ABUSE TRACKER

CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Paige Austin

May 25, 2012

It’s been 20 years since Leisure World resident and former priest Denis Lyons began molesting a nine-year-old altar boy at his Costa Mesa parish St. John the Baptist Church.

Since that time, the sexual abuse scandal rocked the Catholic Church, and laws were changed to free victims from the narrow window that the statute of limitations placed on child sex crimes. Lyons’ story reverberates the church wide scandal, the legal evolution and the private saga of the former altar boys who accuse him of molestation.

Looking every bit his 78 years, Lyons sat in an empty 11th floor courtroom Friday morning. His hands crossed, his eyes downcast, Lyons waited to hear his sentence while listening to attorneys chatter about murder, torture and drug cases. Wearing blue slacks and a sports coat, he shuffled back and forth to the bathroom while waiting for his sentencing, but it was postponed until August when an official psychiatric evaluation can be submitted to complete the case.

Lyons was scheduled to be sentenced for molesting a boy in the church rectory for years between 1992 and 1995. He faces a year in jail, having pleaded guilty to four counts of molestation in a deal that spares him a trial and the specter of 14 years in prison if convicted by a jury.

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DALLAS (TX)
Omaha World-Herald

From Staff and Wire Reports

DALLAS — A Texas jury has sentenced an Omaha native who had served as a priest in Nebraska to 60 years in prison for plotting the death of a Texas man who accused him of sexual abuse.

Prosecutors had asked jurors for a life sentence for John M. Fiala, 53. His alleged rape at gunpoint of a 16-year-old youth in 2007 and 2008 and subsequent conspiracy to have the accuser murdered occurred in Texas after Fiala had left Nebraska and the Archdiocese of Omaha. Fiala’s defense attorney had said any sentence longer than 15 years would be a “travesty.”

Fiala, who was removed from his priestly duties in the fall of 2008, will be eligible for parole after 15 years. Fiala was convicted May 17 for solicitation of capital murder.

Prosecutors said Fiala tried to hire a neighbor’s brother to kill the man who accused him of abuse in 2008 when Fiala was the priest at a rural West Texas parish.

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WASHINGTON
The Spokesman Review

John Stucke
The Spokesman-Review

Nineteen lawsuits against the Morning Star Boys’ Ranch have been settled, part of a larger settlement that’s expected to sew shut all of the outstanding legal issues surrounding the clergy sex abuse problems of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane.

The seven years of litigation damaged the reputation of Morning Star and its revered longtime director, the Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner, who had been affectionately called Father Joe by legions of former ranch residents, Catholic parishioners and supporters.

Financial terms of the settlements have yet to be made public, however the ranch had multiple insurance policies and its foundation controlled about $10.6 million in assets, according to tax records.

Morning Star came under scrutiny in 2005 when The Spokesman-Review began reporting on sex abuse accusations made by former residents. Many said they were beaten, molested and raped by Weitensteiner, now-deceased counselor Doyle Gillum and notorious pedophile priest Patrick O’Donnell.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Your Local Guardian

An Ethiopian Orthodox priest who sexually abused a parishioner during a depraved baptism ritual has avoided a jail term and is continuing to practise.

Gebrehana Semre of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church in St Phillips Square, Battersea, was handed a 12-month prison sentence last week, suspended for 18 months, after being convicted of assaulting the woman.

In September 2010, Semre used his position within the church to invite himself into the victim’s home in order to bless the house and baptise her.

The 47-year-old priest, from Battersea, told the vulnerable woman she needed to be naked in order for the ceremony to be authentic.

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VATICAN CITY
Los Angeles Times

By Sarah Delaney, Los Angeles Times

May 25, 2012
ROME — As it turns out, the butler did it. At least that’s who the papal police force believes is responsible for the recent leaks of personal papal correspondence that has shed unwanted light on power struggles and alleged corruption within the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Friday that the internal police had arrested a man who worked in the Vatican on suspicion of pilfering and leaking private documents belonging to Pope Benedict XVI. The unauthorized release of private papal documents is unprecedented, at least in recent memory, piercing the veil of legendary Vatican secrecy.

Italian news reports identified the suspect as Paolo Gabriele, a butler in the papal household who, as a personal servant of Pope Benedict, would have had direct access to his belongings.

Benedict said he was “saddened and struck” by the news of the arrest, according to news reports.

The arrest followed several months of revelations of letters to the pope and others, written by various figures, that indicate conflict among the factions within Vatican City’s massive walls.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By RACHEL DONADIO

Published: May 25, 2012

ROME — A mysterious source named Maria. A room furnished with a single chair, where sensitive Vatican documents are turned over to an investigative journalist at regular meetings. The arrest of the pope’s butler. Perhaps the greatest breach in centuries in the wall of secrecy that surrounds the Vatican.

An on-again, off-again scandal that the Italian press has called Vatileaks burst into the open on Friday with the arrest by Vatican gendarmes of the butler, identified in news reports as Paolo Gabriele, who the Vatican said was in possession of confidential documents and was suspected of leaking private letters addressed to Pope Benedict XVI.

The arrest follows by a day the ouster of the president of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, amid conflicts over how to bring the secretive institution in line with international transparency standards and days after the publication of a sensational book, “Your Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI,” in which the journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, aided by “Maria,” discloses a huge cache of private Vatican correspondence, many with allegations of mismanagement at the Vatican bank and cases of corruption and cronyism.

The letters, which have made their way into the Italian news media in recent months, draw a portrait of an ancient institution in chaotic disarray behind its high, stately walls, where various factions vie for power, influence and financial control in the twilight years of Benedict’s papacy.

“Of course there are problems, big problems,” said Andrea Tornielli, a Vatican expert for the Italian daily La Stampa and its Web site, Vatican Insider. “What is happening now shows that there’s a crisis.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Independent (United Kingdom)

Michael Day
Milan

Saturday 26 May 2012

Vatican police yesterday seized Pope Benedict’s butler in connection with a series of embarrassing leaks on alleged corruption, infighting and mismanagement that have emerged about the Holy See over the past year.

The arrest of Paolo Gabriele came after the decision by the Pontiff last month to set up a special commission of cardinals to smoke out the mole responsible for the highly publicised revelations.

“The inquiry carried out by Vatican police… allowed them to identify someone in possession of confidential documents,” the Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told journalists. Senior officials had recently railed against leaking sensitive documents as “a criminal act”.

News of the papal butler’s arrest brought more drama to a week that has already seen the scandal-struck Vatican bank embroiled in fresh controversy. Rising tensions over plans to make the institution conform to international standards of transparency were blamed for Thursday’s sacking of its chief Ettore Gotti Tedeschi.

The respected financier was ousted after months of internal battles following his insistence on applying the anti-money laundering rules demanded by the European Commission. Mr Gotti Tedeschi, 67, an expert on financial ethics, was put in charge of the bank – also known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) – in 2009, specifically to clean-up its reputation.

His plan to introduce transparency was at first agreed by key figures at the Vatican, including the powerful secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. But when Mr Gotti Tedeschi insisted that the anti-corruption regulations should be retroactive, Cardinal Bertone and other key figures are thought to have turned against him.

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VATICAN CITY
The Irish Times

The reported arrest of the pope’s butler comes amid a week of drama at the Vatican, writes PADDY AGNEW in Rome

PERHAPS NOT since the days, 30 years ago, when the Vatican’s Bank, IOR, made all the worst possible headlines because of its heavy involvement in the downfall of Roberto Calvi’s Banco Ambrosiano, have there been any developments in Vatican City quite as sensational as yesterday’s.

Widespread, insistent but officially unconfirmed media reports claimed the pope’s personal butler, Paolo Gabriele, had been arrested by the Vatican Gendarmerie, charged with having stolen private papers and documentation from the papal household.

Although the Vatican would not confirm the arrest of Mr Gabriele, senior spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi confirmed “a person illegally in possession of private documents has been arrested”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NPR

[with audio]

May 24, 2012

Monsignor William Lynn, the highest ranking Catholic official to be criminally tried for covering up child sex abuse by priests, faced fierce questioning in a Philadelphia courtroom on Thursday. Lynn handled the sex abuse claims when he was secretary for clergy for more than a decade.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I’m Robert Siegel.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I’m Audie Cornish.

And we go next to the trial of Monsignor William Lynn. He’s the highest ranking Catholic official in the U.S. to be criminally tried for covering up child sex abuse by priests. His case is being heard right now in Philadelphia, and today, he faced fierce questioning. Monsignor Lynn handled sex abuse claims when he was secretary for clergy in Philadelphia’s archdiocese. He’s been charged with conspiracy and child endangerment.

NPR’s Barbara Bradley Hagerty was in the courtroom today and joins us now. And, Barbara, to start, remind us the background of this case.

BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY, BYLINE: Sure, Audie. This stems from a grand jury report – actually a couple of them that found that many priests who are accused of abuse were still in ministry. And so prosecutors looked into it, and it turned out that only two of those cases of priests were fresh enough, that hadn’t passed the statute of limitations. And so, this case is about those sex abuse cases.

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FALMOUTH (MA)
Cape Cod Times

By SEAN TEEHAN

May 25, 2012

The Archdiocese of Boston put a senior priest who sometimes worked in a Falmouth Catholic Church on administrative leave following an allegation of sexual abuse of a child.

The allegation against the Rev. Joseph F. Byrne stems from alleged conduct in the early 1970s a statement from the Archdiocese said. Officials at the Archdiocese were recently notified of the complaint and immediately alerted law enforcement, the statement said.

Byrne will remain on administrative leave with no public ministry pending the outcome of a preliminary investigation of the allegation, the statement said.

“We remain committed to doing everything possible to ensure the safety and well-being of children and young people in our parishes and institutions,” said Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley in a statement. “I know the faithful and the clergy of the Archdiocese join me in this pledge of prayerful support.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
San Antonio Express-News

FALMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — A Cape Cod priest who pleaded no contest seven years ago to embezzling $135,000 from his former parish has been placed on leave after a child sex abuse allegation.

The Boston Archdiocese said Friday that it’s removed The Rev. Joseph Byrne from public ministry pending an investigation. The archdiocese said the retired priest had “limited ministry” at St. Patrick’s Church in Falmouth.

The archdiocese said the new allegation against Byrne dates to the early 1970s, but was just recently reported.

In June 2005, Byrne was sentenced to five years probation after pleading no contest to embezzling $135,000 from Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted parish in Waltham. Prosecutors said between 1997 and 2000, Byrne transferred parish funds to his bank account and made purchases from accounts containing parish money.

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HAWAII
The Republic

[the lawsuit]

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: May 25, 2012

HONOLULU — Attorneys have filed a lawsuit on behalf of a man alleging sexual abuse by a priest at a Honolulu all-boys Catholic school in the 1980s.

The lawsuit filed in Circuit Court in Honolulu Thursday claims the then-13-year-old boy was abused during an overnight retreat by Rev. Gerald Funcheon, a former chaplain and teacher Damien Memorial School.

The lawsuit doesn’t name the plaintiff, now an adult living in Honolulu.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests says this is the first lawsuit under a new Hawaii law providing a two-year window for claims of sexual abuse against minors to be made, even if the statute of limitations has lapsed.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Courtneyt Trenwith
May 25, 2012

A hostel warden accused of ordering boys to strip to their underwear and “wrestle” him – in what has been described as simulating sex – did not deny the allegation when confronted, the then-chair of the hostel board has told a special inquiry.

Bishop Michael Challen said he immediately “invited” Roy Wenlock to resign but did not report the matter to police because the student who complained had asked for confidentiality.

“Reporting wasn’t required then … and the parents asked me specifically not to report it on behalf of the boy,” Bishop Challen said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Updated May 25, 2012

An inquiry into child sex abuse at a Northam Hostel has heard an Anglican Bishop gave the warden a glowing reference after sacking him for alleged sexual misconduct.

Bishop Michael Challen was the head of Saint Christopher’s Hostel board when allegations of sexual abuse arose against the warden, Roy Wenlock including that he would invite boys to his flat to wrestle him in their underpants while simulating sexual intercourse.

Yesterday, an inquiry investigating sexual abuse allegations at the hostel was told a meeting was held between the bishop, one of the victims and a local member of Parliament in 1976 to discuss allegations of abuse.

Bishop Challen denies he attended the meeting.

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ROM
Spiegel

Seit Wochen spielte ein Insider Journalisten vertrauliche Dokumente aus dem Vatikan zu – nun haben die Ermittler einen Verdächtigen inhaftiert. In seiner Wohnung wurden stapelweise Unterlagen gefunden. Es soll sich laut italienischen Zeitungen um einen Diener des Papstes handeln.

Rom – Normalerweise dringt nichts nach draußen, wenn römische Kardinäle die politischen und finanziellen Verhältnisse im Kirchenstaat sortieren. Sie regeln ihre Macht- und Geldgeschäfte am liebsten unter sich, hinter den dicken Mauern des Vatikans, möglichst unbehelligt von den Medien. Doch in den vergangenen Monaten gelangten immer wieder geheime Informationen in die Öffentlichkeit.

Monatelang suchten die Ermittler nach dem Maulwurf. Der Vatikan sprach von “VatiLeaks” – in Anspielung auf die Veröffentlichung geheimer US-Botschaftsdepeschen auf der Enthüllungsplattform WikiLeaks. Papst Benedikt XVI. beauftragte Mitte März eine Sonderkommission mit den Ermittlungen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
domradio

Nach den Skandalen um sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen in der katholischen Kirche hält der neue Generalvikar des Kölner Erzbischofs, Stefan Heße, den erneuten Einsatz von straffällig gewordenen Geistlichen kaum für möglich. Als praktikable Lösung bleibe im Grunde nur die Null-Toleranz – die Entlassung aus dem kirchlichen Dienst, sagte Heße.

“Diese US-amerikanische Praxis wird auch von den deutschen Bischöfen diskutiert, und ich halte es durchaus für möglich, dass auch wir zu dieser Lösung kommen”, sagte Heße. Es gehe “nicht nur um vergangene Taten und Verjährungsfristen, sondern auch um die Glaubwürdigkeit der Kirche: Kann ein Täter noch glaubhaft im Auftrag der Kirche das Evangelium verkünden?” sagte Heße dem “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. Er stellt sich damit gegen die bisherige Praxis.

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UNITED STATES
The Courier-Journal

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Peter Smith

Fair warning, religious congregations: It isn’t enough to do a criminal background check on a prospective minister. A few phone calls are needed, too.

Florida jury has found the Florida Baptist Convention liable for sexual abuse committed by a pastor it had supported financially.

Normally Baptist conventions are able to keep arm’s length from such lawsuits because local congregations are autonomous.

But in this case, the jury found that the convention failed to do due diligence before it provided grants and training to Douglas W. Myers to work as a church planter.

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MICHIGAN
CBS Detroit

GRAND HAVEN (CBS DETROIT) A Michigan priest says he’s gotten nothing but support since he was admonished to stop hugging kids during church services after someone anonymously reported it made them uncomfortable.

“I’ve heard from tons of people, great support, everything’s going to be great, I’m probably the only priest doing it … Everything’s going to be fine, it’s just one of those things, but I sure got a lot of support,” said Father Bill Langlois of St. Patrick and St. Anthony Parish.

For 16 years at the parish, Langlois has set aside time during services to hug children of all ages — anyone who got in line. He reportedly told them things like “I am hugging you, you are hugging me and Jesus is hugging us.”

But recently, the Diocese of Grand Rapids received a letter from someone who anonymously wrote that the practice could be viewed as “inappropriate.” There was no allegation of wrongdoing.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

Priest in Falmouth area placed on leave after child sex abuse allegation; was previously convicted in Waltham embezzlement case

By Martin Finucane and Lisa Wangsness
| Globe Staff

A senior priest with a limited ministry in the Falmouth area has been placed on administrative leave after officials received an allegation of child sex abuse, the Archdiocese of Boston said today.

The allegation against the Rev. Joseph Byrne dates back to the early 1970s and was only recently reported to church officials, the archdiocese said in a statement.

The archdiocese said it had notified law enforcement and initiated a preliminary investigation into the complaint.

Byrne will be barred from ministering to the public until the preliminary investigation is finished.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on May 25, 2012

We are grateful that the Archdiocese has notified the public that Rev. Joseph Byrne has been put on leave and that they have turned their evidence over to law enforcement. We hope that they will be sure to keep a tight rein on Rev. Byrne and monitor him closely now that he has been removed from ministry.

We urge Cardinal O’Malley to instruct his flock on how to respond appropriately when allegations of abuse surface. There may be some who will not believe these claims. It is important that parishioners don’t make public statements or hold public demonstrations in support of this priest, as this will only deter other witnesses and victims from coming forward, and will intimidate those who already have come forward. Instead, they should be encouraged to support him privately, through prayers, calls or visits.

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MASSACHUSETTS
MetroWest Daily News

By Julia Spitz/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News

Posted May 25, 2012

WALTHAM —

A priest who pleaded no contest to charges he embezzled more than $100,000 from a Waltham parish has been placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese of Boston due to allegations of sexual abuse.

The Rev. Joseph F. Byrne, pastor of Waltham’s Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted Church from 1994-2002, most recently served as a senior priest with limited ministry in parishes in the Falmouth area, the archdiocese said in a statement today. The allegations of improper contact with a child in the early 1970s were only recently reported to the archdiocese, officials said. The specifics of the allegation are not being revealed due to the ongoing investigation and to protect the identity of the person making the allegation, an archdiocese spokeswoman said.

The archdiocese has notified law enforcement of the allegation and initiated a preliminary investigation into the complaint, archdiocese officials said.

Byrne will remain on administrative leave without any public ministry pending the outcome of the preliminary investigation, the archdiocese said today.

“The decision to place Fr. Byrne on administrative leave represents the archdiocese’s commitment to the welfare of all parties and does not represent a determination of Fr. Byrne’s guilt or innocence as it pertains to this allegation,’’ the archdiocese said in its statement. “The archdiocese will work to resolve this case as expeditiously as possible and in a manner that is fair to all parties.’’

In 2005, Byrne pleaded no contest to seven counts of larceny over $250 and was sentenced to five years probation on each count.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Pope’s butler arrested by Vatican police after leaked church documents revealed allegations of power struggles with Vatican bank

Documents also show how contracts were awarded to favoured people
Paolo Gabriele has been at the Pope’s side for six years
Furious Pope appointed senior cardinals to investigate the leaks

By Nick Pisa
PUBLISHED: 13:31 EST, 25 May 2012

Vatican police have arrested Pope Benedict XVI’s personal butler following an investigation into the leaking of sensitive church documents, it emerged today.

In a scenes worthy of a Dan Brown thriller, the butler identified as Paolo Gabriele, 46, was held by gendarmes after a special commission of three top senior cardinals had been appointed by a furious Pope Benedict to identify the source of the leaks which have caused severe embarrassment.

Gabriele, who has been at the Pope’s side for six years, is one of the German born pontiff’s closest members of his inner circle which totals just four lay people and four nuns and he is always at his side – he is so close that he and the nuns who look after him are described as

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HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on March 25, 2012

The first lawsuit under Hawaii’s landmark civil window was filed yesterday in Hawaii Circuit Court.

The lawsuit (posted here) charges that Fr. Gerald Funcheon sexually abused a 13-year-old boy at Damien Memorial School in 1983/1984 during an overnight retreat on the eastern shore of Oahu. Considering Funcheon’s history (you can read some of the documents here), we can only assume that there may be more victims in Hawaii who are suffering.

Besides exposing predators and keeping kids safe, the beauty of the anti-crime civil window is that the responsible parties are forced to be accountable for the harm they did to child victims and take some of the financial burden for victims’ care off of state coffers and taxpayers. The civil window provides an opportunity put that burden back onto the abusers and enablers, where it belongs.

Similar laws in California and Delaware have exposed hundreds of predators and helped law enforcement put child molesters behind bars.

Funcheon has also been accused of sexual abuse by two former students at Salinas’ Palma School, Chris Spedden and Steven Cantrell. Cantrell, a Monterey-area doctor, wrote an open letter to Palma and the community about the importance of coming forward and reporting sexual abuse. Both Spedden and Cantrell came forward as a part of the Irish Christian Brothers’ bankruptcy. The Brothers run Damien and Palma, as well as other schools across the United States

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CLEVELAND (OH)
National Catholic Reporter

May. 25, 2012
By Brian Roewe

The recent decision of Cleveland bishop Richard G. Lennon to eliminate his diocese’s pastoral planning office appears to have been the final straw, atop a growing list of grievances, for some of his priests.

Since the office’s closing and concurrent firing of two long-time and respected employees, several priests have written letters to Lennon’s superiors in the United States and in Rome, voicing a lack confidence in his leadership and requesting his removal.

The letters surfaced even as Lennon is engaged in the early stages of restoring 11 parishes, carrying out an order from Rome that reversed his earlier decision to shutter the churches. The bishop said in a May 23 meeting with the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s editorial board he hopes to begin reopening parishes by mid-June and complete the process by Aug. 1, the newspaper reported.

Obtained by NCR Thursday morning, the letters from three priests — whose names and respective parishes were blacked out — call for Lennon’s removal as their bishop, and express their waning confidence in his ability to lead the diocese.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com

WORCESTER — The Rev. Charles M. Abdelahad, longtime pastor of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral, was found guilty today of physically assaulting a female parishioner during counseling sessions.

The 55-year-old priest, now on a leave of absence, was accused of physically and sexually abusing the 45-year-old woman during about three years’ worth of counseling sessions at the church on Anna Street. The sessions began in 2007 and were aimed at treating the victim’s eating disorder.

Judge Andrew M. D’Angelo, who presided over a jury-waived trial in Central District Court, found Rev. Abdelahad guilty of one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shod foot) for kicking the woman and one count of assault and battery for biting her. Judge D’Angelo acquitted Rev. Abdelahad on charges of indecent assault and battery, four additional counts of assault and battery and three additional counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

The verdicts were announced by the judge shortly before 12:45 p.m. in a courtroom packed with supporters of both the priest and his accuser.

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VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

Vatican police have arrested Pope Benedict XVI’s personal butler following an investigation into the leaking of sensitive church documents.

By Nick Pisa in Rome
5:30PM BST 25 May 2012

The butler, identified as Paolo Gabriele, 40, was held by gendarmes after a special commission of three top senior cardinals had been appointed by the Pope to identify the source of the leaks which have caused severe embarrassment.

Mr Gabriele, who has been at the Pope’s side for six years, is one of the German born pontiff’s closest members of his inner circle which totals just four lay people and four nuns and he is always at his side.

It is believed that Mr Gabriele, who is known by the nickname Paoletto (little Paul) was held as he arrived for work at the Papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace behind St Peter’s and on Friday he was being held in custody – the first time in years the Vatican jail had been used.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
JD Journal

On Thursday, Monsignor William Lynn of the Philadelphia Archdiocese was ripped apart by the prosecution and a gem, a true scintillating gem of Church logic came to fore. The reply given by Monsignor Lynn to the unhappy being identified in court records only as “Tim” was cited by the prosecutors. Tim, a former seminarian, had been repeatedly sexually abused by Reverend Stanley Gana, and a scathing 2005 grand jury report was cited on the exchange where Tim faced Monsignor Lynn. Tim asked why, even though the entire church knew that Stanley Gana was a confirmed pedophile, he was not evicted from the church.

The grand jury report says, “Monsignor Lynn asked the victim, who had been forced to have oral and anal sex beginning when he was 13 years old to understand that the archdiocese would have taken steps to remove Father Gana from the priesthood had he been diagnosed as a pedophile.”

“But Father Gana was not only having sex with children and teenage minors, Monsignor Lynn explained, he had also slept with women, abused alcohol and stolen money from parish churches,” informed the report of the grand jury.

The rationale: “That is why he remained, with Cardinal Bevilacqua’s blessing, a priest in active ministry. ‘You see, Tim,’” said Monsignor Lynn, ‘he’s not a pure pedophile.’”

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on May. 25, 2012 NCR Today

To say that the Vatican seems in turmoil would be putting things mildly, with two stunners in the arc of twenty-fours: Yesterday’s announcement that the president of the Vatican Bank has been unceremoniously fired, and today’s revelation that a longtime personal servant of Benedict XVI has been identified as the alleged “deep throat” behind the torrid Vatican leaks scandal.

Perhaps it would be more accurate, albeit a bit crude, to say that all Hell is breaking loose in the Holy See.

Earlier today the Vatican spokesperson, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, announced that the Vatican’s security forces had identified an individual as a source for the recent avalanche of leaks, but didn’t provide the name. Various Italian news outlets, however, are reporting that the suspect is Paolo Gabriele, a layman who has worked for many years in the papal apartments as a butler and waiter for the pope.

According to reports, Gabriele is now being interrogated by the promoter of justice for the Vatican City-State, Nicola Picardi.

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UNITED STATES
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

Victoria Bekiempis
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 24 May 2012

So, did you hear the one about the American nuns?

No, this isn’t the beginning of a joke. In April, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the Catholic Church’s current iteration of the Inquisition, if you will – issued an assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents 80% of the US’s 57,000 nuns.

Some key context here: the conference was formed 56 years ago at the behest of the Holy See, to provide “a unified voice” for US nuns who helped the poor, nursed the sick, taught students, worked as missionaries, and fought violence. (Another important bit of background: the congregation is the same arm of the church that bullied Lavinia Byrne, feminist theologian and former British nun, for arguing in favor of female ordination in a 1993 book.)

The conference, according to the Vatican, was spending too much time doing good – and not enough time enforcing church teaching (against abortion, homosexuality etc). So, the nuns actually got in trouble for being, well, nuns. So troubled was the church by this and the women’s alleged “radical feminism” that the assessment demanded the appointment of an archbishop delegate to make them behave.

Nope, no joke.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

For Immediate Release
Contact: Kellyanne Dignan
kdignan@rasky.com
617.803.3444

(Braintree, Mass.) May 25, 2012…The Archdiocese of Boston today announced that it has placed Rev. Joseph F. Byrne on an administrative leave of absence as a result of receiving an allegation of sexual abuse of a child. Fr. Byrne is a Senior Priest with limited ministry in parishes in the Falmouth area on Cape Cod. The allegation concerns conduct alleged to have occurred in the early-1970s and was only recently reported to the Archdiocese.

The Archdiocese immediately notified law enforcement of the allegation and has initiated a preliminary investigation into the complaint. Fr. Byrne will remain on administrative leave without any public ministry pending the outcome of the preliminary investigation. The decision to place Fr. Byrne on administrative leave represents the Archdiocese’s commitment to the welfare of all parties and does not represent a determination of Fr. Byrne’s guilt or innocence as it pertains to this allegation. The Archdiocese will work to resolve this case as expeditiously as possible and in a manner that is fair to all parties.

“We remain committed to doing everything possible to ensure the safety and well-being of children and young people in our parishes and institutions,” stated Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley. “I know the faithful and the clergy of the Archdiocese join me in this pledge of prayerful support.”

Through its Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach, the Archdiocese continues to make counseling and other services available to survivors, their families and parishes impacted by clergy sexual abuse and by allegations of abuse by members of the clergy. Cardinal Seán encourages any person in need of pastoral assistance or support to contact the Archdiocese’s Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach by calling (781) 794-2581.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Patch

By Margaret Carroll-Bergman

The Archdiocese of Boston announced today that it has placed Rev. Joseph F. Byrne, a Senior Priest with limited ministry in parishes in Falmouth, on an administrative leave of absence as a result of receiving an allegation of sexual abuse of a child.

Father Byrne is a retired priest living on the Cape. He is listed on the website of St. Patrick’s Church in Falmouth as a retired priest who serves that parish.

The allegation concerns conduct alleged to have occurred in the early-1970s and was only recently reported to the Archdiocese, according to a press release from the Archdiocese of Boston.

While St. Patrick’s is part of the Fall River Diocese, Fr. Byrne served as a priest in the Boston Archdiocese before he retired. Here is a list of the parishes where he served: 1969-1975, St. Matthew, Dorchester; 1975-1985, St. John the Baptist, Quincy; 1985-1994, St. Albert the Great, Weymouth and 1994-2002, Our Lady Comforter of Afflicted, Waltham.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The culprit is allegedly the Pope’s butler, a layman. But doubts are growing in the Holy See

ANDREA TORNIELLI
Vatican City

The Vatican Gendarmerie’s inquiry into the publication of secret documents “has allowed us to identify one person in possession of confidential documents.” Fr. Federico Lombardi stated this, explaining that this person “is now at the Vatican magistrate’s disposal for further questioning.”

The Vatican Gendarmerie, led by general Domenico Giani has allegedly identified the poison pen letter writer, who Italian newspaper Il Foglio has revealed is the Pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele: a layman working in Benedict XVI’s apartment, who had previously worked in the Pope’s anteroomfor for a number of years. He is currently undergoing a legal process.

The Vatican Gendarmerie found large wad of confidential documents in an apartment in Via di Porta Angelica, in Rome, where the Pope’s butler Paolo Gabriele lives with his wife and three children. This just over 40 year old man from Rome has been working in the Pope’s apartment since 2006, entering the Pope’s Family after a period serving Mgr. James Harvey, Prefect of the Papal Household.

But is he really a poison pen letter writer or just a scapegoat to save the skin of someone higher up? This is the question many in the Vatican are asking since rumours have been spreading regarding the inquiries into the leaked documents. The butler is in fact considered by many in the Holy See as a simple, good person who is devoted to the Pope.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on May 25, 2012 ·

We are disturbed that Thomas Harkins, an ousted pedophile priest, works at Philadelphia International, and are extremely confused as to how he was able to get this position. Do TSA agents not have to go through a background check? If so, does child molestation not cause concern? To know of Harkin’s criminal past and then to place him in a position of authority is unconscionable.

The TSA claims that Harkins deals with baggage, not people. Yet Harkins could still use his position to get closer to passengers and kids, whether by detaining the owners of luggage or by switching shifts with other TSA agents in the airport. The fact is that there are many ways in which Harkins could get around his job title and use his position of authority to molest even more children.

Situation like these are indicative of what happens when Catholic officials refuse to monitor child molesting clerics: they move elsewhere or get jobs elsewhere, usually interacting with the public where they can begin to meet and befriend single moms and vulnerable kids. (We think it’s much more prudent for Catholic officials to house pedophile priests in remote, secure, independent treatment centers. Also, when priests leave for ‘civilian jobs,’ we think it’s best if they work in factories or other places with little or no contact with the public.)

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

May. 25, 2012
By Alessandro Speciale, Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY — In an unprecedented move, the board of the Vatican Bank on Thursday forced its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, to resign.

According to a Vatican statement, the bank’s supervisory council unanimously passed a no-confidence motion in Gotti Tedeschi for his “failure to fulfill various primary functions of his office.” Carl A. Anderson, the supreme knight of the U.S.-based Knights of Columbus, is one of the council’s four members.

The Vatican’s chief spokesman, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, declined to give more details on the reasons for the dismissal, but analysts say the move should be read in the context of an internal Vatican struggle over controversial new rules for financial transparency.

Since 2010, Gotti Tedeschi, together with the bank’s director general, Paolo Cipriani, has been under investigation for alleged money laundering.

In the past, the Vatican Bank, which operates under the protection of the Vatican’s status as a sovereign nation, has been often accused of involvement in shady financial operations, such as money laundering for Italian politicians and even mafia bosses.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The Vatican has said it has detained a person it suspects of leaking a series of confidential documents and letters to the media.

The leaks have described alleged corruption, mismanagement, and internal conflicts among top Holy See officials.

The Vatican said the person was being questioned by Vatican magistrates, but gave no further details about their identity.

The “Vatileaks” scandal, as it is known, has enraged the Holy See.

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VATICAN CITY
Swissinfo

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Vatican police on Friday arrested a person in possession of confidential documents in the first break in an investigation of the so-called “Vatileaks” scandal involving the leaking of secret papers including papal letters.

Italian media said the arrested man was someone who worked in the apartments of Pope Benedict but Vatican spokesmen said they would not disclose the man’s identity until they had a green light from investigating magistrates.

A Vatican source said the person was not a priest. Another senior source said: “It’s all very sad”.

For much of this year, the Vatican has been at the centre of a scandal involving the leak to Italian media of documents, some of them personal letters to the pope.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, May 25

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican said Friday that it has arrested someone for illegally holding secret documents as it tries to get to the bottom of an embarrassing leaking scandal.

Spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi declined to immediately identify the person, other than to say he was a layman. He has been arrested and Vatican judicial authorities are examining his case.

Vatican documents leaked to the press in recent months have pointed to power struggles and accusations of corruption touching senior Vatican cardinals. In one case, a cleric who complained was reportedly sent to Washington as papal envoy to get him out of the Vatican.

In another case, Vatican officials have accused the president of the Vatican bank of leaking confidential documents. He was ousted by the board Thursday.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. . .An affidavit about a just-arrested St. Louis archdiocesan priest, Father Charles Robert Manning, is sealed. But a woman who says she reported her suspicions about the cleric suggest that he acted like a “jealous lover” toward a 15 year-old, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. . .

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

The sentencing of a paedophile priest was adjourned after a psychiatrist raised concerns over his mental health.

Wheelchair bound 71-year-old Michael Joseph Steele was due to be sentenced by Belfast Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a boy and a girl between 30 and 40 years ago last month.

Steele admitted five counts of indecent assault and two of gross indecency committed against the boy between January 1967 and January 1971.

He admitted three counts of indecently assaulting the girl on dates between August 1979 and July 1983.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

The sentencing of a former priest on child sex abuse charges has been adjourned at Belfast Crown Court after concerns were raised about his mental health.

Joseph Steele, 71, who was a priest in the Holy Ghost Order had pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a boy and a girl 40 years ago.

Steele, whose address was given as Kimmage Manor, Crumlin in Dublin, arrived at court in a wheelchair.

He admitted five counts of indecent assault and two of gross indecency against a male child between 1967 and 1971.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 25 May 2012 (VIS) – Yesterday afternoon the Holy See Press Office published a communique concerning the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), the text of which is given below:

“On 24 May members the Supervisory Board of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) met for their regular meeting. One of the topics on the agenda was, once again, the matter regarding the governance of the Institute. Over time this area had generated increasing worries among the members of the board and, despite repeated efforts to communicate these concerns to Prof. Gotti Tedeschi, president of the IOR, the situation deteriorated further.

“Following discussion of the issues, the board members voted unanimously in favour of a motion expressing no confidence in the president for not having carried out various responsibilities of primary importance regarding his office. On this basis, the following statement was issued:

“‘During the regular meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), at 2 p.m. on 24 May 2012 this board adopted a motion of no confidence in President Gotti Tedeschi and recommended the cessation of his mandate as president and member of the board.

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VATICAN CITY
Al Arabiya

By Al Arabiya with Agencies

The Vatican arrested a man caught in possession of secret documents Friday, as the Holy See cracked down on a leak scandal which has seen confidential information passed to the Italian media.

“The inquiry carried out by Vatican police… allowed them to identify someone in possession of confidential documents. This person is currently being questioned by a Vatican magistrate,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told journalists.

The Vatican, embroiled for months in the so-called “Vatileaks” scandal involving the leak of secret papers, said its police had detained the person in possession of confidential documents.

A Vatican source said the person was not a priest.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican police have arrested an individual in possession of private Vatican documents in connection to the so-called “VatiLeaks” scandal that began in January.

“This person now is being questioned by the Vatican magistrates for further information,” said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, who declined to name the person.

He told reporters May 25 that the Vatican gendarmes “identified a person illicitly in possession of private documents.” The committee of three cardinals Pope Benedict XVI appointed in April to look into the leaks had asked the gendarmes to investigate.

In response to questions, Passionist Father Ciro Benedettini, assistant director of the Vatican press office, said the suspect was “under arrest.” However, he declined to say if or where the person was being held.

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ROME
Vatican Insider

Andrea Tornielli
Rome

Dear friends,

I have just finished reading “His Holiness, the secret files of Benedict XVI” which contains the ‘Vatileaks’, the documents and letters that an internal Vatican source gave to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi. As you know, yesterday the Holy See reacted harshly to this, defining the operation “a criminal act” and declaring its will to “take the necessary steps” with the help of the international community.

It is obvious and also understandable that the Vatican feels exasperated at the publication of messages, notes, memos, remarks and letters that had been written only a few months or in some cases a few weeks before. I am not sure what legal action can be taken against publication, but it seems obvious to me that the Holy See has an internal security problem and that the “criminal act” was carried out by someone working inside the Vatican, who may have access to the archives and who manages to intercept papers coming from the Pope, his secretary and the Secretary of State. This person has a precise objective, the details of which are still somewhat hazy. But the source of the problem is the mole’s identity.

From what I know the internal investigation into who was responsible for the leaks has not yet been successful. The three old cardinals in charge of the investigation (Herranz, Tomko and De Giorgi) have received the results of the work carried out by the Vatican Gendarmerie, but it seems that there are no specific leads, despite the fact that only a few people have had access to the documents going in and out of the Pope’s office and that of his secretary. As such, the creation of the committee, which was announced a month in advance by the Substitute to the Secretary of State, Becciu, and which was established on the 25 April, as well as yesterday’s statement seem to have the intent of discouraging further instances of this kind rather than investigating the current ones. But for the time being (more than three months since the first leaks came out) a solution seems to lie beyond the Vatican’s reach.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The President of the IOR has resigned from his post in light of the tensions over the Saint Rafael case and the Vatican transparency law. He will be succeeded by Ronaldo Hermann Schmitz

ANDREA TORNIELLI
Vatican City

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi has resigned from his post as President of the IOR, the Institute for the Works of Religion. He did so during a meeting of the Supervisory Council, the Vatican bank’s administrative council for the laity, before a no-confidence vote was passed. He is to be succeeded by Vice President Ronaldo Hermann Schmitz. The reason behind the Italian banker and economist’s decision seem to be the internal tensions that have been growing over the past months over the new transparency law which was supposed to get the Holy See onto the white-list of financially virtuous countries.

Gotti Tedeschi was appointed as President of the Vatican bank in 2009, to advance financial transparency work, as Benedict XVI had requested. A few months after his arrival, the IOR became involved in an inquiry carried out by the Roman magistrate into some money transfers: Gotti Tedeschi had decided to collaborate with the judges, agreeing to answer all questions without the need for any international letters of request.

A communiqué issued by the Holy See Press Office says that “after deliberation, the Board decided unanimously on a no- confidence vote against the President, on the grounds that he failed to carry out functions that were of primary importance to his office.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Peter Isely on May 24, 2012

“I was just following orders” is not accepted as a defense – legally or morally – in any civilized setting. When colleagues or supervisors give you unjust or criminal orders or requests, you have a moral duty to refuse. When such orders or requests are repeatedly reckless – and endanger kids- you have a moral duty to expose them.

Msgr. Lynn claims top Philly Catholic officials repeatedly told him to defy common decency and common sense and essentially hide and minimize child sex crimes. But Lynn admits he never once contradicted, or even seriously challenged, those immoral edicts. He also admits that he never once even surreptitiously undermined them by quietly calling police about dozens and dozens of known and suspected child predators.

Lynn makes the stunning claim that he “did [his] best, with the parameters given to me.” But let’s remember that his “parameters” included many, many options. Among them:

Quitting

Blowing the whistle

Calling the police

Refusing to lie or deceive

Trying to excuse inexcusable inaction and callous decisions, one of Msgr. Lynn’s colleagues said, on the witness stand “You don’t say no to Cardinal Bevilacqua.” He’s right – IF your goal is to climb the corporate ladder. If, however, you take your religious seriously and care about kids, you DO say no to any official who tries to insist that you conceal and enable child sex crimes.

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UNITED STATES
Richard Sipe

A.W. RICHARD SIPE

Santa Clara University

11 May 2012

The context of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic bishops and priests is the culture of the priesthood. Roman Catholic bishops and priests constitute a privileged cast. This persists as a centuries-long reality perpetuated by the monarchical structure essential to the operation of the Roman Catholic Church. The world of RC clergy forms the setting, circumstances, and opportunities that surround the sexual activity of bishops and priests with minors and others. Clergy rule supreme in their spheres of operation—ministry of the sacraments (especially hearing confessions and celebrating mass) religious instructions/teaching, and the administration of their institutions. Parishes (and seminaries) are the most common sites of sexual contacts between priests, minors and others. The climate and culture and power of Catholic bishops and priests put the vulnerable and minors at risk for abuse within areas of clerical control.

The causes of sexual abuse by clergy are solidly rooted in human nature as it is fostered, lived, and expressed in clerical culture. Ordination into major orders (and preparation for them) marks the entrance into the clerical culture. Catholic clerical culture is characterized by homogeneity: it is an exclusively male province—males over twenty-five years of age alone are ordained priests—and they form a homosocial society where women are deprived of any authority. Candidates must promise “perfect and perpetual chastity, therefore celibacy” as a prior condition for ordination [Canon 277 #2]. That requirement confers social power on a priest. [“It was from sexual purity that the priesthood was believed to derive its power.”]

Cardinals and bishops vow absolute obedience to the Pope as the supreme authority. They, the pope’s legitimate surrogates, demand this obedience of their subordinates. [Father Yves Congar once said, “In the Catholic Church it has often seemed that a sin of the flesh was the only sin, and obedience the only virtue.”]

If a priest is apparently compliant with the demands of the culture he receives automatic status regardless of any individual merit. The culture provides an assurance of employment and continued material compensation for the duration of his life. The identification with the power system and subordination to it relives individuals of responsibility for the consequences of their individual actions. Truth telling is curtailed and subjected to the welfare of the organization (the good of the church). The prevailing rationale is that clerics’ first duty is to the higher law of God. Secrecy and loyalty are essential binding elements operative to the function of clerical cultural. Men within the clerical culture are labeled “special” since ordination confers an “ontological” superiority. Clerics thus incorporated into the culture often demonstrate qualities of dependency, entitlement, superiority/arrogance, variable degrees of psychosexual immaturity, but in many cases “they posses enormous powers of empathetic discernment—albeit for purposes of self-aggrandizement.”

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IRELAND
BBC News

The Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin has spent more than 15m euros in settling child abuse claims.

The figure, which includes 5m euros in legal fees, is in the diocese’s annual child protection report.

Just over a third of complaints against priests were made in the 1980s, according to the report.

It also said the 10 worst clerical abusers in the archdiocese are alleged to have abused an average of 36 children each.

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TEXAS
Click2Houston

[with video]

RICHMOND, Texas –
A church musician has been accused of committing a sin inside a Fort Bend County church.

Marcus Grimsley, 42, has been charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child.

Fort Bend County sheriff’s deputies said Grimsley was playing guitar in a band at the Zion Watchtower Baptist Church, 606 F.M. 359, in Richmond on Sunday.

In between services, Grimsely spotted a 13-year-old girl playing outside with friends, detectives said.

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NEDERLAND
RKnieuws

DEN HAAG (RKnieuws.net) – Vrouwelijke slachtoffers tegen wie als minderjarige seksueel misbruik en geweld is gepleegd binnen de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk kunnen hun ervaringen melden voor het onderzoek dat hiernaar in voorbereiding is.

Het onderzoek staat opnieuw onder leiding van drs. Wim Deetman. Die kreeg onlangs grote kritiek vanuit de politiek op zijn eerste rapport over seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen binnen katholieke instellingen.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

VATICAN CITY, May 25, 2012 – In the Roman curia, but not only there, there is great anticipation over who will be the new prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith.

Meanwhile, however, other curial mandates have expired or are about to expire, of lesser impact in the media but certainly not devoid of importance.

In 2005, when the newly elected Benedict XVI had to decide on the name of his successor at the former Holy Office, he selected the first of three candidates:

– the archbishop of San Francisco, William J. Levada,
– the cardinal of Genoa, Tarcisio Bertone (whom Pope Joseph Ratzinger probably had in mind already as his secretary of state),
– the cardinal of Sydney, George Pell (who two years ago was seriously taken into consideration as prefect of the congregation for bishops, a position for which Canadian cardinal Marc Ouellet was chosen).

Now Levada, who was made a cardinal in 2006, has already exceeded by almost one year the canonical cutoff of 75, and will turn 76 on June 15, so the procedure that will lead to the appointment of his successor is in its final phase.

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VATICAN CITY
The Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW

The controversial Vatican Bank, IOR (Istituto Per Le Opere di Religione), is in the wars again after its president was last night unanimously dismissed in a no-confidence vote by the bank’s board, all laymen.

President Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who is being investigated on accusations of money laundering, was sacked because of his failure to fulfil “the primary functions of his office”, according to a Holy See statement. Members of the board believed Mr Tedeschi’s dismissal was needed to “maintain the vitality of the bank”, the statement said.

By all accounts, yesterday’s board meeting was far from tranquil, with Mr Tedeschi clashing bitterly with the other four lay members. Mr Tedeschi reportedly clashed with his board over the bank’s failure to respect international anti-money laundering regulations.

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VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle

The head of the Vatican bank has been forced to resign his post when the board passed a unanimous no-confidence vote against him. Ettore Gotti Tedeschi was accused of letting standards slip too far.

Tedeschi was ousted on Thursday evening after the vote by bank overseers at the Vatican, which blamed him for a deterioration in standards of governance.

The Vatican said in a statement that Gotti Tedeschi had failed to carry out “various fundamentally important functions of his office.”

Among other things, Gotti Tedeschi was blamed for failing to keep the board sufficiently informed about the bank, known also as the Institute for Religious Works.

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VATICAN CITY
RT

The Vatican Bank chief has been dismissed for reportedly leaking documents amid accusations of money laundering. The move comes as the Holy See, embroiled in a chain of financial scandals, is trying to deal with claims of corruption and fraud.

The president of the Vatican Bank Ettore Gotti Tedeschi has been ousted after receiving a unanimous vote of no-confidence from bank overseers.

The economist, who presided over the institution since 2009, is under investigation by Italian magistrates for alleged money laundering.

Gotti Tedeschi is seen as having failed to clean up the image of the bank, perceived as a symbol of the opacity and corruption scandal gripping the Pope’s kingdom.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Charlotte Observer

By Joe DePriest
jdepriest@charlotteobserver.com

A former Gaston County pastor has denied having illicit sex with two minors in Haiti while he was giving them food and clothing through a church ministry.

In a federal court hearing Monday in Charlotte, Larry Michael Bollinger, 66, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

About 30 of his supporters were in the courtroom, hoping he’d be released from jail until the trial. But a federal judge denied bond and Bollinger remained behind bars.

Prosecutors said four victims were identified, but Bollinger was charged for his conduct with two girls, ages 11 and 12. They said he met the victims, who were from Port-au-Prince, when they came to the Village of Hope, a sub-ministry of The Lazarus Project. A mostly Lutheran ministry, the Lazarus Project runs a vocational school and medical clinic.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

At the Catholic sex abuse trial, it was good day to feel like throwing up.

On the witness stand Thursday, an amiable and smiling Monsignor William J. Lynn tried to defend the indefensible, by explaining away the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s criminal conduct of the past fifty years. It’s hard to justify how the church could repeatedly offer up its own innocent children as a regular sacrifice to the unbridled lusts of rampaging predator priests, but Lynn gave it a try, with predictable results.

But that wasn’t the only sickening sight in Courtroom 304. Over at the prosecution table, Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington was a study in fire-breathing indignation, as he pummeled the hapless monsignor for more than four hours, without showing any mercy, or common sense.

Who would want to see Mike Tyson in his prime whaling away on the Pillsbury doughboy? No wonder jurors often looked away as the bloodsport went on unabated, without anyone in Lynn’s corner tossing in the towel, or the judge calling the bout.

Blessington could have dissected Lynn on the facts, but instead he chose to repeatedly insult and demean a man in a priest’s collar who wasn’t fighting back. It seemed like the ideal way to create sympathy for Lynn among jurors. It may be the only way the defense has left to possibly win the case.

Meanwhile, in the courtroom, there was the odd spectacle of at least a dozen of Lynn’s parishioners from St. Joseph’s in Downingtown who showed up to support their pastor by watching and praying and clutching rosary beads.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Colm Kelpie
Friday, 25 May 2012

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin yesterday declined to publicly back embattled All-Ireland primate Cardinal Sean Brady.

Dr Brady has kept a relatively low profile since new allegations emerged of the handling of child abuse concerns raised about notorious paedophile cleric Fr Brendan Smyth.

With just weeks to go to the 50th Eucharistic Congress, Archbishop Martin said the challenges facing the church were not about just one person.

“Cardinal Brady has said that he is staying and that he has lots of support from people; I’ve never commented and I don’t know any thing of those details,” he said. Asked if he supported Cardinal Brady, Dr Martin replied: “I’ve made no comments on other bishops.”

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

More than ten million euro in compensation has been paid out to victims of paedophile priests in the Dublin area.

Allegations of child abuse have been made against almost 100 priests in the archdiocese over the last 70 years, with more than a third from the 1980s. Complaints were lodged against five clergy who had never been subject to previous allegations in the last 12 months, according to Dublin’s church watchdog.

Andrew Fagan, director of services with the Child Safeguarding and Protection Service in Dublin, said there were ongoing efforts to maintain high standards in child safety.

“In Dublin, child safeguarding operates to a high standard and Dublin parishes are now safer places for children,” he said. “While the majority of allegations of abuse reported to us now, relate to sexual abuse which may have occurred many years ago, it is still crucial to be vigilant and to work to ensure standards are maintained.”

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NEW YORK
JTA

May 24, 2012

(JTA) — Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes reportedly said that the haredi Orthodox community is the only one in his jurisdiction in which sexual assault victims are harassed and intimidated.

In an interview that appeared Thursday in Andrea Peyser’s New York Post column, Hynes cited the insularity of Brooklyn’s haredi community and the need to protect sex-abuse victims from intimidation for his refusal to release the names of accused molesters from the community.

“I departed from the policy of identifying defendants,’’ he told Peyser. “The reason is that within days, people within this relentless community would identify the victims. Then the intimidation would start.’’

Hynes has been under attack for refusing to divulge the names. He has been criticized for trying to curry favor with the haredi Orthodox constituency, which has supported him in past elections.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Bennett L. Gershman and Joel Cohen

Prosecutors often deal with crime victims who do not want to testify. Victims are afraid they will be harmed by their abusers, such as victims of domestic violence. Others are embarrassed to testify in public and undergo brutal cross-examination, such as rape victims. Others are traumatized by the courtroom and having to face their abuser, such as child victims. The law has tried to accommodate these concerns through witness protection programs, rape shield laws, and closed circuit testimony. But sometimes the opposite happens: victims want to testify against their abusers but face pressure from friends, family, and powerful members of their own community not to cooperate with the authorities.

Recent disclosures have revealed that some ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders, particularly in Brooklyn, N.Y., routinely pressure victims of child sexual crimes to not complain publicly against their abusers. Charles Hynes, the experienced district attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y., has been criticized of for appearing to allow these rabbis to dictate when and under what circumstances sexual abuse charges may be brought. Indeed, it certainly looks like obstruction of justice for rabbis to pressure a crime victim not to complain. As reported in the media, these religious authorities have repeatedly warned child victims of sexual abuse and their parents not to bring criminal charges against other Jews, claiming that it violates Jewish law, damages the reputation of the Orthodox Jewish community, and stigmatizes the alleged abuser and his family if the accusation is not true. When victims did not heed these warnings — even after being offered large sums of money not to complain, ostensibly for “therapy” for the child — they reportedly faced severe consequences — they were expelled from schools and synagogues, ostracized by the community, threatened with harm, and publicly humiliated, even spat upon. Mr. Hynes reportedly was assured by these rabbis that accusations would be allowed to be brought, but only if the rabbis first determined that the allegations were true.

What is going on here? Have these rabbis been delegated the “gatekeepers” of the criminal justice system? Should any government official ever permit religious leaders unilaterally to dictate public policy? The notion that a religious leader has been given the power to decide whether a member of his community can bring a criminal complaint poses a clear challenge to the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause by entangling religious leaders — either explicitly or implicitly — with the secular legal system’s prosecutorial decision-making process. Indeed, should church officials be allowed to decide whether a priest or minister alleged to have engaged in wrongful conduct be prosecuted? Should Native American tribes be allowed to decide whether one of its members should be exempted from prosecution for a criminal offense? Should a university be allowed to determine whether discipline should be imposed on one of its football coaches for child sexual abuse instead of criminal prosecution?

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NEW YORK
Gothamist

Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes is desperately trying to extricate himself from a political scandal sparked by his refusal to release the names of ultra-Orthodox Jews suspected of child molestation, as well as letting powerful rabbis decide whether child abuse allegations should be reported to the police. Hynes’s cooperation with the ultra-Orthodox community has been absolutely crucial to his reelection campaigns; he’s won landslide victories in neighborhoods with large Jewish populations. Now, in the wake of a damning New York Times article about his handling of sex abuse cases in these communities, Hynes is… proposing legislation.

In an interview with the Times yesterday, Hynes said he “would push for state legislation to add rabbis and other religious leaders to the list of professionals required to report allegations of sexual abuse to law enforcement authorities.” This is a 180-degree reversal—multiple sources told the Times that Hynes “did not object when Agudath Israel of America… told him last summer that it was instructing adherent Jews to get permission from a rabbi before reporting allegations of sexual abuse to the authorities.”

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

The Jewish Week has a new article by Hella Winston in which the office of Brooklyn’s D.A. Charles Hynes says that Agudah rabbis who insist on vetting child sexual abuse allegations and determining whether or not they can be reported to police, the D.A. or the Administration of Child Services could be prosecuted for obstruction of justice.

Here are a few quotes from the article:

Hynes’ spokesperson Jerry Schmetterer: “DA Hynes told Dovid Zwiebel [Agudah’s executive vice president] that it was a mistake to advise someone with information about child abuse to first speak with a rabbi. Zwiebel … risks having the rabbi prosecuted for obstructing a law enforcement investigation.”

The Jewish Week asked Schmetterer to clarify what someone should do if he or she had information about allegations about abuse. Schmetterer responded that the person should “report [the allegations] to authorities for investigation.”

James A. Cohen, associate professor of law and the director of the Trial Advocacy Program & External Affairs at Fordham University School of Law: “Encouraging delay in reporting a crime, particularly a crime against a child, is obstructing justice.”

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NEW YORK
WNYC

The Brooklyn District attorney is pushing for legislation that would add religious leaders to those required to report allegations of sex abuse to authorities in the wake of criticism over his handling of such cases in the Orthodox Jewish community, according to the New York Times.

Critics of Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes say he allows the community a free pass – not objecting when a group representing Hasidic and Orthodox Jews instructed followers to first get permission from a rabbi before reporting alleged sexual abuse and refusing to make public the more than 95 recently indicted.

But Paul Berger, staff writer for the Jewish Daily Forward, told the Brian Lehrer Show earlier this month that it is more nuanced than that.

“He still expects that those cases are still brought to him,” he said. “If you want to get somebody’s advice … then it would make sense that they should seek the guidance of a rabbi first.”

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VATICAN CITY
SKNVibes

By: Jean-Louis de la Vaissiere, VATICAN CITY (AFP)

(Vatican City, VAT) – The Vatican Bank ousted its president on Thursday after he failed to clean up the image of an institution that has come to symbolise the opacity and scandal gripping the Holy See’s administration.

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi was forced to resign “for failing to carry out duties of primary importance,” the Holy See said in a statement.

The president was ousted in the wake of a series of financial scandals as the Vatican tries to clean up its image and put a stop to a leak of documents.

“The board passed a unanimous no-confidence vote against the president… and believes the action is important to maintain the vitality” of the bank, the Vatican said, as internal divisions over transparency came to a head.

Gotti Tedeschi, an expert on financial ethics, was put in charge of the bank — also known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) — in 2009, in an effort on the part of the Vatican to rid the institution of scandal.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin and Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

Midway through his cross-examination Thursday, Msgr. William J. Lynn sat deflated on the witness stand.

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington had spent a second day battering Lynn over his handling of complaints of clergy sex abuse.

Lynn tried to press back. Blessington, he said, was “wordsmithing,” twisting his statements, ignoring his replies, and being unfair.

But the prosecutor was relentless. As the church official responsible for investigating accused priests, Blessington said, Lynn had lied, lied, and lied some more – to victims, police, and parishioners across the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. When Blessington said Lynn intentionally misled a grand jury, the monsignor shook his head, exasperated.

“No,” Lynn sighed quietly, dropping his gaze and letting the word linger, as the prosecutor loaded another round.

The questions weren’t a surprise.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Voice from the Desert

Eileen DiFranco on Philadelphia Msgr. William Lynn: My Second Encounter with Bill Lynn

Eileen attended the big trial in Philadelphia yesterday. Below are her reflections. [FJD]

* * *
My Second Encounter with Bill Lynn

Ten years ago, I was a member of a support group for one of the survivors mentioned in the 2005 Grand jury report. Our group had invited Lynn to a meeting to explain to all of us how Nicholas Cudemo could remain a priest when the archdiocese knew he had sexually abused a long list of adolescent girls on a regular basis.

I decided that I would take a personal day today and see how Bill was making out now that lawyers rather than private citizens were asking him how men who committed horrific crimes against children could remain in ministry as priests in good standing under his watch.

I arrived early and just spent some time looking around the courtroom. . The lawyers were up front busily preparing for the day. A large group of mostly women came into court. I heard that they were Lynn’s family. There were perhaps 10 observers and many media people. For those of you in Philadelphia, I saw local reporters Vernon Odom, Pat Sirococi, and Terry Ruggles. I was told that there were people from the national news and I later saw one of the women on the CBS national news.

There was a large man sitting in front of me. When three priests walked in and sat in front of him, he patted one of them on the back. An elderly man asked if I were a sister. That was a first for me. I didn’t want to tell him what I really was and upset him. ( I’m a Roman Catholic Womanpriest.)

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CALIFORNIA
KPCC

[Archive of Franciscan Sex Abuse in the Province of St. Barbara – BishopAccountability.org]

By Lisa Brenner

Files detailing alleged clergy abuse at Franciscans’ St. Anthony Seminary, a former boarding school in Santa Barbara, have been released following a lengthy legal battle.

The documents, posted online at bishopaccountability.org, contain accusations of sexual abuse of children, and an account of a man who describes being molested there as a child and later molesting other childeren, says the L.A. Times.

For decades, the now-shuttered St. Anthony’s Seminary was awash in dark secrets. A cache of documents obtained in a lawsuit and posted online Wednesday, including [Robert] Van Handel’s so-called sexual autobiography, has begun to shed some light on them.

The documents, containing accounts of 25 alleged victims who say they were abused by nine clergy members, is the largest release of a Roman Catholic religious order’s confidential files, according to a plaintiffs’ attorney. Van Handel is the only one of them who has been criminally convicted, notes the newspaper.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

Andrea Peyser

There exists in this city a group of unparalleled perverts that’s wrapped in Teflon — more resistent to charges of sexual exploitation than John Travolta.

I’m not talking about Hollywood nimrods or Catholic priests, but a sect not generally associated with serious crime — ultra-Orthodox Jews.

A scandal of epic proportions is brewing in Brooklyn as District Attorney Charles Hynes uses kid gloves to handle creeps and demons charged with, or convicted of, sexual abuse that too often brutalizes children.

While monsters of other faiths are paraded in shame through the public square, Hynes this week refused to reveal the identities of Hasidic scumbags.

Some of the deviants committed crimes from rape to sodomy to incest in sex attacks on kids.

Some have enjoyed sweet plea deals. Others are out there as we speak — preying on the weak in blessed anonymity.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Updated May 24, 2012

Ever since the USA government listed the Vatican as ‘potential money-laundering center’, the Vatican is trying to patch-up its image in order to “restore” its reputation and its relations with the international financial community. So in a no confidence vote today, it fired its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, “for not having carried out various functions of primary importance to his office” , see news updates below. How on earth can Tedeschi carry out the functions in his office at the Vatican Bank when he also teaches ethics in finance at Milan’s Catholic University and so he could show up only two days a week at the Vatican Bank while tending to his other job as head of Spain’s Banco Santander’s Italian unit? Imagine that, only at the Vatican can one be the President of 2 banks or perhaps more. For the Vatican Bank to have relations with other financial institutions, of course, it has to hire someone already in a high level position to do its international transactions, like the President of Spain’s biggest bank. That shows how cunning the Vatican is. We will put all news related to the Vatican Bank in this post.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

[with video]

By Ben Simmoneau

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The CBS 3 I-Team has learned that a Catholic priest who was removed from the ministry over sex abuse allegations now holds a sensitive security post at Philadelphia International Airport.

The security checkpoint between Terminals D and E is a busy place where thousands of people – including lots of kids – pass through every day. But you might not believe who the I-Team observed working as a TSA supervisor at that checkpoint this week: Thomas Harkins.

Until 2002, Harkins was a Catholic priest working at churches across South Jersey. But the Diocese of Camden removed him from ministry because it found he sexually abused two young girls. Now, in a new lawsuit, a third woman is claiming she also is one of Harkins’ victims.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

DUBLIN’S CATHOLIC archdiocese has paid €15.2 million in compensation and legal costs arising from clerical child sexual abuse, according to a report published yesterday.

This included €10.3 million in settlements and €4.9 million in legal costs.

To date 199 civil actions have been taken in Dublin arising from clerical child abuse, with 135 concluded and 64 ongoing.

The archdiocese has so far received 97 allegations/reports of suspicions of abuse against the worst priest serial child abuser in Dublin. He is no longer a priest and is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Albany Times Union

MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

Updated 05:48 p.m., Thursday, May 24, 2012

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Roman Catholic church official testified Thursday that he typed a list of suspected pedophile priests on his computer, but couldn’t find it 10 years later to show a grand jury.

Monsignor William Lynn endured a second day of searing cross-examination as he fights charges he endangered children by protecting priests. He’s due back on the stand Tuesday.

Lynn denies locking the 1994 list in an archdiocese safe, where church employees say it was found in 2006 and then buried in a lawyer’s files until this year.

The list was turned over to city prosecutors in February, days after Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua died. They’ve made it something of a smoking gun since the trial started in March.

Prosecutors believe it shows the Philadelphia archdiocese knew it had diagnosed pedophiles and other predators on duty, but left them in jobs with access to children.

“They have that collar on. It attracts kids like candy,” Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington said as he peppered Lynn with questions.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Pat Ciarrocchi

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Monsignor William Lynn walked to lunch with his family surrounding him, and for the first time all morning, his face wasn’t blazing red.

The second day of cross examination was intense from the start.

The prosecutor, Assistant DA Patrick Blessington, named cases involving notorious priests — with credible allegations of sexual abuse of children who remained in ministry.

One was Father Stanley Gana, who Blessington described as a monster with multiple victims. Blessington wanted to know how this case fell through the cracks.

“There was no excuse for it falling through the cracks. I’m not perfect,” Lynn answered.

“Do you agree; Gana is a monster?” Blessington pressed.

“I agree he did horrible things,” Lynn confirmed.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WKZO

By Dave Warner

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – A senior church official on Thursday defended his response to a child abuse victim who was told that a predator priest could not be punished because he had sex with women too and therefore was “not a pure pedophile.”

Under intense cross-examination by the prosecution, Monsignor William Lynn of the Philadelphia Archdiocese testified in his own defense for the second day at his trial on charges of child endangerment and conspiracy. He is accused of covering up child sex abuse allegations against priests, often by transferring them to unsuspecting parishes.

Lynn, 61, the former secretary of the clergy in the archdiocese, is the highest-ranking U.S. clergyman to go to trial in the Roman Catholic church’s pedophilia scandal. His job was to supervise 800 Philadelphia priests, including investigating sex abuse claims against them, from 1992 to 2004.

The pedophilia scandal has rocked the Philadelphia Archdiocese, with 1.5 million members the sixth largest in the country. Nationwide, more than 10,000 allegations of child sex abuse were brought against priests between 1950 and 2002, according to a report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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CALIFORNIA
The Christian Post

[Archive of Franciscan Sex Abuse in the Province of St. Barbara – BishopAccountability.org]

By Luiza Oleszczuk , Christian Post Reporter

May 24, 2012|5:45 pm

Over 8,500 pages of documents detailing charges of sex abuse of minors within the Franciscan religious order in California were published Wednesday, revealing dark secrets about years of ongoing abuse by a boarding school choir director and eight other clergymen.

The files are believed to be the largest release of religious order documents in the history of the sexual abuse crisis, according to BishopAccountability.org. They reveal details of crimes committed by the nine priests who were accused of abuse, including Robert Van Handel, a former Franciscan priest and choir director at St. Anthony’s, a prestigious Franciscan boarding school in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Among the documents are notes from the men’s therapists, letters from parents of alleged victims, and reports by the Board of Inquiry.

A majority of the files is now available online. All documents outline the abuse of 25 alleged victims. Van Handel is the only clergyman of those mentioned who has been criminally convicted.

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ITALIA
Il Secolo XIX

Genova – Un esposto di trentatre pagine che chiama in causa l’arcivescovo di Genova, Angelo Bagnasco, e i suoi due predecessori, Tarcisio Bertone e Dionigi Tettamanzi. Lo ha presentato in Procura Francesco Zanardi, portavoce della rete “L’abuso”, sul caso di don Riccardo Seppia, l’ex parroco di Sestri Ponente arrestato e condannato a nove anni e mezzo per violenza sessuale su minore, tentata induzione alla prostituzione minorile e offerte di droga. Zanardi chiede alla Procura di verificare se i tre arcivescovi fossero a conoscenza dei comportamenti del parroco e, nel caso, perché non abbiano fatto nulla per evitarli.

«Anche se nelle linee guida sugli abusi sessuali dei preti sui minori la Conferenza episcopale italiana ha stabilito che per i vescovi non ci sarà obbligo di denuncia in quanto non sono pubblici ufficiali – dice Zanardi – deve pur valere l’articolo 40 del codice penale dove si dice che non impedire un reato di cui si è a conoscenza equivale a cagionarlo».

[translation]

Case of Seppia, Zanardi denounces three bishops

Genoa- A letter of 33 pages accuses the archbishop of Genova, Angelo Bagnasco, and his two predecessors, Tarcisio Bertone and Dionigi Tettamanzi. It was presented to the office of the Prosecutor by Francesco Zanardi, spokesperson of the network L’abuso”, in connection to the case of don Riccardo Seppia, the former parish priest of Sestri Ponenete, who was arrested and sentenced to nine years and six months for sexual violence on minor, attempted prostitution of minors and multiple offers of drugs. Zanardi asks the Prosecutor to investigate whether the three archbishops knew about the behavior of the priest, and if sdo, why they did not do anything to avoid this behavior.

“Even if the “guidelines on sexual abuse of minors by clergy” of the Italian Conference of Bishops has stated that there will be no obligation to denounce, because bishops are not public officials, ” says Zanardi, “the article 40 of the Criminal Law should still be applied, which states that a person who has knowledge of a crime, but does nothing to stop it, is equally responsible of causing it.”

According to Zanardi, who has been fighting for years, trying to expose sexual abuse by clergy in the Savona Diocese, it is legitimate to suppose that the bishops of Genova were fully aware of the perversities of Riccardo Seppia, through the notes in the personnel file of the priest”. In our letter we ask the the Prosecutor to investigate the visit of cardinal Bagnasco paid to Riccardo Seppia, when he was in jail. “Why did he obtain permission to visit him when the judge had forbidden all visits?”

Judge Roberta Bossi, in the meantime, has turned down the request of Paola Bonanni, the lawyer of the ex-priest, to have the priest serve his sentence in a therapeutic community, because the priest is ill and needs to be taken care of. Don Seppia will remain hereto in the “secure” area of the prison of Sanremo, where sexual delinquents are held.

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UNITED STATES
Disaffected and it Feels So Good

“No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God.” – George H. W. Bush, 41st U.S. President.

Sorry atheist scum the continued and rampant exploitation and abuse of children stems not from catholic priests but from atheism. Even though, Philadelphia prosecutors have brought a case against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to determine how the Church dealt with abusive predatory priests.

Monsignor William Lynn is the first U.S. church official ever charged over his handling of abuse complaints. Prosecutors also allege the Church kept kept secret files dating back to 1948 showing a long-standing conspiracy to cast doubt in the minds of sex abuse victims and protect priests.

How dare the Government infringe upon the rights of the religious! Hey Obama, We have a thing called the 1st Amendment here!

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VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports

[with video]

May 24, 2012. (Romereports.com) (-ONLY VIDEO-) The president of the Vatican’s Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, reportedly resigned on Thursday, before the IOR board (Institute for Works of Religion) issued a no confidence vote against him. The Vatican released a statement on the matter, which states that the now former president, “failed to meet some highly important functions.”

At this point, the Vatican is not commenting on any specifics, but it did highlight what type of president it will look for in the near future.

“The council is looking for an excellent new president to help the Institute promote effective and comprehensive relations between the Institute and the financial community, based on mutual respect for internationally accepted banking standards.”

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, president of the Vatican bank, was fired May 24 by the bank’s board of directors, who censured him for neglecting his duties amid worsening management problems.

The board of the bank, formally known as the Institute for the Works of Religion, issued an unusually blunt statement through the Vatican Press Office, noting that members had repeatedly expressed concern to Gotti Tedeschi about the bank’s “governance,” but that the “situation has deteriorated further.”

The statement said that the board voted to censure Gotti Tedeschi “for not having carried out various functions of primary importance to his office,” but did not specify the functions in question.

Pope Benedict XVI named Gotti Tedeschi, an Italian banker and professor of financial ethics at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, as president of the bank in 2009. The appointment was seen at the time as a move toward greater transparency in the bank’s operations.

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VATICAN CITY
Bloomberg Business Week

By Flavia Krause-Jackson on May 24, 2012

The Vatican bank, whose reputation took a blow last year over an investigation into money laundering, has fired Chairman Ettore Gotti Tedeschi after a tenure stained by a financial scandal.

In a vote of no-confidence, the board of directors unanimously agreed to remove Tedeschi, a former Banco Santander SA (SAN) banker who took the job in 2009, from his post for failing “to carry out various duties of primary importance,” according to a statement by Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi.

The bank, which is formally called the Institute for the Works of Religion, said it’s now hunting for a replacement who can “restore” relations with the financial community. Set up in 1942 by Pope Pius XII to manage the Vatican’s finances, the bank, known by its Italian initials as the IOR, reports directly to the pope.

After barely a year in office, Tedeschi, who also teaches ethics in finance at Milan’s Catholic University, was taken by surprise when Italian prosecutors in 2010 seized 23 million euros ($29 million) from a Rome bank account registered to the IOR amid suspicions of money-laundering violations.

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SCHWEIZ
kath.ch

In der Schweizer Kirche kommt die Bewältigung des Missbrauchskandals nur schleppend voran. Es gibt wenige unabhängige Opfer-Stellen. Ungeklärt ist zudem die Frage der Entschädigungen.

Von Michael Meier

Monate, nachdem in Deutschland das Ausmass des Kindsmissbrauchs durch Kleriker öffentlich gemacht wurde, legte im Juni 2010 das Fachgremium Sexuelle Übergriffe in der Seelsorge der Schweizer Bischofskonferenz eine Statistik zu den Missbrauchsfällen in der hiesigen Kirche vor: Seit 1950 war es zu 150 Missbrauchsfällen gekommen. Die Bischöfe bedauerten die grosse Schuld, die in der Kirche und in Diözesen bekannt geworden sei. Doch was ist in den zwei letzten Jahren geschehen? Nicht viel. Joseph Bonnemain, Sekretär des Fachgremiums, sagt, man habe auf Verlangen der Glaubenskongregation die eigenen Richtlinien von 2002 nochmals revidiert und die Vorgaben des Apostolischen Stuhls rezipiert. Zum Beispiel, dass die Verjährung von Übergriffen gegenüber Minderjährigen nicht mehr zehn, sondern 20 Jahre nach Erreichen des Erwachsenenalters betragen soll. Laut Bonnemain sind derzeit nicht viele neue Fälle zu verzeichnen, es sei ruhiger geworden. Aber es gebe noch viel zu tun, vor allem in der Prävention. In den Priesterseminaren, aber auch in der Weiter- und Fortbildung der Seelsorgenden müsse die Sensibilität weiter wachsen. Bonnemain wünscht sich, dass die Medien das Thema wachhalten.

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VATIKAN
Spiegel

Vor fast 30 Jahren verschwand Emanuela Orlandi spurlos aus dem Vatikan. Jetzt berichtet der Chef-Exorzist der katholischen Kirche, die junge Frau sei von Gendarmen der Vatikan-Polizei für Sexpartys vermittelt und später ermordet worden.

Hamburg – “Es ist ein Verbrechen mit sexuellem Hintergrund”, da ist sich Gabriele Amorth sicher. Als “globales Oberhaupt der Exorzisten” in der katholischen Kirche genießt der greise Priester das Vertrauen von Papst Benedikt XVI. und rühmt sich, mindestens 70.000 erfolgreiche Teufelsaustreibungen vorgenommen zu haben. Der italienischen Tageszeitung “La Stampa” erzählte er seine Version des rätselhaften Verschwindens der damals 15-jährigen Emanuela Orlandi.

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ROM
Spiegel (Deutschland)

Keine drei Jahre hat er es an der Spitze der Vatikanbank IOR ausgehalten: Nach einem Misstrauensvotum ist Ettore Gotti Tedeschi nun als Präsident abgelöst worden. Gegen ihn wird wegen Geldwäsche ermittelt. Von seinem Nachfolger hat der Heilige Stuhl schon genaue Vorstellungen.

Rom – Im September 2009 war Ettore Gotti Tedeschi angetreten, um die Vatikanbank IOR in das globale Zeitalter zu führen. Papst Benedikt XVI. hatte den langjährigen Italien-Chef der spanischen Banco Santander an die Spitze der IOR berufen, um Klarheit in die Geschäfte bringen – doch Tedeschi schaffte offenbar das Gegenteil.

Schon seit November 2010 steht der 67-Jährige gemeinsam mit einem weiteren Top-Manager unter dem Verdacht der Geldwäsche. Den Männern wird vorgeworfen, gegen die in Italien gültigen Anti-Geldwäsche-Standards verstoßen zu haben.

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IRELAND
Catholic News Service

By Michael Kelly
Catholic News Service

DUBLIN (CNS) — A new analysis of allegations of abuse made against 98 priests over a 70-year period shows that the alleged abuse peaked in the 1980s.

Fresh data released by the Dublin Archdiocese May 24 showed that 34 percent of complainants alleged their abuse happened in the 1980s. Just 1 percent of claims relate to alleged abuse in the period from 2000 to 2010.

The update also shows that the cost, so far, to the archdiocese for settlement of claims regarding child sexual abuse by priests is currently stands at $19 million, approximately $13 million of which is compensation and the remainder legal costs paid for both sides.

The latest data is the first time that the archdiocese has provided a detailed breakdown on when reported abuse is alleged to have taken place. It shows that of the 98 priests accused of abuse, approximately 2 percent of these priests are alleged to have abuse in the 1940s, 4 percent in the 1950s, 23 percent in the 1960s, 27 percent in the 1970s, 34 percent in the 1980s, 9 percent in the 1990s and 1 percent in the 2000s.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The ten worst-known clerical abusers in the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin are alleged to have abused an average of 36 children each, according to its Annual Child Protection Update.

Five of them have been convicted in the courts. Three of these – along with two who have no convictions – are being supervised by the diocese. Two of the ten have died.

The allegations date back as far as the 1940s.

The Annual Child Protection Update from the Archdiocese of Dublin also states that half the allegations against a total of 98 of its priests relate to abuse alleged to have occurred in the 1960s and 70s, while one in three relate to the 1980s.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — With a long-standing campaign to press its concerns about infringements on religious liberty by governments and the courts, the U.S. bishops will devote a significant portion of their spring meeting June 13-15 in Atlanta to the issue.

The bishops also will receive a 10-year progress report by the National Review Board on the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” and hear recommendations from the review board stemming from the study “The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010.”

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

Allegations of child sexual abuse were reported this past year against four priests of the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin who were not previously the subject of complaints, it has emerged.

A suspicion of child sexual abuse was raised against one priest of the archdiocese who was not previously the subject of complaints.

There have been, to date, 199 civil actions taken against 46 priests of the archdiocese. Of these 135 have been concluded and 64 are ongoing. Costs, so far, to the archdiocese in the settlement of claims concerning clerical child sexual abuse is currently €15.2 million (€10.3 m in settlements and €4.9 m in legal costs for both sides).

Ten priests or former priests of the archdiocese have been convicted in the criminal courts.

The total number of priests of the archdiocese against whom allegations of child sexual abuse have been recorded is now 98. This relates to a period of over 70 years during which approximately 1,350 priests served in Dublin.

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FLORIDA
13 News

By Kelli Cook and Amanda Evans, Team Coverage

KISSIMMEE —
A teenage boy said he was inappropriately touched by his pastor, a man he trusted like his father.

Now, investigators in Osceola County said there may be more young victims who were lured into sexual acts with Angel Perez, the pastor of Templo Pentecostal, in Kissimmee.

According to a statement the victim gave police during the investigation, the 16-year-old said his mother did not want him to report the abuse.

He said his mother told him that she would go to jail and his younger siblings would be taken away by the Department of Children and Families if he told anyone.

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UNITED STATES
Joyful Heart Foundation

Peter Pollard

The commencement speaker at my niece’s graduation this past weekend startled some in the audience when he noted that having to overcome adversity is a normal part of a achieving a fulfilling life.

I was reminded of my own rocky road to a college education and how critical it was for me to address my history of childhood sexual abuse before I could confidently pursue that or any other dream. As he spoke, I found myself thinking about the chasm between the poles of feelings of isolation and feelings of connection, of powerlessness and competence, failure and success, of shame and of pride and the process of healing that made it possible for me to move from one to the other.

I was just 18 when I dropped out of college in 1969. The world that year offered lots of legitimate reasons for challenging authority and for dismissing traditional concepts of success. My beliefs then certainly weren’t hollow or invalid. But the energy with which I immersed myself in my rebel identity served a much more personal purpose than simply changing the world.

What I know now with certainty (and didn’t recognize even slightly then) is that all my thinking, all my attitudes, all my decisions in those early years of adulthood were strongly influenced by my reaction to the sexual abuse I’d experienced at the hands of a trusted mentor, just a few years earlier.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Brighton and Hove News

A priest who worked in Brighton and Hove has appeared in court charged with sexually abusing two boys more than 20 years ago.

Father Wilkie Denford, 77, of Broad Reach Mews, Shoreham, answered bail at Mid Sussex Magistrates’ Court in Haywards Heath.

He appeared alongside church organist, Michael Mytton, 68, of South Road, East Chiltington, near Ditchling, who was charged with aiding and abetting Denford on one occasion in or near Cuckfield.

The pair were remanded on bail until Tuesday 3 July.

The Church of England minister is accused of indecently assaulting a boy under 16 on three occasions between June 1987 and January 1990.

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UNITED STATES
Salon

Tom Frier

A house doesn’t have to fall on my head to tell me a battle royal is brewing within the Catholic Church over the conservative hierarchy’s heavy-handed efforts to clamp down on dissenting Catholic voices. Not when a prominent American nun comes “this close” to calling the present Church leadership a bunch of brown-frocked fascists. Or when a parish priest I know gives the sister a thumbs up and pastes her angry, anguished outcry to his Facebook page.

And now, according to the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne, a group of progressive-leaning bishops who’ve so far held their tongues are starting to speak out against their reactionary colleagues who seem determined to yank the Church far to the right and make Catholicism little more than an auxiliary of the Republican Party in its campaign against President Obama.

Lawsuits brought this week by 43 Catholic organizations and 13 dioceses seeking to overturn the Obama administration’s decision to mandate insurance coverage for contraception for employees at Catholic-run schools and hospitals were seen as provocative and premature by the vast majority of the nation’s 195 diocese that did not want to go to court, according to Dionne.

The bishops in these dioceses, says Dionne, “are upset that the lawsuits were brought without a broader discussion among the entire membership of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops,” many of whom object that the leadership is “aligning the institutional Church too closely with the political right.”

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ROME
RKnieuws (Nederland)

ROME (RKnieuws.net) – De Italiaanse bisschoppenconferentie heeft dinsdag tijdens haar algemene vergadering haar richtlijnen tegen pedofilie gepubliceerd. De bescherming van de minderjarigen en de zorg voor de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik staan daarbij centraal.

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IRELAND
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin

The Child Safeguarding and Protection Service (CSPS) of the Archdiocese of Dublin has published its annual Child Protection Update – giving statistical information on child sexual abuse by priests in the Dublin Diocese.

Speaking at a briefing on the CSPS report, Director of the Service Andrew Fagan said the Diocese provided regular updates on its work and made them publically available. He said this exercise is vital in keeping the public informed and reassured of the ongoing efforts to maintain high standards in child safeguarding.

New information, compiled following an extensive internal review of the work of the service was made available which details the extent of abuse carried out by 10 serial abusers. The figures also show a sharp decline in the level of incidents of abuse recorded since the 1980’s.

Mr. Fagan said that despite years of reports, guidelines and training both inside and outside the Church, many people still had a skewed perception of what Safeguarding children in the Catholic Church involves. “There are a number of key messages, which it is important for people to understand,” said Mr. Fagan, “In Dublin, child safeguarding operates to a high standard and Dublin parishes are now safer places for children. While the majority of allegations of abuse reported to us now, relate to sexual abuse which may have occurred many years ago, it is still crucial to be vigilant and to work to ensure standards are maintained,” said Mr. Fagan.

Andrew Fagan added that the Archdiocese of Dublin is one of just a small number of organisations in Ireland, North and South, which supervises men who are deemed a risk to children. The service, while not without its limitations, aims to minimise the risk of these men offending again and is more extensive than services currently provided by the State.

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IRELAND
The Journal

ROUGHLY ONE IN every 14 priests serving in Dublin over the last 70 years has been the subject of child abuse allegations, according to figures released by the archdiocese.

And fresh allegations continue to arise. In the last year accusations have been made against four priests who were not previously the subject of allegations, with suspicions raised over a fifth.

Ninety-eight priests have been accused of sexually abusing children since the 1940s. During this time around 1,350 priests have served in the diocese – meaning that seven per cent of the total, or just over one in 14, have had child abuse allegations made against them.

The figures are contained in the annual Child Protection Update released by the Archdiocese of Dublin today. It shows a sharp decline in abuse allegations since the 1980s, when they peaked after rising through the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s.

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VATICAN CITY
The Sacramento Bee

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

Published: Thursday, May. 24, 2012

VATICAN CITY — The president of the Vatican bank was effectively ousted Thursday after receiving a unanimous vote of no-confidence from bank overseers for having leaked documents and failed to do his job at a critical time in the Holy See’s efforts to show transparency in its finances, the Vatican and officials said.

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi has been a polarizing figure in the Vatican ever since he was named president of the bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, in 2009. He is being investigated on suspicion of money laundering by Italian magistrates, but the investigation isn’t believed to have factored into the decision since the Vatican considers the investigation to be motivated by outside political interests.

In a statement Thursday, the Holy See said the vote was taken because of Tedeschi’s failure to fulfill the “primary functions of his office.” He himself has told prosecutors that he barely paid attention to the bank’s works, showing up only two days a week while tending to his primary position as head of Spain’s Banco Santander’s Italian unit.

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IRELAND
Kilkenny People

Published on Wednesday 23 May 2012

More than ten million euro in compensation has been paid out to victims of paedophile priests in the Dublin area.

Allegations of child abuse have been made against almost 100 priests in the archdiocese over the last 70 years, with more than a third from the 1980s. Complaints were lodged against five clergy who had never been subject to previous allegations in the last 12 months, according to Dublin’s church watchdog.

Andrew Fagan, director of services with the Child Safeguarding and Protection Service in Dublin, said there were ongoing efforts to maintain high standards in child safety.

“In Dublin, child safeguarding operates to a high standard and Dublin parishes are now safer places for children,” he said. “While the majority of allegations of abuse reported to us now, relate to sexual abuse which may have occurred many years ago, it is still crucial to be vigilant and to work to ensure standards are maintained.”

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Staff Reporter

May 24, 2012

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the president of the Institute for Works of Religion , commonly known as the Vatican Bank, has been forced to resign after the board of directors issued a no-confidence vote.

A source in the bank did not provide the reasons behind the dismissal, according to Reuters.

Father Federico Lombardi, a spokesman for the Vatican, said the Holy See, will release statement about the bank soon.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

VATICAN CITY | Thu May 24, 2012

May 24 (Reuters) – Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the Italian president of the Vatican bank, has been ousted by the banks board of directors after a no-confidence vote, a senior Vatican source told Reuters on Thursday.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, gave no details of the reasons for the no-confidence vote in Gotti Tedeschi.

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ROME
Friesch Dagblad (Nederland)

Rome | Het hoofd van de Legionairs van Christus heeft gisteren erkend dat hij al verscheidene jaren wist dat de beroemdste priester van zijn congregatie in strijd met het celibaat een kind had verwekt. De man, Thomas Williams, kon blijven doceren. Ook kon de hij op de Amerikaanse televisie uitleg blijven geven over de leer van de kerk. Alvaro Corcuera zegt dat hij de Williams had gevraagd geleidelijk zijn publieke functies op te geven, maar erkent dat hij te weinig daadkracht heeft getoond. De Legionairs leiden katholieke scholen en liefdadigheidsorganisaties in 22 landen.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Whispers in the Loggia

Not long after Msgr William Lynn became the first US church official to be charged with facilitating a cover-up of abuse cases, word swirled among his Philadelphia confreres that “If Bill goes down, he’s taking everyone with him.”

Since beginning trial in late March, the longtime Secretary for Clergy of the roiled Northeastern archdiocese has mostly sat expressionless, slumped in his chair at the defense table as a parade of witnesses and reams of Chancery files gave detailed accounts of “powder keg” priests, gut-wrenching romps by serial predators, and at least one cleric whose perceived “disobedience” was dealt with more swiftly and severely by his superiors than seemingly any had been over reports of misconduct with minors.

Today, however, it was Lynn’s turn to talk. And while most of the nine-week proceeding has tended to draw a daily crowd numbering little more than a dozen spectators, this time Room 304 of the Philadelphia Criminal Justice Center was full, as TV camera-crews congregated in the lobby downstairs, as they only do when major developments arise.

Even for his attorneys’ early assurance that the monsignor — who served as head of clergy personnel from 1992-2004 — “has a story to tell,” whether Lynn would take the stand has loomed as a key uncertainty in the landmark case. Yet while a “no exceptions” ban on electronic devices in the courtroom has made real-time reporting from the proceedings essentially nonexistent, word hit the street within minutes of this morning’s indication inside that the lead defendant was about to testify.

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