Priest bans altar girls, says boys can’t keep up
SAN FRANCISCO — A Roman Catholic church in San Francisco has become one of a handful around the country to prohibit girls from being altar servers, a decision that has disturbed some parishioners.
The Rev. Joseph Illo told KPIXTV that he decided to train only boys to assist him at Mass when he was assigned to Star of the Sea Church last year because he thinks the primary purpose of altar service is preparation for the priesthood, which women are ineligible to join.
In a statement posted on the church’s website, Illo says boys often lose interest in altar service when the programs are co-ed because “girls generally do a better job.”
Girls and women have been permitted to serve Mass alongside priests since Pope John Paul II approved the practice in 1994.
— The Associated Press
Cemetery vandalism puts halt to solo tours
NEW ORLEANS — A historic New Orleans cemetery that may have started the city’s tradition of above-ground crypts will soon be off-limits to tourists on their own because of repeated tomb vandalism.
Starting in March, entry to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 will be restricted to relatives of those buried there and others accompanied by a tour guide registered with the Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans, which owns the property.
Spokesman Sarah McDonald says some unlicensed guides encourage people to deface tombs. She says other people have littered and camped out there.
And in late 2012, someone covered the reputed tomb of voodoo priestess Marie Laveau with pink paint.
— The Associated Press
Scientology movie creates Sundance buzz
PARK CITY, Utah — Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to a packed house, and with police protection.
Director Alex Gibney’s film claims that the church routinely intimidates, manipulates and even tortures its members. Gibney interviewed former Scientology believers, including Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis, who left the church in 2009 after decades of membership.
As Haggis climbed to the highest levels of Scientology, he said he finally learned its founder’s ultimate theory: That a tyrannical galactic overlord named Xenu dropped frozen bodies from millions of years ago into volcanoes, and those spirits attach themselves to people today. Scientology claims to “clear” the body and mind of those spirits.
— The Associated Press
Church of England ordains female bishop
YORK, England — The Rev. Libby Lane became the eighth Bishop of Stockport in a service at York Minster on Monday, making her the first female bishop in the Church of England. Her consecration comes after the church ended a long and divisive dispute by voting last year to allow women to serve as bishops.
The consecration service was interrupted by a lone protester, the Rev. Paul Williamson. He stepped forward and objected when the congregation was asked if it was their will that Lane be ordained. Williamson said “No!” and asked to speak, arguing there was no precedent in the Bible for female bishops.
The archbishop of York, John Sentamu, answered with a prepared statement and then asked again if the church approved. This time, the response was a thunderous “Yes!”