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Cardinal Peter Turkson made the comments to an American journalist He said similar sex scandals would not happen in African churches Cardinal Turkson is second favourite to take over as PopeThe African cardinal widely tipped to be the first black pope in modern history faced a firestorm of criticism last night after he laid the blame for clerical sex abuse crises at the feet of gay priests. Cardinal Peter Turkson, who comes from Ghana, told an American journalist that similar sex scandals would never convulse churches in Africa because the culture was inimical to homosexuality. ‘African traditional systems kind of...

Lynn is serving 3 to 6 years in state prison after a Common Pleas Court jury found him guilty of endangering children when he was secretary for clergy under Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua. Lynn, who managed archdiocesan priests assignments, let one remain in active ministry at a Northeast Philadelphia parish in the 1990s despite concluding that he had once abused a minor. That priest, Edward Avery, later sexually assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy

Featured Term (selected at random):PREMONSTRATENSIANS Canons Regular of Prémontré, also called Norbertines. They were founded in 1120 by St. Norbert at Prémontré, near Laon, France, approved in 1126, and again in 1617-24. Their focus is on solemn liturgical worship, missions, parochial ministry, and the education of youth. Based on the Rule of St. Augustine, with some Cistercian influences, the constitutions include certain austerities, e.g., abstinence from meat. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Father Bernard Lynch, a homosexual Catholic priest and activist known for defying Vatican teachings, has once again challenged the Roman Catholic Church by revealing that he has been married to a man for the past 14 years. Lynch also blames teachings on celibacy for the child sex abuse cases gripping the Catholic Church.

The recent comments regarding clerical sexual abuse of minors made by Father Benedict Groeschel to a news editor of the National Catholic Register should never have been published. In no way do those comments reflect the views of the Register or EWTN. It should have been obvious to the editor that Father Benedict's physical condition and mental clarity have deteriorated and that the comments were completely inconsistent with his life's work and witness. We apologize that these remarks were published and ask for forgiveness for this error. To regular viewers of EWTN, it has been evident for some time that...

New York - A prominent Catholic priest says he believes “youngsters” are often to blame for sexual abuse by priests and that priests who are first time offenders should not be jailed for their crime. Father Benedict Groeschel, founder of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, is well known as the host of Sunday Night Prime with Father Benedict Groeschel, a weekly show on Catholic television network EWTN. It was not what he said on his television show that has sparked controversy however, it is comments he made in an interview with the National Catholic Register that has outraged many. According...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The Vatican won a major victory Monday in an Oregon federal courtroom, where a judge ruled that the Holy See is not the employer of molester priests. The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman ends a six-year question in the decade-old case and could shield the Vatican from possible monetary damages. The original lawsuit was filed in 2002 by a Seattle-area man who said the Rev. Andrew Ronan repeatedly molested him in the late 1960s. The plaintiff tried to show that Ronan and all priests are employees of the Vatican, which is therefore liable...

Catholic Elites have become part of the problem .. despite good work they do. Video: The Catholic Elite

NEW YORK, August 6, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life has issued a statement opposing President Obama’s appearance at a New York fundraiser dinner for Catholic Charities. “I’m all in favor of protocol and understand the difference between respecting the President’s policies vs. respecting his office. But there comes a time when the polite putting aside of differences for a while amounts to scandal,” said Pavone in a statement emailed to LifeSiteNews.com Monday morning. LSN confirmed the president’s appearance last week. “There comes a time when enough is enough and we can no longer afford to...

On June 3, the Rev. Patric F. D’Arcy’s first Sunday officiating at his new parish as a newly ordained Roman Catholic priest in the Bronx, he offered Mass in crystal-clear Spanish in a packed sanctuary. Later, at a lunch celebration, his new parishioners welcomed him with trays of rice, beans and roasted chicken, and a white cake adorned with golden icing. It was a festive event — a thanksgiving for the blessing of a new priest — that would normally take place in early June in at least several of the 370 parishes in the Archdiocese of New York. But...

The Catholic Church's leading exorcist priest asserts that a Vatican employee's daughter thought to be buried in a mob boss's tomb was kidnapped for Vatican sex parties, reports Nick Pisa of the Daily Mail. Father Gabriel Amorth, who was ordained in 1954 and has carried out more than 70,000 exorcisms, made the claim to Italian newspaper La Stampa as police examine the contents of mobster Enrico De Pedis's tomb for clues about the 1983 disappearance of 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi. Father Amorth, 85, noted that an archivist at the Vatican previously admitted to recruiting girls for parties and told La Stampa...

It takes bravery to follow Christ as priests Bishop's Column Thursday, May. 03, 2012 -- 12:00 AM This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. This past Sunday is often called, “Good Shepherd Sunday.” The word the Scriptures use is really not adequately translated in English as simply, “good.” The word really means, “honorable, worthy, noble,” or, “so excellent in every way that its goodness is itself beautiful.” And, in particular, our Gospel for this past Sunday (Jn 10:11-18) points out that the shepherd...

Peter Paul Kaspar, Academic Chaplain in Linz, author, musician, executive member of the Parish Priest Initiative helped to formulate the "Call to Disobedience" and now writes an open letter to Cardinal Christoph Schönborn THE OPEN LETTER Dear Cardinal! We - the executive of the Parish Priest Initiative - have issued at Pentecost 2011 a "Call to Disobedience," because we wanted our urgent demands for reform to be made public. This has succeeded worldwide even being cited in the Holy Thursday homily of the Pope. The decades-long internal proposals and suggestions put forward were so far always put politely in the...

The Apostles and the Priesthood ~ Part 4   “Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent Him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. Since ‘without faith it is impossible to please [God]’ (Heb 11:16)” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 161). We receive our faith from the teaching of the Apostles, which has been handed down to us through Scripture and sacred Tradition. Embracing the faith implies the dedication of our whole lives to the object of our faith, the Blessed Trinity. For “faith is a personal adherence of the whole man to God...

News Print Article | Email Friend | Reprint Permissions Ohio Catholic priests to pray exorcism prayers at abortion clinic by Kathleen Gilbert Fri Mar 16, 2012 15:53 EST Comments (0) DAYTON, Ohio, March 16, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - For many segments of the population, the realm of demonic activity and exorcisms stays in the movie theater. But for many believers in the pro-life movement, the problem of dealing with evil is a practical question – and one that is taken very seriously. In Dayton, Ohio, it has led one local 40 Days for Life leader to obtain permission from the Archdiocese...

ASHKELON, Israel -- Israel is closing the books on a rare millennia-old Jewish tradition. Nearly three decades after Israel began airlifting Ethiopia's ancient Jewish community out of the Horn of Africa, Israel's rabbis are now working to phase out the community's white-turbaned clergy, the kessoch, whose unusual religious practices are at odds with the rabbinate's Orthodox Judaism. The effort has added to the sense of discrimination felt by Israel's 120,000 Ethiopian citizens. These sentiments boiled over this month after a group of landlords in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi refused to accept Ethiopians as tenants.The move has prompted large...

Some 200 Catholic priests suspected of sexual abuse are living undetected in communities across California, according to an attorney who represents hundreds of plaintiffs who sued the LA Archdiocese for molestation they say was inflicted on them by priests and clergy of the church. Ray Boucher has mapped sixty locations where suspect priests live, in cities and towns from northern to southern California, and provided those locations to NBC4 exclusively. “Many if not all these priests have admitted to sexual abuse,” Boucher said. “They live within a mile of 1,500 playgrounds, schools and daycare centers.” Since none of the priests...

Once again, the sex lives of Catholic clergy are seeing a flurry of media attention. During the first week of 2012, Los Angeles Bishop Gabino Zavala announced his resignation after acknowledging that he had fathered two children with the same woman. Zavala’s announcement trailed just a few days behind the appointment, on January 1, of Jeffrey Steenson as the chief pastor of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. Steenson is a married Catholic priest. His new position as head of the Ordinariate confers upon him all of the duties of a Catholic bishop, with the exception of the...

The Priesthood — A Priceless Gift July 1st, 2009 by Gary Zimak On June 19, 2009 Pope Benedict XVI commemorated the official start of “The Year Of The Priest”. This year is dedicated to increasing “spiritual perfection” in priests, but it is also a time for the both the clergy and laity to reflect on the importance of the priesthood. In order to better appreciate the Catholic priesthood, let’s look at its origin, purpose and impact on our lives.The Catholic priesthood has its roots in the priesthood of the Old Covenant. The great Jesuit theologian, Fr. John Hardon, observed that...

Featured Term (selected at random):CLERICAL COMMUNITY The living and sharing together that the Church has traditionally favored and encouraged for men in the clerical state. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.