Catholic Church

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Benedict: Fire the Lawyers, Confess to the Cover-Up

Church must stop protecting itself and do the righteous thing

(Newser) - The Vatican hasn’t looked particularly holy in responding to its latest pedophilia scandal. “The church has acted almost entirely on the basis of this world’s imperatives and standards,” writes EJ Dionne Jr. of the Washington Post . It has worried about lawsuits, its image, and how to...

Future Pope Got Memo on Pedophile Priest

Church claimed deputy was responsible in German abuse case

(Newser) - Joseph Ratzinger, who now heads the Roman Catholic church as Pope Benedict XVI, was told in a 1980 memo that a pedophile priest would return to pastoral work in Germany—and, as archbishop of Munich, Ratzinger approved the decision that allowed the Rev. Peter Hullermann not only back into the...

Pope Knew of US Deaf Boys' Sex Abuse, Did Nothing

Priest linked to hundreds of cases never disciplined

(Newser) - Pope Benedict knew of the suspected abuse of hundreds of deaf Wisconsin boys by a renegade priest yet the Vatican office he headed as cardinal halted a process to remove the man from the priesthood. A local archbishop wrote a letter to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1996 pleading that Father...

Screw Bart and Benedict, Time for Nun-Sense
Screw Bart and Benedict, Time for Nun-Sense
Maureen Dowd
Mar 21, 2010 9:02 AM CDT

Screw Bart and Benedict, Time for Nun-Sense

Sisters want health reform, get only grief from good old boys

(Newser) - When he's penning his latest right-to-life language, Bart Stupak certainly doesn't "call up nuns" for advice—rather, he looks to bishops and anti-abortion groups. But the nuns have broken with the bishops to endorse health reform, and Maureen Dowd thinks she might have "to bang Bart’s head...

Pope Benedict's Enemies Are Twisting Facts
Pope Benedict's Enemies
Are Twisting Facts
OPINION
Mar 19, 2010 11:07 AM CDT

Pope Benedict's Enemies Are Twisting Facts

Pontiff didn't allow a pedophile to serve as a priest

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI is taking an unfair beating in the world press, writes Damian Thompson. Headlines to the contrary, the then-archbishop of Munich "did not allow a priest he knew to be a pedophile to continue in ministry." He did permit the priest to receive counseling, and that...

Priest, 82, Filmed Having Sex with Altar Boy

Sex scandals rocks Brazilian church

(Newser) - In the latest scandal to rock the Catholic church, a Brazilian priest has been removed from his post after a video of him having sex with a 19-year-old altar boy surfaced. Father Luiz Marques Barbosa, 82, was filmed with a hidden camera by a 21-year-old who alleges he was abused...

On Health Care, Nuns Are Right
 On Health Care, Nuns Are Right 
OPINION
Mar 18, 2010 1:34 PM CDT

On Health Care, Nuns Are Right

Bishops allow abortion bias to cloud judgment

(Newser) - Catholic bishops used to be some of the biggest supporters of universal health care—now, thanks to controversial abortion provisions, those same bishops could play “a major role in its demise”…that is, unless the nuns have their way. The bishops are upset that the Nelson-Casey anti-abortion amendments...

Cardinal: Maybe Celibacy's Not Such a Great Idea

Vatican 'needs to look into source of sex scandals'

(Newser) - The Catholic church needs to take a long hard look at its celibacy policy in the wake of its seemingly endless sex scandals, an influential cardinal says. Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, the archbishop of Vienna, wrote in his archdiocese magazine last week that the Vatican should carry out an "unflinching...

Catholics Push Sainthood for First Black US Priest

Rev. Augustus Tolton led Chicago mission

(Newser) - Chicago’s Roman Catholic leader is making a case that the faith’s first known black priest in the US should be made a saint, with Cardinal Francis George today asking a commission to bring the Vatican evidence of the “heroic virtues” of the Rev. Augustus Tolton. Tolton, the...

Jon Stewart Slams the Vatican
 Jon Stewart Slams the Vatican 
Mar 17, 2010 7:53 AM CDT

Jon Stewart Slams the Vatican

Catholic Church quick to punish sinners ... just not priests

(Newser) - Jon Stewart ’s latest victim: the Catholic Church. Stewart is unhappy about a few things, among them: the cover-up of a gay sex ring, the pope’s protection of a pedophile priest, and the suspension of two Catholic school students for having lesbian parents. The church is swift,...

German Priest in Sex Abuse Case Suspended

Peter Hullermann convicted in 1986, but continued to serve

(Newser) - When Pope Benedict was Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, he transferred Peter Hullermann to a different diocese in Germany after the priest was accused of sexually molesting young boys. Six years later, in 1986, Hullermann was convicted of sexual abuse but received a suspended sentence and continued in the priesthood—and working...

As Abuse Scandal Nears Pope, Vatican Fires Back

But sex-abuse cases 'growing every day' in Germany

(Newser) - A day after high-level Catholic officials admitted that "serious mistakes" were made in handling a sex abuse case in the German diocese where Pope Benedict XVI was then archbishop, the Vatican came out swinging in defense of the embattled pontiff. Benedict, as the Vatican's cardinal in charge of sex-abuse...

Condom Machine in School Enrages Vatican

Italy's first, church says it 'trivializes sexuality'

(Newser) - Just a few miles from the Vatican, Italian teens can now buy condoms from vending machines in the bathrooms of their high school—and the Catholic Church is none too happy. In a rebuke to the church's position on birth control, the school yesterday became the first in all of...

Pope's Exorcist: Satan Is in the Vatican

Priest links sex scandals, cardinals, bishops to devil

(Newser) - Sex scandals in the Catholic Church are continuing proof that the devil has infiltrated the Vatican, the Holy See's chief exorcist has revealed. Satanic manipulations have triggered Vatican power struggles and resulted in "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon,"...

Pope's Brother: I Overlooked Choir Abuse

Georg Ratzinger also admits to slapping students in the face

(Newser) - Pope Benedict’s brother today revealed that he used to slap pupils in the face at the Catholic school in Germany whose prestigious choir he led, and that he’d ignored allegations of more serious physical abuses. “Pupils told me about what went on,” Georg Ratzinger said in...

Catholic School Kicks Out Kid With Lesbian Parents

Gay rights groups outraged by Colorado priest's decision

(Newser) - A Boulder, Colorado, pastor's decision to uninvite a lesbian couple’s preschooler from returning to his school next year has ignited a storm of controversy. “It is not about punishing the child for the sins of his or her parents,” the Rev. Bill Breslin said by way of...

Gay Marriage Arriving in Mexico City

Gay rights battle raging across Latin America

(Newser) - The same-sex Mexican wedding will be born tomorrow as a new law puts Mexico City on the front lines of the gay marriage battle raging across Latin America. But even as gay couples line up to tie the knot, the Catholic Church and President Felipe Calderon's conservative party are gearing...

Gays Denied Communion: Then Turn Away All Sinners

Wig-wearing activists storm out of Dutch church

(Newser) - Hundreds of Dutch gay rights activists dressed in pink wigs stormed out of Mass yesterday in protest of a local Catholic priest's refusal to give communion to a gay man. The dispute began last month when the man, crowned Carnival prince in a nearby town, was denied communion because he...

Smears Against Catholic Editor Linked to Vatican

Chief of Berlusconi paper says church figure provided fake dossier

(Newser) - The source of a bogus dossier that ousted the editor of a Catholic paper is now rumored to be the Vatican itself. Dino Boffo was forced to step down as editor of the Italian Bishops' Conference daily paper after a Bersluconi family paper printed a story labeling him a "...

Bishop's Holocaust Denial Boosts UK Church's Fame

Richard Williamson a headache for St. Pius Society

(Newser) - The London-based Society of St. Pius X has done its best to hide away Richard Williamson since his infamous pronouncement last year that no Jews were killed in Nazi gas chambers. “We have lost one of our four bishops,” laments the group's leader, Bernard Fellay. “We can't...

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