Lionox News Blog » Pope

Britain’s gay-only Mass

Leo — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 05:11:40 +0000

As Britain prepares for a visit from the Pope, there is opposition from some gay people who believe the Roman Catholic church is intolerant of their sexuality. But in one London church homosexuals are attending a “gay Mass” with the blessing of senior clergy.

Pupils “sadistically tormented” at German monastery

Leo — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:11:20 +0000

Children were “sadistically tormented and also sexually abused” at a Catholic monastery in Pope Benedict’s native Bavaria, according to a new report commissioned by the Roman Catholic Church. A lawyer investigating accusations of abuse in a Benedictine monastery school in Ettal presented a final report to the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising Monday, including 173 pages of victims’ accounts of abuse. “My investigations quite clearly show that for decades up until around 1990, children and adolescents were brutally abused in the Ettal monastery,” Thomas Pfister said in a statement. “The number of victims’ accounts has increased significantly since the intermediary report of March 5,” added Pfister, who said last month that hundreds of pupils had been beaten and some sexually abused at the school.

Atheists in Britain plot to arrest Pope for “crimes against humanity”

Leo — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:09:31 +0000

Lawyers are trying to produce a case for charging him over his alleged cover-up of sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Atheist writers Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, who hired the human rights experts, want to exploit the legal principle used to nick late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. He was seized on a medical visit here in 1998. Pope Benedict XVI was hit by new controversy this weekend over a letter he signed in 1985, arguing against defrocking a sex-abuser priest. He is due to visit Britain in September. International law allows an arrest for crimes against humanity outside a person’s own borders. Hitchens said: “The institutionalised concealment of child rape is a crime under any law.” The pair hope to either convince Crown prosecutors to take the case, launch their own civil action, or refer it to the International Criminal Court.

Satan behind media attacks on the Pope, asserts Italian exorcist

Leo — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 01:20:44 +0000

Noted Italian exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth, commented this week that the recent defamatory reporting on Pope Benedict XVI, especially by the New York Times, was “prompted by the devil.” Speaking to News Mediaset in Italy, the 85-year-old exorcist noted that the devil is behind “the recent attacks on Pope Benedict XVI regarding some pedophilia cases.” “There is no doubt about it. Because he is a marvelous Pope and worthy successor to John Paul II, it is clear that the devil wants to ‘grab hold’ of him.” Father Amorth added that in instances of sexual abuse committed by some members of the clergy, the devil “uses” priests in order to cast blame upon the entire Church: “The devil wants the death of the Church because she is the mother of all the saints.” “He combats the Church through the men of the Church, but he can do nothing to the Church.” The exorcist went on to note that Satan tempts holy men, “and so we should not be surprised if priests too … fall into temptation. They also live in the world and can fall like men of the world.”

Clergy abuse threatens to tarnish pope’s legacy

Leo — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 23:28:17 +0000

The Vatican is facing one of its gravest crises of modern times as sex abuse scandals move ever closer to Pope Benedict XVI – threatening not only his own legacy but also that of his revered predecessor. Benedict took a much harder stance on sex abuse than John Paul II when he assumed the papacy five years ago, disciplining a senior cleric championed by the Polish pontiff and defrocking others under a new policy of zero tolerance. But the impression remains of a woefully slow-footed church and of a pope who bears responsibility for allowing pedophile priests to keep their parishes.

Pope: Rich nations must assume environmental duties

Leo — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:40:31 +0000

Industrialized nations must recognize their responsibility for the environmental crisis, shed their consumerism and embrace more sober lifestyles, Pope Benedict said on Tuesday. The pope’s call for more environmental commitments came in his message for the Roman Catholic Church’s annual World Day of Peace, to be marked on Jan 1 and whose theme is “If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation.”

Pope tells artists beauty can be a path to God

Leo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:30:27 +0000

Pope Benedict met artists from around the world in the Sistine Chapel on Saturday and urged them to inject spirituality into their work, saying contemporary beauty was often “illusory and deceitful.” The Pope told the gathering of hundreds of painters, sculptors, architects, poets and directors, held beneath the vaulted ceiling of the chapel painted by Michelangelo, that he wanted to “renew the Church’s friendship with the world of art.” “Beauty … can become a path toward the transcendent, toward the ultimate Mystery, toward God,” Benedict said.