Gloria.TV News on the 12th of February 2014

Great Accordance: The German heresiarch Hans Küng has received a lot of mail from popes lately. The most recent letter was from former Pope Benedict XVI who writes to Küng: “I am thankful that I am united with Pope Francis because there is a great accordance in our views and a warm friendship between us.”

Brutal Discovery: Last Wednesday, Father Anthony Cossavella discovered his 89-year-old mother Bruna dead in a pool of blood in her Lansdowne home. An autopsy revealed that she had been stabbed in her neck and hit on her head. Fr Cossavella is assistant priest in the Philadelphia archdiocese. His reaction: “I'm a follower of the Gospel and Jesus, and the main core of the Gospel message is forgiveness." Bruna came as an adult from Italy to the U.S. Father Anthony was her only child.

Crazy Chapel: The tiny non-denominational White Tail Chapel in Southampton, Virginia allows its congregation to attend services in the nude. Preacher Allen Parker justifies this because Jesus was crucified naked. For him the idea is to 'equalise' everybody in front of God. His chapel also hosts naked weddings, with families encouraged to strip off. Parker leads the church by example, standing in his pulpit without a scrap of clothing.

Death Sentence: On Tuesday, the Indonesia Supreme Court increased the life sentence of former priest Herman Jumat Masan to death by firing squad. Herman had two children from an illicit relationship with a former nun. The first child was born in 1999 and strangled by Herman in order to cover up the affair. At a second birth in 2002 the mother suffered heavy bleeding. She and her baby died as Herman did not help them. He buried their bodies in the compound of a school belonging to St Peter Major Seminary, where he worked. In 2008 Herman left the priesthood. He surrendered to police last year, after the bodies were discovered.