Ex-priest to stand trial for 1960 murder of Texas beauty queen

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A former Roman Catholic priest is due to stand trial this week on charges he beat, raped and strangled to death a Texas beauty queen nearly 60 years ago after hearing her last confession.

 Irene Garza 

Lawyers for John Feit, 84, have denied his responsibility for the 1960 murder of Irene Garza, 25, in McAllen, Texas, and said in court filings that he was wrongly accused of “one of the most notorious and heavily publicized crimes in the history of the Rio Grande Valley.”

 Irene Garza

Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Tuesday and opening statements are expected on Thursday at a state district court in Hidalgo county in south Texas. The trial is likely to take about two weeks, county officials said on Monday.

Garza, a former Miss South Texas and second-grade school teacher, was last seen giving confession during Holy Week at Sacred Heart Catholic Church on April 16, 1960, according to the Texas Rangers cold case website.

Her body was found five days later in a nearby canal. An autopsy showed that Garza had been raped while comatose and died of suffocation. 

 Left- Irene Garza who was raped and murdered after giving her last confession to Feit-Right

Feit had initially been considered by authorities to be a suspect in the case but was not indicted. He had been implicated in the assault of another woman in the area a few weeks before Garza’s disappearance, but pleaded no contest to aggravated assault and served no jail time.

Shortly after Garza’s body was found, Feit was ordered by his church superiors to leave McAllen, the Dallas Morning News reported.

 Feit

Feit later left the priesthood and moved to Arizona, where he started a family.

Texas Rangers investigating cold cases reported in 2002 that a local priest had told them, shortly after Garza’s body was found, that he had seen scratches on the hands of Feit, who was a visiting priest at Sacred Heart Church at the time.

The local priest, Father Joseph O’Brien, also told investigators that Feit had confessed to the murder, law enforcement officials said. Feit has denied that.

Bodies of 21 Christians Found Beheaded by ISIS in Mass Grave in Libya

The bodies of 21 Coptic Christians who were beheaded by ISIS have been found in a mass grave in Libya, according to Libya’s interior ministry.

The men had been killed more than two years ago on a beach near Tripoli, the Agence French Presse reported. In February 2015, ISIS had posted a video online of the beheadings, which sparked air strikes from Egypt against ISIS units in Libya.  

ISIS fighters had kidnapped the Christians in separate incidents in Libya from December 2014 to January 2015, The Christian Post reported.

“The heads are separated from the bodies clad in orange jumpsuits, hands bound behind the back with plastic wire,” said the Libya’s interior ministry unit for fighting organized crime in the city of Misurata.

Authorities found out about the mass grave after ISIS prisoners confessed to the killings.

Twenty of the bodies were determined to be of Egyptian descent, while one body was found to be of an unknown African nationality. The remains have been transferred to Misurata for forensic examination.

Egyptian officials have been notified of the finding of the remains, which will be returned to Egypt.

Last month, an Egyptian court sentenced seven people to death over links to ISIS units in northwest Egypt and the killings.

Earlier this year, International Christian Concern reported that the relatives of those who were killed were proud that their family members stood up to ISIS in the name of Christ.

One wife said her husband “kept the faith, and was martyred for Christ.”

“His faith was very strong,” she said. “I’m proud of him. He has lifted our heads up and honored us and all the Christians.”

Congress Will Continue Opening Sessions in Prayer Despite Challenge by Atheist

WASHINGTON—  Congress will continue opening sessions in prayer after a challenge to the tradition by an atheist. A federal court ruled against the lawsuit brought by Daniel Barker, co-president of Freedom From Religion Foundation. 

He argued he has denied the opportunity to give an opening invocation in Congress although other guest chaplains were allowed to do so. U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer said in her decision that House rules didn’t allow Barker the to lead the prayer because he had left his faith.

Collyer also pointed out opening prayer has been a part of Congress for more than two centuries and it doesn’t conflict with the establishment clause according to the United States Supreme Court. 

House Speaker Paul Ryan was quick to applaud the decision. 

“Since the first session of the Continental Congress, our nation’s legislature has opened with a prayer to God. Today, that tradition was upheld and the freedom to exercise religion was vindicated. The court rightfully dismissed the claims of an atheist that he had the right to deliver a secular invocation in place of the opening prayer,” Ryan said.  

“Recently, especially following the return of Majority Whip Steve Scalise, this institution has been reminded about the power of prayer. I commend the District Court for its decision, and I am grateful that the People’s House can continue to begin its work each day as we have for centuries: taking a moment to pray to God,” Ryan concluded.

Scalise also responded to the decision on Twitter saying, “Our rights come from God, so it’s only fitting that the House begins each day united in prayer.” Barker says Collyer’s decision was tainted by her “personal bias against nonreligious people. Collyer was appointed to the court by George W. Bush.

NM Mennonite Church Becomes First in Denomination to Appoint Openly Lesbian Head Pastor

(PHOTO: TWITTER)

A Mennonite church in New Mexico became the first church in its denomination to select an openly LGBT person as head pastor. The Albuquerque Mennonite Church announced Monday that it selected Erica Lea, an open lesbian, to be its new lead pastor.

Lea is a graduate of Truett Seminary at Baylor University, where she was introduced to Anabaptist theology, and has served in a missionary and pastoral capacity for over 10 years.  According to Mennonite World Review, the church stated that it stands behinds Lea’s “strong call to connect with and serve people affected by current immigration policies and racial, social and economic discrimination — as well as a call to provide a beacon and safe haven for the LGBTQ community.”

Lea’s hiring at Albuquerque Mennonite comes as she was in her third year of residency at Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. She served at Baptist churches in states like North Carolina, Texas and Wyoming. She also served as the interim pastor of Houston Mennonite Church while the church’s pastor, Marty Troyer, was on sabbatical, Mennonite World Review reports.

“She is passionate about strong Anabaptist ministry and brings a heartfelt theological commitment to her adopted faith family,” Troyer was quoted as saying. “While she served at Houston, our congregation experienced the best pastoral ministry has to offer: preaching, caring and management.”

“Erica is also passionate about Mennonite emphasis on peace witness and radical hospitality,” Troyer added. “Her ministry is rooted in the belief that all people are welcome, and that community is the deepest expression of God’s desires.”

According to the Mennonite World Review, Albuquerque Mennonite Church consists of about 150 members and officially became a LGBT “welcoming community” in 2007. However, it did not immediately join the Brethren Mennonite Council for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Interests.

“Our congregation has a majority of attenders who did not grow up Mennonite — who, like Erica, have chosen to join our faith community,” Andrew Clouse, a member of the church’s search committee, stated. “We look forward to finding more ways of articulating and sharing an Anabaptist faith that can flourish in locally derived expressions of Jesus’s call to discipleship, peacemaking and justice. We think Erica is well-equipped to help us do this.”

The website PinkMenno.org lists over 70 Mennonite Church USA congregations that are “willing to state publicly that they are welcoming to all, regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity.”

According to Sojourners, Mennonite Church USA claims over 70,000 adult members and several openly LGBT individuals serving in associate pastors roles in churches across the nation.

In February, it was reported that the Allegheny Mennonite Conference licensed an openly married lesbian woman, who is an associate pastor at a Mennonite church in Hyattsville. The pastor, Michelle Burkholder, became the third openly LGBT minister credentialed for pastoral service in the Mennonite Church USA.

But as Sojourners points out, “The membership guidelines of the MCUSA define marriage as a covenant between one man and one woman, categorize ‘homosexual…sexual activity as sin,’ and forbid MCUSA pastors from performing same-sex marriages.” Sojourners notes that the denomination has no plans to revisit its guidelines until 2019.

In 2015, Mennonite Church USA passed a resolution stating, “We acknowledge that there is currently not consensus within Mennonite Church USA on whether it is appropriate to bless Christians who are in same-sex covenanted unions.”

“Because God has called us to seek peace and unity as together we discern and seek wisdom on these matters, we call on all those in Mennonite Church USA to offer grace, love and forbearance toward conferences, congregations and pastors in our body who, in different ways, seek to be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ on matters related to same-sex covenanted unions,” the resolution, titled “Forbearance in the Midst of Differences,” states.

[written by Samuel Smith]

Cult Member Arrested during Church Service in Ikorodu, Nigeria

A suspected member of the notorious cult group, Badoo, Ahmed Adeleke, was arrested by members of a white garment church located at Irapade community, Agbowa, the outskirts of Ikorodu after failed attempt to murder a member of the church.

The suspect who disguised as a worshipper, attended the church’s vigil. At the end of the event, church members heard a female member shouting for help after the alleged cultist attacked her, Vanguard reports.

When curious members of the church rushed to the scene, the suspect had smashed the victim’s head. She reportedly pointed to the direction where the suspect took.

Some church members went in the direction and reportedly found the suspect changing his clothes. He was said to have denied the allegation.

But on further observation, the white garment which he pulled off was discovered to be blood stained.  In his narration, the suspect denied being a Badoo member.

“I was a Muslim, but later converted to Christianity. I live at 9, Ojokoro Street, Agric. I was invited to worship there that night by a senior colleague, Kehinde, at the tailoring shop where I work,” he said.

While parading the suspect at the Police Officers Mess, Ikeja, the Lagos State Command boss, Fatai Owoseni said: “Policemen from Ipakodo Division rushed to the church.

“Although the suspect denied the accusation, when the area was searched, three handkerchiefs (white, blue and red) were recovered from him. Also, a grinding stone, which he used to hit his victim on the head, was also found.”

[written by Idris Aina]

 

• Things that many American’s don’t know about the “Badoo” cult in Lagos, Nigeria. People living in Ikorodu, Lagos State have been under a cloud of fear since the Badoo cult members began their ritual killings. According to the International Center for Investigative Reporting (ICR) a criminal described by residents as a “serial ritual killer” was apprehended in Ikorodu on June 12, 2016 and his name was given as “Badoo”. According to the residents of Ikorodu, after every attack, he would write, “I am Badoo” and paste on the door of his victims. He continued in a seemingly invincible manner until he was caught after he molested and killed a 27 year old woman and her 9 month old child. Following the arrest a group of other people rose up and continued the killings- they came to be known as “Badoo.” The cult group carries a stone to use for their ritual killings and have also used clubs, household grinding stones, and mortars with pestles. According to a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police and chairman of the Lagos State Neighborhood Corp. “After they are done, they clean the blood with white clothes and they escape. This is bizarre and it is fetish and a ritual”.  Churches are easy targets for this cult group and has recently killed three people at a “Cherubim and Seraphim” church in Nigeria.

Asia Bibi, Christian Mother Sentenced to Death, Nominated for Prestigious Religious Freedom Prize

Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian mother of five who has spent seven years on death row due to blasphemy charges, has been nominated for a prestigious European Union religious freedom prize.

“Her case is a symbol for others hurt in their freedom of expression and especially freedom of religion,” Dutch Europarliamentarian Peter van Dalen of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group’s member faction ChristenUnion-SGP told BosNewsLife on Wednesday.

“It is good that my colleagues in the ECR and I continue to defend the rights of Bibi and many others.”

Bibi is now in the running for the $59,500 award that comes with the Sakharov Prize. The ceremony will be held on Dec. 10 in Strasbourg, France.

The mother’s ongoing legal saga began back in 2009, after Muslim co-workers accused her of blasphemy for praising Jesus Christ and allegedly insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Bibi denied the charge but was found guilty and sentenced to death in November 2010. Several appeals have since followed and the latest hearing, which Bibi’s attorney attempted to have scheduled for June, was delayed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar.

The Christian mother’s plight has drawn international attention and condemnation of Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws by a variety of persecution watchdog and human rights groups.

Christian lawyer Naeem Shakir pointed out that Islamic hardliners are greatly invested in seeing her denied freedom.

“The plight of Bibi has had a dampening effect on minorities. Their grief cannot be addressed because of religious retrogressive and extremist groups,” Shakir said.

Unless Bibi’s death sentence is overturned, she is set to become the first woman in Pakistan to be executed under the blasphemy laws.

Previous recipients of the Sakharov Prize include Nadia Murad and Lamya Aji Bashar Taha, two young Yazidi women who were kidnapped by Islamic State extremists and forced to live as sex slaves.

Aji Bashar, who won the award alongside Murad in 2016, has spoken about IS’ abuse of children as young as 9 years old, describing them as “monsters.”

“I would really like to explain what happened to me there, not only for myself, but so others, the other women, are not treated like this, so that we Yazidis never have to go through anything like this again,” the Yazidi woman said.

Murad, who has been traveling around the world to raise awareness for the genocide of Yazidis, stated, “I’ve seen thousands of refugees go through the same thing as myself and my family. We are scattered all over the place. I also know that Islamic State is still trying to exterminate us. I think about this and this is what gives me the strength, all the strength, to continue.” 

PHOTO:(REUTERS)Asia Bibi (R) was sentenced to execution in 2010 after being accused by her former colleagues of blaspheming against the Prophet Mohammad.

[written by By Stoyan Zaimov ]

Church urged to restore the decaying levels of morality among the youths in Zambian society

The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) has called for the church’s cooperation in its efforts to restore the decaying levels of morality among youths in the country.

ZANIS Ndola reports that YMCA National president Thabo Kawana said this in Ndola this morning during a meeting with Ndola District Pastors fellowship at Ndola Baptist Church.

Mr Kawana explained that the recent development concerning youths that were rounded up at a sex-party in Woodlands area Lusaka was disheartening and that his organisation had since taken up a leading role in counselling the youths together with their parents.

“What happened in Lusaka is shocking. Infact it is disheartening. How can we have such types of parties where youths must be naked to enter? We have failed as parents. YMCA has since taken up a leading role in counselling the youths whose number has swelled to 138, together with their parents,” he said.

He added that the problem was that parents were only providers and had no time to be available for their children.

“The problem is that as parents we are only providing and not being present. If a child asks for money for a shoe we provide without knowing where they are taking that money to. That is why only rich people’s children were present at that party. We are failing as parents,” he said.

Mr Kawana further implored the church not to work in isolation with regards to issues pertaining to young people.

“As a church don’t work in isolation when it comes to youths. The church must lay the foundation and as YMCA, we shall build and then government shall out on the roof. Then we shall all be comfortable that we are raising responsible and God fearing young men, “ he said.

The YMCA National president furthermore challenged the church to be concerned with the reduction in the number of youths in church while bars and night clubs were recording increased patronage.

“You must be concerned with the way youths have reduced in number during your Sunday services and yet take a tour of bars and nightclubs they are always crowded with the same youths who have be at church. These are the issues that you should be addressing,” he advised.

Vladimir Putin’s Christianity is a facade, says expelled US missionary

It is now well over a year since Vladimir Putin’s Russia passed ‘anti-missionary’ laws and more than 180 cases have since been brought.

Activities ranging from prayer meetings in homes, posting worship times on a religious website and praying in the presence of other citizens have been interpreted as ‘missionary activity’ with Christians making up the vast majority of the law’s victims.

One case is that of Donald Ossewaarde, an American Baptist preacher living in Oryol, who was expelled for hosting a church meeting in his house.

Having lost appeals throughout the Russian judiciary system, Ossewaarde’s case is now with the European Court of Human Rights. Although confident he will win there, Ossewaarde is convinced he will never be allowed back into Russia.  ‘I am quite sure based on precedent they will rule in my favour. But I am not sure it will have a great effect on the situation in Russia,’ he says.

‘Russia has lost many many times in the European Court. Sometimes they pay. Sometimes they ignore its rulings. It doesn’t seem to make a big difference to the way they practise when it rules against them.’

As well as dozens of Christians, the law’s ever broadening reach and interpretation has led to more than 40 Jehovah’s Witness-linked prosecutions as well as four Mormon-related cases, nine Muslims and more than 10 Hindu-linked prosecutions.

But the one religious group not affected by the so-called Yarovaya law is the Russian Orthodox Church.

Speaking to Christian Today at a conference run by ADF International, a legal charity that represents Ossewaarde, he explains his conviction the Church was behind his arrest.

‘I know that they have profited from what has happened to me,’ he says. ‘They are obviously the ones who benefit the most from going after any other form of Christian.’

The Russian Orthodox Church is used ‘as a political’ tool, he says, by Putin whose history raises questions about the sincerity of his faith.

‘With his Communist KGB background I cannot believe he really is a true Christian but he finds it very useful to present himself in that way,’ says Ossewaarde.

‘So he very publicly attends services in the holidays. He and the Patriarch are often photographed together. They are obviously colleagues supporting one another.

‘They [Russian Orthodox leaders] are obviously happy he is president and he [Putin] often speaks of the Orthodox Church as the guarantor of Russian values.’

Don and Ruth Ossewaarde. A Baptist preacher, Ossewaarde was fined 40,000 rubles for holding religious services in his home.

Russia is, technically, a secular country – although you wouldn’t know it from the way the Orthodox Church is presented in the Putin-controlled media, says Ossewaarde.

After it endured systematic persecution under Soviet rule, Putin has made the Russian Orthodox Church emblematic of the socially conservative values his rule promotes.

Around 70 per cent of the population are now members of the ROC and it has grown to be the largest and most powerful of the 14 Orthodox Churches with 144 million members, 368 bishops and about 40,000 priests and deacons.

And with the highest ever numbers of young men entering seminaryto train for the priesthood, the Russian Orthodox Church is set for sharp growth for years to come.

But Ossewaarde is scathing about Putin’s closeness to Patriach Kirill, the Church’s head.

‘It is all a façade,’ he says, bemoaning Putin’s propaganda success in presenting himself at home and internationally as a champion of conservative Christian values by opposing homosexuality and abortion.

‘I think that is all just for show. He portrays himself to the Russian people as a moral leader, a Christian leader. I think that is just a façade he puts on because he knows it sells well.’

Such is the Orthodox Church’s rise since its exile during Communist rule, it is now considered the only patriotic option for Russian citizens. Billboards tell people it is their duty to protect the Orthodox Church and any threat, including from evangelical missionaries like Ossewaarde, is to be resisted.

Although optimistic about the state of his legal case, Ossewaarde is deeply pessimistic about the future of evangelical Christianity in Russia.

If things don’t change this law could be the end of missionary activity there, he says.

‘The way things are right now, Russia seems determined to hold onto this definition of extremism or ‘missionary activity’ as anything that is not Orthodox.’

Evangelicalism, he believes, will be more and more restricted. ‘It’s obviously not welcome. They look at Protestant-evangelical type of groups as being in the same types of category as Jehovah’s Witnesses – some kind of way-out cultish type of faith that they don’t welcome and would rather went away.’

[written by Harry Farley]