Pope’s child protection board urges transparency from Vatican sex abuse office, compensation

Update Pope’s child protection board urges transparency from Vatican sex abuse office, compensation
Above, activists hold a protest against pedophilia within the Catholic Church on Sep. 27, 2023. The Vatican’s first report on protecting minors, due on Oct. 29, 2024, was compiled at the personal request of Pope Francis. (AFP)
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Updated 29 October 2024
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Pope’s child protection board urges transparency from Vatican sex abuse office, compensation

Pope’s child protection board urges transparency from Vatican sex abuse office, compensation
  • In its most critical note, it called for greater transparency from the Vatican’s sex abuse office
  • Francis created commission in 2014 to advise the Vatican on best practices to prevent clergy sexual abuse

Pope Francis’ child protection board called Tuesday for victims of clergy sexual abuse to have greater access to information about their cases and the right to compensation, in the first-ever global assessment of the Catholic Church’s efforts to address the crisis.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors issued a series of findings and recommendations in its pilot annual report, zeroing in on the church in a dozen countries, two religious orders and two Vatican offices with detailed analysis.

In its most critical note, it called for greater transparency from the Vatican’s sex abuse office, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. It said the office’s slow processing of cases and secrecy were retraumatizing to victims, and its refusal to publish statistics or its own jurisprudence continues “to foment distrust among the faithful, especially the victim/survivor community.”

The 50-page report marks something of a milestone for the commission, which in its 10-year existence has struggled to find its footing in a Vatican often resistant to confronting the abuse crisis and hostile to endorsing victim-focused policies.

Francis created it in 2014, a year after his election, to advise the Vatican on best practices to prevent clergy sexual abuse. He named Boston’s then-archbishop, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, as the commission’s head.

After several founding members resigned in frustration, fed up with Vatican stonewalling and the commission’s own internal problems, the commission has stabilized in recent years, focusing on realistic areas where it can be of service. One key priority has been providing funding and expertise to churches in poorer countries where there are fewer resources to craft and implement child protection guidelines and tend to victims.

In its report, the commission noted, for example, that the Catholic Church in Mexico is hampered by “significant cultural barriers to reporting abuse that prevent the process of justice.” In Papua New Guinea, limited funding means insufficient training for church personnel and services for victims. Even rape kits that are needed for criminal investigations are prohibitively expensive, the report found.

Its main conclusions, though, were of a global nature: Victims, it said, must have the right to information about their cases held by the church, since the secrecy and long processing times often serve to revictimize them. It proposed a special Vatican advocate or ombudsman to look after victims’ needs.

As a function of restorative justice — termed “conversional justice” -– victims must have the right to compensation for their abuse, including financial reparations but also public apologies to help them heal, it said.

And it called for a more uniform definition and understanding of church policies to protect “vulnerable adults” from abuse, moving beyond the tendency to only consider abuse of minors as criminal. The call is meant to address demands that the church do more to protect religious sisters, seminarians and even ordinary adult faithful from religious gurus who abuse their authority and take advantage of adults under their spiritual sway.

Francis in 2022 asked the commission to produce the report, saying he wanted an audit of progress of what is being done well and what must change.

The commission noted that in at least this first effort, the report wasn’t an audit of the incidence of abuse in the church. It said in order to become an actual auditing mechanism, “the commission would need access to more specific statistical information” from the Vatican sex abuse office, which receives all credible reports of abuse of minors in the church but apparently didn’t provide the data to the commission.

The commission called for greater collaboration and dialogue with the office, and said it was “pleased to note the dicastery is exploring what steps can be undertaken” to help bishops and religious superiors tend to victims.

It also called for the office to make more public its work, including via academic lectures and conferences, and also offer more material to bishops to help them administer justice.

Francis earlier this year allowed O’Malley to retire, five years beyond the normal retirement age for bishops, and recently hinted that leadership of the commission would pass to its current No. 2 official, Bishop Luis Manuel Ali Herrera.


US Supreme Court to weigh bid to sue Palestinian authorities over attacks

In this file photo taken on March 31, 2012 the US Supreme Court building is seen  on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (AFP file)
In this file photo taken on March 31, 2012 the US Supreme Court building is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (AFP file)
Updated 19 sec ago
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US Supreme Court to weigh bid to sue Palestinian authorities over attacks

In this file photo taken on March 31, 2012 the US Supreme Court building is seen  on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (AFP file)
  • US courts for years have grappled over whether they have jurisdiction in cases involving the Palestinian Authority and PLO for actions taken abroad

 

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide the legality of a 2019 federal statute meant to facilitate lawsuits against Palestinian authorities by Americans killed or injured in attacks in Israel and elsewhere. The justices took up appeals by President Joe Biden’s administration and a group of American victims and their families of a lower court’s ruling that this law violated the rights of the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization to due process under the US Constitution.
The law is called the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act.
The Supreme Court is expected to hold arguments in the case and rule by the end of June. Its decision to hear the case comes during the Gaza war in which Israel launched an air and ground assault on the Hamas-ruled enclave after Palestinian militants stormed Israeli border communities in October 2023.
US courts for years have grappled over whether they have jurisdiction in cases involving the Palestinian Authority and PLO for actions taken abroad. Under the language at issue in the 2019 law, the PLO and Palestinian Authority would automatically “consent” to jurisdiction if they conduct activities in the United States or make payments to people who attack Americans. The plaintiffs in the litigation before the Supreme Court include families who in 2015 won a $655 million judgment in a civil case alleging that the Palestinian organizations were responsible for a series of shootings and bombings around Jerusalem from 2002 to 2004. Officials and employees of the two organizations planned, directed and participated in these attacks, according to the plaintiffs. The Manhattan-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the award in 2016, finding that American courts lacked jurisdiction over the Palestinian defendants. Congress subsequently passed the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, and new litigation was brought by the families as well as by relatives of Ari Fuld, a Jewish settler in the Israel-occupied West Bank who was fatally stabbed by a Palestinian in 2018. A New York-based federal judge in 2022 ruled that the law was unconstitutional because of due process violations. Congress, US District Judge Jesse Furman wrote, “cannot simply declare anything it wants to be consent.” Plaintiffs asked the 2nd Circuit to revive their claims, but it refused, prompting the appeal to the Supreme Court.
“We’re encouraged by the court’s acceptance of the case for review, and our families are looking forward to restoration of the judgment in their favor and a long-overdue measure of justice for the horrific attacks against them,” said Kent Yalowitz, a lawyer representing families in the case.
A lawyer representing the two Palestinian organizations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
 

 

 


Scholz says a joint Ukraine approach can be found with Trump

Scholz says a joint Ukraine approach can be found with Trump
Updated 17 min 52 sec ago
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Scholz says a joint Ukraine approach can be found with Trump

Scholz says a joint Ukraine approach can be found with Trump
FRANKFURT: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is confident he will be able to agree with US President-elect Donald Trump on a joint strategy for Ukraine after speaking to him on the phone, Scholz told the Funke group of newspapers.
“I am confident that we can develop a joint strategy for Ukraine. My guiding principle remains that nothing can be decided without giving the Ukrainian people a say,” he told the paper in an interview.
He added he had spoken with the future US president “in detail” and that his team was in a direct exchange with Trump’s security advisers.
Ukraine is shaping up as a major issue in campaigning for Germany’s snap election in February, which follows the collapse last month of Scholz’s three-party governing coalition in Berlin.
Friedrich Merz, the conservative opposition leader who is on course to unseat Scholz, has said Germany should send Taurus cruise missiles. Scholz has opposed such a move, saying it could escalate the war.
Scholz on Monday announced new military aid for Ukraine during a rare visit to Kyiv that he said sent a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that Berlin would stand by Kyiv for as long as needed in the war.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Alison Williams)

In California’s ‘earthquake country,’ a 7.0 temblor prompts confusion and a tsunami warning

In California’s ‘earthquake country,’ a 7.0 temblor prompts confusion and a tsunami warning
Updated 29 min 28 sec ago
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In California’s ‘earthquake country,’ a 7.0 temblor prompts confusion and a tsunami warning

In California’s ‘earthquake country,’ a 7.0 temblor prompts confusion and a tsunami warning
SAN FRANCISCO: Valerie Starkey was driving through Northern California to visit relatives when she suddenly felt shaking and feared her car had broken down, only to realize later that it was an earthquake so powerful that it triggered a tsunami warning for hundreds of miles of the US West Coast.
The epicenter of Thursday’s 7.0 magnitude shaker occurred in what’s known as California’s “earthquake country” because it’s where three tectonic plates meet. The temblor was the most powerful to rattle the state since a 7.1-magnitude quake hit Ridgecrest in 2019.
Its intensity shocked Starkey and many of the 5.3 million other people along nearly 500 miles (805 kilometers) of the California and Oregon coasts who were under the tsunami warning for about an hour. It was lifted after no major waves arrived.
“I thought my axles had fallen apart,” said Starkey, a Del Norte County supervisor representing Crescent City, a town of fewer than 6,000 near the Oregon border. “That’s what I was feeling ... ‘My axles are broken now.’ I did not realize it was an earthquake.”
The quake struck at 10:44 a.m. west of Ferndale, a small city in coastal Humboldt County, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) from the Oregon border, the US Geological Survey said. The shaking knocked items off grocery store shelves and sent children scrambling under desks at schools.
It was felt as far south as San Francisco, some 270 miles (435 kilometers) away, where residents described a rolling motion for several seconds. It was followed by multiple smaller aftershocks. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries from the quake.
The tsunami warning issued shortly after the quake struck spanned from the edge of California’s Monterey Bay north into Oregon.
“It was a strong quake. Our building shook. We’re fine, but I have a mess to clean up right now,” said Julie Kreitzer, owner of Golden Gait Mercantile, a store packed with food, wares and souvenirs that is a main attraction in Ferndale.
“I have to go. I have to try and salvage something for the holidays because it’s going to be a tough year,” Kreitzer said before hanging up.
The region — known for its redwood forests, scenic mountains and the three-county Emerald Triangle’s legendary marijuana crop — was struck by a magnitude 6.4 quake in 2022 that left thousands of people without power and water. The northwest corner of California is the most seismically active part of the state because it’s where three tectonic plates meet, seismologist Lucy Jones said on the social media platform BlueSky.
Shortly after the quake, phones in Northern California buzzed with the tsunami warning from the National Weather Service that said: “A series of powerful waves and strong currents may impact coasts near you. You are in danger. Get away from coastal waters. Move to high ground or inland now. Keep away from the coast until local officials say it is safe to return.”
Numerous cities urged people to evacuate to higher ground as a precaution.
In Santa Cruz, authorities cleared the main beach, taping off entrances with police tape. Aerial footage showed cars bumper-to-bumper heading to higher ground on California highways 1 and 92 in the Half Moon Bay area south of San Francisco.
Cindy Vosburg, the executive director for the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce, said she heard alarms sound just before shaking began, and the city’s cultural center downtown started to creak.
“Just as it would start to subside, the building would roll again,” Vosburg said.
White House spokesperson Jeremy Edwards said President Joe Biden was briefed on the earthquake and that FEMA officials are in touch with their state and local counterparts in California and Oregon.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed off on a state of emergency declaration to quickly move state resources to impacted areas along the coast. State officials were concerned about damage in the northern part of the state, Newsom said.
Crews in Eureka, the biggest city in the region, were assessing if there was any damage. Eureka Mayor Kim Bergel, who works at a middle school, said lights were swaying and everyone got under desks.
“The kids were so great and terrified. It seemed to go back and forth for quite a long time,” she said. Some children asked, “Can I call my mom?“
The students were later sent home.
Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said residents experienced cracks in their homes’ foundations, as well as broken glass and windows, but nothing severe.
Honsal said he was in his office in the 75-year-old courthouse in downtown Eureka when he felt the quake.
“We’re used to it. It is known as ‘earthquake country’ up here,” he said. “It wasn’t a sharp jolt. It was a slow roller, but significant.”
The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, known as BART, stopped traffic in all directions through the underwater tunnel between San Francisco and Oakland, and the San Francisco Zoo’s visitors were evacuated.
This quake was a strike-slip type of temblor that shifts more horizontally and is less prone to cause tsunamis, unlike the more vertical types, said National Weather Service tsunami program manager Corina Allen in Washington state.
___
Dazio reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Christopher Weber, Jaimie Ding and Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles; Martha Mendoza in Santa Cruz, California; Sophie Austin and Tran Nguyen in Sacramento, California; and Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Police believe the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare’s CEO quickly left NYC on a bus after shooting

Police believe the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare’s CEO quickly left NYC on a bus after shooting
Updated 44 min 43 sec ago
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Police believe the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare’s CEO quickly left NYC on a bus after shooting

Police believe the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare’s CEO quickly left NYC on a bus after shooting

NEW YORK: The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest US health insurer likely left New York City on a bus soon after the brazen ambush that has shaken corporate America, police officials said Friday.
Three days after the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, police still did not know the gunman’s whereabouts or a motive for the killing. Investigators were looking at whether the shooter may have been a disgruntled employee or client of the insurer, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters.
Video of the gunman fleeing Wednesday’s shooting showed him riding a bicycle into Central Park and later taking a taxi to a bus terminal that offers commuter service to New Jersey and Greyhound routes to Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C, according to Kenny.
Police have video of the man entering the bus station but no video of him exiting, leading them to believe he left the city, Kenny said. CNN first reported that the suspect may have escaped the city by bus.
Investigators found a backpack in Central Park that was carried by the shooter, police said Friday following a massive sweep to find it in a vast area with lakes and ponds, meadows, playgrounds and a densely wooded section called “The Ramble.”
The gunman made sure to conceal his identity with a mask during the attack and even while he ate, yet left a trail of evidence in view of the nation’s biggest city and its network of security cameras. Thompson was shot outside his company’s annual investor conference at a hotel just blocks from Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center.
The gunman arrived in New York City on Nov. 24, getting off a bus that originated in Atlanta and made several stops along the way, Kenny said.
A law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Friday that surveillance footage shows the suspect riding the subway and visiting establishments in Manhattan, providing more clues about his actions in the days before the shooting.
He appeared to pay with cash in any establishment where he was captured on camera, said the official who was not authorized to discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Investigators have tested a discarded water bottle and protein bar wrapper in a hunt for his DNA. They also were trying to obtain additional information from a cellphone found along the gunman’s escape route.
Police have released photos of the suspected shooter that were taken in the lobby of a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The images, showing an unmasked man smiling in the lobby of the HI New York City hostel, add to a collection of photos and video circulated since the shooting — including footage of the attack, as well as images of the suspected gunman at a Starbucks beforehand.
Surveillance images from the shooting show the man wearing a hooded jacket and a mask that concealed most of his face — a look that would not have attracted attention on a chilly morning.
Investigators have learned the man lowered his mask at the front desk of the hostel because he was flirting with the woman who checked him in, Kenny said, leading to a photo of his face. The woman told investigators that during that encounter she asked to see his smile and he pulled down his mask, a law enforcement official told AP.
Investigators believe the suspect used a fake identification card and paid cash, Kenny said, when he checked in at the hostel, which has a café along with shared and private rooms and is blocks from Columbia University.
Investigators also believe the shooter had at least some firearms training and experience with guns, the law enforcement official said.
Security video shows the killer approaching Thompson from behind, firing several shots with a gun equipped with a silencer, barely pausing to clear a jam while the executive fell to the sidewalk.
The words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition, Kenny said. The messages mirror the phrase “delay, deny, defend,” which is commonly used by lawyers and critics about insurers that delay payments, deny claims and defend their actions.
Thompson, a father of two sons who lived in a Minneapolis suburb, had been with Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare since 2004 and served as CEO for more than three years.
The insurer’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group Inc., was holding its annual meeting in New York for investors. The company abruptly ended the conference after Thompson’s death.
UnitedHealth Group said it was focused on supporting Thompson’s family, ensuring the safety of employees and assisting investigators. “While our hearts are broken, we have been touched by the huge outpouring,” the company said.
UnitedHealthcare provides coverage for more than 49 million Americans. It manages health insurance coverage for employers and state and federally funded Medicaid programs.
In October, UnitedHealthcare was named along with Humana and CVS in a Senate report detailing how its denial rate for prior authorizations for some Medicare Advantage patients has surged in recent years.
The shooting has rocked the health insurance industry in particular, causing companies to reevaluate security plans and delete photos of executives from their websites. A different Minnesota-based health care company said Friday it was temporarily closing its offices out of an abundance of caution, telling employees to work from home.


Military leaders are rattled by a list of ‘woke’ officers that a group urges Hegseth to fire

Military leaders are rattled by a list of ‘woke’ officers that a group urges Hegseth to fire
Updated 07 December 2024
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Military leaders are rattled by a list of ‘woke’ officers that a group urges Hegseth to fire

Military leaders are rattled by a list of ‘woke’ officers that a group urges Hegseth to fire

WASHINGTON: Military leaders are rattled by a list of “woke” senior officers that a conservative group urged Pete Hegseth to dismiss for promoting diversity in the ranks if he is confirmed to lead the Pentagon.
The list compiled by the American Accountability Foundation includes 20 general officers or senior admirals and a disproportionate number of female officers. It has had a chilling effect on the Pentagon’s often frank discussions as leaders try to figure out how to address the potential firings and diversity issues under President-elect Donald Trump.
Those on the list in many cases seem to be targeted for public comments they made either in interviews or at events on diversity, and in some cases for retweeting posts that promote diversity.
Tom Jones, a former aide to Republican senators who leads the foundation, said Friday that those on the list are “pretty egregious” advocates for diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, policies, which he called problematic.
“The nominee has been pretty clear that that has no place in the military,” Jones said of Hegseth.
Hegseth has embraced Trump’s effort to end programs that promote diversity in the ranks and fire those who reflect those values. Other Trump picks, like Kash Patel for FBI director, have suggested targeting those in government who are not aligned with Trump.
But Hegseth has been fighting to save his nomination as he faces allegations of excessive drinking and sexual assault and over his views questioning the role of women in combat. He spent the week on Capitol Hill trying to win the support of Republican senators, who must confirm him to lead the Pentagon, doing a radio interview and penning an opinion column.
Some service members have complained in the past about the Pentagon’s DEI programs, saying they add to an already heavy workload. The Pentagon still has a long way to go in having a general officer corps or specialty occupations such as pilots that have a racial and gender makeup reflective of the country.
A defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the list said senior leaders are hoping that once Trump is sworn in, they will be able to discuss the issue further. They are prepared to provide additional context to the incoming administration, the official told The Associated Press, which is not publishing the names to protect service members’ privacy.
Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday that the list would have “considerable, wide and deep consequences.” He said when military members see people singled out, they will start focusing on their own survival rather than the mission or their job.
“You will drive people out,” Hagel said. “It affects morale as widely and deeply as anything — it creates a negative dynamic that will trickle through an organization.”
The list, which was first reported by The New York Post, includes nine Air Force general officers, seven Navy admirals of different ranks and four Army general officers. Eight of those 20 are women even though only 17 percent of the military is female. None are Marines.
One female Navy officer was named because she gave a speech at a 2015 Women’s Equality Day event, where she noted that 80 percent of Congress is male, which affects what bills move forward. The officer also was targeted because she said “diversity is our strength.”
The phrase is a widely distributed talking point that officers across the Pentagon have used for years to talk about the importance of having a military that reflects different educational, geographic, economic, gender and racial backgrounds in the country.
An Air Force colonel, who is white, was called out for an opinion piece he wrote following the death of George Floyd, saying, “Dear white colonel, we must address our blind spots about race.”
A female Air Force officer was targeted because of “multiple woke posts” on her X feed, including a tweet about LGBTQ rights, one about “whiteness” and another about honoring the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on a stamp.
Another female Air Force officer was on the list because she “served as a panelist for a diversity, equity and inclusion” discussion in 2021.
The list names an Army officer who traveled to 14 historically Black colleges to expand the military’s intelligence recruitment efforts, and an Air Force officer partly because he co-chairs the Asian-Pacific Islander subgroup of the service’s diversity task force.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump transition team, said in a statement that “No policy should be deemed official unless it comes directly from President Trump.”
But in an interview Wednesday for Megyn Kelly’s SiriusXM satellite radio show, Hegseth said Trump told him he wanted a “warfighter” who would clean out the “woke crap.”
Hegseth got a boost Friday from Trump, who posted on his social media site that Hegseth “will be a fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense.” The president-elect added that “Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”
Jones told the AP in June that his American Accountability Foundation was investigating scores of federal employees suspected of being hostile to Trump’s policies. The work aligns with the Heritage Foundation’s far-reaching Project 2025 blueprint for a conservative administration.
A letter Jones sent to Hegseth containing the list, dated Tuesday, says “purging the woke from the military is imperative.” The letter points to tensions with Iran, Russia and China and says “we cannot afford to have a military distracted and demoralized by leftist ideology. Our nation’s security is at stake.”
Conservatives view the federal workforce as overstepping its role to become a power center that can drive or thwart a president’s agenda. During the first Trump administration, government officials came under attack from the White House and congressional Republicans, as Trump’s own Cabinet often raised objections to some of his more singular or even unlawful proposals.