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A Catholic priest who previously worked in youth ministry and religious education at churches in Germantown and Bethesda turned himself in to police Tuesday evening in Montgomery County after being charged with abusing a former altar boy. The Rev. Aaron Joseph Cote, 56, worked part time in youth ministry at Mother Seton Parish in Germantown between 1999 and 2002 and part time in religious education at Bethesda’s St. Jane Frances de Chantal Parish between 1997 and 1999. Police allege Cote engaged in “inappropriate touching of” and “inappropriate personal sexual activity” in the presence of a then-14-year-old victim, who was seeing...

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Catholic diocese officials say a priest accused of sexually abusing minors is HIV positive. After the Reverend Philip Magaldi recently told another priest that he has the disease that causes AIDS, the diocese alerted people who have lodged allegations against him. The diocese in Fort Worth said it also notified parishes where Magaldi served. Church officials say they believe Magaldi has been HIV positive since 2003. He was removed as a priest in 1999 after sexual misconduct allegations arose in Rhode Island and Fort Worth.

Gone are the days when Jesuit priests were virile men who fully embraced the Catholic Faith and prayed to be worthy of a martyr's crown. Let's play "compare and contrast", shall we? First, here's a tale from the 1640s in the upstate New York wilderness:He [Fr. Isaac Jogues] did not yet know the cause of his companion's [Rene Goupil] death; but the old man who had caused him to be slain having invited him, some days later, to his cabin, and giving him food, when the Father came to offer the blessing and express the sign of the Cross, that...

On Sunday, November 4th, Rev. Thomas Brennan, S.J., revealed publicly to a parish at St. Joseph University in Philadelphia that he was a homosexual. The priest chose to “come out” during a so-called “Diversity Week” allegedly dedicated to honoring Jesuit founder, St. Ignatius Loyola. The following is Fr. Euteneuer’s open letter to Fr. Brennan.Dear Father Brennan, Faithful Catholics are so accustomed to being scandalized by Jesuit priests and universities these days that your public announcement of your same sex attraction during the Mass last Sunday does not really surprise any of us. It does, however, increase the indignation that people...

VATICAN CITY - A Vatican official suspended after being caught on hidden camera making advances to a young man says he is not gay and was only pretending to be gay as part of his work. In an interview published Sunday, Monsignor Tommaso Stenico told La Repubblica daily he frequented online gay chat rooms and met with gay men as part of his work as a psychoanalyst. He said that he pretended to be gay in order to gather information about "those who damage the image of the Church with homosexual activity." Vatican teaching holds that gays and lesbians should...

VATICAN CITY -- An Italian monsignor was suspended from his position at the Holy See after the cleric said in a television interview he "didn't feel he was sinning" by having sex with gay men, the Vatican and news reports said Saturday. Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told journalists that while the case was under investigation the monsignor was suspended from his job as a top official in the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy, an office which aims to ensure proper conduct by priests. "The case is being handled with utmost reserve," Lombardi said. A private Italian TV network earlier...

In order to raise the cash to make its pederasty payment, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is selling a convent that currently provides a residence for three nuns. The anticipated selling price is a drop in the bucket of the roughly $250 million needed to keep the archbishop out of the witness box meet the Archdiocese's liabilities in the sex-abuse settlements, and the convent is one of about 50 non-parish properties to be sold. The sisters have been asked to vacate the house by the end of December. From the point of view of the archdiocesan business office it's not...

BOCA RATON - A new priest at St. Gregory's Episcopal Church was issued a citation for allegedly soliciting sex in a North Carolina public park's men's room recently. Though the announcement came out this week, police issued a citation for solicitation to the Rev. Michael Penland in June during a Waynesville police sting operation dubbed Operation Summer Heat. Waynesville is located near Asheville, N.C. Penland, who has been a youth minister at the Boca Raton church since November, allegedly followed an undercover officer and solicited sex from him, police said. Penland allegedly followed the officer as he left the park...

SAN DIEGO – The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego reached a $198.1 million agreement with 144 childhood sexual abuse victims Friday morning. The settlement was reached after marathon discussions between attorneys and victims. As part of the settlement, the diocese will also ask a federal bankruptcy judge to dismiss its Chapter 11 case. Another important part of the agreement was the diocese's promise to release church documents about priest abuse, said Irwin M. Zalkin, an attorney for 33 victims in the case. He said that without that concession, the victims would not have agreed to settle their claims. The...

SAN DIEGO -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego said Friday it has agreed to pay $198.1 million to settle 144 claims of sexual abuse by clergy, the second-largest payment by a diocese. The agreement caps more than four years of negotiations in state and federal courts. Earlier this year, the diocese abruptly filed for bankruptcy protection just hours before trial was scheduled to begin on 42 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse. Bankruptcy could shield the diocese's assets, but a judge recently threatened to throw out the bankruptcy case if church officials didn't reach an agreement with the plaintiffs. The...

Massive PR machine? Some say Cardinal Mahony’s willingness to meet with sexual abuse victims nothing more than a public relations stunt Over the past year, Cardinal Roger Mahony has met individually with 70 victims of clergy sexual abuse. Archdiocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg told the July 30 Los Angeles Times that Mahony has scheduled more meetings with sexual abuse victims and that “he has said he will meet with any victim who wants to meet with him.” But Lee Bashworth, 37, who claims abuse by former priest Michael Wempe, told the Times, that, though he would “relish an opportunity to tell...

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay over $600 million to settle claims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in that diocese. This is the latest in a string of multi-million dollar payouts by Catholic diocese throughout the country. Perhaps it is time to take another look at the most comprehensive study of Catholic priest sexual abuse ever conducted. In 2002, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned a national study of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The study, conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, found that nationwide, approximately 4400 Catholic priests were credibly...

WASHINGTON, August 30, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Officially promulgated on August 4, a new 98-page Program of Priestly Formation has been issued by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) after being approved by the Vatican.  Replacing the fourth edition of the norms guiding priestly formation in all seminaries published in 1992, the fifth edition has taken seriously the scandal of priestly sexual abuse.  Speaking of a proper formation in sexuality, the document states, "As we have recently seen so dramatically in the Church, when such foundations are lacking in priests, the consequent suffering and scandals are devastating."In the...

Queens parochial school principal who angered Catholic Church leaders by accusing a priest of looting school coffers to pay for a gay lover has won the backing of a prominent local Catholic educator. "Your courage in stopping this outrage, even at the risk to your own employment, has taught all of your pupils a lesson they will long remember," the Rev. Richard Van Houten, president of Archbishop Molloy High School in Jamaica, wrote to Barbara Samide. Van Houten went so far as to hint in the letter that he would come to Samide's rescue if she is ousted as principal...

Few would dispute that the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin exercised great influence in the Catholic Church in the U.S. Sadly, however, that influence was not for the good of the Church. The following are pertinent excerpts from Randy Engel's new book The Rite of Sodomy. Chapter 15 The Special Case of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Introduction This segment on Joseph Cardinal Bernardin was originally incorporated into the previous chapter on homosexual members of the American hierarchy. However, because of his extraordinary influence on AmChurch, I decided Cardinal Bernardin deserved a chapter all his own. To do real justice to Cardinal Bernardin...

The following is an edited update from Catholic attorney Sharon Bourassa regarding the situation in the Miami archdiocese. (Note: This statement contains a graphic description.) “On March 21, 2006, Stephen Brady of Roman Catholic Faithful drove from Illinois to Fort Lauderdale to meet with Christifidelis members from All Saints Parish and parishioners from several other parishes -- St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Vincent and St. Augustine's.  The subject of Brady's visit was to discuss strategies for dealing with the ‘gay subculture’ that has infiltrated the Miami archdiocese (as well as many other dioceses across the U.S.), abuse of parish monies,...

A new study has found that the scandal over sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church has not caused American Catholics to leave the church, or to stop attending Mass and donating to their parishes. The study shows that Catholic participation in church life and satisfaction with church leadership dropped noticeably at the height of the scandal in 2002, but has now largely rebounded to prescandal levels. The only significant decline is in the percentage of Catholics who contributed to diocesan financial appeals, annual campaigns that are usually run by bishops. While the percentage of Catholics who contributed to their...

"This is an ancient, rigid, secretive, top-down, all-male monarchy. It always has been. It always will be. The answer is not to reform them, but to go around them and to contain them." Whatever constructive role these groups once played in the national “dialogue” about the abuses perpetrated by predatory, largely homosexual priests, it has long since past. In fact, they don’t seek dialogue at all. Clohessy now counsels against dialogue with bishops and instead urges Catholics to lobby state legislatures to exempt dioceses from statutes of limitation that prevent an endless stream of aging, often dubious, claims. High profile...

The Rev. Gerard L. Branconnier, who was removed from ministry after allegations were made that he sexually abused minors, had a gay marriage ministry in operation 15 years before it was legal in this state. However, gay marriage is not “legal” in the Roman Catholic church, which has opposed gay marriage and opposes adoption of children to same-sex couples. Paul A. Guries of Auburn, who settled a suit with the Catholic Worcester diocese, has released a copy of a video that shows Father Branconnier in 1989 marrying two men in a traditional Catholic marriage rite. The video is available here...

ST. PAUL, MN (AP) -- Relatives of a slain funeral home director are objecting to the use of his name for a group trying to fight homosexuality in the Roman Catholic Church. Dr. David Pence, a longtime critic of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, recently formed the Dan O'Connell Society to fight what he considers a "gay culture" in the church. But relatives of O'Connell, who was killed in 2002, allegedly by Wisconsin priest Ryan Erickson, are threatening legal action unless Pence stops using O'Connell's name. The goal of Pence's group, according to its founding documents and Web...

Equipped with gummy bears, lubricant and gay porn, a defrocked Pennsylvania priest was ready for sex with a boy but instead got busted by an undercover cop, police said. Thomas Bender, 72, of Macungie, Pa., was arraigned yesterday in First District Court in Hempstead on five counts of first-degree disseminating indecent material to a minor and one count of attempting to commit a criminal sexual act. Since September 2004, cops said, he engaged in online conversations with a detective who was posing as a teenager. "During that year, he was grooming the boy - or who he thought was a...

A former vice chancellor of the Boston Archdiocese and six other priests accused of molesting children have been defrocked by the Vatican, church officials announced Friday.In a statement, Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley expressed his "deepest sorrow for the grievous harm" done by Monsignor Frederick Ryan and the other Boston priests."The violations of childhood innocence, under the guise of priestly care, are a source of profound shame," O'Malley said.Ryan was one of the highest-ranking church officials to be accused of child molestation since the Boston sex scandal broke in 2002. He resigned that year after being accused of abusing two boys...

ROME (CNS) -- Cardinal-designate William J. Levada said a priest who publicly announces he is homosexual makes it difficult for people to see the priest as representing Christ, the bridegroom of his bride, the church. A public declaration of homosexuality places a priest "at odds with the spousal character of love as revealed by God and imaged in humanity," said the U.S. cardinal-designate, who is prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Cardinal-designate Levada made his remarks during a Feb. 26 homily as he presided over a Mass for the installation of the new rector of Rome's...

How weird it is that I, a layman, had to debate a Catholic bishop on the issue of the problem of homosexuality in the priesthood. It's weird because I was defending the Catholic Church's perennial teaching about this issue and Bishop Gumbleton was taking the position that their being homosexuals in the priesthood is not a problem. It was a brief debate, all of 20 minutes ... but it was enough time to see the two massively different approaches to this issue that Bishop Gumbleton and I took. What are your thoughts? Listen to the show here... [with link to...

Who knows whether Cardinal Edward Egan is sleeping soundly these days. But as head of the New York archdiocese—as the top Roman Catholic prelate in the state—he'd have every reason to be restless after the recent advent of a little-noticed lawsuit. The suit, now pending in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, was filed on December 13 by Bob Hoatson—a 53-year-old New Jersey priest considered a stalwart ally among survivors of sexual abuse by clergy. Hoatson, the now-suspended chaplain for Catholic Charities in Newark, is suing Egan and nine other Catholic officials and institutions, claiming a pattern of "retaliation and harassment"...

February 10, 2006 - Chicago's Francis Cardinal George sent a letter containing an ultimatum to priests. Seemingly stunned by the ongoing issue of priest sex abuse, the cardinal has called for any priest living a double life to come forward for the good of the church. Francis Cardinal George is tending to his wounded flock, dispatching a letter to more than 400 churches across the Archdiocese. In his letter to priests the Cardinal writes: "All of us are sinners, but there are types of perversion that are completely incompatible with the calling toward ordained priesthood." The cardinal apologizes for not...

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - A jury rejected an insanity defense and found prison inmate Joseph Druce guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder in the strangulation of pedophile priest John Geoghan, a central figure in Boston's clergy sex abuse scandal. Druce admitted sneaking into Geoghan's prison cell in August 2003. He jammed the door shut with a book, then beat and strangled the 68-year-old before guards could stop him. The defense had argued that Druce was mentally ill and under the delusion that God had chosen him to kill Geoghan and send a message to pedophiles around the world. Prosecutor Lawrence Murphy...

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - The inmate who strangled child-molesting priest John Geoghan behind bars testified Monday that he resolved to kill the clergyman after Geoghan arrogantly brushed off criticism that he had "destroyed all kinds of lives." Joseph Druce took the stand for a second day at his trial for killing Geoghan, who was serving time for groping a 10-year-old boy and had been accused of molesting 150 other children. Druce, 40, said that in the weeks before the slaying, he twice confronted Geoghan about molesting children. Instead of denying the accusations, Geoghan was "arrogant" and said he was worth...

CHICAGO, January 19, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an annual interview with Chicago Sun Times reporter Cathleen Falsani, Chicago Cardinal Francis George revealed that last year the United States Bishops visiting with the Pope asked the Vatican to delay release of the long-awaited document on homosexuality and the priesthood. The document entitled, "Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders", reinforced Church teaching barring men "who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called 'gay culture'", from becoming priests....

Breaking ranks with his peers, a Roman Catholic bishop called yesterday for state legislatures to temporarily remove the time limits that have prevented many victims of sex abuse from suing the church.In making that extraordinary appeal, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit also unburdened himself of a secret. As a teenager 60 years ago, he said, he was "inappropriately touched" by a priest.Gumbleton, 75, is the first U.S. bishop to disclose that he was a victim of clergy sexual abuse. He is also the first to endorse proposals in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and other states to follow California's example...

San Francisco -- Former Archbishop William Levada was expected to answer questions from lawyers Monday about how the Portland diocese handled priest sex abuse cases during his tenure there. Levada was served with a subpoena Aug. 10, right before he left for Rome to take over as prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the position formerly held by Pope Benedict XVI. It's the highest Vatican post ever held by an American. Levada served as archbishop in Portland from 1986 to 1995 before transferring to San Francisco. In 2004, Portland became the first Catholic diocese in...

MARATHON, ON, January 6, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The pastor of Holy Saviour Catholic parish in Marathon, Ontario, Rev. Scott Gale, announced to his parishioners during Masses on New Years day that he is a homosexual and can no longer stand the Church's requirement that he remain celibate. Citing his "longing for a loving relationship," Gale told his parishioners that he was quitting. "It has become increasingly difficult for me to be an official representative of a Church which does not accept and value my sexual orientation," he said reading from a 2 page letter. Strangely, Fr. Gale has remained in...

THIBODAUX, La. (AP) - Deciding he had to practice the honesty he preached, a popular priest has told his family, his bishop and the people in his parish that he is gay. The Rev. Jim Morrison said he had been working since October on the letter which he sent early this month to 300 members of the congregation at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church and 200 members of the student ministry. He mailed the letter and handed his bishop a copy on Jan. 2, about a month after the Vatican released a policy statement saying people with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies...

As he prepares to be deposed in San Francisco next week, former S.F. Archbishop William Levada may have to come clean about a priestly child molester he protected in Portland. By Ron Russell In April 2004, when questioned under oath by lawyers for victims sexually abused by priests, San Francisco's former archbishop, William J. Levada, was asked about Father Joseph Baccellieri, a parish priest accused of child molestation whom Levada removed from ministry in 1992 while archbishop of Portland. Levada restored Baccellieri to his post two years later. "I believe there was some allegation that occurred while I was there,"...

As Rev. Scott Gale strode through Marathon’s Holy Saviour church Thursday morning, a parishioner sitting in a pew caught his eye and said quietly, “See you on Sunday.” Sundays are typically busy for the outspoken Gale. But the day after tomorrow will be different — likely the last time the veteran cleric will address a congregation as an active priest. Gale, 47, resigned last month after revealing he is gay, and that he is no longer able to commit to being celibate. Most of Holy Saviour’s parishioners learned of Gale’s decision to pursue his “longing for a loving relationship” as...

"At Work in the Vineyard -- Planting, Nurturing, Harvesting" was the theme of this year's conference of the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries, held September 22-25. Participants of the conference, held at the San Jose Hilton, were "out and proud,"with priests admitting their homosexuality and attendees railing against upcoming seminary visits and the approval by Pope Benedict XVI of a document that, some reports have said, would ban homosexuals from the priesthood. San Jose' s Bishop Patrick McGrath gave a welcoming speech on the opening night of the conference. Although the Hilton ballroom was set up...

1. The recent instruction regarding the ordination of homosexuals took, by various accounts, anywhere from five to eight years to write. I realize that things move slowly in Rome, but this may mark a new record in time inefficiently spent. The instruction was not long, it broke no new ground, and it contained no theological obscurities that necessitated long periods of high-level head scratching. It could have been written in a single afternoon. Perhaps it was, after which it was shuffled from one desk to another--for years. If in that time it was seen by many competent eyes, I wonder...

"At Work in the Vineyard -- Planting, Nurturing, Harvesting" was the theme of this year's conference of the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries...Participants ...were "out and proud," with priests admitting their homosexuality and attendees railing against upcoming seminary visits... San Jose' s Bishop Patrick McGrath gave a welcoming speech on the opening night of the conference.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A priest accused of sexually abusing boys more than two decades ago has been dismissed from the priesthood, the Catholic Diocese of Juneau said Sunday. The dismissal of Michael Patrick Nash stems from an investigation that began in late 2002, when a former Juneau resident claimed that he had been abused by Nash in the early 1980s."I am relieved we are coming to a sense of resolution and some conclusion to what all around has been a tragic affair," Bishop Michael Warfel said Sunday.The diocese decided that Joel Post, who now lives in Duluth, Minn., had "suffered...

Despite the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church urging support for a petition against same-sex marriage, only 20 percent of priests who work in the Springfield diocese signed the petition, according to a Web site tracking the issue. Of the 154 active local priests, 31, or 20 percent, signed the petition that seeks to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Information about petition signers was gathered from the Web site of the pro-gay marriage organization, knowthyneighbor.org. Leaders of the organization said their Web site's petition database contains all the names accepted by the Massachusetts Secretary...

SAN FRANCISCO, December 22, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Archbishop George Hugh Niederauer, soon to be installed as the new Archbishop of San Francisco, has told a local news outlet that he is opposed to the Vatican’s prohibition of homosexuals in seminaries. “Some who are seriously mistaken have named sexual orientation as the cause of the recent scandal regarding the sexual abuse of minors by priests,” Niederauer said Monday in an interview with the Intermountain Catholic News. Niederauer referred to the “sexual orientation” of homosexual men, what the Vatican document on ordaining homosexual men called “deep seated homosexual tendencies” as merely “a...

Texas Priest Accused of Groping Teen MARBLE FALLS, Texas (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest accused of groping a 16-year-old boy at a movie theater during a showing of "King Kong" has been charged with indecency with a child by sexual contact. Father Paul M. Clogan, 74, was arrested Friday as he left the theater, police Capt. F.T. Goodwin said in Monday's online edition of the Austin American-Statesman. Clogan was free on bond Monday. Clogan sat next to the teen in the theater, Goodwin said. The boy, who did not know Clogan, told investigators the priest groped him about an...

Father Robert Hoatson, who recently filed a lawsuit against the New York and Newark archdioceses, is now the second priest to go on record as saying that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick abused his authority by "inviting" certain seminarians to sleep with him. (Father James Haley was the first priest to on record about the matter.) Then-Bishop McCarrick reportedly would have the seminarians sleep next to him, but did not engage in sexual activity with them. Recounts Father Hoatson: When I had decided to leave the Irish Christian Brothers to become a priest in 1994, the very first question I asked...

Russian Orthodox back Vatican stance on gays. RUSSIA’S ORTHODOX Church has backed the Vatican’s position on homosexuals in seminaries, and accused Protestant denominations of “succumbing to secular values” over the issue. “Homosexuality was called a sin in Holy Scripture – there’s no possibility of any other interpretation,” said Fr Igor Vyzhanov, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Commission for Inter-Christian Dialogue. “There are certain differences in how we handle candidates for priesthood, since celibacy is obligatory for Catholics whereas Orthodox can marry if they don’t aspire to hierarchical posts. But there’s total agreement between both Churches as concerns candidates’ homosexual tendencies.”...

Russian Orthodox back Vatican stance on gays. RUSSIA’S ORTHODOX Church has backed the Vatican’s position on homosexuals in seminaries, and accused Protestant denominations of “succumbing to secular values” over the issue. “Homosexuality was called a sin in Holy Scripture – there’s no possibility of any other interpretation,” said Fr Igor Vyzhanov, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Commission for Inter-Christian Dialogue. “There are certain differences in how we handle candidates for priesthood, since celibacy is obligatory for Catholics whereas Orthodox can marry if they don’t aspire to hierarchical posts. But there’s total agreement between both Churches as concerns candidates’ homosexual tendencies.”...

San Francisco's incoming Catholic archbishop, George Niederauer, has spoken boldly in support of gay priests and has praised gay parishioners, leaders of gay Catholic organizations said Thursday. Many in the church hierarchy have blamed the international clergy sex abuse scandal on gay priests, and the Vatican's recent instruction on gays in the priesthood stated new rules on gay clergy were "made more urgent by the current situation." Niederauer disputed those ideas in an interview with his diocesan newspaper in Utah. "Some who are seriously mistaken have named sexual orientation as the cause of the recent scandal regarding the sexual abuse...

Collegeville, Minn. -- A priest at St. John's University said he was resigning his leadership position because of the Vatican's latest statement that homosexuals should be barred from entering the Roman Catholic priesthood. "Because I can no longer honestly represent, explain and defend the church's teaching on homosexuality, I feel I must resign," the Rev. Bob Pierson said in an e-mail Wednesday to administrators and students at St. John's and the nearby College of St. Benedict. The Vatican announced last month that it was toughening its stand against gay candidates for the priesthood, advising that men with "deep-seated" gay tendencies...

VATICAN CITY (AP) - A group of gay Italian clergy said Wednesday that their homosexuality has not stopped them from being good priests,a direct response to a recent Vatican policy statement banning priestly candidates with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies. The message, an open letter in which the priests said they felt like the church's "unloved and unwanted children," was posted on the Web site of the Italian Catholic news agency Adista. The agency last month leaked the Vatican instruction on gay priests a week before its scheduled release by the Holy See. Adista said 39 priests, 26 diocesans and 13 more...

ROCHESTER -- The Rev. Michael Volino was sentenced today to 15 months in federal prison and 10 years supervised release in connection with child pornography charges. U.S. District Judge David Larimer also prohibited the Catholic priest from ministering to children or working with school programs. Volino is an Elmira native. "I think Father Volino had more than an idle curiosity. It was extreme," Larimer said. Defense lawyer John Parrinello had asked for a sentence that did not include jail time. He argued that there had never been an allegation of molestation or inappropriate physical contact. He also had asked that...

A group of gay Italian clergy said Wednesday that their homosexuality has not stopped them from being good priests,a direct response to a recent Vatican policy statement banning priestly candidates with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies. The message, an open letter in which the priests said they felt like the church's "unloved and unwanted children," was posted on the Web site of the Italian Catholic news agency Adista. The agency last month leaked the Vatican instruction on gay priests a week before its scheduled release by the Holy See. Adista said 39 priests, 26 diocesans and 13 more members of various religious...