HERESIOLOGY

Persecution of Cathars, Albigenses and Waldenses

Michael D Magee

17 Pages

1 File ▾

Religious Persecution,

Cathars,

Heretics,

Christian Heretics, From Valentinus to the Cathars.,

Medieval Heretics

Four Church Councils in 1119, 1139, 1148 and 1163 declared the Cathars to be heretics. The Council of Toulouse in 1119 and then the Lateran Council of 1139 urged the secular powers to proceed violently against heresy—they did not. Even so, Cathars were burned or imprisoned in many places, but, William IX of Aquitaine and many of the nobles of the Midi continued to protect them. They valued their industry and integrity in a corrupt world. The French bishops at the Council of Tours (1163) discussed the presence of Cathars in Cologne, Bonn and Liege. They called them Manichæans, a taunt, for they knew they were not, and the Cathars called themselves the Good Christians. From 1180 to 1230, the Catholic Church enacted legislation against heresy, and set up a permanent tribunal, staffed by Dominican friars. It was the Inquisition.

https://www.academia.edu/17812123/Persecution_of_Cathars_Albigenses_and_Waldenses

Heresy and the Free Spirit: Beghards and Béguines

Michael D Magee

28 Pages

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Heresy and Inquisition,

Heresy of the Free Spirit,

Lollards,

Beguines and Beghards,

Georgi Vasilev

In northern Europe, the Free Spirit of Beghards and Béguines led the war against the established Church. From around 1250, they cited Cathars, Waldenses, and Joachites. Their common beliefs included hatred of the Church, that sacraments are worthless, the spiritual value of poverty, and most important of all, that each of us can become God. Organized in small groups, they faded away when trouble threatened, “migrating from mountain to mountain like strange sparrows”, a good description of the lifestyle the fleeing Cathars were obliged to follow. If they differed, they were merely variations on the Cathar original.

https://www.academia.edu/17812335/Heresy_and_the_Free_Spirit_Beghards_and_B%C3%A9guines

Catharism as a Counter Church

Michel Gybels

13 Pages

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From a sociological point of view, Catharism is perceived as a protest movement, which attacked the established values and habits defended by the Roman Catholic Church and worldly power. In conformity with this approach, it is necessary to pay special attention to the explicit values of Catharism, which are contrary to Roman Catholicism. For instance, the rejection of marriage, the outright prohibition on killing living beings, the rejection of the crucifix and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the ban on swearing oaths, the Eucharist, baptism by water and the belief in God as creator of the material world.

https://www.academia.edu/8142116/Catharism_as_a_Counter_Church

New light on the dissident "Church of the Latins" in Constantinople (Crossroads of Bogomils and Cathars I)

Dick van Niekerk

281 Views23 Pages

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Medieval Church History

The almost forgotten church of the Cathars in Constantinople, also called Church of the Latins, had many similarities with the Greek Church of the Bogomils in Constantinople. Both churches played an important, nevertheless distinguishing, role in the distribution of dualistic ideas in the West.

https://www.academia.edu/19768614/New_light_on_the_dissident_Church_of_the_Latins_in_Constantinople_Crossroads_of_Bogomils_and_Cathars_I_

The cathar version of the legend of Barlaam and Josaphat (Crossroads of bogomils and cathars II)

Dick van Niekerk

14 Pages

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Late medieval popular religion, heterodoxy and heresy, memory in the later Middle Ages.

There are at least three close and irrefutable connections between the Bogomils and Cathars. The Cathars adopted the creation myth, The Secret Supper or Interrogatio Johannis, of the Bogomils. It is also proven that the Cathars adopted the federal organization structure of the Bogomil churches during the Council of Saint Félix and Lauragais in 1167, as recommended by the Bogomil bishop Nicetas. The third element of the intimate relationship between Bogomils and Cathars is the initiation ritual of the latter, the consolamentum (or teleiosis), which is rather identical with that of the Bogomils. There are even more connections. In this article we will focus on the Occitan version of the famous medieval legend of " Barlaam and Josaphat " as the binding element between Bogomilism and Catharism. What is it that makes the legend of Barlaam and Josaphat interesting as a binding element between Bogomils and Cathars, even though there is no known Bogomil version? We are especially indebted to Marie Madeleine van Ruymbeke Stey for an answer. In her little known dissertation 1 she aims to prove that the Occitan version of our legend has Cathar roots. One of the things she states is that there is a remarkable spatiotemporal parallel between the history of the spread of the legend on the one hand, and of dualism 2 on the other. This goes alongside current Christianity: Manichaeism, Paulicianism, Bogomilism and Catharism. According to Van Ruymbeke, the legend has been a vehicle, an allegorical tool, for the spread of dualism from east to west, from the third to the fourteenth century. 1 M.M.A. van Ruymbeke Stey, Au confluent du catharisme et du bogomilisme, le Barlam et Jozaphas occitan. Approche culturelle et sémiologique, Ohio 1997 dissertation. 2 Dualism as a concept has only been in existence for two centuries and it can be applied to almost all gnostic systems. There are two completely separate worlds: the divine world created by God and this world, being the world of Satan and the world of evil. These worlds are often designated as the realm of light and the realm of darkness. Analogically, the human being is also of dual nature. He is matter, but there is also a divine principle in him which reminds him of his divine origin and, when his consciousness rises, guides him back to his divine source.

https://www.academia.edu/27677550/The_cathar_version_of_the_legend_of_Barlaam_and_Josaphat_Crossroads_of_bogomils_and_cathars_II_

Bogomils on Via Egnatia and in the Valley of Pelagonia: the Geography of a Dualist Belief

Robert Mihajlovski

19 Pages

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This paper treads my long-term field research on the dualist religious movement called Bogomilism that is located along the ancient Roman communication of Via Egnatia and in the valley of Pelagonia. I discuss various written historical sources and topography in the region of Western Macedonia where Bogomilism had its strongholds. In addition, I also deal with some of the neglected monuments and remnants of the Bogomilism in the region. There are two ways in promoting this complex research: theoretical and topographical analysis of the Bogomil faith within the context of place and time. Here I also include archaeological, ethnographical and theological investigation of the religious group labeled as Bogomil.

https://www.academia.edu/10719189/Bogomils_on_Via_Egnatia_and_in_the_Valley_of_Pelagonia_the_Geography_of_a_Dualist_Belief

BOGOMILS AND THE REFORMATION: crossroads and missing links

Dick van Niekerk

11 Pages

1 File ▾

abstract: The year 2017 marked the 500 th anniversary of the Reformation, and it has been celebrated throughout Europe. In this paper, the author aims to examine the connection between beliefs of the Bogomils and the ideas of the Reformation. Controversially, the former have been called " the precursors of the Reformation " and even " the first Protestants in Europe. " These claims will be investigated here in the light of the subject of free will and the so called bogomilian dualism. Both the similarities and differences between Bogomil thinking and the ideas of significant reformers, such as John Wycliffe, Jan Hus, and Martin Luther, will be discussed. Based on textual sources, it is argued that there are shared beliefs between Bogomils and reformers, and that both have a strong will to reform the religious life, but we cannot say that there is clear evidence that ideas of the Reformation have been adopted directly from these early dissidents. We can conclude, however, that Bogomil ideas served as an eye-opener for protestant thinkers, though beliefs about free will changed throughout history. Whereas Bogomils believed in the free will of their Perfects, Pico della Mirandola, being inspired by the Gnostic tradition, adopted this, together with Humanists such as Erasmus, and early reformers of the Church, like Wycliffe and Hus. However, the instigator of the Reformation, Luther, changed his mind radically, and rejected the idea of a free will for human beings altogether in favor of the grace

https://www.academia.edu/35593228/BOGOMILS_AND_THE_REFORMATION_crossroads_and_missing_links

The Question of Neobogomilism

Nemanja Radulovic

2014, Пути гнозиса: мистико-эзотерические традиции и гностичское мировоззрение од древности до наших дней/Ways of Gnosis. Mystical and Esoteric Traditions and Gnostic Worldview from Antiquity to the Present TIme

14 Pages

1 File 

https://w

ww.academia.edu/9844763/The_Question_of_Neobogomilism 

The Bogomils: Mediaeval Gnostics or crypto-Heretics?

Dick van Niekerk

10 Pages

1 File ▾

Medieval Church History

The alleged hypocrisy of the Balkan Bogomils often earned them the scorn of their contemporary orthodox critics. The Bogomils completely rejected the Orthodox Church, yet attended their services. They even allowed the sacraments to be administered to them. The author shows that this phenomenon of “crypto-heresy” can only be satisfactorily explained if we assign the Bogomils a place in the age-long gnostic tradition. The Bogomils exemplified a mediaeval variant of Gnosticism. Their crypto-heresy was a consciously chosen strategy, also common in other gnostic groups.

https://www.academia.edu/19768881/The_Bogomils_Mediaeval_Gnostics_or_crypto_Heretics

The history of Manicheism

Michel Gybels

613 Views9 Pages

1 File ▾

When examining Catharism and related medieval heresies, we oftentimes encounter the claim that these religious dissidents are connected with ancient Manichaeism and that the Cathars and their coreligionists were adherents of Mani. This claim was predominantly put forward in the polemist writings of the opponents of Catharism and related movements, such as Durand of Huesca in his Liber contra manicheos (1223) and numerous inquisitors, including Bernard Gui, who fully dedicates the first chapter of his Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis (1323) to “ the errors of the Manichaeans of this age”.

https://www.academia.edu/9691348/The_history_of_Manicheism

Why Bosnian Church did not belong to Bogomilism; "Kr'stjani" (mystics) vs "Bogomili" (dualists)

Amer Dardağan

Published 2019

18 Pages

1 File ▾

Gnosticism,

New Testament,

Christian Mysticism,

Mysticism,

Manichaeism

 ...more ▾

Show more ▾

This paper in a simple and transparent way critically examines the rejected belief in science that Bosnian Church and its followers doctrinally and organisationally belonged to the dualist sect of Bogomilism. The research was carried out by a comparative analysis of the basic dualistic postulates of Gnosticism, Manichaeism and Bogomilism on the one hand and the available domestic sources of the Bosnian Church on the other. The importance of the work is reflected in the concise and detailed scientific argumentation that undermines "Bogomil Bosnian Church" myth, while offering a new scientific thesis on the religious and doctrinological affiliation of the "Bosnian faith" and the Bosnian "krs'tjani". In the first part, the paper deals with the problem of extreme and moderate dualism, with a special emphasis on the Neognostic, Neomanichaean and Bogomil communities in medieval Balkans. In the second part, the basic premises of Christian mysticism are given, including the possibility of its philosophical and theological compatibility with the teachings of the Bosnian Church, where for the first time the phenomenon of the name "kr'stjani" is explained in relation to the mystical union ("unio mystica").

https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/3v26f/

JUNG AND THE MONOTHEISMS; JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM

 

PDF  https://www.academia.edu/1925046/SUFI_PSYCHOLOGY

THE DARK SIDE OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY

 

PDF https://www.academia.edu/28203979/Ellerbe_The_Dark_Side_of_Christian_History_1995_pdf

THE INDIVIDUALIST ANARCHIST DISCOURSE OF EARLY INTERWAR GERMANY

PDF
 https://www.academia.edu/38180363/The_Individualist_Anarchism_of_Early_Interwar_Germany?auto=download&email_work_card=download-paper

Louisiana gators thrive, so farmers’ return quota may drop

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY

 An alligator swims in the Maurepas Swamp, thirty miles outside New Orleans, in Ruddock, La., Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021. Once-endangered alligators are thriving in the wild, so Louisiana authorities are proposing another cut in the percentage that farmers must return to marshes where their eggs were laid. The big armored reptiles don't breed well in captivity, so farmers are allowed to collect eggs from wild nests, as long as they return a percentage as youngsters too big for most other animals to eat. 

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, file)


NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Once-endangered alligators are thriving in the wild, so Louisiana authorities are proposing a deep cut in the percentage that farmers must return to marshes where their eggs were laid.

“Over the past 50 years, alligator nest surveys have increased from an estimate of less than 10,000 in the 1970s and 1980s to well over 60,000 nests in recent years,” the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission said in a notice published Wednesday. “This increase in nesting has produced a population that can now be sustained with a much lower farm return rate.”

The commission is taking comments until Jan. 4 on a proposal to cut that rate from 10% to 5%.

The big armored reptiles don’t breed well in captivity, so farmers are allowed to collect eggs from nests as long as they return a percentage to the same area as youngsters big enough to foil predators other than people and much bigger alligators.

Alligator hides are made into luxury leather for products including watchbands, boots and purses. The meat is used in sausages; companies also sell roasts, steaks, ribs, nuggets, jerky and even whole skinned alligators. Forelegs are marketed as “alligator wings.”

About 1.2 million have been returned since alligator farming was approved in 1986, Jeb Linscombe, head of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ alligator program, said Thursday.

The return percentage was first set at 17%, based on estimates that about 83% die in the egg or before they’re 4 feet (1.2 meters) long. A wild-hatched gator that size would be about 4 years old, but readily available food lets farmed alligators grow much faster.

Raccoons, other predators and floods destroy about one-third of all nests. The black and yellow hatchlings are about 8.5 inches (22 centimeters) long and weigh only 2 ounces (57 grams). That makes them easy prey for bigger gators, wading birds, otters and fish even though mother alligators stay with their babies for about a year.

Uncontrolled hunting nearly wiped out American alligators before Louisiana barred all hunting in 1962. Alligator mississippiensis was among the first species federally listed as endangered in 1967, after Congress passed the precursor to the Endangered Species Act.

“The primary reason the species recovered is .. elimination of the black market,” Linscombe said.

Louisiana allowed small, highly regulated hunts in 1972 and 1973, opening a statewide season in 1981. Two years later, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled that the species had recovered over most of its range, and it was “de-listed” entirely in 1987.

Since 1972, more than 1.1 million wild alligators have been killed, over 11 million alligator eggs have been collected, and nearly 7.3 million farm raised alligators have been sold, according to the state management program’s 2019-2020 annual report.

Surveyors who flew over coastal marshes during the summer of 2019 estimated the number of alligator nests at a record, nearly 68,000. This year’s estimate was a few thousand below that, Linscombe said.

A change in weather patterns is one reason for the big numbers, he said. There are far fewer nests during droughts, when the water is low — and there were regular droughts over the first 40 years of state nest surveys. But there haven’t been any droughts over the past decade.

Hunters took 23,828 alligators during the wild season in 2019. It was the second straight increase “but harvest remains depressed due to an oversupply of crocodilian skins worldwide,” the report said.

Harvest numbers this year and last have been depressed by Hurricanes Ida, Laura and Delta, and by COVID-19 restrictions, Linscombe said.

Farmers’ return rate has been reduced several times over the years.

Current regulations require farmers to return 10% of hatchlings within two years — with a sliding scale based on average lengths of 36 to 60 inches (0.9 to 1.5 meters). Higher average lengths bring the percentage down.

Nearly 387,000 eggs were collected in 2017. resulting in about 39,000 farm-raised alligators two years later that were measured, tail-notched, tagged and released. Their sex was also determined, since biologists want at least half to be females.

About 450,000 eggs were collected this summer, Linscombe said.

The effects of a change from 10% to 5% may not show up for 10, 15, even 20 years, he said.

“The key to everything is to monitor it and make sure the action you took is going to have the result you thought it would,” he said.

US

Cities seek to loosen rules on spending federal pandemic aid
By DAVID A. LIEB

Birds fly past a bridge connecting the Oceanside pier to Pacific Street Friday, Oct. 15, 2021, in Oceanside, Calif. The iconic bridge is deteriorating because the city lacks the money for a roughly $25 million rehabilitation. One reason the project has slowed while projects in other cities are moving ahead revolves around the American Rescue Plan — the sweeping COVID-19 relief law championed by President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats that is pumping billions of dollars to states and local governments. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

At the Loma Verde Recreation Center south of San Diego, demolition work is underway on a $24 million project that will rebuild the facility from the ground up, complete with a new pool. An hour’s drive to the north, the iconic bridge to the Oceanside pier is deteriorating because the city lacks the money for a roughly $25 million rehabilitation.

A reason one project is moving ahead and the other isn’t revolves around the American Rescue Plan — the sweeping COVID-19 relief law championed by President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats that is pumping billions of dollars to states and local governments.

Under rules developed by the U.S. Treasury Department, some governments have more flexibility than others to spend their share of the money as they want. That’s why the new swimming pool is a go, and the rehabbed pier — at least for now — is a no.

Similar disparities among cities across the country have prompted a pushback from local officials, who want Treasury to loosen its rules before the program progresses much further.

“Otherwise, they are penalizing cities for the pandemic, not providing them relief,” said Wade Kapszukiewicz, the mayor of Toledo, Ohio.

At issue is $350 billion for states, counties and cities that was part of the massive COVID-19 relief bill Biden signed in March. The money is intended to help shore up their finances, pay the ongoing costs of fighting the virus and invest in longer-term projects that could strengthen communities for years to come. The funding was made available by the Treasury beginning in May — though states and cities have been slow to start spending it.

The Treasury’s guidelines give governments leeway to choose from more than 60 subcategories for spending the money, including COVID-19 vaccinations, premium pay for certain workers, housing aid, grants to businesses and improvements to water, sewer and internet infrastructure.

But one particular category stands out for its flexibility. Governments that lost revenue can use their federal aid for almost any services, up to the amount of their losses. That means they can spend the money on roads, a recreation center or a pier, which might not otherwise be eligible.

Treasury spokesperson Liz Bourgeois said the plan gives governments “the resources and flexibility they need to avoid cuts, hire or retain workers, provide essential services, and come out of the pandemic stronger.” Democratic congressional leaders also have praised the Treasury’s flexible guidance.

But some local officials think the Treasury’s formula for calculating lost revenue is too restrictive. It rolls most revenue sources together instead of calculating losses on a fund-by-fund basis, which would let governments claim losses in dedicated funds such as gas taxes for roads even if other revenue grew. Local governments also want to exclude recently enacted tax hikes from the calculation, which they contend masks the depth of their losses during the pandemic.

In Toledo, voters last November approved a temporary one-quarter percent income tax increase that is projected to raise $19 million annually for roads. As a result, that revenue will offset other losses under the Treasury’s calculation, meaning the city won’t have the flexibility to use relief money to replace old police vehicles, Kapszukiewicz said.

“It now falsely looks like our economy has recovered more than it has, when in reality, it merely reflects the revenue produced by putting an extra burden on ourselves,” the mayor said. “It’s absurd.”

In California, more than 250 cities and counties enacted voter-approved tax increases since 2018 — most coming during or after the 2018-19 fiscal year that forms the basis for calculating revenue loss, according to an analysis conducted for The Associated Press by government finance consultant Michael Coleman.

The southern San Diego suburb of Chula Vista, which did not enact new taxes, calculated revenue losses of more than $32 million under the Treasury’s guidelines — covering over half its $57.5 million allotment under the American Rescue Plan. Among other things, the city is directing $12.2 million for culvert repairs at two intersections to alleviate flooding and $8 million to add new aquatic facilities to a planned renovation of the Loma Verde Recreation Center. Had the city not been able to tap the revenue-loss category for federal funding, those projects could have been pushed off indefinitely, said Chula Vista city engineer William Valle.

By doing it all at once “it’s open to the community -- boom, everybody’s happy,” Valle said.

In Oceanside, however, officials have less latitude over their federal aid. Voters there approved a one-half cent sales tax that took effect in April 2019, reducing its revenue loss under the Treasury formula from $22 million to $12 million and limiting its spending flexibility. Further complicating matters, the city spent nearly $2.6 million from its reserves — which otherwise could have gone toward infrastructure — to provide meals, homeless services and business grants during the pandemic. But the Treasury’s rules prohibit the federal aid from being used to replenish reserves.

Oceanside officials would like to be able to direct more of their federal money toward fixing the seismically unsafe 1920s-era bridge that leads to its pier.

“It’s imperative that the pier be maintained and restored so that it continues to attract visitors,” said Rick Wright, CEO of MainStreet Oceanside, the downtown business association. He added: “I don’t think it’s immediately noticeable to people that it’s in grave need of restoration, but if you look close enough, you can see where there’s cracks and pieces that have fallen out already.”

Other cities also have written to the Treasury asking it to loosen its revenue-loss rule and give them greater say over the money. It’s a reasonable request, but the dispute highlights that local governments are receiving “dramatically more money” than needed, said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president of the nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Treasury officials said they are considering the comments but have given no indication of whether they will change the rule, nor when the final version will be released.

In the meantime, Des Moines, Iowa, is holding off on making spending decisions for the $47 million it received. The city wants clarification on whether it can count $34 million of losses not currently allowed under the Treasury rule, which would give it far more flexibility, said deputy finance director Joe Brandstatter.

In Lincoln, Nebraska, plans for a new parking garage have been delayed because of the Treasury’s revenue-loss rule. Parking revenue plunged during the pandemic, said mayoral aide Kate Bolz, but the city can’t make up for it all because a new sales tax earmarked for streets reduced its 2020 revenue loss from $13.5 million to $2.4 million under the Treasury’s formula.

Flagstaff, Arizona, also has put plans for a downtown parking garage on hold because of the Treasury rule and may have to delay replacing its aging snow plows, street sweepers and trucks. New revenue from a combination of dedicated taxes and storm-water fees offset the city’s loss under the Treasury’s formula, taking away its flexibility for the federal aid.

“The intent of what Congress wanted to do is to help support cities who had these big dollar losses to continue providing the services,” said city treasurer Rick Tadder. But the Treasury’s rule “is restrictive on how cities can demonstrate the true impact on our revenues during this pandemic.”

Coast Guard: 1,200-foot ship dragged California oil pipeline

By MATTHEW BROWN

today

 In this Thursday, Oct 7, 2021 file photo, Workers in protective suits clean the contaminated beach in Corona Del Mar after an oil spill in Newport Beach, Calif. California's uneasy relationship with the oil industry is being tested again by the latest spill to foul beaches and kill birds and fish off Orange County. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File)

Investigators believe a 1,200-foot (366-meter) cargo ship dragging anchor in rough seas caught an underwater oil pipeline and pulled it across the seafloor, months before a leak from the line fouled the Southern California coastline with crude.

A team of federal investigators trying to chase down the cause of the spill boarded the Panama-registered MSC DANIT just hours after the massive ship arrived this weekend off the Port of Long Beach, the same area where the leak was discovered in early October.

During a prior visit by the ship during a heavy storm in January, investigators believe its anchor dragged for an unknown distance before striking the 16-inch (40-centimeter) steel pipe, Coast Guard Lt. j.g. SondraKay Kneen said Sunday.

The impact would have knocked an inch-thick concrete casing off the pipe and pulled it more than 100 feet (30 meters), bending but not breaking the line, Kneen said.

Still undetermined is whether the impact caused the October leak, or if the line was hit by something else at a later date or failed due to a preexisting problem, Kneen said.

“We’re still looking at multiple vessels and scenarios,” she said.

The Coast Guard on Saturday designated the owner and operator as parties of interest in its investigation into the spill, estimated to have released about 25,000 gallons (94,635 liters) of crude into the water, killing birds, fish and mammals.

The accident just a few miles off Huntington Beach in Orange County fouled beaches and wetlands and led to temporary closures for cleanup work . While not as bad as initially feared, it has reignited the debate over offshore drilling in federal waters in the Pacific, where hundreds of miles of pipelines were installed decades ago.

The DANIT’s operator, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, is headquartered in Switzerland and has a fleet of 600 vessels and more than 100,000 workers, according to the company.

MSC representatives did not immediately respond to email messages seeking comment. A security guard reached by telephone at the company’s headquarters in Geneva said it was closed until Monday.

The vessel’s owner, identified by the Coast Guard as Dordellas Finance Corporation, could not be reached for comment.

The DANIT arrived in Long Beach this weekend after voyaging from China, according to marine traffic monitoring websites.

The investigation into what caused the spill could lead to criminal charges or civil penalties, but none have been announced yet, and Kneen said the probe could continue for months.

Attorneys for MSC and Dordellas will have the chance to examine and cross-examine the government’s witnesses in the case and also to call their own witnesses, according to the Coast Guard. The investigation also includes the National Transportation Safety Board and other agencies.

Kneen declined to say if any damage was found to an anchor on the DANIT after a team of at least five investigators spent much of Saturday aboard the ship.

At least two other vessels were previously boarded by investigators, who are examining logs kept by the ships’ captains, officers and engineers and voyage data recorders — equivalent to the so-called black box on airplanes.

In response to the new focus on the DANIT, the Houston-based owner of the damaged pipeline, Amplify Energy, thanked the Coast Guard for its continued work on the case.

Amplify representatives have not directly responded to questions about an hourslong delay between an alarm indicating a potential problem with the pipeline and the company reporting the leak to federal authorities.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Huntington Beach is in Orange County, not Los Angeles.

REST IN POWER

Nun imprisoned over peace activism, Megan Rice, dies at 91


FILE - In this Aug. 9, 2012, file photo, Sister Megan Rice, center, and Michael Walli, in the background waving, are greeted by supporters as they arrive for a federal court appearance in Knoxville, Tenn., after being charged with sabotaging a government nuclear complex. Rice, who served two years in prison and was released when her original conviction was thrown out by a federal appeals court, died of congestive heart failure Oct. 10, 2021, at Holy Child Center in Rosemont, Pa. She was 91. (Michael Patrick/Knoxville News Sentinel via AP, File)

ROSEMONT, Penn. (AP) — Megan Rice, a nun and Catholic peace activist who spent two years in federal prison while in her 80s after breaking into a government security complex to protest nuclear weapons, has died. She was 91.

Rice died of congestive heart failure Oct. 10 at Holy Child Center in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, according to her order, the Society of the Holy Child Jesus.

“Sister Megan lived her life with love full of action and zeal,” said Carroll Juliano, American Province Leader for the order. “Her commitment to build a peaceful and just world was unwavering and selfless.”

Rice was born in New York to activist parents who would meet with well-known Catholic writer Dorothy Day ( SAINT DOROTHY DAY FOUNDER OF THE CATHOLIC WORKERS ORG) during the Great Depression to craft solutions for societal problems, she said in a 2013 interview with the Catholic Agitator.

Her activism was also heavily influenced by her uncle, who spent four months in Nagasaki, Japan, after it and Hiroshima had been leveled by atomic bombs to hasten the end of World War II, bombings that Rice would later call the “greatest shame in history.”

While still a teenager, she entered the Society of the Holy Child of Jesus to become a nun. She made her final vows in 1955 and took on the religious name Mother Frederick Mary. Rice later earned degrees from Villanova and Boston University, where she earned a Master of Science.

She taught at elementary schools in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts for more than a decade before being assigned to work in Nigeria.

Rice spent 23 years in West Africa working as a teacher and pastoral guide. It was there that she started hearing about the plowshares movement, a reference to a Bible passage that refers to the end of all war: “They will beat their swords into ploughshares.”

When she returned to the U.S., Rice began her involvement in anti-nuclear activism.

“I felt drawn to the peace movement,” she said in the Catholic Agitator interview. “I felt very inspired by direct action on nuclear issues. My uncle was such a strong influence and he was still alive at that time.”

Court records show she already had been convicted four times for protest activities when she and two fellow Catholic peace activists, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed, broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in July 2012.

The trio cut through several fences and and spent two hours outside a bunker storing much of the nation’s bomb-grade uranium, where they hung banners, prayed, hammered on the outside of the bunker and spray-painted peace slogans.

They were arrested and charged with felony sabotage. Federal prosecutors described Rice and her codefendants as “recidivists and habitual offenders” who would break the law again “as soon as they are physically capable of doing so,” according to court records

Rice’s attorneys sought leniency from U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar, arguing the nun’s devotion to Christian nonviolence posed little threat to the public. Rice wrote a letter to the judge asking him to follow his conscience.

But the judge was unmoved, telling the defendants their moral beliefs were “not a get out jail free card.” Rice was sentenced to three years in prison and Walli and Oertje-Obed each received more than five years.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the sabotage charge and the three were freed in May 2015 after serving two years. They were later resentenced to time already served on a lesser charge of injuring government property.

While testifying during her jury trial, Rice defended her decision to break into the Oak Ridge uranium facility as an attempt to stop “manufacturing that...can only cause death,” according to a trial transcript.

“I had to do it,” she said of her decision to break the law. “My guilt is that I waited 70 years to be able to speak what I knew in my conscience.”

Gambian Toufah Jallow tells of surviving rape by dictator

In this undated photograph provided Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021 by the The Toufah Foundation, Toufah Jallow, Gambia's face of empowerment for generations of women, poses for a portrait. Jallow first became popular as Gambia’s scholarship winner in a contest for young women with academic promise. Now, she is the face of empowerment for a generations of women who, because of her, feel more emboldened to talk about sexual violence. (Toufah Foundation via AP)
By CARLEY PETESCH

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Toufah Jallow’s name resonates deeply in Gambia as one of the few women who has taken a public stand against sexual assault in the small West African state.

She gained fame at the age of 18 when she won a university scholarship in a national talent competition for young women. But in 2015 she fled Gambia, fearing for her life, after dictator Yahya Jammeh allegedly drugged and raped her, angry that she had turned down his marriage proposal.

She lived quietly in Canada, worried that Jammeh would persecute family members in Gambia. After Jammeh fell from power she later found the strength to go public with her story, despite Gambia’s culture of silence over sexual assault, she told The Associated Press.

The nation was riveted when she held a press conference to share her account via social media and in a human rights report in June 2019. She also testified months later to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Now, Jallow is telling her story in detail in a newly released memoir: “Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement.”

“In June 2015, Yahya Jammeh, then the president of The Gambia, raped me. He has never been charged. Never convicted ... He thought he would get away with it, tried to erase me. I thought I would never speak of it, that I would remain invisible. We were both wrong, because I am here, shining like the sunrise of the melanated coast,” she writes. “I am Toufah Jallow. This is my story.”

In the book, co-written with journalist Kim Pattaway, Jallow describes her journey from the daughter and granddaughter of women who in their own way pushed against the country’s patriarchy to the evening of her alleged rape and her tense escape and the resulting traumas and challenges.

Jallow said she wants to be a role model for others who have experienced sexual assault and to help them deal with it.

“I wanted to make my life as relatable to young girls as possible so (they see) that what I did is achievable (and) is not seen as a miracle,” she said. “It takes an ordinary girl who grew up in a village somewhere in The Gambia with a mother and with 20 siblings in a polygamous home.”

Coming from a humble background, Jallow was swept into a high-profile role because of her scholarship, attending many public events with then-president Jammeh. After receiving gifts from Jammeh, who was already married, and rejecting his proposal to become one of his wives, Jallow was lured to the president’s private quarters, where she says he drugged and raped her.

Jammeh hasn’t reacted, but his party has denied everything.

Jallow didn’t tell a soul in Gambia, fearing the worst for herself and her family. She knew there were hundreds of people who had been arrested for daring to question Jammeh.

Terrified, Jallow fled Gambia. She hid her identity by wearing a niqab (head-to-toe veil) so that state agents wouldn’t recognize her. She went to Senegal and with the help of trusted allies made it to Canada where she now lives.

For years, no one in Gambia knew what had happened to Jallow. She lived as a refugee in Canada, working odd jobs to support her classes.

“For the longest time ... I would always shove it aside,” she said of her trauma. But seeing statistics for sexual assault with so few being held accountable bothered her. “I have never felt more invisible,” she said of that period.

Speaking about sex and sexuality, “it’s just not done,” in Gambia, she said. There is not even a word for rape in her native Fula language, she explained to AP. Instead people use phrases like “Somebody fell on me.”

Jammeh lost elections and fled the country in 2017. Gambia then opened a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the reports of abuses and killings during his 22-year rule.

When Jallow came forward in 2019 about her assault, it unleashed a movement. More than 50,000 people were glued to social media when she first spoke. Women then marched holding banners saying “#IAmToufah” and there was an outpouring of others’ stories of rape.

Jallow speaking out was a “wind of change” in Gambia, said Marion Volkmann-Brandau, a women’s rights activist who helped guide Jallow and led the human rights investigation into sexual assault in Gambia that saw her come forward.

“There was this moment of support ... women coming out generally about rape and having a story to share showed they weren’t invisible anymore,” she said. “Gambians realized too how widespread the issue was.”

That hope, however, has unfortunately dwindled, Volkmann-Brandau said, as the legal system must be reformed in order to take sexual assault seriously.

But the groundwork has been laid and Jallow has started the Toufah Foundation, set up to help support of survivors of sexual assault in Gambia. Her goal is to have Gambia’s first fully functioning women’s shelter.

Her name is now used to discuss rape in communities once unable to talk about it.

She travels to Gambia often, while studying in Canada to be a counselor for women and children victims, and is also working on a documentary that follows survivors of sexual violence.

And if Jammeh returns to Gambia, Jallow says she will fly there to confront him.

“I feel like I am too visible to be invisible anymore,” she said. “I have faced the worst fear ... I have survived him physically.”