Michael Manning, TV Priest, Takes Leave Of Absence After Affair With Cousin

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Michael Manning, TV Priest, Takes Leave Of Absence After Affair With Cousin

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/08/michael-manning-priest-affair-cousin_n_846760.html

A Catholic TV priest has taken a leave of absence after admitting to a sexual affair with his second cousin.

According to the San Bernadino Sun, which first reported the relationship, Michael Manning, 70, will be leaving Wordnet, the worldwide television ministry he founded in San Bernadino in 1978, to reflect on his relationship with Monterey Schools Superintendent Nancy Kotowski.

Manning, who claims to no longer have a sexual relationship with his cousin, said he has sought and received forgiveness from God. "That's the neat thing with Jesus. There can be the chance of starting again," Manning said in an interview with the Sun.

"The reality is I was living two lives: one as a priest who was vowed to celibacy and another life as a sexually active man in our sexual intimacy," Manning wrote in one letter. The pair allegedly ended their physical relationship more than two years ago.

Meanwhile, Kotowski told the Monterey Herald that she believes she and the priest are "soul mates" and she hopes their story will inspire discussion about the role of celibacy within the Catholic church. "The reality is that we love the church, we're committed to the church, but I'm hoping a dialogue will open up (about) obligatory celibacy, the whole question of celibacy," she said.

[CBGLuthier]

1. Hey, don't be blaming those good hill folks for these city hypocritters

Jethro may have eventually tried to fuck everything that moved but he never even looked twice at Ellie May.

Jed and Granny weren't blood kin so that don't count. She was a Moses.

[damntexdem]

4. Hey, he must not be from Arkansas:

it wasn't a FIRST COUSIN. ;-)

[Sonoman]

5. Reminds me of a really old joke.

An Arkansas boy comes home from his first day of 2nd Grade.

Dad, "How was your first day, son?"

Son, "I think I'm in love."

Dad, "Really?"

Son, "There is a pretty girl who sits next to me and she is really smart and nice. And, Daddy, she's a virgin!"

Dad, "Forget her, Son. If she ain't good enough for her family, she ain't good enough for our'n."


I believe it's OK for me to tell that one because I am from Deep East Texas and, therefore, somewhat knowledgeable about that sort of thing.

Sonoman

[joeybee12]

2. The twist is I guess this priest at least did it with an adult...

Celibacy for priests is one dumb idea.

[damntexdem]

3. Sounds like he already took a leave of abstinence.

;-)

[hedgehog]

6. I never heard of Father Manning before this, but he seems to be

one of the good guys:

"Further I cannot envision God rubbing His hands in sadistic joy as He sees a young man racked with pain in the last stages of the dread disease AIDS. To allow that would be to deny Christ's abrogation of the command "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." The God of my life is the God Isaiah describes as a loving mother unable to forget the child of her womb and the father of the prodigal son. That father is God patiently waiting for his prodigal son to return after the son had wished him dead and then squandered his inheritance.

In present-day society, many people have subtly developed a "hierarchy of sin" according to which sexual sins are the most abhorrent. Although I in no way condone sexual immorality, I find that the stress on this sin allows sins of perhaps greater gravity to be considered as not all that important. As long as there is no sexual impropriety, many people think they can supply bullets to friends who kill people we don't like, stockpile nuclear bombs, ignore a dehumanizing farming problem, and shrug off racism as an issue of secondary importance. We must reach out to people with AIDS as Jesus reached out to lepers with the tenderness of love that is neither judgmental nor condescending. Like Him we must join our touch with prayers for healing. And added to our prayers should be support for the research that will bring a medical cure for AIDS. "

http://frmikesdailythoughts.blogspot.com/2007/07/isnt-scourge-of-aids-punishment-from.html


There are a lot of media priests out there pushing a right wing agenda politically while preaching that only celibate males should be priests, that we should pray in Latin, etc. More than one of those guys has been found taking advantage of people who've come to them for help. (It may be legal to have sex with an adult female, but it's not ethical to have sex with a patient, so to speak.) That's hypocrisy, but it's not what this story seems to be about.

I know a lot of people here have no use for religion and/or no use for any priest, but this guy talks about a Jesus who loves people. A lot of people forget or don't realize that a vow of celibacy is as much a vow to be alone as it is a vow not to have sex. I for one think it's bogus to require the vow. Set aside the lurid second cousins aspect, this sounds like two lonely people who found and loved each other.

[Name removed]

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