Hope still for kidnapped Salesian priest
The Austrian cardinal who said in an Easter Vigil homily that the kidnapped Salesian priest Fr Tom Uzhunnalil had been crucified in Yemen on Good Friday has since rowed back on his claim.
After speaking to Church leaders in the region, Vienna’s Cardinal Christoph Schönborn stated that he believed “there is still hope”, and the Vienna archdiocesan website posted an article quoting Fr Uzhunnalil’s Indian superiors and the bishop who heads the Church in Yemen as saying that there is no evidence the priest has been killed.
Bishop Paul Hinder, who heads the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia, has said he has had “no confirmation that anything happened Good Friday” and that rumours of Fr Uzhunnalil’s murder appear to be untrue, as he had “strong indications” the priest “is still alive in the hands of his kidnappers”.
Fr Uzhunnalil, who is from India, was kidnapped on March 4 during an attack on Aden’s home for the aged and disabled run by the Missionaries of Charity in which 16 people were killed, including four missionary sisters.
Lent is ‘not a time to despair’
Christians should not end Lent in despair through dwelling on their sufferings but celebrate the Resurrection instead, Baghdad’s Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako said in his Easter message.
Cautioning Christians “not to keep looking at our wounds and lose hope”, the patriarch urged them “to rely on wisdom and patience and to stay united together on the land where we were born (and have) lived for 1,400 years together with Muslims, sharing one civilization”.
He hoped, he said, for “a real resurrection, a quick return of displaced to their homes, and a restoration of peace at our churches, country and the whole world”. To achieve national reconciliation, unity and peace, the Iraqi patriarch called for “serious dialogue, openness and honesty”.
€8.2 million settlement with eight victims in US archdiocese
The Archdiocese of Seattle has announced that eight women who when children were sexually abused by a then priest will receive $9.1 million (€8.2 million) in a legal settlement.
The victims were abused by Michael Cody between 1968 and 1974 while he worked at four parishes in the dioceses. Fr Cody ceased working as a priest in 1979, and was laicised in 2005, dying 10 years later.
Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain said he regretted the abuse the women experienced and hoped the settlement and counselling provided by the archdiocese “will bring healing and give them a measure of closure so they can move forward”.
He also said he had invited the women to meet him “so I can offer them my personal apology”.
Maintaining that the diocese’s “first priority is the protection of children and healing for past victims”, Dr Sartain said: “It is my firm commitment to build on the good efforts of the past and continue to take steps that will truly help victims of clergy sexual abuse to heal.”