ABUSE TRACKER

MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

For Immediate Release – June 1, 2012

Nothing less than a full, independent investigation should be demanded by the Catholics of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee into golden parachute payments for perpetrator priests to voluntarily seek laicization.

For this outrageous raid on their given in good faith money, NSAC calls upon the Catholics of Milwaukee to take a stand, speak up and do what’s right. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.

Priest perpetrators in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee during Archbishop Dolan’s tenure were staked with a golden carrot of at least $10,000 and a possible $20,000 to get out and get lost.

All they had to do was start the paperwork to pick up $10,000, wait for the papers to come through and their bank balances climbed by another $10,000. All this for abusing children.

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UNITED STATES
Medicine Hat News

Friday, 01 June 2012 07:48 Rachel Zoll, The Associated Press

NEW YORK, N.Y. – The largest umbrella group for U.S. nuns said Friday that the Vatican-ordered overhaul of their organization is based on unsubstantiated claims from a flawed investigation that has caused “scandal and pain” for Roman Catholics.

A Vatican agency in April said the group has “serious doctrinal problems,” including taking positions that undermined Catholic teaching on the all-male priesthood, marriage and homosexuality. The Vatican reprimand prompted an outpouring of support for nuns by Catholics and non-Catholics.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents about 57,000 nuns, said they will bring their concerns to the Vatican orthodoxy watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in a meeting scheduled for June 12 in Rome.

The national board of the nuns’ group issued the statement, its first since the Holy See ordered the overhaul, after a three-day private meeting.

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UNITED STATES
CNN

By Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor

(CNN) – The leadership representing most of America’s nuns came out swinging Friday against the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, in the face of charges from the Vatican that the nuns are espousing “radical feminism” and straying from church teaching.

The Vatican’s criticism of the American nuns has “caused scandal and pain throughout the church community, and created greater polarization,” the Leadership Conference of Women Religious – which represents about 80% of American nuns – said in a statement Friday.

The board of the group had convened in Washington this week for three days of special meetings, provoked by an April assessment from the Vatican that said America’s nuns had largely gone rogue and warned that they could be a negative global influence on the church.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Jun. 01, 2012 All Things Catholic

While the arrest of the pope’s butler has triggered feverish speculation about the “who” of the Vatican leaks scandal, there’s been less attention so far to the “what” of the revelations contained in the sensational new book His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI, published by journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi.

In part, that’s because the scores of documents in the 326-page book are complex and highly diverse, often composed in dense ecclesiastical Italian; in part, that’s because a Vatican whodunit is tough to resist.

Yet the substance of the leaks obviously merits consideration, so below, I present a sampling of the highlights, including material likely to interest English-speaking readers. Later, I’ll roll out more. …

2. The Legionaries of Christ

Critics have long asserted that the Vatican had all the information it needed to act against Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, well before it sentenced him to a life of “prayer and penance” in 2006. Charges of sexual and financial misconduct by Maciel became public in the 1990s, though Vatican officials have insisted those reports were not confirmed until later.

Nuzzi’s book adds another detail, producing the brief notes taken by a papal secretary on Oct. 19, 2011, after a half-hour meeting with Fr. Rafael Moreno, a Mexican priest who served as Maciel’s private assistant for 18 years.

The full text of the unsigned note reproduced by Nuzzi, written on letterhead of the “Particular Secretary of His Holiness,” is as follows:
19 October 2011
Meeting 9:00-9:30 am
By me
Meeting with Fr. Rafael Moreno, priv.sec. of M.M. •Was for 18 years private secretary of M.M.; from this was … [word is illegible]
•Destroyed proof against him (incriminating material)
•Wanted to inform P.P. II in 2003, but he didn’t want to hear them, didn’t believe
•Wanted to inform Card. Sodano, but he didn’t concede an audience to them
•Card. De Paolis had too little time

Nuzzi writes that in all probability, “P.P. II” refers to John Paul II. Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, meanwhile, is the Vatican official Benedict XVI has tapped to oversee a reform of the Legionaries. …

Perhaps most explosively, Calcagno’s report advises against giving in to demands for large-scale financial compensation for Maciel’s victims.

Calcagno says reconciliation with some victims “has not been difficult,” but it’s more complicated with regard to “those who demand, in the name of justice, enormous sums that the Legion absolutely cannot afford, and which in fact cannot be based on claims of justice.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX

Fred Bodimer

June 1, 2012

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – A local clergy abuse survivor is sounding off on published reports that St. Louis native — Cardinal Timothy Dolan — paid suspected pedophile priests $20,000 to leave the ministry while serving as Archbishop of Milwaukee.

“In what other line of work does a man molest children, then get paid a bonus to leave?” says David Clohessy.

He’s the head of the St. Louis based Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests or SNAP.

“If Dolan wants to protect kids, he knows that the way to do that is to help police and prosecutors lock-up child molesting clerics, not simply strip them of their collars and send them on their way,” says Clohessy.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • A former Roman Catholic seminarian at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary pleaded guilty Thursday to attempting to receive child pornography through the mail in a deal that will net him five years in federal prison.

Nickolas Eugene Pinkston, 41, of Warrensburg, was dismissed from seminary Jan. 10, 2010, when church officials learned he was involved in a relationship with an adult woman. He had been sponsored by the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

In March, he caught the attention of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service because of a mailing he’d received from an Ohio-based website that had both adult and child pornography, prosecutors said.

In a sting, postal inspectors then sent Pinkston an ad for a catalog that billed itself as the “”underground leader in TABOO and FORBIDDEN XXX videos!!” Pinkston ordered a catalog featuring young teen girls and pre-teen girls, prosecutors said, then ordered a DVD entitled “Children’s sex orgy.”

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UNITED STATES
RH Reality Check

by Lon Newman, Family Planning Health Services

June 1, 2012

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who has problems of his own in Milwaukee, is leading a procession of lawsuits opposing a national requirement of health insurance companies to cover contraceptives. The cardinal called it a “totalitarian incursion against religious liberty.” His principle argument, is that religious institutions should not “… be forced by the government to provide coverage for contraception or sterilization,” because it “… violates their religious beliefs.”

On that principle, legislators across the country are working to deny state and federal funding to organizations that provide contraceptive services. These lawmakers and their political allies echo the United State Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) reasoning that it is unjust to force taxpayers, employers, or members of the Church to support institutions or their affiliates which are committing acts they decry as “intrinsically evil.”

The morality of contraception has been debated for generations, but what if we apply Cardinal Dolan’s reasoning where the question of morality and legality is indisputable?

Recent polling shows that 80 percent of American Catholics find contraception morally acceptable and almost all Catholic women who have had sex have used a method forbidden by the Church.

On the other hand, protecting sexual predators is neither moral nor legal. At the same time the anti-contraception lawsuits were filed, a Wisconsin court ruled that the Green Bay Archdiocese illegally concealed sexual assaults of children and put other children at risk. If it is the bishops’ principle to stop federal and state funding for institutions and affiliates that have acted immorally, we can begin where there is no question of legality or morality. Let us deny funding to institutions, like the Green Bay Archdiocese, that have been convicted of conspiring to protect child sexual predators.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Journal

THE PSNI HAS concluded its investigation into allegations made in a BBC programme broadcast last month, and said that the abuse alleged in the programme did not take place in Northern Ireland.

The BBC This World programme alleged that the primate of All-Ireland failed to protect children from the abuse of paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

It said that Brady had been given the names and addresses of boys being abused, but that he did not ensure their safety after acting as a notary during a 1975 inquiry carried out by the Catholic Church. Brady has since made a public apology to the victims.

The BBC reports today that the PSNI’s investigation has found that the sex abuse referred to in the programme did not take place in Northern Ireland. The PSNI has said that it continues to investigate 251 separate complaints which have been made to police, ranging from 40 years ago to five years ago.

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UNITED STATES
Predator-Proof Your Family

I’m sitting here reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about the controversy surrounding the decision of a church in Milwaukee to pay suspected pedophiles priests to leave the ministry. It turns out that any priest suspected of pedophilia was given $20,000 to get out of the ministry and return to civilian life.

All the predictable points are raised about the pros and cons of the payments.

Naturally, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) protested the payments as payoffs and bonuses to priests for molesting children, saying “You don’t give a bonus to a man who rapes children,” and, “If they paid them anything, it should have been for therapy and counseling.”

Of course the archdiocese defended the payments, saying they’re just an incentive to get rid of the priests without getting into a lengthy, bureaucratic process of removal and the payments were to help the men transition to lay life without completely losing access to needs such as health care.

Whoooooah just a minute. Hang on a minute. I feel like somebody has a great big whitewash brush they’re trying to slap over my sensibilities. I have two problems.

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UNITED STATES
America Magazine

The Vatican’s assessment of the L.C.W.R. offers an opportunity for discernment and collaboration.

Peter Sartain | JUNE 18, 2012

The city of Memphis was ravaged by a series of yellow fever epidemics in 1873, 1878 and 1879, the aftermath of which touches the city even today. Growing up there, I often rode the public bus, and I became aware at an early age that sisters, brothers and priests were allowed to ride at no cost. During those dreadful epidemics, as thousands of citizens died or fled to healthier climes, Catholic religious stayed put. More than 50 sisters and 25 priests died of yellow fever while caring for victims of the disease, and in gratitude the city offered free bus rides to religious for many years thereafter. Such heroism inspired me as a boy growing up in a city whose population was less than 3 percent Catholic.

The history of the Catholic Church in Washington State, my new home, is likewise filled with similarly inspiring chapters, chief among them the pioneer courage and faith of consecrated women. Their story was repeated again and again across the United States, and perhaps nowhere else in the world have women religious had the impact they have had in this country.

Catholic explorers, immigrants, settlers, Native Americans, converts, sisters, brothers and priests faced daunting challenges in the early days: few resources, primitive transportation, disease, extreme weather, racism and language barriers. I am moved every time I read about the establishment of hospitals, schools, orphanages and monasteries in the Pacific Northwest. For the most part, these institutions were the inspiration and work of religious women, who responded to God’s call to serve his beloved people, no matter their religion, culture, language or way of life.

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UNITED STATES
America Magazine

Posted at: Thursday, May 31, 2012
Author: Tim Reidy

Today we posted two Web-only articles commenting on the “doctrinal assessment” of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The first article is from Most Rev. Peter Sartain, the archbishop of Seattle and the CDF-appointed delegate charged with overseeing the evaluation of the LCWR. Archbishop Sartain begins with praise for the legacy of women religious in the United States:

Catholic explorers, immigrants, settlers, Native Americans, converts, sisters, brothers and priests faced daunting challenges in the early days: few resources, primitive transportation, disease, extreme weather, racism and language barriers. I am moved every time I read about the establishment of hospitals, schools, orphanages and monasteries in the Pacific Northwest. For the most part, these institutions were the inspiration and work of religious women, who responded to God’s call to serve his beloved people, no matter their religion, culture, language or way of life.

Quite simply, these religious women evangelized. They lived the life of Jesus Christ; they introduced others to him; they taught the truth; they loved; they healed; they cared for the outcast; and most importantly, they prayed. The histories of our early years chronicle the sacrifice offered by religious women to build the foundation of the church in this part of the world, and embedded in each story is a life of prayer. Prayer makes witness to Christ possible and credible.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

Nuns push back on Vatican report, calling it unsubstantiated and scandal-causing

By Michelle Boorstein

Leaders representing most American nuns pushed back on Friday against a stinging Vatican report that was issued in April and called for their “reform.”

After a special meeting this week in Washington, the 21-member board of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious issued a statement calling the Vatican report “unsubstantiated “ and saying it has “caused scandal and pain” and exacerbated polarization throughout the Catholic church community.

The board of the conference, whose members represent the vast majority of the 57,000 nuns in the United States, met for three days to consider how to respond to the Vatican report accusing the group of “radical feminism” and of publicly undermining the leadership of the bishops.

The full 1,500-member conference will meet in August to determine more specifically how to react, but Friday’s statement was an unusually bold reaction to the Vatican’s doctrine-enforcing arm and seemed to imply the women may choose to rebel.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic News Service

By Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The national board of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious said June 1 the assessment that led to a Vatican order to reform the organization “was based on unsubstantiated accusations and the result of a flawed process that lacked transparency.”

“Moreover, the sanctions imposed were disproportionate to the concerns raised and could compromise their (board members’) ability to fulfill their mission,” the board said in a statement. “The report has furthermore caused scandal and pain throughout the church community and created greater polarization.”

The board released the statement the morning after it concluded a special meeting in Washington May 29-31 held to review and plan a response to the report issued to LCWR by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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UNITED STATES
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — The umbrella group for U.S. Roman Catholic nuns says the Vatican crackdown on their organization is based on unfounded claims and has hurt the church.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious says they are sending their top administrators to Rome in two weeks to meet with the Vatican officials in charge of their case.

The sisters made the statement Friday after a three-day board meeting.

The Vatican’s orthodoxy watchdog in April accused the group of serious doctrinal problems. The Vatican said the organization took positions that undermined Catholic teaching on the priesthood, marriage and homosexuality. The Holy See ordered a complete overhaul of the group.

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UNITED STATES
Reuters

Fri Jun 1, 2012

By Stephanie Simon

(Reuters) – The largest organization of U.S. Catholic nuns on Friday rejected a Vatican assessment that they had fallen under the sway of radical feminism and needed to hand control of their group over to a trio of bishops.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, whose members represent about 80 percent of nuns in the United States, issued a sharp statement calling the Vatican’s rebuke “unsubstantiated” and “the result of a flawed process that lacked transparency.”

The nuns said the Vatican’s report has “caused scandal and pain throughout the church community and created greater polarization.”

Tensions between U.S. nuns and church authorities, both in Rome and in the United States, have been simmering for decades as nuns have taken an increasingly independent and outspoken role in politics and social outreach.

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UNITED STATES
New Jersey Jewish Standard

Dr. Yoel Finkelman • World
Published: 01 June 2012

First, the bad news: Sexual, physical, and emotional abuse occurs in Orthodox Jewish communities.

Next, the worse news: Although there is no evidence that such abuse occurs more frequently among the various Orthodox segments of society than in other populations, two recent front-page New York Times stories are just the latest piece of evidence that Orthodox communities are often in denial and worse.

Rabbis and communal leaders often seek to save the community from embarrassment and, in so doing, protect the perpetrators. If children complain of being abused, their parents may silence them, or, if their parents complain too, their neighbors harass them to prevent their going to the police, claiming a religious prohibition on giving Jews up to secular authorities. Indeed, the official policy of the charedi organization Agudath Israel of America is that school teachers or administrators who suspect abuse must ask a rabbi before going to secular authorities, New York State laws notwithstanding.

There is also good news: Even as denial and stonewalling continue, the Orthodox conversation about abuse is gradually changing; and so is people’s behavior. Mental health professionals say that Orthodox parents, who in the past would have tried to deny abuse or keep it hush-hush, are now defending victimized children more actively. True, some school principals and community leaders continue to put pressure on parents to keep silent; but many Orthodox communities have sprouted activists who serve as “go-to” people in cases of abuse, while such organizations as JSafe provide additional resources for concerned communities and individuals concerned. The Bais Yaakov girls’ high school in Baltimore has even published a child safety protocol for both school staff and parents.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Fingal Independent

Friday June 01 2012

Police in Northern Ireland are investigating more than 250 complaints of clerical and institutional abuse.

Some of the allegations go back 40 years, according to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

With retired High Court judge Mr Justice Anthony Hart set to head up an official inquiry into the abuse of children living in residential care, police said the vast majority of the 251 complaints under their investigation – Operation Charwell – relate to incidents at least 20 years ago. But the overall time range was five years to 40 years.

Assistant Chief Constable George Hamilton, the officer in charge, has deployed special resources from public protection units and the rape crime unit, according to the police.

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UNITED STATES
Leadership Conference of Women Religious

[Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious – Congregation for the Doctine of the Faith]

June 1, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[Washington, DC] The national board of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) held a special meeting in Washington, DC from May 29-31 to review, and plan a response to, the report issued to LCWR by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The board members raised concerns about both the content of the doctrinal assessment and the process by which it was prepared. Board members concluded that the assessment was based on unsubstantiated accusations and the result of a flawed process that lacked transparency. Moreover, the sanctions imposed were disproportionate to the concerns raised and could compromise their ability to fulfill their mission. The report has furthermore caused scandal and pain throughout the church community, and created greater polarization.

The board determined that the conference will take the following steps:

•On June 12 the LCWR president and executive director will return to Rome to meet with CDF prefect Cardinal William Levada and the apostolic delegate Archbishop Peter Sartain to raise and discuss the board’s concerns.
•Following the discussions in Rome, the conference will gather its members both in regional meetings and in its August assembly to determine its response to the CDF report.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

By Joshua J. McElwee

A harsh Vatican critique of the organization representing most U.S. women religious was based on unsubstantiated accusations, comes from a flawed process and has caused “scandal and pain throughout the church,” the sisters’ group said in a statement this morning.

The statement, issued Friday by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), came after three days of meetings among the group’s national board and is the first official public response to the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith’s April 18 assessment of the organization, which represents some 80 percent of U.S. Catholic sisters.

That stinging Vatican assessment ordered LCWR to revise its statutes, programs and affiliations and place itself under the authority of Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain.

Friday’s statement said that during their meetings this week LCWR national board members raised concerns about “both the content of the doctrinal assessment and the process by which it was prepared” and that the group’s president and executive director will soon travel to Rome to “raise and discuss” their concerns with Vatican officials.

“Board members concluded that the assessment was based on unsubstantiated accusations and the result of a flawed process that lacked transparency,” the statement continues.

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UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

Posted: Fri, 01 Jun 2012

By Terry Sanderson

It’s always a pleasure to read that the Pope is upset. Nobody deserves to be upset more than His Holiness.

This time Mr Ratzinger is wailing about the publication of a book, His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI, by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi. It is based on documents leaked from the Vatican by un-named sources. The documents reveal a web of corruption and cronyism within the walls of Vatican City that would put a Dan Brown novel to shame.

You can read some of the details in this article.

The Vatican launched an investigation into who could have passed the documents on to the journalist and eventually pinpointed the Pope’s valet, Paolo Gabriele. Yes, the butler did it!

Or that’s according to the Vatican who are now suspected of making this poor man — presently under arrest by the Vatican police — a fall guy.

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COLORADO
The Gazette

LANCE BENZEL
THE GAZETTE

A retired Catholic priest who was suspended from a Colorado Springs church in January amid a police investigation was charged in court Thursday with several counts alleging he sexually assaulted a child.

Charles Robert Manning, 77, attended a hearing in Colorado Springs with a walker and an oxygen tank – his first public appearance here since Colorado Springs police announced his May 22 arrest.

Details of his alleged crimes weren’t released, however, and an arrest affidavit describing the case has been sealed by court order.

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COLORADO
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Associated Press | Posted: Thursday, May 31, 2012

A retired Roman Catholic priest has been formally charged with sexually assaulting a child.

The Gazette reports ( http://bit.ly/L1cPPn) Charles Robert Manning appeared in court in Colorado Springs on Thursday. He is charged with three counts of sex assault on a child by one in a position of trust, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and two counts of sexual exploitation of children.

Details of the allegations haven’t been disclosed. Lawyers for both sides declined to comment outside the courtroom.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By GRETCHEN EHLKE • Associated Press | Posted: Friday, June 1, 2012

MILWAUKEE • The Archdiocese of Milwaukee and a former priest who received money to leave the ministry after allegations of sexual abuse say that payment and others were a form of charity meant to help men transition to a new life.

The archdiocese acknowledged paying suspected pedophile clergy after an abuse victims’ group produced a court document on Wednesday that mentioned a 2003 proposal to pay $20,000 to “unassignable priests” who agree to leave the ministry. The document from the archdiocese’s bankruptcy proceedings includes minutes from a 2003 meeting of its Finance Council, which included then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan, a St. Louis native who is now a cardinal and head of the New York archdiocese.

Council members discussed how the church should handle sexual abuse complaints, a potential budget deficit and how to cut costs. The $20,000 payments were among the options mentioned.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests characterizes the payments as a payoff to priests who molested children.

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UNITED STATES
The Windsor Star

Postmedia News Services
June 1, 2012

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan authorized $20,000 payments to a handful of sexually abusive priests so they would immediately leave the Milwaukee archdiocese when Dolan was archbishop there nearly a decade ago, a church spokeswoman said on Thursday.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests first announced the payments on Wednesday upon discovering minutes of a March 2003 meeting of the Milwaukee archdiocese finance council meeting. SNAP is demanding full disclosure of all such payments.

Church officials confirmed the payments as approved in the minutes, but archdiocese spokeswoman Julie Wolf said she had yet to determine how many priests got them, estimating the number at “a handful.”

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UNITED STATES
New York Post

[Minutes of the Archdiocesan Finance Council]

By DAN MANGAN

Last Updated: 5:36 AM, June 1, 2012

An advocacy group for clerical-sex-abuse victims yesterday charged that New York Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan, while heading the Milwaukee archdiocese six years ago, “lied” when he denied any “payoff” to encourage a pedophile priest to leave the priesthood.

“The disturbing new revelations about Cardinal Dolan raise a troubling question: What other secret deals and ‘incentives’ did and does he offer to pedophile priests?” asked David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Dolan’s New York Archdiocese spokesman, Joseph Zwilling, yesterday refused to directly respond to Clohessy’s claims. Zwilling instead said only that the cardinal supported the Milwaukee Archdiocese’s claim that there was no “payoff” to pedophile priests, only “charity.”

Clohessy’s allegation came after disclosures this week that while serving as Milwaukee archbishop in 2003, Dolan agreed to pay accused pedophile priests $20,000 in exchange for their agreeing to leave the priesthood.

In 2006, Dolan had strongly denied a victims-advocate’s claim that pedophile priest Franklyn Becker was paid $10,000 in exchange for his voluntary laicization, telling the Milwaukee Sentinel:

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Columbus Dispatch

By Michael O’Malley
THE PLAIN DEALER

Friday June 1, 2012

Bishop Richard Lennon of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland said in a letter yesterday that he has not suspended the Rev. Robert Marrone from his ministry, despite what Marrone told his breakaway congregation this week.

Lennon, writing to priests and deacons, said that on May 22, he met with Marrone to encourage him to remove himself as pastor of the Community of St. Peter and to reconcile with the Catholic Church. The bishop said he gave Marrone seven days to respond.

Although Marrone responded that he would not leave his congregation, Lennon said in his letter that he has not suspended the priest. Instead, the bishop wrote, he has “begun an investigation to determine whether a canonical penalty is to be imposed.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Steve Tawa

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — After all-day closing arguments on Thursday, the judge in the landmark clergy child sex abuse case was expected to charge the jury on Friday morning, followed by deliberations.

The lead defendant, Monsignor William Lynn, is the first U-S Roman Catholic church official to be charged criminally with child endangerment.

Defense lawyer Thomas Bergstrom told jurors like the play and movie ’12 Angry Men,’ this case was about ‘reasonable doubt,’ and it’s an enormous safeguard in the justice system.

He told jurors if they ‘hesitate’ after listening to the judge’s charge on that point, Monsignor Lynn should be acquitted on two counts of child endangerment and conspiracy. Bergstrom argued prosecutors were seeking to convict Lynn for ‘documenting the evil that other men did.’

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VATICAN CITY
Firstpost

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – They are the pope’s shadow, his bodyguards both within the borders of the Vatican and during trips abroad. They are the police of the world’s smallest state.

But while the Vatican’s gendarmes are trained to protect Benedict XVI from external threats, this time they are hunting people who may be hiding within his inner circle.

Together with other arcane institutions of the ancient Vatican state, they are trying to track down who is behind a leak of the pope’s secret papers in a scandal that has shaken the papacy after the arrest of his butler.

The prosecution will be led by the “Promotor of Justice,” Nicola Picardi, who like other top officials in the Vatican’s judiciary is named by the pope and exercises his powers on the pontiff’s behalf.

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VATICAN CITY
Swissinfo

By Silvia Aloisi

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican’s justice system harks back to medieval times and is unlikely to provide the pope’s butler with fair treatment after his arrest for leaking confidential documents, according to a French lawyer involved in a previous case in the Holy See.

Luc Brossollet is not involved in the so-called “Vatileaks” case shaking the papacy but he said his personal experience suggested the Vatican’s judiciary is under the thumb of the Holy See and allows scant regard for the rights of defendants.

Brossollet was lawyer for the mother of Cedric Tornay, a young soldier in the Swiss Guard, the Pope’s personal protection unit, who was found dead in May 1998 in a Vatican apartment alongside the bodies of the corp’s commander and his wife.

“The Vatican does not have a modern, democratic judicial system that guarantees the defendant’s rights. We are back to the Middle Ages. Even the Inquisition had some rules, but they don’t have any. They just do as they wish,” Brossollet told Reuters by telephone from Paris.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 31, 2012

Documents recently exposed in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee showed that NY Cardinal Timothy Dolan paid predator priests $20,000 to quietly leave the priesthood. Yeah, really.

The response from Dolan? Cue the crickets. But that doesn’t mean that Dolan’s apologists have also clammed up. In fact, they have been very loud in defending Dolan, saying, “Well, at least he got rid of these bad apples.” If you want to read those articles, you can look them up. I really don’t want to drive traffic to them via my links.

I am not going to rehash the same news you can find on a million other websites. I am also not going to restate the 9,000 fine points of the public safety hazard Dolan caused. Every point is painfully obvious to anyone with a soul. Instead, this post is about why the apologists are dead wrong.

1) This ain’t the Wizard of Oz, sister. So quit trying to divert my attention.

The Catholic League, Archbishop Charles Chaput and others always like to say, “There’s nothing to see here. Abuse is way worse in public schools. It’s a liberal conspiracy.” Here are my responses: Yes there is; Maybe; and Hell, no.

Lady Justice carries a sword and scales. Do you know why? So that she may not remove the blindfold from her eyes. Justice must remain blind, whether you wear the clerical collar or are a federal politician. What murderer could stand before the court and say, “Gee, maybe I killed one person, but look at Hitler. He killed millions.” It’s a ridiculous argument and should be viewed as such.

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CANADA
APTN

By Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
The identities and bodies of many First Nations children who died in Indian residential schools may be lost forever, says the Ontario Coroner’s Office which has been working with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to sift through one of the darkest periods in Canadian history to find the dead.

“Hundreds, if not thousands” of Indigenous children who went to residential schools died while in the care of the churches and Canadian government, according to Murray Sinclair, the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Many of their parents were never told of the deaths and the bodies buried in unmarked graves across the country.

The Ontario Coroner’s Office has been working with the TRC since January to uncover any archival records that could be use to trace children who never made it home. The TRC has taken on the task of identifying and finding the graves of the children who disappeared.

The search for records initially screened about 250,000 files which were narrowed down to 5,000 that were individually examined. The results produced 120 cases that could lead to the identification of children who died in residential schools.

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CANADA
Kingston This Week

By Katrina Geenevasen/Kingston This Week

A local author has written a book about the tragedy of Indian Residential Schools, which saw more than 150,000 First Nations children taken from their families between 1883 and 1996.

“I think that I was fated to the task from early childhood,” said Bob Wells, author of Wawahte. “I grew up in remote Northwestern Ontario, at the time in our history when many people lived as ‘we’ and ‘them.’ As a child, it did not seem fair to me that my friends were being treated differently than I was.”

The book is written in two parts. The first part tells readers about the experiences of three children who attended residential schools. Through the eyes of Esther Faries, Bunny Galvin and Stanley Stephens, readers travel back to a time of forced assimilation.

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VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

The ‘Vatileaks’ scandal has lifted the lid on a world of Catholic clerical intrigue and rivalry in the Holy See.

By Peter Stanford

7:56PM BST 31 May 2012

A British diplomat, sent as Her Majesty’s representative to the Holy See, once characterised the Vatican as being like a palace, floating adrift from the rest of the world. It is an image that has surfaced again this week with the extraordinary spectacle of the “Vatileaks” scandal, in which Pope Benedict XVI’s butler has been accused of passing stolen documents to the Italian press at the behest of senior clerics who want to discredit their rivals at the papal court.

Paolo Gabriele, a 46-year-old valet who has worked for Benedict since 2006, is being held in custody in “secure rooms” within the Vatican, the world’s smallest sovereign state at just 108 acres. As a Vatican citizen, one of only 600, he faces being dealt with by its own justice system rather than the courts in Rome, which surrounds this enclave.

Not that the international boundary that cuts across Saint Peter’s Square has deterred the Italian press from working itself up into a frenzy. Among the revelations in the private documents are details of church tax problems, its handling of child sex abuse cases, and the on-going negotiations between Benedict and ultra traditionalist “Lefebvrists”, currently excommunicated from the Church, but whom the Pope wants to readmit to his flock, apparently at any price.

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SPOKANE (WA)
Catholic Culture

A pact mediated by a federal judge has prevented the foreclosure of 22 parishes in the Diocese of Spokane, which had filed for bankruptcy in 2004.

A 2007 bankruptcy settlement plan “provided for the possibility of claims to be made after the bar date of March 2007, for a period of nine years, or until 2016,” Bishop Blase Cupich explained. “At that time, one million dollars were set aside to cover these ‘future claims.’ 22 parishes in Spokane County stepped forward on behalf of all the parishes in the diocese to offer their parish properties as collateral to assure that awards exceeding this one million dollar amount would be paid.”

“The trustee appointed to oversee the bankruptcy plan informed me that the one million dollar fund would soon be exhausted with the payment of several future claims awards and that we would need to recapitalize the future claims fund immediately or face foreclosure on parish and school properties to satisfy this obligation,” he added in a letter to parishioners.

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MISSISSIPPI
Hattiesburg American

JACKSON — The state Court of Appeals has upheld an award of $500,000 to a teenager who was sexually abused by workers at facilities operated by the Mississippi Department of Human Services in Starkville and Ackerman.

In 2007, the Appeals Court upheld a Hinds County judge’s ruling that MDHS was liable for failing to protect the minor from sexual abuse by workers at the two facilities and to monitor his treatment. The court record shows the teen was in MDHS custody and assigned to the facilities.

The case was returned to Hinds County for determination of damages. The two sides allowed the judge to determine damages. Circuit Judge Winston Kidd in 2010 awarded the teenager $500,000.

On Tuesday, the Appeals Court, in a 5-5 decision, upheld the damage award.

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SPOKANE (WA)
Catholic News Agency

Spokane, Wash., Jun 1, 2012 / 02:04 am (CNA).- The Diocese of Spokane, Wash. has reached a mediation agreement in a sex abuse suit that will save parishes from foreclosure, reduce the diocese’s legal fees and compensate victims, Bishop Blase J. Cupich announced.

“This is an important and significant turning point in a very sad chapter of our diocesan history,” Bishop Cupich said in a May 27 letter to the diocese’s parishioners.

“We can never forget the harm done to children, who deserved better from the Church and her ministers. Once again, I apologize to the survivors of sexual abuse by clergy and to the families of survivors.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The New York Times

By ERIK ECKHOLM

Published: May 31, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — In an emotional summary after more than two months of testimony, the prosecution in a landmark sexual-abuse trial said here on Thursday that overwhelming evidence showed that a Roman Catholic Church official had shielded predatory priests, lied to parishioners and victims, and exposed innocent children to abuse.

But a defense lawyer for the official, Msgr. William J. Lynn, told the jury that Monsignor Lynn had done all he could to protect children within his limited powers and that he deserved praise rather than condemnation.

Monsignor Lynn, 61, as secretary of the clergy for the Philadelphia Archdiocese from 1992 to 2004, was responsible for priests’ assignments and for investigating abuse allegations. He is on trial for endangering minors and conspiracy to keep an accused priest in active ministry, charges that could carry a sentence of 10 ½ to 21 years.

He is the first Catholic Church official in the country to face criminal charges not for committing abuses himself, but for enabling abuses by playing down credible accusations and reassigning suspect priests to new parishes.

The two sides both made their closing arguments on Thursday before Judge M. Teresa Sarmina of Common Pleas Court. The judge is expected to explain the charges to the jury on Friday morning, and then deliberations will begin.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

[Minutes of the Archdiocesan Finance Council]

by Jimmy Akin Thursday, May 31, 2012

Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times has (yet another) deceptively crafted hit piece on the Catholic Church.

Surprise!

You can read it here.

The piece is headlined:

In Milwaukee Post, Cardinal Authorized Paying Abusers

Not the best headline I’ve ever read. It left me scratching my head, wondering whether a Cardinal had authorized paying abusers in a newspaper called the Milwaukee Post.

Apparently this isn’t even the only headline the article has had, because at the bottom of the column, in tiny, hard-to-read grey print, it says:

A version of this article appeared in print on May 31, 2012, on page A20 of the New York edition with the headline: Cardinal Authorized Payments To Abusers.

That would have been even more misleading–implying that the Cardinal (who we soon learn is Cardinal Dolan of New York) was authorizing payments to abusers in New York.

But regardless of where the alleged paying of abusers took place, there is still a further misleading aspect to the headline–and to the article itself. It is the word “paying.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CNN

From Sarah Hoye, CNN

updated 5:28 AM EDT, Fri June 1, 2012

Philadelphia (CNN) — Jury deliberations could start Friday in the landmark trial of Monsignor William Lynn, the highest-ranking cleric charged with endangering children by allegedly helping cover up sexual abuse.

Lynn, a defendant with another Philadelphia priest, is accused of knowingly allowing dangerous priests to continue in the ministry in roles in which they had access to children.

Also on trial is the Rev. James Brennan, who is accused of the attempted rape of a 14-year-old. Both Brennan and Lynn have pleaded not guilty.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
San Antonio Express-News

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

GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press

Updated 04:27 a.m., Friday, June 1, 2012

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The priest always started his favorite “game” by having the young boy remove his underwear and put on loose-fitting shorts so he could fondle him more easily. Then, the Rev. Robert Van Handel would run his hands up and down the child’s body as he stretched across his lap, Walkman headphones on his ears, pretending to be asleep.

The recollection appears in a 27-page “sexual history” written by Van Handel, a defrocked Franciscan cleric who is accused of molesting at least 17 boys, including his own 5-year-old nephew, local children in his boys’ choir and students at the seminary boarding school where he taught.

The essay, penned for a therapy assignment and kept secret for years, provides a shockingly candid and detailed window into the troubled mind of a notorious pedophile priest. The narrative is believed to be the first of its kind to be publicly revealed through civil litigation despite years of lawsuits targeting sexually abusive priests.

Most confidential files unearthed in court cases only hint at the existence of sexual histories, which are a common part of therapy meant to be seen only by the priest and his psychologist, said attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who has handled more than 2,000 church abuse cases.

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