ABUSE TRACKER

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Morning Call

By JOANN LOVIGLIO
Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A nun testified Monday in a landmark church sex-abuse trial that she was fired from a southeastern Pennsylvania parish for reporting concerns to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia about explicit mail that a priest had received.

Sister Joan Scary said she lost her job as director of education at St. Gabriel’s in the rural Montgomery County town of Stowe, near Pottstown, after she complained to then-Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua about the Rev. Edward DePaoli shortly after his arrival in 1995. She said she was concerned about mail DePaoli began to receive, including computer disks from Denmark and magazines containing “deplorable” content, none of which included DePaoli’s clerical title or indicated that his address was a rectory.

Montgomery County (Pennsylvania) DePaoli, who was defrocked in 2005, is not a defendant in the trial but prosecutors are using the testimony about him and others to build a case against Monsignor William Lynn, who was the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s secretary of clergy from 1992 to 2004 and entrusted within investigating complaints against priests.

Lynn is the first Roman Catholic official in the U.S. charged with endangering children for allegedly moving priests suspected of molestation from parish to parish without warning anyone of previous sex-abuse complaints. He is on trial with the Rev. James Brennan, who is charged with the attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996. Both have pleaded not guilty.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By
ANTOINETTE KELLY,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, April 10, 2012

In a remarkable development, the 800-strong Association of Irish Priests told the Vatican they were deeply disturbed over the recent decision by the Holy See to silence one its members for his liberal views.

The Irish group said in a statement: ‘At this critical juncture in our history, the ACP believes that this form of intervention – what Archbishop Diarmuid Martin recently called ‘heresy-hunting’ – is of no service to the Irish Catholic Church and may have the unintended effect of exacerbating a growing perception of a significant ‘disconnect’ between the Irish Church and Rome.’

Alongside his well known opposition to the Church’s ban on contraception and women priests, Father Flannery has also backed Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s unprecedented criticism of the Catholic hierarchy in the aftermath of the Cloyne Report, an investigation into the mishandling by Church authorities of allegations of child sexual abuse, released last year.

Forcing Father Tony Flannery to stop writing for a Redemptorist magazine will only fuel the Irish public’s belief in a growing disconnect between Irish Catholics and Rome, the group told the Irish Examiner.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

JANUARY 2011

A Prime Time team travels to Kenya to research allegations – later proven to be false – that Fr Kevin Reynolds raped a minor while working as a missionary in Africa and fathered a child by her.

MAY 7th, 2011

Fr Reynolds is approached by a team from Prime Time Investigates. He denies the allegations put to him by the reporter. He later instructs his solicitors to write to RTÉ seeking an immediate retraction of the allegations and an apology for the distress caused to him.

MAY 23rd, 2011

RTÉ broadcasts the Mission to Prey programme, despite an offer from Fr Reynolds prior to the broadcast to undertake a paternity test to provide a definitive answer to the allegations.

JULY 5th, 2011

After his lawyers wrote a series of letters over the course of June, Fr Reynolds announces plans to seek a High Court order aimed at prompting RTÉ to provide its defence to his claim of innocence.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

CARL O’BRIEN, Chief Reporter

Anna Carragher found a failure in RTÉ to recognise the potential for a grave injustice

A REPORT commissioned by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland into the Prime Time Investigates programme that libelled Fr Kevin Reynolds has heavily criticised the standards of journalism involved in the broadcast.

The report by former BBC Northern Ireland controller Anna Carragher was submitted to RTÉ last week.

According to briefing documents prepared for the board of the Broadcasting Authority, Ms Carragher’s report found that RTÉ failed to comply with its statutory obligations under the Broadcasting Act relating to fairness and breach of privacy.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

Report is unequivocal in finding significant editorial and managerial lapses and oversights

IT IS clear, from the findings of an independent investigation into the Prime Time Investigates: Mission to Prey programme, where direct responsibility for that debacle lay. The fault was with management or, rather, the lack of it. The programme was allowed to freewheel to disaster with little or no management “interference”.

Former BBC Northern Ireland executive Anna Carragher investigated the programme for the Broadcast Authority of Ireland’s compliance committee. Her findings, as outlined in a briefing document presented to the BAI board, were unequivocal. “There was a significant failure of editorial and managerial controls within the organisation,” the document states, paraphrasing from Ms Carragher’s report.

Repeatedly, she makes comments along such lines as “concern was raised that the editor did not interrogate this more closely” or that neither the reporter’s “producer nor her editor interrogated this aspect more closely”. There was also the assumption “that members of staff working on the programme were familiar with the guidelines but RTÉ had no way of verifying that this was the case”.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY and CARL O’BRIEN

A report commissioned by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland into the Prime Time Investigates programme that libelled Fr Kevin Reynolds has heavily criticised the standards of journalism involved in the broadcast.

Former BBC Northern Ireland controller Anna Carragher – who was commissioned by the authority to investigate breaches of broadcasting law – has concluded that the programme was unfair and a breach of Fr Reynold’s privacy.

The report’s findings are also heavily critical of the production team behind the programme.

Among its findings are that:

* Interviews with significant sources were not documented and there was an almost complete absence of documentary evidence.

* At all stages of the production of the programme, note taking was either nonexistent or grossly inadequate.

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IRELAND
BBC News

The long-running saga over the Roman Catholic priest, Fr Kevin Reynolds, who was defamed by the RTE Prime Time television programme, took another turn on Tuesday.

The programme, Mission to Prey, falsely accused the priest of raping a minor and fathering her child while he was a missionary in Africa.

Fr Reynolds received an apology and accepted substantial undisclosed damages from the Irish state broadcaster.

Tuesday’s Irish Times newspaper said that a report by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) will find that the Prime Time Investigates programme was unfair, and breached the privacy of Fr Kevin Reynolds.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

Leading journalists are ignoring a critical component of the current high-profile Catholic abuse trial in Philadelphia.

Mark Bukowski has accused Rev. James Brennan of raping him as a 14-year-old back in 1996. However, around the very same time that he accused the priest of the crime – in 2005 – Bukowski filed a very detailed false police report about a violent home robbery that never occurred.

Details about Bukowski’s shocking crime have been completely nonexistent in media coverage of the trial.

In his false report, Bukowski relayed a number of astonishing details about his fabricated “crime,” including that $675 from an employer, a DVD, prescription medicines, and a wristwatch were stolen from him. Bukowski also displayed cuts on his body and a t-shirt to police in an attempt to show evidence of a violent struggle.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

The Association of Catholic Priests, which claims to represent more than 800 clergy, has strongly defended Fr Tony Flannery, recently silenced by the Vatican. It described the move as “extremely ill-advised”.

Fr Flannery, a member of the association’s leadership team, has had his monthly column with Redemptorist magazine Reality discontinued at Vatican direction, while Fr Gerard Moloney, the magazine’s editor, can no longer write on certain issues.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Colm Kelpie

Tuesday April 10 2012

A GROUP representing more than 800 priests has branded the silencing of a Redemptorist cleric over his liberal views as unfair.

The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) said the intervention by the Vatican against Fr Tony Flannery was ill-advised and said it could exacerbate the perceived “disconnect” between the Irish church and Rome.

Fr Flannery, a founding member of the association established less than two years ago, has had his column with the religious magazine ‘Reality’ discontinued after the Vatican stepped in. In its statement, the ACP said it was “disturbed” Fr Flannery was “being silenced”.

“We affirm in the strongest possible terms our . . . solidarity with Fr Flannery and wish to make clear our view that this intervention is unfair, unwarranted and unwise.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Stephen Rogers

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The Association of Catholic Priests has accused the Vatican of trying to silence its founding member Fr Tony Flannery and warned the move will exacerbate the perceived “disconnect” between the Irish Church and Rome.

In a statement, three other leaders of the 800-strong association, Fr Brendan Hoban, Fr Sean McDonagh, and Fr PJ Madden, said they were disturbed by the fact that Fr Flannery was being silenced.

It emerged last weekthat the priest’s monthly column with Reality, the Redemptorists’ monthly magazine, had been discontinued on the orders of the Vatican.

The magazine’s editor, Fr Gerard Moloney, is also banned from writing on certain, controversial issues.

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IRELAND
BBC News

By Shane Harrison
BBC NI Dublin correspondent

The body that represents priests in Ireland has said it is disturbed over the Vatican’s silencing of one of its members for his liberal views.

The leaders of the 800-strong Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) have warned that forcing Father Tony Flannery, who is based in Athenry in County Galway, to stop writing for a Redemptorist Order magazine would fuel belief of a disconnect between Irish Catholics and Rome.

“We believe that such an approach, in its individual focus on Fr Flannery and inevitably by implication on the members of the association, is an extremely ill-advised intervention in the present pastoral context in Ireland,” the group said.

Fr Flannery, who has written on religious matters in the Redemptorist magazine for 14 years, is under investigation by the Vatican over his views, including an opposition to clerical celibacy.

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NEW YORK
The Daily Pleasantville

by Robert Michelin

THORNWOOD, N.Y. – After the Legion of Christ announced it will be selling its location in Thornwood, the town of Mount Pleasant is left to speculate about what could eventually take over the 262-acre location.

“I definitely wouldn’t want to see some sort of department store move in, or Costco or anything like that,” Thornwood resident Miriam Thompson said. “It would cause too much commotion here around town.”

The Legion of Christ announced early last week that it will be forced to close the Thornwood facility after experiencing a severe decrease in donations to the Roman Catholic congregation. Jim Fair, a spokesperson with the legion, attributed the lack of funding to the poor economy and a sexual-abuse scandal connected to the legion’s founder, Marcial Maciel. The facility, located off of Columbus Avenue, first opened in Thornwood in 1996.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota SNAP

10:30 am to 12:30 pm – Saturday, April 14, 2012
Edina Public Library
5280 Grandview Square, Edina, MN

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

Katholieke gestichtsartsen, een gelijkgestemde minister, en een fanatieke protestantse arts zorgden ervoor dat castratie in Nederland mogelijk werd, en dertig jaar mogelijk bleef.

Castratie van een jongen van 21 jaar oud, die door paters was misbruikt: dat onderwerp stond deze week centraal in de hoorzitting waarin Wim Deetman, voorzitter van de commissie die het misbruik in de rooms-katholieke kerk onderzocht, zich verdedigde tegen het verwijt dat hij deze zaak niet verder had onderzocht. In Nederlandse klinieken was castratie toen een uitzonderlijke, maar geaccepteerde behandeling, voerde Deetman aan.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian and John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writers

Sister Joan Scary said she got one clear instruction when the Rev. Edward M. DePaoli arrived at St. Gabriel Catholic Church in September 1995: Don’t ask questions.

Though she had been director of religious education at the Pottstown-area church since 1989, Scary told a Philadelphia jury Monday that St. Gabriel’s pastor, the Rev. James Gormley, warned her that if she talked about DePaoli, “I could pack my bags and leave.”

But Scary testified that she remembered that DePaoli had been arrested for something 10 years earlier and kept trying to find out what. Eight months later, Gormley angrily confronted her and reminded her about “spreading rumors about Father DePaoli. . . . He told me to get the hell out of here.”

What Scary learned was that DePaoli, a moral and ethics teacher in a local Catholic high school, had been arrested on child pornography charges in 1985, convicted, and sentenced to probation.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Katherine Donnelly

Tuesday April 10 2012

THE first official steps towards a historic handover of Catholic primary schools to other patron bodies will get under way shortly.

A softly, softly approach to the transfer is recommended with about 50 schools expected to be involved in initial efforts to switch patron.

Up to 47 towns and suburban areas of Dublin have been targeted for the first phase of the process.

These areas have 250 schools between them so, on average, one Catholic school in each area could be transferred to a new patron, such as the multi-denominational body, Educate Together.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By CLYDE HABERMAN

In the sexual-misconduct nightmare that has forced the city’s school system to wake up to distasteful realities, there are several models to consider. Two that come to mind are “The Children’s Hour” and the Roman Catholic Church in America.

“The Children’s Hour” was a 1934 drama by Lillian Hellman, about two school teachers whose lives are destroyed when a vicious student falsely accuses them of having a lesbian affair. In that era, such a relationship was deemed so abhorrent that The New York Times’s theater critic, the esteemed Brooks Atkinson, could only bring himself to describe the women coyly as being charged with displaying “an unnatural affection for each other.”

The play could easily serve as a reference point for some city teachers who have been accused of indecent behavior in the classroom, and say that they themselves are the true victims.

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DEUTSCHLAND
NDR

von Christoph Heinzle, NDR Info

Ahrensburg – die Stadt vor den Toren Hamburgs steht auch für den größten Missbrauchs-Skandal in der evangelischen Kirche. Pastor Dieter K. hatte in seiner Gemeinde in den 70er- und 80er-Jahren Mädchen und Jungen missbraucht. Von 13 Fällen spricht die Nordelbische Kirche. Von mehr als hundert geht die Opferinitiative “Missbrauch in Ahrensburg” aus.

Nach Recherchen von NDR Info finden sich diese Fälle nicht nur – wie bisher angenommen – im Umfeld der Gemeinde, sondern auch in der Stormarnschule: dem renommierten Gymnasium in Ahrensburg. Dort war Dieter K. als Religionslehrer tätig. NDR Info Reporter Christoph Heinzle hat eine frühere Schülerin getroffen, die sich als ein Opfer des Pastors bezeichnet.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Rhein-Zeitung

Trier. In Mönchskutten hat am Ostersonntag das Opferbündnis „MissBiT“ vor dem Trierer Dom friedlich gegen den Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann protestiert.

Die Betroffenen von Missbrauch durch Angehörige des Bistums Trier hatten sich mit dem Dokumentartheater Berlin und der Duisburger Kanzlei Sehr & Baier zusammengetan. Während Ackermann die Heilige Messe hielt, demonstrierten die Betroffenen vor dem Dom stumm gegen seine Haltung als Missbrauchs-Beauftragter der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Rhein-Zeitung

Der 68-jährige frühere Gymnasiallehrer aus Neuwied-Oberbieber amtiert als ehrenamtlicher Vorsitzender der „Frauenwürde Neuwied“ (Schwangerenberatungsstelle). Zugleich ist er Ansprechpartner von „Wir sind Kirche“ in der Diözese Trier und engagiert sich ehrenamtlich in der Pfarrei St.Bonifatius Neuwied als Pfarrgemeinderat, Kommunionhelfer und Lektor. Weiterhin ist er in der Asylarbeit und bei der Neuwieder Tafel aktiv. Schladt fährt begeistert Fahrrad.

Von Hanspeter Schladt

“Schon seit mindestens einem halben Jahr kommt das Bistum Tier nicht zur Ruhe, und man wird den Eindruck nicht los, dass Bischof und Generalvikariat überfordert sind. Altfälle tauchen auf wie im Saarland, über die die Gläubigen zu spät informiert wurden. Oder im Hunsrück, wo selbst Verantwortliche in der Gemeinde nicht im Bilde waren. Auf der anderen Seite steht der Meinungsaustausch zum Thema „Sexueller Missbrauch“, zu dem Bischof Stephan Ackermann Anfang Januar nach Trier einlud, sich den Vorwürfen seiner Kritiker stellte und Fehler bei der Aufarbeitung einräumte. Es ging um relevante Fragen wie die Aufarbeitung von Fällen sexueller Gewalt, einen angemessenen Umgang mit den Opfern und den betroffenen Gemeinden – sicherlich gut gedacht, aber nicht weit genug. Wie Jutta Lehnert, die geistliche Leiterin der Katholischen Studierenden Jugend (KSJ) im Bistum Trier, äußerte, geht man nicht auf die grundsätzliche Frage nach den begünstigenden Strukturen der Kirche ein. Laut dieser Zeitung bezeichnete sie die katholische Kirche Anfang Januar als offenes Scheunentor für Sexualstraftäter.

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OKLAHOMA
Oklahoman

BY SHEILA STOGSDILL | Published: April 10, 2012

PAWHUSKA— An Osage County preacher who confessed to police he sexually abused a teenage girl because he was trying to prepare her for her future husband was convicted of sexual abuse, court records show.

After deliberating more than four hours Thursday, the jury convicted Creth Dean Hopkins, 61, of Pawhuska, of lewd acts to a minor and three counts of child sexual abuse, according to court records. Hopkins was acquitted of seven counts of child sexual abuse.

The jury recommended Hopkins serve 20 years on each of the child sexual abuse counts and three years on the lewd acts conviction, records show.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The New York Times

By JON HURDLE

Published: April 9, 2012

A Roman Catholic nun testified Monday that she was fired from her job as director of religious education at a Pennsylvania parish after reporting her suspicions about a priest who had been convicted of receiving child pornography. Sister Joan Scary said at the landmark sexual abuse trial of two priests from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that she reported her suspicions about another priest, Edward M. DePaoli, to Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua in 1996.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

BY JOSEPH A. SLOBODZIAN
Inquirer Staff Writer

A CATHOLIC sister testified Monday that she was fired from her religious-school job in a Pottstown-area parish after questioning why a priest had received porn in the mail.

The priest – the Rev. Edward M. DePaoli – had been arrested on child-pornography charges in 1985 and convicted and sentenced to probation.

But in 1995, Sister Joan Scary – then in her sixth year as director of religious education at St. Gabriel’s parish in Stowe, Montgomery County – was unaware of the details of DePaoli’s past.

What she did know, Scary told a Common Pleas jury, was that DePaoli’s recent assignment at St. Gabriel’s was ambiguous and that St. Gabriel’s pastor, the Rev. James Gormley, warned that if she talked about DePaoli, “I could pack my bags and leave.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

Father Thomas F. Shea was “very emotional,” Msgr. William J. Lynn wrote in his secret archdiocese files. “Why now after 20 years?” the priest wanted to know.

Father Shea was upset because a former altar boy hired a lawyer in 1994 to press a legal claim against the archdiocese, saying he had had sex with the priest numerous times between 1972 and 1977.

Msgr. Lynn asked Father Shea if the young man’s accusations were true.

“Maybe it might be true,” Father Shea replied, according to the secret files. Then the priest changed his story. “Yes, it did happen,” Father Shea confessed. The lawyer for the former altar boy had also told Lynn about a second victim who claimed to have had sex with Father Shea.

Lynn asked if there had been genital contact between the priest and the two boys. Yes, Father Shea admitted. Where did it happen, Lynn wanted to know. In a motel and the rectory, the priest responded. How many times? The priest couldn’t remember.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Record

By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
Record Staff Writer

April 10, 2012

STOCKTON – There’s a wave of support for former Catholic priest Michael Kelly even after a civil jury found him liable for sexually molesting an altar boy more than 20 years ago.

Friday’s verdict disheartened a slew of parishioners from St. Joachim Church in Locke-ford and other supporters even while advocates of the plaintiff rejoiced.

They said civil justice would have to suffice, since criminal charges couldn’t be filed because of the statute of limitations.

The Diocese of Stockton removed Kelly from ministry Friday immediately after the verdict at San Joaquin County Superior Court.

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CALIFORNIA
California Catholic Daily

Stockton priest removed from ministry after jury finds he molested boy in mid-1980s, bishop says he still believes the priest is innocent

Stockton Bishop Stephen Blaire has removed a longtime diocesan priest from ministry even though the bishop says he believes the priest is innocent of any wrongdoing.

Bishop Blaire took the action on Friday, April 6, after a San Joaquin County Superior Court jury found Fr. Michael Kelly, 62, liable for damages in a civil suit filed against him alleging he sexually molested a former altar boy in the mid-1980s at the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton.

Fr. Kelly, until Friday pastor at St. Joachim’s Catholic Church in Lockeford, vigorously denied the allegations and testified in his own defense at the trial. But the jury apparently believed his now 37-year-old accuser, identified in court records only as “John TZ Doe,” who maintained that, until recently, he had repressed memories of being sexually molested when he was around 10 years old.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

KEVIN HEGARTY

RITE AND REASON: Liberal Catholics have arrived at their views of church teaching on contraception, married and women priests, and homosexuality as a result of honest and honourable reflection

THE PAINTER Tony O’Malley had a custom of creating an artwork every Good Friday. When news broke during Holy Week of the Vatican censure of Fr Tony Flannery and the Redemptorist magazine Reality, I wished I could paint a picture to express my sadness.

Pope Benedict’s address at a Holy Thursday Mass in Rome copperfastened my gloom. Responding to a call to disobedience by Austrian priests and laity on celibacy and women priests he asserted that they had challenged “definite decisions of the church’s magisterium”.

Church leaders often talk of the right of free speech, most recently the Pope himself on his visit to Cuba. The recent Vatican moves are designed to create a climate of fear among liberal clerics. To echo a comment some years ago of the English writer AN Wilson, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith has “ways of making you not talk”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

April 9, 2012
By Shannon McDonald

The South Philadelphia high school baseball coach accused of sexual and moral corruption is seeking a trial.

Louis Spadaccini was charged last Fall with with corrupting the morals of a minor, simple assault, furnishing alcohol to a minor and rape. He’s being accused of serving alcohol to and engaging in sex acts with boys he coached at Ss. John Neumann and Maria Goretti High School.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on April 09, 2012

We are hopeful that this trial will bring healing to the victims of Louis Spadaccini. It is very rare that victims of childhood sexual abuse are given a chance to have their day in court , and while it may be difficult for them to go over the sexual violence inflicted on them by this alleged predator, we remain optimistic that hearing the truth become public will prove cathartic.

These brave victims deserve applause for coming forward and protecting other children from being abused by this coach. We hope others who may have seen, suspected, or suffered crimes by Spadaccini will come forward and add their voices to those of these young men.

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NEDERLAND
Tubantia

HENGELO – Met zijn drieën trekken ze de doeken over de Madonna met de twee spelende kinderen weg: kardinaal Wim Eijk, aartsbisschop van Utrecht, pastoor Koos Smits van de Hengelose Goede Herderparochie en glaskunstenaar Frans Houben uit Ootmarsum, zelf slachtoffer van seksueel misbruik in de RK Kerk.

In de gebedsdienst in de Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk in Hengelo toont kardinaal Eijk in zijn overweging veel compassie met slachtoffers: „Ze zijn door het seksueel misbruik als minderjarigen beroofd van hun innerlijke vrijheid en persoonlijke waardigheid. Een zwarte episode in de kerkgeschiedenis.” Eijk hoopt dat het monument bijdraagt aan ‘heling’ en ‘herstel van vertrouwen’ bij slachtoffers. „Dat gaat me zeer ter harte.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Days after court agrees to keep “scandalous” testimony sealed, Listecki chooses Bishop Sklba to lead Easter celebration at St. John’s Cathedral

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director
CONTACT: 414.336.8575

Only days after Judge Susan V. Kelley ruled that his testimony detailing decades of covering up child sex crimes was so “scandalous” that she will not unseal it, retired Milwaukee Bishop Richard Sklba was selected by current Archbishop Jerome Listecki to lead the Easter Mass for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

It was mistakenly reported by WTMJ Channel 4 Milwaukee this morning that former Archbishop Rembert Weakland also celebrated the Easter Mass. He did not.

Attorneys and the Creditors Committee representing the claims of 570 victim/survivors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court had sought the release last week of Sklba’s deposition, along with retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland, and some of the 50,000 pages of internal church documents related to the concealment and transfer of dozens of clergy child molesters. Kelley was persuaded by lawyers representing Weakland and the Archdiocese that the release of the depositions would, among other things, “humiliate” Weakland and others.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Religion Dispatches

By Anthea Butler

“That man molested me. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it.”

So was the testimony of “Mark” on April 5, Holy Thursday, in the case of Monsignor William Lynn and the Rev. James Brennan, currently on trial in Philadelphia. Lynn is accused of attempting to hide evidence of abuse by clergy, moving pedophile priests among parishes, and of endangering the welfare of two children. Brennan is accused of raping a 14-year-old boy, “Mark,” whose abuse is described in court documents.

Mark has endured a troubled life, no doubt in part to the violation of his body and soul by someone entrusted to care for his spiritual life.What struck me about his testimony is the gut-wrenching manner in which victims of sexual abuse are crucified for speaking out. The defense’s cross-examination of Mark is not only in service of defending Rev. Brennan, it is on behalf of the institution who is paying the legal bill, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. In that sense, the cross-examination was an inquisition.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A Catholic sister and religious educator told a Philadelphia jury today that she was summarily fired from her job at a Pottstown-area parish after questioning adult literature received by a priest recently assigned to the parish.

The priest – the Rev. Edward M. DePaoli – had been arrested on child pornography charges in 1985 and convicted and sentenced to probation.

But in 1995 Sister Joan Scary – then in her sixth year as director of religious education at St. Gabriel’s parish in Stowe, Montgomery County – was unaware of the details of DePaoli’s past.

What she did know, Scary told a Common Pleas Court jury, was that DePaoli’s assignment at St. Gabriel’s was ambiguous and that St. Gabriel’s pastor, the Rev. James Gormley, warned that if she talked about DePaoli “I could pack my bags and leave.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA
Philadelphia Daily News

BY MENSAH M. DEAN
Philadelphia Daily News
Daily News Staff Writer

Louis Spadaccini, the Catholic high school baseball coach and city court employee arrested in September for allegedly drugging and sexually molesting boys from his team, has decided not to plead guilty.

“Coach Lou,” as he was known at Ss John Neumann and Maria Goretti Catholic High School, was expected to admit his guilt Monday morning, but instead his attorney told a judge that Spadaccini, 37, wants a jury trial.

While Spadaccini was kept out of sight in a holding cell, his alleged victims – in school uniforms – and their parents were in court waiting for a confession that did not come.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Tracy Press

by Maggie Creamer and Lauren Nelson / San Joaquin News Service

Apr 09, 2012

Three hours after hearing the verdict in his civil trial, a teary-eyed, choked up Michael Kelly faced an emotional congregation.

Earlier that afternoon, the onetime priest at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church was held liable on three counts of assault, sexual assault and abuse. He has been removed as a priest, stripping him of the ability to lead his congregation just before Easter.

“Practically speaking for now, and several years to come, I cannot be your pastor anymore,” he said as his voice cracked Friday, April 6. “It breaks my heart, but I can’t. That is the way it is written. As much as I love all of you, I have to obey what the rules are.”

Yet he maintained that he is innocent, and reaffirmed his plans to keep fighting.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

Years ago Nikita Khruschev was lamenting the past errors and the decisions made by his predecessors. “You were part of the regime, why did not not speak then?” a voice called out from the crowded Douma. “Who said that?” shouted Khruschev…….. silence…. a long silence followed. “And thats exactly why i didn’t speak out” said Khruschev.

The word “scary” has been mentioned as a reaction to the “silencing ” of Tony. That’s exactly my reaction. I have lived with fears daily for years. Suffering an illness that brings fear and anxiety every day on awakening, every day – for hours, I am not not a brave person, I know fear in my daily life, daily for over 40 years. Call it ” free floating anxiety” or whatever, it is my unwanted companion, an interrupted message system from one messenger to another in my brain. I live with that but little did I think that the greatest real fear would come from The Church.

The message that has been sent by authorities in the Church into which both Tony and myself are baptised members is frightening, alarming and unnerving. I stand by Tony as my brother in baptism, I stand by him in our sharing in ordination. I stand by the courageous stance that “Reality” has over the years in asking questions, seeking truth and Gospel values with the charism of Ligouri reaching out to the world with the message of Jesus. I also respect those here who have written replies that do not agree with Tony. We can dialogue on these things.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) is disturbed that Fr Tony Flannery, a founding member of the Association, is being ‘silenced’. We believe that such an approach, in its individual focus on Fr Flannery and inevitably by implication on the members of the Association, is an extremely ill-advised intervention in the present pastoral context in Ireland.

We affirm in the strongest possible terms our confidence in and solidarity with Fr Flannery and we wish to make clear our profound view that this intervention is unfair, unwarranted and unwise. The issues surfaced by the ACP since its foundation less than two years ago and by Tony Flannery as part of the leadership team are not an attack on or a rejection of the fundamental teachings of the Church. Rather they are an important reflection by an association of over 800 Irish priests – who have given long service to the Catholic Church in Ireland – on issues surfacing in parishes all over the country.

While some reactionary fringe groups have contrived to portray our association as a small coterie of radical priests with a radical agenda, we have protested vehemently against that unfair depiction. We are and we wish to remain at the very heart of the Church, committed to putting into place the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

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IRELAND
U.S. Catholic

Monday, April 9, 2012

By Michael Kelly Catholic News Service

DUBLIN (CNS) — The Irish Association of Catholic Priests said it is “disturbed” that the group’s founder, Redemptorist Father Tony Flannery, is under investigation by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In an April 9 statement, the priests’ association — which represents about 20 percent of Ireland’s 4,000 priests — affirmed “in the strongest possible terms our confidence in and solidarity with Father Flannery, and we wish to make clear our profound view that this intervention is unfair, unwarranted and unwise.”

The statement said the group “is disturbed” that Father Flannery is being “silenced.”

“We believe that such an approach, in its individual focus on Father Flannery and inevitably, by implication, on the members of the association, is an extremely ill-advised intervention in the present pastoral context in Ireland,” the statement said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Sacramento Bee

Associated Press

Published: Monday, Apr. 9, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — A landmark church sex-abuse trial in Philadelphia has entered its third week with testimony from a nun who said she was fired from a suburban parish for complaining about a priest.

Sister Joan Scary said Monday she lost her job at St. Gabriel’s in the Montgomery County town of Stowe after she complained to Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua (beh-vih-LAH’-kwah) about the Rev. Edward DePaoli. She said she was concerned about a men’s magazine DePaoli received in the mail.

DePaoli was at St. Gabriel’s after being convicted in 1986 of using the mail to buy child porn.

Prosecutors are trying to show that Monsignor William Lynn transferred predator priests into unwitting parishes.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

April 9, 2012 by Susan Matthews

The National Catholic Reporter has published an insider’s view of the the Philly clergy sex abuse trial by Rocco Palmo, Whispers In the Loggia creator and blogger. Click here to read: In Philadelphia Church, at a Crossroads,” April 9, 2012. As always the comments are very pointed and interesting. Frequent site commenter Gerald Slevin’s observations are included in the string.

From Susan:

Palmo is an encyclopedia of Philadelphia Church history which gives him a comprehensive context in which to analyze the crisis. He also has international Catholic news reporting experience. It’s a pleasure and an education to speak with him about both. Palmo has described Archbishop Chaput as a mentor and was close with the late Cardinal Bevilacqua. Even the best reporter’s observations would be filtered through those friendships. I desperately want the same Church for which his mother hopes. However, I’m a bit cynical that this “is being cleaned up.” I still see lots of filth.

The trial may or may not put one priest in jail for a cover up that involved many more. Clergy sex abuse cover ups have occurred and continues to occur in other cities around the world – until civil authorities step in. Until the root causes of moral corruption in the clergy are addressed – we haven’t accomplished a clean up. It’s a top-down problem. The Pope is awaiting recommendations from Bishops this Spring. I wonder what Bishop Finn will suggest?

We must do the cleaning up. Here’s two ways:

1. Let the DA know you expect him to leverage the full force of justice in regard to protecting children from all sex abuse.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Reuters

By Carey Gillam

Mon Apr 9, 2012

(Reuters) – A Catholic bishop in Kansas City must stand trial on charges that he failed to report a priest found with pornographic pictures of young girls on his church computer to police, a judge said on Thursday.

Bishop Robert Finn, head of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, faces one misdemeanor charge that he failed to tell authorities that church officials had found disturbing pictures of unclothed little girls that appeared to have been taken by a popular local priest, Father Shawn Ratigan.

His trial is set to start September 24.

Finn’s lawyers had asked that the case against him be dismissed and argued in a hearing last week that Missouri statutes requiring clergy, school teachers and others to report suspected child sexual abuse were “vague.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Welt

Die Verzweifelten sitzen hinten. In den letzten Reihen der kleinen Kirche, im Halbdunkel; die kleinen Fenster lassen nur wenig Licht herein. Es ist ein karger Raum, es gibt keinen Weihrauch hier, keine Wandmalereien, keine Reliquien, kein Pomp, nur ein Holzkreuz, das den Altarraum überragt.

Die Verzweifelten tragen Strickpullover und Westen. Sie tragen keine Talare mehr, keine Gewänder. Bis vor Kurzem waren sie Priester, Nonnen und Mönche. Was sie jetzt sind, wissen viele von ihnen nicht genau, zumindest im Moment nicht.

Die Mittagsandacht ist fast vorüber, als die Orgel verstummt und ein Mönch des Benediktinerordens aus dem Altarraum ans Pult tritt. Der bärtige Mann liest Vers 17, Psalm 25: “Die Enge meines Herzens mache weit, und führe mich heraus aus meinen Bedrängnissen.” Dieser Vers ist häufiger zu hören in den Andachten hier. Er passt zu den Gästen in den letzten Reihen. Sie rufen im Chor “Amen”.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Saarbrucker Zeitung

Trier. Nach anhaltender Kritik am Einsatz pädophiler Priester im Bistum Trier hat sich der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann für eine Verschärfung der Missbrauchsleitlinien ausgesprochen. In den Leitlinien heißt es bisher, dass Missbrauchstäter nicht mehr in der Kinder- und Jugendarbeit eingesetzt werden dürfen, in der Seelsorge unter Auflagen dagegen schon, wenn ein Gutachten grünes Licht gibt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
epd

In Mönchskutten hat am Ostersonntag das Opferbündnis MissBiT vor dem Trierer Dom friedlich gegen den Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann protestiert. Die Betroffenen von Missbrauch durch Angehörige des Bistums Trier hatten sich mit dem Dokumentartheater Berlin und der Duisburger Kanzlei Sehr & Baier zusammengetan. Während Ackermann die Heilige Messe hielt, demonstrierten die Betroffenen vor dem Dom stumm gegen seine Haltung als Missbrauchsbeauftragter der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz.

Ackermann schütze in seinem Bistum pädophile Triebtäter, schrieb Thomas Schnitzler für das Bündnis auf Flugblättern, die die Demonstranten neben Ostereiern auf dem Domvorplatz verteilten. “Wir sehen es jetzt als einen Erfolg unserer Arbeit an”, dass Bischof Ackermann nach ARD-Informationen zwei Priester seines Bistums von seelsorgerischen Aufgaben entbunden habe, erklärte der Duisburger Jurist Heinz Sehr. Er klagt derzeit vor dem Kölner Verwaltungsgericht gegen die Kölner Bezirksregierung, sie habe als Schulaufsicht jahrzehntelangen Missbrauch am Bonner jesuitischen Aloisiuskolleg nicht unterbunden.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Corner Brook – A Roman Catholic priest facing 62 sex-related charges could be facing even more charges when he appears in court again in Corner Brook next month.

The case of George Ansel Smith, 74, was called in Newfoundland Supreme Court in Corner Brook ths morning.

The former local priest was not present, and his lawyer Thomas Williams appeared via telephone.

The case was set over to May 7 as Crown attorney Trina Simms informed the court she is awaiting the transfer of another charge — involving one of the current victims — from Nova Scotia. She said there is a possibility further charges may come out of New Brunswick, as well.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

PHILADELPHIA — A young man took the stand for two days and repeated numerous times that he had been allegedly abused by Father James Brennan, one of two priests of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on trial in the landmark case.

At turns both emotional and combative with Father Brennan’s defense lawyer, William Brennan, who is no relation to his client, the now 30-year-old witness described in his testimony April 4 an incident in 1996 that he called rape. But state prosecutors have charged the priest with attempted rape in the alleged incident.

Conviction or acquittal on the charge would be significant not only for Father Brennan, 48, but also because the case represents a charge of endangering the welfare of a child against former archdiocesan secretary for clergy Msgr. William Lynn, 61.

As head of the office that dealt with troubled priests and recommended clergy assignments to Philadelphia’s archbishop from 1992 to 2004, he is the highest ranking Catholic Church official to be charged for crimes connected with the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the United States.

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NEW YORK
Grace Notes

Impetus Ensemble will present a semi-staged reading of Frank J. Avella’s Vatican Falls, May 15 at 6:45 PM at NYC’s National Comedy Theatre (347 West 36th Street), to benefit SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). Laura Caparrotti will direct. Musical director is Brad Gardner.

With songs by Claudio Procopio and Frank J. Avella, Vatican Falls is based on factual material and follows the life of one survivor who struggles with understanding how those closest to him could damage him the most.

The cast will feature Francesco Andolfi, Carlotta Brentan, Drew Bruck, Matthew Crooks, Carlos Dengler, Joshua Dixon, Kalen J. Hall, Liza Harris, Carmit Levite’, Devon Talbott, and Rob Ventre.

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CANADA
CBC News

Posted: Apr 9, 2012

Former Roman Catholic priest George Smith is facing more charges related to an ongoing sexual abuse investigation.

Smith was supposed to appear at Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court in Corner Brook Monday morning for arraignment.

The Crown prosecutor says Smith’s case had to be postponed because the investigation uncovered more allegations, this time from Nova Scotia.

The Crown says there’s at least one more charge to be added to the list of 62 already laid against Smith.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By
DARA KELLY,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Monday, April 9, 2012

An Irish priest who openly supported Irish Prime minister Enda Kenny’s critique of the Vatican over the sex abuse scandal in Ireland is related to a strategist in Kenny’s party, according to the Sunday Independent.

Fr. Tony Flannery, who is a brother of Fine Gael strategist Frank Flannery, was a big supporter of Kenny’s negative view of the Vatican’s handling of the sex abuse scandals that rocked Ireland.

“I was happy with the Taoiseach’s statement . . . Many of us priests are frustrated with the way the Vatican conducts its business,” said Flannery of Kenny’s message to Rome.

The priest was silenced by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, and he was forbidden from talking to the press, from writing in Redemptorist Order’s Reality magazine and from contributing to the Association of Irish Priests’ website.

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LAS VEGAS (NV)
CBS Las Vegas

(Las Vegas, NV) – A former singer at the Tropicana hotel’s “Folies Bergere” show has died of bone cancer. Fifty-nine year-old Michaelina Bellamy, who passed away Friday, had been the show’s principal singer for a decade, and performed on the road with Bob Hope and Engelbert Humperdinck. In 2007, Bellamy was assaulted by the priest of a local Catholic church where she served as a singer and entertainment director. The priest, George Chaanine, is serving time in prison. Funeral services for Bellamy are pending.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

Apr. 09, 2012
By Rocco Palmo

First Person

In the tumult that followed last year’s second grand jury report to allege a staggering history of sex abuse and cover-up in the Philadelphia archdiocese, the most striking response I heard from a reeling faithful came not from any cleric, staffer or abuse survivor, but from my mother.

Over a late-night cup of coffee as the revelations were still sinking in, all Mom could bring herself to say was, “It just feels like there’s been a death in the family.”

What she was implying seemed clear, but I wanted to be sure. “You mean your trust in the wider church, outside the parish?”

“That’s exactly what I meant,” she shot back.

If that was how Mom, a South Philly Italian named for a nun, now a lay minister and caretaker for my ailing grandmother — in other words, a pillar of the faith — felt at the start of a year whose turns since have read like a surrealist novel, one could forget about finding credibility anywhere else.

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NEDERLAND
Bert Smeets

De BC en KNR hebben een brief gestuurd naar onze minister van Veiligheid en Justitie.

FANTASTISCH wat een goede wil ECHTER;

Nog steeds wordt er geredeneerd vanuit HUN systeem, het pontificaat met al zijn ondemocratische ordes, congregaties en bestuursvormen, nog steeds stellen zij zich boven HET VOLK (de parlementaire democratie), nog steeds denken ze dat ze weg kunnen komen met mooi weer en nu vooral heel vroom de opdrachten uit het rapport blijven volgen toch?

Bodar zei het laatst pakkend bij P&W “Gelukkig ben ik in de gelegenheid te wisselen tussen het Vaderland en het Vaticaan”. (heeft hij een dubbel paspoort dan? Of wordt hij nou eindelijk eens aangesproken op zijn verantwoordelijkheid als Nederlands Staatsburger) Tweede kamer, laat u niet misleiden door het SYSTEEM en de politiek van religieuze levensbeschouwelijke stromingen, het is misdadig, angst dwang repressie en schuld zijn/ waren de uitgangspunten. (zal uit het eventuele komende onderzoek gaan blijken) Verder de scheiding tussen kerk en staat problematiek maar weer eens op de agenda lijkt mij. Iedereen mag geloven wat hij/zij wil maar wel getoetst aan onze democratische rechtsorde en niet aan een instituut dat veel macht veroverd heeft in de afgelopen eeuwen en daar nog steeds mee wegkomt.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Monday, 9 April 2012

An 800-strong group of Irish priests has said it is disturbed over the Vatican’s silencing of one of its members for his liberal views.

The Association of Catholic Priests has warned that forcing Father Tony Flannery to stop writing for a Redemptorist magazine will fuel belief of a disconnect between Irish Catholics and Rome.

“We believe that such an approach, in its individual focus on Fr Flannery and inevitably by implication on the members of the association, is an extremely ill-advised intervention in the present pastoral context in Ireland,” the group said.

“We wish to make clear our profound view that this intervention is unfair, unwarranted and unwise.”

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PHILADELHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

Apr. 09, 2012
By Brian Roewe

With the jury seated and one less defendant, the first case against a church official accused of covering up child sex abuse has moved into the courtroom, as a national audience turns its attention to the scandal in the Philadelphia archdiocese.

The trial for Msgr. William J. Lynn and Fr. James J. Brennan began March 26.

“This is a huge event for the entire church in the United States and really the world,” said Marci Hamilton, the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at the Cardozo School of Law at New York’s Yeshiva University.

Lynn, 61, is the former secretary of clergy for the Philadelphia archdiocese, working under Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua from 1992 to 2004. He faces charges of felony child endangerment and conspiracy. The archdiocese has not been charged, but is listed by the prosecution as an unindicted co-conspirator.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

Regency Hotel: Monday, May 7th; 10.30am to 4.30pm

(Under the auspices of the Association of Catholic Priests)

First Session: Naming the Reality.
◦There will be four speakers giving short input.
◦Followed by a general forum.

Tea/Coffee Break

Second Session: The Vision
◦Three speakers outlining their vision for the Church.
◦Followed by general forum.

Break for Lunch (available in the hotel)

Third Session: Where to from here.

A presentation of a statement, coming out of the morning sessions. This might contain something like the following:
◦A call for a new model of Church
◦Calling lay groups to work together to make this model a reality
◦Asking that this process continue towards a full assembly of the Irish Church.
◦This presentation will be followed by a general forum which, hopefully, will shape the final document.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

‘We are an Easter people and alleluia is our song.’ Augustine was and is right. We cannot lose heart. We cannot be dragged down by ‘protectionist policies’ in Rome. I feel sad about Tony Flannery. He has been a breath of fresh air in the Irish Church. The ACP has lifted the spirits of priests in Ireland and given them a space/forum to work together as Church people. This is then a difficult time and a wearying moment. That Summary report (from the Visitation) said very little but it probably said too much. And this may be an indicator of how it sees the way forward for the Renewal of the Church in Ireland. This method breaks the hearts of those of us who try so hard, to make sure the Word becomes Flesh daily in Ireland.

The action around Ton reminds me of an article written by Bernard Haring (many years ago). He wrote of how he was treated by the Nazis and wrote of how he was treated by the Vatican. He said that the treatment by the Vatican hurt him much more. It tore his heart apart to think of such people (his companions in faith) savaging his efforts to make sense of the living Gospel. That was a strong comment.

Anselm gave us that memorable phrase – ‘fides querens intellectum ‘ (faith seeking understanding) as the way of life for the thinking Christian; the struggling prophet; the active priest; the searching theologian. Was Tony condemned for this? But then – do we know the actual charge? Is it specific? Will it be made clear? That aspect too is serious.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

I am saddened but not surprised that Tony Flannery has been silenced and Gerry Moloney and Reality Magazine reined in. The attempts by Rome to suppress any discussion about issues such as ordination of women and compulsory celibacy are surely a sign of fear. Jesus questioned the religious institution in which he had been brought up, its attitudes, laws and practices, and the understanding of God which those attitudes and practices revealed, a God whose passion was the observance of the Law. He revealed, instead, a God of compassion, who required different attitudes and practices. The God of compassion is incompatible with the God of the Law. He too incurred the wrath of the religious authorities of his time. Perhaps young people today are leaving the Church because they no longer find God there.

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MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By: Sarah Smith, Forum Communications

Editor’s note: This story is excerpted from a two-part series that appeared last week in the Park Rapids (Minn.) Enterprise.

PARK RAPIDS, Minn. — A former Lutheran pastor in Lake George, Minn., southwest of Bemidji near Itasca State Park, faces an omnibus court hearing today in Park Rapids on 15 counts of criminal sexual conduct involving a minor.

Now, questions have been raised about how much officials of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod knew of Schauer’s previous conviction for sexually abusing a pre-teen minor and whether his parishioners in Trinity Lutheran at Lake George knew of his criminal past at all.

Darwin Schauer was a trained lay pastor since 1990, first at Immanuel Lutheran in Cass Lake, Minn., then at Trinity at Lake George when the two parishes merged in 2000.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Michael O’Malley, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — On one of Christianity’s holiest days, Catholics from throughout Greater Cleveland packed the pews Sunday at the 1,200-seat Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in downtown Cleveland for Easter Mass.

Adorned in white vestments, Bishop Richard Lennon of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland presided over the holy ritual as the faithful joined him in song and prayer.

In his sermon, Lennon talked about three adult converts to Catholicism — a woman and two men — whom he had baptized during Holy Saturday services the previous day.

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QUINCY (MA)
Fox 25

[with video]

(FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) – A church in Quincy which has been placed on the Boston Archdiocese’s list to be closed and sold celebrated Easter services on Sunday without a priest.

More than 100 parishioners fighting to keep the doors of the Mary Star of the Sea Chapel open congregated on Sunday and had a priest-less Mass.

“It’s unique in that it doesn’t have a priest. It’s special because it reinforces the importance of community,” Maureen Mazrimas told FOX 25.

Mary Star of the Sea Chapel was founded in 1945, but was forced to close its door in September 2010.

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CANADA
VOCM

A Roman Catholic priest from western Newfoundland facing 62 sex-related charges will appear in court today. George Ansel Smith has elected to be tried by judge alone, and has been in custody since February 23rd. At that time, 24 more charges were laid against the 74-year-old priest when he appeared in Corner Brook provincial court to answer to the 38 charges that had been laid in December. In the meantime, a publication ban has been put in place to protect the identity of any complainants or witnesses in the case.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: April 09, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — A landmark church sex abuse trial is set to resume in Philadelphia.

Last week’s testimony featured two days of confrontational exchanges between a defense attorney and the lone alleged victim of one of the defendants, the Rev. James Brennan.

Lynn says his efforts to investigate reports of abuse were thwarted by officials above him.

Brennan is on trial with Monsignor William Lynn, the first Roman Catholic official in the U.S. charged with child endangerment for allegedly transferring predator priests into unwitting parishes.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholica

Professor Leonard Swidler was a former teaching colleague with Pope Benedict at the University of Tübingen. Professor Swidler, like many people today who were excited and energized by the Second Vatican Council, has become increasingly disturbed in recent times by the endeavours to turn back the insights and reforms of that Council. Headlines over Easter generated by Pope Benedict have driven Dr Swidler to address this open letter to his former colleague.

Dear Joe,

Some years back when you were still the head of the Holy Office (“of the Sacred Inquisition” is, as you know, stilled chiseled in stone over its dark building immediately next to St. Peter’s square), I wrote you an open letter concerning the role of women in the Catholic Church. At that time I addressed you with a familiar “Dear Joe,” relying on our relationship from the late 60s/early 70s when I was frequently a Visiting Professor at the Catholic Theology Faculty of the University of Tübingen, and you were Professor Ordinarius there. I did so in the thought that this form of address would tell you that I seriously hoped you might open your mind and heart to hear what I wanted to say to you. I have no way of knowing what success I may have had, if any, in that regard. However, relying on our former “collegiality,” I am approaching you once again in this fraternal fashion.

I am disturbed that especially of late you have been giving signals that are in opposition to the words and spirit of Vatican Council II, during which you as a leading young theologian helped to move our beloved Catholic Church out of the Middle Ages into Modernity. Further, while a professor at our Alma Mater University of Tübingen, you, along with the rest of your colleagues of the Catholic Theology faculty, publicly advocated 1) the election of bishops by their constituents, and 2) limited term of office of bishops [see the book Democratic Bishops for the Roman Catholic Church, LINK].

Now you are publicly rebuking loyal Catholic priests for doing precisely what you earlier had so nobly advocated. [See NYT article at right.] They, and many, many others across the universal Catholic Church, are following your youthful example, trying desperately to move our beloved Mother Church further into Modernity. I deliberately use the word “desperately,” for in your own homeland, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe, the churches are empty, and also are so many Catholic hearts when they hear the chilling words coming from Rome and the “radically obedient” (read: “yes-men”) bishops. In my own homeland, America, the birthplace of modern freedom, human rights, and democracy, we have lost—in this generation alone!—one third of our Catholic population, 30,000,000, because the Vatican II promises of its five-fold Copernican Turn (the turn toward 1. freedom, 2. this world, 3. a sense of history, 4. internal reform, and above all, 5. dialogue) have all been so deliberately dashed by your predecessor, and now increasingly by you.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WOIO

[with video]

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) –
On this Easter Sunday the faithful everywhere celebrated the resurrection of Christ but for some local Catholics this holy day takes on a new meaning as they pray their closed churches will come alive again too.

Since before they could walk or talk Ray Kasperski and Ray Michalski have been parishioners at St. Casimir church in Cleveland.

“I went to school here,” said Ray Kasperski.

“I was baptized, married and hopefully will be buried here,” said Ray Michalski.

Despite a lifetime of membership for the second Easter in a row Ray and Ray are forced to worship outside their home church along with other lifelong parishioners. St. Casimir remains locked up — even though the Vatican has ordered the church to be re-opened.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Terry Prone

Monday, April 09, 2012

COMPARE and contrast, if you will, the utterances of two Catholic priests.

Priest A, on one of the most popular national radio programmes, says he has reservations about celibacy and the Church’s ban on married priests. He goes on to suggest that homosexuality is intrinsic and indeed evident in an individual from the time they’re about three years old, ergo something, if expressed, that might not be sinful.

Priest B says much the same, except not on national radio, where he seldom appears. He says it in a small-circulation religious magazine. Priest B is currently under investigation for heresy by the Vatican. The Vatican doesn’t announce the terms of reference, process, or duration of its investigation, but those in the know say that if he is lucky, he will undergo six weeks of silent reflection and be allowed, thereafter, to resume writing and speaking, as long as he steers clear of contentious subjects such as celibacy or gays within the Church, or has his words scrutinised by a clerical censor before their publication is authorised by Rome. If he’s unlucky or obstinate, he could be in deep trouble.

So why is Priest A getting away with saying much the same things as Priest B, perhaps even more bluntly, to a multiple of priest B’s audience, while priest B’s statements are being parsed at the highest level, with dire consequences implicit in that parsing? Marian Finucane put a version of that question to Priest A on her Saturday programme. Simple. Age. Fr Colm Kilcoyne is 77 years and retired, so, he asks rhetorically of the Vatican: “What could they denude me of?”

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

AS CONTROVERSY over the silencing by the Vatican of Redemptorist priests Fr Tony Flannery and Fr Gerard Moloney grows, an Augustinian priest has written about “an ominous division” in the Catholic Church.

Theologian Fr Gabriel Daly has said “one party is now in control and is presenting its views as ‘the teaching of the church’.”

He continued: “Its more voluble members dismiss those who differ from it as ‘a la carte Catholics’ – a witless enough phrase in a legitimately diverse church.”

Fr Flannery, a founder of the Association of Catholic Priests, has had his monthly column with Reality, the Redemptorists’ monthly magazine, discontinued at Vatican direction, while Fr Moloney, the magazine’s editor, can no longer write on certain issues.

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UNITED STATES
YNet News (Israel)

Ynetnews Published: 04.09.12

Producer Scott Rosenfelt is threatening to take legal action against the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival after its director, Hilary Helstein, called his film a “witch hunt,” JTA reported.

Rosenfelt, whose credits include blockbusters such as “Home Alone” and “Mystic Pizza,” submitted “Standing Silent” – a film about sexual abuse in Baltimore’s Orthodox community – to the festival, and was rejected.

The film is slated to be screened at several Jewish film festivals across the United States.

According to the report, after viewing the film, Helstein sent an email to other Jewish film festival directors in which she said that while the film was well made, her festival’s team chose to reject it over its subject matter.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Cambridge

Posted Apr 08, 2012

Cambridge —

Michael Mack is a man of many credits as a writer and theatrical performer. Now age 55, he has also accomplished two things in the spiritual realm that rank as unique in my experience.

First, despite suffering sexual abuse as a boy at the hands of a Catholic priest, he is now an active member of the church and values its spirituality. All the other victims of clergy abuse I have known have distanced themselves from this faith community, most with continuing and understandable anger.

Michael’s second achievement strikes me as even more remarkable. He has forgiven the priest who violated him.

In a long interview with Michael, I found his account of both events fascinating. The violation took place when he was 11 years old, the forgiveness when he had reached middle age.

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NETHERLANDS
YouTube

[Dutch language with English subtitles]

Fifty years ago my brother, Mother and me helped a boy who had been castrated under spurious circumstances. For fifty years we tried to draw attention of the press for Henk Heithuis tragic case. But noone responded until beginning this year prize winning reporter Joep Dohmen researched the case and wrote a feature in his NRC newspaper. Also on the 17th of March 2012 the Dutch TV program ‘Nieuwsuur’ devoted time to the abuse. Other programs followed.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
newsnet5

•By: Kristin Byrne, newsnet5.com

CLEVELAND – It’s been nearly a month since the Vatican overruled the Bishop’s decision to close 13 churches. But Bishop Richard Lennon is still reviewing the Vatican’s decision and has the authority to appeal it.

Meanwhile, area churches still found a way to celebrate Easter Sunday. Parishioners at St. Casimir in Cleveland attended Easter mass outside the church like they have since November 2009.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WTAM

(Cleveland)- On this Easter, many Cleveland Catholics are calling on Bishop Richard Lennon to reopen closed churches.

Most realized that reopening the churches in time for Easter would be not be possible, but feel Lennon is dragging his feet in following the Vatican’s order to restore the shuttered houses of worship.

In June 2008, Bishop Lennon announced plans to close at least 30 parishes in the cities of Cleveland, Lorain, and older parishes in Cleveland’s inner ring suburbs. This plan drew ire from parishioners and members of Cleveland’s city council members.

Critics have pointed out that several of the churches to be closed actually enjoyed steady, if limited, monthly incomes, and several of these churches, as well, have a politically liberal orientation.

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AUSTRALIA
The Newcastle Herald

JOANNE MCCARTHY

09 Apr, 2012

TORONTO Catholic priest Tom Brennan will break a three-year silence today in a statement announcing his retirement over church handling of a notorious Hunter paedophile priest case.

Victims and their families expressed relief yesterday that Brennan, convicted in 2009 of a charge flowing from a police investigation of the paedophile priest, would no longer hold the position of parish priest.

‘‘Thank God for that. Finally some justice,’’ said a victim who described the church’s failure to act against the Toronto priest until now as an ‘‘open wound’’.

Brennan will express regret for the ‘‘terrible things’’ that happened to young boys at a Hunter Catholic school where he was principal in the 1970s and 1980s when the paedophile priest, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was a teacher.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: April 7, 2012

WASHINGTON

THERE was a boys’ club, of course, a band of ardent, jockeying disciples. But as his fame grew, the messiah was also surrounded by women and talked about women with great respect. With his father far away, the golden boy was most influenced by his strong mother and the women in his inner circle.

I’m talking about the real messiah, not Barack Obama, although it applies to both. …

Finally, in the perverse pantheon of reactionary men in robes, we have God’s Rottweiler, as Pope Benedict is known. He welcomed Easter by sitting on a golden throne and denouncing the “disobedience” of Catholic priests who want the decaying, ingrown institution that sheltered so many abusive priests to let in some fresh air and allow female and married priests, as well as Holy Communion for Catholics who have remarried without an annulment.

“It seemed like a bitter statement,” said Kenneth Briggs, the author of “Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church’s Betrayal of American Nuns.” “It further erodes, almost tragically, the respect for the papacy because it looks like what you want is institutional conformity rather than obedience to the Gospel.”

The message of Jesus, after all, is not about exclusion, but inclusion.

Briggs said that most American Catholics will never go along with retrogressive dictates of the church, like the one against artificial contraception. “God,” he noted dryly, “only had one son.”

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INDIA
The Australian

The Times
April 09, 2012

TERRIFIED babies screamed in shock as they were thrown 9m from a temple balcony amid a crowd of dancing worshippers in the southern Indian state last week.

The temple’s baby-throwing ritual, an annual event in which infants under two are dropped by a priest and caught in a blanket, has been denounced as “barbaric” by children’s rights groups, which have demanded an end to it.

The ceremony is believed by participants to bring good luck, prosperity and health to the children. Footage of last week’s event, filmed by an Indian news channel, showed the babies in obvious distress as they plunged towards the ground.

The priest, who was cheered by the crowd every time he dropped a child, did not appear to be paying attention to where they fell. Perched on top of the elaborate Digambeshwara temple in Nagrala village, he pulled away one frightened child who tried to grab his shirt, and then hurled him down.

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MICHIGAN
Observer & Eccentric

Written by
LeAnne Rogers
Observer Staff Writer

A Canton woman will avoid having a criminal record on a charge of embezzling from St. Theodore Catholic Church in Westland, if she completes paying restitution within the next 120 days.

On Wednesday, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge James Chylinski allowed Kathleen Galoch, 63, to enter a diversion program. The former parish bookkeeper has repaid about a third of the $13,169 she was charged with stealing.

“People are furious. About 16 of us went to court. We were so surprised we could have fallen out of our seats,” said parishioner Loretta LaBerge.

Galoch was charged with embezzling only a fraction of the $143,000 reported missing from the parish where she had been employed since 1986 to handle bookkeeping and other administrative duties until being laid off early in 2011.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Sun

Exclusive
By ANILA BAIG

DRESSED in a fancy new outfit, little Samina Shah thought she was getting ready for her birthday party.

Instead she was being married off — having just turned FIVE.

The Islamic ceremony effectively ended her childhood and paved the way for years of abuse.

Just as shockingly, this was not happening in a remote Third World village — but in a large town in the north of England.

Samina has decided to speak out after Britain’s Forced Marriage Unit revealed that last year the 1,468 cases they investigated included another girl of five. …

“There is no Islamic justification for forced marriage and doing it to a child of that age is not just wrong — it is criminal.”

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BELGIE
De Morgen

Door: Maarten Rabaey − 04/04/12, 06u34 − Bron: De Morgen

Het misbruik van de Belg Marc V. in Brazilië haalde ook daar de media, al zijn de onlinesporen schaars. V. werd opgepakt in Soure, een kustplaats nabij de regionale hoofdstad Belém aan de monding van de Amazonerivier in de deelstaat Pará.

“De Belg V., die zich uitgaf voor een toerist, werd in 2006 gearresteerd op beschuldiging van het betalen van tieners om pornografische afbeeldingen te maken”, zo refereerde een lokale krant aan de zaak in 2008, toen een andere buitenlander er voor gelijkaardige feiten werd opgepakt.

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BELGIE
RKnieuws

BRUGGE (RKnieuws.net) – “Esse est percipi” is de naam van het glazen beeldje dat mgr. Jozef De Kesel, bisschop van Bruggen, zaterdag in de doopkapel van de Sint-Salvatorskathedraal te Brugge onthulde om de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de Kerk te herdenken, meldt de persdienst van bisdom Brugge. Mgr. De Kesel kreeg dit van de werkgroep “Mensenrechten in de Kerk”.

De Latijnse naam van het beeldje, “Esse est percipi”, betekent “Zien is waargenomen worden”. Dit werk van Ingrid Rosschaert stelt in glas een doopkleedje voor dat volgens Rik Devillé (werkgroep ‘Mensenrechten in de Kerk’) tegelijk ook een doodkleedje kan uitbeelden. “De titel van dit beeld wil helemaal uitdrukken waar slachtoffers al zoveel jaren mee hebben geworsteld. Het is ook een kreet om herkenning. Met dankbaarheid erkennen wij het gebaar van mgr. De Kesel die hier heel spontaan op reageerde en dit beeld graag een symbolische plaats wil geven in het hart van dit bisdom.”

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BELGIE
Knack

zaterdag 07 april 2012

Brugge – Esse est percipi (zijn is waargenomen worden) is de titel van het poëtisch witglazen beeld dat zaterdagmorgen onthuld werd in de Sint-Salvatorskathedraal in Brugge. Het beeld zal altijd herinneren aan de enorme dreun die het geloof gekregen heeft door het seksueel misbruik in de kerk.

Het kunstwerk, dat geplaatst werd in de doopcel, toont een doopkleed, het teken van onschuld en vertrouwen. Met ingetogen schoonheid geeft het vorm aan het verlangen om ooit geheeld te worden, iets wat de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik binnen de kerk nooit meer zullen kunnen ervaren. Dat was te horen in de pakkende en moedige getuigenissen van verschillende slachtoffers. Het was Rik Devillé, de voorzitter van de Werkgroep Mensenrechten in de kerk (WMK), die ceremonie leidde. Hij was bijzonder blij met het gebaar van Mgr. Jozef De Kesel, die de toelating gaf om het beeld in de Brugse kathedraal te plaatsen. “We kregen op verschillende andere plaatsen een nee, en een nee maar, maar in Brugge was het onmiddellijk ja”, vertelt Devillé. “Symbolisch kan het ook tellen. Het was na de ontdekking van het misbruik van de Brugse ex-bisschop Vangheluwe dat de bom barstte binnen én buiten de kerk.”

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BELGIE
Nieuws

[met video]

De slachtoffers van het seksueel misbruik in de kerk hebben een gedenkbeeld gekregen. Het kunstwerk staat dat in de Sint-Salvatorkathedraal in Brugge waar Bisschop De Kezel het is komen onthullen. Dat gebaar is belangrijk voor de slachtoffers. Zo wordt het misbruik door de kerk erkend.

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BELGIE
Kerknieuws

De Antwerpse bisschop Johan Bonny wil graag getrouwde mannen tot priester wijden. Dat zegt hij in een interview met De Standaard. Dat een bisschop zo’n klare taal spreekt, is een belangrijke evolutie, oordeelt theoloog Jürgen Mettepenningen.

Gehuwde priesters kunnen een verrijking van de pastorale dienstverlening betekenen, vindt Johan Bonny. In deze paastijden neemt de Antwerpse bisschop geen blad voor de mond. Met zijn uitspraken gaat hij lijnrecht in tegen Rome.

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NEW YORK
Boston Globe

By Verena Dobnik
Associated Press / April 7, 2012

NEW YORK—The head of New York City’s Roman Catholic archdiocese faces a challenge to his stance on gay rights: the resignation of a church official who says he’s “had enough” of the cardinal’s attitude.

Joseph Amodeo told The Associated Press on Saturday that he quit the junior board of Catholic Charities after the cardinal, Timothy Dolan, failed to respond to a “call for help” for homeless young people who are not heterosexual.

The conflict began when the head of an organization that helps homeless gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender homeless young people wrote to ask Dolan to help the cause.

Dolan responded by saying he was adhering to church teachings. That prompted Amodeo to quit.

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BELGIE
De Morgen

In een monsterdossier over pedofilie hebben politiediensten in het hele land foto’s gekregen van zeker vijf jongens die misbruikt werden door een psychiatrische verpleger uit Asse. De politie is vrij zeker dat het om Belgische kinderen gaat. De man maakte ook slachtoffers in Brazilië en Polen.

Op de computer van Marc V. (53) thuis in Asse, nabij Brussel, vonden specialisten amper bezwarend materiaal. Zijn computer bij zijn ouders thuis daarentegen bleek de grot van Ali Baba: Marc V. had daar meerdere harde schijven staan, sommige waren versleuteld. Maar allemaal stonden ze vol kinderporno. Tien miljoen bestanden in totaal. Een deel daarvan maakte de psychiatrisch verpleger zelf aan. Op sommige foto’s en video’s is Marc V. ook zelf te zien terwijl hij jongens misbruikt. De slachtoffers zijn tussen acht en zestien jaar. De speurders vonden bij Marc V. ook zelfgeschreven boeken waarin kindermisbruik een hoofdrol speelt.

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WASHINGTON
Seattle PI

By JOEL CONNELLY, SEATTLEPI.COM

A painful truism of this Holy Week, Christianity’s most important days of the year: Moral leadership in America’s Catholic Church is starting to flow from lay persons in pews and priests who deal with human problems, not prelates on thrones wearing white, red and purple hats.

Just look around to events from Rome to Berlin, and from Worcester, Mass., to Seattle.

In the Archdiocese of Seattle, our bishops issued a letter saying parishes will become signature-gathering centers for Referendum 74, a ballot measure designed to roll back same-sex marriage. But the state’s marriage equality law was sponsored by a Catholic state senator and signed into law by a Catholic governor.

Archbishop Sartain and Bishop Elizondo talk about treating all persons with “respect, sensitivity and love,” but then urge support for a campaign put together by the National Organization for Marriage — an outfit that wants to “drive a wedge” between blacks and gays, “sideswipe” President Obama and make opposition to marriage equality “an identity marker” for young Latinos.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Telegram & Gazette

Dianne Williamson
dwilliamson@telegram.com

Today is Easter Sunday, which makes it a good time to talk about Jesus.

You know, the real Jesus — the guy who preached humility and sacrifice. The prophet who urged his followers to relinquish power and embrace the poor. The man who, even when persecuted by ignorant enemies, offered nothing but forgiveness and love.

Twelve years of Catholic school does not a theologian make, but I’m guessing that if Jesus returned to Earth in 2012, He’d be hard-pressed to recognize the strident messages from some church leaders and activists who purport to speak in His name.

Last November, Archbishop Charles Chaput lectured at Assumption College about a sexual minority seeking to dominate life in America, according to Patrick Whelan, president of Catholic Democrats. When Whelan asked the archbishop during the question-and-answer segment if the bishops planned to address poverty at their annual meeting, the archbishop replied that there wasn’t enough time, Whelan said.

But the bishops have time for other issues. From the pulpit, they continue to rail against the evils of contraception, even if they no longer speak for the overwhelming majority of Catholic women. One of their priorities for 2012 was overturning mandatory birth control coverage in health plans. They lobby against same-sex marriage while remaining largely silent about established teachings of the church, such as opposition to the death penalty and protection of the poor.

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HOLYOKE (MA)
WWLP

[with video]

Sy Becker

HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) – On Saturday embattled parishioners at Mater Dolorosa Church in Holyoke continued an Easter tradition that has continued for more than 100 years.

The parishioners, who’ve occupied the church since Mater Dolorosa was ordered closed last summer, spent the day decorating the Holyoke house of worship with lilies and tulips.

Parishioner Helena Sulewiski told 22News, it’s an Easter tradition that means a great deal to members of the church.

“We are very proud this is a long standing tradition for Easter to create this beautiful church. It’s not just a Polish church and we welcome everyone and we are very proud to do as much as we can as long as we can,” said parishioner Helena Sulewski.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WKYC

[with video]

CLEVELAND — Easter Sunday is one of the holiest days of the year. Parishioners of the 13 churches closed by Bishop Lennon had hoped he’d respond to the Vatican’s ruling to reopen them before Sunday Mass.

Saturday night, a vigil was held outside the church doors. Rick Cyngier, supporter of the closed Cleveland churches, was in attendance. “Honestly I was hoping that he would have it in his heart to open the churches for Easter services,” Cyngier said.

Pat Schulte-Singleton was the last parishioner to leave the church before it was closed.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Fox 8

[with video]

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Emboldened by a decree from the Vatican that their church and 12 others in the Diocese of Cleveland should not have been closed, members of St. Patrick’s Parish in West Park gathered on the steps of the church on Saturday night, for an Easter prayer service.

Established in 1848, St. Pat’s is one of the oldest parishes in the Diocese of Cleveland. Members of the congregation were stunned when the current church, built in 1896, was one of 50 closed down by Bishop Richard Lennon, in a re-organization of the Diocese that he called necessary because of difficult finances.

But the St. Pat’s community never gave up hope that they could save their church, even though the Bishop has steadfastly refused to reconsider his decision.

Pat Schulte-Singleton of the Save St. Pat’s Committee, told Fox 8, “We knew when we heard from our Bishop that our doors would be closed, that it was wrong. We knew that our parish was vibrant, we knew that our parish was very important within the community of West Park.”

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IRELAND
Sunday Independent

[Enda Kenny’s speech following publication of the Cloyne Report]

[click to view the story]

By JEROME REILLY

Sunday April 08 2012

THE Redemptorist priest who has been silenced by Rome for publicly backing Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s broadside against the Vatican’s handling of child sex abuse allegations is a brother of leading Fine Gael strategist Frank Flannery.

The censure of Fr Tony Flannery has provoked a storm of anger among fellow clergy and lay organisations.

Fr Flannery was censured by the powerful Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, which first contacted the Redemptorist Order in Rome with an order that he no longer be allowed to write in the Irish Order’s influential magazine Reality or on the Association of Irish Priests’ website, of which he is a founding member.

He is also banned from talking to the media.

Fr Flannery visited Rome to argue his case after the rebuke two months ago.

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CANADA
Times Colonist

By Maxine Matilpi, Times Colonist April 8, 2012 2

In February, I attended the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing in my northern Vancouver Island Kwakiutl community of Fort Rupert. Although the event was open to the public, I was disappointed at how few nonindigenous people attended.

In a room of more than 100 people, there were maybe six non-indigenous people, including two Anglican ministers and my husband. I wondered about this absence of people of good conscience, those who consider themselves moral citizens and who are proud to call themselves Canadians.

I’d heard about the TRC hearings through the moccasin telegraph and the Kwakiutl band’s newsletter. Maybe non-indigenous people hadn’t heard about it.

Later, I worried that other people knew about the hearing, but thought it had nothing to do with them, that it was only for survivors or family members and communities. I don’t like to think it was wilful blindness, or that they think Canada’s history of residential schools and their legacy is about others, not them.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

Peter Stanford

Sunday 08 April 2012

He claims that half of all Catholic priests are gay – and has himself been married to his husband for 14 years. He believes celibacy is to blame for many of the Church’s problems – and that the Vatican must take responsibility for the paedophilia in its midst. Is it any wonder so many people want rid of Father Bernard Lynch?

Unlike other whistleblowers, Lynch doesn’t have a straightforward job. Vocation is more accurate, for he is a Catholic priest, a member of the Society of African Missions religious order for the past 42 years. That sense of being called has sustained his work, he says, through “terrible” times. In the 1980s, in New York, he was one of the first priests to support those dying from Aids-related illnesses. It was a ministry that earned him awards from secular authorities – including New York’s mayor – but hostility from the Vatican, which was then describing the Aids pandemic as the “natural result of unnatural acts”. It would have preferred he kept well away.

The tension between Lynch and his superiors ended up involving the FBI – called in by the local cardinal to investigate him – and a trial on trumped-up charges in 1989. “It was soul murder,” Lynch recalls, “and it will follow me to my grave.” The judge dismissed the charges out of hand in what became a cause célèbre for progressively minded Catholics at the time, later the subject of a best-selling book and several TV documentaries.

To escape the furore, Lynch came to live in England in 1992. Today, his ministry includes counselling gay priests who are in the closet in a Church that describes homosexuality as “intrinsically disordered”. Yet he claims that as many as 50 per cent of Catholic clergy are gay. It is an example of how this 64-year-old has continued to point things out that discomfort his ecclesiastical superiors. Another was his decision to speak in defence of gay rights at the “Protest the Pope” demonstration that greeted Benedict XVI in London in 2010. Lynch lined up in full clerical garb alongside Peter Tatchell and militant atheist Richard Dawkins. Yet somehow, he has always managed to stay within the fold of his Catholic religious order. Until now.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Dan Buckley

Saturday, April 07, 2012

Dan Buckley profiles a priest at odds with some dogmas of the Church

If Fr Tony Flannery lived 300 years ago, it is almost certain he would have been burned at the stake as a heretic. But the Vatican — and Catholic Church teaching in general — has come a long way since then.

Or has it? The Vatican retains a tendency to view unfavourably any Catholic — particularly a priest — who has the temerity to question its dogma. A group of priests acting in consort is bound to come in for particular scrutiny.

As part of his crackdown on so-called dissident clerics, Pope Benedict has ordered an investigation into Fr Flannery, one of the founders of the Association of Catholic Priests, an independent organisation that provides a forum for members to discuss issues affecting the Church in Ireland and Irish society in general.

The association shares some of the views espoused by the more radical Austrian organisation, the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, which last year issued a public ‘call to disobedience’ in relation to a number of Catholic Church teachings. The public letter, issued in June 2011, demanded “reform” on priestly celibacy, men-only priesthood, and the proscription on giving Holy Communion to divorced and remarried Catholics.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

After the homily addressed today by Benedict XVI to rebel Austrian priests, their leader Mgr. Helmut Schüller took the floor

Alessandro Speciale
Vatican City

At first it might seem like an extreme attempt to keep a stiff upper lip: the leader of the “rebel” Austrian priests, Mgr. Helmut Schüller, stated he was satisfied with the homily pronounced today by Pope Benedict XVI who responded directly to the Pfarrer Initiative which he supports. In an interview with TM News, Schüller said that the Pope’s homily was “an open explanation” and “There was no threat or sanction implied.”

Indeed, the Pope did not make any harsh remark about the group or its initiative and, unusually, engaged in a “dialogue” with the priests who supported the initiative, in an attempt to put himself in their shoes and even raised potential objections to his own reasoning. Benedict XVI focused on the subject of “disobedience”, frequently asking himself and the priests present whether this really was the path to a “true renewal” of the Church, “or just a desperate push to do something, to transform the Church according to our wishes and ideas?”

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

This is one of the reasons why the Untied Nations must end the status of the Vatican as a “country” because of the totalitarian regime of the Pope. He preaches one thing and does the contrary like in his recent visit to Cuba, Benedict asked Fidel Castro to allow more freedom of speech and soon as he gets home into his out-of-touch-with-reality Vatican Palace, he silences an outspoken priest Fr Tony Flannery, for his liberal views. Fr Tony Flannery is a founder of the Association of Catholic Priests and has had his monthly column and written his opinions with Reality, the Redemptorists’ monthly magazine for the past 14 years, but now it has been discontinued. It is quite timely that during this Holy Week, Benedict XVI the criminal head of the Mystical Body of Christ is showing his true hypocritical colors as the pathological liar “Holy Father” of 1.2 billion Catholics, read our related article Benedict Ratzinger & Marcial Maciel are 2 criminal heads of the Mystical Body and Legion of Christ

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

”. . .Former St. Louis archbishop Raymond Burke may soon preside over a highly unusual case in his role as head of the Catholic church’s top court. In an unusual move, Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon has been ordered by Vatican officials to re-open parishes that he closed as part of the diocese’s “downsizing.” Lennon may appeal that decision to Burke’s court, called the Signatura. Burke, now permanently ensconced in Rome, recently rubbed shoulders in Florida with President George W. Bush, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and other conservatives at a gala for Legatus, a group of Catholic CEOs founded by Domino’s pizza founder Tom Monaghan. . .

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DEUTSCHLAND
Readers Edition

Helmut Jacob
7. April 2012

Bischof Stefan Ackermann ist Missbrauchsbeauftragter der Katholischen Kirche. Als solcher hat er einen großen Themenkomplex zu beackern. Da wurden Kinder und Ministranten anal vergewaltigt. Ein ehemaliger Ministrant berichtet, dass er dem Pfarrer in der Sakristei noch vor der Messe sein Hinterteil zur Bedienung bereit halten musste.

Unter seinem Messdienergewand durfte er keine Hosen tragen. Andere Kinder und Jugendliche wurden gezwungen, Priester oder sonstige kirchliche Mitarbeiter oral zu befriedigen. Wieder andere wurden von ihnen unter der Bettdecke befummelt und teils mastubiert. In die Liste der Abscheulichkeiten lässt keine Perversionen im Umgang katholischer Mitarbeiter mit solchen Kindern und Jugendlichen aus, die sie eigentlich beschützen sollten. Die Zeitspanne reicht wenigstens vom Kriegsende bis in die heutigen Tage hinein. Die Zeit davor wurde nicht aufgearbeitet, weil es kaum Überlebende mehr gibt. Die meisten Verbrechen sind juristisch verjährt.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBC

Missouri law requires school officials, clergy and others with authority over children, to report any suspicion of abuse. That’s why a Jackson County judge ruled that Bishop Finn must stand trial for allegedly not reporting to police when he was alerted to possible inappropriate behavior by Father Ratigan involving children. This is an editorial from KMBC/KCWE President and General Manager Sarah Smith.

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DEUTSCHLAND
ARD

[mit Video]

Die Diskussion über den Umgang mit sexuellem Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche bekommt neuen Schwung. Anlass ist eine Äußerung des Trierer Bischofs Ackermann. Er will nun doch, dass die katholische Kirche ihre Leitlinien ändert. Zuletzt wurde Ackermann immer häufiger kritisiert – auch, weil das Bistum Trier pädophile Priester weiter arbeiten lässt. Jetzt scheint sich Ackermanns Haltung zu ändern.

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CHILE
La Tercera

por Sebastián Labrín

El arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, reconoció ayer que, tras sostener una reunión con integrantes del clero capitalino, se retomó la idea de disolver la Unión Sacerdotal del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, creada en 1928, la cual era liderada por el ex párroco de El Bosque Fernando Karadima, condenado por el Vaticano por abusos sexuales contra menores.

Durante la conmemoración del Vía Crucis realizado en la comuna de Colina, Ezzati dijo que la disolución del grupo religioso “es una posibilidad”.

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