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An Islamist militant group based in Russia's North Caucases has claimed the killing last month of an Orthodox priest who was an outspoken critic of Islam. "One of our brothers who has never been to the Caucases took up the oath of (former independent Chechen president Doku Umarov) and expressed his desire to execute the damned Sysoyev," said a statement on the Kavkazcenter.com website. Daniil Sysoyev, 35, was killed on November 20 when masked gunman walked into Saint Thomas's church in southern Moscow and shot him four times. Doku Umarov emerged as the leader of the remaining active rebel movements...

A clergyman has been criticised as 'highly irresponsible' after advising his congregation to shoplift following his Nativity sermon. Father Tim Jones, 41, broke off from his traditional annual sermon yesterday to tell his flock that stealing from large chains is sometimes the best option for vulnerable people. It is far better for people desperate during the recession to shoplift than turn to 'prostitution, mugging or burglary', he said. The married father-of-two insisted his unusual advice did not break the Bible commandment 'Thou shalt not steal' - because God's love for the poor Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1237470/Priest-advises-congregation-shoplift.html#ixzz0aMLEepVv

The victim says she was molested by a Catholic priest in South Berwick when she was a girl. A woman who says she was abused by a Catholic priest in South Berwick when she was 11 has reached a $200,000 settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, the woman's attorney told the Portland Press Herald. The woman says she was abused by the Rev. James Vallely in 1976, when she was an altar server at St. Michael's parish. Vallely died in 1997, and the diocese has previously listed him as one of nine deceased priests who had credible abuse...

Father John Lipscomb was the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida. He converted to Catholicism in 2007, a few months after his retirement, and was ordained a priest this week. LUTZ — John Lipscomb, the married, 59-year-old former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida, was ordained a Catholic priest Wednesday.The morning after, he expressed joy and a sense of relief. He’s at peace, spiritually. He’s just a priest now. He’s not the boss.“The part of the job that never fit was sitting in judgment of other people’s lives,� he said. “I’m at a point in my...

Christian Orthodox priest assassinated in Moscow for his missionary work among Muslim immigrants. More at the link

The New York Times: “I don’t exclude that the murder is connected to the fact that he preached among and baptized those who belong to Muslim culture.”

Bishop John D'Arcy has announced his retirement over the weekend. Bishop D'Arcy holds the priestly duties of the Fort Wayne/South Bend Diocese. At the Cathedral Of Immaculate Conception, parishioners will see the changing of the guard. The Bishop is retiring because of mandatory retirement age rules. He has served the diocese for 24 years as Bishop. John D'Arcy was born......

The already sordid tale of the Rev. David Dueppen and his baby's mother, former stripper Beatrice Hernandez, turned even tawdrier Tuesday as the two traded intimate and bizarre allegations in a Miami-Dade courtroom. Dueppen said he'd been abused as a child, making him unable to resist Hernandez's demands for sex. Hernandez said Dueppen threatened to "disappear her'' by sending monks in brown robes to "shoot'' her if she revealed the baby's existence to the church. The priest met Hernandez, 41, seven years ago at Porky's, a now-defunct Miami strip club where she worked. Their stormy relationship was well-known to the...

TAMPA - A U.S. Marine reservist attacked a visiting Greek Orthodox priest he believed to be a terrorist, Tampa police say. When the priest tried seeking directions from Jasen D. Bruce, 28, of Tampa, on Monday, Bruce struck the priest with a tire iron and chased him. Police say he attacked the Rev. Alexios Marakis, 29, of Crete, Greece, who was visiting St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs and wound up lost in Tampa. Marakis had performed a blessing of another retired Greek priest in the West Shore area and then accidentally exited Interstate 275 north into downtown...

A priest in the Diocese of Scranton has been removed as administrator of three Throop parishes after he inadvertently displayed four photos of what a diocese spokesman called "minimally attired adult males" before the 8 a.m. Mass at St. Bridget's Church on Oct. 25. The Rev. Edward P. Lyman was using his personal computer to project an informational DVD about the diocesan Annual Appeal fundraiser when he accidentally showed the "inappropriate personal photographs" that were stored on his computer, according to a diocesan statement read at the Throop Masses on Sunday. Diocese spokesman William Genello said the photos were not...

On Thursday Afternoon, November 5, 2009, 12 pro-lifers were arrested inside or outside in the hall at Nancy Pelosi's office at #235 Cannon office building. They entered, with two complete copies of the bill - all 2,000 pages (4,000) - and proceeded to rip it up, page by page, and strew it on the floor...

A caretaker has been charged with the murder of a priest whose body was found in the rectory of his US church. Jose Feliciano, 64, stabbed and slashed Rev Ed Hinds 32 times with a kitchen knife after the pair had an argument, according to prosecutors. The 61-year-old pastor had been in his clerical robes when he was killed and Feliciano was one of two people who said they found the body, it is claimed. The body was discovered at about 8am on Friday after Rev Hinds failed to attend Mass at St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Chatham, New...

MORRISTOWN, N.J. – A janitor was charged with murder Saturday in the slaying of a priest whose body was found in the rectory of his northern New Jersey church. Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi said that 64-year-old Jose Feliciano stabbed and cut the Rev. Ed Hinds 32 times on Thursday after the pair argued. Bianchi would not provide further details about the argument. The 61-year-old Hinds was in his clerical robes when he was killed while in the rectory kitchen of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Chatham. Hinds' body was found at about 8 a.m. Friday after he failed...

Church Janitor Charged In Priest’s Slaying Catholic clergyman had been stabbed 32 times inside church rectory Rich Schultz / AP Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi holds up a photo of Jose Feliciano, the man charged with killing the Rev. Ed Hinds. CHATHAM, N.J. - A janitor was charged with murder Saturday in the slaying of priest whose body was found in the rectory of his northern New Jersey church. Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi said that 64-year-old Jose Feliciano stabbed the Rev. Ed Hinds 32 times on Thursday after the pair argued. The 61-year-old Hinds was in his clerical robes...

37 minutes agoCHATHAM, N.J. — A priest has been found dead in a New Jersey church rectory, and investigators are treating it as a crime.There was no word Friday afternoon on how the Rev. Ed Hinds died. The clothed body of the 61-year-old priest was found at St. Patrick's Church in Chatham in the morning.Capt. Jeffrey Paul of the Morris County prosecutor's office tells The Star-Ledger of Newark that the area is "being treated as a crime scene."Police have closed off a four-block area around the church. Chatham is about 10 miles west of Newark.Hinds has been at the parish...

It happened again this week. Call it the Helen Radkey Game. Radkey, a vocal critic of the LDS Church's proxy baptism, finds the infamous or famous in the vast genealogical database of the church. SNIP Just read some of Radkey's quotes: * "It's blatantly wrong to seal a person who took a vow of celibacy as a Catholic priest and is so revered in his Catholic religion," said Radkey, a former Catholic. "It's insulting to perform such an action posthumously. It's very disrespectful..." Radkey tends to heap blame on the institutional church, when most of the blame rests with misguided...

Interesting.

The Rev. Dennis J. Rocheford, 60, who became pastor at St. Ann Parish in North Oxford July 1, jumped to his death in Rhode Island yesterday morning, according to Rhode Island State Police. “Our focus is on prayers for him, for his family and for his friends,� Raymond L. Delisle, spokesman for the Diocese of Worcester, said this morning. Rev. Rocheford, a longtime military chaplain, was on leave from St. Ann's and also had been serving at the Chapel of Hope at the Navy Base in Newport, R.I., according to Mr. Delisle. About 8 a.m. yesterday, state police in...

Father Leo prepares to Flay an Iron Chef. (Grace Before Meals) Would you like to see a Catholic priest challenge chef Bobby Flay to a fajita cook-off? Tune into Food Network’s “Throwdown! With Bobby Flay” tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern to see Father Leo Patalinghug take on the Iron Chef. Father Patalinghug, who serves as director of pastoral field education for the seminary at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md., has a ministry called Grace Before Meals, which is dedicated to fostering stronger communities through stronger families, one meal at a time. “With God as my witness, I’m not...

Bobby Flay and Father Leo. (Grace Before Meals Father Leo Patalinghug’s “fusion fajitas” beat Bobby Flay’s “red curry-marinated skirt steak fajitas” Sept. 9 on the Food Network’s “Throwdown! With Bobby Flay.” After preparing his signature dish for a crowd of parishioners at Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland, the cooking priest commented, “My fusion fajitas are smokin.’ I guarantee this will make you say, ‘Thank you, God.’” Divine providence was on Flay’s mind as he was driving to challenge the priest. “We’re going up against Father Leo,” he said. “As a former altar boy, I’m not so sure this is...

[photo source] 4 June 1962. Navy chaplain Luis Padillo was giving last rites to dying soldiers as sniper fire surrounded him. A wounded soldier pulled himself up by clinging to the priest’s cassock, as bullets chewed up the concrete around them. Hector Rondón Lovera, who had to lie flat to avoid getting shot, later said that he was unsure how he managed to take this picture. [See all pictures he took that day]. Norman Rockwell eeriely used this photograph as a template for his Southern Justice painting, “Murder in Mississippi“. Thanks, Lucian, for the link.

BOSTON -- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died in peace with his whole family praying around him, the clan's priest said Wednesday morning as the world mourned Massachusetts' senior senator, who died from brain cancer at the age of 77."It was a total surprise to me to see another world he was involved in -- the spiritual world," said Rev. Patrick Tarrant of Our Lady of Victory Church.Tarrant, who was called to Kennedy's bedside late Tuesday as the senator was dying, said it was clear that Kennedy was ready for the journey that awaited him. He described the senator as "a...

It was the middle of the night. I was asleep. My mom came in and started punching me. She said I didn't fold my clothes right. I threw her off of me. She was real drunk. She started on me again. The police came. She said: 'What? I'm just kicking my son's ass.' Just another night. -- Carlos, 17 :: The little school in South Los Angeles is the end of the road, reserved for those who have bombed out of the rest of the system. The mildest cases were merely kicked out of their last school. The toughest are...

A Prayer for Our PriestsThe Year for Priests: June 19, 2009 - June 19, 2010 We thank you, God our Father, for those who have responded to your call to priestly ministry. Accept this prayer we offer on their behalf: Fill your priests with the sure knowledge of your love. Open their hearts to the power and consolation of the Holy Spirit. Lead them to new depths of union with your Son. Increase in them profound faith in the Sacraments they celebrate as they nourish, strengthen and heal us. Lord Jesus Christ, grant that these, your priests, may inspire us...

Eucharistic Season in the Year of the Priesthood By Father Mark on July 26, 2009 10:07 AM | The Seventeenth Sunday of the Year B The First of Five Sundays Focusing on the Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist in the Sixth Chapter of Saint John's Gospel A Midsummer Eucharistic SeasonEvery three years when the B cycle of the Sunday Lectionary returns, the Church interrupts her reading of Saint Mark's Gospel to spend five weeks listening to the magnificent sixth chapter of Saint John: Our Lord's discourse on the Bread of Life. These five Sundays -- the 17th through the...

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest has been convicted of sexually abusing an altar boy at a Germantown church more than seven years ago. The Rev. Aaron Cote (koh-TAY') is expected to be sentenced Oct. 14 to 10 years of probation. The former part-time youth minister at Mother Seton parish also must register as a sex offender under a plea agreement announced Monday. Cote was convicted of a third-degree sex offense. He pleaded not guilty and was convicted by a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge, who heard a recitation of undisputed facts. The 57-year-old priest, who now lives...

ROCKVILLE, Md. A Roman Catholic priest has been convicted in Rockville of sexually abusing an altar boy at a Germantown church more than seven years ago. The Rev. Aaron Cote (koh-TAY') will be sentenced Oct. 14 to 10 years of probation - five of them supervised. The former part-time youth minister at Mother Seton parish also must register as a sex offender under the plea agreement announced Monday.

Florence, Oregon, Jun 17, 2009 / 08:17 am (CNA).- He grew up an evangelical Protestant in Oregon, suspicious of Marian theology. Now he’s a Catholic priest and a physicist. Dominican Father Raphael Mary Salzillo was ordained last month in San Francisco and will take up an assignment at the University of Washington Newman Center and Blessed Sacrament Parish in Seattle.Born Wesley Salzillo in 1976, he grew up in Florence, a small coastal town. The family converted to Catholicism in the early 1990s."My family raised me with a strong Christian faith and a very clear sense that Christ should be...

Fr. Rob Clements was just 10 years old when he discovered the beauty of the Catholic faith. He had been riding his bike in Sacramento when he stumbled upon a large Catholic church. Leaving his bike parked outside, he entered to find a priest in the midst of the concluding rites for a funeral. “It was just spectacular,” Fr. Clements said. “I saw the casket with the black cover on it and the crosses. The priest incensed the body and I was just blown away with this.” When he headed back outside the church, he discovered his bike was gone....

When Hamilton Okeke stepped into his room at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Roland Park for the first time, the enormity of what he was doing seemed to hit him in the gut. He was alone, literally and figuratively, as he was about to hand his life over to God. No one in his inner circle supported his desire to become a priest. Just two rooms down the hall on the fourth floor of the massive seminary building that looms over Northern Parkway, Deacon Gregory Rapisarda’s room bustled with a family that embraced religious vocations. At 61, Deacon Rapisarda...

MIAMI — An illegal immigrant from Indonesia is suing a former Catholic priest and TV star, claiming the priest sought to have him deported to protect his wife from scandal.Maxi Paulus Ratunuman (RAH'-too-noo-mahn) claims he was arrested June 6 on false trespassing charges by an off-duty police officer who provided security for the Rev. Alberto Cutie (KOO'-tee-ay). Ratunuman, who overstayed a tourist visa, was in a Miami jail Thursday.Ratunuman says he is the ex of Cutie's wife Ruhama Bune Canales.He says the three conspired to get him out of the picture because he was asking for money Canales owned him.

While reporting on disgraced priest Alberto Cutie leaving the Catholic Church in the wake of a sex scandal, on Friday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Maggie Rodriguez asked CBS News analyst Father Thomas Williams about the Church’s celibacy rule: "It seems to me that the Catholic Church, at least in south Florida, is not necessarily being introspective and considering whether Father Cutie and others have left the Catholic Church, and others are failing to join, because of its stringent rules. Would you like to see your church be more introspective, more progressive?"When the story about Father Cutie first broke in early...

Winning one for the Gipper.MUST SEE VIDEO.

Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted has formally excommunicated a priest who left the diocese and took up residence in Southern California three years ago after resigning in a dispute over Church teaching on homosexuality. Bishop Olmstead informed Fr. Christopher Carpenter of his excommunication in an April 21 letter after Carpenter made it publicly known that he had joined the Reformed Catholic Church, which the Phoenix diocesan newspaper, the Catholic Sun, described as “a group that is not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church.” Among other things, the Reformed Catholic Church supports the ordination of women, acceptance of homosexuality and...

An internationally known Catholic priest sometimes called "Father Oprah" has been removed from his posts in Florida after published photos showed him lying down bare-chested in an embrace with a woman on a beach. The photos of the Cuban-American priest appeared on the cover of this week's TV Notas magazine. 1 of 2 The Rev. Alberto Cutie (pronounced koo-tee-AYE) -- who got the nickname "Father Oprah" because of the advice he gives on Spanish-language media -- remains a priest. But he was relieved Tuesday of his duties at St. Francis De Sales Church in Miami Beach, Florida, and at the...

Fr. Chris Carpenter is now called by some the “Chancellor of the Diocese of St Joseph the Worker in Southern California”. Only he is no longer allowed to hold himself out as a Roman Catholic Priest. He separated himself from the Catholic Church and incurred the penalty of excommunication. That has now been formally recognized by an official decree. However, Chris Carpenter still calls himself a priest. Only now he claims to be a priest for the so called “Reformed catholic church.” The group has absolutely no connection to the real Catholic Church, has rejected fundamental Catholic teaching and has...

WASHINGTON—The ordination Class of 2009, with computer experts, refugees, marathon runners and second-career men, mirrors the United States today.  The men from dioceses nationwide show that the call to serve God is heard at all ages. Respondents include attorneys, financiers, teachers and farmers.             Justin Minh Nguyen, of the Diocese of Austin, Texas, a skilled tailor, was a refugee from Vietnam. He was a parishioner of the only Vietnamese parish in Austin and is one of five men to be ordained for the diocese. Quy Vo, a refugee from the Philippines, is being ordained for the Diocese of Albany, New...

He was a soldier to the end. His threadbare army tunic hung on the wall, and his room was filled with religious icons, rosaries and holy pictures. And when you spoke to him, his words were about the men he knew on the battlefields of France when he rigged up a makeshift altar on the hood of his jeep and said mass for them. The photos from the Second World War show these anxious men kneeling, their heads bowed, silent in the muddy fields just hours before they were sent into battle.... I'm speaking about an old friend, Rev. Mike...

NUEVO LAREDO - A man has been arrested in the death of an Austin priest whose body was found Sunday along a Mexican highway. Manuel Martin Torres Saldaña is charged with murder in the death of Father Jesse Evans Euresti, 69, pastor of Cristo Reye Catholic Church in Austin. Euresti's body was discovered south of Nuevo Laredo, along the highway to Anahuac, Sunday afternoon but the identity was not confirmed until Monday. Police say Torres called Euresti's sister, Raquel Rios, over the weekend telling her that if she deposited 1,000 pesos (about $72) in a designated bank account in the...

Police say a U.S. priest has been reported missing in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, and blood stains and a bloody knife have been found in his house. Police say a relative reported the priest missing after he failed to return to Texas over the weekend. State police in the Gulf coast state of Tamaulipas identify the missing man as Jesse Euresti, 69, but U.S. Embassy and consular personnel said they could not confirm the disappearance or the name. Police said Wednesday they found that a house in Nuevo Laredo where Euresti had been living apparently was robbed, with...

As he progressed from Methodist Youth Fellowship member to active layperson to ordained minister, Scott Medlock seemed destined for lifelong service in the United Methodist Church. But Medlock, an Orlando, Fla., native, has had a dual faith journey. The second journey started during his undergraduate years at the University of Notre Dame, intensified with his marriage to a "cradle Catholic" and eventually led to a desire for a more "eucharistically-centered" faith experience. On March 19, the 41-year-old former United Methodist pastor was ordained a Roman Catholic deacon. On July 26, in Anchorage, Alaska, he will be ordained a priest. Along...

When Steve Olmstead served as a Presbyterian minister in Juneau, he would often finish his duties on Sunday, close up the church and head to Mass with his devout Catholic wife and their children.“I had a place to worship, which a lot of pastors don’t,” Olmstead said in an interview with the Anchor. “It was nice to go to a place and worship where I wasn’t the minister.”The Anchorage Archdiocese’s newest seminarian grew up in a Presbyterian home and always had a strong spiritual life. When Olmstead entered adulthood, he felt called to serve as a youth minister, and was...

Police Report Says Priest Wielded Unknown Object; But Cop On Tape Knows It’s A Camera A Roman Catholic priest who monitors law enforcement treatment of minorities with a video camera released footage that appears to contradict the police account of his own arrest. A police report says the Rev. James Manship was confronted and arrested Feb. 19 because he was holding an "unknown shiny silver object" and struggled with an officer who was trying to take it from him. But a 15-second video released this week by Manship's attorneys shows East Haven police Officer David Cari asking Manship, "Is there...

...Fr. Phillip Chavez said in a [January 15] talk at the Rock Creek Knights of Columbus Council in Bethesda.... "In his nature, a man is called to protect his family...state, his religion; he is called to protect life." "For a man, everything is conquest, all is battle, whether he's mowing the lawn, playing pool, or winning the heart of his wife," said Father. "Every man wants to be known as a man who is willing, able and ready to lay down his life for what he believes." Men today have the same warrior instincts and natural vocations to be protectors...

The body of a Catholic priest was found in a ditch Monday close to the Port Newark church where he preached. The body of Father Mario Balbi, 88, was discovered at a construction site less than 100 yards from the Stella Maris Chapel. Police say they do not suspect foul play was involved, but a cause of death is yet to be determined. Authorities are continuing to investigate Balbi's death. Balbi spent nearly two decades spreading the gospel at the port. Many within the Port Newark community say they'll miss him dearly. "He was a great man, very holy man...

Msgr. Moises Andrade loved the Traditional Latin Mass. Even the Philippines' most-watched evening news show, in reporting his passing, mentioned that he was an expert in the "Latin Mass" and opined that his death was a great loss for the Catholic Church in the Philippines. (The fact that his death was reported on national television was a testament to his stature.) How fitting, then, that a Requiem Mass according to the 1962 Missal had been scheduled for the evening of February 23, in the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, the parish that he had last served. Except that,...

Heaven is getting crowded these days! When Father Venditti redesigned Priestly Pugilist for the new year, he created a new color entry for obituaries; but I had no idea I'd be using it so often right off the bat. First it was Father Neuhaus, then Patricarch Stephanos; now, Monsignor William B. Smith, STD, professor of moral theology at St. Joseph's Seminary (Dunwoodie), Yonkers, New York. If you're not up on your theological journals, you probably wouldn't recognize his name—unless you caught him on the Charlie Rose show or the odd episode of "Good Morning America"—; but, for those involved in...

On January 11, my family went to noon Mass at Blessed Sacrament parish in Seattle. It was being celebrated by our visiting priest, but after he processed up to the altar, we were astonished to see that Father Tom Kraft had taken a seat beside him. Father Tom is one of the sweetest and holiest men I have ever known: a thoroughly priestly man with a profound sense of his vocation, a deep love for the poor, a beautiful humility, and a sheer radiant goodness. He is also dying of esophageal cancer that has metastasized. We've been praying for him...

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus slipped away today, January 8, shortly before 10 o’clock, at the age of seventy-two. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering. He lost consciousness Tuesday evening after a collapse in his heart rate, and the next day, in the company of friends, he died.My tears are not for him—for he knew, all his life, that his Redeemer lives, and he has now been gathered by the Lord in whom he trusted.I weep, rather for...

Richard John Neuhaus, prominent Catholic priest and founder of the religion magazine First Things, died today after a short battle with cancer. He was 72. According to a note sent out by Joseph Bottum, editor of First Things, Father Neuhaus died shortly before 10 a.m. at Manhattan's Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In a post on the First Things blog after Christmas, Bottum reported that Father Neuhaus was diagnosed with serious cancer over Thanksgiving. At the time he said the long-term prognosis was not good, but that the priest would be undergoing outpatient chemotherapy treatment. The day after Christmas, however, Father Neuhaus...