Catholic Church

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Scandal Swirls as Pope Opens Holy Week

Vatican digs in, insists Benedict acted appropriately

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI has opened the church's solemn Holy Week amid increasing questions about his own handling of priest sex abuse cases. Benedict's procession entered St. Peter's Square today at the start of Palm Sunday Mass. The pontiff, in crimson and golden vestments, waved to the throngs of faithful waving...

Deaf Students Warned of Priest's Abuse for Decades

Victims' complaints ignored by nuns, priests, and police

(Newser) - The deaf students who were victims of sexual abuse at the hands of a priest in Wisconsin began reporting the abuse as long ago as the 1950s. They were ignored by everyone they told—nuns, other priests, archbishops, and police, reports the New York Times . No serious action was ever...

Priest on Sex Abuse: 'I Went Too Far'

German blames lack of supervision, 'proximity to pupils'

(Newser) - As a wave of sex abuse threatens to engulf Pope Benedict's papacy, a German priest "granted leave" a month ago takes the issue head on: "I know that I had some contact with pupils where I went too far, and which I do not approve of today."...

Pope Hasn't Begun to Apologize for Irish Abuse
 Pope Hasn't Begun to 
 Apologize for Irish Abuse 
SINEAD O'CONNOR
Mar 26, 2010 11:50 AM CDT

Pope Hasn't Begun to Apologize for Irish Abuse

Now do you understand why she ripped up that picture in 1992?

(Newser) - “Almost 18 years ago, I tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on an episode of Saturday Night Live,” Sinead O’Connor writes. She explains that she wasn't anti-religion but had a deep problem with how the church treated Irish Catholics. Then, “people did not...

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...

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