Rome Watch March/April 2006

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT TELLS JUDGE TO GIVE THE POPE IMMUNITY IN SEX ABUSE LAWSUIT

The U.S. Government has told a Texas Court that Pope Benedict XVI should he given immunity from a lawsuit accusing him of conspiring to cover up the sexual molestation of three boys by a seminarian, court documents show.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Peter Keisler said in Monday's filing that, as Pope, Benedict enjoys immunity as the head of a State - the Vatican. He said allowing the lawsuit to proceed would be "incompatible with the United States "foreign policy interests"

There was no immediate ruling from Judge Lee Rosenthal of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston, who has been presiding over the case. However, the Supreme Court has held that U.S. courts are bound by such "suggestion of immunity" motions submitted by the government, Keisler's filing says.

A 1994 lawsuit against Pope John Paul II, also filed in Texas, was dismissed after the U.S. government filed a similar motion.

The Vatican Embassy in Washington had asked the U.S. government to issue the immunity suggestion and do everything it can to get the case dismissed. As a result, Keisler's motion was not unexpected.

In the lawsuit, which names the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as a defendant, the three plaintiffs claim that a Colombian born seminarian on assignment at St. Francis de Sales church in Houston, Juan Carlos Patino Arango, molested them during counseling sessions.

LONDONDERRY: In 1970, more than 13,000 Protestants lived on Londonderry's west bank. There are now less than 1,000 left. Protestant families used to live in areas such as Glenbank, Shantallow, Rosemount, Strand Road, Buncrana Road, Culmore Road and Northland Road. They have long since fled these areas, following sectarian attacks, including murders, and particularly the IRA bomb attacks on Protestant businesses in the 1970s.The residual Protestant population left on the west bank of the River Foyle is crammed into the Fountain Street estate, where they are subject to regular on-going sectarian attacks. School children from the Protestant community are subject to attack when using public transport to and from the school. Many parents have to collect their children in taxis from the school gates and accompany them home to ensure their safety.

GARVAGHY ROAD PORTADOWN: More than 1,600 Protestants have left the Garvaghy Road In Portadown over the past 30 years to live in other parts of Portadown and the wider Craigavon area. Elements within the nationalist population on the Garvaghy Road are still attempting to threaten Protestant families from their homes in the Corcrain area and around Corcrain Orange hall. There is an unrelenting and ongoing systematic attempt to push the Protestant residents in this area towards the east of the town and to enlarge the area controlled by extreme elements within the nationalist community.

NEWRY: The Protestant population in Newry town is now down to five percent, with many families moving to the neighbouring, mainly Protestant, towns of Banbridge, Tandragee, Portadown and Markethill. In 1938, Protestants formed more than 20 per cent of the Newry population but from the onset of the Troubles and the IRA terrorist campaign, this number sharply declined. Although Protestants represent 22 per cent of the population in Newry and Mourne Council region, they are concentrated mainly in Kilkeel, Annalong, Bessbrook and Newtownhamilton and in rural areas towards Banbridge, Rathfriland, Markethill and Tandragee.

COALISLAND: In 1970, 870 Protestants lived in Coalisland. Today, there are only about 20 families left in the Co Tyrone town, less than one per cent of the population. Their churches, businesses, meeting places, used for social and cultural functions, have been attacked. The Corn Mill project, in the town, funded as a cross community project, has not employed anyone from the Protestant community.

MOY: The Co Tyrone village of Moy was split 50/50 Protestant/Roman Catholic in 1970. Today, the village is now almost 100 per cent Roman Catholic and only a residual population of elderly Protestants remain. They live mainly in public housing without the financial:means to move to an area where they would be more accepted. There is an increasing pressure on the residual Protestant population to leave the Moy, with regular attacks on property, especially at weekends. They are carried out at a low level (window breaking), and are rarely reported in the newspapers. The local Millars Hill hall was burned down and 16 male Protestants murdered In the Moy are buried in the Church of Ireland cemetery.

CO FERMANAGH: The Protestant communities in Fermanagh have been subject to sectarian violence and harassment over the past 30 years. Less than 10 per cent of the murders carried out against the Protestant community along the Fermanagh border have been solved. The derisively small number of people made amenable for these crimes have been released under the Belfast Agreement. The inability of the authorities to deal with this violence has led to a dramatic movement of population from border areas. Protestants have moved out of Brookeborough, Maguiresbridge, Irvinestown, Lisnaskea, Newtownbutler and Enniskillen. They have gone to eastern parts of the Province, or into fortress towns, like Ballinamallard, Kesh or Lisbellaw.

DUNLOY is another village where the Protestant population has been displaced. In the 1960s, the North Antrim village had a 40 cent Protestant population, which now gone.

DONAGHMORE: The last Protestant family in one private estate in Donaghmore left after Christmas last. Their 15 year old daughter, a pupil at Drumglass School, In Dungannon, had been subject to daily sectarian abuse, both verbal and physical, over a three year period, on the school bus. She was the only Protestant on the bus and, for her sake; the family moved to Killyman, in Dungannon, a largely Protestant area. Protestant businesses have been attacked in Donaghmore and the Orange hall in the village was burned down three times. Donaghmore used to have a population balance of 50/50 Roman Catholic/Protestant, but the Protestant population has now fallen to five per cent.

KEADY: The Protestant community of the Armagh border town has fallen from about 30 per cent in the 1960s to less than 10 per cent, with many families moving to Armagh city.

THE COMMUNITY BASED REPORT ON THE MOVEMENT OF POPLULATION IN NORTHERN IRELAND CLAIMS THE GOVERNMENT HAS NOT HELPED PROTESTANTS FLEEING THEIR HOMES WHEN HELP WAS NEEDED.

Government measures have reinforced the actions of the paramilitaries engaged in the displacement of Protestant people,. It states: "The situation has been made worse with policies in education planning, agriculture and equality for the minority communities left in these areas and made them less viable."

EDUCATION: The Department Of Education closed many schools in "rationalisation" programmes. In Castlewellan, the Protestant community has slowly been pushed out of the town and some of the surrounding areas, largely through attacks on property. As their numbers declined, government further undermined the community by closing some of the rural primary schools and secondary schools.

FARMING: Because of the sustained IRA ampaign, many farms in threatened protestant areas, particularly along the border In county Fermanagh and county Tyrone, have remained, for up to 25 years, unworked and unimproved, The rest, of the farming community were able to take advantage of various grant aided schemes, to improve their farms. Most of these schemes have now been withdrawn. To be able to compete commercially, these farms need a catch up programme.

PLANNING: In Londonderry city, the area plan has acted to undermine the viability of the Protestant community. This community lives primarily in the Waterside area, located on the east bank of the River Foyle.

EQUALITY LEGISLATION: The Government's new equality legislation on the supply of goods and services will outlaw the sale of land and property within one religious community. This legislation takes no account of the situation that many Protestants cannot, for reasons of safety, bid for land, properties or businesses, outside their local community area. Yet one of the waysthat threatened rural communities at risk can survive and remain as viable communities, is by selling and keeping land and property within the local community.

COMMUNITY RELATIONS: The Northern Ireland Community Relations Programme has ignored the existence of these communities and this problem yet the Intimidation of Protestant communities is a major factor which undermines good relations. A special initiative to address this problem needs to be put in place and made a high priority by government.

RETURNEES: Retired members of the RUC, Prison Service and the Armed Forces and their families face a special problem in some areas of Northern Ireland. For example, in Londonderry many young men in the 1960s and 1970s joined these services, in many cases because these were the only employment opportunities available to them. These men are now coming up to retirement and many wish to return their home locality, and join their remaining family members. They cannot do this, because of republican paramilitary threat.

CONCLUSION: The community report says the Belfast Agreement tackled many issues on the nationalist agenda, but it largely ignored those issues of concern to the unionist community across Northern Ireland. The vexed question of forced population 'movement' is a core issue that impacts heavily on the Protestant/Unionist movement and was not addressed within the Belfast Agreement. The effects of population displacement must not be allowed to become permanent if the Agreement is to live up to its promises on tolerance, respect and human rights.

Since 1970 an estimated 250,000 Protestants have been forced out of various areas of Northern Ireland, a community based report submitted to the Northern Ireland Office has claimed.

The report, compiled by the Ulster Scots group Fokk Richts, which translates as Human Rights claims that one in four of the Protestant community has moved under direct threats or intimidation.

The experience, it says, may explain the concern of Protestants and unionists over the possession of illegal weaponry by paramilitary groups. So, many lives have been blighted by these guns, the authors point out.

There are about 50 towns and villages in Northern Ireland where the Protestant poplulation has significantly fallen in the past 30 years from 1970.

Included among these are Londonderry, Newry, Omagh, Cookstown, Armagh, Strabane, Magherafelt, Maghera, Dungannon, Stewartstown, Moneymore, Dungiven, Randalstown, Downpatrick,Newcastle, Bellaghy, Pomeroy, Carnlough, Coalisland, Draperstown, Carnlough, Bellaghy, Dunloy and Crumlin.

In only one Northern Ireland town, Carrickfergus, has the Roman Catholic population fallen in that period. The community report was presented to the then Northern Ireland minister George Howarth last January and it is understood that in May he referred the submission to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission for investigation.

THE SAD AND SORRY TALE OF A BRITISH PRINCESS WHO CONVERTED TO ROMANISM - AND LOST IT ALL

On 31st May 1906 following a Nuptial Mass celebrated by the Bishop of Toledo, they drove from the Cathedral to the Royal Palace cheered on by a crowd of 200,000. As they reached Calla Mayor 200 yards from the Palace, a bomb, disguised as a bouquet was thrown landing just to the right of the Royal Bridal Carriage. 37 were killed, 200 injured, 7 of the 8 horses were killed and the magnificent bridal gown of the apostate British Princess was stained with the blood of her new Papist subjects.

Sacred relics from all over Spain were brought for the birth of Ena's first child. The baby Alphonso had Pope Pius X as his godfather and was christened in the baptism font of St Dominic. The Prince was born with the dreaded blood disease, Haemophilia. In 1910 Ena gave birth to a still born baby son. Another son Jaime took double-mastoiditus and as a result of an operation going badly wrong became a deaf mute. Ena's brother Prince Maurice was killed in battle in 1915 and her next son was born as a Haemophiliac.

Ena now often wondered if she was under a curse and if all these tragedies were a punishment for her apotacy from Protestantism. She is reported to have said "I will advise my sons and daughters not to marry a monarch of a different religion."

As for King Alfonso, he becane a "serial adulterer" having several iIIegitimite children. His own mother Queen Maria Christine said of him "If you had to point out all the grand children credited to me you wouldn't live long enough to be able to do so."

In 1918 Ena suffered yet another miscarriage but worse was to come. On 16th April 1931 Revolution toppled the Throne of Spain for which Ena had betrayed her Protestant faith. She and her children fled the Royal Palace and Spain as the mob shouted "Death to the Queen." In exile Ena and Alphonso separated. She returned to his death bed in Mussolini's Italy where the ex King died with his Jesuit Confessor at his bedside where he clutched a crucifix.

As for the family the curse followed Ena. Ena's son Alphonso renounced his claim to the Spanish throne and died in 1937 having married and divorced two Cuban women. In 1934 Ena's son Gonzalo also died in a car crash.

Ena was to die in exile in Lausanne, Switzerland being permitted to return to Spain by Franco for the baptism ceremony of her great-grandson almost forty years after her exile.

This then is the forgotten tale of the British Princess who turned to Rome and experienced judgement.

A County Fermanagh priest has been charged with indecent assault and facilitating the rape of a 12 year old girl.

Father Jeremiah McGrath (62), appeared before Liverpool Crown Court recently speaking only to confirm his name and address at the Parochial House, Roslea, Co Fermanagh. The charges came as the Catholic church prepares to launch "Our Children, Our Church" the official response to child sex abuse revelations stemming from the damning Ferns Report.

In a letter to shocked parishioners, the Bishop of Clogher appealed for their support and prayers.

Fr. McGrath has not entered a plea to the charges of indecently assaulting and facilitating another person to rape the child between May and November of last year in England. The priest was charged with the offences after he went voluntarily to police.

Fr. McGrath had been in America, where he has relatives, and on his return he was questioned in Liverpool by Merseyside police. His house had been searched and documents removed during a police raid. He had been refused bail and was to reappear at Liverpool Magistrate's Court where he was expected to deny the charges.

Fr. McGrath had only been raised to Parish Priest status within the last three years but was suspended by the Bishop of Clogher, Dr Joseph Duffy. Dr Duffy, said in a statement read out at masses in the Roslea parish over the weekend, that he had had "no option but to suspend Fr. McGrath from pastoral ministry until further notice."

He asked parishioners for their "support and prayers" for all concerned "at this difficult time". A spokesman for Dr. Duffy said that it would be inappropriate for him to comment further.

An unholy row is smouldering after a religious pilgrimage turned into a cigarette smuggling heist.

The incident has left genuine pilgrims all fired up. They were on a trip to the shrine of Medjugorje in Yugoslavia where an apparition of the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared. Ill people from around the world go there hoping for a cure.

A pilgrimage from here travelled to the holy shrine but they were shocked on their return to Belfast when customs officers pounced on members of one family from the city and found 50,000 cigarettes being smuggled home in their luggage.

"This undermines the whole spirit of the pilgrimage," said one disgusted pilgrim."We're furious that this should have happened. This is not what going to the holy shrine at Medjugorje is about in any way. It puts a slur on the whole meaning of the trip and those ill people who are hoping for a miracle."

It is understood that at least one member of the group caught smuggling the cigarettes was in a wheelchair. Another, according to sources, was genuinely disabled. Other folk who were on the pilgrimage say the huge cache of thousands of cigarettes was confiscated.

A "courageous" Catholic Bishop has become the second member of the hierarchy in a decade to publicly suggest that Catholic priests should be allowed to marry.

The Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, said that there was room for both celibate and married priests within the Catholic Church. "I certainly wouldn't have any difficulty with the concept of married priests ministering in our Church," he said. "This is a very serious question, but I think we need a debate on celibacy in our Church and on the wider issue of our whole understanding of sexuality."

Dr Walsh said that although celibacy enabled priests to live 'generous' lives, the Church had experienced great losses when gifted priests left to pursue relationships. Spokesman for the Diocese of Down and Connor, Father John McManus, said that he didn't see the "logic" behind Dr Walsh's comments.

"The situation is that priests do not marry so there is no reason for saying that they should get married because it's not a possible reality," he said.

"Priests, before they are ordained, accept freely the gift of celibacy for the good of the Kingdom. The teaching is plain and straight and it has been there for hundreds of years."

In 1995 Bishop Brendan Comiskey then Bishop of Ferns was summoned to Rome to explain himself after he called for an end to the ban on married clergy.

Former Bishop of Galway, Eamon Casey, is spending Christmas in Ireland and meeting with gardai investigating an abuse allegation against him. In November the former bishop, who is now called Fr. Casey, stepped down from ministry in a parish in England after the abuse allegation, relating to his time in Ireland, was made against him. At the time Fr. Casey (78) said he would return to Ireland to fight the allegation, made by a Co Kerry woman in her forties. She is understood to have made similar allegations against five other priests in the past, none of which has been proven.

He arrived in Ireland recently and was due to meet Gardai in Limerick before travelling to Kerry to stay with friends and family during the Christmas holiday.

Fr. Casey was forced to resign as bishop of Galway after fleeing to Ecuador in 1992 when it emerged that he had fathered a child with an Irish American divorcee. He left Ecuador, where he had been working with a missionary society, in 1998, returning to parish ministry in the English diocese of Arundel and Brighton.

A spokesman for the diocese said he had returned to Ireland to clear his name and to spend time with friends.

Roman Catholic Cardinal Archbishop Cormac Murphy O'Connor and Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Archbishop of St Andrew's and Edinburgh, together with other leading RC Bishops in Britain, have issued a new teaching pamphlet informing their flock that 'not all of the Bible is true'. They added in their pamphlet The Gift of Scripture: "You should not expect 'total accuracy' in the Scriptures... We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision in secular matters". They added that "Genesis Chapters 1 -11 are not to be taken literally, though they may contain historical traces". The new teaching paper has been issued as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council document explaining the place of Scripture in revelation.

The Bishops went on to condemn what they called 'fundamentalism' for its 'intransigent intolerance', claiming that a "fundamentalist approach is dangerous when people of one nation or group see in the Bible a mandate for their own superiority, and even consider themselves permitted by the Bible to use violence against others".

The comments of the Bishops have provoked much reaction on religious web sites. Ian Henderson wrote from Australia: "The Bible defends itself and remains the world's bestselling book. Those who read it will find wisdom, guidance and God's way of salvation in Christ. Man's opinions come and go, but the Word of God endures forever."

"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." - Matthew 5:18

THE Vatican, however, has issued a stout defence of Charles Darwin, voicing strong criticism of Christian fundamentalists who reject his theory of evolution, and interpret the biblical account of creation literally.

Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said the Genesis description of how God created the universe and Darwin's theory of evolution were "perfectly compatible" if the Bible were read correctly. His statement was a clear attack on creationist campaigners in the US, who see evolution and the Genesis account as mutually exclusive.

"The fundamentalists want to give a scientific meaning to words that had no scientific aim," he said at a Vatican press conference. He said the real message in Genesis was that "the universe didn't make itself and had a creator." His statements were interpreted in Italy as a rejection of the "intelligent design" view.

The 73 year old priest who had a baby with a 31 year old woman was in a relationship with her for nine years. Details of the couple's affair have emerged as they went into hiding to avoid the glare of the media.

Fr. Maurice Dillane met the woman, who was just 22 years old at the time, shortly after he returned to Co Galway from San Antonio in Texas in the mid 1990's.

It is understood she lived just yards from the church in the Killoran parish near Ballinasloe, Co Galway, where he served.

Fr. Dillane disappeared from his parish of Woodford Looscaun days after confirming to the Bishop ,of Clonfert Dr. John Kirby, that he had fathered the child. He is now believed to be in staying with a sister in the east of the country. The mother of his child is currently on maternity leave from her teaching job. She is understood to be caring for her baby with the help of her family at an unknown location.

Reporters from the Irish Independent located the house of a relative where the priest is believed to be staying. It is a two storey home in a quiet, well established estate on a hill overlooking an east coast town.

When a phone call was made to the house, the man who answered refused to confirm whether Fr. Dillane was there or not. Later when reporters called to the door, the man who opened it was again asked if Fr. Dillane was there. He said "no comment" and shut the door. After his spell in Killoran parish, Fr. Dillane was appointed curate in Looscaun by Bishop John Kirby about 18 months ago - a townland attached to the village parish of Woodford.

Sources close to the priest's family last night confirmed he had been in a relationship with the woman for almost a decade."They have known each other since Fr. Mossie came back from the States," one source said. "This was not just a one off fling. They are committed to each other." Locals said they were "shocked and surprised".

"He is a very nice, sociable man and friendly to everyone. Nobody really suspected this relationship was going on," he said.

The elderly priest and the young schoolteacher may have been an item for the best part of a decade.

Fr. Mossie quickly established himself as "a man of the people" when he arrived in east Galway in the mid 1990s. A very sociable individual, he is understood to have met his future lover at a social event. When news of his appointment by Bishop John Kirby to Woodford Looscaun came through in 2004, the young woman transferred to the area and the relationship continued.

That changed when she gave birth late last year and the rumour mill went into overdrive. It was confirmed when the chairperson of the Woodford Pastoral Council, Justin O'Byrne, sought clarification from Woodford parish Priest, Fr. Patrick Naughten.

Leading Irish retailer Dunnes Stores has started selling rosary beads as fashion accessories. Rosary necklaces are available in their stores for £7. Religious groups have expressed displeasure with the stores decision to sell the beads as fashion items.

Joe Jackson of the Legion of Mary said it was "a worry" that the rosary was being viewed as a fashion item. "If rosary beads are seen in this way they could lose their sacredness," he said. "It shows a complete lack of understanding of what they symbolise. If these things are being worn purely as fashion accessories it shows a lack of respect also." However, a spokeswoman for Dunnes Stores, High Street, Belfast said the rosary necklaces have not caught on as well as they had hoped.

"We started selling them before Christmas. But they don't seem to be selling at all," he said. "We thought they might catch on as a lot of famous people have worn crucifixes and the whole Gothic thing but they just haven't been big sellers for us."

In Japan rosary beads, pictured, became hugely popular, with young people, especially men in their teens and twenties, wearing rosary beads as a fashion statement. They were produced by Dolce & Gabbana, Italian designers, who first sold rosaries as fashion items in the 1980's. The popularity of rosary beads among the fashion conscious even provoked the Catholic Church to issue a leaflet stressing their religious significance.

Christian bookshops and other suppliers became overwhelmed by demand from teenagers when celebrities like David Beckham and Britney Spears began wearing the beads as necklaces and bracelets.

It is not the aim or intention of Rome Watch to incite hatred of Roman Catholics but rather, by use of International Press reports already carried in newspapers, to show the religious and political advances of the Papacy in the light of Bible Prophecy, which foretells an end-time World Religion, Government and Economy.