Abortion-rights activists renew battle in Argentina

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO

1 of 10

Pro-choice activists carry a statue of the Virgin Mary which features a green handkerchief symbolizing the abortion rights movement in Argentina during a rally outside Congress in favor of legalizing abortion in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, May 28, 2019. Lawmakers said they would introduce a bill to legalize abortion for pregnancies up to 14 weeks. (AP Photo/Marcos Brindicci)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine activists launched a renewed effort Tuesday seeking to legalize elective abortions in the homeland of Pope Francis after narrowly falling short last year.

Lawmakers said they would introduce a bill that would legalize abortion for pregnancies up to 14 weeks. A similar measure last year passed the lower house of Congress but was defeated in the Senate under heavy opposition by religious groups.

The movement behind the legislation came closer than ever to approval and activists promised to continue their campaign to expand women’s reproductive rights.

The new legislation was being introduced as demonstrations marking the International Day of Action for Women’s Health were held in Argentina and other nations. Thousands of people marched through the streets of Buenos Aires chanting and waving flags.

The Argentine movement has gathered international support, with Penelope Cruz and several other actors at the Cannes film festival holding up the green handkerchiefs that symbolize the abortion movement.

“After last year’s rejection, it’s evident that abortion continues to be practiced in terrible conditions and women continue to die,” said Amnesty International Argentina director Mariela Belski.

Argentina now allows abortion only in cases of rape or a risk to a woman’s health. But Argentine women continue to undergo illegal abortions and thousands of women, mostly poor, are hospitalized each year for complications. The health ministry estimates more than 350,000 clandestine abortions are carried out each year, while human rights groups put the number as high as a half million.

The new legislation differs from last year’s because it doesn’t include a section that would have granted doctors the right “to a conscientious objection” to the process. It also would protect women who carry out their own abortions from any sanctions and includes a section focused on sexual education and counseling for women.

The measure would also establish prison terms of three months to one year for health establishments or doctors who “unjustifiably delay,” block or refuse to carry out an elective abortion within the terms of the law. It would set longer prison terms if such actions damaged a woman’s health or caused her death.

“Being a mother should be a choice, not an obligation,” said Jenny Duran, a member of the abortion rights campaign. “We call on lawmakers to do the right thing — listen to women’s voices and respect our right to make our own decisions about our bodies.”

Ruling party lawmaker Daniel Lipovetzky said “it won’t be so easy” to debate a proposal that divides people so much during an election year. “But this is an issue that needs to be debated by society,” he said.

Last year, conservative President Mauricio Macri had promised to sign the legislation if it passed Congress even though he opposes abortion. After it was rejected in the Senate, Macri said the debate would continue.

Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage in 2010. More recently, the Ni Una Menos, or Not One Less, movement created in Argentina to fight violence against women has spread worldwide.

Efforts to ease or tighten abortion restrictions have repeatedly emerged across Latin America and the Caribbean in recent years as socially conservative countries grapple with shifting views on once-taboo issues and the church continues to lose influence to secularism and a crisis of confidence after an avalanche of clerical sex abuse scandals.

Pope Francis last year denounced abortion as the “white glove” equivalent of Nazi-era eugenics programs and urged families “to accept the children that God gives them.”

The pope recently said abortion can never be condoned, even when the fetus is seriously ill or likely to die. He also urged doctors and priests to support families to carry such pregnancies to term.

“Is it licit to throw away a life to resolve a problem?” the pontiff asked. “Is it licit to hire a hit man to resolve a problem?”

His comments came as the abortion debate is rousing renewed debate in the U.S. with state initiatives seeking to restrict the procedure.

In 2017, Chile became the last country in South America to drop a ban on abortions in all cases, though some countries in Central America still prohibit abortions without exceptions.

__

Associated Press journalists Almudena Calatrava, Debora Rey, Paul Byrne and Leo Lavalle contributed to this report.

80f3a2f970cc4f8f9d58ac27f5093e5a

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine activists launched a renewed effort Tuesday seeking to legalize elective abortions in the homeland of Pope Francis after narrowly falling short last year.

Lawmakers said they would introduce a bill that would legalize abortion for pregnancies up to 14 weeks. A similar measure last year passed the lower house of Congress but was defeated in the Senate under heavy opposition by religious groups.

The movement behind the legislation came closer than ever to approval and activists promised to continue their campaign to expand women’s reproductive rights.

The new legislation was being introduced as demonstrations marking the International Day of Action for Women’s Health were held in Argentina and other nations. Thousands of people marched through the streets of Buenos Aires chanting and waving flags.

The Argentine movement has gathered international support, with Penelope Cruz and several other actors at the Cannes film festival holding up the green handkerchiefs that symbolize the abortion movement.

“After last year’s rejection, it’s evident that abortion continues to be practiced in terrible conditions and women continue to die,” said Amnesty International Argentina director Mariela Belski.

Argentina now allows abortion only in cases of rape or a risk to a woman’s health. But Argentine women continue to undergo illegal abortions and thousands of women, mostly poor, are hospitalized each year for complications. The health ministry estimates more than 350,000 clandestine abortions are carried out each year, while human rights groups put the number as high as a half million.

The new legislation differs from last year’s because it doesn’t include a section that would have granted doctors the right “to a conscientious objection” to the process. It also would protect women who carry out their own abortions from any sanctions and includes a section focused on sexual education and counseling for women.

The measure would also establish prison terms of three months to one year for health establishments or doctors who “unjustifiably delay,” block or refuse to carry out an elective abortion within the terms of the law. It would set longer prison terms if such actions damaged a woman’s health or caused her death.

“Being a mother should be a choice, not an obligation,” said Jenny Duran, a member of the abortion rights campaign. “We call on lawmakers to do the right thing — listen to women’s voices and respect our right to make our own decisions about our bodies.”

Ruling party lawmaker Daniel Lipovetzky said “it won’t be so easy” to debate a proposal that divides people so much during an election year. “But this is an issue that needs to be debated by society,” he said.

Last year, conservative President Mauricio Macri had promised to sign the legislation if it passed Congress even though he opposes abortion. After it was rejected in the Senate, Macri said the debate would continue.

Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage in 2010. More recently, the Ni Una Menos, or Not One Less, movement created in Argentina to fight violence against women has spread worldwide.

Efforts to ease or tighten abortion restrictions have repeatedly emerged across Latin America and the Caribbean in recent years as socially conservative countries grapple with shifting views on once-taboo issues and the church continues to lose influence to secularism and a crisis of confidence after an avalanche of clerical sex abuse scandals.

Pope Francis last year denounced abortion as the “white glove” equivalent of Nazi-era eugenics programs and urged families “to accept the children that God gives them.”

The pope recently said abortion can never be condoned, even when the fetus is seriously ill or likely to die. He also urged doctors and priests to support families to carry such pregnancies to term.

“Is it licit to throw away a life to resolve a problem?” the pontiff asked. “Is it licit to hire a hit man to resolve a problem?”

His comments came as the abortion debate is rousing renewed debate in the U.S. with state initiatives seeking to restrict the procedure.

In 2017, Chile became the last country in South America to drop a ban on abortions in all cases, though some countries in Central America still prohibit abortions without exceptions.

Associated Press journalists Almudena Calatrava, Debora Rey, Paul Byrne and Leo Lavalle contributed to this report.

https://www.apnews.com/da1eb700c40f4b9a806a5abfe9f4c6ec

 

 

The Catholic Church Has Made a Deal With the Devil in Beijing

 

AMERICA FIRST

Sebastian Gorka

The Catholic Church, which has jealously defended its sovereignty for centuries, has made a deal with the Devil. In October of 2018, the Vatican entered into a preliminary agreement with the militantly atheist Chinese Communist Party meant to “protect” the nine million Catholic Chinese citizens who are currently being harassed and oppressed by the totalitarian government in Beijing. The deal was forged in secret between Pope Francis and Chinese President Xi Jinping. But, what has been leaked about the deal confirms the fears of many Catholics around the world–including the Vatican’s secretary of state Pietro Parolin–that the deal was at best “not a very good agreement” for either the Vatican or the Catholic and broader Christian population in China.

The agreement allows for the Communist Party to have a say in who the Catholic Church can nominate as bishops in China. Under the terms of the agreement, while the Communist Party does have a vote in which clergy members are made into leaders in the various Chinese Catholic churches, the Pope is granted the right to veto any of the CCP’s choices. Of course, this does not prevent any dispute that may arise–which will arise, as the Communist Party is highly sensitive to anything resembling foreign influence aimed at reducing the importance of the CCP in Chinese politics. For years, the regime in Beijing has viewed Christian missionaries and Catholic churches as being the vanguard of Western attempts at regime change. The CCP has spent decades not only oppressing the Christians, but other religions and cults–notably the Falun Gong. But, as the population of Christians grows in China, the Chinese Communists have intensified their attempts to control and weaken what they view as the destabilizing influence of foreign ideologies.

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, has taken a different tack. The Vatican has attempted to work openly with the Communist Party leadership. But, this will not end well. The CCP will not countenance the Vatican having a true voice in the affairs of what should be a private organization, such as the Catholic Church. They will attempt to identify people, Catholics in China, for leadership roles that the CCP believes will be pliant to Communist dogma. In other words, the Chinese want to dilute Catholic teaching by installing people they believe will water down the word of God in their country. And, gallingly, the Pope has seemingly consented to these demands.

The Chinese government has a long track record of corrupting Western institutions that many assumed were invulnerable. The companies of Corporate America, the greatest wealth-producing, capitalist machine in history have too often become the handmaidens of the CCP in the West. Free trade was posited as the non-violent way to mitigate the threat of the Chinese Communist Party. In the 1990s, the logic was that American corporations doing trade in China would force the CCP to become more democratic as they made more money from capitalism. This was known as “convergence.” But, the opposite occurred. Once Western corporations began doing business in China and making large sums of money, the Communist Party would force the companies to make concessions to the government: they would require the American companies to reveal trade secrets and to train Chinese workers and employ them. The Chinese government would also force American companies, such as they did with Yahoo in the early 2000s, to work with Chinese state security services to crack down on Chinese citizens who were believed to be violating the political order of Communist China.

American companies routinely violated what were once-believed to have been universal American values, such as privacy and freedom of speech, in order to keep their businesses in China. This pattern repeated over the years. Thus, the 1990s convergence theory gave way to reverse convergence. Rather than changing oppressive China with the power of freedom-loving Western institutions, the totalitarian Chinese were changing the nature of the Western institutions to make them more compliant with Chinese standards. The exact same thing that has befallen Western corporations doing business in China is happening to the Catholic Church. The Western institutions convince themselves that they can resist the pull of the CCP. But, that’s not the case. No Western firm doing business in China has been able to keep its standard operating procedures in place. All have caved to Beijing. The same is true of the Catholic Church.

Historically, when the British Crown wanted the ability to influence Catholic doctrine (over the matter of marriage), the English separated from the Catholic Church. The schism between Catholic and Protestant became insuperable and led to various, bloody, religious wars in Europe. Imagine how bloodless history would have been in Europe, if the Pope during that time had simply told the British monarch that special exemptions could have been made for his needs. Of course, the West would not be what it is today had it not been for that fight. Also, the Catholic Church would have lost the essence of itself if it had ceded its ecumenical authority to a worldly government, such as the one in England. Today, the Pope is not only making secret deals with the CCP, but he is willingly subverting his divine authority to placate a demonic power in Beijing.

As more information about the deal between the Vatican and the Chinese Communist Party is revealed, Catholics everywhere should be mortified. This will not strengthen Catholicism in China. It will weaken it. The deal will give the Communist Party unprecedented power and control over what should be sovereign Vatican policies. Even if the Pope does veto every one of the CCP’s preferred selections for church leadership roles in China, the fact that China must also approve of the choices means that there will be vacancies in critical church leadership positions until the Vatican and Beijing can agree on choices. This would be a de factovictory for the CCP because leaving churches leaderless will weaken the church and empower the CCP.

AMERICA First is the newest nationally-syndicated radio show in the United States, part of the Salem Radio Network. The host, Sebastian Gorka PhD., served most recently as Deputy Assistant for Strategy to the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, and is author of the New York Times bestselling book “Defeating Jihad.” His latest book is “Why We Fight: Defeating America’s Enemies – With No Apologies.” You can follow him on Twitter @SebGorka, on Facebook, and on Instagram @sebastian_gorka. AMERICA First is available on the iTunes podcast app, streams live at www.sebgorka.com, and is on YouTube. You can contact him here.

  

The Catholic Church, which has jealously defended its sovereignty for centuries, has made a deal with the Devil. In October of 2018, the Vatican entered into a preliminary agreement with the militantly atheist Chinese Communist Party meant to “protect” the nine million Catholic Chinese citizens who are currently being harassed and oppressed by the totalitarian government in Beijing. The deal was forged in secret between Pope Francis and Chinese President Xi Jinping. But, what has been leaked about the deal confirms the fears of many Catholics around the world–including the Vatican’s secretary of state Pietro Parolin–that the deal was at best “not a very good agreement” for either the Vatican or the Catholic and broader Christian population in China.

The agreement allows for the Communist Party to have a say in who the Catholic Church can nominate as bishops in China. Under the terms of the agreement, while the Communist Party does have a vote in which clergy members are made into leaders in the various Chinese Catholic churches, the Pope is granted the right to veto any of the CCP’s choices. Of course, this does not prevent any dispute that may arise–which will arise, as the Communist Party is highly sensitive to anything resembling foreign influence aimed at reducing the importance of the CCP in Chinese politics. For years, the regime in Beijing has viewed Christian missionaries and Catholic churches as being the vanguard of Western attempts at regime change. The CCP has spent decades not only oppressing the Christians, but other religions and cults–notably the Falun Gong. But, as the population of Christians grows in China, the Chinese Communists have intensified their attempts to control and weaken what they view as the destabilizing influence of foreign ideologies.

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, has taken a different tack. The Vatican has attempted to work openly with the Communist Party leadership. But, this will not end well. The CCP will not countenance the Vatican having a true voice in the affairs of what should be a private organization, such as the Catholic Church. They will attempt to identify people, Catholics in China, for leadership roles that the CCP believes will be pliant to Communist dogma. In other words, the Chinese want to dilute Catholic teaching by installing people they believe will water down the word of God in their country. And, gallingly, the Pope has seemingly consented to these demands.

The Chinese government has a long track record of corrupting Western institutions that many assumed were invulnerable. The companies of Corporate America, the greatest wealth-producing, capitalist machine in history have too often become the handmaidens of the CCP in the West. Free trade was posited as the non-violent way to mitigate the threat of the Chinese Communist Party. In the 1990s, the logic was that American corporations doing trade in China would force the CCP to become more democratic as they made more money from capitalism. This was known as “convergence.” But, the opposite occurred. Once Western corporations began doing business in China and making large sums of money, the Communist Party would force the companies to make concessions to the government: they would require the American companies to reveal trade secrets and to train Chinese workers and employ them. The Chinese government would also force American companies, such as they did with Yahoo in the early 2000s, to work with Chinese state security services to crack down on Chinese citizens who were believed to be violating the political order of Communist China.

American companies routinely violated what were once-believed to have been universal American values, such as privacy and freedom of speech, in order to keep their businesses in China. This pattern repeated over the years. Thus, the 1990s convergence theory gave way to reverse convergence. Rather than changing oppressive China with the power of freedom-loving Western institutions, the totalitarian Chinese were changing the nature of the Western institutions to make them more compliant with Chinese standards. The exact same thing that has befallen Western corporations doing business in China is happening to the Catholic Church. The Western institutions convince themselves that they can resist the pull of the CCP. But, that’s not the case. No Western firm doing business in China has been able to keep its standard operating procedures in place. All have caved to Beijing. The same is true of the Catholic Church.

Historically, when the British Crown wanted the ability to influence Catholic doctrine (over the matter of marriage), the English separated from the Catholic Church. The schism between Catholic and Protestant became insuperable and led to various, bloody, religious wars in Europe. Imagine how bloodless history would have been in Europe, if the Pope during that time had simply told the British monarch that special exemptions could have been made for his needs. Of course, the West would not be what it is today had it not been for that fight. Also, the Catholic Church would have lost the essence of itself if it had ceded its ecumenical authority to a worldly government, such as the one in England. Today, the Pope is not only making secret deals with the CCP, but he is willingly subverting his divine authority to placate a demonic power in Beijing.

As more information about the deal between the Vatican and the Chinese Communist Party is revealed, Catholics everywhere should be mortified. This will not strengthen Catholicism in China. It will weaken it. The deal will give the Communist Party unprecedented power and control over what should be sovereign Vatican policies. Even if the Pope does veto every one of the CCP’s preferred selections for church leadership roles in China, the fact that China must also approve of the choices means that there will be vacancies in critical church leadership positions until the Vatican and Beijing can agree on choices. This would be a de factovictory for the CCP because leaving churches leaderless will weaken the church and empower the CCP.

AMERICA First is the newest nationally-syndicated radio show in the United States, part of the Salem Radio Network. The host, Sebastian Gorka PhD., served most recently as Deputy Assistant for Strategy to the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, and is author of the New York Times bestselling book “Defeating Jihad.” His latest book is “Why We Fight: Defeating America’s Enemies – With No Apologies.” You can follow him on Twitter @SebGorka, on Facebook, and on Instagram @sebastian_gorka. AMERICA First is available on the iTunes podcast app, streams live at www.sebgorka.com, and is on YouTube. You can contact him here.

The Catholic Church, which has jealously defended its sovereignty for centuries, has made a deal with the Devil. In October of 2018, the Vatican entered into a preliminary agreement with the militantly atheist Chinese Communist Party meant to “protect” the nine million Catholic Chinese citizens who are currently being harassed and oppressed by the totalitarian government in Beijing. The deal was forged in secret between Pope Francis and Chinese President Xi Jinping. But, what has been leaked about the deal confirms the fears of many Catholics around the world–including the Vatican’s secretary of state Pietro Parolin–that the deal was at best “not a very good agreement” for either the Vatican or the Catholic and broader Christian population in China.

The agreement allows for the Communist Party to have a say in who the Catholic Church can nominate as bishops in China. Under the terms of the agreement, while the Communist Party does have a vote in which clergy members are made into leaders in the various Chinese Catholic churches, the Pope is granted the right to veto any of the CCP’s choices. Of course, this does not prevent any dispute that may arise–which will arise, as the Communist Party is highly sensitive to anything resembling foreign influence aimed at reducing the importance of the CCP in Chinese politics. For years, the regime in Beijing has viewed Christian missionaries and Catholic churches as being the vanguard of Western attempts at regime change. The CCP has spent decades not only oppressing the Christians, but other religions and cults–notably the Falun Gong. But, as the population of Christians grows in China, the Chinese Communists have intensified their attempts to control and weaken what they view as the destabilizing influence of foreign ideologies.

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, has taken a different tack. The Vatican has attempted to work openly with the Communist Party leadership. But, this will not end well. The CCP will not countenance the Vatican having a true voice in the affairs of what should be a private organization, such as the Catholic Church. They will attempt to identify people, Catholics in China, for leadership roles that the CCP believes will be pliant to Communist dogma. In other words, the Chinese want to dilute Catholic teaching by installing people they believe will water down the word of God in their country. And, gallingly, the Pope has seemingly consented to these demands.

The Chinese government has a long track record of corrupting Western institutions that many assumed were invulnerable. The companies of Corporate America, the greatest wealth-producing, capitalist machine in history have too often become the handmaidens of the CCP in the West. Free trade was posited as the non-violent way to mitigate the threat of the Chinese Communist Party. In the 1990s, the logic was that American corporations doing trade in China would force the CCP to become more democratic as they made more money from capitalism. This was known as “convergence.” But, the opposite occurred. Once Western corporations began doing business in China and making large sums of money, the Communist Party would force the companies to make concessions to the government: they would require the American companies to reveal trade secrets and to train Chinese workers and employ them. The Chinese government would also force American companies, such as they did with Yahoo in the early 2000s, to work with Chinese state security services to crack down on Chinese citizens who were believed to be violating the political order of Communist China.

American companies routinely violated what were once-believed to have been universal American values, such as privacy and freedom of speech, in order to keep their businesses in China. This pattern repeated over the years. Thus, the 1990s convergence theory gave way to reverse convergence. Rather than changing oppressive China with the power of freedom-loving Western institutions, the totalitarian Chinese were changing the nature of the Western institutions to make them more compliant with Chinese standards. The exact same thing that has befallen Western corporations doing business in China is happening to the Catholic Church. The Western institutions convince themselves that they can resist the pull of the CCP. But, that’s not the case. No Western firm doing business in China has been able to keep its standard operating procedures in place. All have caved to Beijing. The same is true of the Catholic Church.

Historically, when the British Crown wanted the ability to influence Catholic doctrine (over the matter of marriage), the English separated from the Catholic Church. The schism between Catholic and Protestant became insuperable and led to various, bloody, religious wars in Europe. Imagine how bloodless history would have been in Europe, if the Pope during that time had simply told the British monarch that special exemptions could have been made for his needs. Of course, the West would not be what it is today had it not been for that fight. Also, the Catholic Church would have lost the essence of itself if it had ceded its ecumenical authority to a worldly government, such as the one in England. Today, the Pope is not only making secret deals with the CCP, but he is willingly subverting his divine authority to placate a demonic power in Beijing.

As more information about the deal between the Vatican and the Chinese Communist Party is revealed, Catholics everywhere should be mortified. This will not strengthen Catholicism in China. It will weaken it. The deal will give the Communist Party unprecedented power and control over what should be sovereign Vatican policies. Even if the Pope does veto every one of the CCP’s preferred selections for church leadership roles in China, the fact that China must also approve of the choices means that there will be vacancies in critical church leadership positions until the Vatican and Beijing can agree on choices. This would be a de factovictory for the CCP because leaving churches leaderless will weaken the church and empower the CCP.

AMERICA First is the newest nationally-syndicated radio show in the United States, part of the Salem Radio Network. The host, Sebastian Gorka PhD., served most recently as Deputy Assistant for Strategy to the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, and is author of the New York Times bestselling book “Defeating Jihad.” His latest book is “Why We Fight: Defeating America’s Enemies – With No Apologies.” You can follow him on Twitter @SebGorka, on Facebook, and on Instagram @sebastian_gorka. AMERICA First is available on the iTunes podcast app, streams live at www.sebgorka.com, and is on YouTube. You can contact him here.

Catholic priests burn Harry Potter books in Poland

1. NEWS/LIFE – THE WORLD

Catholic priests in Poland this weekend have burned Harry Potter books, declaring them ‘inappropriate’, linking them to the ‘occult and magic.’

 

Books from the Harry Potter series by author J.K. Rowling are seen on a shelf inside Widnes Library in Widnes, Britain September 12, 2018. (Reuters Archive)

Catholic priests in Poland burned books they say are sacrilegious this weekend, including tomes from British author J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series of fantasy novels.

“We obey the Word,” priests said in a Facebook post showing photographs of the public book burning and quoting Biblical passages from the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament.

One passage exhorting believers to destroy the enemies of God includes the command to “burn their idols in the fire”.

The post, on a page run by the Catholic “SMS from Heaven” evangelical group, stirred controversy and has gone viral.

Photographs show three priests carrying a basket of books and other items, including an African-styled face mask through a church to an outside fire pit.

Priests are seen saying prayers over the fire pit where other items, including a book from the Twilight vampire-themed fantasy romance series, a ‘Hello Kitty’ umbrella and a Hindu religious figurine, are also burning.

Father Jan Kucharski, the priest in the Gdansk parish where the book burning took place, told the natemat.pl news website on Monday that they had burned items “linked to the occult and magic.”

“Aside from the books, there were talismans and amulets. Parishioners brought them to put things in order” as part of spring cleaning, added the priest, who is also listed as an exorcist on the Gdansk diocese official website.

‘Inappropriate’ 

The burning took place in front of his church after Sunday mass.

Kucharczyk dismissed comparisons to the cultural censorship of totalitarian regimes like Nazi Germany.

“We know what’s harmful to our faithful so that’s why we held an event like this. I’d even call it evangelical,” he told natemat.pl.

Contacted by AFP on Monday, the Polish Episcopate and Gdansk diocese acknowledged the incident but declined to comment.

Father Wojciech Parfianowicz, a spokesman from the Koszalin-Kolobrzeg diocese where the “SMS from Heaven” group is based, condemned the book burning as “inappropriate”.

But he told the Polish PAP news agency that the event risked “diverting attention from real spiritual dangers” posed by “the occult or magic”.

“I’d like to believe this is a joke… Seriously? Are people burning fantasy literature in the 21st century in some kind of sick ritual?!” one Facebook user said in a comment underneath the post.

“It’s hard for me to believe that we’re so backward!” the user added.

Other Facebook users, however, backed the book burning.

“Get rid of everything that does not please God and see how your life will change,” one person posted.

Child abuse scandal

Launched in 1997, the Harry Potter series of books spins an epic tale of good and evil focused on the adventures of the eponymous bespectacled young wizard as he struggles against the dark wizard Lord Voldemort.

It has sometimes drawn criticism from religious and conservative circles for what they say is its focus on witchcraft.

This latest incident comes as Poland’s influential Roman Catholic church struggles to deal with the fallout of revelations about pedophilia among priests that are unprecedented in this overwhelmingly Catholic country.

Last month, the Polish episcopate admitted for the first time that nearly 400 of its clergy had sexually abused children and minors over the past three decades.

That reflected findings published in February by a charity focused on sex abuse in the church.

A survey published in the liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza on Monday suggested that 64 percent of Poles want a secular state, with 29 percent opposed and seven percent without an opinion.

The poll was carried out March 5-11 by Kantor Millward Brown on a random representative sample of 1,500 adult Poles.

 https://www.trtworld.com/life/catholic-priests-burn-harry-potter-books-in-poland-25473

 

17 May – International Day against Homophobia

CONCIL OF EUROPE

For equality in diversity

The principle of equality and non-discrimination is a fundamental element in the protection of human rights. It is guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights (article 14) and was reinforced by Protocol No.12 to the Convention, which in a general manner, provides that no-one shall be discriminated against on any ground by any public authority.

Homophobic acts which have occurred in several states unhappily point to systematic violation of the fundamental rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (LGBTI). These occurrences have also shown that in many cases such injustice is condoned and sometimes even actively supported by the very authorities whose strict duty it is to protect their citizens against all discrimination.

Shutterstock.com

Ahead of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia marked on the 17th of May, Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland urged for justice and full protection against discrimination for all persons, irrespective of their sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics, in all the Council of Europe member states.

“There must be no discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, and this prohibition must be clearly spelled out in the law and implemented in practice in all our member States,” Thorbjørn Jagland said.

He added that the future discussions in the Committee of Ministers on the review of the 2010 Recommendation on combatting discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity will allow member states to show political will and further the progress in protecting everyone from discrimination.

The majority of the Council of Europe member states have expressly prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in their anti-discrimination legislation, or in specific laws regulating employment, education, health, goods and services. A smaller number of states have expressly banned discrimination on the gender identity basis.

Secretary General also raised the issue of medical operations required for legal gender recognition (the process of changing name and gender of transgender persons in official documents and registries).

“European states must bring their legislation and practices in line with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in this area,” he said.

• Infographic comparing respect for LGBTI rights country-by-country
• Read full press release – All lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex persons must be protected from discrimination in law and practice, says Secretary General
• Statement by Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatović
• Statement by Parliamentary Assembly General Rapporteur on the rights of LGBTI Violeta Tomić
• Statement: Harald Bergmann, the Congress’s thematic spokesperson on human rights

https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/17-may-international-day-against-homophobia

Don’t send a ‘bishop to the crime scene’: Church sex abuse survivors blast Pope Francis’ new law on reporting

Lindsay Schnell  USA TODAY

Published 11:10 AM EDT May 10, 2019

Pope Francis delivers the Urbi et Orbi blessing to the city and to the world from the balcony of St Peter’s basilica after Easter Sunday Mass at the Vatican on April 21, 2019.

AFP/Getty Images

Pope Francis delivers the Urbi et Orbi blessing to the city and to the world from the balcony of St Peter’s basilica after Easter Sunday Mass at the Vatican on April 21, 2019.

AFP/Getty Images

Peter Isely has been disappointed by the Catholic Church so many times, he’s lost count.

Isely, a survivor of sexual abuse and one of the founding members of Ending Clergy Abuse, read Thursday’s news from the Vatican, and felt another wave of frustration. The Catholic Church, Isely said, just doesn’t get it.

On Thursday, Pope Francis issued a new law that requires all Catholic priests and nuns to report clergy sexual abuse and cover-up by their superiors to church authorities. Described by some media outlets as a “groundbreaking” new law, advocates who have pushed for more transparency from the Catholic Church say this is just more of the same.

The problem, according to Isely and other advocates, is that the church doesn’t need to get itself any more involved – it needs outside input. Specifically, it needs local law enforcement to be part of the reporting process.

“Bishops reporting to themselves, that’s been the problem from the beginning,” Isely said. “All they did was add another layer of bureaucracy; this doesn’t require civil authorities. What we need are police and prosecutors.

“Let’s get the bishop to the crime scene first? Geez, that is not the guy you want. They need to watch ‘Law & Order’ to understand how this should work.”

The new law provides whistleblower protections for anyone making a report. It also states that dioceses around the world must have a system in place to receive allegations confidentially. And it outlines procedures for conducting preliminary investigations when the accused is a bishop, cardinal or religious superior.

But as Zach Hiner, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), points out, most clergy have no background in conducting investigations. That should be left to the experts.

“If the church was truly listening to the pulse of the public and of survivors, they would know that they should be mandating priests and nuns report everything to outside, secular authorities,” Hiner said.

“I get the argument that in some places of the world Catholics are discriminated against. However, for most of the world, that’s not the case. In most of the world we have police and prosecutors who care about local communities and want to keep them safe, and that’s who we charge to get to the bottom of things like this,” he said.

The new law is the latest effort from Francis to respond to the global eruption of the sex abuse and cover-up scandal that has devastated the credibility of the Catholic hierarchy for the past few decades. It also provides a new legal framework for U.S. bishops to use as they prepare to adopt accountability measures of their own next month.

The law makes the world’s 415,000 Catholic priests and 660,000 religious sisters mandated reporters, which means they are required to inform church authorities when they learn or have “well-founded motives to believe” that a cleric or sister has engaged in sexual abuse of a minor, sexual misconduct with an adult, possession of child pornography – or that a superior has covered up any of those crimes.

But the law doesn’t require them to report the incident to police, which advocates say is a problem. And as a result, Hiner doesn’t see the new law making much, if any, of a difference.

When he woke up Thursday morning and saw headlines about the “groundbreaking” news from Francis, he felt some hope. But after reading the law’s details, he just shook his head.

“This morning I got so many emails that said, ‘look, more of the status quo’ and ‘it’s just business as usual,'” Hiner said. “This is yet another example of the church not getting it, and of survivors (being) overlooked and not heard.”

The law can be applied retroactively, too, which means priests and nuns must report even old cases of abuse and cover-up and will be protected for doing so. The pope also mandated that victims be welcomed, heard and supported by the clergy’s hierarchy and offered spiritual, medical and psychological assistance. But there is no requirement about financial reparations.

Victims and advocates have long argued that bishops and religious superiors have escaped justice for having engaged in sexual misconduct themselves or failed to protect their flocks from predator priests. Bishops and religious superiors are accountable only to the pope, and only a handful have been sanctioned or removed because particularly egregious misbehavior became public.

And this new law, Isely said, won’t change much.

“This isn’t just about letting us down,” he said. “It’s about leaving children at risk. Around the world, right now, kids are at risk of being hurt. The church fails survivors over and over again – they make promises it’ll get better, and then those promises are broken.”

Contributing: The Associated Press

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/05/09/pope-francis-requires-catholic-priests-and-nuns-report-sex-abuse/1150161001/

Catholic Church’s practices have hints of organized crime

SC Times

Rob Schwegel  St. Joseph

The FBI defines transnational organized crime groups as self-perpetuating associations of individuals who operate, wholly or in part, by illegal means and irrespective of geography. They constantly seek to obtain power, influence and monetary gains.

It also states that with few exceptions, TOC groups’ primary goal is economic gain and they will employ an array of lawful and illicit schemes to generate profit.

To combat these groups, the FBI uses the RICO Act to expand criminal accountability for a number of “predicate offenses,” and to expand a single offense across multiple members of a criminal enterprise. Unlike typical investigations, which target a single criminal act, this multi-pronged approach allows the FBI to disrupt or dismantle the entire enterprise.

When we hear “organized crime,” most people will think of the Italian mafia or drug cartels. Another group may finally be added to the list — the Catholic Church.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro recently released “the results of a two-year grand jury investigation into the widespread sexual abuse of children within six dioceses of the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania and the systemic cover up by senior church officials in Pennsylvania and at the Vatican.”

The grand jury identified over 1,000 victims abused by 300 predator priests in six of Pennsylvania’s eight dioceses. Their belief is that the number of victims was in the thousands. The cover-up was massive. It involved the church leaders from top to bottom.

Anthea Butler, an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania, writes, “The grand jury report about Catholic priest abuse in Pennsylvania shows the church is a criminal syndicate … What is clear from this report — as well as the previous grand jury reports from Philadelphia in 2005 and 2011 and Altoona-Johnston in 2016 — is that the Catholic church cannot be and never should have been trusted nor expected to root out pedophiles in their midst, let alone punish them appropriately. Mercy was not extended to victims, but to perpetrators. Rules, it seems, were for the Catholics who continued to sit in the pews, not the ones who stood at the altars.”

Often the worst predator priests would be sent off to a church-owned property to live out their lives at the expense of the church. As seen locally, they could even have a beautiful view of a lake and woods.

After the Pennsylvania grand jury report was released, 15 state attorney generals have contacted Shapiro to gain insight in the workings of such a case. The Justice Department is looking at the sexual abuse of children and transporting them across state lines for illegal purposes, both RICO “predicate offenses.” Six more states have launched investigations. Illinois has identified 690 priests already. It’s time Minnesota joins the list.

The root cause of all of this is money. Had it become known early on that there were so many priests sexually abusing children, donations would have stopped. But as in many other businesses, money is power. Now the church can afford to hire high-priced attorneys and lobbyists to handle bankruptcy proceedings.

Since 2005, 19 dioceses have filed. There are church “leaders” who appear to specialize in taking dioceses into bankruptcy. Evidenced by Bishop Donald Kettler coming to the St. Cloud Diocese (which filed for bankruptcy in February 2018) after leading the Diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska through bankruptcy.

Many of us have heard the phrase “the insurance is paying.” Well, no insurance is free and think about what happened to your car insurance rates after you or your children had a couple of accidents. So yes, those of us sitting in the pews are paying.

It’s time that the state and federal government investigate the Catholic Church’s handling of the sexual abuse of children and determine whether the church truly fits the definition of a transnational organized crime group and hold it responsible.

This is the opinion of Rob Schwegel, resident of St. Joseph. He was born and raised in a Catholic household and attended Catholic grade school in St. Cloud with his brothers and sisters. His parents were founding members of St. Peter’s Catholic Church and school in St. Cloud and of St. Michael’s Church. He recently retired after 38.5 years in law enforcement. 

Published 6:00 PM EST Jan 18, 2019

https://eu.sctimes.com/story/opinion/2019/01/18/catholic-churchs-practices-have-hints-organized-crime-fbi-st-cloud-diocese-bankruptcy/2608584002/