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Catholic Church

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A rare look at how the Roman Catholic Church goes to great lengths to keep clergy members’ clandestine relationships hidden and the priests in active ministry.

Clergy members of many faiths have crossed the line with women and had children out of wedlock. But the problem is particularly fraught for the Catholic Church, as Catholics in many countries are increasingly questioning the celibacy requirement for priests.
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A pharmacist in western NSW, Australia has banned the sale of condoms, the contraceptive and morning-after pill because it is against his beliefs as a Catholic.

In a move that has angered health experts, Griffith pharmacist Trevor Dal Broi has refused to sell the oral contraceptive pill, the morning-after pill and condoms, referring customers to other chemists in the area.

“As a practising Catholic, it is my obligation to accept the official teaching of the Catholic Church against the use of artificial contraception,” he said.
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BBC Northern Ireland presenter William Crawley has a blog post about “Hardcore Profits, a BBC documentary about the pornography industry, has been looking into those organisations who have investments, directly or indirectly, with in the adult entertainment business.”

Crawley says following a change in ethical policy guidelines the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops in 2003, Christian Brothers Investment Services now have investments of tens of millions of dollars in companies that make sizeable profits from commercial pornography. The Bishops’ guidelines permit these investments because the new rules allow the church to do business with a company as long as income from pornography does not represent “a significant portion of its revenues”.
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British film-maker Roland Joffe is to recreate the life and miracles of Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer, the Spanish priest who founded Opus Dei, one of the most influential and secretive organisations within the Catholic Church.

The film seems set to stir up more controversy, following in the wake of several screen hits tapping into public fascination with tales of Opus-inspired crimes and conspiracies, which have set Vatican chasubles aflap.
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The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse has spent nine years looking into allegations from thousands of former pupils of state schools and orphanages, some which date back more than 60 years.

It is due to report on Wednesday while a second report looking into how sex abuse complaints were handled by the Catholic Church will be published by the commission in the summer.

It is thought some 500 priests have been implicated in the abuse allegations.
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Amid protests against reported church destructions, the city of Hanoi has ordered one of its districts to stop construction work on land claimed by the Catholic church.

The move was seen as a surprise turnaround by Communist authorities who since March demolished at least one historic church building in the Central Highlands, Christians said.

Government work crews reportedly destroyed a Protestant church building of Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South), or ECVN(S), in the area of Banmethuot om March 11.
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Pope Benedict XVI has ordered a probe into the ultra-conservative Legionaries of Christ after allegations that the order’s late founder Marcial Maciel secretly fathered a child.

The leadership recently admitted that Maciel, a cult figure among Legionaries, led a “double life” after the discovery of his liaison with the mother of his daughter.
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• Medical journal The Lancet has launched a stinging attack on the Pope for his opposition to the use of condoms.

• Two priests are jailed for stealing more than more than $8 million.

• The Pope vs. Witchcraft: Is One Man’s Faith Another’s Superstition?
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The Vatican said Friday it is not satisfied by the apology issued by a Catholic bishop who denied the Holocaust, saying the cleric must still clearly “distance himself” from the controversial comments.

Bishop Richard Williamson, who is now in England, issued a statement Thursday saying he regretted making the remarks. But he did not retract them or say he had changed his mind about the Holocaust.
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A bishop whose recent rehabilitation by Pope Benedict XVI provoked global outrage has apologized for remarks in which he denied the Holocaust, a Catholic news agency reported on Thursday.

Some outside observers were not convinced by Bishop Williamson’s statement. “He does everything except confront the central issue of this whole crisis,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. “Has he changed his mind about the Holocaust, and does he believe that the Holocaust is a historic fact?”
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A country in which many Nazi criminals sought refuge has expelled a Roman Catholic bishop who denies the scale of the Holocaust.

The Argentine government last week gave the bishop 10 days to leave the country or be expelled.

The government cited irregularities in his immigration application and condemned his remarks as ‘deeply offensive to Argentine society, the Jewish people and humanity.’
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A former nun’s tell-all story which details illicit relationships, sexual harassment and bullying in the convent where she spent three decades is causing ructions in the Catholic Church in the south Indian state of Kerala.

In Amen – an autobiography of a nun, Sister Jesme says when she became a nun she discovered priests were forcing novices to have sex with them.
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The Vatican demanded Wednesday that a bishop who denied the Holocaust recant his positions before being fully admitted into the Roman Catholic Church.

The Vatican also said in a statement that Pope Benedict XVI didn’t know about Bishop Richard Williamson’s views when he agreed to lift his excommunication and that of three other ultraconservative bishops Jan. 21.
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The Legionaries of Christ, an influential Roman Catholic religious order, have been shaken by new revelations that their founder, who died a year ago, had an affair with a woman and fathered a daughter just as he and his thriving conservative order were winning the acclaim of Pope John Paul II.

Jim Fair, a spokesman for the Legionaries, said only: “We have learned some things about our founder’s life that are surprising and difficult for us to understand. We can confirm that there are some aspects of his life that were not appropriate for a Catholic priest.”
» Full Story

A Vatican cardinal has said that the decision to rehabilitate an ultra-conservative bishop who denies that any Jews were killed in the Holocaust was “badly mishandled”, amid an escalating internal row over the decision.

The remarks by Cardinal Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, follow dismay expressed by German bishops over a “loss of faith in the Pope” because of the row over the lifting of Bishop Williamson and three other ultra-traditionalists.
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The U.S. attorney in Los Angeles has launched a federal grand jury investigation into Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in connection with his response to the alleged molestation of children by priests in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, according to two law enforcement sources familiar with the case.

One federal law enforcement source said such a prosecution could be brought under a federal statute that makes it illegal to “scheme . . . to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.”
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One of two priests — who authorities say for years stole cash from their Florida church’s offering plate and hid it in the church ceiling and offshore bank accounts to pay for lavish lifestyles — has pleaded guilty

Prosecutors say the priests plucked cash from the offering plate and spent it on upscale homes, gambling trips to Las Vegas with a mistress, even a $275,000 rare coin collection.
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The ongoing row between the Catholic Church and the Spanish Government has erupted again after a judge banned the crucifix from a primary school.

The ruling came after parents won a three-year legal battle with the local authorities over a crucifix in Macias Picavea school in Valladolid, northern Spain.
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Catholics who claim they have seen the Virgin Mary will be forced to remain silent about the apparitions until a team of psychologists, theologians, priests and exorcists have fully investigated their claims under new Vatican guidelines aimed at stamping out false claims of miracles.

The Pope has instructed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly the Holy Office of the Inquisition, to draw up a new handbook to help bishops snuff out an explosion of bogus heavenly apparitions.
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The Vatican’s daily newspaper marked the 40th anniversary of the “The White Album” by dismissing as a “quip” John Lennon’s notorious claim that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ.

At the time, the comment by Lennon to a London newspaper in 1966 infuriated Christians, particularly in the United States, some of whom burned Beatles’ albums in huge pyres. [video]
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Muslim and Vatican officials are holding historic talks in Rome to establish a better inter-faith dialogue and defuse any future tensions.

Catholic-Muslim ties soured after Pope Benedict XVI’s speech in 2006, in which he linked Muslims with past violence.

The speech provoked Muslim outrage and triggered violent protests.
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The Roman Catholic Church has told a disputed visionary to stop disseminating within the Archdiocese of Baltimore messages she purportedly receives from the Virgin Mary.

Archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine said O’Brien’s letter was prompted by confusion and anxiety among the faithful stemming from the heightened apocalyptic language in a recent ‘vision’ by Gianna Sullivan.
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Modern culture is so devoid of faith that some people are declaring God “dead” and entire nations are losing their identity, Pope Benedict XVI warned yesterday.

His comments, made during a Mass at the start of a month-long synod of Roman Catholic bishops from around the world, come amid growing concern about the decline in church attendance and interest in religion in many Western nations.
» Full Story

Downing Street has drawn up plans to end the 300-year-old exclusion of Catholics from the throne.

The requirement that the succession automatically pass to a male would also be reformed, making it possible for a first born daughter of Prince William to become his heir.
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The Archdiocese of Cincinnati’s new Decree on Child Protection includes the most detailed rules yet for how priests, employees and volunteers should interact with children.

The latest version of the decree, which is updated every five years, lists for the first time examples of physical contact that would be appropriate or inappropriate under church rules.
» Full Story

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Most Read about Catholic Church

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1. Nuns accused of torture, sex assaults
2. Pope to end doctrine of Limbo
3. Too "sexy" to teach religion Italy academic told
4. City of God: Catholic Town Opens in Florida
5. Exorcisms become big business in Arizona
6. Image of La Virgin de Guadalupe has brought man closer to God
7. Pope to abandon idea unbaptised babies suspended forever in limbo
8. Catholic yoga: A Hail Mary with your Halasana
9. Catholic Church buries limbo after centuries
10. Another kind of Catholic: Breakaway groups reject Vatican teachings on issues such as priestly celibacy and divorce

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