"Pizzagate" Explodes

[goyacobol]

The arrests keep coming, which is part of cleansing I would say. Here is a SOTT article from December 20, 2018:

Boise, Idaho priest lived in a world of child pornography and Satanism - sentenced to 25 years in prison

Katy Moeller & Ruth Brown
Idaho Statesman
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 09:01 UTC


© Darin Oswald
Thomas Faucher appears before Fourth District Judge Jason Scott to be sentenced after being found guilty of multiple felonies, including possessing and trafficking child pornography among other charges Thursday at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho.


Editor's note: Some readers may find the details in this news story disturbing.

The Rev. W. Thomas Faucher, a longtime priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise who pleaded guilty to five felony crimes, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole and will be required to register as a sex offender.

Faucher, 73, was accused of amassing thousands of child porn images and videos on his home computer - and pleaded guilty in September to sharing some of those images online. He apologized in the courtroom ahead of his sentencing at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise on Thursday.

"This is the crime that has the potential for both immediate and long-lasting consequences," 4th District Court Judge Jason Scott said. "... I think there is a legitimate risk to the community."

"I am deeply sorry that I was and have been connected to that in any way," Faucher told the judge in a statement that lasted about 17 minutes. Faucher said he was deeply struck by the victim impact statements and that he knows child pornography is not a victimless crime.

"I was one really sick puppy. I screwed up big time ... I feel so much remorse and anger," Faucher said at his sentencing.

​

"There are many people who will benefit if I am no longer in jail," Faucher said, explaining that he'd like to help others. "There are no people who will benefit if I am in jail or in prison."




A thinner and more frail-looking Faucher was wheeled into the courtroom in his Ada County jail uniform just before 9:30 a.m. At least 30 people, including some members of the Diocese of Boise, plus local media were packed into the windowless fifth-floor courtroom - some watching cried while others left the room as a local detective described in graphic detail the images and child pornography found in Faucher's possession.

Diocese officials told the Statesman Wednesday that they will seek to have Faucher defrocked. They reiterated that in a press release after the sentencing:

"The volumes of shocking information that the law enforcement investigation uncovered reveal the heinous nature of child pornography and the tragic impact upon its victims," the release says. "While we cannot begin to fathom what brought Faucher to the point that he was able to enter into this evil and dark world, we are thankful for the efforts of the law enforcement community in doing what it can to protect our children from these crimes."

Investigation took a toll on police

The prosecutor called Garden City police officer Detective John Brumbaugh to the stand on Thursday. Brumbaugh, who's been on the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for five years, said he received a cybertip that involved two images sent from wtfauch@aol.com that was linked to the St. Mary's Catholic Church website.

In the months that followed, Brumbaugh said, his investigation looked at chats and emails that showed Faucher was "actively seeking interests with gay men, satanic interests" and the rape and killing of minors. He also described the contents of the images police found on Faucher's cellphone, computer and Dropbox account: more than 2,500 files that were sexually exploitative or pornographic with young-looking subjects. The files were described by police as violent, disturbing and torturous, some involving children crying.

​

In online chats with a person called "Bruno," Faucher expressed a desire to have sex with boys, Brumbaugh said. Faucher said he had "satanic desires," an attraction to 6-year-old boys and that "the thought of killing someone does begin to excite me," according to the detective.

Brumbaugh also said Faucher's online conversations about shared child pornography include the Catholic priest talking about fantasies, including the sexual abuse of altar boys and babies, and saying that he liked a video of a boy being being beaten to death.

"The volume of [images] was something I haven't come across," Brumbaugh said, and added that the extreme nature of the images took a toll on himself and others involved in the investigation.

As Faucher solicited more videos of young boys, he wrote that he felt "wonderful indifference," Brumbaugh told the courtroom.

Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, whose office oversees the task force that investigated the crimes, said in a press release that the sentencing is a reminder of how challenging this work can be.

"Today's sentencing brings to close one of the most difficult cases the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit has ever investigated," Wasden said. "As those in the courtroom today are now aware, the nature of the evidence uncovered was extremely disturbing. I want to publicly say thank you to the ICAC staff for their extraordinary professionalism and dedication to their mission in the face of inherently difficult work. "

Other images the detective said the investigation found included depictions of black slavery, which Faucher spoke about using racist language, as well as images of Faucher urinating on a cross and canon law book. Faucher also wrote that he urinated in the wine for Mass at least once, Brumbaugh told the courtroom. Faucher talked to "Bruno" about betraying canon law, then blaming it on his age and illness, Brumbaugh said.

​

"It felt good to lie," Faucher wrote in one of the conversations, the detective said.

Faucher later told Brumbaugh that no one else had access to his email account, the detective said. Brumbaugh also said there was no evidence that someone had remote access to Faucher's computer nor evidence of a virus on the computer.

'It shakes the community'

Ahead of the sentencing, special prosecutor Kassandra Slaven asked for a 30-year prison sentence, including 20 years before Faucher would be eligible for parole. She also requested a no-contact order be put in place with all minor children.

An evaluation concluded Faucher is on the upper end of the risk to reoffend and is less amenable to treatment, Slaven said, adding that he was diagnosed as a pedophile. She argued that his status as a Catholic priest is an aggravating factor.

"It shakes the community. It shakes the members of the Catholic Church," Slaven said. "... He portrays himself as a victim and is not at all accountable for his actions."


© Darin Oswald
Father Thomas Faucher appeared before Fourth District Judge Jason Scott to be sentenced after being found guilty of multiple felonies, including possessing and trafficking child pornography among other charges Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018 at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise.
Faucher's defense attorney, Mark Manweiler, had called for probation and sex offender treatment instead of prison time.

Manweiler said the evidence does not support that Faucher looked at all of the images on the computer. He also said that although Faucher looked at, possessed and shared child pornography, "He's never sexually abused any child."

Earlier, the Statesman reported that two men came forward to church officials and prosecutors to accuse him of sexually abusing them when they were children several decades ago; no charges have been filed in those cases. The defense said Thursday any accusations made now should be taken "with a grain of salt."

"Tom isn't a good person. He's a wonderful person" who's helped hundreds if not thousands of people, Manweiler said. He also read from a letter of support from Boise Mayor Dave Bieter, who said Faucher has helped his family.

Manweiler emphasized what he says caused Faucher "to get into this world of Satanism and pornography": that the priest of 45 years went from a position of power "to all of the sudden being nothing" and "he couldn't handle it." Manweiler said it was a combination of rejection by church officials, alcohol abuse and loneliness that caused Faucher to stray into Satanism and child porn.

​

Charges against Faucher

Prosecutors have said they found more than 2,000 photos and videos depicting child sexual abuse on Faucher's computer and phone. They said he spoke in online chat rooms about having a desire to rape and kill children; his attorney previously said at least one of those conversations was Faucher "role playing" with an author in Brazil.




He was charged with 21 counts of felony sexual exploitation of a child, one count of felony possession of a controlled substance (LSD) and two counts of misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance (marijuana and ecstasy). He pleaded guilty to two counts of distribution of sexually exploitative material, two counts of possession of sexually exploitative materials and one count of drug possession.

Diocese spokesman Gene Fadness told the Statesman Wednesday that church officials haven't seen evidence that Faucher has taken full responsibility for his actions. In pleading guilty to five of the 24 charges against him, Faucher said that he didn't remember sharing child porn with others because he had alcohol-induced depression and dementia.

The diocese evicted Faucher while he was being held in the Ada County Jail, and they had the house exorcised before selling it.

Comment: The exorcism sounds like a good idea.

 

[Oxajil]

It appears that Twitter is ok with tweets or accounts that support pedophilia. Sickening (see tweet from 'Alex'):

https://twitter.com/x/status/1078894501802868738

His other tweets on the topic are equally disgusting. In his bio, he calls himself a 'Nomap ally'. I looked up its meaning, and 'Nomap' stands for 'non offensive minor-attracted person'. Non offensive, yeah right. If you want to, you can report his tweet(s) as abusive.

 

[Windmill knight]

His other tweets on the topic are equally disgusting. In his bio, he calls himself a 'Nomap ally'. I looked up its meaning, and 'Nomap' stands for 'non offensive minor-attracted person'. Non offensive, yeah right. If you want to, you can report his tweet(s) as abusive.

Reported!

 

[Meg]

I reported it as well. What a sicko.

 

[mrtn]

..and destroying countries is a political orientation and cutting peoples heads a religious orientation.

 

[Yas]

I reported that account as well.

I made a search on Twitter for the hashtag map and nomap (which stands for "minor attracted person" and "non-offending minor attracted person" ), it appears to be trending now and is absolutely disgusting!
People are saying this are users that turned to Twitter after Tumblr had issues due to paedophilia and are trying to gain sympathy for their "community"...

Sott carried something about tumblr here:

Tumblr kicked off Apple App Store for 'child sexual exploitation' -- Sott.net

There a tons of accounts similar to that one posted by Oxajil and a lot of people trying to get Twitter to do something about it.

Here's a video by Shoe0nHead about it:

Edit: Added a few things for clarity.

 

[herondancer]

For those of you on Twitter, there is a specially designated form for reporting these sickos. I reported him through the buttons on the tweet and also on the form.

Report a child sexual exploitation issue.

Guidelines and help page:

Child sexual exploitation policy

 

[3DStudent]

For those of you on Twitter, there is a specially designated form for reporting these sickos. I reported him through the buttons on the tweet and also on the form.

Report a child sexual exploitation issue.

Guidelines and help page:

Child sexual exploitation policy

Reported yesterday via the Twitter buttons and now via that form. I noticed that in the past day that his account has a ton of backlash. Lots of memes and GIFs. Even if Twitter does nothing, it seems he will not easily keep promoting that stuff.

 

[angelburst29]

Jan. 2, 2019 - AP Exclusive: India's hidden years of Nun's abused by Priests
AP Exclusive: India's hidden years of nuns abused by priests

In this Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, photo, a Catholic nun stands at the foyer of the St. Francis Mission Home in Kuravilangad in the southern Indian state of Kerala. For decades, nuns in India have quietly endured sexual pressure from Catholic priests, an AP investigation has revealed. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

KURAVILANGAD, India (AP) -- The stories spill out in the sitting rooms of Catholic convents, where portraits of Jesus keep watch and fans spin quietly overhead. They spill out in church meeting halls bathed in fluorescent lights, and over cups of cheap instant coffee in convent kitchens. Always, the stories come haltingly, quietly. Sometimes, the nuns speak at little more than a whisper.

Across India, the nuns talk of priests who pushed into their bedrooms and of priests who pressured them to turn close friendships into sex. They talk about being groped and kissed, of hands pressed against them by men they were raised to believe were representatives of Jesus Christ.

"He was drunk," said one nun, beginning her story. "You don't know how to say no," said another.

At its most grim, the nuns speak of repeated rapes, and of a Catholic hierarchy that did little to protect them.

The Vatican has long been aware of nuns sexually abused by priests and bishops in Asia, Europe, South America and Africa, but it has done very little to stop it, The Associated Press reported last year.

Now, the AP has investigated the situation in a single country — India — and uncovered a decades-long history of nuns enduring sexual abuse from within the church. Nuns described in detail the sexual pressure they endured from priests, and nearly two dozen other people — nuns, former nuns and priests, and others — said they had direct knowledge of such incidents.
Still, the scale of the problem in India remains unclear, cloaked by a powerful culture of silence. Many nuns believe abuse is commonplace, insisting most sisters can at least tell of fending off a priest's sexual advances. Some believe it is rare. Almost none, though, talk about it readily, and most speak only on the condition they not be identified.

But this summer, one Indian nun forced the issue into the open. When repeated complaints to church officials brought no response, the 44-year-old nun filed a police complaint against the bishop who oversees her religious order, accusing him of raping her 13 times over two years. Soon after, a group of her fellow nuns launched a two-week public protest in India's Catholic heartland, demanding the bishop's arrest.

It was an unprecedented action, dividing India's Catholic community. Inside the accuser's convent in rural Kerala state, she and the nuns who support her are now pariahs, isolated from the other sisters, many of whom insist the bishop is innocent. The protesting nuns get hate mail and avoid going out.

"Some people are accusing us of working against the church, of being against the church. They say, 'You are worshipping Satan,'" said one supporter, Sister Josephine Villoonnickal. "But we need to stand up for the truth."

Villoonnickal has been a nun for 23 years, joining when she was a teenager. She scoffs at the idea that she wants to harm the church.
"We want to die as sisters," she said.
___
Some nuns' accounts date back decades — like that of the sister, barely out of her teens, who was teaching in a Catholic school in the early 1990s.

It was exhausting work, and she was looking forward to the chance to reflect on what had led her — happily — to convent life.

"We have kind of a retreat before we renew our vows," she said, sitting in the painfully neat sitting room of her big-city convent, where doilies cover most every surface, chairs are lined up in rows and the blare of horns drifts in through open windows. "We take one week off and we go for prayers and silence."

She had traveled to a New Delhi retreat center, a collection of concrete buildings where she gathered with other young nuns. A priest was there to lead the sisters in reflection.

The nun, who like others interviewed for this story spoke on condition she not be identified, is a strong and forceful woman who has spent years working with India's poor and dispossessed, from battered wives to evicted families.

But when she talks about the retreat her voice grows quiet, as if she's afraid to be overheard in the empty room: "I felt this person, maybe he had some thoughts, some attraction." He was in his 60s. She was four decades younger.

One night, the priest went to a neighborhood party. He came back late, after 9:30 p.m., and knocked at her room. "'I need to meet you,'" he said when she cracked open the door, insisting he wanted to discuss her spiritual life. She could smell the alcohol.

"You're not stable. I'm not ready to meet you," she told him. But the priest forced open the door. He tried to kiss her. He grabbed at her body, groping wherever he could. Weeping, she pushed him back enough to slam the door and lock it.

It wasn't rape. She knows it could have been so much worse. But decades later she still reels at the memory, and this tough woman, for a few moments, looks like a scared young girl: "It was such a terrifying experience."

Afterward she quietly told her mother superior, who allowed her to avoid other meetings with the priest. She also wrote an anonymous letter to church officials, which she thinks may have led to the priest being re-assigned. But nothing was said aloud. There were no public reprimands, no warnings to the many nuns the priest would work with through his long career.

She was too afraid to challenge him openly. "I couldn't imagine taking that stand. It was too scary," she said. "For me it was risking my own vocation." So the fierce nun remained silent.
___
Catholic history is filled with women who became martyrs to their own purity: Saint Agatha had her breasts torn off for refusing to marry; Saint Lucy was burned alive and stabbed in the throat for defending her virginity; Saint Maria Goretti was 11 years old when she was killed by a man who tried to rape her. "It is a sin!" Maria is said to have cried out. "God does not want it!"

But for a nun, fighting off a priest's advances means pinballing through centuries-old sexual and clerical traditions. Celibacy is a cornerstone of Catholic religious life, as is sexual purity among nuns. Many nuns say a sister who admits to a sexual experience — even if it's forced — faces the risk of isolation within her order, and possibly even expulsion.

"You're not sure if you'll be kept in your congregation, because so much is about your vow of chastity," said Sister Shalini Mulackal, a New Delhi-based theologian. "That fear is there for the young ones to disclose what has happened to them."

At the same time, priests are seen as living representatives of Christ, with obedience to them another Catholic cornerstone.

Then there is the isolation of young women struggling to find their way in new communities after leaving their homes. Caught at this intersection of sexual taboo, Catholic hierarchy and loneliness, sisters can be left at the mercy of predatory priests.

"There's a lot of emotion bottled up and when a little tenderness is shown by somebody it can be so easy for you to cross boundaries," said Sister Dorothy Fernandes, who has spent years working with the urban poor in eastern India. "It can be hard to tell what is love and what is exploitation."

It's particularly hard for sisters from Kerala, a deeply conservative region long the birthplace of most Indian nuns. Sex is rarely mentioned openly in small-town Kerala, boys and girls are largely kept apart, and a visible bra strap can be a minor crisis for a young woman.

"Once you grow up, once you get your first menstruation, you are not encouraged to speak normally to a boy. And the boys also vice-versa," said a nun from Kerala, a cheerful woman with sparkly glass earrings and an easy smile. She remembers the misery of Sunday mass as an adolescent, when boys would stand outside the church to watch girls filing in, eyes crawling over their young figures. "We have a terrible taboo about sex." That naivety, she said, can be costly.

Like the time she was a novice nun, still in her teens, and an older priest came to the Catholic center where she worked. He was from Goa, a coastal region and former Portuguese colony.

She shook her head: "I was in charge of visitors, and we had this bad habit of being hospitable."

At one point, she brought the priest's laundry to his small room, where he was sitting. As she set down the clothes, he grabbed her and began to kiss her.

At first, she had no idea what was happening. "The kissing was all coming here," she said, gesturing at her chest.

The confusion of that day is still clear on her face: "I was young. He was from Goa. I am from Kerala. In my mind I was trying to figure out: 'Is this the way that Goans kiss?'" She quickly understood what was happening but couldn't escape his fierce grip. She also could not call out for help: "I cannot shout! He's a priest." "I didn't want to offend him. I didn't want to make him feel bad," she said. So she pushed herself away from him until she could slip out the door.

She quietly told a senior nun to not send novices to the priest's room. But, like the nun who fought the drunken priest, she made no official complaint.

A complaint against a priest means leveling an accusation against someone higher in the church hierarchy. It can mean getting pulled into a tangle of malicious rumors and church politics. It means risking your reputation, and the reputation of your order.

In the church, even some of those who doubt there is widespread abuse of nuns say the silence can be enveloping.

Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara, a New Delhi-based church leader, calls incidents of abuse "kind of sporadic. Once here, once there." But "many people don't want to talk," he continued. "They may talk in the community, but they don't want to bring it to the public, to the court."

Speaking up can also risk financial troubles, since many congregations of nuns are financially subservient to priests and bishops.

The silence is magnified in India by demographics, religious politics and a deep-seated belief that women have little value. There are roughly 18 million Catholics in India, but that's a small minority in this largely Hindu nation of 1.3 billion. Speaking up could tarnish the image of their church, many nuns worry, and feed criticism by Hindu hardliners.

"Even we, as religious sisters, even we try to keep it quiet," said Mulackal, the theologian. "A woman who goes through this experience, she just wants to hide it and pretend everything is OK."

___
The rapes, the nun says, happened in Room 20 of a small convent at the end of a one-lane road in rural Kerala.

Set amid rows of banana and rubber trees near the little town of Kuravilangad, the sisters at the St. Francis Mission Home spend their days in prayer or caring for the aged. In the garden, a statue of the Virgin Mary overlooks a decorative fish pond the size of a child's wading pool. The pond is covered in green scum.

The rapist, she says, was the most powerful man in this tiny small world: Bishop Franco Mulakkal. Smart and ambitious, Mulakkal had risen from small-town Kerala to become a bishop in north India, overseeing a sprawling Catholic community. He was also the official patron of her community of 81 sisters, the Missionaries of Jesus, wielding immense influence over its budgets and job assignments.

The nun is a friendly woman with jet black hair known for her quiet confidence. Every few months, she says, Mulakkal would visit the St. Francis convent and summon her. Then, according to a letter she wrote to church officials, he raped her.

The letter says the first rape happened on May 5, 2014. The last time was Sept. 23, 2016. The dates are recorded in the convent's visitor logs. Mulakkal angrily denies the accusations, telling reporters the charges were "baseless and concocted" and accusing the sister of trying to blackmail him into giving her a better job. "I am going through painful agony," said Mulakkal, who was jailed for three weeks and released on bail in October. "I tell everyone to pray to God: Let the truth prevail."

Catholicism envelopes this part of Kerala. Towns are marked by their cathedrals, convents and roadside shrines, where the Virgin watches passing traffic or St. George slays the dragon. Businesses proclaim their owners' faith: St. Mary's Furniture and Bed Center; Ave Maria Electronics; Jesus Oil Industries.

Around here, many see Mulakkal as a martyr. A string of supporters visited him in jail, and crowds greeted him when he returned home, a ring of policemen holding back people who showered him with flower petals. "Hearty Welcome!" a banner proclaimed.

But at the St. Francis convent, one group of nuns watched news reports about that welcome with dismay. While the sister leveling the accusations against Mulakkal does not speak publicly, a half-dozen nuns cluster around her, offering support and speaking on her behalf. "Nobody came to see sister, but so many people came to wait in line to meet Bishop Franco in jail," said Villoonnickal, the nun, who moved back to Kerala to support the woman she calls "our survivor sister."

That sister was the second of five children in a Kerala family. Her father was in the army. Her mother died when she was in high school. Wracked with grief, she was sent to stay with a cousin - a priest - living in north India. Inspired by her time with him, she became a nun in 1994, working in her early years as a teacher.

She knew Mulakkal, of course. Everyone in the Missionaries of Jesus knows him. But the two were never close, the accuser's friends say, and had no consensual sexual relationship.

It was about fear. "The bishop is such a powerful person and standing against him, where will she go?" asked Villoonnickal. "If she went home what will happen to her?"

"Many times she was telling him to stop. But each time he was forcing himself on her," she continued. Eventually, they say, she told some sisters what was happening. Then she says she repeatedly complained to church authorities. When nothing happened, she went to the police.

She also went to confession. There, according to the other nuns, she was told she had to resist the bishop. "'Even if you have to die, don't submit yourself.'" the priest told her in confession, according to Villoonnickal. "'Be courageous.'"

Catholic authorities have said little about the case, with India's Catholic Bishops' Conference saying in an October statement that it has no jurisdiction over individual bishops, and that the investigation and court case, which could take many years, must run their course.
"Silence should in no way be construed as siding with either of the two parties," the group said. "We request prayers for the Church at this difficult time."
___
In Malayalam, the language of Kerala, sisters who leave the convent are sometimes marked as "Madhilu Chadi" — Wall Jumpers. It's a mocking term for the sexually frustrated and is often used for nuns and priests who have fled religious life.

Those who stay get respect. They have communities that embrace them. Their lives have direction, purpose. Those who leave often find themselves adrift in India, searching for new identities and spurned by families and friends. The events that knit families together — weddings, funerals, reunions — are suddenly off-limits. The emotional toll can be immense.

Speaking up about the church's troubles, many nuns say, could end with them forced from their convents, cut off in many ways from what they've always known.

"It's a fear of being isolated if I speak the truth," said the nun who fought off the drunken priest. "If you do that, you have to go against your own community, your own religious superiors."

The result is an engulfing silence. Silence is the armor that sisters use to protect themselves and the lives they have created, even if it also means struggling with their memories, and protecting the men who abused them.

In the end, most say nothing.

"I didn't tell anybody," said the nun who escaped the priest kissing her chest, and who waited many years to talk about what had happened to her. "So you understand how these things are covered up."


January 2, 2019 - Protests in India after women defy ancient ban on visiting Hindu Temple
Protests in India after women defy ancient ban on visiting Hindu temple | Reuters

KOCHI/NEW DELHI - Two women defied a centuries-old ban on entering a Hindu temple in the Indian state of Kerala on Wednesday, sparking protests and calls for a strike by conservative Hindu groups outraged by their visit.

Police fired teargas and used water cannons to disperse a large crowd of protesters in the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram, television news channels showed. There were protests in several other cities in the state, media reported.

India’s Supreme Court in September ordered the lifting of the ban on women or girls of menstruating age from entering the Sabarimala temple, which draws millions of worshippers a year.

But the temple refused to abide by the ruling and subsequent attempts by women to visit it had been blocked by thousands of devotees.

The Kerala state government is run by left-wing parties and it has sought to allow women into the temple - a position that has drawn the criticism of both of India’s main political parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The uproar has put the issue of religion, which can be highly contentious in India, squarely on the political agenda months before a general election, which is due by May.

The possibility of more confrontations was raised by a call from an umbrella group of right-wing Hindu groups in Kerala, the Sabarimala Karma Samithi, which is supported by the BJP, for a state-wide protest strike on Thursday. The BJP called for protesters to be peaceful.

COMMUNISTS BLAMED
Earlier, the Kerala state president of the BJP described the women’s visit as “a conspiracy by the atheist rulers to destroy the Hindu temples”.

The party’s state president, P.S Sreedharan Pillai, told TV channels the BJP would “support the struggles against the destruction of faith by the Communists”. “Let all the devotees come forward and protest this,” he said.

Officials from the main opposition Congress party in the state, in a rare alignment with their main rival for power at the national level, the BJP, also called for protests. “This is treachery ... The government will have to pay the price for the violation of the custom,” K. Sudhakaran, vice-president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, said in a statement.

Conservative Hindu groups say they believe women of menstruating age would defile the temple’s inner shrine. The ban was imposed on all females between the ages of 10 and 50.

News channels reported the chief priest briefly shut the temple for “purification” rituals after the women visited. Later, media reported it had re-opened.

The two women, identified by police as Bindu Ammini, 42, and Kanaka Durga, 44, had tried to go in on Dec. 24, and later approached police for help, an officer said. “There was an elaborate arrangement for them to come just after the temple was opened early morning,” said the officer, who declined to be identified fearing reprisals from protesters. “The darkness gave them, and us, cover.”

Police were guarding the homes of the women after they left the temple and were prepared to let more women enter the temple, he said.

WALL OF WOMEN
A video from a police official posted online by ANI showed two women in the temple with their heads covered.

Ammini told a television channel about their stealthy trek to the temple in the middle of the night. “We reached Pampa, the main entry point to the temple at 1.30 a.m. and sought police protection ... We walked two hours, entered the temple around 3.30 a.m. and did the darshan,” the woman said, referring to a ritual of standing in front of the temple’s Hindu image.

The state government defended its decision to protect the women as they went into the temple, saying it was a matter of civil rights.
“I had earlier made it clear that the government will provide protection if any women come forward to enter the temple,” said Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Vijayan told a news conference the women faced no obstruction on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear how they managed to avoid devotees guarding the temple.

On Tuesday, the state government backed a protest by thousands of women, who formed a 620 km (385 mile) human chain, termed the “women’s wall”, in support of “gender equality” and access to the temple.

Modi, in an interview with ANI on Tuesday, indicated he felt that the temple issue was more about a religious tradition than gender equality. Modi said there were temples where men were barred from entering.


January 1, 2019 - Pope bemoans disjointed World, praises unity over diversity
Pope bemoans disjointed world, praises unity over diversity | Reuters

Pope Francis leads a mass to mark the World Day of Peace in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, January 1, 2019. REUTERS/Tony Gentile

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis, in his first message of the new year on Tuesday, bemoaned a lack of unity across the world, and warned against a soulless hunt for profit that benefits only a few.

“How much dispersion and solitude there is all around us. The world is completely connected, yet seems increasingly disjointed,” the pope said in his traditional New Year’s Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.

In his homily he paid homage to motherhood, saying a world that looked to the future while forgetting “a mother’s gaze” was shortsighted. “It may well increase its profits, but it will no longer see others as children. It will make money, but not for everyone. We will all dwell in the same house, but not as brothers and sisters,” he said.

The New Year’s address followed a turbulent 2018 for the pope, whose Church was battered by a torrent of sex scandals across the world that Francis has repeatedly failed to contain.

The sense of crisis was underscored on Monday when the Vatican spokesman and his deputy abruptly and unexpectedly resigned following disagreements on communications strategy.

Pope Francis made no overt reference to the tumult, but called for Roman Catholics to remain rooted to the Church, saying: “Unity counts more than diversity.”

He also warned that Church risked becoming “a beautiful museum of the past” if people lost “the amazement of faith”.

 

[Ca.]

Derrick Broze on Jeffrey Epstein and The Finders

Published on Dec 5, 2018 / 36:22

Derrick Broze of The Conscious Resistance joins us once again. This time we talk about the latest developments in the Jeffrey Epstein case, as well as Broze’s investigation into the decades-old story of The Finders and their links to child trafficking.

 

[angelburst29]

January 2, 2019 - Chilean Church abuse victims launch fresh attack on Bishops
Chilean church abuse victims launch fresh attack on bishops | Reuters

Two victims of sexual abuse by a Roman Catholic Church priest in Chile launched a fresh attack on the country’s bishops on Wednesday, accusing them of failing to reform or learn from the crisis.

Jose Andres Murillo, victim of clerical sexual abuse in Chile, leaves after talking to the media during a news conference in Santiago, Chile, September 28, 2018. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado/File Photo

Juan Carlos Cruz and Jose Andres Murillo, two prominent victims of the abuse who gave evidence of their ordeal to Pope Francis in Rome, said the pontiff had also acted to slowly in handling the crisis.

Cruz said the Chilean church’s leaders, several of whom face criminal investigation for their roles in allegedly covering up abuse, had failed to follow through on their promises to institute reform.

“What we have in Chile is a veritable band of criminal bishops,” he said. “After visiting the pope, after everything that’s happened, that is happening with civil justice, they have learned nothing.”

Church officials declined to comment.

The Chilean Catholic Church was engulfed by scandal after a visit by the pope in January last year that brought to the surface a string of abuse allegations now being investigated by criminal prosecutors.

After initially dismissing some claims, the pope later summoned Chile’s bishops to Rome for questioning after a Vatican investigation reported that they had been guilty of “grave negligence” in investigating abuse in the church.

The pope has accepted the resignations of seven Chilean bishops, and the country’s episcopal conference has vowed to tighten up child protection measures and work more closely with civil authorities to bring abusers to justice.

But the archbishop of Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, remains in his post despite facing abuse cover-up allegations - accusations that he, like most of the Chilean church’s senior leadership, denies.

Cruz and Murillo, both victims of the now-defrocked father Fernando Karadima, called for a wholesale overhaul of Chile’s church leadership

Murillo called for “more women and lay church workers” to be made bishops in Chile.

Cruz said he believed the pope’s efforts to uncover abuse in the church were being hampered by powerful forces around him.

“I believe the pope’s apology to us was sincere, and I think he is trying with all his heart but not with the speed that the severity of these issues deserves,” Cruz said.

“It is so much that the pope needs help and people to support him. What has struck me is the number of people working against him in his close circle.”

 

[angelburst29]

January 3, 2019 - Pope Frances criticizes US Bishops over abuse scandal, demands unity
Pope Francis criticizes U.S. bishops over abuse scandal, demands unity | Reuters

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis criticized U.S. bishops on Thursday for failing to show unity in the face of a sexual abuse crisis, saying internal bickering had to end over the scandal which has decimated the credibility of the American Church.

In a long and highly unusual letter sent as U.S. bishops started a week-long retreat to reflect on the spreading crisis, Francis said the handling of the scandal showed the urgent need for a new approach to management and mindset within the Church.

“God’s faithful people and the Church’s mission continue to suffer greatly as a result of abuses of power and conscience and sexual abuse, and the poor way that they were handled,” the pope wrote, adding that bishops had “concentrated more on pointing fingers than on seeking paths of reconciliation”.

Pope Francis has summoned senior Catholic bishops from around the world to the Vatican next month to discuss the protection of minors, in his latest attempt to come to grips with the abuse crisis which first erupted in the United States.

Ahead of that meeting, U.S. bishops gathered on Wednesday near Chicago for seven days of prayer and spiritual reflection.

“The Church’s credibility has been seriously undercut and diminished by these sins and crimes, but even more by the efforts made to deny or conceal them,” Francis said.

The pope said he was so concerned by the situation that he had hoped to attend the U.S. retreat in person, but added that he had been unable to do so “for logistical reasons”.

 

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1080705526281846784

https://twitter.com/x/status/1080775773353594880

https://twitter.com/x/status/1078954208756289536

Translated from Italian by Microsoft
Giuseppe Matarazzo: The pedophile killed for vengeance: he had been out of cell only a month earlier: he had served his sentence at 11 and a half years for violence committed on two girls. They were two sisters, minors, and one of them took his life in the 2008 article... Giuseppe Matarazzo: il pedofilo ucciso per vendetta …

https://twitter.com/x/status/1078941235740639232

Translated from Italian by Microsoft
Pedophile killed in the Beneventano: The principals are the family of the abused girl and then died suicidal-AllNews24-"The murder of Joseph Matarazzo was certainly on commission and the two arrests of today are only the beginning because the IND ... - Pedofilo ucciso nel Beneventano: i mandanti sono i familiari della ragazzina abusata e poi morta suicida - AllNews24 …

 

[aragorn]

Well, well, well...!

Amber Heard: ‘I Was Petrified’ of Johnny Depp’s ‘Monster’ Side

Actress Amber Heard testified in 2016 that she “was petrified” of the “monster” side of then-husband Johnny Depp, according to previously unpublished documents from the pair’s acrimonious divorce filings cited Thursday by The Hollywood Reporter.

“Johnny and I refer to his other personality, the part of him that is present when he beats me up—we call that the monster and have called [that] the monster for many years,” Heard told one of Depp’s lawyers as part of a deposition taken during the divorce. “I was petrified of the monster,” she reportedly added. The documents obtained by the Reporter will likely play a major role in Depp’s libel lawsuit against British tabloid The Sun, which reportedly published a story last April titled, “How can J.K. Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife-beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?” The title has since been changed. Depp has repeatedly denied abusing Heard, and has claimed that his ex-wife violated the NDA included in their divorce. The Hollywood Reporter notes that Depp has also alleged that Heard “severely injured” him and “faked” the abuse claims.

Which side to believe? Considering the previous examples of Depp's disturbing behavior in Manson's videos, his 'satanic' tattoos, and previous (unproven) accusations, I have no hard time imagining that Depp truly is a monster, perhaps a violent psychopath. As always, a psychopath will accuse the victim of having done the same thing to him as he has done to the victim - classic!

 

[Ca.]

Vatican unhinged!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1081353335440056320

https://twitter.com/x/status/1080964552320319493

Snip:
Marcial Maciel

The more it goes, the more it seems as if the trail of destruction lying in the wake of this man’s astonishing 87 years of bustling activity on this earth doesn’t just diminish, but dwarfs, whatever good he may have done along the way in the greedy, grubby pursuit of his goals.

As the pope and those who are helping him weigh the options and pray for divine guidance, I have no doubt that they are doing some pretty intense cost/benefit analyses.

St. Paul reminds us that where sin abounds, God’s grace abounds all the more (Rom. 5:20). I believe this with all my heart. Which is why I also believe the Church will need an immense amount of grace if it is to repair and restore what has been lost here.