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CONTENTS: AUGUST 6, 2000

Click. WOMEN CONTROL MORE THAN 50% OF THE PORNOGRAPHIC SITES IN CYBERSPACE. 

Click. ORAVAX'S WEST NILE FEVER VACCINE (to be sprayed over New York City?) AND THE UNIVERSAL VACCINE AGAINST GERM WARFARE TO BE GIVEN TO ALL CITIZENS.

Click. SPY SAYS CIA BACKED 1907s TERROR ATTACKS IN ITALY.  

Click. SAN FRANCISCO CHURCH FIRES TEENS TO AVOID LAWSUITS AGAINST PRIESTS FOR ABUSE. 

Policy on teens in rectories criticized

  8/6/00

A decision by the Archdiocese of San Francisco to no longer employ teenagers as rectory workers not only takes away opportunities from kids but fails to address the problem of abusive priests, said child advocates and community activists. "The church should look at dealing with the adults who have problems rather than doing away with the kids," said Marybeth Wallace, parent liaison with Coleman Advocates for Youth in San Francisco. "To take this opportunity away from kids is sad. What will they do next, eliminate youth from participating in their athletic league because there are adult coaches? Where does it stop?"

The new policy, ordered Friday by San Francisco Archbishop William J. Levada, is a prudent move to avoid future child-abuse lawsuits, according to archdiocese spokesman Maurice Healy. Recent suits have proven costly and embarrassing to the church.

In May, the archdiocese reached a settlement in a case prompted by a teenage rectory worker who accused his Burlingame pastor of physical and mental abuse.

Catholic churches have a tradition of paying teenagers minimum wage to do basic chores, such as filing papers and answering the phone. The work is generally done in the rectory, which is the priest's living quarters.

The policy will be phased in at the archdiocese's 89 parishes in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties over the next few months. Healy said the details of the policy have not been worked out, but that it's not intended to be Draconian.

"You see any number of institutions taking prudent measures like this," Healy said. "This policy is not meant to reflect poorly on priests nor punish teenage workers. It may be overly prudent but over time it will prove to be a good decision. Youth will still have a number of interactions with priests, in schools, youth ministries, other arenas. It just takes one avenue of interaction out."

Tim Unsworth, author of six books on the priesthood and a columnist with the National Catholic Reporter, said he thinks the archdiocese's policy is misdirected but not surprising.

"This is one more byproduct of rampant paranoia of lawsuits," he said. "I'm terribly concerned the church is turning to its lawyers for advice rather than to its pastors. Here in Chicago, when the cardinal calls a meeting of priests, he has a lawyer sitting at his right side.

"When I was a kid, this was about 57 years ago, I worked in my rectory and it gave me a social status that equated to that of football captain," he added. "Not once in all my years did a priest ever do anything improper. And that's probably the case still, with very few exceptions."

Eighteen-year-old Fernando Gonzalez, who has friends who gained role models by working in rectories, says the church's policy is "going at it the wrong way."

"To me, they're admitting that priests are doing something wrong and they can't be around children," said Gonzalez, whose family attends St. Elizabeth's Church in Oakland. "They should promote the opposite of that. They should start more youth programs, become mentors to more kids. I mean, what better role model can you have in life than a priest?"

San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, a Catholic school graduate, believes the policy is a tepid solution to a serious problem.

"Removing the apple from the Garden of Eden doesn't take care of the issue of concupiscence," Ammiano said. "There is always going to be temptation. The important thing is to help people with strength of character and commitment to morality."

Several Catholic priests contacted Saturday expressed sadness over the new policy, but declined to comment on the record. They wanted the official statement to come from the archdiocese's office.

Episcopal priest Mark Stanger, an associate pastor at Grace Cathedral in The City, said every adult who works with children should be clear on boundaries. Staff at his church take a workshop called Protecting God's Children that focuses on how to maintain appropriate boundaries and contact with youth.

"Almost all of us have benefitted from a special parent, teacher or mentor who took an interest in us," Stanger said. "Everyone who works with youth has to constantly put the integrity and needs of the young person ahead of their own emotional needs."

The Catholic Church's reputation has been tarnished in recent years by reports of abuse and misconduct by priests. Across the country, the Catholic Church is estimated to have spent $1 billion in clergy misconduct cases, and more cases continue to become public.

"This policy in San Francisco may be wise legally but it doesn't seem to be the most effective idea," said David Clohessy, the national director of Survivors Network Of Those Abused By Priests in Chicago. "It's a small, isolated step that really misses the boat. Besides, the majority of abuses that I'm aware of doesn't happen in the church rectories. It happens on camping trips or, occasionally, in the victim's home.

"I don't see it so much as a bad move," he said, "but a knee-jerk reaction in place of something comprehensive."

Gonzalez has harsher words for the policy.

"Most of my friends grew up without having a father figure of their own," he said. "Some found that in their priests. If you had any problems, you know you can go to a priest. A church can be like your family. I don't understand why the Catholic Church would make this decision. It's really extreme and it takes opportunities away from kids."

Rome - A former general in the Italian secret service has accused the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of being involved in a wave of bloody attacks in Italy in the 1970s, in an interview in Friday's edition of La Repubblica newspaper.

Gianadelio Maletti said the CIA used its two most powerful networks in Germany and Italy and enlisted the assistance of the extreme-right to "revive nationalism" and prevent Italy from moving politically to the left.

Maletti, who was appointed head of the main Italian military counter-espionage department in 1971, told the newspaper that the CIA channelled explosives through Germany for the attacks in Italy. "The CIA wanted ... to prevent Italian society slipping towards the left. This was the basis of this strategy of tension," he said.

The CIA wanted to prevent Italy from slipping towards the left More than 200 people died in Italy in the 1970s in attacks blamed on extreme-right groups. The investigation into many of the attacks was delayed when police were misled or given false information.

Maletti now lives in exile in South Africa after being sentenced to 31 years in prison by Italian authorities for helping two neo-fascists to escape capture and for misleading police in at least one bomb attack in Milan.

"Nato needed to collect information and use it to maximum effect. But the people who used and manipulated it were the American agents, the CIA," Maletti told La Repubblica.

"The CIA wanted to do (in Italy) what it had done in Greece in 1967, when the coup d'etat ousted Papandreou," he said, referring to George Papandreou, who was removed from power by a military coup in 1967. But the situation in Italy "slipped out of their hands", he said.

He told La Repubblica that in the 1970s he had informed many Italian politicians, including disgraced former prime minister Giulio Andreotti, of his belief that the CIA was working with extreme-right groups and high-ranking Italian officials.

But he said his information fell on deaf ears, because "if they had been passed to the justice system, they would have created a huge scandal".  Sapa-AFP

WOMEN CONTROL MORE THAN 50% OF THE PORNOGRAPHIC SITES IN CYBERSPACE. 

Women take control of cyberporn 
By Cherry Norton © 2000, 6 August 2000, The Independent, London.

Women have seized control of the sex industry and now control more than 50 per cent of pornographic sites in cyberspace.

"Scarlet collar" workers are the feminists of the modern age, say psychologists, free from coercion and the dangers of the traditional, male-dominated business. In the past two years they have moved away from traditional activities such as prostitution and lap dancing to become the majority of cyberporn owners in a branch of the sex industry now worth more than £1bn a year.

Research, presented at the American Psychological Association's annual conference in Washington shows that these "webmistresses" are in their late 20s to mid 30s – taxpayers who are, to the untutored eye, respectable citizens working in e-commerce.

Their interest in cybersex has been driven by a new form of empowerment, it is claimed: the women have independent salaries, control of their work environment and flexibility of hours. They earn salaries similar to those of teachers or clerical workers.

Many have chosen to have children and are leading "normal" suburban lives, hidden by the anonymity of the internet.

Dr Kimberlianne Podlas, a former criminal lawyer and now a psychologist at the Bryant Institute, New Jersey, and author of the study, contacted the women through her previous contacts with the police and vice-squads.

Dr Podlas said: "I have come to the conclusion that it is true liberation for women in the sex industry. Far from being complicit in the oppression and exploitation of women, webmistresses may reflect a degree of emancipation from male-dominated female imagery and economic control."

In the past decade, internet porn has been demonized "as the scourge of the web" and has been accused of leading to physical violence against women. However, Dr Podlas believes that female-controlled cyberporn has combated negative imagery and increased women's power.

"The internet has been, and will continue to be, a great equalizer in terms of power between the genders," she said, pointing to the anonymity of cyberspace and the low start-up cost of an internet business.

Only heterosexual sites were included in Dr Podlas's analysis because they reflected traditional pornography and the type of imagery that has been criticized as harmful. But the surveyed women saw only benefits, arguing that they increased their income, had a greater degree of control over their work, and were better able to bring up children. A minority did it for artistic and sexual expression, and for personal erotic pleasure.

One woman claimed that her salary had increased by 400 per cent while others reported more modest gains of 10 to 25 per cent. Another, who wanted to have a baby, said that she wanted the flexibility to stay at home during the later months of pregnancy and the early years of her child's life.

"The threat of violence or coercion in creating a site is greatly reduced if not eliminated," said Dr Podlas. "The photographer or cameraman demanding a particular shot is abolished."

She added: "Pornography is a tool of men, defining women and resulting in their subjugation and objectification. The internet is also a tool created by men. Nonetheless, with these tools now in the hands of women, they can be used to dismantle the master's house. In this way as cyberporn entrepreneurs, women can truly be mistresses of their domain."