CNA Staff, Sep 12, 2020 / 05:01 am (CNA).- Religious ministers should not be required to violate the seal of confession to report child sex abuse, a committee of the upper house of Western Australia’s parliament recommended Thursday.
The Legisla… […]
America is in crisis. Beyond the trials and tribulations associated with COVID-19, there is rioting in the streets and calls for the “rebranding” of the United States in terms of identity politics. These are times […]
Denver Newsroom, Sep 11, 2020 / 02:57 pm (CNA).- A man who went on an hours-long vandalism spree on Wednesday at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Tioga, Louisiana has been arrested and has confessed to the crime, according to local authorities.
During the act of vandalism, which lasted more than two hours, the assailant broke at least six windows, beat several metal doors, and broke numerous statues around the parish grounds.
Father Rickey Gremillion, the church’s pastor, told CNA Sept. 11 that the damage took place between 12:30-3:00 am Sept. 9. No one saw or heard anything while the vandalism was occurring, but the entire incident was captured on the church’s security cameras.
Gremillion discovered the damage upon arriving at the church for Mass later that morning.
“Obviously he never realized there were cameras watching him,” Gremillion said.
The Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Department announced Sept. 11 that they had arrested Chandler D. Johnson. Johnson, 23, has been charged with one count of criminal trespassing and one count of institutional vandalism.
Johnson, shirtless and wearing blue jeans, can be seen on video breaking numerous small flowerpots around the church and knocking over some larger concrete ones.
He beat one of the metal doors with a statue that he uprooted from outside the church, and beat another metal door with another statue. He also threw a statue at part of the church’s siding, and broke the heads of Mary and Jesus off of a concrete statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor.
Johnson used a hard object to beat a hole in a large fiberglass statue of Mary that had been at the church for many years, the priest said.
The parish recently weathered Hurricane Laura with no major damage, Gremillion said, except for two of the church’s security cameras. The two functional cameras that remained were able to capture the act of vandalism on video.
Gremillion said he does not know of Johnson having any ties to the parish, or reason to target it.
Gremillion said Johnson did no damage inside the church building; though he had ample opportunity to enter the church building through the broken windows, he never did.
Most of the glass will be replaced once the insurance company gives him the go-ahead, Gremillion said. A number of parishioners helped to clean up and board up the broken windows the morning the vandalism was discovered.
Gremillion said he is hoping to beef up the security system at the parish after the incident. Despite the incident being captured on video, the alarm system was not triggered.
Washington D.C., Sep 11, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Catholic teenagers mirror American teenagers overall on many religious trends, a report by the Pew Research Center says. A Pew report published Sept. 10 examined the […]
CNA Staff, Sep 11, 2020 / 02:20 pm (CNA).- A South Korean bill banning discrimination across 26 different categories has hesitant support from the Catholic bishops of the country, who caution that it could also lead to the legalization of same-sex marriage as well as “reverse discrimination” against traditional understandings of marriage, family and gender.
“(W)e agree on (the bill’s) primary purpose to ban any types of discrimination and hope that it can prevent the abuses of human rights,” the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of Korea (CBCK) said in a statement this week, reported on in The Korea Times.
The bishops, quoting Pope Francis’ encyclical Amoris Laetitia, added that “every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration, while ‘every sign of unjust discrimination’ is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence.”
But while the bishops said they are against discrimination, they also cautioned that the new bill could be interpreted and applied broadly, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage and promoting transgender ideology as well as “the destruction of human life, artificial conception, selection of life or death based on genetics and the allowance of sexual minorities to adopt children.”
“The bill itself doesn’t mention same-sex marriage. But there are various movements that deem unions of same-sex people something akin to marriage or God’s view of family. We are against such movements,” the bishops stated.
“The bill mentions three different types of gender; male, female and a third gender and sexual identity as a way of people’s perception toward their gender. But this cannot be used as grounds to deny that there exist only two genders; male and female,” they said.
The proper understandings of men, women, marriage and family “form the basis of human dignity in the Constitution. So, love and family should be protected by society and the nation, and they should not be ignored under the name of anti-discrimination,” the bishops added.
The anti-discrimination bill being debated was introduced by Rep. Jang Hye-young in June, and is one of several such bills to have been proposed in recent years. Similar bills have been defeated, The Korea Times reported, due to strong opposition from influential, politically conservative Protestant groups in the country.
According to The Korea Times, the current bill has support from The Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, while Protestant groups are largely opposed, though some have voiced their support for it.
The Korean bishops have also recently promoted pro-life policies to President Moon Jae-In as the country revises its abortion law.
CNA Staff, Sep 11, 2020 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- A former colonel of the Salvadoran military, Inocente Orlando Montano Morales, has been convicted in a Spanish court for is participation in the murder of five Jesuit priests in 1989. Montano has been sentenced to more than 133 years in prison.
The former colonel was El Salvador’s vice-minister for public security during the civil war that divided El Salvador in the 1980s. He was convicted Sept. 11 of planning and ordering the killing of five Jesuit priests, all of whom were Spanish, at the Central American University in San Salvador.
A Salvadoran Jesuit priest, their housekeeper, and her daughter were also killed, but the former colonel was convicted in Spain only of the killings of the five Spanish Jesuits.
Montano maintained his innocence, though witnesses testified that he believed the Jesuits were collaborators of the Marxist guerilla Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, which El Salvador’s military junta fought in a bloody civil war that spanned more than a decade.
The Jesuits in El Salvador were active proponents of peace talks and a negotiation between the government and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. One of the priests killed, Father Ignacio Ellecuria, SJ, was an outspoken critic of El Salvador’s government, according to Reuters.
The killings took place on Nov. 16, 1989, during a battle being waged across the city of San Salvador. Ellecuria served as rector of the Central American University, which was occupied by an elite battalion of the Salvadoran army.
A unit of the Salvadoran Army dragged from their beds the six Jesuits and shot them.
The priests killed were Ellacuría, rector of UCA; Ignacio Martín-Baró; Segundo Montes; Amando López; Joaquín López y López; and Juan Ramón Moreno Pardo. All were Spaniards except for López y López, a Salvadoran.
The priest’s housekeeper Elba Ramos and her 15-year-old daughter Celina were also killed.
The soldiers left a message at the site of the killings meant to implicate the guerillas.
The government was supported by the United States during the twelve year conflict, which killed 75,000 people, and during which 8,000 people disappeared. The United Nations has estimated that 85% of civilians killed during the conflict died at the hands of government forces.
In January, the U.S. Department of State announced that 13 former Salvadoran military members would not be eligible for entry into the U.S. because of their involvement in the killings.
“The United States supports the ongoing accountability, reconciliation, and peace efforts in El Salvador,” Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State, said Jan. 29.
“We value our ongoing working relationship with the Salvadoran Armed Forces, but will continue to use all available tools and authorities, as appropriate, to address human rights violations and abuses around the world no matter when they occurred or who perpetrated them.”
“Today’s actions underscore our support for human rights and our commitment to promoting accountability for perpetrators and encouraging reconciliation and a just and lasting peace.”
Pompeo said Jan. 29 that the U.S. “condemns all human rights abuses that took place on both sides of the brutal civil war in El Salvador, including those committed by governmental and non-governmental parties.”
The Atlacatl Battalion, which killed Fr. Ellacuría and his companions, was trained by American advisers.
The State Department said Jan. 29 it had credible information that the 13 former Salvadoran military personnel “were involved in the planning and execution of the extrajudicial killings” of November 1989.
It listed Montano, Juan Rafael Bustillo, Juan Orlando Zepeda, Francisco Elena Fuentes, Guillermo Alfredo Benavides Moreno, Yusshy René Mendoza Vallecillos, José Ricardo Espinoza Guerra, Gonzalo Guevara Cerritos, Carlos Camilo Hernández Barahona, Oscar Mariano Amaya Grimaldi, Antonio Ramiro Avalos Vargas, Angel Pérez Vásquez, and José Alberto Sierra Ascencio, who it said ranged in rank from general to private.
The 13 were designated under the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act 2019, which bars them and their immediately family members from entering the U.S.
Vatican City, Sep 11, 2020 / 12:19 pm (CNA).- A senior Vatican official arrived in Belarus for talks Friday after the leader of the country’s Catholic Church was barred from returning to his homeland.
Belarusian state media reported Sept. 11 tha… […]
MADISON, Wisconsin — Stating local health officials likely do not have legal authority to order closure of schools, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction late Thursday suspending the Dane County health agency’s August […]
Washington D.C., Sep 11, 2020 / 11:01 am (CNA).-
At least two U.S. Senators have joined the chorus of outrage against The Walt Disney Company after the company revealed it worked with Chinese propaganda departments in the Xinjiang autonomous region during the filming of Mulan.
“The ancient Chinese folktale of Hua Mulan is inspiring,” said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) in a Sept. 9 letter sent to Bob Chapek, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company. “Disney’s partnership with a genocidal dictatorship is appalling.”
In the closing credits for Mulan, a live-action remake of the 1998 animated film of the same name, Disney gave a “special thanks” to, among other entities, the “Publicity Department of CPC Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Committee,” and the “Turpan Municipal Bureau of Public Security.” Parts of the movie were filmed in Xinjiang, which is located in northwestern China. The majority of the Uyghur population, a minority ethnic group that is mostly Muslim, resides in Xinjiang.
“The Publicity Department of the CPC Municipal Committee has pushed propaganda justifying the nature and purpose of the ‘re-education facilities,’” wrote Sasse, who noted that the Turpan Bureau of Public Safety is part of a larger entity that was recently sanctioned by the Department of the Treasury for its role in the operation of the detention camps in the region. The camps detain mostly Uyghur prisoners, who can be sent there for offenses such as “celebrating an Islamic holiday” and “wearing traditional religious clothing.”
The Chinese government claims the camps are for terrorism prevention purposes. Women who have been imprisoned in the camps have told stories of forced abortions and sterilizations.
Sasse stated that there needs to be a “deeper understanding of (Disney’s) production process” due to the company’s “willingness to partner with those committing genocide.” He requested additional information regarding when Disney was working in Xinjiang, as well as information regarding the agreements Disney made with the Chinese government when filming, and if the company raised concerns about human rights abuses in the region.
“Can Disney verify that the filming of Mulan did not benefit from Xinjiang-based forced labor,” asked Sasse, along with a request for information regarding any editorial requests made by the Chinese government.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who was sanctioned by China earlier this year, wrote a similarly worded letter to Chapek on Wednesday, noting that China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang were well-documented by the time Disney began production on Mulan in August 2018.
“Disney’s whitewashing of the ongoing Uighur genocide is contrary to all of your company’s supposed principles,” wrote Hawley.
“Just a few weeks ago, for instance, you wrote about the need to ‘confront the inscrutable idea that the lives of some are deemed less valuable—and less worthy of dignity, care and protection—than the lives of others,’” said Hawley. “Elsewhere, Disney has declared its commitment ‘to providing comfort, inspiration, and opportunity to children and families around the world’ and described its ‘commitment to respect human rights’ as a ‘core value.’”
Filming in Xinjiang and working with those committing human rights abuses is a violation of these values, said Hawley.
“How does glorifying the Chinese authorities perpetrating abuses in Xinjiang provide comfort, inspiration, and opportunity to Uighur children—including those who were never born because the CCP forced their mothers to abort them,” asked Hawley. “Disney’s actions here cross the line from complacency into complicity.”
Hawley requested that Disney donate the profits from Mulan to non-governmental organizations that are fighting human trafficking and “other atrocities underway in Xinjiang.”
The Walt Disney Company’s decision to work in Xinjiang and cooperate with Chinese Communist Party entities is interesting given that the company has been outspoken on what it perceives as human rights abuses in the United States.
In May 2018, Disney’s then-CEO Bob Iger said that it would be “difficult” for Disney to continue making movies in Georgia if the state moved to ban abortion after the detection of a heartbeat.
“Many people who work for us will not want to work there” should the law go into effect,” Iger told Reuters at the time. “We will have to heed their wishes.”
The law has repeatedly been blocked and cannot be enforced by the state of Georgia.
Jewher Ilham, a Uyghur Human Rights Fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation whose father was abducted by the Chinese government, told CNA that she believes Disney needs to become more aware of what is happening around the world.
“Disney needs to better educate themselves about the human rights abuses committed around the globe, especially in China,” she said. “Egregious human rights violations take place there every day at the hands of the Chinese Communist government. It’s amazing to me to see how the same company has such firm stances stateside but is willing to give in to China in order to make a profit.”
“If Disney’s stance on abortion was enough to make them boycott filming in Georgia, then they should have boycotted filming in the Uighur region where some of the world’s worst human rights abuses are taking place,” she added.
Denise Harle, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, told CNA that Disney choosing to film in Xinjiang was “hypocrisy,” and that she believes “consumers should take notice.”
“Disney threatened to halt all plans to film in the state of Georgia over its pro-life laws but does not hesitate to film in China, where egregious human rights abuses are consistently committed, including forced sterilizations and abortions,” said Harle.
“Mulan was filmed in Xinjiang, China, the very region where more than one million Muslims are being held in detention camps because of their beliefs. While some companies put profits over people, Americans should remember that all human life, born and unborn, is worthy of protection,” she said.
The film has also been criticized because its lead actress, Liu Yifei, has expressed support for police in Hong Kong cracking down on protests of the Hong Kong extradition bill last year.
The Chinese government admitted in October 2018 that “re-education camps” for members of the Uyghur population had been established. The camps were first spotted on satellite imagery in 2017.
The highest estimate sets the total number of inmates in the camps at 3 million, plus approximately half a million minor children in special boarding schools for “re-education” purposes.
Rome Newsroom, Sep 11, 2020 / 10:30 am (CNA).- During a visit to a Marian shrine in southern Italy this week, the Vatican Secretary of State issued a warning that Marian devotion must be safeguarded from mafia exploitation.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin off… […]
© Catholic World Report