Catholic identity in the...

The president of the St. Patrick’s Parade Association expects the group to be in compliance with the demands of Bishop Joseph F. Martino. Though the group’s board must still vote on whom to honor, it is unlikely the group will choose to honor elected officials who support abortion rights, Mike Harrity, president of the association, said Friday. The diocese issued a letter warning Irish-American groups that the bishop may close St. Peter’s Cathedral during St. Patrick’s Day celebrations if pro-choice honorees are selected. “We are fully supporting the bishop’s position,” Mr. Harrity said. Mr. Harrity said he could not recall...

Keith Boykin Scranton, Pa., Feb 19, 2009 / 04:06 am (CNA).- Bishop Joseph F. Martino has issued a statement informing Catholics of his diocese that he has “absolute disapproval” of Misericordia University’s hosting of Keith Boykin, described as an activist for positions “disturbingly opposed” to Catholic moral teaching.In the diocese’s statement, Bishop Martino warned that in this instance the university is “seriously failing” to maintain its Catholic identity. The statement noted that all three of Boykin’s books have been nominated for the Lambda Literary Award, which is given by a legal advocacy effort on behalf of homosexual causes.The diocese...

In a letter to the heads of three local Irish-American organizations, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton has threatened to close St. Peter’s Cathedral during St. Patrick’s Day celebrations if the groups feature elected officials who support abortion rights at their annual events. The letter, which was signed by Auxiliary Bishop John M. Dougherty, reports that Bishop Joseph F. Martino is “determined to prevent scandal,” which would be caused if the organizations “in any way” should “honor pro-abortion officials” by giving them parade or dais positions or opportunities to speak and “the Catholic Church is seen to be involved in...

A Bishop in the Tradition of Cardinal O'Connor Recently I've begun to notice a resemblance between Scranton's Bishop Joseph Francis Martino and another Philadelphia-born bishop, John Cardinal O'Connor. Bishop Martino is outspoken, and his direct, almost pugnacious, criticism is reminiscent of the late cardinal of New York. Both Martino and O'Connor attended St. Charles Borromeo Seminary before seeking graduate degrees -- Martino at Rome's Gregorian University, in church history; O'Connor at Villanova, in ethics, and Georgetown University, in political science. Pope John Paul II appointed both as bishops -- O'Connor in 1979, Martino in 1996. O'Connor, like Martino, would go...

Dear Senator Casey: I wish to thank you for voting in favor of the Hatch Amendment to the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reorganization Act of 2009 which would have made unborn children eligible for child health assistance had it passed. I am grateful for what you have done on behalf of children in America who are without health care. It is with deep regret, however, that I learned of your vote against the amendment offered by Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) to the same Children’s Health Insurance Act. Senator Martinez’s amendment would have reinstated the Mexico City Policy. That policy, instituted...

Rendell administration contends services can be delivered by other governmental entities for less money. SCRANTON – The state has notified the Scranton School for the Deaf that it will close as of July 1, board members said Wednesday. Funding for the 129-year-old school was not included in the budget proposal announced Wednesday by Gov. Ed Rendell, who unveiled his $29 billion spending plan for 2009-10. Marge Davison Matisko, chairwoman of the schools Board of Trustees, and Trustee Mahmoud Fahmy said the decision was announced late Tuesday night and meetings were held Wednesday with state officials, administrative staff and board members....

The superintendent of transportation for Lackawanna County was charged Wednesday with pressuring fellow employees into giving him prescription painkillers for more than a year. Anthony T. Koloras harassed, insulted and publicly ridiculed a County of Lackawanna Transit System bus driver and a female employee until they relented, according to court documents. He called the woman “fat” and made fun of her clothing when she refused to comply. “You don’t really need all of it,” Mr. Koloras, told the woman he repeatedly harassed for Vicodin pills, according to the documents. In an interview with county detectives, Mr. Koloras admitted asking people...

Joe Biden and Jim Kennedy stood out on what used to be Maloney Field in Green Ridge as a huge earthmover, with tires 5 feet tall, crawled along. “Run under that, Joe,’” Jim Kennedy dared. Joe Biden, 8 or 9 years old, scurried between the front and back tires, letting the front axle pass over him as the mover backed up. He survived, unscarred. “Jesus, what the hell did you do that for?” Jim Kennedy wailed. If Joe Biden said anything, all Magisterial District Judge James Kennedy remembers decades later is the boy’s laughter and wanting to smush the youngster...

(CNSNews.com) – Rev. Joseph F. Martino, bishop of the diocese of Scranton, Pa., the city lifelong Catholic Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) claims as his hometown and the place that inspired his values, has condemned the vice president-elect for his pro-abortion position. “I cannot have a vice president-elect coming to Scranton to say he’s learned his values there when those values are utterly against the teachings of the Catholic Church,” Martino said at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore this week. Martino has consistently spoken out against politicians who support abortion, including in a pastoral letter dated Sept. 15,...

Michael Scott is gently excruciating, politely off-kilter, a man of hidden shallows. He is blazingly, blaringly white. As he put it in the diversity-training episode of The Office that set the tone for so much of what was to follow: “How come Chris Rock can do a routine and everybody finds it hilarious and ground-breaking and then I go and do the exact same routine, same comedic timing, and people file a complaint to Corporate? Is it because I’m white and Chris is black?” As played, often brilliantly, by Steve Carell on NBC’s The Office, which has had a quality...

On the rise in statewide polls as Election Day looms, Republican presidential nominee John McCain repeatedly ripped Democratic nominee Barack Obama on Sunday for proposing tax hikes and lacking experience during what was probably the last local stop by a candidate on either presidential ticket. Speaking to a wildly enthusiastic crowd at the University of Scranton, Mr. McCain used a 24-minute speech to repeatedly focus on Mr. Obama’s tax plan, charging taxes won’t increase only on the wealthy as the Democratic nominee says. About 3,000 people packed the John J. Long Center to hear Mr. McCain speak, university spokesman Stan...

For more than two weeks, John McCain, Sarah Palin and a variety of their campaign surrogates have devoted much of their attention and limited resources toward turning the Keystone State red for the first time since 1988. But with the Republican presidential nominee due in Scranton again today, most recent independent polls have shown Democratic nominee Barack Obama ahead by double digits (a few polls show a tighter race). It may be that the McCain campaign thinks there’s something about the state’s mix of rural voters, working-class whites and culturally conservative Democrats that gives it a chance invisible to pollsters....