Michael Manning, TV Priest, Takes Leave Of Absence After Affair With Cousin

A Catholic TV priest has taken a leave of absence after admitting to a sexual affair with his second cousin.

According to the San Bernardino Sun, which first reported the relationship, Michael Manning, 70, will be leaving Wordnet, the worldwide television ministry he founded in San Bernardino in 1978, to reflect on his relationship with Monterey Schools Superintendent Nancy Kotowski.

Manning, who claims to no longer have a sexual relationship with his cousin, said he has sought and received forgiveness from God. "That's the neat thing with Jesus. There can be the chance of starting again," Manning said in an interview with the Sun.

He admitted to the affair after the Sun obtained a series of correspondence between the lovers.

"The reality is I was living two lives: one as a priest who was vowed to celibacy and another life as a sexually active man in our sexual intimacy," Manning wrote in one letter. The pair allegedly ended their physical relationship more than two years ago.

Meanwhile, Kotowski told the Monterey Herald that she believes she and the priest are "soul mates" and she hopes their story will inspire discussion about the role of celibacy within the Catholic church. "The reality is that we love the church, we're committed to the church, but I'm hoping a dialogue will open up (about) obligatory celibacy, the whole question of celibacy," she said.

Manning also hosts a weekly television show, "A Word in the World," on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. While network spokesman John Casoria would not confirm whether Manning's show would be suspended, he told the Sun that "we're obviously surprised, and we pray for Manning in this situation."

Comments

[617patrick]

11:39 PM on 05/07/2011

"He has sought and received forgiveness from God. "That's the neat thing with Jesus. There can be the chance of starting again," Manning said."

So now he can move on to raping little boys ...

[betterworldnow]

01:25 AM on 04/21/2011

Why isn't anyone talking about the woman? She's the a County Office of Education Superintendent - an elected position - that deals with children! I realize that sex is no big deal, clearly not in the church anyway, but are we now willing to accept it in our schools, as well?

[617patrick]

11:40 PM on 05/07/2011

but she didn't rape children. Priests do, as has been shown thousands of times in the U.S. alone.

[Clarissa Stewart]

06:34 PM on 04/18/2011

Sitting over here in England laughing right now, as we had the unfortunate experience of living in San Bernaradino three years ago. The Catholic Church was a mess over there, a friend of mine had come into contact with this man as he was on the Diocesan Selection Board. He was rude, nasty and pompous. He was an Anglican turned Catholic who thought he knew everything about the Catholic church. We attended the Catholic church there and were shocked by the way they were teaching Catholicism in the Redlands church. The removed a young gay priest and sent him to another church, then the priest who was in charge asked to leave because he come contracted AIDS and the dioecese gave him his wish of leaving and paid for him to travel around Europe courtesy of the Diocese and now this...well, all I can say is they made a circus out the Catholic Church. I miss the Catholic Church of my younger years.

[betterworldnow]

12:52 AM on 04/21/2011

As I understand it, pompous and self serving runs in the family. His cousin lover clearly suffers from the same narcissism - as is obvious in her comments that maybe the church should revisit celibacy simply because she thinks it so. I don't believe there was any intent of marriage - if 30 years wasn't enough time to figure that out... She is also a superintendent of a county office of education. So Clarissa, it appears you now have some insight not only into the putrefaction of our morals but our minds, as well.

[JoeBlough]

02:34 PM on 04/11/2011

I didn’t realize that celebrant priest see so much action. Must be easy pickin’s

[Michael Ludin]

06:37 AM on 04/10/2011

Good 'ol Catholic Church - Family values!

[jusathot]

01:03 AM on 04/10/2011

Come on guy, get back with her with flowers and perfume, marry her, and call President Carter. Lots of homes to be built here and in Haiti. Chop-Chop!

[Ros Doneghy]

04:31 PM on 04/09/2011

His cousin? Wow.

[Mary Blickhahn]

11:26 AM on 04/09/2011

Wow at his age...Maybe it is time to retire from the priesthood and marry his cousin in a state that allows it. He could then run for congress and be in good company with the others who practice consanguinity...(Marry to keep it in the family)

[flackz]

09:00 AM on 04/09/2011

"Manning...... said he has sought and received forgiveness from God. "That's the neat thing with Jesus. There can be the chance of starting again."
I guess you have to be a Catholic Priest to have the capacity to know that you have actually received forgiveness from God, thus having a 'clean slate' for the next move on cousin Nancy.

[emanafunk]

08:56 AM on 04/09/2011

Pimps in the pulpit are no role models for folks...

[hopeisalive]

08:35 AM on 04/09/2011

Sorry Father(?), but when you rely on forgiveness and think that it will make things alright, I believe that you are on the wrong path to God.

[617patrick]

11:42 PM on 05/07/2011

Amen. Catholics think they can be forgiven for anything, which is why tens of thousands of them can rape over 100,000 children and think its ok.

[Pamela Ricci]

08:30 AM on 04/09/2011

I a practicing Roman Catholic. I do not want my priests to be married. A priest is on-call 24/7. So is a husband and father. You cannot combine those two vocations and do them both well. I like the fact that there is no wife to contend with, no little groups of favorite parishioners, no teenaged son climbing out windows at night to take my priest's attention. Priests have no time for families.

Celibacy is a discipline, not dogma. The offences of this priest's actions are a broken vow and failure to adhere to discipline of his order. Not earth shattering, but worthy of true penitence and absolution.

As for marriage curing the rash of sexual abuse: pedophile is not the same as normal sexual relations. Lack of one doesn't lead to the other. Pedophlia involves a pre-pubescent child... Not a teenager. It is a sexual disorientation in and of itself.

[susanlno]

09:13 AM on 04/09/2011

Of course, you're right that celibacy doesn't cause pedophilia; however, in this case the priest had a consensual affair with a grown woman. Does celibacy never lead to a desire for consensual sex with another adult?

[eschenk718]

09:14 AM on 04/09/2011

I also am a practicing Roman Catholic. Some of the most dedicated men I have ever met were not priests but doctors and ministers. Do you not think that the man or woman who may hold your life in his/her hands may be in the midst of a divorce or have a son on drugs. Does this make him any less a doctor. I also very much resent the fact that I as a woman am treated as a second class citizen. God made me the same as he made any man. God made us sexual beings and to deny this is just asking for trouble. We all know there is nothing more tempting as that which we are denied. I watched all the things going on about the government shut down and the most distrubing thing to me was that all the people in the final discussions about my healthcare were men. This is 2011. How much longer are we as women going to have to put up with men making our decisions for us.

[AandPMech]

08:29 AM on 04/09/2011

Why do people follow those goddamCharlatan Buybull thumping religious people???

[vaf112675]

08:09 AM on 04/09/2011

Celibacy is not a normal state of being. In fact there is not one single instance in the bible were Jesus actually told his apostles they had to be celibate. In fact in the early days of the catholic church men and women preached the word of Christ.

Why then is celibacy necessary? If Jesus never told his disciples, thou shall not have sex, why is it that the church is so adamant on this point which has caused them so many headaches (anyone remember all those kiddie molesting priests the church has been protecting for years?).

[Hiddenfangs]

08:28 AM on 04/09/2011

Celibacy originally simply meant unmarried. Chaste meant not having sex. Therefore, at one time, you could be celibate and have all the sex you wanted.

[susanlno]

09:15 AM on 04/09/2011

Celibacy means not having sex at all. Chastity means having sex only with the person one is married to, and then only after marriage. You can be chaste and have "all the sex you want," as long as you don't want it with anyone other than your husband or wife, but you can't be celibate and have sex with anyone (including yourself).

[Hiddenfangs]

10:08 AM on 04/09/2011

No, celibacy meant and came from the latin word caelebs--meaning "unmarried". It did not mean sexual abstinence. Chaste could mean virginal or sexually adhering to strict societal moral codes as within the confines of marriage.

[AandPMech]

08:30 AM on 04/09/2011

The buybull, jayzusChrist is pure bovine excrement.

[Joeyj1220]

07:55 AM on 04/09/2011

I have no love for the institutional Roman Catholic Church, and I think their celibacy rules are archaic and psychologicaly unhealthy. That being said, what is the 'scandal' in this story? Two consenting adults were engaged in a relationship. Maybe if more priests had healthy adult relationships, there would not exist the REAL scandal in the Church of child abuse.

[617patrick]

11:46 PM on 05/07/2011

The scandal is just that its another case of hypocrisy in Catholic church, and another case of a high profile priest having sex with his cousin.

Last month, Bishop Vangheluwe of Belgium admitted he had sex with his nephew from age 5-18, then he had sex with the other nephew. The Catholic church would be the “Church Of Child Rape”, but it is being saved by priests like Manning that have sex with their cousin.