Abuse Tracker

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY and HARRY McGEE

The State must take over management of schools and stop “copping out” of its responsibilities in education, Government chief whip Pat Carey has said in the context of the continuing fallout from the Ryan report.

Speaking to The Irish Times last night, Mr Carey said there was now “an opportunity to explore how the State can take on its responsibilities for delivering an educational system”.

He said he was was thinking principally of primary education, and of all the denominations running schools in that sector. At second level he felt there may be difficulties as many schools in that sector are run by trusts. Speaking as someone who taught at primary level for 30 years, he believed the State had been “copping out” of its responsibility in education and that “though [financially] this might not be the time to do it, there is never a good time”.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

COLM KEENA, Public Affairs Correspondent

ORDER'S ASSETS: THE SISTERS of Mercy, cited in the Ryan report on institutional abuse, have an extensive portfolio of property and other assets, filings in the Companies Registration Office show.

The order is involved in the ownership and operation of the Mater hospital in Dublin and University Hospital, Cork, each of which have associated companies.

The order is divided into a number of provinces and they have companies that hold their properties in trust. These companies do not give values for the properties and other assets held.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

FIONA GARTLAND

YOUTH MINISTRY: CHILD PROTECTION guidelines introduced by the Catholic Church should ensure there is no safer place in Ireland for young people to be involved than in modern church work, the Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor has said.

Launching the church’s framework document on youth ministry in Ireland Called Together, Making the Difference , Bishop Donal McKeown said the document was the beginning of a new conversation about how to be an evangelising and youth-friendly church in modern Ireland.

“This book is not the last word, but it is saying that, whatever terrible things have happened in the past, we will not be locking ourselves in upper rooms but continue to take seriously our call to live the Gospel and to proclaim it,” he said.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY and FIONA GARTLAND

CONGREGATIONS: THE PRESENTATION Sister who helped negotiate the 2002 compensation agreement for abuse victims with the Government has said she is keeping her mind “totally open” on what further contributions the religious congregations may make in the context.

Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Sr Elizabeth Maxwell said she was “waiting until the meeting with the Taoiseach next Thursday to see what proposals he has’’. Then “the congregations can decide how much they can contribute’’ towards that, she said.

The 2002 agreement was conducted “in good faith’’ at the time, she said, and “on the basis of figures made available to us by the Government and the congregations.’’

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

ABUSE CASES: BETWEEN 2,000 and 5,000 more people may seek redress for abuse experienced as children in religious-run institutions, a leading legal firm has estimated.

A spokesman for the Dublin firm, which has been dealing with people abused in such institutions, said it based the estimate on the number of contacts made with its office and the fact that approximately 140,000 children had been through the institutions between the 1930s and the 1970s. Of that number, 14,584 had applied to the Residential Institutions Redress Board for compensation by the deadline of December 15th, 2005.

The only exceptions allowed to the deadline was for people suffering from a mental incapacity.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY and FIONA GARTLAND

CHRISTIAN BROTHERS: CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS should be brought against those guilty of abusing children in religious-run institutions, the Christian Brothers has said.

The order’s communications director, Brother Edmund Garvey, said yesterday the 18 orders, cited for abusing children in their care by the Ryan commission, should make substantially more resources available to compensate victims.

In an interview on BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence show, Brother Garvey said: ‘‘The processes of the law and the processes of the State and of the legal system must be used to bring people to justice who perpetrated criminal actions against children.’’

IRELAND
The Irish Times

ANALYSIS: SINCE THE publication of the Ryan commission report almost a fortnight ago, it has been said (with a certain sense of relief) that at least the era of institutional child abuse is firmly in the past. Such complacency is in fact profoundly misplaced, writes MARY RAFTERY

It is certainly true that you will not find in the Ryan report much detail of more recent cases of abuse within children’s residential homes. Mr Justice Seán Ryan tends to focus more on the abuses of the industrial schools era, which effectively ended in the mid to late 1970s.

There are a few exceptions to this, most notably the examination of abuse and neglect of children at the group home in Cappoquin, Co Waterford, run by ex-Mercy nun Nora Wall, identified in the Ryan report as Sr Callida, together with important details of recent abuse at the Christian Brothers-run school for deaf boys in Cabra.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

OPINION: Governments abdicated their responsibilities for decades by refusing to question the structures they inherited, writes TONY KINSELLA

READING THE Ryan report and witnessing the incandescent and inspiring statements of the victims leaves one with a revolting numbness. A numbness which is a human response to cruelties as unimaginable as they are real.

Cruelties which were made possible by a total abdication of political responsibility. As our European and local elections take place this week, we are faced with the stark challenge of finding a response to this most political of scandals, and to this indictment of our country.

It is a curious fact that former colonies, including those liberated by force of arms, perpetuate colonial structures and practices. Images of Algeria’s gendarmerie or the Kenyan chief justice suffering in his heavy robes and woollen wig under a blazing sun spring to mind. Ireland is no exception.

IRELAND
RTE News

[with audio]

Sunday, 31 May 2009 20:46
The Government Chief Whip has said that they will now attempt to return the compensation scheme for abuse victims to the 50-50 approach originally proposed by the Department of Finance.

Pat Carey told tonight's RTÉ The Week in Politics Programme that he hopes this approach will get the backing of all the political parties.

This could mean the Government would secure substantial additional contributions from the 18 religious orders who were party to the agreement signed in 2002.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Eilis O'Hanlon

Sunday May 31 2009

With apologies to Noel Coward's famous post-war anthem about the Germans, the Irish right now really need to adopt a new slogan: "Let's Not Be Beastly To The Catholics".

It's true that the Church has behaved abominably, but we're in the middle of the worst economic crisis to hit this country since, well, forever, and this isn't the time to go alienating those who are clearly financial geniuses.

These people actually managed to make a profit out of abusing children. First by getting the State to hand them millions of pounds in old money to, ahem, "look after" vulnerable kids.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sunday May 31 2009

ARCHBISHOP Diarmuid Martin doesn't know; Father Sean Healy of the Conference of Religious of Ireland doesn't know; Sister Marianne O'Connor director-general of the Conference of Religious of Ireland doesn't know; the Minister for Justice doesn't know; the Christian Brothers' Superior doesn't know.

None of them knows, they claim (correctly in the Minister's case) how much money and assets belong to the religious congregations in Ireland, the criminals who tortured children and profiteered from their unpaid labour for generations. But even now, they will not easily give them up; that is clear after the revelations and statements of the last terrible week

We have something called the Criminal Assets Bureau in Ireland. It has the powers to freeze assets, access bank accounts, and confiscate the proceeds of crime. It was never imagined that the CAB would have to carry out its work in such sickening circumstances.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By John Drennn

Sunday May 31 2009

Sometimes, just as you wonder if the way everything goes wrong for Brian Cowen is fair the Taoiseach's response to the Ryan report into child abuse clarifies everything.

Enda Kenny, who if not the next Taoiseach should be appointed to a new Ministry of National Empathy, caught the mood perfectly as he said the real tragedy here was the damage done to those who had experienced a childhood "without love".

As Eamon Gilmore, who is far better at asking rather than answering questions, wondered "why did ministers and senior officials turn a blind eye?" once again Mr Cowen came up short.

IRELAND
Sunday Business Post

Sunday, May 31, 2009 By Pat Leahy, Political Editor
Taoiseach Brian Cowen will embark on a few days of frantic campaigning as he attempts to rally the traditional Fianna Fáil vote to save the party’s local and European Parliament seats - and perhaps his own job - in advance of Friday’s elections.

Today’s Sunday Business Post/Red C tracking poll shows a further decline in the Fianna Fáil vote from the last poll a fortnight ago, confirming the cratering of the party’s vote in the low 20s. It is perilously close to dropping into the teens. ...

While the government was surely not helped by its hesitant and, at times, confusing reaction to the Ryan Report into child abuse in industrial schools, the fall in support for the party also indicates that the unchanged model of Fianna Fáil electioneering - going around the country announcing things - is meeting an unresponsive audience.

IRELAND
Sunday Business Post

Sunday, May 31, 2009
As public outrage grew last week about the revelations in the report from the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, some religious orders were shamed into agreeing to make further reparations for the sexual and physical abuse perpetrated by their members.

This new contribution, it has been emphasised, will be in addition to the €128 million already given by the orders. The Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori), which represents 138 religious congregations, last week urged religious orders to pay 50 per cent of redress for victims. Its justice spokesman, Fr Sean Healy, also said that all 18 religious orders mentioned in the report should re-enter negotiations with the government and allow an audit of all their resources and properties.

However, there has been little scrutiny of the real value of the non-cash contributions transferred by the orders as part of the original deal. In fact, it is difficult to establish any real benefit to the state from many of the properties.

IRELAND
Sunday Business Post

Sunday, May 31, 2009 By John Burke
institutional child abuse.

Detectives will focus their probe on whether members of religious orders who passed information to the Ryan Commission gave contradictory or misleading information to Gardaí during previous criminal investigations as far back as the 1990s.

The investigating unit will also be asked to identify whether there are any internal Church documents or memoranda relating to allegations or knowledge of child sexual abuse that were not disclosed during previous investigations.

In the coming days, the garda unit, under the command of Assistant Commissioner Derek Byrne, the force’s highest operational commander, will begin to examine statements made by senior clerics to the Ryan Commission.

VENICE (FL)
Bradenton Herald

HERALD STAFF REPORT

Although the Archdiocese of Miami has decided to close some churches and centers due to effects of the harsh economy, that is not the case with the Diocese of Venice, which covers 56 parishes in a 10-county area, including Manatee County.

“We have no plans to close anything down,” said Rob Reddy, assistant communications director for the Diocese of Venice.

“We have been very strategic in our growth,” Reddy said, adding that congregations must have financing in hand before proceeding with new projects.

MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald

[letter from Bishop Favalora]

BY JAWEED KALEEM
jkaleem@MiamiHerald.com
The Archdiocese of Miami announced Sunday that 14 struggling Catholic churches will close in the coming months.

The churches on the list have not been able to financially support themselves and have lost significant membership.

''We're looking at a shift in the Catholic population,'' said archdiocese spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta, adding that the archdiocese can no longer afford to subsidize stained churches.

The churches to close include Resurrection, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, St. Cecilia, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Francis Xavier, St. George, St. Luke, St. Philip Neri, St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Vincent de Paul, Divine Mercy Mission, St. Joseph Haitian Mission, Our Lady of Aparecia Mission, and Vietnamese Apostolate.

IRELAND
Sunday Business Post

Sunday, May 31, 2009
My mother died in 1942. I was eight years old at the time. There were 13 children in the family. Eight of us were dragged away by the ‘cruelty men’ of the ISPCC and brought to the court in Clonmel.

Four of us boys were taken together to Ferryhouse. One boy was sent to Cappoquin [industrial school] and, when he was five or six, he was sent from there to Ferryhouse. He was there for two and a half years before we found out that he was our brother. My three sisters were sent to industrial schools as well.

What they did to me and my family - they tore us to shreds and cast us to the four corners of the earth and forgot about us. Before you went into an institution, you were really brothers or sisters, but then different brothers went into other groups.

MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald

[with video]

By DIANA MOSKOVITZ, JAWEEED KALEEM and JOSE PAGLIERY
dmoskovitz@MiamiHerald.com
A popular Miami priest nicknamed ''Father Oprah'' said Sunday that ''church is about forgiveness'' during his first sermon since leaving the Roman Catholic Church after photographs surfaced of him kissing his girlfriend on Miami Beach.

The Rev. Alberto Cutié gave the sermon at the Episcopal Church of The Resurrection in Miami. Episcopalian priests can marry, unlike their Catholic counterparts.

He had barely said good morning when Cutié received a standing ovation. A handful of people held their personal cameras in the air, capturing what they could.

MIAMI (FL)
Archdiocese of Miami

[names of potential merging and receiving parishes]

What is a parish?
A parish is a community of the Catholic faithful established by the bishop usually having territorial boundaries.

How many parishes are there in the Archdiocese of Miami?
There are 117 parishes, 3 missions and 8 ethnic apostolates in the Archdiocese of Miami, rich with cultural diversity and people who are in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

How many Catholics are there in the Archdiocese of Miami?
The official Catholic Directory states 800,000 practicing Catholics; however, based on services provided through parish-based ministries and social services, the Archdiocese of Miami estimates 1.3 million Catholics in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties.

Is the Archdiocese of Miami closing parishes?
It is incorrect to state that parishes are closing; some are being joined to neighboring parishes. For more than 50 years the Archdiocese of Miami has established parishes to meet the growing needs of its Catholic community. In recent years the Archdiocese has experienced certain changes in demographics as well as the economical, pastoral, and social needs in some parishes. Some of the changes in demographics have resulted in new parishes, especially in the western sections of the Archdiocese.

MIAMI (FL)
NBC Miami

By CARLOS MILLER

Updated 4:36 PM EDT, Sun, May 31, 2009

On the day that religion’s hottest free agent made his smashing debut with the Episcopalian Church, the Archdiocese of Miami announced it would shut 14 struggling churches that have been unable to financially support themselves.

Archbishop John Favalora blamed the demise on shifting demographics rather than on outdated policies, not to mention the deviant scandals that have plagued the church in recent years.

The Archbishop believes that Miami’s Catholics are moving in droves to the western suburbs, which is why there has been such a decline in churches along the eastern corridor of Miami-Dade and Broward counties, where the 14 churches are based.

SOUTH AFRICA
IOL

By Fiona Forde

As Patrick Mellet read through the Ryan Report last week, there was hardly a word of it that didn't resonate with him.

The report documented 85 years of abuse at the hands of Irish Catholic priests and nuns in the now-defunct orphanages in Ireland. It all sounded chillingly familiar to him. Yet he couldn't find any solace in the fact that it was now all out in the open. Because the Ryan Report is not about Mellet.

It's not about the hundreds, maybe thousands, of South Africans who were abused at the hands of Irish missionaries here. It refers only to the victims of the Irish-based clergy.

BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Catholic Online

BRIDGEPORT (Diocese of Bridgeport) – In the United States District Court Friday, attorneys representing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport filed a lawsuit against officials of the State of Connecticut Office of State Ethics (OSE), seeking a court order to stop them from an unconstitutional application of state lobbying laws.

These officials are requiring the Diocese – and presumably all other organizations – to register as a lobbyist in order to engage in activities such as a rally at the State Capitol or using its website to encourage its members to contact their elected representatives. Application of the law in this manner would subject the First Amendment rights of Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, and Freedom of Assembly to government oversight and penalties.

IRELAND
Sunday Business Post

Sunday, May 31, 2009 By Diarmaid Ferriter
In assembling and providing such an overwhelming body of evidence about what went on in residential institutions, the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse has provided a corrective to the atmosphere of secrecy and shame that surrounded these experiences for so many years. It has also provided future historians of 20th century Ireland with invaluable information on attitudes to child welfare.

A frequent contention offered by leaders of the religious congregations during the public hearings of the commission was that child abuse in the formative and middle decades of the 20th century was not understood as it is now. They maintained that it was seen primarily as a moral, rather than a criminal, issue and that, given the circumstances of the time, their response was only what could have been expected.

It was also asserted that industrial schools were a positive force in Irish society during difficult times, and that the problems encountered by the religious orders, and their actions, had to be set in the broader context of lackof funding, education and training, and the role of the state as overall manager of the childcare system.

MALTA
The Times of Malta

Fr. Joe Borg

A number of shocking stories hit the Catholic Church in recent days. Scandalous and shocking stories are frequent fare in an organisation of one billion or so members; but perhaps the reports published in the last couple of weeks were more serious than the usual dose published from time to time. These stories which must have hurt and scandalised many Catholics as well as many men and women of good faith.

2600 pages of abuse

The worst one, in my opinion, was the report published in Ireland, which revealed that abuse of minors was endemic in several institutes run by religious orders in Ireland.

A 2600 page report documented the physical and sexual abuse that was endemic in Irish institutions for children run by religious between 1940 and the late 1970s.

The Report of the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse said that children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from. In addition to being hit and beaten, witnesses described other forms of abuse such as being flogged, kicked and otherwise physically assaulted, scalded, burned and held under water. Witnesses reported being beaten in front of other staff, residents, patients and pupils as well as in private. High Court Justice Sean Ryan chaired the commission of inquiry, established in 2000.

NEW YORK
New York Post

By REUVEN BLAU and BRAD HAMILTON
May 31, 2009

Thou shalt not blackmail.

Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio threatened state lawmakers by vowing to close churches in their districts -- and blame them for the closures -- if they dared support a bill making it easier for people who were sexually assaulted as kids to sue, legislators told The Post.

They said the dark warning came during a "legislative breakfast" at DiMarzio's Brooklyn residence, as he told the gathering of about 20 state and city politicians that he would retaliate against Albany lawmakers if they backed the Child Victims Act.

The controversial bill -- which could be heading for an Assembly floor debate as soon as June 8 -- seeks to extend the statute of limitations for lawsuits involving the rape or molesting of youngsters. It could cost the Church hundreds of millions in payouts to victimized parishioners. ...

"There's no question about it being blackmail," the Rev. Kieran Harrington said. "If the legislators are saying there's a threat involved, they're trying to create a story where there is no story. We're dealing with an anti-Catholic bias that's pervading the New York state Assembly."

WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

Dianne Williamson

The most facile observation one can make about the latest Catholic sex scandal — this one involving a popular priest caught cavorting on the beach with his girlfriend — is: Well, thank God she’s a grown-up.

It could have been — and has been — so much worse.

As noted, though, that’s just the easy part of the story. The aptly named Rev. Alberto Cutié (pronounced koo-tee-ay) is the latest clergyman to reignite the debate over celibacy within the priesthood, and call rather heart-breaking attention to the unreasonable demands the church places on its priests.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sunday May 31 2009

'HIT him again, he's a priest." The words of Dermot Clifford summing up the alleged attitude of RTE current affairs towards Irish clergy.

Today, Clifford is Archbishop of Cashel and Emly and one of the most important authorities in the Irish Catholic Church. The Pope recently made him Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Cloyne when Bishop John Magee was let step aside voluntarily after failing to follow church guidelines on child abuse.

Clifford's words were written almost 30 years ago, on his way up as diocesan secretary in the Diocese of Kerry. He was objecting to a programme about the exercise of episcopal power on the Beara Peninsula that an RTE team -- including this writer -- had made.

IRELAND
National Catholic Register

Saturday, May 30, 2009 9:49 AM

Damian Thompson has a tough question to ask about the Irish abuse scandal. “How much of the abuse was Irish and how much of it was Catholic?”

“Journalists noticed (but scarcely dared point out) that” the worldwide abuse scandal “seemed concentrated among the Irish Catholic diaspora.”

He said a prominent American priest scholar agrees ...

Thompson reports in the Telegraph that he had dinner with the priest and nervously raised the question about the disproportionate number of Irish involved in abuse stories “rather nervously. To my surprise, he agreed immediately.”

He said that the Irish didn’t leave their legacy of domestic violence and alcohol behind them when they arrived in America; the phenomenon of the weak, drunken father persisted, and this reinforced the towering status of the priest in the Irish diaspora, enabling a minority of clergy - and it was never more than a small minority - to abuse spiritual power for sexual ends.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

In the 'good old days' of Ireland, we knew our place, writes Joseph O'Connor

Sunday May 31 2009

We did what we were told.

We were happy, obedient.

We had come through much.

We knew our place.

Our children beaten,

Starved, raped,

In the homes

They lived in fear of; by Mothers,

By the Brothers.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Willie Kealy

Sunday May 31 2009

BERTIE AHERN doesn't often find himself out of step with popular opinion. In fact, one of the main criticisms levelled at him over the years is that such is his devotion to the national pulse that he has too often tried to please all the people to the detriment of taking hard decisions.

But last weekend he appeared to slip -- and slip badly -- when asked about the burning question of the day: should the lop-sided deal with the religious orders be revisited? In essence, the former Taoiseach felt there was no point because he didn't believe the Church had much money. "I don't think they do. If somebody can find that they do have money, well good luck to them."

Bertie Ahern was speaking at the end of a week in which the response from the Church was one of either defiance -- in the case of the religious orders -- or silence, in the case of the Bishops. And that silence was largely echoed by a number of government ministers who chose to hide behind legalities. Safe ground you might have thought for the former Taoiseach who had after all been in charge when his then Minister for Education, Michael Woods with the involvement of Charlie McCreevey, did the deal.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By John Drennan

Sunday May 31 2009

One of the more delightful moments in Irish politics occurred in 1977 when the FG/Labour Coalition received the results of an opinion poll they had somewhat unwisely commissioned after they called the election.

A mordant observer subsequently noted that as the figures which showed that a FF landslide was inevitable were read out all that was heard around the cabinet table was "the clattering of tea cups on saucers". ...

Ironically, the forensic destruction of Dempsey by child abuse survivor Michael O'Brien was a touch cruel as Dempsey has been one of the few proactive ministers on this issue.

But sympathy should be stayed by Dempsey's status as an unapologetic representative of a party which is as responsible for the systemic abuse of Irish children as the Church.

When it comes to the system of governance that allowed children to be abused for decades, even Mr Cowen's circumspect lawyerly apologies cannot disguise the fact that FF vigorously glorified the culture which facilitated this abuse.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Eoghan Harris

Sunday May 31 2009

From early morning, I get an extraordinary response to my reflections on the historical roots of the abuse revealed in the Ryan report, published in today's Sunday Independent, and which, I argue, arose from a distortion of Daniel Corkery's shamrock of land, religion and nationality, set on a common stalk of class distinction.

Pat Rabbitte refers to it on Today FM's Sunday Supplement. So does Joan Burton on Newstalk's The Wide Angle. Actually she refers to it three times. Each time the presenter, Karen ("I was a BBC foreign correspondent") Coleman fails to follow up with anything but silence.

Why do I believe it would have been fulsomely followed up if written by one of Coleman's peers in one of the small-selling Sunday newspapers? Because every week she begins with the exactly the same mantra. "There's a great piece today by X (insert a PC journalist's name) in the Sunday X (insert any paper with a smaller circulation than the Sunday Independent)."

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sunday May 31 2009

A leading member of the Christian Brothers has called for more compensation to be made available for child abuse victims in the wake of the Ryan Report.

Brother Edmund Garvey said the orders named in the report need to provide more resources for survivors of the abuse in state-run institutions.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

Criminal prosecutions should be brought against those guilty of abusing children, a spokesman for the Christian Brothers has said.

The congregation’s communications director Brother Edmund Garvey said: "The processes of the law and the processes of the State and of the legal system must be used to bring people to justice who perpetrated criminal actions against children.”

In an interview on BBC Radio Ulster , Brother Garvey also said the 18 orders, cited for abusing children under their care in the Ryan report, should make more resources available for compensating victims.

IRELAND
RTE News

Sunday, 31 May 2009 13:09
One of the leaders of the Christian Brothers in Ireland has called for more resources to be made available to provide compensation to victims of abuse.

Brother Edmund Garvey made the comments in an interview on BBC Radio Ulster.

An agreement was reached between the religious orders and the Government in 2002 which limited the amount of money they would have to pay victims of abuse.

NEW YORK
New York Post

By ANGELA MONTEFINISE

May 31, 2009

Steve Jimenez has waited four decades for justice. A controversial state bill could be the answer to his prayers.

Jimenez, 55, is one of dozens of New York Catholics claiming they were sexually abused as children by clergymen. He claims it happened repeatedly at the hands of a teacher at Holy Name Elementary School in Brooklyn from 1964 to 1967.

"I didn't understand what was going on," said Jimenez, who still lives in Brooklyn and has been seeing a psychiatrist for three decades. "This guy was very much a father figure to me. I couldn't tell my family or my friends. I felt such deep shame."

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By MAEVE SHEEHAN

Sunday May 31 2009

IN August 2000, a short newspaper report in the Irish Independent caught the eye of Sr Elizabeth Maxwell. A colleague had brought it to the nun's attention and she read it with interest. It was over a year since the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, had apologised for the abuse inflicted on children raised in homes and orphanages run by religious orders. Mr Ahern set up a commission to investigate the abuses. What Sr Elizabeth was reading now added another dimension: money. The commission intended to compensate the victims.

Sr Elizabeth was then director general of Cori, an umbrella group of religious orders. More than a dozen of them were facing claims of mistreating children, including her own order, the Presentation Sisters. Presumably, the State's plan to compensate some of those people would not help their defence.

Sr Elizabeth rang the only contact she had in the Department of Education, Tom Boland. Mr Boland, who now heads the Higher Education Authority, was on holidays. A few days later, Fergus Costello, another official in the Department, called her back. Mr Boland was still on holidays but would the religious orders be interested in meeting? Sr Elizabeth agreed.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sunday May 31 2009

I joined the Christian Brothers at 12. I don't mean I first went to the CBS at age 12; I signed up to become a Christian Brother.

It was 1973, I wasn't long out of short trousers having just made my Confirmation. No one could stop me, not even teary pleas from my mother and stern looks from my soldier father who simply asked, "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

I wasn't taken screaming and kicking, I volunteered. I had a vocation. Even at the age of 12 I thought I knew everything. I am not sure if I wanted to save the world or to see the world, as the Brothers had schools everywhere.

IRELAND
BBC News

Religious orders at the centre of a report into child abuse in the Republic should make more resources available for compensation.

This is according to a member of the leadership team of the Irish Christian Brothers, Brother Edmund Garvey.

The orders have been strongly criticised for doing a deal with the Irish government several years ago.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

FINTAN O'TOOLE

CULTURE SHOCK: WHEN A society is shocked into recognising its own ugliest face in the mirror, as ours has been with the Ryan report, it needs a lot of things to happen. Most of them are political and financial and social. But some of them are psychic. They exist in the area of ritual, of atonement and expiation – even, perhaps, of exorcism. This is normally the bailiwick of religion. It’s the kind of thing we look to churches to do for us. In this case, however, organised religion can’t do the exorcism because it itself needs to be exorcised. What we’re left with is the arts.

I’m not talking about the construction of a physical monument, though the Ryan commission rightly recommends that one be made. Nor am I talking about the long-term resonances and reflections that will emerge, over time, in all kinds of ways and in all kinds of artistic forms. I mean, quite literally, a public ritual. We actually need a meaningful, symbolic moment, some kind of performance, hosted and embraced by the State, in which the air is cleared.

There is one obvious person to do it. He is the person of whom this was written by a court-appointed psychiatrist in 1970, when he was 13: “He was sent to Letterfrack Industrial School at 11 years and has been home during the past 12 months . . . Mrs X stated that he takes a bath during the night and remains in the bath for hours and that he is always terrified. Since his return home he has had two operations for abdominal obstruction which Mrs X claims were caused by being kicked while at Letterfrack.” The psychiatrist declared him “fairly severely mentally handicapped” and suggested that “residential care at a school for retarded boys” might be worth trying, “particularly if sedation were used”.

IRELAND
The Sunday Times (United Kingdom)

Mark Tighe
When abuse victims of the church-run industrial schools come before the Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB) their degree of suffering is evaluated under a points system.

In the first of four categories, they are marked on a scale from one to 25 depending on the severity of the abuse inflicted upon them. In addition, a maximum of 30 points are available for “a medically verified physical or psychiatric illness” and another 30 points for “psychosocial consequences”.

A final 15 points are available for “loss of opportunity” as the board assesses whether a complainant’s career has suffered. If a victim scores more than 70 points a payment is made from the highest award band: between €200,000 and €300,000 (£175,000 and £262,000). ...

A common thread among those familiar with the religious orders and their handling of abuse is cynicism about their willingness to face up to their guilt. “You need an Enigma machine to decipher what they are really saying,” said Kelly.

For others it is far clearer. “First off, don’t trust anything they say,” said Thomas Doyle, an American Catholic priest who campaigns for the church to address systematic sexual abuse. “If the orders were serious about fully compensating the victims of abuse, it would have happened by now.”

MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald

By MYRIAM MARQUEZ
mmarquez@MiamiHerald.com
A lberto Cutié took his collar off and walked away from the Roman Catholic Church. Snap of the fingers, that easy. Adios, muchachos!

He didn't wait for the pope to annul his ''marriage'' to the church and his vow to lead a celibate life. Heck, he didn't even give South Florida's Catholic archbishop the courtesy of a phone call to tell him he had made up his mind to head to Catholic-lite.

He just read a prepared statement amid the clicking cameras Thursday after a small ceremony at Trinity Cathedral, where he was accepted as a member of the Episcopal Church. ...

What irks isn't so much Cutié's struggle to reconcile his desires as a man and his vows of celibacy as a priest or that he chose carnal knowledge over celestial approval, it's the way this sordid affair came down. The scandal not only damaged the Catholic church, it diminished Cutié's reputation among many of his followers who are true-blue Catholics. He hurt them.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Gene Kerrigan

Sunday May 31 2009

Frankly, I wouldn't give them the steam off my porridge. But we're giving Anglo Irish Bank a whole lot more than that. To be precise, the bank that Sean FitzPatrick built is getting four thousand million euro of taxpayers' money -- and that's just this week. It's expected to rise to €7.5bn.

The air is alive with anguish and anger about the abuse of children. We're also in the midst of an election campaign. And, simultaneously, decisions are being made that will dump astonishing levels of debt onto our children, grievously limiting their lives. Decisions that apparently render the notion of democratic choice meaningless.

We have "no option" but to hand over the four thousand million to Anglo, says the Minister for Finance. No option. After all, it's not like we're a sovereign democratic state, is it?

There are all sorts of reasons why so many agents of the Catholic Church got away for so long with the wholesale physical and sexual abuse of children in their care -- and we're not going into them here. There is one aspect that's relevant.

MIAMI (FL)
Independent (United Kingdom)

By David Usborne in New York

Sunday, 31 May 2009

It will be standing – or kneeling – room only at the Church of the Resurrection in Miami when America's most famous Catholic Casanova, Alberto Cutie, makes a guest appearance this morning to deliver the sermon. Never mind that this particular congregation is not actually Catholic. Since Thursday, he hasn't been with Rome either.

Happily, Fr Cutie, always dashing in his dog collar, has never been averse to publicity. So great was his following on Spanish-language television and radio where he dispensed advice on God, love, and relationships, that he earned the nickname Padre Oprah. Yet right now he is at the centre of a national kerfuffle of a scope even he would surely never have wished for. But it's what happens when you juggle sex, celibacy and the church.

This charismatic priest famously took his secret girlfriend, a divorced mother, to a public Florida beach and frolicked with her on the sand. This was a month ago, the scene was illicitly photographed and the images published on the pages of a Mexican tabloid. Before you could say "vows", Fr Cutie, 40, was forced to give up his Miami Beach parish.

ORLANDO (FL)
WESH

[with video]

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A man who said he was sexually abused by an Orlando priest in the 1960s spoke out about his ordeal for the first time on Saturday.

Jeffrey Hall said he was molested by a priest with a history of abuse allegations, and Hall said the diocese covered it up.

He said he would like others to come forward.

UGANDA
Sunday Monitor

Eunice Rukundo

Kampala

A story currently doing the rounds in the intelligence circles goes like this: that around 1988, with the National Resistance Movement government trying to lay down its political roots after shooting its way to power two years earlier, senior regime officials were approached by a young religious preacher.

The preacher had a proposal; in exchange for financial and other support, he would strengthen the Pentecostal movement in the country and use it to break or reduce the influence of the Catholic Church over the largely Anglican new government.

The idea, the story says, was quickly snapped up. The preacher received facilitation and went on to form one of the churches that was at the heart of the growth of the Pentecostal movement in the country. The pastor, like many others, remains close to the government and the Pentecostal movement remains firmly pro-government.

This story cannot be independently corroborated but the anecdotal evidence – of the pastor’s close links to the regime, and the political stance of the Pentecostal churches – is self-evident. While religious leaders from the traditional Catholic and Anglican churches often criticise the government when it errors, most Pentecostal churches are stridently apolitical, preferring to preach a gospel of economic prosperity rather than dabble in politics.

The Pentecostal Movement now finds itself in a public scandal that appears to go to the very core of its foundations. Pastor Robert Kayanja, arguably the richest, most-influential and most visible patriarch of the Pentecostal Movement stands accused of sodomy. His accusers include a handful of young men who have sworn affidavits to support their accusations and are backed by other senior Pentecostal pastors including Pastors Solomon Male, Martin Ssempa and Michael Kyazze.

SPAIN
Barcelona Reporter

Speaking on Catalan channel, TV 3, Cardinal Canizares, said the behaviour of some Catholic priests and nuns in Ireland was to be totally condemned and that they had committed crimes "for which we have to ask forgiveness

A senior Vatican figure, Spanish Cardinal Antonio Canizares, prefect for the Congregation of the Divine Worship, this week appeared to downplay the findings of the Ryan report when suggesting that the millions of lives lost through abortion represent a much more serious crime against humanity than clerical sex abuse.

KALAMAZOO (MI)
Kalamazoo Gazette

by Lee A. Dean | Special to the Gazette
Saturday May 30, 2009, 9:00 AM

KALAMAZOO -- When the Most Rev. James A. Murray was appointed bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo more than 11 years ago, he selected "Rejoice in the Lord Always" as his motto.

As he prepares to relinquish his duties, Murray says he has abundant reasons to be joyful. ...

Murray said the most difficult issue of his tenure was the nationwide scandal involving sexual abuse of children and youth by priests. He served for five years on a United States Council of Catholic Bishops committee that drew up the Charter for the Protection of Youth and Young People.

Our diocese implemented that charter and made it gospel for us," Murray said. "We're not going to cut any corners or compromise that charter. It's there for the protection of children, and that's got to be paramount for us. By implementing the charter, I think now that probably one of the safest places on Earth for children is in the Catholic Church. We don't often get credit for that."

KALAMAZOO (MI)
Kalamazoo Gazette

by Lee A. Dean | Special to the Gazette
Saturday May 30, 2009, 8:00 AM

KALAMAZOO -- The Most Rev. Paul J. Bradley is preparing for his installation as the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo on Friday, but he's anticipating another day even more.

"Even though the installation is the big event that launches this whole thing officially, I'm anxious for June 6," Bradley said.

That's when Bradley, 63, who most recently has been general secretary, vicar and auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, will begin his first full day as bishop here, replacing James A. Murray, who submitted his resignation upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.

In a recent interview, Bradley laid out some of the major issues he'll face and the priorities he has set as he begins his tenure in Kalamazoo: ...

Protection of youth: Bradley said the Diocese of Kalamazoo "is in a very good position. This (issue of sexual abuse by priests) has not been as significant an issue here as it has been in other places. There's just no question that steps are always taken, no matter the consequences, to make sure children are protected. That's my attitude as well."

IRELAND
The Irish Times

SOCIETY: MANNIX FLYNN reviews The Irish Gulag: How the State Betrayed its Innocent Children By Bruce Arnold Gill and Macmillan, 351pp, €16.99

BRUCE ARNOLD is no stranger to the heavy hand of the Irish State. In the 1980s his phone was illegally tapped by a Fianna Fáil government. Many of us have read his articles about the residential institutional scandals, the church/State culpability, and the subsequent cover-up of crimes against helpless children. In his new book, The Irish Gulag: How the State Betrayed its Innocent Children, the journalist catalogues overwhelming and damning evidence that the Irish State was engaged in unlawful acts of such momentous proportions as to send shockwaves not only throughout Irish society but throughout the world.

Arnold reveals the history of residential institutions and the involvement of the Catholic Church. He chronicles how the State encouraged this process and incarcerated generations of children, condemning them to inhumane torture and slavery – and how they were stripped of any rights whatsoever. What emerges is the State’s deliberate neglect and abandonment of its child citizens, while purporting to be concerned about their welfare and needs. It demonised the natural parents of the children while, in fact, it was the demon.

This is a political work that will give people everywhere an understanding of what was happening in Ireland under a regime of brutality and fear. Chapter after chapter deals with how this terrible legacy began to emerge into the public domain. From the early rumours of abuses through to the States of Fear and Dear Daughter documentaries, the State’s apology and the setting up of commissions to inquire into residential institutions, it is all here.

MIAMI (FL)
Episcopal Life

By Lynette Wilson, May 29, 2009

[Episcopal News Service] Although it is not unusual for Episcopal and Roman Catholic priests to leave one denomination and join the other, news of former Roman Catholic priest Alberto Cutié's move to the Episcopal Church has sparked worldwide public attention.

"It [the story] has been everywhere," said Neva Rae Fox, public affairs officer for the Episcopal Church, adding that she had received more than 600 notifications of news stories, including CNN (worldwide), the New York Times, CBS, Fox-TV, Religion News Service, Univision and Telemundo.

"Here, it's as big as Elián González," said Jaweed Kaleem, religion reporter for the Miami Herald, in a telephone interview, referring to a custody and immigration-status battle over the Cuban boy among his relatives in Miami, his father in Cuba and the U.S. and Cuban governments in 2000.

ILLINOIS
WQAD

[with video]

Nicole Murphy Reporter
9:15 PM CDT, May 29, 2009

LADD, Illinois - A group of Catholic Churches will hold their last services next month. As of June 17th, The Diocese of Peoria states regular services will be suspended at St. Benedict's Catholic Church in Ladd, St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Dalzell, Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Spring Valley and St. Gertrude Catholic Church in Seatonville. They say the reason is because of financial problems and low attendance.

Father Henry Fritz of St. Benedict's said there's been a decrease in attendance and people don't give as much as they used to. He has been a priest since 1952 and this is the first time a church of his had to close because of expenses.

BELIZE
News 7 Belize

A Roman Catholic Priest serving in Belize for fourteen years is in big trouble tonight following reports that Fr. Kevin Hederman, a pastor at Our Lady of Guadalupe Roman Catholic Co-Cathedral in Belmopan is facing a civil suit in the United States. It involves an alleged sexual assault against a seventeen year old boy which is alleged to have occurred in the early 1990’s.

The story first appeared in the St. Louis Post Dispatch on Wednesday stating that Hederman invited the teenager to his residence at the North American Martyrs Church in Florissant to Minister to the teenager's "spiritual, psychological and emotional needs." The paper reports that during one visit to Hederman's residence, the priest instructed the teenager "to lie prone on the floor and then Fr. Hederman engaged in inappropriate and unwanted sexual contact with the plaintiff," according to the lawsuit.

MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald

BY JAWEED KALEEM
jkaleem@MiamiHerald.com
A day after celebrity priest Alberto Cutié left the Catholic church, there was a considerable buzz surrounding the small Biscayne Park congregation where he's to give his first sermon Sunday as a new member of the Episcopal church.

But Cutié's abandonment of the Archdiocese of Miami came with a price. Archbishop John C. Favalora expressed scorn at the move and said that Cutié's new bishop -- Leo Frade -- has disrespected Favalora and South Florida's biggest church. On Thursday, Favalora said Cutié is still ''bound by his promise'' to remain celibate. On Friday, Frade responded that he was still ''researching the correctness'' of Favalora's claim. The two men have not spoken to each other in person for two years.

''We try to not step on each other's toes,'' Frade said of the two churches, which were once united but have historically disagreed over fundamental issues.

IOWA
Des Moines Register

An attorney for a dozen men who claim they were abused by former Roman Catholic Bishop Lawrence Soens says the men have dropped their lawsuits.

Craig Levien said the lawsuits, which had been filed in 2006 in Scott County District Court in Davenport, were dismissed without prejudice last week.

He said the move is an attempt to free the Catholic Church to punish Soens.

Levien said in other cases, the church has avoided taking disciplinary action against a priest if there is a pending lawsuit.

CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

[read the lawsuit]

[read the motion for a preliminary injunction]

By DAVE ALTIMARI | The Hartford Courant
May 30, 2009
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport went on the offensive Friday, filing a federal lawsuit against state ethics officials who are investigating whether church officials violated lobbying laws by organizing a rally at the state Capitol earlier this spring.

Responding with the same vigor that it showed two months ago when lawmakers proposed a bill that would have changed the way the church governed itself, the diocese is seeking an injunction against an attempt by the Office of State Ethics to require the church to register as a lobbyist.

"This cannot possibly be what our legislature had in mind when it sought to bring more transparency and oversight to a legislative process that has been corrupted by special interests and back-room deals. If it is, then it should shock the conscience of all citizens of the Constitution state," Bridgeport Bishop William Lori said in a statement.

FOXBORO (MA)
The Sun Chronicle

FOXBORO - A religious order in Baltimore is being sued for $10 million by two people who charge the order bears responsibility for a Catholic priest originally from Foxboro who they contend is their biological father.

Carla Latty of New Jersey and Adrian Senna of British Columbia, Canada, contend that DNA tests from a relative proves the late Rev. Francis Ryan got their mother pregnant and never took responsibility for them.

Ryan is originally from Foxboro, according to Carmen Durso, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

SALINAS (CA)
The Salinas Californian

BY SUNITA VIJAYAN • svijayan@thecalifornian.com • May 29, 2009

The Diocese of Monterey today agreed to pay $1.2 million to a former alter boy who claimed that officials mishandled child-molestation allegations he levied more than a decade ago.

Attorneys for both parties met this afternoon for more than four hours before settling the lawsuit brought forth by "John Doe."

The suit claims that Rev. Juan Guillen of Tuscon, Ariz., and John Velez molested him from 1988 through 1994.

SALINAS (CA)
KSBW

SALINAS, Calif. -- The Monterey Catholic Diocese has agreed to a settlement worth more than a $1 million with a man who accused the church of mishandling his sex abuse case.

Jim Manly, an attorney for the plaintiff, confirmed with KSBW Action News 8 that the diocese agreed to a $1.2 million settlement.

The case was scheduled to have a hearing on Friday.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By John Cooney and Allison Bray

Saturday May 30 2009

A major Church-State clash loomed last night after 18 religious orders refused to budge from their hard-line position on renegotiating their 2002 child abuse indemnity deal.

In a statement issued after a meeting in Dublin, the orders failed to indicate any willingness to raise the cap on their €127m contribution in the redress deal sealed by the Government that will cost tax-payers €1.2bn.

It also emerged yesterday that Taoiseach Brian Cowen is to meet with the victims' groups on Wednesday.

IRELAND
RTE News

The 18 Catholic religious congregations criticised by the Child Abuse Commission have said they do not see a role for the broader Irish Church in examining their failures in their duty of care to children.

After meeting yesterday in Dublin, the 18 orders cited by the Commission promised to continue examining its finding that they had failed to listen to children abused in their institutions.

Belfast-based Bishop Noel Treanor said last Sunday that this would require an inter-disciplinary discussion with Catholics and others, and would involve the abused themselves.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Ruth Gledhill

A senior Spanish government minister has criticised the Spanish cardinal Antonio Canizares who said 'What happened at some schools cannot be compared with the millions of lives that have been destroyed by abortion.' Canizares is Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship. A full translation of his original remarks is provided by Chris Gillibrand of Cathcon has today written a guest essay for this blog, below, in response to the terrible events in Ireland. He makes clear how truly complex the roots are of institionalised child abuse and offers reassurance that even for the dead abusers, there is judgement at the hands of God.

Chris Gillibrand writes:

The universal law of the Church is the salvation of souls and Jesus makes entirely clear in the Gospel of Matthew how certain the punishment is for those who abuse children, even given the fatalism of Verse 7.

Matthew 18 At that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying: 'Who thinkest thou is the greater in the kingdom of heaven? 2 And Jesus calling unto him a little child, set him in the midst of them, 3 And said: Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And he that shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me. 6 But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come: but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh.'

GILBRALTA
Vox

Though many members of the local Roman catholic congregation may be offended that VOX has `resolved to publish this report, we believe that brushing bad behaviour under the carpet - whether that of Church, Government or other bodies - is a disservice to our society. With this in mind - and an acceptance that the suppurating boil of abuse should be lanced - VOX invites victims of abuse, by Church or by Social Services to tell their experience. Where requested, we will respect the victim's anonymity. :: The Editor.

Shocking disclosures of the abuse by Irish Roman Catholic priests and nuns of children who had been placed in their care were disclosed last week with the publication of the conclusions of the nine-year Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. Ordered by the Government and headed by Mr Justice Sean Ryan, the reprt indicated that - although the situation has today radically changed - over a forty-year period some 30,000 children, whose only crimes were to have been poor or parentless, were systematically abused by churchmen.

BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Connecticut Post

By Daniel Tepfer
Staff writer

BRIDGEPORT -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport filed suit Friday in federal court to block state officials from penalizing the church for organizing a rally outside the state Capitol in March.

"This cannot possibly be what our Legislature had in mind when it sought to bring more transparency and oversight to a legislative process that has been corrupted by special interests and back-room deals," said Bishop William E. Lori. "If it is, then it should shock the conscience of all citizens of the Constitution State."

The move is the latest chapter in tensions between the Catholic Church and the state over issues including gay marriage, emergency contraception and giving parishioners more control over church finances.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Bruce Arnold

Saturday May 30 2009

For a week the Irish people have wallowed in an orgy of sentimental breast-beating about the agony of children incarcerated in the Irish gulag of industrial schools.

Politicians have expressed surprise and astonishment, then dismay and determination to act. Yet the facts have been known for at least a decade. Those in power took draconian action in collusion with the Church. They did so against those who had been abused.

They have sought to minimise their own abuse of human rights. They exonerate by silence the legal breaches perpetrated by their predecessors. For generations they engaged in a political cover-up.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Saturday May 30 2009

In November 1972, AJ Wallace, a 24-year-old former inmate of Artane Industrial School, who moved to London after his release, wrote a letter to the Taoiseach Jack Lynch:

"It is now eight years since I left the Republic a free individual. Unfortunately for me, I can never forget one day of my 16 years in your country. Your Governments have also made miserable the lives of thousands of unwanted babies within the Republic. I was admitted to an orphanage at the age of two years; at the age of 10 I was transferred to Artane [Industrial] school where I was to stay another six years. I do not intend to put in writing at this very moment the treatment to which helpless children are subject to while in the care of the Irish Catholic authorities. I do not know if it could be possible, but I sure wish I had the opportunity to speak with you personally."

Wallace wrote two follow-up letters in which he pointed out that he had been subjected to "a life of fear and hatred ... in the claws of the Irish Christian Brothers" and was "still suffering from the terrifying effects of my upbringing in Irish Government care." He also referred to "great psychological damage" that had been done to "literally thousands of young people". He finished by insisting "I do believe that if I had a chance to tell my story to members of your Government a great deal of good could be done ... I must be permitted to speak to people who should be concerned with this situation ... the Irish people must know the psychological damage they had subjected these children to".

SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Times

Seattle

Three Washington men who say they were sexually abused decades ago by a priest settled their cases this week for $800,000 with the Seattle Roman Catholic Archdiocese.

The plaintiffs said they were abused by the Rev. Edward Boyle in the late 1960s to early 1970s when they were teenagers attending Holy Trinity Church in Bremerton, according to their attorney Mary Fleck.

Boyle died in 1987.

MONTEREY (CA)
Monterey Herald

By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Salinas Bureau
Updated: 05/30/2009 01:25:53 AM PDT

The Diocese of Monterey agreed Friday to pay a former Salinas man $1.2 million for years of sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of two priests.

Bishop Richard Garcia will meet with the man and his family to formally apologize for the diocese's actions. The settlement, which does not include a confidentiality clause, heads off a trial that was set to start Monday.

The victim's attorney, John Manley of Newport Beach, said his client got what he set out to obtain.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY and MARK HENNESSY

TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen last night sent out letters of invitation to groups representing former residents of institutions run by religious congregations to meet the Government in Dublin next Wednesday.

Similar invitations to meet the Government next Thursday were sent by him last night to the 18 congregations which ran the institutions.

Invitations have been sent to the Right of Place, Right to Peace, Alliance Victims’ Support, SOCA UK, SOCA Ireland, Aislinn, Survivors of Institutional Abuse (SOIA) and the Irish Survivors of Institutions, International groups.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Alf McCreary
Saturday, 30 May 2009

The Christian Brothers have no immediate plans to sell off property in Northern Ireland as part of the Redress Scheme to compensate victims of clerical abuse in the Republic in the wake of the Ryan report.

A Dublin spokesman for the Brothers said that the scheme applied within the Republic and that, to his knowledge, there were no comparable Christian Brothers' industrial schools in the north. He added that in the Republic “nothing was being ruled in or ruled out” until the Order had been given time within the next few weeks to decide on the best way forward.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Ryle Dwyer

Saturday, May 30, 2009

MANY people felt a deep sense of betrayal over the disclosure that Bishop Eamon Casey had fathered a son, but in the last analysis what was betrayed was their own sense of innocence.

He became one of the victims of a system that preyed on ignorance.

For generations too many Irish people shirked the responsibility to inform their own consciences and think for themselves. They preferred to follow blindly the dictates of the hierarchy with an unquestioning loyalty. Bishops were treated as if they were infallible on matters religious, social and even political.

It was the height of naivete to think that anyone in the church, from the Pope down, could live up to the standards espoused by the Roman Catholic religion. The bishops and everyone else should strive for perfection but, given the nature of man, true perfection can never be more than a worthy aspiration.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

EITHNE DONNELLAN

GROUPS MEET MINISTER: IT MAY not be a good idea to hold a referendum on the rights of children on the same day as the second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, the Minister for Children, Barry Andrews, said yesterday.

He was speaking following a meeting groups representing children and victims of abuse organised in the aftermath of the publication of the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse.

Going into the meeting at the Department of Health, Maeve Lewis of One in Four said: “We’re going to be asking him to give us a firm commitment to have a referendum on the rights of children . . . we are suggesting to the Minister it should happen at the same time as the Lisbon Treaty.”

IRELAND
The Irish Times

OPINION: Ireland was not unique in its industrial schools but the nature of Irish Catholicism set it apart, writes TOM INGLIS

IRELAND HAS become an international disgrace. It is now known that we incarcerated thousands of innocent little children into schools where they were abused, raped and tortured. How and why did it happen?

Ireland was not unique. French theorist Michel Foucault pointed out in Discipline and Punish that the idea of separating out deviants and misfits – whether they be mad, bad, poor or sick – was central to the creation of modern society. Mental asylums, jails, poor houses, reformatory schools and welfare homes sprang up all around Europe from the 16th century. Those deemed to be a threat to social order were herded into these institutions.

Those who ran the institutions specialised in producing forms of discipline and control that physically and mentally ensured that inmates were obedient and docile. Punishments for transgression were quick and harsh.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

We need to shed our certainty that all this abuse can be blamed on aberrant religious, writes BREDA O'BRIEN

IT IS fascinating to read the ISPCC’s press release on the Ryan report. It attempts to explain the background to the “cruelty men” and its role in committing children to industrial schools.

“The societal, economic, environmental, and personal limitations within which parents were attempting to raise their children . . . included abject poverty, substandard housing, lack of employment, poor sanitation, absentee fathers, excessive use of alcohol, and the condemnation and unacceptability of illegitimacy. It was these factors which led to the vast majority of referrals to the society’s inspectors coming from the general public, including the families themselves, and it was these factors that often meant leaving a child in the home environment was not an option.”

What would the reaction have been if any representative of a religious order had issued a similar statement this week? No doubt they would have been tarred and feathered. Yet no such reaction has greeted the ISPCC’s statement.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

IN THE first full week of reflection on the horrors contained in the report of the Ryan commission on institutional child abuse, we have seen the leaders of church and State struggle painfully towards an adequate response. In their closing of ranks, in their defensiveness and in their resort to formulaic platitudes, both the Government and the leaders of the main religious orders seemed to share an initial desire to brush off the implications of the report. Left to those tender mercies, the story of independent Ireland’s greatest disgrace would indeed have been a mere historic footnote.

On the other hand, however, public opinion has finally woken up to the scale and depth of this scandal. If both Government and church have been following rather than leading opinion, it is because they were utterly unprepared for the wave of visceral revulsion unleashed by the report. Their surprise is not unreasonable. All the essentials of the abusive system were laid out 10 years ago in the RTÉ documentaries States of Fear. It should not have taken another decade for that truth to fully enter our collective consciousness.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PAUL CULLEN

PROPERTY: MOST OF the properties that were transferred from the religious orders to State ownership are worth considerably less than they were at the time of the indemnity deal in 2002, according to commercial property sources.

The State also missed out on the chance to make windfall profits from their newly-acquired assets during the property spike between 2004 and 2007 because of the slow pace of transfer.

The Department of Education has said 21 properties that formed part of the deal, with a value of €26.8 million, have been fully transferred to State agencies. The transfer of at least 40 more properties has yet to be completed, seven years after the deal was agreed.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

ALISON HEALY

Orders at the centre of the abuse controversy are involved in running schools and hospitals

SOME OF the 18 religious orders that signed the indemnity deal with the State are still involved in education in a significant way, with the Irish Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy accounting for a large number of schools. However, the numbers of religious in the 18 orders have fallen greatly in recent years and the majority are now reaching or have passed retirement age.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

COLM KEENA, Public Affairs Correspondent

LABOUR PARTY: THE LABOUR Party has called on the 18 religious orders cited in the Ryan report to voluntarily transfer their schools to the State.

Party spokesman on education Ruairí Quinn said the orders could own up to 1,000 primary schools. He said when he submitted a Dáil question to Minister for Education and Science Batt O’Keeffe, the Minister was unable to tell him how many primary schools were owned by the orders.

A number of primary schools are among the properties that have been transferred to the State by the religious orders as part of the indemnity deal agreed in June 2002.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

THE CONFERENCE of Religious of Ireland (Cori) is an umbrella group representing 138 religious congregations, including the 18 that signed the 2002 redress deal with the State.

The group is led by director general Sr Marianne O’Connor and a 15-member executive, which is elected from among members at the organisations annual general assembly. The president and vice president, Sr Conchita McDonnell and Br Martin Kenneally, are elected from among the executive.

Coris activities are co-ordinated by five divisions – child safeguarding, education, healthcare, justice and Northern Ireland.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

Statement from the 18 congregations involved in the Ryan report: “The leaders of the 18 congregations involved in the Ryan Report met again in Dublin today (Friday). They are available to meet with an Taoiseach to explore the most effective and most appropriate ongoing response to former residents of institutions.

“We are committed as individual congregations to make contributions which can offer further support and assistance to former residents. The details of what is required will be discussed at our meetings with An Taoiseach and his representatives.

“Individual congregations are charities and all of us have ongoing service, support and trustee responsibilities to a wide range of services and ministries on this island and elsewhere.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

CHILD ABUSE REPORT: THE 18 congregations which signed the redress deal with the State in June 2002 have for the first time as a group expressed shame and asked forgiveness for the systematic brutality of children in institutions managed by them and as recounted in the Ryan report.

In a joint statement following their meeting in Dublin yesterday, the 18 said: “Children were abused and not listened to, and we are ashamed that many of us failed them in different ways. We once again deeply apologise to those who were abused and ask for their forgiveness.”

Former Cori president Sr Elizabeth Maxwell, leader of the Presentation Sisters Northern Province, which is one of the 18 congregations, said last night that there was “still dismay, still shock’’ among them at what was revealed in the Ryan report. “We are asking forgiveness. It has gone beyond apology,’’ she said.

BRIDGEPORT (CT)
WTNH

Bridgeport (WTNH) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport says their right to free speech is being violated by the state.

The diocese filed a civil lawsuit on Friday against the state. They say they are being forced to register as a lobbyist, a move they call unconstitutional. The officials are requiring the diocese to register as a lobbyists so they can participate in rallies at the State Capitol.

Bridgeport Bishop William Lori says the diocese is exercising its free speech rights and not lobbying.

BRIDGEPORT (CT)
WFSB

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport filed a lawsuit against the Office of State Ethics on Friday.

The diocese is seeking a court order to stop officials at the ethics office from an unconstitutional application of state lobbying laws.

The diocese said the officials are requiring the Diocese of Bridgeport to register as a lobbyist in order to engage in activities such as a rally at the State Capitol or using its Web site to encourage its members to contact their elected representatives.

CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

[the lawsuit]

[motion for a preliminary injunction]

By DAVE ALTIMARI | The Hartford Courant
4:41 PM EDT, May 29, 2009
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport filed a federal lawsuit Friday afternoon against the state for seeking to have the church register as a lobbyist because it organized rallies against a bill to have independent boards oversee the churches finances.

Church officials are asking the court to issue an injunction against the Office of State Ethics' (OSE) attempt to make the church register as a lobbyist.

"I believe the OSE's extension of the lobbying laws to these activities will interfere with the diocese's ability to mobilize its members and, if necessary, to urge them to rally at the Capitol," Bishop William Lori said.

BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Catholic Culture

May 29, 2009
Taking the offensive in an increasingly lively church-state conflict, the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, has filed a federal lawsuit against state ethics officials who said that the diocese must register as a lobbyist because it has organized rallies and generated publicity on legislative efforts. Church officials say this requirement is an "intrusive oversight by the state" into religious affairs.

UNITED STATES
La Prensa San Diego

By Patrick Rice

Editor’s Note: Patrick Rice is a long time observer of violence in the Catholic Church, of which he is still an active member. Born in Ireland, Rice attended schools taught by the Irish Christian Brothers.

In this piece Rice reacts to the explosive Ryan Report, which recently exposed violence in Irish Catholic Schools during the twentieth century.

The recently published report on child abuse by religious orders in schools run by Christian Brothers in Ireland in the twentieth century can best be compared to the truth commissions which have now become a feature in many countries coming to grips with such tragedies as civil wars, genocide and dictatorships.

The Ryan Report, chaired by Mr. Justice Sean Ryan, formally called the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse in Ireland, took 10 years to complete. Ireland has welcomed it as one of the most liberating statements to come out of an official body in recent years.

In summary, the report reveals situations which dishonor us as a people and exposes the Irish Catholic Church as having betrayed its founding principles.

IRELAND
The Good Athiest

Fri, May 29, 2009

It was inevitable that the Vatican would say something both offensive and wrong in regards to the debacle in Ireland over the Ryan report, which chronicled decades of sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of Catholic priests and nuns. Cardinal Antonio Canizares recently said that abortion is worst than child abuse. Here is his direct quote:

What happened in some schools cannot be compared with the millions of lives that have been destroyed by abortion.It (abortion) has legally destroyed 40 million human lives.
This is the typical response you can expect from an institution which systematically covered up centuries of abuse by the Catholic church. It is only recently in the past few decades that we have been able to demonstrate the extend of their evil, but the Catholic Church has known for a long time that pedophiles make up a significant percentage of their employees. There is such a strong culture of abuse that I wouldn’t be surprised if they somehow felt it was a mere inconvenience rather than an actual problem. Father Bad-touch apparently isn’t the bad guy; the real villain in the story wears a lab coat, folks!

IRELAND
Fin Keegan

[with slideshow]

As Facebook friends and Twitter followers already know, I’ve been commenting a lot on the appalling reveleations contained in the Ryan Report into Irish Institutional Child Abuse (I prefer the word Persecution for what happened). The original injury, bestial in the depths of its depravity, was made even worse by the intransigence, to this day, of the Religious Orders who controlled the institutions in which the children suffered.

Irish blogger Damien Mulley has helpfully pulled some of the evidence produced by victims into a slideshow: this, mind you, is only the tip of the tip of the iceberg.

IRELAND
Perspective

When I saw that expression "bad Catholics" used in a Tablet editorial, well I just had to post the said editorial below, being one of those bad Catholics myself. But I have to say, while I agree with the first half of the editorial, I strongly disagree with the second half - the part that seems to say that it's only the Church in Ireland that has made mistakes, that says that the Church elsewhere is in the vanguard of protecting human rights in the wake of secular powers renunciation of such. Actually, I'd say that, at least in the US and perhaps the UK too, it is the state that seems to be protecting and promoting human rights as the Church stands in the way (same-sex marriage in the US, adoption/equality laws in the UK).

IRELAND
Clerical Whispers

THE head of Faoiseamh, the counselling service funded by the Catholic religious orders, has defended the decision to cap the number of therapy sessions for clients just months before the Ryan Report came out.

A decision was taken in February this year to limit the number of free sessions to abuse survivors to 80 over a two-year period – roughly equating to one session a week for 18 months.

Faoiseamh general manager Michael Lyons said the decision was taken on foot of recommendations after an external review of the service. "It is in line with best practice models internationally and meets the needs of the vast majority of our clients," he said.

MINNESOTA
City Pages

By TD Mischke

Here he comes again, another man of God: the collar, the piety, the Church on his side. Here it is repeated: the hierarchy, the code of silence, the 14-year-old with his pants around his ankles. There they are once more, the dutiful parents sending their child off to school, the right school, the proper school.

The pathos comes eerily wafting back with the appearance of two news stories last week. The first one, local, a St. Paul high school targeted in a lawsuit for allegedly allowing a known sexually abusive Christian Brother to teach there. The second, a harrowing report out of Ireland concluding that the abuse of thousands of children by priests and nuns was covered up for years in that country's Roman Catholic institutions.

It's now an old story to many, but not old enough to some. It's one that trickles in intermittently, greeted by weary eyes in the neighborhood parishes where I grew up.

When the story broke of the sex-abuse allegations against Brother Raimond Rose, who taught at Cretin High School from 1968 to 1972, you could have walked into many a neighborhood bar in my old stamping grounds and heard a familiar murmur. It was not a murmur of shock or surprise, but one that comes with a knowing nod and the sad half-smile of men who knew this world all too well.

COLORADO SPRINGS (CO)
KRDO

By Jon Karroll
j.karroll@krdo.com

COLORADO SPRINGS - There is no arrest warrant for a local priest accused of embezzling money from his church.

An El Paso County Court spokesperson tells NEWSCHANNEL 13 a misunderstanding led to the warrant being issued for Father Donald Armstrong. Armstrong's attorney had waived his advisement hearing scheduled for Wednesday, but somehow the court didn't get that information and thought Armstrong had skipped his court date.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
allAfrica

Bangui — The Catholic Church in the Central African Republic is grappling with a crisis brought by the resignation of two senior bishops and a strike by priests.

The Vatican on Tuesday announced the resignation of Archbishop Paulin Pomodimo of Bangui, 54, less than two weeks after the departure on May 16 of Bishop Francois-Xavier Yombanje of Bossangoa, president of the bishops' conference.

Media reports say the resignation of Archbishop Pomodimo followed an investigation into priests of Bangui who live more or less openly with women and had fathered children.

IRELAND
RTE News

Organisations representing children and victims of abuse have said they are quietly confident that a referendum on the rights of the child could be achieved following a meeting with the Minister for Children Barry Andrews.

During discussions about the Government's response to the findings of the Ryan Report, the group pressed the Government to introduce statutory guidelines on child protection and to hold a referendum on the rights of the child at the same time as the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

However speaking after the meeting, Minister Andrews said that holding a referendum at the same time may not be beneficial.

NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

By Mathew Dearnaley
Catholic bishops in Christchurch say they have already apologised to a victim of alleged abuse who has written a book called Say Sorry.

Ann Thompson's book, which goes on sale on Monday, tells of physical, mental and sexual abuse she suffered as a child at St Joseph's Catholic Orphanage for Girls and Nazareth House in Christchurch.

Now aged 68 and a Christchurch mother of three, Thompson told the Press newspaper she had written the book "so the Catholic Church would come forward, admit this has happened and apologise".

BELIZE
Amandala

Author: Aaron Humes

An American priest who is the pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Roman Catholic Co-Cathedral in Belmopan, Father Kevin Hederman, is facing a civil suit in conjunction with the Archdiocese of Saint Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., and its Archbishop, over claims he sexually assaulted a 17-year-old boy in the early 1990’s, the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch reported yesterday, Wednesday.

The suit, filed in Saint Louis County Circuit Court on Tuesday of this week, alleges that the abuse took place when the plaintiff was a student at Christian Brothers College in Clayton (the school has since moved).

We spoke with Fr. Hederman today, and he confirmed the lawsuit.

SAGINAW (MI)
Midland Daily News

[The Philadelphia Grand Jury report]

By Angela Lackey
of the Daily News
angelalackey@mdn.net
Published: Friday, May 29, 2009 10:54 AM EDT

Bishop Joseph R. Cistone believes "it would not serve any purpose to revisit the grand jury report" from 2005 that states he was complicit in the cover up of multiple cases of child sexual abuse committed by priests in the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Cistone, who disagreed with parts of the report and talked about how he would handle similar situations as bishop here, was named bishop of the Diocese of Saginaw on May 20.

The grand jury investigated and documented the abuse of hundreds of children by priests, and found that Philadelphia Archdiocese officials at the highest levels both "excused and enabled the abuse." Cistone was the Archdiocese's assistant vicar for administration and then vicar general and vicar for administration during the time period of the grand jury's investigations.

VERO BEACH (FL)
Fox 29

Posted by Rachel Leigh

VERO BEACH, FL (WFLX) - A former priest, school board candidate and father of 11 is jailed over possession of child pornography.

Gerald Lamothe, the owner of the Pastoral Counseling Center in Vero Beach, has been arrested and charged with possession of child pornography after a passerby noticed the kiddie porn sitting on his computer.

The Pastoral Counseling Center is located on Airport Drive West in Vero Beach.

NEW YORK
Your Nabe

By Stephen Witt
Thursday, May 28, 2009 11:39 AM EDT

Two competing bills involving child molestation are winding their way through the State Legislature with supporters lining up on both sides.

At stake is millions of dollars in punitive damages from such institutions as the Catholic church and several Brooklyn yeshivas, as well as criminal prosecutions.

One version of the bill, introduced by Queens Assemblymember Margaret Markey and State Senator Tom Duane, grants victims of child sexual assault a longer period of time to press charges by extending the statute of limitations.

BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Connecticut Post

Connecticut Post Staff
Updated: 05/28/2009 05:43:48 PM EDT

As chancellor of the Diocese of Bridgeport, I object strongly to the Connecticut Post editorial, "Diocese should welcome disclosure," published on May 28. The editorial is inexcusably inaccurate and contrary to responsible journalism.

The editorial questions whether "any of the pedophiles or their enablers [are] still active?" It also notes, in passing, that "It's likely that many of the abusers and their enablers are gone from church service." Contrary to the text of the editorial, the Connecticut Post has known for years that the accused individuals are no longer priests -- the diocese has been very open and transparent about this information. Moreover, the Post, as well as numerous other newspapers, extensively covered the lawsuits in question between their filing in 1993 and their settlement in 2001. Newspapers have also extensively covered the proceedings commenced by four newspapers in 2002 to obtain access to the sealed documents in these settled cases.

Therefore, to pose the question as to whether any of the "pedophiles" "[are] still active" is irresponsible and an attempt to inflame the public and to promote anti-Church sentiment.

City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling

Below linked are news stories of Catholic Church, school, and social work closings in the past few days only, which to me is another sign of the bishops skewered priorities. With all the wealth in the Vatican, they close properties AND often blame it on the plaintiffs in child sex crime lawsuits, which came about as a result of the Catholic Church's epidemic of sex predator priests. It's not our fault they let their celibate employees pick from a flock of catamites from parish families to make it easier to be celibate. That was Church practice, not innocent American children's practice... And again, if they had just admitted guilt and reached out to the victims back in the mid-1990s, the American Catholic Church would probly still be thriving. Instead:

2 hours ago
CBS News
Diocese's closure of center for minorities, poor shocks…
Like many others Thursday, a distraught Luis Montoto rushed to the Catholic Multicultural Center in Madison with one question: “What can I do?” Montoto and his wife, Lupita, had just learned that, due to budget cuts, the Madison Catholic…

IRELAND
Limerick Leader

Published Date: 30 May 2009
By Petula Martyn
ONE of the most sadistic Christian Brothers at the notorious industrial school in Letterfrack, Co Galway had a "bizarre prejudice against boys from County Limerick", according to the report by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse.

The Brother, who is given the pseudonym Br Dax in the report, was convicted in 2003 of sexually abusing 25 former pupils, some of whom gave evidence to the investigation committee.

Boys from Limerick were singled out for physical punishment by the Brother who did not explain his irrational hatred for them.

He admitted that if he lost his temper he hit boys with whatever he had in his hands and that he could have drawn blood on such occasions.

IRELAND
Limerick Leader

Published Date: 30 May 2009
By Petula Martyn
IT was supposed to be a night of fun and entertainment for the children at St Joseph's Industrial School when comedy duo Tom and Paschal staged a variety show in Glin, but comedian Tom O'Donnell can still recall the fear on the faces of the children who sat in the audience.

"In almost 40 years as a professional entertainer it was the toughest audience I ever played to," the legendary Limerick comic told the Limerick Leader this week.

The pair, who topped the bill twice in Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall during a career that spanned four decades, were approached by Conn Shanahan to stage a concert for the young people living at the reformatory in the 1950s.

IRELAND
Times & Star

Last updated 19:26, Thursday, 28 May 2009

MY SISTER rang me the other day to ask if we were going to sue.

Her call had been prompted by the report into the fate of Irish children in Roman Catholic schools and institutions.

I find it a difficult subject to discuss for all sorts of complex reasons which will become clear, but one of the major reasons is that I have seen such changes in the Catholic Church over the years.

NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

By Melissa Shube • Daily Record • May 29, 2009

Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland, the former head of the Milwaukee Archdiocese who retired in scandal, has announced that he has dropped plans to move to St. Mary's Abbey at Delbarton in Morris Plains.

Weakland, who is 82 years old, has recently ignited controversy by announcing that he is gay and with his upcoming memoir, which describes his career, criticizes church politics, including the church's stance on homosexuality and response to sexual assault, and gives his perspective on the scandal that led to his early retirement.

In 2002, Weakland was forced to resign as archbishop after a man accused him of date-rape and revealed that Weakland had used church money, years before, to pay him a settlement of $450,000.

UNITED STATES
Irish Central

By JOHN FAY, IrishCentral.Com Staff Writer

Father Edward Flanagan, founder of the famous “Boys Town” made famous by the Spencer Tracy movie, was a lone voice in condemning Ireland’s industrial schools back in the 1940s –and he was viciously castigated by church and government for doing so.

Fr. Flanagan, from Co. Roscommon, left Ireland in 1904 and was ordained a priest eight years later. In 1917 he was living and working in Omaha, Nebraska, when he hit upon the idea of a "boys town," which offered education and a home for the poor and wayward boys of Omaha. ...

Speaking to a large audience at a public lecture in Cork’s Savoy Cinema he said, "You are the people who permit your children and the children of your communities to go into these institutions of punishment. You can do something about it." He called Ireland’s penal institutions "a disgrace to the nation," and later said "I do not believe that a child can be reformed by lock and key and bars, or that fear can ever develop a child’s character."

MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald

[with video]

BY JAWEED KALEEM
jkaleem@MiamiHerald.com
The Rev. Alberto Cutié, the celebrity priest photographed nuzzling a woman on a Florida beach, has left the Catholic Church to join the Episcopal Church and marry his girlfriend -- a move that attracted a strong rebuff from Roman Catholic leaders.

While the Catholic Church requires priests to hew to a vow of celibacy, the Episcopalians, who broke from Rome in the 16th century, have no such rules. Cutié was formally welcomed into the Episcopal Church in a small, private ceremony early Thursday afternoon at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, the church's South Florida headquarters in downtown Miami.

''I am continuing the call to spread God's love,'' Cutié said after the ceremony, adding that he has gone through a ``spiritual and deep ideological struggle.''

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By David Quinn

Friday May 29 2009

How many clergy are guilty of child sexual abuse? How many sexually abused children have been abused by clergy? In 2002 the Royal College of Surgeons carried out a survey which asked exactly these questions.

In response to the question, how many clergy are guilty of child abuse, a whopping 84pc of the public overestimated the figure. Thirteen per cent of us put it at between 20pc and 29pc and another 11pc of us put the figure at a staggering 50pc or more. The actual figure, according to an American study carried out by John Jay University in the United States, is around 4pc. It's hard to believe it's much different here.

The survey also asked respondents what percentage of children who were sexually abused had been abused by clergy. Again, over 80pc of us overestimated the figure. A quarter of us thought that a third or more of children who have been sexually abused in Ireland were abused by clergy.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Friday, 29 May 2009

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said last night the report of the commission on child abuse is “one of the most important documents of our time”.

The Republic’s Attorney General is examining if documents relating to the inquiry can be retained or will have to be destroyed as evidence given was confidential.

Mr Cowen said he wanted a “strong response” from the religious orders to the government’s demand for further contributions for abuse victims.

COLORADO
KKTV

Reporter: Lauri Martin
Email Address: lmartin@kktv.com

[with video]

A local priest, accused of embezzling money from his church, is now wanted again by police, according to court documents. Father Donald Armstrong didn't show up for court Wednesday and an arrest warrant has been issued. It was his first court appearance since he was indicted by a grand jury last week.

Armstrong faces allegations of stealing money from Grace and Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church in downtown Colorado Springs. According to the grand jury indictment obtained by 11 News, from July 1999 until March of 2006, court documents say that Father Armstrong used parish money ($392,000) for personal expenses, like his children's college education. He is now facing 20 counts of theft.

11 News stopped by St. George’s Anglican Church, where Armstrong works now, to ask him why he didn’t show up for court. A church worker said he wasn’t there, even though his car was still in the parking lot.

FOXBORO (MA)
Boston Globe

By Irene Sege
Globe Staff / May 29, 2009

A brother and sister who say they are the offspring of a priest from Foxborough have sued a religious order and the Archdiocese of Baltimore for $10 million in damages for child support.

The priest, the Rev. Francis E. Ryan, was a member of the St. Joseph's Society of the Sacred Heart, an order whose headquarters are in Baltimore.

The lawsuit - filed by Adrian Senna, 63, and Carla Latty, 56 - is the latest chapter in a dramatic family story that had been cloaked in mystery for decades and that crosses religious and racial fault lines.

SERBIA
Blic

Author: Tamara Marković-Subota, Slobodan Pajić

Criminal charges have been raised against father Branislav Peranovic, former chief of the spiritual-rehabilitation center for treatment of drug edicts ‘Crna Reka’. Peranovic has been charged with maltreating and torture.

The charges have been raised on the basis of a video footage made five years ago. The young man whose beating is shown in the footage is to be heard at the police station in Novi Pazar today.

The criminal charges have also been raised against Nemanja Radosavljevic one of those employed to beat the patients.

MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald

OUR OPINION: Cutié's decision allows Archdiocese to focus on real problems
As scandals go, the saga of Alberto Cutié has had it all.

Celebrity, religion, clandestine photos, sexual innuendo, national TV exposure. There's been a little shock, a little awe and lots of ink and video.

On Thursday, Mr. Cutié mercifully brought it to a close. By joining the Episcopal Church and announcing plans to marry the woman to whom he has been romantically linked, the 40-year-old former Roman Catholic priest made a decision that should put an end to the story. It was, in retrospect, where the story has been heading all along. As long as Mr. Cutié refused to renounce his temporal love, he could not continue on the same spiritual path.

BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun

By Frank D. Roylance | Baltimore Sun reporter
May 29, 2009
Two people who claim that DNA tests prove they are the biological offspring of a now-deceased Roman Catholic priest have filed a lawsuit seeking $10 million in damages from his Baltimore-based order.

Carla A. Latty, 56, of New Jersey and her brother, Adrian Senna, 63, of British Columbia, say the Rev. Francis E. Ryan, a member of Saint Joseph's Society of the Sacred Heart, had a long-running relationship with their birth mother beginning in Montgomery, Ala., in the 1940s.

But rather than acknowledge his paternity and take financial responsibility for his children, the plaintiffs argue, Ryan and his superiors in the order concealed the sexual affair and instead moved Ryan to a succession of assignments in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans.

IRELAND
Herald

By Michael O'Brien

Friday May 29 2009

ALTHOUGH people may think otherwise after seeing me on Questions and Answers, I am usually a calm man. And I think this is a time for reflection and also action.

The whole country has been shocked by what has emerged through the publication of the Ryan Report. Even people who were not in any of the State institutions want to show their solidarity, and that's how the idea of a demonstration came up.

The National Demonstration in Solidarity with Abuse Victims is to be held on Sunday, June 21 in central Dublin. Although the final details of the route have yet to be worked out, we are not looking for a loud and angry demonstration.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Newsradio 620

By Amy Freeze

The Milwaukee Archdiocese is hit with another sex abuse lawsuit.

This is the 12th lawsuit claiming the Archdiocese covered up sex abuse by priests.

It's being filed anonymously, but a man who says he was abused as a child is now speaking out.

MIAMI (FL)
CBS Newsl

(CBS) The bishop who welcomed Father Alberto Cutie into the Episcopal Church is defending the celebrity, now-former Roman Catholic priest widely known as "Father Oprah" and "Padre Oprah."

Cutié, a handsome, charismatic TV talk show host, radio personality, newspaper columnist and author was caught in photos and on video kissing a woman. The Catholic church relieved him of his duties and took him off the air and, on Thursday, Cutie formally became an Episcopalian.

The photos almost single-handedly reignited the debate over the celibacy required of priests by the Catholic Church and that church's refusal to allow priests to marry. Episcopal clergy are allowed to marry.

WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Bronislaus B. Kush TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
bkush@telegram.com

WORCESTER — Parishioners at Our Lady of Fatima Church had already staved off one attempt to close their house of worship, which prominently sits high above Interstate 290 near Lincoln Square.

Back in 1978, Diocese of Worcester officials seriously contemplated shutting down the stone structure.

The busy highway had cut off the church from a good portion of the neighborhood that it had once served, and chancery officials considered whether the smaller congregation might be better off merging with nearby Our Lady of Mount Carmel-St. Ann Church.

FITCHBURG (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Matthew Bruun TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

FITCHBURG — Changing demographics and difficult economic times are among the factors prompting possible consolidation among the city’s eight Catholic churches.

The Rev. Robert D. Bruso, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Church on Salem Street, said lay representatives from all eight parishes in the city will begin meeting next month to discuss a long-term strategy.

“We’ve been talking about it here in Fitchburg at least since 2003,” Rev. Bruso said yesterday. “After six months we’ll make our recommendation, which will be reviewed by the diocese, and the bishop will make the decision.”

CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By JOSH KOVNER
May 29, 2009
A 47-year-old former Connecticut man has sued the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford, alleging he was sexually abused by the late Monsignor Robert Walter Doyle for five years in the 1970s while he was an altar boy at Sacred Heart Church in Wethersfield.

Diocesan officials, served with the lawsuit Thursday afternoon, had no comment on the specific allegations against Doyle, who died in 1975, but said they have taken substantial steps to protect children since a series of abuse cases surfaced six years ago.

Doyle, the superintendent of schools for the archdiocese from 1951 to 1961, led efforts to establish three regional Catholic high schools in Greater Hartford. He came to Sacred Heart Church in 1968.

IRELAND
New Statesman

The Ryan Commission has revealed decades of child abuse within institutions run by the Irish Catholic Church. An Irish journalist explores where Catholicism in Ireland goes from here

There are about 150 religious orders based in Ireland. Many of them are very small. All are declining very fast.

Of the 150 or so orders, 18 ran the country’s system of industrial schools and reformatories from the late 19th century until the 1970s, when the last of these institutions was closed.

The system was established during the years of British rule in Ireland. Britain itself had imported the system from Germany, Switzerland and Sweden where it originated in the 19th century. Industrial schools were a response to the problem of the thousands upon thousands of street children, like those Charles Dickens depicted in his novels.

Ten years ago, the Irish Government set up a commission to investigate what happened in our industrial schools; the conditions the children lived in, and how they were treated by those entrusted with their care.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

BARRY ROCHE, Southern Correspondent

CORK ADDRESS: A CLERICAL abuse survivor yesterday urged the people of Ireland to call on the government to pay the maximum compensation allowed to every survivor under the redress scheme as a means of genuine atonement for the wrongs inflicted upon them in religiously-run schools.

Christy Heaphy said he believed no one is really listening to the survivors of the abuse.

Mr Heaphy was abused at Greenmount Industrial School in Cork, run by the Presentation Brothers in the 1950s.

ROME
The Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW in Rome

CHURCH RESPONSE: A SENIOR Vatican figure, Spanish Cardinal Antonio Canizares, prefect for the Congregation of the Divine Worship, this week appeared to downplay the findings of the Ryan report when suggesting that the millions of lives lost through abortion represent a much more serious crime against humanity than clerical sex abuse.

Speaking on Catalan channel, TV 3, Cardinal Canizares, said the behaviour of some Catholic priests and nuns in Ireland was to be totally condemned and that they had committed crimes “for which we have to ask forgiveness”.

Speaking in the context of an abortion debate prompted by a Spanish government proposal, the cardinal said: “What happened in some schools cannot be compared with the millions of lives that have been destroyed by abortion.It (abortion) has legally destroyed 40 million human lives.”

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY and COLM KEENA

TRANSFER OF ASSETS: TWENTY-NINE of 63 properties identified for transfer to the State as part of the 2002 indemnity deal with the 18 religious congregations which ran residential institutions for children, were identified for transfer prior to agreement on the deal.

In announcing the deal, then-minister for education, Dr Michael Woods told the Dáil in June 2002 that the congregations would transfer € 76.86 million worth of properties to the State.

“This includes property which is in the course of transfer, property which was transferred since 11th May, 1999, [the date of taoiseachs Dáil apology to victims of abuse] and property which has been identified and which is to be transferred,” he said.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

The 18 religious congregations that signed the indemnity deal over child-abuse claims with the State in 2002 will meet in Dublin today to consider their situation.

The deal indemnified the religious orders from all redress claims made by victims in exchange for payments and property transfers totalling €127 million. The total bill for the redress scheme is likely to be about €1.3 billion.

Yesterday, the Dáil passed an all-party motion that called on the congregations to commit to making further substantial contributions in reparations, accepted all the recommendations of the Ryan report, and apologised to the victims of childhood abuse for the failure to intervene.

IRELAND
Derry Journal

Published Date: 29 May 2009
By Staff reporter

The chief suspect in the disappearance of a Co Tyrone teenager who went missing after a night out in Donegal spent three years as a teenager in a "cruel and sadistic" Irish industrial school, it has been revealed.Convicted murderer and rapist Robert Howard was sent to St Joseph's Industrial School, Ferryhouse, Clonmel, in 1956 after being found guilty of burglary.

Last week, in the Child Abuse Commission's report that has rocked Ireland, Justice Sean Ryan said the punishment at the Tipperary school where Howard spent three years was delivered in a "cruel, sadistic and excessive manner designed to maximise the terror of all the boys."

Howard (65) is the chief suspect in the 1994 disappearance of Castlederg teenager Arlene Arkinson.

IRELAND
Herald

By John Costello

Friday May 29 2009

It was disgusting, shameful and sinful. After the publication of the Ryan report into institutionalised child abuse, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin's call for the revisiting of the immunity deal with the Government made in 2002 was bluntly shot down by the 18 religious orders involved.

Of the estimated €1.3bn to be paid out in compensation, the religious orders will stump up about 10pc and the taxpayer the rest.

Miriam O'Connor, from the Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori), appeared on Morning Ireland to defend the utterly indefensible.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PLATFORM: Catholicism’s senior management must explain and atone for its questionable actions, writes MARGARET E WARD

IT’S A multibillion euro business with properties and offices throughout the world. The company’s services are used by a huge percentage of the global population and many proudly display – and even promote – its logo. This secretive, privately-held organisation has been in business for eons. It has a strong brand and a much-loved image.

Yes, the Catholic Church is perhaps the world’s biggest business. It has a corporate logo, brand values, a service offering, customer promises and a skilled workforce.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Thursday May 28 2009

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said yesterday the Dublin diocese may contribute financially to a trust fund with religious orders for victims of abuse in Church-run institutions.

Speaking at the official opening of Ireland's first wind power park in Donaghmede, Archbishop Martin revealed he was examining the diocese's possible "indirect" moral responsibility for atrocities committed in industrial schools within the Dublin diocese.

He was referring to the Ryan Commission's condemnation of sexual and physical abuses inflicted on boys by Christian Brothers in Artane industrial school and the brutalities against girls in Goldenbridge, run by the Mercy Sisters.

IRELAND
An Phoblacht

FOLLOWING last week’s release of the shocking Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, the Irish Government has come under mounting pressure to undo a controversial deal it did with religious orders in 2002 to compensate victims of abuse in religious run institutions.

The Ryan Report showed that thousands of children were abused, raped, assaulted and terrorised over a period of three decades in institutions run mainly by religious orders in the 26 Counties.

Speaking after the release of the report last week, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said that all of its recommendations must be implemented but added that:

“The shameful deal between the government and the religious orders must be undone. Capping the religious order’s contribution at a paltry €127 million is nothing short of a disgrace.”

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Friday, 29 May 2009
A delegation of children's charities and victims' groups is due to meet the Minister for Children today to discuss the fallout from the final report of the Child Abuse Commission.

The groups will be calling for a complete overhaul of child protection services and a comprehensive inspection system for foster homes and institutions that care for children.

They also want the Government to set a date for a long-promised referendum on children's rights.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Friday, 29 May 2009

I've had enough of the Ryan Commission's uncontested allegations being presented universally across the media as “findings”.

I've had enough of the Ryan Commission's uncontested allegations being presented universally across the media as “findings”. I've had enough of lesbian-nun tittle-tattle being packaged up as evidence of child abuse. I've had enough of the self-indulgent, undisciplined public emoting on RTE.

I'm sick, sore and tired of the quivering sanctimony of the professional hand-wringing classes.

NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter

Published Date: 29 May 2009
RELIGIOUS institutions where thousands of boys and girls were raped and beaten in Ireland should be closed down, Ian Paisley has said.

And Dr Paisley has called for the possessions and savings of the abusers to be offered to their victims as compensation.

Mr Paisley blasts more than 250 church-run centres for inflicting decades of abuse on children.

UGANDA
allAfrica

The New Vision

Herbert Ssempogo
28 May 2009

Kampala — PASTOR Robert Kayanja was on Wednesday interrogated over claims that he sexually abused five teenagers, The New Vision has learnt.

Kayanja, reportedly unaccompanied, went to a Police station in the city where he recorded a statement, an exercise that lasted up to late at night.

In the statement, the Pastor of Rubaga Miracle Centre, reportedly denied involvement in the practice. Kayanja has persistently argued that the allegations are masterminded by his detractors to destroy him.

LITITZ (PA)
Lancaster Online

By JANET KELLEY and TOM MURSE, Staff

Gregory Nies played Santa Claus in Lititz Springs Park.

He was a youth group leader at the Lititz United Methodist Church, served on Borough Council and ran for mayor three times.

And on Wednesday, Nies was arrested, accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.

Nies, 56, of South Spruce Street, was charged by borough police with inappropriately touching, hugging and kissing the girl on several occasions when she spent the night in his family's home, according to a police affidavit.

STERLINGTON (LA)
The News-Star

By Johnny Gunter • jgunter@thenewsstar.com • May 28, 2009

The youth mentor of a Sterlington church was sentenced today to a total of 24 years in prison on three counts of sexual battery of a juvenile.

Fourth District Judge Carl Sharp also revoked Jeremy Little's probation on a previous drug conviction and sentenced him to an additional three years in jail.

The sentences are to run consecutively.

STERLINGTON (LA)
The News-Star

By Johnny Gunter • jgunter@thenewsstar.com • May 28, 2009

The youth mentor of a Sterlington church was sentenced today to a total of 24 years in prison on three counts of sexual battery of a juvenile.

Fourth District Judge Carl Sharp also revoked Jeremy Little's probation on a previous drug conviction and sentenced him to an additional three years in jail.

The sentences are to run consecutively.

NORWALK (CT)
The House

By FRANCIS X. FAY JR.
Hour Senior Staff Writer

Two survivors of alleged priestly sexual abuse will offer their testimony at 7 p.m. Thursday before the Bridgeport Diocesan Voice of the Faithful chapter at the First Congregational Church on the Green. The public is welcome.

Beth McCabe, Connecticut co-chairwoman of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and fellow survivor Brian Walsh will speak of their experiences and SNAP programs.

McCabe, a native New Yorker, was prompted by her experience to work with troubled youth at the Department of Children & Families and at the Wilderness School in Connecticut. She has also worked for a nonprofit organization developing adventure programs for disabled adolescents and job skills for welfare recipients. She is currently a consultant working nationally to provide motivational and career empowerment training.

IOWA
The Gazette

By Gregg Hennigan
The Gazette
gregg.hennigan@gazettecommunications.com

A dozen men who said they were abused as schoolchildren by former Iowa City Regina principal and retired Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens have dropped their lawsuits against him.

The men last week had the lawsuits dismissed without prejudice in Scott County District Court in an attempt to free up the Roman Catholic Church to punish Soens, said their attorney, Craig Levien of Davenport. In other cases, the church has avoided taking disciplinary action against a priest if there is a pending civil suit, he said.

"They're hoping that ... will clear the hurdle," he said.

IRELAND
Socialist Worker

May 29, 2009

A recent report by the Irish government documents decades of mental, physical and sexual abuse of thousands of children in the care of the Catholic Church. But Eamonn McCann asks if the Church will ever really be held accountable.

TO DISCUSS the scandal of child abuse in the Catholic Church without factoring in the role of the Vatican is to miss the main point. Irish Catholics had been told in advance, by Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin in his Holy Thursday homily, that the contents of the report of the commission of inquiry published yesterday would "shock us all." But we may doubt whether all were sufficiently prepared for what's emerged.

We are set for days of discussion of the different levels of culpability of priests, bishops, diocesan authorities, the institutional Church, society at large. Pope Benedict will likely issue a statement expressing dismay and distress. What he won't do is accept any share of the blame.

Benedict will take the long view. It has been well said that while other institutions measure the passage of events in months, years, decades, the Catholic Church sees the world in a perspective of centuries. Benedict knows there's nothing new in what's been brought to light by the inquiry under Mr. Justice Seán Ryan. He will be confident that this, too, shall pass.

MONTEREY (CA)
Monterey Herald

By SUSAN MAYER
Guest commentary
Updated: 05/29/2009 01:29:42 AM PDT

The Diocese of Monterey is outraged by the irresponsible editorial published Thursday by The Herald. We are proud of the work we have done in the years since the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People was passed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in June 2002.

In its editorial, The Herald states that the Diocese of Monterey has had a "tradition of silence and denial" on the subject of sexual misconduct by priests. Unfortunately, The Herald does not read its own paper and apparently does not have access to its own archives. If it had reviewed its own writings in this matter it would have found the following articles:

1. Jan. 28, 2004: Diocese may have to sell property to settle cases: This piece reports on our cases and settlements.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

MARK HENNESSY and PATSY McGARRY

INCREASED REDRESS: EIGHTEEN RELIGIOUS orders must pay extra substantial reparations to victims of child abuse in their institutions over decades, Dáil Éireann unanimously agreed yesterday.

In a rare show of political unity in Leinster House, politicians of all parties signed up to a motion moved by Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney.

The 18 religious congregations which signed the indemnity deal with the State in 2002 will meet in Dublin today to consider their situation.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

MARK HENNESSY and PATSY McGARRY

INCREASED REDRESS: EIGHTEEN RELIGIOUS orders must pay extra substantial reparations to victims of child abuse in their institutions over decades, Dáil Éireann unanimously agreed yesterday.

In a rare show of political unity in Leinster House, politicians of all parties signed up to a motion moved by Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney.

The 18 religious congregations which signed the indemnity deal with the State in 2002 will meet in Dublin today to consider their situation.

MASSACHUSETTS
The Irish Times

DENIS STAUNTON and MARK HENNESSY

PRESIDENT'S REACTION: PRESIDENT MARY McAleese’s declaration yesterday in the United States that those guilty of abuse in religious institutions should be brought before the court is in line with State policy, the Government confirmed last night.

Responding to questions in Boston, the President said: “Well. we have had a number, quite a number, of convictions over recent years of people who did exactly these things, of abusers.

“Some of them I suppose have gone to their graves and have had to answer to their god because they were not made amenable to a court. But insofar as the Ryan report catalogues acts of criminal neglect or violence that were perpetrated by people who are still alive, then I think we have to say, absolutely, without any fear of contradiction that they remain amenable for those crimes.”

IRELAND
The Times (United Kingdom)

[Michael O'Brien speaks]

David Sharrock
A storm is blowing through Ireland, its moral outrage unprecedented in the state’s history. For the Roman Catholic Church and Irish society, its consequences will be profound.

The plain-speaking of one man merits lengthy quotation. Michael O’Brien articulated the rage of a nation this week when he appeared on the RTÉ show Questions and Answers, the Republic’s equivalent of the BBC’s Question Time.

He listened patiently to the answers given by politicians to his question about whether the assets of religious orders found guilty by a commission report of systemic, endemic child abuse should be frozen. Then he let rip.

KENTUCKY
Cincinnati Enquirer

By Kevin Kelly • kkelly@nky.com • May 28, 2009

BURLINGTON - The class-action lawsuit between sexual-abuse victims and the Diocese of Covington ended Thursday in Boone Circuit Court.

The case was settled for $84 million in 2005. All victims who received awards have been paid in full and have signed releases acknowledging payment and releasing their claims, according to Circuit Judge Robert McGinnis' final order of dismissal.

In the document filed Thursday, McGinnis wrote that the diocese and Bishop Roger Foys had fulfilled all of their obligations under the settlement agreement and that no further claims would be accepted.

MIAMI (FL)
Catholic News Agency

Miami, Fla., May 28, 2009 / 05:42 pm (CNA).- Archbishop John C. Favalora of Miami made a statement on Thursday afternoon in which he revealed that he was kept in the dark about Fr. Alberto Cutié's decision to join the Episcopal Church. The archbishop also stressed that by his actions, Cutié has forfeited his rights as a cleric but is not dismissed from the promise of celibacy he freely made.

“I am genuinely disappointed by the announcement made earlier this afternoon by Father Alberto Cutié that he is joining the Episcopal Church,” Archbishop Favalora began.

The Archbishop of Miami then detailed the consequences of Fr. Cutié's action, saying that the priest had separated himself from the communion of the Roman Catholic Church “by professing erroneous faith and morals” and by “refusing submission to the Holy Father.” Father Cutié will no longer be allowed to legitimately celebrate the sacraments in the Archdiocese of Miami, and he cannot preach or teach on Catholic faith and morals. “His actions could lead to his dismissal from the clerical state,” the archbishop stated.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

JASON MICHAEL

Victims' groups today criticised the Government's initial response to the Ryan report but said they were "finally beginning to see and hear" what should have taken place a week ago.

In an open letter to the Government, the organisations also accused the Church of continuing "the patterns of emotional bullying, protectionism and self-preservation" in the wake of the report's publication.

"The State initially showed little leadership and clarity about its role and there were elements of deference to the Church in their responses over the past week. These responses must themselves be reflected upon and lessons learnt. Let these initiatives not be watered down, let survivors not be betrayed again, let old patterns not reassert themselves," the letter said.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Victims groups this afternoon welcomed calls by President Mary McAleese for criminal prosecutions arising from the Ryan Report.

Ashlinn, Irish Survivors of Child Abuse and the Rape Crisis Network maintain that the biggest issue for victims is to ensure that religious orders whose members abused children don't control restitution funds.

The groups want the Government to clarify how they intend to audit the assets of the orders.

IRELAND
Financial Times

By John Murray Brown

Published: May 28 2009 17:37 | Last updated: May 28 2009 17:37

The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland may have to disclose the profits it made during the country’s recent property boom in order to pay additional compensation to the victims of child abuse.

Brian Cowen, the Irish prime minister, is to meet representatives of the 18 orders named in a shocking report published last week that said sexual abuse of children was “endemic” in the so-called “industrial schools” run by the orders on the state’s behalf. Those who ran the children’s homes will have to provide an inventory of their assets.

Following the report by the government-appointed commission, headed by Justice Sean Ryan, the orders are facing growing calls from ministers – and more discreet pressure from the Catholic bishops – to increase the compensation.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
Catholic News Service

By Mwansa Pintu
Catholic News Service

LUSAKA, Zambia (CNS) -- More than 40 priests in the Central African Republic launched a one-day strike to protest the appointment of a new apostolic administrator after an investigation of priests' celibacy led to the resignation of their archbishop.

The priests from the Archdiocese of Bangui resumed celebrating Mass May 28 after meeting the previous day and deciding to suspend their pastoral activities.

In a telephone interview with Catholic News Service, the Bangui archdiocesan chancellor, Father Brad Mazangue, said arrangements were being made for the new apostolic administrator, Father Dieudonne Nzapa-La-Ayinga, to address the priests on the matter as soon as possible.

BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun

By Matthew Hay Brown | matthew.brown@baltsun.com
4:06 PM EDT, May 28, 2009
A man and a woman who say that their father was a Josephite priest have filed a lawsuit seeking $10 million in compensation and punitive damages from the Baltimore-based order.

Carla A. Latty, 56, an attorney in New York, and Adrian Senna, 63, a retired actor and musician in British Columbia, say that DNA tests prove that the late Rev. Francis E. Ryan was their biological father. They say Ryan, who served as a priest in Alabama, Louisiana and the District of Columbia, conducted a long-running relationship with their late mother, Anna Maria Franklin Senna.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in Baltimore Circuit Court, Latty and Senna say Ryan's order, formally named Saint Joseph's Society of the Sacred Heart, denied them knowledge of and contact with their birth father and his family and deprived them of child support and other economic assistance. They also accuse the order of negligence in hiring, retaining and failing to properly supervise Ryan.

PARAGUAY
Momento 24

The Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo was interviewed by Soledad Silveyra, in a tv show named “Un tiempo después”, where he spoke particularly about his private life and the scandals of parenthood that were caused in the last months.

“I believe most of the people have an imperfect celibacy”, the ex-bishop emphasized. And he told that the Bible says that when a priest looks at a woman with desire, “he has already sinned with the heart”.

In the presidential residence, the actress asked him over his personal experience. Lugo answered: “I have lived through the celibacy quite well, the first years were full of enthusiasm”.

MIAMI (FL)
The Catholic Spirit

By Catholic News Service
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Father Alberto Cutie, the Miami priest suspended from his parish and Catholic radio posts after photos of him with a woman were released by a tabloid magazine, joined the Episcopal Church May 28 at a ceremony at Miami's Trinity Cathedral.

Father Alberto Cutie "I have decided to become part of a new spiritual family within the umbrella of Christianity," he said in a statement. "As I have been saying and writing for years through my work in communications, instead of focusing on our differences, let's work together so that all may come to believe in a loving and good God, even in the midst of this changing world."

A statement from the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida said he would pursue becoming a priest in that church but it was not clear how long the process would take.

IRELAND
Dublin People

A NORTHSIDE man has told of the most humiliating experience of his life when he had to search for another victim of sexual abuse to make his case against a Christian Brother stronger in court.

Damian O’Farrell, from Marino, spoke to Northside People about his horrific childhood abuse by a Christian Brother following the publication last week of the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse that shocked the nation.

Mr O’Farrell, who will contest the Clontarf ward in the local elections as an Independent candidate, has come forward to speak out against the injustice he and many others suffered at Northside schools.

KENTUCKY
WCPO

Reported by: Tom McKee
Email: tmckee@wcpo.com

The class action lawsuit against the Diocese of Covington for alleged sexual abuse by priests is now closed.

Judge Robert McGinnis approved a settlement of the case Thursday in Boone Circuit court.

When the suit was filed, there were 400 people who claimed they were victims. Their attorneys and lawyers for the Diocese of Covington worked out a matrix grid that Special Masters Bill Burleigh and Judge Thomas Lambros used to distribute money to 252 individuals from an $84 million settlement fund. The other 148 claims were denied on grounds that there wasn't enough evidence available for validation.

MIAMI (FL)
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

MIAMI - The Rev. Alberto Cutié, a popular Miami Beach priest removed from his parish after photos surfaced showing him kissing a woman, will leave the Catholic Church to become an Episcopalian and marry his girlfriend, The Miami Herald reports today.

A small, private ceremony was scheduled for early this afternoon at Trinity Cathedral, the Episcopal Church's South Florida headquarters in downtown Miami.

Cutié is expected to announce that he will marry his girlfriend, whom media reports have identified as 35-year-old Ruhama Buni Canellis, a divorced mother living in Miami Beach.

MIAMI (FL)
Miami New Times

By Kyle Munzenrieder in News
Thursday, May. 28 2009 @ 1:16PM

That was father Alberto Cutié in the corner. That was him in the spotlight. And now he's losing his religion.

The celebri-priest got caught in a tabloid scandal when pictures surfaced of the holy man getting awfully cozy with a lady on the beach. He soon confessed to dating the woman for years and that he would like to marry her. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church doesn't allow that kind of thing.

So now Cutié is joining the Episcopalian Church, a church that came into existence only because some English king wanted to get divorced, and ironically Cutié is joining it in order to marry. He will not automatically become a priest but will have a special place as a lay minister. It should be interesting to see how many, if any, followers also make the switch.

MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald

BY JAWEED KALEEM
jkaleem@MiamiHerald.com
The Rev. Alberto Cutié, the celebrity priest removed from his Miami Beach church after photos of him kissing and embracing a woman appeared in the pages of a Spanish-language magazine earlier this month, has left the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami to join the Episcopal church.

The small, private ceremony happened early Thursday afternoon at Trinity Cathedral, the church's South Florida headquarters in downtown Miami. Bishop Leo Frade, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida, officiated as Cutié knelt in front of the bishop and was received into the Episcopal church.

''I thank God for the many people in our community who have shown me their love and support,'' read a statement by Cutié. ``Your prayers have sustained me at this time of transition in my life. With God's help, I hope to continue priestly ministry and service in my mew spiritual home.''

FLORIDA
TCPalm

By Eric Pfahler
Originally published 02:38 p.m., May 28, 2009

VERO BEACH — A former Indian River County school board candidate who also once served as a local priest was arrested Thursday for the possession of child pornography.

Vero Beach police arrested Gerard J. Lamothe, 60, of the 1800 block of 44th Avenue in part of a three-month ongoing investigation. Lamothe ran for the School Board District 2 seat this past election. He was taken to Indian River County Jail with a bond set at $10,000.

According to the release, the police department got a tip in February that a computer monitor at the Pastoral Counseling Center -- Lamothe's place of business -- located at 3100 Airport West Drive displayed child pornography. Though the business was closed, the monitor was visible through the window.

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

Anthony Stevens-Arroyo

The 2,600-page final report of Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse reported decades of mistreatment described by commentators as "off the scale." The abuses cited are mostly non-sexual in nature - about 82% of condemned acts were in the form of imposed physical pain and punishments. Commenting on this overview, Catholic League President, Dr. William Donohue draws the conclusion that the Commission's use of the word "abuses" feeds into an anti-Catholic bigotry that offers "a huge market for such distortions." No doubt some Catholics will agree with Dr. Donohue. The temptation is to interpret such scandals the work of "a few bad apples." This approach leaves the institution off the hook and places all blame on low-level staff.

I suspect others in Catholic America will agree with Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh that the "publication of this comprehensive report and analysis is a welcome and important step in establishing the truth, giving justice to victims and ensuring such abuse does not happen again." Prevention of future occurrences is also behind the comments of Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. Calling for a comprehensive self-searching by the Church, he said Catholics need to "seriously examine how their ideals became debased by systematic abuse." The words "systematic abuse" are important here. It is what links Ireland's children abuse with the U.S. clerical pedophile scandal. Unless such problems are fixed by changing the system, they are not being fixed at all.

BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Catholic Culture

May 28, 2009
Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut has angrily protested a state supreme court decision ordering the release of documents related to sexual abuse by diocesan priests. Writing on his blog, the bishop charged that last week's 4-1 decision by the state's highest court "failed to uphold the Diocese’s right to a fair adjudication of its claim by an impartial judge - a right that is fundamental to any legal proceeding."

BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Bishop William Lori's Blog

You may have read about the decision of the Connecticut Supreme Court on the case Rosado v. Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocesan Corp. I would like to share our full statement with you here to help you understand better why we oppose the decision.

We are deeply disappointed that the Connecticut Supreme Court has failed to uphold the Diocese’s right to a fair adjudication of its claim by an impartial judge - a right that is fundamental to any legal proceeding.

Lost in the decision is the fact that, during the litigation claims of the 1990’s, the victims’ and their attorneys had access to the records in question under seal. In 2001, the claims were settled, and the court records, including documents under seal, were set to follow the standard procedure for all claims settled before trial and be destroyed.

UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Damian Thompson

One of the most delicate questions surrounding the wicked child abuse by Irish Catholic clergy, brothers and nuns is this: how much of the abuse was Irish and how much of it was Catholic?

The question of Irishness has been hovering over the Catholic abuse scandals for years, ever since journalists noticed (but scarcely dared point out) that they seemed concentrated among the Irish Catholic diaspora of the United States, Canada and Australia. We always knew that terrible things happened in Ireland, too, though it was not until the publication of a 2,600-page report last week that we realised their extent. ...

Back to the original question: how Irish was the abuse and how Catholic? It should go without saying that these crimes are an utter perversion of Catholicism - but unfortunately it has to be said, because the hierarchical structures of the Church made it easy to conceal them, and religious arrogance and paranoia persuaded the authorities that they should be concealed. As the Child Abuse Commission concludes:

The documents revealed that sexual abusers were often long-term offenders who repeatedly abused children wherever they were working. Contrary to the Congregations’ claims that the recidivist nature of sexual offending was not understood, it is clear from the documented cases that they were aware of the propensity for abusers to re-abuse. The risk, however, was seen by the Congregations in terms of the potential for scandal and bad publicity should the abuse be disclosed. The danger to children was not taken into account.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
AFP

BANGUI (AFP) — Roman Catholic priests in the Central African Republic returned to their flocks on Thursday as they ended a strike over the Vatican's decision to appoint a new archbishop without their opinion.

But the priests said they remain opposed to the Vatican's decision to appoint Dieudonne Nzapa-La-Ayinga as interim archbishop of Bangui to replace Paulin Pomodimo, who resigned Tuesday. Subsequent reports said he was suspected of sexual affairs.

"Masses and all sacraments resumed this morning, but the battle continues with the same demands," said priest Mathurin Paze Lekissan, spokesman for the Central African diocesan clergy, adding that they had suspended their strike to avoid "depriving Christians of the divine word and the body of Christ."

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Wednesday, 27 May 2009
The Christian Brothers, the worst offenders in the clerical child abuse scandal, last night bowed to intense pressure and agreed to look for a possible new deal to make amends to its victims.

Almost one week after the shocking Ryan Report was published, the order appealed for another six weeks to listen to people who their members abused and tortured, their families and support and representative groups – and suggested it could hand over millions directly to victims of abuse.

Crucially, this would mean no renegotiation of the 2002 indemnity deal, which capped the amount that religious orders are liable to pay victims at €128m.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By John Walshe, Shane Phelan and Paul Melia

Wednesday May 27 2009

THE Christian Brothers will hand over properties worth tens of millions of euro to compensate victims of institutional abuse, the Irish Independent has learned.

The dramatic, if belated, decision followed days of intense pressure on religious orders to contribute more than was agreed under the abuse deal with the Government.

Informed sources said the properties were unlikely to be handed over to the State, but instead to a separate trust which will decide how best they can be used. The trust will be "at arms length" from the Christian Brothers.

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

We in SNAP believe if Catholic officials will lie about and hide child sex crimes, they'll surely lie about and hide wealth. And if they'll conceal the names of hundreds of predators, they'll conceal millions in assets. Time and time again, we've seen church bureaucrats claim 'poverty' despite clear and considerable evidence of great wealth.

We also believe 'where there's a will, there's a way.' We can't recall a single bishop ever saying 'We need a new cathedral' but not building it for lack of funds. Catholic officials are remarkably skilled and successful fundraisers. If they don't have sufficient funds, they can get them.

Finally, these religious orders are huge international institutions. If they take their Christian mission seriously, their brothers in other nations will contribute to help the thousands of deeply-wounded and still-hurting Irish men and women who were repeatedly brutalized and violated as kids and betrayed again as adults.

TEXAS
GetReligion

Posted by tmatt

One of the hardest things to do in journalism is to do a fair, accurate story when you are covering an emotional, complex issue when one side of the story will not talk to you (especially if lawyers are involved).

The alternative Houston Press recently published a textbook example of this kind of story and, even though I just labeled this an “alternative” newspaper, reporter Craig Malisow did about as good a job on it as you can do.

So what’s the story about? It’s horrific. It’s the story about accusations against a trusted religious leader in an Episcopal school, accusations that he acted as a sexual predator and that his superiors covered it up — for 40 years.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

JASON MICHAEL

There have been further calls today for full disclosure of the value of assets belonging to religious congregations and the terms of the 2002 deal made with the government in the wake of the Ryan report into institutionalised child abuse.

Earlier today, the Dáil passed an all-party motion that apologised to the victims of childhood abuse for the failure to intervene, accepted all the recommendations of the Ryan report, and called on the congregations to commit to making further substantial contributions in reparations.

In a statement issued this afternoon, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore urged the Government to voluntarily publish all documents relating to the negotiation of the 2002 deal between the congregations and the State.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

ELAINE EDWARDS

An alliance of advocacy and victim support groups has called on the leaders of the main political parties to meet them in order to personallly convey their apologies to those who were abused in institutions.

In a joint statement today, Barnardos, Cari, the Children's Rights Alliance, Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, ISPCC and One in Four, sought a meeting in advance of the Government’s planned meeting with 18 religious congregations to discuss the Ryan report.

The groups welcomed a motion passed in the Dáil today, supported by party leaders, that apologised to the victims of childhood abuse for the failure to intervene.

BALTIMORE (MD)
WBAL

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Robert Lang

A $10-million lawsuit is being filed today by two people, who claim a priest who was a member of a Baltimore based religious order was their father, and the order and the Archdiocese of Baltimore concealed that fact.

The suit is being filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court against the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the St. Joseph's Society of Sacred Heart.

Their attorneys say Carla Latty and Adrian Senna learned through DNA testing that their biological father was Fr. Francis E. Ryan, a member of the order.

IRELAND
Clerical Whispers

Our dear friends, we are conscious of the distsance of many of you who would like to sign the books of solidarity that were opend in the Mansion House, Dublin by the Lord Mayor.

Many of you have made enquiries as to the possibility of signing the books online, but as of yet this is not something which seems to be possible.

In response to this, we here in CW are offering those of you who would have wished to sign the books a chance to express your support by emailing us here in CW at: clericalwhispers@gmail.com and subject your emails to us - 'Victims of Abuse - Lord Mayor of Dublin'

IRELAND
YouTube

THE MAN who told Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey that the Government did not have the foggiest understanding of the pain felt by the victims of child abuse is a former Fianna Fáil local representative.

IRELAND
Limerick Leader

Published Date:
28 May 2009
By Petula Martyn
THE family of a councillor who demanded a public enquiry into all industrial schools in 1945 after seeing the injuries inflicted on a young boy, were unaware of their father's heroic efforts to expose child abuse until 10 years ago.

Cllr Martin McGuire informed government ministers of the brutal flogging of a 14-year-old boy called Gerard Fogarty from Limerick city in August 1945.

The determined effort of the city councillor is highlighted in a chapter on St Joseph's Industrial School in the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, and it reveals that abuse at the County Limerick institution was known at Cabinet level thanks to Cllr McGuire who was not identified in the report

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Colin Murphy

Thursday May 28 2009

In reality, the State's side was greatly sympathetic to the plight of the congregations

So, the Christian Brothers have made a commitment to making additional "reparation" for abuse, and the Government has called for a "substantial additional contribution" from the congregations. But additional to what?

The original indemnity deal was valued at €128m. The suggestion has been that this was an amount the congregations contributed to the cost of the redress scheme, for which they received an indemnity. This is spin.

MASSACHUSETTS
BBC News

Irish President Mary McAleese has said she believes people should face prosecutions as a result of the Ryan Report into clerical child abuse.

In an interview with RTÉ News, Mrs McAleese said the report showed a "catalogue of criminal offences".

Prosecution, she added, might not bring closure, but it would bring justice.

Mrs McAleese is in Boston on the final leg of an official visit to the US state of Massachusetts.

MASSACHUSETTS
The Irish Times

President Mary McAleese has said she believes there should be criminal prosecutions as a result of the Ryan report into institutionalised child abuse.

Speaking from Boston on the final leg of a five-day official visit to Massachusetts Mrs McAleese said she felt the Irish people wouldn’t have the “stomach” to run away from the question of criminality.

“In so far as the Ryan report catalogues acts of criminal neglect or violence that were perpetrated by people who are still alive I think we have to say absolutely without any fear of contradiction then they remain amenable for those crimes,” she told an RTÉ interview.

IRELAND
Bloomberg

By Colm Heatley

May 28 (Bloomberg) -- Members of religious orders in Ireland implicated in abusing children through an official report published last week should face prosecution, Irish President Mary McAleese told RTE today.

“In so far as there are people still alive who are responsible for these criminal acts then surely part and parcel of the Ryan Report is, and should be, that they should be brought before the proper authorities,” McAleese told the state broadcaster.

The Ryan Report, released May 20, said child abuse was “endemic” in institutions including children’s homes and industrial schools run by religious orders in Ireland since the 1930s. While the report didn’t have the power to recommend prosecutions, victims have called for legal action against the abusers.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Fiachra O Cionnaith, Claire O’Sullivan, Paul O’Brien and Scott Millar

Thursday, May 28, 2009

MORE religious orders have bowed to pressure to provide extra funds for survivors of institutional child abuse – but half of those involved have still not said how they will respond to the controversy.

Nine of the 18 orders that were signatories to the notorious 2002 indemnity deal, restricting their contribution to victims’ compensation to just a tenth of the estimated €1.3 billion cost, have said they are prepared to make additional payments.

Others have either not yet spoken publicly or insisted they have already discharged their debts to victims. Some declined to reveal their intentions prior to a joint meeting with Taoiseach Brian Cowen, likely to take place in the next fortnight.

IRELAND
Reuters

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's president said on Thursday a harrowing report into how Catholic priests and nuns had abused children had not come as a shock after her own convent school experiences.

"I had a fair idea it was happening," Mary McAleese said in an interview with state broadcaster RTE.

"I was educated by Mercy Nuns, my brothers went to Christian Brothers schools. Some of the stories that come through the Ryan Report would not be unfamiliar to us."

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Fionnan Sheahan Political Editor

Thursday May 28 2009

The Government will demand the final say on how any additional contributions for abuse victims from religious orders will be spent.

It adopted a far tougher stance last night as the Conference of Religious of Ireland justice spokesman broke his silence for the first time since the Ryan report was published seven days ago.

Fr Sean Healy urged the 18 orders to boost their compensation contributions and find a way to split the indemnity deal 50:50 with the State.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By ine Kerr Political Correspondent

Thursday May 28 2009

THE public face of CORI last night urged religious orders to pay 50pc of the multi-million indemnity deal agreed with the Government to compensate victims.

Fr Sean Healy said the religious authorities who abused children should be pursued and prosecuted.

Breaking his silence for the first time since the Ryan report was published seven days ago, the director of Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) Justice, Fr Healy, urged the 18 congregations to boost their compensation contributions and find a way to split the indemnity deal 50:50 with the State.

IRELAND
Press Association

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has urged anybody who witnessed institutional child sex abuse to come forward with evidence that could help secure criminal prosecutions.

Victims and those who have any information on the catalogue of sexual, physical and emotional brutality dealt out to thousands of children for decades at so-called industrial and reformatory schools should contact the Garda, he insisted.

SERBIA
Blic

Request to Bishop Artemije to close the center at Crna Reka remains in force, ‘Blic’ was told at the Patriarchy yesterday. That stance was repeated after the Eparchy of Raska and Prizren announced that Bishop Artemije had recalled Father Branislav Peranovic, chief of the so-called spiritual-rehabilitation center for treatment of drug edicts ‘Crna Reka’.

The newly appointed chief is Father Dejan Jakovljevic, Peranovic’s right hand until so far. Bishop Artemije initially claimed that the affair over ‘Crna Reka’ was fabricated because of his refusal to host the USA Vice President Joseph Biden. In his yesterday’s statement he said: ‘We are addressing the competent state bodies that have registered the center to continue investigation and to bring the responsible individuals to the face of justice’. Although few days ago his reaction to the Synod’s appeal was negative, he is now voicing the identical stance over the center that ‘beating and physical maltreating are completely unacceptable methods’ in treatment of drug edicts.

SERBIA
Javno (Croatia)

Manager of the Spiritual-Rehabilitation Centre Crna Reka Branislav Peranovic was relieved of duty on Wednesday and a church-court process will be started against him over abused clients in the institution under his care. Furthermore, he is facing at least six months is prison.

Peranovic`s deputy Dejan Jakovljevic was appointed new manager. The Episcope said that the institution will be closed if the practice of abusing clients is continued.

- We were governed by emotions and the need of many parents who sent pleas not to close down the Centre, because this is their only hope that their children will get back on the right track – Artemije told the Press.

IRELAND
Corkman

By MARIA HERLIHY mherlihy@corkman.ie

Thursday May 28 2009

ANGRY parishioners walked out of a mass in Banteer on Saturday evening after a priest made comments from the alter about the Ryan Report into the abuse of children in instutions run by religions orders.

Fr Con O'Donovan, who is aged in his late 70s, made the comments during his sermon at St Fursey's Church in Banteer at 8pm mass on Saturday last. ...

Fr O'Donovan was unwilling to comment on the content of his sermon. However, parishioners told The Corkman that Fr O'Donovan had remarked that it would be wrong to say that children had not benefitted from being brought up in industrial schools, given the circumstances they might otherwise have faced.

He also made comments that, some parishioners felt, tended to play down the suffering of children who were subjected to abuse in institutions run by religions orders.

BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Catholic News Agency

Bridgeport, Conn., May 28, 2009 / 06:36 am (CNA).- The Diocese of Bridgeport is defending its legal efforts to keep thousands of documents from settled abuse lawsuits from being unsealed by a Connecticut Supreme Court decision. The diocese’s bishop has alleged that a judge’s apparent conflict of interest and “media self-interest” may have resulted in an unjust decision.

Last week the Connecticut Supreme Court voted 4-1 to unseal more than 12,600 legal documents from 23 lawsuits settled in 2001, the Hartford Courant says. The diocese reacted with a statement saying it was “deeply disappointed” with the decision. Bishop Lori pointed out on his blog that during the litigation claims of the 1990s victims and their attorneys had access to the records now under seal.

“In 2001, the claims were settled, and the court records, including documents under seal, were set to follow the standard procedure for all claims settled before trial and be destroyed.”

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Eamonn McCann
Thursday, 28 May 2009

Jim was 14 days old when placed with the Sisters of Nazareth at Termonbacca in Derry. What happened to him later disproves suggestions there was no equivalent in the North of the savagery inflicted on children in the Republic.

“The Sister’s knuckles were always scabbed and saturated with iodine from the beatings she handed out. She wore mittens in summer and winter.

“To hear the roars and screams of the orphans was terrifying ... If you wet the bed, you had to run what was known as the gauntlet, down a long, long passageway from the dormitory to the toilets, and as you ran and stumbled you’d be thumped up to a dozen times by the nuns and the monitors ... The senior monitor lined up all the kids and had us stripped naked. It was reminiscent of those pictures of Jews lined up in the concentration camps ...”

IRELAND
RTE News

[with audio]

Thursday, 28 May 2009 11:51
The Minister for Health, Mary Harney, has said Taoiseach Brian Cowen will be taking a 'robust' approach to his negotiations with the religious congregations.

Later, the Dáil unanimously passed an all-party motion calling on the Congregations to make further substantial contributions by way of reparation to the victims of institutional abuse.

Today's Dáil motion, in the names of the Taoiseach and the leaders of the three Opposition parties, was passed unanimously and without debate.

UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

Sister Maureen Turlish

In the U.S. publication, the National Catholic Reporter, Dominican priest, the Rev. Thomas Doyle has this to say in the article, ”Irish abuse report demands decisive action,” (05/21/09):
“The report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse is not unique though it may well be the most shocking example of the reality of such a culture of evil. In the past two decades over two dozen reports have described physical and sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults by Catholic clergy and religious.” (1)

Church authorities and individual religious communities of men and women are tripping over each other saying how sorry they are that this tragedy happened. A lot more than public apologies from cardinals, bishops, religious superiors and government officials are necessary here.

The government of Ireland made a deal with the Devil in agreeing not to prosecute or name any of the individuals, living or dead, who were party to the widespread torture and abuse of children as has been reported in the recently released Ryan Report.

IRELAND
Kilkenny People

Published Date: 29 May 2009
By Staff Reporter
ONE of the worst child abusers in the history of the State was given a reference for a job by the head nun at St Joseph's orphanage in Kilkenny, despite being told he had been "at" children and despite having personal reservations about the paedophile who served a 10- year jail sentence for sex abuse.

David Murray was only investigated in 1995 by a Garda Sergeant, stationed at Kilkenny Garda Station. He began an investigation into allegations of sexual and physical abuse at St Joseph's School in Kilkenny.

In the course of his enquiries, he heard allegations of severe sexual abuse, including buggery, and of physical abuse by David Murray and Myles Brady who had been employed at St Joseph's during the 1970s. The first of these allegations involved David Murray, who was employed in St Joseph's from 1972 until 1976, when he was summarily removed by the Resident Manager following complaints by boys.

MARYLAND
Church Solutions

05/27/2009
A Maryland Methodist pastor who concealed her husband’s sex-related conviction is currently suspended and could lose her job.

Helen Smith, who has been on leave since January, has led Benevola United Methodist Church in Boonsboro, Md., for 15 years, but when a congregant discovered her 57-year-old husband’s listing on Maryland’s sex-offender registry, her future came into question.

The husband, David Smith, has worked in music ministry at the church, though supposedly he never worked with children. He was convicted of sexual abuse in July 2008 after the couple’s grown daughter brought forth charges that her father sexually abused her between the ages of 5 and 12.

IRELAND
Galway News

GALWAY’S two Catholic Bishops have declined to publicly row in behind many of their Hierarchical colleagues who this week said the controversial 2002 Church/State redress deal to compensate the victims of sex abuse in residential institutions run by religious orders should be revisited.

Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary –who is the current head of the Diocese that includes the Christian Brothers’ School, Letterfrack and Sisters of Mercy Industrial School, Clifden – said, through a spokesperson, that the issue of reopening negotiations on a new redress deal or any other new compensation scheme for victims was a matter for Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori).

IRELAND
Kilkenny People

Published Date: 28 May 2009
By Sean Keane

NOBODY knows for sure what level of abuse there was at St Patrick's, Kells Road, Kilkenny, an industrial school and orphanage up to 1966 when it changed over and became a centre for young adults with minor and severe learning difficulties.

But before 1966 when it was run with an iron fist, we have first-hand reports of sexual, physical and emotional abuse.

There is evidence like there is at St Joseph's, Waterford Road, Kilkenny, that people on the outside knew what was going on. There are sexual abuse claims against three lay workers at St Patrick's. All three are dead.

ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Morning Call

By Daniel Patrick Sheehan and Brian Callaway | OF THE MORNING CALL
May 28, 2009
The next bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Allentown lost no time in asking for help, invoking the guidance and protection of the Virgin Mary as he prepares to take control in a time of imposing pressures on the church in America and around the world.

Monsignor John O. Barres, 48, introduced at a news conference Wednesday at the Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena in Allentown, will become the fourth bishop of the diocese when he is installed July 30. ...

Barres called on Catholics to recommit themselves to helping the poor and downtrodden, the unborn and elderly and the victims of clergy sexual abuse. ''Our duty of healing and reconciling is summed up in Bishop Cullen's episcopal motto, 'Christ, Church and Compassion,''' he said. ''That motto will be complemented by my own: 'Holiness and Mission.'''

CALIFORNIA
The Monterey County Herald

Updated: 05/28/2009 01:29:12 AM PDT

Nearly seven years ago, Bishop Sylvester Ryan was asked whether the Diocese of Monterey faced the types of abuse-related cases that were battering the Catholic Church nationally.

None at all, he assured the questioner, a parishioner who very much wanted to believe him.

When subsequent news accounts about local lawsuits and quiet settlements here and in surrounding counties showed that Ryan, now retired, had been less than candid, the parishioner maintained her faith in the church but not in those responsible for administering church affairs on the Central Coast.

In the intervening years, little has occurred to reassure her and others—at least little that has surfaced publicly. Now, a couple of more local court cases threaten to do even more to weaken the trust unless church officials chose to break with their tradition of silence and denial.

IRELAND
Limerick Leader

Published Date: 28 May 2009
By Anne Sheridan
A "SURVIVOR" of physical and sexual abuse at St Joseph's Industrial School in Glin said he had been contacted by dozens of people who had suffered abuse at the school as far back as 1948.
`
Tom Hayes, 63, a resident in Richill, County Armagh, has been contacted by thousands of people through the Alliance Support Group website.

Mr Hayes is secretary of the alliance, which was formed in 1999 as a direct result of the Government's promise to help support those who, as children, were abused in State-run institutions

IRELAND
Corkman

By LOUISE MCCARTHY lmccarthy@corkman.ie

Thursday May 28 2009

A PRIEST in a North Cork parish was ordered on Friday to take administrative following allegations of sexual abuse against him.

Mallow gardai are now investigating the allegations made by a woman who claimed the priest sexually abused her more than 20 years ago.

A spokesman for the diocese of Cloyne has confirmed that the complaint is being dealt with in accordance with the Standards and Guidance Document 'Safeguarding Children' of the National Board for Safeguarding Children.

CANADA
North Bay Nugget

Posted By BOB VAILLANCOURT, SUN MEDIA

A Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing five boys a quarter century ago is little more than a predator," a veteran prosecutor told a Sudbury judge in her final arguments Wednesday.

Prosecutor Diana Fuller argued Father Bernard Cloutier exploited the position of trust, power and privilege" to befriend the boys and sexually assault them, using alcohol as part of his method of operation.

The stories the five alleged victims told were very similar in the way the priest manipulated them and then used them, she said. The testimony of all five had the ring of truth," Fuller added.

CANADA
National Post

Father Raymond J. De Souza

Priestly abuse of minors, sexual or otherwise, inflicts a grievous wound on the Church, the entire body of the baptized. It grievously wounds the victims. The damage to the body may heal; souls are another thing, and often the damage there is permanent. Victims of abuse often find their faith in God shattered, unable to believe in the love and mercy of God after having experienced exploitation and cruelty from His ministers. There have rightly been many apologies, but not all wounds can heal, not all faith can be restored.

The lay faithful as a whole are also wounded, even if they do not know any victims personally. Grave priestly sins are like a family scandal; everyone suffers from the shame. Relations between clergy and laity, which ought to be characterized by trust and co-operation, become marked by suspicion and hostility instead. For priests themselves, the wickedness of a brother against the innocent and vulnerable is cause for personal pain and embarrassment.

All of this has been convulsing Irish society for the past 10 years as they have come to terms with their “residential schools” problem. For generations Irish orphans and those judged to be delinquent were sent to boarding schools run by the state and administered by Catholic religious orders. A commission of inquiry reported last week on the shadows of that period, which included tales of widespread savagery, depravation and sexual abuse, even rape. The system under examination is now several decades in the past, but the report ripped open new wounds in Irish society, both in the state and in the Church.

IRELAND
Limerick Blogger

It seems to be a pattern in Irish psychology that they protect themselves from horrific events simply by not talking about it. You would have been hard-pressed to find someone to discuss the Dromcollogher fire immediately after 1926, for example. It seems that this looks to be the case also in the village of Glin, which was the location of one of the most horrendous industrial schools in the country.

The fact that the Catholic Church were involved, and how the country as a whole were defferential to the Church, served only to compound things.

The attitude of the Church in Limerick was demonstrated by a comment made by Sean Lemeas on visiting Limerick, when he noted that you would either encounter a strike or a novena.

In his book Angelas Ashes, Frank McCourt gave a glimpse of the brutality of the Christian Brothers, when he said that you would be beaten if you didn’t say Eamon De Valera wasn’t the greatest man that ever lived, and you would be beaten if you didn’t say Michael Collins wasn’t the greatest man that ever lived.

IRELAND
Galway Advertiser

Galway Advertiser, May 28, 2009.
We’ve had a week now to come to terms with The Ryan Report. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin warned us to expect the worst, but even so, the scale of the cruelty, neglect, and abuse - physical, emotional, and sexual - documented in the pages of this report will change forever the way the Church is viewed in this country. That those in a position of care to the most vulnerable members of society - those whom the Irish Constitution singled out for particular concern - could have inflicted the immediate pain and suffering, not to mention the long-term emotional consequences that those abused have carried with them into maturity, is terrible enough. That they acted as they did in the name of the Christian faith, whose founder took the child’s trust as a metaphor for humanity’s trust in God, can only be described as blasphemy.

The initial response of the Conference of Religious Orders in Ireland (CORI) has been worse than disappointing; considering the level of public disgust, it could, at best, be described as woefully inadequate, at its worst, it is simply insulting, to those who suffered the abuse, and to the public, most of whom, let us not forget, continue to call themselves Catholics. That there has not been a huge falling away from the profession and practice of the faith says much about the ability of the Irish people to distinguish between the essence of that faith and some of its unworthy representatives. And here the bishops, as contrasted with the religious orders, must be commended for their unqualified condemnation of the abuses, and their expression of collective shame and remorse, with a determination to redress the wrongs and ensure such things can never happen again.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

JIMMY WALSH

SEANAD: DAVID NORRIS (Ind) clashed bitterly with fellow Independent Ronan Mullen over the exemption of the churches from the operations of equality legislation.

When Mr Mullen suggested that those raising this issue, which were extraneous to the needs and concerns of the victims of abuse in institutions, ran the risk of being accused of acting cynically or manipulatively at a time when “we are all struggling to deal with the grim reality”, Mr Norris angrily retorted: “That is a classic smear from you, you smug hypocrite!”

Mr Norris had earlier proposed, unsuccessfully, that the House debate a motion he and Independent colleagues Joe O’Toole, Ivana Bacik, Shane Ross and Feargal Quinn put forward, calling on the House to request the Government to re-examine the exemption, which he contended was unsustainable, especially given the latest revelations about abuse.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

MICHAEL O'REGAN

LABOUR LEADER Eamon Gilmore has said that consideration should be given to an audit of the religious congregations’ assets by the Revenue Commissioners or the Criminal Assets Bureau.

Mr Gilmore also suggested that “one of these agencies might also investigate whether congregations have been transferring out assets in anticipation of any request for a further contribution”.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said he had already outlined in a statement that the congregations must make additional voluntary contributions.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

MARIE O'HALLORAN

TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has stressed the importance of public confidence that contributions by religious congregations involved in the institutional child abuse scandal are “substantial and commensurate” with their resources.

He told Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny that he would have discussions with the orders about how they could proceed “in a way that will engender public confidence”.

Mr Kenny had welcomed the Government’s announcement after its Cabinet meeting on Tuesday night that the religious orders should make a far greater contribution in reparation to “the victims who were children in their care when they were abused”.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

We look forward to considering ways of addressing the very serious issues that are now before us. This is a profoundly traumatic time for people who were abused in residential care. We will continue to be part of the search for ways of bringing healing to the suffering of people who were with us as children

– The Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy

The Sisters of St Clare confirm their intention to make additional resources available to former residents. They will work with those who have suffered and other congregations in searching for the best way of making this response.

– The Generalate of the Sisters of St Clare

IRELAND
The Irish Times

MARY MINIHAN and RONAN McGREEVY

ABUSE COMPENSATION: ALL CATHOLICS should contribute to financial compensation for victims of child abuse in religious institutions, theologian Fr Enda McDonagh has said.

He said the religious orders had to “take on board” that there needed to be further financial compensation for victims.

“But so also do the rest of us Catholics, whether we’re bishops or priests or layfolk. We’re involved. We took advantage of these religious orders often ourselves, being educated by them or whatever,” he said.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

ANALYSIS: THE DISASTROUS Morning Ireland interview with Cori director general Sr Marianne O’Connor last Tuesday morning was the final straw. Her sometimes pert tone and the “that is closed” response to Cathal Mac Coille when asked whether the congregations would revisit that controversial 2002 redress deal with the State, provoked deep fury.

Adding to those echoes of a “that is out” Margaret Thatcher phraseology, was her insistence that the congregations themselves knew best how their resources might be used to help former residents of their institutions. She seemed to be dictating terms in a context where by then few believed those same congregations were in any position to do so.

It also became clear during the interview that, come hell or high water, and whatever about the injustice of a nine to one disproportion between the State contribution to the redress scheme and that of the congregations, it was a case of “not a cent more” to that scheme where those same congregations were concerned.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

RUADHAN Mac CORMAIC

CORI REACTION: RELIGIOUS CONGREGATIONS implicated in the child abuse scandal should make “substantial additional resources” available to the redress scheme for victims, Fr Seán Healy of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori) Justice said yesterday.

Apologising for the “appalling” abuse carried out by members of 18 of Cori’s 138 member congregations, Fr Healy said: “The pain and hurt caused to so many people in these institutions by abuse on such a vast scale is horrendous. It was extensive and systemic. I was far worse than we had realised.”

“No words can convey the horror, pain, shame and anger felt by us at the revelations contained in that report. No words of apology can provide an adequate response to such abuse.”

IRELAND
The Irish Times

COLM KEENA

THE VALUE of the assets owned by the Christian Brothers in Ireland is not available from public documents, although filings to the Companies’ Registration Office do show substantial financial transactions involving the order.

A spokesman for the order could not put a value on its assets.

An unlimited company called Richmond Newstreet appears to hold substantial investments and is used for the support of the order’s international network.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

COLM KEENA

THE CHRISTIAN Brothers have over the past year transferred ownership of their primary and secondary schools in the Republic to a new trust named after the order’s founder.

The value of the property transferred was estimated to be in the region of €400 million at the time of the transfer, according to a spokesman for the order.

The Edmund Rice Schools Trust was established in May of last year with Mr Justice Peter Kelly acting as chairman of the trustees.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

COLM KEENA, Public Affairs Correspondent

INDEMNITY DEAL DELIVERY: THE RELIGIOUS orders that negotiated an indemnity deal with the Government in June 2002 have to date fully transferred 21 properties worth €26.8 million to State agencies, the Department of Education said yesterday.

A further 40 properties are in the process of being transferred and are in use or available for use by the intended recipients, according to the department, which negotiated the deal.

A further two properties that formed part of the deal have not been transferred because of complications around title and planning and their transfer may not go ahead. If the difficulties cannot be resolved, the department will look for replacement properties.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

MARK HENNESSY, COLM KEENA and PATSY McGARRY

EIGHTEEN RELIGIOUS orders criticised in the Ryan commission child abuse report will have to fully detail their assets to the Government before a deal is struck on how much extra compensation they should pay.

A joint meeting of representatives of the 18 orders and Taoiseach Brian Cowen will take place early next week.

The Department of Education said yesterday the religious congregations that negotiated an indemnity deal with the government in June 2002 have fully transferred 21 properties worth €26.8 million to State agencies to date.

SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
United Press International

SALT LAKE CITY, May 27 (UPI) -- A Salt Lake City minister was charged with exposing himself on the Internet and having a sexual conversation with a police officer posing as an underage child.

The 67-year-old man, a pastor at the Church of God in Prophecy, has agreed to surrender next week, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. He faces felony charges of trying to deal in material harmful to minors.

The case was investigated by the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children task force.

LEWISBURG (PA)
Standard Journal

By Kevin Mertz
Published:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10:43 AM CDT
LEWISBURG — Officials from the Mennonite Council of Churches USA have confirmed unspecified allegations of misconduct were filed against Pastor Jose “Joe” Rosa prior to his disappearance last Thursday.

Joanne Dietzel, conference coordinator, said the information has been reported to police.

“We are cooperating with them as they investiage this matter,” Dietzel said. “We ask for prayers of believers in the community that the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ will be experienced by all involved in this difficult situation.”

BOONSBORO (MD)
The Herald-Mail

By HEATHER KEELS
May 27, 2009
heather.keels@herald-mail.com
BOONSBORO — The pastor of Benevola United Methodist Church in Boonsboro has been suspended from her position for not fully disclosing her husband’s status as a registered child sex offender, a church superintendent said Wednesday.

David Alvin Smith, 57, the husband of the Rev. Helen Smith, pleaded guilty in 2008 to a third-degree sex offense charge after his adult daughter told authorities he had sexually abused her as a child.

As details about his conviction came to light in media reports this spring, a congregation member alleged the information differed from what the Rev. Smith had told her congregation about the matter and alerted church supervisors, said John Rudisill, superintendent of the Cumberland-Hagerstown District of the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church.

BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Catholic Culture

The Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, is reviewing its legal options in light of a court decision that could lead to the public disclosure of thousands of documents related to the handling of sex-abuse cases. The diocese could appeal the decision by the state's highest court.

CONNECTICUT
Connecticut Post

Connecticut Post Staff
Updated: 05/27/2009 05:12:08 PM EDT

The Diocese of Bridgeport has an opportunity to further clean out the wound of priest sexual abuse by allowing a full airing of documents that have been kept secret for decades.

The state Supreme Court last week rejected a diocesan argument that the documents, generated in lawsuits brought by abuse victims, should remain secret, thus clearing the way for their public release. The diocese could appeal that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. That would keep the documents secret while the matter slowly wends its way to the docket of the high court.

The damage will simply intensify.

ALLENTOWN (PA)
Zenit

ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania, MAY 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI appointed Monsignor John Barres, 48, as bishop of Allentown, and accepted the resignation of Bishop Edward Cullen, 76, who resigned for reasons of age.

John Barres was born in Larchmont, New York, to parents who were both protestant ministers. The two converted to Catholicism five years before their son was born. Barres was baptized by then Bishop Fulton Sheen.

He was ordained to the priesthood in 1989, and has most recently been serving as the chancellor of the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News Newcastle

The former head of the Catholic Child Protection Unit and a Newcastle school principal could be called to give evidence at the committal hearing of a priest accused of child-sex offences.

Order of Australia medal-recipient Peter Julian Brock is facing 22 child-sex charges relating to two 12-year-old boys in the 1970s.

In Newcastle Local Court yesterday, prosecutor Hamish Fitzhardinge said there are substantial reasons to call a number of witnesses at Brock's committal hearing.

IRELAND
BBC News

A group of survivors of child abuse in the Republic has called on 18 religious congregations to give the Garda the names of members who violated children.

SOCA Ireland has said it also wants any files on abusers handed over.

Earlier, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said any additional voluntary contribution to compensation for victims from the orders must be substantial.

IRELAND
Ireland Online

Religious orders damaged the nation’s most vulnerable children and abused human dignity, Cori director Fr Sean Healy said today.

In a dramatic statement to an Oireachtas Committee, the high-profile social campaigner finally broke his silence on the five-volume Ryan Report on institutional abuse.

Fr Healy said the findings, released a week ago, were a catalogue of injustice characterised by an unspeakable level of abuse of human dignity and a massive lack of compassion.

IRELAND
RTE News

[with audio and video]

A group of survivors of child abuse has called on 18 religious congregations to hand over to gardaí the names of members who violated children and the files they hold on them.

SOCA Ireland was responding to acceptances by most of the orders implicated in the Ryan report of the Taoiseach's invitation to discuss how they would contribute more in reparation to victims.

The Director of the CORI Justice Commission has also called on religious congregations to act with total transparency in relation to members who have committed crimes of child abuse.

IRELAND
Bloomberg

By Colm Heatley

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Irish Defense Minister Willie O’Dea said the government will push religious orders to pay “appropriate” compensation to abuse victims, adding pressure on the organizations to make more reparations for cruelty to children in their care.

The Ryan Report, released May 20, said abuse in institutions run by religious orders since the 1930s was “endemic.” After the report, 18 religious groups said they wouldn’t reopen a 2002 compensation agreement with the government that capped their contribution at around 128 million euros ($179 million).

“We are determined and adamant they will meet their obligations,” O’Dea told Dublin-based state broadcaster RTE today, adding that the government didn’t know in 2002 how widespread the abuse was or how much the claims would cost.

IRELAND
The Associated Press

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK

DUBLIN (AP) — The Catholic orders responsible for abusing Ireland's poorest children say they're struggling to come up with money to help their victims. Yet investigations into their net worth paint a very different picture — that of nuns and brothers with billions' worth of carefully sheltered assets worldwide. ...

"First off, don't trust anything they say," said the Rev. Thomas Doyle, an American Catholic priest who is an expert on canon law and a champion of abuse victims' rights. "And be prepared to follow up the urging for voluntary donation or contribution with some form of force."

Doyle said the Irish orders "must be forced by a power greater than themselves, and that's the courts and the Irish government, to make sure the compensation comes, even to the point of forcibly divesting them of properties."

NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

By KEITH LYNCH and YVONNE MARTIN

A new book alleging abuse at two Catholic orphanages in Christchurch will be released on Monday.

In Say Sorry, Christchurch woman Ann Thompson, 68, tells of the physical, mental and sexual abuse she endured as a child at St Joseph's Catholic Orphanage for Girls and Nazareth House in Christchurch.

"I've written it so the Catholic Church would come forward, admit this has happened, and apologise," she said.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

A Benedictine monk, a musician and a scholar, former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland does more than merely trace his life in the church in his just released autobiography: A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop (Eerdmans, $35). He provides excellent -- if sometimes chilling insights -- into U.S. episcopal-Vatican relations, including his own frosty relationship with John Paul II and some Vatican officials. At home, many in the Milwaukee may find he too glibly glosses over his appropriating $450,000 in archdiocesan funds to pay off his sexual accuser, Paul Marcoux. In 2002, Weakland’s resignation as Milwaukee archbishop was accepted immediately following public disclosure -- on ABC’s “Good Morning America” -- of that relationship.

The reader gets to meet many people in Weakland’s life in the church, but not to know any of them. This lack of memorable sketches of others leaves the impression of a lonely man, somewhat elitist, who oscillates between kindly consideration and a fierce determination to defend his turf. The book’s lasting impact likely will be its insider accounts of the viciousness of church life, from the willingness with which the John Paul II pontificate accepted unsubstantiated and/or anonymous grievances against those disliked for doctrinal reasons, to the Stepford wives-like conformity at some levels of Vatican itself. An extended review of the book will appear in a forthcoming issue.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: May. 26, 2009

Retired Milwaukee Catholic Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland has decided not to move to an East Coast abbey this summer, though he and the head of the monastery on Tuesday offered differing explanations of the decision.

Weakland said he rescinded his plans to move to St. Mary's Abbey in Morristown, N.J., on May 18 after Abbot Giles Hayes expressed concerns about his presence in the wake of a New York Times story recounting revelations in his forthcoming memoir.

"It seemed evident to me that they thought my presence there might be a negative element for the school and monastery," said Weakland, who discusses his homosexuality and his handling of clergy sex abuse in the book, "A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church," which is due out this month.

NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

by The Star-Ledger Continuous News Desk
Wednesday May 27, 2009, 6:00 AM

Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who resigned in 2002 after it was discovered that he used $450,000 in church funds for a settlement with a man with whom he once had a relationship, won't be relocating to St. Mary's Abbey in Morris Township after all, according to The New York Times.

The 82-year-old former Archbishop, who is about to release a memoir, had led the Benedictine order and was invited by the monks at St. Mary's to retire there, the paper said. But he told The Times "they were getting very worried about the situation because of what they thought would be negative publicity. So I withdrew my desire to go there."

MILWAUKEE (WI)
The New York Times

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: May 26, 2009
Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland, the former head of the Milwaukee Archdiocese who has stirred up new controversy with his soon-to-be-released memoir about his decades in church leadership, his homosexual orientation and the scandal that forced his retirement, said on Tuesday that he had decided not to retire to St. Mary’s Abbey in Morristown, N.J.

Archbishop Weakland had been the worldwide leader of the Benedictine Order and then archbishop of Milwaukee for 25 years until 2002, when he resigned amid revelations that he had used church money to pay a $450,000 settlement to a man with whom he had had a relationship years earlier.

The archbishop, who is 82 and now living in a retirement community in Milwaukee, had been invited by the monks in Morristown to live out his days in their abbey. But, he said in an interview Tuesday, “they were getting very worried about the situation because of what they thought would be negative publicity. So I withdrew my desire to go there.”

IRELAND
Kerryman

Wednesday May 27 2009

ALTHOUGH there were few incidents of sexual abuse by brothers reported at St Joseph's, the commission report does contain details of one brother who sexually abused boys on an almost daily basis over 20 years at the school.

Brother Garon, who arrived at the school in the early 1950s aged in his late sixties, routinely abused boys in the school showers. The report contains several statements which detail how Brother Garon would shower naked with groups of boys aged between nine and 16. In the showers he would make the boys wash his entire body including his privates and then wash the boys himself.

In a more chilling section of the report it is revealed that Garon, who was almost totally deaf would, on most afternoons, pick a random child from the schoolyard and take them for a private shower telling any brother he was with at the time that he "had to take that boy for a shower."

IRELAND
Irish Echo

By Alana Fearon
afearon@irishecho.com

May 27, 2009 The Vatican was on the sidelines but reportedly ready to intervene as Ireland continued to reel this week in the wake of a shocking report on the abuse of children by religious orders in orphanages and industrial schools.

The orders, 18 in total, have refused to increase their €128 million contribution to a compensation fund for victims of the abuse that is graphically detailed in the exhaustive report.

But they might have to do just that if ordered to by Pope Benedict.

MASSACHUSETTS
Irish Echo

By Ray O'Hanlon
rohanlon@irishecho.com

May 27, 2009 President Mary McAleese, on a week long tour of Massachusetts, has reacted angrily to the damning report of child abuse in Ireland by members of religious orders.

"There are legal questions to be asked, there are moral questions to be asked, there's that big why to be asked," McAleese said to reporters in Springfield where she delivered the commencement address at Mount Holyoke College on Sunday.

The Irish Times reported McAleese as calling for a massive public debate into the contents and consequences of the Ryan report into the abuse of children at institutions run jointly by the Irish state and 18 religious orders.

IRELAND
Herald

By Gerry O'Carroll

Wednesday May 27 2009

If there are still wanted Nazis being brought to justice, then why can't we as a sovereign nation find those who brutalised generations of our young?

It should not be beyond the gardai and the DPP to track down and charge the clerics who ruled the institutions like SS camp guards.

They wore clerical garb but they had the hearts and minds of Nazis.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

AOIFE CARR

Opposition leaders have called for an independent audit of the resources of the 18 congregations mentioned in the Ryan commission’s report to determine how much they can pay to victims of abuse in their institutions.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the congregations should not be allowed to make discretionary or voluntary contributions.

“Contributions should be agreed, they should not be discretionary or voluntary. Will you seek full recourse of their assets so you can understand what kind of contributions can be made?” he said.

IRELAND
Longford Leader

Published Date: 29 May 2009
By Joe O'Brien
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse under the chairmanship of Mr. Justice Sean Ryan published a five –volume report on Wednesday last.

The report reveals startling brutality that young people of the time suffered. The legacy of that systematic abuse remains deeply embedded in the hearts and minds of those that suffered from this mindless abuse.

It was the most atrocious betrayal of trust from a group that were the very the essence of faith and hope for the youth and indeed their parents.

IRELAND
Kerryman

By SIMON BROUDER

Wednesday May 27 2009

KERRY born campaigner for the homeless Sr Stanislaus Kennedy has confirmed she is the nun given the pseudonym Sr Wilma in the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse Report but she has insisted she did not know about child abuse at a Kilkenny industrial school.

The commission's report contains a claim by a voluntary worker who told the commission that he had reported incidents of sexual abuse to Sr Stanislaus.

During their investigations the commission investigated reports of abuse at St Joseph's Industrial School, Kilkenny and found that the school employed "two dangerous sexual abusers" during the 1970s.

LONG ISLAND (NY)
Irish Echo

By Peter McDermott
pmcdermott@irishecho.com

May 27, 2009 Murder, revenge and exposure are central elements in the plot of Tom Phelan's latest novel. The yet to be published "Nailer" is particularly topical given that it takes place in one of the "industrial" schools that made international headlines in recent days -- and not least because the main character, whose brother was murdered at a school, wants to reveal abusers' names by setting up their deaths.

Controversially, no names appear in the strictly factual 2,600-page government report -- published in Dublin last Wednesday -- that details the scope of the physical, sexual and psychological abuse of children in church-run care facilities in 20th century Ireland.

"The biggest disappointment was not naming the culprits. I think that was a terrible shame. They should certainly have named every one of them, dead or alive," said Phelan, who lives with his wife in Freeport on Long Island.

NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

What:
Holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims will hand fliers to passers-by
-- warning them that a predator priest is secretly living in New York City and
-- urging NY Catholic officials to apologize for and explain
-- their current 'reckless' secrecy about predators, and
-- their decision to secretly move at least 1 prominent credibly accused predator priest to Manhattan

They will also urge church staffers to
-- put this sex offender (and other predators) in a remote, secure treatment center, and
-- aggressively reach out to find and help victims of these child molesting clerics.

When:
Wednesday, May 27, at 2:15 p.m.

Where:
Outside a Jesuit facility, 106 W. 56th (between 83rd & 84th & Park & Madison), in Manhattan

SERBIA
Blic

Artemije, the Bishop of Raska and Prizren, in spite of two urgencies by the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church has still not closed the ‘Crna Reka’ center for healing of drug edicts where beating and physical maltreating were practiced. At the Patriarchy ‘Blic’ was told that ‘with such behavior Bishop Artemije acts as if he were above the Church at the same time causing serious damage to its reputation’.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
Catholic Culture

May 27, 2009
The Holy See Press Office has announced that Pope Benedict has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Paulin Pomodimo of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. Archbishop Pomodimo, who enjoyed the support of local clergy and was appointed to the see in 2003, is 54 years old. The decision comes on the heels of the May 16 resignation of 52-year-old Bishop François-Xavier Yombandje of Bossangoa, the president of the nation’s episcopal conference during the hierarchy’s 2007 ad limina visit.

The resignation follows a Vatican investigation that found that Archbishop Pomodimo adopted “a moral attitude which is not always in conformity with his commitments to follow Christ in chastity, poverty and obedience.” The investigation, conducted by Archbishop Robert Sarah, the Guinea-born secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, concluded that many local priests have homes and children. A local newspaper reported that in most dioceses and the majority of parishes, priests live with women and have children.

CANADA
North Bay Nugget

Posted By BOB VAILLANCOURT, SUN MEDIA

Legal arguments continue for the third day today in the trial of Roman Catholic Priest Bernard Cloutier, who faces 16 sex charges over alleged incidents involving five young males from 1970 to 1983.

The charges include seven counts of gross indecency, seven counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault.

The charges first came to light in 1983 when two of the five complained to police they had been sexually assaulted by the priest..

SERBIA
B92

BELGRADE -- SPC Bishop Artemije has relieved the abusive manager of the drug rehabilitation center located at the Crna Reka monastery grounds, Branislav Peranović.

In his statement, Artemije said that a Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) court process will begin against Peranović for using unacceptable methods of punishing patients treated there for their addiction.

Deputy archpriest in charge of the facility, Dejan Jakovljević, will be taking over for Peranović.

SERBIA
Reuters

Wed May 27, 2009 8:48am EDT

BELGRADE (Reuters) - The Serbian Orthodox Church has dismissed a priest running a treatment center for drug addicts after videos showed patients being kicked and punched.

Bishop Artemije, in charge of the Rasko-Prizrenska diocese, said he ordered an inquiry into the activities of priest Branislav Peranovic at the Crna Reka center, about 300 kilometers (187 miles) southwest of the capital Belgrade.

"We will shut down the facility if the reports about beatings and violence persist," Artemije said in a statement.

MINNESOTA
The Catholic Spirit

By The Catholic Spirit
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Father Lee Piché has been named by Pope Benedict XVI as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Father Piché Father Piché has served as the archdiocese’s vicar general and moderator of the curia as well as pastor of St. Andrew in St. Paul since last June.

IRELAND
The Argus

By Margaret RODDY

Wednesday May 27 2009

EVEN on a sunny day, the building which housed the former St Joseph's Industrial School is a forbidding-looking place.

The austere threestorey row of houses, with a statue of St Joseph over the front door, was an industrial school for over 100 years from 1881 to 1983.

The original school was set up at the height of the Famine in 1847 when the Sisters of Mercy were invited to Dundalk by the parish priest and concerned townspeople.

DELAWARE
The News Journal

By GARY SOULSMAN • The News Journal • May 27, 2009
Monsignor John O. Barres, Chancellor of the Diocese of Wilmington, was named the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Allentown by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.

Bishop-elect Barres, 48, is a native of Larchmont, N.Y. He is succeeding Bishop Edward Cullen. Cullen, 76, submitted his resignation to the pope, as required under church law, when he turned 75 in March 2008.

Barres is the fifth of six children and has seven nephews and four nieces. Barres’ father, Oliver, is a native of Bethlehem, Pa. His mother and father are convert Protestant ministers who met each other at Yale Divinity School and entered the Catholic Church in 1955.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
River Falls Journal
Published Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Rembert Weakland is not going anywhere.

The former Milwaukee Archbishop, and one of the central figures in the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal, has decided not to move to St. Mary’s Abbey in New Jersey.

He said an abbot at the monastery was concerned that his presence there might be a “negative element.”

IRELAND
Offaly Express

Published Date: 27 May 2009
THE Ryan Commission's report marks a watershed in Irish public life and culture. The sheer scale and nature of the abuse perpetuated by religious orders and insitutions is staggering and difficult to comprehend.

Commentators have referred to it as as 'Ireland's holocaust." This is not mere hyperbole, but is an attempt to quantify the human misery and destruction wrought on society's most vulnerable members, throughout most of the history of the State.

The gulag like conditions in many of these institutions represents a profound blight on any so called civilised society.

IRELAND
The Anglo-Celt

by Linda O'Reilly

The Bishop of Kilmore, Leo O’Reilly, has said that Religious Orders should use “whatever resources they can afford” to help victims of child abuse and their families. He made the comments following last week’s publication of the Ryan Report which detailed shocking physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect of thousands of children in 216 schools run by religious organisations since the 1940s.

His calls echo those of Cardinal Sean Brady who wants Religious Orders to “revisit” the 2002 deal with the government, which capped their contribution towards compensating victims of clerical abuse at €128m – a mere tenth of the total compensation fund. So far the orders have defied senior clerics’ pleas to re-negotiate the deal, which has yet to be fully implemented.

Speaking exclusively to the Anglo-Celt yesterday (Tuesday), Bishop O’Reilly welcomed the publication of the report, describing it as “a stark reminder of how the Church failed to live up to the ideals of Christ”.

IRELAND
Reuters

By Andras Gergely
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish religious orders said on Wednesday they would address government demands to pay more compensation to people who were raped and beaten while attending Catholic-run schools.

Prime Minister Brian Cowen had said the orders had a "moral responsibility" to provide more funds to thousands of victims after a harrowing report which revealed endemic abuse in the nation's defunct network of industrial and reformatory schools.

"We recognize the vital need to find new ways of addressing the extreme hurt being felt by so many people and we will do our utmost to this end," the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity said in a statement. Other orders also agreed to respond.

IRELAND
Westmeath Independent

by Tadgh Carey

The report of the Commission to Inquire into Childhood Abuse has understandably shocked a nation.

The 2,000 plus pages of testimony and findings lay bare a cold, clinical regime of brutality and abuse that was enacted in many of our institutions.

The media, quite rightly, has been full of the righteous indignation of the political establishment and the State.

However, we in Ireland have a habit of talking the talk, but failing to walk to walk. All too often, as a body politics we shed crocodile tears and then quietly allowing the issue to slip into the margins until another controversy or tragedy brings it to the forefront again.

IRELAND
Offaly Express

By Declan McSweeney
AN Offaly woman has called for the old St Conleth's Reformatory, Daingean, to be put to use as a place for peace and reconciliation.

Speaking after the publication of the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (otherwise known as the Ryan Report), she stressed that it would be unrealistic to expect local people to have been able to do anything to help boys incarcerated by the State in St Conleth's, when boys who went as day pupils were being sexually abused a few miles away by the late Donal Dunne, principal of Walsh Island National School.

St Conleth's made Daingean's name well known for the wrong reasons. Some of its past pupils managed to make a success of their lives, despite their experience of ill-treatment, the most famous being the singer Don Baker. Others fell by the wayside, most notably 'The General', Martin Cahill.

IRELAND
Offaly Express

Published Date: 27 May 2009
• Daingean was not a suitable location or building for a reformatory. The refusal by management to accept any responsibility for even day-to-day maintenance led to its complete disintegration over the years.

• Daingean did not provide a safe environment. Management failed in its duty to ensure that all boys were protected. They lived in a climate of fear in which they were isolated, frightened and bullied by both staff and inmates.

• Gangs of boys operated as a form of alternative government, victimising those who did not obey them, while the Brothers did nothing to break the system but acquiesced in it.

IRELAND
Offaly Express

Published Date: 27 May 2009
ST Conleth's was used by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate as a reformatory from 1870 to 1973, with the exception of the years 1934-40, when it served as a novitiate for the order.

The reopening of the reformatory was a matter of considerable debate, and followed a visit to Daingean in November 1939 by the then Taoiseach and Minister for Education, Eamon De Valera. Over 200 boys were taken there under Garda escort from an institution in Glencree, Co Wicklow.

The building was held by the order under a 99-year lease from the Government, which bought the farm and outlying buildings from the Oblates for 4,500 pounds, a considerable sum in those days.

IRELAND
Offaly Express

Published Date: 27 May 2009
THE Ryan Report also deals with the case of the paedophile Offaly teacher Donal Dunne, who is referred to by the pseudonym of John Brander.

The conviction of the former Christian Brother for sexual abuse of boys at Walsh Island NS, where he was principal, resulted from a Garda investigation which followed his conviction for abusing a boy to whom he gave private tuition in the 1990s.

This in turn led to convictions for abusing two boys at the Presentation Convent, Castlecomer.

SCOTLAND
The Press and Journal

By Cameron Brooks

Published: 27/05/2009

The Kirk has an important role to play in rehabilitating convicted sex offenders and protecting public safety, according to the head of the Scottish Prison Service.

Chief inspector the Very Rev Andrew McLellan said a new policy to welcome ex-prisoners into congregations, approved by the General Assembly yesterday, would help reduce the number of victims.

He told commissioners, or delegates, the Church of Scotland’s stance was most welcome because sex offenders were the least prepared of all prison inmates for reintegration into society.

UNITED STATES
City of Angels

Kay Ebeling

I'm not a journalist. I'm a crime victim whose PTSD is so imbued into me after 55 years of living with it, that I adopt persona with ease. So when I saw that no journalists locally are writing about the coverup of sex crimes in the Catholic Church, and the shenanigansn church attorneys carry on in court, I started City of Angels 3, hoping media would pick up the story and I could go back to watching movies on the couch.

Instead the persona took over. Now I am writing these stories, apparently the only digging journalist going after these crimes. If there are others out there, let's not compete, contact me so we can combine forces. I never wanted to be The One doing it, I just saw something that needed to be done and started doing it.

Amazing to me is why more people - victims or not - don't pick up torches and start hollering. There's maybe 10 of us across the country.

UGANDA
Daily Monitor

EAR TO THE GROUND | Charles Onyango Obbo

As the Ugandan media was full of pastors of the ‘Born-Again’ churches throwing mud at Pastor Robert Kayanja of the Rubaga Miracle Centre, accusing him of sodomy, I went to watch the Angels & Demons movie.

Based on Dan Brown’s bestselling book by the same title, Angels & Demons, it is a sequel of sorts, to The Da Vinci Code, a more controversial offering from the author’s even more controversial book.

The one thing that the ugly fights in the Born-Again churches in Uganda remotely share with the Catholic Church in Angels & Demons, is the intrigue, betrayals, and jockeying for power which is present whenever there is religion. But that, I am afraid, is where it ends. The circus that we are witnessing in Uganda wouldn’t make it even to a bad Ki-Nigeria movie script. It is that awful.

IRELAND
The Nationalist

A CATHOLIC priest received a round of applause when he voiced his anger at the religious orders and his own Church for fighting victims of sexual and physical abuse. The victims are now “serving a life sentence”, he said.

Fr Rory Nolan made his hard-hitting comments during his sermon at the 8.30am Mass in the Cathedral of the Assumption, Carlow on Sunday morning. Mass-goers applauded the Carlow IT chaplain when he said: “What makes me angry is the attitude of religious orders and the Church that fought the Ryan Commission in the courts. It’s sickening that those who perpetrated theses acts are protected, while their victims serve a life sentence. Their only crimes: being orphans, mitching from school, coming from single parent families; their punishment: physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

“And men and women hide behind the robes of the Supreme Court and still it seems the victims don’t get the justice they deserve,” he added.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, says a report on 60 years of child sex abuse in Irish Catholic schools and homes is being examined to see if any of those accused work for the church in Australia.

The Irish Child Abuse Commission inquiry has found sex and violent abuse of boys was "endemic" and girls were also abused.

Australian victims' group Broken Rites says the report raises concerns about Irish clergy members living Australia.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

MARK HENNESSY, Political Correspondent

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: THE GOVERNMENT has accepted all of the childcare ecommendations made by Judge Seán Ryan, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said last night.

However, he said: “It is clear that the report has found a much more systemic volume of abuse in institutions than was previously known or accepted by the orders.

“The Government has therefore decided to call on the relevant congregations to provide a substantial additional contribution in view of the moral responsibility they continue to hold in these matters.”

IRELAND
Waterford Today

'A safe place to be heard' - 264 adults were referred for counselling in 2008 to the HSE National Counselling Service for counties Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford.

The HSE National Counselling Service is a free service for any adult who has experienced the trauma of abuse or neglect in childhood. Set up at the same time as the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, and in operation since September 2000, it provides professional counselling and psychotherapy services to help people to cope better with their life and relationships.

Counselling is available at 60 locations throughout Ireland and can be accessed by phoning (1800) 235 234 for an appointment at a location of your choice.

IRELAND
BBC News

Eight religious orders in the Irish Republic have welcomed proposed meetings with Taoiseach Brian Cowen following a report into child abuse.

The Ryan Report documented decades of abuse in institutions run by religious orders over six decades.

The Christian Brothers have announced they will review how much more compensation they can offer to victims.

BRIDGEPORT (CT)
WFSB

[with video]

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- Those who say they were sexually abused by Catholic priests said Tuesday that the truth should finally be exposed.

The Connecticut Supreme Court recently decided to make public thousands of pages of church records about the alleged abuse, which had been kept secret.

But the bishop at the Bridgeport Diocese had been fighting the release of the documents.

IRELAND
RTE News

[with audio and video]

The Director of the CORI Justice Office says a further substantial contribution is needed from religious congregations to the Government's redress scheme for survivors of institutional abuse.

Fr Sean Healy said the scale and depth of what is revealed in the Ryan Report requires a reassessment of what has been done to date.

In a statement to the committee, Fr Healy said the religious congregations involved need to seek forgiveness of the Irish people. 'Apologies were not sufficient', he said.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Wednesday, 27 May 2009

A leading figure in the Conference of Religious in Ireland has said the religious orders involved in the abuse of children must be prepared to consider giving more money to the Government's redress scheme.

The 18 orders agreed to hand over €128m in cash and property in 2002 in exchange for indemnity from compensation claims.

However, this will only cover around 10% of the estimated €1.3bn cost of the redress scheme.

IRELAND
Kerryman

[statement from the bishop]

By SIMON BROUDER sbrouder@kerryman.ie

Wednesday May 27 2009

WHISTLEBLOWER John Prior, whose allegations of abuse in a Tralee industrial school helped lift the lid on a hidden culture of rape and brutality in the Catholic Church, has revealed the torment he suffered for daring to tell the truth.

John Prior, who spent 14 years in St Joseph's Industrial School in Tralee and was the longest serving inmate of any industrial school in the county, was the first victim of institutional abuse to come forward and tell his story to the authorities.

Though his bravery prompted hundreds more to come forward it led to years of misery for John who was vilified for challenging the reputation of the church.

NEW ZEALAND
The Nelson Mail

By TRACY NEAL - The Nelson Mail
Last updated 13:16 27/05/2009
A Nelson man educated at a school in Ireland recently condemned in a report on child abuse, said the "system" created and fostered the violence and oppression and individuals were not to blame.

Patrick McGrath, 75, grew up in the Galway cathedral town of Tuam and went to a primary school run by Catholic religious order Christian Brothers where he was subjected to, and witnessed, regular abuse.

The Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse report, released in Ireland last week, took nine years to compile and said that orphanages and industrial schools in 20th-century Ireland were places of fear, neglect and endemic sexual abuse.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Tuesday May 26 2009

UNTIL yesterday, open confrontation between the Catholic bishops and the religious orders was unthinkable in this country. But yesterday, under the pressure of the worst scandal in the history of the Irish Catholic Church and the decline in the authority of all institutions, the unthinkable became the unavoidable.

The 18 congregations that signed the 2002 agreement with the Government on redress for victims of institutional child abuse met to consider the demands that the terms of the deal should be revisited. The two leading Churchmen in the country, Cardinal Sean Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, had made precisely that demand and Archbishop Martin had made searing criticisms of their own actions.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Wednesday May 27 2009

THE Christian Brothers' promise of reparation involving "all our resources above and beyond such accommodation and means necessary to maintain the members of our congregation" is an extraordinary attempt to meet their moral obligation.

Taken at face value, it represents a dramatic and welcome breakthrough in the increasingly sordid aftermath of the Ryan child abuse report.

The Brothers propose to hand over properties worth tens of millions of euro to a trust which will administer direct help to the victims of abuse. Their initiative appears to cut a swathe through the Government's assertion of legal intractability and the other religious groups' protestations of inability, or unwillingness, to pay.

IRELAND
Meath Chronicle

by Meath Chronicle Reporter

The truly stunning scale of the abuse - sexual as well as physical - meted out to young children in institutions run by religious orders in Ireland has in the past week shocked even the most hardened hearts. The wanton cruelty inflicted upon those in the care of Catholic-run industrial and reformatory schools was, indeed, in the words of President Mary McAleese, “an atrocious betrayal of love”.

And yet, disgusted as everyone with a conscience is about what went on behind the high walls of these forbidding places - and leaving aside the culpability of those so-called men of the cloth who perpetrated such evil acts and the fact that the State stood idly by - Irish society itself must bear at least some of the blame for allowing such barbarism to flourish unchecked. The Ireland of the 1950s and '60s was a country in thrall to the Church and religious orders, submissive and deferential to the all-powerful clergy. And there were many who knew something was going on - or at least had some idea - but no-one called a halt.

Certainly, physical punishment was part and parcel of growing up in that era, the cane at school and the belt at home. Most people accepted it once it was used in a limited fashion. It was the way of the time to discipline children and deter them from wrongdoing. However, the routine systematic physical cruelty and abuse carried out in places like Artane, Goldenbridge, Letterfrack and Daingean was on a completely different level and was criminal and evil. It was not meant to chastise but to destroy.

IRELAND
The Nationalist

according to Michael Godfrey
I OVERHEARD a remark last weekend that sickened me. The person was speaking about all the coverage the Ryan Commission into institutional child abuse was receiving. “I’m sick of it, there has been far too much about it. What’s done can’t be changed so let’s move on,” said the person to another as they went about their shopping.

True there has been blanket coverage of the report, but to dismiss it in such an offhand manner shows just what that person is made of. There could be blanket coverage of the report from now until hell freezes over, and that person would still not get it.

What happened to all those children is inexcusable, indefensible and a national disgrace. Whatever we do for the victims of such abuse will never be enough, and if we apologise every day from now until hell freezes over, it will still not be enough.

IRELAND
The Anglo-Celt

The extent of child abuse in industrial schools in Ireland has been known for some years now but the publication of the Ryan Report on Wednesday has blown wide open the wounds for victims, religious organisations, the state and the country as a whole.

The shocking detail of physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect in 216 schools is sickening to say the least. It made international headlines across the globe and cast a cloud of shame over the entire country.

And so too should we all be ashamed – for bad things happen when good people stand by and do nothing. One of the most horrific findings uncovered in the report is how Brothers and individuals, known abusers, were moved around from school to school without any regard for the safety of the poor children in their care.

ARKANSAS
Texarkana Gazette

By: Lynn LaRowe - Texarkana Gazette - Published: 05/27/2009

Jailed evangelist Tony Alamo has once again made some changes to the team of lawyers who will defend him against sexual abuse charges in a federal courtroom in July.

Danny Davis of California—whom Alamo hired to replace Little Rock lawyer John Wesley Hall Jr. in March as his lead defense attorney—is no longer involved in the case.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By ALAN SHATTER

Wednesday May 27 2009

Let's end the cant and hypocrisy. What is the difference between those in charge of religious congregations and orders covering up past abuse and neglect and today's government ministers and management in the HSE covering up the dysfunctional nature of our current childcare services?

What is the difference between reports and files relating to past child abuse being hidden in Rome and contemporary reports into the death of children in care being suppressed and unpublished?

What is the difference between religious congregations and orders insisting that the names of alleged child abusers be kept secret, and the co-operation of childcare and health workers in inquiries into shocking failures by our childcare services being dependent on no individual being identified or criticised for their failures?

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Medb Ruane

Wednesday May 27 2009

Michael O'Brien was buggered by a Rosminian brother only two days after he was incarcerated in a residential institution.

He'd been taken from home with his seven siblings, including his one-month old baby sister, after they were criminalised for being poor and young.

The buggery must have done awful damage to his developing young body and mind. But that was only for starters. The little boy was raped repeatedly, beaten up for it in the morning and humiliated verbally and emotionally almost every day.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Wednesday May 27 2009

THE heads of religious orders have traditionally regarded themselves as intellectually a cut above Lord bishops, who have often reciprocated with shows of touchy paranoid inferiority in zealously protecting their role as the Irish church's official leaders and teachers.

This perception of the multi-robed religious orders as lofty strategic thinkers, and purple-clad bishops as remote figures, has been dramatically shattered in the past week by their starkly different reactions to the traumatic fallout from the Abuse Commission report.

It is the bishops, and not the orders, who have demonstrated a real sense of contrition, a firm purpose of amendment and a determined sense of moving towards a more humble and accountable Church.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Katherine Donnelly

Wednesday May 27 2009

IT was an unlikely career change for a 39-year-old wealthy trader -- to found a religious organisation to provide free education for poor boys.

Edmund Ignatius Rice had amassed a fortune on imports and exports. But clearly something was missing from the life of the young widower who had a handicapped daughter.

In 1802, as a band of ragged boys passed him on a Waterford street, he was asked by the sister of the Bishop of Waterford if he would devote his "wealth and life to the spiritual and material interest of these poor youths".

And so he set up the Christian Brothers in an effort to provide free education for poor boys along similar lines of that offered to girls by Nano Nagle's Presentation Sisters.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Fionnan Sheahan and ine Kerr

Wednesday May 27 2009

Taoiseach Brian Cowen last night told the religious orders they will have to make a "substantial additional contribution" to compensate institutional abuse victims.

Mr Cowen also said the Government would consider looking at the statute of limitations to allow further prosecutions against abusers.

In the continuing fallout from the publication of the Ryan Commission report, Mr Cowen said the Government intended to invite the congregations to a meeting to discuss what further steps they plan to take to address victims' needs.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Allison Bray and Grainne Cunningham

Wednesday May 27 2009

JUST one of the 17 religious congregations at the centre of the row over abuse compensation joined the Christian Brothers in publicly acknowledging the need for further resources to be made available (see panel above).

The Irish Independent contacted representatives of the congregations seeking a response to yesterday's statement from the Christian Brothers, which promised further reparations for those who suffered in religious institutions.

A spokeswoman for The Congregation of the Sisters of St Clare said that "we do fully acknowledge a need for further resources to be made available".

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By John Walshe, Shane Phelan and Paul Melia

Wednesday May 27 2009

THE Christian Brothers will hand over properties worth tens of millions of euro to compensate victims of institutional abuse, the Irish Independent has learned.

The dramatic, if belated, decision followed days of intense pressure on religious orders to contribute more than was agreed under the abuse deal with the Government.

Informed sources said the properties were unlikely to be handed over to the State, but instead to a separate trust which will decide how best they can be used. The trust will be "at arms length" from the Christian Brothers.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Wednesday May 27 2009

THE heads of religious orders have traditionally regarded themselves as intellectually a cut above Lord bishops, who have often reciprocated with shows of touchy paranoid inferiority in zealously protecting their role as the Irish church's official leaders and teachers.

This perception of the multi-robed religious orders as lofty strategic thinkers, and purple-clad bishops as remote figures, has been dramatically shattered in the past week by their starkly different reactions to the traumatic fallout from the Abuse Commission report.

It is the bishops, and not the orders, who have demonstrated a real sense of contrition, a firm purpose of amendment and a determined sense of moving towards a more humble and accountable Church.

HIALEAH (FL)
Miami Herald

BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER AND JENNIFER LEBOVICH
cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com
When police wanted to question a teacher accused of having an affair with an eighth-grader at a private religious school, she was out of town -- vacationing at Disney World with the student.

Upon her return Saturday, 32-year-old Maria Guzman Hernandez, a sixth-grade teacher at Hialeah's Our Lady of Charity, admitted to Hialeah police she'd had sex with the 15-year-old.

Hernandez was charged with sexual battery on a child over whom she had custodial authority, a charge similar to statutory rape.

IRELAND
Catholic News Agency

Dublin, Ireland, May 27, 2009 / 03:11 am (CNA).- Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has addressed the recent report on physical and sexual abuse in Irish institutions, saying that the Church in Ireland must move out of “denial” and must never “water down” the suffering of abuse survivors. He warned that culpable religious orders face their “last chance” to renew their charism.

Writing Monday in an opinion essay in the Irish Times, the archbishop addressed the recently released Ryan report which exposed major abuse of students in industrial schools. Noting the ineffectiveness of simple apologies, Archbishop Martin said that nonetheless “sorry” must “always be the first word.”

He said the Ryan report shocked him, but did not surprise him. The archbishop explained that as a student he had worked in a Dublin hostel for former industrial school residents. Later he had worked in a London center for ex-prisoners, many of whom had been Irish industrial school residents.

UNITED STATES
Daily Kos

by Frank Cocozzelli

Just when I thought Bill Donohue head of the Catholic League could not go any lower he callously downplayed a horrific story of decades of pedophilia and child abuse committed by Irish Catholic priests and nuns. This, according to a 2,600 page report prepared by an investigatory commission set up by the Irish Government and chaired by a judge of the country's High Court.

The New York Times reported: "Tens of thousands of Irish children were sexually, physically and emotionally abused by nuns, priests and others over 60 years in a network of church-run residential schools meant to care for the poor, the vulnerable and the unwanted, according to a report released in Dublin on Wednesday."

In that very disturbing report, a systemic pattern of child abuse was revealed. From a documented period beginning in 1936 children placed in the care of the Congregation of Christian Brothers and other religious orders were subject to some of the worst possible abuses. Priests, nuns and brothers participated in thousands of rapes of boys and girls; allowed stronger boys and custodial staff to sexually abuse weaker or younger boys; sadistically punish children for the slightest offense, as well as engaging in the ritualized beating of girls.

SALINAS (CA)
KSBW

SALINAS, Calif. -- One of nearly a dozen lawsuits filed against the Monterey Catholic Diocese for its handling -- or lack of handling -- allegations of child abuse among members of the clergy will have its hearing on Friday.

This particular case pits a Monterey man who claims he was sexually molested while an altar boy during the early 1990s at the St. Mary of the Nativity Church in Salinas.

The man, who did not want to be identified by name for this story, said the diocese made mistakes when handling alleged child abuse cases, including his.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

BY TIM TOWNSEND ttownsend@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8221

05/27/2009

A man sued the Archdiocese of St. Louis and one of its priests in St. Louis County Circuit Court Tuesday, alleging that he was sexually abused by the priest, the Rev. Kevin Hederman, in the early 1990s.

The lawsuit alleges that Hederman, who now lives in Belize, invited the teenager to his residence at North American Martyrs Church in Florissant to minister to the teenager's "spiritual, psychological and emotional needs."

Hederman met the teenager, then a student at Christian Brothers College high school, when Hederman occasionally celebrated Mass at the school's former campus in Clayton, according to the lawsuit. CBC has since moved to Town and Country.

MEMPHIS (TN)
The Daily News

BILL DRIES | The Daily News

Attorneys for a man who claims he was abused by a Catholic priest more than 30 years ago are expected to file their answer this week to an appeal by the local diocese to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

Norman Redwing, 48, filed suit in October against the Catholic Diocese of Memphis, claiming he was sexually abused by the Rev. Milton Guthrie during the 1970s at Holy Names parish in North Memphis. Guthrie died in 2002.

Attorneys for the diocese sought to have Redwing’s lawsuit dismissed because of two earlier appeals court rulings in similar cases.

AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Tara Ravens
May 27, 2009 - 5:39PM .
It's unlikely clergy who abused children at Catholic-run institutions in Ireland are now working in Australia, Cardinal George Pell says.

But, the head of the Catholic Church in Australia said, "national authorities" would seek further information from the authors of a report which found abuse in the church was rife.

The long-awaited report, released in Dublin last week, outlined rampant sexual abuse, rapes and beatings inflicted on thousands of children over a 60-year period by priests, nuns and lay staff.

NgEX (Nigeria)

Author: mark swiss | May 27, 2009
W.T.F. are we negotiate with pedophiles now? It's May 2009. I am in New York. In Ireland where I was born the government has just released a 2,600-page report “Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse”. A report dealing with the sexual and physical and mental abuse of children's who were taken from destitute families and placed under the care of nuns and catholic brothers.

Two weeks ago I was sitting at a dinner party discussing the movie Doubt. I was the only one was willing to stand up for the priests innocence. I endured some mocking for that stance. If that dinner party happened again I would not come to the defense of the priest; it’s not that I still don’t believe the priest was a good man. It’s now after this report I simply don't believe he worked for organization that can be defended.

I no longer care. I imagine this is how the Irish people will deal with the Catholic Church they will ignore them into irrelevancy. A fate they have brought upon themselves. The Irish have stood by the Catholic Church since 500ad. It's been a long marriage. But even a long marriage can only withstand so many betrayals.

CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By DAVE ALTIMARI | The Hartford Courant
May 27, 2009
The Diocese of Bridgeport lashed back Tuesday at critics, who delivered a letter asking Bishop William Lori to stop the legal fight to keep thousands of pages of court files secret, saying that the diocese has done more than any other institution to deal with the clergy sexual abuse scandal.

"Today's presentation at the Catholic Center overlooks the significant, thorough, and historical response of the Diocese of Bridgeport and its leader, Bishop William Lori, to the scourge of clergy sexual abuse," the diocese's statement said.

The statement then went on to list a series of steps it has taken over the past few years, including training more than 90,000 adults and children to the warning signs of abuse and how to report suspected abuse, conducting criminal background checks on anyone who works or volunteers for the diocese, including priests, and hiring two full-time victim assistance coordinators.

IRELAND
Beyond Chron (United States)

by Tommi Avicolli-Mecca‚ May. 27‚ 2009

To say that the Vatican must not be happy about the latest report from Ireland is an understatement. The island nation’s Commission on Child Abuse just released its findings (2,600 pages worth) from a nine-year investigation into abuses by nuns and priests in Catholic-run industrial schools and orphanages and concluded that rape, beatings and humiliation were rampant from the 1930s until those institutions closed in the 1990s.

Upwards of 30,000 children, who were truants, thieves or otherwise in trouble with the law or simply born of single mothers, ended up in some 250 institutions run by the church. The report had the input of former officials from the schools as well as 2,000 adults who were incarcerated in them as children.

According to the study, molestation and rape were “endemic” in the boys schools, while assaults and humiliation were the norm in the facilities for girls: “In some schools a high level of ritualised beating was routine ... Girls were struck with implements designed to maximize pain and were struck on all parts of the body. Personal and family denigration was widespread.”

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Padraig O'Malley
May 27, 2009

IT WAS NOT the first sharp smack of the leather strap across your outstretched hand that hurt or the knowledge that five more might follow, but the knot in the stomach from the fear you might begin to cry in front of the other boys, and would be derided as a crybaby when school broke.

"O'Malley is a crybaby. O'Malley is a crybaby," I could hear the chorus of derision swelling in my subconscious while I was reading portions of the just-published 2,600-page report that documents the horrific and pervasive scale of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse of tens of thousands of boys and girls committed at church-run institutions in Ireland - orphanages, reformatories, and "industrial" schools for the recalcitrant, the rebellious, and the renegade - between 1930 and 1990.

The breadth of the abuse does not surprise me. I think nearly everyone in Ireland who grew up through that period had some idea about what was going on, except perhaps for the sexual abuse.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PUBLIC OUTRAGE over the picture of brutality, sadism, sexual abuse and repression in Ireland’s industrial schools and reformatories run by Catholic congregations is intensifying following last week’s remarkable report by the Ryan commission.

It is stoked by the flat refusal of the 18 orders involved to reopen the compensation and indemnity agreement they signed with the government in 2002. Their clumsy and self-serving efforts to protect their own interests are rapidly alienating whatever limited support they have. They have failed to see the central importance of saying sorry to the victims and taking the full consequences of their actions and responsibilities. This is how institutions perish.

The gross imbalance which leaves the State paying 90 per cent of the €1.3 billion settlements is indefensible. The deal should be renegotiated, as called for by Cardinal Seán Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. The Government’s initial defensive argument that this can only be done voluntarily is just as insensitive to public opinion and short-sighted as the orders. That position too is shifting, as was signalled from the special Cabinet meeting last evening. The cosy, secretive and deferential manner in which the agreement was concluded seven years ago ill becomes a modern republican democracy. Revisiting it in light of the Ryan report and the angry public reaction would be in the best interests of church, State and citizens alike. Political and moral pressure to do this should be intensified.

ASHTON (ID)
Local News 8

By Megan Boatwright, Local News 8 Reporter

A former Ashton pastor received 10-25 years in prison Tuesday for molesting a 15 year-old boy. 48-year-old Ruben Floyd pleaded guilty to one count of lewd conduct with a minor in March.

Floyd was pastor of the Ashton Bible Church and has worked as a substitute teacher. According to the prosecution Floyd used both positions to groom young men for sexual exploitation.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

Large numbers have been turning out in Waterford to sign a book of solidarity with the victims of child abuse in Ireland’s institutions.

The mayor of Waterford, Jack Walsh, said he had been approached by a number of people who asked him if he would provide them with a means of publicly registering their solidarity with the victims of abuse.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

ALISON HEALY and CONOR LALLY

SISTERS OF MERCY, CAPPOQUIN: A NUN referred to in the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse has been identified as Nora Wall, whose 1999 conviction for the rape of a 12-year-old girl in her care was declared a miscarriage of justice.

The commission report refers to Ms Wall’s time in the St Michael’s Child Care Centre – managed by the Sisters of Mercy – in Cappoquin, Co Waterford, in the 1980s.

The commission’s report outlines Ms Wall’s “alarming” and “disastrous” management of children in her care while in Waterford.

Seán Costello, the solicitor who represents Ms Wall told The Irish Times that media organisations should not identify her as Sr Callida, a pseudonym given to Ms Wall in the report.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

COMMISSION COSTS: THE COMMISSION to Inquire into Child Abuse “is the body responsible for negotiating and setting all legal costs related to its investigation committee,” its secretary Brenda McVeigh said.

She said the commission did not meet yesterday to discuss the fate of its documents, but would do so in due course. “It is an inevitable part of any inquiry that decisions must be taken regarding the return of documents to those from whom they came or, if appropriate, the disposal of others.”

She confirmed that under the Act which set it up, the commission could not identify witnesses nor could it provide information which could lead to identification, even to the Garda.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY

CHILD PROTECTION GROUPS: FAILURE TO correct the inadequacies in Irish child protection services will only serve to compound the ‘‘national shame’’ surrounding the abuse of children in religious-run institutions, a coalition of charities and victims’ groups has said.

In a joint statement yesterday, several leading agencies called on the Government to adopt a seven-point plan to overhaul the system which they said was continuing to fail vulnerable children.

The coalition, which included Barnardos, Cari (Children At Risk in Ireland), Childrens Rights Alliance, Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) and the One in Four victims’ group, said resources had to be found to rectify existing problems such as the lack of out-of-hours social work services.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY

VICTIMS OF ABUSE: BISHOPS SHOULD consider expelling religious congregations from their dioceses if they fail to adequately compensate victims of abuse at religious-run institutions, the founder of the One in Four victims’ group has said.

Colm O’Gorman said it needed to be recognised that victims of abuse would never get justice because there would be no accountability.

In an interview on RTÉ radio yesterday, Mr O’Gorman said that while the child abuse commission report vindicated what many victims had been saying for decades, it did not represent justice.

“There won’t be any true accountability and this represents a gross failure on the part of our system of justice.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

NEWTON'S OPTIC: THE CONFERENCE of Religious of Ireland (Cori) is backing member congregations who will not review their deal with the Government on compensating victims of abuse, writes NEWTON EMERSON

Apparently, nobody in Cori has reviewed these recent real statements from its own social partnership agency, Cori Justice:

“The vulnerable, particularly children, are targeted to pay for the misbehaviour and fraud of others.” – Budget analysis and critique 2009

“A society is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable.” – Press statement July 2008

IRELAND
The Irish Times

RIGHT FROM the outset, both the Government and the religious orders knew that the €127 million contribution to the indemnity deal was bogus, and that it represented only a fraction of the then projected cost of the redress scheme to compensate victims of the criminal physical, sexual and emotional abuse on children in the care of religious orders, writes VINCENT BROWNE

That deal involved the State indemnifying the religious orders for all claims of compensation by the victims of the abuse, plus any legal costs arising from such claims. This was in return for an agreement on the part of the religious orders to make a cash payment to the redress scheme of just €28.44 million, at a time when the projected cost of the scheme was up to €500 million – this represents just over 5 per cent.

In addition, it was claimed that property valued at €76.86 million was to be transferred to the State as part of the deal. This was a misrepresentation of the actual position. As much as €50.8 million of such property transfer had nothing at all to do with the deal and was inserted into the agreement to confuse the issue. A further €26.06 million of property transfer was also added, although it must have been known then that such property transfers could not be done legally, for much of the property was held in trust.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

ANALYSIS: WHAT IS it about the Catholic Church and money? Why is it that the 18 religious congregations seem so desperate not to pay a penny more than their paltry contribution of €128 million (less than 10 per cent) to the scheme to compensate those who they abused so savagely in their institutions? writes MARY RAFTERY

We witnessed over the past two days a showdown of High Noon proportions, although it was certainly a little more difficult to tell the goodies from the baddies.

On one side, the bishops – shortly to be facing their own Armageddon in the shape of the report of the inquiry into clerical child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Dublin. This is likely to reveal that a substantial number of bishops currently in situ all over the country knew of abuse at various stages and did little to prevent it and protect children.

On the other side, the religious orders – standing condemned for a litany of heinous crimes against staggeringly large numbers of children, and guilty of attempting of thwart the Ryan Commission’s inquiry at every hand’s turn.

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Kevin Cullen
Globe Staff / May 26, 2009

Ireland's president, Mary McAleese, said yesterday that the controversy generated by a report last week detailing the widespread abuse of children entrusted to the care of Roman Catholic religious orders in her country is the beginning of “a painful, necessary national debate.”

McAleese, five years into her second seven-year term as Ireland’s head of state and making what will most likely be her last official visit to Boston, said she was convinced the debate will be healthy and cathartic.

The release of the so-called Ryan Report, with harrowing tales of children being subjected to sexual, physical, and emotional abuse in what amounted to workhouses throughout much of the 20th century, has dominated Ireland’s news for the last week.

BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Connecticut Post

By Daniel Tepfer
STAFF WRITER
Updated: 05/26/2009 06:44:04 PM EDT

BRIDGEPORT-- More than a dozen victims of sexual abuse by priests and their supporters marched to the Catholic Center Tuesday afternoon to urge Bishop William E. Lori not to pursue any appeals to block the release of thousands of documents detailing abuse by clergy since the 1960s.

But Lori was not available so the protesters left a letter at the front desk and were given a written response from Bridgeport diocese officials.

"We are simply asking the bishop to stop this brutal, expensive legal battle and do the right thing and let these records out," said David Clohessy, director of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, who led the march up the tree-lined drive to the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport on Jewett Street. "The public and parishioners need to know who molested children and who enabled this crime to take place."

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX

Kevin Killeen Reporting
kakilleen@cbs.com

ST. LOUIS (KMOX Radio) -- A lawsuit filed in St. Louis Circuit Court accuses Father Kevin F. Hederman of abusing a teenaged boy on two occassions in the early 1990s.

Plaintiff's attorney Susan Carlson says the John Doe civil suit claims that Hederman met his victim while saying mass at CBC High School, then molested him when the CBC student visited Hederaman for "spiritual counseling."

The alleged abuse occurred at Hederman's residence in the North American Martyrs rectory in Florissant.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

Former Government minister Michael Woods tonight accused Labour leader Eamon Gilmore of making scurrilous allegations against him in the Dáil about how he handled a 2002 abuse compensation deal with religious orders.

The row was sparked as Taoiseach Brian Cowen called on other religious orders to follow the example of the Christian Brothers in seeking to pay more compensation to victims of abuse in their institutions.

“I hope that the statement by the Christian Brothers today is a prelude to a similar disposition amongst all of the congregations to now meet their responsibilities to the appalling litany of abuse,” said Mr Cowen.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

The Government has called on the religious orders to provide a "substantial additional contribution" in the wake of the publication of the the Ryan commission report last Wednesday.

Apologising to victims on behalf of the State, the Taoiseach tonight called for orders to face their moral responsibilities and warned that those accountable for crimes must face the "full rigours of the law".

He said the report had found a "much more systemic volume of abuse in Institutions than was previously known or accepted by the Orders", and said the additional resources would be sought "in view of the moral responsibility they continue to hold in these matters".

IRELAND
Irish Central

By KELLY FINCHAM, IrishCentral.com Editor

Ireland's Catholic order of Christian Brothers has bowed to pressure to review compensation for people who were abused as children by priests.

The Christian Brothers have been under fire since the release of last week's Ryan Report, which cataloged the terrible abuse suffered by Irish children.

The orders have been under pressure from Irish church leaders and politicians after the report detailed the abuse at their institutions between the 1930s and the 1970s.

A statement said: "The Christian Brothers accept, with shame, the findings of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse.

VATICAN CITY
The Catholic Spirit (United States)

VATICAN CITY, 26 MAY 2009 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the archdiocese of Bangui, Central African Republic, presented by Archbishop Paulin Pomodimo, in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
Africa News

Julien Dreshenga, Africanews reporter in Bangui, CAR

Central African indigenous clergymen held a general assembly at Bangui Cathedral on Sunday opposing a move by the Holy See to sanction one of them. Father Paulin Pomodimo, Bangui archbishop, is under fire for adopting "a moral attitude which is not always in conformity with his commitments to follow Christ in chastity, poverty and obedience."

The scandal started when an investigative mission deployed by Vatican and headed by Father Robert Sarah, Rome Ducaster, concluded that many local priests have official homes, children and have accumulated private properties.

Meanwhile, news just in from our CAR reporter said Father Pomodimo resigned on Tuesday with no apparent reason.

VATICAN CITY
NZ Catholic (New Zealand)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of a 54-year-old archbishop from the Central African Republic following an investigation into priests of his diocese who live more or less openly with women and the children they have fathered.

The Vatican announced May 26 that Archbishop Paulin Pomodimo, 54, of Bangui had resigned under the terms of Canon 401.2 of the Code of Canon Law, which states that "a diocesan bishop who has become less able to fulfill his office because of ill health or some other grave cause is earnestly requested to present his resignation from office."

Passionist Father Ciro Benedettini, vice director of the Vatican press office, said Archbishop Pomodimo resigned because of "insurmountable difficulties in running the diocese."

UNITED STATES
The Huffington Post

Irwin Zalkin

We can all agree that protecting children from sexual predators is among the highest priorities we have as a free, civilized society. But, I am afraid on that front, there is both good news and bad news to report.

First, the bad news.

The statistics on the sexual abuse of children are heart-breaking. One in five girls and one in 10 boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18.

Aggravating this already horrific phenomenon is that most of these victims will take years to come to grips with the abuse, by which time they are usually left without criminal and civil recourse.

Why?

NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

The Markey Bill And Beyond: If The Rabbis Really Cared ...
Asher Lipner
Special To The Jewish Week
For years I was a proud, card-carrying member of Agudath Israel of America, a leading haredi communal organization; sadly, I have allowed my membership to lapse. But I, like many others, do not feel that I left the Agudah. Rather the Agudah has left us.
The Agudah has come out in opposition to the Child Victims Act, known as the “Markey Bill” in the New York State Legislature (its lead sponsor is Queens Assemblywoman Marge Markey). The bill would allow victims of childhood sexual abuse recourse toward obtaining justice against their abusers by providing a one-year “window” in which to file a civil lawsuit at any age, and would extend the statute of limitations for pressing criminal charges from age 23 to 28. ...

Bill’s ‘Window’ Unfair, Yet More Must Be Done
Rabbi David Zwiebel
Special To The Jewish Week
As reported in these pages one week ago, a small group of protesters picketed this year’s annual dinner of Agudath Israel of America to show their displeasure with Agudath Israel’s opposition to the “Markey bill” — legislation pending in Albany that would, among other things, suspend for one year the statute of limitations in New York for any civil claims based on allegations of childhood sexual abuse.
The picketers handed out a one-page color flier bearing the logo of Agudath Israel, with the header “A message from Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Executive Vice President, Agudath Israel of America.” At the conclusion of the message appeared a photograph of said executive vice president — me — followed by the tagline: “Agudas Yisroel: Our children are our future.”

Guardian (United Kingdom)

Those Catholics who link paedophilia to homosexuality reveal woeful ignorance at best, and pathological denial at worst

Martin Pendergast guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 May 2009 16.00 BST

The Roman Catholic church faces a two-fold systemic crisis: the abuse of power and a lack of honesty. This dysfunction is most apparent in how the church wrestles with the impact of endemic patterns of sexual, emotional, and spiritual abuse.

Fifty years ago, Pope John XXIII convoked the church's Second Vatican Council, wanting the church to move from its post-Reformation fortress mentality to embrace an honest social analysis of the world and itself: "To read the signs of the times". Such a discernment process was, and is, threatening to those whose fragile authority and power is rocked by a real engagement with "the joy and hope, the grief and anxiety of the people of our time".

This was clear in the 1968 crisis of authority over the church's failure to develop its teaching on artificial contraception. The pope has a responsibility to expound church teaching on major issues, but a rounded exercise of the church's authority involves the reception of such teaching by the body of the whole church. The crisis which followed, as a result of the failure to acknowledge the "sense of the faithful", exacerbated the denial of human sciences' insights into sexuality and reproductive health. Typically, this led to scapegoating groups and individuals whom it seemed expedient to blame for the collapse of a highly-centralised and oracular teaching function, rather than acknowledging systemic failings in the institution itself.

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

May. 26, 2009
By Thomas C. Fox

The Catholic church’s top women religious organization this week issued a strong supportive statement for U.S. women religious congregations under investigation by the Vatican. The organization praised U.S. women religious for living out the mandates of the Second Vatican Council.

“We affirm unequivocally our support for our sisters in the United States,” the statement of the International Union of Superiors General's executive board reads.

“Their response to the mandates of the Second Vatican Council, particularly as stated in Perfectae Caritatis, has been a great gift, not only to the pluralistic society in which they live, but also to the universal church. Our desire is to assist them in facing the challenges which we share.”

UNITED STATES
City of Angels

By Kay Ebeling
Producer, City of Angels Network

Conservative blogs say Sonia Sotomayor, identified in today's news as a "practicing Catholic," is likely to be in favor of "religious liberty issues" as a Supreme Court justice, because of her history of decisions, for example:

The Jewish Orthodox Union has taken an early look at Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor opinions on religous liberty issues and finds them "very encouraging." Here's one:

-Hankins v. Lyght (2006). In this case, a 70 year-old Methodist minister brought an age discrimination claim against the Methodist Church after he was fired pursuant to the church’s mandatory retirement rules. Judge Sotomayor dissented from the panel majority’s decision to send the case back to the district court for further analysis under two different statutes.

CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

[Letter To Bishop William Lori From Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests]

By DAVE ALTIMARI | The Hartford Courant
2:54 PM EDT, May 26, 2009
The director of a national group of priest abuse victims tried to present a letter to Bishop William Lori Tuesday asking him to stop the legal fight to keep thousands of pages of court files concerning abusive priests in the Bridgeport Archdiocese sealed.

On the heels of last week's state Supreme Court decision ordering the unsealing of more than 12,600 court documents involving sexual abuse allegations against several priests the archdiocese released a statement calling the ruling an "injustice" and vowing to review all of its legal options.

In its letter Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) asks Lori to reconsider that vow.

IRELAND
Westmeath Examiner

by Helen Sweeny

The paedophile teacher, Donal Dunne, convicted in the 1990s of sexually abusing boys at six midland schools, carried out similar evil deeds while teaching in Mullingar almost fifty years ago.

Referred to by the pseudonym “John Brander” in the report, Dunne, now deceased, was a Christian Brother who abused children both while a member of the order, and later, when he taught as a lay teacher.

Dunne came to Mullingar CBS in July 1947, as a 28 year old Christian Brother, and he taught in town for six years. The report reveals that he was the subject of a Canonical Warning in the 1950s for his actions while teaching in Mullingar, although these are not specified in the report.

DAVENPORT (IA)
Injury Board

Steve Lombardi

Three more priests have been named to the Diocese of Davenport’s list of credible cases of child sexual abuse by a priest. Two of those are dead; the third was a brother in the Franciscan Brothers of Christ the King. According to the report the two that died are William Kerrigan and James Lawrence.

The list is four pages long and can found through the Diocese of Davenport home page.

List of Credible Allegations Against Priests and Brothers. Of the 31 names 11 remain alive and one’s whereabouts appear unknown so his death can not be reported. The list includes the name of the living as Francis Bass, Paul Deyo, Daniel Emrich, James Janssen, James Leu, Frank Martinez, Mark Quillen, Brother Francis Skube, Eugene Smith, Lawrence Soens and Gerald Stouvenel. For more detailed information see the list by following the link. You can download the list as an Adobe Acrobat file.

MASSACHUSETTS
Catholic Culture

May 26, 2009
The Boston archdiocese has sharply cut back on benefits to retired clergy, in order to face the collapse of its underfunded clergy-retirement account. The new archdiocesan policies will also trim benefits to priests who take leaves for health reasons.

The pension fund for the Boston clergy is underfunded by $114 million, according to an archdiocesan report, and annual benefit payments outstrip contributions to the fund by $10 million. In reducing benefits, the archdiocese explained that previous policies would have exhausted the pension fund by 2011.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

EOIN BURKE KENNEDY

Victims’ advocate Christine Buckley has described yesterday’s statement by religious congregations reiterating their commitment to working with victims of abuse as “an emotional stunt” designed to maintain control over the vulnerable people who were abused in their institutions.

Ms Buckley, who is director of the Aislinn Centre which helps people who suffered abuse as children, said the congregations had not even adhered to what they were supposed to pay in the original indemnity deal agreed in 2002.

In an interview with Newstalk Radio today, she said: “Under no circumstances should the religious congregations have anything to do survivors of abuse, because it will just be a complete revolving wheel of pain and blackmail".

IRELAND
The Irish Times

EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY

The Christian Brothers has accepted it has a “moral obligation” to people who were abused under its care and plans to review how its resources can be used to help victims.

In a statement this afternoon the order said it accepted “with shame” the findings of the Ryan commission and was deeply sorry for the hurt it has caused, “not just for the mistakes of the past, but for the inadequacy of our responses over recent years”.

“As a congregation, we recognise and accept our culpability along with our moral obligation to former residents, to present and future generations of children and to society as a whole,” it said.

IRELAND
Ireland Online

26/05/2009 - 15:48:50

The Christian Brothers have issued an apology to all those who were abused while in their care.

The order issued a statement this afternoon saying it accepts “with shame, the findings of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse”.

The Christian Brothers admit that their responses to reports of abuse in the past were “inadequate”, and recognise that they have “a moral obligation” to the victims.

IRELAND
Reuters

May 26, 2009 5:34pm BST
DUBLIN (Reuters) - The Catholic order of Christian Brothers, under pressure after the publication of a report cataloguing decades of rapes and beatings of children by priests, said Tuesday it would review compensation to victims.

Irish religious orders had refused to renegotiate a deal for victims despite pressure from church leaders and politicians after the publication of the report last week into abuse at institutions the orders ran between the 1930s and the 1970s.

"The Christian Brothers accept, with shame, the findings of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse," it said. "The congregation is deeply sorry for the hurt we have caused."

EDGE Boston

by Kilian Melloy
EDGE Staff Reporter
Tuesday May 26, 2009

The Catholic church has fed into popular fears that gay men may be more likely to molest children sexually by responding to the clerical sexual abuse crisis with an edict that openly gay men may not enter seminaries.

That response bolsters the myth that gays are more sexually exploitative of youth than are straights, but until now the church has not openly declared that gay men are abusers.

That changed with remarks made by Father John Owen, who publicly declared that the sexual abuse of children that shattered the faith of many in the Catholic church was being carried out by gay men.

CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

By Gustavo Arellano in Ex Cathedra

When I was studying for my Confirmation at St. Boniface Church in Anaheim in the late 1990s, I remember that we took a weekend retreat to some nun's convent in Los Angeles--can't remember the name, but it was within the city. We slept in same-sex dorms, and it was a humbling experience that taught us about the importance of the Nazarene's message. And there was Danishes (the pastry, not the people)!

Two years ago, St. Boniface's finances were in such dire straits due to Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown and his pedophile priests that not only did His Excellency close down the church's school, but that year's Confirmation retreat was in the church's basement (my youngest sister served as a teacher). Too bad the princes of the Orange diocese can't join young Catholics in forced abstention.

All next week, the Orange diocese will hold their annual priest retreat at the chi-chi La Quinta Resort in Palm Springs, where the amenities include tennis courts, 72 holes of golf, and a men's spa. This is at least the fourth straight year that Brown has partied with his boys in the desert; the source for this is no less than the Orange County Catholic, the official diocesan newspaper. Isn't it comforting to know that the arrogance of Brown and his hierarchy is such that he can tell his herd that while they suffer due to millions of dollars in sex-abuse settlements for rapes that should've never happened, his gang will lounge in luxury with the satisfaction that the faithful won't do anything?

MASSACHUSETTS
Irish Independent

By Caitriona Palmer in Massachusetts

Tuesday May 26 2009

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese yesterday called for a major public debate on the legal and moral consequences arising from the Ryan Report on clerical abuse.

The President said that the commission's findings on decades of emotional, physical and sexual abuse only raised more questions about the consequences for those responsible.

"This report opens up -- it doesn't close. It opens them up for a massive public debate," said Mrs McAleese. "And in particular, a debate that should focus the attention at those to whom the finger points to in the Ryan Report."

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Senan Molony

Tuesday May 26 2009

Fianna Fail still doesn't get it. The major political party on this island cosied up to the Catholic Church for decades, kissed any bishop's ring going and contented itself with the knowledge that both their powerful institutions, along with the GAA, formed the very pillars of the Church-State complex making up Old Ireland.

It's arguable that out of that Holy Trinity, only one has moved with the times. And that's the modern GAA, an inclusive, tolerant force for good -- whereas once it may partly have acted as an agent of narrow nationalism.

The sins of the Catholic Church are legion, and lie exposed again. But Catholicism was one of the bedrocks of Fianna Fail, and the party has pandered to the prelates for almost all of its existence.

IRELAND
Herald

By Sinead Ryan

Tuesday May 26 2009

Bishop Eamon Casey (remember him?) has said that he believes all sex abusers in the religious orders should be jailed.

The 82-year-old former Bishop of Galway spoke out over the weekend of his "disgust" at the revelations of the Abuse Commission report.

It seems both wholly ironic and entirely of a different age when Eamon Casey was thoroughly vilified by the Irish people, including the media, for his own conduct -- the 'disgrace' of fathering a child with American Annie Murphy.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

LUKE CASSIDY and EOIN BURKE KENNEDY

A prominent victims’ support group has described the refusal by religious congregations to revisit the issue of redress for survivors of abuse as an “aggressive act of self protection”.

The Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) today rejected proposals by the congregations to channel more of their resources directly to the former residents rather than revisit the controversial 2002 compensation deal.

The RCNI said it was unacceptable for agencies involved in the systematic abuse revealed in the Ryan commission report “to promote themselves as best placed to meet the needs of those they have previously betrayed”.

CANADA
North Bay Nugget

Posted By BOB VAILLANCOURT, SUN MEDIA

Bernard Cloutier was a skilled manipulator who used his position as a parish priest to ingratiate himself with devout Catholic families to get access to young boys, a Sudbury court was told Monday.

Crown and defence lawyers began final arguments in the trial of the Roman Catholic priest on 16 sex charges over alleged incidents involving the five males from 1970 to 1983. The charges include seven counts of gross indecency, seven counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault.

Cloutier was serving as parish priest at Paroisse Saints-Anges in North Bay when he was first charged in June 2007.

IRELAND
Ocean fm

The harrowing institutional child abuse uncovered by the Ryan Report must never again be repeated.

The words of Ardaghey parish priest Fr James Sweeney today in the wake of the publication of the report which has caused a national storm.

A compenstation deal agreed between the State and the religious orders in 2002 is expected to dominate a special cabinet meeting later.

CONNECTICUT
Catholic Culture

The Connecticut Supreme Court has ordered the Diocese of Bridgeport to unseal approximately 12,000 pages of documents related to abuse lawsuits. “It's hard to think of another case, except perhaps out in Los Angeles, where the Church has fought so hard to keep files secret,” said Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

EOIN BURKE KENNEDY

Failure to correct the inadequacies of child protection services in Ireland will only serve to compound the “national shame” surrounding the abuse in religious-run institutions, a coalition of children’s charities and victims’ groups has said.

In a joint submission to Government and Opposition parties published today, the groups said the abuses uncovered by the child abuse commission’s investigation had imposed an obligation on the State to come to terms “with the fact that the rights of children were traduced for generations in Ireland”.

“We have to be totally honest about the situation in which too many vulnerable children still find themselves in Ireland, about the lack of family support in times of difficulty, about the inadequacy of child protection and services for children,” they said.

IRELAND
Herald

By Andrew Lynch

Tuesday May 26 2009

This is not going to go away. That is what the 18 religious orders -- who signed the notorious Woods Deal in 2002, and are now clinging to it as a drowning man clings to any kind of lifeline -- need to get through their heads.

They are responsible for shielding the perverts and sadists who carried out the child abuse that has brought monumental shame on this country -- and, one way or another, they are going to pay for their sins.

Bankruptcy

Almost a full week since the publication of the Ryan report, the refusal of CORI to face up to reality is shocking.

IRELAND
World Socialist Web Site

By Steve James
26 May 2009

For all the details of sadistic physical, sexual, emotional abuse, neglect and brutalisation of children in Ireland’s industrial school system, the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) is a cover up. Nine years of hearings, the probing of hundreds of childhood hells, have resulted in a huge report—five volumes and 3,000 pages—which will not lead to the prosecution of those individually or collectively guilty of crimes against thousands of children.

Neither has political responsibility been attributed. The report by Judge Sean Ryan continues to obscure the role of the Catholic Church, which is an essential element of the Irish state, and successive governments in operating a cruel workhouse system through which at least 170,000 children passed through in the middle decades of the twentieth century.

Even the publication of the report was characterised by official arrogance, contempt and indifference to former inmates who braved hearings and interviews, including cross examination by representatives of the religious orders in whose schools they were incarcerated and brutalised. Paddy Doyle, wheelchair bound, attempted to attend publication of the report last week in the Conrad Hotel, Dublin and was confronted by locked doors, PR and security men. When other victims of abuse managed to force their way into the hearing, police were called.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Tom Brady and Ralph Riegel

Tuesday May 26 2009

AN assistant garda commissioner has been appointed to examine the report of the Commission into Child Abuse and determine if new avenues of criminal investigation can be opened up.

Legal steps are also being taken to "clear" the criminal records of those sent by the courts to institutions run by religious orders.

The move was ordered by Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy after discussions with Justice Minister Dermot Ahern.

IRELAND
Herald

By Garreth Murphy

Monday May 25 2009

Sexually abused at the age of five. Raped repeatedly by an older boy at the age of 10. Two-and-a-half years of sustained extreme sexual abuse at the hands of priest Sean Fortune, starting at the age of 14.

Homeless and living from day-to-day on the streets of Dublin at the age of 17, reduced to having anonymous sex with men in return for a place to sleep and a hot shower. Most would have crumbled under the weight of such overwhelming abuse, but Colm O'Gorman is a survivor.

How else could you explain how he has forged a successful life and career for himself? The director of Amnesty International Ireland, a former senator and the founder of the One in Four organisation, is, by any standards, a success.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Senan Molony Deputy Political Editor

Tuesday May 26 2009

THE man who sealed the Government's indemnity agreement with the Catholic Church last night condemned false claims that he was an arch-Catholic interested in achieving a soft deal.

Rumours that he was a member of Opus Dei or the Knights of Columbanus are untrue and are being spread by political enemies, former education minister Michael Woods said.

"I'm a common-or-garden ordinary Christian, and I go to Mass every Sunday, and that's it," Mr Woods told the Irish Independent.

IRELAND
Same Same (Australia)

By Christian Taylor, 26th May, 2009

A report by Ireland’s independent Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse has heard about a lesbian nun, responsible for looking after children as young as six months, who was so drunk on one occasion that she fell into a playpen of children, landing on one of them.

It’s alleged that the woman in question, Nora Wall [pictured], also known as Sister Callida, went on trips with her nun lover, leaving the children with a 20 year old, and would disappear for days at a time without notice or contact details. It’s also alleged that two other nuns who were told to keep an eye on her ended up in lesbian relationships with her.

According to Herald.ie, Wall managed a Sisters Of Mercy group care home from 1978 to the 1990s when she was removed. She was responsible for some 16 children aged between six months to 16 years. The commission found Wall unpredictable and irrational, that she bullied staff, beat the children, drank to excess and put children at risk by leaving junior staff in charge.

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Michael Paulson
Globe Staff / May 26, 2009

The Archdiocese of Boston, facing a clergy pension system that will run out of money in 2011 without a financial rescue, is now taking its first concrete steps to limit benefits and raise revenue to shore up the fund.

Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley has mailed to all priests a legalistic 17-page "decree of promulgation" that is raising concerns among some sick priests because it says that they will receive only 60 percent of their stipend, in addition to their healthcare coverage, if they are on health leave. Also in some cases it will require them to submit medical and tax documents to the archdiocese in order to "demonstrate need."

The policy also requires priests on health leave for more than six months to seek state and federal government assistance, such as Social Security Disability Insurance, which is a break from past practice.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By John Cooney, Fionnan Sheahan and Tom Brady

Tuesday May 26 2009

THE prospect of the Pope intervening in the row over abuse compensation loomed large last night as bishops and religious orders were locked in secret talks.

It followed another day of drama when the orders flatly refused to increase their €128m contribution to the compensation fund for victims.

This was despite the pleas of the country's leading clerics and senior politicians -- and the appointment of a top garda to see if there are grounds for criminal prosecutions in the devastating Ryan report on clerical abuse.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Shane Hickey

Saturday May 23 2009

THE former minister who orchestrated the controversial child abuse compensation fund has revealed that the 2002 Cabinet had no idea how many victims would come forward looking for money.

And Dr Michael Woods yesterday told how a Canadian court ruling had been instrumental in deciding that the religious orders should contribute just €128m towards the fund, which eventually soared to a bill of €1.2bn.

He also denied allegations by Pat Rabbitte that there was a "sweetheart" deal for the religious orders, saying the former Labour leader sat on the Public Accounts Committee which reported that this was not the case.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Monday May 25 2009

Words can hardly describe the sadness and depression that must be felt on contemplating the reaction to the Ryan Report on child abuse in institutions and to the overwhelming public conviction that the religious orders responsible must pay their fair share of compensation to the victims.

So far, the congregations have stuck firmly to the line that their contribution should amount to only €127m. The Government has wavered, asking for a voluntary increase in the contribution and saying that legal advice prevents it from trying to renegotiate the "deal" with the orders, negotiated in 2002.

That deal was negotiated by the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the then Education Minister, Michael Woods. It was widely thought at the time that it would be 50-50, since Church and State were equally responsible. In the event, the institutions agreed to pay €127m, largely in property instead of cash, and the taxpayers would bear the rest of the liability, well over €1bn.

IRELAND
Sunday Business Post

Sunday, May 31, 2009
The agreement between the religious orders and the state on who should foot the bill to compensate victims of abuse in religious run, state-funded institutions came about as a result of then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s apology to the victims in 1999.

That apology, in turn, was a result of campaigning by victims, and growing public awareness of their stories, culminating in the States of Fear television programmes broadcast by RTE.

In November 2000, the religious orders’ representatives met the state to discuss a compensation scheme for victims and a mechanism for funding it. The state team comprised officials from the Department of Education, the attorney general’s office and the Department of Finance.

IRELAND
RTE News

Tuesday, 26 May 2009 07:38
The Cabinet is to meet today to discuss the legal situation following the publication of the Ryan Report on Institutional Child Abuse.

The 18 religious congregations yesterday ruled out renegotiating a compensation deal reached with the Government in 2002.

There have been calls for the congregations to pay more to the survivors and their families.

Irish Independent

By Grainne Cunningham

Tuesday May 26 2009

MOST other countries where the Roman Catholic Church was responsible for child abuse have already dealt with the issue of compensating the victims.

In the United States alone, dioceses have paid out more than $2bn (€1.42bn) to settle legal actions, forcing some dioceses to sell off their entire assets and declare bankruptcy.

An audit into America's 300 plus dioceses was conducted by the College of Criminal Justice at John Jay University in New York and published in 2004.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Tuesday, 26 May 2009

Cardinal Seán Brady yesterday called on the religious orders to “revisit” the 2002 deal with the Irish government which capped their contribution towards victims of clerical abuse at €128m, one tenth of €1.2bn that has to be bridged by the taxpayer.

Speaking at an unannounced meeting of senior bishops a Maynooth to discuss the fall-out from last week’s shocking Abuse Commission report, Cardinal Brady said that any new deal should bear in mind the needs of victims.

“It should be revisited and taken into consideration the potential of people to pay and above all the needs of the victims — we have to keep coming back to that,” the cardinal said.

IRELAND
Straits Times (Singapore)

DUBLIN - IRISH Roman Catholic religious orders which ran homes where children were abused for decades ruled out Monday renegotiating a disputed deal for compensating the victims.

The announcement came despite pressure from Cardinal Sean Brady, leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, for the orders to do more following a major report last week which exposed widespread abuse in church-run institutions.

In another development, police said they had appointed a senior officer to examine the report to see if any criminal charges should follow.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

BARRY ROCHE Southern Correspondent

CORK VICTIMS: , SURVIVORS OF abuse at some of the institutions named in the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse have expressed mixed views on whether the Government should seek to renegotiate the compensation deal with religious orders which caps their contribution at €127 million.

John Barrett, who was sexually abused after entering the Brothers of Charity home at Lota in Cork as a seven-year-old in 1959, said he had always been opposed to the deal and had told the then minister for education Michael Woods back in 2002 that it was a mistake.

“I have no doubt Michael Woods thought he was getting a good deal, but it was a mistake and I said so at the time. It should have fixed at 50/50 with both the State and the religious orders each shouldering half the cost,” said Mr Barrett. “ . . . I would say to the religious orders: ‘open your hearts and let the deal be renegotiated’ ,” he added. Mr Barrett urged the Government to allow abuse survivors who had already taken cases against the orders to go back to obtain decent settlements.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

STEVEN CARROLL

CHURCH HELPLINE: A TELEPHONE counselling service for the victims of child abuse established by the Conference of Religious in Ireland (Cori) has extended its opening hours following criticism arising in the aftermath of the Ryan report.

The Faoiseamh helpline, which was set up by Cori in 1996 to respond to the needs of people who were abused by priests or religious, yesterday announced it is to offer services to the public in Ireland, Britain and the North until 8pm this week.

The service was condemned for failing to provide out-of-hours operations and counselling to the public after the release of the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse last Wednesday.

The Irish Times

ALISON HEALY

AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTIONS: THE CHRISTIAN Brothers’ insistence that the order did not know about abuses documented in the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse report echoes a denial made by the order more than 10 years earlier when the Christian Brothers appeared before the UK Health Committee.

The parliamentary committee was investigating the actions by church organisations and charities in sending children from poor families to countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada where they were often used as cheap labour and abused.

The committee reported that the Christian Brothers were “very insistent that the abuses were not known to those who controlled the institutions”. The committee found that some of the abuse in institutions abroad was “of quite exceptional depravity, so that terms like ‘sexual abuse’ are too weak to convey it”. There are also striking similarities between the findings of the Irish commission and the findings of a senate committee in Australia in 2001.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

CHARLIE TAYLOR

THE DECISION to bar victims from attending the briefing announcing the publication of the Ryan report said more about our attitude towards abuse survivors than any amount of soul-searching or calls for justice ever could.

That a decision could be taken to exclude those most affected by institutional abuse from the event is shocking but, as any victim will tell you, not particularly surprising. After all, when it comes to abuse, whether it be at the hands of priests, nuns, or other individuals and groups, we continue to prefer not to have to see the victims up close.

Much of the discussion after publication of the report is long overdue and if it leads us to a greater understanding about the hurt felt by those who were abused, then our society will be the better for it. However, a more likely outcome is that those at the heart of this horrific episode will be quickly sidelined again once we’ve successfully worked out our collective guilt over the events that took place.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

This generation must engage in painful scrutiny of its attitude of deference to power and privilege, writes ELAINE BYRNE .

A PASSAGE from the Book of Proverbs reads: “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.”

The Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse reveals an uncomfortable history of Ireland in its five volumes. It is a history of how power was defined since the foundation of the State. The absolute authority of the Catholic Church rested on the assumption that it is was above reproach, without question and beyond criticism.

Sr Carmella, teacher and principal from the Mercy order at St Joseph’s Industrial School in Clifden “just did what the Reverend Mother told me to do” because she “was that kind of person that her word was law, she was in authority and that was it”. Part of this authority included beating children whose crime it was that lice had infested their heads.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

KEVIN O'CONNOR

IT WAS a shock to see him in the bracelets, head down and into the prison van. Last time I saw him, was in my class in Christian Brothers, Limerick, circa 1952. He was gentle, undersized, one of a class of 40 and more boys from the city, at the mercy of De Brudders.

We had some lay teachers, the older ones eccentric to a man. Hardly surprising given the years of teaching in a tough city and where being a husband, father and teacher, in those depressed times, was probably more than humankind could bear without breaking. And they broke, those laymen, into gambling, alcoholism and sexual addiction. Others appeared benign. To the pure, all things are pure.

Brother Gibson’s fetish was to call out a miscreant, as he saw it. The calling out was an excuse to place the boy on his lap, in front of the class and put his hand up the leg of the short grey trousers and fondle the boys genitalia. In front of the class who noted Gibson’s face get puffed and red with excitement, as his hand groped and the black berretta tumbled off his head.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

FINTAN O'TOOLE

PSYCHIATRISTS DON’T cry. As they delve into unfathomable pain, they must remain completely unemotional. Last week, Prof Richard Green of Imperial College in London admitted that in 40 years of clinical work, there was one occasion when he broke down and cried. It was while he was listening to a middle-aged Irishman describing the abuse he had suffered as a child at the hands of the Christian Brothers.

Tears come with the territory. And yet, they are of little use to anyone. Mannix Flynn, who did so much to break the silence, has warned of the danger of sentimentalising the victims.

What, precisely, do we do with all those religious congregations who are apparently incapable of understanding the crimes for which they are institutionally responsible? To understand the import of this question, let’s take a concrete example.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

FR TONY FLANNERY

RITE AND REASON: WHEN PATSY McGarry rang to ask me would I write a few words on the present situation, it didn’t surprise me that most of the people to whom he turned had gone underground. Members of some congregations have been instructed not to speak on child sexual abuse, except to follow the official line – the old cliché that we “must all sing from the same hymn sheet’’ is being followed.

This is not a pleasant time to be a religious or a priest. I will not comment in any detail on the Ryan report since I haven’t read it, but the media accounts make for very disturbing reading. Many young people were abused by priests and religious in the most horrific and perverse manner. ...

For me this whole sorry saga of the church and child abuse calls for a fundamental reappraisal of two aspects of Catholic life.

We need to look again at our teaching on sexuality. The Catholic attitudes to sex that my generation grew up with were oppressive and guilt-ridden. The ridiculous idea of associating all sexual thoughts and desires with mortal sin was seriously damaging to the person.

It led to a great deal of sexual repression, and when sexual attitudes and desires are repressed at an early age, they tend to emerge in gravely unhealthy and perverted ways. The soul was good, and the body was evil, most especially in its sexual nature.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

“THE STANDING committee of the Irish Bishops’ Conference met yesterday in Maynooth. The committee welcomed the publication of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse Report , chaired by Mr Justice Seán Ryan, as a significant step in establishing the truth and enabling the voices of survivors of abuse to be heard. The following statement was issued at the end of the meeting:

We apologise to those so cruelly abused during their childhood while in Catholic-run industrial and reformatory schools. This abuse is all the greater because it was perpetrated by those called to care in the name of Jesus Christ.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

BRIAN KAVANAGH

DEATH OF BABY GIRL: THE FAMILY of Marion Howe, a baby girl who died just four days after being admitted to Goldenbridge orphanage in the 1950s, have called for the exhumation of her body to resolve what they believe to be “unanswered” questions surrounding her death.

“The death of Marion has left a lot of unanswered questions, her death was very mysterious. We want a forensic examination of her body to ensure that the DNA does match up, and the exact cause of death,” Marion’s sister Geraldine Howe has said.

Marion Howe was 11 months old when she was taken into care by the Sisters of Mercy at the St Vincent’s Industrial School, Goldenbridge, on May 17th, 1955.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY

BISHOPS' RESPONSE: CATHOLIC PRIMATE Cardinal Seán Brady has said any new compensation deal for victims of abuse in religious-run institutions should be centred on the needs of victims.

Cardinal Brady said while the congregations needed to fully acknowledge “the terrible wrong” that had been done to people in these institutions, a new deal would have to consider the potential of congregations to pay.

In an interview on RTÉ radio yesterday, the State’s most senior Catholic cleric said: “The goal has to be the healing of those who have been hurt.”

IRELAND
The Irish Times

MARK HENNESSY

AN ABUSE victim and former Fianna Fáil mayor last night told Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey that the Government had not “the foggiest” understanding of victims’ pain.

In a sensational contribution to RTÉ’s Questions And Answers , Michael O’Brien from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, told Mr Dempsey: “I am surprised at you, Minister. You made a bags of it at the time.

“I went to the commission.They had seven barristers there questioning me, telling me that I was telling lies. I was raped, and got an unmerciful beating and he then came along the following morning and put Holy Communion in my mouth. You don’t know what happened. You haven’t got the foggiest. You are talking through your hat, and you are talking to a Fianna Fáil man, that worked tooth and nail for the party that you are talking about. You didn’t do it right. You don’t know the hurt I feel inside.”

IRELAND
The Irish Times

MARK HENNESSY, Political Correspondent

COMPENSATION DEAL: THE GOVERNMENT is expected to increase pressure upon the 18 religious organisations indemnified against child abuse actions by the State to pay more in compensation.

Ministers, who will hold their regular Cabinet meeting this morning, will gather again from 7pm for a special meeting to discuss the Ryan report findings on the orders of Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

Attorney General Paul Gallagher is expected to tell Ministers that the 2001 agreement with the Conference of Religious in Ireland cannot be reopened, unless they agree.

MASSACHUSETTS
The Irish Times

DENIS STAUNTON in Springfield, Massachusetts

MASSACHUSETTS VISIT: PRESIDENT MARY McAleese, has called for a “massive public debate” on Mr Justice Seán Ryan’s report on child abuse and for those who bear most blame for the abuse it documents to consider if they have done enough to address the needs of the victims.

“Some people seem to think the Ryan report was designed to bring closure. I don’t know where they got that idea from. The opposite is the case,” she said.

“This report is about opening up that which had been criminally closed, outrageously closed, furtively and secretly closed. It’s about opening it up.”

IRELAND
The Irish Times

ALISON HEALY

THE COMMENT was stark in its simplicity.

“I listened. I heard. I believe you,” a Dubliner wrote in one of the books of solidarity being signed at the Mansion House for victims of abuse yesterday.

Several hundred people filed into the Dublin lord mayor’s residence to add their signatures and comments to one of seven books in use. Lengthy queues formed at the weekend as hundreds more waited in line. More than 3,000 people signed the books at the weekend, according to mayor Eibhlin Byrne.

The public was initially invited to come on Saturday and Sunday, but because of the huge numbers arriving, the books are being left open until Friday.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

Bishops usually respect the internal affairs of congregations: these are not normal times, writes PATSY McGARRY

IT WAS unprecedented. Lines of authority are deeply respected within the Catholic Church. Generally, a bishop does not interfere in the internal affairs of a religious congregation, even those operating in his diocese. And most certainly no congregation interferes where a bishop’s jurisdiction is concerned, anywhere.

But what happened yesterday was an indication of the depth of frustration felt by Ireland’s Catholic bishops at the seeming stubborn silence of Cori, and of the 18 relevant congregations in particular, since Wednesday last.

Cori made a brief sorrowful statement following publication of the Ryan commission report. Over following days it merely reiterated the one-line mantra that the 18 congregations had no plans to revisit the 2002 redress deal with the State.

IRELAND
The Times

David Sharrock, Ireland Correspondent
The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland has clashed with the religious orders involved in child abuse over the amount they are willing to contribute towards compensating victims. Eighteen Catholic congregations defied calls from Cardinal Sean Brady to be more generous in their dealings with those who suffered abuse.

Pressure has been building on the Catholic hierarchy to do something about the grossly disproportionate burden that the Irish taxpayer has to shoulder in a controversial compensation or “redress” scheme for thousands of victims. But the religious orders said last night that they would not renegotiate the deal after Cardinal Brady, who is also bishop of Ireland’s largest diocese, asked them to revisit the terms of the compensation.

Last week the conclusions of the nine-year Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, headed by Mr Justice Sean Ryan, were published, and Dermot Ahern, the Irish Justice Minister, said yesterday that a senior garda officer was examining the report to see whether criminal charges could be laid. The report identifies about 800 abusers, among them nuns, priests and monks, principally members of the Christian Brothers. Only a handful have been prosecuted and convicted.

IRELAND
Zenit

MAYNOOTH, Ireland, MAY 25, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Irish bishops are promising to "carefully reflect" on how and why an environment of abuse was able to root itself in Catholic-run schools for decades in Ireland.

The Standing Committee of the Irish episcopal conference met today in Maynooth. According to a subsequent statement, the committee welcomed the report published last week about child abuse dating back to the 1930s in schools run by religious orders, "as a significant step in establishing the truth and enabling the voices of survivors of abuse to be heard."

"We apologize to those so cruelly abused during their childhood while in Catholic-run industrial and reformatory schools," the bishops said. "This abuse is all the greater because it was perpetrated by those called to care in the name of Jesus Christ."

IRELAND
The Irish Times

Statement by the Standing Committee of the Irish Bishops' Conference

The Standing Committee of the Irish Bishops' Conference met today in Maynooth. The Committee welcomed the publication of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse Report, chaired by Mr Justice Sean Ryan, as a significant step in establishing the truth and enabling the voices of survivors of abuse to be heard. The following statement was issued at the end of the meeting:

"We apologise to those so cruelly abused during their childhood while in Catholic-run industrial and reformatory schools. This abuse is all the greater because it was perpetrated by those called to care in the name of Jesus Christ.

"No response to this far reaching Report can be confined to a single statement. To properly address past failures, and to safeguard children today, the whole Church needs to analyse how and why such an abusive environment was allowed to develop and become endemic. Our ongoing response must support survivors of abuse and promote a civilisation of love for children so that they can receive the best possible care and protection.

IRELAND
ABC News (Australia)

[audio presentation]

Ireland is in a state of shock following the tabling of the report into child abuse in Catholic institutions.

The report found that rape was endemic in more than 250 Irish-Catholic care institutions from the 1930s to the 1990s, and the church protected paedophiles from prosecution.

In Australia there have been calls to look at the connections, if any, between the Irish perpetrators of sexual abuse and Australian parishes.

IRELAND
NEWS.com.au (Australia)

From correspondents in Dublin
Agence France-Presse
May 26, 2009 04:45am

IRISH Catholic religious orders which ran homes where children were abused for decades have ruled out renegotiating a disputed deal for compensating victims.

The announcement comes despite pressure from Cardinal Sean Brady, leader of the Catholic church in Ireland, for the orders to do more following a major report last week that exposed widespread abuse in church-run institutions.

In another development, police say they have appointed a senior officer to examine the report to see if any criminal charges should follow.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

The statement issued by the the Conference of the Religious in Ireland (Cori).

Cori, which represents 138 religious congregations, wishes again to place on record its recognition of the appalling reality presented in the Ryan Report published last Wednesday. As previously stated the emotional, physical and sexual abuse suffered by so many children on such a vast scale is horrendous.

Cori supports the eighteen congregations whose institutions were investigated by the Ryan Report in their efforts to find the best and most appropriate ways forward (a statement was issued on behalf of these 18 congregations earlier this evening).

IRELAND
The Irish Times

A statement from the 18 congregations involved in the Government redress agreement

Last Thursday, the 18 congregations that signed the Redress Agreement with the Government in 2002 planned a meeting in Dublin to jointly discuss the Ryan Report.

The following statement was agreed at the conclusion of the meeting today.

"At our meeting in Dublin this morning, we again recognise and accept the gravity of the findings and conclusions contained in the Ryan Report. We fully accept that we seriously failed vulnerable people while in our care and that we have an on-going responsibility to try to meet their needs.

"Rather than re-opening the terms of the agreement reached with Government in 2002, we reiterate our commitment to working with those who suffered enormously while in our care. We must find the best and most appropriate ways of directly assisting them.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

IRISH TIMES REPORTERS

The 18 congregations that signed the controversial deal with the Government in 2002 to compensate victims of abuse in institutions said this evening they would not renegotiate the terms of the agreement.

The move by the congregations comes despite increasing public pressure and a call this morning by the Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady that the deal should be revisited.

The 2002 agreement between the congregations and the State indemnified the religious orders from all redress claims made by victims in exchange for payments and property transfers totalling €127 million. The total bill for the redress scheme is likely to be about €1.3 billion.

IRELAND
Ireland Online

Religious orders responsible for decades of shocking child abuse tonight defied the country’s most senior Catholic clerics, rejecting calls to reopen talks on a capped victims’ compensation scheme.

As garda top brass began trawling the damning Ryan report, Cardinal Sean Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin urged 18 congregations to consider rewriting the controversial deal which left the taxpayer footing a €1.2bn redress bill.

But the orders ignored the clergymen’s appeal insisting there are other ways to help victims.