(not WV) Televangelist Priest Michael Manning Confesses to Affair With Cousin

[The Straight Story]

Televangelist Priest Michael Manning Confesses to Affair With Cousin

(NewsCore) - A California-based Catholic priest who runs a television ministry has taken a leave of absence after admitting to a sexual relationship with his second cousin, the San Bernardino County Sun reported Thursday.

The Rev. Michael Manning said he had stepped down from his position to reflect on the relationship with Nancy Kotowski, a school superintendent in Monterey County, Calif.

Catholic priests take a vow of celibacy which forbids them from all sexual activity, and Manning said he ended the relationship two years ago.

"We've been such good friends and there's a deep love we have for each other," Manning told the Sun.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpps/news/televangelist-priest-michael-manning-confesses-to-affair-with-cousin-dpgonc-20110408-fc_12679331

[msanthrope]

1. A consenual relationship with an adult??? Promote that priest!!!! n/t

[marew]

8. Yup! You can bet...

this was going on while he was up there preaching to others. As someone who was raised strict Catholic, went to Catholic schools, even went to a Jesuit college for a while before transferring, I am so sick of the hypocrisy. I saw my parents give so much to the Church in time and money over 35 years yet when they were too ill to attend church, they were told no one could bring them communion though they lived only three blocks away. Christian kindness and honesty? No way. Sorry, but this left a horrible taste in my mouth.

[Botany]

2. Mission Position no doubt

n/t

[LaurenG]

3. Second cousins are allowed to marry at least in the states I've lived in

and as far as the Catholic Church - I think they're nuts to try and keep priests from having sex lives anyway.






(Friendly suggestion - Maybe you take the state reference out of the subject line)

[underseasurveyor]

5. Really, second cousins can marry?

I thought it had to be third or more :shrug:
Anything closer is just gross IMHO.

[LaurenG]

6. No - state of Colorado makes you swear you are not first cousins

thats it.

[Xithras]

7. It's only illegal in 6 states.

First cousin marriages are legal with some restrictions in 25 states, and legal without ANY restriction in 16 states.

Second cousin marriages are legal in 44 states.

[KamaAina]

13. Maybe you take the state reference out of the subject line

Good idea. It so happens that WV and KY are two of a handful of states that prohibit cousin marriage.

[cordelia]

14. Yep.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[underseasurveyor]

4. 2nd cousin?

That's illegal not to mention, EEEEW x(

[Lyric]

9. I've lived in WV most of my life, but the only true incest I ever witnessed

happened in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia--a 13 year old girl who rode our bus got pregnant by her cousin and actually *bragged* about it. We had only just moved there from WV, and I was horrified. I had always heard the stupid stereotypes, but I didn't know that such things actually happened in real life.

My family was poor, uneducated, and low-class...but I still never saw or heard of actual incest until we were living in the supposedly-classier state of Virginia. Go figure.

[Xithras]

10. It's suprisingly common here in California

Primarily among first generation hispanic immigrants (cousin marriage is neither illegal nor culturally frowned upon in Mexico, and it's pretty common in small towns). I've met several happily married couples who also happened to be cousins.

I actually used to do the "eww, yucky" thing until I started meeting them. It wasn't until then that I really looked into it and learned that the opinions against it are primarily a cultural thing in the United States (we're the only "western" country that regulates it). It turns out that the cultural opinions against it are primarily an echo of the American Eugenics Movement in the 1930's. While most of their beliefs have been relegated to the wastebin of history, an entire generation of schoolkids was raised being told in school that cousin-marriage was bad for us genetically (a position largely unsupported by modern medicine), and the opinion "stuck", and has been passed down ever since.

[CanonRay]

11. My father threw the parish priest down the front stairs

when I was about 7. Then I was kicked out of Catechism class. So much for my religious upbringing.

[EC]

12. Oh, ick... n/t