Free Republic

MyFoxNY.com -- A Long Island couple knew that getting married was expensive. What they didn't count on was the priest planning to charge them extra for living together. Fox 5's Arnold Diaz exposes a so-called 'fornication fee'. A Long Island couple knew that getting married was going to be expensive. But what they didn't count on was that the priest was going to charge them extra for living together.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (National Catholic Register) – If you get “married” in front of a priest you found on rentapriest.com, you’re likely not getting your money’s worth. So said a canon lawyer in the wake of a priest’s excommunication this summer. Such a marriage would not be a marriage at all, Father Jason Gray explained. St. Augustine Bishop Victor Galeone excommunicated a member of Rent A Priest, an organization of married priests who offer to administer sacraments for donations or fees. There are some 300 members listed on the Rent A Priest Web site. The organization’s founder said there are about...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A Jacksonville bishop has excommunicated a defiant priest. Officials said the Reverend Rouville Fisher's decision to join a national organization promoting a married priesthood has resulted in his excommunication. It was the first excommunication since Victor Galeone became bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine in 2001. A diocese spokeswoman said the action disqualifies Fisher from performing or participating in any church rites, but it does not strip him of his lifelong Catholicism. Fisher was excommunicated because he joined Rent A Priest, an organization of Catholic priests removed from ministry because they married. The organization provides priests...

Who are we? CITI is a lay organization that locates, recruits, and promotes the availability of married and other resigned Roman Catholic priests to fill the spiritual needs of God's people. According to church law (canon law), "Once a priest, always a priest." Therefore, married priests are not "ex" or "former" priests, they are still priests. In fact, Canon Law says they cannot refuse to ministry to someone who asks (Canon 843). Other canons Whom do we serve? With a growing number of Catholics no longer attending church, more than 70 percent by a recent survey (CARA, 1996), and the...

On the Horns of a False DilemmaAllow Reforms in the Church, or be Labeled an Accomplice to Sexual Abuse How Some Pressure Groups are Fomenting Revolution Inside the Church On June 1, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) sent a letter to the nation’s bishops expressing concern about the Boston-based Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), a movement that sprouted up in the midst of the present Church scandals calling for reform of Church structures. The group’s recent national convention reveals that those concerns were well founded. Over 4,000 people gathered for the first national...

One of these "Masses" will be even be celebrated in a Masonic Temple. Excerpt from the Press Release: Everyone is welcome, especially those who no longer feel they have a church they can call home. An invitation is extended to those who feel estranged because of issues regarding clergy sexual abuse, divorce/remarriage, interfaith marriage, birth control, sexual orientation, abortion and disillusionment regarding the approaches of the hierarchy. And all are welcome to worship with us and to share Communion.

Weddings without the dogma 'I'm not there to judge': Quebec ministers eager to offer Catholic couples a way to break the rules MONTREAL - Sometimes Reverend Bernard Cantin conducts weddings wearing his bishop's outfit, a miter perched on his head and a staff in hand. Or he might don the red leather boots that were a gift from a Hells Angels member he married. What he never does is marry couples inside a church. Mr. Cantin, a defrocked Catholic priest, is the founder of Le Nouveau Penser, an officially recognized religious organization with 32 pastors whose main business is weddings....