ABUSE TRACKER

NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish Times

A former priest has been jailed for four years at Downpatrick Crown Court yesterday following his fourth conviction for child sex abuse.

Daniel Curran (61), Bryansford Avenue, Newcastle, Co Down, pleaded guilty to five charges of indecently assaulting two boys between 1989 and 1994.

The court heard how the one-time parish priest of St Paul’s in west Belfast said he could not remember how many young boys he had preyed upon because he had a drink problem at the time.

However, Judge David Smyth QC revealed he had abused “at least 13 victims” over nearly 17 years. He also noted how records from when Curran was sent to England by the Catholic Church for treatment had been asked for but had not been received.

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WISCONSIN
SNAPwisconsin.com

Victims agree with Judge Kelley’s ruling: bankruptcy court no place for sex crimes investigation

Some of Kelley’s comments, however, demonstrate exactly why the Attorney General—not the archdiocese–must conduct full investigation

Court does not dispute figures that at least 8,000 criminal acts are alleged in filings, with at least 100 unidentified offenders

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director

CONTACT: 414.336.8575

Judge Susan V. Kelley denied a motion today in Federal Bankruptcy Court filed on behalf of archbishop Jerome Listecki, which would have allowed the archdiocese to submit to the Attorney General of Wisconsin a “statistical analysis” of the thousands of child sex crimes found within claims submitted to the court by victims of child rape and sexual assault. Judge Kelley emphasized that the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding is intended to provide the debtor, the archdiocese of Milwaukee, the opportunity to file a plan of reorganization, not a venue for the investigation of criminal child sex crimes.

In courtroom comments, however, Judge Kelley remarked several times that based upon the claims she has reviewed there was not, in her opinion as a bankruptcy judge, a current “public safety crisis”.

Kelley did not dispute that the claims include at least 8,000 acts of alleged criminal sexual acts against children and, even more significantly, that there are at least 100 alleged offenders who are not named on the archdiocese “official” list of 43 abusive priests. Even Listecki, in his blog this week, concedes that “some new names of diocesan priests did surface in the claims process”.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

A survey of Catholic Priests has found 2/3 felt the criticism by Taoiseach Enda Kenny of the Vatican in the wake of the Murphy Report was undeserved.

The poll was carried out by the Moncrieff Show on Newstalk.

It was submitted to 320 priests nationwide with 114 responding.

63% believed the Vatican had handled clerical sex abuse cases poorly.

While 65% said the abuse scandals has damaged the reputation of all priests.

And 79% of them said their confidence in RTÉ had been damaged by the Fr. Kevin Reynolds libel case.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Evelyn Ring

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Eight out of 10 priests believe they should be allowed to marry.

And six out of 10 who took part in a national radio survey believe women should be ordained priests.

Newstalk invited 320 priests to participate in the survey and 114 responded. Most (96%) had been serving members for 10 years or more. Many (65%) felt their reputations have been damaged by abuse scandals in the Church.

Meanwhile, 75% of priests feel Enda Kenny’s criticisms of the Vatican were undeserved.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTMJ

MILWAUKEE- A bankruptcy judge refused to unseal church documents related to the Milwaukee Archdiocese sex abuse scandal.

Not only did federal judge Susan Kelley disagree, she called Wednesday’s hearing a distraction, by people with an agenda.

At a court hearing earlier this month, Peter Isely, a spokesman for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) argued documents in the archdiocese bankruptcy hearing listed at least 100 never before named sex offenders. He claimed those names are a public safety and child safety concern.

Judge Kelley reviewed every single name listed in the claims spanning more than 50 years — and could find no public safety concern.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Lawyers on Wednesday added two more people to the jury for the pending conspiracy and child sex-abuse trial of three Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests.

After an eighth day of screening, prosecutors and defense attorneys had chosen six men and six women for the panel.

Lawyers for both sides still need to pick 10 alternate jurors, people who could be tapped if any of the original 12 are disqualified or forced to leave the case. That process could extend into next week.

The trial is projected to last between three and four months.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

By Meghan Hurley
February 29, 2012

OTTAWA — A Pembroke priest faces charges in sexual assaults dating back to 1970, police said Wednesday.

The sexual assaults against teenage boys and one man occurred between 1970 and 1980, Ontario Provincial Police said.

Daniel Miller, 67, has been charged with three counts each of gross indecency and indecent assault.

Miller was released from custody on a promise to appear in a Renfrew court March 28.

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UNITED STATES
Salon

By Gene Lyons

For the record, the priest who married my wife and me in 1967 advised us that we could in good faith practice birth control. He reasoned that as Pope Paul VI was then preparing an encyclical regarding faith and sexuality, young Catholics could reasonably assume that church dogma regarding contraception would soon change to reflect contemporary realities: specifically that a couple intending to bring children into their marriage might legitimately seek to do so in their own time.

A university chaplain, he no doubt understood how the combination of Rome’s authoritarianism and theological nit-picking tended to drive educated young people from the church. Anyway, everybody knows how that worked out. Next came Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s 1968 doubling down on the church’s blanket condemnation of artificial means of birth control — a blast from the medieval past as most American Catholics now see it.

“Vatican Roulette,” we called it, and like the vast majority, declined to play. Surveys have shown that approximately 13 percent of the faithful agree with the Roman Catholic Church’s categorical ban on birth control; a mere 2 percent actually practice what the bishops preach. For most, it isn’t a serious personal issue. Sure, Your Grace, whatever. …

Coarse jokes about priests, altar boys and contraception virtually wrote themselves. I’ll spare you. But while we’re at it, let’s light a candle for Sinead O’Connor, an eccentric woman in combat boots with a shaven head, who tore up the pope’s photo on “Saturday Night Live” in 1992 to protest clerical sexual abuse of children in her native Ireland: wrecking her U.S. career to make a point entirely lost upon most viewers at the time.

In a bankruptcy proceeding last week, the diocese of Milwaukee listed 8,000 claims of sexual abuse among its liabilities. I’m with Esquire’s Charles P. Pierce, who writes that the great contraceptive kerfuffle with the Obama administration represents a fairly obvious power play by “the institutional American church to regain the power and influence in the secular government that it lost when it was exposed to be a multigenerational conspiracy to obstruct justice.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee

Most Reverend Jerome E. Listecki
Archbishop Of Milwaukee

Since my return from Rome last week, I have been catching up on all the things that happened while I was away for the ad limina trip and the consistory where my friend and predecessor Timothy M. Dolan was elevated to the office of Cardinal.

The first thing that confronted me was the media coverage of the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 proceeding and statements made about the number of abuse claims filed and the safety of children in the Church today.

Any instance of sexual abuse of a minor is a disgusting sin and a horrible crime. My heartfelt apology goes out to anyone who has been harmed. When Pope Benedict visited the United States in April 2008, he rightly referred to the sexual abuse of children by priests as “evil” and a “sin,” acknowledging that the crisis was “sometimes very badly handled by Church leaders.”

However, statements reported as facts in the media, go beyond the adversarial rhetoric we have come to expect in this proceeding. On top of that, several state legislators, without having access to factual information regarding any of the claims, compounded the issue by calling for the state attorney general to investigate, unaware that both old and new claims have been turned over to and been reviewed by district attorneys for more than a decade.

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WISCONSIN
Mal Contends…

Annysa Johnson in the MJS notes this morning that, “Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki, who just returned from a papal meeting in Rome, issued a letter to local Catholics on Tuesday excoriating the media, lawmakers and plaintiffs’ attorneys in the bankruptcy.”

I could not think of a less credible character than the pederast-protecting, Scott Walker-defending Listecki to excoriate anybody.

Listecki’s letter is an outrage in itself referring to the legion of sexual attacks against minors by stating child rape has: “sometimes [been] very badly handled by Church leaders.”

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NEW YORK
Berger’s Beat

February 28, 2012 10:39 pm | Author: Jerry Berger

From “no brainer” to “no-starter.” That’s how the New York Daily News describes an now-abandoned plan by the state American-Irish Legislators Society to honor Cardinal Tim Dolan. Initially, some of the group’s leaders were enthusiastic about feting Dolan, “But some Assembly Democratic members are said to have balked because of the church’s vehement opposition both to same-sex marriage and a bill to extend the statute of limitations past victims of sex abuse by priests.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Feb. 29, 2012

The judge in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy said Wednesday that a review of sex abuse allegations in the case reveals no current child safety crisis and that suggestions otherwise – by lawmakers and victim advocates – are a distortion of the facts.

“We cannot control what is said by others on the courthouse steps,” U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley said.

At a hearing where she rejected a request by the archdiocese to release limited statistical information about the abuse claims, Kelley admonished lawyers on both sides to, as she said, return to the business of bankruptcy, which is “primarily financial.”

Kelley said the vast majority of the offenses alleged in the claims are older.

“The purpose of bankruptcy is for a debtor file a plan, to pay the valid claims. We’re not here to embarrass or humiliate people or to bring up matters from the 1950s,” she said.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Fox 6

February 29, 2012, by Cary Docter

MILWAUKEE — A federal judge denied on Wednesday a motion by the Milwaukee Archdiocese to submit a statistical review of priest abuse cases.

The judge said according to her independent review, there is no current public safety concern within the archdiocese (churches and schools). She indicated the priest abuse cases provided to the court from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) are “very old.”

What happened in court Wednesday was a result of comments from the court in early February. At the time, lawyers for victims of sexual abuse said there were 100 new sex offenders identified in more than 8,000 accounts of sexual abuse (in their claims). This number was well publicized.

Members of SNAP called those numbers a “personal safety crisis.” The group wanted an investigation into who these people were in case there were CURRENT members of the archdiocese identified in court documents.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
My Fox Philly

PHILADELPHIA – An assistant restaurant manager has become the 12th juror seated in the landmark case about how the Archdiocese of Philadelphia dealt with priests accused of molesting children.

Testimony is set to start March 26.

The 12th juror was chosen Wednesday. The six men and six women are expected to hear evidence for about four months. Ten alternates will also sit through the trial.

Monsignor William Lynn is accused of endangering children by transferring two accused priests to new parishes. The 61-year-old Lynn has pleaded not guilty and blames the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua (beh-vih-LAH’-kwah) for hiding the problem.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Sheboygan Press

By Vicki Smith, Associated Press

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WTW) — Wheeling Jesuit University acknowledged Wednesday it’s cooperating with federal investigators who seized records from the offices of J. Davitt McAteer, the school’s vice president for federally sponsored research programs and a prominent critic of the coal mining industry.

The files were removed Feb. 15, but spokeswoman Michelle Rejonis said she didn’t know which federal agency was involved.

Wheeling Jesuit has many federally sponsored programs, including collaborations with NASA and a center that helps commercialize new technologies, Rejonis said, so it works with several agencies. Many of those agencies have an Office of Inspector General, an entity that investigates fraud, waste and abuse.

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WHEELING (WV)
WTOV

By The Associated Press

WHEELING, W.Va. —

Wheeling Jesuit University officials said they’re cooperating with federal investigators who seized records from the offices of the vice president for federally sponsored programs.

Spokeswoman Michele Rejonis said files were seized on Feb. 15 from J. Davitt McAteer’s offices, and she’s not sure which federal agency was involved.

Wheeling Jesuit has many federally sponsored programs, including collaborations with NASA and a center that helps commercialize new technologies.

McAteer is also director of its National Technology Transfer Center and the Erma Ora Byrd Center for Education Technologies.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Alleged victim claims Brooklyn DA didn’t aggressively pursue case; implications for FOIL.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week

A 25-year-old man who is alleging that the Brooklyn District Attorney did not seriously pursue his sexual abuse case — and who is now too old to pursue legal remedies — will be speaking in Albany Wednesday in support of the Child Victim’s Act (CVA). The CVA is a bill that proposes extending the current statute of limitations on certain sex crimes against children to age 28. It also creates a one-year window during which victims of child sexual abuse can file civil suits regardless of when the alleged abuse occurred.

According to an internal memo obtained through a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request from Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes’ office by the alleged victim, Schneur Borenstein, Borenstein’s first disclosure of his abuse to anyone connected with the DA’s office was made to Henna White. He does not remember precisely when he first approached White, although said it was shortly before he turned 22.

White is the office’s liaison to the Jewish community and also plays a key role in Kol Tzedek, a confidential hotline established by the DA to encourage members of the Brooklyn Orthodox community to report sex crimes against children to the secular authorities.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

Fünf Tage war ein Fernsehteam der ARD in Regensburg unterwegs. Gut ein Jahr, nachdem die katholische Kirche angekündigt hat, Konsequenzen aus den Missbrauchssfällen zu ziehen, wollte man konkret erfahren, wie Opfern geholfen wurde. Das Ergebnis der Recherchen ist kommenden Donnerstag im ARD-Morgenmagazin zu sehen.

„Beim Versuch, eine Stellungnahme der Kirche zu bekommen, sind wir gescheitert“, sagt der Fernsehautor Wolfgang Bausch. Fünf Tage waren er und ein Team des WDR in Regensburg unterwegs. Anlässlich der hier tagenden Deutschen Bischofskonferenz wollten sie herausfinden, wie die katholische Kirche ein gutes Jahr nach dem öffentlichen Bekanntwerden des Missbrauchsskandals heute mit dem Thema umgeht. Und von der Mauer des Schweigens im Bistum Regensburg zeigte Bausch sich durchaus beeindruckt.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

The Bishop of Down and Connor has apologised to the victims of a paedophile priest who has been jailed for four years for sexually abusing two young boys.

Bishop Noel Treanor said that he regretted “the pain and distress” caused by Daniel Curran, 61, of Bryansford Road, Newcastle.

Downpatrick Crown Court heard the offences took place between 1989 and 1994 at Curran’s family holiday home near Tyrella, County Down.

It was the fourth time he had been charged with child abuse.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A victim of paedophile priest Daniel Curran has said he has had nightmares about him since his childhood abuse.

On Wednesday, Curran was sentenced to four years in prison for indecently assaulting two young boys.

It is the fourth time he has been sentenced for sex offences against boys.

One of the victims in the latest case – who did not want to be identified – told the BBC of the impact of the abuse.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) –

Twelve jurors have now been selected to hear an historic case, allegations of child abuse by priests and a cover-up by a church official, Monsignor William Lynn.

Although 12 jurors have been selected, the attorneys must still pick 10 alternates because of the expected length of the trial, about three to four months. And opening statements are not scheduled to begin until late March. The court left a large window between jury selection and the taking of evidence in this high-profile, highly charged case.

In this case, two priests are charged with rape, and Monsignor William Lynn is charged with endangering children by allowing these and other alleged predator priests to remain in ministry with access to additional victims. The defendants have pleaded NOT guilty.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

By Kathy Kane

So where to begin. A year ago at this time, I sat in my house furious and betrayed. I had so many emotions but no where to channel the anger. Where would my voice be heard? Shortly after the Grand Jury report, an apology was issued in the Catholic Standard and Times. It was my tipping point. It was an apology with a “But” – the worst kind of apology. More children had been harmed by priests left in ministry. Children had been put at risk. Please no more apologies. No more “praying for the evil that has occurred.” No more empty words. That might placate some people – not me. I had read the “apology” a few days before and for some reason googled it to read one more time. But this time the first thing that popped up on the search was catholics4change. Susan had included the “apology” in her links in her post titled, “Don’t Apologize for Me.” I read her few posts that were on the site at that time including, “My Lost Saints” and knew I had found my home.

“People find each other. They just do.” These words were spoken to me by a pediatrician when my children were young and just starting school. I had the typical worries all Moms have about their children making friends and finding a comfortable group to fit in. “People find each other.” So true about my experiences over the past year. I found Susan and then over the course of a few weeks found so many more local people sharing the same outrage. Then as the site grew, found so many more people from all over the US and other countries sharing the same anger, betrayal and profound sadness about what had happened to children.

We have had so many experiences over the past year. So much of our involvement taking place off site. Attending meetings, vigils, communicating with people in private emails. So many people – so much pain.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Editorial
From:Herald Sun
March 01, 2012

THE Victorian Government is protecting the most vulnerable people in the community by changing laws allowing convicted sex offenders to work with children.

The Government is responding to a determined Herald Sun campaign by acknowledging that decisions taken by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal are not always in the interests of children and their parents.

The proposed changes are to prevent rulings in favour of applicants who have failed Working With Children checks, but then appealed against a decision by the Department of Justice not to grant them a permit.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Michael Holcroft
From:Herald Sun
March 01, 2012

THE Law Institute of Victoria strongly opposes the “name and shame” push with respect to serious sex offenders.

The LIV is concerned that our children and communities are protected from serious sexual predators, but “name and shame” is not the way to achieve this.

Being identified as a sexual predator removes an offender’s motivation to rehabilitate.

Being publicly linked to a crime that is so stigmatised makes it difficult for an offender to obtain employment or accommodation.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTMJ

MILWAUKEE – People allegedly abused by priests and others involved in the Catholic Church have asked for a state investigation into claims filed as part of a bankruptcy case involving the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

On the same day, a federal judge was to hear arguments Wednesday afternoon from lawyers on behalf of some of those victims.

Those victims want documents unsealed because, they say, it would reveal more about the breadth and scope of sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

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NEW YORK
Catholic League

[On Wednesday, February 29, Bill Donohue will appear on Fox Business Network’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” to discuss the latest on the HHS mandate and several other topics. Donohue is scheduled to appear at 7:30 p.m. ET.]

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

For the past several years, New York State Assemblywoman Margaret Markey has sought legislation targeting the sexual abuse of minors. Yet never once has she introduced a bill that would apply to public institutions—just private ones. Now she is back again asking her colleagues to pass a bill that would suspend the civil statute of limitations for a one-year period; it would allow alleged victims who claim they were molested in a private institution to sue, regardless of when it supposedly happened.

But what if a kid was sodomized by a public school teacher in Albany just before Thanksgiving? New York State law says it is already too late for him to sue. Markey agrees with this condition—the kid is out of luck. She could have attempted to correct this situation, but she has chosen not to. In other words, child rape in public schools is not something she will ever confront. However, if a student was allegedly groped by a Catholic teacher in the 1950s, Markey wants it to be legal to sue the teacher, the school, and the diocese in which it is located.

In the month of February alone, six public school employees have been arrested for sexually abusing a minor. And this is just in New York City! Common decency, as well as common sense, dictates that new laws designed to curb this problem should begin by targeting the public schools. Instead, Markey wants to give them a pass.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

Published Wednesday, 29 February 2012

A victim of Co Down convicted paedophile and former priest, Daniel Curran – who was jailed on Wednesday for four years – has told UTV he was “scared to live and afraid to die”, as a result of the abuse he suffered.

The 61-year-old former priest, from Bryansford Avenue in Newcastle, was told by Judge David Smyth QC that a jury trial could have seen him sentenced to 18 years behind bars.

As it was, Curran had pleaded guilty at Downpatrick Crown Court to five charges of indecently assaulting two boys while he was a parish priest in west Belfast between 1989 and 1994 and was handed the four-year term.

Standing emotionless in the dock, Curran was told by Judge Smyth that he had abused the trust his position as a priest afforded him and that the acts of abuse were not isolated incidents.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A former priest and convicted paedophile has been jailed for four years for sexually abusing two young boys.

The offences took place over a period of five years between 1989 and 1994. The boys were aged nine and 10.

It is the fourth time Daniel Curran, 61, of Bryansford Road, Newcastle, has been charged with child abuse.

Downpatrick Crown Court heard the offences took place at Curran’s family holiday home near Tyrella, County Down.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

A former Catholic priest has been sentenced to four years in prison for abusing young boys in Northern Ireland in the 1980s.

Dan Curran was parish priest in Belfast in the late 1980s

A former Catholic priest has been sentenced to four years in prison for what a judge described as a ”systematic campaign” of sexual abuse against young boys.

Dan Curran, 61, from Newcastle, Co Down, admitted sexually assaulting two altar boys when he was a parish priest in Belfast in the late 1980s.

The abuse took place at an isolated cottage where Curran took his victims at weekends.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPXI

The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA —

An assistant restaurant manager has become the 12th juror seated in the landmark case about how the Archdiocese of Philadelphia dealt with priests accused of molesting children.

The jury of six men and six women are expected to hear evidence for about four months.

Ten alternates will also sit through the trial.

Monsignor William Lynn is accused of endangering children by transferring two accused priests to new parishes during the 1990s. The 61-year-old Lynn has pleaded not guilty and blames the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua (beh-vih-LAH’-kwah) for hiding the problem.

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UNITED STATES
Catholics4Change

February 29, 2012 by Susan Matthews

Created for the Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse, this production featured interviews with adult survivors of child sexual abuse. Six individuals, sitting alone in a room, spoke frankly and emotionally to our interviewer, telling their stories in graphic detail. These memories, some from as many as sixty years before, but still fresh in the survivors’ minds, were the only narrative.

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SAGINAW (MI)
MLive

Published: Wednesday, February 29, 2012

By Brad Devereaux | bdeverea@mlive.com

A judge said the discovery that Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua ordered the destruction of documents that contained the names of priests suspected of child molestation is not a reason to dismiss charges that a church official participated in a cover-up.

Lawyers of one accused priest said Rev. Joseph Cistone of the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw witnessed the shredding of the documents in 1994 when he was a church official in the Philadelphia area.

Cistone is not being charged, but was mentioned in the court filing. …

Lynn’s lawyers said Rev. Cistone witnessed the shredding of the documents and misled a grand jury when he did not acknowledge the documents or their destruction during a previous testimony.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

A former priest has been sentenced to four years in jail for the indecent assault of two boys.

Daniel Curran, who has three previous convictions for similar offences, abused the youngsters between 1986 and 1992 while he was a parish priest in west Belfast.

The boys were aged between 9 and 10 and were connected to the church.

Curran had pleaded guilty to five charges of indecent assault.

At Downpatrick Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge David Smyth QC said the offences occurred against a background of trust placed in the priest.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WISN

[with video]

MILWAUKEE — The bankruptcy case of the Milwaukee Archdiocese heads back to a federal courtroom Wednesday as an advocacy group has asked the state’s attorney general to review abuse claims.

A group of abuse survivors is asking for J.B. Van Hollen to conduct his own investigation into the claims of abuse filed in the bankruptcy proceedings.

Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, went to the attorney general’s office Tuesday and asked Van Hollen to have his office review the thousands of pages of claims.

The Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2011 after it felt its legal feeds could exceed its assets.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Jeremy Roebuck
Inquirer Staff Writer

More time is needed to determine what killed Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua last month, the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office said Tuesday.

Toxicology test results expected this week are meant to determine if Bevilacqua had high or unexplained amounts of prescription medication or other chemicals in his blood when he died Jan. 31.

But definitive results have been delayed by complications from his embalming, Coroner Walter I. Hofman said.

Hofman said Tuesday he expected to know more in two to three weeks.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WFMZ

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Pa. –
The Montgomery County Coroner says prescription drugs were found in the system of the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

The coroner said Tuesday it will take several weeks to determine whether the amount of drugs in Bevilacqua’s system matches the prescribed dosage.

District Attorney Risa Ferman ordered the review of the cardinal’s death because it happened just one day after he was ruled competent to testify in the upcoming sex abuse case against two priests and a monsignor.

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ROME/UNITED STATES
Vatican Insider

The Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, was the real “revelation” at the last consistory

Andrea Tornielli
Rome

After his arrival in the Big Apple and his surprising election as President of the U.S. bishops, newspapers and TV have begun to call him “the American Pope”. Now that the Cardinals have heard him talk of evangelization during the summit that preceded the consistory, Timothy Michael Dolan would have a good chance of becoming the next Pope, if only he had not been born in the U.S.: Americans, they say, cannot be candidates because their country is already a superpower in the world, although certain past geopolitical analyses are no longer that obvious.

A native of St. Louis, Missouri and 62 years old, he has lived in Rome for seven years, directing the North American College. Archbishop of Milwaukee from 2002 to 2009, he was transferred to New York three years ago, where as soon as he arrived he said, “My primary goal is one, namely to meet people and people”. With his entry into the most important U.S. Episcopal seat, there are those who believed it was the end of an era in which the Church was adamant about defending principles: Dolan is not intransigent and his positions are not entirely comparable to the more conservative members of the American episcopate.

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SAGINAW (MI)/PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on February 27, 2012

A new long-secret Catholic church document has surfaced that says Saginaw Bishop Joseph Cistone witnessed the destruction of a list of 35 clerics who were accused of molesting children.

The document suggests that the late-Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua ordered a cleric to destroy memos which detailed the alleged crimes of sexually abusive priests. To any reasonable observer, if true, this makes Cistone complicit in the Philadelphia cover-up as well. We are disturbed that he is in a position of power now where he could easily use the tactics he learned from his old boss in order cover up current or recent abuse in the Diocese of Saginaw.

We hope that anyone with knowledge of abuse in this diocese will come forward to police and not church officials. It is clear that the church would rather shred evidence than deal with it, and Cistone cannot be trusted to not make the same egregiously reckless decision again.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on February 27, 2012

If a man ignores and conceals crimes, enabling child molesters to hurt more kids, what his underlings, peers or supervisors do is irrelevant. He should be criminally prosecuted.

We’re grateful that Msgr. Lynn’s trial is proceeding. We hope it will uncover even more deeply-hidden secrets about the complicity of current and former Catholic officials. We also hope it will deter even more recklessness and deceit in the future.

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TENNESSEE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on February 27, 2012

For too long, corrupt Catholic officials have successfully exploited legal technicalities and deadlines to escape consequences for ignoring and concealing child sex crimes. Ever so gradually, those awful days are ending, as judges more and more often are letting juries hear cases involving pedophile priests.

We are grateful to Norman Redwing for his bravery and to Tennessee’s Supreme Court for its wisdom in allowing Mr. Redwing his day in court. Victims of clergy abuse rarely get the chance to face seek justice in court, and we are glad that Mr. Redwing will have the chance to do so.

Memphis’ Catholic bishop should be ashamed for trying to dodge responsibility for the alleged crimes of Fr. Milton Guthrie. We look forward to the facts coming to light through trial, and are hopeful that this decision will spur other victims, of Fr. Guthrie or any other predator, to come forward, end their suffering and report the abuse they saw, suspected, or suffered.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on February 28, 2012

We are saddened that Rev. Slocum was able to escape with only probation. Children are safer when predators are behind bars, and for a felony conviction involving the abuse and concealment of a child we believe that this sentence is little more than a slap on the wrist. This sentence effectively allows Fr. Slocum to use his demonstrated cunning and deceptive ways to meet, groom, and abuse another child.

The apology given by Fr. Slocum yesterday matters little compared to the lasting effects of childhood sexual abuse. We urge Bishop Trautman of the Diocese of Erie to personally visit each parish where this predator worked and beg others who may have seen or suspected his crimes to come forward and make a report to police.

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ALBANY (NY)
The Daily Orange

By David Propper
Staff Writer

Albany — Two of Bernie Fine’s accusers came to Albany on Tuesday to show their support for a bill that would extend the statute of limitations concerning child sexual abuse.

Bobby Davis, 40, and Mike Lang, 45, along with their attorney, Gloria Allred, appeared at a press conference in the Legislative Office Building for the Child Victims Act that would change both the civil and criminal constraints faced by accusers. The bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, would extend the statute of limitations for child molestation.

Under the current New York state law, the statute for prosecuting a child sexual offender runs out after 10 years. The new law Markey is sponsoring would allow the statute of limitations to continue until the victim is 28 years old. Additionally, the law would give victims a one-year period to sue their abuser no matter how old the victim is.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
CBS 58

[with video]

by Laura Rodriguez

MILWAUKEE — Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) gathered at the state office building to submit a letter to Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.

In the letter, the group requested a meeting to urge him to conduct a full and independent investigation of the victim reports.

“If the archdiocese is admitting to, and that’s why they’re in bankruptcy court, that they committed or likely committed civil fraud, then criminal fraud cannot be far behind,” said Peter Isely, Midwest Director of SNAP.

A SNAP press release states that “a church motion in bankruptcy court will ask Judge Kelley if Archdiocese can conduct abuse inquiry “for” the Attorney General.”

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Ashley Gardiner
From:Herald Sun
March 01, 2012

THE Baillieu Government will tighten laws that have allowed convicted sex offenders and other criminals to get working-with-children permits.

New laws will be designed to tip the balance back in favour of children and families at the expense of those seeking the permits. It follows a string of decisions by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to overturn permit refusals.

Attorney-General Robert Clark said the permit system should look after the interests of children and their families.

“The tests that apply under the current law are too focused on the interests of the individuals who apply for checks,” Mr Clark said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Reid Sexton
March 1, 2012

A PUBLIC investigation into how religious organisations in Victoria such as the Catholic Church have handled child abuse allegations is a step closer after a groundbreaking report found it should proceed.

The Protecting Victoria’s Vulnerable Children Inquiry said a Baillieu government-backed investigation should proceed, with private investigations stretching back decades potentially denying victims justice.

”A private system of investigation and compensation, no matter how faithfully conducted … cannot fulfil the responsibility of the state to investigate and prosecute crime,” it said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Michelle Griffin
March 1, 2012

There has been a steady increase in abuse notifications, from 12,000 in 1990 to 55,000 today. Photo: Justin McManus

In 1990, there were 12,000 notifications of suspected child abuse in Victoria. Today, there are 55,000. What’s going on and how can it be fixed?

SPRAWLING as a Russian novel and just as grim, the Cummins report into child welfare in Victoria caps more than 20 years of investigations of our society’s thorniest problem: how to protect and care for our most vulnerable children.

There are no personal stories in the 900 densely typed pages of findings, data tables and recommendations. However, you can see the shadows thrown by the children whose unhappy lives inform the steady incline of the graphs charting abuse notifications, protection orders and, in the careful wording of bad news, adverse outcomes.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australia

[Cummins Inquiry report]

John Ferguson and Sophie Gosper
From:The Australian
March 01, 201212:00AM

A MINISTERIAL gaffe where the rights of pedophiles were compared with those of victims yesterday triggered the intervention of Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu a day after a report found that a quarter of children could be suspected of having been abused.

Community Services Minister Mary Wooldridge yesterday compared sex offenders’ rights with those of their victims.

“One of the things that is a real issue here is that we have to balance the rights of children and families and also with the rights of pedophiles,” she told 3AW.

Ms Wooldridge was criticised by welfare workers and attacked in parliament over the comment.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By Michael O’keefe / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, February 28, 2012

ALBANY — New York lawmakers will give sexual predators another one-year pass to abuse children if they fail to approve a bill that would extend the state’s statute of limitations in molestation cases, a Brooklyn abuse survivor said.

Bay Ridge filmmaker Chris Gavagan, who is working on a documentary about sexual abuse in sports and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his roller hockey coach, said on Tuesday that legislators’ failure to pass the Child Victims Act is like signing a “pardon for 1,000 child rapists.”

“I was here last year, and the fact that we are here again is a sign of catastrophic failure,” Gavagan said.

“Lawmakers, shame on you,” he added.

Gavagan and other sexual abuse victims spoke at a news conference organized by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, the first of three events to promote her Child Victims Act, which has passed the Assembly four times but has yet to clear the State Senate.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

Yant Kinney, Inquirer Columnist

Two months ago, Archbishop Charles Chaput and a blue-ribbon commission delivered a death sentence to 49 Catholic schools, 20,000 students, and 1,700 teachers. Two weeks ago, the diagnosis for nearly half the afflicted was dramatically upgraded, from terminal to alive and kicking.

Should relieved families credit a modern miracle? Or is the rightsizing of religious education being handled as clumsily as the clergy sex scandal was cynically?

Put another way, did archdiocesan leaders know the threat of widespread school closures would generate millions in emotional donations at a time when the church – presumed to be sitting on a fortune – is actually hard up for cash?

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

SIX MORE jurors were selected yesterday in the trial of three Philadelphia Catholic priests accused of sexually assaulting or endangering children.

With the five jurors selected Monday, 11 have now made the cut from a jury pool of more than 300. The selection process to find the final juror and 10 alternates is set to resume this morning.

Opening arguments begin March 26. Monsignor William Lynn, 61, is charged with two counts of child endangerment and two counts of conspiracy for allegedly allowing two priests to remain in parishes where they allegedly had abused altar boys.

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CANADA
The Chronicle-Herald

Ex-Yarmouth priest Albert LeBlanc, church named in action

Three men who have accused former Yarmouth priest Albert LeBlanc of abuse are seeking more than $5 million in damages, according to court documents filed Monday.

LeBlanc, now 82, already faces more than 50 sex-related charges from abuse that allegedly took place in the 1970s and ’80s. He will face those charges in a weeklong trial scheduled for May.

When the criminal charges have been resolved, a smaller group of plaintiffs will turn their attention to the civil claims filed this week in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax. LeBlanc, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax and the Diocese of Yarmouth are named in the lawsuits.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Sentinel

SMETHPORT, Pa. (AP) — A suspended Catholic priest will spend two years on probation — and his bishop already has said the priest’s felony conviction will keep him out of active ministry — for his inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old northwestern Pennsylvania boy.

The Rev. Samuel Slocum, 60, was sentenced Monday in McKean County, where he was convicted last month of concealment of the whereabouts of a child, The Bradford Era reported Tuesday.

“What he’s done, he’s taught my son to lie, to sneak out, to disobey me,” the boy’s mother told the judge, adding that her son no longer believes in God.

Prosecutors say Slocum continued to contact the boy for three months early last year and urged him to lie about their relationship to his mother even after she told the priest to stop seeing the boy. Slocum was not charged with sex crimes, though prosecutors argued some of his messages to the boy — sent on computers and a smartphone the priest gave him — were suggestive and flirtatious.

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NEDERLAND
Metro

Slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik binnen de rooms-katholieke kerk die schadevergoeding hebben aangevraagd, moeten langer wachten op de vergoeding. De behandeling van hun aanvragen duurt langer dan gedacht, laat het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik RKK weten.

De eerste 47 slachtoffers die schadevergoeding hebben aangevraagd zouden uiterlijk begin februari uitsluitsel krijgen. Dat gaat nu zes weken langer duren.

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NEDERLAND
De Telegraaf

AMSTERDAM – Slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in katholieke instellingen moeten veel langer wachten op een schadevergoeding dan voorzien.

Dat staat in een brief van het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik RKK, schrijft de Volkskrant.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Feb. 28, 2012

Attorneys for sex abuse victims in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy case are asking the court to unseal thousands of pages of documents they say will show the breadth and scope of the sex abuse crisis, and alleged coverup, in the local church over the last half century.

At issue is whether the 350 claims filed by clients of attorneys Jeffrey Anderson and Michael Finnegan do or do not detail more than 8,000 individual sex acts and name about 100 suspects – 75 of them priests – not previously identified by the archdiocese, as the two argued at a court hearing this month.

The archdiocese has suggested those numbers are misleading and has asked the court for permission to compile statistical information about the claims for the state attorney general’s office, which has been asked by lawmakers and victim rights advocates to launch an independent investigation into the abuse allegations. The court is scheduled to take up that motion Wednesday.

Anderson argued in documents filed late Monday that the archdiocese’s request doesn’t go far enough. He asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley to unseal more than 500 claims, with identifying information about victims and previously unidentified suspects redacted; the depositions of Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Bishop Richard Sklba, both retired, and defrocked priest Daniel A. Budzynski; and numerous other documents.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Westfallen-Blatt

Montag, 27. Februar 2012

Von Christian Althoff

Paderborn/Bünde (WB). Viele ehemalige Heimkinder lehnen es ab, Geld aus dem 120-Millionen-Fonds zu beantragen, den es seit Jahresanfang gibt. Sie kritisieren, dass sie eine weitreichende Verzichtserklärung unterschreiben sollen.

In den kirchlichen und staatlichen Heimen Westfalen-Lippes wurden zwischen 1945 und 1980 jährlich 6000 bis 9000 Kinder und Jugendliche aufgenommen. »Oft reichten banale Anlässe wie Unsauberkeit oder Lügen, um Kinder in Heime zu stecken«, weiß Professor Bernd Walter, Leiter des Instituts für westfälische Regionalgeschichte. Viele Heimkinder wurden misshandelt, sie mussten Erbrochenes essen oder ohne Lohn in der Landwirtschaft oder für Unternehmen wie Claas, Hella und Miele arbeiten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Main Post

Die katholischen Bischöfe in Deutschland sehen die Vertrauenskrise durch sexuelle Übergriffe von Geistlichen offenbar bewältigt. Jedenfalls ist das Thema bei der Frühjahrskonferenz der katholischen Oberhirten in Regensburg bis Donnerstag nicht auf der Tagesordnung. Dies bestätigte der Vorsitzende, Erzbischof Robert Zollitsch, am Montag.

950 Männer und Frauen, die von Priestern oder Mitarbeitern missbraucht wurden, haben in Deutschland eine finanzielle Entschädigung erhalten. Dies meldet das „Westfalen-Blatt“. Für die Kirche scheint der Skandal damit erledigt zu sein. „Alle Anträge auf Opferentschädigung sind bearbeitet worden. Uns liegen keine offenen Fälle mehr vor“, sagte Matthias Kopp, Sprecher der Bischofskonferenz.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Westfallen-Blatt

Mittwoch, 29. Februar 2012

Von Christian Althoff

Paderborn (WB). Das Erzbistum Paderborn hat insgesamt 209000 Euro an 32 Menschen ausgezahlt, die von katholischen Geistlichen sexuell missbraucht worden sind.

Diese Zahlen nannte gestern Ägidius Engel, der Sprecher des Erzbistums. »Damit ist jetzt über alle Anträge auf Entschädigung, die bei uns eingegangen sind, entschieden«, sagte Engel. In 15 Fällen seien zudem Therapien vermittelt worden. Auch hätten Erzbischof Hans-Josef Becker und Generalvikar Alfons Hardt Gespräche mit Opfern geführt.

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BELGIE
RKnieuws

BRUSSEL (RKnieuws.net) – “We maken fundamentele verschuivingen mee die groeipijnen veroorzaken, maar het heeft geen zin achteruit te kijken.” Dat zegt Oostenrijks theoloog Michael Kuhn (53), een bevoorrecht waarnemer van de christelijke protestbeweging in zijn land. Hij is het oog en oor van de Oostenrijkse bisschoppen bij de Europese Unie.

De Oostenrijkse christenen werden wereldnieuws sinds 382 pastoors midden vorig jaar opriepen tot ongehoorzaamheid – het Pfarrer-Initiative. De protestbeweging loopt voort en vindt navolging in heel Europa. In Vlaanderen is er het initiatief Gelovigen nemen het woord van de Werkgroep Kerkenwerk. De vernieuwingsgolf roept niet alleen sympathie op; er zijn scherpe tegenreacties. “Ik heb twee petjes op”, lacht de perfect Nederlandstalige Michael Kuhn.

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DUITSLAND
HLN (Belgie)

In Duitsland krijgen zo’n 950 mannen en vrouwen die door priesters en andere medewerkers van de katholieke kerk seksueel misbruikt werden, een schadevergoeding. Dat meldt het katholieke persagentschap Apic onder aanhaling van het in Bielefeld verschijnende Westfalen-Blattes.

Een door het Duitse episcopaat opgerichte commissie behandelde zo’n 1.000 aanvragen voor schadeloosstelling. Die zijn nu allemaal verwerkt, waardoor er geen lopende zaken meer zijn.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

John Ferguson, Victorian political editor
From:The Australian
February 29, 2012

A LOST generation of vulnerable Victorian children has been failed by governments and the legal system, but those responsible for overseeing the systemic departmental chaos will not be pursued by the Baillieu government.

The Cummins inquiry into child protection yesterday backed a ground-up overhaul of child services in Victoria as well as broad changes to the way the Children’s Court operates.

It found the growth in suspected child abuse and neglect was so great that almost one in every four children born last year would be the subject of at least one welfare protection report by their 18th birthday.

The inquiry has recommended greater reporting demands on the clergy, with exemptions for the rite of confession, and a whole-of-government response to the child welfare crisis. It has backed a new Commission for Children and Young People and accused Victorian governments over many years of having failed on crucial early-intervention procedures.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Ashley Gardiner and Grant McArthur
From:Herald Sun
February 29, 2012

PARENTS and families should have a right to know if a paedophile is living among them, a new report says.

Suppression orders on the names of child sex offenders comfort paedophiles and undermine confidence in the legal system, it says.

The 900-page report into child abuse, commissioned by the Baillieu Government and tabled in State Parliament yesterday, pulled apart the state’s Serious Sex Offenders (Detention and Supervision) Act.

“Repeal would enhance the protection of vulnerable victims and would affirm the principle of open courts,” the report said.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

AAP
February 29, 2012

THE rights of vulnerable children have to be balanced with the rights of pedophiles when it comes to naming sex offenders, the Victorian government says.

One of the 90 recommendations of an inquiry into the state’s child protection system was to change the law allowing for the identities of child-sex offenders to be suppressed by the courts.

Community Services Minister Mary Wooldridge said while she had personal sympathy for the recommendation, pedophiles’ rights had to be considered.

“We have to balance the rights of children and families also with … the rights of pedophiles,” she told Fairfax Radio today.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

[with audio]

Anna MacDonald reported this story on Tuesday, February 28, 2012

MARK COLVIN: The Victorian Premier, Ted Baillieu, once described the protection of vulnerable children as one of the biggest crises facing the state.

Now there’s a long-awaited report on the issue and it calls for sweeping changes to the way the state cares for children most at risk.

It’s also suggested a formal investigation into how religious organisations respond to claims of sexual abuse.

But child welfare agencies are wanting to know where the money will come from for the proposed changes.

Anna MacDonald reports.

ANNA MACDONALD: One of the first moves Ted Baillieu made when he became Premier was order a review into Victoria’s child protection services.

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AUSTRALIA
Waverley Leader

by TIM MICHELL

AN OAKLEIGH couple devastated by church sexual abuses has welcomed a recommendation for a state government investigation.

The Protecting Victoria’s Vulnerable Children Inquiry was tabled in parliament yesterday, with recommendations to investigate the reporting of sexual abuse in religious organisations.

The recommendation left Oakleigh parents Chrissie and Anthony Foster, who have campaigned for justice for their daughters for years, hopeful an investigation could be launched in the next month.

The recommendation read: “A formal investigation should be conducted into the processes by which religious organisations respond to the criminal abuse of children by religious personnel within their organisations.

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AUSTRALIA
Protecting Victoria’s Vulnerable Children Inquiry

The Panel delivered the Report to the Minister for Community Services on 27January 2012. The Report was tabled by the Minister for Community Services in Parliament on 28 February 2012.

The Report is now available to the public.

It is split into three Volumes.
•Volume 1 includes the Executive summary and Lists of recommendations, findings and matters for attention as well as an Implementation plan.
•Volume 2 comprises eight parts and contains 23 chapters. For ease of downloading, this Volume has been divided into sections.
•Volume 3 is composed mostly of the appendices. See below for more information on the contents of the Report.

Volume 1:

The entire Volume 1 can be downloaded here (PDF, 2.55MB).
•Terms of Reference
•Foreword
•Acknowledgements
•Executive summary
•List of recommendations
•List of findings and matters for attention
•Implementation plan

Volume 2:

Click on the links below to download the individual parts or chapters of the Report.

Part 1 – The impact of abuse and neglect (PDF, 1.28MB)
•Chapter 1: The Inquiry’s task (PDF, 336KB)
•Chapter 2: Vulnerability and the impact of abuse and neglect (PDF, 881KB)

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AUSTRALIA
Victoria Online

29 Feb, 2012

The Inquiry Panel, comprised of the Honourable Philip Cummins, Professor Emeritus Dorothy Scott OAM and Mr Bill Scales AO presented its Report to the Minister for Community Services on 27 January 2012. The Report was tabled by the Minister for Community Services in Parliament on 28 February 2012.

To read the report please go to: www.childprotectioninquiry.vic.gov.au

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

THE Victorian government will urgently consider repealing a law that protects the identities of child sex offenders.

An inquiry headed by former Supreme Court judge Philip Cummins has made 90 recommendations to government to reform the the state’s child protection system.

One of the most controversial, supported by a majority of the inquiry panel, is to change the law allowing courts to suppress the names of child sex offenders.

Premier Ted Baillieu says the government will seek advice from police and other justice officials about the recommendation.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

By Melissa Jenkins

The Victorian government will urgently consider repealing a law protecting the identities of child sex offenders.

But there are concerns such a change would increase the number of children harmed and encourage vigilante behaviour.

An inquiry headed by former Supreme Court judge Philip Cummins has made 90 recommendations to reform the state’s child protection system.

One of the most controversial, supported by a majority of the inquiry panel, is to repeal parts of the law relating to serious sex offenders that allows courts to suppress their names.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

Liz Hobday reported this story on Wednesday, February 29, 2012

ELEANOR HALL: The report from the Cummins Inquiry into vulnerable children in Victoria has made wide-ranging recommendations to improve the State Government’s child protection systems.

But committee also recommended changes to the way that religious organisations deal with abuse, and it says a new investigation is needed to look at that issue.

In Melbourne, Liz Hobday reports.

LIZ HOBDAY: The Cummins report isn’t short on advice. After a year looking into child welfare in Victoria it’s made more than 90 recommendations.

Among the more controversial is the recommendation that religious ministers should be subject to the mandatory reporting of child abuse.

Here’s the Minister for Community Services Mary Wooldridge on ABC Melbourne’s Jon Faine program:

MARY WOOLDRIDGE: Well another obviously very controversial and important recommendation…

JON FAINE: It shouldn’t be controversial. Why should it be controversial?

MARY WOOLDRIDGE: Well, because any extension to mandatory reporting from a system we’ve had that’s been in place for 15 years has implications but we…

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CANADA
St. Albert Gazette

Wednesday, Feb 29, 2012

By Kevin Ma | St. Albert Gazette

Residential schools were an assault on aboriginals and local schools should teach students about them in order to affect reconciliation, says a federal commission.

The federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its interim report last weekend. The report, part of the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, is part of an ongoing effort to reveal the truth of Canada’s residential school system to the public.

About 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were taken from their homes and placed in residential schools, the commission found, where they were forbidden to speak their own languages and often mentally, physically and sexually abused. “Generations of children were traumatized by the experience,” the report read.

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CHICAGO (IL)/IRELAND
Chicago Sun-Times

By Colum Kenny February 29, 2012

DUBLIN — Viewed from Ireland, Cardinal Francis George’s decision not to dine with the prime minister of Ireland at the Chicago Irish Fellowship Club St. Patrick’s Day dinner this year certainly looks like a snub. His absence will not impress Catholics in Ireland.

But George says that he was not told last week that Prime Minister Enda Kenny would be attending. When he turned down the invitation, his office says, it was simply because of a prior commitment to attend a youth retreat.

My suggestion would be that he think again. In reporting the news last week, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed raised the possibility that George’s decision not to meet with Kenny might be part of an Ireland-Vatican tiff. The cardinal’s office denies this, however, saying the cardinal once even declined an invitation from the pope so as to keep a date with 300 parish leaders in Chicago.

Catholic bishops and the pope’s representative in Ireland have consistently mishandled child sex-abuse scandals. The Irish government’s recent decision to close its Vatican embassy (among others) as a “cost-cutting exercise” has been seen in Ireland as an expression of official frustration.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Bristol Evening Post

A FORMER Bristol magistrate and church pastor has been charged with sexually abusing a teenage boy.

James Hennah is accused of three counts of illegal sexual touching between 2007 and 2010.
.
The 39-year-old, who was a prominent member of the Bristol Community Church in Kingswood, is also charged with watching his alleged victim, who was under 16, “doing a private act” without consent, for his own sexual gratification, in 2010.

He appeared at Exeter Magistrates’ Court for the first time yesterday.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

BY VINNY VELLA
Philadelphia Daily News

Several prescription medications were found in Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua’s body at the time of his death, but the Montgomery County coroner won’t know for a few weeks whether those drugs matched prescribed levels.

Walter I. Hoffman unveiled the preliminary results of his autopsy of Bevilacqua yesterday.

Hoffman also warned that results may be inaccurate due to the body having already been embalmed when the test was taken. He said testing will be completed around March 10.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

One of the first juror candidates called Tuesday into the courtroom where two current and one former Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests await trial was a 32-year-old man who said he worked in corporate finance and lived in Northern Liberties.

According to a questionnaire the man filled out, he was Catholic and once lived in or near the Bucks County parish where one of the accused priests worked.

Next up came a 44-year-old college administrator, who attended parochial school and grew up in Mount Airy, the neighborhood where another defendant was a parish pastor.

Then an 18-year-old unemployed barista took the stand. She graduated in 2011 from Archbishop Prendergast High School in Drexel Hill.

Each reflected a recurring dilemma for the defendants and lawyers in the landmark case: Should they choose Catholic jurors? And if so, how will those jurors’ own experience with the church affect their judgment?

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COLORADO
TheDenverChannel

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. — The former church leader and superintendent of Hilltop Baptist Church in Colorado Springs entered a guilty plea in exchange for several charges being dropped by prosecutors.

Pastor Frankin “Wayne” Knight took the deal on Feb. 17. Knight pleaded guilty to being an accessory to a crime and failure to report suspected child abuse, according to court records.

Friends of Knight told CALL7 Investigators that he planned to move to Texas.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAPwisconsin.com

February 28, 2012

To: J. B. Van Hollen, Wisconsin Attorney General

From: Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Re: Request for a meeting with victims concerning an investigation into child sex crimes and fraud by the Milwaukee Archdiocese

Attorney General Van Hollen,

We are writing on behalf of childhood victims of rape, sexual assault and abuse by clergy sex offenders from the Milwaukee Archdiocese, our families, and the clergy that support us. Our organization, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org) is the oldest and largest self-help community of survivors of clergy sex crimes in the world, founded in 1989 and currently with over 10,000 members in the United States alone.

We are requesting a meeting with you to discuss the need for a formal inquiry into the reports of child sex abuse contained in claims submitted to the federal bankruptcy court by 570 victims from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The victim reports detail at least 8,000 acts of criminal abuse by 100 alleged offenders never before identified by the archdiocese, and span 50 years. We urge you to conduct your own investigation of these reports, including the status and whereabouts of these offenders, along with examining for criminal culpability any church official involved in the fraudulent cover up of these crimes. Much of this evidence is contained in tens of thousands of pages of internal church documents and depositions currently sealed in court proceedings and unavailable to the public. We strongly believe victim reports, eyewitness testimony, documents and depositions, and other evidence must be fully investigated and reviewed by you and result in a definitive and comprehensive conclusion concerning the nature and scope of these crimes.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

February 28, 2012 by Susan Matthews

This blog was born one year ago in the wake of the 2011 Grand Jury report on clergy sex abuse. So much has unfolded since then and yet so little has changed.

It started with my grief and anger and continues with the concerned and committed people who comment here and share my outrage.

More than two dozen priests were removed from ministry (their fates yet to be determined). These priests, despite undisclosed allegations and serious concerns, had been left in ministry by leadership until pressed by the District Attorney’s office. One of those priests was a life-long friend of my husband. He was my first boss at The Catholic Standard and Times. He also married us and baptized our children. This was the second blow to the family. The first came after a 2005 Grand Jury report revealed Father Peter Dunne, another family friend, had been a known pedophile to the Archdiocese since the 1960s. Yet, he was made chaplain of the Boy Scouts and director of Camp Neumann in the 70s.

But it’s not just personal. Almost every area Catholic I know has been impacted by this cover up. It’s soul crushing for all – especially the victims. Speaking with them about their abuse has taken me to dark places. The difference is I can leave and go back to “normal” life. They can’t. All I can do is shine a light on the truth.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
My Fox Philly

PHILADELPHIA – The Montgomery County coroner’s office tells Fox 29 that preliminary findings show prescribed pharmaceuticals in the system of the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

The coroner didn’t detail the type of drugs, but Bevilacqua, who was 88, was reportedly being treated for dementia and cancer at the time of his death.

Coroner Walter I. Hofman told Fox 29 on Tuesday that his office is now testing to see if the amount of drugs in Bevilacqua’s system at the time of his death matches the prescribed dosage. He says the process will take several weeks.

The coroner said his office is doing drug analysis and pharmacokinetics testing and he hopes to close the case out by March 10.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
6ABC

February 28, 2012 (WPVI) — A preliminary autopsy report on the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua shows he had prescribed pharmaceuticals in his system at the time of his death last month.

The Montgomery County coroner, however, says more testing is needed.

District Attorney Risa Ferman ordered the review, citing the timing of the cardinal’s death on January 31st, and a ruling the previous day that he was competent to testify in the sex abuse case against two priests and a monsignor.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
MSNBC

By David Chang
NBCPhiladelphia.com

The preliminary results of Anthony Bevilacqua’s toxicology tests are now in.

The Montgomery County coroner says all drugs found in Bevilacqua’s system were prescribed by doctors.

Further testing needs to be done to determine if those drugs were at the correct levels his doctors had prescribed. Those results are expected to be in by March 10.

Bevilacqua died on January 30 at the age of 88. Church officials say the Cardinal was suffering from cancer and dementia. He died at the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Lower Merion.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KTRF

Updated: Feb 28, 2012 5

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Eleven jurors have been chosen so far to hear a landmark priest abuse case in Philadelphia.

The trial is expected to reveal the inner workings of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Prosecutors say two cardinals and others protected predator-priests to save the archdiocese’s reputation – and finances. But only one church official is on trial.

Monsignor William Lynn is accused of endangering children as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004. The 61-year-old Lynn has pleaded not guilty and blames the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua (beh-vih-LAH’-kwah) for hiding the problem.

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UNITED STATES
Voice of the Faithful

NEWTON, Mass. – A newly discovered memo presented to a Philadelphia court by Philadelphia archdiocese’s lawyers proves archdiocesan officials engaged in a conspiracy to cover up clergy sexual abuse in 1994. The memo also proves the Catholic Church reform group Voice of the Faithful’s long-held contention that Church hierarchy have covered up clergy sexual abuse to protect the Church’s reputation and assets at the expense of child victims of clergy sexual abuse.

According to media reports of court documents submitted by the archdiocese’s own lawyers, who called the memo a “shocking discovery,” Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, then archbishop of Philadelphia, ordered a list of abusive priests shredded. Also according to reports, the lawyers assert in the documents, “As this newfound memorandum proves, the District Attorney’s Office is entirely correct in its belief and assertion that an overarching Archdiocesan conspiracy existed in Philadelphia in the 1990s.”

The lawyers are defending Msgr. William Lynn, who has been charged with child endangerment for covering up clergy sexual abuse and transferring abusive priests from parish to parish while in charge of archdiocesan priest assignments.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Tom Roberts on Feb. 28, 2012 NCR Today

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, with its roots deep in the soil of a secretive, authoritarian, Irish Catholicism, produced a tightly wound clerical culture unparalleled in this country for its loyalty to itself.

When it comes to clericalism, with its unwritten but clearly understood code of the bishop as prince with the power to bend the culture to his will through the distribution of benefices and punishments, with the means to exact unfailing loyalty, “Philly” was always in a league of its own.

The culture is unraveling there, and has been since District Attorney Lynne Abraham decided in 2003 to impanel a grand jury, even though the statutes of limitation would probably prevent her from bringing charges, to look into the matter of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests.

The resultant history is well known – an unprecedented documentation of inner church workings, of unimaginable crimes against children, of cover up and shuffling of abusive priests from parish to parish with no warning to the affected congregations.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.

Although speculation about who’s in line for top Vatican jobs is a favorite indoor sport in Catholicism, usually to be taken with a grain of salt, you can sometimes tell a rumor is serious when pot shots start falling on the would-be nominee.

By that standard, Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller of Regensburg, Germany, has to be considered a hot tip for the next prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s powerful doctrine office currently headed by American Cardinal William Levada.

Levada will turn 76 in June, and it’s long been rumored that Müller, 64, is a top candidate to take over. This week, traditionalist Catholics in Italy began circulating e-mails suggesting that Müller, a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and a lifelong friend of Pope Benedict XVI, is not a man of “secure doctrine.”

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ITALIA
Citta di Genova

Genova – Riccardo Seppia resta in carcere a Sanremo. Lo ha deciso la Cassazione che ha ritenuto “particolarmente elevato” il rischio di recidiva per l’ex parroco di Sestri Ponente, sotto processo a Genova per vari reati a sfondo sessuale ai danni di minori.

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ITALIA
La Repubblica

La Corte Suprema si esprime sulla richiesta di arresti domiciliari presentata dal sacerdote di Sestri accusato di pedofilia: “Elevato il pericolo di recidiva. Incontestabile la predilezione dell’imputato a scegliere i bambini e i giovani stranieri più indifesi. Inadeguata ogni altra misura cautelare diversa dal carcere”

Il pericolo di recidiva per Riccardo Seppia, l’ex parroco di Sestri Ponente in custodia cautelare nel carcere di Sanremo e sotto processo a Genova per vari reati sessuali ai danni di minori, è “particolarmente elevato”. Lo sottolinea la Cassazione condividendo la decisione del Tribunale del riesame di Genova che, lo scorso 16 giugno, ha negato all’imputato gli arresti domiciliari in una comunità per tossicodipendenti.

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SALINAS (CA)
The Californian

Written by
Sunita Vijayan

If anyone suffered sexual abuse at the hands of former Palma High School employees, time is running out to seek justice, a national support group for clergy-abuse victims said Monday.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, also named three men who once worked at the private Salinas school and who have been accused of sexual abuse. They are: Brother Jerome Heustis, the Rev. Gerald Funcheon and Brother Robert Brouillette. Their names were also included in a statement released by Brother Patrick Dunne, Palma’s president.

The school has been named as one of the Christian Brothers schools that employed men who are alleged to have sexually abused children — news that came at the heels of a court order stemming from the April bankruptcy filing of the Irish Christian Brothers and New Rochelle, N.Y.-based Christian Brothers Institute following sex-abuse claims.

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UNITED STATES
Down the Crooked Path

Child Abuse by Buddhist Clergy

The Time Has Come To End Child Monk Sex Slavery – Pedophilia Among The Buddhist Clergy

Professor Gananath Obeysekara’s views on buddhist child monks and sexual abuse within monastery

In a recent article Dr. Obeysekere was quoted regarding his views on child monks. The article stated:

” … But one major reason Obeyesekere opposes child recruitment is that the very young are vulnerable to sexual abuse, which he says is ”notoriously associated” will all forms of institutionalized monasticism.

The possibility of child abuse in Buddhist monasteries ”must be faced honestly and squarely,” he stressed.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Victims to Wisconsin Attorney General: “Conduct your own clergy child sex abuse and fraud investigation”

WHO
After an impromptu press conference holding signs and childhood photos, victim/survivors of clergy sexual assault who are members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, and Fr. James Connell, Vice Chancellor of the Milwaukee Archdiocese and victim advocate, will attempt to hand deliver a letter to the Milwaukee Office of Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen concerning a new court motion to be heard Wednesday in Milwaukee Federal Bankruptcy court filed by the archdiocese of Milwaukee.

In the new motion, archdiocesan lawyers will ask to submit to Van Hollen their own “statistical analysis” of the criminal evidence contained in 570 victim claims, which detail at least 8,000 acts of criminal abuse by 100 alleged offenders never before identified by the archdiocese of Milwaukee. Victims want Van Hollen to conduct his own investigation of the new reports and offenders, not have church officials do it for him, along with examining tens of thousands of pages of internal church documents related to the abuse of children and the fraudulent cover up of these crimes, which have spanned some 50 years.

WHEN
Tuesday, February 28, 12:30 p.m.

WHERE
In the lobby of the State Office Building, outside of the Department of Justice, Office of Crime Victim Services (Room 180), 819 N. 6th Street, Milwaukee.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Fox 6

MILWAUKEE — The ongoing bankruptcy case against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has taken a new turn after 100 new sex abusers have been identified in court documents.

Now, victims of the child sex abuse scandal want to ask Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to conduct his own investigation into the clergy sex abuse claims, instead of having church officials do it for him.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, otherwise called SNAP, says the Archdiocese has covered up these crimes for decades and the Attorney General should look into it as fraud.

“These 100 sex offenders need to be investigated. We need to find out who they are, we need to find out where they are, and we need to find out exactly what crimes they have committed,” says SNAP Director Peter Isely.

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VATIKAN
Berner Zeitung (Schweiz)

Von Nina Merli.

Sogar der Vatikan muss sparen: Um einen Teil der Reisekosten des anstehenden Zentralamerika-Besuches zu decken, werden Journalisten zur Kasse gebeten.

Die katholische Kirche hat im Augenblick keinen einfachen Stand: Rücktrittsgerüchte des Kirchenoberhauptes Papst Benedikt XVI. machen die Runde, von einem Mordkomplott gegen den Papst war vor kurzem die Rede. Die zahlreichen, öffentlich gewordenen Missbrauchsskandale haben den Ruf der Kirche ramponiert und erst noch viel Geld gekostet: Nach Schätzungen von US-Experten haben die daraus resultierenden Prozesse und Entschädigungen die Kirche rund zwei Milliarden US-Dollar gekostet. Ausserdem hat die italienische Regierung beschlossen, dass der Vatikan in Zukunft ebenfalls eine Immobiliensteuer (ICI) für seine kommerziell genutzten Gebäude zu bezahlen hat. Und weitere Kosten stehen an: Ende März wird der Papst Mexiko und Cuba besuchen – kein billiger Spass, reist der Heilige Vater doch für gewöhnlich mit einem rund 30-köpfigen Tross von Betreuern und Mitarbeitern.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Flife

Bielefeld (ots) – In Deutschland haben etwa 950 Männer und Frauen, die von Priestern oder anderen Mitarbeitern der katholischen Kirche sexuell missbraucht worden sind, eine finanzielle Entschädigung erhalten. “Alle Anträge auf Opferentschädigung sind bearbeitet
worden. Uns liegen keine offenen Fälle mehr vor”, sagte Matthias Kopp, der Sprecher der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, dem WESTFALEN-BLATT (Dienstagsausgabe). Vor einem Jahr, am 2. März 2011, hatte die katholische Kirchen in Deutschland ein Programm gestartet,
um Opfern Therapien zu vermitteln und ihr Leid mit einer Geldzahlung anzuerkennen. “Die Orden und Bistümer haben uns seitdem etwa 1000 Entschädigungsanträge vorgelegt”, sagte Kopp. Ein eigens eingerichtetes Komitee der Bischofskonferenz habe die Schilderungen
geprüft und in 95 Prozent der Fälle empfohlen, an die Betroffenen zu zahlen.

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SALINAS (CA)
KION

By Susanne Brunner

SALINAS, Calif. — Former employees of a Central Coast private school are accused of sexual abuse. On Monday, demonstrators rallied outside Palma High School in hopes of bringing the accusations to light.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), held pictures of a former priest and two former brothers who served at Palma high sometime between 1964 and 1985. They said Father Gerald Funcheon, Br. Jerome Heustis, and Br. Robert Brouilette all have sexual allegations leveled against them, and wanted the Salinas community aware of it.

“Our goal is to reach out to alumni, our goal is to reach out to people who live in the Salinas Valley who did attend school here and who may have been abused,” said Joelle Casteix with SNAP.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

Former Kansas City police chief Jim Corwin has agreed to lead a local Catholic board that investigates allegations of child sexual abuse within the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

Corwin said he was humbled to take the position. …

Corwin, a Presbyterian, retired from the Police Department in September after 32 years of service.

He replaces Jim Caccamo, a Catholic who announced his resignation from the board earlier this month, saying that the turmoil of the past year had “exhausted” him.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writer

The discovery of Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua’s 1994 order to shred a memo about 35 Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests suspected of molesting children is no reason to dismiss the case against one of his key aides, a judge ruled Monday.

Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina denied a bid by defense attorneys to drop the charges after prosecutors argued that the shredding directive and other recently unearthed files were the equivalent of “a smoking gun” that bolstered, not weakened, their case against Msgr. William J. Lynn.

The documents, they say, prove Lynn plotted with Bevilacqua, the longtime archbishop who died Jan. 31, and others to protect abusive priests and shield the church from lawsuits.

They said Lynn’s attorneys misportrayed the files last week in a bid to try out a new strategy – “a combination of the dead-guys-did-it and the I-was-only-following-orders defenses” – and to sway potential jurors.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

BY MENSAH M. DEAN
Daily News Staff Writer

THE FIRST FIVE jurors were selected yesterday in the child-sexual-abuse trial of three Philadelphia Catholic priests.

Jury selection was scheduled to resume this morning, with 30 more potential jurors to be interviewed, Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said last night.

Earlier in the day, Sarmina rejected a defense motion requesting that child-endangerment charges be dropped against a former Catholic church official due to the discovery of new evidence.

She ruled after prosecutors asserted that the new evidence actually will help them prove the guilt of Monsignor William Lynn.

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SALINAS (CA)
Monterey Herald

By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Salinas Bureaumontereyherald.com

Contrary to prior assertions, Palma High School could become a bargaining chip in a massive bankruptcy case involving child sex abuse allegations against the Irish Christian Brothers.

Palma’s corporate entity, the Christian Brothers Institute of California Inc., is named as a defendant in one of the lawsuits that prompted the Christian Brothers to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York in April.

The plaintiff in that suit alleges he was molested at O’Dea High School in Seattle by Brother Edward Courtney, who was transferred to the school by his superiors despite numerous earlier claims of molestation. Those superiors were at the provincial headquarters, located in Salinas from 1969 to 1976.

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TENNESSEE
Jackson Sun

Written by
Sheila Burke
Associated Press

NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled Monday that a man who says he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest in the 1970s can go ahead with his lawsuit against the Diocese of Memphis.

Norman Redwing, 51, sued the diocese in 2008, nearly 30 years past the statute of limitations. Typically, victims have only a year after their 18th birthday to file a lawsuit.

The suit claims he was abused from 1972 to 1974 by now-deceased priest Milton Guthrie, and that church officials knew or should have known the priest was “a dangerous sexual predator with a depraved sexual interest in young boys.”

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NEW YORK
Buffalo News

A Catholic priest convicted of having an inappropriate relationship with a teenage boy last year was spared jail today.

The Rev. Samuel Slocum, 60 — a native of Smethport, Pa., who studied for the priesthood at Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora — was ordered by Senior Court of Common Pleas Judge William F. Morgan in Smethport to serve two years on probation on his Jan. 18 conviction on concealment of the whereabouts of a child and corruption of minors.

Slocum was not accused of having a sexual relationship with the boy, who testified at trial that he and his brother and other friends often visited Slocum at the rectory at Our Mother of Perpetual Help Church in Lewis Run, Pa.

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