Tag Archives | Catholic Church

VatiLeaks: The Inside Story

By on February 27, 2013 in News 5

Disinfonauts who have been following the rise and fall of Pope Benedict XVI may be interested in “The Pope and the Spy Who Loved Him“, a recent story from GQ featuring characters and intrigues that could rival any novel by Dan Brown or his ilk. The popular media has painted the Pope’s former butler Paolo Gabriele as a simpleton and common thief, but the portrait painted in the GQ article is of a faithful Catholic driven to betrayal by his conscience.

In the narrative of the Vatican leaks, Gabriele has been cast as the punch-line villain (the butler did it!), a possibly delusional simpleton who betrayed the Church and the Holy Father, albeit out of misguided altruism. Yet he is also an unlikely villain.

Gabriele grew up in a middle-class neighborhood three metro stops west of Vatican City, but his eventual employment there was a matter of either happenstance or divinity, depending on the degree of one’s faith.

… Read the rest

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Pope’s Retirement Linked To The Blackmailing Of A Circle Of Gay Vatican Officials, Reports Italian Press

By on February 22, 2013 in News 10

I’m guessing the Vatican’s secret circle of gay cardinals are also superheroes. The Guardian reports:

A potentially explosive report has linked the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI to the discovery of a network of gay [high-ranking clergy] in the Vatican, some of whom were being blackmailed by outsiders. The pope’s spokesman declined to confirm or deny the report by the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica.

The paper said the pope had decided on December 17th that he was going to resign – the day he received a dossier compiled on the so-called “Vatileaks” affair. Pope Benedict’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested and charged with having stolen and leaked papal correspondence.

A quotation said some Vatican officials had been subject to “external influence” from laymen with whom they had links of a “worldly nature” — a reference to blackmail. La Repubblica‘s report was the latest in a string of claims that a gay network exists in the Vatican.

… Read the rest

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Vatican Gay Priest Network Linked To Pope’s Resignation

By on February 22, 2013 in News 3

Second Vatican Council by Lothar Wolleh 008More and more intrigue plagues the Vatican since the shock resignation of Pope Benedict. John Hooper reports on the discovery of ‘blackmailed gay clergy’ in the Guardian:

A potentially explosive report has linked the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI to the discovery of a network of gay prelates in the Vatican, some of whom – the report said – were being blackmailed by outsiders.

The pope’s spokesman declined to confirm or deny the report, which was carried by the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica.

The paper said the pope had taken the decision on 17 December that he was going to resign – the day he received a dossier compiled by three cardinals delegated to look into the so-called “Vatileaks” affair.

Last May Pope Benedict’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested and charged with having stolen and leaked papal correspondence that depicted the Vatican as a seething hotbed of intrigue and infighting.

… Read the rest

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Pope Seeks Immunity From Child Molestation Crimes

By on February 17, 2013 in News 58

Well we all knew there was a secret scandal behind the resignation of Pope Benedict, right? From Reuters:

Pope Benedict’s decision to live in the Vatican after he resigns will provide him with security and privacy. It will also offer legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources and legal experts say.

“His continued presence in the Vatican is necessary, otherwise he might be defenseless. He wouldn’t have his immunity, his prerogatives, his security, if he is anywhere else,” said one Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“It is absolutely necessary” that he stays in the Vatican, said…

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Ratzinger Resigns – First Pope To Quit Since 1415

By on February 11, 2013 in News 10

Nearly 600 years have elapsed since a sitting Roman Catholic Pope last resigned. As accustomed as we are to Vatican intrigue, one wonders if the official story of Pope Benedict’s deteriorating health is the real reason that the man formerly known as Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger is on his way out. From Sky News:

Pope Benedict XVI is to resign on February 28 due to his “deteriorating” health.

He will be the first head of the Roman Catholic Church to resign in almost 600 years, with his departure expected to leave the post vacant for around three weeks.

The 85-year-old German’s resignation letter said: “After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.

“I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering.

… Read the rest

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Report: Thousands Of Irish Women Were Enslaved In Catholic Laundries Which Ended In 1996

By on February 8, 2013 in News 6

They were being punished for being orphans or single mothers, for committing petty crimes, or being perceived as rebellious in some way. Via ABC News:

Ireland’s government oversaw workhouses run by Catholic nuns that once held thousands of women and teenage girls in unpaid labor and usually against their will, a fact-finding report concluded Tuesday, establishing state involvement in the country’s infamous Magdalene Laundries for the first time.

Opposition leaders demanded that Prime Minister Enda Kenny offer an official apology for the state’s failure to enforce labor laws and human rights standards in the 10 Magdalene Laundries, and to pledge to establish a taxpayer-funded compensation program for survivors. The report found that 10,012 women were committed to the workhouses from 1922 to the closure of the last two laundries in 1996.

The government since 2002 has paid more than $1.3 billion to more than 13,000 people who suffered abuse in other Catholic-run workhouses and orphanages but explicitly excluded former Magdalene residents, contending these were privately run institutions with negligible state involvement.

… Read the rest

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Cross-Dressing Priest Who Led Meth-Dealing Gang Arrested In Connecticut

By on January 19, 2013 in News 8

A reminder never to take religious authorities too seriously when they admonish you to behave properly. Via the Daily Mail:

A Connecticut priest at the center of a meth drug-dealing gang has been suspended over allegations he had sex in his rectory. Monsignor Kevin Wallin was relieved of his duties in May last year after complaints were made by staff at his residence in Bridgeport.

The priest also faces charges of helping run a cross-country methamphetamine distribution ring. According to his indictment he was selling around $9,000 of meth a week at one stage.

Msgr Wallin, 61, is alleged to have bought an ‘adult entertainment store’ which investigators believe helped him launder thousands of dollars in weekly profits. Rectory staff are believed to have notified the local diocese after the priest allegedly ‘dressed as a woman and engaged in ‘sex acts.’

… Read the rest

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Catholic Church Opens Exorcist Hotline

By on November 30, 2012 in News 6

Why the sudden rash of demonic possessions? Exorcism in the 21st Century has never been hotter. Via the Independent:

The Catholic Church has established an exorcist hotline in Milan, its biggest diocese, to cope with demand. Monsignor Angelo Mascheroni, the diocese’s chief exorcist since 1995, said the curia had also appointed twice as many exorcists to cope with a doubling in the number of requests for help over 15 years.

“We get many requests for names, addresses and phone numbers; that’s why we’ve set up a switchboard in the curia from Monday to Friday from 2.30pm to 5pm,” he told the chiesadimilano website.

“People in need can call and will be able to find a priest in the same area who doesn’t have to travel too far.” And to that end, the number of demon-busting priests on call has increased from six to 12.

The Monsignor said he knew of one exorcist who had been seeing up to 120 people a day.

… Read the rest

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The Boy Scout Perversion Files: Where Damnation Lies

By on October 21, 2012 in News 17

It’s a sad fact of life that almost wherever an organization exists that gives adults a chance for unmonitored access to children, pedophiles are likely to gather. It’s easy to confuse correlation with causation: “The Catholic Church has a problem with pedophiles because they don’t allow their priests to marry” is one of the more asinine theories I’ve heard. Who among you would resort to preying upon children were you forbidden by social contract to avoid intimate contact with the adults you find sexually attractive? It’s a repulsive implication, and one that should raise more questions about those who posit it than the behavior they seek to explain. No, open access to children along with a plausible justification for having it will attract pedophiles.

Avoiding a segue into the general psychological healthiness of imposed celibacy or criticism of the stated values of organization like the Boy Scouts or the Catholic Church (suffice it to say that I hold major criticisms against both) there is a problem with throwing out the baby with the bathwater when it comes to pedophilia: There are well-meaning priests and good Boy Scout leaders, men who want to help the young people entrusted to their care.… Read the rest

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Real Life Exorcisms In The Berkshires

By on October 16, 2012 in News 56

Exorcisms in the Berkshire Mountains? Apparently so, per this report from Adam Poulisse for the Berkshire Eagle:

The word “exorcism” can cause a flurry of disturbing images: a young girl’s head spinning around; profanity too vulgar to be uttered by anyone, let alone a 12-year-old; two priests dying during the ritual.

But those iconic images surrounding a possessed girl named Regan (Linda Blair) and her eventual exorcism in the 1973 film “The Exorcist” are “highly inaccurate” compared to the real-life ritual of casting out demons or spirits, according to Glenn Shuck, an assistant professor of religion at Williams College.

“It’s not done so haphazardly,” he said. “Priests should focus on driving the demon out, not engaging in the sensational activities depicted in ‘The Exorcist.’ Sometimes the individual has to be restrained, preferably by a family member, but that’s very, very rare…

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