ABUSE TRACKER

NEW YORK
NY1

[with video]

An advocacy group for survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy once again called on Cardinal Timothy Dolan to explain reports that he authorized payments to priests accused of sexual abuse in exchange for them leaving the church.

Two members of the group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) protested outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Tuesday. They say Dolan concealed the payments from the public while he was the Archbishop of Milwaukee.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW JERSEY
WHTC

By Barbara Goldberg

MORRISTOWN, New Jersey (Reuters) – Accusations of child sex abuse at New Jersey’s elite Delbarton School widened on Tuesday as two men joined a lawsuit claiming molestation by monks at the Roman Catholic boys academy in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Just two days after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spoke at his son’s graduation from Delbarton, Steve Badt, 44, and a second unidentified man joined the suit alleging sexual abuse by robe-clad monks at the picturesque Morristown school.

The lawsuit was first filed in March by Tom Crane and Bill Crane Jr., now in their 40s, the twin sons of a former teacher and administrator at Delbarton, run by the Roman Catholic Benedictine monks of St. Mary’s Abbey.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW JERSEY
NorthJersey.com

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MORRISTOWN — Two former students at a prominent New Jersey Catholic school added their names Tuesday to a lawsuit that claims they and two others suffered repeated sexual abuse at the hands of clerics in the 1970s and ’80s.

Steve Badt, who runs a soup kitchen in Washington, D.C., said at a news conference Tuesday that he carried memories of the abuse for decades but was spurred to action by news of a lawsuit brought by brothers Bill and Tom Crane in March. The lawsuit names Delbarton, a private college prep school for boys in grades seven through 12, and St. Mary’s Abbey, which runs the school.

Joining the Cranes and Badt in the amended complaint was an unidentified fourth plaintiff who said he suffered abuse at the school during the 1980s. The Associated Press normally doesn’t identify people who say they are sexual abuse victims, but Badt wanted his name public.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
NBC San Diego

By Diana Guevara and R. Stickney
Tuesday, Jun 5, 2012

A Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting a woman earlier this year has been reinstated, at the same San Diego parish.

Father Jose Alexis Davila was quietly reinstated a few weeks ago after another priest left the parish.

Davila, 53, was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault six months ago. He had been preaching at St. Jude’s Church in Southcrest for just two months before his arrest.

He later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery for allegedly groping a woman at his home.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
WWNO

By Edward Schumacher-Matos

A Web version of a recent report by Barbara Bradley Hagerty about the Philadelphia sex abuse trial of a Catholic monsignor and a priest prompted the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights to accuse NPR of taking a “bigoted swipe” against priests.

The league took offense over a phrase in Hagerty’s online report—not included in her on-air version—in which she said of the priest, James Brennan, that he was “accused of trying to rape a minor, which is not that unusual.”

Hagerty contacted me even before the league’s statement and a number of other listener complaints came pouring in to me. She said that the offending phrase of “which is not that unusual” was “inartfully written” and wished she could take it back. It comes across as saying that attempted rape of minors by priests is not unusual, when what she meant was that it was the trials of priests for alleged sexual abuse that are not so unusual, she told me.

Hagerty said that she was trying to draw a distinction between the trial of the priest for attempted rape and the trial of the monsignor, William Lynn, for failing to protect children from predator priests while he was a senior official in the Philadelphia archdiocese. This is the first trial of a church official for re-assigning a priest to parish work even after the priest had been accused of child predations.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
10 News

SAN DIEGO — A national victims group wants a local Catholic priest removed from his parish.

Father Jose Alexis Davila has been a parish priest at St. Jude’s in Southcrest for two years. Earlier this year, a 19-year-old woman accused him of fondling her in his home across the street from the church.

“He has pleaded guilty to sexual assaulting a young woman,” said Joelle Casteix, a spokeswoman for group Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. “I believe the charge was unlawfully touching her intimate parts.”

SNAP sent a letter to Diocese of San Diego Bishop Robert Brom after learning Davila is still saying masses at St. Jude’s.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Times Online

Associated Press

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia will likely launch a fundraising campaign to help pay for a major convocation of Roman Catholic families and possible papal visit.

Archbishop Charles Chaput (SHAP’-yoo) said Tuesday that tens of thousands of people are expected when the city hosts the World Meeting of Families in 2015. He didn’t estimate local costs.

His remarks came the same day the archdiocese reported spending more than $11 million on legal fees in the past two years, mostly on priest sexual-abuse cases.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
CathNews

The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne allowed a priest charged with child sex offences to be the ”spiritual director” to another priest accused of child molestation, reports The Age.

The revelation is contained in confidential Catholic Church documents obtained by the paper.

The documents show how senior church leaders continued to shield Father Victor Rubeo from scrutiny after child sex abuse allegations about him were first reported to the archdiocese in 1994.

Rubeo, who did not deny the allegations when questioned by a senior church official, was allowed to continue preaching in Melbourne’s Boronia parish without his parishioners or police being told of his child abuse.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By David O’Reilly
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

With the current clergy sex abuse scandal likely to cost more than $11 million, and because years of deficit spending have depleted its financial reserves, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said the Archdiocese of Philadelphia will seek donations to help pay for the World Day of Families event here in 2015.

Speaking at a Center City news conference a few blocks from where a jury is deliberating child endangerment charges against Monsignor William Lynn, Chaput said he did not know what the international, Vatican-sponsored event might cost, but that “God is giving us an opportunity to have some good news in a difficult time.”

He said he hoped the five-day gathering in Philadelphia, which Pope Benedict XVI announced Sunday, would attract between 60,000 and 80,000 families. That would be far smaller than the triennial World Day of Families that ended Sunday in Milan, which drew about 300,000 on each of its first four days. It ended with an estimated 850,000 people attending Sunday’s open-air Mass celebrated by the pope. .

On Sunday — the same day Benedict announced Philadelphia would be the 2015 host city — parishes across the archdiocese received copies of the archdiocese’s fiscal report. In an accompanying letter, Chaput noted the “extraordinary events of the past 15 months,” and paid particular attention to the devastating Philadelphia grand jury report of February, 2011, that asserted the archdiocese had three dozen priests in active minisitry who had been accused of inappropriate behavior with children.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
pippinghold

By Matt Stoller, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute.

Here’s CBS New York, back in February.

The Catholic Church is closely watching the attention Archbishop Timothy Dolan is receiving this week in Rome, praise and adulation one expert says is exactly what it needs right now….

“Dolan from a media and pop culture point of view is a rock star. He just exudes charisma, sort of charisma on steroids,” National Catholic Reporter’ John Allen said.

Allen calls Dolan the star of the consistory, and Pope Benedict XVI could use some star power on his team.

Here’s what came out today.

Timothy Cardinal Dolan yesterday blasted a report that he authorized payments to pedophile priests — and said no such payments are being made to New York clerics.

Dolan, while serving as Milwaukee archbishop in 2003, agreed to pay multiple accused pedophile priests $20,000 in exchange for their agreeing to leave the priesthood, according to documents cited by The New York Times.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
NewsHounds

The folks at the right wing Media Research Center have their clean white (and very chaste, Christian, and heterosexual) panties in a bunch because the godless librul media had a “blackout” of news about supposedly rampant sex selection abortion and the “unprecedented” and totally awesome lawsuits filed by the Catholic Church against the Obama administration. But in keeping with promoting all the right wing news that’s fit to propagandize and making the MRC happy, Fox News has been obsessing about HHS mandate, the lawsuits, and “genderside.” Despite the claim of the network to be “fair & balanced,” the coverage is squarely on the side of the Catholic bishops whose anger towards Obama rivals the most rabid in the GOP. In the coverage, Cardinal Dolan has received pride of place. But interestingly, there’ve been some other news stories, related to the Catholic Church on which the voices, in the Catholic amen corner of Fox, are silent. Put it this way, if both issues concerned – say – teacher’s unions, the howls would be deafening. Curious, read on. …

In response to the release of source documents by “The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests” (SNAP), who accessed the material, Cardinal Dolan, who is leading the fight against employer paid birth control, reacted in truly Christ like fashion: SNAP has no credibility whatsoever. To respond to charges like that that are groundless and scurrilous in my book is useless and counterproductive.” One assumes that Megyn Kelly pal, Catholic League head Bill Donohue will continue to defend Dolan against those nasty boys in SNAP whom he has described as a “phony victims group” and a “pitiful bunch of malcontents.” Dolan has made his appreciation, for Dolan’s support against SNAP, known in a letter of thanksgiving. Meanwhile Fox is focused on those awesome lawsuits, filed by the bishops, against the Obama administration. Go figure.

Guess not all Catholic News is created equal.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

Jun. 05, 2012
By Brian Roewe

ANALYSIS

With the case now in its hands, the jury continues to deliberate the existence of a conspiracy to cover up priest sex abuse in the Philadelphia archdiocese.

On Tuesday, the seven women and five men of the jury began their third day (and second full day) of sifting through evidence and weighing the testimony they heard over the course of 11 weeks inside a Philadelphia Common Pleas courtroom.

Their task? To determine whether Msgr. William J. Lynn, secretary of clergy for the archdiocese from 1992 to 2004, participated in a conspiracy of covering up abuse and endangered the welfare of children by recommending priests with known histories of sexual abuse to assignments that would further place them in contact with children.

Fr. James J. Brennan, 48, is also accused of child endangerment and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy at his apartment in 1996. Brennan originally faced a conspiracy charge at the trial’s beginning, but Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina dismissed the charge after ruling the prosecution failed to prove a conspiracy between him and Lynn.

A decision from the jury on both defendants could come as early as this week

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW JERSEY
Under the Green Wave

Steve Badt said he recently had a conversation with his 8-year-old son about what had happened to him as a teenager.

On Tuesday, standing on the grounds of the Morris County Courthouse, Badt, 44, a former Parsippany resident and Delbarton School graduate, spoke of the sexual abuse that took place at the hands of a monk at the Morris Township Catholic school between 1979 when he was in the seventh grade, and 1985, when he was in the 12th grade.

Badt, and another former Delbarton student who remained unnamed, joined an existing lawsuit against St. Mary’s Abbey, which operates Delbarton. The original suit was filed in March by Phillipsburg attorney Gregory G. Gianforcaro on behalf of twin brothers William Crane Jr., and Thomas Crane, formerly of Randolph.

The lawsuit was amended to include the new allegations and includes complaints from six former Delbarton students, Gianforcaro said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Voice from the Desert

Bob Hoatson

If Catholics wish to live by the axiom, “once a priest, always a priest,” than I guess I am still a priest despite the fact that I was voluntarily laicized in December, 2011. So, I write as a priest, ex-priest, inactive priest, renegade priest, or gadfly priest. I have been called all of these and more. The verbiage is irrelevant. What is relevant is that pedophile priests are not laicized as quickly as I was and most of them will always be priests despite their dastardly deeds which would have gotten them kicked out of most organizations by now.

The archbishop of my diocese wrote to me when I first requested laicization and told me he would highly recommend that my petition to the Vatican be approved. It was – in record time. His “glee” at my request was centered on the fact that I had been working with victims since 1981 when I reported sexual abuse of students by a priest at a large Catholic high school in Boston. I also have uncovered numerous cases of pedophilia in my home archdiocese and beyond. I asked to be freed to do this work full-time. The archbishop refused.

I told him I had to respond to the Holy Spirit and the law of the Church, which allows and encourages the faithful to establish charitable works and organizations. Canon law was written to protect bishops and whatever they determine to be the “law” for the rest of the faithful. Currently, God’s law is subservient to whatever law the bishops wish to utilize.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

If one were to believe the mainstream media, the Catholic Church in Ireland is reeling from a burgeoning and active network of pedophile priests relentlessly preying on innocent children.

However, the recent release of the annual report from the Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC, Ireland) tells a radically different story.

While even a single abuse allegation is upsetting, from April 1, 2011, to March 31, 2012, there were only six accusations alleging abuse by Catholic priests within the past dozen years, since 2000. This represents one allegation every other year in all of Ireland.

In other words, as in the United States, the abuse of children by Catholic priests in Ireland is a tragic era from years past.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

By Maryclaire Dale

Tuesday, Jun 5, 2012

Jurors have finished a third day of deliberations without reaching a verdict in a groundbreaking priest-abuse trial in Philadelphia.

Msgr. William Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged with child endangerment and conspiracy for allegedly keeping predator-priests in ministry.

Lynn is the former secretary for clergy at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The Rev. James Brennan, a co-defendant, is charged with molesting a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

Meanwhile, the archdiocese says it has spent $11.6 million on legal fees stemming from priest-abuse cases since 2011.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

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

Jurors in the landmark clergy sex abuse trial broke for the day Tuesday after asking more evidence and legal guidance Tuesday as they deliberated charges against two Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests.

Midway through their second full day of deliberations, the panel of seven men and five women sent questions on the scope of child endangerment charges against Msgr. William J. Lynn and Rev. James J. Brennan.

They also requested the evidence file on Brennan, who is accused of trying to rape a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

Specifically, the jurors asked Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina if they needed to conclude that Brennan put other minors at risk besides his alleged victim to convict him of child endangerment. They did, the judge told them after consulting with the lawyers.

The question pointed to what has long been a contentious and tangled issue in cases involving crimes against children: the statute of limitations.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PARAGUAY
Daily Reporter

PEDRO SERVIN Associated Press
First Posted: June 05, 2012

ASUNCION, Paraguay — The president of Paraguay has recognized a second love-child. This time it’s a 10-year-old boy, born to a nurse in the northern state where Fernando Lugo served as a Catholic bishop before renouncing the priesthood and turning to politics.

Lugo’s lawyer, Marcos Farina, says the president has told him to file the paperwork needed to change the boy’s last name to Lugo. His mother is Narcisa de la Cruz de Zarate, the fourth woman to have filed a paternity suit against the 61-year-old former cleric.

For those keeping score, Lugo has now acknowledged fathering two of the four children named in paternity suits against him.

He also accepted Guillermo Armindo, the child of Viviana Carrillo, after the woman accused him in 2009 of “irresponsible paternity.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

STATEN ISLAND (NY)
Staten Island Advance

By Maura Grunlund

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A taboo topic which is very much in the news these days will be the focus of a free child abuse prevention program on June 28 at Temple Emanu-El in Port Richmond.

While the event is open to all, the flier specifically invites clergy, community leaders, teachers, parents and concerned adults.

Rabbi Gerald Sussman said he is hosting the event because he sees it as an opportunity to provide an important service to the entire community of Staten Island. He noted that “no one is immune” from the such incidents which occur in every religious, ethnic and economic group.

“I think it’s important to have some training because it is something which is sadly a lot more prevalent than people would like to think,” Rabbi Sussman said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
San Antonio Express-News

MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

Updated 12:51 p.m., Tuesday, June 5, 2012

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia reports that it spent $11.6 million on legal fees in the past two years, most of it on priest sexual-abuse cases.

The figure, released Tuesday, includes $10 million in the first nine months of the current fiscal year which ends June 30, but not most of the 11-week criminal trial for Monsignor William Lynn.

Lynn has four lawyers defending him on charges he helped cover up child sexual assaults as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004. The archdiocese is paying his legal fees.

The archdiocese says it spent another $1.6 million on legal fees in the prior fiscal year.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
BishopAccountability.org

Includes detailed assignment record, sources, summary of assignments, documents, and notes. …

Documents

The following links offer various ways to view the documents relating to Becker’s career and the allegations against him. Some of these documents have been published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and posted by attorney Jeff Anderson on his website. BishopAccountability.org has obtained from Anderson the full Becker file as obtained in discovery.

Documents Relating to Becker’s Laicization and Archdiocesan Financial Assistance:

– Letter from Archbishop Dolan to Cardinal Ratzinger, promising assistance to Becker from a “special fund” (5/27/03)

– See also a group of letters between Dolan and the Vatican regarding Becker’s laicization.

– Status Report by Deacon Zimprich on Meeting with Becker, discussing laicization and Becker’s recent $10K “settlement” with the Milwaukee archdiocese (2/2/05)

– Status Report by Deacon Zimprich after Phone Call with Becker, discussing the $10K payment to Becker, Dolan’s refusal to pay for Becker’s health insurance from fear of liability, and Becker’s threat to tell “all he knows” (2/8/05)

Documents Detail Church Coverup: Newly Released Records from a California Lawsuit Settlement Show the Extent of the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese’s Efforts to Conceal Priest’s Sex Abuse, by Marie Rhode and Mary Zahn, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 31, 2008 [with images of documents and links to them]

– Becker Case: Franklyn Becker’s Service As a Priest, Highlighting Important Abuse and Coverup-Related Events, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 1, 2008 [with links to documents]

– Archdiocese of Milwaukee Records Regarding Father Franklyn Becker, JS Online, January 31, 2008 [with links to documents]

– Dolan-Cardinal Ratzinger Letters, posted by Jeff Anderson & Associates, March 1, 2011

– Archdiocese Vicar Log, posted by Jeff Anderson & Associates, March 1, 2011

– Background Becker Documents 1970-1997, posted by Jeff Anderson & Associates, March 1, 2011

– Background Becker Documents 2001-2005, posted by Jeff Anderson & Associates, March 1, 2011

– Complete Becker File: Part 1 of 8, posted by BishopAccountability.org, March 2, 2011

– Complete Becker File: Part 2 of 8, posted by BishopAccountability.org, March 2, 2011

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[documents – BishopAccountability.org]

Posted by Mary Caplan on June 05, 2012

We’re outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral. in New York City today for three reasons. First, to expose – again – deceit by Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Second, to urge Dolan – again – to stop attacking and deceiving and start answering and apologizing. And third, to urge other Catholic figures to prod Dolan to be forthcoming about every single payout and “special fund” he made to or set up for child molesting clerics.

This isn’t about admitted serial predator priests getting health care from Cardinal Dolan. It’s about Catholics and citizens getting openness and honesty from Cardinal Dolan. Dolan and other church officials admit they’ve followed through on their pledges to pedophile priests. They have broken, however, their often-repeated promises of “transparency” to the rest of us.

Two newly-disclosed internal church memos show that a secret $10,000 payment in 2005 from then-Milwaukee Archbishop Dolan to a pedophile priest was not for health insurance, as Dolan claimed. And in a little-noticed 2003 letter from Dolan to then-Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, Dolan promised that he would “set up” a “special fund” for the admitted predator.

The new memos – disclosed yesterday by BishopAccountability.org – deal with Franklyn Becker, a priest who reportedly molested children in both Wisconsin and California and who admitted at least some of his crimes.

The two single-spaced typed documents show that
— a $10,000 payment to Becker was never once linked to health insurance,
— another Milwaukee church official was working to get him health insurance through Catholic Charities, and
— to avoid legal liability, the archdiocese would NOT pay for Becker’s health insurance.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on June 5, 2012

File this under: “What the hell are they thinking?”

Diocese of San Diego priest Fr. Jose Alexis Davila, who in April pled guilty to to battery and “engaging in an unlawful touching of an intimate part of the victim’s body,” is back at work at his old parish. You know, the one with the state-funded preschool.

If you don’t know the whole story, Davila went to a parishioner’s home on New Year’s Eve (she was a 20-year-old woman) and forced himself on her. We don’t know if more happened. But really, the guilty plea is enough, n’est-ce pas?

Yeah, say San Diego Bishop Robert Brom and his successor Cirillo Flores (who is a licensed civil lawyer), it’s enough to get you your job back! You WIN!

It gets worse: Davila has been put right smack in the same place where parishioners formed a “lynch mob” and went to the victim’s home in an attempt to get her to recant her story. They kicked her mom out of Bible study. They badgered her family.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
The New York Times

By MICHAEL POWELL

Published: June 4, 2012

Charles J. Hynes, having once embraced silence on the question of his vigor in prosecuting sex abuse in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, cannot stop talking now.

In columns, in interviews, and even in an exchange with former Mayor Edward I. Koch, Mr. Hynes, the veteran district attorney in Brooklyn, has insisted that he is one tough prosecutor. He will handcuff and arrest anyone who tries to intimidate an ultra-Orthodox family into silence.

“I will not put victims at risk,” he told The Forward.

If he allows ultra-Orthodox rabbis to act as gatekeepers, determining which child was and was not molested before turning to prosecutors, and if he agrees to keep secret the names of the molesters, who could argue with the results? Since 2009, he says, his office has prosecuted 99 sex abuse cases in the ultra-Orthodox community. (When my colleagues Sharon Otterman and Ray Rivera diced Mr. Hynes’s numbers in a series of articles, they found at least one quarter of his prosecutions had little to do with child sex abuse.)

But let’s forget the numbers.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
New York Magazine

By Joe Coscarelli

Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes has taken a shellacking in the press lately for his handling of sex abuse in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, with critics arguing that he’s going easy on offenders for political reasons, proliferating a culture of cover-ups, and inflating prosecution figures. Hynes has responded by announcing his support for legislation that would require rabbis to report sexual abuse allegations, but that doesn’t erase past mistakes. Today, the New York Times digs one up with a galling story about Hynes attempting to go easy on a kidnapping rabbi.

And as icing on the bad-press cake, one of Hynes’s employees allegedly punched a cop.

The Times reports that in 1994, ultra-Orthodox rabbi Shlomo Helbrans took a 13-year-old boy from his family and tried to brainwash him, only to have Hynes’s office encourage police to drop the case. Michael Powell reports that the NYPD division commander and the boy’s mother “drove down to the district attorney’s office, seeking a meeting. They sat there for hours but never got past reception.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Jun. 05, 2012
By Thomas C. Fox

COLUMN

You can bet that in the eyes of the Vatican, its Monday condemnation of the book Just Love by Mercy Sr. Margaret Farley has nothing to do with other recent and not-so-recent actions taken against U.S. Catholic sisters.

No, the move against Farley, one can hear the officials saying, stems solely from an independent investigation by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith that began about three years ago.

It needs to be seen simply as that, an investigation into one wayward book.

That it comes a mere six weeks after the very same congregation issued a highly critical doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the single most prominent voice for U.S. Catholic sisters, is coincidental.

That the Vatican critique of Farley’s book, which tarnishes her as a Catholic moral teacher, comes a month after the congregation placed LCWR in receivership with the intent to diminish its independent voice is not to be viewed as related in any way.

Or at least, that’s the way I think the Vatican would have it.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Jun. 05, 2012
By Alessandro Speciale, Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY — Over the course of the last six months, Pope Benedict XVI delivered five major speeches to small groups of American bishops who were in Rome for their “ad limina” visits, which are required once every five years.

The “ad limina” visits are the way the pope and and Vatican departments keep tabs on bishops from around the world. They are also an occasion for the pope to address the major issues faced by a local church.

In his speeches, Benedict often echoed bishops’ concern about religious freedom and the challenges confronting the American church. In his last address, on May 22, he warned bishops of the “threat of a season in which our fidelity to the Gospel may cost us dearly.” …

Here’s a recap of what Benedict had to say on hot-button issues in these past months.
•Sexual abuse: “It is my hope that the church’s conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge which affects every level of society” (Nov. 26).

•”Dissent” within the Catholic church: “The seriousness of the challenges which the church in America … is called to confront in the near future cannot be underestimated. The obstacles to Christian faith and practice raised by a secularized culture also affect the lives of believers, leading at times to that ‘quiet attrition’ from the church which you raised with me during my pastoral visit” (Nov. 26).

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Jun. 05, 2012 NCR Today

On Monday night, the Vatican press office dispatched an e-mail alert to journalists with the text of an interview given by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, in the wake of Benedict XVI’s weekend outing to Milan for the church-sponsored World Meeting of Families. The trip was considered a major success for Benedict, culminating in an open-air Mass that drew more than one million people to Milan’s Bresso Park.

The Bertone interview is noteworthy primarily because it’s the first time the Vatican’s “prime minister” has spoken at length about the leaks scandal which has engulfed the church’s central government since January, and which exploded anew in late May with the arrest of the pope’s butler. Bertone’s comments take on special significance given that many analysts believe he is the primary target of the leaks, reflecting dissatisfaction among some Vatican insiders with his leadership.

Aside from insistence that Benedict XVI will not “allow himself to be frightened by attacks, of any sort,” perhaps the most striking element of the interview is Bertone’s comment that the leaking of confidential documents seems “carefully aimed, and sometimes also ferocious, destructive and organized.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

iITALY
adnkronos

Naples, 5 June (AKI) – Police in the southern Italian city of Naples Tuesday searched the home of former Vatican bank chief Ettore Gotti Tedeschi on the orders of prosecutors investigating alleged corruption by executives from Italian aerospace and defence giant Finmeccanica.

Gotti Tedeschi is not himself under formal investigation, according to sources close to the probe.

It was not immediately clear what his connection may be with state-controlled Finmeccanica, which denies the graft accusations being probed by Naples prosecutors.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ITALY
San Francisco Chronicle

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

(06-05) 03:16 PDT ROME, Italy (AP) —

The home of the recently ousted president of the Vatican bank was searched Tuesday as part of a corruption investigation into Italy’s state-controlled aerospace and engineering giant Finmeccanica, prosecutors said.

Prosecutor Francesco Greco told The Associated Press that the search had nothing to do with Ettore Gotti Tedeschi’s role as head of the Vatican bank and that he is not under investigation in the Finmeccanica probe. He declined to provide details of why Gotti Tedeschi’s home was searched.

Prosecutors for months have been investigating allegations that Finmeccanica officials created a slush fund to funnel money to political parties. Finmeccanica’s ex-chairman Pier Francesco Guarguaglini is under investigation for making false invoices and tax fraud, while his wife Marina Grossi, the CEO of Finmeccanica subsidiary Selex, is under investigation for creating false invoices and corruption. Both have denied wrongdoing.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ITALY
CNBC

NAPLES (Reuters) – Homes belonging to Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the former head of the Vatican’s bank, were searched by Italian police in connection with a corruption probe into defense technology group Finmeccanica, Naples prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Gotti Tedeschi was ousted from his position at the head of the bank last month after the board passed a motion of no-confidence, accusing him of neglecting his basic management responsibilities.

Acting Naples chief prosecutor Alessandro Pennasilico said on Tuesday the police search was not related to Gotti Tedeschi’s time at the bank and he has not been placed under investigation.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Age

June 6, 2012

1) Why didn’t the Melbourne archdiocese in 1994 inform parishioners at the Boronia parish that their priest Father Victor Rubeo had been accused (and not denied) of child sex abuse? Why was he still allowed to lead that parish?

A. Mr Hersbach first made a complaint to the late Monsignor Cudmore, the then Vicar General of the Melbourne Archdiocese, in 1994. At the time, Mr Hersbach was, according to Monsignor Cudmore, adamant that he did not want any steps taken in relation to Rubeo except that he receive counselling. This was arranged.

At a subsequent meeting between Monsignor Cudmore and Rubeo, Rubeo was informed of the allegation and did not deny it. The then Archbishop, Vicar General and Rubeo are now all deceased.

Viewed however by today’s standards, the response was inadequate. Since the introduction of the Melbourne Response in 1996, a priest in Rubeo’s situation would have his faculties to operate as a priest suspended pending investigation. If the allegations were substantiated, he would be permanently removed from ministry.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Age

Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie
June 6, 2012

MELBOURNE’S Catholic archdiocese permitted a priest charged with child sex offences to be the ”spiritual director” to another priest accused of child molestation.

The revelation is contained in confidential Catholic Church documents obtained by The Age that provide an insight into the archdiocese’s handling of child sex abuse cases.

Click here to read a response from a spokesman for the Melbourne Archdiocese.

The documents show how senior church leaders continued to shield Father Victor Rubeo from scrutiny after child sex abuse allegations about him were first reported to the archdiocese in 1994.

Rubeo, who did not deny the allegations when questioned by a senior church official, was allowed to continue preaching in Melbourne’s Boronia parish without his parishioners or police being told of his child abuse.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHICOPEE (MA)
The Republican

By Jeanette DeForge, The Republican

CHICOPEE – The Rev. David Darcy jokes that sometimes he feels like Moses leading his flock from place to place.

The pastor of Holy Name of Jesus Church has been facing one of the most complex church closings in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. A combination of precedent-setting rulings from the Vatican and a deteriorated church that was declared unsafe has left the parish with four churches and the question of where it should settle permanently.

“We are struggling with how to wrap our heads around it,” Darcy said.

During the past decade the Springfield diocese has closed or merged nearly 70 churches in Western Massachusetts. The closings were followed by a few lawsuits and a flurry of appeals to the Vatican filed by parish members protesting the decision’s by the bishop, the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Age

Richard Baker, Nick McKenzie
June 6, 2012

As a child and young man, Tony Hersbach was regularly sexually abused by a Catholic priest. He told no one for more than 20 years, and when he finally revealed all to the church hierarchy, it did nothing. By Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie.

TONY Hersbach was 42 when he told his wife that the man who married them and played grandfather to their children had regularly molested him during his youth. Lu Hersbach’s reaction to this bombshell was disbelief. The priest whom her husband had accused of despicable acts had been a dominant influence in their lives ever since he married them as 19-year-old sweethearts.

Over the next 24 years Father Victor Gabriel Rubeo would dine with them on Sunday nights, accompany them on holidays and attend their children’s birthday parties. He opened their mail and entered their bedroom unannounced.

“The man was so entrenched in our family that when I was told … [it was like] someone really close to you has died. You have this sense of disbelief and I guess I hung on to this sense of disbelief for as long as I could,” Lu Hersbach says.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
WA Today

Tony Hersbach, abused for years by Father Victor Rubeo, tells how the Cathlic church harboured the priest for 15 years after his first conviction and provided Rubeo with a convicted paedophile as his counsellor.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHICAGO (IL)
The Telegraph

By MANYA A. BRACHEAR — Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — Reams of private Vatican correspondence published in a new Italian best-seller reportedly include a plea by Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George, urging the Vatican to halt an award to Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn for abolishing the death penalty.

George appears to play a minor role in the real-life Vatican whodunit that the Italian press has dubbed “Vatileaks.” Last week, the pope’s butler was arrested on suspicions that he leaked private letters, including some addressed to Pope Benedict XVI. Those letters reportedly appear in “Your Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI,” a new book in which Italian writer Gianluigi Nuzzi airs a boatload of Vatican dirty laundry and hints of a real-life conspiracy akin to a Dan Brown novel.

According to Vatican expert John Allen, the book includes what Nuzzi claims is an encrypted 2011 cable from the Apostolic Nuncio in Washington relaying a plea from George to Benedict’s Secretary of State. George asks that the Vatican official step in and block the Rome-based Community of Sant’Egidio from giving an award to Roman Catholic governor Quinn, Allen said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

VATICAN CITY | Tue Jun 5, 2012

(Reuters) – A Vatican prosecutor on Tuesday began interrogating Paolo Gabriele, Pope Benedict’s butler who is being held on charges of stealing papal documents, the Vatican said.

Vatican officials said Gabriele was interrogated in the presence of his two lawyers and another Vatican judicial official known as the “promoter of justice”.

The prosecutor must now decide whether there is enough evidence to order Gabriele, who was arrested on May 23, to stand trial on charges of aggravated theft.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
OpEd News

By
Rev. Dan Vojir

Not to be outdone by the Vatican when it comes to financial scandals, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York continues to battle accusations of corruption when he was Archbishop of Milwaukee. Back in 2008, Dolan was accused of shifting over $55 million from the archdiocese’ cemetary assets to reduce settlements involved in clergy sex abuse cases. This transfer of funds has left the archdiocese bankrupt. Now documents from that bankruptcy and its proceedings have surfaced showing that priests accused of abuse were given money if they agreed to go quietly into that good night, leaving the priesthood voluntarily, and leaving the number of defrocked priests at a minimum. It was clearly a “pay away the lay” situation brought to light, but Dolan is calling the stipends “charity.”

A Splendid Job – Of Doing What?

Since the New York Times Article, Dolan has had to delineate what “charity” was as opposed to “payoffs” but when asked if there were similar acts of “charity” given to former priests in the 400-parish area of Manhatten, the Bronx, Staten Island and seven counties, his response was only “No, thank God. Cardinal Egan did a splendid job — that’s all taken care of.” Unfortunately there are serious gaps in this statement and they are:

1. Didn’t the former priests of New York need the same amount of “charity”?
2. What exactly was the “splendid job”?
3. Exactly what was taken care of?

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 5 June 2012 (VIS) – The Holy Father appointed Fr. Florian Worner of the clergy of Augsburg, Germany, diocesan director for the pastoral care of young people, as auxiliary of the same diocese (area 13,250, population 2,299,092, Catholics 1,360,575, priests 1020, permanent deacons 153, religious 2,125). The bishop-elect was born in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany in 1970 and ordained a priest in 1997. He has served in pastoral care in various parishes and has worked in the “Jugend 2000” youth association. Since 2009 he has also been vicar of the cathedral of Augsburg.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau

Im Bistum Trier stehen 16 Priester unter Missbrauchsverdacht. Kirchenrechtliche Voruntersuchungen sind teilweise abgeschlossen, Sanktionen stehen noch aus. Im schlimmsten Fall droht den Klerikern der Rauswurf.

Trier –

Wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern und Jugendlichen sind im Bistum Trier seit Februar 2010 gegen 16 Priester kirchenrechtliche Voruntersuchungen eingeleitet worden. Dies teilte der Sprecher des Bistums Trier am Montag mit und bestätigte einen Bericht der Zeitung „Trierischer Volksfreund“. Neun dieser Vorverfahren seien vom Bistum bereits abgeschlossen, die anderen sieben liefen noch. Von den 16 Bistumspriestern seien 11 im Ruhestand.
Strafrechtlich seien die mutmaßlichen Taten aus den 1960er bis 1980er Jahren verjährt, sagte der Sprecher. Über eine mögliche kircheninterne Bestrafung sei noch nicht entschieden. „Alle Verfahren laufen noch“, sagte er.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

OSTERREICH/SPANIEN
der Standard

Angesichts der Krise in Spanien drängen die Sozialisten auf eine Aufhebung der Ausnahmen für die Kirche im Steuerrecht

Wien/Madrid – Angesichts der dramatischen Lage an den Finanzmärkten wächst in Spanien der Druck auf die katholische Kirche, einen größeren Beitrag zur Sanierung des Staatshaushaltes zu leisten. Die Tageszeitung El País veröffentlichte eine Umfrage, wonach inzwischen acht von zehn Spaniern verlangen, dass für die Kirche geltende Ausnahmen im Steuerrecht abgeschafft werden. Dieses Ergebnis ist insoweit überraschend, als der Katholizismus und die katholische Kirche in Spanien nach wie vor eine besonders wichtige Rolle spielen.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

OSTERREICH
Atheisten-Info

(Wien, 4.6.12, PUR) – Bei der Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt sind seit März 2010 mehr als 400 Meldungen zu Gewalt gegen Kinder und Jugendliche eingegangen. In diesem Zusammenhang wurden vielfach auch die Namen der Gewaltausübenden genannt. Besonders beschämend ist es, dass sich 35 beschuldigte Priester nach wie vor im Dienst befinden. Einige von ihnen wurden zwar kurzfristig suspendiert, aber nach Abflauen des öffentlichen Interesses schon bald wieder in der Seelsorge eingesetzt. Die Hoffnung, dass seitens der römisch-katholischen Kirche nachhaltige Konsequenzen gezogen wurden, hat sich bis jetzt nicht erfüllt.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

DEUTSCHLAND
PNN

von Benjamin Lassiwe
Berlin – Die Missbrauchsfälle am katholischen Canisius-Kolleg, die Anfang 2010 bekannt wurden, lagen bereits Jahrzehnte zurück. Doch sie erhöhten auch die Aufmerksamkeit auf neuere Fälle von sexuellen Übergriffen auf Schutzbefohlene in kirchlichen und anderen Einrichtungen. Am gestrigen Montag legte das katholische Erzbistum Berlin einen Zwischenbericht in Sachen Missbrauch vor: Demnach laufen derzeit keine staatsanwaltschaftlichen Ermittlungen mehr gegen Priester, Jugendmitarbeiter oder Ordensangehörige in Diensten der Diözese.

Von den 19 Verdachtsfällen sexuellen Missbrauchs, die seit 2002 im Erzbistum Berlin auftraten, seien heute neun Fälle nicht mehr zu klären, da die Beschuldigten etwa bereits verstorben seien. Fünf Fälle seien abgeschlossen worden, in sechs Fällen liefen noch kirchenrechtliche Verfahren. Im Kirchenrecht gelten andere Verjährungsfristen als im Strafrecht, dienstrechtliche Konsequenzen wie etwa Pensionskürzungen sind daher auch Jahrzehnte nach den Taten noch möglich. Über die Konsequenzen, die es in den fünf abgeschlossenen Fällen für die Täter gegeben hat, hält sich das Erzbistum bedeckt. „Das kann ich Ihnen nicht sagen“, erklärte Bistumssprecher Stefan Förner.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

Kristine Ward

It’s an amazing statement that Cardinal Timothy Dolan fired up and lobbed out to reporters after Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York on Sunday before hopping a plane to Ireland.

“SNAP,” declared the Cardinal,” has no credibility whatsoever.”

If Cardinal Dolan had considered what he was saying he’d know the next thing he should say is not another ounce of effort should be put into getting depositions from SNAP’s leaders or getting SNAP records.

No credibility, nothing worth getting. Plenty of Catholic money saved.

In the slap against SNAP, the organization that lifted the veil on Cardinal Dolan’s Milwaukee tactics, New York’s top prelate told reporters on Sunday that the reports of his Milwaukee voluntary laicization incentive payments were “groundless and scurrilous.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
The Western Star

Published on June 5, 2012

CORNER BROOK — The investigation into more allegations of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priest George Ansel Smith is still ongoing.

Smith, 74, has been charged with more than 60 sex-related offences in relation to incidents alleged to have occurred in six communities in western Newfoundland from 1969 to 1989.

The charges against him include gross indecency, indecent assault on a male, sexual assault, unlawfully committing a gross indecency and unlawfully assaulting with intent to commit an indictable offence. The charges are alleged to have happened in Port Saunders, Corner Brook, Stephenville, St. Fintan’s, Cape St. George and Deer Lake.

His past is also being investigated by authorities elsewhere in Atlantic Canada.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on June 04, 2012

Today, New York Cardinal Dolan attacked our group and again refused to address questions about the disturbing contradiction between what he said and what he did about secretly paying predator priests to quietly leave.

To reporters from WNYC, NY1 and the New York Post, Dolan reportedly said “The New York Times and SNAP have no credibility on this issue so it’s not productive to try to address groundless & scurrilous charges by them.”

It’s sad that America’s top Catholic official won’t answer a simple question: how much money did he secretly pay to how many predator priests so they would quietly go away and be around unsuspecting families and co-workers, perhaps to assault more kids.

Bishops often attack the messenger when they’re forced to defend the indefensible. It’s a despicable and desperate tactic.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

The Vatican is completely correct to clarify that Sister Farley’s book stands firmly outside the tradition of the Church

By Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith on Tuesday, 5 June 2012

You may have read that the Vatican has condemned a book by Sister Margaret Farley. The Catholic Herald’s account of the matter is to be found here.

Funnily enough, I read and reviewed the book in question when it first came out, which was back in 2006, and the review was published in the Heythrop Journal of May 2008; academic reviews often come out a year or two after the original book’s publication, though a two-year gap is nothing compared to the six years that it has taken the CDF and Rome to give its verdict.

My review is not online, but I have a hard copy in front of me and am happy to share some highlights.

“In a brief section (pp. 235-236), a mere one and a half pages, she deals with ‘self-pleasuring’, a topic that, usually under a different name, has, historically, led to the spilling of rivers of ink. Farley notes that the judgment of tradition has been overwhelmingly negative; even Kant disapproved very strongly; however now ‘most’ theologians and medical practitioners view the activity as ‘morally neutral’; in other words it all depends on reasons and circumstances.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

HOLYOKE (MA)
The Republican

By Jeanette DeForge, The Republican

HOLYOKE – A preliminary ruling by the Vatican’s top court ordered protesters to leave the Mater Dolorosa Church where they have held a 24-hour vigil for nearly a year and banned the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield from demolishing or selling the church.

The Apostolic Signatura also said it will hear an appeal of the decision by the Vatican’s lower court, the Congregation for the Clergy, which upheld Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell’s decision to close the church. It rejected a request to appeal the order to merge the parish with another.

Protesters called the decision a partial victory and are meeting to decide if they should follow the order to end the vigil. The protest began June 30, the day of the last mass before the church was closed and the parish merged into the new Our Lady of the Cross.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Bilgrimage

Jerry Slevin has sent another outstanding posting commenting on the Philadelphia trial, which is in the process of wrapping up, and what that trial means at a fundamental level for the Catholic church worldwide and for its future. What follows is Jerry’s statement:

PHILLY CRIMINAL TRIAL:

For almost a decade now in Philadelphia, the birthplace of American religious and civil liberties, government prosecutors have been examining closely and carefully the Philadelphia Archdiocese’s medieval-style secret archives. The archives cover almost a half century of “problem priest” personnel, at times including files for almost a quarter of all Philly priests, who served under three Philly Princes of the Catholic Church, Cardinals Rigali, Bevilacqua, and Krol. This long prosecutorial effort has culminated in the just completed landmark multi-month criminal trial of a former top hierarchical official, with more criminal trials and likely many related civil lawsuits to follow. The trial has been well reported by Philadelphia Inquirer journalists in a brief review here and over a three month period in detail here. The pope has just tried to soften the significant adverse publicity from the trial and to preserve his Philly Catholic donor base by announcing a papal visit to Philadelphia in 2015, which already has been poorly received by many outraged Philly Catholics, as reported here.

The Philly trial court heard dozens of witnesses, including sexual abuse survivors, under oath. Prosecutors introduced as evidence hundreds of previously undisclosed documents from the Cardinals’ secret priest personnel archives. The trial revelations ranged from graphic details of nauseating and disgraceful assaults on children by priest predators, who had been previously known to the Cardinals to present serious safety risks for defenseless children, to shameless collusive document-shredding and almost limitless lying by top officials, as the dark side of the Philly clerical child sexual abuse scandal and its hierarchical cover-up was fully and relentlessly exposed.

PHILLY CARDINALS:

Each of the three Philly Cardinals had similar life experiences as they ambitiously climbed the hierarchical ladder. Each had received a prestigious Roman Gregorian University graduate education. Each in varying degrees for many years had been close to the current pope, Benedict XVI, and to his immediate predecessor, John Paul II, as well as to other major Roman curial Cardinals.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
WGME

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI’s deputy denounced the continued leaks of Vatican documents Monday, and said the pope isn’t intimidated by the “fierce” and “organized” attacks they represent.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, made his first public comments about the scandal in an interview with state-run RAI television. Bertone’s leadership has attracted much criticism, and many commentators see the leaks of confidential Vatican documents as an attempt to discredit him and force his resignation.

The scandal represents one of the greatest security breaches at the Vatican, with dozens of letters, memos and other documents from the pope’s desk appearing in a new book “His Holiness,” by Italian investigative journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
EON

Ads Target Judiciary Committee Chairman Ronald Marsico, Urging Him to ‘Unfreeze’ Two Bills He Has Stalled in Committee

Current Law Prevents Sex Abuse Victims from Seeking Justice and Shields Sex Abusers Who May Continue to Harm Pa. Children, Says FACSA

June 04, 2012

PHILADELPHIA–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–On the eve of the Jerry Sandusky trial and the imminent conclusion of the clergy sex abuse trial in Philadelphia, a child advocacy group is renewing calls for a change in Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations laws. In a series of newspaper and online ads, the Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse (FACSA) is calling for State Representative Ronald S. Marsico (R-105th District), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to act on two bills he is refusing to bring to his Committee.

“Many victims need years to come to terms with their abuse. With our current restrictive statute of limitations, victims are denied the opportunity to seek justice. The system also protects the sexual abuser, who may be abusing other children.”

Stating “Pennsylvania’s children can’t wait for task forces,” the ads implore Marsico to let the Judiciary Committee vote on two bills: one that would create a one-time window when sex abuse victims who are beyond the statute of limitations can come forward and file a suit against an abuser and another that would extend the age limit for filing civil cases against abusers to age 50.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

The jury in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse case Monday began their first full day of deliberations by asking plenty of questions.

The jury asked the judge to define the elements of an attempted rape, which is the main charge against one defendant, Father James J. Brennan. Judge M. Teresa Sarmina responded that the jury must find that the priest used force, or the threat of force.

The jury wanted to know if they reached a verdict in the case of one defendant, did the judge want them to announce that verdict, or sit on it until they had reached a verdict on the second defendant in the case.

After reflecting on that question, and soliciting opinions from lawyers in the case, the judge told the jury to announce both verdicts at the same time. When they reached one verdict, the judge told the jury, “Just keep deliberating on the other and notify the court at the appropriate time.”

The jury also asked to see the prosecution’s “smoking gun,” a gray folder of handwritten and typed documents found in a locked archdiocese safe in 2006 that included a list of 35 priests accused or convicted of sex abuse.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Pocono Record

Editorial

June 05, 2012

Jurors in Philadelphia are now deliberating the fate of two Catholic priests, one of them a monsignor who’s charged with endangering children and conspiring to cover up priest abuse.

It’s hard to imagine that jurors could conclude anything other than guilty as charged.

Monsignor William Lynn served as secretary for clergy at the Philadelphia archdiocese from 1992 to 2004. Evidence and his own testimony confirm that he knew, through his position, about hundreds of allegations made against more than 60 priests.

Yet he failed to prevent it, thus enabling wayward priests to continue endangering vulnerable children.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Patricia Casey

Monday June 04 2012

When an epidemic appears during specified dates it is important to ask why did it happen at this time and not at another?

This question is relevant now in relation to The Child Safeguarding and Protection Service (CSPS) of the Archdiocese of Dublin. Its annual Child Protection Update provides statistical information on child sexual abuse by priests in the Dublin Diocese.

The figures show that since the late 1980s there has been a fall-off in abuse.

– 2pc of these priests are alleged to have abused in the 1940s

– 4pc of these priests are alleged to have abused in the 1950s

– 23pc of these priests are alleged to have abused in the 1960s

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Firedoglake

By: Scarecrow Monday June 4, 2012

A few day’s ago, the New York Times reported that documents unveiled in Milwaukee diocese bankruptcy proceedings revealed that then Timothy ArchBishop Dolan, now Cardinal in New York had, while he was the ArchBishop in Milwaukee, approved payments of $20,000 each to priests accused of molesting kids. The payments were made in conjunction with the priests’ agreements to quietly leave the priesthood.

Once this became public, the Cardinal and his protectors put out the story that these payments were simply “charity,” given that the priests were about to lose their livelihood, and the Cardinal accused the New York Times of . . . inviting people to draw inappropriate conclusions. The suggestion these payments were “payoffs,” the good Cardinal said, were “false, preposterous and unjust.”

Now the Cardinal has hit back at the New York Times via the New York Post. The Post reports (h/t Atrios) that Dolan denies first that there are currently any such payments being made to accused priests in New York, and that any payments made in Milwaukee were strictly charity.

Joseph Zwilling, Dolan’s New York Archdiocese spokesman, told The Post last week that there was no “payoff” to pedophile priests — only “charity.

Okay, how do those various statements fit together?

Yesterday, Dolan denied that similar payments were being made in the New York Archdiocese, which includes about 400 parishes in Manhattan, The Bronx, Staten Island, and seven suburban counties.

“No, thank God. Cardinal Egan did a splendid job — that’s all taken care of,” said Dolan, referring to his predecessor, Edward Cardinal Egan.

Dolan didn’t say whether similar payments to abusive Archdiocese of New York priests were made in the past.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Los Angeles Times

By David Zucchino

June 4, 2012

After hearing 10 weeks of testimony, jurors in a priest sexual-abuse trial in Philadelphia interrupted deliberations Monday to question the judge in the case about the legal definitions of conspiracy and child endangerment.

The jury of seven men and five women sent Judge M. Teresa Sarmina a note asking her to clarify charges against two Philadelphia priests in the groundbreaking case involving the first Roman Catholic Church official in the U.S. charged with mishandling complaints of child abuse by priests, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Msgr. William Lynn, 61, is charged with child endangerment and conspiracy, accused of covering up abuse complaints while serving as secretary for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The Rev. James J. Brennan is charged with child endangerment and attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

Jurors asked whether Lynn had to conspire with a convicted priest and other church officials, or with just one party, in order to be convicted of conspiracy. They also asked for clarification of the child-endangerment and attempted-rape charges.

Other jury questions focused on evidence related to Lynn and Edward Avery, a former priest who pleaded guilty before trial to conspiracy and sexual assault of a 10-year-old boy. Prosecutors allege that Lynn conspired with Avery to endanger children because Lynn knew that the priest had previously molested a boy but allowed Avery to remain at the church where the abuse took place.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MILWAUKEE (WI)
U.S. Catholic

[minutes of the Milwaukee archdiocesan financial council]

Monday, June 4, 2012

By Brian T. Olszewski Catholic News Service

ST. FRANCIS, Wis. (CNS) –The Archdiocese of Milwaukee claims “Christian charity” and “sound stewardship” prompted payments of at least $10,000 in 2003 to priests who had sexually abused children to seek laicization, according to Jerry Topczewski, chief of staff for the archdiocese.

Topczewski was responding to questions that arose May 30 regarding the minutes of the March 7, 2003, Archdiocesan Finance Council meeting in which council members noted that “currently unassignable priests are receiving full salaries and are budgeted under the Vicar for Clergy.”

“There is a proposal to reduce their benefit to be the same as the current pension benefit, $1,250 per month, and also offer $20,000 for laicization ($10,000 at the start and $10,000 at the completion of the process),” the minutes said. “Also, they remain on our health insurance until they find other employment.”

The minutes were one of a series of documents filed by the creditors’ committee in the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Washington Post

By David Gibson| Religion News Service, Monday, June 4

Nearly lost amid ongoing reports about the Vatican leaks scandal, Rome’s battle with American nuns, the American bishops’ battle for religious freedom, and the priest on trial in Philadelphia, was the news that, by the way, Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit Philadelphia.

Benedict made the announcement at the end of his visit to Milan on Sunday (June 3) for the church’s triennial World Meeting of Families. The next meeting would be in Philadelphia in 2015, he said, and he planned to be there, “God willing.”

True, the trip won’t happen until 2015, and it may well not happen at all — Benedict would be 88 by then. Even if there’s a new pope in 2015, the City of Brotherly Love is still almost assured of getting a papal visit — new popes like to underscore continuity, and respect the plans their predecessors had in place.

In a larger sense, the visit would be about more than promoting family life, and in many ways it’s related to other Catholic issues now dominating the headlines. Here’s why:

One, it’s practical

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
San Antonio Express-News

MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press
Updated 03:44 p.m., Monday, June 4, 2012

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A jury is set to continue deliberations Tuesday morning in a groundbreaking clergy-abuse case involving the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Monsignor William Lynn is charged with conspiracy and child endangerment for his handling of abuse complaints. The jury has been deliberating since Friday.

Jurors asked Monday if Lynn had to conspire with a convicted priest, Edward Avery, or if he’d be guilty if he conspired only with colleagues at the Philadelphia archdiocese to hide abuse complaints.

After hours of courtroom debate, the judge has told the jury that Avery does not have to be a co-conspirator. But she says the overt act required under the state’s conspiracy law must involve him.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
SNAP Wisconsin

After paying off pedophile priest, Dolan dispatched rep to assure worried molester his secrets were safe

Money not tied to “health insurance” as Dolan claimed in 2006, internal church document shows

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee)
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

Soon after giving a “signing bonus” of $10,000 to one of Milwaukee’s most prolific pedophile clerics to leave the priesthood, Cardinal Timothy Dolan dispatched a top official of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to assure the worried molester that he had no intention of notifying the public of the abuser’s extensive history of sexually assaulting youngsters in parishes and assignments in the Milwaukee Archdiocese and elsewhere.

The offender, Fr. Franklyn Becker, was concerned, according to an internal church memo written by Deacon David Zimprich, that his history of abusing children, if made public, would prevent him from obtaining a new job. Zimprich, acting on behalf of Dolan, assured Becker that the archdiocese “wasn’t advertising he was laicized” and unless Becker himself told someone they do not believe “it was on the internet.”

The conversation between Zimprich and Becker took place at a restaurant on February 2, 2005 and was detailed in a confidential, signed two page report submitted by Zimprich.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
Gothamist

Cardinal Timothy Dolan is continuing to deny reports that he paid off pedophile priests as the archbishop of Milwaukee, preferring to refer to the payments—some as high as $20,000—as “charity.” “The New York Times does not have a reputation for fair and accurate reporting when it comes to this issue,” Dolan told the Post after Mass yesterday, sounding like another jowly old man we know. “So, to respond to charges like that—that are groundless and scurrilous—in my book it’s useless and counterproductive.” Waging war against the commerce clause and a woman’s right to choose: perfectly acceptable!

“It’s sad that America’s top Catholic official won’t answer a simple question: How many predator priests got how much money to quietly move on…perhaps to molest again?” David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “This is a predictable tactic bishops use when forced to defend the indefensible—they attack the messenger.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
The Daily Beast – The Dish

Andrew Sullivan

Here is how the Cardinal has responded to his previous archdiocese’s spokesman’s revelations that he authorized payments of $20,000 to pedophile priests to expedite their removal from the ministry:

“The New York Times does not have a reputation for fair and accurate reporting when it comes to this issue. So, to respond to charges like that — that are groundless and scurrilous — in my book it’s useless and counterproductive.”

Does he regard his former archdiocese, whence the NYT’s proof came, as equally fallacious?

And then you get the real Dolan, the man who puts ecclesiastical power before the protection of children or compassion for the abused:

The cardinal also lashed out at an advocacy group — Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — that has called the payments ‘secret deals’ and ‘incentives.’ But Dolan fumed, “SNAP has no credibility whatsoever.”

You heard that right. A cardinal from a church revealed to have operated a global child rape cover-up for decades says the chief group for the victims “has no credibility whatsoever.” After this outburst, Dolan took a week off in Ireland.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ROME
National Catholic Reporter

Jun. 04, 2012
By John L Allen Jr

In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven,” the narrator yearns for a “surcease of sorrow” for his lost Lenore. It’s an apt allusion to open a report on the Vatican these days, gripped by scandals surrounding leaked documents, the abrupt firing of a Vatican Bank president once hailed as a great reformer, and the arrest of the pope’s butler.

In Italian, the presumed gang of insiders behind the leaks is known as corvi, which can be translated either as “crows” or “ravens.”

“The events of recent days involving the Curia and my collaborators have brought sadness to my heart,” Pope Benedict XVI said at the end of his general audience May 30 — and thus, presumably, looking for some surcease himself. It was the first time the pope spoke publicly of the events.

Depending on whom one asks, the authors of the present chaos may be:
•Courageous whistle-blowers, determined to bring secrets to light;
•Petty bureaucrats, waging tawdry turf wars;
•Admirers of Benedict who believe the current regime around the pope must go, willing to destroy the village in order to save it.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk|Jun 4, 2012

Buttonholed by reporters after saying Mass at St. Patrick’s yesterday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan denounced as “groundless and scurrilous” Laurie Goodstein’s report in last week’s New York Times that he had authorized $20,000 payments to induce pedophile priests to voluntarily accept laicization when he was archbishop of Milwaukee. It’s anyone’s guess how he thinks that’s supposed to square with the Milwaukee archdiocese spokeman’s statement that such payments were indeed authorized–a statement Dolan “supports,” according to his own spokesman.

Over at dotCommonweal, a few commenters have sought to support the Dolan denial by scrutinizing accounts of the single case in point mentioned by Goodstein, that of the notorious abuser Franklyn Becker. Bear in mind that the issue at hand is the veracity of Dolan’s September 8, 2006 statement in reponse to a query from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Tom Heinen:

For anyone to assert that this money was a “payoff” or occurred in exchange for Becker agreeing to leave the priesthood is completely false, preposterous and unjust.

What this was, instead, was an act of charity, in line with Catholic social teaching, that allowed a person to obtain health insurance coverage he simply could not afford on his own. If people want to criticize me for that charity, so be it.

Based on interviews and an examination of documents in the hands of Bishop-Accountability.org, some not made public until now, I can report the following.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KSRO

MARYCLAIRE DALE

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jury questions in a Philadelphia clergy-abuse trial suggest confusion over charges pending against a Roman Catholic church official.

Monsignor William Lynn is charged with conspiracy and child endangerment for his handling of abuse complaints.

Jurors have asked if Lynn had to conspire with a convicted priest, Edward Avery, or if he’d be guilty if he conspired only with his colleagues at the Philadelphia archdiocese.

The question has spawned hours of courtroom debate, even after a 10-week trial.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on June 4, 2012

A sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit against former priest Msgr. Michael Harris, Mater Dei High School and the Diocese of Orange is slated to go to trial in Orange County Superior Court on June 18.

Harris, the former principal of Mater Dei and Santa Margarita High Schools, has been smack in the center of the clergy sex abuse scandal in Orange County, with at least nine accusers settling with the Diocese of Orange in 2005, twelve accusers listed by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and a record $5.2 million settlement with victim Ryan DiMaria.

Frankly put: Harris is a menace. We have seen Harris’ psych reports from the most notorious church-run facility for child molesting clerics (information that Msgr John Urell kept secret), and in 2001, Bishop Tod Brown told the Los Angeles Times:

The Diocese of Orange has grave doubts about [Harris’] innocence in these matters, taking into consideration the number of complaints made against him, the similarity of those complaints and the apparent sincerity of the persons making these statements.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

OSTERREICH
VOL

Die “Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt” hat die römisch-katholische Kirche mit dem Vorwurf konfrontiert, 40 des Missbrauchs verdächtigte Priester und Mitarbeiter seien nach wie vor im Dienst. In Briefen mit den Namen der beschuldigten forderte die Organisation Konsequenzen von den zuständigen Bischöfen. Man werde die Vorwürfe “ernsthaft prüfen”, so die Bischofskonferenz via “Kathpress”.

Einige Priester seien zwar kurzfristig suspendiert, aber nach Abflauen des öffentlichen Interesses schon bald wieder in der Seelsorge eingesetzt worden, wirft die Plattform den Diözesen vor. “Die Hoffnung, dass seitens der römisch-katholischen Kirche nachhaltige Konsequenzen gezogen wurden, hat sich bis jetzt nicht erfüllt. Diese zögerliche Haltung stellt eine der Ursachen für sexuelle Gewalt in der Kirche dar.” Bis Ende Juli 2012 will die Organisation über die Ergebnisse informiert werden.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

OSTERREICH
OE1@ORF

“Wir werden die Vorwürfe ernsthaft prüfen” – so reagiert die Bischofskonferenz auf die Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt, die der katholischen Kirche vorwirft, dass 40 Priester und Mitarbeiter nach wie vor im Dienst sind, obwohl ihnen sexuelle Gewalt vorgeworfen wird.

Massive Vorwürfe

In der katholischen Kirche werde nach wie vor vertuscht, kritisiert Sepp Rothwangl, Obmann der Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt, viele Beschuldigte seien einfach nur versetzt worden. Die Betroffenen könnten nicht verstehen, warum die Kirche nicht reagiert und warum Kinder immer noch schutzlos ausgeliefert seien.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATIKAN
netzwerkB

Ein Kommentar von Doro

Endlich findet man im Vatikan einmal angemessene Worte: „Unmoralischer Akt von unerhörter Schwere“. Und zwar prompt, praktisch unmittelbar nach Aufdeckung dieser „Unmoralischen Akte unerhörter Schwere“.

Endlich werden einmal die Dinge gerade gerückt, die Verhältnisse geklärt, die Fakten klar beim Namen genannt.

Wie? Nein, es geht nicht um den zehntausendfachen weltweiten sexuellen Missbrauch an Kindern durch katholische Pfarrer.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau

Von Joachim Frank
Der Trierer Bischof Ackermann weist den Vorwurf gefährlicher Milde gegenüber pädophilen Priestern zurück. Diese dürften in seinem Bistum nur auf Basis eines forensisch-psychiatrischen Gutachtens und „in eingeschränkten Feldern mit Auflagen“ arbeiten.

Köln –

Das sagte Stephan Ackermann, der auch Missbrauchsbeauftragter der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz ist, im Kölner „domradio“. Diese eingeschränkte Arbeitseinstellung auf Basis eines Gutachtens entspreche den neugefassten bischöflichen Leitlinien.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

OSTERREICH
Tiroler Tageszeitung

Von Brigitte Warenski

Innsbruck, Wien – Ein Pater (Namen der Redaktion alle bekannt) soll Schüler sexuell missbraucht haben und ist nun als Pfarrer im Amt. Ein anderer Pater hat sich an Internatsschülern und Ministranten sexuell vergangen, wurde 2011 wegen Nötigung verurteilt und arbeitet weiter als Aushilfspriester. Ein weiterer Pfarrer soll sich ebenfalls des sexuellen Missbrauchs schuldig gemacht haben und wurde in eine andere Pfarre versetzt, wo er zurzeit immer noch tätig ist. Ein Laienmitarbeiter soll Kinder zum Sex gezwungen haben und arbeitet weiterhin in der Diözese Innsbruck.

Dass die katholische Kirche mutmaßliche und verurteilte Täter „nur versetzt hat, und das auch weiter tut, ist ein Skandal“, meint Philipp Schwärzler von der Plattform „Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt“. In einem Brief, der heute an Bischof Manfred Scheuer geschickt wird, fordert die Plattform das Tiroler Kirchenoberhaupt auf, „endlich ernsthafte Konsequenzen zu ziehen“.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit zu beten

4. Juni 2012

Die Kirche befindet sich wieder einmal unter Zugzwang: Laut der Plattform “Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt” sind rund 40 beschuldigte Kirchenmitarbeiter, denen sexuelle Gewalt gegen Kinder und Jugendliche vorgeworfen wird, immer noch im Amt. Die Plattform hat außerdem eine Liste der Beschuldigten an neun Bischöfe geschickt und fordert nun Konsequenzen. (Kurier, 04.06.2012, 14:27)

Es folgt eine Pressrundschau, die den Umgang der katholischen Kirche mit des sexuellen Missbrauchs beschuldigten Priestern und Mitarbeitern wiedergeben soll. Für viele der Opfer physischer und sexueller Gewalt wurde zweifelsohne einiges unternommen; ob von den zuständigen Organen im Sinne der Aufarbeitung und Entschädigung gut gehandelt wurde, ist nach wie vor schwer zu beurteilen. Heute geht es aber um eine anderes Thema: Wie verfährt die österreichische katholische Kirche mit den betreffenden Priestern und Mitarbeitern? Angesichts der gesammelten Presseberichte zeigt sich ein trauriges Bild, kurz zusammengefasst in diesen Punkten:
•Eine deutlich zweistellige Zahl von beschuldigten Priestern und Mitarbeitern befindet sich weiterhin im Amt

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
National Review

By Ann Carey

June 4, 2012

The mainstream media has had a field day with the June 1 press release of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) accusing the Vatican of causing “scandal” and “polarization” by identifying doctrinal problems within the LCWR that need to be corrected. What is really an internal Church matter about the proper role of an organization that has canonical standing in the Catholic Church has become a hot topic in a media that seems to delight in any controversy within the Church, especially one that involves challenges to its authority.

Headlines like “U.S. Nuns crack back at Vatican crackdown” (USA Today, June 1) and “American nuns come out swinging against Vatican” (CNN, June 1) might be funny if they weren’t so very ignorant. In fact, ignorance and bias have marked much of the media’s coverage of the doctrinal assessment of the LCWR by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). Or perhaps it’s laziness, for it is clear that many of the people writing about this issue know little about the Catholic Church and even less about the background for this story.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADLEPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The jury in the Philadelphia clergy abuse case continues its work (see previous story). Today, the panel submitted another series of questions about the law as it applies to the charges against Monsignor William Lynn and Father James Brennan, who are on trial.

The jury sought clarification on the attempted rape charge against Brennan, and the jury had a number of questions related to the conspiracy and child endangerment charges against Lynn.

The issues in some respects are complicated and technical.

In response to two questions, for example, jurors sought clarification on the word “and” specific to legal issues. The attorneys for the defense and prosecution could not agree on a response.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
Cape Breton Post

CORNER BROOK, N.L. (CP) — There has been a delay in the court case involving a 74-year-old Roman Catholic priest from western Newfoundland who faces 62-sex-related charges.

The Crown says it is waiting for the outcome of an ongoing investigation in Nova Scotia into further allegations against George Ansel Smith.

As a result, the case has been set over until Sept. 10.

The case was called in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador in Corner Brook on Monday.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has condemned a book published by sister Farley which goes against the Catholic doctrine on divorce and same-sex unions and sexuality

Alessandro Speciale
Vatican City

New tensions between U.S. nuns and the Vatican are looming. Yesterday, the “commissioner” in charge of reforming the biggest organisation of women religious in the U.S., the Archbishop of Seattle, Mgr. Peter Sartain, tried to adopt a conciliatory tone, promising the Leadership Conference of Women Religious dialogue “in a spirit of openness, honesty, integrity and faithfulness to Church doctrine.”

But today the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith expressed new criticisms against Margaret A. Farley’s book “Just Love. A Framework for Christian Sexual Etichs”. Sister Farley is a member of the Sisters of Mercy religious order. The Congregation claimed the book “affirms positions that are in direct contradiction with Catholic teaching in the field of sexual morality “ and deals with controversial subjects such as “masturbation, homosexual acts, homosexual unions, the indissolubility of marriage and the problem of divorce and remarriage.” According to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Sister Farley “either ignores the constant teaching of the Magisterium or, where it is occasionally mentioned, treats it as one opinion among others.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ROME
Vatican Insider

The battle in the Holy See rages on as poison pen letter writer threatens to publish more confidential documents

Andrea Tornielli
Milan

On the very day that the Pope was welcomed with open arms by the one million people that spent the night out in the open or walked from faraway neighbourhoods all the way to Milan’s Bresso park, the poison pen letters writer struck again with another threat.

What with the final mass and the sea of people gathered for the final few hours of the Pope’s visit, Benedict XVI’s retinue did not have much time to think about the latest warning sent by the person responsible for the confidential document leak. The poison pen letter writer sent an ultimatum published in Italian newspaper La Repubblica. It was sent in the form of two letters which contained the letterhead, date and signature of the Pope’s secretary, Fr. Georg Gänswein, but no text. The mole said he/she would publish the content of the letters if Ratzinger did not get rid of his closest collaborators. But despite the evident leap in terms of the management of the Vatileaks operation, – which appears increasingly as if it is being led by experts who are aiming to strike hard at those closest to the Pope – tensions did not affect the final events of the World Meeting of Families in Milan.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

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

Hours into their first full day of deliberations, jurors in the landmark clergy sex-abuse trial of two Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests asked the judge Monday to clarify the charges and if they need to reach verdicts on both defendants before alerting the court.

Neither Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina nor the lawyers in the case speculated on the meaning of the requests. The judge and lawyers planned to reconvene early Monday afternoon to resolve how to respond to the inquiries.

But the questions suggested the jurors were still weighing the evidence against Msgr. William J. Lynn and the Rev. James J. Brennan.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

Democratic Underground

Sex Crimes and the Vatican

Created in 1962, a now infamous document was issued in secret to bishops. Called Crimen Sollicitationis, it outlined procedures to be followed by bishops when dealing with allegations of child abuse, homosexuality and bestiality by members of the clergy. It swore all parties involved to secrecy on pain of excommunication from the Catholic Church.

This document was reissued in 2001 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and sent to all bishops. Yet rather than ordering more openness and cooperation with the authorities as demanded by both law enforcers and the victims, he reiterated its policies and ensured that the Code of Silence be applied to all cases of child abuse involving a priest. Cardinal Ratzinger also instructed that all cases should now be referred to his office directly and that he would maintain ‘exclusive competence’ over the handling of allegations. This is the Catholic Church’s policy to this day and Cardinal Ratzinger is now Pope Benedict XVI.

The policy laid out in the above document has led to systemic failure by the result that a significant number of priest have, in effect, been allowed to abuse again, and further children have been put at risk.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Washington Post

Philadelphia priest-abuse jury asks questions about conspiracy, attempted rape charges

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, June 4, 1:12 PM

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia jury weighing a groundbreaking priest-abuse case has divided lawyers with questions on a conspiracy charge.

Monsignor William Lynn is a former official at the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Philadelphia. He is the first U.S. church official charged with conspiracy and child endangerment for allegedly mishandling abuse complaints.

Jurors have asked if Lynn had to conspire with both a convicted priest and other church officials, or just one party, to be convicted of conspiracy.

Defense lawyers say the answer is both. Prosecutors say one finding is enough to convict. The judge is weighing the arguments.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

On Saturday, I said that in the near future I’d write more about the lie that the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan has told re: his knowledge of payoffs made to priests abusing minors in the Milwaukee archdiocese to encourage those priests to disappear quietly. When I planned to take up that topic this morning, I had thought that my comments would be Johnny-come-lately remarks, since Laurie Goodstein reported on this story in the New York Times on 30 May, and it has been in the news for almost a full week now.

But now, after having refused for five days to address the claims that he knew about payoffs to priests abusing minors in Milwaukee and has lied to the public about his knowledge of these payoffs, His Eminence finally broke silence just yesterday. Speaking to reporters after Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s cathedral (on the eve of a trip to Ireland to attend the International Eucharistic Conference next weekend), His Eminence chose to mount an attack instead of directly addressing the allegation that he has lied to the public.

As Brigid Bergen reports for the WNYC news blog, in his remarks yesterday, His Eminence attacked two bearers of the news that he has long had knowledge of payoffs to pedophile priests in the Milwaukee archdiocese and has lied about that knowledge. His Eminence attacked media reports–specifically, it would appear, Goodstein’s in the Times–as inaccurate and unfair. And he attacked the group Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests, SNAP, as lacking all credibility and peddling “groundless and scurrilous” charges against him to which he refuses to respond.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Jamie L Manson on Jun. 04, 2012

Only weeks after taking a broad swipe at the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has returned to its more typical routine of taking aim at individual theologians.

The latest target is Mercy Sr. Margaret Farley, professor emeritus of Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School, and her 2006 book Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics.

On Monday morning, the CDF published a notification that states Just Love does not reflect the official teaching of the Magisterium and, therefore, “cannot be used as a valid expression of Catholic teaching, either in counseling or formation, or in ecumenical or interreligious dialogue.”

As Farley herself said in her response to the notification, Just Love “was not intended to be an expression of current official Catholic teaching, nor was it aimed specifically against this teaching.” The goal of this book was to engage discussion about issues in sexual ethics, knowing that fruitful discussion becomes possible only if critical questions are pressed.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

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

Update 10:15 a.m. Tuesday: The jury has resumed deliberations.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
The Western Star

With the investigation into further sex offences ongoing, the matter of George Ansel Smith has been set over in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador until September.

The Crown is still waiting the outcome of the ongoing investigation in Nova Scotia into further allegations against Roman Catholic priest George Ansel Smith, who has 62 sex-related charges against him in Newfoundland and Labrador.

It’s much the same position the provincial Crown has been in for the last two months.

The case was called in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador in Corner Brook Monday morning. Crown prosecutor Trina Simms informed Justice Alan Seaborn that she believes the out-of-province investigation should be concluded before the court’s next scheduled arraignment date, which is not until September.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
NY1

[with video]

[minutes of the Milwaukee archdiocesan financial council]

Cardinal Timothy Dolan is slamming a report suggesting he authorized payments to priests accused of sexual abuse in exchange for them leaving the church.

The New York Times last week cited documents showing that when Dolan was Archbishop of Milwaukee in 2003 he agreed to pay several alleged pedophile priests $20,000 if they left the church.

The Milwaukee Archdiocese also admitted to the payouts after the plan was revealed by the advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

While speaking to reporters Sunday, Dolan claimed the payments were “charity.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Courier

BY DELLARAM VREELAND

04 Jun, 2012

CATHOLIC clergy in Australia should be held accountable for any abuse they may have perpetrated towards young people, according to outspoken priest Father Bob Maguire.

Speaking in support of a parliamentary inquiry into clergy and other sexual abuse during a visit to Ballarat yesterday, Fr Bob said the Catholic Church should be ashamed of the scandal which has rocked the organisation.

He said it was imperative that every institution should “be open, transparent and questioned” for acts they may or may not have committed.

“It’s the kind of thing that should be expected by any institution, civil or religious … especially when you can see so much turmoil in a natural resource, and that is the hearts and minds of our children which surely was a reaction of their abuse as children whether sexual or emotional,” Fr Bob said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ROME
Spiegel

By Fiona Ehlers in Rome

Though Pope Benedict XVI’s personal butler has been arrested in connection with the “Vatileaks” scandal, new documents released over the weekend indicate he had powerful backers that remain unidentified. The secret documents expose the pontiff’s awkward and helpless leadership in the Church.

Do the two know each other? Is one the other’s source? Could it be that they teamed up to harm the German-born head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI?

Few others in Rome have been the object of such intense speculation recently as these two men. But, as chance would have it, despite their physical proximity, they probably won’t be running into each other any time soon.

One of them is looking out of a 4 meter (13 foot) by 4 meter detention cell in a Vatican police station on the wall surrounding the papal state. He has been sitting there for almost two weeks now, and almost everyone knows his name: Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s 46-year-old personal butler.

Shortly before Pentecost, Benedict’s private secretary, Monsignor Georg Gänswein, reportedly uncovered Gabriele as a spy. Investigators found four boxes with copies of strictly confidential letters to and from Pope Benedict in Gabriele’s apartment.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
CBC News

The Archdiocese of Moncton is asking people from Cap-Pelé who were victims of sexual abuse by former priest Camille Léger to contact Michel Bastarache, the retired Supreme Court of Canada justice.

Archbishop André Richard said in a letter the church will continue to offer counselling to Léger’s victims who come forward.

But now the church has obtained the services of Bastarache, who will set up and manage a conciliation process for people with complaints about Léger.

Richard said Bastarache’s sense of justice and understanding of people in the community and the province will allow him to help those who have been wronged.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

June 4, 2012 by Susan Matthews

Pope Benedict announced Sunday that Philadelphia will host the World Family Meeting in 2015. This could be viewed as a positive sign of support to Philadelphia during troubled times. Despite often being characterized as relentlessly optimistic, I’m not ready to call this a positive.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning group Amnesty International cited the Vatican in its 2011 annual report for human rights violations because of the clergy sex abuse crisis in Ireland. Since then, the Vatican has done little to address this incredible failure in any part of the world. Instead, the news from Rome is “the butler did it” and that nuns are spending too much time on the poor.

While the papal visit in 1979 was an incredible spiritual event, this one will ring hollow if the recommendations of the 2011 Grand Jury report are still not met years later in 2015. If our children are still under-protected, there is nothing to celebrate.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Philly Post

Kevin Cirilli

Not even the chosen 12 can question a dead man. For the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, judgment day is under way. A 12-person jury is deciding the fate of Monsignor William Lynn, charged with covering up alleged pedophile priests. But no matter what the jury decides, Philly Catholics won’t ever get the answers from the man who perhaps knew the most: the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

The question for the jury isn’t could Lynn have done more, but rather, does law require him to do so?

For any defendant to testify in a case is risky. And Lynn is the highest-ranking church official to have been charged in the scandal. So when Lynn, 61, took the stand in late May, those who have been following the case couldn’t help but wonder if he could handle it.

But this is a man who has, since 1992 when he first learned of a child molestation case, according to court documents, spent more than a decade covering it up. He is a priest, trained at giving vague answers to some of life’s biggest questions. Could he handle court? He was trained for it. Lynn took the stand sporting his black priest gear to cover up his humanness, as Rolling Stone reported.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

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

The 11 weeks of speeches, emotional and shocking testimony, and legal fireworks are now memories.

When the landmark conspiracy and sex-abuse trial involving Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests resumes Monday, the action will be behind closed doors: a jury room off the large third-floor courtroom at the city’s Criminal Justice Center.

There, seven women and five men will begin their first full day of trying to decide whether Msgr. William J. Lynn is criminally culpable for how the Philadelphia church handled the crimes of some of its priests.

The Common Pleas Court jurors worked just three hours Friday, but they already appear deep into dissecting the evidence.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
MyFoxPhilly

[with video]

PHILADELPHIA –
Today could be the day we learn if Monsignor William Lynn will be convicted or found not guilty of shuffling pedophile priests around the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Jury deliberations continue Monday in the Philadelphia priest sex abuse trial.

Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged for his handling of the abuse complaints.

His co-defendant, Rev. James Brennan, is accused of molesting a teen in 1996.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee)
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

After five days of silence, in remarks to the media this afternoon Cardinal Dolan, instead of explaining his actions of paying off pedophile priests to leave the priesthood while he was Archbishop of Milwaukee and then misleading the public about it in 2006, blasted the New York Times and the victim advocacy group SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

It is not victim/survivors of predator priests in Milwaukee or the New York Times who publically confirmed, based on the official minutes of a meeting Dolan attended while the Archbishop of Milwaukee, that Dolan had authorized payments to child sex offender priests in order to be officially “laicized” and leave the priesthood. It was the Archdiocese of Milwaukee itself, including Dolan’s long time Milwaukee Chief of Staff, Jerry Topczewski. And it was confirmed several times, over several days. Presumably, Dolan does not consider that his former Archdiocese is making “groundless and scurrilous” charges about him? In fact, Dolan’s spokesperson said last week that Dolan “agreed” with the statements being issued by the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

But secretly paying off sex offenders to quietly leave the priesthood is not, as indefensible as that is, what is most damning about Dolan’s conduct. It is, rather, that he appears to have deliberately lied about it: to the public, to Catholics, and most egregiously of all, to victim/survivors of the very same predator priests he was paying off.

In 2006, when Dolan was confronted with evidence that he had implemented such a payout to notorious Milwaukee pedophile priest, Franklyn Becker, he loudly, unambiguously, and self-righteously denied that he had done so. “For anyone to assert” Dolan wrote in a statement at the time “that this money was a ‘payoff’ or occurred in exchange for Becker agreeing to leave the priesthood is completely false, preposterous and unjust.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
New York Post

[minutes of the Milwaukee archdiocesan financial council]

By ANTONIO ANTENUCCI and JOSH SAUL

Last Updated: 5:48 AM, June 4, 2012

Timothy Cardinal Dolan yesterday blasted a report that he authorized payments to pedophile priests — and said no such payments are being made to New York clerics.

Dolan, while serving as Milwaukee archbishop in 2003, agreed to pay multiple accused pedophile priests $20,000 in exchange for their agreeing to leave the priesthood, according to documents cited by The New York Times.

Joseph Zwilling, Dolan’s New York Archdiocese spokesman, told The Post last week that there was no “payoff” to pedophile priests — only “charity.”

“The New York Times does not have a reputation for fair and accurate reporting when it comes to this issue,” Dolan said yesterday after Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown. “So, to respond to charges like that — that are groundless and scurrilous — in my book it’s useless and counterproductive.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Irish Central

[minutes of the Milwaukee archdiocesan finance council]

By
JAMES O’SHEA,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Monday, June 4, 2012

Timothy Cardinal Dolan has blasted The New York Times for claiming that he gave payments to pedophile priests when he was Bishop of Milwaukee.

The Times revealed that documents recently released showed that the diocese agreed to pay accused priests $20,000 each to facilitate them leaving the priesthood.

“The New York Times does not have a reputation for fair and accurate reporting when it comes to this issue,” Dolan said yesterday after Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “So, to respond to charges like that — that are groundless and scurrilous — in my book it’s useless and counterproductive.”

Joseph Zwilling, New York Archdiocese spokesman,had told The New York Post last week that there was no “payoff” to pedophile priests — only “charity.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
WNYC

Sunday, June 03, 2012

By Brigid Bergin : WNYC Producer

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of the Catholic Diocese of New York, said on Sunday that reports he approved payments to priests facing sex abuse charges while he was archbishop of Milwaukee were “groundless and scurrilous.”

Speaking to reporters after mass at St. Patrick’s on Sunday, Dolan blasted the New York Times’ coverage of “this issue” saying it was not fair or accurate. He also took aim at the organization behind the charges – specifically the abuse victims’ advocate group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, which recently made public a document from the archdiocese’s bankruptcy proceedings that references a proposal to pay up to $20,000 to priests accused of abuse who return to the laity.

“SNAP has no credibility whatsoever,” Dolan said. “To respond to charges like that that are groundless and scurrilous in my book is useless and counterproductive.”

The Times was among numerous media organizations that reported about the document made public by SNAP.

Dolan’s comments Sunday seemed to contradict a statement made to WNYC by a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York last week, which said that the cardinal “has read and supports the statement from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Patrick J. Wall

Has anything in Roman Catholic Church changed when it comes to child protection?

At first blush I deeply want to be believe: yes. The faithful have endured 28 years of civil litigation, several grand jury reports, billions of dollars in settlements, and several high profile criminal trials. However, when I reviewed the most recent proceedings of the Canon Law Society at their 2011 convention in Jacksonville, Florida, my heart dropped.

Diane L. Barr JD, JCD (who is also the chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore) presented a seminar, “Obligation of the Tribunal to Report Child Abuse“. Barr reviewed mandatory criminal child abuse reporting laws versus canonical responsibilities—that it, what “church law” says she should do. She also discussed obligations to privacy, confidentiality and protecting the Diocese. No mention of victims or child protection.

Let’s get something straight: nowhere in the United States does Canon law trump federal, state, or local criminal or civil law. But apparently, Barr does not know that.

Lessons Learned? Eh … not really.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 4 June 2012 (VIS) – The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith today published a “Notification Regarding the Book ‘Just Love. A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics’ by Sister Margaret A. Farley R.S.M”. The document warns the faithful that the work in question “is not in conformity with the teaching of the Church. Consequently it cannot be used as a valid expression of Catholic teaching, either in counselling and formation, or in ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue”. The English-language Notification is signed by Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and has been approved by the Holy Father.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote to Sr. Farley in 2010 enclosing a preliminary evaluation of her book and indicating the doctrinal problems it contained, however her answer failed to clarify those issues in a satisfactory manner. The Congregation therefore proceeded to examine the volume following the procedure for “examination in cases of urgency”. In June 2011 a commission of experts confirmed that the “book contained erroneous propositions, the dissemination of which risks grave harm to the faithful”. Sr. Farley was sent a list of the erroneous propositions and invited to correct them, but her response “did not adequately clarify the grave problems contained in her book” and the Congregation decided to proceed with the publication of this Notification, extracts of which are given below.

“The author does not present a correct understanding of the role of the Church’s Magisterium as the teaching authority of the bishops united with the Successor of Peter, which guides the Church’s ever deeper understanding of the Word of God as found in Holy Scripture. … In addressing various moral issues, Sr. Farley either ignores the constant teaching of the Magisterium or, where it is occasionally mentioned, treats it as one opinion among others. … Sr. Farley also manifests a defective understanding of the objective nature of the natural moral law”.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATIKAN
Welt

Die Enthüllungsaffäre um gestohlene Vatikan-Dokumente schwelt weiter: Einer italienischen Zeitung sind wieder Schreiben aus dem Vatikan zugespielt worden. Der Papst macht derweil weiter wie zuvor.

Der Enthüllungsskandal im Vatikan findet für Papst Benedikt XVI. kein Ende: Anderthalb Wochen nach der Festnahme des päpstlichen Kammerdieners wurden nach einem Zeitungsbericht neue vertrauliche Dokumente aus dem Vatikan publik.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.