Abuse Tracker

GERMANY
Worldcrunch

Die Welt/Worldcrunch

"Weltbild," Germany’s largest media company, sells books, DVDs, music and more -- and also happens to belong 100% to the Catholic Church. Few people knew about this connection until this month when Buchreport, a German industry newsletter, reported that the Catholic company also sells porn.

A Church spokesman responded: “Weltbild tries to prevent the distribution of possibly pornographic content.”

Well, it's prevention efforts have apparently not been so successful. For more than 10 years, a group of committed Catholics has been trying to point out what is going on to Church authorities, and they are outraged at the hypocrisy of the spokesman's statement. In 2008, the group sent a 70-page document to all the bishops whose dioceses have shared ownership of Weltbild for 30 years, detailing evidence of the sale of questionable material.

Today, the Augsburg-based company employs 6,400 people, has an annual turnover of 1.7 billion euros, and an online business in Germany second only to Amazon. Weltbild is also Germany’s leading book seller, controlling 20% of the domestic bookstore market. Profits are regularly reinvested in the company with an eye to rapidly increase the market share – an increase that is only possible if Weltbild continues to sell materials that are not compatible with the teachings of the Church.

GERMANY
Business Insider

Nick Jardine |October 28, 2011

One of Germany's largest publishing companies, Weltbild, has over 2,500 erotic novels in its online catalogue. Its owned 100 percent by the German Catholic Church.

Worldcrunch, summarizing an article by German newspaper Die Welt, says that for over 10 years Catholics have complained about the company, which has been owned by the church for over 30 years.

WORCESTER (MA)
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

By Bronislaus B. Kush Telegram & Gazette Staff
bkush@telegram.com

The Rev. Lowe B. Dongor, the local Roman Catholic priest charged last September with possessing child pornography and stealing from his parish in Fitchburg, has fled the country and may have returned to his homeland of the Philippines.

The Diocese of Worcester cannot account for Rev. Dongor’s whereabouts and Bishop Robert J. McManus has sent a letter to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines warning that the priest may have returned to the southeast Asian islands nation.

Paul Jarvey, a spokesman for District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr., said a default warrant has been issued for Rev. Dongor after the priest failed to show up for an Oct. 25 hearing.

Mr. Jarvey said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that Rev. Dongor, the diocese’s first Filipino priest, had recently been in Korea. The DA’s office believes that the priest is now in Asia.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Tuesday, 1 November 2011

Almost half of Irish people believe that a fifth of priests are guilty of child abuse, a survey has revealed.

The Iona Institute, which commissioned the research, said almost a third of those surveyed were closer to the figure of 4% of clerics reported in a study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in the US.

Iona, which describes itself as a pro-religion organisation, said the poll carried out by Amarach Research reveals that a clear majority of the public overestimate the number of paedophile priests in the Catholic Church.

Professor Patricia Casey, consultant psychiatrist and Iona patron, said: "There has been very deep and completely justified public anger over the scandal of child sex abuse by clergy.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Irish Times

Catholic Church leaders in England and Wales are reeling after a series of abuse revelations, writes MARK HENNESSY

FOR YEARS, the Catholic Church in England and Wales has prided itself that it has handled matters better than the Catholic Church in Ireland.

It has done so despite being faced with repeated court cases involving clerics and stonewalling in the face of questions. Now, however, it is facing trouble at every turn, beginning with the affair of a missing monk, Laurence Soper (80), who has incredibly been on the run for seven months since failing to turn up for police questioning.

Meanwhile, an examination of its child-safety guidelines in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset is under way following the jailing last week of one of the church’s own child-protection officers for having pornographic images of children.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE MEDIA had been called on to make it clear “each and every time” it reports on clerical child sex abuse that “only a very small minority of Catholic priests are guilty of child abuse”.

Prof Patricia Casey, a patron of conservative think-tank the Iona Institute, noted that “when terrorist atrocities are committed in the name of Islam, responsible media point out that only a tiny minority of Muslims are guilty of these atrocities, and that such terrorist attacks are an aberration in Muslim terms, rather than a true expression of Islam”.

This was not so where Catholic clergy and child abuse was concerned, she indicated, leading to the public believing the number of abuser priests was far greater than the reality.

She was commenting in the context of new research published this morning which found as many as 42 per cent of Irish people put the number of priests guilty of child abuse at over 20 per cent. Of this group, 27 per cent believed the number exceeded 40 per cent, while 17 per cent put it at above 50 per cent.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

BARRY ROCHE

THE MINISTER For Children has called for better data collection on child cases as an essential step towards the delivery of improved childcare services across the State.

Frances Fitzgerald said reform of childcare services must be based on reliable and insightful data but the quality of data coming through to her office when she became Minister was “far from satisfactory”.

Stressing that decision-making and planning must be evidence-based, Ms Fitzgerald said improvements in the collation and management of data were already happening through the ongoing development of the National Child Care Information System.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

BISHOPS AND priests taking part in the final Croke Park Mass at the Eucharistic Congress next June have been urged to wear “some modern, imaginative equivalent of the ‘sackcloth and ashes’ of the Old Testament” rather than ceremonial dress.

Fr Tony Flannery of the Association of Catholic Priests said the bishops and priests should do so “so that the celebration would be simple and humble, asking forgiveness not just for the abuse of children, but for the other abuses of power perpetrated by church people in the past”.

The Eucharistic Congress was “a real opportunity for the Irish church, but it must have no element of triumphalism about it,” he said.

In an article on the association’s website, he said that one of its priorities for the coming year was “to consistently raise the problems around ministry in our church, especially in the western world”.

WORCESTER (MA)
The Catholic Free Press

Bishop McManus has notified the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines that Father Lowe B. Dongor may have fled the United States for his native country and that he is not a priest in good standing.

Bishop McManus removed Father Dongor, former associate pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish, Fitchburg, from public ministry in July after financial improprieties were discovered at the parish. He was arraigned in September on charges of possession of child pornography and larceny. Father Dongor was due back in court Oct. 25; he did not appear and a default warrant was issued, according to court documents.

Until his September arraignment, Father Dongor, 35, had been living at the Holy Name of Jesus of Studies in Worcester and, later, in a parish in Auburn. Because of the indictment he had to move out of any parish or diocesan property, according to Raymond L. Delisle, diocesan communications director. Mr. Delisle said that once a priest is charged with a crime that falls under the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, he can not live in a church residence.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Mo Rage

Yikes. It's getting hot over at the Catholic League. It seems they wanted to put an ad in the Star to defend Bishop Finn and his actions total lack of action in and on the Sean Ratigan sexual misconduct situation and the Star said no. Yes, they turned down their $25,000.00 ad. To which I say, I can't believe it but GOOD ON YOU, STAR. It should have been turned down, I should think for at least this one reason--in some of the opening sentences, the Catholic League writes and admits this: "Last December, crotch-shot pictures of young girls, fully clothed, were found on Fr. Ratigan’s computer; there was one photo of a naked girl." The Catholic League has the nerve to write and admit the above, and then DEFEND BISHOP FINN and his total, utter denial of Ratigan's situation.

PHILIPPINES
Tempo

Manila, Philippines – The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has been warned against a United States-based Filipino priest who was suspended due to charges of theft and possession of pornographic materials.

CBCP president and Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar received the warning in a letter from Most Rev. Robert McManus of Worcester Diocese in Massachusetts, United States.

In his letter, McManus said Rev. Lowe B. Dongor has been charged with theft and possession of child pornography and was about to go on trial last October 25 when he disappeared from the diocese before he could appear in court.

WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Victim/Survivors alarmed that clergy sex offender whereabouts are unknown

Today’s TMJ4 is reporting that the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s department has arrested 16 sex offenders during its sting operation known as “Operation Trick or Treat”. The Sheriff’s department, in an effort to keep kids safe this Halloween conducted searches of sex offender’s homes in Milwaukee, West Milwaukee, and West Allis. During their investigation they found pornography, children’s toys, and little girl’s underwear.

Sheriff’s deputy Jo Donner stated that registered sex offenders are forbidden to participate in the trick or treat festivities. She stated “they are not allowed to have any Halloween decorations inside or out, or pass out candy, and they’re not allowed to have costumes”. If a sex offender is found with these specific items they are found to be in violation of parole.

The arrest of 16 sex offenders during Operation Trick or Treat raises the question; who is watching the clergy from the archdiocese of Milwaukee who have been removed from ministry for reports of sexual abuse? The whereabouts of these offenders is largely unknown, leaving parents unable to protect their children during this holiday.

The archdiocese of Milwaukee lists 44 members of the clergy who have been removed from the ministry due to substantiated reports of sexual abuse. Some of these individuals are deceased, many are not. Most do not appear on the Wisconsin sex offender registry. The website BishopAccoutability, which provides a more comprehensive account, lists a total of 62 individuals who have been publicly accused of child sexual abuse.

The majority of these offenders were never convicted in a court of law for the criminal acts that they perpetrated. When victims were able to summon the courage to report their abuse to authorities they found that in many cases the statute of limitations had expired. We also now know that bishops in Milwaukee and elsewhere did not report these crimes to law enforcement officials which prevented possible intervention from the courts.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Poynter.org

by Jim Romenesko
PublishedOct. 31, 2011

Catholic League press release
The rejected Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights ad is critical of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), saying it’s “a lie” that the group represents those who’ve been abused by any authority. “It concentrates almost exclusively on the Catholic Church,” says the League’s ad. It also claims:

* “SNAP is so hateful that it even endorses Gestapo-like tactics used against the Catholic Church.”
* “The reason why SNAP wants to bring down Bishop Finn is because it always shoots for the top”
* “Their real goal is control — the control of the Catholic Church.”
* “….fascistic means are acceptable to SNAP.”

ITALY
Science

by Marta Paterlini on 31 October 2011

One of Italy's most prestigious private biomedical research centers may have gained a new lease on life. On Friday, 28 October, an Italian bankruptcy court gave the green light to an offer made by the Institute for Works of Religion, more commonly known as the Vatican Bank, and Italian entrepreneur Victor Malacalza to rescue the deeply in debt San Raffaele del Monte Tabor Foundation, which runs a clinical research hospital, an internationally respected basic science institute, and more at a research park in Milan. Officials hope the bankruptcy court's endorsement of the plan, in which the Vatican and Malacalza would take over €500 million of debt and invest a further €250 million, will persuade funding bodies to resume now-frozen payments and stem a potential exodus of scientists. The foundation's creditors will next review details of the rescue plan and a hearing is set for January to confirm that enough of them are willing to accept the terms.

The San Raffaele Institute and Hospital are the research centerpieces of a major biomedical science park masterminded by priest Don Luigi Verzé, who formally remains chair of the San Raffaele del Monte Tabor Foundation. Originally a private hospital founded in 1971 that quickly grew into a cutting-edge medical center, the facility now contains more than 1000 hospital beds, employs hundreds of researchers, and has well-known research efforts in gene therapy and molecular medicine. But apparently due to poor investment decisions and overly ambitious expansion, Verzé's foundation accumulated a debt close to €1.5 billion. The details behind the huge debt are still obscure and criminal investigations into alleged corruption have begun; the Italian media has extensively covered the growing scandal, with the frenzy intensifying after Verze's close colleague, San Raffaele Hospital Vice President Mario Cal, shot himself to death in July, apparently troubled by the foundation's financial woes.

UNITED STATES/PHILIPPINES
Malaya

A diocese based in Massachusetts, USA, has warned the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) about a suspended Filipino priest who is on trial but has been reported as missing.

Fr. Robert McManus of Worcester Diocese in Massachusetts, in a letter to CBCP president Bishop Nereo Odchimar, said he believes Rev. Lowe B. Dongor may already be in the country.

"I bring this matter to Your Excellency’s attention in case Fr. Dongor presents himself to Bishops in the archdioceses of the Philippines as a priest in good canonical standing," the letter said.

McManus said Dongor has been removed from active ministry due to charges of theft and possession of pornographic materials.

NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Ben Horowitz/The Star-Ledger

CHATHAM — Because the prosecution and defense agree that a Chatham church custodian stabbed the parish priest to death, the two sides have decided to formally agree on certain facts in an effort to speed up the trial.

Jose Feliciano, now 66, of Easton, Pa., is accused of murder in the Oct. 22, 2009 slaying of the Rev. Edward Hinds, 61, of St. Patrick Church. Feliciano’s public defender, Neill Hamilton, has acknowledged that Feliciano killed Hinds but said it was a “provocation/passion manslaughter” and not a murder. Hinds provoked Feliciano into killing him by making him perform unspecified acts, Hamilton told the jury in his opening argument.

With the jury out of the courtroom, Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi announced today that he and Hamilton have agreed to “stipulate” to certain facts, including DNA tests proving that Feliciano attacked Hinds.

PHILIPPINES
The Philippine Star

By Evelyn Macairan (The Philippine Star) Updated November 01, 2011

MANILA, Philippines - A Filipino priest reportedly facing charges of theft and possession of pornographic materials in the United States is believed to be hiding in the country, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said yesterday.

The CBCPNews reported that CBCP president and Tandag, Surigao del Sur Bishop Nereo Odchimar received information that Rev. Lowe B. Dongor could have fled to the Philippines to avoid facing trial in the US.

Most Rev. Robert McManus of Worcester, of the Diocese in Massachusetts, wrote to Bishop Odchimar to inform him that Fr. Dongor has abandoned his diocese.

The 35-year-old Dongor, who has been charged with theft and possession of child pornography, disappeared before his scheduled court trial last Oct. 25.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Standard Newswire

[the ad]

Contact: Jeff Field, Director of Communications, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191 , cl@catholicleague.org

NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2011 /Standard Newswire/ -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue submits the following and is available for comment:

Almost two weeks ago, we contacted the Kansas City Star about running a full-page ad on Sunday, October 30. The ad which I wrote is a critical statement about the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and their attorney friend, Rebecca Randles. The ad was written because we strongly defend Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn against the politically motivated attacks on him.

Everything looked like it was good to go: on October 25, we submitted the ad exactly the way they wanted it, and indeed gave them our credit card information to pay the $25,000 fee. On October 26, we received an e-mail which said that "The Publisher has respectfully declined and did not share the details as to why."

UNITED STATES
Episcopal Cafe

A story has been making the rounds in the last few days that purports to demonstrate that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori knew that the Bede Parry, a former Roman Catholic monk, had sexually abused minors and was likely to do so again when she received him as a priest into the Episcopal Church while she was serving as the Bishop of Nevada.

This claim is overblown. Rather, the story is one person’s recounting of a conversation he had with a second person in which the second person allegedly recounted a conversation he had with Bishop Jefferts Schori in which he allegedly informed her of Parry’s past. In a courtroom, this sort of information is hearsay, and inadmissible. In a newsroom, it is a lead—a darn good one, but still only a lead. Those familiar with journalistic standards would know that the information is not publishable, at least by mainstream religion reporters, until confirmed by the man who allegedly had the conversation with Bishop Jefferts Schori.

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Maureen Paul Turlish on Oct. 31, 2011 Examining the crisis

It has been almost 10 years since the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States mandated accountability and transparency in regard to the sexual abuse of children, but how that accountability and transparency was defined was ultimately left up to individual bishops, as was their application.

Truly independent oversight by a group of bishops who did not think it necessary to hold themselves to the same sanctions they placed on priests continues to be essentially nonexistent. Diocesan review boards set up to investigate those accused of inappropriate or questionable behavior serve at a bishop's pleasure, and he alone decides whether or not to follow their recommendations.

Review board decisions are not binding on bishops, and board members themselves have no way of knowing whether they have received all the information a diocese has on an individual priest's questionable behavior. Diocesan review boards, moreover, do not necessarily investigate all those accused or removed from ministry.

CANADA
CBC News

Inuit, Innu and Métis in Labrador want the federal government to reconsider an earlier decision not to include them in a compensation package and apology for the pain and suffering that residential schools caused aboriginal Canadians.

About 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children attended residential schools across Canada, but when the federal government unveiled its compensation package in 2007 and 2008, thousands of Labrador Inuit, Innu and Métis survivors said they were left out.

More than 20 Inuit from Labrador attended a Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing in Halifax over the weekend with the intention of sending a message to the federal government.

MICHIGAN
Patch

By Nancy Hanus

A priest who formerly served as associate pastor at Guardian Angels Parish in Clawson and has served at several other Catholic churches in Metro Detroit has been placed on administrative leave of absence by the Archdiocese of Detroit following allegations of sexual misconduct.

The Rev. Gary Schulte, 66, who served at Guardian Angels for a short time right after he was ordained in 1972, has been pastor at St. Sylvester Parish in Warren since 1994.

An allegation of sexual misconduct surfaced in September involving Schulte, "dating back to the early years of his ministry in the Detroit archdiocese," according to a news release put out by the archdiocese last week.

INDIA
Conference of Religous India Bulletin

Published Date: October 12, 2011

Sr Panikulam, who helps religious with psycho-sexual counseling, told the 75 religious present that abuse cases of young religious are increasing and a cause of much concern

A high proportion of nuns have been “victims of rape and sexual abuse” either before or after entering religious life, according to Sr Agnes Panikulam.

The medical mission sister made the disclosure at a program on Oct 8, organized by the Conference of Religious India at Mount St. Mary’s School, Delhi Cantonment.

Another consequence, she said, is that “a significant number of abuse victims are attracted to religious life which offers safety and a respected personal identity”.

INDIA
Conference of Religious India Bulletin

Published Date: September 21, 2011

The Conference of Religious India (CRI) has appreciated the initiative taken up by Virginia Saldanha, former Secretary of women’s Commission of CBCI as well as the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference, to examine and prevent clergy sexual abuse of women.

Saldanha is conducting a five-week online seminar which examines clergy sexual abuse of women, its history and dynamics and also offers resources to aid seeking of justice and healing for victims.

Bro. Mani Mekkunnel, National Secretary, CRI said“this initiative of hers should be appreciated and made known. What has happened and what is proposed for the future are significant.

” I appreciate the efforts of Mrs. Virginia Saldanha and recommend the program for the religious sisters across the country. It is only by empowering ourselves we can prevent abuses. Awareness and preventive measures can go a long way in taking care of our witness of life and commitment to the kingdom of God.”

ROME
BBC News

[with video]

31 October 2010

Victims of abuse by Roman Catholic priests have marched in Rome and called for the Vatican to take more effective action against sex crimes.

They say that - despite assurances from the Church that tougher measures have been put in place to screen out potential abusers - more safeguards are still needed.

Duncan Kennedy reports.

ROME
RKnieuws (Nederland)

ROME (RKnieuws.net) - Slachtoffers van pedofiele priesters uit verscheidene Europese landen hebben vrijdagavond in Rome, in de buurt van het Vaticaan, een protestactie gehouden. Op spandoeken eisten de manifestanten dat het Vaticaan zijn verantwoordelijkheid moet nemen en de waarheid aan het licht moet brengen over het seksueel misbruik gepleegd door katholieke priesters.

ROMA
El Economista (Mexico)

Un grupo de víctimas de sacerdotes pederastas se manifestó en una plaza cercana al Vaticano, para demandar a las autoridades de la Iglesia Católica que asuman su responsabilidad por los ataques sufridos.

Unas 50 personas provenientes de Estados Unidos y de diversos países de Europa se reunieron frente al Castel Sant Angelo, donde desemboca la Vía de la Conciliación, avenida que une Roma con la Plaza de San Pedro.

NEW YORK
Forward

By Paul Berger

Published October 31, 2011, issue of November 04, 2011.

One of the most high-profile convictions of an ultra-Orthodox rabbi for sexual abuse in recent times may be in danger of reversal, according to new disclosures in court records obtained by the Forward.

When Baruch Lebovits was sentenced last year to up to 32 years in jail, victims’ rights advocates hailed it as a turning point in the battle against sexual abuse in the insular Orthodox community.

“From now on,” Joseph Diangello, an abuse victim turned advocate, told The Jewish Star at the time, “victims of sexual abuse in the Hasidic community that have no voice with the people that are supposed to protect them will have a voice in the court of law.”

There was a sense that the wall of silence that had protected abusers in the ultra-Orthodox community for so long was finally crumbling.

CANADA
Vancouver Sun

By Mike Hager And Evan Duggan, Vancouver Sun
October 31, 2011

About 300 Occupy Vancouver demonstrators marched through Vancouver's downtown core demanding global financial and trade reform Saturday, but only a tiny fraction of the protesters could agree to mount an additional march Sunday targeting the Catholic Church.

Only a dozen protesters occupied the front steps of Holy Rosary Cathedral at the corner of Dunsmuir and Richards streets on Sunday afternoon.

Five Knights of Columbus blocked the top of the church's steps, backed by a handful of Vancouver Police officers, as first nations survivors of Canada's residential schools and their supporters demanded an audience with the members of the church.

At around 3 p.m., Craig Langston shifted from his wheelchair to the bottom step leading to the cathedral. Behind him, protesters read a statement denouncing the church's "occupation on Squamish Nation land," as the Knights listened on.

PHILIPPINES/UNITED STATES
Sun.Star

Monday, October 31, 2011

A FILIPINO priest on trial in the US for theft and porn possession may already be in the country, a Massachusetts, USA diocese warned the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

Iloilo-born Rev. Lowe B. Dongor, suspended after being charged with theft and possession of pornographic materials, has suddenly left for home, the Most Rev. Robert McManus of Worcester Diocese in Massachusetts said in a letter sent to CBCP President Bishop Nereo Odchimar.

"I bring this matter to Your Excellency’s attention in case Fr. Dongor presents himself to Bishops in the arch/dioceses of the Philippines as a priest in good canonical standing," McManus said in his letter acquired by CBCPNews, the official news agency of the CBCP.

Dongor has been removed from active ministry and prohibited from wearing a clerical attire or present himself publicly as a priest, McManus said.

PHILIPPINES/UNITED STATES
Manila Bulletin

By LESLIE ANN G. AQUINO

October 31, 2011

MANILA, Philippines — The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) received a letter, warning the bishops against a United States (US)-based Filipino priest who was allegedly suspended after having been charged of theft and possession of pornographic materials.

CBCP president and Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar said the letter came from Rev. Robert McManus of Worcester Diocese of Massachusetts, USA.

In the letter, McManus claimed that Rev. Lowe B. Dongor was charged with theft and possession of child pornography items and was set to go on trial last October 25 when he disappeared from the diocese before he could appear in court.

McManus alleged in his letter to Odchimar that the accused priest left a note saying that he would be returning “home.”

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

War on web sleaze: Church of England threatening to withdraw millions invested in ISPs over rise of internet porn

By Chris Greenwood

The Church of England is threatening to use its financial power to stem the tide of internet pornography.

It is considering withdrawing the millions it has invested in Internet Service Providers (ISPs) unless they take action.

Concern over the easy availability of vile images which demean women and corrupt the young has intensified following the disclosure that Jo Yeates’s killer Vincent Tabak was obsessed with websites showing sexual violence, bondage and strangulation.

UNITED STATES/PHILIPPINES
ABS-CBN

Posted at 10/31/2011

MANILA, Philippines - A US-based Filipino priest who was suspended due to charges of larceny and possession of child pornography has fled his diocese and might be in the Philippines, a Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines report said Monday.

A CBCPNews report said Most Rev. Robert McManus of Worcester diocese in Massachusetts, USA told the CBCP that Filipino priest Lowe B. Dongor had fled his diocese before he could go on trial on October 25.

McManus said the priest left a note saying that he was returning "home."

“I presume that he meant the Philippines,” McManus said in his letter to CBCP president and Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar.

In his letter, McManus said that on May 3, 2011 a recent clarification from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith declared that “the acquisition, possession and distribution of child pornography is a canonical delict that pertains to the sexual abuse of a minor.”

PHILIPPINES
GMA News

A US-based Filipino priest who was caught with child pornography in his computer disappeared before he could go on trial and is suspected to be hiding in the Philippines.

Catholic officials in the United States warned the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) about the status of Rev. Lowe B. Dongor who was suspended from his ministry over charges of theft and possession of pornographic materials.

According to a report on the CBCP website on Monday, Most Rev. Robert McManus of Worcester diocese in Massachusetts told the CBCP that Dongor was scheduled to go on trial last October 25 but disappeared from the diocese before he could appear in court in the US.

In a letter dated October 13, McManus informed CBCP president and Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar in a letter that Dongor might be in the Philippines.

CANADA
The Mark

New report says the RCMP herded aboriginal children into state-funded residential schools but did not know about the abuse.

The first report to examine the role of the RCMP in church-run residential schools has been published. The RCMP released the 463 page document at a session of the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission to document what happened to some 150,000 aboriginal children at the government-funded residential schools that first opened in 1870 . According to the report, Mounties forcibly removed children from their homes to bring them to the schools, withheld information from their families and acted as truant officers. The report also says the RCMP had no idea about the abuse inside the schools, and believed they were acting in the children’s best interests. The commission will produce a full report on residential schools by 2014.

CANADA
CBC News

Former aboriginal students who say the RCMP herded them off to residential schools are expressing a sense of validation following the release of a report into the Mounties' role in the notorious school system.

However, not all the survivors believe the report will help with their healing.

The RCMP released the report Saturday at a Halifax session of the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is looking into how 150,000 aboriginal children were taken from their families over more than a century.

The 463-page report found that the RCMP had a major involvement in bringing students from First Nation communities to the residential schools.

MICHIGAN
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit

Issued: October 30, 2011
Contact: Ned McGrath, Director of Communications
(work) 313-237-5943 / (home) 313-886-4114

Download an image of Fr. Schulte

Effective October 28, 2011, Fr. Gary Schulte, 66, pastor of St. Sylvester Parish in Warren, Michigan, has been placed on an administrative leave of absence by the Archdiocese of Detroit and is currently restricted from any public ministry.

In September an allegation of sexual misconduct with a person under the age of 18 involving Fr. Schulte dating back to the early years of his ministry in the Detroit archdiocese was received by the Victim Assistance Coordinator. Subsequently, the complaint was reported to civil authorities and considered by the chair of Archdiocesan Review Board and the archbishop's lead advisors on these matters.

An initial investigation found the complaint to be of sufficient substance to require restrictions on Fr. Schulte's service as a priest, i.e., not allowed to publicly celebrate the Mass or sacraments, and not allowed to present himself publicly as a priest.

MARYLAND
Catholic Review

By Catholic Review Staff

Father Eugene Nickol has resigned as pastor of Our Lady of the Fields in Millersville, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

The action occurred last week during a meeting with archdiocesan officials concerning a recent audit of the Anne Arundel County parish’s financial and child and youth protection records, and was announced at the parish Oct. 30. According to the archdiocese, the “audit showed a lack of appropriate controls to ensure compliance” with archdiocesan policies in both areas.

Father Nickol had served as pastor of Our Lady of the Fields since 2003.

According to the statement, the audit followed an anonymous tip to the archdiocese about suspected financial improprieties.

WARREN (MI)
Click on Detroit

WARREN, Mich. -- The Archdiocese of Detroit placed one of its priests on a leave of absence after he was accused of sexual misconduct.

Father Gary Schulte, 68, was the pastor at St. Sylvester Parish in Warren. On Friday, Schulte was placed on administrative leave and was restricted from celebrating mass or presenting himself as a priest in public.

"I can't believe it, it doesn't seem possible," said a man who asked not to be identified.

"He's just very kind, very loving, and very considerate. There doesn't seem to be a mean bone in his body. It's just unbelievable," said a woman who asked not to be identified.

WARREN (MI)
WXYZ

[with video]

WARREN, Mich. (WXYZ) - The Archdiocese of Detroit put a priest on leave late last week after an allegation of sexual misconduct in the early years of his ministry.

The diocese released a statement which states that Fr. Gary Schulte, the pastor of St. Sylvester Parish in Warren, was placed on an administrative leave of absence on October 28, 2011.

Fr. Schulte is currently restricted from any public ministry.

The diocese says the allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor are from the early days of Fr. Schulte's ministry and surfaced last month.

MICHIGAN
The Detroit News

Oralandar Brand-Williams/ The Detroit News

Warren— A 66-year-old local Roman Catholic priest has been placed on leave after church authorities found "sufficient substance" of sexual misconduct, Archdiocese of Detroit officials announced Sunday.

The Rev. Gary Schulte, the pastor of St. Sylvester Parish in Warren, was placed on leave Friday by the church. He also is barred from conducting any form of Mass or public ministry.

The actions were taken against Schulte after church authorities received a complaint last month alleging the "sexual misconduct" with a male under the age of 18 dating back to the priest's early years in his ministry in the Detroit archdiocese. The complaint was received by the Victim Assistance Coordinator for the church.

MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

A 17-year pastor at St. Sylvester Parish in Warren was placed on paid administrative leave by the Archdiocese of Detroit as it investigates an allegation of sexual misconduct against him.

Parishioners were informed today and Saturday that Father Gary Schulte, 66, was restricted from public ministry on Friday, according to officials with the Archdiocese of Detroit.

The Archdiocese of Detroit received an allegation of sexual misconduct involving a male under the age of 18 from its Victim Assistance Coordinator in September, said Ned McGrath, spokesman for the archdiocese. The accusation was reported to the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office in September. A message left with the county prosecutor has not been returned.

NEWARK (NJ)
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger

NEWARK — Three decades later, Rich Fitter says, he still has nightmares about the wrestling priest.

Fitter was 15 when he met the Rev. John Capparelli, then the youth minister at a New Providence church and a teacher at Oratory Preparatory School in Summit.

Over the next two years, Fitter contends, Capparelli groped him, photographed him in revealing bathing suits and brutalized him during no-rules "submission wrestling" matches.

MICHIGAN
Daily Tribune

By Mitch Hotts
Macomb Daily Staff Writer

A priest who formerly served several south Oakland County parishes has been suspended from his duties following allegations of past sexual abuse involving a minor, the Archdiocese of Detroit said today in a statement.

The Rev. Gary Schulte, the longtime pastor of St. Sylvester Church in Warren, was placed on administrative leave on Friday and is now restricted from any public ministry, according to the statement issued by Ned McGrath, director of communications for the archdiocese.

“An initial investigation found the complaint to be of sufficient substance to require restrictions on Fr. Schulte’s service as a priest,” McGrath said in the statement.

SOUTH DAKOTA
IndianCountry Today Network

By Stephanie Woodard October 30, 2011

South Dakota has an opportunity to get tough on sexual predators. State representative Steve Hickey (R.-District 9, Minnehaha County) has just submitted a bill to the legislature that would rescind a 2010 law that tightened the statute of limitations for claims of childhood sexual abuse. Called HB1104, the law made it harder to sue if the victim was over 40 when he or she decided to do so.

“All we victims want is justice,” said Izzy Zephier, an elder of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, who has brought a childhood-sexual-abuse suit against St. Paul’s Indian Mission, in Marty, South Dakota; the Diocese of Sioux Falls; and the orders that supplied the school with nuns and priests and other staff. “When you pass a law to protect the predator, you make it worse for the victim. Even when you protect victims, that doesn’t take away the lifelong damage that was done. But we want our day in court.”

Because HB1104 passed after about 100 American Indians filed abuse lawsuits, many have said those cases were targeted. “Passing that law said it’s okay to abuse Native American children in South Dakota,” charged Zephier.

The bill is now in committee and will be heard in the legislative session that begins in January 2012, said Hickey, who is a minister at Church at the Gate, in Sioux Falls. “I expect several co-sponsors for the bill,” he said.

UNITED STATES
Amarillo Globe-News

By KAREN SMITH WELCH
karen.welch@amarillo.com

Pennsylvania twice fined the Rev. Frank Pavone’s flagship anti-abortion charity for raising more than $1 million in donations without the state’s authorization, according to state records.

The fines totaled $8,000 levied last year and in 2006 following Priests for Life’s failure to renew its 2005 registration as a charity and submit required copies of federal tax returns with the Pennsylvania Department of State in subsequent years, according to documents from the department.

The financial transparency of Priests for Life and affiliated charities Rachel’s Vineyard Ministries and Gospel of Life Ministries is at the heart of a dispute between Pavone and Amarillo Bishop Patrick J. Zurek. Last month, Zurek restricted Pavone to ministry in the Amarillo Diocese, where he is a priest under the bishop’s authority.

GHANA
Ghana Web

Tarkwa, Oct, 28, GNA - A circuit court at Tarkwa sentenced a 29-year-old fetish priest, Nana Tetteh, to 7 years imprisonment in hard labour for defiling a class five 15-year-old girl,he pleaded guilty.

Chief Inspector Florence Tawiah told the court presided over by Mr. Samuel Obeng Diawuo that the complainant, George Johnfiah, a mechanic working with Golden Star Bogoso/ Prestea Limited lived with the victim and the accused resided at Ayipeys hotel in the same vicinity.

CANADA
The Globe and Mail

Halifax— The Canadian Press

The RCMP says a research report it commissioned shows police usually weren't aware that abuse was occurring in Canada's infamous native residential school system.

Deputy Commissioner Steve Graham presented the research report today to the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is holding hearings in Halifax.

Mr. Graham says the police acted on behalf of the federal government to tell parents they had to send their children to the schools and to track down children who had run away from the schools.

He says police sometimes investigated reports of abuse, but says the schools were a “closed system” and most problems in the schools didn't attract police attention or intervention.

UNITED STATES
Child Protection News

Written on October 26, 2011 by Patrick Noaker in Protecting Our Kids

Recent news reports remind us that Native American communities have been disproportionately impacted by childhood sexual abuse. Recent efforts by some Native American communities to prevent suicide in their Native communities, unfortunately highlights the high costs associated with child sexual abuse. In an effort to take action to both prevent child sexual abuse and to help children who have been sexually victimized, some Native American advocates have pushed tribal councils to adopt child protection laws. Advocate Ken Bear Chief from Yakima, Washington has made it his cause to encourage Native American Tribal communities to adopt strong child protection laws to combat this major problem in the Native American communities. Listen to the ChildProtectionNews.com podcast to learn how advocate Ken Bear Chief wants to change the laws to better protect kids.

UNITED KINGDOM
Vatican Insider

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

Temperatures are raised in England’s paedophile priest scandal. The Catholic Church has ordered an urgent review of its policy on the protection of children, after a lay official it had put in charge of investigating into some sexual abuse cases in the Diocese of Plymouth, was incriminated of having 4.000 paedopornographic images in his possession.

At the time of his arrest, Chris Jarvis – this is the name of the former child safety co-ordinator in question, - was in charge of an investigation into the accusations of sexual violence in Buckfast Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Devon. This is not the first Benedictine institute to be placed under investigation: just this week, the Vatican ordered an Apostolic visit to Ealing Abbey in west London, where abuse against children was allegedly carried out in St. Benedict’s school, which is adjacent to the abbey, in the period between the 60’s and 2009.

The fact that the church employed a paedophile to investigate into child protection, will definitely add to the sense of crisis already felt within the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Jarvis had been in charge of child protection policies in 120 churches in the Diocese of Plymouth, for nine years.

UNITED STATES
Vatican Insider

Giacomo Galeazzi

Autonomous from Rome on moral issues, in line with the Holy See in criticizing the unbridled liberalism. The Catholic Church, which is the largest denomination in the United States with about 68 million members, last year recorded an increase in faithful of 1.5%. Every six years, U.S. Catholics are "photographed" by an all-out survey that documents orientation and changes. Now the fifth in this series of surveys shows that U.S. Catholics have become more autonomous on moral decisions and are more closely aligned with Church teachings on social issues

It is a particular North American Catholicism. John Paul II looked to it with confidence. Many new bishops were appointed by Pope Benedict XVI because in line with what the Vatican Reporter, John Allen, called "affirmative orthodoxy". This is a line true to the dictates of the doctrine of the Church but at the same time is not closed and fearful. A sort of modern conservatism, open to the challenges of today, dynamic, young. That is why analyzing the American church is useful for understanding the future of the church, its spaces and its horizons. «It is significant that in the current crisis in the Catholic community (the largest religious denomination in the country) increasingly refers to the Church's social doctrine and the need for more justice and solidarity for the common good - said Cardinal Achille Silvestrini , former Vatican foreign minister -. in his social encyclical, the Pope was right, indicating the risk of social action at the mercy of private interests and the logic of power with fragmenting effects on society. U.S. Catholics understood and shared the commitment to reintroduce charity in ethical living».

LOS ANGELES (CA)
CNN

Editor’s note: Gary Tuchman reports on allegedly abusive Catholic priests who are living, unsuspected, in communities across the country on CNN Presents, Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on CNN.

By Gary Tuchman and Jessi Joseph, CNN

Los Angeles (CNN) - Former LAPD Detective Federico Sicard still remembers the Monday he arrived at a school to interview children who said a priest had molested them, even though the visit took place 23 years ago.

Sicard found four children at the school, Our Lady of Guadalupe in East L.A., who said they’d been abused by Nicolas Aguilar Rivera, a priest who’d recently arrived from Mexico.

But police never had a chance to interview Aguilar.

“We went to interview the priest and they told us he’s no longer here,” Sicard, who spent more than 20 years on the case, said in a recent interview. “He’s gone. He was taken to Mexico.”

INDIA
Don Bosco India

The topics Fr Parappully explored with the Bishops included: Some contemporary challenges such as general immaturity among priests, celibate loneliness, clericalism, sexual harassment and sexual abuse; healthy formation process, rethinking vocation recruitment, assessment and accompaniment of candidates to the priesthood and the need to put in place policies and procedures to prevent sexual abuse by the clergy, to deal effectively with allegations of abuse and to care for victims of abuse.

The workshop helped the Bishops to become more aware of and to feel the urgency to address more seriously the issue of Psychosexual and Celibate Integration of priests and candidates to the priesthood.

Other speakers at the seminar included Bishop Raphy Manjaly of Varanasi (Passion for God - Priestly Holiness), Fr MC Abraham CSC (Cognitive-Affective Maturity for Pastoral Leadership), Mr Andrew Pinto (Stress Management),Archbishop Peter Fernando (Skills for Promoting Interpersonal Relations), and Fr Joe Mathias SJ (A New Pedagogy for Integral Human Formation for Priests in India today).

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Oct. 28, 2011

An article Tuesday about the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy and pension funds it operates incorrectly stated that the deadline for submitting claims in the bankruptcy is Feb. 1. The deadline for sex-abuse claims is Feb. 1 and for all other claims was Oct. 17.

DEUTSCHLAND
kath.net

München (kath.net)
Der Skandal um die verschiedenen Produkte des Weltbild-Verlages - KATH.NET hat mehrfach berichtet - führt jetzt in einem ersten deutschsprachigen Bistum zu unmittelbaren Konsequenzen. Prälat Peter Beer, der Generalvikar des Erzbischofs von München und Freising, hat am Mittwoch nach einer KATH.NET-Anfrage mitteilen lassen, dass er sich mit dem Geschäftsführer des Diözesanverbands St. Michaelsbund in Verbindung gesetzt habe, um Klarheit darüber zu gewinnen, wie der vom Diözesanverband getragene Buchversand lesetraum.de mit dem Vertrieb von Erotik-Angeboten verfährt.

DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche

Zu den besten Geschäftemachern im deutschen Medienmarkt gehört seit einigen Jahren die katholische Kirche. 14 Diözesen besitzen die Weltbild-Gruppe in Augsburg, die rasant zulegt - und doch denken die katholischen Bischöfe in Deutschland nun über den Verkauf des Konzerns nach.

Weltbild ist als Buchverlag, Buchhändler und Versender aktiv. Die 14 Bistümer und die Soldatenseelsorge Berlin, denen die Augsburger Gruppe gehört, seien nun "in einer sorgfältigen Prüfung der Frage, welche Gesellschafterstrukturen für ein weiteres langfristiges und kontinuierliches Wachstum des Unternehmens sinnvoll sind", teilte das Unternehmen am Montag mit. "Als Ergebnis dieser Prüfung ist auch eine Ergänzung oder Änderung des Gesellschafterkreises möglich."

CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: Don Marks

The University of Manitoba has touched off a controversy by offering an apology to First Nations people for the role it played in the mistreatment of aboriginal children in Indian residential schools.

Some people are wondering what the university is apologizing for. Others are asking if this whole apology business has gone too far.

The logic behind the university's decision is that the institution played a significant role in whatever went on at the residential schools by providing education and training to the people who were most responsible for operating and managing the schools (the principals and teachers).

It's a bit of a stretch because most of the schools were run by churches, which educate their own through parochial rather than state-run schools. But we can recognize that more than a few teachers who taught or abused at the residential schools got their degrees through the U of M.

HOLYOKE (MA)
The Republican

By Jeanette DeForge, The Republican

HOLYOKE – A superior court judge rejected a request to order the Friends of Mater Dolorosa out of the church they are trying to save by holding a non-stop prayer vigil in the building.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield filed for the preliminary, or emergency, injunction saying the protesters must leave so they can have the steeple removed because its poor condition poses a danger to people inside and outside the church.

It specifically named seven of the protesters, Victor and Shirley Anop, Peter Stasz, Halina Sulewski, Helen Domurat, and Iowna and Eva Brouch along with the Friends of Mater Dolorosa and “other John Does and Mary Roes.”

The diocese cited two engineering reports that showed the steeple could collapse at any time. Protesters hired a third engineer who examined the steeple and said it was solidly built and is safe.

HOLYOKE (MA)
CBS 3

By Natalie Tolomeo

HOLYOKE, MA (WSHM) -
Parishioners of a Holyoke Catholic church and the Springfield diocese will be back in court. A Hampden County Superior Court judge denied the bishop's preliminary injunction where he tried to force parishioners out of the closed church.

Earlier this month, the bishop filed court papers to kick out all parishioners praying inside the Mater Dolorosa Church in Holyoke all hours of the day and night since June. Friday, Associate Justice Jeffrey Kinder informed both parties that he is allowing those parishioners to keep holding their prayer vigils.

"Prayer is not about demanding from God a fixed decision. Prayer is about accepting the reality we live in with God's grace peacefully. Nothing about this has been done in that context," says Mark Dupont, spokesman for the Springfield diocese.

HOLYOKE (MA)
Worcester Teelgram & Gazette

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOLYOKE — A judge has rejected a request by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield that could have ended a protest vigil at a closed Holyoke church.

In a decision released Friday, a Superior Court judge denied a preliminary injunction that could have forced protesters out of Mater Dolorosa while the court considers the diocese’s claim they’re trespassing.

The parishioners have occupied the church since June, when the diocese closed it citing heavy debt and a dangerously unsafe steeple.

Vigil co-leader Victor Anop said the judge clearly believed the steeple’s dangers were exaggerated. He said the ruling will boost the parishioners’ appeal of the closure to the Vatican.

UNITED KINGDOM
Plymouth Herald

A FORMER social worker employed by the Roman Catholic church in Plymouth to combat child abuse has been jailed for possessing and distributing child pornography.

Colin Jarvis was caught with more than 4,000 indecent images, some of the most serious category, level five, on a camera memory stick and on a church laptop.

Prosecutor Julia Cox told Plymouth Crown Court that Jarvis was employed by the church to safeguard children, investigate historic cases of child abuse, formulate policies, train others and advise on safeguarding children.

He had access to sensitive information on vulnerable people.

AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Pat Power October 27, 2011

This letter was written in August as a response to the pain of the Toowoomba Catholics, a group of whom had written to the Australian Bishops in the aftermath of Bishop Bill Morris' sacking. Many of the questions that letter raised are on the hearts of lots of faithful and loyal Catholics across Australia in these days.

I was not at the recent Ad Limina visit in Rome, but I feel for many of the Australian Bishops who must have found themselves in an extremely difficult position following the meetings at the Vatican. I know that many of them have similar deep concerns as I do over the treatment of one our best brother bishops.

I am responding to your 3 August letter with the accompanying petition containing 2722 signatures expressing concern around a number of aspects of the forced retirement of Bishop William Morris. I note from your letter that a further 411 signatures have since been added.

At the outset, I wish to express my deep disappointment at the treatment Bishop Morris has received. Like you, I see him and the whole diocese as being victims of a great miscarriage of justice.

UNITED STATES/CANADA
Los Angeles Times

By Jason Felch and Kim Christensen, Los Angeles Times

October 29, 2011

Rick Turley was 18 when he learned that Scouting offered a unique opportunity to meet boys.

He would show up in a uniform with a sash full of merit badges, charm parents with claims of being a "top" leader and offer to take their preteen boys out for a swim or drive. Then, often after plying them with alcohol, he would fondle or rape them — once going so far as to kidnap a boy in a stolen plane.

Over nearly two decades, Turley molested at least 15 children in Southern California and British Columbia, most of whom he met through American and Canadian Scouting, a Los Angeles Times and Canadian Broadcasting Corp. investigation has found.

Scouting officials on both sides of the border not only failed to stop him, but sometimes helped cover his tracks, according to confidential Scouting records, court files and interviews with victims, families and Scout leaders.

At one point in 1979, Boy Scouts of America officials decided not to call police after Turley admitted molesting three Orange County boys, the organization's records show.

UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Independent

By David Wilcock

Friday October 28 2011

THE CATHOLIC Church said it has conducted a full review of child safety practices in the South West of England after a paedophile abuse investigator was jailed for 12 months for child porn offences.

Christopher Jarvis, 49, a married father-of-four, was employed by the church in 2002 as a child safety coordinator following the 2001 Nolan Report on abuse by members of the clergy, with a remit to investigate historic claims of child abuse, including interviewing the victims when they were adults.

As a member of the Devon and Cornwall Multi-agency Safeguarding Team, he also worked with police officers and social services and had access to private information about vulnerable victims of child abuse.

But he was arrested in March this year after uploading five images of pre-pubescent boys on to the Ning social networking website.

UNITED STATES
God Discussion

October 28, 2011 By God Discussion Reporter

Raymond Boucher is an attorney who works for victims of sexual abuse. He told CNN that hundreds of abusive priests who were kicked out of the church have blended back into society, living in neighborhoods where the public has no idea about their background.

These priests have never been held accountable in criminal trials, usually because the statute of limitations has passed before the victims come forward. Even if the priest admitted to the abuse, he cannot go to jail.

Boucher says that the church shielded the priests.

Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Archdiocese, says that when priests were taken out of ministry after allegations, they were sent to treatment and in some cases, they were assigned to other duties. "Looking back now, at what we did back then, I think it was the wrong thing to do," he admitted to CNN. "We relied too often on the stories of the priests themselves. We thought too much about their well-being than the victims."

LAWRENCE (MA)
The Eagle Tribune

By Yadira Betances ybetances@eagletribune.com

LAWRENCE — The Augustinian Order has paid $100,000 in a sexual abuse case involving a priest and a religious brother who served at St. Mary parish in the mid-1960s.

According to documents filed at Lawrence District Court, the Rev. Alfred Murphy and a Brother John abused the plaintiff who was 13 to 16 years old while he was part of St. Mary parish Catholic Youth Group.

A third party, who was not identified in the court papers, but is associated with the Augustinians, was also named in the lawsuit for failing to properly supervise Murphy and Brother John, who was identified only by his religious name.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writer

Prosecutors preparing to try a high-ranking Philadelphia prelate who allegedly enabled two priests to molest a boy say they should be allowed to tell jurors how he and church leaders handled similar accusations against dozens of other priests.

A motion filed Friday by the District Attorney's Office says Msgr. William J. Lynn acted under "a well-established, deliberate, orchestrated plan" by Archdiocese of Philadelphia officials to protect abusive priests.

"What might look like an innocuous transfer, an accidental omission, or a mistake in judgment in a single case can only be understood as intentional when it is repeated over and over in the handling of other abusers," says the filing by Assistant District Attorney Mariana Sorensen.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- U.S. bishops are preparing to make their "ad limina" visits to the Vatican, an intense series of encounters that will bring many of them face-to-face with Pope Benedict XVI for the first time.

Beginning in early November and extending through much of next year, the visits will constitute the most comprehensive assessment of church life in the United States since the German pope was elected in 2005.

A statue of Jesus handing St. Peter keys rests in front of the main altar in St. Peter's Basilica on the feast day of Sts. Peter and Paul June 29. As part of their "ad limina" visits to Rome, bishops are required to make a pilgrimage to the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul in their respective basilicas. (CNS/Paul Haring)

BROOKLYN (NY)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Mary Caplan on October 28, 2011

We are proud of this courageous young girl who today had the strength to stand up in public and warn others about the dangers posed by youth pastor Jose Velez, the man who abused her. We applaud her family for believing and supporting her, and we are grateful that they were smart and brave enough to go to police instead of church officials. It is a good thing that Velez was held criminally liable for his crimes against Diana Flores, but it is sad that the Brooklyn Pentecostal Assembly still refuses to take responsibility for his actions.

Hopefully the example set today by Diana will inspire others who may have seen or suffered Velez’s crimes to step forward tell their stories as well. We also urge the church officials from the Pentecostal Assembly to aggressively seek out others who are hurting and suffering in silence and do all that is in their power to help them heal and seek justice. Despite what they have done in the past, we hope that they will show compassion towards these young victims and will resist the temptation to use dirty legal tactics in court. All these hardball tactics do is cause a more drawn out legal fight which is bad for all parties involved, and deter other victims from coming forward.

UNITED KINGDOM
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on October 28, 2011

The fact that the man who was supposed to be investigating pedophilia was a pedophile himself is a sad and sordid reminder that the church hierarchy is the last place that those with knowledge of abuse should turn to for help. While the specifics of this particular case may be more egregious than most, the fact remains that all too often church officials care more about protecting the reputations of their priests and bishops than they do about protecting the safety of our children.

Similarly, the fact that the church is allegedly “reviewing their practices” after this incident has come to light is in no way a comfort. Time and time again, SNAP has argued that church policies are not going to protect children. It requires the investigation of outside, secular authorities and the vigilance of every individual to actually keep kids safe. We think that this story bolsters these claims and will hopefully embolden others in the community to step forward and fill the void of child protection that church officials are seemingly unwilling to fill.

We urge anyone who may have seen or suspected clergy abuse crimes to come forward, get help, and tell their story, but to secular and not church officials. We hope that the police continue to investigate these matters and uncover the crimes that these corrupt church officials continually attempt to hide and, ultimately, abet more abuse of children.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler | October 28, 2011

Two weeks have passed since the indictment of Kansas City’s Bishop Robert Finn. The bishop’s critics are demanding his resignation, while his defenders protest his innocence. Let’s step back a pace, and put the matter in perspective.

The indictment of an American bishop is a big story—a huge story, an unprecedented story. Yet oddly enough, apart from Bishop Finn’s most vociferous critics and defenders, most American Catholics seem to be taking it in stride. During the past month, 4 others stories on the Catholic World News site have attracted more readers. In fact, a CWN report on the desultory Supreme Court discussion of the all-male Catholic priesthood claimed nearly twice as many readers as our report on the Finn indictment.

Are Catholics looking elsewhere for their coverage of this story? (That would be dangerous, since so few media sources offer a reasonably accurate and unbiased perspective.) Or are they simply exhausted, after a decade of headlines about accusations and lawsuits and pleas and settlements related to the sex-abuse crisis? I don’t know. I do know that this story is immensely important, because for the first time an American Catholic bishop will be judged not by friendly colleagues, nor by angry editorialists, but by a jury of ordinary citizens.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

by Eugene Cullen Kennedy on Oct. 28, 2011 Bulletins from the Human Side

Not many bishops can drag their whole diocese with them when they get indicted for failing to report information about a priest predator to the authorities. Sadly, many people are neither surprised nor saddened that Bishop Robert Finn has brought the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese -- the institutional apparatus not the people who are really the Church -- down this rabbit hole of ignominy with him for failing to act about a priest with a computer filled with child pornography.

That is because, as the quintessential cleric, Finn has always been joined in the manner of a Siamese twin with the hierarchical apparatus, sharing the same blood type -- purple, of course -- so that they move awkwardly together, something like merged banks so tightly bound by boiled balance sheets and bad debts that examiners judge them to be one clanking entity.

Actually Finn looks more like a nervous shoplifter than a bold sinner. There is a strange fittingness to his being indicted for a misdemeanor, the equivalent of a venial sin, something out of a child’s confession, say three Hail Marys and make a good act of contrition. Finn got where he is in the organization by not growing up, by remaining a boy whose apple-cheeked ambition was to become a bishop some day, bringing the news home to mother as he once did his gold starred report card.

CHILE
La Nacion

El arzobispo de Santiago, monseñor Ricardo Ezzati, firmó este viernes el decreto por el que se cierra la investigación previa, iniciada por una denuncia por abuso sexual en contra del presbítero Cristián Precht Bañados.

La causa, investigada por el sacerdote Marcelo Gidi Thumala, había sido abierta a raíz de la denuncia presentada por María Carolina Bañados Lira, en la que se sostenía que el sacerdote, ex vicario de la Solidaridad, había abusado sexualmente de un menor.

CHILE
Surlink

SANTIAGO (CAMBIO21).- El emblemático sacerdote Cristián Precht Bañados fue liberado de toda posible responsabilidad en un eventual delito de abuso sexual hecho en su contra, e investigado de acuerdo a los procedimientos establecidos por la Conferencia Episcopal.

Precht Bañados, de 70 años, fue el primer sacerdote encargado de la Vicaría de la Solidaridad, refugio de miles de chilenos cuyos derechos fundamentales fueron conculcados durante la dictadura militar de Augusto Pinochet.

CHILE
Cooperativa

El arzobispo de Santiago, Monseñor Ricardo Ezzati, decretó este viernes el cierre de la investigación por abuso sexual que llevaba el sacerdote Marcelo Gidi Thumala contra el presbítero Cristián Precht Bañados.

CHILE
La Tercera

El arzobispado de Santiago informó esta tarde que cerró la investigación previa de la denuncia por abuso sexual presentada por María Carolina Bañados Lira contra el sacerdote Cristián Precht Bañados, y descartando delito canónico.

Mediante un comunicado, el arzobispado indicó que "los antecedentes obtenidos de los interrogatorios y documentos, analizados en contexto y en derecho, la investigación estableció que no hay elementos que permitan acreditar la verosimilitud de los hechos denunciados, en cuanto constitutivos de delito canónico, es decir, de abuso sexual cometido por un clérigo contra un menor de edad".

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

October 28, 2011
By Shannon McDonald

Prosecutors today filed a motion to use additional sexual abuse claims and priest transfers as evidence in the March 2012 trial against three Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests, a teacher and a former monsignor.

The Associated Press reports prosecutors would use the additional evidence to show priests had the opportunity and the cover to sexually abuse children, and that Msgr. William Lynn has a record of transferring priests with claims against them.

CHILE
Terra

SANTIAGO.- La investigación previa realizada por la Iglesia determinó que no hay elementos que permitan acreditar la verosimilitud de la denuncia por abuso sexual efectuada en contra del presbítero Cristián Precht Bañados.

En un comunicado dado a conocer por el Arzobispado de Santiago se consigna que hoy el Arzobispo de Santiago, monseñor Ricardo Ezzati Andrello, firmó el decreto de cierre de la investigación previa llevada adelante por el padre Marcelo Gidi Thumala, S.J., respecto de la denuncia presentada por la señora María Carolina Bañados Lira contra el presbítero Cristián Precht Bañados.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Boys Don't Tell

News item: Rep Louise Williams Bishop proposes bill that would eliminate Pennsylvania’s civil statute of limitations on child sex abuse. That means victims can sue the perpetrators and those who protected them once they heal enough to talk about it.

News item: The Catholic Church appoints Charles Chaput the new Philadelphia Archbishop. Mr. Chaput comes from Denver where he orchestrated the defeat of a bill to provide a one-year window on the statute of limitations for victims to seek civil justice from their abusers and protectors.

Hmm… connection? Naw, I’m sure this was just a nice promotion for this man of faith. I listened to the interview with the Philly Inquirer. He sounds real nice and talks Christian real good. Wants to help the victims heal and is sorry so many left the church.

He makes it clear that just as he believes in Jesus Christ and wants to help Philly Catholics be better Christians, he believes in the statute of limitations. He did not quote a chapter and verse from the Bible for that, but I’m sure it’s there somewhere, and probably goes something like this: After suffering for decades from being raped in the house of God, thou shalt not attempt to hold that house responsible for said rape. We merely opened the door and provided the room for said rape. Okay, we may have paid the rapist for his services, housed and fed him, and gave him a new place to rape from, once people complained, but really, to everything there is a season and the season for justice ends at age 30 in Pennsylvania.

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The Roman Catholic Church has ordered a widespread review into its safeguarding children procedures in the South West.

It followed the arrest in March of Christopher Jarvis, 49, who was employed by the Diocese of Plymouth to investigate sex abuse allegations.

Jarvis, of Penrose Road, Plymouth, has been jailed for a year after admitting 12 counts involving indecent images.

A Plymouth Crown Court judge said children who had confided in Jarvis would feel "sullied and let down".

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
America Magazine

Bill Williams | NOVEMBER 7, 2011

The Grace of Everyday Saints
How a Band of Believers Lost Their Church and Found Their Faith
By Julian Guthrie
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 288p $25

Catholic bishops have struggled with the impact of declining church attendance, shrinking numbers of priests and the financial costs of settling priest sexual abuse cases. One solution is to close some churches.

The Grace of Everyday Saints is the riveting story of one such church, St. Brigid, in San Francisco. When Archbishop John Quinn shuttered the church in 1994, shocked parishioners banded together to fight the decision—marking the start of a long-running saga that continues to this day.

The author, Julian Guthrie, is a San Francisco Chronicle journalist who first wrote about the parishioners’ struggle in a series of newspaper articles, which she has now expanded into this compelling book. Guthrie’s narrative brims with drama, tension, surprise and loss. Her descriptions of the faith and lives of the people involved bring the story to life.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
San Antonio Express-News

MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

Published 01:25 p.m., Friday, October 28, 2011

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Prosecutors seeking to convict four Roman Catholic priests in a pedophilia case want to use evidence of other sex-assault complaints and priest transfers in the Philadelphia archdiocese.

Prosecutors have filed a motion to include relevant conduct at the high-profile March trial.

Sixty-year-old Monsignor William Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged with child endangerment for allegedly transferring predator priests so they could abuse new victims.

UNITED STATES
Virtue Online

By A. S. HALEY
The Anglican Curmudgeon
http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-charges-of-cover-up-against.html
Oct. 27, 2011

Disturbing new charges have surfaced about a cover-up concerning just how much Episcopal Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, when she was the diocesan of Nevada, knew about the past sexual abuses committed by Father Bede Parry, a former Catholic priest whom she canonically received into her diocese as a priest in 2004.

The allegations stem from telephone conversations and emails exchanged between Abbot Gregory Polan, the current ordinary of Conception Abbey in Missouri, where Father Parry was only a novice when his sexual abuses of young men originally came to light in the 1970s, and a certain Patrick J. Marker. Until recently, Mr. Marker had remained anonymous as another victim of sexual abuse, who had been molested by a different Catholic priest, while a student at a preparatory school operated by a different Catholic abbey in Minnesota (St. John's).

Bede Parry, before being ordained at Conception Abbey, had taken courses from 1979-1982 at the School of Theology also run by St. John's in Minnesota, and had admitted to his then Abbot in Missouri that he had engaged in sexual misconduct with a teen-aged student there. The Abbot required him to undergo "psychological treatment", but kept him on as a priest. Notwithstanding his treatment, Fr. Parry continued to molest young men in contact with him at the Abbey, and who had been enlisted to sing in its choir. It was during a summer camp for that choir in 1987 that Fr. Parry made the sexual advances which resulted in the current lawsuit on file in Missouri, and which the Circuit Court just ruled could proceed, over objections by the Abbey that the offenses alleged were outside the statute of limitations.

HOLYOKE (MA)
The Republican

HOLYOKE, Mass. (AP) — Parishioners holding vigil at a Holyoke church closed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield have filed suit against the diocese alleging mismanagement of parishioner-donated funds, civil rights violations and inflating estimated repair costs.

The suit filed this week by the Friends of Mater Dolorosa is in response to a suit filed by the diocese seeking to the removal of the parishioners.

The parishioners have been occupying the church since June when the diocese merged it with a nearby parish.

HOLYOKE (MA)
The Republican

By Robert Rizzuto, The Republican

HOLYOKE - In response to the civil suit recently filed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Hampden Superior Court to force the occupying parishioners of the closed Mater Dolorosa Church to leave, the Roman Catholic Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell has become the defendant in a counterclaim filed by the group this week.

Attorney Victor Anop, a spokesman for the Friends of Mater Dolorosa who have been holding vigil inside the closed church for the past three months, said the church forced the group's hand to do so.

"Why would Bishop McDonnell authorize a suit to restrain paid parishioners from praying in a Catholic Church built and paid for by their ancestors and families?" Anop said. "We never wanted it to come to this but we want to continue our peaceful prayer vigil without threats, intimidation, and coercion against our people."

MASSACHUSETTS
National Catholic Reporter

by Tom Gallagher on Oct. 28, 2011 NCR Today

In a new twist to the fractured relationship between parishioners of the closed Mater Dolorosa Parish in Springfield, Mass., and the Springfield diocese, which is trying to actually close the parish, the parishioners have filed a lawsuit alleging mismanagement of parishioner-donated funds.

To my recollection, this particular claim could be a first for lawsuits against a diocese. It could have wide-ranging implications, as the governance of parishes under state law is usually controlled by priests and bishops (i.e., the pastor and diocesan vicar general).

Priest-pastors, of course, promise obedience to the bishop on ordination day. It has always been puzzling how a pastor, as a fiduciary under civil law, can act independently of his bishop to whom he has promised obedience.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee on Oct. 28, 2011 NCR Today

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- In what may be a sign the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese is trying to address concerns it will have a difficult time managing its ministerial duties as Bishop Robert Finn and the diocese fight separate criminal charges, the diocese announced today the appointment of a new chief of staff.

Jude Huntz, currently the director of the diocesan human rights office, will assume the newly-created role Nov. 1.

He takes on the position as Finn and the diocese are planning separate defenses against criminal charges, announced Oct. 14 by a county prosecutor, that allege that their handling of a diocesan priest suspected of child pornography amounted to failure to report suspected sex abuse. The charges are the first of their kind in the twenty-five year clergy sex abuse scandal.

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

BY JOANNE MCCARTHY

FORMER Nelson Bay Catholic priest David O’Hearn has lost his bid to appeal to the High Court over how trials of child sex assault charges against him involving six alleged victims will proceed.

The priest’s bid to have all six trials heard separately was unsuccessful after High Court Justices John Heydon and Virginia Bell refused yesterday to grant him leave to appeal a NSW Court of Criminal Appeal decision handed down in April.

The Court of Criminal Appeal backed a NSW District Court judge’s decision that while trials involving three alleged victims would be heard separately, sexual assault and indecent assault charges involving another three alleged victims would be heard together in a joint trial.

@BIDJ@n.net

La pédophilie fait rage dans l’Eglise catholique. Peut-on porter plainte contre le Pape ? Une question singulière que nous avons voulu partager avec Ouattara Salia, membre fondateur de l’Ong ‘’Promotion du développement et des valeurs humaines’’.

Ouattara Salia, quelle est votre conception de l’éducation sexuelle ?
L’éducation sexuelle est un enseignement appuyé de ‘’travaux pratiques’’. Je dis aux jeunes et même aux adultes, qu’il ne s’agit pas seulement de s’accoupler. C’est peut-être nécessaire, mais c’est une zone très sensible avec mode d’emploi. Une création divine que malheureusement, les parents ont du mal à enseigner.

LONDRES
Le Point (France)

Le Vatican a demandé qu'une enquête soit menée sur des abus sexuels présumés sur des enfants dans une abbaye à Londres, ont annoncé mardi les autorités du diocèse.

Ces abus sexuels se seraient produits à l'école Sainte-Bénédicte, un établissement catholique privé qui fait partie de l'abbaye d'Ealing, dans l'ouest de la capitale. Les faits remonteraient aux années 1960 et se seraient poursuivis jusqu'à il y a deux ans.

EUROPE
Le Monde (France)

Les pays de l'Union européenne vont harmoniser et rendre plus sévères, d'ici deux ans, leurs législations contre la pédophilie et la pédopornographie sur Internet, en vertu d'une directive adoptée jeudi 27 octobre par le Parlement européen.

Le texte prévoit notamment d'harmoniser et d'alourdir les peines minimum encourues par les auteurs d'abus sexuels ou par ceux qui diffusent sur le Web des images pornographiques mettant en scène des enfants.

FRANCE
Le Post

Les dérives religieuses sont des sujets si tabou et si sérieux qu'il faut les évoquer de façon objective et précise. Dans ce travail consciencieux de journaliste digne de ce nom, l'excellente présentatrice Patricia Loison a abordée le thème du "silence de l'Eglise face à la pédophilie" dans son émission "Pièces à conviction" sur France 3 le 19 octobre dernier.

BELGIE
Think!

Immanent, de actiegroep die de klacht van Jean Marie De Meester tegen Mgr. Léonard ondersteunt, betreurt de beslissing van de Kamer van Inbeschuldigingstelling om de aartsbisschop niet te vervolgen voor zijn homofobe uitspraken. De Meester brengt zijn klacht voor het Hof van Cassatie.

NEDERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad

UTRECHT – Een predikant van de Protestantse Kerk in Nederland (PKN) die schuldig bevonden is aan seksueel misbruik zal voortaan publiekelijk schuld moeten erkennen. Predikanten die minderjarigen misbruikt hebben of twee keer veroordeeld zijn voor seksueel misbruik moeten uit het ambt ontzet worden.

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Oct. 28, 2011 All Things Catholic

Rome saw a striking coincidence this week, which could be either simple luck or a sign of things to come. There were two big-ticket Vatican news flashes, Monday's note on reform of the international economy and Thursday's summit of religious leaders in Assisi. In both cases, the same Vatican official was a prime mover: Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Turkson, still young in church terms at 63, was the chief organizer of the Assisi gathering, just as he was the top signatory on the document blasting "neo-liberal" ideologies and calling for a "true world political authority" to regulate the economy. During Vatican press conferences to present both, Turkson was the star attraction each time.

Can anyone say, papabile?

UNITED STATES
Irish Central

by Tom Deignan

It is a time of great tension in the Catholic Church. People are asking questions that people never used to ask.

It seems as if the men in charge cannot keep up with the pace of change, and a widely-read national magazine puts the crisis on the front cover.

The story inside explores “The Catholic Exodus,” and explores the difficulties American parishes are having staffing schools and churches with priests and nuns.

You can be forgiven if you think this is a story from 2011. But it is, in fact, from 40 years earlier.

IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

Oct. 28, 2011
By Michael Kelly

DUBLIN, IRELAND -- Ireland’s Association of Catholic Priests marked its first year in existence with a Dublin meeting at which more than 300 priests heard a call for an end to mandatory celibacy and for the ordination of women.

The growth of the association has been rapid, with 540 Irish priests -- or one in eight -- now opting for membership. However, the absence of younger priests, sometimes called the “John Paul II generation,” was evident at the gathering.

Fr. Kevin Hegarty, a member of the association’s leadership team, told the Oct. 4-5 meeting that what was needed was a church that would open its doors to “married priests and women priests.” It would benefit from secular insights, such as those on human intimacy and democracy, he said. It would work at developing a “healthy and holistic theology of sexuality.”

UNITED STATES
National Secular Society (United Kingdom)

In a recent survey, 88% of American Catholics said that “how a person lives is more important than whether he or she is Catholic," according to Catholics in America: Persistence and change in the Catholic landscape. ...

The loss of the Catholic Church’s credibility shows in the responses to questions about child abuse:
•7% of Catholics say they personally know someone who was a victim of abuse.
•12% say they know a priest accused of abuse.
•83% say the issue has hurt church leaders' political credibility at least somewhat.
•77% say it has hurt priests' ability to meet parishioners' spiritual or pastoral needs.
•Only 29% say the bishops have done a good or excellent job in handling the issue.

UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

The Vatican has ordered an inquiry into claims of decades of sexual abuse at a London abbey and school.

Monks and teachers at Ealing Abbey and neighbouring St Benedict‘s independent school in west London have been accused of abuse from the 1960s until 2009. Last year the Times revealed four decades of abuse by Father David Pearce, a priest at Ealing Abbey and former headmaster of St Benedict‘s junior school.

After the revelations about Fr Pearce, allegations of abuse were made against other former priests and teachers at St Benedict‘s — and other schools — over the decades as further victims came forward, prompting police to begin a fresh inquiry.

UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

It’s incredible how many ways the Vatican can find to insult survivors.

First, we apologize to them for yet another hurt inflicted on them yesterday. We know they know it’s nothing new but they should not have to deal with the deluge of what’s supposed to roll off their backs. And it shouldn’t go without comment.

Yesterday, Pope Benedict went to St. Francis the Reformer’s Assisi to mark the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s initiation of a gathering of religious leaders from across the religious spectrum for the purpose of praying together for justice and peace.

Pope Benedict set up the day so that he would not actually be praying with the other leaders nor would any of them pray with each other. After the speeches when it came time for prayer, — the billed purpose of the event — all the attendees went to separate rooms.

That’s because Pope Benedict boycotted the John Paul II inaugural event in 1986 on the grounds that praying together with leaders of the world’s religions would send a message that all religions were equal.

SCRANTON (PA)
Standard Speaker

Vatican officials say a priest accused of sexual misconduct must be permanently removed from the ministry, the Diocese of Scranton announced Wednesday.

Monsignor J. Peter Crynes, former pastor of St. Therese's Catholic Church in Shavertown, will be relegated to a life of prayer and penance, according to a decision by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Congregation instructed the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, bishop of the Scranton Diocese, to issue a decree imposing the permanent penalty.

DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche

Interview: Susanne Höll

Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs sollen einen Rechtsanspruch auf Beratung haben, fordert die scheidende Bundesbeauftragte Christine Bergmann. Das Fazit ihrer Amtszeit: Viele Menschen fühlen sich endlich ermutigt, ihr Schweigen zu brechen - doch es gibt weiterhin große Probleme.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

October 27, 2011|By David O’Reilly, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Though the clergy sex-abuse scandal has done "great damage" to the Roman Catholic Church and limited its ability to "speak confidently on other issues," Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said anxiety about parish school closings - not abuse - was "the biggest issue people have contacted me about" since he arrived six weeks ago.

But, Chaput told the Inquirer Editorial Board on Thursday, he won't begin charting any plan of action until he receives a report on the archdiocesan school system that is due in December.

He is "open," he said, to Gov. Corbett's proposed state-funded vouchers to help low-income families pay private school tuition.

SNAPwisconsin.com
October 27, 2011

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director and John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director

CONTACT: 414.336.8575

Yesterday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a thoughtful and timely opinion piece written by the vice-chancellor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Father James Connell. The column, entitled “A way for bishops to begin rebuilding trust”, brings attention to the so-called yearly “audit” process undertaken each year by every Catholic diocese in the United States to ensure compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Young People, established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002 in response to the ongoing revelations of childhood sex crimes by clergy.

Connell should know what he is talking about. He is not only the current vice chancellor of the archdiocese, but also a canon lawyer with two advanced degrees who has directly examined cases of sex abuse in the archdiocese. Additionally, Connell has a background in business management, having been a partner in an accounting firm before joining the priesthood, and he is a member of the archdiocesan review board for sexual abuse reports.

In his piece, Connell carefully highlighted areas in the sex abuse audit process that were flawed and could easily and quickly be improved. One suggestion Connell made was providing victim/survivors a greater role in the audit process, listening to the concerns of community members, and conducting an audit of the Essential Norms (or church “laws”) as well as of the Charter itself. Connell acknowledged that while the Charter is a “profound, important, and morally binding document,” it does not “stand as church law” as the Essential Norms do, so much of what people might think is being covered or enforced by the yearly audit is not.

KANSAS CITY (KS)
The Media Report

Dave Pierre

Kudos to Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, for an excellent interview in the National Catholic Register regarding the recent high-profile case of Bishop Robert Finn. (I highly recommend it.) Archbishop Naumann responded to some questions about the notorious group SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) with some brave remarks:

"My take is that they have a hatred toward the Church. Their mission is no longer to assist victims, but is to strike at the Church and wound the Church."

Archbishop Naumann also added:

"In my experience, they have never acknowledged a false accusation. As far as they are concerned, if you are accused, you are guilty. They don't take anyone off the list. They don't serve themselves well by insisting that every accusation is true ...

NEW JERSEY
Courier Post

[with photo]

N.J. priest trainee accused of luring females; Cops say he offered $10, alcohol

Written by
Dustin Racioppi
NJ Press Media

MIDDLETOWN — Using the bait of alcohol and cash for sex, a Perth Amboy man training here for priesthood was arrested Tuesday after he was caught driving in town and enticing young women to get into his vehicle, police said.

The man, Marcin Burek, a native of Poland, is accused by police of trying to lure females between ages 13 to 19 into his car Tuesday. Criminal complaints against Burek, 27, say that in each of four instances he promised the females alcohol and offered to pay them $10 for sex.

Township police Detective Lt. Steve Dollinger said the victims reported to police that Burek was driving down streets where they were walking and enticing them to “go for a ride to buy alcohol.”

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

October 28, 2011 by Susan Matthews

Click to read what was said during Archbishop Chaput’s meeting with The Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial Board. -“Chaput: Phila. school closings concern parishioners most” by David O’Reilly,The Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 27, 2010

Editor’s notes: Kathy Kane and I both agree there will be far more outcry over school closings. It’s human nature to care more about what directly impacts you. However, the clergy sex abuse cover up did impact every single parent whose child was/is in an archdiocesan school. Our children were placed at risk when priests with ‘issues” were knowingly moved from parish to parish.

It’s interesting that Archbishop Chaput is debating whether or not to disclose the allegations lodged against removed priests.

Archbishop Chaput also said that statutes restricting the time in which lawsuits can be filed “are a good idea or we wouldn’t have them.”

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

New Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput says he isn’t likely to change his mind about creating a window to allow some past victims of sexual abuse by priests to file lawsuits after the statute of limitations in their cases has expired.

Chaput, in a discussion Thursday with the Inquirer Editorial Board, said statutes of limitations exist for sound legal reasons, and that exceptions should not be made just to allow litigation against the Catholic Church.

His position is contrary to the Editorial Board’s, which has supported legislation sponsored by Rep. Louise Williams Bishop (D., Phila.) that would eliminate Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations on child sex-abuse cases.

SOUTH DAKOTA
Pure Pierre Politics

Bob Mercer

Over at the always interesting DakotaWomen.com blog there is a must-read post about South Dakota’s laws that limit recovery of damages by victims of childhood sexual abuse. The section of law added by the Legislature in 2010 says no one who has reached the age of 40 may recover damages from any one or any entity other than the person who perpetrated the actual act of sexual abuse. The DakotaWomen post addresses what critics see as the shortcomings of that additional limit. What is most interesting is the actual legislative history of the law. No one testified against the proposal, brought by then-Rep. Thomas Deadrick, R-Platte, on behalf of lawyer Steve Smith of Chamberlain and the late Jeremiah Murphy, a lawyer from Sioux Falls who had been deeply involved defending against sexual-abuse allegations involving the Catholic Church in South Dakota and where appropriate helping the victims. That’s right: No one came forward at the House hearing; no one came forward at the Senate hearing.

Despite the silence from opponents, legislators did gradually amend the legislation, HB 1104. As introduced, it would have set the special limit for any victim of at least 25 years old. The House committee changed the age threshold to 35. That motion came from then-Rep. Rich Engels, D-Hartford, who is a lawyer, and Rep. Kevin Killer, D-Pine Ridge. Engels went on to support the bill in the committee and on the House floor, while Killer opposed it. The House committee endorsed the bill as amended on a 10-3 vote. The full House of Representatives was less decisive, passing the measure on a vote of 42-23. The House opponents tended to be many of the House Democrats and, among Republicans, mostly women.

In the Senate Judiciary Committee, the bill was endorsed 7-0 without change and placed on the consent calendar, meaning it would automatically pass as a routine matter and wouldn’t even be debated by the full Senate unless a senator asked to do so. The three lawyers on the Senate committee, all Democrats — Maggie Gillespie of Hurley, Nancy Turbak Berry of Watertown and Scott Heidepriem of Sioux Falls — and all long shown to be smart people generally, supported the bill and supported the consent calendar treatment.

SOUTH DAKOTA
Dakota Women

Obviously, there are plenty of issues that divide us politically. Plenty of things we can disagree on. But there are a few issues that I assumed all sane people were on the same page about. Like people who rape children. That seems pretty clear to me. We all hate those people, right? We want to see them locked up. We want to see them pay. And anyone who tried to protect those disgusting assholes — we want them to pay, too, right? Well, apparently not.

I have no shortage of criticism for the South Dakota state legislature, but I guess I never would’ve expected that they would actually go so far as to protect child rapists. But that’s just what they did, and so far, the courts have followed suit.

In 2010, attorney Steve Smith of Chamberlain who represents St. Joseph’s Indian School, presented HB 1104 to the state legislature. The bill in its final version reads:

Any civil action based on intentional conduct brought by any person for recovery of damages for injury suffered as a result of childhood sexual abuse shall be commenced within three years of the act alleged to have caused the injury or condition, or three years of the time the victim discovered or reasonably should have discovered that the injury or condition was caused by the act, whichever period expires later. However, no person who has reached the age of forty years may recover damages from any person or entity other than the person who perpetrated the actual act of sexual abuse.

CANADA
The Chatham Daily News

A priest now residing in Chatham is facing additional sex-related charges.

Essex County OPP have laid two more charges against Father Linus Bastien, dating back to 1974-75, when he was at St. Paul's Catholic Church in LaSalle.

The complainant was a student at the school at the time. Another alleged victim has come forward to police, said the OPP.

CANADA
The Windsor Star

By Trevor Wilhelm, The Windsor Star
October 28, 2011

A former Catholic priest already accused of abusing altar boys in Maidstone is now facing two more sex charges from his time at a LaSalle church.

Provincial police first arrested Rev. Linus Bastien, 85, on Oct. 12, charging him with two counts of indecent assault and two counts of gross indecency. He allegedly abused two altar boys in 1978 at St. Mary's Parish in Maidstone.

The OPP said Thursday they arrested Bastien again on Oct. 25 and charged him with two more counts of indecent assault and gross indecency. Those charges stem from 1974 and 1975 when he was assigned to St. Paul's Catholic Church in LaSalle.

UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Ewan Palmer | October 28, 2011

A sex abuse investigator for the Roman Catholic Church in England has been convicted of Internet paedophile offences, it emerged Thursday night.

Chris Jarvis, the former child safeguarding officer for the Diocese of Plymouth, will be sentenced Friday for possessing more than 4,000 images of children being abused, including some in the most serious category, The Times have reported.

Jarvis will appear at Plymouth Crown Court having pleaded guilty to 11 charges of making and possessing indecent images of children.

Ten of the photos were classified as the most extreme category of abuse, which is defined in law as involving sadistic violence. There is no evidence that he was directly involved in the abuse of the children in the photographs.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

“Take abuse cases out of clerical hands” is how the National Catholic Reporter neatly summed up findings from a diocesan report on its handling of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan’s case.

The report, prepared by former U.S. Attorney Todd Graves, is a superb study of muddled thinking. Occasionally, a minor player steps forward to ask whether anybody had called police or identified the girls whose pictures were found on Ratigan’s computer. But for dreary stretches, the principal players simply thrash about, assuming that someone else was doing the right thing.

And that’s the charitable view, judging by many reactions to the recent indictment of Bishop Robert W. Finn and the diocese for allegedly failing to report child abuse for five months.

But while priests probably shouldn’t be investigating priests — even the diocese now recognizes that — clerics of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph once investigated a child abuse allegation with the zeal and vigor that was missing from its listless management of Ratigan.

UNITED KINGDOM
Business & Law

By Ewan Palmer | October 28, 2011

A sex abuse investigator for the Roman Catholic Church in England has been convicted of Internet paedophile offences, it emerged Thursday night.

Chris Jarvis, the former child safeguarding officer for the Diocese of Plymouth, will be sentenced Friday for possessing more than 4,000 images of children being abused, including some in the most serious category, The Times have reported.

Jarvis will appear at Plymouth Crown Court having pleaded guilty to 11 charges of making and possessing indecent images of children.

Ten of the photos were classified as the most extreme category of abuse, which is defined in law as involving sadistic violence. There is no evidence that he was directly involved in the abuse of the children in the photographs.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Telegraph

The Catholic Church is to launch a review of child protection across the South West of England after a religious official investigating child sex abuse allegations was convicted of paedophilia.

By Sarah Rainey
10:10AM BST 28 Oct 2011

Christopher Jarvis, a former social worker, is due to be sentenced later today for the possession of 4,000 indecent images of children.

Jarvis, 49, worked as the child safeguarding officer for the Diocese of Plymouth, where he had been responsible for child protection matters at 120 churches and community groups for nine years.

Before his arrest, he was leading an investigation into allegations of historic sexual abuse at Buckfast Abbey in Devon.

DEUTSCHLAND
Deutscher Bundestag

Rechtsausschuss (Anhörung) - 26.10.2011

Berlin: (hib/BOB) Fast alle der eingeladenen Sachverständigen haben am Mittwochnachmittag im Rechtsausschuss das Ziel gutgeheißen, Opfern von sexueller Gewalt Mehrfachvernehmungen zu ersparen. Der ehemalige Präsident des Oberlandesgerichts Bamberg, Professor Reinhard Böttcher, machte in diesem Zusammenhang darauf aufmerksam, eines der Hauptanliegen bei den Beratungen am „Runden Tisch“ sei es gewesen, die Opfer sexuellen Missbrauches von Mehrfachvernehmungen möglichst zu verschonen. Die vorgeschlagene Regelung unternehme es in behutsamer Weise, in Verfahren, wie sie gegen die sexuelle Selbstbestimmung gerichtet seien, den Anwendungsbereich der Videovernehmung zu erweitern. Dabei würden die schutzwürdigen Interessen der Zeugen, die als Kinder und Jugendliche Opfer geworden seien, einbezogen.

STEUBENVILLE (OH)
The Steubenville Register

(page 4)

STEUBENVILLE — John Sillup, a citizen of the United States who was incardinated in the Diocese of Frejus-Toulon, France, does not enjoy the faculties of the Diocese of Steubenville, announced Msgr. Kurt H. Kemo, diocesan administrator.

In 2009, the French Diocese advised the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops of its concerns regarding Father Sillup, who had been studying in Washington, D.C. Complaints against him had caused the Diocese of Frejus-Toulon to direct Sillup “to suspend his studies and return to (France) to respond to an investigation,” a communication from the USCCB reads.

However, despite repeated exchanges, the French Diocese related, he did not comply, but instead has remained in the United States. Further, the Diocese of Frejus-Toulon stated, it received complaints regarding Sillup “relating to subsequent alleged misconduct” that was said to have occurred at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Thus, the bishop of Frejus-Toulon directed
Sillup to cease the exercise of all priestly ministry.

The Diocese of Steubenville, which had given Sillup prior permission to exercise limited ministry here, has revoked those privileges, Msgr. Kemo said. Anyone needing further information regarding
Sillup should contact the Diocese of Frejus-Toulon.

MEXICO
Fox 59

Rachel Uranga
Reuters

5:11 p.m. EDT, October 27, 2011

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The Legionaries of Christ will pay more than $20,000 apiece to at least four victims sexually abused by the order's Mexican founder, Father Marcial Maciel, three years after his death, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Maciel was an influential figure in the Roman Catholic Church who had the ear of the late Pope John Paul II.

But he died in 2008 at the age of 87, disgraced by allegations he sexually abused men and young boys, including a man who said he was Maciel's son.

CANADA
CBC News

The OPP laid two more sex charges against a Catholic priest dating back to 1974-75, while the accused was assigned to St. Paul’s Catholic Church in LaSalle.

The victim was a student at a school when the offences occurred.

Linus Bastien, 85, of Chatham now also faces one more count of indecent assault and another count of gross indecency.

Bastien was previously charged with two counts of indecent assault and two counts of gross indecency dating back to 1978 when he was assigned to St. Mary’s Parish in Maidstone, Ont.

CANADA
APTN

APTN National News
OTTAWA–The Indian residential schools school system was not an act of genocide, but the product of an “education policy gone wrong,” said Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan Thursday during an announcement that his government would be installing a stained glass window on Parliament Hill in honour of the system’s survivors.

Duncan, however, said the system may have been “lethal” to Aboriginal culture if it had continued to exist.

“I don’t view it that way (as an act of cultural genocide), but it was certainly very negative to the retention of culture and if it had extended for another generation or two it might have been lethal, yes,” said Duncan.

The federal government, with the help of the RCMP, forcibly seized Aboriginal children away from their parents and put them into church-run residential schools where they were forbidden to speak their native languages and often faced physical and sexual abuse.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Review

A woman filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Louis Oct. 24 claiming to have been abused by Joseph Ross, a laicized priest of the archdiocese.

According to a statement from the archdiocese, the plaintiff in the civil case is the same person who brought criminal charges against Ross for abuse reportedly occurring in 1998-2000 when Ross was the pastor at St. Cronan Parish in south St. Louis. These charges were subsequently dropped by the circuit attorney for the City of St. Louis in August 2010.

The archdiocese will review the lawsuit when it is received and investigate the complaint, the statement noted.

Ross resigned his pastorship in 2002 due to substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors that occurred in the 1980s. Then-Archbishop Justin Rigali initiated the laicization proceedings at the request of Ross after removing him from ministry.

MASSACHUSETTS
Nashoba Publishing

By Evan Lips
MediaNews

BILLERICA -- Less than three weeks after the abrupt resignation of the Rev. Eugene Tully, the St. Theresa of Lisieux Parish will now be led by the Rev. Shawn Allen, who spent the past six and a half years as pastor at St. John's Parish in Townsend.

According to a St. Theresa news bulletin dated Oct. 23, Allen has asked Tully to celebrate a future Sunday 10 a.m. Mass to bless the parish's new front doors.

On Oct. 8, the Archdiocese of Boston ordered Tully to be reassigned to another church. That move came amid charges that Tully knowingly allowed a volunteer accused of sexually abusing a minor in the 1970s to travel with a church youth group last year. That volunteer, Renald "Ron" Hallee, 66, of Billerica, a former priest, is facing a lawsuit in another state filed by a woman who claims she was molested by him about 30 years ago when she was a minor.

NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

Perth Amboy man training to be priest is arrested after allegedly offering teenage girls alcohol, money for sex

MIDDLETOWN — A 27-year-old man training to be a priest was arrested after allegedly offering teenage girls alcohol and money for sex, according to a report on APP.com.

Marcin Burek, a native of Poland living in Perth Amboy, tried to lure girls between the ages of 13 and 19 into his car Tuesday while driving around Middletown. He offered the girls alcohol and said he would pay them $10 to have sex with him, the report said.

UNITED KINGDOM
Vatican Insider

Rome

Recent reports published by “The Times” have brought to light dozens of cases of abuse committed against children by lay teachers and monks of Ealing Abbey, and in nearby Saint Benedict’s School, there have been accusations of abuse over a long period of time, going back to the ‘60s and 2009.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome has arranged a historic visit, as proof on the extent of the scandal continues to grow. It is the first inquiry of its kind that involves abuse of minors in Great Britain.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Kevin O'Brien, Theater of the Word 0pc on October 26, 2011

"Let's step outside and settle this thing like men," she said, and she was a lady. "You're spewing anti-Catholic rhetoric!" he insisted. "How can you criticize a bishop when you're an actor and everyone knows actors are perverts and nitwits," she screamed. (That last gal had a point).

These are all reactions to my post last week about Rod Dreher's article on Bishop Finn's Indictment.

And above all, people are charging me with believing the biased media coverage of the scandal.

This, at least, is not true. In fact, everything I say in this post will be taken not from a media account of the scandal, but from the independent report on it as commissioned by the diocese, the Graves Report, which you can read on your own here.

So let's shove the media aside and see for ourselves what's contained in this internal diocesan report conducted by an independent firm.

SCRANTON (PA)
WNEP

Officials with the Catholic Church in Rome have removed an area priest accused of sexual abuse.

The Diocese of Scranton released a statement Wednesday saying Monsignor Peter Crynes can no longer celebrate mass publicly or present himself as a priest.

Crynes resigned in 2006 admitting improper behavior with high school girls.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Catholic Insider

We will return to discussion of the upcoming “ad limina” visit next time. But since money is always a big topic for the folks at 66 Brooks, BCI felt it might be helpful for them if we gave some advice and guidance in how to be more “transparent” and “accountable,” as the archdiocese says they want to be.

Every year, the Chancellor publishes a proposed operating budget for the fiscal year. And every year, as the Office of the Chancellor adds more staff (such as his $200+K/year fully-loaded Exec. Director of Finance and Operations), naturally, the depth of what is released publicly in the operating budget grows thinner and thinner, and the budgetary magic tricks become tougher and tougher to figure out.

Here are the budgets for 2010 (a 34 page document), 2011 (a 4 page document), and 2012 (a one-page document). If you look carefully at the 2010 and 2011 budgets below, you will notice a few of the tricks and illusions.

VATICAANSTAD/LONDEN
RKnieuws

VATICAANSTAD / LONDEN (RKnieuws.net) - De Congregatie voor de geloofsleer heeft een apostolisch bezoek bevolen in de Sint-Benedictus school, een privé school die deel uitmaakt van de benedictijnenabdij van Ealing (westen van Londen). Monniken en onderwijzend personeel zouden er zich sinds de jaren 1960 tot 2009 schuldig gemaakt hebben aan seksueel misbruik.

Het bisdom Westminster (Londen) liet inmiddels weten dat het apostolisch bezoek geleid wordt door mgr. John Arnold, hulpbisschop van Londen en pater Richard Yeo, overste van de orde van de benedictijnen in het Verenigd Koninkrijk.

NEW YORK
News 12 via YouTube

[with video]

MONSEY - A 58-year-old Rockland County rabbi accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy may not even be a real rabbi, members of the Monsey community say.

Police say Moishe Turner, of Monsey, sexually molested a 14-year-old boy on at least seven occasions in various locations throughout Ramapo and Spring Valley. He was arrested by Ramapo police detectives last week.

Turner refers to himself as a rabbi, but the community is divided over whether he can legitimately make that claim. Yossi Gestetner, a journalist who owns a public relations firm that services the Hassidic community, says the charges are a reminder for parents to always keep tabs on their children.

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Sarah Odegaard

Today a young survivor takes a courageous stand for herself and on behalf of other kids as she again confronts her abuser and holds him accountable in court. Jane Doe 134’s case, which was originally filed in Federal Court, was re-filed today in Minnesota State Court in Becker County in order to add a new defendant.

Jane Doe 134 was 11 years old in 2007 when Gerald Derstine groomed and began to sexually abuse her when she was a camper at a retreat center in Northern Minnesota. Derstine continued to abuse her every summer in his office on the retreat property until 2009. The camp, Strawberry Lake Christian Retreat Inc., in Ogema, Minnesota (near Detroit Lakes) was added as a defendant to Jane Doe 134’s lawsuit today. The camp is affiliated with Gospel Crusade, Inc., an organization based in Bradenton, Florida that Derstine founded and continues to run.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCUR

[with audio]

Faithful, Frustrated, And Furious; Kansas City Catholics React To Indictments Of Bishop And Diocese

Laura Ziegler (2011-10-27)

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI (kcur) - The Catholic church is still reeling from news that Bishop Joseph Finn and the Diocese of Kansas City-St Joseph have been indicted on criminal charges related to the sex abuse scandal.

Bishop Finn is alleged to have known that Father Shawn Ratigan had taken sexually explicit photographs of children for several months before reporting to police. The indictments also allege Ratigan was allowed to work with children after he was removed from St. Patrick's Catholic School.

The local Catholic community is just beginning to understand the impact of the case.

DEUTSCHLAND
PUR Magazin

WELTBILD ist Deutschlands größter Buchhändler. Und WELTBILD gehört zu 100 Prozent der katholischen Kirche. Doch der Milliardenkonzern hat die Bischöfe nicht nur zu Mitverkäufern, sondern auch zu Mitproduzenten von Pornos gemacht. Was zählt mehr: Geld oder Moral? Die Bischöfe stecken in der WELTBILD-Falle.

DEUTSCHLAND
Welt

"Weltbild" ist der größte deutsche Buchhändler. Was aufgrund des Verkaufsangebots nicht zu erkennen ist und daher viele nicht wissen: Dieser Medienkonzern gehört zu 100 Prozent der katholischen Kirche.

Doch seit Oktober ist Feuer unter dem Dach, nachdem das Fachmagazin "buchreport" berichtete, die katholische Verlagsgruppe beteilige sich am Geschäft mit Erotik. Man wolle, hieß es daraufhin eilig von Seiten der Bischöfe, den "Vertreib möglicherweise pornografischer Inhalte" durch den katholischen "Weltbild"-Verlag unterbinden. Vermutlich habe ein Filtersystem versagt.

UNITED KINGDOM
SNAP Wisconsin

St. Benedict’s school in London, which was founded in 1902, states that their institution is “more than a school”. Children who enroll at St. Benedict’s are informed that “they will thrive and live in our nurturing environment”, and they can be assured of a “warm Benedictine welcome”.

St. Benedict’s has welcomed more than students to their institution recently. This week the BBC reported that the Vatican, led by an investigative team from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, has launched an inquiry into child sex abuse at the school and the adjoining Ealing abbey.

The inquiry follows the conviction in 2009 of Father David Pearce, who once led the school, and who is now serving an eight year sentence after he was found to have abused five students in his care. The Telegraph reports that Pearce was known as the “devil in a dog collar” and that he admitted to sexually assaulting students between 1972 and 2007.

SCRANTON (PA)
Citizens Voice

Vatican officials say a priest accused of sexual misconduct must be permanently removed from the ministry, the Diocese of Scranton announced Wednesday.

Monsignor J. Peter Crynes, former pastor of St. Therese's Catholic Church in Shavertown, will be relegated to a life of prayer and penance, according to a decision by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Congregation instructed the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of the Scranton Diocese, to issue a decree imposing the permanent penalty.

OKLAHOMA
The Oklahoman

ENID— A former pastor has pleaded guilty to eight felony charges, including seven related to the sexual abuse of children. Tommy Joe Pitts, 60, pleaded guilty Oct. 18 in Major County to four counts of lewd molestation, two counts of forcible oral sodomy and a single count of rape by instrumentation. He also pleaded guilty to a single count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, an automobile. He will serve a 20-year prison sentence and 15 years probation. Pitts, former pastor of Midway Assembly of God near Fairview, was accused of molesting three girls ages 8 to 12.

HELENA (MT)
NECN

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Forty-four new plaintiffs have been added to a lawsuit alleging the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena is responsible for the sexual abuse they say they suffered as children.

That brings the total to 117 adults who allege they were abused in western Montana from the 1950s to the 1970s.

The amended lawsuit filed Wednesday names three diocesan priests as alleged abusers. The diocese had responded to the original lawsuit filed in September by saying the priests were Jesuits not directly affiliated with the diocese.

Diocese spokeswoman Renee St. Martin Wizeman says the diocese has not seen the lawsuit, but that the three priests are deceased.

HELENA (MT)
KFBB

[with video]

By KFBB News Team

The sex abuse case against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena has dozens of new plaintiffs Wednesday.

44 new people have now joined the lawsuit first filed in September. They claim the Diocese of Helena is responsible for sexual abuse they suffered during the 50's, 60's and 70's.

The total number of plaintiffs is now 117.

FARGO (ND)
WDAY

[with video]

By: Bill Schammert, WDAY

Sexual abuse of a child by clergymen is a horrific crime, a crime that takes place all over the world, including here in Fargo. And it can take survivors years to come forward, but one national group is doing everything they can to change that.

SNAP or, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, started in 1988 with a few members. But in the last two decades it's grown to a network of over 10,000. With 65 groups, they're trying to make Fargo the 66th, and for SNAP, the need is there.

Megan Peterson – Survivor and SNAP Volunteer: “It was life damaging. The abuse I endured shook me to the core.”

SCRANTON (PA)
The Times-Tribune

by Steve McConnell (staff writer)

A ruling from the Vatican forbids a Diocese of Scranton priest from celebrating Mass in public or even wearing clerical garb in the wake of accusations of sexual abuse.

According to a diocesan statement released Wednesday, Monsignor J. Peter Crynes was removed from active ministry in 2006 after unspecified sexual abuse accusations involving him arose.

Monsignor Crynes, a former pastor at St. Therese's Church in Shavertown, Luzerne County,, will remain a priest but will not be assigned to any parishes, diocesan spokesman Bill Genello said Wednesday night.

"He will not be performing any ministries as a priest," Mr. Genello said. "He hasn't been defrocked. He is still technically a priest."

UNITED STATES
Forbes

Kathryn Casey, Contributor

Full disclosure: I’m Catholic. A cradle Catholic, actually. Yet for more than two decades I’ve felt increasingly at odds with my own church. The source of this chasm is the never-ending sex abuse scandal.

In the beginning, I was dumbfounded by the revelations as the cases unfolded. Not so much that priests had offended. I’m a crime writer. I understand that people aren’t always what they seem, and that folks sometimes hide behind religion when they’re anything but godly. Yet I didn’t understand the cover up. How could those who claim to represent God blatantly enable sexual predators, many of whom have abused children?

I began wondering if the Catholic hierarchy understood the separation between church and state. It occurred to me that they didn’t, at least not not when it involved offending priests.

Does the church have the prerogative to forgive and hope for redemption? You bet. But that doesn’t mean those in charge don’t have a civil duty to report serious allegations. It is, after all, the state’s responsibility to prosecute and, when there’s a guilty verdict, assess punishment.

MONTANA
NBC Montana

HELENA, Mont. -- Forty-four new plaintiffs have been added to a lawsuit alleging the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena is responsible for the sexual abuse they say they suffered as children.

That brings the total to 117 adults who allege they were abused in western Montana from the 1950s to the 1970s.

The amended lawsuit filed Wednesday names three diocesan priests as alleged abusers. The diocese had responded to the original lawsuit filed in September by saying the priests were Jesuits not directly affiliated with the diocese.

Diocese spokeswoman Renee St. Martin Wizeman says the diocese has not seen the lawsuit, but that the three priests are deceased.

IRELAND
Commonweal

The Editors

In July, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny delivered a stinging indictment of the Vatican’s handling of the sexual-abuse scandal in his country. Referring to a new report on the scandal in the Diocese of Cloyne, Kenny blasted what he called “the dysfunction, the disconnection, [and] the elitism that dominate the culture of the Vatican today.”

The Cloyne Report—the latest of four state inquiries into the crisis that has inflamed Irish Catholics—examines that diocese’s response to abuse allegations between January 1996, the year Irish bishops established procedures for dealing with abuse claims, and February 2009. It finds that two-thirds of allegations during that period were not forwarded to the police, in violation of the bishops’ own guidelines. It also charges that the Vatican gave “comfort and support” to bishops who chose not to inform civil authorities of accusations against priests.

On September 3, the Vatican issued its response to the controversy. Alas, instead of addressing the substance of the Cloyne report, the Holy See chose to focus on a few erroneous statements by Irish officials (which could have been avoided had Rome’s appointed representatives in Ireland seen fit to cooperate with officials putting together these reports) and to vigorously contest a motion, passed by Parliament one week after Kenny’s address, deploring “the Vatican’s intervention which contributed to the undermining of the child-protection framework and guidelines of the Irish state and the Irish bishops.”

NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Dustin Racioppi | Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — Using the bait of alcohol and cash for sex, a Perth Amboy man training here for priesthood was arrested Tuesday after he was caught driving in town enticing young women to get into his car, police said.

The man, Marcin Burek, a native of Poland, is accused by police of trying to lure females, ages 13 to 19, into his car on Tuesday. Criminal complaints against Burek, 27, say that in each of the four instances he promised the females alcohol and offered to pay them $10 for sex.

Middletown Police Detective Lt. Steve Dollinger said the victims reported to police that Burek was driving down the streets which they were walking and enticing them to “go for a ride to buy alcohol.”

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Oct. 26, 2011
By Jerry Filteau

The U.S. bishops should quietly persuade Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., to resign in the wake of his Oct. 14 criminal indictment for failure to report a priest for sexual abuse of minors, said Nicholas P. Cafardi, an expert in civil and church law.

Calls for Finn to resign in the public arena don't "really accomplish much," Cafardi said. Instead, the U.S. bishops should call upon Kansas City's bishop to resign "in the spirit of fraternal correction."

Finn's indictment comes amid controversy of his handling of a priest arrested for child pornography.

Cafardi suggested the bishops tell Finn that his continued presence as a bishop "is causing the faithful to question our commitment to the safety of their children" and that he should consider stepping down.

KANSAS CITY (KS)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas/The Leaven

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann

With everyone else who cares about the Catholic community in the Kansas City metropolitan area, I was saddened by the news announced by Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker that Bishop Robert Finn had been indicted by the grand jury on a misdemeanor charge of failure to report child abuse.

I found the Kansas City Star headline on Sunday more than ironic: “How Will KC Diocese Heal?” After months of The Star repeatedly finding reasons to rehash this story with always the same undertone calling for Bishop Finn’s resignation, The Star’s question seemed merely rhetorical.

The manufacturing and dissemination of child pornography is always a horrible crime. The horror is multiplied when the person responsible is a Catholic priest. Let me be clear again: There is no place in the priesthood for perpetrators of child sexual abuse or those who view, much less create, child pornography. I have told our priests on numerous occasions that our people have every right to expect that we live our lives in a manner consistent with our promise of celibate chastity. They certainly have a right to expect their children and adolescents will not be harmed by the clergy of their church.

I witness in our parishes a great love and admiration for our priests. This respect and affection for our priests is the fruit of lives of integrity and sacrificial service that Catholics have experienced for generations by the vast majority of priests.

I ask again for your prayers for Bishop Finn and for the priests and people of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. I have known Bishop Finn for many years, dating back to when both of us served as priests in St. Louis. I know him to be a man of integrity and with a passion for serving God and his people. I have spoken to him several times during the past months assuring him of my prayers and fraternal support.

MISSOURI/KANSAS
National Catholic Register

by JOAN FRAWLEY DESMOND
10/26/2011

On Oct. 14, Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., was indicted for failure to report suspected child abuse, a charge linked to the arrest in May 2011 of Father Shawn Ratigan, a diocesan priest, for possession of child pornography. The New York Times noted that it was the “first time in the 25-year history of the Church’s sex-abuse scandals that the leader of an American diocese has been held criminally liable for the behavior of a priest he supervised.”

Bishop Finn and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph have each been charged with one misdemeanor count for failure to report the priest to the authorities. The local prosecutor as well as The Times and The Kansas City Star have underscored the unprecedented nature of the indictment. Public anger has been stirred by news reports like an Oct. 14 Times story, which stressed that Bishop Finn “knew of the photographs last December but did not turn them over to the police until May.”

There are a number of disputed details regarding the diocese’s handling of a troubled priest. Bishop Finn has publicly apologized for failing to place Father Ratigan on administrative leave earlier, and for then placing him in a retreat center, where he continued to have access to children. An independent review of the diocese’s actions commissioned by Bishop Finn concluded that the diocese failed to adhere to its own policies for addressing concerns that might involve abuse. However, the report contested the assertion that Bishop Finn knew the priest possessed any child pornography before his arrest.

Into this firestorm comes Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., a close friend of Bishop Finn’s who has worked with him in past years to confront a host of challenges, from legal abortion to embryo-killing stem-cell research and pornography addiction. This week, Archbishop Naumann published a column in his archdiocesan paper, The Leaven, “Coverage of Recent Indictment Far From Objective,” raising questions about whether Bishop Finn could get a fair hearing. He spoke Oct. 25 with Register senior editor Joan Frawley Desmond.

AUSTRALIA
The Chroncile

THE child sex abuse victim who was the plaintiff in a landmark civil case against the Anglican Church spoke publicly about her experiences for the first time in Toowoomba last night.

A public lecture held by Shine Lawyers at the University of Southern Queensland marked the 10th anniversary of the 2001 civil court decision to award the woman $850,000 for abuse she suffered as an 11-year-old student at Toowoomba Preparatory School in 1990.

Shine Lawyers director Stephen Roche and lawyer Jodie Willey represented the plaintiff in her case against the Corporation of the Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane.

ROME
U.S. Catholic

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

By Bryan Cones

The Associated Press has another disturbing story about the ongoing investigation into the Legion of Christ, once the darling of the Vatican establishment and a special favorite of Pope John Paul II, whose founder, Marciel Maciel, turned out to be a drug addict and pedophile, who also fathered children with at least two women and whose financial machinations included bribery and financial misconduct.

Now, as Legionaires leave the order in droves, the Italian cardinal charged with cleaning up the mess has taken a pass on digging up the truth and removing from leadership those that abetted Maciel's crimes, including those against his own seminarians. From the AP story:

"I don't see what good would be served" by further inquiry into a coverup, the Italian cardinal [Velasio De Paolis] said. "Rather, we would run the risk of finding ourselves in an intrigue with no end. Because these are things that are too private for me to go investigating."

UNITED STATES
The Association of Religion Data Archives

By David Briggs

Men would rather watch Monday Night Football than go shopping. Eating too many Hardees Monster Thickburgers is linked to obesity. Texting while driving is a bad idea.

There are times when research findings are so obvious they are almost beyond questioning. So it is puzzling that growing evidence showing the importance of congregations cultivating the spiritual lives of the faithful is so routinely ignored.

Puzzling, and damaging to the health of many of the nation’s churches, especially those most in need of revival.

Even though research shows spiritually alive churches are the most likely to grow, the percentage of U.S. congregations reporting high spiritual vitality declined from 43 percent in 2005 to 28 percent in 2010, according to the latest Faith Communities Today survey.

The drop was accompanied by a decline in the emphasis given to spiritual practices such as prayer and scripture reading across nearly all groups aside from white evangelicals and congregations with 1,000 or more attenders.

IRELAND
The Journal

A GROUP REPRESENTING survivors of the notorious Magdalene laundries has called for several more schools to be included in a Government probe of the institutions.

Magdalene Survivors Together has said that two institutions not covered by the investigation – one in Dublin and one in Wexford – were previously used as laundries. The group said in a statement:

It is our firm belief that these institutions were used under false pretences to admit girls as young as 11 years of age to work in laundries and not attend school as is being suggested by the relevant religious orders.

The group was responding to the Interim Progress Report of the inter-departmental committee investigating State involvement in the Magdalene laundries, which was released yesterday. The committee is chaired by Senator Martin McAleese.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBC

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The federal trial against a Kansas City priest facing child pornography charges has been continued until June 4, 2012.

The Rev. Shawn F. Ratigan had been previously scheduled to go on trial Monday. But his public defender, Bob Kuchar, asked for a continuance, saying he had not had time to adequately prepare for the case.

Kuchar was appointed to defend Ratigan in September after previous lawyers withdrew from the case.

CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: The Canadian Press

CAMPBELLTON, N.B. - A former New Brunswick priest has pleaded guilty to defrauding several parishes of more than $116,000.

Yvon Doiron, originally of Paquetville, N.B., appeared in Campbellton provincial court Tuesday.

The 63-year-old, who now lives in Montreal, pleaded guilty to four counts of defrauding church parishes in Dalhousie, Charlo, Eel River Crossing and Dundee.

UNITED STATES
The Capital Times

PAT SCHNEIDER | The Capital Times

Nearly a decade since American bishops adopted a zero tolerance policy in the wake of a clergy abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church, the view from the pew is they are not doing a good job of handling accusations of abuse, the National Catholic Reporter says in its report on a new survey.

Sixty-nine percent of Catholics think Catholic bishops have done a fair or poor job following up on accusations of abuse by priests, with older people assessing their efforts more harshly than younger members of the church.

Older Catholics also are more likely to say that the scandal has hurt the political credibility of church leaders who speak out on social or political issues, but overall more than 80 percent of respondents to the survey say it has muted the voice of the church.

These are among responses from 1,442 respondents to an online survey conducted in April and May.

UNITED KINGDOM
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on October 25, 2011

For immediate release

We are glad any time any effort is made to unearth the truth about child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic institutions. Still, if an investigation is to be effective and honest, it must be run by truly independent, secular authorities - not church authorities.

We hope every single person who saw, suspected or suffered abuse at this abbey will step forward, get help, expose wrongdoing and start recovering. But we hope they first contact law enforcement officials, not Catholic ones.

MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Robert Bates on October 25, 2011

We’re here about two new legal moves – one yesterday and one today – in KC clergy sex abuse and cover up cases.

Yesterday, a western Missouri judge ruled that a civil child sex suit against a Catholic institution and a Catholic priest can move forward toward trial.

And today, a KC area victim is seeking punitive damages against the Catholic diocese because she was abused, deceived and betrayed, and church officials continue to hurt and betray her – and others – by being deceptive.

MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

You can view the Judge's order (allowing the case to move forward) regarding the John Doe v. Conception Abbey case here.

MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Biersmith, Voice of the Faithful on October 25, 2011

We're glad they failed, but Catholic officials at Conception have no business acting in litigation like mean-spirited corporate honchos.

Fr. Parry has admitted molesting kids. So why isn't Conception Abbey acting with compassion instead of combativeness? Why is the Abbey's first response to this lawsuit to try and get it dismissed?

Such hard ball legal tactics hurt victims and children, of course. But they also hurt faithful Catholics, who feel shame when they see their leaders behaving irresponsibly.

The same holds true with the KC diocese and the Fr. McGlynn case. Evidence shows that years ago, they suspected and knew of sexual misconduct by McGlynn. And like Parry, McGlynn has admitted child sex crimes.

MISSOURI
Virtue Online

Judge rules to continue civil sex abuse case against Rev. Bede Parry now an Episcopal Priest
New evidence points to Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori knowing about Parry's sexual proclivities

"I also request that you end all speculation regarding your conversations with[PB] Katharine Jefferts Schori and[Bishop] Dan Edwards. They ignored your warnings and are rewriting history to serve their own agendas." Patrick J. Marker

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
October 26, 2011

A request to dismiss a civil child sex abuse lawsuit against Conception Abbey, the former spiritual home of the Rev. Bede Parry who later was admitted into the Episcopal Church by Bishop Jefferts Schori, was denied by Nodaway county judge this week who ruled that the civil case should proceed.

Officials at the monastery petitioned to dismiss the suit, filed in June 2011, on the grounds that it was beyond the statute of limitations.

The suit claimed the Rev. Bede Parry, who at the time was an ordained priest at the monastery, allegedly had sexual contact with a minor child while serving as director of a residential choir camp in 1987. The lawsuit also alleges that officials at Conception Abbey knew of sex crimes committed by the Rev. Parry as far back as 1973.

BELGIE
RKnieuws

BRUSSEL (RKnieuws.net) - Dat bisschoppen zoveel instanties hebben die hen helpen, stemt niet overeen met de vermindering van het aantal gelovigen en met de nieuwe verenigingen waar ze elkaar vinden. Dat vinden de auteurs van een recente studie over de overleving van het Belgische katholicisme na de pedofiliecrisis.

BELGIE
Kerknieuws

De Belgische federale politie voerde op 24 juni 2011 verschillende huiszoekingen uit op adressen van de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk. Er kwam direct kritiek op deze handelwijze. Voor de derde keer buigt de Brusselse Kamer van Inbeschuldigingsstelling (KI) zich nu over de vraag of de actie rechtsgeldig was.

DEUTSCHLAND
Deutscher Bundestag

Rechtsausschuss - 25.10.2011

Berlin: (hib/BOB) Mit der Stärkung der Rechte von Opfern sexuellem Missbrauchs, vor allem von Kindern, beschäftigt sich eine Anhörung des Rechtsausschusses am 26. Oktober. Drei Gesetzentwürfe liegen dazu vor – einer der Bundesregierung (17/6261), einer der SPD-Fraktion (17/3646) und einer von der Fraktion Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (17/5774). Die Regelung der Regierung sieht unter anderem vor, Opfern von sexueller Gewalt Mehrfachvernehmungen zu ersparen. Zur Begründung heißt es, es könnten gerade minderjährige Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs es als „äußerst belastend und qualvoll empfinden“, wenn sie auf diese Weise eine emotional und oft auch intellektuell anstrengende Aussage in der ungewohnten Umgebung des Strafverfahrens mehrmals und möglicherweise in größeren zeitlichen Abständen wiederholen müssten.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOV

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The Archdiocese of St. Louis is facing a lawsuit filed by a 19-year-old woman who accuses a priest of molesting her when she was a young child.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the suit filed Monday claims that the archdiocese knew that the Rev. Joseph Ross had pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a minor, but allowed him to work in a parish with children.

The archdiocese says it will review the lawsuit and investigate the complaint.

CANADA
CBC News

A long-awaited funeral held earlier this year shows that ordinary Canadians can help to heal the wounds from residential schools.

The funeral was for Charlie Hunter, a teenager who died nearly 40 years ago while attending residential school. He was buried in Moose Factory, hundreds of kilometres away from his home and family in Peawanuk, Ont. For decades his parents pressed the federal government to bring Charlie’s body home, but nothing happened.

Finally, Charlie’s youngest sister, Joyce Hunter, went public with her desire to hold a proper funeral for the brother who died before she was born. She said it was an important gift for her aging father.

“We felt that we needed to give him something that he’s been mourning over for years and years,” Hunter said. “This unfinished business, looking south, knowing that his child is very far away and that he just can’t be with him.”

A Facebook page was created and the National Residential School Survivors Association began collecting the thousands of dollars in donations needed to transport Charlie’s body to Peawanuk and pay for the funeral. On Aug. 17, the family and most of the small community gathered in Peawanuk’s tipi-shaped church to say goodbye.

CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

University of Manitoba president David Barnard will apologize Thursday for the university’s role in educating people who ran the residential schools system.

Barnard will deliver his statement of apology and reconciliation in Halifax to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It is believed to be the first time that a Canadian university has apologized for having a role in the residential schools system.

"We want to add our voice to the apologies already made by churches and government," Barnard said this afternoon.

"We have educated the people who became clergy and teachers and politicians, and became involved in the system.

CANADA
Edmonton Journal

October 26, 2011

The confidentiality agreements that cloak out-of-court settlements in sexual abuse cases only exacerbate a problem that has already scandalized Scouts Canada.

A recent investigation by The Fifth Estate on CBC discovered 13 lawsuits filed by former scouts against former scout leaders and assistants have been settled and each one is subject to a confidentiality agreement preventing the plaintiff from speaking about the terms of the settlement.

Scouts' honour? Hardly.

Scouts Canada must own up to the sins of its former adult authority figures, in full and in public. Every time a lawsuit is settled out of court, the plaintiff should be free to say whatever he or she feels necessary, provided the statement is true to the agreed facts of the case. That should most certainly include the financial terms. Knowledge of those settlement amounts may persuade other victims to come forward if they feel the expense incurred while pressing their legal cases will be offset, at the very least. And there can be no debate that victims of sexual abuse should be encouraged to come forward, not persuaded by financial constraints to stay silent.

MISSOURI
St. Joseph News-Press

A request to dismiss a civil child sex abuse lawsuit against Conception Abbey was denied.

Officials at the monastery filed to dismiss the suit, which was filed in June 2011, on the grounds that it was beyond the statute of limitations.

The suit claimed the Rev. Bede Parry, who at the time was an ordained priest at the monastery, allegedly had sexual contact with a minor child while serving as director of a residential choir camp in 1987. The lawsuit also alleges that officials at Conception Abbey knew of sex crimes committed by Rev. Parry as far back as 1973.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

Neil Lancefield

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

The Vatican has ordered an inquiry into historic sex offences at a London abbey.

St Benedict's School, a private independent Catholic school that is part of Ealing Abbey in west London, has been the focus of allegations of abuse.

The apostolic visitation, as the inquiry is known, is reported to be the first of its kind in Britain.

It will be conducted by Bishop John Arnold, an auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, and Father Richard Yeo, president of the English Benedictine Congregation. ...

St Benedict's abbot Martin Shipperlee commissioned an independent review by Lord Carlile of Berriew QC into the case and a review of safeguarding arrangements, policies and procedures is on the abbey's website, with a range of recommendations. Meanwhile, earlier this month, police said they were hunting a Catholic cleric wanted over allegations of child abuse said to date back to when he taught at St Benedict's.

VATICAN CITY
Newser

By NICOLE WINFIELD | Associated Press | Oct 25, 2011

When Pope Benedict XVI took over the disgraced Legion of Christ religious order last year, expectations were high that heads would roll over one of the greatest scandals of the 20th century Roman Catholic Church.

One year later, none of the Legion's superiors has been held to account for facilitating the crimes of late founder Rev. Marciel Maciel, a drug addict who sexually abused his seminarians, fathered three children and created a cult-like movement within the church that damaged some of its members spiritually and emotionally.

An Associated Press tally shows that disillusioned members are leaving the movement in droves as they lose faith that the Vatican will push through the changes needed. The collapse of the order, once one of the most influential in the church, has broader implications for Catholicism, which is shedding members in some places because the hierarchy covered up widespread sexual abuse by priests.

In an exclusive interview, the man tapped by Benedict to turn the Legion around insisted that the pope tasked him only with guiding the Legion and helping rewrite its norms _ not "decapitating" its leadership or avenging wrongdoing.

UNITED KINGDOM
London 24

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Vatican has ordered an inquiry into alleged historic sex offences at a London abbey.

St Benedict’s School, a private independent Catholic school which is part of Ealing Abbey in west London, has been the focus of allegations of abuse.

The apostolic visitation, as the inquiry is known, is reported to be the first of its kind in Britain.

It will be conducted by Bishop John Arnold, an auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, and Father Richard Yeo, president of the English Benedictine Congregation.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Westminster said they had visited Ealing Abbey and met members of the community in September as part of the inquiry.

UNITED KINGDOM
Coventry Telegraph

By Catherine Vonledebur

AWARD-winning Warwickshire therapist Sue Cox was raped by a Catholic priest just before her confirmation. In the past year the mother-of-six has launched a European support group for survivors of clerical sexual abuse, been featured in a controversial Channel 4 documentary about the Pope and joined the first worldwide protest of survivors of abuse within the Roman Catholic church at the Vatican. She's in Rome again this weekend for the second Annual Survivors of Catholic Clergy Abuse Day, writes Catherine Vonledebur.
---------------------------
A YEAR ago Sue Cox stood in front of 200 people during a candlelit protest in Rome and described how she was raped by a priest in her bedroom at 13.

After becoming an alcoholic at 15, entering a violent marriage by 17 she was clean by 28, but admitted confronting the final piece of her recovery at 63 “was the hardest bit”.

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

by Jennifer Fulwiler Wednesday, October 26, 2011

“I heard that one of those Catholic popes was molesting children again!” said my mother-in-law’s friend the other day, presumably referring to the news in Kansas City. One isn’t sure where to begin addressing a statement like that. As it turned out, I didn’t have to. She was so busy making comments about how awful “those Catholic popes” are that she didn’t hear any of my attempts to respond.

The conversation was an unfortunate reminder of just how powerful the unbalanced media coverage of scandals involving Catholic clergy has been. I have no objection to even-handed, fact-based news stories about abuse within the Church; the problem is that these stories are reported far more than stories of abuse within other institutions. For example:

When the Hare Krishnas in California settled the largest sex-abuse lawsuit in history, resulting from sexual abuse of children, it generated 44 stories in California over a six-month period. During the same period, Californians were treated to 17,310 stories about sex abuse in California Catholic institutions. That’s 39,341 percent more coverage than was generated by the most serious sex-abuse case in history.

Other men who work with kids are just as likely to be sex offenders as Catholic priests*, but you’d never know that from the emphasis the media places on crimes by Catholic clergy.

UNITED STATES
The Wichita Eagle

Authority figures are human, not superhuman. But it shouldn’t be too much to expect them to avoid sexual misconduct, especially involving minors. When they don’t, their actions not only victimize innocents but betray trust and tarnish institutions. And they must be held accountable.

Think of the scandals of the Catholic Church, including the recent criminal charges against the bishop of the diocese of Kansas City and St. Joseph, Mo., for allegedly sheltering a priest accused of abusing children.

But also consider the recent arrests of two female Clearwater teachers who allegedly had sex with students and Monday’s news that a male Garden Plain teacher and coach had been arrested in an underage sex sting targeting human trafficking.

PENNSYLVANIA
Catholics4Change

The photo is of my son who was a freshman at Archbishop Ryan High School in North East Philly. He’s standing with his Mom at his first “mother/son” dance. The head principal of the school approached my wife and said: “What a fine looking son you have.” This is when the grooming began.

My name is Arthur and I am here to tell you the story of my son’s sexual abuse. He cannot share this story with any of you. You see, he is dead. And I believe he is dead because of his sexual abuse.

The principal of the school did everything to “groom” my son. When he grades slipped, he forged them. He forged his driver’s education certificate. He took him on trips to Colorado for “bonding time” and to “get him on the right track” or so we were told. Little did we know our son was being raped on these trips.

The perpetrator introduced opiates and cocaine to him and my son became addicted. At age 16 my son thought he was gay because why else would an adult male want to have sex with him? He got his girlfriend pregnant while trying to figure out if he was gay. At age 16, he was a Father.

CARMICHAEL (CA)
Patch

A priest accused of sexual abuse has Carmichael ties, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Catholic Diocese of Sacramento leaders removed the Rev. William Feeser, 63, from ministry after a Southern California woman accused him of sexually molesting her at Our Lady of Assumption in Carmichael when she was a minor more than three decades ago, The Bee reported.

NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

Written by
Peggy Wright | Staff Writer

The labor that investigators poured into solving the homicide of St. Patrick Church pastor Rev. Edward Hinds was detailed for a jury Tuesday, with Morris County sheriff’s officers identifying evidence found in the Chatham rectory and at suspect Jose Feliciano’s home.

Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Mike Puzio, called as a trial witness by Assistant Prosecutor David Bruno, was present for the 61-year-old priest’s autopsy and participated in searches of Feliciano’s home in Easton, Pa., and a field across the street.

Feliciano, now 66 and the former church custodian, is being tried for the fatal stabbing on Oct. 22, 2009, of the cleric in the kitchen of the church rectory. Prosecutors allege he deliberately murdered the pastor, who had learned he was hiding a criminal past and meant to terminate him; defense lawyers contend Feliciano had been forced into certain acts, still unrevealed at trial, by the priest and reacted in rage when Hinds tried to fire him.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Fox 4

[with video]

Monica Evans, FOX 4 News

KANSAS CITY, Mo.— The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Jospeh is facing a new legal worry. It's part of an ongoing priest sex scandal. Punitive damages based on a new court filing.

In a five page motion, attorney Rebecca Randles says the Diocese lied in a press statement to cover up the existence of sex crimes by its clergy. On October 11, the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City -St. Joseph issued a statement concerning a lawsuit alleging abuse by former priest Francis McGlynn.

In the statement the Diocese says it received the first complaint of sexual misconduct involving McGlynn in april 2002. However attorney Rebecca Randles say the church was aware McGlynn's touched children inappropriately back in the 1960's and she says she has a deposition to prove it.

NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Ben Horowitz/The Star-Ledger

CHATHAM BOROUGH — Two days after a Chatham priest was stabbed to death, a small brown steak knife was found across the street from the home of the church custodian accused of killing him, a Morris County Sheriff’s investigator testified today.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Puzio, a former detective, was on the witness stand most of the day, identifying numerous pieces of evidence he collected during the autopsy of the Rev. Edward Hinds and during a search of the home and neighborhood of former custodian Jose Feliciano.

Feliciano, now 66, of Easton, Pa., is on trial in Superior Court in Morristown on a murder charge in the Oct. 22, 2009 death of Hinds, the former pastor at St. Patrick Church. Feliciano is accused of stabbing Hinds 32 times in the church rectory.

UNITED KINGDOM
National Catholic Reporter

Oct. 25, 2011
By Simon Caldwell, Catholic News Service

LONDON -- At the request of the Vatican, a bishop has conducted a review of child protection procedures at a Benedictine abbey following a number of high-profile child abuse cases.

Auxiliary Bishop John Arnold of Westminster and Abbot Richard Yeo, president of the English Benedictine Congregation, conducted the apostolic visitation at Ealing Abbey and the neighboring St, Benedict's School during September.

They have already made their report to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which ordered the visitation.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, confirmed to Catholic News Service Oct. 25 that Bishop Arnold was asked by the doctrinal congregation to conduct the apostolic visitation.

UNITED STATES
Amarillo Globe-News

For over a month now, a tremendous amount of misinformation has been spread across the country about Father Frank Pavone and Priests for Life. In the interest of fairness, the editors have offered us the opportunity to set the record straight and we thank them.

This matter was made public because of the unauthorized release of a letter written by Amarillo Catholic Diocese Bishop Patrick Zurek to his brother bishops on Sept. 9, in which numerous unsubstantiated suspicions were cast against Priests for Life and Father Pavone.

First, we want to reiterate unequivocally that all of this should have remained a private matter between Bishop Zurek and Father Pavone. Indeed, Priests for Life has gone to great lengths to avoid any public statements except when absolutely necessary — such as now. We have encouraged our supporters to be calm, respectful, and prayerful as they voice their opinions. ...

Jerry Horn serves as director of Public Relations for Priests for Life. A resident of Texas and the father of seven children, Jerry was born in Midland and attended West Texas State University. As spokesperson for Priests for Life, Jerry does not represent or speak for Father Frank Pavone or any other individual.

CANADA
The London Free Press

By Jane Sims, The London Free Press

Last Updated: October 25, 2011

There was a time, the woman admitted, she thought she was in love with her pastor.

“Yes,” she said at Royden Wood's sexual assault trial. “I was confused.”

But the tone of the flirting in the emails sent between her and Wood in 2007 suggested she harboured strong feelings for the former pastor of the Ambassador Baptist Church.

The emails were kept in a folder on her computer called “Tilted Love.”

Defence lawyer Alison Craig read out one exchange where the woman wanted to tell Wood “how much I want your gorgeous body.”

NEW JERSEY
The Smoking Gun

Church Pays $200K To Settle Molest Claim Against Priest Who Produced, Sold Videos Of Speedo-Clad Young Wrestlers

Nine years after a New Jersey priest was first exposed for peddling videos of Speedo-clad boys wrestling, church officials have agreed to pay $200,000 to settle a man’s claims that the reverend molested him when he was a teenage grappler.

The June 2011 settlement reached between the victim and officials with the Byzantine Catholic Church involved allegations leveled against Rev. Glenn Michael Davidowich, 48, who served at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Trenton when the alleged abuse occurred about 20 years ago.

The settlement was first reported by Star-Ledger reporter Mark Mueller.

A copy of the settlement agreement, with the victim’s name redacted, was provided to TSG by Mitchell Garabedian, the accuser’s lawyer. Along with the six-figure payout, the Byzantine church also agreed to pay the man’s “outstanding therapy and pharmaceutical bills” as well as prescription and counseling costs through mid-2016.

UNITED KINGDOM
AFP

LONDON — The Vatican has ordered an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at an abbey in London, the local diocese said Tuesday.

Certain monks and lay preachers at Ealing Abbey in west London have been linked to abuse dating from the 1960s to as recently as two years ago.

The apostolic visitation of high-level figures in the Catholic Church in England follows abuse scandals that have rocked the Church in Ireland, the United States, Germany and other countries in recent years.

A spokesman for the diocese of Westminster told AFP: "There clearly are concerns in the Vatican about what may or may not have happened at Ealing Abbey, and this is a chance to establish what happened for themselves."

UNITED KINGDOM
Huffington Post

Jill Lawless

LONDON -- The Vatican has ordered an inquiry into decades of sexual abuse by clerics at a Benedictine abbey in London, whose former head monk has disappeared while facing allegations of sexual assault.

Ealing Abbey runs St. Benedict's School, a private Catholic institution whose former pupils have made allegations of abuse dating back to the 1960s.

A former headmaster, Father David Pearce, was jailed in 2009 for abusing boys at the school over a 35-year period. He was dubbed the "devil in a dog collar" by one of his victims.

Father Laurence Soper, who was abbot of Ealing between 1991 and 2000, was arrested last year on suspicion of sexual assault. He is the subject of an international manhunt after jumping bail in March.

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Oct. 25, 2011
By Tom Gallagher

Fr. Frank Pavone, the high-profile, pro-life priest whose bishop has restricted his ministry because of questions about the finances of the group he runs, continues to raise money for the group while reaching out to supporters with Web videos, press releases and endorsements.

Pavone, head of Priests For Life, sent a fundraising letter to supporters Oct. 14 to tell them that "in obedience to my bishop, I am carrying on with our shared pro-life mission." He expresses worry that supporters might be misled by "all the misinformation and outright attacks on me and Priests for Life."

"All I can tell you is that just about everything you're reading or hearing is false. All of it," he wrote.

This is at least Pavone's second fundraising letter since his bishop, Patrick Zurek of Amarillo, Texas, recalled him to the diocese in the Texas panhandle last month because of "persistent questions and concerns" about how Pavone was handling millions of dollars in donations to his organization.

TOLEDO (OH)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo

TOLEDO—Deacon Ronald Henderson, Finance and Administration Secretariat leader, was placed on administrative leave Oct. 21 after a civil lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and assault and battery was filed against him. David Czech, sexton for diocesan Catholic Cemeteries, filed the suit Oct. 19 in the Lucas County Common Pleas Court. Mr. Czech is still actively employed by the diocese.

The Diocese of Toledo was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

A statement was released Oct. 21 by the diocesan Office of Communications:
“When the Diocese of Toledo was first made aware of Mr. Czech’s various allegations, appropriate action was taken in response to those allegations that could be substantiated as the result of an independent investigation. This has not been a closed case with the diocese and any other inappropriate behavior will be addressed. It would not be appropriate to comment on the pending litigation between Mr. Czech and Deacon Henderson. Deacon Henderson remains an employee of the diocese but has been placed on administrative leave.”

UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 25 October 2011

Alleged victims of sexual abuse have reacted coolly to the news of a Vatican investigation into a London abbey, and have called for inquiries into other Roman Catholic institutions where children are claimed to have been mistreated.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome has ordered an "apostolic visitation" to uncover the scale of abuse at Ealing abbey, where monks and lay teachers have been accused of mistreating children at a neighbouring school, St Benedict's, over decades.

It is the first inquiry of its kind into sexual abuse in Britain. Father David Pearce, a priest at Ealing abbey, was jailed in 2009.

Groups supporting alleged victims have questioned the effectiveness and integrity of an internal inquiry, especially given that its findings will remain secret.

CANADA
B.C. Catholic

By Alan Hustak
The Catholic Times

MONTREAL (CCN)--Inadequate formation of priests, the Church’s fear of human sexuality, isolation, and the mistaken acceptance by parishioners of priests as a stand-in for God were all contributing factors to the sexual abuse of minors in the Church, according to Archbishop Anthony Mancini of Halifax, a former auxiliary bishop of Montreal.

No sooner had Archbishop Mancini taken up his post in the Maritimes in 2007, he found himself confronted by the criminal misconduct of a fellow prelate, Bishop Raymond Lahey, who is now in jail after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography on his laptop computer.

"I inherited all of it, when I went to Halifax," Mancini said, "the good, the bad and the ugly."

Mancini, one of 20 experts to address the McGill conference, told delegates that the inadequacy of the Church to understand sexuality meant that many of its priests and bishops were ill-prepared to deal with their own sexuality and to manage it.

OHIO
Toledo Blade

BY JENNIFER FEEHAN
BLADE STAFF WRITER

A Perrysburg man has filed suit in Lucas County Common Pleas Court claiming a high-ranking official in the Catholic Diocese of Toledo sexually harassed him and struck him on the head several times.

David Czech, diocesan sexton in charge of Catholic cemeteries, filed the complaint against Ronald Henderson, a Catholic deacon who is identified on the diocese's Web site as finance and administration secretariat in charge of finance, development, and cemeteries, among other things.

Mr. Henderson, who was placed on paid administrative leave Friday, is one of six administrators listed in the diocesan organizational chart under Bishop Leonard Blair and the chancellor, the Rev. Monte J. Hoyles.

The suit, which does not name the diocese as a defendant, alleges Mr. Henderson made unwanted sexual advances toward Mr. Czech during after-hours "business meetings" at local restaurants between October, 2007, and January, 2008. The advances allegedly included making sexually suggestive comments and touching Mr. Czech on the leg or near his crotch area.

CANADA
CBC News

More than a dozen men who say they are victims of sexual abuse at the hands of a former priest and boy scout leader in northwestern Ontario are pursuing criminal charges. But it’s not clear whether they will proceed to court.

The men said they were abused by Ralph Rowe, who lived and travelled in remote First Nations during the 1970s and 80s. The 72-year-old has already been convicted of more than 50 counts of sex-related crimes. His lawyer made a deal when Rowe pleaded guilty to some of those crimes back in 1994, so that Rowe wouldn't be sent to jail again on similar charges. But other men continue to come forward regularly with fresh allegations.

"This guy is walking around free, you know what I mean, while we’ve suffered through our lives," said a 36-year-old man who CBC News agreed not to identify over concerns his remarks could influence any future court case.

"He’s done a little time, but it’s nothing compared to the damage he’s done. People tell me, ‘why don’t you forgive [Rowe].’ I can’t, because I can’t forgive myself for the things I’ve done. I’ve served time since I was eight years old with the damage he’s done. It’s a horrible thing what he did. I live with it every day."

UNITED KINGDOM
The Australian

David Brown and Sean O'Neill
From: The Times
October 26, 2011

THE Vatican has ordered a top-level inquiry into sexual abuse by clerics at a London abbey after investigations by The Times uncovered decades of mistreatment of children.

Certain monks and lay teachers at Ealing Abbey and the neighbouring St Benedict's independent school have been linked to abuse dating from at least the 1960s to 2009.

The powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome has ordered a historic apostolic visitation amid growing evidence about the scale of the scandal. It is the first such inquiry into child abuse in Britain.

Victims believe the investigation could be the first step towards the disclosure of details of a cover-up of sexual and physical abuse by clerics, an issue that has already rocked the Roman Catholic Church in the US and Ireland.

The visitation is led by Bishop John Arnold, an auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, and Father Richard Yeo, president of the English Benedictine Congregation.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Press Association

The Vatican has ordered an inquiry into historic sex offences at a London abbey.

St Benedict's School, a private independent Catholic school which is part of Ealing Abbey in west London, has been the focus of allegations of abuse.

The apostolic visitation, as the inquiry is known, is reported to be the first of its kind in Britain.

It will be conducted by Bishop John Arnold, an auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, and Father Richard Yeo, president of the English Benedictine Congregation.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Telegraph

The Pope has ordered an unprecedented inquiry into alleged child sex abuse by senior clerics at two Roman Catholic schools in Ealing, west London.

By Amy Willis

The top-level inquiry was ordered following investigations by The Times newspaper, exposing four decades of sex abuse by monks and lay teachers at Ealing Abbey and St Benedict's Independent School.

The newspaper claims led to "devil in a dog collar" Father David Pearce, the former headmaster of St Benedict's School, being jailed in 2009 for indecently assaulting five young boys.

Father Pearce, who also served as a Priest at Ealing Abbey, admitted to carrying out the attacks between 1972 and 2007. Other attacks by monks at the schools are thought to date back to the 1960s.

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The Vatican has ordered an inquiry into child sex abuse at an abbey and school in west London.

In 2009 Father David Pearce, the former head of St Benedict's School in Ealing, was jailed for eight years for abusing five students.

Following further abuse claims, a team sent by the Vatican visited the connected Ealing Abbey, where Pearce continues to live.

UNITED KINGDOM
Ealing Gazette

Posted by Michael Russell on Oct 25, 11 11:19 AM

THE VATICAN has ordered an inquiry into sexual abuse at Ealing Abbey, the first of it kind in Britain, after decades of mistreatment of children.

A number of priests and lay teachers at St Benedict's School in nearby Eaton Rise, have been linked to the scandal, the subject of three previous inquiries.

They include Father Laurence Soper currently on the run after failing to appear at a police station for questioning in March. The 81-year-old taught at St Benedict's between 1972 and 1984 and was abbot of the abbey, in Charlbury Grove, for nine years from 1991.

And Father David Pearce who was jailed for eight years, later cut to five at appeal, for a campaign of abuse between 1972 and 2007, some of this time as head of the junior section of the school.

UNITED KINGDOM
Monterey County Herald

The Associated Press

LONDON—The Vatican says it has ordered an inquiry into decades of sexual abuse by clerics at a Benedictine abbey and school in London.

Roman Catholic officials in Britain confirmed Tuesday that Bishop John Arnold and the Right Rev. Richard Yeo, president of the English Benedictine Congregation, had visited Ealing Abbey and its affiliated St. Benedict's School as part of the investigation, known as an apostolic visitation.

They are preparing a report for the Vatican.

SPAIN
Euro Weekly News

THE Supreme Court has confirmed that a priest is the father of the child of a married woman.

In 2009, based on tests carried out at the Carlos Haya Hospital which proved the girl was not the child of her mother’s husband, and that there were a 94.45 per cent chance that the priest was her father, Malaga Provincial Court passed a sentence in which she was named as his heir.

SPAIN
Euro Weekly News

UP to 300,000 babies in Spain were stolen from their mothers and sold for adoption since the 60s, according to unofficial figures quoted by Angel Nuñez of the Justice Ministry.

The number of cases could account for up to 15 per cent of total adoptions between 1960 and 1989 in Spain, according to experts.

The practice started during the Franco regime and continued for 15 years after his death until the early 1990s and involved a network of doctors and nurses linked to the Catholic Church.

Mothers – often young or unmarried – were told at hospitals and clinics their children had died soon or after birth, but these were sold on to childless Catholic couples with financial stability.

UNITED STATES
U.S. Catholic

Monday, October 24, 2011

By Scott Alessi

National Catholic Reporter has posted the results of their Catholics in America study, which is chock-full of interesting data on the faith lives of those who make up our church in the United States. The study covers everything from parish life to reactions to the sex abuse scandal to how well Catholics understand the Eucharist, all of which is interesting reading.

It would be impossible to cover the whole study in one blog post, but there was one particular portion that caught my attention: what makes someone a "good Catholic"?

There is a lot of disagreement these days on this particular question. We often see some Catholics claiming that a fellow member of the church is "not as Catholic" as they are, or claiming that another person's understanding of the Catholic faith is somehow "wrong" because of what they do or don't do in their personal faith lives. So it is not surprising that when it comes to what is most important to Catholics, the answers are all over the map.

UNITED STATES
The Columbus Dispatch

By Meredith Heagney
The Columbus Dispatch
Tuesday October 25, 2011

For many Roman Catholics in America, the authority of the Vatican, led by Pope Benedict XVI, above, and a celibate, all-male clergy are among the least-important aspects of their faith, a new survey says.

American Roman Catholics are a curious mix of rebelliousness and loyalty, according to a new study.

When it comes to moral issues such as abortion, homosexuality and sex outside marriage, American Catholics are more likely to listen to their own consciences than to the pope, bishops and other church leaders.

Fewer than one-third attend Mass weekly, but 88 percent think parish priests do good work.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Voice of Russia

A very particular incident occurred in the Kansas City, Missouri area. This is apparently the first time ever that the catholic bishop has been indicted on charges of basically covering up what one of his priests has done. Today on the line we have with us Barbara Dorris. She is the outreach director for the group known as the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priest.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Three pension funds operated by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for priests, lay employees and unionized cemetery workers have unfunded liabilities totaling $41.8 million, according to documents filed as part of the archdiocese's bankruptcy proceedings.

The gap between current assets and future payouts for the priest and lay workers' pensions - at 9.6% and 16.9%, respectively - fall within reasonable ranges given the economic conditions of the last few years, according to pension experts.

But the size of the lay workers' pension liability (at $37.4 million) and the funding level of the cemetery workers' pension (55% - with $1.3 million in assets and a $1 million unfunded liability) raise concerns about the health and future of those benefits, pension experts say.

Anything funded below 80%, you'd have to look at, but a large gap is cause for concern, said Eric Loi, staff attorney for the Pension Rights Center, a consumer advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE GOVERNMENT has not invited, nor does it plan to invite Pope Benedict to visit Ireland next year, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore has said.

Welcoming the Vatican statement last month that it was sorry and ashamed for the terrible sufferings which victims of abuse and their families had endured, Mr Gilmore said the Government maintained that a 1997 letter to Ireland’s Catholic bishops from the then papal nuncio allowed some clergy to avoid co-operation with civil authorities in dealing with child abuse.

That “strictly confidential” letter he referred to described the 1996 child protection Framework Document, published by the Irish bishops, as “merely a study document” and expressed “serious reservations of a canonical and moral nature” at its directive that there be mandatory reporting of such crimes to civil authorities.

NEDERLAND
Pow!

Het Openbaar Ministerie (OM) gaat toch weer kijken of het mogelijk is de pedofielenvereniging Martijn te verbieden.

Volgens de NOS is de veroordeling van de voorzitter van de vereniging de aanleiding om nogmaals naar een verbod te kijken.

NEDERLAND
Kerknieuws

De christelijke gereformeerde predikant die vorig jaar door zijn gemeente werd geschorst en afgezet vanwege "grove zonden", staat vanaf komende zondag op het preekrooster van een protestantse gemeente.

NEDERLAND
ED

Talloze meldingen van seksueel misbruik in binnen- en buitenland hebben de rooms-katholieke kerk de afgelopen jaren in grote verlegenheid gebracht.

Veel kerkelijke gezagsdragers worstelen met deze problematiek. Ze hebben moeite om hun standpunt te bepalen en daar consequenties aan te verbinden. Tegen die achtergrond mag de wijze waarop de de Congregatie CMM daarmee omgaat, gerust een verademing worden genoemd.

NEDERLAND
L1

Het Openbaar Ministerie verwacht eind dit jaar klaar te zijn met het onderzoek naar St. Joseph in Heel. Justitie onderzoekt sinds mei het overlijden van 34 jongens begin jaren vijftig op het internaat in Heel. Zes rechercheurs zijn bezig met de zaak. De hoge sterftepiek in het internaat kwam aan het licht door de commissie Deetman.

UNITED KINGDOM
Ealing Today

'Inquisition' investigation of abuse dating back to the sixties

Following the failure of a former Abbot at Ealing Abbey to return to face charges relating to child abuse it has emerged that the Vatican has launched its own investigation into the series of allegations against monks.

Laurence Soper, aged 81, was due to report to police in West London earlier this month but failed to return from Rome and attempts to contact him have been unsuccessful. He disappeared from the headquarters of the Benedictine Order in Rome where he had been acting as treasurer. He had been a teacher at St. Benedict's School up until 1984 and was Abbot at Ealing until 2000.

The Abbey has now been visited by Bishop John Arnold, an auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, and Father Richard Yeo, a senior member of the Benedictine Order in England. They were asked to make an apostolic visitation last month by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which was formerly known as the Inquisition. Bishop Arnold has said that recommendations following the visitation will be sent to the Vatican based body which oversees the Church's investigations into the most serious crimes by its members including child abuse.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

October 24, 2011

By Shannon McDonald

The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office has withdrawn its request for access to treatment records of former priest Edward Avery, who is charged with abusing a Northeast Philadelphia altar boy in the '90s.

The request was submitted for records from Avery's stay at St. John Vianney, where the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sends priests for behavior and addiction treatment. Avery was there five years before the accusation from victim named in a grand jury indictment earlier this year.

SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Sacramento Bee

By Jennifer Garza
jgarza@sacbee.com

Published: Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011

A victims' rights group criticized the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento on Monday, claiming church officials quietly suspended a priest accused of sexual abuse earlier this month and have not done enough to notify potential victims.

Leaders of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said church officials removed the Rev. William Feeser from active ministry but "have not been open about it," said Chico Chavez of SNAP.

"They promised to be more transparent," said Chavez. "Why haven't they reached out to other potential victims?"

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By Nadia Gilani

The Vatican has ordered an inquiry into claims of decades of sexual abuse at a London abbey and school.

A number of monks and teachers at Ealing Abbey and neighbouring St Benedict's independent school in west London have been linked to alleged abuse from as far back as the 1960s.

The Pope has now ordered that the scandal be investigated as further evidence comes to light.
It is the first inquiry of its kind in Britain and could be the first step towards disclosure of other sexual abuse by clerics that have been covered up.

NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Ben Horowitz/The Star-Ledger

CHATHAM BOROUGH — Blood was splattered all over the kitchen in the rectory at St. Patrick Church in Chatham when investigators found the Rev. Edward Hinds lying dead on his back two years ago, a detective for the Morris County Sheriff's Department testified today.

Detective Kelly Zienowicz took the witness stand during the first full day of testimony in the trial of former church custodian Jose Feliciano, who is accused of murder. She was among several law enforcement officers involved in the early stages of the investigation who testified.

Feliciano, now 66, of Easton, Pa., allegedly stabbed Hinds 32 times on the evening of Oct. 22, 2009. Zienowicz led the sheriff's crime-scene investigation when law-enforcement officials entered the rectory the next morning after Hinds was found dead.

AUSTRALIA
ABC Southern Queensland

Updated October 25, 2011

A Toowoomba priest says he does not expect a replacement for the Bishop of the Toowoomba diocese to be announced this year.

Bishop William Morris was asked to retire early in May after a liturgical dispute with the Catholic Church over comments he made about the ordination of women and married priests.

An apostolic administrator has been appointed to oversee the diocese while a replacement is sought.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By James E. Connell

Oct. 24, 2011

An excellent opportunity exists for the Catholic bishops in the United States to begin rebuilding the people's trust in them that has been severely damaged because of the Catholic clergy sexual abuse crisis. This opportunity is found in the audit process to verify that each diocese actually is in compliance with the requirements of the charter that was originally established by the bishops in 2002 to enhance the protection of children from sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

Remember, whether committed by force or by seduction, every act of sexual abuse of a minor by a priest is a crime, both in civil law and in church law. So in discussing sexual abuse of minors by priests, we are not talking about the actions of schoolyard bullies. We are talking about the actions of criminals. This must be the starting point for addressing this crisis and scandal in the church.

Therefore, the audit process is a critical component in the church's effort to protect children and young people. Here are six concrete steps to improve the audit process to verify that each diocese in the United States actually complies with the charter.

Invite victims / survivors of clergy sexual abuse into the audit planning process, both at the national planning level and at the local diocesan level. Indeed, the charter indicates that outreach to every person who has been the victim of clergy sexual abuse and his or her family is the starting point of the mission of the charter (Article 1). Similarly, the verification of the performance of this outreach should be the starting point of the audits of the charter, and the victims / survivors can help.

NEW JERSEY
WFMZ

Jose Feliciano walked into the courtroom handcuffed and never said a word during the proceedings.

During the trial on Monday the prosecution remained on the attack questioning emergency service workers who responded to St. Patrick's Church in Chatham, New Jersey on October 22, 2009.

Those responders say they found a lifeless Father Edward Hinds.

"We usually check that by checking the jaw and the arm, they were both stiff. Also, we checked body temperature, he was ashen and cold," said Chatham Borough EMT Joseph McCabe.

NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

Written by
Peggy Wright | Staff Writer

While Jose Feliciano was in the rectory of St. Patrick Church in Chatham killing Rev. Edward Hinds, authorities say, his wife tried three times by telephone to reach her spouse as she waited outside the church to drive him home from work.

A Morris County jury on Monday heard testimony in Feliciano’s murder trial from county Prosecutor’s Office Detective Jan Monrad, who retrieved multiple cellular phone records of various people from Oct. 22 and 23, 2009. The 61-year-old pastor was stabbed 32 times in the rectory on Oct. 22, 2009, allegedly by the 18-year church custodian, Feliciano, now 66.

Monrad identified cell phone records that show Marisol Feliciano, who is expected to be called as a state witness, telephoned her husband three times between 5:10 p.m. and 5:50 p.m. on Oct. 22. Monrad also obtained records from Verizon Wireless that show a 911 emergency call at 5:26 p.m. on Oct. 22 from the priest’s cell phone, along with multiple other calls from Hinds’ phone that hit off cell towers in Pennsylvania, where Feliciano lives in Easton.

NEW YORK
Voz Iz Neias

Rockland County, NY - Ramapo police arrested 58-year-old Rabbi Moishe Turner earlier this week for allegedly sodomizing boys.

The Monsey resident was arraigned in Spring Valley Village Court yesterday, and charged with seven counts of criminal sex acts in the second degree, and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.

The religious leader posted bail yesterday, and is expected back in court on Oct. 27. His case is being handled by the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office.

SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Sacramento Bee

By Jennifer Garza
jgarza@sacbee.com

A victims' rights group is criticizing the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento today, claiming church officials quietly suspended a priest accused of sexual abuse earlier this month and have not done enough to notify potential victims.

Leaders of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said church officials removed the Rev. William Feeser from active ministry but "have not been open about it," said Chico Chavez of SNAP.

"They promised to be more transparent," said Chavez. "Why haven't they reached out to other potential victims?"

The victims' rights group plans to hold a news conference this afternoon at the Sacramento Pastoral Center.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

BY VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN • vhahn@post-dispatch.com

ST. LOUIS • A 19-year-old woman has sued the St. Louis Archdiocese, claiming she was molested by a pastor at St. Cronan's Church in St. Louis for several years when she was a young girl.

The woman also claims that the archdiocese knew that Fr. Joseph Ross, 68, had pleaded guilty in St. Louis County to sexually assaulting a minor, but the archdiocese put him in a parish setting where he was around children anyway.

"To me, that just shows a gross lack of supervision, and just needlessly placing children in danger," the woman's attorney, Ken Chackes, said.

Said the woman in a written statement: "The faith that was supposed to nurture me robbed me of my community, trust and childhood, poisoning me with nightmares, flashbacks, and fears."

UNITED STATES
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

The Grace of Everyday Saints: How a Band of Believers Lost Their Church and Found Their Faith by Julian Guthrie. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Boston, 2011). 288 pp., $25. No Closure: Catholic Practice and Boston's Parish Shutdowns by John C. Seitz. Harvard University Press (Cambridge, Mass., 2011). 322 pp., $39.95.

Julian Guthrie, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and author of The Grace of Everyday Saints: How a Band of Believers Lost Their Church and Found Their Faith, first met the "everyday saints" of St. Brigid Parish in 2004. By then, the Committee to Save St. Brigid Church had been meeting for 10 years in an effort to reopen their beloved church, which had been inexplicably suppressed in 1994.

Guthrie is a good writer and she has a palpable affection and admiration for the diverse people of this community, but she offers the fullest profiles of the group's leaders:

— Irish-born Father Cyril O'Sullivan ("Father O") risked being ostracized to confront now-retired Archbishop John M. Quinn, and despite his transfer to a parish in Marin County, he remains the spiritual center of this community in exile.

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Oct. 24, 2011
By William D'Antonio

Catholics in America

Generations

A growing body of literature in sociology has shown that experiences during individuals’ formative years, especially traumatic events such as wars, the Great Depression, tsunamis and other disasters, produce cultural and structural patterns within the particular period that set apart those who have lived through them from other generations. We applied this idea to Roman Catholics in the United States, because there are important historical events that demarcate distinct Catholic generations, with the Second Vatican Council as the major divide in the recent history of the church. It made sense to distinguish among three distinctive generations of Catholics: pre-Vatican II, Vatican II and post-Vatican II Catholics. The differences we found from our surveys of 1987 and 1993 led us to expect that the generations would continue to have different beliefs, practices and attitudes toward the church throughout their lives, even when they were at the same age or stage in life as the generations immediately before and after them. Our five surveys over 25 years enable us to test that expectation.

Pre-Vatican II Catholics, that is, Catholics born in 1940 or earlier, came of age in a church where Mass was said in Latin, the priest with his back to the people. The axiom was that you either went to Mass on Sunday or you were surely going to hell. Most Catholics chose Mass, and weekly Mass attendance rates reached as high as 75 percent in 1958. These Catholics were also the children and grandchildren of immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Poland, Germany and other European countries, essentially the white ethnic wave that came to the United States between 1840 and 1925. Thus, at the time of our first survey in 1987, they constituted about one in three of all Catholic adults (31 percent); they ranged in age from 47 to 90-plus.

Vatican II Catholics were born between 1941 and 1960; in 1987 they constituted nearly half (47 percent) of all Catholics. Vatican II Catholics had one foot in the old Latin Mass church and the other foot in the new English-language Mass church, with the priest now facing the people. These were the Catholics most clearly influenced by the changes brought on by the documents and the spirit of Vatican II. Events showed them to be the most active in moving away from being just “pray, pay and obey” Catholics. They became “the people of God,” with emphasis on the community of believers rather than the pre-Vatican II emphasis on priests and religious as somehow closer to God by virtue of their status in the church. They overlapped with the so-called baby boom generation, and witnessed the election and assassination of President John Kennedy; the Vietnam War and its divisive aftermath; and Watergate. The documents and spirit of Vatican II left the oldest among them unprepared for the reaffirmation of the church’s official condemnation of artificial contraception in Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times

By Chad GarrisonMon., Oct. 24 2011

​A lawsuit filed today paints a disturbing picture of abuse within a St. Louis Catholic Church. According to the complaint filed in St. Louis Circuit Court, Father Joseph Ross of St. Cronan's Church sexually molested a female parishioner over the span of four years in the late 1990s and early 2000s and the archdiocese should have known he was a threat to churchgoers.

The suit suggests that the molestation began in the late 1990s when the female victim was just five to six years old and continued through 2001. The plaintiff, "Jane Doe 92," is now 19 years old.

According to the complaint, Ross told the girl he was disciplining her on behalf of God and that she was helping him overcome his sexuality because he "liked boys more than girls." Some of the sexual abuse -- which allegedly included hand-to-genital, genital-to-genital and object-to-genital contact -- occurred while the victim was in Ross' care as her mother attended choir practice. The suit alleges the abuse occurred in various rooms inside the church in the Forest Park Southeast Neighborhood.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Philadelphia prosecutors have withdrawn their request for the treatment records of a former priest accused of molesting an altar boy, acknowledging that most of the files had either been destroyed or are protected by patient confidentiality laws.

The decision came a week after a lawyer for St. John Vianney, the Downingtown treatment center, said the state's Mental Health Procedures Act legally barred it from sharing its files.

That same motion to quash the subpoena noted that the medical center typically destroys most patient records eight years after treatment.

Prosecutors accepted both arguments.

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Oct. 24, 2011
By William V. D'Antonio
Catholics in America

Overview

Our research team has now carried out the fifth survey of American Catholics. The first survey, done just after Easter in 1987 and in anticipation of Pope John Paul II’s second visit to the United States, was designed with the hope that our bishops and the pope would find value in a demographic profile of American Catholics as well as a sketch of their beliefs, practices and attitudes. The fifth survey, also completed in the weeks after Easter, and now six years into the reign of Pope Benedict XVI, provides a portrait showing both persistence and change in the beliefs, practices and attitudes of Catholics as they head into the second decade of the 21st century.

This fifth survey took place in a time of continuing challenges facing the institutional church, with the sex abuse scandals still the subject of headlines nationally and worldwide; abortion and gender politics causing strains on several levels; the priest shortage, celibacy and the role of women prompting rethinking of the structure of the priesthood; and a prolonged economic recession putting new pressures onto the church’s teachings on “a preferential option for the poor,” immigration and the rights of workers to organize. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reported in 2009 that one in 10 Americans are former Catholics and that about one in three of those raised Catholic have left the church. At the same time, a 2008 Pew Forum report indicated a net loss of 7.5 percent in the number of Americans who were born Catholic but who are no longer Catholic (compared to a net loss of 3.7 percent for Baptists, the largest Protestant denominational family). As is true across all denominations, the departures appear to be especially heavy among the younger generations. Nonetheless, Catholics’ share of the American population has remained stable (at 24 percent), largely as a result of Hispanic immigrants. In the midst of this fluidity, no one knows the impact that the growing number of Hispanic Catholics will have on present trends.

We designed the fifth survey to continue tracking trends among generations, across gender lines and among differing levels of commitment and Catholic identity. The continued growth in the Hispanic portion of the Catholic population, and the importance of the youngest generation (the millennials, those born 1979-93), led us to enlarge the size of the survey sample to enable more detailed analysis controlling for ethnicity within and across generations. And we added new questions to probe the issues sketched out above.

UNITED STATES
USA Today

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

One in four Americans call themselves Catholic, but a survey released Monday finds this is more a cultural brand label for many than a religious identity.

An overwhelming majority, 88%, say "how a person lives is more important than whether he or she is Catholic," according to Catholics in America: Persistence and change in the Catholic landscape.

The survey, a comprehensive look at the beliefs and practices of 1,442 U.S. adults identifying themselves as Catholics, also finds that 86% say "you can disagree with aspects of church teachings and still remain loyal to the church."

And 40% say you can be a good Catholic without believing that in Mass, the bread and wine really become the body and blood of Christ — a core doctrine of Catholicism.

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Oct. 24, 2011
By the Research Team
Catholics in America

Abuse

The sexual abuse of minors by priests, both in the U.S. and around the world, continues to generate headlines and media coverage. To help gain a better understanding of Catholics’ experiences with and reactions to this issue, our current survey included several new questions on the topic.

Seven percent of Catholics say that they personally know someone who was abused by a priest, and 12 percent say that they personally know a priest who has been accused of abuse (Figure 10). Older generations of Catholics are more likely than younger Catholics to know someone who has direct personal experience with the sex abuse issue. Fully 10 percent of those in the pre-Vatican II generation say they know someone who was abused by a priest, as do 9 percent of those in the Vatican II generation. Among millennial Catholics, by contrast, only 3 percent say they know someone who was abused by a priest. Similarly, nearly one in five of the pre-Vatican II generation say they personally know a priest who has been implicated in the scandal, as do 16 percent of those in the Vatican II generation. By contrast, fewer than one in 10 millennial Catholics say they personally know a priest who has been accused of abuse.

There is little connection between frequency of Mass attendance and knowing someone who has been abused by a priest, with roughly comparable numbers of regular attenders and infrequent attenders saying they know someone who was abused. Among those who attend Mass weekly, however, more say they know a priest who has been implicated than among those who attend Mass less often. This may reflect that more frequent Mass-goers know more priests than those who attend Mass yearly or less often.

CANADA
Calgary Herald

By Judith Lavoie and Derek Spalding, Postmedia News

Scouts Canada is adamantly denying that the organization has secret files documenting suspected abuse by volunteer leaders.

"The suggestion that Scouts Canada is declining to share with police information or files pertaining to abuse by (convicted pedophile Rick) Turley or any other former volunteer leader involved either recently or many years past is equally false," said Scouts Canada spokesman John Petitti.

Turley spent about five years with the 2nd Douglas Scout group in the 1980s and, when suspicions of abuse were raised, was transferred to the Cordova Bay Sea Scouts, but police were not informed. Both troops are in Victoria.

Petitti said all allegations or complaints are now shared with police and no secret files exist.

CANADA
CBC News

A British Columbia man whose scout leader molested him is furious that Scouts Canada won't tell the public how many of its leaders have sexually abused former scouts like himself.

"I'd like to see the stats on how many victims in Canada there are due to the Boy Scouts," says the 52-year-old man, whose identity is protected by a publication ban.

An investigation by CBC-TV’s The Fifth Estate found that since the 1950s, more than 300 children have been abused by scout leaders active in the Canadian movement.

The investigative program unearthed proof that for decades Scouts Canada kept what they called a "confidential list" of pedophiles barred from its ranks, in an effort to prevent them from re-entering other troops.

CANADA
CBC News

A former Toronto boy scout is breaking years of silence about a confidentiality agreement he signed with the Boy Scouts of Canada, saying he’d feel “victimized again” if he stayed mum on the secret deal.

Mark Johnston is one of dozens of former boy scouts across the country who have signed confidentiality agreements in out-of-court settlements of lawsuits against the Canadian scouting group in the past 15 years, CBC News has learned.

Each of the 13 civil suits accused Scouts Canada of failing in some way to protect scouts from pedophiles.

Like most of the victims who signed confidentiality agreements, Johnston is forbidden from publicly disclosing the amount of the settlement or even that a settlement was reached. Johnston revealed to CBC, however, that his settlement was in the six-figure range.

CANADA
CBC News

At least two lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of Canada over a scout leader who molested dozens of boys in northern Ontario and Manitoba First Nations communities have been quietly settled out of court, CBC News has learned.

The civil suits pertain to Ralph Rowe, a former Anglican priest, pilot and Scoutmaster. He’s one of Canada’s most prolific pedophiles, but not well known outside of the northern communities where he used his positions of authority to prey on boys.

Investigators suspect Rowe molested more than a 100 victims over the years, while mental health authorities in the north say the tally could be as high as 500.

The two settlement agreements contain confidentiality clauses that prevent the plaintiffs from publicly discussing the settlement amount.

CANADA
CBC News

CBC News has learned that Scouts Canada has signed out-of-court confidentiality agreements with more than a dozen child sex-abuse victims in recent years, shielding the incidents from further media attention.

In many of the agreements, a confidentiality clause prevents victims from revealing the amount paid or even the fact that there was a settlement. At least one bars a former boy scout from publicly divulging that the abuse took place.

Scouts Canada has refused to disclose details about any of the settlements. Sources tell CBC News that some settlements were around $200,000.

“An organization like Scouts has some advantages in trying to keep this quiet,” says Rob Talach, a London, Ont., -based lawyer. “Their core message and their core objective in society is a morally positive one.”

CANADA
CBC News

A Nova Scotia man has filed a lawsuit against Scouts Canada alleging the group failed to do enough to protect him from a scout leader molesting him.

The 40-year-old former boy scout alleges in the lawsuit that his scout leader, Donald George Schweyer, sexually abused him repeatedly over more than two years in the 1980s while he was a scout in Lunenburg County.

The allegations have not been proven in court. Schweyer was criminally charged in 2007 for sex abuse involving five boys, but committed suicide at the age of 57, just days before his trial.

“There's no other options left I guess. He's not here to face justice,” says the plaintiff, whose identity is covered by a publication ban. “I figure if you don’t make them pay, nobody’s ever going to ever stop this stuff from happening to other people.”

CANADA
CBC News

Scouts Canada has signed out-of-court confidentiality agreements with more than a dozen child sex-abuse victims since 1995, shielding the incidents from further media attention.

CBC's investigative unit searched civil court records across the country and found a total of 24 lawsuits filed against Scouts Canada since 1995. Of those, plaintiffs in 13 lawsuits have signed confidentiality agreements.

But lawyer Rob Talach, who has handled dozens of abuse cases involving the Catholic church, says such agreements are morally wrong.

"The legislature should get involved here ... and say these are not going to be allowed in cases that involve criminal acts," said Talach.

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Oct. 24, 2011
By Tom Roberts

The latest version of American Catholics is the fifth in a series of surveys of Catholic attitudes conducted every six years. Taken together, they make up one of the deepest and most consistent portraits ever compiled of the membership of the country's largest religious denomination.

During the last quarter century, Catholic attitudes and practices, as well as the makeup of the church itself, have changed markedly even as Catholics have maintained a steady conviction about certain core beliefs. Stated in simplest terms, Catholics in the past 25 years have become more autonomous when making decisions about important moral issues; less reliant on official teaching in reaching those decisions; and less deferential to the authority of the Vatican and individual bishops.

The full contents of the report and an explanation of how it was done are contained in a special section of the print version of the National Catholic Reporter and is reproduced here, a total of 13 essays accompanied by a variety of charts and graphs illustrating the findings.

Some significant points:
•Foundational theological convictions and the sacraments remain at the core of belief for most Catholics.
•For 73 percent of Catholics, belief in the Resurrection is very important while teachings about Mary as the mother of God are very important to 64 percent.
•Sixty-three percent say that sacraments such as the Eucharist are very important.
•Sixty-seven percent rate "helping the poor" as very important, ranking it nearly as essential to their beliefs as the Resurrection. ...

In a sign that religion as well as politics is local, most Catholics give favorable reviews to the leadership of the U.S. bishops as a whole, and particularly of their local bishops. At the same time, the survey "finds a consensus among American Catholics that the bishops have come up short in their handling of the sex abuse issues," with most Catholics saying the issue has damaged the political credibility of church leaders and impaired the ability of priests "to meet the spiritual and pastoral needs of their parishioners."

SPRING VALLEY (NY)
TLJ

[with video from News 12]

October 23

SPRING VALLEY, NY – Ramapo police arrested 58-year-old Rabbi Moshe Turner earlier this week for allegedly sodomizing boys.

The Monsey resident was arraigned in Spring Valley Village Court yesterday, and charged with seven counts of criminal sex acts in the second degree, and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.

The religious leader posted bail yesterday, and is expected back in court on Oct. 27. His case is being handled by the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

WHAT

At a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will
-- disclose a new child sex abuse & cover up lawsuit of a notorious St. Louis cleric,
-- praise the teenaged victim, the youngest Missouri girl to sue a pedophile priest,

They will also
-- blast church officials for putting a convicted child molester in a parish,
-- warning few or no parishioners about him (as recently as 2002), and
-- urge them to put this criminal - and other child molesting clerics - on their websites (like more than tw dozen other Catholic bishops have done.

WHEN
Monday, October 24 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
Outside the St. Louis archdiocesan HQ/chancery office, 4445 Lindell (near Taylor), in the Central West End

CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Joelle Casteix on October 21, 2011

Every time a victim of abuse and cover-up uses the tried-and-true justice system to expose their perpetrator and seek accountability, children are protected right now. We are so proud of these two men, who fought the odds and had their day in court. They are heroes to the tens of thousands of victims around the world who will never be able to stand up and speak.

Although the jury did not find in the victims' favor, a well-known perpetrator was questioned in open court. He admitted many of his crimes. The Franciscan cover-up of those crimes was also exposed, including the fact that for at least 5 years, Gus Krumm was supposed to be on restricted ministry, but instead was given full access to kids. We hope that his other victims will find the strength to seek help.

ROME
Pacific Free Press

by Bill Quigley

We never thought it would end up on a hard wooden bench inside a police station in Piazza Cavour. Maryknoll priest Fr. Roy Bourgeois, young Erin Saiz Hannah of Women’s Ordination Conference in the US and Miriam Duignan from Womenpriests.org from the UK were sitting there when my wife and I arrived. They were being detained by the Rome police.

It started when the Rome police spotted the three women in long white church liturgical garments robes, the man in a roman collar dressed all in black, and their supporters walking several blocks down the middle of Via della Conciliazione directly towards the Vatican, the headquarters of the institutional Roman Catholic Church and the Basilica of St. Peter.

The group sang Alleluias and carried a long purple banner Ordain Catholic Women, a big red and white banner proclaiming God is Calling Women To Be Priests” (in English and Italian), and a black and white Call to Action banner.

Hrvatska (Croatia)
Zagreb News

Župnika župe Presvetog Srca Isusovog Mladena Kožinu sumnjiči se kako je s interneta skidao pedofilske sadržaje, za sad nema sumnji da je naudio nekom djetetu, izvještava Novi list.

Kako se doznaje župnik je osumnjičen da je od 2007. do početka 2010. godine 'skidao' fotografije obnažene djece ili djece u eksplicitnom seksualnom ponašanju. Zašto je prijavljen tek sada i je li ovo tek dio šire policijske akcije, nije poznato. Odveden u pritvor na temelju prijave koja se odnosi na kazneno djelo 'dječje pornografije na računalnom sustavu ili mreži' iz Članka 197. a Kaznenog zakona RH.

CROATIA
Croatian Times

The Zagreb priest - arrested last week for possession of child pornography - has been caught in collaboration with the British police as part of an international action.

Mladen Kozina, 60, admitted to the possession of photographs showing children in explicitly sexual positions. He was released to defend himself as a free man.

According to Croatian daily Vecernji List, Kozina refused state legal aid and is likely to seek assistance from the Church authorities.

UNITED STATES
One News Now

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 10/24/2011

A nun who counseled a murder suspect is being called upon to testify in his trial -- and that poses an interesting legal question.

Jose Feliciano is on trial for allegedly stabbing a priest to death after being required to obtain a background check for continued employment at a New Jersey church. Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel tells OneNewsNow it is wrong to obtain testimony from the nun with whom the suspect shared that information.

"What they're trying to do is breach that counseling confidentiality," Staver explains. "If they do that, then that means that counseling from either a clergy -- or in this case a nun or counselor -- falls apart, because if the counselee cannot be assured that what they're saying to the counselor is protected by confidentiality, they're not going to open up."

While there are exceptions to that rule, Staver suggests that is apparently not the case in this particular trial. "When that person is engaging in a specific counseling relationship, then those communications are protected," he states. "If it's just an off the cuff conversation, it's completely different."

AUSTRALIA
The Chronicle

Peter Hardwick | 24th October 2011

IN the aftermath of the removal from office of Bishop William Morris, Australia's Catholic bishops have pledged their loyalty to the pope.

The Australian bishops wound up an "ad limina" visit with Pope Benedict XVI and leading Vatican officials at the weekend and issued a statement about the Vatican's response to the dissenting bishop of the Diocese of Toowoomba.

"What was at stake was the Church's unity in faith and the ecclesial communion between the Pope and the other bishops in the College of Bishops," the statement read.

CANADA
The Ottawa Citizen

By Charles Lewis, Postmedia News
October 24, 2011

Some have called it a longstanding conflict, but others see it evolving quickly into outright revolt.

In Austria, one of Europe's most Roman Catholic countries, more than 400 priests - a 10th of all the clergy - are calling for radical changes to the priesthood.

The group, known as the Austrian Priests' Initiative, wants to abandon two of the church's most tightly held practices: mandatory celibacy for priests and keeping the clergy exclusively male.

There have always been elements in the church calling for such changes, but this time it appears the determination has reached a new level of militancy that is unlikely to fade away any time soon.

CHILE
Diario el Divisadero

Santiago-. Tras el cierre de la investigación sobre las denuncias en contra del sacerdote Fernando Karadima por abusos sexuales reiterados, el diputado René Alinco anunció que presentará un proyecto de ley que aumente las penas por este tipo de delitos, además de declarar la imprescriptibilidad de éstos.

“A propósito de este caso es que urge hacer un cambio en la legislación vigente porque la gran mayoría de las violaciones, abusos sexuales o estupros son denunciados mucho tiempo después, sobretodo en menores de edad. Estos delitos no debieran prescribir y así puedan ser perseguidos e investigados en cualquier tiempo” manifestó el parlamentario.

IRELAND
The Sunday Business Post

23 October 2011 By John Burke

Some 9 per cent of all rape allegations made to the gardai are false, according to research conducted for the state prosecutor’s office.

However, Director of Public Prosecutions James Hamilton said that, despite the research, his own experience of dealing with rape cases did not bear the findings out. ‘‘One of our studies suggested that it was as high as 9 per cent, but in my experience, it wouldn’t be anywhere near that high," Hamilton told The Sunday Business Post.

Hamilton, who retires next month after 12 years as the DPP, defended the handling by his office of rape complaints, including cases of historical clerical abuse. ‘‘One of the interesting statistics is that our overall conviction rate, comparing the number of convictions with the number of complaints made, is pretty well the same as in theUK,’’Hamilton said.

SPAIN
The Freethinker (United Kingdom)

FRESH revelations about the Catholic Church’s involvement in a host of human rights abuses in Spain under Franco’s dictatorship and even later have surfaced in the last week, causing outrage in a country fast distancing itself from its Catholic past.

The latest scandal centres on baby-trafficking by Church, government officials and clinics over several decades. As many as 300,000 babies may have been the victims of a practise that saw infants taken from “morally or economically deficit” parents and sold to couples deemed more acceptable.

The scandal was the subject three days ago of a BBC report by Katya Adler, who gained access to a right-wing Catholic doctor, Eduardo Vella, said to have been complicit in the money-spinning business. Dr Vella stands accused of telling women that their babies had died when they hadn’t, and handing over the infants to other couples for cash. The elderly doctor genially welcomed Adler to his home in Madrid, thinking that she was a patient, but when she revealed she was a BBC correspondent, he turned hostile. Adler reported:

Dr Vella grabbed a metal crucifix standing on his desk. He moved towards me, branding it in my face. ‘Do you know what this is?’ he said, brandishing it in my face. ‘I have always acted in his name, always for the good of the children and to protect the mothers. Enough!’

KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

Nancy Kelly Waters
Special to the Star

My profession makes me a “mandatory reporter.” I cannot, by law, look away or ignore signs of child abuse or child endangerment. I must report any suspicions to the legal authorities. I may inform my superiors but that does not relieve me of my personal duty to report.

Being a mandatory reporter is stressful. Very rarely is it a clear-cut case of abuse. A student might mention something or you might see something or overhear something that sets off a cold alarm. There is no choice once that alarm sounds. The legal, ethical and moral decision of what to do has been made.

As an employee of a school district, I must think only of the child. I cannot think of my personal best interests or the reputation of the school district. I cannot consider any potential awkwardness or bad feelings my call might raise in the family, or in the wider school community. I cannot worry that if my report proves to be unwarranted, I might be somehow targeted or complained about. My duty is to protect the child.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Ean Higgins
From:The Australian
October 24, 2011

A LANDMARK court ruling in a pedophile case will increase pressure on governments to legislate to enable victims of sexual abuse by clergy to more effectively sue the Catholic church.

In what plaintiff lawyers described as a blow for victims, a NSW Supreme Court judge has overturned a ruling that enabled five men abused as boys to seek damages from the church's asset-holding trust fund.

The church did not dispute that Thomas William Grealy, known at the time as Brother Augustine, had abused the boys in 1974 at the Patrician Brothers Primary School in the western Sydney suburb of Granville.

In 1997, Grealy admitted abusing two boys, and pleaded guilty to four incidents of indecent assault and one incident of buggery involving one boy.

MINNESOTA
KAAL

A former Lutheran pastor from rural Gibbon in south-central Minnesota goes on trial this week on charges he had illegal sexual contact with a 16-year-old girl.

The Journal of New Ulm reports 52-year-old David E. Radtke is charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct and two other felonies.

Prosecutors allege the former pastor of St. Peter's Lutheran Church gave the girl late-night back massages and touched her sexually several times in his home last May.

Court records show the girl told investigators that Radtke asked her for forgiveness after the sexual incidents.

BROOKLYN (NY)
Brooklyn Daily

By Thomas Tracy

Parishioners loyal to a Marine Park priest who was accused of sexually abusing two 13-year-old boys last week lashed out at a group of protestors outside his church on Sunday, with one of the flock spitting at the demonstrators and another telling them to stick the flyer they were handing out “up their [buttocks].”

Members of the New Jersey-based Road to Recovery, a group that says it helps victims of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy members, came to the Good Sehpherd Church on Batchelder Street to “stand in solidarity” with teenagers who filed sex abuse charges against Msgr. Thomas Brady, the pastor emeritus of the church.

No punches were thrown, but parishioners argued openly with the protestors, which didn’t surprise it’s leader, who claimed that those who lashed out were angry, bitter and in denial because they had been overly indoctrinated by the church.

“They want to say their priest would never do such a thing, but they forget that two 13-year-old boys were involved,” said Rev. Robert Hoatson. “I don’t blame [the parishioners], I blame the brainwashing the church has done over the centuries.”

BROOKLYN (NY)
News 12

[with video]

(10/23/11) BROOKLYN- Parishioners at a Marine Park Church say they will continue to support and defend their beloved retired pastor who was recently arrested for sexually abusing two boys.

A small group of protestors were waiting outside of the Good Shepherd Catholic Church Sunday morning, trying to get parishioners to support the two alleged victims.

UNITED STATES
Innocence is precious. Childhood is sacred.

by Nandini

I was born into the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), otherwise known as the “Hare Krishna Movement”. In fact, I was even born on the “appearance day” (i.e. birthday) of its founder, in the same village in India where its primary deity, Krishna, is said to have been born on Earth some 5,000 years ago. Despite my “auspicious birth”, I don’t consider myself an expert of this religion by any definition and have never quite felt like I belonged. Unlike so many others who grew up in the Movement, I can’t recite ślokas on demand, quote the Bhagavad Gita, or properly explain the main tenets of its creed. I don’t even follow all of its four main guiding principles. Except for being a lifelong vegetarian. Mostly. I have stuff that contains eggs once in a while. And I’m not a big gambler. But I have had “illicit sex” during my lifetime and do enjoy the occasional alcoholic beverage.

In my teens and 20′s I was embarrassed to say I was a “Hare Krishna,” for all the same reasons it is ridiculed so readily in pop culture. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, each of these words is an example. I still cringe a little bit when I hear the words—which pop up everywhere by the way. It was in a question on Jeopardy. There’s a Pictionary clue about it. You can buy a Hare Krishna Halloween costume. Or a Hare Krishna Zombie action figure. Wait, that last one is kinda awesome. ...

There is really nothing else to explain the greatest tragedy of ISKCON—what happened to an entire generation of its children. And that’s where I would like to focus. Like the Catholic Church and many other religious groups, ISKCON has suffered from scandal and missteps in managing cases of child abuse. A large group of kids that grew up in my generation and went through the worst of it collectively filed and won a lawsuit against the leaders of ISKCON in 2000. For the kids who either entered the movement with their parents at a young age or were born into the movement in the 70′s and early 80′s, being in the Movement involved every range of abuse. Most kids were enrolled in gurukula ashrams (think parochial boarding schools), hundreds or even thousands of miles from their parents. These schools varied greatly in how stark or miserable they were. Some were just austere but full of fun and adventure, while others were like prisons, in every sense of the word. Children were often deprived of nutritional meals, beaten, molested, “disciplined” with brutal punishments, and for some, things were much, much worse. And by children I mean some as young as 3, but the standard age kids were sent away began at 5.

NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger

NEWARK — For nearly two decades, he was known as Father John, the Roman Catholic priest who passed out skimpy, tight-fitting bathing suits to young wrestlers and snapped pictures by the thousands.

Sometimes, he’d join in the bouts, donning a Speedo himself and grappling with teenage boys, one accuser said.

Amid claims of inappropriate conduct — and after a months-long stay at a treatment center for troubled clergy members — the Rev. John M. Capparelli was suspended from ministry by the Archdiocese of Newark in 1992.

MADISON (WI)
Wisconsin State Journal

DOUG ERICKSON | derickson@madison.com

James Carroll was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, then gave up the priesthood a short five years later.

Those were turbulent years — for Carroll and for the country.

As a chaplain at Boston University, he was a self-described "radical priest" and anti-war activist, opposing U.S. involvement in Vietnam. His 1996 memoir, "An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us," covers that difficult journey and won the National Book Award.

Carroll, 68, a columnist for The Boston Globe, was in Madison last week for a series of events as a visiting fellow of the Lubar Institute for the Study of Abrahamic Religions at UW-Madison. While the institute's invitation was due largely to his recent writings on interfaith dialogue, Carroll took part in a wide-ranging Q&A Monday at a gathering of campus faculty and area clergy members. Some excerpts: ...

• On being called a "Catholic hater" for his criticism of the Catholic hierarchy: "If I'm a Catholic basher, what are the bishops who have been protecting pedophile priests? They're the real Catholic bashers. Those of us who defend the theology and practices of the Second Vatican Council are, to certain conservatives, always going to be Catholic bashers, but it's not true."

NEW YORK
CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBS 2) – Members of a charity that helps victims of clergy sexual abuse will be back outside a Brooklyn church on Sunday morning to show support for two alleged victims.

The group, Road to Recovery, stood outside Good Shepherd Church in Marine Park on Saturday to hang out flyers to parishioners as they arrived for mass.

The church’s former priest, Monsignor Thomas Brady, is accused of inappropriately touching two 13-year-old boys.

The 78-year-old is said to suffer from dementia brought on by a series of illnesses, but the charity group said the acts must still be questioned.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In a quiet modification of a traditional format, the Vatican has dropped most of the individual private meetings between Pope Benedict XVI and bishops making their "ad limina" visits to Rome.

The unannounced change was instituted earlier this year, apparently in an effort to reduce the scheduling burden on the 84-year-old pope and to help cut through the backlog of "ad limina" visits, which are supposed to be made every five years by heads of dioceses.

In place of one-on-one meetings, the pope now usually holds more freewheeling sessions with groups of 7-10 bishops at a time, lasting about an hour. That is expected to be the format for U.S. bishops when they begin their "ad limina" visits in early November.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Catholic Insider

As most BCI readers are no doubt aware, about every five years, the ordinary of a diocese needs to report to the Holy Father an account of the state of his diocese in what is called an “ad limina” visit. That is taking place in early November for the Boston Archdiocese. This is one in what will be a series of posts offering ideas on what we hope will be discussed about Boston.

The “ad limina” practice started in 1911 during the pontificate of Pope Pius X. These meetings take place in Rome with a variety of Vatican officials, and used to include one-on-one time with the Holy Father. But maintaining the pace of these visits every 5 years slowed down considerably in recent years due to the declining health of the late Pope John Paul II, and the format has changed due to the increased number of bishops who would have to meet with the Holy Father. The new format is described in this Catholic News Service article:

In place of one-on-one meetings, the pope now usually holds more freewheeling sessions with groups of 7-10 bishops at a time, lasting about an hour. That is expected to be the format for U.S. bishops when they begin their “ad limina” visits in early November.

The ad limina visit for Cardinal Sean O’Malley and other Boston officials to review the state of the Boston Archdiocese is taking place in the timeframe of November 1-12. In an ideal world, the Boston Archdiocese would be functioning so well that people (or blogs like BCI) would not feel a need to offer input and ideas at all. But as we all know, this is not an ideal world in Boston.

It occurs to BCI that readers frustrated with the lack of responsiveness of the Boston Archdiocese to issues of importance to Catholic faithful might wish to have some way of sending input to Cardinal O’Malley and various Vatican offices asking those officials to bring certain topics up with the Cardinal that are being neglected. Those offices and officials include:
o Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet
o Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Archbishop Mauro Piacenza
o Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal William Levada
o Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, Cardinal Raymond Burke

PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

By: Josephine Darang
Philippine Daily Inquirer
9:07 am | Sunday, October 23rd, 2011

It was the greatest news we received in the evening of Oct. 14 when Cardinal Rosales announced over Radio Veritas that Imus Bishop Luis Antonio “Chito” Tagle has been appointed by the Vatican as the new Archbishop of Manila to succeed him.

It was an answered prayer for me because I prayed to Blessed John Paul II when I was in Rome on May 1 that Bishop Chito be appointed Archbishop of Manila.

When I texted Legazpi Bishop Joel Baylon the news, he texted back: “The Lord be praised!” But I came to know about it when Dr. Alvin Balatbat, devotee of Our Lady of Mercy in Candaba, Pampanga, texted: “Archbishop Tagle, new Archbishop of Manila.”

The news spread like wildfire and brought joy to a lot of people. They welcomed the news that Bishop Chito Tagle is the new Manila Archbishop.

PHILIPPINES
Manila Bulletin

By RAYMUND F. ANTONIO

October 13, 2011

MANILA, Philippines — The Vatican has appointed a staunch defender of the Catholic faith as the new patriarch of the Archdiocese of Manila, replacing retired Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales.

Rome picked Imus (Cavite) Bishop Luis Antonio Tagle to head the richest, as well as the most influential archdiocese in the Philippines, making him the 32nd archbishop of Manila.

Tagle’s selection comes at a most crucial time with the Philippine Congress deliberating on a contentious bill on reproductive health which the Catholic Church is opposing.

PHILIPPINES
The Pinoy

By Philip C. Tubeza – He has not even been officially installed, but new Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle has already been tagged as a “papal contender” by a respected international Vatican watcher.

Writing in his blog, CNN Senior Vatican analyst John Allen Jr. tagged the 54-year-old prelate as a “new papal contender,” describing Tagle as “a rising star in the Asian Church” and his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI deserved “to be on the global Catholic radar screen.”

“The big news from the Philippines has been the October 13 appointment of Luis Antonio Tagle as the new Archbishop of Manila, putting him in line to become a cardinal the next time Benedict XVI hosts a consistory,” Allen said in his blog at the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) website.

NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Star-Ledger Editorial Board

The allegations against John M. Capparelli are startling, but they’re only allegations, made in a civil lawsuit by an accuser 30 years later. Still, the accusations of long-ago sexual abuse leave parents, school and union officials grappling with a serious question:

Is Capparelli, the priest-turned-teacher, a threat to students at his Newark school, or is he a victim of a wrongful one-man crusade to label him a pedophile?

Or maybe it should be phrased this way: Which man is teaching accelerated ninth-grade math these days — the priest who has been accused of questionable sexual behavior (and stealing) in the 1970s and 1980s, then removed from the ministry, or the 18-year public school teacher with a squeaky-clean record?

UNITED KINGDOM
The Press Association

A leading child abuse lawyer has warned physical and sexual abuse in special Muslim faith schools is going unreported and unpunished.

Richard Scorer, who has acted for many victims of abuse within the Catholic Church, claimed cultural differences are at the heart of the problem, with Muslim families feeling unable to speak out.

A recent BBC Radio 4 investigation using freedom of information legislation showed there have been more than 400 allegations of physical abuse in England, Scotland and Wales in the past three years and 30 allegations of sexual abuse in the last two years.

But only 10 of the physical abuse allegations went to court, leading to two prosecutions and just three sexual abuse cases were pursued in the courts, leading to one prosecution.

NORTH DAKOTA
In-Forum

By: Tracy McGillis, Mayville, N.D.

I find it offensive that Fargo Bishop Samuel Aquila would allude to the idea that the Catholic Church will “have to stand for the truth” and “speak clearly to the truth no matter what the cost.” Apparently this only applies when they are trying to suppress the rights and freedoms of women and homosexuals.

In the “Aquila: Catholic freedoms attacked” article dated Oct. 16, Aquila was referring to the Catholic Church’s choice to close Catholic adoption agencies in states that have legalized same-sex unions, the new government mandate to require private insurers to provide women with coverage for contraception and sterilization and a woman’s right to choose.

Sexual abuse within the Catholic Church has destroyed generations of individuals, families and communities. Just recently, charges of failing to report suspected child abuse were brought against a Kansas City bishop because he did not follow the church’s own policies and procedures when child pornography was found on a priest’s computer. That priest has been charged with possession and production of child pornography. The bishop was aware of the illegal behavior in December but did not report it to police until May. In fairness, there were restrictions placed on this priest, but he wasn’t monitored and still managed to be in contact with children during this time.

How does “standing for the truth” and “speaking clearly to the truth no matter what the cost” apply here?

KANSAS CITY (MO)
GetReligion

Posted by Bobby

In my post the other day on the indictment of a Roman Catholic bishop in Missouri, I acknowledged that I am not an expert on the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandals.

That admission on my part prompted a scolding comment (punctuated with a healthy serving of sarcasm) from a GetReligion reader:

That’s for dang sure. Indeed, your critique demonstrates that you’re not even really up to speed on the situation in KC. Have you checked out the long-running Facebook page, where his constituents are demanding his resignation over the issue?

But do carry on; it’s rather entertaining to (sic) what pundits pontificate from the perspective of ignorance. Hey, write first, investigate later. That’s…. “journalism?”

I replied that I had not checked out the Facebook page. That’s not my job. My role is to critique mainstream media coverage of religion, not to do the reporting myself. Certainly, I could “dang sure” do a better job of that sometimes.

WEYMOUTH (MA)
The Patriot Ledger

By Lane Lambert
The Patriot Ledger

Posted Oct 22, 2011

WEYMOUTH —

Drivers on Washington Street had an unusual sight as they passed St. Francis Xavier Cemetery – an elderly priest in black, sitting in a wheelchair, and holding a placard that said “Superiors neglected my health.”

The Rev. Philip Laplante, 91, a member of the Marist Fathers order, claims the Marists and the Boston Archdiocese are failing to provide the medical care and financial support to which he is entitled.

With him at the cemetery entrance was Susan Gallagher of Weymouth, who says she is his health proxy.

PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

ANGELES CITY—A Catholic priest and his supposed girlfriend did not appear on Friday for the preliminary investigation of a complaint for adultery filed by the woman’s husband on Oct. 12.

Fr. Jeffrey Louie Maghirang was represented by his lawyer, George Logronio. The woman, however, did not send a lawyer to represent her. The preliminaries were held behind closed doors.

Saying he handled the case only on Thursday, Logronio filed a motion asking City Prosecutor Oliver Garcia to give him 10 days to file Maghirang’s counter-affidavit. Garcia approved Logronio’s motion.

The complainant, 42, and his relatives wore black shirts during the hearing.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

SNAP’s (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests) “Open Letter to Clay Co. and Jackson Co. Prosecutors” urges them to remember the seriousness of Bishop Finn’s alleged offenses as they move toward trial. It serves as a template for concerned Philadelphia Catholics who wish to remind District Attorney Seth Williams that we demand justice for our children who were endangered (according to Lynn’s own testimony). This justice would surely protect children in the future.

CANADA/UNITED STATES
National Post

By Judith Lavoie and Derek Spalding

VICTORIA —A Scout leader, later convicted of numerous sexual assaults against children, was shuffled from a Scout group in central Victoria to a Sea Scout group in Cordova Bay, — about 10 kilometres across town —after regional Scout Canada leaders decided suspicions of abuse were not hard enough evidence to go to police.

Richard (Rick) Turley, 58, who was involved with Scouts in California and in Victoria through the 1970s and ‘80s and who spent years preying on victims in Victoria and other Vancouver Island communities, is a focal point of a widespread investigation by the CBC’s The Fifth Estate and Los Angeles Times.

The investigation into Scouts in both Canada and the United State claims the organizations kept confidential lists of pedophiles.

In the 1980s, when Turley started volunteering with the 2nd Douglas Scout Group in Victoria, which met at Craigflower elementary school and included boys from the Gorge, View Royal, Burnside and Tillicum areas, had already had been convicted in the U.S. of kidnapping a boy he met through Scouts and served time in a state hospital as a “mentally disordered sex offender.”

KANSAS CITY (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

BY JESSE BOGAN jbogan@post-dispatch.com

KANSAS CITY • A dozen people crammed into a parish hall Wednesday night to earn a certificate in "Protecting God's Children."

The two-hour course has been provided by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph for the past decade and was designed to help people detect warning signs of child sex abuse and know how to report inappropriate behavior.

But the obvious subtext of the event — splashed across headlines nationwide this month — remained, for the most part, unspoken. Apart from a passing reference to "the news," those who participated in the training heard nothing of the indictment this month of their diocese and current bishop, Robert Finn, for failing to report child abuse.

Catholic school teachers attended the training at St. George Parish in Odessa, Mo., along with a maintenance man, women planning to chaperone a bus trip to a youth convention and somebody who occasionally tends a church snack booth.

MISSOURI
Child Protection News

Written on October 20, 2011 by Patrick Noaker in Protecting Our Kids.

In June, we wrote about the preposterous acts of the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph and Bishop Robert Finn when they discovered that one of their priests, Fr. Shawn Ratigan, had child pornography on his computer. Instead of reporting the child pornography to the police, Bishop Finn concealed the pornography in order to avoid scandal. According to legal documents and other reports, it appears that another little girl was victimized after the Diocese and Bishop discovered the child pornography, but before it was reported to the police 6 months later. Since that date, a courageous Jackson County, Missouri prosecutor Jean Peters Baker presented this evidence to a grand jury who issued formal criminal indictments against Bishop Robert Finn and the Diocese itself for failing to report the child pornography. If there ever was a case that demanded criminal charges, this one is it. Great job prosecutor Jean Peters Baker. You have made it crystal clear that if you possess child pornography or are aware of someone who possesses child pornography, you have the duty to report it to law enforcement.

UNITED STATES
Leon J. Podles: Dialogue

Rod Dreher is back in the blogosphere, and has two very good blogs (here and here) on the situation in Kansas City, where Bishop Finn has just been indicted.

Dreher makes most of the important points. I have only a few words to add.

Bishops cannot be trusted implicitly. Some consider it their duty to lie to protect themselves. They do not consider anything they promise to be binding.

The Catholic Church suffers from a serious misunderstanding of the role of the clergy. The laity are infantilized, and want to regard the clergy as living oracles and saints, rather than as ordinary sinners who have a difficult and demanding role in the Catholic community. The higher clergy especially are politicians, and should be given no more trust than any other politician, whether in corporate, military, or governmental life. The laity in general turn a blind eye to this; recognizing it would make life too uncomfortable.

ReGAIN

By Based on an aritcle in Proceso

Secret Vatican Documents – The Stigma of Maciel

Secret Vatican documents from their archives that indicate that for decades the Vatican was well aware of Father Maciel and his pedophilia, drug addiction and corrupt manipulation within the church but protected him anyway have been brought out of hiding and turned over to a group of three men so that the truth may be made known.

Articles have been published regarding this story in various media outlets in Mexico including Proceso Click Here for article by Salvador Corro y Rodrigo Vera in Spanish

Following is a translation into English of the above article:

The embarrassing case that ignited the Catholic church – the sexual abuse of minors by Fr. Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ – Is gathering steam once again. Three Mexicans, among them one of Maciel’s victims, have received a package of documents, secretly kept in the Vatican until now, which show that for almost a half century Catholic officials had full knowledge that the founder of the Legion of Christ was a sexual abuser of children, a corrupt manipulator, and a drug addict. The three are surprised at the speed with which John Paul II has been beatified, considering that the pontiff was fully aware of Maciel’s criminal misconduct.

CROATIA
The Windsor Star

Croatian police detained a Catholic priest in a vast operation against the distribution of child pornography on the Internet that included dozens of companies and individuals, Hina news agency reported Friday.

The 60-year-old priest from a Catholic Church in Zagreb was detained during the operation, conducted in cooperation with British police, according to the public prosecutor's office. The Church suspended him until the end of the probe.

GERMANY
Worldcrunch

By Katja Auer
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG/Worldcrunch

WÜRZBURG - A bad case of “existential angst” is being cited as the driving force that led a German priest to squirrel away more than one million euros that he'd taken from his church’s collection plates and other donations over the course of 40 years.

One curious aspect of the case is that there was no final damage – material, at least. The money is all still there, and will soon be returned.

The fraud was perpetrated by a now elderly Catholic priest in the Laudenbach parish in Miltenberg, Germany near Frankfurt. For decades, the clergyman moved money around in different banks, didn’t book gift donations into parish accounts, and kept the money from some collection plates for himself.

CHILE
La Tercera

El diputado Carlos Montes, en representación de la bancada socialista, desestimó que se mantenga la determinación tomada por la ministra en visita Jessica González, quien resolvió desechar el procesamiento del sacerdote Fernando Karadima por las denuncias de abuso sexual en su contra.

González decretó el cierre del sumario, al considerar que los antecedentes recabados son hasta ahora "insuficientes" como para adoptar dicha medida.

STATEN ISLAND (NY)
Staten Island Advance

By Maura Grunlund

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life in New Dorp, clearly isn’t a fan of the separation between church and state as he waits in personal and financial limbo in Amarillo, Texas.

Father Pavone supports the appointment of a fellow pro-life advocate, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, as papal nuncio to the United States and hopes the religious leader will play a crucial role in the outcome of the next presidential election.

Father Pavone — who has run afoul of religious politics as the finances of his organization are being scrutinized by his superior, Bishop Patrick Zurek of Amarillo — criticized Roman Catholic dioceses in the U.S. for not being more influential in government.

ROME
Zenit

ROME, OCT. 21, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is the text of a statement from the bishops of Australia, who have just completed their "ad limina" visit to the Vatican.

After their meetings with Benedict XVI and officials from the Curia, the bishops released this statement today in response to the situation of the Diocese of Toowomba.

In May, Bishop William Morris, 67, was removed from the pastoral care of that diocese, following a long process of dialogue with the Vatican.

UNITED STATES
The Courier-Journal

Written by
Peter Smith

Bleak and bleaker.

That’s the assessment of a new report on the state of American religious congregations.

Many “Oldline Protestant” churches are showing little spiritual vitality, and their small, aging congregations are showing little of the openness to the kinds of changes that might turn things around.

Many Evangelical Protestant churches, which once seemed to be bucking these trends, are stalling out as well.

Yes, of course, there are vital and growing congregations, says the report’s author, David Roozen of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

But the overall trend is clear, Roozen said of the 2010 survey of more than 10,000 congregations — Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and Baha’i. It compares results with a similar survey a decade ago and smaller ones in between.

CANADA
London Free Press

By JANE SIMS, The London Free Press

Just eight days after she'd lost her husband in a car accident that left her badly injured, Pastor Royden Wood was telling his faithful Ambassador Church member who he thought she should re-marry in the church.

And while she recovered at the Wood home for two months after her release from hospital, her pastor would approach her when everyone was sleeping and touch her in her private areas of her body, he said, "so I could feel beautiful."

The testimony from the 50-year old mom whose identity is protected by court order at Wood's sexual assault trial demonstrated a predominant side of the former pastor's personality - control.

CANADA
CTV

MONTREAL — Two sisters broke a painful silence Friday that they say they have been keeping since the 1960s, when they allege they were both sexually abused while studying at College Bourget de Rigaud.

Margot Bussière alleges she and her hospitalized older sister were raped when they were 8 and 9 years old, respectively, by the former director of the college and the parish priest.

"It had a terrible impact on both our lives because when you abuse a child at 8 or 9, you make a victim out of that child," Bussière says.

She met the media Friday in an effort not only to have the pain felt by her and her sister recognized, but also to reach out to other students who attended that school.

CHILE
Santiago Times

Judge cites expired statue of limitations as a reason.

Judge Jéssica González ruled Thursday that there would be no criminal prosecution on sexual abuse charges against the accused former priest Fernando Karadima. This brings the seven-month investigation to an end. The judge ordered the record closed.

Karadima was a high profile priest during the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990), leading El Bosque parish, home to many of Chile’s most influential politicians and business people.

The Catholic Church first opened a sexual abuse investigation into Kardima in 2004 regarding the same accusations. Karadima was found guilty by the Vatican of sexually abusing minors in January 2011 and was sentenced to a life of prayer and penance. He was also relieved of all priestly duties.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
London Free Press (Canada)

By BOB RIPLEY, SPECIAL TO QMI AGENCY

Last Updated: October 22, 2011

We all mess up. There are things we shouldn't do, and do. And there are things we should do, and don't.

To put it in Christian lingo, there are sins of commission and sins of omission. Or to quote the general Confession from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, "We have left undone those things we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done."

The U.S. Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas-St. Joseph is reeling from two such high-profile sins.

The pastor of the parish of St. Patrick's, Rev. Shawn Ratigan, was beloved for his fondness for children and always carried a camera at events at the church and the parish elementary school. In May 2010, the school principal sent a letter to the diocese with concerns that Ratigan's behaviour fit the profile of a child predator.

CANADA
CJAD

Posted By: Claude Beaulieucbeaulieu@astral.com·10/21/2011

A woman who says she and her sister were victims of a sex assault by two priests almost fifty years ago returned to her hometown of Rigaud today to demand justice.

Fifty-six year old Margot Bussiere held up a sign in front of a private college in her childhood hometown of Rigaud, near quebec's boundary with ontario, and demanded justice for herself, for her sister and for all victims of pedophile priests. Bussiere was eight years old, and her sister, nine, when she says two priests from the college raped the two of them.

Forty-eight years later, her sister lives with deep psychological scars and is pernmanently interned in a psychiatric institute.

Margot has put her own life back together, but while she says she refuses to be a victim she still lives with the scars and that decades after the assaults, she still cries.

GEORGIA
WSB

By Jodie Fleischer

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. —

Channel 2 Action News has confirmed federal agents have questioned members of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church about a failed investment scandal. It's part of an ongoing case involving more than $1 million lost by church members who are now suing the investment company, and the church.

"Many of us with our wealth and with our money, we're foolish," Ephren Taylor told thousands of New Birth members during church services in October 2009.

Lillian Wells says the foolish decision she made was trusting Taylor and his company with her life savings, $122,000.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Michael Rezendes, Globe Staff

Two clergy sex abuse victims were awarded judgments totaling $3 million today, after a former priest with ties to the Boston area failed to appear in court or respond to a lawsuit filed against him and a religious order known as the Franciscan friars.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders assessed damages of $2 million for one of the victims and $1 million for the other, saying, “No amount of money will ever fully compensate either plaintiff for their suffering.”

Carmen Durso, the attorney representing the victims, said he believes they are unlikely to collect the award because the former priest, John Dority, is 70 years old and was released from a Rhode Island prison in 2007 after serving two years for child molestation.

BOSTON (MA)
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils...

Paris Arrow

Forget the Prayer of Peace of St. Francis of Assisi. It is more important for children to be more aware and to be more wary and to BEWARE of Franciscan priests and Franciscan Brothers. 2 sexual abused victim of a former Franciscan priest were awarded $3 million in Boston. That's right, Boston again where priest pedophilia first exploded in 2002 when John Paul II was on his way to his last WYD World Youth Day in Toronto, an hour's flight away. And his Opus Dei advisors and entourage could not be bothered with the hundreds of suffering victims of the 80 pedophile priests whom Cardinal Bernard Law aided and abetted - as the "Crown Prince" of Boston.

NEW JERSEY
CBS New Jersey

April 6, 2011

PARAMUS, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — Two men who worked at a Catholic school in New Jersey were behind bars Wednesday, charged with sexual misconduct with female students.

Bergen County prosecutors said the men were chaperones on a 10-day student exchange trip to Germany in February, during which they allegedly had sex with students.

Teacher and football coach Michael Sumulikoski was accused of having sex with one student, while Artur Sopel, 31, vice president of operations, was accused of having sexual relations with two students on the trip.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Oct. 21, 2011
By Joshua J. McElwee

KANSAS CITY, MO. -- A mix of disappointment, anger and a deep sense of uncertainty settled in among Catholics here in the wake of the Oct. 14 announcement that a local prosecutor had indicted their bishop, Robert W. Finn, along with their diocese for failing to protect area children.

The indictments were the first of their kind in the quarter-century-long clergy sex abuse scandal.

From the diocesan chancery to parishes throughout the area, Catholics seemed to be holding their breath -- trying to determine what would happen next and how the legal proceedings would affect their bishop, other church leaders and even life in their parishes.

The indictments stem from the case of a local priest who had been charged for possession of child pornography. A technician found images of naked children on the computer of Fr. Shawn Ratigan in December last year. The Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese learned about the images and Finn removed Ratigan from his parish, but did not report the incident to civil authorities until May.

PENNSYLVANIA
Greek Reporter

In Montrose, Reverand Phillip Ferrara, a Melkite Greek Catholic Priest, was accused of the assault of a 14-year-old boy and corruption of a minor.

According to police investigations, the priest forced the boy to massage him with oil at a retreat center at Lake O’ Meadows Road. Further information revealed that several such incidents took place last year and earlier this year.

Ferrara told the court that a medical condition involving his prostate drove him to engage in these acts with the boy. Although the vestal man apologized to the judge and the community, he did not directly apologize to the boy.

CROATIA
Croatian Times

Friday, 21. October 2011

Zagreb-based priest Mladen Kozina, 60, has been arrested for possession of child pornography on his computer, daily Novi List writes.

The pastor of Presveto Srce Isusovo parish that is part of Sestre Milosrdnice hospital in Zagreb, is said to have been downloading photographs of nude children or children in explicitly sexual positions between 2007 and 2010.

If found guilty, the priest faces one to ten years in jail.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

By Associated Press
Friday, October 21, 2011

BOSTON - A Massachusetts judge has awarded a total of $3 million to two alleged child sex abuse victims of a former Franciscan priest who served prison time for child molestation in a separate case.

Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders entered the judgment Friday against John Dority, awarding one victim $2 million and the other $1 million. Both were abused in Boston between 1965 and 1971, starting at around age 10.

Dority was convicted of child molestation in Rhode Island in 2005 and released from prison in 2007.

A telephone message was left Friday for 70-year-old Dority, who lives in Coventry, Conn.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

By An NCR Editorial

The news that the Jackson County, Mo., prosecutor has indicted Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph on a charge of failing to report suspected child abuse raises the ongoing abuse scandal to a harsh new level of reality, but one that should not come as a terrible surprise. This day has been moving toward us for quite some time.

Hauling a bishop, and in a separate action, his diocese, into court on criminal charges represents a final shattering of the shield of deference that historically has sealed off the church from civil authorities. It is tempting in this case to see the state as newly aggressive and zealous in its pursuit of religious leaders, particularly Catholic ones.

For years, however, the church has been given the benefit of the doubt. Law enforcement has averted its gaze from clergy crimes whenever possible for a host of cultural and historical reasons, not least of which was regard for the church’s role as a moral arbiter in the wider culture. But the crimes of church leaders -- priests who abused children and bishops who covered up for them -- reached such egregious levels that the conduct could no longer be ignored. Civil law was forced to step in where canon law had obviously failed to protect the interests of the most vulnerable.

FLORIDA
The Palm Beach Post

By Daphne Duret
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Posted: 11:36 a.m. Friday, Oct. 21, 2011

WEST PALM BEACH — A former Boynton Beach pastor convicted on charges he molested a 15-year-old church member who had come to him for counseling is expected to be sentenced today.

Dieugrand Jacques, 40, faces up to 15 years in prison after a jury found him guilty in September of a single count of lewd and lascivious molestation for committing a sexual act on the victim in 2007 after driving her to his house.

At the time, the victim was a girlfriend of one of Jacques' young members at the New Alliance Haitian Church and had sought his counsel about their relationship as well as problems she was having with her parents.

According to the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office, a second victim during Jacques' trial testified that Jacques had sex with her inside the church after she confided in him about being molested in the past.

UNITED STATES
Anti-Catholic League

by David Fortwengler

Bill Donohue is president of the Catholic League. He claims the purpose of his organization is to “safeguard both the religious freedom rights and the free speech rights of Catholics whenever they are threatened.”

This report exposes the real motives of those involved with the Catholic League. They are an agenda-driven professional victims group that uses malicious and irrational assaults to smear anyone they feel is not speaking for the best interests of the Catholic Church. Period.

Over the past decade Donohue has repeatedly used his high-decibel speaking voice to dismiss truths about the church sex abuse scandal by denying and misrepresenting the facts, disrespecting the law, ignoring the message, and by calling the messengers Anti-Catholic.

The Catholic League creates their own version of events to minimize decades of gross institutional negligence and thousands of sexual assaults against children as simply the result of bias and prejudice against the Church. Donohue has gone so far as to call for a “Catholic revolt” against “the selective pursuit of priests, and the wholesale denial of their due process rights.” Never mind that there is no selective pursuit of catholic priests or denial of their due process rights, to justify his $400,000 a year salary it is a revolt Donohue is all to willing to lead.

ORLANDO (FL)
Orlando Sentine

By David Breen, Orlando Sentinel

12:24 p.m. EDT, October 21, 2011

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando is again the target of a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse of a child by a priest decades ago.

The suit accuses the diocese of neglect for allowing an abusive priest to have contact with children, and of concealing the priest's actions to prevent a public scandal.

The plaintiff in the suit, identified as John Doe No. 86, is a Miami man born in 1964. He alleges that he was molested by the Rev. Lawrence Redmond in about 1974, when he was approximately 10 years old.

According to the suit, Redmond was in charge of a summer sleepaway camp for boys called Camp San Pedro when he met the boy. "Father Redmond would select John from among the other campers to accompany him on trips to the St. Johns River," the suit alleges. On another occasion, "John was invited to spend the night at Father Redmond's cabin at Camp San Pedro."

GEORGIA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By J. Scott Trubey
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The U.S. Secret Service has confiscated laptop computers from Bishop Eddie Long’s Lithonia megachurch, and the Georgia secretary of state is investigating an investment company and its former chief executive for possible securities violations involving investments sold to Long church members.

Also, 10 members of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church on Wednesday sued the pastor, the church, three investment companies and others over an alleged scheme the parishioners say bilked them of $1 million.

One of the investment companies, City Capital Corp., and the firm’s former chief executive, Ephren Taylor -- whose financial dealings were endorsed by Long to his members -- are the targets of the state investigation, according to the secretary of state.

Attempts to reach Taylor were not successful. Long was not available for comment.

UNITED KINGDOM
Ealing Gazette

Oct 20 2011 By Michael Russell, Ealing Gazette

AN INTERNATIONAL man-hunt is under way for a Catholic cleric and former school teacher suspected of abusing children.

Father Laurence Soper, 81, who taught at St Benedict's School, in Eaton Rise, and was Abbot of Ealing Abbey, in Charlbury Grove, both in Ealing, broke his bail conditions in March.

He is wanted for allegations of child abuse dating back to his time at the independent Catholic school, where he taught between 1972 and 1984.

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on October 20, 2011

Dear Mr. Roberts and Ms. Baker:

We’re not lawyers, police, prosecutors or judges. We haven’t seen all the evidence. And we realize it’s possible that Bishop Robert Finn might be deemed innocent of the charges he faces.

We don’t mean to overstep, overreach, insult or offend anyone. We are glad you have convened grand juries. We are grateful, Ms. Baker, that your office has filed charges against Finn. We hope, Mr. Roberts, that your office goes even further.

Still, we are concerned that Finn and his lawyers will secure a minimal fine or some type of “diversion.” And if this happens, we’re concerned that a distressing signal may be sent: enabling child sex crimes isn’t a big deal. And we believe it will have little or no effect on Finn, his staff, and other Catholic officials here, especially in a few short years as memories fade and deeply-ingrained, decades-old patterns of secrecy, recklessness and callousness regain strength.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the controversy over Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn:

The Catholic League will have a lot to say about Bishop Finn and his accusers over the next few weeks. For now, we want to make it clear that we stand by him without reservation. Why? Not because he is a bishop, but because nothing he did deserves the kind of mad reaction against him that is emanating from many quarters. In a short time, we will lay out the details of our support for him. But for now, keep in mind the following:

Many strange photos (crotch-focused) of young girls, fully clothed, were found on the laptop of a priest last December; one showed a girl naked. Though Bishop Finn never saw it, he was told of it. The result? The picture was described to a police officer the next day, and an attorney for the Diocese was shown the photo. It was determined that the photo, while disturbing, did not constitute child pornography. The priest learns that they’re on to him; he attempts suicide; he almost dies; he recovers; he is sent for treatment; he is not considered to be a pedophile, but is said to be suffering from depression; he is then placed in a spot away from children; he is subjected to restrictions. After violating the restrictions, the cops are called; more damaging photos are then found.

DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

Im Rechtsstreit mit der Diözese Regensburg hat das Hanseatische Oberlandesgericht Hamburg der Berufung unserer Redaktion heute in vollem Umfang stattgegeben (Az 7U 38/11).

Damit dürfen wir nach eineinhalb Jahren Maulkorb wieder die Meinung vertreten, dass die Diözese Regensburg durch ihr Verhalten bei einem Missbrauchsfall in Viechtach 1999 wesentlich dazu beigetragen hat, dass die Verbrechen eines Priesters nicht öffentlich wurden und er so später erneut einen Ministranten sexuell missbrauchen konnte. Wir dürfen die Meinung vertreten, dass sich die Diözese Regensburg in diesem Zusammenhang beim Vertuschen sehr kreativ gezeigt hat und dass seinerzeit vereinbarte Geldzahlungen den Beigeschmack von Schweigegeld haben.

CHILE
Terra

SANTIAGO.- El sacerdote Fernando Karadima Fariña, de 81 años, tiene una personalidad en la cual "destaca la grandiosidad y narcisismo y la necesidad de contar con la estimación y atención de los demás", señala un informe realizado por el Servicio Médico Legal (SML) el 11 de abril, y efectuado en el marco de la investigación por abusos sexuales reiterados que lleva adelante la ministra en visita Jessica González.

Según lo señalado por el diario La Tercera, el informe en cuestión fue elaborado por la siquiatra Inge Onetto y el sicólogo Omar Gutiérrez, quienes años atrás formaron parte del equipo que examinó a Augusto Pinochet en el marco de la investigación de la llamada "Operación Colombo".

GEORGIA
CNN

By John Blake, CNN

(CNN) – Lillian Wells said she had been laid off from her job, gone into real estate, and was looking for extra income when she went to church one Sunday and heard about a “sure thing.”

Two years later, Wells said her house is weeks away from foreclosure, she can barely pay for medication and she’s lost at least $122,000 in retirement savings.

“I’ve been hurt,” Wells said. “I’m looking for resolution and restitution at this point, and I haven’t gotten that.”

Wells’ story is at the center of a lawsuit that pits her against Bishop Eddie Long, one of the nation’s most well-known televangelists, and a charismatic investor who Long reportedly compared to Moses.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Declan Brennan
Friday, 21 October 2011

A defrocked priest has pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of child pornography.

Oliver O'Grady (63) admitted to being in possession of a Dell laptop computer containing images and texts of child pornography at Dublin Airport on February 15 last year.

He also pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of cassette tapes with video and audio of child pornography at the Elephant Storage Unit in Tallaght, on December 10 last.

CANADA
The Windsor Star

A former Windsor-area priest who fled Canada after he was charged with sex crimes two decades ago has been defrocked in his native Malta.

Rev. Godwin Scerri had been convicted of abusing boys in the Mediterranean island nation. He has filed an appeal.

He was found guilty of abuse by the Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and dismissed from the clerical state, according to the Malta Times.

ICELAND
Iceland Review

Bishop of Iceland Karl Sigurbjörnsson gave an address yesterday at a course held by the National Church of Iceland at Neskirkja church in Reykjavík on reactions to sexual violations within religious associations.

Sigurbjörnsson declared that he is deeply sorry for mistakes that were made in the treatment of cases of sexual violations of whom late Bishop Ólafur Skúlason is accused, and said he prayed that everyone would learn from these mistakes, Fréttabladid reports.

Dr. Marie M. Fortune, who specializes in reactions to sexual violations within religious association, has taught the course’s attendees about the right response when such matters come up.

TEXAS
San Angelo Standard-Times

SAN ANGELO, Texas — After years of intensive press coverage, we think we've heard all there is to know about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Then along comes Sam Brower, a Utah private detective who spent seven years investigating the sect and its leader, Warren Jeffs.

His new book, "Prophet's Prey," investigates the private life of the sect, focusing on its now-imprisoned leader, Warren Jeffs. Brower will sign copies from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Hastings, 4238 Sunset Drive.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
The New York Times

It has been seven years since the Roman Catholic Church’s investigative board of laity warned that, beyond the 700 priests dismissed for sexually abusing children, “there must be consequences” for the diocesan leaders who recycled criminal priests through unsuspecting parishes. American church authorities have done nothing to heed this caution.

Now state prosecutors in Missouri have shown the courage the prelates lacked. They indicted Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph for allegedly failing to notify criminal authorities about a popular parish priest who is accused of taking pornographic photographs of young parochial schoolgirls — despite community alarms and evidence submitted to the diocese.

Bishop Finn, who professed his innocence under the indictment, had previously outraged church faithful by acknowledging that he knew of the photos last December but did not turn them over to the police until May.

This occurred despite the requirements of state law — and the bishop’s own policy vows — that suspected crimes against children be immediately reported. The priest, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, continued to attend church events and allegedly abuse children until he was indicted this year on 13 counts of child pornography.

CHILE
Cooperativa

El abogado querellante Juan Pablo Hermosilla subrayó que la decisión anunciada este jueves por la ministra en visita Jessica González de no procesar al sacerdote Fernando Karadima y cerrar la investigación no implica que se haya dictado una absolución del religioso respecto de los delitos de abuso sexual reiterado que se le imputan.

Tras reunirse por una hora y media con la jueza, Hermosilla explicó que ésta dio "un no por ahora", y que las partes quedaron a la espera de un "pronunciamiento de ella en torno al tema de fondo".

CHILE
Chile.com

(ORBE) SANTIAGO, Octubre 20. La ministra en visita Jessica González, que investiga las denuncias de abuso sexual contra el sacerdote Fernando Karadima Fariña, resolvió este jueves desechar el procesamiento del religioso y decretar el cierre del sumario, al considerar que los antecedentes recabados "son hasta ahora insuficientes" como para adoptar dicha medida.

El abogado Juan Pablo Hermosilla había solicitado en los últimos días, en representación de los querellantes James Hamilton, José Andrés Murillo y Juan Carlos Cruz, el procesamiento del ex párroco de El Bosque.

CHILE
La Tercera

por Angélica Baeza Palavecino - 20/10/2011

Luego de que hoy la ministra en visita del caso Karadima, Jéssica González, rechazara procesar al ex párroco de El Bosque, uno de los querellantes en el caso, Juan Carlos Cruz, sostuvo a La Tercera, que espera que en los próximos días la magistrada sí acredite los delitos del ex párroco de El Bosque.

"La ministra se va a pronunciar en una o dos semanas sobre la resolución y nosotros creemos que ella va a decir que los hechos fueron delitos, que fueron ciertos, pero si aplicara la prescripción, no nos importa, porque desde un principio queríamos establecer que Karadima es un criminal y un abusador", dijo el periodista.

CHILE
Terra

SANTIAGO.- Juan Carlos Cruz, uno de los denunciantes por abuso sexual del sacerdote Fernando Karadima señaló que “me he ido dando cuenta cómo es la iglesia, es lamentable la Conferencia Episcopal que tenemos: mentirosa, encubridora, de obispos que son lamentables. Si Jesucristo los viera se escandalizaría de ellos. Son una vergüenza los obispos que tenemos”.

Cruz insistió en acusar a los obispos de encubrir los abusos por los que es acusado Karadima, afirmando que pudo leer el sumario del caso y “la cantidad de mentiras que vi me han deteriorado la imagen de los obispos de Chile. Pareciera que no aprendieran nunca de todo lo que ha pasado y me atrevería a decir que algunos han cometido actos criminales".

CHILE
La Tercera

Murillo ante posible prescripción de delitos imputados a Karadima: "La Justicia debe revisar sus leyes"

por Angélica Baeza Palavecino

José Andrés Murillo es enfático en responder cada pregunta. "La Justicia debe revisar sus leyes", así de claro es ante la posible prescripción de los delitos que se le imputan a Fernando Karadima y que cuya situación se definirá en alrededor de dos semanas más, cuando la ministra en visita del caso Jéssica González entregue los detalles de su investigación y además aclare si se acreditan o no los abusos sexuales reiterados.

El filósofo indicó a La Tercera que la decisión tomada hoy por la magistrada, de no procesar al ex párroco de El Bosque no es "una resolución definitiva". Además, sostuvo que lo que como parte querellante desean es un pronunciamiento sobre la existencia de los delitos, más allá de la prescripción de estos, aunque sí insistió en que la Justicia debe revisar las leyes.

CHILE
Bio Bio

N. Mosciatti por caso Karadima: “es imposible no pensar en el Papa Juan Pablo II como un encubridor”

Publicado por Daniel Torres

La Ministra en visita Jéssica González, decidió no procesar al ex párroco de El Bosque, sacerdote Fernando Karadima. Frente a esto surgen una serie de aristas respecto del futuro del proceso y de la iglesia.

Ante esta situación Nibaldo Mosciatti llamó la atención respecto de un pronunciamiento respecto de la causa, en la que se desprendan antecedentes sobre el fondo del caso y no sólo de las formas, por medio del que podría ser desestimado de manera definitiva debido a la prescripción de los delitos.

CHILE
Puranoticia

El cierre de la investigación en contra del sacerdote Fernando Karadima, fue decretado hpy por el ministra en visita, Jéssica González, a la vez que resolvió no procesar al ex párroco de El Bosque por el delito de abuso de menores.

CANADA
CNews

By Jane Sims QMI Agency

LONDON, Ont. -- She said she called him Dad and he treated her like his daughter.

And for the woman who had been both sexually and physically abused by her stepfather as a child, Royden Wood's attention and comfort brought her some peace.

That was until Wood, the disgraced pastor of the now-closed Ambassador Baptist Church, changed the rules of their relationship while offering bizarre marriage counselling that involved sex.

KENTUCKY/BELIZE
Commonwealth Journal

By TRICIA NEAL, CJ Staff Writer Commonwealth Journal

Somerset — A Pulaski County native is being accused of three counts of “unnatural crime” in the Central American country of Belize. He’s serving time in jail there, accused of having forcible sex with three teenage brothers.

Bryan Sears, 35, formerly an active member of Victory Christian Fellowship in Somerset, is being held without bail until Monday, a report in the Amandala, a major newspaper in Belize, says.

Leaders at Victory Christian Fellowship released a brief statement about Sears this week:

“On Saturday, Oct. 8, local authorities in Sarteneja, Belize, brought charges against Bryan Sears, a Christian missionary in Belize. The allegations against Mr. Sears concern sexual improprieties with minors. Mr. Sears has been an independent missionary in partnership with Victory Christian Fellowship for seven years.”

BELIZE
Washington Examiner

The Associated Press.

A Christian missionary from Kentucky has been jailed in Central America on charges he sexually abused three teenagers.

Bryan Sears, 35, is facing sex abuse charges in Belize. Sears is formerly a member of Victory Christian Fellowship in Somerset.

The group released a statement that says Sears was charged on Oct. 8 in Sarteneja, Belize. The statement says the charges "concern sexual improprieties with minors." The group says Sears has been a missionary for seven years.

SANTA ANA (CA)
The Orange County Register

By VIK JOLLY / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA – An Orange County jury on Thursday decided against two brothers who say they were molested by Franciscan priests at a Huntington Beach parish nearly two decades ago.

The lawsuit, filed in 2009, accused Gus Krumm and Alexander Manville of sexual misconduct during 1992-94 when the two were priests at Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic church.

Manville's supporters' "faith in him has been vindicated," said his attorney, Brian Brosnahan, outside Superior Court Judge Nancy Wieben Stock's courtroom moments after the verdicts were read.

The jury of seven women and five men deliberated three and a half days before reaching a verdict, answering "no" to all four questions before them of whether the accusations by each brother against each defendant were more likely true than not.

SANTA ANA (CA)
The Sacramento Bee

The Associated Press

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- An Orange County jury Thursday rejected claims by two brothers who alleged they were molested by Franciscan priests nearly 20 years ago.

Under an agreement reached before trial, the Franciscan Friars of California have to pay $400,000 to the two brothers, according to The Orange County Register (http://bit.ly/q2y87h).

Had the jury sided with the brothers on any of their claims, the Friars would have had to pay $1.4 million.

YAKIMA (WA)
KAPP

By Shannon McCann. Published Thursday, October 20th, 2011

Advocates for victims of sexual abuse stood in front of the Yakima County Courthouse today hoping to promote change in the justice system.

Members from the Survior's Network of those Abuse by Priests known as S.N.A.P. voiced there opinions to the City County Prosecutor Jim Hagarty.

The group wants Yakima Bishop Joseph Tyson to publish information on the church's website listing all predators dead or alive.

NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

In trial, attorney for church custodian accused of murdering Chatham priest delivers opening statement

By Ben Horowitz/The Star-Ledger

CHATHAM BOROUGH — A Chatham priest remained silent after learning of church custodian Jose Feliciano’s criminal past, but made him pay such a “high price” that he angered the janitor into killing him, a defense attorney said today.

Feliciano’s public defender, Neill Hamilton, detailed his defense for the first time this afternoon in his opening statement in the former janitor’s murder trial. Feliciano is accused in the Oct. 22, 2009 stabbing death of the Rev. Edward Hinds of St. Patrick Church.

“For the price he (Hinds) made Mr. Feliciano pay, for the things he made Mr. Feliciano do, he provoked Mr. Feliciano so much that a reasonable person would fly into a homicidal rage,” Hamilton said.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

A lawsuit filed Thursday alleges sexual abuse by a Kansas City priest removed from his duties in June for what the diocese called credible accusations of misconduct with minors.

The lawsuit, filed in Jackson County Circuit Court by a 54-year-old Missouri man under the name John Doe SB2, accuses the Rev. Michael Tierney of sexually abusing him at the home of Tierney’s mother and attempting to molest him at a YMCA swimming pool in Kansas City when he was 12 years old. It says the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese knew of Tierney’s misconduct with children and covered it up.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and is the fourth to be filed against Tierney since last fall. It names Tierney and the diocese as defendants.

Tierney’s attorney, Brian Madden, declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing a recent gag order on attorneys involving Tierney’s cases.

YAKIMA (WA)
Yakima Herald

By Jane Gargas
Yakima Herald-Republic

YAKIMA, Wash. -- A group critical of the Catholic Church's handling of sex abuse cases Thursday called for the Yakima Diocese to release the names of all local clergy accused of abuse.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests urged Bishop Joseph Tyson to make public "secret archives" of clergy with allegations of abuse made against them.

"If he's a real man of God, then he'll do it," said John Shuster, one of three members of SNAP who gathered outside the Yakima County Courthouse to make their message known.

PENNSYLVANIA
The Times-Tribune

BY STACI WILSON (Staff Writer)

MONTROSE - A Melkite cloistered priest, who pleaded no contest in September to the indecent assault of a 14-year-old boy, offered no apology to the victim at his sentencing Thursday in Susquehanna County Court.

The Rev. Philip Ferrara, 49, was sentenced to six to 24 months in state prison by President Judge Kenneth Seamans. He also must undergo a sexual offender evaluation and receive treatment.

District Attorney Jason Legg said the Rev. Ferrara used his position of authority as a cloistered priest at the Our Lady of Solitude monastery in Apolacon and Middletown townships to get a child to perform sexual acts on several occasions.

CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By EDMUND H. MAHONY, emahony@courant.com
The Hartford Courant

5:05 p.m. EDT, October 20, 2011
A senior state judicial officer has created new pressure to settle dozens of child sexual abuse claims against St. Francis Hospital by taking the unusual step of authorizing mediators working separately in the state and federal courts to consolidate their efforts.

Chief Court Administrator Barbara Quinn's order may produce new incentives to negotiate for The Travelers Companies, Inc., which has most of the hospital's insurance coverage, lawyers familiar with the case said. Victims of hospital endocrinologist Dr. George Reardon and some hospital representatives have questioned Travelers' commitment to resolving cases before trial.

In the short term, Quinn's mediation order, issued Wednesday, seems to make moot efforts by Travelers to prevent the Reardon victims from joining a federal lawsuit in which the hospital's insurers are fighting among themselves to minimize their respective costs in potential damage awards

NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

Attorneys for man charged with killing Chatham priest say cleric provoked janitor's rage

Written by
Peggy Wright | Staff Writer

Suggesting a sordid relationship between victim and killer, a defense lawyer told a Morris County jury Thursday that custodian Jose Feliciano stabbed the Rev. Edward Hinds to death in Chatham in an enraged frenzy after the priest fired him.

The trial of the 66-year-old former janitor on charges of murdering the pastor of St. Patrick R.C. on Oct. 22, 2009, opened in Superior Court, Morristown with the prosecution and defense offering opposing reasons behind the killing of the 61-year-old cleric. Pastor of the church since 2004, Hinds was found at 8 a.m. on Oct. 23, 2009, on the kitchen floor in the rectory with his dog Copper on his lap.

Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi said the killing was a deliberate, purposeful murder. Defense lawyer Neill Hamilton said the priest forced Feliciano to do certain things, then fired him, which provoked and impassioned him to grab a knife off a kitchen counter and kill.

In the months leading up to the slaying, Hinds and parish workers were hurrying to comply with a Catholic Church mandate that all volunteers and employees with access to children had to complete special training, be fingerprinted and undergo a criminal background check. Defense attorney Neill Hamilton said the priest learned in the summer of 2009 that Hinds’ fingerprints were never forwarded to State Police and further discovered in early October 2009 that Feliciano was wanted since 1988 in Philadelphia for a crime against a child.

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Andrew Madden's Blog

October 20, 2011

By Andrew Madden

The Kindle edition of Altar Boy is now available here http://amzn.to/paCkdG

[Kindle Edition for Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Android devices, PC, and Mac.]

‘Although I still carry many of the effects of child abuse I no longer consider myself a victim. I’ve done something about it. I’ve turned it around.’

Becoming an altar boy was Andrew Madden's first step toward realising his dream of becoming a priest. It was brilliant – getting to go behind the scenes in a busy parish church, helping on the altar in front of everyone – and he couldn’t wait to be grown up and saying Mass himself. But the day Andrew was molested by his favourite priest, Father Ivan Payne, his love of the Catholic Church was poisoned. Father’s Payne’s abuse lasted for three years, until Andrew was fifteen. But its impact went on and on. Andrew lost direction. He lost self-belief. He lost the capacity to have loving sex. And he lost himself in drink.

In the early '90s Andrew reached a financial settlement with Father Payne. He would go on to become the first Irish victim of sexual abuse by a priest to go public with his story. Altar Boy is the story behind that story.

Altar Boy is a candid, and sometimes searing, account of how abuse can affect a life. It is an articulate, challenging and often damning assessment of the behaviour of the Irish Catholic Church. And it is a story of hope: Andrew Madden’s calm and humane consideration of his own life - and Father Payne’s - shows that victims don’t have to remain victims.

OHIO
CantonRep

Posted Oct 20, 2011

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, will begin monthly confidential support meetings in the Youngstown-Boardman area.

The first meeting will be Oct. 29. The program is designed for those who have been abused by priests, nuns, employees or volunteers in religious settings and institutions.

“SNAP support meetings are in a safe environment where victims and family members can share their pain and know that they are not alone,” said Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director. “It is a great way to foster the healing process.”

UNITED KINGDOM
Harrow Observer

Oct 20 2011 by Hannah Bewley, Harrow Observer

A FORMER chaplain has been charged with nine counts of indecent assault.

Leslie Carter, 84, was remanded in custody today (Thursday) on after appearing at Harrow Crown Court and being charged with indecent assault on a male under 14.

The charges date back to alleged assaults on three separate victims which took place from 1975-1977.

NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Ben Horowitz/The Star-Ledger

CHATHAM — “A deluge of physical evidence” will prove that the 2009 slaying of a Chatham priest was “a very calculated homicide,” the prosecutor said today as the murder trial of Jose Feliciano began.

Feliciano, now 66, stabbed the Rev. Edward Hinds 32 times in the rectory of St. Patrick Church because Hinds had just fired Feliciano, and the firing occurred just four months before Feliciano would have retired with benefits, said Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi.

Bianchi offered those details in a two-and-a-half-hour opening statement to the jury this morning.

Feliciano’s public defender, Neill Hamilton, will present his opening statement this afternoon.

UNITED STATES/IRELAND
Jeff Anderson & Associates

"We and the many families who have been wounded by Oliver O'Grady are deeply relieved that this serial predator who has caused so much pain for so long is finally found guilty. O'Grady's plea of guilty to possessing child pornography represents a current day demonstration of the seriousness of his crimes and the danger he continues to pose to children because of his inability to control himself. Along with the families we have represented whose lives have been devastated by Oliver O'Grady, we applaud every family and law enforcement agent who brought this to bear.

We are also very uncomfortable and disheartened that those who should be pleading guilty for the cover up and concealment of O'Grady's horrific crimes, the bishops and other top Catholic officials who enabled O'Grady's crimes, have not been held to account. O'Grady has abused countless children and shattered countless lives. Because of a secret dirty deal made during a civil trial in 1998 during which the Diocese of Stockton was found liable after a jury trial for a $30 million judgment, O'Grady was allowed to continue to receive pension from the Diocese, financing that has allowed him since to be able to travel the world, exploiting and imperiling children globally, from the Netherlands and Ireland to the United States.

PENNSYLVANIA
WNEP

A priest in the Eastern Catholic church was ordered to prison for at lease six months for having sexual contact with a 14-year-old boy.

Father Phillip Ferrara of Little Meadown pleaded no contest to one coun of indecent assault of a person less than 16 years old.

Police said the charges stemmed from Ferrara's relationship with a boy who was staying at a retreat in Susquehanna County near the Bradford County line. Investigators said the boy ahd his family were at Our Lady of Solitude Retreat to overcome personal problems when the inappropriate contact happened.

CHILE
Idaho Statesman

The Associated Press

Published: 10/20/11

SANTIAGO, Chile — A lawyer for three men allegedly abused by a prominent Chilean priest says a judge has declined to press charges.

Retired priest Fernando Karadima has been punished by the Vatican, ordered to a life of seclusion and prayer for sexually abusing his parishioners. But the men want the courts to establish the truth.

Attorney Juan Pablo Hermosillo says Judge Jessica Gonzalez declined to press charges because of a problem with the statute of limitations. The lawyer says the judge still has to rule on the veracity of the charges.

IRELAND
RTE News

A defrocked priest has pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to three counts of possession of child pornography.

Oliver O'Grady admitted having abusive images of children on a laptop at Dublin Airport, on a hard drive and USB keys in a Dublin hostel, and on video and audio cassettes in a storage unit in Tallaght.

The 63-year-old lives in a flat in Ranelagh village.

NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

BY PEGGY WRIGHT — Calling murder suspect Jose Feliciano a liar and a job slouch who was earmarked for firing from his custodian job at St. Patrick Church in Chatham, Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi told a jury today that the accused killer failed to cover his tracks.

Feliciano, now 66, broke the cellular telephone that belonged to victim Rev. Edward Hinds, 61, but in doing so, made the device malfunction so detectives were able to trace hits it was making to cell phone towers out in Easton, Pa., where the janitor lived with his wife and two children, Bianchi said.

“That is the miracle of the case. The cell phone is the thing that took him down. One little mistake released an avalanche of evidence,” Bianchi told a Morris County jury in a passionate opening statement today. Defense lawyer Neill Hamilton is slated to give his opening statement this afternoon in Morristown about the homicide on Oct. 22, 2009, of the cleric in the kitchen of the church rectory.

PENNSYLVANIA
WBNG

By Matt Markham
By Cristina Frank

Montrose, PA (WBNG Binghamton) A priest who sexually abused a teenager boy is sentenced to at least six months in prison.

A Susquehanna County judge sentenced Greek Orthodox priest Father Phillip Ferrara to six months to 2 years in state prison and a $750 fine.

Before sentencing today, Ferrara spoke before the judge in court. He apologized to the judge, as well as the Susquehanna County District Attorney, and the people of the county that he served.

He did not, however, offer a direct apology to the young boy involved in the investigation.

IRELAND
Donegal Democrat

By Sue Doherty
Published on Wednesday 19 October 2011

A man who was sexually abused as a child in Donegal is threatening to go on hunger strike if a report on abuse in the Diocese of Raphoe is not released in the coming weeks.

John O’Donnell, who is now aged 55, was abused by two men from the age of nine to fifteen. One the men, both of whom are now deceased, was a member of the local church choir.

Mr O’Donnell will stage a protest outside the Bishop’s palace if the report prepared by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church is not released before the end of the month.

The Falcarragh man told the Donegal Democrat yesterday that he was prepared to go even further. “When I met the Bishop in August, I told him to his face that I was prepared to on hunger strike over this issue. If the full, undiluted report is not released in the next few months, I will go on hunger strike.”

IRELAND
Irish Central

By
JAMES O’SHEA,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

A man sexually abused as a child in Donegal will go on hunger strike outside the bishop’s residence if the report on abuse in the church in Donegal is not published. The report has been delayed for some time.

John G. O’Donnell now 55, was badly abused by two men for six years between the ages of 9 and 15. One man was head of the local church choir.

He told the Donegal Democrat: “when I met the Bishop in August, I told him to his face that I was prepared to on hunger strike over this issue. If the full, undiluted report is not released in the next few months, I will go on hunger strike.”

CHILE
Noticias 123

La ministra en visita, Jessica González, rechazó someter a proceso al ex párroco de la Iglesia El Bosque, Fernando Karadima, imputado por presuntos abusos sexuales reiterados, y además decretó el cierre de la investigación.

Así lo dio a conocer esta mañana el abogado querellante Juan Pablo Hermosilla, representante legal de James Hamilton, Juan Murillo y Juan Carlos Cruz, víctimas del presbítero.

CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Catholic parish volunteer charged with multiple counts of sexual misconduct with a minor: SNAP responds

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, SNAP Western Regional Director (949) 322-7434 jcasteix@gmail.com

Last week, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles hid a small notice in a parish newsletter to inform families that a church volunteer, prayer leader and former lector – Cesar Alvarez – has been charged with multiple counts of sexual misconduct with a minor. The parish is St. Ignatius of Loyola in Los Angeles.

We believe that this lazy attempt at outreach is a reckless and dangerous effort to lessen the impact of the crimes and make sure that few – if any – people learn of the risk Alvarez posed. Church officials are ignoring their own promises of openness and cooperation.

The Archdiocese must do more. We implore them to put this information on its website, issue a news release to both the English- and Spanish-speaking media, announce the news from the pulpit at all of the surrounding parishes, and most importantly, publicly urge victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to come forward and report to law enforcement, NOT church officials.

CHILE
La Tercera

por Jorge Poblete y Angélica Baeza - 20/10/2011 - 11:32

La ministra en visita del caso Fernando Karadima, rechazó la solicitud de procesamiento por abusos sexuales reiterados y cerró el sumario de la investigación.

El abogado de los querellantes en la causa, Juan Pablo Hermosilla, llegó cerca de las 10.00 horas de esta mañana hasta las dependencias del 34° Juzgado del Crimen de Santiago, para conocer la decisión de la magistrada Jéssica González.

NEW JERSEY
The Sacramento Bee

The Associated Press

Published: Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011

MORRISTOWN, N.J. -- Opening statements are under way at the trial of a church janitor accused of killing a New Jersey priest two years ago.

Jose Feliciano could face life in prison if he's convicted of fatally stabbing the Rev. Edward Hinds in the rectory of St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Chatham in the fall of 2009.

The 66-year-old Easton, Pa., resident claims he killed the priest because Hinds threatened to fire him if he ended their homosexual relationship.

CANADA
CNW

OTTAWA, Oct. 20, 2011 /CNW/ - The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) is hosting the third of its seven mandated National Events in Halifax, Nova Scotia from October 26 to 29, 2011 at the World Trade and Convention Centre.

National Events are high profile opportunities to provide an important forum for the TRC to hear the experiences of former Residential School students, employees and their families. They also serve to educate and enrich the broader public about Canada's 130-year history of Indian Residential Schools, and today's legacy both for Aboriginal communities and Canadian society in general.

Members of the media are invited to attend a technical background briefing of the Atlantic National Event hosted by the TRC.

Date:
Time:
Location:

Tuesday, October 25, 2011
3:00 - 4:00pm AT
Room 303
World Trade & Convention Centre
Halifax, Nova Scotia

CHILE
Emol

SANTIAGO.- La ministra en visita Jéssica González rechazó procesar al sacerdote Fernando Karadima Fariña, petición que habían hecho los denunciantes, y además decretó el cierre del sumario.

Con esta resolución, el abogado querellante Juan Pablo Hermosilla queda en condiciones de pedirle a la Corte de Santiago que revise los antecedentes y revierta lo obrado por la magistrada, quien descartó hoy encausar al clérigo por el delito de abuso sexual reiterado.

CHILE
La Tercera

A las 10.00 horas de esta mañana, en el 34° Juzgado del Crimen de Santiago, la ministra en visita del caso Karadima, Jéssica González, dará a conocer su decisión, sobre procesar o no al ex párroco de El Bosque.

Este lunes recién pasado, en horas de la tarde, el abogado de los querellantes de Fernando Karadima, Juan Pablo Hermosilla, presentó la petición de procesamiento, por el delito de abuso sexual.

UNITED KINGDOM
Ealing Times

12:33pm Thursday 20th October 2011

By Toby Bakare »

POLICE are still searching for a former clergyman from Ealing Abbey who is wanted in connection with child sex abuse claims but has skipped bail.

Laurence Soper, 80, is wanted to answer questions about offences said to have been committed during his time as a teacher at St Benedict’s School, part of Ealing Abbey, from 1972 -84. No charge has yet been laid against him.

Father Soper was the Abbot of Ealing from 1991-2000. He also served as a part-time prison chaplain at Feltham Young Offenders institute. A European arrest warrant is due to be issued for him as he is thought to be in Italy.

VATICAN CITY
AGI

(AGI) Vatican City - The Pope has told Australian Bishops to "put past mistakes right with honesty and transparency." He was referring to the "deplorable sins and mistakes made by some priests and monks in the past."

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

VATICAN CITY, 20 OCT 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences eight prelates from the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, on their 'ad limina' visit:

- Archbishop Barry James Hickey of Perth, accompanied by Auxiliary Bishop Donald George Sproxton.

- Bishop Gerard Joseph Holohan of Bunbury.

- Bishop Justin Joseph Bianchini of Geraldton.

- Bishop Luc Julian Matthys of Armidale.

- Bishop Michael Joseph McKenna of Bathurst.

- Bishop David Louis Walker of Broken Bay.

- Bishop Geoffrey Hilton Jarrett of Lismore.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

VATICAN CITY, 20 OCT 2011 (VIS) - The positive results of World Youth Day (WYD) 2008, celebrated in Sydney, Australia, and the recollection of the first country's saint, Mary MacKillop, were the central themes of remarks made this morning by Benedict XVI to prelates of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, who have just completed their "ad limina" visit.

The Pope mentioned the increased number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life in Australia in the wake of WYD 2008. This is proof, he said, of "the youthful vitality of the Church to which we all belong and the perennial relevance of the Good News which must be proclaimed afresh to every generation".

"St. Mary of the Cross MacKillop's "courageous response to the difficulties she faced throughout her life can also inspire today's Catholics as they confront the new evangelisation and serious challenges to the spread of the Gospel in society as a whole".

"It is true that yours is a pastoral burden which has been made heavier by the past sins and mistakes of others, most regrettably including some clergy and religious; but the task now falls to you to continue to repair the errors of the past with honesty and openness, in order to build, with humility and resolve, a better future for all concerned. I therefore encourage you to continue to be pastors of souls who, along with your clergy, are always prepared to go one step further in love and truth for the sake of the consciences of the flock entrusted to you, seeking to preserve them in holiness, to teach them humbly and to lead them irreproachably in the ways of the Catholic faith".

VATICAN CITY
The West Australian

VATICAN CITY, Oct 20, 2011 (AFP) - - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday told Australian bishops that their work had been made more difficult by the clerical sex abuse scandal but exhorted them to "repair the errors of the past with honesty."

"Yours is a pastoral burden which has been made heavier by the past sins and mistakes of others, most regrettably including some clergy and religious," he told a group of Australian bishops during a meeting at the Vatican.

"The task now falls on you to continue to repair the errors of the past with honesty and openness, in order to build, with humility and resolve, a better future for all concerned," he added.

The Australian Catholic Church has been rocked by clerical sex abuse cases, including recent allegations dating back to the 1960s in which an Anglican archbishop claimed he was raped from the age of 15 by a Catholic priest.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Thursday, October 20, 2011

A defrocked Irish priest has pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.

Oliver O'Grady, formerly of Charlemont Street, and with an address in Ranelagh will be sentenced in January.

The 65-year-old former priest was arraigned at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court this morning and entered guilty pleas on three counts of possessing child pornography.

Two of the charges date back to December 10 last year when Oliver O'Grady was arrested.

NEDERLAND
Kerknieuws

DO 20 okt 2011

Jarenlang was hij een gewaardeerd inwoner van het Brabantse plaatsje Deurne. Maar nu hebben in totaal negen mensen zich gemeld die beweren seksueel te zijn misbruikt door de frater. Het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik Rooms-Katholieke Kerk heeft het misbruik bij één persoon bevestigd.

NEDERLAND
ED

DEURNE - De Congregatie CMM, in Nederland beter bekend als de Fraters van Tilburg, bezint zich op maatregelen om seksueel misbruik door fraters in de toekomst te voorkomen. De hogere oversten van de congregatie uit alle landen en de vormingsleiders waren in Yogyakarta in Indonesië bijeen om daarover te vergaderen.

NEDERLAND
ED

Oktober 2011

Persoonlijke getuigenis slachtoffer Francino

Familie frater Francino is 'diep geschokt'
Deurne geschokt over misbruik

Frater Francino valt van voetstuk
'Frater Francino van Hoof pleegde seksueel misbruik in Deurne'