Catholic Church

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Bomb Threat Clears Lourdes
 Bomb Threat Clears Lourdes 
Aug 16, 2010 4:17 AM CDT

Bomb Threat Clears Lourdes

Hoax strikes on Feast of the Assumption

(Newser) - Some 30,000 Catholic pilgrims, many of them disabled or ailing, had to flee the Lourdes pilgrimage site in France yesterday because of a bomb scare on the Feast of the Assumption, one of the site's busiest days of the year. A phone call to police warning that four bombs...

Taylor Momsen: I Did a Priest
 Taylor Momsen: I Did a Priest 
Aug 9, 2010 4:32 AM CDT

Taylor Momsen: I Did a Priest

Just joking, says the oh-so-bad Gossip Girl

(Newser) - Taylor Momsen is trying so very hard to be the badass of Gossip Girl, but this time she seems to have picked an easy target: a Catholic priest. "I screwed a priest," Momsen, 17, boasted to a New Zealand radio station, though not exactly in those words. But...

Vampire Novelist Anne Rice Quits Christianity

'Interview With a Vampire' author turned off by church

(Newser) - Novelist Anne Rice has quit Christianity for the second time. The Interview With a Vampire author—who had renewed her Catholic faith in recent years and penned a spiritually-themed memoir—says that while her faith in Christ is still strong, she's been turned off Christianity by the church's attitudes on...

'Ordain Women' Ads Will Greet Pope in London

Catholic women's group seeks to get pontiff's attention

(Newser) - A group of Catholic women seeking to get the pope's attention has bought ad space on London buses. The ads—reading "Pope Benedict Ordain Women Now"—will appear on buses traveling past places the pontiff will visit on his trip to Britain this fall, the Guardian reports. Groups...

'Misogynistic' Church Would Let Polanski Stay a Priest

Maureen Dowd unimpressed by new edict on sexual abuse

(Newser) - If Pope Benedict was trying to do penance for the sex abuse scandal this week, he'd better say a few billion more Hail Marys, because equating the ordination of women as priests with the rape of young children wasn't quite the way to do it, writes Maureen Dowd in the...

Church Cries Foul on Dutch Soccer Mass

Pastor suspended after praying for Holland to beat Spain

(Newser) - A Dutch priest is in hot water for praying— in vain —that the Netherlands would defeat Spain at a Mass celebrated the day of the World Cup final, reports the BBC . Paul Vlaar decorated his church in the team color, orange; wore orange and white vestments; and played along...

Vatican Issues New Sex Abuse Rules
Vatican Issues New Sex Abuse Rules
Jul 15, 2010 9:12 AM CDT

Vatican Issues New Sex Abuse Rules

Rules also declare ordaining a woman a 'grave crime'

(Newser) - The Vatican has released new rules for dealing with sexual abuse from priests, mandating a set of “more rapid procedures” to expedite the “most urgent” cases, and extending the statute of limitations from 10 years beyond the victim's 18th birthday to 20 years. It also formally outlawed child...

Cops: Priest Used Stolen $1.3M for Male Escorts

Conn. priest lived the high life

(Newser) - A Connecticut Catholic priest spent $1.3 million in stolen church funds on male escorts, Armani suits, and stays at the Waldorf-Astoria, according to law enforcement authorities. Rev. Kevin Gray, until recently a parish priest in Waterbury, also paid the college tuition and rent of two of the young men...

Italy Battles to Save Crosses in Classroom

Europe says they violate freedom, Italy says they're culture

(Newser) - Italy is fighting a court ruling that bans crucifixes from classrooms. After a secular Italian woman sued to have crucifixes removed from her sons' classrooms, Italian courts said the cross belonged there as a symbol of Italy's culture and history. The European Court of Human Rights disagreed, ruling religious symbols...

Vatican Seeks to Win Back the West

New council to 're-evangelize' wealthy countries

(Newser) - Never had a Catholic missionary knocking on your door? That could soon change. Pope Benedict XVI, lamenting "the eclipse of a sense of God" in Europe and North America, has launched plans to "re-evangelize" the West, the Telegraph reports. The newly created Pontifical Council for New Evangelization will...

Court Refuses to Halt Sex Abuse Case Against Vatican

Supreme Court rejects Vatican bid for immunity

(Newser) - The US Supreme Court has rejected a Vatican appeal for immunity from prosecution in an Oregon sex abuse case. The lawsuit—filed by a man who charges that a priest abused him in the 60s—will now go to trial in the state, where a judge will decide if priests...

Pope Slams 'Deplorable' Church Sex Raids

Belgian police action 'unprecedented'

(Newser) - Raids by Belgian police investigating priest sex abuse are "deplorable," an angry Pope Benedict lashed out yesterday, adding to the chorus of Vatican criticism of the Belgian government. Police last week searched several Catholic Church buildings and seized nearly 500 files and a computer in Leuven, Belgium. Belgium...

Vatican Moves to Block Pope Grilling Under Oath

Lawyers argue abuse case has no link to Rome

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI should not be ordered to testify in a Kentucky sex abuse lawsuit, the Vatican's lawyers are arguing. The suit accuses the Vatican of covering up sex abuse, but Vatican lawyers argue that American bishops shouldn't be considered employees of Rome and that the Pope, as a head...

Iceland Legalizes Gay Marriage
 Iceland Legalizes Gay Marriage 
Jun 11, 2010 3:58 PM CDT

Iceland Legalizes Gay Marriage

Parliament unanimously approves redefinition of marriage

(Newser) - With little fanfare, Iceland's parliament unanimously passed a resolution legalizing gay marriage today, Reuters reports . The Althingi voted 49-0 to add mention of unions between "man and man" and "woman and woman" to the legal definition of marriage. Iceland's tolerance for homosexuality is well known—PM Johanna Sigurdardottir...

Pope Begs Forgiveness Over Priest Sex Abuse

But he defends celibacy for clergy

(Newser) - Pope Benedict today asked "forgiveness from God" and the children abused by Catholic priests, and promised that the Catholic Church would "do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again." At a gathering of some 15,000 Catholic clergy in Rome to mark the...

Feds May Indict LA Cardinal on Coverup Charges

Roger Mahony's role in sex abuse cases under scrutiny

(Newser) - Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles may become the first US Catholic leader indicted over the church's pedophile priest scandal, reports Philip Shenon in the Daily Beast . The Justice Department is considering charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury against Mahony, 74.

Scientists Spot Secret in Michelangelo God

Sistine painting contains brain diagram

(Newser) - Michelangelo used the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to conceal a message the church would have found blasphemous, according to a pair of neuroanatomists. God's oddly lumpy neck in The Separation of Light from Darkness, a detail that has long puzzled art historians, is actually a completely accurate depiction of...

Priests' Mistresses Ask Pope to Scrap Celibacy Rule

Nearly 40 write open letter to the Vatican

(Newser) - About 40 Italian women have written an unusual open letter to Pope Benedict asking him to end the church's celibacy rule for priests. The odd hook? All the women claim to have had (or are having) intimate affairs with priests or monks, reports GlobalPost , which talks to some of the...

Screwy Catholic Church Axes Nun Who OK'd Abortion

It saved mom's life, but church doesn't care

(Newser) - News that the Catholic Church has excommunicated a nun because she approved an abortion to save a mother's life (see NPR's story here ) doesn't make much sense to a blogger at Feministe . The nun, an administrator at a Catholic hospital in Phoenix, apparently was supposed to let this woman...

Pope: Gay Marriage 'Insidious, Dangerous'

Benedict puts abuse scandals on back burner

(Newser) - Pope Benedict seized an opportunity following a massive Mass in Portugal yesterday to slam abortion and gay marriage as among the "most insidious and dangerous challenges that today confront the common good." Some 500,000 people turned out to participate in the Mass at one of Catholicism's holiest...

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