Chinese authorities over the weekend launched a probe against Shi Yongxin, abbot of the Shaolin Temple, on allegations of embezzlement, misappropriation of temple funds, sexual misconduct, and violation of Buddhist precepts.
A 35-year-old Thai woman named Wilawan Emsawat has been charged with extortion for allegedly recording herself while having sex with Buddhist monks, then threatening to make the photos and videos public unless she was paid off.
Prapaporn Choeiwadkoh, a 45-year-old politician from the Sukhothai province of Thailand, was suspended by the Thai Democrat Party this week after her 64-year-old husband caught her in bed with the couple’s 24-year-old adopted son Phra Maha, a Buddhist monk. The scandal has become a social media sensation across Southeast Asia, especially in China, where developments in the case are followed as closely as any soap opera.
Authorities in Kyiv have reportedly expelled a large number of Christian monks from a historic monastery in the country amid claims they are “pro-Russian”.
The monks of Chartreuse who make the eponymous herbal liqueur have announced their intention to cut back on production for religious and environmental motives.
Austrian Franciscan monks in Salzburg will cease feeding the poor after a number of violent incidents from foreign migrants.
A number of monks have been injured, some seriously, in a brazen, broad daylight attack on a church in Vienna which the authorities are describing as a “robbery”.
The government of Myanmar arrested a Buddhist monk on Tuesday for hiding over four million methamphetamine pills and a cache of “a grenade and ammunition” in his monastery. The incident highlights one of the world’s most sprawling drug epidemics in a nation former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has regaled as an Obama White House success story.
A monk has been banned from delivering religious leaflets in Britain for the next five years following complaints of homophobia. Brother Damon Kelly of the Black Hermits, a tiny Catholic group based in Northampton, pleaded guilty in June to harassing
A monk has pleaded guilty to harassing a couple of lesbian pagans after telling them: “We used to burn people like you.” Brother Damon Kelly of the Black Hermits, a tiny Catholic group based in the Diocese of Northampton in
A Benedictine community of monks from Norcia, Italy, has released an album of heavenly strains of Gregorian chant that is enjoying extraordinary success. The CD not only debuted at number 1 on Billboard’s classical chart, but has held top billing for the third straight week.
Freedom of speech and expression have come under scrutiny with a vengeance recently. In Burma (Myanmar), it was taken to a whole new level when a bar manager from New Zealand and his two Burmese colleagues were sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison–with hard labor—for posting an image on social media of a Buddha wearing headphones, in an attempt to promote unlimited frozen margaritas.
