Tag Archives: Catholic Church

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: A former Catholic priest who was arrested in 2020 after a passerby saw him and two dominatrices having sex on the altar of Pearl River church pleaded guilty Monday to a single count of felony obscenity. Travis Clark listened to 22nd Judicial District Judge Ellen Creel read the elements of the obscenity statute at the …

Via press release from US Catholic Bishops: On November 16, 2022, the United States Senate voted 62–37 to advance the Respect for Marriage Act. In response, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, issued the following statement: “It is deeply concerning that the U.S. Senate has voted to …

The Associated Press reports: An investigation by Maryland’s attorney general identified 158 Roman Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Baltimore who have been accused of sexually and physically abusing more than 600 victims over the past 80 years, according to court records filed Thursday. Attorney General Brian Frosh announced that his office has completed a 463-page report on the investigation, …

The BBC reports: Pope Francis has warned priests and nuns about the dangers of watching pornography online, saying it “weakens the priestly heart”. Pornography, he said, was “a vice that so many people have… even priests and nuns”. “The devil enters from there,” the Pope told priests and seminarians. “The pure heart, the one that Jesus receives every day, cannot …

From the Justice Department: A retired St. Louis priest pleaded guilty to federal charges Wednesday and admitted possessing thousands of images containing child pornography. James T. Beighlie, 72, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography in front of U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp. In his plea agreement, Beighlie admitted that on May 17, 2021, while he …

Click On Detroit reports: A 60-year-old priest has been convicted of child sex crimes in Wayne County. Joseph “Jack” Baker, 60, of Wayne, was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct sexual penetration with a person under 13. Baker had been a pastor at St. Perpetua Parish in Waterford, Michigan since 2008. Before that, he was a pastor at St. Mary …

West Palm Beach’s ABC affiliate reports: Police said the investigation revealed that the church’s former parish administrator, Deborah True, and former pastor, Richard Murphy, opened a bank account in the name of “Holy Cross Catholic Church” in 2012. Police said bank records show that nearly $1.5 million of parishioners’ donations were fraudulently deposited into the account since 2015. From 2015 …

The New York Daily News reports: A Queens church deacon nabbed in an undercover sting pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court on Friday of trying to lure three teenage boys into meeting him for sex acts, law enforcement officials said. Rogelio Vega, 52, a former deacon at St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church in Woodside, pleaded guilty to three counts of …

The Kennewick Tri-Cities Herald reports: A Tri-Cities priest has been arrested on suspicion of rape. Rev. Tomás Vázquez Téllez, 49, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of third-degree rape with an aggravating factor of being a person of trust. Vázquez Téllez has been serving at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Pasco since Sept. 2021. Vázquez Téllez was booked into the Benton …

The Maryland Bay reports: Reverend Jaroslaw “Jerry” Gamrot, 58, who serves at Holy Face Catholic Church and Little Flower School in Great Mills, has been charged for an incident that reportedly happened in July on a highway. Charging documents for the incident indicate that on July 25, Gamrot was traveling west on Route 70 in Frederick with no pants on …

From the far-right Catholic site LifeSiteNews: Pope Francis has called for Catholics to pray for an end to the death penalty, saying that “in the light of the Gospel, the death penalty is unacceptable,” despite the Catholic Church’s nearly 2,000-year teaching, tradition, and contents of Sacred Scripture all upholding the legitimacy of the death penalty. It is even against the …

The CBC reports: The name of a prominent Vatican cardinal, who is regarded as a potential successor to Pope Francis, appears on a list made public as part of a new class action against the Quebec diocese, Radio-Canada’s investigative program Enquête has found. Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who was the archbishop of Quebec when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was taking …

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: Two professional dominatrices accused of a sexual tryst with a priest on the altar of Pearl River Catholic church in 2020 have each pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of institutional vandalism and won’t serve jail time, according to court records. But Melissa Cheng and Mindy Dixon will have to come back to 22nd …

The Guardian reports: Pope Francis has said that he can no longer travel like he used to because of his strained knee ligaments, saying his week-long Canadian pilgrimage was “a bit of a test” that showed he needed to slow down and one day possibly retire. Speaking to reporters while traveling home from northern Nunavut, Francis, 85, stressed that he …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis began a fraught visit to Canada on Sunday to apologize to Indigenous peoples for abuses by missionaries at residential schools, a key step in the Catholic Church’s efforts to reconcile with Native communities and help them heal from generations of trauma. Francis flew from Rome to Edmonton, Alberta, where his welcoming party included Canadian …

The Christian Post reports: A Canadian court has approved the sale of 43 Catholic Church properties as part of a financial settlement with victims of sex abuse, with more sales expected to come later. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s, based in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, will sell the properties, including 13 church properties, after the …

Providence’s CBS affiliate reports: A former Providence priest already facing federal child pornography charges has been arrested again and is being returned to Rhode Island for violating the conditions of his release. The Rev. James Jackson was arrested in Kansas on Friday, according to a court filing. Danielle Thomas, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Kansas, said in …

The BBC reports: The father of a choirboy who prosecutors alleged was sexually abused by Cardinal George Pell has launched a lawsuit against the cleric and the Catholic Church. The man is seeking damages for mental injury that he suffered after learning of the allegations, his lawyers said. In 2018 Cardinal Pell was convicted of abusing two choirboys in the …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis has dismissed rumors he plans to resign anytime soon and that he hopes to visit Moscow and Kyiv after traveling to Canada later this month. Francis also told Reuters in an interview published Monday that the idea “never entered my mind” to announce a planned retirement at the end of the summer, though he …

Far-right Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has done an interview with Steve Bannon’s War Room website and it’s a doozy. An excerpt: The SARS-CoV-2 virus is nothing but a seasonal flu that could have been cured with existing treatments and effective prevention based on strengthening immune defenses. The prohibition of treatment, the discrediting of the effectiveness of drugs that have been …