Ask TSJ: Pope John Paul I

Question: I don't remember a lot about him except that he seemed like a very nice man. Why would the Vatican have wanted him out, assuming there's something to the assassination rumors? Was he theologically liberal?

Answer: Hey got old, sick and died Nobody knocked him off.

Better now?

Tony Blair converts to Catholicism

LONDON (Reuters) - Former British prime minister Tony Blair has converted from Britain's established church, Anglicanism, to Roman Catholicism, the head of Britain's Catholics said on Saturday.Blair, whose wife and four children are Catholic, was received into the Catholic Church by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor on Friday in a move that had been widely expected after he stepped down from power in June.

"I am very glad to welcome Tony Blair into the Catholic Church," Murphy-O'Connor said in a statement, adding the conversion took place in private at a chapel at the cardinal's residence in central London.

"For a long time he has been a regular worshipper at Mass with his family and in recent months he has been following a program of formation to prepare for his reception into full communion.

"My prayers are with him, his wife and family at this joyful moment in their journey of faith together."

Blair, now the Middle East peace envoy, had private talks with Pope Benedict at the Vatican in June and his conversion had been predicted.

He has been receiving spiritual preparation for the conversion from Mark O'Toole, Murphy-O'Connor's private secretary. Blair's spokesman declined to comment on the announcement, saying it was a private matter.

Last month Blair, who was reticent about his faith during his 10 years in power, said religion was "hugely important" for him.

"You know you can't have a religious faith and it be an insignificant aspect because it's, it's profound about you and about you as a human being," he said in a BBC documentary.

But he added that, while politicians could speak about religious faith in the United States, it was difficult to do so in Britain because "frankly people do think you are a nutter (crazy)."

When once pressed in an interview about his beliefs, his then press spokesman Alastair Campbell famously interrupted and said: "We don't do God."

Political commentators have also suggested Blair had been unwilling to make the move while he was still in power because some lawyers believed that 19th century laws could actually prevent a Catholic from becoming prime minister.

It was also thought a conversion could have provoked a conflict with his role in appointing Anglican bishops and he might have also felt the need to tread carefully while mediating in the Northern Ireland peace process between the province's Catholic and Protestant communities.

European Union Trade Commissioner and political confidant Peter Mandelson said Blair was "not an exhibitionist" about religion but was "a man who takes a Bible with him wherever he goes and last thing at night he will read from the Bible."

However Ann Widdecombe, an opposition Conservative member of parliament who converted to Catholicism herself, said Blair would have had to have changed his mind on a number of issues such as abortion and civil partnerships for gay couples.

"If you look at Tony Blair's voting record in the House of Commons, he's gone against church teaching on more than one occasion on things for example like abortion," she told the BBC.

"Unless Tony Blair actually says (he had it wrong before) then I think a lot of people are going to feel exceptions have been made because of who he is."

T.G.I.F. Saint Gregory, TGIF

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian court has ruled that a couple could not name their son "Friday" and ordered that he instead be called Gregory after the saint whose feast day he was born on.

"I think it is ridiculous they even opened a case about it," the family's lawyer, Paola Rossi, told Reuters by telephone from the northern city of Genoa Tuesday.

Friday/Gregory Germano was born in Genoa 15 months ago. The parents registered him as Friday in the city hall and a priest even baptized him as Friday -- unusual in Italy since many priests insist that first names be of Christian origin.

"We named him Friday because we like the sound of the name. Even if it would have been a girl, we would have named her Friday," the boy's mother, Mara Germano, told Reuters.

When the boy was about five months old, a city hall clerk brought the odd name to the attention of a tribunal, which informed the couple of an administrative norm which bars parents from giving "ridiculous or shameful" first names to children.

The tribunal said it was protecting the child from being the butt of jokes and added that it believed the name would hinder him from developing "serene interpersonal relationships."

The Germano family appealed but lost their case this month and the story was carried on the front page of a national newspaper Tuesday.

When ordered to change the name, the parents refused and the court ruled the boy would be legally registered as Gregory because he was born on that saint's feast day.

"I really doubt this would have happened to the child of parents who are rich and famous," the boy's mother told Reuters, recalling that some famous Italians had given their children unorthodox names such as "Ocean" or "Chanel."

The appeals court ruled against Friday because it recalled the servile savage in Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe and because superstitious Italians consider Friday an unlucky day.

"I am livid about this," the boy's mother said. "A court should not waste its time with things like this when there is so much more to worry about."

"My son was born Friday, baptized Friday, will call himself Friday, we will call him Friday but when he gets older he will have to sign his name Gregory," she said.

$50 million for Alaskan abuse plaintiffs

PAYING RESPECTS: Thomas Cheemuk visits the grave of his brother John, who killed himself in 1999, in a cemetery overlooking the Alaska village of St. Michael in February.

By William Lobdell and Stuart Silverstein
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

The Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church has agreed to pay $50 million to 110 Eskimos to settle claims of sexual abuse by priests and missionaries in some of the world's most remote villages.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs announced the settlement Sunday, calling it a record payout by a Catholic religious order. However, officials for the Jesuits -- formally called the Society of Jesus -- said there were "still many issues that need to be finalized."

"We are disappointed by today's actions by the plaintiff's attorneys, which we see as premature and detrimental to the work of healing about which we are all concerned," said John D. Whitney, the provincial superior of Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, in a written statement.

E-mail between the Jesuits' and victims' attorneys indicated a deal was in place, though some details needed to be worked out.

"This e-mail will confirm that a settlement has been reached," wrote Richard K. Hansen, attorney for the Jesuits, to the Eskimos' lead attorney, Ken Roosa, on Friday. "The settlement calls for $50 million to be paid to the plaintiffs/claimants in exchange for releases of all claims against the Jesuit defendants."

The settlement does not require the order to admit fault, Roosa said. None of the priests was ever criminally charged.

A dozen priests and three missionaries were accused of sexually abusing Eskimo children in 15 villages and Nome from 1961 to 1987. The flood of allegations led to accusations that the Eskimo communities were a dumping ground for abusive priests and lay workers affiliated with the Jesuit order, which supplied bishops, priests and lay missionaries to the Fairbanks diocese.

Jesuit officials have denied transferring molesting priests to Alaska, saying that it was a prestigious assignment for the most courageous and faithful. In Jesuit fundraising literature, Eskimo villages were called "the world's most difficult mission field."

Many plaintiffs said their once devoutly Catholic villages -- cut off from the world and without law enforcement -- offered a perfect setting for a molesting priest. In 2005, The Times published a story about Joseph Lundowski, a Jesuit deacon who allegedly sexually abused nearly every boy in two small villages on St. Michael Island between 1968 and 1975.

Lundowski's accusers -- now in their 40s and 50s -- said the abuse led to alcoholism, violence, emotional problems and suicide attempts. They kept their secret -- not even talking about it among themselves -- until the Catholic Church sex scandal erupted in 2002.

That year, Roosa filed the first civil suit against the Jesuits and the Diocese of Fairbanks. The cases against the diocese are still pending.

Roosa said he spent Sunday on the phone, relaying the news of the settlement to his clients who were scattered across western Alaska: "I'm tired but I'm able to call clients today with good news."

This year, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles paid $660 million to settle with 508 claimants, and the Diocese of San Diego paid $198 million to settle with 144 alleged victims.

In Orange County, the Diocese of Orange two years ago paid out $100 million to 90 people who alleged they were victims of clergy sexual abuse.

In Alaska, the average payout of $554,000 was far below those in Southern California, but comparisons can't yet be made because the Fairbanks diocese hasn't agreed to a settlement.

Get thee to a nunnery

MILWAUKEE — A 79-year-old Roman Catholic nun pleaded no contest Monday to two counts of indecent behavior with a child for alleged sexual encounters with two male students at a church convent and school where she was principal during the 1960s.

The nun, Norma Giannini, and her attorney left the courthouse without comment after entering the pleas in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

Giannini faces a maximum 10 years on each count when sentenced Feb. 1.

According to the criminal complaint, the two men told authorities they had dozens of sexual encounters with Giannini, including intercourse, while attending St. Patrick's School.

One man said the nun told him in 1965, when he was 13, to open the buttons of her habit, but he was shaking so badly he could not do so. He said she then unbuttoned her clothing and had him touch her breasts, the complaint said.

The first incident was followed by 60 to 80 others, including two involving sexual intercourse, it said.

The other man said he had sexual contact with the nun more than 100 times, beginning when he was in seventh grade. At least one incident involved sexual intercourse, the complaint said.

Giannini went on to work in Illinois from 1970 to 1994.

Sister Betty Smith, regional president for the Sisters of Mercy in Chicago, has said the nun received extensive counseling at a St. Louis treatment facility after the order "learned of the situation" during the 1990s.

Giannini, listed in online court records as living in Oak Lawn, Ill., has been closely monitored and separated from minors since then, Smith said. The nun has been retired from active work for five years because of failing health, she said.

Are your brothels full oh babylon with merry middlemen?

LONDON (Reuters) - A Roman Catholic bishop in the southern English port city of Portsmouth is backing a campaign to legalize brothels without in any way condoning them.

The Right Reverend Crispian Hollis supported the local branch of the Women's Institute which wants to license brothels.

"If you are going to take a pragmatic view and say prostitution happens, I think there is a need to make sure it's as well regulated as possible for the health of people involved and for the safety of the ladies themselves," Hollis said.

"That's not to say I approve of prostitution in any way. I would be very much happier if there was no prostitution in Portsmouth," he told The Portsmouth News.

"But it's going to be there whatever we do and it has been from time immemorial. So I think that is something we have to be realistic about."

His comments won praise from Rachel Frost, from the International Union for Sex Workers.

"The bishop should be commended for having the guts to come out and say that," she said.

You want the truth? You cant handle the truth.

THIS POST HAS BEEN DELETED BY THE SITE ADMIN.

Good news for Catholic stoners

Pope Benedict XVI has reviewed the annulment practices of the Vatican judges. He has warned them to stop being so willing to annul Catholic marriages.

The Pope ordered the clampdown after figures showed that the church’s appeals court allowed 69 annulments in 2005 for reasons which included husbands being too attached to their mothers.

The court, known as the Sacra Rota, considers petitions from couples claiming their marriages were never truly valid.

Apart from the get-out clause for women married to “mummy’s boys”, an “inability to assume conjugal obligations”, usually due to a childhood trauma, appears among the successful reasons for annulment in 2005, as do alcoholism, use of cannabis, infidelity and a serious lack of “moderation in judgment” by a partner.

Whether or not cannabis use will be accepted as a justification for future annulments has not been announced.