Catholic bishops appeared to be retreating on Saturday from joining the chorus calling on Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign, giving the embattled Philippine president at least a temporary respite.
Earlier reports had suggested the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) -- a politically influential body in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines -- would call for her resignation during its weekend meeting. Joselito Zulueta, a writer on Church affairs, told Reuters the bishops were likely to reiterate calls for the allegations against the president to be fully investigated but would stop short of urging her to quit. "Based on my contacts, they're not going to ask her to resign, not now. They feel that the materials against the president are tainted materials, that they are basically politically motivated."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050709/wl_nm/philippines_dc;_ylt=AheY42c510tQ4pfq9gD1sgb9xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b3JuZGZhBHNlYwM3MjE-(This is an untouched real picture from the news)
Pope Tells Journalists To Search For 'Truth'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/23/AR2005042301372.html?nav=rss_world/europeThe Vatican has sought the intervention of the U.S. State Department to declare Pope Benedict XVI immune from a sexual abuse lawsuit filed here, according to court documents.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3201751Vatican said Monday there was no investigation under way of allegations that the Mexican founder of a conservative religious order sexually abused seminarians
http://www.winktv.com/x466.xml?URL=http://localhost/APWIREFEED/d8a8vi600.xmlVatican Reportedly Clears Priest
Vaca, a former priest, is one of at least eight men in Mexico and the United States who have accused the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado of molesting them when they were teenage seminary students in the 1940s, '50s and '60s.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/22/AR2005052200966.html?nav=rss_world/europeDespite the horrific drumbeat of child molestation revelations, however, sensible Catholics hoping for a more transparent and less sexually repressed church shouldn't hold their breath. The new pope is not only a longtime leader of vicious church attacks on "evil" gays, he also has shamefully blamed the molestation scandal on the media.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/thenation/20050524/cm_thenation/20050606scheer0524_1Vatican Accused of Child Molestation Cover-Up
http://atheism.about.com/b/a/098516.htmSurvivors Network says the overwhelming majority of its members have never sued and are too traumatized to do so. They say they adopted their tactics after bishops promised for years to take action against guilty clergy, then never did.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7463011/page/2Pope's Nazi past
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7576505 /
Compliments of Judy Lynn