Category: Human Rights

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Vatican holds summit to tackle sex abuse by priests

Roman Catholic leaders have begun an unprecedented summit in Rome on how the church should tackle the sexual abuse of children by priests.

In a Vatican statement, Pope Benedict said “healing for victims” should be a major concern as much as “profound renewal of the Church at every level”.

The summit aims to produce guidelines on tackling abusive priests and helping police to prosecute paedophile crime.

Victims’ groups, who were not invited, have dismissed it as a PR exercise.

“You don’t need a jolly in Rome to learn what the right thing to do is,” said Sue Cox of Survivors Voice, a coalition of victim support groups covering Britain, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the US.

“This is just a PR stunt. It’s just theatre really. It’s no use whatsoever,” Ms Cox, herself a victim of abuse by a priest, told the AFP news agency.

‘Few apologies’
Bishops from more than 100 countries and 32 heads of religious orders are among those taking part in the four days of discussions.

Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the senior Vatican official in charge of investigating the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, said bishops had already been sent a “very clear message” that they must follow civil law on paedophile cases.

“When crime has happened and the civil authorities justifiably ask for co-operation and request co-operation, the church cannot decline that co-operation. Concerning reporting mechanisms, our strong advice is to follow the law of the country concerned,” he said.

The summit would consider ways to help bishops and other church workers with that process, including establishing an e-learning centre on the internet with advice in several languages, he said.

The Vatican is under pressure to concentrate more on protecting victims of sexual abuse rather than, as in the past, rallying to the defence of priests accused of these crimes, the BBC’s David Willey in Rome reports.

Only one victim – Marie Collins from Ireland – has been invited to attend the summit.

She said her decision to attend was not an easy one.

“Despite apologies for the actions of the abusers, there have been few apologies for protection given to them by their superiors,” said Ms Collins, who was raped at age of 13 by a hospital chaplain in Dublin.

“There seems to be a lack of penalty for any of these men in leadership who deliberately or negligently covered up for abusers.”

Complete Article HERE!

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Local bishop supports same-sex marriage

The Episcopal bishop in Western Washington, in sharp disagreement with Catholic prelates, believes that same-sex marriage is “a conservative proposal” that should be adopted “not only in our society but in our church.”

“It seems to me we have held our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in a Catch-22,” the Rt. Rev. Greg Rickel, Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Olympia, argues in a blog post published without fanfare to the diocesan website.

“We say they cannot live up to our values because they cannot be married or even blessed in their union,” writes Rickel.

“While many of them have begged for this, it is still not possible. What they ask of us, the church and the government, is to put boundaries around their relationship, to hold them in the same regard and with the same respect, which would also mean that we expect the same from them.”

The Episcopal Church has wrestled with the issue of “inclusion” over years, gradually moving to accept gay and lesbian clergy — two of whom have been elected as bishops — and to provide rites for same-sex couples. Bishop Rickel predicts marriage equality with be approved at the church’s upcoming General Convention.

The church’s evolving position has generated serious opposition, particularly following election of the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson as the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire.

Parishes have withdrawn from the Episcopal Church — often generating litigation over church property — and the dioceses of Pittsburgh, Fort Worth and San Jaoquin proclaimed themselves Anglicans and severed ties with the parent church. A few parishes, and one prominent Episcopal bishop, have joined the Catholic Church.

Washington’s four Catholic bishops issued a strong appeal, two weeks ago, that the Legislature maintain the current definition of marriage as between a man and a woman. Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, in testimony to the Washington state Senate, warned of “the grave challenge this legislation poses to the common good.”

But Rickel takes a very different argument.

“Christianity has held, when considering relationships of all sorts — but especially in relation to two people in marriage — fidelity to be our value,” writes the Episcopal prelate. He depicts marriage equality as an action in furtherance of the common good.

“They (same-sex couples) are not asking for special treatment,” Rickel writes. “They are asking for equal treatment. They are asking to be accountable as a couple, in community.

“To me, this is a conservative proposal. I am for it, and I hope we will finally make way for this to happen, not only in our society, but in our church.”

The Washington state Senate passed marriage equality legislation on a 28-21 vote Wednesday night. The state House of Representatives has scheduled a hearing on the measure for Monday morning. House approval is considered likely.

Gov. Chris Gregoire, a Catholic, supports the legislation and promises to sign it into law. Opponents have vowed to collect the needed 120,577 valid voter signatures to force a referendum in the November election.

Washington would be the seventh state to legalize same-sex marriage.

Complete Article HERE!

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Catholic Church Is Biggest Funder Of MN Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment

If you put money in the collection plate at a Catholic church in Minnesota you’re helping to fund a campaign against gay marriage in Minnesota. The Catholic Archdiocese of Minneapolis & St. Paul and the Catholic Dioceses of New Ulm contributed $700,000 last year to support an anti-gay Minnesota constitutional amendment.

The constitutional amendment defining marriage between one man and one woman, effectively banning gay or lesbian marriage, is scheduled to be on this November’s general election ballot. Half of that money, $350,000 has been donated to Minnesota For Marriage which is spearheading the push to get the constitutional amendment approved.

Minnesota For Marriage has also received $226,000 from it’s closely related Minnesota Family Council and $250,000 from the National Organization For Marriage fund. Minnesota for Marriage’s report only list seven individuals who donated for a total of $2,119.

The opposition, Minnesotans United For All Families has raised more than $1.2 million, but lists many more individual donors.

Fundraising reports for groups on both sides of the amendment battle were released by the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board today
Minnesotans United For All Families Report
Minnesota For Marriage Report

All reports for ballot initiatives

Complete Article HERE!

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Minn. archbishop warns priests to toe line

Catholic Archbishop John Nienstedt has warned a Minnesota priest to toe the church line in support of a marriage amendment referendum or face the consequences.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Sunday Nienstedt sent a letter last fall to the Rev. Mike Tegeder, the pastor at St. Frances Cabrini and Gichitwaa Kateri churches in Minneapolis who has voice opposition to the proposed amendment to the state Constitution that goes before Minnesota voters in November.

Nienstedt told Tegeder unless he desists in opposing the amendment that would define marriage as a union only between a man and woman he would strip the priest of his “faculties to exercise ministry” and remove him from his “ministerial assignments.”

Tegeder said he doesn’t believe the church should be actively campaigning in support of the amendment. Minnesota has about 1.1 million Catholics.

“That’s not the way to support marriage,” Tegeder said. “If we want to support marriage, there are wonderful things we can do as Catholic churches and ministers. We should not be focused on beating up a small number of people who have this desire to have committed relationships.”

But Nienstedt has told Catholic clergy across the state there is to be no “open dissension” of the church’s support for the measure. As the archbishop sees it, the very existence of marriage hangs in the balance.

“The endgame of those who oppose the marriage amendment that we support is not just to secure certain benefits for a particular minority, but, I believe, to eliminate the need for marriage altogether,” he said in a letter to the state’s clergy.

“As I see it, we have this one chance as Minnesotans to make things right. The stakes could not be higher.”

Nienstedt is marshaling his forces, sending priests and married couples to Catholic high schools to talk about marriage and having parishes organize committees to work for the amendment’s passage, the Star Tribune said.

Complete Article HERE!

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Mrs. Santorum, Can We Talk?

COMMENTARY — Kate Kendell

On a recent campaign stop, Karen Santorum accused LGBT activists of “backyard bullying” against her husband in the presidential race. National Center for Lesbian Rights executive director Kate Kendell responds.

Someone’s been using the extra bit of cash he got from his surge in Iowa to buy some spin doctor advice. Earlier this week, Rick Santorum, his wife, Karen, and their oldest daughter, Elizabeth, were all talking about how much Rick “loves gay people” and that his opposition to our right to marry is a “policy difference.” Karen then added to the obscenity of this utter claptrap by suggesting that gay activists were being “backyard bullies” in our attacks on her husband and his policies.

Karen, we need to talk. And by that, I mean that I need to talk and you need to listen.

You love your husband — I get that. You love your faith — fine by me. But when you pretend that hate is love, that lies are truth, and that victims are oppressors, you have become inane.

Your husband believes that LGBT people cannot be trusted to serve in the military, raise children, form stable relationships or be fully respected under the law. According to you, Rick may love us, but honey, his love is killing us, and we want nothing to do with this abusive relationship. Our community has endured expulsion from family, mass firings, daily epitaphs, assaults, harassment, humiliation, death, and suicides. We know that if your husband becomes president of our country our long suffering will only deepen and magnify.

So yes, we are calling him what he is: a sanctimonious bigot who believes that we are dangerous, sick, and evil. We are telling the truth about his vision and his beliefs about us. That is NOT bullying, it’s about saving our own lives. Your husband would erase the landmark and life-saving changes we have seen over the past few years, and revisit the hell of a government that does not see us as fully human. Given what so many of my brothers and sisters live through daily, you calling us bullies is contemptible.

It did not have to be this way. Many people of faith truly and authentically do love the LGBT people in their lives. They also love fairness and equality and inclusion. They do not live in fear of those who are different. My mom was such a person, and I am sure you could have been too.

In some ways, it’s very sad. In another two or three months, the cameras will be gone, and the press will not care about you or Rick. The march of justice will continue, leaving you and your family a forgotten footnote on the wrong side of history.

I’m glad we talked, Karen. I feel better now. While I know you will keep saying whatever that reprobate PR firm is telling you to say, at least we understand each other.

You and Rick are the haters. My community is the victim, and anyone paying attention knows the truth.

Complete Article HERE!