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A German Catholic priest has admitted 280 counts of sexual abuse involving three boys over almost a decade, the BBC reported. About 2,800 pornographic images -- including several of his victims -- were found on the priest's computer. Named only as Andreas L, the priest, 46, told a court in Braunschweig he did not think he was doing harm.

The Shrine of Fatima, which replaced the Vatican as the authority of the Catholic Church in 1960, was also built as an observatory. Up to 300,000 people are rumored to be in the Shrine's courtyard Wednesday night/Thursday morning to witness Our Lady's Seventh and Final Visit at Fatima, which apparently is the beginning of the 7 week Tribulation. Click on the images to enlarge. This is all we can tell you at the moment...this is all we know right now...more coverage here... This is apparently the first time that the planets have been aligned this sharply since the star over...

On January 16, Comedy Central aired "Denis Leary & Friends Present Douchebags & Donuts." On January 18, Comedy Central Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment released the DVD nationwide. The opening segment of this video is addressed by Bill Donohue today: The standup special opens with a clip of Pope Benedict XVI talking to a crowd. But there is a voice-over that is dubbed in to make it seem like he is discussing priestly sexual abuse. Leary then appears on a stage with a large illuminated Cross in the background; he prances around extending his middle finger at it. On...

By the year 1000, the simple gospel had accumulated extensive ecclesiastical baggage. No longer was there only one mediator between God and man. The spiritually penitent had to seek the intervention of a priest — whether the priest was moral or not — by means of the confessional. And the priest, as the “representative of Christ,” assumed the right to “absolve” the sins of the sinner or — as an alternative — require acts of penance, often in the form of monetary gifts to the Church. Additionally, the priest might also require the spiritually penitent to seek the mediation of...

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...

Full Title: California priest placed on leave, reportedly concelebrated with Protestant pastor Bishop Tod Brown of Orange has placed Father Augustin Escobar on leave following reports that he permitted a Protestant pastor to act as a concelebrant during Mass and to distribute Holy Communion. Concelebrating Mass with ministers of ecclesial communities that do not have apostolic succession is an “exceptionally serious” crime against the sacraments, according to canonical norms currently in force. Violation of the norm falls under the purview of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and may result in dismissal from the clerical state without an...

A Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to inappropriately touching an 11-year-old Fairfax County girl last year was sentenced Friday to nine months in jail. In September, he pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual battery. Owino, a native of Kenya, is a member of the Apostles of Jesus missionary congregation, an African congregation of priests and brothers. He had been serving as a philosophy instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia and as an associate pastor at St. Paul Roman Catholic Church in Weirton, W.Va. Owino did not exactly apologize when given the opportunity to speak...but instead prayed aloud for several...

Jesus said that the truth will set us free. (John 8:32) However, He did not say that the truth would necessarily be easy to accept. It was painful for me to learn the information that I am about to share with you, but it was also liberating and it led to a closer relationship with God. As a faithful Catholic, and later as a nun, I practiced Mary worship for many years without realizing it. The prayers and practices were so familiar. They were taught to me by good people, sincere people that I trusted. I prayed rosaries and wore...

In the book of Judges we read about another generation which arose, which knew neither the Lord nor what He had done (Judges 2:10). Today, it appears that a generation has arisen, which like Israel under the Judges, knows little of either the Lord nor of what He did during the time of the Protestant exodus and the struggles in the wilderness, which followed in the 16th and 17th century. Sometimes this is from a cowardly dislike of controversy and confrontation. But few people seem to understand either the evils from which the Reformation delivered us or the blessings which...

HINDUS HAVE applauded Pope Benedict for including verse from ancient Hindu scripture Upanishads in the Good Friday Meditations and Prayers led by him at Roman Colosseum. Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that it was a remarkable gesture from Pope and invited him to study more ancient Hindu scriptures, which were very rich in philosophical thought. He or other Hindu scholars would gladly provide the help and resources in this regard, if asked, Zed added. Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, also commended His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for inclusion...

For the 35th year in a row, the St. Louis Archdiocese this Sunday will hold a special mass honoring the life and works of Martin Luther King Jr. And for the third year in a row, the blog St. Louis Catholic is bitching about it. Why? Because, per St. Louis Catholic, "it is grossly inappropriate to celebrate a Mass 'in honor' of a non-Catholic. Period." The St. Louis Catholic notes that while MLK Jr. did accomplish "wonderful things" in the field of civil rights, there were "certain sinful behaviors in his personal life" that shouldn't be overlooked. Moreover, how can...

Church officials say 87,000 Austrian Catholics left in 2010. That's a 64 per cent increase over the 53,000 who formally had their names struck from church registries in 2009. [SNIP] Austrian law forces residents registered as followers of most recognized religions to pay a small percentage of their earnings toward support of their churches or temples.

What did Jesus (not) say about... His mother, Mary? "You know what you lot's problem is? You just don't think enough about My mother." I've often had two thoughts about Mary: I dearly hope that her heavenly bliss has not been spoiled by the knowledge of how monstrously men came to pervert her significance and place in relation to her Son. And... In that view, I've thought that my article on Mary in a Bible dictionary might read, "The mother of Jesus. A pivotal yet minor figure in the New Testament, mentioned by name in only four books." On the...

In the sermon descriptively entitled, “That Hearing and Keeping the Word of God Renders a Person More Blessed Than Any Other Privilege That Ever God Bestowed on Any of the Children of Men,” Jonathan Edwards writes: The hearing and keeping the word of God brings the happiness of a spiritual union and communion with God. ‘Tis a greater blessedness to have spiritual communion with God and to have a saving intercourse with him by the instances of his Spirit and by the exercise of true devotion than it is to converse with God externally, to see the visible representation and...

Roman Catholics constantly attack the Protestant distinction between the visible and invisible aspects of the church. For a classic statement of the Protestant distinction, see chap. 5 of the Westminster Confession. Bryan Cross has coined the phrase “Ecclesial “Docetism” (doesn’t that just send shivers up your spine!) to designate this altogether appalling distinction. But what’s ironic about all this is that Catholic epologists like Bryan have a conception of The One True Church® which is at least as dualistic or “Docetic” as the Protestant conception (or their caricature of the Protestant conception). Catholic apologists constantly alternate between two One Church(es)....

............The Historical Evidence The Roman Catholic Church claims that this doctrine, like all of their other distinctive doctrines, has the “unanimous consent of the Fathers” (contra unanimen consensum Patrum).[10] They argue that what they teach concerning the Immaculate Conception has been the historic belief of the Christian Church since the very beginning. As Ineffabilis Deus puts it, The Catholic Church, directed by the Holy Spirit of God… has ever held as divinely revealed and as contained in the deposit of heavenly revelation this doctrine concerning the original innocence of the august Virgin… and thus has never ceased to explain, to...

1 Timothy 2:5 ...one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There is NO debate here: God's Word clearly points out who the mediator is between God and men: i.e., Christ Jesus If you believe in God's Word, who is Christ Jesus: The Word of God, then 1 Timothy 2:5 will be easily be understood as Christ the mediator.

22 July 2010 NY Times, Boston Globe and THEIR “Zero Tolerance” rule CATEGORY: Biased Media Coverage — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 12:32 pm From The Catholic League with my emphases and comments: BOSTON GLOBE & NYT LACK "ZERO TOLERANCE" RULE Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows: Yesterday, a Boston Globe editorial unfavorably compared the Vatican to the American bishops, saying that "Until the church adopts a zero-tolerance policy, justice cannot be served…." On July 9 and July 17, the New York Times, which owns the Globe, ran editorials voicing the same criticism. The Times editorial of July 17...

Quixicated emphases in color and/or bold appear below within some paragraphs. The headings in bold are in the original. Some extra paragraphing also injected.].... Every time I hear someone claim to be an “ex-Catholic”, a sense of sadness comes over me.  In just about every case, people leave the Catholic Faith due to a lack of understanding.  What unmitigated balderdash! What a cop-out! What a brazen distortion of reality! Far from "just about every case," probably a major chunk of such folks were heavily well trained in the hallowed halls of the Institution. Many were instructors--even Catechism instructors for...

Are the Belgian judicial authorities gunning for Godfried? It looks like Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the popular grandfatherly Catholic prelate who stepped down in January as archbishop of Brussels-Mechelen after three decades, is the main target of the incredible “tomb raider” sweeps that shocked the Church last Thursday. The police who swooped down on the diocesan headquarters in Mechelen, Danneels’s own apartment nearby and the offices of the Church commission on abuse in Leuven did not suspect the cardinal of abuse himself. But it seems the investigating magistrate behind the raid is convinced that Danneels hushed up cases during his long...

VATICAN CITY (AP) - The pope on Sunday called the raids carried out by Belgian police investigating priestly sex abuse "deplorable" and asserted the right of the Catholic Church to investigate abuse alongside civil law enforcement authorities. Pope Benedict XVI issued a message Sunday to the head of the Belgian bishops' conference, Monsignor Andre-Joseph Leonard, expressing his solidarity with all Belgian bishops "in this sad moment." The June 24 raids targeted the home and office of a retired archbishop and also the graves of two prelates. The Vatican has slowly ratcheted up its criticism of the searches...

Queen of controversy Lady Gaga is making headlines for yet another racy video featuring highly sexualized material combined with religious imagery. But while some argue Gaga has crossed the line between edgy and tasteless, her use of distorted Catholic imagery speaks to a rising trend in Hollywood. The pop princess, real name Stefani Germanotta, recently released the music video for her single “Alejandro” and has sparked quite the outcry given its saturation of controversial imagery, including her swallowing rosary beads in a latex-version of a nun’s habit, holding the crucifix in front of her crotch and simulating group sex with...

Catholic scholar George Weigel. Washington D.C., Jun 8, 2010 / 06:10 am (CNA).- Noted Catholic scholar and commentator George Weigel has reacted to strongly to Time Magazine's recent 10-page spread criticizing the Catholic Church as “nonsense,” and has offered counter points to several accusations the magazine raised.In a National Review Online article last week, Weigel addressed Time's June 7 cover story titled, “Why Being Pope Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry,” and responded to what he believes to be multiple erroneous claims that the feature story presented. According to the scholar, Time printed “significant misunderstandings” about the Catholic...

GIVE IT ALL TO . . . ? . . . . --A Research Thread-- . . . . 7 “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. 8 Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! 9 Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. 10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 11...

Perhaps the term "bigot" is overused these days, particularly by the libertine left when referring to those of us who oppose the homosexual lobby, which in turn promotes the homosexual lifestyle and same-sex "marriage" and denigrates the traditional family unit. (The homosexual lobby often supports the abortion industry as well.) Yet bigotry does exist — and we orthodox Christians bear the brunt of it. Consider: Abortion and homosexual activists frequently exhibit bigotry toward us. Vicious secular humanists such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins frequently exhibit bigotry toward us. And then there's the bigotry exhibited by some Protestants toward Catholics...

Roseanne: "The pedo priests are trying to cover up the number of LITTLE GIRLS they have molested too, as if that doesn't matter as much as what happens to boys. Trust me, the number of girls raped and molested by priests is at least double the boys. They are trying to cover it all up so that they can end up purging gay priests, and laying the blame on them. The fact is pedos like to rape both boys and girls, and only a small number of pedos are exclusively into male children. I am starting to think that any...

Rabbi Jack Bemporad. Carlstadt, N.J., Apr 7, 2010 / 03:05 am (CNA).- In an interview with CNA on Tuesday, Rabbi Jack Bemporad commented on the recent media onslaught concerning the Holy Father, calling the coverage “one dimensional” and saying that the depiction of the Church in the media has not been given “proper context.”Rabbi Bemporad, director of the New Jersey-based Center for Interreligious Understanding, was recently quoted as a lone voice in an Associated Press article in which other Jewish leaders denounced the papal preacher, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, for his comments likening the media depiction of the Church to...

Nurse Shirley Chaplin. London, England, Apr 7, 2010 / 12:46 am (CNA).- A Christian nurse in Britain lost a discrimination claim on Tuesday after fighting a policy that barred her from wearing her crucifix to work.Shirley Chaplin, 54, was told by the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust Hospital last year that the crucifix she has worn for almost 40 years on the job without incident needed to be removed for “health and safety reasons.” Chaplin refused to comply and consequently took the hospital to an Employment Tribunal which ruled on Tuesday that Chaplin is not facing discrimination, as...

Bill McGurn New York City, N.Y., Apr 7, 2010 / 06:31 am (CNA).- Claims that Pope Benedict declined to defrock a Milwaukee priest who molested deaf students rely upon documents supplied by a leading lawyer in lawsuits against the Catholic Church, Bill McGurn reports. He charges that the New York Times did not sufficiently disclose this connection and advises more “journalistic skepticism” about the narrative of an attorney who stands to make millions. The attorney in question has charged that Pope Benedict is the head of an “international conspiracy” to cover up crimes and evade the law.In a Tuesday...

On her April 5 satellite radio show, Rosie O'Donnell took her anti-Catholicism to a new level by likening the Catholic Church to the Jonestown cult. As Brian Maloney of The Radio Equalizer put it, "in Rosie's twisted world, there's really no distinction to be made between the Pope and Jim Jones, murderous cult leader responsible for the deaths of more than 900 people in the Guyanese jungle." O'Donnell certainly has a past of Catholic/Christian bashing. On the April 19, 2007 edition of ABC's The View, she expressed her concern that having five Catholic Supreme Court justice somehow violated the separation...

By now everyone in San Diego has surely heard of Joe Biden's well-publicized remark to President Obama after the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 3962, The Affordable Health Care for America Act, when Biden turned to embrace Barack and said "This is a big (expletive) deal!" Joe Biden, known for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, is also known as a practicing Catholic - recently seen with a smudge of ash on his forehead from Ash Wednesday. So far Joe Biden, the cussing Catholic, has yet to apologize to the American people, or, as far as we...

Stop adding keywords to articles to slam others, e.g. catholicbashing, agendadrivenfreepers, moapc, catholicwhiners.

Question: How can all these denominations claim to follow the bible yet all come to different conclusions? How can I possibly know which one of those above teach the truth when they can't even agree on what the Bible says? Protestants believe a variety of doctrines and all claim to take their doctrines from the Bible. That doesn't really sound like perspicuity to me. 'Bible alone' has created so much havoc in this world. Answer: You rashly attribute the differences of opinions among Christians to 'Sola Sciptura' - namely, the Protestant belief that the Holy Scripture is the only infallible...

Question: "Catholic vs. Protestant - why is there so much animosity?" Answer: This is a simple question with a complicated answer, because there are varying degrees of, and reasons for, animosity between any two religious groups. This particular battle is rooted in history. Degrees of reaction have ranged from friendly disagreement (as reflected in the numerous ecumenical dialogues produced between the two groups), to outright persecution and murder of Protestants at the hands of Rome. Reformation teachings that identify the Pope as the Beast of Revelation and / or Roman Catholicism as Mystery Babylon are still common among Protestants. Clearly,...

The fundamental dispute between Protestants and Catholics on Salvation was and is due mostly to a "misunderstanding", because the key terms are used in different senses. A First Similarity: Faith and Works: Apparently Catholics and Protestants disagree about the relationship between faith and works on salvation, however, both agree in two important facts: 1- That faith is absolutely necessary for salvation. 2- That we are absolutely commanded by God to do good works. Both these two points are unmistakably clear in Scripture, and both Protestants and Catholics give to faith in Christ a unique rule on salvation, and both try...

The argument is often made that the Catholic Church gave us the Bible, but this could not be further from the truth. Only God could give us the Bible. It was originally authored by Him (II Tim. 3:16) and then preserved by Him (Psalm 12:6-7). The confusion, however, comes from the two streams of Scripture that came out of the Middle East after the time of Christ. The Christians were first called Christians at Antioch, where they diligently copied the Scriptures, and spread them throughout the world. However, Alexandria was the home of “scholars” who gloried in their knowledge (Jer....

The prayer life of the Roman Catholic is quite different from the Bible believing Christian. The predominant prayer in the life of almost any catholic is the "Hail Mary." It goes like this: "HAIL MARY FULL OF GRACE, THE LORD IS WITH THEE. BLESSED ART THOU AMONG WOMEN AND BLESSED IS THE FRUIT OF THY WOMB, JESUS. HOLY MARY, MOTHER OF GOD, PRAY FOR US SINNERS, NOW AND AT THE HOUR OF OUR DEATH. AMEN." The statements made in this prayer are quite significant. Allow us to look at them one at a time and compare them with the word...

Born Irish, in a family of eight, my early childhood was fulfilled and happy. My father was a colonel in the Irish Army until he retired when I was about nine. As a family, we loved to play, sing, and act, all within a military camp in Dublin. We were a typical Irish Roman Catholic family. My father sometimes knelt down to pray at his bedside in a solemn manner. Most evenings we would kneel in the living room to say the Rosary together. No one ever missed Mass on Sundays unless he was seriously ill. By the time I...

You can tell a lot about a man’s moral or spiritual compass by what offends him. For example, many Catholics are oddly thin-skinned when it comes to criticism of their own denomination. At say that’s odd for a couple of reasons. For one thing, their hypersensitivity is strikingly lopsided. After all, a number of Catholic epologists are hardly paragons of decorum in their characterization of the Protestant faith. And, of course, it’s not as if their denomination was conspicuous for its tender treatment of theological opponents in the past. I suppose we could chalk this up to standard issue hypocrisy....

Roman Catholic theology often parallels Mary the mother of Jesus with Jesus Himself in His work of redemption. For example, Jesus is born without the stain of original sin, and so is Mary. Jesus lives a sinless life; so does Mary. Jesus remains a virgin all His life; Mary is Ever-Virgin. Jesus is the Redeemer; Mary is Co-Redemptress. Jesus is the one Mediator between man and God, yet Mary, too, is Mediatrix. Jesus is bodily assumed into heaven; so is Mary. Ascribing Christological attributes such as these to Mary historically has been a source of contention between Protestants (who see...

n a strongly worded appeal that will test their political influence, especially with their pro-life and Republican allies, the Catholic bishops of the United States have told Congress to put politics aside and focus on the "moral imperative" of passing universal health care. "The health care debate, with all its political and ideological conflict, seems to have lost its central moral focus and policy priority, which is to ensure that affordable, quality, life-giving care is available to all," the three bishops who are leading the lobbying effort for the Catholic hierarchy write in a letter sent Tuesday to all 535...

I just witnessed a couple of Orthodox posters get kicked off a "Catholic Caucus" thread. I thought, despite their differences, they had a mutual understanding that each sect was considered "Catholic". Are not the Orthodox considered Catholic? Why do the Romanists get to monopolize the term "Catholic"? I consider myself to be Catholic being a part of the universal church of Christ. Why should one sect be able to use a universal concept to identify themselves in a caucus thread while other Christian denominations need to use specific qualifiers to identify themselves in a caucus thread?

THE MEANING OF THE ROMISH MASS. by H. W. It was a Saturday afternoon in the autumn of 1904, that I entered the Roman Cathedral at Westminster. For some time previous I had been revolving in thought a crucial question. A suspicion had arisen in my mind relative to the real meaning and significance, the true inwardness of that central right and institution of Romanism----the Mass. I had resolved to bring the question to an issue whenever I might find myself in contact with any authorized exponent of the doctrine of transubstantiation. Upon entering the Cathedral, almost the first person...

WAS PETER EVER AT IN ROME? As to the question whether Peter was ever at Rome, the Roman claim is that he suffered martyrdom there with Paul, after a Pontificate of twenty-five years. This would be from A.D. 41 to 66. But note:---- 1. In 44 he was imprisoned in Jerusalem (Acts 12). 2. In 52 he was at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15). 3. In 53 Paul joined him at Antioch (Galatians 2). 4. In 58 Paul wrote to the Romans, but does not mention Peter. In 1:11, he wants to impart special gifts; and in 1:15 he...

ctor Sam Elliott claims that the Catholic Church prevented Hollywood from proceeding with the next two film’s in the His Dark Materials trilogy based on Philip Pullman’s books. “The Catholic Church ... lambasted them,” said Elliott. “I think it scared New Line off.” The film...angered Catholics who accused it of promoting atheism. In the book trilogy, set in a series of parallel worlds, heroine Lyra fights the Magisterium, an evil organisation some have interpreted as being based on the Catholic Church. Pullman, 63, told the Western Mail: "If Sam is right then I am very disappointed because it obviously would...

Folks, this according to the Thomas More Law Center: ANN ARBOR, MI – Tomorrow, December 16, 2009, at 10 AM PST, a panel of eleven judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in San Francisco will hear oral arguments concerning the constitutionality of San Francisco Board of Supervisor’s virulent resolution attacking the Catholic Church for its teachings against homosexual adoptions. The en banc panel will review the earlier opinion of a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit that upheld the resolution. Thomas More Law Center attorney Robert Muise will argue the case on behalf of the plaintiffs in...

The calendar has been produced by the Madrid Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual collective COGAM Controversy in Madrid with the launch of a 2010 lay calendar which shows images of ‘transsexual virgins’ recreating religious scenes decorated with crowns, condoms and phallic symbols. The lay calendar takes the religion out of the dates of the year, so Christmas Day becomes the day you eat the traditional Spanish turron to mark International Democracy Day, for example. The images are all based on famous Catholic images and iconography. The Venezuelan photographer who assembled the calendar, Juan Antinoo, had been commissioned by COGAM, the...

The Pope has called for the world economy to be restructured in line with the principles of "love, truth and charity" in a new encyclical issued today. He urges the reformation of the United Nations and economic institutions to address the global economic crisis, which he links to relativism, globalisation and the abuse of modern technologies. The encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, interpreted variously throughout the document as charity or love in truth, is Pope Benedict XVI's third but his first on social issues. It is timed to coincide with the G8 in Italy and is intended to bring objective moral...

Editor's Note: The movie "Angels and Demons" is considered a financial flop in the United States. It must be noted 70% of revenue generated by Hollywood films derives from foreign viewership. See: http://www.imdb.com/boxoffice/ -- JMZ Disparaging the Catholic Church is the real purpose of the latest Dan Brown/Ron "Opie" Howard movie “Angels and Demons.” Bill Donohue, President of the anti-defamation Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights www.catholicleague.org is demanding a disclaimer as the team who produced "The DaVinci Code" uses the same confusing mix of "fact and fiction" to spin a suspenseful conspiracy tale revolving around a secret ...

DUBLIN – A fiercely debated, long-delayed investigation into Ireland's Roman Catholic-run institutions says priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades — and government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation. Nine years in the making, Wednesday's 2,600-page report sides almost completely with the horrific reports of abuse from former students sent to more than 250 church-run, mostly residential institutions. It concluded that church officials always shielded their orders' pedophiles from arrest to protect their own reputations and, according to documents uncovered in the Vatican, knew that many pedophiles were serial...