Priests

Departing from the widespread Jewish dismay over the Vatican's continuing defense of its public silence during World War II, one of the area's most prominent rabbis has invited a Catholic priest to join him tonight in urging members of his congregation to appreciate Pope John Paul II's path toward reconciliation with world Jewry.

The shortage of parish clergy has left Denver-area Roman Catholic priests so "overworked" and "isolated" that the stressed-out pastors are forming a support group to discuss their problems and needs. Nearly 60 of the Denver archdiocese's 232 priests attended the first meeting of the group. Organizers said the group is a grass-roots organization with no ties to the archdiocese but added that it did not mean to be antagonistic to church authorities.

The sets are gone now, torn down after two months of filming--the church, the rectory, the hospital, the dying shed. On a breathtaking peninsula along Molokai's wind-swept northern coast, surrounded by the graves of 8,000 departed souls that still evoke painful memories for Hawaiians, the actors and crew of "Father Damien" have packed up their equipment, said their farewells and departed Kalaupapa, leaving behind a settlement of patients stricken with Hansen's disease, also known as leprosy.

The Rev. David Bonnar was one of eight priests ordained by the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh in 1988. This year, there may be two; in 1999, there will be none, perhaps a first for this century. But Pittsburgh, with 371 active priests compared with 467 just 10 years ago, isn't alone. Nationwide, for every 100 men enrolled in Catholic seminaries in 1965, there are only 40 today, said Dean Hoge, a sociology professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington.

Father Michael Pfleger has taken on the devil in many forms in nearly two decades of doing "God's work" as an activist priest with a needy inner-city parish. He has tilted against crack dealers and corner liquor stores, television news teams that sensationalize urban crime and cigarette billboards that target teenagers.

Penthouse magazine has issued a statement admitting it published unsubstantiated claims in a 1996 story that led to the defrocking of one Brooklyn priest and the firing of another at the Episcopal Church Center in New York. "Penthouse has now had the opportunity to obtain information . . . that was not previously available and to read the diocesan report of the Episcopal Church of its investigation," said a statement from the magazine's editor.

A Roman Catholic priest who died while under investigation of allegedly embezzling $1.3 million to pay for gambling trips and luxury cars may have been murdered in his hospital bed, police said. Father Walter Benz, 72, who had leukemia and a brain virus, died Friday at a Catholic nursing home in Pittsburgh. His intravenous line and oxygen tube had been removed. A couple who were in Benz's room when an alarm went off slipped away without being questioned, police said.

He has traded in his leopard-skin loincloth for the Cloth at a time when many people his age are busy praising the putter. At age 76, former professional wrestler Bill Olivas--the man they once called "Elephant Boy," the "Wild Man of Borneo" and "Zando Zabo, the bushy-haired wrestling gypsy from South America"--has been pinned by the Lord to serve his people. This week, during a ceremony at St.

Celibacy stands atop the list of reasons Catholic youths hesitate to consider vocations, but church officials say they should not gloss over the rule when recruiting priests, sisters and brothers. In a survey of active Catholic youths, young people who are contemplating religious life were most likely to say having a sense of mission and making a personal sacrifice for God are appealing aspects of a vocation.

A gunman killed a Roman Catholic priest who was delivering communion to parishioners in a small settlement in northwestern Rwanda on Sunday, church officials said. The priest, who had worked in Rwanda for more than 35 years, was killed in Kampanga settlement and his body brought to the bishop's residence, said an official with the Roman Catholic diocese in Ruhengeri, who spoke on condition of anonymity. No Rwandan officials were available to comment, and details were sketchy.