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Obama to be tried by Muslims 'when they take over U.S.?'
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
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Pennsylvania Catholic college fires gay part-time professor
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
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Pa. man riding in car killed by gun in back seat
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Pa. man riding in car killed by gun in back seat
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.
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Two Milwaukee priests removed from ministry for credible reports of child sex abuse
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Received by email from Peter Isely, SNAP’s Midwest director.
Thank you, Peter and John for keeping on and informing us.
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.
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Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia fired Fr. Jim St. George when it learned he was gay
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COMMENT: Let me see if I have this straight (pun intended). This openly gay priest who taught at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia got fired because he was gay. Yet there are tens, hundreds(?), thousands(?) of Catholic priests who have credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors lodged against them and who are free to commit mathem on kids throughout the world and the Sisters of St. Joseph who run Chestnut Hill fire a faculty member because he’s openly gay. Wait until Bill Maher or Kathy Griffin or Jay Leno or David Letterman get wind of this. Who the hell is calling plays from the sidelines in the Vatican?
Posted on 26 February 2011
http://chestnuthilllocal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/jim_stgeorge12.jpeghttp://chestnuthilllocal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/jim_stgeorge12.jpeg
Father Jim St. Georgeby Pete Mazzaccaro
by Pete Mazzaccaro
Late Friday night, Chestnut Hill College President Carol Jean Vale released a statement explaining the college’s decision to fire Father Jim St. George. The openly gay priest who has taught theology courses at the school since January 2010 learned he was fired late last week. See our story here.
In her statement, Vale confirms that the St. George’s sexual orientation was the reason he was terminated. It was, she writes, incompatible with the college’s Roman Catholic principles. She also states that the decision to fire St. George was not the result of pressure from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia or a letter from attorney James Pepper, but rather revelatory statements made by St. George on his personal blog.
According to Vale, the college did not know when it hired St. George anything about his sexual orientation or that he belonged to St. Miriam Church in Blue Bell, a church affiliated with the Old Catholic Apostolic Church of America, which allows its priests to be gay, straight, celibate or married.
Vale’s complete statement:
“As president of Chestnut Hill College, a private Catholic institution, it is imperative that I clarify the conditions of our College’s decision not to issue a new part-time teaching contract to Jim St. George. St. George served as adjunct instructor in our School of Continuing and Professional Studies from January 2010 to February of this year teaching a variety of courses in religion and scripture.
“At the time St. George joined our faculty, he presented himself as Father St. George and openly wore a traditional Catholic priest’s collar. While St. George appears to be an ordained pastor-he leads St. Miriam, an independent and self-described reformed Antioch-rite Catholic house of worship located in Blue Bell, Pa.–his church allows priests the option to engage in same-sex partnerships. This is contrary to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.
“It was with great disappointment when we learned through St. George’s public statements of his involvement in a gay relationship with another man for the past 15 years. It is important to note that this information came to our attention only 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. For this reason, we chose not to offer an additional teaching contract to St. George.”
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I was raised a Catholic and served as an altar boy at a parochial school in Indiana…
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Received by e-mail by Mark Gehring, 2.27.2011..
Published here with his permission.
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Organization Looking For People Sexually Abused By Clergy
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Organization Looking For People Sexually Abused By Clergy
Members of the “survivors network of those abused by priests” stood outside the catholic diocese in Springfield this weekend with a call for help. A predator priest, Father Thomas J. O’Brien, worked at a Springfield church in the 1950s and could have abused some people. A spokesman hopes the area catholic bishop will aggressively look for victims that were hurt. More than 2 dozen lawsuits have been filed against the priest and another was added recently.
You can contact SNAP at SnapNetwork.org or by calling 888-Snap Hea
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Why I Left the Catholic Church
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The man who wrote this statement lives in Tucson and is a great guy. Lorraine and I are fortunate to have him as a friend. I’m happy to publish this for him.
Frank Douglas | Tucson, AZ | February 27, 2011
Why I Left the Catholic Church
I grew up in a Catholic family. I went to a Catholic school. I married a Catholic girl in the Catholic Church. I sent my son to Catholic schools. I attended mass regularly.
I was a member of the local diocese Catholic Social Service Board of Directors for four years and then served as President for two more years. I worked on the building Fund Committee of two churches; I also contributed to the building fund of a local seminary no longer in use. Then at 80 plus years, I stopped going to church. My decision to leave the Catholic Church wasn’t made overnight. The change in me gradually began to enter my mind as I slowly was losing respect for the church leaders that I had been taught all my life to trust.
Priests raping, sodomizing and molesting God’s children. Bishops secretly moving these sexual abusers from parish to parish without making it known to anyone, thereby placing more unsuspecting children in harms way. These actions by the bishops had to be made with the knowledge that other children would be molested, yet their choice was made to protect the abusers and the reputation of the Catholic church. Unforgivable. There is no possible justification for bishops to even have considered such a criminal action.
Rape, sodomy and molestation of children are crimes punishable by law. Anyone complicit in the protection of a sexual abuser is also committing a crime punishable by law.
More than fifty percent of the bishops in the United States were involved in the movement of pedophiles. Bishops were involved in making large financial settlements in order to keep known sexual abusers from being prosecuted. Then, they removed these priests from the ministry but allowed them to enter the general population without having to register as sex offenders. Again, knowing full well that these pedophiles could possibly molest other children. Unforgivable.
It also was learned that a large number of these sex abusers were secretly placed in other jobs within the Catholic organization. All this has been made public knowledge. Priests sexually abusing children, bishops moving them from parish to parish, billions of dollars of church funds used to make large financial settlements including the payment of high-priced law firms advising the bishops.
Almost ten years has gone by since the sex scandal within the Catholic Church received national attention. No bishop has been removed or reprimanded by the pope. The sex scandal has surfaced in a number of other countries. Still the pope has not held anyone accountable.
Not only have none of the hierarchy been held accountable for their actions but they are still in complete control of everything Catholic.
These criminals continue to run every parish and every diocese in this country as though they believe all is forgiven. They continue to apologize for the harm that has been done to the Catholic Church without any indication what-so-ever as to having been the persons responsible. Without ever admitting that their actions have been criminal. Sins maybe but nothing criminal.
There is also another problem within the Catholic Church that the bishops have failed to resolve. Millions of dollars are being stolen from Sunday collections and the procedures they installed in most parishes were not made mandatory.
I am not the only Catholic leaving the Catholic Church. Millions have left. More will continue to leave if and when it dawns on parishioners that by remaining they are condoning failed leadership and leadership that is never going to be held accountable.
The only other possibility for change is if the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is taken to the highest court in the land and charged for their crimes. At the present time, it appears that the USCCB is above the law.
Tomasso Tucson
Advocate for Bishops Accountability
Read more at reform-network.net
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Priests in Sweden join the ranks of paedophiles
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Priests in Sweden join the ranks of paedophiles
Published: 27 Feb 11 09:10 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
The Catholic Church of Sweden confirms three priests are believed to have sexually abused children over the span of 30 years.
- Swede charged for sex crimes against 13 girls (7 Feb 11)
- Paedophile boasts of bribing himself free (11 Aug 10)
- Sweden probes webcam paedophile suspect (17 Jan 10)
It is reported that the paedophile priests, one of whom is dead, sexually abused a collective of five children between 1940 and 1970, thus falling under that statute of limitation.
Stockholm Bishop Anders Arborelius said Saturday there could “be no redemption” for the three.
One priest molested two boys, another abused a girl for four years before she complained.
The third priest molested two girls, who were sisters, while in a relationship with their mother.
The information was gathered and confirmed during an internal investigation, according to a press release from the Catholic Church.
One of the three priests has died, another is no longer a priest and the third could not be identified, the Church said.
The former priest, who is alive, denies “in essence” what’s written in the investigative report.
The church dismissed a fourth accusation of rape during ritual practices with multiple offenders, claiming the complaint was unreasonable.
”For the fourth priest, the accusations could not be corroborated by the investigation,” said the report, adding that investigators had been unable to speak to the alleged victim.
Sweden’s small Catholic Church opened a probe in April last year into allegations that four priests had committed paedophile acts.
A Church report dated February 25 and put online on Saturday said that the responsibility of the three had been confirmed.
”To molest a minor is a heinous crime which causes a lifetime of suffering. For me there is no statute of limitations for child abuse,” said Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm Catholic Diocese, in a statement.
”The Catholic Church can never make amends to the victims, but we want this investigation to give the victims the restitution they deserve,” he added.
As the crimes took place between 1940 and 1970 they can no longer be prosecuted and the Church was not planning to take any further legal action.
The Roman Catholic Church numbers about 100,000 members in a population of more than nine million who are predominantly Lutheran.
TT/AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)
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