US pilgrims mark 60 years since civil-rights murder
THE Most Revd Michael Curry, formerly Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, joined the annual pilgrimage to Hayneville, Alabama, to honour the white Episcopalian seminarian Jonathan Myrick Daniels, who was killed, aged 26, in 1965, while trying to protect a Black teenage civil-rights activist, Ruby Sales, from gunfire during the Civil Rights Movement. Mr Daniels is one of 13 known Martyrs of Alabama commemorated by the pilgrimage.
Religious leaders condemn Haiti kidnapping
THE archdiocese of Port-au-Prince, in Haiti, has said that the kidnapping of nine people, including an Irish missionary, Gena Heraty, and a child with disabilities, is “a new act of barbarity”. The kidnapping occured on the morning of 3 August at the Sainte-Hélène Orphanage in Kenscoff, south-east of the capital. In a social-media post, Pope Leo XIV made a “heartfelt appeal to all responsible to release the hostages immediately”. The Irish Tánaiste and foreign minister, Simon Harris, has said that he is in “constant contact” with Haitian authorities and Ms Heraty’s family.
Petition demands return of Du Merci children
THE founders of the Du Merci Centres for vulnerable children, Solomon Musa Tarfa and Mercy Solomon Tarfa, have launched a petition calling on the Kano State Government in Nigeria to release 16 children held in the State’s custody since December 2019. The children were among 27 taken from the centres after Professor Tarfa’s arrest on Christmas Day 2019 on charges of kidnapping, abduction, and forging a certificate of registration from the Kano State Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Social Development (News, 11 March 2022). Professor Tarfa, the children’s adopted father, was convicted of forgery and imprisoned, but his conviction was overturned on appeal. Christian Solidarity Worldwide has urged the Kano State Government to return the children. They “must make reparations to this family for the years of trauma and injustice to which they have been subjected”, the organisation said.
New Orleans compensation plan to go to vote
THE Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans has proposed a points-based compensation system according to the severity of abuse victims have suffered, The Guardian reports. The plan was filed in the archdiocese’s five-year bankruptcy case. If approval is given, victims will receive compensation according to the type of abuse and its impact on them. Guidelines suggest that rape should be valued at 75 points, oral and digital sex at 56, filming or photographing abuse at 20, and nude images or pornography at ten. The monetary value of the points system remains unknown, but the proposed settlement is costed at between $180 million and $235 million. Hundreds of survivors of childhood sexual abuse by clergy will vote in October on the proposal, which needs a two-thirds majority to be carried.