Tag Archives: Catholic Church

From San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone: In our bishops region’s audience with Pope Francis last January during our ad limina visit (the visit diocesan bishops make every five years to the Vatican), the topic of civil unions came up in conversation. The Holy Father clearly differentiated between a civil arrangement which accords mutual benefits to two people, and marriage. The …

The Catholic News Agency reports: In a documentary that premiered Wednesday in Rome, Pope Francis called for the passage of civil union laws for same-sex couples, departing from the position of the Vatican’s doctrinal office and the pope’s predecessors on the issue. “Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a …

ABC News reports: The archbishop of San Francisco performed a short exorcism ceremony Saturday outside a Catholic church where protesters had earlier toppled a statue of Father Junipero Serra, saying the ceremony was intended to drive out evil and defend the image of Serra. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone performed the ritual before some 150 supporters before holding a special Mass inside …

The Associated Press reports: The Vatican says someone who lives in the same Vatican hotel as Pope Francis has tested positive for coronavirus, adding to the 11 cases of COVID-19 among the Swiss Guards who protect him. The Vatican said Saturday that the resident of the Domus Sanctae Marthae has moved out temporarily and is in isolation, as are all …

ABC News reports: For the first time, a clergy sex abuse trial opened Wednesday in the Vatican’s criminal tribunal, with one priest accused of molesting an altar boy in the Vatican’s youth seminary and another priest accused of covering it up. The case concerns the closed world of the St. Pius X youth seminary, a palazzo inside the Vatican walls …

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: Reacting to the latest scandal in the local Catholic Church, an outraged New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond said Friday that he had burned the altar where a Pearl River priest was accused of taping himself engaged in group sex with two dominatrices. In a video message posted on the archdiocese’s website, Aymond called the Rev. …

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: The lights inside Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in Pearl River were on later than usual on Sept. 30, so a passerby stopped to take a closer look. Peering inside, the onlooker saw the small parish’s pastor half-naked having sex with two women on the altar, according to court documents. The women were …

The Associated Press reports: A Roman Catholic diocese in New York City’s suburbs has become the largest in the U.S. to declare bankruptcy to protect itself from a wave of lawsuits filed over past sexual abuse by clergy members. The Diocese of Rockville Centre filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday. It is the eighth largest diocese or archdiocese …

The Jesuit magazine America reports: Pope Francis told a group of parents of L.G.B.T. children yesterday that “God loves your children as they are” and “the church loves your children as they are because they are children of God.” He did so in a brief encounter with some 40 Italian parents (both mothers and fathers) of L.G.B.T. children after the …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis is giving his blessing to a new Vatican think tank that is seeking to prevent the Mafia and organized crime groups from exploiting the image of the Virgin Mary for their own illicit ends. The Vatican’s Pontifical Marian Academy launched the think tank Friday at a conference titled “Liberating Mary from the Mafia.” It …

NBC News reports: The Trump administration is siding with religious leaders who ordered a Catholic school in Indiana to fire a teacher in a same-sex marriage, saying the church’s actions are protected by the First Amendment. In a 35-page amicus brief filed on Tuesday, the Department of Justice argued that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis — which fired gay …

Reuters reports: An American bishop-elect has resigned just weeks before he was due to start the job, following an allegation that he had sexually abused a minor, Catholic Church officials said on Monday. Father Michel Mulloy, 66, was appointed by Pope Francis on June 19 to be bishop of Duluth, Minnesota and was due to be formally installed in a …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis said Sunday that gossiping is a “plague worse than COVID” that is seeking to divide the Catholic Church. Francis strayed from his prepared text to double down on his frequent complaint about gossiping within church communities and even within the Vatican bureaucracy. Francis went on at some length to say the devil is the …

Toledo’s ABC News affiliate reports: The pastor of a Catholic church in Findlay was arrested and is being federally charged with numerous crimes related to sexual conduct with minors. Michael Zacharias, 53, is charged with coercion and enticement, sex trafficking of a minor, and sex trafficking of an adult by force, fraud, or coercion. Investigators are aware Zacharias has engaged …

Washington DC’s Fox affiliate reports: A DC Catholic church is closed until further notice after a pastor contracted COVID-19, forcing staff and congregation members into quarantine. The Holy Comforter Saint Cyprian Catholic Church is in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. DC Health said parishioners who took communion should self-quarantine. The pastor who is sick, Monsignor Charles Pope, has criticized COVID-19 restrictions, …

The New York Daily News reports: The pastor of a Queens church was accused Wednesday of vile sexts with a 15-year-old boy in Westchester. St. Pancras Church Pastor Francis Hughes, 65, swapped nauseating messages with the boy about masturbation and other unholy topics. Hughes lied and told the teen he was a part-time college professor and counselor, prosecutors said. The …

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: The doors were locked. Rows of pews were taped off. The guests were arriving, as instructed, through a back door from an underground parking garage that led to the church interior. Then a city official crashed the wedding, which took place in early July in SS Peter and Paul’s Church.  The pastor did not seem …

The New York Daily News reports: Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick ran a depraved sex ring of underage boys at a beach house on the Jersey Shore, a disturbing new lawsuit claims. The suit, filed by a man using the pseudonym Doe 14, claims that in 1982 and 1983, when he was as young as 14 years old, he and other …

The New York Daily News reports: A kinky Bronx priest with a reported taste for S&M turned up dead in the New Jersey home where he allegedly paid $1,000 an hour to cavort with a muscle-bound boyfriend, cops confirmed Friday. The body of Peter Miqueli, 57, was found Thursday inside his residence in Brick Township, N.J., according to local police. …

The Associated Press reports: The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups. The church’s haul may have reached — or even exceeded — …