Amid abuse lawsuits, Guam archdiocese to file for bankruptcy

Colombo, Sri Lanka, May 13, 2019 / 04:13 pm (CNA).- The Sri Lankan Catholic Church on May 12 held its first public Sunday Masses since suicide bombers claimed more than 250 lives and injured hundreds of others on Easter.

Attendees at the Masses saw heightened safety precautions, including full-body searches, ID checks, and street patrols by military and police forces, according to The Guardian. At the churches’ gates, volunteers kept an eye out for suspicious people.

Last week, President Maithripala Sirisena told the Associated Press that “99%” of suspects related to the bombings have been arrested and explosive material has been seized.

Church leaders are considering reopening Catholic schools on Tuesday, the AP reported.

As a security measure, all public Masses had been cancelled for the two weeks following attacks by eight suicide bombers on two Catholic churches, a protestant church, three hotels, a residence, and a zoo on April 21.

On the Sunday following the attacks, a televised Mass was held at the private residential chapel of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo. A private ordination Mass quietly went ahead as planned April 30 in the village of Thannamunai, with attendance lower than had originally been anticipated.

On Monday, several social media platforms were banned indefinitely by the government amid concerns surrounding hateful speech and fake news. Facebook, Whatsapp, and Youtube among those sites blocked, according to CNN.

Other safety precautions undertaken by the government include enforcement of curfews and banning face veils. The government has also sought to suppress the jiihadist group National Thowheeth Jama’ath, whom the police say was responsible for the attacks. ISIS leaders have also claimed responsbility for the bombings, saying the local jihadists had pledged loyalty to the Islamic State.

According to The Guardian, 56 people have been arrested in connection with the attacks, 13 safe-houses have been discovered, and 41 bank accounts belonging to the bombers have been found. However, police officials have continued to caution people about potential threats.

Since the attacks, Catholic charity groups have provided aid to the victims and their families. UCA News reported that Caritas Sethsarana has been funding medical services, transportation assistance, legal support, and home repair.

“We have identified those who have been heavily traumatized, and counseling by professionals is underway,” said Father Claude Nonis, an organizer for these church-run operations.

“I was inspired by what I saw Caritas doing,” a policeman at one of the hospitals told UCA News.

“They were right there with the families, helping them to identify the bodies, and they stayed with them until all the necessary arrangements had been made.”

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CNA Staff, Oct 29, 2020 / 10:15 am (CNA).- Catholics in Pakistan are protesting a judge’s decision not to intervene after a 44-year-old man allegedly kidnapped a 13-year-old Catholic girl, forced her to convert to Islam, and then married her… […]

New Delhi, India, Sep 30, 2019 / 02:05 pm (CNA).- A religious sister with the Missionaries of Charity has been released on bail 15 months after her arrest. She is accused of cooperating with the sale of a child from a home for unwed mothers, although her supporter argue that she was coerced into confessing.

Sister Concelia Baxla, 62, was arrested in July 2018, along with Anima Indwar, an employee at the Nirmal Hriday home in Ranchi.

Sr. Concelia was released Sept. 27 on a 10,000 rupee bail, the equivalent of $150, and two sureties of the same amount, ucanews reports. The sister was also instructed to leave her passport at the court.

The religious sister, who suffers from diabetes, had been denied bail twice previously – once last October on the grounds that her release could interfere with the investigation into her congregation, and again in January because charges had not yet been pressed, according to ucanews.

Her lawyer argued that Sr. Concelia should be granted bail because she is not facing direct charges, and noted that Indwar was granted bail shortly after her initial arrest.

Sr. Concelia had been sister-in-charge of the unwed mothers section at the home since June 2017. Indwar was entrusted with escorting the unwed mothers, their babies, and their guardians to hospital and to the Child Welfare Committee office when the religious sisters were engaged with other duties.

Police said a couple reportedly paid 120,000 rupees ($1,760 USD) to Indwar for a baby from the home. The couple complained that Indwar took their money in exchange for a child, and that she later took the child back from them without returning money.

Initial reports suggested that three other infants may also have been sold.

Indwar has admitted that she sold children. Sr. Concelia said that she found out about the sale later, after a baby was missing during a Child Welfare Committee check. The sister says she informed authorities and that she did not take any money from the sale.

A police source said that Indwar provided to police a handwritten note from Sr. Concelia asking Indwar to take the blame on herself, Matters India reports.

Sr. Concelia’s defenders, including the bishops of India, are asking whether she was an accomplice, or the victim of a coerced confession.

Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi, said shortly after the arrest that Sr. Concelia’s lawyer was only permitted to meet with her for 10 minutes, during which time, she said she was forced by police to give her statement, according to the Hindustan Times.

Sister Mary Prema Pierick, superior general of the Missionaries of Charity, said in July 2018 that the congregation was “deeply saddened and grieved” by news of the alleged sale, adding that they were coopering fully with the investigation.

However, a spokesperson for the Missionaries of Charity said that the order stopped dealing with child adoption in India back in 2015.

The Albanian-born Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata in 1950. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and canonized in 2016. There are now 5,167 Missionaries of Charity sisters, both active and contemplative, around the world. The order has 244 houses in India.

In addition to the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, members of the Missionaries of Charity take a fourth vow pledging “wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor.”

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