Where debating everything under the sun is only the beginning

Catholicism in New York is out of business.

In Rockville Centre, Bishop Barres said the Chapter 11 filing would not immediately affect the operations of parishes and schools, because they are separate legal entities, although the diocese as a result would have less money to share with them.

"The financial burden of the litigation has been severe and only compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic," Bishop Barres said. "Our goal is to make sure that all clergy sexual abuse survivors, and not just a few who were the first to file lawsuits, are afforded just and equitable compensation."

Barres assured parishioners that their church offerings would not be used in any lawsuit settlements.

Child protection remains a priority for the church, he said.

"Our diocese underwent extensive reforms in 2003, with the creation of our Office for the Protection of Children and Young People. We will continue to be vigilant in our commitment to child protection," Barres said.
(at this point, you can read "the rest of the story" as it were... )

How about this?

The Archbishop of New Orleans said Friday that a priest’s filming of a pornographic videotape atop a church’s altar was demonic, and that the priest will never again serve in Catholic ministry.
Fr. Travis Clark’s “obscene behavior was deplorable,” Aymond said in a statement released by the Archdiocese Oct. 9.
“His desecration of the altar in Church was demonic. I am infuriated by his actions. When the details became clear, we had the altar removed and burned. I will consecrate a new altar tomorrow,” Aymond said.

Plot summary
In a Tibetan lamasery, the monks seek to list all of the names of God. They believe the Universe was created for this purpose, and that once this naming is completed, God will bring the Universe to an end. Three centuries ago, the monks created an alphabet in which they calculated they could encode all the possible names of God, numbering about 9,000,000,000 ("nine billion") and each having no more than nine characters. Writing the names out by hand, as they had been doing, even after eliminating various nonsense combinations, would take another 15,000 years; the monks wish to use modern technology to finish this task more quickly.

They rent a computer capable of printing all the possible permutations, and they hire two Westerners to install and program the machine. The computer operators are skeptical but play along. After three months, as the job nears completion, they fear that the monks will blame the computer, and by extension its operators, when nothing happens. The Westerners delay the operation of the computer so that it will complete its final print run just after their scheduled departure. After their successful departure on ponies, they pause on the mountain path on their way back to the airfield, where a plane is waiting to take them back to civilization. Under a clear night sky they estimate that it must be just about the time that the monks are pasting the final printed names into their holy books. Then they notice that "overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out."

Better yet, RJ: No more human priests! AI is the way to go. What's the worst that could happen?

(I remember an old SciFi short-short where the world's most advance computer was built. The first question put to it was "Is there a God?" The machine promptly replied "There is now!")

Dwan Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore throughout the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.  He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe -- ninety-six billion planets -- into the supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies. Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions.

Then after a moment's silence he said, "Now, Dwar Ev." Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets.  Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel. Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath.

"The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn."
"Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question which no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer."
He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?"
The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of a single relay. "Yes, now there is a God."
Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch. A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut.

In bestowing the title "venerable" on Schuman, Francis put the Luxembourg-born leader on course to be designated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

Schuman, who died in 1963, was a devout Catholic who "lived in prayer and was nourished by the daily Eucharist," the Vatican said.