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Australian Catholic bishops establish new agency to fight abuse

December 3, 2020 CNA Daily News 2

CNA Staff, Dec 4, 2020 / 12:23 am (CNA).- On Thursday, the Catholic bishops of Australia and two other Catholic entities launched Australian Catholic Safeguarding Limited, a company charged with the safeguarding of children against sexual abuse by clergy.

The launch of the agency comes three years after the release of a 2017 Royal Commission report on child sex abuse in the country’s institutions. The new agency was created by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Catholic Religious Australia (CRA) and the Association of Ministerial PJPs (Public Juridic Persons).

“We have discerned what was working well and what needed to change, and we are convinced this new national agency will make the Church’s work more coordinated, accountable and best prepared to ensure the safety of people in Catholic settings,” CRA president Br. Peter Carroll FMS said in a December 3 statement marking the launch.

The new agency, also known as ACSL, “will reduce duplication and consolidate work previously undertaken by Catholic Professional Standards Limited, the Implementation Advisory Group and the Australian Catholic Centre for Professional Standards,” the statement noted.

According to a fact sheet on the ACSL, while it is “hoped” that all Australian Catholic entities will subscribe to the new group, it will not be mandatory. Those entities that subscribe to the ACSL will be expected to comply with its safeguarding standards, conduct reviews and audits of their abuse prevention systems at least every three years, and provide ACSL with a copy of their reviews, which will be published on the ACSL’s website.

The establishment of the ACSL is one of many reforms being made by the Church in Australia after the release of the Royal Commission report, which found serious failings in the protection of children from abuse in the Catholic Church and other major secular and religious institutions.

Other changes made in the wake of the report include a program to compensate victims, and an obligation on the part of clergy and religious to report abuse accusations to their local ordinary or metropolitan archbishop.

The Australian bishops’ conference responded positively to nearly all the Royal Commission’s recommendations, but has defended the sanctity of the confessional seal.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge, president of the Australian Catholic bishop’s conference, said that the safeguarding agency was established after an extensive consultation process with people both inside and outside of the Church, including abuse survivors and their advocates.

“Australian Catholic Safeguarding Limited will build on the strong work of the previous bodies, including in demanding accountability of Catholic entities and in requiring independent audits and reviews of adherence to the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards,” he said.

Eva Skira is the chair of Association of Ministerial PJPs, a group whose members include canonical stewards of Church ministries in areas such as education, health care, disability and social services.

Skira said the group supported the creation of the new agency and is “deeply committed to child protection and safeguarding in our various contexts.”

“We are very pleased to be collaborators with the Bishops Conference and CRA, which have made significant progress in recent years,” Skira added.

Carroll said the inclusion of the Association of Ministerial PJPs in the creation of the safeguarding agency would help to extend its impact into more broadly Catholic contexts.

“Our focus must always be on the safety of all those who come into contact with the Church,” he said.


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Christian aid group applauds investigation into forced conversions, marriages in Pakistan

December 3, 2020 CNA Daily News 0

CNA Staff, Dec 3, 2020 / 07:01 pm (CNA).- Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered an investigation into the forced conversion of women and girls from the country’s religious minorities, drawing praise from Christian aid groups.

International Christian Concern, a group that advocates for persecuted Christians, said Dec. 3 that many of the victims of forced marriages in Pakistan are minors, and that sexual assaults and fraudulent marriages are used by perpetrators to entrap victims, with authorities often complicit.

Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, the Pakistani Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Religious Harmony, stated at a Nov. 30 joint press conference that Kahn had “ordered an investigation on a case-by-case basis of incidents of forced conversions of minor girls belonging to minority communities, particularly Christian and Hindu, to find reasons for this issue.”

ICC cited a 2014 study by the Movement for Solidarity and Peace Pakistan, which found that an estimated 1,000 Christian and Hindu women are abducted, forcefully married, and forcefully converted in Pakistan every year.

In a high-profile case this fall, a 44-year-old man kidnapped Arzoo Raja, a 13-year-old Catholic girl from Karachi, before forcing her to convert to Islam and marrying her.

Child marriage is technically illegal in Pakistan, but courts typically do not enforce these laws. Sharia, which is used in some judicial decisions in Pakistan, permits a child to be married after her first menstrual period. Pakistan’s state religion is Islam.

Ali Azhar kidnapped Raja in broad daylight Oct. 13. Raja’s parents were informed days later by the police that their daughter had converted to Islam and had married Azhar, allegedly of her own free will.

Two weeks after her abduction, on Oct. 27, the Sindh High Court, based on statements the girl gave saying she was 18, ruled the marriage was valid and that Azhar would not be arrested.

The High Court reversed itself and ordered police to find the teenager Nov. 2, the BBC reported. She was recovered later that day and Azhar has subsequently been charged with rape.

During August 2019, Catholic and other religious leaders signed a joint resolution asking the Pakistani government to adopt safeguards protecting religious minorities, a move that they said is much needed in the 97% Muslim nation.

The first point adopted in the joint resolution urges that the minimum age for marriage be made 18 years; the current marriage age for women is now 16.

The religious leaders also noted that “there is no forced conversion according to the Holy Quran.” On that basis, they urged legislation against abduction, sexual violence, and subsequent forced conversion to Islam, which acts they said do not propagate “the true spirit of Islam.”

The Center for Social Justice (CSJ), a Pakistani Catholic rights organization, plans on Dec. 8 to present a resolution to the government calling for an urgent response to protect the rights of religious minorities, particularly regarding forced conversions.

The country was designated, for the first time, a “Country of Particular Concern” in December 2018 for its religious freedom record by the US Department of State.

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, introduced between 1980 and 1986, impose strict punishment on those who desecrate the Quran or who defame or insult Muhammad. Although the government has never executed a person under the blasphemy law, accusations alone have inspired mob and vigilante violence.

Blasphemy laws are reportedly used to settle scores or to persecute religious minorities; while non-Muslims constitute only 3 percent of the Pakistani population, 14 percent of blasphemy cases have been levied against them.

Many of those accused of blasphemy are murdered, and advocates of changing the law are also targeted by violence.

Last year, an EU official told CNA that the acquittal and release of Asia Bibi – a Catholic woman who spent nearly a decade on death row for blasphemy charges – showed promise for the development of religious freedom in Pakistan. Her conviction was overturned in October 2018.


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China claims papal critique over Uyghurs has ‘no factual basis at all’

November 26, 2020 CNA Daily News 0

CNA Staff, Nov 26, 2020 / 10:01 am (CNA).- Following Pope Francis’ mention in passing of the Uyghurs as persecuted in a new book, the Chinese foreign ministry said the claim is groundless.

“I think often of persecuted peoples: the Rohingya, the poor Uighurs, the Yazidi — what ISIS did to them was truly cruel — or Christians in Egypt and Pakistan killed by bombs that went off while they prayed in church,” Pope Francis is quoted as saying in the book, “Let Us Dream,” according to the AP.

An estimated 1 million Uyghurs, members of a Muslim ethnoreligious group, have been detained in re-education camps in China’s Xinjiang region. Inside the camps they are reportedly subjected to forced labor, torture, and political indoctrination. Outside the camps, Uyghurs are monitored by pervasive police forces and facial recognition technology.

Neither Pope Francis nor the Holy See has publicly commented in an official capacity on the situation.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded to Pope Francis’ mention of the Uyghurs by saying that there was “no factual basis at all” to the pope’s comment.

“People of all ethnic groups enjoy the full rights of survival, development, and freedom of religious belief,” Zhao said at a daily briefing, according to AP.

Researchers at an Australian think tank found recently that re-education camps in Xinjiang have expanded in the past year, despite reassurances from the government that a majority of detainees had been released.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute said it had “identified and mapped more than 380 suspected detention facilities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, highlighting ‘re-education’ camps, detention centres and prisons that have been newly built or expanded since 2017.”

The Chinese government has defended its policy of mass detention and re-education as an appropriate measure against terrorism.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a resolution in October to declare China’s actions against the Uyghur population as a genocide. Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who co-sponsored the resolution, emphasized the importance of human rights. 

“For far too long, the Chinese government has carried out a despicable campaign of genocide against millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims,” said Cornyn. “This resolution recognizes these crimes for what they are and is the first step toward holding China accountable for their monstrous actions.”

“Stopping a genocide is consistent with our national security and our values, and it starts by standing up and speaking the truth,” said Menendez.


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Typhoon Goni hits Philippines, compounding damage of storms and coronavirus

November 5, 2020 CNA Daily News 0

Denver Newsroom, Nov 5, 2020 / 10:28 am (CNA).- Typhoon Goni has hit the Philippines, killing several people and causing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes as the country struggles to recover from two other recent major storms and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ international aid agency, is reaching out to help.

“We’re working hand-in-hand with the local Church and Caritas Philippines to provide lifesaving support to families, such as making sure that they have access to safe drinking water and adequate shelter,” Nikki Gamer, media relations manager for CRS, told CNA Nov.4. “We’re also continuing to assess the damage and plan for ongoing support if needed.”

Typhoon Goni, locally known as Rolly, hit parts of the Philippines Nov. 1. Its peak winds reached 195 miles per hour. It was comparable in strength to the devastating 2013 Typhoon Haiyan, which killed some 6,000 people and damaged or destroyed 4 million homes.

The latest storm passed south of Manila but took out power in 125 cities and towns. About 2 million people were in the storm’s path, the Washington Post reports.

At least 20 people died and 10,000 homes were either damaged or destroyed.

Abay province suffered heavily, and San Francisco village in the town of Guinobatan was buried when rain and water drove mud and rocks down the slope of the Mayon Volcano.

Debris, flood, and landslides have blocked several land routes and several bridges have been destroyed. Several thousand personnel and 700 vehicles and heavy equipment have been deployed to clear roads.

The province of Catanduanes was unreachable by phone and its airport tower was not responsive. Communication was restored after a day without contact.

Gamer said over 1.7 million people have been affected.

Some 389,000 people are estimated to have evacuated their homes and taken refuge in churches, courts, and schools. Health officials have asked them to continue to follow practices to limit the spread of coronavirus.

“The COVID-19 pandemic makes the situation more fraught as social distancing and protection measures are difficult to adhere to in crowded evacuation centers,” Gamer told CNA. “What’s more, COVID-19-related travel restrictions have further complicated humanitarian efforts.”

Catholic Relief Services is the U.S. branch of Caritas International, the Catholic Church’s humanitarian relief network, which is helping Caritas Philippines in its emergency response efforts.

“Several Caritas International member organizations have responded not only with messages of solidarity, but likewise an offer to help in any way possible,” Bishop Jose Colin Mendoza Bagaforo of Kidapawan, national director of Caritas Philippines, told CBCP News.

Bagaforo appealed for the world to send aid, saying funds will help provide food, water, and emergency shelter.

He said the typhoon will bring greater poverty to the affected regions.

“With humility, we appeal for everyone’s sincere acts of kindness, generosity and compassion,” he said.

Gamer said the coronavirus and extreme weather events mean aid agencies need to prepare communities to be resilient.

“We’re greatly concerned about two ongoing issues impacting the Philippines and many other countries where we work – COVID-19 and climate change. Just like in the U.S., the secondary impacts of coronavirus have affected the economy and the ability of families to put food on the table,” Gamer told CNA.

“Meanwhile, the impacts of climate change – such as stronger and more frequent storms – are devastating livelihoods,” she said. “When Typhoon Goni struck, people were still reeling from Typhoon Quinta, which hit the same area just last week. People in the Philippines are bracing for at least five or six more typhoons this season. That’s why we’re strengthening local communities so that they’re more resilient to these types of crises in the future.”

Gamer also noted the generosity of Catholics in America.

“We’re extremely grateful for the unwavering support of American Catholics who continue to support our global mission despite all that’s happening here at home,” she said.


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