Vatican investigator to meet with Chile abuse victim in NYC

By Associated Press

February 17, 2018 | 12:22am

Juan Carlos Cruz

AP


A Vatican sex-crimes investigator is meeting in New York with one of the key victims in the Chilean abuse scandal.

Saturday’s meeting between Archbishop Charles Scicluna and whistleblower Juan Carlos Cruz will take place at a Roman Catholic church in Manhattan.

Scicluna is investigating accusations against Bishop Juan Barros, a protege of Chile’s most notorious predator priest, the Rev. Fernando Karadima.

Cruz and two others have said Barros witnessed the abuse Karadima inflicted on them and ignored it. Barros has denied seeing or knowing of any abuse.

The scandal has tarred the reputation of Pope Francis. Francis angered many when he appointed Barros a bishop in 2015.

Source

With $30b in wealth, why is the Catholic Church struggling to pay for justice?

February 12 2018 - 11:04AM


Ben Schneiders, Royce Millar, Chris Vedelago

Catholic church Photo: Mark Stehle



After a lifetime contributing to the Catholic Church, Neil Ormerod could give no more.


Following a Sunday mass in 2014, the Australian Catholic University theology professor told his parish priest he no longer trusted the church to use its resources in a way Jesus Christ would approve.

The trigger for his rebellion was the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2014 - in particular, Cardinal George Pell’s testimony about the church’s brutal legal assault on John Ellis, a former altar boy abused by a priest in the 1970s.

When Ellis finally confronted the Sydney archdiocese in 2002, then led by Pell, it offered him $25,000 in compensation, which he rejected.

The church then dismissed Ellis’s proposal for a $100,000 settlement, instead spending $800,000 fighting him in court, successfully arguing it could not be sued because it did not exist as an entity.

The church threatened to pursue Ellis for its legal costs.

"That money was the accumulated wealth of generations of good faithful Catholics who gave with the best will in the world," says Ormerod. "It was used in an immoral attack on an abuse survivor and church member."

Ormerod’s faith in God remained strong, but his belief in the institutional church was severely shaken. The church leadership had forfeited its right to his support.



Neil Ormerod no longer trusts the church to spend its wealth morally. Photo: Wolter Peeters


What about the wider community’s assessment of the church and its finances?

While the Catholic Church may not exist legally, it has nonetheless accumulated staggering wealth through a huge property portfolio, insurance and investment arms, and its own internal banks.

And while it’s facing a crisis of trust, governments continue to exempt it from almost all rates and taxes, and tip billions of dollars annually into its vast network of schools, hospitals, health, employment and welfare agencies.

In return, the church allows minimal insight into its finances, and has fought government attempts to prise open its accounts.

What exactly is the Catholic Church in Australia? And what should we now make of the privileges afforded to one of the richest and most powerful, but most secretive and troubled, institutions in the country?

Key cardinal distances himself from pope abuse comment

by Reuters
Saturday, 20 January 2018 18:20 GM



By Philip Pullella and Caroline Stauffer

TRUJILLO, Peru, Jan 20 (Reuters) - A key U.S. cardinal distanced himself on Saturday from comments on sex abuse by Pope Francis, a remarkable move that appeared to underscore divisions in the Catholic Church over how to treat accusations.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston said in a statement "it is understandable" that comments made by the pope in Chile on Thursday were "a source of great pain for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy or any other perpetrator."

In response to a question from a reporter on accusations against Juan Barros, a Chilean bishop appointed by the pope in 2015 who is accused of protecting a pedophile, the pope said:

"The day I see proof against Bishop Barros, then I will talk. There is not a single piece of evidence against him. It is all slander. Is that clear?"

The pope's comments appearing to dismiss the credibility of accusers was widely criticised by victims, their advocates and editorials in Chile and the pope's native Argentina.

Barros has been accused of protecting his former mentor, Father Fernando Karadima, who was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 of abusing teenage boys over many years. He denies the allegations and Barros said he was unaware of any wrongdoing. The Barros-Karadima case has riveted Chile for years.

O'Malley's statement on the pope's choice of language said: "Words that convey the message 'if you cannot prove your claims then you will not be believed' abandon those who have suffered reprehensible criminal violations of their human dignity and relegate survivors to discredited exile."

Pope Francis accuses clerical abuse victims of slandering bishop

Pontiff enrages Chilean victims of paedophile priest, saying claims of cover up are ‘all calumny’

about 4 hours ago

Pope Francis ‘has just turned back the clock to the darkest days of this crisis’, says campaigner Anne Barrett Doyle. Photograph: Mario Ruiz/EPA



Pope Francis has accused victims of Chile’s most notorious paedophile of slander, in an astonishing end to a visit meant to help heal the wounds of a sex abuse scandal that has cost the Catholic Church its credibility in the country.

Francis said that until he sees proof that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in covering up the sex crimes of the Reverend Fernando Karadima, such accusations against the bishop are “all calumny”.

The pope’s remarks drew shock from Chileans and immediate rebuke from victims and their advocates. They noted the accusers were deemed credible enough by the Vatican that it sentenced Karadima to a lifetime of “penance and prayer” for his crimes in 2011.

A Chilean judge also found the victims to be credible, saying that while she had to drop criminal charges against Karadima because too much time had passed, proof of his crimes was not lacking.

“As if I could have taken a selfie or a photo while Karadima abused me and others and Juan Barros stood by watching it all,” tweeted Bishop Barros’s most vocal accuser, Juan Carlos Cruz.
Truly crazy

“These people are truly crazy, and the pontiff talks about atonement to the victims. Nothing has changed, and his plea for forgiveness is empty.”

The Karadima scandal dominated Francis’s visit to Chile and the overall issue of sex abuse and church cover-up was likely to factor into his three-day trip to Peru that began late on Thursday.

Karadima’s victims reported to church authorities as early as 2002 that he would kiss and fondle them in the Santiago parish he ran, but officials refused to believe them.

Only when the victims went public with their accusations in 2010 did the Vatican launch an investigation that led to Karadima being removed from ministry.

Francis had sought to heal the wounds by meeting this week with abuse victims and begging forgiveness for the crimes of church pastors. But on Thursday, he struck a defiant tone when asked by a Chilean journalist about Mr Barros.

“The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, I’ll speak,” Francis said. “There is not one shred of proof against him. It’s all calumny. Is that clear?”

Anne Barrett Doyle, of the online database BishopAccountability.org, said it was “sad and wrong” for the pope to discredit the victims since “the burden of proof here rests with the church, not the victims – and especially not with victims whose veracity has already been affirmed.

“He has just turned back the clock to the darkest days of this crisis,” she said in a statement. “Who knows how many victims now will decide to stay hidden, for fear they will not be believed?”
Claims

Indeed, Catholic officials for years accused victims of slandering and attacking the church with their claims. But up until the pope’s words on Thursday, many in the church and Vatican had come to reluctantly acknowledge that victims usually told the truth and that the church for decades had wrongly sought to protect its own.

German Silva, a political scientist at Santiago’s Universidad Mayor, said the pope’s comments were a “tremendous error” that will reverberate in Chile and beyond.

Patricio Navia, political science professor at Diego Portales University in Santiago, said Francis had gone much further than Chilean bishops in acknowledging the sexual abuse scandal, which many Chileans appreciated.

“Then right before leaving, Francis turns around and says: ‘By the way, I don’t think Barros is guilty. Show me some proof’,” Mr Navia said, adding that the comment will probably erase any goodwill the pope had won over the issue.

– PA

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Pope Francis shocks Chile protects pedophile Priest accuses sex...

Survivors of sexual abuse in Catholic Church decry the Vatican’s honorable funeral for Cardinal Law

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey

December 21

A moment during Thursday’s funeral for Bernard Law, at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Survivors of clergy sexual abuse reacted Thursday with outrage after the Catholic Church honored disgraced former Boston Archbishop Bernard Law with a full cardinal’s funeral, despite his role in a major coverup from which the church is still reeling. Law died Wednesday at age 86.

Law was honored with the standard funeral Mass of cardinals who live at the Vatican, as he did. The ceremony did not include mention of his role in the Boston archdiocese scandals that spanned decades. Pope Francis led a short benediction at the service.

When Law was archbishop of Boston, he became a central figure in the U.S. Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal. He oversaw the archdiocese as it moved dozens of abusive priests among parishes without telling police. After resigning in 2002, he moved to Italy to serve as archpriest at the papal basilica of Saint Mary Major in 2004. He apologized to abuse survivors, but he never faced criminal charges.
[Cardinal Bernard Law, Boston archbishop at center of church sex-abuse scandal, dies at 86]

Giving Law the same kind of funeral as other cardinals was deeply offensive to some people who wanted to see him held accountable, said Ann Hagan Webb, a sexual abuse survivor who lives in Boston.

“Pope Francis talks a good game, but he never comes through. He talks about caring about survivors, but he really doesn’t,” Webb said. “He makes these grand announcements and everyone thinks he’s progressive, but when it comes to this issue, over and over again he has not lived up to his promises.”

Callista Gingrich, President Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, and her husband, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, attended Thursday’s Mass. Pope Francis offered final prayers in the ritual. However, many survivors like Webb believe that Law should not have been given the funeral privileges afforded to other church leaders.

U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Callista Gingrich and her husband, Newt Gingrich, attend the funeral for Bernard Law at St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

“He was an evil, narcissistic man,” said Jim Scanlan, a Boston abuse survivor who says he was raped by a Jesuit priest who was a hockey coach at his high school. “The entire time he blamed it on things other than himself.”

Reporting on the church’s scandal by The Boston Globe was featured in the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight,” which came out in 2015. Scanlan was portrayed as the fictitious “Kevin from Providence,” who suffered sexual abuse by a Boston College High School priest.

“When I saw his death, my feeling was ‘good riddance,’” Scanlan said. “It’s disgusting to have him buried as a cardinal when he should’ve been disgraced in jail.”

Many Boston-based survivors saw the treatment of Law’s death by the Vatican as a “slap in the face,” said abuse survivor Phil Saviano, whose whistleblowing story was portrayed in “Spotlight.”

“I’ve been trying to ponder what is the message the Vatican is sending with this kind of funeral,” Saviano said. “It just reopened old wounds and brought back old memories.”

The events surrounding Law’s death come as the Catholic Church continues to face scrutiny over how it fights sexual abuse. Advocacy groups have called for sweeping changes within the Vatican hierarchy.

Since the sexual abuse scandal exploded globally, the Catholic Church has put elaborate systems in place in some countries like the United States to protect children. After he was appointed to the papacy, Francis created a reform commission charged with addressing sexual abuse. This year, Marie Collins, an Irish survivor of clergy sexual abuse, quit the commission because she said she felt the changes commission members had recommended were not being enacted. The commission itself has lapsed after the terms of members expired earlier this month, and no new members have been appointed.

“What’s said and what’s done are two different things,” Collins said. “I don’t see anything changing, and I don’t see any hope for change at this point.”

Once the Vatican allowed Law to become an archpriest of a Roman basilica, even though he was not at the usual retirement age, they had to follow the protocol they would give any cardinal living in Rome, said Phil Lawler of Catholic World News.

“Giving him a job which did carry that prestige was an indication of serious tone deafness,” Lawler said. He noted that Pope Francis’s statement about Law’s death did not cite Law’s involvement in the sexual abuse scandal, but it also didn’t praise him as statements about cardinals usually do.

Some especially criticized the decision to have the Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, one of the most famous churches in the world.

“Every Catholic deserves a funeral Mass, but not every Catholic warrants a funeral Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica,” James Martin, a popular Jesuit priest, tweeted. Following protocol, Martin said, “is a stupefyingly obtuse symbol, which undercuts the church’s mission to hold bishops accountable for their actions, particularly regarding the abuse of children.”

Some believe the pope was in a tricky spot. If he did not hold the funeral in St. Peter’s, he could have risked drawing even more attention to Law’s life and death, said Nick Cafardi, dean emeritus and professor of law at Duquesne University. When Francis once visited Saint Mary Major, no pictures of Law with the pope were shown, a departure from protocol.

“I don’t think it was high treatment in the Vatican,” said Cafardi, who was former chair of the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Youth. “The question is, did [Law] really show contrition for what he did?”

Before he took a position in Rome, Cafardi said, Law was supposed to become a chaplain to nuns, which would have been seen as a humbler position and much more appropriate.

Law’s death comes amid a high-profile sexual abuse case in Australia. Earlier this year, Cardinal George Pell, one of the most powerful officials in the Vatican, was sent back to Australia amid charges in his home country of his involvement in an abuse scandal going back decades. The cardinal, who denies the charges, is the highest-ranking Catholic official to be charged with sexual abuse.

Law’s successor in Boston, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, apologized at a news conference Wednesday for the Catholic Church’s past failings over sex abuse by clergy, saying Law’s death opened “a lot of old wounds and caused much anger and pain” for survivors. O’Malley said it’s unfortunate Law had such a high-profile appointment in Rome and that someone in his position would not receive a similar appointment today.

“Christmas is about healing relationships and forgiveness,” O’Malley said. “A big part of healing is being able to come to grips with our own difficulty in forgiveness.”

The archdiocese of Boston has no plans for a Mass or memorial for Law.

Source

Philippines: Help for families affected by drugs-related killings

February 21, 2017

Families of victims of drug-related killings in Manila join trauma & stress debriefing session sponsored by faith-based groups in Quezon City. Feb 11 Photo by Mark Saludes


A faith-based group in Manila is conducting trauma and stress-debriefing sessions for families of victims of drug-drug related killings in an attempt to "broaden the circle of those who will speak the truth."

Carmelite priest Gilbert Billena of the group Rise Up said the family meetings aim to create a support group that will help them overcome trauma. The priest said his group condemns the proliferation of illegal drugs but is against the methods used by the government to go after suspected drug users and peddlers.

"The very people who should be witnesses in cases against the suppliers are viciously killed, while the suppliers merely look for new pushers," said Fr Billena.

Rise Up conducted its first debriefing last week, seven months after Philippine President Rodrigo launched an intensified campaign against narcotics that resulted in the death of about 7,000 people.

Nardy Sabino of the Promotion of Church People's Response said some "survivors" of summary executions also attended the session. "We also want to make sure that they will be given due process of law," he said.

Brother Ciriaco Santiago, a Redemptorist missionary, said the families of victims and survivors of the killings need a community that will listen to them.
"These people are the poorest of the poor and they have no voice in our society," said the religious brother. "If the church will not act, at least to give them a chance to talk, who else will provide," he added.

Source: UCAN

Source

Australian Catholic church has paid $276m to abuse victims so far, inquiry shows

Royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse releases data showing 4,445 have come forward




Catholic church records show more than 3,000 child abuse claims have resulted in payments for redress and many are still being assessed. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP
Australian Associated Press

Wednesday 15 February 2017 20.31 EST


The Catholic Church in Australia has paid $276m in compensation to thousands of people sexually abused as children by priests and religious brothers.

The victims who have come forward to the church have received on average $91,000, according to data released by the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Thursday.

In total 4,445 people have made abuse claims to the church but that number still does not reveal the true extent of abuse in Catholic institutions in Australia as many victims never come forward.

Catholic church’s ‘pontifical secret’ stops disclosure of sex abuse allegations, expert says

Read more

“The royal commission’s experience is that many survivors face barriers which deter them from reporting abuse to authorities and to the institution in which the abuse occurred,” senior counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC said.

“Accordingly, the total number of incidences of child sexual abuse in Catholic church institutions in Australia is likely to be greater than the claims made.”

The commission’s analysis of church records showed more than 3,000 child abuse claims resulted in payments for redress, of which 2,854 resulted in monetary compensation.

A significant number of claims are ongoing, the inquiry heard.

Furness said Catholic church authorities have paid $276.1m in total, a sum that includes compensation and amounts for treatment, legal and other costs.

Victims say Catholic church data on child abuse underestimates scale of offending

Read more

The Christian Brothers, which operated a number of residential facilities, have made the highest number of payments at 763, totalling $48.5m. The data covers claims made between 1980 and 2015.

They mainly relate to abuse between 1950 and 1989 but the earliest incident occurred in the 1920s and the latest after 2010.

Almost half the claims made to church authorities concerned schools.

The highest number of abuse claims – 219 – concerned a residential care facility run by the De La Salle Brothers in Beaudesert, Queensland.


Catholic church told of 4,444 abuse claims in 35 years, says royal commission


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Pope urges 'sincere dialogue' as he meets Nice attack victims

Catherine MARCIANO

September 24, 2016



Pope Francis blesses a woman as he meets with survivors and relatives of the victims of the July 14 Nice attack in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican on September 24, 2016 (AFP Photo/Vincenzo Pinto)


Rome (AFP) - Pope Francis on Saturday called for a "sincere dialogue" between Christians and Muslims as he met grieving relatives and survivors of France's Bastille Day attack, in which a jihadist ploughed his truck into a crowd.

The pope, who this week denounced violence in the name of religion, declaring "there is no God of war", met 180 people who were wounded or left traumatised or bereaved by the July 14 attack in Nice which claimed 86 lives.

"We need to start a sincere dialogue and have fraternal relations between everybody, especially those who believe in a sole God who is merciful," he said, speaking in the Vatican's giant Paul VI audience hall, adding that this was "an urgent priority."

"It is with a feeling of great emotion that I am meeting you, those who are suffering in body and in spirit because an evening of festivity turned into one of violence which struck blindly at all, without taking into account their origins or religion," the pontiff said.

"We can only respond to the Devil's attacks with God's works which are forgiveness, love and respect for the other, even if they are different," he said.

Members of 58 families were flown in especially from the French Riviera resort city of Nice.

They were joined in Rome by 150 others who travelled from France by car and a delegation from a French regional interreligious group, including the Catholic bishop of Nice and Muslim, Jewish, Orthodox and Protestant representatives.

- 'Magical solace ' -

"It was a moment of magical solace after what happened to us 73 days ago," said Vincent Delhommel Desmarest, who runs a restaurant on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice where the attack happened.

Desmarest has been on sick leave ever since and now sees a psychologist three times a week.

"I don't sleep at night. The whole scene of the lorry moving, the mutilated bodies, decapitated, the entrails," he said.

The 49-year-old has decided to create a local association to support the victims of that night.

Abdhallah Kebaier, who has to walk with a stick after being injured in the attack, said it was "comforting to be in the gathering as we had the feeling we'd been forgotten.

"The attack resembled a war scene," he said. "I live only 400 metres (1,300 feet) away from the Promenade des Anglais but I never go there any more," he said.

Last month the Argentine pontiff met French President Francois Hollande to offer his support and condolences to a country which has been rocked by a series of deadly attacks since early 2015.

While speaking out against violent acts carried out in the name of any god, Francis this week reminded the West that there were parts of the world being flattened by fighting.

- 'Open to all faiths' -

Speaking in the Italian town of Assisi on Tuesday he said, "We are frightened... by some terrorist acts", but "this is nothing compared to what is happening in those countries, in those lands where day and night bombs fall."

French police on Tuesday arrested eight associates of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the 31-year-old Tunisian, who rammed the 19-tonne truck through the crowd of more than 30,000 people on the seafront Promenade des Anglais on July 14 before police shot him dead.

A total of 434 people were injured in the attack.

A third of those who died in the Nice attack were of the Muslim faith, said Imam Boubekeur Bekri, vice-president of the Southeast France regional Muslim council, who also attended the meeting.

"The Muslim presence here today was indispensable," he said.

Bekri hailed the pope's "intense humanism", expressed through his visit to mainly Muslim refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos.

Maurice Niddam, president of the Jewish community in Nice, did not accompany the Jewish victims of the attack, but he similarly praised a pope "open to all faiths".

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9-11 Remembering Fr. Mychal Judge

9-11 Remembering Fr. Mychal Judge


 
America Media

Published on Sep 9, 2016


Thousands gather in New York City to remember 9/11's first official victim, the beloved chaplain Father Mychal Judge.

Italy holds state funeral for quake victims

Vatican Radio

The voice of the Pope and the Church in dialogue with the World


Church \ Church in Europe

Bishop Giovanni D'Ercole incenses the caskets of some of the victims of the earthquake that struck central Italy on Wednesday. The Bishop offered a Requiem Mass for all victims of the earthquake, as Italy observed a national day of mourning. - AFP

27/08/2016 15:06


(Vatican Radio) A state funeral was held on Saturday in the town of Ascoli Piceno in Italy for some of the victims of an earthquake that devastated three nearby towns earlier this week, killing at least 290 people.

The Requiem Mass was celebrated by Bishop Giovanni D'Ercole in a community gym where 35 caskets were laid out.

Listen to Christopher Wells' report:


Weeping relatives hugged each other and reached out to touch the simple wooden coffins at the funeral held on Saturday for some of the 290 people killed in the earthquake.

Amongst the 35 coffins laid out in a sports hall were small caskets holding the bodies of an 18-month-old baby and a nine-year-old girl, two of the 21 children who are known to have died when the quake hit central Italy early on Wednesday.

“Don’t be afraid to bewail your suffering, we have seen so much suffering. But I ask you not to lose your courage,” Bishop Giovanni D’Ercole said in a homily in the hall, which was packed with grieving families and the nation’s top politicians. “Only together can we rebuild our houses and churches. Above all, together we can give life back to our communities,” he said, speaking in front of a dusty crucifix salvaged from one of dozens of churches devastated by the quake.

Even as the Requiem Mass was being held, rescuers kept searching through the rubble of the worst hit town, Amatrice, although they acknowledged they had little hope of finding any more survivors from Italy’s worst earthquake in seven years.

Nine more bodies were recovered from the town on Saturday, including three corpses that were pulled overnight from the crumpled Hotel Roma, bringing the death toll in Amatrice alone to 230 residents and tourists.

27/08/2016 15:06


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Undocumented victims of Orlando shooting face unique challenges and fears

SOMOSORLANDO

6/14/16 2:52 PM




Getty Images


By Jorge Rivas and Rafa Fernandez De Castro


ORLANDO — Victor is recovering in an Orlando hospital room after being shot twice during the Pulse massacre last Saturday night.

The 24-year-old Salvadoran is being consoled by three friends at his bedside, but as an undocumented man with no relatives nearby and no idea when his injuries will allow him to return to work, he’s worried about how he’s going to pay for the hospital bills—and what will happen to him if he can’t.

Victor, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, is one of two undocumented immigrants who were shot and survived during the nightclub attack. The other, a 33-year-old Mexican named Javier, is recovering in the hospital and reportedly in stable condition despite taking a bullet to the abdomen.

A third undocumented man, a 31-year-old Mexican, passed away earlier this week. He was one of three Mexicans killed in the attack, and although his identity has been released, his immigration status has not, which is why we are not publishing his name.

It’s unknown if there were any other undocumented immigrants among the 100-plus victims who were killed or injured during the Pulse shooting.

Why does immigration status matter at all in this instance? Because victims without legal status in the United States are now facing a whole additional set of challenges in the wake of the horrible mass-shooting.

In addition to the uncertainty about whether they qualify for state and federal assistance programs, the undocumented immigrants have to worry about whether their legal status puts them at additional risk, and what it means to be outed from the shadows by a violent tragedy.

For many undocumented victims and their survivors, the cost alone of dealing with a death or medical bills can be daunting.

For example, friends and family we caught up with of the Mexican victim who worked here as a landscaper, said they are concerned it could cost them up to $6,000 to repatriate and bury the body in the coastal state of Veracruz. During a meeting on Monday evening with Juan Sabines, Mexico’s Consul General in Orlando, the victim’s friends and family barely had time to mourn their loss before discussion turned to funeral fees and repatriation logistics.

Sabines, who’s been working and assisting families around the clock, insists the Mexican Consulate will pay the estimated $3,000-plus to repatriate the body to Veracruz. But friends and family still aren’t sure how they’ll afford the rest.

Carmen, a friend who says the two were like brother and sister, says even with the consulate’s help it “won’t cover the funeral costs.”

Immigration activists say family members of undocumented victims are often saddled with a financial burden they can’t afford.

“It’s very expensive to send their bodies back, people aren’t prepared for that,” said Yesica Ramirez, an organizer with The Farmworker Association of Florida.

Repatriation of the body is sometimes the only way families of undocumented immigrants can see their loved ones again. A trip to the United States is simply out of the question.

“For many families, no matter how much money they raise they still may not be able to get permission to come to the U.S.,” said Ramirez. “For the family to be watching this back in their countries and not be able to help their sons is painful; this all hurts the family back home too.”

Many of the victims at Pulse were Puerto Ricans, but even with the benefits of U.S. citizenship, many still face language barriers.

As a result, rights activists have launched the websiteSomosOrlando.info to help immigrants find resources in their own language. Colón, the state director for theHispanic Federation, said many Spanish-speaking volunteer attorneys and mental health professionals have come forward to offer their services.

The volunteers will be an integral part of recovery for undocumented survivors in Orlando because they are not eligible for state health programs beyond emergency care.

Other initiatives will need to bridge the gap in coverage, such as a crowd-funded effort by Equality Florida, an LGBT advocacy organization, that has already raised close to $3 million of their goal to raise $5 million to help all victims, regardless of legal status.

“Victimization knows no status,” said Jeff Dion, deputy executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime. His group has been tapped to “ensure that every penny will be correctly and quickly dispersed to the victims and families.”

“All of these [victims] and their families will be treated equally,” Dion told Fusion in a telephone interview Tuesday morning. “Every situation is different and if we need to make adjustments for certain people. And we will.”


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Senate Chaplain Prayer for Baltimore and Nepal

APRIL 28, 2015



Chaplain Barry Black opened the Senate session with a prayer for Baltimore, where protests and rioting erupted the previous day after a funeral for an African-American who died of a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody, and for Nepal, which suffered a 7.8-magnitude earthquake during the prior weekend. He also prayed for senators to work together to solve those problems.


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How ‘God’ is worsening the Ebola outbreak in West Africa

Nirmalya Dutta August 18, 2014 at 11:45 am

MONROVIA, LIBERIA – AUGUST 17: Hanah Siafa lies with her daughter Josephine, 10, while hoping to enter the new Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Ebola treatment center on August 17, 2014 in Monrovia, Liberia. The facility initially has 120 beds, making it the largest such facility for Ebola treatment and isolation in history, and MSF plans to expand it to a 350-bed capacity. Tents at the center were provided by UNICEF. The virus has killed more than 1,000 people in four African countries, and Liberia now has had more deaths than any other country. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)



There’s nothing more dangerous than religion in times of epidemics. The Church has always been a hindrance in controlling outbreaks, as the HIV/AIDS scenario shows. Pope Benedict XVI famously said that HIV/AIDS in Africa should be tackled with fidelity and abstinence and not by condoms. Calling it a cruel epidemic he had said that: ‘The traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only failsafe way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDs.’ Similarly, the Taliban has been very critical of polio vaccination in Pakistan and Afghanistan, going so far as to attack vaccination officials believing it to be an American plot to sterilise Muslims.

So it’s no surprise that the religious leaders in Africa are doing more harm than good when it comes to the Ebola outbreak. Religious leaders in Liberia are convinced that the Ebola virus is a plague unleashed by god to punish ‘immoral acts’ like homosexuality. Various church leaders of the Liberia Council of Churches (LCC) reportedly attended a meeting to discuss ‘a spiritual response’ to the outbreak which has claimed over a thousand lives in West Africa. A statement detailing the resolution summarised: ‘Liberians have to pray and seek God’s forgiveness over the corruption and immoral acts (such as homosexualism, etc.) that continue to penetrate our society. As Christians, we must repent and seek God’s forgiveness.’

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced a 90-day state of emergency in the country, warning that ‘ignorance and poverty, as well as entrenched religious and cultural practices’ is worsening the epidemic. She also called for three days of fasting and prayer ‘to seek God’s mercy’.

People in Liberia and even Sierra Leone continue to fill churches to seek deliverance from the deadly outbreak defying official warnings to avoid public gatherings. Despite the warnings, people flocked to sing and pray at churches in Liberia’s capital Monrovia, with people comparing Ebola to the brutal civil war that ravaged the country and killed a quarter of a million people.

With no treatment available, churches furnished plastic buckets containing chlorinated water for worshippers to disinfect their hands. Not surprisingly, some of the locals terrified by the disease have attacked health workers and more recently ransacked a quarantine centre.

Why fasting and Ebola don’t mix

The Ebola death toll in West African countries stands at over 1000 showing no early hope of ending soon. Citizens are now joining hands and resting their faith on the almighty to intervene the spread of Ebola. The Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET), who had earlier undertaken mass action for peace, recently declared a 14-day-fasting and prayer to seek spiritual help and end the Ebola outbreak. While the group’s religious approach was able to bring peace during war time in Liberia, the belief it will help in putting an end to the Ebola outbreak seems impractical.

Ebola infection is caused by a virus that directly attacks the immune system. A recent research published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe has revealed that the Ebola virus protein called VP24 actually disrupts the cell’s innate or natural immune response, making it extremely deadly. Knowing that the virus will instantly target the immunity, fasting is something that may go against preventing the spread of Ebola. Although there is evidence that fasting might enhance the ability phagocytic cells to engulf organisms to some extent, whether 14 day fasting will actually help the immune system to strengthen is questionable. Without meeting the basic nutritional needs of the body, the immune system might not function optimally, increasing susceptibility to infections.

Latest Ebola News in India

In the wake of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, sex workers in Kolkata’s biggest red light district area Sonagachi have been asked to not entertain Africans. Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), a forum of 1,30,000 sex workers in West Bengal, has warned of a life risk should they come in contact with infected persons.

‘We have requested the sex workers not to entertain Africans, as it can be a life risk for them if they get infected by the highly contagious Ebola virus causing havoc in some West African countries,’ Mahasweta, a member of the DMSC, told PTI. Read more…

What is ebola virus?

The Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a severe condition caused by a virus from the Filoviridae family. Known to be a condition that is transmitted from animals to humans, this virus spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or animal.

How can it be prevented?

According to Dr Ratan, ‘There aren’t any vaccinations available as of now, so basic hygiene is of importance and a must be followed in order to prevent the onset of the condition. Simple activities like washing your hands well, drinking water from a clean source, maintaining general hygiene and cooking your meat well, can all serve as precautionary measures. Apart from that people should avoid crowded places, or those that are known to have an outbreak. It is also important that if they notice any early symptoms, they should visit a doctor immediately.’

Should people in India worry?

‘It’s not prevalent in India, but people living in remote areas, where living conditions are poor, are always at risk of getting infected. But largely there is no need to worry as such.’ Read more: Ebola virus — causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and prevention

With inputs from Shraddha Rupavate

Photo source: Getty images

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Sierra Leone police blockade Ebola areas, Liberia declares emergency

Reuters
August 08, 2014




FREETOWN/MONROVIA: Police and soldiers in Sierra Leone blockaded rural areas hit by the deadly Ebola virus on Thursday, a senior officer said, after neighbouring Liberia declared a state of emergency to tackle the worst-ever outbreak of the disease, which has killed 932 people.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf announced emergency measures late on Wednesday that will, for 90 days, allow her government to curtail civil rights by imposing quarantines on badly affected communities to contain an epidemic that has struck four West African nations.

In Geneva, World Health Organization (WHO) experts were due to hold a second day of meetings to discuss emergency measures to tackle the outbreak and whether to classify it as an international public health emergency.

Though the vast majority of cases are in the remote border area of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, concern over Ebola’s spread grew last month when a U.S. citizen died in Nigeria of the virus after arriving from the region. A nurse who treated him has now also died in Lagos, and at least five other people have been isolated with symptoms.

In Saudi Arabia, a man suspected of contracting Ebola during a recent business trip to Sierra Leone also died early on Wednesday in Jeddah. Some major airlines, such as British Airways and Emirates, have halted flights to affected countries, while many expatriates are leaving, officials have said.

In eastern Sierra Leone - the worst-hit area of the country - the head of police said security forces deployed last night “to establish a complete blockade” of Kenema and Kailahun districts, setting up 16 checkpoints on major roads.

“No vehicles or persons are allowed into or out of the districts,” Alfred Karrow-Kamara told Reuters, saying the measures would last for an initial 50-day period.

He said traders who had registered with security agencies would be able to bring in food and medicines. Security forces would mount foot patrols to ensure civilians did not slip past their roadblocks through the bush.

In Liberia, where the death toll is rising fastest, authorities on Wednesday shut a major hospital after its Cameroonian director died of Ebola and six other staff tested positive, including two nuns and a 75-year-old Spanish priest.

President Johnson-Sirleaf said in a statement late on Wednesday that 32 health workers had already died of the disease and many sick people were going untreated after doctors deserted their posts. Schools across the country were shut last week and non-essential government workers temporarily laid off.

With Liberian troops being deployed to quarantine badly hit communities, Johnson-Sirleaf said the state of emergency was necessary for “the very survival of our state and for the protection of the lives of our people”.
The military deployment - Operation White Shield - is expected to be fully in place by Friday, officials said.
In the ramshackle, ocean-front capital, residents greeted the announcement with alarm.

“This is the beginning of hardship. Ninety days of fear and suffering,” said Nancy Poure, a small trader in the suburb of Johnsonville. “We need help from America. We need help.”

After a trial drug was administered to two U.S. charity workers infected in Liberia, three of the world’s leading Ebola specialists urged the WHO to offer people in West Africa the chance to take experimental drugs to fight the disease. Liberian authorities have said they are willing to authorise in-country clinical trials. U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he lacked enough information to approve the use of experimental drugs, adding that Ebola could be controlled with a strong public health response. The WHO said it would ask medical ethics experts to explore emergency use of experimental treatments.
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Pope Francis: ‘One in 50’ Catholic priests, bishops and cardinals is a paedophile

Francis I pledges to drive out the 'leprosy' of child abuse from the Church
ADAM WITHNALL


Sunday 13 July 2014


Pope Francis has revealed that “reliable data” collected by the Vatican suggests that one in every 50 members of the Catholic clergy is a paedophile.

Speaking in an interview with La Repubblica, the Pope said his advisers had tried to “reassure” him that paedophilia within the Church was “at the level of two per cent”.

He pledged that he would drive away the “leprosy” of child abuse that was infecting the “house” of Catholicism.

“I find this state of affairs intolerable,” he said.

Pope Francis said his advisers at the Vatican had given him the 2 per cent estimate, which included “priests, bishops and cardinals”.

He also warned of much greater figures for people who were aware of the existence of abuse – sometimes within their own families – but who stayed silent because of corruption or fear.

READ MORE:
FRANCIS APOLOGISES TO CLERICAL SEX ABUSE VICTIMSPOPE FRANCIS DEFENDS VATICAN'S RECORD ON CHILD SEX ABUSEVOICES: FRANCIS MUST STOP THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF YOUNG BOYS

His comments came a week after the Pope met with six victims of clerical paedophilia to apologise for their abuse at the hands of priests.

The meeting, with six British, Irish and German Catholics, was designed to acknowledge the gravity of the Church’s guilt and complicity.



Despite Pope Francis’s popularity, there has been criticism of him for failing to take a high-profile stand against the global paedophilia scandal.

His predecessor, Benedict XVI, met with victims of sexual abuse by priests, in Washington in 2008. He then met with victims in Australia, Germany, Malta and the UK.

In February and May, critical reports released by two separate UN committees condemned the Church’s “code of silence” on paedophile priests. It said this silence was allowing known sex offenders to continue working with children.

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Rescue 2014

1. On March 8, 2014 a Boeing 777 - Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, was lost somewhere after its take off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing. The plane and its 239 passengers and crew has yet to be found.

2. On April 16, 2014 a South Korean Ferry MV Sewol en route to Jeju from Incheon sank with 281 students who were on a school trip. The Ferry sank and many of the victims have been extrated from the vessel by disaster response divers. 

3.On May 13, 2014 a fire in a coal mine in SomaTurkey killed at last count 238 people.  The fire may still be burning today? 

What do the 3 events have in common?

Well, first off, a rescue was started immediately for 'survivors' in each disaster.  Secondly, the death toll in all these 'accidents' surpasses 200 victims.

1-2-3

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JCC Hosts Interfaith Vigil For Shooting Victims

Victims’ families speak at moving memorial service in Overland Park, Kansas
By Stephanie Butnick|April 17, 2014 12:12 PM|


A Crime Scene Investigation unit sits parked outside the Jewish Community Center on April 14, 2014 in Overland Park, Kansas. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Four days after Frazier Glenn Miller shot and killed two people outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and a third person outside Village Shalom, a nearby Jewish retirement home, the JCC reopened to host an interfaith memorial service for the three victims. Miller, 72, a well-known anti-Semite who yelled “Heil Hitler” from the back of a police car after his arrest, made no secret of his decades-long vitriolic hatred of Jews. In a dark and morbid twist to the tragic shootings, which took place the day before Passover, none of the victims were Jewish.

The first two victims, William Lewis Corporon and his 14-year-old grandson Reat Griffin Underwood, a high school freshman who was at the JCC to audition for a local singing competition, were members of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood. The third victim, Terri LaManno, who was visiting her mother at Village Shalom when the shooting occurred, was a longtime parishioner at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Kansas City along with her husband and children.

This morning’s memorial, which was attended by U.S. General Attorney Eric Holder, was billed as an interfaith service of hope and unity, incorporating Jewish and Christian traditions in a moving repudiation of the hate that fueled Sunday’s attack. There was music and speakers who spanned the religious spectrum, all emphasizing the message that acts like these should unite communities, not divide them.

Reat Griffin Underwood’s father spoke of the diversity of crowd at the day’s event, adding that it’s not an unusual sight at the community center. “This place always looks like this,” he said. He also emphasized the importance of understanding across different communities: “With our connections, we have the power to move past hatred to a life based on love.”


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Irish abuse victim, Boston cardinal named to Vatican sex abuse panel

Eric J. Lyman / USA Today | Mar 24, 2014

VATICAN CITY (RNS) An Irish woman who was a victim of sexual abuse as a child is among eight members of a special commission appointed by Pope Francis on Saturday (March 22) to start the long and arduous process of confronting the church’s chronic sexual abuse problems.



Cardinal Seán O’Malley presided at the Annual Rites of Election for the Archdiocese of Boston which was held at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Sunday (March 9). There was a record number in attendance at the two liturgies. Photo by George Martell – Pilot New Media, courtesy of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston


Francis appointed four women and four men — a mix of clergy and laypeople — from eight different countries to a panel that will advise the church on the best ways to protect children, identify and punish abusers, and train church personnel. Plans for the panel first emerged in December.

The creation of the commission is one of the strongest steps Francis has taken to confront the problem that has severely stained the church’s reputation and cost it billions in court settlements and legal fees. The pontiff has called the issue of sexual abuse “the shame of the church” and vowed to take strong steps to confront the issue.

The high-profile names on the commission give some indication of the importance Francis has given to the panel. In addition to Marie Collins, an Irish anti-abuse activist who was molested at age 13 by a priest in the 1960s, the group includes Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston; former Polish prime minister Hanna Suchocka; and British Baroness Sheila Hollins, a noted psychiatrist and a member of the U.K. House of Lords.

“Pope Francis has made it clear that the church must uphold the protection of minors amongst her highest priorities,” the Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said in a statement.

Calls for action have become louder following condemnation from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in January, with many critics saying the Vatican has acted too timidly in confronting the problems.

Even after the appointment of the committee, victims of abuse said the church should do more, with the U.S.-based Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests saying Francis must still “take strong steps right now to protect kids, expose predators, discipline enablers and uncover cover-ups.”

Hollins, founder of the victims support organization One in Four, has called for the Vatican to punish church leaders who fail to implement or enforce church rules on pedophile priests, while O’Malley in 2011 famously published a database of Boston-area clergy accused of sexual abuse.

Suchocka is a former minister of justice who was also Poland’s ambassador to the Vatican for a dozen years ending in 2013, and Hollins is an ex-president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the British Medical Association.

(Eric J. Lyman writes for USA Today)


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POPE LAUDS BENEDICT FOR ABUSE RESPONSE

March 5, 2014 by Bill
Filed under Latest News Releases





Bill Donohue comments on remarks made today by Pope Francis on the sexual abuse scandal:

No one has done more to check the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church than Pope Benedict XVI, but he receives very little credit for doing so. That is why what Pope Francis said today matters: he singled Benedict out for his yeoman efforts. “Benedict XVI was very courageous and has opened a new way.” Because of Benedict, he said, “the Church has done much, perhaps more than all the others.”

Pope Francis is twice right. Long before Benedict became pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as head of the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation, called for swifter and stronger procedures to punish molesting priests. That was in 1988. In 2001, he was given exclusive jurisdiction over these matters, and in 2003 he was awarded the power to police priestly sexual abuse. When he became pope, he made it more difficult for practicing homosexuals to enter the priesthood, the net effect of which has been a sharp decline in the number of abuse cases.

In his interview today, Pope Francis said, “The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution that has moved with transparency and responsibility. No one has done more, and yet the Church is the only one that is being attacked.” The pope was obviously referring to the highly politicized, and maliciously conceived, United Nations report on the Vatican’s response to this issue.

Pope Francis not only speaks truth to power, and to the people, he tells it like it is to those who selectively rally to his side. Yesterday, his comments condemning anti-Catholicism were, as I predicted, all but ignored. His remarks today lauding his predecessor will similarly be given short shrift. Such is the politics of the left, religious as well as secular.


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