Vatican

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Model for Michelangelo's Pieta Found

12-inch sculpture was covered with tape

(Newser) - A US art historian says he’s found the model for Michelangelo's great statue the Pieta at the Vatican, the Daily Telegraph reports. An Italian art collector picked up the 12-inch terracotta model at an antiques shop; before restoration, it was covered in paint and dotted with Scotch tape. But...

Condoms OK for Ladies, Too: Pope

Even if it also will prevent babies

(Newser) - OK, OK, everyone can use condoms—but only if you’re trying to prevent HIV. That’s the new word from the Vatican, which today declared that giving HIV to your sexual partner was a greater evil than preventing a possible pregnancy, the AP reports. The statement clarifies the assertion...

Pope Says Condoms Are Sometimes OK

Prostitutes could use them to curb AIDS infection

(Newser) - Pope Benedict—he who not too long ago said condoms make the AIDS crisis worse —now thinks they're not such a bad idea all the time. ("Stunning development," says AP , noting the church's opposition to artificial contraception, while Reuters sees it as a potential "sea change"...

Pope Names 24 New Cardinals
 Pope Names 
 24 New Cardinals 
Nov 20, 2010 6:06 AM CST

Pope Names 24 New Cardinals

... Who will elect his successor

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI named 24 new cardinals today, the third time during his tenure that he has added to the body of "princes of the church" who will eventually name his successor, reports the AP. The group is mostly Italian, spurring speculation that the papacy could swing back to...

Vatican Issues Warning on Angels, Demons Sect

Members believe women who have abortions are possessed by the devil

(Newser) - The Vatican has issued a warning to bishops to watch out for an ultra right-wing Catholic sect that prays to angels to combat demons, and believes women who have had abortions are possessed by the devil. Dozens of priests and nuns are part of the group, Opus Angelorum, and some...

D'Oh! Simpson Clan Not Catholic

Pope's wrong; they're 'Presby-Lutheran Protestants,' says producer

(Newser) - Turns out the pope is fallible after all. The official Vatican newspaper declared last week that Homer Simpson and his family are Catholic. But the creators of the cartoon characters have announced that church officials are downright wrong, reports the BBC . Homer and son Bart considered converting to Catholicism five...

Vatican Nixed Carla Bruni Visit
 Vatican Nixed Carla Bruni Visit 
Oct 15, 2010 2:10 AM CDT

Vatican Nixed Carla Bruni Visit

Pope 'feared press would print racy photos'

(Newser) - The Vatican had a request for Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of the French president's meeting with Pope Benedict XVI last week: Leave your wife at home. Sources say that the pontiff feared that the Italian press would pair his photo with pictures of a scantily-clad or nude Carla Bruni from her...

EU May Yank Vatican Tax Break
 EU May Yank Vatican Tax Break  
Oct 14, 2010 5:00 AM CDT

EU May Yank Vatican Tax Break

Church could be handed $11B tax bill

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI may soon find himself stuck with an $11 billion tax bill. European officials are probing tax breaks Silvio Berlusconi gave the church on its 100,000 properties in Italy. If they decide the tax exemptions are unfair state subsidies for church run businesses, the Vatican will be...

Vatican Slams Berlusconi Over Jewish Joke

It was 'just a laugh,' insists premier

(Newser) - The Vatican yesterday lashed Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for making a joke about Jews last week that stunned and infuriated his countrymen. The "deplorable" joke "offended the sentiment of believers and the sacred memory of 6 million Holocaust victims," blasted an editorial in the Vatican's official...

Vatican Bank Probed for Money Laundering

$34M in mystery funds frozen by Italian authorities

(Newser) - Italian authorities have frozen $34 million at the heart of a money-laundering probe of the Vatican Bank. Two officials, including the chairman of the institution, are under investigation for failing to disclose the identity of clients linked to the funds, which is required by Italian law. The bank, whose main...

6 Arrested in London Over Threat to Pope

Pontiff's visit sparks controversy in Britain

(Newser) - British police staged a predawn raid at a central London garbage depot today, arresting five street cleaners in a suspected terrorist plot against Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of his state visit to Britain. A sixth person was arrested later. Acting on a tip, police detained the men,...

Pope Aide Skips UK Trip After '3rd World' Jab

Also said BA discriminates against those wearing crosses

(Newser) - A top aide to Pope Benedict is skipping tomorrow's trip to Britain after telling a German magazine that "when you land at Heathrow you think at times you have landed in a Third World country." As the BBC reports, German-born Cardinal Walter Kasper said the UK, where the...

Vatican: We're Watching Iran's 'Brutal' Stoning Case

Ashtiani now sentenced to 99 lashes over photo

(Newser) - Iran may think Carla Bruni's a prostitute, but the BBC reports that it also thinks it's going to give Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani—the woman Tehran already wants to put to death by stoning—99 lashes over a photo that may or may not depict her bareheaded. Sound like she needs...

Mel Gibson's Dad Calls the Pope Gay

Hutton Gibson unloads on Benedict in call to radio show

(Newser) - Perhaps he felt left out: Mel Gibon's father has been caught on tape calling the pope a "homosexual," TMZ reports. On the "Political Cesspool" radio program, the elder Gibson, 91, said the Catholic Church can't address issues like homosexuality "because half of the people there in...

'Pope Visit' Site Hawks Magnets, Baseball Caps

Amen to profits

(Newser) - The Vatican opened a new "Papal Visit" official online store ahead of His Holiness' trip to the UK next month, selling tote bags, fridge magnets, "beatification" T-shirts and a papal flag with the Vatican seal to mark the first visit of a pope to England and Scotland since...

Vatican Raises Hell Over Short Skirts

Tourists aghast at 'hypocritical' action

(Newser) - The Vatican's Swiss Guards' strenuous crackdown on "immodest" dress in the wake of a host of shocking pedophile scandals against Catholic clerics has left tourists aghast. The flamboyantly clothed guards, in puffy gold-and-blue-striped uniforms and plumed head coverings, are pulling aside women in sleeveless tops or short skirts and...

'Misogynistic' Church Would Let Polanski Stay a Priest

Maureen Dowd unimpressed by new edict on sexual abuse

(Newser) - If Pope Benedict was trying to do penance for the sex abuse scandal this week, he'd better say a few billion more Hail Marys, because equating the ordination of women as priests with the rape of young children wasn't quite the way to do it, writes Maureen Dowd in the...

Vatican Issues New Sex Abuse Rules
Vatican Issues New Sex Abuse Rules
Jul 15, 2010 9:12 AM CDT

Vatican Issues New Sex Abuse Rules

Rules also declare ordaining a woman a 'grave crime'

(Newser) - The Vatican has released new rules for dealing with sexual abuse from priests, mandating a set of “more rapid procedures” to expedite the “most urgent” cases, and extending the statute of limitations from 10 years beyond the victim's 18th birthday to 20 years. It also formally outlawed child...

Vatican OKs Cracking Open Mafioso's Tomb

Teen kidnap victim may be buried with mobster

(Newser) - Italian police probing the unsolved 1983 disappearance of a teenage girl have been given the Vatican's permission to open the tomb of a mobster. Enrico Pedis was buried in the crypt of a Vatican-owned church after he was gunned down by rival gangsters in 1990. Now police have received a...

As Abuse Scandal Spread, Benedict's Office Stalled
As Abuse Scandal Spread, Benedict's Office Stalled
investigation
Jul 2, 2010 7:08 AM CDT

As Abuse Scandal Spread, Benedict's Office Stalled

Future pope did little, even as bishops complained

(Newser) - The New York Times today delivers another damning assessment of Pope Benedict's handling of the sex abuse scandal as a cardinal. Benedict did little to tackle the problem, even though the office he led for 20 years had been given authority to do so—in the 1920s. The Vatican moved...

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