Gloria.TV News on the 16th of April 2014

Berlusconi Goes Catholic: A court ordered 77-year-old billionaire and former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to do a year of community service after he was found guilty of tax fraud. He will work at the Fondazione Sacra Famiglia -- a Catholic centre for disabled and elderly people with 2,000 patients near Milan. Berlusconi will work for not less than four hours one day a week at a daycare centre for Alzheimer's patients. He was spared prison time because of his age.

A Bishop preparing for Holy Week: On Saturday, Salzburg soccer team lost against the team of Graz, Austria. Salzburg Archbishop Franz Lackner who is from Graz attended the game. He cheered at the goals of Graz with his hands raised up. During Lent practicing Catholics abstain from such events.

The End of a Catholic School: Sacred Heart Primary in Blackburn, England, faced closure because of possibly losing students to the new Olive Islamic School, which has space for over 600 pupils. In order to save the school the governors decided to change Sacred Heart from a Catholic to an Anglican school. The present headteacher Humma Ahmed has resigned her position.

Death Row Ministry: 56 year old Jesuit George Williams is a death row chaplain at San Quentin State Prison in California. Of the 750 death candidats100 attend Mass. Death row chapel is a windowless old shower room encased in a heavy metal cage. The congregation sits on six wooden benches bolted to the floor. According to Fr Williams the men are quiet and focused. Williams wears both priestly vestments and a black stab-proof vest. As required by the department, while celebrating Mass he is padlocked inside a cage about twice the size of an old phone booth.