Tag Archives: Catholic Church

DOJ: Archdiocese Ripped Off FEMA For Over $1 Million

The Christian Post reports: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans has agreed to pay more than $1 million as part of a settlement over allegations of falsified Hurricane Katrina aid claims. The settlement came in response to allegations that the archdiocese had violated the False Claims Act by knowingly submitting false claims to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) …

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Bishops To Debate Biden’s Eligibility For Communion

Reuters reports: U.S. Roman Catholic Bishops this week are expected to revisit whether President Joe Biden’s support for abortion rights should disqualify him from receiving communion, an issue that has deepened rifts in the church since the Democrat took office. At a Nov. 15-18 conference in Baltimore, the bishops are scheduled to vote on a document clarifying the meaning of …

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Catholic Priest Gets Life For Child Porn, Sex Trafficking

From the Department of Justice: Acting U.S. Attorney Bridget M. Brennan announced that Robert D. McWilliams, 41, of Strongsville, Ohio, was sentenced today by Judge Sara Lioi to life in prison. McWilliams, a Northeast Ohio-area Catholic Priest at the time of the offense conduct, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of sex trafficking of a minor, three counts of sexual …

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French Catholic Church To Compensate Abuse Victims

The Associated Press reports: France’s Catholic Church announced on Monday that it would financially compensate sex abuse victims by selling property assets or taking out a loan if needed. French bishops said in a written statement they will set up an “independent, national body” tasked with addressing compensation issues. They committed to allocating money to a specific fund “in order …

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Top US Catholic Rips Social Justice As “Pseudo Religion”

Religion News Service reports: Archbishop José H. Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, railed against “new social justice movements” during a speech Thursday (Nov. 4), decrying them as “pseudo-religions” that ultimately serve as “dangerous substitutes for true religion.” The prelate argued the United States, like Europe, has been subject to “aggressive secularization,” insisting “there has been a …

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Biden Receives Communion In Pope’s Archdiocese

The Associated Press reports: President Joe Biden received Communion at St. Patrick’s Church during Vigil Mass, a day after saying Pope Francis told him he should continue to partake in the sacrament, despite the opposition of some conservatives in the U.S. upset with his position on abortion. Biden and his wife, Jill, visited the church that is the main place …

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Biden: Pope Said I Can Continue To Get Communion

The New York Times reports: President Biden told reporters on Friday that Pope Francis had called him a “good Catholic” and said he should keep receiving communion, an unexpected development that appeared to put a papal finger on the scale in a debate raging in the United States’ Roman Catholic Church over whether the president and other Catholic politicians who …

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Pope Calls For “Radical Decisions” On Climate Change

The Guardian reports: Pope Francis has urged world leaders to take “radical decisions” at next week’s global environmental summit in a special message recorded for BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day. Leaders attending the Cop26 conference in Glasgow must offer “concrete hope to future generations”, the pontiff said. Francis is not attending the summit, despite earlier suggestions that he …

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Cardinal Renews Call To Deny Biden Communion

The Associated Press reports: Hours after arriving in Rome, President Joe Biden will meet with Pope Francis on Friday at the Vatican, where the world’s two most notable Roman Catholics plan to discuss the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and poverty. On the eve of Biden’s visit, a leading U.S. conservative cardinal and Francis critic, Cardinal Raymond Burke, penned an impassioned …

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Vatican Exorcism Leaders: Don’t Try To Exorcise COVID

The Daily Beast reports: The 15th annual exorcism conference, held in Rome this week after a one-year hiatus due to COVID, has turned up all sorts of new pandemic problems facing the world’s exorcists. Those in attendance at the five-day conference, hosted in a Vatican-owned pontifical university, shared stories about the increase in calls they’d received over the last year. …

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Archbishop Claims Vax Is Designed To “Contact-Trace” Humans With “Quantum Link Of Pulsed Frequencies”

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò writes to US bishops: The presence of graphene in the doses that have been administered, reported by numerous laboratories that have analyzed its content, suggests that the forced use of so-called vaccines – together with the systematic boycott of existing treatments of proven effectiveness – serves the purpose of contact-tracing all vaccinated human beings throughout the …

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Catholic Bishop Goes Full QAnon: The Storm Is Upon Us

Religion News Service reports: A conservative Catholic bishop in Texas praised a speech by actor Jim Caviezel this week, lauding remarks that included criticism of Pope Francis and were delivered at a conference connected to QAnon. Bishop Joseph Strickland, who heads the Diocese of Tyler and is known for his controversial brand of conservatism, tweeted out a link to a …

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Cops: Priest Plundered Estate Of Priest With Dementia

Omaha’s NBC News affiliate reports: An Omaha priest was arrested Friday morning accused of stealing from an incapacitated retired priest who had willed his estate to the Archdiocese of Omaha, saying he was giving the money to a homeless man. The Rev. Michael F. Gutgsell was arrested at 7:35 a.m. Friday and taken to Douglas County Jail. He appeared in …

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Pope Calls On Pharmas To Release COVID Vax Patents

Axios reports: Pope Francis called on pharmaceutical companies on Saturday to release patents to make COVID-19 vaccines more accessible to the poor. There is a stark divide between countries that have access to COVID-19 shots and those that don’t, and the gap has widened as some wealthier countries have begun distributing third doses. Just 2.2% of people in low-income countries, …

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US Military Archbishop: Catholic Troops Can Refuse Vax

From the military blog Defense One: Catholic U.S. troops should be allowed to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine based solely on conscientious objection and regardless of whether abortion-related tissue was used in its creation or testing, the archbishop for the military declared in a new statement supporting service members who are seeking religious exemptions. “No one should be forced to receive …

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French Government Orders Catholic Priests To Report All Child Sexual Abuse Claims, Even If Heard In Confession

The Guardian reports: Catholic priests must report all child sexual abuse allegations to police, including if they hear about it in the secrecy of the confession box, the French interior minister has said after reprimanding France’s top bishop for claiming that the secrecy of the Catholic confessional was “above the laws of the Republic”. France is reeling from the publication …

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Pope Expresses “Shame” After French Catholic Church Acknowledges 300,000+ Cases Of Child Sexual Abuse

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis expressed “shame” for himself and the Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday for the scale of child sexual abuse within the church in France and acknowledged failures in putting the needs of victims first. The pope spoke during his regular audience at the Vatican about a report released Tuesday that estimated some 330,000 French children …

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Priest Guilty Of Stealing Funds For Grindr Hookups

The New Jersey Advance reports: A former Roman Catholic pastor has admitted he stole $30,000 from his Pennsylvania parish, money he spent on a beach house on the New Jersey shore and men with whom he had sexual relationships. Monsignor Joseph McLoone, 58, pleaded guilty Thursday to misdemeanor theft charges and was sentenced to five years of probation, the first …

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Vatican Mandates COVID Vaccine For All Employees

Reuters reports: The Vatican City State said Tuesday that it would soon begin requiring all employees — including the highest members of the Catholic Church — to show proof of vaccination or of a recent negative coronavirus test. Those without the proper certificates, the Vatican said, will be considered “unjustly absent” — and will be paid no salary. Though the …

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Anti-Vax Anti-Gay Cardinal Has Long-Haul Symptoms

The Associated Press reports: A high-ranking Roman Catholic cardinal who was placed on a ventilator after contracting COVID-19 said he has moved into a house but is still struggling to recover from the disease. Cardinal Raymond Burke, 73, one of the church’s most outspoken conservatives and a vaccine skeptic, posted a letter on his website Saturday saying he left the …

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