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SAN DIEGO -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego said in a letter to parishioners this weekend that it is considering declaring bankruptcy to avoid going to trial on more than 140 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests. The pastoral statement, signed by Bishop Robert Brom, said if fair settlements can't be reached with abuse victims, "the diocese may be forced to file a Chapter 11 reorganization in bankruptcy court." The diocese is concerned "that settlements not cripple the ability of the Church to accomplish its mission and ministries," the letter said. The letter was included in the regular...

Protestantism and Islam: Points of Contact Protestantism may well have begun as a genuine movement of reform. Accepting the teachings of the Church, its adherents wanted to bring the practice of the Church into line with its teachings. This is the object of all Christian movements. However, it very soon developed into something far more radical, jettisoning basic Christian teachings, bringing in doctrines entirely new to Christianity, and having to meld the results into a coherent whole. This involved developing doctrinal and practical solutions to new problems in the field of Christian faith and morals. Most of Protestant teaching was...

A DEVOUT Christian has claimed the face of Jesus has materialised on his laundry door. "It's a photo that just appeared that looks like Jesus," the Geelong man, who wants to be known only as Danny, said. "It is a male, with a beard and longish hair. It is something very unusual, very strange." But the claim has been slammed by a Geelong Catholic priest, who said it brought ridicule on Christians. Danny said the 30cm face appeared about three years ago, two years after he moved into the Norlane home. Father Kevin Dillon, a priest at Geelong's St Mary...

He hardly seems the obvious candidate for Catholic approval, but the Irish author who was once a byword for decadent behaviour is quoted in a new book by a Roman priest as an example to 21st-century Christians. "I can resist everything except temptation," Oscar Wilde once famously said. He was speaking for us all. Even for the Church of Rome, it turns out. For that very remark is quoted, with approbation, by a leading Vatican writer, Fr Leonardo Sapienza - a member of the protocol department of the Pontifical Household of Pope Benedict XVI - in a book out yesterday....

Jan. 5, 1066: Edward the Confessor, the English king responsible for the construction of Westminster Abbey, died. Edward is the only English king revered as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. Jan. 5, 1527: Felix Manz, a Swiss Anabaptist is executed by drowning. Manz’s conflict with Lutheran and Reformed Protestants stemmed from his denouncement of the continued practice of infant baptism. Jan. 6, 548: the Jerusalem church observed the Christmas feast for the last time on the older date before switching, with the rest of the Western Church, to the now traditional date of December 25. Jan. 6, 1850:...

BRIGHTON -- In a non descript cardboard file box, in an ordinary cabinet, inside the modest building that houses the archives of the Archdiocese of Boston, is a manila folder with a name written in small, neat letters on its tab: Matthew. The folder contains an aged document and a small tarnished metal ornament, displaying a fragment of bone about the size of the capital O in this sentence. The certificate, signed by a long-forgotten Vatican official, asserts that the chip is a relic, nearly 2,000 years old and taken from the body of St. Matthew -- one of the...

WASHINGTON (CNS) – A federal judge in Louisville, Ky., has denied a Vatican request to dismiss a sex abuse lawsuit seeking damages from the Holy See. U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II ruled Jan. 11 that U.S. bishops and priests are employees of the Vatican within the terms of the Federal Sovereign Immunity Act. The act generally exempts other sovereign states from the jurisdiction of U.S. courts, but it allows U.S. courts to adjudicate lawsuits seeking monetary damages from a foreign country for personal injury caused in the United States by an employee of that country "while acting within...

ROME – An Italian group on Thursday asked Pope Benedict to order the removal of all religious works of art and Catholic traditions that still smack of anti-Semitism. The Roman Association of Friends of Israel sent a letter to the Pope asking him for a 'clear and strong signal' that he would not tolerate any residual or resurgent forms anti-Semitism in religious art or popular culture, such as processions. The group sent the letter to protest against an exhibition in a church in the Umbrian city of Orvieto which includes several old paintings depicting Jews desecrating a consecrated communion host,...

Christianity 101 stipulates that the body of Jesus isn't available for viewing. Other religions have it easier. Several hundred people turned out in 2005 to view a touring collection of Buddhist relics at the Thousand Buddha Temple in Quincy. The exhibition displayed relics of Siddhartha, the religious figure most outsiders know simply by his title -- Buddha. The relics included flakes of dried blood, fragments of bone, and cremated remains believed to be those of Buddhism's founder, who died about 2,500 years ago. For Buddhists, viewing a relic is an intense experience. "I can attain pure mind at the moment...

THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY A Roman Catholic Dogma Originating with Heretics and Condemned as Heretical by 2 Popes in the 5th and 6th Centuries. The Roman Catholic doctrine of the assumption of Mary teaches that she was assumed body and soul into heaven either without dying or shortly after death. This extraordinary claim was only officially declared to be a dogma of Roman Catholic faith in 1950, though it had been believed by many for hundreds of years. To dispute this doctrine, according to Rome’s teaching, would result in the loss of salvation. The official teaching of the Assumption comes...

One thousand one hundred and four years ago a criminal trial took place in Italy, a trial so macabre, so gruesome, so frightful that it easily qualifies as the strangest and most terrible trial in human history. At this trial, called the Cadaver Synod, a dead pope wrenched from the grave was brought into a Rome courtroom, tried in the presence of a successor pope, found guilty, and then, in the words of Horace K. Mann's The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages (1925), "subjected to the most barbarous violence." For the past several centuries the papacy...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican newspaper denounced an Italian journalist who posed as a penitent and confessed fake sins in order to write an expose on the sacrament of reconciliation. "Fake confessions in search of a shameful scoop," the newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, headlined a commentary condemning the cover story of L'Espresso magazine, one of the country's leading weeklies. "Shame! There is no other word to express our distress toward an operation that was disgusting, worthless, disrespectful and particularly offensive," the newspaper said. The commentary said the article had exploited the good faith of confessors and offended the religious sentiments...

THE Vatican has condemned the sale of Jesus Christ fancy dress kits, which can be bought within walking distance of St Peter's Basilica. The "Jesus Party Wig", available across Italy to wear at the street festivities that precede Lent, costs $A20 and comes with a flowing beard and a plastic crown of thorns. Senior Vatican figures called it "blasphemous" and "shameful". One added that a similar Muhammad outfit would cause widespread outrage. "The vilifying of religion is a crime and this should be investigated by the police," said Bishop Velasio De Paolis, secretary of the Apostolic Signature, the Vatican's Supreme...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas. (National Catholic Reporter) – Lyn Woods, a middle-aged Catholic woman who teaches ceramics at the Southwest School of Art & Craft in San Antonio, said that, although she goes to church, she hasn’t been to confession in many years. She says her childhood experience of the sacrament of reconciliation explains much of her adult attitude toward it today. “When I was 7, 8 or 9 years old,” she said, “I found myself repeating the same sins over and over to the priest. It seemed to me they weren’t really sins but simply human nature. On the other...

BRASILIA, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Brazil's health ministry vowed on Tuesday to proceed with plans to put condom vending machines in schools and sought to defuse criticism with a new study showing that parents in the world's largest Roman Catholic nation approve of the idea. The study, conducted by the United Nations body UNESCO, concluded that two-thirds of the parents surveyed like having the government offer teenagers free condoms and sex education. The findings could come as a surprise to some Brazilian parents. Most of the population of 185 million is Catholic and the church, which remains influential despite losing...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Present trends suggest a declining future for many communities of men and women religious, but religious are called to imagine a different future, Sister Doris Gottemoeller said Feb. 3. Sister Gottemoeller, former president of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas and of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, and Father Canice Connors, a former provincial minister of the Conventual Franciscans and former president of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, were the main speakers at Washington Theological Union's annual Religious Life Symposium. The theme of this year's symposium was "Re-Imagining Religious Life in the 21st...

WASHINGTON (CNS) — On any given day this January, a full 21 months before the 2008 election, it seemed that someone was announcing a presidential exploratory committee or launching his or her campaign for president. And there was a good chance that the candidate was a Catholic. When Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts bowed out of the race for the Democratic nomination Jan. 24, he left nearly a dozen other Catholics — Republicans and Democrats — vying for their party's nomination, either officially or unofficially. On the Republican side, there are Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas; former New York...

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport is in bankruptcy. Its headquarters will go on the auction block this spring. The bishop's home also is going to be sold, and the diocese has paid $9 million to resolve cases in which 37 men say they were abused as boys by priests. But for all the hardship the diocese is undergoing as a result of molestation claims, bankruptcy may be better than what the church in Iowa could have faced — the civil trial of a former bishop from a neighboring diocese. The case of retired Sioux City...

“Can a man serve God faithfully and posess slaves?” Brother Joseph Mobberly, S.J. asked in his diary in 1818. “Yes,” he answered. “Is it then lawful to keep men in servitude? Yes.” The Jesuits of the Maryland province had always relied on plantations to support their ministries. The estates were extensive, totaling 12,000 acres on four large properties in Southern Prince Georges, Charles and St. Mary’s counties, and two smaller estates on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. In 1634, when the Jesuits arrived in Maryland, Lord Baltimore awarded them quasi-estates in which they were permitted to live off the rent of tenant...

On the day 30 of April in the Palazzo della Provincia of Pescara took place the Conference "UFO? the Truth is Top Secret, from Area 51 to Planet X", organized by the "Ufobserver" Cultural Association. During the conference I spoke about underground bases in the USA and dedicated the last fifteen minutes of my speech to a very short summary of my work during last five years that had gone in a new direction and is the leading topic of my future lectures. In the year 2000 I was working in Rome as an editor in the "Stargate" magazine and...

JABALPUR, India (UCAN) – Church people in a central Indian diocese say they saw God's intervention in a life-size Jesus statue that apparently wept blood. On Feb. 12, a bloodlike substance reportedly oozed from the eyes of a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus kept in the open yard of St. Joseph the Worker Church of Ghoreghat, a parish in Jabalpur Diocese. Jabalpur, a major town in Madhya Pradesh state, is 815 kilometers southeast of New Delhi. Ghoreghatt, 180 kilometers (110 miles) further southeast, is in Mandla district. Statues and images of the Sacred Heart usually portray the heart...

The large gap that exists between Roman Catholic historical scholarship and Roman Catholic apologists is a large one indeed. One often finds the historians admitting what the apologists will not regarding the truths of history that are so often utterly contradictory to later Roman dogmatic claims. This is especially true regarding such modern doctrinal developments as the Marian dogmas and the infallible Papacy. Over the past few years Roman Catholic apologists have been producing a great deal of written material of varying levels of quality. Books and magazines of this nature gain a wide audience. As in so much of...

The Council of Florence, the 17th Ecumenical (and hence “infallible�) Council of the Roman Catholic Church, said the following: It firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart "into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels" [Matt. 25:41], unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the...

Evangelical Christians are increasingly attacked by “traditional Catholics” in a southern Mexican state, according to a persecution watchdog group. In the indigenous region of Chiapas state, traditional Catholics – a blend of Catholicism and native religious practices – are more frequently being accused of various acts of religious intolerance against protestants, such as “threats, intimidation, and robbery or expulsion from their communities, or death,” reported Alfonso Farrera, director of the National Bar of Christian Lawyers, to Compass Direct News. In total, the bar says it has records of 200 cases of unresolved religious intolerance against evangelical Christians in Chiapas state,...

Until two years ago, the Roman Catholic diocese of Palm Beach, Fla., ran audits of its parishes only when they changed pastors. It was a risky, even foolhardy policy when you consider that a parish like St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, in Delray Beach, hadn't changed pastors in 40 years. In September 2003, upon the retirement of St. Vincent's pastor, the Rev. John Skehan, diocesan accountant Denis Hamel dutifully showed up to inspect the books and the procedures for counting Sunday collections. The new pastor, the Rev. Francis Guinan--a close buddy of Skehan's--told him to beat it. But the new...

Is the Vatican a Rogue State? The top crime neighborhood in the world isn't in Sao Paulo or Lagos. It's not the Bronx in New York, or even Wedding in Berlin. It's the small city ruled by Pope Benedict XVI, which apparently sees more criminal cases per capita than any other part of the world. Rampant crime: Pickpockets on St. Peter's Square can just trot over an international border into Italy. The Vatican's attorney general Nicola Picardi released the astounding statistic at the start of 2007: The tiny nation's justice department in 2006 had to contend with 341 civil and...

The Canon Why the Roman Catholic Arguments for the Canon are Spurious By William Webster A full documentation of the information contained in this article is now available in a new book offered through Christian Resources titled The Old Testament Canon and the Apocrypha. This book is a survey of the history of the Apocrypha from the age of Judaism to the Reformation. It provides translations of the comments of major theologians from the time of Jerome to the Reformation, the majority of which have never before been available in English. It is often asserted by Roman Catholic apologists that...

Wednesday, December 06, 2006 Should Catholic priests have the right to marry?A Protestant friend who saw the video of Father Plushy giving his Barney blessing -- and truly, I don't know what is more irritating, the priest or the full house of ninnies who sat there singing and clapping -- writes this morning to say: That video you just posted is the best single argument I have ever seen for ending the celibacy of the priesthood. Well, maybe. One is entitled to wonder how seriously Father Plushy takes his vow of celibacy, or anything about the dignity and responsibilities of...

She grew up Roman Catholic, but like millions of others, Rebecca Ortelli came to disagree with church teachings on contraception, communion and priestly celibacy, among other things. Many like-minded Catholics drift away from the church or join other denominations. But Ortelli, 57, wanted to maintain both her Catholic identity and her world view. And she didn't want to feel one was inconsistent with the other. So 20 years ago she did what a small number of defiant Catholics are doing. She joined a church with many lifelong Catholics of similar views, a church that borrows heavily from Catholic rituals even...

I am writing in response to the Pioneer Press' editorial "Play is no threat to Catholic Church" (Sept. 20). The editorial argues from two premises: a. free speech is good, and b. the Catholic Church is big enough to take it. Before moving on to what I believe are issues that are more critical, let's look at those. Free speech, used responsibly, is good! There are laws against slander and libel. The Supreme Court says one may not shout "fire" in a crowded theater. So who gets to say what is responsible? Well, in a sense we all, collectively, do....

According to the website Islam Memo, one Christian was killed in Baghdad after the Pope's speech two days ago. The speech created a wave of anger throughout the Islamic world, including Iraq. A poster has been placed in many Baghdad mosques for the previously unknown group, "Kataab Ashbal Al Islam Al Salafi,". This group threatens to kill all Christians in Iraq if the Pope does not apologize in three days in front of the whole world to Mohammed.

web] Every now and then, you get to see a reporter gently suggest that a major religious leader - take Pope Benedict XVI, example - has tried to pull a fast one. That may be what's happening in this story earlier this week by New York Times reporter Ian Fisher about the pope's complicated address on faith and reason, which included a highly significant illustration linked to Islam. Actually, I think that Fisher did a good job of getting at the heart of this one. Let's face it: Popes are not sound-bite-friendly speakers. They have been known to float a...

MILWAUKEE - Bishop Raymond Burke's recent announcement that Wisconsin lawmakers who support abortion rights can no longer receive communion ignited a firestorm in the American Roman Catholic Church, especially among those U.S. bishops who wished they'd thought of the idea first. Burke cited Vatican doctrine and canon law when he instructed diocesan priests to withhold communion from all Catholic senators and congressmen until they "publicly renounce" their support of abortion rights. Burke's decision left other American bishops scrambling to regain the moral high ground in a church torn by scandals. In Burlington, Vt., the Most Rev. Kenneth A. Angell threatened...

Kenneth Briggs, former religion editor of The New York Times and author of Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church's Betrayal of American Nuns, shares the fruits of an eight-year study which brings to light possible reasons for the diminishing numbers of American sisters in our time. Tracing a detailed history of events from the 1950s until the present, Briggs provides specific examples of typical religious communities and interviews with individual sisters. Well documented and fairly presented, the book describes the struggles and misunderstandings between the church's hierarchy and the sisters who took seriously the mandate for renewal directed to religious...

he Catholic church has blasted a decision by the Procurator Fiscal to issue Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc with a caution for blessing himself. Polish star Boruc was rapped for making the sign of the cross at Ibrox in an Old Firm match last season. The caution was issued after a six-month police investigation into the incident, which is said to have angered a section of the Rangers support. Boruc is reported to have been completely baffled by the decision to issue him with the warning But the move has angered the church and prominent Scottish Catholics including outspoken composer James...

          > ALL TIME BOX OFFICE         WORLDWIDE GROSSES #1-100 - #101-200 - #201-300 - #301-302(in millions) Rank Title Studio Worldwide Domestic / % Overseas / % Year 21 The Da Vinci Code Sony $750.0 $217.3 29.0% $532.7 71.0% 2006 22 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe BV $744.8 $291.7 39.2% $453.1 60.8% 2005

Belief in hell is going to you-know-where. And belief in heaven is in trouble, too. That's the concern of some Christian thinkers, including Jeffrey Burton Russell, an emeritus professor of history at UC Santa Barbara, and author of the new book “Paradise Mislaid: How We Lost Heaven and How We Can Regain It� (Oxford). Russell and other fretters aren't impressed by fads like the sudden popularity of the girl's name Naveah (heaven spelled backward) or polls that show most Americans believe in some sort of heaven. The growing problem, according to Russell and others, is that the way U.S. Christians...

Pope's Auschwitz speech seen as moving but incomplete Mon May 29, 2006 9:36am ET WARSAW (Reuters) - Pope Benedict's speech in Auschwitz was the most introspective and moving address of his papacy, but some who heard it still thought he did not go far enough. Ending a four-day pilgrimage to Poland on Sunday, the 79-year-old Pontiff reflected on how hard it was for a German to visit the former Nazi death camp and how challenging the evil committed there was for anyone who believed in a loving God. His bold decision to ask at the infamous death camp the question...

[The rhythm method and embryonic death J Med Ethics 2006; 32: 355-6]The “rhythm method” may kill off more embryos than other contraceptive methods, such as coils, morning after pills, and oral contraceptives, suggests an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics.The method relies on abstinence during the most fertile period of a woman’s menstrual cycle. For a woman who has regular 28 day cycles, this is around days 10 to 17 of the cycle.It is the only method of birth control condoned by the Catholic Church, because it doesn’t interfere with conception, so allowing nature to take its course. It...

'Da Vinci Code' Misses the Mark for Critics http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/film_cannes_da_vinci_code By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer Wed May 17, 8:58 AM ET "The Da Vinci Code" drew lukewarm praise, shrugs of indifference, some jeering laughter and a few derisive jabs Tuesday from arguably the world's toughest movie crowd: critics at the Cannes Film Festival. The year's most anticipated movie, "The Da Vinci Code" was a generally faithful adaptation of Dan Brown's monster best seller, spinning a murder thriller that stems from a cover-up of secrets about Christianity's roots. While readers worldwide devoured the novel, reaction from Cannes critics ranged from mild...

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Journalists gave eagerly awaited film "The Da Vinci Code" a cool reception at its first press screening on Tuesday, a day ahead of the world premiere of the adaptation of Dan Brown's controversial novel. The release of the big-budget Hollywood thriller has already prompted a wave of protests from Christians across the world who believe the theories put forward in the novel are blasphemous. One of the central characters suggests Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and they established a dynasty which elements within the Church would stop at nothing to try to cover up. The outcry...

<p>Forgive this vanity post , but I received this in an email and I think it is important for Catholics to see. Please support this protest.</p> <p>Ave Maria, Regina Coeli!!!</p> <p>This event is sponsored by the Priestly Order of the Society of Saint Pius X and will be led by our pastor, Fr. Gerardo Zendejas. We will pray as many Rosaries as possible to make reparation for this heinous mockery of the Immaculate Mother of God. Please be a witness and make the necessary sacrifices to make these acts of reparation.</p>

Cherie Blair provoked surprise in the Vatican and the ire of a Roman Catholic MP yesterday by wearing all-white to meet the Pope, a privilege normally reserved for Catholic Queens.The Vatican convention is that females meeting the Pontiff should wear black, preferably with a black veil, or mantilla.   Cherie Blair with Pope Benedict When the Queen met Pope John Paul II six years ago, she observed the code meticulously.Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, wore black, but omitted the veil.By contrast, Mrs Blair, a staunch Catholic, chose to exercise the "privilege du blanc", usually granted only to the wives...

The problem wasn't that the leadership was silent. It was that almost nobody listened. Some Catholic writers claim that it was not until 1890 that the Roman Catholic Church repudiated slavery. A British priest has charged that this did not occur until 1965. Nonsense! As early as the seventh century, Saint Bathilde (wife of King Clovis II) became famous for her campaign to stop slave-trading and free all slaves; in 851 Saint Anskar began his efforts to halt the Viking slave trade. That the Church willingly baptized slaves was claimed as proof that they had souls, and soon both kings...

Pope Benedict said last night that the world was in the grip of Satan and prayed for mankind to open its eyes to the "filth around us".At an Easter ceremony that recreated the passage of Jesus Christ to the crucifixion, Benedict XVI lashed out at man's "decadent narcissism". He said "a slick campaign of propaganda is spreading an inane apologia of evil, a senseless cult of Satan". The Good Friday service, held at the Colosseum, showed the 14 stages of Christ's suffering and was designed to allow worshippers to share in the agony of Jesus. During the first and final...

March 30, 2006 MICHAEL SAVAGE(S) CATHOLICISM Here is what radio talk-show host Michael Savage had to say on March 28 about the Catholic Church’s response to the immigration issue: It is a pig story! It’s animal farm all over again. And also make no bones about it, it’s the greedy Catholic Church that was behind it because the people of America walked away from the molesters’ dens and they need to bring in people from the Third World who are still gullible enough to sit there and listen to the molesters…the Roman Catholic Church was behind this, the Roman Catholic...

Could the Roman Catholic Church's sex abuse crisis be tied to embedded Satanic and occult imagery in its artwork - some of it hundred's of years old? That is the seemingly incredible thesis of a new documentary, "Rape of the Soul," made not by anti-Catholic bigots, but by devout followers of the Church. Rape of the Soul is in theatrical release in major cities, including New York and Los Angeles. The documentary explores the prevalent use of satanic, sexual, and occult and anti-Catholic images in historical and contemporary religious artwork. The film also discusses the acceptance of the artwork at...

OREM A statue of Jesus Christ was vandalized at a Timpanogos Memorial Gardens cemetery last night in Orem. The head of the seven foot tall marble statue was smashed off, likely with a sledge hammer, then stolen. The statue was hand carved in Italy and has stood as the center piece of the cemetery for over 50 years. Cemetery Caretaker Dave Condon says people often sit at the foot of the statue seeking a moment of peace, “It’s a sad thing to see a piece of art ruined just for no reason at all.” The statue is valued at between...

Poland University Bans “I didn’t cry when the Pope died” T-Shirts By Terry Vanderheyden LUBLIN, Poland, February 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A university in south-eastern Poland has banned a controversial “T-shirt for freedom” campaign expected to occur simultaneously with a campus human rights film festival. The t-shirts, which were to be worn through campus during the campaign by celebrities, boasted such things as “I had an abortion,” “I didn’t cry when the Pope died,” “I have AIDS,” “I don’t go to church,” “I masturbate,” or “I am gay,” according to a Radio Polonia report. The predominantly Catholic student population found...

JUst curious what Christians and particually Catholics think here. I just watched the Tonight Show and am pretty poed by their "stupid college student goes sees the Shroud of Turin while at the Olympics" thing. First, the whole thing on communion was disgraceful. Then to sort of treat The Holy Shroud as a Gag and Film it in the Shrouds presence yuch. Just curious.