ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The controversy began with the episode of “The Untouchables” on La7: how the Holy See investigated the incidents cited by the current nuncio to the United States

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

There is an episode that was not related in the debate that has gone on for days now about the accusations made by then Secretary of the Governorate, Msgr. Carlo Maria Viganò, appointed nuncio to the United States, after writing dramatic letters to the Pope and the Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, in which he speaks of episodes of “corruption” in the Vatican. The prelate’s private letters – a story revealed by Vatican Insider last June 26 – addressed to Benedict XVI and his chief collaborator, were exhibited by the journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi during the episode of the investigative television program on La7, called “Gli intoccabili”(“The Untouchables”).

In those letters, Viganò, who had by then received news of the Pope’s decision to appoint him as nuncio to the United States, distanced him (by promoting him) from the Governorate after less than two years and after undeniable results of morale-boosting and spending cuts, he claimed to be the victim of a plot, also involving some anonymous articles published in “Il Giornale”, and he named the names and surnames of its instigators, citing as the ultimate instigator Msgr. Paul Nicolini, delegate for the administrative-managerial areas of the Vatican Museums.

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AUSTRIA
Austrian Times

Sunday, 29. January 2012

A Belgian priest working in Austria has apologised over the fact that he published the names of people in his congregation who left his flock so they could avoid paying the local church taxes.

Eight names from the congregation of 2000 in Sitzendorf an der Schmida in Austria were published in the local church newsletter sparking heated debate in the country.

Father Nicolaas Janssens, 51, Originally from Belgium who then trained in Aachen in Germany before starting work as a parish priest in Austria has now said that he is sorry for the row that he caused.

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NEDERLAND
Metro

De SP wil dat een parlementaire enquête wordt ingesteld naar het misbruik in de rooms katholieke kerk. Dat zei SP-Kamerlid Sharon Gesthuizen zondag in het televisieprogramma Buitenhof.

In de onderzoeken die tot nu toe zijn gedaan naar het seksueel misbruik is volgens haar geen oog geweest voor mishandeling en de rol van vrouwen. Ook kan met een parlementaire enquête volgens haar het probleem worden verholpen dat veel zaken niet meer te bewijzen zijn doordat dossiers zijn vernietigd.

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NEDERLAND
ED

AMSTERDAM – De SP wil dat er verder onderzoek nodig is naar het misbruik binnen de katholieke kerk en de rol van de overheid. Uiteindelijk zou dat moeten uitmonden in een parlementaire enquête, waarbij getuigen onder ede kunnen worden gehoord.

SP-Tweede Kamerlid Sharon Gesthuizen zei dat zondag in het tv-programma Buitenhof. De Kamer praat dinsdag over het rapport van de commissie-Deetman naar het seksueel misbruik binnen de kerk.

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FRANCE
WNYC

Sunday, January 29, 2012

By Eleanor Beardsley

In France, an elderly man is fighting to make a formal break with the Catholic Church. He’s taken the church to court over its refusal to let him nullify his baptism, and the case could have far-reaching effects.

Seventy-one-year-old Rene LeBouvier’s parents and brother are buried in a churchyard in the tiny village of Fleury in northwest France. He himself was baptized in the Romanesque stone church and attended mass here as a boy.

LeBouvier says this rural area is still conservative and very Catholic, but nothing like it used to be. Back then, he says, you couldn’t even get credit at the bakery if you didn’t go to mass every Sunday.

LeBouvier grew up in that world, and says his mother once hoped he’d become a priest. But he says his views began to change in the 1970s, when he was introduced to free thinkers. As he didn’t believe in God anymore, he thought it would be more honest to leave the church. So he wrote to his diocese and asked to be un-baptized.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

TENNIS great Margaret Court claims homosexuality is often the result of sexual abuse.

Amid a growing backlash over her opposition to same-sex marriage, the three-time Wimbledon champion told The Sunday Mail “many, many” gay and lesbian people she knew of had “been abused” and this had led to their sexual orientation.

Court, a senior minister at Perth’s Victory Life Centre, has already sparked fury among gay and equal rights activists for recent comments, including that the push for gay marriage was trying “to legitimise what God calls abominable sexual practices”.

Mental health advocate Chris Tanti accused her of “spreading misery” and putting young gay people at risk of suicide with what he called her anti-gay comments, amid calls for her name to be removed from centre court at Melbourne Park.

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

A church elder who police identified as the second-ranking official of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, 213 Vermont St., was arrested Friday on a charge of first-degree sexual abuse for an alleged incident with a 6-year-old girl at the church this past Dec. 16.

Detectives accused Abel Poloche, 60, of Chenango Street, of inappropriately touching the girl while she sat on his lap inside the church.

He was taken into custody by Sex Offense Squad detectives about 7:45 p. m. Friday at his home.

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ALABAMA
The Birmingham News

By Joey Kennedy — The Birmingham News

Molester Charles Donald Corley is up for parole on Tuesday.

There’s no way child molester Charles Donald Corley will be paroled Tuesday. Right?

Jason Lee and his friends are going to make sure of that, and their hard, courageous campaign is an important public service for Alabama.

Don Corley is the worst kind of human being. For decades, he used his position of trust as a respected Boy Scout leader and church leader to prey on boys and sexually abuse them.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph Tanfani
Inquirer Staff Writer

As an employee of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Anita Guzzardi, was considered a trusted servant of the church. Once, she headed an office that tried to restore the faith of strayed Catholics.

In her time off, she liked to play the slots at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City and to take vacations, using her American Express card.

And for years, Guzzardi paid those credit card bills by checks from the archdiocese – nearly $1 million in all, according to sources familiar with a continuing investigation by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

The alleged embezzlement went on for at least six years, but no one in the church caught it, sources said. Instead, it was discovered by a fraud investigator with American Express who wondered why the archdiocese was ringing up charges at a casino.

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AUSTRIA/VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The bishops talk to Rome about the danger of a schism following the ‘Appeal to disobedience’ by Father Hellmut Schüller

Guido Horst
Rome

Monday afternoon (23rd of January), in the Vatican there was a meeting between the top figures of the Austrian Episcopal Conference and the representatives of the Roman Dicasteries to discuss the movement led by Hellmut Schüller.

This movement is supported roughly by three hundred clerics and it openly disobeys the Roman Catholic Church with theories bordering on heresy, moreover now it wants to spread abroad creating an international net open to priests of other nations and continents.

For Pope Benedict and the Roman Curia it is time to take action against this separatist movement. Schüller himself, in several interviews, did not deny his will to disengage from Rome and he added that there are priests from other countries like France, Germany and Australia wanting to join the initiative.

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MISSOURI
Missourinet

January 27, 2012 By Jessica Machetta

A trial date has been set for the Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Diocese and Bishop Robert Finn on charges they failed to report suspected child sex abuse to authorities.

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HAWAII
HawaiiNewsNow

By Jim Mendoza

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The question surrounding Marc Alexander’s sudden resignation as Hawaii’s homeless coordinator has been why?

On January 5, Gov. Neil Abercrombie attributed Alexander’s departure to a need to “tend to personal matters.”

In a letter to Hawaii News Now, Alexander admitted he resigned over an affair.

“I resigned when the news of an affair I had with a consenting adult woman, while I was an ordained member of the Catholic priesthood, became public,” he said.

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DELAWARE
Philadelphia Inquirer

December 20, 2011|By Jeremy Roebuck, Inquirer Staff Writer

WILMINGTON – A sex-abuse lawsuit that prompted the suspension of a Glenside priest this year has been withdrawn amid questions over his accuser’s credibility.

The civil case against Msgr. Michael Flood, 71, fell apart during a deposition last week of the South Jersey man, 48, who sued the priest and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia three years ago.

The man – identified in court filings as “John Broe #1” – had alleged that he had been abused dozens of times in the 1970s while a ninth grader at what was then Bishop John Neumann Catholic High School in South Philadelphia, where Flood was a religion teacher.

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HAWAII
Catholic News Agency

By Benjamin Mann

Honolulu, Hawaii, Jan 27, 2011 / 10:00 am (CNA).- Bishop Larry R. Silva of Honolulu, Hawaii says he was “shocked and extremely disappointed” to discover that his second-in-command at the diocese, Fr. Marc Alexander, was leaving his ministry for a post he had already accepted in the administration of Governor Neil Abercrombie.

“He was a well respected priest,” Bishop Silva told CNA on Jan. 26. “This news has been quite devastating to many.”

Fr. Alexander, who had served as a diocesan priest for 25 years, told Bishop Silva on Jan. 16 that he had lined up a job as the governor’s Coordinator on Homelessness, and would be leaving the responsibilities he had taken on during the past five years as Bishop Silva’s Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

Holy See Considers Legal Action Against TV Station

by EDWARD PENTIN
01/27/2012

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has threatened legal action against an Italian television station for using “questionable journalistic methods” in a program that alleged a former senior Vatican official had been transferred against his will after complaining about internal corruption.

The program, called The Untouchables and broadcast on the channel La 7 on Wednesday night, showed several letters that Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, then-deputy governor of Vatican City and now apostolic nuncio to the United States, sent to superiors, including Pope Benedict XVI, last year.

In one letter to the Holy Father, Archbishop Viganò, who was responsible for maintaining much of the city state’s infrastructure, claims he is a victim of a smear campaign launched by other Vatican officials after he had made extensive efforts to save the Vatican money by cleaning up its procedures. He also resisted efforts to transfer him, citing his efforts to root out malpractice.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

January 27, 2012
By Vanessa Martinez for NewsWorks

(Warning: This story includes graphic details of alleged sexual crimes.)

Three young women took to a Criminal Justice Center witness stand on Thursday to divulge the details of a darkened childhood.

Courtney Wilson, the 56-year-old former church deacon at the Remnant Church of God 7th Day on Ogontz Avenue, has been charged with two counts of rape, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, two counts of statutory sexual assault and a series of other charges.

In December, five women reported Wilson to the police, alleging sexual abuse that occurred repeatedly between 1997 and 2005 when they were minors. The women, now in their 20s, were affiliated with the church, located at 7708 Ogontz Ave., during the alleged abuse.

His preliminary hearing on those charges was held Thursday.

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SOUTH BEND (IN)
WSBT

By MARGARET FOSMOE
South Bend Tribune

5:59 p.m. EST, January 27, 2012
SOUTH BEND — In the wake of the Penn State scandal, University of Notre Dame President the Rev. John I. Jenkins recently sent an e-mail to students and employees reminding them of their obligation to report cases of suspected abuse and other questionable conduct.

The priest wrote that he has given a great deal of thought to news stories about Penn State’s alleged failure to respond promptly to alleged cases of child abuse, and that the possibility of serious failures gives those at Notre Dame the chance to take steps to prevent transgressions here.

He also referred to the sexual abuse crisis that has rocked the Catholic Church in recent years. “In my reflection, I cannot but connect what is alleged to have occurred at Penn State with the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. Both involved the abuse of minors, and both seemed to include a failure by some to report behavior and by others in authority to respond appropriately,” he said.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
NBC San Diego

By Sarah Grieco

A Las Vegas pastor who has been accused of sexually assaulting three girls in a Nevada congregation was ordered to be extradited from San Diego on Friday.

Otis Henderson, 55, also known to some as Otis Holland, was turned into U.S. Marshals in San Diego by the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday.

On Friday, San Diego Superior Court Judge David Szumowski ordered him to be held without bail, while Henderson’s extradition is pending.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
KFMB

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – A former Las Vegas-area pastor accused of sexually assaulting at least three young girls in his congregation waived extradition to Nevada Friday and will be returned there to face assault and child abuse charges.

Otis Henderson, also known as Otis Holland, had been the subject of an international manhunt since June 2010 and was featured in the Jan. 20 episode of the television show, “America’s Most Wanted.”

After the show aired, authorities received a tip from a viewer that Henderson might be living in Tijuana.

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NAPERVILLE (IL)
WLS

[with video]

January 27, 2012 (NAPERVILLE, Ill.) (WLS) — A former pastor and college professor was sentenced late today to six months in jail, probation and counseling for repeatedly molesting a girl from Naperville.

Sixty-four-year-old James French pleaded guilty to one felony sexual abuse charge last October.

Three other charges were thrown out in exchange for that plea.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune reporter

January 29, 2012
As Cardinal Francis George prepares to retire in the next few years and hand over the reins of the Archdiocese of Chicago to a successor, he is looking to Wall Street and the achievement of one particular predecessor to ensure the church’s long-term financial viability and leave a legacy of his own.

On Wednesday, the archdiocese earned a top rating from the Moody’s firm, a typical prerequisite to selling private bonds. A bond sale is a maneuver to improve cash flow that was used by Cardinal George Mundelein nearly a century ago. The Moody’s report was based on a proposed offering of $151.5 million in bonds.

Citing strict federal regulations imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission that preclude discussion of a pending bond sale, no church official, including George, will confirm that bonds will be issued. The Moody’s report also points out that the rating does not mean a sale is guaranteed.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

A prosecutor calling the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia an unindicted co-conspirator in child sexual abuse is an overdue rebuke of systemic church sickness.

During a pretrial hearing involving a priest and a former priest accused of pedophilia and a monsignor charged with “conspiring with priests and church officials to keep priests accused of sex abuse in ministry and parishioners in the dark,” the judge asked if prosecutors consider the archdiocese an unindicted co-conspirator, The Associated Press reports.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Cipolletti replied, “Certainly. It’s not like there aren’t other people (in the archdiocese) involved. There absolutely are.”

“Other people” include 63 Philly priests named in a 2005 grand jury report on pedophilia but not charged due to “legal time limits.”

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

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

7:23 p.m. EST, January 27, 2012
WATERBURY — In its effort to defend itself from an accusation of sexual abuse by one of its priests, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hartford collided in court Friday with one of the unflinchingly obedient Catholic families that form its core.

The retired parents of an altar boy took the witness stand and described the day they were shaken by their by-then grown son’s disclosure that a priest, known to the family for years, abused him and his best friend while the boys attended a diocesan grammar school in Derby.

The now-adult altar boy is identified as Jacob Doe in his negligence suit against the diocese. His father is a former church deacon. His mother is a former parish nurse.

The parents testified in Superior Court about the day three years ago when their son flew to the Virginia Beach home where they had retired. He told them he was traveling on business. In reality, he had decided to sue the church and wanted to tell his parents of the abuse in private. They said he waited to deliver the news until his parents had completed their volunteer shifts at a Virginia Beach soup kitchen.

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NEW JERSEY
Philadelphia Inquirer

By David O’Reilly
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

An Ohio man who alleges he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest in the early 1970s but repressed all memory of the assaults is using the “late discovery” feature of New Jersey’s child endangerment law to sue the Diocese of Camden.

Mark Bryson, 50, who lives near Cincinnati, alleges that the Rev. Joseph E. Shannon assaulted him multiple times when he was a first grader at St. Anthony of Padua School in Camden.

In a suit filed Friday in U.S. District Court, Bryson says he left the school after first grade and “repressed all memory” of the assaults until last February, when he learned that a registered sex offender had moved into his neighborhood.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

Viernes 27 enero 2012 | 19:49

Publicado por Pamela Hidalgo | La Información es de Ignacia Saiz

Fiscal judicial Gutiérrez recomienda confirmar sobreseimiento definitivo en Caso Karadima
Uno de los denunciantes del sacerdote Fernando Karadima, Juan Carlos Cruz, está recolectando firmas a través de Internet para pedir al Vaticano que se sancione y destituya de sus cargos a cuatro obispos que habrían sido cómplices de los abusos sexuales de Karadima.

El abogado y denunciante del ex párroco del bosque, Juan Carlos Cruz, inició hace algunas semanas una recolección de firmas a través de un sitio de peticiones en internet para entregar una carta al Vaticano.

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LOUISIANA
The Advertiser

Written by
Nicholas Persac

A federal grand jury indicted this week a former Lafayette youth minister who allegedly posed as a 14-year-old girl on the Internet to swindle nude photographs from boys.

Eric Michael Manuel, 22, of Lafayette, is a former youth minister at St. Thomas More High School, and he currently owns Half Black Media. Manuel is now charged in a 20-count indictment with 18 counts of production of child pornography and two counts of using a facility in interstate commerce to persuade a minor to engage in criminal sexual acts, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Stephanie Finley’s office.

For the production of child pornography charge, Manuel faces between 15 and 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted, Finley said in the release. If convicted of using a facility in interstate commerce to persuade a minor to engage in criminal sexual acts, Manuel faces between 10 years and life in prison.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

By Gustavo Arellano
Fri., Jan. 27 2012

​Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve received numerous taunting emails from pendejos associated with JSerra Catholic High School over Ricardo Aldana, the school’s beloved Spanish teacher who was arrested this past December for molesting a 14-year-old student. They insisted that Aldana was innocent, and that DA Tony Rackaukas would file no charges–oh, and that the victim was a ho.

Well, they’re gonna sing a different tune this weekend: Aldana has been charged with seven counts of lewd acts on a child.

In a press release issued today, the DA said Aldana began grooming the girl when she was 13 years old, a perversion that culminated with Aldana “driving the victim to his Dana Point residence and sneaking her into his bedroom to avoid being seen by his roommates.” Once there, Aldana “engag[ed] in substantial unlawful sex acts with” the victim.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Culture

January 27, 2012

Although the Philadelphia archdiocese is not a defendant in the sex-abuse case, a Pennsylvania judge has ordered the archdiocese to prepare for a trial in March.

The case against Msgr. William Lynn involves his work in handling clergy assignments for the archdiocese. Prosecutors have referred to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia as an “unindicted conspirator” in the case, and Msgr. Lynn’s defense has suggested that the accused priest was carrying out policies approved by his clerical superiors.

At a January 26 hearing, Judge Teresa Sarmina ordered lawyers for the archdiocese to provide detailed records of Msgr. Lynn’s office correspondence, including his consultations with archdiocesan lawyers. An attorney for the archdiocese said that the Church might resist further disclosures. “We are not a party to that battle,” he said of the Lynn case.

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CANADA
Globe and Mail

Sylvia Stead — Public Editor
Globe and Mail Blog

Posted on Friday, January 27, 2012

In Friday’s paper we ran an ad with the words “Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ Given to President Warren S. Jeffs”. Some readers wondered why such an ad appeared in The Globe and Mail. We do review ads, but unfortunately this one was not caught.

Mr. Jeffs, as you may know, is a polygamist sect leader in the United States who was convicted last year of sexually assaulting two children, one of whom was one of his child brides.

The ad, which was due to run again, has been cancelled.

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

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

2:33 p.m. EST, January 27, 2012
WATERBURY — A man who says a priest molested him when he was 13 years old testified Friday that the priest warned him that people would believe he was gay if he ever reported the abuse.

“When I would resist, he would say, ‘People will think you are gay if you bring this out,'” the victim said.

The victim, whose name has been withheld in court papers, appeared as a witness for another victim, identified as Jacob Doe, who is bringing the first sexual abuse complaint to go to trial against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford.

Doe and his friend, who also has a suit that claims he was molested, were best friends and students together at St. Mary’s School in Derby in the early 1980s. Both claim they were repeatedly abused by the Rev. Ivan Ferguson, who ran the diocesan school. Ferguson died in 2002.

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UNITED STATES
Bloomberg

By Mary Johnson Jan 23, 2012

The Vatican recently finished an exhaustive, three-year inquest, the kind it reserves for its gravest problems. The subject: “American apostolic women religious,” commonly known as nuns.

Almost 400 religious institutions throughout the U.S. were studied as part of this “apostolic visitation,” and a final, confidential report on the nuns’ activities was submitted to the Vatican in December.

Why investigate nuns? Because, Vatican officials said, they were concerned for the sisters’ welfare. But as a former nun — I left the convent in 1997 after 20 years as a sister in New York, Rome, Washington and Winnipeg, Canada — I know what the church leaders won’t publicly admit: American nuns frighten them.

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AUSTRIA
Austrian Times

A priest has named and shamed those of his congregation who left the church last year. Eight names from the congregation of 2000 in Sitzendorf an der Schmida in Austria were read out to the remaining church goers. The priest has been condemned by prominent members of the church and even data protectionists.

Father Nicolaas Janssens revealed the full names to his congregation of those who had withdrawn their membership to the church, with the “black sheep” describing the experience as being “sent to the pillory”. The priest has now apologised for his actions, saying that he never meant to hurt anyone and Mayor Leopold Hummel has also protected the priest. “There will be no disadvantage to those who have been revealed. We are not so conservative here,” he explained.

Jessen’s superior, Dean Christian Blauensteiner has also shown his support. “The priest has apologised many times. The strong reaction has had a real effect on him,” the dean explained. The revealing of the names was described simply as “not wise”.

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AUSTRIA
National Catholic Reporter

by Tom Gallagher on Jan. 27, 2012 NCR Today

Here’s a new form of evangelization: Publish the names of all the Catholics who have formally left the church.

A pastor in an Austrian church did exactly that. What was he thinking?

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NEDERLAND
Katholiek Nieuwsblad

door Jan Peeters

Gaat het ooit nog goed komen tussen slachtoffers en katholieke Kerk? Het vertrouwen lijkt voorgoed naar de knoppen.

“De opvattingen in de Kamer [over seks met minderjarigen –red.] zijn ook erg veranderd”, leek PvdA-Tweede-Kamerlid Khadija Arib zich quasi terloops te laten ontvallen. Ze nam vorige week deel aan de hoorzitting over het misbruikrapport van de commissie Deetman. De soms rumoerige slachtoffers op de publieke tribune lieten haar ermee wegkomen. Want als het in de jaren tachtig aan de PvdA, VVD, D66 en een aantal andere partijen had gelegen was het wettelijk verbod op seks met kinderen helemaal opgeheven. Het is precies dat wat Arib terloops leek te willen neutraliseren.

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UNITED STATES
Big Think

Adam Lee on January 27, 2012

In 2009, the Roman Catholic church convened an “apostolic visitation” – a sort of modern-day auto-da-fe – a rare step taken when the Vatican feels that a church-affiliated institution has gone seriously astray. The church officials in charge of the investigation conducted interviews at almost 400 religious institutions throughout the U.S., and this month, they submitted their final report, whose contents as of now are still secret.

What is this pervasive evil within the church that the Vatican is so determined to combat? If you guessed “priests who rape children with the knowledge and complicity of their superiors”, you’re thinking like a normal, decent human being, which of course makes you wrong. No, the real subject of the report is something far worse: the Vatican is worried that its nuns are becoming too feminist!

As this earlier news report says, the all-male Catholic hierarchy is upset that American nuns aren’t hewing sufficiently to the church line on teachings like gay rights and the restriction of the priesthood to men. Cardinal Franc Rode, who launched the apostolic visitation, said that they were displaying a worrisome “feminist spirit”. And those concerns appear to be well-founded, given that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an umbrella group representing liberal American nuns, is almost ten times larger than the conservative Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious. Some orders have openly refused to cooperate with the inquisition.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Catholic Insider

The annual report for the Boston Archdiocese was released yesterday amidst much hoopla over the “balanced budget.” There is good news in the report, in that parish collections rose by 4.5% and the archdiocese appears to be on stronger financial footing than in recent years.

But what is not so clear from the reports is the extent to which costs may have been shifted around and money has been moved or redirected from other entities in order to achieve the “balanced budget.” One example: the Clergy Funds, which provides health, welfare, and retirement benefits for 683 Boston priests–285 senior priests and 438 active priests.

A look at the 2011 annual report for the Clergy Funds shows they paid $13.5M in benefits and spent $2.3M in administrative expenses to do so. For every $1 in benefits paid, they spend 17 cents to administer the benefits, or about $3,357 in administrative costs for each priest receiving some benefits.

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LUXEMBURG
Kerknieuws

Het Luxemburgse gerecht ontving in de afgelopen tijd 39 meldingen van seksueel misbruik door rooms-katholieke geestelijken, maar er zullen geen priesters worden vervolgd: alle gevallen van misbruik zijn verjaard.

Dat meldt de Luxemburgse krant Luxemburger Wort. De slachtoffers van het misbruik zijn hier inmiddels over geïnformeerd.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Jan. 27, 2012 All Things Catholic

We already knew that Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, named by Pope Benedict XVI in October as his new nuncio, or ambassador, to the United States, seriously rocked the boat in his brief but tumultuous run as the No. 2 official in the government of the Vatican city-state from 2009 to 2011.

What we didn’t know until this week, however, was just how vigorously Viganò had campaigned to be allowed to finish the financial house-cleaning he started. As it turns out, the pope’s new man in Washington is something of a whistle-blower.

Viganò, 71, who has degrees in both civil and canon law, is a veteran Vatican diplomat who took over what amounts to the chief of staff position in the Vatican city-state in July 2009. He quickly earned a reputation as a take-no-prisoners financial reformer, reportedly turning a $10.5 million deficit into a $44 million surplus in one year alone by insisting on centralized accounting procedures and strict accountability for cost overruns.

No good deed, of course, ever goes unpunished, making it natural that Viganò’s efforts produced fierce backlash among some mid-level managers in the various Vatican fiefdoms. They were long accustomed to being accountable only to God and the pope — and in both cases, that accountability was fairly nominal.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Godwin Scerri, the defrocked priest, who the Courts jailed five years after they found him guilty of abusing boys in his care, should also be found guilty of rape, Philip Galea Farrugia, for the Attorney General, insisted this morning.

Making submissions in the AG’s appeal against the Magistrate’s decision to acquit Mr Scerri of rape, Dr Galea Farrugia said there was no real contestation that the rape took place.

Mr Scerri was cleared of the rape charge only because it had happened in one place when the charge sheet listed that it happened at another.

Lawyer Patrick Valentino, who is appearing for the victims, asked Mr Justice David Scicluna for the case to be heard rather quickly because the victims already had to wait a long time for justice in the Magistrates Court. There were 77 sittings, with the prosecution closing its case after seven. Twenty-seven of the other sittings were deferments at the request of the defence team.

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

Posted by Barbara Dorris on January 26, 2012

Church officials have allegedly reformed, right? Then explain this: For decades, when a priest from diocese “A” was accused or suspended or arrested or charged or convicted in diocese “B”, rarely (if ever) did Bishop “A” disclose the news to his flock.

So police in diocese “A” had to build their case alone, with little or no help (and usually opposition) from church authorities. And no one in diocese “B” was warned about the cleric. Their kids suffered in shame, silence and self-blame, instead of being asked “Did that priest hurt you?” and getting help promptly.

That pattern continues to be played out today. In Colorado, on Sunday, Fr. Robert Manning was suspended. He’s the target of a child sex abuse investigation.

Manning is a St. Louis priest. He was ordained here. He worked in at least three parishes here. Yet Archbishop Carlson, as best we can tell, has been silent about

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SOUTH DAKOTA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 26, 2012

How about a little good news: It looks like South Dakota lawmakers are working to undo a terrible wrong.

The South Dakota House of Representatives is considering a bill that will abolish the civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse. If passed, the law will be in direct rebuttal to a 2010 law that SHORTENED the civil statute of limitations and was deliberately written to silence Native American victims of abuse.

Testimony is scheduled next week, and lawmakers will hear from dozens of South Dakota victims, many of whom were physically and sexually abused in Church-run “orphanages” for Native American kids. (I put the word “orphanages” in quotes because living at the schools was mandatory for children in many reservations across the state.) You can read more about some of the schools here. According to the church’s own documents, abuse at the schools had been prevalent for decades.

Canada had similar institutions – many run by the same religious orders as the schools in North Dakota – but in response to the horrific abuses, the Canadian Government started a special government commission dedicated to the healing of Indian school victims, shining a light on the crimes that took place, and holding responsible parties accountable.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

The current nuncio to Washington cannot stand having been driven out of Rome. And he is reacting against his archenemy, Cardinal Bertone. He has many supporters in the curia. And the pope is getting caught in the fray

VATICAN CITY, January 26, 2012 – The two texts reproduced in their entirety further below are:

– a letter dated July 7, 2011 to Benedict XVI from then secretary general of the governorate of Vatican City-State, Carlo Maria Viganò, now the nuncio in the United States, made public during the broadcast of the television program “The untouchables” on the evening of January 25, on the Italian channel “la 7”;

– the statement released on January 26, with regard to this same broadcast, by the director of the Vatican press office, Fr. Federico Lombardi.

Viganò’s letter to Benedict XVI was the showpiece of this episode of “The untouchables.” It was exhibited together with a sheaf of other letters also written by Viganò to the pope and to secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone. It is logical to presume that the copies of these letters came to the producer of the broadcast, Gianluigi Nuzzi,, directly or indirectly, from the sender rather than from the recipients. The statement from Fr. Lombardi expresses “disappointment over the release of confidential documents,” but does not accuse anyone.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Sentinel

ANOTHER man has explained how he was allegedly sexually abused as a boy by a priest at a North Staffordshire boarding school.

Eight men from across the Midlands claim they were abused by Catholic priest Alexander Bede Walsh, below, over a 20-year period between 1974 and 1994.

The 58-year-old is currently on trial charged with 27 offences of indecency, buggery and indecent assault.

Incidents are said to have taken place across Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Coventry, including at Cotton College, in the Staffordshire Moorlands.

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OOSTENRIJK
Trouw (Nederland)

Robin de Wever − 26/01/12, 16:07

Het bisdom van Wenen verontschuldigt zich voor het publiceren van een lijst met kerkverlaters. Een priester plaatste de lijst onlangs in de krant van het bisdom.

In een verklaring vraagt het aartsbisdom om vergeving en wijst het erop dat de publicatie indruist tegen regels van de kerk en de staat. De priester, die werkt in een dorp ten noorden van Wenen, zou al tijdens een mis boete hebben gedaan. Aan slachtoffers heeft hij een excuusbrief gestuurd.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

January 26, 2012| By John P. Martin, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Will he say the lawyers made him do it? Did they?

The questions form a key subplot in the forthcoming trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn, the former Archdiocese of Philadelphia official accused of making decisions that enabled priests to sexually abuse children.

On Thursday, Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina took a step toward answering them. She ordered the archdiocese to be ready March 26, the first day of Lynn’s conspiracy and child-endangerment trial, to turn over what could be hundreds or thousands of private records detailing Lynn’s communications with church lawyers about sex-abuse claims between 1992 and 2004, when he was secretary for clergy.

“That gives you two full months to get it done,” the judge told Robert E. Welsh, a lawyer for the archdiocese.

Lynn is accused of assigning the Rev. James J. Brennan and a former priest, Edward Avery, to parishes in the 1990s where each allegedly molested a boy. All three men have pleaded

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VATICAN CITY
Eyewitness News (South Africa)

Reuters

The Vatican was shaken by a corruption scandal on Thursday after an Italian television investigation said a former top official had been transferred against his will after complaining about irregularities in awarding contracts.

The show “The Untouchables” on the respected private television network La 7 on Wednesday night showed what it said were several letters that Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who was then deputy-governor of Vatican City, sent to superiors, including Pope Benedict, in 2011 about the corruption.

The Vatican issued a statement on Thursday criticising the “methods” used in the journalistic investigation. But it confirmed that the letters were authentic by expressing “sadness over the publication of reserved documents.”

As deputy governor of the Vatican City for two years from 2009 to 2011, Vigano was the number two official in a department responsible for maintaining the tiny city-state’s gardens, buildings, streets, museums and other infrastructure.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WBUR

By Monica Brady-Myerov

BOSTON — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston says it’s no longer in “financial freefall.”

The finances of the archdiocese have stabilized, according to its annual report released Thursday. The church has a balanced budget and its assets have increased $31 million to $563 million. The increase is due primarily to investments.

Church collections increased 3 percent last year and the enrollment decline in Catholic schools has slowed to its lowest rate in 10 years.

The archdiocese also reports it spent $1.7 million last year to settle 23 legal claims arising from sexual abuse by clergy. The money came from real estate property sales, rental income and insurance funds.

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PHOENIX (AZ)
My Fox Phoenix

[with video]

PHOENIX – A Phoenix man arrested in a sexual exploitation case involving juveniles has pleaded not guilty in the case.

Maricopa County prosecutors say 26-year-old Christian Salvador Turcios entered his plea Thursday. His next court date is an initial pretrial conference and no date has been set yet.

Turcios was jailed on suspicion of 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, child molesting and unlawful surreptitious video recording. He was ordered held without bond Jan. 10.

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MEXICO
U-T San Diego

Written by
Sandra Dibble

TIJUANA — Days after being featured on the television show “America’s Most Wanted,” a fugitive pastor from Henderson, Nev., was captured Wednesday by Mexican authorities in Tijuana. Otis Holland, 55, is accused of sexually assaulting teenage girls in his parish who came to him for counseling.

Holland’s arrest took place thanks to a tip from a viewer of the program’s Jan. 20 episode, authorities said. On Wednesday, the information reached the U.S. Marshal’s Office in San Diego, which in turn contacted members of Baja California’s State Preventive Police. They arrested him that same day, and turned him over to U.S. authorities.

“It was a fantastic operation on both sides of the border, it couldn’t have gone smoother,” said Omar Castillo, a member of the U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force.

Alfredo Arenas, chief liaison officer for the Baja California state police, said Holland was detained outside a house in Tijuana’s Zona Norte, a neighborhood near the U.S. border. Holland had been living there by himself, and had not been there for long, Arenas said: “He had a couple of suitcases, the clothes were still inside.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

Parish Offertory Increases; Catholic Schools See Growth

www.bostoncatholic.org

(Braintree, Massachusetts) January 26, 2012…The Archdiocese of Boston today released its annual financial report for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2011. The report identifies key financial performance measures, including its financial position and changes in net assets during the most recent fiscal year. The full report is available on the Archdiocese’s website (http://www.bostoncatholic.org/annualreport) together with the audited financial statements of Archdiocesan related organizations. The report should be read in conjunction with the recently issued 2012 Budget, which focuses on Central Ministries.

The report provides a comprehensive review of the Archdiocese’s assets, liabilities and financial activities. Included are the audited financial statements of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, a Corporation Sole (the “Corporation Sole”), encompassing the activities of the parishes, central operations, the endowment fund, and the general insurance fund. The report also includes an accounting of payments for sexual abuse settlements and related expenses and the sources of these funds.

Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley stated that “The Archdiocese of Boston has greatly benefitted by the financial management of recent years that has achieved and sustained a balanced budget. The stabilization of our finances has led to increased confidence among our many generous benefactors, who provide us the means to invest in our parishes, schools, evangelization and the important mission of serving the poor and those in need. We are aware that there remain challenges to be addressed, but are encouraged by the progress being made in rebuilding our local Church. Going forward, we will maintain our commitment to be a sign of the presence of the Lord to the Catholics of the Archdiocese and the wider community. “

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Patricia Wen and Martin Finucane
| Globe Staff
January 27, 2012

Parishioners at Catholic churches in the Archdiocese of Boston are boosting their donations to financially strapped parishes, according to the annual financial report released yesterday by the archdiocese.

The report shows that parish collections and other fund-raising rose by about 4.5 percent, after several years of being flat or declining. In the budget year that ended in June, Catholics in the pews gave about $146.6 million to their parishes, compared with $140.3 million the year before. Meanwhile, church officials said Mass attendance remained relatively flat.

“Ordinary people are digging deeper into their pockets,’’ said John Straub, executive director of finance and operations for central ministries for the archdiocese.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board
on Fri, Jan 27, 2012

Archbishop Robert Fortune Sanchez was interred Thursday, ending a chapter in New Mexico history that featured both great hope and a great fall.

The life and death of Sanchez in many ways mirrors Aristotle’s tragic hero, like Oedipus of ancient Greece or Samson of The Bible. Remember that a hero in this sense does not mean a superman, but the protagonist of a story.

Though from humble beginnings, Sanchez rose to a position of high status and responsibility. He was not perfect, and his downfall involved both errors of judgment and character flaws. His fall was not based entirely on his own actions and his punishment was great — loss of position and a life of solitude, ending in death in a place in Albuquerque for people with Alzheimer’s disease — though some would argue his punishment should have been harsher.

While many were seriously harmed, the outcome was not without seeds of hope: The Archdiocese of Santa Fe pioneered a serious policy for dealing with a problem that had been swept under the rug by the Roman Catholic Church in many places — though the problem is in no way unique to the church. And the scandal increased awareness of the problem of child sexual abuse in America.

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NEVADA
KTNV

[with video]

By Drew Karedes

Henderson, NV (KTNV) — An international manhunt ends with a Las Vegas pastor arrested in Mexico and families of his alleged victims even more angry than before.

Investigators say Otis Holland used religion to sexually abuse teenage girls.

Holland is now in federal custody, awaiting extradition in San Diego. The 55-year-old was arrested after a tip that he had been living in a church in downtown Tijuana.

Holland had previously been arrested in Southern Nevada in December of 2010 and had appeared in court.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

DA: Church knew of ‘sick’ letter written 30 years ago by priest about teenage brothers on sadomasochistic outing

A letter detailing incidents of sexual abuse and sadomasochism at the hands of priests, written 30 years ago, could help prove that church officials turned a blind eye to molestation.

Prosecutors are asking that the letter – which the The Archdiocese of Philadelphia allegedly learned about in 1968 – be used in the trial of William J. Lynn, the archdiocese’s former secretary for clergy.

The letter was said to contain details about teenage brothers on a sadomasochistic outing in which a boy, 15, was strung up and flogged in the woods by his brothers, aged 17 and 18.
Prosecutors say the letter will help them prove that Lynn’s actions regarding two other priests, facing trial with him, are part of a long-term pattern or practice by the church of protecting abusive clergy and hiding their conduct from parishioners.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Tamworth Herald

A CATHOLIC priest perpetrated a catalogue of sexual abuse against young boys – including children from Coleshill – who were in awe of his “revered and trusted” status within the community, a court heard.

Jurors at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court were told that Alexander Bede Walsh abused eight boys while working at Roman Catholic establishments in Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Coventry between 1975 and 1994.

Walsh, of Church Lane, Abbots Bromley, Lichfield, Staffordshire, denies a total of 27 offences of indecency, buggery and indecent assault.

Opening the case against the 58-year-old, prosecutor Robert Price alleged that one of the victims was abused after being plied with alcohol during what purported to be a private communion ceremony.

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COLORADO SPRINGS (CO)
The Gazette

RYAN MAYE HANDY
THE GAZETTE

Members of an advocate group for victims of priest sexual abuse met in front of the headquarters of the Archidiocese of St. Louis Thursday afternoon to demand answers about Rev. Charles Robert Manning of Colorado Springs.

The group, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), is a national organization that acts as a watch-dog for sexual assault crimes brought against religious leaders. It wants Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis to clear up ambiguities in Manning’s history with the Catholic church after learning that Manning is being investigated in a sexual assault case in Colorado.

Manning, formerly of three St. Louis Catholic parishes, came to St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in Colorado Springs in 2007. At a Saturday mass, Rev. Rafael Torres-Rico told the congregation that allegations of sexual assault on a minor have been brought against Manning.

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By DAVE ALTIMARI, daltimar@courant.com
The Hartford Courant

7:17 p.m. EST, January 26, 2012

WATERBURY -—
They were 8th-grade altar boys at St. Mary’s Church in Derby, best buddies since grammar school, mesmorized by “Father Ivan” who treated them like adults and offered sleepovers at the rectory.

Now they are together again, both suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hartford for transferring a known pedophile priest to their school only months after he finished “treatment” in Massachusetts.

The case of Jacob Doe entered its third day in Waterbury Superior Court Thursday. The plaintiff and his childhood friend, known as Matthew Doe in court papers, testified before a six-member jury.

In sometimes very emotional testimony the men, now in their mid-40’s, told similar stories. They met the late Rev. Ivan Ferguson when he began working at the school affiliated with the St. Mary the Immaculate Conception Church in Derby. Both boys were altar boys and testified they immediately liked Ferguson when he showed up there in 1980.

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NEVADA
Los Vegas Sun

By Aida Ahmed

Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012

A former Las Vegas pastor accused of having sex with underage girls was detained in Mexico Wednesday night, Henderson Police said.

Otis Holland, 55, fled the Henderson area in June after police issued an arrest warrant on 11 counts of sexual assault of a victim under 16, one count of child abuse and conspiracy to commit a crime, police said.

Holland was recently featured on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted,” and the U.S. Marshals Service received a tip from a viewer.

Marshals worked with Mexican National Police to apprehend Holland without incident at about 10 p.m. Wednesday in Tijuana, according to Assistant Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Javier Jimenez.

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MEXICO
Reuters

MEXICO CITY | Thu Jan 26, 2012

(Reuters) – Mexican police have arrested a Las Vegas pastor who they said was hiding out in Tijuana after being accused of sexually abusing several minors in the United States.

Otis Holland, 55, had tried to flee a house in the border city but was captured by officers who had surrounded the area, senior local police official Alfredo Arenas said on Thursday

“This type of crime has no place in society. We will not let such cruel acts as those committed by this person go unpunished,” Arenas said in a statement. “Our work is done … now we hope he’ll be punished with all the weight of the law.”

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

The Vatican has responded angrily to an Italian television report about alleged corruption inside the Vatican, charging that the broadcast used “questionable journalistic methods” and presented a biased and oversimplified version of the facts.

Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, said that the show Gli intoccabili (“The Untouchables”) gave a warped view of Vatican affairs, continuing a pattern of “biased coverage of the Vatican and the Catholic Church.” The Vatican hinted that legal action could be taken against the La7 network that broadcast the report.

The televised report had showed a letter to Pope Benedict XVI from Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former secretary of the Vatican city-state governorate, in which the prelate argued that he should not be appointed apostolic nuncio to the US Archbishop Vigano told the Pontiff that he had worked to stop corruption in Vatican business dealings, and his departure from the Vatican administration would “cause confusion and dismay among those who believed it was possible to correct the many problems of corruption and waste.”

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FLORIDA
CBS Miami

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – The Broward Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday that a church youth pastor in Lauderdale Lakes has been arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a boy.

Jeffrey London, 48, was arrested at his home Wednesday night. The alleged victim in the case said he lived with London for more than a decade and he was repeatedly abused during that time.

According to the probable cause affidavit, the victim alleged the battery happened twice a week and that London would buy the victim a video game. As the victim got older, London allegedly offered money in exchange for sexual acts, according to BSO.

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FLORIDA
New Times

By Matthew Hendley
Thu., Jan. 26 2012

​Youth pastor Jeffery London was arrested last night at his Lauderdale Lake home on suspicion of sexual abusing a boy for about a decade, and now becomes the second Broward youth pastor to be arrested this week on molestation charges.

London, 48, was arrested shortly after returning home from conducting bible study at the Bible Church of God in Fort Lauderdale, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

Police say the alleged victim’s mother left him to live with London when he was 8 years old because she was “facing hard financial times.”

For the next decade, police say London sexually abused the boy, while the two were living together.

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IOWA
Courier

By KRISTIN GUESS, kristin.guess@wcfcourier.com | Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2012

WAVERLY, Iowa — A 67-year-old Eldora resident would like to suppress evidence related to his arrest for allegedly having a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old he met online.

Dennis Brown, a pastor, is charged with third-degree sexual abuse, a Class C felony. He was arrested at his summer residence in Eldora in July and taken to the Bremer County Jail.

Brown also has a home in Verona, Va.

According to authorities, Brown performed a sex act with the victim in May after allegedly making a connection on the Internet. He admitted meeting the teenager in Waverly, according to court documents

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NEVADA
America’s Most Wanted

Charismatic and cunning, Las Vegas Pastor Otis Holland is on the run after members of his church between the ages of 13 and 16 accused him of sexual abuse. The revelation of Holland’s relationship with his young parishioners has opened a Pandora’s box that has left Holland’s entire congregation stunned and shamed. Thankfully, an alert AMW tipster gave authorities the information they needed to track Holland down.

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NEVADA
Las Vegas Review-Journal

By Doug McMurdo
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

The former pastor of a Las Vegas church was arrested in Mexico on multiple sexual assault charges involving minors Wednesday.

Otis Holland, 55, of Henderson, fled Southern Nevada in June after Henderson police issued an arrest warrant alleging 11 counts of sexual assault of a victim under 16 years old, one count of child abuse and one count of conspiracy to commit a crime, according to Henderson police spokesman Keith Paul.

A tipster alerted the U.S. Marshal’s Service after Holland’s case was profiled on the “America’s Most Wanted” television program.

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NEVADA
8NewsNow

By Stephen Jackson, Online News Editor

HENDERSON, Nev. — A Las Vegas-pastor wanted on charges of having sex with underage girls was captured in Mexico on Wednesday night.

Fifty-five-year-old Otis Holland allegedly fled the Henderson area after an arrest warrant was issued for him on 11 counts of sexual assault of a victim under 16, one count of child abuse and conspiracy to commit a crime.

Holland’s case was recently featured on America’s Most Wanted. A tip from someone who watched the show lead to his arrest.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
CBS St. Louis

Brian Kelly

January 26, 2012

ST. LOUIS (KMOX)-Local clergy abuse victims are accusing St. Louis’ Archbishop of sitting on the sidelines Colorado police investigate a sex abuse allegation levied there against a priest who used to work here.

Father Charles Manning, who used to work at parishes in Bridgeton, Glencoe and Imperial was suspended from his St. Gabriel the Archangel parish in Colorado Springs last weekend, while police investigate an allegation that he sexually abused a minor. Even though no charges have been filed and there are no allegations against him in St. Louis, Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests Director David Clohessy believes Archbishop Robert Carlson should be pro-active, “Anytime a priest is suspended because of child sex abuse allegations, but especially when there’s a pending police investigation, Catholic officials have a civic duty, plus a moral duty, to aggressively seek out any other victims, witnesses, whistleblowers.”

Clohessy was asked if he knows if the Archbishop is helping police in their investigation, behind the scenes, “We’ve seen no evidence that he has and the easiest way, of course, to help is to simply use church bulletins, church websites, church pulpits to let parishioners know that Fr. Manning has been accused and suspended and let them know there is, in fact, a pending criminal investigation.

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UNITED STATES
The Irish Times

JASON BERRY

RITE AND REASON: IN 2005 parishioners of St James in the farm belt town of Kansas, Ohio, recoiled when Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair, facing a tight budget, closed the parish, steering them to one several miles away. They filed an appeal to the Vatican. It failed.

Then they sued in a local county court, arguing that the bishop was a trustee but parishioners owned the property. The state sided with the bishop. “We spent $100,000 in legal fees,” said parishioner Virginia Hull. “Bishop Blair paid his lawyers with $77,957 from our parish account.” Blair had the church demolished.

Canon law says a parish is “a juridic person”. But that “person”, like an olden slave, does not own itself. The bishop does. Nevertheless, a federal court in Springfield, Massachusetts barred the bishop there from razing a church deemed a historic landmark. Parish ownership is unresolved in American law.

A US Catholic parish has closed on average once a week for the last 20 years. Many bishops have sold churches to plug deficits, or pay for abuse cases caused by their negligence or their predecessors’.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Jan. 26, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The trial of Bishop Robert W. Finn and the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., the first bishop and diocese to face criminal charges in the decades-long clergy sex abuse crisis, has been set for September.

Finn and the diocese were charged in October by a grand jury in Jackson County, Mo., with separate counts of failing to report suspected child abuse in the case of Fr. Shawn Ratigan, a diocesan priest who was arrested last May for child pornography.

Lawyers for Finn and the diocese met with Jackson County Judge John Torrence on Thursday to set a Sept. 24 trial date in the case. Finn and the diocese have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
News-Press

Associated Press
January 26, 2012

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri Catholic bishop will go to trial in September on a misdemeanor charge that he and the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese failed to report suspicions of child sexual abuse by a priest.

Bishop Robert Finn is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 24. A pretrial conference is scheduled before Jackson County Circuit Judge John Torrence on March 27.

The charges against Finn and the diocese stem from claims that the diocese waited five months before telling police about pornographic photos of children found on a priest’s computer.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune reporter

January 26, 2012
Seeking to replenish coffers that have covered the costs of construction, clergy misconduct and parish operations, the Archdiocese of Chicago is exploring a number of options to raise more money, including the sale of private bonds to investors.

Though no church official will confirm that the archdiocese plans to sell bonds, theMoody’srating service on Wednesday night gave the Archdiocese of Chicago its top rating for a proposed sale of $151.5 million, the typical precursor to issuing bonds.

But Moody’salso says a sale is not guaranteed, and church officials insist no decision has been made. If the archdiocese proceeds with a bond sale, it would be the first time since Cardinal George Mundelein sold bonds to finance a construction boom in the early 20th century.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Fox 4

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A September trial date was set Thursday morning in Jackson County Court for Bishop Robert Finn and the Catholic diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph on charges they failed to report suspected child sex abuse to authorities.

The next pre-trial conference is scheduled for March 27 and the trial is scheduled to go forward Sept. 24.

Finn and the diocese pleaded not guilty after a grand jury indicted them for failing to report alleged child pornography involving the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, 46, who faces federal and state charges of child pornography possession, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

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GERMANY
The Local

A Catholic priest found guilty of over 250 charges of sexual abuse towards young boys has been sentenced to six years in prison, a German court announced on Thursday.

The 46-year-old from Salzgitter, Lower Saxony, was found guilty of abusing three boys aged between nine and 15. He was spared a longer sentence because he admitted to 250 of the 280 suspected cases.

Of the reported incidents, 214 were classified by the court as serious sexual abuse, while the remaining 36 were classified simply as sexual abuse.

“He has systematically violated the trust that is bestowed upon Catholic priests,” said the Judge Manfred Teiwes.

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GERMANY
Expatica

A German court jailed a Roman Catholic priest for six years Thursday after convicting him of 250 counts of sexually abusing three boys over a seven-year period, an official said.

The 46-year-old priest, who was arrested in July, admitted during the trial to sexually abusing the boys, aged nine to 15, whose families the priest knew, a court spokesman said.

“Due to the high number of cases of sexual abuse, many of which were cases of aggravated abuse, he was handed a total sentence of six years,” the spokesman said.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

With new evidence Walworth County DA brings criminal charges against minister for failure to report abuse

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director

CONTACT 414.336.8575

The Lake Geneva News reports that Walworth County District Attorney Phil Koss will file criminal charges for a third time against Joseph R. Fultz. Fultz is a former minister of Grace Evangelical Church who is being charged with failure to report child abuse or neglect. Fultz is facing five counts of failure to report because he is alleged to have had knowledge that children in his church were being sexually assaulted and he failed to notify law enforcement officials.

Walworth County District Attorney Phil Koss is to be commended for his persistence in holding Fultz accountable with new evidence, despite the previous dismissal of charges by Judge Robert Kennedy. Koss remains undeterred, and for good reason: “I think it’s crucial that those who watch over the welfare of children, know there have been sexual assaults, and are mandated reporters, follow the law so kids are safe”.

Wisconsin law requires that professionals working with or responsible for the well being of children are mandated to report child abuse and neglect. Koss is to be commended for steadfastly pursuing charges against this once trusted member of the community who was charged with watching over children in his care.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

Prosecutors in the high-profile abuse cases in Philadelphia are revealing that their cases may be more about their open distaste for the Catholic Church than their desire for justice for abused children.

In a hearing on Tuesday (1/24/12), Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington (a so-called “Chief of Special Investigations”) actually asserted the following to the presiding judge:

“Time and time and time again, [Catholic officials] lie to victims because they are not concerned about the victims; they are just concerned about the almighty dollar and mother Church.”

Blessington’s remark was made after Monday’s hearing where another Assistant District Attorney, Mark Cipolletti, claimed:

“The archdiocese was supplying [an accused ex-priest] with an endless amount of victims … It was a willful blindness.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Times Leader

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican on Thursday defended its transfer of a top official to Washington after he exposed alleged corruption in the awarding of Holy See contracts.

The Vatican also warned that it could take legal action against a TV show that reported on the case. The Italian investigative news program, “The Untouchables,” showed letters from Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano to Pope Benedict XVI begging not to be transferred after exposing corruption costing the Vatican millions of euros (dollars).

Vigano was removed in October as the No. 2 administrator of the Vatican city-state and was named the pope’s ambassador to Washington. While the job is highly prestigious, the posting took Vigano far from headquarters and out of the running for the Vatican’s top administrative job, which carries with it the rank of cardinal.

The Vatican statement said Vigano was given one of the most important roles in Vatican diplomacy, citing this as proof of Benedict’s “unquestionable respect and trust” in him.
The statement did not respond to specific allegations aired Wednesday night on the news show on the private La7 network. It criticized “questionable journalistic methods” such as revealing confidential documents and complained that information was presented “in a superficial and biased manner.”

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MISSISSIPPI
The Clarion-Ledger

Mississippi corrections officials say a man accused of killing a Catholic priest and setting off in his car on a Disney vacation has been found dead in a prison cell of an apparent suicide.

Jeremy Wayne Manieri, 33, was charged with shooting the Rev. Ed Everitt of Hammond, La., in July 2011 at a beach house in Waveland, Miss.

Manieri’s attorney, Brian Alexander, confirmed that he was found dead early Thursday morning. Manieri was being held at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County.

Manieri was a handy man at the house used by a group of Catholic priests as a beach retreat. Prosecutors said he shot Everitt with the priest’s own gun.

Manieri had claimed he shot Everitt after he passed out from alcohol and marijuana use and found the priest fondling him. But investigators had charged robbery was the motive because when Manieri was arrested in Florida authorities said he had the priest’s car, gun and wallet.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Cormac O’Keeffe

Thursday, January 26, 2012

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) has moved a step closer towards launching an investigation into the Garda handling of cases criticised in the Cloyne report.

Following six months of discussions with the Murphy Commission, the GSOC has recently received the full, unredacted, or unedited, version of their report into the Catholic diocese.

A spokesman for the GSOC said yesterday: “We have now received the full unredacted version of the report and the commission is now examining its contents.” He declined to make any further comment until this process was completed.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

A Jackson County judge set a September date for the trial of Bishop Robert Finn and the Catholic diocese in the case of whether they failed to report suspected child sex abuse to authorities.

Lawyers for Finn and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph met with Judge John Torrence this morning. Torrence set March 27 as the next pre-trial conference, when the court expects to deal with motions filed by the defense.

Finn and the diocese have pleaded not guilty. Their trial now is scheduled for Sept. 24.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Philly Post

By Tim Whitaker 1/26/2012

“They’re rats and they’re wimps.”

That’s what William Brennan, a lawyer representing a local priest who allegedly abused a 14-year-old in the 1990s while receiving monthly church stipends despite having already been accused of abuse, recently called the nuns who ratted out his client.

The nuns in question, if you can imagine such a thing, turned on the priest, who was living in a church residence with young men and throwing loud parties.

The nuns ratted him out to the archdiocese. But they also made it clear they didn’t want it disclosed that they were the informants.

Which means not only were they rats. They were wimps too.

And that’s the very point the priest’s lawyer was making. Nuns or no nuns, you can’t trust anyone who’s a rat and a wimp.

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AUSTRIA
Austrian Independent

The highest representatives of the Austrian Catholic Church gathered with Vatican officials to speak about a group of priests who declared themselves “disobedient”, it has emerged.

The Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper revealed yesterday (Weds) that Viennese Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn and two other members of the Conference of Austrian Bishops, went to Rome on Monday to meet with clergymen in the Vatican. The paper claimed that the gathering was organised to discuss how to react to the increasing acclaim among Austrians for the demands of Helmut Schüller’s Preachers’ Initiative.

Schüller – who was president of Caritas Austria for some years before withdrawing to Probstdorf in Lower Austria to head the local parish – presented the guidelines of his movement half a year ago. He said the Preachers’ Initiative wanted the Vatican to allow Austrian priests to give Holy Communion to divorced people. The rebellious group also want female priests in the Catholic Church and an abolition of celibacy.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

Hello,

We need your help here in South Dakota. HB 1218 http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2012/Bill.aspx?Bill=1218 will be before the House Judiciary Committee next week, either Wednesday or Friday.

We will have a positive date later today. As you can see Representative Hickey has garnered many co-sponsors.

The help we need is sending messages to those members of the committee whose names are listed here. The message needs to encourage support for HB 1218 in a positive way. So many of these kind folks receive “nasty” emails on a daily basis, we do not want to be confrontational in any way.

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IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

by Eugene Cullen Kennedy on Jan. 19, 2012 Bulletins from the Human Side

In a story likely to be unsurpassed as what psychologists term an “unobtrusive measure” of what is wrong with the Catholic church in Ireland, its venerable national seminary at Maynooth has decided, according to The Irish Catholic, to “separate the seminary environment from the wider university community.”

Perhaps it is modeled on the new television series “Alcatraz,” in which ghostly former inmates return to the famous prison that is now a cold and empty symbol of the golden age of isolating big-time gangsters like Al Capone from the world they might harm. It was called “the Rock,” a nickname given to many seminaries that flourished in a roughly parallel golden age of isolating small-fry seminarians from the world that might harm them.

That was the pre-Vatican II world in which seminarians were prepared for working among men and women by such spurn-the-world spiritual ideals as the famous one from the Imitation of Christ: “As often as I have been among men, I have returned less a man.”

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IRELAND
Vatican Insider

Postcards, petitions, and protests – many citizens want their country’s representative to stay at the Holy See

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

A Catholic wave has come crashing down on the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny. In Dublin, 100,000 postcards were sent to the head of government in protest at the closure of the Irish Embassy to the Holy See. Two months ago, Ireland downgraded its representation in the Holy See from resident to non-resident.

The website of the international movement “We Are Church” reported a statement made by the Jesuit essayist, Fr. Brian Lennon, published in the Italian Jesuit monthly magazine Popoli. Fr. Lennon warned that “the government has got the time frame wrong: it was in 1998 that Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, head of the Congregation for the Clergy, told the Irish bishops that the Vatican’s policy was to protect priests when they were accused.” According to the Government, this occurred within the last three years. “While it is a regrettable inaccuracy in such an important statement by the government, the minister’s words probably reflect the general indignation aroused by the revelations of the Cloyne Report,” Fr. Brian Lennon observed.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

VATICAN CITY, 26 JAN 2012 (VIS) – At midday today the Holy See Press Office published a note written by its director, Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J., concerning a television programme, “Gli intoccabili”, transmitted yesterday evening by Italy’s “La7” television network. Fr. Lombardi highlights the “questionable journalistic methods” with which the programme was made, and his “disappointment at the revelation of reserved documents”, noting that such things often form part of the “biased coverage of the Vatican and the Catholic Church”.

The Holy See Press Office director then turns to focus on two considerations “which were not given space in the course of the debate”. Firstly “the activities of Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano as secretary general of the Governorate of Vatican City State certainly had many positive aspects, as he contributed to the efforts being made to ensure administrative rigour, economisation and the improvement of what was a difficult overall economic situation. … However, a fairer evaluation would have taken account of the trends of the market, the investment criteria adopted over recent years, and other important circumstances. … Certain accusations – some very serious – made during the course of the programme, especially those concerning the members of the Finance and Management Committee of the Governorate and the Secretariat of State, will lead both the Secretariat of State and the Governorate to adopt all measures (including if necessary legal measures) to protect the honour of morally upright and highly professional people who serve the Church, the Pope and the common good. In any case, the positive criteria of correct and transparent management which inspired Archbishop Vigano certainly continue to guide the current directors of the Governorate. … This is in keeping with the policy to which the Holy See is committed of increasing transparency and attentively monitoring of economic activities”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge today heard more disturbing evidence — including some admissions — of priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who sexually assaulted boys and physically hurt children but still were allowed to continue their service, and their abuse.

The prosecution alleges these “prior bad acts” show a pattern of conduct by the church that contributed to the criminal conduct of defendant Msgr. William Lynn.

Some of the cases cited in court — about 30 in all — date back to the 1960s, but in many of those cases the priests continued to serve for decades. Among the allegations is that predator priests in some cases preyed on numerous children, in unspeakable ways.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

La trasmissione televisiva “Gli intoccabili” andata in onda ieri sera, accompagnata dall’abituale contorno di articoli e commenti può essere oggetto di molteplici considerazioni, a cominciare dalla discutibilità del metodo e degli espedienti giornalistici con cui è stata realizzata, per continuare con l’amarezza per la diffusione di documenti riservati. Ma non è di questo che ora vogliamo principalmente parlare, essendo oggi tutto ciò fin troppo abituale, sia come metodo generale, sia come stile di informazione faziosa nei confronti del Vaticano e della Chiesa cattolica. Proponiamo piuttosto due semplici considerazioni che non hanno trovato spazio nel dibattito.

La prima. L’azione svolta da mons. Viganò come Segretario Generale del Governatorato ha certamente avuto aspetti molto positivi, contribuendo ad una gestione caratterizzata dalla ricerca del rigore amministrativo, del risparmio e del raddrizzamento di una situazione economica complessiva difficile. Questi risultati, ottenuti durante la Presidenza del card. Lajolo, sono chiari e non sono negati da nessuno. Una valutazione più adeguata richiederebbe tuttavia di tener conto dell’andamento dei mercati e dei criteri degli investimenti nel corso degli ultimi anni, ricordare anche altre circostanze importanti, come i risultati notevolissimi dell’attività dei Musei Vaticani, con flusso accresciuto di pubblico e orari di apertura più ampi, ricordare le finalità non puramente economiche ma di supporto della missione della Chiesa universale da parte dello Stato della Città del Vaticano che sono motivo di spese anche notevoli, e così via. Alcune accuse poi – anche molto gravi – fatte nel corso della trasmissione, in particolare quelle nei confronti dei membri del Comitato Finanza e Gestione del Governatorato e della Segreteria di Stato di Sua Santità, impegnano la Segreteria di Stato stessa e il Governatorato a perseguire tutte le vie opportune, se necessario legali, per garantire l’onorabilità di persone moralmente integre e di riconosciuta professionalità, che servono lealmente la Chiesa, il Papa e il bene comune.

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AUSTRIA
The Associated Press

VIENNA (AP) — The Vienna archdiocese has apologized for the publication of a list of people who have formally left the Roman Catholic church.

A statement says those affected have been asked “for forgiveness,” noting making the names public “is not allowed by state or church rules.”

The statement was issued Thursday after a priest in a village north of Vienna listed local church-leavers in the diocese newspaper. The archdiocese says the priest has since “apologized in the form of a Mass and has written those affected a letter” of apology.

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DEUTSCHLAND
op-online

Braunschweig – Weil er über Jahre mehrere Jungen sexuell missbraucht hat, muss ein katholischer Priester aus Salzgitter für sechs Jahre ins Gefängnis. Er soll sich 250 Mal vergriffen haben.

Der 46-Jährige habe sich in 250 Fällen an drei 9 bis 15 Jahre alten Jungen vergangen, urteilte das Landgericht Braunschweig am Donnerstag.

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NEDERLAND
Tubantia

OOTMARSUM – Hij blijft shockeren en confronteren. De Ootmarsumse kunstenaar Frans Houben stelt op allerlei mogelijke manieren het seksueel misbruik binnen de katholieke kerk aan de kaak. Zij nieuwste uiting voor de galerie aan de Oldenzaalsestraat is een glasgebakken kruis met een corpus ernaast en een bord met de tekst: Vol verlangen ging ik toen hangen, nu: 2012 jaar later heb ik een dikke vette kater.

Hiermee stelt hij dat de kruisiging van Jezus Christus niets heeft gebracht. Volgens velen in Ootmarsum overschrijdt Houben daarmee de grens van het betamelijke. Omdat hij Jezus aan het kruis in zijn protest betrekt, zou er sprake zijn van godslastering. Houben is zich echter van geen kwaad bewust.

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BELGIE
Vandaag

De deskundigen van de Kamercommissie Seksueel Misbruik in de Kerk moeten nagaan of ook een schaderegeling mogelijk is voor slachtoffers van verjaard seksueel misbruik in de sportsector en in de medische wereld. Dat vindt minister van Justitie Annemie Turtelboom (Open Vld).

Ze antwoordde zopas op een vraag van CD&V-fractieleider Raf Terwingen. Hij wees erop dat vele slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik dat door niet-geestelijken is gepleegd, zich gediscrimineerd voelen omdat zij geen schadevergoeding meer kunnen krijgen als hun feiten verjaard zijn. Slachtoffers van geestelijken kunnen dit wel, dank zij het akkoord dat de Kerk met de Kamercommissie Seksueel Misbruik sloot.

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TOLEDO (OH)
NorthwestOhio

TOLEDO — A Toledo priest is appealing a judge’s decision to deny him a new trial.

Published reports say in a notice of appeal filed Monday, Rev. Gerald Robinson claims his constitutional rights were violated because police documents that could have helped his defense attorneys were misfiled and not discovered until years after his trial.

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

VATICAN CITY — A top Vatican official who is now the envoy to Washington denounced corruption and waste in the management of the Holy See in letters to Pope Benedict XVI, Italian media reported on Wednesday.

Carlo Maria Vigano was secretary general of the governorate of the Vatican — the person in charge of the administration — until October, when he was named ambassador to the United States in what was seen as a demotion.

In extracts from the letters published in Corriere della Sera and Libero, Vigano said he had faced a “disastrous” situation when he became head of the governorate in 2009 and said his transfer to Washington was “punishment”.

“My transfer is causing disarray and discouragement among those who believed it was possible to resolve the numerous situations of corruption and waste” in the Vatican, he reportedly said in one letter to the pope in March 2011.

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CANADA
Hamilton Spectator

GUELPH Former Hamilton Catholic priest James Boudreau has pleaded guilty to sexual assault.

Boudreau, a 68-year-old bald, heavy-set man, wearing silver-rimmed glasses, stood beside his lawyer Roger Yachetti as he pleaded guilty in Guelph’s provincial court to two sexual assaults.

He will be sentenced April 13.

Court was told Boudreau, now retired, took advantage of a young man’s friendship and another’s interest in the clergy when he sexually assaulted the two in the 1980s.

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GERMANY
Monsters and Critics

Braunschweig, Germany – A German court convicted a priest Thursday of sexually abusing three boys and sent him jail for six years in one of the worst recent abuse cases to come to light in Germany’s Catholic Church.

The 46-year-old man, whose name was withheld under privacy guidelines for media, was convicted in Braunschweig on 214 aggravated counts of sex with a minor and 36 lesser counts of the same charge.

The court heard the parish priest abused the children during youth camps.

‘He exploited the trust of their parents,’ said Judge Manfred Teiwes as he passed sentence. The defendant admitted the charges after a plea bargain at the start of the trial fixing an upper limit on the sentence.

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GERMANY
The Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — A German court has convicted a Roman Catholic priest of some 250 counts of sexually abusing children over a several-year period and sentenced him to six years in prison.

German news agency dapd reported that the state court in Braunschweig on Thursday convicted the priest, who was found guilty of abusing three boys aged 9 to 15 between 2004 and 2011.

The 46-year-old priest, who wasn’t identified, was arrested in July after one victim told his mother what had happened. He admitted the abuse when he went on trial Jan. 13.

He also faces church disciplinary proceedings.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBC

[with video]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph announced Wednesday that a Kansas City-area pastor has been placed on administrative leave.

The Rev. Robert Finn said the Rev. Matthew Bartulica has been restricted from public ministry. He has been the pastor at St. Cyril Parish in Sugar Creek, Mo.

In a press release, the diocese said information came to the Ombudsman that prompted Finn and the Independent Review Board to “invoke a strict application of all diocesan policies and procedures.”

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SUGAR CREEK (CO)
The Examiner

Posted Jan 25, 2012

Sugar Creek, MO —

A Sugar Creek pastor has been placed on administrative leave.

The Rev. Matthew Bartulica had served as pastor for St. Cyril Parish in Sugar Creek for about six months before the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph placed him on administrative leave earlier this week.

On Wednesday, the diocese said in a press release that information came to the Ombudsman that prompted Bishop Robert Finn and the Independent Review Board to “invoke a strict application of all diocesan policies and procedures.”

In the wake of the church’s recent sex scandal, Finn appointed the ombudsman as an independent public liaison to field and investigate any reports of suspicious or inappropriate behavior. The church said it would not comment about the nature of the information involving Bartulica until more facts were known.

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