ABUSE TRACKER

VATIKAN
Tagesschau

Im Prozess gegen den früheren Kammerdiener von Papst Benedikt XVI. sind neue Details zur Dimension des Diebstahls bekannt geworden. Polizisten fanden in der Wohnung des Kammerdieners etwa 1000 vertrauliche Papiere. Nur ein Bruchteil davon wurde bislang veröffentlicht.

Von Tilmann Kleinung, ARD-Hörfunkstudio Rom

Der ehemalige Kammerdiener des Papstes, Paolo Gabriele hat sich offenbar im Lauf der Jahre ein regelrechtes Privatarchiv angelegt. Die Polizisten, die heute vor dem vatikanischen Gericht aussagten, bestätigten, dass sie alles in allem 82 Umzugskartons aus der Wohnung Gabrieles heraus getragen hatten. Voll mit Kopien und Originaldokumenten aus dem Büro des Papstes und seines Sekretärs.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Schafsbrief

.Ein Schaf fordert den Rücktritt von Bischof Ackermann als Missbrauchsbeauftragter der deutschen Bischofskonferenz. Ein zweites überlegt noch. Hat aber schon mal Fakten gesammelt:

Von und für + Dr. Stephan Ackermann, dem Missbrauchbeauftragten der deutschen Bischofskonferenz

In Würdigung seiner Taten für uns arme betroffene Schweine.

In Anerkennung seines Leids mit dem leidigen Thema.

Auch wir sind der Meinung: Null Toleranz gegenüber der Nicht-Tat,

aber Nachssehen mit dem Untätigen.

Und für ein Quantanamo für Vertuscherbischöfe.

Das Schwarzbuch der Opferverarsche Teil 1:

Beispiel 1: Treffen im bischöflichen Generalvikariat am 11.01.2012:

… Trier – Sexuelle Gewalt verjährt moralisch nie. Zugleich sollten die zivilrechtlichen Verjährungsfristen verlängert werden. Das hat der Trierer Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann am 11. Januar in Trier betont. Bischof Ackermann hatte die haupt- und ehrenamtlichen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter des Bistums und weitere Interessierte zu einem Meinungsaustausch zum Thema „Sexueller Missbrauch“ eingeladen. In dem Gespräch ging es um die Fragen, wie die Aufarbeitung von Fällen sexueller Gewalt gut gelingen kann, wie ein angemessener Umgang mit den Opfern, aber auch mit den betroffenen Gemeinden möglich ist und wie eine Kultur der Achtsamkeit im Bistum Trier noch stärker etabliert werden kann. Rund 200 Interessierte folgten der Einladung des Trierer Bischofs.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Schafsbrief

Heute sollte eigentlich in der ZDF-Sendung frontal21 ein Bericht über die Vorgänge am Aloisiuskolleg gesendet werden. Kam nix. Nach Informationen von schafbrief.de wurde die Ausstrahlung wohl auf juristische Intervention hin (?) abgesetzt.

Auch ein WDR-Videobeitrag, der vom Gerichtstermin am letzten Mittwoch berichtete ist derzeit nicht mehr auf der WDR-Seite abrufbar. Auf Nachfragen unseres Netzwerkes war hier wohl auch Juristerei im Spiel.

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CHILE
kathweb

Vatikan nahm im April Ermittlungen gegen Bischof Ordenes von Iquique auf und bot zeitgleich Opfern psychologische und medizinische Betreuung an

03.10.2012

Santiago, 03.10.2012 (KAP) Die Chilenische Bischofskonferenz hat am Dienstag (Ortszeit) Untersuchungen gegen Bischof Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez (47) bestätigt. Dem Bischof von Iquique wird sexueller Missbrauch in mehreren Fällen vorgeworfen. Um sich zu den Vorwürfen zu äußern, soll Ordenes in den kommenden Tagen aus Peru nach Chile zurückkehren, wo er sich derzeit wegen eines Leberleidens behandeln lässt.

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OSTERREICH
Vorarlberg

Der Vorarlberger Autor Hans Weiss hat Gewaltätigkeiten und sexuellen Missbrauch an Kindern in 135 Heimen untersucht. In seinem eben erschienenen Buch „Tatort Kinderheim“ beleuchtet der Autor auch Vorfälle im Klostergymnasium Mehrerau.

Bis weit ins letzte Drittel des 20. Jahrhunderts waren Kinder- und Jugendheime in Österreich „Zentren der Gewalttätigkeit und des sexuellen Missbrauchs“. Zu diesem Befund kommt der Autor Hans Weiss in seinem Buch „Tatort Kinderheim“, das am Montagabend in der Wiener Hauptbücherei vorgestellt wird.

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OSTERREICH
Mein Bezirk

Beim unabhängigen „Anwalt für Opfer von Gewalt und sexuellem Missbrauch in kirchlichen Einrichtungen“ und der „Ombudsstelle der Diözese Gurk für Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs in der Kirche“ hat es von 1995, seit Installierung der Ombudsstelle, bis heute insgesamt 43 Kontaktnahmen gegeben.

Von diesen 43 Kontaktnahmen erfolgten elf anonym, sechs Fälle sind bereits seit mindestens sieben Jahren abgeschlossen. Durch diese Kontaktnahmen wurden Verdachtsfälle von Gewalt und sexuellem Missbrauch in kirchlichen Einrichtungen in der Diözese Gurk gemeldet, die alle – bis auf einen Fall aus dem Jahr 2002, bei dem die Staatsanwaltschaft die Vorerhebung eingestellt hat – mehr als 30 Jahre zurückliegen.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Today was the third hearing of the Paolo Gabriele case. During today’s testimonies, descriptions were given of the seized letters and books which the Pope’s former butler had kept in paper and digital format

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

The poison pen letter writer’s strange 007-style archive. Letters from politicians, correspondence between cardinals and the Pope and documents on freemasonry and secret services. When Paolo Gabriele’s house was searched on 23 May, for the leaked Vatican documents, the hunt extended to the children’s rooms as well. As the search dragged on and Gabriele had decided not to send his family away, the commander of the Vatican Gendarmerie, Domenico Giani, issued an order for the search in the children’s rooms to be speeded up so as to protect them as afar as possible and allow them to sleep.

On the third day of the butler’s trial, the four Vatican policemen who were heard in court, provided information on the scene where they discovered the poison pen letter writer’s dossier. Two of the m in particular – Silvano Carli and Luca Bassetti – arrived on the scene when the house search was already underway, especially to look through the children’s rooms. The policemen said that Gabriele offered them coffee during the search and then said to them: “It’s a pity you’ll be finish here late tonight, as you can see I like reading and writing.”

Eighty two crates of seized material were taken from the former butler’s house, plus two leather briefcases and two yellow folders full of letters. “Paolo Gabriele thanked us again and again for the humane attitude shown throughout the investigation.”

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

HEATHER SCOFFIELD

OTTAWA — The Canadian Press

The federal government has been billed more than $3-million for its unsuccessful attempts to keep a high-stakes battle over first nations child welfare out of the courts.

Invoices obtained through the Access to Information Act show the Justice Department, acting on behalf of Aboriginal Affairs, paid out at least $3.1-million for legal services between 2007 and June 2012.

Government lawyers were trying to quash claims from first nations child rights advocates that Ottawa is short-changing native communities by funding child welfare services at 22 per cent below provincial levels.

The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations launched a human rights challenge that dates back to 2007.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by
Carol Glatz,
Cindy Wooden,
Catholic News Service

Vatican police officers who searched Paolo Gabriele’s apartment testified they found “an infinite amount” of documents and news clippings covering a vast range of topics, including the Masons, the Vatican bank and yoga.

Although they sequestered 82 moving boxes full of materials, once the police inspected all the paper, only a fraction of the material was deemed relevant to the case, officers told a three-judge panel on the third day of the “VatiLeaks” trial.

Vatican judges said they would hear closing arguments Saturday; a verdict was possible the same day.

Each of the four police officers testifying Wednesday also said they did not wear gloves during the search, saying that was not the usual protocol for conducting a search and seizure of paper.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The trial of Pope Benedict Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler for stealing documents is due to end on Saturday, the Vatican has announced.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi confirmed the trial would end just hours before a major Vatican conference of the world’s bishops.

Paolo Gabriele’s arrest and trial have proved embarrassing for the Vatican, correspondents say.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Providence Journal

October 3, 2012

By Thomas J. Morgan …

20 years ago today:
Former priest James R. Porter likely will challenge on constitutional grounds the child molestation charges brought against him in North Attleboro, Fall River and New Bedford between 1961 and 1967, local criminal lawyers say. A key issue is expected to be the state’s statute of limitations.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Ralph Riegel and Barry Duggan

Wednesday October 03 2012

A parish priest has slated Taoiseach Enda Kenny as “a dope” over the controversy surrounding his Vatican visit.

Fr Gabriel Burke, a priest in the diocese of Cloyne, Co Cork, also demanded answers as to why “spin doctors” hinted that the Taoiseach was ever going to get a private meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.

Fr Burke yesterday told the Irish Independent that it was “inevitable” people would interpret the Taoiseach’s constant fiddling with his mobile phone during a speech by the Pope as “bad manners”.

“If he was a true statesman he would have had a well-worded press release that would have said absolutely nothing — but for that you need intelligence. Remember, Indy (sic) is a trained school teacher and only a few weeks ago told us Lenin came to Ireland,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Newswire

Contact: Robyn Williams, 360-802‐9758, robyn@winepresspublishing.com

ROCK ISLAND, Ill./ENUMCLAW, Wash., Oct. 3, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ — As a young child, Bill Christman experienced the ultimate betrayal. Sexually abused by a Catholic priest, Bill’s life was set down a path of fear, rage, violence, drug abuse and alcoholism to mask the pain.

For Bill, the trauma of his priest’s perverse pleasures had taunted, and then ruined his childhood innocence. Playful boyhood pranks spiraled into patterns of anger, fits of rage, and lawless violence. Alcohol and drugs played their part, pushed him into homelessness, and finally brought him to his knees. Desperate, Bill cried out to God for an answer.

Through AA he stopped drinking, but inner misery cloaked him like an angry shroud. How could he find the peace he craved? A fellow AA member — ironically, a priest — soon became his emotional and spiritual mentor.

Wanting only an apology, and encouraged to go through proper channels within his Diocese, Bill was forced to engage a lawyer. A series of tense, intimidating and seemingly fruitless meetings dragged on but through the support of godly Catholic priests, Bill did the unthinkable: he faced his abuser, released the burden of hate, and received the gift of forgiveness. A visit to the Vatican with his mentor leads to Bill receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation and a touch from God.

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UNITED STATES
What They Knew

Given our previous post publishing the Christmas card sent by Pope Benedict in December 2006 to Donald McGuire SJ in prison after his conviction for child molestation, WTK thinks it’s only appropriate to show you what the Pope got from the Jesuit sex abuse and priest Donald McGuire SJ who was first convicted in a public trial by jury in February 2006. It was widely known HERE.

So there is no confusion as to what Pope Benedict knew, below is the letter he received from Donald McGuire SJ or Registered Sex Offender/Inmate 00499325 (link to Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry) for 944.11: Indecent Behavior with a Child, Conviction Date 02/23/2006. The letter and the card pretty much tell you everything anyone, including his friend the Pope, would need to know.

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MISSOURI
Belleville News-Democrat

By CHRIS BLANK — Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A federal judge rejected a request to stop Missouri from enforcing a new state law that makes it a crime to disturb a worship service, but opponents vowed Tuesday to press on with their efforts to overturn it and said they are confident they’ll eventually succeed.

Missouri’s worship law, which took effect in August, makes it a misdemeanor to intentionally disturb or interrupt a “house of worship” with profane language, rude or indecent behavior or noise that breaks the solemnity of the service. First-time offenders face up to six months in jail and a $500 fine, and repeat offenders face escalating penalties, culminating in up to four years in prison.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is suing to overturn the law on behalf of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, another group and two individuals, sought a preliminary injunction from the U.S. District Court in St. Louis that would bar enforcement of the law pending the outcome of the lawsuit.

Senior Judge E. Richard Webber rejected the request in a 16-page ruling issued last week. He found that the plaintiffs didn’t sufficiently show they were likely to win, and he said the hardship caused by blocking the law would exceed that of allowing it to stand.

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Oct. 2, 2012

It is a story almost too horrible to comprehend.

Deaf boys sent by their parents to a Catholic boarding school in Wisconsin, where they were molested again and again by a popular priest who stalked them in their dorm rooms at night, on trips to his North Woods cabin, even in the confessional.

Dismissed as “mentally retarded,” they were often not believed, or worse ignored, for years by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, police, prosecutors and the media.

Gary Smith and Arthur Budzinski are among the victims of the late Father Lawrence Murphy who have worked for decades to make their voices heard. Their heartbreaking accounts have since been told on the pages of the Journal Sentinel and The New York Times.

Now they’ll reach a new and potentially wider audience with the release of an HBO documentary by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

Illinois Justice Anne M. Burke (wife of Chicago ward boss Ed Burke) once served as the interim chair of the National Review Board, a lay group who advises the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on sex abuse policy. However, after her spiteful speech at this year’s Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) Conference, one cannot help but ask, “If these are the ‘faithful,’ who needs enemies?”

Burke’s 30-minute diatribe on September 14 at the Boston get-together took sharp aim at the Church’s bishops, as she accused Church leaders of:
■treating lay people as “second class citizens” and “serfs”;
■asking Catholics “to check [their] brains at the front door”;
■prioritizing “pride, untruths, [and] protecting the institution at all costs”;
■implementing “a needless attack upon the women religious”;
■”resurrecting the Inquisition”; and
■committing a “new form of lay abuse.”

Just.plain.weird

Yet the most bizarre aspect of Burke’s speech was her citations of various cultural and Church figures sprinkled in her talk. Among others, Burke variously quoted Cher, Wayne Gretzky, John Wayne, Thomas Edison, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, John F. Kennedy, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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OHIO
The Columbus Dispatch

By John Futty
The Columbus DispatchTuesday October 2, 2012

A group that advocates for the victims of sexual abuse by priests wants a more thorough investigation of a Greek Orthodox priest who pleaded guilty last week to seeking sex with boys.

The case of Patrick N. Hughes, known as Father Nicholas, deserves closer scrutiny in light of concerns expressed by a fellow cleric in Ashland County, according to members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

The group’s Columbus director, Carol Zamonski, hand-delivered a letter to Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien today, asking him “to seek out and offer encouragement to others with knowledge of or suspicions about Hughes’ misdeeds or the Greek Orthodox hierarchy’s complicity.”

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on October 2, 2012

It isn’t about faith, it’s about crime.

Here are five reasons you should care about the Catholic Clergy Sex Abuse and Cover-up Crisis:

1) Many church officials have broken and are breaking the law. The William Lynn trial in Philadelphia and the child pornography cover-up scandal in Kansas City are only unique because church officials—Former Philadelphia Vicar for Clergy Msgr. William Lynn and Kansas City’s Bishop Finn—were criminally punished.

In Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Gallup, Seattle, Fairbanks, Boston, Toledo, Wilmington DE, and elsewhere, these crimes have continued for decades, but have never been punished because statutes of limitations have passed or church officials kept evidence hidden. The children who were injured came from many faiths and all income levels. They all had one thing in common: they were vulnerable.

2) The Church uses your tax dollars to pay for victims’ care. Victims of child sexual abuse are horribly injured, and many suffer for decades after the abuse. In most cases, the church knows exactly who the predators are, where they worked, whom they encountered, and who the victims are. Or, they can easily find out.

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VATICAN CITY
Belfast Telegraph

Vatican police found thousands of documents hidden inside the home of the pope’s butler, including originals signed by the pontiff with indications they should be destroyed.

Officers gave evidence in the trial of Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s once-trusted butler who faces four years in prison if convicted of aggravated theft for stealing papal documents and leaking them to a journalist.

The final four witnesses were heard and closing arguments are set for Saturday, when a verdict by the three-judge Vatican panel is expected.

Inspector Silvano Carli said that of the hundreds of thousands of documents seized from Gabriele’s home, about 1,000 were of interest since they were original or photocopied Vatican documents.

Some documents came from the pope’s office, some carried the processing codes of the secretariat of state, others originated in various Vatican congregations “and some documents concerned the total privacy and private life of the Holy Father,” said police officer Stefano De Santis.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella and Naomi O’Leary

VATICAN CITY | Wed Oct 3, 2012

(Reuters) – Pope Benedict’s former butler Paolo Gabriele, on trial for stealing and leaking papal documents, possessed papers the pope had marked “to be destroyed,” police testified at his Vatican trial on Wednesday.

On the third day of the process, held under a 19th century Italian penal code, members of the Holy See’s small police force said the theft of encrypted documents had compromised some Vatican operations.

They also found instructions that Gabriele had printed on how to hide files in computers and how to use cellphones secretly.

Members of the Corps of Gendarmerie said many newspaper clippings, books and other material seized in the search of Gabriele’s apartment showed he was fascinated by the occult, Masonic lodges, secret services, and past Vatican and Italian scandals.

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VATICAN CITY
Fox News

Published October 03, 2012

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – Members of the Vatican police force have testified that they found thousands of pages of documents — about Freemasonry, secret service security forces and internal Vatican letters — inside the Vatican City apartment of Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler, who is on trial for aggravated theft.

Their testimony continues Wednesday in a Vatican courtroom in the trial of Paolo Gabriele, the 46-year-old father of three who faces four years in prison if convicted.

On Tuesday, Gabriele declared himself innocent of the charge, but acknowledged he photocopied the pope’s private correspondence, in broad daylight and in the presence of others, using the photocopier in the office he shared with the pope’s two private secretaries.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

A jury has failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a young girl nearly 30 years ago.

Jurors returned to Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday after over five hours of deliberations to say they couldn’t agree on a verdict in the trial of Father Peter Donnelly and the foreman said there was no prospect of them doing so.

Donnelly, from Drumaroad Hill in Castlewellan, had denied six counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency against the girl.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

JOANNE HUNT

PROVIDING TREATMENT for those who sexually abuse children is essential to breaking the cycle of abuse, a victim support group has said.

One in Four, which treated 28 sex offenders last year, says that with fewer than 5 per cent of offenders ever convicted, there is a great need for treatment in the community.

“Research consistently shows that effective treatment programmes reduce the risk of reoffending, yet most sex offenders in Ireland do not have access to treatment,” said executive director of the body Maeve Lewis.

“We also know that many sex offenders will continue to abuse throughout their lives until they are caught. While good programmes are available in prison, fewer than 5 per cent of sex offenders will ever be convicted. There is a huge need for treatment in the community.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

The jury has been discharged in the trial of a priest accused of sexually abusing a young girl almost 30 years ago, after failing to reach a verdict.

Fr Peter Donnelly, from Castlewellan, denies six counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency.

The alleged victim claimed it happened at the parochial house of St Matthew’s Church, Belfast, where he was curate.

The jury foreman told the judge there was no prospect of them agreeing on a verdict.

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OHIO
Fox 19

LOGAN, Ohio (AP) – A former southeastern Ohio youth pastor has pleaded guilty to sex charges involving a 13-year-old girl in the congregation.

The Logan Daily News (http://bit.ly/Ry1Ggg ) reports that 31-year-old Travis Branstetter pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts of attempted gross sexual imposition as part of a negotiated plea agreement. Other charges were dropped.

Branstetter was an ordained minister who was youth pastor for five years at the Church of the Nazarene in Logan, about 50 miles southeast of Columbus.

A judge said he could get up to three years in prison, but his attorney will ask for probation and other sanctions. He will be sentenced Dec. 21.

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OHIO
Logan Daily News

BY DEBRA TOBIN Logan Daily News Reporter dtobin@logandaily.com

LOGAN — Travis Branstetter, a former youth pastor of the Church of the Nazarene in South Logan who was charged with 10 counts of sexual battery and four counts of sexual imposition in October 2011, appeared in Hocking County Common Pleas Court with his attorneys Kevin O’Brien and Tom Martello as part of a plea agreement on Tuesday.

Branstetter pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted gross sexual imposition, all fifth degree felonies.

Upon request by the victim’s family, Hocking County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Archer addressed the court with regard to a plea agreement with Branstetter.

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CHILE
El Boyaldia

[The Diocese of Iquique made a statement.]

El Departamento de Comunicaciones del Obispado de Iquique, ante las noticias aparecidas en los medios de comunicación social, declara:

– Que efectivamente, monseñor Marco Antonio Órdenes Fernández, Obispo de Iquique, está siendo investigado canónicamente por una denuncia formulada en su contra.

– Que efectivamente, como se ha dicho, monseñor Órdenes Fernández, padece de una antigua afección al hígado, lo que terminó transformándose en una descompensación enzimática y en un agudo estrés.

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CHILE
Terra

La Fiscalía Regional de Tarapacá informó este martes que el obispo de Iquique, Marco Antonio Órdenes Fernández, fue investigado hace algunos años por el Ministerio Público por una denuncia de delito sexual interpuesta por los padres de una víctima que, a la fecha de la denuncia, ya era mayor de edad. Estos hechos corresponderían a los mismos denunciados ante las autoridades eclesiásticas.

Esta causa fue objeto de conocimiento en su momento por la Fiscalía Local de Iquique, bajo el mandato del ex Fiscal Regional, Claudio Roe. Considerando que el espíritu de la denuncia era más que investigar el hecho ocurrido años anteriores, que estaría eventualmente prescrito, el que se evitara la repetición o comisión de hechos similares en otras víctimas, se realizaron diversas diligencias policiales que no arrojaron resultados positivos.

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CHILE
Radio Santiago

Por orden del Vaticano se inició una investigación eclesiástica de carácter previo respecto del obispo de Iquique, Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernández. La indagatoria que comenzó hace cerca de cuatro meses y busca esclarecer la veracidad de una denuncia de abuso sexual a un menor, que afecta al prelado de 47 años.

Debido a la investidura de Ordenes, las pesquisas no se encargaron a un sacerdote en Chile, sino que fueron derivadas al nuncio apostólico Ivo Scapolo, representante del Vaticano en el país.

Según información de tres fuentes ligadas a la Iglesia, el nuncio deberá analizar la verosimilitud o no de los hechos y determinar si existen más denuncias en contra del religioso.

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CHILE
Conferencia Episcopal de Chile

Al tratarse de un obispo, el procedimiento es realizado por la Santa Sede.

Martes 02 de Octubre del 2012

El Portavoz de la Conferencia Episcopal de Chile, Jaime Coiro, dio a conocer el comunicado de prensa emitido por la Nunciatura Apostólica, sobre la denuncia en contra de monseñor Marco Antonio Órdenes.

El texto dice lo siguiente:

La Nunciatura Apostólica en Chile informa que se está desarrollando desde abril de este año una investigación en relación a Mons. Marco Ordenes, Obispo de Iquique. Por el hecho de que la persona denunciada es un Obispo, el procedimiento es llevado a cabo por la Santa Sede.

Desde el inicio de este caso, la Nunciatura ha procurado ofrecer apoyo psicológico y acompañamiento para las personas afectadas y ha estado en contacto con Monseñor Ordenes, quien se encuentra con permiso médico.

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CHILE
Emol

Iglesia ha procurado apoyo sicológico a afectados por supuestos abusos de obispo de Iquique

SANTIAGO.- El portavoz del Episcopado, Jaime Coiro, confirmó este mediodía que el Vaticano inició una investigación eclesiástica de carácter previo por una denuncia de abuso sexual en contra del obispo de Iquique, Marco Antonio Órdenes Fernández (47 años).

De acuerdo a los protocolos de la Iglesia Católica, el vocero señaló que desde el inicio de este caso la nunciatura “ha procurado ofrecer apoyo sicológico y acompañamiento para las personas afectadas”.

“La Nunciatura Apostólica en Chile informa que se está desarrollando desde abril de este año una investigación en relación a monseñor Marco Órdenes. Por el hecho de que la persona denunciada es un obispo, el procedimiento es llevado a cabo por la Santa Sede”, explicó Coiro .

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CHILE
La Tercera

por Natalia Ramos y Jorge Poblete

Una investigación eclesiástica de carácter previo inició el Vaticano respecto del obispo de Iquique, Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernández. La indagatoria se inició hace cerca de cuatro meses y busca esclarecer la veracidad de una denuncia de abuso sexual a un menor, que afecta al prelado de 47 años.

Debido a la investidura de Ordenes, las pesquisas no se encargaron a un sacerdote en Chile, sino que fueron derivadas al nuncio apostólico Ivo Scapolo, representante del Vaticano en el país.

Según informaron a La Tercera tres fuentes ligadas a la Iglesia, el nuncio deberá analizar la verosimilitud o no de los hechos y determinar si existen más denuncias en contra del religioso.

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CHILE
Santiago Times

Tuesday, 02 October 2012
Written by Mischa Wilmers

Sources close to the Church say the Vatican has been investigating sex abuse claims for months.

The Vatican is launching a historic investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of a minor perpetrated a Chilean bishop, according to sources close to the Church. It is the first time a Chilean bishop has been investigated by the Vatican.

Fourty-seven-year-old Marco Antonio Órdenes Fernández, bishop of the northern city of Iquique, is being investigated by Ivo Scapolo, the Vatican’s Chilean representative who began looking into the case four months ago.

Scapolo has been assigned the task of determining if the allegations are true and whether any other complaints have been made against the bishop.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Lez Get Real

Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on October 2, 2012

Pennsylvania Common Pleas Judge Paula Patrick ordered serious charges of deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault and statutory sexual assault against Father Andrew McCormick reinstated. The charges were initially dismissed by Municipal Judge Karen Y. Simons after a preliminary hearing back in August. The now 24-year-old alleged victim was an altar boy of ten when McCormick allegedly tried to force him to have oral intercourse.

McCormick was, at that hearing, held for trial on misdemeanor charges of indecent assault, corrupting the morals of a minor and endangering the welfare of a child.

Assistant District Attorney Jack O’Neill praised the man who came forward over the alleged assault, and stated that “This was an extremely clear law. The judge looked at the law, looked at the testimony and applied the law. Most of all, we’re just grateful the victim was courageous to come forward. Now, this case is moving forward as it should.”

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NICARAGUA
The Tico Times

By David Hutt | Special to The Tico Times

LEÓN, Nicaragua – Last month saw two major stories involving sexual abuse in the headlines of Nicaraguan newspapers. First came the account of a mentally and physically disabled 12-year-old girl allegedly raped by four policemen and a security guard 30 meters from the presidential compound in the capital. Three policemen were arrested, but not the guard, who local media reported works for a company with political ties to a top Sandinista leader.

Days later, the alleged victim attempted suicide. “She cut one of her wrists and was taken to a hospital last week,” a statement published on the website of the Nicaragua Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) said.

The trial against the three policemen begins Oct. 7. …

Jiménez also mentioned past allegations against President Daniel Ortega. In 1998, Ortega’s stepdaughter, Zoilamérica Narváez, accused the current president of sexually abusing her from 1979 (when she was 11) until 1990. Both Ortega and Narváez’s mother, First Lady and Sandinista spokeswoman Rosario Murillo, denied the charges, and the case was never brought to trial. Instead, Nicaraguan courts granted Ortega immunity from prosecution because he was a member of the legislature.

In Nicaragua, charges of sexual abuse and rape have a five-year statute of limitation. Narváez has never withdrawn her accusation, although the charges expired long ago. …

Then, in 2011, the Sandinista government gave red-carpet treatment to Belgian priest François Houtart during the commemoration of the anniversary of the Sandinista revolution. Houtart is a confessed pedophile who renounced a Nobel Peace Prize nomination in 2010 after admitting that he raped his 8-year-old cousin.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Wednesday, 3 October 2012

A jury has failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a young girl nearly 30 years ago.

Jurors returned to Belfast Crown Court yesterday after more than five hours of deliberations to say they could not agree on a verdict in the trial of Father Peter Donnelly.

The jury foreman said there was no prospect of them doing so.

Donnelly, from Drumaroad Hill in Castlewellan, had denied six counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency against the girl who was aged between 10 and 14 at the time of the alleged offences between July 31, 1983 and August 1, 1987.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

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

A PHILADELPHIA judge Tuesday reinstated three felony charges against a Catholic priest who is accused of forcing oral sex on a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997.

Father Andrew McCormick sat stoically at the defense table as Common Pleas Judge Paula Patrick held him for trial after a brief hearing on involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault and statutory sexual assault.

Those charges were dismissed by Municipal Judge Karen Y. Simmons following an August preliminary hearing, during which the now-24-year-old alleged victim testified that McCormick, 56, straddled him and put his penis on the victim’s lips and on his teeth.

The alleged incident took place in the rectory of St. John Cantius Church, in Bridesburg, where McCormick was a priest and the accuser was an altar boy.

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OHIO
The Columbus Dispatch

By Mary Beth Lane
The Columbus Dispatch

Tuesday October 2, 2012

A former youth pastor pleaded guilty today in Hocking County Common Pleas Court to three counts of attempted gross sexual imposition involving a 13-year-old girl in the congregation.

Visiting Judge Dale Crawford scheduled sentencing for Dec. 21.

Travis J. Branstetter, 31, of Logan, an ordained minister who was youth pastor for five years at the Church of the Nazarene, took a negotiated plea deal.

The offense carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison, the prosecutor’s office said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Your Erie

October 2, 2012 – Catholic Bishops from all over Pennsylvania extended their stay in Erie after Monday’s ordination and installation of Bishop Persico.

The Bishops spent the day at Saint Mark Center for the provincial meeting of the Bishops of Pennsylvania.

They meet annually.

And this year, because of Bishop Persico’s ceremony, they had the conference in Erie where they had meetings and a mass this morning.

Several topics were discussed including the health and human services mandate.

“We’ll talk about other common interests like how do we bring back Catholics who have left the church, how do we try to minister to those who have been hurt by the sexual abuse scandal in the church, how do we find good candidates to take our place as bishops and those sorts of things we do every year,” said Bishop Chaput, Archbishop of Philadelphia.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

A Philadelphia judge has reinstated felony sex-assault charges against a suspended Roman Catholic priest, weeks after a different judge dismissed them.

Tuesday’s ruling means the Rev. Andrew McCormick will face trial on charges he molested a 10-year-old altar boy at St. John Cantius rectory in 1997. The 25-year-old accuser says he went to authorities amid news of the Jerry Sandusky and Philadelphia archdiocese abuse cases.

An earlier judge had found the alleged abuse described by the accuser at a preliminary hearing did not meet the legal definition of the felony sexual assault charges. But Common Pleas Judge Paula Patrick has reinstated them after hearing arguments Tuesday.

Defense lawyer William Brennan says he still believes the commonwealth has a weak case.

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CANADA
The StarPhoenix

By Jason Warick, The StarPhoenix October 2, 2012

A former Saskatoon priest who sexually abused more than a dozen children will be out of prison in time to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner.

“This is just ludicrous,” one of William Hodgson Marshall’s alleged Saskatoon victims said Tuesday.

“I’m not afraid of him anymore, but it just pisses me off. He should spend the rest of his life behind bars.”

Marshall, who is in his early 90s, is due for statutory release from an Ontario prison Monday after reaching the two-thirds mark of his two-year sentence, according to Parole Board of Canada documents.

He was convicted of abusing 17 children while working at schools across Ontario during a 30-year period and also stands charged with abusing two Saskatoon boys at a Saskatoon high school in the 1960s.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Vatican spokesman Fr. Lombardi dismissed the accusations made by the defendant during today’s hearing

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

During the second hearing in the Vatileaks case, the Pope’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele criticised the mental pressure and other mistreatments he was subjected to for the first 15-20 days of his detention. “I couldn’t even stretch my arms out,” and “the light was kept on 24/7, he stated.”

“There was no light switch and so I suffered loss of vision.” Answering questions addressed to him by his lawyer, Gabriele also complained about the “mental pressure” he was put under, “particularly on the fist night” of his detention: “I was even refused a pillow.”

The President of the Vatican Tribunal, Giuseppe Dalla Torre, asked the Promoter of Justice, Nicola Picardi, to open case file no. 52/2012, to check whether there were any other abuses during the defendant’s detention.

In relation to this, the Vatican’s spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, pointed out that Paolo Gabriele’s conditions were “very humane”.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

The senior Vatican official with authority for investigating priests accused of sexual abuse said the most important concern is for those who have been the victims of this terrible abuse.

Archbishop Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the congregation also has an obligation to ensure that the process of justice does not “become a lynching.”

He inherited cases, studies and projects the congregation had begun under his predecessor, U.S. Cardinal William Levada, including the congregation-ordered revision of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the largest organization of superiors of women’s orders in the United States.

Muller already knew something about these issues because he had been a member of the congregation for the past five years while serving as archbishop of Regensburg, Germany.

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UNITED STATES
Renew America

By Matt C. Abbott

I’ve written about the Truth Alliance Foundation previously, but it’s worth revisiting.

Thomas R. Hampson, an Illinois licensed private investigator and founder of the Truth Alliance Foundation, is determined to fight the plague of child sexual abuse by investigating and exposing pedophile networks.

Hampson’s résumé is impressive. In the 1960s, he worked for the U.S. Air Force Security Service as an intelligence analyst. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he worked for the Illinois Legislative Investigating Commission as a chief investigator.

From 1983 to 2004, he served as president of Search International, Inc., a company he established as an international investigation and security agency. And from March 2006 to September 2007, he was hired as a contract employee by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to investigate the sexual exploitation of children by priests.

Hampson writes that TAF is presently investigating three pedophile networks.

The first is the ‘Boys’ Club’ [see my Nov. 18, 2011 column for more on the matter].

The second is the Pentagon child porn network. A few years ago it was determined that hundreds of computers at the Pentagon had downloaded child porn. Several people have been arrested and convicted, but the prosecutions are scattered and there seems to be no central account of the overall case. Having come out of the national security apparatus, I know the control that is exercised over the use of computers at the Pentagon. It should have been no problem to get all of the perpetrators. I have to wonder why the case seems to be so disjointed.

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AUSTRALIA/UNITED STATES
The Freethinker

By
Barry Duke
– October 2, 2012

“PRO-CHURCH” members of the Australian police, in cahoots with top US Catholics, have been accused of derailing an investigation into a paedophile priest who fled to America where his is now under the protection of the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Brother Bernard Hartman, now performing clerical work under a ”safety plan” that ensures he had no contact with young people or vulnerable women, is accused of raping several young Victorian children and teenagers in the 1970s.

Interference with the case manifested itself, according to this report in The Age, with the removal of the police sergeant leading the investigation, who claims he was taken off the investigation after a complaint from a high-ranking Catholic official in the US.

In a letter sent last month to one of the alleged victims of Hartman the officer also accuses church officials in America of ”actively hindering” his inquiry.

The 26-year veteran of the police force, whom The Age has decided not to name, was removed from the Hartman case by a more senior officer last month, only days after the sergeant initiated proceedings to have the Marianist brother extradited to Australia.

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CANADA
London Free Press

The top priest at St. Peter’s Seminary in London is tackling a topic often seen as taboo in the Catholic Church.

Rev. Stevan Wlusek, the rector at the seminary, penned From Darkness into Transforming Light, a book focusing on the how Catholic teachings can be used as a resource to help the spiritual healing process of sexual abuse survivors.

The target audience of the 299-page book is priests, bishops and abuse victims themselves, said Wlusek, an associate professor of spirituality and pastoral theology.

Wlusek, who served as the Bishop’s delegate for sexual abuse allegations for several years, has seen first-hand how sexual abuse wreaks destruction on survivors’ lives.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

Reminder: First Friday Vigil outside the Archdiocesan Offices at 222 N. 17th Street on October 5, 2012 from 12 noon to 1 p.m.

Advocate Sister Maureen Paul Turlish sent the following to the Archdiocesan-administered PhillyCatholic.com in response to Archbishop Chaput’s recent comments regarding child sex abuse legislation.

by Sister Maureen Paul Turlish

What about our Church’s Sanctity of Life issues, its Pro-Life position and the fact that so many refuse to broaden their vision to include the comprehensive ethic of life about which Joseph Cardinal Bernardin speaks of in “A Consistent Ethic of Life: An American-Catholic Dialogue?”

How is it that Archbishop Chaput and the bishops of Pennsylvania can oppose PA House Bill 2488 so cavalierly? Do not all of Pennsylvania’s children have a right to the full protection of law? To access Justice?

Then why has Archbishop Chaput misrepresented this law and the previously introducted HB 832 & 878 saying that such laws would only apply to the Catholic Church? That was untrue.

The same thing was tried in Delaware when opponents, including the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, claimed that Delaware’s proposed law only applied to accusations of childhood sexual abuse against those representing the Catholic Church. That was never true.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

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

A Philadelphia judge Tuesday reinstated three felony charges against a Catholic priest who is accused of forcing oral sex on a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997.

Father Andrew McCormick sat stoically at the defense table as Common Pleas Judge Paula Patrick held him for trial after a brief hearing on involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault and statutory sexual assault.

Those charges were dismissed by Municipal Judge Karen Y. Simmons following an August preliminary hearing, during which the now-24-year-old alleged victim testified that McCormick, 56, straddled him and put his penis on the victim’s lips and on his teeth.

The alleged incident took place in the rectory of St. John Cantius Church in Bridesburg, where McCormick was a priest and the young man was an altar boy.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPVI

PHILADELPHIA – October 2, 2012 (WPVI) — Felony charges have been reinstated against a former Philadelphia priest, accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy over a decade ago.

56-year-old Andrew Mccormick is facing endangering the welfare of a child, corrupting the morals of a minor, indecent assault, and indecent exposure charges. However, he is now facing additional felony charges, including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, sexual assault.

The charges stem from the alleged sexual assault of a ten year old boy in 1997. McCormick was a priest at St. John Cantius Church in Bridesburg at the time.

Prosecutors say following the abuse, McCormick attempted to keep the boy quiet, allegedly telling the victim, “Masturbation is a sin, homosexuality is a sin, pre-marital sex is a sin and lying is a sin.”

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PHILIPPINES
Manila Standard Today

By Manila Standard Today | Posted on October 03, 2012

A PARISH priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cubao was suspended after he was found to be fond of going to a nightclub, a diocesan spokesman said over the church-owned Radio Veritas.

Diocesan spokesman Rev. Aries Sison identified the priest as Bong Guerrero, parish priest of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the city’s Cubao district, who was suspended by Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco last Sept. 25.

Sison said the diocese was already imposing disciplinary sanctions on Guerrero even before the priest’s activities was revealed by the television news program XXX of the ABS-CBN network.

“The fist measure was to remove him as parish priest. Secondly, Bishop Ongtioco suspended his priestly functions. These two measures were done to avoid further harm, further scandal and to stop him from falling into greater sin,” Sison said in the radio interview.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
ABC News

By Genevieve Shaw Brown
@gsbrownabc

A Catholic priest who was defrocked for allegedly sexually abusing young girls was hired by the Transportation Security Administration before his background check was complete and has worked at Philadelphia International Airport for the last 10 years.

Thomas Harkins joined the TSA in 2002 after resigning from the priesthood the same year. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the TSA hired the former priest before completing a background check. The Diocese of Camden revealed to the TSA in 2003 as part of the background check that Harkins had been removed from his ministry in the diocese because of allegations he had molested two girls in grade school.

The diocese told ABC News Harkins was ordained in 1971 and was placed under restrictive ministry in 1993 when the diocese was informed of a report of inappropriate sexual contact with an adolescent female. Later that year, the diocese was informed of another report involving another adolescent female, diocesan spokesman Peter Feuerherd said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
York Dispatch

The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA—A Philadelphia judge has reinstated felony sex-assault charges against a suspended Roman Catholic priest, weeks after a different judge dismissed them.

Tuesday’s ruling means the Rev. Andrew McCormick will face trial on charges he molested a 10-year-old altar boy at St. John Cantius rectory in 1997. The 25-year-old accuser says he went to authorities amid news of the Penn State and Philadelphia archdiocese abuse cases.

An earlier judge had found the alleged abuse described by the accuser at a preliminary hearing did not meet the legal definition of the felony sexual assault charges. But Common Pleas Judge Paula Patrick has reinstated them after hearing arguments Tuesday.

Defense lawyer William Brennan says he still believes the commonwealth has a weak case.

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PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

By Michael L. Tan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
10:32 pm | Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012

My last few columns have been quite serious with martial law and blood ivory, so let’s take a break today and talk about lighter matters.

“Lighter” is relative. I will still have to refer to the National Geographic article by Bryan Christy about ivory trafficking, where a Monsignor Cristobal Garcia was implicated by the author as a particularly avid collector. In my column I wrote about how the monsignor had gotten into trouble in the United States, was dismissed, came home and “became a bishop,” which I presumed was the case because he was a monsignor.

Three clergymen, no less, wrote me to clarify that a monsignor is not necessarily a bishop. Let me share parts of their e-mails.

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PHILIPPINES
GMA News

A Catholic priest, whose parish was in Quezon City, has been stripped of his clerical obligations after he was caught on television inside a nightclub, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said Tuesday.

Fr. Alfredo Guerrero was suspended and replace as parish priest of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help by Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco last week, said Cubao diocese spokesman Fr. Ariston Sison said on Catholic Church-run Radio Veritas.

Sison said the action was taken to “avoid further harm, further scandal and to help the priest not to fall into a greater sin.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

A Philadelphia judge has reinstated the felony sex abuse charges against the Rev. Andrew McCormick, the 56-year-old priest charged in July with assaulting a 10-year-old boy in 1997 when he was a priest at the St. John Cantius Church in the city’s Bridesburg section.

In August, a Municipal Court judge stunned prosecutors when she dismissed the most serious charges against McCormick at a preliminary hearing.

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s office appealed that decision and today Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick reinstated the felony charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault and sexual assault.

McCormick faces a formal arraignment on the charges on Oct. 23 before his case gets assigned a judge for trial.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Das Parlament

INNERES

Vorstoß der SPD-Fraktion zur Verlängerung der strafrechtlichen Verjährungsfrist bei sexuellem Missbrauch von Kindern von zehn auf 20 Jahre bleibt im Bundestag umstritten. Der SPD-Vorschlag einer “Sonderverjährungsvorschrift” sei “nicht der richtige Weg”, sagte der CDU-Abgeordnete Ansgar Heveling vergangene Woche in der Bundestagsdebatte über einen entsprechenden Gesetzentwurf der Sozialdemokraten (17/3646). Dagegen forderte seine SPD-Kollegin Sonja Steffen (SPD), die zivil- und die strafrechtlichen Verjährungsfristen für Kindesmisshandlungen zu verlängern. Es sei “zu kurz gedacht”, wie die Koalition nur die zivilrechtlichen Verjährungsfristen auf 30 Jahre erhöhen zu wollen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Saarbrücken: Nur wenig Kinderschutz in Sportvereinen

In den saarländischen Sportvereinen wird zu wenig für den Kinderschutz getan. SR-Recherchen ergaben, dass bei allen 20 angefragten Vereinen kein Kinderschutzkonzept vorliegt.

Nur ein Trainer des 1.FC Saarbrücken konnte einen entsprechenden Verhaltenskodex vorlegen. Vor einem Jahr hatte der Landessportverband von den Vereinen Kinderschutzkonzepte gefordert.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

„Kirchensteuer-Rebell scheitert mit Klage“, schlagzeilte Spiegel Online am Mittwoch. Eine Falschmeldung, die der Nachrichtenagentur dpa entsprungen ist und die zahlreiche Medien übernahmen. Tatsächlich war genau das Gegenteil der Fall und – Gott sei Dank – entscheidet in Deutschland bislang noch kein weltliches Gericht über Fragen des Glaubens.

Dass zahlreiche Medien auf Nachrichtenagenturen zurückgreifen, ist bekannt und es ist auch nichts Ungewöhnliches. Dass sie samt und sonders eine Falschmeldung übernehmen, kommt hingegen (hoffentlich) eher selten vor. Vergangenen Mittwoch ist es allerdings der Nachrichtenagentur dpa „gelungen“, vom Spiegel, über die Süddeutsche Zeitung bis hin zur FAZ zumindest eine Verzerrung der Tatsachen zu verbreiten.

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VATICAN CITY
The Irish Catholic

2 Oct 2012

Garry O’Sullivan in Rome

When the Pope’s butler Paolo Gabriele was thrown into a Vatican prison cell after he was discovered in possession of stolen documents from the Pope’s desk, few could have guessed that as well as the medieval architecture of his Vatican prison, the treatment would also be medieval and, if true, in contravention of human rights standards accepted around the world. Paolo Gabriele, alleged in court Tuesday that his cell was so small he couldn’t spread his arms. Also, the lights were left on 24 hours-a-day for his 20 day imprisonment in his first cell. The head of the Vatican police who was present in court looked decidedly embarrassed by the allegations of mistreatment.

Mr Gabriele also said that he didn’t have a pillow and these allegations have resulted in the Chief Prosecutor of the Vatican launching an investigation.

And this is only day two of a trial that is beginning to have all the hallmarks of a Da Vinci Code type saga.

Also present on Tuesday was Msgr Georg Gaenswein, the Pope’s private secretary, who greeted several people when he entered but not Mr Gabriele, yet Mr Gabriele stood up for the Pope’s secretary, testimony to the respect for the clerical caste inside the Vatican. He didn’t stand up for one of the female witnesses when she entered. Msgr Gaenswein, who looked uncomfortable during the questioning spoke of the trust he had in Mr Gabriele and how he never doubted him at which point the butler cast his eyes down.

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VATICAN CITY
The Oregonian

Oct. 2, 2012

AP

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI’s onetime butler declared Tuesday he was innocent of a charge of aggravated theft of the pope’s private correspondence, but acknowledged he photocopied the papers and said he feels guilty that he betrayed the trust of the pontiff he loved like a father.

Paolo Gabriele took the stand Tuesday in a Vatican courtroom to defend himself. Prosecutors say Gabriele stole papal letters and documents alleging power struggles and corruption inside the Vatican and passed them off to a journalist in one of the most damaging scandals of Benedict’s pontificate. …

In addition to Gabriele, the court heard Tuesday from four witnesses, including the pope’s private secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, who along with Gabriele was the closest assistant to the pontiff.

Gaenswein testified that he began having suspicions about Gabriele after he realized three documents that appeared in Nuzzi’s book could only have come from the office he shared with Gabriele and Benedict’s other private secretary.

“This was the moment when I started to have my doubts,” Gaenswein said.

The book, “His Holiness: Pope Benedict XVI’s private papers,” became an immediate blockbuster when it was published May 20, detailing intrigue and scandals inside the Apostolic Palace. The leaked documents seemed primarily aimed at discrediting Benedict’s No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, often criticized for perceived shortcomings in running the Vatican administration.

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
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

The Pope’s butler, who is accused of stealing sensitive documents, declared his innocence in court on Tuesday and accused Vatican police of mistreating him during his incarceration.

By Nick Squires, Rome
2:10PM BST 02 Oct 2012

In a surprise development, the judge in charge of the trial of Paolo Gabriele ordered Vatican prosecutors to open an investigation into whether the valet was held in inhumane conditions, as it emerged that he was kept in a tiny cell with the lights on 24 hours a day for up to 20 days.

The butler disclosed details of his incarceration in a “secure room” in the headquarters of the Vatican gendarmerie, the Pope’s police force, during cross-examination by his lawyer.

He said that the cell that he was initially held after his arrest on May 20 was so narrow that he could not stretch out his arms.

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
Deutsche Welle

Former papal butler and Vatileaks whistleblower, Paolo Gabriele, has said the Pope was not informed enough about important issues. Gabriele also claims inhumane detainment conditions, which has prompted an investigation.

During the second day of his trial, former papal butler Paolo Gabriele said he did not have any direct accomplices but was influenced by others and by widespread malaise in the Vatican.

Gabriele is on trial for allegedly stealing papal documents indicating corruption in the Vatican and leaking them to the media.

Gabriele also told the court on Tuesday that Pope Benedict XVI was “easy to manipulate” and did not know enough about Vatican affairs.

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
AGI

(AGI) Vatican City – During a dramatic hearing in the trial in which he is charged with aggravated burglary, the Pope’s ‘disloyal’ butler Paolo Gabriele reported that he has experienced inhuman conditions in prison at the barracks of the Vatican Gendarmerie, especially during the first days following his arrest. “The cell was so narrow I could not stretch my arms, the light was on 24/7 and I was even denied a pillow,” he told the judges. Court President Giuseppe della Torre asked judge Nicola Picardi to investigate these allegations.

Accepting the presiding judge’s invitation the prosecutor specified that “every possible was done to find a more suitable cell, unavailable at the time because two people were under arrest, Gabriele and Sciarpelletti.” Picardi added that the situation “lasted less than 20 days” and meals were not served to the detainee through the small opening on the cell door.

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
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden and Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Paolo Gabriele, the papal butler charged with stealing and leaking papal correspondence, said he was innocent of charges of aggravated theft, but “I feel guilty for having betrayed the trust the Holy Father placed in me.”

“I loved him like a son,” Gabriele said of the pope during the second day of his trial.

The morning session of the trial Oct. 2 also featured brief testimony by Cristina Cernetti, one of the consecrated laywomen who work in the papal apartment; and longer testimony by Msgr. Georg Ganswein, Pope Benedict XVI’s personal secretary.

Msgr. Ganswein, who described himself as “extremely precise,” said he never noticed any documents missing, but when he examined what Vatican police had confiscated from Gabriele’s Vatican apartment, he discovered both photocopies and originals of documents going back to 2006, when Gabriele began working in the papal 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.

VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The Pope’s former butler, on trial inside the Vatican, has denied charges of stealing confidential documents from the pontiff’s private apartment.

Paolo Gabriele, 46, pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated theft but said he had abused the Pope’s trust.

He said he believed the pontiff was being manipulated, and that he acted alone in copying the sensitive papers.

The files, which revealed allegations of corruption and infighting at the Vatican, were leaked to the media.

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
The West Australian

VATICAN CITY (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler Paolo Gabriele testified at his Vatican trial Tuesday that he was innocent of a charge of theft but guilty of abusing the trust of a pope whom he loved like a father.

Gabriele took the stand at his historic trial for stealing secret memos in what he said was a bid to battle “evil and corruption” within the Vatican.

Speaking out for the first time since his arrest in May and his 53-day detention in a Vatican security cell, the former butler said he had acted because he believed the pope was being “manipulated.”

While Gabriele said he had been working alone when he copied the confidential documents, he said he had “many contacts” in the Vatican where says there was “widespread unease”.

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 Pope’s former butler made new revelations in his testimony today, during the course of the second hearing of the Vatileaks trial

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

Despite the intention to bring the start of the second hearing in the former papal butler’s trial forward, the session began late because of the Italian public transport strike today which kept the prosecuting attorney stuck in traffic.

But Paolo Gabriele made a number of controversial comments during the second hearing in the Vatican. His testimony had some very interesting twists.

“I plead not guilty to aggravated theft. I feel guilty for betraying the trust vested in me by the Holy Father, whom I feel I love as a son,” Paolo Gabriele, Benedict XVI’s former butler stated in his testimony in response to the accusations of theft of confidential documents made against him.

Over time, he explained, “I have become convinced that it is easy to manipulate someone who has such enormous decision-making power.”

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 October 02, 2012

We’re cautiously encouraged that Scout officials now finally say they’ll give information about abusive Scout leaders to law enforcement. But we’ll believe it when we see it happening and it must start happening immediately.

Every day Scout officials delay in turning over their “perversion” files to police, kids will be in danger and child molesters are given even more chances to destroy evidence, intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, fabricate alibis and flee to other states or countries.

We apologize for being so graphic, but it takes just seconds for a sex offender to shove his hands into a boy’s pants or his tongue in a girl’s mouth, so days and hours matter. Having kept tens of thousands of pages about thousands of potential child molesters secret for decade, Scouts must act promptly now.

Right now, we suspect, current or former Scout leaders and volunteers who committed or concealed heinous crimes are “covering their tracks,” shredding documents, deleting emails, and taking other steps to ensure they’ll keep evading the 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.

COLUMBUS (OH)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on October 02, 2012

■Victims believe there’s more to the story of convicted priest
■SNAP: Church officials knew for years that clergyman was troubled
■Group wants the Columbus prosecutor to take a new look at the case
■It begs other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to “come forward, get help”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims and supporters deliver a letter to a Columbus prosecutor asking him to take a closer look in light of new revelations – at the case of a recently convicted predator priest. They will also hand out

–a recent communication from a priest/whistleblower who says that high ranking church officials had earlier warnings about the predator, and

— a list of the priest’s assignments (showing that he normally lives at a Galion monastery, not at a Columbus hotel, as he claimed).

The group will also urge any other victims, witnesses or whistleblowers who know of or suspect crimes and cover ups in any denomination – to contact law enforcement immediately.

WHEN
Tuesday, Oct. 2nd at 11-am

WHERE
Outside the Franklin County prosecutors’ office, 373 South High Street in Columbus

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.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Bob Hohler
Globe Staff / October 2, 2012

Some of them are strangers to Fenway Park, faces from a distant past. But they continue to come forward, pouring out memories of sexual abuse they say they suffered at the hands of a trusted Red Sox supervisor.

The toll of men who claim they were violated as youths by the team’s late clubhouse manager Donald J. Fitzpatrick has grown again, with a former Kansas City clubhouse attendant, Gerald Armstrong, alleging that Fitzpatrick repeatedly molested him in the late 1960s amid the worst sexual abuse scandal in Major League Baseball history.

With Armstrong’s allegations, there are now 20 men demanding a combined $100 million — $5 million each — from the Sox for misconduct they claim Fitzpatrick committed from the 1960s until he left the team in 1991. …

Because the statute of limitations has expired on nearly all the recent cases, the Sox have no legal obligation in the matter. But numerous entities, including the Roman Catholic Church, have paid settlements to alleged victims who lacked legal standing.

“The Red Sox have a moral obligation to resolve these cases,’’ said Mitchell Garabedian, who won tens of millions of dollars for victims in the church scandal and represents the 20 men suing the Sox. “Resolving these cases will help the victims at least partially heal and maybe gain a degree of closure in regard to these awful matters.’’

Garabedian said he is investigating an additional claim against Fitzpatrick. He said another man dropped his claim because the process proved too emotionally painful.

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.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on October 01, 2012

A lawyer for a suspended Kansas City priest facing six child sex abuse lawsuits is asking a judge to sanction a support group for refusing to turn over records about two notorious child molesting clerics.

Late last week, Brian Madden, who represents Fr. Michael Tierney, filed a motion with Judge Ann Mesle to hold SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, in contempt of court. SNAP is withholding from Catholic about two suspended Kansas City priests – Fr. Thomas Reardon and Msgr. Thomas O’Brien.

The group calls Reardon and O’Brien “Missouri’s most dangerous child molesting clerics.” Each faces or has faced dozens of child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits, most of which have been settled.

“Both Reardon and O’Brien still live in Kansas City (and have) often worked in concert, giving drugs and liquor and porn and ‘massages’ to the same children, molesting them, and rationalizing one another’s crimes to these scared and confused youngsters who’d been taught since birth to respect, revere, trust and obey Catholic priests,” SNAP contends. The organization also maintains that “basic psychology and common sense strongly suggest that both Reardon and O’Brien remain dangerous.”

In a letter sent last week to Judge Mesle, SNAP Director David Clohessy said “At this point, I just cannot, in good conscience, turn over to defense lawyers – either for Bishop Finn’s diocese or for these two men – our records about them. It sickens me to think about this possibility.

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 Times

BRENDAN HOBAN

RITE & REASON: Do we sit and wait for church after church to empty and eventually to close?

In his book, Priesthood, The Lost Art of Walking on Water, Michael Heher struck an important note: “At a time of crisis, people often find the freedom to voice things they ordinarily would not express.

A dying woman can give advice to her children, a soldier going to war can tell his brother he loves him dearly, a father as he prepares for dangerous surgery can tell his daughter about fear, worry and faith.”

Heher’s point is that as men who have suffered so many hits over the last years, we priests have earned the right to say whatever we want.

Not everyone would agree, as we know. Loyalty, or what passes for loyalty, in the Roman Catholic Church can have very precise boundaries.

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 October 2, 2012
Diane Crocker

CORNER BROOK — Roman Catholic priest George Ansel Smith pleaded guilty to five more sex charges in Supreme Court in Corner Brook on Monday.

That brings the total of guilty pleas to 40 out of the 70 offences the 74-year-old priest has been charged with. All the incidents involved young boys.

Smith wasn’t present for the court appearance. The pleas were entered on his behalf by Ian Patey, who was acting as agent for Smith’s lawyer, Tom Williams.

The guilty pleas were entered on four counts of indecent assault and one count of assault that occurred between 1968 and 1976. Two of the charges involve incidents that took place in Nova Scotia, while the other three occurred in Newfoundland, one incident in St. Fintan’s and two in Corner Brook.

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 Windsor Star

IQALUIT, Nunavut – A trial date has been set for a former Arctic priest facing dozens of sex abuse allegations.

Eric Dejaeger has pleaded not guilty to 76 charges stemming from his time in Igloolik, Nunavut, between 1978 and 1982.

Most of the charges are for the alleged sexual abuse of boys and girls.

Dejaeger is also charged with bestiality and for failing to show up for a required court appearance in 1995.

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
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Former priest hired by TSA to pat down passengers, three months after church kicked him out for ‘molesting young girls’

By Daily Mail Reporter

First he was fired for allegedly groping young girls, then hired to frisk them at an airport.

A disgraced former priest, defrocked from his New Jersey diocese over allegations of molestation in 2002, was three months later given a job as a TSA officer, it has been revealed.

Thomas Harkins was employed in a role where his duties would include doing pat downs on children, according to local news, after the agency failed to do a thorough background check and offered him a position at Philadelphia International Airport.

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/UNITED STATES
What They Knew

We have been getting numerous vistors from all over the world recently. We like that. But nothing melts our hearts more than to see the frequent visitation from the Vatican. Yes, that’s right IP address 212.77.12.74 or Internet Office of the Holy See, thanks for being a frequent reader here at What They Knew. We have many more surprises in store for you, starting with the documents below.

But first off, Alexander Stille wrote an excellent article this week in The Atlantic that asks the question of whether the Vatican can survive in the 21st century age of radical digital transparency. We here at WTK are still waiting to see if the Jesuits would like to enter the 20th century at this point. Some salient quotes:

Anonymous letters, damaging dossiers, and poison penmanship are old staples of Vatican intrigue. The big difference is that all this material was once kept rigorously private — its power derived from its mere existence and the potential threat of being made public.

The lesson of both the pedophilia scandal and Vati-leaks is that the Church can no longer control information about itself. In the past, when police arrested priests who were acting out, they generally took the matter to the local bishop, and newspapers often chose, out of deference, not to write about it. Changes in public opinion — anger and outrage over wrongdoing in the Church — and in information technology make it impossible to keep the lid on scandal…

The Pope and the Pedophile Jesuit from Chicago

But, what Fr. Lomnardi SJ needs to answer is why His Holiness, Pope Benedict, and Donald McGuire SJ wrote to each other so much? Admittedly, they knew each other for years, with such friends in common as Joseph Fessio SJ. But the McGuire problems became public in 2003. So really why did Pope Benedict still write him a Christmas letter in 2006 while McGuire was publicly on trial, and convicted, for molesting children? In fact Donald McGuire was in prison for child sexual abuse when this letter was sent to him. We have many more letters between the two, but here is 3 pages to start.

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.

LOUISIANA
What They Knew

There is another Jesuit priest we know very well on this site who almost escaped to Louisiana back in the early 1980s, notorious child sex abuser Donald McGuire SJ. In an exchange of documents between then Chicago Provincial Leo Klein SJ and the Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Sullivan of Baton Rouge, a notorious abuser of children himself.
—
Bishop Joseph Sullivan knew he wanted Donald McGuire SJ closer to him

In the suit, a Houston man alleged that Bishop Joseph Vincent Sullivan abused him from 1978 to 1982, nearly two years of which he spent in the Corpus Christi Minor Seminary. The man, now 42, was a teenage students in the Baton Rouge minor seminary and transferred to Corpus Christi after schools closed in Baton Rouge and Lumberton. Sullivan remained bishop in Baton Rouge but would visit the boy at the Corpus Christi Minor Seminary, a high school for boys aspiring to the priesthood. A third accusation in 2005 named the diocese as a co-defendant with Sullivan in a civil lawsuit filed in Hawaii. It accused Sullivan of sexually abusing a minor during visits to Hawaii from 1969 to 1977.

Sullivan died in 1982.

But in 1981 Bishop Sullivan, a now named pedophile himself, sought to have Donald McGuire SJ transferred to Baton Rouge where he could work with students at Louisiana State University (LSU) or at a parish in Baton Rouge and help out at Mother Angelica’s fledgling EWTN TV. The exchange between the Chicago Province and the New Orleans Province and Bishop Sullivan is below. What is obvious from these letters, is that both the Chicago and New Orleans Provincials knew Donald McGuire SJ had serious enough problems that he would not be allowed to go to Louisiana.

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.

WEST VIRGINIA
What They Knew

Wheeling Jesuit University, in West Virginia but run by the Society of Jesus of the Maryland Province, has been in the news again, and if it’s on this site, it’s not for the right reasons. Plus it gives us a chance to recap one of our favorite topics

…a Federal investigation of Jesuits

Former Wheeling President Julio Giulietti SJ went on to work in Viet Nam as representative of Loyola University-Chicago in developing programs of nurse and physician education.

Chronological list of Wheeling’s Sex, Crime & Dishonor after Fr. Julio’s Jesuit based administration was slammed shut:

10/14/9 – WJU picketed by SNAP (Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests) because of WJU’s ongoing harboring of accused predator Thomas F. (Tommy) Gleeson, S.J.

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.

LOUISIANA
What They Knews

[with FEMA document]

The Fortunate Sons of St. Ignatius
vs
Department of Homeland Security FEMA

In a newly discovered document obtained by this site, the New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) are being investigated by Homeland Security over accusations arising from an audit that outlines misuse, fraud and failure to handle FEMA grant funds in violation of federal law involving post Hurricane Katrina construction.

Living in “The Big Easy” post-Hurricane Katrina was not easy for most people. But it was much easier for Jesuits. Unlike most people, who worry about death and taxes, Jesuits have to worry about neither. They pay no federal taxes and are not even required to outline their wealth to the IRS as a religious organization “who has taken the vow of poverty”. Yet when Hurricane Katrina didn’t spare the New Orleans Jesuit Province and their school Jesuit High, the Jesuits deftly swooped in to seize over $11 million in federal tax payer funded relief from FEMA in the form of grants. That in and of itself is not shocking. What is shocking and likely criminal is what the Jesuits then did with that free federal tax payer money. Read all 10 pages and look at the numbers below.

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.

JAPAN
The Japan Times

By MICHAEL BRADLEY

It is over three years since it was revealed that an Irish Catholic priest had abused several children in Japan. His victims here are probably still unaware their tormentor was a serial offender.

Position of trust: Father Patrick Maguire’s 13-year stay in Japan ended when the Columban Fathers spirited him back to Ireland in 1974 following a “problem” with “young male children.” He went on to abuse dozens more minors in the U.K. and Ireland. AP

Father Patrick Maguire worked in Japan between 1961 and 1974, during which time he has admitted to abusing at least 13 boys, 10 of them in 1973. The priest subsequently went on to abuse dozens more children in Britain and Ireland, and has been convicted (and imprisoned) on separate counts of indecent assault in both jurisdictions. He has never been held to account for his actions in this country.

“Bishop Hirata was most understanding but said that it would be best that Pat slip out of Japan quietly.” So wrote a fellow priest in Maguire’s Columban Fathers to the society’s head in Ireland in 1974. The reason for Maguire’s hasty exit was a “problem” involving “young male children” and “a danger that the weekly magazines would latch onto a thing like that and blow it up out of all proportions.” So, fearing adverse publicity, the Church spirited him back to Ireland. For his Japanese victims, that was probably the last they heard of Father Maguire.

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.

TEXAS
DFW Catholic

Tyler, Texas, Oct 1, 2012 / 01:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a rare move, Pope Benedict XVI has named Monsignor Joseph E. Strickland, the vicar general of the Diocese of Tyler, as the next bishop of the same east Texas diocese he has served as a priest for over 25 years.

“I know it’s a tremendous task that I’m given. But I’m here with family,” Bishop-designate Strickland told a Sept. 29 press conference in Tyler.

He thanked God for his “wondrous blessings” and thanked the Pope “for his expression of confidence.” He also expressed his gratitude to his parents and his siblings, who were not present.

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.

PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

Cebu Daily News
9:08 am | Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012

If he had his way, Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal would have National Geographic Magazine writer Bryan Christy declared persona non grata or unwelcome in Cebu for his “Ivory Worship” article that linked a Cebu priest to the illegal ivory trade.

Vidal’s reaction was reported by ABS-CBN TV Patrol Central Visayas, which said the prelate was upset by Christy’s artlcle that quoted Msgr. Cristobal Garcia as naming ivory carvers of Sto. Nino icons n Manila and giving tips on how to smuggle them to the United States, allegations which the cardinal said were misquotations and pictured Catholic devotees as “idolaters”.

“He (Christy) deceived us and he deceived the people whom he interviewed when he said he was trying to publish something about the devotion (to the Sto. Niño),” Vidal said during the TV interview.

(Technically, persona non grata status is a declaration for unwanted diplomats made by the host State although the term is commonly used to mean a person who is ostracized or rejected.)

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.

CHILE
El Mostrador

Las declaraciones del arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, sobre casos de abusos sexuales fueron refutadas este lunes por el abogado Juan Pablo Hermosilla, que representa a las víctimas en el caso Karadima, consignó Radio Cooperativa.

El prelado hizo eco ayer a los dichos del obispo de Rancagua, Alejandro Goic, quien afirmó que la Iglesia Católica no tendría los recursos económicos para destinarlos a posibles reparaciones a las víctimas. Al respecto, Ezzati aseguró que las indemnizaciones “dependen de lo que las víctimas hayan pedido y dependen de las posibilidades reales que existan de pagar (…) las culpas son siempre personales, no institucionales. Por consiguiente, quienes están llamados a responder por sus delitos son las personas, y la Iglesia es una institución, no una persona”.

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 Examiner

By Conor Ryan, Investigative Correspondent

Monday, October 01, 2012

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has criticised religious orders for failing to pay their share of the compensation bill for abuse victims as the total nears €1.5bn.

With internal memos showing the child abuse redress package will now cost an extra €110m, it has emerged negotiations with the religious in the past year have hit the rocks.

Internal memos show the bill for dealing with child abuse in residential institutions has risen to €1.47bn, up from €1.36bn in 2011.

However, writing in today’s Irish Examiner, Mr Quinn has admitted that taxpayers are picking up the majority of the tab.

“I believe there is a moral obligation. I believe that fairness demands such an approach,” he 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.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Ruairi Quinn

Monday, October 01, 2012

Religious congregations must meet 50% of the cost of the State’s response to residential abuse, writes Ruairi Quinn

IT IS over three years since the Ryan Report shocked our nation. The litany and scale of child abuse in institutional settings and the anguished voices of the victims and survivors amplified through that report caused us all, as a people, to hang our heads in shame.

It was only right that the State apologised to those whose childhoods were stolen and who, in many instances, could not live full lives as adults and citizens.

Those who managed the institutions failed those children and the State, through it’s agents, failed in its duty to protect its most vulnerable citizens.

The victims have been able to seek redress and receive compensation from the Residential Institutions Redress Board since 2002. This will not give them back their childhoods, but it is an acknowledgement of the pain and abuse they suffered. It is expected some 15,000 former residents will have received awards when the board completes its work.

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.

ILLINOIS
Southtown Star

Some evil is simply wrong. Sometimes it’s also illegal.

The law is not mysterious. The law usually says what it means.

Thus we are perplexed how a massive spiritual entity such as the 15,000-member First Baptist Church of Hammond did not know that adults taking children across state lines for sex was a crime. It’s been a crime for more than a century.

When the leadership of the church fired pastor-in-chief the Rev. Jack Schaap last summer for that activity and turned his case over to police, they seemed puzzled about the law. At his sentencing, Schaap also expressed surprise that what he did was a crime.

They all know better now, but what gap in their civic education led them to miss the crime? Willful naiveté? Deliberate ignorance?

So Schaap is now sentenced to 10 years in prison after admitting the crime and taking a deal. It’s a gift to him. He could have gotten life

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 Examiner

[with documents]

By Conor Ryan, Investigative Correspondent

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

An appeal to 17 managers of schools and homes where children were abused has failed to illicit a single additional contribution to the €1.47bn redress bill.

The institutions accou-nted for 13% of initial complaints to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse in Residential Institutions.

They were run by patrons or religious orders who remained outside the 2002 indemnity deal and so were not obliged to make a direct contribution to redress.

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.

MISSOURI
KMBZ

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests says it’s ready to fight back in Jackson County court. Father Michael Tierney, removed from his duties at Christ the King last year, faces several sex abuse lawsuits.

His lawyer Brian Madden has asked the court to hold the group in contempt, saying it has only provided incomplete and redacted information. But SNAP director David Clohessy says the organization has given up plenty and can’t risk revealing the identity of alleged victims in cases that are decades old.

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
MinnPost

By Nick Squires | 10/01/12.

The Pope’s personal butler will be cross-examined by a Vatican court on Tuesday in a closely-watched trial in which he is accused of stealing highly sensitive documents, some of them from the desk of Benedict XVI himself.

The trial opened on Saturday in a wood-paneled court room in a Vatican tribunal within the walls of the tiny city state. The case inevitably has garnered headlines given that it revolves around the great mystery cliche: “Did the butler do it?” Or rather, “was it only the butler who did it?”

The documents at the heart of the case have lifted the lid on corruption at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church, which is still battered by revelations of clerical cover-ups of child sexual abuse. With this case, the Vatican is trying to showcase greater transparency, allowing a pool of journalists to cover each meeting. Experts, however, say that the latest saga does not help the Vatican’s already damaged image.

“It is certainly embarrassing for the Vatican but I’m not sure it will resonate that much among ordinary Catholics around the world,” says Alessandro Speciale, Vatican correspondent forReligion News Service. “The Church was already badly tarnished by the pedophile sex abuse scandals. That was much more serious.”

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.

MISSOURI
St. Joe Channel

[with video]

By: Safiya Songhai

Updated: October 1, 2012

(KANSAS CITY, Mo) He is the first leader in the Catholic Church to ever be convicted of concealing a sexual abuse crime.

Now some members of the church not only want Bishop Robert Finn to resign his position as leader of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese, they are putting their names on the dotted line.

Nearly 90,000 people have signed an online petition urging Bishop Finn to resign.

The petition is posted on the website change.org and organizers hope to appeal to the top leaders of the church, all the way to Italy.

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CANADA
Metro

By Staff The Canadian Press

IQALUIT, Nunavut – A trial date has been set for a former Arctic priest facing dozens of sex abuse allegations.

Eric Dejaeger has pleaded not guilty to 76 charges stemming from his time in Igloolik, Nunavut, between 1978 and 1982.

Most of the charges are for the alleged sexual abuse of boys and girls.

Dejaeger is also charged with bestiality and for failing to show up for a required court appearance in 1995.

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CALIFORNIA
Courthouse News Service

By MARIA DINZEO

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – Catholic leadership tolerated a priest’s repeated sexual abuse of boys and at least one girl in parishes and schools across the state, a former student claims in court.

The plaintiff in a Superior Court lawsuit, identified only as a 25-year-old male, says Father Don Flickinger sexually abused him when he was about 10 years old.

He claims Flickinger was allowed to work with children for nearly 50 years, beginning in 1964 when he was a chaplain at San Joaquin Memorial High School in Fresno. Throughout his career, Flickinger was transferred 20 times, from Fresno to Santa Clara University and the University of San Francisco, to parishes in Napa, Monterey, San Jose and Oakland. He is currently assigned to the New Bethany Residence in Los Banos, a residential living facility where he is supposedly retired, but was seen assisting in performing mass in last August, according to the 55-page lawsuit.

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CANADA
Nunatsiaq News

DAVID MURPHY

Eric Dejaeger, the Oblate missionary accused of sex crimes against Inuit children alleged to have occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s, appeared before the the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit Oct. 1 to plead not guilty to 76 charges.

That not-guilty plea is something Crown prosecutor Barry Nordin said he expected.

Now, a 10-week trial will start Oct. 28, 2013, and is expected to continue until early 2014.

There are 41 complainants on the 76-count indictment. Hearing all the evidence from the complainants and a variety of other witnesses will take at least eight weeks, Nordin said.

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CANADA
CBC ews

A Roman Catholic priest charged with multiple sex-related offences has pleaded not guilty on all counts.

Eric Dejaeger appeared in the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit Monday. He faces 76 charges, most of which stem from his time as a Catholic priest in Igloolik between 1978 and 1982.

The case involves 41 complainants and dozens of witnesses. His judge-only trial is set for Oct. 28, 2013, and is expected to last 10 weeks.

Dejaeger said only two words to Justice Robert Kilpatrick in court: “thank you”.

Defense lawyer Malcolm Kempt said in court it was the intention of his client to plead not guilty from the outset.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Comedy Central

Oct 1, 2012 03:25 PM by Ilya Gerner

One rare locus of agreement between congressional Democrats and Republicans concerns the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Safety Administration. Yes, it’s a corrupt boondoggle that does little to keep Americans safe, but it’s our bipartisan corrupt boondoggle that does little to keep Americans safe, so long may it grope.

Fortunately, the TSA has redeeming features. Americans looking for career advice are always being told to “do what you love,” and in the case of one alleged pedophile, the TSA made dreams come true…

About four months after being defrocked by the Diocese of Camden in 2002, Thomas Harkins had a new job as a security officer, including patting down passengers, with the Transportation Security Administration at Philadelphia International Airport.

The TSA hired the former priest before completing a background check, the agency recently confirmed. According to a church document, the diocese revealed to the TSA in 2003 as part of the background check that Harkins had been removed from ministry because of allegations he had molested two grade-school girls. Harkins was never criminally prosecuted, but the diocese settled civil lawsuits for $195,000.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Big changes, new appointments and transferrals. A new season of challenges is about to begin, with the United States taking centre stage

Marco Tosatti
Rome

Some excellent changes are going to be taking place in the Vatican reliable voices say. And apparently, these new nominations will be further proof that Benedict XVI and his main collaborators see the United States as one of the main “fronts” of comparison in terms of secularisation and as the source of energy for the solution of problems.

The current secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Joseph William Tobin, should – as always, when speaking about decisions of this kind it is essential to use the conditional because neither Benedict XVI nor the Secretary of State appear Napoleonic in this field – return to the U.S. He will probably be sent to an important diocese; possibly Indianapolis.

Is this a promotion? Possibly, but it seems he was recalled by the U.S. Catholic Church who did not appreciate Tobin’s role in clearing up misunderstandings with the LCWR’S “rebel” nuns. American bishops did not find his conciliatory statements very helpful as they were hard at work trying to resolve a difficult problem. Indeed, they saw his attitude as a break with the position taken by the previous Prefect, Franc Rodé, who was concerned about the “new age” drift of many U.S. nuns. The identity of Tobin’s potential successor is unknown; it could be a cleric given that the Prefect of the Congregation is not.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Americans United for Separation of Church and State

October 2012
AU Bulletin

A high-ranking Kansas bishop has been convicted of failing to report suspicions of child abuse, affirming the church hierarchy’s accountability in its infamous child sex-abuse scandal.

On Sept. 6, Bishop Robert Finn, head of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, became the highest-ranking U.S. Catholic official convicted as a result of the child sex-abuse scandal. Finn was found guilty because of his handling of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, who stored hundreds of lewd photos of young girls on his laptop computer, the Kansas City Star said.

Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker was pleased with Finn’s conviction.

According to the Religion News Service (RNS), she said, “The bottom line today is that finding by the court, a finding of guilt, means the diocese and whoever is its leader must adhere to the very clear legal requirements regarding protection of children.”

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CALIFORNIA
Loyolan

To the Editors:

It was with a sense of relief that I read (“University Investigates Alleged Molester,” 9/20/12) both of President Burcham’s decision to undertake an investigation into all aspects of the 15-year presence on our campus of alleged sexual predator Brother William Farrington, S. J. and of the President’s commitment to making public the results of this investigation.

My tenure does not overlap with that of Farrington, who was a staff member from 1987-2002. I cannot, therefore, take responsibility for his perhaps dangerous and damaging presence on our campus. I do, however, assume a shared responsibility for the way in which our University responds to the information about Farrington that has only lately been made available to the wider LMU community.

I thus wish to express my sympathies to any current or former members of our University community, as well as to their families and friends, who may have suffered on account of Farrington’s presence. I want, in addition, to express my outrage at the individuals who shielded from public view the accusations levied against Farrington prior to his LMU appointment and residency in the Jesuit Community. Whether or not the investigation of his presence at LMU turns out to yield the results we all fear, there is no sparing a sense of dismay at the fact that his coming to our University was at the least an imprudent decision on the part of those responsible for the move and at worst an unconscionable act of blatant disregard for the well being of LMU students.

As many of us know well, sexual abusers frequently target the already vulnerable and often muffle their voices in a cloak of silent shame. Let us not add to the sum of silence by failing to demand an accounting. At the very least, let us hope that our Jesuit Community or the California Province of the Jesuits will not only express publicly the sadness associated with the evidence thus far come to light, but also decry the structures that allowed Farrington to spend 15 years among our students.

Sincerely,

Anna Harrison
Associate Professor, Department of Theological Studies

Co-signers:
Roberto Dell’Oro, Professor, Theological Studies
Marie Anne Mayeski, Professor Emeritus, Theological Studies
Charlotte Radler, Associate Professor, Theological Studies
Thomas P. Rausch, S.J. , T. Marie Chilton Professor of Catholic Theology, Theological Studies
Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, Professor, Theological Studies
Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier, Associate Professor, Theological Studies
John R. Connolly, Professor Emeritus, Theological Studies

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UNITED STATES
hoodiemonks.org

By John Cavanagh – August 12, 1939 – September 9, 2012

In the 1950’s and until the mid ’60’s, the abbot of the Trappist monastery I’d entered in ’59 was recruiting barely legal colts for his stable. Boys aged roughly seventeen to twenty were being accepted as novices, an age generally considered too young by the Order’s standards elsewhere. These boys would often go on to become the abbot’s lovers, and because he conducted himself discreetly, the clandestine affairs very possibly could have gone unnoticed indefinitely. But he dropped them as they got older, and eventually there was a row over the ensuing favoritism and how the place was being governed.

In the Spring of 1964 this brought in a tribunal of two abbots from elsewhere in the Order to investigate the cause of the friction. But even after two weeks of listening to everyone’s grievances, these investigating abbots were still openly puzzled about what the real stakes were. Encouraged by the spirit of aggiornamento we saw being implemented in the case, four of us went to them as a bloc and described what we had seen and heard, signing notarized affidavits, etc., which we agreed to do only after being promised immunity from any retaliations in return for our sworn testimony. I want to emphasize here as strongly as possible that we were assured that the whole investigation was being closely monitored by the Sacred Congregation for Religious, and that the promise of immunity they extended to us had been pre-authorized from Rome.

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