Free Republic

Without warning, his life was turned upside down. Father Alexander Anderson, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Eureka, learned on a spring day in 2002 that he was the subject of an allegation of sexual abuse against a minor. He had been called to the St. Louis archdiocesan offices where he was told that officials had been informed of the allegation and would turn over the matter to the St. Louis circuit attorney for a full investigation. Next came a media frenzy about the accusation. The allegation dated to the 1980s when Father Anderson was chaplain of the now-closed St....

Calling Mel Gibson "a tortured soul," France's main Jewish group accused his film about Jesus' final hours of having anti-Semitic overtones. An umbrella group for Jewish organizations, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), said Thursday that "The Passion of the Christ" was a backward portrayal of Christian teachings. The movie debuted Wednesday in France. "The film's violence is extreme and sick," the group said in a statement. "Unfortunately, (CRIF) finds elements of anti-Semitism in the film, which was clearly conceived by a tortured soul." Some Jewish and Christian leaders have expressed concern that the movie could revive...

<p>The Vatican, often critical of Israel, harshly condemned Palestinian terrorists for trying to use a teenager as a suicide bomber.</p> <p>"First women, now children are being used, more and more often, in these suicidal attacks," wrote L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official newspaper, in a commentary on the news that Israeli soldiers had stopped an Arab boy wearing a bomb strapped around his waist.</p>

Next Monday may be one of the most historic days in the life of the Catholic Church on Long Island. Or one of the most bitter. When 52 Long Island priests (several of them pastors and monsignors) signed their names to an Oct. 1 letter to Bishop William Murphy requesting a meeting, they hardly minced their words. "We perceive a fairly widespread dissatisfaction with the way you have related to some clergy and laity," the letter began, "and we sense a certain lack of confidence in your pastoral leadership in the Diocese of Rockville Centre." Strong words from a group...