November 28, 2011 3 Comments
There is no substance to a breakaway Anglican church leader’s claim to have been raped by a Catholic priest, Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson says.
So it in other words: Archbishop John Hepworth is lying.
Traditional Anglican Communion Archbishop John Hepworth said earlier this year he had been the victim of violent rapes by three priests that began in 1960, when he was 15.
Senator Nick Xenophon named an Adelaide priest as one of the rapists under federal parliamentary privilege, saying the Catholic Church had taken too long to investigate.
Adelaide Archbishop Wilson said today that an independent inquiry into the allegations by Michael Abbott QC had found there was no substance to the allegations.
The investigation included interviews with 29 witnesses, many of whom were present at the time the events were alleged to have occurred, and examination of a large number of documents including those dating back to the relevant period, Archbishop Wilson said.
“I am satisfied that Mr Abbott examined every aspect of the allegations raised by Archbishop Hepworth,” he said in a statement today.
Archbishop Wilson said Mr Abbott also found there was no basis to Senator Xenophon’s criticism of the Archdiocese’s handling of the complaint.
“He found the matter was handled in a completely appropriate and professional way … and in accordance with proper procedures and sensitivity towards Archbishop Hepworth.”
Monsignor Dempsey earlier said it was “totally unfair and unjust” of Senator Xenophon to have named him under parliamentary privilege as a rapist.
He said he had never had sex of any kind, consensual or not, with Archbishop Hepworth.
Archbishop Hepworth, who is primate in Adelaide of the splinter group Traditional Anglican Communion, has said he was an adult when he was allegedly raped by Monsignor Dempsey.
Archbishop Hepworth has said he broke away from the Catholic Church because of the abuse. The two other accused priests are dead and his claims about them have been settled with the Catholic Church.
November 12, 2011 Leave a comment
SABC News here in South Africa reports:
The parents of 24 children removed from an Anglican convent in New Hanover in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands are up in arms. They accuse government of removing their children from the facility without their consent.
The children were taken away after reports emerged that they were being abused. But government has rejected the claim.
Sibusisiwe Majozi is one of many angry parents. She says social workers refused to place her two children in homes, and she then turned to the convent. Majozi claims she frequently visited the convent and was satisfied with the children’s well being. She is now demanding answers from government.
“I was so upset because no one told me anything. These children were staying there for a long time. There was nothing wrong,” explained Majozi.
As a department it’s our obligation to ensure that the kids are protectedMany other parents say government should have informed them. But social development authorities are unapologetic. The say the interests of the children come first.
“We don’t need permission from anyone. As a department it’s our obligation to ensure that the kids are protected,” stressed Social Development MEC, Meshack Radebe.
This week, three nuns from the convent appeared in court. They face assault charges, after allegations that they beat up five children under their care. The case was postponed to the 23rd of this month.
September 20, 2011 2 Comments
‘You did not even bother to find out about any matter relevant to this case except from one source, John Hepworth.’
The Age reports on this apparent injustice:
The Catholic priest accused of raping Archbishop John Hepworth says he’s never had sex of any kind with the breakaway Anglican group leader.
Monsignor Ian Dempsey says it was “totally unfair and unjust” of Independent South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon to name him under parliamentary privilege as a rapist and to raise the spectre of pedophilia.
The senator says he named Monsignor Dempsey because the church had taken too long to address rape claims raised four years ago. However, he made no reference to underage sex.
In a letter to the senator, Monsignor Dempsey said he had irreparably damaged his good name.
He said the rape allegations were false and were only formally raised earlier this year. He also had no influence over the timing of church investigations.
“I have a reputation for honesty and integrity,” Monsignor Dempsey wrote.
“You did not even bother to find out about any matter relevant to this case except from one source, John Hepworth.
“You never contacted me.
“You have shot the wounded – you who proclaim to be an advocate of those who are hurting in society.”
Monsignor Dempsey, who is recovering from a life-threatening illness, said he had never had sex of any kind, consensual or not, with Archbishop Hepworth.
“Certainly not,” he told ABC radio in Adelaide.
Senator Xenophon had been totally unjust, he said.
“In the Senate … I remember Senator Xenophon said that parents and children attending the church should be aware of my activities, or alleged activities.
“That, I thought, was totally unfair and unjust.”
Senator Xenophon said he never suggested Monsignor Dempsey raped Archbishop Hepworth when he was underage.
“What I have said at all times, both in and out of the Senate chamber, relates to allegations between two adults, and I want to make that absolutely clear,” he told ABC radio.
Archbishop Hepworth, 67, recently said he was the victim of violent rapes by three priests that began in 1960, when he was 15.
Archbishop Hepworth, who is now the primate of the splinter group Traditional Anglican Communion in Adelaide, was an adult when allegedly raped by Monsignor Dempsey.
Archbishop Hepworth has said he broke away from the Catholic Church because of the abuse.
September 16, 2011 3 Comments
This time from The Courier:
The Anglican archbishop at the centre of controversy in Federal Parliament over alleged sexual abuse faced a Ballarat court on theft charges 30 years ago, it was revealed yesterday.
Independent South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon this week used parliamentary privilege to name a priest accused of sexual abuse against Archbishop John Hepworth of the breakaway Traditional Anglican Communion more than 40 years ago.
A decade after the alleged abuse took place, Archbishop Hepworth was charged with misappropriating funds from an Anglican parish in Sebastopol.
He pleaded not guilty in a Ballarat court to the misappropriation of $1200 and said the magistrate failed to find a verdict.
He said he used the funds to pay for his son’s baptism party.
‘’My marriage was breaking up. I was really gone to pieces. And yes, there was a court case. I pleaded not guilty. The magistrate refused to find any verdict. And that was the end of it,’’ he said.
‘’I was trying to stop the marriage breaking up. My then wife wanted a big party and I could not afford it.
‘’The [Anglican] diocese brought [the charge] because I had wrongly used … [a parish account] and regretted it afterwards … I had paid an account intending to pay it back.
“It was as common as that. And it was wrong.’’
Archbishop Hepworth later left the Anglican church and lived in Europe.
It was reported that further allegations of financial irregularities faced the Archbishop during his time in a South Australian parish.
Archbishop Hepworth denies these allegations.
He told The Age he believed his detractors were using the information to smear him as he calls for action from the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide over the alleged sexual abuse which has generated another round of unwanted controversy.
The Courier contacted the registrar of the Anglican Diocese of Ballarat yesterday, but he declined to comment and said the incident was long before any of the current diocesan leaders were in place.
Calls and emails to Archbishop John Hepworth were not returned yesterday.
I must confess that these (ongoing) revelations are all extremely embarrassing. If anything, the Archbishop has exposed himself.
August 17, 2011 1 Comment
The Huffington Post:
The Vatican, reeling from unprecedented criticism over its handling of sexual abuse cases in Ireland, took a pre-emptive strike Wednesday and published some internal files about a priest accused of molesting youngsters in Ireland and the U.S.
The files published on the website of Vatican Radio represent a small, selective part of the documentation the Holy See must turn over to U.S. lawyers representing a man who says he was abused by the late Rev. Andrew Ronan. The man, known in court papers as John V. Doe, is seeking to hold the Vatican liable for the abuse.
A federal judge in Portland, Oregon, ordered the Vatican to respond to certain requests for information from Doe’s lawyers by Friday, the first time the Holy See has been forced to turn over documentation in a sex abuse case.
The partial documentation released Wednesday includes the 1966 case file with Ronan’s request to be laicized, or removed from the clerical state, after his superiors learned of accusations that he had molested minors in Ireland.
The Vatican said the files, a few dozen pages, some handwritten and culled from its internal books, represented the full, known documentation held in the Vatican about Ronan. Assuming it’s complete, the relatively small amount of documentation appears to bolster the Vatican’s contention that Ronan’s crimes were unknown to the Vatican until 1966, when it learned of the accusations and after the abuse against Doe occurred.
The Vatican’s decision to publish some of the discovery documentation on its website marked an unusual attempt at some transparency, particularly given the sensitivity surrounding internal personnel files of accused priests. Victims groups have long denounced the secrecy with which the Vatican handles abuse cases and demanded the files of known abusers be released.
But it comes amid unprecedented criticism of the Vatican’s handling of sex abuse cases in Ireland, and as it still seeks to recover from the fallout over the abuse scandal that erupted last year. Thousands of people in Europe and elsewhere reported they were raped and molested by priests as children while bishops covered up the crimes…
Read on here.
You can read the Vatican documentation released by downloading it here (pdf).
June 22, 2011 Leave a comment
Behold the depths of depravity:
US police have arrested a 29-year-old mother after an investigation found her baby died from burns suffered in a microwave oven.
Ka Yang was being held without bail in Sacramento County Jail on suspicion of murder and assault resulting in the death of a child.
She was arrested in Sacramento three months after her otherwise healthy 6-week-old daughter, Mirabelle Thao-Lo, was found dead in the family home on March 17.
Police described the child as suffering “extensive thermal injuries.” Officer Laura Peck said the arrest took so long because investigators had to pinpoint what they believe is the cause of death by looking for other cases involving similar injuries.
They found three in the US, all after children were burned in a microwave: in Dayton, Ohio; Galveston, Texas; and New Kent County, Virginia.
“This is rare. The injuries were obviously very unique,” Ms Peck said. “There have been only three other documented cases in the entire country where the injuries were consistent with this case. … Those children were also burned and placed in the microwave.”…
Rest here.
What kind of monsters put children in microwaves?! What evil…
June 18, 2011 1 Comment
The BBC reports:
The Vatican is to set up a new e-learning centre to help safeguard children and victims of sexual abuse by clergy, as part of its efforts to deal with damaging scandals.
The Roman Catholic Church is preparing for a major conference on abuse to take place next February in Rome.
The Vatican has told bishops to come up with guidelines to combat abuse, in line with local laws.
The Catholic Church has been rocked by scandals of sexual abuse by priests.
The centre will offer guidance to those who have to respond to abuse cases, as well as providing information for victims. Its advice will be available in German, English, French, Spanish and Italian.
“The e-learning centre will work with medical institutions and universities to develop a constant response to the problems of sexual abuse,” said Monsignor Klaus Peter Franzl of the archdiocese of Munich, according to the Reuters news agency.
Officials said private donors had pledged funds to maintain the database for an initial three years, the Associated Press reported…
More here.
June 3, 2011 Leave a comment
M. is an ebullient girl, age 10, who ranks near the top of her fourth-grade class and dreams of being a doctor. Yet she, like all of India, is at a turning point, and it looks as if her family may instead sell her to a brothel.
Her mother is a prostitute here in Kolkata, the city better known to the world as Calcutta. Ruchira Gupta, who runs an organization called Apne Aap that fights human trafficking, estimates that 90 percent of the daughters of Indian prostitutes end up in the sex trade as well. And M. has the extra burden that she belongs to a subcaste whose girls are often expected to become prostitutes…
If M. is sold to a brothel, she will have no defense against H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases. Decisions about using a condom are made by the customer or the brothel owner, not by the girl. In one brothel I slipped into to conduct some interviews, there was not a single condom available…
And the conclusion:
… it is surreal that these scenes are unfolding in the 21st century. The peak of the trans-Atlantic slave trade was the 1780s, when just under 80,000 slaves a year were transported from Africa to the New World.
These days, Unicef estimates that 1.8 million children a year enter the commercial sex trade. Multiply M. by 1.8 million, and you understand the need for a new abolitionist movement.
How awful. Absolutely appalling!
Read the whole piece here.
May 24, 2011 Leave a comment
India’s 2011 census shows a serious decline in the number of girls under the age of seven – activists fear eight million female foetuses may have been aborted in the past decade. The BBC’s Geeta Pandey in Delhi explores what has led to this crisis.
Kulwant has three daughters aged 24, 23 and 20 and a son who is 16.
In the years between the birth of her third daughter and her son, Kulwant became pregnant three times.
Each time, she says, she was forced to abort the foetus by her family after ultrasound tests confirmed that they were girls.
“My mother-in-law taunted me for giving birth to girls. She said her son would divorce me if I didn’t bear a son.”…
The women’s story is common and repeated in millions of homes across India, and it has been getting worse.
In 1961, for every 1,000 boys under the age of seven, there were 976 girls. Today, the figure has dropped to a dismal 914 girls.
Although the number of women overall is improving (due to factors such as life expectancy), India’s ratio of young girls to boys is one of the worst in the world after China.
Many factors come into play to explain this: infanticide, abuse and neglect of girl children.
But campaigners say the decline is largely due to the increased availability of antenatal sex screening, and they talk of a genocide.
The government has been forced to admit that its strategy has failed to put an end to female foeticide.
‘National shame’
“Whatever measures have been put in over the past 40 years have not had any impact on the child sex ratio,” Home Secretary GK Pillai said when the census report was released.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described female foeticide and infanticide as a “national shame” and called for a “crusade” to save girl babies…
The BBC has more on the tragic trend here.
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