The Vatican’s investigator in the Church’s paedophilia scandal on Saturday led prayers at St. Peter’s Basilica for victims as well as priests who abused them, ANSA news agency reported on Saturday.
Monsignor Charles Scicluna led the prayers “in favour of victims of abuse perpetrated by men and women of the Church so that their wounds can heal and they can find true peace,” the report said.
The prayers were also for priests “who have committed abuse so that they can confront in the light of the truth the consequences of their wrongs and accept the will of justice.”
Students and seminarians from pontifical universities participated in the prayers.
The Roman Catholic Church has for months been embroiled in a series of sex abuse scandals amid allegations that the Vatican shielded predator priests from prosecution in several European countries and the United States. —AFP
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Malawi Prez pardons jailed same-sex couple
Lilongwe, May 29: Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika on Saturday announced the pardon of a gay married couple jailed for 14 years after holding a same-sex wedding, following talks with UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
“I have decided that with effect from today, they are pardoned and they will be released,” Mr Mutharika told reporters as he sat beside the United Nations secretary general. “From a humanitarian point of view, they are released and pardoned forthwith.” Mr Ban commended the lifting of the sentence, which had been met with outrage and alarm by the US, Europe and rights groups. —AFP
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Briton gets life for killing NRI business partner
London, May 29: In a widely followed case, a British solicitor has been jailed for life for arranging the contract killing of his NRI business partner to claim £1.5 million insurance to pay off his debts.
John Cort, a solicitor in the east Midlands town of Leicester, hired Brain Farrell, a hit-man from Bayswater in west London, to kill 51-year-old Vina Patel. The body of Patel was found at the bottom of the stairs at the office of Cort and Co. solicitors on 15 January 2009. Cort tried to make the death look like an accident. Cort and Patel were business partners in the company. Fifty-four-year-old Cort and Farrell, 37, were found guilty of killing Patel and were sentenced to life imprisonment. —PTI