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NEWS ABOUT: Catholic Church

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Italy Battles to Save Crosses in Classroom

Europe says they violate freedom, Italy says they're culture

(Newser) - Italy is fighting a court ruling that bans crucifixes from classrooms. After a secular Italian woman sued to have crucifixes removed from her sons' classrooms, Italian courts said the cross belonged there as a symbol of Italy's culture and history. The European Court of Human Rights disagreed, ruling religious symbols... More »

Vatican Seeks to Win Back the West

New council to 're-evangelize' wealthy countries

(Newser) - Never had a Catholic missionary knocking on your door? That could soon change. Pope Benedict XVI, lamenting "the eclipse of a sense of God" in Europe and North America, has launched plans to "re-evangelize" the West, the Telegraph reports. The newly created Pontifical Council for New Evangelization will... More »

Court Refuses to Halt Sex Abuse Case Against Vatican

Supreme Court rejects Vatican bid for immunity

(Newser) - The US Supreme Court has rejected a Vatican appeal for immunity from prosecution in an Oregon sex abuse case. The lawsuit—filed by a man who charges that a priest abused him in the 60s—will now go to trial in the state, where a judge will decide if priests... More »

Pope Slams 'Deplorable' Church Sex Raids

Belgian police action 'unprecedented'

(Newser) - Raids by Belgian police investigating priest sex abuse are "deplorable," an angry Pope Benedict lashed out yesterday, adding to the chorus of Vatican criticism of the Belgian government. Police last week searched several Catholic Church buildings and seized nearly 500 files and a computer in Leuven, Belgium. Belgium... More »

Vatican Moves to Block Pope Grilling Under Oath

Lawyers argue abuse case has no link to Rome

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI should not be ordered to testify in a Kentucky sex abuse lawsuit, the Vatican's lawyers are arguing. The suit accuses the Vatican of covering up sex abuse, but Vatican lawyers argue that American bishops shouldn't be considered employees of Rome and that the Pope, as a head... More »

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. More »

Scientists Spot Secret in Michelangelo God

Sistine painting contains brain diagram

(Newser) - Michelangelo used the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to conceal a message the church would have found blasphemous, according to a pair of neuroanatomists. God's oddly lumpy neck in The Separation of Light from Darkness, a detail that has long puzzled art historians, is actually a completely accurate depiction of... More »

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... More »

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... More »

Pope: Gay Marriage 'Insidious, Dangerous'

Benedict puts abuse scandals on back burner

(Newser) - Pope Benedict seized an opportunity following a massive Mass in Portugal yesterday to slam abortion and gay marriage as among the "most insidious and dangerous challenges that today confront the common good." Some 500,000 people turned out to participate in the Mass at one of Catholicism's holiest... More »

Mass. Catholic School Boots Lesbians' Son

Parents 'going against' church teachings

(Newser) - A Massachusetts Catholic school has rescinded acceptance of an 8-year-old boy, saying his lesbian parents' relationship is in "discord" with the religion's teachings, according to the boy's mom. "I'm accustomed to discrimination as a gay woman," the mother said. "But I didn't expect it against my... More »

Pope: Church Must Face Abuse's 'Terrifying' Truth

Catholicism dogged by 'sin within'

(Newser) - The Catholic Church must finally face the "terrifying" truth of clerical sex abuse, says Pope Benedict in what Reuters notes are perhaps his most frank comments since the scandal broke two months ago. Catholicism's greatest threat, he told reporters aboard a flight to Lisbon, is no longer enemies from... More »

Archbishop: Society Is Pedophilic,Teens Gay

Priests following trend, says conservative Brazilian

(Newser) - All of society is pedophilic and all teens are "spontaneously" gay until "guidance" shows them a "suitable and human" sexual path, a Catholic archbishop declared yesterday. Priests have engaged in pedophilia because "society is pedophile, so people easily fall into it," Brazilian Archbishop Dadeus Grings... More »

Why I Honor the True Catholic Church

Brave priests and nuns sacrifice their lives for the poor

(Newser) - Nicholas Kristof didn't go to Sudan to pontificate about all that's wrong with the Catholic Church, and instead, unexpectedly, he ran into all that's right with it. Here, in the midst of grinding poverty, "are lowly nuns and priest—notable not for the grandeur of their vestments but for... More »

UK to Pope: Uh, Sorry About the Abortion Joke

Brit memo suggested pontiff should open clinic on visit

(Newser) - Pope Benedict is headed to the UK in the fall, and while there he's slated to ... open an abortion clinic? Unveil a line of papal-branded condoms? Let loose and sing a duet with the queen? This according to a cheeky memo circulated in Britain's Foreign Office, and obtained by the... More »

Wisconsin Sex Abuse Victim Sues Benedict

Claims then-cardinal knew of abuse, did not act

(Newser) - After years of the Vatican ignoring his claims of sexual abuse, an American man is suing the pope himself. The suit, filed in a US Federal Court, does not ask for money, but demands that the Vatican "come clean" by disclosing all files related to cases of child abuse.... More »

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... More »

Pope Vows 'Church Action' on Abuse

Benedict's first public comments on the scandal in a month

(AP) - Pope Benedict XVI promised today that the Catholic Church would confront the clerical sex-abuse scandal, making his first public comments on the crisis days after meeting with victims. During his weekly public audience, Benedict recounted his tearful weekend meeting in Malta with eight men who say they were abused as... More »

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,... More »

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... More »

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