14, July 2018
Chile’s police raid bishops amid sex scandal 0
Chilean authorities on Friday seized documents and computers in raids targeting the Catholic Church in the cities of Temuco and Villarrica amid a pedophilia scandal that has gripped the country, judicial sources said.
Local media reported that the investigation began on June 19 following allegations of sexual abuse against five clergy members.
The operations took place after the bishops of the cities refused to hand over information requested by prosecutors.
The raids came after prominent Chilean Catholic priest Oscar Munoz, who was vice-chancellor and then chancellor in the archdiocese of Santiago, was detained Thursday over allegations that he sexually abused and raped seven children between 2002 and 2018.
Munoz, 56, faces a 15-year prison sentence for the alleged abuse, which took place from 2002 in the capital city of Santiago and the southern city of Rancagua.
He was placed in preventative detention on Friday.
The Chilean church has been hit by pedophilia scandals implicating dozens of priests.
Pope Francis has accepted the resignations of five bishops, four of whom were accused of turning a blind eye to abuse or covering it up.
(Source: AFP)
14, July 2018
South Africa launches notes and coins for 100th anniversary of Mandela’s birth 0
South Africa on Friday launched a set of limited edition bank notes and gold coins to mark the 100th anniversary on July 18 of the birth of Nelson Mandela.
The South African Reserve Bank said the notes depict Mandela’s life including his upbringing in rural Eastern Cape as the son of a chief, his 27-year incarceration and the end of apartheid in 1994 when he became president. Mandela died in 2013 aged 95.
The launch forms part of events across the world, culminating locally in an annual Mandela Day lecture by former U.S. president Barack Obama next week.
The etching on the 1-ounce gold coin of a smiling middle-aged Mandela with his hair parted down the middle was designed by Zimbabwe-born Sindiso Nyoni, whose work includes stinging rebukes of former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe.
“Growing up and living most of my life under a dictatorship, we were not able to experience this feeling of democracy that South Africans have,” Nyoni said. Mandela’s face already graces all South Africa’s banknotes.
Source: Africa News