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Featured Term (selected at random):ARCHIEPISCOPAL CROSS A cross with two horizontal crossbars; it forms a part of the heraldic arms of an archbishop. It is carried before him in processions and solemn liturgical functions within his own ecclesiastical province. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

DUCHESNE — A judge has ordered an LDS Church bishop to stand trial on charges of witness tampering and failure to report abuse. But the defense attorney for Bishop Gordon Moon called the judge's order "a far cry from a ringing endorsement of the prosecution's case." "I think anyone who reads the bindover order can see that," attorney David Leavitt said Wednesday. "From our perspective, the bindover was something we expected because the burden of proof is so low." Moon, 43, is accused of failing to notify police about a 17-year-old girl's disclosure that she had been sexually abused by...

Mitt Romney says it's been a good night for Rick Santorum, but that he still expects to become the Republican nominee for president. After losses to Santorum in Missouri's non-binding primary and the Minnesota caucuses -- where he is in third place -- Romney is congratulating the former Pennsylvania senator but continuing to focus on President Barack Obama. Despite Tuesday's setbacks, Romney says he is ready to lead the Republican Party and is happy to compare his record on leadership to Obama's.

If Gingrich, Santorum or Paul were deacons or ministers of Catholic or Protestant churches, they would certainly be asked what their vows, promises and duties were and will they conflict with the oath of President of the US. I am asking the readers first if this is a fair question for Romney, second has it been asked and answered before, and third if it hasn't been asked who will most likely have the opportunity to ask this question during the GOP primary process?

Bishop Olmsted's Letter to Catholics: Coercive HHS Ruling Mandates Sterilization, Abortion-Inducing Drugs and Contraception by Bishop's Office on January 28, 2012 Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted asked that this letter be read at all Masses this weekend. This effort to alert the faithful is being conducted nationwide through the coordination of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and addresses a vital issue regarding religious liberty and our fundamental rights as U.S. Catholic citizens. Read the letter in English.Read the letter in Spanish.

DUCHESNE — A judge is considering whether an LDS Church bishop should stand trial for charges of witness tampering and failure to report abuse. Gordon Lamont Moon, 43, is accused of telling a 16-year-old girl not to contact authorities in late July after she met with him in his capacity as her bishop and told him she'd been sexually abused. But during a preliminary hearing Thursday in 8th District Court, defense attorney David Leavitt noted that at least six people knew about the abuse before Moon was ever told about it. None of those people have been charged with a...

Bishop Claudio Silvero says the devices are "accursed and tools of sin".... [SNIP] ....mobile phones ease access to pornography and aid in "inappropriate relations." He says about 40 percent of Christian families suffer damage "because of the bad use of cellular phones and the Internet." His campaign is not shared by many in the church. Cell phones are common among Vatican officials and the church has produced some of its own applications for them.

Bishop Armando X. Ochoa Fresno, Calif., Dec 1, 2011 / 01:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop Armando X. Ochoa of El Paso, Texas was named today as the new bishop of Fresno, Calif. by Pope Benedict XVI.“I am humbled and deeply honored that the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, would offer me this new challenge at my age,” said Bishop Ochoa, who will fill a position left vacant by the death of Bishop John Steinbock in December 2010. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Vatican's recently appointed representative to the U.S., made the announcement in Washington D.C. on Dec. 1.Bishop Ochoa...

PROVO -- Provo city will pursue misdemeanor charges against an LDS bishop who allegedly failed to notify authorities after an underage congregant told him she had been sexually abused. Amado Rojas will face one count of failure to report child abuse, according to Provo Police Sgt. Mathew Siufanua. The decision to pursue the charge comes after a lengthy investigation that began with the arrest of Jose Ortega in August. According to a 13-year-old girl, she and Ortega both attended a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints children's party. After a water fight at the party, the girl testified during...

HEBER CITY — Whatever else he may have been, whatever good deeds have been attributed to him, it was clear Wednesday what Lon Kennard Sr.'s family thinks he is. "Monster." "Predator." "A disgusting man." "A beastly person." "You've ruined memories, cursed lives and broken dreams," one adopted daughter told the man. "He brought these sweet, innocent girls here under the guise of charity and turned them into personal sex slaves," a biological son told 4th District Judge Derek Pullan. Family member after family member — some sobbing, others defiant — stood before Pullan and demanded that Kennard, 70, receive the...

AMERICAN FORK -- An 80-year-old man thought his life savings was being invested by his one-time LDS bishop, Kevin Palmer Thomas. But by the time the elderly man stopped turning over his money he had lost more than $300,000, a police affidavit states. The affidavit alleges that Thomas, 51, used his leadership position in and knowledge of the LDS Church to earn the man's friendship. The man reportedly had saved more than $400,000 throughout the course of his life, and when he turned it over to Thomas, he believed it was secured with property and promissory notes. Thomas made token...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City's Catholic bishop has become the highest-ranking U.S. Catholic official indicted on a charge of failing to protect children after he and his diocese waited five months to tell police about hundreds of images of child pornography discovered on a priest's computer, officials said Friday. Bishop Robert Finn, the first U.S. bishop criminally charged with sheltering an abusive clergyman, and the Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Diocese have pleaded not guilty on one count each of failing to report suspected child abuse. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said Finn and the diocese were required...

PROVO -- Thirty-year-old Jose Luis Ortega approached a 13-year-old girl after an adolescent water fight at an LDS Church party in August. The girl had avoided getting wet, an arrest report states, but when Ortega got her alone he "soaked her shirt with a bucket of water." Before the girl could get away, Ortega grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to him, the report reveals. He wrapped his arms around her, "held her fast" and groped her. According to the report, the girl told her LDS bishop about the abuse, but authorities didn't learn about the allegations until...

Bishop Peter A. Libasci Manchester, N.H., Sep 19, 2011 / 12:23 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholics in New Hampshire received a new bishop from Pope Benedict XVI on Sept. 19. Auxiliary Bishop Peter A. Libasci of Rockville Centre, N.Y. will serve as the 10th bishop of Manchester, N.H.“I am grateful to Almighty God who has brought me into being, to my parents who gave me life and to my family, friends and my Holy Catholic Church – all of who have sustained me to this very hour,” said Bishop Libasci.  “These include Bishop William Murphy, my diocesan bishop in Rockville...

The new bishop of a breakaway Lutheran denomination says there will be "no compromise" on the issue of gay pastors with its liberal counterpart, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.Bishop John Bradosky, 59, a native of Greensburg, said while he is open to dialogue between the North American Lutheran Church and the ELCA, there is a limit to what can be agreed to. Closing the breach between the two would "require some really major changes" on the part of the ELCA, Bradosky said. "I'm not sure there is an openness to those kinds of changes," he added. "We're certainly open...

September 13, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The bishop of the Diocese of Saltillo in the Mexican state of Coahuila will be required to “clarify” his views on homosexuality and abortion following revelations of his support for a homosexual organization that celebrates the gay lifestyle, as well as his leadership of two organizations that have advocated the legalization and government provision of abortion, according to national and international media reports. Raul Vera López met earlier this month with various Vatican officials, including Cardinal Marc Ouelette, Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, and William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of...

Readings:• Isa 22:19-23• Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 6, 8• Rom 11:33-36• Mt 16:13-20“The doctrine of the primacy of Peter is just one more of the many errors that the Church of Rome has added to the Christian religion.”So wrote the Presbyterian theologian Loraine Boettner in his 1962 book, Roman Catholicism, a popular work of anti-Catholic polemics. Although the religious landscape has changed significantly since the early 1960s, there are still many non-Catholic Christians today who agree wholeheartedly with Boettner’s assertions. The Papacy is unbiblical! It has no basis in Scripture! Peter was never singled out as a leader of the apostles!...

WHEELING, W.Va. -- A long-serving former bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston died Tuesday, just one day before his 83rd birthday. Bishop Emeritus Bernard W. Schmitt served as the diocese's seventh bishop from 1989 to 2004. During his time as bishop, Schmitt was appointed to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry, the Committee on Marriage and Family and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development Committee. Schmitt was born and raised in Wheeling and graduated from Corpus Christi School and Central Catholic High School. Even throughout his retirement, Schmitt continued to serve the diocese...

Alabama church leaders,..., Episcopal Bishop Henry N. Parsley, Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Baker and United Methodist Bishop William H. Willimon filed suit Monday, Aug. 1,2011, to stop enforcement of Alabama's immigration law. Leaders of the Episcopal, Methodist and Roman Catholic churches in Alabama filed a federal lawsuit this morning to stop enforcement of the state's new immigration law, which they say could strike at the core of their ability to worship. The lawsuit was filed by: the Rt. Rev. Henry N. Parsley Jr., bishop of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Alabama; Rev. William H. Willimon, bishop of the...

...But there was never anything silly, nor light-hearted, nor casual, about Barack Obama's efforts to keep the public's eyes from the basic facts of his life, from birth to his candidacy for president. On the contrary, this opacity is a deliberate policy. Why? The presumptive answer, absent testimony from those involved, is to ensure that real facts interfere as little as possible with the image and narrative that he and his associates have carefully crafted for him. Distinguishing between reality and that narrative would require above all a skeptical attitude, sure to be characterized by Democrats and the media in...

The Washington Post’s culture critic, Philip Kennicott, recently took to the pages of his paper to note the “cognitive dissonance” between ingrained “habits of homophobia” in American culture, on the one hand, and a recognition that “overt bigotry is no longer acceptable in the public square,” on the other. As an example of those who resolve this dissonance by holding fast to their homophobic prejudices, Kennicott cited Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, who had remarked on the similarities between the Empire State’s recent re-definition of marriage and the kind of human engineering attempted by totalitarian states; NRO’s Kathryn Jean...

Catholic Archbishop Nienstedt recently asserted in a letter to state officials that the state budget is a moral document and higher state spending is a moral good. At a time when society needs the Church's teaching more than ever, unfortunately in this case the Archbishop's reasoning creates more confusion than clarity and sheds more heat than light. Many of us who share the Archbishop's faith-based heart for the poor disagree with his conclusion that more state spending is the answer. In secular terms we would call it a confusion of means versus ends. In Catholic terms it is a confusion...

DENVER, Colorado, June 1, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Denver Catholic bishop is warning parents that membership in the Girl Scouts could carry the danger of making their daughters more receptive to the pro-abortion agenda. In a Wednesday column for the Denver Catholic Register, Denver Auxiliary Bishop James D. Conley observes that in the last year a growing number of parents and youth ministers have shared concerns with him over the Girl Scouts alignment with groups advocating abortion. He urges parents to browse for themselves the websites of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and Girl Scouts...

MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- U.S. and British diplomats discussed exerting pressure on Pope Pius XII to be silent about the Nazi deportations of Hungarian Jews, according to newly discovered documentation. The British feared that the wartime pope might make a "radio appeal on behalf of the Jews in Hungary" and that in the course of his broadcast would "also criticize what the Russians are doing in occupied territory." Sir Francis D'Arcy Osborne, the British ambassador to the Vatican, told an American diplomat that "something should be done to prevail upon the pope not to do this as it will have...

FULL TITLE: Catholic bishop enters custody at Ottawa courthouse after pleading guilty to importing child pornography OTTAWA — In an extraordinary move, a Catholic bishop who admitted to importing graphic images and videos of child sexual abuse asked a judge to jail him Wednesday, voluntarily beginning to serve a sentence that will last at least a year. Raymond Lahey, 70, looked back into the courtroom and seemed to take a deep breath before pulling the door to the prisoner’s dock closed behind him and letting himself be led into the back hallway that leads to the cells of the Elgin...

E.W. Jackson's Campaign Kick-Off! Dear Friend, Americans are calling for a new era of leadership, and two weeks ago I announced my intention to answer that call by stepping forward to serve Virginia as its next United States Senator. The history of my family in Virginia dates back to around 1778, the period of the Revolutionary War. Only in American can an heir of former slaves become a candidate for the United States Senate. All of our ancestors suffered to give us this freedom we enjoy, and now that freedom is threatened by oppressive debt, confiscatory taxation and job killing...

RUSSELS (Reuters) - A disgraced former Belgian bishop admitted Thursday that he had abused a second nephew, but said that he did not consider himself a paedophile. Roger Vangheluwe, 74, resigned as bishop of Bruges a year ago after admitting to sexually abusing one nephew and is still awaiting a final verdict from the Vatican. In his first public appearance in a year, Vangheluwe gave a long interview to Belgian television station VT4 that was broadcast live Thursday evening. He began by saying how sorry he was and then gave details of his abuse of two nephews, one for some...

TULSA, Oklahoma, November 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Bishop Edward J. Slattery of Tulsa, Oklahoma also chose not to contribute to the national collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) has confirmed, making him the sixth bishop confirmed to have done so.In a letter to the pastors of his diocese, read at Masses on the weekend of the November 21-22 collection, Bishop Slattery informed the faithful that the funds contributed to the CCHD collection would be reserved for use within the diocese.Msgr. Patrick Brankin told LSN that Bishop Slattery made his decision in the week before the...

Bishop Removes Catholic Tag on Hospital Doing Abortion Bishop Thomas Olmsted of the Diocese of Phoenix has removed the Catholic designation from St. Joseph’s Medical Center because of a controversial abortion it performed last year. http://LifeNews.com/state-5758

A movie starring Anthony Hopkins explores exorcism. The man who wrote the book behind the film talks about what chasing the devil really entails. Matt Baglio’s curiosity was piqued. An exorcism course at a Vatican-affiliated university in Rome? It was an unusual topic. As an American journalist living in the Eternal City, he thought it might make for an interesting article; as a non-practicing Catholic at the time, he approached it with some skepticism. Taught by exorcists and experts in theology, satanic cults, criminology and psychology, the course he took challenged many of his assumptions. But what really intrigued him...

(kreuz.net, Basel) Msgr Felix Gmür is the new Bishop of Basel, according to the Vatican Press Service. Pope Benedict XVI, had assumed the choice of the Basel Cathedral on the Feast of the Nativity of Mary on the 8th of September. Prior to that, Msgr Gmür worked as necktie priest and General Secretary of the Swiss Bishops conference. A further speculation of the protestant journalist and church-hater Micheal Meier, that it would have been Dennis Theurillat (60), has proven itself to be false.

Kansas City Lawsuit Accuses Reno-area Priest of Sexual Assault By Martha Bellisle The Register-Journal October 21, 2010 http://www.rgj.com/article/20101021/NEWS01/101021073/1321/news [Father Tom Cronin leads the Christmas morning mass at Saint Mary in the Mountains Catholic Church in Virginia City on Friday, Dec. 25. 2009. (David B. Parker/RGJ file)] Father Tom Cronin leads the Christmas morning mass at Saint Mary in the Mountains Catholic Church in Virginia City on Friday, Dec. 25. 2009. (David B. Parker/RGJ file) A Catholic priest working in the Reno area was accused in a civil lawsuit filed in Kansas City, Mo., of molesting and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old...

The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium sparked an uproar today after the release of a new translation of a book in which he says the AIDS epidemic is a “sort of inherent justice” resulting from the “mistreatment of the profound nature of human love.” Coming just weeks after a report that detailed the abuse of hundreds of children by Catholic priests over several decades in Belgium, the comments of Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard has plunged the Church into a fresh controversy. Political leaders, media, medical institutions and gay rights campaigners have all lined up to denounce his words....

On Sunday, September 26, 2010, during Holy Mass at St. John's Abbey on the campus of St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, 24 people were refused Holy Communion by Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. They were displaying rainbow buttons and rainbow sashes in direct defiance of the direction of the Diocese and thereby clearly expressing their rejection of the teaching of the Catholic Church. Anyone who comes forward to receive the Holy Eucharist is professing to be in Communion with the Church. That means they accept her moral teaching. This open show of defiance...

Border Patrol agents trying to keep up with the pace of illegal immigration along the southwest border have gotten stuck in a kind of bureaucratic limbo, with a new government report showing federal regulations have stalled projects for months. In one case, it took the Bureau of Land Management almost eight months to issue a permit allowing Border Patrol to move an underground sensor in New Mexico. In another, Border Patrol officials were denied permission to improve maintenance on roads and surveillance in California, forcing the patrol routes north. In another, it took more than four months for the agency...

In time for the upcoming Respect Life Month of October, Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo, North Dakota presided over an annual Mass and led a procession over 700 people to a local abortion clinic last Sunday, encountering oppositional protestors for the first time. The Diocese of Fargo estimated that on Sunday, 700 to 800 people from St. Mary’s Cathedral processed to the local Red River Women’s Clinic, North Dakota’s only abortion facility in downtown Fargo. Director of Communications for the diocese Tanya R. Watterud told CNA that Bishop Aquila led the procession several blocks, carrying a monstrance with Blessed Sacrament...

. . .At a second meeting, Rev. Cooper said that Bishop Ullestad told him "You don't understand. You could be in really serious trouble." Rev. Cooper replied, "Do what you have to do . . . I stand by what I said." Rev. Cooper went on to say that during the meeting there "really was a feeling that either I recant or I was done, at least from the synod's perspective. . ." (full article linked above)

Wednesday September 8, 2010 Bulgarian Bishop Honors Mayor with Award for Banning Gay Pride Parade By Thaddeus M. BaklinskiSOFIA, September 8, 2010, (LifeSiteNews.com) - The mayor of the city of Pazarzhik, Todor Popov, and local lawyer Stefan Yanev have been awarded a prestigious award for their role in keeping a “gay pride” parade out of the city. Bulgarian Orthodox Church Bishop Nikolay of the Plovdiv Diocese presented the pair with the highest order of the Plovdiv Bishopric, the "Holy Apostle Hermas" medal.Last month, municipal authorities in Pazardzhik passed a bylaw banning displays of sexuality in public, a measure intended...

"Of the 264 million acres under BLM management, some 130- to 140-million acres are worthy of consideration as treasured lands. These areas [are] roughly equivalent in size to Colorado and Wyoming combined." -BLM's Treasured Lanscapes paper

America ought to possess a clearly defined and laid out set of municipal jurisdictions; the states having one level of control in governing, while the federal branches of government have their own, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said at The Heritage Foundation Bloggers Briefing on July 27, 2010. Rep. Bishop is on the Tenth Amendment Task Force in Congress. Back in 2007, a quarter of a million people working for the federal government set down and established official bylaws and regulations on the American public, with approximately four thousand joining them in this task each year, Rep. Bishop pointed out. “We...

SPRINGFIELD - As his defense lawyer feared, a videotaped deposition of disgraced Bishop Thomas L. Dupre may soon make the Internet in the wink of a cybereye, after a Hampden Superior Court judge denied his motion to keep the interview from the public.

Concerns about a host of species for decades have prompted standoffs between border and environmental officials. Border officers have limited access to federal lands in some of the most heavily trafficked areas because of the harm the patrols could do to the environment. But pronghorn preservation is popping up more and more as a barrier to Border Patrol and catching the attention of some on Capitol Hill.

As the threat of violence stemming from illegal immigration hangs over federal lands in southern Arizona, an internal memo from 2007 reveals that refuge officers have been spending most of their time struggling to deal with border-related activities instead of protecting wildlife habitat.

Curious, I contacted Lowell and asked him if he was willing to talk to Milbank. Here's what Lowell said: "I would be happy to talk to Dana Milbank and, in fact, I would like to invite him to a picnic. We could walk a mile or so up Peck Canyon from the Atascosa Ranch headquarters past where the body was found, which is being autopsied to the place where five (or more) innocent Mexicans (who claim they had broken only a few Federal laws) were fired on about two weeks ago by gentlemen in black camo shooting AK 47’s, he...

In the months preceding the Obama administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, which reshaped the principles governing the size and purpose of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was busy at work. Its Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development issued various position papers urging the administration to drastically reduce the role and size of the arsenal. Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of Baltimore, previously Archbishop for the Military Services, took the message to venues ranging from a deterrence conference hosted by U.S. Strategic Command (the command responsible for nuclear-strike operations) to the Global Zero Summit in Paris. Bishop Howard...

As if fighting terrorism weren't complicated enough, the United States has a new national security threat to worry about: grizzly bears. Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee say that environmental laws protecting grizzlies and other wild animals along rural portions of the U.S.-Canada border have handcuffed U.S. Border Patrol and Department of Homeland Security agents, potentially making it easier for would-be terrorists to slip into the country.

Iskenderun (AsiaNews) - Today at 4pm local time the funeral will take place of Msgr. Padovese, killed by his driver, Murat Altun, strangely "crazed" last June 3. Meanwhile, new details have emerged on the dynamics and motives of the killing that has prostrated the Turkish Church. The funeral ceremony will be held in the Church of the Annunciation, with the participation of the apostolic nuncio, Mgr. Antonio Lucibello, the Latin bishops of Istanbul and Izmir, the Armenian Catholic Bishop of Istanbul, as well as the priests in Turkey and representatives of international embassies. There will also be a delegate of...

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A Catholic bishop who was a leading figure in Christian communities in the Middle East was stabbed to death at his home in southern Turkey Thursday, and police arrested his driver in connection with the attack. The motive for the killing of Luigi Padovese, apostolic vicar for Anatolia, in the town of Iskenderun was not known. Previous attacks on Christians have raised concerns about the safety of religious minorities in Muslim Turkey. Hatay Provincial Governor Mehmet Celalettin Lekesiz told the state-run news agency Anatolian there was no immediate evidence of a political motive and the bishop's driver...

The starting point for ministering to migrants, refugees, trafficked persons is to understand their situation and all its components, personal, social, economic, political in the light of God’s Word and to recognize its commitment to get involved. Naturally it also has to address those factors that cause their uprootedness. In this commitment the Church is guided by the “permanent principles” of its “social doctrine [that] constitute the very heart of Catholic social teaching.” So said the President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Archbishop Antonio Maria Veglio, in his opening speech at the...

(RNS1) Pope Benedict XVI bestows the pallium (a woolen mantle that denotes the authority of an archbishop) on Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington during a ceremony at the Vatican in 2006. Religion News Service file photo by Joann Keane. | VATICAN CITY (RNS) Is Pope Benedict XVI legally responsible for the actions of U.S. Catholic bishops who mishandled cases of pedophile priests, allowing them to sexually abuse more children? Some plaintiffs’ lawyers are arguing that victims of clerical sex abuse should be able to sue the Vatican itself for damages, in large part because they say bishops are effectively employees...