Prayers For The Deceased

Our Father….

Hail Mary….

Glory Be….

Eternal light shine upon them, and may their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us (x3)

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us (x3)

Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel: 

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -by the Divine Power of God -cast into Hell, Satan and all the Evil Spirits,who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen

All Saints Day - 1st November

It is instituted to honour all the saints, known and unknown, and, according to Urban IV to supply any deficiencies in the faithful's celebration of saints' feasts during the year.

In the early days the Christians were accustomed to solemnize the anniversary of a martyr's death for Christ at the place of martyrdom.

In the fourth century, neighbouring dioceses began to interchange feasts, to transfer relics, to divide them, and to join in a common feast; as is shown by the invitation of St. Basil of Caesarea (397) to the bishops of the province of Pontus.

Frequently groups of martyrs suffered on the same day, which naturally led to a joint commemoration.

In the persecution of Diocletian the number of martyrs became so great that a separate day could not be assigned to each.

But the Church, feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed a common day for all.

The first trace of this we find in Antioch on the Sunday after Pentecost. We also find mention of a common day in a sermon of St. Ephrem the Syrian (373), and in the 74th homily of St. John Chrysostom (407).

At first only martyrs and St. John the Baptist were honoured by a special day.

Other saints were added gradually, and increased in number when a regular process of canonization was established; still, as early as 411 there is in the Chaldean Calendar a "Commemoratio Confessorum" for the Friday after Easter.

In the West Boniface IV, 13 May, 609, or 610, consecrated the Pantheon in Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs, ordering an anniversary.

Gregory III (731-741) consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints and fixed the anniversary for 1 November.

A basilica of the Apostles already existed in Rome, and its dedication was annually remembered on 1 May.

Gregory IV (827-844) extended the celebration on 1 November to the entire Church.

The vigil seems to have been held as early as the feast itself.

The octave was added by Sixtus IV (1471-84).

Iraqi police free Catholic hostages from Baghdad church

Iraqi police today stormed a church which had been taken over by suspected al-Qaida-linked gunmen, releasing about 100 worshippers who had been taken hostage, Iraqi and US officials said.

"The operation has finished and we released all the hostages," Brigadier General Ali Ibrahim, the commander of the federal police in south-eastern Baghdad, said.

US military officials – who watched the rescue operation from helicopters above the scene – confirmed the report.

Gunmen attacked the Syrian Catholic church in central Baghdad, detonating three bombs before fighting battles with security forces and taking hostages in the building, a security official said.

Younadam Kana, a Christian MP, said parishioners who had called him from inside the church estimated that the gunmen had held some 100 people hostage.

SIC: TG/UK

Church of Ireland loses big in AIB share wipeout

The value of the Church of Ireland's shareholding in Allied Irish Bank has plummeted by more than 17m euros (£14.7m) following the collapse of the institution's share prices. 

The Church has seen its stake in AIB dwindle from a high of 17.3m euros to just 262,500 euros (£228,000) because of the shares wipeout.

At the height of the boom four years ago, shares were priced at 23 euros (£20) each. On Thursday night prices dropped to a new low of just 34c (29p) each.

The Church of Ireland is one of the biggest individual shareholders in the AIB with 750,000 shares.

 

'Not immune'

The Representative Church Body (RCB) manages the Church's shares.

A spokesperson for the RCB said: "The Church of Ireland is not immune from the very difficult financial environment here in Ireland and worldwide, the impacts of which are creating major problems for many people, organisations, and governments.

"In common with the experience of others, invested assets held for the Church by the RCB have lost a substantial amount of value in the past few years.

"These investments are in general held for the long term, and it is expected that, over time, the value of investments should recover."

Shares in AIB sank to their lowest level since April on Thursday as news of a new executive chairman failed to re-assure the markets.

And prices are likely to fall even further when the Irish government increases its stake in the bank to 90% in December as part of a 3.7bn euros cash injection by the state.

The Church of Ireland said it will now have to adjust its spending in the wake of the loss of income from share dividends.

The spokesperson added: "The RCB on behalf of the Church seek to manage ongoing expense commitments to match lower income levels in the short to medium term, to ensure that the work of the Church continues through the ongoing economic difficulties."

According to the Irish Independent the Church of Ireland is not the only loser in the share collapse.

The Catholic Church and several charities, including the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Against Children and the Samaritans, are also reeling from significant losses.

Siobhan Creaton from the Irish Independent said the figures show how the economic collapse has affected all sectors of society.

She added: "Churches and charities are amongst the worst hit.

"The Church of Ireland are one of the single biggest shareholders. It's a huge loss on their investment.

"The church would have also earned very significant dividend payments on the shares over the years and that would have been used to fund work in their parishes and the various work they do.

"A lot of individual parishes and charities have also seen shares wiped out and dividends 

reduced."

SIC: BBC/INT'L

Police Block Sex Abuse Survivors Near Vatican

Italian paramilitary police blocked a boulevard leading to the Vatican to prevent a march in Rome on Sunday by survivors of clergy sex abuse from reaching St. Peter's Square.

When Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi came to speak with organizers Sunday evening, a protester shouted "Shame, shame" in Italian, and Lombardi left, escorted by police.

He later told The AP by telephone that if organizers want to see him he would "gladly" receive them inside his office. 

Shortly after that, one of the organizers, Gary Bergeron, did meet briefly with Lombardi and the two agreed to meet Sunday night after the end of the protest.

The event, which aims to show survivors worldwide they are not alone — is being organized by Bergeron and another Boston man, Bernie McDaid, who were abused by the same priest starting in the sixth grade. 

Bergeron said he told Lombardi that the abuse survivors have been "waiting a lifetime to be able to stand up and speak out."

Protesters held signs with slogans including "Hands off children."

Late last week, march organizers said they were denied permission to hold the event on Vatican soil. It is standard Vatican practice to ban non-Vatican-sponsored events from the square.

Lombardi said he had come to greet the organizers but when he saw "it wasn't going to be easy" he left.

Participants, who came from a dozen countries and said they were raped and molested by priests as children, flocked to Rome for the candlelit march.

At the culmination of the march, each victim planned to put a stone he or she had brought from home onto a pile — in the same way hikers leave piles of stones along mountain paths to show others that someone had been there before.

Wearing T-shirts that read "Enough!" in English, Italian and German, organizers demanded that the United Nations recognize the systematic sexual abuse of children as a crime against humanity.

At a briefing before the march, participants stood up one by one to tell how their lives had been destroyed by the abuse they suffered as children. Many recounted years of drug and alcohol addiction, eating disorders and other psychological and emotional problems.

"For 50 years I thought I was the only person in the entire world that had been abused by a Catholic priest," said Sue Cox, 63, from Warwickshire, Britain. She clarified herself: "Raped by a Catholic priest, not abused, because what he did was rape me and rape is different."

"It's taken 50 years for me to find my voice. But now I've found it, I want to continue to speak on behalf of people who maybe aren't able to speak or have not yet been able to face the fear and the guilt and shame that survivors feel."

About 50 former students of a Catholic institute for the deaf in Verona, Italy, joined the protest.

Bergeron and McDaid, met with the then Vatican No. 2 in Rome in 2003, and five years later McDaid became the first victim to meet with Pope Benedict XVI during the pontiff's trip to the United States.

Eight years after the U.S. scandal erupted in Boston, however, McDaid and Bergeron say the Vatican hasn't taken sufficient responsibility, hasn't reached out to victims or put in place universal prevention programs to ensure children are protected.

They formed a nonprofit group, Survivor's Voice, as a way to bring together victims from around the world — a campaign that kicked into gear this year after the abuse scandal exploded anew on a global scale with revelations of thousands of victims in Europe and beyond, of bishops who covered up for pedophile priests and of Vatican officials who turned a blind eye to the crimes.

Cox said she was raped in her bedroom when she was 13 by a priest who had been filling in for her parish priest and had been staying at her parents' home. Her mother discovered what had happened immediately but did nothing, and told Cox to pray for the priest.

"I felt sacrificial," she said. "I wanted to die."

By 15 she was an alcoholic, by 17 she had entered into a violent marriage. 

By 30 she was clean, and now at 63 is confronting what she calls the final piece of her recovery — "the hardest bit" — speaking out about her abuse.

SIC: NRP/INT'L

Belgian Catholic leader under fire for paedophile remarks

The head of the Belgian Catholic church, reeling from a major child abuse scandal, came under fire Thursday for asking for mercy for elderly priests facing allegations of paedophilia.

Political leaders slammed Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, a conservative close to Pope Benedict XVI who has headed the Belgian church since January, for saying retired priests should be spared what would be tantamount to "a sort of vengeance."

The statement was "unacceptable" said lawmakers Karine Lalieux and Valerie Deom, respectively of the French-speaking Socialist party and Flemish liberals, Open VLD.

Priests who abused children in their care, Leonard told RTBF television on Wednesday must be aware of what they have done "but if they're no longer working, if they have no responsibilities, I'm not sure that exercising a sort of vengeance that will have no concrete result is humane."

Leonard was making victims feel guilty, "pressuring them against exercising their rights to justice," the parliamentarians said.

"Appealing for justice is not vengeance."

Asked by RTBF TV whether it was a good thing to punish abusers, Leonard said "If they're still active, certainly."

"But do they (the victims) really want an 85-year-old priest, all of a sudden, pilloried in public?"

The church has been reeling from a paedophile scandal after a church commission last month revealed nearly 500 cases of abuse by priests since the 1950s, including 13 victims who committed suicide.

The archbishop caused an uproar earlier this month when he said AIDS was "a sort of intrinsic justice."

SIC: EXPB/EU

Appeal to Scots Catholics over papal visit debt

Scottish Catholics are being asked to dig deep to cover an £800,000 debt incurred by the Pope’s visit to Scotland.

Collections are expected to be organised on both sides of the border as the Catholic Church aims to cut by April next year a multi-million-pound shortfall left by the state visit to the UK. 

In Scotland it is estimated the church has so far raised just under half of the £1.4 million contribution it is making to the £7m pastoral cost of the UK visit. 

It would take a £4.30 donation from each of the 185,600 regular weekly Mass attendees in Scotland to cover the shortfall. 

Across the UK, the church debt is between £3.5 million and £4 million. 

Next week, letters are expected to go out to Scottish parishes appealing for increased efforts to raise the money needed to cover the cost. 

The Government covered many of the costs of the four-day trip in September, which included 65,000 pilgrims gathering for Pope Benedict XVI’s open-air mass at Bellahouston Park. 

The Church has until April next year to clear the debt.

It was hoped that a £20-a-head pilgrim contribution suggested in Scotland for those attending the Mass would help cover the costs. 

Had Bellahouston Park’s capacity of 100,000 been reached, up to £20 million could have been raised this way. 

Suggested donations for pilgrim pack admissions for those attending the prayer vigil in London’s Hyde Park were cut from £10 to £5 a matter of weeks before the visit because of complaints. 

A spokesman for the church in Scotland said it believed it was “on target” to raise the money. 

“The costs of the visit were obviously, if you like, sudden, in that there was a relatively short period to prepare, versus the situation in 1982 (when Pope John Paul II visited Glasgow) where you were talking about an 18 to 20-month lead-in time.“In comparison, we had less than half that this time round. 

There were collections taken from people round about the time of the visit and there will probably be a couple of others between now and the end of this year as a final contribution to settle all outstanding costs. We always knew that to raise these sums of money you need about a year or so. We didn’t have a year, therefore, it wasn’t all raised in advance. We wouldn’t say we are short. We would say we are right on target to raise that.” 

He said there was a mistaken belief that people were expected to pay £20 to attend the Mass. 

“What happened was that parishes were told that to defray the costs of groups going to the Mass at Bellahouston we should try to raise funds and as a guideline they should aim to raise the equivalent of £20 per person,” he said.

“How they did that was utterly up to them. It could be a parish dance, a sale of work, or just a general collection.” 

Apart from counting on contributions from dioceses to make up the shortfall, the Church is also relying on donations from the sale of the Magnificat papal visit prayer book, one million of which were printed. 

The 1982 papal visit left the church £13m in debt as it had to foot the entire bill for the pastoral tour. 

The Church has been asked for £7m for the September visit with a further £10m covered by the state – £3.7 million split between six Government departments, and £3.7m of costs coming from environment and energy budgets. 

However, neither the state nor Church budgets included the costs of policing. 

SIC: HS/UK

San Antonio Archdiocese says no more gays at weekly mass

Catholic leaders have discontinued a Mass they offered quietly for more than 15 years to the gay and lesbian community at a downtown parish- the weekly Mass at St. Ann Catholic Church was the subject of periodic complaints to the archdiocese. 

 

But until last Sunday, the local hierarchy had declined to shut it down. 

 

A handful of local priests sympathetic to the gay and lesbian community had conducted the Mass. 

 

On a weekly basis these folks and their heterosexual friends and family, would filter into the pews, and honor that age-old commandment to keep holy the Sabbath. 

 

Priests and other Catholics interested in building a better relationship between the Church and the LGBT community would attend, setting aside whatever divisions might exist the other six days of the week, and focus on reconciliation, forgiveness, and a little love between neighbors, according to Change.org. 

 

Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Cantú, the interim head of the archdiocese, told church officials the Mass conflicted with Catholic teaching because it was offered for the gay Catholic advocacy group, Dignity San Antonio. 

 

Part of the national organization, DignityUSA, it seeks the acceptance of alternative lifestyles in the Catholic Church. 

 

"The Mass … continues to send conflicting messages about the Church's official teaching concerning the proper celebration of the Eucharist and living an active homosexual lifestyle," Cantú wrote in an Oct. 13 letter to the St. Ann pastor, Father John Restrepo, as reported in the Houston Chronicle. 

 

Advocates for conservative reforms prodded previous San Antonio Archbishops José Gomez and Patrick Flores to crack down on the Mass, believing doing nothing was a sign of giving into secular culture. 

 

Advocates for the Mass concede that alternative lifestyles conflict with Catholic teachings, but they argue this Mass was an act of compassion for a Catholic community wanting to worship free of prejudice. 

 

Last Sunday was the final Mass for Dignity, which previously laid claim as the only chapter in the nation to offer a Mass on Catholic grounds. 

 

The same Masses in other cities were rejected by bishops, causing the chapters to meet at non-Catholic churches and settings or disband altogether. 

 

The news sent shock waves through the tight-knit community, whose 35 active members have attended a Dignity Mass for at least 24 years at local parishes.

 

Gatherings included many same-sex couples with children at the Mass, which was viewed as a critical link to their Catholic identity. 

 

“Our faith teaches us that the church is a community of people, not a building,” local Dignity President Fred Anthony Garza said. 

 

“So we will continue to meet in a more welcoming environment. There are many people who believe that the Catholic Church needs to do a better job of providing care for lesbian and gay people and our families, reported mysanatonio.com. 

 

Advocates for the Mass concede that alternative lifestyles conflict with Catholic teachings, but they argue this Mass was an act of compassion for a Catholic community wanting to worship free of prejudice. 

 

Catholic doctrine promotes compassion for gay people but considers any sexual activity outside of traditional marriage to be a sin and describes homosexuality as “intrinsically disordered.”

 

"We need to provide good preaching and good teaching to this community," said Father Eddie Bernal, one of several local priests to conduct the Mass. 

 

"I have met some of the most wonderful people in my life in Dignity. They've changed my life for the better. And I've learned so much." 

 

Dignity officials said they will pursue an appeal with the incoming archbishop, Chicago Bishop Gustavo García-Siller, when he takes over duties in San Antonio next month. 

 

"The decision was highly personal and unexpected," said Dignity's Garza. "It meant hurt. It means rejection. It means one more thing is compromised in our lives." 

 

Change.org is seeking help from people around the world to join in asking the San Antonio Archdiocese to respect LGBT catholic voices and allow the mass to continue for another 15 or more years , they say it's 'time to speak up." 

 

Advocates with Change.org said the decision to squash this 15-year-old service only hurts the community. 

 

Instead of focusing on labeling LGBT people as outcasts, they say to let the Archdiocese know that so many more important issues -- poverty, hunger, homelessness, education, health care -- deserve prime attention, over efforts to politicize homosexuality.

SIC: SFN/USA

Middle East synod reveals east-west tensions in the Catholic church

The Vatican hoped to use the unprecedented Synod for the Middle East to reinvigorate the eastern Catholic hierarchies and strengthen their loyalty to Rome. 

A show of solidarity with Christians in the region was to encourage spiritual revival around revitalised churches.

The stated reason for the synod was to help stem the tide of Christian emigration from the Middle East. This is a genuine concern for the Catholic church. 

The continued Christian presence in a Muslim-dominated region keeps alive the model of coexistence as a viable alternative to a "clash of civilisations" view of religions as destructive forces. It also maintains a link to Christianity's Semitic heritage and holy places.

Another motive for convening the synod, however, has become apparent during the last two weeks of intense discussions: the Vatican wants to curb the politicisation of the eastern Catholic churches. Its officials repeatedly raised concerns that Catholicism in the Middle East is being fragmented and weakened by parochialism among its various branches. 

In more veiled terms, they accused Eastern clergy of letting sectarianism go unchecked and fostering isolationist ethnic churches.

It is a classic case of the sprawling Catholic church's centre-versus-periphery dilemma. 

The Vatican views the regional situation from above, through its representation at the UN and the Arab League, and its near-global diplomatic network. 

The local churches' perspectives are grounded in the politics of their communities and countries.

The Vatican held a similar Synod for Lebanon in the 1990s. It put the spotlight on Lebanese Christians, politically marginalised and thoroughly demoralised under the post-war Pax Syriana. It bolstered their flagging sense of community, with the church as focal point. 

As such, it also succeeded in restoring the authority of the hierarchy headed by Maronite Patriarch Sfeir, to the extent that he was able, in 2000, to start a movement against Syrian domination that would culminate in the "Cedar Revolution" of 2005, with Christian politicians once again partners in government.

The Synod of Lebanon created a strong Maronite hierarchy, loyal to Pope John Paul II and his Middle East policy. 

In the process it marginalised ethno-nationalist elements within the Maronite church that had actively supported a federal solution for Lebanon. 

These were objectives that the Vatican had tried and failed to achieve through a decade and a half of heavy-handed interventions in the Lebanese church.

Pope Benedict XVI may have wanted to mimic John Paul II's approach this month, but the Arab delegates had other ideas. 

The patriarchs and bishops of the eastern Catholic churches were not interested in being told how to run their own shops. 

On the contrary, it looks like they went into the synod hoping to mobilise the Vatican's considerable political and diplomatic resources for their own ends.

Time and again they turned the discussions – which the pope sought to keep to pastoral, not political, issues – towards the Palestinian question. 

Certain comments in the statements issuing from the synod have caused offence in the Israeli establishment, potentially shaking the fragile relationship on which the Vatican relies to fulfil its policy objectives in Jerusalem and other holy sites.

Eastern patriarchs are also frustrated with the limitation of their power within the Catholic communion as a whole. Their authority is limited in Catholic canon law to local patriarchal territories in the Middle East. 

More than a century of emigration has, however, left large parts of their Eastern-rite congregations under the territorial authority of the "Patriarch of the West" – the pope.

Barely concealed beneath the official rhetoric is an age-old gripe about the distribution of power. 

Some of the eastern patriarchs have long felt that their status as heads of churches should give them parity with the pope as head of the roman church, or at least a clear superiority over western bishops. 

These aspirations are based on claims to direct succession from the apostles, who founded churches in the Middle East before going on to European centres such as Rome. 

Several Arab delegates used the synod to call for the eastern patriarchs to be "ipso facto members" of the college that elects the pope.

For all the heart-warming platitudes about unity, hope and coexistence that have and will come out of the Synod for the Middle East, the eastern and western churches have serious differences to settle.

SIC: TG/UK

SCOC says Quebec woman can sue Catholic Church for sex abuse

A Quebec woman who was sexually abused as a child at the hands of a priest will be allowed to launch a lawsuit against the Catholic Church, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday.

Shirley Christensen was abused as a child in a Quebec City parish in the late 1970s but the assaults were only reported in 2006 and they resulted in a conviction.

Christensen has tried twice to launch lawsuits but was denied by Quebec courts which said she had waited too long because of time limits on when someone can sue for damages in a civil case.

Her lawyer had argued that the previous decisions by the courts were not consistent with decisions in the rest of Canada.

Christensen alleged that during the summer of 2006, she started to recall some memories of the abuse and resulting trauma. 

She argued that she had previously been incapable of acting or launching proceedings against the church which had asked her family in the 1970s not to go to police and had moved the priest to a different parish.

Rev. Paul-Henri Lachance pleaded guilty to the sexual assault charges in 2009 and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

SIC: VS/CANADA

Missionary accuses N. Korea of torture

A Korean-American missionary who was held captive in North Korea for six weeks last year, for illegal entry, said he was beaten up by border guards and tortured by his interrogators, in “humiliating” experiences.

Robert Park, 28, walked over a frozen river into North Korea on Christmas Day, shouting that he brought God’s love and carrying a letter urging the totalitarian regime to relinquish power and free its political prisoners. 

He held a Bible and letters addressed to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, according to an Associated Press report in The Washington Post.

North Korea released him in early February, saying he had admitted to committing a crime and had repented.

Park alleged he was beaten by the border guards who detained him and that his North Korean interrogators tortured him. He said some of the abuse was sexual in nature but refused to provide details.

“What happened was very humiliating. You know … there are damages that are maybe permanent,” he said, calling the abuse “devastating.”

“I struggled with suicide a great deal since I left North Korea,” he said. “I almost committed suicide. Thankfully my family and friends helped me in America, and they placed me in a hospital.”

Nine months later - and back in the Korean Peninsula for a visit to Seoul - Park said the confession and contrition were extracted with force.

“My only regret is … the false confession,” Park told The Associated Press in an interview in Seoul. 

“People start to know how evil North Korea was and they know the confession was a lie. They knew the confession was false.”

SIC: CTH/ASIA

Pope troubled by zealous copyright protection by rich

Pope Benedict is troubled by the “excessive zeal” with which rich countries have been protecting their intellectual property rights, especially when it comes to health care in developing countries, a Vatican delegation told the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

“On the part of rich countries there is excessive zeal for protecting knowledge through an unduly rigid assertion of the right to intellectual property, especially in the field of health care,” Pope Benedict said in an Encyclical Letter quoted by the delegation at the 48th World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly last month, reports the ZeroPaid website.

 

The report said copyright holdings have become the bedrock of profits for an array of business interests, multinational corporations like those in the movie and music industry in particular and there has been an increasing push to protect them at all costs, even to the detriment of society and culture.

“The raison d’être of the protection system of intellectual property is the promotion of literary, scientific or artistic production and, generally, of inventive activity for the sake of the ‘common good,’ said the Holy See delegation.

“Thus protection officially attests the right of the author or inventor to recognition of the ownership of his work and to a degree of economic reward. At the same time it serves the cultural and material progress of society as a whole.”

SIC: CTH/ASIA

False charges of harassment against missionary beaten by 300 Hindus in Karnataka

Beaten by over 300 Hindus and humiliated by the media, Brother Phillip Noronha, a missionary of the Holy Cross and vice-rector of Holy Cross School in Whitefield (Karnataka) now has to defend himself against false accusations of sexual harassment brought by the parents of some students of his school.

Yesterday, the police, in complicity with the attackers held him for over 2 hours in the local station of Whitefield, releasing him only after payment of bail.

In the statement sent to local media, Brother Ray Sesue, CSC, provincial superior of the Missionaries of the Holy Cross, confirmed that all charges against the cleric are false and orchestrated by Hindus. 

He accuses police of being an accomplice of the attackers whose aim is simply to expropriate the Catholic school’s land in favour of the close by Hindu temple. 

"There was a serious violation of human rights against brother Phillip - he says - all the accusations are unfounded infamy”. 

The province notes that the authors of the beating, including the parents of two students, have repeatedly threatened the cleric for his excessive interest in the dispute over the ownership of the land between the school and the Hindu temple. 

The allegations of harassment stem from when he was forced – while being beaten – to admitted the use of bad language words in class. 

"All of this - continues Brother Sesue - confirms that these people had other reasons to attack brother Phillip, than those they reported to the police and the media. 

He never - he continues - used foul language in class and has never behaved inappropriately with students.

Brother Sesue denounces the conduct of the police who after the beating held the missionary for over two hours, first to present his version of events from reaching Whitefield authorities. 

The province also stresses that the accusations of harassment against brother Phillip were submitted October 24, while the lynching took place on 23. 

This would have facilitated the trial  against him.

"We ask the authorities - he adds - to take immediate action against those who attacked brother Phillip and against all those who are behind this conspiracy."

SIC: AN/INT'L

Baptists are fined, beaten, their Bibles seized, all for praying “without authorisation”

In Uzbekistan, Baptists are systematically persecuted, beaten, victims of raids and illegal Bible seizures by police officers - several members of community have been heavily fined just for praying together.

In the Central Asian country, any activity by unregistered religious groups, like praying, is “illegal”.

Baptists in Samarkand told the Forum 18 news agency that on 15 August about 20 police officers raided a private home during a celebration. 

People were struck, threatened, videotaped against their will; Bibles were even torn from the hands of children. 

Police eventually took down everyone’s name, and seized the passport of Veniamin Nemirov, the owner of the house. Forum 18 reported that police detained, summoned and intimidated some of the same people a few days later. 

On 17 August, one Vladimir Abramov was beaten because he refused to sign a statement.

During the raid, police seized Bibles, hymnbooks and other religious literature. 

The Religious Affairs Committee refused to return them, saying that only registered religious groups can use them. 

Since Baptists in Samarkand are not a recognised group, the material is “illegal”.

On 21 September, a judge imposed heavy fines (the equivalent of 7 to 11 months of wages) on five Baptists (Veniamin Nemirov, Vladimir Abramov, Alisher Abdullaev, Mikhail Lyubivy and Lyubov Lyubivaya) for taking part in an unauthorised religious service and for “teaching religious beliefs without specialised religious education and without permission from the central organ of a [registered] religious organisation".

The convictions were upheld on 14 October by the Appeal Court in Samarkand. Theoretically, the decision means that teaching one’s religion to one’s children is illegal.

The five Baptists are not taking the decision lying down. They told the court that Article 29 of the Uzbek constitution guarantees “freedom of thought, speech and convictions.” 

They also complained about the beating they received and the intimidation they had to endure.  

The authorities, for their part, have denied all the allegations and have refused any investigation into the claims made by the Baptists.

SIC: AN/INT'L

Religious activist refuses to clarify involvement

A RELIGIOUS campaigner who is alleged to have supported the parents of the six children at the centre of the Roscommon abuse case did not respond to media queries yesterday.

A court heard last year that a “Catholic right-wing organisation” helped the parents secure a High Court injunction in 2000 to prevent the children being taken into care.

During this case, a childcare manager at the HSE separately told the court he had been contacted by a woman called Mina Bean Uí Chroibín around the time of the application.

She had said the family needed support rather than intrusive action by the health board.

The childcare manager said he had no evidence that she was involved in the application, but he suspected it.

Yesterday, associates of Bean Uí Chroibín said she was not available to comment on whether she had intervened in attempts by the health board to have the children at the centre of the Roscommon case taken into care.

She has previously insisted she had no involvement in the mother’s legal battles and that her name should not have been brought up in court.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Bean Uí Chroibín was a high-profile activist and campaigned against what she once described as the “deliberate destruction of the Irish Catholic Church”.

In 1994, she insisted the Scoil Paipin Naofa school, housed on lands owned by her, only teach the traditional Catholicism of the Tridentine faith.

The dispute over religious education saw parents remove their children from the all-Irish primary school and Bean Uí Chroibín clashed with the Archbishop’s office after she allegedly banned diocesan advisers and authorities from becoming involved with the school.

In another incident four years later, she was one of a group of protesters who disrupted a meeting at a school in Trim, Co Meath, where parents were being given details of a new relationship and sexuality programme to be taught to primary schoolchildren.

The Roscommon report published this week by the HSE does not include any names, but it does refer to a “Ms B” who contacted the Garda shortly after the High Court injunction was secured in October 2000.

This woman told the Garda that anyone who attended a case conference relating to the family would be in breach of the High Court order. She said she was a teacher and that the family had stayed with her the night before attending the High Court case.

In her interview with the Roscommon inquiry team, the mother of the children confirmed that the family had received help from a group that had some local representatives and had been involved in assisting the family with the High Court action.

“They got together with me and persuaded me differently,” the mother told the inquiry team.

In response to a question as to whether the court intervention helped the children, the mother replied: “No, I should have kept to the plan [shared parenting]”.

Ms B also wrote to the then minister for children asking that she write to the Western Health Board telling them to stop “persecuting” the family. 

The minister later responded that the department had inquiries made on behalf of Ms B and advised that it would be inappropriate to comment on an individual case.

The report says Ms B was also present in court, along with other supporters, in 2001 when the health board made another application for supervision orders in respect of the six children. This application was adjourned on a number of occasions.

A childcare manager also told the inquiry that he received a letter, dated August 10th, 2001 from Ms B, describing how workers from her organisation would help the family and indicating that she had local workers involved.

She asked that the Western Health Board withdraw all of their workers for six months to “allow the children forget the threat of removal”.

SIC: IT/IE

Catholic parish rejects homophobia

The Roman Catholic Church is not often associated with embracing LGBT people, but an increasing number of parishes continue to challenge these homophobic attitudes.

Founded by the Augustinians of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, St. Mary of Grace Independent Catholic Parish hopes to serve LGBT parishioners other congregations have turned away. Father Joseph Augustine Menna, pastor at St. Mary of Grace, told EDGE the idea of papal infallibility, which the First Vatican Council defined in 1870, has never sat well with him as it does not allow for change.

"I have always had an early church ecclesiology where communities gathered more locally around a bishop and the bishops were collegial in their approach to church-power was not as centralized," said Menna. "With regard to the Roman denomination of Christianity, and some other mainline denominations, their centralized structure of power allows for very little chance of change. I do hope more faith communities through reflection and prayer and openness to the Holy Spirit come to see LGBT persons as those on the margins who Jesus himself reached out to save and release from the bonds of injustice."

Renting space out of the Unitarian Church of Delaware County in Media, Pa., St. Mary of Grace holds Mass every Sunday at 6 p.m. While the sermon and liturgy are almost identical to those given in traditional parishes, Menna stressed the message is always one of acceptance and love. [Pope Benedict XVI described homosexuality as "a deviation, an irregularity [and] a wound" in his 2008 holiday address to the Curia.]

"I would encourage them to know that God has made them wonderfully just as they are and has a plan to use them in salvation history," said Menna, describing what he would tell a LGBT person struggling with their faith. "I would also humbly ask them not to run against all religion, and certainly not God. Finally, I would encourage them to find another Catholic tradition that embraces and celebrates who they are."

Not all LGBT-friendly Catholic groups reject the Roman Catholic Church. DignityUSA works within the church to promote respect and justice for all LGBT people through education, advocacy and support. But Bishop Timothy Michael Cravens, who presides over St. Mary’s, questions whether it is possible to promote equality within the Catholic patriarch.

"I certainly wish the people of Dignity well, but I think that the way the Roman Catholic Church is structured where the Pope has absolute power-it’s not a democratic organization and I don’t really think ultimately organizations like Dignity are going to be successful in their quest for equality within the Roman Catholic Church," Cravens told EDGE. "That said, for people who want to stay within the Roman Catholic Church, if they find Dignity a viable spiritual community then I wish them well and that while we might not have an identical approach we’re happy for people to hear the gospel from whoever preaches it."

Cravens, who has married countless same-sex couples, is confident marriage equality will become a reality within the next few years. He said a "lack of courage" among legislators will force the courts to decide the issue once and for all.

"We have one sacrament of marriage, so there is a same sex marriage and an opposite sex marriage-from a modern theological standpoint it’s completely the same," said Cravens. "It’s about two people who love each other making a lifelong commitment to be faithful to one another, to love one another, to start a family together with or without children. As a gay man, it’s always been very moving for me to see people who may have never thought this was possible within the context of the church to be able to share their love together."

SIC: EDGE/USA

December deadline set for Cloyne abuse report

The Government has given the Commission of Investigation into clerical child sex abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne another two months to complete its report.

The Commission was asked to investigate the Cloyne Diocese in January 2009, after another investigation by the National Board for Safeguarding Children found that child protection practices in the diocese were inadequate and dangerous.

The Commission had been due to submit its report to Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern by the end of this week.

However, a spokesman for Mr Ahern has confirmed that the Government had decided to give the Commission until 31 December to complete its work.

It is understood that the Commission hopes to submit its report to Mr Ahern before Christmas.

 
However, even if that happens it is likely to be the New Year at the earliest before the report is published.

SIC: RTÉ/IE

Wedding couple 'abused' by celebrant

A couple who believed they were renewing their wedding vows at a romantic resort in the Maldives were instead subjected to a tirade of abuse in the local language by the man conducting the 'ceremony', it has been claimed.

Government officials and tourism authorities expressed outrage after a video of the event surfaced on the Youtube website.

In the video, purportedly taken at the Vilu Reef Beach and Spa resort, a man performs a service in the native Dhivehi language, but is heard to call the English-speaking couple ‘infidel’ and ‘swine’ and declaring their marriage 'illegal'.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) said the couple was from Switzerland and quoted Vilu Reef general manager Mohamed Rasheed as saying the ceremony was held on October 11th.

International media organisations and local Minivan News  transcribed a translation of the celebrant’s rants.

The video shows the couple sitting in a shelter on the beach, surrounded by people.

The bride is wearing a white dress and carrying a bouquet. Incense, documents and wedding rings lie on the table in front of the couple. The celebrant first explains the ceremony in English and then those gathered hold their hands up to pray.

Instead of prayers, however, the celebrant unleashes a wave of abuse about the couple in the Dhivehi language.

"Your marriage is not a valid one. You are not the kind of people who can have a valid marriage. One of you is an infidel. The other, too, is an infidel - and we have reason to believe - an atheist, who does not even believe in an infidel religion," the Minivan  newspaper quoted him as saying.

"You fornicate and make a lot of children. You drink and you eat pork. Most of the children that you have are marked with spots and blemishes. These children that you have are bastards."

The camera focuses on the paperwork in front of him, which local media say was not a marriage document but employment contracts - he then begins to read from these.

The celebrant also makes references to bestiality, sexual diseases and "frequent fornication by homosexuals".

Later, as the couple plant a coconut tree together, various comments are made in Dhivehi about the bride's breasts.

Deputy tourism minister Ismail Yasir told the BBC most people in the Maldives were furious about what had taken place and he hoped the couple would be given compensation.

"We are embarrassed as well, and very outraged," he said of the tourism ministry.

Foreign minister Ahmed Shaheed said he was “shocked and horrified” to see the video.

"I could not see the entire video because my children were around and I did not want them to hear the bad language that was used,” he said.

Sun Investments, which owns the resort, issued a statement condemning the employees’ unforgivable” activity.

Mr Rasheed told AFP the company had apologised to the couple and had taken disciplinary action against those involved.

SIC: IT/IE