Rome Watch September/October 2004

Monday 12th July saw yet again the fallacy of the so called Peace Process. Gone were the honied words of deceit, the sugar-coated talk of peace, harmony and parity of esteem. Instead we saw the real face of naked, sectarian, Roman Catholic Republicanism. Having failed by the Parades Commission to prevent a small feeder parade of Ligoniel and Ballysillan Orangemen and their families passing the Ardoyne shop fronts en route to and from the main I2th July Orange procession, the Republidans reverted to type and did what they had done so many times before:- they made a savage attack on the Orangemen and their followers. As they reached the junction of Woodvale and Crumlin Roads the attack began. One Unionist M.L.A. described it in these words:-

“To be honest it was a very frightening experience for Protestants walking home up that road that day to be the focus of so much hatred..... naked sectarian hatred. The sky was dark with a hail of lethal missiles - stones, bricks, bolts, concrete, bottles, I’ve never seen the like of it.”

We wonder what the Security Forces were doing all day to allow this armed mob to gather their deadly ammunition. Having failed to inflict injury on the Orangemen or their supporters with their shower of “Sinn Fein Confetti”, the lawless Romanists engaged in a full scale riot with the army and police, many of whom were injured. Again these poor down trodden Ardoyne Papists who we were told only wanted to make a peaceful protest were soon using hatchets, hammers, iron bars, planks, petrol bombs and even an uprooted tree. To date we know of no arrests.

What was the excuse for this orgy of sectarian mayhem? The rioters were upset that a Protestant parade, lasting not more than ten minutes would pass NOT through Ardoyne but past a block of shops which were closed anyhow and at the most between twelve to twenty houses on the Crumlin Road. As for the residents of Mountainview they would have to climb a steep hill to be offended. Perhaps they might like to express belated regret for the murders of two Protestant teenagers from that very estate, murdered by an IRA Unit from Ardoyne. We don’t forget how Heather Thompson of Mountainview Gardens was made to kneel in prayer in the service-station where she worked whilst a Roman Catholic gunman from Ardoyne riddled her with bullets. We don’t forget James Carberry of Mountainview Parade, kidnapped on 12th July 1975, taken to the Saunders Club in Ardoyne, tortured, blindfolded and shot, his body left at a roadside near Templepatrick. Their only crime was to be Protestants. As for the Ardoyne shops we don’t forget the intimidation that drove out every Protestant business, McDonald’s Fruit Shop, Boyd’s Chemist and Miss Allen’s OK Store. All this we are told to forget and not even dare to walk up and down the Crumlin Road once a year. There was once a saying we do well to remember:-

When a Unionist Government in June I 935, banned all parades in Belfast including the 12th July, Sir Joseph Davidson, the Orange County Grand Master in Belfast stated:-

“You may be perfectly certain that for the 12th July Orange celebarations we shall march through Northern Ireland. I do not acknowledge the right of any Government, Ulster or Imperial, to impose conditions on the celebration of the Boyne Victory or to ban celebrations carried on for the past 140 years."

You can be sure if he were alive today, he would not be bowing down to the dictats of the Parades Commission.

Yet again Roman Catholic Nationalists and Republicans on the Springfield Road showed themselves incapable of showing respect for anything Protestant or British by attempting to have this annual Orange Parade which has taken place on the last Saturday in June, since 1957, banned. They might also be better employed apologising for the vicious attack made on that parade by Roman Catholic mobs in 1970. John Thomas Reid, a Protestant, died as a result of being hit on the head by a missile. Later that day as the parade was ending, IRA gunmen from Herbert Street in Ardoyne crossed the Crumlin Road and shot dead three defenceless Protestants, Alexander Gould, Danny Loughlins and William Kinkaid. Perhaps the Springfleld Republican/Papist residents who are so upset by Orange feet on their road, might like to explain the ethnic cleansing of all Protestants from Tennyson Street, Elswick Street, Pollard Street, Forth River Gardens and Maurice Street. They did not just disappear, they were driven from their homes; and we could say the same for New Barnsley.

The Roman Catholic Republicans of Kilwilkee estate could not even tolerate a train full of members of the Royal Black Perceptory passing their territory on I3th July. So to show how upset they were, they stoned and petrol bombed the train. Only the providence of God prevented serious loss of life.

A mob of Roman Catholic Republicans tore down Union Jacks from the local War Memorial. At the height of the disturbances, warning shots had to be fired in the air to disperse the mob.

The beneficiaries of his largesse are thought to have included Katya Schulz, 30, a former Paraguayan beauty queen. Prosecutors claim he bought her two luxury 4x4 vehicles. Schulz has denied any wrongdoing.

The apparent ease with which the priest and alleged accomplices helped themselves to the money will prove an embarrassment to Chris Patten, the external affairs commissioner, who oversees aid projects. The affair has also shaken Paraguay, where Rubio had become a well-known figure after working for more than two decades on projects to help the poor, including deprived Indian communities.

“The case against the priest has shocked everyone,” said Nelson Mora, a public prosecutor in Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital. “He was a respected person who spent 20 years building homes for Paraguay’s poor. It was especially hard to accept because the Salesian order has always been a pillar of social work.” Rubio was summoned to appear before Judge Bianca Gorostiaga, charged with fraud, counterfeiting documents and breach of confidence. "If he does not turn up, we will issue an international arrest order," Mora said.

Socrates Garcete, Rubio's Paraguayan partner in the venture, has also been ordered to appear in court as have the Ysaka Project's accountant and secretary.

Investigators from Olaf, the European Commission's Antifraud Unit, were intending to travel to Asuncion on March 22. Sources familiar with the investigation say they believe Rubio and Garcete began to dip into a bank account set up for the project shortly after its accounts were audited in 2002.

(Some of the EU funds designed to help the poor of Paraguay may have benefitted Katya Schulz, a former beauty queen)

Investigators have since struggled to disentangle the priest’s complex financial affairs. As his property holdings and business ventures have come to light, suspicions of other possible frauds are growing. Ruben Ramirez Cataldo, the Paraguayan representative of Maria Gloria, told prosecutors he had been instructed by Rubio to buy £65,000 of emeralds and a £16,000 Subaru Legacy vehicle using the foundation’s funds.

Mystery surrounds the whereabouts of Rubio. ln a telephone interview with a Paraguayan radio station, the priest, who claimed to be in Spain, admitted he had made mistakes. He promised to return to Paraguay within a couple of weeks.

THE Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, has filed for bankruptcy in the face of multi-million-dollar lawsuits stemming from alleged sexual abuse by its priests. Two cases seeking a total of $155 million (€85 million) compensation for alleged abuse by Portland clergy, that were about to go to trial, were adjourned. It is predicted that many of America’s 195 Catholic dioceses could follow suit given the welter of child sex abuse claims made against the church nationwide. Several multi-million-dollar settlements have been reached and hundreds more claims are pending.

Filing for bankruptcy will protect the Archdiocese while it attempts to reorganise its finances but it will have to cede all financial control to a judge, who could, if necessary, sell assets to raise funds. The Archbishop of Portland, John Vlazny, denied the move was a bid “to avoid responsibility”. “It is, in fact, the only way I can assure that other claimants can be offered fair compensation,” he said.

The Portland diocese has already settled more than 130 claims against it in the past four years, paying $21 million (£11 million) out of its funds in the past year alone, Archbishop Vlazny said. There are 60 outstanding claims.

All pending cases will now go under the control of a bankruptcy court overseen by a judge who can also bring in new managers to run the archdiocese or assign a trustee and order assets to be sold.

“We have made every effort to settle these claims fairly but the demand of each of these plaintiffs remains in the millions. I am committed to just compensation... but these demands go beyond compensation. With 60 other claims pending I cannot in justice and prudence pay the demands of these two plaintiffs."

Church officials in Boston and Santa Fe have said they were considering seeking bankruptcy protection as law-suits from alleged abuse victims mount up. The arch-diocese of Tucson is expected to seek bankruptcy protection by mid-September after its Bishop, Gerald Kicanas, described the increasing number of claims as ‘‘like a monsoon’’.

In 2002, the Archdiocese of Boston - facing more than 450 child sex abuse lawsuits - closed 70 of its 357 parishes and sold 46 acres of land and a four-storey mansion for high-ranking church officiaIs to avoid bankruptcy. Boston was where the sex abuse scandal surfaced early in 2002.

Since I986 only seven sex abuse lawsuits have gone to trial in the United States and all were lost by the Church.

Just when true Protestants were beginning to feel that the spirit of protest had died out and that Rome was marching on unopposed, we were heartened and encouraged to see Dr Paisley now in his seventy eighth year lead a protest of 100 of his Free Presbyterian Ministers and elders, outside the Annual General Assembly of the mainline Irish Presbyterian Church.

The new Presbyterian Moderator Rev. Ken Newell, a well known Ecumenist, brought Roman Catholic Archbishop Brady, as his personal guest to the opening meeting of the Assembly; the first time a Roman Catholic prelate had ever been invited.

The Westminster Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church rightly identifies the Pope of Rome as the prophesied Anti-Christ of Scripture. The Confession also describes the Popish Mass as “abominably injurious to Christ’s one sacrifice” and that the Popish doctrine of Transubstantiation “is the cause of manifold superstition yea of gross idolatries.” The Confession states that the Roman Church is amongst those false churches “which have so degenerated as to be no church of Christ but Synagogues of Satan”; and also that Christians “should not marry Papists or other idolators.”

The new Director-General of the BBC is Mr Mark Thompson, described in the Daily Telegraph, as “a practising Catholic who was educated at Stonyhurst....”. Stonyhurst is a Jesuit school.

A prominent Austrian Roman Catholic has criticised his church’s plans to beatify Karl von Habsburg I, the last Habsburg to be ruIer of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

“This is the work of a small, but powerful group, which has the ear of our country’s cardinal,” said Professor Paul Zulchner, Dean of Vienna University’s Roman Catholic theology faculty. “It isn’t important for Austria, and the rest of the church hierarchy isn’t interested”. Zulchner said many Austrians held monarchist sympathies, but few would support the church’s action.

The theologian’s comments followed the confirmation in May that Pope John Paul II is scheduled to beatify the last Austro-Hungarian emperor, Karl von Habsburg (1887-1922), at a ceremony in Rome on 3rd October. Beatification, confers the tile of “blessed” and allows a person to be publically venerated. It often, but not always, leads to sainthood. The Vatican congregation said a Brazilian nun had been cured of paralysis while praying for Karl ‘s beatification in 1960, thus providing the miracle necessary for beatification.

Karl von Habsburg became heir to the throne after Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914, an event that triggered the First World War. Karl acceded to the throne in 1916 but was unable to stop the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian empire. He died in the Madeiras.

Sir Stephen Wall, a distinguished former British ambassador to the EU, private secretary to John Major and more recently Tony Blair’s foreign policy guru, has answered a new calling.

Sir Stephen, 57, who was paid “well over £160,000 a year” in his Downing Street glory days, has become the principal adviser to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.

A practising Roman Catholic and a regular worshipper at Westminster Cathedral, Sir Stephen was momentarily stumped when asked who it would be more rewarding to work for, Tony Blair or God?

“That’s a difficult question,” he said. "I enjoyed working for Tony Blair, but how can he compete?”

Portugal and the Vatican signed a new Concordat this week that will henceforth regulate relations between Lisbon and the Roman Catholic Church, the 10th such document agreed between the two in more than seven centuries.

The new Concordat, or treaty, negotiated over more than two years, was signed in Rome by Prime Minister Durao Barroso and the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano. Relations between predominantly Catholic Portugal and the Vatican were last revised in 1975, the year after Lisbon’s democracy-restoring Carnation Revolution, to allow divorce for Portuguese married under church law, something prohibited under the 1940 Concordat.

The new treaty, which must be ratified by the Portuguese parliament and promulgated by President Jorge Sampaio, introduced some major changes in state-church relations, setting aside certain ecclesiastical or state privileges now considered obsolete. Among the most significant changes, some church institutions, such as hostels, and salaried priests working as teachers in public schools or as hospital chaplains, lose tax-exempt status.

The Concordat also recognised the state’s obligation to “preserve and safeguard” Church properties considered part of the nation’s “cultural heritage”. It also abolished the state’s veto power over the Vatican’s appointment of bishops in Portugal, while maintaining the requirement that bishops be of Portuguese nationality.

The Concordat also called for joint “co-operative action on the intemationaI level, namely in respect to Portuguese-speaking countries”.

Instead, Mr Brown will have to make do with senior cardinals, and the honour of being the last Scottish politician to meet the Pope will remain with Henry McLeish, the former first minister. While Treasury officials last night insisted there was never any plan for Mr Brown to meet the Pope, allies of the Chancellor have been anonymously briefing newspapers for several weeks that such an audience would indeed take place.

When he meets the Pope’s stand-ins, Mr Brown will discuss the International Finance Facility, which would see governments around the world borrowing money from international markets in the form of bonds, which would then be used to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

The Treasury calculates that the scheme wouId raise aid from rich to poor countries to $100 billion a year by 2015.

The plan has already been backed by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, and Mr Brown had hoped to add to the international plaudits he has won for the idea by receiving the Pontiff's personal approval.

Mr Brown used a speech in London recently to underline his determination to fight child poverty at home too. “My experience of government has not diminished my desire to tackle child poverty but made me more determined to do more,” he said.

"So on Monday I will be able to announce the next stage in our policies for tackling child poverty and for helping the development of the potential of every child."

Mr Brown’s visit to the Vatican has attracted attention at Westminster from observers of the Chancellor’s ambitions to replace Tony Blair; whose trip to the Vatican last year did include a private audience with the Pope. Mr Brown’s visit comes as the Treasury’s talks with Whitehall departments about the next spending round go down to the wire. Treasury insiders insist that many of the important decisions of the spending round - especially on the final allowances for defence, the environment and culture - are still to be taken, and expect Whitehall haggling to go on through the weekend. Still, the overall spending limit has already been set and the allocation for major services like health and education has been made, making this spending review more predictable than most.

Among the certainties is a massive boost for public spending in Scotland, something the Chancellor may reflect on as he enters the Pope’s domain: after Monday, the Vatican City is the only place in Europe where government spending per head will be higher than Scotland’s.

Roman Catholic leaders in Austria called an emergency meeting after officials discovered a vast cache of photos and videos allegedly depicting young priests having sex at a seminary.

About 40,000 photographs and an undisclosed number of films, including child pornography, were downloaded on computers at the seminary in St Poelten, about 50 miles west of Vienna, the respected news magazine Profil reported.

Oflicials with the local diocese declined to comment but were meeting privately on the alleged scandal, Austrian state television reported.

It said the seminary’s director, the Rev Ulrich Kuechl, and his deputy, Wolfgang Rothe, had resigned.

The Austrian Bishops Conference issued a statement recently pledging a full and swift investigation. “Anything that has to do with homosexuality or pornography has no place at a seminary for priests," it said. Church officials discovered the material on a computer at the seminary, Profil said. It published several images purportedly showing young priests and their instructors kissing and fondling each other and engaging in orgies and sex games.

The child porn came mostly from web sites based in Poland, the magazine said. Bishop Kurt Krenn, a conservative churchman who oversees the St Poelten Diocese, told Austrian television he had seen photos of seminary leaders in sexual situations with students. Krenn, however, dismissed the photos as ‘‘silly pranks” that ‘‘had nothing to do with homosexuality”.

A group of St Poelten Diocese officials planned to ask the Vatican to remove Krenn as Bishop, Austrian radio reported.

Vatican spokesman Ciro Benedettini told the Austria Press Agency that the Holy See had no comment. Krenn, 68, issued a statement calling the accusations groundless, while conceding that he ‘‘may have made some wrong personnel decisions’’ at the seminary.

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.