http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/18/church.victims/index.html
While in the U.S.
Benedict said (to the/his victims)
"No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse. It is important that those who have suffered be given loving pastoral attention."
given loving pastoral attention? HaHaHa Ha..... that was the problem in the first place!!!
And if these victims are still Catholic, I do not pity them.
Apr 18, 2008
Apr 17, 2008
An 8 year old bride
This is for those xtains who complain I only pick on xtians.
I admit most of the Mormon polygamists are a little better than this.
SAN'A, Yemen (AP) -- A Yemeni judge dissolved the marriage of an 8-year-old girl to a man nearly four times her age, and the girl's lawyer said Wednesday that the court also ordered the youngster removed from the control of the father who forced her into the wedding.
The lawyer, Shatha Ali Nasser, said the girl is just one of thousands of under aged girls who have been forced into marriages in this poor tribal country at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
The girl's story has drawn headlines in Yemen because she took the unusual step of seeking out a judge on her own to file for divorce.
She recounted her ordeal to reporters Wednesday, a day after the judge in San'a ended the two-month marriage. Judge Mohammed al-Qady said he had been moved by the girl's plight from the start.
The girl said her father forced her to marry a 30-year-old man she identified as Faiz Ali Thamer. She charged that her husband constantly beat her and forced her to have sex.
"I used to run from room to room to escape from him. But he would catch up with me," the girl said, her tiny frame swallowed in an over sized robe and head scarf, standing with her lawyer.
In issuing his ruling Tuesday, the judge said he was terminating the marriage because the girl "had not reached puberty."
A provision in Yemeni law allows parents to sign marriage contracts for children younger than 15. However, the article states that a husband can only consummate the marriage when the wife reaches puberty.
"We know that this is not what happened" in the girl's case, her lawyer said.
There are no provisions for any punishment for a husband in such cases.
The girl's name isn't disclosed in line with Associated Press policy on sexually related cases.
She said that when she told her parents of the abuse, they refused to help her. Her parents testified they ignored her complaints about the marriage.
The girl's family was ordered to pay $250 as "compensation" to Thamer, although the judge did not specify the reason.
I admit most of the Mormon polygamists are a little better than this.
SAN'A, Yemen (AP) -- A Yemeni judge dissolved the marriage of an 8-year-old girl to a man nearly four times her age, and the girl's lawyer said Wednesday that the court also ordered the youngster removed from the control of the father who forced her into the wedding.
The lawyer, Shatha Ali Nasser, said the girl is just one of thousands of under aged girls who have been forced into marriages in this poor tribal country at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
The girl's story has drawn headlines in Yemen because she took the unusual step of seeking out a judge on her own to file for divorce.
She recounted her ordeal to reporters Wednesday, a day after the judge in San'a ended the two-month marriage. Judge Mohammed al-Qady said he had been moved by the girl's plight from the start.
The girl said her father forced her to marry a 30-year-old man she identified as Faiz Ali Thamer. She charged that her husband constantly beat her and forced her to have sex.
"I used to run from room to room to escape from him. But he would catch up with me," the girl said, her tiny frame swallowed in an over sized robe and head scarf, standing with her lawyer.
In issuing his ruling Tuesday, the judge said he was terminating the marriage because the girl "had not reached puberty."
A provision in Yemeni law allows parents to sign marriage contracts for children younger than 15. However, the article states that a husband can only consummate the marriage when the wife reaches puberty.
"We know that this is not what happened" in the girl's case, her lawyer said.
There are no provisions for any punishment for a husband in such cases.
The girl's name isn't disclosed in line with Associated Press policy on sexually related cases.
She said that when she told her parents of the abuse, they refused to help her. Her parents testified they ignored her complaints about the marriage.
The girl's family was ordered to pay $250 as "compensation" to Thamer, although the judge did not specify the reason.
Apr 15, 2008
Study Suspect & Scewed
So its true, Focus on The Family and other special interest groups like them don't really care about the poor. They hate seeing how much money is spent on these lazy, slutty unwed mommies and their bastard children. They are also pissed about losing tax revenue cause the daddy is in prison and mom is on the couch watching Oprah.
Didn't Christ say there will always be the poor.
It's more about economics not supposed loose morality.
The minute I saw the sponsors of this so called marriage study, I knew the cost estimate was skewed.
Yes there is a problem, but making people go to religious based marriage counseling is unconstitutional.
I suspect the next step for these fundies is banning divorce outright or making it much more difficult. Besides, marriage and divorce in the bible was more about keeping the women in line and ensuring the children were legit.
Family.www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/04/15/fragmented.families.ap/index.html
NEW YORK (AP) -- Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing cost U.S. taxpayers more than $112 billion a year, according to a study commissioned by four groups advocating more government action to bolster marriages.
Sponsors say the study is the first of its kind and hope it will prompt lawmakers to invest more money in programs aimed at strengthening marriages. Two experts not connected to the study said such programs are of dubious merit and suggested that other investments -- notably job creation -- would be more effective in aiding all types of needy families.
There have been previous attempts to calculate the cost of divorce in America. But the sponsors of the new study, being released Tuesday, said theirs is the first to gauge the broader cost of "family fragmentation" -- both divorce and unwed childbearing.
The study was conducted by Georgia State University economist Ben Scafidi. His work was sponsored by four groups who consider themselves part of a nationwide "marriage movement" -- the New York-based Institute for American Values, the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, Families Northwest of Redmond, Washington, and the Georgia Family Council, an ally of the conservative ministry Focus on the Family.
Didn't Christ say there will always be the poor.
It's more about economics not supposed loose morality.
The minute I saw the sponsors of this so called marriage study, I knew the cost estimate was skewed.
Yes there is a problem, but making people go to religious based marriage counseling is unconstitutional.
I suspect the next step for these fundies is banning divorce outright or making it much more difficult. Besides, marriage and divorce in the bible was more about keeping the women in line and ensuring the children were legit.
Family.www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/04/15/fragmented.families.ap/index.html
NEW YORK (AP) -- Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing cost U.S. taxpayers more than $112 billion a year, according to a study commissioned by four groups advocating more government action to bolster marriages.
Sponsors say the study is the first of its kind and hope it will prompt lawmakers to invest more money in programs aimed at strengthening marriages. Two experts not connected to the study said such programs are of dubious merit and suggested that other investments -- notably job creation -- would be more effective in aiding all types of needy families.
There have been previous attempts to calculate the cost of divorce in America. But the sponsors of the new study, being released Tuesday, said theirs is the first to gauge the broader cost of "family fragmentation" -- both divorce and unwed childbearing.
The study was conducted by Georgia State University economist Ben Scafidi. His work was sponsored by four groups who consider themselves part of a nationwide "marriage movement" -- the New York-based Institute for American Values, the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, Families Northwest of Redmond, Washington, and the Georgia Family Council, an ally of the conservative ministry Focus on the Family.
Apr 7, 2008
Livingston Church of God
Former minister sentenced on rape, sexual assault charges
By The Associated Press - 04/07/08
LIVINGSTON (AP) — A former Livingston minister has been sentenced to 45 years with the Montana Department of Corrections for the sexual assault and rape of two young sisters.In December, a jury convicted Terrence Passmore, 49, of four felony sex crimes — one charge of sexual intercourse without consent and three charges of sexual assault — for events that happened in 1998 when the sisters were 12 and 14. At the time of the assaults, the sisters and their family attended the Livingston Church of God, where Passmore was a pastor.On Friday, District Judge E. Wayne Phillips sentenced Passmore to 35 years with five years suspended for sexual intercourse without consent; and 10 years with five suspended for each count of sexual assault.Since the sentences will run concurrently, the most time Passmore will spend behind bars is 30 years, the Livingston Enterprise reported. He could be eligible for parole after seven and a half years if he completes sex-offender treatment.The judge also required Passmore to pay for counseling for each of the two victims.Jim Simonich of the Montana Department of Corrections, who conducted the pre-sentence investigation, had suggested 50 years in prison on each count.
The victims and their family addressed the judge before sentencing, asking him to send Passmore to prison for his actions, which they said had devastated the family.Defense attorney Chuck Watson argued that two psychological evaluations had found Passmore would be a good candidate for treatment without incarceration. But the judge said he believed Passmore was still in denial about committing the crimes, which would make it difficult to treat him successfully outside prison walls.Passmore and his lawyers maintained his innocence, and his wife, Erica, pleaded with the judge to release her husband until a hearing can be held on his appeal. She said she needed her husband’s help getting the family’s affairs in order, especially since they had filed for bankruptcy.The judge denied her request.Passmore, a native of South Africa who now lives in Virginia, has four young children. He was operating a computer business prior to the trial in December.
By The Associated Press - 04/07/08
LIVINGSTON (AP) — A former Livingston minister has been sentenced to 45 years with the Montana Department of Corrections for the sexual assault and rape of two young sisters.In December, a jury convicted Terrence Passmore, 49, of four felony sex crimes — one charge of sexual intercourse without consent and three charges of sexual assault — for events that happened in 1998 when the sisters were 12 and 14. At the time of the assaults, the sisters and their family attended the Livingston Church of God, where Passmore was a pastor.On Friday, District Judge E. Wayne Phillips sentenced Passmore to 35 years with five years suspended for sexual intercourse without consent; and 10 years with five suspended for each count of sexual assault.Since the sentences will run concurrently, the most time Passmore will spend behind bars is 30 years, the Livingston Enterprise reported. He could be eligible for parole after seven and a half years if he completes sex-offender treatment.The judge also required Passmore to pay for counseling for each of the two victims.Jim Simonich of the Montana Department of Corrections, who conducted the pre-sentence investigation, had suggested 50 years in prison on each count.
The victims and their family addressed the judge before sentencing, asking him to send Passmore to prison for his actions, which they said had devastated the family.Defense attorney Chuck Watson argued that two psychological evaluations had found Passmore would be a good candidate for treatment without incarceration. But the judge said he believed Passmore was still in denial about committing the crimes, which would make it difficult to treat him successfully outside prison walls.Passmore and his lawyers maintained his innocence, and his wife, Erica, pleaded with the judge to release her husband until a hearing can be held on his appeal. She said she needed her husband’s help getting the family’s affairs in order, especially since they had filed for bankruptcy.The judge denied her request.Passmore, a native of South Africa who now lives in Virginia, has four young children. He was operating a computer business prior to the trial in December.
Apr 3, 2008
Our Lady of the Rockies
laDivided Supreme Court rules against Our Lady of the Rockies nonprofitBy MIKE DENNISON
By IR State Bureau - 04/03/08
In a long-awaited decision, the Montana Supreme Court says Our Lady of the Rockies doesn’t have the right to develop a road to a proposed tramway to its 90-foot-high statue overlooking Butte.
The 4-3 decision, issued Tuesday, reversed lower-court rulings in favor of Our Lady of the Rockies, which planned to build a paved road through private property to a tramway station at the foot of the Continental Divide, east of Butte.
Justice James Nelson, writing for the Supreme Court majority, said the District Court incorrectly relied on an 1893 mineral survey to say a partially paved and dirt road through the area is a public road.
The decision is a victory for a half-dozen landowners who live or own homes near the proposed tramway site, and who had appealed the lower-court ruling more than three years ago.
Nelson said the surveyor’s field notes that identified a road on a mining claim do not show that the federal government intended to establish a public road through the property.
“Past, present and future generations of Montana landowners have the right to be secure in the knowledge that they will not wake up one morning to find that a community or organization has decided to build a 60-foot-wide public highway through their back yards, based on nothing more than a surveyor’s notation of a 6-foot-wide dirt road on a 115-year-old mineral survey,” Nelson wrote.
Attorneys representing Our Lady of the Rockies could not be reached for comment.
Our Lady of the Rockies, the nonprofit organization that owns the statue of the Virgin Mary, has planned for years to build a tramway to the statue that sits 8,510 feet above sea level on the East Ridge, overlooking Butte.
The road sought by Our Lady of the Rockies would lead to a tramway station, parking lot, carousel, associated amusement park rides and other “tourism-related improvements,” according to the court record.
Our Lady of the Rockies controls two parcels of undeveloped land that adjoin the Cobban Placer, an 1892 mining claim that has since been subdivided into lots owned by several landowners.
A street 6 to 12 feet wide crosses the Cobban Placer and part of the Our Lady of the Rockies property. Our Lady of the Rockies argued that the road is a public road; the landowners said part of it is a private driveway, with gates across it.
Justice Brian Morris, writing for the high court’s three-member minority in the decision, said the road existed in the “public domain” when William Cobban and William Lewis used the 1872 Mining Law to stake a mining claim on the land in 1892.
An earlier mining law from 1866 “preserved rights-of-way already in existence on the public domain,” Morris said.
The 1893 mineral survey that noted the road also “put all future purchasers of the Cobban Placer on notice of the public easement created by the road,” he added.
Yet Nelson adamantly dismissed Morris’s arguments, saying the District Court itself rejected Our Lady of the Rockies’ arguments on the 1866 law. That ruling wasn’t appealed by either party, Nelson said.
“The dissent inserts into this appeal a number of factual matters that are irrelevant, unproven, disputed by the parties or contradicted by the record,” Nelson said.
Justice Patricia Cotter and Jim Rice and District Judge Blair Jones of Columbus, substitution for Chief Justice Karla Gray, joined Nelson in the majority.
Justices William Leaphart and John Warner joined Morris in his dissent.
By IR State Bureau - 04/03/08
In a long-awaited decision, the Montana Supreme Court says Our Lady of the Rockies doesn’t have the right to develop a road to a proposed tramway to its 90-foot-high statue overlooking Butte.
The 4-3 decision, issued Tuesday, reversed lower-court rulings in favor of Our Lady of the Rockies, which planned to build a paved road through private property to a tramway station at the foot of the Continental Divide, east of Butte.
Justice James Nelson, writing for the Supreme Court majority, said the District Court incorrectly relied on an 1893 mineral survey to say a partially paved and dirt road through the area is a public road.
The decision is a victory for a half-dozen landowners who live or own homes near the proposed tramway site, and who had appealed the lower-court ruling more than three years ago.
Nelson said the surveyor’s field notes that identified a road on a mining claim do not show that the federal government intended to establish a public road through the property.
“Past, present and future generations of Montana landowners have the right to be secure in the knowledge that they will not wake up one morning to find that a community or organization has decided to build a 60-foot-wide public highway through their back yards, based on nothing more than a surveyor’s notation of a 6-foot-wide dirt road on a 115-year-old mineral survey,” Nelson wrote.
Attorneys representing Our Lady of the Rockies could not be reached for comment.
Our Lady of the Rockies, the nonprofit organization that owns the statue of the Virgin Mary, has planned for years to build a tramway to the statue that sits 8,510 feet above sea level on the East Ridge, overlooking Butte.
The road sought by Our Lady of the Rockies would lead to a tramway station, parking lot, carousel, associated amusement park rides and other “tourism-related improvements,” according to the court record.
Our Lady of the Rockies controls two parcels of undeveloped land that adjoin the Cobban Placer, an 1892 mining claim that has since been subdivided into lots owned by several landowners.
A street 6 to 12 feet wide crosses the Cobban Placer and part of the Our Lady of the Rockies property. Our Lady of the Rockies argued that the road is a public road; the landowners said part of it is a private driveway, with gates across it.
Justice Brian Morris, writing for the high court’s three-member minority in the decision, said the road existed in the “public domain” when William Cobban and William Lewis used the 1872 Mining Law to stake a mining claim on the land in 1892.
An earlier mining law from 1866 “preserved rights-of-way already in existence on the public domain,” Morris said.
The 1893 mineral survey that noted the road also “put all future purchasers of the Cobban Placer on notice of the public easement created by the road,” he added.
Yet Nelson adamantly dismissed Morris’s arguments, saying the District Court itself rejected Our Lady of the Rockies’ arguments on the 1866 law. That ruling wasn’t appealed by either party, Nelson said.
“The dissent inserts into this appeal a number of factual matters that are irrelevant, unproven, disputed by the parties or contradicted by the record,” Nelson said.
Justice Patricia Cotter and Jim Rice and District Judge Blair Jones of Columbus, substitution for Chief Justice Karla Gray, joined Nelson in the majority.
Justices William Leaphart and John Warner joined Morris in his dissent.
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