Washigton (USA) : About 700 people launched new claims of sexual abuse against Catholic clergy in the United States last year, including 21 who are still minors, according to a new report released by US bishops.

St. Francis Xavier landed in Goa on 6 May 1542, with a resolve of 'uprooting paganism' from the soil of India and planting Christianity in its place. And so all plans of persecution and oppression of the Hindus came along with him. All religious policies and procedures of forcible and fraudulent conversions and demolitions of the Hindu Temples and idols were undertaken under his guidance and missionary zeal. Thus it was St.Francis Xavier who laid the foundation for the 'compassionate' (barbarous!) for an organised system of Holy Inquisition against the Hindus in Goa.

Jyeshtha Amawasya, Kaliyug Varsha 5114 Why popular secular media channels are silent on this. Is it because Hindus are not involved in this ? Trichy (Tamilnadu) : All the five accused in the Sister Florence Mary rape case appeared before the mahila court in Trichy on Wednesday, even as the victim submitted a petition before the judge, seeking permission to officially engage a lawyer for the prosecution, along with the public prosecutor before the start of the trial. Meanwhile, defence lawyer A Rajendran, who appeared for Fr Rajarathinam, a Jesuit priest and accused number one in the case, asked the judge to grant more time to counter the victim's plea. Judge Rahman posted the hearing to May 28. Fr Rajarathinam, the former principal of St Joseph's College, Trichy was accused by Florence Mary (31), a former member of St Anne's congregation in Trichy, of rape in 2006 and later in 2008. The priest was granted anticipatory bail by the Madras high court on November 3, 2010 after he allegedly went underground for over a month. The other accused in the case were Fr Provincial Mudiappasamy Devadoss, Fr Joe Xavier, Fr Xavier Vedam, the principal of Arulanandar College, Karumathur and Dr Suchitra attached to Kavery hospital, Trichy who had allegedly conducted the abortion on the nun who was allegedly raped by Fr Rajaranthinam... Source : TOI

The Vatican has revealed itself in the current spectacle as more reactionary than conservative. Even the suggestion of discussing progressive takes on dogma is often denounced as heresy. Arguably, moderate and liberal Catholics live in a new reign of terror whose principal players are Bernard Law, disgraced former Boston Cardinal; Cardinal William Levada, Prefect for the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura; and well-placed, movement conservative-friendly bishops and cardinals in cities such as Madison, Wisconsin, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Moreover, a priest who in 2009 met with Cardinal Franc Rodé, then the Vatican official in charge of religious orders, told NCR that Rodé discussed a videotape he had seen of Maciel with one of his children in 2004, yet made no move to punish the Legion founder. Rodé, who has since retired, championed the Legion and its lay wing, Regnum Christi, with glowing speeches to the groups for several years after Maciel was banished from active ministry.

In a paragraph I find chilling when I remember Maciel's serial abuse of seminarians for many years, his drug addiction, his fathering of children by several women whom he secretly supported through Legionary funds, Berry suggests why Vatican officials including John Paul II refused to listen to anyone trying to blow the whistle on Maciel: From 1998, when a group of ex-Legionaries filed a canonical process with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's tribunal, seeking Maciel's ouster for abusing them in seminary, until 2006, when Ratzinger-as-Benedict dismissed him from ministry, Maciel was a gilded force, raising millions of dollars, thanks to the support of John Paul and the video images of the pope and Maciel that the Legion gave to donors. By 2004 the Legion had a $650 million budget, and fewer than 650 priests.

"Gee, maybe I killed one person, but look at Hitler. He killed millions."

Since 2002 he has served as bishop under the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks. As part of the diocese's legal settlement with sexual abuse survivors, Kettler traveled to the villages of St. Michael and Stebbins in December 2010 to apologize on behalf of the church. This is the edited transcript of two interviews;

Roosa represents about 240 Alaska Natives who were molested as children by Catholic priests

The Uganda Joint Christian Council, which includes Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox bishops, has called on parliament to move the notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill forward. According to the Ugandan newspaper The Daily Monitor:

Cardinal Dolan, the President of the USCCB, needs to explain why his policy in Milwaukee was no money for victims, but somehow money to bribe their clerical abusers and dig up dirt on victims.

The Pope`s comments in reference to child pornography and pedophilia are indefensible and reprehensible. It would be bad enough if a parish priest uttered such vile comments, but for the head of the Roman Catholic Church to subscribe to these evil delusions is frightening. Pedophilia and child pornography have always been considered absolutely evil in the United States. It is patently false that child pornography is increasingly considered normal by society. While it`s true that due to the advent of the Internet more perverts are viewing child porn, it`s also true that that in the last few years there has been a flood of legislation toughening the penalties for the possession and dissemination of child porn.

"In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children," the Pope said. "It was maintained - even within the realm of Catholic theology - that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a 'better than' and a 'worse than'. Nothing is good or bad in itself."