Barcelos died instantly.
Her 76-year-old husband Josi Silveira Coimbra died Sunday of a heart attack while dancing at a party.
The driver of hearse and Barcelos' son suffered minor injuries.
Legendary pop singer Sir Cliff Richard has revealed that he has shared his life with a former Roman Catholic priest for the last seven years.
Sir Cliff, 67, is one of the UK's best-known Christians, has been the victim of persistent rumours and innuendo about his sexuality.
In his autobiography My Life, My Way, published yesterday, the singer said he met Father John McElynn in 2001.
"He hadn't any thought at the beginning of giving up the priesthood, but when it became clear he was thinking of the possibility, I suggested he might help me with some charitable projects," he wrote.
"That was seven years ago and our arrangement has worked out really well. John now spends most of his time looking after my properties."
Sir Cliff said the former priest shares his home and has become a companion, and complained that he is dogged by questions about his sexual orientation.
"'I am sick to death of the media's speculation about it. What business is it of anyone else's what any of us are as individuals? I don't think my fans would care either way."
He has previously spoken of his support for civil partnerships.
Sir Cliff began his career in the 1950s and has scored UK number ones in every decade since.
His notoriously loyal fanbase has ensured his popularity well into his sixties - My Life, My Way is expected to be a bestseller.
Journalist Penny Junor helped him write the book, in which "Cliff is going to talk freely and frankly about what it is like to be Cliff."
Dear Jesus,
I am an American first and an avid reader second. As your are probably aware, in America nothing we do is our fault, it is someone else’s fault, and my recent relapse into strippers, cocaine, and alcohol can only be the result of one thing: your blog (or whatever the hell its called). Therefore, I am doing the American thing and suing your for something, I haven’t figured out what yet because I am a little high right now, but trust me, I will be looking for compensation.
Dear Person,
Considering you are an American, I was impressed to see that you knew how to write and use email. Someone told me that 40 percent of Americans are illiterate and I thought those were the people coming to the site.
Drugs, alcohol and strippers don’t lead to a productive life to society, Congrats on your new found life, because it sounds fun.
RIVERSIDE — A pastor reported missing after he left his Lewiston, N.Y., home on Wednesday to go to Best Buy was found in a Riverside strip club 422 miles away on Friday, March 28.
Since choking, pushing and kicking his soon-to-be ex, Weeks has apologized to Bynum and his congregation for his fist-filled rage. According to the ajc.com, Weeks will be back at the pulpit preaching on Sunday.
It's almost guaranteed no one will be caught talking during Weeks' Easter sermon.
Sy Rogers … no longer gay.
Dear Smoking Jesus, I was reading in the paper today about a school that had decided to make Good Friday (today) a school day, overturning past tradition. Some Catholic parents objected, saying they had to take the kids to church, but isn't Good Friday the ONE day of the year there is no Mass?
The truth always comes out!!!!
As it should happen to be…
The homophobic Republican hatemonger from Oklahoma has a gay son!!!!
That's right, Sally Kern's son Jesse is a big ol' homo.
We're sure he's REAL PROUD of mommy!
And, it has also been revealed that Good Ol' Sally has lied about receiving death threats.
Thank you Perez for bringing this to the attention of Jesus.
Shell Kepler, who played nurse Amy Vining on "General Hospital" for more than 20 years, died yesterday in Portland, Ore. Paging Dr. Quartermaine!
ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) - A Roman Catholic priest in the St. Cloud diocese was barred from all priestly functions Thursday after he was charged with possessing child pornography.
One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the LORD. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonged to him and the other to the LORD, wearing flipflops with a less-than sensible heel.
The co-pilot then had restraints fastened to his wrists and ankles and was handcuffed to a seat. The flight from Toronto made an emergency landing in Shannon and the co-pilot, who had been crying and screaming according to witnesses, was taken off the plane.
He was taken by ambulance to a psychiatric ward where he is being treated for a suspected nervous breakdown.
The 146 passengers on the overnight flight continued their journey and got to Heathrow eight hours behind schedule after the drama on Monday. Passenger Sean Finucane told of his shock as he witnessed the co-pilot being carried out of the cockpit in restraints.
He said today: "He was very, very distraught. He was yelling loudly at times. When they tried to put his shoes on later he swore and he threatened people. His voice was clear so he didn't sound drunk or anything. He was swearing and was very distressed."
Mr Finucane, from Lancashire, told how the pilot kept shouting:
He described how passengers watched a crew member and the soldier carry the co-pilot out of the cockpit, through first class and into economy. The co-pilot then intermittently yelled obscenities and sobbed.
Emergency landing: Shannon Airport, Ireland (File picture)
Another passenger, writing on the flyertalk website, wrote: "It was quite an experience! He [the co-pilot] was being restrained in 12A, but that entire minicabin could hear the whole thing. Not for delicate ears. The soldier and the doctors [who were passengers] were great."
Irish newspapers reported today that the co-pilot was "acting in a peculiar manner and talking loudly to himself".
Fifteen minutes after the first officer was removed from the controls, Flight AC 848 made an unscheduled landing at Shannon airport. The plane had been due to arrive at Heathrow at 8.25am on Monday.
Air Canada today insisted passengers' lives were never at risk.
Peter Fitzpatrick, an Air Canada spokesman, said today: "The co-pilot fell ill during the flight and the captain elected to divert. The aircraft landed without incident. At no time were the safety of the passengers or crew in question." He refused to be drawn on whether the pilot had suffered a breakdown.
A spokeswoman for Transport Canada, the body in charge of national aviation, said commercial pilots must have medical check-ups every six months.
Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee wants to change the constitution.
Why?
Because "God" is not happy with it.
"I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution," Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."
Huckabee also wants to amend the Constitution to prevent children born in the U.S. to illegal aliens from automatically becoming American citizens - a radical step no other major presidential candidate has embraced.
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?Better now?
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."
Can someone please explain to me the difference between these three? Are they the same being? Or are they distinct? WTF?
Dr Rowan Williams has claimed there was little evidence that the Magi even existed and there was certainly nothing to prove there were three of them or that they were kings.
Dr Williams argued that the traditional Christmas story was nothing but a 'legend'
He said the only reference to the wise men from the East was in Matthew's gospel and the details were very vague. Dr Williams said: "Matthew's gospel says they are astrologers, wise men, priests from somewhere outside the Roman Empire, that's all we're really told. It works quite well as legend."
Transcript: Archbishop's interview with Simon MayoDamian Thompson: Another of Rowan Williams' own goalsMidnight mass at 8pm to fool drunks
The Archbishop went on to dispel other details of the Christmas story, adding that there were probably no asses or oxen in the stable.
He argued that Christmas cards which showed the Virgin Mary cradling the baby Jesus, flanked by shepherds and wise men, were misleading. As for the scenes that depicted snow falling in Bethlehem, the Archbishop said the chance of this was "very unlikely".
In a final blow to the traditional nativity story, Dr Williams concluded that Jesus was probably not born in December at all. He said: "Christmas was when it was because it fitted well with the winter festival."
His comments came during an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live with Simon Mayo yesterday. Later on in the show, the Archbishop was challenged by fellow guest Ricky Gervais, the comedian, about the credibility of the Christmas story.
Gervais told Dr Williams he was concerned about "brainwashing" of children who are sent to faith schools at an early age, comparing teaching that God exists to belief in Father Christmas.
Dr Williams said faith schools expose children to the full range of human experience and values and he did not believe they indoctrinated people.
Posted by Gustavo Arellano in Ex Cathedra
Whatever happened to Monsignor John Urell, the pastor of St. Norbert's Catholic Church in Orange and the longtime keeper of secrets in the Orange diocese sex-abuse scandal. Today, a St. Norbert's parishioner faxed us an update: Urell spoke to his flock this past weekend through the wonders of a church bulletin*.
In it, Urell thanks his supporters for "the many notes that have come to me, usually just at the right time when encouragement was needed." The Orange County native revealed that he had suffered from "psychological, emotional, physical and spiritual turmoil...the last number of years" and told the faithful to await his return "within the first quarter of the new year." Urell also reveals a spiritual insight: his time at the Southdown Institue for an acute anxiety disorder has reminded the padre to "pray for, in a special way, all those who suffer from anxiety and depression." It's his politically correct way of mentioning what got him sent away in the first place: his role in THE BLOODY SEX ABUSE SCANDAL THAT HE WON'T EVEN MENTION BECAUSE HE'S TOO MUCH OF A *&$#%^ COWARD TO GO AGAINST BISHOP TOD BROWN. Sorry, where were we? Merry Christmas to all, and good night!
*We'd post the bulletin, but Gustavo doesn't know how to link in any .pdf's...
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.
If you were planning on getting a Talking Jesus Action Figure this Christmas (or whatever) you're almost out of luck. Walmart has completely sold out of the toy and Target.com has "very limited supply," according to the manufacturer's spokesperson, Joshua Livingston. "We feel blessed that the toys are now in the hands of thousands of children, teaching them the word of God. We knew that the toys would make great Christmas gifts, but to see them sell so well before the Christmas buying season begins proves that parents want alternatives in the toy aisle," says Livingston.
It may also prove that goth kids still buy gag gifts, but we don't want to hurt Mr. Livingston's feelings or anything.
I used to be a Best Western kinda guy, but I ain't no mo! A hotel chain Tuesday said it was offering couples called Joseph and Mary in Britain, Ireland and Spain free accommodation this Christmas on proof of marriage and name.The advert depicted four wise men, instead of three, visiting Mary and the Baby Jesus in Bethlehem. The fourth wise man bore a can of the soft drink.
"The image of the sacred family has been represented in a sacrilegious way," Father Damanti told Corriere della Sera. "Whatever the ironic intentions of Red Bull, the advert pokes fun at the nativity, and at Christian sensitivity."
The priest also objected to the company's slogan, "Red Bull gives you wings," said by angels in the animated advert.
The commercial is by no means the first to fall foul of Italian religious sensibilities. Sony, fashion house Marithe et Francois Girbaud, and pop singer Madonna are among those whose adverts have been banned on the grounds of religion.
(Reporting by Liz Rusbridger; Editing by Sophie Walker)
“Shock and disbelief”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.
A reader sent in this link of Fr. Chris Heath's new car.
NOVEMBER 8–A Boston Catholic priest was arrested last week for stalking Conan O’Brien over a 14-month-period. According to New York police, Rev. David Ajemian, 46, was nabbed November 2 outside the NBC studios in Rockefeller Center as he tried to enter the building for a taping of O’Brien’s late-night talk show. A criminal complaint filed against Ajemian charges that the priest sent O’Brien threatening notes written on his parish’s letterhead and contacted the parents of the 44-year-old comedian, who grew up in Brookline, a Boston suburb. In his notes to O’Brien, Ajemian allegedly referred to himself as “your priest stalker,” and when he was denied entry to a taping, Ajemian wrote, “Is this the way you treat your most dangerous fans?” In his bizarre letters, Ajemian refers to John McEnroe as his “childhood nemesis,” claiming that the tennis star once assaulted him while they were seventh grade classmates at a Manhattan private school. Ajemian added that he “once went after” McEnroe and was “still waiting for his confession as well.” Ajemian, who is facing aggravated stalking and harassment counts, allegedly began contacting O’Brien last September. He is currently being held on Rikers Island and, if convicted, faces up to a year in jail.
WHO IS LAUGHING NOW !!!
