Vatican

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Feds May Indict LA Cardinal on Coverup Charges

Roger Mahony's role in sex abuse cases under scrutiny

(Newser) - Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles may become the first US Catholic leader indicted over the church's pedophile priest scandal, reports Philip Shenon in the Daily Beast . The Justice Department is considering charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury against Mahony, 74.

Special Hell Awaits Abusive Priests: Vatican Official

'Throw them into the sea,' exhorts 'morality' boss

(Newser) - A Vatican official has warned pedophile priests that a special hell awaits them in the afterlife. "It would be better that the evil deeds" cause an abuser death in secular dress" as a layperson than suffer "more terrible damnation" in hell as a priest, Monsignor Charles Scicluna told...

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...

White House Supports Vatican Immunity

Solicitor general backs Vatican in abuse suit

(Newser) - The Vatican should not be held liable in civil lawsuits over clergy abuse cases because it's a sovereign nation, according to Obama administration lawyers. The acting solicitor general has urged the Supreme Court to set aside a ruling from an appellate court allowing an Oregon man claiming abuse by a...

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 Clamps Down on Abusive Order
Pope Clamps Down on Abusive Order
May 1, 2010 4:49 PM CDT

Pope Clamps Down on Abusive Order

Founder had been a favorite of John Paul II

(Newser) - Pope Benedict today took steps to rein in a controversial order of the Catholic Church that allowed sexual abuse to go on within its ranks for decades. The Vatican will assume control of the Legionaries of Christ, whose late founder, Marcial Maciel Degollado, was found to be a serial abuser....

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 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...

Vatican on Gay Uproar: 'Cardinal's No Expert'

But comments are 'backed by studies,' officials say

(Newser) - Vatican officials moved clumsily to quell the uproar over a top cardinal's comments blaming homosexuality for the church's sex abuse scandals—by acknowledging that he probably didn't know what he was talking about. Church officials "do not consider it their competence to make general statements on matters that are...

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"...

Vatican: Blame Homosexuality, Not Celibacy for Abuse

Gay rights groups slam Bertone's remarks on church sex scandals

(Newser) - The Pope's second-in-command did little to calm the furor surrounding the Vatican sex-abuse scandals yesterday by insisting that homosexuality, not celibacy, is to blame for priests attacking children. Vatican secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone told reporters in Chile—where, AP notes, the highest-profile church scandals have involved priests abusing young...

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...

Bishops Fight Sex Abuse Bill
 Bishops Fight Sex Abuse Bill 
Apr 12, 2010 2:52 AM CDT

Bishops Fight Sex Abuse Bill

Conn. legislation 'undermines church mission'

(Newser) - Connecticut bishops are using church pulpits to battle a Connecticut bill to remove the statute of limitations on child sex abuse. The state's three Roman Catholic bishops issued a weekend letter to be discussed at mass yesterday, saying the bill "would put all church institutions, including your parish, at...

Vatican Finally Forgives Beatles

Once mop-top Satanists, now 'precious jewels'

(Newser) - As the Vatican battles a storm of controversy over new child sex charges, officials have decided to take a moment to forgive ... the Beatles. In a stunning about-face the church has dubbed the Fab Four as "precious jewels" in a front-page article in the Vatican's newspaper, the Telegraph reports....

Atheist Academic Wants to Arrest the Pope

Human rights lawyers hope to prove 'crimes against humanity'

(Newser) - A prominent atheist campaigner is working on a plan to have the pope arrested when he visits the UK in September. British academic Richard Dawkins tells the Times of London he's enlisted human rights lawyers to help prove a case of "crimes against humanity." If his plan works,...

Benedict Stonewalled on Defrocking Pedophile Priest

AP digs up 25-year-old letter that refutes pope's story

(Newser) - The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a US priest with a record of sexually molesting children, citing concerns including "the good of the universal church," according to a 1985 letter bearing his signature. The correspondence, obtained by the AP, is the strongest challenge yet to...

Hey Benedict, Maybe You'll Listen to a Man

'Times' scribe turns column over to brother

(Newser) - Maureen Dowd suspends her blitzkrieg on Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church today and—because the all-boys network apparently is unable "to take a woman’s voice seriously"—turns her column over to her conservative, creche-collecting, "Vatican-II-made-me-wince" brother, Kevin. But a Dowd is a Dowd, and the...

Nixon-esque Pope Must Convert
 Nixon-esque Pope Must Convert 
Timothy Shriver
Apr 5, 2010 12:15 PM CDT

Nixon-esque Pope Must Convert

The Catholic Church is embroiled in its version of Watergate

(Newser) - The Catholic Church’s current scandal bears an uncanny resemblance to Watergate. What at first looks like an isolated crime has slowly escalated, ultimately revealing corruption at the highest levels of authority. The pope isn’t going to resign—the church isn’t a democracy, and it needn’t bow...

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