Federal judge orders government to keep funding Planned Parenthood, despite new law

This image grab made from an AFPTV video taken in Maiyanga village, in Bokkos local government, on December 27, 2023 shows families burying in a mass grave their relatives killed in deadly attacks conducted by armed groups in Nigeria’s central Plateau State. / Credit: Photo by KIM MASARA/AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 3, 2024 / 18:05 pm (CNA).

A new report has found that ethnic and religious violence in Nigeria has claimed the lives of nearly 56,000 people in the West African country over four years — and the victims were disproportionately Christian.

The report, published by The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa, found more than 11,000 incidents of extreme violence from October 2019 through September of 2023. The violence left 55,910 people dead in 9,970 deadly attacks — as well as 21,621 people abducted in 2,705 attacks.

The total number includes civilian deaths, terror group deaths, and Nigerian Armed Forces deaths. Of the total deaths, 30,880 were civilians. 

Of the civilians, at least 16,769 Christians were killed, 6,235 Muslims were killed and 154 adherents of traditional African religions were killed. The religions of 7,722 victims are unknown.

The proportional loss for Christians, however, was much higher in the states where the attacks occurred. In terms of state populations, the report found that Christians were 6.5 times more likely to be killed in the violence. Similarly, when accounting for state populations, Christians were 5.1 times more likely to be victims of abduction.

“Millions of people are left undefended,” Frans Vierhout, a senior analyst at The Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa, said in a statement.

“For years, we’ve heard of calls for help being ignored, as terrorists attack vulnerable communities,” he added. “Now the data tells its own story.”

According to the report, 81% of civilian killings were land-based community attacks. About 42% of those killings were carried out by armed Fulani herdsmen, which the researchers said invaded small Christian farming settlements to kill, rape, abduct and burn homes.

Fulani herdsmen, who are Sunni Muslim, killed at least 9,153 Christian civilians and at least 1,473 Muslim civilians in community attacks, according to the data. The religion of at least 1,267 victims of Fulani herdsmen attacks is unknown.

About 41% of the land-based community attacks came from a variety of groups, which the report categorizes as “other terrorist groups.” However, the report states that the “other” category likely “consists of different groups of ‘Fulani bandits’ who are as much part of the Fulani Ethnic Militia… as the Armed Fulani Herdsmen.”

The “other” terrorist groups are responsible for 10,274 killings in land-based community attacks, which include at least 3,804 Christians and 2,919 Muslims. The religion of about 3,503 victims is unknown.

At least 78 people killed by Fulani herdsmen and “other terrorist group” attacks adhered to traditional African religions. 

“Fulani Ethnic Militia are targeting Christian populations, while Muslims also suffer severely at their hands,” the Rev. Gideon Para-Mallam, another analyst for The Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa, said in a statement.

“Kidnappers work to Islamist goals,” he added. “Where young women are kidnapped, tortured, and sexually violated, hope for normal married life, and family, may vanish.”

Islamist groups Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province carried out about 11% of the community attacks. Boko Haram killed at least 851 Christian civilians and 491 Muslims in such attacks, while the religions of 609 victims are unknown. The Islamic State killed at least 265 Christians and 127 Muslims, while the religion of 296 victims areunknown. 

Nina Shea, the director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, told CNA that “the numbers killed and abducted are staggering and the documentation is now irrefutable.”

“Fulani militants are waging a religious war, a jihad, against undefended Christian farming communities in large swaths of Nigeria,” she argued. “Equally undeniable and shocking is the fact that the Nigerian government has idly watched and tolerated these relentless attacks over many years. The goal of the militants to eradicate the Christian presence by murder, forcible conversion to Islam, and driving them out of their homeland appears to be shared by the government in Abuja [the capital of Nigeria] or else it would take action.”

Shea criticized the United States Department of State (DOS) for its repeated refusal to designate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern,” a watchlist of countries responsible for severe violations of religious freedom. 

Nigeria was first included on the list in 2020, the final year of former President Donald Trump’s administration. However, it was removed in 2021, during the first year of President Joe Biden’s administration. The DOS report blamed the Nigerian violence on “intercommunal clashes” and a competition for resources.

[…]

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 10, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- The release of the McCarrick Report Tuesday has been given a cautious welcome by lay American Catholics, who urged continued concern for the victims of sexual abuse and commitment to transparency by Church authorities.

The Vatican released its lengthy 461-page report on Nov. 10, detailing the Church’s institutional knowledge and decision-making on McCarrick over his decades as a priest, bishop, archbishop, and cardinal. He was laicized by Pope Francis in 2019 because of credible allegations of the sexual abuse of minors and adults.

In his years as a priest, bishop, and cardinal, McCarrick rose to the highest ranks of the Church, including leading the archdioceses of Newark and Washington. He also held influential positions at Catholic organizations including The Catholic University of America, where he was Chancellor, and the Catholic University of Puerto Rico. 

The president of The Catholic University of America, John Garvey, addressed the report in a letter to the university community on Tuesday.

“We offer our prayers and pastoral support for the survivors, that they and their families encounter healing and peace,” Garvey wrote. “And I recommit this University to addressing sex abuse in the Catholic Church with courage and tenacity.”

McCarrick had long-standing ties to Catholic University, first as a student, assistant chaplain, Dean of Students, and an administrator and fundraiser at the university between 1958 and 1965. He later served on the university’s Board of Trustees and as chancellor of the school while he was Archbishop of Washington from 2000 until 2006. The university bestowed an honorary degree on him in 2006.

When the Archdiocese of New York announced in 2018 a credible accusation of child sexual abuse had been made against McCarrick, “the news hit our University community close to home,” Garvey said. The university rescinded McCarrick’s honorary degree that year.

Some lay Catholics expressed their disbelief at the report’s revelations–particularly the lack of a canonical investigation into the allegations against McCarrick until 2018, despite decades of accusations against him.

“To me, one of the things that’s so hard to read, as a Catholic and as a lay person, is that so many innuendos or concerns were never followed up on,” Dr. Susan Timoney, pastoral theologian at The Catholic University of America, told CNA on Tuesday. 

“It’s unbelievable to think that the concern—any kind of concern of the kind of things going on in a seminary—wouldn’t be better investigated.”

Dr. Robert George, a law professor at Princeton University, said that the report does not adequately treat the matter of McCarrick’s proteges, or bishops and cardinals who attained significant positions in the Church because of McCarrick’s influence. 

“Are there influential and powerful leaders in the Church in America and in the curia in Rome who have their positions at least in part due to Theodore McCarrick’s influence?” George asked rhetorically. “Who are they? Why did McCarrick use his influence to advance their careers?”

But Catholics also pointed to progress the Church has made in dealing with clergy sex abuse, and said the report is a necessary first step toward greater transparency and accountability within the Church on the matter.

Timoney noted the universal establishment of diocesan child protection offices in the United States over the last two decades, as well as Pope Francis’ work to establish better accountability for accusations of misconduct against bishops worldwide. The report’s publication “does show a better commitment to transparency,” she said.  

In 2018, Catholic University launched its own special project unity to respond to the clergy abuse crisis as well as other relevant Church matters.

Stephen White, executive director of The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America, said that, while a single report could not undo the damage by McCarrick, “truth and transparency are necessary steps toward healing those wounds and repairing the trust that has been broken.”

White said that Catholics should manifest “a spirit of penance and humility” amid “our anger and pain at the injustices committed by our clergy, and the sense of betrayal brought about by shepherds who failed to protect the flock.”

As they read the painful revelations in the report, Catholics should not forget “all of the work that the Church does at the grassroots level” to serve people, Timoney said.  

“This isn’t the whole story of the Church,” she said, noting that “we are making a positive impact in a lot of peoples’ lives, day in and day out, through all of our ministries and agencies.”

McCarrick was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of New York in 1958 before becoming auxiliary bishop of New York in 1977. He then became bishop of the new Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey, in 1981, before becoming Archbishop of Newark in 1986, and then Archbishop of Washington in 2001, where he was made a cardinal by Pope St. John Paul II.

In 2006, he submitted his letter of resignation at the age of 75, as required by the Church of all bishops at that age. 

After accusations that McCarrick had abused minors and seminarians over a period of years were made public in June 2018, Pope Francis ordered McCarrick to observe a life of prayer and penance and demanded his resignation from the College of Cardinals. 

McCarrick was laicized in 2019, following a canonical process at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which found him guilty of “solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.”

[…]

Melissa Moschella, a professor specializing in biomedical ethics and parental rights at the University of Notre Dame, told CNA that these bans effectively put a gag on therapists and instead mandate “really bad therapy.” / Credit: Africa Studio/… […]