ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

The Pope has named 22 new cardinals – the so-called ‘princes of the church’, including prelates in such key posts as New York and Hong Kong and a large number of Italians holding major Vatican positions.

Cardinals are the Pope’s top advisers, the elite group of churchmen who will eventually elect Benedict XVI’s successor.

Of the 22, 18 are under the age of 80 – raising to 125 the number of cardinals eligible to vote in the next papal conclave. Cardinals aged 80 and over are not allowed to vote on the next pope.

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

Reuters

VATICAN CITY, Jan 6 (Reuters) – (Corrects to show that Monteiro de Castro is Portuguese, not Spanish)

Pope Benedict on Friday named 22 new cardinals. Here are their names in the order in which the pope announced them.

Under 80 years old and eligible to enter a conclave to elect the next pope:

1. Archbishop Fernando Filoni, Italian, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.
2. Archbishop Manuel Monteiro de Castro, Portuguese, head of Vatican office that deals with the sacrament of penance.
3. Archbishop Santos Abril y Castello, Spanish, archpriest of the Rome basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Jan. 6, 2012 10:16 a.m.

As you most likely know by now, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York (and formerly of Milwaukee) will be elevated to cardinal at the Vatican in February – a move that gives him a say in the election of the next pope.

Veteran Vatican reporter John Allen, who has authored a new book with Dolan, offers five observations on the 22 new cardinals named today. Among them, that Pope Benedict XVI broke with tradition in appointing Dolan so soon – a sign that the pope thinks highly of the popular American prelate.

The Journal Sentinel posted the announcement on Dolan’s appointment early today at JSonline.com, including a link to this photo gallery.

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BOSTON (MA)
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Jan. 06, 2012 All Things Catholic

Breaking news: Pope Benedict XVI on Friday named 22 new cardinals, including two Americans, Archbishops Timothy Dolan and Edwin O’Brien. John Allen’s coverage and analysis can be found here:

•Pope names 22 new cardinals, including Dolan and O’Brien
•Five observations on the new cardinals

* * *
Although you won’t find it on any liturgical calendar, Friday marks a monumental milestone for the Catholic church in the United States. It was exactly a decade ago, on Jan. 6, 2002, that the first Boston Globe article appeared on a serial predator and former priest named John Geoghan, triggering what we now know as the “sexual abuse crisis.”

Within a year, Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston resigned in disgrace, his legacy permanently tainted by perceptions of having presided over the Catholic Watergate. The man tapped to clean up the mess Law left behind — a humble, self-effacing Capuchin Franciscan named Sean O’Malley — was already a veteran drawn from the frontlines of the crisis, well before the term even existed.

Back in 1992, O’Malley was quietly serving as a missionary bishop in the Virgin Islands when he was dispatched to the Fall River diocese in Massachusetts, where he was forced to deal with a mushrooming sex abuse scandal involving former priest James Porter. Among other things, that experience occasioned O’Malley’s first meetings with abuse victims. A decade later, O’Malley was transferred to Palm Beach, Fla., where another diocese was in disarray after two consecutive bishops had resigned following revelations of abuse.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
Record Searchlight

SACRAMENTO — A suspended Redding priest charged with seven felony counts of child molestation had his $5 million bail reduced Thursday to $700,000 during a hearing in Sacramento County Superior Court.

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda, 32, was arrested Nov. 30, 2011, after surrendering to law enforcement officials in Sacramento County after the diocese received a complaint from a parishioner’s family. His original bail was so high because prosecutors claimed he was a flight risk.

Ojeda, who had been assistant pastor at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Redding, is accused of seven counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a teenage girl over a two-year span — starting when she was 14 — in Sacramento and Shasta counties, according to the criminal complaint filed against him by the Sacramento County district attorney’s office.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Celebrating the feast of the Epiphany, Pope Benedict XVI ordained two new bishops: U.S. Archbishop Charles J. Brown, a longtime official at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who is the new nuncio to Ireland; and Polish Archbishop Marek Solczynski, the new nuncio to Georgia and Armenia.

The two men swore their fidelity to the Gospel and to the church and laid prostrate on an ornate rug on the floor of St. Peter’s Basilica as the Litany of Saints was chanted. Then they knelt before Pope Benedict, who laid his hands on their heads and ordained them bishops.

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CALIFORNIA
Mercury News

The Associated Press
Posted: 01/06/2012

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Bail has been reduced to $700,000 for a Northern California priest charged with molesting a 14-year-old girl.

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda, who has been a parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mercy parish in Redding, appeared in a Sacramento courtroom on Thursday for what turned out to be a contentious hearing to reduce the $5 million bail amount.

The Sacramento Bee ( http://bit.ly/y1DwJQ) says the prosecutor told the judge that Ojeda confessed to a Catholic Diocese investigator after being told of the girl’s allegations.

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GERMANY
America Magazine

Posted at: Friday, January 06, 2012
Author: James Martin, S.J.

Included among the names of cardinal-designates this morning in the Vatican’s press release are some expected names, including Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York. But there is a surprise: Fr. Karl Joseph Becker, SJ. Fr. Becker is a German Jesuit priest and professor emeritus of dogmatic theology of the Jesuits’ Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Normally the pope names (or, technically, “creates”) cardinals from the ranks of bishops and archbishops (as with Archbishop Dolan) and these men are often heads of the larger archdioceses. But occasionally the pope names a priest, to honor the man for his life’s work. (Normally they are over 80, not named a bishop so as to spare them from the sacramental duties of a bishop, and are ineligible to vote in a papal conclave.) Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ, the American Jesuit theologian, was a recent example. (An interview with Cardinal Dulles a few months before the consistory, including his thoughts on becoming a cardinal, is here.)

A note about accepting ecclesiastical honors in the Society of Jesus. At the close of their formation, a Jesuit will make his “Final Vows.” (This comes after their “First Vows” made at the end of their novitiate.) Many Jesuits will profess four vows: poverty, chastity and obedience and a special vow of obedience to the pope “with regard to missions.” Some will profess the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. We also make five separate “promises”: First, we promise never to change anything in the Jesuit Constitutions about poverty–unless to make it “more strict.” Second, we promise never to “strive or ambition” for any dignity in the church, like becoming a bishop. Third, never to “strive or ambition” for any high office in the Jesuits. Fourth, if we find out that someone is striving for these things, we are to “communicate his name” to the Society. (All these were signs of Ignatius wanting to root out among his Jesuits the desire for ecclesial honors, which was rampant in Igantius’s time.) Finally, we make a promise that, if we are somehow made bishop, we will still listen to the superior general.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The Catholic Review

By Mark Pattison
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON – The priestly ministry of Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, named a cardinal Jan. 6 by Pope Benedict XVI, has been marked by frequent assignments, so that he rarely stays in one place very long. And even when he is ensconced somewhere for a while, he gets to moving.

Appointed last August as pro-grand master of the Equestrian Order (Knights) of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, based in Rome, he is serving simultaneously in his previous post as archbishop of Baltimore until a successor is named.

Born April 8, 1939, in New York, Edwin Frederick O’Brien and his family were members of Our Lady of Solace Parish in the Bronx. He attended St. Joseph’s Seminary outside New York, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1961 and master’s degrees in 1964 and 1965. In 1965, he was ordained to the priesthood, setting off a string of appointments.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
NBC Bay Area

Bail has been reduced to $700,000 for a Northern California priest charged with molesting a 14-year-old girl.

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda, who has been a parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mercy parish in Redding, appeared in a Sacramento courtroom on Thursday for what turned out to be a contentious hearing to reduce the $5 million bail amount.

The Sacramento Bee says the prosecutor told the judge that Ojeda confessed to a Catholic Diocese investigator after being told of the girl’s allegations.

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PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star

By Bobby Nalzaro
Saksi

Friday, January 6, 2012

A FEW years ago, then Cebu archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal assigned six priests, most of them involved in controversies, to compose the Team Ministry of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Minglanilla. The priests succeeded the group headed by the outgoing parish priest, Msgr. Esteban Binghay, who was promoted episcopal vicar overseeing the parishes under the province’s first district.

The formation of the Team Ministry was a way of giving the controversial priests a second chance. Two of the priests sired several children. Another underwent rehabilitation for alcoholism and had one child. One is gay. The other was charged with statutory rape (the case was settled).

Parishioners initially resisted the move but church officials managed to convince them to accept the priests. Everything went smoothly until recently when some church acolytes exposed the sexual misbehavior of two of the priests. They accused one priest of engaging in sex with different women on separate occasions at the back of the church. The other priest was accused of sexually harassing acolytes after a drinking session.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Sophia Deboick
guardian.co.uk, Friday 6 January 2012

Last week it emerged that Gabino Zavala, the auxiliary bishop of the Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles for nearly 18 years, has a secret family. The existence of his two teenage children has been deemed a sufficiently “grave cause”, as defined by Canon 401 of the code of canon law, that he has been obliged to resign. Memories of other notable cases resurface: the Eamon Casey scandal of the early 90s, when revelations that he fathered a child two years before his episcopal appointment led to his resignation as Bishop of Galway; the more recent case of the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Father Marcial Maciel, who had as many as six children (although accusations of paedophilia and incest make this alleged offence pale into insignificance). Zavala is hardly the first priest to break his vow of celibacy in such spectacular fashion, and in fact the church has struggled with the problem of “Fathers who are fathers” for centuries.

The children of Catholic priests have historically presented a double problem to the Latin Rite church: clearly they give the game away about dad’s lack of conformity to the requirement for celibacy, but they also put a financial burden on his employer. Indeed, in Wednesday’s statement on the Zavala case, his superior Archbishop José Gomez seemed to privilege the “spiritual care” that the archdiocese has extended to the bishop’s secret family above the offered “funding to assist the children with college costs”, while the archdiocesan spokesman has been at pains to emphasise that Zavala was not siphoning off church funds to his illegitimate children.

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CANADA
CBC News

The Pope has named Toronto Archbishop Thomas Christopher Collins as one of 22 new cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican announced Friday morning.

The 64-year-old Collins, ordained as a priest in 1973 and appointed archbishop of Toronto in 2007, told CBC’s Heather Hiscox that he learned about his appointment after receiving word on his BlackBerry to call the Pope’s representative.

“This is indeed a great honour and I’m indeed overwhelmed,” Collins said early Friday, adding that he will continue as archbishop of the Toronto archdiocese.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The Daily Record

Posted: 8:19 am Fri, January 6, 2012
By Associated Press

Pope Benedict XVI on Friday named the 15th archbishop of Baltimore, 72-year-old Edwin F. O’Brien, to the rank of cardinal.

O’Brien was named to the College of Cardinals, along with 21 others, the Archdiocese of Baltimore said in a statement. As cardinal, O’Brien will serve as an adviser to the pope and be eligible to vote in a papal election until his 80th birthday.

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NETHERLANDS
Radio Netherlands

Pope Benedict XVI announced the appointment in Rome on Friday. Eijk is the eighth Dutch cleric to be appointed cardinal.

Archbishop Eijk is now one of just two Dutch cardinals, the other being Ad Simonis who turned 80 in November. Due to his age, Cardinal

Simonis will not take part in next papal conclave which will select a new pope when Benedict XVI passes away. Eijk succeeded Simonis as archbishop in 2007. Ever since Jan de Jong was appointed cardinal in 1946, it has been customary for the pope to bestow the rank of cardinal on the archbishop of Utrecht.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By J. DAVID GOODMAN and SHARON OTTERMAN

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, who has led the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York for nearly three years, will be named a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican announced on Friday.

The Archdiocese of New York is widely considered the spiritual heart of the American church. It counts about 2.6 million Catholics in a sprawling jurisdiction that includes includes Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island and several suburban counties.

“As a kid, I just wanted to be a parish priest,” the cardinal-designate said in an early morning news conference at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan. “And to think that now the pope has named me a cardinal— that’s awesome.”

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

Incoming papal nuncio to Ireland Monsignor Charles Brown has today been ordained an archbishop in Rome by Pope Benedict.

The Irish-American (52) was named papal nuncio to Ireland last November.

He has worked with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was headed by the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, since 1994. He was ordained a priest in 1989 in St Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, and was based at St Brendan’s parish in the Bronx until 1991.

Dr Brown was appointed Assistant Secretary of the International Theological Commission in September 2009.

Offering his congratulations, Cardinal Seán Brady said: “I am very pleased to be in Rome today, the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ, with Cardinal Desmond Connell, Bishop Noel Treanor and Bishop Donal McKeown, to attend the episcopal ordination of Monsignor Charles Brown, the recently appointed apostolic nuncio to Ireland.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Jan. 06, 2012 NCR Today

Naming new cardinals is among the more important acts of any papacy, because the cardinals form the “electoral college” that will pick the next pope. That’s arguably even more significant this time around, given that Benedict XVI will turn 85 in April – and although there’s no sign of any health crisis, at that age it’s natural to begin thinking about what might come next.

Here are five quick observations about the 22 new cardinals named today by Benedict XVI, including 18 who are under 80 and therefore eligible to participate in a future conclave.

The consistory, when today’s nominees will actually enter the College of Cardinals, is set for Rome Feb. 18-19.

Bring on the Italians

It was already a commonplace observation about Benedict XVI that in some ways he has “re-Italianized” the Vatican and the papacy, perhaps a product of his comfort level with Italian ecclesial culture after spending almost the last thirty years in Rome.

Certainly today’s appointments will reinforce those impressions. Prior to today’s nominations, there were 24 Italians among 108 voting-age cardinals, representing 22 percent of the total. With seven Italians among the 18 cardinal electors named today, their share will rise to 25 percent, fully one-quarter of the number of cardinals who will elect the next pope. That’s by far the largest national bloc in the College of Cardinals; the next largest is the Americans, who will have 18 cardinals in total and 11 eligible to vote for the pope.

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NEW YORK
NY1

[with video]

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan announced this morning that he is one of 22 prelates being elevated to Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI.

Cardinals act as the pope’s key advisors, who will eventually choose his successor.

Dolan, 61, is the eighth archbishop of New York to be named a cardinal.

Speaking after this morning’s mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dolan said he is “honored and humbled” and congratulated the community in New York for also being recognized by the pope.

“It’s almost as if Pope Benedict XVI is putting the red hat of the cardinal on top of the Empire State Building, or upon the Statue of Liberty or home plate at Yankee Stadium, on the spires of this great St. Patrick’s Cathedral or any of our wonderful parish churches,” Dolan said.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore

January 06, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI today named Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, 72, to the College of Cardinals. As Cardinal, Cardinal-designate O’Brien will serve as an advisor to the Pope and be eligible to vote in a Papal election until his 80th birthday. A consistory to formally elevate the new Cardinals will be held at the Vatican on February 18, 2012.

Cardinal-designate O’Brien and New York Archbishop and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Timothy Dolan, are among 22 new Cardinals announced by Pope Benedict.

Cardinal-designate O’Brien served as the 15th Archbishop of Baltimore from October 2007 until August 2011 when the Pope appointed him Pro Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. He has served as Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Baltimore since his appointment in August and will continue to lead the nation’s oldest Catholic diocese until his eventual successor is installed.

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NEW YORK
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has announced that His Excellency the Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York, will be elevated to the dignity of Cardinal in a Consistory to be held on February 18, 2012.

Archbishop Dolan released a statement today in which he expressed his gratitude to Pope Benedict XVI saying that he is “honored, humbled, and grateful.” He also thanked the people of the archdiocese of New York, “this is about an affirmation of love from the Pope to a celebrated archdiocese and community, and a summons to its unworthy archbishop to serve Jesus, His Church universal, His vicar on earth, and His people better.”

Archbishop Dolan is the eighth Archbishop of New York to be named a Cardinal. The first seven Cardinal Archbishops of New York were:

John Cardinal McCloskey (Archbishop 1864-1885; created Cardinal 1875. First American Cardinal.)
John Cardinal Farley (Archbishop 1902-1918; created Cardinal 1911)

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HONG KONG
RTHK

Pope Benedict has named the head of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong, John Tong, as a cardinal.

Bishop Tong is one of 22 new cardinals around the world chosen by the pope.

He was appointed bishop after his predecessor, Joseph Zen, retired in 2009. He’s the church’s seventh Chinese cardinal.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Eimear Ni Bhraonain

Friday January 06 2012

A FORMER Irish priest who was deported from Brazil to England on St Stephen’s Day is to be returned here to face indecent assault charges.

Peter Kennedy (72) was refused bail in London and ordered to return to Ireland after the court heard he was a “classic fugitive”.

The ex-cleric is at the centre of child sex abuse allegations made by 18 complainants over incidents between 1968 and 1984.

Mr Kennedy, who had travelled to Brazil on a British passport, appeared before the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London yesterday morning. Counsel for the judicial authorities in Ireland, Adam Harbinson, said the arrest warrant detailed 55 separate allegations of indecent assault on 18 complainants.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

NSAC will be with survivors today and throughout this weekend.

Survivors gathering in Boston.

It only seems right and just, to borrow language from the new missal of the Roman Catholic Church. that it is where we should be on this solemn day which marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the revelations of the clergy and nun sexual abuse scandal through the Boston Globe’s powerful series of articles with its avalanche of sordid details that began a dripping of truth into the Catholic conscience.

This largest crisis in the Roman Catholic Church in the last 500 years didn’t begin on January 6, 2002 all of the survivors, known and unknown, living and dead are courageous testament to this.

But what Boston did do was to bring together a perfect storm that captured attention: a sitting East Coast Cardinal, one media outlet that most of a single archdiocese used as a major source of information, a shoe leather attorney who walked the South Boston neighborhood in the pursuit of truth and a Dominican priest with a spine. For those of you new to the movement – and indeed you are welcome — we refer to Cardinal Bernard Law, the Boston Globe, Mitchell Garabedian, and Father Thomas Doyle.

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NEDERLAND
Nieuwsblad DeKaap

06-01-2012

DRIEBERGEN – De leden van de Sint Petrus’ bandenparochie in Driebergen-Rijsenburg hebben ‘tamelijk rustig’ gereageerd op de berichtgeving over de beschuldigingen tegen pastoor Bert Sturkenboom, die van 1977 tot 1994 werkzaam was in deze parochie. Dat heeft George Marlet, voorzitter van de locatieraad Sint Petrus’banden, gemeld. Sturkenboom, die na zijn Driebergse periode als Deken in het ambtsgebied Veluwe-Flevoland werd aangesteld en sinds 2005 als pastoor in de Sint Lucasparochie op de Veluwe fungeerde, werd recentelijk door het aartsbisdom Utrecht op non-actief gesteld, wegens klachten over seksueel misbruik. Volgens de beschuldigingen zou dit misbruik in de jaren ‘80 hebben plaatsgevonden toen Sturkenboom in Driebergen-Rijsenburg werkzaam was.

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NEDERLAND
Asser Journaal

ASSEN – De bisschop van Groningen Mgr. G.J.N. de Korte, gaat zondagavond 22 januari voor in een Welkomdienst in de Jozefkerk. Het thema van de dienst is ‘Waar halen wij de moed vandaan?’.

De kerk beleeft in ons land en in heel West-Europa moeilijke tijden. Dit wordt veroorzaakt door de invloed van de secularisatie op de kerkelijke betrokkenheid, de kerkscheuringen in de protestantse kerken sinds de Reformatie, maar meer recent ook door het seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen in Roomse instellingen. Het is begrijpelijk dat bij mensen in en buiten de kerk de vraag rijst waar ‘wij de moed vandaan halen’. Die vraag kan worden gesteld aan zowel de voorgangers als aan de kerkgangers.

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NEDERLAND
DePers

Gideon Uvyn uit Breda, zelf seksueel misbruikt door een pater, heeft aangifte gedaan tegen kardinaal Simonis wegens meineed. Redactie binnenland

Volgen Gideon Uvyn wist kardinaal Ad Simonis wel degelijk dat kinderen werden misbruikt door geestelijken. Daarom heeft hij op 21 december aangifte gedaan tegen Simonis wegens meineed. Uvyn meent dat de kardinaal tijdens een getuigenverhoor bij de rechtbank in Middelburg heeft gelogen toen hij zei dat hij er niet van wist.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

Publicado por Javier Cisterna | La Información es de María José Calderón

El Arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, confirmó que uno de los presbíteros miembros de la Unión Sacerdotal de la iglesia de El Bosque tomó contacto telefónico con Fernando Karadima.

La situación fue criticada por una de las víctimas del ex párroco, Juan Carlos Cruz, quien aseguró que este es un hecho inaceptable e impresentable.

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NEDERLAND
NOS

Nederland heeft er een kardinaal bij. Paus Benedictus heeft bekendgemaakt dat aartsbisschop Wim Eijk kardinaal wordt, waarmee Nederland nu twee kardinalen kent.

Kardinaal is op de paus na de hoogste kerkelijke functie binnen de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk en alleen de paus bepaalt wie kardinaal wordt.

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BOSTON (MA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Michael Sean Winters on Jan. 06, 2012 Distinctly Catholic

Earlier this week, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, OFM Cap, issued a letter to the people of the Archdiocese of Boston marking the tenth anniversary of the revelations of clergy sex abuse in The Boston Globe. The letter, and an accompanying document about the steps taken by the archdiocese to face the scandal, is remarkable in every way.

Ten years ago, the bishops failed to understand that the scandal was not only, or even primarily, about the underlying crimes pedophilia, but about the failure of the hierarchy to confront those crimes and the weasel words they used to explain their actions. In the spring of 2002, New York’s Cardinal Edward Egan wrote in a letter read at Masses: “If in hindsight we also discover that mistakes may have been made as regards prompt removal of priests and assistance to victims, I am deeply sorry.” That is not the voice of moral responsibility and, consequently, cannot be a voice of moral authority. Only a lawyer would find no problem in the distance set between the word “mistakes” and the pronoun “I” and the interjection of the word “if” is so tone deaf as to defy explanation.

Contrast that with the words in O’Malley’s letter. “As a Church we must continue to express the depth of our sorrow and contrition for how badly we failed those entrusted to our care. I reflect on this in my prayer every day. As leaders in the Church we must accept our responsibility for those failings and clearly acknowledge that Church leadership could have and should have responded more quickly and more forcefully.”

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GEORGIA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By David Ibata
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A senior pastor at a north Fayette County church and one of his members have been arrested and charged with stealing $30,000 from their congregation, authorities said.

Kenneth Robinson and Alexis Dodson, both of Fayetteville, fled Georgia in October and were apprehended Sunday in Pennsylvania by agents of the U.S. Marshals Service, according to Investigator Brent Rowan of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.

Robinson, 44, senior pastor of Flint Ridge Baptist Church, has been charged with two counts of forgery and one count of theft by taking, Rowan said. Dodson, 35, is charged with two counts of being a party to the crime of theft by taking, he said.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

By Rachelle G. Cohen
Friday, January 6, 2012

Let’s prepare an authentic New England welcome for the Republican Party’s latest heartthrob, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

Yes, welcome to the land where we never forget and we never, ever forgive.

We especially can never forgive the way he blamed this community and its often liberal political base for the sexual abuse too many of its children suffered at the hands of predatory priests. It was a dark day surely for the victims, for all of us who suffered with them, for those who turned away from their pain and for the Catholic church which continues to try to set things right.

This is what Santorum said back in 2002 at the height of the scandal, in Catholic On-Line:

“When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While there’s no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.”

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UNITED STATES
The Pilot

By Nancy Frazier O’Brien

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Two U.S. cardinals and 20 other U.S. bishops could retire because of age this year.

There are eight active U.S. bishops, including a cardinal, who have already turned 75. Another cardinal and 13 other bishops will celebrate their 75th birthday in 2012.

At age 75, bishops are required by canon law to submit their resignation to the pope.

With the retirements in 2011 of Cardinals Bernard F. Law, Justin Rigali and Roger M. Mahony and the death of Cardinal John P. Foley, Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was the only U.S. cardinal still active over age 75 at the start of the year.

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Aware of Geoghan record, archdiocese still shuttled him from parish to parish

By Michael Rezendes rezendes@globe.com
Prepared by the Globe Spotlight Team: reporters Matt Carroll, Sacha Pfeiffer, and Michael Rezendes, and editor Walter V. Robinson.
Boston Globe
January 6, 2002

Since the mid-1990s, more than 130 people have come forward with horrific childhood tales about how former priest John J. Geoghan allegedly fondled or raped them during a three-decade spree through a half-dozen Greater Boston parishes.

Almost always, his victims were grammar school boys. One was just 4 years old.

Then came last July’s disclosure that Cardinal Bernard F. Law knew about Geoghan’s problems in 1984, Law’s first year in Boston, yet approved his transfer to St. Julia’s parish in Weston. Wilson D. Rogers Jr., the cardinal’s attorney, defended the move last summer, saying the archdiocese had medical assurances that each Geoghan reassignment was “appropriate and safe.”

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BOSTON (MA)
The Pilot

By Antonio M. Enrique

SOUTH END — On Jan. 6, 2002 the Boston Globe began a series of articles revealing that archdiocesan officials reassigned Father John Geoghan to parish ministry even after it was known he had abused children in former assignments, sparking public outrage.

Over the next 12 months, the court-ordered release of personnel files led to the revelation of numerous other past allegations of abuse of minors by priests and, ultimately, to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law on Dec. 13, 2002. By then, what had become known as the clergy sexual abuse crisis had spread to dioceses throughout the United States and prompted the U.S. bishops to implement new policies for the protection of children.

In July 2003, Blessed Pope John Paul II appointed Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, OFM Cap. as Archbishop of Boston. Cardinal O’Malley came to Boston with a reputation as a healer after having been appointed bishop of the neighboring Diocese of Fall River in 1992 in the aftermath of a highly publicized case of a priest abusing minors, the case of Father James Porter.

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BOSTON (MA)
The Pilot

By Christopher S. Pineo

Marking the 10th anniversary of the clergy abuse scandal, Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley released a letter on Jan. 3, outlining the Archdiocese of Boston’s ongoing response to the tragedy and continuing commitment to the protection of children.

In the letter, Cardinal O’Malley commits the archdiocese to a continued focus on the protection of children in the face of the clergy sexual abuse crisis of 2002.

The crisis erupted in January 2002 when a series of Boston Globe reports revealed that archdiocesan officials had transferred Father John Geoghan from parish to parish despite having received accusations that he was sexually abusing children. Subsequent reports and lawsuits exposed numerous other instances of clergy sexual misconduct with children, many dating back decades.

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VATICAN CITY
Globe and Mail (Canada)

Vatican City— The Associated Press

Published Friday, Jan. 06, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI named 22 new cardinals Friday, including Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins.

Cardinals are the pope’s top advisers, the elite group of churchmen who will eventually elect Benedict’s successor. Of the 22, 18 are under the age of 80 — raising to 125 the number of cardinals eligible to vote in the next papal conclave. Cardinals over 80 are not allowed to vote on the next pope.

Archbishop Collins, 61, who rose through the church in Ontario and then Alberta before being installed Archbishop of Toronto in 2007, has denounced clerical sexual abuses and the church’s failure to respond adequately to them as “great scandals.”

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VATICAN CITY
New York Post

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI named 22 new cardinals Friday, including prelates in such key posts as New York and Hong Kong and a large group of Italians holding major Vatican positions.

The Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan, and former Archbishop of Baltimore, Edwin O’Brien, were among those named by the pope.

Dolan said in a statement, “Over the Christmas holy days, I finished a new biography of President Kennedy and I recalled his reply to someone who sincerely congratulated him on the honor of the presidency. ‘Thank you,’ John Kennedy replied, ‘but I don’t look at it so much as an honor, but as a call to higher service.’

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By Christina Boyle / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Friday, January 6 2012

Archbishop Timothy Dolan will be elevated to a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI.

Dolan will accept the prestigious title from the head of the Roman Catholic Church at a formal ceremony at the Vatican in Rome next month, the Archdiocese of New York announced Friday.

He is among 22 new cardinals named by Pope Benedict from cities around the globe, including Hong Kong, Berlin, Prague, Toronto and Florence.

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NEW YORK
CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Pope Benedict the XVI has named 22 new cardinals and among them, Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

Pope Benedict will elevate him to cardinal along with 21 others from Hong Kong, Berlin, Prague and from some key Vatican offices.

Dolan was named archbishop of new york by Pope Benedict in February of 2009. He had earlier served as archbishop of Milwaukee after being named to the post by Pope John Paul II in 2002.

Dolan released a statement following the announcement:

On this “Twelfth Day of Christmas” the traditional celebration of the Epiphany, I have received a gift from Pope Benedict XVI, as he announced just a couple of hours ago at the end of Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica that I would be among those to become a cardinal in Rome at the consistory of February 18th.

Yes, I am honored, humbled, and grateful, …but, let’s be frank: this is not about Timothy Dolan; this is an honor from the Holy Father to the Archdiocese of New York, and to all our cherished friends and neighbors who call this great community home.

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MALTA
DI-VE

Fr. Prospero Grech was nominated to become a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI. The Pope said he would appoint new cardinals after today’s Angelus.

Fr.Prospero Grech was born in Vittoriosa and at the moment he lives in Rome. Fr. Grech, 86 years old studied at the Lyceum and served during the war as a gunner the Home Guard of the University during war. It was in 1943 when he joined the Augustinian Order. He became a priest seven years later while in Rome.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

[with complete list]

by John L Allen Jr on Jan. 06, 2012 NCR Today

Pope Benedict XVI today announced the names of 22 new cardinals, including 18 under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote for the next pope. The list includes two Americans: Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, and Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and the former archbishop of Baltimore.

The consistory, the event in which these nominees will formally enter the College of Cardinals, is set for Rome on Feb. 18-19.

Once again, Benedict’s choices are top-heavy with Italians (seven of the 18 voting cardinals), Vatican officials (ten) and Europeans (twelve). Three also come from North America, including Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto along with Dolan and O’Brien.

Only three of the new cardinals come from outside the West: João Bráz de Aviz, a Brazilian who heads the Vatican office for religious life; John Tong Hon, bishop of Hong Kong; and George Alencherry, archbishop of the Syro-Malabar church in India.

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CZECH REPUBLIC
Czech Happenings

Prague – Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka has become cardinal, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI at the close of a mass today, the Prague Archbishopric told CTK.

To date the Czech Republic has had only one cardinal, Miloslav Vlk.

Duka has become the 22nd cardinal coming from the Bohemian and Moravian dioceses.

Duka, 68, will receive the appointing decree in February.

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NEW YORK
Wall Street Journal

Associated Press

NEW YORK — New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan has been named cardinal by the Vatican.

Dolan is one of 22 prelates who will be elevated to cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church in a formal ceremony Feb. 18.

Pope Benedict XVI made the announcement on Friday following an Epiphany Mass that ends the Vatican’s top Christmas celebrations.

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VATICAN CITY
Monsters and Critics

Vatican City – Pope Benedict XVI on Friday named 22 new cardinals, with their official installation ceremony set for February 18.

They include prelates from New York, Berlin, Toronto, Prague and Kerala, India. Eighteen of the new cardinals are under the age of 80, which makes them eligible, for now, to take part in a conclave to elect a successor to the current pontiff. That right expires after their 80th birthday.

The Vatican website says Benedict XVI has appointed 84 cardinals since his election in 2005.

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CANADA
Vancouver Sun

Pope Benedict XVI on Friday named, “with great joy,” a Canadian and 21 others to the College of Cardinals.

The Archbishop of Toronto, Thomas Collins, said he was honoured to be named as a member of the Catholic Church’s inner circle.

“I am grateful for the trust he has placed in me, and recognize this honour as a sign of his esteem for the role of Canada and of the Archdiocese of Toronto in the universal Church,” Collins said in a statement.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

“The world, with all its resources, is incapable of providing humanity with the light to guide it on its path”, said Pope Benedict XVI Friday marking the Feast of the Epiphany with pilgrims present in St Peter’s Square for the midday Angelus., during which he also announced a consistory for the creation of new cardinals.

“We can see as much in our day”, he continued “Western civilization seems to have lost its way, it is sailing blind. But the Church, through the Word of God, sees through this fog. She does not possess any technical solutions, but keeps Her eyes fixed on the goal, and offers the light of the Gospel to all people of good will, to every nation and culture”.

After the Marian prayer, the pontiff addressed best wishes to the Eastern Churches, which according to the Julian calendar, celebrate Christmas tomorrow. “May every family and every community – the Pope said – be full of the light and peace of Christ the Saviour.”

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VATICAN CITY
IBN Live (India)

Vatican City: Pope Benedict, putting his stamp on the future of Roman Catholicism, named 22 new cardinals on Friday, the red-hatted “princes of the Church” who are his closest aides and will one day choose his successor.

One of the most prominent on the list is Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York. Others are from Italy, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, India, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Germany, China, Romania, Belgium, and Malta.

They include the archbishops of Toronto, Prague, Utrecht, Florence, Berlin and Hong Kong. The head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic rite in India, George Alencherry, was also elevated to cardinal.

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Pope Benedict, putting his stamp on the future of Roman Catholicism, named 22 new cardinals on Friday, the red-hatted “princes of the Church” who are his closest aides and will one day choose his successor.

One of the most prominent on the list is Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York. Others are from Italy, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, India, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands,
Germany, China, Romania, Belgium, and Malta.

They include the archbishops of Toronto, Prague, Utrecht, Florence, Berlin and Hong Kong. The head of the Siro-Malabar Catholic rite in India was also elevated to cardinal.

Another new American cardinal is Edwin O’Brien, head of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, a group that is a major funder of the church in the Holy Land.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

Nel corso dell’Angelus di oggi, il Santo Padre Benedetto XVI ha annunciato per il prossimo 18 febbraio un Concistoro nel quale procederà alla nomina di ventidue nuovi Cardinali.
Queste le parole del Papa:

PAROLE DEL SANTO PADRE

Ed ora, con grande gioia, annuncio che il prossimo 18 febbraio terrò un Concistoro nel quale nominerò 22 nuovi Membri del Collegio Cardinalizio.

Come è noto, i Cardinali hanno il compito di aiutare il Successore di Pietro nello svolgimento del suo Ministero di confermare i fratelli nella fede e di essere principio e fondamento dell’unità e della comunione della Chiesa.

Ecco i nomi dei nuovi Porporati:

1. Mons. FERNANDO FILONI, Prefetto della Congregazione per l’Evangelizzazione dei Popoli;

2. Mons. MANUEL MONTEIRO DE CASTRO, Penitenziere Maggiore;

3. Mons. SANTOS ABRIL Y CASTELLÓ, Arciprete della Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore;

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

[with complete list]

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI named 22 new cardinals Friday, including prelates in such key posts as New York and Hong Kong and a large group of Italians holding major Vatican positions.

Cardinals are the pope’s top advisers, the elite group of churchmen who will eventually elect Benedict’s successor. Of the 22, 18 are under the age of 80 — raising to 125 the number of cardinals eligible to vote in the next papal conclave. Cardinals over 80 are not allowed to vote on the next pope.

Other new cardinals come from Berlin, Prague, Toronto and Florence, Italy.

The Vatican officials include a Brazilian prelate who heads the office for Consecrated Life.

The pope announced the names “with great joy” following an Epiphany Mass that ended the Vatican’s main Christmas celebrations. He said they will be formally elevated at a Feb. 18 ceremony in Rome.

The list includes two Americans: Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York and Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and the former archbishop of Baltimore.

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VATICAN CITY
My Fox Houston

(NewsCore) – Pope Benedict XVI named 22 new Roman Catholic cardinals Friday, including two Americans, FOX News Channel reported.

The Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan, and former Archbishop of Baltimore, Edwin O’Brien, were among those named by the pope.

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BOSTON (MA)
Catholic Culture

January 06, 2012

A woman assaulted by a Boston priest when she was 15 has described how the words of St. Thérèse of Lisieux and the compassion of Pope Benedict during a 2008 meeting in Washington have strengthened her faith. The priest–Kelvin Iguabita–is serving a prison sentence and has been laicized.

“As we waited in the chapel of the apostolic nunciature, I fingered a pair of my mother’s rosary beads, praying to the Blessed Mother for the grace to say the ‘right thing’ to the Pope,” the victim recounted, adding:

The Pontiff entered the room, and I couldn’t take my eyes off the slight, old, humble-looking man. He was there for survivors everywhere, conveying a message of love and hope to the world and to the Church brought to its knees by the sex-abuse scandal. He knelt at the altar and prayed with us for a few moments.

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BOSTON (MA)
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE CATHOLIC Church “must continue to express the depth of our sorrow and contrition for how badly we failed those entrusted to our care,” Cardinal Seán O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, has said.

“As leaders in the church we must accept our responsibility for those failings and clearly acknowledge that church leadership could have and should have responded more quickly and more forcefully.”

He was speaking in a letter marking the 10th anniversary of revelations by the Boston Globe newspaper of an extensive cover- up of clerical child sex abuse by archdiocesan authorities there, which led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law.

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ALABASTER (AL)
The Birmingham News

By Veronica Kennedy — The Birmingham News

ALABASTER, Alabama — Shelby County School Superintendent Randy Fuller said Thursday he is stunned that a retired Alabaster teacher told police he had sexually molested more than 20 of his former students.

Alabaster police arrested Daniel Montague Acker Jr., 49, Wednesday and charged him with three counts of first-degree child sexual abuse. He is in the Shelby County Jail on $225,000 bond.

“We can only say that the allegations are shocking,” Fuller said. “We, as a school district, understand that child abuse is horrible with devastating consequences to victims and their families. …

In 1992, the younger Acker, then a 30-year-old youth minister at Westwood Baptist Church and a fourth-grade teacher at Thompson Elementary, was charged after a neighbor’s child who was in his class said Acker had touched her improperly at her home.

The school board suspended Acker with pay until the case was decided. A grand jury declined to indict him on the charge, and the school board decided to reinstate him after a full day of hearings.

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DIBBLE (OK)
The Oklahoman

BY SHEILA STOGSDILL sheilastogsdill@sbcglobal.net
Published: January 6, 2012

DIBBLE — A former church school custodian and teacher will stand trial on charges he raped and molested five female students, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Dale Allan Elledge, 74, of Blanchard, was charged May 25, 2010, in McClain County with 10 counts of lewd molestation and four counts of first degree rape by instrumentation.

Two counts of lewd molestation were dismissed on Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Jeff Virgin said. The accusations cover a period from 1998 to 2005, he said.

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COSTA RICA
Tico Times

An international arrest warrant and fresh charges of sexual abuse against a minor were not enough to keep Dr. German Enrique Moreno in jail. Costa Rican authorities quietly released Moreno from preventive detention on Dec. 23, after the plaintiff in the case, a minor at the time the alleged abuse took place, agreed to an undisclosed financial settlement.

Moreno was arrested Aug. 22 on charges that he allegedly sexually assaulted the minor, who is now 19.

Andrea Marín, a spokeswoman from the Supreme Court, confirmed the deal that allowed Moreno to walk, despite an outstanding Interpol arrest warrant on similar charges in the United States (TT, Aug. 26, 22, 19, 12, 9, 2011). …

Moreno was arrested again in 2005 in Houston, Texas, in the U.S., on charges of sexually abusing at least seven victims, all minors at the time. Through a clinic and at a local church, Moreno had contact with dozens of other underage boys. He also practiced medicine without a license.

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UNITED STATES
AlterNet

January 5, 2012

David Morris

When a totalitarian regime aids and abets the rape of tens of thousands of children one would expect it to be shunned by governments and citizens alike. And any statements it might issue on matters of morality accorded no respect.

Why should we make an exception when the regime is the Catholic Church?

That the Roman Catholic Church is totalitarian is undeniable. Church law itself makes this clear. Canon 331 declares the Pope “the head of the college of bishops, the Vicar of Christ, and the pastor of the universal Church on earth. By virtue of his office he possesses supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely.”

Canon 333 emphasizes the remarkable power this institution endows in one man, “No appeal or recourse is permitted against a sentence or decree of the Roman Pontiff.”

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CALIFORNIA
KGO

[with video]

Carolyn Tyler

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A precedent-setting case being held in front of California’s highest court could expose the Roman Catholic Diocese to more sex abuse lawsuits.

The case is examining the state’s statute of limitations that put time limits on when plaintiffs can file civil suits. There were conflicting lower court rulings on this specific case, so the Diocese of Oakland asked the Supreme Court to step in.

Tim Lennon says he was abused by a Roman Catholic priest when he was a young boy, but it took him 30 years to come forward.

“This causes severe injury that have a lifelong effect, crippling injury and sometimes, you don’t understand that until decades later,” he told ABC7.

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

[link to court documents via SNAP]

BY TIM TOWNSEND • ttownsend@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8221

Lawyers for the Archdiocese of St. Louis subpoenaed an official with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests this week in what the organization called a pattern by Missouri bishops intended to cripple its ability to help victims of clergy abuse.

The move follows a similar, and successful, one by attorneys across the state in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph that forced the group’s director, David Clohessy, to sit for a deposition Monday in an ongoing abuse case in that diocese.

But attorneys for the St. Louis archdiocese said Thursday that the subpoena it sent to Barbara Dorris, the group’s St. Louis-based outreach director, was “particular to the case involved,” and “not a new way of doing things.”

The subpoena “is intended to be narrow and only applicable to this case and it’s not a fishing expedition,” said Bernard Huger, an attorney for the archdiocese. He said the subpoena came so soon after the Kansas City case only to protect the information the archdiocese seeks in its case from being destroyed.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Sacramento Bee

By Cynthia Hubert
chubert@sacbee.com

By Cynthia Hubert
The Sacramento Bee

A young priest accused of molesting a teenage girl stood, head bowed, inside a Sacramento courtroom jail cell Thursday as lawyers argued whether he was a threat to the community.

During a contentious bail hearing on behalf of the Rev. Uriel Ojeda, a deputy district attorney told Judge Marjorie Koller that the priest had confessed to sexually abusing the girl, who belonged to the Woodland parish where he served until 2009. Prosecutor Allison Dunham said the priest confessed to an investigator for the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento shortly after being informed of the allegations.

“The defendant admitted to molesting the child,” Dunham said.

Ojeda’s lawyer, Sacramento defense attorney Jesse Ortiz, disputed Dunham’s account and said his client is being punished by diocesan officials who dislike him.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

by FAITH HAKESLEY JOHNSTON
01/05/2012

My life has been a test of faith and strength. Like countless other individuals who have survived the trauma of abuse, I have fought through hard times and found myself waging a battle that often seemed unwinnable. At age 15, while working as a secretary in a parish rectory, I endured months of sexual abuse at the hands of the now-laicized Father Kelvin Iguabita.

Nothing could ever fully express the suffering, anguish and betrayal a victim feels. Only someone who has experienced abuse can fully understand the powerful manipulation of an abuser.

I had been raised in a Catholic home where prayer and the sacraments were a part of everyday life. I had never really doubted my faith until the abuse began. Afterward, I hated God for “allowing” it to happen. Indeed, the priesthood — a vocation I once held in high esteem — became something disgusting. I agonized over my decision to tell someone about the abuse. I truly believed that even my closest loved ones would turn against me.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

FORMER PRIEST Peter Kennedy (72), who was sent to Britain from Brazil, is to fight an extradition order to Ireland granted against him at a London Magistrates Court in Westminster yesterday.

Mr Kennedy is a former member of St Patrick’s Missionary Society at Kiltegan, Co Wicklow, and comes from Ballinahown, Co Westmeath. He faces child abuse allegations from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, involving at least 18 people who gardaí have taken statements from.

Ordained in 1964, he was removed from active ministry in 1986 following persistent complaints of sexual abuse dating to the late 1960s when he was a missionary priest in Kenya.

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CALIFORNIA
ABC News

By LISA LEFF Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO January 6, 2012 (AP)

Six brothers who say they were sexually abused by a priest decades ago asked the California Supreme Court on Thursday to let them sue the Catholic diocese that allegedly knew the priest molested children. If justices side with them, the state could see a rash of new clergy abuse lawsuits by long-ago victims against the Catholic Church and others.

At issue in the case are two competing provisions of state law: one that allows adults who only recently connected their psychological problems to what happened to them as children to seek damages against so-called third-party defendants and another that said they could do so only if they were below a certain age.

The brothers, now in their 40s and 50s, allege they were molested by an Oakland priest during the 1970s but didn’t link it to their ongoing distress until 2006. The priest, Donald Broderson, was forced to retire amid abuse allegations in 1993 and died in 2010.

Although legal time limits generally prevent plaintiffs from bringing civil complaints based on long-ago events, the California Legislature has expanded the statute of limitations for child abuse lawsuits several times during the last 25 years to make it easier for victims of childhood abuse to pursue their claims.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Bob Jordan
Statehouse Bureau

TRENTON — An Assembly committee Thursday advanced a bill that could widen opportunities for lawsuits to be filed by adults who were victims of childhood sexual abuse.

The measure would eliminate the two-year statute of limitations for civil action on abuse acts and expand the categories of persons, beyond the predator, who could be held liable.

For instance, under the legislation trustees and employees of an organization who know about abuse but don’t act to prevent it could be sued, but only if they have supervisory or oversight status over the person committing the offending act.

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

By Sue Nowicki
snowicki@modbee.com

The Rev. Michael Kelly of the Stockton Diocese will finally get his day in court more than four years after a lawsuit was filed, alleging that he abused a 10-year-old Stockton boy in the mid-1980s.

And in an unrelated case, a former Stockton Diocese priest serving in the Archdiocese of San Francisco has been removed from all priestly duties after he followed a 17-year-old boy into a store dressing room last year. The Rev. William Myers can no longer call himself a priest, celebrate Mass or hear confessions, said the archdiocese’s spokesman, George Wesolek.

Kelly’s attorney is upbeat about the upcoming trial, which begins Feb. 14 in San Joaquin County. It has been postponed several times, including the most recent date in November. That judge recused himself over a possible conflict of interest.

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WALTHAM (MA)
BishopAccountability.org

On January 4, 2012, seventeen more Haitian boys brought suit alleging abuse by Douglas Perlitz between 1998 and 2008 at Project Pierre Toussaint in Haiti. Attorneys Mitchell Garabedian of Boston and Steven Errante of New Haven have now filed 20 suits on behalf of 21 students. In addition to Perlitz, who has admitted to some of the abuse and is now in prison, the civil suits name Rev. Paul E. Carrier SJ, former chaplain at Fairfield University; the Haiti Fund, which is Project Pierre Toussaint’s fundraising arm; Fairfield University, where some of the fundraising was done, and where Carrier was once a chaplain; the New England province of the Jesuits; and Hope Carter, who served on the board of the Haiti Fund with Carrier. Perlitz is accused of the abuse; the other defendants are accused of violating state, federal, and international laws by failing to take the appropriate actions to stop the assaults. See More Haitian boys sue Perlitz, Fairfield U. in abuse scandal, by Michael P. Mayko, Connecticut Post, January 5, 2012.

Below we provide the complaints that have been filed, along with some defendant’s motions to dismiss. For background on the cases, see also Perlitz’s guilty plea; activist Paul Kendrick’s Haiti narrative; Perlitz Admits He Sexually Abused Minor Boy, by Michael P. Mayko, News Times, August 18 2010; and Perlitz Sentenced to Nearly 20 Years for Sex Abuse in Haiti, by Michael P. Mayko, News Times, December 21, 2010.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW JERSEY
Courier-Post

Written by
BOB JORDAN
New Jersey Press Media

TRENTON — A state Assembly committee Thursday advanced a bill that could widen opportunities for lawsuits to be filed by adults who were victims of childhood sexual abuse.

The measure would eliminate the two-year statute of limitations for civil action on abuse acts and expand the categories of persons, beyond the predator, who could be held liable.

For instance, under the legislation trustees and employees of an organization who know about abuse but don’t act to prevent it could be sued, but only if they have supervisory or oversight status over the person committing the offending act.

Bill sponsors said the need for action drew new attention after sex-abuse charges came to light at Immaculata High School and with the former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky case at Penn State University.

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MISSOURI
National Catholic Reporter

[link to court documents via SNAP]

Jan. 05, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has been issued a second subpoena for one of its leaders to appear for testimony and to turn over internal records, correspondence and email dating back 23 years.

According to documents obtained by NCR this afternoon, Barbara Dorris, the group’s outreach director, was requested to give testimony Feb. 15 in a city case involving allegations of sexual misconduct against St. Louis archdiocesan priest Fr. Joseph Ross. The subpoena was mailed to Dorris and dated Dec. 30.

David Clohessy, SNAP’s director, submitted to a court ordered deposition and submission of documents Monday (Jan. 2) for a case involving a diocesan priest in Kansas City, Mo.

After his deposition, Clohessy said he refused to answer many of the lawyers’ questions and did not submit many of the documents requested, citing constitutional protections of free speech and Missouri state law protecting the confidentiality of rape crisis centers.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By EDMUND H. MAHONY, emahony@courant.com
The Hartford Courant

12:45 p.m. EST, January 5, 2012
Another 17 orphans have sued Fairfield University and affiliated religious and charitable organizations for negligence over sexual abuse they say they suffered while living in a Haitian orphanage founded and operated by a celebrated alumnus of the Connecticut school who later was prosecuted as a pedophile.

Three additional suits were filed last year containing similar allegations of negligence arising from the abuse of destitute street children who were admitted to Project Pierre Toussaint, a school and orphanage in Cap Haitien founded by Fairfield University graduate Douglas Perlitz.

Perlitz was sentenced in 2010 to more than 19 years in prison for abusing boys at the non-profit orphanage and school, which was largely sponsored by private donations from individuals and groups with ties to the university.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CONNECTICUT
NECN

[with video]

(NECN: Brian Burnell) – It’s a story reminiscent of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal – more than a dozen children in Haiti abused while people in charge looked the other way. Now, the Boston attorney, who spearheaded the Catholic Church sex abuse fight, is all over this one, too.

And this time, the attorney has something he did not get in the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal: a guilty plea.

Douglas Perlitz plead guilty to sexually molesting 8 boys at the Pierre Toussant School for Homeless Children in Haiti between 1998 and 2008. He is now serving nearly 20 years in federal prison.

Boston Attorney Mitchell Garabedian has filed 20 complaints in federal court seeking over $400 million on behalf of 21 children. It names not only Perlitz but the Society of Jesus which oversaw the school, Reverend Paul Carrier who was on the school’s board and Fairfield University. Carrier was the chaplain at Fairfield.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Michael P. Mayko, Staff Writer

Published 05:50 p.m., Thursday, January 5, 2012

FAIRFIELD — The Rev. Paul E. Carrier, a prominent Fairfield County Jesuit priest who helped Douglas Perlitz establish a program for abandoned boys in Haiti, allegedly was present when Perlitz showed one of the boys pornography and also when Perlitz slept with another boy, according to federal court documents.

Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer representing 21 Haitian boys who claim they were sexually abused by Perlitz, further accused Carrier of being present when Perlitz “arranged a rendezvous” at his Cap-Haitien home “with one of the boys for late in the evening.”

“All of these circumstances should have alerted Father Carrier … that something was amiss in Perlitz’s dealings with boys in his care at Project Pierre Toussaint,” said Garabedian, who has sued Catholic dioceses and clergy across the county for sexual abuse.

Now Garabedian and Steven Errante, a New Haven lawyer, have filed 20 suits on behalf of 21 of the former students at Perlitz’s Project Pierre Toussaint, citing violations of state, federal and international law.

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UTAH
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Underage girls are still secretly being held by the followers of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs for sexual purposes, it has been reported.

A number of allegations have surfaced against Jeffs since he was jailed for life plus twenty years for raping a 12 and 15-year-old girl.

These are the latest allegations to surface after it came out on Tuesday that he has banned all his members from having sex and has voided every marriage.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said on Wednesday he intends to look into the claim young girls are being held for sex.

He said: ‘I believe there’s still a half-dozen to a dozen places around the country where girls are still being held. And I’m very concerned about that.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
Aljazeera

[with video]

A Roman Catholic bishop has left court in Canada a free man after admitting he was addicted to child pornography.

Raymond Lahey, the former head of the Diocese of Antigonish in Nova Scotia, told the court late last year that he was glad he had finally been caught.

Lahey, 71, was sentenced to 15 months jail, but has been credited for time served after he volunteered to spend eight months in solitary confinement. A psychiatrist told the court that Lahey is not a paedophile.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

It might have shocked some to see disgraced Catholic Bishop Raymond Lahey walk out of an Ottawa courtroom this week after being sentenced to time served for possession of child pornography. But that doesn’t mean his sentence was too lenient.

The court conferred an appropriate sentence on Lahey, who had been in jail for eight months, and faces restrictions on his behaviour that extend for the next 20 years. But now it is up to the Catholic Church to take action that restores the faith of members disillusioned and shaken by the actions of Lahey and other members of the Catholic clergy.

Lahey’s case is intrinsically shocking. In possessing images of children being abused he was contributing to their victimization and revictimization. And not only is he a Catholic bishop, but he is the one who, as bishop of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, negotiated a multimillion-dollar settlement for victims of child sexual abuse by clergy.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Father Alberto Cutie

It’s puzzling to see the harsh reactions to Bishop Gabino Zavala’s resignation as Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles after his admission that he fathered two teenage children as a consequence of a hidden sexual relationship with their mother — the Bishop’s secret girlfriend. I was determined to pray for Bishop Zavala quietly and not say a word, but since the Associated Press and other media outfits decided to mention my name and include me in a list with a number of church leaders in their widely circulated article, I decided to speak out and share my thoughts.

What troubles me about the reactions of so many who claim to feel “betrayed” is that when we discover that priests have had hidden sexual relationships with adults, too many people have a tendency to quickly speak of a “life of duplicity” or a moral “failure,” yet we never saw this same type of outrage when it was discovered — and unfortunately continues to be discovered — that the same institution developed a culture of secrecy and protected truly criminal behavior in the thousands of cases involving the sexual abuse of minors by priests and bishops. Where are the voices of “outrage” when minors and innocent children are involved?

When a priest fails to keep celibacy, that man-made rule that even the Roman Catholic Church admits is changeable, adaptable and dispensable, we should not be so easily scandalized. We live in the 21st century and sexuality should no longer be a taboo subject for most of us. The fact is that all human beings, including priests and bishops, are sexual beings and are capable of living up to their highest aspirations and ideals, while also capable of falling short of them. Sexuality among consenting, single adults cannot continue to be considered “a great scandal” in or out of church. On the other hand, covered up promiscuous and criminal sexual acts are truly scandalous and often brushed under the carpet.

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MINNESOTA
Catholic Culture

Less than a month after a Minnesota attorney filed a court document laden with anti-Catholic slurs, the judge who bore the brunt of her comments has ordered her arrested.

Referring to Judge Nancy Dreher, who is not a Catholic, as a “popess” and “a secret Catholic Knight Witch Hunter,” attorney Nancy Isaacson’s filing had stated that “we may as well flush her papal bull order down the toilet.”

“The Catholic Church has millions of Jesuits working undercover around the country to fulfill the Church’s agenda,” the memo continued. “They give orders, pull the strings, and their puppets like Nancy Dreher jump like zombies.”

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CALIFORNIA
EGP

By Gloria Angelina Castillo, EGP Staff Writer

It’s been three decades since Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala, 60, led mass and religious functions at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in East Los Angeles, but his recent resignation and admission that he fathered two sons now living out of state has shocked faithful parishioners.

Maria Isabel Delgado, now a parishioner at St. Benedict Catholic Church in Montebello, says she found God while attending Our Lady of Guadalupe during the late 1980s and 1990s. And while she was not at the church at the same time as Zavala (1977-1982) she was nonetheless taken aback when she was informed by a reporter that Zavala had fathered two children.

“I completely disapprove, I am very concerned,” Delgado said. “I’m nobody to judge him, only God can judge him, but it’s not right that they fool us.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

SNAP is currently embroiled in a tough legal battle with the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and SNAP Director David Clohessy is fighting to guarantee the confidentiality of survivors! You can read up on the battle and see the documents filed by Clohessy here.
…

Below are links to documents filed by and on behalf of SNAP in this ongoing legal battle to protect survivors of clergy abuse:
■ October 27, 2011 – David Clohessy is served with a subpoena by accused pedophile Fr. Michael Tierney and the Diocese of KCSJ
■ November 14, 2011 – Attorneys for Clohessy file a Motion to Quash…
■ November 14, 2011 – …a Memorandum of Law in support of their Motion to Quash…
■ November 14, 2011 – …and a Limited Entry Appearance.
■ November 29, 2011 – Attorneys for Clohessy file Reply Suggestions for their Motion to Quash.
■ November 30, 2011 – Judge files an Order that grants in part and denies in part Clohessy’s Motion to Quash.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ Today

TRENTON – An Assembly committee released legislation today to eliminate the statute of limitations in civil sexual abuse claims.

The bill (A-3622) would remove the statue of limitations in civil actions for sexual abuse, expand the category of person who are potentially liable in these actions, and provide that public entities would be liable in these actions.

“Many young victims of sexual abuse don’t report their abusers out of fear or shame; others repress the memories as a way to cope with the abuse,” said Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D-Union). “The impact of sexual abuse on children can be devastating and long-lasting. These victims should have the right to compensation for the suffering endured without a timeline looming over their heads.”

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Matt Friedman/Statehouse Bureau

TRENTON — An Assembly panel has approved a bill to remove the state’s two-year statute of limitations on lawsuits for child sexual abuse.

Under current law, adult victims of childhood abuse have two years to bring suit against individuals or institutions from the point when they realize it damaged them. The measure (S2405) would allow them to file suit no matter how much time has passed, against individuals and institutions – public, private, for-profit and non-profit.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee voted four to one to approve it, with one abstention. A different version cleared a Senate panel a year ago, but had stalled until now.

The bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), said it would allow victims “essentially unfettered access” to the courts. He said he expects it to be posted for a vote in both the Assembly and Senate on Monday.

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EnerPub

by Dylan Parry

Scandalous bishops in the news – In dealing with them, Pope Benedict XVI would do well to follow St Pius V’s example.

A couple of bishops have been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. The first is the disgraced former Bishop of Antigonish in Nova Scotia, Raymond Lahey. He received a pre-served 15-month prison sentence today for possession of child pornography. The second is Gabino Zavala, a former auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. His resignation was recently accepted by the Vatican, after it came to light that he had fathered two children with the same woman many years ago.

It is a grave enough matter when laypeople cause scandal, but when bishops and priests show themselves to be “of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8) by falling into despicably sinful ways of life, the damage to the Church and her mission can be tremendous.

Not only do I feel for the victims of these men’s selfish and depraved actions (Zavala should have left the ordained ministry to care for his children, whilst the victims of Lehey’s depravity are obvious), but I also sympathise with the people of God who once trusted them with child-like love and obedience. Needless to say, thanks to the utterly shameful deeds of these two bishops, it will take a long time for the Church in Los Angeles and Nova Scotia to regain the trust she needs if she is to effectively preach the Gospel. This is why such scandal is such a grave matter – it damages lives and leads souls away from salvation.

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BOSTON (MA)
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a front-page story in today’s Boston Globe on alleged victims of priestly sexual abuse who are speaking up on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Globe’s series on the scandal in the Boston Archdiocese:

Many Catholics that I have spoken to, including the clergy, have grown weary of those who claim they were victimized by a priest decades ago and are still not satisfied with the Church’s response. No matter what the Church does—doling out millions, providing endless counseling and therapy, mandating training sessions for every employee to guard against abuse—it’s never enough. It’s time for some straight talk: these people don’t want to move on, and that’s because they have too much invested in maintaining their victim status.

Consider the remarks printed in today’s Boston Globe by alleged victims.
◦“The church has failed miserably, miserably, miserably”
◦“I’m very underwhelmed”
◦“I don’t think it’s anything [the reforms] to brag about”
◦“If anything, it’s worse than we ever thought”

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CHILE
Cooperative

El arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, admitió que Fernando Karadima incumplió los términos de la condena impuesta por el Vaticano al tomar contacto telefónico con uno de los presbíteros miembros de la Unión Sacerdotal que funcionó en la iglesia de El Bosque.

“Es efectivo que, al saber que uno de los miembros de la Unión Sacerdotal había tomado contacto con el P. Fernando, levanté fuerte mi voz, para recalcar que ello era indebido y para exigir a todos absoluta obediencia a lo establecido por la Santa Sede”, señaló a La Segunda vía email.

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BOSTON (MA)
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler | January 05, 2012

Ten years have passed since the Boston archdiocese was engulfed in scandal, as the result of investigative reporting by the Boston Globe. Today the faithful in Boston are still struggling to shake off the lingering effects of that scandal. But a full recovery is delayed because of two popular misconceptions, which should be corrected.

First, the scandal exposed by the Globe in January 2002 was not the sexual abuse of young people by Catholic priests. That scandal had already been exposed a full decade earlier, as sickening stories of clerical molesters emerged from Louisiana and from nearby Fall River, Massachusetts. By the turn of the century, anyone who followed the story carefully recognized that these cases were not isolated—that the problem was widespread.

The Globe expose added an entirely new dimension to the story, revealing a second scandal. While some priests abused children, the Globe reporting showed, archdiocesan officials had protected the predators, covered up evidence, and lied to parishioners about their priests’ problems. The Globe exposed the corruption within the Boston hierarchy which had allowed the abuse to continue.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Reuters

By Alexis Kunsak

PITTSBURGH | Thu Jan 5, 2012

(Reuters) – A Catholic priest already charged in state court with possessing thousands of pornographic images of young boys is due in a Pittsburgh courtroom on Friday on new federal charges, authorities said.

A federal grand jury, in an indictment unsealed late on Wednesday, charged the Rev. Bartley Sorensen, 62, former pastor of St. John Fisher Church in Churchill near Pittsburgh, with one count each of receiving and possessing pictures of minors engaged in sex acts.

If convicted of the federal charges, Sorensen faces up to 20 years in prison for receiving child pornography on a computer and up to 10 years behind bars for possession of child pornography.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 5, 2012 in Clergy Abuse Crisis

NEWS: Abuse victims to bishop: ‘Stop the lynch mob’
Parishioners are confronting, intimidating family members of potential abuse victim
Hurt and confused Catholics are giving predators a “free pass,” SNAP says
You must help create a victim-safe environment in your churches, they demand

In response to what they are calling a “modern day lynch mob,” victims of sexual abuse are begging the San Diego bishops to educate parishioners on how respond appropriately when priests are accused of molesting kids.

Today, leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNnetwork.org), are asking San Diego Bishop Robert Brom and the newly appointed co-adjudicator Bishop Cirilo Flores (who will assume Brom’s position when Brom retires next year) to reach out to parishioners at St. Joseph Catholic Church in downtown, some of whom have confronted and threatened family members of a young woman who accused a priest of sexual abuse.

The priest, Fr. Jose Davila, also know as “Fr. Alexis,” has admitted “something taking place” with the 20-year-old woman and has turned himself in to police. http://www.10news.com/news/30138281/detail.html

In response to the news, some members of the parish confronted the brother of the victim, after the victim’s mother did not show up for her usual prayer group. In press reports, the parishioners claim that they were going to “demand the truth” from the mother for “damaging the priest’s reputation.”

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
WGGB

By Ryan Trowbridge
January 5th, 2012

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB) — A Hampden County Superior Court judge has issued an order asking for more information before he rules on a request to remove protestors from a closed Holyoke church.

On Wednesday, the Diocese of Springfield asked Superior Court Judge Cornelius Moriarty to declare that a group of parishoners who have occupied the former Mater Dolorosa Church as trespassers and be ordered removed from the building.

Protestors have been occupying the Holyoke church since the Diocese ordered it closed July 1, 2011. As part of the Diocese’s Pastoral Planning Commission, Mater Dolorosa Church merged with Holy Cross Church to create Our Lady of the Cross Parish, which currently worships in the former Holy Cross building.

In a two page order issued Thursday, Superior Court Judge Cornelius Moriarty has ordered the defendants in the case – the protestors – to file additional documentation to support their claim that they should be allowed to remain in the church

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DEUTSCHLAND
Christ & Welt

Als einzige große Institution stellt sich die katholische Kirche dem Thema Missbrauch. Doch warum sollen die Opfer nur 5000 Euro bekommen? Im internationalen Vergleich ist das wenig

Fünftausend Euro zahlen die deutschen Bistümer und Orden den Opfern von sexueller Gewalt in ihren Mauern. Das Geld soll keine Entschädigung sein. Darauf legt Thomas Busch, der Pressesprecher der Jesuiten, Wert. Es drücke eine Anerkennung ihres Leidens aus. Die Zahlung sei eine symbolische Geste. Fünftausend, das ist so wenig wie in keinem anderen Land in Europa. In Irland erhalten Opfer im Schnitt 60 000 Euro, in Österreich zwischen 5000 und 25 000, je nach Schwere des Falles. Ist deutsches Leiden billig? Sind 5000 Euro im Vergleich angemessen? „Da handelt es sich um unterschiedliche Kulturen“, sagt Thomas Busch. Die Entschädigung hat sich nach der für Holocaust-Überlebende gerichtet. Es schien undenkbar, dass es für sexuelle Gewalt einen höheren Betrag geben sollte.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau

Zwischen 1945 und 1975 lebten rund 800.000 Kinder und Jugendliche in westdeutschen Heimen. Viele wurden in den kirchlichen oder staatlichen Einrichtungen über Jahre misshandelt, zur Arbeit gezwungen und sexuell missbraucht. Deshalb wollen Hunderte ehemalige Heimkinder vor Gericht ziehen. Sie fordern Entschädigung in Millionenhöhe.

Hunderte ehemalige Heimkinder wollen für eine Entschädigung nun doch vor Gericht ziehen. Sie sind enttäuscht von den Beschlüssen der Jugend- und Familienministerkonferenz im Mai vergangenen Jahres. 120 Millionen Euro stehen aus Mitteln des Bundes, der Länder und der Kirchen zur Verfügung. Der Verein ehemaliger Heimkinder in Deutschland aber hält diesen Betrag für unangemessen und stellt Forderungen in Milliardenhöhe.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Catholic League

On January 2, the director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), David Clohessy, was deposed for going public with information he allegedly obtained from a lawyer in violation of a court gag order issued by Circuit Court Judge Ann Mesle. Barbara Dorris, another SNAP officer, has also been served with a subpoena.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on an editorial in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch on this issue:

SNAP has been working in concert with its legal allies and media buddies for decades. The goal? To discredit the Catholic Church. At one time, we even thought SNAP officials were honest brokers, but those days are long gone; our inside report on the SNAP conference held last July demonstrates its anti-Catholic agenda [click here].

The Post-Dispatch is so exercised by the right of St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson to fight back against SNAP that it is beckoning Catholics to rebel at Mass this weekend by refusing to put money in the collection basket. Does it really think it has that kind of clout? Yet it weeps for its Catholic-bashing friends by arguing that the litigation “has strained SNAP’s finances.” It should instead ask why SNAP’s lawyers who grease the operation aren’t writing checks, or taking the case pro-bono.

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BOSTON (MA)
National Catholic Reporter

Jan. 05, 2012
By Catholic News Service

BOSTON — “Our church will never forget the clergy sexual abuse crisis,” said Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston in a document marking the 10th anniversary of the abuse scandal that first rocked the archdiocese in January 2002, the reverberations of which continue to be felt.

“The traumatic and painful days we experienced 10 years ago rightfully forced us to address the issue honestly and implement many necessary changes,” said Cardinal O’Malley in the 2,500-word document, “Ten Years Later — Reflections on the Sexual Abuse Crisis,” released Jan. 4.

Cardinal O’Malley said that since his appointment in July 2003, “our highest priority has been to provide outreach and care for all the survivors of clergy sexual abuse and to do everything possible to make sure this abuse never happens again.”

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BOSTON (MA)
CNN

By Chris Boyette, CNN

(CNN) – Ten years after public recognition of serious sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic priests within the Archdiocese of Boston, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, the archbishop, issued a letter and his reflections on the “problem with a history far deeper than any … had imagined, that had been wreaking havoc along its course.”

On Wednesday O’Malley released a document contemplating the abuse crisis over the past decade.

“The life of the Church in the Archdiocese of Boston (and throughout the world) was forever changed by the revelations of clergy sexual abuse that dominated the news in January of 2002,” it began, “As an Archdiocese, as a Church, we can never cease to make clear the depth of our sorrow and to beg forgiveness from those who were so grievously harmed,” it went on.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Jan. 05, 2012
By John L Allen Jr

An ad limina visit, the trip Catholic bishops are required to make every five years to Rome, is a bit like a routine physical. It might flag a serious problem, but usually it’s just a checkup covering a wide variety of aches, pains, and ups and downs.

If nothing else, it’s revealing to learn what doctor and patient are thinking about, because it might provide hints of treatments to come.

That’s been the tenor of the latest round of visits by U.S. bishops that began in November and will continue in 2012. Predictably, Pope Benedict XVI’s own priorities — the push for a “new evangelization,” meaning outreach to lapsed Catholics, and the defense of religious freedom — have figured prominently. Yet a variety of other issues have also surfaced, including:

•The sexual abuse crisis;
•American debates over marriage and the family;
•The new translation of the Catholic Mass;
•The state of Catholic schools, hospitals and charities;
•Parish closings;
•Vocations and seminary life;
•The changing demographics of the American church.

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CONNECTICUT
WNCT

By: JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN | Associated Press
Published: January 05, 2012

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP) Seventeen former Haitian street children are suing the Society of Jesus, Fairfield University in Connecticut and others, alleging they failed to protect the children from a man who sexually abused them at a school he founded in Haiti.

The lawsuits bring to 21 the number of alleged victims suing Douglas Perlitz and the others. Perlitz was sentenced in 2010 to nearly 20 years in prison for sexually abusing children.

The lawsuits seek $20 million for each victim. They say a Jesuit priest who was Fairfield University’s chaplain saw Perlitz show a student a pornographic movie and saw boys in his bedroom. The lawsuits say a school board member removed Perlitz’s computer containing pornographic material involving boys.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee on Jan. 05, 2012 NCR Today

In a statement this morning, the leadership of Pax Christi USA reacts to the news yesterday that their bishop-president, Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala, has resigned from ministry after acknowledging he is the father of two teenage children:

Dear Pax Christi USA members, partners and friends,
It is with great sadness that we write to you today about the resignation of Bishop Gabino Zavala. Pax Christi USA learned of Bishop Zavala’s resignation yesterday. In a letter addressed to Catholics in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (where Bishop Zavala was an auxiliary bishop), Archbishop Jose Gomez stated that Bishop Zavala’s letter of resignation was accepted by the Vatican after he had disclosed that he is “the father of two minor teenage children who live with their mother in another state.”

Bishop Zavala has served as bishop-president of Pax Christi USA for the past 9 years and had been a bishop member for many years prior to his time in leadership. We are grateful for his past leadership and for his long-time witness to peace and justice as a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Bishop Zavala consistently brought the power of the gospel to bear on issues like immigration, worker rights, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and nuclear disarmament.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Patch

Rev. Bartley Sorensen, 62, formerly of St. Anne Church in Castle Shannon, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges he possessed thousands of images of child pornography, according to a report by WTAE.

Sorensen was arrested Dec. 10 after an employee at St. John Fisher Parish in Churchill, where he was working at the time, reported seeing Sorensen looking at child pornography at the church.

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IRELAND
Midlands 103

An Midlands Priest is expected to be extradited back to Ireland later.

Fr Peter Kennedy is facing allegations of Child Sex abuse dating between the 1960s to 1980s.

72 year old Fr Kennedy from – from Bloomhill an area near Ballinahown in County Offaly – had been living in Brazil for the past number of years.

He hit the headlines in 2003 when a former victim was awarded 325 thousand euro in one of the largest ever pay-outs in an Irish clerical sex abuse case.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
10 News

SAN DIEGO — Friends of a local priest accused in a sexual assault confronted the accuser’s family on Wednesday in an effort to get the charge against him dropped.

Supporters of Jose Davila came to St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in downtown San Diego to confront the 20-year-old accuser’s mother, who was supposed to be attending a prayer group.

“We want to say to the mother say… the truth,” said Humberto Morales, who supports Davila. “This is damage to the reputation of the priest… He’s the big leader for us.”
When the accuser’s mother did not show up, Morales and several other friends of Davila confronted the accuser’s brother instead. They wanted to know why such strong accusations would be made against Davila, the associate pastor of St. Jude’s Shrine in Southcrest. Davila is also known as Father Alexis.

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NORTH DAKOTA
Bismark Tribune

Former Bismarck diocese priest facing prison time for stealing money from disabled man

By JENNY MICHAEL | Bismarck Tribune

A former priest faces prison time for using the money of a disabled man to participate in Internet scams. Cyprian Meier had lost his job with the Bismarck Catholic Diocese for spending parishioners’ money in the same kind of schemes.

Meier, 67, pleaded guilty in December to Class B felony exploitation of a vulnerable adult. South Central District Judge Donald Jorgensen is slated to sentence him on Feb. 17. Meier faces up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.

According to court documents, Meier was providing home health care for a 56-year-old Bismarck man from May to October. The Bismarck man, who was paralyzed and died on Dec. 3, reported to Bismarck police in November that he believed Meier had been making unauthorized transactions on his savings and checking accounts.

Detective Chad Seidel spoke to Meier, who admitted to using the other man’s money “to fund his addictions to money scams, such as Internet scams,” Seidel wrote in an affidavit.

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