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Gun control: Church firmly, quietly opposes firearms for civilians

VATICAN CITY -- The Catholic Church's position on gun control is not easy to find; there are dozens of speeches and talks and a few documents that call for much tighter regulation of the global arms trade, but what about private gun ownership? The answer is resoundingly clear: Firearms in the hands of civilians should be strictly limited and eventually completely eliminated. "The answer is resoundingly clear: Firearms in the hands of civilians should be strictly limited and eventually completely eliminated." But you won't find that statement in a headline or a document subheading. It's almost hidden in a footnote in a document on crime by the U.S. bishops' conference and it's mentioned in passing in dozens of official Vatican texts on the global arms trade. The most direct statement comes in the bishops' "Responsibility, Rehabilitation and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice" from November 2000.
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Pope Francis and a cardinal say it's time for the U.S. to act on guns

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Catholic Church calls for knife control

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Long Island Catholic hospitals gearing up to train, arm security officers

Hospitals nationally, along with school districts, places of worship and local governments, have taken steps to increase security that include hiring armed security officers and installing security cameras. Security officers stand at their post at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset on July 10. Northwell expects to have armed guards in all its 13 Long Island hospitals within the next several months. Photo Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr. By Nicholas Spangler and David Olson nicholas.spangler@newsday.com , david.olson@newsday.com @spanglernewsday Updated March 3, 2019 6:00 AM Armed security officers could patrol six Catholic Health Services hospitals across Long Island and NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola this year, joining armed officers deploying or already deployed at Stony Brook University Hospital and most of Northwell Health's 13 LI hospitals, officials at the health

Lawyer: Buffalo priest aimed gun at boy's head while molesting him

A deceased former Buffalo Diocese priest is accused of pointing a gun at the head of a teenage boy he was molesting in the mid-1980s. The sexual abuses are alleged to have happened after Buffalo Diocese officials were told the Rev. Michael R. Freeman had molested other boys and young men, but kept him in ministry. Freeman was serving as associate pastor at St. Mary parish in Lancaster in the mid-1980s when he allegedly pointed a gun at the boy to persuade him to have sexual contact. That startling new allegation was made by the now-49-year-old man in a compensation claim submitted to a Buffalo Diocese program offering monetary settlements to victims of childhood sexual abuse. The man also said in his claim that Freeman provided absolution of the boy’s sins immediately following the acts of abuse, according to Steve Boyd, an Amherst attorney who represents the man. Catholics believe that priests alone, through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, have the power to free