Review of sex abuse guidelines at US bishops conference will not close loopholes that continue to endanger children

USA Today - June 10, 2011

Catholic bishops to take second look at abuse reforms

By Daniel Burke, Religion News Service

(RNS) A review of church sex abuse guidelines will top the agenda when the nation's Roman Catholic bishops meet in Seattle next week (June 15-17). But no major changes have been proposed, according to church leaders, even after several recent reports have raised questions about the rules' power to remove abusive priests.

The stakes at the Seattle meeting will be high, as the bishops struggle to recover their moral authority and end the worst crisis in modern church history.

The U.S. church has spent more than $2 billion on sex abuse settlements, "safe environment" training for staff, and two sweeping studies that sought to explain the causes and context of a scandal that has claimed 15,700 victims since 1950.

The Seattle assembly will also provide a leadership test for Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, who will guide nearly 200 U.S. bishops in his first meeting as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In addition to reviewing the sexual abuse guidelines, the bishops will vote on a document that denounces physician-assisted suicide and hear a report on Anglicans who wish to convert to Catholicism using a new church structure.

The sex abuse guidelines, however, are expected to dominate public sessions and private conversations during the three-day meeting.

Even as the bishops attempt to move past the scandal, advocates for victims of sexual abuse and some lay Catholics say recent reports of lapses by bishops in Pennsylvania, Missouri and New Mexico prove that serious gaps mar church rules.

"In three dioceses now, there appear to be loopholes that are being exploited by bishops who appear to be gaming the system," said Nicholas Cafardi, a leading expert on canon law and former adviser to the bishops.

Cafardi and others hope the bishops close those loopholes in Seattle, but a draft proposal provided by the bishops' conference contains no such revisions.

In Philadelphia, a grand jury report released in February accused church officials of keeping 37 priests in active ministry, despite accusations of improper sexual acts with minors. The archdiocese later suspended 26 priests and has mounted an internal investigation.

Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn has apologized for failing to remove a priest from ministry despite a warning from church officials. The priest was arrested in May on child pornography charges. The diocese appointed a former U.S. attorney on Thursday to investigate its sexual abuse policies.

In Gallup, N.M., a lay review board has never met with Bishop James S. Wall during his two years in the diocese, according to the Gallup Independent, a local newspaper.

Together, the U.S. bishops passed two sets of guidelines in 2002, as the clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted in Boston and spread to nearly every diocese in the country.

The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People is essentially a set of promises from the bishops to their church. The "Essential Norms" for dealing with allegations of sexual abuse of minors by clergy are Vatican-approved rules that have the force of church law.

Neither requires substantial revisions at this time, said Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane, Wash., chairman of the bishops' Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People.

"The charter is working," Cupich said. "We had seven (sexual abuse) allegations that were deemed credible in 2010, out of a church of 65 million Catholics. I think it's working."

Cupich also said it would be rash to revise church rules before the internal investigation in Philadelphia is complete.

"The charter has an iconic status for us. We want to protect its integrity. We are going to be very slow in changing it without having the full picture in a given situation," the bishop said.

Cafardi agreed that the charter and norms have been effective.

"I think they have done a wonderful service to the church in greatly reducing the number of instances of child sexual abuse by priests," he said. "But we know by instances in three dioceses that there are some gaps that it would not hurt to close."

According to a draft of proposed revisions that will be debated in Seattle, the bishops plan to change the policies to bring them into accord with Vatican norms issued in 2010. Those norms equate abusing persons with mental disabilities with child abuse, and make the acquisition, possession, or distribution of child pornography a church crime.

Victims' advocates and canon law experts say the bishops should go further, arguing that church rules will remain ineffective unless they contain penalties for breaking them.

"This isn't a real set of laws, these are procedures that are honored more in the breach than in the observance," said Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, a watchdog website.

"If I was a bishop, I would treat Philadelphia as an alarm. This is one of the largest, most significant dioceses in the country, which clearly ignored the policy," he said.

Church rules also suggest that bishops report all abuse accusations to diocesan review boards composed of lay Catholics. Board members in Philadelphia and Kansas City have said they did not learn of accusations until they were published in the media.

This article was found at:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-06-10-catholic-church-sex-abuse-reforms-review_n.htm#

RELATED ARTICLES ON THIS BLOG

Catholic clergy abuse review boards made ineffective by bishops who hide cases from them

Investigation finds Newark Archbishop who helped create new child protection policy continued to shield abusive priests

Catholic reform groups hold conference in Detroit, Archbishop warns priests who attend could be defrocked

Catholic theologian says secrecy, misogyny and resistance to reform in wake of clergy sex scandals will doom the church

How can Pope John Paul II be a saint when thousands of children were raped or molested by priests under his leadership?

Philadelphia cardinal and bishops hid problem priests from clergy abuse review board, put church law before civil law

Credibility of US bishops' reformed child protection policies challenged by Philadelphia clergy abuse scandal

Only one US bishop has resigned for neglect during decade of clergy crimes, Kansas City bishop unlikely to join him

Lawsuit against Kansas City diocese alleges Bishop neglected to protect children from priest who made child pornography

Missouri diocese ignored school principal's warning about predator priest who was arrested a year later for child pornography

Popes and bishops: childless old men more interested in protecting pedophile priests than the pain and suffering of their victims

New Vatican rules rely on Bishops to deal with clergy crimes before reporting to police, still don't protect children

New rules on clergy sex abuse shows there is still no moral awakening in the Catholic church

Italian priest in diocese of Cardinal assisting Pope on child protection reforms arrested on pedophilia and drug charges

A selection of critical responses to the John Jay report on the causes of Catholic clergy sex crimes

Bishops were warned of abusive priests as early as the mid-1950s

1963 letter by church expert on pedophile priests shows Pope Paul VI and Vatican officials ignored warnings to expel problem priests

Jesuit priest being considered for sainthood among order's leaders who protected "the Hannibal Lecter of the clerical world"

Jesuit leaders concealed 40 years of warnings about pedophile priest who became spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa

US bishop's report on clergy abuse puts focus on sociological factors instead of church leaders who covered up crimes

Inquiry finds US Catholic hierarchy still endangering children and fighting justice for clergy abuse survivors

Retired Archbishop blames protective church hierarchy for clergy abuse scandal

Australian Archbishop says church culture responsible for deep-rooted child abuse crimes and cover-ups

Irish clergy abuse survivors try to block visit by Australia's top Cardinal who ''accompanied paedophiles to court''

Former Benedictine monk says church has not yet addressed child abuse crisis, most bishops still mired in obfuscation and deceit

Is the Catholic church in state of denial over clergy abuse, or is it honest and transparent?

Hundreds of admitted or credibly accused pedophile priests who escaped justice are unsupervised by church or police

Dublin Archbishop admits frustration over failed effort to promote major reforms in Catholic Church

Leaked confidential letter reveals Vatican's intention to prevent reporting of abuse to criminal authorities

Catholic clergy abuse review boards made ineffective by bishops who hide cases from them

National Catholic Reporter - June 11, 2011

What's a review board to do?

By Joshua J. McElwee


Catholics in Kansas City, Mo., learned in May something that Nicholas Cafardi has known for some time: “A review board” -- the confidential consultative body each bishop is supposed to have for advice on cases of sexual abuse by clergy -- “is only as good as the cases a bishop puts before them.”

And the bishops have “a bit of wiggle room” about when the review boards are to be used, said Cafardi, who was a member of the original National Review Board established by the U.S. bishops in 2002.

Jim Caccamo, who serves on the review board of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese, told NCR that he knew nothing about Fr. Shawn Ratigan, the priest arrested on child pornography charges, until he read about it in the newspaper, even though Finn had removed the priest from parish ministry in December.

Finn acknowledged at a press conference May 27 that he did not inform his diocesan review board of the concerns presented about Ratigan. His spokeswoman, Rebecca Summers, explained that the bishops’ 2002 charter says diocesan review boards should be convened only “when you have a specific allegation of abuse” by a priest or other person in diocesan ministry.

“We did not have that,” Summers said. “The charter did not address a situation such as this.”

Yet the associate director of the U.S. bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection told NCR that while child pornography is not specifically mentioned in the 2002 charter, it is covered in it as a “violation against the sixth commandment.”

“If anybody’s in possession of it or knows somebody in possession of it, it needs to be reported,” said Mary Jane Doerr, who said she did not have information on the specifics of the Kansas City case.

At the May 27 press conference, Finn said that he had asked the board, as a result of this case, to “expand its role in receiving and evaluating reports of misconduct with children.”

In February, Ana Maria Catanzaro, chair of the Philadelphia archdiocese’s review board, also learned that archdiocesan officials had been selective in the cases they had presented to the board. She learned this from a grand jury report that said 37 priests were in ministry in that archdiocese despite credible allegations of abuse.

Following that report, the former secretary of clergy in the archdiocese was arrested for failing to protect children from dangerous priests. Cardinal Justin Rigali also placed 21 other priests on administrative leave March 8 pending review of allegations of abuse.

Writing about the experience in Commonweal, Catanzaro said the Philadelphia board “had been advised only about allegations previously determined by archdiocesan officials to have involved the sexual abuse of a minor -- a determination we had been under the impression was ours to make.”

According to Cafardi, while the U.S. bishops’ 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People mandates that each diocese have a review board to act “as a confidential consultative body to the bishop,” the charter only specifies that the functions of the individual boards “may” include advising the bishop, reviewing diocesan policies, and offering advice on cases of sexual abuse by clergy.

That language, said Cafardi, is what gives the bishops that “bit of wiggle room.” But Cafardi quickly added: “It seems to me if [a bishop] sets up a board and gives it this task, he can’t change the task midstream.”

Cafardi is a canon and civil lawyer and dean emeritus of Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh.

“A review board is only as good as the cases a bishop puts before them,” he said. “The point of the review boards was that the bishops realized that their own judgment in these matters may not be sufficient. They’re to help the bishop. You can’t help somebody who doesn’t ask for your help.”

Beyond questions of the review board structure, Finn’s delay in notifying others about Ratigan’s troubles may have also violated norms in canon law, Cafardi said.

Changes made in May 2010 to the apostolic letter Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela identified “the acquisition, possession, or distribution by a cleric of pornographic images of minors under the age of fourteen” as a “grave offense” subject to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

That means, Cafardi said, that as soon as Finn had knowledge of the material on the priest’s computer “he was supposed to notify” that congregation.

“I wonder if he did that,” Cafardi said.

This article was found at:

http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/whats-review-board-do

RELATED ARTICLES ON THIS BLOG

 

Irish bishops withhold over 200 abuse cases from its own child protection board and impede national audit of clergy crimes  

 

New Vatican rules rely on Bishops to deal with clergy crimes before reporting to police, still don't protect children

Only one US bishop has resigned for neglect during decade of clergy crimes, Kansas City bishop unlikely to join him

Lawsuit against Kansas City diocese alleges Bishop neglected to protect children from priest who made child pornography

Missouri diocese ignored school principal's warning about predator priest who was arrested a year later for child pornography

Italian priest in diocese of Cardinal assisting Pope on child protection reforms arrested on pedophilia and drug charges

Philadelphia cardinal and bishops hid problem priests from clergy abuse review board, put church law before civil law

Credibility of US bishops' reformed child protection policies challenged by Philadelphia clergy abuse scandal

Bishops were warned of abusive priests as early as the mid-1950s

1963 letter by church expert on pedophile priests shows Pope Paul VI and Vatican officials ignored warnings to expel problem priests

Jesuit priest being considered for sainthood among order's leaders who protected "the Hannibal Lecter of the clerical world"

Jesuit leaders concealed 40 years of warnings about pedophile priest who became spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa

New Vatican rules rely on Bishops to deal with clergy crimes before reporting to police, still don't protect children

New rules on clergy sex abuse shows there is still no moral awakening in the Catholic church

Catholic reform groups hold conference in Detroit, Archbishop warns priests who attend could be defrocked

Dublin Archbishop admits frustration over failed effort to promote major reforms in Catholic Church

Leaked confidential letter reveals Vatican's intention to prevent reporting of abuse to criminal authorities

US bishop's report on clergy abuse puts focus on sociological factors instead of church leaders who covered up crimes

Inquiry finds US Catholic hierarchy still endangering children and fighting justice for clergy abuse survivors

Catholic theologian says secrecy, misogyny and resistance to reform in wake of clergy sex scandals will doom the church

Retired Archbishop blames protective church hierarchy for clergy abuse scandal

Australian Archbishop says church culture responsible for deep-rooted child abuse crimes and cover-ups

Former Benedictine monk says church has not yet addressed child abuse crisis, most bishops still mired in obfuscation and deceit

Is the Catholic church in state of denial over clergy abuse, or is it honest and transparent?

Hundreds of admitted or credibly accused pedophile priests who escaped justice are unsupervised by church or police

9 Minnesota clergy abuse cases being settled for $1.7 million

Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis failed to check credentials of fake deacon accused of sex abuse

Lawsuit forces Minneapolis Catholic prep school to release names of 17 monks credibly accused of child sex crimes

Cover up of sex crimes by Chilean priests an example of how the church has handled abuse allegations globally

Black Hebrews cult leader and six others charged with murder after bodies of missing woman and boy found

News & Observer    -   North Carolina    June 10, 2011

Cult leader Pete Moses Jr. charged in boy's death

BY THOMASI MCDONALD AND MANDY LOCKE -  N&O Staff Writers



DURHAM -- Investigators found the remains of a child Thursday at the same East Durham house where a missing woman's body was discovered Wednesday.

Pete Lucas Moses Jr., 27, is charged with first degree murder in the death of 5-year-old Jadon Higganbothan, thought to have been missing since October 2010.

Investigators suspect Jadon and Antoinetta Yvonne McKoy, 28, whose body was unearthed at the house Wednesday, were the victims of a small religious cult led by Moses.

Sheilda Evelyn Harris, Moses' mother, and her husband rented the Ashe Street house for almost a year, property owner Dr. Wesley King said Thursday. They moved out of the house Feb. 19, within days of when police went toMoses' home at 2109 Pear Tree Lane, looking for McKoy.

"Their lease was up Feb. 28," King, a Durham orthodontist, said.

Moses also was charged Wednesday with the first-degree murder of McKoy. Also charged were six others: Lavada Quinzetta Harris, 40; Sheilda Evelyn Harris, 56; Shelia Falisha Moses, 20; P. Leonard Moses, 20; Larhonda Renee Smith, 40; and Vania Rae Sisk, 25, who is Jadon's mother.

Pete Moses Jr. has been held in the Durham County jail since he was arrested April 12, accused of assaulting and kidnapping Zayna Thomas, one of several women who police say lived with him in polygamous relationships. Four others were taken into custody Wednesday. Sisk and Smith turned themselves in Thursday morning.

The case began to unfold in February when a police officer went to the 2109 Pear Tree Lane home of Pete Moses Jr., looking for McKoy. She had been reported missing by her family after going to visit Moses in December.

It was Zayna Thomas who answered the door, and she related an unimaginable tale.

Identified in court documents as "ZT," Thomas told police that Pete Moses Jr. killed Jadon. Sisk said she left her son with an acquaintance in Durham on Feb. 20, but investigators couldn't find anyone who had seen him since October 2010.

Thomas also told police that Sisk and Smith beat McKoy as she tried to escape, and then Sisk, on Moses' order, shot and killed McKoy.

According to search warrants, police found some evidence to suggest foul play inside the house on Pear Tree Lane: spots that looked like blood, a fired bullet and shell casing, and indications that areas of the house had been vigorously cleaned.

But, until Wednesday, no bodies had been found and authorities didn't have enough evidence to charge Moses with murder.

All seven suspects are in custody at the Durham County jail without bail bonds.

'Good tenants'

The white concrete block house at 2622 Ashe St. has been vacant since Sheilda Evelyn Harris and several of her family members moved out in February, according to King, the property owner.

"They were good tenants who paid their rent on time," he said. "I never had any problems with them."

Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez said the house had not been part of their investigation because Moses' mother was not under suspicion.

"There was no reason to get a search warrant," he said.

King said Sheilda Harris lived at the home for about a year with her husband, Anthony Leon Harris, two of her children, Sheila Moses and P. Leonard Moses, and her stepdaughter, Diamond Harris, 7.

Diamond Harris has been placed in foster care, but her biological mother, Regina Oliverei, and stepfather, Alfred Oliverei Jr., are battling with the Durham Department of Social Services to regain custody.

Regina Oliverei said she lost custody of both her daughters in June 2009, when she had to serve 16 days in jail for a worthless check conviction.

The Olivereis live on Owen Street, just around the corner from the Ashe Street house. Regina Oliverei said Diamond had became a withdrawn person who refused to hug her during weekend visits and who cried when it was time to return to Ashe Street.

Remains found

McKoy's remains were found Wednesday by a plumber called to investigate clogged pipes at the Ashe Street house. The plumber borrowed a shovel from the next door neighbor and the two men dug until they realized something was in the bag and called police.

McKoy lived in Washington but reconnected with Pete Moses Jr. over the Internet a year ago. When she visited him in Durham a few times, he told her the other women were his sisters whom he refused to abandon as the fathers of their children had, McKoy's sister, Janayia Dubose, said.

But Zayna Thomas described a belief system and lifestyle that Durham police have since labeled a cult affiliated with Black Hebrews, a religious sect that believes a race war will culminate in blacks' dominance. Moses fathered children with the women and kept his growing brood under lock and key.

"My sister is a devout Christian," Dubose said earlier this year.

In December, McKoy traveled to North Carolina again to talk to police about someone stealing her identity, Dubose said. Family members last talked to her a few days after she arrived.

"It is unlike my sister to go silent," Dubose said. "When Christmas came and she hadn't returned, we knew something was wrong."

News researchers Brooke Cain and Peggy Neal contributed to this report.

This article was found at:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/06/10/1261546/site-of-womans-body-yields-remains.html

********************************************************************

News & Observer    -   North Carolina    June 9, 2011

Additional remains of small child found at Durham house

BY THOMASI MCDONALD AND MANDY LOCKE - N&O Staff writers


DURHAM -- Police have found a second set of human remains, consistent with those of a small child, in the East Durham neighborhood where a missing woman's body was found Wednesday.

Police spokesman Kammie Michael confirmed that a medical examiner was called to the scene on Ashe Street this evening and determined that the second set of human remains are consistent with those of a small child.

Human remains that police think is Antoinetta Yvonne McKoy, the suspected victim of a small religious cult, were unearthed Wednesday in the backyard of a vacant rental house at 2622 Ashe St.

The last two suspects in a murder case turned themselves in today.

Vania Sisk and Larhonda Smith joined five people already behind bars. All seven suspects are in Durham County Jail without bonds.

Charles McLean, 64, a stock clerk at Angus Barn, was working on his grandson's bicycle Wednesday morning behind his red-brick home when a plumber working next door at 2622 Ashe St. asked to borrow a shovel.

Pipes that ran from the house under the backyard were clogged and the man suspected it had something to do with a thick black plastic bag that was sticking up out of the ground behind a white storage shed.

"He got to shoveling and the more he dug, the bigger the bag got," McLean said.

Something inside the bag smelled rotten and the men thought someone may have buried a dead dog in the foot-deep hole. Another neighbor had come over and suggested they tear open the heavy-duty garbage bag.

"I told them to leave that alone and call the police," McLean said.

When an officer arrived, he used a nail to rip a long tear in the bag and what the men saw was not somebody's deceased pet.

"It looked like a forearm," McLean said. "It was still intact."

McLean said the officer quickly shooed them away from the scene and called for assistance.

Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez would not confirm McLean's account of how McKoy's body was found.

"But it sounds familiar," the police chief said.

A medical examiner came to the scene and confirmed that the remains were human, according to police spokeswoman Kammie Michael.

By evening, seven people were charged with murder in the death of McKoy, 28, whose family reported her missing in February.

Five suspects - Pete Lucas Moses Jr., 27, Lavada Quinzetta Harris, 40, Shielda Evelyn Harris, 56, Shelia Moses, 20, and P. Leonard Moses, 20, - were in custody Wednesday night. All but Pete Lucas Moses listed their address as 2146 Charles St.

Pete Lucas Moses had been held in the Durham County jail since he was arrested April 12, accused of assaulting and kidnapping Zayna Thomas, one of several women who police say lived with him in polygamous relationships.

Police have been working for months to build a case against him in the disappearance of McKoy, his former high school sweetheart, and Jadon Higganbothan, the 5-year-old son of Vania Sisk, another of his live-in girlfriends.

Jadon, last seen in October 2010, remains missing. Sisk told investigators she left her son with an acquaintance in Durham on Feb. 20.

A missing person

The case began to unfold in February when a police officer went to Pete Lucas Moses' home at 2109 Pear Tree Lane, looking for McKoy, who had been reported missing by her family after going to visit Moses in December.

Thomas came to the door and related an unimaginable tale.

Identified in court documents as "ZT," she told police that Pete Lucas Moses killed Jadon. She also said Sisk and another woman, Smith, beat McKoy as she tried to escape. She told them that Sisk, under Moses' order, shot and killed McKoy.

According to search warrants, police found some evidence to suggest foul play inside the house on Pear Tree Lane: spots that looked like blood, a fired bullet and shell casing, and indications that areas of the house had been vigorously cleaned.

But, until Wednesday, no bodies had been found and authorities didn't have enough evidence to charge him with murder.

Thomas described a belief system and lifestyle that Durham police have since labeled a cult affiliated with Black Hebrews, a religious sect that believes a race war will culminate in blacks' dominance.

Pete Lucas Moses fathered children with the women and kept his growing brood under lock and key.

McKoy lived in Washington, but reconnected with Pete Lucas Moses over the Internet a year ago. When she visited him in Durham a few times, he told her the other women were his sisters whom he refused to abandon as the fathers of their children had, McKoy's sister, Janayia Dubose, said.

She also had no concept of his religious beliefs.

"My sister is a devout Christian," Dubose said earlier this year.

Coming to N.C.

In December, McKoy traveled to North Carolina again to talk to police about someone stealing her identity, Dubose said. She packed a few changes of clothes and her Bible, Dubose said.

McKoy last talked to her family in early December, a few days after she arrived.

"It is unlike my sister to go silent," Dubose said. "When Christmas came and she hadn't returned, we knew something was wrong."

When they tracked down a phone number for Moses, he told them McKoy was fine but wouldn't put her on the phone. Durham police started to investigate in February.

News researchers Brooke Cain and Peggy Neal contributed to this report.

This article was found at:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/06/09/1258746/additional-remains-of-small-child.html

RELATED ARTICLES ON THIS BLOG

Arrest of Black Hebrew cult leader suspected of murder sheds light on shadowy sects preparing for apocalyptic race war


Black Hebrew cult leader suspected of murder arrested along with mother of missing boy


Police still searching for missing boy and woman presumed killed by Black Hebrew polygamy cult leader


Children removed from Black Hebrew polygamy cult, missing boy allegedly murdered by sect leader


Newly released book of how a child brought down the Nation of Yahweh


House of Yahweh sect may be Texas test case


House of Yahweh cult leader convicted of child labor violations, bigamy charges dropped due to time limit and lack of resources


Texas Doomsday Prophet Faces Bigamy Charges


Head of religious sect charged with bigamy


Child labor charge filed against House of Yahweh cult leader


House of Yahweh 'prophet' no different than other charismatic cult leaders who manipulate and exploit followers


Book on “Malachi” York and his crimes against children details what prosecutor calls his “most significant” case


Nuwaubian Nation of Moors cult founder Malachi York accuses FBI of coercing witnesses, asks court to vacate his sentence


Nuwaubians Protest in Macon


Fired jailer sues sheriff: Probe of cult influence at issue


Three cult members sentenced to a collective 150 years in prison for deliberately starving toddler to death

Measles killed 164,000 children last year and maimed many more so failing to vaccinate children is criminal

Globe and Mail - Canada June 8, 2011

The return of measles: Where did we go wrong?

by André Picard



Welcome to the 1960s. Not in a cool, retro way but in the “how have we failed so miserably to make progress?” way.

Measles is back.

In recent weeks, there have been more than 250 cases of the dreadful childhood disease in Quebec. The outbreak was sparked by vacationers returning from France, which is in the midst of a measles epidemic, as is Britain.

As a result, there are small but ever-larger outbreaks popping up all over Europe and the Americas. Measles is highly infectious and easily spread. It could well be coming soon to a community near you.

This, of course, should not be happening. We’ve had a cheap and effective measles vaccine since 1963.

The disease had virtually disappeared in Canada and the rest of the developed world, and there were dramatic reductions in the developing world, to the point where last year there was beginning to be serious discussion about eradication.

Where did we go wrong?

The problem is that vaccines only work if people are vaccinated. But, increasingly, parents in the Western world are not getting their children vaccinated, or fully vaccinated.

Why would you deny your child protection against an unpleasant and potentially deadly disease?

Measles does kill; last year it claimed the lives of an estimated 164,000 children worldwide. That number has dropped dramatically since 2000, however, when it was close to 800,000. Why? Vaccination.

In the developing world, where they see the ravages of measles (and other infectious diseases) every day, parents are clamouring for immunization.

In the developed world, ignorance is bliss. We have grown unaccustomed to seeing the itchy red rash and forgotten that measles was once a leading cause of blindness, deafness and mental retardation. Before vaccination about one in 3,000 infected children died of measles, close to 100 a year in Canada.

Today, there is a small minority of parents who refuse vaccination for “religious reasons,” dubious interpretations of scripture. The handful of measles cases that usually occur in Canada tend to spring up in Hutterite communities or, as occurred recently, in some fringe Hasidic sects near the Quebec-New York State border. In Canada, we are too polite and politically correct to say so, but that’s the reality.

Yet, religious refuseniks are being eclipsed by a much more worrisome emerging group, parents in mainstream society who eschew routine childhood immunization for a number of half-baked reasons: fear that vaccines can cause autism, the belief that there are “natural” alternatives to Big Pharma products, a belief that their children are not at risk, and a romanticizing of natural immunity. (Read: Let kids get sick and develop antibodies instead of stimulating antibodies with immunization.) Virtually all the children infected in Quebec, like those in France, were not fully immunized against measles – meaning they did not get the recommended two doses of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine.

To find the source of this problem, you can follow the itchy red dots back to Andrew Wakefield, the charlatan who concocted the bogus theory that measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination was responsible for the rise in autism. The ultimate irony, of course, is that Dr. Wakefield did so, in part, because he was trying to market his own measles vaccine.

But let’s not give Dr. Wakefield too much credit. He is merely a symbol and a by-product of a much more fundamental problem: ignorance borne of health illiteracy.

In modern society we are, paradoxically, increasingly reliant on science and technology but increasingly ill-informed about science.

Worse yet, in the midst of a communications revolution that has brought us Google, Facebook, Twitter and who-knows-what-else to come, we are not teaching people (our children in particular) how to process information and how to interpret evidence.

On our iPads, BlackBerrys and laptops, we have a virtual Library of Alexandria times 100 at our fingertips. Yet we don’t know how to sort the wheat from the chaff. As a result, there are educated people who routinely embrace theories that are biologically implausible and predicated on massive conspiracy theories.

That leaves us vulnerable – to measles and much more.

The education system is failing us in this regard. And so too is public health, which has failed to update its message and methods for communicating effectively in the 21st century.

It’s no longer enough to say “vaccination is good” and expect everyone to dutifully fall into line for shots.

You have to actively promote the benefits and, just as importantly, rebut the nonsense circulated by anti-vaccinationists and other promoters of so-called alternative treatments – usually costly, unproven and largely useless herbal concoctions.

Parents want the best for their children. They deserve the best public health information.

What they need to hear is this: Yes, there are occasional but rare reactions to vaccines.

But the disease is far worse. In a large post-Olympics outbreak of measles last year in B.C., about 60 per cent of those infected required medical care, including 20 per cent who were hospitalized; one person ended up in intensive care with a life-threatening swelling of the brain.

Measles is not a mundane illness. And failing to vaccinate children is not a victimless crime.

This article was found at:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/new-health/andre-picard/the-return-of-measles-where-did-we-go-wrong/article2052432/

RELATED ARTICLES ON THIS BLOG

Research shows most patients in Dutch epidemics belong to Protestant fundamentalist groups who refuse to vaccinate children

A century of vaccine paranoia scares many parents away from protecting their children and communities from deadly diseases


Study linking autism to vaccines was elaborate fraud that led to outbreaks of disease and endangered lives of children


Childhood diseases nearly eradicated until an unethical U.K. doctor began to scare parents with vaccine conspiracy theory


How Safe Are Vaccines?


Vaccination dramatically cuts childhood disease


Vaccines and Autism: the zombie meme that won't die


Proposed New York bill would make it easier for students to obtain religious exemption from vaccines


Research shows most patients in Dutch epidemics belong to Protestant fundamentalist groups who refuse to vaccinate children


Dutch Reformed conservatives at root of Canadian mumps outbreak


Christians refuse mumps vaccine, fuel outbreak: Officials


Religious group refuses to immunize children, leading to mumps outbreak


Malawi Christian sect refuses to vaccinate children against measles claiming it is God's will for them to get sick


Florida appeal court gives father ultimate responsibility for child's health care after mother refused to vaccinate on religious grounds


Apostolic churches in Zimbabwe lift ban on vaccinations but too late for hundreds of children who died unprotected


Six members of Apostolic sect in Zimbabwe given suspended prison sentences for medically neglecting children


Some Zimbabwe sect children forcibly immunised for measles, countless others die needlessly


Zimbabwe sect member murders wife after she tried to vaccinate their children against deadly measles outbreak


New measles out-break in Zimbabwe kills 70 more children in two weeks, unvaccinated sect kids at risk


Moderate members of Zimbabwe sect join health teams to stop extremists from killing children out of religious ignorance


Zimbabwe Apostolic sect puts faith before children's rights, prefers uneducated or dead kids over vaccination


Zimbabwe sect father jailed just 18 months for allowing four children to suffer and die needlessly from measles


Zimbabwe measles epidemic worsens after Easter services of religious fundamentalists who oppose vaccinations


Measles outbreak in Zimbabwe reveals Apostolic sects endangering children by refusing to vaccinate them


Unvaccinated children of Apostolic sect in Zimbabwe continue to needlessly die from measles


Zimbabwe health officials insist they will not use law to compel sect members to vaccinate kids in midst of deadly measles outbreak


Zimbabwe sect that shuns vaccinations is hiding sick members from health authorities in midst of measles epidemic


Zimbabwe police assist with door-to-door vaccination after sect children die from measles


Conflict between parental and children's rights at center of Zimbabwean debate over forced vaccinations of sect children


After needless deaths of unvaccinated children Zimbabwe plans law to criminalize medical neglect

Oregon parents guilty of criminal mistreatment of baby daughter for relying on faith healing instead of real medical care

The Oregonian - June 7, 2011

Timothy, Rebecca Wyland guilty of criminal mistreatment in faith-healing trial

By Steve Mayes, The Oregonian

OREGON CITY – A Clackamas County jury spent one hour deliberating Tuesday before unanimously finding an Oregon City couple guilty of felony criminal mistreatment for treating their infant daughter with faith-healing rather than taking her to a doctor. 

A growth covered Alayna's left eye.

Timothy and Rebecca Wyland face up to five years in prison but are likely to receive probation and possibly some time in jail. They will be sentenced June 24.

As the verdict was read, Timothy Wyland slipped his arm around his wife's waist, and the couple stoically faced the judge. The Wylands made no comment after the proceedings. They walked out of the courtroom surrounded by supporters from their church, some of them sobbing.

The couple's daughter, Alayna, was born in December 2009 with a birthmark above her left eye that developed into abnormal growth of blood vessels, known as a hemangioma, that slowly engulfed her left eye and produced a goopy discharge. Despite the growth and accompanying loss of vision, the Wylands did not consult a doctor.

Jurors had the option of convicting the Wylands on the lesser charge of second-degree criminal mistreatment, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

The case is the latest involving members of Oregon City's Followers of Christ Church, which considers medical treatment a rejection religious faith. The Wylands are the third church couple to be prosecuted over the past two years for failing to provide medical treatment to their children.

In two previous cases, the children died. In the Wyland case, 18-month-old Alayna has improved under court-ordered medical care.

The swift and unanimous verdict stunned the Wylands, their attorneys and about 20 church members in attendance. Defense attorneys Mark Cogan and John Neidig quickly left the courthouse and declined comment.

In her closing argument Tuesday, lead prosecutor Christine Landers spent 29 minutes dismantling defense attorneys' efforts to portray the Wylands as victims of overly aggressive child-welfare workers who snatched their daughter and persecuted the couple for their religious beliefs.

Landers called the defense a smokescreen intended to obscure the facts and distract jurors.The couple had six and a half months to seek medical attention for Alayna and they did not, she noted. "They never would have. The reason why ... is because of their faith."

The facts presented at trial were highly unfavorable to the Wylands.

From January to June 2010 the Wylands watched as the growth on their daughter's face ballooned. Instead of taking her to a doctor, the Wylands relied on faith-healing rituals -- prayer, anointing with oil and laying on of hands.

Under Oregon law, a parent or guardian has committed first-degree criminal mistreatment if that person "intentionally or knowingly withholds ... medical attention."

Doctors who examined and treated Alayna after she was taken into state custody said she was on the verge of blindness in her left eye, and could possibly have lost the eye without treatment ordered by the court.

The Wylands testified during a July juvenile court custody hearing that they wouldn't have willingly taken Alayna to a doctor because it would violate their religious beliefs. The Wylands said they put their trust -- and Alayna's fate -- in God's hands.

The jury heard a recording of the hearing.

Instead of directly challenging prosecutors' contention that the Wylands intentionally withheld medical attention in the early months of their daughter's life, defense attorneys Cogan and Neidig focused on the Wylands' actions after the state intervened. They portrayed the Wylands as loving parents who fully cooperated with DHS and court orders once Alayna was in state custody, diligently attending doctor appointments and making sure Alayna received her medication.

Landers called the defense attorneys' attempt to focus on what happened after Alayna was in state custody misleading. "They want to minimize the conduct of their clients," Landers told the jury. "They don't live in some mountain village in Nepal where they've never hear of doctors."

Clackamas County District Attorney John Foote, who has had several faith-healing trials under his watch, released a short statement: "We agree with the jury's verdict and appreciate their service. There is another case pending trial so we will have no further comment."

Foote was referring to another couple from the church whose son was born prematurely and died nine hours later. They are scheduled to go trial in September on charges of second-degree manslaughter. 

This article was found at:

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2011/06/defense_says_state_overreached_in_faith-healing_trial_of_timothy_rebecca_wyland.html

RELATED ARTICLES ON THIS BLOG

Criminal mistreatment trial begins for faith healing parents of baby who may go blind from massive growth on eye

Faith healing parents charged with criminal mistreatment of baby with life-threatening tumor on eye

Investigators trying to determine what role religion might have played in death of toddler

Oregon Senate votes to give equal rights to children of religious parents and end faith healing as a legal defense to murder

Oregon expected to approve law ending faith healing as a defense for parents who let children die without medical care

Death of two children from medical neglect highlights Idaho law that grants religious freedom to parents but not to children

Faith healing parents convicted of homicide for daughter's death from untreated diabetes lose appeal for new trials

Another child victim of Church of the First Born, mother charged with neglect after 9 year old son dies from untreated diabetes

Faith healing parents guilty but unrepentant, will appeal jail sentence of 6 months for letting child die


U.S. father who prayed while 11 year old daughter suffered and died convicted of murder


Jury Convicts Mother Who Prayed for Daughter Instead of Treating Her Fatal Diabetes


Ex-friend says Wisconsin mother charged with reckless homicide thought illness was sin


Trials for Parents Who Chose Faith Over Medicine


Judge allows charges in prayer death case


Judge in prayer death case: I'm between 'rock and a hard place'


Prosecutors Defend Charges In Prayer Death Case


Parents seek religious exemption for medical neglect murder of daughter


Parents who prayed as daughter died ask judge to drop charges


Healing or homicide? The use of prayer to treat sick children


A Child's Death And a Crisis for Faith


Judge orders parents to stand trial in prayer death case


Faith-based prosecution is first for state, national group says


Faith, medicine collide, and a young girl dies


Law Sanctifies Child Homicide in Name of Faith


Two Wisconsin bills would repeal religious exemption in 'faith healing' cases, but only one protects children


Wisconsin lawmakers reconsider conflicting laws that fail to protect children from faith-based medical neglect


U.S. courts in medical neglect cases give more lenient sentences to faith-healing parents than to non-believers


Oregon bill targets faith healing parents who rely on spiritual treatment as a defense to homicide charges


A century of vaccine paranoia scares many parents away from protecting their children and communities from deadly diseases


Probation for fundamentalist parents who let baby die without medical care, ordered to protect other children from religious beliefs


Pastor and lawyer claim religious persecution of parents charged for allowing 2 year old to die from pneumonia without medical care


Philadelphia 'faith healing' parents face criminal charges for letting 2 year old die without medical care


Claims of persecution ridiculous in societies where Christians have special privileges to indoctrinate children 


Faith healing parents charged with criminal mistreatment of baby with life-threatening tumor on eye


Is it ever OK to seriously harm your child in the name of religion? If so, which religion? 


Should Parents Who Call God Instead of the Doctor Be Punished?


Faith-healing deaths reported in The Oregonian from Nov. 1998 to Jan. 2009


Parents and church members knew infant was suffering, but had no thought of calling a doctor


Prosecutor asks church members: What would it take to call a doctor for ailing child?


Jury acquits parents of all but 1 misdemeanor charge in daughter's "faith healing" murder


Verdict in 'faith healing' baby manslaughter case a miscarriage of justice


Trial in death of infant raises questions of parental rights, religious freedom


Oregon judge tells church members to stop killing children with faith 'healing', parents jailed 16 months for son's death


Teen died agonizing death from ruptured appendix while parents, relatives and church elders did nothing but pray for 3 days


Fundamentalist parents on trial in 'faith healing' murder case claim it was son's free choice to shun medical care


Faith healing parents guilty of criminally negligent homicide in son's death, but exempt from mandatory sentencing due to religious beliefs


U.S. courts in medical neglect cases give more lenient sentences to faith-healing parents than to non-believers


16-year-old with ties to controversial faith healing church, Followers of Christ, found dead


Exploring legal issues courts must consider in cases involving parents' use of faith healing


Courts face new challenges in faith healing cases 


$3 worth of medicine could have accomplished what prayer alone did not


Provision in U.S. healthcare bill endangers children by including pray and faith healing as legitimate clinical medicine


A Child's Death And a Crisis for Faith


Law Sanctifies Child Homicide in Name of Faith


When Parents Call God Instead of the Doctor


Trust in God - A look at 'faith healing' in America.


Little-known religions complicate faith-healing cases


Child deaths test faith-healing exemption


Christian Science theology opposes both medical treatment and diagnosis and demands denial of symptoms


Expert: Change in prayer law would protect Christian Scientists, not kids