In a disturbing incident from Saint Catharine, Jamaica, a thirty nine year old
Kenyan Roman Catholic priests faces serious charges of sexual offenses involving a twelve year old
girl. The accusations include abduction, aren't rip within the church premises. The
charges encompassed sexual intercourse with minor sexual touching, grieve via sexual assault, and
child abduction. These incidents allegedly occur in Mark, but were reported in June
twenty twenty three. The priest's accused of befriending the girl, a school student,
and learned her to his church home for the assault. The charges were
filed based on the girl's identification of the priests in an official lineup and questioning
by his attorney. The case underscores the importance of skepticism even towards figures of
trust. Authorities emphasize their commitment to justice for the victim and urge anyone if
relevant information to step forward. This article was carried on July eleventh on The
Jamaican Observer, ABC News and AP News, and on July twaintered on Loop
News. Yes, Cynthia, over to you, what what do you have
for us? In relation to this article. This is such a tragedy.
When I first read it, I was really just trying to find out more
information because the ABC and the AP news articles are pretty short. The Jamaica
Observer gave us a little bit more details, but I did have to do
a little bit more digging in order for me to find out more concerning this
whole tragic event. But before I really go into that, I'm very curious
to hear what the panel has to say. So, Jonathan, would you
please give us your thoughts. Yeah, this one is unfortunately all too common.
We've covered on this show many times when a Catholic priest or other minister
or church official has committed these sorts of crimes. A lot of times they
get away with it because either the parents or the guardians of the kid don't
know about it, or when they do find out about it, are reluctant
to press charges against the man of the cloth. And you know, I
did find that the Jamaica Gleaner first carried this story on July tenth, so,
and then then it was picked up by the Jamaica Observer on the eleventh
and the API on the eleventh, and that's Associated Press International. But there
was no author so it's kind of hard to do any further further digging on
it. But she's twelve years old. Come on, people, you know
this guy should pretty much go away for life. I could think of some
other suitable punishments, but they're mostly illegal according to the Geneva conventions. So
the Kingston dis he's saying they're cooperating with police, you know, are they
really The archbishop immediately removed the priests from all active pastoral minister in the diocese,
but only the probably because he was in jail. The only reason why
they express concern for those effective, of course, is because they got caught.
That priests got caught, and so the church has had a bad record
of not just moving priests around when they get caught, but also not doing
anything about it to the priest other than say, four hail marries a you
know and our father or something. You know. It's like they always believe
that you can pray it away, and that's a disgusting part. This little
girl is going to be scarred for life. She's going to have trauma that
she's going to need a lot of help with dealing with. And is the
church going to pay for their therapy or assistance or are they just going to
say I'll pray with you and that's what I want to know. Really.
Of course, we don't know yet what's going to happen with her, and
probably ever will because it won't make the news. But anyway, as I
was saying, this is just something that is all too common, what do
you have to say on that? Well, you know, John, this
girl needed help with the Catholic Church added a predator. You know, this
would be laughable if there wasn't a very real nightmare that this child is living.
But you know, as you alluded to this, this tragedy is going
to soon be replaced by another church atrocity in the news psychle but not for
her. Her need for help was more harm. And now this family and
most likely were risk being opstracized and maybe even in danger for just speaking out
because you know, there are going to be people that are going to come
to this priest defense. I am curious to whether this priest was you know,
was he under previous suspicion before he was moved? You know, whether
other investigations are they investigating now where he was? And of course you know
that any investigation they do is ultimately going to serve their own self interests.
You know they're blind followers, frivously accused their enemies of being groomers. They
should spend some time looking in the mirrors and see what they are their own.
Catholic Bishop report estimated over four percent of priests in the Catholic Church are
a quote plausibly accused of abuse. That's over one hundred times higher than the
general population. Conviction right now, religion orders obedience and that breeds secrets.
But the problem does extend far beyond just to Catholic. I have in laws
sitting under a pastor right now facing charges for sexual assault of two underage victims.
Now understand, if you're a Catholic, you're supporting a crime syndicate.
They spend over three hundred million dollars a year protecting child raping priest. You
weren't there when it happened, but your money made it possible. Just stop
now, Phil, what's your take on this is problematic and sick in so
many days. You have, first of all, content issue. Twelve year
old right, very twelve year old count give consent and you have the power
dynamic. This party a thirty nine year old versus twelve year old. As
you said correctly in Fidel, trauma. That's trauma for life for that little
girl. Trust betrayed. Right, the priest is supposed to be this so
called holy person. Varied persons will expect that there will be quote unquote righteous
and of course the priest abuses power, right, he's supposed to be.
This is a couple of society. Society. Another thing mental immaturity of the
and the development of the twelve year old. That is, your prefrontal cortex
is not even just probably just start to develop. That's the critical thinking part
of the brain, right, and children tend to use more their amaligada,
the emotional part of the brain. So you can imagine the emotional trauma this
child undergone and this sick priests do this to the child. And one other
thing biologically, child's womb is not developed and cause damage. We know from
science and the medical science that ben children are that young and have set with
an adult, it can cause serious damage to the child's womb where they cannot
reproduce when they get older. So I mean this is really problematic. And
the thing is is that also what had me a bit confused was why did
it take so long? Why did it take three months to be reported?
You know? And as it was Jonathan who said that they because it is
a priest. Maybe that's why the parents, if they fung out early,
will say okay, this is a man of God and probably tell a child
are you sure? Are you you know? Did this really happened? Please
to allays on the priest, I mean, it is really sad that's such
a thing like this happened a twelve year old and the priest who was supposed
to be trusted did this. And as you y'all said correctly, this has
been an ongoing problem in the Catholic Church and other churches to I think in
Christianity, and I suspect it's because of this celibate the celibate rule that they
have it is creating problems. What do you say about that? Centthia?
Gosh, you know, this is a story that's right up our fellow nonprofit
tale lur Tales alley. We would have had a whole icon of a de
facto pope with with you know, crazy eyes and like you know, in
the pointy teeth, in the whole nine yards and it's appropriate and Philly,
when you said that, why did it take three months to be and honest
with you, that's like lightning speed considering the Catholic Church of being being put
on blast. Well, this priest specifically being arrested and and and I know
that he's not convicted yet, he's still he just got charged back in June.
But that's pretty quick. I mean, like, how many stories have
we covered on the nonprofits talking about sexual abuse of children at the hands of
priests where some of the children were adults by the time that they got any
as semblance of justice, you know. And I feel for this little girl
who and and she is even though like some people say, oh, well
she's twelve, she's a preteen. She is a child. She is a
child. And children do not have the wherewithal to consent to any type of
sexual acts with an adult, let alone each other. I mean, they
don't. As phil aptly pointed out, your skeptical, critical thinking portion of
your brain, your prefrontal cortex. Now I'm not a scientist, but I
can say that word yay is not developed yet. I believe that I've read
that that particular portion of your brain does not develop all the way until you're
like twenty five, twenty five plus. And this is the reason why we
had crazy college students making very stupid things and stupid acts on video. And
I could even recall a few bad decisions that I made on my own when
I was twenty years old because I did not have a fully developed skeptical core
in my brain. Thank you, Jonathan, you feel me. So this
is so. This was a fully a story that talks about a child being
taken advantage of by an adult, and I'm pretty sure that he used his
position of power in order for him to do it, even though that in
the stories it really does not mention that I One of the articles I found
actually on iri Iirimnyaman FM, which is a radio station in Jamaica, gave
a little bit more exposition on the story. It said that the police now
have charged a Kenyon Roman Catholic Priests who was arrested in relation to an alleged
case of sexual abuse. The charges include sexual intercourse with a person under sixteen
years and sexual touching of a child, grievous sexual assault and abduction of a
child under sixteen years. As Phil talked about at the beginning of the segment.
It also alleged offenses were committed on Sunday afternoon on Marsh to nineteenth,
but of course we didn't get reported until June or twenty third. It also
says that reports are that the priests befriended the child and lured her to his
home where he allegedly assaulted her, and the charges were filed after them and
was positively identified by the complainant during an identification parade and question and answer interview
with the story. This is what we know. But I also found out
from nationwide radio JM dot com that this particular priest is named Lawrence Mouvemuvengi and
he is the one who was also granted bail when he appeared in front of
the Saint Katharine Parish court and he was granted a sum get this guy's of
eight hundred thousand dollars And I'm like, where did you get that squirrilla from
sir be able to put a bail after you sexually assaulted a child. And
he has been charged with rape and sexual grooming and having intercourse with the person
under sixteen and he is going to appear in court on September twenty seventh of
this year. So I think that this is a story that is definitely worth
following. But I just have a question for you all, just too,
if you want to go ahead and answer it for me. Do you all
think because the eight hundred thousand dollars was granted for him to get on bail
so he's not in jail now, do you think that this is probably a
part of that whole diocese in a fund that has been set aside for priests
that have been accused of sexually assaulting children in Filadel? What do you think?
Well, I had I had read about that outrageous ability to get out
on bail. I'm not I've had mixed feelings about the bail process because I
think it enables the rich. But moving past that right now, this guy
shouldn't be getting out of jail, and we all know that if it wasn't
directly from the Catholic Church. It's one of those angles, you know,
one of those semi Catholic related charities, not charities, but organizations that are
supporting this. This is, as I said, this is a criminal syndicate,
though you know, we can call it a church, and that's probably
true. At most churches. But at the bottom line is this guy committed
a crime that are most likely committed, a crime that all indications has said
earlier he should never get out, and the mere fact that anyone is interested
in seeing him out I would be more of even if I thought what I
wanted to give him the complete benefit of the doubt. Well, let's let
you sit and think about where you are right now, and then we'll see
what the evidence bears out. But no, like we continue to see,
let's make sure we minimize the responsibility for your actions. Whether you're guilty or
not doesn't matter. Let's go ahead and take care of our own. And
that's what I think we're seeing now, John, or what's your take,
I would agree with what you're saying, if anything is true. I've been
to Jamaica, but that was almost forty years ago now, so I don't
know what Jamaica's lie now, but it was a fairly poor country when I
was, and maybe Phil can fill us in on that a little more.
But I would say that, you know, there's no common person there and
no priest that I know who can come up with almost a million bucks for
bail. So I'm thinking that it had to be the church, even though
it doesn't. I don't I didn't see anything that's said where, But yeah,
you know, it's just really really a tragic event. But he should
stay in jail, and I think I don't remember which one it was,
but I think he was given house arrest. But you know, we know
what that is. He lives in a church house. So you know,
of course the bishops removed him from all pastoral work, but that doesn't necessarily
mean he's put up any blocks to his access to other children. You know,
he said the house last time. Yeah, so I'm kind of wondering
who else he's been grooming, Like you mentioned Infidel that you know, did
he come from that problem before, because it's just like the church to move
him to another country. So, you know, now we have a whole
bunch of whole slew of problems that just don't add up, you know,
as far as anything in the way of being of law abiding or legal precedent.
It just doesn't make sense to me. Phil, What do you got
to say. I know you're in Barbados, but I thought so that you're
in the Caribbean area, you might have a little bit to say. Yeah,
Jamaica is still in terms of because of the large difference. The when
you look at the dollar, I can't remember how much it is one US.
I can't math is one hundred and forty Jamaican. So one my questions
was is it eight hundred US or is it a one hundred thousand Jamaican.
And then the other thing, as you raise Jonathan the point that that's one
of the questions, I had to have he done this before? Yeah,
you know, because this is this, this is something that just don't happen
just so by chance. And on top of that, why that came to
my mind is two weeks later he fondled the girls were after the first assault.
So this is suggesting to me this is not something that just started.
This is something ongoing. And and and then the other question that came to
my mind is Kenyan from a Catholic priest, but they're moving from Kenya to
Jamaica. Why, Holly suspect? Why you know? So it raises a
number of questions and and and and and it is it is clear we know
from the past how the Catholic Church tends to move around problematic priests, especially
when it comes to this sexual abuse. They do it, and and and
and then the person goes on to do it again. And so when they
do not make them accountable, they do not remove them, they do not
even bring charges against them, you know, And just to say that it's
a priest, so he is excuse. No, he's a human being like
any one of us. And if one of us did it or behinds will
still be in jail. Can't make excuses, right, you can't make excuses
at all, and they should not. And the thing is is that this
seems like a slap on the wrist for that priest one hundred thousand. Maybe
it's Jamaican dollars, a hundred thousand Jamaican dollars, right, it's a slap
on the risk and very likely the church they pay for right. And there
I know there was a assault case here in Barbados where the the pasta right
and he assaulted the same age basically as this young lady, a young girl
too, around the same age, eleven or twelve years old. And the
persons in the congregation used to hold this guy up, put a red carpet
out for him. Then he's got an out the car, and so I
think, what if I remember correctly, they ostracize the girl, the young
girl, and I suspect any church members who love this this priest very lately
will do the same thing for your child. And maybe that's why another reason
why it took so long for them to reapport the incident. Yeah, yes,
right, so Cynthia, Yeah, where is the empathy for the victim?
I just I just want to know. I know that like a lot
of times, I hear some people say very problematic things when a person is
accusing another person of sexual assault. And when me too first came out and
you would hear the words believe me, and then some people will be like,
oh, they're just they're lying, or why would we believe you?
Or did you see what you were wearing or whatever you It still shows that
we have a long way to go in society before we are actually empathy and
empathizing with the victims of these terrible events. And I just want to say
one more thing before we wrap up. This very point was also brought up
on recent episodes, but I gotta say it, I'm so tired of reading
story after story of people accusing members of the LGBTQIA plus community of grooming children.
When we have story after story after story after story of priests and other
ministers and other people that are leaders in the religious community actually grooming children,
we got it backwards and we need to do better. And I hope that
possibly talking about this more we can make a difference. But if you dear
viewer, want to hear us talk more about things, click here.