Catholic TV Priest
Confesses Years of Sexual Immorality with Cousin
Wordnet founder, cousin had
sexual relationship
Mercury News
04/06/2011
The Rev. Michael Manning
confirmed by phone that he had the relationship with Monterey County
Superintendent of Schools Nancy Kotowski, when
questioned about copies of correspondence sent to this newspaper that appeared
to point to the two breaking off the relationship more than two years ago. (There is a real possibility he was or feared he would be
Blackmailed)
"We've been such good friends and there's a deep love we have
for each other," Manning said. "The sexuality was secondary. It's
very hard (To not have sex with
them) when you care for someone, but I love my priesthood more. I admit
the fact of my sinfulness. I've done wrong. That's why I've stopped."
Kotowski briefly reflected on her relationship
with Manning that spanned decades.
"Father Mike Manning is a
very dear and close friend of mine," Kotowski
said when reached at an anti-gang conference in
Manning, 70, started the
nonprofit Wordnet, a Catholic television ministry, in
1978. Wordnet's programs are filmed and edited in the
ministry's downtown studio.
His TV show, "The Word in
the World," can be seen weekly on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
He has appeared as a guest on
several national TV shows, including "Larry King Live."
Manning, who at one time led
St. Anthony Parish on
In 2006, he was presented with
a medal, the Pro Ecclesia Et Pontifice
Cross, which means "for the Church and the Holy Father."
Gerald Barnes, bishop of the
Diocese of San Bernardino, requested the award for meritorious service from
Pope Benedict XVI for Manning's decades of service in the Catholic Church.
Manning teaches at retreats
and on religious tours around the world.
His ministry's website at www.wordnet.tv is saturated with teaching
materials for sale. Visitors to the website are invited to donate to the
ministry, which the website says needs 800 donors giving about $25 a month to
cover all expenses.
The website also offers a
pamphlet written by Kotowski titled "Dealing With Teenagers."
The pamphlet, which costs $2
but is listed as out of stock, is marketed as coming from "Fr. Mike's own
cousin, Nancy Kotowski."
Manning said that Kotowski, 59, is his
second cousin.
Marriage between first cousins
is legal in
Six states permit first-cousin
marriage under certain circumstances, according to the website.
A biography posted at www.electnancy.com says Kotowski has 35 years of experience in education and holds
several degrees, including a doctorate in education policy and organization
from USC.
The biography says she was recognized
by the Peace Corps as a Volunteer of the Year for her education development
work in
Manning wouldn't say how long
he and Kotowski were sexually involved.
The correspondence appears to
reveal a conflicted priest struggling to remain faithful to his calling.
"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.
He told Kotowski
that he battled hypocrisy, and deception was heavy on his heart as he feared people finding out
about the relationship. (We note here that he
did not battle or fear his breaking his vow of celibacy, he did not battle and fear committing serial fornication.
Another curious thing
is in his statement below
that he believed he had forgiveness from God for his sins in the bag [We have
found a number of Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Pentecostal and Charismatic
Christians holding the same crass attitude towards their committing blatant sin
and God winking it by. We might also add
here that he seems to imply that somehow by his having stopping his years or
decades of fornication and receiving his due
forgiveness that his celibacy is
now somehow back in the bottle)
"The burden of deception in hotels, and with the community
with whom I work and live has become overwhelming," he wrote.
Manning said he and Kotowski realized
their sexual relationship was wrong.
"I think we're all sinners and I'm not above admitting we're
sinners, " Manning said in the phone interview. "The important factor is what do you do after you sin? Can you
accept forgiveness? And I've been able to accept forgiveness for what I've
done."
(Even though we do not
agree with many of the tenants’ of Roman Catholicism it remains that this man
made a lifetime vow of Celibacy before God and he broke that vow. The bible is very clear that God takes vows very seriously and He takes the
breaking of one’s vows or promises very seriously also. So regardless whether
one is a nominal Christian or a born again, washed in the blood, Spirit-filled,
believer in Jesus Christ – the breaking of one’s
vows and promises unto the Lord will be
brought up, and one will be made to be accounted for these in the final
judgment by Christ Himself)
(Next there is this priest’s act of serial
fornication with his cousin. In the word
of God marriage is clearly defined as the sexually joining of a man and a
woman, nothing more and nothing less. In
the beginning marriage occurred between Adam and the Woman when they sexually
joined together -- period. The next
marriage we see in Genesis is the Marriage of Isaac and Rebekah
where the bible records Isaac took Rebekah into his
[Dead] mother’s tent and was comforted [Sexually comforted as the two became
one flesh] The bible records that neither Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob were married
by a Priest of God, Melchizedek was certainly available. The bible records that
none of the three patriarchs had a wedding feast, they did not have a friend of
the bridegroom, or virgins waiting outside of the wedding chamber. All that existed in that day was the paying
of the dowry – and thereafter the joining of the bride and the groom.
In the bible the marriage feast are first
recorded in the book of Judges with Samson seeking the hand of a philistine
woman. By the time of the prophets the wedding feast included the friend of the
bridegroom, the virgins that sat outside of the wedding chamber to listen to
the sexual cries of joy of the bride and the bridegroom and the emerging of the
bridegroom to celebrate the feast. This
type of wedding feast begins with the sexual joining of the bride and the bridegroom is recorded over and over
in the gospels and there is no passage in the epistles to indicate any change
to this was made in the early church.
Paul also records concerning the sexual joining
of a man and a woman in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 What God hath joined
together let no man [Either parents or
church leaders] put it asunder. This is a
restatement as it was defined in the beginning Marriage
is the sexual
joining of a man and a woman,
nothing more and nothing less. Paul here
makes no new commandment but reiterates what Christ declared about divorce when
He said of marriage “It was no so in the beginning” – ie the joining of a man and a woman sexually.
Organized Church and Jewish wedding a priest or Rabbi came much later,
more than likely in the 6th century.
In conclusion Organized religious weddings sanctifying
marriage before GOD are no where in the New Testament. Not during the days of
Jesus Christ, and not during the days of the apostles. There was no such tradition held by the early
church, the wedding ceremony, its priestly sanctification and blessing of the
marriage and all the other trappings are all about the pomp and ceremony of
Churchianity.
We have gone through all this to categorically
state that this priest Manning when he sexually joined with Kotowski
– their marriage before God was consummated.
Further we wish you to understand concerning
the woman’s hymen in the law of Moses, and it having
to be intact at the time of the joining.
We find that the bed sheets were kept by the parents from the wedding
night and were to be presented to the priest if the man later declared his wife
had not been a virgin (This was an ironclad reason for divorce – unless the man
decided that the woman pleased him and would take her in as her covering.
The importance of virginity and the unbroken
hymen in marriage is that marriage is to be a blood covenant before God.
Realize that in unrighteous divorce that the blood cries out as a witness
against whoever forsakes the blood covenant of Marriage whether it is the man
or the woman that breaks this blood vow and goes into adultery, or if the man
and the woman agree to dissolve their marriage, with is a sin against the blood
covenant before God.
John the Apostle states: These three remain
[and are three witnesses before God] the blood, the fire, and the water. The blood covenant or blood vow in marriage
remains in the New Covenant. When this vow is broken the party or parties who
break it will be held accountable for their sinful actions by Jesus Christ
Himself in the final judgment.
This man broke a vow of celibacy committing
serial fornication with his cousin. Then
seeking to make right what can not be undone, he further sinned by not marrying
/ but divorcing by abandonment the woman who he had sexually joined himself with.
When I married my first wife she departed first
from Jesus Christ she fell out of love with her husband, she came to utterly
despise her husband, she departed him, and she divorced him. Leaving her husband righteously free of her,
and free to marry again if he so chose.
In the law of Moses if
a woman was found to have a broken hymen at the time of marriage the husband
could divorce her and get his dowry back.
However if the woman pleased him and he accepted her, he was under his
care and her children by him for the rest of his life – though it was not a
blood covenant, or a blood vow, their joining and becoming one flesh is yet a
vow to love support and cherish this woman and her children by the
husband. God looks upon this and peers
into the heart of such a man to see if he is and remains faithful to his duties
with that woman as prescribed in the law of Moses.
Now we will speak to the epidemic of defilement
by divorce in the church. The fact is
that when a man has sexual relations with a woman they become one flesh before
God. When a man or woman unrighteously
departs their partner wife through unrighteous divorce [That is any divorce
other than the unbelieving partner
departing, the partner being found guilty of adultery or fornication – that includes a woman’s hymen
being found broken at the time of joining
or future infidelities]
All those that are unrighteously divorced have
defiled themselves, these spots on their
garments can not be simply washed off, the blood of Jesus Christ does not was
away blatant sin in the life of the believer – of this Christ spoke of MANY
servants being cast out into outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing
and gnashing of teeth, he spoke of a Number of servants receiving many stripes,
some servants receiving few stripes, and Paul speaks of servants suffering loss
as all their works burned up but retain their salvation.
One thing about the nature of sin is the sinner
absolving themselves, or claiming absolution from God of said sin – without the
cry and repentance of David, and their departing of blatant sin for the rest of
their days. Even with the months if not
years of tearful repentance of David and God forgiving David his sins with
Bathsheba, and her husband Uriah the Hittite,
David and his household paid for David’s sins for the rest of his
days. God said justice for your sins
will be that the sword shall not depart your house and for David’s sin many of
his sons committed the exact acts he did and perished in their sin and
unrighteousness.
For those that are unrighteously divorced,
whether they like it or not, whether their church recognizes the truth or not
they are yet married before God to their former husband or wife. They are bigamists or polygamists some of
these people have 2, 3, 4, and 5 husbands or wives. Each person that was unrighteously dumped can
marry of this Paul declares their marriage to another shall be charged as sin
against the one that unrighteously divorced the other more than likely every
time they join together in sex.
We have faced a question years ago with a woman
that had divorced her unsaved husband as the strain on her walk became too much
(As alluded by Paul in 1 Corinthians 7) So she divorced him and then
remarried a Christian man. The question
was should I divorce my husband, and then return to my former husband.
Some have spoken of another form of this very
question where the unsaved husband or wife that they divorced had since
remarried so what should they do.
In our observations many preachers and teachers
are very troubled in dealing with these kind of
issues. Once the husband or wife that were unrighteously divorced by the believer his or
her acts shall be accounted against the believer that unrighteously divorced
them in the first place. Further if this
believer like the Catholic priest o this article would “Come into repentance”
and depart their current wife or husband – this would only compound their sin
and would not be accepted by God as any point of repentance. All that we can advise here is that this husband
or wife become the greatest husband or wife as by the
words and commandments of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. Read our articles on this subject in our sex
and family section to clearly see what they are called to.
Realizing that you are still married to your
former husband or wife that you unrighteously divorced is the hardest of all
situations for the believer to make right before God. If you divorce your current husband or wife
to return to one of your former husbands or wives God will account this
unrighteous divorce against you regardless of you fleshly reasoning that you
are repenting or seeking to right a wrong.
God will not accept nor honor your intentions here. The first fact that you need to understand in
heart soul mind and spirit is that you have broken once or even more than once
the blood covenant or blood vows before God.
And if we dare speak the truth, As you have
broken this blood covenant before God with your mate, so Jesus Christ shall
break His blood covenant with you, divorcing you as part of His bride.
For God says I will show myself froward to a froward man. Jesus
citing this passage says that which a man sows that also shall he reap.
The only righteous thing to do here is live in
your shame, before your new husband and household and before your church. You are a bigamist or a polygamist. You are
commanded to see to your former wife’s and your children’s needs
which is far greater than alimony and child support.
Again we must appeal to the law
of Moses of which Jesus Declared that the first and great commandment and the
second which we are to unflinchingly to obey and incorporate in all of our
daily actions.
The husband is to see to this woman’s financial
needs, their food needs, their shelter needs and even their sexual needs. –We make no apologies for what the word of
God clearly teaches.
In 1 Corinthians 7 Paul discusses another
subject that has been hidden before the eyes of bible believing
Christians. That is a husband not doing
well with his current wife, and seeks to have a second or third wife. Of which Paul declares that this shall bring
great trouble.
Further in the New Testament Paul speaks of
Masters and Slaves, these slaves common to modern idealist thinking were not
all male slaves for heavy labor, but there were female slaves. The word slaves here is a neutral word so that it can be male or
female. Further within this number of
slaves there were also concubines. In
one of Jesus Parables when translated properly speaks of a man in bed with his
concubine and his neighbor comes and knocks on this door. They are having sexual relations but Jesus
Declares if you keep on knocking he will eventually stop even the most intimate
of acts and answer the door and give you all you want so he can get back to his
concubine. – No doubt the disciples and
others laughed hardily at Christ’s words here.
Further in the book of acts there is a person
named festus that was given to the local roman ruler festus in greek
means a concubine.
The Jews continued with polygamy all the way to
the 6th century where a writer records that in
Of what we know of the Apostles none of them
were polygamous. Of the requirement of
one to be a pastor or elder we see it is written that they should be the
husband of one wife, this has purposely been mistranslated so as to say that if
a man marries and his wife dies and he marries again he can not be a pastor or
elder, What the passage is actually
saying is that those that desire to be in the ministry are not to be polygamous
or to have concubines. This does not
mean that by casting off their excess baggage they can then pastor teach or be
an elder, as that would be breaking ones blood covenant or blood oath with
Jesus Christ.
God’s
plan in the beginning was one man and one wife.
Of this we have no doubt. However
when the 3,000 and the 5,000 souls came into the church there were many
different kinds of fish in the net, some rich – of which some were severely
judged, some were poor, infirm, widows and the elderly all of which are spoken
of in the Acts and the epistles, some were married to unbelievers and wanted
out and to marry a believer, there were slaves male and female with them were
concubines, and finally there were those that were married to more than one
wife, which Paul says it can be done to prevent immorality, to prevent either
the husband or the wife from falling into fornication and adultery, but paul warns in so doing one will bring great trouble upon
their household.
We are in that great trouble with the
unrighteous divorce epidemic in the church.
It is definitely worse than a man having two or three wives that fight
and are angry at him and each other.
Here you have left 1, 2, 3 or more broken households which God requires
of you to make whole. The answer would
make any household a dwelling of stinging hornets, that
would be that all of a man’s former wives and all their children would come
under one roof. This would be so
explosive in nature as the wives dropped were disliked for any number of
reasons and harbor anger and bitterness toward their former husband and would
hate to live with your other wives knowing that among other duties you need to
sate their sexual needs as well.
In our observations many of these broken homes
are among the poor who can not afford alimony, child support, so that it is not
like a poor husband or wife could afford to run 2 or more households as
required in the word of God in this case the husband would be required to visit
and spend time with each wife in each household regularly, and if their current mate flips out about
this and divorces them for entangling them in this mess you must then return to
their remaining mate or mates and spend more time accordingly.
To do things to cause your husband or wife to
leave you is utter sin against the Lord Himself. We have known of a number of Christians that
engineered their divorces with their unsaved or unspiritual mates, seeking to
get their hooks into a newer Christian model.
We know of a man in the Summerville South
Carolina area who was a Mormon, on of the members of our salves team pitch the
man and his wife for a set of encyclopedias, the man was so impressed with the
set, he revealed he was married if memory serves to 7 wives that he had
scattered around town living all in
different locations, he explained that the way things were done is he rotated
from house to house during the week, so the man bought seven sets of
encyclopedias and the salesman had to be shuttled from house to house to fill
out the paperwork for each household.
to honor your former husband or former wife, if your new
Christian husband
Manning said he is convinced
of the importance and beauty of celibacy and that he told key staff at Wordnet about the matter.
Going forward with the
ministry is "probably going to be very awkward," he said, and he is
considering taking a break.
John Andrews, spokesman for
the diocese, said Manning is a pioneer in Catholic television and that the
diocese supports him as he moves forward.
"It's unfortunate that
this has happened, and that is not the conduct that we expect from the priests
and it's not consistent with the vows a priest takes," Andrews said.
"At the same time, in our faith, you always have an opportunity to seek
forgiveness from God and reconciliation. Father Manning has done that and we
support him in that 100 percent."
Manning said that before being
questioned about the correspondence, he discussed the matter with his confessor
only.
He said he will ask his
supporters for their understanding and their prayers.
"That's the neat thing
with Jesus. There can be the chance of starting again," Manning said.
Monterey County Herald Staff
Writer Claudia Melendez Salinas contributed to this report.