ABUSE TRACKER

MALTA
Times of Malta

An appeals court this morning dismissed an appeal which was filed by the Attorney General after a defrocked priest was cleared of rape because of an error in the charge sheet about where the act took place.

The mistake had emerged during the proceedings against three priests. A victim testified he had been raped at the St Joseph Home in Ħamrun when the charge gave the location of the crime as having been a home in Marfa.

The former priest, Godwin Scerri, was convicted of abusing boys about 20 years ago and jailed for five years. He was, however, acquitted of the rape charge.

A second former priest, Carmel Pulis, received a six-year jail sentence for also abusing boys. A third member of the same Order, Brother Joseph Bonnett, who had been facing the same charges, passed away during the proceedings. The priests have filed an appeal.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Jurgen Balzan

The court of criminal appeal has this morning thrown out a request by the Attorney General to have Godwin Scerri – jailed for five years for abusing boys – be also found guilty of rape, after it a technical error was discovered in the original charge sheet which showed a crime happening in a place when in actual fact it had happened in another.

The court upheld the objections raised by defence counsel Giannella de Marco who argued through case law, that the prosecution had “ample time” to correct its own mistake on the charge sheet, but did not.

Explaining his decision not to uphold the prosecution’s request, Judge David Scicluna, said the mistake was evident early in the court proceedings and argued that the prosecution had enough time to correct it, but had failed to do so.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 7:22 AM

An Irish priest found guilty of child abuse in California has fled home to his family in Ireland – and continued to plead his innocence.

Fr Michael Kelly has absconded after a civil jury in Stockton, Southern California, ruled that he had molested a young boy.

Bishop of Stockton Stephen Blaire has now appealed to the Tipperary native to return to America and ‘see his trial through’.

The Stockton jury ruled unanimously that an unnamed man was molested by Fr Kelly when he was a boy.

The 62-year-old priest was immediately removed from his ministry but denied the allegations while admitting that the jury verdict had to be ‘respected’.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WTRF

By Ashley Mullins

PHILADELPHIA, PA (AP) –
An aide to Bishop Michael Bransfield of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese is being asked to testify in a clergy-abuse case.

According to the Associated Press, Philadelphia prosecutors say they’re having trouble getting Monsignor Kevin Quirk to testify in the criminal court case of Rev. James Brennan who faces sexual-assault charges. Quirk was a judge at the church’s in-house trial of that case.

Quirk had agreed to testify, but said he had to notify Bransfield. The report states that since then, the process has stalled.

Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina has agreed to take it up with court officials in Wheeling.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Testimony and argument in the clergy abuse case allegedly link bishop Michael Bransfield, of the Wheeling-Charleston West Virginia diocese, to an alleged predator priest and child abuse in the early 1980’s.

A witness, who says he was raped by a Father Stanley Gana, has testified that Gana put him on the phone with then Father Michael Bransfield, who allegedly said he was going to have the boy sent to him.

And the prosecutor has told the judge another witness is expected to testify Wednesday that Bransfield also brought boys to an infamous farm where Gana allegedly raped multiple boys. And the prosecutor says they have been notified of another incident of fondling by Bransfield.

Neither Gana nor Bishop Bransfield has been charged. And the Wheeling-Charleston diocese has issued a statement saying they don’t react to rumor and stories and it goes on to say, in part, the trial appears to be evolving into a circus, and they, the prosecutors want to smear individuals not on trial, anything to bolster their persecution of the church.

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UNITED STATES/IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

An open letter to:

The Association of Catholic Priests of Ireland

On April 14th,some of our Association of Pittsburgh Priests members distributed leafletsquoting Vatican II documentation to an assembly of “Catholic Men”concerned about the so-called threats to Religious Liberty in the USA. We were reminded that the eminent theologian, American John Courtney Murray,S.J. author of the Council’s document on Religious Freedom, was himself censored prior to that history-altering Ecumenical Council.

With this historic reminder before us, we congratulate the Association of Catholic Priests of Ireland and Fr.Tony Flannery and his Religious Congregation, publishers of REALITY magazine, for their serene response to censorship and silencing.

If REALITY magazine must paythe price by its being censored, it’s the seed that might die so that a new reality for the IrishChurch and the World, English-speaking Catholic Church can take on new life.

We are indeed indebted to Father Flannery and your Association for your website, www.associationofcatholicpriests.ieby through which we are kept informed, and for being a remarkable and lively media contribution to Church Renewal.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

OPINION: TOMORROW is the seventh anniversary of the election of Pope Benedict XVI on April 19th, 2005. The scenes on St Peter’s Square that afternoon illustrated what this divisive figure has meant for his church.

Middle-aged and older people were crestfallen. A man sat at one of the great fountains in the square and wept openly. Around him danced seminarians from the North American College.

Well-scrubbed and in cassocks, they could not contain their glee. “Benedicto, Benedicto, Benedicto,” they shouted. “It’s a regular party,” a seminarian from Pittsburg told this reporter.

For them, the election of John Paul II’s enforcer as pope represented the final defeat of that liberal Catholicism ushered in following Vatican II which they and their mentors see as at the root of all that is wrong in the church today. The rigid certainties enforced by the new pope had so much more appeal for them than the porous, inclusive Catholicism of the previous generation.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE VATICAN is an “ever-present elephant in the room” for those within the Catholic Church who wish to discuss reform, a priest silenced by the Vatican has said.

He said: “It would appear that we are returning to an authoritarian era where the church will meet its problems, not by discussion and open investigation but by decree. Fr Tony Flannery is the latest to learn this lesson.”

The Redemptorist priest Fr Flannery was silenced by the Vatican because of his views on contraception, celibacy and women’s ordination, and has been advised by Rome to go to a monastery for a period where he would “pray and reflect”.

It also instructed Fr Flannery and the editor of Reality magazine, Fr Gerard Moloney, to desist from publishing articles on these issues, and called on Fr Flannery to withdraw from the Association of Catholic Priests.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Fox 8

[with video]

It’s a big day for area Catholics. A day years in the making.

Tuesday, Bishop Richard Lennon announced 12 Roman Catholic Churches will reopen.

They are the same churches whose closings were reversed by the Vatican last month.

“It is time for peace and unity in the Diocese of Cleveland. I will not appeal the decrees to the Apostolic Signatura. It would create more uncertainty and continue to divide our Catholic community,” said Bishop Lennon.

Bishop Lennon had the option to appeal the Vatican’s ruling but chose not to after much thoughtful prayer during the Easter Holiday.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
National Catholic Reporter

by Brian Roewe on Apr. 17, 2012 NCR Today

Bishop Richard G. Lennon of the Cleveland diocese has announced he will not appeal the Congregation for the Clergy’s ruling in favor of 12 parishioner groups who appealed to the Vatican to keep their churches open and parishes intact.

“During these Easter days, I often think of Jesus’ first words as he appeared to the apostles after rising from the dead: Peace be with you. I now say, it’s time for peace and unity in the diocese of Cleveland,” said Lennon at a press conference this morning.

“I will not appeal the decrees to the Apostolic Signatura. Doing so would prolong the process for a number of years and would create more uncertainty and continue to divide our Catholic community. Therefore, I will move forward and carry out the Congregation for the Clergy’s directives regarding the parishes in an orderly manner,” he said.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
newsnet5

[with video]

• By: Deb Lee, newsnet5.com

CLEVELAND – A candlelight prayer service was held Tuesday night on the steps of St. Wendelin Church, one of 12 closed Catholic churches that will soon reopen.

Bishop Richard Lennon said Tuesday that he will not appeal the decrees that reversed his closing of the churches.

“It’s time for peace and unity in the Diocese of Cleveland,” he said.

Parishioners from St. Wendelin were joined by members of other closed parishes who also fought to keep their church doors open.

“We’re all Catholics and we have to stick up for each other,” St. Casimir parishioner Joe Feckanin said. “We’re all part of the same body and when one of us is hurt, all of us are hurt.”

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By The Plain Dealer Editorial Board

Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon’s decision to reopen 12 churches from inner- city Cleveland to Akron and Lorain is a welcome move to help bring peace and reconciliation to a fractured diocese.

For the parishes that successfully appealed to Rome to reverse the loss of their churches, it brings closure and a chance to work with the bishop to heal their relationship and rebuild new faith communities.

Lennon deserves strong praise for choosing conciliation in response to last month’s extraordinary rebuke from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy in Rome, declaring that Lennon failed to follow proper church law and procedures when he closed the 12 churches.

Those dozen parishes were among 50 churches the diocese closed in 2009 and 2010 in a reconfiguration of financial and human resources triggered by long outmigration from the city.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WKSU

by WKSU’s KEVIN NIEDERMIER
and M.L. SCHULTZE

A dozen churches in the Cleveland Catholic diocese will be reopening. Bishop Richard Lennon announced at a press conference this morning that he will not appeal a rare Vatican decision overruling his decision to close those churches along with some three-dozen others.

The bishop of the Cleveland Catholic diocese is reopening a dozen churches he shut down over the past three years. But he says it could be months before some of those churches will hold services again.

Bishop Richard Lennon announced at a press conference this morning that he will not appeal a rare Vatican decision overruling his church closures.

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CHILE
La Tercera

EL ARZOBISPO de Santiago, Ricardo Ezatti, decretó el término de la existencia canónica de la Unión Sacerdotal del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, asociación clerical creada en 1928 y que en los últimos años tuvo en el sacerdote Fernando Karadima su principal figura.

Desde el momento que se hicieron públicas las acusaciones de abusos sexuales y de poder en contra del sacerdote, respecto de las cuales hubo sentencias vaticanas de primera y segunda instancia acogiendo las demandas, la razón de ser de esta entidad sacerdotal quedó cuestionada, al estar integrada básicamente por miembros surgidos del mismo núcleo de formación que dirigía Karadima; asimismo, un número relevante de sacerdotes se había distanciado del grupo, reconociéndole verosimilitud a las declaraciones de las víctimas. Las investigaciones dieron cuenta de una unidad que funcionaba de manera autónoma, administraba propiedades y recursos y en la cual el padre Karadima actuaba sin contrapeso, lo que la hacía impenetrable incluso para el Arzobispado de Santiago.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Colette Browne

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

ACCORDING to a recent opinion poll, most Irish Catholics are Protestants in a profound identity crisis.

Despite 84% of respondents to Census 2011 identifying themselves as Roman Catholic, a survey published last week revealed that most Irish people don’t care about Papal teaching and its anachronistic morality.

A poll commissioned by the Association of Catholic Priests revealed Catholic Church teachings on sexuality have “no relevance” for 75% of Irish Catholics or for their families.

Furthermore, 87% believe priests should be allowed to marry, 77% believe there should be female priests and, in relation to the Church’s condemnation of homosexuality, 46% “disagree strongly” while only 5% “agree strongly”.

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IRELAND
The Irish Sun

AN Irish priest who sexually abused a child in California has fled here to avoid justice.

Fr Michael Kelly was last week found to have molested an altar boy in Stockton city in the 1980s.

His victim, who is now 37, took a civil case against him and sought damages.

The jury in the trial unanimously found against on three counts of child sex abuse but Fr Kelly won’t face criminal charges because the statute of limitations has expired.

Kelly, 62, has been stripped of his position at St Joachim’s in Lockeford, California, where he had worked since 2004.

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NEDERLAND
Limburgs Dagblad

DEN HAAG (ANP) – Op het parket in Den Bosch is afgelopen maandag een pakket verloren gewaande informatie aangetroffen over tientallen zedenzaken die hebben gespeeld tegen functionarissen van de katholieke kerk in de jaren ’50 en ’60.

Dat zei Han Moraal van het college van procureurs-generaal woensdag tijdens een hoorzitting in de Tweede Kamer. Het zijn geen strafdossiers, maar correspondentie waaruit het een en ander af te leiden valt.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Record

By Roger Phillips
Record Staff Writer

April 18, 2012

STOCKTON – The civil trial of a former Catholic priest found liable of sexual misconduct against an altar boy ground to a halt Tuesday morning as San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Bob McNatt considered his options following Michael Kelly’s abrupt departure for his native Ireland.

After meeting briefly in chambers with attorneys for both sides, McNatt sent jurors home, instructing them to return to court this morning.

“Michael Kelly has made himself unavailable for the balance of the trial, evidently,” McNatt said. “I need some time to determine how I will deal with this.”

McNatt also instructed jurors to avoid reading press coverage of the case, though he acknowledged that large-type headlines Tuesday reporting Kelly’s departure for Ireland were almost impossible to miss. He asked if any jurors had heard comments about the case, and when one raised her hand, McNatt met with the woman in chambers.

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OHIO
WKRC

A former Sunday School teacher will spend four years in prison for sexually abusing a teenager. Daniel Webster pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual battery.

The case involves the sexual abuse of a 15 year old boy. Webster taught Sunday School at Life Adventure Church in Lebanon, but left the congregation several months ago.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

Jurors in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse trial Tuesday were told about a perverted passion play where teenage boys who played Jesus were stripped naked, dressed in a loincloth, and then whipped with leather straps until they had cuts, bruises and welts on their bodies.

It was a new low of depravity as the sex abuse trial continued into its fourth week of testimony.

Detective James Dougherty of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Unit dispassionately read confidential records from the archdiocese’s secret archive files into the court record.

The files told the story of how Father Thomas J. Smith would personally dress one 12-year-old boy who played Jesus. The priest would bring the boy into the sacristy, lock the door behind him, and have the boy strip naked. Then the priest would kneel down in front of the naked boy, and pin a loincloth on him. Sometimes, Father Smith was clumsy and would “poke him with pins.”

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CALIFORNIA
KGO

[with audio]

A Stockton-area Catholic priest on trial for sexually abusing an altar boy repeatedly in the 1980’s has fled the country and returned to his homeland in Ireland.

As KGO’s Lisa Campbell reports, Michael Kelly, who was due in court to testify Tuesday, had sent a letter to his church saying the stress of the trial was affecting his health and that he had “lost everything” because of “vicious false allegations.”

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AUSTRIA
The News

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

VIENNA: A commission investigating sexual and physical abuse in Austrian Catholic institutions announced on Tuesday it had so far allocated eight million euros ($10.5 million) in damages to the victims.

Up until April 3, a total 1,244 complaints were filed with the commission and 702 cases resolved, commission president Waltraud Klasnic told a press conference. Of these, less than two dozen were rejected, she said, adding she hoped all cases would be concluded before the end of the year. Apart from financial damages — to be paid from a compensation fund set up by the Austrian Catholic Church — the commission also awarded over 23,000 hours of therapy to abuse victims.

The great majority — over 75 per cent — of claimants were men, with half suffering abuse between the ages of 10 and 13, and a further 31 per cent at a younger age. On average, the abuse went on for four years, and two thirds of cases involved sexual abuse, the commission said. In about 40 per cent of cases, the abuse dated back to the 1960s, it also found.

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AUSTRALIA
Geelong Advertiser

Anthea Cannon | April 18th, 2012

GEELONG victims and advocates have welcomed a parliamentary inquiry into child abuse by religious and charity groups as the first step to justice.

The State Government yesterday announced the “broad” bi-partisan inquiry, which will investigate alleged mental, physical and sexually abusive practices, the organisations’ handling of reports and any reforms.

However, lawyer Angela Sdrinis, who has worked for more than a decade fighting for alleged victims of Geelong and Colac orphanages said the parliamentary inquiry was “a wishy, washy response” and called for a Royal Commission.

The region had more than five religious orphanages running during last century, and several schools. Care Leavers Australia Network executive officer, and Geelong resident, Leonie Sheedy was overjoyed that more than a decade of lobbying had paid off. She said the group had protested on the steps of parliament every month since 2007.

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AUSTRALIA
Geelong Advertiser

FEW people could argue the handling of the appalling sexual abuses crimes against children by teachers and staff in religious orders could always have been conducted better. Much better. Both by the church and by government.

Even years after perpetrators have been identified, prosecuted and jailed, even years after victims have been counselled and compensated, the problems persist. Fact is, the legacy of the sex crimes against young children follows them long into later life. Some simply never get over it, their lives have been shattered and no monetary figure, no prison sentence against their offenders, will change that.

But for many, the long years of justice delayed/denied has amounted to institutionalised injustice and posed perhaps the greatest hurdle in their bid for recovery. For many, the Catholic Church’s efforts have been little more than lip service and damage control.

It must be noted suicides continue and victims continue the demand for an independent inquiry into the church’s handling of its in-house abuses. Even leading members of the church itself, such as Geelong Fr Kevin Dillon, have petitioned for such.

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AUSTRALIA
Pro Bono News

Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Victorian Coalition Government has announced a Parliamentary inquiry into the handling of alleged sexual and criminal abuse of children by religious and other organisations.

The inquiry will investigate the practices, policies and protocols of religious and non-government organisations for the handling of allegations of criminal abuse of children by staff within their organisations.

The Premier Ted Baillieu and Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark made the announcement this afternoon.

The inquiry comes after police revealed as many as 40 suicides across Victoria could be linked to abuse by members of the Catholic Church.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WJLA

Detectives in northeast are investigating a child sex abuse case at a church daycare facility.

According to police records obtained by ABC7, a witness walked into a classroom with a man and a three year old child. The adult, in particular, was in a compromising sexual position, the report reads.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian and Michael Matza
Inquirer Staff Writers

Prosecutors in the landmark trial involving the Catholic Church’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests have been stymied in an attempt to compel the testimony of a church judge who participated in a previous canonical trial of the Rev. James J. Brennan.

“We are having a problem with a material-witness petition in West Virginia,” Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington told Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina on Tuesday.

According to Blessington, an unnamed West Virginia judge has balked at honoring the district attorney’s “material-witness petition” for Msgr. Michael Quirk, one of three church judges who heard the 2008 canonical trial of Brennan on child sex-abuse charges.

Brennan is a defendant in the Philadelphia criminal trial for the rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996, an assault he has denied.

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KENTUCKY
The Gleaner

UPDATE;

A former youth pastor at Henderson’s Hyland Baptist Church who is facing local sex abuse charges was arrested Friday in Louisiana in connection with warrants issued from the Routt County Sheriff’s Office in Steamboat Springs, Colo.

According to information on the West Monroe, La., Police Department’s website, John H. Brothers Jr., 42, was arrested at a relative’s home in a “joint operation between the West Monroe Police Department and the Routt County Sheriff’s Office.”

Routt County Undersheriff Ray Birch confirmed Tuesday that Brothers is facing charges in Colorado which include eight counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in position of trust, seven counts of sexual assault and eight counts of first-degree burglary.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Ballarat

By ABC Ballarat

Ballarat’s Catholic bishop Peter Connors, sex abuse survivor Stephen Woods and Broken Rites spokesperson Wayne Chamley discuss the State Government’s announcement of a parliamentary inquiry into abuse of children by catholic priests. State Attorney General Robert Clark explains how the inquiry will work and why he thinks there is no need for a Royal Commission.

Following revelations of up to 40 suicides of abuse victims of abuse by two Ballarat priests in the 1960s, 70s and 80s the State Government has announced a parliamentary inquiry into the systemic failure to protect children from sexual abuse within institutions such as the Catholic Church.

“We hope this enquiry will be able to investigate the systemic issues that have been raised, in other words, the processes which religious and other non-government organisation follow to respond when allegations of child sexual or other abuse by personnel in their organisations emerge, and importantly to come up with any recommendations neccessary for changes to the law or changes to practices, policies or protocols that are followed in such organisations,” says State Attorney General Robert Clark.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Edel O’Connell

Wednesday April 18 2012

AN Irish priest who was found liable in a civil case alleging sexual abuse has been removed from ministry in Stockton, California.

Fr Michael Kelly, from Ballingarry, Co Tipperary, was scheduled to testify in the sex-abuse lawsuit yesterday — but it is believed he has returned to Ireland in recent days.

On April 6, a civil jury found in favour of the accuser in a case alleging sexual abuse by Fr Kelly in the 1980s.

In light of this verdict, Bishop of Stockton Stephen Blaire immediately removed him from ministry.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Rutland & Stamford Mercury

A retired Church of England priest from Sussex, who is at the centre of an abuse inquiry, has been arrested over new sexual assault allegations.

Canon Gordon Rideout, 73, was arrested and interviewed on Monday on suspicion of four sexual assaults on young people during the late 1960s and early 1970s in Ifield, West Sussex, and Middle Wallop, Hampshire, according to Sussex Police.

Mr Rideout, From Eastbourne, East Sussex, was due to answer bail on Wednesday following his arrest on March 6 on suspicion of sexual assaults committed against nine young people in Crawley, West Sussex, Barkingside, north east London, and Middle Wallop, Hampshire, between 1965 and 1972. He has been bailed to return on June 20, a Sussex Police spokesman said.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

April 18, 2012

By Ann Rodgers / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has placed the longtime pastor of St. Lawrence O’Toole parish in Garfield on administrative leave while it investigates an allegation that he sexually abused a minor more than 40 years ago.

The Rev. James Graham, 72, was taken out of ministry Friday, two weeks before he was to retire. He has spent 40 years of his 46-year priesthood at St. Lawrence O’Toole, the last 34 as pastor. The parish is slated to merge with two others into a new parish, St. Maria Goretti, in June.

Auxiliary Bishop William Waltersheid read a letter from Bishop David Zubik at weekend Masses.

“Though the allegation concerns events from many years ago, the length of time makes no difference,” Bishop Zubik wrote. “The allegation has been judged to have what we describe as ‘a semblance of truth’ — that the timing and circumstances surrounding the allegation fit the facts that are known. It does not mean, however, that a definite judgement has been reached.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Graffiti

April 18, 2012

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia prosecutors say they’re having trouble getting a West Virginia priest to come testify in a clergy-abuse case.

Monsignor Kevin Quirk is an aide to Bishop Michael Bransfield of the Wheeling-Charleston diocese.

Quirk was a judge at the church’s in-house trial of the Rev. James Brennan who faces sexual-assault charges in criminal court.

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington wants Quirk to testify to the accuracy of statements Brennan allegedly made during the canonical trial. Blessington said Tuesday that Quirk had agreed to testify in Philadelphia, but said he had to notify Bransfield.

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IRELAND
Inside Ireland

By David Richardson

An Irish priest found guilty of sex abuse in the USA has been removed from ministry.

Fr Michael Kelly, from Ballingarry, Co Tipperary, was scheduled to testify in the sex-abuse lawsuit yesterday – but it is thought he has returned to Ireland in recent days.

On April 6, a civil jury found in favour of the accuser in a case alleging sexual abuse by Fr Kelly in the 1980s.

Kelly, who continues to deny the allegations informed Bishop Blaire in writing on Sunday that he had left the US because of deteriorating health, which he blamed on the “vicious false allegations” against him.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

GENEVIEVE CARBERY

A PRIEST removed from ministry in California after sexual abuse allegations told his bishop he was returning to Ireland, a statement from a US diocese said yesterday.

Fr Michael Kelly of the Stockton diocese was removed from ministry by the diocese on April 6th after a civil jury found against him in a case alleging sexual abuse in the 1980s, the diocese said. Fr Kelly has denied the allegations.

The priest left in the midst of the second part of a civil trial. Fr Kelly was “in the midst of the civil trial in which he is a defendant”, Bishop Blaire of the diocese of Stockton said yesterday. “I was stunned to receive a letter from Fr Michael Kelly informing me he had returned to Ireland,” the bishop said.

“I have tried to reach Fr Kelly by email and by phone to implore him to return and see the trial through to its completion,” he said.

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IRELAND
RTE News

An Irish priest who was found liable in a civil case in California for the sexual abuse of a boy has told his bishop he has fled to Ireland.

Bishop of Stockton Stephen Blaire has appealed to Fr Michael Kelly, a native of Ballingarry, Co Tipperary, to return and, as he put it, “see his trial through”.

Recently, a civil jury in Stockton, Southern California, found unanimously that an unnamed man was molested by Michael Kelly, 62, when he was a boy.

Bishop Blaire immediately removed him from ministry saying that the priest continued to deny the allegations. Nevertheless, he said the jury verdict had to be respected.

Yesterday, the Bishop revealed that Fr Kelly had written to him telling him that he had fled to Ireland.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian and Michael Matza
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

Prosecutors in the landmark trial involving the Catholic church’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests have been stymied in an attempt to compel the testimony of a church judge who participated in a previous canonical trial of the Rev. James J. Brennan.

“We are having a problem with a material witness petition in West Virginia,” Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington told Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina on Tuesday.

According to Blessington, an unnamed West Virginia judge has balked at honoring the district attorney’s “material witness petition” for Msgr. Michael Quirk, one of three church judges who heard the 2008 canonical trial of Brennan on child sex-abuse charges.

Brennan is a defendant in the Philadelphia criminal trial for the rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996, an assault he has denied.

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LOUISIANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on April 17, 2012

Our hearts go out to the loves ones of Nathan Stansbury, the Lafayette District Attorney who prosecuted the first pedophile priest to attract national headlines.

Because Mr. Stansbury bucked convention and acted responsibly, Fr. Gil Gauthe was kept away from kids for years.

Because Mr. Stansbury showed courage, other kids were spared the devastation of child sexual abuse.

Because Mr. Stansbury was brave, others in law enforcement were emboldened to investigate and pursue child molesting clerics.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
CBS Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Parishioners at St. Lawrence O’Toole in Garfield were expecting to see long-time priest Father James Graham at mass on Sunday.

Instead, they were read a letter about sexual abuse allegations against the 72-year-old pastor.

Father Ron Lengwin, the spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, told KDKA’s Kym Gable the alleged abuse happened in the late 1960′s.

The accuser just came forward recently.

Lengwin says the accusation is considered “credible.”

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IRELAND/UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on April 17, 2012

A predator priest from California has fled back to his home in Ireland. He’s been found guilty of molesting one boy, is being investigated in another, and was to take the witness stand today.

We are calling on every bishop of every diocese in Ireland to use all of the resources available to them and warn their flocks and communities about the cleric, Fr. Michael Kelly.

Just last week, Fr. Kelly was found guilty by a jury in a civil trial to have molested a child while he worked in the diocese of Stockton, CA. Yesterday, he fled the US and returned to his native Ireland. We are not sure where he is currently, but we suspect he has relatives in various dioceses across the country.

It takes only seconds for a predator to shove his hands down a child’s pants or his tongue in a child’s mouth. We urge these church officials to do everything they can to prevent this from happening. Silence is a predator’s best weapon, and we hope these bishops will break theirs in order to protect Irish children.

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GARFIELD (PA)
WPXI

GARFIELD, Pa. —

A local priest has been placed on leave because of an investigation into accusations of sexual abuse against a minor over 40 years ago.

Officials said Bishop David Zubik placed Father James Graham, 72, of the Saint Lawrence O’Toole parish in Garfield, on administrative leave. A letter was read to parishioners announcing the decision at all weekend masses.

Father Ron Lengwin, spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh, said the allegation was brought to the diocese’s attention last Thursday by a family member of someone who recently died. Lengwin said despite the alleged victim being dead, they have to investigate.

“It’s always upsetting because this isnt the first one and it brings up memories of other ones,” Lengwin said. “You always hope and pray thats it’s the end and no other child has been abused. When something like this comes up, it is troubling.”

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
WTAE

Office of the Bishop
April 14-15, 2012

Dear Parishioners of Saint Lawrence O’Toole Parish:

This past week, officials at the Diocese received a very serious allegation concerning your pastor, Father James Graham. As a result of that allegation, I have immediately placed Father Graham on administrative leave.

The allegation against Father Graham involved a minor a number of years ago. Though the allegation concerns events from many years ago, the length of time makes no difference. The allegation has been judged to have what we describe as a “semblance of truth” – that the timing and circumstances surrounding the allegation fit the facts that are known. It does not mean, however, that a definite judgment has been reached.

Under the policies of the Diocese of Pittsburgh a priest must be placed on administrative leave when an allegation has been determined to have a semblance of truth. This means Father Graham cannot celebrate the sacraments publicly or continue to actively serve as your pastor.

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KENTUCKY/COLORADO
The Courier-Journal

Written by
The Courier-Journal

A former Kentucky youth pastor, already facing charges of sexual abuse in Henderson, Ky., has been arrested again on similar charges in a Colorado case.

John H. Brothers Jr., 43, was arrested on Friday in West Monroe, La., where he had been living since his departure from Kentucky last year.

Brothers was formerly a youth pastor at Hyland Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in Henderson, Ky.

Brothers is scheduled for trial on May 17 in Henderson Circuit Court on two counts of first-degree sexual abuse. A Henderson Police Department report said Brothers was arrested after a detective interviewed two juveniles under 18. News accounts at the time of Brothers’ arrest in November 2011 indicated that the alleged victims were members of the congregation.

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CANADA
Metro

By Staff The Canadian Press

SYDNEY, N.S. – A Roman Catholic priest who was under investigation at a drug rehabilitation centre where he worked in Cape Breton says he is relieved that police have dropped the case.

Rev. Paul Abbass says in a statement Tuesday he was told by the police that they had concluded the investigation and will not be laying any criminal charges.

He says he was “pleased and relieved” that the matter involving his work as executive director at Talbot House has been resolved, adding that it had been an intensely difficult time for him.

But Abbass says he is disappointed with the way the Department of Community Services was handling a review of the facility, which has since closed, but he didn’t elaborate.

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LOUISIANA
KATC

Posted: Apr 17, 2012 11:09 AM by Ian Auzenne

A national support group for victims of clergy abuse is remembering former District Attorney Nathan Stansbury. Barbara Dorris, the outreach director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), says, “Our hearts go out to the loved ones of Nathan Stansbury . . . who prosecuted the first pedophile priest to attract national headlines.” Stansbury, who died last weekend, successfully prosecuted Fr. Gilbert Gauthe in 1985.

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OSTERREICH
Wiener Zeitung

Wien. Eigentlich war es der Fall F. 2008 in Amstetten, der das Thema Kindesmissbrauch ins Rollen brachte. Später wurde F., der seine Tochter 24 Jahre lang im Keller eingesperrt und missbraucht hatte, zu lebenslanger Haft verurteilt. Es blieb kein spektakulärer Einzelfall. 2010 wurden Missbrauchsfälle im klerikalen Umfeld bekannt – 2011 erkannte man, dass auch in zahlreichen Landesheimen Misshandlung und sexueller Missbrauch zur Erziehungspraxis gehörten. Und das bis in die frühen 90er Jahre. Dieses Konvolut an Meldungen durch Betroffene hat zu einer Sensibilisierung beim Thema Kindesmissbrauch geführt. So wurde als Antwort auf die Vorfälle in der katholischen Kirche 2010 die Unabhängige Opferschutzkommission (UOK) unter dem Vorsitz Waltraud Klasnics eingerichtet, Landeskommissionen nach deren Vorbild folgten.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

A priest at the centre of an abuse inquiry has been arrested over four more allegations.

Canon Gordon Rideout was arrested and bailed in March on suspicion of sexual assaults on nine young people in Crawley, London and Hampshire between 1965 and 1972.

Yesterday Sussex Police confirmed he had been arrested again over four new claims. He was being questioned in custody last night.

The force released a statement saying: “A 73-year-old man from Eastbourne is being interviewed on suspicion of four sexual assaults on young people during the late 1960s and early 1970s in Ifield, West Sussex, and Middle Wallop in Hampshire.”

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

By Gustavo Arellano
Tue., Apr. 17 2012

Last weekly, Moxley wrote about another successful pedo-priest exposed in civil court by John Manly, the bane of pedophile protectors and their apologists for years in Orange County, and now around the world. The priest in question was Michael Kelly of the Diocese of Stockton–and he’s now on the run in Ireland.

Mothers of Eire, lock up your boys.

The stunning turn happened despite the fact that Kelly was about to testify in another civil case, this one to determine whether the Diocese of Stockton (once run by former Diocese of Orange Bishop John Steinbock, who housed more than a few pedo-priests in his day) knew of Kelly’s boy-loving ways. Kelly wrote a letter on Sunday explaining that he was going to Ireland to be with his family and claimed he was dying, which was kind of the same ruse Orange pedo-protector extraordinaire John Urell used to get out of a civil deposition a couple of years ago. Looks like the Diocese of Orange way is spreading far and wide–heckuva job, Brownie!

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Record

April 17, 2012

STOCKTON – A judge overseeing a civil trial against former priest Michael Kelly and the Diocese of Stockton has sent the jury home for the day while figuring out what to do since Kelly has left the country.

Kelly returned to his native Ireland, the diocese said on Monday, just before he was to testify in the civil proceedings brought by a former altar boy who says he was molested by Kelly while both served at Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton.

The plaintiff recovered memories only after the statue of limitations had expired.

San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Bob McNatt met in his chambers with attorneys for about 45 minutes this morning, then came out and dismissed the jury, saying he needed to determine how to proceed now that Kelly, who was found liable by the jury, has left.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

18 Apr, 2012

The Victorian government has come under fire for ordering a parliamentary inquiry to investigate child sex abuse by the clergy, rather than a royal commission.
Convicted former priests Gerald Ridsdale, Bryan Coffey and Paul Ryan and former CBC brother Robert Best all served in the south-west. Victims from the region are among those who committed suicide because of Catholic clergy sexual abuse.

There are concerns a royal commission would have had a better chance of getting to the bottom of the issue than a six-member committee of inexperienced politicians working part-time.

The inquiry, announced by Premier Ted Baillieu yesterday following revelations that at least 40 victims of the Catholic clergy had committed suicide, is to be conducted by State Parliament’s existing Family and Community Development Committee. “We regard child abuse as abhorrent and we will endeavour to do whatever we can to prevent it from happening and indeed bring those who are perpetrators of child abuse to justice,” Mr Baillieu told reporters.

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CANADA
Cape Breton Post

SYDNEY — Roman Catholic priest Rev. Paul Abbass has broken his silence over a police investigation that concluded there was no basis for criminal charges against him.

Abbass said although he plans to return to ministry he has to take some personal time for healing.

“I know everyone will understand my need for reflection and healing,” he said while also noting he won’t be doing any media interviews at this time.

The Cape Breton Regional Police said last week they have dropped their investigation into a former employee of Talbot House and have no basis to pursue any criminal charges. Abbass confirmed in an email that he was the person being investigated.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
WTAE

PITTSBURGH — A priest for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has been accused of sexually abusing a minor.

The Rev. James Graham, 72, has been placed on administrative leave while the allegation is investigated, according to diocese spokesman the Rev. Ronald Lengwin.

The Allegheny County district attorney’s office confirmed Tuesday it is also investigating.

“We did receive a letter from the diocese yesterday concerning (Graham) and we will be attempting to gather any facts associated with the allegation,” district attorney’s office spokesman Mike Manko said in an email response to Channel 4 Action News.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Boston Globe

By Maryclaire Dale
Associated Press / April 17, 2012

PHILADELPHIA—A Philadelphia jury heard Tuesday about Catholic schoolboys who said they had to strip before a priest and endure whippings as they played Christ in a Passion play.

Prosecutors pursuing a child-endangerment case against a church official said the Rev. Thomas J. Smith remained in ministry despite those 2002 accusations. Church officials and an in-house review board didn’t think Smith was seeking sexual gratification when he allegedly had boys undress or get naked with him in a hot tub.

Smith was removed in 2005, after another accuser said Smith had taken several boys to a motel in the late 1970s, put ice down their pants and made them remove their underwear so it would dry. The accuser said he awoke to find a naked Smith rubbing his body against the naked boy.

Smith, now 64, was defrocked in 2007. The Associated Press could not immediately determine his current whereabouts. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia cannot comment because of a gag order imposed in the trial of Monsignor William Lynn.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

Jo Chandler
April 18, 2012

HINDSIGHT and maternal intuition mean Helen Watson can pinpoint precisely the moment when life for her 15-year-old son began to unravel. There’s no consolation in the memory.

She can summon up the scene, see it, smell it – the ”absolutely reeking” stench of alcohol wafting from the young priest, and the strange discomfort in her boy’s demeanour when he arrived back at the family farmhouse that morning.

What she can’t do is fix it, though she has devoted many years since to retrieving whatever justice, amends or lessons she might find in the moment.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Fresno Bee

The Associated Press

Tuesday, Apr. 17, 2012

STOCKTON, Calif. — A Central Valley Catholic priest found liable in a civil trial of molesting an altar boy has left the country as the trial continues.

The Diocese of Stockton said it received a letter from Michael Kelly on Monday in which the priest said he had returned to his native Ireland. Kelly cited health problems from the stress of the trial.

A civil jury found Kelly liable earlier this month of abusing the boy, now 37. The alleged victim said Kelley abused him in the 1980s when Kelly was a priest at Cathedral of Annunciation in Stockton. Kelly has called the allegation false.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Los Angeles Times

April 17, 2012

A Catholic priest from outside Stockton has reportedly fled the country for his native Ireland after being found liable of sexual misconduct.

Father Michael Kelly, from Lockeford, Calif., is in the middle of a trial in which the victim is seeking damages for the misconduct. Before he fled, Kelly penned a letter to Diocese of Stockton Bishop Stephen Blaire telling him the stress of the trial was taking too high a toll on his health, the Stockton Record reported.

“This afternoon, I was stunned to receive a letter from Fr. Michael Kelly informing me he had returned to Ireland in the midst of the civil trial in which he is a defendant,” Blaire said in a written statement.

In the letter, Kelly wrote that he was averaging only an hour of sleep a night, was losing weight and had chronic bowel problems, the newspaper reported.

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STOCKTON (CA)
KMJ

KMJ News

A Stockton diocese priest has fled the country.

Prompting father Michael Kelly’s sudden departure to Ireland was his alleged involvement in a child molestation case.

Kelly was found liable in a civil trial on April 6th of three counts of child sex abuse involving a former altar boy in the mid-1980’s.

In a separate case, Kelly has been under criminal investigation since last September on allegations he molested an altar boy in a different diocese in the early 2000’s.

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UNITED STATES
YouTube

Part 5 of 5 parts. The March 1993 broadcast of the Phil Donahue Show, focusing on the unfolding issue of child sexual abuse by Catholic Priests. Guests include Barbara Blaine, founder of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests; author and investigative reporter Jason Berry, and Fr. Andrew Greeley, a sociologist whose research and writing had contributed to an early understanding of the dimensions of the problem in dioceses across the United States.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Josh Gordon and Barney Zwartz
April 18, 2012

THE historic decision by the Baillieu government to launch an inquiry into the handling by churches of clergy sex abuse allegations was undermined last night when a key member of the committee appointed to run the inquiry said it was the wrong body for the task.

Labor MP Frank McGuire, deputy chairman of State Parliament’s family and community development committee, said the obvious choice would have been former Supreme Court judge Philip Cummins, who headed the government’s recent inquiry into child welfare.

The committee is inexperienced, with four of its six members having been in Parliament less than 18 months.

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ROM
der Standard

17. April 2012 09:15

Österreichs katholische Problemzonen sind in der Weltkirche derzeit in aller Munde – Kapellari ortet “spirituellen Bankrott”

Rom – Der Vatikan lehnt einen direkten Dialog zwischen der österreichischen Pfarrerinitiative und Papst Benedikt XVI. ab. Laut Vatikan-Sprecher Federico Lombardi handle es sich um ein “Pastoralproblem”, und es sei Aufgabe der österreichischen Bischöfe und Bischofskonferenz, diesen Dialog zu führen. “Das ist der normale Weg”, sagte Lombardi vor österreichischen Journalisten in Rom. Der Papst hatte am Gründonnerstag Kritik an der Pfarrerinitiative und deren “Aufruf zum Ungehorsam” geübt. “Ist Ungehorsam wirklich ein Weg?”, so der Papst. Von Kirchenrebell Helmut Schüller war dies als Aufforderung zum Dialog missverstanden worden.

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OSTERREICH
Kurier

Benedikt Steinschulte zeigt keine Scheu vor Fürstenthronen. Ein Satz des zweithöchsten Mannes im Vatikan vor zwei Jahren empört ihn bis heute. „Schluss mit dem Geschwätz”, kommentierte 2010 die rechte Hand des Papstes, Kardinal Angelo Sodano, die neue Enthüllungswelle an Missbrauchsfällen in der Kirche. „Das ist Realitätsverweigerung, der Kardinal sollte bußschweigen.”

Steinschulte steht als PR-Fachmann seit 27 Jahren für den Vatikan an der Medienfront. Wenn aber die Rede auf Helmut Schüller kommt, gefriert der lockere Plauderton. Im besten Fall ist das nur ein Sprachproblem: Der Aufruf zum „Ungehorsam”, den 400 Pfarrer in Österreich mittragen, könne auch als Aufruf zum „zivilen Ungehorsam” gelesen werden – der sei im deutschen Sprachraum mehrfach geadelt. Hier in Rom klingt das aber nach „offener Rebellion” – ein absolutes No-go. Erst heute sei in einer römischen Pfarre für die Pfarrerinitiative gebetet worden, erzählt er: Nicht für deren Anliegen – von der Freigabe der Lebensform für Kleriker bis zum Frauenpriestertum –, sondern für die Bekehrung der aufsässigen Pfarrer.

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OSTERREICH
Radio Vatikan

Aus der päpstlichen Antwort auf die Pfarrerinitiative dürfe auf keinen Fall die Einladung abgeleitet werden, auf dem Weg des Ungehorsams fortzufahren. Das betonte der Grazer Bischof Egon Kapellari vor Journalisten in Rom. Benedikt XVI. war im Rahmen seiner Predigt am Gründonnerstag auf diese Initiative eingegangen. Der in der Bischofskonferenz für Medienfragen zuständige Bischof verstand – wie er sagte – die kritischen Äußerungen des Papstes zum priesterlichen Ungehorsam zwar als „moderat” – Benedikt XVI. habe „keine Türen zugeschlagen”.

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MISSISSIPPI
Watch Keep

The criminal trial of confessed child molesting minister John Langworthy, originally set for April 2, has been scheduled for July 30 in Hinds County in Jackson, Mississippi. He is charged with 8 felony counts of gratification of lust for 5 victims, boys between the ages of 8-12. This abuse took place in Clinton and Jackson, MS while he served at 2 area Baptist churches, First Baptist Jackson and Daniel Memorial Baptist Church, while he was attending Mississippi College.

Langworthy confessed these crimes of child sexual abuse from the pulpit of Morrison Heights Baptist Church on August 7, 2011. He was arrested and indicted in September. In addition to the child sex crimes for which he is indicted, Langworthy also confessed to molesting minor boys at his previous employer, Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. Though the executive staff, including then and current head pastor, Dr. Jack Graham, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, heard him confess to this molestation in 1989, they did not report these crimes to the police as required by state law.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has placed the Rev. James Graham on administrative leave while it investigates an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

Father Graham, 72, pastor of the St. Lawrence O’Toole parish in Garfield, was scheduled to retire on April 30. A letter announcing the allegation and the decision to place him on leave was read to parishioners at weekend Masses. The parish is scheduled to merge into a new parish, St. Maria Goretti, in June.

The allegation “involved a minor a number of years ago. Though the allegation concerns events from many years ago, the length of time makes no difference,” Bishop David Zubik wrote to parishioners. “The allegation has been judged to have what we call a ‘semblance of truth’ — that the timing and circumstances surrounding the allegation fit the facts that are known. It does not mean, however, that a definite judgment has been reached.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Josh Gordon, Barney Zwartz
April 18, 2012

A WIDE-RANGING inquiry has been launched into sexual abuse in religious organisations after revelations some 40 alleged victims committed suicide.

The 40 were allegedly abused by members of the Catholic Church in Victoria but the inquiry will also look at misconduct in other churches, as well as Jewish organisations.

The Victorian Premier, Ted Baillieu, yesterday insisted the inquiry would be given sufficient powers and resources, including power to compel witnesses and evidence.

”We regard child abuse as abhorrent” … Ted Baillieu. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

”We regard child abuse as abhorrent and we will endeavour to do whatever we can to prevent it from happening and indeed bring those who are perpetrators of child abuse to justice,” Mr Baillieu said.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Akron Beacon Journal

By Colette M. Jenkins
Beacon Journal religion writer
Published: April 17, 2012

Catholic Diocese of Cleveland Bishop Richard G. Lennon announced that he will reopen 12 churches in response to Vatican rulings that upheld appeals from parishioners challenging his orders to close those parishes.

The decision means St. John the Baptist and St. Mary’s parishes in Akron will be reopening.

“For peace and unity in the Diocese of Cleveland, I will not appeal,” Lennon said. “Doing so would prolong the process and create more uncertainty.”

Lennon announced his decision at a news conference Tuesday at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Cleveland.

No timetable has been set for the reopenings. But Lennon said they could happen within “a couple of months.”

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

By Michael O’Malley, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Bishop Richard Lennon this morning announced that he will reopen 12 churches whose closings were reversed by the Vatican last month.

The 12 parishes had filed appeals with the Vatican after Lennon, between 2009 and 2010, closed 50 churches in the eight-county diocese, citing changes in demographics and shortages of priests and cash.

Originally, reports indicated that there were 13 churches that had won appeals. But Lennon said this morning that only 12 had appealed.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Fox 8

April 17, 2012, by Dan Jovic

The head of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese, Bishop Richard Lennon, announced on Tuesday that he is not appealing a decree issued by the Vatican that reopened 12 area parishes closed in 2009 and 2010 as part of a consolidation plan.

Lennon had the chance to appeal to the Catholic Apostolic Signatura, but ultimately chose not to.

At a press conference Lennon declared that, “It’s time for peace and unity in the Diocese of Cleveland.”

Lennon stated that the appeal process would have been painstaking.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Times Reporter

CantonRep.com staff report
Posted Apr 17, 2012

CLEVELAND —

Twelve closed Roman Catholic churches spared by the Vatican in the Cleveland Diocese will be reopened, the bishop announced Tuesday.

The action was a response to last month’s extraordinary Vatican decision overruling his decision to close the 12 parishes, a rare instance in which Rome reversed a U.S. bishop on the shutdown of churches.

Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon had ordered the churches closed over the past several years because of declining numbers of priests and parishioners and financial issues.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy ruled Lennon failed to follow church law and procedure in the closings.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland

Bishop will reopen 12 parishes, will not appeal Vatican rulings

Declaring that “It’s time for peace and unity in the Diocese of Cleveland,” Bishop Richard G. Lennon announced today that he will reopen 12 area parishes that were closed in 2009 and 2010 as part of a comprehensive reconfiguration plan.

Lennon said during a news conference at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist that he will not pursue a process provided under Canon (church) law that would have allowed him to appeal recent decrees by the Congregation for the Clergy that reversed the closing of the parishes.

Click here to read the entire news release.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WKYC

CLEVELAND — Bishop Richard Lennon announced at a Tuesday morning news conference that the Diocese will reopen a dozen closed churches.

The move comes after an analysis of Vatican decrees which determined that the bishop failed to follow church law in the closings.

Bishop Lennon had the option to reopen the churches or appeal further. He says the decision to reopen the churches was made to prevent prolonging the process and to allow the Diocese to unite. An additional appeal could have taken years.

He made clear that the parishes that appealed the closings had every right to do so under canon law and that he supported the process.

The impacted churches are:
•St. Mary (Akron)
•St. John the Baptist (Akron)
•St. Mary (Bedford)
•St. Adalbert (Cleveland)
•St. Barbara (Cleveland)
•St. Casimir (Cleveland)
•St. Emeric (Cleveland)
•St. Patrick (Cleveland)
•St. Peter (Cleveland)
•St. Wendelin (Cleveland)
•St. James (Lakewood)
•St. Mary (Lorain)

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Crain’s Cleveland Business

By JOEL HAMMOND
10:35 am, April 17, 2012

Catholic Diocese of Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon announced Tuesday that he’d reopen 12 closed Catholic parishes that he closed in 2009 and 2010 as part of a wide-ranging restructuring of the diocese.

“It’s time for peace and unity in the Diocese of Cleveland,” he said in a news release.

Citing cash and priest crunches, Bishop Lennon closed 50 churches across the diocese over a two-year period. Activists fought the closings, and last month the Vatican overturned the closings and ordered the parishes reopened.

Bishop Lennon could have appealed that decision, but instead made Tuesday’s announcement.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
ABC News

By THOMAS J. SHEERAN Associated Press

CLEVELAND April 17, 2012 (AP)

Twelve of 13 closed Roman Catholic churches spared by the Vatican in the Cleveland Diocese will be reopened, the bishop announced Tuesday.

The action was a response to last month’s extraordinary Vatican decision overruling his decision to close the 13 parishes, a rare instance in which Rome reversed a U.S. bishop on the shutdown of churches.

Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon had ordered the churches closed over the past several years because of declining numbers of priests and parishioners and financial issues.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy ruled Lennon failed to follow church law and procedure in the closings.

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Tango

Introduction
In recent years there has been an increased attention towards the Catholic Church and the sex scandals and child abuse cases that has been going on behind closed doors. To name a few of those incidents, there is the case where a Priest from Ireland abused an 8 year old child, and thereafter the Priest, with permission from the Bishop, paid her family a lump sum so they would not mention it. Another case is a German scandal, where a Priest sexually harassed kids, and Bishops knew about it without taking immediate action. This case is particularly interesting because the current pope was acting Arch Bishop in that period.

The Catholic Sex Scandal is and has been a big conflict for a long time, and the way that the church has handled it bears the marks of trying to avoid the conflict by suppressing it. We will illustrate and analyze this from the perspectives of Trust, Knowledge Management, Culture, Image Restoration and Crisis Management.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – 7.30

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 17/04/2012

Reporter: James Bennett

A parliamentary inquiry in Victoria will look at how the Church handles complaints about abuse by members of clergy.

Transcript
CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: The long and sorry saga over sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has prompted the Victorian Government to launch a parliamentary inquiry. After decades of accusations, pressure on the Baillieu Government to act intensified after a leaked police report linked dozen of suicides to abuse, but the decision not to call for a Royal Commission is already under fire. James Bennett reports.

JAMES BENNETT, REPORTER: Anthony and Christine Foster are all too familiar with the trauma caused by sex abuses within the Catholic community. Two of their young daughters became regular victims of parish priest Father Kevin O’Donnell during their early years of primary school.

CHRISTINE FOSTER, MOTHER OF VICTIMS: Emma has died, Katie has been disabled forever and Amy suffers as well. All this because they didn’t remove a priest who was sexually assaulting children, and it should have happened and it didn’t happen.

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STOCKTON (CA)
News10

[with video]

Written by
C. Johnson

STOCKTON, CA – A Diocese of Stockton priest recently found guilty of three counts of child molestation and under investigation for a separate alleged similar crime has gone back to Ireland.

Father Michael Kelly, who served at St. Joachim’s Catholic Church in Lockeford, was found liable in a civil trial on April 6 of three counts of child sex abuse involving a former altar boy at the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton in the mid-1980s.

With the judgment, Kelly, who had continued to serve at St. Joachim Catholic Parish in Lockeford, was removed from his duties by Stockton Bishop Stephen E. Blaire.

Anttorney Rebecca Rhoads, who represents the now 37year old altar boy Kelly was found to have molested said she is not sure how the second half of the civil trial will proceed.

“The jury in this case returned a verdict against Father Kelly on all claims, essentially finding that Father Kelly viciously sexually abused my client,” said Rhoads, adding, “he’s just running away.”

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IRELAND
IrishCentral

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 8:34 AM

Irish priests are at war with the Vatican again after attempts to silence a second rebel cleric.

Veteran Marist priest Fr Sean Fagan has been ordered to stop writing and commentating in public.

The 84-year-old has been reprimanded by the church after he had called for an inquiry into clerical sexual abuse in all Irish dioceses.

His order has also bought all remaining copies of a theological book written by Fr Fagan who was required to give an undertaking not to write again.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WTAM

Carmen Angelo, Newsradio WTAM 1100

(Cleveland) – Cleveland Catholic Diocese Bishop Richard Lennon will address the media Tuesday morning on actions he will take in light of Vatican decrees to reopen 13 closed churches in the Diocese.

No word how many, if any, churches will be reopened by the Bishop. He closed 52 churches in recent years citing dwindling membership and a shortage of priests among other issues. Newsradio WTAM 1100 will have a reporter at the 10am news conference.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
newsnet5

•By: Carrie Nagorka, newsnet5.com

CLEVELAND – The Cleveland Catholic Diocese will make an announcement Tuesday morning regarding the future of many local Catholic churches.

Bishop Richard Lennon will address the media on the actions he will take with regard to recent decrees from the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome.

The announcement will take place at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist on Superior Avenue in Cleveland at 10 a.m.

You can watch a live stream of the announcement on newsnet5.com or using the newsnet5 app.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WKYC

Written by
Amanda Barren

CLEVELAND — Bishop Richard Lennon will address the media at 10 o’clock Tuesday morning regarding the church closings that have deeply divided Cleveland’s Catholic faithful now for several years.

According to a news release from the Cleveland Catholic Diocese he will discuss the action he will take following the orders from the Congregation for thr Clergy in Rome.

A few weeks ago the Vatican handed down a ruling that the churches closed by Bishop Lennon should be reopened.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Michael Sangiacomo, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Bishop Richard Lennon of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland will hold a press conference ar 10 a.m. to discuss his next move in the controversial closing of churches in the parish.

The news conference will take place at the Cathedral of St. John, 1007 Superior Avenue.

Parishioners of 13 churches — among 50 churches Lennon closed between 2009 and 2010 as part of a financially driven downsizing of the diocese — appealed their closings to Rome, arguing that they were self-sustaining parishes that should not have been closed.

Last month, a Vatican tribunal ruled in favor of the parishioners, saying Lennon had violated procedures and church law when he padlocked the 13 sanctuaries and dissolved or merged their parishes.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Fox 8

Posted on: 7:40 am, April 17, 2012, by Ted Achladis

CLEVELAND — A spokesperson for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland tells Fox 8 News that Bishop Richard Lennon will today address “the actions he will take with regard to recent decrees from the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome.”

Robert Tayek, the diocese’s director of media and public relations, says that a 10 a.m. news conference has been scheduled. It will take place at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist located at 1007 Superior Avenue in Cleveland.

Last month, the Vatican issued a decree concerning 13 Catholic churches in northeast Ohio that had been closed by Lennon. The decree said that the churches should not have been shut down, and should be restored.

Despite appeals to the bishop and the diocese to comply with the Vatican’s ruling, no action has yet been taken.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Modesto Bee

By Sue Nowicki
snowicki@modbee.com

MODESTO — In a stunning development, the Stockton Diocese announced Monday afternoon that the Rev. Michael Kelly had flown to Ireland on the eve of testifying in the second phase of his sexual abuse civil trial.

He told his attorney he is very ill and wants to “die with his family.”

On April 6, a San Joaquin County jury found Kelly liable of sexual misconduct against an unidentified plaintiff when he was a Stockton parish school student more than 25 years ago. The second phase, against Bishop Stephen Blaire and the Stockton Diocese over its handling of the complaint against Kelly, was to resume in Stockton this morning.

In a letter dated Sunday and hand-delivered to the bishop Monday, Kelly wrote that he was leaving the country because of his poor health. He again insisted on his innocence against “vicious false allegations” and said he had “lost everything” because of them.

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LOUISIANA
The Ind

Written by Leslie Turk
Monday, April 16, 2012

On Saturday, April 14, Lafayette lost a man who for two decades was one its most powerful and influential political figures. Former District Attorney Nathan Stansbury died at the age of 77.

Survivors include his son, Craig Stansbury (Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Department spokesman), and his wife Nicole; three grandchildren, Derek Stansbury, Sydney Stansbury and Kennedy Stansbury; one sister, Ann Redlich, and her husband Ted; one brother, Howard Stansbury Jr., and his wife Alice; one niece, Lisa Stansbury; and two nephews, Jeff Bennett and Stephen Bennett. …

Nathan successfully prosecuted Gilbert Gauthier, the parish priest convicted of child molestation, when there were many in the community who hoped to make what happened quietly go away without a visible trial.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on April 16, 2012

…that he skipped the country, just to make sure that the cops never find him.

I hope his supporters (like the ones who tried to tamper with the jury) finally realized that he just flipped them the bird.

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CHILE
La Tercera

Hoy comenzó la Asamblea Plenaria número 103 de obispos de la Conferencia Episcopal en Punta de Tralca, que estará marcada tras el cierre de la Unión Sacerdotal, asociación liderada por Fernando Karadima.

Hasta el 20 de abril estarán reunidos 31 obispos en ejercicio, para realizar un discernimiento colegiado en torno al caminar de la Iglesia en Chile, con sus dificultades, fortalezas y desafíos. En esta oportunidad no se cuenta con la presencia de monseñor Andrés Arteaga, quien no pudo participar por razón de salud.

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OSTERREICH
Die Presse

Zwei Jahre Klasnic-Kommission. Die Opferschutzanwaltschaft entschied bisher 613 Fälle positiv. Etwa zwei Drittel der Opfer waren mit sexuellem Missbrauch konfrontiert.

Die vor zwei Jahren von Kardinal Christoph Schönborn eingesetzte “Unabhängige Opferschutzanwaltschaft” hat von Missbrauch Betroffenen bisher insgesamt acht Millionen Euro finanzielle Hilfe zuerkannt. 613 Fälle habe man positiv entscheiden können, zog die Vorsitzende Waltraud Klasnic am Dienstag in einer Pressekonferenz Bilanz. Bis Ende des Jahres wolle man den Großteil der Meldungen entschieden haben.

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OSTERREICH
Die Presse

Die Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt erhebt schwere Vorwürfe.

Man kann es drehen und wenden, wie man will: Maßgebliche Stellen der katholische Kirche haben über lange Zeit bei sexueller Gewalt gegen Kinder und Jugendliche, begangen durch Priester, Ordensbrüder, Präfekten, Nonnen,… weggeschaut. Oder Vergehen vertuscht und durch bloßes Versetzen von Tätern neues Leid über neue Opfer gebracht. In Rom wie in vielen Diözesen wurden nach dem Auffliegen der Praktiken die Konsequenzen gezogen. Manche mögen es halbherzig nennen, kann sein. Aber auch und gerade in Österreich, wo unter der Führung von Kardinal Christoph Schönborn international gelobter Umgang mit dem Thema etabliert wurde, nun so zu tun, als ob alles falsch wäre, geht an der Realität vorbei.

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OSTERREICH
betroffen

Die „Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt“ kritisiert weiterhin die ihrer Meinung nach mangelnde Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfälle in der römisch-katholischen Kirche. Derzeit seien rund 40 beschuldigte Priester im Amt, sagte Sepp Rothwangl von der Plattform heute.

Nicht nur die Opferschutzanwaltschaft, der die ehemalige steirische Landeshauptfrau Waltraud Klasnic vorsitzt, wurde vor zwei Jahren im Auftrag der katholischen Kirche gegründet. Auch die „Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt“ startete damals ihre Tätigkeit und kritisiert seitdem die „Klasnic-Kommission“ als von der Kirche abhängig.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

Jutta Berger, 28. März 2012

Mutter Kirche beweist im Umgang mit straffällig gewordenen Söhnen Langmut. Nach Missbrauch ist in Klöstern Versetzungspolitik und Intransparenz üblich, wie zwei Fälle aus der Abtei Mehrerau zeigen

Bregenz – Über Fragen des Daseins lange nachzudenken, ist eine der Aufgaben von Kirchenmännern. Die Frage, wann und wie lange ein wegen Missbrauchs verurteilter Priester suspendiert wurde, scheint zu den ganz kniffligen zu gehören. Kassian Lauterer, Altabt der Bregenzer Abtei Mehrerau, brauchte zur Beantwortung neun Tage. Am 19. März teilte er den Medien mit, er habe “Pater J.” 1982, nachdem er von den Eltern eines missbrauchten Schülers informiert worden war, “sofort aus dem Schuldienst entfernt, als Priester suspendiert und versetzt”. Wie lange die Suspension dauerte, wollte er nicht sagen.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

Martin Kaltenbrunner

Zwei Jahre nach Bekanntwerden der Missbrauchsfälle im Stift Kremsmünster – Zwischenbilanz eines Konvikt-Absolventen

Zwei Jahre ist es nun her, seit ein ehemaliger Schüler des Stiftsgymnasiums Kremsmünster das Schweigen gebrochen hat. Zwei Jahre ist es nun auch her, seit Abt Ambros Ebhart nach anfänglichem Zögern eine umfassende Aufklärung der Missbrauchs- und Gewaltfälle im Stift Kremsmünster angekündigt hat.

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OSTERREICH
Humanistischer Pressedienst

WIEN. (hpd) Die katholische Kirche tut wenig bis gar nichts, um die jahrzehntelange Gewalt an Kindern in ihren Einrichtungen aufzuklären. Zu diesem Befund kommt die österreichische Plattform Betroffene Kirchlicher Gewalt bei einer Pressekonferenz in Wien. Auch der Staat tue wenig.

Mindestens 40 Priester und Ordensleute, die sich körperlich, psychisch oder sexuell an Kindern vergangen haben, sind nach wie vor für die katholische Kirche in Österreich tätig. Das allein sei ein Zeichen, wie wenig die katholische Kirche tue, um mit der eigenen Verantwortung als Organisation zu Recht zu kommen, sagt Sepp Rothwangl, Sprecher der Plattform Betroffene Kirchlicher Gewalt: „In keinem der uns bekannten Fälle ist ein Beschuldigter, aber auch kein verurteilter römisch-katholischer Geistlicher laisiert, also aus dem Priesterstand entfernt, worden.“ Und das zwei Jahre, nachdem der Skandal um vor allem sexuelle Gewalt an Kindern in Österreich einen nie dagewesenen Höhepunkt erreichte und kaum ein Monat vergangen ist, in dem nicht neue Vorwürfe bekannt wurden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MSN

Braunschweig, 26. Januar (dpa) – Ein katholischer Pfarrer aus Salzgitter muss wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von drei Jungen für sechs Jahre hinter Gitter.

Das Braunschweiger Landgericht verurteilte den Mann am Donnerstag wegen 36-fachen Missbrauchs von Minderjährigen und 214 Fällen schweren Missbrauchs von Minderjährigen. «Er hat bei allen Eltern geplant einen Vertrauensvorschuss ausgenutzt», sagte Richter Manfred Teiwes.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

Tony, It can hardly be true that they´re building a hermitage for you in Esker! I just wanted to offer prayerful support at this difficult time for you and Gerry and the ACP. I´m sure the many fine tributes pouring in from people you´ve deeply touched in your priestly ministry is very heartening. I feel privileged to be part of that immense group of people who have contributed their opinions on this site over the past while. The richness, profundity, and diversity of opinions expressed, surely shows how important and beneficial it is to be promoting a process of dialogue on all the burning issues of the day for our church and society. I get a feeling that there is something bigger than all of us going on here. What a pity to see fear taking over and trying to artificially hinder this effort.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

Among the comments on the posting ‘A Tuam priest reacts to the treatment of Tony Flannery’, Joan Molloy writes that she is deeply troubled by the Vatican threat to Fr. Sean Fagan, and wonders if it can possibly be true? Yes Joan, sadly it is true. The silencing of Sean, after a lifetime of service to the Church, was even more painful because if any word of this action demanded by the CDF got into the media, he would be immediately be prohibited from exercising his priestly faculties.

Sean, whom I am privileged to call my friend, loves our Catholic Church. In his own words: “I am passionately in love with the Church which brings me so much of the endless compassion of Christ; the kind strong gentleness of Mary the Mother of Jesus; the consolation of God himself to help us through the many dark nights of the soul.” ‘Does Morality Change? (2003; 230-231).

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE MARIST priest and theologian Fr Seán Fagan has been advised by Rome that if any word of their latest action against him reached the media he would be stripped of his priesthood.

According to Mary Cunningham, a friend of Fr Fagan’s, “the silencing of Seán, after a lifetime of service to the church, was even more painful because if any word of this action demanded by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith got into the media, he would immediately be prohibited from exercising his priestly faculties.”

Writing on the Association of Catholic Priests website, and confirmed to The Irish Times last night, Ms Cunningham continued: “Seán, whom I am privileged to call my friend, loves our Catholic Church.”

Fr Brendan Hoban of the priest’s association, described the Vatican’s treatment of Fr Fagan as “very disturbing” and “so extreme it highlights the inadequacy of the approach of closing down debate”.

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MASSACHUSETTS
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

Consider this: Just a few months ago, Boston Public Schools leveled a two-week suspension on a school principal for not reporting a case of suspected sex abuse by a special education aide. After the principal failed to report him to the police, the aide transferred to another school, where he reportedly was busted in the act of abusing a special needs student.

The Boston Globe did not feel this repugnant story was worthy of any front-page coverage even though this was a clear example of abuse and institutional cover-up taking place today. Neither has the paper bothered to follow up on this stomach-turning story, nor has it investigated how Boston Public Schools handles abusive teachers system-wide.

Indeed, the suspended school principal has even since returned to her school without any media notice!

Catholic Church abuse from years ago: Always front and center at the Globe

Meanwhile, the Globe has plastered a top-of-the-front page, 2,500-word article – with a prominent color photo – about the nearly decade-old case of a former Jesuit priest from Chicago, the abusive Donald McGuire.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

The newly released annual audit of abuse in the Catholic Church reports that only seven credible abuse allegations were made against Catholic priests by current minors in all of 2011.

Yet nationally syndicated articles from the Associated Press’ Rachel Zoll and Reuters’ Andrew Stern might have you believe that child abuse is currently a major problem infecting the Catholic Church.

Both journalists are trumpeting the fact that decades-old abuse claims increased in 2011, but not bothering to mention the status of current allegations.

In truth, the number of credible accusations alleging abuse by a Catholic priest against a current minor went down. For 2010, the number of such allegations was eight. For 2011, the number went down to seven. (If there are roughly 41,406 Catholic priests in the United States, seven credibly accused priests would represent .000169 (or 0.0169%) of all U.S. priests.)

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WEST VIRGINIA
The Intelligencer

By The Intelligencer , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

The sooner a federal investigator’s allegations involving Wheeling Jesuit University can be resolved, the better. The institution has accomplished too much good and is too important to languish under the current cloud of very serious accusations.

As we have reported, the NASA Office of Inspector General has made a variety of allegations involving alleged misuse of federal funds at the university, from 2005 through 2011. Documents in the case appear to focus nearly all the complaints against J. Davitt McAteer, who is chief executive officer of the Center for Educational Technologies and the National Technology Transfer Center at WJU. McAteer, a nationally known expert on mine safety, served as director of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration for a time.

No formal charges have been filed against anyone at WJU, including McAteer.

Still, documents including those filed to obtain a search warrant for documents in McAteer’s possession leave no doubt of the seriousness of the federal agency’s accusations. Clearly, if taxpayers’ money was misused as the NASA Office of Inspector General maintains, the federal government is obligated to take serious action, possibly involving criminal prosecution, in the situation.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JOHN FERGUSON
From:The Australian
April 17, 2012

THE head of the Catholic Church in Victoria has cleared the way to cooperate fully with any inquiry into child sex abuse.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart today vowed to cooperate fully with any independent child sex abuse inquiry, which is seen as increasingly likely to be set up.

There was speculation today that the Baillieu government would soon back an inquiry, which could be wider than just offences committed in the Catholic Church.

This followed reports of dozens of suicides linked with old sex abuse cases involving a small number of Catholic priests, although it is acknowledged that other religions have been infected by child sex offenders.

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