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The Catholic Leader, April 21, 2019
www.catholicleader.com.auNews
You know the incredible Bible story about the loaves and the fishes?
In this story, a young boy did not have much to give. Just five loaves and two
fish. But Jesus accepted his offering and did a miracle, multiplying them to feed
5,000 people.
Every day in Papua New Guinea there are children like Thresia who have an
urgent need. Not for food.
They need a cure from leprosy.
And when you give what you can today, in Jesus’ name The Leprosy Mission will
strive to meet that urgent need. Because the number of leprosy cases in PNG is
on the rise... and one third of all new diagnoses occur in children.
With your gift of any amount, you’ll help provide miracles of
hope and healing for children like Thresia.
Miracles of healing don’t always have to be instantaneous. By God’s grace
and through your support,
He can also work miracles of healing
through the
provision of Multi-Drug Therapy and other treatments for people affected by
leprosy.
With your help, we can get leprosy diagnosed and treated as fast as
possible. That will stop it spreading to even more people.
With Multi-Drug Therapy, a person is no longer contagious after just 48 hours!
Thresia needs a miracle of hope and healing.
So do the rising number of children—some as young as five—who are
contracting leprosy in PNG.
Your gift of $45 today will provide miracles of healing through
Multi-Drug Therapy for children like Thresia.
Just as Jesus did wondrous things with loaves and fishes, God will use your gift
to bring healing and blessings.
Please GIVE NOW. Children like Thresia are waiting for their
miracle of healing.
Jesus did miracles with five
loaves and two fishes
He can do wondrous things with your gift too.
Because children like Thresia need a miracle of hope
and healing.
GIVE NOW
by calling
1800 537 767 (1800 LEPROSY) or
online
leprosymission.org.au/PNGEvery half an hour
another child is diagnosed
with leprosy
You can provide hope and healing to children
like Thresia this Easter. Early detection
prevents disabilities, horrific ulcers
and potential amputations.
$45 can
enable us to
screen a child
for leprosy
Children like Thresia are waiting for a miracle
of hope and healing this Easter.
INDIAN police charged Bishop
Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar
of repeatedly raping a nun in
her rural convent, the Associ-
ated Press reported.
The bishop was charged on April 9 with
rape, illegal confinement and intimidation,
Hari Sankar, a district police chief in the
predominantly Catholic state of Kerala,
said.
Bishop Mulakkal was arrested on Sep-
tember 21 after a 48-year-old member of
the Missionaries of Jesus, a diocesan con-
gregation under the prelate, complained
that he raped her multiple times between
2014 and 2016 while he was visiting her
convent in Kerala.
The bishop, who was in charge of the
congregation, denied the allegations.
The New York Times reported a state-
ment from Save Our Sisters, a group of
members of India’s Catholic Church, who
said the filing of charges “enters the annals
of history as a rarest of rare incident, when
a bishop is going to face trial in a court
based on the complaint of a nun who is a
subordinate to him.”
Save Our Sisters said the charge sheet
included statements from 83 witnesses, in-
cluding a cardinal, three bishops, 11 priests
and 25 nuns.
The victim first wrote to church authori-
ties in January 2017, the apostolic nuncio
in India in January 2018, and then to Pope
Francis on May 14, seeking church action
against Bishop Mulakkal.
She copied prefects of the congrega-
tions for the Doctrine of the Faith and for
Bishops, and later sent reminders before
THE chairman of the US bish-
ops’ pro-life committee called
on Congress to pass a measure
that would stop “the barbaric
practice of late-term abortion”.
He urged Congress to pass
the Pain-Capable Unborn Child
Protection Act, which was the
focus of a hearing on April 9 by
the Senate Judiciary Commit-
tee.
“This bill draws the public’s
attention to the shameful reality
that the United States is one
of only seven nations world-
wide that allows the barbaric
practice of late-term abortion,
when a child likely feels pain
and might even live outside the
womb with appropriate medi-
cal assistance,” Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City,
Kansas, who is chair of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’
Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said.
“Such abortion procedures after the middle point of pregnancy
also pose serious physical dangers to women.
“With the vast majority of Americans strongly supporting a
ban on late-term abortions, it is time for Congress to pass this
bill.
“I also pray that consideration of this bill moves our country
closer to recognising all unborn babies as legal persons worthy
of our love and respect.”
The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act would gener-
ally extend legal protection to unborn babies beginning at 22
weeks of pregnancy.
According to National Right to Life and congressional find-
ings, by that point – and even earlier – an unborn child has the
capacity “to experience great pain during an abortion.”
CNS
Respect life:
Archbishop Joseph Naumann.
Photo: CNS
Indian police charge bishop
with repeatedly raping nun
Pro-life committee chair
urges end of ‘barbaric’
late-term abortions
going to the police.
On September 24, the bishop was taken
into judicial custody.
The Holy See removed him from dioc-
esan administrative duties, but he retained
his title as its bishop.
The Kerala High Court granted bail on
October 15 on condition that the bishop,
based in northern Jalandhar City, should
not enter Kerala state other than to report
once a fortnight to investigating police.
A week later, Fr Kuriakose Kattuthara,
67, considered a prime witness against the
bishop, was found dead, with his family
suspecting foul play.
The sister’s case led to an outcry from
women religious, with more reporting
cases of abuse.
In November, the International Union
of Superiors General called on women
religious who had suffered abuse to come
forward and report it to their congregations
and church and state authorities.
Global Sisters Report talked to five Mis-
sionaries of Jesus in India who complained
of church repression for their support of
their former superior general, who made
the accusations.
The five sisters were living with the vic-
tim in a convent in Kerala state, refusing
orders to return to their own communities
while the case was ongoing.
Retired auxiliary Bishop Agnelo Gracias
of Mumbai, Jalandhar Diocese’s admin-
istrator, supported their position, but the
Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council criticised
the sisters for stirring up enemies of the
church, reported Global Sisters Report.
CNS
Charged
:
Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, India, is led away for questioning by
police. Indian police have charged Bishop Mulakkal of repeatedly raping a nun in her
rural convent.
Photo: cns