ABUSE TRACKER

CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on February 17, 2012

While no amount of money can restore the childhood lost or innocence shattered as a result of childhood sex abuse, we are glad that Fr. Edward Fitz-Henry victim is able to walk away with some feeling of justice.

Since the diocese and the bishop’s hand-picked review board have both said this is a credible allegation, Fr. Fitz-Henry should be immediately put in a remote, secure, independent sex offender treatment center so kids will be safer. instead of sitting on their hands. We also urge Bishop Garcia to immediately visit every parish where this predator worked and beg other victims and witnesses to come forward.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 18 February 2012 (VIS) – Following are the names of the twenty-two new cardinals created by Pope Benedict XVI in this morning’s consistory, and the titular or diaconate churches he assigned to them:

Electors

– Cardinal Fernando Filoni, diaconate of Nostra Signora di Coromoto in San Giovanni di Dio.

– Cardinal Manuel Monteiro de Castro, diaconate of San Domenico di Guzman.

– Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello, diaconate of San Ponziano.

– Cardinal Antonio Maria Veglio, diaconate of San Cesareo in Palatio.

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WATERBURY (CT)
Republican-American

BY JONATHAN SHUGARTS REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

WATERBURY — A former city priest at the center of a scandal that rocked the Sacred Heart/Sagrado Corazon Church has been paroled to Maryland, according to Department of Correction records.

The Rev. Kevin Gray convinced a parole board in October to release him from prison early before he had completed a three-year prison sentence for larceny.

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CALIFORNIA
Monterey Herald

By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Salinas Bureau
montereyherald.com

A judge issued strict sanctions Friday against a fugitive priest in a lawsuit by his molestation victim.

Judge Lydia Villarreal ruled the Rev. Antonio Cortes will not be allowed to present evidence in his own defense, should he ever return to face the civil allegations.

Cortes, who pleaded no contest in March to more than a dozen charges involving the molestation of a 16-year-old parishioner, is believed to be in Mexico. He fled after being released from jail in December. A warrant was issued for his arrest for failing to report to his probation officer and register as a sex offender.

He could also face contempt-of-court charges.

Chris Lavorato, the victim’s attorney, said he was preparing a contempt motion against Cortes when he fled to Mexico. Lavorato, unable to serve that motion, went into court Friday to ask Villarreal to grant a default judgment against the priest or issue an “evidentiary sanction” prohibiting him from presenting defense evidence in the future.

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VATICAN CITY
Time

By Stephan FarisSaturday, Feb. 18, 2012

Maybe the Vatican is not so good at keeping secrets after all. In the past few weeks, the Holy See has sprung a series of leaks. Their contents range from allegations of corruption and cronyism in Rome, to internal criticism of a Vatican effort to tackle money laundering, to a bizarre letter speculating about an assassination attempt on Pope Benedict XVI.

Each leak would be embarrassing enough on its own. Together, they add up to a picture of disarray at the top tiers of the Catholic Church, even as the Vatican prepares to admit 22 more bishops to the College of Cardinals on Saturday, expanding the ranks of those who could one day become pope. “The real news isn’t the content of these documents,” says Andrea Tornielli, a long-time Vatican watcher. “It’s the fact that all these documents are coming out at the same time.”

Just who the leaks have in their sights is less than clear. In a statement posted Monday on the Vatican Radio’s website, the spokesman for the Holy See, Federico Lombardi, compared the rapid-fire disclosures to the Wikileaks revelations in the United States and seemed to imply that the documents were being released in order to discredit the church. “We must resist and not allow ourselves to be swallowed by the whirlpool of confusion, which is what those with bad intentions want,” Lombardi wrote.

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VATICAAN
ND (Nederland)

Aartsbisschop van Utrecht Wim Eijk wordt zaterdag in het Vaticaan tot kardinaal benoemd. Paus Benedictus XVI maakte Eijks promotie vorige maand bekend. Naast Eijk worden nog 21 andere kardinalen gecreëerd.

De ceremonie, het zogeheten consistorie, begint zaterdag met een gebedsviering. Hierbij krijgen alle kardinalen hun bonnet, de kenmerkende rode hoed, en een kardinalenring.

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VATICAAN
NOS (Nederland)

Door correspondent Andrea Vreede, in Rome

Vandaag is het een feestelijke dag in het Vaticaan. Voor de vierde keer sinds zijn verkiezing in 2005 houdt paus Benedictus XVI een consistorie. Dat is een speciale vergadering waarbij de paus nieuwe kardinalen benoemt. Of liever, creëert, zoals deze plechtige handeling officieel heet. Dit keer zijn het er 22.

Maar het feest wordt overschaduwd door een rel binnen het Vaticaan. Afgelopen week verschenen vertrouwelijke stukken uit de hoogste regionen van de Kerk in de pers. Het kijkje achter de anders zo gesloten deuren van het Vaticaan wordt al Vati-leaks genoemd in de pers.

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI led a solemn ceremony in Saint Peter’s Basilica on Saturday to induct 22 new cardinals into the prestigious college that will one day elect his successor.

The 84-year-old pope, who entered the vast basilica on a rolling platform wearing red and gold vestments, presented the new “princes of the Church” with scarlet-red birettas and gold rings during the consistory that Vatican observers say could increase the chances of the next pope being Italian.

The new cardinals “are asked to serve the Church with love and vigour, with the clarity and wisdom of masters, with the energy and moral force of pastors (and) with the faith and courage of martyrs,” the pope said.

Eighteen of the 22 newcomers are under 80, the cut-off age for cardinal electors.

Critics say the appointments show a strong bias towards Europe as out of the 125 “elector cardinals,” 67 are now from Europe, with just 22 from South America, 15 from North America, 11 from Africa and 10 from Asia and the Pacific.

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ROME
Toronto Star

Sandro Contenta
Staff Reporter

ROME—With a new ring and red hat, Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins becomes a prince of the Roman Catholic Church on Saturday, a cardinal in the elite group that will choose the next pope.

Collins expects a moving ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica, where Pope Benedict XVI will “create” 22 new cardinals. But the down-to-earth cardinal-designate, who will now be known as “His Eminence,” also anticipates moments of unease.

“It’s a rather complex liturgical ceremony and I always feel a little bit lost in things like that,” Collins, 65, said in a recent interview with the Star. “But I’m sure there will be people who will tell you where to stand and what to do.”

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VATICAN CITY
NPR

by The Associated Press

February 18, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday brought 22 new Catholic churchmen into the elite club of cardinals who will elect his successor, in a greatly simplified ceremony that took account of evidence the 84-year-old pontiff is slowing down.

Benedict presided over a ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica to formally create the 22 cardinals, who include the archbishops of New York, Prague, Hong Kong and Toronto as well as the heads of several Vatican offices.

Preparations for the ceremony have been clouded by embarrassing leaks of internal documents alleging financial mismanagement in Vatican affairs, and reports in the Italian media of political jockeying among church officials who, sensing an increasingly weak pontiff, are already preparing for a conclave.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

Philip Pullella
Reuters

4:54 a.m. CST, February 18, 2012

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – – Pope Benedict, putting his mark on the Catholic Church’s future, on Saturday inducted 22 men into the exclusive club of cardinals who will one day elect one of their own to succeed him.

Among the most prominent in the group is New York’s Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who is already being touted by some Vatican experts as a possible future candidate to become the first American pope.

Benedict, who turns 85 in April and is showing signs of his age, elevated the men to the highest Church rank below him at a ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica known as a consistory.

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CANADA
The Chronicle-Herald

February 18, 2012
By AARON BESWICK Truro Bureau

A former resident of Talbot House is asking the public to not pass judgment before knowing the facts of the complaint against Rev. Paul Abbass.

Greg Carter says that he saw no signs of inappropriate conduct by the Roman Catholic priest during his 18-month stay between late 2001 and 2003 at the recovery home for male drug addicts.

Abbass took a leave from his post as executive director of Talbot House on Feb. 3 and has been relieved of his duties with the Diocese of Antigonish after at least one complaint was filed with the Community Services Department.

“I worked there after my stay and kept in contact for three years afterward and had a fairly close relationship with Father Abbass,” said Carter in a phone interview from his Dartmouth home Friday.

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CANADA
Hamilton Spectator

WINNIPEG The chairman of Canada’s truth and reconciliation commission says removing more than 100,000 aboriginal children from their homes and placing them in residential schools was an act of genocide.

Justice Murray Sinclair says the United Nations defines genocide to include the removal of children based on race, then placing them with another race to indoctrinate them. He says Canada has been careful to ensure its residential school policy was not “caught up” in the UN’s definition.

“That’s why the minister of Indian Affairs can say this was not an act of genocide,” Sinclair told students at the University of Manitoba Friday. “But the reality is that to take children away and to place them with another group in society for the purpose of racial indoctrination was — and is — an act of genocide and it occurs all around the world.”

About 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children were forced to attend the government schools over much of the last century. The last school closed outside Regina in 1996.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Washington Times

HOUSTON, February 17, 2012 – The serene exterior of Miramonte Elementary School in South Los Angeles provides a false facade hiding a house of horrors where child sex abuse was part of the curriculum. Authorities charged two teachers, Mark Berndt and Martin Springer, of sexually abusing the students placed under their care by unsuspecting parents.

Parents in this largely Latino neighborhood are consumed with outrage over the sacrifice of their children’s safety at the altar of silence. School officials knew for more than a year that authorities were investigating the activities of the two teachers, but told parents nothing. …

Background checks and references are a limited tool in screening out pedophiles, and counseling for victims will not “un-ring the bell” of childhood sexual molestation. Since the abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church hit the press, society has begun to slowly educate itself on the tragedy of childhood sexual abuse.

The Sandusky scandal has changed the tenor of that lesson into a crash course that has resonated around the world. Last year, the Dutch Catholic Church was gripped by scandal as allegations of childhood sexual abuse rocked its members. Each time abuse is revealed, the wall of silence begins to crumble more and humanity sails into uncharted waters, frantically searching for a map to navigate the horrible reality of childhood sexual abuse.

The teacher who molested me was someone who had mastered the art of both blending in and gaining the trust of a child. This monster-predator made sure no one would believe my allegations and when I did not meet his demands, he manipulated others, to punish me for acts I did not commit.

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CALIFORNIA
Morgan Hill Times

About a year after the allegations went public, the Diocese of Monterey has settled a lawsuit involving suspicions that a former Mission San Juan Bautista priest in 2005 sexually abused a then 14-year-old member of the Madonna Del Sasso parish in Salinas.

The diocese settled with the accuser for $500,000 in the civil case involving former Mission priest Father Edward Fitz-Henry, according to an announcement from the Diocese of Monterey. The accuser filed the civil lawsuit in February 2011.

Friday’s statement from the church organization pointed out that the settlement did not “admit any liability on the part of either Fr. Fitz-Henry or the Diocese” and that it releases both parties from further monetary liability. The settlement amount was negotiated between the two parties.

Fitz-Henry has denied the allegations and filed a cross claim against Monterey Bishop Richard Garcia alleging misconduct in the aftermath of the revelations last year. The diocese in its statement contended the bishop followed proper “procedures to protect children” as outlined in church documents.

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PLYMOUTH (MA)
Wicked Local Plymouth

By Rich Harbert
Wicked Local Plymouth

Posted Feb 17, 2012

PLYMOUTH —
Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Church will survive its recent clergy sexual abuse turmoil, in large part, because of the man who stands accused, says the pastor charged with carrying on.

Rev. William Williams, pastor of St. Peter Church in downtown Plymouth, said this week that Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha parish will persevere without the Rev. James Braley because of the support systems and staff “Father Jim” put in place over the last 10 years.

Early this week, Williams was assigned to serve as administrator of the West Plymouth church in the wake of Braley’s sudden suspension. The Archdiocese of Boston placed Braley, the pastor of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha since 2001, on leave last Sunday as a result of an allegation of sexual abuse of a child in the early 1980s.

A spokesman for the Middlesex County District Attorney confirmed this week that the office received the referral about Braley and is reviewing the allegation. Braley was assigned to St. Peter Parish in Cambridge in Middlesex County from his ordination in 1975 until 1981.

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OMAHA (NE)
World-Herald

By Christopher Burbach
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

An allegation that an Omaha priest sexually abused a youth in the early 1990s will go to the Vatican for further investigation.

The Archdiocese of Omaha announced Friday that its investigation of the allegation against the Rev. Al Salanitro was complete and that it had “met the church’s minimum standard for a credible allegation.” That does not mean local church officials determined Salanitro, who has denied the allegation, was guilty; rather, that it met the standards for Vatican investigation that were set by the Catholic Church’s more stringent rules on handling sex abuse allegations.

The man, from Carter Lake, Iowa, accused Salanitro of sexually abusing him about 20 years ago while Salanitro was pastor at Omaha’s Holy Cross Catholic Church. Salanitro has said he never sexually abused any minor.

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CALIFORNIA
Santa Cruz Sentinel

By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Salinas Bureaumontereyherald.com
Posted: 02/17/2012

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Monterey is being sued by one of its own priests for not defending him against claims of child molestation.

The Rev. Edward Fitz-Henry filed a cross-complaint against the diocese Wednesday after it paid $500,000 to a man who claimed he was molested by the priest when he was a minor in 2005.

Fitz-Henry was suspended from his role as a priest in January 2011. At the time, he was the popular pastor of Mission San Juan Bautista.

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CANADA
The Chronicle-Herald

February 18, 2012

By AARON BESWICK Truro Bureau

Cape Breton Regional Police confirmed Friday they are investigating a complaint against a staff member at the Talbot House rehabilitation centre in Frenchvale.

“Talbot House has raised some concerns with police regarding one of its employees,” said spokeswoman Desiree Vassallo.

“We are looking further into that information and will determine whether there’s anything that needs a criminal investigation.”

Rev. Paul Abbass took a leave from his post as executive director of Talbot House on Feb. 3 and has been relieved of his duties with the Diocese of Antigonish after at least one complaint was filed with the Community Services Department.

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CALIFORNIA
KION

SALINAS, Calif- The Diocese of Monterey says that it has settled a lawsuit against Fr. Edward Fitz-Henry. The Diocese paid $500,000 to settle the lawsuit but in the settlement they do not admit to any liability.

In the lawsuit the victim claims that he was the victim of Fitz-Henry between 2005 and 2007 when he was a parishioner at Madonna del Sasso parish. Because of the allegations, Bishop Garcia suspended Fr. Fitz-Henry from ministry and the church conducted an internal investigation.

While investigating the 2005 incident the church claims to have found out about an incident in 1992. In a statement the Diocese said that before the investigation it thought that the 1992 incident was just a “non-sexual boundary violation involving a minor.”

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CALIFORNIA
The Monterey County Herald

montereyherald.com
Posted: 02/17/2012

The Rev. Edward Fitz-Henry filed a cross claim against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Monterey on Wednesday after it paid $500,000 to a man who claimed he was molested by the priest when he was a minor in 2005.

Fitz-Henry was suspended from his role as a priest in January 2011. At the time, he was the popular pastor of Mission San Juan Bautista. “John R.J. Doe,” now in his early 20s, claimed the molestations occurred when he was an altar boy and choir member at Madonna del Sasso Church in Salinas.

Fitz-Henry’s attorney, Daniel de Vries, said the priest is suing because the diocese did not stand by him and defend him. Instead, de Vries said, he learned about the settlement after it had been made.

In a prepared statement released Friday, diocese spokesman Tom Riordan said Fitz-Henry was suing over actions the district made in keeping with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and other church documents.

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OMAHA (NE)
KETV

OMAHA, Neb. — The Omaha archdiocese said the results the investigation of an Omaha priest accused of sexually abusing a minor more than 20 years ago are being sent to the Vatican.

An advisory panel and Archbishop George Lucas determined that the evidence in the investigation of Rev. Al Salanitro met the church’s minimum standard for a credible allegation.

“The general rule is that all sexual abuse cases must be referred to the Holy See,” said Deacon Tim McNeil, the chancellor of the archdiocese. “The only exception would be when the allegation is manifestly false. In other words, if there is a semblance of truth to the allegation, Archbishop Lucas is obliged to seek the intervention of the Holy See.”

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NEBRASKA
WOWT

Case of the Rev. Al Salanitro goes to Rome

The investigation into sexual abuse allegations against an Omaha priest is moving forward. The Archdiocese announced Friday the allegations meet the minimum requirements to refer the case to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith in Rome.

Reporter: WOWT
Email Address: sixonline@wowt.com

The investigation into sexual abuse allegations against an Omaha priest is moving forward. The Archdiocese announced Friday the allegations meet the minimum requirements to refer the case to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith in Rome.

The Archdiocese of Omaha reported in December that a man claimed he’d been sexually abused as a minor by the Rev. Al Salanitro in the 1990s when the priest was associate pastor of Holy Cross Parish in Omaha.

The allegation was reported to Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine.

Deacon Tim McNeil, chancellor of the Archdiocese, said Archbishop George J. Lucas and the Archdiocesan Review Board, an 11-member volunteer board of childcare experts, law enforcement officials, attorneys, clergy and mental health professionals that advises Lucas on the protection of young people, concluded the evidence met the church’s minimum standard for a credible allegation.

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CANADA
Canada.com

By Heather Yundt, Postmedia News February 17, 2012

John MacEachern, 65, remembers when he read the news in the morning paper.

“I was sad,” he said Friday. “It drained the blood out of my head.”

On Thursday, the Diocese of Antigonish in Nova Scotia announced that Rev. Paul Abbass — a top priest in the diocese — would be taking a leave of absence following complaints filed against him at a Cape Breton drug-and-alcohol rehab centre for men.

MacEachern — a Catholic involved with the diocese — called this yet another storm for members of the diocese.

“It’s a group of people out to sea and they keep getting buffeted by storms,” he said. “People are adjusting to the storms as they get on, and then they settle in, and then another storm hits, and then they adjust again.”

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UNITED STATES
The Center for Constitutional Rights

Dolan’s Track Record Exemplifies Cover-up Practices Within Catholic Church Hierarchy

press@ccrjustice.org

February 17, 2012, New York – The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) strongly condemn Pope Benedict’s appointment of Archbishop Timothy Dolan to Cardinal of the Archdiocese of New York. Dolan’s mishandling of child sexual abuse cases is well-documented, from failing to report direct admissions by offending priests to actively lobbying against reforming statutes of limitations on child sexual abuse cases in Wisconsin. The archbishop’s track record is consistent with the Catholic Church’s record of covering up child sex abuse allegations.

On September 13, 2011, CCR and SNAP filed a complaint before the International Criminal Court charging that Vatican officials are responsible for policies and practices of cover-up that have enabled widespread and systemic rape and sexual violence against children and vulnerable adults. Together with the complaint, they submitted more than 20,000 pages of supporting materials consisting of findings and reports of commissions of inquiry and grand juries, testimonies, and other documentary evidence of sex crimes by Catholic clergy and of the policies and practices involved in the cover-ups.

Among the documents submitted in support of the complaint are letters between Dolan and then-Cardinal Ratzinger concerning Father Franklyn Becker. Becker was diagnosed as a pedophile as early as 1983 when serving in Milwaukee and, though the archdiocese of Milwaukee knew he continued to re-offend, Becker was nonetheless allowed to continue to work in several parishes. It was only when Becker was arrested in California in 2003 for the sexual assault of a child that Dolan wrote to Ratzinger requesting that Becker be defrocked. Ratzinger’s office replied that Dolan should inquire whether Becker would voluntarily request his own defrocking rather than be laicized involuntarily by the Vatican.

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ROME
CNN

By Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor

(CNN) – At the Vatican on Saturday, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan will be elevated to the College of Cardinals. The move will further cement Dolan’s standing as America’s top Catholic.

“This is the most exclusive club in the Catholic Church,” said John Allen, CNN’s Vatican analyst, of Dolan’s elevation. As a cardinal, Dolan will join the ranks of those who will choose the next pope. The College of Cardinals was established in 1150. Its main role is to advise the current pope and pick his successor. The elevation alone brings speculation that Dolan himself could one day be elected to lead the global church.

“In many cases you also become, at least informally, a candidate to be the next pope, because the next pope will almost certainly come from the roughly 120 cardinals under the age of 80,” Allen said. Once a Cardinal reaches 80, he is no longer able to participate in the election of the pope or enter the secret conclave where cardinals gather when the time comes to select the next pope, typically upon the prior pope’s death.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

This weekend, His Eminence the Most Reverend Archbishop Cardinal-Elect Timothy Michael Dolan will be made a cardinal of the Roman Catholic church. A cardinal’s scarlet beanie is the highest honor a pope can confer on a member of the Roman Catholic church.

As His Most Reverend Eminence is honored in this most prestigious way, the group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests is issuing a press release asking journalists, the public, and Catholics to think twice about precisely whom and what we’re honoring when we applaud the awarding of a red beanie to Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan. As SNAP notes,

1. His Eminence kept quiet nine months after child pornography was found last Valentine’s day on the computer of Lawrence Gordon, assistant principal of St. Michael’s Academy in the Bronx.
2. When Father Jaime Duenas of his diocese was arrested on child sex charges, not only did His Eminence fail to ask Catholics or others to do anything to assist the criminal investigation, but he also wrote a “mean-spirited statement” that he posted on his blog, attacking the teenaged victim making credible allegations against Father Duenas.

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CANADA
CBC

A former addiction worker says a former resident of Talbot House made the complaint against a Cape Breton priest.

For 17 years, Rev. Paul Abbass has been executive director of Talbot House, an addiction and treatment facility in Frenchvale, Nova Scotia.

He’s also been the spokesman for the Diocese of Antigonish.

Dave Mantin is a former New Brunswick addiction worker, who now runs the Surivors Network for those Abused by Priests.

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VATICAN CITY
Telegraph (United Kingdom)

The Pope will appoint 22 new cardinals in a lavish ceremony at the Vatican on Saturday, against a backdrop of leaks, back-stabbing and jostling for power in the Holy See.

By Nick Squires, Rome
6:24PM GMT 17 Feb 2012

The new appointees will join an elite group of cardinals who will have the task of electing the next Pope on the death of Benedict XVI, who turns 85 in April.

Seven of the new “princes of the church” are Italian, making the prospect of the German Pope being succeeded by an Italian pontiff more likely, Vatican observers said.

Their election will increase to 67 the number of “elector cardinals” who are from Europe, against 22 from Latin America, 21 from Africa and Asia and 15 from North America.

Of the European cardinals, 30 will be Italian.

The appointments come after a torrid few weeks for the Holy See, with claims of corruption and nepotism, questions over the transparency of the Vatican bank and murky reports of an assassination plot within the next 12 months against Benedict.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Alessandro Speciale| Religion News Service, Updated: Friday, February 17

VATICAN CITY — It isn’t anywhere on the official agenda, but as Roman Catholic leaders meet in Rome this weekend, looming in the background will be a recent string of Vatican leaks that reveal a bitter power struggle among the hierarchy.

In recent weeks, several confidential memos and documents by senior Vatican officials have appeared in the Italian media. The leak is “unprecedented in recent history,” says Massimo Faggioli, a church historian at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.

The scandal started in late January when an Italian television program showed letters written to Pope Benedict XVI by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the Vatican’s U.S. ambassador, asserting widespread corruption and waste in the Vatican procurement process. Vigano, who at the time was secretary general of the office that oversees Vatican City, begged Benedict not to send him to the United States. His removal would cause “disarray and discouragement” in those who shared his anti-corruption struggle, Vigano said.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Feb. 17, 2012 NCR Today

ROME — Theologically all cardinals may be equal, but in terms of celebrity appeal, some are obviously more equal than others. Each consistory, when a pope inducts new members into the church’s most exclusive club, tends to have its own “rock star” – that one new cardinal who is head and shoulders above everyone else on the buzz meter.

In February 2001, when John Paul II created a whopping 42 new cardinals, that rock star was Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, a handsome, young polyglot who seemed the new face of the church in Latin America. In March 2006, Benedict’s first consistory, it was Stanislaw Dziwisz of Poland, John Paul’s longtime personal secretary, because it felt like a celebration of the late pope’s life and legacy.

This time around, the rock star of the consistory is quite obviously Timothy Dolan of New York.

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UNITED STATES
Amazon

Joey Piscitelli

A Witch Wins Justice is an absolute page-turner! It is the true story of Joey Piscatelli and his unfortunate experiences being sexually molested by a priest, the principal of Salesian High School in Richmond, CA. Piscatelli’s case, unlike scores of others was actually tried by a jury in a civil proceeding in 2005. Piscatelli prevailed against all odds against Salesian High School and the Catholic Church. Piscatelli’s book is an inspiration to many who have similarly suffered. Piscatelli is truly a person who turned years of suffering into victory.

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MISSOURI/WISCONSIN
Berger’s Beat

February 17, 2012 10:06 am | Author: Jerry Berger
Cardinal-designate Tim Dolan of NYC – who gets his red hat tomorrow – will receive another, admittedly-lesser distinction in May – an honorary degree from Manhattan College. Meanwhile, a Minnesota attorney who has represented more clergy sex abuse victims than any other lawyer in the US, Jeff Andreson, says he plans to depose Dolan in a case involving some 200 youngsters who say they were molested by Fr. Lawrence Murphy at St. John’s School for the Deaf in Milwaukee between 1950 and 1974.

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CANADA
YouTube

Bishop Ronald Fabbro apologies to the sexual abuse victims of priests in the Diocese of London and about plans to prevent such abuse in the future.

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SALINAS (CA)
KSBW

SALINAS, Calif. –
The Catholic Diocese of Monterey announced Thursday that it has settled a lawsuit with a parishioner who made allegations of sexual abuse against a former priest, Father Edward Fitz-Henry.

In a letter addressed to all priests of the Monterey diocese and obtained by KSBW, the diocese counsel announced a $500,000 settlement with the priest’s accuser.

In the letter, the counsel said the diocese chose to settle the sex abuse case because “during the investigation into the 2005 allegation, the diocese learned information about a 1992 situation that we previously believed was a non-sexual boundary violation involving a minor.”

The letter goes on to explain that the Diocesan Independent Review Board believes the violation is a credible violation of the charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, and that the next step is for the diocese to send Fr. Fitz-Henry’s case to Rome in the next few weeks.

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CANADA
Winnipeg Sun

By Paul Turenne,Winnipeg Sun

First posted: Friday, February 17, 2012

A Winnipeg man has come forward claiming he was repeatedly sexually abused by a priest while he was a student at a North End Catholic school nearly 60 years ago.

The 64-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect his identity, filed a lawsuit with Manitoba’s Court of Queen’s Bench last week alleging that a priest at Holy Ghost School on Selkirk Avenue fondled and masturbated him two or three times per week in a basement bathroom at the school when he was in Grade 3 in the mid-1950s. The man alleges the priest tried several times to get him to do the same in return.

“The plaintiff would try to run away from (the priest) in order to avoid or stop the sexual assaults, but would be caught and hit by (the priest),” the suit alleges.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

Published: February 17, 2012

VATICAN CITY — As the world’s Roman Catholics prepare for the addition of 22 new members to the College of Cardinals, the Vatican has become embroiled in an embarrassing scandal in which a number of leaked documents have drawn back the curtains on the church’s inner workings.

The internal Church squabbling, predictably dubbed “Vatileaks” by the Italian news media, became public about three weeks ago with the disclosure on television and in newspapers of confidential letters written by a top Vatican official who had denounced alleged corruption and financial mismanagement in Vatican City.

The widespread feeling among experts who follow the Vatican is that the letters were a volley in a battle among officials jousting for power in a papal court whose anointed leader, they say, is more concerned with theological questions than with the day- to-day affairs of state.

Every journalist who follows the Church has described the current controversy as part of “a clash between cardinals in the Curia,” even though the Vatican is denying it, said Paolo Rodari, who writes about the Vatican for two newspapers. The e-mails and letters and documents that have made their way into print “could not get out unless they came from someone inside,” he added.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By
CATHY HAYES,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Friday, February 17, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI hopes to “solidify and strengthen” relations between Ireland and the Hoy See according to the new Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles J. Brown.

Archbishop Brown,a new York native, formally presented his credentials to the Irish President Michael D Higgins, on Thursday at the president’s resident in Áras an Uachtaráin.

By taking up office as the representative of Pope Benedict in Ireland, Brown replaces his predecessor Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza who was recalled to the Vatican in the wake of the findings of the Cloyne Report, into sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

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ROME
Regnum Christi

Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, c.s., Papal Delegate to the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi, wrote to the consecrated members of the movement February 15. In his letter, he reviews the process of their renewal to date and progress in verifying the vocation to the Third Degree in the Regnum Christi Movement. He also outlines organizational changes designed to move the process forward.

(Translation of the original letter in Italian)

Rome, 15 February 2012

Dear consecrated men and women of Regnum Christi,

After completing his visitation, the Apostolic Visitator delivered his report in September of 2011. We thanked him and began to study it. He draws attention to many positive points, but also to a good number that need correction or improvement. In obedience to the task given us by the Holy See, we began to undertake the path of discernment. The outset was rather laborious, but as we moved forward the path became clearer.

We saw that we needed in the first place an “illuminative phase” that would help us to detect more clearly the path to follow. We therefore made the effort to meet, help and support each other in our desire to renew our adherence to the consecrated life in Regnum Christi. The meetings held for this purpose in Mexico and Brazil guided by Fr Ghirlanda, and here in Rome by me with the help of Fr Agostino Montan, were in everyone’s opinion highly positive. After these encounters we were convinced that our reflection on the vocation of consecrated life in Regnum Christi was on the right path; that your vocation is authentic, and there was a renewal of the commitment to preserve and persevere in it.

As we reflected on the lay consecrated vocation in Regnum Christi linked with the Legion of Christ, we found points of substantial agreement that reflect the lived experience of many of you over many years: we are in agreement on the lay consecrated vocation, we have seen that association is the path to pursue, we have also confirmed that consecrated life in Regnum Christi is linked to the charism of the Legion, in the perspective—which needs deeper examination—of a single ‘Charismatic Family’ in which Legionaries, consecrated lay men and women, and non-consecrated lay members share in different ways in the one charism. As well as these acquired points, we also singled out the means to cooperate with Legionary priests in this process, even if many points still remain to be clarified. We also realized that within our own communities we needed time for reflection. The desire to not rush the process and to give more space for reflection was also expressed. Both I and my collaborators also reached the same conclusion. We have therefore thought of extending the time of reflection and of re-examining some aspects of how our work is organized, the better to prepare the inner workings of the governance of the association of the consecrated men and women.

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VATICAN CITY
WSLS

By: NICOLE WINFIELD | Associated Press
Published: February 17, 2012

VATICAN CITY (AP) The pope’s envoy to the disgraced Legion of Christ religious order is scrambling to contain fallout from the resignation of the head of the Legion’s women’s branch and the decision of 30 members to split from the movement.

In a letter released Friday, Cardinal Velasio De Paolis urged those leaving not to “try to persuade or proselytize” others to come along with them, and confirmed that the exodus wasn’t just of rank and file members but included senior directors as well.

Pope Benedict XVI tapped De Paolis to take over the Legion in 2010 after a Vatican investigation determined that its founder, the Rev. Marciel Maciel, was a pedophile and fraud who had created a cult-like movement where members endured emotional, spiritual and psychological abuse. The revelations were particularly scandalous given that the Legion was one of the fastest-growing religious orders and that Maciel was revered in the Vatican for his ability to attract priests and money.

De Paolis has insisted that to survive, the Legion must reform itself from the inside out and he has refrained from imposing major changes from the outside. But he has faced criticism that he is moving too slowly, that the Legion’s problematic internal culture hasn’t changed, and that the same superiors who covered up Maciel’s crimes remain in positions of authority.

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IRELAND
Cormac MacConnell

At the time of writing on a bright spring morning, the word on the wires is that the Pope is considering coming to Ireland later this year for an upcoming Eucharistic Congress. He has been invited by the Irish hierarchy.

He is a very wise old man, and I’m sure that at the end of the day he will decide not to come. The time is not opportune at all.

How times change! The huge and emotive Eucharistic Congress of the last century was one of the most iconic events in the entire history of the new Irish nation.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Feb. 17, 2012 All Things Catholic

In the run-up to a consistory, Rome takes on the atmosphere of a college reunion. Church people from all over turn up, making it hard to walk down the street without bumping into someone you know. That’s been the case this week, ahead of Saturday’s consistory in which Pope Benedict XVI will create 22 new cardinals, including Americans Timothy Dolan and Edwin O’Brien.

This week, whenever such a chance encounter has occurred, conversation fairly quickly has turned to one question above all: What the hell is going on around here?

The basis for the question, of course, is the mushrooming Vatican leaks scandal, in which confidential documents are appearing in the papers almost on a daily basis, putting the Vatican in a highly unfavorable light. By now, there are almost too many to keep track, but big-ticket items have included:

•Letters written to the pope and to the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, by the current papal ambassador in the United States, Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, complaining of corruption in Vatican finances and a campaign of defamation against him. At the time, he was the No. 2 official in the Vatican City State, and desperately trying to avoid being sent away.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

By David Willey
BBC News, Rome

Pope Benedict XVI will place red hats on the heads of 22 new cardinals on Saturday amid an atmosphere of scandal-mongering, rumour and media leaks from inside the Vatican.

The leaks concern alleged internal divisions and even malpractice among the senior bishops and cardinals at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church.

Most of the new cardinals will be granted the right to take part in the election of Pope Benedict’s successor.

It is the fourth Vatican Consistory since Benedict was elected Pope seven years ago, and is being held to bring the College of Cardinals to its full electoral quorum of 120, after deaths and age disqualifications depleted its numbers.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

‘Vatileaks’ scandal, Vatican intrigue cast cloud over ceremony to create new cardinals

By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, February 17,

VATICAN CITY — A scandal over leaked Vatican documents and reports of political infighting, financial mismanagement and administrative chaos in its frescoed halls have cast a cloud over this weekend’s ceremony to create 22 new cardinals.

With Pope Benedict XVI slowing down as he nears his 85th birthday, Saturday’s ceremony has taken on the aura of a pre-conclave summit. Reports abound in the Italian media of cardinals and their supporters jockeying for prominence ahead of a future papal election, and of a Vatican bureaucracy in disarray as Benedict focuses his waning strength on other matters.

All that has weighed on Saturday’s consistory, where the 22 new princes of the church will get their red hats, or birette, and be formally welcomed into the elite men’s club that will elect Benedict’s successor. That ceremony will bring up to 125 the number of cardinals worldwide eligible to vote for the next pope.

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UNITED STATES
Ave Maria Press

My Peace I Give You
Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints

Author: Dawn Eden
Foreword by: Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, S.V.
Price: $16.95
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Trim size: 5.5 x 8.5 inches
ISBN: 978-1-59471-290-6
Imprint: Ave Maria Press

On-sale date: April 9, 2012

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Nick Bramhill

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Catholic leaders have launched a stinging attack on organisers of the IFTAs for presenting an award to suspended RTÉ series Prime Time Investigates.

The investigative series has been temporarily axed to allow for a probe by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland into the defamation of Fr Kevin Reynolds in one of its programmes.

But a group representing Ireland’s priests say they are incensed that the under-fire series scooped a prestigious gong at last weekend’s IFTAs for an unrelated episode, which probed standards of care in nursing homes.

The Association of Catholic Priests also said it believes “Mission To Prey”, the programme in which Fr Reynolds was defamed, would actually have won the award for Best Current Affairs/News had the state broadcaster not been dragged to court in November.

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CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle

Will Kane

Thursday, February 16, 2012

A former Roman Catholic priest who was sentenced to 10 years behind bars in 2005 for molesting a girl in Daly City is facing possible deportation after being freed from prison this year.

Jose Superiaso, 57, a former priest at St. Andrew Church in Daly City, pleaded no contest in 2005 to lewd acts with a child under 14 and was sentenced to 10 years in state prison, with credit for the almost 2 1/2 years he spent in jail before his conviction, said Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County district attorney.

Superiaso was freed in January and was promptly taken into custody by federal authorities, who will ask a judge to deport him to his native Philippines, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Superiaso is a lawful permanent resident of the United States but can be deported because he was convicted of a crime, Kice said.

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ITALY
The Independent (United Kingdom)
Michael Day
Milan

Friday 17 February 2012

After several years of scandal in which the Catholic Church has faced allegations of financial impropriety, paedophile priests and rumours of plots to kill the Pope, the Vatican is now facing a new €600m-a-year tax bill as Rome seeks to head off European Commission censure over controversial property tax breaks enjoyed by the Church.

As the EC heads closer to officially condemning the fiscal perks enjoyed by the Catholic Church and introduced by the Berlusconi administration, Prime Minister Mario Monti has written to the Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, saying that the Vatican will resume property tax, or Ici, payments.

Mr Almunia said in 2010 that the exemption amounted to state aid that might breach EU competition law. A parliamentary proposal by the Italian Radicals party last August to repeal the exemption, with a successful petition on Facebook, upped the pressure. A spokesman for Mr Almunia appeared to give the thumbs-up yesterday: “It is a proposal that constitutes a significant progress on the issue and I hope will be implemented,” he said.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Consistory, Benedict XVI imposes the red hat on the new cardinals that will be entering the world’s most exclusive “club”: the cardinal electors who vote for the Pope

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

Saturday, February 18th, Benedict XVI will impose the red hat on 22 new “princes of the Church”, ready to defend the faith and the Pope “usque ad sanguinis effusionem”, which means: “unto the shedding of our blood”, symbolized by the red colour of their cassocks. Eighteen of the newly “created” (the appointment of cardinal is referred to in this manner because it depends on the free will of the Pope) will join the world’s most exclusive “club”, the group that will be responsible for voting for the Pope, while the remaining four, who are over 80, will receive the red biretta for merits acquired during their long service, but they cannot participate in a Conclave because they are beyond the age limit for cardinal electors.

Along with the red hat (the classic “three-cornered hat”, but without the tassel), the new cardinals will also receive from the Pope’s hands the note of appointment with the name of the Roman Church assigned to them – each cardinal receives one – together with the Cardinal ring. Until the last consistory, held in November 2010, the Pope presented the ring the day after the imposition of the biretta, during a Mass in St. Peter’s concelebrated with the new cardinals. The ritual has been revised and streamlined, and now newly elected cardinals will receive everything in one go, on Saturday morning.

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

By Patricia Montemurri
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

There is a reason for excitement among some metro Detroit Catholics, as news regarding the pending church closures trickled out Thursday.

At least four historic churches in Detroit will be saved. And there are indications that the list of shuttered parishes will be fewer than the 48 originally recommended in November.

• Interactive map: A detailed look at Detroit’s Catholic churches

“We are rejoicing,” said Rhonda Gilbert, 67, of Detroit, a parishioner at St. Charles Borromeo near Belle Isle in Detroit. She learned from her pastor this week that the church, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, will remain open.

“We got our letter Wednesday,” said Gilbert, referring to letters Archbishop Allen Vigneron sent this week to pastors and 270,000 registered Catholic households detailing the fate of each of the 270 parishes across the six-county Archdiocese of Detroit.

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PHILIPPINES
GMA News

A senior prelate said the Philippine bishop who ordained the Filipino priest convicted of child molestation in the United States should initiate the dismissal process from the clerical state as penalty.

Retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said the bishop of the diocese where Father Jose Superiaso, 57, was ordained should be the one to file charges against him.

Superiaso was ordained in the Archdiocese of Manila.

“The first move would have to come from his bishop in the Philippines, meaning to say his bishop will be the one with the authority to file charges against the priest for the imposition of penal sanctions,” Cruz said.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Stephen Rogers

Friday, February 17, 2012

His predecessor left under a cloud of controversy, so it was left to the new papal nuncio to Ireland to promise to do “everything in my power to solidify and strengthen the relations between the Holy See and Ireland”.

Archbishop Charles John Brown made the pledge as he presented his credentials to President Michael D Higgins.

Last July, the man he replaces, Archbishop Guiseppe Leanza, was recalled to Rome after the publication of the Cloyne Report into the Church’s handling of abuse claims against 19 clerics in the diocese. It accused the Vatican of being “entirely unhelpful” to Irish bishops in their attempts to put proper child safeguarding procedures in place. When the investigating commission wrote to Archbishop Leanza during its inquiry, he replied that he was “unable to assist” it.

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DEUTSCHLAND
SWR

Zum ersten Mal untersuchte ein Wissenschaftlerteam im Rahmen einer repräsentativen Studie, wie viele Bewohnerinnen von Behindertenheimen sexuell missbraucht wurden. Geistig behinderte Frauen wurden in speziell vereinfachter Sprache befragt. Sechs Prozent der Frauen mit geistiger Behinderung berichteten von sexueller Gewalt, die sie selbst in Heimen oder Einrichtungen erlebt hatten.

In absoluten Zahlen heißt das: mehrere tausend Frauen wurden in den Behindertenheimen und -Einrichtungen zu Missbrauchsopfern. Die Täter sind meist Bewohner aber eben auch Personal. Verantwortlich für den Schutz und die Sicherheit der Bewohnerinnen sind die Träger beziehungsweise die Betreuer. Oft wird den Betroffenen nicht geglaubt. Die Einrichtungen versuchen zudem alle Vorfälle unter der Decke zu halten. Eine Meldepflicht in Verdachtsfällen besteht nicht. Selten kommt es daher zu Anzeigen, fast nie zu Anklagen oder Verurteilungen

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CANADA
Halifax News Net

… It goes from worse to bad for the Catholic Church in Nova Scotia. A high ranking church member has been relieved of his duties while an inquiry is underway into accusations of sexual abuse and a complaint about access to medication. At the centre of this potential scandal is Reverend Paul Abbass, a man who’s face has become very familiar to Nova Scotians as a spokesman for the church after the Bishop Raymond Lahey scandal. Abbass was the longtime head of Talbot House, a Cape Breton addiction centre. Community Services is investigating. The RCMP’s also aware of the allegations.

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CANADA
Medicine Hat News

Friday, 17 February 2012

Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press

TORONTO – The picture on Thomas Collins’ desk depicts a 16th-century cardinal who fought to return the Catholic faith to its roots while managing one of the largest religious communities in his country.

The present-day Archbishop of Toronto now plans to look to that image for inspiration as he prepares to follow in his idol’s footsteps.

Collins, 65, is about to become the 16th Canadian to be elevated to the position of cardinal, an elite group of advisers handpicked by the Pope. Collins and 21 new appointees will don their red hats on Saturday at an official ceremony at the Vatican. …

The pontif personally appointed Collins to a team probing rampant allegations of sexual abuse in Ireland in 2010, Smith said, adding his friend was also pegged to serve on the Vatican communications council before his elevation to cardinal.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Braintree

By Bob Aicardi
Wicked Local Braintree

Braintree —

The Rev. James E. Braley, chaplain at Archbishop Williams High School in Braintree from 1981 to 1986 and pastor of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Plymouth since 2001, has been placed on administrative leave as a result of an allegation of sexual abuse of a child.

In its Feb. 12 statement announcing the suspension, the Archdiocese of Boston said the claim concerns conduct alleged to have occurred in the early 1980s.

“The Archdiocese immediately notified law enforcement of the allegation and has initiated a preliminary investigation into the complaint,” the statement declared. “Father Braley will remain on administrative leave pending the outcome of the preliminary investigation. The decision to place Father Braley on administrative leave represents the Archdiocese’s commitment to the welfare of all parties and does not represent a determination of his guilt or innocence as it pertains to the investigation. The Archdiocese will work to resolve this case as expeditiously as possible and in a manner that is fair to all parties.”

Braley, through his lawyer, adamantly denied any wrongdoing and maintained his innocence. “Obviously he’s upset by these allegations,” Quincy attorney William Sullivan said. “He just is solid and strong that he did not do anything inappropriate.”

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By Rosie DiManno
Columnist

Dictators, who tend not to die peacefully in their beds, are among the few on this planet who can claim a job for life.

And then there’s the pope.

No challenge to his authority, no Catholic Spring, no curia putsch allowed there; can’t be dislodged for reasons of poor health, psychological trauma or colossally bad judgment in ministering to the world’s nearly 2 billion faithful.

Pontiffs are sitting pretty once elected by conclave. The last pope to resign was Gregory XII in 1415, a strategic maneuver to end the battle for the papacy (three vying) that was known as the Western schism. The Code of Canon Law contains no apparatus for yanking a Bishop of Rome who’s botched it.

While popes are not technically “infallible’’ — a misconception of nuance; they’re only “error-free’’ when performing in their official capacity to promulgate dogma on faith and morals — they can’t be given the sack for getting it spectacularly wrong because, in those matters that most directly affect us, they’re unimpeachably right. Got it?

Understanding arcane intricacies of canon law is as challenging as that whole Father-Son-Holy Ghost trinity thing, which is why most Catholics simply take it on faith. Faith, however, has never in modern memory been so fragile, so at risk, as under Benedict XVI, with alarming numbers abandoning the Church, at least in the West.

Benedict may be indubitably pious and unmatched as a scholar-pope but, on his watch, the Catholic Church has sunk into a morass of unprecedented scandal. The latest crisis — explosive documents obtained by an Italian investigative TV show in what’s been dubbed “Vatileaks’’ — arises from a three-way private correspondence, which included the pope, with an archbishop who blew the whistle on what he saw as a web of corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the Vatican, an alert that got the poor man transferred, from deputy governor of Vatican City to Vatican ambassador in Washington. The rippling accusations encompass everything from awarding of tenders for work to inside-connected contractors at ridiculously inflated prices to yet more questions being asked about the Vatican bank, 30 years after its predecessor (Banco Ambrosiano) collapsed amidst lurid allegations about money-laundering, freemasons, the Mafia and the mysterious death of its chairman — “God’s banker,” Roberto Calvi.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Record

By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
Record Staff Writer

February 17, 2012

STOCKTON – Attorneys for a 37-year-old man, who accuses a Lockeford priest of molesting him as a child, may argue in a civil trial that the Diocese of Stockton is liable and it somehow benefited from the reverend’s actions, a judge ruled Thursday.

But first the plaintiff’s attorneys must prove that the Rev. Michael Kelly, 62, sexually abused the altar boy during the 1980s while he served at Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton.

Kelly, now at St. Joachim Church in Lockeford, has served at various parishes throughout San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties.

San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Bob McNatt heard motions this week to determine which facts will be admissible in the upcoming trial.

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WISCONSIN
The Northwestern

Written by
Mike Nichols

Unless you’re a king or a demigod or, as Mark Twain once wrote, somebody with a tapeworm, it’s usually a good idea to avoid referring to yourself with the pronoun “we.”

I’m not sure who Norbert Maday, a defrocked Illinois priest sitting in a courtroom in Oshkosh the other day, thought he was when he tried to explain away the things he did 25 years ago to two suburban Chicago boys on a retreat in Winnebago County.

“We’re just committing what we call a mortal sin and we’re sorry because of the weakness that, that we allowed, allows to do it,” he told a courtroom in garbled but, nevertheless, extremely revealing language.

Maday didn’t have a codefendant. His attorney, Ralph Sczygelski, said the former priest has some health issues but the lawyer didn’t mention worms. So I don’t think that explains the use of “we” either.

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CANADA
The Chronicle-Herald

February 16, 2012

By MARY ELLEN MacINTYRE and AARON BESWICK Staff Reporters

UPDATED 8:52 p.m.

A high-ranking member of the Roman Catholic Church who is the head of an addictions centre in rural Cape Breton has been relieved of his duties pending the outcome of an inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse and access to medication.

Rev. Paul Abbass, the executive director of Talbot House in Frenchvale for 17 years, is the subject of a review after a complaint was made to the provincial Community Services Department, which oversees the addiction-treatment facility.

No one from Community Services, Talbot House or the Diocese of Antigonish would reveal the reason for the review.

But Dave Mantin of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said he has received two separate complaints about Abbass’s behaviour from former residents of Talbot House in the past year.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NPR

[with audio]

by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

February 17, 2012

Between 1992 and 2004, Monsignor William Lynn was the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s point person for allegations of clerical abuse. When he heard a claim, he was supposed to investigate and, if warranted, remove or turn the priest over to police.

But as two grand juries reported in 2005 and 2011, that often didn’t happen.

“He willingly oversaw numerous reports of child sex abuse,” says Cardozo law professor Marci Hamilton, a consultant to the first grand jury. “And he willingly put these men in positions where they had second, third, fourth opportunities to abuse children in new settings.”

In most of those cases, the statute of limitations barred prosecutors from bringing criminal charges. But two cases have not expired, and prosecutors say Lynn criminally endangered two young men, allegedly raped when they were 10 and 14, by looking the other way.

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: The Canadian Press

HALIFAX – Police and the Nova Scotia government are looking into a complaint against a priest who headed up a rehabilitation centre for addicts in Cape Breton.

Officials with Talbot House said Thursday that Rev. Paul Abbass has taken a leave of absence from his position as executive director of the facility, but offered no details on the nature of the complaint.

The board of directors said in a statement it is investigating the complaint, which it became aware of through the province’s Department of Community Services on Feb. 2.

“It is an unfortunate and challenging situation for all involved,” John Gainer, Talbot House board chairman, said in the statement.

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GEORGIA
Savannah Morning News

By Jan Skutch

A Catholic priest who was pastor of missions in Pembroke and two others in the Diocese of Savannah has been removed from his duties pending an investigation of alleged sexual abuse from nearly 30 years ago.

The Rev. Bob Poandl, 70, has denied the allegations, but has stepped away from his ministries and returned to the Cincinnati-based Glenmary Home Missioners pending completion of an investigation into the allegations.

Poandl served as pastor at Holy Cross Church in Pembroke, St. Christopher Church in Claxton and Our Lady of Guadalupe in Sand Hill near Claxton. He has served off and on in the diocese since 2007.

He left in 2009 after other abuse allegations in West Virginia, but those charges later were dismissed.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sol

Saarbrücken/Trier. Die „Saarbrücker Initiativgruppe haupt und ehrenamtlicher Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter in der katholischen Kirche des Bistums Trier“ hat in einem offenen Brief an Bischof Stephan Ackermann diesen gebeten, „zeitnah“ zu einer weiteren offenen Gesprächsrunde zum Thema sexueller Missbrauch an Minderjährigen im Bistum Trier einzuladen. Ackermann, der auch Missbrauchsbeauftragter der katholischen Kirche für ganz Deutschland ist, habe dies am Ende einer ersten Gesprächsrunde mit rund 200 haupt- und ehrenamtlichen Bistums-Mitarbeitern und anderen Interessierten am 11. Januar selbst angekündigt.

Unterzeichner des Schreibens der Gruppe, der nach eigenen Angaben 43 Katholiken angehören, ist der Saarbrücker Pastoralreferent Heiner Buchen. Buchen erinnerte in dem Schreiben an das damalige Gespräch, an dem die Gruppe beteiligt war. Die Unterredung, die „zeitlich eng begrenzt“ gewesen sei, habe „kaum die Chance“ geboten, „tiefergehende Fragen zu diskutieren“.

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UNITED STATES
Dallas Voice

David Webb

The seemingly never-ending reports of lawsuits and criminal complaints being filed by people alleging they were sexually molested by members of the clergy might make one wonder if directing worship is, or ever was, the main objective of those seeking ordainment.

Since my youth I’ve heard people grumble that the pastors, priests, rabbis and others calling the faithful to their churches on Sunday mornings were interested primarily in personal glory and how much cash they could raise from their flocks, but I never heard anything about them expecting a donation of flesh as well.

That is, I never heard about it until the mid-1980s when the scandals involving Catholic priests sexually abusing male youths began surfacing.

When the media first began covering the scandal I imagine the reaction of most people was that a few cases would surface, and that would be the end of it. Who would have ever dreamed that 25 years later the scandal would have grown to epidemic proportions and spread worldwide to other religions and institutions as well?

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
NPR

[with audio]

by Chuck Quirmbach

February 16, 2012 from WPR

Nine Catholic archdioceses around the country have filed for bankruptcy over the past decade, including the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. In each case, this followed multimillion-dollar claims from victims sexually abused by priests and other Church employees.

Milwaukee’s case is different from all the others in one important way. The church there is playing legal hardball and trying to dramatically limit the claims of 570 people who say they were abused. Despite the bankruptcy, Catholic churches in Milwaukee are still open for worship.

It’s Mass at St. Vincent Pallotti church and about 200 parishioners sing, pray, and then watch a videotaped appeal from Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki. The church is beginning an annual fund drive. Listecki makes it clear that the money will go for programs like Catholic schools and adult day care and not be part of the year-long Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Feb. 16, 2012 NCR Today

ROME — One of Africa’s leading Catholic prelates this week endorsed a strong “zero tolerance” policy on child sexual abuse, saying that “to abuse the trust of a child, an innocent child, is something we cannot tolerate.”

Cardinal Polycarp Pengo of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, also candidly acknowledged that until recently, Catholic leaders across Africa believed that “child abuse is not our problem,” but he said they’re now coming to see it happens in Africa too – including, he said, within the Catholic church.

Pengo said he would back any victim or parent who wishes to report child abuse to police and prosecutors, but also said that in some African societies civil governments lack the capacity to deal with the problem, or simply believe they have “more important things to do.”

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CANADA
CBC News

The priest who has spoken for the Diocese of Antigonish in recent years is the subject of an unspecified complaint.

A criminal investigation is underway into an unspecified complaint against Father Paul Abbass — who runs Talbot House — a men’s addiction and rehabilitation facility outside Sydney, Cape Breton Regional Police confirmed Thursday.

The complaint was related to an employee of Talbot House, police said.

It is not known if the employee was the source of the complaint.

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: The Canadian Press

HALIFAX – A priest who heads a rehabilitation centre for recovering addicts in Cape Breton has stepped down after a complaint was filed against him.

Officials with Talbot House said today that Rev. Paul Abbass has taken a leave of absence from his position as executive director of the facility, but offered no details on the nature of the complaint.

The board of directors says in a statement it is investigating the complaint, which they became aware of through the province’s Department of Community Services.

Abbass has also given up his duties as the spokesman for the Diocese of Antigonish, which was led by Bishop Raymond Lahey until he stepped down after being charged with importing child pornography.

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CANADA
Herald News

February 16, 2012

By MARY ELLEN MacINTYRE Cape Breton Bureau

A high-ranking member of the Roman Catholic Church and executive director of an addictions centre in Cape Breton has been relieved of his duties while an inquiry is underway.

Father Paul Abbass, who has headed up Talbot House in Frenchvale for 17 years, is the subject of a review after a complaint was made to the Department of Community Services.

The nature of the complaint against Abbass was not made public and it is unknown at this point if police are investigating.

Abbass is parish priest of St Mary’s parish, which is on the grounds of Talbot House, a Sydney-area addictions treatment centre for adult men. He has also taken a leave from his diocese and parish duties, as episcopal vicar and as director of pastoral services for the diocese.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Reuters

By Kevin Murphy

KANSAS CITY, Missouri | Thu Feb 16, 2012

(Reuters) – The Roman Catholic bishop in Kansas City has asked a court to dismiss charges he failed to report suspected child abuse by a priest on grounds he was not mandated to do so.

Bishop Robert Finn, leader of the 133,000-member Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, is scheduled to go on trial in September in Missouri’s Jackson County Circuit Court on charges he failed to inform authorities for months that Father Shawn Ratigan had child pornography on his laptop computer.

Ratigan pleaded not guilty to felony child pornography charges last year. Finn, the highest-ranking Catholic official ever to face U.S. criminal charges in a child sexual abuse case, and the diocese both pleaded not guilty in October. The cover-up charge carries a penalty of up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

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UNITED STATES
Reuters

By Stephanie Simon

Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:15am EST

(Reuters) – The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is a powerful institution, at least on paper.

But a recent debate over contraception coverage has exposed a deep divide between the 271 active bishops and the rank-and-file U.S. Catholics who are supposed to follow their moral authority. It also has raised questions about why some prominent Catholic intuitions ignore the bishops’ teachings – and whether the bishops will be able to reassert their authority.

The gulf has left some politicians, ever eager to court the Catholic vote, struggling to figure out who now speaks for the Church. Some ordinary Catholics in the pews are wondering the same.

“The bishops have lost their monopoly on speaking, and they have lost a lot of their clout,” said Father Thomas Reese, a Georgetown University theologian and church scholar.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

„Perfides Nachtreten.“ So nennt die Therapeutin eines Opfers von sexueller Gewalt ein Schreiben der Diözese Regensburg. In wohlgesetzten Worten wird der heute 63jährige Mann darin zum Lügner abgestempelt. Wenn er die Gründe wissen wolle, könne er sich ja an den Anwalt des Bistums wenden, schreibt ihm Generalvikar Michael Fuchs. Wir veröffentlichen den Brief im Original.

Die Therapeutin von Udo Kaiser war entsetzt. Als „perfides Nachtreten“ bezeichnet sie ein Schreiben des Bistums Regensburg an den 63jährigen Tenor und Schauspieler. „Ich werde zum Lügner abgestempelt“, sagt uns Kaiser am Telefon über das Schreiben, das er vier Tage vor Heiligabend bekommen hat und das ihn für einige Wochen in eine tiefe Depression gestürzt hat. „Das hat mich völlig zurückgeworfen. Ich habe mich wieder gefühlt wie der kleine Junge von damals.“

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NEDERLAND
BNR

Door Bart Tuinman

16 February 2012

Het duurt niet lang meer voordat priesters een officiële verklaring van goed gedrag van de overheid moeten gaan laten zien als ze een functie binnen een kerk krijgen of van (kerkelijke) baan wisselen.

De komende maanden wordt de zogenoemde Verklaring Omtrent Gedrag (VOG) verplicht voor priesters en andere kerkelijke medewerkers.

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NEDERLAND
Friesch Dagblad

In reactie op de onthullingen over seksueel misbruik binnen de R.-K. Kerk riep Maarten ‘t Hart in NRC Handelsblad ‘fatsoenlijke mensen’ op hun kerk te verlaten. Patrick Chatelion Counet legt uit waarom hij daar geen gehoor aan geeft.

Patrick Chatelion Counet

Het is moeilijk om van jezelf te zeggen dat je een fatsoenlijk mens bent. Onder de titel ‘Waarom katholieken niet in opstand komen’ daagt Maarten ’t Hart in NRC Handelsblad katholieken uit hun kerk te verlaten. Hij acht het ‘totaal onbegrijpelijk dat nog enig fatsoenlijk mens lid kan of wil blijven van zo’n organisatie… reeds tweeduizend jaar de oudste en grootste misdadigersorganisatie ter wereld’. Een keuze uit twee kwaden. Of men roept zichzelf uit tot fatsoenlijk mens – niet enkel voor katholieken een zonde – en treedt toe tot de club van fatsoenlijken waartoe ’t Hart klaarblijkelijk behoort, of men blijft bij een verwerpelijke organisatie, ‘de aftandse firma God & zoon’ (Zoon met een hoofdletter, mijnheer ’t Hart).

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NEDERLAND
Nu

UTRECHT – Dat steeds minder mensen betrokken zijn bij de katholieke kerk, is niet te stoppen. Aartsbisschop Wim Eijk (58) accepteert dat de Nederlandse kerkprovincie krimpt.

”Een dieptepunt, een tijd die we geduldig moeten doormaken”, zei de aartsbisschop van Utrecht in een interview met het ANP en NU.nl. Zaterdag wordt Eijk kardinaal, na de paus de hoogste rang in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk (RKK).

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NEDERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad

Met het deze week door minister Opstelten aangekondigde onderzoeksrapport-Deetman II is een parlementair onderzoek naar het seksueel misbruik in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk, waar een deel van de Kamer eerder voor pleitte, voorlopig buiten beeld. Dat komt hard aan bij PvdA en SP die het afzien van een eigen Kameronderzoek als een gemiste kans beschouwen. In het licht van de overigens onbetwiste ernst van de kwestie zien zij het als een onverantwoord besluit.

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NEDERLAND
DePers

Door: Dirk Jacob Nieuwboer

Er zou onderzoek moeten komen naar seksueel misbruik onder orthodox protestanten, vindt adviesbureau Movisie. Dat is makkelijker gezegd dan gedaan.

De lucht uit de rooms-katholieke beerput trekt net een beetje over of de volgende misbruikkwestie in religieuze kring dient zich al weer aan. Nu staan de ‘orthodox-protestanten’ in het verdachtenbankje.

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QUICY (MA)
TheBostonChannel

BOSTON — A Quincy developer facing statutory rape charges was granted permission to travel to Italy for a private guided tour of the Vatican.

William O’Connell, 72, was indicted on four counts of statutory rape, stemming from his alleged involvement with a now 15-year-old girl during a two-year period, according to the Patriot Ledger.

Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Kenneth J. Fishman granted O’Connell’s request to travel to Rome at the end of this month.

According to a request filed in court, the purpose of his trip is to “have a religious experience by having many private guided tours of the Vatican in order to more thoroughly understand the history of the Roman Catholic Church,” the newspaper reported.

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NEDERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad

DEN HAAG – De coalitiepartijen VVD en CDA en gedoogpartij PVV zijn op dit moment niet overtuigd van de meerwaarde van een parlementair onderzoek naar het misbruikschandaal in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk.

Dat bleek woensdagmiddag tijdens een Kamerdebat.

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NEDERLAND
NOS

Het CDA wil mogelijk een parlementair onderzoek naar de rol van de overheid bij het seksueel misbruik in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk. “Zodra blijkt dat iemand bij de politie is geweest of een zaak bij het OM aanhangig heeft gemaakt en het is weggewuifd, dan moet dat worden onderzocht”, zei Kamerlid Van Toorenburg in de Tweede Kamer. De Kamer praat vandaag over het rapport van de commissie-Deetman.

Verder onderzoek

Het CDA is nu nog niet voor zo’n onderzoek, maar als de regeringspartij het idee van een aantal oppositiepartijen steunt, ontstaat een parlementaire meerderheid. Een eerdere onderzoekscommissie heeft geen aanwijzingen gevonden dat dingen in de doofpot zijn gestopt. Maar als blijkt dat de overheid toch de deur heeft dichtgehouden, moet er alsnog een onderzoek komen, vindt het CDA.

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NEDERLAND
Nieuws

(Novum) – Wim Deetman is bereid een aanvullend onderzoek te houden naar misbruik van meisjes en vrouwen in de katholieke kerk. Deetman verwacht dat het rapport dit najaar gereed is. Vertegenwoordigers van de katholieke kerk hebben ingestemd met het onderzoek. Dat schrijft minister van Veiligheid en Justitie Ivo Opstelten (VVD) in een brief aan de Tweede Kamer.

Deetman was voorzitter van de commissie die seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk heeft onderzocht. Eind vorig jaar werden de resultaten gepresenteerd. Uit het rapport bleek onder meer dat tussen 1945 en 1981 tussen de tien- en twintigduizend kinderen zijn misbruikt in katholieke instellingen. Het misbruik was bekend binnen de ordes en bisdommen.

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NEDERLAND
Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal

15 februari, debat – “Jammer dat de overheid buiten beeld blijft”. Arib (PvdA) wil een parlementair onderzoek naar het seksueel misbruik in katholieke instellingen en de rol van de overheid daarbij. Maar zij krijgt voor dit voorstel nog onvoldoende steun..

Uit een onderzoek van de commissie-Deetman blijkt dat in katholieke instellingen tussen 1945 en 1981 10.000 tot 20.000 kinderen zijn misbruikt. De kerk wist ervan, maar deed niets, concludeert Deetman. Maar welke rol heeft de overheid eigenlijk gespeeld?, vraagt Arib. Iedere schijn van een doofpot moet worden vermeden, benadrukt Gesthuizen (SP). Net als Dibi (GroenLinks) wil zij dat de Kamer de rol van de overheid, OM en politie gaat onderzoeken.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Cardinals govern during the sede vacante transition phase as they elect the new Pope

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

Both electors and non electors have the important role of advising the Pope; a role which Wojtyla and Ratzinger have strengthened in recent years. Indeed, Benedict XVI has continued John Paul II’s decision for the Concistory to be preceded by a consultation with cardinals for the exchange of opinions on issues that have been brought to the Church’s attention.

Cardinals have had the power to elect Popes since 1059. In 1150 the College of Cardinals was formed, with a dean and a Camerlengo (whose responsibilities formerly included the fiscal administration of the Patrimony of St. Peter), and from the 12th Century onwards, prelates outside Rome also began to be appointed as cardinals. Still today, each cardinal receives the title or diaconate of a Roman diocese or a suburbicarian diocese, from the Pope. This is a symbolic of the Roman clergy’s long tradition with the Pope being the Bishop of Rome.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 16 February 2012 (VIS) – Yesterday afternoon the Holy Father visited the Major Seminary of Rome for the occasion of the feast of its patroness, Our Lady of Trust, which falls on Saturday. The Holy Father visited the chapel before going on to meet with auxiliary bishops of Rome, superiors of diocesan seminaries and 190 seminarians.

Following the reading of the Gospel, Benedict XVI pronounced a “lectio divina” on the passage from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans in which the Apostle invites the faithful not to conform to this world but to transform themselves and renew their minds in order to discern the will of God, “the good and acceptable and perfect”.

“We can reflect upon the Church today”, he said in his off-the-cuff remarks. “There is much talk about the Church of Rome, many things are said. Let us hope that people also talk about our faith. Let us pray to God that it may be so”.

The Pope then went on to refer to the force of evil which, in today’s world, also emerges “in two great powers which are good and useful in themselves but easily open to abuse: the power of finance and the power of the media. Both are necessary, both are useful, but so subject to misuse that they often go against their true goals”.

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ROME
Vatican Insider

In his address to Seminarians today, Benedict XVI said “The whole world is talking about the Church of Rome, let us hope it is also talking about our faith”

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

“The whole world is talking about the Church of Rome, let us hope it is also talking about our faith.” These were the words pronounced by the Pope during this afternoon’s “lectio divina” with Seminarians from Rome who met him at the Lateran University on the Feast of Our Lady of Trust. “Let us hope that people are not talking about just anything but that they are talking about the faith of the Roman Church,” Benedict XVI said, alluding to the recent controversy in the press concerning the Roman Curia.

The Pope’s reflection referred to the Letter to the Romans, in which, as he stressed in his address to the future priests of the Diocese of Rome, “Paul speaks to us, because he speaks to Romans of all times.”

During the “lectio divina” Ratzinger also warned Seminarians against the “power of finance and the media” which “are necessary and even useful, but so open to abuse that they can go against man.”

The “power of finance,” the Pope said, transforms money from “instrument” to “greed,” “a power that oppresses man.” “Christians oppose conformism and submission,” the Pope said.

In as far as “public opinion” is concerned, “we need information, but this can not be overcome by the power of appearance, which in the end only gives importance to what is said rather than to the truth and man becomes only concerned with appearances.”

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

Posted by Barbara Dorris on February 16, 2012

Just once, we’d love to see an accused Catholic official defend himself on the merits, not on technicalities.

If Bishop Finn succeeds in his latest legal maneuver, Missouri will be a more dangerous place for kids. If he guts the state law requiring many adults to report suspected child sex crimes, that will no doubt lead to more child sex crimes and more child molesters going undetected.

No one denies the crux of this case: Finn and his top aides refused to tell police about child sex crimes for at least five months. That’s the plain and simple truth. So it’s hard to imagine a judge dismissing such obvious and self-serving wrongdoing that led to more kids being exploited and hurt. We hope common sense, not Bishop Finn, prevails.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Mary Caplan on February 16, 2012

This weekend, NY Archbishop Timothy Dolan moves up again in the Catholic hierarchy. We’re troubled by this promotion of a prelate who continues to mishandle clergy sex abuse cases. We urge Catholics and citizens to look at Dolan’s performance, not his personality. And we urge Vatican officials to do likewise.

Dolan has been very lucky. He’s worked in states with particularly archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly child sex laws. So when child sex abuse victims and their loved ones are mistreated by church officials, it usually remains hidden because they can’t file lawsuits and expose the wrong doing. And Dolan has followed two relatively cold, callous or corrupt colleagues – Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Cardinal Edward Egan. So his gregarious demeanor is a welcome “breath of fresh air” that distracts observers from his actions and leads many to complacently assume that such a nice guy must surely treat abuse victims better than his predecessors. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be true.

By promoting Dolan, Pope Benedict is essentially rewarding wrongdoing which encourages wrongdoing. That’s what happens often in the Catholic hierarchy.

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PHILIPPINES
ABS-CBNnews.com

Posted at 02/16/2012

MANILA, Philippines – A Filipino priest convicted of child molestation in the United States will face a case before the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

The case of Father Jose Superiaso is a grim reality that needs to be accepted, according to retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz.

Superiaso, who is based in the US, had an intimate relationship with a Filipina and also sexually abused her 12-year-old sister.

In 2005, Superiaso was convicted of child molestation and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 16 February 2012 (VIS) – The Council of Cardinals for the Study of the Organisational and Economic Problems of the Holy See met in the Vatican on Tuesday 14 and Wednesday 15 February under the presidency of Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B.

The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, the Governorate of Vatican City State, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and Vatican Radio. Reports were read out concerning the consolidated budget of the Holy See and of the Governorate of Vatican City State, and the gathering was addressed by Archbishop Giuseppe Versaldi, president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.

According to a communique released this morning, the cardinals present intervened, “expressing their pleasure at the forecast results but not failing to make known their concern at the prevailing general crises, which has not spared even the general economic system of the Vatican. This is evident above all as regards the Holy See, which receives indispensable subsidisation from the free offerings of the faithful. The members of the Council expressed their profound gratitude for the support the faithful give, often anonymously, to the universal ministry of the Holy Father, and exhorted them to continue this good work. Moreover, it was recognised that there is an ongoing commitment to improve the administration of the goods and resources of the Holy See”.

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UNITED STATES
Addicting Info

February 15, 2012
By Zachary Bailes

On February 14th the New York Times published an editorial entitled “His Eminence in Denial” decrying retired Cardinal Edward Egan’s revocation of his apology for the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse cover-ups. Cardinal Egan simply stated, “I should never have done that.” Juxtapose that against the Vatican’s global conference on sexual abuse held last week, and it’s clear that sexual abuse weighs heavy on the Catholic Church. Yet the Catholic Church seemed surprised when people were outraged about the Church’s furious anger about the infringement upon their religious liberty with the Obama Administration’s contraception decision.

The Catholic Church, infuriated about the contraception decision, for decades demonstrated little outrage about sexual abuse. Religious liberty, to be sure, holds center stage in the discussion of rights and liberties. Morally, sexual abuse scandals expose the larger systemic, hierarchical moral bankruptcy of the Catholic Church leadership. Individual Catholic parishioners are not to be blamed for this, but rather the cloak-and-dagger approach supported by the institutional Church for so long.

Cardinal William Levada leads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office charged with enforcing church law, which Pope Benedict XVI held before he became pope in 2005. More than 4000 cases have been reported to his office in the past decade. Cardinal Levada states that those accused of sexual abuse “are a tiny minority of an otherwise faithful, committed clergy.” He continued to say that the Church has an “obligation to cooperate with the requirements of civil law.”

The question at hand is when did it suddenly become an obligation? Why wasn’t cooperation with civil law an obligation before?

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CALIFORNIA
GMA News (Philippines)

A former Catholic priest, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for molesting a girl in California in 2003, may be deported after being freed from prison earlier this year.

According to a report of the news site SFGate, Jose Superiaso, 57, was a former priest at St. Andrew’s Church in Daly City.

Superiaso was ordained in the Philippines and went to the US in 1989 to study at the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Patch

By Casey Meserve

The lawyer for a Plymouth priest placed on leave by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston pending an investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse dating to the early 1980s said his client has been wrongly accused.

William Sullivan, the lawyer who represents the Rev. James E. Braley, said the charge is “unsupported, inaccurate and untruthful.”

Sullivan said Braley, who served in Braintree at Archbishop Williams High School in the 1980s, was shocked to learn of the allegation and wants to clear his name. He said that Braley has received support from his parishioners.

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NEW JERSEY
Voice from the Desert

WHAT:
A sidewalk demonstration by victims of childhood sexual abuse with signs and photos which will: REVEAL the names of four religious order abusers who taught at a northern New Jersey high school and other schools in the NY metropolitan area; SHOW how school and religious order officials kept the information secret for years; EXPLAIN how the religious order that owns and runs the school declared bankruptcy to protect itself from embarrassment and abuse trials; SHOW how bills before the NJ/NY legislatures can expose child abusers.

WHERE:
Outside Bergen Catholic High School, 1040 Oradell Avenue, Oradell, NJ

WHEN:
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 10:30 AM

WHO:
At least three victims of child sex abuse, including a Maine man who is a victim of a Bergen Catholic High School Christian Brother. Also attending will be a former Christian Brother who was abused by Christian Brothers and who founded a non-profit charity that assists victims of child abuse, Road to Recovery, Inc.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Feb. 15, 2012
By Joan Barthel

ST. LOUIS — When Fr. Gerald Kleba volunteered to take over as pastor of St. Cronan Parish 10 years ago, he walked into a devastated parish. Its former pastor, Joe Ross, was a pedophile. Even though he had pleaded guilty to kissing a boy in confession, and had been arrested twice on other charges of sexual misconduct, the St. Louis archdiocese had shuffled him from parish to parish until he was sent to St. Cronan, where he was pastor for 11 years.

“Oh God, the anger of the people here!” Kleba recalled. “I never knew what a hornet’s nest I was getting into. People were angry at Joe Ross, angry at the archbishop for sending him here, angry at me because they couldn’t trust that the archdiocese wasn’t screwing them again.”

The people were not only angry, but resentful. They had wanted to hire a rota of priests for one year, while they collectively considered the next step.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

Leaking of documents, conspiracies, power struggles: Vatican coverage speaks only of this. And so it does not see that in the meantime other things are happening. Not bad, but good things. Precisely the ones desired by the pope

by Sandro Magister

ROME, February 16, 2012 – Tomorrow, the eve of the fourth consistory of his pontificate, Benedict XVI will gather all of the cardinals around himself for a day of “reflection and prayer” on a very lofty theme: “The proclamation of the Gospel today.”

Among the cardinals will be Darío Castrillon Hoyos and Paolo Romeo, the two cardinals who in recent days ended up at the center of a case that is anything but lofty, originating from the anonymous account of a conversation between Romeo and a few Chinese interlocutors, in which they are alleged to have gotten the sense “that an attack on the Holy Father is being planned.”

Having come into possession of this anonymous account – full of speculation about power struggles in the Vatican and the election of the future pope – at the beginning of January, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos sent it to secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone. And on February 10, the complete text appeared on the pages of “Il Fatto Quotidiano”:

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WILMINGTON (DE)
Philadelphia Inquirer

WILMINGTON – Victims of priest sex abuse called on some Catholic Church officials to resign Wednesday in light of internal records documenting how church leaders handled pedophile priests.

The records were required to be released to abuse victims as part of the Diocese of Wilmington’s bankruptcy reorganization plan.

Terence McKiernan, of the watchdog group BishopAccountability.org, said at least three high-ranking church officials responsible for the Wilmington diocese’s efforts to conceal the priest abuse scandal still work for the diocese and should resign. They are Msgr. J. Thomas Cini, vicar general for administration; Msgr. Clement Lemon, vicar for priests; and Msgr. Joseph Rebman, vicar general for pastoral services.

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WILMINGTON (DE)
Catholic Culture

February 16, 2012

Following a bankruptcy settlement that included $77 million in payments to abuse victims, personnel files of priests of the Diocese of Wilmington who committed abuse are being made public.

“The very men who engineered the cover-up of [abuse of] children, who made it a point that predators maintained their anonymity, are still in power today, still hold positions of prestige in this diocese today,” charged Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability.org.

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VATICAN CITY
Sinchew

by Jean-Louis de la Vaissiere

VATICAN CITY, February 16, 2012 (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday will put his stamp of authority on the institution that will elect his successor as he appoints 22 new cardinals in a tense climate in the Vatican administration.

The new “princes of the Church” will be presented with scarlet-red birettas and gold rings at a grandiose ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica that Vatican observers say could increase the chances of the next pope being Italian. …

The consistory comes after days of high-profile leaks, corruption allegations and even a discredited report on a plot to kill the pope, which have raised fears of a power struggle at the heart of the Catholic Church.

One of the reported rumours was that the pope is lining up the archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Angelo Scola, to be his successor. Another alleged that the Vatican’s bank was failing to comply with money laundering rules.

The rumours have all been denied by Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, who this week called for “calm, cold blood and reason” and said the leaks were intended to “sow confusion” and put the Church “in a bad light.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writer

The judge in the child-endangerment trial of a Philadelphia cleric Wednesday denied defense lawyers’ request that she withdraw from the case, saying they took a comment about the prevalence of child sex-abuse in the Catholic Church “completely out of context” to stir controversy.

“Other than the statement that has been distorted and taken out of context, the defense has not and cannot identify a single instance during these lengthy proceedings where I have been other than balanced, fair, and impartial,” Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said.

Sarmina’s ruling came a week after lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn asked her to recuse herself, citing a remark she made during a pretrial conference.

During that Jan. 31 courtroom session to discuss a jury questionnaire, Sarmina rejected a question proposed by Lynn’s lawyers that would have asked prospective jurors if they believed child-sex abuse was a “widespread” problem in the church.

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