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AlterNet: Right-Wing Crazies Who Fight Witchcraft and Demons Are Taking Over a State Near You

This story is about a radical right wing movement in charismatic Christianity that claims to fight demons but, leaving demonology aside, is demonstrably close to seizing the reigns of power in entire US states.

BBC: Canadian Priest Sorry for Giving Dog Holy Communion

Reverend Marguerite Rea of St Peter’s Anglican Church, in Toronto, received complaints from Christians all over Canada after she fed communion bread to a German Shepherd cross named Trapper.

BBC: Chile President Rules Out Pardon for Military Abuses

President Sebastian Pinera of Chile has rejected a plea by the Roman Catholic Church that he pardon members of the armed forces over human rights abuses committed during military rule.

Mario Boone: Vandal Urinates in Holy Water at Local Church

Investigators say the brazen act committed in broad daylight is definitely a hate crime. “It’s the wording that they used in the graffiti toward the church and a group. They made a reference to the gays in the church,” said A. R. Massengill with Oak Ridge police.

Mail Online: Gay Priest Sex Scandal as Undercover Berlusconi Reporter ‘Films Clerics at Gay Clubs’

Using hidden cameras, a journalist from Panorama magazine – owned by Italian Prime Minister and media baron Silvio Berlusconi – filmed three priests as they attended gay nightspots and had casual sex.

New York Times: Indulgences Return, and Heaven Moves a Step Closer for Catholics

Like the Latin Mass and meatless Fridays, the indulgence was one of the traditions decoupled from mainstream Catholic practice in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council, the gathering of bishops that set a new tone of simplicity and informality for the church. Its revival has been viewed as part of a conservative resurgence that has brought some quiet changes and some highly controversial ones, like Pope Benedict XVI’s recent decision to lift the excommunications of four schismatic bishops who reject the council’s reforms.

Guardian: Vatican Makes Attempted Ordination of Women a Grave Crime

Revised Catholic rules put female ordination in same category of crime under church law as clerical sex abuse of minors.

Radio Netherlands Worldwide: Dutch Nun Wanted for Killing of Fellow Sister

Mother Theresa Brenninkmeijer, is accused of having tied a demented elderly nun to a chair. Another nun was sent outside thinly dressed into the freezing cold for disturbing mass, only to be found dead in the convent garden half an hour later. Mother Theresa was head of the convent in Sostrup at the time, and has since moved on to similar positions in the Cistercian Order in Germany and the Czech Republic. Witnesses of the acts of aggression were ordered by Mother Theresa Brenninkmeijer to lie to police and say that the nun had died in bed. Danish bishop Czeslav Kozon was told about the events at the convent by one nun, but he refused to go to the police and only reported to the Vatican, which swept the report under the carpet.

Der Spiegel: The Vatican Closes Ranks, Pope Benedict XVI Lashes Out at Secular Justice

The scandal-ridden Catholic Church can no longer expect leniency – neither in Belgium nor in the US, where a week ago Monday the Supreme Court ruled that the Vatican enjoys no immunity in cases of alleged molestation by priests. The ruling means that, in theory, even Pope Benedict XVI could be taken to court.

New York Daily News: Catholic Priest Kevin Gray Stole $1M and Spent it on Male Escorts

A disgruntled Catholic priest was charged Tuesday with raiding church coffers to finance a double life befitting a mogul – and to pay for male escorts. The Rev. Kevin Gray, former pastor at Sacred Heart in Waterbury, Conn., was charged with first-degree larceny, which carries up to 20 years in prison.

BBC: Vatican Taken by Surprise over Belgium Police Raids

The police took away their mobile telephones to prevent them communicating with their staff, or with the Vatican. They also seized files from the headquarters of the Catholic church in Brussels including a laptop belonging to the former head of the church in Belgium, Cardinal Godefried Daneels.

Orlando Sentinel: Former Orlando Priests Gave Boys Alcohol

Accounts of plying boys with alcohol, showing them pornography and then molesting them are among the allegations detailed in the lawsuits against two former priests and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando. A third priest actively preaching in an Ocala parish also is accused of raping a boy nearly 35 years ago in Lakeland.

IOL: Family Held After Fatal Attack on Soccer Fan

The family of a 61-year-old Limpopo man have appeared in court for allegedly beating him to death when he wanted to watch the World Cup game between Germany and Australia. They had apparently wanted to watch a gospel show on television, while David Makweya had wanted to watch the soccer on Sunday night.

Mail Online: Baby Girl Died After Religious Fanatic Mother Stuffed Bible in Her Mouth and Sat on Her

Julia Lovemore, 41, had torn out pages of the Bible and stuffed them into baby Faith’s mouth before smothering her.

USA Today: L.A. Cardinal Didn’t Tell Police of Out-of-Parish Abuse Victims

Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony didn’t call police in 1986 after a priest admitted to molesting two boys, and he didn’t warn parishioners because the priest told him the children were illegal immigrants who had returned to Mexico, according to court documents released Tuesday.

KRON: District Attorney Releases Sandra Cantu Investigative Report After Melissa Huckaby Sentencing

A Sunday school teacher who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murdering a neighbor girl in Northern California made a tearful apology to the victim’s family Monday as she was sentenced to prison for the rest of her life. The punishment came after Melissa Huckaby, 29, reached a plea deal with prosecutors that took the death penalty and the possibility of parole off the table in the killing of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu of Tracy, whose body was found in a suitcase pulled from an irrigation pond.

Courthouse News Service: Exorcism Isn’t Covered, Insurer Insists

An insurance company insists it has no obligation to cover injuries suffered during an “exorcism” by members of the City Church for all Nations. Cincinnati Insurance claims an autistic church member was restrained and assaulted until he vomited blood during the “exorcism.” The City Church for all Nations fka Cherry Hill Church (CHC) “operated a college ministry, which it called a ‘school of theology,’” near Indiana University in 2007, according to the federal complaint.

San Francisco Gate: Spanish Order Investigated for Alleged Sex Abuse

The case involved possible sexual abuse and mistreatment of patients at a home for the disabled run by the Franciscan Brothers of the White Cross in Cordoba.

True Crime Report: Tina Anderson, 15, Punished by Baptists for Being Raped

Today’s What Wouldn’t Jesus Do? brings you the tale of Tina Anderson, who was raped and impregnated at the age of 15 by a member of her church. After reporting the crime to her pastor, however, it was Anderson who was punished.

al.com: Preacher Says Seeing Stepdaughter in ‘Chocolate Negligee’ Was Too Much Temptation

Preacher Anthony Hopkins’ stepdaughter has said she was sexually abused by Hopkins starting when she was 11, but Hopkins testified today that they did not have their first sexual encounter until March 2008. It was then, Hopkins testified in his rape and murder case, that his eldest stepdaughter, who was 19 at the time, approached him in the living room wearing a “chocolate negligee.”

Mary Ellen Synon: Belgian Prelate Perverts and their Catechism Kiddie Porn [WARNING: CATHOLIC PEDOPHILIA TEXT AND IMAGES]

The Vatican and the Belgian Catholic hierarchy are squealing like stuck pigs over the police raid last week on the home of the former head of Belgium’s eight million Catholics.

Part of a series that never ends [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] and etc.  These are some the stories that one man gathered from English-language news sources in his spare time over a short duration.  Imagine what you aren’t reading here.