Backstory:
• “Sacked, Sort Of: Cardinal Roger Mahony,” February 1, 2013
• “Cardinal Mahony Says He’s A ‘Scapegoat,’ Compares Himself to Jesus & Mary,” February 25, 2013
• “Black Collar Crime Round-Up” (Michael Stephen Baker), March 14, 2013
Well, at least we can’t call the Catholic cardinals a bunch of hypocrites today — the guy they picked as the new Pope is just as misogynistic and vilely homophobic as the last one.
Actually, we may be wrong about that — this guy might even be worse. While Ratzinger said gays were mental cases (“intrinsically disordered”), we don’t recall him ever saying marriage equality was the domain of Neanderthals. No matter; essentially branding gays children of the devil puts Ratso and this new guy on equal footing. In any case… (more…)
Or so say the Italian media, all atwitter over a 300-page dossier compiled by three cardinals and bound in sexy red leather (the dossier, that is, not the cardinals), which reportedly cemented Papa Ratso‘s decision to throw his hands in the air and let the next pope deal with its contents. (How cowardly!)
What’s in it? Details “about a network of gay priests who work inside the Vatican, but who play in secular Rome,” reports The Daily Beast. “The priests, it seems, are allegedly being blackmailed by a network of male prostitutes who worked at a sauna in Rome’s Quarto Miglio district, a health spa in the city center, and a private residence once entrusted to a prominent archbishop.” (more…)
By Jack Bouboushian, Courthouse News Service
(CN) – Pope Benedict’s retirement plans may open him up to prosecution by the International Criminal Court for sheltering child abusers, an advocacy group said Monday.
Citing his frail health on Monday, Pope Benedict XVI announced that he will step down as pope after less than eight years in office. He is the first pope to retire in the last 600 years. (more…)
No, we don’t buy Papa Ratso’s reason for getting off the throne; we believe there’s something going on that won’t come out for many years. After all, the papacy is like civil service, or the U.S. Supreme Court: you die in office, no matter how lousy you do your job… unless, of course, you’re forced out.
Whatever the story really is, we’ve been thinking all day about what we might say — within the bounds of ConBab’s mission (outside those bounds, we would have plenty to say) — to mark (more…)
Charged: Scott W. Blair, former elder, Southeast Bible Chapel, Springfield, Missouri, with three counts of statutory sodomy, one count of attempted statutory sodomy, two counts of child molestation and one count of attempted child molestation allegedly committed against “two young female relatives,” both under ten years old, according to the Springfield News-Leader. Story: Springfield News-Leader, February 7, 2013 (more…)
Guilty plea: Travis Branstetter, 31, ordained minister & former youth pastor, Church of the Nazarene, Logan, Ohio, to three fifth-degree felony counts of “attempted gross sexual imposition involving a 13-year-old girl in the congregation,” according to the Columbus Dispatch. As part of the plea deal, a third-degree felony charge of sexual battery was dropped. Branstetter could receive up to three years in prison — a maximum of one year for each count — (more…)
Charged: Joshua Almeida, 32, children’s ministry volunteer, Faith Family Church, Victoria, Texas, with possession of child pornography with intent to distribute. Story: Victoria Advocate, September 28, 2012
Arrested: James Bertrand, 50, senior pastor, Power Church International, Inc., Lake Charles, Louisiana, on suspicion of drunk driving and cocaine possession. KPLC notes: “You may remember him from the attention he received for his ‘Just For Jesus’ student rallies at the Lake Charles Civic Center. The religious event was surrounded by controversy after gun shots rang out and violence ensued outside the rally in 2007.” In 2009, the ACLU and Americans United brought attention to Bertrand’s attempt to force (more…)
Arrested: Emmanuel Alex, pastor of an unnamed “new generation church,” Egan (Lagos), Nigeria, for impregnating his own 15-year-old daughter, twice. Alex allegedly began having sex with the girl in 2010, after his wife died in labor while giving birth to Alex’s tenth child. Information Nigeria reports that the girl “delivered a baby for her father in 2011. While nursing the baby, the pastor impregnated her again and she delivered the second baby recently. The scandal was exposed during a burial ceremony Pastor Emmanuel was to be the officiating pastor.” IN adds: “Residents of the (more…)
Mistrial declared: Stephen Douglas Berry, 39, former associate pastor, New Life Baptist Church, Union County, South Carolina, charged with criminal sexual conduct involving a “mentally defective” person (apart from a separate charge of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a 15-year-old girl). WSPA reports that “the jury told the judge that they could not reach a verdict… They were sent them back for further deliberations.” By the end of the day, “the judge dismissed them and declared a mistrial.” Berry “has been released and is on electronic monitoring.” Story: Conservative Babylon, March 26, 2011; Conservative Babylon, July 19, 2012; WSPA, July 20, 2012 (more…)
All we know is that if it wants to keep its tax-exempt status, it had better start acting more like a church and less like a business. (Getting its nose out of politics would be a good start, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.)
A short piece from Religion News Service (via USA Today) titled “Vatican blames market decline for $20M deficit” (July 10, 2012) reads more like a business report than a state-of-the-church report. To wit: (more…)
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