ABUSE TRACKER

MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTMJ

[with video]

By Jay Sorgi

MILWAUKEE – With the impending resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, speculation has already moved toward former Milwaukee Archbishop and current New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan as a potential candidate to take over.

However, Marquette University professor Fr. Steven Avella says that there is a long list of candidates that the College of Cardinals will consider when they hold their conclave and decide the next Pope.

“Dolan’s name will likely come up,” said Fr. Avella, who joined both Newsradio 620 WTMJ’s “Wisconsin’s Morning News” and TODAY’S TMJ4’s “Live at Daybreak.”

“Anything can happen. I’ll be the last person to go on the air and say it’s impossible for him to be elected, but at this point, the speculation is going to range wide.”

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

With reference to Fr. Tony Flannery’s current situation, allow me to share the following event which occured this weekend. In the Diocese of Cloyne, a celebrant, recently ordained, used the homily as a personal attack on Fr. Tony Flannery, CSsR. The celebrant used the homily, which is meant to be a breaking the God’s Word, in a partisan manner. A small number of the congregation were motivated to walk out of the Mass, thereby depriving themselves of the Eucharist. This was not the response of ‘mavericks’. Some of those who walked out are actively involved in the parish. Committed Catholics walked out as their only response to the abuse of a homily.

On another occasion, another parishioner, whilst praying the way of the Cross after a Mass, was informed by the same priest that she was late for Mass and thus should not have received the Eucharist at Holy Communion. The lady in question had brought her children with her to the same Mass. One therefore may conclude that the intention of the lady was good. She was met with hostility.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Australian Catholics will be surprised to find Pope Benedict XVI is resigning, but will be supportive of his decision, a senior member of the Catholic church says.

The 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI announced his decision to step down during a meeting of Vatican cardinals on Monday morning (local time) – saying age prevented him from carrying out his duties.

He will officially resign on February 28, making him the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years.

Father Brian Lucas, the general secretary of the Australian Bishops Conference, said he saw the news break on TV on Monday night and had no prior knowledge of the decision.

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9 News (Australia)

As the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI reached the world, those on Twitter have come up with some amusing theories on why he decided to step down.

“The Pope said he’s resigned because he didn’t have the strength to go on. It’s Monday. We all feel like that,” Steve N Allen wrote.

David Litchfield figured he knew where the Pope was on Monday night and what he was singing.

“That’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spotlight losing my religion” … Pope at karaoke last night,” he tweeted, quoting the lyrics from R.E.M.’s 1991 hit song.

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UNITED KINGDOM
AFP

By Katherine Haddon (AFP)

LONDON — 1246 GMT: Meanwhile, the new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby — the spiritual leader of the world’s Anglicans — has issued a statement expressing sadness at the news.

“It was with a heavy heart but complete understanding that we learned this morning of Pope Benedict?s declaration of his decision to lay down the burden of ministry as Bishop of Rome, an office which he has held with great dignity, insight and courage,” he said.

1244 GMT: British Prime Minister David Cameron has issued a statement saying Pope Benedict will be “missed as a spiritual leader to millions.”

1240 GMT: There have been other popes who stepped down in different circumstances.

There have been up to five papal abdications in 2,000 years.

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VATICAN CITY
The Times (United Kingdom)

Pope Benedict XVI is to resign because of ill health and old age – the first pontiff to renounce his ministry for almost 600 years.

The 85-year-old Pope announced his decision during a canonisation ceremony at the Vatican this morning, taking by surprise an assembly of cardinals who had gathered to hear the declaration of three new saints.

Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said that Benedict made the announcement in Latin and admitted that there was a “moment of hesitation” before his audience caught up with what he was saying.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

AAP
February 11, 2013

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard says the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI marks a historic moment, which many Australian Catholics will greet with great emotion.

The Pope will resign on February 28, saying his age prevented him from carrying out his duties – an unprecedented move in the modern history of the Catholic church.

He is the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years and the decision sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new Pope before the end of March.

The 85-year-old Pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals on Monday morning.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

Paul Owen
guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 February 2013

Pope’s resignation – eyewitness account

John Hooper has been speaking to Mexican prelate Monsignor Oscar Sanchez, who witnessed the pope’s resignation.

Standing in the colonnade that encircles St Peter’s square, his vestments draped over one arm, Monsignor Oscar Sanchez Barba from Guadalajara in Mexico told Hooper he had come to Rome to be told the date for the canonisation of the Blessed Lupita Garcia, a nun. Sanchez said:

We were all in the Sala del Concistorio in the third loggia of the Apostolic palace. After giving the date for the canonisation, the 12th of May, the pope took a sheet of paper and read from it.

He just said that he was resigning and that he would be finishing on February 28.

We were all left … [he tailed off, lost for words]

The cardinals were just looking at one another. Then the pope got to his feet, gave his benediction and left. It was so simple; the simplest thing imaginable. Extraordinary. Nobody expected it.

Then we all left in silence. There was absolute silence … and sadness.

Here’s more from the press conference being given by Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi.

Lombardi has said the pope took his decision “aware of the great problems the church faces today”. His decision showed “great courage” and “determination”, Lombardi said.

It was Benedict’s own personal decision made without any outside pressure.

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VATICAN CITY
Tidewater Review

Reuters
7:26 a.m. EST, February 11, 2013

ROME (Reuters) – A new pope will probably be elected by the end of March, a Vatican spokesman said on Monday, after Pope Benedict left his aides “incredulous” with his announcement that he would resign because he was too weak to fulfill the duties of his office.

Benedict said he would step down on February 28 and would not take part in the conclave to elect a new pope, Father Federico Lombardi told reporters at the Vatican.

After resigning, the former pope will move to a summer residence near Rome. After that, he will live in a former monastery within Vatican territory, Lombardi said.

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VATICAN CITY
Perth Now

POPE Benedict XVI, who has announced his intention to resign this month, will be remembered as a staunch defender of Roman Catholic orthodoxy, a diehard traditionalist and a lightning rod for controversy.

The German intellectual succeeded the long-reigning and popular John Paul II in April 2005 aged 78 after serving nearly a quarter-century as the Church’s doctrinal enforcer, earning himself the nickname “God’s Rottweiler”.

The 85-year-old, who blamed his age for preventing him from continuing at the head of the papacy, will be the first pope to do so in centuries.

“I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me,” the head of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics said as he would step down on February 28.

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VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

Pope Benedict XVI has announced he will resign on February 28th, saying he no longer had the strength to fulfill the duties of his office.

By Nick Squires, Rome, Barney Henderson and Malcolm Moore
12:26PM GMT 11 Feb 2013

The 85-year-old Pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals on Monday morning.

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” he told the cardinals.

“I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiriual nature, must be carried out not only by words and deeds but no less with prayer and suffering.

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GERMANY
PhillyBurbs

Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — The pope’s brother, Georg Ratzinger, says the pontiff had been advised by his doctor not to take any more transatlantic trips and had been considering stepping down for months.

Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he would resign Feb. 28.

Talking from his home in Regensburg to the news agency dpa, Georg Ratzinger said his brother was having increasing difficulty walking and that his resignation was part of a “natural process.”

“His age is weighing on him,” the 89-year-old said of his 85-year-old brother. “At this age my brother wants more rest.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

Feb. 11, 2013

Editorial

To those familiar with the protocols of the Catholic hierarchy, the news was stunning. The archbishop of Los Angeles publicly rebuked his predecessor, a cardinal, for his failures in dealing with the priest sex abuse scandal.

The action by Archbishop Jose Gomez, relieving Cardinal Roger Mahony of “any administrative or public duties,” was remarkable on two levels.

First, it broke with the unspoken but nearly ironclad rule of the culture of Catholic hierarchy that bishops do not publicly criticize other bishops. That courtesy extended even to the most egregious examples of ecclesial malfeasance — the deliberate and persistent hiding of criminal activities by priests. No one to this point had uttered a word against a predecessor, not in New York or Connecticut, not in Philadelphia or Milwaukee, not in Seattle or Santa Fe. There were “mistakes made,” they would say, and offer vacuous apologies. For reasons yet unknown, Gomez broke the code.

Second, the language Gomez used was blunt and unqualified. The behavior he found in the files, he said, was “evil.” The acts themselves and the handling of these matters, as the files revealed, showed more than mistakes made, they showed a “terrible failure.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

by NCR Staff | Feb. 11, 2013

Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez’s public rebuke of his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, at the end of January was quickly described as unprecedented.

Sharply critiquing Mahony’s handling of sex abuse cases after the long-delayed release of church files made clear the cardinal had shielded abusive priests from public scrutiny and possibly law enforcement at the expense of children’s safety, Gomez announced Jan. 31 that his predecessor would “no longer have any administrative or public duties” in the archdiocese.

In a hierarchical system long known for prelates reluctant to criticize one another, the public rebuke was certainly rare. Yet a question remained: What does it mean?

On one level, Gomez’s move against Mahony has little practical impact. Following his initial announcement, Gomez clarified Feb. 1 that Mahony remained a bishop “in good standing,” able to celebrate the sacraments and minister regularly.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Jerry Filteau | Feb. 11, 2013

Before his name became connected with failing to adequately address clergy abuse of minors, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles was better known for his reputation as one of the nation’s leading church advocates of social justice, particularly for farmworkers and immigrants.

As a young priest in Fresno, Calif., during the 1965-70 Delano Grape Strike, Mahony became a nationally known figure.

Joining forces with nationally noted labor priest Msgr. George Higgins and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Donnelly of Hartford, Conn., in the U.S. bishops’ ad hoc Committee on Farm Labor, the three helped mediate the conflict between California grape growers and their predominantly Mexican and Filipino migrant workers.

During his seminary years, Mahony became fluent in Spanish while working with the braceros, temporary Mexican farmworkers brought into the U.S. yearly to harvest crops. His work as the key on-site coordinator for the committee’s mediation work eventually led to the formation of Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers, as well as to major advances in just wages and working conditions for farm laborers.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

Sunday, February 10, 2013

BY MATTHEW MCGRATH, KAREN SUDOL AND ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITERS
The Record

Church of the Sacred Heart parishioners in Rochelle Park were told by their pastor Sunday that a priest living at the rectory, who admitted fondling a teenage boy years ago, has agreed to leave the parish.

The Rev. Robert Wolfee, the pastor of Sacred Heart, said at the end of 10 a.m. Mass that the Rev. Michael Fugee was “in the process of moving” in response to media reports about his criminal history. Wolfee didn’t say where Fugee would be moving.

Officials with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark acknowledged last week that Fugee had been living at the Terrace Avenue church, assisting the pastor with some duties, and that he is considered a priest in good standing.

Newark Archbishop John J. Myers came under fire earlier in the week after it became public that Fugee was working as an administrator in charge of raising money for missionary work and had been given an additional influential title.

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IRELAND
YouTube

Published on Feb 5, 2013

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald discuss the publication of the inter-departmental report into the State’s involvement in Magdalene Laundries.

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KENYA
Identity Kenya

NAIROBI, Feb 9 – THE SON of a former politician is suing the Catholic Church for years of sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of missionary priests in seminaries here in Kenya and in the UK.

Emmanuel Shikuku, the son of Martin Shikuku, one of Kenya’s fiery and well known politician who died in 2012, is alleging he was sexually abused by several clerics as he was studying for the priesthood.

He also alleges that one of his abusers – he says they were 6 in total – was a former Bishop of the Ngong Diocese but who was removed a few years back after cases of abuse started to appear.

In an exclusive interview with The Saturday Standard, Mr Shikuku claims he was a victim of a series of rapes and other forms of abuse between 1978 and 1994.

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AUSTRALIA
Geelong Advertiser

Danny Lannen | February 11th, 2013

Fr Kevin Dillon

GEELONG Catholic priest Fr Kevin Dillon will tell a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into institutional abuse that an existing response system for victims ignores rules of compassion and justice and it is beyond repair.

The St Mary’s parish priest will on Friday become the first cleric to present to the state inquiry, during the second of two sittings in Geelong.

Fr Dillon said yesterday he would call for victims to have a greater voice in how a response system might help them rebuild their lives.

He regularly counsels about 40 people who have suffered abuse from within the Catholic church.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

FORMER Christ Church music teacher admits molesting multiple young boys because he found them ‘appealing’ but thought he could keep his urges under control.

Lindsay William Hutchinson, 63, is on trial for committing six counts of carnal knowledge against nature, six counts of indecently dealing with a child, and three counts of unlawful and indecent assualt, for the repeated sexual abuse of a young student, between December 1983 and September 1985 in several places including country hotel rooms, a school music camp and a deanery.

Mr Hutchinson, who was the music director at Claremont’s Christ Church Grammar School and organist at St George’s Cathedral in the 1980s, has pleaded guilty to some of the charges, but has denied the more serious allegations, including rape.

Other witnesses during the trial have testified about inappropriate sexual touching and behaviour, including having photographs taken of them by Mr Hutchinson for a fake “speedo competition”, but the allegations do not form part of the charges Mr Hutchinson is facing.

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GERMANY
Kyiv Post

BERLIN – The German government said it was “moved and touched” by the surprise resignation of German-born Pope Benedict on Monday.

“As a Christian and as a Catholic, one can’t help but be moved and touched by this,” government spokesman Steffen Seibert said at a regular government news conference.

“The German government has the highest respect for the Holy Father, for what he has done, for his contributions over the course of his life to the Catholic church. He has been at the head of the Catholic Church for nearly eight years. He has left a very personal signature as a thinker at the head of the Church, and also as a shepherd. Whatever the reasons for this decision, they must be respected,” Seibert added.

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VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News

Sky News

Reaction to Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign as head of the Catholic Church has started to come in from around the world.

Anne Widdecombe MP described him as a “very decisive character” and said: “If he feels that he can’t do justice to the post, then (this decision) is very typical of him.”

“He’s given the church stability,” she added. “He was very much an authority figure and he was very, very trusted by church.”

Father Christopher Jamison, a Benedictine monk, told Sky News: “My reaction is one of great shock and surprise.

“He’s reached out very strongly to non-believers and fully recognises that people today won’t necessarily join the church.

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VATICAN CITY
Courier Mail (Australia)

February 11, 2013

POPE Benedict XVI says he will resign on February 28 because his age prevents him from carrying out his duties, an unprecedented move in the modern history of the Catholic Church.

He is the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years and the decision sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new Pope before the end of March.

The 85-year-old Pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals.

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” the Pope told the meeting.

“In order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me,” he said.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Pope Benedict in shock resignation: Pontiff, 85, is first in 600 years to stand down because he ‘no longer has the strength to carry on’

By Simon Tomlinson and Richard Hartley-parkinson

Pope Benedict XVI is to stand down as leader of the Catholic church, it was announced today.

The 85-year-old Pontiff said his strength was ‘no longer adequate to continue in office due to his advanced age’.

He said: ‘I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.’

He said he was making the decision in ‘full freedom’ but was ‘fully aware of the gravity of this gesture’.

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VATICAN CITY
The Irish Catholic

Pope Benedict XVI announced today that he plans on resigning the papal office on February 28. His full statement is below:

“Dear Brothers, I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

Reuters
5:27 a.m. CST, February 11, 2013

ROME (Reuters) – Pope Benedict said on Monday he will resign on Feb 28 because he no longer has the strength to fulfill the duties of his office, becoming the first pontiff since the Middle Ages to take such a step.

The 85-year-old pope said he had noticed that his strength had deteriorated over recent months “to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me”.

“For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter,” he said according to a statement from the Vatican.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

Pope Benedict XVI on Monday said he plans on resigning the papal office on February 28th. Below please find his announcement.

Full text of Pope’s declaration

Dear Brothers,
I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

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VATICAN CITY
NBC News

By Claudio Lavanga and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

Updated at 6:36 a.m. ET: ROME — Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday he will resign on February 28 because of his failing health, saying he no longer has the strength to carry out his duties.

The 85-year-old pope announced his decision during an address, in Latin, at the “Concistory for the canonization of the martyrs of Otranto”, a small event held in the early morning.

The decision, which appeared to take even the Vatican by surprise, makes him the the first pope to resign since at least 1415.

His statement was posted on the Vatican Radio website.

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VATICAN CITY
USA Today

Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY
6:33a.m. EST February 11, 2013

The Vatican said on Monday in a shock announcement that Pope Benedict XVI will resign his office from February 28.

The Italian news agency ANSA first reported the news, which it said was made in Latin during a meeting of cardinals in Rome.

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” he told the cardinals. “I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only by words and deeds but no less with prayer and suffering.

However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of St. Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary — strengths which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately the ministry entrusted to me.”

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VATICAN CITY
CNN

[with video]

From Hada Messia, CNN
updated 6:37 AM EST, Mon February 11, 2013

Rome (CNN) — Pope Benedict XVI will resign on February 28, his spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told CNN Monday.

The 85-year-old pope is resigning “because of advanced age,” Benedict told the cardinals of the Catholic Church on Monday.

“Strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me,” the pope told the cardinals, according to the Vatican.

The last pope to resign was Gregory XII in 1415. He did so to end a civil war within the church in which more than one man claimed to be pope.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

Published: February 11, 2013

ROME — Pope Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who took office in 2005 following the death of his predecessor, said on Monday that he will retire on Feb. 28, the first pope to do so in six centuries.

Regarded as a doctrinal conservative, the pope, 85, said that after examining his conscience “before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are longer suited to an adequate exercise” of his position as head of the world’s Roman Catholics.

The announcement is certain to plunge the Roman Catholic world into frenzied speculation about his likely successor and to evaluations of a papacy that was seen as both conservative and contentious.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Associated Press

Updated: Monday, February 11

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he would resign Feb. 28 — the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March.

The 85-year-old pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals on Monday morning.

He emphasized that carrying out the duties of being pope — the leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide — requires “both strength of mind and body.”

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” he told the cardinals. “I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only by words and deeds but no less with prayer and suffering.

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IRELAND
Justice for Magdalenes

Press Release, 10th February 2013, 7pm

Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) seeks to clarify the circumstances surrounding a reported meeting
between An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny T.D., and Magdalene survivors.

JFM is a survivor advocacy group and does not “represent” any group of women who were incarcerated in Magdalene Laundries. Rather, JFM seeks to open the doors to justice for all survivors. JFM is however in close contact with a number of survivors who have from time to time asked us to advocate on their behalf, e.g., by organising meetings or submitting testimony to the Inter‐Departmental Committee.

Since its foundation ten years ago, Justice for Magdalenes has had a survivor centred ethos at its core. In other words, survivors’ interests must come first — even when it makes our job harder to do. We do not make decisions for survivors, instead, we believe in ensuring that they make their decisions in an informed way. JFM will in turn, always abide by survivors’ wishes.

We at JFM have worked very hard to protect the dignity of survivors and their wish to keep out of the media glare. Most of these women remain in silence because the stigma remains — they have not been apologised to or told by our country’s leaders that what happened to them was wrong.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
OpEd News

By Vinnie Nauheimer

Accepting the Oscar for “The Sting LA Style” are Roger Cardinal Mahony and Archbishop Jose Gomez for their stellar performances in a remake of “The Sting.” Produced, directed, and orchestrated by the Vatican, it is the story of two bishops who feign fighting with each other in order to collect vast sums of money from an unsuspecting laity. Gomez plays the part of a white knight who rides in, releases documents (which was his legal obligation), derides his predecessor, and saves the Los Angeles diocese from the last vestiges of child sex abuse. Mahony, for his part, takes umbrage at being silenced by his protege and being blamed for his dastardly deeds. Could we expect anything less from the diocese that contains Hollywood? Certainly not!

Anyone believing the sincerity of the this “made for public consumption” feud should reach into their Tinker Bell pouches and throw some pixie dust on themselves so they can remain in La La Land. Are we really supposed to believe that Gomez was unaware of the extent of Mahony’s malfeasance? No more than that insulting excuse that Mahony made when he proffered, “nothing in my training prepared me for priests raping children.” If true, we ought to put both their faces on the Naivete Awards! Mahony for not knowing that the rape, sodomization, and molestation of children was a heinous, immoral, and criminal act. Gomez, who obviously doesn’t read, deserves his award in honor of his empty protestations that he knew nothing of how bad things were under Mahony. Really, did this man live under a rock for the past 10 years? As Mahony said, “Gomez never complained about me before.” These pernicious lines were written by the Vatican spin masters to add drama to the feud, and Mahony followed the script perfectly, giving a convincing performance penned to create the illusion of a genuine feud. “Please Don’t Throw Me into the Briar Patch, Archbishop Gomez!” wink, wink.

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IRELAND
Inside Ireland

Fianna Fáil to table motion calling for ‘full and unqualified apology’ to women of Magdalene Laundries

By Ciarán Hanna

Fianna Fáil said they will table a Dáil Motion this week calling for a ‘full and unqualified apology’ to the women of the Magdalene Laundries.

The party responded following the Taoiseach’s initial reaction to the report by outgoing Senator Martin McAleese’s committee, which was published on Tuesday 5th February.

The committee was set up to inquire into the Magdalene laundries and the report found ‘clear evidence of state involvement’ in the religious run laundries.

Senator McAleese and his committee were asked to outline the extent of state involvement and knowledge of the women in these laundries and noted that there was a legal basis for the way the state operated.

In each of the five categories it examined, it found evidence of state involvement, including the 26% of women who werereferred to the laundries by the State.

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IRELAND
98 FM

The Justice for Magdalenes group says it won’t meet the Taoiseach tomorrow.

However, both Enda Kenny and the Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore will meet with other survivor groups.

It comes just days after Mr Kenny failed to issue a full apology after a report found the state played a role in the running of the Magdalene laundries.

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CALIFORNIA
La Prensa Grafica

[Peter Garcia – Los Angeles archdiocese]

Monseñor Peter García era un criminal. Documentos internos de la Iglesia han revelado que el sacerdote abusó sexualmente de una veintena de niños y adolescentes entre 1966 y 1984. Los documentos también muestran que su superior, Roger Mahony, el exarzobispo de Los Ángeles, sabía de los abusos, pero nunca reportó los crímenes de García a la policía. Nunca. Y ya es muy tarde para hacer algo al respecto. García murió en 2009.

Esta es la historia de cómo la Iglesia católica en Los Ángeles protegió a varios sacerdotes criminales durante años y, lejos de denunciarlos a la policía, hizo todo lo posible para evitar que las autoridades se enteraran de los abusos sexuales que cometieron con menores de edad. Así es como la arquidiócesis de Los Ángeles tomó partido con los criminales y no con sus víctimas.

En el caso de García, los documentos –publicados originalmente por el diario Los Angeles Times y la agencia de noticias The Associated Press– muestran cómo Mahony, el entonces arzobispo, envió al sacerdote a un tratamiento psicológico para pedófilos en Nuevo México y luego le prohibió regresar a California. Y no lo hizo para proteger a los niños de su parroquia sino para evitar una serie de demandas.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Harold Brubaker, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: Sunday, February 10, 2013

When the Archdiocese of Philadelphia set out in late 2008 to raise $200 million in donations, Catholics stepped up generously and pledged $221 million through January 2011.

The Heritage of Faith/Vision of Hope campaign gathered $185 million in pledges for the archdiocese and $36 million specifically for parishes, the archdiocese reported.

But pledging is one thing. Paying is another.

Church officials said in late November, in a long-delayed report, that as of June 30, 2011 – just six months after the pledge period officially ended – collections were falling short. They estimated that they would not collect $41 million, or 22 percent of the $185 million promised to the archdiocese, spokesman Kenneth Gavin said recently. The estimate of the shortfall could go up or down.

Through June 2012, Heritage of Faith had collected $85 million in cash, the November report said. Archdiocesan officials would not provide a corresponding figure for anticipated collection shortfalls.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

February 10, 2013 by Susan Matthews

I will always donate to Catholic causes but I will never donate to any Archdiocesan capital campaign. I decided that while working for the Archdiocese during the Catholic Life 2000 campaign. I observed Cardinal Bevilacqua “splurging” on helicopter transportation, expensive decor for the New Jersey vacation house and an ego-driven conference room that could have rivaled that of any billion dollar corporation.

Meanwhile, Archdiocesan social workers were barely making a living wage while working with limited resources in underfunded programs. They made a huge difference in the lives of so many. I can’t imagine what they could have done with more.

Some could argue that things have changed since then. But fiscal responsibility still seems questionable. With so few seminarians and so many other worthy charities desperately in need, why on Earth would $14 million be poured into St. Charles Seminary? Surely, there is a more economical alternative. The Archdiocese still has yet to issue a comprehensive annual report to the faithful.

But with the facts revealed in Msgr. Lynn’s testimony, we all know the archdiocese also lacked moral responsibility. It takes a lot of time and effort to earn back that kind of trust. I know of long-time donors who decided to pull and redirect their generous contributions. I’ve got some suggestions, too. Write a check to Villa St. Joseph. Our aging sisters could use it. Offer tuition assistance to a mentally disabled child at Our Lady of Confidence. Or, donate specific needed items to your parish grade school. There’s no end to your options.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta

Justice for Magdalenes have questioned how the Government can pass legislation to liquidate a bank in a matter of hours but need yet more time to issue an apology to Magdalene survivors.

Claire McGettrick of JFM questioned why the Government needed time to reflect on a report which categorically stated that the State was complicit in all areas of the operation of the Magdalene laundries.

She said the Government obviously found it easier to push through a piece of legislation in the Dáil in a matter of hours than to offer an apology to a small group of women.

“It’s clear that the Government was able to stay up all night to liquidate a bank but couldn’t find the time to apologise to a small group of vulnerable women, some of whom are in cold houses and in poverty. It says it all really,” she said.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Shaun Connolly
He flailed around like a fish on a slab, gasping for oxygen as the blades kept raining down to gut him.

The faces of squirming TDs behind the Taoiseach told their own story: Their expressions veered from embarrassment to fear that their leader could appear so out of touch with the national mood on such an emotive subject.

Yet again poorly advised by the inner circle on which he leans so heavily, and lacking the confidence or basic political emotional intelligence to over-ride them, Mr Kenny had nobody but himself to blame.

He had been poor and rambling in leader’s questions when the findings of the Magdalene Laundries inquiry broke on Tuesday, but this was a new level of desperation.

“His worst ever performance as Taoiseach,” said one normally loyal backbencher later.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Shaun Connolly, Political Correspondent
Despite intense pressure from opposition parties, and rising alarm at his stance among his own backbenchers and the Labour Party, Mr Kenny said he needed another two weeks to absorb the findings of the investigation into the scandal and decide how to respond.

Opposition parties bran-ded the lack of a formal State apology by the Taoiseach as a “disgrace” and a delaying tactic motivated by a desire to limit any compensation payments.

In heated exchanges with the Taoiseach during leaders’ questions, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald said his attitude was “cruel”.

“I think it is extremely cruel to the Magdalene women who expected that their story would be fully validated and that the Taoiseach would move to remove that awful stigma with which they have lived — by putting up our hands, collectively, and by the State putting up its hands and saying: ‘You were wronged. We were negligent’. I hope his [Mr Kenny’s] version of responsible government is not one that simply seeks to circle the wagons to protect the State from any financial liability that might arise and to simply cast the women’s experiences to one side.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Sinéad O’Connor

Dear Sisters,

I am one of the very few who can say with my hand on my heart that the time spent in your institution at High Park in Drumcondra saved my life.

It was named An Grianán, and is named so in The Residential Institutions Redress Act, where An Grianán is listed first, should there be any doubt as to whether or not An Grianán (the house of the rising sun) was a residential institution.

It was the very place indeed which gave the name “Magdalene Laundries” when, sometime after I left in 1984, the land was sold and some builders digging up the ground found many graves, all marked only “Magdalen”.

During the time I spent there, the girls used to say they saw a ghostly white lady crossing the garden. I laughed and mocked them. Until the day I heard about the graves.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Saturday, February 09, 2013

ANALYSIS: Conall Ó Fátharta

The fallout from the McAleese Report is sure to continue, says Conall Ó Fátharta
A week that promised so much for the survivors of Magdalene Laundries ended up delivering little.

Despite the McAleese report finally rubber-stamping a fact that has been known for years — that the State was involved in all aspects of the Magdalene Laundries — no State apology has been forthcoming.

The Government and Taoiseach Enda Kenny parsed and prevaricated, clinging to the razor-thin argument that just 26% of women in the laundries were sent by the State.

The key point here is: Regardless of how women came to be there, the fact the State monitored, inspected, and had State contracts with the laundries make it responsible for all the women who worked for no pay in these institutions.

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IRELAND
Galway News

February 10, 2013

The Justice for Magdalene group is seeking clarifications before it decides if it will attend a meeting with the Taoiseach.

Both Enda Kenny and the Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore will meet with other survivor groups tomorrow.

The meeting was arranged in the wake of the McAleese report, which found evidence of state involvement in the running of the laundries.

The Sisters of Mercy ran the Magdalene laundry at Forster street in the city until it closed in 1984.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

(…)

“Bestätigen kann ich aber, dass er zu einem der schwulen Netzwerke im Bistum Trier gehört. Mir drängt sich mehr und mehr der Eindruck auf, dass sich hinter den sogenannten schwulen Netzwerken im Bistum (von denen es mindestens zwei definitiv gibt) in Wahrheit noch ein ganz anderes Netzwerk verbirgt: nämlich ein pädophiles. Da die Begrifflichkeiten sowieso stets von allen verschieden benutzt und definiert werden, ist es doch ganz praktisch, einfach von schwulen Gruppen im Bistum zu reden…”

(…)

“Noch einmal: Sie haben es nicht mit Einzeltätern zu tun. Es ist ein Netzwerk.”

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SPANIEN
dradio (Deutschland)

Kinderraub in Spanien

Von Margot Litten

Mehr als 100.000 politische Gegner ließ das Franco-Regime umbringen. Unbekannt war bis vor Kurzem, dass die Diktatur auch Kindesraub organisierte. Der ideologische Plan war: Die “Roten” sollten aussterben. Daraus entwickelte sich bald ein lukratives Geschäft, in das Ärzte, Anwälte und die katholische Kirche verwickelt waren.

Es wird geschätzt, dass in spanischen Geburtskliniken bis in die 80er-Jahre an die 300.000 Babys verschwanden und an kinderlose Paare verkauft wurden. Inzwischen suchen Mütter ihre Kinder und Kinder ihre leiblichen Eltern.

Doch die Suche gestaltet sich schwierig angesichts fehlender Dokumente, mangelndem politischen Willen und vor allem der Mauer des Schweigens, mit der sich die Kirche umgibt.

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SCHWEIZ
Aargauer Zeitung

Wegen sexueller Übergriffe traten im Jahr 2010 viele Gläubige aus der katholischen Kirche aus. Obwohl immer noch viele der Kirche den Rücken kehren, hat sich nun die Lage entspannt. von Barbara Vogt

Im vergangenen Jahr traten fünf Personen der katholischen Kirchgemeinde Lenzburg bei. Nichts Spektakuläres. Laut Kirchenpflegepräsidentin Yvonne Rodel bewegt sich die Zahl der jährlichen Neueintritte jeweils zwischen fünf und zehn Personen. Gleichzeitig gaben im vergangenen Kirchenjahr 125 Mitglieder den Austritt. Dies ist schon eher speziell, das sind nämlich 48 Austritte weniger als im Jahr zuvor.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

9. Februar 2013

Franz Wurst hatte 40 Sexualdelikte begangen, seine Frau ermorden lassen und Genitalien von Schülern vermessen

Kremsmünster/Klagenfurt – Jener ehemalige Pater des Stiftes Kremsmünster in Oberösterreich, der wegen Missbrauchs vor einer Anklage stehen dürfte, arbeitete in den 1970er-Jahren mit dem pädophilen und wegen Mordes verurteilten, mittlerweile verstorbenen Kinder- und Jugendpsychiater Franz Wurst, zusammen. Das ergeben Akten der Staatsanwaltschaft Steyr, aus denen die “Oberösterreichischen Nachrichten” in ihrer Samstag-Ausgabe zitierten und die auch der APA vorliegen. Ein erstes Ermittlungsverfahren nach Missbrauchsvorwürfen gegen den 79-Jährigen gab es offenbar bereits 2007.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Pilot

By Christopher S. Pineo

Posted: 2/8/2013
BRAINTREE — The 2012 Catholic Appeal surpassed its goal by raising $14.2 million, according to the archdiocese.

Contributions from 42,120 donors — 2,355 of whom were first-time donors — allowed the 2012 appeal to close on Jan. 31 at 102 percent of its $14 million goal.

Appeal officials attributed the success to the efforts of parish coordinators and pastors as well as a message that highlights the ministries the appeal supports.

The appeal’s “The Good Samaritan Is You,” campaign focused on the ways archdiocesan ministries supported by the appeal strengthen families, enrich parish life, inspire future generations, and advance Church leadership.

“We are putting an actual story and a face on where your dollars go and how we are using them here in Central Ministries,” said Kathleen Driscoll, the archdiocese’s Secretary for Institutional Advancement.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Catholic Insider

BCI hopes that all in Boston are digging out well from the blizzard and have power and heat.

With the news Friday that the Catholic Appeal raised $14.2M in the most recent fundraising year–slightly above the $14M goal, and beating the goal for the first time in 3 years–BCI thought it would be appropriate for everyone to see exactly how the Boston Archdiocese is spending donor funds. In addition, it is interesting to see how all of the overpaid folks in the Pastoral Center with excessive six-figure salaries do in keeping to their budget plan.

There are four things that jumped out at BCI immediately from looking at the numbers.

1) Almost 50% of the $35M in Central Operations expenses in the most recent fiscal year were for Administrative costs (“Management and General”)–in other words, other than paying for programs that directly build the Kingdom of God. Look at page 24 in the 2012 Annual Report.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

Last week, the jury in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse case sent a note to the judge, asking where was Billy Doe’s older brother? And why didn’t he honor a subpoena from the defense?

That set off a blame game amongst the judge and lawyers in the case trying to figure out who was responsible for the older brother of the alleged triple-rape victim not showing up in court.

They’re still arguing about why the witness didn’t show. But now we know why the defense wanted to call Billy’s older brother as a witness.

On Jan. 9, 2012, Billy’s older brother gave a signed, 14-page statement to Detective Joseph Walsh of the District Attorney’s office.

The statement showed that the older brother, then a 26-year-old lawyer, had no direct knowledge about the three alleged rapes of Billy Doe. But the older brother, who had served as an altar boy and a sexton at St. Jerome’s, contradicted Billy on several key elements of his story, such as who took care of the sacramental wine after Mass, whether priests were ever alone with altar boys, and whether the doors to the church sacristy at St. Jerome’s were ever kept locked.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

When Billy Doe’s mother testified before the grand jury in 2009, she talked about finding two mysterious books under her son’s bed.

“When he went to the Christian Academy,” the mother told the grand jury, “We found books under his bed that talked about sexual abuse, and they were from a library. And I would ask him why do you have these, and he would say they were from a girl at school and they need them for a report. And they never went away, they were always there.”

“I was always digging through his room and he always had these books,” Billy’s mother told the grand jury. And we’d question him, did something happen to you, did someone touch you? And he would always say no.”

There are two possible explanations for why those books were under Billy’s bed.

To Billy Doe’s defenders, the books are evidence that back when Billy was a high school student, he was trying to come to terms with the three rapes he had endured as a Catholic altar boy and school kid.

To Billy’s detractors, however, the books show a con artist at work, doing research for a future story he would tell to bail himself out of legal jams and drug problems. They think he made the whole thing up.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times
February 9, 2013

Pressed to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to settle clergy sex abuse lawsuits, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony turned to one group of Catholics whose faith could not be shaken: the dead.

Under his leadership in 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles quietly appropriated $115 million from a cemetery maintenance fund and used it to help pay a landmark settlement with molestation victims.

The church did not inform relatives of the deceased that it had taken the money, which amounted to 88% of the fund. Families of those buried in church-owned cemeteries and interred in its mausoleums have contributed to a dedicated account for the perpetual care of graves, crypts and grounds since the 1890s.

Mahony and other church officials also did not mention the cemetery fund in numerous public statements about how the archdiocese planned to cover the $660-million abuse settlement. In detailed presentations to parish groups, the cardinal and his aides said they had cashed in substantial investments to pay the settlement, but they did not disclose that the main asset liquidated was cemetery money.

In response to questions from The Times, the archdiocese acknowledged using the maintenance account to help settle abuse claims. It said in a statement that the appropriation had “no effect” on cemetery upkeep and enabled the archdiocese “to protect the assets of our parishes, schools and essential ministries.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Saturday, February 09, 2013

By Michael Clifford

WHAT kind of apology should Enda Kenny have issued last Tuesday?

What kind of apology did Mary Lou McDonald want him to issue?

Is it all about tokenism and point-scoring, rather than attempting to make amends to women who have endured too much for too long?

The furore over the failure of Kenny to issue an apology to survivors of the Magdalene laundries says plenty about the body politic and wider society in this country. Knee-jerk is the default reaction to everything, from guaranteeing banks to studying a detailed report on human suffering.

There is no doubt but that an apology is due to the survivors, particularly the minority that were in those institutions for long terms. That could have been issued at any time over the last decade or so. Instead, it was assumed that immediately on publication of Martin McAleese’s report into the laundries an apology would be issued by the Taoiseach on behalf of the State.

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CALIFORNIA
Ventura County Star

[Donald Roemer – Los Angeles archdiocese]

By Colleen Cason

Posted February 9, 2013

It is said God is in the details. Or is it the devil?

You can decide for yourself now that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has released 12,000 pages of personnel files of priests accused of molesting children.

I read one file cover to cover, that of former priest Donald Patrick Roemer. Known as Father Pat, he served at St. Paschal Baylon Church in Thousand Oaks during the early 1980s. In the interest of full disclosure, I am a parishioner at St. Paschal’s. I’ll say a bit about that later.

It’s all there in Roemer’s 903-page file: Church leaders covering up for and coddling a priest while ignoring his victims, moving him to another parish while he professed sexual attraction to young boys.

But there is something else none of us could imagine today — the rage some parishioners turned on his victims.

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NEDERLAND
NRC

door Niels Posthumus

Drie op de tien klachten die binnenkomen bij het meldpunt voor seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk kunnen vanwege het ontbreken van ondersteunend bewijs niet gegrond worden verklaard. Dat heeft voorzitter van het meldpunt Wiel Stevens vandaag gezegd bij RKK Kruispunt Radio.

Stevens, oud-president van het gerechtshof in Den Bosch, zegt dat hij er vaak van overtuigd is dat het misbruik wel degelijk heeft plaatsgevonden. Hij noemt het dan ook ‘verschrikkelijk’ dat deze klachten vanwege een gebrek aan ondersteunend bewijs moeten worden afgewezen.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

The 103-year prison sentence a judge slapped on convicted child molester Nechemya Weberman has reportedly been slashed by more than half by state prison officials.

State Supreme Court Justice John G. Ingram hit Weberman, an unlicensed ‘therapist’ in the Satmar Hasidic community, with the century-plus term behind bars for repeatedly abusing a young girl placed in his care.

But the state Corrections Department said he should have only been sentenced to a maximum of 50 years for the felony he was convicted of, the Daily News reported.

Officials say Weberman will likely get another seven years shaved off his sentence if he doesn’t commit any major crimes behind bars.

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UNITED STATES
The Washington Times

Jerome Elam

DALLAS, February 9, 2013 – Courage has a name: It is Diana O’Hara. Diana is a survivor of the Magdalene Laundries operated in the United States by the Good Shepherd Sisters, a Roman Catholic religious institute for women.

The order is among those that are being charged with the enslavement and abuse of thousands of woman in what are called “Magdalene Laundries.”

Diana’s childhood slipped away while she was trapped by walls of stone and hearts of barbed wire.

In an exclusive interview, she shares her story with the Communities.

A self described “Big Mouthed Irish Girl,” Diana O’ Hara was born in Buffalo, New York, into a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic mother. At the age of four months, she was removed from her home for her own safety and placed into foster care, where she remained until the age of ten.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By SHARON OTTERMAN

Published: February 5, 2013

The imam and former spiritual leader of an Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero is accused in a new lawsuit of defrauding donors to his nonprofit organizations of millions of dollars, using the money for personal real estate, lavish trips and a luxury sports car.

The suit against the imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, was filed on Monday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan by Robert Leslie Deak, a major donor to the imam’s nonprofit organizations, the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement.

Mr. Deak said in the suit that he donated $167,000 between 2006 and 2008 to a project to combat anti-Muslim sentiment. Instead, the suit alleges, Mr. Abdul Rauf used the money for entertainment and other personal purposes.

The lawsuit also accuses the organizations of not reporting on their tax returns approximately $3 million that the Malaysian government donated to the two organizations. Instead, according to the suit, that money was also taken by Mr. Abdul Rauf for his personal use.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Accused nonprofit embezzler imam Feisal Abdul Rauf steals away with wife amid claims he swindled $3 million in donations

By Larry Mcshane , Matthew Lysiak AND Dareh Gregorian / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Wednesday, February 6, 2013

The took separate vacations — and cars.

Former “Ground Zero” imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife bolted their New Jersey home about 20 minutes apart Wednesday without addressing the pending $20 million lawsuit against him.

The ski-capped Rauf, 64, climbed into a waiting Lincoln Town Car, with his chauffeur and quickly zipped away from the two-story North Bergen house.

Spouse Daisy Khan fled earlier in her four-door sedan, pulling out of the long driveway past a Daily News reporter. Neither said a word before heading off.

The blinds in their house were drawn tight one day after a Westchester County couple accused Rauf of redirecting more than $3 million in donations to a pair of nonprofits into his pockets.

According to the Manhattan lawsuit, Rauf used the ill-gotten cash to splurge on gifts and luxury vacations with a Jersey gal pal.

The imam, who became a polarizing national figure in the debate over the planned mosque near the World Trade Center site, also spent money on a sports car, real estate and other unspecified entertainment, the suit charged.

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NEW YORK
Huffington Post

By Jessica Dye

NEW YORK, Feb 5 (Reuters) – The head of a proposed mosque that was to be built near the site of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York City was sued on Tuesday and accused of squandering millions of dollars in donations on lavish lifestyle perks for himself and his wife.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court by several donors, accuses Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf of diverting $167,000 from private donations and $3 million from the Malaysian government for his personal use.

The money was intended for the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement, two non-profits founded by Rauf aimed at educating the public about Islam and combating anti-Islam sentiment, the lawsuit said.

Rauf used the money to pay for vacations, real estate, entertainment, a luxury sports car and other gifts and lavish lifestyle perks for himself and his wife, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit also accused Rauf of falsifying the two groups’ tax returns for several years to conceal fund transfers and sources.

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CALIFORNIA
Ventura County Star

By Tom Kisken
Posted February 9, 2013

When Archdiocese of Los Angeles officials asked a onetime Oxnard priest who admitted to fondling boys and girls while they slept to voluntarily leave the priesthood, they offered $30,000 to help with the transition.

The Rev. Gary Fessard asked for more.

“I am asking for a settlement sum of at least $2,500 for each year of ordination,” wrote the priest, who worked in the archdiocese for 30 years and was alleged to have sexually abused more than 20 people, according to church files. He also asked for continued health insurance.

“I must state that without the archdiocese continuing to provide permanently the full present level of my medical coverage, any thought of my seeking laicization is neither realistic nor possible,” he wrote, detailing his debt and his limited chances of finding another vocation as a lay person.

The letter is tucked inside a 727-page personnel file. It’s part of an avalanche of clergy abuse records placed online by the church more than a week ago in a release linked to a $660 million settlement in 2007 with more than 500 clergy abuse victims.

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CALIFORNIA
Santa Maria Times

Amelia M. Villegas, Guadalupe

At Mass this past weekend, our priest read a letter from Jose Gomez, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

The letter explained the recent actions he’s taken regarding the subject of child sexual abuse by priests over many years, a subject the Catholic Church had refused to fully address for far too long.

The archbishop’s letter said retired Cardinal Roger Mahony was relieved of all administrative and public duties, and that Bishop Thomas Curry’s request to be relieved of regional bishop responsibilities was accepted. I wholeheartedly support both actions.

Equally important, though, the letter said the files of priests who sexually abused children while serving in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are finally being released.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Breeze

By Nick Green, Staff Writer
dailybreeze.com
Posted: 02/09/2013

Rita Milla felt a pang in her stomach last month as she began reading a thick church file related to her landmark sexual abuse case against the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

The Carson resident received the file on Jan. 29, almost 35 years to the day years of horrific sexual abuse by seven priests began when she was just 16. A judge had ordered the file and those of other abuse victims in Southern California released as part of a legal settlement against the archdiocese.

“The 28th of January 1978 was when I was first raped,” said Milla, now 51, as she sat last week Thursday in the Wilshire Boulevard office of civil rights attorney Gloria Allred.

It was the first in-depth interview Milla has granted since the documents were made public.

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CALIFORNIA
LA Daily News

By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer
dailynews.com
Posted: 02/09/2013

As the sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church unfolded in the early 2000s, victims of clergy molestation in Los Angeles pinned their hopes on a state law that had retroactively lifted the statute of limitations on prosecuting sex crimes.

In a 2003 ruling, however, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law, a decision that affected most of the clergy abuse cases then being investigated by police or pursued by prosecutors.

Of the priests whose records were released last month, fewer than a dozen could be prosecuted for abuse that was recent enough to fall within the statute of limitations.

— Father Michael Baker admitted to then-Archbishop Roger Mahony in 1986 that he was a pedophile, and he was sent to therapy, then transferred to nine different parishes. He was accused in church files of molesting 23 children.

Baker was charged with molestation in 2002, but the case was dismissed because of the Supreme Court ruling. More victims came forward, and he pleaded guilty in 2007 to a dozen counts of molesting two boys at parishes in Los Angeles and Pico Rivera.

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CALIFORNIA
Glendale News-Press

[Clergy Files Produced by Archdiocese of Los Angeles]

February 08, 2013|By Veronica Rocha, veronica.rocha@latimes.com

Files recently released by the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese show that 29 clergy accused of sexual abuse served assignments at local parishes, where some of the alleged child molestation took place.

Of the 29 men who were named, eight were accused of committing sex abuse while assigned to local parishes in Burbank, La Cañada Flintridge, Pasadena, Montrose and La Crescenta. Of those eight priests, three — Leland Boyer, Lynn Caffoe and John Kohnke — are dead. The other 21 were either not assigned to local churches at the time of the allegation being made, or there were no files listed.

Richard Henry, who served as a priest at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Montrose between 1982 and 1986, was sentenced to eight years in prison for molesting four boys whose families attended the church after confessing to psychiatrists, according to the archdiocese records.

One of Henry’s victims committed suicide.

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CALIFORNIA
Glendale News-Pressi

February 08, 2013|By Veronica Rocha, veronica.rocha@latimes.com

Local police officials say the statute of limitations could confound any new investigations into priest sex abuse revelations contained in a trove of documents released recently by the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese since many of the allegations are decades old.

Local police didn’t immediately uncover any sex abuse reports lodged against priests named in the files, but officials said they would investigate any claims that arise. Still, investigating the cases can pose a challenge since police are limited by penal codes that take into account when the crime occurred, what was committed and when it was reported.

“Due to the delay of any allegations coming to the attention of law enforcement authorities, there are complications involving the statute of limitations and any investigation of the related crimes,” Burbank police spokesman Sgt. Darin Ryburn said.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
LA Daily News

By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer
dailynews.com
Posted: 02/09/2013

Half of them are dead, a handful are in prison, a few have continued in the ministry.

And the rest of the former priests — those accused in Los Angeles Archdiocese files of sexually abusing altar boys, parishioners’ kids and schoolchildren — could be just about anywhere.

Because of efforts by Cardinal Roger Mahony and his top aides to shield scores of suspect priests from prosecution, many have been free to leave the church and start new lives without anyone else knowing about their past.

Although the priests are aging — the youngest is nearing 60, and most are in their 70s and 80s — victims and their advocates worry about the inability of the system to track these alleged abusers and to notify the public.

“The frightening prospect is that the gentle man next door, who is so friendly and engaging with children, might well turn out to be somebody who has a sickness and disease that makes him a danger to children,” said attorney Raymond Boucher, who helped secure a $660 million settlement in 2007 against the archdiocese in the sex-abuse scandal.

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MISSISSIPPI
Clarion-Ledger

Written by
Emily Lane

One man used his position of trust as a minister to sexually abuse five children and will serve no time in prison. Another man drove a get-away car in an armed robbery and will spend the next 35 years of his life behind bars.

Is it fair?

In the eyes of the law, prosecutors and even victims, it’s not that simple.

On Jan. 22, John Langworthy pleaded guilty to five felony counts of gratification of lust. As part of a plea agreement with the Hinds County District Attorney’s office, Langworthy will not go to prison.

Hinds Circuit Judge Bill Gowan sentenced Langworthy to 10 years suspended on each of the five counts, and five years of supervised probation. He is forbidden to have contact with any of his victims and must register as a sex offender.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

As a retired Harvard trained international lawyer and lifelong practicing Catholic and a grandparent, I am convinced the obscene sexual violations against children by priests, reported currently in Los Angeles and in the HBO documentary, “Mea Maxima Culpa”, will unacceptably continue unless and until the Federal government steps up. No one else has the clout to stand up to the power of the Vatican. Local prosecutors have failed for decades to prosecute bishops for enabling predatory priests to attack more children. The cynical reports that Los Angeles law enforcement is re-examining criminal priest child sexual cases there appears to be just the latest political public relations ploy.

Many from all faiths and no faith all across the USA, and even worldwide, including some of those harmed by the abuse of the deaf victims in Milwaukee, have already signed my petition calling on President Obama to step up. They have indicated they have had enough with the domination of local prosecutors and legislators by the Catholic hierarchy and its well paid apologists and lawyers. More signatures, including yours, will help accelerate the establishment of the U.S. national investigation commission.

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.]

Please, as well, ask those you respect and who value children to sign it also. If you are active in an advocacy group, like SNAP, CTA, VOTF, ARCC, Dignity, CORPUS, WomenPriests, ask your leadership to support the petition. What are they waiting for? Blogging, talking and prayer, however admirable and well intentioned, have not influenced the Vatican clique and their subservient U.S. Bishops to date and will not likely do so, certainly in the near term.

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MARYLAND
Washington Examiner

A former youth worker and teacher at a Christian school in Gaithersburg has been charged with molesting teenage boys during the 1980s and ’90s.

Nathaniel Morales, 55, has been indicted in Montgomery County Circuit Court on 10 counts of sexually abusing four boys under his care.

Morales, now a Pentecostal bishop in Las Vegas, has a hearing scheduled for Friday .

Police began investigating in 2009 after a man came forward to say that Morales had performed sex acts on him beginning when he was about 14 years old.

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COLOMBIA
El Tiempo

[con video]

Una mujer del Gaula viajó a Honduras para seguir a Álvaro Gámez, quien permanecía con escoltas.

Se conocen nuevos detalles de cómo las autoridades capturaron en una lujosa casa a Gámez, sindicado de violar a varias mujeres cuando era líder religioso de una iglesia en Pasto (Nariño).

Según la Policía, Gámez está solicitando asilo en Honduras, donde llegó hacía cuatro meses. No obstante, las autoridades nacionales confían en que el pastor sea llevado a Colombia en cuestión de horas o días.

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COLOMBIA
El Spectador

Se siguen conociendo detalles de las correrías del pastor Álvaro José Gámez Castro, capturado en Tegucigalpa (Honduras) el pasado miércoles y quien se espera sea extraditado esta semana a Colombia, donde se investiga al fundador del Ministerio Apostólico Salem —con sedes en Pasto, Sincelejo y Santa Marta y cerca de 15.000 seguidores— porque, presuntamente, abusó de varias de sus feligresas.

El 28 de septiembre de 2012 se emitió una orden de captura contra Gámez y desde diciembre tenía una circular roja de Interpol en su contra por la que era buscado internacionalmente. Como prófugo de la justicia estuvo en Ecuador, Bolivia, Estados Unidos, Guatemala y Honduras. En este país, al que ingresó hace cuatro meses, se preparaba, supuestamente, para abrir una nueva congregación religiosa.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Religion News Service

David Gibson | Feb 8, 2013

The public spitting match between Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez and his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, must have been as uncomfortable as it was unusual.

But there are signs that maybe there’s been a reconciliation of sorts, or at least some couples counseling for the sake of their spiritual children.

Gomez publicly embarrassed Mahony last week with a reprimand after records were released (under court order) showing just how complicit Mahony, the longtime LA archbishop, had been in covering up for clergy abusers, thus allowing them to rape and molest other children.

(Gomez also demoted one of the LA auxiliaries and longtime Mahony aide, Bishop Thomas Curry; there was little Gomez could to do actually punish Mahony, who is retired and still outranks Gomez.)

Mahony responded with a PR counterattack, and the Vatican essentially washed its hands of the whole matter.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Michael D’Antonio
February 10, 2013

The files released last week by America’s largest Catholic archdiocese revealed new and disturbing details about how church officials schemed to protect priests accused of molesting children. But was the scandal in Los Angeles really so much worse than in other places?

Sadly, no. The details emerging from the documents mirror what happened in archdioceses across the country, as church officials time and again put their own concerns above the needs of victims.

One of the earliest cases to draw nationwide attention involved Gilbert Gauthe, a priest who raped dozens of boys in rural Louisiana. By 1984, when Gauthe was indicted on 34 counts of sex crimes against children, church officials had been aware he was abusing children for at least a decade. But instead of reporting his crimes, they transferred him to another parish, where he continued to have sex with the children in his charge. He was stopped only after a boy he raped wound up in the hospital due to his injuries.

In the nearly three decades since the Gauthe case, more than 6,000 priests were, by the church’s own definitions, “credibly” or “not implausibly” accused of raping or sexually abusing children and adolescents. Lawsuits and criminal charges were brought against nearly every Catholic diocese in the U.S., and nearly 500 clerics were jailed.

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

Der Bundesgerichtshof bestätigte im Dezember 2012 das Urteil des Landgerichts Osnabrück, dass ein pädokrimineller Täter Schmerzensgeld an sein Opfer zu zahlen habe. Das Opfer, heute Polizist von Beruf, war im Alter von 11 Jahren und später unter anderem gezwungen worden, Oralverkehr mit dem Täter vorzunehmen, ferner hatte der Täter in den Mund des Opfers uriniert.

Das Opfer litt als Folge einer psychischen Traumatisierung an einer retrograden Amnesie. Das Erinnerungsvermögen setzte erst wieder ein, als ihm seine Schwester offenbart hatte, ebenfalls vom Täter missbraucht worden zu sein.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Aerzteblatt

Jachertz, Norbert

Der aktuelle Kampagnenspot des Missbrauchs­beauf­tragten, gestaltet von Daniel Levy, verweist weiterhin auf die telefonische Anlaufstelle: 0800 22 55 530.

Am 31. Dezember 2012 schaltete die katholische Deutsche Bischofskonferenz ihre Hotline ab, bei der Opfer sexueller Gewalt anrufen konnten. Es habe kaum noch Anrufe gegeben, hieß es. Eine am 17. Januar vorgelegte Statistik der Hotline – mehr als 10 000 Kontakte innerhalb von zwei Jahren – lässt das Ausmaß der Handlungen erahnen. Genaueres zum Missbrauch von Abhängigen durch Geistliche sollte ein Forschungsprojekt zutage fördern, mit dem der Kriminologe Prof. Dr. jur. Christian Pfeiffer betraut wurde. Der Vertrag platzte am 9. Januar. Die gegenseitigen Vorwürfe lassen auf einen versteckten Dissens schließen: Die Vertragspartner hatten sich in der Eile nicht genügend über ihre jeweiligen Erwartungen und Möglichkeiten ausgetauscht. Vertane Zeit.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott and Dave Sutor kmellott@tribdem.com

— The late Brother Stephen Baker, the Franciscan friar accused of molesting male students at Bishop McCort Catholic High School more than a decade ago, spent time as a volunteer at Mount Aloysius College in Cresson after he left his employment at the Johnstown Catholic high school.

Meanwhile, people from the community are coming forward with information that Baker was around the Bishop McCort campus after he no longer worked there as a religion instructor or with the athletic department, an attorney handling a number of the alleged victims said Friday.

The Catholic private college confirmed Friday, in response to questions posed by The Tribune-Democrat, that Baker served as a volunteer baseball scorekeeper from the 2007 through 2010 seasons and briefly through the 2011 season.

In a statement, Mount Aloysius officials said they never have received any reports of alleged abuse by Baker and they have contacted the office of Cambria County District Attorney Kelly Callihan about his volunteering at the college.

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IRELAND
Herald

Cormac Murphy– 07 February 2013

SURVIVORS of the Magadalene Laundries say they have been inundated with messages of support from all around the world in their fight for justice.

ADVOCACY group Justice for Magdalenes, which wants an official apology and compensation for the women, has issued a stark warning to Enda Kenny today that they are not going away until they get a fair deal for survivors.

The group has also called on Irish people living all over the world to lobby the Taoiseach.

The call comes following the publication of former senator Dr Martin McAleese’s report on the State’s involvement in the institutions.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Thursday, February 07, 2013

Victims groups have accused the McAleese committee of not being “transparent” by springing interviews on survivors without prior knowledge and weakening the inquiry by not issuing a public call for victims to come forward.

By Claire O’Sullivan
Irish Examiner Reporter

Prior to the Ryan Report into child abuse, the then taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, apologised to the residents of the industrial schools and then issued a public call for survivors to come forward. According to the victims groups, this led to a sharp increase in numbers coming forward.

Just over 118 survivors spoke to the committee, and 57 were still under the charge of the religious orders in nursing homes or sheltered housing.

Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) and Magdalene Survivors Together also both strongly refuted the report’s assertion there was no physical abuse in the laundries.

The report stated there was a marked difference between the regime in industrial schools and the laundries and that physical abuse did not take place in the laundries: “A large majority of the women who shared their stories with the committee said that they had neither experienced nor seen other girls or women suffer physical abuse in the Magdalene Laundries.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Breda O’Brien

‘There is no single or simple story of the Magdalene laundries.” By the time you finish ploughing through it, it becomes more and more clear that the opening sentence of Martin McAleese’s report is an understatement.

Was there any section of Irish society that did not have some involvement in the Magdalene laundries? There were the religious orders that ran them; but family members, priests, the Legion of Mary, the NSPCC, the courts, gardaí, industrial schools, mother-and-baby homes, psychiatric hospitals – they all sent women there. Even the Old IRA took 17 women to the laundries during the 1920s.

Some 16 per cent of the total were “self-referrals”. Think of the situations these girls and women must have faced that made the Magdalene laundry seem like the least bad option.

Why were the rest there? Poverty, intellectual disability, epilepsy, petty crime, psychiatric illness, sexual and physical abuse in the home – all of these were deemed sufficient reason, as was being “taken advantage of”, or even being in danger of being taken advantage of. Just being disobedient at home, or staying out late at night, were sometimes reason enough.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

MARK HENNESSY

INTERVIEW : Magdalene laundries became society’s dumping ground, says former Sister of Mercy Phyllis MacMahon

In her early 20s Phyllis MacMahon was Sr Adrian of the Sisters of Mercy in Galway where she stood in charge of dozens of girls and young women as they scrubbed clothes in the Magdalene laundry on Forster Street.

Decades later MacMahon, who became an actor after she quit the order, played the role of Sr Augusta in 2002 in Peter Mullan’s Magdalene Sisters, the film that did much to bring the existence of the laundries to national and international attention.

She has written a play, Divorcing God? based largely on her experiences in the Sisters of Mercy – a congregation she had wanted to join since she was a seven-year-old attending Mass with her mother in Dublin

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IRELAND
Irish Times

JOE HUMPHREYS

McAleese report raises questions about accuracy of how Magdalene laundries have been portrayed

A feature of the campaign for justice for the women of the Magdalene laundries has been the role of historical dramatisations on stage and screen.

Over the past 20 years, there has been a series of plays and movies about what went on behind the institutions’ walls. These played a major part in shaping public opinion as well as bringing the issue to international attention.

None has had greater reach than The Magdalene Sisters, the 2002 film directed by Peter Mullan which won the coveted Golden Lion award on its release at the Venice Film Festival.

It tells the harrowing story of four teenage girls admitted to a laundry where they experience or witness routine physical and sexual abuse by nuns and a priest. Like many dramatisations, it depicts the laundries as profitable, money-making rackets, and shows the women subjected to various indignities including head-shaving.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

JOANNE HUNT

Survivors of the Magdalene laundries will continue to press the Taoiseach for an apology.

Yesterday the Taoiseach’s office contacted members of the Magdalene Survivors Together group, accepting an invitation to a meeting received from the group on Tuesday. The date of the meeting has not been confirmed.

The group will be represented by four survivors including Maureen O’Sullivan and Marina Gumbold and two other women who wish to remain anonymous, spokesman Steven O’Riordan said.

The Taoiseach also invited survivors from the London-based Irish Women’s Survivors’ Network to attend. However, spokeswoman Phyllis Morgan said it was too short notice.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

It is doubtful if anyone else could have achieved what Martin McAleese did this week: the completion in 18 months of a 1,000-page report, plus appendices, on State involvement with the Magdalene laundries.

It cost €11,000 in expenses, plus the salaries of seven civil servants – a fraction of the millions spent on each of four statutory reports on abuse since 2005.

The McAleese committee was also dependent entirely on voluntary co-operation, unlike those other inquiries. He won and sustained that co-operation from disparate parties.

There were woman who had been in the laundries; their representative groups; the four religious congregations who ran the laundries; and representatives of six Government departments.

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IRELAND
Deutsche Welle

Around 30,000 women and girls experienced slave-like conditions in asylums called Magdalene laundries. The Irish government admitted complicity. DW talks to the co-founder of Justice for Magdalene, who’s demanding more.

DW: How did Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny respond when news broke about the laundries?

Claire McGettrick: A committee was tasked with establishing state involvement with the Magdalene laundries – and that has been proven, without question. But what the prime minister has done is read a series of statistics which, frankly, felt like it was a minimization of what had happened.

Why do you think he was reluctant to give an apology?

There are so few women. Probably less than 1,000 are still alive. It’s no skin off his nose to not put this right immediately.

But the problem is this “floodgate situation,” and that’s really what they’re afraid of. The fear is that orphanages and psychiatric institutions are all going to come forward, too. That’s not a good reason to deny Magdalene survivors, or survivors of other institutions, what is due to them.

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KENYA/UNITED KINGDOM
Standard Digital

By Kipchumba Some

The son of a deceased prominent politician has sued the Roman Catholic Church alleging years of sexual abuse at the hands of priests in Kenya and abroad.

Emmanuel Shikuku, 45, has filed a case in the UK against six men who were part of the Mill Hill Missionaries order. He claims he was a victim of a series of rapes and other forms of abuse between 1978 and 1994.

One of the men he names is former bishop of the Ngong Diocese Fr Cornelius Schilder, a Dutch national stripped of his duties as a priest in 2009 for allegedly abusing a Maasai herds boy.

Emmanuel is a son of Martin Shikuku, a firebrand politician who passed away last August. He did not attend his father’s funeral as he was in Germany at the time pursuing his claim.

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MARYLAND
Gazette

by St. John Barned-Smith Staff writer

A former private school teacher charged with sexually abusing four boys from 1985 to 1990 will face trial in June in Montgomery County.

Nathaniel Morales, who lived in Germantown and with a family in Rockville, was charged in December 2012, with 10 sexual offenses.

Morales, a teacher at Montgomery County Covenant Academy, hosted sleepovers and Bible studies at his apartment, according to the charging documents, which related disturbing tales of victims waking up and discovering Morales abusing them.

According to charging documents, he sexually abused teenagers who attended Montgomery County Covenant Academy, where Morales was working in school’s administration at the time.

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COLOMBIA
Colombia Reports

Honduran authorities have arrested a Colombian pastor accused of sexual abuse against children and young women, local media reported Friday.

A Honduran Prosecutor said the pastor was arrested in the capital of Tegucigalpa after “months of intelligence work.”

The Colombian national is suspected of “sexual violations against four minors and 23 women,” said the Prosecutor, who added that the suspect entered Colombian territory four months ago.

The Colombian was “wanted by Interpol, had a red alert for the crime of violation,” said the Prosecutor.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY
Feb. 8, 2013

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has revealed the Newcastle Herald’s ‘‘Shine the Light’’ campaign ‘‘got into my head’’, in an exclusive interview about Australia’s historic royal commission into child sexual abuse.

‘‘I think it got into my head, and got into my language because of the campaign,’’ Ms Gillard said on Thursday about her use of the phrase ‘‘shine a light’’ during a media conference on January 11 to announce the six royal commissioners.

The Herald launched its ‘‘Shine the Light’’ campaign for a royal commission on August 4 last year after the suicide of Belmont North child sex victim John Pirona in July.

In announcing the commission, Ms Gillard answered a question by saying: ‘‘We have all got an obligation to shine a light on what’s happened in the past’’.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Feb. 8, 2013

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s bankruptcy is at risk of becoming the first of its kind in the nation to fail to compensate sex abuse victims equitably, creditors say in a court filing this week.

And if the archdiocese is as broke as it said it was in a recent motion, the creditors insist, it should begin selling the Cousins Center and other properties; tap what could be $150 million in its cemetery and Faith In Our Future funds; and aggressively pursue newly discovered insurance policies that may cover its handling of the sex abuse crisis.

“The debtor blithely ignores the real elephant in the room,” attorneys for creditors said in response to an archdiocese motion asking U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley to let it halt most payments of its legal and professional fees, and fold those costs into its reorganization plan, arguing that they will soon hinder its ability to pay its monthly bills.

Creditors blame the church’s financial troubles on its unprecedented strategy of objecting to hundreds of the sex-abuse claims filed, and say failure to pay its fees would bar it from developing a reorganization plan.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The New York Times

Editorial

Published: February 8, 2013

It was an extraordinary moment in Catholic Church history — the rebuke of Cardinal Roger Mahony by his successor in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles following fresh documentation of the hierarchy’s cover-up of the rape and abuse of children by priests. Cardinal Mahony, two years into retirement, was unceremoniously relieved of all public duties last month by Archbishop José Gomez, who described “brutal and painful” records of “evil” deeds during the Mahony years.

These documents were made public after a court order capped years of fierce and costly legal resistance by Cardinal Mahony. His chief aide in protecting pedophile priests, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, quickly stepped down as the regional bishop for Santa Barbara after 12,000 pages of secret records were released.

This sorry episode shows again the appalling lack of accountability among church officials who for years contrived to cover up crimes by priests while denying their own roles in allowing the abuse to happen. Cardinal Mahony’s response to the rebuke was revealing. He wrote on his blog of the “evolution” of the scandal and insisted, “Nothing in my own background or education” as a cleric with a master’s degree in social work equipped him to deal with the problem. Catholic parents were left to ask how much education it takes to recognize criminal child abusers for what they are.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The JC

By Simon Rocker, February 8, 2013

Rabbi Chaim Halpern struck back against his accusers today by obtaining a High Court order for Google to identify the names of bloggers who have attacked him.

The Golders Green rabbi denies claims of inappropriate conduct towards women which are currently being investigated by a special Beth Din set up at the behest of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.

Mrs Justice Gloster granted an application this morning ordering Google to disclose the names of the blogger If You Tickle US and a number of people who have posted comments under pseudonyms.

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UNITED KINGDOM
JTA

(JTA) — A British judge reportedly ordered Google to help identify people who may have defamed a London rabbi accused of inappropriate conduct toward women.

Justice Elizabeth Gloster of Britain’s High Court in London ordered the American Internet company to identify the authors of online comments said to have defamed Rabbi Chaim Halpern, the Jewish Chronicle reported on Friday.

The rabbi denies claims of inappropriate conduct, which are currently being investigated by a special rabbinical court set up at the behest of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. Chloe Strong, Halpern’s attorney, said that the comments contained “serious defamatory slurs.”

Google, the judge said, needs to disclose the names of several people who have posted comments about Halpern under pseudonyms.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Telegraph

Google to reveal name of blogger who called Rabbi a cheat

An orthodox Jewish rabbi accused of having extra-marital affairs has won a High Court ruling that Google must divulge the identities of those who blackened his name.

By Hayley Dixon
3:14PM GMT 08 Feb 2013

The judge ruled that those who posted “weasly comments” about Rabbi Aaron Halpern on his blog could not hide behind the “shield of anonymity”

Google, who campaigners claim have a questionable attitude toward private data, were not represented in court and did not resist the rabbi’s application.

The rabbi brought legal action after a blogger who goes under the pseudonym “Ifyoutickleus” and several others are said to have posted comments on his Google-hosted blog about him having affairs.

Mrs Justice Gloster ruled that Rabbi Halpern “has been identified as the subject matter” of the blog, which suggests “that he is somebody who conducts extra marital affairs, though not on a scale of Ryan Giggs.”

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By SHARON OTTERMAN

Published: February 8, 2013

The state’s corrections department has reduced by more than half the prison sentence of Nechemya Weberman, the unlicensed Hasidic counselor from Brooklyn who was convicted in December of child sexual abuse charges.

Mr. Weberman was sentenced last month by a judge to 103 years in prison, but the state cut his penalty to 50 years, making him eligible for release for good behavior when he is 97, in 2055. His maximum sentence would end in 2062.

Linda Foglia, a spokeswoman for the corrections department, said Friday that the sentencing reduction was a result of a state penal law that mandates a maximum sentence of 50 years for the combination of felonies of which Mr. Weberman was convicted. The law does not bind judges, who can legally impose longer sentences if they choose.

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BELLEVILLE (IL)
Quad-City Times

Associated Press

The Vatican’s defrocking of a Roman Catholic priest whose alleged molestations of an altar boy decades ago cost a southern Illinois diocese and its insurer $6.3 million was welcomed Friday by the victim’s attorney as long overdue.

In a statement published in the Diocese of Belleville’s newspaper, Bishop Edward Braxton said 78-year-old Raymond Kownacki’s defrocking took effect Jan. 11 as part of a papal decree that called the move “for the good of the church.”

“It was a complete surprise. I had no idea it was in the works,” said Mike Weilmuenster, the attorney who successfully sued the diocese on behalf of James Wisniewski, who said he was repeatedly molested by Kownacki for years during the 1970s.

“But I’m pleased it’s finally been done _ better late than never. But it makes you wonder what took so long, and why now,” Weilmuenster said, then pointing to Kownacki’s advanced age. “He’s 78, and his true judgment is coming right soon.”

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VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports

[with video]

February 8, 2013. (Romereports.com) Father Robert Oliver, is an American priest from Boston. As a chief prosecutor at the Vatican, part of his job is to investigate priests accused of sexual abuse. During a press conference at Rome’s Gregorian University, he talked about what the Church is doing to prevent these cases. He says part of the process is overcoming denial and accepting shortcomings of the past.

FR. ROBERT OLIVER
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Chief Prosecutor
“Speaking to the entire Church, the Pope called on everyone, the people of God, to recognize that we had failed in helping victims of sexual abuse. The cries of our brothers and sisters were often answered with denial and lack of support.”

Fr. Oliver started his new post with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on February 1st. When it comes to specific numbers, he says about 600 cases of sexual abuse, most of them from 1965 to 1985 have been issued on average in the last few years. The highest number of reports was back in 2004, when 800 cases were reported.

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NEDERLAND
Omroep Brabant

DEN HAAG – Er komt een hoorzitting in de Tweede Kamer over het seksueel misbruik binnen de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk. De Kamer maakt zich zorgen over de manier waarop met sommige slachtoffers van het misbruik wordt omgegaan.

Sommige mensen zouden niet de hulp of de erkenning krijgen waar ze recht op hebben. “We nemen namens de samenleving de rol op ons om te controleren of het goed loopt”, vertelt VVD-Kamerlid Ard van der Steur.

‘Druk houden’
Volgens de VVD’er gaan er veel dingen goed, maar zijn er ook ordes en congregaties binnen de kerk waar het belang van een goede afhandeling minder groot is. “Daar willen we als Kamer druk op houden.” De verwachting is dat de hoorzitting binnen enkele weken kan plaatsvinden.

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