Dead Celebrity Alert

Obit to come.

MELBOURNE, Australia — John Billings, the founder of a natural contraception method that won support among Catholics, has died, a colleague said Tuesday. He was 89.

Billings died late Sunday at a Melbourne retirement home, said Marian Corkill, director of the World Organization Ovulation Method Billings International, better known as WOOMB.

Billings and his wife Evelyn pioneered the Billings Ovulation Method in the 1950s — a technique that helps women identify their fertile and non-fertile states based on their menstrual cycle. …

Billings, a staunch Catholic and father of nine, always had the support of his church, which opposes contraceptive devises such as condoms and the pill that revolutionized birth control a decade later. Critics of the Billings method argue the church supported it because of its relatively high failure rate, which earned it the nickname “Vatican Roulette.” … Read full obituary

The Rev. Robert Drinan, a Massachusetts Jesuit who — over the objections of his superiors — became the first Roman Catholic priest to serve as a voting member of Congress, died Sunday.

Drinan, 86, had suffered from pneumonia and congestive heart failure during the previous 10 days, according to a statement by Georgetown University. …

An internationally known human-rights advocate, Drinan represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House for 10 years during the turbulent 1970s, and he stepped down only after a worldwide directive from Pope John Paul II barring priests from holding public office. … Read full obituary

The badly beaten and mutilated corpse of Gianmario Roveraro, one of Italy’s reputedly most pious financiers, was discovered “cut to pieces” under a motorway overpass near Parma yesterday, some two weeks after he was kidnapped while returning home from a meeting of the conservative Roman Catholic group Opus Dei.

Three people were arrested on suspicion of the kidnapping and macabre murder of Mr Roveraro, a banker who had been questioned by investigators in connection with the spectacular €14bn (£9.5bn) collapse of the Parmalat food empire in 2003. …

The killing recalled the murder of Roberto Calvi, the Italian financier known as “God’s Banker” for his links to the Vatican, who was found hanged fromBlackfriars Bridge in London in 1982. … Read full obituary

Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, who was involved in one of the biggest financial scandals to hit the Vatican, has died, church officials say.

The 84-year-old American had been living in Sun City, Arizona.

Marcinkus was head of the Vatican Bank at the time of the fraudulent collapse of Banco Ambrosiano in 1982, with which it had close ties.

He denied any wrongdoing. Although he was sought for questioning, he was granted immunity as a Vatican employee.

Archbishop Marcinkus was found dead at his home on Monday evening, a spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, in Arizona, said. The cause is unclear. … Read full obituary

A former Southern Baptist leader who was known to stress that racism was sinful has died of a heart attack.

A memorial service is tomorrow in Dallas for Foy Valentine.

Valentine died Saturday at a Dallas hospital. He was 82.

Valentine was executive director of the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission.

It’s now called the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the denomination’s public policy panel. … Read full obituary

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Rev. Adrian Rogers, a three-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention and leader of a conservative takeover of the denomination, died early Tuesday in Memphis. He was 74.

His death was announced by Baptist Press News and by Rogers’ Love Worth Finding ministry.

Rogers was hospitalized earlier this month with pneumonia and cancer, his ministry’s Web site said.

Rogers was elected president in 1979 as part of the conservative takeover of the 16.3 million-member convention, second in size to the Roman Catholic Church in the United States.

His election turned out to be a watershed moment for the denomination, and the group shifted dramatically to the right politically and theologically. … Read full obituary

Missed this one back in February [the 21st]; apparently many news sources were sluggish about getting around to printing Dr. Scott’s obit. And after checking the lame, boring obits still available online, I went back to the source where I stumbled across the news by accident: rotten.com. Be warned, however, that the rest of rotten.com is extremely offensive to most audiences, so browse the site only at your own risk! — JR

You’re watching Dr. Gene Scott’s program, already in progress.

It’s “not a lot of hooey — just straight talk” from a man everybody’s encountered at one time or another while flipping from channel to channel. His face looms large against the Ultimatte blue background, and he radiates forth a righteous indignation. He’s the richest television star in world history, and he could easily hold a Guinness record for spending the most time live on the air in front of millions of people.

“You ever meet Christians? You wish you could shove a pipe in their mouth. Anything to shut them up.”

He’s unpredictable, entertaining, ridiculous and brilliantly inspired. There he is again: puffing a cigar, harassing a visibly shaken staff, delivering hateful missives against the FCC. He’s the Bill Hicks of adult preachers, cracking jokes with impeccable timing and delivery. Everything about him is immaculately watchable, and there’s no denying he’s smart and f***in’ funny. … Read full bio

VATICAN CITY (CNN) — Pope John Paul II was remembered Saturday as a “champion of human freedom,” a “tireless advocate of peace” and a man with a “wonderful sense of humor” who was easy to talk to.

The charismatic pontiff, who led the world’s 1 billion Catholics for 26 years, died at 9:37 p.m. Saturday (2:37 p.m. ET) in his private apartment, the Vatican said. He was 84.

“The Holy Father’s final hours were marked by the uninterrupted prayer of all those who were assisting him in his pious death and by the choral participation in prayer of the thousands of faithful who for many hours had been gathered in Saint Peter’s Square,” a Vatican statement said.

Archbishop Stanislow Dziwisz presided over a Mass for the pontiff in his final hours.

“During the course of the Mass that the viaticum (communion for the dying) was administered to the Holy Father and, once again, the sacrament of anointing the sick,” the statement said.

Archbishop Leonardo Sandri asked for a few moments of silence as he announced the death to the thousands of faithful who had congregated in St. Peter’s Square. People in the crowd bowed their heads to pray, some of them in tears.

Then they burst into applause. … Read full obituary

Obit to come.

WAUWATOSA, Wis. — The Rev. Walter H. Halloran, a priest who took part in an exorcism that spawned the book and movie “The Exorcist,” has died at age 83.

He was the last living Jesuit who assisted in the exorcism in 1949 at a psychiatric unit in St. Louis. He died Tuesday night at a Jesuit retirement home in suburban Milwaukee.

Halloran was a 27-year-old Jesuit scholastic at Saint Louis University when a priest called him to the psychiatric wing at Alexian Brothers Hospital. The Rev. William S. Bowdern was trying to help a 14-year-old boy who he believed was possessed by a demon, and he needed a strong man to help control the boy. A third Jesuit, the Rev. William Van Roo, also was there. …

Halloran said he saw streaks and arrows and words like “hell” on the boy’s skin.

A three-paragraph news account of the incident inspired William Peter Blatty to write his 1971 best seller, “The Exorcist,” which led to the movie a few years later. Blatty’s story featured a 12-year-old girl. … Read full obituary

California state senator William J. “Pete” Knight, who sponsored the state’s same-sex marriage ban and took it directly to voters after twice failing to get it through the legislature, has died of leukemia. He was 74.

Knight died of an acute form of the cancer Friday night at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, his communications director, David Orosco, said Saturday. Knight, a Republican from Palmdale, had been absent from his seat since April 12 because of his illness. “The worst thing about this is, he wanted to keep working, going, contributing,” said Knight’s wife, Gail. “He wanted to live. He wanted to try. God had a different plan.” …

Knight was best known as author of the state’s Defense of Marriage Act, which says that only marriages between a man and a woman are recognized as valid in California. After failing to get similar legislation through the Democrat-controlled legislature, Knight took it to voters; the measure passed with 61% approval in 2000. He later used the courts to keep state agencies from granting spousal rights to same-sex couples. His nonprofit group is at the center of the legal challenges to San Francisco’s same-sex wedding spree.

Knight’s son, David Knight, married Joseph Lazzaro, his partner of 10 years, at San Francisco’s City Hall earlier this year, just two days before the California supreme court halted the weddings. … Read full obituary