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Kenya: Sex Abuse Bishop Was Quietly Retired

Walter Menya and Giuseppe Liguori

Nairobi — A Missionary order has pledged to cooperate with the authorities in investigations into a bishop who left Kenya after being accused of sexual abuse.

Responding to questions by the Nation into the circumstances surrounding the retirement and departure of Ngong Catholic Bishop Cornelius Schilder, the General Superior of the St Joseph's Missionary Society Rev Anthony Chantry replied:

"With regard to recent allegations that have been made in the Kenyan Press, our Society will cooperate with any civil enquiry which may be initiated in the best interests of safeguarding children and vulnerable adults."

The Archbishop of Nairobi John Cardinal Njue, who has been directly responsible for administering the Ngong Diocese since Bishop Schilder left, said he did not know the reasons behind the 2009 departure.

The Cardinal said he only knows that the bishop was allowed by the Vatican to retire early on health grounds. He also said he was not the Archbishop of Nairobi at the time.

During the period that claims against Bishop Schilder were investigated, the Catholic church was under Archibishop Ndingi Mwana a' Nzeki. Efforts to reach Archbishop Ndingi were not successful as staff at his office said he was ill and could not talk to the press.

Since taking over the Ngong diocese, Cardinal Njue said, no issues about the conduct of the former bishop had been brought to his attention; and therefore he would not comment. The Cardinal asked why the issue was being raised long after it was concluded and Bishop Schilder left the country.

However, there is credible information that a church inquiry initiated locally and then referred to the Vatican had found the allegations against Bishop Schilder, a Dutchman affiliated with the Mill Hill missionaries, as credible. The alleged offences were committed when he served as a priest in Ngong diocese before taking over as Bishop in November 2003.

The Ngong diocese comprises Kajiado, Transmara and Narok districts with 29 parishes with an estimated 101,870 Catholics out of a population of 960,303. That Bishop Schilder faced such accusations was confirmed by Fr Alphons Eppink, who was the Superior of the Mill Hill Missionaries in Kenya between 2005 and 2008 during the period of investigations.

Reached in Oosterbeek, Netherlands, where he is now based, Fr Alphons confirmed that there were investigations against Bishop Schilder.

However he said the matter was finalised at the Vatican and therefore he was not in a position to give any information. "I was in Kenya during the investigations but I don't want to comment, really," he concluded, "I am afraid I cannot comment because the case was handled by Rome".

Fr Alphons however confirmed that Bishop Schilder was no longer allowed to publicly celebrate Mass, an indication that he left the pulpit in disgrace rather than by ordinary retirement.

Approached by the Nation, Javier Herrera Corona, Secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature-- the Vatican representative office--in Nairobi, denied any knowledge that Bishop Schilder was edged out because of unacceptable activities. However, he insisted that the activities of one individual should not be used to besmirch the church.

"We have to distinguish the public life of a person and the private side. What a person does in private should be left to him to answer and not drag a whole community to answer on his behalf," said Fr Javier. Fr Javier would neither confirm nor deny that Bishop Schilder faced such accusations, but asked that the matter be left alone. "It is not the right time to bring this matter to the public," he said. The Vatican envoy however defended the Nunciature from any blame, explaining that there is little it can do where a member of the clergy is accused of sexual abuse. The Vatican representative said that church rules require that a priest found engaging in sex abuse should face secular law. However, this did not happen in the case of Bishop Schilder. It was never reported to the police according to Ngong DC Hiram Kahiro.

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Theologian reflects on church controversy

John Dwyer was a Jesuit Priest for almost a decade until he asked the Vatican for Laicization so he could marry, He then went on and taught theology for years. Dwyer is now retired, but his knowledge of the Catholic religion is still sharp. Dwyer thinks that recent public debate about weather or not Governor Cuomo should be allowed to receive communion because he is living with his girlfriend, should remain private.

"This is a matter of personal choice and decision. its not a matter for discussion in the public forum." said Dwyer.

Dwyer though that Bishop Howard Hubbard's response to the criticism last week was right on, when he called the issue "a pastoral matter".

Meantime, Gary Mercure, convicted two weeks ago of raping two boys while he was a priest in Queensbury in the 80's is allowed to receive communion. Hubbard asked for his Laicization, which removes him from the priesthood but that does not prevent him from receiving communion. Dwyer explains, "Because the Eucharist is not a reward, but strength for the weak and strength for the sinner."

Excommunication is the most severe penalty imposed by the church but according to Dwyer, it can only be imposed for certain sins.

"The catholic teaching according to canon law would argue that excommunication is automatic for procuring abortion, not for other sins. It's not in favor of the other sins by any means but they do not bring about excommunication."

Related Multimedia Theologian Reflects on Gov. Cuomo Church Controversy Marci Natale speaks with a theologian about the controversy surrounding a Catholic Canon Law expert criticizing Governor Cuomo for living with his girlfriend and recieving commuion. Full version Read more at www.cbs6albany.com

 

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U.S. diplomat in Rome hails from Leesville

By WANDA BEAIRD

Leesville Daily Leader

Nathan Bland

Fort Polk, La. — Nathan Bland, a 1996 graduate of Leesville High School who works as a United States diplomat assigned to the United States Embassy to the Holy See, attributes part of his success to the diversity and support he found in his hometown. The Holy See, according to the U.S. Department of State, is the universal government of the Catholic Church and operates from the Vatican City State, a sovereign, independent territory of 0.44 square kilometers (0.17 square miles). The Pope is the ruler of both the Vatican City State and the Holy See. The Holy See, as the supreme body of government of the Catholic Church, is a sovereign juridical entity under international law. "My parents inspired me," Bland wrote in an e-mail to the Leesville Leader.  "They served our country for  a long time and they were not afraid of change." The willingness of his parents to live far from home led to Bland's being born in Germany, he said. Their insistence that he study abroad at least one semester in undergraduate school led him to both London and Hong Kong. He eventually obtained a master's degree in diplomacy and international relations as well as a masters degree in Asian studies. "If it wasn't for my parents' gentle nudging, things may not have turned out the way they did," Bland said. Bland went on to write in his email that while his family lived in Leesville, he attended second through eighth grade at East Leesville Elementary School, Vernon Middle School and Leesville Junior High School. After completing the eighth grade in the Leesville schools, his family moved to Fort Drum, New York for a year and a half before moving back to the Leesville area where he completed high school at Leesville High School. "I feel fortunate to have grown up in Leesville," Bland wrote. Fort Polk made Leesville much more diverse than many other parts of Louisiana. "I found that this diversity was a great opportunity for me to come into contact with other cultures early in life. I had such a great support network of parents and teachers who genuinely cared." Bland said that it was his parents, friends and teachers who nurtured him in the direction that would eventually lead him to the Vatican. "I have high hopes that I am also able to frame the future of my child the way my parents have framed my life," he said.  To Bland, black history month is an opportunity to explore in depth the African-American heritage, he said.  The current trend for Black History Month in the United States and in our public diplomacy efforts overseas, Bland wrote, is to get beyond Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and explore other areas of African-American heritage that are not commonly showcased. Bland said that this year, he's decided to delve further into King, especially King's other writings and speeches that don't usually make the average high school textbooks, such as his the speech "The Rising Tide of Racial Consciousness" which King delivered in September of 1960 for the golden anniversary conference of the National Urban League. "I was born in 1978, so fortunately I did not experience the blatant, in-your-face, segregated-type of racism that my Mom and Dad had likely experienced growing up as children in Louisiana and Mississippi," said Bland. "This is not to say that I haven't experienced unpleasant incidents in my life where I suspected racism may have been at play, but compared to what went on during King's era, these events were relatively light." Bland wrote that King had encouraged the African-American community to take a good, hard look at itself while acknowledging that the community's sub-par performance and standards were a direct result of the "legacy of slavery and segregation, inferior schools, slums and second-class citizenship." King also said that it was no longer acceptable to use oppression as an excuse. According to Bland, King began to call out many of the ills he observed of African-American Society, from the frivolous spending to the high crime rate as he asked parents to encourage the youth to strive for excellence and not just mediocrity. Read more at www.leesvilledailyleader.com

 

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It appears that the Vatican owns some very nice art, including the Pieta, worth -- well, worth whatever a Michelangelo goes for these days, one supposes. Treslan dumps on the Romists for not selling the thing and giving the net proceeds to the poor.

Amplify’d from www.owensoundsuntimes.com

Attack on Vatican a cheap shot

Editor:

Apart from good manners, the most immediate victim of Erroll Treslan's in your face atheism is his golf game.

That his unorthodox back-swing and risible short game will be deprived of divine intervention is not an immoderate loss. I leave it to other readers to lament the odds of his personal salvation, as they have. As one with a more expansive view of who all gets in, my guess is that his ticket will be punched any-ways and I look forward to him eating crow while Saint Paul opts for rack of lamb.

By my count, his Irreligiosity columns have veered from the gratuitous insult to the banal book review and landed firmly in the realm of the hypocritical put down. Let us take these in reverse order.

I mentioned the hypocritical. It appears that the Vatican owns some very nice art, including the Pieta, worth -- well, worth whatever a Michelangelo goes for these days, one supposes. Treslan dumps on the Romists for not selling the thing and giving the net proceeds to the poor. Specifically, we are told that the proceeds could buy an awful lot of pediatric facial surgery in sub- Saharan Africa. I leave aside whether enough has been spent on that continent (though on reading Dambisa Moyo's critique of Third World help, Dead Aid, I think one trillion spent on Africa since 1962 with virtually nothing to show for it is in fact quite enough).

The attack on the Vatican is a cheap shot. I would take all that Catholics have done to combat poverty relative to what Ontario humanists have managed in a New York minute. If an ethic compels the sale of a sculpture, one wonders why ample RRSPs, 3,500-square-foot homes and annual vacations are somehow exempt from that same moral imperative. A Scotiabank GIC can buy a kid a smile as easily as can some Renaissance marble.

I spoke of the banal. Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life is a decent if pedantic read for those already convinced of its core message; it is thin when it comes to apologetics, that is, the effort to provide an incisive defence of the faith. For Treslan to tackle that book is a little like the Seinfeld episode where Kramer takes on the class of 10- year-old karate students. If he wishes to pick on someone his own size, the Catholic Hans Kung would be a better foe. Kung reviews the evidence in support of a resurrection and concludes that it is reasonably reliable (so, as Bill Murray would have it, we got that going for us). Or, Erroll, have a go at N.T. Wright, the brill i a nt Anglican scholar who makes a compelling case that the resurrection of the body and the vibrant continuation of a personality after death (contrasted, say, with a generic land of the dead) was a radical rupture with virtually all pagan thought and was unique to the message of Christ and his followers. In other words, rather than seeing the faith as the residue of an ancient era of fairy tales, its explosive growth and staying power should be seen as rooted in its newness. This may be a little much for a general circ u l at i o n paper like The Sun Times but at least it would be a fair fight.

Lastly, I noted the gratuitous insult. I simply don't get the relish with which Treslan attacks the Christian Church. I have yet to meet a Pentecostal who longs to blow up skyscrapers, or a Presbyterian who encourages addictions or a Lutheran congregation that turns its back on the elderly. On the contrary, many of Christianity's adherents promote a pacifism that would make a humanist blush. AA was started by two devout Methodists and locally few have cared for the elderly of as well have the Lutherans. Treslan concedes all this good work on the one hand, but such concessions drown in the sarcasm and disdain with which he holds the Christian adventure. Besides, the church is hardly the power it once was. St. Andrews is half empty and the rapid decline of the Alliance Church too suggests a weakened Christian presence, compared even with 50 years ago. Updike once wrote that he never understood the anti-church sentiment of the 60s; as he helped his deacon father pass collection in his sparse New England congregation, it was less a threatening power than a fragile gathering that one would not consider attacking.

I end with this reflection. Treslan depicts Christians as cartoon characters, credulous fools who bumble forward in life animated by fairy tales that they do not question. That may be true of some. But I have hung around the church for almost half a century now. And I have learned that most Christians are properly shot through with doubt, that those who utter the Apostles Creed and say the Lord's Prayer as they place their mother or their son or their wife in the earth of Greenwood do so with the prayer of Augustine not far from their thoughts -- I believe Lord, help thou my unbelief. Some remain believers out of custom or out of habit but most believe because they have witnessed in faith what 500 Jerusalem citizens witnessed with their eyes and because beside all of that, the Christian adventure is for them the most compelling and interesting way to lead a life.

John A. Tamming Read more at www.owensoundsuntimes.com

 

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The Vatican vs the ‘Zionist tsunami’

By GIULIO MEOTTI

The slandering of Israel is growing at an alarming rate among the most important Catholic journalists.

Photo by: Reuters

The January edition of La Civiltà Cattolica – the most authoritative magazine of the Jesuits, printed under the supervision of the Vatican – opens with an editorial about Palestinian refugees. Adopting the Arab propagandist word Nakba, it declares they are a consequence of “ethnic cleansing” by Israel. The journal also supports anti-Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, and falsely proclaims that “the Zionists were cleverly able to exploit the Western sense of guilt for the Shoah to lay the foundations of their own state.” The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, just joined an “interreligious meeting” in Doha, Qatar. Sponsored by the Arab League, the event occurred on Jerusalem, with the participation of “Christian and Muslim leaders.” But no Jewish presence. The slandering of Israel is growing among the most important Catholic journalists. Vittorio Messori, who conducted the first book-length interview with Pope John Paul II, recently wrote an editorial for the Italian daily Il Corriere della sera where he stated “All governments of all Muslim nations are under the tsunami of the violent intrusion of Zionism that has come to put its capital in Jerusalem.” The Vatican’s teachings have a direct influence on 1.166 billion people. To understand its new mood about Israel, one has only to read what happened in the special synod on the Middle East, hosted in Rome. Nothing was said about Islamist persecution of Christians; indeed, every effort was made to show the Catholic Church sympathetic to Muslim grievances, especially against “Zionism” – a word evoked as a symbol of evil. Archbishop Edmond Farhat – the official representative of Vatican politics – proclaimed that the ultimate cause of all the evils in the Middle East is that “foreign body” which is Israel: “The Middle Eastern situation today is like a living organ that has been subject to a graft it cannot assimilate and which has no specialists capable of healing it”. US Archbishop Salim Bustros wrote the final message of the synod, claiming that the Jewish Promised Land had been “nullified by Christ,” thus reviving the infamous replacement theology that played a great role in the Holocaust. Bustros also claimed that the Bible can’t be used to justify the “occupation” of the West Bank, attempting to sever any link between the Jewish people and its homeland. The former patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, named by Pope Benedict XVI to address the concluding session of the synod, presented a document against Israel called “Kairos” bearing the signatures of many Christian leaders in Jerusalem. It says: “The Israeli occupation is a sin against God,” and takes sides against the very presence of Israel. It likens the security barrier that has blocked suicide attacks to “apartheid,” it cancels the concept of a Jewish state and proclaims that “resistance to the evil of occupation is a Christian’s right and duty.” The document was presented in a Vatican-owned building run by Pax Christi, Catholic Action and the Franciscan Custodian of the Holy Land. THE CURRENT Vatican patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, affirmed also that “you can’t have both Zionism and democracy,” supporting the “one-state solution” – a euphemism for the destruction of the Jewish state. Elias Chacour, the Catholic archbishop of Galilee and Nazareth, went on to say that Israel committed “an ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.” Israel bashing is also part of the strategy of the Vatican Secretariat of State in the Middle East; its default position visà- vis militant Islamism is to try to reach accommodations with regimes and forswear condemnation of Islamist ideology. Israel is easily expendable in this horrendous scheme.

Yet the Church should have a strategic interest in a friendship with Zionists. Israel and the Vatican should be natural allies against the devotees of death. There is only one Middle Eastern country where the number of Christians has grown – Israel (from 34,000 in 1949 to 163,000). Pope Benedict should now reverse the tragic wave against Israel and the Jews – which its enemies want to annihilate – with the same powerful determination with which he raises his voice in defense of the “nonnegotiable” principles concerning human life. Israel is also not negotiable. The writer, a journalist with Il Foglio, is the author of A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel’s Victims of Terrorism (Encounter). Read more at www.jpost.com

 

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Christian man vanishes in hunt for Noah's Ark

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Obama to be tried by Muslims 'when they take over U.S.?'

URL:  http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=268989

President Obama must embrace Islam as a way of life or face the consequences of a trial under the Shariah Islamic court system, declared British extremist cleric Anjem Choudary.

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Pennsylvania Catholic college fires gay part-time professor

The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA—A Catholic college in Philadelphia says it has fired a part-time professor after learning from a post on his blog that he has been in a same-sex relationship for a decade and a half, which officials called contrary to church teaching. Chestnut Hill College, a private Catholic school, said the Rev. James St. George was terminated after he made "public statements of his involvement in a gay relationship with another man for the past 15 years." St. George. 45, of Lansdale, was hired by the private Catholic school in 2009 to teach Bible studies and other subjects. He was to teach courses in theology and justice as well as world religions beginning Tuesday. St. George confirmed to The Philadelphia Inquirer on Saturday that he is gay and recently celebrated the 15th anniversary of his relationship with his partner. He said he was shocked by the termination, which he learned about Feb. 18. College officials appeared surprised that St. George belonged to a branch of Catholicism not associated with the Vatican that has different views on gay issues. St. George leads St. Miriam Church in Blue Bell, which is affiliated with the Old Catholic Apostolic Church of America, which vows no discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and performs commitment ceremonies for gays and lesbians. Carol Jean Vale, president of Chestnut Hill College, said in a statement Friday night to several news organizations, including the Philadelphia Daily News, that when St. George joined the faculty "he presented himself as Father St. George and openly wore a traditional Catholic priest's collar." Vale said that while St. George "appears to be an ordained pastor ... his church allows priests the option to engage in same-sex partnerships." St. George denied that he had withheld anything from the college. "What am I supposed to do?" he asked. "Say, 'Before we go any further, I'm gay?' Who says that?" The college said officials only learned about the matter "after St. George chose to make his private life public information on his blog." "While we welcome diversity, it is expected that all members of our college community, regardless of their personal beliefs, respect and uphold our Roman Catholic mission, character and values both in the classroom and in public statements that identify them with our school," Vale's statement said. "For this reason, we chose not to offer an additional teaching contract to St. George." Jessica Murray, 23, who was one of St. George's students, told the Inquirer that she was appalled by the firing. "All you have to do is Google him, you can see that he's openly gay," she said. "They can't claim they didn't know." ——— Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.philly.com Read more at www.ydr.com

 

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Pa. man riding in car killed by gun in back seat

The Associated Press

PITTSBURGH—Authorities in western Pennsylvania say a man riding in a car was killed when a firearm held by another passenger in the back seat discharged. Pittsburgh police say 29-year-old Brian Natali of Crafton was in the front passenger seat as his wife was driving in East Carnegie. They say the shot discharged at 2:15 a.m. Sunday from the back seat went through the front seat and struck Natali in the back. He was taken to UPMC Mercy, Uptown, where he was pronounced dead about 40 minutes later. The man riding in the back seat and other witnesses were questioned and released, and police say no charges have been filed. The shooting remains under investigation. Read more at www.ydr.com

 

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Two Milwaukee priests removed from ministry for credible reports of child sex abuse

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Two Milwaukee priests removed from ministry for credible reports of child sex abuse, yet no communication from archbishop Listecki

Received by email from Peter Isely, SNAP’s Midwest director.

Thank you, Peter and John for keeping on and informing us.

SNAPnetwork.org

Two Milwaukee priests removed from ministry for credible reports of child sex abuse

Yet no postings, announcements or information from Listecki or the archdiocese

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director

CONTACT: 414.336.8575

Today it has been confirmed by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee that two priests have been removed from ministry for credible reports of child sexual assault (.http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/116994328.html).

The first priest is Fr. Laurin Wenig, pastor of St. Mary’s Visitation in Elm Grove.  The second has not been named by the archbishop, but he is a priest that was in ministry somewhere in the archdiocese, but officially listed as “retired.”  By not releasing his name and the details of his offense or offenses, the archdiocese puts every “retired” priest under unwarranted suspicion.

Astonishingly, not only was Archbishop Jerome Listecki not in attendance at St. Mary’s today to make the devastating announcement himself to parishioners, he allowed Wenig to distribute a letter denying the allegations.  Listecki gave no explanation to baffled parishioners of the policies and procedures of an investigation, and personally explain and take full responsibility for the drastic step of officially and publically removing Wenig from ministry.

So much for the newly humbled archbishop, who has come to the federal court asking for bankruptcy protection, saying that the archdiocese deserves such protection because of his commitment to transparency and accountability.

Listecki commands a vast and expensive communications network, consisting of several hired spokespersons, a newspaper, a local television and radio show, websites, hundreds of parishes with weekly bulletins and pulpits.  If Listecki were truly committed to openness and transparency concerning reports of child sexual abuse he has more than enough communication outlets at his disposal to make that happen.  Instead Listecki has decided to maintain the system of secrecy or confusion, which has become a permanent intractable fixture of this archdiocese, whenever reports of sexual abuse by priests arise. Instead, Listecki allowed Wenig to misleadingly suggest in his letter that any priest with an allegation of abuse is automatically removed from ministry under archdiocesan procedures.   That is false.  There are many diocesan and religious order priests who have allegations of child sex abuse who are most certainly not removed from ministry or publically identified.  For example, in a Fall 2003 report, the archdiocese confirmed that at least 10 diocesan priests had “unsubstantiated” allegations in their files and were not named and had been left in ministry (http://www.archmil.org/ArchMil/Resources/2003CSAAccountability.pdf).  There has been no update to this report since, although the number of victims that have reported to the archdiocese since then has soared.

Because the criminal statute of limitations on child sex crimes in Wisconsin have been so predator friendly, it is not likely that either priest can be charged by the District Attorney.  For many of these crimes, the reporting statute has been a laughable six years.  In other words, if you were raped or sexually assaulted as a five year old child, you have until you are 11 years old to “report” the crime to the police.  Fortunately, the statutes have been extended over the past several years, largely due to the growing public awareness and alarm over child predators, but most predators have been able to use the arbitrary time limits to escape imprisonment.  Just to show the extent of the problem, according to a recent investigation by Human Rights Watch, almost 90 percent of all sex offenders in the United States have not been reported to law enforcement or identified to the public.

Regardless of the criminal statute, removing a teacher or a therapist or a priest from his job and taking away his license to practice does not and never should depend upon when the offense occurred, as long as it can be proven to a licensing board that the crime did occur.  All credentialed occupations operate this way in civil society.  It remains an utter mystery why the priesthood does not regulate itself the same way.

With today’s news, the number of priests likely to have assaulted children over the past decades in the Milwaukee archdiocese—including religious order clergy such as Jesuits and Franciscans assigned by the archbishop to parishes and schools—to nearly 80.  The number of priests with allegations that have not been confirmed officially by the archdiocese or religious order superiors is considerably higher.

It is likely that new victims are now coming forward to report, in part, because the archdiocese is seeking federal bankruptcy protection for covering up for abusive priests.  Now that the federal court, and the current Milwaukee DA, have clearly shown a willingness to aggressively scrutinize archdiocesan behavior concerning child molesters, victims may be encouraged that finally authorities outside the church hierarchy and secret bureaucracy are going to investigate their claims fairly and impartially. Read more at reform-network.net

 

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