Thou shalt not lie

A journalist for an Italian weekly made up confessions for a report testing the consistency of priests' response to serious ethical questions. The issues at stake included euthanasia, drugs, prostitution, embezzlement, and others, Zenit reported. The L'Expresso reporter confessed his "sins" in 24 churches in Turin, Milan, Naples, and Palermo.

The church, not surprisingly, was not pleased. The report served "to offend the religious sentiment of believers, to deceive the good faith of priests, gravely injuring the inviolable character of pastoral ministry, profaning a sacrament," read an analysis in the Vatican's semiofficial newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.