- Islamist Kills Teacher at French High School, Bishop Condemns the Terrorist Attack National Catholic Register
- French school stabbing linked to Brussels shooting by suspects’ allegiance to Islamic State group FRANCE 24 English
- Killing of Teacher and Hamas Assault Set a Jittery France on Edge The New York Times
- French high school where teacher was fatally stabbed evacuated after bomb threat Global News
- French school attacker declared allegiance to Islamic State, prosecutor says • FRANCE 24 English FRANCE 24 English
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Tag Archives: Bishop
WYD: Young people ‘don’t need reefers or condoms’ to have a good time, Spanish bishop says – Catholic News Agency
- WYD: Young people ‘don’t need reefers or condoms’ to have a good time, Spanish bishop says Catholic News Agency
- Archdiocese of Denver pilgrims embark for World Youth Day Lisbon denvercatholic.org
- Asian Catholics journey to Lisbon for ‘pilgrimage of faith’ UCA News
- As WYD in Lisbon is Set to Begin, Volunteers Express Excitement and ‘Immense Joy’ National Catholic Register
- Portugal ‘prepared for one of largest operations ever’ in hosting World Youth Day Portugal Resident
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Wrexham’s Ryan Reynolds makes contact with Manchester United’s Nathan Bishop after Paul Mullin injury – The Athletic
- Wrexham’s Ryan Reynolds makes contact with Manchester United’s Nathan Bishop after Paul Mullin injury The Athletic
- Ryan Reynolds intervenes in Man United-Wrexham dispute – ESPN ESPN
- Paul Mullin injury: What happened to Wrexham striker, how long he is out & when he will be back Goal.com
- Ryan Reynolds sends message of support to Man United’s Nathan Bishop – Man United News And Transfer News The Peoples Person
- Ryan Reynolds has made contact with Man Utd goalkeeper Nathan Bishop after Paul Mullin incident SPORTbible
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Bishop Olson ‘grateful’ after Texas court dismisses nuns’ lawsuit – The Pillar
- Bishop Olson ‘grateful’ after Texas court dismisses nuns’ lawsuit The Pillar
- Judge decides civil court doesn’t have jurisdiction to hear Arlington nun’s claims against bishop CBS TEXAS
- Civil case filed by Arlington monastery against Fort Worth bishop dismissed by courts WFAA
- Criminal case filed by nun against Fort Worth bishop closed as ‘unfounded,’ diocese says Fort Worth Star-Telegram
- Judge tosses nun’s lawsuit against Fort Worth diocese; Arlington Police close investigation NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
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NY Bishop Who Had $1M in Jewelry Stolen Sues Radio Station for $50M
- The NY pastor who was robbed at gunpoint is mounting a legal battle against a local radio host.
- Bishop Lamor Whitehead claimed radio host Tarsha Jones lied about him after the incident.
- Jones said that Whitehead was “using the church to hide that old drug money,” per the lawsuit.
The New York bishop who was robbed at gunpoint during a livestreamed service in July and then scrutinized over his apparent wealth is now mounting a lawsuit against a local radio station that he alleges aired loaded claims about him.
Bishop Lamor Whitehead went live on his Instagram account in July, in a viral video that showed armed assailants interrupting the service and stealing approximately $1 million worth of jewelry. Whitehead has now sued Tarsha Jones, the morning host of 94.7 The Block, in the New York County Supreme Court, alleging that she spread lies about him following the robbery.
“On or about 9/13/2022, Miss Jones, on her morning radio show on 94.7 The Block, said that Bishop Whitehead: is a ‘drug dealer,’ ‘using the church to hide that old drug money;’ ‘assaulted the young lady,’ and ‘[his] church is where he’s probably still doing his dirty work,'” the lawsuit states.
Whitehead’s attorney called the claims false and said that they “injured Plaintiff’s reputation as a pastor,” and implied criminal activity, affecting his congregation. His lawsuit seeks $50 million in defamation damages from Jones and Paramount, The Block’s parent company.
Jones and The Block did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. Paramount did not immediately return comment as well.
Whitehead has 1.5 million followers on Instagram, where he regularly goes live, and has previously pushed back against criticisms of his opulence and previous legal battles.
One of Whitehead’s parishioners, Pauline Anderson, sued Whitehead in September 2021, alleging that she gave him $90,000 to help her buy a home after she told him she had poor credit. Per court documents, she sued him and alleged he kept the money and lined his pockets for his political campaign.
“And for the record, anything that was given to me is a Donation unless it’s attached to a contract! I was making investments that’s what I Do!” Whitehead texted in a message to Anderson, according to an exhibit in the suit.
In the parishioner’s lawsuit, first reported on by The City, Anderson’s attorneys alleged that Whitehead first met Anderson after he helped her son Rasheed secure housing after an intensive surgery procedure. Whitehead had served five years in state prison for defrauding others and for grand larceny, according to The City.
Bishop Lucas Van Looy declines cardinal honor from Pope Francis because of abuse
The Belgian bishops’ conference said Van Looy’s request was made to “prevent the victims of such abuses from being hurt again.”
For a church badly bruised by years of abuse scandals, the episode showed the far-reaching repercussions that can come after a church leader is tied to the mishandling of cases. It also raises questions about the Vatican’s process for examining the records of individuals selected by Francis to become cardinal — a position that implies a lifetime of good service to the church.
“Everybody in Belgium knew about it,” said Lieve Halsberghe, an advocate for victims of clerical abuse in the country. She emphasized that Van Looy’s request “did not come from his conscience. It came because there were protests from a human rights group.”
The Vatican did provide a statement of its own on the matter, and a spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The Belgian bishops’ conference said that Francis’s initial decision to name Van Looy a cardinal had provoked “much positive reaction.” But there was also criticism, the conference said, “of the fact that he did not always react energetically enough” against “abuses in the pastoral relationship” while serving as the bishop of Ghent from 2003 until 2019.
Van Looy had been one of 21 individuals Francis selected for the honor, a move that will be formalized — for the other 20 — during a consistory in August. Even had Van Looy been made a cardinal, he would have been unable to participate in any future conclave as a result of his age, 80. (Only cardinals younger than 80 can help to select the next pope.)
The Belgian bishop’s conference did not provide details about any accusations of wrongdoing by Van Looy.
His name has come up in several past news accounts, however. He is listed on the website Bishop-Accountability.org, a clearinghouse for clerical abuse information, on a page dedicated to bishops who have mishandled cases. The site mentions a Belgian predator priest accused of abuse both in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Ghent.
Van Looy wasn’t leading the diocese of Ghent when the accusations first arose, but after he became bishop, the diocese sent a Congolese victim $25,000 in 2005. He, however, not did step in to notify civil authorities about the priest’s ongoing activities — working at a nonprofit to help orphans from the genocide in Rwanda — until 2014, Bishop-Accountability said in a statement Friday.
Though Van Looy has personally spoken out about the cruelties of abuse, describing the “inhumane suffering” of victims, he has also admitted to not notifying justice authorities of six letters he had received pertaining to cases, according to a Belgian media account from 2010. Van Looy called those letters “less pressing” because the accusations pertained to retired priests.
Van Looy is part of the Salesians of Don Bosco religious order. Belgium’s Salesians were involved in a scandal that resulted from a 2019 CNN investigation into a Belgian priest, convicted of abuse in a Ghent court, who was then sent to the Central African Republic, where he was accused of abuse again.
Belgium has faced a tsunami of damaging abuse-related revelations, many of them bubbling to the surface in 2010, in what leaders described as one of the most difficult crises in the history of Belgium’s Catholic church. A report released in 2010 described hundreds of cases over five decades, and noted that 13 victims had been driven to take their own lives in the wake of the trauma.
Buffalo Sabres acquire goalie Ben Bishop from Dallas Stars in salary cap-related move
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Sabres acquired goalie Ben Bishop in a trade with the Dallas Stars on Friday in a salary cap-related paperwork move involving a veteran who is not expected to play again because of degenerative right knee injury.
The Sabres add the final year of Bishop’s contract, which represents nearly a $5 million cap hit to boost their payroll closer to the NHL’s $60 million minimum. Buffalo, which also acquired a seventh-round pick in next month’s draft, was projected to be nearly $20 million under the cap floor before acquiring Bishop.
The Stars, meantime, acquired future considerations from Buffalo to free Bishop’s salary from their books to provide more flexibility to re-sign and add players this offseason.
There is no anticipation the 35-year-old Bishop will resume playing.
Without saying he’s retiring, Bishop announced his career was over in December following a 2½-year saga in dealing with the injury. The decision came after the three-time Vezina Trophy finalist gave up eight goals in a minor league rehab stint only to have his ailing knee swell up again.
The injury first developed during a seven-game second-round series loss to St. Louis in the 2019 playoffs, which led to him having surgery to repair a torn meniscus. The pain persisted the next year, with follow-up surgery revealing the cartilage in the knee had all but worn away.
“I guess one of the hard things is, I get out there and I still feel pretty good in some of the practices and you still feel like you have the skill to play in this league,” said Bishop, who is from Denver and grew up playing youth hockey in St. Louis. “But then when your knee tells you you can’t, it’s tough.”
Bishop hasn’t played an NHL game since allowing four goals on 19 shots in a 6-3 loss to Colorado in the second-round of the 2020 playoffs.
Overall, Bishop has a 222-128-36 record split between five teams over 11 seasons beginning with St. Louis in 2008-09. He also played for Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Los Angeles.
In 2015-16 with the Lightning, Bishop led the NHL with a 2.06 goals-against average.
At 6-foot-7 and 210 pounds, Bishop was the NHL’s tallest goalie and selected by the Blues in the third round of the 2005 draft.
Indian bishop denounces ‘open season’ against Christians as states pass ‘anti-conversion’ laws
A Christian bishop in India is calling on leaders in his country and around the world to speak up against the growing persecution of Christians on the subcontinent.
Rev. Joseph D’Souza, who is archbishop of the Anglican Good Shepherd Church of India, told Fox News Digital he is concerned about India’s image in the world because of escalating attacks against Christians in the country.
“The last few months have become an open season for attacks against Christian minorities,” said D’Souza, who is also the founder of Dignity Freedom Network and president of the ecumenical All India Christian Council.
‘A bizarre situation’
Anti-Christian vigilantes have been persecuting believers throughout India in recent months by going through villages interrupting church services, burning Christian books and assaulting Christians during worship, according to government documents and interviews reported on Wednesday by The New York Times.
“These are not isolated events, but it is a coordination going on, because in state after state, similar kinds of incidents are happening,” D’Souza said. He noted how 2021 has seen approximately 300 such attacks against Christians, who make up only 2.3% of the population in the Hindu-majority country.
Young Christian woman standing in front of a church in Goa, India. (rvimages via Getty Images)
“And what is happening now is the attacks have crossed the line in that they’re entering into Christian worship services, worship places, gatherings,” he added.
The increased attacks from far-right Hindu groups come as nine Indian states have passed so-called “anti-conversion” laws, which ostensibly are intended to prevent conversion from one religion to another by force. D’Souza and other critics claim the laws violate the freedom of religion guaranteed in the Indian Constitution.
CANADA BANS ‘CONVERSION THERAPY,’ THREATENS THERAPISTS WITH PRISON
On Thursday, the state of Karnataka, which lies along the country’s southwest coast, became the latest to pass such a law. The Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, was passed by voice vote in the state’s legislative assembly, despite large protests and chaotic scenes on the assembly floor, according to The Times of India.
One congressional leader ripped up the paper on which the legislation was printed, saying, “Their focus is only on the Christians.” Another denounced the bill as “draconian.”
Christian nuns wave placards as they march during a demonstration against the tabling of the Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill on Dec. 22, 2021, in Bengaluru, India. (Abhishek Chinnappa/Getty Images)
The law prohibits “unlawful conversions” from one religion to another by “misrepresentation, force, allurement, fraudulent means or marriage,” and also mandates that anyone seeking a religious conversion must notify a magistrate.
“It’s a bizarre situation,” said D’Souza, who predicted the law would lead to much more violence in Karnataka.
A report published Dec. 13 by the Religious Liberty Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) claimed that continuous talk from the government about anti-conversion law has emboldened anti-Christian vigilantes.
“It is clear and obvious that an atmosphere of fear and apprehension prevails in the Christian community and its grassroots religious clergy because of a systematic targeting through a vicious and malicious hate campaign,” said Rev. Vijayesh Lal, EFI general secretary, according to Ucanews.
‘Ongoing battle’
D’Souza, who noted that forced conversions are considered anathema in Christianity, sees the attacks against Christians as lingering expressions of India’s caste system.
“This is not ultimately about India’s Christians and Christian community,” he said. “It’s ultimately about the rights of the low caste and the untouchables.”
Noting the appeal that Christianity holds toward the outcasts of society, he said he sees the attacks as a concerted effort “from an upper-caste Hindu elite that does not want these people to exercise whatever rights they have, including the right to believe or not believe; to stay within the caste system or not stay within the caste system.”
A devotee takes pictures of the illuminated CNI Church ahead of Christmas celebrations in Ahmedabad Dec. 22, 2021. (Sam Panthaky/AFP via Getty Images)
“And so, at a deeper level, this is the ongoing battle in India’s culture between the majority low castes, women, and the elite upper castes who don’t want to give their hold up on the masses,” he added.
D’Souza said he is appealing to Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi and India’s home minister to address these issues, noting that religious minorities voted for him because he promised the country economic development and progress.
“We don’t feel this is progress right now,” he said.
‘Without any doubt’
D’Souza, who has traveled widely and would visit the U.S. every few months before the pandemic, also discerned that persecution against Christians is growing globally.
“Without any question and without any doubt, Christians are the most persecuted minority now in the world,” he said. “It’s never been so bad before as now.”
The archbishop pinpointed the persecution of Christians under Sharia law in Muslim countries such as India’s neighboring Pakistan as especially “unbelievable.”
PAKISTANI WOMAN ASIA BIBI SHARES STORY OF BEING ‘FREED BECAUSE OF JESUS’ 10 YEARS AFTER BEING SENTENCED TO DEATH
Despite what he described as “a rising voice within the democracies of the world against Christian persecution,” D’Souza wishes the U.S. and the West would do more, which he said includes seeing their own legacy in the proper light.
President Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi participate in a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 24, 2021. (Sarahbeth Maney-Pool/Getty Images)
“The West, which has a Christian heritage, is terribly and unnecessarily apologetic about anything to do with Christians because of the history of colonialism and everything,” he said, noting that colonialism has been over for half a century. “They need to know they are now in 2021. This is another world.”
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He lauded the Biden administration for taking a stand against the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in China. But he encouraged the administration also to attend to the plight of persecuted Christians.
“They have to look at the world and say, ‘What are we saying and doing about the Christians around the world? And what are we saying and doing about the Christians in India?’”
Spanish bishop loses church powers after marriage to erotica author
The diocese of Solsona — where Xavier Novell Goma has been serving as a bishop — issued a statement on Saturday that said Novell is now forbidden from administering the sacraments and engaging in any active teaching, “both in public and private,” although he can still maintain his status as a bishop.
According to the statement, Novell, bishop emeritus of Solsona, entered into a civil marriage with Silvia Caballol on November 22, 2021, in the province of Barcelona. The statement then refers to Canon 1394.1 of the Catholic Church, which states that “a clergyman attempting marriage, even if only civilly, shall be subject to suspension.”
Novell became Spain’s youngest bishop in 2010, aged 41, when he was appointed to Solsona, a small city to the north of Barcelona in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region.
Now, following his marriage to Caballol, Novell is no longer able to “exercise the rights and functions inherent in the episcopal office,” the statement from his diocese said.
Neither Novell nor Caballol has yet issued a statement regarding the suspension of Novell’s clerical powers or their recent marriage.
According to reporting by the BBC, Novell has supported gay conversion therapy and has also carried out exorcisms.
Caballol, 38, began her career as a novelist in 2015, according to a profile on the website of her publisher, Lacre. She is trained in clinical psychology as well as sexology and yoga, the profile says, and has also studied Catholicism and Islam.
She is described on the publisher’s website as “a person who longs to live to the fullest” and a “seeker of new emotions and sensations.”
Lacre also calls Caballol a “dynamic and transgressive author who has carved a niche for herself in the thorny literary world to turn all our moral and ethical considerations upside down.”
One of Caballol’s novels — titled “The Hell of Gabriel’s Lust” — promises to transport the reader to a world where they will find “psychopathy, sects, sadism, madness, the unreality of immorality and the crude struggle between good and evil, between God and Satan, and between the angels and demons.”
Spanish bishop who married author of satanic erotica is stripped of powers | Spain
Spain’s youngest bishop has been stripped of his church powers, the country’s episcopal conference said on Saturday, after he married a psychologist-turned-author of satanic erotica.
“As is publicly known, Bishop Xavier Novell Goma, bishop emeritus of Solsona, has contracted a civil marriage with Ms Silvia Caballol, on 22 November, 2021 in the town of Suria, in the province of Barcelona,” the conference wrote in the statement.
Any cleric attempting to get married, even if only civilly, is subject to suspension, the statement added.
The churchman will retain his title as a bishop but will not be permitted to carry out any of the roles associated with the post, including the administration of the sacraments. “Any teaching activity, both in public and private, is prohibited,” it said.
Novell became Spain’s youngest bishop when he was appointed to Solsona in 2010 aged 41, and was a highly regarded conservative who reportedly endorsed gay conversion therapy and practised exorcisms. He also attracted controversy with his support of Catalan independence.
Novell stepped down in August this year citing personal reasons, and the scandal broke weeks later, when the 52-year-old bishop’s relationship with Caballol, the author of works including The Hell of Gabriel’s Lust, became known publicly.
At the time, Novell was quoted by website Religión Digital as saying “I have fallen in love and want to do things properly.”
On the site of Caballol’s publisher Lacre, the 38-year-old writer and qualified clinical psychologist is described as “a dynamic and transgressive author who made her mark in the challenging world of literature upsetting our moral and ethical mores”.
Novell is now prohibited “from exercising all the rights and responsibilities inherent in the episcopal function”, said the conference, which did not rule out “other possible consequences”.
Novell has reportedly been seeking work as an agronomist in the Barcelona region.