ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
The Age

February 15, 2013

Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age

One of Victoria’s most senior Catholic priests says the church’s abuse procedures have failed and must be closed down.

“Time is up, the church has had more than a fair chance. The Melbourne Response and Towards Healing have lost all credibility and are beyond repair,” Father Kevin Dillon told the Victorian inquiry into clergy sex abuse, meeting in Geelong on Friday.

Father Dillon of St Mary’s Basilica, who was given a standing ovation by the gallery after his testimony, said the church response had been heartless, adversarial, and showed “a culture of denial” about the impact on victims.

A noted campaigner within the church on behalf of victims, Father Dillon said he had consistent contact with 30 victims. “Sadly but importantly, I have yet to hear one victim speak positively of their experience with either church process” (Melbourne or national), he said.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Feb. 15, 2013

Rome

Earlier this week, I suggested that because the end of Benedict XVI’s papacy is not occurring in tandem with his death, it may create greater psychological space for cardinals to take a critical look at the pontificate, without fear of speaking ill of the late pontiff.

A small confirmation of that theory has come in the form of an interview given to a German newspaper by Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne, one of Benedict’s closest friends in the College of Cardinals.

In the context of describing what qualities the next pope might need, Meisner revealed that in 2009, he approached Benedict on behalf of a number of cardinals to ask him to dump his Secretary of State, Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

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VATICAN CITY
Houston Chronicle

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press | February 15, 2013

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI signed off on one of the last major appointments of his papacy Friday, approving a German lawyer and financier to head the Vatican’s embattled bank.

Ernst von Freyberg has solid financial and Catholic credentials as a former investment banker and member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, an ancient chivalrous order drawn from European nobility.

The appointment ends a nine-month search after the Institute of Religious Works ousted its previous president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, for incompetence. The ouster came just as the Vatican was submitting its finances to a review by a Council of Europe committee in a bid to join the list of financially transparent countries.

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AUSTRALIA
Failed Messiah

Being conscious of the fact that there are members of our community who claim to have been subjected to inappropriate sexual behaviour by trusted officials within the community, the RCV wishes to reaffirm its strong position in relation to the matter of sexual abuse.…RCV President, Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant said “It is essential that when abuse has occurred the police must be informed without delay.”
Media Release

Adar 5773 – February 2013

Being conscious of the fact that there are members of our community who claim to have been subjected to inappropriate sexual behaviour by trusted officials within the community, the RCV wishes to reaffirm its strong position in relation to the matter of sexual abuse.

The RCV policy in relation to the issue of sexual abuse [is posted below.]

RCV President, Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant said “It is essential that when abuse has occurred the police must be informed without delay”.

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NUEVA YORK
El Diario

Nueva York – El rabino Nathan David Rabinowich, de 59 años, fue arrestado luego de que intercambiara mensajes de texto con contenido sexual con quien creía era una adolescente -de 14 años- pero en realidad se trataba de un detective policíaco.

La fiscalía de distrito de Brooklyn informó que Rabinowich fue arrestado cuando acudió a una cita que había concertado con “la joven” en Queens. El rabino, residente de Brooklyn, enfrentaría cargos por intento de violación, intento de cometer un acto criminal y de poner en peligro el bienestar de un menor.

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NEW YORK
WPIX

[with video]

Rabbi Nathan David Rabinowich and a criminal defense attorney hurriedly walked out of the Queens County courthouse Thursday. Police say the 59-year-old Brooklyn based rabbi thought he was sending sexually explicit instant messages to a 14-year old girl in December and then again over the last two weeks.

It turns out that girl was really an undercover NYPD vice detective.

Investigators say Rabbi Rabinowich used two AOL screen names…”NYC-NORMAL100″ and “NORMALGENTNYC”.

He was arrested last night when he left his Brooklyn home and showed up in Queens to meet with the would be 14-year old.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

A rabbi has been arrested after sending sexually explicit messages online to a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl and arranging to meet her in Queens for sex, the district attorney’s office said on Thursday. Instead, a New York police detective had impersonated the girl, the authorities said.

The rabbi, Nathan David Rabinowich, 59, of Brooklyn, was arrested Wednesday. He was charged with four sexual offenses, including attempted rape, the Queens district attorney’s office said in a statement.

“It is disturbing that a man who is supposed to be held in high esteem by the community in which he lives would allegedly try to lure a child to meet him for sex,” the district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said.

Rabbi Rabinowich runs a tour company and a synagogue from his home in the Midwood section, according to the statement. He exchanged online messages, some sexually graphic, with the detective in December and this month, the statement said.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By Kerry Burke , Joe Stepansky AND Daniel Beekman / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Friday, February 15, 2013

A Brooklyn rabbi and travel guide exchanged sexually explicit online messages with an undercover cop he thought was a 14-year-old girl, then set up a date with her in Queens, prosecutors charged Thursday.

Nathan David Rabinowich, 59, was arrested Wednesday night when he showed up for the pervy rendezvous, police said. He faces up to four years in prison if convicted of attempted rape and other counts.

“It is disturbing that a man who is supposed to be held in high esteem by the community in which he lives would allegedly try to lure a child to meet him for sex,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

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NEW YORK
NBC News

NEW YORK — A Brooklyn rabbi is being accused of trying to lure an undercover detective posing as a 14-year-old girl to meet for sex.

The Brooklyn district attorney’s office says Nathan David Rabinowich was arrested Wednesday after he showed up at a pre-arranged meeting in Queens.

He’s being held pending arraignment on charges of attempted rape, attempted criminal sexual act and attempted endangering the welfare of a child. A telephone message left with his attorney was not immediately returned.

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VATICAN CITY
Asia One

AFP
Friday, Feb 15, 2013

VATICAN CITY – What would appear at first glance to be a cakewalk for a staunch conservative, to follow in the footsteps of Pope Benedict XVI, will be anything but Vatican experts say.

Of the 117 cardinal electors, 67 were named by the outgoing pontiff, and the other 50 by his beloved predecessor and ideological soulmate John Paul II.

More than half of them are European including 28 Italians, which points strongly to a successor in the same mould as Benedict, who yearned for a rebirth of Christian faith on the Old Continent.

But the arithmetic is misleading, given the water that has flowed under the bridges of the Tiber since the 2005 conclave that elevated the Polish pope’s German protege after just four voting sessions.

The gaffes and scandals that came to characterise Benedict’s papacy, combined with unflattering comparisons between the introverted German and the charismatic Pole, have laid the foundations for divisions and dissent.

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ROME
The Daily Beast

by Barbie Latza Nadeau Feb 15, 2013

Whispers of late-night helicopter trips to the hospital and another sex scandal have Rome buzzing. Barbie Latza Nadeau on the conspiracy theories about why Benedict resigned.

Now that the shock of Pope Benedict XVI’s surprise resignation has settled in, conspiracy theorists are having a heyday trying to figure out if there is more to the story than meets the eye. With no papal funeral to prepare for and the pope’s final appearances fairly routine, Vatican watchers and bored reporters have been fleshing out a number of theories on why the pope may have really resigned.

While the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal was obviously a huge weight on the pope’s shoulders, Vatican watchers say it was actually the VatiLeaks butler saga and allegations of impropriety at the Vatican Bank that played more important roles in his resignation. “Benedict may not have quit because of the pedophilia scandals or any other specific controversy,” says Vatican expert John Allen. “But it’s hard to believe they didn’t play a role, at least as background.”

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VATICAN CITY
Sky News

Tim Marshall
Foreign Affairs Editor

Whoever takes over from Pope Benedict next month has an almighty financial mess to clear up.

Most coverage of the Pope’s achievements, or lack of, centred on matters of faith and doctrine. He came out with a mixed score partially dependant on judgement of those slippery concepts. If you measure the success of his tenure in a financial way, the balance sheet is more negative.

The Vatican is a state and a business as well as a religious organisation. The state has investments, GDP, and a bank with 33,400 accounts. If you were generous you might describe its accounting system as opaque. The European Parliament has called for it to be more transparent.

Four years after he came to power, Benedict XVI, the de facto CEO of the Vatican, reacted to a string of accusations of financial irregularity by its bank, the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR). He created a supervisory body – the Financial Information Authority.

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AUSTRALIA
Bunbury Mail

The chaplain of an elite Claremont boys’ school has denied claims he advised a former student and victim of sexual abuse at his school to “forget about it”.

Canon Frank Sheehan has spoken out after allegations of a cover-up emerged during the child sex trial of Christ Church Grammar’s former music teacher Lindsay Hutchinson, 63.

Hutchinson was yesterday found guilty of 12 sexual abuse offences concerning students at the school, after a two-week Perth District Court trial.

The offences took place in the mid-1980s and largely concerned one student, then aged 13, who went on to testify against Hutchinson at trial.

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AUSTRALIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn

15 February 2013

Archdiocesan Administrator Mgr John Woods has joined with the NSW bishops in co-signing a pastoral letter which addresses the Church’s strategic and spiritual response to the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

Mgr Woods has urged priests to ensure the letter to clergy, religious and laity, entitled “Sowing in Tears”, is drawn to the attention of parishioners.

Against the backdrop of the Lenten paradox of tears and joy, cross and Resurrection, the Church in Australia has been rocked by child sexual abuse, the bishops say. “We must not put our heads in the sand about any of this, or try to minimise or explain it away,” they say. “The fact is our dioceses have all known cases of child abuse.

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ROME
All Voices

If you suspected there was more to the story behind the historic resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, there may be emerging evidence to support that suspicion.

The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) reported on Thursday that Pope Benedict became the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years in order to avoid criminal prosecution for concealing knowledge of “documented crimes of child torture, trafficking and genocide,” connected to the Roman Catholic Church.

The ITCCS report cites a letter from Rev. Kevin Annett to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, written a week before the pope officially resigned.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse has been granted an extension due to the number of victims who have come forward.

The inquiry into child sexual abuse within religious organisations began early last year and was due to finish in April.

But the committee has received close to 400 submissions, many from victims who want to share their stories at public hearings.

The committee requested a time extension and will now hand in its report at the end of September.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Neil Ormerod February 17, 2013

Benedict’s announcement that he would resign from the papacy came two days before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent and a day on which many Catholics go to mass to be anointed with ashes as a sign of repentance. How providential that the new pope will be elected in the midst of this Lenten season, born in ashes but looking forward to resurrection.

And there are plenty of ashes to go around, not least of which are the ‘ashes’ of the pain and humiliation of the survivors of clergy sexual abuse. While the Church is currently in the midst of a sexual abuse ‘crisis’, the issue is decades old. It will be one of the major challenges for the new pope to find creative and compassionate ways of addressing this issue.

We saw some of this creativity at work with the move by Pope John Paul II to publicly seek forgiveness for the sins of the Church, including sins against ‘minors who are victims of abuse’. Many local bishops conferences echoed this act of repentance. But words are cheap, and actions speak louder.

There is a world of difference between a global apology to ‘victims’ and how an individual cleric faces the pain of a survivor standing in front of him. The entrance into that world is through conversion, a change in heart and mind, to begin to see the world through the eyes of the poor, the suffering, the humiliated.

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CALIFORNIA
Valley News

Friday, February 15, 2013

Eleven Americans will be among the 117 cardinals of the Catholic Church heading soon to Rome to select the next pope. One of them, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, for a quarter-century the archbishop of Los Angeles, is lucky not to be in prison, for there is no dispute that he orchestrated what amounted to a cover-up of clerical sexual abuse in Los Angeles.

By now it is familiar news, though no less stomach-turning, that top officials in the Catholic Church protected pedophile priests for decades — impeding criminal investigations, shuffling offenders to new parishes or abroad, and resisting disclosure. In so doing, they exhibited little concern for victims of sex abuse, usually boys.

Still, the scale of the misdeeds in Los Angeles, the largest archdiocese in the United States, counts as a particular disgrace. And it is Mahony, who resigned as archbishop two years ago, who oversaw the whole dirty business. For that he has been publicly censured by his successor.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP

A priest has told a Victorian inquiry there is extraordinary denial within the Catholic Church hierarchy about sexual abuse.

The Catholic Church is in extraordinary denial over child sex abuse and its absolute mess of a system for dealing with victims has lost all credibility, a priest says.

Geelong-based priest Father Kevin Dillon says the church lacks accountability, is more interested in protecting its name and assets and needs to overhaul the way it deals with abuse victims.

The church hierarchy has been in denial on the issue of sexual abuse, Fr Dillon told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into sexual abuse within religious organisations during a hearing in Geelong on Friday.

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AUSTRALIA
Big Pond News

Friday, February 15, 2013

A Catholic priest says the church has a culture of denial and asset protection in dealing with victims of sexual abuse.

Geelong-based priest Father Kevin Dillon has told the Victorian parliamentary committee into sexual abuse within religious organisations that there is ‘extraordinary denial’ within the church hierarchy about sexual abuse.

‘I think of the riding instructions to protect the church’s good name … (and) protect their assets,’ he told the inquiry on Friday.

‘I think often the church works with a lack of accountability.’

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
ABC News

By DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press

PROVIDENCE, R.I. February 15, 2013 (AP)

Documents related to a disgraced Roman Catholic organization called the Legion of Christ could soon be unsealed and available to the public following a decision Thursday by the Rhode Island Supreme Court.

The state’s high court issued an order declining to delay the release of the sealed documents, which are related to a lawsuit contesting the will of a woman who left $60 million to the Legion. The Legion had argued that the records should remain under court seal because their contents could taint a future jury.

The documents could be available as early as Friday.

The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Providence Journal and the National Catholic Reporter had asked a Superior Court judge to unseal the documents, saying there was no justification to withhold documents that could shed light on the Legion’s operations. Last month, the judge ordered the documents to be unsealed, but he gave the Legion until Friday to ask the Supreme Court to intervene.

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CANADA
Sun News

MEGAN GILLIS | QMI AGENCY

OTTAWA – A suspended priest and former school trustee was freed on bail Thursday after promising to stay away from schools and kids amid charges he had “a series of inappropriate contacts” with a seven-year-old boy in the early 1970s.

Hours before, the Archbishop of Ottawa announced he had suspended Fr. Jacques Faucher, 76, and banned him from representing himself as a Catholic priest.

He’s back in court March 12 to face charges of gross indecency and indecent assault that no longer exist in the Criminal Code but were in place at the time of the alleged offences dating back to 1971 to 1973.

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UNITED STATES
Bloomberg

By Margaret Carlson Feb 14, 2013

This week Margaret Carlson and Ramesh Ponnuru are discussing the legacy of Pope Benedict XVI. Previously, Ramesh responded to Margaret’s column.

The thing about the pope, Ramesh, is that he’s as close to all-powerful as we have in this vale of tears. He’s the president without Congress holding him down. He’s infallible when he wants to be. He has no H.R. department telling him whom he can and cannot fire.

As head of the euphemistically named Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, charged with handling the sex-abuse scandal, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger knew the magnitude of the problem. According to the U.S. Conference of Bishops, since 1950, there have been 6,100 accused priests and religious and 16,000 victims.

As head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI could have dramatically cleaned house.

As the spiritual leader of the world’s Catholics, he let us down.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Archbishop of Canterbury

Thursday 14th February 2013

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has issued the following statement after the sentencing of Robert Coles at Brighton Crown Court today.

I have read details of this case sent to me by the Diocese of Chichester and the Commissaries who were appointed by Bishop Rowan. My first concern is always for those whose lives have been affected in any way by cases of abuse within the Church of England and I am appalled by the details of today’s case. The systems designed to protect the survivors clearly failed, their vulnerability was taken advantage of, and their lives have been deeply and in some cases permanently affected, as have the lives of those who love them.

I believe that the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults should be the highest priority of all parts of the Church, and that any failings in this area must be immediately reported to the police. There are no excuses for shortcomings.

I repeat what I have said before and, on behalf of the Church, apologise with deep grief for the betrayals and failings that occurred.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Right Rev Justin Welby, has apologised for “betrayals and failings” in the Church’s handling of child-abuse allegations after it emerged that senior clergy failed to tell police about a priest who was later jailed for sex offences.

Archbishop Welby issued a statement after Robert Coles, 71, a retired Church of England priest, was jailed for eight years yesterday. He had admitting ten counts of indecent assault and another serious sexual offence against three boys aged between 11 and 16.

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VATICAN CITY
The Times (United Kingdom)

Philip Willan
Rome

Pope Benedict was pushed towards resignation by a shocking report on Vatican infighting that was handed to him at the end of last year, according to the Italian magazine Panorama.

The voluminous document was the second instalment of a report prepared by a committee of three cardinals into the source of leaks of sensitive Vatican papers blamed on the Pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Xan Brooks
The Guardian, Thursday 14 February 2013

Alex Gibney’s righteous, exhaustive investigation into child abuse inside the Catholic church arrives in UK cinemas as a kind of unintentional leaving gift for the outgoing Pope Benedict, though it is not one he is likely to relish. In his former role as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger stands accused of knowing everything and doing nothing. On the rare occasions he was forced to publicly acknowledge the scandal lapping at his ankles, his concern was more for the fate of the priests than the children themselves.

The film’s starting point is the case of Father Lawrence Murphy, a serial abuser at a school for the deaf in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who was eventually called to account by the boys in his care. Murphy’s defence is described as “noble cause corruption”, in that he attempts to spin his abuse into a holy act, casting molestation as a form of sacrament. Or, as he puts it: “There was rampant homosexuality among the boys at that school. And I took their sins upon myself.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Republic

[Final Addendum to the Report to the People of God – BishopAccountability.org]

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 14, 2013

LOS ANGELES — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has added the names of two dozen men to the publicly released list of priests and brothers alleged to have molested children.

The names were in a two-page report posted on the archdiocesan website last month without fanfare at the same time that 12,000 pages of internal records were posted, according to BishopAccountability.org, a nonprofit group that tracks public release of clergy abuse documents.

BishopAccountability.org President Terry McKiernan sent a letter to Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez this week saying it is essential to make public the nature of the allegations “because some of them may still pose a danger to children in Los Angeles, elsewhere in the United States, and in other countries.”

The report said none of the men currently have ministries in the archdiocese. Among them, five have died, three have been defrocked, three are on inactive leave, one was excommunicated and one was suspended.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Digital Journal

[Final Addendum to the Report to the People of God – BishopAccountability.org]

By Brett Wilkins
Feb 14, 2013

Los Angeles – The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has quietly added two dozen priests and other clergymen to the list of individuals suspected of raping or sexually assaulting children in what was already a major part of a massive worldwide Catholic sex abuse scandal.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the 24 names were disclosed in a report posted on the archdiocese’s website last month along with 12,000 pages of internal records detailing how the church dealt with abuse claims. BishopAccountability.org, a non-profit group that researches and archives documents related to clergy sex abuse, originally uncovered the list and published the names of the suspected offenders.

The Catholic Church readily admits that the allegations against the 24 men are “credible.” But the archdiocese will not release any further information about the accusations against them, including how many accusers there are, when the alleged sex abuse occurred or the parishes where the alleged abusers worked.

Terry McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org told the Times that the disclosure of such information is “essential.”

“It is essential for everyone to know the nature of the allegations against these priests and brothers, because some of them may still pose a danger to children in Los Angeles, elsewhere in the United States, and in other countries,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
CathNews

Pope Benedict’s shock resignation should usher in a new understanding of the role in the modern world, according to Geelong Catholic priest Fr Kevin Dillon, reports The Geelong Advertiser.

The St Mary’s parish priest said on Wednesday that he hoped a cardinal with strong pastoral experience would become successor and that he believed the time might be right to consider limiting papal reigns to set periods.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Feb. 14, 2013

Rome —
In what has become a daily exercise in rumor control, the Vatican spokesperson on Thursday shot down one hot bit of speculation about the resignation of Benedict XVI and confirmed another one about his life after the papacy.

Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi denied that an accident suffered by Benedict XVI during his trip to Mexico in March 2012 led to his decision to renounce the papacy, as was suggested in a piece today by a leading Italian Vatican writer.

Journalist Andrea Tornielli wrote this morning that while Benedict was staying in a residence of Capuchin sisters in León, Mexico, he got up during the night to use the bathroom and, because he couldn’t quickly find the light switch, made his way in the dark. He hit his head on the sink, hard enough to cause bleeding. …

On another front, Lombardi confirmed that Benedict will be accompanied to Castel Gandolfo on Feb. 28 and later to the monastery on Vatican grounds where he plans to live by Archbishop Georg Gänswein. The 56-year-old Gänswein is the pope’s longtime personal secretary, and Benedict recently also made him the Prefect of the Papal Household, a position previously held by American Cardinal James Harvey.

Lombardi said Gänswein will continue to hold that position into the next papacy, presumably living in the monastery and going to work each day once Benedict gets settled.

That news led to an interesting question during the briefing. The Vatican has repeatedly said Benedict will not have any role in the next papacy, but a reporter asked Lombardi if the fact that his closest aide will also be running the papal household doesn’t create an obvious channel to wield behind-the-scenes influence.

Lombardi’s response was one of those rare moments when a Vatican official says something out loud that insiders know to be true but rarely dare to acknowledge publicly. In essence, Lombardi said being the Prefect of the Papal Household isn’t that big of a deal.

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VATICAN CITY
Portland Press Herald

Victor L. Simpson / The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — For an institution devoted to eternal light, the Vatican has shown itself to be a master of smokescreens since Pope Benedict XVI’s shock resignation announcement.

On Thursday, the Vatican spokesman acknowledged that Benedict hit his head and bled profusely while visiting Mexico in July. Two days earlier the same man acknowledged that Benedict has had a pacemaker for years, and underwent a secret operation to replace its battery three months ago.

And as the Catholic world reeled from shock over the abdication, it soon became clear that Benedict’s post-papacy lodgings have been under construction since at least the fall. That in turn put holes in the Holy See’s early claims that Benedict kept his decision to himself until he revealed it.

Vatican secrecy is legendary and can have tragic consequences — as the world learned through the church sex abuse scandal in which bishops quietly moved abusive priests without reporting their crimes.

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Huffington Post

By Cavan Sieczkowski Posted: 02/14/2013

After Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation, those familiar with a 12th-century prophecy claiming the next pope will be the last questioned if Judgment Day is quickly approaching. Scholars, theologians and churchmen, however, all treat this “prediction” as fiction passed off as reality.

The “Prophecy of the Popes” is attributed to St. Malachy, an Irish archbishop who was canonized a saint in 1190, according to Discovery News. In his predication, dated 1139, Malachy prophesied that there would be 112 more popes before Judgment Day. Benedict is supposedly the 111th pope.

The foretelling offers brief descriptions about each pope, and some of them appear to align with reality in some way. For example, Benedict is apparently denoted as the “glory of the olive,” and the Olivetans are affiliated with Benedictine Order, NBC News notes. …

However, although Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana might bear the same name as the person mentioned in the prophecy, there are no Roman-born cardinals in the running to be Benedict’s successor.

“There are no Pietros among the living cardinals; two Pierres (as second name): Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir and Jean-Pierre Ricard; and one Pedro: Rubiano Sáenz,” according to librarian Salvador Miranda, creator and producer of the website The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church.

Like any good conspiracy theory, there are many holes in the lore of St. Malachy, according to Father James Weiss, a professor of church history at Boston College.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Tom Gallagher | Feb. 14, 2013

Simply put, no U.S. cardinal has the chops to be the next pope, whether it’s due to depth of theological writings, expert managerial capability, the facility of languages, or a global presence, among other reasons.

My NCR colleague, John Allen, has done his level best to introduce into the mainstream media the notion that Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., are contenders for the papacy at next month’s conclave. To be sure, Allen has as much, if not more, experience covering the Vatican as any U.S. journalist.

From CNN on Monday:

Wuerl is a top American contender for the papacy, according to Allen. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, could also be considered, but both Americans would be on the “C or D list” of candidates, Allen said.

With no disrespect to either of His Eminences, I respectfully disagree.

Let’s start with Cardinal Dolan.

His pluses include his happiness as a priest and his desire to use the media to advance his goals on behalf of the church. After an introverted pope, the thinking goes, the universal church needs an extroverted pope. With Cardinal Dolan, one gets an extrovert.

But upon review, what do we really know about Cardinal Dolan?

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
San Bernardino Sun

By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer
dailynews.com
Posted: 02/13/2013

[Final Addendum to the Report to the People of God – BishopAccountability.org]

[FINAL ADDENDUM
To view the final addendum to the 2004 Report to the People of God, click here.]

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has quietly added the names of two dozen priests and brothers to its list of clergy accused of sexually abusing children.

In a two-page “final addendum” to its 2004 Report to the People of God, which was the church’s response to the growing sex-abuse scandal, the archdiocese said the newly released names included those found during a follow-up review of its files. Some also were named in a lawsuit against the archdiocese, which resulted in a 2007 settlement of $660 million to more than 500 victims.

As part of the settlement, the archdiocese recently released some 12,000 documents detailing allegations of molestation against children, some going back decades. The files also revealed a cover-up of the abuse by Cardinal Roger Mahony, which led to an unprecedented public rebuke of the retired archbishop by his successor.

The list was posted on the archdiocese website at the same time the files were released, although no mention was made of it. The list of 49 names includes two dozen who were not previously known to be accused, according to BishopAccountability.org, which has been tracking sex-abuse in the Catholic Church and discovered the addendum.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

Paedophile priest Robert Coles has been jailed for eight years.

Coles, 71, of Upperton Road, Eastbourne, appeared at Brighton Crown Court yesterday (Thursday) and was sentenced to a total of eight years for sexual offences against young boys.

At a hearing on December 14 last year at Chichester Crown Court, Coles had pleaded guilty to 11 offences.

These included one offence of buggery and seven indecent assaults against three victims back in the 1970s and 1980s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
London Evening Standard

14 February 2013

A paedophile retired Church of England priest has been jailed for eight years after pleading guilty to historic sex offences against young boys dating back to the 1970’s.

In December, Robert Coles, 71, admitted buggery and four indecent assaults on one victim and three indecent assaults against two other boys.

The offences took place in West Sussex and elsewhere in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s against boys aged between 10 and 16 at the time.

Coles, of Upperton Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex, was due to face trial on June 10 on seven further alleged sex offences suspected to have been committed against the victims.

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UNITED STATES
The Garden of Roses: Stores of Abuse and Healing

Virginia Jones

I read what others are writing about the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI; sometimes with interest, sometimes with eyes glazed over from reading the same thing being said over and over. Two articles, however, caught my attention — one New York Times op-ed written by Jason Berry and one about Paolo Gabrielle, the pope’s butler. Thank you to Abuse Tracker for posting one article and Frank Douglas for drawing my attention to the other.

First, Jason Berry, who is very well researched, wrote about a detail that should be well known but had not been catalogued in my brain before. In his New York Times op-ed he wrote about Cardinal Sodano. Apparently Pope Benedict XVI, when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, wanted to investigate Marcel Maciel, the founder of the Legionnaire’s of Christ and legendary, chronic abuser of boys and women and girls and men. Cardinal Sodano pressured Pope John Paul II to end this investigation, and he did. The former Cardinal Ratzinger attempted other positive steps concerning the clergy abuse issue, only to be opposed by the powerful Cardinal Sodano. Pope Benedict XVI has slime on his hands too. He knew about abuse and covered it up too, but we should give credit for what he did do — namely investigate and punish Marcel Maciel as well as meet with some clergy abuse survivors to hear their stories and a few other positive actions.

Why I am so concerned is that Cardinal Sodano was elected dean of the College of Cardinals which will elect the next Pope. This cannot be good news for anyone who wants to end abuse and care for survivors wounded in our Catholic Church.

When the clergy abuse scandal burst forth in 2002, pressured by media stories and legal action, the Church made some genuine progress in it’s handling of the issue. As the lawsuits and the bankruptcies and media coverage of the issue abated, the Church seems to be regressing. It appears we are in for much more regression. In my opinion this means even less support for survivors and increased likelihood for more abuse in the present and the future. It we want to end abuse, we have to talk about it; we have to tackle it head one. We can and should try new approaches, but we must not sweep the issue under the rug. We must act on our moral convictions.

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SCOTLAND
Association of Catholic Priests (Ireland)

Brian Fitzpatrick, a former Labour MSP, offers the thoughts of a Scottish Catholic on upcoming conclave (first published in the Scottish Review on Ash Wednesday).

‘Turn to me and be saved’, says the Lord, ‘For I am God, there is none other, none beside Me, I call your Name’. Hopefully, without being unduly and prematurely maudlin, I can share that those versified simple words of scripture resonate with me. I have asked for them to be included in my requiem mass come the day my family and friends will gather to pray for the passing of my soul and, God willing, perhaps celebrate my life.

Like many 21st-century western Catholics, in falteringly answering that call I have the contradictory sensation that it has never been easier but, at the same time never harder, to cling to the barque of Peter. Certainly, as Scottish Catholics, we now no longer suffer the unjust fates of our forebears. Most of the often still heated anti-Catholic rhetoric flows from an aggressively secularist body of opinion challenging Catholicism as its most robust opponent in the public square rather than the crazier, if equally bitter, sectarian rantings of yesteryear.

Yet my greatest anxieties for the future of the Catholic Church flow more from the antics of some inside our church rather than any enemy without. The church my parents raised me in, and which I doubt I could ever leave, often is an uncomfortable place for a liberal Catholic (not yet an oxymoron). There is an air of shrillness and fundamentalism to much of the monologue emanating from elements of the episcopacy.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Midhurst and Petworth Observer

Published on Thursday 14 February 2013

A RETIRED priest was sentenced to eight years in prison today (February 14), for 11 child sex offences.

Robert Coles, 71, of Upperton Road, Eastbourne, appeared at Brighton Crown Court and was sentenced for sexual offences against young boys.

At a hearing on December 14, at Chichester Crown Court, Coles pleaded guilty to 11 offences against a boy in Chichester between 1982 and 1984 and offences against two other boys, aged ten at the time.

The offences were: one offence of buggery and four indecent assaults against the first victim and three indecent assaults against each of the other two victims between 1978 and 1979.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 14 February 2013 (VIS) – In a previous story about the future conclave to elect Benedict XVI’s successor it was erroneously stated that the number of cardinal electors could vary according to the date that the conclave commences.

In fact, this number is independent of the date that the conclave begins because John Paul II’s Apostolic Constitution “Universi Dominici Gregis”, which will regulate the conclave, establishes in no. 33 that cardinals who have reached their eightieth birthday before the day when the Apostolic See becomes vacant will not be cardinal electors.

For that reason, for example, Cardinal Walter Kasper, who turns 80 on 5 March will be an elector, as is also the case for Cardinal Severino Poletto, who turns 80 on 18 March.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 14 February 2013 (VIS) – The Governorate of Vatican City State and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Italy have signed, at the ministry’s offices, a memorandum of understanding regarding use of the “Passetto di Borgo”, that is, the covered corridor atop the walls joining the Vatican to Castel Sant’Angleo, and the Watchtower of that monument.

Signing for the Holy See was Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State, and, on behalf of the Italian Republic, Lorenzo Ornaghi, Italy’s Minister of Culture.

The memorandum―following in line with the Exchange of (Diplomatic) Notes between Italy and the Holy See in 1991 regarding the ownership and use of the “Passetto di Borgo” and taking into account the common interest in cooperating for the care and appreciation of the historic and artistic patrimony―defines the usage of the Watchtower for the purpose of authorizing the movement of the public within and outside of the monument and of preparing the adequate infrastructures to allow access for persons with disabilities.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 14 February 2013 (VIS) – Archbishop Georg Ganswein, Prefect of the Prefecture of the Papal Household and secretary to Benedict XVI, will continue to carry out both roles and will thus accompany the Pope during his stay at Castel Gandolfo and at the monastery that he will retire to after his resignation from the papacy. The papal household, or “memores”, which has served the Holy Father during these past eight years will also move to the same monastery. This was among the information given by Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the Holy See Press Office in today’s press briefing.

Fr. Lombardi also clarified that the cardinals arriving in Rome before 1 March, the official start of the Sede vacante, will not reside in the Casa Santa Marta residence until that date. At the same time he commented that the pontiff’s fall during the trip to Mexico last year was not a determining factor in his decision to renounce the Petrine ministry, nor was the report of the commission of three cardinals (Julian Herranz, Jozef Tomko, and Salvatore De Giorgi), which the Pope instituted last April to carry out an internal investigation on the leak of documents.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 14 February 2013 (VIS) – Yesterday at 5:00pm, the Holy Father presided over the rite of blessing and imposition of ashes. Traditionally, the celebration is held in the Roman Basilica of Santa Sabina but, given the large influx of persons and the desire of the cardinals and bishops of the Roman Curia to accompany the Pope in the final acts of his pontificate, it was moved to St. Peter’s Basilica. Before the ceremony, Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B., address a brief greeting to the pontiff, expressing the “emotion and respect not only of the Church, but of the entire world” for Benedict XVI on the news of his decision to renounce the Petrine ministry. Following are ample excerpts from the Holy Father’s homily.

“Today, Ash Wednesday, … we have gathered to celebrate the Eucharist following the ancient Roman tradition of Lenten station Masses. This tradition calls for the first ‘statio’ Mass to take place in the Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill. Circumstances, however, have suggested that we gather in the Vatican Basilica. We are great in number around the tomb of the Apostle Peter, also to ask for his intercession for the Church’s journey in this particular moment, renewing our faith in the Supreme Pastor, Christ the Lord. For me, this is a opportune occasion to thank everyone, especially the faithful of the Diocese of Rome, as I prepare to conclude my Petrine ministry, and to ask for special remembrance in your prayers.”

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CANADA
CBC News

A 76-year-old retired Roman Catholic priest facing charges related to the alleged sexual assault of a boy in the early 1970s has been released on bail after appearing in court Thursday.

Ottawa police arrested Jacques Faucher of Gatineau, Que., on Wednesday and charged him with gross indecency and indecent assault on a male. The incidents are alleged to have occurred in Ottawa between 1971 and 1973.

The complainant was seven years old in 1971, police said.

Faucher was released after posting a $3,000 bail bond. Faucher is not allowed to frequent pools, libraries, parks, schools —and other places where there are children — as one of the conditions of his release.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Feb. 14, 2013

Rome —
As fate would have it, 82-year-old Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was in Rome on Monday, the day Benedict XVI made his historic abdication announcement, having arrived from a wedding in Malta. He actually planned to attend that morning’s consistory of cardinals, having no idea what was to come, but arrived late enough he didn’t make it.

Obviously, he now wishes there had been an earlier flight.

Despite his age, McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, keeps up a hectic travel schedule and has a wide network of friends among senior churchmen on every continent, giving him a firsthand sense of the thinking in various corners of the world. Although he won’t vote in this conclave, he took part in the election of Benedict XVI in 2005, giving him a unique perspective on the differences this time around. He’ll also participate in the daily General Congregation meetings of cardinals before the conclave begins.

In terms of the politics of the American church, McCarrick is sometimes seen as a leader of the more liberal wing of the American bishops, though he generally likes to talk about the importance of the “center.”

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

VATICAN CITY | Thu Feb 14, 2013

(Reuters) – With passing phrases and striking images, Pope Benedict is assembling a last testament to his Roman Catholic Church, urging its leaders to put aside their rivalries and think only of the unity of the faith.

The message, slipped into statements both before and after his shock resignation announcement on Monday, reads like a veiled rebuke to leading cardinals jockeying for influence in the upcoming conclave and in the papacy that it will produce.

His vague comments could also be hints that it was internal Vatican power struggles, such as those which led to the Vatileaks scandal involving Benedict’s butler last year, that prompted him to take the almost unprecedented step of quitting the leadership of the world’s largest church.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

Vatican City, Feb 14, 2013 / 08:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop Georg Ganswein will move with Pope Benedict XVI when he retires on Feb. 28, but he also intends to retain his role as head of the Papal Household.

“The Pope will be accompanied to Castel Gandolfo and also to the monastery by Archbishop Georg and the Memores Domini, because this is the fundamental nuclear group of the pontifical family.”

“He will also remain the head of the Papal Household. And the future, the future is in God’s hands,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told the press on Feb. 14.

The Memores Domini are four consecrated women in the Communion and Liberation movement who assist in running the Papal Household.

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VATICAN CITY/ROME
Gazzetta del Sud

Rome, February 14 – Italy and the Vatican on Thursday signed an agreement to complete the restoration of a secret walkway used down the years as an escape passage for popes and fictionally employed by the villains and heroes of Dan Brown’s blockbuster Angels and Demons The deal was inked by Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, head of the Vatican City’s ‘governorate’, and Italian Culture Minister Lorenzo Ornaghi. They said the Vatican Corridor, also known as the Passetto del Borgo, would be “virtually completely open to visitors” after the restoration. The corridor, famous as the avenue of escape for Pope Clement VIII during the 1527 Sack of Rome, has been partially reopened in two stages, first in 1999 and then in 2005. The last restoration made about two-thirds of it visitable. “We expect it to become an even bigger tourist draw when the restoration is over, while the passage will get much-needed structural bolstering,” Bertello and Ornaghi said.

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Vatican City, February 14 – Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, Archpriest emeritus of the papal basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome, on Thursday said a “young pope” was needed to steer the Roman Catholic Church through its present difficulties following the shock announcement by Pope Benedict XVI of his resignation earlier this week. “Vigour and youth are needed to tackle the various tasks at hand,” said the prelate who, at 88, is too old to vote in the upcoming conclave to elect a new pope, adding that geographical provenance is not important. “There are certainly many things that need changing, reforming and improving, the unresolved problems undoubtedly concern the need to bring the Church up to date in its inner workings and structures, problems that are related to its need to be better inserted in the present time,” said Cardinal Montezemolo.

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CANADA
CFRA

Sarah Anderson and Alison Sandor
Thursday, February 14, 2013

A retired Roman Catholic priest is scheduled to appear in court Thursday morning on charges of gross indecency dating back to the early 1970’s.

In November, Ottawa police began investigating a series of alleged incidents involving a retired priest and a seven-year-old boy. The incidents allegedly occurred in Ottawa between 1971 and 1973.

Jacques Faucher, 76, who know lived in Gatineau is charged with one count each of gross indecency and indecent assault.

Faucher has a long history in the City of Ottawa and was ordained in 1960, serving in four separate parishes, according to a profile on the archdiocese website.

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CANADA
CBC News

The Archdiocese of Ottawa has suspended a 76-year-old retired Roman Catholic priest facing charges related to the alleged sexual assault of a boy in the early 1970s.

Ottawa police arrested Jacques Faucher of Gatineau, Que., on Wednesday and charged him with gross indecency and indecent assault on a male. The incidents are alleged to have occurred in Ottawa between 1971 and 1973.

The complainant was seven years old in 1971, police said.

Terrance Prendergast, the Archbishop of Ottawa, said in a statement issued Thursday Faucher has been suspended from all ministry and prohibited from representing himself as a Catholic priest.

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CANADA
Edmonton Journal

By Zev Singer and Teresa Smith, Ottawa Citizen February 14, 2013

OTTAWA — The Archbishop of Ottawa has suspended a Catholic priest who was to appear in court Thursday morning on charges of sexually abusing a seven-year-old boy in the 1970s.

The priest, 76-year-old Jacques Faucher of Gatineau, was charged Wednesday with gross indecency and indecent assault on a male for a “series of inappropriate contacts” with the boy that are alleged to have occurred between 1971 and 1973. He was to have a bail hearing Thursday morning.

In a statement released Thursday, Archbishop Terrence Prendergast said: “On learning that Fr. Jacques Faucher has been charged with criminal misconduct in relation to a minor, I want to advise our Catholic faithful, and the wider community, that I have suspended him from all ministry and prohibited him from representing himself as a Catholic priest.”

Police say the investigation, which began in November 2012, is ongoing and detectives are asking anyone with information to come forward.

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CANADA
Edmonton Journal

By Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, The Ottawa Citizen February 14, 2013

The Most Reverend Terrence Prendergast, S.J., Archbishop of Ottawa, on learning that Fr. Jacques Faucher, a retired priest of the Archdiocese of Ottawa, has been charged with criminal misconduct in relation to a minor in the 1970’s, made the following statement:

“On learning that Fr. Jacques Faucher has been charged with criminal misconduct in relation to a minor, I want to advise our Catholic faithful, and the wider community, that I have suspended him from all ministry and prohibited him from representing himself as a Catholic priest.

Our diocese is committed to creating a safe environment in the Church for minors and other vulnerable persons. We are also committed to a process of justice and reconciliation for
the victims of clergy abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
NBC News

By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News

VATICAN CITY — As the Catholic church prepares to choose its second leader in a decade, the world’s eyes are once again focused on the complex and secretive ways of the Vatican.

In mid-March, 117 cardinals will be locked inside its walls until they decide who should next attempt to govern one of humankind’s most enduring, yet bewildering, institutions.

Their new pope must not only provide spiritual leadership to followers in more than 180 countries around the globe, but also reconcile deep divisions within the two-and-a-half square miles of the Vatican itself, on the left bank of Rome’s Tiber river.

In his homily at Mass late Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of “sins against the unity of the Church,” hinting at the office politics of an organization worth at least $8 billion but which features a switchboard operated by nuns.

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VATICAN CITY
San Francisco Chronicle

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

Updated 7:00 am, Thursday, February 14, 2013

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI’s emotional farewell took an intimate turn Thursday as he held off-the-cuff reminiscences with Roman priests. In the background, questions kept mounting about the true state of Benedict’s health and his influence over the next pontiff.

For a second day, Benedict sent very pointed messages to his successor and to the cardinals who will elect that man about the direction the Catholic Church must take once he is no longer pope. While these remarks have been clearly labeled as Benedict’s swansong before retiring, his influence after retirement remains the subject of intense debate.

Benedict’s resignation Feb. 28 creates an awkward situation — the first in 600 years — in which the Catholic Church will have both a reigning pope and a retired one. The Vatican has insisted that Benedict will cease to be pope at exactly 8 p.m. on the historic day, devoting himself entirely to a life of prayer.

But the Vatican confirmed Thursday that Benedict’s trusted private secretary, the 56-year-old Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, would remain as his secretary and live with Benedict in his retirement home in the Vatican gardens — as well as remain prefect of the new pope’s household.

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UNITED STATES
The Nation

Greg Mitchell on February 12, 2013

When Pope Benedict suddenly announced yesterday that he was stepping down—charmingly, he gave the classic “two weeks notice”—few major media account gave much play, in their accounts, to Benedict’s role the tragic sex abuse scandals that have swept the Catholic Church in recent years, and may have been a factor in his shocking abdication.

Yes, he had been ill, and at age 85, certainly past retirement for most professions—but many previous popes were in the same straits and none have resigned over the past, oh, several centuries.

Just last week, HBO aired the excellent new Alex Gibney documentary Mea Maxima Culpa, which focused on priestly abuse and cover-up at a Wisconsin school for the deaf, but also exposed the former Cardinal Ratzinger as the man in charge of the abuse files for years (and other failures of omission or commission). I joked yesterday that the pope had announced that he was resigning “to spend more time with his family… of priestly abuse documents.”

And Gibney tweeted, “Grim Reminder: LA’s Cardinal Mahony, who did so much to shield sex abusers, is part of conclave to elect new Pope.” (Story here.)

Most major media accounts did mention the sex abuse scandals in passing—how could they not?—but few made any mention that Benedict/Ratzinger may have contributed to them via inaction. The New York Times’s front-page story today, for example, runs for twenty-three paragraphs without mentioning a word of it. The media may not have focused on all this, but advocacy and victims’ organizations did. In Wisconsin, SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests) declared that a new pope must do what Benedict did not:

Pope Benedict, who announced today he will resign on February 28, will leave his tenure as Pope without having made the one, simple moral and executive decision that would have, in a single stroke of his pen, protected potentially millions of children from harm, brought justice to hundreds of thousands of victims, and finally turned the church on a path towards true recovery and reform: worldwide zero tolerance of child sex abuse by priests.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

Now is the time for Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph to follow his leader and resign, renounce, and depart.

This moment affords him a saving grace.

Out of the ashes of a criminal conviction could be built a measure of redemption.

Out of the failure to protect the child and not the perpetrator could come course correction.

Out of the wandering in a personal desert, out of the stumbling block of the criminal conviction that trips up any reach to teach moral principle, out of the shroud of shrunken authority could come life – and life abundantly.

This moment, this thin space before 8 PM February 28, if seized, can offer resurrection to a diocese, its people, and the office of bishop.

The drama of a papal resignation, the questions that swirl around it, the building chorus of comment, chatter and clatter about who will emerge from a conclave in the white soutane on front façade of St. Peter’s is a tent of cover for a bishop clinging to the old ways.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

By Gustavo Arellano
Thu., Feb. 14 2013

Last month, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles released thousands of pages of documents pertaining to its long, proud history of protecting pedophile priests. Yesterday, Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org, which archives documents pertaining to the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal going back to the 1950s, discovered that LA Archbishop Jose H. Gomez had also sneaked in a list of 49 priests accused of child rape, including 24 previously never publicly acknowledged. Sneaky!

Orange County has been well-documented in this document dump, given parishes here were under the domain of the archdiocese until 1976, so it’s no surprise that an OC priest would be among those listed for the first time.

We’re going to have to hop onto the wayback machine for this one, but the pedo-priest’s name is William Hollinger, and he served at Our Lady of Fatima in San Clemente from 1966 through 1969. You gotta remember that in those days, San Clemente was the end of the Earth in Southern California, and that Hollinger’s assignment report had him bouncing from parish to parish most of his life (including two stints in the Long Beach area), so Hollinger accused mostly likely translates as Hollinger a monster.

BishopAccountability.org has yet to go through the assignments of all these new pedo-priests, so I wouldn’t be surprised if more OCers pop up. “In a letter to Archbishop Gomez, this organization urged him to make public the allegations against the priests and brothers, as well as their career histories,” McKiernan wrote. Such information has been provided by the archdiocese when they released lists of names in the past. We also expressed concern that this list, which has apparently existed since October 2008, has not been made public in a proper way, and that children have been put at risk as a result.”

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

by Sasha Aslanian, Minnesota Public Radio
February 13, 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Childhood victims of sexual abuse would no longer face a time limit to sue their abusers under a proposed bill announced at the Capitol Wednesday.

The Minnesota Child Victims Act would eliminate the requirement that victims file civil suits within six years of becoming an adult. It would not affect the statute of limitations in criminal cases.

Proponents of the Minnesota Child Victims Act say that it can take decades for people who were sexually abused as children to overcome the shame and secrecy surrounding those events to come forward. By then, it’s too late.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

It didn’t take long. Already reportedly some in the Vatican want the Pope to live elsewhere and John Paul II’s former secretary expresses criticism of the resignation decision. Meanwhile, the most many offer is faint praise for Joseph Ratzinger’s writings that evidentally took essential time away from his main duty to manage, for which many knowledgeable observers give him an “F” grade. Have Vatican Cardinals outfoxed the German Shepherd? He cannot “unresign”. Surely the Spirit has a sense of humor! The man responsible for exiling many scholars arbitrarily now has risked arbitrary exile himself.

But at this point does any of this matter to most Catholics worldwide? While it may seem overly pessimistic to say so soon that the next Pope will likely fail too, it is just being realistic; and yet there is also room for much optimism. The papal resignation is tantamount to an admission of failure and will lead to de-mystification of the papacy quickly. Pope Benedict XVI, soon to again be non-Pontiff, Joseph Ratzinger, and his Vatican clique led by Cardinal Sodano et al., have already set the stage for the next failure.

The sudden call for a quick election conclave substantiallly diminishes any chance of a real opposition being mounted by non-Vatican Cardinals. Since the Pope apparently knew for some time he would resign, the suddenness seems well planned. Ratzinger will soon be living a few hundred yards away from the new Pope in his refurbished retirement base, hardly a monastery.

Ratzinger and Sodano already likely know who will be the next Pope and one would be foolish to bet against them. Perhaps Cardinals might save some money by just mailing in blank proxies to Sodano. …

We all have a moral obligation to protect children and signing a petition is a simple, yet potentially effective, way towards meeting that obligation. Please take a minute and sign it at:
[Click here for the petition]

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota SNAP via Patrick Noaker, Attorney

[complaint]

[answer and counterclaim of David Damiani]

[all documents – Patrick Noaker, Attorney]

(Minneapolis, MN) Today, an Illinois man filed his Answer and Counterclaim (Hennepin Co. District Court Case No. 27 CV 13-2627) to a lawsuit filed by his brother Joseph Damiani, who is a Deacon in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The lawsuit was initiated by Deacon Joseph Damiani, after on November 25, 2012, David Damiani and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) distributed Child Protection Alerts to parishioners at Annunciation Catholic Church and Gichitwaa Kateri Church, churches where Deacon Joseph Damiani is assigned.

According to the Counterclaim by David Damiani filed in Hennepin County District Court today, Joseph Damiani sexually abused both David and his brother Gregory Michael Damiani, when both were children. David Damiani reported this sexual abuse to a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 2011 and to an Archdiocese investigator in July 2012. Despite these reports, Joseph Damiani remained in ministry within the Office of Indian Ministry, working with the Native American community, including children. According to the Counterclaim, David Damiani became aware that Joseph Damiani had contact with children in the Native American community who may be very vulnerable to sexual abuse and not be in the position to report that sexual abuse. The inaction by the Archdiocese prompted David to, himself, go directly to the parishioners and warn them about Joseph Damiani’s history of sexual abuse. The substance of the Counterclaim is that Joseph Damiani is prosecuting the defamation lawsuit in order to intimidate his younger brothers David and Gregory Michael Damiani into remaining silent about Joseph Damiani sexually abusing the brothers when they were kids.

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VATICAN CITY
pnj.com

VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Vatican says Pope Benedict XVI hit his head during his March 2012 trip to Mexico but denies it had any “relevant” role in his resignation.

Italy’s La Stampa newspaper reported Thursday that Benedict hit his head and bled when he got up in the middle of the night in an unfamiliar bedroom in Leon, Mexico. The report said blood stained his hair and sheets.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi confirmed the incident Thursday but said “it was not relevant for the trip, in that it didn’t affect it, nor in the decision” to resign.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Betrayed by his own VICAR: Reverend jailed for stealing dementia sufferer’s £61,000 life savings to spend on gambling sprees and his own daughter’s wedding

By Hugo Gye

A Catholic priest has been jailed after cheating an elderly dementia sufferer out of his life savings and spending the money on gambling and his daughter’s wedding.

Peter Hesketh persuaded widower Peter Court to sign over power of attorney to him and claimed to be investing in lucrative business deals.

But instead he took more than £60,000 from the vulnerable pensioner to pay for his own mortgage – later telling police that the money had been given to him in return for managing Mr Court’s finances.

Hesketh, 65, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison after being found guilty of theft at Worcester Crown Court.

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AUSTRALIA
Pro Bono News

Thursday, February 14, 2013

The Federal Government has introduced legislation to amend the Royal Commissions Act 1902 to assist the workings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The amendments will allow one or more of the six Royal Commissioners to conduct hearings. The Royal Commissions Act currently only permits hearings to be conducted by all members of a multi-member Commission or by a quorum.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says the amendment will assist the Commission to distribute its hearing work efficiently where this is appropriate.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
BishopAccountability.org

BishopAccountability.org discovered this document on the website of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. It lists 49 “names of clergy from a follow up review of Archdiocesan files, and names of clergy involved in Clergy I litigation which were not previously posted.” The list includes 24 names of accused priests not previously known.

In a letter to Archbishop Gomez, this organization urged him to make public the allegations against the priests and brothers, as well as their career histories. Such information has been provided by the archdiocese when they released lists of names in the past. We also expressed concern that this list, which has apparently existed since October 2008, has not been made public in a proper way, and that children have been put at risk as a result.

The PDF properties of the document show that it was created and presumably posted on January 31, 2013. No announcement was made by the archdiocese of the document’s publication, although it is clearly related to the archdiocese’s release on the same day of clergy files, under the nonmonetary terms of the 2007 settlement. Archbishop Gomez did not mention the release of the Final Addendum in his January 31, 2013 letter.

This release of names is momentous. Perhaps only when Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore released his list on September 25, 2002, have so many names of accused priests come into the public domain by a bishop’s actions. On several occasions, bishops have been compelled to release names by survivors’ nonmonetary conditions in a bankruptcy proceeding (e.g., Bishop Kettler in Fairbanks) or by a grand jury report (Cardinal Rigali, who removed 21 priests in Philadelphia), but Archbishop Gomez’ release of 24 new names is a remarkable and disturbing development.

The release of the names was first reported in L.A. Archdiocese Adds Priests’ Names to Abuse List, by Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times (2/13/13).

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times
February 13, 2013

[addendum to the list of clergy and brothers accused of abuse – BishopAccountability.org]

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has quietly added two dozen priests and brothers to its list of clergy accused of child molestation.

Though the church deems the allegations against the men credible, the archdiocese has declined to release information about the complaints, including the number of accusers, the dates of the alleged abuse and the parishes where the men worked.

The names were disclosed in a two-page report posted on the archdiocese’s website last month alongside 12,000 pages of internal records related to its handling of abuse claims.

The document was discovered recently by BishopAccountability.org, a nonprofit that researches and archives records of the Catholic abuse scandal.

The group’s president, who stumbled upon the document during a recent Google search, criticized the inconspicuous way the men were named and the lack of information provided about their cases.

“The terrible mess in the Catholic church happened because information was hidden and controlled, and that attitude is very clearly wrong,” said Terry McKiernan.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

MICHAEL O’REGAN and MARIE O’HALLORAN

A significant number of people went in to Magdalene laundries of their own volition, presumably because they felt life would be better for them there, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said.

There were dangers in judging the behaviour of predecessors by today’s standards but “I think we are still entitled to be shocked that some foster parents left children in the laundries when their foster payments stopped” and that a substantial number went in voluntarily.

He was speaking during a debate on a Fianna Fáil motion calling for an immediate and unqualified apology and a dedicated unit to address a redress scheme for the women.

The Government defeated the Fianna Fáil motion by 84 votes to 46.

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IRELAND
Longford Leader

The laundry in the Industrial School in Newtownforbes was not included in last week’s report on the Magdalene Laundries because it was classed as an industrial school – not a laundry. Following the publication of the McAleese report last week, it emerged that submissions were made to the committee compiling the report to include four more laundries: St Mary’s Stanhope Street in Dublin, Summerhill in Wexford, Bethany Home in Rathgar, Dublin and Newtownforbes Industrial School.

However these submissions were not accepted by the Government.

In a statement to the Longford Leader this week, the Department of Justice outlined the reasons why Newtownforbes was omitted from the report.

“Newtownforbes was not included in the McAleese report because it was an industrial school with a laundry attached, not a Magdalene Laundry”.

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ROME
Chiesa

by Sandro Magister

ROME, February 14, 2013 – On the evening of an unremarkable Thursday in Lent, at 8 p.m. on February 28, Joseph Ratzinger will take the step that none of his predecessors had dared to take. He will place upon the throne of Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Which another will be called to take up.

There is the power of a revolution in this action that has no equal even in centuries long ago. From that point on, the Church enters into unknown territory. It will have to elect a new pope while his predecessor is still alive, his words still resounding, his orders still binding, his agenda still waiting to be implemented.

Those cardinals who on the morning of Monday, February 11 were convoked in the hall of the consistory for the canonization of the eight hundred Christians of Otranto martyred by the Turks six centuries ago were stunned at hearing Benedict XVI, at the end of the ceremony, announce in Latin his resignation of the pontificate.

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VATICAN CITY
moneycontrol

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Few authors can boast that Pope Benedict helped sell their books, but the pontiff’s shock resignation has boosted interest in all things Catholic just as veteran Vatican journalist John Thavis is about to publish.

“The Vatican Diaries,” a behind-the-scenes look at the faith’s fabled nerve centre, goes on sale on February 21, just one week before the pope takes the nearly unprecedented step of quitting as the head of the world’s largest church.

Thavis, who covered the Vatican for 30 years until retiring from his post as bureau chief for the U.S.-based Catholic News Service last year, had long known Benedict believed a pope could resign and worried he might do it before the book came out.

But he says he was as shocked as anyone else when the pope announced his decision on Monday. The book is not an analysis of the soon-to-end pontificate, but the stories it tells amount to what Thavis calls “a mosaic history of Benedict’s papacy.” …

Q. In the book, you call the Vatican “a kind of showcase for missteps, distractions and mixed messages, a place where the pope is upstaged by his own gaffes or those of his top aides.” Did this come out in your daily reporting?

A. “There were some things I couldn’t say until I sat down to write a book. There were some judgements I couldn’t have expressed in news stories, and not only because I worked for a Catholic news agency. I couldn’t say in my daily reporting how disgraceful I found the Legionaries of Christ’s effort to spin or deflect criticism from their founder (Fr Marcial Maciel, who sexually abused boys and secretly fathered several children).

“I also couldn’t say how ridiculous I found it that the Vatican still feels the need to edit the pope’s spoken words to journalists, as if there was an official version that will supercede his actual words.”

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UNITED STATES
CNN

CNN’s Max Foster talks about controversies the next pope will face, including sex abuse allegations within the church.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The outgoing head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, has hinted he will withdraw into seclusion after stepping down at the end of this month.

“Even if I am withdrawing into prayer, I will always be close to all of you… even if I remain hidden to the world,” he told a meeting of Roman priests.

The pontiff, 85, shocked the world’s biggest Christian Church on Monday when he announced his resignation.

He cited his advanced age as the reason for resigning.

The Pope appears to be planning a complete retreat from the public eye, the BBC’s Alan Johnston reports from the Vatican.

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UNITED STATES
Center for Constitutional Rights

February 11, 2013, New York – In response to news that Pope Benedict XVI plans to resign, the Center for Constitutional Rights issued the statement below. The Center for Constitutional Rights filed a case with the International Criminal Court on behalf of the organization Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) against the pope and other high-level Vatican officials for crimes against humanity in September 2011 and provided additional documentation in the case in April 2012. The prosecutor is currently reviewing the evidence.

“This pope is responsible for rape and other sexual violence around the world, both through his exercise of superior responsibility and through his direct involvement in the cover up of specific crimes. Tens of thousands of victims, most of them children, continue to suffer because he has placed the reputation of the church above the safety of its members. His resignation will make international prosecution easier for national systems of justice that still grant immunity to current heads of state.

In this case, all roads really do lead to Rome. Not only does Pope Benedict XVI bear responsibility in his official capacity for the church-wide policy of systematic and widespread concealment and enabling of the crimes, but he bears individual responsibility in a number of cases in which he ensured that perpetrators would be shielded and protected and left in place to assault more victims.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Feb. 14, 2013

Rome

Conventional wisdom about Benedict XVI holds that he’s a strong teaching pope but weak on the business management side, reflected in the “Vati-leaks” mess and other internal breakdowns. Yet defenders argue he’s actually been a reformer, perhaps nowhere more so than on Vatican finances.

The next few days seem likely to bring one final twist to the story, with the naming of a new president for the embattled Vatican Bank.

On Tuesday, Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, announced during a reception for the 84th anniversary of the Lateran Pacts that a new president of the Institute for the Works of Religion, better known as the “Vatican Bank,” would be named shortly. Yesterday that was confirmed by Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson.

“It’s plausible that the appointment could come in the next few days,” Lombardi said. “It’s a process that’s been underway for a long time, and I don’t see why it should stop because of the pope’s resignation.”

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INDIANA
Indianapolis Star

Written by
Vic Ryckaert

A Greenwood church entered into an agreement with state officials Wednesday that allows it to continue running a day care.

The Little Angels Daycare and Preschool in White River Baptist Church, due to shut down today, can keep operating after it agreed to improve up safety standards and become a fully licensed day care by Aug. 13, said Marni Lemons, a spokeswoman for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.

The church day care at 1222 Demaree Road cares for about 130 children.

FSSA officials notified the day care on Jan. 31 that it was revoking their registration because an inspector found a church official accused of sexual abuse had been allowed near children.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Kate Campbell and Natasha Boddy, The West Australian
February 14, 2013

A Perth jury has found a former music teacher at an exclusive boys’ school guilty of repeatedly sexually abusing a teenage student in the 1980s.

The District Court jury took less than four hours today to convict Lindsay Hutchinson, 63, of 12 charges, including carnal knowledge against nature, unlawful and indecent assault and indecent dealing with a child.

Hutchinson pleaded guilty to three indecent dealing charges, involving touching the victim between 1984 and 1985, but denied the more serious charges, including rape.

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CALIFORNIA
Loyolan

Posted on February 14, 2013

by Kevin O’Keeffe

Change can be a good thing, but how can you say that when the supposed reason for the change is anything but good?

It’s pretty grim to celebrate someone’s allegedly poor health, but Monday’s announcement that Pope Benedict XVI is stepping down from his position – the first such resignation in almost 600 years, according to the article “University reacts to the Pope’s resignation” appearing on Page 1 of this issue – isn’t what I’d call “bad news.”

It’s the perfect time for major transition and progression for the often socially conservative Roman Catholic Church, which is, in my opinion, quickly losing touch with young people like myself. Many in my demographic were baptized Catholic, myself included, but quickly became disillusioned with the Church’s outmoded teachings on the role of women in the church and, especially in my case, homosexuality.

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CANADA
Metro Ottawa

By Alex Boutilier
Metro Ottawa

Ottawa Police have charged a retired Roman Catholic Priest with indecent assault against a seven-year-old.

The charges come after a three month investigation into a “series of inapropriate contacts” between a Roman Catholic Priest and a seven-year-old boy in Ottawa between 1971 and 1973.

Jacques Faucher, 76, faces one count of gross indecency and one count of indecent assault. He will appear in court on Thursday for a bail hearing, and the investigation is ongoing.

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OHIO
Daily Call

By Will E Sanders
Staff Writer

TROY – A resident pastor from Troy’s First United Methodist Church remains held at the Miami County Jail on a $100,000 bond related to sexual allegations involving a 15-year-old female parishioner.

Michael “Mic” D. Mohler, 26, of Troy, was arraigned in Miami County Municipal Court on Wednesday morning on a charge of sexual battery, a third-degree felony that carries a potential prison sentence of one to five years and sexual registration.

Authorities with the sheriff’s office said Mohler served as a youth pastor at the church and the church’s website listed his position as “resident pastor,” a post in which he no longer servces.
The sheriff’s office and the Troy Police Department jointly investigated the allegations of sexual abuse that allegedly involved Mohler and the underage female.

Rev. David Leckrone, head pastor at First United Methodist Church, issued a written statement Wednesday afternoon and stated church officials are taking the “allegations extremely seriously.”

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UNITED STATES
TCPalm

Paul Janensch

Posted February 14, 2013

I was surprised to read recently that a Vatican official thanked the U.S. news media for their aggressive reporting of child sexual abuse by priests.

For a long time this was not the usual line coming from the Vatican or from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The usual line was to denounce the media for an “anti-Catholic bias.”

I am a Mass-attending Catholic. I am also a journalist who has been troubled by the Catholic hierarchy’s reluctance to release information about accusations against priests of child sexual abuse and financial settlements with victims.

The thanks to the U.S. news media came from Father Robert Oliver, a canon lawyer from Boston and the Vatican’s new prosecutor of child sexual abuse cases.

“I think that certainly those who continued to put before us that we need to confront this problem did a service,” Oliver was quoted by the Reuters news service as saying at his first news conference. …

I, too, have felt the wrath of a Catholic official for daring to look into accusations against priests of child sexual abuse. In the early 1990s, 10 years before the investigative reporting by The Boston Globe, I was the editor of the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Mass.

Several men told us they had been molested by priests when they were boys. We found evidence to support their allegations, asked the bishop for his response and published news stories in which the accusers were named.

A monsignor who served as an aide to the bishop and knew I was a Catholic, telephoned me. “You are a disgrace to the church,” he said.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Pressure grows on Pope to leave Rome after he retires so he does not interfere with successor’s work

By Steve Doughty and Hannah Roberts

The Pope is under pressure to go into exile from Rome after he retires so that he does not interfere with the work of his successor, senior Roman Catholic sources indicated yesterday.

There is growing evidence that several cardinals are anxious that Benedict XVI should not carry through his plan to live in an apartment block inside the walls of the Vatican.

They fear the close presence of a retired Pope will create difficulties for the new man who will take over the Papacy this spring.

The suggestion that Benedict should be effectively evicted from his planned retreat and dismissed from Rome came just two days after the Pope’s sudden announcement of his resignation threw the church’s leadership into turmoil.

The Vatican has been gripped with rumours of faction fighting while potential candidates for the succession have been jostling for position for when 117 cardinals meet to elect a successor next month.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Editorial Board

Wednesday, February 13

ELEVEN AMERICANS will be among the 117 cardinals of the Catholic Church heading soon to Rome to select the next pope. One of them, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, for a quarter-century the archbishop of Los Angeles, is lucky not to be in prison, for there is no dispute that he orchestrated what amounted to a cover-up of clerical sexual abuse in Los Angeles.

By now it is familiar news, though no less stomach-turning, that top officials in the Catholic Church protected pedophile priests for decades — impeding criminal investigations, shuffling offenders to new parishes or abroad, and resisting disclosure. In so doing, they exhibited little concern for victims of sex abuse, usually boys.

Still, the scale of the misdeeds in Los Angeles, the largest archdiocese in the United States, counts as a particular disgrace. And it is Cardinal Mahony, who resigned as archbishop two years ago, who oversaw the whole dirty business. For that he has been publicly censured by his successor.

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UNITED STATES
Kelly Clark

A Pope hasn’t resigned since 1415, so it is easy to see why Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement of his own resignation has made headlines. Although he was not in the best of health when he took office, the expectation was that he would serve until he died – like all his predecessors in the past 600 years.

I come from a long line of Bavarian Catholics (even though the strain was diluted to Nebraska Lutherans by my generation), so was pleased to see a Bavarian Cardinal appointed Pope, even though I do not follow Vatican politics. Those who do are out in full force now, making all kinds of speculations about why this Pope resigned, who will succeed him, and just what role a retired Pope is supposed to play.

The most scintillating of this conjecture is whether the Pope’s resignation has any connection with the German Bishops Conference’s abrupt cancellation of a independent investigation into 70 years of sex abuse allegation against German clergy.

But we shouldn’t lose site of the real goal of putting an end to child sexual abuse, within the Catholic Church as well as in other institutions of trust. The next papal election is a side issue because reform will never come from within an institution. Real reform is the product of advocates who tirelessly pursue the protection of children through changes in criminal and civil statutes of limitations, litigation, investigative journalism, and hands-on support for survivors of child abuse.

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Countercurrents.org

By Francis A. Boyle

13 February, 2013
Countercurrents.org

As the Lawyer for the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during Yugoslavia’s War of Extermination against the Bosnians, I represented all 40,000 raped Women of Bosnia, argued their case for genocide before the International Court of Justice in The Hague (the World Court of the United Nations System), and won two World Court Orders of Provisional Measures of Protection on their behalf on 8 April 1993 and 13 September 1993. See my book “ The Bosnian People Charge Genocide!” (1996).

The Pope and his Cardinals and his Archbishops and his Bishops are ultimately responsible for the widespread and systematic Sexual Abuse of thousands of completely innocent children around the world, which constitutes a Crime against Humanity under the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court, in particular article 7(1)(g)—“rape”—and article 7(1) (k)— “Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.” According to the well known principle of Command Responsibility under International Criminal Law, the Pope and his Cardinals and his Archbishops and his Bishops should all be prosecuted for their own criminal acts and the criminal acts of their subordinate priests for the reasons set forth in Rome Statute article 28(b):

“b) With respect to superior and subordinate relationships not described in paragraph (a), a superior shall be criminally responsible for crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court committed by subordinates under his or her effective authority and control, as a result of his or her failure to exercise control properly over such subordinates, where:

(i) The superior either knew, or consciously disregarded information which clearly indicated, that the subordinates were committing or about to commit such crimes;

(ii) The crimes concerned activities that were within the effective responsibility and control of the superior; and

(iii) The superior failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures within his or her power to prevent or repress their commission or to submit the matter to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution.”

To every Catholic Cardinal, Archbishop, Bishop, Priest, Abbot, Monk, and Brother in the entire world I ask: What did you know and when did you know it about your colleagues and friends and subordinates and superiors sexually abusing Children? And why did you not act immediately and effectively to stop them? As Jesus Christ said about protecting Children: “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Caleb K. Bell| Religion News Service

Updated: Wednesday, February 13

There will be 11 Americans among the 118 Roman Catholic cardinals who will convene in the Sistine Chapel in mid-March to elect the next pope. They range from leaders of major archdioceses to retired prelates to top officials in the Vatican bureaucracy.

Here’s a look at the American “princes of the church” who will vote for the next leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics:

Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura
Age: 64
Born: June 30, 1948 in Richland Center, Wis.
Education: Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.), Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome)
Ordained a priest: 1975 in Rome

Posts held: bishop of La Crosse, Wis. (1994-2003); archbishop of St. Louis, Mo. (2004-2008); prefect of the Apostolic Signatura (2008-present)

Elevated to cardinal: 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI

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CANADA
CBC News

A 76-year-old retired priest is facing two charges for the alleged sexual assault on a boy in the early 1970s.

Ottawa police arrested Jacques Faucher of Gatineau, Que., Wednesday on one count each of gross indecency and indecent assault on a male.

The alleged incidents happened between a Roman Catholic priest and a seven-year-old boy between 1971 and 1973.

The police investigation only began this past November but it continues.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

By Zev Singer, OTTAWA CITIZEN
February 13, 2013

OTTAWA — Ottawa police have charged a 76-year-old retired priest with the alleged sex abuse of a 7-year-old boy in the early 1970s.

Jacques Faucher, of Gatineau, was arrested Wednesday and will appear in court Thursday for a bail hearing. He is charged with gross indecency and indecent assault on a male. The “series of inappropriate contacts” between the Roman Catholic priest and the boy is alleged to have occurred between 1971 and 1973.

Police say the investigation, which began in November 2012, is ongoing and they ask anyone with information about the alleged incident or other incidents to contact the Ottawa Police Service Sexual Assault/Child Abuse Unit at at 613-236-1222, ext. 5944 or Crime Stoppers at 613-233-8477 (TIPS) or toll free at 1-800-222-8477.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Michele Somerville

Why did Pope Benedict XVI announce his resignation Monday? I’d like to imagine he took a sweeping look at his career as a priest and prelate, and while not discounting the value of this contributions as an intellectual, took note of the degree to which he, during the course of his own and the previous pontificates, permitted the “power” to snuff out so much of the “glory.” I like to imagine remorse moves him to wish to go off and pray — for forgiveness, and for the broken church he leaves in shambles. As a practicing Catholic, I’d like to be able to “take” the “pope at his word,” as Frank Bruni wrote (that he does) in his Feb. 11 New York Times opinion piece. But I cannot. I do not.

Here’s how the papal apologists will spin Ratzinger’s resignation. They will frame the decision as a bold and enlightened step. They will emphasize the humility in Ratzinger’s decision to relieve a church in turmoil of the liability of an aging pontiff. This lacks the ring of truth. For more than five centuries a system, the Roman Catholic hierarchs placed great faith in a system of electing, honoring and burying popes, whereby a cabal of papal advisors kept an aging pope for life propped up (Ratzinger personally handled much of such propping up even before John Paul was in his dotage!). This was the tradition the tradition-loving cardinals favored.

Ratzinger’s stepping down constitutes a dramatic break with tradition in a church in which tradition-loving Catholics cling for dear life to any shred of tradition they can grasp. The papal Public Relations team will deflect any suggestion that departing the papacy in advance of bodily death is in and of itself a soft scandal, and will insist that Ratzinger’s resignation is neither a sign nor a symptom of a Catholic hierarchy utterly compromised by corruption. Corruption among the Roman Catholic prelates is hardly something new, but today’s active Catholics, wherever they stand on the degree of orthodoxy spectrum, still approach the altar in hope that our church might mature as it endures. Joseph Ratzinger’s retrograde disposition with its overemphasis on secrecy and obedience has led a majority of active Catholics to turn a deaf ear to the pontiff.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott kmellott@tribdem.com

EBENSBURG — A Greensburg attorney has filed a notice in Cambria County court listing a fourth victim of alleged sexual abuse by Brother Stephen Baker at Bishop McCort, and she provided more specific information about one of the defendants named.

Meanwhile, attorney Susan Williams told The Tribune-Democrat on Tuesday that she has been contacted by someone she would name only as a male from Mount Aloysius College.

She provided no additional information whether the contact was sexual, Baker’s involvement or the age of the individual who contacted her.

“I will say I was contacted by someone from Mount Aloysius,” she said.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

Pope Benedict XVI, in last public Mass, deplores ‘divisions’ roiling Catholic Church

By Anthony Faiola,

Wednesday, February 13

VATICAN CITY — Standing above the ancient tomb of Saint Peter, Pope Benedict XVI used his final homily as pontiff Wednesday to deliver a surprisingly blunt reflection on religious hypocrisy, suggesting the church he has headed was confronting internal “divisions” and sometimes presented a “disfigured” face.

Looking frail and aided by young priests as he moved beneath the vaulted canopy of the papal altar in St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope appeared to implicitly address the Vatican power struggles and scandals that plagued his nearly eight-year tenure and, some have argued, potentially hastened his departure as leader of the Catholic Church. Presiding over his last public Mass — on Ash Wednesday, the opening of Lent, a period viewed by Catholics as a time of reflection and penance — he asked his flock to dwell on the true nature of a Christian life.

“We can reveal the face of the church and how this face is, at times, disfigured,” the German-born pontiff said, speaking in Italian. “I am thinking in particular of the sins against the unity of the church, of the divisions in the body of the church.” He called for his ministry to overcome “individualism” and “rivalry,” saying they were only for those “who have distanced themselves from the faith.”

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BOSTON (MA)
WCVB

BOSTON —A group of activists in Boston on Wednesday called on outgoing Pope Benedict XVI to speak up about the sexual abuse of children by priests. The pontiff, who is 85, announced his retirement this week.

Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston attorney who has represented dozens of victims of sexual assault, said the Pope should release the names of all priests implicated in child abuse worldwide.

Garabedian said “releasing the documents, releasing the names of pedophiles, releasing the names of the bishops who were complicit is necessary so the victims can heal. It helps victims heal when they see the truth when they’re told the truth, when there is transparency.”

Robert Hoatson, a former priest who says he is also a survivor of abuse said, “we’re hearing stories that the pope broke a 600-year tradition by resigning but he didn’t break a 600-year tradition of covering up and being transparent and being honest and being open and telling us who the abusers are. And giving us all the documents relative to all the abuse that has taken place over the past 30 years at least that he’s been in charge of the congregation of the doctrine of the faith and as the pope.”

They were joined by Robert Costello, who says he survived abuse at the hands of a priest at a church in West Roxbury.

“Pope Benedict knows everything he knows where the bodies are buried, he knows who covered up what,” Costello said.

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VATICAN CITY
Advisor & Source Newspapers

Published: Wednesday, February 13, 2013

By Tom Heneghan, Reuters Religion Editor

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict may have shocked the world by announcing his resignation on Monday, but some cardinals apparently started maneuvering for the succession as long as two years ago.

Papal elections are among the world’s most mysterious, with no declared candidates and more bluffing than a high-stakes poker game. No cardinal can openly campaign for a job whose election is said to be inspired by the Holy Spirit.

But behind the scenes, at meetings inside the Vatican’s thick walls and dinners at the finer Roman restaurants, the cardinal electors size up potential candidates among themselves and drop subtle hints to Vatican watchers in the media about who’s up or down.

This round of discreet discussions, dubbed “totopapa” or “pope sweepstakes” by irreverent Romans, was only kicked into a higher gear on Monday when Benedict announced the first papal abdication for centuries. It will go into overdrive when cardinals from around the world arrive in the next few days.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Feb. 13, 2013

Rome —
Earlier this week, confirmation that Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles will participate in next month’s conclave was greeted with trepidation by some, worrying that it may cast a shadow over the papal transition by stirring fresh debate over the church’s response to the sexual abuse crisis.

Two weeks ago, Mahony’s successor, Archbishop Jose Gomez, relieved him of “administrative and public duties” over what Gomez described as a “failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care.” The move came in tandem with the release of archdiocesan files on abuse cases, many of which were handled by Mahony.

In that context, Mahony’s presence in Rome may raise eyebrows and stir commentary.

Today, Rome caught glimpses of a prelate who’s already been down that path, in the form of Cardinal Bernard Law.

Although now 81 and ineligible to vote in the conclave, Law was present both at Benedict XVI’s general audience in the Paul VI hall this morning and at the Ash Wednesday Mass this evening in St. Peter’s Basilica. He resigned as archbishop of Boston in December 2002 amid strong criticism of his handling of abuse cases and relocated to Rome as the Archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major. He stepped down from that post in November 2011.

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IRELAND
Galway Bay FM

Opposition parties have been accused of using the Magdalene Laundries report to score political points.

The claim was made by Labour Junior Minister Kathleen Lynch, during a Dail debate, lastnight, of a Fianna Fail motion calling on the government to apologise immediately to survivors of the laundries.

The sistersn of Mercy ran the magdalene laundry on Forster street in the city which closed in 1984.

Minister Lynch claimed that Sinn Fein had only recently shown an interest in the Magdalene survivors and was now using them as a “political football”.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Feb. 13, 2013

Rome —
Repeatedly over the last three days, media agencies have asked me to comment on the following question: Did Benedict XVI really resign just because he’s old and tired, or was it really because of the sexual abuse crisis, the Vatileaks mess, and the various other meltdowns that have occurred on his watch?

My answer has been that it’s not an either/or. Benedict may not have quit “because of” the pedophilia scandals or any other specific controversy, but it’s hard to believe they didn’t play a role, at least as background.

One can certainly take Benedict at his word that he feels his strength fading and simply believes he no longer has the capacity to do the job. Yet it defies reality to believe that the various sources of turmoil in the last seven years haven’t taken a toll and that they help account for the fatigue he now feels.

It’s clear they caused him anguish. Back in 2009, when his decision to lift the excommunications of four traditionalist bishops triggered a global firestorm when it turned out one of them was a Holocaust-denier, Benedict sent a letter to all the bishops of the world to explain what had happened. He apologized for the Vatican’s handling of the situation and openly confessed his own consternation at the criticism it triggered.

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

by Barbie Latza Nadeau Feb 13, 2013

American nuns—fiercely condemned under Pope Benedict for being too “radical”—are looking forward to a fresh start with a new pontiff.

Of all the scandals that have been pinned to Benedict XVI’s papacy, perhaps none has been more divisive than the so-called clampdown on American nuns last April. Its no wonder, then, that sisters across America are hoping that the next pope gives them a fairer shake. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, the head of the largest group of American nuns shares what she is looking for in a new leader.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By James Salt

There is a growing crisis within the leadership of the American Catholic church, and the Catholic faithful are desperate for change. Today, our church is less known for bringing good news to the poor and more for its forays into electoral politics and doctrinal inquisitions. The new pope has an opportunity to right the course of the American bishops and re-inspire a generation of American Catholics.

Take for example some recent Catholic controversies that highlight the crisis of leadership in Catholicism:

A Catholic hospital in Ireland allowed a patient in its care to die rather than terminate her non-viable fetus.

A Catholic high school administrator in Cincinnati was fired this week for expressing a personal opinion about marriage equality on his private blog. …

Robert Finn, the bishop of Kansas City, Mo., was convicted of protecting a pedophile priest but somehow still remains in charge of the diocese.

The Vatican initiated an inquisition of American nuns for focusing too much on the needs of the poor and not fighting enough against abortion and the rights of gays.

Employees and volunteers in the Diocese of Arlington, Va., are forced to sign a “loyalty oath” to the bishop or face termination.

These examples demonstrate a form of religious leadership that is far removed from the Gospel message of Christ. The Gospel’s call to love one another is the basis for the rich Catholic social teaching that sparked and nourished my love of God and church. It is this love that is absent from too many actions of our leadership. No wonder Catholics like me are despairing. We can’t find Christ in our church.

When I graduated college, I joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and dedicated myself to serving the church through service to others. I did so because of a profound inspiration I found within the actions and teachings of our church leaders. I was inspired by Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago who articulated a seamless respect for all life, from the unborn child, to the victim of a drone strike. I was inspired by Bishop Dingman of Des Moines who sold his mansion as a way to live in greater solidarity with the poor. And I was inspired by Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle who embraced the reforms of the Second Vatican Council by fully empowering lay leaders in the ministry of the church. When I look for it, I can still find that inspiration in the humble servants of the church, but more and more, today’s bishops leave me wanting.

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UNITED STATES
Wall Street Journal

By MATTHEW PAYNE

Who will succeed Pope Benedict the XVI, who surprised the world by stepping down as Bishop of Rome this week?

“I am not running,” announced Vice President Joe Biden, according to CNN. Thankfully, with one candidate ruled out, there are a number of more serious contenders. Front-runners include conservatives and moderates, as well candidates who appeal to different demographic groups in different regions. In fact, it sounds an awful lot like an American election—minus the constant stream of 30 second television advertisements. Perhaps Mr. Biden would have fit right in.

All jokes aside, Pope Benedict’s early retirement puts us in a unique situation when it comes to selecting a successor. To start, the College of Cardinals—the group of men chosen to elect the next pope—will have more time than usual to evaluate their fellow clergy before the voting begins. That’s because unlike in past years, there is no death of a Pope to mourn. When a Pope dies, Cardinals are summoned to Rome immediately to begin intense meetings in an already unusual environment. But that’s not the case this time. In fact, Cardinal Francis George told the Chicago Tribune he would “make better use of the time before the voting begins.”

The media, along with millions of Catholics around the world, might do the same. As the resumes and philosophies of various Cardinals are vetted and scrutinized, it might even end up feeling like an election after all. So what might Catholics be looking for?

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UNITED STATES
Your Mileage May Vary….

So.

Unless you were hiding under a rock this week, you know by now that Pope Benedict XVI has announced… abruptly… that he will resign from the papacy effective February 28th of this year. Citing health reasons, Pope Benedict XVI said that he didn’t feel that his strength would allow him to continue, especially since his personal physician has barred him from any more trans-Atlantic flights.

What is interesting to me is both the abruptness of, and the rarity of, such a move. Pope John Paul II, in failing health, was propped up for years before he finally succumbed, and no Pope has resigned since 1415, and only once before that, in the 13th century. Interestingly, and perhaps ominously, both prior resignations were shrouded in scandal.

In my opinion, so is this one.

While the Pope very well may be in failing health, it is also undeniable that he was the central player in one of the blackest and most damning scandals to haunt the Vatican since the Sale of Indulgences in the middle ages.

Joseph Ratzinger, as a new Cardinal, was put in charge of the “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” (formerly known as “the Inquisition”). It was in this capacity that Pope John Paul II put Cardinal Ratzinger in charge of investigating charges of child rape and torture by Catholic priests. And therein lies the scandal.

Instead of rooting out the evil that was being perpetrated by a sin-laden clergy, Cardinal Ratzinger, in a confidential letter to every bishop, actually made reporting incidents of abuse to be an offense punishable by excommunication. You read that right. As the London Observer reported in 2005, clergy in the Catholic Church were warned not to share any information with law enforcement authorities or the press. Abuse and child rape allegations were to be investigated “In the most secretive way… restrained by a perpetual silence.. and everyone… is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office… under the penalty of excommunication.” (emphasis added).

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