Free Republic

Thai PM must quit, court rules BANGKOK, Sept 9 (Reuters) - A Thai court said on Tuesday Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej must step down because he violated the constitution by hosting TV cooking shows while in office.

The priest who took part in a women's ordination ceremony has met with his superiors. And this afternoon, the National Catholic Reporter filed this summary: Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois, who concelebrated a Mass at a women’s ordination ceremony earlier this month, has met with leaders of his order religious order, calling the meeting “productive.� Bourgeois told NCR that he and the Maryknoll leadership had agreed that in the future they would work in conjunction on important issues of justice and faith, including the role of women in the church. A report based on the day-long meeting Aug. 18 between Bourgeois...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois will meet Aug. 18 with the three members of his order's General Council to discuss his participation in a recent ceremony sponsored by Roman Catholic Womenpriests. The Aug. 9 ceremony involved what Roman Catholic Womenpriests considers the ordination of Janice Sevre-Duszynska to the priesthood. The organization, which is not recognized by the church, has sponsored numerous ceremonies since 2002 involving reported ordinations of women deacons, priests and bishops. These ceremonies have led to the excommunications of all involved because women cannot be ordained Catholic priests. Father Bourgeois, an internationally known peace and justice...

President-elect Fernando Lugo Asunción, Jul 30, 2008 / 01:52 pm (CNA).- The Holy See has confirmed through the Apostolic Nunciature in Paraguay the loss of the clerical state of former bishop and President-elect Fernando Lugo.In a statement released today and signed by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re, the decree granting a dispensation from the clerical state for Lugo was made public.  “His Excellency the Most Reverend Fernando Armindo Lugo Mendez, S.V.D., Bishop emeritus of San Pedro, requested dispensation from the clerical sate on December 18, 2006, in order to run in the...

Pope Benedict XVI is to decide whether to defrock Fernando Lugo, a Roman Catholic Bishop, following his election as President of Paraguay, Vatican sources said today. Mr Lugo, 56, a former Divine Word missionary and Bishop, was elected President of Paraguay with 41 per cent of the vote with a platform of land reform and help for the poor. His election ended over 60 years of rule by the Colorado Party, whose candidate Blanca Ovelar received 31 per cent of the vote. Mr Lugo was ordained in 1977, and served as a missionary in Ecuador for five years. In 1992...

ST. LOUIS — Archbishop Raymond Burke has begun the process of defrocking the pastor at St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church. Rev. Marek Bozek, 32 and a native of Poland, said Monday that he received a letter from Burke last week, informing him that he should present himself before the archbishop for "canonical admonition." In the letter, Burke said he's begun the process of laicization, or being "dismissed from the clerical state," for Bozek. The letter cited Bozek's participation in schism at the church that has been locked in a battle with the archdiocese over control of its assets and his...

A judge has ruled that disgraced political donor Norman Hsu's 16-year-old plea to a fraud charge remains in effect, meaning the one-time Democratic rainmaker is likely headed to state prison. Superior Court Judge Stephen Hall rejected Hsu's bid Friday to dismiss his 1992 no contest plea, and was set to sentence him to three years in state prison. Hsu also faces federal charges in New York. Hsu's lawyers asked the judge to toss his plea, arguing his right to a speedy trial was violated because authorities weren't actively pursuing him during his years as a fugitive. They could easily have...

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI has removed an Illinois monsignor from the priesthood after allegations of sexual misconduct, church officials said. Monsignor Eugene Costa, 57, of Springfield, is the former pastor of St. John Vianney Church in Sherman and Holy Family Church in Athens, and has been on leave since January 2005. Because the pope removed him, the action can’t be appealed, said Kathie Sass, a spokeswoman [for] the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield said Friday. Costa, once chancellor of the Springfield diocese, also no longer is permitted to perform priestly ministries or call himself “father,” she said.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A military judge has refused a Pentagon request to reconsider his dismissal of charges against a Guantanamo Bay detainee accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan. The judge, Army Col. Peter Brownback, ruled Friday that the government's renewed legal argument has not resolved a lack of jurisdiction in the case of Omar Khadr, a Canadian who was 15 when he was arrested on an Afghan battlefield in 2002. Khadr is one of two detainees whose military trials fell apart because they were not identified as "unlawful" enemy combatants. A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey...

Fitzgerald given way out of Libby CIA leak case Judge says he can dismiss case if classified secrets will be revealed Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP file Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, indicted on perjury and obstruction charges last year in the CIA leak scandal, will have closed hearing to determine if he may use classified material as part of his defense. Judge withholds classified docs from Libby • Closed hearings ordered in Libby CIA leak case • NBC: Libby to invoke memory defense • Ruling a potential break for Libby Most Popular • Most Viewed •...

Three more priests accused of sexually abusing children have been defrocked, bringing to 17 the number of priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese who have been defrocked since the clergy abuse scandal broke four years ago.The Vatican defrocked Edward V. Avery, Stanley M. Gana and James E. McGuire over credible allegations of abuse, the archdiocese announced in a notice Thursday inside its weekly newspaper, the Catholic Standard & Times.None of the 17 priests faces criminal charges because of Pennsylvania's statute of limitations for prosecuting sex crimes. Avery, Gana and McGuire were named in a grand jury report released in September that...

CINCINNATI -- The Vatican has removed from the priesthood a man accused of sexually abusing girls at a Catholic high school where he was chaplain.Thomas Brunner, who resigned in 2003 as pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Troy, is permanently stripped of all clerical functions and privileges, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati said Wednesday. Brunner had been on administrative leave, barred from functioning as a priest, because of the abuse accusations stemming from his time at Mount Notre Dame High in the late 1970s and 1980s.Pope Benedict XVI approved Brunner's petition for what the church calls "laicization." Brunner signed documents...

The Vatican has defrocked a local priest accused of sexually abusing an altar boy who later committed suicide, the Archdiocese of Seattle announced Monday.Gerald Moffat, 75, most recently a pastor at St. Hubert Parish in Langley on Whidbey Island, had been on administrative leave since July 2002, when molestation allegations against him first surfaced. Moffat continues to deny the accusations, according to his attorney Steven Moen, who represented Moffat in two lawsuits involving accusations of sex abuse.The archdiocese's announcement comes little more than three years after one of Moffat's alleged victims, Jeff Alfieri, committed suicide in the parking lot of...

San Diego police Sgt. Martha Sainz, who was accused of physically attacking a subordinate officer in front of children, has been notified she is being fired, police sources said. Sainz was served with papers about two weeks ago indicating that she is being terminated in connection with the incident at a camp for sixth-graders, said the sources, who declined to be named because personnel matters are confidential. The firing is not effective until her appeals within the department are exhausted. Sainz's attorney, Donovan Jacobs, declined to discuss the case or disclose whether his client plans to appeal. “We're not going...

SAN BERNARDINO (AP) - In a rare heresy trial, the local diocese has convicted and excommunicated a priest who joined a denomination that doubts papal infallibility and doesn't follow church teachings on homosexuality, abortion and ordination of women clergy. The Rev. Ned Reidy received a 30-page letter last week notifying him that a three-priest tribunal of the Diocese of San Bernardino had found him guilty of heresy and schism and that his authority to conduct priestly functions was revoked. The one-day trial was held Dec. 13. Reidy said he would not appeal the decision because he has not considered himself...

A 73-year-old Roman Catholic priest was in hiding last night after it was disclosed that he had a child by his 31-year-old mistress. Fr Maurice "Mossy" Dillane, described as youthful, with a golf handicap of six, was a popular priest admired for his charisma, community work and liberal views. But parishioners were shocked to learn that he had fallen in love with a woman 42 years his junior and had recently fathered a son. Fr Dillane has resigned from his duties as curate at the Woodford-Looscaun parish in Co Galway as a result of the birth of the baby boy...

LOS ANGELES -- A rare heresy trial was held Tuesday for a Roman Catholic priest who joined a denomination that doesn't accept papal infallibility and has ordained women clergy. The Rev. Ned Reidy did not attend the one-day closed trial, which was conducted by three priests at the Diocese of San Bernardino. Reidy, 69, called the trial "medieval" and contends it has no authority because he stopped being a Roman Catholic in 1999. Rev. Howard Lincoln, spokesman for the diocese, said Reidy was automatically excommunicated when he went to another denomination, but under church law he remains a Roman Catholic...

A NEW South Wales priest excommunicated from the Catholic Church has been stripped of his holy orders and responsibilities by the Pope because of his association with William Kamm's religious sect. Kamm, known to his followers as The Little Pebble, was last month jailed for at least three-and-a-half years for indecently assaulting a then 15-year-old member of his outlawed Order of St Charbel, at Cambewarra, near Nowra on the south coast. Malcolm Broussard, who has been with the sect for 20 years, is a self-proclaimed bishop and major superior residing in the Cambewarra community known as Gethsemene. One of Kamm's...

The Vatican has decided that two local priests accused of child sexual abuse — the Revs. George Barry Ashwell and David P. Jaeger — will no longer serve as priests, the Seattle Roman Catholic Archdiocese announced Monday.The Vatican defrocked Ashwell, 62, who served in several local parishes, including more than two decades as pastor of St. Augustine Church in Oak Harbor. Defrocking — or, in church terms, "forcible laicization" — is the most severe church penalty available in the abuse cases that have come to light nationwide since 2002.The Vatican granted Jaeger's request to leave the priesthood — a "voluntary...

CHAPEL HILL -- The dismissal of a writer from a student newspaper over a controversial column usually would stir a tempest only on campus. But not at UNC-Chapel Hill, a frequent battleground in the national culture wars. In the first sentence of her opinion column Tuesday in The Daily Tar Heel, Jillian Bandes wrote: "I want all Arabs to be stripped naked and cavity-searched if they get within 100 yards of an airport." Referring to conservative writer Ann Coulter's comment that if she ever wanted physical intimacy, she would walk through airport security, Bandes wrote: "I want Arabs to get...

If two suspended Catholic priests in the Madison Diocese are found guilty of sexual abuse in trials conducted by the church, they could join the growing ranks of defrocked predators sent into the community with no supervision. At a time of heightened national concern about the need to track sex offenders, the Catholic Church in America has begun cutting loose dozens - perhaps hundreds - of priests who have molested children. The church had already suspended the clerics after finding the child-abuse allegations against them to be credible. Now, as it defrocks them, expelling them from the priesthood, the men...

Defrocked molesters fall below the radar At a time of heightened national concern about the need to track sex offenders, the Catholic Church in America has begun cutting loose dozens - perhaps hundreds - of priests who have molested children. The church had already suspended the clerics after finding the child-abuse allegations against them to be credible. Now, as it defrocks them, expelling them from the priesthood, the men are quietly reentering civilian life with only the barest notice to the public, and no ongoing oversight by the church. Nor is law enforcement certain to be watching them.

The Vatican has defrocked the priest who was the first in Massachusetts convicted of sexual abuse more than two decades ago, the Boston Archdiocese said Friday.In 1984, Eugene O'Sullivan was sentenced to probation after he admitted sodomizing a 13-year-old altar boy. A condition of his sentence was that he not be allowed to work with children.But O'Sullivan was later assigned to four New Jersey parishes. He was recalled to Boston in 1992 after church officials learned of another allegation against him dating to his time in Massachusetts.The Vatican's action to defrock O'Sullivan means he may no longer function as a...

The Vatican has defrocked six priests from the Archdiocese of New York — including one who paid for sex with an underage boy and another who was convicted of sodomizing a drunken teen, officials said yesterday. All the men lost their pensions and will not be allowed to perform priestly duties and were stripped of their collars by the Roman Catholic Church following allegations of sexual abuse. A seventh priest, who was also accused of sexual abuse, Rev. Alfred Gallant, of Orange County, was allowed to retain his title of priest and keep his pension, but not allowed to perform...

PHILADELPHIA -- Seven more priests removed from their duties by the Philadelphia Archdiocese in recent years for allegedly abusing minors have been defrocked by the Vatican, the archdiocese announced Thursday.Among them, the priests had served in about 35 parishes and five Catholic high schools across the Philadelphia region over the past four decades.The seven had been removed from their ministerial duties in the archdiocese years ago. The Vatican's decision to laicize, or permanently remove them, is the most serious action the Roman Catholic Church can take against a priest. They are barred from ever administering sacraments or serving as priests...

(Boston - AP) — The Vatican has defrocked six priests from the Boston archdiocese who were accused of sexually abusing children.They include John Connell, Denis Conte, Peter Frost, John Hanlon, Richard Matte and Paul David White.The men may no longer act as priests, except to offer absolution to the dying.They are also no longer part of the archdiocese and are cut off from any financial support.Connell was accused in a civil suit of molesting a twelve-year-old boy while spending a week with him in a Florida hotel during the mid 1970's.In 1994, the archdiocese removed him as chaplain at St....

MANCHESTER — Ronald E. Corriveau, accused of molesting a teenage boy in Manchester in 1982 and possessing Internet pornography three years ago, is the first Roman Catholic diocesan priest in New Hampshire to be defrocked since the clergy sexual abuse scandal became public in early 2002, the diocese announced yesterday. The late Pope John Paul II made the decision to laicize Corriveau, 60, on March 21, less than two weeks before the Pontiff's death. "By virtue of this decree, Ronald Corriveau is no longer bound to the obligations of the sacred priesthood, has no faculties to act as a priest...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Federal prosecutors are appealing a judge's dismissal of a Chinese-American business woman accused of copying classified intelligence documents. Katrina Leung, 60, is accused of taking documents from the briefcase of her longtime FBI handler, James J. Smith, with whom she was having an affair. Prosecutors accused Leung of secretly working for the Chinese government but never charged her with giving the documents to a foreign government. In January, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper dismissed the case, saying prosecutors engaged in misconduct by keeping Smith from communicating with Leung and her attorneys. A notice of appeal was...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Attorneys for Katrina Leung, who was accused of using her romantic ties with a retired FBI agent to gain access to classified documents, asked a federal judge Wednesday to reject the government's bid to reinstate the case. U.S. District Judge Florence Marie Cooper dismissed all charges against Leung last month, saying prosecutors deliberately tried to keep defense attorneys from preparing properly for trial. A motion asking the judge to reconsider was filed this month. On Wednesday, Leung's attorneys submitted a 35-page response that called the motion "procedurally impermissible and substantively wrong." "The court's dismissal order was...

NEW YORK WashingtonPost.com is no longer running the cartoons of hard-hitting liberal Ted Rall. Rall said he thinks the site dropped his work because of a Nov. 4 cartoon he did showing a drooling, mentally handicapped student taking over a classroom. "The idea was to draw an analogy to the electorate -- in essence, the idiots are now running the country," he told E&P. "That cartoon certainly drew a significant amount of negative comment from our users," said WashingtonPost.com Executive Editor Doug Feaver when contacted by E&P. But he added that the decision to drop Rall was a "cumulative" one...

Nearly four years have elapsed since the Oslo process (1993-2000) between Israelis and Palestinians foundered in bloodshed. Over that period, two U.S. administrations have tried to forge policies that would reduce the violence and point toward a solution to the conflict.It has not been a single-minded pursuit. Since September 11, 2001, the prime focus of Washington has been the management of unprecedented U.S. military interventions in the region, which removed regimes from power in Afghanistan and Iraq. The notion of Israeli-Palestinian peace as the key to regional stability has been replaced by the war on terror and the insistence on...

WASHINGTON - A group of congressional Democrats is asking President Bush (news - web sites) to dismiss a senior military intelligence officer who made church speeches that included inflammatory religious remarks while discussing the war on terrorism. In a letter to Bush released Thursday, Rep. Barney Frank (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., and 10 others said action in the matter of Lt. Gen. William Boykin is long overdue, and he must be removed from his post as deputy undersecretary for defense. A Pentagon (news - web sites) investigation concluded that Boykin violated regulations by failing to make clear he was...

Kobe Bryant's legal drama may soon be over.ABC News is reporting Wednesday afternoon that the prosecution in the Bryant case will ask the judge later in the day to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning the case cannot ever be brought back for trial. According to the report, the accuser has told prosecutors she is no longer willing to testify. The trial is set to resume at 7:45 p.m. ET. A news conference, originally scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, was not held. NBC News was reporting that the request for dismissal would be without prejudice, meaning a future trial would...

Defrocked Priest Starts Own Church Joseph Collova Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Young Man POSTED: 11:32 AM CDT July 16, 2004 A Roman Catholic priest defrocked over sexual abuse allegations has started his own church in western Waukesha County.Just last week, the Milwaukee Archdiocese listed Joseph Collova (pictured, right) on its restricted priest list.At the same time, however, the Milwaukee Archdiocese said his ordination in another religion severs all ties Collova once had with the Roman Catholic Church.Milwaukee's Roman Catholic Archdiocese removed Collova from parish duties after a young man accused him of repeated sexual assaults. Collova was recently ordained in...

McLEAN - The Vatican has defrocked a 76-year-old priest who was charged with child abuse 20 years ago and afterward served for nearly a dozen years at a Fairfax parish, the Arlington Diocese announced yesterday. Andrew Krafcik, who was charged with child abuse in Henrico County in 1984, was "dismissed from the clerical state" Saturday, according to Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde. The Vatican's decision means that Krafcik, who retired in 1996, can no longer serve in any ministry, celebrate Mass, administer the sacraments, wear clerical garb or present himself as a priest. According to the Arlington Diocese, Krafcik was...

The Catholic Diocese of Davenport mailed requests to defrock two priests for sexual misconduct to Vatican representatives this week, and three other requests should be sent Monday, a diocese attorney said.The requests start a canon law process that ends with a decision from the Vatican on whether to remove the men from the priesthood, the most severe penalty that could be inflicted on a priest, diocese officials have said.Ann Green, member of the “Spiritual Healing Team” at Sts. Philip and James Parish in Grand Mound, said it is important for the priests to be defrocked because they should not be...

Source URL: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/jun/04061003.html LifeSite Daily News Thursday June 10, 2004 Canadian Catholic Priest Running for Politics Promises Not to Vote against Abortion ST. JOHN'S, June 10, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Rev. Des McGrath, a retired Catholic priest is running for the New Democratic Party in the current election despite the fact that the Catholic Church forbids priests to run for political office. However the situation is further complicated by the Catholic priest's promise not to vote against abortion. McGrath, the NDP candidate in the Random--Burin--St. George's riding of Newfoundland and Labrador, was featured in the Toronto Star recently as a "pro-life"...

Priest Pleads Guilty To Growing Marijuana The former pastor of Prince of Peace Catholic Church accused of growing marijuana in the church rectory in Norton pleaded guilty Tuesday. The Rev. Richard Arko was given a suspended prison sentence and was placed on probation for two years. Summit County Common Pleas Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove also ordered him to perform 100 hours of community service and undergo random drug testing during his probation period. Arko, 40, was arrested in January by Norton police after an informant purchased a small amount of marijuana from a man living at the rectory. Police served...

<p>Calif. (AP) - Scott Peterson's lawyer, arguing that Modesto Police failed to pursue a "genuine investigation of Laci Peterson's disappearance" last Christmas Eve, is seeking dismissal of double-murder charges against his client.</p> <p>In a 12-page argument filed with Stanislaus County Superior Court on Monday, attorney Mark Geragos maintains the murder charges against Peterson are groundless, and stated that "police - from the very beginning - decided that their job was to put Scott Peterson on death row."</p>

Methodist Committee Tosses Out Charges Against Chicago BishopConservative Church Leaders Predicted Trial Would Never Come By Fred Jackson and Jody BrownFebruary 19, 2003(AgapePress) - A committee of United Methodist Church (UMC) bishops has dismissed charges against a fellow bishop who denies the basic biblical teachings about Jesus Christ.Many United Methodist members have expressed outrage over statements made by Bishop Joseph Sprague of Chicago. They say he has denied the virgin birth, the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.Based on that, a group of about 30 Methodists filed charges...

<p>School Board removes North DeSoto principal Vickie Welborn / The Times Mansfield Bureau Posted on December 18, 2002 MANSFIELD - With a 7-4 vote, the DeSoto Parish School Board on Tuesday night ended Diane Troquille's tenure as principal of North DeSoto High School - a position she has held for the past nine years.</p>