ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED KINGDOM
Kent Online

A pervert vicar who spied on and filmed a mother and daughter and two teenage girls in his parish escaped jail today.

Reverend Richard Lee, 49, used secret cameras to record his unsuspecting victims and kept the footage on a laptop.

Married father-of-two Lee, who was vicar of two churches in Somerset at the time, was rumbled when the images were discovered.

He was arrested and was today given eight months in prison after previously pleading guilty to eight charges of voyeurism and 18 of making indecent images.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Church of England vicar walks free from court after using secret cameras to spy on three girls and a woman over TEN YEARS

By Simon Tomlinson

A Church of England vicar walked free from court today after admitting using secret cameras to spy on and film intimate pictures of three girls and a woman.

Reverend Richard Lee, 49, was handed an eight-month jail term, suspended for two years, at Bristol Crown Court after admitting eight counts of voyeurism and 18 counts of making indecent images.

The offending took place over a ten-year period, in Weston-super-Mare where he was a priest in the diocese of Bath and Wells, and also in Gillingham, Kent.

Judge Neil Ford, QC, said: ‘I have agonised about my public duty in this case. While sentences of imprisonment must be imposed, they can be suspended.’

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VATICAN CITY
Telegraph

The gathering of cardinals in the Vatican was overshadowed not just by scandal but by farce too, when a German man masquerading as a bishop tried to infiltrate the meeting.

By Nick Squires, Vatican City
5:16PM GMT 04 Mar 2013

Ralph Napierski, a self-appointed bishop from an apparently fictional order called Corpus Dei, managed to get through a checkpoint manned by Swiss Guards but was stopped before entering the Paul VI Hall, where the cardinals were gathering.

Dressed in fake bishop’s vestments, complete with a purple sash, Mr Napierski smiled to photographers as he mixed with more than 140 cardinals from around the world as they filed into the hall to discuss the challenges facing the Church and possible “papabili” or papal candidates.

On closer inspection the sash turned out to be a scarf.

Unlike the elderly cardinals, who wore their distinctive red skull caps, the impostor wore a black fedora-style hat with a rim.

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VATICAN CITY
NBC News

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Catholic cardinals in a closed-door meeting ahead of the election of a new pontiff want to be briefed on a secret report into leaks about alleged corruption and mismanagement in the Vatican, a senior source said on Monday.

More than 140 cardinals began preliminary meetings to sketch a profile for the next pope following the shock abdication of Pope Benedict last month and to ponder who among them might be best to lead a church beset by crises.

The meetings, called “general congregations,” are open to cardinals regardless of age, although only those under 80 will later enter a conclave to elect a pope from among themselves.

The source, a prelate over 80 who was present at Monday’s meetings, said the contents of the report came up during the morning session but declined to say if the requests to be briefed were made in the formal sessions or informal coffee break discussions or both.

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ITALIA
Il Seccolo XIX

Savona – Non avrebbe impedito a un parroco della propria diocesi di commettere abusi sessuali su minori e su almeno altre quattro-cinque vittime. È questa la grave accusa contestata a monsignor Dante Lafranconi, attualmente vescovo di Cremona, ma dal 1991 al 2001 alla guida della curia di Savona e Noli. L’alto prelato secondo la procura savonese avrebbe omesso di segnalare ai suoi diretti superiori le morbose attenzioni di almeno due preti nei confronti di ragazzini di cui avrebbero dovuto occuparsi e che sono stati condannati per pedofilia (don Barbacini) e abusi sessuali (don Giraudo). E come recita il secondo comma dell’articolo 40 del codice penale «non avrebbe impedito un evento, che si ha l’obbligo giuridico di impedire, equivale a cagionarlo».

Trattandosi però di episodi risalente alla fine degli anni ‘90, il procuratore della Repubblica Francantonio Granero e il sostituto Giovanni Battista Ferro hanno avanzato al gip richiesta di archiviazione per prescrizione degli eventuali reati commessi dal Pastore della diocesi savonese.

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ITALIA
Il Seccolo XIX

[con video]

Savona – Anche Joseph Ratzinger, ora papa emerito, all’epoca prefetto della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede , era a conoscenza dei casi di pedofilia che si sono verificati all’interno della Diocesi savonese. Ma, come del resto i vertici della curia locale, non ha denunciato alla magistratura i fatti.

A dimostrarlo in modo inconfutabile sono i documenti di cui la redazione de Il Secolo XIX è venuta in possesso, sequestrati dalla Procura della Repubblica di Savona circa un anno fa, nel febbraio 2012, prelevati dalla cassaforte della Curia savonese, nell’ambito dell’indagine sui casi di pedofilia avvenuti nella diocesi ligure. Documenti che dimostrano come il papa emerito Benedetto XVI, due anni prima dell’elezione a pontefice, nel 2003, fosse stato informato dei casi savonesi, proprio quando era appunto Prefetto della Congregazione per la dottrina della Chiesa, l’organo deputato a vigilare sulla correttezza della dottrina cattolica. Una vicenda che acquista un peso significativo nella storia di Ratzinger e in cui compaiono altri personaggi illustri, tra cui il cardinale Domenico Calcagno, al tempo vescovo della diocesi savonese, che sarà membro dell’imminente conclave.

Una drammatica pagina della Chiesa cattolica che è stata ricostruita nei dettagli in un servizio di Pablo Trincia andato in onda ieri, in tarda serata, nel programma tv “Le Iene” con il titolo “Abusi nascosti dalla chiesa”, dove, agli interventi delle vittime, sono stati accostati i documenti sequestrati dalla Procura. A partire dalla lettera all’ormai ex Papa, datata 8 settembre 2003, inviata dall’allora vescovo Domenico Calcagno per informare il Prefetto Ratzinger del caso di un sacerdote pedofilo che opera nel savonese, don Nello Giraudo.

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ITALIEN
Spiegel

[Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was told of abuse of minors by a priest in Italy but chose to do nothing about it, according to Il Seccolo XIX newspaper.]

Mutmaßliche Missbrauchsopfer aus Norditalien beklagen, Joseph Ratzinger habe als Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation von ihrem Leiden gewusst und nichts dagegen unternommen. Ausgerechnet ein Kardinal, der am Konklave teilnehmen wird, soll Ratzinger damals schriftlich informiert haben.

Savona – Benedikt XVI. ist weg vom Fenster des Apostolischen Palasts – dennoch verfolgen ihn die Schatten seiner Amtszeit auch nach seinem Rücktritt.

Wie die Genueser Tageszeitung “Il Secolo XIX” (“Das 19. Jahrhundert”) am Montag berichtet, soll ein Priester im norditalienischen Savona von 1981 bis ins Jahr 2000 Jungen sexuell missbraucht haben. Joseph Ratzinger, damals Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation, soll über die Verdachtsfälle informiert worden sein – und nichts unternommen haben.

“Il Secolo XIX” veröffentlichte einen Brief des ehemaligen Bischofs von Savona, Domenico Calcagno, an Ratzinger. In dem Schreiben vom 8. September 2003 bittet er den Präfekten um einen Rat betreffs des Priesters G., den er im Amt belassen möchte. “Wenn es möglich ist, würde ich gern vermeiden, dass man ihn in Kontakt bringt mit Kindern und Erwachsenen.” Dann fügt er fast beruhigend hinzu: “Bisher ist davon nichts zu den Zeitungen durchgedrungen und es liegen auch keine Anzeigen vor.”

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

Cardinals hold meeting but do not set date for conclave to choose the next pope

By Jason Horowitz
Updated: Monday, March 4

VATICAN CITY — The College of Cardinals held its first general meeting Monday morning since the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, but the cardinals did not choose a start date for the conclave from which the next pope will emerge.

“There was no decision taken for the conclave,” said the Rev. Tom Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, during a news briefing here. “We have no information on the date of the conclave.”

“I think we are just feeling our way right now,” Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, said in a subsequent meeting of American cardinals with reporters.

“We’d like to be done before Holy Week,” said Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago. “I would assume others would be of the same mind.”

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VATICAN CITY
Whispers in the Loggia

The General Congregation having opened at 9.30 this morning, the first daily gathering of all the cardinals – over-80s included – is set to run ’til 1.30. After a break for lunch and riposo, an unusual evening session will start at 5.30.

As of last hearing, an announcement on a Conclave start-date is deemed likely to not emerge today. Under the norms of the 11th-hour motu proprio which now allows the college to ditch the standard 15-day waiting period from the moment a vacancy is triggered, all participating cardinal-electors must be present before the body can debate and eventually set the timetable by a majority vote.

While it’s unclear whether this interregnum will follow the last one in seeing an interview “blackout” agreed to by the cardinals until the election begins, in a first, an official briefing on the morning meeting is expected this afternoon.

(SVILUPPO: At the briefing following the first session, it was disclosed that 12 electors still have yet to arrive, including three of the influential, four-member German delegation. Ergo, as expected, no Conclave date can be decided until tomorrow at the earliest, or whenever all 115 expected voters are duly on-hand.)

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VATICAN CITY
Bloomberg Businessweek

By Andrew Davis on March 04, 2013

The next pope must have zero tolerance for priests who sexually abuse children, a scandal that’s left a “wound on the body of the church,” U.S. Cardinal Francis George said.

Catholic cardinals met at the Vatican today as they prepare to set a date for the secret conclave to choose a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned Feb. 28. The issue of sexual abuse by priests will be on their minds during the conclave, George said at a press conference in Rome today.

“It’s certainly in the minds and hearts of many of us because we have victims now, and they are not just victims of sexual abuse by teachers or politician or fathers or uncles, but they have been abused by Catholic priests, sometimes by Catholic bishops and sometimes the abuse has not been addressed,” said George, the archbishop of Chicago.

U.S. cardinals were instrumental in pushing the church to change its universal code to include zero tolerance for priests who abuse children, he said.

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VATICAN CITY
News 24

2013-03-04

Vatican City – Catholic cardinals on Monday pressed for more information about the “Vatileaks” scandal at the start of a series of Vatican meetings to prepare for a conclave to elect a new pope after Benedict XVI’s sudden resignation.

“If we’re going to make a good decision, I’m sure we’ll have to have some information on that,” South African Cardinal Wilfrid Napier told reporters on the sidelines of the meetings.

Asked whether there would have to be a reform of the Roman Curia, the central government of the Catholic Church, Napier said: “That naturally is going to come into the picture as well.”

French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin said: “We want to know what’s going on inside the Vatican, which has been a bit knocked about in recent years.”

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VIRGINIA
The Virginian-Pilot

By Bill Sizemore
The Virginian-Pilot
March 4, 2013

NORFOLK

A Roman Catholic friar who killed himself in Pennsylvania a month ago amid allegations that he molested dozens of schoolboys for decades was on the faculty at a parochial school in Norfolk in the 1970s.

Now an organization of clergy abuse victims wants to know whether he molested students then.

Brother Stephen Baker, 62, stabbed himself in the heart at a monastery in central Pennsylvania on Jan. 26, days after it was disclosed that 11 of his accusers in Ohio received financial settlements. Since that disclosure, attorneys say, more than 50 additional accusers have come forward.

Baker, a member of the Franciscan Friars, Third Order Regular, was on the faculty at James Barry Robinson High School, a Catholic boys boarding school in Norfolk, early in his career. The facility closed as a school in 1977 and is now a treatment center for emotionally disturbed children.

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VATICAN CITY
Oregonian

By The Associated Press
on March 04, 2013

VATICAN CITY — They came, they took an oath of secrecy, and they agreed to send a message to the previous pope, whose resignation has thrown the church into turmoil and unleashed a new wave of scandals.

The cardinals meeting to choose the next pope started work Monday on planning their conclave. Benedict XVI remained holed up at the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo, his temporary retirement home while cardinals pick his successor.

And in a sartorial symbol of the impending transition, a tailor on Monday unveiled three new white papal cassocks — small, medium and large — that will be sent to the Vatican so the new pope has something to wear as soon as he’s elected.

“We need to deliver these three garments before the conclave starts because obviously we cannot enter inside the conclave once it starts,” tailor Lorenzo Gammarelli said Monday.

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VATICAN CITY
Baltimore Sun

Reuters
10:17 a.m. EST, March 4, 2013

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – An Italian consumer group on Monday urged Rome prosecutors to question U.S. cardinal Roger Mahony, who is in the city to attend the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict, over a sexual abuse cover-up scandal in the United States.

The Codacons group said it had asked Rome prosecutors several days ago to investigate sexual abuse Mahony is accused of covering up in the 1980s, and to try to establish whether minors or Italian citizens were among the victims.

“Considering the cardinal is present in the capital, we believe magistrates must summon him before the start of the conclave, or in any case before he returns to the United States, in order to gain useful insight,” the group said in a statement.

As archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985, Mahony worked to send priests known to be abusers out of the state to shield them from law enforcement scrutiny, according to church files unsealed under a U.S. court order in January.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the Holy See Press Office, informed reporters on the proceedings of the first of the General Congregations of the College of Cardinals. The cardinals’ meeting took place this morning at 9:30am in the Synod Hall, which is located above the Paul VI Audience Hall in the Vatican building created by the Italian architect Pier Luigi Nervi.

The Congregation was headed by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College, accompanied by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B., camerlengo of the Apostolic Camera, and Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary of the Congregation for Bishops. The members of the College took their places following the hierarchical order of precedence: first those belonging to the order of Cardinal-bishops, then the Cardinal-priests, and finally the Cardinal-deacons. Each cardinal has an assigned seat to facilitate the process of voting.

After the opening prayer, “Veni Sancte Spiritus”, followed by the “Adsumus” prayer, Cardinal Sodano greeted those present in Italian, informing them of the procedures related to the Sede Vacante and how the Congregations, regulated by the Apostolic Constitution “Universi Dominici Gregis”, will operate. Following that, technical guidance on the use of microphones and the voting apparatuses was given. The proceedings are being simultaneously translated in five languages: Italian, French, German, Spanish, and English.

There were 142 of the total 207 cardinals present this morning; 103 of those present were Cardinal electors. Expected to arrive this afternoon and tomorrow, therefore, are 63 others including the remaining 12 Cardinal electors. This number—115 Cardinal electors—takes into account the two cardinals who have already indicated that they will not be attending: the archbishop emeritus of Jakarta, Indonesia and the archbishop emeritus of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland.

The gathered cardinals swore to keep secret the deliberations for the election of the future Pope, after which the Cardinal dean, Angleo Sodano, read the oath in Latin, everyone present reciting along with him. After that, each cardinal, according to their order of precedence came forward and took the oath before a Crucifix and with their hand on the Gospels. This process occupied a good portion of the meeting’s time.

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ROME
Vatican Insider

From their headquarters on the Janiculum Hill in Rome, American cardinals are preparing for the Conclave with readings, meetings and prayers

Alessandro Speciale
Vatican City

“Someone who is able to teach and communicate well,” Cardinal DiNardo says; a man of “deep faith” who has the capacity “to touch the hearts of young people” and continue the work of the new evangelisation, the Capuchin monk, Sean O’Malley adds.

From their headquarters on the Janiculum Hill, in Rome, not far from the “Bambino Gesù” hospital, American cardinals are busy preparing for the Conclave. If the election of St. Peter’s successor was a team game and the organisation of each team counted, the American Church would definitely win hands down. Not just because their team is second only to Italy in terms of its number of Conclave members (more than a quarter of the Conclave’s members belong to the contentious Italian fleet), but because no other group has brought its Episcopal Conference’s communication team all the way to Rome to assist the platoon of cardinals called to elect the new Pope.

On Thursday evening, after less than an hour had passed since the Pope’s departure for Castel Gandolfo, before the sede vacante period had even started, three American cardinals agreed to answer journalist’s questions on the future Pope’s profile and on how cardinals prepare for the most secret election process in the world.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

When Australia’s Cardinal George Pell goes into the conclave to elect the new Pope he will be looking for a candidate that is a strategist, a decision maker, has good and proven pastoral qualities, and the ability to govern

Gerard O’Connell
Rome

Cardinal George Pell, 71, the Archbishop of Sydney, participated in the 2005 conclave which elected Benedict XVI and is now in Rome again to vote in the conclave to elect his successor.

In this interview at Domus Australia he reflects on the resignation of Benedict XVI and speaks about the major challenges facing the Church today and tells me the qualities he is looking for in the candidate to be next pope.

Were you surprised, shocked by the resignation of Benedict XVI?

I was certainly surprised by the timing. I was aware that he was open to the possibility of retirement if he felt he wasn’t up to it. He had said as much in Seewald’s book. I was aware that he had visited the tomb of Celestine V, and I think he left his pallium there. So all those were signs that resignation was a live option for him, but I certainly didn’t expect it at that time.

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on March 04, 2013

Even a tiny bit of progress beats no progress at all. And any acknowledgement, however slight, that Catholic officials have hurt others can bring a small bit of comfort to the wounded.

In that sense, we’re glad this investigation has been announced. At the same time, however, we believe that every person who may have seen, suspected or suffered Cardinal O’Brien’s misconduct should report first to law enforcement authorities. It may seem, initially, that no criminal charges are likely. But in recent years, secular authorities have slowly begun to be more creative and aggressive in pursuing sexual predators, even those who hurt adults and even years later.

And we recall, with deep sadness and frustration, another Vatican probe of a high profile cleric who was a serial offender – Fr. Marcial Maciel. That investigation took years and years, despite multiple credible accusers, and resulted in a very tepid, belated and oblique ‘admonition,’ which enabled many of Maciel’s backers to continue to believe in his alleged innocence. So announcing a Vatican investigation is easy. Making sure it’s fair, thorough and results (if the evidence warrants it) in a harsh penalty that will deter future wrongdoing by others is apparently hard.

Finally, Catholic officials will often make impressive promises when public pressure is mounting. The real test is how they act once public attention wanes. We welcome the day when the Vatican promptly and voluntarily discloses credible allegations against a prominent church official without external pressure.

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on March 04, 2013

Roughly 90 prelates – too old to vote in the conclave – will take part in the General Congregation of Cardinals meetings. SNAP believes that a number of them (Sodano, Connell, Egan, Castrillón Hoyos, Law, McCarrick, and others) are guilty of – or credibly accused of – protecting child molesting clerics. Their peers should push them to stay home, or they should do so voluntarily, the group feels, for the sake of the church and to avoid heaping more pain on wounded victims and betrayed Catholics.

Sodano, Angelo
In 2010, on Easter Sunday 2010, as hundreds of brave victims across Europe were breaking their silence and exposing predator priests and complicit bishops, Sodano called the growing crisis “petty gossip.” He also repeatedly protected the late, now-disgraced Fr. Marciel Maciel-Degollado, founder and leader of the Legion of Christ, delaying an investigation into Maciel’s heinous sexual crimes and abuses for years and disingenuously “clearing” Maciel while the probe was actually still in process.

Egan, Edward M.
“Egan, while serving as bishop of the Bridgeport Diocese, allowed several priests facing multiple accusations of sexual abuse to continue working for years – including one who admitted biting a teenager during oral sex. Egan failed to investigate aggressively some abuse allegations, did not refer complaints to criminal authorities and, during closed testimony in 1999, suggested that a dozen people who made complaints of rape, molestation and beatings against the same priest may have all been lying, the documents show.”

Last year in Connecticut Magazine, Egan claimed “I never had one of these sex abuse cases, either in Bridgeport or here (New York). Not one,” and “I don’t think we did anything wrong” and “I’m very proud of how this thing was handled” and “I believe the sex abuse thing was incredibly good,” and “There really wasn’t much hidden” and “I do think it’s time to get off this subject” and “I don’t think I should be upset about that, or you should be, or anybody else” and “I believe that the cases I had were each handled just exactly as they should have been” and “I did exactly what we were told to do. And as a result, not one of them (the accused priests) did a thing out of line” and “I’m not the slightest bit surprised that, of course, the scandal was going to be fun in the news” and “If you have another bishop in the US who has the record I have, I’d be happy to know who he is.”

While in Bridgeport, Egan tried to evade responsibility for child molesting clerics by claiming, in court, that his priests didn’t really work for him but were instead “independent contractors.”

Hoyos, Castrillion
“Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos. . . . has routinely defended the church’s practice of not reporting abuse to police. At the height of the Vatican’s sex abuse scandal last year, Castrillon Hoyos told a Colombian radio station that no one should be forced to report abuse.” (according to Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press last year)

“In 2002, Rodriguez set off a tempest in the United States by comparing media criticism of the Catholic Church in light of the sex abuse scandals to persecutions under the Roman emperors Nero and Diocletian, as well as Hitler and Stalin. He suggested that the American media was trying to distract attention from the Israel/Palestinian conflict, hinting that it reflected the influence of the Jewish lobby.” (according to John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter this week)

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Andrew Brown
guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 March 2013

The fall of Keith O’Brien is more than just the humiliation of a proud and lonely man – a humiliation certain to be prolonged by the apparent dishonesty of his partial confession. It is also a further suggestion that the discipline of celibacy can’t much longer be maintained for the vast majority of the Catholic priesthood.

I don’t want to suggest that celibacy is impossible or pointless. Clearly it need be neither. I have known some very good, honest, loving and trustworthy people who have taken vows of celibacy and so far as I know they have kept them. I have also known a brilliant alcoholic whose life never really recovered from leaving the Jesuits to marry. The only major religion that places no value on celibacy at all is Judaism – and there are plenty of sex scandals involving rabbis, too. Marriage on its own solves no more problems than celibacy does.

But the Roman Catholic church is the only major denomination that tries to enforce celibacy on all its clergy almost without exception. There are a number of Eastern Catholic churches that contain married parish clergy but celibate bishops drawn from their monastic orders. In the UK, America and Australia, there are a few married former Anglican clergy. No successors are planned for them. The ban has been in place since the 12th century, and more or less enforced since the counter-reformation of the mid-16th century.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Michelangelo Signorile

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Britain’s highest ranking Catholic cleric until he resigned last week, now admits he did in fact engage in inappropriate “sexual conduct” with priests, as the Vatican scandals rock on in the wake of Benedict XVI’s resignation. But O’Brien’s story appears to underscore a larger, more pervasive reality about the dangers of the closet in society, and how it can be a corrupting force when combined with power, as I pointed out in a post a few weeks ago about former New York City mayor Ed Koch.

Powerful closeted gay men, driven by an almost pathological fear of being exposed, many times engage in two often destructive activities: 1) speaking out against gays and homosexuality, or courting those who are anti-gay, in a desperate attempt to show they are not gay themselves, and 2) seeking sex through risky channels, feeling they have no choice because they’re unable to freely have sexual encounters via public, every day social situations, like dating or going to bar or public places.

We’ve seen this over and over again: the homophobic hypocrite caught trying to have sex in public restroom stalls or posting nude photos online. Another way the powerful and closeted seek sex, however, is by engaging in workplace sexual harassment and abuse against men who are compromised (sometimes, but not always, closeted and conflicted themselves) and fearful of being fired from their jobs if they rebuff sexual advances.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Cardinal Roger M. Mahony expressed “amazement” at calls that he withdraw from the upcoming papal conclave because of his record on clergy sex abuse and said the Vatican, acting through its ambassador to the United States, had instructed him to take part in the election of the next pope.

“I’m here because the Holy Father appointed me a cardinal in 1991, and the primary job of a cardinal, the No. 1 job, is actually the election of a new pope should a vacancy occur,” the cardinal told Catholic News Service Feb. 28, two days after arriving in Rome.

“Without my even having to inquire, the nuncio in Washington phoned me a week or so ago and said, ‘I have had word from the highest folks in the Vatican: You are to come to Rome and you are to participate in the conclave’,” the cardinal said.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, replied to a request for comment that the cardinal’s statement “can be understood in light of the communique of the Secretariat of State that insisted on the importance of not giving in to external pressures that might limit the freedom of the electors and the conclave.”

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

TU THANH HA
The Globe and Mail

As cardinals from around the world gather in Rome for closed-door meetings before choosing a successor to Benedict XVI, Canada’s Marc Ouellet is reluctantly acknowledging that he has to be prepared for the possibility that he could become the next pontiff.

In an interview he gave to the CBC, Cardinal Ouellet was asked about the fact that he is considered a front-runner to be the next successor of Saint Peter.

The 68-year-old Quebecker paused and had a long sigh before answering cautiously.

“I have to be ready even if I think that probably others could do it better,” Cardinal Ouellet said. “We have to be, to some extent, prepared.”

He alluded to the old saying that the man who enters the conclave already anointed pope is usually the one who will leave still a cardinal.

“My name is circulating, but I am very careful to go beyond this sort of media expectations.”

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CANADA
Toronto Star

ST-MATHIEU-DE-HARRICANA, QUE.—The possibility of a Canadian Pope is embraced by the hometown of the Quebec cardinal who’s being mentioned as a likely successor to Pope Benedict.

Many residents in Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s hometown of La Motte say it would be an honour to have one of their own become pope.

Leo Paul Larouche says the townsfolk are closely following the news from the Vatican as cardinals prepare to select the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

The 68-year-old Ouellet is a popular figure in La Motte, where he was born, raised and ordained as a priest.

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ROME
Worldcrunch

Brazilian Cardinals Want To See ‘Vatileaks’ Findings Before Conclave

FOLHA DE S. PAULO/Worldcrunch

ROME – Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, one of the five Brazilians set to participate in the conclave to pick the next pope, said that he will request access to the secret report delivered to Benedict XVI with information on scandals within the Church.

Last week, the Holy See said that the findings of so-called “Vatileaks” case, in a report delivered to then Pope Benedict XVI by a trio of over-80 Cardinals, will only be delivered to the new pontiff. The scandal, which was first exposed in early 2012, involved leaked papal documents and an alleged ring of corruption inside the Vatican — and eventually led to the arrest of the Pope’s butler Paolo Gabriele.

Cardinal Agnelo, 79, emeritus archbishop of Sao Salvador da Bahia and primate emeritus of Brazil, wants the report given to the 115 cardinals who are going to vote in the conclave.

“If there was a comission and they reached any conclusion, we will want to know it,” he told Folha.

Citing unnamed sources, the Italian magazine “Panorama” and the Rome daily “La Repubblica” claim the report describes a network of corruption and homosexual prostitution within the Holy See. Some sources say it was part of the reason Benedict decided to resign.

The Vatican has denounced the Italian press’ versions of events.

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ROME
Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno

(ANSA) – Rome, March 4 – A senior Vatican figure said on Monday that some non-Italian cardinals have asked for an Italian pope, after Benedict XVI, a German, stepped down February 28. “I have collected rumors from non-Italian cardinals that express this wish.

I would not put it as a priority, but it is a possibility,” said Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications on the Italian radio station RAI RadioUno. “The new pope could also have had missionary experience.

It is one of the sensitivities that the Congregations will take into consideration.

The Church exists to announce the Evangelist, to announce Jesus Christ, and it must do so in a dialogue respectful of others’ truths,” explained Celli.

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VATICAN CITY
KETV

(CNN) — More than 140 cardinals began meeting at the Vatican on Monday, but they haven’t yet set the timetable for the conclave to select the next pope, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters. “It’s on the table but no decision has been reached,” he said.

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VATICAN CITY
Tuscaloosa News

By MICHAEL WARREN
Associated Press

Published: Monday, March 4, 2013

Both are the sons of Italian immigrants. Both are doctrinal conservatives. And both are known for their warm personalities.

But the two Argentine cardinals widely given an outside chance to become pope have had very different careers.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who would be the first Jesuit pope if chosen, has spent nearly his entire career at home in Argentina, overseeing churches and shoe-leather priests. Leonardo Sandri, who left for Rome 42 years ago, is a Vatican insider who has run the day-to-day operations of the global church’s vast bureaucracy and roamed the world as a papal diplomat.

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno

(ANSA) – Vatican City, March 4 – Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras said Monday transparency was needed in the next papacy and that Benedict XVI’s “clean-up” initiatives must go forward.

“I am convinced that the clean-up initiatives of (former Cardinal Joseph) Ratzinger had to continue because it is written in the Gospels that the truth shall set you free,” said Maradiaga, whom many have signalled as a possible candidate for pope.

“We must present a Church with a transparent face, one that is at peace and at ease”.

Maradiaga was speaking outside the first general congregation of cardinals ahead of the conclave to elect a new pope.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

In search for the next pope, self-aggrandizement is tantamount to sacrilege

By Jason Horowitz,

Published: March 3 | Updated: Monday, March 4

VATICAN CITY — At the conclusion of a news conference here late last year, reporters rushed the stage in the hopes of getting a word with Marc Ouellet, a Canadian cardinal who even then was topping many short lists to be the next pope. As the reporters called “your eminence” and waved business cards in the air, he politely smiled, stepped back and disappeared through a door, stage left.

Ouellet, who had come to talk about the church in the Americas, apparently had little interest in discussing anything else, especially himself. The resignation of Benedict XVI has only reinforced the reticence of the pope’s potential successors. In the Vatican, even a whiff of self-aggrandizement is tantamount to sacrilege, explicit politicking is a surefire way to leave the conclave as a cardinal. The non-campaign campaign is an institution in its own right and the antithesis of America’s extravagant electioneering.

“Campaigning?” Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, said in an interview Sunday in Rome. “If it were to happen I think that it probably wouldn’t be all that well received. It’s sort of ‘Come on. Get with it, you are out of step. That isn’t the way we do this.’ ”

Monday marks the beginning of the unofficial race to choose the 266th pope, as cardinals hold a series of closed-door gatherings, eventually leading to the conclave from which the next pontiff will emerge. The talks will include much more than logistics. The cardinals will mull the major challenges facing the church but also get to know each other. The 115 electors in attendance will listen with a discerning ear to their colleagues’ ideas — and to their ability to inspire.

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ITALY
Daily Mail (UK)

Priest burns picture of pope in CHURCH in protest at resignation as ‘rock star’ cardinals gather to choose successor

By Hannah Roberts and Sara Malm

Burning effigy: An image of retired pope Benedict XVI was set alight in a church in northern Italy during Sunday mass

It ought to have been the most serene of days for the former Pope.

But Benedict XVI’s first Sunday in retirement has been sullied by a village priest who burnt a photograph of him during Sunday mass.

Father Andrea Maggi, 67, claims Benedict, now Pope Emeritus, was ‘like the Captain Calamity of the Concordia who had abandoned his ship.’

Appalled parishioners in Castel Vittorio, a medieval hilltop village of 350 inhabitants, in Liguria, near the Italian border with France, watched at the priest set showed them a picture of the ex-Pope and then set fire to it with a candle.

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VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News

By Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – Cardinals from around the world gathered Monday inside the Vatican for their first round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope, amid scandals inside and out of the Vatican and the continued reverberations of Benedict XVI’s decision to retire.

The Vatican said 103 of the 115 electors had arrived, while the other dozen are en route. The dean of the College of Cardinals has said a date for the conclave won’t be set until all cardinals have arrived.

Among the first orders of business was the oath of secrecy each cardinal made, pledging to maintain “rigorous secrecy with regard to all matters in any way related to the election of the Roman Pontiff.”

The college of cardinals also agreed to send Benedict XVI a message on behalf of the group — the text was being worked on.”

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VATICAN CITY
USA Today

In Rome, where 115 cardinals are gathering to elect a new pope, the conclave will include these luminaries:

•Cardinal Roger Mahony, former archbishop of Los Angeles, who in the 1980s plotted with an adviser to conceal child molesting priests from law enforcement.
•Cardinal Sean Brady, the leader of Ireland’s church, who failed in the 1970s to follow up on incriminating evidence against a priest, who went on to become a notorious serial molester.
•Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the former head of the Belgian church, who once advised an adult victim of 13 years of childhood abuse against making “a lot of noise” about it because his molester, a bishop, was about to retire.
•Cardinal Justin Rigali, former head of the Philadelphia archdiocese, where it took two grand juries issuing scathing reports of abuse before the cardinal saw fit in 2011 to suspend 21 priests accused of molesting children.

The full list of cardinals who abetted the child abuse scandal that has dogged the church for more than a decade is longer. But for coverups and allowing abuse to flourish, these four are among the worst offenders.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by Dennis Coday | Mar. 4, 2013

Rome —
The apology of Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who over the weekend admitted to improper sexual conduct with priests of his archdiocese, “is weak, vague, belated and thus hollow sounding,” David Clohessy, executive director of the U.S.-based abuse survivor’s group, SNAP said in a press statement released late March 3.

“Still, it’s encouraging and healthy any time any corrupt Catholic official is publicly exposed and experiences any consequences – however slight – for abusing trust, hurting others and hiding misdeeds,” the statement from Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Clohessy and Barbara Dorris, SNAP’s outreach director, are in Rome trying to ensure the cause of victims of clergy sexual abuse are not forgotten as church leaders gather ahead of the conclave that will choose the next pope.

Last week, after allegations of improper sexual contact surfaced from four men, O’Brien resigned as archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh in Scotland and announced that he would not attend the conclave electing the new pope.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Jane Graham– 04 March 2013

Fans of irony must have enjoyed the fast-tracking of Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s resignation this week, following so quickly on the heels of his actually saying something ground-breakingly sensible.

This is not what we expected from the man who recently described gay marriage as a “grotesque subversion” and same-sex partnerships as being “harmful to the physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing of those involved” – and who is now accused of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ towards a number of priests.

However last week, just before he was due to fly out to cast his vote in the papal election, O’Brien did make some significant and shrewd remarks. He pointed out that “Jesus didn’t say” priests should be celibate, and that “many priests have found it very difficult to cope with celibacy as they lived out their priesthood, and felt the need of a companion”. …

Isn’t it also damned strange that an organisation which holds up heterosexual marriage as the ideal social union bans its leaders from experiencing it themselves? One can’t help wondering if this is about a general fear of the influence of wives. Did the Vatican start to notice 900 years ago that, regardless of how powerful a man might be, it was often the women who ran the house, influenced the children, and knocked their husbands into shape?

The Vatican has never been very keen on women. Its policy makes St Andrews golf club look like a bunch of woolly old feminists. Despite its veneration of Jesus’s mother, its fascistically hierarchical structure makes clear its belief that only men should have power, and indeed, only men should gather in dark rooms with other men to even discuss power. And they in turn should hand a wee bit less power down to more men.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

[with audio]

Cardinal Keith O’Brien is expected to face a Vatican inquiry after admitting his sexual conduct had at times, “fallen beneath the standards expected of me”.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor spoke of the “great sadness and shame” recent events had brought upon the church and said his “thoughts and prayers are with everyone concerned”.

“There have always been sinners in the church, but there has also always been saints.”

The inquiry into Cardinal O’Brien is not likely to begin until after a new Pope is chosen.

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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.

FORMER 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.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Cardinal Keith O’Brien will face a Vatican inquiry after admitting that his sexual conduct “had fallen beneath the standards” expected of him during his almost 50-year career.

By Telegraph reporters
10:43AM GMT 04 Mar 2013

The cardinal shocked the Roman Catholic community yesterday when he indicated that he would not contest claims against him and intended to retire permanently from the public life of the church.

The admission came a week after three priests and a former priest accused Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric of inappropriate behaviour dating back to the 1980s.

The cardinal, who stepped down from his post as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh in the wake of the scandal, has asked for forgiveness from those he had offended.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

[with audio]

Three priests and a former priest have said that they felt “vindicated” after Scotland’s Cardinal Keith O’Brien admitted sexual misconduct.

The group had accused the senior Roman Catholic clergyman of “inappropriate behaviour” towards them in the 1980s.

Catherine Deveney, the journalist who broke the story in The Observer, told the Today programme she had spoken to the four men, and they felt a “mixture of sadness and a bit of relief that they’ve been vindicated”.

Ms Deveney also said that the allegations “could not have been more specific. The cardinal and the church knew exactly what they were”, rejecting the Cardinal’s initial claims that the allegations were anonymous and non-specific.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Seattle Times

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON —
A Scottish cardinal who stepped down from church leadership after admitting sexual misconduct should apologize to gay people for his years of “vicious and cruel language” about them, Britain’s leading gay-rights group said Monday.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien resigned last week as Britain’s top Roman Catholic cleric after being accused of inappropriate behavior by three priests and a former priest.

O’Brien did not address the allegations directly, but said Sunday that “my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.”

“To those I have offended, I apologize and ask forgiveness,” he said.

Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill said Monday that the group noted “with sadness that the cardinal didn’t find it in him to apologize to gay people, their families and friends for the harm his vicious and cruel language caused.”

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SCOTLAND
The Guardian

Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 March 2013

The Scottish Roman Catholic church is facing a series of questions about the conduct of its former leader and its attacks on gay rights, after Cardinal Keith O’Brien admitted to a secret sexual life dating back decades.

O’Brien is expected to face a more detailed investigation by the Vatican after admitting to incidents of sexual misconduct throughout his career, which started in 1965.

After a week of denials over allegations of sexual conduct and approaches by four men, the cardinal said on Sunday he was guilty of conduct that had “fallen beneath the standards expected of me”.

In a statement that left questions unanswered about the nature of that misconduct, he added: “To those I have offended, I apologise and ask forgiveness. To the Catholic church and people of Scotland, I also apologise.”

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SCOTLAND
The Guardian

Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 March 2013

• Had any senior figures in the Scottish Catholic church been aware of allegations about Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s behaviour and private life before the papal nuncio to the UK was given sworn statements by four men, three serving priests and a former priest, in early February?

• Were any officials in O’Brien’s private office or staff aware of these allegations, or of the cardinal’s sexual relationships, while he was denouncing homosexuality as a “grotesque subversion”?

• If so, what action did they take?

• What led the Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI to order the cardinal’s immediate resignation, suddenly last Monday, when it had known of the four men’s allegations since early February?

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sydney Morning Herald

March 5, 2013

John Bingham

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, formerly the most senior Catholic cleric in Britain, has signalled that he did make homosexual advances towards young priests.

He confessed that his ”sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected” and asked for forgiveness from those he had ”offended”, as well as the Catholic Church and people of Scotland.

The former Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh – who a week ago had been due to take part in the election of the next pope – said he would withdraw from public life.

Fresh details have emerged of the allegations of ”inappropriate” behaviour against him by four men – three priests and one former priest. The accusations included attempting to touch, kiss or have sex with them. One of the accusers also claimed he had been warned not to let the allegations become public or risk ”immense damage” to the church.

”This is not about a gay culture or a straight culture,” the The Observer quoted the man as saying. ”It’s about an open culture. I would be happy to see an openly gay bishop, cardinal or pope. But the church acts as if sexual identity has to be kept secret.”

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

Editorial

Ever since the Forward began publishing stories in December detailing allegations by former students that they were abused by rabbis at Yeshiva University High School for Boys, a certain trope has been voiced by Y.U.’s defenders. It goes something like this: The alleged incidents occurred as long as three decades ago. They are, if not ancient history, then certainly from another time when behaviorial mores were different, when religious authority was more absolute, when acts that are deemed offensive now were more acceptable.

As Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of the New York Jewish Week, asked in a recent column, “is it fair to apply many current standards of behavior, at a time when a teacher touching a student can be grounds for disciplinary action, to an era when it was not unusual for European-born yeshiva high school rebbes to slap or even hit boys, who tended to take such actions in stride?”

But the Y.U. rabbis weren’t accused of Jewish-style corporal punishment, loathsome though that might be. George Finkelstein was accused of repeatedly wrestling with students in his home and office, pinning them down so tightly that many reported feeling his erect penis on their bodies. Macy Gordon was accused of sodomizing two students in their dorm rooms. This doesn’t amount to a slap to the cheek; it’s an assault to the body. To minimize these allegations is both inaccurate and hugely unfair to those who say they were victimized.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By E.J. Dionne Jr.,

Published: March 3

What do the Roman Catholic Church and the American political system have in common? Both are divided into factions that neither trust nor understand each other, and both confront a crisis of governance.

Divisions in the church are usually seen as mimicking those of secular politics. Conservatives or traditionalists are pitted against liberals or progressives. But Timothy Radcliffe, a Dominican friar and the former head of his order, suggests a more fruitful way to understand the Catholic split.

The conflict goes back to competing reactions to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council inaugurated in the 1960s by Pope John XXIII. The relevant camps — Radcliffe describes them in his 2005 book, “What Is the Point of Being a Christian?” — are the “Kingdom Catholics” and the “Communion Catholics.”

The Kingdom Catholics, corresponding to those we usually call progressive, were “exhilarated by the council’s embrace of modernity” and “see our church as primarily the People of God on pilgrimage towards the Kingdom.”

“The Christ whom they cherished,” he writes, “was the one who overthrew the boundaries between human beings, who touched lepers, reached out to foreigners and gathered us into the People of God.” Theirs was “an outward-looking theology” that was “rooted in experience” and emphasized “liberation.” The Kingdom Catholics look back to the council era as a time when “everything seemed possible.”

The Communion Catholics view the same period quite differently — as the equivalent of “ecclesiastical urban planning, tearing up our neighborhood.” This group, in which Pope Benedict XVI is the leading figure, insists that the church “stand firm in the proclamation of our faith.”

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

The cardinals are meeting in Rome this morning to prepare for the conclave that elects the successor to Pope Benedict XVI. Of the 24 cardinals being talked about as papabili or potential popes, 10 have held senior positions in the curia and seven are Italian. Already, the odds appear stacked against any cardinal who does not offer more of the same. But is it too much to hope that the next pope will offer a challenging vision for a compassionate church?

In his final public audience last week, Pope Benedict thanked members of the Curia for their support but also hinted at dysfunction at the heart of the Vatican. His acknowledgement that, at 85, he is no longer able to carry the burden of office has caused some to question whether anyone can successfully lead a global church with a monarchical structure so apparently unmatched to today’s world. But the man chosen to lead the world’s more than one billion Catholics must be more than an energetic administrator capable of reforming the church’s leadership. He must be a visionary who can draw on the essential message of the Gospels to make the church more welcoming and dynamic.

Few expected Cardinal Angelo Roncalli to be an agent for change when he became Pope John XXIII and called the second Vatican Council. Half a century after the council closed, many now hope that the new pope will recover the conciliar or collaborative vision of the church ushered in by Pope John and Vatican II. The age, background and ethnicity of the next pope may be less important than having what one theologian has described as the ability to read the signs of the times.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew in Rome

More than 150 cardinals meet this morning in the Vatican’s Synod Hall for arguably the most important Congregation of Cardinals since Vatican Council II in the 1960s.

With the shock waves prompted by the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI still crashing right across the 1.1 billion strong, universal Catholic Church, the cardinals begin the difficult task of identifying a successor.

While the conclave in the Sistine Chapel represents that spiritual moment when, with the intervention of the Holy Spirit, the cardinals elect the next pope, the business of identifying the church’s needs and consequently indicating suitable candidates starts in deadly earnest this morning. Put it another way: in the Sistine the cardinals vote, while at these “general congregations” they jaw-jaw.

By last Wednesday, there were already 144 cardinals in Rome, half of whom are from abroad so we know that the caucuses of “jaw-jaw” and exchange of ideas have already begun, particularly among the North Americans and Latin Americans. In a febrile Rome atmosphere where media interviews with cardinal electors outnumber interviews with AS Roma or Lazio footballers by two to one, many of the men who will elect the next pope have already indicated their thinking about this dramatic state of the union church moment.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW in Rome

More than 150 cardinals are meeting this morning in the Vatican’s Synod Hall for arguably the most important Congregation of Cardinals since Vatican Council II in the 1960s.

With the shock waves prompted by the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI still crashing right across the 1.1 billion strong, universal Catholic Church, the cardinals begin the difficult task of identifying a successor.

While the conclave in the Sistine Chapel represents that spiritual moment when, with the intervention of the Holy Spirit, the cardinals elect the next pope, the business of identifying the church’s needs and consequently indicating suitable candidates starts in deadly earnest this morning. Put it another way: in the Sistine the cardinals vote, while at these “general congregations” they jaw-jaw.

By last Wednesday, there were already 144 cardinals in Rome, half of whom are from abroad so we know that the caucuses of “jaw-jaw” and exchange of ideas have already begun, particularly among the North Americans and Latin Americans. In a febrile Rome atmosphere where media interviews with cardinal electors outnumber interviews with AS Roma or Lazio footballers by two to one, many of the men who will elect the next pope have already indicated their thinking about this dramatic state of the union church moment.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

As Roman Catholic cardinals set about electing a pope in a secret conclave, we look at how other religions choose their leaders — heredity, signs and omens, and choosing lots. Just don’t call it luck.

By:Leslie Scrivener
Feature writer, Published on Sun Mar 03 2013

Roman Catholic cardinals will soon gather beneath Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new pope to succeed Benedict XVI, who retired in February.

Before entering the conclave, the cardinals will have taken a vow of “inviolable secrecy” to never discuss the election. They will wear scarlet satin, symbolic of their willingness to die for the faith, and remain sequestered until they reach a two-thirds-plus-one majority. Ballots are burned after each vote. White smoke from a Vatican chimney indicates they’ve made their choice and the newly elected pope retires to the Room of Tears to don the white silk vestments symbolic of his new rank.

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VATIKAN
religion@ORF

Charles Scicluna – von 2002 bis 2012 Missbrauchsbeauftragter des Vatikans – sieht Probleme in der Priesterausbildung und dankt der kritischen Öffentlichkeit für ihren Druck im Hinblick auf Missbrauchsfälle.

Der langjährige Missbrauchsbeauftragte des Vatikans, Charles Scicluna, sieht angesichts der Skandale um sexuelle Übergriffe in der katholischen Kirche Defizite in der Priesterausbildung. Es gebe zwar keinen direkten Zusammenhang zwischen dem Zölibat und sexueller Gewalt, sagte Scicluna der „Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung“.

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GROSSBRITANNIEN
Spiegel

Vorwürfe der sexuellen Belästigung zwangen Kardinal Keith O’Brien zum Rücktritt. In einer Erklärung entschuldigte sich der einst hochrangige katholische Geistliche für sein Verhalten, dieses habe zeitweilig nicht “den Standards” entsprochen. Nun zieht er sich aus Kirche und Öffentlichkeit zurück.

Hamburg – Die Nachricht kam zum ungünstigsten Zeitpunkt: Kurz vor dem Konklave beschwerten sich ein ehemaliger und drei aktive Priester beim Apostolischen Nuntius in Großbritannien über den Erzbischof von Edinburgh und forderten dessen Entlassung. Kardinal Keith O’Brien, der ranghöchste Vertreter der Katholiken in Großbritannien, trat zurück. Nun bittet er um Vergebung.

In einer schriftlichen Erklärung räumte er Fehlverhalten ein. Bezeichnete er bei seinem Rücktrittsgesuch sein Verhalten gegenüber den Priestern als “unangemessen”, so schrieb er nun, sein sexuelles Verhalten habe zeitweilig nicht “den Standards” entsprochen, die von einem Priester, Erzbischof und Kardinal erwartet werden.

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GROSSBRITANNIEN
Zeit

Der zurückgetretene schottische Kardinal Keith O’Brien hat Fehler in seinem Umgang mit Priestern eingeräumt. In einer schriftlichen Erklärung gab der bislang ranghöchste Vertreter der Katholiken in Großbritannien zu, dass es Zeiten gegeben hat, “in denen mein sexuelles Verhalten unter den Standard gefallen ist, der von mir als Priester, Erzbischof und Kardinal erwartet wurde”.

O’Brien bat bei der gesamten Kirche um Vergebung und entschuldigte sich bei allen, die er mit seinem Verhalten verletzt habe. Zudem kündigte er an, dem Kirchenleben komplett den Rücken zu kehren. “Ich werde den Rest meines Lebens zurückgezogen verbringen”, schrieb der zurückgetretene Erzbischof von Edinburgh. “Am öffentlichen Leben der katholischen Kirche von Schottland werde ich nicht mehr teilnehmen.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

By Tom Chivers

All right, a few slightly more considered thoughts on Cardinal Keith O’Brien, after having got my cheap-shot Christopher Hitchens quote out of the way a little while ago.

Some commentators have pointed out that doing something, repenting, and then criticising it in future does not necessarily make one a hypocrite: people can change their minds, and everyone struggles to live up to their own standards, of course. Lots of people might, for instance, warn us of the dangers of smoking or drugs, but struggle every day with their own addiction, and sometimes lapse. You could even suggest that their experience of the matter makes their voice more powerful, their story more real.

And as one commenter underneath my post put it, sarcastically: “Let’s all condemn those parents who try to teach their children that swearing, lying, cheating, bullying etc are wrong – and have some time in the last 30 years failed to maintain the standard themselves.” It’s true, we wouldn’t necessarily condemn such a parent. But there are important differences.

For a start, the “sinner that repenteth” defence falls down if you’ve kept your “sins” a secret. An ex-smoker warning us of the dangers of smoking is fine – but an ex-smoker who told us that smokers were nasty black-lunged cancer-spreaders but had led us to believe, through commission or omission, that he had never touched a cigarette, would get a few raised eyebrows. A Lefty education minister who sent her kids to private school might be OK, but if she told us that sending your kids to private school is terrible while not telling us where she’d sent her own (even if they are now grown up) would be rightly castigated. A mum who told her kids not to swear and pretended she’d never so much as said “damn” would lose credibility if a child found her effing and blinding at a cold-caller.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
KTLA

[with video]

LOS ANGELES — Responding to protests over his attendance at the conclave in Rome to elect a new pope, Cardinal Roger Mahony told Catholic News Service this week that the Vatican told him to come to Rome and participate.

“Without my even having to inquire, the nuncio in Washington phoned me a week or so ago and said, ‘I have had word from the highest folks in the Vatican: You are to come to Rome and you are to participate in the conclave,’” Mahony told the news service.

The retired cardinal has been under fire for his handling of sexual abuse cases, particularly his role in hiding molestations by priests from authorities. The cover-ups were revealed with the recent release of thousands of pages of detailed court documents about the cases.

Archbishop Jose Gomez, Mahony’s successor as head of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, removed Mahony from all public duties once the court documents became public.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (UK)

Lizzy Davies in Rome
The Guardian, Sunday 3 March 2013

Italians fatigued by politics may have switched on the television on Sunday night for a spot of escapism. Showing in all its licentious glory was the first episode of historical drama The Borgias, in which Jeremy Irons stars as dastardly Pope Alexander VI and the Roman Catholic church is depicted as a hotbed of rivalry and intrigue.

If it had been up to Aiart, an association of Catholic TV viewers, however, the programme would not have been shown. “It would be fitting for the broadcast … to be postponed. This is in fact a delicate period for the church, for the papacy,” said Luca Borgomeo, Aiart’s chairman. “Believers are able to make the appropriate distinctions [between the show] and the current situation, but can non-believers … do the same?”

Borgomeo’s question was puzzling in many respects, not least because, until then, not even the most critical of observers had thought to compare the admittedly troubled Vatican of today to its almost implausibly corrupt Renaissance equivalent.

But the sensitivity was telling. In the wake of Benedict XVI’s abdication and in the runup to conclave, the church is indeed going through a delicate period with the spotlight turned on its own scandals and conspiracies. On Monday, as the previous pope settles into retirement 15 miles away, cardinals from all over the world will meet in Rome to begin the process of choosing his successor. Top of the list for many will be a leader who will clean up the mess left by Benedict’s crisis-hit papacy.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

[with live news conference]

Roman Catholic cardinals from around the world have gathered in Rome to begin the process of electing the next Pope.

The College of Cardinals will hold daily talks leading up to a conclave in which a new Pope will be chosen.

The election process comes after Pope Benedict XVI stepped down after nearly eight years in office leading the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

He was the first pontiff to resign in 600 years.

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VATICAN CITY
euronews

[with video]

Preparations for electing Roman Catholicism’s new leader have begun in earnest with the College of Cardinals gathering at the Vatican.

It will be meeting daily for talks over the next few days to determine the candidates and qualities necessary.

The goal is to have the new pope elected during the next week and officially installed several days later so he can preside over the Holy Week ceremonies, starting with Palm Sunday.

Argentinian Cardinal Leonardo Sandri said the next pope should be saintly and of vigorous health but also able to choose a good team to help him run the Church: “A Pope has to have a certain vigour, a certain physical resistance, a certain capacity to be able to stand up to the many appointments that a Pope must undertake. He must also be a great communicator; someone who has a gift of being able to express himself well to others,” said Cardinal Sandri.

The list of challenges facing the crisis-hit Catholic church could take weeks to debate but for now those issues must take a back seat.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Vigils have been held in Galway city and in Glasnevin Cemetery in remembrance and in support of women who were retained in Magdalene Laundries.

Those who attended were asked to bring candles and flowers to be placed on graves and at memorials.

The recently-published McAleese report into the Mandalene Laundries found significant State involvement in the institutions.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Louise Hogan– 04 March 2013

MAGDALENE Laundry campaigners warned there were still more questions to be answered, as flowers were laid at graves to mark the long-awaited apology from the State.

Tears were shed as dozens of bunches of flowers were placed at the Magdalene burial plot in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.

Claire McGettrick, spokeswoman for Justice for Magdalenes, said they staged the flower-laying event to mark the apology from Taoiseach Ends Kenny and to show the women are “wholly blameless”.

“It is just to convey the apology to them and make them part of that somehow.”

The apology came after the publication of a report that revealed the State was responsible for almost one-quarter of all admissions to the laundries.

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IRELAND
The Irish Sun

MOVING remembrance vigils in both Galway and Dublin for the women of the Magdalene laundries leave many of their participants teary-eyed yesterday.

There were emotional moments in Galway as a solemn group gathered at the memorial statue on Forster Street.

And young Cillian Urroz, five, leans in with a tribute candle.

Meanwhile in Dublin, the Justice for Magdalenes hosted the second annual ‘Flowers for Magdalenes’ — laying flowers on each grave at Glasnevin Cemetery, where many Magdalene women are buried.

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VATICAN CITY
Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA

Looking over the calendar for the rest of March, I am struck by the fact that the Feast of St. Joseph, the Patron of the Church, occurs on Tuesday, March 19.

What a great day for the Inaugural Mass of our next Pope!!

Obviously, I will have no say in when that Mass will take place. But I can’t help but note the significance of having that Inaugural Mass on the Feast of the Patron of the Universal Church. St. Joseph was also given the title “Guardian of the Redeemer” by Blessed John Paul II.

Since I was a seminarian, I have had a very personal devotion to St. Joseph. In God’s providence I was ordained a priest on May 1, 1962 the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. Then, on March 19, 1975, the Feast of St. Joseph I was ordained a Bishop. Although all of this is just imaginary, it would be wonderful to celebrate the 38th anniversary of my episcopal ordination during the Inaugural Mass for our new Pope!

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Cardinal Roger M. Mahony expressed “amazement” at calls that he withdraw from the upcoming papal conclave because of his record on clergy sex abuse, and said that the Vatican, acting through its ambassador to the United States, had instructed him to take part in the election of the next pope.

“I’m here because the Holy Father appointed me a cardinal in 1991, and the primary job of a cardinal, the number one job, is actually the election of a new pope should a vacancy occur,” the cardinal told Catholic News Service Feb. 28, two days after arriving in Rome.

“Without my even having to inquire, the nuncio in Washington phoned me a week or so ago and said, ‘I have had word from the highest folks in the Vatican: you are to come to Rome and you are to participate in the conclave’,” the cardinal said.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Catholic Culture

Cardinal Roger Mahony, who served as Archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011, has again defended his response to abuse allegations.

“People say, ‘Well, why didn’t you call the police?’ In those days no one reported these things to the police, usually at the request of families,” Cardinal Mahony said in an interview. “What I did in those years was consistent with what everybody did, in the Boy Scouts, in public schools, private schools, across the country.”

Cardinal Mahony said that he was “amazed” at the controversy over recently-released abuse files, the release of which led his successor, Archbishop José Gomez, to declare that the cardinal “will no longer have any administrative or public duties.”

“I’m here because the Holy Father appointed me a cardinal in 1991, and the primary job of a cardinal, the number one job, is actually the election of a new pope should a vacancy occur,” he added. “Without my even having to inquire, the nuncio in Washington phoned me a week or so ago and said, ‘I have had word from the highest folks in the Vatican: you are to come to Rome and you are to participate in the conclave.’”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

The chortling Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor should never be allowed to give interviews about sex abuse

By Damian Thompson

Just whose idea was it to allow Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor to appear on the Today programme this morning to defend the Church following the O’Brien revelations? In syntax worthy of John Prescott, the former Archbishop of Westminster basically argued that there have always been saints and sinners in the Catholic Church and, er, that’s it. You can hear the whole embarrassing episode here, at 2 hours 10 mins in. Worse, he accompanied his comments with his trademark nervous chortle – as he has done before when discussing priestly crimes. Cardinal Cormac isn’t up to this sort of grilling; he never was. Archbishop Vincent Nichols would have done a better job, as his policy of never saying anything memorable on any subject would at least have provided some sort of safeguard. But perhaps he’s too cross at being excluded from the conclave to give interviews. I despair.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff

Posted March 03, 2013

PORTLAND, Maine — John Brennan spent much of the past decade as a deacon in the Catholic Church doing what he did for 25 years as Portland police officer — investigating reports that one person had done something wrong to another.

Brennan, 65, retired Thursday as director of the Office of Professional Responsibility for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland. It was not a position he sought but it was job for which now-retired Bishop Joseph Gerry felt Brennan was immensely qualified in 2002 as the sex abuse scandal engulfed the Catholic Church. Brennan continued the job under Bishop Richard J. Malone.

Brennan, who was the first person to hold the position, investigated complaints of sexual abuse and other possible crimes by priests, former priests and other diocesan employees. It was not what he had expected to do when he was ordained in 1998 as one of the first deacons in Maine.

“It was quite similar to police work,” he said of his work as an investigator for the diocese. “Every complaint had the potential be a criminal investigation and in every case where there was any suggestion child sex abuse, I sent a letter to the local district attorney to determine if it was within statute of limitations.”

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UNITED STATES
New York Daily News

Lupica: Don’t bet on it, but Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation presents a chance for a narrow-minded Catholic Church to get it right

The last pope’s record on sex abuse an abject failure, the church needs someone who can overcome long-standing hypocrisy and inaction and bring the church into modern times on issues like homosexuality and female priests. Frankly, the church would be wise to choose someone younger, who will have more vigor and be likelier to look forward. It probably won’t, though.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, March 3, 2013

Mike Lupica

It is the Saturday Vigil Mass this past weekend at a small church outside the city, and there is a young priest standing in the back of the church wearing a black vest and his collar, handing out straw baskets to the various parishioners who will help with the collection on this day.

After the money is collected, because the Catholic Church is always pretty great at that, the priest will put on his vestments and help with Communion.

Before he does, I walk over and ask him a question.

“Do you think there’s any chance the cardinals will get it right this time?”

Meaning, when the College of Cardinals officially begins to decide who will succeed Benedict XVI — another who became the face of the Catholic Church with his chin on his chest — as Pope.

The priest just smiled and shrugged, maybe because there is no good answer for a young man to give in a church too often run by old men. It was illness that made Benedict XVI’s predecessor, John Paul II, look as frail as he did at the end. It was just age with the former Joseph Ratzinger, who at 78 was the oldest man to become Pope in nearly 300 years and retires more than seven years later, and not a day too soon.

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INDIANA
Indianapolis Star

Written by
Dan McFeely

When Bishop Timothy Doherty stood before 300-plus parishioners Sunday morning to defend their pastor from 40-year-old sexual abuse allegations, he was also sending a message that the old ways of covering up such scandals are over.

During an often tense, hour-long meeting at St. Louis de Montfort Catholic Church, the leader of the Lafayette Diocese said this was “an old accusation” against an innocent pastor who is suffering from having to reopen old wounds.

Rather than handling the matter quietly, Doherty applauded the parish for asking him to come to Fishers, saying it is important to treat such allegations with swift action and in a transparent manner, something he admitted did not happen decades ago as the church scandal began to unfold across America.

“The tragedy is in some places it wasn’t taken seriously enough,” Doherty said. “If I didn’t show up today, people would say the bishop is hiding.

“We are doing a lot now (to follow tougher procedures) . . . much more than what we were doing as a church more than 10 years ago.”

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VATICAN CITY
Journal (Ireland)

CATHOLIC CARDINALS HAVE BEGUN talks today ahead of a conclave to elect the next pope, following Benedict XVI’s historic resignation.

A string of new scandals and allegations have emerged since Benedict became only the second pope in the Church’s 2,000-year history to step down of his own free will.

The Vatican meetings starting today, known as “general congregations”, set the date for the start of the conclave and help identify candidates to be leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.

The Vatican is now expecting 115 “cardinal electors” – cardinals aged under 80 – to attend the conclave after the former head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien opted out and an Indonesian cardinal said he was too sick to attend.

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VATICAN CITY
New York Post

By GERRY SHIELDS
Last Updated: 3:10 AM, March 4, 2013

Cardinals from around the world have gathered in Rome to elect a new pope from among their ranks — but don’t expect them to campaign for themselves, Timothy Cardinal Dolan said yesterday from the Vatican.

“This isn’t the New Hampshire primary. Nobody will campaign,” Dolan told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “We’re just getting to know each other better.”

The College of Cardinals, with 115 voting-age members, will meet for four hours a day for about a week before starting the official conclave to select the pope, said Dolan, president of the US Conference of Bishops.

Christian religious persecution, traditional marriage and Catholics moving away from the church will be key issues to be addressed during the meetings, Dolan said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Peter Walker and Severin Carrell
guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 March 2013

The former head of the Catholic church in England and Wales has rejected the idea of significant reforms in the wake of Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s confession of sexual misconduct – actions for which O’Brien is expected to face a Vatican inquiry despite his resignation.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, who stepped down as Archbishop of Westminster in 2009, insisted that issues such as O’Brien’s behaviour and the abuse of children by other Catholic clergy was due to the weakness of individuals rather than any structural or institutional failings by the church.

Asked in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today’s programme if O’Brien’s apparent hypocrisy – he was a strong opponent of gay rights before being accused of by three serving priests and a former priest of “inappropriate acts” towards them – showed the need for significant changes in the church, involving women as well as men, O’Connor replied: “That’s very strong words. The church is composed of saints and sinners and every time things have gone wrong in the church … there’s always been a reform, and that’s been carried out by men and by women.”

He added: “To say there’s always been corruption in the church – there’s always been sinners in the church but there’s always been saints.”

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Pravda

by John Stanton

“Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not; but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye saw it, did not even repent yourselves afterward, that ye might believe him.”

If Jesus Christ showed up today he would be appalled at many things in this world none more so than the Catholic Church. The Rock upon which Catholicism is built is crumbling more each day, the foundations are becoming unhinged. It is not the anti-Christ or some demon raising havoc; it is the Catholic leadership in the Vatican and its senior leaders around the globe who have lost touch with the rapid changes in the 21st Century world. Catholic Church membership is dwindling, its financial stability is at stake, it has lost its moral compass making a mockery of Christ’s teachings, and in the age of austerity that sees millions out of work and home, Church leaders lead lavish lifestyles.

And what the hell is the deal with the Pope Mobile and for that matter all the security that surrounds religious leaders who claim to have a channel to God? What has become of faith and belief? Would not God take care to protect the favored from a bullet?

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BRAZIL
Telegraph Herald

Associated Press

SAO PAULO — Faithful attending Sunday Mass on five continents for the first time since Pope Benedict XVI’s retirement had different ideas about who should next lead the Roman Catholic Church, with people suggesting everything from a Latin American pope to one more like the conservative, Polish-born John Paul II. What most agreed on, however, was the church is in dire need of a comeback.

Clergy sex abuse scandals and falling numbers of faithful have taken their toll on the church, and many parishioners said the next pope should be open about the problems rather than ignore them.

Worshippers in the developing world prayed for a pope from a poorer, non-European nation, while churchgoers in Europe said what was more important was picking a powerful figure.

Some South African Catholics called for what they said was a more pragmatic approach to contraception given the AIDS epidemic devastating that continent. They also suggested ending the celibacy requirement for priests, insisting on the traditional importance of a family.

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VATICAN CITY
NEWS.com.au

CATHOLIC cardinals have begun talks ahead of a conclave to elect a new pope after Benedict XVI’s resignation, as an absent British cardinal admits to sexual misconduct with priests.

Monday’s Vatican meetings will set the date for the start of the conclave this month and help identify candidates among the cardinals to be the next leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.

“We’re going to take as much time as we need to think about what sort of pope the Church needs now,” French cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois told reporters as he arrived for Monday’s meetings.

“I’d be keen to have a polyglot, a man of faith, a man of dialogue … The new pope will certainly have to confront problems within the Curia,” the government of the Catholic Church, he said.

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MARYLAND
Baltimore Sun

BY BRYNA ZUMER, bzumer@theaegis.com
6:00 a.m. EST, March 4, 2013

Parishioners spoke their minds on Catholic church issues, including some people’s dissatisfaction with the direction of the papacy, during a frank, emotional discussion held at Bel Air’s St. Margaret Church on Sunday afternoon.

Organized by Msgr. Michael Schleupner of St. Margaret’s in light of Pope Benedict’s resignation, the event drew more than 100 people to one of the largest parishes in the Baltimore Archdiocese to talk about everything from sex abuse in the church to the challenge of attracting young people.

Some parishioners who attended said they are angry about the direction the church has taken in recent decades, including the handling of sex abuse cases involving priests, while others were equally passionate in defending it.

At one point, Schleupner, the parish leader, said he could support allowing priests to marry.

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VATICAN CITY
RTE News

Informal talks on the process of electing the next pope have begun in Rome but the starting date of the closed-door conclave to choose Benedict’s successor is not expected.

The idea is to have the new pope elected during next week and officially installed so he can preside over the Holy Week ceremonies starting with Palm Sunday on 24 March and culminating in Easter.

The general congregations, closed-door meetings in the interregnum between a papacy and the conclave to choose the next one, will hold morning and afternoon sessions in an apparent effort to discuss as much as possible in a short time.

The Vatican seems keen to have only a week of talks so the 115 cardinal electors – those under 80 – can enter the Sistine Chapel for the conclave next week.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY | Mon Mar 4, 2013

(Reuters) – Roman Catholic cardinals filed into the Vatican on Monday for preliminary meetings to sketch an identikit for the next pope and ponder who among them might be best to lead a church beset by crises.

They arrived by private car, taxi and minibus at the gates of the Vatican for gatherings known as general congregations, closed-door meetings in which they will get to know each other and decide when to start a conclave to choose a man to lead the 1.2 billion member Church.

The Vatican appears to be aiming to have a new pope elected next week and officially installed several days later so he can preside over the Holy Week ceremonies starting with Palm Sunday on March 24 and culminating in Easter the following Sunday.

Pope Benedict left the Church in a state of shock when he announced last month that he would be the first pontiff in 600 years to resign instead of ruling for life. He formally stepped down on Thursday, leaving the papacy vacant.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wall Street Journal

By JEANNE WHALEN

Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien apologized on Sunday for “sexual conduct” unbefitting a priest and said he would play no further role in the public life of the Catholic Church.

The apology followed his abrupt resignation last week as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh after allegations surfaced that he had inappropriate relations with seminarians stretching back to the 1980s.

Cardinal O’Brien initially contested those allegations and had said he was seeking legal advice. But in a statement Sunday he said: “In recent days certain allegations which have been made against me have become public. Initially, their anonymous and nonspecific nature led me to contest them. However, I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.”

He added: “To those I have offended, I apologize and ask forgiveness…I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Digital Journal

By Eko Armunanto
Mar 3, 2013

The disgraced U.K. cardinal finally admits his bad sexual conduct. O’Brien initially rejected the claims, saying he was resigning because he did not want to distract from the upcoming conclave that will pick a successor to the resigned Pope Benedict XVI.

Following the accusation of inappropriate behaviour and his resignation as reported here in Digital Journal by Robert Myles and Greta McClain, a CNN report Sunday said Cardinal Keith O’Brien acknowledged having engaged in unspecified sexual misbehavior and promised to play no further part in the public life of the church.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien resigned Monday from his position as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh after a newspaper published unnamed priests’ accounts of unspecified inappropriate behavior.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien who was, in fact, forced to resign by the pope last week, made a dramatic admission that he was guilty of sexual misconduct throughout his career in the Roman Catholic church.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

Published on Monday 4 March 2013

TO THE original shock of allegations of “inappropriate” conduct against Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, came the sudden resignation from office.

Now, after a weak denial, comes an apology to the Catholic Church and the people of Scotland and an admission that his sexual conduct had at times “fallen below the standards expected of me”. In the short statement, he also asked for forgiveness from those he had “offended”.

First denial, then resignation, now admission: there is no text or form of words that can lighten the blow this admission has delivered, both to the Church and to Cardinal O’Brien personally. The allegations were not of one isolated incident, but a sequence of them, said to involve four priests on separate occasions.

Despite this, there will be many inside the Church who will seek to find it in them to understand and to forgive. For contrition, atonement and forgiveness are central tenets of the Christian faith. And a pledge of celibacy is the hardest to maintain, more especially in a liberal age when forms of sexual expression deemed unacceptable until recently have now been embraced as a sign of our respect for diversity and inclusiveness. The response of many will be caught between these conflicting cross-currents of expectations of the highest standards of behaviour on the one hand and understanding of human weakness on the other.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
The Guardian, Sunday 3 March 2013

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who was forced to resign by the pope last week, has made a dramatic admission that he was guilty of sexual misconduct throughout his career in the Roman Catholic church.

In a short but far-reaching statement issued late on Sunday, the 74-year-old stated that “there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal”.

The former archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, and until recently the most senior Catholic in Britain, apologised and asked for forgiveness from those he had “offended” and from the entire church.

O’Brien was forced to resign last week by Pope Benedict XVI, barely 36 hours after the Observer disclosed that three serving priests and a former priest were accusing him of “inappropriate acts” against them nearly 30 years ago, in a formal complaint to the pope’s ambassador to the UK.

The cardinal had “contested” those allegations, while his officials said he was taking legal advice.

But now O’Brien has effectively admitted he had been breaching the church’s strict rules on celibacy and its bar on homosexuality since he became a priest – and during his 10 years as a cardinal.

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on March 03, 2013

■“No one from Curia should be made pope,” victims say
■Group also wants some older cardinals out of Monday meeting
■SNAP worries Vatican insiders are tied to corruption & last 2 popes
■“That makes ‘cleaning house’ & exposing cover ups tougher,” it says
■Victims urge top church staff to try to persuade some peers to “go home”
■SNAP: Sodano & 5 other “complicit” cardinals should be sent away or stay away

WHAT
At a news conference, holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims will urge the College of Cardinals to
–elect a non-Curia member as the next pope, and
–try to persuade several elderly “complicit colleagues” – who can’t vote in the conclave but may attend Monday’s General Congregation meeting – to stay home this week because of their involvement in hiding clergy sex crimes.

WHEN
Monday, March 4 at 3:15 pm

WHO
Two leaders of an international support group for clergy sex abuse victims called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including the organization’s long-time executive director

WHERE
The Orange Hotel at 86 Via Crescenzio in Rome (+39 06 686 8969)

WHY
Roughly 90 prelates – too old to vote in the conclave – will take part in the General Congregation of Cardinals meetings, which start Monday at 9:30 a.m. SNAP believes that a number of them (Sodano, Connell, Egan, Castrillón Hoyos, Law, McCarrick, and others) are guilty of – or credibly accused of – protecting child molesting clerics. Their peers should push them to stay home, or they should do so voluntarily, the group feels, for the sake of the church and to avoid heaping more pain on wounded victims and betrayed Catholics. (SNAP will hand out copies of a list of them with explanations and links.)

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UNITED KINGDOM
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on March 03, 2013

Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s apology is weak, vague, belated and thus hollow sounding. We simply do not believe he denied the accusations because his victims were anonymous.

Still, it’s encouraging and healthy any time any corrupt Catholic official is publicly exposed and experiences any consequences – however slight – for abusing trust, hurting others and hiding misdeeds. It would have been far better had church figures in Rome and in the UK publicly condemned or disciplined O’Brien. It’s only a tiny step forward when wrongdoers essentially get to pick their own punishment.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

By NATALIE WALKER
Published on Sunday 3 March 2013

MOST of the seats at the 7:30pm Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh last night – the first after Cardinal O’Brien’s shock confession was announced – were empty.

The service began with a reading of the cardinal’s statement. It was evident that some of the congregation had heard the news and shuffled nervously and uneasily in their seats.

Those who had clearly not heard what had happened could be seen turning to friends in shocked disbelief. Some of them looked utterly stunned. One woman sat open-mouthed with tears in her eyes as news of the former archbishop of the diocese was revealed.

It was a very different feeling from the Mass just seven days ago when the allegations first came to light. Unlike last Sunday, the media were told they were not welcome – with members of the press asked by a number of people to leave the neo-Gothic cathedral.

Seven days ago most people were standing by the cardinal, believing the allegations to be untrue. Most went out of their way to speak to the press, calling the claims “lies” and “rubbish”. But that loyalty had been replaced with anger – much of it aimed at the media.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

By STEPHEN MCGINTY
Published on Sunday 3 March 2013

THE zenith of the ecclesiastical career of Keith O’Brien took place amid the sunshine of St Peter’s Square when, in the autumn of 2003, he was presented with the red beretta of a cardinal, so coloured to reflect his new vow to shed his blood for the good of the Catholic Church.

In a public display which other cardinals were said to have considered unbecoming he brandished a saltire with the enthusiasm of a football fan at Hampden to the delight of photographers whose pictures ran on the front page of newspapers around the world.

In the nadir of the ecclesiastical career of Keith O’Brien he returns once again to the front pages, not as a vision of joyous Catholic scotia, but of an old man crushed by cardinal sins.

How can Catholics come to terms with the janus faced leader of the Catholic Church: the cardinal who described gay marriage as a “grotesque subversion” in the knowledge that his own sexual conduct had “fallen below the standards” expected of a priest.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

His admission came after more details of allegations against him emerged, with accounts of long parties known as “ragers”.

The man who quit as Britain’s top Catholic cleric has admitted sexual misconduct – after previously threatening legal action over the claims.

In an astonishing about-turn Cardinal Keith O’Brien said his “sexual conduct has fallen beneath the standards expected of me”.

His admission came after more details of allegations against him emerged, with accounts of long parties known as “ragers”.

He had earlier said he “contested” allegations made against him by three priests and a former priest and was taking legal advice.

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VATICAN CITY
Baltimore Sun

Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor
Reuters
6:31 p.m. EST, March 3, 2013

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Preparations for electing Roman Catholicism’s new leader begin in earnest on Monday as the College of Cardinals opens daily talks to sketch an identikit for the next pope and ponder who among them might fit it.

The idea is to have the new pope elected during next week and officially installed several days later so he can preside over the Holy Week ceremonies starting with Palm Sunday on March 24 and culminating in Easter the following Sunday.

The general congregations, closed-door meetings in the interregnum between a papacy and the conclave to choose the next one, will hold morning and afternoon sessions in an apparent effort to discuss as much as possible in a short time.

The list of challenges facing the crisis-hit Church could take weeks to debate, but the Vatican seems keen to have only a week of talks so the 115 cardinal electors — those under 80 — can enter the Sistine Chapel for the conclave next week.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

The Shadow Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, appears to have presented Cardinals with a very serious dilemma. The Vatican’s financial misdeeds had recently led Italian banking regulators to seize millions of dollars of Vatican cash, reportedly due to Mafia related money laundering. The regulators on January 1 closed down the Vatican’s credit card facility, reportedly related to financial irregularities. A major multinational bank recently refused to do business with the Vatican in Milan. The head of the Vatican Bank was recently abruptly fired. A senior Vatican financial cleric was just shipped to South America.

Reportedly, three senior Cardinals investigated these matters thoroughly and gave the Shadow Pope a secret 300 page dossier about these matters, yet Ratzinger will not let voting Cardinals read it. Reportedly, the dossier was a major factor in Ratzinger’s sudden resignation.

Some Cardinals have reportedly promoted the use of the Vatican Bank. For example, last April Cardinal Wuerl gave wealthy American donors from the Papal Foundation a tour of the Bank, apparently to show how how sound and safe it was. Has Wuerl read the report? Cardinal George by his recent reported remarks seems comfortable with being denied access to the report. He may have forgotten how aggressive and determined U.S. Federal prosecutors nailed Chicagoan, Al Capone, on financial and tax crimes. Given the current adverse legal environment for some Cardinals, can they be too careful?

Cardinals hopefully have consulted their respective criminal lawyers to make sure they are acting legally with respect to this major dossier on “Cardinal Sins”. They do not want to be legally exposed to RICO-type charges they were part of a conspiracy to cover up illegal financial transactions with racketeers and/or other illegal groups. Some Cardinals evidentally have enough to do just trying to avoid criminal endangerment charges for their alleged cover-ups of priest rapes of children, and ought to avoid any prospect of racketeering charges on top of that. If the new Pope they now elect fails to curtail any potentially illegal conduct referred to in the dossier, will any Cardinals be held responsible as well for such failures? If htey do not know fully what id in the report, how can Cardinals be sure?

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UNITED STATES
OpEd News

By Mary Shaw

So now Pope Benedict XVI has retired, and the cardinals will be choosing a new leader.

Meanwhile, sentimental Catholics and others have been praising the now-former pontiff. They call him a holy man. However, in looking back through his record, I see much that is downright unholy.

Perhaps most obvious is his role in the cover-up of clergy sex abuse.

Back in 2001, when we still knew him as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the British press leaked a confidential letter from Ratzinger to all Catholic bishops ordering that “the church’s investigations into child sex abuse claims be carried out in secret,” and asserting “the church’s right to hold its inquiries behind closed doors and keep the evidence confidential for up to 10 years after the victims reached adulthood.” In other words, keep it all under wraps until the statutes of limitations expire. How “holy” is that?

In 2002, he discounted the whole issue, referring to the media coverage of clergy sex abuse as a plot to discredit the Church. How “holy” is that?

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UNITED KINGDOM
Raw Story

By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, March 3, 2013

AFP – Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric on Sunday admitted sexual misconduct and offered his apologies to the Church and the people of Scotland.

A statement released by Cardinal Keith O’Brien read: “I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Deutsche Welle

Britain’s former top Catholic Church official has admitted that his sexual conduct had fallen short of the required standard. Keith O’Brien had been due to vote in the conclave for a new pope before his resignation.

In a statement released on Sunday, O’Brien – who stood down as head of the church in Scotland last week – apologized “to those I have offended.”

“I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal,” O’Brien said in a statement posted on the Scottish Catholic media website.

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ROME
Sydney Morning Herald

BARNEY ZWARTZ
March 04, 2013

As cardinals gather in Rome to elect a new pope, the Catholic Church faces either a Vatican Spring or a new ice age, says its most senior theologian, the dissident Hans Kung.

The most urgent need, Dr Kung wrote in The New York Times last week, was a pope ”not living intellectually in the Middle Ages”. Otherwise the ossified institution risked shrinking into an increasingly irrelevant sect, he wrote.

Many Catholics, unsettled amid the ”turbulent waters and rough winds” to which Pope Emeritus Benedict referred in his final public speech last week, share Dr Kung’s trepidation.

Part of the problem is that there are at least a dozen plausible candidates, amid an ocean of imponderables. The church, US surveys show, is ready for the first non-European pope in 1500 years, but there is a strong counterargument for returning to an Italian – after all, the pope is the bishop of Rome.

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CANADA
Times Colonist

They found the bodies in the slush and ice of Fraser Lake. Four children, aged eight and nine, lying according to Canadian Press reports huddled in each others arms “capless and lightly clad,” frozen in the final dark embrace of a January night. The temperature was -30 C.

Maurice Justice and Allen Willie were eight years old. Johnny Michael and Andrew Paul were nine. All four were runaways from the harsh confines of the church-run Lejac Residential School. It was Jan. 2, 1937, when their bodies were found roughly six miles from the school and less than one from the Nautley Reserve, which was their believed destination. They had just wanted to go home.

On Feb. 19, the Times Colonist published another CP story, this one bearing the headline “Residential-school deaths topped 3,000: study.” The “study” is being conducted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission with research manager Alex Maass making public preliminary residential-school-death lists. To date, the count stands at 3,000, but Maass told CP it would undoubtedly rise as she and fellow workers continue their search through thousands of archived documents. The true count will never be known, because annual reports on school deaths ceased in 1917. Maass says it had obviously become policy to no longer report them.

While the preliminary report is careful to name disease the largest single killer of residential school children, Maass notes: “The schools were a breeding ground for TB. Dormitories were incubation wards.” And never more so than when the great influenza epidemic swept the world in 1918-19, and infected children were left in school dormitories to become innocent carriers of death.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Washington Post

By Anthony Faiola

Sunday, March 3

LONDON – Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who stepped down as Britain’s highest-ranking Roman Catholic cleric last week amid allegations of inappropriate behavior with priests, backed away from earlier denials and admitted Sunday to committing acts of sexual misconduct.

The admission was a blow to the church’s hierarchy even as cardinals prepare to meet in Rome on Monday to select a date for the conclave to pick a new pope. In Britain, the admission was considered a confirmation of what observers here have called a prime example of church hypocrisy, given that O’Brien, 74, emerged as leading voice against gay rights and had launched a campaign to block the legalization of same-sex marriages here.

Last Monday, outgoing Pope Benedict XVI effectively forced O’Brien’s early retirement a day after a British newspaper published accounts by four men – including one former and three current priests – who alleged the cardinal had initiated intimate contact with them. When the reports first surfaced, O’Brien, who was the head of the church in Scotland since 2003, had denied the charges through a spokesman.

However, on Sunday, O’Brien conceded in a statement on an official church Web site that his conduct had “fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.” He vowed to “spend the rest of my life in retirement,” adding that “I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland.”

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SCOTLAND
Aljazeera

The cardinal who until recently served as Britain’s highest-ranking Catholic leader acknowledged unspecified sexual misbehaviour and promised to play “no further part” in the public life of the church.

The statement of Cardinal Keith O’Brien on Sunday came few days after his resignation from his position as archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh following a newspaper article that included unnamed priests’ accounts of unspecified inappropriate behaviour.

O’Brien initially rejected the claims, saying he was resigning because he did not want to distract from the upcoming conclave which is due to pick a new pope.

But on Sunday, the Church of Scotland issued a statement quoting O’Brien as saying that there had been times “that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal”.

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UNITED STATES
Consortium News

March 3, 2013

A half century ago, the Catholic Church had a chance for reform in the Second Vatican Council, with a young advocate in Joseph Ratzinger. But reactionary popes shunted reform aside, with Ratzinger later joining them as Pope Benedict XVI. That lost hope has put the Church in today’s crisis, says the Rev. Paul Surlis.

By the Rev. Paul Surlis

A Church with a “disfigured” face. That is Pope Benedict XVI’s description of how the Catholic Church sometimes is seen because “of sins against the unity of the church.” He said this in his last public Mass, but he offered no reflections on the role he himself played in this disfigurement, especially by his consistent refusal since around 1968 to embrace the structural changes and progressive teachings endorsed for the Church by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

Benedict, as Joseph Ratzinger, an expert at the council, explained and enthusiastically endorsed the reforming trends of the council. After each of the council’s four sessions, Dr. Ratzinger wrote a pamphlet-length account of what had transpired during the preceding session and these reflections were subsequently collected in a book, Theological Highlights of Vatican II.

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VATICAN CITY
PolicyMic

Areej Elahi-Siddiqui

The Vatican admitted to secretly carrying out wiretaps on the clergy within the Holy See on Thursday, stating they were part of the investigations into the Vatileaks scandal that rocked Rome last year.

Although the church holds that the surveillance, which was done to find if any other Vatican insiders were involved in helping Paolo Gabriele, the then-Pope’s butler who had stolen and leaked compromising papal documents to the media, was done on a very small scale, an Italian news magazine says otherwise.

According to Panorama magazine, Vatican authorities – with Tarcisio Bertone, the No. 2 at the Vatican in the lead – had not only tapped the phones but also read emails of Church emails to find more information about the Vatileaks scandal. Panorama’s journalist Ignazio Ingrao, said that “everyone was spied on in the Vatican” in efforts that seemed eerily like a “Vatican Big Brother.”

Panorama also added that this was “the biggest and most detailed wiretapping operation ever conducted in the sacred palaces was conducted.”

Panorama added that the wiretapping is ongoing now.

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CASTEL GANDOLFO, ITALY
Huffington Post

Lightning doesn’t strike twice. Or does it?

Various Italian news sources reported Sunday that a mild earthquake had struck Rome and surrounding areas, including Castel Gandolfo, the former pope’s temporary home.

According to the Agence France-Presse, the earthquake had a local magnitude of 2.5 and was felt in Rome, Ciapino, Marino and Castel Gandolfo. So far, no reports of injury or serious damage have been relayed to the Italian Department of Civil Protection.

Italian news blog Blogo reported that, according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the quake originated at a depth of 10.5 kilometers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Spectator

Some wag has gone around Rome putting up spoof ‘Vota Turkson’ posters. This is a reference to the Ghanian Cardinal Peter Turkson, who has been much-tipped to be the first black Pope. Turkson has a lot of support, it seems, and not all of it sardonic. Many Catholics say now is the time for an African Pope. And there’s a sense that it might take someone from the developing world to knock the Roman Curia — widely thought to be an arcane and corrupt body – into shape.

But as I’ve written in this week’s magazine, a number of Vatican insiders think that, far from being an outsider, the next Pope must be an Italian. Only an Italian, it’s said, can understand and fix the complex problems within the Curia. The name I heard most often last week was Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Ravasi is said to have the right mix of intelligence, media appeal and personal holiness to be Pope. But there are strong arguments against him, too. He lacks administrative experience, his deputy at the Pontifical Council for Culture has just been accused of sex abuse), and there are questions over his language skills.

A safer bet would be that the next Pope will be called Angelo – either Cardinal Angelo Scola, the Archbishop of Milan or Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the Archbishop of Genoa and President of the Italian Episcopal Conference. Scola is a theologian of immense ability and standing in the Church; while Bagnasco, the son of a baker, is a devoutly orthodox, genial fellow who’s also an adept politician.

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UNITED STATES
WBIR

Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who stepped down as archbishop last week amid accusations of sexual impropriety, on Sunday apologized for past sexual conduct.

O’Brien issued a statement Sunday saying he had contested early allegations made against him because of their “anonymous and non-specific nature.” He offered no specifics Sunday, but did apologize for his behaviour. …

Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, lauded O’Brien’s recusal as an important precedent for a church where priests have been disciplined for abuse but church leaders who failed to halt the abuse have been largely unscathed.

“Cardinals who are tainted by the crisis cannot choose the person who will solve it,,” .McKiernan said in a statement. “…If they are involved in the deliberations and the votes, they will taint the outcome, damaging the legitimacy of whoever is ultimately chosen.”

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SCOTLAND
USA Today

Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY
3:07p.m. EST March 3, 2013

Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who stepped down as archbishop last week amid accusations of sexual impropriety, on Sunday apologized for his past sexual conduct.

O’Brien issued a statement saying he had contested early allegations made against him because of their “anonymous and non-specific nature.” He offered no specifics Sunday, but did apologize for his behavior.

“I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal,” his statement said. “To those I have offended, I apologize and ask forgiveness. To the Catholic Church and people of Scotland, I also apologize.

“I will now spend the rest of my life in retirement. I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland.”

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