Gloria TV News on the Feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury.

Gay Priest Arrested for Abuse

Italy

Father Domenico Pezzini, a 73-year-old Italian priest was arrested on May 24 on charges of abusing a teenage boy. Pezzini is a declared homosexual. He has long been an opponent of Catholic teaching on homosexual inclinations. In the past, Pezzini has founded and led gay organizations. He recently retired from his faculty position at the University of Verona.

The Pope Cannot Do as He Pleases

Vatican

The past of his three weekly audiences the Holy Father devoted to the priestly ministry. Yesterday, in his third and final talk of the series he spoke of the priest's duty to "govern and guide-- with the authority of Christ, not with his own." “No one in the Church can act purely on his own authority”, the Pope said. He pointed out that this is especially true of the Roman Pontiff, who "cannot do as he pleases; quite the contrary, he is the custodian of obedience to Christ and his Word."

Irish Star Abuse Victim Contradicts Himself

Ireland

The former mayor of Clonmel, Michael O'Brien, became a national figure when in May 2009 he spoke out on Irish television about sexual abuses. O’Brien spend his childhood from eight to sixteen years in the children’s home Ferryhouse, run by the Rosminian Order. He claimed that, there, he was raped and beaten repeatedly. Now a tape surfaced with an 1999 interview on a local radio station where O’Brien states the the opposite. Speaking about abuses he declared: “I must say, it never happened to me, I have never seen it happening, I never heard of it happening in my seven years in Ferryhouse.” He continued: "As far as I'm concerned, 99.9 percent of those priests and brothers have done a good job ... out of every group, no matter what organization you're in, you'll find bad eggs, Ferryhouse is my home. And I will defend it to the end as long as I live, because I was reared by them.”

Polemics Before Pope’s Visit in Cyprus

Cyprus

Archbishop Chrysostomos II, the head of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus has rebuked Orthodox prelates, including Bishop Athanasios of Limassol, who view Pope Benedict as a heretic and thus oppose his June 4-6 visit to the island nation. said Archbishop Chrysostomos II. The nation of 800,000 is 78% Orthodox, 18% Muslim, and 2% Catholic.