Italian scientist Luigi Garlaschelli says that he has reproduced the Shroud of Turin, an accomplishment that he claims definitively proves that the linen some Christians regard as Jesus Christ's burial cloth is nothing more than medieval fake.

The Shroud of Turin bears an image of a crucified man that some believers say is Christ. On both the back and front, it shows a bearded man with long hair and his arms crossed on his chest. The entire cloth is also marked by what looks to be rivulets of blood from wounds at the wrists, feet, and side.

Garlaschelli, who is due to illustrate his results at a conference this weekend in northern Italy, says of his reproduction:

"We have shown that it is possible to reproduce something that has the same characteristics as the Shroud."

In 1998, speculation was first raised when carbon dating of the cloth dated it from between 1260 and 1390, and scientists have thus far been at a loss to explain how the image was left on the cloth. Garlaschelli was able to reproduce the full size shroud using materials and techniques available in the Middle Ages.

With the menace of swine flu lurking all around us, the Catholic Church must be spreading swine flu like crazy because of its ritual of shaking hands at the "Sign of Peace" at Mass, which takes place just before Communion.

I should explain for the benefit of any Pagans or other non-Catholics reading this. After saying the Our Father, everyone starts shaking hands all around.

I'm sure this has occurred to many people, not only germophobics, but Catholics are conditioned to never question Holy Mother Church. We spread our germs around from hand to hand, and then we take the host in our contaminated hands and put it in our mouths. The food of life can't possibly hurt us, can it?

Some of us also share the communal chalice of wine at communion. In a spiritual sense, this is mouth to mouth resuscitation, but in a down to earth sense we would not normally share the same glass with strangers. A Eucharistic minister once confessed to me her discomfort with one aspect of her duties. The Eucharistic minister must finish any wine remaining in the chalice.

"I can't help but think of all the germs in there," she said.

There must be some sort of miraculous sterilization involved here which was not covered in the Baltimore Catechism. Maybe it was added to the revised edition.

Radical Arizona pastor Steven Anderson previously received national attention when he dedicated an entire sermon to "Why I hate Barack Obama.". One of his parishioners also caught media attention when e brougt an AR-15 to a protest outside of a speech delivered by President Obama. He called Obama a "murderer" and "socialist devil", and said "I'm not going to pray for his good. I'm going to pray that he dies and goes to hell." Due to the content of his sermons, a CNN analylst last week said that he had likely been visited by Secret Service agents. Instead of backing off or facing into obscurity, Anderson decided to step up his game.

On Sunday, Anderson decided not to apologize or retract his inflammatory remarks. Instead, he said:

I hope that God strikes Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy. You know, and I hope it happens today.

Anderson is a pastor at Faithful Word Baptist church in Phoenix, Arizona, which he founded in 2005.

You can view the video footage right here:

Thursday evening at the corner of Rocky River Dr. and Puritas Ave. in Cleveland's West Park neighborhood, hundreds of parishioners and supporters came out to attend a prayer service and town hall meeting at St. Patrick's Church. The church, which has been an integral part of the community for 161 years, was informed by the Cleveland Catholic Diocese's Bishop Richard Lennon in late May that they would close and merge with nearby Ascension of Our Lord. With over 1,400 parish families as members, this decision was simply unacceptable to parishioners who have have filed appeals and vow to take the case all the way to the Vatican.

The July 16th meeting began shortly after 8pm, and was led by Pat Singleton, one of the Save St. Pat's committee members dedicated to blocking Bishop Lennon's directive to close and merge the parish. Those in attendance joined in singing, prayer, a candlelight vigil, and reflections on the church during the prayer service portion of the gathering. Following the prayer service, the town hall meeting began. Pat Singleton and other committee members led the discussion, updating the crowd on their continued efforts.

Pope Benedict XVI broke his wrist after a fall in his chalet during a vacation in the Italian Alps. Hospital officials and the Vatican confirmed the accident, and said that he underwent successful surgery Friday.

Tiziano Trevisan, a spokesman at the Umberto Parini hospital in Aosta, said that the operation was performed under local anesthesia and went well. Surgeons operated on the Pope's wrist to reduce the fracture, a procedure which is done to realign the broken bone fragments.

The Vatican also issued a statement revealing that the pope fell in his room in a nearby chalet overnight. Despite the accident, the 82-year-old celebrated Mass and had breakfast before heading into the hospital. Upon arriving at the hospital, an X-ray was done of the pope's right wrist and a fracture was found.

Though the Catholic Church is steeped in thousands of years of tradition, it doesn't mean they aren't keeping up with the modern world. The Vatican is now taking new technologically savvy steps to bring its messages to social networking sites and smartphones through new Facebook and iPhone applications available through the new Pope2You web portal.

Launched Thursday, the Facebook app allows web users to send virtual postcards of Pope Benedict XVI to their Facebook friends. The Pope2You portal - located at www.pope2you.net - will even allow you to follow the Pope's travels using an iPhone. The iPhone app also works with iPod Touch, and gives surfers video and audio news on the pope's travels and speeches, as well as Catholic events around tehw orld.

On just its first day of operation, the Pope2You portal acquired 45,000 contacts and 500,000 pageviews, and the new Facebook app was used about 10,000 times.

The introduction of the iPhone and Facebook apps are just the latest efforts in the Vatican's efforts to reach young people and broaden the pope's audience. This past January, the Pope got his own YouTube channel (which is now linked on the Pope2You portal).

The following letter is in response to the articles covering the scandal pertaining to Rev. Alberto Cutié of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Miami Beach, Florida.

Whether or not one agrees with the Catholic Church's celibacy requirement, the fact is it was in place long before the likes of Rev. Alberto Cutié came along. He has been proclaimed "Father Oprah" as though that is some sort of badge of honor; being likened to some overpaid narcissistic talk-show host who threw a character-revealing tantrum just because she was told the store was closed when she arrived. Now, after enjoying all the perks of celebrity, Rev. Cutié wants to "get cute" with the very institution he took a vow to uphold. His so-called charisma is nothing more than a result of his self-promoting manipulations of a congregation and radio audience that have obviously "drank the kool-aid." Just as with the pedofile priests, Rev. Cutié needs to be defrocked so he can become the cavorting beach bum that he really wants to be and then an opening can be made for a dedicated and mature priest to minister appropriately.

Joe Bialek
Cleveland, OH

Do you have any viewpoints that you would like to discuss? You can email us at editor@clevelandleader.com and have your voice heard!

On Wednesday Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon will meet with area pastors and their representatives from diocesan churches affected by the recent announcement of closures and mergers. The Bishop has also invited parish administrators, parish life coordinators, and two lay leaders from each parish that the parishes have identified as crucial to leading a smooth and effective transition process.

In an eight-county area, the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland currently has 224 parishes. On March 15, Lennon announced that a total of 29 churches in Cuyahoga, Lorain, and Summit County will close by the end of June 2010. An additional 41 churches will be merged with neighboring parishes at 18 existing churches.

Attendance at the meeting today is mandatory for the parishes, even if they are planning to appeal their closure or merger. It will begin at 1pm and end around 3pm.

Today's meeting will cover the steps for closing and merging parishes, as well as providing resources to help support the transition. Those who attend will be given a Consolidation Manual and a booklet of Prayer and Care Resources for Parishes in Transition.

Officials at the Vatican are said to be planning to authorize a boycott of the upcoming film, "Angels & Demons", the prequel to 2006's smash-hit "The Da Vinci Code." The film, which stars Tom Hanks, is based off the bestselling novel by Dan Brown, and is due for a summer 2009 release.

The church called for a boycott of the first film, and it now looks like this film will also be stirring up some controversy with its religious overtones. On Friday, the Vatican's official newspaper, Avvenire, ran a story stating that the Catholic Church "cannot approve" of the movie. Another Italian publication, La Stampa, has warned that officials will call for a boycott ahead of the film's May release.

While the story is set in Rome, filming was delayed after Vatican officials refused to grant the crew permission to shoot in the religious site and at other important sites in the city.

Angels & Demons opens worldwide on May 15.

Pope Benedict XVI, while on board a papal flight to Africa, told reporters that the distribution of condoms is not the answer to the fight against AIDS in Africa. During his trip to Africa, he will tour Cameroon and Angola.

"You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, it increases the problem," said Benedict.

He said that the disease was "a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems".

The Vatican instead encourages sexual abstinence to fight the spread of the disease. While this is good in theory, some question its effectiveness. Some priests and nuns who work with victims of AIDS in Africa question the church's opposition to condoms.

The timing of the Pope's remarks has outraged health agencies who are trying to stop the spread of HIV and Aids in sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 22 million people are infected.

Africa is currently the fastest-growing region for the Roman Catholic Church.