Palestinians ask UN court to revoke US Jerusalem embassy move

Yahoo – AFP, September 29, 2018

Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki (pictured June 2018) said that
Palestinians have filed a lawsuit against the United States at the International
Court of Justice for moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem (AFP Photo/
Yasser Al-Zayyat)

Jerusalem (AFP) - Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki said Saturday the Palestinians have petitioned the UN's top court, alleging that the US inauguration of an embassy in Jerusalem was illegal.

The Palestinians have filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) "for violating international law by moving its embassy in Israel to the occupied city of Jerusalem", he said, quoted by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

In December, US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, despite Palestinian claims on part of the city and breaking with longstanding US policy.

Palestinians have since refused all contact with the Trump administration.

The US embassy was transferred from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on May 14, a day marked by mass protest in the Gaza Strip, where about 60 Palestinian protesters were killed by Israeli fire in border clashes.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem along with the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War and later declared the entire city its united capital.

Palestinians claim the predominantly Arab eastern area as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

UN resolutions call on countries to refrain from moving their embassies to the city until its status is resolved in an Israeli-Palestinian deal.

"The ICJ was asked to declare that moving the embassy to occupied Jerusalem constituted a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations," WAFA wrote in English.

The court said the Palestinian suit, filed on Friday, called on the body "to order the United States of America to withdraw the diplomatic mission from the Holy City of Jerusalem and to conform to the international obligations flowing from the Vienna Convention".

An official of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) said it was the first time Palestinians had petitioned the court against the United States.

In November 2012, the UN General Assembly recognised the Palestinian Authority as a "non-member observer state".

This allowed the Palestinians to join UN bodies such as the ICJ and also the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is a separate institution.

Previously, the Palestinians had asked the UN General Assembly to seek a ruling on their behalf over Israel's West Bank separation barrier.

In 2004, the court issued a non-binding ruling that the network of walls and fences was illegal and called for sections to be dismantled.

Israel said it had no intention of complying.

The ICC was set up in 2002 with jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute the world's worst crimes including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Neither the United States nor Israel are signatories to the ICC.

Earlier this month, Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians had filed a petition there against Israel over its pending demolition of the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the occupied West Bank.

They have previously filed suit to the ICC claiming Israeli war crimes in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.

Did she listen to Rihanna? Dutch aid minister donates €100m to education

DutchNews, September 26, 2018

Dutch aid minister Sigrid Kaag has told the United Nations meeting in New York that the Netherlands is to donate €20m a year up to 2023 to the Global Partnership for Education – slightly more than pop star Rihanna called on the Netherlands to donate last month.

‘Education is one of my policy priorities,’ Kaag said. ‘It offers women and young people better opportunities for work and a decent income.’ 

A spokesman for the minister told broadcaster NOS later than she had not been influenced by Rihanna’s plea. ‘It was the minister’s own decision,’ the spokesman said. 

Hi @SigridKaag @markrutte @MinPres! I know that the Netherlands wanted to pledge to support global education back in February, so I'd love if you joined me now! Will you provide $100M to @GPforEducation on Sept 29 at the @GlblCtzn Fest? Dank je! @claralionelfdn 🇳🇱📚

— Rihanna (@rihanna) August 20, 2018

Kaag had said in a reply to Rihanna that ‘all will be revealed in New York’. 

Another €15m is going to aid group Education Cannot Wait which boosts the access of children in crisis regions to education and almost €60m to the Global Financing Facility which helps countries set up healthcare programmes for women.

The Netherlands to press for more UN action against human traffickers

DutchNews, September 25, 2018

The Netherlands is working to establish an international network of diplomats and law enforcement agencies to locate the financial assets of human traffickers more quickly and encourage countries to freeze them, foreign minister Stef Blok told a meeting in New York on Monday. 

The Netherlands, Niger and Libya organised an international ministers’ conference in New York to focus on efforts to stamp out human trafficking ahead of this week’s UN Security Council meeting. 

The Security Council decision in June to impose sanctions on six human traffickers in Libya – which involved freezing their assets and banning them from crossing borders – is only the start, Blok said in a speech at the opening of the conference.

‘To make these measures truly bite, we need to realise that their adoption was only the start. A first step. The real work starts now,’ Blok said. 

‘The positive impact of the new measures lies partially in their deterrent effect. We know these individuals feel that they’ve been exposed, and backed into a corner. Other human traffickers are now feeling the pressure too. Their business model has suddenly dropped in value.’ 

Three key areas

The Netherlands, Blok said, wants to focus on three key areas: hunting down financial assets, expanding the sanctions list and replicating similar initiatives in other areas.

‘One example is the sanctions regime for Mali, which now enables specific targeting of those who engage in human trafficking and migrant smuggling,’ Blok said. 

Blok said the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague is already investigating whether human trafficking falls within the remit of the court. 

‘Several European countries, including my own, are exploring ways to have them brought to justice. Libya has issued numerous arrest warrants already. And the UN is helping African countries build capacity for the investigation and prosecution of human traffickers,’ Blok said. 

The UN Security Council, of which the Netherlands is a temporary member, meets in New York on Wednesday. 

Read Blok’s speech, in English 

Blok interviewed on the plans by CNN

Back at UN, Trump eyes new N.Korea summit 'quite soon'

Yahoo – AFP, Jerome CARTILLIER, Carole LANDRY, September 24, 2018

US President Donald Trump, flanked by UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton, kicked off his UN
meetings at an event on fighting the illegal drug trade (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm)

President Donald Trump said Monday he expects to soon hold a second summit with Kim Jong Un as he returned to the United Nations with warm words for the North Korean leader whom he eviscerated last year.

Trump used his debut address to the UN General Assembly 12 months ago to threaten to "totally destroy" North Korea and belittled its leader as "rocket man", prompting Kim to respond by calling the US president "mentally deranged".

But speaking as he arrived at UN headquarters in New York for this year's gathering, Trump hailed "tremendous progress" to halt Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile tests and said that a year later it was a "much different time."

"It looks like we'll have a second summit quite soon," he told reporters.

"As you know Kim Jong Un wrote a letter -- a beautiful letter -- asking for a second meeting and we will be doing that," added Trump, who met with Kim in Singapore in June.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo -- who has visited Pyongyang three times -- will preside over a Security Council meeting Thursday where he will brief members on how the administration can persuade the North to turn its back on nuclear weapons.

He will also defend the Trump administration's use of sanctions to force change, which has seen Chinese and Russian companies punished for doing business in North Korea.

Skepticism remains about whether Kim has taken any concrete steps, but that seems unlikely to deter Trump from pushing toward a follow-up to the Singapore summit in June.

While relations with Kim have improved dramatically, leaders attending the annual assembly will hear how another of Trump's adversaries, Iran's Hassan Rouhani, remains a top target of the American president's ire.

Big drug problem

Kicking off his meetings, Trump addressed "the world drug problem and a big problem it is" at an event that saw 130 countries pledge in general terms to step up action to fight the illegal drug trade and combat addiction.

In his 41-minute speech at the General Assembly in 2017, the US president made clear he wanted to turn the clock back on the last half-century's growth of global rules and institutions, to return to the primacy of the nation-state.

His national security adviser, John Bolton, said that Trump would stress US defense of its sovereignty in his latest UN address on Tuesday.

The UN's number one financial backer, the United States has moved under Trump to cut funding to the world body, notably to peacekeeping missions that are key to the UN's goal of promoting peace and security.

"The United Nations has tremendous potential and that potential is being met, slowly but surely," Trump told the drug meeting attended by UN chief Antonio Guterres.

Pressure on Iran

While Trump will dial down the rhetoric against Kim, there seems to be little prospect of him doing likewise with Rouhani.

The US annoyed many of its allies in Europe by pulling out of a deal they jointly negotiated in 2015 that lifted sanctions against Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.

US allies in the Middle East, notably Saudi Arabia, have, however, been delighted by Trump's stance.

Bolton said the United States was seeking to ramp up pressure on Iran but not to overthrow the regime -- an idea he supported before taking his job and reiterated recently by former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is Trump's personal lawyer.

"As I have said repeatedly, regime change in Iran is not the administration's policy," Bolton told reporters.

"We've imposed very stringent sanctions on Iran, more are coming, and what we expect from Iran is massive changes in their behavior," he said.

On Wednesday, Trump will for the first time chair a Security Council meeting on non-proliferation that will focus heavily on Iran, likely triggering a clash with other big powers.

The White House has not completely closed the door on a Rouhani-Trump meeting, but in a weekend op-ed in The Washington Post, Rouhani charged that Trump's offer of talks was not "genuine" and came with a list of "openly insulting preconditions."

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday accused US allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of supporting Arab separatists allegedly behind an attack on a military parade last week that killed 24 people.

S. Korean leader and North's Kim hold summit talks

Yahoo – AFP, Park Chan-kyong, September 18, 2018

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (R) came to Pyongyang's international airport
to welcome South Korean President Moon Jae-in (C) (AFP Photo)

Seoul (AFP) - South Korea's president and the North's leader Kim Jong Un drove together through the streets of Pyongyang Tuesday past thousands of cheering citizens before opening a summit where Moon Jae-in will seek to reboot stalled denuclearisation talks between his hosts and the United States.

Kim and Moon embraced at Pyongyang's international airport -- where the North Korean leader had supervised missile launches last year as tensions mounted.

The North's unique brand of choreographed mass adulation was on full display as hundreds of people waved North Korean flags and another depicting an undivided peninsula -- while the South's own emblem was only visible on Moon's Boeing 747 aircraft.

Thousands of people, holding bouquets and chanting in unison "Reunification of the country!", lined the streets as Kim and Moon rode through the city in an open-topped vehicle, passing the Kumsusan Palace where Kim's predecessors -- his father and grandfather -- lie in state.

"I am acutely aware of the weight that we bear," Moon told Kim as they opened two hours of formal talks at the headquarters of the ruling Workers' Party, adding that he felt a "heavy responsibility".

At a banquet after the first day of the summit, Moon said the "complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of peace" were priorities.

The South Korean leader said there would be challenges ahead but that he and Kim had "trust and friendship".

Graphic showing previous summits between North and South Korea 

(AFP Photo/John SAEKI)

Kim hailed his relationship with Moon, and said the pair would discuss "various issues ... in a frank and open-minded manner".

The North Korean leader declared his backing for the denuclearisation of the peninsula at his Singapore summit with US President Donald Trump in June.

But no details were agreed and Washington and Pyongyang have since sparred over what that means and how it will be achieved.

The US is pressing for the North's "final, fully verified denuclearisation", while Pyongyang wants a formal declaration that the 1950-53 Korean War is over and has condemned "gangster-like" demands for it to give up its weapons unilaterally.

A commentary in the Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the North's ruling party, repeated the criticism Tuesday, saying Washington was "totally to blame" for the deadlock. "The US is stubbornly insisting on the theory of 'dismantlement of nukes first'," it added.

Moon will hold another round of formal talks with Kim on Wednesday, as he urges the North Korean leader to make substantive steps towards disarmament that he can present to Trump.

Moon is due to meet Trump later this month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

"I wish this will be a summit that produces abundant results as a gift to the 80 million people of this nation for Chuseok," Moon said, referring to Monday's traditional holiday.

South Korea's Moon (R) has been instrumental in brokering the diplomatic thaw

 that saw a historic summit between Kim Jong Un (L) and US President Donald 

Trump in Singapore in June, where Kim backed denuclearisation of the Korean 

peninsula (AFP Photo)

'Rosy headlines'

The dovish South Korean president is looking to tie the inter-Korean process and the US-Northern talks closer together to reduce the threat of a devastating conflict on the peninsula.

At the same time Kim will look to secure closer inter-Korean co-operation as Seoul and Washington move at increasingly different speeds in their approaches to Pyongyang.

Analysts played down expectations.

The meeting "will probably generate rosy headlines but do little to accelerate efforts to denuclearise North Korea", Eurasia Group said in a note.

Kim would focus on "areas that promise economic benefits for the North", it added.

"Progressives inside and outside Moon's government will have strong incentives to inflate the summit's accomplishments, initially obscuring what will likely be a lack of major deliverables."

There have been many previous rounds of negotiations with the North, but deals have subsequently fallen apart -- Wednesday will mark 13 years to the day since Pyongyang agreed to abandon all of its nuclear weapons and return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

It has since carried out six nuclear tests and launched intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching anywhere on the US mainland.

The North's unique brand of choreographed mass adulation was on full display as 

hundreds of people on the tarmac waved North Korean flags and unification ones 

depicting an undivided peninsula (AFP Photo)

'First, second, third'

Moon's own parents fled the North during the Korean War that left the peninsula divided and technically in a state of conflict.

His three-day visit is the first by a South Korean president to Pyongyang in a decade. It is also the two leaders' third meeting this year.

Moon -- whose poll ratings have fallen in the face of economic difficulties -- was accompanied by business tycoons including Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong and the vice chairman of Hyundai Motor.

Moon has been pushing inter-Korean engagement, which is complicated by international sanctions against the North. South Korean media have urged caution, calling for substantial progress towards denuclearisation first.

"Quite a number of people are now fed up with the surprise events between the leaders," the conservative Chosun Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial Tuesday.

"President Moon must head to Pyongyang with the resolve that the first, second, third agenda of this summit is denuclearisation."

#UPDATE Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in visit the spiritual birthplace of the Korean nation for a show of unity after their North-South summit gave new momentum to Pyongyang's negotiations with Washington https://t.co/1d72FjLXF2

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 20, 2018

Standing in front of the flags of their two countries, Donald Trump and
Kim Jong Un made history in Singapore (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB)

Related Articles:

Trump, Kim hail historic summit; questions over way forward

Science & Spiritually Conference 2018, BC – Canada (4), June 16-17, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Predictions - Text version)

".. A few days ago, there was a handshake and that handshake was with the President of the United States and the leader of North Korea. This handshake was something that was far from expected a few months ago. In fact, it's beyond all odds - all odds - that this would ever take place! I want to tell you about this, because you are going to start to understand the mechanics of prediction. The reason? I told you years ago about the potential of the handshake.

"I am a channeller," my partner says. "I channel Kryon," my partner says. But what my partner has really learned to do is to put himself away and dip into the field with purity. This allows him to see differently and contact that who is Kryon, a friend in the field, and then to report to you what's perceived there. Predictions are not magic. Predictions are not future fortune-telling. You can't do that, dear ones; no one can do that. The reason? Because Human nature has free choice. Free choice creates trillions of free decisions daily. There is no "known" future. But there are a vast number of strong potentials based on what free choice is doing at the moment.

I want to take you back to March 2012 in Dallas, Texas. The channellings that I refer to now are documented, printed, available, and ready for you to read and find. [on this very web page] My partner documents them all and places them on his website. Some of you already know that I spoke about two strong potentials in that channeling, which would now seem to be predictions (since they happened). But they weren't. These things were potentials based upon that which was already happening in the field.

The first item: I told you that you would have a new pope soon. Thirteen months later, the planet received one. We told you that new pope would be a wild card in that he would come with unexpected energies. The old pope didn't even die, if you noticed. In fact, he's still with you! Instead, something happened that was beyond expectation, and you heard it from a chair just like the one I'm in now. That's not predicting, dear ones, because that was in the field. It was already something in progress with a potential. Did you hear that? In progress with a potential.

The second thing I told you about was this: There's a 50% chance that the new leader of North Korea, the son, would not follow in the footsteps of his father. I told you there was a 50% chance of this. Then I started itemizing the reasoning why this might make sense, especially to the Korean leader. I then told you it might take a long time if it manifested at all. I told you the problems would be within the old advisors for his father's family. He had to tread slowly and lightly to do something against all odds. This will all come out someday because of the handshake.

Here was the potential or the prediction of what might happen: Those who had the machine guns in the DM zone would drop them, because this North Korean leader would unify the two Koreas. There would be no nuclear weapons in his land and there would be the beginning of abundance for his people. His people and the world would then give him something he had always wanted and was imbued with from birth - the desire for accolades and more accolades. Like his father before him, he was the premier egotist, and this would be the unexpected way to create a world at his feet. That's what I said. Then I said, "Watch for it, but don't be anxious." I talked about that in 2013, and five more times since then. In August 2017, I itemized my advice for him, point by point. The advice that I gave followed the potentials that were there and those were the very points in the handshake this week in June of 2018.

Now, you tell me what happened. "Kryon, you're going to be famous because you predicted these things!" Dear ones, all I did was look into a field that is being shown to you today [by the scientists at the conference]. And all I did was to show you the potentials that were already there. In other words, he was thinking about these things and talking to others behind the scenes about them. No matter what his advisors told him right up to the brink of sending his missiles, he was always thinking that there might be another way that would gain him ultimate fame. Dear ones, this has been in progress since his father died! Therefore, it was in the field, but not a given, dear ones - a potential.

Next, I want to show you the bias of humanity at this time, something I have spoken of many times. This potential of the handshake is amazing, and it has started to be manifested. What should the reaction be to something that deflects the potential of war, or saves thousands lives? Instead of joy or amazement or celebration, Humans go for the reverse: It can't happen. It's a trick. It's a bad deal.

I want you to start reading the reactions of the press. I want you to read the reactions even from the South Koreans. They said, "Well, we know North Koreans, and that's never going to happen. We know who they are, and we know their nature. Because in the past, they never performed what they said they would. So it's a joke." That is a quote from a South Korean. "It's a joke."

What happened to this comment? "Isn't this a beautiful potential? Look at this amazing thing - against all odds!" Now, your free press, the reporting segment of our culture, has decided not only to report it, but to let you know it's probably not going to happen! They say: "Nay. Maybe yes, maybe no. We'll see. We expect the worse." And this continues and continues, and all it shows you is the monstrous bias of the dark side that wants to pull anything good back to what the past gave to you. ..."

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Dallas Texas, Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

Sex abuse claims rock Dutch Catholic Church

Yahoo – AFP, 15 September 2018

People in Australia, Europe, and North and South America have charged they
were sexually abused by clergymen and lay people

More than half of the Netherlands' senior clerics were involved in covering up sexual assault of children between 1945 and 2010, a press report claimed Saturday, further engulfing the Catholic Church in a global abuse scandal.

Over the course of 65 years, 20 of 39 Dutch cardinals, bishops and their auxiliaries "covered up sexual abuse, allowing the perpetrators to cause many more victims", the daily NRC reported.

"Four abused children and 16 others allowed the transfer of paedophile priests who could have caused new victims in other parishes," the Dutch newspaper added.

Church spokeswoman Daphne van Roosendaal told AFP the church could "confirm a part" of the report.

Other elements were based on anonymous information provided by a victims' assistance unit set up by the church.

"The names of several bishops correspond to those named in a report commissioned by the Church in 2010," the spokeswoman said.

Most of the accused clerics have since died, and the statute of limitations has expired in all cases, she added. Those still alive declined to comment, NRC said.

Meanwhile in France, a priest has been charged with sexually abusing four brothers, now aged from three to 17, his lawyer said Saturday.

The family brought the complaint against the 64-year-old priest, whose parish is in the central Cantal region. All four boys were said to be in the church choir.

The lawyer, Komine Bocoum, did not say when the alleged offences were said to have taken place.

Local bishop Bruno Grua said Saturday the his diocese was "shocked by these unspeakable acts".

They are the latest in a slew of assault allegations against the Catholic Church spanning several continents.

People in Australia, Europe, and North and South America have charged they were sexually abused by clergymen and lay people, in what German Archbishop Georg Gaenswein has called the Church's "own 9/11".

In August, Pope Francis declined to comment on a claim that he ignored sexual abuse allegations against a senior clergyman in the United States.

On Wednesday, the German Catholic Church said it was it was "dismayed and ashamed" by decades of child sex abuse by priests.

Pope Francis meets with leaders from the US church at the Vatican on Thursday

to discuss claims of sexual abuse by clergy (AFP Photo/Handout)

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Pope meets with US church leaders over clergy sex abuse

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US cardinal caught up in abuse scandal resigns

Pope accepts resignation of 3 Chilean bishops in sex abuse scandal

Australian archbishop gets 12 months for concealing child abuse
Germany's Catholic Church 'ashamed' by child sex abuse 

Part of the painting, said to one of the highlights of the Vatican collection

Jesus and Joseph, UK, May 27, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… I gave you a channelling years ago when Pope John Paul was alive. John Paul loved Mary, the mother. Had John Paul survived another 10 years, he would have done what the next Pope [The one after the current one, Benedict XVI] will do, and that is to bring women into the Church. This Pope you have now [Benedict XVI] won't be here long.* The next Pope will be the one who has to change the rules, should he survive. If he doesn't, it will be the one after that.

There it a large struggle within the Church, even right now, and great dissention, for it knows that it is not giving what humanity wants. The doctrine is not current to the puzzles of life. The answer will be to create a better balance between the feminine and masculine, and the new Pope, or the one after that, will try to allow women to be in the higher echelon of the Church structure to assist the priests.

It will be suggested to let women participate in services, doing things women did not do before. This graduates them within church law to an equality with priests, but doesn't actually let them become priests just yet. However, don't be surprised if this begins in another way, and instead gives priests the ability to marry. This will bring the feminine into the church in other ways. It will eventually happen and has to happen. If it does not, it will be the end of the Catholic Church, for humanity will not sustain a spiritual belief system that is out of balance with the love of God and also out of balance with intuitive Human awareness. …”

Women should play a greater role in the training of priests to fight the child abuse 'crisis' that has engulfed the #CatholicChurch, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet has said https://t.co/UmGvrcnIZI #MarcOuellet

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 16, 2018

Pope meets with US church leaders over clergy sex abuse

Yahoo – AFP, Catherine MARCIANO and Charles ONIANS, September 13, 2018

Pope Francis meets with leaders from the US church at the Vatican on Thursday
to discuss claims of sexual abuse by clergy (AFP Photo/Handout)

Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis met with US bishops and cardinals on Thursday to discuss the Vatican's response to a new wave of devastating claims of sexual abuse by clergy.

The pope met Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, who leads the US Conference of Bishops, and Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, who advises the pope on sex abuse issues.

DiNardo's deputy Jose Horacio Gomez and general secretary Brian Bransfield also attended the closed-door meeting.

The US Catholic Church has been shaken by the publication of a report on sexual abuse by clergy in Pennsylvania and by the resignation in July of US Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

McCarrick was accused of sexually abusing a teenager while working as a priest in New York in the early 1970s.

The US Bishops' Conference issued a statement after the talks "regarding the recent moral crisis in the American Catholic Church".

The men told the pope how the US Church "is lacerated by the evil of sexual abuse... It was a lengthy, fruitful, and good exchange," the statement said.

"We look forward to actively continuing our discernment together identifying the most effective next steps."

US Cardinal Daniel DiNardo is presenting a new "action plan" to the pope for 

tackling sex abuse by clergy (AFP Photo/GABRIEL BOUYS, GABRIEL BOUYS)

Falling popularity

According to a new poll published by the US news channel CNN on Wednesday, Pope Francis's popularity has nosedived in the United States recently.

The poll showed that only 48 percent of Americans in general supported the Argentinian pontiff, and his popularity has also plummeted among US Catholics to 63 percent from 83 percent 18 months ago.

A former ambassador to the Holy See, Monsignor Carlo Vigano, has even demanded the pope's resignation, accusing him of covering up for McCarrick.

On Thursday, the pope accepted the resignation of US Bishop Michael Bransfield -- a cousin of the Bransfield attending Thursday's Vatican meeting -- and ordered an investigation into allegations he sexually harassed adults, his Baltimore diocese said in a statement.

'Church's own 9/11'

Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, private secretary to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, on Tuesday described sexual abuse against minors by clergy as the Church's "own 9/11".

Cardinal DiNardo said he wanted to present an "action plan" to the pope to facilitate reporting of abuse and misconduct by bishops.

Pope Francis has called a meeting of the heads of bishops' conferences worldwide 

next February to discuss the issue of sexual abuse (AFP Photo/Tiziana FABI)

Referring to the McCarrick case, DiNardo called for a "prompt and thorough examination... into how the grave moral failings of a brother bishop could have been tolerated for so long and proven no impediment to his advancement."

Police on Tuesday arrested a priest in DiNardo's Texas diocese following allegations he abused a male high school student between 1998 and 2001.

A diocesan statement also referred to allegations the priest, Manuel La Rosa-Lopez, abused a 16-year-old girl in 2001.

Her parents "decided not to pursue the matter" and left the country, and the priest was allowed to resume his duties in 2004 after an internal investigation, the statement said.

In the United States, a group of 5,000 Catholic chief executives have frozen $820,000 (700,000 euros) in funds paid annually to the Holy See pending clarification of the sex abuse cases.

While Pope Francis has refused to respond to Vigano's allegations so far, the Vatican said Monday that he was "formulating the eventual and necessary clarifications".

Archbishop of Washington Donald Wuerl has said he plans to travel 

to Rome in the near future to discuss his resignation with Pope

Francis (AFP Photo/MANDEL NGAN)

Cover-up allegations

Among the clergymen targeted by Vigano, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington and formerly a bishop in Pennsylvania, is accused of covering up the sexual abuse in that state.

Wuerl has said he plans to travel to Rome in the near future to meet with Pope Francis to discuss his resignation.

On Wednesday, the pontiff called for a meeting of all the heads of Catholic bishops' conferences worldwide at the Vatican next February to discuss the issue of the "protection of minors".

More cases are coming to light.

The conclusions of a study commissioned by the Church in Germany were leaked to the press on Wednesday.

They included the finding that priests sexually assaulted more than 3,600 children in Germany over nearly seven decades.

Related Articles:

US cardinals defend themselves over cover-up storm

Pennsylvania report lists more than 300 'predator' priests

US cardinal caught up in abuse scandal resigns

Pope accepts resignation of archbishop convicted of abuse cover-up

Australian archbishop gets 12 months for concealing child abuse

Germany's Catholic Church 'ashamed' by child sex abuse 

Part of the painting, said to one of the highlights of the Vatican collection

Jesus and Joseph, UK, May 27, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)