Say it ain't so, Bernie!

Wow. Former Catholic priest and SF radio talk show host has been "indicted on federal child pornography charges," according to the Chronicle.

It seems that the popular KGO 810 AM host turned himself in to authorities earlier today. Although the "specifics of the allegations against him are under seal," said the authorities, we're dying to know exactly what happened. Because: whoa. Like, really.

In addition to being a reporter for KGO, Ward hosts both "the Bernie Ward Show" and "Godtalk." (Bet he yearns for the halcyon days of only having to apologize to the Jewish community.) More -- much, much more -- on this later.

Update: According to Dan Noyes at ABC7:

Ward’s attorney, Doren Weinberg, tells the I-Team the charges relate to Ward’s book project from several years ago. According to Weinberg, Ward was exploring "hypocrisy in America", and decided to look at child porn – how it’s acquired and hidden from society. As part of the research for the book, Weinberg says Ward acquired several images of child porn from websites, and "he exchanged them with adults who do the same thing."

Read more about it here.