Catholic Church

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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...

Mass. Catholic School Boots Lesbians' Son

Parents 'going against' church teachings

(Newser) - A Massachusetts Catholic school has rescinded acceptance of an 8-year-old boy, saying his lesbian parents' relationship is in "discord" with the religion's teachings, according to the boy's mom. "I'm accustomed to discrimination as a gay woman," the mother said. "But I didn't expect it against my...

Pope: Church Must Face Abuse's 'Terrifying' Truth

Catholicism dogged by 'sin within'

(Newser) - The Catholic Church must finally face the "terrifying" truth of clerical sex abuse, says Pope Benedict in what Reuters notes are perhaps his most frank comments since the scandal broke two months ago. Catholicism's greatest threat, he told reporters aboard a flight to Lisbon, is no longer enemies from...

Archbishop: Society Is Pedophilic,Teens Gay

Priests following trend, says conservative Brazilian

(Newser) - All of society is pedophilic and all teens are "spontaneously" gay until "guidance" shows them a "suitable and human" sexual path, a Catholic archbishop declared yesterday. Priests have engaged in pedophilia because "society is pedophile, so people easily fall into it," Brazilian Archbishop Dadeus Grings...

Why I Honor the True Catholic Church
 Why I Honor the True 
 Catholic Church 
NICHOLAS KRISTOF
May 2, 2010 11:30 AM CDT

Why I Honor the True Catholic Church

Brave priests and nuns sacrifice their lives for the poor

(Newser) - Nicholas Kristof didn't go to Sudan to pontificate about all that's wrong with the Catholic Church, and instead, unexpectedly, he ran into all that's right with it. Here, in the midst of grinding poverty, "are lowly nuns and priest—notable not for the grandeur of their vestments but for...

UK to Pope: Uh, Sorry About the Abortion Joke

Brit memo suggested pontiff should open clinic on visit

(Newser) - Pope Benedict is headed to the UK in the fall, and while there he's slated to ... open an abortion clinic? Unveil a line of papal-branded condoms? Let loose and sing a duet with the queen? This according to a cheeky memo circulated in Britain's Foreign Office, and obtained by the...

Wisconsin Sex Abuse Victim Sues Benedict

Claims then-cardinal knew of abuse, did not act

(Newser) - After years of the Vatican ignoring his claims of sexual abuse, an American man is suing the pope himself. The suit, filed in a US Federal Court, does not ask for money, but demands that the Vatican "come clean" by disclosing all files related to cases of child abuse....

Church Accuses Berlusconi of Sacrilege

Divorced PM's taking of Holy Communion enrages priest, bishop

(Newser) - The relationship between Italy's two most reliable sources of sex scandals appears to be on the rocks. A furious Catholic priest has accused controversial Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of "sacrilege" for recently taking communion at a celebrity funeral and breaking the church ban on sacraments for divorced people...

Pope Vows 'Church Action' on Abuse

Benedict's first public comments on the scandal in a month

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI promised today that the Catholic Church would confront the clerical sex-abuse scandal, making his first public comments on the crisis days after meeting with victims. During his weekly public audience, Benedict recounted his tearful weekend meeting in Malta with eight men who say they were abused as...

Pope Celebrates Rocky 5th Anniversary

Beleaguered Vatican isn't exactly popping champagne

(Newser) - Today marks the fifth anniversary of Pope Benedict's ascension to the papacy, but they aren't exactly popping champagne at the beleaguered Vatican. At the moment Benedict is embroiled in a massive pedophilia scandal that could define his papal legacy, and it's not like he's had a charmed papacy until now,...

Women Could Save the Catholic Church
Women Could Save the Catholic Church
PEGGY NOONAN
Apr 16, 2010 8:33 AM CDT

Women Could Save the Catholic Church

Old church needs new blood in charge, writes Peggy Noonan

(Newser) - The Vatican shouldn't be allowed to let this latest round of abuse scandals fade away until some major changes are made, writes Peggy Noonan. The defensive, angry people at the highest levels of the church are too big a part of the problem to fix it, Noonan writes in the...

Outrage Over Crucifix That Kinda Shows Jesus' Genitalia

Oklahoma priest defends the rendering

(Newser) - Churchgoers in tiny Warr Acres, Okla., are, um, at war over a crucifix that appears to depict Jesus' genitalia covering his abdomen. "I was horrified,” one parishioner says. "I was appalled at the sexualization of Christ," says another. Says a third: "If I hadn’t...

Pope Finally Talks Sex Abuse—Sort Of

Benedict says Church must do 'penance'

(Newser) - He might not have mentioned it explicitly, but Pope Benedict has apparently broken his deafening silence on the sex abuse scandals roiling the Catholic Church. The comments, which called for the church to do "penance" for its "sins," came in a homily delivered in the papal palace,...

Horrific Abuse Alleged at Monastery in Pope's Old Turf

Abuse transpired in Ratzinger's archdiocese

(Newser) - More bad news for the Catholic Church from Pope Benedict's native Germany, where monks and lay teachers stand accused of abusing students for decades at an elite Catholic boarding school near Munich. Allegations from more than 100 students that monks "brutally mistreated, sadistically tormented and, not least, sexually abused"...

Priest Calls for Pope to Resign, Applauded at Mass

Mass. Rev. James Scahill says Benedict lied, gets standing ovations

(Newser) - One Massachusetts priest says Pope Benedict is lying when he says the Vatican hasn’t covered up the sexual abuse of children. In four sermons over the weekend, Rev. James Scahill called on Benedict to resign over the scandal, the Longmeadow Republican reports. “There were standing ovations at two...

Ringo Underwhelmed by Vatican's Forgiveness

'The Vatican, they've got more to talk about than the Beatles'

(Newser) - The Vatican may have forgiven the Beatles for their lifestyles, supposedly satanic messages, and bigger-than-Jesus claims, but it's apparently not a moment Ringo Starr was holding his breath for. "Didn't the Vatican say we were satanic or possibly satanic—and they've still forgiven us?" the drummer told CNN during...

Vatican to Bishops: Report Sex Abuse to Cops

Guidelines the first to mandate clergy obey civil law

(Newser) - The Vatican today responded to allegations that it had concealed years of clerical sex abuse by mandating for the first time that bishops and other high-ranking clerics should report such crimes to police if required by law. "Where the civil state creates an obligation to report, bishops are required...

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