ROME – A renowned monastery in Rome where it has been revealed monks staged concerts featuring a lap-dancer-turned-nun and opened a hotel with a 24-hour limousine service has been shut down by the Pope.
As part of Benedict XVI’s crackdown on “loose living” within the Catholic Church, 20 or so Cistercian monks are now being evicted from the monastery at the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, which hosts some of the church’s holiest relics.
“An inquiry found evidence of liturgical and financial irregularities as well as lifestyles that were probably not in keeping with that of a monk,” said Fr Ciro Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman. Santa Croce in Gerusalemme dates back to the 4th century and was built to house relics brought back from the Holy Land by Emperor Constantine’s mother. – (Guardian service)