Free Republic

Jim Lindgren over at the legal blog The Volokh Conspiracy has excerpted a fascinating George Orwell essay from 1944 about what a morally depraved yet talented artist Salvador Dali is. It discusses how the fans of his art claim “a kind of benefit of clergy� where they exempt him from the moral laws that constrain ordinary people. Here’s the line that got me: If Shakespeare returned to the earth to-morrow, and if it were found that his favourite recreation was raping little girls in railway carriages, we should not tell him to go ahead with it on the ground that...

A Catholic Archbishop reportedly told a sexual assault victim to "go to hell" in what a Victorian magistrate has labelled "appalling" conduct. According to court documents, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart told the woman to "go to hell, bitch" after she knocked on his door in the early hours of a morning in March, 2004. Archbishop Hart had been granted an intervention order against the woman after she began pursuing him over her abuse by priest Barry Whelan in 2001, The Age reports. The archbishop later apologised to the woman but last night told The Age he "did not recall" his...

Betsy McCaughey -- an outspoken proponent of the myth that Democrats' health care reform proposals will lead to the creation of "death panels," as well as a former lieutenant governor of New York and adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute -- has stepped down from her position as a director of Cantel Medical Corp., which bills itself as a "leading provider of infection prevention and control products in the healthcare market." From a press release: CANTEL MEDICAL CORP. (NYSE: CMN -- News) announced that on August 20, 2009 it received a letter of resignation from Ms. Elizabeth McCaughey as a...

Dick Cheney's "Shut Up and Listen" tour continued last week on CBS's "Face the Nation." There, the former veep reiterated his favorite theme: Obama is putting America at risk by "taking down a lot of those policies we put in place that kept the nation safe." What in the world is Cheney talking about? Granted, Obama's anti-terror policies are clouded by rhetorical "Hope" and euphemism, and the new administration is less given to chest-thumping than its predecessor. Otherwise, Obama's approach to terrorism is virtually identical to Bush/Cheney's. Whatever you think the right policy is regarding enemy combatants, warrantless wiretapping, and...

The following is a list of arguments against Protestantism which, in our judgment, Catholics should not use, either because they are not true, or because, while they might be true, it is impossible to prove that they are, for a plausible alternative explanation of the data exists. This is certainly not a complete list: it is merely one missive fired for intellectual honesty. Neither is it an infallible list: it is possible that one or more of these arguments might be saved. 1. Do not allege that there are 33,000 Protestant denominations. This tally comes from the 2001 World Christian...

This is a distressing new Gallup poll. It shows that churchgoing Catholics are far more likely to approve of moral behavior (sex between unmarried people, homosexuality, etc.) that their church deems immoral than are churchgoing Protestants. This is a conundrum to me, one I thought about a lot when I was a Catholic, and troubled over. Why is it that Catholics have a Pope and a Magisterium -- a clear teaching authority -- as well as a complex, coherent and profoundly intellectual moral theology ... and yet these things, which ought to give it a tremendous advantage in maintaining the...

Q. In an earlier article, Bob asked you where he could find the apostolic succession from his minister to the original 12. Wouldn’t it have been better for him if you would just tell him that it is not possible for his minister to have that succession unless he was ordained by the Catholic Church? His church couldn’t be more than 500 years old. How could his church go back 2,000 years to the church that Christ set up on earth? A: It’s an error to say only the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome has a history going all the...

Brace yourselves for a tsunami of punditry this weekend, when the much-married Newt Gingrich is received into the Catholic Church. This would ordinarily be a private occasion, but Newt Gingrich is not ordinary. He is (I hedge) probably the most interesting putative candidate on the right at this point. Google “Gingrich” and “2012” and your hard drive will melt under a trillion hits. So attention to this event must and will be paid. BTW: “Poping” in the headline above, which—sorry—I couldn’t resist, is the traditional, British pejorative for “becoming a Catholic.” Did you hear the news? Bertie just Poped! There...

Martin Luther must be turning in his grave. He was able to fight the Roman Catholic Church over indulgences and managed to avoid being burned at the stake. But Luther didn’t face an even greater enemy: the Internet. Enter Information Age Prayer, a new web service that lets you pay for computer prayers. The company uses “the latest technology in text-to-speech synthesizers” to read aloud your typed prayers “at a volume and speed equivalent to typical person praying.” In other words, forget praying. Just pay them to do it. IAP isn’t just for the Jesus followers out there, either. In...

The anger and violence that erupted against the Protestant Irish Church Missions and their schools and orphanages in western Connemara towards the end of the 19th century, makes for harrowing reading today. The Freeman’s Journal reported that ‘Schoolteachers have been in dread of their lives, and are obliged to keep in their houses, and in some instances to do without food.’ According to Canon Roberts of Moyrus, ‘trembling converts were dragged from their beds and asked at knifepoint to choose death or Catholicism.’ Canon Roberts claimed that a priest would interrupt the mob at this point, saying, ‘Give him his...

Mary Worship Still Alive in Catholicism10/21/2008 - Tur8infan Benedict XVI is reported (link to report) as recently praying to Mary: "We implore you to have pity today on the nations that have gone astray, on all Europe, on the whole world, that they might repent and return to your heart," the text of the prayer reads. This is a prayer that is openly idolatrous. Mankind needs to turn, not to the heart of Mary, but to the Son of Mary, Jesus Christ the Righteous. The true and proper object of worship is God alone. Matthew 4:10 Then saith Jesus...

"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognise them…" Matthew 7:15-16 CORRUPTION STEPHEN VII (896-897AD) "He dug up a Corsican predecessor, Pope Formosus (891-896), when he had been dead for over nine months…. He dressed the stinking corpse in full pontificals, placed him on the throne in the Lateran and proceeded to interrogate him personally….After being found guilty, the corpse was condemned as an anti-pope, stripped and minus the two fingers with which he had given his fake apostolic blessing, was thrown into the...

The treasurer of the Roman Catholic shrine of Lourdes was yesterday at the centre of a major fraud inquiry. Father Raymond Zambelli, 65, rector of the site of 66 recognised miracles, has been asked to explain how at least £350,000 raised for the sick and dying ended up in his account. More than six million pilgrims visit the town in south-west France every year, many of them donating huge amounts of money to its upkeep. Police confirmed that an inquiry into the ' misappropriation of funds' had been launched, looking at several individuals including a priest. Much of the money...

The Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight. In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church's interests ahead of child safety. The document recommended that rather than reporting sexual abuse to the relevant legal authorities, bishops should encourage the victim, witnesses and perpetrator not to talk about it. And, to keep victims quiet, it threatened that if they repeat the...

A fourth seminary student is making sex-abuse allegations against former Palm Beach Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell, claiming in a lawsuit to be filed Thursday that he was repeatedly molested by the church leader as a teen, with the relationship continuing into adulthood until he reported the abuse to a church official in 1994. Four years later, his anger awakened by other priest sex scandals, he contacted the bishop with a request: He wanted $75,000, a sum he reasoned would help him "live without worry," the accuser and his lawyer said. The former student said O'Connell, then bishop of Knoxville, told...

Father Frank Duffy was accused of molesting little girls in the Portland Archdiocese before coming to Yakima. This most recent victim says she was abused here as a vulnerable adult. Now, a national group that looks out for victims of clergy sexual abuse is calling it another church cover up. Decades later, a local woman has come forward, saying Father Frank Duffy molested her. Duffy served as a Jesuit priest in Yakima from 1970 to '89. "There's nothing in our files to indicate that the Yakima diocese was informed of any problems with Father Duffy..." We asked Father Robert Siler,...

Tom Mahowald spoke slowly, without emotion: "I'm a victim of abuse twice. Both were very violent." He was an altar boy in a town near this region and when he was 11, the priest asked him to take some boxes into the basement. He pushed Mahowald into a room and locked the door. "I tried to push him away. I told him no. He told me God wanted me to do this for him. He raped me." When Mahowald, who lives in Alma, Wis., and works in Winona County, tried to get away, the priest crushed one of his testicles....

A priest accused of abusing an altar boy in 2001 has been charged with child abuse after turning himself in to police Tuesday. The Rev. Aaron Joseph Cote, 56, who was an associate pastor in 2001 and 2002 at Mother Seton parish in Germantown, had been accused of sexual abuse by the former altar boy, Brandon Rains, who filed a lawsuit against him in 2005. Cote, who has been living in New York City, surrendered after learning that police would seek a warrant for his arrest. He pleaded not guilty. "We do expect him to be fully exonerated," said Cote's...

A Monterey diocesan priest, arrested last summer for alleged lewd conduct, has pleaded no contest to charges of having committed sex crimes. The Rev. Geronimo Enrique Cuevas, 52, will have to serve a three-year probation, pay a $750 fine, perform 40 hours of community service, and attend an AIDS education class. Undercover deputies arrested Cuevas last July at Pirate’s Cove, south of San Luis Obispo. Cuevas allegedly grabbed the crotch area of a male undercover officer. When arrested, Cuevas reportedly told deputies that he was from Las Vegas and unemployed. Though he owns an apartment in Las Vegas, Cuevas was...

A Roman Catholic priest from the Hudson Valley is going to federal prison for four years after pleading guilty to downloading child pornography. Raymond Ethier of Hudson was arrested in May 2007 for having videos and still images of minors engaged in sexual conducted on his home computer when he was the pastor of St. John Vianney.... The 51-year-old pleaded guilty in November to one count of possessing child pornography. He was sentenced Monday to 48 months in prison and 10 years of supervised release. He must also register with the state's sex offender registry and participate in a sex...

A Wigan priest has appeared in court accused of sexually abusing boys on 38 occasions. Father William Green, priest at Holy Family Roman Catholic Church, New Springs, was arrested late last year over allegations dating back to the 1970s. Fr Green, 67, first appeared before Manchester magistrates last week facing six indecent assault and gross indecency charges. They relate to alleged incidents while he worked as a teacher at St Bede's School in Manchester between 1977 and 1981. Green, who now lives in Middleton, yesterday faced a further 32 similar charges dating between 1968 and 1987 involving a number of...

Pope John XXIII believed Padre Pio, the hugely popular Capuchin monk who was canonised in 2002, was a fraud who had "incorrect" relations with women and whose soul was in danger.... Sergio Luzzatto...has also found documents in the Vatican archives suggesting that Padre Pio may have faked his stigmata, the marks of the wounds of Christ, with acid. Vatican officials say both allegations are already well known.... Followers of Padre Pio believe he exuded "the odour of sanctity", had the gift of bilocation (being in two places at once), healed the sick and could prophesy the future.

Father Augusto Cortez, a priest who interacts with students at a Bushwick Catholic school has been arrested on suspicion of committing a sex crime. The 44-year-old priest, who worked at St. John the Baptist School, is charged with groping a 12-year-old student’s breast on May 29. The Diocese of Brooklyn was the first to hear of the student’s accusations, and, following a previous agreement with the Kings County district attorney, notified that office. The District Attorney’s Office has charged five priests with sex crimes since the agreement, which states that the District Attorney’s Office will keep an investigation confidential until...

A judge found catholic priest Father Frank Murd not guilty of sexual imposition today. The diocese removed Murd from Saint joseph's in Maumee in April. That's when Murd was first accused of improperly fondling another man in a hot tub. Lawyers for both sides agree Father Frank Murd fondled another man in a JCC hottub. Prosecutors could not convince judge James Jensen that the accuser clearly objected to Murd's actions. "We disagree with the judge's decision," says Mike Loisel of the Lucas County Prosecutor's office. The prosecution believes Murd knew he offended the alleged victim. "We think he knew it...

Suspended priest....several charges of misdemeanor sex crimes....probably will have to register as a sex offender.... Due to copyright complaints, go see the link at http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0613B1-update0613.html

Two men filed suit Wednesday against a former Broward County priest awaiting trial on sexual molestation charges, accusing him of paying them for sex with cash and toys when they were children. The Archdiocese of Miami knew the Rev. Neil Doherty was sexually abusing the boys in the 1980s but covered it up, according to the lawsuits filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Doherty, 65, a former pastor at St. Vincent's Catholic Church in Margate, is awaiting trial in Broward on multiple counts of sexual battery, lewd and lascivious acts and molestation in a separate case.