or click Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse for current on-line
The Boston Globe Spotlight http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse
The Needle periodically, and books: pbpress@iinet.net.au W. Australia
References at: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm
Overview at: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/minilist.htm
Books: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/carnalbooks.htm
Buy Fidelity magazine www.j23.com.au Australia
Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040809/NEWS08/408090317/-1/NEWS ; By ROBIN ERB, BLADE STAFF WRITER, Aug/09/04 TOLEDO (OH): The diamonds have been seized, the luxury cars auctioned off, and the mansion in a posh Connecticut neighborhood sold by the U.S. Marshal's service. Long gone are the days of dodging international authorities and the kinky sex with women responding to personal ads. These days - five years after he was caught by authorities in a German hotel room with a stash of diamonds, several fake passports, and a female companion - Marty Frankel spends his days in an 8-foot by 12-foot brick jail cell in Central Falls, R.I., awaiting his fate. Meanwhile, in a courtroom an hour's ride away, federal prosecutors have dismantled the multimillion-dollar empire he built by gutting the assets of struggling insurance companies, ultimately trying to launder the stolen funds through the Vatican - an effort that almost succeeded because of help he received from some of the Holy See's high-ranking authorities, according to a pending lawsuit. It was a scheme that would prompt a global manhunt and make the former Toledoan the subject of two books and countless articles. "He put on a ... show," said Robert Guyer, of Dundee, Mich. Mr. Guyer ran a security brokerage house that served as a front for Frankel's operations. These days, it's not clear whether Frankel's saga might be in its final chapters, or might unfold for years to come. Tom Carson, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, only will say the investigation "continues." At least one of Frankel's co-defendants - Kaethe Schuchter, a woman described as a top lieutenant - remains on the lam. Certainly, legal loose ends abound. State charges were lodged against several defendants. Civil claims have cropped up around the country; the most sensational of the civil suits is one filed in 2001 by five states against the Vatican. In those five states - Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas - a guaranty fund formed by the states' insurance companies had to shell out millions of dollars to cover the more than $200 million in assets of the seven companies drained by Frankel. Now the states are looking for a way to recoup the losses. The states' insurance commissioners contend that the Vatican violated the federal Racketeer Influenced Corruption Act. That's because, in his quest to wash money through the Vatican, Frankel had enlisted the help of elderly Msgr. Emilio Colagiovanni, the head of the Monitor Ecclesiasticus, a 120-year-old publication that interprets church law and disburses money to charities, according to the suit. Frankel proposed to the monsignor and other high-ranking Vatican officials that he would set up a charitable fund and place $55 million in it. The Vatican would be able to take $5 million for the charities it saw fit. In return, several of the officials received cash or gifts from Frankel, the suit contends. The Vatican has denied that it accepted any of the funds, and only Colagiovanni has been convicted. Still, while lawyers have been exchanging motions in the suit and a trial date hasn't been set, several other chapters in the Frankel story are closing. Ten of Frankel's 11 codefendants are in various stages in the court system. Four of them are serving a combined 278 months, or more than 23 years, in federal lockup. Five are scheduled to be sentenced in the coming months. A tenth, Guyer, is on probation for five years. Meanwhile, Frankel is being held at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility, a private, male-only detention facility where he awaits sentencing Oct. 5. He pleaded guilty in 2002 of 24 counts of wire fraud, conspiracy, and securities fraud. Scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 17 for her part is his former fiancee and business partner, Sonia Howe, a former Woodmore High School drum majorette. Colagiovanni, key to the civil suit filed by the five states against the Holy See, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 9 on criminal fraud charges. Tangling the story even further was a high-profile and bitter divorce and custody battle between Howe and John Schulte, who had hired Frankel in his brokerage firm in the 1980s. It was through her then-husband that Howe met Frankel. These days, Mr. Shulte says the pending sentencing hearings mean he's emerging from a dark part of his life. Still, he's unforgiving. "I think Sonia will serve 10 years, which is the amount of time she has caused pain and evil in my life," he said. "So I guess every one gets their due." In all, more than $100 million still is unaccounted for, said Lee Harrell, deputy commissioner at the Mississippi insurance department. "A big chunk of money was just blown," he said. In the U.S. District Court in New Haven, something more than the dollar amount might weigh on the mind of U.S. District Judge Ellen Bree Burn's mind as she decides Frankel's fate. No one can remember the former Whitmer High School student holding a long-term, honest job, said Jeff Creamer, a local attorney who pursued Frankel in a case that eventually led to Frankel's being barred from trading securities in 1992. After that banishment, Frankel simply shifted his focus from securities to the insurance business where he set up bogus accounts, worked under aliases, and then drained millions of dollars out of seven companies to support his lavish lifestyle. "It's not like he's got legitimate work to go back to. He's a career criminal. If I were a judge, I wouldn't want to exact the rest of his life from him," Mr. Creamer said. "But I also wouldn't [free him] in a few years. I'd be afraid I'd see him again." A lavish life: In the days before Frankel began to steal other people's money, Ted Bitter used to talk to the eccentric recluse about family, politics, and "everything under the sun." One day, the topic was jail. "I remember him saying he would probably survive in prison," said Mr. Bitter, an investor more than a decade ago in one of Frankel's first ventures. "I think he thought he had the ability to adapt, that he'd be able to talk his way in and out of situations." Frankel eventually made off with Mr. Bitter's savings, and that drew the wrath of the SEC. "I would love to be a fly on that wall," Mr. Bitter said of Frankel's cell. "I wonder if he's making the mental adjustment or not." Indeed, life for Frankel after the century turned has been vastly different than his days in the 1990s, when his elaborate con financed his purchase of a multimillion-dollar estate in posh Greenwich, Conn. Greased with frontmen, shell businesses, and phantom investment reports, Frankel was snapping up struggling insurance companies. Siphoning away the assets the companies had set aside for future claims, he'd then purchase bigger companies with even bigger assets. It financed a lifestyle much different than Frankel, one of four children from a middle-class Toledo family, had ever known. He outfitted his mansions with elaborate security systems and met women through personal ads. Describing herself as a "sex slave," one woman later testified she investigated adoption options for Frankel to satisfy his alleged desire to have sex with a child. He bought a fleet of luxury cars and hired staff that included a private chef, personal driver, and bodyguards. When he visited Toledo, he arrived in limos and was surrounded by security. And when they did question the business transactions, state regulators - entrusted with protecting the money - were assured that the money was safely invested in a small brokerage firm, Liberty National Securities, in Dundee, Mich. According to investigators, Frankel and associate Howe paid the firm's president, Guyer, to forward calls to Frankel's new mansion in Greenwich. Still, by 1998 Colorado regulators began to get suspicious at Frankel's quest to buy an insurance company there, and he abandoned the idea, regulators now say. But the end for Frankel began a few months later, when a Mississippi insurance examiner asking routine questions about Frankel's purchase noticed that the insurance broker for Frankel's newest business was the tiny Dundee firm. Upon further questioning, "we found the company was worth a whole $58,000," recalled Jimmy Blissett, then the examiner. "This was a company who was supposedly trading billions." Routine questions became more probing. And the answers began raising red flags, recalled Mr. Harrell, then a special attorney general in Mississippi. "The more you dug," he said, "the stranger it got and the squirrellier the answers would get." Files and fire: An odd scene met firefighters who rushed to Frankel's Greenwich mansion May 5, 1999. A file cabinet burned. Frankel - who knew regulators were now on his trail - was gone. Within days, a frenzy of media attention descended, and the five-month hunt began - for Frankel, for answers to countless questions, and for the money. Finally, on Sept. 4, 1999, German police arrested him in a Hamburg hotel suite. Among his possessions: nine fake passports, 547 diamonds, and an astrology journal. Today, insurance regulators say they've learned a tough lesson about communication. In the five states, joint guaranty agreements set up by insurance companies had to shell out the missing millions to cover the raided assets of the seven companies. "They were having to pay for the competition's sins," Mr. Harrell said, noting those funds, in turn, most likely were rebuilt with increases in customers' premiums. Much of Frankel's success was based on the fragmentation of the insurance regulation industry from state to state and its separation from banking and securities regulators that may have thrown up red flags because of Frankel's securities ban in 1992. "It's kind of like the police and the fire and emergency services and the 911 system couldn't communicate with each other," said Gary Zeune, a fraud expert in Columbus who conducts fraud seminars for the government and business officials and who followed the Frankel case. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has strengthened its national database, said Ann Womer Benjamin, Ohio's insurance commissioner and a member of the NAIC's Financial Regulation Standards and Accreditation Committee. Containing information on companies, their officers, and their investments, it allows regulators in one state to double-check any history of a company or its officials in another state. Moreover, she said, insurance examiners trade more information these days with banking and securities regulators. Frankel purchased no companies in Ohio. Still, there's no guarantees against another Frankel fraud, investigators told The Blade. "Banks have been struggling with how to stop people from robbing banks for centuries," Mr. Harrell said. "It's now getting easier to catch them, but how do you stop them on the front end?" "If someone's really intent on pulling one over on you," agreed Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher, "it's not that tough to do." Contact Robin Erb at: robinerb@theblade.com or 419-724-6133. # * Also see: "Frankel's financial trickery linked to the Vatican," Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/20040705/NEWS08/407050353 , ASSOCIATED PRESS, Monday, July 5, 2004 [Aug 09, 04] • Okija People Will Revolt Against Shrines if They Were Used for Ritual Murders - Okija Prime Minister 
AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408080033.html , by Anayo Okoli, August 8, 2004 AWKA, NIGERIA: Anambra State Police Command may have achieved a feat by raiding the dreaded shrines in Okija in Ihiala Local Government Area where shocking revelations of stockpiles of human skulls and dead bodies at various decomposing stages were made last week.. Okija indigenes see the raid from different perspectives. While the Police are saying that the shrines were used for Advance Fee Fraud (419) and ritual activities, Okija indigenes and some people from Ihiala Local Government disagree. According to them, police officers also patronized the shrines. They therefore argue that if ritual activities went on in the shrines, police must have been part and parcel of the system. They believe that the shrines in their community which they said had existed for ages do not indulge in human blood sucking activities. With the interest generated by the police raiding of the shrines, Sunday Vanguard sought the views of Okija people and their neighbours in the same ward and local government. • Horror Shrines: End of the Road for God of Okija? -- 50 bodies. AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408080036.html , by Paul Odili, August 8, 2004 NIGERIA: Questions are being raised on the raids on Anambra shrines, which last week yielded human skulls and corpses, by people who say the police action clearly violated tradition. The raid of Okija Shrines, famously known as Alusi Okija (god of Okija) near Ihiala local government area of Anambra State, by the Nigeria Police and the discovery of 50 decomposing bodies and 20 human skulls are reportedly sending shock waves across the nation, reminiscent of the Otokoto saga in Owerri in 1996. But by historical parallel, the police raid resembles more the destruction of the long juju of Arochukwu by colonialists in 1909, than the Otokoto saga. Police account of the raid, according to Mr Felix Ogbaudu, Anambra Police Commissioner, was based on the compliant of ritual killings lodged by one Mr Chukwumezie Igwe, a member of a religious sect known as Hari Krishna. Continuing on his 'shocking' discovery, Mr Ogbaudu, revealed that he and 80 members of the mobile police unit acting on the strength of the information stormed the location of the deities in Okija. Giving further insight into what they saw, Mr Gabriel Haruna, a Chief Superintendent of Police, told journalists of the police resolve to get to the root of the ritual killing, adding: "What we saw in the place was very shocking. It's an on-going fight against idol worship involving human beings. We want to fish out the perpetrators. It was hell going there, the moment you step into the shrine, you see human corpses left and right, but we mustered courage." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:58 AM] • Okija: Chief Priests Invoke Spirits Against Raiders - Ngige Denies Involvement AllAfrica.com http://allafrica.com/stories/200408100424.html , by Felix Uka, Awka, August 10, 2004 AWKA, NIGERIA: Chief priests of various shrines in the South-East said yesterday morning that those who raided the Ogwugwu Okija shrines should appease the deity or suffer impending doom. They also kicked off a seven-day fast and one-hour a day incantation to protest the defilement of the Ogwugwu enclaves in Ihiala council area of Anambra State. Also, the state government has denied claims that Gov. Chris Ngige was behind the raid on the shrines to cover up an alleged past involvement there, saying it was false. The government instead said it is awaiting a police report at the end of its investigation. Spokesman of the Anambra State chapter of the League of Chief Priests in the South-East, Chief Onuchukwu James Clark, told newsmen in Awka, that shrines are no hide-outs for evildoers, but places of worship of traditional religion, saying the present controversy over the Okija shrines was unnecessary. • Church members sue over pastor [2003 Wade] -- African Methodist Church; $300,000 unaccounted for.
Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/north/chi-0408100180aug10,1,356314.story?coll=chi-newslocalnorth-hed ; By Lisa Black, August 10, 2004 EVANSTON (IL): Six members of an Evanston church have filed a civil lawsuit complaining that their pastor failed to properly account for nearly $300,000 allegedly spent on items ranging from evangelism seminars and lawyers' fees to donkey rental on Palm Sunday. The members are demanding that Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1109 Emerson St., produce records itemizing how Rev. James Wade spent a $294,000 check that he deposited into a bank account around March 2003, according to the lawsuit. The church has been embroiled in the controversy over the pastor's handling of finances in recent months. A few longtime members said they left the church because they disagreed with the pastor's autocratic administrative style. "There are a number of open issues that need to be resolved," said Horace Graves, 63, who along with his wife and four other members filed the lawsuit. "Unfortunately, there is a faction within the church," said Graves, who attended Sunday's service. "There are divided feelings." • Okija Horror Shrines: 10 Registers of Victims Found
AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408090898.html , August 9, 2004 Ndidi Okafor, Felix Uka, and Nkiru, Okeke Abuja, Awka, and Enugu NIGERIA: Police in Anambra State said they have so far recovered 10 registers from the Okija shrines and may soon publish the names and addresses of victims contained in the documents. Also, faced with a court threat by lawyer to the custodians of the Ogwugwu Isuala and Akpu shrines over alleged destruction of the worship places raided last week, the state's police spokesman, Mr. Kolapo Shofoluwe yesterday denied that the shrines were destroyed by the police. He said the police did no such thing, but merely stormed the sites to collect exhibits for possible prosecution of suspects arrested on the spot. But, secretary-general of apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze, Col. Joe Achuzia (rtd) suggested that the corpses retrieved from the shrines be subjected to autopsy to determine the cause of death. However, Bishop Ben Oruma of the Abuja Breakthrough Chapel yesterday stated that several pastors go to shrines to get powers for miracles. • Lawrence woman stabbed to death; husband being questioned [2004 Shackleford] -- Baptist.
Times Daily, www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040811/BREAKING/40811002 , Millie Shackleford, the mother of 14 children, was stabbed to death inside her home in the David Temple community just outside of Hillsboro in Lawrence County. Her husband, 74-year-old W.T. Shackleford, a former Baptist pastor, was being questioned by Lawrence County sheriff's investigators late Wednesday morning. Sheriff's officials say he will likely be charged in connection with the stabbing death of his wife. They did not immediately reveal the motive in the incident, and no charges had been filed as of 11:30 a.m. • Priest Under Evaluation After Standoff [2004 McGrath] WIVB, www.wivb.com/Global/story.asp?S=2161975&nav=0RapPlYD , August 11, 2004 BUFFALO (NY): A retired Catholic priest is under evaluation at the Erie County Medical Center, after a four and a half hour standoff with Buffalo police. It happened Wednesday on St. Lawrence Avenue. News 4's Mylous Hairston reports. The Buffalo Police Department's hostage negotiating team spent nearly four hours trying to persuade Father James McGrath to put down his weapon and surrender. David Sugg, commander of the hostage negotiating team, said, "He didn't want to see the police. He didn't want to talk to police on the phone." Authorities were taking no chances with the SWAT team ready to move in following a call that the retired priest was armed. • Police Delay Raid On New Shrines [2004]
AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408110863.html , August 10, 2004, Posted to the web August 11, 2004 LAGOS, NIGERIA: The Anambra State Police Command has put a halt to its raid on occultic shrines in the state pending the outcome of investigations into the activities of suspects arrested at the Okija shrine in Ihiala Local Government Area. The state Police Command Public Relations Officer, Mr. Kunle Sofoluwe, said the command decided to delay further raids on the shrines in order to interrogate families of some of the corpses and names found in the registers at the Okija shrine. He disclosed that the police was still trying to determine whether the corpses of those found at the shrine were killed by the ritualists or taken to the shrine by their families. • Okija: IG Gets Presidential Order, Ohanaeze Disowns Shrine AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408110089.html , by Kingsley Omonobi, August 11, 2004 ABUJA, NIGERIA: Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, received a presidential directive yesterday to personally take charge of the on-going investigation into the Okija Shrines, where the police last week recovered 20 human skulls and a fresh corpse. The IG is also to ensure that the brains behind the rituals, whatever their status, are brought to book. The pan-Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze, in its first reaction to the Okija incident disowned a statement credited to its Secretary-General, Chief Joe Achuzia, to the effect that the police raid on the shrines was uncalled for, and that shrines are part of Igbo tradition. The Ohanaeze described the Okija discovery as a major tragedy, and alien to Ndigbo. Meanwhile, the man who assisted the police in unraveling the Okija shrines has cried out over alleged threats to his life. Already, a detachment of about 70 heavily armed policemen from Mopol 44, Abuja, led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police, has left the Federal Capital for Awka and Okija to secure the 35 suspects already arrested, arrest more if need be and take along very important evidence to Force Headquarters, Abuja. Police sources told Vanguard that the president was personally interested in the matter, following the horrifying revelations, the interest it has generated worldwide and the need to use the Okija incident to send a once and for all signal to ritualists in the country that the time has come for an end to their blood sucking escapades. Two trucks, one Mercedez Benz 911 and one Tata truck, were seen loaded with mobile policemen singing war songs while a pick-up van carrying officers and another 504 salon escort car were seen heading to the Anambra State capital, Awka at about 6p.m. yesterday. • Retired northwest Alabama minister held in wife's stabbing death [2004 Shackelford]
Ledger-Enquirer, www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/local/9384942.htm , Associated Press HILLSBORO, Ala. - Ready to take her father to town, authorities say, Virginia Shackelford walked up to his rural home to find the retired minister sitting on the porch, cutting himself with a knife. "I just killed your mother," the elderly man told her, according to police. The slaying of Mollie Lee Shackelford, 72, left neighbors baffled and relatives distraught in this Lawrence County community, where she and husband W.T. Shackelford were known as salt-of-the-Earth people - the kind who were always ready to help out friends. The 73-year-old Shackelford was being held without bond Thursday on charges of murdering his wife of at least 50 years. He was treated at a hospital for superficial knife wounds and taken to jail. Sheriff Bryan Hill said the man told authorities the couple had a murder-suicide pact. • Lawrence minister charged in stabbing death of wife [2004 Shackelford] The Decatur Daily, www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/040812/slaying.shtml , By Clyde L. Stancil, cstancil@decaturdaily.com , 340-2443 HILLSBORO (AL) - James Lee McDaniel said it had to be a case of Satan taking advantage of a man he listened to most Sunday mornings for most of the past 20 years. Why else would his former pastor, the Rev. William Thomas "W.T." Shackelford, a man who served as pastor of North Courtland Primitive Baptist Church for two decades, stab to death the mother of his 14 children? His wife, Mollie Lee Shackelford, 72, of 1118 Lawrence County 425, Hillsboro, was pronounced dead Wednesday morning. Their home is in the Davis Temple community, north of Alabama 20. Authorities found her on the bed and believe that she was stabbed to death, but are awaiting a preliminary autopsy report to determine the exact cause. They initially received a 9:28 a.m. call about a shooting, but did not find a gun. Lawrence County Chief Deputy Wayne Huguley said investigators found a bloody knife inside a drawer in the house and another knife in Shackelford's sock. • We Have More Corpses, Skulls - Okija Priest Tells Police
AllAfrica.com ; http://allafrica.com/stories/200408120691.html , by Uba Aham, August 12, 2004 AWKA, NIGERIA: One of the 32 arrested priests of Okija shrine in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State has revealed that more human corpses and skulls are in nine other shrines located in different villages in the state. The priest reportedly told the police during interrogation that more corpses and skulls would be found in shrines located in Umuhi, Ajano, Umugun, Idingwo and other villages in the area if the police decide to raid the shrines. The Okija priest, according to a competent PMNews source, confessed to the police that bringing corpses of victims to the shrines was a common practice among adherents of the shrines. Meanwhile, the police are said to be wary of raiding more shrines in the area to recover more corpses for fear of diseases breaking out and the fact that there appears to be nowhere to keep the corpses. The 50 skulls and corpses recovered from the shrines last weekend during a 10-hour police raid of the evil forest were said to be lying at an undisclosed hospital in the state, as nobody had come forward to identify and claim them. • Okija: My Life Is in Danger - Police Informant This Day, www.thisdayonline.com/news/20040812news03.html , By Tokunbo Adedoja in Lagos, Ahamefula Ogbu in Abuja and Charles Onyekamou in Awka, August 12, 2004 NIGERIA: Chukwumezie Obed Igwe, who gave the information that led to the police raid of Okija shrine, where scores of corpses and human skulls were found has raised alarm over alleged threats to his life. In a four-paragraph letter addressed to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, Igwe also attached photocopies of handwritten letters of threats allegedly sent to him. In a swift reaction the police promised to give Igwe the required protection the moment it receives his petition. Also, the House of Representatives member representing Ihiala Constituency comprising Okija town, Chuma Nzeribe, has asked the police to interrogate Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State if they hope to get to the root of the killings in the Ogwugwu shrine in Okija. Nzeribe's call came as Anambra State Police Com-mand yesterday acknowledged the arrival of a contingent of about 100 police detectives detailed by Balogun to help in the investigation of the discovery of corpses and skulls found in Okija shrine. • Personal View :- Okija shrine saga and civilisation Vanguard, www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/columns/c213082004.html , By Mobolaji Sanusi - Mobolajisanz@yahoo.com , Friday, August 13, 2004 NIGERIA: The revelation that human skulls and corpses are common features in a forest housing dreaded shrines in Okija, Ihiala Local Government of Anambra State is shocking. Immediately after the news broke out, I met two of my colleagues, who are from the Igbo ethnic nationality. Both of them saw nothing wrong in the skulls and fresh human bodies found in the Okija shrine by the police. They argued that those human corpses and skulls were those of dishonest and treacherous people. To them, those individuals became victims of the shrine after having sworn oaths before the shrine and later reneged or breached such oaths. Those bodies, according to them, were voluntarily handed over to the shrine by the families of such victims. They concluded their defence of Ohanaeze's endorsement of the activities in the shrines by asking: "Do such shrines not exist in other parts of the country? Why the focus on Anambra State? One went further: "Are the authorities just aware of the existence of the shrines?" For me, I know that both colleagues are professed Christians. Why they support such barbaric acts in the name of tradition was what confounded me in spite of their Christian belief? Reflecting on my office encounter at home, I realised that people can be very passionate when it comes to issues that touch on their traditional belief. In Africa, tradition is highly regarded and no indigene of a place wants his tradition desecrated. This is notwithstanding the level of exposure, experience and education of the person involved. In my part of the country, no such shrine like Okija exists to the best of my knowledge. Yoruba tradition As a Muslim, even if it exists, I am not interested because my religion abhors such. However, the question to ask is whether I would support its desecration if it exists? My answer is in the affirmative. My position is borne out of my unconditional regard for human dignity. The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees this right. In section 34, it provides that "every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person." This right does not end at death. Human beings are not expected to deny such a right to even a dead person. Any attempt under whatever guise to do such is nothing but an attempt that dehumanises the whole essence of living. Throwing dead bodies enmasse in open graves does violence to the dignity of the human person. This is why the issue of civilisation comes in. If those skulls and dead bodies found in the shrines at Anambra State were those of the people who have betrayed the gods and their fellow human beings, then the gods should come to the rescue of the macro society in Nigeria. There are a lot of leadership betrayals in the country such that the gods of the shrines should intercede. Perhaps, the bodies and skulls of those found at the shrines are those of the down trodden. There are no evidence that those who either loot our public treasuries or misdirect our country ever get sanctioned by the gods. Herein lies the hypocrisy in the much touted gods. Rather than sanction those who misuse power, the gods protect them against the wrath of commoners. Where lies the justice in the deeds of the gods of the shrines? Civilisation marches on The world is advancing every day: This means that there must be advancement in the way and manner of the practice of traditional religions. Any human being, living or dead, must be treated with dignity. For this I agree with Anne Morrow Lindbergh to wit; "The intellectual is constantly betrayed by his vanity. Godlike he blindly assumes that he can express everything in words; whereas, the things one loves; lives, and dies for are not, in the last analysis completely expressible in words." My aim is far from this. In any religion that we practise, there is the need for justice, fairness and respect for human sanctity to be upper- most in our dealings. This is the only way to make our society grow to our desired height. Else, we'll be giving credence to the words of Jonathan Swift when he writes that "we have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another." Dehumanisation of dead bodies under whatever guise is not the way to love one another. It will be good if we can be more human to ourselves whatever religion we practise. God, the ultimate judge, will give judgement on the day of reckoning. For this, I subscribe to Dalai Lama's preachings that: "This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples: no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy of kindness." How many worshippers of the gods of the shrines subscribe to this belief of Dalai Lama. None I presume from what Okija shrine has exposed so far. # • Second Guilty Plea In Corruption Probe [? 2003-04 McCracken, Kemp] -- Church of God in Christ, bank loan fraud.
CBS 3, http://kyw.com/Local%20News/local_story_226152925.html , 3:25 pm US/Eastern, Aug 13, 2004 PHILADELPHIA (PA) (AP): The handyman at a Reading church pleaded guilty Friday to charges that he helped the pastor and an influential parishioner, Philadelphia's former city treasurer, get a fraudulent bank loan. Jose Mendoza, 44, signed a document falsely representing that he was the general manager of a company performing construction work at the church, the St. James Chapel, Church of God in Christ. Investigators claim the company existed only on paper, and tens of thousands of dollars loaned for a church renovation project wound up in the pockets of its pastor, the Rev. Francis D. McCracken, and Philadelphia Treasurer Corey Kemp. The FBI investigated the loan as part of a sweeping probe of alleged public corruption in Philadelphia city government. • Okija: Power Beyond Their Brief [2004]
AllAfrica.com ; by Eziuche Ubani, August 13, 2004 LAGOS, NIGERIA: In the complex and deadly political theatre that Anambra State has become, every event affords the gladiators an opportunity to square off. Thus, it is not surprising that the Governor Chris Ngige and Chief Chris Uba forces are locked in a slanging match over the Okijagate. From all indications, the Ogwugwu shrines and their power are likely to come to grief and so, it is expected that its patrons are distancing themselves from it. Indeed, the Ngige corner claims now that it was their invocation of Holy Ghost fire against the shrines that brought them to this pass. They say that was necessary because the shrine is the foundation of Uba's power. It must be in response to that claim that Hon. Chuma Nzeribe, the one who was alleged to have administered that famous gubernatorial slap on the graying beards of His Excellency in the toilet, told the media that Ngige is a member of the Okija cult. That, and the other distractions have come to obscure the real issues in the matter. Some commentators waving fans of hypocrisy, create the impression that the existence of native shrines and oracles is something new. It is not. Anybody who claims that, is merely pretending. In the jungles of the Niger-Delta, the South-West and elsewhere, there are equivalents of the Ogwugwu shrines. What may differ is their methodologies. In Rivers State, there is the famous Ojukwu Diobu. In Imo State, there is the famed oracle at Chokoneze in Aboh Mbaise local council. There are several in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States. • Nigeria shrine yields more bodies [2004] -- 83 now. BBC News NIGERIA: Nigerian police say they have found a further 33 bodies in addition to the 50 already uncovered in fetish shrines in south-eastern Anambra state. A traditional cult reputed to carry out ritual killings is thought to have carried out the murders. Some of the corpses had hands, genitals or heads missing. Police have displayed skulls - and five men of the 30 or so people arrested in connection with the murders - to correspondents in the capital, Abuja. 'Parallel court' "Police are concerned about how the headless bodies found their way into the shrines," said deputy police chief Sunday Ehindero. However, a spokesman for those arrested denied any involvement in the killings. "Since I have been there, for two years, I have not seen anybody killed by these people. Rather, the shrines kill," said Collin Obi. • Nigerian Police Say 33 More Bodies Found [2004] Newsday By GILBERT DA COSTA, Associated Press Writer, August 13, 2004, ABUJA, Nigeria -- Investigators have found 33 more bodies in woodlands near where a secretive cult is believed to have carried out ritual killings, police said Friday in raising the death toll in the case to 83. In last week's initial raids on homes and two forests in southeastern Anambra state, police found 50 bodies -- some without heads -- and about 20 skulls. The bodies, several of which were mummified, had been left unburied in caskets lying in what have been dubbed the two "evil forests." Police paraded five bedraggled men before journalists Friday in Abuja, the national capital, and lined up 20 skulls that officials said were found hidden in domestic shrines linked to the Alusi Okija cult. Sunday Ehindero, the deputy inspector general of police, said the men were among 31 priests arrested in connection with the killings. "The police are concerned with how these bodies found their way into the shrines. We want to find out who severed the heads from the bodies of those we found," Ehindero said. • Globe-trotting cleric sought for money [2003] 
Vaal Weekly, www.news24.com/Regional_Papers/Components/Category_Article_Text_Template/0,2430,372_ 1572571~E,00.html SOUTH AFRICA: An angry young man from Sebokeng's Zone 3 demands that the famous pastor of a Sebokeng church repay the R5 000 he allegedly took from him and his group of dancers. This was at the Classic Youth Club under the auspices of organising an international tour of the Americas for them. The fuming Monabudi Motse told Vaal Weekly this week that he had been taken for a ride by the pastor who allegedly lured him into handing him the R5 000 to organise visas for the ten-member group to perform at the annual African/American day in the United States last year in February. • Anambra to acquire Okija shrines
Vanguard, By Anayo Okoli, Kingsley Omonobi & Enyim Enyim, Friday, August 13, 2004 AWKA, NIGERIA -THE Anambra State is to acquire the vast expanse of land that currently accommodates the Okija shrines for public use. Already, the special police squad dispatched by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, to handle the investigation of the activities of ritualists at the shrines returned to Abuja yesterday with 31 suspects including one chief priest and four elderly men whose ages range between 60 and 75 years. The Anambra State Government in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, Mr. Fred Chukwuelobe, said: "The attention of the Government of Anambra State has been drawn to various newspaper reports and insinuations regarding the recent police raids and destruction of the various shrines at Okija and the subsequent arrest of the chief priest and other priests of the infamous shrines. The government wishes to say that following the interim report on the matter by the state Commissioner of Police and other security agencies, it fully supports the raids and the destruction of the shrines and regards them as welcome developments. "The government of Anambra State sees the development as a good riddance to bad rubbish and at the appropriate time government will come out with a proposal for the acquisition of the said large expanse of forest land which the shrines had occupied for various government projects." • Arrest warrant issued for Catholic priest in church embezzlement [2000s Werra] -- $US 240,000 suspected.
Detroit Free Press, August 14, 2004 PAW PAW, Mich. (AP) -- An arrest warrant has been issued for a Roman Catholic priest who authorities suspect may have embezzled more than $240,000 from churches he served in Mattawan and Marcellus. The Rev. Bogdon Werra faces a charge of embezzlement over $20,000, Van Buren County Prosecutor Juris Kaps told the Kalamazoo Gazette for a Saturday story. If convicted, Werra could face up to 10 years in prison. It was not known when Werra would be arraigned in Van Buren County District Court, but Kaps said authorities were working with Werra's attorney to have the 49-year-old priest turn himself in soon. A message seeking comment was left Saturday with Anthony Toweson, who was identified as Werra's attorney. In a statement, the Diocese of Kalamazoo said its preliminary investigation "found evidence of financial irregularities in excess of $240,000" at St. John Bosco Parish in Mattawan and St. Margaret Mary Mission in Marcellus. • Priest accused of taking $240,000 [? 2000s Werra] Kalamazoo Gazette, By Rex Hall Jr., rhall@kalamazoogazette.com , 388-7784 , Saturday, August 14, 2004 MICHIGAN: An arrest warrant was issued Friday for a Catholic priest who may have embezzled more than $240,000 from churches he served in Mattawan and Marcellus. The Rev. Bogdon Werra faces a charge of embezzlement over $20,000, Van Buren County Prosecutor Juris Kaps said. Werra could face a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted. It was not known Friday when Werra would be arraigned in Van Buren County District Court, but Kaps said authorities were working with Werra's attorney to have the 49-year-old priest turn himself in some time next week. In a statement released Friday, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo said its preliminary investigation "found evidence of financial irregularities in excess of $240,000" at St. John Bosco Parish in Mattawan and St. Margaret Mary Mission in Marcellus. Kaps declined to discuss any specifics of the case, pending the possibility of a criminal trial. |
|
INTENTION: A challenge to RELIGIONS to PROTECT CHILDREN. Click for more explanation. |
Some clickable links are for network access only, so might not work for you.
** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is available here without profit to people who want to read it for research and educational purposes. If you quote from this, please check (if possible) and acknowledge the ORIGINAL source. **
|
To SEARCH only ONE WEBPAGE AT A TIME, you may use the built-in features of your own Browser. With most systems press
[Ctrl] + F. This will cause a Find or Find/Replace dialogue box, or a Search/Replace box, to appear. (With some old programmes, start by pressing [Ctrl] + [Shift] + F. However, if your system requires it, click Edit, then click Find.) Type in a keyword, and press [Enter], or click Find Next, or Find, or Search.
To SEARCH all of This Site, use the special panel provided. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||
Composed with monitor screen of 800 x 600 pixels, High Colour (16 bit)
Doc. 238 + URL = http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont92.htm