SUSPECTED CROATIAN WAR CRIMINAL RECEIVED BY THE POPE

Ante Gotovina meets Pope John Paul II

During the 1990's General Ante Gotovina met Pope John Paul II during the first and second of the Pontiff's visits to the country in 1994 and 1998. On the Pope's last visit in 2003, a member of his audience held a large picture of Gotovina which the Pontiff studiously ignored.

IS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CROATIAN SUSPECTED OF GENOCIDE, HIDING OUT IN ULSTER?

A REWARD of £3 million has been offered in Ireland for one of the world’s most wanted men after reports that he is hiding out here.

The former Croatian General Ante Gotovina, 48, is a war crimes suspect wanted for trial at the The International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.

He is charged with ordering the massacre of more than 150 Serb civilians and the expulsion of 150,000 others while he was a regional commander in Krajina during the bloody breakup of former Yugoslavia a decade ago.

The tribunal indictment alleges that Gotovina “planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or execution” of eight counts of war crimes. The indictment adds that the crimes, including murder, “were part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against a civilian population.”

A spokesman for the Tribunal at The Hague, said:

“If anyone has any information about Ante Gotovina’s whereabouts we would be very interested to hear it.”

The reward, was put up by the US State Department’s Rewards for Justice programme. It was placed in newspapers in Croatia and then Italy, after reports that Gotovina had fled there. The fugitive, who is the tribunal’s third most wanted after Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his army chief Ratko Mladic, has been on the run and evading arrest since 2001. US Ambassador at large for war crimes issues, Pierre Richard Prosper pledged the money in a bid to help the Croatian government to arrest Gotovina.

An Italian newspaper has claimed that it had received detailed information alleging that the general was escorted by sympathetic agents, across Europe and into Ireland. The newspaper claimed to have received detailed information alleging that after arriving in Ireland the general was escorted first to a hiding place in Donegal. It has since been reported he could now have moved from there to another city south or north.

Gotovina’s lawyer said he was aware of the reports that the General was In Ireland.

He believed the reports centred around the fact one of his closest allies in the Yugoslav war was an lrishborn former British soldier.

Luka Misitec told the News of the World:

“I have seen the reports but I do not know Ante Gotovlna’s current whereabouts. An Irishman was a member of General Gotovina’s unit and a combatant. I have seen the reports about him being in Ireland. The Information is based on an allegation about the former Irish soldier who joined the Croatian forces in 1991.”

The mystery Irishman was given the nomme de guerre Tony Cascarino, after famous Irish international soccer player Tony Cascarino who had a high profile at the time and was popular In Croatia. The president of the HSP 1861 party in Croatia, Dobroslav Paraga, said he was also aware of reports the general was in Ireland and he too confirmed a Croatian fighter had been Irish.

The ultra nationalist, whose party is also known as the Croatian Party of Rights 1861, said:

“Nothing would surprise me with this affair.”

Gotovina is still held in high regard among many Croatians at home and abroad.

The Irishman was one of the first foreign fighters to arrive In Croatia In 1991. Croatian politician Dobroslav Paraga said that “Cascarino is one of many foreigners who arrived in Zagreb in late summer 1991 to join the defence of Croatia.”

Now believed to be living in Dublin, he joined the British Army at 16 and was one of the first foreign volunteers to take up arms In defence of Croatia against Serbian aggression In 1991 when aged 20.

And he served with General Ante Gotovina’s elite 1st Tiger Brigade.

He played a key role in numerous operations and saw frontline action. He also daringly escaped from a military prison with ‘liberated’ weapons and also trained Croatia’s HOS paramilitary forces who proved themselves to be extremely effective.

A Croatian friend, Damir Mlinaric from Vrapce near Zagreb, said: “Tony Is a hero here in Croatia”.

‘Cascarino’ has declined to be Interviewed over allegations that he helped Gotovina to escape. But the News of the World has managed to get an exclusive statement through his associate in which he denies any involvement In hiding Gotovina.

And he backed the former military leader who has refuted the war crimes allegations. He said: “I wholeheartedly support the campaign for justice for General Ante Gotovlna.”

In it he said: “I have not seen nor had any contact with General Ante Gotovlna, directly or indirectly, since the Homeland War.”

The man who was appointed Chief Inspector of the Croatian Military in 1995, is still held In high regard by many Croatians at home and Abroad.

Croatian genocide did not just take place in the 1990’s. Between 1941 - 1945, 1 millIon Orthodox Serbs perished in a campaign of ethnic cleansing, in the Catholic Ustashi puppet state of Croatia, set up by Hitler, and administered by the dictator Pavelic and Cardinal Stepinac.

You can read the horrific details In the following books:

1) The Vatican Holocaust - £3.00UK

2) Spotlight on Yugoslavia - £1.00UK

Both available from Open-Bible Ministries.

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A Town’s mayor said he fears that a process of ethnic cleansing could be going on in his Borough after thugs surrounded a Protestant pensioner’s home. The woman was still recovering from shock yesterday. The attack is believed to have been aimed at her I4year-old granddaughter who was with her at her Glengormley home.

And Newtownabbey mayor Paul Girvan said it follows similar incidents in Glengormley which appear to be aimed at driving Protestants from the area.

The attack happened on Monday night after the woman’s granddaughter, who was earlier stopped by a mob and called an “Orange bitch”, returned home.

Community worker Rab Miller said: “Three young boys and two girls were walking along in the Ashgrove area when they were confronted by a nationalist mob. They were chased into the woman’s house and the mob then ran around the house trying to force the doors. They threw bottles and cans at the windows, terrifying the pensioner.”

Mr Miller said the woman, who is too frightened to be named, has been intimidated on several occasions.

It follows the intimidation of a Protestant family who sold their Glengormley home following a campaign of harassment.

Cllr Girvan said: “There has been a spate of attacks going on. But the police’s hands are tied as to how they can deal with these cases where there has been no physical damage. It’s wrong that some people feel they are being targeted and harassed because of what religion they are. I don’t want areas to become polarised. It seems to be a process of ethnic cleansing. I don’t know whether there’s a hidden agenda here or not. I cannot say there is, but I cannot say there isn’t, because there seems to be a pattern, going over a long period of time. It’s something we need to try and nip in the bud. What used to be a quiet area and stable community more and more seems to be an area people are trying to stir up and create another interface.”

He said police have given him assurances they will pay close attention to youths in the area, and the council is working with other bodies to educate and get involved with Glengormley youngsters. But police need more resources to deal with anti-social behaviour, he warned.

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THE Pope told Irish president Mary McAleese recently that her country has an “essential role” to play in affirming its Christian identity in an enlarged EU.

The Pontiff welcomed the president to the Vatican and read a brief speech after their 10 minutes of private talks. “Ireland, with its rich Christian history and its outstanding patrimony of spiritual and cultural values, has an essential role to play in the building of the new Europe and the affirmation of its deepest identity,” he said.

The Vatican has been battling so that a constitution being written for the EU contains mention of Europe’s Christian roots.

Pope John Paul II also expressed “my deep affection for the Irish people” and sent his greetings to them.

President McAleese later said how impressed she was at how the Pope, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, deals with his ailments:

“He makes every effort to make you feel welcome.”

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Cate Devine

JOHN Swinney, leader of the SNP, has had his first marriage annulled in order to marry in the Roman Catholic Church today. Mr Swinney has said that any children he might have with his new wife, Elizabeth Quigley, the BBC journalist, would be brought up as Catholics.

As a sign of his commitment to the woman he describes as “my rock”, Mr Swinney, a practising member of the Church of Scotland, went to the Roman Catholic Scottish National Tribunal to have his first marriage annulled. The Church of Scotland marriage, which took place in 1991, was legally dissolved in 2000.

Mr Swinney, who is fighting a leadership challenge In September, attends Catholic mass regularly with Ms Quigley. He said he was “very pleased” to receive the letter from the tribunal telling him he was free to marry in the Catholic Church.

It is not clear whether this came directly from Rome, but it will certainly have been granted with the consent of the Vatican authorities.

Mr Swinney also spoke of his overwhelming love for his wife-to-be.

“She is the most joyous person to be with,” he said. “She is my rock, and I am extremely grateful to have met her.”

John Swinney

His application to have his first marriage annulled, lodged after the couple met in 2001, has taken less than two years to reach its positive conclusion. However, suspicions that Mr Swinney’s case was helped by the fact that his divorce was the result of his first wife’s infidelity, or even that it was rushed through because of his high public profile, have been strongly rejected by the Catholic Church.

Peter Kearney, spokesman for the Catholic Church In Scotland, said:

“Neither scenario would have been a factor, and John Swinney’s case is by no means the quickest. He would have been treated in the same way as everyone else. It is the state of the marriage when iIt was entered into that is taken into account. Pre-existing grounds allowing it to be set aside would have to be present from the very beginning. Any breakdown that develops after a marriage, be it as a result of drunkenness, violence, or adultery, has little bearing on the process, even if the petitioner is the injured party. However, these can be indicators of a pre-existing defect that was present at the beginning of the marriage. It is the function of the tribunal to satisfy itself, through interviews with parties to and witnesses of that marriage, that the preexisting defects were always there.”

The wedding will recognise both faiths: it will be conducted by a Catholic priest and addressed by a former minister of Mr Swinney’s parish in Perthshire, where he lives.

A senior member of the Church of Scotland said there was “general unease” in the Kirk with the concept of annulment.

The Very Rev Finlay Macdonald, former moderator and principal clerk of the Church of Scotland, said:-

“The general trouble we would have with the concept of annulment would be that annulment presumes that the marriage never took place. Even a marriage that sadly ends in divorce can have had some good things in it and that is a reality that shouldn’t be forgotten. However, John and Elizabeth are good friends of mine and I wish them well.”

The Herald 26.7.03

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CARDINAL Cahal Daly and Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, joined other senior church figures from the British Isles and continental Europe for the consecration in Rostrevor of the first Benedictine monastery to be built in Northern Ireland since the Reformation.

A feature of yesterday’s historic ceremony at the Holy Cross Monastery in the presence of a large inter-church congregation was the dedication of a building stone dating from 1183, which has been iIntegrated into the new structure. It came from the area around the previous Benedictine monastery which had been established in the 12th century on the site of the present Church of Ireland Cathedral.

The main guests yesterday Included the Catholic Primate Archbishop Sean Brady and the Abbot-General of the Benedictlnes, Dom Michaelangelo Tiribilli, as well as the Church of Ireland Bishop of Down and Dromore, the Rt Rev Harold Miller, and the Dean, the Very Rev John Dinnen.

The Rev Dr Ruth Patterson, a Presbyterian, and the Rev Dr Dennis Cooke, a Methodist, read the lessons and the consecration was carried out by the Catholic Bishop of Dromore Dr John McAreavey.

The monks at Rostrevor were given the land in 2000 and began fund-raising, including the production of a best-selling CD of Gregorian Chants. Building began in 2002 and was recently finished.

The Abbot Dom Mark-Ephrem Nolan, a Belfast man who spent several years at the mother monastery in Bee, Normandy, described the consecration as a ‘landmark’.

He said: “This means that we are definitely here to stay. This is a house of prayer for all God’s people, and it is appropriate that the dedication is taking place on the first day of this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. It is a joy to be taking part in their celebrations!”

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THE Irish birthplace of ‘rosary priest’ Fr. Patrick Peyton was visited last week by the vice-postulator of the cause of his canonisation.

Fr. Thomas Feeley said “wonderful favours” attributed to the intercession of Fr. Peyton have now been documented. Fr. Feeley said one case concerned a woman who was blind in one eye and poorly-sighted in the other who claims her sight was restored while she was saying the rosary with a Fr. Peyton audio tape.

In a second, an elderly lady broke her arm in two places and two and a half months later the bones had not set or healed. “The doctors said there was nothing they could do for her. One doctor told her she needed a miracle,” he said. "She got a Fr. Peyton prayer card and asked for intercession, a week later she went to her doctor and found that the bone had formed and he was able to put a pin in it, and the doctor said there was no way of explaining this. “

"In another case, a lady in Africa was cured of AIDS when a bishop had asked a group of infected women to form a group and pray to Fr. Peyton who had been a good friend of his. One of the ladies made the novena and felt she was feeling much better. She had blood tests done and tested negative for AIDS.”

Fr. Feeley said the Church did not call these events miracles but healings, and would demand that no explanation must be possible for them. He said he has documented many instances where there has been an Instantaneous response and was investigating three cures from cancer as well as one from legionnaire’s disease.

But, while the meticulous and detailed process that must be gone through before a person can be declared a saint is progressing very well in the case of Fr. Peyton, Fr. Feeley added:

“The Church does not declare a saint for the sake of the person themselves but for the sake of the faithful.”

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Stephen Parker, a professor at Pat Robertson’s Regent University, says that Roman Catholics and evangellcals have much in common.

Parker, who is a member of the Church of God of Prophecy, participated in the recent Pentecostal Catholic international Dialogue in Rottenburg, Germany. He said,

"Probably the central thing that we have in common together is a desire to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and to be faithful servants to Him to try to carry out His mission here on the Earth, and to win disciples to Him and evangelize the world. On that deep level, we share a basic commitment to Christ as Lord.”

Parker claims that recent Catholic documents affirm that salvation is by “faith in Christ through Gods grace.”

In reality, the Roman Catholic Church redefines grace to include works and church sacraments. It teaches that savation is by grace through faith but not by grace ALONE!

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Pope John Paul is being honoured for his efforts to ensure European unity with a special edition of the International Charlemagne Prize. The 83-year-old pontiff, follows Sir Winston Churchill, former US president Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair in winning the prize, awarded annually since 1950 by the German city of Aachen.

The award committee cited the "extraordinary contribution of the Pope to the process of European integration, but also his particular effort to exert an influence from Europe on the shaping of the world order.”

Aachen mayor Juergen Linden highlighted the Polish-born Pope’s role in bringing down the Iron Curtain that divided the continent.

“Communism would have been overcome without the pope, but he helped to ensure that it happened faster and without bloodshed,” Mr Linden said.

The presentation ceremony is to be held in the Vatican later this spring. This year’s regular Charlemagne prize is being awarded to European Parliament president Pat Cox. The Irishman will receive his award in Aachen in May.

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POPE John Paul rang in the New Year with a renewed call for peace in the Middle East and Africa and the creation of a new world order based on respect for the dignity of man and equality among nations.

John Paul presided over a morning Mass inside St Peter’s Basilica to mark the World Day of Peace, which the Roman Catholic Church celebrates every January 1.

He appeared in good form, delivering his entire homily in a strong and clear voice despite a relatively tiring holiday schedule.

John Paul directed his thoughts to continuing conflicts around the globe. But he stressed that to bring about peace there needs to be a new respect for international law and the creation of a “new international order” based on the goals of the United Nations.

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FALLEN Bishop Earnonn Casey has lost his driving licence in England after facing a drink driving charge. It’s the second time the disgraced former Bishop of Galway has been convicted for drunken driving.

He appeared before Mid Sussex Magistrates after being caught with excess alcohol in his blood - and was handed a 12 month ban. Dr Casey declined to comment on his second drink driving conviction when contacted by the Sunday World.

“I don’t know why you would be interested in that but do as you wish?" he said. “I’m working here in a large parish and I’m also chaplain to a large hospital. Other than that I have nothing to say.”

The Sunday World has learned that Casey has been serving as a priest in the tiny Sussex village of Staplefield for just over a year. Fr. Casey, as he is now known, lives alone in a beautiful Georgian house in the picturesque village of Staplefield between London and Brighton. It is part of St. Paul’s parish in Haywards Heath. There are two pubs in Staplefield The Victory Inn and The Tannery, but he is not a regular in either of them.

“He would be in here from time to time,” the barmaid at The Victory Inn told the Sunday World, “but the locals mostly drink at The Tannery.” However the landlord at The Tannery, Peter Black revealed: “He hasn’t been in here in a couple of months.”

He’s also chaplain to a hospital in nearby Haywards Heath. Parishioners know him simply as Fr. Casey and have no idea of his colourful past.

He fled to South America in 1992 after an Irish American woman, Annie Murphy went on the Late Late Show to reveal he had fathered a child by her 18 years previously when he was Bishop of Kerry. Her father had sent her to Ireland to stay with his friend Bishop Casey, 21 years her senior, after she had suffered emotional problems. But as well as counselling her the bishop seduced her. Their son, whom she named Peter Eamonn, was born in Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital on]uly 31, 1974.

Fr. Eamonn Casey

Casey was ordained in Limerick and made considerable impact working for the homeless in London. His work was recognised when he was made chairman of the charity Shelter in 1968.

The following year he was made Bishop of Kerry at the age of 42 and in 1976, two years after his illicit affair with Annie Murphy, Bishop of Galway.

He was then appointed the first chairman of the Catholic Church’s new Third World aid and development agency, Trocaire. He would later express liberal views on subjects like divorce and women priests.

But it was his outspoken criticism of U.S. involvement with right wing death squads in Latin America that raised his profile higher than any other Irish church leader. Priests, nuns and catechists were often targeted for torture and murder by the death squads because of their defence of workers’ and peasants’ rights.

In 1983 year he outraged conservatives in the Catholic Church by calling for it to challenge capitalist injustice worid-wide. He also famously declared in a magazine interview that a priest with a bank account larger than four figures had lost his way. But that same year he was pulled over by police in London for speeding in his powerful Alfa Romeo car and found to have excess alcohol in his blood. He publicly apologised to his flock in Galway who forgave him, not realising that this was not his first fall from grace.

Annie Murphy, the father of his illegitimate child had already returned to Connecticut where she married and became a hotel receptionist. But when her son turned 18 she demanded that his father, the Bishop, publicly acknowledge him and help fund his college education. It later emerged that Dr Casey paid her £70,000 from diocesan funds and a further $20,000 from his private funds. When the scandal broke he went into self-imposed exile in Ecuador where he ministered to a poor community.

A palllum, I learn from the lecture series brochure, is a circular band of white wool with two pendants, one hanging down in front loop for the reception of a gold pin set with a precious stone.

I’m relieved that this church whose Boston branch pleaded poverty and threatened to seek bankruptcy protection from nasty sex abuse suits, still has enough wealth in its Vatican coffers to place gold pins and precious stones on its elite clergy to compensate them for agreeing to miss out on the joys of marriage as a result of the Pope’s self-righteous decree: mandatory celibacy.

The aforementioned brochure also states: “The pallium symbolized the twin responsibilities of shepherding the flock entrusted to each metropolitan archbishop and fostering communion with the vicar of Christ (pope).”

Pope Blessing The Lambs

On January 21, the Feast of St Agnes, the pope blesses two baby lambs. One is crowned with white roses to signify her virginity (did Mary have this little lamb or is the Iamb named Mary?) and the other is crowned with red roses to signify martyrdom.

After the pope blesses these lambs, they are transferred to a farm where a Vatican shepherd (nice work if can get it tending two little lambs) nurtures them. Near the end of May, the Lambs’ wool coats are removed (Would the PETA people call this lamb abuse and animal cruelty?). Religious sisters (sexism?) make the pallia from this wool.

The finished pallia are then placed in a cask in St. Peter’s Basilica (financed by the sale of indulgences in Dr. Martin Luther's time in the 16th Century) and remain there until June 29.

On June 29, the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul, the Pope celebrates Mass with the new archbishops. After the homily, the Pope places the pallium on the shoulders of each archbishop. This signifies the responsibility that each archbishop assumes to shepherd the flock of Christ entrusted to him.

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ROME AND YOUR CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES

• “The True Church (RC) can tolerate no strange churches besides Herself.” Catholic Encylopedia, Vol XIV • “The Church tolerates Heretics when she is obliged to do so but she hates them with a deadly hatred. If Catholics in this country should become a considerable majority then will Religious Freedom come to an end.” Archbishop Ryan, 1911 • “Individual liberty is in reality only deadly anarchy.” Pope Pius XII, 1951

BISHOPS CONDEMN ‘POPE DEATH’ GAME

MORBID SITE ‘IS IN VERY POOR TASTE’

THE Irish Catholic Bishops have strongly condemned a website offering a 1,000 prize for people who can guess the date of Pope John II’s death.

The website ‘PopeCountdown.com’ styles itself as the ultimate information resource on what it calls “the upcoming changing of the guard at the Vatican.”

"‘PopeCountdown.com’ visitors are invited to vote for a new Pope. The site provides information on several potential successors and among others the protocol that is used to replace the Pope," the site’s introduction states.

“Visitors can join a competition and try to guess when Pope John Paul II will pass away and how long the conclave will take. The winner will travel to Rome to see the new Pontiff.” The site includes an electronic entry form on which people can pick the date they expect Pope John Paul II to pass on.

This form also has a slot to vote for a new Pope from a list of likely successors.

The site also contains a wealth of information on procedures to be adopted in the case of a Pontiff being elected. A list of all previous 264 Popes dating back to St Peter is included as well as a shortlist of most likely successors to Pope John Paul and a short biography of the Pontiff.

Contacted by The Star recently, the director of the Catholic Communications Office, Martin Long, said the site was in very poor taste to run competitions offering money for guessing the date of somebody's death.

“The irony is that many of those people who to date have speculated on the death of the Holy Father have themselves passed on. It is also telling that those behind the site make little or no effort to high-light the many good works of Pope John Paul II,” Mr Long said.

The Bishops’ spokesman also said it was notable that those responsible for the site were not identified on it. “The anonymity speaks for itself,” he said.

The Star have established that the site originators are based in the Netherlands, but efforts to contact them were unsuccessful.

The prize for guessing the Pope’s day of death is a 1,000 travel voucher apparently valid for anywhere in the world. But the site warns that this amount must be collected from would-be sponsors and that the prize could turn out to be less.

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STATEMENT OF POLICY

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