Tag: Catholic Church

Although this is a short letter to the editor and not an article, the writer does raise an interesting question.

The Roman Catholic Church and the police in Ireland systematically colluded in covering up decades of child sex abuse by priests in Dublin, according to a scathing report released Thursday.

Psychologist Valerie Tarico challenges the moral standing of the Catholic bishops and discusses her abortion.  She asserts that moral decision making is a right and responsibility for each person, independent of religious authorities.

In October 2009, 2,500 people gathered at Westminster Central Hall for the Intelliegence Squared debate - The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world. Speaking for the motion, Archbishop John Onaiyekan and Anne Widdecombe MP. Speaking against the motion, NSS Honorary Associate Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry. (5 YouTube video clips embedded)

After a nearly two-decade truce, Portuguese Nobel literature laureate José Saramago has returned to the charge against the Catholic Church. This time his target is the Bible itself, which he describes as “a manual of bad morals,” and a “catalogue of cruelties and of the worst of human nature.”

Randy Cohen discusses whether it’s ok to criticize the Vatican’s attempts to poach Anglicans who disagree with the Church of England’s acceptance of gay and women priests.  “If a secular institution, Wal-Mart or Microsoft, for example, made a similar offer — Tired of leadership positions being open to women and gay employees? Join us! — it would be slammed for appealing to bigotry.”

Gina Judilla already had three children the first time she tried to terminate a pregnancy.  “I jumped down the stairs, hoping that would cause a miscarriage,” she said. The fetus survived and is now an 8-year-old boy.

Peter Brietbart, 21, a contributor to the Freethinker, and a student of politics and philosophy at the University of Sussex where he is chair of the Secular Society, was there to see the Church totally routed – and he grabbed the opportunity to interview Christopher Hitchens after the debate, organised by Intelligence Squared.

Thousands of people are expected in Oxford to view the remains of St Therese of Lisieux, a 19th Century Catholic saint.

An Italian professor of organic chemistry (Luigi Garlaschelli) has found further proof that the Shroud of Turin is a fake.  He was funded by an Italian association of atheists and agnostics but said it had no effect on his results. “Money has no odour,” he said. “This was done scientifically. If the Church wants to fund me in the future, here I am.”

Raymond Lahey, an outspoken Catholic Bishop who rose though the scholarly and religious ranks to represent children who were abused in the 1950’s and 1960’s, now charged for possession of child pornography.

I posted this video recently on Facebook, and am posting it here at the behest of a good friend who insists it deserves a place in the archives. I am including my original comments and links, and would only add that if you have children, I promise you wouldn’t mind watching episodes of Histeria! with them. They are very cleverly written with plenty of subtle jokes and musical parodies for more mature folks. And revered historical figures like Confucius and Abe Lincoln are treated quite fairly, to be sure…HA! Enjoy!

The Roman Catholic church has hit back at criticisms of its record on paedophilia suggesting that child abuse could be rife in other religious groups it was reported.

Couples are being encouraged to pray together before sex in a new book published by prominent church group Catholic Truth Society.

Denis Lyons is held on suspicion of molesting a boy in the 1990s while assigned to a Costa Mesa church.

A new report by investigators into the Catholic Church’s cover-up of child abuse in Dublin details “horrific acts of depravity” that went for decades without prosecution, Ireland’s justice minister said on Tuesday.

A former altar boy sued the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles on Thursday, alleging that he was sexually abused by a priest in 1987 shortly before the priest fled to his native Mexico to avoid criminal prosecution over other molestation allegations. The plaintiff, 32, said that when he was 9 or 10, the priest molested him repeatedly at a Catholic church near downtown Los Angeles. An archdiocesan official says the priest was removed from service in 1988.

New Archbishop gets rap from NSS for self-serving “faith school” comments

The love of money has caused politicians to “fall from grace”, according to the head of the Roman Catholic church in Scotland.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien also warned that society has become “amoral” because those in power refuse to tell the public how to behave.

The shocking scale of sexual and physical abuse in educational institutions in Ireland run by the Catholic church was revealed today in a report describing how thousands of boys and girls were raped, abused and exploited by the religious brothers and nuns who were supposed to look after them.