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| There are 8077 News Items in 674 pages and you are on page number 7 |
| Losing faith in the Polish church - Saturday, July 17, 2010 7-17-10 In addition to trying to keep scandals far from public view, the church has been trying to retain its political influence as a way of ensuring the continued Catholic character of Poland. Senior clergymen made their preferences in the recent presidential elections pretty clear, stressing that voters should support the more Catholic of the two candidates and underlining the importance of not funding in vitro fertilization procedures. The obvious suggestion was for people to vote for Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the right-wing Law and Justice party, not Bronislaw Komorowski, the nominee of the centrist Civic Platform and the eventual winner of the election. “The church made a big mistake, crossing the boundary in political activism,” said Slawomir Nowak, the head of Komorowski's successful campaign. “ I regret that some priests confused the pulpit with a political podium.” (full story) |
| Suspended priest ejected from waterpark in '09 - Saturday, July 17, 2010 7-16-10 A western Wisconsin priest arrested this week on a charge of child pornography had been ejected from a Wisconsin Dells waterpark last summer on suspicion of following little boys into the restroom, according to a police report filed at the time. No charges were filed in the July 2009 incident involving Father Patrick Umberger, who served parishes in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee before moving to the La Crosse Diocese in 1996. The incident, however, was the impetus for the investigation, according to the criminal complaint. (full story) |
| Rwandans deserve pope's apology too - Saturday, July 17, 2010 7-16-10 Writing in the Guardian, Rory Carrol says that "Father Seromba was one of dozens of clerics and nuns accused of atrocities that fled to Europe after a Tutsi force took power in Rwanda following the slaughter. With the Vatican's help he moved to Italy, ostensibly to study, and under an assumed name, Father Anastasio Sumba Bura, served parish priest in a village near Florence." (full story) |
| Priest pleads guilty to embezzlement - Friday, July 16, 2010 7-14-10 A Catholic priest accused of embezzling about $200,000 from two Crawford County parishes and the Diocese of La Crosse entered an Alford plea today to reduced charges. The Rev. Robert Chukwu, 59, made the plea in Crawford County Circuit Court to three counts of misdemeanor theft and entered an 18-month deferred prosecution agreement, said Jim Birnbaum, attorney for the La Crosse Diocese. The plea means Chukwu admits no wrongdoing but concedes a jury likely would have found him guilty. (full story) |
| Ordination of women as bad as abuse of children - Friday, July 16, 2010 7-16-10 The Vatican issued a new set of guidelines yesterday which rank the ordination of women alongside the abuse of children by a priest. The “attempted ordination of a woman” to the priesthood was seen as a “grave crime” to be treated under the same set of rules as those for paedophile clergymen. (full story) |
| Wis. priest charged with child porn possession - Friday, July 16, 2010 7-15-10 The Rev. Patrick A. Umberger, the Diocese of La Crosse's Web master, faces one felony count punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and 25 years in prison. Among several images of children that state department of justice agents discovered on Umberger's computer were three photographs depicting boys and possibly a girl in sexual positions, according to the complaint. Umberger, 59, has served as pastor at St. Patrick's Parish in Onalaska since 2005. He also teaches at the parish's school and serves as chaplain at Aquinas Middle School in La Crosse, according to his website. (full story) |
| Child porn OK if victims is 14-18 yrs. old? - Friday, July 16, 2010 7-16-10 The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) responded to Bishop Blase Cupich’s comments on new Vatican regulations regarding the crime of child pornography and priests by asking if Bishop Cupich believes that “child pornography is a degradation of any child of God” why Pope Benedict and the Vatican have limited this section of the new norms to ” images of minors under the age of 14″ and the US Bishops haven’t objected? (full story) |
| New Vatican rules fall short - Friday, July 16, 2010 7-16-10 According to the new rules, priests who molest disabled adults or possess child pornography will be punished the same as priests accused of sexually abusing a minor. The new rules also double the statute of limitations on abuse cases. Ann Hagen Webb, of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, says the new rules approach the issue from the wrong direction — at the level of internal discipline rather than public safety. (full story) |
| Vatican report 13 years overdue - Friday, July 16, 2010 7-16-10 The Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNHRC) says the Vatican is ignoring her calls to produce a report on child protection that is 13 years overdue. AP noted that “While the Vatican delivered an initial report in 1995, the second, third and fourth reports are now overdue, according to Lee. This puts it on a par with the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis. Only five the (sic) Pacific minnow states — the Cook Islands, Nauru, Niue, Tuvalu and Tonga — have failed to deliver any kind of report.” (full story) |
| Mutiny rumblings among Australian clergy - Friday, July 16, 2010 7-16-10 "What happens at the moment is the pope appoints the cardinals who then elect the pope who then appoints more cardinals and on and on it goes. So it's a vicious circle. And it is deliberately designed to ensure we do not have another Pope John XXIII." (full story) |
| Danneels cleared of charges - Tuesday, July 13, 2010 7-12-10 The Brussels public prosecutor's office confirmed Friday that Cardinal Godfried Danneels, retired archbishop of the city, did not download pornography to his computer. Jean Marc Meilleur, spokesman of the office of the public prosecutor, confirmed the existence of the "suspicious" photograph, but clarified that "anyone who surfs the Internet can find this type of photograph among his temporary files." (full story) |
| Abuse took years to ignite Belgian inquiry - Tuesday, July 13, 2010 7-12-10 Behind an aggressive investigation of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Belgium that drew condemnation from the pope himself lies a stark family tragedy: the molestation, for years, of a youth by his uncle, the bishop of Bruges; the prelate’s abrupt resignation when a friend of the nephew finally threatened to make the abuse public; and now the grass-roots fury of almost 500 people complaining of abuse by priests. (full story) |
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