From: People For Peace
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
TUESDAY, 19, 2012
At the conclusion of the 50th Eucharistic Congress in Ireland last Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI used the occasion to tell Irish Catholics it is a mystery why priests and other church officials abused children entrusted in their care, undermining faith in the church “in an appalling way.”
[image]Children who have been prepared for first Holy Communion in one of the parishes in Western Kenya-cases of such children being abused by clergy still remains a mystery/ File
Benedict commented on the scandals of sexual abuse and cover-ups by church hierarchy in a pre-recorded video message for an outdoor Mass attended by 75,000 Catholics, many from overseas, in Ireland’s largest sports stadium attended by Ireland’s prime minister and president.
In Ireland, the United States and many other countries, bishops and other church leaders have been accused of systematically covering up pedophile priests, often by shuffling them from parish to parish without telling the faithful about the abuse.
Ireland announced last year it would close its embassy to the Vatican, one of the Catholic country’s oldest missions, after relations hit an all-time low over the Church’s handling of the sex abuse cases.
The Pope spoke about the abuse at the time justice was finally served at a Kitui court for an 18 year old girl who is alleged to have been defiled by a Kitui Catholic priest, Father John Mutua Munyoki. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by Kitui Principal Magistrate Beatrice Kimemia on charges of defilement.
The prosecutor said that Fr Munyoki lured the girl who was at the time 16 years old and a form three student at Zombe Girls Secondary School to his car and defiled her. The girl told the court she was headed home from school on that fateful day when the father offered her and her friends a lift home.
After the heinous act he threw her out of the pickup and threatened her to not say a word to anybody, offering her Kshs. 1000 as an assurance of her silence. The girl however confided with her school matron who took her to a local health centre for examination. Medics made a clear report that the girl was raped leading to the arrest of Fr. Munyoki on June 5, 2010.
In a similar case, a16 year old girl in Samburu north was staring at a bleak future after a priest allegedly defiled and impregnated her and denied fathering the baby she delivered. Efforts by the girl and the family to have the priest provide for the child have proven fruitless as the clergyman has demanded a DNA test to prove paternity.
The missionary priest was hurriedly transferred to another parish, ostensibly to avoid the unfolding drama. Villagers and relatives of the standard five students had reported the matter to the provincial administration and district children’s officer.
In May this year, one girl in Maralal was raped by a priest. Talking to the media the girl said that the priest promised to take her to a sister’s home and then changed directions and took her to his own home where he defiled her and only to be thrown out of the house in the morning as he went for mass. The 14 year old orphaned girl is now the mother of a six months old child.
In August last year Police in Jinja were holding a catholic priest for alleged defilement. Reverend Father Joseph Kalinaki, the Jinja Diocese secretary for finance and Episcopal vicar, was picked from Paradise Hotel in Jinja, where he was found with a senior five student.
The 16-year-old girl by then hails from Namwendwa village in Kamuli district. Police said the sister to student tipped them that Fr. Kalinaki had picked the girl from Busoga High School in Kamuli and taken her to Paradise Hotel where they were found.
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