tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker/1 2010-03-22T03:34:37Z A Blog by Kathy Shaw Movable Type 3.33 tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker//1.30965 2010-03-22T03:33:05Z 2010-03-22T03:34:37Z

IRELAND The Iirsh Times LORNA SIGGINS and MICHAEL PARSONS GALWAY AND CARLOW: THE POPE’S pastoral letter needs to be read in a spirit of “faith and openness”, Bishop of Galway Dr Martin Drennan said in Galway Cathedral at the weekend....

Kathy Shaw IRELAND The Iirsh Times LORNA SIGGINS and MICHAEL PARSONS GALWAY AND CARLOW: THE POPE’S pastoral letter needs to be read in a spirit of “faith and openness”, Bishop of Galway Dr Martin Drennan said in Galway Cathedral at the weekend. The letter is at times “very direct”, refers to “courage and resolve” and also acknowledges that there is “no quick-fix solution”, Dr Drennan said, when he read extracts from the text at 6pm Mass on Saturday. Although it clashed with the Six Nations rugby tournament, several hundred people attended the service. A Galway diocesan spokesman said Dr Drennan had opted for Saturday evening as he had confirmations to attend on Sunday. tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker//1.30964 2010-03-22T03:29:40Z 2010-03-22T03:31:42Z

ISRAEL Haaretz By Tomer Zarchin and Yair Ettinger The police are expected to announce that there is no basis for a criminal investigation against Mordechai (Moti) Elon, a prominent religious Zionist rabbi who last month was accused of committing sex-related...

Kathy Shaw ISRAEL Haaretz By Tomer Zarchin and Yair Ettinger The police are expected to announce that there is no basis for a criminal investigation against Mordechai (Moti) Elon, a prominent religious Zionist rabbi who last month was accused of committing sex-related crimes. Police said a preliminary probe indicates that while Elon did engage in sexual activity with young men, he did not violate any laws because they were of legal age and gave their consent. After the completion of the preliminary probe, investigators will present their findings to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein. Last month, Weinstein ordered the head of the police intelligence branch, Maj. Gen. Yoav Segalovich, to follow up on allegations aired against Elon by members of Takana, an umbrella group of religious Zionist organizations aimed at preventing and dealing with sexual harassment by religious leaders. tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker//1.30963 2010-03-22T03:26:58Z 2010-03-22T03:28:26Z

IRELAND Belfast Telegraph Monday, 22 March 2010 Ireland's Catholics listened to the Pope's apology for the conduct of the Church throughout a long-running paedophilia scandal at Mass yesterday. But any hope the extraordinary gesture would draw a line under abuse...

Kathy Shaw IRELAND Belfast Telegraph Monday, 22 March 2010 Ireland's Catholics listened to the Pope's apology for the conduct of the Church throughout a long-running paedophilia scandal at Mass yesterday. But any hope the extraordinary gesture would draw a line under abuse claims was dashed when a senior German cleric was the first to admit the church in the Pope's native Germany had “hidden for years” assaults by priests on young children. Robert Zollitsch, archbishop of Freiburg, told a German newspaper that the “assaults that took place in such numbers within our institutions shame and frighten me”. His remarks came even as senior Vatican figures claimed that Pope Benedict's pastoral letter on the Irish abuse cases was the last word on the scandal. tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker//1.30962 2010-03-22T03:24:21Z 2010-03-22T03:25:46Z

IRELAND The Independent (United Kingdom) Monday, 22 March 2010 Pope Benedict XVI published his letter to the Irish church on the issue of child abuse on Saturday. What was necessary seemed clear. He had to acknowledge the cover up of...

Kathy Shaw IRELAND The Independent (United Kingdom) Monday, 22 March 2010 Pope Benedict XVI published his letter to the Irish church on the issue of child abuse on Saturday. What was necessary seemed clear. He had to acknowledge the cover up of the rape and abuse of children by priests, to take responsibility for it, and to show how he would ensure it never happened again. But the letter failed to do any of that. There was no acceptance of responsibility for the now-established cover up, no plan to ensure that children will be properly protected around the global church, and no assurance that those who rape and abuse will be reported to the civil authorities. The letter is clearly an effort to restore the credibility of a church rocked by the publication of three state investigations into clerical crimes and church over ups in Ireland. The Pope has seen all three of these reports. tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker//1.30961 2010-03-22T03:21:15Z 2010-03-22T03:22:55Z

IRELAND The Independent (United Kingdom) Monday, 22 March 2010 There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of Pope Benedict's feelings. His letter was powerful, reading as if it had been written from the heart. So it should have been....

Kathy Shaw IRELAND The Independent (United Kingdom) Monday, 22 March 2010 There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of Pope Benedict's feelings. His letter was powerful, reading as if it had been written from the heart. So it should have been. Nothing less would suffice. The word "abuse" does not begin to describe the miseries which some of those Irish children endured. Go back 50 years to rural Ireland. The past is another country? More like another world. The pace of life is as gentle as the regular showers of light rain, as unhurried as the immaculate pouring of a glass of Guinness – and everything seems as harmonious as that pint when it finally arrives. True, there is not much sign of energy. It is some years since the last person with any get-up-and-go got up and went. But there is always good craic to be had, sometimes on serious subjects. The tourist would be reminded that twelve hundred years ago, when Western Christianity was struggling to survive, some of the most successful struggles took place in the West of Ireland, where the monasteries were among the few points of light in the Dark Ages. tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker//1.30960 2010-03-22T03:18:36Z 2010-03-22T03:20:05Z

IRELAND The Independent (United Kingdom) Monday, 22 March 2010 Pope Benedict's pastoral letter to Irish Catholics, extracts from which were read out in churches across Ireland yesterday, is a landmark for the Vatican and for the Roman Catholic Church in...

Kathy Shaw IRELAND The Independent (United Kingdom) Monday, 22 March 2010 Pope Benedict's pastoral letter to Irish Catholics, extracts from which were read out in churches across Ireland yesterday, is a landmark for the Vatican and for the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. It is the first time that the Vatican has given a statement of this kind on the issue of sexual abuse of children by priests, which the church had long been complicit in concealing. The Pope deserves credit for this and for acknowledging publicly the harm that has been done – not just the damage to the Church as an institution, but the profound hurt to very many individuals who were abused by adults in a special position of trust. There will be those, understandably, for whom the Pope's apology is nowhere near enough. While his contrition was heartfelt and far-reaching, he offered no specific apology for the elaborate ways in which the Church had sought to cast a veil of silence over the fact, and the extent, of paedophilia within its ranks. He referred only to "serious mistakes" among bishops in the way they had responded to the allegations. tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker//1.30959 2010-03-22T03:15:28Z 2010-03-22T03:17:22Z

UNITED STATES The Plain Dealer ERIKA SLIFE, Chicago Tribune CHICAGO -- A day after the pope issued an apology to victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in Ireland, two leaders from a Chicago-based group for survivors of church sexual...

Kathy Shaw UNITED STATES The Plain Dealer ERIKA SLIFE, Chicago Tribune CHICAGO -- A day after the pope issued an apology to victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in Ireland, two leaders from a Chicago-based group for survivors of church sexual abuse left for Europe to meet with victims, criticize Vatican officials and urge independent investigations into church sex crimes. "That's why we're going now. We're extremely concerned about what's coming out of Rome," said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, before she left for Munich on Sunday. "We've been hearing from so many victims from across the globe. We're going to be meeting with some of the survivors and advocates. We're hoping to possibly meet with government officials as well." The group made their hasty arrangements on Friday in anticipation of Pope Benedict XVI's apology on Saturday to Irish Catholics for what he called sinful and criminal acts committed by priests and the failure of Church authorities to respond to them. But the pontiff's letter has been criticized by victims' groups for not going far enough to discipline Catholic leaders for inaction. tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker//1.30958 2010-03-22T03:12:29Z 2010-03-22T03:13:48Z

IRELAND The Irish Times Among the online responses to the pastoral letter on irishtimes.com were: Vincent Xavier: Everybody speaks about victims and for the victims and nobody wants speak about the victims of this media frenzy. Why don’t you speak...

Kathy Shaw IRELAND The Irish Times Among the online responses to the pastoral letter on irishtimes.com were: Vincent Xavier: Everybody speaks about victims and for the victims and nobody wants speak about the victims of this media frenzy. Why don’t you speak for the innocent priests and religious who suffer humiliation because some criminals in the church did criminal activities. You are victimising the innocent people and don’t you think what you are doing is wrong. Patrick Brennan: What appears to be an apology is in reality an opportunity for more Catholic Church propaganda. As soon as I read the opening lines where the pope makes it sound like all this information is new to him, frankly I switched off. Does anyone really believe that this is the first time he’s heard of this type of behaviour? Ivan: The pope carefully distances the Vatican from the criminal cover-up. According to teachings a confession should be full and open for absolution. This is not. The pope also has this carefully worded so as to maintain primacy of canon law over civil law. So, we have two issues: the Vatican response – ignored; and the issue of the paedophiles. Neither are satisfactorily addressed. tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker//1.30957 2010-03-22T03:09:45Z 2010-03-22T03:11:06Z

IRELAND Irish Examiner By Noel Baker Monday, March 22, 2010 BISHOPS criticised in the Pope’s pastoral letter could come under renewed pressure to resign after the message to Irish Catholics sparked anger among some victims’ groups. There was a mixed...

Kathy Shaw IRELAND Irish Examiner By Noel Baker Monday, March 22, 2010 BISHOPS criticised in the Pope’s pastoral letter could come under renewed pressure to resign after the message to Irish Catholics sparked anger among some victims’ groups. There was a mixed response to the contents of the letter, with some survivors of abuse welcoming Pope Benedict’s apology for clerical child sex abuse, while others said it did not go far enough. In extraordinary scenes, Bishop of Kerry Bill Murphy was verbally attacked as he read the Gospel at Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in Killarney yesterday, while at Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral protesters staged a walkout demonstration. tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker//1.30956 2010-03-22T03:06:54Z 2010-03-22T03:08:26Z

IRELAND The Globe and Mail (Canada) Eric Reguly Rev. Donal Collins was known as “The Slinker” or “Paws.” That's because he would prowl the dormitory at St. Peter's College in Wexford, Ireland, at night, looking for boys to indulge his...

Kathy Shaw IRELAND The Globe and Mail (Canada) Eric Reguly Rev. Donal Collins was known as “The Slinker” or “Paws.” That's because he would prowl the dormitory at St. Peter's College in Wexford, Ireland, at night, looking for boys to indulge his perverted sexual desires. The Diocese of Ferns received the first complaints of abuse against Father Collins in 1966. The bishop treated the case as a moral failure and sent the teacher-priest away, but he returned two years later and the abuse resumed. Some boys complained about demands for mutual masturbation and oral sex, but officials did nothing and Father Collins kept being promoted. The wave of complaints did not force his resignation until 1991. Two years later, he admitted to the abuses. He served one year in jail and was not defrocked until 2004 – 38 years after his sexual crimes began. Father Collins was just one of many Irish priests who got away with abusing children for many years, even decades, as the Catholic church in Ireland protected its own or failed to understand the severity of the allegations. Eventually, three state investigations were launched, two of them last year, each a damning chronicle of sexual horror. The Vatican refused to co-operate in those probes. But this weekend, Pope Benedict XVI apologized for the trauma inflicted on the victims and their families. tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker//1.30955 2010-03-22T03:03:27Z 2010-03-22T03:05:16Z

IRELAND The New York Times By JOHN F. BURNS and EAMON QUINN Published: March 21, 2010 DUBLIN — Pope Benedict XVI’s weekend apology to sufferers of sexual abuse at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland met with...

Kathy Shaw IRELAND The New York Times By JOHN F. BURNS and EAMON QUINN Published: March 21, 2010 DUBLIN — Pope Benedict XVI’s weekend apology to sufferers of sexual abuse at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland met with a deeply skeptical and often angry response from many Catholics here on Sunday, with one prominent victim calling it ineffectual and demanding that the pope forcibly remove the head of the Irish church if he does not resign. In the apology, Benedict expressed “shame and remorse” to victims and their families for “sinful and criminal” acts committed by members of the clergy. His apology, a pastoral letter, was read aloud at all weekend Masses in the 26 Catholic dioceses spread across the Irish Republic and the six British-governed counties of the north, and handed out in printed form to thousands of churchgoers. But in the apology, issued on Saturday, the pope did not require that Cardinal Sean Brady, who is the head of the Irish church, or any other church leaders be disciplined for their mistakes, as some victims had hoped. Nor did he clarify what critics in Ireland and elsewhere have said are contradictory Vatican rules about the procedures for investigating abuse cases within the church and church leaders’ responsibility to inform civil authorities about offenses they uncover, a duty the pope reiterated strongly in his letter. tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker//1.30954 2010-03-22T03:01:11Z 2010-03-22T03:02:12Z

IRELAND The Irish Times THE BISHOP of Clogher, Joseph Duffy, failed to report allegations of clerical child sex abuse against a priest to the civil authorities. He was also party to at least one civil settlement involving a claim made...

Kathy Shaw IRELAND The Irish Times THE BISHOP of Clogher, Joseph Duffy, failed to report allegations of clerical child sex abuse against a priest to the civil authorities. He was also party to at least one civil settlement involving a claim made against the diocese, in which a non-disclosure agreement was signed between the diocese and the claimant of sexual abuse. Dr Duffy was told in 1989 that Fr John McCabe, who was a teacher at St Michael’s College, Enniskillen, had abused a boy in his care. He did not report the allegations to the police, according to a Sunday newspaper. tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker//1.30953 2010-03-22T02:58:25Z 2010-03-22T02:59:51Z

IRELAND The Irish Times MICHAEL O'REGAN POLITICAL REACTION: ABUSE SURVIVOR Andrew Madden received a standing ovation from Fine Gael delegates in Killarney on Saturday when he criticised Pope Benedict’s pastoral letter. Mr Madden had been invited to the national conference...

Kathy Shaw IRELAND The Irish Times MICHAEL O'REGAN POLITICAL REACTION: ABUSE SURVIVOR Andrew Madden received a standing ovation from Fine Gael delegates in Killarney on Saturday when he criticised Pope Benedict’s pastoral letter. Mr Madden had been invited to the national conference to speak on children’s rights. After studying the document, Mr Madden said it represented, “not an inability to do the right thing, but an unwillingness to do the right thing”. He repeated his call for the resignation of the pope and Cardinal Seán Brady, arguing that the pastoral letter had changed nothing. A major problem, he said, was the pope’s failure to accept the cover-up of clerical sex abuse in Ireland. tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker//1.30952 2010-03-22T02:56:11Z 2010-03-22T02:57:10Z

GERMANY The Irish Times DEREK SCALLY in Berlin GERMANY: THE PRESIDENT of the German Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, has said Pope Benedict’s letter to Irish Catholics can be applied to the church in the pontiff’s homeland. As it faces...

Kathy Shaw GERMANY The Irish Times DEREK SCALLY in Berlin GERMANY: THE PRESIDENT of the German Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, has said Pope Benedict’s letter to Irish Catholics can be applied to the church in the pontiff’s homeland. As it faces its own abuse scandal, the German Catholic Church had been characterised by a “culture of cover-up”, the German prelate said, but was now “steering a different course”. “What the Pope says has relevance for the entire church and is clearly a message to us in Germany,” said Archbishop Zollitsch. “We know that mistakes were made here in Germany, we German bishops have recognised these mistakes . . . and cannot allow these mistakes to be repeated. Therefore I understand the pope’s admonition of the bishops in Ireland as an admonition of us. The scandal of sexual abuse is no mere Irish problem. It is a problem of the church in many places and it is a scandal of the church in Germany.” tag:www.bishop-accountability.org,2010:/AbuseTracker//1.30951 2010-03-22T02:53:41Z 2010-03-22T02:54:49Z

IRELAND The Irish Times ALISON HEALY CORI REACTION: THE CONFERENCE of Religious in Ireland (Cori) said the pastoral letter was an important part of the process of confronting the mistakes of the past, encouraging healing and ensuring that the safeguarding...

Kathy Shaw IRELAND The Irish Times ALISON HEALY CORI REACTION: THE CONFERENCE of Religious in Ireland (Cori) said the pastoral letter was an important part of the process of confronting the mistakes of the past, encouraging healing and ensuring that the safeguarding of children was an absolute priority. Cori represents 135 religious congregations and has circulated the letter to all its members. Its director general Sr Marianne O’Connor said Cori particularly welcomed the pope’s acknowledgement that abuse victims and their families had suffered grievously. She said the pope had recognised that all religious were suffering as a result of the sins of their predecessors. They had “betrayed a sacred trust or failed to deal justly and responsibly with allegations of abuse”, she said. Sr Marianne noted the pope’s commitment to conducting an apostolic visitation to certain dioceses in Ireland, as well as seminaries and religious congregations. “It is unclear as to how many religious congregations will be part of this process and we await the detail on this as referred to in the letter,” she said.