Free Republic

Just days after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border by climbing a wall, a Chicago priest says what he did was wrong and urged parishioners in his Southwest Side church to apologize if they had done the same. "And by recognizing you did something wrong, you can't keep it doing it," said the Rev. Gary Graf of St. Gall Roman Catholic Church in Chicago's Gage Park neighborhood. "I'm begging the people to take a different tactic." --SNIP-- Graf paid for the trip but took about $3,000 from a church collection to pay coyotes, or people who smuggle others into the U.S. for...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or congregation members. The figures offer a glimpse into what has long been an extremely difficult phenomenon to pin down -- the frequency of sex abuse in Protestant congregations. Religious groups and victims' supporters have been interested in the figure ever since the Roman Catholic sex abuse crisis hit five years ago. The church has revealed that there have been 13,000 credible...

MAYERTHORPE, Alta. (CP) - A priest urged parishioners Sunday to pray for the soul of Mountie killer James Roszko while lamenting the collapse in values that helped turn his heart black. "We should pray for the one who caused this tragedy, who himself seems to be a victim of a lack of love," Father Andrew Bogdanowicz told 130 parishioners who packed the pews at St. Agnes Parish. "We don't know exactly what happened in his heart. I was told he was baptized Catholic, so he is one of us." Parishioners - some wearing the tiny red and white ribbons to...

BOSTON -- As millions of Catholics prepare for the traditional midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, the Boston Archdiocese is making an unusual plea to parishioners. NewsCenter 5's Jorge Quiroga reported that church leaders are asking anyone with cold or flu symptoms to take certain precautions and avoid some rituals. The announcement comes days after two elderly men on Cape Cod died of flu complications. But public health officials warn against overreactions saying the cases are not unusual considering the ages of the victims, 89 and 90. Parishioners attending Christmas Mass are urged not to shake hands as a sign of...

Catholic parishioners in Fort Edward are rallying behind their former priest, helping him move into a new apartment and even hoping he may someday return to the pulpit less than a month after he was removed for child sexual abuse.Members of St. Joseph's Church in this small Washington County town are planning a "kitchen shower" Aug. 2 to help the Rev. James Rosch furnish the four-room apartment he rented after he had leave the rectory. Rosch has been sitting in the pews during Sunday services since his removal as head priest last month. "I was just in tears because he...