Vatican

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D'Oh! Simpson Clan Not Catholic

Pope's wrong; they're 'Presby-Lutheran Protestants,' says producer

(Newser) - Turns out the pope is fallible after all. The official Vatican newspaper declared last week that Homer Simpson and his family are Catholic. But the creators of the cartoon characters have announced that church officials are downright wrong, reports the BBC . Homer and son Bart considered converting to Catholicism five...

Vatican Nixed Carla Bruni Visit
 Vatican Nixed Carla Bruni Visit 
Oct 15, 2010 2:10 AM CDT

Vatican Nixed Carla Bruni Visit

Pope 'feared press would print racy photos'

(Newser) - The Vatican had a request for Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of the French president's meeting with Pope Benedict XVI last week: Leave your wife at home. Sources say that the pontiff feared that the Italian press would pair his photo with pictures of a scantily-clad or nude Carla Bruni from her...

EU May Yank Vatican Tax Break
 EU May Yank Vatican Tax Break  
Oct 14, 2010 5:00 AM CDT

EU May Yank Vatican Tax Break

Church could be handed $11B tax bill

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI may soon find himself stuck with an $11 billion tax bill. European officials are probing tax breaks Silvio Berlusconi gave the church on its 100,000 properties in Italy. If they decide the tax exemptions are unfair state subsidies for church run businesses, the Vatican will be...

Vatican Slams Berlusconi Over Jewish Joke

It was 'just a laugh,' insists premier

(Newser) - The Vatican yesterday lashed Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for making a joke about Jews last week that stunned and infuriated his countrymen. The "deplorable" joke "offended the sentiment of believers and the sacred memory of 6 million Holocaust victims," blasted an editorial in the Vatican's official...

Vatican Bank Probed for Money Laundering

$34M in mystery funds frozen by Italian authorities

(Newser) - Italian authorities have frozen $34 million at the heart of a money-laundering probe of the Vatican Bank. Two officials, including the chairman of the institution, are under investigation for failing to disclose the identity of clients linked to the funds, which is required by Italian law. The bank, whose main...

6 Arrested in London Over Threat to Pope

Pontiff's visit sparks controversy in Britain

(Newser) - British police staged a predawn raid at a central London garbage depot today, arresting five street cleaners in a suspected terrorist plot against Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of his state visit to Britain. A sixth person was arrested later. Acting on a tip, police detained the men,...

Pope Aide Skips UK Trip After '3rd World' Jab

Also said BA discriminates against those wearing crosses

(Newser) - A top aide to Pope Benedict is skipping tomorrow's trip to Britain after telling a German magazine that "when you land at Heathrow you think at times you have landed in a Third World country." As the BBC reports, German-born Cardinal Walter Kasper said the UK, where the...

Vatican: We're Watching Iran's 'Brutal' Stoning Case

Ashtiani now sentenced to 99 lashes over photo

(Newser) - Iran may think Carla Bruni's a prostitute, but the BBC reports that it also thinks it's going to give Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani—the woman Tehran already wants to put to death by stoning—99 lashes over a photo that may or may not depict her bareheaded. Sound like she needs...

Mel Gibson's Dad Calls the Pope Gay

Hutton Gibson unloads on Benedict in call to radio show

(Newser) - Perhaps he felt left out: Mel Gibon's father has been caught on tape calling the pope a "homosexual," TMZ reports. On the "Political Cesspool" radio program, the elder Gibson, 91, said the Catholic Church can't address issues like homosexuality "because half of the people there in...

'Pope Visit' Site Hawks Magnets, Baseball Caps

Amen to profits

(Newser) - The Vatican opened a new "Papal Visit" official online store ahead of His Holiness' trip to the UK next month, selling tote bags, fridge magnets, "beatification" T-shirts and a papal flag with the Vatican seal to mark the first visit of a pope to England and Scotland since...

Vatican Raises Hell Over Short Skirts

Tourists aghast at 'hypocritical' action

(Newser) - The Vatican's Swiss Guards' strenuous crackdown on "immodest" dress in the wake of a host of shocking pedophile scandals against Catholic clerics has left tourists aghast. The flamboyantly clothed guards, in puffy gold-and-blue-striped uniforms and plumed head coverings, are pulling aside women in sleeveless tops or short skirts and...

'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...

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...

Vatican OKs Cracking Open Mafioso's Tomb

Teen kidnap victim may be buried with mobster

(Newser) - Italian police probing the unsolved 1983 disappearance of a teenage girl have been given the Vatican's permission to open the tomb of a mobster. Enrico Pedis was buried in the crypt of a Vatican-owned church after he was gunned down by rival gangsters in 1990. Now police have received a...

As Abuse Scandal Spread, Benedict's Office Stalled
As Abuse Scandal Spread, Benedict's Office Stalled
investigation
Jul 2, 2010 7:08 AM CDT

As Abuse Scandal Spread, Benedict's Office Stalled

Future pope did little, even as bishops complained

(Newser) - The New York Times today delivers another damning assessment of Pope Benedict's handling of the sex abuse scandal as a cardinal. Benedict did little to tackle the problem, even though the office he led for 20 years had been given authority to do so—in the 1920s. The Vatican moved...

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...

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...

Prominent Priest Molested Own Son: Lawsuit

Mexican man sues group his late father founded

(Newser) - A man who says he is the son of a prominent Catholic priest is suing the organization the late cleric founded , alleging the late Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado molested him. The Vatican fielded many reports of sexual abuse by Maciel from the 1950s through 2002, the lawsuit says. "Pope...

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