The Roman Catholic Church

'Mea Maxima Culpa': Those Who Prey

Alex Gibney rages against the Catholic Church's cover-up of abuse

Tom Fuentes Is Burning in Hell

And other recent revelations from the world of pedophile-priest protectors in the Diocese of Orange

Institutional Failure In 'We Have a Pope'

Nanni Moretti releases a toothless satire of the Catholic Church

Blase Bonpane, Legendary Toppler of Wally George's Desk, Returns to OC This Friday

​Blase Bonpane, religious rebel and renegade, has lived a life inspired by the prospect of peace in our world. Director of the Office of the Americas, weekly radio host of World Focus on KPFK 90.7FM Los Angeles, and author of numerous books, the tireless activist turns to the subject of his own li ... More >>

'Ghost Protocol' Features a Man on a Mission

Tom Cruise, Bankable Movie Star, lives another day

Does the Vatican Think the Crystal Cathedral is Fugly?

​Sure, so Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown thinks he scored a coup by purchasing the Crystal Cathedral from the Schuller clan. But the move isn't being universally celebrated by conservative Catholics, many whom long derided the Crystal Cathedral as the antithesis of Catholic church beauty an ... More >>

WTForever21.com Finds Out Its Muse is Forever Litigious

[Trendzilla] Support this hilarious website in its fight against the humorless, unoriginal corporate giant

[UPDATED with Charlie Sheen, Maid's BJ Chatter:] Lenny Dykstra's Spectacular Fall Continues with Fed and Local Crime Charges

​UPDATE, APRIL 26, 11 A.M.: The lawyer for Lenny Dykstra is denying rampant media reports that Charlie Sheen bailed the embattled former Major League Baseball star out of jail. Meanwhile, the hits keep coming against the former New York Met and Philadelphia Philly facing federal fraud and loc ... More >>

Con Artist, Documentary on Controversial New York Scenester Mark Kostabi, Has Creative Roots in OC

Kostabi​Michael Sladek's fascinating documentary Con Artist is a New York story, using the much-maligned shenanigans of "business artist" Mark Kostabi to comment on fame, commerce, failure, success and desperation in the snooty art world. But this is a New York story as told by two artists who eme ... More >>

Boob War 2011: The Oscar Special Edition (Cleavage Pics After the Jump)

​Have you ever wondered why the Academy Awards are held in late February? It stems from an agreement between the Vatican and the motion picture industry that allows Hollywood, from November through February, to gorge on cleavage like bed bugs on a hemophiliac, so long as the entirety of Tinseltown ... More >>

'Cult of the Ruin' Has a Past Tense and Present Purpose

UC Irvine's University Art Gallery's latest exhibit re-examines time gone by

5 Fun Facts in Leaked Angels Documents

​Tommy Craggs is having a helluva time revealing the financial secrets of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in "MLB Confidential" on Deadspin.com, thanks to leaked documents team officials have confirmed are the real deal.Major League Baseball and Angels' VP of Communications Tim Mead are not amu ... More >>

Five Reasons From Five Comics That Make Us Love Jonathan Hickman

Marvel Comics/Jim Cheung (left) and Gerald Parel​If you've been a regular reader of Panel Discussion, you've seen the name Jonathan Hickman pop up before, albeit briefly. I've mentioned him when it comes to praising the writer's work on such Marvel Comics titles as the Fantastic Four and Secret Wa ... More >>

Why isn't Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown Fighting Anti-Immigrant Loons?

​One of the few positive transformations in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States over the last half-century has been its increasingly Aztlanista tendencies. This trajectory was helped along in the late 1960s and 1970s by no less a priest than Roger Mahony, now cardinal of the Los Angeles ... More >>

[UPDATED:] Benny Hinn and Paula White Deny Affair

​SECOND UPDATE: Benny Hinn, End-Times Cultist? Click here for the details. UPDATE: Hinn's new message to followers: I am not having an affair and send me $2 million. (details at end of post) . . .Televangelist Benny Hinn, who resides behind gates in Dana Point and has a church and television studi ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Tod Brown's Own Private Idaho

The Orange bishop's track record of covering up for sexual misconduct by priests didn't start here

Ugo Allesina of Prego, Part One

Kimberly Valenzuela​Of all the Los Angeles-area airports, John Wayne has the best food within easy striking distance. The traffic at LAX prevents people from eating nearby; Burbank's airport is in an absolute desert of food, and Ontario is even worse. Long Beach has some good options, but if you'r ... More >>

Satan Calls Former OC Bishop Norman McFarland Back Home

McFarland: Now finding lodging in the Ninth Circle...​Longtime Diocese of Orange Bishop Norman McFarland died yesterday, and more than a few people rejoiced because of his role in creating the see's sex-abuse scandal. McFarland wasn't as clumsy as current Bishop Tod D. Brown, as clueless as foundi ... More >>

Forget Arresting the Pope--What About John Urell?

Urell: Wanted for crimes against humanity--one can only wish...​Sloppy drunkard Christopher Hitchens and wacky atheist Richard Dawkins made news recently because they want Pope Benedict XVI arrested when His Eminence visits Great Britain in September on account of the pontiff's pedo-protecting way ... More >>

Jaime Soto Gets Punked by Pope Benedict XVI!

Wonder if Soto is still smiling...​SO...the media is going gaga over the successor to Archdiocese of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony: Diocese of San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez, who's a pedo-protector himself. The Orange County Register did one of its classic county barometer pieces where it g ... More >>

Are Tod Brown and William Levada Besties?

Brownie and Levada already know how to sport the cassock...​One lesson I've learned in years of covering the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal is that the more ludicrous the rumor or scenario, the more likely it's true. Bishops moving pedophile priests around to evade the law? True! Priests taking ... More >>

Two More OC Connections to the Vatican's Current Pedophile Scandal

Trupia: How many boys in OC did he molest?​First in a three-part series this week on Orange County's connections to the "current" pedophilia scandal plaguing the Vatican. Nothing too earth-shattering--just connecting some dots--because I'm saving the good stuff for the near future. I'm warning you ... More >>

Another Local Boy Done Pedo-Priest Apologist Good: Cardinal William Levada

Levada: Brownie's pal in the Vatican...​As the world just barely begins to realize that the Catholic Church is infested from the bottom to the top with pedophile apologists, one name has come to the forefront besides Pope Benedict XVI: Cardinal William Levada.He's the Prefect of the Congregation o ... More >>

Breaking: Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown Announces Retirement; Pope Benedict XVI Picks OC Native as Replacement

Heckuva job, Brownie!​In a surprise announcement this morning, Catholic Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown announced he would retire at the end of the year."I have enjoyed my time in Orange County, but it is time to move on," the 73-year-old head of Orange County's 1.1 million Catholics announc ... More >>

Why Did God Flood St. John the Baptist?

​So, the Rev. Wiley Drake agrees with Pat Robertson that God's wrath over a pact Haiti made with the Devil is what's behind the tiny nation's unending woes. The First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park pastor tells the Orange County Register he's not sure the Almighty dialed in the earthquake t ... More >>

What Do Pope, Larry Flynt, Mission Viejo Shoppers Have in Common?

Media reports that as many as 16 actors and actresses in the adult entertainment industry recently tested positive for HIV have prompted new calls for legislation requiring condom use in all porn videos shot in California. Opponents to condom use include the multi-billion dollar adult entertainment ... More >>

Did Denis Lyons' Attorney Inadvertently Admit His Client is a Pedophile?

Yesterday, we wrote about how the Diocese of Orange is using a laughable argument to try and keep secret personnel files on pedo-priest Denis Lyons in a recent civil suit. Unsurprisingly, Lyons' lawyers also filed a brief for the same purpose using the same tactic of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown: that ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

John Patrick Shanley's 'Doubt' Wags the Finger of Moral Relativism

[¡Ask a Mexican!] Special Guadalupe Edition

Monday's Headlines & Surprises: Horny Priests and Eskimo kids

$50 million Eskimo Pie: Because its priests and missionaries sexually abused 110 Eskimo children from 1961 to 1987, the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church has almost finalized a deal to pay $50 million to the victims, William Lobdell and Stuart Silverstein report in today’s LA Times. But â ... More >>

Act of Faith

Doubt asks deep, painful questions

"Friends of Monsignor John" Already Deletin'

Scroll for updates after the jump... A support group for embattled Orange diocese Monsignor John Urell isn't even a day old, and already site administrators are deleting messages critical of Urell and his peers' handling of the diocese's sex-abuse scandal. You won't know this from reading their web ... More >>

Great Moments in Orange County Adultery

1978

Special Screenings

Movie of the week: Scarface

Live Free Now

Ask me how: Talking taxes and trilaterals in Irvine

Earthly Pain

Less broke, more beauty

May God have mercy on your soul.

Take the Bishop Michael Driscoll Pedo-Quiz!

A Moral, Abject Failure When It Mattered

Pope John Paul II, 1920-2005

Northern Exposure

By trashing Spitzer, Register protects GOP, Catholic Church

!Ask a Mexican!

Diary of a Loud County

Letters

Mel Gibsons Christ Complex

Is The Passion of Christ an autobiopic?

It Aint Easy Being Cheesy

Takin a dip with Berlin Jim at the Melting Pot

Diary of a Mad County

Serra One Step From Drinking Holiday

Coming Clean