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Two Men Allegedly Burn Down Catholic Church In Revenge Plot Ahead Of Holy Week

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The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it charged two men in Columbia, Louisiana, with arson after they allegedly burned down a Catholic church ahead of Holy Week.

Authorities found that Anthony Dillon Jr., 19, and James Dale Smith IV, 21, broke into a church March 27 and set it ablaze, according to an official press release. Dillon Jr. and Smith were allegedly stealing power from the St. John’s Chapel for their home. After being confronted by church officials, and a separate man whom the two sold a broken television to, the men broke into the church, according to authorities.

Dillon Jr. and Smith allegedly broke a church window with a baseball bat and ransacked the building. The DOJ report also alleges that they stole at least three televisions and a sound system before setting the church on fire.

If found guilty, the two men face a minimum of five years in federal prison and a maximum charge of 20 years with a fine of $250,000. (Read more from “Two Men Allegedly Burn Down Catholic Church In Revenge Plot Ahead Of Holy Week” HERE)

Shooter’s Mother Reportedly Worked at Catholic School Targeted in Attack

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The mother of the man who carried out a mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school reportedly worked at the institution where the attack occurred, according to law enforcement sources cited by 11Alive.

Authorities identified the gunman as Robin Westman, who opened fire Wednesday morning at Annunciation Catholic School during a Mass service attended by students. Police said Westman killed two children, ages 8 and 10, and injured 17 others, including 14 children, before fatally shooting himself.

During a press conference, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the victims were shot while seated in the pews. Witnesses described a man dressed in black carrying multiple firearms at the scene. Police confirmed Westman had a rifle, shotgun, and pistol.

A now-deleted YouTube channel bearing Westman’s name appeared to display a cache of weapons alongside anti-Christian messages, racial slurs, and other writings.

Authorities have not released details on the mother’s role at the school or whether it factored into the motive. The investigation remains active with assistance from federal law enforcement.

Photo credit: Flickr

Pope Francis Calls US Catholic Church ‘Backwards’ for Putting Political Ideologies Ahead of Faith

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Pope Francis accused some leaders of the US Catholic Church of “backwardness,” saying they have abandoned Christian doctrines in favor of political ideologies.

“Doing this, you lose the true tradition and you turn to ideologies to have support. In other words, ideologies replace faith,” the pope said during a private meeting with a Jesuit order in Lisbon earlier in August.

The transcripts from that meeting were just made public Monday, revealing the 86-year-old pope’s unfiltered opinion about a rift growing between some US religious leaders and the Vatican over his initiatives to modernize the Catholic Church.

Francis’ comments came after a Jesuit described encountering a number of Catholics and bishops who were critical of his papacy and the Vatican during a recent year-long stay in the US.

In response, the pope called the US church “backward,” and said it had “a very strong, organized, reactionary attitude” which he warned could lead to a climate of closure that would be the antithesis of Christian values. (Read more from “Pope Francis Calls US Catholic Church ‘Backwards’ for Putting Political Ideologies Ahead of Faith” HERE)

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Pope Francis Suggests He’ll Review Catholic Church’s Vow of Celibacy for Priests

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Pope Francis has hinted that he would review the Roman Catholic Church’s rule of priestly celibacy, describing it as an individual “discipline” rather than a “contradiction” to the church.

Francis, who previously opposed the idea that celibacy was an option for leaders of the church, appeared to make a U-turn during his latest interview with Argentine outlet Infobae in celebrating the 10-year anniversary of his election as pope.

“There is no contradiction for a priest to marry. Celibacy in the western Church is a temporary prescription,” Francis, 86, remarked. “It is not eternal like priestly ordination, which is forever, whether you like it or not. Whether you leave or not is another matter, but it is forever. On the other hand, celibacy is a discipline.”

Celibacy was made a requirement in the Catholic Church around the 11th century, following centuries of tradition for priests to embrace the practice along with vows of abstinence.

Despite the rule sparking conflict within the church for nearly 1,000 years, the Vatican has continually enforced the rules, including Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI. (Read more from “Pope Francis Suggests He’ll Review Catholic Church’s Vow of Celibacy for Priests” HERE)

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A Chicago Church Is ‘Fasting From Whiteness’ for Lent

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Not even the Catholic Church, or any religion, is safe from the woke virus. You all knew this. I’m not saying anything new. It just carries a more ‘in your face’ attitude. It’s Lent for scores of Christians around the world. I was raised Catholic but have since strayed admittedly. It wasn’t over the scandals, though those are heinous. I’m just a person who really wasn’t born with deep faith. It’s a defect of mine, but that doesn’t mean I don’t see the important role religion has played in our society from the abolition of slavery to helping the inner-city poor.

Sunday mass is a place to give thanks and atone for sins. It’s not a place to spread woke nonsense. One church in Chicago, they’re fasting from whiteness for Lent. I have no idea what that means, but I’m pretty sure you’d have to stretch pages to their extreme points to find a place for it in catechism.

(Read more from “A Chicago Church Is ‘Fasting From Whiteness’ for Lent” HERE)

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Former Councilman and Retired Priest Accused of Sexually Assaulting Minor

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Retired priest and former New York City Councilman Louis Gigante was slapped with a lawsuit that accused him of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old boy in the 1970s in a Bible study course.

Gigante, whose brother was mob boss Vincent “The Chin,” allegedly forced the kid to perform oral sex at St. Athanasius Church in the Bronx, documents filed in Bronx County court showed.

“The Archdiocese knew or should have known that Father Gigante was sexually abusing children and/or had the propensity to do so,” the complaint reads, according to The Bronx Times.

“The defendants Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and St. Athanasius Roman Catholic Church knew or should have known of the abuse that Mr. Doe and other young children were suffering at the hands of their clergy.” (Read more from “Former Councilman and Retired Priest Accused of Sexually Assaulting Minor” HERE)

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/97875516@N00/5797756369

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Ex-General Secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Resigns Over Gay-Bathhouse Link

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The former general secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) resigned Tuesday shortly before a report allegedly linking him to hookup apps and a stay at a “gay bathhouse” in Las Vegas.

Using commercially available records of app signal data, The Pillar found that a mobile device correlated to Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill allegedly emitted signals in 2018, 2019 and 2020 from Grindr, the largest and most popular gay hookup app in the world, on almost a daily basis. The signals came from both Burrill’s USCCB office and USCCB residence, from USCCB meetings, and from USCCB events, the publication reported.

The Pillar did not find evidence that Burrill was in contact with minors through Grindr. The USCCB did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Burrill was made general secretary of the USCCB in November 2020, according to The Pillar, the highest ranking role for a member of the American clergy who has not been made bishop. He formerly helped coordinate bishops’ responses to 2018 sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic Church.

(Read more from “Ex-General Secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Resigns Over Gay-Bathhouse Link” HERE)

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Priest Asked to Resign After Preaching Against Sins of Liberalism, Vaccine Mandates, Wicked Clergy (VIDEO)

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Internationally popular priest Fr. James Altman was asked to resign from St. James the Less Catholic Church in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Friday.

The priest, who was happily surprised (and noticeably bashful) to grow in national and international status among traditional Catholics over the past year, was asked to resign by Bishop of La Crosse William Callahan Friday, Altman announced at Sunday Mass. Although the letter hasn’t been released, Altman told the parish the charges were that he was ineffective and caused division in the Catholic Church — two charges that are contradicted by fundraising and attendance records set for the parish under the priest’s leadership.

Altman’s homilies have gone viral over the past year, beginning with a fiery broadside against the modern Democratic Party’s pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, pro-transgender platform, but zeroing in on failures in Catholic Church leadership to teach the catechism, keep the faithful coming to church, police sexual sins and abusers in the clergy, positively affect the culture, maintain a moral influence on politics, and most recently, simply keep their doors open amidst COVID-19 panics and secular leaders’ demands that worship end or be severely curtailed.

“I don’t mind if people have different sets of beliefs, certainly in this country we are entitled to that via the Constitution,” Altman’s told The Federalist Radio Hour in an October 2020 interview, “but what I do mind is when someone lies about it. There are far too many laymen and clergy alike who present error in the message they are giving.”

(Read more from “Priest Asked to Resign After Preaching Against Sins of Liberalism, Vaccine Mandates, Wicked Clergy (VIDEO)” HERE)

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Jesuit Superior General: The Devil Is a ‘Symbol,’ Not a Person

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On Wednesday, the Jesuit order’s superior general announced that Satan himself is a “symbol” rather than an actual being that was once created by God before falling into damnation.

According to Catholic News Agency, Fr. Arturo Sosa told the Italian magazine Tempi that the devil “exists as the personification of evil in different structures, but not in persons, because is not a person, is a way of acting evil.”

“He is not a person like a human person. It is a way of evil to be present in human life,” asserted the priest. “Good and evil are in a permanent war in the human conscience and we have ways to point them out. We recognize God as good, fully good. Symbols are part of reality, and the devil exists as a symbolic reality, not as a personal reality.”

The Jesuit leader’s statement about the devil stands in stark contrast with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which teaches that Satan and his demons are “spiritual, non-corporeal beings” who are nonetheless “personal and immortal creatures” with an “intelligence and will.” . . .

Of the 1,496 adults in the United States polled, only 17% of self-identified Catholics said they believe in the existence of Satan, with 83% regarding the being as a mere symbol. Conversely, 55% of Evangelical Protestants believed in Satan’s literal existence. (Read more from “Jesuit Superior General: The Devil Is a ‘Symbol,’ Not a Person” HERE)

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Man Abused at Age 9 by His Priest Uncle Says Catholic Church Harbors a ‘Pedophile Mafia’

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By Life Site News. A man who says his uncle, a longtime priest in the Diocese of Buffalo, sexually assaulted him when he was just nine years old has gone public with his story, displaying for the world the anguish and turmoil the incident has inflicted upon him for more than two decades.

Ryan Cooley, now age 33, made it clear in a televised interview that he never wants to see his uncle again, and that from his perspective, the Church harbors within the priesthood a “pedophile mafia.” . . .

Cooley kept the abuse he suffered at the hands of his uncle to himself for two decades before finally sharing his secret with another member of his family two years ago.

His uncle “needs something worse than prison,” asserted Cooley. He’s “a creeper,” who has “no moral compass at all. I honestly believed that he preyed on that fact that I didn’t have a father in my life.”

Siobhan O’Connor, Buffalo Bishop Richard Malone’s former assistant who famously tore back the curtain of diocesan deceit protecting its predator priests last fall, responded to Ryan Cooley’s testimony by saying, “The Fr. Art Smith case always bothered me to my core even when I didn’t know the half of it.” (Read more from “Man Abused at Age 9 by His Priest Uncle Says Church Harbors a ‘Pedophile Mafia'” HERE)

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Four in Five Vatican Priests Are Gay, Book Claims

By The Guardian. Some of the most senior clerics in the Roman Catholic church who have vociferously attacked homosexuality are themselves gay, according to a book to be published next week.

Eighty per cent of priests working at the Vatican are gay, although not necessarily sexually active, it is claimed in the book, In the Closet of the Vatican.

The 570-page book, which the French journalist and author Frédéric Martel spent four years researching, is a “startling account of corruption and hypocrisy at the heart of the Vatican”, according to its British publisher Bloomsbury.

It is being published in eight languages across 20 countries next Wednesday, coinciding with the opening day of a conference at the Vatican on sexual abuse, to which bishops from all over the world have been summoned.

Martel, a former adviser to the French government, conducted 1,500 interviews while researching the book, including with 41 cardinals, 52 bishops and monsignors, 45 papal ambassadors or diplomatic officials, 11 Swiss guards and more than 200 priests and seminarians, according to a report on the Catholic website the Tablet. (Read more from “Four in Five Vatican Priests Are Gay, Book Claims” HERE)

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