A Roman Catholic Church bishop in Brooklyn, New York has been under investigation for allegations of sexual abuse. A second man has come forward with an allegation of abuse from the 1970s, where the priest, at the time in the 70s, was a parish priest in New Jersey.

Samier Tadros claims bishop Nicholas DiMarzio “repeatedly sexually abused” Tadros when he was 6-years-old, approximately. A March 9 letter from the lawyer for Tadros claimed this when sent to the attorney representative of the Archbishop of Newark.

The Associated Press reported, “DiMarzio has previously denied the accusations made by the first accuser. In a statement to The Associated Press, he also denied the accusation leveled by Tadros. ‘There is absolutely no truth to this allegation,’ he said. ‘This is clearly another attempt to destroy my name and discredit what I have accomplished in my service to God and His people.’

The attorney for DiMarzio is Joseph Hayden. Hayden, in an email, stated that they have uncovered “conclusive evidence” of the innocence of DiMarzio. However, The Associated Press was not permitted to see the evidence declared by Hayden, which leaves this as a strong claim without definite confirmation by independent journalists.

Pope Francis set forth new procedural guidelines in dealing with some cases under church law since last June, which has brought this particular case to the fore of the conversation around child sexual abuse and the Roman Catholic Church.

This is a powerful context for Americans. Because Roman Catholicism is the religion of Mel Gibson, Alexis Bledel, George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, Al Pacino, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, Mickey Rourke, Michael Moore, Bono, Alfred Hitchcock, Mark Wahlberg, Elijah Wood, Ennio Morricone, Abel Ferrara, Jessica Rey, Andy Warhol, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Adolphe Menjou, and so many others in Hollywood and other areas of prominence and influence in the United States of America.

“The procedures — known in Latin as Vos Estis Lux Mundi, or You are the Light of the World — were issued in an apostolic letter that addresses how the church will handle claims against bishops and other ranking church officials accused of abuse or covering it up,” The Associated Press stated, “The rules direct archbishops to lead the investigation of an accused bishop in his jurisdiction. In this case the archbishop of New York is Cardinal Timothy Dolan.”

One of the attorneys for the accusers of DiMarzio, Mitchell Garabedian, stated that Tadros decided to step forward and make his case after another now-57-year-old man named Mark Matzek came forward. Matzek made the same claim of sexual abuse as a youngster in the middle of the 1970s.

As of June 4, DiMarzio has denied the accusations against him. Now, the two men who are making the accusations, Matzek and Tadros, live in separate states and have never met, which can strengthen the claims against the bishop because of the independence of the evidence and the claims. Tadros is requesting $20 million in compensation with DiMarzio, according to Hayden, being firm of never accepting a settlement of the claims.

“Dolan has retained New York attorney John O’Donnell and the law firm of Herbert Smith Freehills to conduct the investigation. The firm in turn has hired a risk management company founded by former FBI director Louis Freeh to assist in the inquiry. Freeh was named in 2011 to lead an investigation into Pennsylvania State University and its handling of sex abuse claims against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, which led to a report critical of university officials,” The Associated Press reported.

With the new procedures of the Vatican, the investigation of Dolan will be submitted for review of the evidence and then there will be a recommendation to the current leader, Pope Francis. Dolan will not conduct the investigation himself, but will submit the investigation plus a vote in accordance with the new Vatican procedures. No conflicts of interest and impartial acting are required for the archbishop.

Dolan said, “Bishop DiMarzio, I mean, I love the guy. He’s a good friend… He’s never had an accusation against him in his whole life. But in November, somebody made an accusation from way, way, way, way, way, way back, 48 years or so ago. And as much as Bishop DiMarzio said, ‘This is preposterous, this is ridiculous, this is unjust,’ darn it, we have to take it seriously.”

With files from The Associated Press.

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The longstanding controversy over Cardinal George Pell took a turn with an overturn based on the High Court decision. One of the fathers of an alleged victim stated that he is “struggling to comprehend” the decision of the High Court to overturn the convictions, recently.

With the overturn decision of the High Court, Pell was released as a free man. The High Court earlier overturned the former treasurer of the Vatican’s convictions for both sexual assault and indecent assault against Pell, acquitting him unanimously. In Australia, thousands of sexual abuse claims have come forward over recent years from alleged survivors at the hands of Catholic priests or religious brothers while in Catholic institutions for many of the alleged assault incidents.

Phil Nagle claims Christian brother Stephen Frances Farrell assaulted him at the age of 9-years-old. Nagle is a known personality in the media on some of these issues in Australia. The Christian Brothers are a religious community within the Catholic Church. It has been wrapped up in sexual abuse scandals as an organizational community within Catholicism. Whether priests or Christian brothers, the sex abuse scandals have continued to rock much of the Catholic Church for years and years now.

When Nagle heard the verdict on Pell, he said, “Absolute shock first, then disbelief and then confusion about the court system… The Catholic Church will always defend the brand – it’s a very damaged brand now, as we know – but that’s the way they do it…You look at how much money they’ve thrown behind this Cardinal Pell thing and every court case.”

A father of an alleged victim, who died in 2014, of Pell issued a statement that he no longer maintains faith in the criminal justice system in the country. Tony Abbot, former prime minister and a supporter of Pell, stated that the verdict should speak for itself. Other supports of Pell include high-profile politicians, including former prime minister John Howard.

Pell stated, “I have consistently maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice… This has been remedied today with the high court’s unanimous decision… My trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church; nor a referendum on how church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of paedophilia in the church.”

Some senior Catholics in Australia welcomed the decision of the High Court. Archbishop of Melbourne, Peter Comensoli, said, “The dramatic development was welcomed by Australia’s senior Catholics… The court system has gone through that now very thoroughly and has come to the conclusion that it has come to and I accept that decision… This outcome of the court will be received well by some who will be comforted. It will be distressing for others to hear.”

Lawyer David Baran has represented the Catholic Church and victims in his legal work. He said Pell’s lawyers expected this decision, as the lawyers for Pell pointed out gaps in the prosecution’s case.

Baran said, “The ultimate test is: was there a reasonable doubt? Just to put it in pre-acclaimed, simple English, if there was then you can’t have a conviction… Which has nothing whatsoever to do with the integrity of the victim… But, basically there are a number of strands in the cable that have to be put together to create a very solid rope to then secure a conviction. They just weren’t there.”

With the High Court ruling in Australia, this does legally make way for the royal commission on child abuse to release previously redacted findings, which can show some of the church leader handling of the allegations.

“The sooner that gets unredacted in the royal commission report we’ll see what’s going on,” Nagle stated, “You just don’t know how far the Catholics’ tentacles go.”

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The President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, Mubarak Bala, used the freedom of expression enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution in addition to the freedom of religion and belief, as represented in the same constitution and, in fact, in the United Nations foundational rights document.

On April 27, a complaint was filed against some Facebook or social media posts by Bala. It was filed by S.S. Umar & Co. The claim was that Mubarak was making provocative and annoying statements to Muslims. In short, the firm and barristers made the explicit and, rather blasphemous mind us, statement that they can speak for both God and all Muslims on the matter of what is and is not blasphemous or offensive to the creator and sustainer of the universe (if seeing things within the framework of the believers).

Rather rapidly, Bala was hauled off to jail to make an example of him, as so many others have been made examples of before with the death penalty applied to them or the social reprisal murders by a public mob. Following some of the reactions to the protests online about the statements of Bala, as claiming a deceased religious figure was a “terrorist,” there was an online petition by Halima Sa’adiya Umar. I am uncertain if a relation to “S.S. Umar…”

In the online campaign through Change.Org, H. Umar’s campaign of protest stated:

Mubarak is blaspheming against the religion of Islam. He should practice his atheism and let Muslims be! “For you is your religion and for me is my religion”

His utterances are capable of causing unrest which could cause religious and social upheaval in the country.

Facebook is meant to promote & encourage relationships, allowing his kind to be on the platform is catastrophic. Freedom of expression is not synonymous to hate speech that can cause mayhem in Nigeria.

I find these assumptions and statements dehumanizing of the ordinary Muslim believers all over Nigeria because the use of the freedom of expression becomes the basis to argue Muslims en masse in Nigeria can’t but help themselves in ‘causing mayhem in Nigeria” or “causing unrest” and even the simple “allowing his kind to be on the platform is catastrophic.” The statements are both overblown to the point of comical and declaring a want for unequal access to the use of platforms and the freedom of expression. Shall we begin to unequally apply this to the practicing of religion, as he has struggled to attain equal status in practicing Humanism and non-religion in life, i.e., simply not partaking of the religious contexts and practices?

Mubarak Bala’s context or location is still unknown. He may be alive and imprisoned with human rights violate, including the inability to see a lawyer. Or he could be dead. We truly don’t know the exact whereabouts or condition of Bala. This is both a human rights travesty and a fundamental crime. No matter the framing, the religious fundamentalist groups in Kaduna, Kano, and often in Northern Nigeria have messed this one up big time. It will be a PR nightmare no matter the path moving forward.

With some international complaints from a variety of humanist organizations, the petition, which aimed for 25,000 signatures against Bala and had rapidly garnered almost 20,000, was taken down from the Change.Org website. There has continued to be international pressure on Nigerian authorities to do something about this. On the rights front, freethinkers are losing, as Bala is in unknown condition without any justice; on the media, national and international, the Freethought community is winning. Keep up the pressure.

Free Mubarak Bala.

Image Credit: Mubarak Bala.

The largest Protestant denomination in the United States is 2% smaller than in 2018. The South Baptists believe “that the Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to mankind, with His ultimate revelation being the Gospel message of redemption through Jesus Christ,” i.e., a fundamentalist religious denomination one can find in the United States.

With the release of the 2019 membership rolls of the Southern Baptist Convention last Thursday, there has been a decline by as many as 287,000 members of the South Baptists. Their total membership went from 14.8 million to about 14.5 million. This amounts to the thirteenth year of continuous decline in the numbers. This matches many trends on many, many faiths or religions in the richer societies, even in the highly religious outliers seen almost uniquely in the United States.

A professor at Duke University and a director of the National Congregations Study, Mark Chaves, said, “…consistent with national trends we’ve been seeing for a while now, mainly driven by generational differences… Younger people are less likely than older people to attend religious services and to be religious. That’s true across the board.”

With a strong commitment to evangelism, other important things for the measurement of commitment to the fundamentalist faith is baptism. They have noted an 11,000 baptism decrease with only 235,748 performed in 2019. In many ways, the clear trend for more than a decade will mean either a death of the faith or a significant decline followed by some stoppage or an asymptote.

Southern Baptist Executive Committee President Ronnie Floyd stated, “…it is clear that change is imperative. … We have to prioritize reaching every person with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in every town, every city, every state, and every nation.”

In an attempt to pivot on the recent numbers coming out of the data, Floyd “criticized the way the church data is collected,” according to The Associated Press.

Floyd continued, “We cannot possibly know how best to meet the needs of our 47,500 churches when we only receive needed data from just 75 percent of them.”

The overarching trends for the Southern Baptists would appear to be plural – from data coming out to leadership. The director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, Ed Stetzer, remarked that the decline might be slowed in the Southern Baptists if they stopped the consistent fighting within the leadership and the churches that can be a driver of the decline in the numbers.

The executive committee of the denomination stated that a formation of a task force in order to examine some of the policies of the Sothern Baptist Convention and the speaking roster with some inclusion of “non-Southern Baptists and a female teaching pastor.”

The Associated Press stated, “Stetzer formerly presided over the SBC’s annual church reporting. More than a decade ago, when he first started warning that the denomination’s membership was going to decline year after year, many Southern Baptists dismissed his numbers. Once the trend became irrefutable, they were alarmed. Now, he said, ‘I do think Southern Baptists are becoming used to decline. That should not be normal. It should be cause for great concern and change.’”

With files from The Associated Press.

Photo by Joshua Rodriguez on Unsplash

The largely nonviolent protests have continued onwards for over a week in the United States of America now.

These have been some of the largest protests in the history of the United States with an enormous amount of pressure put on public officials, law enforcement, and fellow citizens in America and then around the world with a cascade of largely nonviolent protests in reaction to the murder of African American George Floyd. Within 8 to 9 minutes, one can watch Floyd murdered, undeniable brutality.

Many African Americans have been considered lesser-than for a long time by the nature of ethnic heritage and dint of skin colour. It shows up in the educational statistics, in the criminal justice system, in the average wealth disparities between ethnic groups in the United States, and in disproportionate use of excessive force by police officers against black Americans with an emphasis on black men. By implication, the internal narrative of the United States is black bodies mean less, equal less, and become more disposable than others.

On May 25, it may have been the largest single-day mobilization of protests in the entire history of the United States while the coronavirus pandemic still rages, which every well-informed citizen is knowledgeable about here. In that, the masks were worn, sure, but the risks would be high for anyone taking part in large protests with implied close proximity with other protestors or even police officers. People braved the pandemic to make a point – to have a more just society.

There have been some spats of arson, assault, and various smash-and-grab raids. However, this is neither a trend nor the majority of protests. In fact, these are more the outliers based on more authoritative reportage. Some of the protests, in fact, included police officers and protestors marching together in solidarity.

As has been some of the complaints, recently, some trends have arisen out of a common response woodwork with #AllLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter as an ill-considered attempt to respond to the #BlackLivesMatter movement founded by three black queer women: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi.

When reading #BlackLivesMatter,  some can read this as  #OnlyBlackLivesMatter, which can be one reading, though incorrect, of the movement; however, with some more thought, we can see the rejection of the “only” as part of the hashtag because of the emphasis on black lives rather than the exclusion of other lives. In that, we come to the straightforward “aha!” of the movement meaning an emphasis on black lives due to the disproportionate violence, state and otherwise, against black bodies, African American citizens.

If there was a movement of every life mattering, what would be the traction? Of course, this ground zero for standard ethics without a Divine Right of Kings, slaves and slave masters/owners, and grounded in a modern day ethic with international (secular) human rights. Everyone acquires equal human rights, in theory, based on birth as a human being, not some God-given or asserted divine rights. They don’t exist universally as human rights exist universally. In this sense, modern ethical guidelines exist more generally in human cultures and international institutions than the purported God-given rights from the faiths of the world, including the major faiths covering about half of the population of the Earth in Christianity and Islam. Thus, it seems a straightforward observation that “transcendent” or “God-given” rights are, in fact, human constructed, human-given, and more parochial (and less justifiable) than international human rights. All life matters; and, we’ve known this for a long time, especially institutionally and with the formalization of universal rights with international secular human rights applicable to everyone, in principle.

The other misunderstanding or improper response comes from #BlueLivesMatter. As someone cut from the same cloth as me, Dave Chappelle, pointed out, it’s a blue suit, neither an ethnic heritage nor a skin colour. If you don’t like the situation, then you can change the job and can get a new suit.

With some of these clarifications, I am heartened to see protestors and police alike using masks to keep safe during protests over the murder of George Floyd and in making a modern global movement for criminal justice reform.

In spite of the largely peaceful protests, some of the violent incidents have been with clashes in London and in Marseille, France, even flash bang devices and pepper spray used to disperse protestors, while the protestors were hurling bottles and rocks with some “improvised explosives” too.

Some of the largest protests have taken part in Washington with protestors pouring into the streets closed off to traffic. Some turned the area into a dance floor. Pamela Reynolds, a 37-year-old African American teacher said that she wants a federal ban on chokeholds and body cameras as mandatory on police officers while on duty.

At the White House, new fencing and security measures were put into place, while President Donald Trump argued for a crackdown on the unrest, or the protestors, all the time downplaying the demonstrations themselves.

In Virginia, a Confederate statue was toppled.  It was up since 1891. There is some reportage of urination on the statue after being toppled. It was on its pedestal in Monroe Park and was of Gen. Williams Carter Wickham. Descendants of Wickham argued for taking down the statue in 2017.

As The Associated Press stated, “Tens of thousands of protesters marched worldwide in what could be the biggest one-day mobilization against racial injustice since a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into Floyd’s neck for several minutes. Even after a week of the most significant protests the U.S. has seen in a generation, Saturday’s crowds stood out. Protesters held signs with slogans saying “Black Lives Matter” and “No Justice No Peace” during marches that were peaceful, sometimes even festive, after previous days had devolved in chaos. Police sometimes joined protesters, kneeling in a show of solidarity.”

So it goes.

With files from The Associated Press.

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The World Economic Forum and the Thomson Reuters Foundation published an article by Lola-Rose Avery entitled “Why systemic racism is not just an American problem.”

In it, there is reasonable argumentation around and coverage of the murder or death of George Floyd due to asphyxiation after several minutes with, at least, half of the weight of a police officer pressed on his neck. Subsequent to this, there have been massive numbers of protests against the individuals who suffer under disproportionate police brutality.

Avery said, “As Brits have taken to the streets in protest, many have been vocally disdainful about it because, in their eyes, we don’t have the problem with racism that America has. Ironically, a lot of people have been angry about the anger. Others have likely acknowledged the injustices quietly to themselves but decided not to speak out at all.”

Even as there are proper claims as to a massive decline in violence and in racist sentiment and actions, it can be tone deaf to a particular moment with some of the largest protests of the modern era arguing for criminal justice reform and a direct addressing of grievances as such. Thus, the basis for immediate social actions build on long-term trends with both the inertia of history – not as some inexorable or mystical force – and the ramping up of change in some systemic areas disproportionately impacting blacks is important, especially as modern technology permits open cataloguing of the incidents.

The bar should not be set to what was yesterday, while the bars of prior generations can stand as a point of appreciation as to the hard work, dedication, and moral striving of prior generations because of the civilizing effects upon the societies of the social and civil rights revolutions and movements. Indeed, when we look at the assessments coming from some feminist circles about the need to curb male violence, the arguments by some activists across ethnic groups looking for justice for the murder of black men and women out of proportion to the general population, and the Steven Pinker-Humanist vision of a long-term trend of Enlightenment values infusing the society for the better, we come to the, at a minimum, triplet foundation of mutual disagreement belying a common theme. The disagreement is superficial while the common theme unites them.

When we look at the long-term historical trends, certainly, things have been improving over these periods due to technology, science, and values emergent from Humanism and the Enlightenment and a decline in fundamentalist religion. As well, we continue to see the disproportionate treatment of women in a number of domains, as the brilliant Rebecca Traister shows; in addition, we continue to see, as the illustrious Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson has noted, the disproportionate impacts of black bodies, especially black men’s bodies, by authorities. I will go out on a limb and state, “All three are mutually supportive of one another and integrate to a more coherent framework for comprehension of the issues facing us now, because all three frames of analysis matter and have validity.”

Now, as per the lead of Avery on this, I do not mean to make the argument of the weighing of different negatives, as in the least racist option of several is the best, i.e., no racism is ideal and best, but these arguments require buttressing with a mutual reinforcing tripartite framework provided above, in abridged conceptual presentation, and the facts before us with the possibility with further change now.

“A study published in 2019 in the journal Frontiers in Sociology suggested that Britain is one of the least racist countries in Europe,” Avery said, “But as the rapper Dave said during his performance at the Brit Awards in February 2020, referencing the study: ‘the least racist is still racist.’ He received widespread backlash from furious viewers who said he was wrong and ungrateful.”

As Avery continues to note, the issue isn’t the improving trends; it is the low bars relative to yesterday held. We can be grateful for all advancements for a civilizing effects upon the populations while taking into account the bar should be as high as possible within the context of now. Otherwise, we’re daydreaming, while recognizing the negative effects upon people, by accident of birth, are being discriminated against based on skin colour by racists, whether racist slurs hurled at an individual, racist violence, or discrimination in police brutality in the “use of force” or in hiring.

Avery is very candid about personal experience too, “The truth is that I have experienced racism at every stage of my life. My earliest memories of this are from as young as three years old. This continued into my school years, where increased vocabulary meant that the name-calling ramped up a gear and I was called things such as “Lola the black cola” as well as being kicked and punched on the playground and around my neighbourhood at home.”

Here, we have a country far less racist than its past while still racist by improved standards with verbal and physical violence inflicted upon an innocent and bright woman working hard to find her way into society; indeed, she’s working into one of the most coveted positions in the society, as she notes. For individuals in societies around the world, even those amongst the least racist by historical and current standards, there should be a focus on not only focusing on a rhetoric and social set of action against the least worst mentality and the idea of simply being silent on racism. In that, “silence is complicity,” as Avery affirms.

In many ways, this is true; context is important and discerning meaning & intent in borderline cases is extremely important, but, in general, I would endorse this statement.

“There is a long history of black people being compared to dark-coloured animals. I had my turn when I was compared to a horse on multiple occasions by a group of people whilst I was at university,” Avery stated, “Social media was established by that point and this meant people could also create fake accounts, anonymously messaging me more extreme racial abuse.”

She experienced a series of more covert racism, by her recollection, with comments considered offensive due to direction at specific minorities. Therefore, Avery notes this is not an isolated-to-America issue, but, rather, a larger one. The fact of the conversation happening publicly and open calls for the change in some of the sociocultural, and institutional, contexts for this to happen is a strong positive.

Avery concluded:

My experiences are a microcosm of the racism we have here in Britain: the blatant, yes, but also the more subtle, which insidiously infiltrates every aspect of our society and which can go unseen by anyone who is not on the receiving end, anyone who is not a black or minority ethnic person.

The systemic racism that lead to George Floyd’s death is also at our doorstep. It’s not an American problem. It’s not isolated incidents.

Being quietly ‘not racist’ is not enough. White people, who are the beneficiaries of this system, must educate themselves as to how and to call it out with the same vehemence as black and minority ethnic people if it is to be dismantled. Silence is complicity.

In these contexts of gratitude for the progress made, with a realization of the overt and covert forms of racism and sexism, and the ways in which to capitalize on positive trends, social movements, and the advancement of the morality of human rights, we can make a better world for all. And why not? So it goes.

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