Catholic woman with schizophrenia being held for blasphemy in Indonesia 

July 8, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Jakarta, Indonesia, Jul 9, 2019 / 12:05 am (CNA).- A mentally ill woman who identified herself as a Catholic is being held for blasphemy in Indonesia after an incident last week in which she brought a dog to a mosque and did not remove her shoes inside.

The woman, who has a schizophrenia diagnosis, was arrested on July 2 for blaspheming Islam, which is a criminal offense in the Muslim-majority country. It is punishable by up to five years in prison.

The incident for which the 52 year-old woman was arrested was caught on video and shared widely within the country. It shows the “visibly distressed” woman arguing with mosque members while her dog runs around, according to the Associated Press.

The woman had come to the mosque thinking that she was breaking up the wedding of her husband to another woman, according to reports from The Australian. Authorities charged her with blasphemy for failing to remove her shoes inside the mosque, and for bringing her dog, which is considered a ritually impure animal in the Islamic religion.

The woman is only being identified by SM, her initials. According to The Australian, her relatives have sent medical records to officials to prove that the woman is mentally ill and did not intentionally blaspheme the Islamic faith.

The woman was held at Jakarta’s Police Hospital, which confirmed that she had schizophrenia and recommended that she instead be transferred to a psychiatric facility.

Despite her mental illness, police have said that the blasphemy charges stand until a court decides otherwise. International human rights groups have long opposed blasphemy laws such as those in Indonesia. They argue that they are used primarily to manipulate and persecute Christians and other religious minorities.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim-majority nation in population in the world. While 87% of the population are Muslim, 10% are Christian, and 2% are Hindu. Discrimination and attacks on religious minorities in the country are not uncommon.

In April, Indonesia’s Supreme Court rejected the appeal of a Buddhist woman of Chinese descent who was convicted of blasphemy for complaining about the volume of a local mosque’s call to worship. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Her complaint is thought to have sparked a riot against Chinese-Indonesians, during which multiple Buddhist temples were burned or ransacked.

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian and the former governor of Jakarta, completed a two-year sentence in January 2019 on a conviction of insulting the Quran.

Yunahar Ilyas, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), a prominent body of political Islam, said that the woman’s actions should “not be considered as blasphemy” because of her schizophrenia, but he did not directly call for a drop of the charges against her, The Australian reported.

Amnesty International condemned SM’s recent arrest, calling it “inappropriate” given her history of mental illness.

“This latest, unfortunate and absurd case is further proof that blasphemy laws should be repealed. Police must immediately release the woman and drop the charges against her,” said Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty Indonesia, The Australian reported.

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Venezuelan bishops condemn death of naval captain while in custody

July 8, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Caracas, Venezuela, Jul 8, 2019 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- The Venezuelan bishops’ justice and peace commission have condemned the death in custody of Rafael Acosta Arévalo, a naval captain who was arrested over an alleged assassination plot against president Nicolas Maduro.

Acosta’s lawyer alleges the officer had been tortured while in custody. Two members of Venezuela’s military counterintelligence agency have been charged in relation to Acosta’s death.

The bishops also protested that police had allegedly disfigured and left blind Rufo Chacón Parada, a youth, as he was demonstrating about the lack supplies in the country.

“The Venezuelan state is responsible. We will not consent to the manipulation, dissimulation and downplaying of these grave incidents,” the bishops’ justice and peace commission stated July 4.

“It is our commitment as a Church, which sees in the suffering faces of the relatives and those of the victims the suffering of Our Lord Jesus Christ. These two victims represent today the cries of many other citizens who have been subjected to the same patterns and whose cases have been blacked out.”

The bishops said that “the forced disappearance, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, excesses committed by the police … against Venezuelans are practices that have taken hold in the military and police corps, and are occurring on an ongoing basis, like a secret that cries out in our consciences.”

“This immoral, ignoble and dishonorable conduct is an attack on the dignity of the person and violates the conventions and treaties signed by the republic which directly makes responsible those officials that order, apply or tolerate this conduct or areable to prevent it, and do not do so,” they added.

In the case of Chacón “the disproportionate use of force once again leaves indelible consequences on this family: a young bachelor who is now blind, disfigured, and with no desire to live, a traumatized mother who in addition to life’s basic rights being denied her, that of protesting, of complaining, of finding unacceptable this fragile existence which we have been subjected to by government mismanagement. Silence is not an option in face of so much outrage,” the bishops said.

The bishops demanded that Acosta’s case be investigated “in accordance with the international standards and protocols related to cases of torture and not as a simple criminal investigation. That includes conducting a proper autopsy in accordance with law and with independent experts and adequately preserving the entire body of evidence.”

The bishops noted that the men charged in relation to Acosta’s death, Lt Ascanio Tarascio and Sgt Estiben Zarate, are 22 and 23, and asked: “This is the generation the armed forces are passing the baton to? Who taught these young men how to do so much harm to their brothers? What are the responsibilities of their superiors in the chain of command in these institutions?”

They emphasized that “these young perpetrators are also victims of a system that has allowed this moral and spiritual degradation in our county.”

Acosta was captured by Venezuela’s Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence June 21, and he was later listed as among 14 Venezuelans arrested for participation in an alleged assassination plot.

Acosta appeared in a wheelchair before a military tribunal June 28, but collapsed before proceedings began. He died the following day in a military hospital.

Under Maduro’s socialist administration, Venezuela has been marred by violence and social upheaval, with severe shortages and hyperinflation. More than 4 million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2015.

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Japan awards priest for promoting friendship in Africa through judo

July 8, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Dublin, Ireland, Jul 8, 2019 / 05:19 pm (CNA).- A Capuchin Franciscan priest from Northern Ireland who spent 50 years on mission in Zambia has been awarded one of Japan’s highest honors for his promotion of judo in Africa.

“It’s a great recognition. I’m very proud of it, but I’m also surprised and overcome by the enormity of it. It’s not something I was expecting at all,” Father Jude McKenna told the Belfast Telegraph.

The 84-year-old judo expert is one of this year’s recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays, awarded each year by the Japanese government. The award is “given to people who make a very significant contribution to the spread of Japanese culture,” the priest told the Belfast Telegraph.

McKenna, a native of Ballymoney, Northern Ireland, lived in Zambia from 1966 until 2017, when he retired to Dublin due to failing eyesight.

McKenna’s twin brother Brian was ordained a priest at the same time as Jude and they both joined the Capuchin Franciscans. When the time came for the brothers to be given their assignments, Jude was sent to Zambia, and Brian to California.

Father Jude said he was always a keen boxer, and after three visits to Japan, developed an affinity for judo, a form of self-defense developed in Japan in 1882 that today is generally practiced as a sport.

In addition to his missionary work in Africa, McKenna helped to spread the practice of judo across Zambia and throughout Africa. He founded the Lusaka Central Sports Club in Zambia’s capital.

McKenna’s award, given June 26 by Japan’s Ambassador to Ireland Mari Miyoshi in Dublin, was in recognition of his “outstanding contribution towards strengthening bilateral relations and promoting friendship between Japan and Zambia through judo,” the Belfast Telegraph reports.

Established in 1875, the Order of the Rising Sun was Japan’s first national award.

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N Ireland bishops denounce ‘undemocratic’ attempt to expand abortion

July 8, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Belfast, Northern Ireland, Jul 8, 2019 / 03:01 pm (CNA).- Bishops in Northern Ireland have spoken out against amendments to a bill in the British parliament that would liberalize abortion provision in the region, bypassing its self-governance.

Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh said July 6 that he is “deeply concerned by suggestions that amendments are being considered to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill … which will hijack this Bill to remove existing legal protection for unborn babies and to ‘fast track’ the legalisation of abortion on demand in Northern Ireland. How tragic it is for humanity that some legislators would ‘fast track’ the ending of the lives of the most defenceless in our society.”

Abortion is legally permitted in Northern Ireland only if the mother’s life is at risk or if there is risk of permanent, serious damage to her mental or physical health. Elective abortion is legal in the rest of the United Kingdom up to 24 weeks.

British prime minister Theresa May has said abortion should be a devolved issue for Northern Ireland, but the Northern Ireland Assembly is currently suspended due to disagreements between the two major governing parties.

Archbishop Martin added that “it is urgent to restore an executive in Northern Ireland, so that the common good of all our people can be served. There is something particularly cynical, however, in taking advantage of the present political crisis to remove the right to life of the most vulnerable of our people; the unborn baby. The common good cannot be served in this way.”

“A legal framework for the protection of unborn human life is an important statement about the respect due to each and every child, and about the society in which we live,” he stated.

He asked that Catholics and other pro-life persons “contact Members of Parliament as a matter of urgency, requesting that he or she vote against any attempt to remove legal protection from unborn babies.”

Bishop Noel Treanor of Down and Connor urged similar action, asking July 6 that people contact their MP “to register their objection to this undemocratic process.”

“The protection of human life, inviolable from its conception until its natural end, is a matter of fundamental ethical and social ethical importance for citizens, society and the state,” he said, lamenting that the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill “is being used to introduce amendments aiming to liberalise provision of abortion in Northern Ireland without the say-so of either the citizens of Northern Ireland or their elected representatives.”

Bishop Treanor called the efforts an “eleventh hour initiative” to instrumentalize a bill meant “to put in place measures to accommodate the ongoing absence of a Northern Ireland Assembly. The issue of the protection of human life and the redefinition of marriage are not … devolved matters, which should be decided upon by the people of Northern Ireland.”

Since the bill is being considered by the British parliament, the English and Welsh bishops’ life issues spokesman, also encouraged citizens to speak out against it.

Bishop John Sherrington, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, said July 5 the bill’s effect in Northern Ireland “would be to provide for abortion on demand up to 28 weeks,” while in England and Wales “it would remove almost all of the existing legal safeguards surrounding abortion which limit abortion. Removing these is a step which I hope that legislators will not take.”

“Such a change would leave Northern Ireland with a significantly different abortion framework to the Republic of Ireland, where, following the recent referendum, there is a twelve week limit. It would also leave Northern Ireland, England and Wales with some of the most extreme abortion laws in the world, and more than twice the limit of most European countries,” Bishop Sherrington stated.

Right to Life UK has warned that amendments to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill “would potentially lead to significant numbers coming across the border for abortions from the Republic of Ireland,” where abortion is not generally available after 12 weeks.

Clare McCarthy, a Right to Life UK spokesperson, said July 8 that Northern Ireland’s abortion law “should be a decision for the people of Northern Ireland and their elected representatives” and that it is “inappropriate to bring forward abortion amendment to a Bill which has nothing to do with abortion in any way.”

McCarthy noted that “100,000 people in Northern Ireland are alive today because Northern Ireland did not accept the same abortion law that was introduced into Britain in 1967.”

The Belfast Telegraph reported July 8 that Labour and Co-operative MP Stella Creasy, who represents a London constituency, had introduced amendments “seeking to extend abortion provision” in Northern Ireland.

Earlier this year Creasy intended to propose an amendment to a draft Domestic Abuse Bill that would give the British parliament jurisdiction over abortion laws throughout the United Kingdom. However, the bill’s scope was restricted to England and Wales by the Conservative government.

The Democratic Unionist Party, the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and a member of the coalition government in Westminster, is opposed to changing the region’s abortion law.

Bills to legalize abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, rape, or incest failed in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016.

Northern Irish women have been able to procure free National Health Service abortions in England, Scotland, and Wales since November 2017.

The region’s abortion law is also facing a legal challenge from Sarah Ewart, a Belfast woman who traveled to England in 2013 for an abortion after her doctors reportedly told her that her baby would not survive outside of the womb.

In June 2018, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission challenged the region’s abortion laws in the UK Supreme Court. While the Supreme Court concluded that Northern Ireland’s abortion laws violated human rights law by banning abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, rape, and incest, it threw out the case saying it had not been brought forward by a person who had been wrongfully harmed by the law. It is expected that the court will consider Ewart to have standing to bring the case.

Other amendments to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill would introduce same-sex marriage in the region; block a no-deal Brexit; and restrict prosecution of British soldiers for killings committed during the Troubles.

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Holy See waives diplomatic immunity for accused nuncio to France

July 8, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, Jul 8, 2019 / 11:07 am (CNA).- The Holy See has announced it has revoked the diplomatic immunity of the apostolic nuncio to France, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, clearing the way for the diplomat to face criminal charges in that country.

In a July 8 statement, interim head of Vatican communications Alessandro Gisotti confirmed that the archbishop’s immunity had been waived.

“I can confirm that the Holy See renounces jurisdictional immunity enjoyed by the Apostolic Nuncio in France, Msgr. Luigi Ventura, by virtue of the Vienna Convention of 18 April 1961 on diplomatic relations, for the purposes of criminal proceedings concerning him,” Gisotti said. 

Ventura, 74, is accused of having inappropriately touched a young male staffer of Paris City Hall during a Jan. 17 reception for the New Year address of Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo. That accusation has been under investigation by Parisian authorities for several months.

In March France’s Minister of European Affairs, Nathalie Loiseau, called on the Vatican to waive immunity and allow the inquiry to reach a conclusion.

“At this point, [Ventura] benefits from diplomatic immunity, but the Holy See is clearly aware of the serious accusations that have been brought against the apostolic nuncio and I don’t doubt for a second that the Holy See will do the right thing,” Loiseau said at the time.

On Monday, Gisotti confirmed that the decision had been communicated to French authorities last week, calling the move “an extraordinary gesture.” Gisotti also confirmed that the Ventura had agreed “to collaborate fully and spontaneously with the French judicial authorities,” and that he has freely participated in the preliminary phase of the investigation.

Ventura has served as nuncio to France since 2009. The statement from the Vatican did not make clear if he would formally remain in post during the remaining phases of the investigation or any subsequent trial.

After the initial allegation was made against in Ventura in March, he faced a second accusation of sexual misconduct against an adult male relating to his time in Canada in 2008.

Christian Vachon, who was 32 at the time of the alleged incident, claims Ventura touched his buttocks at least twice during a banquet held at the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, near Quebec.

Diplomatic immunity, which allows diplomats in a country to do their work without fear of interference from the host country’s laws or lawsuits from the host country, is covered by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.

The standard diplomatic protections can be removed by the diplomat’s home country, in special circumstances and at the country’s discretion.

In recent years, the Holy See’s practice has generally been to recall diplomats accused of civil crimes in their host countries. Once back in Vatican City, they are tried both civilly and canonically, and may later be stripped of diplomatic immunity so they can also be prosecuted by the host country.

In April 2018, Vatican police arrested former diplomat Msgr. Carlo Alberto Capella, who faced charges related to child pornography in both the United States and Canada, where he had served in diplomatic posts for the Holy See.

Capella was recalled from the Washington Nunciature in September 2017 after the Vatican was informed by the US State Department that there was a “possible violation of laws relating to child pornography images” by a member of the Holy See’s diplomatic corps.

The Holy See declined a State Department request to wave immunity in Capella’s case. However, information regarding the findings of the US State Department was passed along to the Vatican’s Promoter of Justice. Following a 2018 Vatican civil trial, during which he admitted viewing child pornography, Capella was sentenced to five years in prison. A subsequent canonical trial, currently underway, may result in his dismissal from the clerical state.

Ventura was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Brescia in 1969. He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1978 and has served in Brazil, Bolivia, and the United Kingdom. From 1984 to 1995 he worked at the Secretariat of State’s Section for Relations with States.

After his episcopal consecration in 1995, Ventura served as nuncio to Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chile, and Canada, before his transfer to France.

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