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Archive for the 'Catholic Church' Category

Pope Benedict Of Priest Who Abused Children: The Devil Made Them Do It

by Doug Mataconis @ Friday, June 11th, 2010. Filed under Catholic Church, Religion

While much of the world press is stressing the fact that Pope Benedict marked the end of the Church’s Year of the Priest begging for forgiveness for the Catholic Church’s role in priestly sex abuse, the Catholic media is going with a slightly different emphasis on the Pontiff’s remarks:
Since the Catholic sexual abuse crisis erupted [...]

Catholic Newspaper: Ban Kids With Gay Parents From Catholic School Because They Might Bring Porn To Class

by Doug Mataconis @ Thursday, June 10th, 2010. Filed under Catholic Church, Dumbasses, Individual Liberty, Religion

I wrote a few weeks ago about the case of an eight year-old boy in Massachusetts who was asked to leave a Catholic school in Massachusetts because his parents are lesbians.
This week, a columnist in the newspaper of the Boston Archdiocese tries to defend that position based on his own son’s experience of being in [...]

Massively Inappropriate Magazine Cover Of The Day

by Doug Mataconis @ Monday, June 7th, 2010. Filed under Catholic Church, Religion

First, this happens:
Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese has agreed to pay $17.6 million to settle 26 lawsuits over alleged abuse by clergy, mostly involving one priest and altar boys in the 1970s.
Bishop Salvatore Matano, who announced the settlement with lawyers for the plaintiffs, writes in a “letter to the faithful” that three other cases on appeal [...]

Arizona Nun Excommunicated For Authorizing Abortion To Save Life Of Mother

by Doug Mataconis @ Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010. Filed under Catholic Church, In The News, Religion

Sorry, but this is just insane:
PHOENIX (AP) — A nun and administrator at a Catholic hospital in Phoenix has been reassigned and rebuked by the local bishop for agreeing that a severely ill woman needed an abortion to survive.
Sister Margaret McBride was on an ethics committee that included doctors that consulted with a young woman [...]

Leading Member Of Congress Advocates Pursuing Policies “In Keeping With Values Of Jesus”

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, June 1st, 2010. Filed under Catholic Church, Congress, Nancy Pelosi, Politicos & Pundits, Politics, Religion

Except it’s not who you think it would be:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says she believes she must pursue public policies “in keeping with the values” of Jesus Christ, “The Word made Flesh.”
Pelosi, who is a Catholic and who favors legalized abortion, voted against the ban on partial-birth abortion that was enacted into law in [...]

Catholic Bishop: It’s Not Our Fault, Everyone’s A Pedophile

by Doug Mataconis @ Thursday, May 6th, 2010. Filed under Catholic Church, Dumbasses, Religion

Yet another bizarre statement from yet another Catholic bishop:
RIO DE JANEIRO – A Brazilian archbishop said adolescents are “spontaneously homosexual” and in need of guidance, while society at large is pedophile, according to a Wednesday report.
Archbishop Dadeus Grings — a conservative priest who has made controversial statements in the past — told the O Globo [...]

Lawsuit Filed Against Vatican, Pope Benedict Over Milwaukee Abuse Case

by Doug Mataconis @ Thursday, April 22nd, 2010. Filed under Catholic Church, Legal, Religion

A lawsuit has been filed in Federal District Court in Wisconsin against the Vatican, Pope Benedict, and several other Roman Catholic officials related to the abuse of over 200 deaf boys in Wisconsin during the 1960s:
MILWAUKEE (AP) — An Illinois man who says he was molested by a Wisconsin priest as a child filed a [...]

Vatican Finally Orders Bishops To Report Abuse To Police

by Doug Mataconis @ Monday, April 12th, 2010. Filed under Catholic Church, Religion

It took long enough, but this is actually a step in the right direction:
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican on Monday made clear for the first time that bishops and other church officials should report clerical sex abuse to police if required by law. But the policy failed to satisfy victims who charge that the [...]

Italian Bishop Blames Criticism Of Vatican Over Sex Abuse On “Jews”

by Doug Mataconis @ Monday, April 12th, 2010. Filed under Catholic Church, Dumbasses, Religion

Well, this certainly isn’t going to help things:
A furious transatlantic row has erupted over quotes that were attributed to a retired Italian bishop, which suggested that Jews were behind the current criticism of the Catholic church’s record on tackling clerical sex abuse.
A website quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed [...]

Pope Benedict Resisted Ousting Abusive Priest For “The Good Of The Church”

by Doug Mataconis @ Friday, April 9th, 2010. Filed under Catholic Church, Religion

A new obtained letter from 1985 seems to strike very close to the man who would become Pope Benedict XVI:
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a California priest with a record of sexually molesting children, citing concerns including ”the good of the universal church,” according to a 1985 [...]

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