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Wednesday,
April 24, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Pope apologises to
paedophile victims
Talks on church standoff make progress
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‘Terror war can’t justify Jenin’ Maoists’ strike disrupts
life
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EU observers for Pak referendum
Khaleda adviser ‘kills’ Buddhist monk
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Pope apologises to paedophile victims Vatican City, April 23 The Pope, addressing a meeting of US Church leaders and Vatican officials, also offered an apology to the victims of priestly paedophilia and said he hoped the scandal that had rocked the Church would lead to “a holier priesthood”. “The abuse which has caused this crisis is by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society. It is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God,” he said. The powerful and specific words by the Pope may determine whether the US Church formulates a policy to automatically hand over paedophile priests to the civil authorities. “People need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young,” he added. The Pope also said he had been “deeply grieved by the fact that priests and religious leaders, whose vocation it is to help people live holy lives in the sight of God, have themselves caused such suffering and scandal to the young”. He offered an apology, his first specific one directed to US Catholics. “To the victims and their families, wherever they may be, I express my profound sense of solidarity and concern,” he said. But he said the crisis that had hit the Church went beyond paedophilia. “The abuse of the young is a grave symptom of a crisis affecting not only the Church but society as a whole. It is a deep-seated crisis of sexual morality, even of human relationships, and its prime victims are the family and the young,” he said. He also said the recent scandals should not blemish the entire US Church and asked US Catholics to support their bishops and priests in a time of unprecedented crisis. “A great work of art may be blemished, but its beauty remains; and this is a truth which any intellectually honest critic will recognise,” he said. He said he hoped the American crisis would lead to “a purification of the entire Catholic community”. “So much pain, so much sorrow, must lead to a holier priesthood, a holier episcopate, and a holier Church,” he said. There have been sex scandals in the Catholic Church from Mexico, to Brazil and even in Pope John Paul’s native Poland. In many countries, particularly those in Latin America and Europe, the Catholic Church still wields tremendous influence in the courts, the corridors of political power and public opinion. That has kept many scandals under the rug in the past, but experts say the media juggernaut may move across the Atlantic and south of the border to prod local investigations. Mexico, the world’s second-largest Catholic country after Brazil, is also embroiled in a paedophilia scandal of its own. Earlier this month in Ireland, Bishop Brendan Comiskey of Ferns resigned after a row over the way he had dealt with allegations of sexual abuse by a priest who committed suicide in 1999 while facing 66 charges of sexually abusing boys. St. Petersburg: As US Catholic cardinals gathered at the Vatican to discuss their response to a child sex abuse scandal, a Florida Catholic priest resigned from the priesthood amid allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor, a church official said. In a letter read at services on Sunday, Bishop Robert Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg said he had accepted the resignation of Father Robert Schaeufele as pastor of St. Michael, the Archangel Catholic Church of Hudson, near Tampa. “An episode of misconduct occurred many years ago involving Father Schaeufele and a person who was under the age of 18. Since the person in question has requested complete anonymity, I am not at liberty to discuss the matter further,’’ Bishop Lynch said. Allegations of sexual impropriety have been levelled at several Florida priests in a sex scandal that has engulfed the US Catholic Church since the child molestation conviction of Boston-area priest John Geoghan, accused of abusing 130 persons over 30 years.
Reuters |
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Talks on church standoff make progress
Bethlehem, April 23 “We are close to an agreement, we hope,” Palestinian legislator Salah Taamari told reporters after the talks. “The talks were constructive,” Bethlehem mayor Hanna Nasser said. “We heard many offers. They will materialise at 6 o’clock (3 pm GMT),” he added without elaborating. “The Palestinians outlined their position, as did we. It is too early to assess what was achieved. The talks will resume in the near future,” Israeli army spokesman Olivier Rafkowicz said. Hebron :Hooded gunmen today shot dead three men suspected of collaborating with Israel at the scene of an overnight Israeli missile strike that killed two Palestinian militants in Hebron, witnesses said. Nearly 20 gunmen brought the Palestinians to the wrecked car hit overnight by an Israeli helicopter gunship and killed them. The shootings of the suspected collaborators took place hours after Marwan Zuloum and his bodyguard were killed in a helicopter missile attack on their car. Palestinian sources identified Zuloum as the local commander of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group linked to President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction and responsible for deadly assaults on Israelis. Meanwhile, the Israeli police has expelled nine Palestinian families living in houses in occupied east Jerusalem that have been claimed by Jewish settlers, Israeli and Palestinian sources said. A Jerusalem court had several days ago authorised the expulsion of the families who the settlers claim live in houses they have acquired in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. On the other hand, the Israeli Army said it had arrested 26 Palestinians in the West Bank overnight on suspicion of “terrorist activities”. JERUSALEM: The Israeli police grilled Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for seven hours yesterday over allegations that he violated a law on election funding during his Likud Party’s 1999 primary race, an Israeli political source said. National police spokesman Gil Kleiman on Tuesday confirmed that the fraud squad had questioned Mr Sharon “in connection to the Election Law and Election Funding Law”. In October, Israel’s Attorney-General had ordered the police to probe the Prime Minister after the State Comptroller criticised Mr Sharon and his son Omri for accepting some $ 1.4 million in donations to fund their primary campaign. The political source said under questioning, Mr Sharon had maintained he knew nothing of the primary funding.
Agencies
11 held in FRG for planning attacks Berlin, April 23 “The prosecutor’s office is investigating a German cell of the Sunni Palestinian “Al-Tawhid” movement as a terrorist organisation,” the office said in a statement. Police seize the suspects during
searches of 19 sites across the country, including Berlin, Munich,
Essen, and Duesseldorf. Reuters 
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‘Terror war can’t justify Jenin’ Moscow, April 23 Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russia, heavily criticised for human rights abuses by its own troops in breakaway Chechnya province, also wanted a speedy pullout of Israeli troops from Palestinian areas. “It is clear that what took place (in Jenin) cannot be explained, or even less justified, by any reference to the fight against terrorism,” Ivanov said in a statement. Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, is also a co-sponsor of the collapsed Israeli-Palestinian peace process. While retaining good ties with the Arab world, Moscow has in the past decade also cultivated ties with Israel, one-fifth of whose population come from the former Soviet Union. UNITED NATIONS: Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaani heads the three-member UN mission to determine Palestinian allegations of massacre in Jenin refugee camp by Israeli forces even as Tel Aviv expressed displeasure for not having been consulted over the formation of the team. The other members are Sadako Ogata, a former UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Cornelio
Somarruga, a former head of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Agencies |
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Maoists’ strike disrupts life Kathmandu, April 23 However, some private and government vehicles could be seen on the roads. The situation throughout the country is said to be peaceful with no reports so far of violence by the Maoists. The rebels hurled petrol bombs at Lalitpur in the Kathmandu valley last night to terrorise people to support their call for the strike. No one was hurt in the incident. On the first day of the five-day nationwide strike to pressure the government into talks, most schools, colleges and shops were closed while very few buses and cars plied on the roads throughout the country. As the government had vowed to prevent the strike, its offices and some business establishments were open. The capital, Kathmandu, where normal life was disrupted, remained quiet with police and army patrolling the streets and government buildings. At Tribhuvan International Airport, international flights operated normally under heavy presence of security personnel but the shutdown affected domestic flights, an airport official said. A taxi driver said cabs operating on Kathmandu’s streets were hiding their number-plates. “We have covered the number-plates to avoid being future targets of the Maoist rebels,” he told newsmen. According to reports, the strike had less effect on western towns of Pokhara, Gorkha and Nepalgunj. The president of the outlawed Maoist Party, Prachanda, in a statement faxed to newspapers, said the April 23-27 nationwide strike has been called out of compulsion to protest against the “atrocities” of the state. “The agitation launched by the party will not end unless a political solution to the problem is reached,” said the statement. Meanwhile, various human rights organisations, transport entrepreneurs, bar associations and other bodies have appealed to the Maoists to cut short the five-day strike. “We have proposed to the Maoists to cut short the five-day strike which cripples the economy and creates difficulties for the general public,” Mr Sudip Pathak, president of the Human Right Organisation of Nepal, said. UNI, PTI |
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EU observers for Pak referendum Islamabad, April 23 Information Minister Nisar Memon said the government had invited several experts and observers from various countries to monitor the April 30 referendum. “The referendum will be fair, transparent and impartial and monitored by independent agencies of EU and Commonwealth countries,” Mr Memon said. He said international observers would have access to every polling station and they would be provided facilities to travel anywhere in Pakistan. He said April 30 would be a turning point in Pakistan’s history when 140 million persons would make an epoch-making decision whether they stood side by side with President Pervez Musharraf in his mission against terrorism, raising the nation’s image aboard, reviving the economy and strengthening integrity and solidarity. Criticising opponents of the referendum, he said they were the same bunch of people who had presented their logic before the superior courts about the validity of Gen Zia-ul Haq’s referendum in 1984. Mr Memon said the Election Commission (EC) had completed its job of staff nomination for the referendum throughout Pakistan. Staff training would be held on April 25 in all major cities. This is for the first time in Pakistan’s history that no voters’ lists will be used to caste vote. Those who intend to vote in the referendum will just have to prove they are above 18 years of age and Pakistani nationals.
IANS |
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Khaleda adviser ‘kills’ Buddhist monk Dhaka, April 23 A gang of 20 men led by Azizul Haq, alleged to be a henchman of Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury — Member of Parliament and adviser to the Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia on Parliamentary Affairs, forced their entry into the monastery at Hingala village and killed the monk, reports said today.
PTI
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Pakistani
military President Pervez Musharraf says that he would not stay
in power against people's wish, but is "extremely
confident" that the vote on April 30 will be positive and
the turnout "unusually big." (
