Pastors Misbehaving

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October 2007
- Priest Gets Life for 'Dirty War' Crimes
  
  BBC | Oct 10, 07 9:03 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A former Roman Catholic priest who delivered dozens of Argentines to the former military junta was sentenced to life in prison yesterday. Christian von Wernich, 69, passed his parishioners’ confessions to police during the so-called "Dirty War," leading to 7 murders, 42 abductions and 31 cases of torture, according to the BBC. Survivors say he watched torture sessions, absolving police of blame. More »
- Laity, Clergy Asked to Defray Sex Abuse Costs
  
  Los Angeles Times | Oct 8, 07 12:00 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The San Diego Diocese is turning over every stone to pay its $198.1 million settlement to sexual abuse victims, asking both priests and parishioners to chip in. Clerics are apparently willing—many will donate a month’s salary—but parishioner responses are far less positive, the LA Times reports. One says: "The Vatican can sell a painting or two." More »
September 2007
- Catholic Leader: Condoms in Africa Carry HIV
  
  BBC | Sep 27, 07 12:19 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Catholic opposition to condom use as an AIDS preventive in Africa took a bizarre turn yesterday when a respected archbishop in Mozambique charged that condoms imported from Europe had been deliberately infected with HIV. Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio made his comments at an Independence Day celebration and reiterated them to the BBC. More »
- 6 Ark. Nuns Excommunicated
  
  Associated Press | Sep 27, 07 11:32 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Six Arkansas nuns have been booted from the Catholic Church for refusing to renounce the Army of Mary, a sect the Vatican deems heretical for its founder’s claim to be the reincarnation of the virgin. “We know we are doing the right thing,” said an 82-year-old nun. “We pray that the church will open their eyes before it is too late.” More »
- German Cardinal Uses Nazi Term to Describe Art
  
  BBC | Sep 15, 07 4:21 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Germans are in an uproar after an archbishop labeled some modern art “degenerate,” the same word Nazis used to persecute artists. A spokesman for Cardinal Joachim Meisner said the archbishop didn’t intend to acknowledge “old ideologies,” but the BBC says the term was precisely scripted because it has only one connotation in Germany, where the Nazi legacy is still taboo. More »
- Polygamist Boss Ordered Girl to 'Surrender' to Husband
  
  Associated Press | Sep 14, 07 4:05 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Polygamist Warren Jeffs was accused yesterday of ordering a 14-year-old girl to surrender to her older cousin in an arranged marriage. That amounts to rape as an accomplice, prosecutors charged in the first day of Jeffs' trial. Church members consider their leader “God on Earth" who could only be disobeyed at peril of their souls, testified the young woman, now 21. More »
- Taliban Told Hostages to Convert or Die
  
  BBC | Sep 12, 07 5:46 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - South Korean aid workers held captive by Taliban militants in Afghanistan recounted being urged at gunpoint to convert to Islam during at a news conference in Seoul today, the BBC reports. They were often beaten and forced to work "like slaves" during a six-week ordeal, which ended last month and left two of the 23 hostages dead. More »
- Mugabe Critic Quits Over Sex Scandal
  
  Los Angeles Times | Sep 12, 07 3:18 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - An archbishop and prominent critic of Robert Mugabe's regime has resigned his Catholic Church leadership position after being accused of having an affair with a married woman. Pius Ncube remains a bishop, and his supporters say they see the authoritarian Zimbabwean regime behind the scandal, which Ncube calls "a state-driven, vicious attack," the LA Times reports. More »
- Osama Urges US to Convert
  
  Associated Press | Sep 7, 07 4:27 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The first video of Osama Bin Laden in 3 years appears authentic, and he issues "no overt threat" but does call the US unjust, chides Americans for re-electing George Bush, and says the war in Iraq can only end with American defeat—or Americans converting to Islam, which he invites them to do. The video was leaked to the US government and has not yet gone public, the AP reports. More »
- Nuns' Home Will Fund Priest Sex Abuse Payment
  
  Los Angeles Times | Sep 7, 07 10:32 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The LA Archdiocese has notified three nuns that their Santa Barbara convent will be sold to help pay the $660 million settlement with victims of sexual abuse by priests. They received only a letter requesting they vacate by year's end, the Los Angeles Times reports. “We're not even worth a phone call,” said the 69-year-old superior. More »
- 100 Years of Anti-Modernism
  
  New York Times | Sep 2, 07 1:41 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Pope Pius X's encyclical "Pascendi Dominici Gregis" turns 100 years old next week. The document decried so-called "modernists" in the Church who looked to new discoveries and theories about human experience and desire to explain religious belief. The ensuing purge of Catholic thinkers did not relent until Paul VI ended the mandated "Anti-Modernist Oath" in 1967. More »
July 2007
- Tammy Faye Messner Dies at 65
  
  CNN | Jul 22, 07 7:48 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Televangelist and Christian entertainer Tammy Faye Messner died Friday morning, CNN reports. She had struggled with drug addiction throughout her life and finally died of cancer. Messner had recently been a guest on Larry King Live, appearing precariously ill, claiming she could no longer swallow food and weighed only 65 pounds. More »
- Church Sex Abuse: Should the Pope Pay?
  
  Time | Jul 19, 07 1:59 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Two court cases involving abusive priests in Oregon and Kentucky have raised the possibility that the Vatican may be forced to pay damages to victims and allow its top officials to testify at US trials. Until now, the Holy See has been considered outside US jurisdiction, but lawyers argue that abusive priests should be seen as employees of the Vatican, Time reports. More »
- LA Cardinal Apologizes to Abuse Victims
  
  Los Angeles Times | Jul 16, 07 4:51 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Cardinal Roger Mahony publicly apologized yesterday to the 508 plaintiffs in a sexual-abuse lawsuit the archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to settle for a record $660 million. Mahony, who met privately with many of the victims abused by clergy, said he wished their lives were like a videotape—"we could put the tape in and delete these years of difficulty and misery." More »
- Pope Pounds Protestants
  
  Reuters | Jul 11, 07 5:32 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - In a remarkable nod to the 16th century, Pope Benedict XVI’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which he once led, said of Protestant denominations, 'it is nevertheless difficult to see how the title of 'Church' could possibly be attributed to them." The document restates Benedict's position set forth in 2000 when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger. More »
May 2007
- THE GOD SQUAD ; Preacher power - Andrew Gumbel examines the saints and sinners of the religious right
  
  Independent (UK) | May 17, 07
  
  Jimm & Tammy Bakker. Jim admitted he had slept with a former Playboy model, Jessica Hahn, and then tried to cover it up with a cheque for $265,000. Tammy, meanwhile, confessed she was addicted to prescription drugs. In the wake of those scandals, stories emerged of their lavish lifestyle, right down to a gold-plated dog kennel. Jerry Falwell bought their station and pushed them off air, calling Jim Bakker "the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of Church history". Jim ended up in prison for fraud, Tammy got cancer and, on the rebound, got divorced and married...