Cardinal Pell begins hearing in Australia over abuse charges

New Delhi, India, Jul 22, 2017 / 06:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The bishops of India have offered their congratulations to the country’s newly elected president, Ram Nath Kovind, urging him to live out the oath he will take to serve the well-being of the people.

India’s presidency is largely a ceremonial role, while the prime minister is head of government and leader of the executive branch.

In a July 20 statement the Indian bishops congratulated Kovind, assuring him “of our prayers for his good health and for wisdom and strength that he might guide our beloved country towards peace, development and justice for all peoples.”

“We pray that God may assist him, that, as per the Oath of Office, he will strive ‘to the best of his ability to preserve, protect and defend the constitution and the law, and that he will devote himself to the service and well-being of the people of the Republic of India.’”

The bishops closed their statement praying that under his leadership India would “march towards greater heights,” and again assured the president-elect of “our loyalty and support in the service of our country.”

India’s presidential election was held July 17, with the final votes counted July 20. The term of the country’s former president,  Pranab Mukherjee, is set to end July 24.

Kovind, part of India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was backed by the governing National Democratic Alliance coalition, and ran against opposition candidate Meira Kumar of the Indian National Congress.

The president-elect is a Dalit and a lawyer, and has served in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament. Most recently he served in the largely ceremonial post of governor of Bihar state.

The election comes in wake of a recent uptick in the number of “mob lynchings” happening in India, in which members of the country’s Hindu majority carry out acts of violence against those, typically from minority religions such as Islam, accused of killing cows, a sacred animal in the Hindu religion.

Attacks against minorities, particularly Christians and Muslims, are common in India. They include anything from jeering, violence, forced conversions, and the burning of property, and frequently go under-reported.

According to Al Jazeera, the mob lynching of Muslims began to gain wider public attention in 2015 when 52-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq was beat to death by an angry mob who accused the man of eating beef.

Since his death, attacks against Muslims related to the slaughtering of cows have increased, with multiple attacks against minorities reported in 2015 and 2016, and at least seven such incidents between March and May of this year.

The latest, Al Jazeera reports, was the June 22 murder of three Muslims in West Bengal who had been accused of smuggling cows, and the June 27 attack against a man accused of killing a cow. The man survived, but was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

On July 16, around 40 religious leaders and intellectuals from across India gathered in Delhi to address the increase of violence,  a “disregard for the rule of law” and the spread of an “environment of hate” throughout the country.

Backed by the Indian bishops’ conference, attendees urged the government to end “impunity which was at the root of the atmosphere of fear that stalks the land today” and threatens “not just secularism, but the Constitution and the democratic fabric of the country.”

They expressed their shock at the increased number of lynchings carried out on the pretext of protecting cows, stressing that in these cases, the state governments and police forces “acted against the guilty in an impartial manner.”

Past violence carried out against minorities in the country has largely been attributed to the radical Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, also referred to as the RSS.

They were established in 1925 with the goal of establishing “Hindutva,” or “Hindu-ness,” and have been banned three times in post-independence India, with all three bans eventually being lifted.

Critics of the group have often refered to them as a sectarian, militant group who believe in the supremacy of Hindus and who preach hate against Muslim and Christian minorities. Narendra Modi, elected India’s prime minister in May 2014, was a full time worker with the RSS prior to his election.

As BJP spokesman in 2010, Kovind said that “Islam and Christianity are alien to the nation.”

The RSS sits on the right-wing and has no official registration in India. However, they maintain strong ties with the BJP, of which president-elect Kovind is a part, raising questions as to how much action will be taken against minority violence in the future. Kovind is also close to the RSS.

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Melbourne, Australia, Apr 17, 2018 / 02:47 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As Cardinal George Pell’s pre-trial hearing closes, his lawyer told an Australian court Tuesday that the charges being brought against the cardinal is based on false accusations.

“The allegations are a product of fantasy, the product of some mental problems that the complainant may or may not have, or just pure invention in order to punish the representative of the Catholic Church in this country,” Robert Richter, head of Pell’s defense team, said April 17, according to Reuters.

Richter added that the most serious of the alleged offences could not possibly have occurred, telling the court that the charges brought against Pell, who has been “the face” of the Catholic Church in Australia, “ought to be regarded as impossible and ought to be discharged without batting an eyelid.”

Pell’s attorney additionally cast a shadow over the credibility of some of the complainants, highlighting their inconsistencies with dates, saying that the alleged instances of abuse are “not to be believed,” because they remain “improbable, if not impossible.”

Richter told the court that Pell, who is prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, should not be committed to trial because the evidence did not hold “sufficient weight to support a conviction,” and that a trial would “be a waste of public time, effort and money.”

Prosecutor Mark Gibson said Richter’s statements were speculation, remarking that the defense’s arguments do not “fundamentally impact on the reliability of the complainants’ evidence.” He also suggested that Richter’s claims about complainants seeking revenge on the Church were “nothing more than a theory.”

Magistrate Belinda Wallington said that Richter may have taken some arguments “too far,” saying that she believes “issues of credibility and reliability are issues for a jury.”

Pell was not present during the hearing’s final day at the Melbourne Magistrates Court. Wallington will determine May 1 whether Pell will be sent to trial.

Pell has been involved in ongoing court proceedings since June 2017, when he was charged with alleged historical sexual abuse crimes in his home state of Victoria dating back to the 1970s. He has maintained his innocence and will plead not guilty if his case proceeds to trial.

“I am innocent of these charges, they are false,” Pell told journalists in June 2017.
 
During the hearing, the Melbourne Magistrates Court heard testimony from 50 witnesses. During this time, Richter launched a counter-attack against the Victorian Police, who opened a special operation in 2013 to investigate Pell. Richter called it “an operation looking for a crime because no crime has been reported.”

Pell, 76, was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Ballarat in 1966. He heads the Secretariat for the Economy and is one of the nine cardinals advising Pope Francis, but has been on leave from his duties since last summer.

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Tokyo, Japan, Apr 13, 2019 / 06:01 am (CNA).- Catholic bishops in Japan have said they will investigate reports of clergy sex abuse of minors dating back at least as far as 20 years, and they believe many victims might still be reluctant to come forward.

Committees have been established in all 16 dioceses to receive claims and consultations about abuse, the Japanese bishops’ conference said April 8, announcing the decision of the conference standing committee. The specifics of an inquiry are not yet decided, but it will revisit previous reports for an “in-depth investigation,” the Japan Times reports.

The bishops are considering seeking help from external bodies.

In 2002 an internal survey made inquiries with the leading priest in each diocese. This resulted in two reported cases of sex abuse.

A 2012 survey aimed to be a reference point in a manual for internal use. It did not aim to investigate facts or to resolve sex abuse. Five sex abuse cases were reported then.

These surveys’ results will now be investigated to examine whether accused abusers faced punishment and how bishops responded to the victims, the Washington Post reports.

A 2004 survey on sexual harassment found 17 cases of “coercive physical contacts,” mostly by priests. The victims included minors. That survey had 110 respondents.

“Many of the alleged cases such as coercive physical contacts were forced by priests,” said the bishops’ conference. “We believe there are still a significant number of people who cannot speak up even today, 15 years since the survey.”

A 62-year-old man came forward alleging sexual abuse by a priest when he was at a Catholic boys’ school in Tokyo. Other Catholic schools have faced sex abuse allegations as well.

The Japanese Times in 2014 reported on alleged abuse of minors at St. Mary’s International School in Tokyo beginning in 1965. At least one case was later investigated by police.

There are about 440,000 Catholics in Japan, making up 0.3% of the population.

Pope Francis is set to visit Japan in November. In February he held an unprecedented meeting with the world’s Catholic bishops on sex abuse of minors in the Church.

“Let it be clear that before these abominations the Church will spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice whosoever has committed such crimes. The Church will never seek to hush up or not take seriously any case,” the Pope said in his December 21, 2018 annual Christmas speech to the Roman Curia.

The Pope’s own handling of sexual abuse cases came into focus especially in Chile, where he initially defended bishops accused of sex abuse coverup. He later asked for all the country’s bishops to offer their resignations.

In the United States, clergy sex abuse of minors in the Church peaked in the early 1970s, according to reports from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Though the scandal led to some news reports and internal church investigations in later decades, it did not become a nationwide focus until news reports in 2002 exposed scandal and coverup in Boston and across the country.

The sex abuse scandal again was inflamed in 2018 with the announcements of credible allegations of sex abuse of a minor against the deeply influential then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, followed by accusations that he sexually abused young adult seminarians.

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