Oh, Those Wacky Catholics!

This story sounds like I made it up, I know. But I found it on the web. It originates with The Times of London (published, in case you didn't know, by Rupert Murdoch).

It has to be the best headline (and lead paragraph) of the year, hands down.

Because of that, I'm going to to quote it extensively:

Priest who saved porn stars' souls held over rape of nuns

Richard Owen
January 25, 2006

A PRIEST whose devotion to saving the souls of prostitutes and porn stars has earned him celebrity status in Italy has been arrested on charges of sexual violence and group rape.

Father Fedele Bisceglia, 69, was arrested after a nun alleged that she and other women had been raped at their Franciscan hostel at Cosenza in Calabria, southern Italy. Antonio Gaudio, 39, Father Bisceglia's assistant, was also charged with sexual harassment. Both men denied the charges.

Father Bisceglia, a striking, white-bearded figure with piercing blue eyes, is a national figure in Italy because of his missionary work for the poor as well as his colourful, extroverted television appearances.

He is probably best known for having converted Luana Borgia, a porn actor, to Christianity 10 years ago, persuading her to enter a convent on a retreat to reflect on her life and "purify herself spiritually". Father Bisceglia even accompanied Ms Borgia to the Bologna Erotic Fair, where she announced her conversion and set up a stall collecting money for an ambulance for one of his missions in Africa.

Ms Borgia, who was 30 at the time, said she had known Father Bisceglia "for some time" and they had become friends after she agreed to help him with fundraising for charity.

[...]

Father Bisceglia said he was innocent of the charges, which were "completely invented".

He said the nun was unbalanced. "The woman is mad. I am being persecuted like Jesus Christ," he said.

However, local police alleged that telephone taps appeared to confirm the nun's story. Pornographic videos had been found at the priest's home, police said, some allegedly filmed at the Cosenza hostel.

Police said the nun had been subjected to a psychiatric examination and found to be "in full possession of her mental faculties". Allegations by three other women against the priest and his assistant were also being investigated.

You just can't make this stuff up.

It'll be interesting to see how the Vatican handles this -- but given how they've previously dealt with the pedophiles in their midst, it wouldn't surprise me if the guy got a promotion.

Tom Moran