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Fr. Dale Fushek, best known for being one of the founders of "Life Teen", has finally been excommunicated. From the Diocese of Phoenix website: December 15, 2008-The Most Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted, Bishop of Phoenix, has issued a Decree of Excommunication to Reverend Monsignor Dale Fushek and Reverend Mark Dippre. Fushek and Dippre have incurred the censure of excommunication because they have chosen to be in schism with the Catholic Church by establishing and leading an opposing ecclesial community known to the public as the Praise and Worship Center. Both priests have consistently refused to comply with explicit directions...

News Briefs American Maryknoll priest excommunicated for involvement in women's 'ordination' December 11, 2008 An American priest has evidently been excommunicated because of his active support for the ordination of women, and his participation in ceremonies simulating ordination. Father Ray Bourgeois received a warning from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in December, informing him that if he did not recant his position supporting women's ordination within 30 days he would face excommunication; the Maryknoll priest replied that he would not change his stand. The Maryknoll Society has now confirmed that the Congregation has contacted that its leaders...

Two Valley Catholic priests, Monsignor Dale Fushek and the Rev. Mark Dippre, have been excommunicated by Bishop Thomas Olmsted for defying his order to not engage in public ministry, an activity that was deemed out of accord with the Roman Catholic Church. Just over a year ago, the priests, who had once served together at St. Timothy’s Catholic Community church in Mesa, founded the nondenominational Praise and Worship Center, which meets Sundays at the Fiesta Fountains Reception Center, 1316 S. Longmore, Mesa. Fushek was put on paid leave of absence in late 2005 after he was indicted on 10 misdemeanors...

The place: Heaven’s gate. The time: Around 2028, give or take a few mortal years. The scene: A large crowd of newly dead, not yet liberated from their earthly forms, is trying to maintain order despite a cluster of men who shout, wag their fingers and, occasionally, shove. “Gentlemen, gentlemen! For pity’s sake, please!” one of the non-combative people in the crowd cries out. “What in God’s name has you behaving in such an unholy way?” A man whose body is of average size, but whose essence emanates a royal purple aura, whirls around with a contemptuous look. Pointing to...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Despite being threatened with excommunication by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois said he would not recant his belief that women should be ordained as Catholic priests. "There's nothing that Rome can do to me to take away the peace, the clarity I have on this issue," Father Bourgeois told Catholic News Service Nov. 12. "No matter what the consequences, I feel I am doing the right thing." Father Bourgeois sent a letter to congregation officials Nov. 7 outlining his stance on women's ordination and how he believes church...

At Dodger Stadium, Madonna took time out from her concert to praise the election of Barack Obama and also express her disappointment that Prop. 8, which bans same-sex marriage, was approved by California voter. So says our spy, The Times' Molly Hennessy-Fiske. Listen to Madonna's take here. here. More from Popsquire: During a celebratory moment for President-elect Barack Obama, M also commented on Calfornia’s Prop 8. She expressed disappointment that “we didn’t win” and offered hope to the audience when she said, “If we can have an African American president, we can have gay marriage!” Of course, some people were...

ST. LOUIS, Missouri, JULY 28, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Three leaders of a former St. Louis parish who incurred excommunication for hiring a suspended priest have been reconciled with the Church. According to a statement last week from the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Bernice Krauze, Stanley Rozanski and Robert Zabielski, members of the Board of Directors of St. Stanislaus Parish Corporation, met in June with Archbishop Raymond Burke to be reconciled fully with the Church. "They are once again in full communion with the Catholic Church and are no longer under any censure," the archdiocese reported. The St. Stanislaus Parish Corporation is...

The Vatican declared today that any women who attempt “ordination” or any bishops who attempt to “ordain” women are automatically excommunicated from the Church by their actions. The decree from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is said to be absolute, universal and immediately effective. The decree which was published in the Vatican daily, L’Osservatore Romano, comes in the wake of several women attempting to be “ordained” as Catholic priests. The most recent attempt to ordain a woman occurred on May 4 in Winona, Minnesota when Kathy Redig, participated in a ceremony of ordination.

Vatican City, May 29, 2008 / 02:29 pm (CNA).- The Vatican declared today that any women who attempt “ordination” or any bishops who attempt to “ordain” women are automatically excommunicated from the Church by their actions. The decree from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is said to be absolute, universal and immediately effective.The decree which was published in the Vatican daily, L’Osservatore Romano, comes in the wake of several women attempting to be “ordained” as Catholic priests.The most recent attempt to ordain a woman occurred on May 4 in Winona, Minnesota when Kathy Redig, participated in...

(AGI) - Vatican City, May 29 - A woman being consecrated as priest besides being invalid, automatically leads to the excommunication of the consecrating bishop and the consecrated woman. A decree issued by the Congregation for Religious Doctrine published today by the 'Osservatore Romano' establishes this. "The Congregation for Religious Doctrine, to protect the nature and validity of the sacrament of the holy order, in virtue of the special faculty to be consecrated by the supreme authority decrees that both the one trying to consecrate a woman in the holy order, and the woman who has tried to receive the...

Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis St. Louis, May 29, 2008 / 01:03 am (CNA).- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has confirmed Archbishop of St. Louis Raymond Burke’s decree excommunicating the board of directors of a schismatic parish.  Archbishop Burke had excommunicated the leaders of the breakaway ethnically Polish parish for hiring a suspended priest to celebrate the Sacraments and sacramentals.  The priest could be defrocked for remaining in schism, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has warned.St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish had operated under a structure in which the pastor is subject to the...

What makes the governor’s actions and advocacy for legalized abortion, throughout her public career, even more painful for me is that she is Catholic. Sadly, Governor Sebelius is not unique in being a Catholic politician supporting legalized abortion. Since becoming archbishop, I have met with Governor Sebelius several times over many months to discuss with her the grave spiritual and moral consequences of her public actions by which she has cooperated in the procurement of abortions performed in Kansas. My concern has been, as a pastor, both for the spiritual well-being of the governor but also for those who have...

Yes, it's true. Yet another decree of excommunication was published in the St. Louis Review today. This time it is a decree against Stanley Rozanski and Bronsalaa (Bernice) Krauze, members of the Board of the Polish St. Stanislaus Kostka Corporation. For some reason that I cannot fathom, it does not yet appear on the Review's website. Therefore, I will try to summarize and publish excerpts from the decree for the benefit of readers. In censure and content, it is similar to the decree issued concerning the "womenpriests" as it relates to the schism finding. The Archbishop begins by recalling...

Archbishop Burke has declared the excommunications of would-be priestesses Rose Hudson and Elsie McGrath, and also of pretend-bishop Patricia Fresen. This decree, linked here, declares as follows: 1) that McGrath, Hudson and Fresen have incurred the censure of excommunication latae sententiae for the crime of schism (cann. 1331, 1364 s. 1); 2) that upon McGrath, Hudson and Fresen is imposed the ferendae sententiae censure of interdict for the crime of pertinacious rejection of a truth of the faith after admonition by the Ordinary (can. 1371, para. 1); and, 3) that upon Fresen is imposed the ferendae sententiae censure of...

Last Thursday, 16 of the 25 Catholics in the U. S. Senate voted to overturn the "Mexico City Policy" to allow funding to overseas health clinics providing abortions. One of the 16 was freshman Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA) who ran against, and defeated, Sen. Rick Santorum as a "pro-life" candidate. It's doubtful whether Casey, son of the legendary pro-life Pennsylvania governor Bob Casey, will ever be able to convince voters of his pro-life label again.

Tara Little Msgr. J. Gaston Hebert, administrator of the Diocese of Little Rock, speaks in a press conference Sept. 26 about the excommunication of six religious sisters in Hot Springs for membership in the schismatic Army of Mary. By Malea HargettEditor Six sisters from the Monastery of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge in Hot Springs were excommunicated by the Catholic Church for their involvement in a schismatic association based in Quebec, Canada. It is believed to be the first time anyone in the Diocese of Little Rock has been formally excommunicated. The excommunicated sisters are Mary Gerard Lalancette,...

 The Rev. J. Gaston Hebert, Little Rock diocese administrator, speaks during a news conference Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007, in Little Rock, Ark. Hebert announced Wednesday that six Arkansas nuns have been excommunicated from the Catholic Church for heresy. (AP Photo/Mike Wintroath) 6 Ark. nuns excommunicated for heresy   By ANDREW DeMILLO, Associated Press Writer 11 minutes ago   LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Six Catholic nuns have been excommunicated for heresy after refusing to give up membership in a Canadian sect whose founder claims to be the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, the Diocese of Little Rock announced Wednesday. The Rev....

Calling it a "very grave situation," the Vatican has excommunicated members of a controversial Quebec Catholic movement, the Army of Mary, for their heretical beliefs that derive from the writings of Marie-Paule Giguère, an 86-year-old mystic who claims to be a reincarnation of the Virgin Mary.In a judgment delivered to the group on Monday, and announced yesterday, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ruled that the ordinations of six priests in the Army of Mary this past June were illegitimate, because they were performed by a priest rather than a bishop. As a result, at least one recent...

EDITOR'S NOTE (May 16, 2007): This interview was originally published on IgnatiusInsight.com on November 6, 2006. In light of recent statements by Pope Benedict XVI about pro-abortion politicians and excommunication (in the context of a trip to Mexico and South America), as well as remarks by other Church leaders and by certain American politicians, I'm posting it again for readers of this site. Dr. Edward Peters has doctoral degrees in canon and civil law, and operates the Canon Law Info website and the "In The Light of the Law" web log. He has authored or edited several books, including Annulments...

Monday, June 18, 2007 Possible apostasy by a cleric: why we have Canon 1364 However rarely one hopes such rules will be needed, the 1983 Code of Canon Law makes provision for things like apostasy and schism, loss of ecclesiastical office, and penal procedure precisely because our divinely founded Church is inhabited by people like you and me. In any case, "canonical norms by their very nature are meant to be applied" (John Paul II, Sacrae disciplinae leges, 25) and there's nothing like a real case to consider how law should illumine life. According to a statement apparently issued...

A STATE parliamentary committee will investigate Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey's remarks that Catholic politicians supporting stem cell research could be refused holy communion and may face excommunication from the church. Archbishop Hickey came under fire yesterday after he reportedly said Catholics who did not condemn the cloning of human embryos for medical research were acting against the teachings of the Catholic faith. Archbishop Hickey said such people should not go to communion and he may consider excommunication, but he would rather the issue be resolved voluntarily by the politicians themselves. His threat mirrored that of Cardinal George Pell in Sydney,...

May Catholic clergy refuse communion to politicians who publicly support abortion rights? Who gets the right to choose in that case? This deeply theological question has lately assumed an odd prominence in American political life. This week, for example, according to news accounts, 18 Catholic House Democrats, including Reps. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), Patrick J. Kennedy (R.I.) and Carolyn McCarthy (N.Y.) publicly rebuked Pope Benedict XVI for reaffirming during a recent Mexico City trip that legislators who vote to permit the killing of the unborn have excommunicated themselves and may be refused communion during Mass. "Do you agree with the excommunications...

Prescinding for a moment from who said it (and allowing for the usual vexatious translation issues) a recent interview with a conscientious priest on the subject of abortion, excommunication, and denial of the Eucharist, illustrates well how widespread is the confusion in this area. In my opinion, these fundamental points must be sorted out, once and for all, so that those who must apply the norms to real cases can do so responsibly. I make some suggestions toward that goal here (the analysis chart is easier to read on my website). And be sure to see Phil Lawler's broader...

A primer for those who prefer knowing to opining In the vortex swirling around the pope's comments on the canonical consequences for supporting pro-abortion legislation (including what the pope said, or meant to say, or should have said), it might be good to set out calmly and simply some canons that directly impact on this situation. Strictly speaking, there are only two, but in light of comments I've heard or read, we apparently need to explicitate a third canon even though it only repeats sound personal moral theology and does not direct ecclesiastical responses to this kind of behavior....

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Pope Benedict XVI kicked off a historic five-day visit to Brazil on Wednesday by sending a tough anti-abortion message that sparked a hemisphere-wide debate over the Roman Catholic Church's efforts to influence politicians. In answer to a question about Mexico City's recent legalization of abortion, Benedict indicated that he would support Mexican bishops if they were to decide to excommunicate lawmakers who voted for the law. "It is part of the code," Benedict said, according to reporters aboard the plane. "It is based simply on the principle that the killing of an innocent human child is...

Pope Benedict on Wednesday warned Catholic politicians they risked excommunication from the Church and should not receive communion if they support abortion. It was the first time that the Pope, speaking to reporters aboard the plane taking him on a trip to Brazil, dealt in depth with a controversial topic that has come up in many countries, including the United States, Mexico, and Italy. The Pope was asked whether he supported Mexican Church leaders threatening to excommunicate leftist parliamentarians who last month voted to legalize abortion in Mexico City. "Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed...

Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani has made several statements supporting legalized and even taxpayer-funded abortion. Some Catholics believe these warrant a "latae sententiae" excommunication from the church under canon law - in other words, an automatic excommunication that occurs "by the very commission of the offense." But there is another area on which the grounds for excommunication are much more clear: marriage. Giuliani is currently in a civil marriage with Judith Nathan. Unlike Giuliani's previous two marriages, this one was not performed under the auspices of the Catholic Church. And unlike his second marriage, he did not receive an annulment...

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI yesterday set out "nonnegotiable values" as he urged Catholic lawmakers to oppose laws favoring divorce, abortion, homosexual "marriage" and euthanasia. In a long-awaited text, the pope exhorted "Catholic politicians and legislators ... to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature." "These values are not negotiable," he wrote, listing "respect for human life, its defense from conception to natural death [and] the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman." Benedict's first such apostolic exhortation dashed any hope for a relaxation of the requirement of celibacy for Roman Catholic...

LINCOLN, February 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) ­ The Vatican’s second highest juridical authority has rejected the appeal of an American leftist group, Call to Action (CTA), to overturn a decree of excommunication by the bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, who called the group and “anti-Catholic sect”. A letter from the Apostolic Signatura, the Catholic Church’s supreme tribunal and the highest judicial authority after the Pope himself, dismissed the group’s attempt at appeal with a terse message that it had “no competence” to overturn the decree. The Signatura’s letter reiterates a December letter from the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, Giovanni Cardinal Battista Re,...

VIENNA, Austria, February 6, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Salzburg Auxiliary Bishop Andreas Laun has caused a stir in the German press by saying publicly that a Catholic businessman who rented space in his shopping mall to an abortion clinic has excommunicated himself.  The businessman, Richard Lugner, at first threatened to sue Bishop Laun but has since thought better of the lawsuit but has not reconsidered his aiding and abetting the killing of unborn children. In an interview with the Catholic News Agency Austria (http://www.kath.net ), Bishop Laun was asked if Lugner's action constituted an automatic excommunication (latae sententiae).  Bishop Laun replied,...

Dec. 7, 2006 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican has confirmed an American bishop's decision to excommunicate members of the dissident group Call to Action. Call to Action is "causing damage to the Church of Christ," wrote Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re (bio - news), the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, in a letter to Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska. In March 1996, Bishop Bruskewitz had announced the excommunication of all Catholics in his diocese who were members of Call to Action or several other dissident groups which he described as "totally incompatible with the Catholic faith." The Nebraska chapter of...

(English-language translation) Gonzalo De Villa, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Guatemala [City], assured yesterday that the Catholic Church's decision to excommunicate Father Eduardo Aguirre Oestmann reflects that "he chose to distance himself from the communion and norms of his priesthood." In 2003, Aguirre founded the Saint Mary of the New Exodus Ecumenical Communion congregation, whose goal is to gather together Catholic and non-Catholic Christians as well as non-Christians. In response, Rodolfo Cardinal Quezada Toruño signed the decree that separates him from the Catholic communion. The decision was approved by the Vatican. "[Aguirre] systematically ignored the Church's norms, he refused...

     Excommunication (1983 CIC 1331) is the most severe censure that the Catholic Church can impose on a member of the faithful. This controversial penalty is, however, fundamentally oriented to fostering the reform of the individual (1983 CIC 1312 § 1, n. 2). I have been saying for some time that excommunication, although neglected in the decades after Vatican II, will be used more frequently in the future. Evidence in support of this prediction is, I suggest, accumulating. This page will monitor instances of excommunication under the 1983 Code of Canon Law. I would, of course, appreciate information that would...

WASHINGTON, September 27 (UPI) — A Roman Catholic archbishop, whom the Vatican says has been excommunicated, Wednesday rejected the Holy See's disciplinary action.      "We do not accept this excommunication and lovingly return it to His Holiness, our beloved Pope Benedict XVI, to reconsider it and withdraw it and join us in recalling married priests to service once again," said Emmanuel Milingo, the Catholic Church's former leader of its Zambian parishes.      Earlier this week, the Vatican said Milingo had excommunicated himself by an illicit consecration of four married men as bishops and also by his public promotion of a...

Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, the Zambian prelate who angered the Vatican by getting married in 2001, has been excommunicated for again defying the Holy See by installing four married men as bishops, the Vatican said Tuesday. The Vatican said Milingo, 76, was "automatically excommunicated" under church law for the ordination of the men at a church in Washington on Sunday. The Archdiocese of Washington said Sunday that the installations were not valid. Milingo is in a condition of "progressive, open break with communion with the Church," the Vatican said in a statement. The four men, who claim affiliation with the breakaway...

While many questions remain, the Vatican has released a statement today formally excommunicating Abp. Milingo. Here is the press release in Italian. Amy has an unofficial English translation. Ed Peters posts some initial thoughts on the statement. Jimmy Akin suggests that consecrating bishops without a Papal mandate should itself be an act of schism, and hints at a very disturbing possibility: "As tragic as [this] situation is, I fear that an even greater tragedy may be about to unfold. Since the debacle following Vatican II, the Holy See has been terrified of a major schism occurring that would involve...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (National Catholic Register) – If you get “married” in front of a priest you found on rentapriest.com, you’re likely not getting your money’s worth. So said a canon lawyer in the wake of a priest’s excommunication this summer. Such a marriage would not be a marriage at all, Father Jason Gray explained. St. Augustine Bishop Victor Galeone excommunicated a member of Rent A Priest, an organization of married priests who offer to administer sacraments for donations or fees. There are some 300 members listed on the Rent A Priest Web site. The organization’s founder said there are about...

BOGOTA, Colombia -- A news report that a cardinal threatened doctors who performed an abortion with excommunication sparked controversy Wednesday and a denial from the prelate. Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo denied saying that the Vatican will excommunicate the doctors who performed Colombia's first legal abortion on an 11-year old girl allegedly raped by her stepfather. "I have not said that, nor has the Holy See, nor have I thought it," Lopez Trujillo, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, said in an interview with Caracol Radio. The report Tuesday touched off a storm of controversy, making the front...

An ultra-radical Islamic ideology mixing zealot-like devotion and holy war creed is drawing more scrutiny in anti-terrorist probes from the Middle East to Europe — with increasing indications that its base on the fringes of Islamic extremism could be widening. In existence since the 1960s, al-Takfir wa al-Hijra has offered intellectual inspiration to al-Qaida and other militant groups. But authorities now worry about followers becoming more aggressive with recruitment and retaliation against perceived foes of Islam, such as Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. Officials in the Netherlands say the Dutch-Moroccan suspect — accused of killing Van Gogh on a busy...

News Release August 14, 2006 STATEMENT FROM CARDINAL JUSTIN RIGALI REGARDING EILEEN DIFRANCO Recently, there has been extensive media attention regarding an attempted ordination of women, which took place on a river boat outside Pittsburgh on July 31, 2006. Eileen DiFranco, who is known to members of Saint Vincent DePaul Parish in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, participated in the event. Accordingly, the following statement is issued regarding this activity. Recently, there has been a good deal of publicity about a woman of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Mrs. Eileen DiFranco, participating in a simulated ceremony of ordination to the priesthood...

SAN DIEGO - A woman who says she has been ordained a Roman Catholic priest led a service during the weekend - despite the risk of being excommunicated. Jane Via, 58, is among 15 American women who have recently gone through ordination ceremonies that are not sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church, which bars women from becoming priests or deacons.A hundred congregants attended her service on Sunday at the Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community in San Diego.It was her first appearance since meeting with San Diego Bishop Robert Brom to discuss the consequences of her claimed ordination, which could ultimately...

Dr. Ed Peters latest:The pseudo-ordinations that a number of women around the world, and lately in the United States, have attempted are, to borrow Leo XIII's phrase, "absolutely null and utterly void". (See specifically John Paul II, Ordinatio sacerdotalis, n. 4). Last summer (scroll to 6 July 2005) I explained how such affronts to divine and canon law can and will result in excommunication, although, as I argued, not by the automatic process (1983 CIC 1314) that many simply assumed would apply to such cases. Here I need to make a different point.To no one's great surprise, some of these...

The Vatican Excommunicates Chinese Bishops appointed by the Chinese Government without the Vaticans permission.

PITTSBURGH The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh plans to send a report to the Vatican about a ceremony in which a dozen women claimed to be ordained as priests and deacons last month. The diocese does not recognize the ordinations and says the women have excommunicated themselves from the church by participating in the ceremony on July 31. Monsignor Lawrence DiNardo, a canon law expert with the diocese, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that someone can excommunicate themselves by their actions, but that the Vatican can then formally decree that an excommunication has occurred. The report will include the names of the...

Waukesha resident Kathy Sullivan Vandenberg faces excommunication for seeking the priesthood in an unsanctioned ordination ceremony, Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan said in a statement handed out at weekend Masses at Vandenberg's home parish. Dolan wrote to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Waukesha that it was his duty to notify the Vatican of Vandenberg's action. Dolan said her excommunication could come soon. The Roman Catholic Church prohibits women from becoming priests. Vandenberg, 64, said Monday that she was "startled" by the letter and surprised that Dolan had "spent so much time and energy" on it when "other important...

Kathy Sullivan Vandenberg, 64, a member of St. Mary Parish in Waukesha, is one of eight Roman Catholic women who expect to be ordained as priests Monday in an unofficial ceremony the Vatican considers invalid. Unhhh...the Vatican does not "consider" it to be invalid. It IS invalid, period. No consideration is necessary, and none is given. Two of them - who claim that they were later ordained bishops by unnamed male Roman Catholic bishops - will preside Monday with a third woman "bishop." And wouldn't we all like to know who those heresiarch-Bishops are? I have met with Archbishop Dolan....

PITTSBURGH - Joan Houk has ministered to the sick and needy, run two Roman Catholic parishes that were without priests and has presided over baptisms and funerals. Her calling now, she says, is to be a priest. Houk will be one of a dozen women participating in a ceremony Monday in which eight will proclaim themselves priests and four deacons. The ceremony won't be recognized by the Catholic church, which has a 2,000-year tradition of an all-male priesthood.Similar ceremonies conducted by the group Roman Catholic Womenpriests have been held before in other countries, and most of the participants have been...

London, England (LifeNews.com) -- British researchers are upset that the Catholic Church has decided it will excommunicate scientists who are involved in embryonic stem cell research. The Vatican says the research, which relies on the destruction of human life to obtain stem cells, is just as bad as abortion. Last week, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, told an official Vatican magazine that embryonic stem cell research was "the same as abortion.""Destroying human embryos is equivalent to an abortion. It is the same thing," he said."Excommunication will be applied to the women, doctors and...

(ANSA) - Vatican City, June 28 - The Vatican stepped up its fight against embryonic stem cell research on Wednesday, saying that scientists involved in such work would be excommunicated . Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Vatican department dealing with family affairs, said in a magazine interview that "destroying human embryos is equivalent to an abortion... it's the same thing" . "Excommunication applies to all women, doctors and researchers who eliminate embryos," the cardinal told Catholic publication Famiglia Cristiana . Trujillo said that "certain crimes" were being treated as if they had "become rights" . He added that...

A theologian has become the first Swiss woman to be ordained a Roman Catholic priest, despite Church laws decreeing only men can enter the priesthood. Monika Wyss, a divorced mother of four, feels she has the right to become a priest even though she will probably be excommunicated. The ceremony, organised by the West European Roman Catholic Womenpriests organisation, took place on Saturday on board a passenger ship on Lake Constance between Switzerland and Germany. In addition to Wyss, two other women joined the priesthood: Regina Nicolosi, a German living in the United States, and Jane Via, an American. Another...