Catholic Church

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Chavez Cronies Hit Vatican HQ With Tear Gas

Supporters also attack opponents of lifting term limits for leader

(Newser) - Supporters of Hugo Chavez have claimed responsibility for a tear gas attack on the Vatican's headquarters in Caracas, reports CNN. Three canisters landed deep inside the building, which has been sheltering an anti-Chavez student leader wanted by police since June. Several people were overcome by fumes. Gas attacks elsewhere in...

Pope Calls for Peace in Christmas Speech

Middle East, Africa conflicts must be resolved: Benedict

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI passionately called for peace in the Holy Land during his annual Christmas message, delivered from the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica. “The horizon seems once again bleak for Israelis and Palestinians,” he said, praying for hope against war, terrorism, and injustice. He also appealed...

Critics Rip Pope's 'Homophobic' Speech

Pontiff's call for defense of gender roles seen as stoking homophobia

(Newser) - Gay and Christian groups have slammed Pope Benedict XVI's remarks that defending the “natural order” of man and woman is as important as protecting the rainforests, the Times of London reports. British Catholic leaders have countered that the pontiff didn’t explicitly mention homosexuality in his annual Christmas speech,...

Pope: Save Rainforest —and Heterosexuality, Too

Benedict's Christmas message decries erosion of 'traditional' gender roles

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI used a Christmas address today to call for a defense of heterosexuality, which he suggested was as endangered as the rainforest.  He called homosexuality and deviance from gender norms "a destruction of God's work." The pontiff said "the tropical forests do deserve our...

'Vati-Con' Agrees to Pay $3.6M
 'Vati-Con' Agrees to Pay $3.6M 
Dec 16, 2008 4:23 PM CST

'Vati-Con' Agrees to Pay $3.6M

Ann Hathaway's ex says he wants to repay fraud victims, but may be too broke

(Newser) - Raffaello Follieri, the jailed ex-boyfriend of actress Anne Hathaway who used alleged connections to the pope to scam investors, has agreed to return $3.6 million to victims, including two priests and celeb-billionaire Ron Burkle. It’s a small chunk of the $13 million the “Vati-Con” is accused of...

Vatican Condemns Cloning, Morning-After Pill

Get out of here with your fancy science, church says

(Newser) - Embryos deserve “the dignity proper to a person,” the Vatican declared today in an uncompromising doctrinal declaration on reproductive science, its first in more than 20-years. The long-awaited document condemns everything from embryonic stem-cell research to human cloning to the morning-after pill, which falls “within the sin...

Head of Russian Orthodox Church Dead
Head of Russian Orthodox Church Dead
OBITUARY
Dec 5, 2008 12:24 PM CST

Head of Russian Orthodox Church Dead

Patriarch Alexiy unified denomination, was suspected of KGB ties

(Newser) - The iconic leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, who healed an 80-year rift in the church and restored its prominence in Russian society, died today, the Times of London reports. No official cause of death was given for Patriarch Alexiy, but the Kremlin’s first post-Soviet Orthodox leader had been...

John, You Are Forgiven—and You Could Sing

Vatican pardons Lennon for infamous Jesus comment

(Newser) - The Vatican forgave John Lennon today for saying the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, Reuters reports. Calling the 1966 remark "a boast,” the Vatican's newspaper said it was made "by a young working-class Englishman faced with unexpected success." The paper also praised the...

Maria Shriver: Why I'm a 'Cafeteria Catholic'

'Good standing' Catholic opposes church positions on gays, divorce and choice

(Newser) - California First Lady Maria Shriver likes the "compassion and justice of Jesus Christ" advanced by her Catholic religion, but can't abide the church's positions on gays, divorce and a woman's right to choose whether or not to have an abortion, she reveals in a Washington Post interview. "I'm...

Priest: No Communion for Obama Voters

Catholic authorities repudiate priest who told Obama supporters to do penance

(Newser) - South Carolina's Catholic authorities have overruled a priest who told Obama voters they weren't fit to partake in Holy Communion, the Greenville News reports. The priest wrote in a church bulletin that voting for a pro-choice candidate constituted "cooperation with intrinsic evil" and urged Obama voters to do penance...

Bishops to Press Obama on Abortion Ban

Catholic leaders re-energize abortion opposition at annual meet

(Newser) - America's Roman Catholic bishops appear to be on a collision course with the Obama administration over abortion, the Chicago Tribune reports. At the bishops’ annual meeting yesterday in Baltimore the group began drafting a statement that will call on the president-elect to outlaw the procedure. The bishops also threatened to...

Vatican Will Root Out Gay Priests With Sex Tests

New guidelines keep gays from priesthood

(Newser) - The Catholic Church plans to screen gay men out of the priesthood with psychological tests aimed to detect "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" in seminary candidates, the Scotsman reports. Under the new guidelines, issued yesterday by the Vatican, potential priests will also be screened for "grave immaturity" and “imbalances”...

French Muslims Find Freedom in Catholic Schools

Students get better education, and allowed to wear headscarf

(Newser) - France has Western Europe's largest Muslim population, but its strict separation of church and state means that Muslim girls are forbidden from wearing the headscarves in public schools. In response, many Muslims have turned to an unlikely solution: the nation's large network of Catholic schools. "There is respect for...

Archbishop Blasts Plan to Sterilize Poor

Lawmaker's proposal 'an egregious affront, blatantly antilife'

(Newser) - The Archbishop of New Orleans slammed a Louisiana lawmaker yesterday for a plan to sterilize the poor, the Times-Picayune reports. Archbishop Alfred Hughes called it "an egregious affront to those targeted and blatantly anti-life." State Rep. John Labruzzo floated the idea this week to fight poverty by paying...

Dems Again Losing Catholics Over Abortion

Biden doing little good for Obama in Pa., other swing states

(Newser) - Though progressive Catholics have worked hard to convince churchgoers that the Democrats share the church's views on the Iraq war, immigration, and health care, abortion is again turning Catholic voters away from the party, the New York Times reports. As conservative bishops have scolded Catholics like Nancy Pelosi and Joe...

Vatican Gets Back in the Art Biz

Project aims to revive church's role as a sponsor of the arts

(Newser) - The Vatican was the world's biggest buyer of modern art in the days when modern art meant Michelangelo, but its influence on art has ebbed in recent centuries. The church now plans to put itself back in the forefront of the art world, Newsweek reports. A commission of critics and...

Hathaway's Ex Considers Copping Plea

High-living Follieri weighs deal with feds on fraud charges

(Newser) - Italian entrepreneur Raffaello Follieri may plead guilty as soon as today to fraud and money-laundering, the Wall Street Journal reports. Anne Hathaway's ex could still opt for a trial. He faces federal charges that carry a sentence of up to 5 years, even with the plea deal, but the government's...

Kennedy Scion's Book Probes Catholic Tension

Attempts to reconcile faith's teachings with modern life baffle many

(Newser) - Kerry Kennedy—the seventh of Bobby's 11 children—is taking on everything from clergy abuse to hierarchy in the Catholic Church in a book out tomorrow, the Boston Globe reports. In Being Catholic Now, the churchgoing 49-year-old interviews prominent Catholics like Nancy Pelosi, Bill O'Reilly and Martin Sheen about common...

Vatican Debates Paying Tribute to Galileo

Heretic remains a touchy subject in Catholic Church

(Newser) - Galileo Galilei is riling the Catholic church yet again, the Wall Street Journal reports, as an anonymous donor has offered to pay to erect a statue in the Vatican of Catholicism’s most famous heretic. But though the church has come around on science, Galileo remains a touchy subject. He’...

Pressured Priest: We'll Have Nun of Catwalks

'Miss Sister' beauty contest canceled

(Newser) - An Italian priest's plans for a nun beauty pageant have been nixed by his higher-ups, the BBC reports. Father Antonio Rungi, who said the idea was to highlight the inner beauty of nuns and smash stereotypes of the sisters as old and dour, decided to draw a veil over the...

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