ARCHDIOCESE ACCUSED OF SILENCE ABOUT CHRISTIAN CHURCH SEX CRIMINALS
and/or www.mantra.com/jai
By John Seymore
312 Weekly
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Citing recent reports that current and former Roman Catholic
religious workers accused of molesting minors are housed near schools
or living in undisclosed locations, victims' advocates are
criticizing the Chicago Archdiocese for staying silent about all
accused clergy, teachers or volunteers with Chicago ties.
Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by
Priests, said the archdiocese is falling back on secrecy despite
promises since 2002 to be transparent.
The protest stems from a long-standing discrepancy between how
dioceses and religious orders alert the public about clergy facing
credible allegations.
"Members of a religious community are accountable to their major
superior, not the archdiocese," the archdiocese said in a statement.
"Any allegation of professional or sexual misconduct that can be made
against a brother is the responsibility of the religious congregation
to which he belongs. The community is responsible for investigating
and reporting allegations."
Blaine said the distinction is "splitting hairs." If an alleged
abuser has any Chicago ties, whether he's a native, served the church
in Chicago or moved to Chicago after being removed from ministry
elsewhere, the archdiocese should publicize his whereabouts.
Blaine cited the example of Joseph Lundowski, a church volunteer
accused of molesting dozens of children in western Alaska in the
1960s and 1970s. On Monday, the Diocese of Fairbanks settled a
lawsuit including claims against Lundowski for more than $9 million.
Blaine said Lundowski later returned to Chicago, and the church
should have let people know when the suit was filed in 2004, eight
years after Lundowski died.
She said the same is true in the case of former priest Frank Paduch,
sued in 1997 for allegedly abusing a youth at St. Rita High School on
Chicago's South Side. The Chicago Archdiocese and Augustinian
religious order reached a settlement two years later. The city of
Berwyn hired Paduch several years later as its advocate for senior
citizens. Berwyn police are investigating after the Survivors
Network protested.
"If we want to have a safe society, people have to work together,"
said Teresa Kettelkamp, executive director of the Office for Child
and Youth Protection for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. She
argues for transparency to enable that process."
The Rev. Paul Lininger, executive director of the Conference of
Major Superiors of Men, insists it's up to each religious order to
publicize names, but impossible to keep track of men after they've
left.
That's why Lininger said accused men are encouraged to stay within
religious orders so they can be housed and held accountable for their
actions.
But Blaine said that's not effective. She has encountered at least
one young person who knows Brother Anthony "Raimond" Rose, a
Christian Brother named in multiple lawsuits for allegedly abusing
students at two schools in Minnesota. Rose lives with other brothers
next to De La Salle Institute, a coed high school run by the
religious order.
"It's reckless for them to live in that community," Blaine said.
- Manya A. Brachear
More at:
http://312weekly.com/4248/archdiocese-accused-of-silence-about-abusers/
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
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P. Rajah
The starry-eyed addicts of daily-horoscopes might take it lightly, but
the UGC policy of introducing astrology as a subject could do with an
informed perspective.
N. Rathnasree
In recent times the controversy over the nature of astrology, whether it
is a scientific theory or not, seems to be becoming more and more
acerbic. While the astrologers are freely indulging in making personal
attacks on scientists, the following pertinent criticism of the theory
and practice of astrology, is not in any way being answered by them.
To be called a scientific theory, any body of knowledge would have to
answer the question why at every level.
So what, ask the astrologers, if we cannot predict the future very
accurately, are scientists able to predict the weather or Earthquakes
accurately?
Put another way, there has to be some fundamental interaction of basic
elements of nature involved at the root of any phenomenon. Venus in some
position has a baneful influence, Jupiter in some other position is
beneficial, born at such and such time a person may grow up to be a
criminal or a politician � WHY? What is the basic cause behind such
statements?
When asked to pin down the fundamental interaction of the planets and
stars with us human beings which would give rise to such effects,
astrologers falter and mumble something about gravitation,
electromagnetic radiation or tidal effects.
Gravitation? The gravitational forces of the nursing home, gynecologist,
pediatrician and the anesthetist who may be around at the time of birth
of a human baby would be far greater than any gravitational force felt
from the planets, simply because they are so far away! Similarly, stray
electromagnetic radiations coming from your TV screen or sundry other
electrical appliances around the house will be far greater than any that
reaches us from distant planets, how can the latter affect incidences in
your life?
What say we of tides? A statement on an astrological website goes � 'If
the Sun and Moon can exert tidal forces on Earth, which is so huge, to
cause tides, can they not exert enormous tidal forces on us puny
beings?' � something like that. The suggestion being that we do not know
what forces could be the cause astrological influences, but maybe tides
have the answer for us?
The point here is that the tidal forces on Earth, by the Sun and Moon
are caused precisely because it is so huge.
Try imagining differences in gravitational forces of the distant
planets between the tummy and the behind of a baby just born or maybe
the head and the toes? Laughable.
Where do tidal forces originate from? It is not a new or different kind
of force � it simply arises from differences in gravitational force felt
by the extremities of an extended object � the gravitational force of
the Sun or the Moon is larger on that part of Earth that is facing them
and smaller on the opposite side. As simple as that. Now try imagining
differences in gravitational forces of the distant planets between the
tummy and the behind of a baby just born or maybe the head and the toes?
Laughable. Tides do not have the answer that astrologers need.
It is true that there are number of physical interactions that have not
yet been fully understood from a very basic standpoint � the nature of
the nuclear forces, for instance. At the level of complex interactions
and chaotic phenomena there are a number of examples where a full
scientific understanding and predictability through underlying physical
laws is as yet incomplete. All these are rich areas in science where a
lot of progress has taken place and there exists room for a lot more work.
However, at some level or the other these unsolved problems touch upon
known and experimentally verified nature's laws. It is this that is
lacking in astrology. The astrologers say � so what if we cannot predict
the future very accurately, are scientists able to predict the weather
or Earthquakes accurately? The difference here comes in our basic
understanding of these phenomena, scientists have plenty of experimental
verification for the basic interactions they think underlie weather or
Earthquakes or any such phenomenon that is not yet understood in its
full complexity.
A person needs to be completely shameless to make such tall claims
after the event � making moolah out of vague statements and large scale
real suffering of people!
Does astrology have any such basic grounding? No!
So, we do not have a fundamental interaction or force that could explain
benign or malignant influences of the planets on our life. But, may be,
the cancer of astrology has a way out � empirical evidence? Lacking a
fundamental understanding of certain natural phenomenon, we may yet find
out some partial truth about it by experimentally studying various
aspects of it.
Most of the astrological predictions are worded in a deliberately vague
manner. It is this inherent vagueness that turns out to be the biggest
strength of astrologers since it defies experimental verification, a
basic requirement for any science.
Anyway, let us try our hands at generating statistics to critically
examine astrological conclusions. Positions of planets, Sun and the Moon
against the backdrop of the Zodiacal constellations at the time of the
birth of a person is supposed to determine their destiny, right? Listed
below are the birthdates of a number of Nobel Laureates who have
received the peace prize. Astrologically speaking, we should expect to
see some correlation in the planetary positions on these dates, which we
do not see:
Positions of Sun, Moon and Planets among the Zodiacal constellations
during the birth dates of some Nobel Laureates for Peace.
This exercise can be endless. Try it for any such list of people and you
are sure to see that no patterns exist in the planetary positions, if
the birthdates are unbiased.
(By the way, it is a a very simple matter to find out the planetary
positions for dates in history. There exist a number of planetarium
software, made freely available by dedicated astronomers and educators,
which do this job for you. There is a wonderful shareware called
skyglobe, produced by KlassM Software, a demo version of which can be
downloaded.
Using such software, you can look at the planetary, or stellar,
positions in the sky in history, as well as a few thousand years in
future. All this is astronomy, or rather, celestial mechanics, nothing
to do with astrology.
Anyway, trying to look at possible patterns emerging during birth-dates
of famous people could be an interesting senior school statistics
project to do and could quickly demonstrate the falsehood of astrology.
Students who may be thinking of enrolling for astrological courses,
particularly, may do well to look at such simple statistics before
making a tricky career decision.
Several astrologers make claims that they have predicted events that
have happened.
No pattern exists in planetary positions on the dates of earthquakes in
India�s recent history.
Lets' go through a sample - several astrologers are thumping their
chests saying that they had predicted the Gujarat quake � what have
these predictions been?
Take a sample � 'The nation may face a national calamity in the first
weeks of January', 'Inspite of many security arrangements the government
may be taken by surprise on the republic day', and so on. These are
statements taken from claims being made on the net by astrologers saying
that they had predicted the quake.
If the quake had not taken place, these predictions, however vague,
would never have been seen in limelight again, the case with innumerable
other predictions these same astrologers would be making day in and day
out, and which do not come out as predicted.
And then again, the predictions themselves are so vague, as can be seen
from the motley sample above, that a person needs to be completely
shameless to make such tall claims after the event � making moolah out
of vague statements and large scale real suffering of people!
Read full article:
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?212155
"Based on one of mankind's most time-tested sciences, Jyotish,
(_no experimentation here_!) the India-Pakistan reunification
should occur on our about July 26, 2000 (the date of the final
signing of the pact.)"
From: Jai Maharaj (cy...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Subject: India-Pakistan Unification
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Date: 1993-04-18 13:24:50 PST
Me, ...again!
Jai Maharaj (aka Jay Stevens) is a self-confessed "Vedic astrologer"
> Astrology: An Abuse Of Astronomy
>
> The starry-eyed addicts of daily-horoscopes might take it lightly, but the
> UGC policy of introducing astrology as a subject could do with an informed
> perspective.
>
> N. Rathnasree
>
> In recent times the controversy over the nature of astrology, whether it is a
> scientific theory or not, seems to be becoming more and more acerbic. While
> the astrologers are freely indulging in making personal attacks on
> scientists, the following pertinent criticism of the theory and practice of
> astrology, is not in any way being answered by them.
>
> To be called a scientific theory, any body of knowledge would have to answer
> the question why at every level.
>
> So what, ask the astrologers, if we cannot predict the future very
> accurately, are scientists able to predict the weather or Earthquakes
> accurately?
> Put another way, there has to be some fundamental interaction of basic
> elements of nature involved at the root of any phenomenon. Venus in some
> position has a baneful influence, Jupiter in some other position is
> beneficial, born at such and such time a person may grow up to be a criminal
> or a politician – WHY? What is the basic cause behind such statements?
>
> When asked to pin down the fundamental interaction of the planets and stars
> with us human beings which would give rise to such effects, astrologers
> falter and mumble something about gravitation, electromagnetic radiation or
> tidal effects.
>
> Gravitation? The gravitational forces of the nursing home, gynecologist,
> pediatrician and the anesthetist who may be around at the time of birth of a
> human baby would be far greater than any gravitational force felt from the
> planets, simply because they are so far away! Similarly, stray
> electromagnetic radiations coming from your TV screen or sundry other
> electrical appliances around the house will be far greater than any that
> reaches us from distant planets, how can the latter affect incidences in your
> life?
>
> What say we of tides? A statement on an astrological website goes – 'If the
> Sun and Moon can exert tidal forces on Earth, which is so huge, to cause
> tides, can they not exert enormous tidal forces on us puny beings?' …
> something like that. The suggestion being that we do not know what forces
> could be the cause astrological influences, but maybe tides have the answer
> for us?
>
> The point here is that the tidal forces on Earth, by the Sun and Moon are
> caused precisely because it is so huge.
>
>
> Try imagining differences in gravitational forces of the distant
> planets between the tummy and the behind of a baby just born or maybe the
> head and the toes? Laughable.
> Where do tidal forces originate from? It is not a new or different kind of
> force – it simply arises from differences in gravitational force felt by the
> extremities of an extended object – the gravitational force of the Sun or the
> Moon is larger on that part of Earth that is facing them and smaller on the
> opposite side. As simple as that. Now try imagining differences in
> gravitational forces of the distant planets between the tummy and the behind
> of a baby just born or maybe the head and the toes? Laughable. Tides do not
> have the answer that astrologers need.
>
> It is true that there are number of physical interactions that have not yet
> been fully understood from a very basic standpoint – the nature of the
> nuclear forces, for instance. At the level of complex interactions and
> chaotic phenomena there are a number of examples where a full scientific
> understanding and predictability through underlying physical laws is as yet
> incomplete. All these are rich areas in science where a lot of progress has
> taken place and there exists room for a lot more work.
>
> However, at some level or the other these unsolved problems touch upon known
> and experimentally verified nature's laws. It is this that is lacking in
> astrology. The astrologers say – so what if we cannot predict the future very
> accurately, are scientists able to predict the weather or Earthquakes
> accurately? The difference here comes in our basic understanding of these
> phenomena, scientists have plenty of experimental verification for the basic
> interactions they think underlie weather or Earthquakes or any such
> phenomenon that is not yet understood in its full complexity.
>
> A person needs to be completely shameless to make such tall claims
> after the event – making moolah out of vague statements and large scale real
> suffering of people!
> Does astrology have any such basic grounding? No!
>
> So, we do not have a fundamental interaction or force that could explain
> benign or malignant influences of the planets on our life. But, may be, the
> cancer of astrology has a way out … empirical evidence? Lacking a fundamental
> in India’s recent history.
> Lets' go through a sample - several astrologers are thumping their chests
> saying that they had predicted the Gujarat quake – what have these
> predictions been?
>
> Take a sample – 'The nation may face a national calamity in the first weeks
> of January', 'Inspite of many security arrangements the government may be
> taken by surprise on the republic day', and so on. These are statements taken
> from claims being made on the net by astrologers saying that they had
> predicted the quake.
>
> If the quake had not taken place, these predictions, however vague, would
> never have been seen in limelight again, the case with innumerable other
> predictions these same astrologers would be making day in and day out, and
> which do not come out as predicted.
>
> And then again, the predictions themselves are so vague, as can be seen from
> the motley sample above, that a person needs to be completely shameless to
> make such tall claims after the event – making moolah out of vague statements