ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
Sunday Business Post

12:07, 22 March 2013 by Kieron Wood

A priest of the Diocese of Cloyne has been defrocked after Church authorities upheld a number of complaints of sexual abuse of children.

A representative of the diocese today contacted the complainants who took part in the canonical trial to inform them of the verdict. A public relations issued a statement on behalf of the diocese saying that the complaints had been “upheld by a canonical penal trial” and the priest had been “dismissed from the clerical state”.

“The diocese will continue to offer counselling and pastoral support to all who have been abused, and wishes to expresses deep regret at the suffering that has been caused,” said the statement. The priest was not named. The public relations consultant for the diocese would give no further details.

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UNITED STATES
Taki’s Magazine

It seemed that only minutes after the College of Cardinals selected Pope Francis as their new pontiff, the popular press was accusing him of enabling the torture of Jesuit priests in Argentina’s “Dirty War” and nailing him to a cross for refusing to abandon the Church’s 2,000-year-old definition of marriage.

When his predecessor Pope Benedict was appointed, the dutiful cyber-monks of the Universal Church of Cultural Marxism sunk their teeth in his vestments and focused almost solely on his brief membership in Hitler Youth during WWII. Little mention was made of the fact that a prominent rabbi stated that during WWII, Pope Pius saved more Jews from the Holocaust than Oskar Schindler.

Hot on the heels of Benedict’s resignation last month, the Italian press was replete with allegations that he didn’t resign due to failing health as he’d stated; instead, they claimed he’d been blackmailed by a nearly 300-page red dossier allegedly detailing that a “Gay Mafia” controlled much of the Church’s upper hierarchy.

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OSTERREICH
Kurier

Die Stadt Wien hat missbrauchten Zöglingen 17 Millionen Euro gezahlt. Die fordern aber jetzt auch eine Bundeskompetenz.

Viele Betroffenen wüssten gar nicht, welche Rechte sie haben, und wie sie zu Entschädigungen kommen. Deshalb brachte der deutsche Anwalt Christian Sailer gemeinsam mit Claudia Kaufmann, Betroffene des Heims St. Martin in Tirol, eine parlamentarische Bürgerinitiative ein. Ziel dieser Initiative ist eine alleinige Bundeskompetenz, die die Verjährungsfrist von Schmerzensgeldansprüchen und den Verdienstentgang während der Heimzeit neu regelt.

Denn aktuell ist die Lage bei den Entschädigungen der Heimkinder eher verworren. Für die Gesetze ist der Bund zuständig. Für die Umsetzung die Länder.

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UNITED STATES
Journal of the American Medical Association

Andrea L. Roberts, PhD; Kristen Lyall, ScD; Janet W. Rich-Edwards, ScD; Alberto Ascherio, DrPH; Marc G. Weisskopf, PhD, ScD

Published online March 20, 2013

ABSTRACT.

Importance Adverse perinatal circumstances have been associated with increased risk for autism in offspring. Women exposed to childhood abuse experience more adverse perinatal circumstances than women unexposed, but whether maternal abuse is associated with autism in offspring is unknown.

Objectives To determine whether maternal exposure to childhood abuse is associated with risk for autism in offspring and whether possible increased risk is accounted for by a higher prevalence of adverse perinatal circumstances among abused women, including toxemia, low birth weight, gestational diabetes, previous induced abortion, intimate partner abuse, pregnancy length shorter than 37 weeks, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor use, and alcohol use and smoking during pregnancy.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

Kolumne | Hans Rauscher, 22. März 2013

Über den neuen Papst haben wir erfahren, dass er sehr bescheiden ist. Sehr nett. Aber das reicht nicht.

Über den neuen Papst haben wir erfahren, dass er sehr bescheiden ist. Die in einer Kammer neben der Sixtinischen Kapelle (Eingang direkt unter Michelangelos Weltgericht) traditionell für unmittelbar nach der Wahl bereitliegenden Papstgewänder (drei Größen) hat er abgelehnt, die Maß-Slipper auch, seine Gemächer sind ihm zu weitläufig.

Sehr nett. Aber das reicht nicht. Notwendig sind eher deutliche Klarstellungen zu zwei Großthemen (die nichts mit Dogmen zu tun haben):

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ARGENTINIEN
Sueddeutsche

Seit seiner Wahl zum Pontifex wird über die Rolle Jorge Mario Bergoglios während der argentinischen Militärdiktatur spekuliert. Es geht um zwei Jesuiten, die verhaftet und gefoltert wurden. Einer von ihnen hat Papst Franziskus nun klar entlastet.

Kaum war Papst Franziskus auf den Balkon hoch über dem Petersplatz getreten und hatte sich der jubelnden Menge präsentiert, wurden Anschuldigungen laut. Die Rede war von Flecken auf dem weißen Gewand des Kirchenoberhauptes. Vor Jahren, zu Zeiten der argentinischen Militärdiktatur (1976 bis 1983), habe der Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio zwei Mitbrüder verraten hieß es.

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ARGENTINIEN
kath.net

Die Kirche dürfe bei Missbrauchsfällen niemals ein Auge zudrücken. Sexueller Missbrauch hänge aber nicht mit dem Zölibat zusammen, sagte Erzbischof Bergoglio.

In einem Interview im Jahr 2012 lobte der damalige Kardinal Bergoglio die Null-Toleranz-Politik seines Vorgängers Benedikt XVI. im irischen Missbrauchsskandal. Die Kirche dürfe in diesen Fällen niemals ein Auge zudrücken, betonte er.

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CALIFORNIA
National Catholic Reporter

by Dan Morris-Young | Mar. 22, 2013

In a letter Tuesday to pastors, Catholic school principals and “especially teachers,” Santa Rosa, Calif., Bishop Robert Vasa has temporarily withdrawn his requirement that they sign an addendum to their 2013-2014 contracts that would have required they agree they are “a ministerial agent of the bishop” and reject “modern errors” that “gravely offend human dignity,” including contraception, abortion, same-sex marriage and euthanasia.

In the letter, Vasa:
• Wrote that his “most serious oversight … was my failure to engage and consult the pastors of the diocese and especially those who are the local shepherds of our Catholic schools”;
• Said his “degree of vigilance” in assuring “the greatest hope of finding the truths of Jesus in our Catholic schools” for students “can look like a lack of trust”; and
• Acknowledged “that I over looked proper engagement of the principals” and “erroneously chose a path of informing rather than mutual discernment.”

Broad grass-roots reaction from parents, teachers, students and pastors had developed in the diocese following disclosure of the addendum, which had been inserted into the contracts as what Vasa and Catholic school superintendent John Collins described as an amplification and clarification of the standard faith and morals clause.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

A former priest whose abuse of children in the 1970s and 1980s was featured in the Murphy report will walk free this weekend after an 18-month jail term was backdated by the judge.

Patrick McCabe (77), formerly of Alameda, California, was extradited here in June 2011 and has spent the last 21 months in custody awaiting sentence.

Waiving his right to anonymity, one of his victims James Moran (50) said McCabe’s sexual assault had blighted his life. Mr Moran said he went from being a happy child to contemplating suicide at 18.

McCabe pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to indecent assault of Mr Moran at a Co Kildare school between January and April 1977.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Declan Brennan– 22 March 2013

A FORMER priest whose abuse of children in the 1970s and 1980s was featured in the Murphy Report will walk free this weekend despite receiving an 18 month jail term.

Patrick McCabe (77), formerly of Alameda, California was extradited here in June 2011 and has spent the last 21 months in custody awaiting sentence.

Waiving his right to anonymity, one of his victims James Moran (50) said that McCabe’s sexual assault had blighted his life. Mr Moran said he went from being a happy child to contemplating suicide at 18.

McCabe pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to indecent assault of Mr Moran at a Co Kildare school between January and April 1977.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

Friday, March 22, 2013

By Ralph Cipriano
for bigtrial.net

An alternate juror in the Engelhardt-Shero case recalled the moment she got a courtesy phone call from the court clerk, telling her the jury had reached a verdict.

It seemed pretty fast to her. The call came in at 7 p.m. on Jan. 30, 2013, after three days of deliberation, only five days after she had been dismissed as an alternate.

They came back guilty on all the charges except one, the court clerk told the alternate juror, a young woman in her 30s.

“I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ I couldn’t believe it,” she said in an interview. “I thought for sure they were going to vote not guilty because there was absolutely no proof that these men had done that.”

To the alternate juror, who wishes to remain anonymous, the guilty verdict was “incredible,” even “insane.”

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Mar. 22, 2013 All Things Catholic

Saturday will mark 10 days since the start of the Pope Francis era, and as introductions go, it’s been a tour de force. Polling around the world suggests that overwhelming majorities have a positive impression of the new pope, and the media have fallen in love with a man who packs his own bags, makes his own calls and prefers to walk rather than taking the limo.

Everything Francis does, however banal, is now a sensation. The fact that TV cameras caught him checking his watch near the end of Tuesday’s inaugural Mass, for instance, launched an essay in one of the Italian papers about his pastoral concern for not holding people too long for an overly elaborate liturgy.

The new papal style certainly has registered with his underlings. On Thursday, I had lunch in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome in an eatery popular among Vatican personnel who work in the Palazzo San Callisto, and I bumped into a cardinal who’s a veteran insider now over 80. When I noted he was dressed in his basic clergyman clothes rather than the usual finery, he smilingly said he was taking his cues from the new boss.

Under Francis, simple is the new chic.

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CALIFORNIA
Mercury News

By William Lynch
Special to the Mercury News
mercurynews.com

Posted: 03/22/2013

On its surface the election of Pope Francis would appear to offer renewed hope for true reform within the Catholic Church.

Two weeks into his reign the honeymoon continues, with the media marveling at the new pope’s easy smile and obvious warmth. They speak of his willingness to live modestly and travel around Rome in a Volkswagen instead of a big limousine.

While the media have the power to effect real change, they continue to focus on the superficial while ignoring the elephant in the room.

The real question to be addressed is this: When and how will Pope Francis confront the ongoing cover-up of the sexual abuse of children within his church?

I am a victim of this Catholic Church. And

Will Lynch in San Francisco, 2012. (LiPo Ching)I want an answer to that question.

When I was seven years old and at a Catholic Church camping trip in northern California, my four year old brother and I were raped by Father Jerold Lindner. Lindner, who has been accused of abusing many others, including his own family members, has never been prosecuted. Still a priest, he roams freely from the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos while still being paid by his enablers, the Catholic Church.

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IRELAND
BBC News

A 70-year-old former priest who abused two boys more than 30 years ago has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Patrick McCabe pleaded guilty to the offences after he was extradited from California to face the charges almost two years ago.

One child was abused in the parochial house of the pro-cathedral in Dublin, the other at a school in County Kildare.

He was previously jailed last year for indecently assaulting five other boys.

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ARGENTINA
The New York Times

By WILLIAM NEUMAN

Published: March 21, 2013

CARACAS, Venezuela — A Jesuit priest whose kidnapping by the Argentine military raised questions about the actions of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, during that country’s so-called Dirty War said in a statement this week that Father Bergoglio did not initiate the detention by reporting him and another priest to the authorities.

“These are the facts: Orlando Yorio and I were not reported by Father Bergoglio,” Father Franz Jalics said in the statement posted on a German Jesuit Web site, mentioning the other priest who was kidnapped with him in 1976. The statement was dated Wednesday. “It is thus wrong to claim that our capture was initiated by Father Bergoglio.”

But the statement by Father Jalics did not address a contention by Father Yorio, who died in 2000, that Father Bergoglio had sought to undermine their work in a Buenos Aires slum, taking steps that may have left them vulnerable to the military. Father Bergoglio was head of the Jesuit order in Argentina at the time of their kidnapping.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Catherine Clifford

A court has continued its suppression order on the identity of a former priest charged with 35 historical child sex abuse offences.

At Armidale Local Court, Magistrate Karen Stafford was informed a brief of evidence has been served on the accused, an ex-priest from Armidale.

In January, detectives from the Sex Crimes Squad and New England Local Area Command charged the 59-year-old with 35 offences relating to alleged sexual assaults in the 1980s on six alter boys from the Moree and Armidale dioceses.

Magistrate Stafford adjourned the matter to May 8.

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SCOTLAND
The Guardian

Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 March 2013

Cardinal Keith O’Brien had a long-term physical relationship with one of the priests whose complaints against him led to his sacking as Scotland’s most senior Roman Catholic, church sources claim.

Officials in the Scottish Catholic church claim that the priest, who is alleged to be the first man to complain to the Vatican about O’Brien, left the priesthood in the mid-2000s but has since returned to the church.

These officials have told the Herald they believe that the man complained to the Vatican last winter in revenge for O’Brien’s outspoken attacks on homosexuality and gay marriage, just as his career was coming to an end. He described homosexuality as a “moral degradation” and gay marriage as “harmful”.

Immediately after that priest, who had known O’Brien for decades, submitted his accusations to the Vatican in late 2012, the cardinal was summoned to Rome and effectively sacked. Then Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh and seen as the de facto leader of Scotland’s 750,000 Catholics, O’Brien was told privately by Vatican officials that he would be expected to retire on his 75th birthday, which fell on 17 March.

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INDIANA
WLS

Leah Hope

March 20, 2013 (HAMMOND, Ind.) (WLS) — A former Hammond, Indiana pastor was sentenced to 12 years in prison Wednesday for having sex with a 17-year-old girl who attended his church.

A 10-year-sentence was recommended by both sides but the federal judge went with a longer sentence in this case.

The courtroom for his sentencing was full and dozens more waited outside while the hearing took place. Many former and current church members were there to witness Schaap’s sentencing.

Former church member Nadine Salgado says she left the church and is concerned about the victim.

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INDIANA
WANE

HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) — A federal judge has sentenced the former pastor of a northwestern Indiana megachurch to 12 years in prison who pleaded guilty to having a sexual relationship with a teenage member of the parish.

Senior District Judge Rudy Lozano also sentenced 55-year-old Jack Schaap of Crete, Ill., to five years of supervised release Wednesday. Schaap pleaded guilty in September to transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Schaap was pastor of the 15,000-member First Baptist Church of Hammond for 11 years when he was fired in July.

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INDIANA
RTT News

3/21/2013

Former Indiana pastor Jack Schaap has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for having sex with an underage girl who attended his church. Schaap, who led the mega-congregation of about 40,000, seduced the girl when she came to him for counseling, the Northwest Indiana Times reports.

Proof of Schaap’s misdeed came in the form of letters from the victim, which prosecutors used in the case against him:

“When you first kissed me I was shocked . . . When I asked you if it was wrong, you said ‘No.’ You told me that I was sent you from God, I was his gift to you. You made me feel special.”

The prosecution and defense had agreed on a ten year sentence, which U.S. District Court Judge Rudy Lozano said did not meet the federal minimum required. Another two-years were subsequently added onto Schaap’s sentence.

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INDIANA
Huffington Post

The former pastor of a northwest Indiana megachurch on Wednesday was sentenced to 12 years in prison for having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old parishioner.

Last summer, Schaap, 55, was fired from First Baptist Church of Hammond, the 40,000-member congregation of which he had led for 11 years. Upon his firing, Schaap admitted that he had a sexual relationship with the young member of his church.

In court Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano told Schaap the sex crimes were serious in that they were “dealing with the treasures that are most important to us – our children,” the Northwest Indiana Times reports.

The 12-year prison sentence for Schaap was two years longer than the sentence recommended by prosecutors, according to Reuters, and also includes five years of supervised release.

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INDIANA
Chicago Tribune

By Andy GrimmTribune reporter
4:45 p.m. CDT, March 20, 2013

Jack Schaap, the former pastor of a 15,000-member northwest Indiana megachurch, was sentenced today to 12 years in prison for engaging in sex with a troubled underage girl who sought him out for counseling.

In a statement, the victim wrote that Schaap would text her from the altar during his sermons. In another statement, written as a letter to Schaap, she wrote: “When you first kissed me I was shocked. . .When I asked you if it was wrong, you said ‘No.’ You told me that I was sent you from God, I was his gift to you. You made me feel special.”

Schaap entered a guilty plea last September in a deal with federal prosecutors, admitting to allegations that led to his ouster from the highly conservative Hammond Baptist Church that his late father in-law, Jack Hyles, had built into one of the area’s largest churches.

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MICHIGAN
Oakland Press

Published: Friday, March 22, 2013

LANSING (AP) — More people in Michigan would be required by law to report instances of sexual assault under a bill introduced in the state House this week.

Republican Rep. Klint Kesto of Commerce Township in Oakland County introduced a bill Thursday that would add school employees and people who represent themselves as clergy to those mandated by law to report sex crimes.

Kesto says that under current law, school faculty and administrators are required to report instances of sexual assault. This would ensure that all school employees such as coaches and janitors would be held under the same requirements.

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UNITED STATES
New York Daily News

Denis Hamill

No more smoke.

Let that puff of white smoke that rose from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday be the last smoke blowing from the Vatican under Pope Francis in his lifetime.

No more smoke. No more “DaVinci Code” mirrors. No more coverups.

For the new Pope to have a prayer in saving the church from irrelevancy in this new century, he has to open wide the creaky old doors and let the sunshine of 2013, Year of Our Lord, shine in and let the winds of change start at St. Peter’s Square.

I long ago gave up for Lent giving up anything for Lent. But I have followed the matters of the church with an old altar boy’s eye. I respect the beliefs of people like my devout Roman Catholic mother, who found solace from bigotry in Northern Ireland and immigrant poverty in this life with her belief that her next eternal life would be a better one.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

A former priest who admitted sexually abusing two 13-year-old boys in the 1970s is likely to walk free from prison despite being jailed for 18 months.

77-year-old Patrick McCabe’s sentence has been backdated to when he first went into custody in June 2011 following his extradition from Alameda, California, to meet these and other abuse charges.

James Moran was 13 years old when he was abused by Patrick McCabe in a car outside Newbridge College in Kildare.

When interviewed in 2007 by gardaí, the former priest described him as a handsome boy who had met the “requirements” of his “fetish”.

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IRELAND
Laois Nationalist

A former priest who sexually abused two 13-year-old boys in the 1970s in Dublin and Kildare has received an 18-month jail sentence today.

Patrick McCabe (aged 77) told gardaí that one of the boys who he abused in a car outside a school in 1977 met the “requirements” of his “fetish”.

The other boy was abused in a house adjoining the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin at the time of the Pope’s visit in 1979.

The former priest has previously received an 18-month sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for indecently assaulting young boys.

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SCOTLAND
Telegraph

Cardinal Keith O’Brien had a long term physical relationship with one of the men whose accusations brought about his fall from grace, it is reported.

By Hayley Dixon
11:34AM GMT 22 Mar 2013

After a series of allegations and several complaints to the Vatican about his sexual behaviour towards priests in the 1980s, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland admitted he was guilty of misconduct and stepped down.

It is believed that the allegations against him may have been prompted by anger at his hypocrisy as he condemned same-sex marriages, even describing homosexuality as a “moral degradation”.

One alleged victim, who quit the priesthood in the middle of the last decade but has since re-joined a parish on the continent with the help of the cardinal, is known to have been in regular telephone contact with him until recently.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

Francesca Comyn
11:12 Friday 22 March 2013

A former priest who sexually abused two 13-year-old boys in the 1970s in Dublin and Kildare has received an 18 months jail sentence.

77-year-old Patrick McCabe with an address at Alameda in California told gardai one of the boys who he abused in a car outside a school in 1977 met the ‘requirements’ of his ‘fetish’. The other boy was abused in a house adjoining the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin at the time of the visit by the Pope in 1979.

The laicised priest has previously received an 18 months sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for indecently assaulting young boys. This sentence has been back-dated to June 2011 when went into custody following his extradition from California to meet abuse charges.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Merryfield brothers to discuss settlement in Green Bay diocese child sex abuse fraud case
They challenge Bishop Ricken: “What about the other 50 priests besides Fr. Feeney reported to have sexually abused youngsters?”
Case documents and testimony, SNAP says, has exposed Green Bay diocese pattern and practice of secrecy and cover up, past and present

WHAT
Two brothers, Todd and Troy Merryfield, will be joined by leaders of SNAP, The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org, SNAPwisconsin.com), at a sidewalk press conference to discuss their recent settlement with the diocese of Green Bay concerning the fraudulent concealment and transfer of serial child sex offender, John Patrick Feeney.

The brothers and SNAP will further discuss the importance of the case:
–in revealing the conduct of Green Bay church officials, both past and present, in protecting priest child sex offenders;
–in showing a culture of institutional secrecy about these crimes, including the shredding of criminal evidence in priest abuser files; and
–in displaying how Catholic charitable money is used to fund dangerous legal arguments by church officials that could put children at risk in Wisconsin.
The Merryfield’s and SNAP will also:
–renew their call for Bishop Ricken to immediately create a public registry of the names and case histories of the at least 50 other sex offender clerics who have been reported to the diocese over the past several decades to have molested youngsters.

WHEN
FRIDAY, March 22, 1:30 p.m.

WHERE
Headquarters of the Diocese of Green Bay, Melania Hall, 1825 Riverside Drive, Green Bay

WHY
Last Friday, the diocese of Green Bay jointly settled with brothers Todd and Troy Merryfiled a civil fraud case for $700,000 dollars. As youngsters, the Merryfields were sexually assaulted by serial child molester, Fr. John Patrick Feeney. The settlement amount was ordered by an Appleton jury last spring after finding the diocese guilty of fraud. Although that case was scheduled for a retrial, due to the judge’s opinion about the conduct of one of the jurors, the diocese has since been found guilty by a Nevada jury.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Sun

By CAMERON HAY

SHAMED Cardinal Keith O’Brien was yesterday accused of having a secret long-term fling with a former priest.

His lover is believed to be one of four clerics who brought about the top Catholic’s downfall after complaining about his “inappropriate behaviour”.

Disgraced O’Brien, 74 — axed as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh after the scandal broke last month — is thought to have had a romance with the man stretching over many years.

It is understood he was part of the Cardinal’s “inner circle” and often visited his official residence in Morningside, Edinburgh.

One clerical source last night said: “It seemed to some to be a very unusual friendship.”

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CALIFORNIA
Ventura County Star

By Tom Kisken

•Posted March 21, 2013

A backlash over Bishop Thomas Curry’s handling of priests accused of molestation has led at least one area parish to change plans to have the bishop preside over the May confirmation of high school students.

The Rev. Jim Stehly, of St. Jude the Apostle Catholic Community in Westlake Village, said he requested Curry not serve at the May 4 event after complaints from parishioners. Curry stepped down from his role as auxiliary leader of a region encompassing Ventura and Santa Barbara counties this year after priest personnel files revealed evidence he and retired Cardinal Roger Mahony acted to shield the church and accused priests.

Some Ventura County priests said they’ve been told Curry decided not to preside at any confirmation services this year. The bishop did not respond to email messages. Officials of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles did not address a request to confirm the reports, only emphasizing that the bishop and the cardinal have the ability to perform such a Mass.

“Cardinal Roger Mahony and Bishop Thomas Curry are bishops of the archdiocese with faculties to celebrate the Holy Sacraments of the Church and to minister to the faithful without restriction,” archdiocese officials said in a statement.

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UGANDA
Africa Review

By JOHN NJOROGE in Kampala | Friday, March 22 2013

Maverick Ugandan Catholic cleric Anthony Musaala will remain on an indefinite suspension, an official said.

The Kampala Archdiocese Judicial Vicar, the Rev Fr Andrew Katto-Kasirye, said Fr Musaala was free to appeal to whatever authority, but it was up to him to undo the “damage” he had caused in the run up to his situation.

Investigations into the motives of Fr Musaala’s missive, a stinging criticism of the sexual conduct of Uganda’s Catholic clergy, were continuing.

Fr Musaala will remain on an indefinite suspension, as investigations into the motives of his missive, a stinging criticism of the sexual conduct of Uganda’s Catholic bishops and clergy continue.

“He is free to do as he pleases,” said Fr Kasirye.

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CALIFORNIA
Lodi News-Sentinel

By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

YUBA CITY — A visiting Catholic priest from Colombia remains in custody on an immigration hold after he was arrested on sexual battery charges.

Julio Cesar Guarin-Sosa, 43, who was visiting Lodi’s St. Anne’s Catholic Church while filling in for his vacationing brother, Father Mario Guarin, was arrested in Yuba City on March 10 after he was accused of having illegal sexual contact with a 16-year-old girl at a residence where Guarin-Sosa was performing Mass.

Guarin-Sosa is charged with a felony count of false imprisonment and misdemeanor counts of annoying or molesting a minor and sexual battery in connection with a March 8 incident in Yuba City, according to the Appeal-Democrat newspaper, based in Marysville.

Sutter County Deputy District Attorney Jacquelyn Stenson told the News-Sentinel on Thursday that she wouldn’t discuss any aspects of the case.

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ESPANA/ARGENTINA
El Pais

Alejandro Rebossio
Buenos Aires
22 MAR 2013

El exjuez español Baltasar Garzón, asesor de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos de la Cámara de Diputados de Argentina, planteó este jueves en Buenos Aires que Francisco, el nuevo papa argentino, “puede abrir los archivos del Vaticano para conocer la información de la época de la dictadura” militar (1976-1983) de este país sudamericano “en la que se enviaron mensajes de aquí”, en referencia a la nunciatura apostólica (embajada de la Santa Sede), “hacia allí”. “Sería una forma de cooperar con las víctimas”, propuso Garzón, que participó en un acto de homenaje a los inmigrantes que padecieron bajo el régimen de Argentina.

“Como Estado con representación diplomática, los diplomáticos del Vaticano rendían informes”, cuenta Garzón, que en la década del 90 inició causas contra los violadores de los derechos humanos en Argentina por una lista de 576 víctimas españolas de aquella dictadura. Extranjeros de otras nacionalidades también padecieron en aquellos tiempos: uruguayos, paraguayos, chilenos, brasileños, bolivianos, peruanos, cubanos, alemanes, franceses y suecos, entre otros. “En aquel tiempo las Madres y Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo dirigieron misivas a Juan Pablo II. Sería bueno que se hiciera una investigación por iniciativa del papa (Francisco)”, se refirió al exarzobispo de Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio.

“Quienes se pueden dirigir al Vaticano son los jueces” que investigan los crímenes del régimen militar, según Garzón. El exjuez de la Audiencia Nacional española considera que la información archivada en el Vaticano puede resultarles de mucha ayuda en sus indagaciones. “Yo, como juez, lo haría”, opinó sobre una eventual solicitud de datos.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald– 18 March 2013

THE sexual abuse of a child is “very clearly a crime” in civil and church law and there can be no going back on that, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has said.

He was responding to comments made by the Archbishop of Durban, Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, who said in a BBC interview that paedophilia was an illness, not a crime.

The South African prelate also questioned whether someone with this psychological defect deserved to be automatically punished.

However, Dr Martin criticised Cardinal Napier’s view, saying the fact that someone who has abused a child might have psychological disturbances did not exempt them from the rigours of the law.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Robert McClory | Mar. 21, 2013

Sex abuse was back on the front page of the Chicago Tribune on Thursday with the release of approximately 7,000 documents detailing the extent of the problem in the diocese of Joliet, Ill., which covers suburban and collar counties of Chicago. The documents state that between 1973 and 1988, more than 10 percent of the diocese’s priests were credibly charged with abuse. The highest rates, ranging from 11.4 percent to 13.2 percent, occurred in the early and middle 1980s.

Release of the material was due largely to the determination of a boy (now 38) who was sexually abused when making his first confession at the age of 8 in his home parish in Mokena, Ill. His lawyer, Terrence Johnson, said getting the records “was the worst, most abusive process of discovery I’ve ever seen.”

Informed by the Tribune that a report was in preparation, Joseph Imesch, Joliet bishop from 1979 to 2006, said, “Sure. Sex and the priests, let’s blast it all over the place. Never let it go.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror

March 21, 2013

By Russ O’Reilly (roreilly@altoonamirror.com) , The Altoona Mirror

The Cambria County district attorney’s criminal investigation of sexual abuse allegations involving Brother Stephen Baker, a Hollidaysburg-based Franciscan friar, did not end with his death.

“I would still encourage anyone who feels they were victimized to come forward through the District Attorney’s Office or Johnstown police,” District Attorney Kelly Callihan said.

Callihan declined to say who the investigation targets.

“I’m not going to comment on the direction we are taking on the criminal side of this,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

THE Royal Commission into child sexual abuse will hold its first hearing in Melbourne next month.

The first sitting will be at the County Court of Victoria in Melbourne at 10am (AEDT) on April 3.

All commissioners will be present and the chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, will provide information on the work of the royal commission, including the future conduct of public and private hearings.

Justice Peter McClellan will head the six-strong royal commission.

Senior counsel assisting will also deliver an opening statement but no evidence will be taken.

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SCOTLAND
International Business Times

By Hannah Osborne

March 22, 2013

An vociferously anti-gay cardinal,who was Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric, is secretly homosexual and had a long-term physical relationship with a male lover, a newspaper has alleged.

Herald Scotland claims Keith O’Brien had a physical relationship with one of the men whose complaints led to his resignation as leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland.

O’Brien, once one of the Catholic church’s most vigorous campaigners against homosexuality, officially left his post in February amid allegations of “inappropriate behaviour”.

The Vatican accepted his resignation in November and it came into effect three months later.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Louis C. Hochman/NJ.com
on March 21, 2013

MENDHAM — On New Street in Mendham Borough, in front of a church where dozens of children were once molested, lies a statue of a little girl. She’s fractured. Shattered.

And maybe there’s a message in that image worth noting, said Bill Crane, who as a child suffered abuse by then-Rev. James Hanley of St. Joseph Church.

“In my opinion, the statue should remain exactly as it is now, crumbled and destroyed, because that would be a more accurate representation of what really happened to the lives of children who were sexually abused,” NJ.com user freexpres wrote in the comments section of a story published earlier this month.

Authorities are still working to determine who vandalized St. Joseph Church’s memorial to child sex abuse victims in early March — the second time in two years it had been attacked. Morris County Crimestoppers is offering $2,000 to anyone who can provide information that leads to the arrest or indictment of the responsible person or people; anyone with any information can call CrimeStoppers at 973-Cop-Call or 1-800-Sheriff.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By CLARKE QUIRK
March 22, 2013

THE head of Australia’s leading church-related sexual abuse support service has called for the Victorian parole board to reflect on the seriousness of former south-west priest Gerald Ridsdale’s crimes.

Ridsdale is eligible for release on parole in June this year after originally being sentenced in the Warrnambool County Court to a maximum 18 years’ imprisonment in 1994 when he pleaded guilty to 46 charges involving 21 boys and girls between 1961 and 1982.

He has since been sentenced in two additional hearings which added time to the original sentence.

Ridsdale, who will be 79 years old when he is eligible for parole, is considered to be one of Victoria’s most prolific child sex offenders.

Broken Rites president Chris McIsaac said the decision on whether Ridsdale was released on parole was up to the parole board.

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WYOMING
Star-Tribune

By MEGAN CASSIDY Star-Tribune staff writer

The church janitor who reportedly posed as a youth leader and sexually assaulted three underage girls will soon face District Court.

Convicted sex offender James David Jaure is faced with five new charges involving sexual abuse of a minor. The 29-year-old worked at Highland Park Community Church as a custodian but would frequent the youth group meetings on Wednesday nights, his arrest affidavit states. Children and parents were reportedly under the impression he was a youth group leader.

Jaure opted to go through with his preliminary hearing Thursday morning. Four middle-aged adults and one girl watched from the gallery.

Assistant District Attorney Joshua Stensaas and defense attorney Dion Custis questioned Casper Police Detective Gary Kassay, who is familiar with the case. Kassay reviewed the contents of the affidavit, in which three girls — ages 11, 12 and 15 — said Juare had molested them.

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ILLINOIS
Patch

By Charlotte Eriksen

March 21, 2013

In addition to the thousands of pages to be released detailing the abuse by Catholic priests in the Joliet Diocese, the organization Tuesday also released an updated list of credibly accused abusers.

The list includes Lawrence Gibbs, who was ordained in 1973 and served at churches in Glen Ellyn, Downers Grove, Lockport and Lombard before he was removed from ministry in 1992.

New allegations filed in June 2012 accuse Gibbs of molesting several young boys in the 70s. Gibbs’ accuser, who went to catechism school at St. James the Apostle Catholic Church in Glen Ellyn, says Gibbs gave several boys alcohol and porn and had the boys play games, swim and perform other activities naked during a retreat at a Wisconsin cabin in 1977, according to a CBS Chicago report.

Gibbs is scheduled to appear in Will County court April 18 for a status hearing.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror

March 21, 2013

By Russ O’Reilly (roreilly@altoonamirror.com) , The Altoona Mirror

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has obtained settlements of $95 million for more than 120 victims of priest sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston, said many of his current clients – alleged victims of Brother Stephen Baker – believe adults were aware of the alleged abuse and are at fault for allowing it to continue.

He said coaches must have known about the senseless treatments that Baker prescribed as athletic trainer – for example, a full body massage and naked dip in the whirlpool for an ankle sprain. He said teachers should have seen Baker touch students in hallways as he allegedly did.

“The adults were drunk with power, and also influenced by religion – thinking priests could do no wrong,” he said. He added that they were concerned with “taking care of reputations.”

However, a different perspective was offered by Michael Munno, one of 11 former John F. Kennedy High School student athletes for whom Garabedian recently won settlements as a result of abuse by Baker in the late 1980s. The school is in Warren, Ohio.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Ralph Riegel– 22 March 2013

A CHURCH canonical court has recommended that the cleric at the centre of the Cloyne Report into child abuse allegations be dismissed from the priesthood.

The elderly cleric, only known by the pseudonyms ‘Fr Ronat’ and ‘Fr B’, was informed of the decision this week, the Irish Independent has learned.

The priest now has 15 days to appeal the recommendation.

The ruling followed a lengthy inquiry by the Church watchdog body which included a detailed interview session in a north Cork retreat centre last October.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Paul Berger

Published March 21, 2013

One of Yeshiva University’s leading rabbinic scholars is in trouble — again — after using a derogatory term to refer to African Americans and questioning whether child sex abuse allegations should be brought directly to police.

Rabbi Hershel Schachter, regarded as one of America’s most influential Modern Orthodox rabbis, previously provoked ire for appearing to equate women with monkeys and for seeming to condone the killing of Israel’s prime minister.

This time, Schachter is in trouble for telling an audience of British rabbis that American state prisons are dangerous for Jews because they could be locked up “with a shvartze, in a cell with a Muslim, a black Muslim who wants to kill all the Jews.”

Schachter also suggested that Jewish communities set up panels of Torah scholars who are trained in psychology; this way, before children’s allegations of sex abuse claims are reported to the police, the panel can determine whether the allegations are legitimate. “It could be that the whole thing is a bubbe-mayse [tall tale],” Schachter said.

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HAWAII
Star-Advertiser

By Rob Perez

Two former Damien Memorial School students have filed a lawsuit accusing a priest who taught there in the early 1980s of sexually abusing them while they were at the school.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in state court, is the second to be filed since last year alleging that the Rev. Gerald Funcheon molested students while he was a priest and teacher at Damien from 1982 to 1984.

Defendants include Funcheon and the Congregation of Christian Brothers in Hawaii, which operates Damien Memorial School.

Minnesota lawyer Jeff Anderson, whose law firm and a local one represents the plaintiffs, said they have identified at least a dozen alleged victims of Funcheon who were abused in Hawaii.

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UGANDA
The Observer

On March 12, the celebrity Catholic priest Anthony Musaala wrote an open letter to bishops and the laity, in which, among other things, he calls for the abolition of celibacy.

Musaala’s major thesis is that celibacy is not working anyway, as the men of the robe are involved in affairs and fathering children. The church has responded by suspending Musaala, but the priest insists his concerns should be addressed.

The issue has raised impassioned debate with many faithful apparently torn between facing an unpleasant reality and trying to preserve the dignity of their religion.

Here we reproduce Musaala’s letter.

It is an open secret that many Catholic priests and some bishops, in Uganda and elsewhere, no longer live celibate chastity. From the numerous cases on the ground one might be forgiven for saying that most diocesan priests either don’t believe in celibacy anymore, or if they do, have long since given up the struggle to be chaste.

In any case it still seems important for priests to vow even a woefully imperfect celibacy, if only for the sake of the hallowed ‘priestly image’. The church, however, still maintains the fable that most Catholic priests persevere in celibate chastity fairly well, which fiction begs belief.

All is not well

All is definitely not well with what I call ‘administrative celibacy’, in the Catholic church. It is a celibacy which is more forced than consented to, and its effects are anything but good. I suggest that now more than at any other time, we must begin an open and frank dialogue about catholic priests becoming happily married men, rather than being miserable and single, either before or after ordination.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Houston Chronicle

March 21, 2013

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A central Pennsylvania attorney says a woman claims to be among more than 50 former students who intend to sue church and school officials they believe are responsible for their alleged molestation by a Franciscan friar who committed suicide.

Altoona attorney Richard Serbin says his latest client is the first woman to claim abuse by Brother Stephen Baker when he served as an athletic trainer or was otherwise in or around Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown from 1992 to 2001.

Baker committed suicide Jan. 26 at a monastery in Newry more than a week after the Youngstown, Ohio diocese disclosed financial settlements involving 11 students who claimed Baker abused them at a northeastern Ohio school in the late 1980s.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary ordained in 1937, Koerner served in Texas, Montana and California, spending the bulk of his career in southern California Latino parishes. He died in June 1999. In March 2003 the San Diego diocese announced that Koerner sexually abused children, “generally boys”, throughout his 27 years as pastor of St. Patrick’s in Calipatria. San Diego Bishop Brom said he first learned of accusations against Koerner in October 2006, when parishioners told him Koerner’s abuse was part of the parish’s history.

Ordained: 1937
Died: June 25, 1999

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WISCONSIN
Press-Gazette

Written by
Scott Cooper Williams
Press-Gazette Media

Two brothers sexually assaulted by a priest in Outagamie County in the 1970s plan to speak out Friday after receiving a $700,000 settlement with the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay.

Todd Merryfield and Troy Merryfield have called a news conference at 1:30 p.m. Friday outside the diocese headquarters in Allouez.

The diocese earlier this week agreed to pay the Merryfields a $700,000 settlement in a civil lawsuit that the brothers filed in 2008.

When they were children in the late 1970s, both brothers were assaulted by the Rev. John Feeney at St. Nicholas Church in the Outagamie town of Freedom. Feeney was convicted of sexual assault in 2004 and sent to prison for nearly eight years.

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UNITED STATES
New York Daily News

By Ginger Adams Otis / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Thursday, March 21, 2013

Pope Francis is staunchly opposed to the “stupid” practice of reassigning priests who are accused of pedophilia, preferring to drum them out of the priesthood instead.

The former archbishop of Buenos Aires — then known as Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio — favors “zero tolerance” for priestly sexual abuse and criticized previous cases in the U.S. where accused clerics were simply moved to other parishes, according to a book of conversations he had with Rabbi Abraham Skorka.

During his 14 years as Archbishop Bergoglio ordered church officials to report all allegations to the police rather than simply moving them to avoid damaging the church.

“That solution was proposed once in the United States … switching the priests to a different parish. It is a stupid idea,” Bergoglio said. “That way, the priest just takes the problem with him wherever he goes.”

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HAWAII
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on March 21, 2013

We are glad to hear the Fr. Gerald Funcheon has admitted his guilt to claims that he abused young boys in the 1980s. Hopefully Fr. Funcheon’s admission will prevent the diocese from engaging in legal tactics to draw out the trial and avoid responsibility for these crimes.

We hope that this admission will spare some of his victims the pain of having to re-live their experiences, and will encourage other victims who are still suffering in silence to come forward and make a report to police and prosecutors. It is likely that there are others – both at Damien Memorial School and elsewhere within Hawaii – that have been hurt by Funcheon. We urge them to come forward and speak up now.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

by Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio
March 20, 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A bill that would allow victims of child sexual abuse more time to file civil lawsuits was approved by the Minnesota House Judiciary Committee this afternoon.

Under current law, victims of child sexual abuse need to file civil cases before they turn 24. The House bill would remove all civil statutes of limitations for future victims. It would also create a three-year window in which past victims of child sexual abuse could seek civil damages.

The Minnesota School Boards Association opposes the bill. The group’s lobbyist, Grace Kelliher, told lawmakers the bill would create too much legal and financial risk for groups that work with children.

“Given the limitations of what this bill would mean for school districts, you might find today’s students, staff and community paying for issues that happened in yester-year,” Kelliher said.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

Published on Thursday 21 March 2013

CARDINAL Keith O’Brien was in a long-term physical relationship with one of the priests who reported his sexual misconduct to the Vatican, it has emerged.

• Cardinal Keith O’Brien was in long-standing relationship with one of his accusers

• Complaints about Cardinal’s sexual misconduct were “revenge” for same-sex marraige rhetoric

The man is known to have been in regular telephone contact with Cardinal O’Brien until recently, and was a frequent visitor to St Benets, the Cardinal’s official residence.

A report by The Herald also uncovered that the priest is now living abroad in a position that the cardinal had helped him secure.

Cardinal O’Brien resigned as leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland and retired from public life after admitting earlier this month that his sexual behaviour had “fallen below the standards expected”.

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SCOTLAND
Gay Star News

21 March 2013 | By Joe Morgan

Cardinal Keith O’Brien had a long-standing sexual relationship with a man while he was the leader of Scotland’s Catholic Church.

The man, who left the priesthood in the middle of the last decade, confessed to the relationship after complaints of sexual misconduct from other priests had been revealed.

Scottish daily newspaper The Herald reports the man, who has since re-joined the Catholic Church, was known to be in regular telephone contact with O’Brien and was a frequent visitor to his official residence in Edinburgh.

Two of the priests who claim they were abused by O’Brien say they were exasperated by the Cardinal’s double standards when it came to gay rights and marriage equality.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY | Thu Mar 21, 2013

(Reuters) – Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel defended Pope Francis on Thursday against accusations he failed to speak out against repression during the 1976-83 military dictatorship in their native Argentina, saying he preferred “silent diplomacy”.

Links between some high-ranking Roman Catholic clergymen and the U.S-backed military regime that kidnapped and killed up to 30,000 leftists between 1976 and 1983 tarnished the Church’s reputation in Argentina and the wounds have yet to heal.

Critics of Pope Francis say that in his then role, he failed to protect priests who challenged the junta and has said too little about the complicity of the Church during military rule.

“The pope had nothing to do with the dictatorship. He was not an accomplice of the dictatorship,” Esquivel told reporters after a 30-minute meeting with Francis in the Vatican.

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SPAIN
Business Ghana

Spain’s Catholic Church has expelled a priest over paedophilia, the bishop’s office on Majorca Island said Thursday.

An internal investigation had showed that Pere Barcelo had violated the sixth commandment with minors, the office said on its website. The sixth commandment prohibits adultery. Barcelo was therefore expelled from priesthood as “the maximum punishment,” the statement added.

Barcelo was the first priest in Spain to have been barred from office over paedophilia, according to media reports. Barcelo had been removed from his duties in the locality of Can Picafort already in 2011, when a woman reported him to the bishop’s office, saying he had abused her when she was a child.

Two other women also reported the priest for abuse, the daily Diario de Mallorca reported. One of them said she had been constantly abused and raped by him in 1997 and 1998, when she was 10 and 11.

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HAWAII
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 21, 2013

HONOLULU — A priest who taught in a Honolulu school in the early 1980s has admitted in a videotaped sworn statement that he engaged in sexual conduct with teenagers.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser (http://is.gd/ILeAL2) says the Rev. Gerald Funcheon provided the videotaped deposition in response to questions related to civil lawsuits accusing him of molestation.

According to the Star-Advertiser, Funcheon said in the deposition that he did not consider his attraction to youths perverted or abnormal.

Portions of the deposition were played Wednesday at a news conference held by plaintiff’s attorney Jeff Anderson. His Minnesota-based law firm represents three former Damien Memorial School students who have filed civil lawsuits in state court in Hawaii. They allege that Funcheon sexually molesting them from 1982 to 1984.

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SCOTLAND
The Independent (UK)

Jerome Taylor

Thursday 21 March 2013

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, formerly Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric and a man renowned for railing against homosexuality, was in a “longstanding physical relationship” with one of the men whose recent allegations brought about his downfall, it has been claimed.

According to a report in The Herald newspaper, Cardinal O’Brien confessed to the relationship after it was recently revealed there had been several complaints to the Vatican about his sexual behaviour towards priests in the 1980s.

The paper claims that the length of the relationship explains why the 75-year-old Cardinal spoke of his time as a “priest, bishop and Cardinal” when he made his brief apology earlier this month admitting that his “sexual conduct” had fallen below the standards expected of him.

It is believed the man, who was due to speak to the newspaper before being advised otherwise by his bishop, currently lives outside Scotland.

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NEW YORK
The JC

By Anna Sheinman, March 21, 2013

New York’s Yeshiva University has condemned one of its senior professors of rabbinic studies for his offensive remarks about “schvartzes”, made at a recent conference of United Synagogue rabbis in London.

Rabbi Hershel Schachter —speaking about mesirah, Jews informing on the crimes of other Jews — warned that in the United States, prisons might “put you in a cell together with a schvartze, with a Muslim, a black Muslim, who wants to kill all the Jews”.

That, he warned, might be mesirah, “because you’re punished more than the law requires”. The taped remarks were posted on the website FailedMessiah, which reports Orthodox scandals.

A spokesperson for Yeshiva University said: “The recent use of a derogatory racial term and negative characterisations of African-Americans and Muslims, by a member of the faculty, are inappropriate, offensive and do not represent the values and mission of Yeshiva University.”

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ESPANA
Que!

Otro escándalo sexual en la Iglesia y, en este caso, bien carcano. La iglesia de Mallorca ha expulsado al cura Pere Barceló Rigo, de 60 años, antiguo párroco de la colonia turística de Can Picafort y vicario de la ciudad de Pollença, después de que el Tribunal Eclesiástico le considerase culpable de “gravísimos” delitos sexuales. Al parecer, tres mujeres le acusaran ante un juez de haber abusado de ellas cuando eran menores.

Sería el primer caso en España de un sacerdote consagrado al que se aparta tajantemente de la Iglesia tras la políitca de ‘tolerancia cero’ con el abuso sexual a menores decidido por el Vaticano y el Papa emérito Benedicto XVI.

De este modo, el Obispado de Mallorca le prohíbe totalmente el ejercicio del sacerdocio, la pena máxima eclesial. Al vicario de Pollença se le margina directa y públicamente de su tarea, aunque el cura mantiene su derecho a apelar al Tribunal de Roma contra esta sentencia.

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ESPANA
Mallorca Diario

Según informa el Obispado de Mallorca en un comunicado, el Tribunal Eclesiástico de Mallorca declara culpable al sacerdote Pere Barceló Rigo de la comisión de delitos contra el sexto mandamiento del Decàlogo con menores (sexto mandamiento: “no cometerás actos impuros”).

El Tribunal considera “gravísimos” los delitos cometidos, y le impone la pena máxima de “expulsión del estado clerical”, prohibiéndole totalmente el ejercicio de su ministerio sacerdotal.

El Obispado añade que las actas del proceso serán enviadas a Roma para la ratificación de la sentencia emitida en Primera Instancia

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SPAIN
Buenos Aires Herald

For the first time in its history and following an order by then Pope Benedict XVI to cast light on “any sign” of pedophilia, the Spanish Catholic Church has expelled a pedophile priest who was facing criminal and ecclesiastical charges since 2011.

Pere Barceló Rigo, a parish priest in Majorca, was found guilty of “crimes against the sixth commandment with minors” with the “maximum sentence” of “expulsion from the clerical state” as reported by Majorca’s bishop.

The Spanish judiciary also investigates Barceló Rigo for pedophilia charges. Both the canonical and civil processes began when a young woman denounced the priest abused her by the end of the 90’s when she was still an under-age. Two other female victims have also alleged similar charges.

The priest has been separated from the Majorca Parrish and barred from exercising priestly ministry while the investigation is on course.

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UGANDA
The Africa Report

By Godfrey Olukya

A Ugandan catholic priest has said the church should do away with the vow of celibacy, saying it was time for “common sense to prevail” as many clergymen were already living with wives and children.

Father Anthony Musaala, a popular priest in the East African nation, recently wrote to the archbishop of the Catholic Church in Uganda alleging that most of his colleagues had secret families, while others had forced their lovers to abort.

A fair number of priests’ and bishops’ children are scattered around the nation

Musaala, also a well-known musician, wrote a letter entitled: “An open letter to bishops, priests and laity: The failure of celibate chastity among diocesan priests”, said the celibacy vow must be revisited as it had become archaic.

“I believe it is a matter of time before common sense prevails and marriage for the clergy in the Latin rite church is accepted,” reads the letter, which has thrown the church into turmoil.

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GERMANY
New York Daily News

A priest who was imprisoned for five months during Argentina’s “Dirty War” of the 1970s has cleared Pope Francis for an alleged connection to the arrest.

Argentine critics of Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio have waged a whisper campaign against the new Pope by attempting to link him to leftist purges conducted by the nation’s ruling junta — citing circumstantial evidence about the “disappearance” of two priests, Francisco Jalics and the late Orlando Yorio.

But Jalics, who lives in a monastery in Germany, cleared the air Wednesday.

“I myself was once inclined to believe that we were the victims of a denunciation (by Bergoglio),” Jalics said in a statement. “(But) at the end of the ’90s, after numerous conversations, it became clear to me that this suspicion was unfounded.

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SPANIEN
Europe Online

Palma de Mallorca (dpa) – Die katholische Kirche in Spanien hat erstmals einen Priester wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern seines Amtes enthoben. Wie die Diözese auf Mallorca am Donnerstag mitteilte, sah es ein kirchliches Gericht auf der Mittelmeerinsel als erwiesen an, dass der Geistliche sich sexuell an mehreren Mädchen vergangen hatte. Die Richter hätten die höchste Strafe verhängt, die nach kirchlichem Recht möglich sei.

Das Bistum hatte den Geistlichen, der auf Mallorca in den Ferienorten Cala Rajada und Can Picafort gewirkt hatte, im März 2011 nach Bekanntwerden der Vorwürfe vorläufig vom Dienst suspendiert. Der Vatikan muss die von den kirchlichen Richtern verfügte Aberkennung noch bestätigen. Nach Angaben der Diözese ist dies der erste Fall dieser Art in ganz Spanien.

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VATIKAN
Profil

Mit der Wahl von Jorge Bergoglio zum Papst stolpert die katholische Kirche
unversehens in das nächste Minenfeld unaufgearbeiteter Vergangenheit – ihr enges Verhältnis zu einigen der schlimmsten Rechtsdiktaturen.

Von Anna Giulia Fink, Alexandra Muz, Martin Staudinger und Robert Treichler

Das Urteil über Jorge Mario Bergoglio war bereits gefällt, kaum dass er am vergangenen Mittwochabend die Wahl zum Papst und den Namen Franziskus angenommen, seine weiße Soutane übergestreift, am Balkon des Petersdoms „Buona Sera“ sowie ein paar harmlose Nettigkeiten, ein Vaterunser und ein Ave-Maria aufgesagt hatte: „Er ist der Papst der Herzen!“, jubelten die Titelseiten ecclesiophiler Schriften wie „Österreich“ und der Gratiszeitung „Heute“ bereits Donnerstagfrüh.

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OSTERREICH
Humanist News

Ein Gastartikel von Christian Fiala

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

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VATICAN CITY
Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA

Now that Pope Frances has been elected, and has concluded his Mass of Inauguration in St. Peter’s Square, the really difficult work awaits him.

He has several key and meaningful appointments to make, and he needs to make them very soon: the first and most important will include the Secretary of State, Substitute Secretary of State, Priest Secretaries, and Prefect of the Papal Household.

Pope Frances knows well that one of the major themes during the ten General Congregations of the Cardinals prior to the Conclave was the reform of the Vatican Curia. Reform will only take place with the appointment of top collaborators with the Pope–and soon. The longer he waits, the greater the danger that the current leadership may feel that they will remain in their jobs and will function as in the past. But the world’s Cardinals want something else.

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VATICAN CITY
John Thavis

Rumors are swirling inside and outside the Vatican about where Pope Francis intends to take up residence.

The initial expectation was that he would move into the formal papal apartment on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace, the building where popes have lived for centuries.

But Pope Francis appears to be in no hurry. More than a week after his election, he’s still residing in the Vatican’s modern guest house, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he eats meals with others in the common dining room and can walk to some of his appointments in the Vatican.

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HAWAII
Star-Advertiser

By Rob Perez

A priest who taught at Damien Memorial School in the early 1980s admitted in a sworn statement last year that he engaged in sexual conduct with teenagers and adolescents in Hawaii and other U.S. locations where he worked, but that he didn’t consider his attraction to youth perverted or abnormal, according to portions of his videotaped deposition played Wednesday at a news conference here.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Thursday 21 March 2013

Cardinal Keith O’Brien had a long-standing physical relationship with one of the men whose complaints about his behaviour sparked his downfall as leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland.

The man left the priesthood in the middle of the last decade but rejoined and is living on the continent in a post the cardinal helped him secure.

The complainant is known to have been in regular telephone contact with Cardinal O’Brien until recently and was a frequent visitor to St Benets, his official residence in Edinburgh’s Morningside.

It is understood the cardinal confessed to the relationship after it was recently revealed there had been several complaints to the Vatican about his sexual behaviour towards priests in the 1980s. It is thought to be part of his reference to his sexual conduct as “a priest, a bishop and a cardinal”.

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UGANDA
Daily Monitor

By JOHN NJOROGE

Posted Thursday, March 21 2013

The Rev. Fr. Anthony Musaala yesterday said he had no regrets over authoring a stinging criticism of the Catholic Church bishops and clerics, and vowed to appeal his suspension before the Apostolic Nuncio, the Pope’s ambassador in the country.

Fr. Musaala, who was on Tuesday suspended by the Kampala Archbishop, Dr. Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, said in an exclusive interview that he is happy his missive, which has been widely circulating on the Internet, could help bring to justice all those who have silently suffered abuse at the hands of some catholic clerics.

In vowing to challenge Archbishop Lwanga before the Pope’s representative to Uganda, Archbishop Michael Blume, Fr Musaala said: “….I will go and see the Pope’s ambassador. I have written my statement, and I have said; you know…. First of all, you are suspending me for putting something on the [Inter]net, which I didn’t do. They guy who did, said he would be happy to come out and to say that I [Fr. Musaala] never asked him to do that”.

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UGANDA
Daily Monitor

By Ivan Okuda

Posted Thursday, March 21 2013

The Rev. Fr. Anthony Musaala has been described by one journalist as, “jolly and social”, one man whose knack for speaking his mind can seldom go unnoticed.

It is a true statement. Only last year when former Forum for Democratic Change leader, Dr Kizza Besigye, was arrested at the height of the walk-to-work protests, he openly condemned the manner and spirit of the arrest.

Then, speaking to the press as an eye witness, he weighed in his opinion: “This is an infringement of people’s rights and of the rights of our brother. I am going to pray so that God intervenes … We should be ready to fight for our freedoms. Our government should understand that this country is for all of us.”

This, he said at the heat of the moment, when appearing to be siding with people that the State perceived as planning to make Uganda ungovernable, could easily come along with consequences. But speak his mind, he did.

It is, therefore, not surprising that the Father wrote a letter, titled ‘An open letter to bishops, priests and laity: The failure of celibate chastity among diocesan priests’.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott kmellott@tribdem.com

JOHNSTOWN — Another former student of Bishop McCort Catholic High School has stepped forward alleging sexual abuse at the hands of the late Brother Stephen Baker, according to an Altoona attorney representing this latest victim and several others.

This time, the alleged victim is a female, and attorney Richard Serbin anticipates more women will be stepping forward naming the Franciscan friar.

“This young lady says she knows there are others,” said Serbin, a sex abuse civil litigator.

Baker was 62 when he died in late January of a self-inflicted stab wound to the heart in his quarters at St. Bernardine Monastery just outside Hollidaysburg. He had been accused by more than 50 men of sexually molesting them while they were students at the Johnstown parochial high school.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror

March 21, 2013

A woman is the latest person to allege being sexually abused by Brother Stephen Baker while she was a student at Johnstown’s Bishop McCort High School.

Altoona attorney Richard M. Serbin said he has notified the diocese that he is representing a female who claims she began being sexually abused by the Franciscan friar when she was 15, while he served as an athletic trainer at Bishop McCort.

“Information has come to my attention which leads me to believe other female athletes and cheerleaders were also sexually abused by Brother Baker, in addition to the numerous male students who have already come forward to disclose they were victimized by this child predator,” Serbin said in a release.

He added, “It also appears that Brother Baker was involved with middle school children, who were participating in parish sponsored programs.”

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UNITED STATES
Christian Post

By Leonardo Blair, CP Contributor

March 20, 2013

While American Catholics are mostly satisfied with the selection of Argentina’s former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as the new pope to lead the Catholic Church’s 1.2 billion adherents, they now want him to make addressing sex abuse scandals in the church his top priority.

Results of a national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center and published in The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life on Tuesday, show seven-in-ten American Catholics ranking addressing sex abuse scandals the highest from a list of possible priorities for Pope Francis.

The other possible priorities on the list were standing up for traditional moral values, spreading the Catholic faith, addressing priest shortage and reforming the Vatican bureaucracy. Only 49 percent of Catholics overall said standing up for traditional moral values should be a top priority for Pope Francis. Approximately 40 percent selected spreading the Catholic faith, 36 percent chose addressing the priest shortage while 35 percent felt reforming the Vatican bureaucracy should be top priorities for the new pope.

The poll, which was conducted March 13-17 among 1,501 adults including 325 Catholics, also highlighted that while many Catholics would like the church to make changes to some of the teachings and policies on issues like birth control and marriage, fewer of them expect it to happen.

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ROME
Chiesa

A “council of the crown” around the pope, with cardinals from the five continents. A drastic trimming of offices. A shakeup for the IOR. Novelties and unknowns of the pontificate of Francis

by Sandro Magister

ROME, March 21, 2103 – John XXIII appointed his new secretary of state on the very evening of his election as pope. And he was the great diplomat Domenico Tardini, at the time an ordinary priest, not yet bishop or cardinal.

But that is prehistory, compared to the earthquake of today.

Pope Francis has arrived in Rome “from the ends of the earth,” and he is innovating the manner of governing the Church from on high, starting with himself. The reform of the curia will come. And many other things will come as well. But after “a certain time,” he has cautioned.

Meanwhile, he has told all of the heads of the curia whose mandates ended with the resignation of his predecessor to get back to work. “Temporarily,” and “donec aliter provideatur,” until he, the new pope, decides. Since March 13 the Vatican curia has been a tremulous army of functionaries without a certain future.

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UNITED STATES
USA Today

David Gibson, Religion News Service
March 20, 2013

Before he became Pope Francis, Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio offered clues to his views on celibacy, on the sexual abuse crisis and on civil unions.

He advocated a zero-tolerance approach to clergy abusers in a 2012 conversation with a leading Latin American rabbi. Bergoglio, then archbishop of Buenos Aires, criticized bishops who attempted to protect the image of the church by covering up abuse and shuffling predatory priests among parishes. The archbishop called that “a stupid idea.”

“You cannot be in a position of power and destroy the life of another person,” Bergoglio told Rabbi Abraham Skorka, rector of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary. The book-length dialogue with the rabbi will be published in English in May. The passage was translated by Aleteia, a website promoting Catholic evangelization.

He told Skorka that when a bishop once asked him what he should do with priests suspected of molesting children, “I told him to take away the priests’ licenses, not to allow them to exercise the priesthood any more and to begin a canonical trial in that diocese’s court.”

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HAWAII
Hawaii News Now

[with video]

By Lisa Kubota

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A new civil lawsuit accuses a former Damien Memorial School chaplain of sexually assaulting two former students in the early 1980’s. Father Gerald Funcheon worked at the school from 1982 to 1984. He is accused of molesting the alleged victims, identified as John Roe No. 9 and John Roe No. 10, multiple times.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers are also representing another former student, Kory Oakland, who filed a sex abuse lawsuit last year. The attorneys released excerpts of Funcheon’s testimony filmed under oath in September 2012 for that case. Attorney Jeff Anderson asked him about reports that there may have been roughly 50 victims over several decades during assignments across the country.

Q: “Do you think you remember the numbers of kids, those are people, youth under the age of 18, with whom you engaged in some sexual conduct or contact?”

A: “Over my lifetime?”

Q: “While a priest.”

A: “Yeah, I would say a dozen.”

Q: “There are some reports where it’s far in excess of that by your own report. Do you think you might be underestimating that number?”

A: “Wow, I — I couldn’t count ’em up. I’ll go — I don’t know. I’ll go 18. I — I don’t — I can’t give you a number on this. Okay?”

“He demonstrates the mind of the molester. He admits a few things but denies, minimizes and blames others,” said Anderson.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By Christy Gutowski, Stacy St. Clair and David Heinzmann, Chicago Tribune reporters
March 21, 2013

The Joliet Diocese readily admitted that David Rudofski was sexually abused during his first confession at St. Mary Catholic Church in Mokena. It offered him an in-person apology from the bishop and more than six times his annual salary in the hope of putting a quick, quiet end to yet another ugly incident involving a priest.

But Rudofski wanted more than money.

The south suburban electrician wanted the diocese to truly pay for its repeated and, oftentimes, willful mishandling of sexual abuse cases involving clergy — and he insisted on a currency far more precious to the church than money. He demanded that the diocese settle its debt by turning over the secret archives it maintained on abusive priests and making them available for public consumption.

“What was I supposed to do? Take the money and run?” Rudofski said. “How would that help anybody else? If people don’t know how this was allowed to happen for decades, they can’t prevent it from happening again.”

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ILLINOIS
WLS

[with video]

Ron Magers

March 20, 2013 (JOLIET, Ill.) (WLS) — The man who forced the Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet to release its archived files on pedophile and predatory priests was sexually abused by a priest as a child and as an adult, has fought hard to shed light on the secrets of the church.

STORY: Secret archive contains alleged sex abuse records

DOCUMENTS: (WARNING: Some viewers may find parts of this material offensive.)
• Diocese of Joliet’s new victim outreach campaign
• Father Burnett: Review Committee Allegations
• Joliet Diocese Files of Fr. Donald O’Connor

The Full Secret Archive File of Fr. Donald O’Connor
• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

“If other people can see that I did it, then it might empower them to do the same thing,” said David Rudofski.

At the tender age of 8, Rudofski’s life changed. While giving his first confession at St. Mary’s parish in Mokena, he says Father James Burnett sexually molested him. Rudofski says he told his mother, but she didn’t believe him.

“What happened to me was not her fault,” he said. “She has struggled with this a lot and me as a parent, I can imagine that.”

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UNITED STATES
KNAU

By Jonathan Blakley

Pope Francis has now been installed and the world’s Catholics are looking to see where he will lead the church. But one man in Rome has been trying to make sure the Vatican also deals with the church’s troubled past.

David Clohessy, who says he was a victim of sexual abuse at a young age by a Catholic priest, is the director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. By his count, he held 15 news conferences in Rome in the weeks leading up to the conclave at the Vatican.

Some of them at the Orange Hotel were packed, others were empty.

Clohessy soldiered on, and S.N.A.P. has mailed letters and sent faxes to the Vatican, hoping for a meeting or some type of response from Pope Francis. The group feels the issue of sexual abuse might fade away amid the fascination with a newly elected Pope who has charmed the public and the media.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WeAreCentralPA

By: Aaron Cheslock
Updated: March 20, 2013

ALTOONA, BLAIR COUNTY – A woman is claiming she was sexually abused on multiple occasions by a Franciscan Brother starting when she was 15 years old.

Attorney Richard Serbin says the woman claims the abuse by Stephen Baker happened at Bishop McCort High in Johnstown.

She says because he was an Athletic Trainer, he was responsible for treating athletic injuries which led to the abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Now that Francis has been enthroned, Bergoglio will soon be making his first appointments

Marco Tosatti
Vatican City

Pope Francis has confirmed – pro tempore – all heads and secretaries of Congregations “donec aliter provideatur”, until it is decided otherwise. The statement released made no mention of the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, but an explanation was issued stating that the announcement concerned him as well. Reliable Vatican sources say Pope Francis intends to choose his closest collaborator quickly, after Easter. Tarcisio Bertone will turn 79 in December and it seems only logical that he should leave the position he held as Benedict XVI’s right hand man, amid controversies and divisions.

These sources also mention an Italian member the diplomatic corps as the Argentinean Pope’s potential number two man. The current Substitute, Angelo Becciu and the Prefect of Propaganda Fide, the former nuncio Filoni, seem to be excluded as possible candidates because of their involvement in the rifts and internal struggles that have tainted Bertone’s management of the Secretariat of State. Pope Francis would apparently prefer to start with a clean slate and a new Secretary of State.

The Church is not short of possible candidates, starting with Archbishop Piero Parolin, Apostolic Nuncio to Venezuela. Archbishop Celestine Migliore, the Pope’s current ambassador in Warsaw who represented the Holy See at the UN is another potential future collaborator of the Pope. Both have close ties with the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano, who was Secretary of State under John Paul II for many years and also under Benedict XVI for a period of time, before Bertone was appointed as his substitute.

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GERMANY
Myrtle Beach Online

Published: March 20, 2013

By GEIR MOULSON — Associated Press

BERLIN — A Jesuit priest who was kidnapped by the Argentine military junta in the 1970s said Wednesday that he and a fellow cleric weren’t denounced by the future Pope Francis, then leader of Argentina’s Jesuits.

The Rev. Francisco Jalics, a Hungarian native who now lives in a German monastery, said in a statement that he was following up on comments about the case last week because he had received a lot of questions and “some commentaries imply the opposite of what I meant.” He did not elaborate.

Jalics and another priest, Orlando Yorio, were kidnapped in 1976.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now the pontiff, has said he told the priests to give up their work in slums for their own safety, and they refused. Yorio, who is now dead, later accused Bergoglio of effectively delivering them to the death squads by declining to publicly endorse their work.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WYTV

An Altoona attorney handling several lawsuits for former students who were allegedly sexually molested by Brother Stephen Baker, a teacher, athletic trainer and coach accused of abusing students across the Midwest, including in Warren, said Wednesday he is now representing a woman who claimed she was assaulted.

Attorney Richard Serbin, who is currently handling five lawsuits against area Catholic leaders in Pennsylvania courts, said on Wednesday his client was abused at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown starting when she was 15 years old.

Dozens of former male students have claimed abuse, including 11 from Warren’s John F. Kennedy High School and St. Mary’s Middle School who were paid five-figure settlements from Youngstown Catholic Diocese and the Third Order Regular Franciscans for Baker’s actions, but no allegations of sexual abuse against female students had emerged until Wednesday.

Serbin said the type of abuse the girl endured paralleled the abuse endured by dozens of former male students who claimed Baker fondled them and digitally penetrated them under the guise of treating and providing preventative care for sports injuries.

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ARGENTINA
The New York Times

By MORT ROSENBLUM

In 1975, I watched Buenos Aires churches fill with distraught mothers praying futilely for news of missing sons and daughters. Troubled police officers frequented the confessionals. Most Argentines suspected that President Isabel Perón and her Rasputin, José López Rega, were behind official death squads that made so many people disappear. Priests knew the details.

A military junta bundled Ms. Peron off to exile in 1976 and unleashed full-bore repression. They called it war, but it wasn’t. Disparate acts by unconnected rival leftist groups brought institutional torture and official terror. Military flights dumped victims at sea. Still alive, they would gasp in water and sink.

For three crucial years, as placid Argentina headed toward hell, I was based in Buenos Aires. I arrived in 1973 when night noises ranged to wailing tango chords and traffic din. Within a year, those were punctuated by spine-curdling shrieks as victims were bundled into those famous Ford Falcons without license plates. By the time I left in 1976, after the coup, we slept in different places each night because of unsettling threats. When profiles of those shadowy death squads emerged, they were as we had thought: off-duty cops commanded by high-ranking police and military officers. Many were devout family men who believed themselves on a mission for God and country. My sense is that the “war” would have been far less dirty had the Roman Catholic church stood up to its perpetrators.

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UGANDA
Neue Zurcher Zeitung

(dpa) Ein katholischer Priester ist in Uganda aus dem Dienst entlassen worden, weil er Mitglieder der Kirche in dem ostafrikanischen Land des sexuellen Missbrauchs bezichtigt hatte.

Der Erzbischof der Hauptstadt Kampala suspendierte Pater Anthony Musaala mit der Begründung, dieser habe “der guten Moral der katholischen Gläubigen Schaden zugefügt” und “Hass und Verachtung gegenüber der Kirche angestachelt”, hiess es in einer Mitteilung, die am Mittwoch von der Zeitung “Daily Monitor” veröffentlicht wurde.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholische

Bistum Trier | 20.03.2013 – Trier

Er gehört zu den Jüngeren unter den deutschen Bischöfen, hat sich aber bereits einen Namen als Mann für schwierige Aufgaben gemacht: Triers Bischof Stephan Ackermann ist seit gut drei Jahren mit der Aufklärung des Missbrauchsskandals in der katholischen Kirche beauftragt. Vieles hat der Rheinland-Pfälzer schon auf den Weg gebracht, aber auch viel Kritik einstecken müssen.

Der Job des Missbrauchsbeauftragten sei “nicht besonders vergnüglich”, sagt er. “Weil trotz allen Bemühens der Eindruck erweckt wird, hier wird immer nur getrickst, vertuscht und zurückgehalten.” Am Mittwoch wird der Oberhirte der ältesten deutschen Diözese 50 Jahre alt.

Die katholische Kirche hatte im Januar bei der Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchs-Taten einen herben Rückschlag erlitten, als sie eine wissenschaftliche Studie stoppte. Die Vorwürfe reichten von Aktenvernichtung bis Zensur und mündeten in mancher Forderung nach dem Rücktritt Ackermanns. Doch der gibt sich kämpferisch. Er habe seit jeher eine lückenlose Aufklärung gefordert. “Dranbleiben” wolle er an dem Thema, für die Bischofskonferenz und die Betroffenen, betont er. Und die Missbrauchsstudie mit einem neuen Partner in Angriff nehmen. Möglicherweise schon im April könnte der Neustart verkündet werden, hieß es vor kurzem.

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OSTERREICH
Nachrichten

STEYR/KREMSMÜNSTER. Über Jahrzehnte sollen Pater des Stiftsgymnasiums in Kremsmünster Schüler sexuell missbraucht und körperlich misshandelt haben. Zwei ehemalige Schüler, die selbst Opfer geworden sind, haben – wie berichtet – das Stift geklagt.

Die Verantwortlichen hätten nach einem Gespräch im Jänner 2012 zahlreiche Zusagen nicht eingehalten, argumentieren die Kläger.

So soll Abt Ambros Ebhart bei dem Gespräch zugesagt haben, dass es eine Aufarbeitung der Geschehnisse in dem Stift, ein Mahnmal und ein Schuldeingeständnis der Mitwisserschaft über den Kindesmissbrauch geben werde. Die beiden Männer haben eine Feststellungsklage beim Landesgericht Steyr mit einem Streitwert von 30.000 Euro eingebracht, gestern fand die letzte Verhandlungsrunde statt. Das Urteil steht noch aus.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

March 20, 2013

The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) appreciates Pope Francis emphasis on protection in the homily of his installation Mass.

But the word must become kinetic to solve and eradicate the crisis of sexual abuse in the Church by priests and nuns.

It must have the energy of action behind it to truly protect children and give the survivors the protection of justice.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Rabbi Hershel Schachter, a rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University’s rabbinical seminary, called for the creation of panels to evaluate the veracity of abuse claims before they are forwarded to the authorities.

At a rabbinical conference in February in London, Schachter called “ridiculous” the idea that Jews should not turn fellow Jews over to secular authorities for fear of violating the principle of “mesirah,” or betrayal — the traditional Jewish prohibition on informing. In fact, he added, failure to cooperate with the authorities is a desecration of God’s name.

However, Schachter warned, communities need to ensure that the claims of abuse are accurate before passing them along to the police. To that end, he called for the creation of boards made up of mental health professionals who are also experts in Jewish law to evaluate whether accusations are credible.

Schachter warned that a false accusation could end up tearing apart families. He also raised the fear that a false allegation could land an innocent person in prison where he faced physical danger. For example, he said, someone convicted for abuse could end up in prison with a “shvartze”— a Yiddish term for a black person that is often deragatory — who hates Jews.

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Public Radio

WUWM NEWS | Mar 20, 2013

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay will pay $700,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by two men. Todd and Troy Merryfield were sexually abused by a former priest, John Feeney, in the 1970s when they were children. The men accused the diocese of withholding knowledge of Feeney’s previous sexual misconduct.

Feeney was convicted of assaulting the Merryfields. A judge overturned the verdict and ordered a new trial, after ruling that one of the jurors was biased.

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SCOTLAND
The Tablet

20 March 2013

Trust in the Church in Scotland has been “broken”, the Bishop of Aberdeen has warned.

Bishop Hugh Gilbert used his statement welcoming the election of Pope Francis to highlight the “feeling of distress” within the Church.

“At the heart of it is a sense of things being broken,” he said, “things like personal integrity, trust in our bishops and priests, the credibility of our faith and teaching.”

Bishop Gilbert said “all of these things have seemed to collapse,” and that behind people’s sadness or anger “there is a great cry inside us for them to be given back to us. A cry for a new purity and honesty, for the Gospel, for Christ.”

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UNITED STATES
The Philly Post

Stephen Silver

The high-profile Steubenville, Ohio, rape case ended last weekend with guilty verdicts for both defendants—leading to one of the more embarrassing segments in the history of CNN. Both, as well as other stories in the news, are symptomatic of a tendency I’ve noticed a whole lot the last couple of years: In cases of high-profile sex crimes, way too many people have way too much sympathy for the perpetrators, and not enough for the victims.

The Steubenville case, which has been in the national news for months, concerned two members of that town’s vaunted high school football team, in August of 2012, sexually assaulting a girl who had passed out. The case kicked off a widespread firestorm that included appearances by the hacker collective Anonymous, and a whole other debate about whether another case of an untouchable football program led to the covering up of horrible crimes. if you’re not familiar with the case, this New York Times piece is a good primer.

The two defendants, Ma’lik Richmond and Trent Mays, were both convicted, and while both must register permanently as sex offenders, because they were tried as juveniles neither is likely to serve more than two or three years of time in detention. …

Now we have controversial comments by Rabbi Hershel Schachter, a top Talmudic scholar and Rosh Yeshiva at New York’s Yeshiva University.

Rabbi Schachter, in a speech made at a London conference in February and reported by Paul Berger in the Jewish newspaper The Forward last week, suggested that Jewish communities should set up independent panels, comprised of Torah scholars, to weigh claims of child sexual abuse, to determine their veracity before the decision is made to proceed to the police.

Why? Because apparently Schachter is worried about Jewish convicted offenders going to prison, where they could end up “in a cell with a shvartze, in a cell with a Muslim, a black Muslim who wants to kill all the Jews.” Schachter went on to admit that a student confided in him years ago about being abused, after which he referred the student to a psychologist, and did not contact authorities.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JAMES C. BACKSTROM
Updated: March 19, 2013

We must recognize that the nature of these incidents means that feelings can be repressed well into adulthood.

Childhood sexual abuse is an epidemic. More than 80,000 American kids are sexually abused every year. One in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before they reach age 18. Nearly 70 percent of all reported sexual assaults (including assaults on adults) occur against children ages 17 and under.

Some of these tragedies make high-profile news, like the Jerry Sandusky/Penn State scandal last year and the recent criminal charges against Lynn Seibel, a former teacher at Shattuck-St. Mary’s boarding school in Faribault. Most of these incidents, however, never get reported to police and prosecutors or see the light of day in a civil courtroom. Most victims of childhood sexual abuse lock away memories of horrible trauma deep inside their minds, for many years.

This is not that hard to understand if you think about it. These are frightened kids who often do not fully comprehend what is happening to them. And the vast majority are preyed upon by someone they know and trust: a parent or sibling, a relative, a coach, a teacher, a minister or priest, a Boy Scout leader, or an older family friend. Few actually fall victim to unknown sexual predators — and those few cases are much more likely to be reported promptly to law enforcement.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Noah Cohen

March 19, 2013

Prosecutors plan to fly two Israeli boys to the United States to testify in the trial of a Teaneck rabbi who allegedly molested the teens while they stayed with him during a scholarship program, northjersey.com reported.

The trial of Rabbi Uzi Rivlin, 65, is set for next month in Hackensack. Rivlin was charged in 2011 with sexually abusing the boys in 2009 and 2010.

Prosecutors disclosed Tuesday in a pretrial hearing that Rivlin had been accused of sexual assault, child endangerment and public lewdness in 2000 in New York City, the report said. The rabbi ultimately pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor public lewdness charge.

Details of that case were not immediately available late Tuesday.

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UGANDA
New Vision

KAMPALA – The Archbishop of Kampala, Dr. Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, has suspended Fr. Anthony Musaala over a document he allegedly wrote that “damages good morals of Catholic believers and faults the Catholic teaching”.

“Fr. Anthony Musaala is suspended from celebrating sacraments and sacramentals, from the powers of governance in accordance with the law of the Church…as investigations are being carried out,” Lwanga said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The suspension follows a letter, reportedly written by Musaala, claiming that many Catholic priests and even bishops are sexually abusing minors, have mistresses and children who they are concealing or have abandoned.

The letter called for review of the issue of celibate chastity in the Catholic Church.

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