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Abuse :

• Catholic statement angers legislator | Church leaders blast plan to require info for victims of rape (Rocky Mountain News, Denver)
• Judge in trial of former priest drops 1 of 3 child-rape counts | A judge threw out one of three child-rape charges against a defrocked priest after a defense lawyer argued that prosecutors had not produced sufficient evidence. (The New York Times)
• Priest quits post; to face charges of sex solicitation | Incident alleged at Chelsea eatery (The Boston Globe)
• Pope tells church to improve priest vetting | Pope John Paul urged the Roman Catholic Church on Tuesday to improve vetting procedures for would-be priests in the wake of numerous sex scandals (Reuters)
• Bishop speaks out on abuse case | A Catholic bishop has praised parishoners for the way they responded to their local priest who is at the centre of sex abuse allegations (BBC)
• Hunt is on for ex-priest charged in abuse cases | The defrocked cleric, who served in Coachella and Perris in the 1980s, molested at least two boys, authorities say. He may be in Mexico (Los Angeles Times)
• $5 million paid in abuse suits | The Archdiocese of Miami spent $5.2 million in 2004 to settle sexual abuse claims made against Catholic priests (The Miami Herald)
• Georgia: Defrocked priest sentenced for religious violence | Basil Mkalavishvili was convicted of organizing assaults on Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptists, and Pentecostal Evangelists in the late 1990s and early 2000s (Radio Free Europe)

The Vatican :

• Pope and circumstance at the Vatican never ceases to impress the faithful | One thing the Roman Catholic Church does well is ceremony. And never is the ceremony better than when electing a new pope. Not that I want to see the present pope off, but when a man reaches a certain age it's inevitable. (John Bogert, Daily Breeze, Calif.)
• Italy's 'Beasts of Satan' face murder trial | Eight members of a group allegedly involved in devil worship and drugs are charged in three killings. The Vatican takes notice (Los Angeles Times)
• Vatican wheels still turning | John Paul II may be in hospital for a week, but work at the Vatican goes on as normal. (BBC)

Pope John Paul II :

• Italy to air pogoing Pope cartoon shelved by BBC | Popetown is a knockabout comedy that "looks at the daily nuisances that exist in any workplace", according to a BBC press release - the workplace being the Vatican. But after the show was publicised in November 2002, more than 6,000 British Catholics demanded it be scrapped (The Independent, London)
• Get well soon as end is nigh: Pope's attacker | The man who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981 has sent a message from his Turkish jail wishing the ailing pontiff a speedy recovery, and also calling on him to acknowledge that the world would soon be coming to an end. (The Australian, Australia)

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February (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49