The Vatican’s Finance Chief Cardinal George Pell, who is a top adviser to Pope Francis, has made a second appearance at an Australian court on sexual abuse charges.

The frail-looking Pell, who is the most senior Catholic Church official facing such charges, attended the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday.

He intended to challenge what has been described as historical charges, meaning that the alleged offenses took place a long while ago.

He appeared at the largely administrative court flanked by police officers and did not react to a group of loud protesters carrying signs that condemned the extensive involvement of Catholic clerics in the sexual abuse of minors and aspiring priests.

Pell is accused of committing multiple sexual offenses, which he strongly denies.

Culled from Presstv

Lamenting that child soldiers who should be in school in the Central African Republic “have been given guns instead of pens,” Cardinal Dieudonne Nzapalainga of Bangui, the national capital, said that violence in the country has “sacrificed” a whole generation of promising youth.

Speaking exclusively to Crux in Yaounde in neighboring Cameroon, Nzapalainga spoke of a “lost generation” in his war-torn nation. “Children should not be carrying arms. They should be in school,” he said, before describing the youths as “a lost generation, because they are born into violence.”

Frequently drugged, Central Africa’s young people are manipulated by politicians to take up arms against segments of the society, thereby “creating tensions between Christians and Muslims,” the cardinal explained, in attempts to dispel the perception that the conflict in the CAR is a conflict of religions.

In this Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2014 photo, Bangui Cardinal Dieudonne Nzapalainga blesses Catholic faithful as he visits an aid distribution point inside a makeshift camp housing an estimated 100,000 displaced people, at Mpoko Airport in Bangui, Central African Republic. (Credit: AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell.)

The cardinal drew parallels with what the Boko Haram insurgents are doing in Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger. “They force children to wear bombs and explode,” he said. “That is not the face of religion in these countries.” Stressing the non-religious nature of the conflict, Nzapalainga told Crux that “those who give out weapons are not imams, pastors or priests … people do not fight for the Koran or the Bible. They fight for diamond, gold, cows, to make money; they fight for political positioning, but in doing so, they use young people as sacrificial lambs.”

He said politicians give young people money and tell them to attack their opponents, and, in the face of excruciating poverty, many lack the moral strength to reject such offers. According to the United Nations, armed groups have recruited an estimated 10,000 orphaned children as fighters in the CAR.

A spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, Marixie Mercado, told a news conference in Geneva that recruitment is happening on all sides, with reasons including poverty, despair, desire for revenge, and the general lack of options for children. There have been multiple reports of girls being used as sex slaves.

Violence as a means of acquiring political power has long been a part of the culture in the CAR. But the current crisis escalated in 2013 when a mainly Muslim coalition, called the Séléka, overthrew then-President François Bozizé, accusing the government of failing to abide by a 2007 peace deal.

Fighting between the two groups intensified, and, in September 2013, Djotodia disbanded the Séléka coalition that brought him to power because the movement had become too divided. Djotodia himself resigned in January 2014, giving power to the then Mayor of Bangui, Catherine Samba-Panza.

A cease-fire agreed by the two camps in Brazzaville in July in 2014 didn’t last. By the end of the year, the predominantly Christian anti-Balaka were controlling the South and West of the country, and the mostly Muslim ex-Seleka controlled the north and east. The central government thus had little real control.

“Outside the capital Bangui, power rests in the hands of armed groups,” Nzapalainga said. “They control the transport infrastructure, they control the tax system, and they control everything. Government has soldiers, but they are badly trained and ill-equipped.”

Over a dozen armed groups control large parts of the country, exercising authority in various sectors, generally including economic activity. The CAR has known several conflicts since independence in 1960 and multiple attempts at peace, but reconciliation has remained elusive. The latest effort came in June, when a peace deal between the government and 13 armed groups was signed. That happened in the confines of an ancient gilded room in Rome belonging to the Community of Sant’Egidio, a movement known for its active role in conflict resolution.

The signatories said the document was a “road map” towards a solution to the crisis that was meant to open “the path to pacification in the Central African Republic.” But the accord lasted only 24 hours, with fighting then erupting in areas such as Bangassou, Alindao, and Bria regions.

Nzapalainga was reported to have initialed the peace agreement, but later denied any involvement, criticizing it for leaving “the door open to impunity for the perpetrators of violence.” However, he welcomed all initiatives intended to bring peace to the troubled country. “The Church has always stood for non-violence,” he told Crux. “Christ tells us that he who kills is in darkness, and if I succeed to tell someone to drop their gun, then I have won a soul.”

He said the Church has done enormous work to bring hope to the afflicted. It opens church doors to those fleeing the violence, and has mobilized the international community to come and help. “People have donated food, clothes, and some charities have contributed funds so we continue providing for those who have lost everything,” he said.

Remarkably young for a cardinal at 50, when Nzapalainga was named a Prince of the Church by Pope Francis in November 2016, he was the very first born after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65.)

Source: Crux

Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell arrived back in Australia on Monday ahead of a court appearance later this month over historical sex abuse charges. The 76-year-old, a top advisor to Pope Francis, touched down in Sydney and was met by security before being whisked away in a waiting car.

He has been ordered to face a Melbourne court on July 26 for a preliminary hearing on multiple sexual assault charges related to offences allegedly committed decades ago, when he was a senior cleric in Australia. The former Sydney and Melbourne archbishop has always maintained his innocence and strenuously denies the allegations. Details of the charges have not been made public although police said they involved “multiple complainants.”

A spokesperson for Pell said in a statement he would be making no comment, but was grateful for “the numerous messages of support he continues to receive.” “When he was told of the charges by Victoria Police Cardinal Pell said in Rome he totally rejected the allegations, was completely innocent of the charges and would return to Australia to vigorously defend himself and clear his name,” said the statement.

Pell, unofficially considered the number three in the Vatican hierarchy, said from Rome after being charged late last month that he was “looking forward finally to having my day in court.” Pell has been granted a leave of absence by the Pope, who made clear the cardinal would not be forced to resign his post as head of the Vatican’s powerful economic ministry.

The charges coincided with the final stages of Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, ordered in 2012 after a decade of pressure to investigate widespread allegations of institutional paedophilia.

The commission has spoken to thousands of survivors and heard claims of child abuse involving churches, orphanages, sporting clubs, youth groups and schools. Pell appeared before the commission three times, once in person and twice via video-link from Rome. In one hearing, he admitted that he “mucked up” in dealing with paedophile priests in Victoria State in the 1970s.

(Source: AFP)

Pope Francis has refused to extend the mandate of the head of the Vatican office that handles sex abuse cases, replacing the conservative cardinal who is said to have been “at odds” with the pontiff’s attempts to create a more inclusive Church. In a brief Vatican statement on Saturday, Pope Francis appointed the deputy of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, as the new head of the office, declining to renew the five-year mandate of Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, its former head.

The 69-year-old Mueller allegedly had frequent clashes with the Pope over key reform issues, criticizing the pontiff’s openness to allowing civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion. The German cardinal had also censured parts of a 2016 papal treatise called “Amoris Laetitia” (The Joy of Love), a cornerstone document of Francis’ attempts to make the 1.2 billion-member Church more inclusive and less condemning, according to Reuters.
Mueller’s successor, the 73-year-old Ladaria from Spain had been appointed to the CDF by former Pope Benedict in 2008 and is said to be a soft-spoken person. “They (Ladaria and the Pope) speak the same language, and Ladaria is someone who is meek. He does not agitate the pope and does not threaten him,” said a priest who works in the Vatican and knows both Mueller and Ladaria, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Clearly, the Pope and Cardinal Mueller have not been on the same page for five years.”

The head of the CDF enjoys the most important position in the Vatican hierarchy after the Secretary of State, and most incumbents keep the post until they retire at the traditional age of 75. Mueller had been appointed to the powerful department by former Pope Benedict in 2012. In another major shakeup of the Vatican’s administration, the Pope granted a Vatican finance chief, Cardinal George Pell, a leave of absence from his position to return to his native Australia to face trial on sexual assault charges.

The Roman Catholic Church has been hit by numerous scandals in the past few years, involving allegations of covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests to protect pedophiles and the reputation of the Church. The issue of abuses being concealed by the Church has left many child rights defenders, including Christians, disgruntled by the Church and has put Church authorities on the defensive.

Pope Francis, who was appointed in 2013 with a plan to overhaul the Vatican, has warned that there will be “no privileges” for bishops when it comes to child sex offenses. The pontiff also promised more action in response to accusations of cover-up and excessive leniency by the Vatican.

Source: Presstv

A new study shows that attending religious services like those at mosques, churches or synagogues may help you live longer. “We found in our study that actually attending church is actually good for your health, particularly for those who are between the ages of 40 and 65,” said Marino Bruce, the associate director of Vanderbilt’s Center for Research on Men’s Health, in a video posted on Vanderbilt University’s website on Friday.

The study showed reduced mortality risk by 55% for those middle-aged adults who go to churches, synagogues, mosques or other houses of worship. The study on “Church Attendance, Allostatic Load and Mortality in Middle Aged Adults” was published in the Plos One journal in May. “For those who did not attend church at all, they were twice as likely to die prematurely than those who did who attended church at some point over the last year,” Bruce said.

For the study a total of 5,449 participants of both sexes and races were recorded. The researchers used publicly available data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which is collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

“I’m ordained clergy so I’m always about what do we mean by our spiritual health. Does spiritual health matter with respect to biological outcomes?” Bruce added.  The study focused on the participants’ survey results, analyzing their worship attendance, mortality and allostatic load, which is a physiological measurement, and social support.

Bruce further emphasized, “While churches are places where people can get social support, we actually found that and began to think about whether compassion is particularly important — feeling that you’re doing good or having empathy for others.”

Culled from Presstv

Pope Francis has likened the detention camps set up by European states to hold refugees to concentration camps. “Refugee camps, many of them, are of concentration [conditions] because of the great number of people left there, inside them,” the leader of the Roman Catholic Church said during a sermon at the Basilica of Saint Bartholomew in Rome on Saturday.

He reprimanded the European states for exercising collective apathy toward the plight of the refugees by sealing the continent’s borders, and advised European leaders to uphold and defend human and refugee rights. The Pope encouraged European leaders to welcome more refugees rather than devise new means of how to stem their flow.

In March, the Pope said Europe had been founded on the basis of multiculturalism. “Europe finds new hope when she refuses to yield to fear or close herself off in false forms of security. Quite the contrary, her history has been greatly determined by encounters with other peoples and cultures; hers is, and always has been, a dynamic and multicultural identity,” the pontiff said back then in an address to the leaders of the European Union (EU) member states, who had gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which led to the formation of the bloc.

Refugees fleeing from war and persecution in the Middle East and North Africa have been heading to Europe in hopes of rebuilding their lives. Many European countries, subsumed by xenophobia or fears of terrorist infiltration, have enforced strict regulations to prevent refugee arrivals. Some countries, particularly those on the EU’s external borders, have closed their borders to refugees altogether.

Presstv

Pope Francis has dismissed a Roman Catholic priest from New Hampshire who was convicted of stealing $300,000 from a hospital, a bishop and a deceased priest’s estate.

Monsignor Edward Arsenault, who served as the face of the church in the state during a sex abuse scandal, pleaded guilty to three theft charges in 2014 and is serving a jail sentence.

The Diocese of Manchester said Friday that Arsenault no longer has “faculties to act, function, or present himself as a priest.” Prosecutors said Arsenault billed the church for lavish meals and travel for himself and often a male partner.

He was convicted of writing checks from the dead priest’s estate to himself and his brother and billing a hospital $250 an hour for consulting work he never did.

Presstv

Rev. Father Ludovic Lado has condemned the Rectors Conference of Italian Universities and the Vatican for the red carpet treatment accorded the evil butcher of Yaoundé, President Paul Biya. In a strongly worded academic article entitled “Diplomacy as Hypocrisy: the Biya system in Rome and the Vatican”, the Cameroonian prelate expressed his disapproval of the honors granted to Mr. Biya during his last visit to Italy and the Vatican observing that both the Vatican and the Italian government are aware that the system Biya has been embodying for nearly 35 years continues to crush and repress the Cameroonian people.

Father Ludovic pointed out that the Gold Medal awarded to Paul Biya by the Rectors’ Conference of Italian Universities (CRUI) for his achievements in the field of higher education is more like a mockery to the millions of poor Cameroonians. The much respected Revered Father Ludovic Lado also opined that the Biya visit to Rome and the Vatican was nothing but “diplomacy of hypocrisy punctuated by compromises and silences accomplices and guilt.”

On the visit of Paul Biya to the Vatican, Father Ludovic wonders what the Pope and the President of Cameroon could well say. “When I learn that President Biya will be received by Pope Francis, the Head of the Roman Catholic Church, I cannot help but think of the dialogue between Jesus and Pilate during his passion. Jesus who said to Pilate: “I was born and I came into the world to bear witness to the truth. Whoever is of the truth hears my voice. And Pilate said unto him, what is truth? (Jn 18: 37-38). I then wondered whether the dialogue between President Biya and the Pope will be centered on truth, the one that will liberate Mr Biya and his people (Jn 8:32).

Father Ludovic regretted that the Church is moving away from its own teachings in the name of diplomacy. Diplomacy is a system whose very essence is hypocrisy and it is a game of masks and images that overshadows the truth and feeds on human lives.

By Sama Ernest with files from Cameroun Info.Net

Pope Francis received Paul Biya, President of the Republic of Cameroon, in a private audience at the Vatican on Thursday. A press release from the Holy See Press Office said their talks were “cordial.”

During the discussions, the good relations existing between the Holy See and Cameroon were mentioned, as well as the important contribution of the Church to the development of the country, particularly in the fields of education and care.

The peaceful co- existence and mutual respect among the different religious groups was also on the agenda and attention was paid to the importance of promoting national cohesion, strengthening the richness of the various historical and cultural traditions of the country, Human rights and minorities.

The Holy Father and the Cameroonian dictator also exchanged “views on certain topics of international interest, with particular reference to the current challenges affecting the region. President Biya later met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, who was accompanied by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary of State in charge of Relations.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai