Cardinal Marx backs loosening rules in celibacy for priests (AP) A prominent German archbishop advocated loosening celibacy rules for Catholic priests in comments published Thursday before a meeting of a German reform assembly. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the archbishop of Munich, told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that “it would be better for everyone to create the possibility of celibate and married priests.” His comments come as his diocese has been shaken by an independent report on the church’s handling of sexual abuse cases over decades, which faulted Marx and predecessors including retired Pope Benedict XVI…
Catholic university one of 13 receiving bomb threats (CNS) Xavier University of Louisiana was among a group of several historically black colleges and universities in the United States that received bomb threats. The threats to the university and at least 12 other historically black colleges and universities came on Feb. 1, a day after at least six other similar schools received these same threats…
Vatican, bishop slam “profane” music performance (AP) The Vatican and an Italian Catholic bishop on Wednesday protested a performance at Italy’s Sanremo music festival that featured a “profane” faux baptism on stage, lamenting in particular that it was broadcast on public television. On the opening night of the annual song contest, a tattooed, bare-chested and barefoot singer named Achille Lauro gyrated and grabbed his crotch as he sang “Domenica” (“Sunday”), backed up by singers from the Harlem Gospel Choir. He finished by kneeling on stage, hands clasped in front of him as if in prayer, and poured water from a bowl over his forehead. Sanremo Bishop Antonio Suetta said the performance contained “words, attitudes and gestures that are not just offensive to religion, but to human dignity…”
Retired Mexican bishop dies of COVID (CNS) Retired Bishop Onésimo Cepeda Silva of Ecatepec — the colorful and controversial Mexican bishop who rubbed shoulders with the rich, served one of the country’s roughest dioceses and made a brief, but disastrous foray into electoral politics — died Jan. 31. He was 84. The Diocese of Ecatepec confirmed Bishop Cepeda’s death, as did the Mexican bishops’ conference, which barely 10 months earlier disavowed his registration as a legislative candidate for a minor political party. Bishop Cepeda had contracted COVID-19 three weeks earlier, according to church statements. Mexican media reported he had been intubated…
ESPN anchor credits success to Catholic school (Crux) Years before Stan Verrett was delivering daily sports news and highlights, the longtime ESPN anchor roamed the halls of the predominantly-Black St. Augustine High School in New Orleans, Louisiana, as a student from 1979-1984. Verrett exudes pride and passion when he talks about his alma mater. His mother, a college professor at Dillard University in New Orleans, wanted him to go there for the “intense academic honors program.” His father, he said, was big on the “discipline and the pride with which St. Augustine men carried themselves…”
