AFRUCA seeks to prevent exorcism abuse of children

A MAJOR CONFERENCE to look at how churches can safeguard African children in the UK in the wake of allegations of child exorcism and witchcraft is to take place next month.

The event is being organised by the Africans United Against Child Abuse (AFRUCA) charity, and is seeking to set up a registration system for individuals who wish to establish places of worship in the UK. Currently there is no system in place to regulate the activities of churches which are not registered charities.

The conference will coincide with the release of a report by the government which is expected to show that there have been around 50 cases of child abuse of African children in London alone, with abuse ranging from shouting to beating, starving and, in one case, murder. There have also been allegations of exorcism and witchcraft taking place in some African congregations, particularly among churches made up of refugees from the Congolese community. However, a recent conference in London heard that many of these communities were not Christian-based.

Other recent cases include the court case involving Child B, the death of Victoria Climbie as well as allegations of child trafficking in some African churches. The case of Pastor Deya, the ‘miracle babies’ priest accused of illegally trafficking children from Kenya for illegal adoption in the UK has been widely reported

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Belgium's pedophile murders

Brussels Journal reports on the sex murder of two children and the pedophile suspect in a crime that mirrors one that happened ten years previously.

This time the negligent Belgian authorities decided not even to give the pedophile a prison sentence. Instead they sent him to a mental hospital. Last December Aït Oud’s doctors decided that he was cured and let him go. He went to live in Stacy’s and Nathalie’s street in Liège. The authorities did not notify the neighbours that a man with a dangerous pedophilia record had moved into their street. Disclosing such information is illegal in Belgium, where the state cares more about protecting the privacy of criminals than about protecting the innocent children of law-abiding citizens.

If Aït Oud proves to be the rapist and murderer of Stacy and Nathalie, this case eerily resembles that of Marc Dutroux. He, too, was a convicted pedophile when he abducted and murdered four children and girls in 1995. He, too, had been released prematurely from prison for good conduct. When Dutroux was arrested (by chance!) in 1996, the police found four corpses in his garden but also freed two abducted children whom he kept locked up in his cellar.

There is great indignation in Belgium. If Abdallah Aït Oud proves to be the murderer of Stacy and Nathalie there might be an explosion of popular anger. If he is not the culprit the trauma among the public may be even worse, as this would mean that another pedophile psychopath is on the loose again.

Clearly, the Belgian state is no longer able to guarantee the safety of its subjects. Citizens are even beginning to wonder whether the authorities are not just unable but actually unwilling to do so. As I pointed out here a year ago, in relation to another Belgian sex scandal, with Moroccan victims, “morality has gone berserk all over Europe, but nowhere to the same degree as in Belgium.” The country has been sliding into Gomorrah since the 1970s. This process is described in detail in my book A Throne in Brussels, which argues that it is the logical result of Belgium’s nature as an artificial construct, where the state deliberately undermines public morality.

First bad review of The Defilers

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer, Linda Donner, is struggling to overcome severe childhood trauma, suffered when she was abused by a priest who came to counsel her. Linda's distrust of men and authority figures is causing her problems at home and in her work place. As she works to solve a death in the seamier side of town, Linda must come face to face with her fears.

The Defilers has a Christian message, including a salvation scene for one of the characters, showing how this person's life is changed afterwards. The author did a nice job depicting the new believer as a new creation in Christ.

There were many disturbing scenes in The Defilers. Although there weren't graphic descriptions, the images were very clear.

The writer goes on to say she would not recommend the book or pass it on.

Oh well. A review like this would make a reader like me want to read the book. At least she didn't say the writing stank or the Christian message was tacked on and hokey. And I believe there are lots of Christians out there who are like me and don't want safe writing.

Some good news about a priest who has supernatural gifts

The Defilers, while it deals with some tough subjects such as child sexual abuse, is a story of redemption and hope and how, when religious leaders are faithful, wonderful healing and release happens.

Here's a good news story about an Ottawa-based priest who is traveling around the world praying for the sick--with signs following. Many people have experienced miraculous healings.

Word of mouth has brought the men and women to the Preston St. church to see the man the Catholic Church believes has healed hundreds of people since he was a teenager.

Since his ordination in 2002, Father Fernando Suarez has travelled the world, leaving a trail of testimonies from people who say his prayers and presence have restored their sight, cured their cancer and soothed deep spiritual wounds.

Every month, Suarez's superiors at his Ottawa-based religious community receive a half-dozen letters from people who say they've been healed after the priest prayed with them.

A few years ago, the 39-year-old Suarez was leading an ordinary life as a chemical engineer in his native Philippines.

When he was 16, his life took a fateful turn that would lead thousands of sick and wounded souls to his door.

Suarez was walking near his home when he saw a crippled woman on the street.

The teen asked the woman if she wanted him to pray with her. Suarez wasn't a churchgoer and had never prayed with anyone before.

"I did it out of pity. She nodded her head and I made the sign of the cross and said the Our Father, a Hail Mary and a Glory Be to God. They were the only prayers I knew," he recalls.

"All of the sudden she got up and walked. I ran -- I got scared."

Read the whole thing. I attended one of Fr. Fernandos healing masses and was impressed by his low key, totally unsensational style. The focus for him is totally on Jesus Christ and that shines forth.

Witch child abuse spreads in Britain

The abuse of the children has ranged from shouting to beating, starving, slashing with knives and razors and, in at least one case, murder.

Lord Adonis, the education minister, announced in the House of Lords last week that the report, which he said addressed “very grave” issues, was likely to be published by next month.

The education department maintains that publication of the findings, which were delivered to Whitehall in January, has been delayed because they are being “studied by ministers”.

Porn and the Sacred Heart

Please read the whole beautifully-written piece by Patrick Still over at Godspy.

I was eleven years-old when my best friend Eddie, who was Italian and Catholic, told me he knew what a woman looked like, naked—from the front. Of course I didn’t believe him. I knew what breasts were, and sometimes I thought about them, but I never imagined there was anything below the waist that should interest me. I soon found out how wrong I was.

I can close my eyes and still see what I saw on that stolen porn channel.
Eddie’s father had stolen cable television service from the cable company through a small black box. All I remember about their Chicago bungalow is that the TV shared the living room with a portrait of an effeminate Jesus exposing his Sacred Heart. Though I wasn’t Catholic, I was almost as interested in that alien, pasty Jesus as I was in that criminal cable box, which beamed shiny images of human sex into my adolescent mind.

When his mom left the house, Eddie kept watch while I flipped to the “bad channel” and saw womanly glory for the first time. Now, a decade and half later, I can close my eyes and still see what I saw on that stolen porn channel. And the Sacred Heart still burns, on the bookcase next to the television, His almost lonely eyes watching me, watching.

Some statistics on sexual abuse by priests

From the National Catholic Reporter via Catholic Online:

Here’s the problem with the Catholic League’s analysis: It’s simply not true. It’s spin, designed to add heat rather than light to the discussion over the greatest challenge to confront the U.S. church since its founding.

Here’s what the study, conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, really found:

- Of the 6,089 victims assaulted by a priest with multiple victims, two-thirds were age 14 or younger, 20 percent age 10 or younger;

- Of the 1,178 boys assaulted by a priest reported to have abused one minor boy, 55 percent of the victims were age 14 or younger;

- Of the 1,159 girls molested by a multiple-abuser priest, nearly 77 percent were age 14 or younger;

- Of the 591 girls abused by a priest reported to have molested one girl, two-thirds of the victims were 14 or younger, nearly one-third age 10 or younger.

In the world of sociology, of data collection, these statistics can be parsed. What’s “not a little kid”? Is a 14-year-old “post-pubescent”? What about a 13-year-old? A 12-year-old? Is the crime of child rape mitigated by the age of the child? The ugly inference we are to take from this is that some (many? most?) sexually adventurous teens, largely gay, got what they were looking for.

The U.S. bishops play into this sociological-psychosexual mumbo jumbo. The department they established to deal with priest abusers is officially titled the “Office of Child and Youth Protection.” Child and youth. As if a 14-year-old, an eighth or ninth grader, is no longer a child. Amazing.

The League's New York Times ad with a different spin on the scandal is found here.

I'd quote it but it's in a format that doesn't seem to be easily transferable here.

My take? I agree with the League that an unfair emphasis is placed on Catholic priests and I wonder why the research hasn't been done to show the levels of pedophilia among public school teachers or athletic coaches.

However, I'm with the NCR in saying that a child is still a child at age 14, though experts I heard at the Cornwall Inquiry did make a distinction between prepubescent and postpubescent victims and state that those who are attracted to postpubescent children are the hardest to treat. I think it is ghastly that for Canada the age of consent for sexual activity is 14 and am grateful that today the Conservative government here is going to introduce legislation to raise the "age of protection" to 16.

A priest violating his vows with any child, whether a teenager or not, is a terrible betrayal of the child and of the faith he is supposed to represent. But I fear that some of the glee that people have in reporting these things comes from a desire to bash the faith and the institution of the Church as it does in unmasking the scandal. That's why I believe one must exercise caution and objectivity in looking at any of these figures.

The Defilers officially launched in Ottawa

The Defilers launch June 1, National Archives of Canada

The Defilers has been released! I had my first booksigning May 4 at Hull's Family Book Store in Winnipeg.

You can see a picture of the launch here.

The official Ottawa launch will be June 1, 7-8:30 p.m. at the National Archives of Canada.

The Defilers won the 2005 Best New Canadian Christian Author Award sponsored by Castle Quay Books, and administered by The Word Guild.

The Word Guild has just announced the finalists for the 2006 contest. Congratulations to the seven people on the short list. I have posted the press release here.

The Defilers can be purchased through the Augsburg Fortress online store and on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca.

I hope to see you at the launch!!!!

I have posted below links to stories in the news that touch on some of the subject matter in the novel.