ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Feb. 11, 2012 NCR Today

ROME — On Friday, lawyers for the victim in a Wisconsin sex abuse case voluntarily withdrew a lawsuit against the Vatican, which had also named Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinals Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State, and Angelo Sodano, his predecessor, as defendants. The case helped ignite a media firestorm in 2010 about the role of Pope Benedict XVI in the sex abuse scandals, suggesting that while he was still a Vatican official he had delayed action against the late Fr. Lawrence Murphy, accused of molesting some 200 boys at a Milwaukee-area school for the deaf between 1950 and 1974.

See also: Explosive sex abuse lawsuit against Vatican dropped

The following is a statement released on Saturday by California-based attorney Jeffrey Lena, who represents the Vatican in American litigation.

* * *
Statement of Jeffrey S. Lena Regarding John Doe 16 v. Holy See, et al.
(Case No. 2:10-cv-00346 RTR, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin)

On February 10, 2012, Jeffrey R. Anderson, Esq. of the law office of Jeff Anderson and Associates, working together with columnist Marci Hamilton, Esq., filed a voluntary notice of dismissal in the case of John Doe 16 v. Holy See.

The Notice of Voluntary Dismissal — which was filed by the Plaintiff’s lawyers to avoid their duty to submit to the Court a court-ordered response to the Holy See’s Motion to Dismiss — requested that the “Court take notice of this dismissal and remove this matter from its docket.”

With these ignominious words, the John Doe 16 case died silently on a Friday afternoon in what attorney Jeff Anderson has himself called “the crucible of the courtroom.”

Things were different at the beginning of this case. On April 22, 2010, counsel for Plaintiff orchestrated a press event replete with props and other trappings designed to induce a media feeding frenzy. During the frenzy, Plaintiff’s counsel dramatically announced that they held information demonstrating a “world-wide conspiracy” related to sexual abuse that was directed by the Holy See. That outworn and discredited claim was in fact the centerpiece of a planned sequence of media events that took a very serious matter — the sexual abuse of a child – and turned it into a tool to assert fallacious allegations of Holy See responsibility and liability for John Doe 16’s abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Alessandro Speciale| Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY — Catholic leaders on Thursday (Feb. 9) launched an online distance-learning center to help educate church leaders on the prevention of child sex abuse.

Unveiled on the final day of a “Towards Healing and Renewal” conference sponsored by the Vatican, the new online forum will provide training and certificate programs in four languages.

The center will cost 1.2 million euros ($1.92 million) for the first three years, partly funded by the U.S.-based Papal Foundation charity. The Rev. Hans Zollner, one of the conference organizers, stressed that all the foundation’s expenditures are expressly approved by Pope Benedict XVI.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writer

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman asked the county coroner to examine the body of Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua last week because the timing of the 88-year-old prelate’s death struck her as “peculiar,” she said Friday.

Ferman acknowledged that she enlisted county Coroner Walter I. Hofman because the cardinal died one day after a Philadelphia judge said Bevilacqua could be called to testify at the child sex-abuse and endangerment trial of three current and former priests.

“I had the same reaction that many people had and that many people communicated with me,” Ferman told reporters at a news conference in Norristown. “It struck many of us as odd, as peculiar, that the cardinal passed away so suddenly after the court ruling. . . . I just thought that someone should make sure that nothing happened that was inappropriate.”

Ferman said she had no information to suggest that the cardinal was the victim of foul play or an unnatural death. She said her office had not opened an investigation.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Montgomery Media

By Keith Phucas
kphucas@journaleregister.com

When Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua was found dead a day after he was found competent to testify in an upcoming child endangerment case, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman wondered why county officials were not notified and prompted her to ask for a post-mortem examination.

“When that notification did not come, that piqued my interest,” Ferman said at a news conference Friday.

The DA said she learned of the cardinal’s death on the morning news on Jan. 31 and not through law enforcement or other official sources, so she asked a county detective to look into the matter.

“The situation struck me as peculiar, somewhat odd that in that close proximity of time where the Philadelphia court had made that determination about this witness, he all of a sudden was found deceased,” she said.

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UNITED STATES
The Christian Post

By Stoyan Zaimov , Christian Post Reporter

February 11, 2012

Warren Jeffs, the polygamist leader convicted of sexual assault in Aug. 2011, is reportedly still commanding his breakaway Mormon sect from behind bars in Texas and is preparing them for the end of the world.

The 55-year-old spiritual leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) was convicted of aggravated child sexual assault for sexual misconduct with girls aged 12 and 14, and is serving life in prison.

During the trial, Jeffs cited freedom of religion and tried to defend what he insisted was his right to practice plural marriage. He also called himself a living prophet of God and warned that those who opposed him would be humbled by sickness and death.

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UTAH
Los Angeles Times

The onetime spokesman for Warren Jeffs has filed a $100-million lawsuit against the polygamous sect leader, saying Jeffs asked him to falsify church records and arranged a break-in at his excavating business when he refused.

The lawsuit offers a window into the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the reportedly vicious politics of Jeffs, who was recently sentenced to life in prison in Texas for sexually assaulting two young girls whom he said were his spiritual brides.

Former sect spokesman Willie Jessop said in court papers that Jeffs asked him last year to put a letter containing false information in church records, which the sect considers sacred, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. The letter was intended to cast doubt on allegations that Jeffs had married two different underage girls in Texas.

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UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune

Lindsay Whitehurst

The 18-page complaint seeking $100 million to compensate for damage to Willie Jessop’s excavating business is really a fascinating read, with more detail from him on what caused his break with/expulsion from the church and on the nighttime break-in at his business.

(Read the part where Lyle Jeffs allegedly threatens to publicly accuse Willie of adultery, then Willie claims that he knows that Lyle Jeffs and another church leader fathered children with wives who had been reassigned to them — after the women were supposed to have been back with their original husbands. Drama.)

It’ll be interesting to see how this suit goes down. Think we’ll see a legal response from the other side?

Read the lawsuit here.

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TEXAS
Time

By Hilary Hylton / Austin

Six months ago Warren Jeffs, the imprisoned leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), was hospitalized in critical condition, prompting speculation both inside and outside the breakaway Mormon sect about his survival and his successor. Now, thanks to the care he received during a medically induced coma, Jeffs has returned to health and to his cell inside a Palestine, Texas, prison where he appears to be in full command of his flock, issuing a barrage of revelations and edicts. Among them are orders to take away children’s bicycles and to build a massive, amphitheater-like structure on the sect’s West Texas ranch, all in preparation for doomsday.

Convicted of sexual assault in early August, 2011, Jeffs fasted and spent extended time on his knees praying during his trial, leading to his physical collapse 20 days after the verdict. His official Texas-prison mug shot shows an emaciated, hollow-cheeked man with close-cropped hair and piercing eyes. Gone was the tall, lanky, wavy-haired man seen kissing his teenage bride draped in his lap, as depicted in a photograph submitted during his West Texas trial. But while his criminal trials and his self-imposed afflictions have savaged his appearance, they appear not to have diminished his sense of purpose.

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TEXAS
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

What are they plotting? Mysterious stadium at Warren Jeffs’ Church compound sparks fears that paedophile Mormon’s followers are planning ‘Jim Jones-style’ mass suicide

Photos of a stadium being built on the site of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – led by convicted paedophile Warren Jeffs – have emerged, raising concerns about its purpose.

The pictures, taken by a local resident in Eldorado, Texas, have sparked fears that the concrete building could be used for a mass suicide, like that led by Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple in 1978.

Another theory is that the concrete building – measuring 30 feet high and 289 feet across – will house a large statue of polygamist leader Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence for raping two underage girls.

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ROME
NPR

[with audio]

by Sylvia Poggioli

A decade after the clerical sex abuse scandal erupted in the United Sates, Catholic religious officials from all over the world met in Rome this week to tackle the painful topic.

The Vatican endorsed the symposium — called “Toward Healing and Renewal” — the aim of which was changing the culture of how the church deals with cases of pedophile priests.

One of the highlights was a late-afternoon penitential mass on Feb. 7 — apparently the first time a senior Vatican official conducted a service to ask the forgiveness of abuse victims.

In his homily, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who runs the Vatican’s congregation for bishops, called the crisis “a source of great shame and enormous scandal.”

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ROME
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The take-away message from a Vatican-backed symposium on clerical sex abuse was clear: Victims, truth and justice come first. And the church can no longer wait for a crisis to erupt before it begins to address the scandal of abuse.

“We do not need to wait for a bomb to explode. Preventing it from exploding is the best response,” said Philippine Archbishop Luis Tagle.

The archbishop of Manila was one of more than 200 bishops, cardinals, priests, religious and laypeople who attended a landmark symposium Feb. 6-9 in Rome.

The conference aimed to inspire and educate bishops’ conferences around the world as they seek to comply with a Vatican mandate to establish anti-abuse guidelines by May.

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ROME
RKnieuws

ROME (RKnieuws.net) – Het vierdaagse internationaal colloquium dat de Gregoriaanse universiteit in Rome organiseerde om de strijd tegen seksueel misbruik in de Kerk te coördineren zit erop. Het heeft zijn doel niet gemist.

Jezuïet Federico Lombardi, woordvoerder van het Vaticaan, ontkende de geruchten dat de H. Stoel het initiatief maar matig steunde. De belangrijkste discasteriëen en paus Benedictus XVI zelf engageerden zich volkomen voor dit initiatief. De paus liet 1,2 miljoen euro uittrekken voor het Kenniscentrum voor de bescherming van het kind’, aldus Lombardi. Hij wijst ook op de grote inbreng van de Romeinse Curie in het colloquium, met name de toespraken van kardinaal Levada en van mgr. Sicluna en de vraag om vergeving aan de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik door kardinaal Ouellet.

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ITALIA
Il Giornale

di Maurizio Caverzan – 11 febbraio 2012

Lettere, documenti anonimi, complotti omicidi, guerre per la successione. Le stanze vaticane sembrano divenute lo scenario ideale per una spy story fitta di misteri.

Ne sanno qualcosa Dan Brown e i suoi epigoni. Purtroppo, però, qui non siamo al cinema. Ma nel cuore della cristianità, al cospetto di Papa Benedetto XVI, vicario di Cristo sulla terra. E i segnali di profonda preoccupazione per le sorti del popolo di Dio attraversano le gerarchie ecclesiastiche. La Chiesa appare insidiata dall’esterno, scossa al suo interno dagli scandali della pedofilia (su cui si è riflettuto proprio in questi giorni a Roma), minacciata nella serenità dell’attività pastorale. Qualcosa del genere aveva previsto un giornalista e studioso autorevole come Antonio Socci in «Il quarto segreto di Fatima» (Rizzoli). Per la Chiesa sarebbero arrivati tempi difficili, giorni drammatici. Previsioni secondo le quali il contenuto del Terzo segreto affidato dalla Madonna ai pastorelli non sarebbe stato integralmente rivelato nel maggio del 2000 dall’allora segretario di Stato, cardinal Sodano, e successivamente commentato dal prefetto dell’ex Sant’Uffizio, cardinal Ratzinger.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
La Stampa

Giacomo Galeazzi

Un presunto complotto contro Benedetto XVI, la possibilità di un suo decesso «entro 12 mesi» e l’ascesa al Soglio di Pietro del cardinale di Milano, Angelo Scola. «Farneticazioni che non vanno prese sul serio», taglia corto il portavoce vaticano, padre Federico Lombardi in risposta al documento in lingua tedesca consegnato dal cardinale colombiano di Curia, Dario Castrillon Hoyos alla segreteria di Stato e al segretario del Papa don Georg Gaenswein all’inizio di gennaio (datato 30 dicembre 2011) e pubblicato ieri dal «Fatto quotidiano». L’appunto lascia intendere che ci potrebbe essere un attentato «delittuoso» alla vita del Pontefice(«avrebbe soltanto altri 12 mesi da vivere»), riporta dichiarazioni «esposte da persona probabilmente informata» e si riferiscono al viaggio di tre giorni compiuto in Cina a novembre dall’arcivescovo di Palermo, Paolo Romeo, ex diplomatico vicino al decano del Sacro Collegio, Angelo Sodano. Il cardinale che proprio ieri ha festeggiato i cinque anni sulla cattedra palermitana ammette «un viaggio privato in Cina», ma assicura che quanto gli viene attribuito é «del tutto privo di ogni fondamento e appare tanto fuori dalla realtà da non dovere essere preso in alcuna considerazione».

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ITALIA
Zazoom

Vado a presentarvi il documento ufficiale rilasciato da ‘il fatto quotidiano’ come promesso, che riporta informazioni sulla successione del Papa Benedetto XVI che dovrebbe avvenire tra 12 mesi

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Money laundering at the Vatican bank. Corruption in the awarding of Vatican contracts. Even a purported plot to kill Pope Benedict XVI.

The Vatican is being besieged by near-daily leaks of confidential documents and tabloid-style reports of alleged financial mismanagement, political infighting and gossip about who might be the next pope — all coming out at an exceedingly delicate time for the Holy See and Benedict himself.

The frescoed halls of the Apostolic Palace have been buzzing about the leaks, which have emerged as the pontiff prepares for the ceremony next week to crown 22 new cardinals — the princes of the church who will elect his successor.

Such ceremonies always breed unseemly speculation about a future pontiff since they provide a rare chance for cardinals new and old to size one another up. But the Feb. 18 consistory has taken on greater gravitas since the 84-year-old Benedict is showing signs of slowing down.

Conspiracy theorists reading the Italian media of late might also point to another looming date as reason for why the Vatican’s dirty laundry is being aired now: In June, a European commission will decide whether the Holy See has abided by tough international anti-money laundering and anti-terror finance laws.

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CANADA
Edmonton Journal

By Dave Hall, Windsor Star; Postmedia News
February 11, 2012

Four more sexual assault victims of convicted pedophile Rev. William Hodgson Marshall, who preyed on his victims over a 30-year period, have launched separate $3-mil-lion lawsuits against the Basilian priest.

The civil suits by Greg McCullough, David D’Agnillo, Thomas Haberer and an unnamed plaintiff also name the Basilian Fathers of Toronto, Catholic Bishop Ronald Fabbro and the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, alleging none did anything to prevent Marshall from abusing children.

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HOLYOKE (MA)
Daily Hampshire Gazette

By SUZANNE WILSON
Staff Writer

HOLYOKE – On Thursday, at 3 p.m., Jane Pokora, 80, and her brother, Chester Kos, 83, arrived at Mater Dolorosa Catholic Church in Holyoke for their two-hour shift.

Bundled in coats against the cold, the pair, both residents of Chicopee, settled into two side-by-side chairs in the vestibule where space heaters have been set up.

They don’t go into the church itself, where the heat is kept low. “It’s too cold,” Pokora said.

Pokora and Kos are members of the former Mater Dolorosa parish. Now they come here once a week as part of a vigil that began last June to protest the decision by the Springfield Diocese to close the church.

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ROME
Chiesa

She was abused by a priest at the age of thirteen. She is the first victim to have given testimony about her tragedy at an official congress of the Church. Inaugurated in Munich, an international center for the protection of children

by Sandro Magister

ROMA, February 11, 2012 – For the first time at an official assembly of the Catholic Church, a victim of the scandal has spoken, Marie Collins of Ireland, sexually abused by a priest when she was thirteen years old.

An even more significant “first” in that it is connected to what has become for the Church the absolute priority in the fight against this scandal: closeness to the victims.

Marie Collins recounted her life, marked by that wound, on February 6, the opening day of an international symposium entitled “Toward healing and renewal” organized by the Pontifical Gregorian University, with the participation of other Vatican authorities and representatives of 110 episcopal conferences and more than 30 religious orders.

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ROME
HLN (Belgie)

Het vierdaagse symposium in Rome met het oog om de strijd tegen seksueel misbruik in de Kerk op te voeren, is vandaag van start gegaan met de getuigenis van een Iers slachtoffer. Ook verklaarde een psychologisch expert van de Kerk dat er zes fouten gemaakt zijn in de aanpak van de dossiers.

Marie Colins getuigde voor een honderdtal vertegenwoordigers van het wereldepiscopaat, de belangrijkste verantwoordelijken van de Romeinse Curie en een dertigtal verantwoordelijken van de belangrijkste ordes en congregaties. Zij werd vijftig jaar geleden op 13-jarige leeftijd verkracht door de aalmoezenier van het Iers ziekenhuis waar zij verpleegd werd.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

Bisschoppen hebben het onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik in de rooms-katholieke kerk niet tegengewerkt. Dat stelt aartsbisschop Eijk vandaag in een ingezonden brief in het AD. Eerdere berichtgeving van die krant stoelt volgens Eijk op verkeerde informatie.

In het AD meldden slachtoffergroepen vorige week dat bisschoppen de onderzoeken stelselmatig frustreren.

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ROME
Kerknieuws

De Rooms-Katholieke Kerk moet verantwoording afleggen voor de pijn en de verwoesting van de levens van slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik en hun families. Ook moet de kerk erkennen dat de misdaden in het verleden vaak doelbewust werden toegedekt en dat kerkleiders doorgaans weinig of niets ondernamen tegen de daders.

Dat zei Marie Collins, een 64-jarige Ierse activiste die als tiener werd misbruikt door een priester, dinsdag tijdens een conferentie in de Gregoriana Universiteit in Rome.

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VATICAN CITY
euronews via YouTube

http://www.euronews.net/ The Vatican has dismissed an Italian newspaper report that the Pope is being targeted by assassins and would be dead within 12 months.

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VATICAN CITY
National Post (Canada)

By Jean-Louis de la Vaissiere

VATICAN CITY • A “plot” to kill Pope Benedict XVI disclosed Friday is only the latest in a series of rumours, leaks and corruption allegations in what experts believe is a bitter power struggle in the Vatican.

The Holy See’s press office has been forced into overdrive in recent days against multiple reports in Italian media centred mainly on the activities of the Vatican bank and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State.

On Friday, the Vatican dismissed as “delirious” the writings of a cardinal who said he had heard of an unspecified assassination threat on the Pope and also described increasingly confrontational ties between the Pope and Cardinal Bertone.

The document — allegedly written by a Colombian cardinal and quoting declarations reportedly made by Italian cardinal Paolo Romeo, Archbishop of Palermo, during a visit to China — was also dismissed by Cardinal Romeo himself as “absolutely without basis.”

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AUGUSTA (GA)
WRDW

Reporter: Hope Jensen
Email Address: hope.jensen@wrdw.com

AUGUSTA, Ga — An Augusta church is raising some eyebrows both locally and nationally because of a spiritual retreat. It’s not the subject matter that has some upset, but instead the sex offender here to lead it.

The Episcopal Convent of Saint Helena is hosting a guest speaker, Reverend Lynn Bauman. A little over a decade ago, Bauman plead guilty to sexual contact with a young boy, also on a church retreat.

The brochure for the event features a photo and list accomplishment after accomplishment of Bauman. It lists him as a teacher, an author, a retreat master and many more. But it does not mention his criminal history.

In 1999 Bauman plead guilty to indecency with a child by contact and inducing a sexual performance by a child. His victim was 8 years old.

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ROME
The StarPhoenix (Canada)

Agence France-Presse
February 11, 2012

Catholic leaders voiced hope on Thursday that the Vatican’s first-ever summit on clerical child abuse will mark a radical turnaround for the church after decades of cover-ups.

The four-day meeting had opened with a message from Pope Benedict XVI, who has faced thousands of abuse scandals in Europe and the United States since becoming pontiff, calling for “profound renewal of the church at every level.”

Bishops, cardinals and heads of religious orders held frank discussions that stressed the importance of applying the church’s experience in Western countries in recent years to other parts of the world.

Vatican prosecutor Charles Scicluna said he had received over 4,000 reports of abuse over the past decade including 1,000 in the last two years, and he warned bishops would be held to account if they ignored new anti-abuse rules.

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WISCONSIN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on February 09, 2012

A Chicago serial predator priest is trying to win his freedom from a Wisconsin prison. For the safety of kids, we hope he stays behind bars.

Fr. Norbert Maday was convicted in 1994 and given a 20 year sentence for sexually assaulting two boys. We strongly suspect there were many more victims.

The question that must be asked in these cases is this: “Why take the risk of more kids getting hurt?” Knowing Maday’s history and the harm he’s caused, why jeopardize more innocent children?

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CONNECTICUT
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on February 10, 2012

We are grateful to this victim who was brave enough to step forward and wise enough to take legal action.

No amount of money can restore a stolen childhood, shattered trust or devastated faith. Still, these unbiased jurors sent a powerful message – if you ignore and conceal and enable heinous crimes against kids, a day of reckoning will come.

We hope this verdict will help others who’ve been sexually assaulted as kids to speak up, get help, call police, expose wrongdoing and protect kids. There are countless men, women, teens and kids who have been molested and are suffering in shame, silence, and self-blame. We hope they’ll find the courage to get help and start healing.

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CONNECTICUT
The Hour

WATERBURY (AP) — A jury determined Friday that the Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford should pay $1 million in damages to a former altar boy who was sexually abused by a priest decades ago, ruling that the church was reckless and negligent in allowing a known pedophile to have access to children.

The decision, reported by the Hartford Courant followed about three and half hours of deliberations by the Superior Court jury in Waterbury.

The victim, identified in his lawsuit as Jacob Doe, was abused by Father Ivan Ferguson in the early 1980s.

During the weeklong trial, he presented evidence that church officials had allowed Ferguson to have contact with children despite admitting earlier that he had sexually abused other boys.

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AUBURN (NY)
The Post-Standard

By Charles Ellis / The Post-Standard

Auburn, N.Y. — Allegations of sexual abuse by a priest who served for five years in Auburn have been found to be “credible and true” by Rochester’s Diocesan Review Board.

Now, that priest could be defrocked.

The Rev. Dennis Shaw is alleged to have abused two boys under the age of 16 when he was serving at St. Francis of Assisi parish in Rochester in the late 1970s and 1980s. One of the men alleges that the abuse occurred multiple times over a period of several years.

When the initial announcement of an investigation into the charges was made in December 2010, he was placed on administrative leave and not allowed to function as a priest or exercise any public ministry. The Vatican will review the case, the diocese announced from the pulpit at its Masses last weekend.

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CHARLOTTE (NC)
WCNC

by RAD BERKY / NewsChannel 36

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Lawyers for the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte argued in court Friday that a victim of alleged sexual abuse by a priest waited too long to file a lawsuit against the diocese.

The church attorney told the judge the suit should have been filed years ago in a case involving former priest Richard Farwell.

Farwell was a priest at St. Ann Catholic Church in Charlotte in 1984 when the plaintiff, called “John Doe” in the suit, said Farwell molested him in the church rectory.

Lawyers for the plaintiff countered by saying it was not until recently that the full extent of an alleged cover-up by the diocese was discovered.

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BELGIUM
GMA News (Philippines)

TOM HENEGHAN, Reuters February 11, 2012

Belgian Catholics have petitioned their bishops for reforms including ordaining women and married men and allowing laymen to lead church services as ways to counter their growing shortage of priests.

The petition, handed over on Thursday, represented yet another challenge to the Belgian Church, deeply shaken by revelations of clerical sexual abuse that prompted police to raid its offices across the country for evidence of crimes last month.

The 8,235 signatories in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking half of the bilingual country, included politicians and intellectuals as well as about a 10th of all Flemish priests, deacons and lay Church workers. Their reform call echoes similar initiatives in Austria, Germany and Ireland.

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CANADA
The Windsor Star

By Dave Hall, The Windsor Star February 10, 2012

A London lawyer representing sexual assault victims of convicted pedophile Rev. William Hodgson Marshall is calling for a criminal investigation into the “institutional enabling and coverup” which allowed the Basilian priest to prey on his victims for more than 30 years.

Robert Talach, a partner at London law firm Ledroit Beckett, which is representing many of the victims, said “quite frankly, we are getting fed up with the number of cases we’re seeing and it’s time for our criminal justice system to step up and launch an investigation into how these crimes were covered up over time.

“Any institution involved in such crimes should be investigated by the secular authorities and, just like other corporate crimes, face substantial penalties,” he said.

“Instead it seems as if the justice system is leaving it up to individuals to deal with this issue,” said Talach.

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VATICAN CITY
Inside Bay Area

The Associated Press
Posted: 02/11/2012

VATICAN CITY—Lawyers for a man who was sexually abused decades ago by a priest at a Wisconsin school for the deaf have asked a court to dismiss their lawsuit naming Pope Benedict XVI and other top Vatican officials as defendants.

Attorney Jeff Anderson had filed the lawsuit at the peak of a European explosion of the sex abuse scandal in 2010, alleging that the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and his deputies knew about allegations of sexual abuse at St. John’s School for the Deaf and prevented internal punishment of the accused priest, the late Rev. Lawrence Murphy.

The Vatican rejected the lawsuit then as a publicity stunt.

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UNITED STATES
Booman Tribune

by BooMan
Fri Feb 10th, 2012

What I can’t get over is that people like Patrick Lee can say that taking the Pill is “gravely morally wrong” and keep a straight face. When 99% of women use contraception at some point in their lives, it appears obvious that only the truly deranged think there is something gravely morally wrong with using birth control. Yes, I know that the Vatican holds that position but the Pope also wears a funny hat. If Catholics don’t take him even remotely seriously, then why should I? Why should everyone else?

This is a theological problem for the Church and its followers, but it’s only a political problem if the Republicans want to get their asses kicked like they’ve never been kicked before.

Let me make something clear. The priesthood, Bishops, and Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church have got to spend less time lecturing the rest of us about their outdated views on sexual morality, and discover some modern sexual morality:

An attorney says at least 8,000 kids were sexually abused by over 100 priests and other offenders in the Milwaukee Catholic Diocese. Jeffrey Anderson made the assertion yesterday at a court hearing on the first compensation claims filed by abuse victims as part of church’s bankruptcy proceedings. Anderson told Judge Susan Kelley that sealed bankruptcy documents outlined the extent of the abuse. He said the offenders include 75 priests who have not been previously named by the archdiocese. Anderson represents over half of the 570 victims who filed for compensation.

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CALIFORNIA
Google

Each pin represents a city or neighborhood where a Catholic priest or priests suspected of abuse are living, according to an attorney who represents hundreds of plaintiffs who sued the LA Archdiocese for molestation they say was inflicted on them by priests and clergy of the church.

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CALIFORNIA
NBC Southern California

By Frank Snepp

Friday, Feb 10, 2012

Some 200 Catholic priests suspected of sexual abuse are living undetected in communities across California, according to an attorney who represents hundreds of plaintiffs who sued the LA Archdiocese for molestation they say was inflicted on them by priests and clergy of the church.

Ray Boucher has mapped sixty locations where suspect priests live, in cities and towns from northern to southern California, and provided those locations to NBC4 exclusively.

“Many if not all these priests have admitted to sexual abuse,” Boucher said. “They live within a mile of 1,500 playgrounds, schools and daycare centers.”

Since none of the priests has actually been convicted of sex abuse, none can be identified under Megan’s Law, or their whereabouts revealed in related public databases.

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HAWAII
Honolulu Civil Beat

Former Hawaii homeless coordinator Marc Alexander has a new job: as director of development for the state’s oldest and largest homeless shelter, The Institute for Human Services.

IHS sent around a press release a few minutes ago making the announcement. He’ll be reaching out to other organizations in the community to help IHS end homelessness, the press release says.

Alexander has been much in the news for the past month. In January, he resigned as the state’s homeless coordinator amid allegations of sexual misconduct as a priest. While those questions continue to be raised by critics of the Catholic Church and others, other questions are being asked about whether Gov. Neil Abercrombie knew of the concerns. Read Civil Beat’s story on that here.

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HAWAII
Star-Advertiser

Marc Alexander, who resigned last month as state coordinator for homelessness initiatives, has been hired as director of development for the Institute for Human Services, the Iwilei-based homeless service provider announced today.

“We’re very excited to have Marc on board with us in this new role. He brings a wealth of knowledge about the non-profit sector and will be a real asset to IHS,” IHS Executive Director Connie Mitchell said in a news release.

Alexander said, “IHS is a top-notch agency who follows best practices in helping both the homeless and those who are at-risk. I had the opportunity to work closely with them during my time with the State and was impressed with their outcome reporting and service delivery. I’m very happy to be joining their team.”

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

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

7:36 p.m. EST, February 10, 2012
WATERBURY —
A former altar boy who was sexually abused by a priest 30 years ago won a $1 million damage award Friday after a jury found that the Archdiocese of Hartford was reckless and negligent when it appointed the priest, who had a history of child abuse, as principal of the boy’s parochial grammar school.

“This is validation that things that occurred in the past were not my fault or the fault of any of the victims,” said the former altar boy, now an adult businessman and father of two. “This is the most important part of my healing process. This predator was placed in a position where he could hurt me. I’m hoping that other victims can begin their healing process and the church does the right thing going forward.”

An emotional, civil jury of four women and two men delivered the verdict at mid- morning Friday after barely four hours of deliberation. The finding for the victim, identified in court papers as Jacob Doe, followed what is believed to be the first public trial of a sexual abuse claim against the archdiocese.

Some jurors were still trying to compose themselves as they left the courthouse.

“We were trying so hard to do what was right by everybody, and I don’t think I can talk right now,” said forewoman Mary Pat Noonan. “We were working very hard together to be fair … and we are very proud of the job we did.”

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CANADA
The Sault Star

By Brian Kelly

Elizabeth McKenna will never get the apology she always wanted.

Rev. Francis Reed, the Catholic priest who allegedly sexually abused her for a decade, died Jan. 31 in Newcastle, England.

Reed was ordained in 1964. He was assigned to Blessed Sacrament parish on Cathcart Street where he met a 17-year-old McKenna that same year.

“I had always held out a miniscule hope that before he left this Earth he would fully acknowledge what he did and perhaps apologize to me,” said McKenna.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

BREDA O’BRIEN

MARIE COLLINS made news all around the world this past week. Her passionate and graphic description of what it is like to be abused by a priest, and then to find religious authorities dismissive and obstructive when she revealed the crime, seems to have stunned some bishops into finally understanding the depth of harm caused by sexual abuse.

She spoke at the “Towards Healing And Renewal” conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and says that she found it a “huge changing point” for her, because she could see real commitment to reform and accountability.

I don’t think there is a person in the country who doesn’t fervently wish that the conference will mark a huge changing point, not just for Marie Collins, but for the church in general.

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PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

By Jerome Aning, Leila B. Salaverria
Philippine Daily Inquirer
5:23 am | Saturday, February 11th, 2012

MANILA, Philippines—A party-list lawmaker on Friday said the usual reaction of victims of sexual abuse by members of the Philippine clergy was to keep silent, either in deference to the Church or for fear of scandal.

In at least one case, the clergy sought to protect its own by simply moving the priest to another parish, Gabriela Representative Luz Ilagan told the Inquirer.

“In our culture, where there is a long history of control by the Catholic Church, there is deference to them. And then the victims feel shame. Their emotions get all mixed up, so they are afraid to report what happened,” Ilagan said. “Who will believe you? You are complaining against someone who has moral ascendancy.”

Victims also keep the abuse to themselves because they don’t want the stigma associated with it and because they feel they would be dishonored if they revealed what happened, she said.

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NEW YORK
The Citizen

Justin Murphy The Citizen | Posted: Friday, February 10

Former Holy Family Pastor Dennis Shaw has been fired from his part-time job at the Auburn YMCA, the latest fallout from allegations that he sexually abused two boys while serving at a Rochester area church in the late 1970s.

Shaw, who was pastor at Holy Family from 2005 until his dismissal in December 2010, had worked mornings behind the front desk at the YMCA for about 25 hours a week since last summer.

An investigation by the Roman Catholic Church Diocese of Rochester determined that he sexually abused two boys under the age of 16 in the late 1970s and early 1980s when he was pastor at the now-closed St. Francis of Assisi Church in Rochester.

Last week, a diocesan review board confirmed the investigation’s findings and forwarded the matter to the Vatican for final resolution.

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VATICAN CITY
Prensa Latina (Cuba)

Rome, February 10 (Prensa Latina) The Vatican underestimated on Friday a report released by an Italian newspaper about an alleged plot to assassinate Pope Benedict XVI in November, but did not denied the article.

“I have not denied the existence of this document, but it is clear that this is something that can not be taken seriously,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told a television channel.

The newspaper Il Fatto Cuotidiano reported on Friday that Cardinal Dario Castrillon took to the Vatican Secretary of State, a text, written in German, on a conversation of the Archbishop of Palermo, Paolo Romeo, during his trip to China last November.

Bishop Romeo expected with certainty concern the Pope’s death in November 2012, said the newspaper that quoted the document.

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TEXAS
Houston Chroncile

By Susan Carroll

The CEO/president of Catholic Charities Galveston-Houston has announced plans to resign after more than six years at the helm of the nonprofit organization.

The organization confirmed the departure of Bonna Kol in a statement but did not respond to questions about whether her resignation was connected to the fallout from a sexual abuse scandal at St. Michael’s Home for Children. …

Kol’s resignation comes about four months after the organization found itself at the center of a major scandal for attempting to cover up the sexual abuse of an 8-year-old boy at one of its shelters for immigrant children.

The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement issued a scathing report that found the group’s senior management “deliberately misled” federal officials about a July 1 sexual assault at one of the shelters run through its St. Michael’s Home for Children.

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NEW YORK
WSYR

Auburn (WSYR-TV) – A former priest has been fired from the Auburn YMCA after a report found sex abuse allegations against him are credible.

Dennis Shaw worked at the YMCA’s front desk from last summer, up until this week.

That’s when the Rochester Diocese released its findings claiming Shaw abused two boys under 16 years old.

They say sexual abuse started in the late 1970s at the St. Francis Assisi Church in Rochester and one of the victims claims it happened over a period of several years

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CANADA
CBC

A former Catholic priest has been sentenced to three years in prison for sexually assaulting more than a dozen boys who were in his care in the 1970s and 1980s, when he was in charge of a school dormitory in the Quebec City region.

Raymond-Marie Lavoie, 71, pleaded guilty last year to assaulting 13 boys.

The crown prosecutor had recommended he be given an eight-year sentence, but the judge in the case decided that was too long.

The three-year sentence is a disappointment to Frank Tremblay, one of Lavoie’s victims who was just 13 years old when he was first assaulted by the former priest.

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UNITED STATES
Irish Central

Cahir O’Doherty

Let’s pause in the middle of this clearly manufactured ‘controversy’ between the White House and some Catholic leaders over the new rule on providing contraception to consider the following.

Yesterday attorney Jeffrey Anderson revealed at least 8,000 children were sexually abused by over 100 priests and other offenders in the Milwaukee Catholic Diocese.

Anderson told Judge Susan Kelley that sealed bankruptcy documents gave the true picture of the massive extent of the abuse there. He added that the offenders included 75 priests who have not been previously named by the archdiocese.

I bring this up because the disconnect between the church’s concern for life at conception as apposed to life-in-process has always been very striking. I’m not the first to have noticed this, of course, but I’m amazed that it continues without censure in the media.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Independent

By Nick Squires, Rome

Friday February 10 2012

THE Pope will die within the next 12 months, a senior Vatican figure has reportedly claimed amid fears of an assassination plot.

The sensational prediction was allegedly made by Cardinal Paolo Romeo, the archbishop of Palermo in Sicily, on a recent visit to China.

Cardinal Romeo reportedly made the startling prediction of the Pope’s death during a trip to China in November 2011.

He seemed so sure of the fact that the people he spoke with, including Italian businessmen and Chinese representatives of the Catholic Church, were convinced that he was talking about an assassination attempt.

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VATICAN CITY
ADN (Italy)

Vatican City, (AKI) – The Vatican is reportedly investigating an Italian cardinal’s prophesy that Pope Benedict XVI will die in November.

Cardinal Paolo Romeo, the archbishop of Sicily’s largest city Palermo, in November during a trip in China envisioned Benedict’s death., according to a report by the Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper.

Those privy to Romeo’s prediction believed that it could involve the assassination of the pontiff, according to the report. Dario Castrillon Hoyos, a senior Colombian cardinal, in early January delivered an anonymously written memo regarding the vision to Vatican secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone, the Church’s second-in-command.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi didn’t deny the existence of the memo but referred to the memo as “ramblings that aren’t taken seriously.”

The memo was circulated in German, probably to reduce the danger that it could be understood and leaked.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Feb. 10, 2012 NCR Today

ROME — In response to a report today about a secret letter from a former high-ranking Vatican cardinal warning of a plot to kill Pope Benedict XVI within the year, a Vatican spokesperson today said it consists of “ravings which in no way should be taken seriously,” and is “so incredible as to defy comment.”

The report, carried by the Italian paper Il Fatto Quotidiano, is based on a letter allegedly penned by Colombian Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, 82, who served from 1996 to 2006 as the Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy.

In the letter, which carries the date of Dec. 30, 2011, Castrillón supposedly relays information provided by Cardinal Paolo Romeo of Palermo in Sicily, regarding a plot to kill Benedict XVI within twelve months. The letter also speculates that Benedict’s successor would be Italian Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

In the teeth of what it regards as inaccurate or biased media coverage, the Vatican has traditionally adopted a posture that might be described as serene indifference: “This affair will be forgotten tomorrow, but we will still be here in a thousand years,” or so the theory goes.

Coupled with that lofty view is often a grubbier bit of PR wisdom: You risk giving a story legs simply by responding to it.

Taken together, those cautions historically have meant the Vatican rarely responds to hostile coverage, and when it does, its public statements are usually slow, measured, and parsimonious. (When a furor erupted in early 2010 over an alleged plot by senior Vatican personnel to sabotage an Italian journalist named Dino Boffo, for instance, the Vatican maintained a steady silence for 18 full days.)

Of late, however, we’ve seen a break with form, as the Vatican has instead come out swinging.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

Andrea Vogt in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Friday 10 February 2012

Claims of a bizarre plot to assassinate Pope Benedict XVI are reverberating through Italy in what observers say signals the latest twist in an increasingly cutthroat internal Vatican power dispute.

The Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano published the sensational “mordkomplott” letter detailing an alleged plot against the pope on its front page on Friday. Despite a Vatican spokesman’s claiming it was “nonsense not to be taken seriously”, the content of the anonymous warning letter, dated 30 December 2011, was reported widely in Italian and German media.

The letter was delivered in early January to the Vatican secretary of state, Tarcisio Bertone, and the pope’s private secretary, Georg Gänswein, by Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos of Colombia, according to Il Fatto Quotidiano. The paper suggested it had been written in German to avoid attracting the attention of certain Vatican officials while communicating clearly and directly with close advisers to the pope, who is German.

Labelled “strictly confidential for the Holy Father”, the detailed letter reports several conversations that Cardinal Paolo Romeo, the archbishop of Palermo, allegedly had with Italian businessmen in Beijing on a trip last November during which he predicted the pope would die within 12 months and suggested his replacement would be Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican on Friday dismissed as “delirious” an Italian newspaper report that said Pope Benedict would be assassinated within 12 months.

“This is obviously delirious raving that cannot be taken seriously in any way,” said Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican’s chief spokesman.

The newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano ran a front-page story, picked up by Italian state television, that said a cardinal wrote a secret note to a superior in the Vatican that he had heard about a plot to kill the pope within a year.

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VATICAN CITY
GMA News

JEAN-LOUIS DE LA VAISSIERE, Agence France Presse February 11, 2012

VATICAN CITY – A “plot” to kill Pope Benedict XVI disclosed Friday was only the latest in a series of rumors, leaks and corruption allegations in what experts believe is a bitter power struggle in the Vatican.

The Holy See’s press office has been forced into overdrive in recent days against multiple reports in Italian media centred mainly around the activities of the Vatican bank and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

On Friday, the Vatican dismissed as “delirious” the writings of a cardinal who said he had heard of an unspecified assassination threat on the pope and also described increasingly confrontational ties between the pope and Bertone.

The document — allegedly written up by a Colombian cardinal and quoting declarations reportedly made by Italian cardinal Paolo Romeo during a visit to China — was also dismissed by Romeo himself as “absolutely without basis.”

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VATICAN CITY
Telegraph (United Kingdom)

The Pope will die within the next 12 months, a senior Vatican figure has reportedly claimed

By Nick Squires, Rome
10:39AM GMT 10 Feb 2012

The sensational prediction was allegedly made by Cardinal Paolo Romeo, the archbishop of Palermo in Sicily, on a recent visit to China.

Cardinal Romeo reportedly made the startling prediction of the Pope’s death during a trip to China in November 2011.

He seemed so sure of the fact that the people he spoke with, including Italian businessmen and Chinese representatives of the Catholic Church, were convinced that he was talking about an assassination attempt.

They were so alarmed by his remarks that they reported them back to the Vatican.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

Media accounts that Pope Benedict the XVI would be assassinated within the next 12 months are unfounded, the Vatican says.

Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano ran a report Friday, Feb. 10, containing excerpts from a confidential document outlining comments made by Cardinal Paolo Romeo, the archbishop of Palermo in Sicily, that the Pope would die within the next year, the Telegraph reports.

The comments were spoken during the Pope’s visit to China in November, and officials allegedly thought Romeo was talking about a plot to kill the Pope.

The report also stated Romero indicated Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, would become the next Pope, the Guardian reports.

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VATICAN CITY
Toronto Star

The Vatican is vehemently denying a newspaper report of a document spelling out a plot to assassinate Pope Benedict XVI by November.

The Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano on Friday published what it called a “top secret confidential” document written in German about a cardinal’s conversation in China that was delivered to Benedict by Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos last month.

The “death plot” document, the newspaper said, provides details of an alarming conversation Cardinal Paolo Romeo, the archbishop of Palermo, had during a visit to Beijing.

Romeo told his hosts last November the pope would be dead by November 2012, the document alleged.

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VATICAN CITY
National Post (Canada)

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI could be the target of an assassination plot, according to a document published on Friday by the Il Fatto Quotidiano daily which the Vatican dismissed as “delirious.”

The newspaper published a confidential document dated December 30, 2011 which was apparently sent by retired Colombian cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos to the Vatican warning of unspecified plans to kill the pope.

Castrillon Hoyos reportedly met the pope in January to discuss the threat.

The document from the Colombian cardinal says that the plot was mentioned by the archbishop of Palermo Paolo Romeo during a visit to China in November.

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CANADA
The Windsor Star

By Dave Hall

WINDSOR, Ont. — Four more sexual assault victims of convicted pedophile Rev. William Hodgson Marshall, who preyed on his victims over a 30-year period, have launched separate $3-million lawsuits against the Basilian priest.

The civil suits by Greg McCullough, David D’Agnillo, Thomas Haberer and an unamed plaintiff also name the Basilian Fathers of Toronto, Catholic Bishop Ronald Fabbro and the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, alleging none did anything to prevent Marshall from abusing children.

Marshall, now 89, was sentenced June 9 in a Windsor court to two years in prison for molesting children. He pleaded guilty to 17 counts of indecent assault between 1952 and 1985 in Windsor, Sudbury and Toronto where the Basilian taught.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Associated Press

By PATRICK WALTERS, Associated Press

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A suburban Philadelphia prosecutor is investigating the recent death of a Roman Catholic cardinal because of what she called odd timing.

Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua (beh-vih-LAH’-kwah) died on Jan. 31 at age 88. Church officials say Bevilacqua was suffering from dementia and cancer.

A day earlier, a Philadelphia judge had found him competent to testify at the child-endangerment trial of his longtime aide. Defense lawyers for Monsignor William Lynn say he kept accused priests in ministry on orders from Bevilacqua.

District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman of Montgomery County said Friday she doesn’t want “speculation swirling” about how he died.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

The trial for a San Francisco man accused of beating a priest at the Los Gatos Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in May of 2010 is now scheduled to begin March 26.

Prosecutor Vicki Gemetti explained attorneys representing William Lynch didn’t appear as scheduled for a Feb. 2 hearing at the Santa Clara County Courthouse due to weather conditions.

Lynch, 44, is being represented by Pat Harris and Mark Geragos, with the Los Angeles-based law firm of Geragos & Geragos.

The hearing next month will set the trial in motion, beginning with pre-trial motions, jury selection and the presentation of the evidence, Gemetti explained.

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VATICAN CITY
Il Fatto Quotidiano

A note delivered to the Pontiff by cardinal Castrillon a month ago, reports what archbishop of Palermo, cardinal Romeo, said in one of his conversations in China last November: “His interlocutor thought, with fear, that the Pope would be the victim of an attack”. Scola could be his successor. The spokesman of the Holy See, Lombardi: “So incredible we cannot comment on”.

Mordkomplott. “Plot of death”. It is somehow unbelievable to read on a strictly confidential document how an influential Cardinal, such as archbishop of Palermo Paolo Romeo, predicts Pope Benedict’s death no further than November 2012. Being so sure about the death period he made the interlocutors think of the existence of a plot to kill Benedict XVI. The exclusive content published by Il Fatto Quotidiano reveals a note written by anonymous dated Dec. 30th 2011. In Early January, the note was delivered by Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos to the secretary of State and the secretary of the Pope. Castrillon also suggested making inquiries to understand whom exactly archbishop Romeo talked to while in China.

The Pontiff was told about the content of the note by cardinal Castrillon in person in mid January, during a private hearing. The document opens with a premise in upper case letters: “Stricly confidential”. Although many books have been written about Vatican conspiracies and the suspect death of John Paul I, these circumstances are surely uncommon. No one ever before putted on paper a plot to kill the Pope. A scheme that can have his final showdown in November, due to the deep divisions in the Holy corridors that picture the Pope opposed to secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone the day before an alleged succession.

THE PLOT AND ITS MAIN CHARACTERS.

Archbishop of Milan Angelo Scola will be Pope Ratzinger intended successor, the document says.

A document that is written completely in German, Pope Benedict’s mother language. The note has a long object line in bold: “Archbishop of Palermo, cardinal Paolo Romeo’s trip to Beijing on November 2011. During his hearings in China, cardinal Romeo foreshadows the death of Pope Benedict XVI within 12 months. Cardinal Romeo was told of a serious death plot by a well informed source. He was so sure and resolute, his interlocutors in China thought of the existence of an attack scheme against the Holy Father.”

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CITTA DEL VATICAN
Il Fatto Quotidiano

[documento]

Sotto riportiamo il documento integrale tradotto dal tedesco, con in testa la scritta “strettamente confidenziale” e la data 30. 12. 2011

Oggetto: Viaggio del Cardinale Paolo Romeo (* 20 febbraio 1938 ad Acireale, Provincia di Catania, Italia), Arcivescovo di Palermo, a Pechino a novembre 2011.

Durante i suoi colloqui in Cina, il Cardinale Romeo ha profetizzato la morte di Papa Benedetto XVI entro i prossimi 12 mesi. Le dichiarazioni del Cardinale sono state esposte, da persona probabilmente informata di un serio complotto delittuoso, con tale sicurezza e fermezza, che i suoi interlocutori in Cina hanno pensato con spavento, che sia in programma un attentato contro il Santo Padre.

Viaggio a Pechino: Nel novembre 2011 il Cardinale Romeo si è recato con un visto turistico a Pechino, dove, di fatto, non ha incontrato nessun esponente della Chiesa Cattolica in Cina, bensì uomini d’affari italiani, che vivono o meglio lavorano a Pechino, e alcuni interlocutori cinesi. A Pechino il Cardinale Romeo ha dichiarato di essere stato inviato personalmente da Papa Benedetto XVI per proseguire, o meglio verificare i colloqui avviati dal Cardinale Dario Castrillón Hoyos a marzo 2010 in Cina. Inoltre ha affermato di essere l’interlocutore designato del Papa per occuparsi in futuro delle questioni fra la Cina e il Vaticano. In un colloquio confidenziale, il Cardinale Romeo ha informato i suoi interlocutori in Cina di aver curato durante la sua attività svolta per conto del Servizio diplomatico della Santa Sede presso le rappresentanze papali nelle Filippine, i contatti con la Chiesa Clandestina RKK 1 e di essere, in virtù di questa sua esperienza, l’interlocutore adatto per curare le questioni fra la Cina e il Vaticano.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Il Fatto Quotidiano

Il documento esiste ed è stato consegnato ma “non è stato preso in alcun modo in considerazione, perché sono solo farneticazioni”, con queste parole padre Federico Lombardi, direttore della Sala Stampa vaticana, conferma lo scoop del Fatto Quotidiano su un presunto complotto ai danni di Benedetto XVI. In sostanza la Santa sede conferma l’appunto esclusivo pubblicato dal nostro giornale e nel quale si parla del cardinale siciliano Paolo Romeo che avrebbe rivelato quanto ascoltato in Cina durante un viaggio avvenuto a novembre: “Entro 12 mesi il Papa morirà”. Parole che sarebbero state raccolte dal cardinale Dario Castrillòn Hohyos che avrebbe redatto l’appunto a dicembre e lo avrebbe inviato a Benedetto XVI a gennaio.

“Sicuro di sé, come se lo sapesse con precisione – si legge nel documento pubblicato dal Fatto Quotidiano – il Cardinale Romeo ha annunciato che il Santo Padre avrebbe solo altri 12 mesi da vivere. Durante i suoi colloqui in Cina ha profetizzato la morte di Papa Bendetto XVI entro i prossimi 12 mesi. Le dichiarazioni del Cardinale sono state esposte da persona probabilmente informata di un serio complotto delittuoso con tale sicurezza e fermezza, che i suoi interlocutori in Cina hanno pensato con spavento, che sia in programma un attentato contro il Santo Padre”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

An authentic, but obviously inconclusive, note unleashes a turmoil over a hypothetical conspiracy to possibly assassinate the Pope

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

Not a day goes by now without some sort of confidential note fromt he Vatican being leaked. What Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano publishes today is a document sent to the Pope on 30 December. It is a “confidential” note that Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, former Prefect of the Congregation of the Clergy, received from a friend and concerns the possibility of a “criminal conspiracy” to eliminatethe Pope. The alleged “source” cited in the text, is Cardinal Paolo Romeo, Archbishop of Palermo, a former nuncio in Italy, who, during a trip to Beijing in November 2011, had spoken with some Chinese interlocutors of the possibility that Benedict XVI will die within a year and the possibility that his successor will be the Italian Cardinal Angelo Scola, patriarch of Venice and a few months now, the new Archbishop of Milan.

It should be said firstly that the note published by the newspaper is authentic. It was actually received by the Secretary of State, where after a first reading and a few laughs, it was not given the least weight, even if it was sent to the Pope.

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

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

12:25 p.m. EST, February 10, 2012
WATERBURY —
A Superior Court jury decided Friday morning that the Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford had been reckless and negligent and that a former altar boy sexually abused three decades ago by a priest the church knew to be a pedophile should receive $1 million in damages.

The two men and four women on the jury deliberated for about two hours Thursday afternoon and an hour and a half Friday.

The now-adult victim, identified in his suit as Jacob Doe, said the verdict valdiates “that things that occurred in the past were not my fault or the fault of any of the victims. …This is the most important part of my healing process.”

Doe added: “This predator was placed in a position where he could harm me and my friend. … I’m hoping that other victims can begin their healing process, and the church does the right thing going forward.”

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CONNECTICUT
The Republic

WATERBURY, Conn. — A jury has ruled that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford should pay $1 million in damages to a former altar boy who was sexually abused by a priest decades ago.

The Hartford Courant (http://cour.at/ze6dww ) reports the Superior Court jury in Waterbury delivered the verdict Friday after about three and a half hours of deliberations.

The jury found the archdiocese was reckless and negligent in its handling of the priest, Ivan Ferguson.

The victim presented evidence that Ferguson was allowed contact with children in the early 1980s despite admitting earlier that he had sexually abused other boys.

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BELGIE
De Morgen

Journalist Roel Verschueren is de auteur van de International clergy sexual abuse news monitor. Hij is rechtspartij en bewindvoerder van de groepsvordering tegen de kerkelijke oversten.

Wat staat de Belgische slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik de komende maanden te wachten? Veel, zoveel is zeker. Er wordt verwacht dat ze beslissen. Waarschijnlijk een van de belangrijkste beslissingen uit hun leven en de tijd begint te lopen. De richtingen die ze uitkunnen op een rijtje.

Piste 1: niets doen
Met de sinds jaren opgebouwde degout tegenover welke niet-oplossing dan ook, kan een slachtoffer vandaag gewoon beslissen dat deze hele heisa aan hem/haar voorbij gaat. Vanuit de overtuiging dat niemand in staat is om voor de nodige erkenning en compensatie te zorgen die voor hem of haar te lang is uitgebleven. Nogal wat slachtoffers zijn moe, hebben niet de energie om de hele mallemolen (nog eens) te doorlopen. Ik ken ze, en respecteer hun mening. Deze overlevers moeten dan ook aanvaarden dat na 31 oktober 2012, de aangeboden pistes (arbitrage of mediatie) definitief gesloten zullen worden.

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HAWAII
Honolulu Civil Beat

By Chad Blair
02/10/2012

Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s office was warned in an email about inappropriate sexual behavior by Marc Alexander shortly after he was appointed homeless coordinator, two people who handled correspondence for the administration told Civil Beat.

Alexander resigned “to attend to personal matters” a year later after an activist threatened to make public a woman’s allegations against him when he was a Catholic priest.

Joseph Woodard and Carolyn Golojuch say they worked in the governor’s Office of Constituent Services when the email came in.

When Alexander resigned last month, the governor’s spokeswoman told Civil Beat he didn’t learn of the allegations until Mitch Kahle, leader of Hawaii Citizens for the Separation of State and Church, reached out recently.

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CANADA
Nanaimo Daily News

Published: Friday, February 10, 2012

QUEBEC – A Quebec priest who pleaded guilty to multiple counts of sexual assault involving 13 boys who attended a private Catholic school during the 1970s and ’80s was sentenced Friday to three years in jail.

Raymond-Marie Lavoie was a teacher at Seminaire St-Alphonse, in Ste. Anne de Beaupre, just outside Quebec City, when the assaults took place.

The 71-year-old priest asked his victims for forgiveness and mercy when he pleaded guilty last fall.

Lavoie’s victims were all boarders at the college and were between the ages of 12 and 15 at the time.

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BELGIUM
Chicago Tribune

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Belgian Catholics have petitioned their bishops for reforms including ordaining women and married men and allowing laymen to lead church services as ways to counter their growing shortage of priests.

The petition, handed over on Thursday, represented yet another challenge to the Belgian Church, deeply shaken by revelations of clerical sexual abuse that prompted police to raid its offices across the country for evidence of crimes last month.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Feb. 10, 2012 All Things Catholic

I’ve been covering the “Toward Healing and Renewal” symposium this week, a major international summit on the sexual abuse crisis organized by Rome’s Jesuit-run Gregorian University and co-sponsored by several Vatican departments. It brought together roughly 100 bishops and religious superiors from around the world ahead of a May deadline from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for bishops’ conferences to submit their anti-abuse policies for review.

Although much of what’s been said was familiar to people who have been living with the crisis for the last decade, the idea was to share this experience with the rest of the Catholic world, especially places where the sexual abuse crisis has not yet exploded, in the hope that for once, church leaders can defuse the bomb before it goes off.

I’ve been filing stories along the way, and I won’t rehash that material here; links to everything are below. Instead, I’ll lay out the big picture to emerge from the summit, which I would express this way: The Vatican has gotten religion on the sexual abuse crisis.

When the scandals in the United States broke a decade ago, reaction in the Vatican was clearly divided between what one might loosely call the “reformers” and the “deniers.” What seems indisputable in the wake of this week’s event, though it was by no means preordained 10 years ago, is that the reformers now have the upper hand.

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PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star

By Bobby Nalzaro
Saksi

Saturday, February 11, 2012

ALL’S well that ends well, so to speak. The Team Ministry of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Minglanilla and lay ministers who demanded the transfer of the priests for committing immoral acts have reconciled.

This following a dialogue with Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma last Monday at the Cebu Catholic Television Network (CCTN) compound under the auspices of brother Dodong Limchua, who heads the Oasis of Love, a charismatic group associated with the Catholic Church.

In that dialogue, the priests headed by their team moderator, Fr. Scipio “Jojo” Deligero, promised the lay ministers and the acolytes that they can resume serving the church.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said today she suggested the county coroner conduct an examination of the body of Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua because the timing of his death struck her as “peculiar”

Ferman said her office is not conducting a criminal inquiry into the death.

The prosecutor addressed the issue a day after county coroner Walter I. Hofman confirmed he examined the body of the 88-year-old prelate and has deferred declaring a cause of death until he see toxicology test results.

Hofman said Thursday he had been asked to conduct the review because the cardinal died one day after a Philadelphia judge said he could be called to testify next month at the child sex abuse and endangerment trial of three current and former priests.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A former priest has been jailed for 10 years after being convicted of 23 sex abuse charges against a young adult and two teenage altar boys

James Donaghy, 53, from Lady Wallace Drive in Lisburn, was described by the judge as a sexual predator whose victims were susceptible by virtue of their religious leanings.

Donaghy stepped down from the priesthood in 2004.

The Catholic Church is holding its own investigation.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

A former priest who used his “ruthless” character, as well as “charm and humour”, to befriend and abuse three victims has been jailed for 10 years.

Judge Patrick Lynch QC told 53-year-old “sexual predator” James Martin Donaghy that his litany of offences and other similar offences had “seriously compromised, perhaps irrevocably” the trust in the priesthood in this country and others.

He also told Donaghy that he had damaged, not just his three victims, but also the reputation of the church and his colleagues – “the great majority of whom are beyond reproach”.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivors Advocates Coalition

Absence can speak with a megaphone.

It did this week in Rome at the symposium on sexual abuse.

It ran for fours days and ended with the opening of an “e-learning center” in Germany.

Pope Benedict XVI was nowhere to be seen. At the symposium, that is.

This symposium was not held in Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, Seattle, Soweto or the south base camp of the South Pole.

It was held within the confines of the city of Rome.

A city where the Supreme Pontiff lives, works, has a car at his disposal for which he does not personally pay for the gas or the diesel fuel to run it.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTAQ

MILWAUKEE (WSAU) An attorney says at least 8,000 kids were sexually abused by over 100 priests and other offenders in the Milwaukee Catholic Diocese. Jeffrey Anderson made the assertion yesterday at a court hearing on the first compensation claims filed by abuse victims as part of church’s bankruptcy proceedings. Anderson told Judge Susan Kelley that sealed bankruptcy documents outlined the extent of the abuse. He said the offenders include 75 priests who have not been previously named by the archdiocese. Anderson represents over half of the 570 victims who filed for compensation.

Victims’ advocate Peter Isley of the Survivors Network questioned how eight-thousand crimes could be committed with no accountability. Isley speculates that some of the offenders belong to religious orders — and the archdiocese claims it’s not responsible for those groups, even though Catholics provide staffing for them. Isley called the matter a “public safety crisis.” The archdiocese said it did not have enough information to respond.

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CHILE
La Segunda

Adelanto de La Segunda: A un año del fallo que condenó a Karadima las víctimas cuentan sus procesos de sanación

El próximo 18 de febrero se cumple el primer año desde que el Arzobispo de Santiago, monseñor Ricardo Ezzati, hiciera público el duro fallo del Vaticano contra el ex párroco de El Bosque, Fernando Karadima, por abusos sexuales reiterados contra menores.

Hoy “La Segunda” recoge el testimonio de José Andrés Murillo, Juan Carlos Cruz y Fernando Batlle, tres de los cuatro principales denunciantes: Critican en duros términos a la Iglesia chilena y cuentan la forma en que han intentado dar vuelta la página.

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CALIFORNIA
The Sacramento Bee

Local pastor Cornelius Taylor was convicted Thursday on eight counts of sexual assault on a minor, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office reported.

A troubled teen with no family support was befriended by Taylor at his church.

She moved in with the pastor and his wife when she was 16 years old, the district attorney’s office reported.

Taylor repeatedly sexually assaulted the girl in incidents that continued after she turned 18 years old.

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MICHIGAN
The Detroit News

By Candice Williams
The Detroit News

Detroit— Three Michigan Court of Appeals judges heard arguments Thursday in a case that could affect if and when church confessions can be used in court. The panel is expected to decide within a few weeks if the pastor of a Belleville church violated the state’s priest-penitent privilege when he testified against a church member during the preliminary exam for a rape case.

Pastor John Vaprezsan of Metro Baptist Church had testified in March that the defendant, Samuel D. Bragg, then 17, had admitted in 2009 to raping a 9-year-old girl two years earlier when she spent the night at his house.

Bragg’s mother was present for the meeting.

Raymond Cassar, Bragg’s defense attorney, said during Thursday’s hearing the confession was privileged communication and cannot be used in court.

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MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

By David Ashenfelter
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Three Michigan Court of Appeals judges appeared likely to apply Michigan’s priest-penitent privilege Thursday in a criminal case involving a Belleville teen who allegedly admitted to his pastor he had sexually assaulted a 9-year-old girl.

The judges in their comments seemed to reject arguments by Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Toni Odette that the privilege didn’t apply because the teen’s mother was present when he confessed and, as a result, his admission was not confidential.

Going along with the prosecution, two of the judges said, would create a nightmare for Michigan trial judges who would have to decide on a case-by-case, denomination-by-domination basis whether a pastor’s statements about such admissions could be used to prosecute a church member.

“I wonder if the real test is what the penitent thinks, not what the pastor thinks,” Judge Elizabeth Gleicher said during the hearing.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

It has emerged that another legal action is pending arising out of the Prime Time ‘Mission to Prey’ programme.

Fr. Kevin Reynolds has already been awarded substantial damages arising out of false allegations made about him in the show which was broadcast in May of last year.

Now fresh High Court proceedings are being taken by a former Catholic Archbishop who alleges he was defamed in the programme.

Richard Burke is originally from Co. Tipperary and is a member of the Catholic Missionary Society.

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ROME
Manila Standard (Philippines)

ROME—A culture of silence across Asia may be keeping many victims of clergy sex abuse there from coming forward, a top Asian church official told a Vatican-backed conference on Thursday.

Monsignor Luis Antonio Tagle, the archbishop of Manila, said Asian deference to church authorities in places like the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Philippines might also have contributed to keeping a lid on reports. He said more and more victims had spoken out in the past five years in the Philippines, but the incidents of priests keeping mistresses still far outpaced the reports of priests preying on children.

Tagle addressed priests and bishops from 110 dioceses and 30 religious orders around the world who came to the four-day conference in Rome to learn how to craft guidelines on how to care for victims, investigate abuse allegations, and keep pedophiles out of the priesthood. The Vatican has set a May deadline for the policies to be submitted to Rome for review.

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UNITED STATES
Catholica (Australia)

Mark Day: Do you agree with the Swiss theologian Hans Kung who asserts that Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, by opposing the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, created a schism in the Catholic Church?

Matthew Fox: Yes, absolutely. A council can trump a pope. A pope can’t trump a council. That’s good theology. What is clear is that these last two popes have broken with every major position the council authorized, including the power of national episcopacies to choose their own bishops, the role of the laity, ecumenism, the renewal of the liturgy, and the movement toward social justice. The Vatican is in schism. Catholics faithful to principles of the Council are not in schism.

Mark Day: You compare today’s church’s hierarchy and the Vatican to a “burning building.” You urge people to salvage only the essentials. What are they?

Matthew Fox: The greatest treasure the church is good people: Fr. Bede Griffiths, Dorothy Day, Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, and so on. We don’t need to travel with basilicas on our backs. We only need are backpacks. The mystics and the prophets—how they did it with their practices and theologies—all this is really worth keeping. We need to preserve the teachings on the sacramentality of the universe, the wisdom tradition from which Jesus comes. And, of course, the tradition of the divine feminine. It is still present In Catholicism because it is pre-modern. The church did not throw out the goddess—but adopted her as the Mary principle.

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ROME
La Croix (France)

Bousculé depuis une dizaine d’années par des affaires pédophiles, le Vatican a mis concrètement l’accent sur la parole des victimes à l’occasion d’un colloque organisé début février 2012 à Rome, où une célébration pénitentielle inédite a été organisée en présence de certaines d’entre elles.

Des Etats-Unis à l’ Irlande, en passant par la Belgique où l’Allemagne, ces affaires d’abus sexuels n’ont épargné ni le clergé diocésain ni les congrégations religieuses, notamment les Légionnaires du Christ, ou la communauté des Béatitudes, dont l’un des membres a été condamné à cinq ans de prison en décembre 2011 par le tribunal correctionnel de Rodez.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
My Fox Philly

[with video]

Fox 29 has learned new details about the death of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

The Montgomery County coroner now says he brought the Cardinal’s body to his offices for examination and toxicology tests.

The 88-year-old’s death came one day after a judge ruled the Cardinal may have to testify in the sex abuse scandal that rocked the Philadelphia archdiocese.

In the days before Cardinal Bevilacqua’s body was carried into the cathedral for his funeral and burial in a crypt, the Montgomery County coroner confirms for Fox 29 News he did call for an examination of the Cardinal’s remains and for some tests to be done.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Patch

By David Powell

Montgomery County Coroner Walter I. Hofman is probing the death of the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua at the request of Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman’s office, according to a report published Thursday night by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Bevilacqua died on Jan. 31 in Wynnewood at the age of 88, a day after Common Pleas Court Judge Teresa Sarmina ruled that he could be compelled to take the witness stand in the child sex abuse trial of three priests who served in the archdiocese during his 15-year leadership.

According to the Inquirer report, Hofman conducted a postmortem examination of Bevilacqua’s body after it had already been embalmed by a funeral home in Upper Darby. Hofman’s office returned Bevilacqua’s body to the funeral home Tuesday, prior to its interment later that day in the crypt of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Jim Melwert

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – KYW Newsradio has learned toxicology tests were done on the body of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua following his death.

Toxicology tests were done the day after Cardinal Bevilacqua died.

Coroner Walter Hofman says he will not issue a cause of death until he sees the results, which he says will take a few weeks.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Washington Post

Coroner examined body of Philadelphia cardinal who died after being found competent to testify

By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, February 10

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — A county coroner says he examined the body of late Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua (beh-vih-LAH’-kwah) at the request of prosecutors because of the odd timing of his death a day after he was found competent to testify at a high-profile church sex abuse trial.

Montgomery County Coroner Walter Hofman says county prosecutors contacted him after the 88-year-old Bevilacqua died Jan. 31 at a Wynnewood seminary.

Hofman tells The Philadelphia Inquirer (http://bit.ly/w0PV93 ) he didn’t conduct an autopsy but did see Bevilacqua’s body and order toxicology tests. The test results are pending.

Church officials say Bevilacqua was suffering from cancer and dementia.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

[with video]

By Shelley Laurence and Dan Stamm

Friday, Feb 10, 2012

The day after Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua died, officials in Montgomery County asked the coroner to investigate the Catholic leader’s death.

The 88-year old Cardinal died on Jan. 31, a day after a judge found him competent to testify in the trial of a former aide.

That aide, Msgr. William Lynn, is accused of hiding predator priests by shuffling them from church to church. His trial is scheduled for next month. Bevilacqua wasn’t charged in the case.

Church officials say the Cardinal was suffering from cancer and dementia.

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NEDERLAND
RTV Oost

Het leed van de voormalige misdienaars van de parochie in Albergen, die seksueel zijn misbruikt, moet erkend worden. Ook moeten de aartsbisschop van Utrecht, het kerkbestuur van de parochie Albergen en kardinaal Simonis verontschuldigingen aanbieden en spijt betuigen. Dat oordeelt de klachtencommissie van het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik RKK.

De zaak in Albergen kwam aan het rollen nadat Frank Oude Geerdink begin 2010 openlijk in de media sprak over het misbruik. Daarna meldden meer slachtoffers zich. Ze waren allemaal slachtoffer van een inmiddels overleden pastoor die in 1974 werd benoemd. De inwoners van Albergen wisten bij zijn aanstelling niet dat de pastoor in zijn voormalige standplaats Arnhem als kapelaan was betrapt op seksueel misbruik van een minderjarige.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCTV

[with video]

By Laura McCallister, Multimedia Producer
By Jonathan Carter, Reporter

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) –
Another lawsuit has been filed against the Kansas City area Catholic Diocese. The allegations accuse a now-dead priest of abusing a young boy in the 70s.

The lawsuit names the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and, in particular, Father James Ford who died in 1992.

According to SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, Ford abused the victim in the 70s. The group also alleges Ford, who left the priesthood in 1986, died of AIDS.

SNAP official Barbara Dorris said the lawsuit is the result of a broken trust between the diocese and the community.

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NEDERLAND
Haarlems Dagblad

HAARLEM – De onthullingen over kindermisbruik in het rooms-katholieke bisdom Haarlem-Amsterdam breiden zich uit als een olievlek. Vooral het seminarie Hageveld wordt genoemd. In kindertehuis Het Witte Huis in Driehuis, geleid door de zusters van De Voorzienigheid, zouden drie zusjes door nonnen zijn misbruikt.

Bij de Koepelorganisatie Landelijk Overleg Kerkelijk Kindermisbruik (Klokk) lopen momenteel enkele ‘ten hemel schreiende zaken’ tegen het voormalige seminarie Hageveld in Heemstede. Het misbruik voltrok zich in de jaren zestig en zeventig.Machtspositie

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HAWAII
HawaiiNewsNow

[with video]

By Jim Mendoza

KALIHI (HawaiiNewsNow) – In the 1950s, Brother Thomas Cuthbert Ford pleaded guilty to beating a boy in a New Jersey orphanage. He was Damien Memorial School’s dean from 1972 to 1975.

Brother Robert Brouilette was convicted of child porn after he taught religion and history at Damien in the seventies and eighties.

Father Gerald Funcheon was Damien’s chaplain and counselor from 1982 to 1984, and the subject of three child sex assault lawsuits on the mainland.

“These men were predators. They’re superiors knew that they were predators,” said Joelle Casteix, western regional director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

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IRELAND
Vatican Insider

A note from the Bishops’ Conference, reported by the Sir, provides information and costs that prove the commitment of the national church

Vatican Insider Staff
Rome

Irish bishops deny the statement which circulated in Ireland and «greatly misrepresents reality», according to which victims of abuse have not received any apology, compensation and therapeutic aid.

In particular, it mentioned the “Towards Healing” service which is «jointly funded by bishops and religious congregations, provides all levels of confidential counseling and other support services to victims of abuse, with independent and fully accredited therapists».

The counseling is offered to victims within seven days after initial contact with the service. Since 1997, «Towards Healing» has provided counseling and other support services to over 5,000 victims of abuse committed by clergy and religious, for a total of 250,000 separate sessions.

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ROME
The Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW in Rome

THE PRIMATE of the Irish Church, Cardinal Seán Brady, yesterday expressed the hope that this week’s unprecedented symposium in Rome, Towards Healing and Renewal , might prove to be an “important step” on the Catholic Church’s long and difficult road to healing the damage done by the sex abuse crisis.

Speaking on the last day of the symposium, Cardinal Brady said that the presence of representatives of 110 bishops’ conferences, as well as experts and senior curia figures underlined the significance of the event.

“It is important that this symposium brings home to people how serious this problem is and just what the cost of it is, not just in financial terms but more importantly in moral terms, in terms of the damage, the scandal, the shame,” he continued.

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ROM
Frankfurter Allgemeine

Von Daniel Deckers

Wo sollte der Gedanke ferner liegen, von einem historischen Ereignis zu sprechen, wenn nicht im Blick auf die katholische Kirche, in deren kulturellem Langzeitgedächtnis die Erfahrungen der Menschheit seit zweitausend Jahren gespeichert sind? Und doch drängt sich diese Kategorie in diesen Tagen auf. Denn das Symposion „Auf dem Weg zu Heilung und Erneuerung“, das am Donnerstag in der Päpstlichen Jesuitenuniversität Gregoriana in Rom zu Ende ging, sprengte in Form und Inhalt alles, was sich seit Menschengedenken im Schatten des Vatikans abgespielt hat: Annähernd zweihundert Kardinäle, Bischöfe, Ordensobere, Theologen und Wissenschaftler aus mehr als hundert Ländern gingen fast vier Tage lang miteinander darüber zu Rate, was weltweit aus dem Skandal sexueller Übergriffe von Geistlichen auf Minderjährige und Schutzbefohlene zu lernen sei.

Im siebten Jahr des Pontifikats von Papst Benedikt XVI. kann kein Zweifel mehr daran bestehen, dass der Papst und seine engsten Mitarbeiter verstanden haben, welche Zerstörungskraft dem sexuellen Fehlverhalten des Klerus innewohnt. So ist das Kirchenrecht auf Veranlassung des Papstes so modifiziert und mit Sanktionsmöglichkeiten versehen worden, dass die Hoffnung nicht unbegründet ist, es möge eine generalpräventive Wirkung entfalten. Alle Bischofskonferenzen sind außerdem dazu aufgerufen, Leitlinien zum Umgang mit Fällen sexuellen Missbrauchs einschließlich eines Präventionskonzeptes zu erarbeiten.

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