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A Roman Catholic priest in Connecticut was charged today with stealing $1.3 million in church money over seven years to use for male escorts, expensive clothing and luxury hotels and restaurants. The Rev. Kevin J. Gray, former pastor at Sacred Heart/Sagrado Corazon Parish in Waterbury, was arrested and charged with first-degree larceny, Waterbury police said. Arraignment was expected Tuesday in Waterbury Superior Court. Gray, 64, used the money to stay at such hotels as the Waldorf-Astoria and on expensive clothing labels including Armani suits and Brooks Brothers, said Capt. Christopher Corbett. He also paid the college tuition and rent of...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest in Connecticut was charged Tuesday with stealing $1.3 million in church money over seven years to use for male escorts, expensive clothing and luxury hotels and restaurants. The Rev. Kevin J. Gray, former pastor at Sacred Heart/Sagrado Corazon Parish in Waterbury, was arrested and charged with first-degree larceny, Waterbury police said. Arraignment was expected Tuesday in Waterbury Superior Court....

For the past nine months I’ve been working with eight Boy Scouts from my parish, including my own 13-year-old son, toward the completion of their Ad Altare Dei medal, a fairly rigorous religious program for Catholic Scouts that requires them to study the seven sacraments one by one. Service projects and prayers, Powerpoints and collages are all part of the “homework” that has to be done before they conclude with a weekend retreat. I recently helped the boys with the Holy Orders chapter and thought it would be a good experience for them to attend an actual ordination. So this...

ROME, JUNE 18, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The priest depends on his union with God for the fruitfulness of his life and ministry and the people of God rely on the priest to pray for them. Jesus Christ entrusted to his closest followers a premise for any good they would do. "I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing."[1] The same Jesus, in the context of many miracles that he worked, established times to be by himself so as to spend time...

I had the privilege of being part of Church history on Saturday, June 12, 2010. My friend of many years, former Protestant minister and Pro-Life hero, Paul Schenck, was ordained as a Priest of the Catholic Church. My history with Fr. Paul Schenck goes back decades. ...It was against this background that I traveled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania this past weekend; to rejoice with my long time friend at the goodness of the Lord in calling him. He was ordained a deacon six months ago. With a dispensation from Rome waiving the celibacy requirement, he was ordained to the Holy Priesthood...

Paul Schenck and his family say grace before dinner at their Manchester Township home in 2007. Schenck will become the first married priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg on Saturday. A former Anglican pastor will become the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg's first married priest when he's ordained Saturday in Springettsbury Township. Paul Schenck, 51, of Manchester Township will be ordained by Bishop Victor Galeone of the Diocese of St. Augustine (Fla.) during a 10 a.m. Mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church. Galeone, a longtime friend of Schenck's, will perform the rite because the Diocese of Harrisburg has...

It's the first Catholic ordination in one Pennsylvania community -- and it's one for the history books: St. Joseph's Church in York will be the setting on Saturday for an event sure to go down in local religious history, and perhaps more. Paul Schenck, born into a Jewish family, eventually ordained as a Protestant minister, converting then becoming a Catholic deacon ... plus being married and blessed with many children ... will be ordained a Catholic priest in solemn ceremonies at St. Joseph's on Saturday. This will be the first-ever Catholic ordination in York, and surely, from a ministerial perspective,...

Miami -- A Miami priest who left the Catholic Church after photos surfaced of him kissing his girlfriend on the beach has been ordained as an Episcopal priest. Alberto Cutie, known as "Father Oprah," has since married Ruhama Canellis and the two are expecting a baby.

1:53 PM 5/25/2010 — There will come a day when the mad people will look at the normal people and say, "Look at these mad people because they are not like us" (St. Anthony the Great). We (I mean, me) regret to announce that the Priestly Pugilist© has been closed. There is no cabalistic reason for the site's termination at this time; and any you may come up with on your own will be the products of your own paranoia. Suffice it to say, the reasons are personal, which means they're none of your business. For the benefit of some...

A longtime Catholic priest has been placed on leave and is under investigation by Rowlett police after two teenage girls and some parish staff members accused him of touching them inappropriately. The women told the Catholic Diocese of Dallas that in recent months the Rev. Bob Crisp, a priest at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, had made them feel uncomfortable, giving them lengthy hugs and rubbing his feet against their legs. Crisp joined the Dallas Diocese in the 1970s and has been assigned to several parishes, including Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Garland and St. Pius X Catholic Church in northeast...

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — The authorities in Rio de Janeiro said Sunday that they had arrested a Polish priest and charged him with sexually abusing a 16-year-old former altar boy. The judge who issued the arrest warrant said the priest, Father Marcin Michael Strachanowski, 44, had used his parish’s rectory as an “erotic dungeon” to carry out sex acts with boys. The police in Rio de Janeiro State said that Father Strachanowski, who was arrested late Friday, was being held at a police station awaiting court proceedings. He is accused of handcuffing the 16-year-old to a bed “to satisfy his...

SAO PAULO – A Polish priest accused of sexually abusing a former altar boy in Rio de Janeiro and turning his parish home into an "erotic dungeon" has surrendered and is now in police custody, a public safety official said Saturday.

Attorneys for the Diocese of Norwich are trying to keep secret hundreds of documents — including a letter written to the pope when he was a cardinal — that discussed the status of a priest accused of molesting more than a dozen young girls. The letter from Bishop Michael Cote to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in April 2005 concerned "canonical processes" regarding Thomas W. Shea, a retired priest accused of molesting as many as 16 girls at 11 different parishes during a nearly 40-year career, according to court records. The letter is one of more than 600 documents that the diocese...

Father James Farfaglia, a priest of the Diocese of Corpus Christi for nine years, was formerly with the Legion of Christ for 21 years. His response to the Vatican's recent statement on the scandal-plagued order? "When I read it, my first response was that of hurt and anger. I don't see how the Legion of Christ can reform itself by leaving in place the present leadership," Father Farfaglia said in an e-mail.

Fr. Patrick Bascio, an author and retired priest of the Holy Ghost Fathers, recently had published On the Immorality of Illegal Immigration, a book that he says has been sent to many bishops to help inform their views. Fr. Bascio’s book was published by AuthorHouse, Bloomington, Ind., 800- 839- 8640, www. authorhouse. com. Bascio, who served in the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa and whose e- mail address is paj bascio@ yahoo. com, engaged in the following edited e- mail interview with The Wanderer. Why do you think a Catholic priest’s book on the immorality of illegal immigration is...

In all the media hype surrounding the sex abuse scandal, haters of the Church have wondered if that scandal could destroy the Church and the priesthood. The short answer is no, but a scandal like this one could. (Not destroy permanently, of course. Nothing could do that.) Father David Verhasselt, a priest in the parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria Church in the diocese of Milwaukee, has been placed on administrative leave because he is under investigation for breaking the seal of confession. The charge is so serious that Archbishop Jerome Listecki has even barred Fr. Verhasselt from visiting the...

Vatican is urged to use the papal visit to demonstrate concern at the damage done by paedophile priests The Vatican is being urged to arrange meetings between victims of clerical sexual abuse and Pope Benedict XVI when he comes to the UK later this year. Victim support groups, including the Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap) and One in Four UK, said such encounters would help defuse anger and demonstrate the church's concern for its wounded congregation. The call comes after the papal spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said that the pope had "written of his readiness to hold...

Make no mistake: The ongoing crisis of priestly sexual abuse is the biggest scandal of our lifetime. If faithful Catholics are left to cringe at the mention of the scandal, if we are silenced or hampered in our evangelization efforts because of the sins of a few priests, the Church will suffer the consequences for decades to come. But if we understand the true nature of the problem, we can help those around us separate truth from distortion and hopefully bring about healing more quickly. We must step up and defend our faith. To do anything less would be a...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Extraditing a Roman Catholic priest from his native India to face charges of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Minnesota could take several years, the prosecutor in the case said Thursday. Roseau County Attorney Lisa Hanson said federal officials told her the extradition of Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul could last four or five years if he's uncooperative. A formal extradition request was filed with the Department of Justice last fall, she said.

OSLO (AP) -- Norway's Catholic Church revealed Wednesday that a bishop who resigned last year did so after admitting he had molested a child years earlier, when he was a priest. Georg Mueller stepped down as bishop in the western city of Trondheim in June 2009. The church said it had not previously disclosed the reason for his resignation at the request of the victim.....