Amplify’d from www.ibtimes.com

Vatican letter to Tucson reveals cover-up mentality

By Joseph Picard

Another Vatican letter instructing non-cooperation with civil authorities has come to light, this one from 1984 and addressed to the Bishop of Tucson, Arizona.

Earlier this week, an Irish bishop gave a 1997 letter from the Roman Curia to a reporter, which apparently instructed Irish bishops not to cooperate with civil authorities who were probing reported incidents of sexual abuse by priests.

The letter has re-fueled the sexual abuse and cover-up scandal that has plagued the Church for decades and calls into question the Vatican's many denials of non-cooperation with civil authorities. The Irish letter has also led some Catholics to call for a halt to the canonization process underway for Pope John Paul II, who was pontiff at the time the letter was written

The 1997 letter is somewhat vague in its wording, although most who have read it agree that the message is clear enough. But the 1984 Vatican letter, released today by BishopAccountability.org, leaves no doubt.

John Paul II was also the pope in 1984.

The Tucson letter was written by Silvio Angelo Pio Cardinal Oddi, who was from 1979 to 1986 Prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy - that is, the Curia, which is, together with the Pope, the governing body of the Catholic Church -- and is addressed to Bishop Manuel D. Moreno of Tucson. It was written in response to Moreno's request for guidance in how proceed regarding a badly behaving priest.

After telling Moreno that there was not "any need for engaging in the so called 'due process' procedures," Cardinal Oddi answers Moreno's question: "Should we allow or disallow civil lawyers from obtaining Father's personnel records from our Chancery files?"

"...under no condition whatever ought the afore-mentioned files be surrendered to any lawyer or judge whatsoever." Oddi said "The files of a Bishop concerning his priests are altogether private; their forced acquisition by civil authority would be an intolerable attack upon the free exercise of religion in the United States."

The Curial cardinal goes to say that Moreno should "make known immediately and with clarity that no priest's files will be sent to any lawyer or judge whatever."

"We should be clear and resolute, for failure in this regard might initiate a movement toward a most unfavorable precedent in law and - no less importantly - frighten and upset not a few priests whose files are perhaps less than flattering," Cardinal Oddi concluded.

The priest's name was expunged from the letter by Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org because the priest was not accused of sexual abuse in the letter.

BishopAccountability.org is an online archive of sexual abuse by clergy and cover-up cases throughout the United States.

"Although this priest is not accused of sexual abuse, and his name does not turn up in our database, Cardinal Oddi's letter certainly indicates the Vatican's mentality and its position regarding cooperation with civil authorities," McKiernan said. "The Vatican sees itself as an entity separate from civil authority. It's prohibition against cooperation transcends the sexual abuse issue."

There are two hand-written comments on the letter. McKiernan said they were written by Pio Cardinal Laghi, who was the Vatican's Apostolic Delegate/Pro-Nuncio to the U.S. from 1980 to 1990.

The note on the first page reads,  "servet in exemplum." McKiernan explained that the words mean "let it serve as an example" and indicate that the letter was meant to be taken as a policy document. Read more at www.ibtimes.com

 

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Amplify’d from www.jsonline.com

Priest says Milwaukee archdiocese mishandled case, owes him $450,000

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which faces more than a dozen civil fraud lawsuits over its handling of clergy sex abuse cases, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January. As the case proceeds, we'll have updates, analysis, documents and more.

A Catholic priest restricted from ministry after the alleged sexual abuse of minors, and whose church trials have dragged on for years, says the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has mishandled his case and owes him about $450,000 in past wages and benefits.

Father Marvin T. Knighton, 60, of Phoenix made the claims in a Jan. 12 letter filed this week with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Milwaukee.

In a separate letter dated Jan. 11, which is also on file with the court, Knighton asks Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki to reimburse him for $3,855 in recent living expenses, incurred after the archdiocese announced in September that it would be cutting off stipends to priests whose alleged offenses were deemed credible.

Jerry Topczewski, chief of staff for Listecki, denied Wednesday that the archdiocese mishandled Knighton's case and said the church has no plans to reimburse him.

"The case has followed canonical procedures and is pending," he said.

Knighton did not return a telephone call. His New York canon lawyer declined to comment, saying he was prohibited by church law while a case is ongoing.

Knighton does not appear to be seeking creditor status in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed this month by the archdiocese.

He suggested in writing the $450,000 estimate was conservative.

"This of course does not include if I were to sue them in civil court for emotional damages, which I believe I could, if I choose to do so," he wrote.

Jury acquitted him

Knighton, who taught at Catholic and public high schools in the Milwaukee area, was charged in 2002 with two counts of second-degree sexual assault on accusations of kissing and indecently touching a boy in the late 1980s. He was acquitted in a jury trial the following year.

The Milwaukee archdiocese had received at least one other allegation against the priest dating to the 1970s.

It restricted him from priestly ministries in 2002, but the Vatican's Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith ordered a canonical trial. The ruling was upheld at a Milwaukee tribunal in 2007 and is now on appeal in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Local law firm becomes go-to counsel for Catholic dioceses in bankruptcies Priest says Milwaukee archdiocese mishandled case, owes him $450,000 Read more at www.jsonline.com

 

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Possenti Society Blasts Anti-Gun Catholic Church Bureaucrats

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Possenti Society Blasts Anti-Gun Catholic Church Bureaucrats

Washington, DC

St. Gabriel Possenti Society Emblem

Video Clip: Click to Watch The St. Gabriel Possenti Society, Inc. today ripped into gun prohibitionists in the Catholic Church hierarchy and suggested gun owners place spent cartridge casings in collection baskets as an initial form of protest. Society chairman John M. Snyder said "the forthcoming beatification of Pope John Paul II comes as a welcome spiritual torpedo moving against anti-gun owner Catholic Church bureaucrats." "It is ironic that Pope Benedict XV's announcement of the May 1 event came as the Catholic News Service proclaimed in an article on gun control that the 'Church firmly, quietly opposes firearms for civilians,'" Snyder added. "It's ironic because Pope John Paul proclaimed definitively traditional Catholic teaching on the right and even the obligation, including killing an aggressor, of self-defense. He did this in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae. The late pope cited the Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2265 that '…legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for someone responsible for another's life, the common good of the family or of the state.' Pope John Paul stated, 'Unfortunately, it happens that the need to render the aggressor incapable of causing harm sometimes involves taking his life.'" Snyder said "anti-gun church officials would render people incapable of defending themselves or others. It's hard to tell if these people are wicked or just plain stupid. It is hypocritical for Church officials to proclaim doctrinally respect for the right to life on the one hand and then, on the other hand, promote or support policies the implementation of which would render the defense or protection of life an impossibility. "Devout Catholic firearm owners can let church officials at various levels know what they think of certain Vatican officials' inanity and hypocrisy. There are many ways to do this. One would be to place spent cartridge casings, preferably with primers removed, in church collection envelopes and collection baskets and in bishops' envelope solicitations for contributions. It would be good to remind them of Christ's statement, 'if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.'" (Luke 22:36) St. Gabriel Possenti used handguns without injuring a single human being to rescue villagers of Isola del Gran Sasso, Italy in 1860 from a gang of marauders. Pope Benedict XV canonized him in 1920. The international, interdenominational Society seeks his official Vatican designation as Patron of Handgunners. It highlights the historical, philosophical and theological bases for the individual use of force in legitimate self-defense.   John M. Snyder Manager Telum Associates, LLC Arlington, VA 202-239-8005 Read more at www.expertclick.com

 

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Amplify’d from www.newsrealblog.com

Catholic Cardinal-Patriarch Sfeir Defends…Islam?

by Lisa Graas

Red, the color of blood, is also the color of the vestments worn by Catholic Cardinals. Each Catholic Cardinal wears red to signify his willingness to contend for the Catholic Faith even, in the words of Raymond Cardinal Burke, “to the outpouring of his blood.’ Not all Cardinals, apparently, are able to live up to this high calling when the going gets tough. In a recent CNN interview, Catholic Cardinal-Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir can be found contending not so much for the Catholic Faith as for Islam. Why would a Catholic Cardinal consider it important to cast Islam in a positive light when his duty is to explain the clear-cut distinctions between Catholicism and other religions? Some say Cardinal Sfeir is “suffering” but not from persecution.

Rather, he is “suffering” from an accute case of dhimmitude. Being a voice of Christianity in a country where Islam is approaching majority status, as is the case in Cardinal Sfeir’s country of Lebanon, is certainly no easy task. However, considering the depth of commitment required of a Cardinal, we might at least expect him to refrain from defending Islam with CNN.

[...] Islam is, of course, a religion that promotes worshipping the goodness in life, worshipping God and being fair to others.

Those words are from Cardinal Sfeir as he explained what he admits is a “tragic situation” for Christians in Lebanon. His words seem to betray the high calling so clearly spelled out recently by Cardinal Burke.

Although not every Cardinal will be called to give his life in red martyrdom for the sake of the Church and, above all, for the sake of the exercise of the ministry of the Vicar of Christ on earth, he is called daily to be intrepid, to give his life in white martyrdom, steadfastly and courageously defending the Catholic Church and her holy faith in the care of Saint Peter and his successors.

What Cardinal Burke explains above is the true role of a Catholic Cardinal. Cardinal Sfeir, on the other hand, seems content with dhimmitude.

A non-Muslim community that is forced to accept dhimmitude is condemned to live in a system that will protect it from violent jihad on only one condition: if it is completely subservient to a Muslim master. In return for that subservience, the community is granted limited rights, although dhimmis could be capriciously subjected to such depredations as mass slavery, abductions, and deportations.

While Lebanon is not yet to the point of being a Muslim-majority country enslaving, abducting, or deporting Christians, it is important to point out that attitudes like Cardinal Sfeir’s are attitudes of contentment with dhimmitude that pave the way for the advancement of Islam which itself results consistently in more oppression of non-Muslim peoples.

Cardinal Sfeir tendered his resignation to the Vatican some time ago, but the Vatican has yet to accept it. Considering that Pope Benedict XVI has been consistent in every opportunity available to address the plight of Christians under Islam, emphasizing the need for divided Christians to unite and for Christians and Jews to work together, we can believe that a suitable replacement for Cardinal Sfeir is being sought by the Vatican, and one that will actually contend for the true peace offered by Christians, Jews and other peace-loving people rather than the false peace of dhimmitude.

WaPo Gives Platform to Catholics United’s Abortion Disinformation (1) Read more at www.newsrealblog.com

 

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Amplify’d from www.smh.com.au

Establishment urges swift end to Berlusconi scandal

Paola Totaro

THE President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, has expressed ''grave concern'' over the lurid prostitution scandal that has enveloped Silvio Berlusconi, demanding ''swift clarification'' of the accusations and signalling for the first time that his days as Prime Minister may be numbered.

In an unusually co-ordinated pincer movement, religious, political and business leaders in Italy have united in calling for a quick end to an affair that has ''brought shame on the nation''.

Senior bishops in Rome used a Vatican paper, Avvenire, and a rare front-page editorial to decry ''even the notion'' that a national leader might be involved in prostitution, let alone with a minor, describing the claims as ''morally indefensible'' and linking the scandal to Italy's prevailing culture of ''power, sex and money''.

Silvio Berlusconi ... ‘‘brought shame on the nation’’. Photo: AFP

The head of the powerful Confindustria employers' association, Emma Marcegaglia, said: ''It is not for me to demand it, but it is time to take some quick decisions because this nation needs a government that can indeed govern''.

The criticisms - and a call to resign from the Italian opposition - come in the wake of the leaking of the full text of Milan prosecutors' indictment of Mr Berlusconi, which has painted an almost unbelievable world of sex orgies and prostitution paid for with enormous amounts of cash, free housing and expensive gifts allegedly provided by the Prime Minister.

''Even if no crime has been committed, can he continue to govern the country after what has happened and the things we have read?'' said Dario Franceschini, the Democratic Party leader in the Chamber of Deputies.

"I thought he'd put on weight, he looked uglier. Last year he was looking fitter, now he's looking over the hill" ... Showgirl Imma De Vivo talks to her twin sister, Eleonora, about Mr Berlusconi last year. Photo: Getty Images

Mr Berlusconi, 74, has laughed off the calls, saying he is ''amused'' by the affair and describing the resignation demands as ''mad''.

He recorded a video on Sunday aired on national TV, and has denied all wrongdoing, insisting that wiretaps should not be taken at face value or heard out of context. He said he had employed, paid for and provided housing and help to ''hundreds'' of young people but only in exchange for ''friendship and affection'', never sex.

But according to the prosecutors' dossier, an array of witnesses, including young women, friends, lawyers and showgirls turned provincial officials, reveal how the world of politics and showbusiness has collided under the leadership of a media billionaire tycoon turned politician.

"I've been going to his home since I was 16, but I've always denied everything" ... Karima El Mahroug, Ruby the Heart stealer last year. Photo: AFP

Italian newspapers have been thrown into a renewed frenzy by the latest revelations, somewhat hypocritically running transcripts of the intercepted conversations accompanied by photographs of an array of the young and attractive women.

In one conversation, long-haired twins discuss a recent dinner at Mr Berlusconi's villa: ''I thought he'd put on weight,'' Imma De Vivo tells her sister Eleonora. ''He looked uglier. Last year he was looking fitter, now he's looking over the hill. And he's ugly with it. He's just got to cough up.''

The scandal erupted when prosecutors opened an investigation into charges that Mr Berlusconi gave a young Moroccan-born girl, Karima El Mahroug, nicknamed Ruby Rubacuori, or Ruby Heartstealer, cash and gifts in return for sex at his villa outside Milan when she was a minor.

‘‘[Nicole Minetti] had her breasts out and she was kissing Berlusconi continuously; what a whorehouse’’ ... Carlo Ferrigno, a former head of a police intelligence service. Photo: AFP

Mr Berlusconi, who has denied the claims, has also been accused of helping her to get out of police custody after she was arrested for suspected theft. The wiretaps published this week reveal that Ruby, now 18, asked for €5 million ($6.7 million) to keep quiet and that she claims Mr Berlusconi had called her saying he would give her as much as she wanted - ''cover you in gold'' - if she said nothing.

The investigators also have their sights on a coterie of Mr Berlusconi's oldest friends, including Lele Mora, 55, an agent who represents TV stars, and Emilio Fede, 79, who was director of a news program owned by Mr Berlusconi's company, Mediaset.

Nicole Minetti, 25, is accused of ''managing'' the young women who attend Mr Berlusconi's parties. It was she who was asked to take care of Ruby when she was released from police custody.

A parliamentary committee is expected to examine this week the latest request by prosecutors to search some of the properties owned by Mr Berlusconi to find documentation that might show how the young women were compensated and housed, allegedly in exchange for sexual favours.

More Related Coverage Accusations against media tsar like a reality TV show ROME: The taped conversations, splashed across the media, have gripped Italy. Culled from a range of women, lawyers and associates, the wiretaps show the intersection of politics and the kind of reality-television culture that Silvio Berlusconi has helped create in his decades as Italy's largest private broadcaster. Cash for girls was merely an act of charity for women in need, says Berlusconi representative 20 Jan Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has laughed off an inquiry into his bawdy sex life and relationship with an underage girl as magistrates struggled for permission to search his offices for evidence against him. Spotlight on Ruby Heartstealer and those 'bunga bunga' parties 19 Jan There are many perplexing things about Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi's 'Superman' sex quip ROME: Silvio Berlusconi has made an attempt to laugh off the prostitution scandal that threatens to topple his government, declaring: ''I'd be better than Superman if I'd had parties with 24 girls.'' Read more at www.smh.com.au

 

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Group seeks investigation of US priest accused of abuse in Bangladesh

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Group seeks investigation of US priest accused of abuse in Bangladesh

By Jim Salter (CP) – 1 day ago

ST. LOUIS — An advocacy group for victims of clergy abuse is urging federal prosecutors to investigate a priest formerly of St. Louis who is accused of molesting as many as 30 teenagers in Bangladesh.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said Wednesday that the Rev. William Christensen frequently travels between the U.S. and Bangladesh. SNAP is asking U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan in St. Louis to determine if Christensen violated any U.S. laws.

A spokeswoman for Callahan declined comment.

SNAP is also urging the Catholic Church to bring Christensen to the U.S. and put him in a secure treatment centre.

"The goal is simply to protect kids, and to get Christensen prosecuted either here or in Bangladesh so that he'll hopefully be jailed and never have access to kids," SNAP's David Clohessy said.

Christensen is a priest in the Marianists Province of the United States. He taught at Chaminade College Preparatory School in suburban St. Louis in the 1970s.

He moved to Bangladesh in 1986 and a year later founded the Institute of Integrated Rural Development. The organization, which maintains an office in St. Louis, said its goal is "empowering the rural poor to end their own poverty."

But a former nun, Rosaline Costa, said Christensen used the organization as a front to sexually abuse at least 30 Muslim teenagers in Bangladesh — and paid money to keep the abuse quiet. Costa served as the organization's treasurer from 2001 to 2007. She is now a human rights worker.

The Vatican began an investigation last summer and found the allegations credible. In October, the Vatican issued a decree of laicization, the first step in removing Christensen as a priest.

Christensen appealed Nov. 29, and the outcome of the appeals process is still pending. Until it is resolved, Christensen remains a priest and a member of the Marianists, the organization's provincial, the Rev. Martin Solma, said in a statement.

Messages seeking comment from Christensen through his organization were not returned, but he has denied wrongdoing. In fact, he filed a $1.4 million lawsuit earlier this month, accusing Costa of slander.

Christensen was at the centre of a high-profile legal case in Missouri. In 2006, the Missouri Supreme Court allowed a man to move forward with a lawsuit alleging he did not recall abuse by Christensen at Chaminade in the 1970s until he began receiving treatment for brain cancer in 2000.

The accuser, Michael Powel, died in 2008. His family reached a settlement in the lawsuit after his death.

St. Louis Priest Under Scrutiny KOMU-TV - 1 day ago Read more at www.google.com

 

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Michael Kinsley Takes on the Catholic Church

Amplify’d from slatest.slate.com

Michael Kinsley Takes on the Catholic Church

The Vatican has a sick sense of humor. Or so says Michael Kinsley, writing at Politico in response to the news that after fast-tracking his sainthood application, the Holy See is getting ready to beatify the late Pope John Paul II. The pontiff qualifies because he supposedly cured a nun named Marie Simon-Pierre of Parkinson's disease from the grave. (Parkinson's, which Kinsley suffers from, is a rather handy condition for miracle-performing purposes, as there's no way to definitively diagnose the neurodegenerative disease.) Kinsley says it's pretty funny, if your sense of humor runs toward the dark and twisted, to watch a Catholic pope rise through the heavenly ranks for curing a single individual of a disease that might be completely cured by stem-cell research, which the church adamantly opposes. "Congratulations to Simon-Pierre. It's miraculous what a miracle can do. But I could use a miraculous cure for Parkinson's, too, as could millions of others around the world who have the disease or will develop it," he writes. "And the main force preventing such a miracle is the Roman Catholic Church."

Read original story in Politico | Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011 Read more at slatest.slate.com

 

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Letter from 1997 shows Vatican concern to ensure abuse verdicts, officials say

Amplify’d from www.catholicnewsagency.com

Letter from 1997 shows Vatican concern to ensure abuse verdicts, officials say

By Alan Holdren, Rome Correspondent

Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi

Dublin, Ireland, Jan 19, 2011 / 06:54 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A newly released 1997 letter that some claim proves a Vatican-led cover up of clergy sex abuse in Ireland is being misrepresented, Vatican and Irish Church officials said.

The letter’s release Jan. 17 by Ireland’s RTE television seemed timed to embarrass the Vatican as a team Pope Benedict appointed began its official “apostolic visitation” to assess the state of the Irish Church and its progress in the wake of the clergy abuse scandal.

But Church officials said the letter proves the opposite of what lawyers for abuse victims have been claiming widely in the media.

The Jan. 31, 1997 letter was written to the Irish bishops by the Vatican's then-representative to Ireland, the late Archbishop Luciano Storero. In it, he expressed the Vatican’s concerns that legal requirements that bishops report priests accused of abuse to police might cause conflicts with Church law.

Contrary to news reports, the Vatican’s concern was not to shield priests from punishment. Rather the Vatican wanted to ensure that Irish Church officials followed Church law in reporting accused priests — in order to avoid having their decisions overturned on technicalities by Vatican officials.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, noted that despite allegations being made in the media, Archbishop Storeo never suggested that the bishops not cooperate with Irish authorities.

"The letter rightly emphasises the importance of always respecting canonical legislation, precisely in order to ensure that guilty parties do not have justified grounds for an appeal and thus producing a result contrary to the one desired," he said.

Archbishop Storero’s two-page letter was written in the highly technical language of Church law. He expressed concern that some requirements of the Irish policy “appeared contrary to canonical discipline.”

The archbishop did not spell out the possible contradictions with Church law, although his letter suggested that the Vatican was concerned about protecting accused priests' reputations and their rights to a fair trial.

One consequence of any breach with canon law would have been that accused priests might have grounds to appeal their case to the Vatican, and the Vatican might be forced to “invalidate the actions of the same bishops who are attempting to put a stop to these problems," he wrote.

“The results,” if that would be the case, “could be highly embarrassing and detrimental to those same diocesan authorities," according to Archbishop Storero.

Vatican and Irish Church officials stated that any fair reading of the letter indicates that the Church took seriously the abuse allegations and the attempt to prosecute them. Indeed, they said, the purpose of the letter was to ensure that the priest’s rights to a fair trial were respected and that the verdicts would hold up on appeal.

As the archbishop wrote, "in the sad case of accusations of sexual abuse by clerics, the procedures established by the Code of Canon Law must be meticulously followed under pain of invalidity of the acts involved if the priest so punished were to make hierarchical recourse against his Bishop."

The Vatican did not wish for procedural error to lead to cases in which a guilty priest was exonerated in a higher court.

At the time, the Vatican, as the ultimate authority in cases of clergy misconduct, was still trying to formulate guidelines for how to deal with accusations of child sexual abuse by priests. There were differences of opinion between the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The policy took shape eventually in 2001, when then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger ensured that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith assumed competency for allegations of sexual abuse and eliminated bishops' doubt of where to report possible cases.

Martin Long, the Irish bishops’ communications director, told CNA on Jan. 19 that the bishops “fully agree” with Father Lombardi’s interpretation of the 1997 letter.

He added that the existence of the letter "is not new news."

"Relevant extracts" of this letter were included in an official report to the Archdiocese of Dublin published by the Irish government in November 2009.

He said the Irish Church has been following the mandatory reporting requirements since 1996, with the Vatican’s support.

He pointed out that Pope Benedict XVI’s open letter to Irish Catholics last March urged the Church to continue implementing its current child protection plan and protocol throughout the Church.

"Central to these 'safeguarding children' guidelines was the policy of mandatory reporting of all abuse allegations," said Long.

He added, "The Vatican has stated on a number of occasions in recent years that a Catholic's obligation to the law of the Church does not in any way prevent him from fulfilling his obligation to report allegations of abuse to the civil authorities,” he said. "The Vatican has been absolutely clear on this point.”

Related articles: Vatican Document on Euthanasia Letter To The Bishops Of The Catholic Church On The Pastoral Care Of Homosexual Persons Lent 1997 St. Sechnall of Ireland Read more at www.catholicnewsagency.com

 

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Girl Falls In Mall Fountain While Texting

Just remember – some people DRIVE CARS while texting!!!!!!

Amplify’d from www.theblaze.com

US Mystery Surrounds Woman Who Fell Into Mall Fountain While Texting

Jonathon M. Seidl

It’s a video over 1 million people have seen so far. A woman, so engrossed in her phone at a mall, walks right into a small wall and falls head-over-heels into a fountain. But while nearly everyone has seen her gaffe, no one can figure out who she is.

The mishap occurred near Reading, PA at the Berkshire Mall. Apparently, a security guard or someone with access to the security footage saw the woman‘s unfortunate plunge and couldn’t resist sharing it. Perhaps understandably, no one has come forward claiming to be the woman or claiming to know the woman.

“We’re all dying to know who it is,” David Johnson, who saw the video on Facebook and shared it with other, told the local Reading Eagle.

He’s not the only one. A mall official told the Eagle, “We’ve been getting calls about this nonstop.”

The video doesn’t offer many clues either.

A group of people can be heard giving a play-by-play on the video, which some assume are mall employees who eventually released the video. According to those people, someone did ask her if she was okay, but didn’t seem to catch her name. Luckily, the woman was unharmed.

“Pedro asked her if she is alright,” one voice says, “and she said, ‘Yes — I’m just a little wet.”‘

She may have a busted ego, however, and that may mean we will never know who she is.

Just remember – some people DRIVE CARS while texting!!!!!! Read more at www.theblaze.com

 

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Video: Cars Slide Down Hill, Collide In Pittsburgh

URL:  http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/video/Sliding_Cars_Crash...

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Blogger’s Gun License Suspended After Threatening Blog Post

Video: http://video.boston.cbslocal.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=5481648&at1=News&h1=Arlington Man Loses Gun License Due To Blog About Tucson Shooting&flvUri=&partnerclipid=

Amplify’d from www.theblaze.com

US ‘1 Down 534 To Go’: Blogger’s Gun License Suspended After Threatening Post

Jonathon M. Seidl

A blogger from Arlington, Massachusetts has had his gun license temporarily suspended after he wrote a disturbing post regarding the Tucson shootings and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords titled, “1 Down 534 To Go.”

According to WBZ-TV, which reviewed the blog, the “1” refers to Giffords while the “534” refers to all members of Congress — both Democrat and Republican. The blog site was not operational at the time of this story’s publication.

“It is absolutely, absolutely unacceptable to shoot indiscriminately. Target only politicians and their staff and leave regular citizens alone,” 39-year-old Travis Corcoran — who owns a comic book store — reportedly wrote on the blog.

As a result, police are investigating the “suitability” of Corcoran having a firearms license. Currently, Corcoran has not been arrested or charged with a crime.

The story, however, has prompted a lively debate on WBZ’s website regarding the balance between free speech and protecting people from threats.

“Doesn’t that man have the freedom to speak?,“ writes commenter ”Kay.“ ”Was that right taken away from us? I may not agree with what he wrote but he has the right to voice his opinion.”

Commenter “kasser ”responded: “He absolutely do have the freedom of speech, up to the point where he is threatening with violence or suggesting violence. ‘Target only Politicians’ in my mind, fall perfectly under that criteria. The debate about Freedom of Speech for some always fail as some believe Freedom of Speech comes with the right to say anything you want. … Yeah – those gun permits comes with a little responsibility too.”

Matthew agrees: “I am very pro-gun. I am also for freedom of speech. However, freedom of speech does not mean you can say anything you want without consequences. What he did is close to a direct threat on someone’s life. Do you think you can just go downstairs in the morning, threaten your wife with her life, and then go buy a gun after she files charges against you?”

Yet Jake thinks it’s a slippery slope: “Ans [sic] ‘suggesting’ violence is a crime? How about implying violence? Or asking a rhetorical question about violence?”

It‘s a debate that’s likely to rage on. What do you think? Was a suspension and investigation warranted? Read more at www.theblaze.com

 

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The Vatican in the News 1/18/11

Amplify’d from spirituallysmart.blogspot.com

The Vatican in the News 1/18/11

Vatican Warned Bishops Not to Report Child Abuse New York Times By LAURIE GOODSTEIN A newly disclosed document reveals that Vatican officials instructed the bishops of Ireland in 1997 that they must not adopt a policy of ... Miracle? Nun says she recovered after praying to Pope NDTV.com But in a statement Friday, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints said Vatican-appointed doctors had "scrupulously" studied the case and determined that ... Rabbi and Pope discuss Jewish-Christian cooperation in Israel Catholic News Agency Vatican City, Jan 17, 2011 / 08:10 pm (CNA).- Pope Benedict met with prominent Israeli Rabbi Shlomo Riskin on Jan. 12, who updated the pontiff on the ...  Pontiff Receives Lutheran Delegation From Finland Catholic.net Today in the Vatican, the Pope received members of a Catholic-Lutheran delegation from Finland who make an annual trip to Rome for the feast day of St. ... Pope's blood to be built into altar Sydney Morning Herald The exact date of the opening is not yet known, but it should be shortly after John Paul's beatification at the Vatican on May 1. ... Read more at spirituallysmart.blogspot.com

 

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