If we continue the “chain of silence”, as the OCA and ROCOR apparatchiki wish us to, we are condemned to further instances of paedophilia, sexual assaults, and scandalous antics by clergy… break the chain NOW… speak up! Christ demands that of us!
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On Wednesday, the RF Gosduma passed, on its second reading, a presidential bill establishing a prohibition for those who have or had a criminal record of prosecution for crimes against sexual inviolability of juveniles on working with children. The bill supplements the Labour Code with a new article, according to which those who have or had a record of prosecution (except for those whose prosecution was terminated due to acquittal) for crimes against sexual inviolability and sexual freedom of a person, murder, intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm, and torture, if they were committed against minors and juveniles, as well as the involvement of a minor in the commission of a crime, for the production and circulation of materials or objects with pornographic images of minors, are forbidden to engage in activities in the fields of education, training, youth development, the organisation of their recreation and rehabilitation, health care, and social services, and work in the area of youth sport, culture, and art. In addition, the law provides that a person who works in these areas is obliged, before executing an employment contract with an employer, to bring a certificate issued by the bodies of internal affairs on their criminal record, and whether they had faced prosecution for these crimes, or had the criminal prosecution terminated due to acquittal. On its second reading, the bill was amended, giving an employer the right to terminate previously signed employment contracts that do not meet the rules of the new law. The bill also amends the law “On state registration of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs”. According to the bill, no one is allowed to receive state registration as a private entrepreneur in a field working with children who was convicted or prosecuted under these articles of the Criminal Code.
“Unfortunately, there are many examples where people convicted for sexual violence against children, having served a prison term, then, returned to work in schools as teachers and coaches. Introduction of a ban on the employment of paedophiles in these professions will help to protect children”, Grigori Balykhin, the chairman of the Gosduma Education Committee, a member of the United Russia faction, told reporters on Wednesday, commenting on the bill. According to statistics, in 2000, there were over 40,000 crimes against minors, and, in 2009, more than 100,000. In this case, according to experts, up to 97 percent of cases of child abuse are not recorded and do not fall into the statistics, RIA-Novosti reported. President Dmitri Medvedev, in his letter the Federal Assembly on 30 November, drew attention to the problem of paedophilia. He said that we needed to “close access once and for all to educational and training institutions to those who have been convicted of any violent crime or abused children or involved children and adolescents in criminal activity”.
8 December 2010
Voice of Russia World Service
http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/12/08/36458225.html
Editor’s Note:
One of the main motivators behind this action is the recent child abuse scandal at the St Andrei Bogolyubsky Convent in Vladimir Oblast. I have often said that the leadership of the Church in the homelands is not perfect… the only reason that they appear better is that there’s a good deal of press and government oversight. The Gosduma is ensuring that those who were involved in the Vladimir scandal never hurt another child.
The Church here lacks that, and it shows… look at the Storheim case… look at Feodosy Lazor… look at Samuel Greene… look at Gleb Podmoshensky. People such as Mark Stokoe, Eric Tosi, Alexander Lebedeff, and George Larin have banded together to cover up the past. Interesting, ain’t it? These guys were bitter foes in the old “Church War”… but now they’re bosom buddies… for they know that if the OCA goes down, it will take the “old” ROCOR down with it.
Alexander Lebedeff, in particular, through his public statements, is positively terrified that “old ghosts” from the Metropoulos, Greene, and Podmoshensky scandals will rise up again to beggar the present ROCOR apparat. That’s the only thing that logically explains his nasty attacks on Kristi Koumentakos. Why didn’t Mr Lebedeff attack the use of 250,000 dollars as payola to Bobby K by the OCA? THAT was OK… THAT was kosher… THAT was a LEGITIMATE use of the “widow’s mite”.
I wish that the press and government would subject the OCA and ROCOR to the same scrutiny as the MP receives from the Russian press and state authorities. However, that shall not happen… we’re too minor a body on these shores. The rot subsists within all the present structures of the Russian diaspora, and we shall only root it out by creating a new united Russian Orthodox body… as an integral part of our Mother Church in Moscow.
By their fruits, ye shall know them…
Yes… “by their fruits”… in more sense than one, kids… Panteleimon Metropoulos… Feodosy Lazor… Samuel Greene… Isidore Brittain… Gleb Podmoshensky… Seraphim Storheim… and that list isn’t exhaustive. However, they’re not the worst… coverup artists such as Alexander Lebedeff and John Erickson are the worst… never forget Eric Iliff! A Russian priest friend of mine was deeply shocked by the Iliff case… but the OCA and ROCOR apparatchiki just shrug it off. We must forget it and “move on”… FOR THE GOOD OF THE CHURCH, they say.
That’s why we should never forget Eric and his sacrifice, and not rest until those who are trying to coverup the facts of his death are out of power. God expects that of us.
BMD
