ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
The Dallas Morning News

By Ralph De La Cruz
rdelacruz@dallasnews.com
4:38 pm on March 5, 2013

Seeing the headline on the story about Cardinals meeting in preparation for electing a new Pope, I felt heartened:

“U.S.Cardinals seek answers on Vatican dysfunction.”

Seek answers…Vatican dysfunction…

YES!

Are church leaders finally confronting the pedophilia ugliness that has eaten away, like termites gnawing at a wooden floor, at the Roman Catholic Church’s moral authority for almost 30 years?

“…They want to talk to Vatican managers about allegations of corruption and cronyism within the top levels of the Catholic Church before they elect the next pope, evidence that a scandal over leaked papal documents is casting a shadow over the conclave…”

Oh. They’re freaked about leaks.

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HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on March 5, 2013

Active priest, Diocese of Honolulu accused of child sex crimes
Two ex-Damien students expose him in abuse lawsuit
Bishop Silva has known, done little about allegations
Despite ‘zero tolerance,” bishop refuses to remove, punish predator
Bishop Silva must oust priest, warn parishioners, group says
Predator is “ticking time bomb” for abuse, they claim

What:

Holding signs and/or photos of themselves when they were abused, child sex abuse victims and their supporters will announce that a long-time Catholic priest and the Diocese of Honolulu have been named in a sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit. The lawsuit says that Fr. George DeCosta:
•Sexually abused two boys while at Damien Memorial School, and
•Continues to live and act as a priest on the Big Island.

They will also ask Honolulu Bishop Clarence Silva to:
•Explain why DeCosta still lives and acts as a priest,
•Tell why he has covered up accusations against DeCosta,
•Obey directives from US Cardinals demanding “zero tolerance,”
•Immediately remove DeCosta’s priestly faculties, and
•Personally visit every parish, school and facility where he worked and reach out to others he may have hurt.

Where: Outside of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, 1184 Bishop Street in Honolulu

When: Wednesday, March 6 at 11:30 am

Who: Members and supporters of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the nation’s largest support group for men and women sexually abused as children in religious and institutional organizations, including a California woman who is the group’s Western Regional Director

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ROME
Boston Herald

By
Matt Stout / Boston Herald

Cardinal Sean O’Malley said he has no plans to ditch his brown habit for grand papal robes, largely for one reason: He’s not banking on being pope.

Joined by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston/Houston during a press conference today in Rome, O’Malley chuckled when a reporter said her daughter was wondering if he’d change out of his recognizable Capuchin robe if he indeed emerged from conclave as Pope Benedict’s XVI successor.

“I have worn this uniform for over 40 years and I presume I will wear it until I die — because I don’t expect to be elected pope,” O’Malley said, according to audio of the briefing provided by the Archdiocese of Boston. “I don’t expect to have a change of wardrobe.”.

O’Malley, like a handful of other cardinals at the Vatican, has been the subject of continuing speculation about his possible papal candidacy. But as they await the arrival of a few remaining cardinals — O’Malley said he’s heard there are two yet to arrive — cardinals have spent the last two days meeting in general congregations and coffee-breaks with the church’s most pressing challenges topping most conversations.

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WORCESTER (MA)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 05, 2013

WORCESTER, Massachusetts — The Vatican has defrocked three priests from the Worcester Diocese who were accused of sexual abuse.

David Blizard, Thomas Kane and Robert Shauris can no longer function as priests in any capacity.

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/VBgmPC) that the Vatican stripped the men of the priesthood last year, but just announced it after the period for appeals expired.

Shauris was accused of molesting children during the 1980s. He’s been on leave from the diocese since 1991.

Kane was removed from ministry in the 1990s for alleged sexual abuse in the 1970s.

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CANADA
Metro

By Luke Simcoe
Metro Windsor

When the verdict came down in the trial of a former Windsor priest who abused 19 people dating back to the 1950s, Brenda Brunelle could no longer contain her emotion.

“Mercy for an old man?” she shouted at the departing judge. “What about the young children, what about their mercy?”

Rev. William Hodgson Marshall pleaded guilty Monday to abusing two young boys in Saskatchewan in the 1950s and 60s. He is currently on parole after being convicted of sexually abusing children while teaching at schools in Windsor, Toronto and Sudbury.

The latest charges earned the 90-year-old former priest six months of house arrest followed by a lengthy probation.

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VATICAN CITY
Peoria Journal-Star

By RACHEL ZOLL
The Associated Press

Posted Mar 05, 2013

VATICAN CITY —
Attorneys who have tried unsuccessfully for years to sue the Vatican over failures to stop clergy sex abuse are looking into whether former Pope Benedict XVI is more legally vulnerable in retirement, especially if he travels beyond the Vatican walls.

A U.S. lawyer for the Vatican argues that, like any former head of state, Benedict retains legal immunity regardless of whether he is in or out of office. But advocates for victims say immunity in this case should be tested, since modern-day courts have never before dealt with an emeritus pope.

“So much of this is unprecedented,” said Pamela Spees, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, which is pressing the International Criminal Court to investigate the Vatican’s response to abusive priests as a crime against humanity. “There’s nothing set in stone about it.”

Benedict stepped down last week, becoming the first pontiff in six centuries to do so. Before he became head of the Roman Catholic Church in 2005, he spent more than two decades in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that over the years gained authority to oversee abuse claims against clergy worldwide.

Still, his record on trying to end abuse stands above that of many other church officials.

Benedict spoke openly of ridding the church of “filth” and was the first pontiff to meet directly with victims, during a 2008 visit to the U.S.

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WORCESTER (MA)
The Catholic Free Press

Three men whose faculties to serve as priests had already been removed by Bishops Harrington and Reilly have been laicized, according to a statement from Bishop McManus.

Bishop McManus announced that David Blizard, Thomas Kane, and Robert Shauris are no longer in the clerical state.

Pope Benedict XVI accepted the voluntary laicizations of Thomas Kane and Robert Shauris prior to resigning.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made the decision in the case of David Blizard.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Bronislaus B. Kush TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
bkush@telegram.com

WORCESTER — The Vatican has “laicized,” or defrocked, three Central Massachusetts Roman Catholic priests, who had been accused of sexual improprieties.

Bishop Robert J. McManus said that, as a result of the Vatican’s actions, David Blizard, Thomas Kane, and Robert A. Shauris “are no longer in the clerical state.”

According to chancery officials, the Vatican’s Congregation of the Faith decided to oust Mr. Blizard from the priesthood. Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI, before stepping down as pontiff last Thursday, accepted the “voluntary laicizations” of Mr. Kane and Mr. Shauris.

Chancery officials said that the three men may no longer function in any capacity as priests.

The Vatican made the decision to strip the three men of the priesthood late last year but held off announcing anything until the period allowing for any appeals expired.

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on March 05, 2013

The top Catholic prelates of Boston and Chicago apparently disagree on whether or not “zero tolerance” for predators is or is not the world-wide policy of the church.

Cardinal Francis George claims it is. Yesterday, he told reporters in Rome that zero tolerance is now “the universal law of the church.”

But hours later, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston told The Wall Street Journal that “making sure that measures aimed at combating sexual abuse by clerics get enforced across Catholicism’s global sprawl will be a “monumental task” for the next pope.

“The Holy See is going to have to mandate these into polices, “ O’Malley said, and “would be reviewing the thicket of guidelines developed by national bishops conferences around the world.”

The Journal also noted that “In recent years, these conferences have scrambled to get guidelines in place. Bishops in Italy and Germany created their own policies only after hundreds of people had come already forward across Europe to report allegations of sex abuse.”

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on March 05, 2013 ·

We are disappointed that Cardinal Angelo Sodano is leading prayer todmorrow. Given how integral he has been to the cover-up of crimes against children, especially those of Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, we feel that he should step aside and let another prelate take his place.

Sodano’s horrific record on child abuse is a stain on the church, and such a public role for him only reminds us – and Catholics across the globe – how clergy sex crimes have been woefully mishandled clergy sex crimes by church officials at all levels.

Imagine the hope many Catholics would feel if other church officials found the strength to challenge Sodano and persuaded him to step aside. We hope at least a handful of prelates will make an effort to do this.

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OSTERREICH
Humanist News

Ein Gastartikel von Christian Fiala

Eigentlich sollte die “Klasnic Kommission” ja die Missbräuche durch die Kirche aufklären. De facto war die Kommission aber ausschließlich mit der Analyse der Betroffenen beschäftigt. Über die Hintergründe der Taten, insbesondere strukturelle Bedingungen der kath. Kirche gab es fast gar nichts. Bei der Tagung hat ein Redner ganz vorsichtig ein paar Vorschläge gemacht. Das wars. Also da passiert ein systematischer Missbrauch in der kath. Kirche unvorstellbaren Ausmasses und die Kommission, die das untersucht hat zwar jede Menge gute Ratschläge für die Betroffenen parat, macht aber nur ein paar vorsichtige Bemerkungen über strukturelle Probleme der Kirche.

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OSTERREICH
Stift Kremsmunster

Missbrauch: Rückschau und Ausblick
Kategorie: stift

Eine Zwischenbilanz zur Aufarbeitung der Fälle des sexuellen Missbrauchs in unserem Konvikt. Stellungnahme von Abt Ambros vom 11. Februar 2013.

Vor beinahe drei Jahren sah sich das Stift Kremsmünster mit zahlreichen Missbrauchsvorwürfen konfrontiert. Es wurden unverzüglich Konsequenzen gezogen, vorbehaltlos mit kirchlichen und staatlichen Stellen zusammengearbeitet und zahlreiche Maßnahmen gesetzt. In zwei Pressekonferenzen (März 2010 und März 2011) und weiteren öffentlichen Erklärungen hat das Stift Kremsmünster Stellung genommen und über den aktuellen Stand informiert. In dieser Pressekonferenz möchte das Stift über Maßnahmen, bisher geleistete Entschädigungszahlungen sowie über die in Auftrag gegebene wissenschaftliche Aufarbeitung informieren.

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OSTERRIECH
Stift Kremsmunster

Wissenschaftliche Aufarbeitung
Kategorie: stift

durch das Institut für Praxisforschung und Projektberatung München zum Thema “Sexueller Missbrauch, psychische und körperliche Gewalt im Internat des Stifts Kremsmünster. Individuelle Folgen und organisatorisch-strukturelle Hintergründe.”

1. Ausgangspunkt
Im Jahr 2010 wurden auch[1]in Bezug auf die Benediktinerabtei Kremsmünster Missbrauchsvorwürfe erhoben. Diese Vorwürfe beziehen sich auf sexuellen Missbrauch, psychische wie körperliche Gewalt und betreffen die Zeit nach 1945. Der Großteil der bislang bekannt gewordenen Fälle betrifft die Zeit zwischen 1970 bis 1990. Mittlerweile haben sich ca. 50 Opfer gemeldet, deren Vorwürfe sich gegen bislang 13 Personen aus dem Kloster richten. Im Mittelpunkt steht vor allem ein Pater, dem massive Misshandlungen vorgeworfen werden.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

JUDY ROBERTS

VATICAN CITY — In a media narrative that was largely predictable, news of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation was quickly followed by a flood of headlines linking him to the clergy sexual-abuse scandal.

“Legacy Marred by Sex-Abuse Scandal,” read a headline on the ABC News website. “Complicit in Child Sex-Abuse Scandals,” said another from The Guardian, which quoted victims’ groups.

Amid the fray, however, other voices have taken a singularly opposite view, instead crediting the Holy Father with aggressively and decisively addressing a problem that came to light well before he was elected to the papacy.

In part because of high-profile cases like those in Ireland and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in the United States, and the one involving Father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ, Benedict’s pontificate could not escape association with the stigma of clergy sexual abuse. However, his supporters insist that the way in which he dealt with the crisis was both exemplary and exceptional and that history will be much kinder to him than his critics have been.

Those who defend Pope Benedict’s treatment of the Church’s sexual-abuse scandal cite his multiple meetings with victims, the first by a pope; his strongly worded statements and apologies, in particular his eight-page “Pastoral Letter to the Catholics of Ireland” in which he criticized not just the perpetrators, but bishops who had mishandled the situation; his work as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; and, later, as pope in improving the way sexual-abuse cases were handled by the Vatican and his swift, direct action in the case of Father Maciel.

“Pope Benedict XVI will certainly be remembered for his extraordinary reply and response to the very sad phenomenon of sexual abuse of minors by the clergy,” auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, former promoter of justice for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told Vatican Radio Feb. 18.

The promoter of justice is responsible for investigating more serious crimes, including claims of clergy sexual abuse of minors. After Bishop Scicluna was elevated last year to the episcopate and returned to his native Malta, he was succeeded as promoter of justice by Father Robert Oliver, a canon-law expert from the Archdiocese of Boston.

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UNITED STATES
CBS News

An American priest and Catholic Church historian said Tuesday the 115 cardinals tasked with picking the next pope want a man who has both keen evangelical and managerial skills. In short, Father Thomas Reese said, they need “Jesus Christ with an MBA.”

Reese managed in those five words to sum up the challenge facing the so-called princes of the Catholic Church, the cardinals, who have already begun wrestling with the various, and widely disparate, qualifications required in a pontiff to replace Pope Benedict XVI.

In spite of the Church’s best efforts to move past the child sex abuse scandal, victims of that abuse are still demanding justice. The next pope will need to be someone who can shift the presiding narrative of the Church away from apologies (without appearing insensitive to the victims) and back to the preferred topic and goal of growing congregations.

“What we really need is somebody who can communicate the gospel in a way that is understandable and attractive to people in the 21st century,” said Reese. “That is what we are supposed to be about, the message of Jesus and that is an attractive message but it can get all buried in our churchiness.”

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UNITED STATES
Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual

March 4 Catholic Patriarchy: What the Papal Transition Means and What Feminists Can Do About It by Mary E. Hunt

The obvious question is why any self-respecting feminist would worry about the Pope, the Roman Catholic Church, and its machinations. My simple answer is POWER. Religion is one of the many sources that shape how power is shared (or not) in this world. Feminists need to pay attention to the sharing of power if we think we are going to reshape the world in a more just and egalitarian way. As someone who speaks “Catholic,” indeed as a theologian rooted in the tradition, I think there is a lot of power in the balance at the moment, and I want to see it shared.

The papal transition underway in Rome is a classic example of patriarchy prancing for the world to see live and in color. It is without a doubt the biggest religious news story thus far in the 21st century, and there is not a woman in sight. Think about that in light of the media coverage. Apart from the many women reporters now in Rome, the players in this story are all men, all the time.

Of course women are seen in the vast crowds that flock to St. Peter’s Square or greeting the helicopter bearing the out-going pope at his new digs at Castel Gandolfo. But there are virtually no women in the big news of the papal transfer save the nuns who were relocated from their convent so that the Pope Emeritus will have a new place to live in his old neighborhood. They are symbolic of the problem I am underscoring, as I doubt they were consulted. Even the Virgin Mary was consulted!

Likewise, the story of the implosion of the patriarchal church (what Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza has better called “kyriarchy”[1]) is utterly devoid of women. Whether the Vatican banking scandal, sexual abuse, or episcopal cover-up, this has been a men’s show from the beginning, and they have done a royal job of making a mess.

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ROME
Gazzetta del Sud

Rome, March 5 – Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston said in Rome Tuesday he expected that some portions from the Vatican leaks dossier would be shared with cardinals before electing a new pope. “I assume that important information will be shared that will help us make our decisions,” said the Boston archbishop speaking at the Pontifical North American College outside the Vatican. O’Malley, who some have tipped as a candidate for pope, is in Rome ahead of the upcoming conclave to elect a successor to Benedict XVI, who stepped down on February 28. Some have speculated that one of Benedict’s motives for abdicating may have been the so-called Vatileaks scandal that erupted last year when his butler was arrested then eventually pardoned for leaking secret Church documents that spoke of corruption and intrigue within the Holy See. The documents included letters to the pope and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone from the Holy See’s ambassador in Washington, Carlo Maria Vigano’, who was the deputy governor of Vatican City when they were written. In one instance, the letters accused members of the Vatican’s Finance and Management Committee of improperly processing $2.5 million. E-mails and other documents from Vatican officials followed, including a report accusing the Church of not cooperating with investigators in the 1982 fraudulent bankruptcy of Banco Ambrosiano.

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VATICAN CITY
Inquirer (Philippines)

By Ella Ide

Agence France-Presse Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

VATICAN CITY—The next pope’s ideal profile began to take shape on Tuesday as cardinals held a second day of pre-conclave talks—a man with pastoral experience, missionary energy and few ties to the Vatican’s unruly government.

Cardinals waved cheerfully to journalists at the gates of the Vatican but declined to divulge details of the closed-door debate on who among them could be the best candidate for the papacy following Benedict XVI’s sudden resignation.

Vatican experts say one of the hot-button issues now uniting many of the cardinals is the need to choose a new leader for the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics capable of putting his stamp on the Roman Curia, the central government of the Church.

“There is definitely a lot of reflection going on in the Catholic world on the governance of the Catholic Church and how to improve it,” said US Cardinal Sean O’Malley.

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VATICAN CITY
Independent Catholic News (UK)

The date for the Conclave to elect the new Pope has still not been set. In his daily press conference this morning, (Tuesday) Vatican press chief Fr Lombardi explained is was not possible to fix a date until all voting cardinals have arrived in Rome. He said the cardinals were in “no rush”.

The cardinals yet to arrive at that time, were Cardinals Naguib, Pham, Nycz, Lehmann and Tong. Fr Lombardi said that tomorrow, (Wednesday) at 5pm Rome time, the Universal Church will be called to prayer for the cardinal electors as they approach this monumental task.

Fr Lombardi said interventions made by 33 cardinals so far focused on Holy See activities, different dicasteries and their relations with local bishops around the world, the renewal of the Church in light of Vatican II, the New Evangelization, the Church and new cultures.

Fr. Lombardi noted that another issue under discussion was the Constitution governing the Vacant See and papal transition and how it was modified by the Motu Proprio. Fr Lombardi said note no 37 was discussed and the issue of bringing forward the date of the start of Conclave remains ‘open’, no proposal has been made.

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SCOTLAND
STV

By Gary Cruden
5 March 2013

A letter to police from controversial lawyer Nick Freeman regarding cardinal Keith O’Brien is not being treated as a formal complain.

It has been reported that Mr Freeman had written to Lothian and Borders Police making a formal complaint.

The contents of the letter do not however allege any criminal activity and Mr Freeman does not state he has been the victim of a crime, STV understands.

A spokesman for the force said it had not received a “formal complaint”.

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ITALY
International Business Times

By Umberto Bacchi
March 5, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI has been accused of inaction over allegations of child sex abuse against an Italian priest.

Former priest Nello Giraudo, allegedly committed numerous sexual abuses on minors in the diocese of Savona, near Genoa, from 1980 to 2005, of which then-cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was made aware of in 2003 but failed to take action.

Former Savona bishop Domenico Calcagno, who was reportedly told of the abuses by his predecessors and by at least one of the victims, sent a letter to Ratzinger asking how to deal with Giraudo.

“I ask your advice on how to deal [with Giraudo], as the priest intends to continue in his pastoral duties,” Calcagno wrote to Ratzinger.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

One of Scotland’s leading scholars and ethicists has said she feels “compassion” for Cardinal Keith O’Brien following his resignation.

At the launch of Catholic Scholars Declaration on Authority in the Church, Baroness Helena Kennedy said she felt “sad for him and for his victims”.

The group is lobbying for more openness in the Roman Catholic Church.

Cardinal O’Brien resigned as an archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh amid claims of inappropriate conduct.

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MEXICO
Independent European Daily Express

Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Inter Press Service

MEXICO CITY, Mar 05 (IPS) – As the Roman Catholic Church gets ready for the conclave that will select a new pope, activists and victims worldwide are stepping up their efforts to keep cardinals directly or indirectly involved in cases of paedophilia from participating in the papal election process.

Pressure has been brought to bear on at least five cardinals who protected priests accused of sexual abuse, including Norberto Rivera of Mexico, one of the 117 cardinals under the age of 80 set to choose the successor to Benedict XVI, who stepped down on Feb. 28.

“In order for the Church to recover its moral stature and to go back to what it was before, the next pope must be chosen by people who are moral,” Mexican activist Joaquín Aguilar told IPS.

“In order for the Church to pull out of the terrible crisis into which it has fallen because of the concealment of sexual abuse, those who have been accused must withdraw from the conclave,” said Aguilar, Mexico director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

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VATICAN CITY
CBS News

(CBS News) By late Tuesday all but one of the 115 voting cardinals are expected to be in Vatican City, but there are already signs that the process of electing a new pope may take longer than it has in the recent past.

The cardinals have taken an oath of secrecy, but CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports that sex abuse, claims of corruption, and the future of the Church are high on the agenda. Job number one, however, is electing a new leader.

Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet says the search for a new pontiff has already widened.

“There was a focus on Europe obviously for centuries and centuries, and that someday, I think, someday it is to be expected that a pope would come from Asia, would come from Africa, would come from America,” he said. “It wouldn’t be a surprise. Nowadays it wouldn’t be a surprise.”

The Sistine Chapel was formally closed to tourists Tuesday to prepare it for the secret vote. Special urns for the electoral cardinals’ ballots were put on display.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

By Gustavo Arellano
Tue., Mar. 5 2013

Joelle Casteix has long been a pal of the Weekly, and not just because she’s a hilarious, multitalented gal. She’s been one of the most prominent Catholic Church sex-abuse survivors in Orange County, molested by some pig who’s now a–I kid you not–choir director at some no-name college in the Midwest. She’s been a constant companion to other sex-abuse survivors who need a shoulder, who need someone to face off against pedophile apologists, who needs someone to contact the media.

And now Casteix is taking her story to a national level by serving as one of the faces for a national campaign to help pass something called the Child Victims Act.

Being pursued for the moment on a state-by-state level, the proposed legislation would take away the statute of limitations currently imposed on sex-abuse survivors regarding civil lawsuits that has long hindered complete judgement on pedophiles, especially of the Catholic Church variety. In California, it’s currently in the State Senate.

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DEUTSCHLAND
General-Anzeiger

Von Ebba Hagenberg-Miliu
BONN. Kurz vor Veröffentlichung des zweiten von Professor Arnfried Bintig erstellten Aufklärungsberichts zu Missbrauch in Aloisiuskolleg (Ako) und Ako-pro-Seminar Mitte März hat sich der Ton im Dialog zwischen der Opfergruppe Eckiger Tisch und Jesuitenprovinzial Stefan Kiechle verschärft.Dem GA liegen drei Schreiben vor: 100 Fragen der Gruppe an den obersten Jesuiten, seine Antworten und die gestrige Rückantwort von Heiko Schnitzler, Matthias Katsch und Rudolf Jekel. Im Fokus steht die Frage nach der Verantwortung, die nach Opfermeinung der 2010 bei Bekanntwerden des Skandals zurückgetretene Rektor Pater Theo Schneider zu tragen habe.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — As the world’s cardinals meet before the conclave to discuss some of the challenges facing the church, U.S. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said he hoped to offer them some of the lessons learned from the sex abuse crisis.

The retired archbishop of Los Angeles said the biggest mistake was not understanding the true nature of the crime by believing the problem of adults abusing children was merely a moral problem.

“Many of us in the church saw this calamity, through the lens of the church, as a sin and a moral weakness,” he told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera March 5. The interview was published in Italian.

While abuse is both, he said the church confused its moral view “with what was necessary to solve the problem.”

“I had not understood the true nature of the problem and that those who abuse — not just in the church — continue to perpetrate their crimes,” he said.

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ROME
Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA

In the monthly prayer and Mass booklet, Magnificat, the Lenten Gospel for March 5 is according to Matthew: chapter 18, verses 21–35. One of Jesus’ more powerful parables on forgiveness awaits you.

But it’s the Meditation of the Day which is striking. Written by the late Monsignor Romano Guardini, a famous theologian and liturgist, it is well worth reflection:

Forgiveness should be no occasion, but our habitual attitude towards others….If you wish to obey Christ, you must first free yourself of all “righteous” indignation. Only if you forgive entirely, can you contact the true self of the other, whom his own rebelliousness is holding back. If you can reach this better self, you have a good chance of being heard, and of winning your brother. This then is the great doctrine of forgiveness on which Jesus insists as one of the fundamentals of his message. If we wish to get to its root, we must dig our way there question by question.

What must we overcome in ourselves to be capable of genuine forgiveness?…

Deep in the domain of the purely natural, the sentiment of having to do with an enemy. This sense of the hostile is something animals have, and it reaches as far as their vulnerability. Creatures are so ordered that the preservation of the one depends on the destruction of the other.

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VATICAN CITY
Los Angeles Times

By Tom Kington
March 5, 2013

VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles staunchly defended his record on dealing with sexual abuse in the church in an interview published by an Italian newspaper Tuesday.

Mahony, who has been criticized for moving predator priests from posting to posting, told Corriere della Sera that “after 20 years, people are talking about abuse as if we had not done anything. However, since 2002, we have had our program Protecting the Children, in which we illustrate procedures and the guidelines of our zero-tolerance policy that allows no possibility, for example, of anyone found guilty of abuse of minors working for the diocese.”

Mahony, who in recent months has refused requests for interviews with the Los Angeles Times, was publicly rebuked in February by current Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez in connection with his handling of sexual abuse cases.

The cardinal, who is in Rome ahead of the conclave to elect the successor to former Pope Benedict XVI, described to the Italian paper his approach to abuse in earlier years, saying: “I had not understood the real nature of the problem, that people who commit abuse — not only in the church — continue to commit their crimes. These things were not so well understood then as they are now.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

The Vatican Cardinals, led by Cardinal Sodano, who has dominated them for over two decades, appear to be dominating the entire Conclave. So far reportedly the Conclave preliminary meetings have focused mainly on taking secrecy oaths and avoiding full disclosure to all Cardinals of the secret dossier on the Vatican Cardinal clique’s reported mismanagement of widespread financial corruption and sexual misconduct. Why is Sodano so concerned to keep the lid on the ongoing Vatican scandals? Why are so many other Cardinals, who do not have his Vatican immunity protection, accepting this?

Prior to the 1870 fall of the Papal States, more powerful European leaders decided to let Pope Pius IX lose his kingdom by not intervening to stop the invasion of Rome by Italian nationalist forces. These leaders had determined apparently that by 1870 the corrupt and inept Papacy had forfeited it right to rule a kingdom and had become a destabilizing force in Europe.

The shrewd Vatican clique of petty Italian princes at the time then apparently fabricated the seeming myth of papal infallibilty and retreated with their “Infallible Pope” to Vatican City for a half century until all other European monarchical threats had been eliminated by World War I.
The petty Vatican princes then re-emerged trying to regain power by wheeling and dealing with Fascists like Mussolini, Hitler and Franco. In the 1980′s, this geo-political strategy was extended to President Reagan who wanted the Polish Pope’s help in bringing down the Soviet Empire.

This is all now ancient history and the papal charade of being a serious player in international politics is finished, with one big negative exception. The exception involves preserving world order, especially between two purportedly universalistic faiths, Christianity and Islam. Both faiths have much to offer the world in their core message and many overlapping virtues, assuming their competition is peaceful and tolerant.

It has not been peaceful or tolerant. The horrors of extremist militant Islamicists is reported daily. Moreover, the Vatican clique has stymied Christian unity, which needs to be able to act as a unified and constructive force for peace along with a moderate Islam.. The ex-Pope began his Papacy by insulting Islam gratuitously and consciously at Regensburg. At least one of the reported papal candidates, Cardinal Turkson, featured an anti-Islamic video at the recent Rome Synod, apparently with the Vatican’s approval. Cardinal Maradiago, according to Harvard Law’s Alan Dershowitz and others, has taken ant-Semitic positions, including by blaming the “Jewish media” for overstating the priest abuse scandal.

World order, especially in Africa, the Middle East and even Europe, cannot afford to let petty Vatican princes’ medieval pursuit of power, money and sex, jeopardize world peace, not to mention their perpetuation of evils perpetrated on children, women and others by the Vatican clique’s power driven theology.

European monarchs in 1870 let Italian nationalists invade Rome. Now, major powers, especially the USA and Germany, must let world prosecutors impose the rule of law on the Vatican, if the Conclave fails now to implement a major reform process that makes the Catholic hierarchy accountable, as it was in the Church that Jesus and his early followers left behind. Is it still possible for Cardinals to do this on their own? It is, but they must act prudently, purposefully and shrewdly, given the Vatican Cardinals’ home court advantage.

A shrewd Roman lawyer, Cicero, much valued by the ex-Pope’s favorite, St. Augustine, often analyzed actions by asking, Cui Bono? Who benefits from the actions? In every negotiation, time favors one side, a famous executive management consultant once told me. If one side is in a rush, the other side can then gain strength in negotiations by delay.

Who benefits at the Conclave by rushing to elect a new Pope? Clearly, the Vatican clique and Joseph Ratzinger, the Shadow Pope, benefit by rushing the Conclave. The Vatican clique appears understandably to be in a hurry to get their man to re-appoint them to their positions that expired last Thursday with the Shadow Pope’s departure. If Cardinals want more of the same, they should accept being stampeded. If not, they must resist and fix the Church sensibly, which cannot be rushed. Whatever loyalty a Cardinal thought he owed the Pope who appointed him, these Popes are history now and a Cardinal neither owes them loyalty or obedience. It is that simple.

With a one-third voting bloc, Cardinals can take their time and enjoy St. Peter’s at Easter. They can run their dioceses well enough remotely, while they address the more important issues. Eventually, the Vatican clique will fold. If Cardinals do not stand firm, they will find themsleves at the mercy of the Vatican clique. Look at UK Cardinal O’Brien’s sacking and Cardinal Mahony’s shaming. Is each Cardinal comfortable that the skirt of his red dress is cleaner than these two disposable Cardinals’ skirts have been?

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

March 5, 2013

We find it interesting that Cardinal Francis George of Chicago seems to know how to discuss sexual abuse before a conclave but he quickly loses an interest for the topic after one.

Our readers may recall that before the 2005 conclave Cardinal George made sure the world knew that he had taken up the subject with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and had extracted a promise from the Cardinal-contender that he would do something about it if he emerged from the conclave a pope.

As the Cardinals gathered Monday for their first official meeting before the conclave Cardinal George was at it again.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Vincent Warren

While critics of the Vatican’s handling of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal have breathed a sigh of relief at the news of Pope Benedict’s resignation and many hope that a changing of the guard will mean a change in the handling of current and past sex crimes, we must stop to consider who exactly will be selecting the next pope. As Mary Caplan, a leader in the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), noted, “We’d all like to think there could be a transformation in the church now, but we have to face the reality that the same men responsible for protecting our abusers are going to be the ones casting the ballots.”

First, there is Cardinal Angelo Sodano. Sodano famously described allegations of sexual abuse within the church as “petty gossip” and has been accused of intervening to halt investigations of two of the more notorious sex abuse cases involving his close associates. Although he is ineligible to vote due to his age, Sodano is responsible for convening the process through which the next Pope will be selected and he wields considerable influence and power in that process.

Next, there is Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who served under Joseph Ratzinger before he was pope at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the entity tasked with handling allegations of rape and sexual violence by priests. Together, according to New York Times reporting, Bertone and Benedict decided to halt proceedings in the case of Father Lawrence Murphy, who had been accused of sexually assaulting over 200 deaf students at a Wisconsin school for the deaf, a story told in the new documentary “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God.” Bertone has also expressed the view that bishops should not be required to report priests they know to be committing acts of rape and sexual assault. Like Sodano, Bertone is a highly influential figure in the conclave that will be voting on the next pope; unlike Sodano, Bertone gets to cast his own vote.

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VATICAN CITY
FindLaw

By NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Sistine Chapel closed to visitors on Tuesday and construction work got under way to prepare it for the conclave, where cardinals from around the world will gather to elect the new pope after Benedict XVI’s resignation last month.

The Vatican said that it was waiting for five more cardinals to arrive before setting the date for the election.

Michelangelo’s frescoed masterpiece closed at 1 p.m. to visitors, one of the first visible signs that the election was nearing. Construction work involves installing a false floor to cover the anti-bugging devices and even it out, as well as installing the stove where the ballots will be burned.

A total of 110 of the 115 voting-age cardinals attended the second day of preparatory meetings Tuesday to organize the conclave, discuss the problems of the church and get to know one another, the Vatican said.

Those still making their way to Rome included: Egyptian Patriarch Antonios Naguib, and Cardinals Karl Lehmann of Germany, Jean-Baptiste Pham of Vietnam, Kazimierz Nycz of Poland and John Tong Hon of Hong Kong, the Vatican said.

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ITALIA
Fanpage

Un incontro segreto, tenuto nascosto anche ai collaboratori più fedeli. Solo un’ora dopo le dimissioni di Papa Benedetto XVI i porporati italiani si sono incontrati nella dimora del cardinale Angelo Sodano per fare “quadrato” intorno ad un nome italiano da sostenere nella corsa verso lo scranno di San Pietro.

La scelta sarebbe ricaduta su un altro “Angelo”, Bagnasco, già cardinale di Genvoa e sostenitore della linea di Giovanni Paolo II. Quella linea che prevedeva una “tolleranza” verso l’omossessualità interna alla Chiesa e che ha tenuto nascosti i casi di preti accusati di pedofilia.

Una scelta che, de facto, mira a sconfessare le scelte fatte da Benedetto XVI. Questi – come scritto da Fanpage poche ore dopo le dimissioni- appena insediato inviò una lettera a tutti i Seminari sparsi per il mondo in cui si intimava l‘allontanamento di tutti coloro i quali fossero anche solo sospettati di omossessualità. Un dogma, quest’ultimo, applicato anche alla lotta alla pedofilia e alla commistione chiesa-criminalità. Un dogma che i vertici ecclesiastici italiani hanno sempre mal digerito: a partire proprio dal Cardinale Sodano.

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VATICAN CITY
The Observer (Canada)

Quebec Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation of Bishops and potential successor to Pope Benedict XVI, played a role in the resignation of Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who admitted Sunday of having engaged in inappropriate sexual behaviour.

According to reports from the Telegraph, the Vatican knew for over five months that four men, three priests and a former priest had accused Keith O’Brien for having made sexual advances. A fifth man, a priest, would later join them, making similar allegations against the former Primate of Scotland.

O’Brien announced in late-February that he resigned as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh and made his mea culpa Sunday, admitting that his “sexual conduct” was well below the expected standards of a priest.

According to the report from the Telegraph, The Vatican has said O’Brien had tendered his resignation around November last year, adding that it suggests that the Vatican has entered into an agreement months ago with the cardinal to resign quietly so as not to embarrass the Church.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail (UK)

Sistine Chapel closes to tourists: Vatican sends signal that cardinals are ready to elect new pope as it shuts doors to Michaelangelo masterpiece

By Sara Malm and Nick Pisa

Sistine Chapel closes: Master of Liturgical Celebrations Archbishop Piero Marini closes the door of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, after proclaiming those not taking part in the conclave must leave the chapel

The Vatican today sent the clearest sign yet that a papal election is nearing with the Sistine Chapel announcing it is closing to visitors.

As of this afternoon, Michelangelo’s frescoed masterpiece will be sealed to tourists as Vatican workers put it into shape for the conclave.

In 2005, the last time the College of Cardinals elected a pope, those preparations included installing a false floor to hide anti-bugging devices and attaching the stove, where the ballots are burned, to the Sistine Chapel’s chimney.

Today the gathered cardinals began a second round of pre-conclave meetings to organize the election process and get to know one another. With a handful of cardinals still travelling to Rome, no date has yet been set.

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INDIANA
Indianapolis Star

Written by
Dan McFeely

A Fishers parish is taking the unusual step of going public to confront decades-old allegations against its pastor.

A spokesman for the Lafayette Diocese confirmed Thursday that the decision — which includes a rare visit by the bishop for a pair of public “conversations” with parishioners at St. Louis de Montfort Catholic Church — came as a result of an anonymous letter to the parish.

The letter raises allegations of sexual abuse made against the Rev. Patrick R. Click, based on an alleged incident 40-plus years ago in New Orleans that diocese officials say was investigated and determined to be unfounded.

The anonymous letter writer threatened to make the allegations public unless Click was fired from his position at the parish, where he has been stationed since 2005.

In response to the threat, the parish decided to go public, sending letters to parishioners this week recounting the allegations, the subsequent investigation conducted in 2002 and a plan to have Bishop Timothy Doherty of the Lafayette Diocese on hand this weekend to address concerns.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Catholic Insider

In case you have been wondering how and why Cardinal Sean O’Malley is getting so much press in and around the upcoming conclave to elect a new pope, now we know why. The Boston Archdiocesean PR machine is in high gear drumming up stories, as exemplified by the email below from Cardinal O’Malley’s cabinet secretary for communications. A rational person seeing their press activity might wonder why the Cardinal and his PR team have embarked on such an active campaign in the days before the conclave starts.

Here at BCI, we would like to do our part to assist, and we invite our readers to help as well.

1) We suggest that Cardinal O’Malley revisit the list of publications he reads for input and those with whom he spends time interviewing. In this interview with the National Catholic Reporter, published March 3, here are his answers to several questions:

How are you preparing yourself?

Spiritually, I’m trying to focus on the seriousness of this, asking for God’s help in prayer. I’m also trying to learn as much as I can about my brother cardinals.

How are you doing that?

I downloaded Mr. Miranda’s material, because he has a page of just the cardinals who are going to be at the conclave. [Note: Salvador Miranda of Florida International University maintains a web page on the cardinals.] I had my secretary go through and take out the biography of each one. A lot of them, of course, I knew, but this was one way of putting names to the faces of those I don’t know. That’s especially true of the Eastern Europeans and a couple of the Africans. I’m trying to read articles, to become acquainted with some of these issues in the past faced by conclaves. Your articles are all very interesting too.

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TEXAS
KLTV

By Marshall Stephens
By Lexie Cook

KILGORE, TX (KLTV) –
On Monday, Kilgore Police Officers responded to the 100 block of Woodlawn Street in Kilgore and arrested Glenn Douglas Barton, 62 , of Kilgore. Barton was charged with an outstanding Rusk County warrant of arrest for Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child, a felony grade offense.

Barton stood before a Kilgore judge Monday night and took one last look into the crowd before being taken to the Rusk County Jail.

According to the Kilgore Police Department, Barton is a minister at Calvary Way Pentecostal Church in Kilgore.

People in Kilgore say they can’t believe the news of his arrest.

“People are going to be shocked, it’s horrible. Being a mother, I can’t even imagine going through that,” says Kyla Trich, a Kilgore community member.

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TEXAS
TylerPaper.com

A Kilgore man was arrested for aggravated sexual assault of a child Monday after an investigation by the Kilgore Police Department.

The agency received a report two weeks ago that Glenn Douglas Barton, 62, had allegedly sexually assaulted a child between 2009 and 2013, according to a news release from the department.

After the investigation, a warrant was issued for Barton, and he was arrested in the 100 block of Woodlawn Street in Kilgore, the release states.

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TEXAS
News-Journal

From Staff Reports

A Kilgore pastor was being held late Monday in the Rusk County Jail, accused by police of sexually assaulting a child over a period of years.

Glenn Douglas Barton, 62, was arrested about 3:30 p.m. Monday at a residence on the grounds of the Calvary Way Church and charged with an outstanding Rusk County warrant of arrest for aggravated sexual assault of a child, a felony grade offense.

He was being held under a $50,000 bond after being arraigned Monday evening in Kilgore Municipal Court.

The arrest and warrant stem from a continuing investigation being conducted by the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Kilgore Police Department, according to a statement issued by the department after the arrest.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Michael Sean Winters | Mar. 5, 2013

Ever since 2004, when then-Archbishop Raymond Burke warned that he would deny communion to Sen. John Kerry because of the senator’s pro-choice stance, many of us have argued that Burke’s interpretation of Canon 915 was mistaken, that it is not the place of the minister of communion to decide whether or not a person should receive communion, but that it is up to the communicant to make the decision whether or not to present herself for communion. Most American bishops, and the Bishop of Rome, have never followed Burke’s advice. One Latin American cardinal said denying communion to someone for such a reason would be a scandal. Burke’s position is the minority position and it deserves to be such.

So, it is more than a little curious to see many of the same people who argued against Burke now insisting that Cardinal Roger Mahony absent himself from the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI. The release of thousands of pages of documents in sex abuse cases in Los Angeles demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that Cardinal Mahony took great pains to shield pedophile priests from the law. That such shielding was a sin, there is little doubt. But, if the conclave was only to admit non-sinners, the Sistine Chapel would be very empty.

I was especially alarmed by a press release from the increasingly obnoxious group Catholics United. I had thought that this group was concerned about promoting the Church’s teachings about social justice in the public square. Now, they seem intent on promoting internal Church reform. They have a petition drive to encourage Cardinal Mahony to absent himself from the conclave, which is a rather juvenile way to promote change within the Church. I suspect, of course, that their ambition is to get more hits on their website and more contributions in the coffers. We all have to make a living I suppose but the specter of this group applying Scarlet Letters all around the College of Cardinals has nothing to do with promoting social justice, nor for that matter, with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Mike Wade

March 5 2013

Catholic critics of the Church in Scotland have urged that a Vatican inquiry into the scandal surrounding Cardinal Keith O’Brien examine an alleged “culture of cronyism” in his archdiocese that lasted for years.

Following the cardinal’s weekend confession of impropriety, he faced further accusations yesterday from lay and clerical figures that his sexual escapades might have compromised his role as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, a post he was appointed to in 1985.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Tuesday 5 March 2013

Gerry Braiden
Local Government Correspondent

THE Catholic Church is guilty of double standards for denouncing homosexuality as a disorder while knowing many of its priests and trainees at its seminaries were gay, a Scots-based Vatican adviser has warned.

John Haldane, a professor of philosophy at St Andrews University and a leading commentator on Scottish Catholic affairs, said the Cardinal Keith O’Brien scandal was a challenge for the church to reform. The process, he added, should include cutting the number of dioceses north of the Border by 50%.

Mr Haldane also suggested a committee of about six lay advisers be formed to see it through the transformation.

Currently five of the eight dioceses are without bishops, numerous parishes are struggling to find priests and finances are also dire in many areas.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Tuesday 5 March 2013

Colette Douglas Home

SO a veil has been stripped from the life of Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

He stands exposed and humiliated: his work of a lifetime overtaken by scandal. Instead of righteousness, all that is left to see is hypocrisy and, I’m sorry to say, dishonesty.

He is accused of making sexual advances to young priests when he was in a position of power over them. He compounded his actions latterly with his intemperate Old Testament-style attack on gay marriage.

Yet, oddly, I would be more inclined to listen to his opinions now than ever before. If it were possible I might even support his reinstatement. And it’s not because I’m impressed by his apology, which begs more questions than it answers.

In it he admits to times when his sexual behaviour fell below the standards expected of a priest, archbishop and cardinal. Isn’t all sexual behaviour denied to Roman Catholic clergy? Further, why does he include his time as a cardinal when the most recent accusation of which we are aware dates back to 2001? He was an archbishop then. Does the statement hint at the possibility of other revelations to come? It’s a mighty mess.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien facing possible police investigation as it emerges church officials have ‘told him to live as a hermit’

By Steve Doughty and Graham Grant

Shamed Cardinal Keith O’Brien was facing a possible police investigation last night into the sex scandal that has engulfed the church.

Police received a formal complaint yesterday against the disgraced cardinal, who on Sunday night admitted he had been guilty of sexual misconduct.

Last night, it emerged that lawyer Nick Freeman, well-known for representing a string of celebrities, has called on police to investigate.

The latest development comes after it emerged Cardinal O’Brien – until last week the most senior Roman Catholic in Britain – has been told he must live the life of a ‘hermit’ following his confession.

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SCOTLAND
Telegraph

THE credibility and moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has been damaged by Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s admission of sexual misconduct, according to the man who has replaced him.

By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent
8:22AM GMT 05 Mar 2013

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia, who was named temporary administrator of the Archdiocese of Edinburgh and St Andrews after the cardinal’s resignation last week, said it was a sad moment for the church.

The cardinal stunned Scottish Catholics on Sunday when he admitted that his sexual conduct had fallen below the standard expected of a “priest, archbishop and cardinal”.

He apologised to those he offended and announced that he was retiring from public life.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

THE ex-leader of the country’s Catholics will face a probe by Vatican officials into allegations dating back more than 30 years.

SHAMED cardinal Keith O’Brien is set to face a Vatican inquiry after yesterday admitting to sexual misconduct.

Today, it was confirmed that complaints over O’Brien’s conduct had been made to the Vatican.

A Scottish Catholic Media Office spokesman said: “We expect that they will be investigated and a conclusion drawn.”

The inquiry is not likely to begin until after a new pope is chosen. It is understood the cardinal, who will not attend the conclave, is currently out of the country.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s ‘sexual conduct’ has rightly left many gay men and women feeling furious and damaged. Ironically it is his hypocritical intolerance for homosexuality that has ended up harming his “physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing”, writes Alice Arnold.

By Alice Arnold
10:57AM GMT 05 Mar 2013

Homosexuality is “harmful to the physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing of those involved”. So says Cardinal Keith O’Brien. I will be the first to admit that in his case this has been absolutely true. Of course while the Cardinal, or rather ex Cardinal, suffers with his conscience the topic of homosexuality in the Catholic Church comes to the fore once again.

I have made no bones about the fact that I am not a religious person and normally I would leave the Church to its own devices. However, the Catholic Church is such a huge institution influencing opinion over great swathes of the earth; it would be churlish to ignore it.

Do we feel sorry for Keith? That’s the question on which listeners were asked to give their opinion on BBC 5 Live yesterday morning. Well personally, yes I suppose I do, in the way that I feel sorry for anyone who is clearly going through turmoil and sees his life’s work reduced to hypocritical rantings.

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UNITED KINGDOM
DNA (India)

The Vatican was accused on Monday of orchestrating a cover-up over the disgraced Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien amid claims that it knew of allegations against him for five months but kept them secret.

Revelations that the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in Britain had a secret sex life cast a shadow over the first day of a meeting of the Church’s cardinals as they gathered to choose a successor to Benedict XVI, now Pope Emeritus.

The 142 “princes of the church” met in the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican to discuss the Church’s problems and the sort of qualities required of the new pope to deal with them.

But officials in Rome and the Vatican’s representative to Britain flatly refused to discuss how long Benedict XVI had known about the accusations against Cardinal O’Brien or how many accusers there are.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

[with video]

A Scotland-based Vatican adviser and the journalist who broke the story about the sexual conduct of Cardinal Keith O’Brien have argued about when the Roman Catholic church first knew details of the story.

Prof John Haldane, who is a professor of philosophy at St Andrews University and papal adviser to the Vatican, told a special Newsnight Scotland debating panel that the church only learned of the allegations nine days ago.

Catherine Deveney wrote The Observer piece in which three serving priests and one former priest accused the cardinal, who has now stepped down from public office, of “inappropriate behaviour” towards them.

She told the debate: “It is not quite accurate to say the Scottish Catholic Church did not know what was going on because there was an intermediary within the Catholic Church who took the complaints to the Papal Nuncio.”

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ROME
Chiesa

Name by name, nation by nation, role by role, all of the cardinals who will enter into conclave. An indispensable guide for the event

VATICAN CITY, March 5, 2013 – Subtracting the two who have declined to take part in the conclave, the Scottish Keith Michael Patrick O’Brian and the Indonesian Jesuit Julius Darmaatmadja, the cardinals who will enter the Sistine Chapel to elect the successor of Benedict XVI at the moment number 115.

Below they are listed by continent and by nation, with the place of activity of each one, the abbreviation of any religious order of membership, the date of birth and the indication of the pope who conferred the scarlet on them, John Paul II (JP-II) or Benedict XVI (B-XVI).

Followed by further documentation of their roles and backgrounds.
*
EUROPE – 60 cardinals (37 B-XVI and 23 JP-II)

Italy – 28 (20 B-XVI and 8 JP-II)

AMATO Angelo S.D.B, curia, 1938 (B-XVI)
ANTONELLI Ennio, ex curia, 1936 (JP-II)
BAGNASCO Angelo, abp. Genova, 1943 (B-XVI)
BERTELLO Giuseppe, curia, 1942 (B-XVI)
BERTONE Tarcisio S.D.B, curia, 1934 (JP-II)
BETORI Giuseppe, abp. Firenze, 1947 (B-XVI)
CAFFARRA Carlo, abp. Bologna, 1938 (B-XVI)
CALCAGNO Domenico, curia, 1943 (B-XVI)
COCCOPALMERIO Francesco, curia, 1938 (B-XVI)
COMASTRI Angelo, curia, 1943 (B-XVI)

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ROM
kathweb

Kardinal George: Neuer Papst muss bei Missbrauch von Minderjährigen universalen Kodex der Kirche mit Nulltoleranz um- und durchsetzen

05.03.2013

Rom, 05.03.2013 (KAP) Der nächste Papst muss die Nulltoleranz-Politik gegenüber sexuellem Missbrauch durchsetzen und deren Prävention in der Kirche weiterführen, sagte der US-amerikanische Kardinal Francis George am Montag zwischen den Zusammenkünften der ersten Generalkongregation zur Vorbereitung des Konklaves. George – er ist Erzbischof von Chicago und war bis 2010 Präsident der US-amerikanischen Bischofskonferenz – wies auch auf das Problem der sexuellen Verfehlungen einzelner Kirchenmänner hin, die juridisch außerhalb des Missbrauchs angesiedelt sind. In jedem Fall handle es sich um “schreckliche Wunden am Leib der Kirche”.

“Wer auch immer zum Papst gewählt werden wird – es ist evident, dass er den universalen Kodex der Kirche mit einer Nulltoleranz dem Missbrauch von Minderjährigen gegenüber umzusetzen und durchzusetzen hat”, betonte der 76-jährige Erzbischof von Chicago gegenüber der Nachrichtenagentur “Catholic News Service” (CNS) in Rom. Er sehen jedoch zugleich eine “fest verwurzelte Überzeugung”, mit Entschlossenheit dagegen vorzugehen. Die US-Bischöfe hätten sich für eine eigene Nulltoleranz-Politik eingesetzt und auch Überzeugungsarbeit gegenüber Kirchenvertretern in anderen Ländern wie etwa Indien geleistet, um ähnliche Normen und Regeln zu adaptieren.

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ROME
Chicagoist

Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George says the next pope must have “zero tolerance” for the sexual abuse of minors. While most of us would just say “Duh!” George’s statement is actually a rare public acknowledgement of the priesthood’s many abuse crimes in the context of choosing a new pope.

In a press conference, Cardinal George was asked what traits he wants to see in the next leader of the Catholic Church. The New York Times writes:

“He obviously has to accept the universal code of the church now, which is zero tolerance for anyone who has abused a child,” Cardinal George said in answer to a question at a news conference.

“There’s a deep-seated conviction, certainly on the part of anyone who has been a pastor,” he said, “that this has to be continually addressed.”

The cardinal asserted that efforts by American churchmen had led to a sharp reduction in reported abuse cases. “But there’s still the victims,” he continued. “The wound is still deep in their hearts, and as long as it’s with them it will be with us. The pope has to keep this in mind.”

David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) told the New York Times that George’s statement is encouraging. “It should be a topic and we are glad that Cardinal George said it will be and must be, but the focus has got to be on safeguarding kids first, healing victims second.”

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HAWAII
West Hawaii Today

By TOM CALLIS

Tribune-Herald staff writer
tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com

Attorneys have filed a lawsuit on behalf of two men accusing Father George DeCosta, a revered Big Island priest, of sexually abusing two boys while he worked as a chaplain at a Catholic school on Oahu.

The alleged abuse occurred during the late 1960s at Damien Memorial High School, according to the suit filed Friday in Hawaii First District Court.

DeCosta worked as the parish priest at Malia Puka O Kalani Catholic Church in Keaukaha for three decades before retiring in 2002. He now lives in Volcano.

The allegations of abuse were first made last August when the plaintiffs filed a claim for damages against the Christian Brothers of Ireland, which operates the school, in federal bankruptcy court.

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ITALIA
Il Fatto Quotidiano

Secondo quanto riportato dal quotidiano genovese ‘Il Secolo XIX’ e come ricostruito dal programma tv ‘Le Iene’ l’allora vescovo di Savona Domenico Calcagno scrisse al futuro Papa Benedetto XVI (al tempo prefetto per la congregazione della fede) per segnalare il caso di un prete pedofilo, don Nello Giraudo: “Se posso lo tengo lontano dai bambini”. La lettera però non ebbe alcun seguito

di Redazione Il Fatto Quotidiano | 4 marzo 2013

Nei giorni in cui la Chiesa deve fare i conti con il caso O’Brien, il cardinale autoesclusosi dal Conclave per “condotta sessuale inaccettabile”, nuove ombre si allungano sul Papa ormai emerito Joseph Ratzinger. Secondo quanto rivela Il Secolo XIX, l’ex Papa era a conoscenza di fatti di pedofilia avvenuti nella diocesi di Savona nel 2003 ma, nonostante fosse stato informato ufficialmente di quanto accaduto nella sua veste di prefetto per la congregazione della fede (l’organo deputato a vigilare sulla correttezza della dottrina cattolica, ndr), non lo denunciò. Il quotidiano di Genova pubblica una lettera inviata dall’ex vescovo di Savona, il cardinal Domenico Calcagno – uno dei partecipanti al Conclave di questi giorni – a Joseph Ratzinger. “Chiedo la cortesia di un consiglio circa l’atteggiamento da tenere , intendendo il sacerdote continuare con un impegno pastorale – scrive Calcagno a Ratzinger – Per quanto possibile intendo evitare che abbia comunque responsabilità che lo mettano a contatto con bambini o adolescenti”. Una richiesta che però rimane inascoltata.

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ITALIA
Il Seccolo XIX

Savona – «Chiediamo che il cardinale Domenico Calcagno non partecipi al conclave»: la petizione è stata lanciata online, nella giornata di ieri, dalla Rete L’abuso – noi vittime di preti pedofili coordinata da Francesco Zanardi, grande accusatore dell’omertà nei confronti della pedofilia della diocesi savonese, dove Monsignor Calcagno è stato vescovo sino al 2007.

Nel 2003, in una missiva inviata all’allora prefetto della Congregazione per la dottrina della fede Joseph Ratzinger, Calcagno chiedeva consigli sul comportamento da tenere con Don Nello Giraudo, il sacerdote pedofilo condannato nel 2012 a un anno di carcere patteggiato per l’ultimo dei numerosi abusi, risalente al 2005 e unico tra i numerosi non caduto in prescrizione.

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ITALIA
Il Seccolo XIX

Alla festa della Madonna di Savona anche Le Iene, impegnate nell’inchiesta sui casi di pedofilia legati alla Chiesa

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ROME
CBS Los Angeles

[with video]

ROME (CBSLA.com) — A woman who claims she was sexually abused by her parish priest as a child traveled to Rome to protest retired Cardinal Roger Mahony’s participation in the papal conclave.

Barbara Dorris, 65, said she is outraged that Mahony, who led the Los Angeles Archdiocese for 25 years until 2011, is one of 115 cardinals who will select a new pope in the wake of allegations he helped conceal child sex abuse involving hundreds of priests.

“Cardinal Mahony…this man has been complicit in the cover-up all over in Los Angeles, yet he’ll be here and have a vote,” Dorris told KCAL9’s Suraya Fadel.

Dorris continued, “There are letters, there are documents, that said he made some very bad… if not criminal…choices. We feel he should have had the decency to stay home. He has been implicated in so many cover-ups. How could you then come and say, ‘I’m the best person to help elect a spiritual leader. A person who will clean up this mess and help restore the church’s reputation?’”

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Mar. 5, 2013

Rome

In any walk of life, campaign season always brings people out of the woodwork with a point to make or an axe to grind, and Rome in the run-up to the looming conclave is certainly no exception.

Over the last few days, people from a bewildering variety of backgrounds and perspectives have been trying to make themselves heard above the din, some quite effectively, others coming off as just downright wierd.

Among the former, the Survivors’ Network of Those Abused by Priests, the main advocacy group for victims of clerical abuse in the United States, has been holding regular press conferences at Rome’s Orange Hotel and issuing statements on issues as they emerge, such as the resignation of Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien of Scotland. SNAP runs a smart, fast press operation, and has emerged as the most important critical voice on the sex abuse crisis in the pre-conclave period.

More brazen was a twenty-something Italian activist who showed up last Thursday in front of a large TV platform at the end of the Via della Conciliazione, the broad street that leads to St. Peter’s Square, just before the pope was due to lift off in his helicopter and head for Castel Gandolfo.

At that moment, the platform was full of anchors and guests for various global networks, all commenting on the pope’s departure. They got a surprise when the young man stripped down to his boxer shorts, despite chilly temperatures, hoisted a bullhorn, and began shouting that “Ratzinger covers up for pedophiles!”

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UNITED STATES
Stop Baptist Predators

Last month, the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention wrote a letter to President Obama.

Whew. That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? But that’s what it says on the letterhead: “Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.”

The Commission maintains offices at Southern Baptist Convention headquarters in Nashville and also on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.

Richard Land, who is the head of this lofty-sounding commission was writing to the President to tell him that “we would like to take this opportunity to add our voice to the discussions” on gun control.

He used that word “we” quite a lot. So who exactly is the “we” and by what authority does Land speak for the “we”?

After all, this is a denomination that claims it cannot possibly create a commission to consider clergy sex abuse allegations – as numerous other denominations have done — because the Southern Baptist Convention has no authority to tell local churches about their ministers. Or so they say. They claim that Baptists’ professed belief in local church autonomy precludes such a thing.

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UNITED STATES
Friendly Atheist

March 3, 2013 By Sara Lin Wilde

For a conservative Catholic who meticulously adheres and assents to every word of the Church’s teaching, these are difficult days, filled to the brim with cognitive dissonance. It’s hard to accept the Pope as Jesus Christ’s chosen representative on Earth while groups of abuse victims call on him to stand trial for crimes against humanity.

And as if that’s not enough, the Vatileaks documents revealed (among other things) a gay “faction” within Vatican power circles, allegedly subject to blackmail because of their forbidden sexual orientation or involvement in forbidden relationships. Now, in the face of Benedict’s sudden resignation, people are wondering if the gay scandal has played a role in the pontiff’s decision or his loss of credibility.

The Catholic Church is on the defensive… except for one priest.

Father Dariusz Oko, a Polish priest who studies “homoideology and homopropaganda” from a critical perspective (really!) has tied together these two scandalous moments in recent Catholic history by way of his recently-translated 2012 article, “Standing with the Pope against homoheresy.” In it, he defends Pope Benedict’s record on childhood sexual abuse by priests, arguing that, in fact, it’s not the Pope thwarting Catholic families whose children get abused.

It’s the gay faction.

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MARYLAND
Baltimore Sun

March 04, 2013|By Jessica Anderson, The Baltimore Sun

A longtime deacon at a Fullerton church was charged Friday with possessing “numerous files of child pornography,” Baltimore County police said.

William Steven Albaugh, 67, a deacon at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church on Belair Road, was arrested at his Nottingham home at 7:45 a.m. Police had searched Albaugh’s Treadway Court home and said they found images of children on his Verizon Online account and on thumb drives.

Police do not believe that children at St. Joseph’s were victims.

Albaugh declined to comment when reached by phone Friday.

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VATICAN CITY
Denver Post

By Daniel J.Wakin
The New York Times denverpost.com

VATICAN CITY — The next pope must commit himself to “zero tolerance” of the sexual abuse of minors by clergymen, a senior U.S. cardinal said Monday, the first day of deliberations by the princes of the Catholic Church ahead of the papal election.

The statement by Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, was a rare mention of the scandal in the context of discussing “papability” — the qualities and attributes desired by the cardinals in the man who will succeed the pope emeritus, Benedict XVI, who relinquished the position Thursday.

“He obviously has to accept the universal code of the church now, which is zero tolerance for anyone who has abused a child,” George said in answer to a question at a news conference. “There’s a deep-seated conviction, certainly on the part of anyone who has been a pastor, that this has to be continually addressed.”

The cardinal asserted that efforts by American churchmen had led to a sharp reduction in reported abuse cases.

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CANADA
Vancouver Sun

By SARAH SACHELI and Jason Warick, Postmedia News and The StarPhoenix

WINDSOR, Ont. — Retired priest William Hodgson Marshall stood on legs weakened with age and admitted to sexually abusing two boys in Saskatchewan more than 50 years ago.

“I admit the hideousness,” Marshall, 90, said Monday, his voice trailing off. But he said he didn’t know he was hurting anyone.

“I don’t think I was a monster.”

Marshall was sentenced in a Windsor courtroom Monday to six months of house arrest.

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ROME
The Globe and Mail

TU THANH HA
The Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Mar. 04 2013

The Roman Catholic Church could do more to help victims of abusive priests reconcile themselves with their faith, says Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, one of the front-runners to become the next pontiff.

As cardinals from around the world gather in Rome for closed-door meetings before choosing a successor to Benedict XVI, Cardinal Ouellet recalled in an interview with the CBC how he met with victims of clerical child abuse during a visit to Ireland.

Cardinal Ouellet had asked for forgiveness from the victims during a pilgrimage last year to St. Patrick’s Purgatory in Lough Derg.

“I remember one telling me, ‘You’ve not done everything; you have to do something more for us, because you know these facts happen in pastoral contexts with Catholic people,’” Cardinal Ouellet said in an interview with CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge which aired Monday night.

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SCOTLAND
The Scottish Sun

By SAM WALKER, DAVID WYNN and PAUL THORNTON

A CELEBRITY lawyer last night insisted “justice must be seen to be done” as he urged cops to probe shamed Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

Top brief Nick Freeman told how he made a complaint to Lothian and Borders Police after the axed Scots Catholic leader sensationally admitted sexual misconduct with priests.

Mr Freeman accused the Catholic Church of attempting a cover-up by insisting on an internal investigation.

And he said: “Justice needs to be seen to be done. The Church has a moral and legal obligation to co-operate with police.

“There should be a full criminal investigation. We don’t know who else was involved — or who decided to cover it up. They are just as culpable as the cardinal.”

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Patricia McGuire

As the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church gather in Rome this week for their “congregations” that precede the papal election conclave, they’re getting plenty of advice from people of all persuasions about what kind of pope the Church and the world expect at this moment in human history.

As the lay leader of one of the Church’s ministries in higher education, Trinity Washington University, I share the concern and hope for the new leader’s governance abilities, broad world view and pastoral personality.

As a lifelong Catholic woman who has witnessed the real life of the U.S. Church “on the ground” with families and friends, parishioners and Catholic school teachers, deeply devoted nuns and priests and laity collaborating across the generations to advance the pragmatic work of our faith, I have a stubborn optimism that this moment is less a “crisis” in the faith, as some commentators insist, but rather, a time of real transformation for the organization of the Catholic Church as it struggles to bring its structures, policies and processes into the modern age. …

1. Atone the Child Sex Abuse Scandal: Nothing has done more to damage the Church’s credibility with faithful mainstream Catholics “in the pews” than the child sex abuse scandal. Dismissing the ongoing concerns as figments of some lefty political agenda is naïve. The ladies in the front pews with their rosaries — the pillars of the parishes, the mothers of the altar boys for generations like my sainted mother (God rest her soul) who could not escape the lingering fear that perhaps something bad had happened to one of her sons — this is the place where the scandal has wreaked permanent damage with the Church’s credibility among the faithful. Lose the mothers, lose the teachers.

Mere atonement is not enough; paying out settlements is hardly adequate. The pope and bishops must agree to a significant, permanent symbol of penance for these most grievous sins — not only the horror of the abuse, but the malignant corruption of the cover-ups — along with pervasive change in Church policies and practices universally to ensure that such horrors never happen again. The latter cannot be up to individual bishops; the pope has the power to order canonical change globally, and he should do so immediately.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Express

By: Paul Jeeves
Published: Tue, March 5, 2013

Nick Freeman, known as Mr Loophole for successfully getting celebrities off driving convictions, has written to the Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders Police David Strang demanding action.

He acted after hearing the Church plans to launch its own internal investigation after the 74-year-old cardinal admitted there were times his “ sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal”.

Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric stepped down from his post as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh last week.

I was shocked to hear there is to be an internal investigation only. This will be heard behind closed doors and the full findings would not be published.

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VATICAN CITY
Macleans (Canada)

VATICAN CITY – The Canadian cardinal considered one of the top choices for the papacy says he thinks the Catholic church’s handling of its sex abuse scandals can be held up as a positive example.

In an interview with CBC television Marc Cardinal Ouellet defended the church, saying it had to bear a great deal of public scrutiny when stories of abuse came to light.

“But it is not a Catholic problem; it is a human problem,” he said.

“Most of the abuse occurred in families in very general in society, and my hope is what was done by the Catholic Church, which is not yet perfect, but could be also of example for others in society. And I hope it will create an atmosphere in the whole society for respect of youth, for creating, you know, a safe environment everywhere you know in sports environments and others.”

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POLAND
NBC News

By Donald Snyder, Special Correspondent, NBC News

Polish Catholics are hoping for a new pope with fresh vision.

In Poland, widely considered the most Catholic country in Europe, the church has been plagued by dwindling attendance, surging secularism and increasing alienation among young people.

“Well-educated young people from the cities are leaving the church,” said Marej Zajac, a writer for the Polish Roman Catholic weekly magazine Tygodnik Powszechny.

According to Poland’s Statistical Institute of the Catholic Church, weekly church attendance has dropped from 53 percent of the population in 1987 to less than 40 percent in 2011. It’s the lowest number ever recorded, said Bruce Porter-Szucs, a history professor at the University of Michigan who writes extensively about Poland.

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UNITED STATES
Jackson Sun

by Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

Any day now the cardinals of the Catholic church will huddle in the Sistine Chapel to choose the next pope.

Who is the holy, humble, super human who can lead the modern Catholic world of more than a billion believers? Who can preach eternal truth while confronting contemporary spiritual, social, economic and political challenges?

Americans are only 6% of the global church and the issues that loom large here — the clergy abuse crisis, contraception or whether priests can marry or women be ordained — may not be top-of-mind elsewhere.

“The great populations of Africa, Latin America and Asia are not thinking about those things,” says Rev. Patrick Ryan, professor of religion and society at Fordham University in New York who has spent 26 years in Africa.

“When I read that The New York Times suggested one of the major problems Benedict faced was same-sex marriage, I burst out laughing,” Ryan says.

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VATICAN CITY
KSAT

Author: By Laura Smith-Spark and Richard Allen Greene CNN
Published On: Mar 05 2013

ROME (CNN) –
Catholic cardinals are meeting for a second day Tuesday at the Vatican, as they prepare to set a timetable for selecting a new pope.

More cardinals are arriving Tuesday morning so there should be fewer than eight cardinal-electors still to come, according to Vatican spokesman the Rev. Thomas Rosica.

The cardinal-electors, those aged under 80 who are eligible to vote for the new pontiff, are thought to number 115 in total.

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CANADA
NPR

by The Associated Press
March 05, 2013

TORONTO (AP) — Cardinal Marc Ouellet once said that being pope “would be a nightmare.” He would know, having enjoyed the confidence of two popes as a top-ranked Vatican insider.

His high-profile position as head of the Vatican’s office for bishops, his conservative leanings, his years in Latin America and his work in Rome as president of a key commission for Latin America all make him a favorite to become the first pontiff from the Americas.

But the qualities that make him popular in Latin America — home to the world’s biggest Catholic population — and among the cardinals who elect the pope have contributed to his poor image in his native Quebec, where ironically he was perceived during his tenure as archbishop as an outsider parachuted in from Rome to reorder his liberal province along conservative lines.
___

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the Roman Catholic Church prepares to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, The Associated Press is profiling key cardinals seen as “papabili” — contenders to the throne. In the secretive world of the Vatican, there is no way to know who is in the running, and history has yielded plenty of surprises. But these are the names that have come up time and again in speculation. Today: Marc Ouellet.
___

By many accounts, Ouellet is not beloved in Quebec, where friends say he struggled following his appointment as archbishop in 2002. His comments condemning abortion even in the case of rape were attacked by politicians and commentators — sometimes viciously.

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VATICAN CITY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on March 04, 2013

To understand why so many Catholics and victims are disillusioned with the church hierarchy, consider what happened in Rome yesterday.

— The first action by the College of Cardinals was to draft a thank you message to Pope Benedict. Not a letter to the Magdalene laundry victims in Ireland. Not a letter to the parents in Spain whose babies were sold by nuns. Not to the victims of Cardinal O’Brien in the UK. Not to the African nuns who, years ago, reported being assaulted by priests. Not to family members who lost abused loved ones to suicide. Not to any of the hundreds of thousands who have been victimized as innocent children or vulnerable adults by priests, nuns, bishops, seminarians or other church staff (and often later betrayed by prelates).

— Cardinals heard a talk by the long-time “papal preacher” Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa. According to the Associated Press, in a Roman church in 2010, Cantalamessa “likened accusations against the pope and the Catholic church in the sex abuse scandal to ‘collective violence’ suffered by the Jews.”

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

In other cardinals-in-the-news news: as Francis X. Rocca reports in National Catholic Reporter, Cardinal Roger Mahony told Catholic News Service last week that he has been amazed at calls for him not to attend the papal conclave because of what the public now knows about his track record in dealing with priests abusing minors in the Los Angeles archdiocese. Mahony states that the Vatican, through its ambassador to the U.S., instructed him to attend the conclave–despite the pressure from lay Catholics for him to stay at home.

As Rocca notes, Mahony was also “amazed” at the public furor over what was contained in the church files opened to the public regarding abuse cases in his archdiocese. Mahony arrived in Rome a day after Cardinal O’Brien said he wouldn’t attend the papal conclave after allegations of his “inappropriate conduct” with several priests and a former priest became public.

I think it’s instructive to read Rocca’s story about Mahony and his “amazement” (and his determination to attend the papal conclave–or is that the Vatican’s determination to have him attend despite what many Catholics want?) side by side with Father Tom Doyle’s recent NCR article asking who paid for Mahony’s red hat. Doyle says that in 2004, a lawyer representing victims in the costly, years’-long battle to obtain a hearing in abuse cases in Los Angeles told him, “By the time this is over we are going to find out just how much Roger Mahony’s cardinal hat is worth.”

And what the attorney meant by this observation, Doyle explains, is that reaching the point at which many files were opened to public scrutiny in the Los Angeles archdiocese has taken a “massive toll” on many people. Doyle states,

The media could not possibly recount the massive toll this took on so many people. The price of Mahony’s red hat is certainly steep in dollars. He retained an army of expensive lawyers to defend his intentional mishandling of reports of sexual abuse, and then to create legal roadblocks to the disclosure of the culprits’ files. The real cost of his hat was in people.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

By STEPHEN MCGINTY
Published on Tuesday 5 March 2013

CARDINAL Keith O’Brien threatened to report a victim of clerical sexual abuse to the police as a “blackmailer”, according to the man who had been abused.

“Michael X”, who received £42,000 granted by the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh in 1990 following his traumatic experiences, said yesterday that when he insisted Father Desmond Lynagh, who had abused him while he was a 14-year-old junior seminarian at Blairs in Aberdeen in the 1970s, should be sent away for counselling and no longer minister to children and young people, the archbishop had threatened him with the police.

In an exclusive interview with The Scotsman, Mr X said: “He then stood up. I remember he was wearing a black soutane with his pectoral cross and he said, ‘Do you know who I am? Nobody tells me what to do. If you go to the police then I will tell then that you are trying to blackmail me’.”

He went on: “I said that if I went to the police then I’d be frightened, but I would tell them that I was trying to force him to keep a sex offender out of circulation. I would tell them what I was doing and I would be ready to go to prison if I had to.”

At the end of the meeting, when Mr X repeated his threat to report Lynagh to the authorities unless he was sent for counselling, he recalled the archbishop “leaned forward towards me and I could feel his breath on my collar and he said, ‘You are just another abused child. No-one will believe you’. I have no reason to exaggerate. That is what he told me”.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

A shrewd Roman lawyer, Cicero, much valued by the ex-Pope’s favorite, St. Augustine, often analyzed actions by asking, Cui Bono? Who benefits from the actions? In every negotiation, time favors one side, a famous executive management consultant once told me. The other side can then gain strength in negotiations by delay.

Who benefits at the Conclave by rushing to elect a new Pope? Clearly, the Vatican clique and Joseph Ratzinger, the Shadow Pope, benefit by rushing the Conclave. The Vatican clique appears understandably to be in a hurry to get their man to re-appoint them to their positions that expired last Thursday with the Shadow Pope’s departure. If Cardinals want more of the same, they should accept being stampeded. If not, they must resist and fix the Church sensibly, which cannot be rushed.

With a one-third voting bloc, Cardinals can take their time and enjoy St. Peter’s at Easter. They can run their dioceses well enough remotely, while they address the more important issues. Eventually, the Vatican clique will fold. If Cardinals do not stand firm, they will find themsleves at the mercy of the Vatican clique. Look at UK Cardinal O’Brien’s sacking and Cardinal Mahony’s shaming. Is each Cardinal comfortable that the skirts of their red dress is cleaner than these two disposable Cardinals?

In the last decade, the Catholic Church managed well enough with a severely disabled Pope and a part-time octogenerian Pope who preferred writing books and listening to Mozart to managing serious problems, as he should have. The Church will not go to Hell now if Cardinals take the required time given by this unique opportunity to fix the Church. It may go to Hell if they fail now to fix it properly.

At least some of the Vatican clique have known the election was coming for some time, and have had time already to enhance the election prospects of their desired candidate. Most of them also already know what the secret dossier on Vatican mismanagement and corruption describes, and some of them have even read it and/or are featured in it.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC

The biggest challenge facing the Royal Commission into the Catholic Church response to sex abuse will be confronting the Vatican’s time-honoured secrecy and obstinate bureaucracy, writes Alex Mitchell. Will they gain access to the church’s documentation or not?

Justice Peter McClellan, the judicial pre-eminence in charge of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, will have his legal and diplomatic skills tested many times in the course of his three-year assignment.

His most engrossing challenge will be confronting the Vatican’s time-honoured secrecy and obstinate bureaucracy.

Many of the documents critical to the commission’s investigation – legal opinions and instructions, case settlements, first-hand testimony and letters of despair – are in files held in the archives of the Eternal City. Another treasure trove is located across Australian dioceses under the control of the Vatican and its representatives.

Will McClellan and his five-member panel, armed with all the powers of a Commonwealth royal commission, gain access to the church’s documentation or not?

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

SNAP FACT SHEET ON COMPLICIT NON-VOTING CARDINALS

Posted by Barbara Dorris on March 04, 2013

We urge Catholic officials to make real – not symbolic – reforms that protect children and expose wrongdoing. At the same time, however, sometimes even a small gesture can bring some healing to suffering victims and betrayed Catholics. And sometimes, when wrongdoers experience even slight consequences, it can help deter future wrongdoing

In that light, many have questioned whether clearly complicit church officials like Cardinal Brady and Cardinal Mahony should be asked to stay home or voluntarily stay home. (We are grateful that Cardinal O’Brien has opted to recuse himself from the conclave.)

But there’s another set of prelates who are also in Rome this week. They won’t vote in the conclave. But they will take part in the secret General Congregation of Cardinals meetings. Thus they too will play a decision-making role in picking the next pope.

They are the roughly 90 Cardinals who are over the age of 80. Some of them, we strongly believe, are also compromised because they too have protected predators, endangered kids, and enabled abuse.

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on March 04, 2013

Cardinal George suggests that few priests s molest kids these days. That’s simply not true. Bishops in a tiny percentage of western nations have in recent years pledged ”zero tolerance.” That promise is often broken.

But in the vast majority of countries, bishops don’t even claim to practice “zero tolerance.” It’s wrong for George to claim that this is the universal policy of the church. It’s not.

Regardless of what’s said or written in church procedures, the simple truth is that many clerics are still sexually assaulting kids. To imply otherwise is irresponsible.

So the new pope’s focus must first be on safeguarding the vulnerable, not healing the wounded. If need be, suffering adults can recover without Vatican help. But at-risk children cannot protect themselves without Vatican help.

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on March 04, 2013

We believe that the Cardinals should not just be briefed on this dossier, but should get to read the entire thing. We also believe that the dossier should be made public. Transparency is always the best policy.

There will be pressures on Vatican officials to oust these allegedly financially corrupt individuals and active gay clerics. But even more obvious and egregious wrongdoers should be ousted first: every church employee – from custodian to Cardinal – who is enabling or has enabled heinous child sex crimes by ignoring or protecting child molesting clerics.

Only by releasing this report to the public can concerned Catholics and other citizens get the best information as to who knew what, when, and will have more incentive to push the next Pope to act with speed and courage in deterring future child sex crimes and other scandals.

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CANADA
Windsor Star

Brenda Brunelle, leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) organization, speaks in front of the Ontario Court of Justice, Monday, March 4, 2013 in Windsor, Ont. They assembled for the sentencing of retired priest William Hodgson Marshall.

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CANADA
CBC News

An Ontario Court Justice ruled William Marshall will serve six months house arrest in relation to two new sexual assault charges.

Marshall is a retired priest and teacher who was sentenced to 2 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing 16 boys and one girl at schools in Toronto, Sudbury and Windsor.

He plead guilty to two additional counts of indecent assault stemming from groping incidents with two boys in Saskatoon in 1959 and 1961.

He was released from his previous conviction last October, having served two-thirds of his sentence.

Several demonstrators, including two victims of Marshall, protested outside the Windsor courthouse this morning demanding stiffer sentences for priests who abuse children.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Eugene Cullen Kennedy | Mar. 4, 2013
Bulletins from the Human Side

A major eastern newspaper says Cardinal Roger Mahony, retired archbishop of Los Angeles, is lucky not to be in jail after recently released archdiocesan documents were cited as evidence that he covered up many priests accused of sexually abusing those in their care, avoided reporting them to the police, and allowed them, after treatment and admonishment, to return quasi-purified to work as priests again.

Many victims with unhealed wounds from sexual abuse by priests feel that, if these allegations are true, Mahony should be barred from the forthcoming conclave to elect a new pope. Rome-based Cardinal Velasio de Paolis tells La Repubblica, in the tones of a godfather ordering a hit, that “persuasion” should be used on Mahony by “someone with great authority” in a “private interview” to convince him that “he should not take part” in the forthcoming election.

Mahony’s successor, Archbishop Jose Gomez, claims he just learned from the recently released records — oh, the horrors of it all — that clerical sex abuse occurred when Mahony presided in Los Angeles. With theatrical self-righteousness, he has forbidden Mahony — sending a “What a good boy am I” message to Rome — to perform any sacramental functions publicly.

Worse than Gomez’s apparent amnesia about the clerical sex abuse in San Antonio when he was its archbishop and his now doing everything but sending his hat size to Rome for the red one he ambitions by condemning Mahony, whom he previously termed a “mentor,” was its being played against a cruelly ironic backstory. This was the swell of sympathy that rolled like a cleansing tide over mass-murderer Christopher Dorner while he was still on the run. Are we surprised that some celebrities joined the ever-pious do-gooders in a desperate effort to discover Dorner’s latent nobility and to reopen the case against the Los Angeles Police Department, whose loss Dorner sought to avenge through killing cops and their relatives? None of these do-gooders, referred to in Chicago politics as “goo goos” because of the lint-covered lollipops of their ill-placed interventions, evinced any such interest in trying to understand or defend Mahony.

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UNITED KINGDOM
This is Bristol

Geoff Bennett

A “WICKED” priest who filmed a naked woman and children faces being defrocked after avoiding jail.

Richard Lee spied on his victims while he was the vicar of St Augustine’s Church in Locking and St Mary’s Church in Hutton, near Weston-super-Mare, as well as during an earlier placement.

When one of his victims raised the alarm police found he had some 454 indecent images of children.

Lee, 49, pleaded guilty to eight charges of voyeurism and 18 charges of making indecent photographs of a child last month.

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VATICAN CITY
Telegraph (UK)

The Vatican has been accused of orchestrating a cover-up over the disgraced Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien amid claims that it knew of allegations against him for five months but kept them secret.

By Nick Squires, Vatican City and John Bingham
8:19PM GMT 04 Mar 2013

Revelations that the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in Britain had a secret sex life cast a shadow over the first day of a meeting of the Church’s cardinals as they gathered to choose a successor to Benedict XVI, now Pope Emeritus.

The 142 “princes of the church” met in the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican to discuss the Church’s problems and the sort of qualities required of the new pope to deal with them.

But officials in Rome and the Vatican’s representative to Britain flatly refused to discuss how long Benedict XVI had known about the accusations against Cardinal O’Brien or how many accusers there are.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by Pam Cohen | Mar. 4, 2013

Over the last few weeks, John L. Allen Jr. has been profiling cardinals who are frequently touted as papabile, or men who could be pope. These are the names drawing the most buzz in the lead-up to the conclave. Below are links, sorted by the cardinals’ last name, to all of his papabili profiles. We will update this list as John writes more features, and don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @JohnLAllenJr.

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio
Cardinal Péter Erdõ
Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga
Cardinal Marc Ouellet
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi
Cardinal Leonardo Sandri
Cardinal Robert Sarah
Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn
Cardinal Angelo Scola
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran
Cardinal Peter Turkson

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VATICAN CITY
Los Angeles Times

By Tom Kington
March 4, 2013

VATICAN CITY — Roman Catholic cardinals opened talks Monday at the Vatican on choosing a successor to Pope Benedict XVI but made no headway on deciding when they will shut themselves into the Sistine Chapel to start voting for the new pontiff.

The conclave has been expected to commence March 11. But 12 of the 115 cardinals eligible to vote had yet to show up when discussions started at 9:30 a.m. Monday, and no date will be set for the conclave until they are all assembled.

“There was no talk about when the conclave will begin,” Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said during a break from discussions, but he added: “We would like to be done by Holy Week so we can have a pope and get back to our dioceses.” Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday, March 24.

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VATICAN CITY
Slate

By Abby Ohlheiser

Posted Monday, March 4, 2013

The Catholic church took on teeny tiny baby step towards picking a new pope today as 140-odd Catholic cardinals met at the Vatican for what was essentially the opening ceremonies of the papal election process.

All cardinals, even those over 80 who are therefore too old to vote for the next pope in the conclave, can attend the General Congregations during the period between popes, known as the sede vacante. All but 12 of the participating Cardinal Electors were at today’s meeting, according to the Vatican. The stragglers are expected to arrive, along with 60 or so other cardinals not yet present, either later today or tomorrow. Apparently, in the 45-minute meeting, the cardinals discussed but did not set a date for the beginning of the conclave, the secret meetings in which the electors pick the next pope. That date will likely be set once the electors arrive. And they’ll probably be in a hurry to start the process.

Thanks to a rule change by Benedict XVI, the conclave can begin pretty much once all the electors are present. Previously, the conclave began no sooner than 15 days after the end of the previous pope’s reign. But holy week begins March 24, and the traditional waiting period would have made it nearly impossible for the conclave to elect and install a successor by then.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

NICOLE WINFIELD | March 4, 2013

VATICAN CITY — Cardinals said Monday they want to talk to Vatican managers about allegations of corruption and cronyism within the top levels of the Catholic Church before they elect the next pope, evidence that a scandal over leaked papal documents is setting up one of the most unpredictable papal elections in recent times.

The Vatican said 103 of the 115 voting-age cardinals attended Monday’s inaugural session of the pre-conclave meetings, at which cardinals organize the election process, discuss the problems of the church and get to know one another before voting.

The red-capped “princes” of the church took an oath of secrecy and decided to pen a letter of “greeting and gratitude” to Benedict XVI, whose resignation has thrown the church into turmoil amid a torrent of scandals inside and out of the Vatican.

“I would imagine that as we move along there will be questioning of cardinals involved in the governing of the Curia to see what they think has to be changed, and in that context anything can come up,” said U.S. Cardinal Francis George.

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LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune

By Dave Walker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on March 04,

New Orleans author Jason Berry was scheduled to fly to Rome this past weekend to report for duty Monday (March 4) with ABC News. There, he’ll contribute to the network’s coverage of the papal conclave. His return flight isn’t scheduled until much later in the month, though he said last week that he expects a new pope to be elected sooner than that.

“The rumors I keep hearing are (March 10), but no one knows for sure,” he said.

In addition to consulting and perhaps a few on-camera appearances as an analyst for ABC News, Berry — whose writings include several major entries about the Catholic Church — also will be blogging the events of the next many days for the GlobalPost and National Catholic Reporter.

“You don’t have to be Catholic to be fascinated by the choosing of a pope,” he said. “When Obama won the presidency, people around the world were drawn to it as a global story, because America elected an African-American, much less a guy who is charismatic and brilliant. I think because of the scandals that the church has endured in recent years, many non-Catholics — many Muslims, people in many parts of the world — are going to be following this with unusual interest.”

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Monday 4 March 2013

Scotland’s most senior active Catholic leader tonight admits that the scandal involving Cardinal Keith O’Brien has dealt a serious blow to the credibility and moral authority of the church.

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia, Archbishop of Glasgow and apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, makes reference to the Cardinal’s demise as he celebrates mass at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow at a pre-scheduled service.

In his sermon, he says: “This is a sad moment for the Church in our country. The events around Cardinal O’Brien, his resignation, his statement of yesterday, have left us all very sad for everyone involved and for the Church.

“Many reproaches have been aimed at the Church and at individuals over this matter. The most stinging charge which has been levelled against us in this matter is hypocrisy, and for obvious reasons.

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ITALY
Telegraph (UK)

An Italian parish priest has caused uproar after burning a photograph of Benedict XVI during a church service and likening him to the disgraced captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship captain.

By Nick Squires, Rome
6:19PM GMT 04 Mar 2013

Father Andrea Maggi shocked parishioners and was criticised by his local bishop after using a candle to set alight the image of the former pontiff, who last week became the first Pope to step down in nearly 600 years, in protest against his decision to resign the papacy.

The priest likened the Pope Emeritus’s resignation to Captain Francesco Schettino’s alleged abandoning of the Concordia after he steered it into Giglio, an island off the Italian coast a year ago.

“Am I sorry for having burned the photo of the Pope? No. He’s behaved like Schettino, he abandoned his flock,” said Father Maggi, 67, from the hilltop town of Castel Vittorio in the north-western coastal region of Liguria.

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CANADA
Leader-Post

WINDSOR, Ont. – A 90-year-old retired Catholic priest previously convicted of sexually abusing children has pleaded guilty in a Windsor, Ont., courtroom to two more sex crimes.

Father William Hodgson Marshall pleaded guilty today to two counts of indecent assault involving two teenage boys in incidents that took place during the 1950s and ’60s in Saskatchewan.

He’s currently serving a two-year sentence after pleading guilty in 2011 to 17 counts of sexually abusing children while teaching at schools in Windsor, Toronto and Sudbury.

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VATIKAN
Krone

Im Vatikan haben am Montag die sogenannten Generalkongregationen zur Vorbereitung des Konklaves für die Wahl eines neuen Papstes begonnen. Die Kardinäle versammelten sich am Vormittag erstmals im Apostolischen Palast, am Nachmittag einigte man sich dann zunächst auf eine Grußbotschaft an den emeritierten Papst Benedikt XVI.. Im Zentrum des “Vorkonklaves” stehen die Missbrauchsskandale, die Schieflage der Vatikanbank IOR und der “Vatileaks”- Fall.Die Versammlung einigte sich auf eine Botschaft der “Zuneigung und Dankbarkeit” für den emeritierten Papst Benedikt XVI. Wie Lombardi sagte, brachte Kardinaldekan Angelo Sodano den Vorschlag für die Grußbotschaft in die Generalkongregation ein. Der Vorschlag sei einstimmig angenommen worden. Die erste Kongregation sei in einer “ruhigen und konstruktiven Atmosphäre” verlaufen, sagte Lombardi.

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BELGIEN
Radio Vatikan

Die belgische Bevölkerung hat das Vertrauen in die katholische Kirche verloren. Laut einer Studie der Katholischen Universität Leuven zweifeln die Flamen an der Glaubwürdigkeit der Institution -vor allem seit dem Missbrauchsskandal. Sechs von zehn Befragten gaben an, dass die Kirche für ihr persönliches Leben irrelevant geworden sei. Auch der Wunsch, dass die Kirche nicht mehr steuerlich unterstützt wird, steige bei den Befragten. Doch vor allem kritisierten sie, dass die Kirche zu viel unter den Teppich kehre.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

The Vatican Conclave clearly shows before the world media the infinite gap between what Cardinals preach and what they do. Cardinals call publicly for a new pastoral Pope that will be transparent and then attempt to elect him secretly. The process is so secret that the essential secret new dossier on Vatican corruption will be kept secret even in the secret election sessions. Three octogenerians Cardinals reportedly will secretly answer questions about the secret dossier. Those Cardinals who are fully clairvoyant may be able to ask the right questions. Those who are not, might as will give Cardinal Sodano some signed blank ballots, so he can fill in the Vatican clique’s candidate, and then go home. Unbelievable!

The election procedures can, of course, be changed at the drop of a hat. The Shadow Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, did it last week to try to speed up the Conclave, as he had earlier changed the most important provision on minimum required voting percentages. The procedures must be made transparent immediately for the sake of the Gospels the Cardinals just blaphemously swore secrecy on. You cannot elect a transparent Pope secretly; he will always be deeply tainted thereafter. As an earlier Pope tried to get Galileo to accept a change in the laws of physics, the Shadow Pope want to get worldwide Catholics to accept a change in the laws of human behavior.

The Holy Spirit may be guiding the Conclave, although earlier Joseph Ratzinger said he thought otherwise given the large numbers of “bad Popes”. Even so, the Holy Spirit cannot do the impossible, that is, convert secrecy into transparency.

Meanwhile, the other sideshows continue. Cardinal Mahony, the wealthy and savvy non-Opus Dei enemy of Republican plutocrats and Catholic mega-donors in the USA, is singled out for shame for his involvement in the Conclave deliberations, as many other tainted Cardinals are hardly mentioned, despite serious unresolved abuse cover-up related matters, including Cardinals Brady, Burke, Levada, Rigali, Danneels, Dolan, O’Malley, Calcagno, Maradiago, Sodano, George, McCarrick, Egan, Castrillion Hoyos, Desmond, Law, et al. It seems clear that some in the Vatican clique are trying to marginalize Mahony selectively, as Mahony amazingly just keeps on blogging as if he is without sin!

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UNITED STATES
Buzzflash

BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Strategies used by the Church to cover up its worldwide sexual abuse scandal included: the Vatican’s refusal to cooperate with civil authorities; officially sanctioned priest shifting; the destruction of evidence; punishing whistle-blowers and rewarding enablers; and, blaming the victims.

Last week, the eyes of the world were on Pope Benedict XVI – who apparently expects to be known as Pope Emeritus – as he left the Vatican by helicopter to spend the final hours of what many would characterize as his scandal-dogged papacy, at the papal summer retreat. According to The New York Times, “Onlookers in St. Peter’s Square cheered, church bells rang and Romans stood on rooftops to wave flags as he flew by.”

To the thousands of survivors of the Roman Catholic Church’s worldwide sexual abuse scandals, however, there was little to cheer about.

A Philadelphia Grand Jury report put the long-lived scandal in unambiguous terms: By sexual abuse, “We mean rape. Boys who were raped orally, boys who were raped anally, girls who were raped vaginally. But even those victims whose physical abuse did not include actual rape – those who were subjected to fondling, to masturbation, to pornography – suffered psychological abuse that scarred their lives and sapped the faith in which they had been raised.”

Aftershocks from the decades-long sexual abuse scandal continue to reverberate, even as cardinals gather to choose the next pope. As the Times reported, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Britain’s senior Roman Catholic cleric, “said he would not participate in the conclave, after having been accused of ‘inappropriate acts’ with several priests, charges that he denies.” Other cardinals, including some from the United States have also come under fire.

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