Pay to see John the Baptist's tooth?

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Would you pay to see John the Baptist's tooth?

Daniel Burke, Religion News Service

BALTIMORE — Martina Bagnoli admits that the exhibit she helps curate here at The Walters Art Museum may gross some people out.

After all, the display includes 2,000-year-old teeth, shards of bone and splinters from a first-century execution device. But these are not just any teeth, bones and splinters.

Tradition holds that they belong to John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, St. Luke, and the cross on which Jesus was crucified.

Once upon a time, pilgrims would trudge halfway around the world just to glimpse one of these objects. Seen as conduits to God, holy relics were carried into battle as talismans, used to cement alliances between heads of state, sold for small fortunes, and coveted by Christians everywhere; some even believed relics could heal the sick.

Now that a bevy of these once-prized objects are on display in downtown Baltimore, the question is: Are holy relics still relevant? Or are they, well, a thing of the past?

"A lot of that depends on what kind of Christian you are," said Bagnoli, the Walters' associate curator of medieval art. "For a lot of people this is still very much relevant."

For instance, a group of Orthodox Christian monks drove down from Boston to see the exhibit in February. And two Catholic nuns dropped by to check out the bones of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who founded their order, Bagnoli said.

The exhibit, called "Treasures of Heaven," runs through May 15.

Among Christians, the veneration of relics has traditionally been strongest among the Orthodox and Catholics, who, beginning in the second century, created ever more ornate reliquaries to display the sacred objects. Both also mandated that church altars be built on the remains of martyrs and saints to emphasize the continuity of the faith.

But excesses, including the selling of spurious relics — the infant head of John the Baptist, anyone? — led Protestant Reformers to ridicule and reject the practice as an unscriptural superstition. The Walters exhibit displays a scorching sermon by Martin Luther, who called relics "completely unnecessary and useless."

Peter Manseau, author of "Rag and Bone," a relic-based travelogue of sorts, said sacred remains often provided holy hubs for new religious movements. "As faith traditions spread rapidly over vast geographies, they needed to have little centers of the sacred — a little Jerusalem wherever they went."

Other religions, such as Buddhism and some Muslim sects also revere the bodily remnants of holy figures such as the Buddha and Prophet Muhammad, Manseau notes.

Relics still occupy a privileged place among Orthodox Christians, said Peter Bouteneff, a theology professor at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, N.Y. For example, priests are given a cloth sheet with a relic sewn into it, a tangible token of the bishops' blessing, which is placed on the altar during Communion.

"You celebrate the Eucharist incorporating this very physical memory, and a continuity with the saints who have gone before us," said Bouteneff.

For Catholics, the veneration of relics, like many traditional practices, waned after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, when devotions were de-emphasized in favor of wider engagement with the world, according to scholars.

"After Vatican II, relics kind of got put on the shelf," said Thomas Serafin, president of the Apostolate for Holy Relics, a Connecticut-based group dedicated to bringing the remains of Christian heroes back into the limelight.

Michele Dillon, an expert on American Catholicism from the University of New Hampshire, said venerating relics may be making a comeback in the U.S., particularly with the immigration of young Latino Catholics from cultures in which the practice is more widespread.

"It depends on where you look," Dillon said. "You're not going to see veneration of relics as a core part of everyday worship within a lot of Catholic churches. But it remains an important part of private religiosity."

The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author of "My Life with the Saints," noted that thousands of Catholics crowded St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1999 to be near the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux, a French nun who died more than a century ago.

Martin himself keeps a small relic of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, in his room. It's just "a tiny little speck of something," the priest said, but it imparts a profound message.

"Relics remind us that saints are real people — not mythological figures, but real flesh-and-blood human beings," Martin said.

The Walters museum provides a book where visitors can write their reflections on the exhibit. Thoughts range from reverent to wacky. "Google is my relic," wrote one visitor.

"Relics still freak most people out," Martin said, "but if you check on eBay" — where sellers proffer Michael Jackson's shirt and locks of Elvis Presley's hair — "the idea of wanting to connect physically with someone you admire is not so strange." Read more at www.usatoday.com

 

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Vatican encourages canonical penalties

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Vatican to encourage more use of canonical penalties

The Vatican is plan revisions in the section of the Code of Canon Law that details penalties for various violations, in hopes that bishops will be more inclined to use those sanctions.

The Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts-- the Vatican body that supervises the Code of Canon Law-- is drafting changes to the section on canonical penalties. Vatican experts are concerned that many bishops feel reluctant to impose canonical sanctions, choosing instead to apply a "pastoral solution" to problems. In revising the penalties, the Vatican hopes to persuade bishops that the use of canonical discipline is itself a proper pastoral approach, and ultimately a show of charity toward the individual who needs disciplinary correction.

In the course of the sex-abuse crisis, many analysts have observed that the Code of Canon Law provided adequate sanctions for priests who molested children, but those sanctions were rarely invoked.

Crime and punishment in the church gets a new look (National Catholic Reporter) Read more at www.catholicculture.org

 

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Sex abuse ruling doesn’t affect Vatican

The Vatican’s potential liability is governed exclusively by the “Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,” he said, a federal statute which sets out the conditions under which a sovereign state may be sued.



“The only way you can obtain jurisdiction over the Holy See is through the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,” Lena said. “The fact that a claim may proceed against another entity under the Alien Tort Claims Act is irrelevant.”



“The Alien Tort Claims Act is not going to become a basis” for suing the Vatican

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Sex abuse ruling in Los Angeles doesn’t affect Vatican, attorney says

by John L Allen Jr

NCR Today

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ROME -- Refusal by a federal judge in Los Angeles to dismiss a sex abuse case against the Catholic church both in the United States and Mexico, under a law that allows American courts to consider foreign claims, has no implications for efforts to sue the Vatican, the lawyer who represents the Vatican in U.S. litigation said today.

Unlike other church entities, attorney Jeffrey Lena said, the Vatican is a sovereign state, so its potential liability is limited by a special federal law.

On the other hand, Lena said, the Los Angeles case eventually could have implications for other Catholic institutions, such as dioceses and religious orders, if the “Alien Tort Claims Act” of 1789 were to be recognized as a basis to bring suits for abuse that took place outside the United States, even if neither the victim nor the abuser are American citizens.

Lena spoke to NCR in Rome.

On Monday, a U.S. district judge in Los Angeles, Josephine S. Tucker, turned down a motion to dismiss a sex abuse case brought by a Mexican man who claims he was abused by a priest who moved between the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Mexico.

According to court documents, the priest, Nicholas Aguilar Rivera, is accused of sexually abusing as many as 60 children, including 26 in Los Angeles, in the late 1980s. He was laicized, meaning formally removed from the priesthood, in 2009.

The lawsuit is believed to be the first time a sex abuse suit against the Catholic church has been allowed to proceed under the Alien Tort Claims Act. The suit asserts that Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and the bishop of the Mexican diocese of Tehuacán protected the priest and helped him avoid authorities. The Tehuacán bishop at the time, Norberto Rivera, is now the cardinal of Mexico City.

Lawyers for the Los Angeles archdiocese sought dismissal on the grounds that a U.S. court lacked jurisdiction since the alleged abuse took place in Mexico and both the plaintiff and the accused priest are Mexican citizens. Two previous lawsuits in American courts for abuse that occurred in Mexico have been dismissed.

Lawyers for the Los Angeles archdiocese say the suit lacks merit and will eventually be dismissed.

Attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who represents the alleged victim, called Monday’s ruling “huge,” saying it opens “a door that has never been opened before.”

At first blush, some observers may wonder if the ruling could pave the way for what plaintiffs lawyers and victims’ advocates have long regarded as the ultimate prize – suing the Vatican.

Lena, a California-based lawyer who defends the Vatican in American courts, said it doesn’t have any such effect. The Vatican’s potential liability is governed exclusively by the “Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,” he said, a federal statute which sets out the conditions under which a sovereign state may be sued.

“The only way you can obtain jurisdiction over the Holy See is through the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,” Lena said. “The fact that a claim may proceed against another entity under the Alien Tort Claims Act is irrelevant.”

“The Alien Tort Claims Act is not going to become a basis” for suing the Vatican, Lena said.

At the moment, there are four sex abuse lawsuits in the United States which name the Vatican as a defendant, though only one so far has been successfully served and in presently before a court. That’s the case of Doe v. Holy See in Oregon, in which a federal judge is currently weighing requests by lawyers for the victim to demand documents from the Vatican and to depose senior personnel, including the pope himself as well as the current and former Secretaries of State.

There are two other lawsuits unrelated to sexual abuse in which the Vatican is a defendant also pending in American courts, Lena said, one related to a commercial dispute and the other to an insurance scam.

None of those cases, Lena said, will be affected by Monday’s ruling.

Though cautioning that a refusal to dismiss is a very preliminary step in a legal proceeding, Lena said the case in Los Angeles bears watching, if it is eventually determined that sexual abuse is an offense for which foreign entities that aren’t sovereign states can be held liable under the Alien Tort Claims Act.

This is absolutely Submitted by L.Newington (not verified) on Mar. 02, 2011. This is absolutely disgraceful. With all the direction coming from Rome in the handling of these cases it's ludicrous. You and I would be imprisoned and 'wired', they call it down under, thats why they have to be segregatede, and this 'diplomatic immunity' caper certainly will never be a deterent in the future. The Archbishops, bishops and Cardinals will be 'called home' safe and sound, and I'm not referring to heaven either. God knows where their conscience's are and 'special dispensations' won't do them any good when they stand before His throne on Judgement Day. This is the fear of hell engrained in catholics as children at the age of reason for much less a crime. Thankfully I was never reared as one. reply

Seems to me that suing an Submitted by Russell (not verified) on Mar. 02, 2011. Seems to me that suing an entity like the Vatican State is really of no real help. Suing the Archbishop of Rome and his appointees doing business of the Church seems to be more on point. This means that lawsuits should be directed: 1) to the Archbishop of Rome, currently Benedict xvi. 2) the Diocese / Archdiocese of Rome 3) if there is a failure on the part of the current Archbishop, and his appointees to appear in court then extradition proceeding should begin, and / or the international court should be called on. reply

The German's feel the same Submitted by drwho13 (not verified) on Mar. 02, 2011. The German's feel the same way, and want to sue the Pope in the World Court for Crimes Against Humanity. Even if not successful, it keeps the evil secrets of The RC Church in the public eye, worldwide. Additionally, it places them in with the rest on the despots who have been involved with The International Criminal Court. http://www.kanzlei-sailer.de/pope-lawsuit-2011.pdf To the Prosecutor The International Criminal Court Dr. Luis Moreno Ocampo Maanweg, 174 NL-2516 AB Den Haag February 14, 2011 Dr. Joseph Ratzinger, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church on grounds of Crimes against Humanity According to Art. 7 ICC Statute Dr. jur. Christian Sailer Dr. jur. Gert-Joa. reply Don’t forget, what goes Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mar. 02, 2011. Don’t forget, what goes around, comes around. It is only a question of time when there will be court cases against American citizens in other countries (for example in China, Brazil, Russia, etc.), by people who are not necessarily from those countries and who have well-founded or less well-founded (retaliatory or politically motivated) grievances against some US individuals or institutions. If people in the US engage in this kind of precedent-setting high profile vindictive prosecutions, people will follow the example. It is only a question of time. reply Let me see: a. Bishops are Submitted by Joseph Jaglowicz (not verified) on Mar. 02, 2011. Let me see: a. Bishops are lackeys of the Vatican, which receives nominations for episcopal appointments, examines candidates' backgrounds, approves episcopal appointments, and transfers bishops to dioceses within the U.S. as well as to higher offices within the Vatican, b. Bishops use their episcopal authority to transfer pervert clerics between/among U.S. dioceses, c. The Vatican knows full well of these sinful and dysfunctional movements between U.S. dioceses and does nothing to intervene --- even though canon law gives the Vatican the ultimate authority to defrock or not defrock a cleric, d. All the aforementioned occur within the context of ecclesial governance, not within the sphere of the state's jurisdiction (which is not to ignore the state's inherent criminal jurisdiction over allegations of child molestation), e. The Vatican wears two "hats", i.e., international church HQ and international city-state, and its papal nuncio (ambassador) to the U.S. represents the Vatican in both areas, and f. The Vatican's lawyer contends --- in so many words --- that the Vatican can be held liable only under a federal law dealing with a sovereign state like the Vatican. So --- The Vatican wants to have its cake and eat it, too. Bishops are, in fact, beholden to the Vatican. They take their "marching orders" from the Vatican. Legal definitions aside, they function like any other managerial employee of an international corporation/institution. But the Vatican contends that it cannot be held liable because it is a sovereign city-state. Bull$h!t!!! It's long past time to hold the Vatican accountable as a de facto employer, not as a city-state. If a Vatican employee breaks criminal law while engaged in church business, prosecute in a U.S. court. If a Vatican employee breaks criminal law while performing official city-state business, then send him back to Rome. Child molestation and its coverup by bishop and Vatican is not sovereign city-state business. It is church business. I, for one, am damn tired of seeing Uncle Sam kowtow to the Vatican. We Catholics have seen enough of this crap already. Get mean, Uncle Sam!!! Get mean!!! f. reply Our American government has a Submitted by Dr Rosemary Eileen McHugh (not verified) on Mar. 02, 2011. Our American government has a needed role to play in challenging the diplomatic immunity of the Vatican, of Pope Benedict XVI, and of the Curia. As a Catholic physician who has been following cases of child sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, I have come to the belief that Pope Benedict and the hierarchy lack the insight of the theft of childhoods that their policies have caused throughout the world. I do not think that these Church leaders understand that sex abuse against children is not only a human weakness and sin, but it is also a serious crime. The Roman Catholic Church leaders act as if they are above the law. In the shameful cases of the sexual abuse of children by priests, the Roman Catholic Church leaders continue to be more protective of the abusers than of the abused, maybe because these men do not have children of their own and are out of touch with normal human life. Instead of the response of a loving parent wanting to protect their children at all costs, the bishops in the States are re-victimizing the victims, by the legal games that they, the bishops, are playing against the victims in court. I recommend the book THE CASE OF THE POPE, in order to get an understanding of the nebulous claims of the tiny piece of land of the Vatican within the city of Rome. The Vatican claims that it is a sovereign state and should have diplomatic immunity. The author of the book is Geoffrey Robertson, Queen's Counsel, human rights lawyer, and judge at the United Nations in New York. He gives an opinion that needs to be explored so that the RCC will be made accountable for its worldwide crimes against humanity. The American government can not support and defend the indefensible. Justice must come to the victims/survivors of priest sexual abuse. Sincerely, Dr Rosemary Eileen McHugh reply Read more at ncronline.org

 

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The spy called 'Wild Bill'

By Tim Rutten

Los Angeles Times

Contemporary history is seldom as relevant and engaging as Douglas Waller's new biography, "Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage," which is fascinatingly instructive and thoroughly entertaining.

Waller, a former Time correspondent and the author of an excellent biography of Gen. Billy Mitchell, has a great ally in his subject -- a larger-than-life personality in a century favored with more than its share of outsized figures.

William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan was born in Buffalo, N.Y., to Irish immigrant parents who'd managed to scramble up the ladder from "shanty" to the lower rungs of "lace curtain" status. A fine athlete but indifferent student, Donovan nonetheless graduated from Columbia Law School, where one of his classmates was an aristocratic young man named Franklin D. Roosevelt. Back in Buffalo, the young lawyer married the daughter of a wealthy, socially prominent Protestant family, and, though his new in-laws were wary of the brash young man from a tough Irish ward, he soon became their legal and financial adviser.

World War I was the making of Donovan. He served in New York's storied, mostly Irish "Fighting 69th" Regiment. Its legendary chaplain, Father Francis Duffy, became his closest friend, and the doomed young poet, Joyce Kilmer, was his adjutant. His men -- more than half of whom would die in the fighting -- admiringly dubbed him "Wild Bill" for his courage under fire, a nom de

guerre that one of his commanders, Douglas MacArthur, echoed, though as a less-than-complimentary reference to his tendency to exceed orders.

Donovan emerged from the Great War with the Medal of Honor and France's Croix de Guerre, though he refused to accept the latter until the French also bestowed it on the Jewish sergeant who had been at his side in the particular engagement for which they were honored. Back in New York, where he finally received his Medal of Honor, he immediately unsnapped the decoration and presented it to his regiment. "It doesn't belong to me," he said. "It belongs to the boys who are not here, the boys who are resting under the white crosses in France or in the cemeteries of New York." He left the medal in the 69th's Manhattan armory and never retrieved it.

After the war, Donovan returned to Buffalo with a new, international perspective, determined to make his law firm a competitor with the big New York City firms and to give it a presence in European business affairs. It was a formula that made him rich.

In an era when the majority of Irish-Americans were baptized Catholics but born Democrats, Donovan was a conservative Republican who dabbled in politics as a pugnacious but unsuccessful candidate who was intensely critical of Roosevelt and the New Deal. He was, however, an instinctive social conservative who saw the danger presented by Adolf Hitler early on. By 1933, Donovan was actively protesting the Nazis' anti-Semitism. Despite Donovan's Republican affiliation, Roosevelt asked him to go to London to assess whether U.S. Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy was correct in his appraisal that Britain had neither the will nor the strength to confronta resurgent Germany.

Donovan met with Winston Churchill, toured Europe and came back to tell the president that Britain would fight and that Hitler was every bit as dangerous as the president was inclined to believe. When war arrived, Donovan became a fervent supporter of aid to London. Encouraged by Churchill and British espionage operative William Stephenson, he also became convinced that America required a professional intelligence agency like Britain's MI6, staffed with "men calculatingly reckless with disciplined daring." Donovan proposed such a group to Roosevelt, and, in 1941, the president named the him "coordinator of information."

Thus was the legendary Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, born: Its agents -- both men and women -- generally lived up to Donovan's description throughout the war. Much of Waller's narrative is given over to those years, which were replete with heroism of all sorts. There were stunningly daring, meticulously prepared operations as well as many -- like the plan to drop bats with bombs strapped to their bodies over Germany -- that simply were harebrained.

Others were problematic, like a collapse of OSS operations in Italy that were put on a productive footing by Donovan, who repeatedly and recklessly exposed himself to enemy fire. His administrative overreaching and lack of even normally protective political instincts earned him the distrust of many, as well as the undying enmity of J. Edgar Hoover. When the former spy chief died, in 1959, from complications of senile dementia, the FBI director spread a rumor that the real cause of his death was syphilis.

One of the admirable attributes of Waller's well-written history is its realism regarding the OSS war effort. Along with British intelligence, the office made a significant contribution to equipping and mustering the French Resistance in support of the Normandy invasion. In practical terms, that probably was its finest hour. Nothing else came close to matching the pivotal role played by code-breakers who decrypted the German and Japanese military and naval communications.

Waller is also good in showing how Donovan's own weaknesses and predilections would, in so many respects, become those of the Central Intelligence Agency he worked so hard to see established in the postwar years -- though Harry S. Truman denied him the opportunity to lead it.

Donovan had a faith in the efficacy of covert action that he inculcated in the lieutenants who would go on to direct the CIA. He also had a casual approach to predictive analysis that would be echoed over and over in subsequent years. The OSS, for example, confidently told Roosevelt that Nazi Germany would collapse within a couple of months of the Normandy landings.

Similarly, anyone familiar with the so-called "Curveball" disinformation for which the CIA fell during the run-up to the Iraq war will find an eerie foreshadowing in the way a one-time Italian pornographer conned the OSS into accepting a stream of concocted intelligence supposedly leaked by Vatican diplomatic circles.

Waller's realism about these issues, combined with an obvious affection for the remarkable character of Wild Bill Donovan, have resulted in a splendid biography.

Free Press, 467 pp., $30

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Israel revokes Anglican bishop's permit

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Israel revokes Anglican bishop's residency permit

Israel has declined to renew a residency permit for the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, Suheil Dawani, according to Yusef Daher, executive secretary of the Jerusalem Inter-Church Centre (ICC).

The action took place several weeks ago but the bishop's office was trying to resolve the issue without media attention, Mr Daher said. However, since then efforts to rescind the decision have failed, despite inquiries by Western diplomats and protests to the Israeli Ministry of Interior and the Prime Minister's Office, he said.

The ICC is sponsored by the Jerusalem churches, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) and functions as a coordination point for ecumenical action in and for Jerusalem, Palestine and its churches.

Born in Nablus, the bishop, like all West Bank Palestinians, must have a special residency permit to stay in East Jerusalem where St George Anglican Cathedral and the bishop's offices are located. Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their capital, was annexed by Israel and has been under Israeli control since 1967.

"There is a feeling among church leaders that Israel has no respect for Christians or Christian leaders," Mr Daher said in a March 1 phone interview. "There is no respect for the request of the issuing of residency visas and (it seems as if) they are almost doing the contrary."

He said the Israeli Ministry of Interior said it had revoked the residency permit after accusing the bishop of selling property to a Palestinian.

In a written response to a question from ENInews, the Ministry of the Interior responded, "We are talking about a sensitive issue that was presented in front of the Interior Minister and our detailed answer will be delivered in the court, in the frame of the petition that was served."

An Israeli official, who asked not to be identified, noted that the legal issues involved in the case were "very serious" and would need to go to court, however, he said, he could not elaborate further. "No one is trying to kick (Dawani) out of Jerusalem. He has been offered to be allowed to stay in Jerusalem under a different status, as someone with a work permit, but he rejected that," noted the Israeli official.

Mr Dawani declined to respond to a request from ENInews for comment.

Church leaders are following the case with concern, Mr Daher said, because many of the bishops, clergy and other religious serving in the various churches of the Holy Land come from abroad, including Arab countries, and must renew Israeli permits every two years in order to remain in Jerusalem and enter Israel in order to reach the West Bank.

The issue of entry visas and residence permits for Catholic clergy has been one of the major issues in negotiations between Israel and the Vatican. The Israel-Holy See Permanent Bilateral Commission was formed following the establishment of official diplomatic ties in 1993.

Mr Daher said that despite Pope Benedict XVI's intervention on behalf of several people during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2009 there was no response from Israel.

The situation has become more serious over the past few months following the Catholic Synod of Middle East Bishops which took place at the Vatican in October and the issuing of a document that called for international support against what it called the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, he said.

Several key members of the clergy and church personnel have been forced to leave Jerusalem because their permits were not renewed, Mr Daher noted. "The church’s role and effectiveness has been (compromised) because there is not enough clergy," he said.

Judith Sudilovsky, ENI Read more at www.insights.uca.org.au

 

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Charlie Sheen: Is He Mentally Ill?

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Charlie Sheen is sober, according to his latest drug tests, but does that mean he's mentally healthy?

Psychologists say no one should try to diagnose a patient he or she hasn't personally evaluated. But Sheen's recent behavior and self-inflated claims -- he has "tiger's blood," he's a "Vatican assassin," he deserves $3 million an episode for "Two and a Half Men" -- have led to speculation by the same news outlets reporting his bizarre comments that he could be bipolar. Two mental health professionals who spoke with TheWrap said he is likely suffering from the effects of abusing crack cocaine -- a particularly potent drug that can cause severe brain damage.  Also read: Who's Really 'Winning'? Sheen's Media Blitz, By the Numbers [1] Sheen has made it clear that he was doing massive amounts of drugs, telling ABC [2] that when he last used more than a month ago, "I was banging seven-gram rocks and finishing them because that's how I roll." The specialists said that Sheen's erratic behavior is symptomatic of prolonged addiction and cannot just be chalked up to bipolar disorder or other mental health issues. "Charlie Sheen is a hardcore drug addict and what's been going on this week is typical of someone who smokes a lot of crack," Dr. Howard Samuels, founder and CEO of The Hills Treatment Center, told TheWrap. "For the first three to six months that the drug is leaving the system people are extremely grandiose, arrogant, entitled and angry."  The question of Sheen's mental stability isn't just about whether news outlets (including TheWrap) are exploiting a mentally unbalanced man for ratings or page views. It's also about the fate of his billion-dollar show and the people it employs, and the safety of the people around him -- including the children taken from his custody Tuesday. "I am very concerned that [Sheen] is currently insane," soon-to-be ex-wife Brooke Mueller wrote in requesting a temporary restraining order. A judge granted it and ordered the children's removal from Sheen's home. Elsewhere in her request, obtained by the The Smoking Gun [3], Mueller claimed that Sheen had threatened to decapitate her, which the actor denied on NBC's "Today" (above). She also accused him [4] of sending an anti-Semitic text that Sheen told TMZ she, in fact, had sent from his phone. Also read: Sheen Denies Texting That He'd Execute 'Stoopid Jew Pig' Manager [5] Whoever is telling the truth now, Sheen has admitted abuse in the past: He pleaded guilty in August to misdemeanor third-degree assault on Mueller. "The message to America seems to be it's okay to abuse drugs and hit women and you can still be the face of CBS," Samuels said. But detoxification alone won't necessarily lead to a more stable Sheen. "When people become addicted, they're often self-medicating," Dr. Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Research Center, told TheWrap. "Treatment won't work unless a person addresses whatever was causing them to abuse substances in the first place."  ABC's "20/20" devoted the latter part of its hourlong Sheen special Tuesday to an addiction specialist who weighed whether Sheen may be bipolar -- a notion Sheen rejected by saying he's "bi-winning." The Kansas City's Star [6]'s Aaron Barnhart, in a column cited by the Poynter Institute [7] and other journalism watchdogs, wrote that Sheen "is not well, and he is a danger not just to himself but to others." He urged reporters to stop taking Sheen's calls and instead to help "get him into a rehab facility." Not that Sheen is taking others' advice to heart. The actor, who has passed on-air drug tests since announcing Jan. 28 that he was starting rehab, understandably resents being judged by strangers. The actor ripped into Dr. Drew Pinsky for telling HLN that Sheen was "clearly manic," saying on CNN's "Piers Morgan Live" that Pinsky should be "ashamed." "Bring me Dr. Clown Shoes," Sheen said on "20/20." "Who are these people? What right do they have to sit in judgment?" Even the "20/20" addiction specialist, Dr. Omar Manejwala, who based his opinions on watching Sheen's interview, conceded that "no one should make a diagnosis by watching him on video." But Sheen himself seems in no hurry to find an explanation for behavior he sometimes quickly regrets. It took him only until Monday night's "Piers Morgan" to backtrack on the  $3-million-an-episode demand that first aired that morning on "Today." "That was stupid," he told Morgan. Asked on "20/20" what he thinks of speculation that he might be bipolar, he told "20/20": "And then what? What's the cure? Medicine? Make me like them? Not gonna happen. "I'm bi-winning. I win here and I win there. Now what? If I'm bi-polar aren't there moments where a guy like crashes... in the corner, like 'Oh my God it's all my mom's fault?'" he said, feigning tears. "Shut up. Shut up. Stop. Move forward." At this point, Sheen may be addicted to media attention, and it could be hindering his recovery, Rutledge said. "This is playing out like the slowest suicide in Hollywood history and if the end comes, you have to wonder how much of it was provoked by people asking him to perform in this state," she said.  "It can end like Robert Downey, who had an amazing comeback, or it can end like John Belushi."  Related Articles:  Sheen Denies Sending Text Saying He'd 'Execute... Stoopid Jew Pig' Manager [4] Who's Really 'Winning'? Charlie Sheen's Media Blitz: By the Numbers [1] Read more at www.thewrap.com

 

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Lent: The Vatican Diet Plan?

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Lent: No, It's Not the Vatican Diet Plan

By Patrick Williams

​The tired, lame joke used to pop about annually this time of year among the lapsed Catholics in my family. "I'm giving up watermelon for Lent," assorted uncles would say with a grin.

Har-har. Get it? Watermelon isn't in season during Lent, so as sacrifices go...

Yeah, those old boys were cards, skating right on the cutting edge of humor.

Half-witticisms aside, giving up a favorite foodstuff -- chocolate, coffee, desserts, even booze for those whose souls need a really good scrubbing -- is a common practice among many Christians, which got City of Ate wondering: Is passing up a daily Reese's Cup for a few weeks really an appropriate way to celebrate the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday, March 9? Is avoiding coffee -- heaven help us -- too much to ask?

That depends, says Auxiliary Bishop Douglas Deshotel, vicar general of Dallas' Roman Catholic Diocese. Lent is about what you have in your heart, not what you put in your gullet.

Celebrated by Roman Catholic, Orthodox and some Protestant churches, Lent is a period of prayer and penance between Ash Wednesday and Easter. It mirrors the 40 days the Christian gospels say Jesus fasted in the desert -- and was tempted by the devil -- before beginning his public ministry. "He shows us by his own life how to turn away from evil and not be slaves to our own bodily appetites and live in freedom," Deshotel says, hence the practice of making a personal sacrifice some sort during Lent.

Turning away from a favorite, benign temptation is an exercise in free will that reminds believers to point that will toward God. Passing on a favorite snack "doesn't trivialize" Lent, Deshotel says, but viewing the season chiefly as a chance to shed a few pounds misses its higher purpose. And while self-denial might be freeing, the point of sacrifice is to remind believers to try to be more godly, not less. "If giving things up makes you so grouchy and mean-spirited...you ought to have the coffee."

"It doesn't have to be food, you know," Deshotel adds. Some believers mark the season by devoting more time to charitable acts instead.

Still, there is one undeniable link between food and Lent -- Catholics are expected to avoid eating meat on the Fridays between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. "Long John Silvers treats us very nice during Lent," Deshotel says.

Depending on your opinion of Long John Silvers, that may be more penance than even the faithful should endure, but luckily, there are other options. Aw Shucks & Big Shucks restaurants, for example, will serve grilled tilapia with rice and veggies for $8.95 on Fridays during Lent. That's two $2 off the regular price, which, ahem, would fit nicely in the collection plate on Sunday, perhaps. And Taco Cabana restaurants sent around a press release last week announcing that through mid-April the chain will bring back its "fan favorite" shrimp Tampico, "just in time for the Lenten season."

Yes, in a miracle of modern marketing, even a period penance, prayer and sacrifice can be turned into an opportunity to make a buck. (To be fair, Taco Cabana is based in heavily Catholic San Antonio, and anyone who has ever tried to get a lunch table at a fish restaurant in there on a Lenten Friday can appreciate the chain's P.R. savvy.)

Even in Dallas, whose diocese is home to 1.2 million Catholics, Lent is a boom time for fish sellers. Jon Alexis, owner of T.J.'s Fresh Seafood Market, estimates his Friday sales rise about 10 percent during Lent. (It doesn't hurt that his market is not far from Jesuit Prep and the shop is a school booster.)

"It's huge. It's great," Alexis says. "I wish every religion commanded people to eat fish." Read more at blogs.dallasobserver.com

 

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French village faces excommunication

Amplify’d from www.abs-cbnnews.com

French village faces excommunication over priest: bishop

Agence France-Presse

EVREUX, France - A rural French priest and his flock are facing excommunication after the Vatican became involved in his two-year battle to remain in the parish, the local bishop told AFP on Wednesday.

Father Francis Michel, 62, has been the priest in Normandy's Thiberville in north-western France for 24 years. The priest, who often says mass in Latin, has the support of his parishioners and local officials, mayor Guy Paris said.

The simmering conflict between the priest and the archbishopric came to a head after the Vatican's Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura in December rejected Michel's appeal against an order he go to another parish.

"As long as he stays in place and continues to officiate, unfortunately we're heading towards an excommunication, which would also affect his followers," Evreux Bishop Christian Nourrichard told AFP.

On Sunday, the new priest named by Bishop Nourrichard was unable to celebrate mass as the church's locks had been filled with expanded foam.

"His parish was one of the smallest in the diocese, with only 5,000 people in 13 villages, which of course let him be very present but did not correspond to needs," Nourrichard said.

"I have also been notified of more serious things," the bishop said, declining to elaborate.

Mayor Paris said that 4,000 people have signed a petition demanding Michel stay in the village.

"He is very dynamic and has created strong links with the population, locally and beyond: some come from very far away, by coach, to attend his masses," Paris said. Read more at www.abs-cbnnews.com

 

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Vatican Slaps Priest On Wrist For Abuse

Amplify’d from www.cathnewsindia.com

Vatican punishes Dutch bishop

The Vatican has barred a retired Dutch bishop from saying Mass in public for sexually abusing a teenage boy in Kenya.

Fons Eppink, head of the Mill Hill order in the Netherlands, told Radio Netherlands Worldwide and Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad that the measure was taken by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples but was not made public.

Schilder has been barred from “saying Mass in public and from fulfilling pastoral duties,” Father Eppink explained.

Bishop Schilder was given early retirement on 1 August 2009, officially due to his ailing health. Since that time he has been living at a convent that cares for the elderly, run by the Mill Hill order in the Dutch town of Oosterbeek. .

Bishop Schilder was accused by a 32-year-old member of the Masai tribe in the province of Ngong in southern Kenya. The man says that as a 14-year-old boy he was raped by the bishop who was still a priest in Ngongo at the time.

The man has also accuses another Dutch missionary from the Mill Hill order, who has since died. In January 2003, Cornelius Schilder was appointed bishop of the Kenyan diocese of Ngong, which is home to around 100,000 Roman Catholics.

Like Cornelius Schilder, Fons Eppink was also a missionary in Kenya. As head of the Mill Hill order in Kenya, Father Eppink heard the accounts of both the victim and the bishop. “I asked the papal nuncio in Kenya and the archbishop to initiate a church investigation. This formed the basis for the Vatican’s action. The police were not informed.”

Source:  Radio Netherlands

Today's Indian News Church people welcome directive to monitor paid news Church people disappointed over quashing of CVC appointment Council for probe to find Malegaon-Orissa link Order on crosses angers Christians Catholic civil servant resigns Read more at www.cathnewsindia.com

 

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