ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON June 27, 2013

PETER Fox might have exaggerated the number of church sex abuse victims and clergy he said he had interviewed in order to promote himself to the investigating team, an inquiry heard yesterday.

Giving evidence to the Special Commission of Inquiry into how police handled the investigation into the alleged cover-up of sex abuse within the Catholic Church, Detective Inspector Graeme Parker told the inquiry that he had “never been sure” that police received all the information that Mr Fox had collected during his own investigations, alleging that he may have secretly held on to some material.

Later, when cross-examined by Mr Fox’s barrister Mark Cohen, Mr Parker said Mr Fox had spoken in public on numerous occasions and indicated that he had interviewed a number of alleged victims and members of the clergy.

But Mr Parker said reports of such things were never produced by Mr Fox in those numbers.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD June 28, 2013

IN an explosive burst of evidence superintendent John Gralton has told the special inquiry in Newcastle that he was assaulted in the class by a priest in front of 40 students.

Superintendent Gralton also said he knew of five or six friends who had been indecently assaulted by priests.

He gave information about this to investigators.

Asked about the idea of a cover-up by police of church crimes he said nothing could be farther from the truth and that he the found the idea fanciful and offensive.

He said the idea that the Lantle investigation would be anything other than complete was far from the truth.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Dan Cox, ABC
Updated June 28, 2013

A senior policeman has told a New South Wales inquiry into child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church he was abused by a priest.

Former Central Hunter Local Area Commander Superintendent John Gralton told the special commission of inquiry at Newcastle Supreme Court he was assaulted in front of 40 other students by a priest at his Catholic school.

He said he gave a statement to an investigator, as well as the details of five or six other students who were indecently assaulted at school.

Superintendent Gralton told the inquiry any suggestion there were efforts to stop investigations was “abhorrent”, “offensive at the highest level” and “could not be further from the truth”.

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by Madeleine Davies

Posted: 28 Jun 2013

A REFORM of the Church of England’s safeguarding procedures, to be discussed by the General Synod next weekend, has been dismissed by a spokeswoman for a survivors group.

Anne Lawrence, a barrister, from Minister and Clergy SexualAbuse Survivors, said that those addressing safeguarding in the Church of England were “seeking to fix a problem before they know what the problem is. The survivors are the symptoms, the debris, the bits broken by a system that breaks things. If they want tostop …

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ITALY
Deutsche Welle

The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported on its website that the arrested cleric was Nunzio Scarano, the bishop of Salerno in southern Italy. He had been put under investigation for money laundering.

The former intelligence officer Giovanni Mario Zito and the finance broker Giovanni Carinzo were also arrested on the charges of corruption, fraud and slander, according to the German news agency dpa, quoting Italian authorities.

Earlier this week the AP news agency had reported that Scarano had withdrawn more than half a million euros in charitable donations without any flags being raised, walked out of Vatican City with the cash, and then used it to pay off a personal mortgage.

On Friday, dpa quoted Italian prosecutors as saying Bishop Scarano had paid Zito 400,000 euros ($520,000) to transport 20 million euros in cash from Switzerland to Italy onboard a private jet.

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ITALY
Wall Street Journal

By Gilles Castonguay

MILAN—Italian financial police Friday arrested a senior prelate, a financial broker and a member of Italy’s secret service in an investigation into a failed attempt to bring about €20 million ($26.1 million) in cash into Italy from Switzerland by plane, a spokesman for the financial police said.

According to the spokesman, the investigation was opened by the public prosecutor’s office in Rome while it was pursuing a separate probe into the Vatican’s bank, the Institute of Religious Works, which is under pressure from international regulators to improve its transparency.

The investigation didn’t concern the bank, known by its Italian abbreviation, IOR, the spokesman said.

“It is an offshoot,” he said.

The suspects, including Msgr. Nunzio Scarano, are being investigated for crimes such as fraud and corruption, he added.

Msgr. Scarano’s lawyer, Silverio Sica, confirmed the arrest.

Msgr. Scarano had already suspended himself from his duties with the church after coming under investigation in a separate money-laundering case, Mr. Sica added.

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ITALY
euronews

Three people have been arrested as part of an Italian investigation into the Vatican bank.

A member of Italy’s secret services, a financial broker and a cleric were all detained on Friday.

The cleric, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, worked as an accountant in the Vatican’s financial administration. He was suspended from duties several weeks ago after being placed under investigation by magistrates.

Scarano is accused of taking 600,000 euros out of a Vatican Bank account. He is said to have taken out small amounts at a time and given them to friends who in turn wrote him cheques. The money was apparently used to pay off a mortgage.

The Monsignor’s lawyer Silverio Sica said he was additionally accused of being involved in an attempt to help friends bring 20 million euros into Italy from Switzerland by plane in league with the secret service agent and the financial intermediary.

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ITALY
Reuters

* Trio accused of trying to bring 20 million euros from Switzerland
* Vatican prelate was already involved in another investigation
* Arrests come after Pope sets up commission to look into bank (Adds details from lawyer, latest charges, Vatican response)

By Philip Pullella

ROME, June 28 (Reuters) – A senior Vatican cleric suspected of trying to help rich friends bring millions of euros into Italy illegally was arrested on Friday as part of an investigation into the Vatican bank, police sources and his lawyer said.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, 61, worked as a senior accountant in the Vatican’s financial administration and is already involved in another investigation by magistrates in southern Italy.

He was arrested in a parish in the outskirts of Rome and taken to the city’s Queen of Heaven jail, his lawyer Silverio Sica told Reuters. Also arrested in the investigation were a member of Italy’s secret services and a financial broker.

Sica said Scarano was accused of being involved in an attempt to help friends bring 20 million euros ($26 million) into Italy from Switzerland by plane in league with the secret service agent and the financial intermediary.

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ITALY
NBC News

By Claudio Lavanga and Ian Johnston, NBC News

A monsignor suspended from his job as an accountant at the Vatican has been arrested, a papal spokesman said Friday.

Greg Burke, the senior Vatican communication adviser, confirmed Monsignor Nunzio Scarano had been detained.

Scarano normally works as an accountant for APSA, the body that manages the Vatican’s real estate, but was suspended over alleged financial offenses.

The cleric’s lawyer Silverio Sica told The Associated Press that his client was arrested on Wednesday over separate allegations and was now accused of fraud, corruption and slander.

Sica laid out what the prosecutors claimed had happened in the interview with the AP:

He said Scarano was a middleman in the operation: Friends had asked him to intervene with a broker, Giovanni Carenzio, to return 20 million euros ($26 million) they had given him to invest.

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ITALY
Telegraph (UK)

An Italian spy, a Vatican official and banker have been arrested on suspicion of corruption and fraud involving an alleged plot to bring 20 million euros in cash into Italy from Switzerland aboard a government plane.

By Nick Squires, Rome11:57AM BST 28 Jun 2013

The arrests come just two days after Pope Francis appointed a special commission to oversee the Vatican’s scandal-plagued bank, which is known officially as the Institute for Religious Works.
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was arrested after allegedly trying to bring the sum of money into Italy from Switzerland in an Italian government plane.

He had recently been suspended as an accountant in a Vatican department which manages the assets of the Holy See.

He is accused of fraud, corruption and slander.

His lawyer, Silverio Sica, told The Associated Press that the prelate was a middleman in the operation – friends had asked him to intervene with a broker, Giovanni Carenzio, to return 20 million euros (£17m) they had given him to invest.

Mr Sica said Msgr Scarano had persuaded Mr Carenzio to return the money, and an Italian secret service agent, Giovanni Maria Zito, went to Switzerland to bring the cash back aboard an Italian government aircraft.

The operation failed because Mr Carenzio, the broker, reneged on the deal, the lawyer said.

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ITALIEN
Sueddeutsche

Wegen vermuteter Geldwäsche steht die Vatikanbank bereits seit Jahren im Fokus der italienischen Justiz. Medienberichten zufolge wurde nun im Rahmen der Ermittlungen ein hochrangiger Vatikan-Geistlicher verhaftet. Auch ein ehemaliger Geheimdienstler soll festgenommen worden sein.

Im Zuge von Ermittlungen bei der Vatikanbank ist ein Geistlicher aus dem süditalienischen Salerno Medienberichten zufolge festgenommen worden. Gegen den Monsignore Nunzio Scarano werde wegen Korruption, Betrug und Verleumdung ermittelt, berichtete La Repubblica. Nach Angaben der Zeitung wurden zudem ein Polizeibeamter, der ehemalige Mitarbeiter des italienischen Geheimdiensts Giovanni Maria Zito, und der Börsenhändler Giovanni Carenzio festgenommen.

Im Zentrum der Affäre steht angeblich eine Vereinbarung zwischen Scarano und Zito, die zum Ziel hatte, Bargeld in Höhe von 20 Millionen aus der Schweiz an Bord eines Privatjets zurückzuführen, das Freunden des Geistlichen gehört. Dem Bericht zufolge war Scarano zwei Wochen zuvor zum Verdacht auf Geldwäsche in Höhe von 560.000 Euro befragt worden.

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ITALY
The New York Times

By RACHEL DONADIO
Published: June 28, 2013

ROME — Italian police on Friday arrested a prelate, a financial broker and an agent of the Italian Secret Service on corruption charges as part of a complex plot in which the priest — who is already under investigation for money-laundering involving the Vatican Bank — allegedly tried to repatriate millions of euros from Switzerland to Italy in a private plane.

The priest, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, had been suspended this spring from a position at one of the Vatican’s main financial departments. Those arrested were charged with fraud, corruption and slander as part of a broad investigation tied to the famously secretive Vatican Bank.

Prosecutors allege that the broker and the secret service agent helped the monsignor bring 20 million euros, or $26 million, into Italy from Switzerland in a private jet, the ANSA news agency reported. It said that the 20 million euros belonged to “some friends of the monsignor.”

The Vatican did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A Vatican official said that Monsignor Scarano had been suspended from his position as an accountant at APSA, a department that oversees the Vatican’s real estate holdings, after prosecutors in Salerno opened a separate investigation into money-laundering. The official indicated that the suspension was a sign that the Vatican was stepping up its internal vigilance.

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ITALY
7 News

ROME (AFP) – A priest has been arrested on suspicion of fraud and corruption in connection with the sweeping probe of the scandal-plagued Vatican bank, Italian media reported Friday.

Nunzio Scarano, a priest from Salerno, was arrested after an investigation into the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), as the bank is known, unearthed a suspected international fraud scheme, reports said.

Initial reports that had suggested Scarano was a bishop were incorrect, Vatican senior media advisor Greg Burke said.

The priest was suspended from his position as a member of the administration that manages the Vatican’s assets (the APSA) “about a month ago, after his superiors learnt about an investigation into his activities,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.

Scarano was arrested along with a former member of the Italian secret services and a financier for allegedly plotting to illegally move 20 million euros ($26 million) from Switzerland to Italy.

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ITALY
MSN

If Dan Brown’s casting around for a plot twist for his next blockbuster tale, hopefully he’s watching the news. Senior Vatican bishop, Monsignore Nunzio Scarano, has reportedly been arrested in an alleged plot to illegally bring $26 million into Italy on a government plane. It comes straight on the heels of Pope Francis ordering an unprecedented internal investigation into the uber-secretive Vatican Bank. (And we thought he was just busy with heart-warming stuff like offering kids rides on the popemobile and washing inmates’ feet.) Scarano’s been under police investigation, and his arrest, along with a secret service agent and a financial broker, could be a major step in Pope Francis’ plan to purify the ailing reputation of the bank and its $7.1 billion in assets.

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ITALY
The Hindu

A high-ranking Vatican official and two others have been arrested on suspicion of financial fraud at the Institute of Religious Works (IOR), the Holy See’s scandal-tainted bank, Italian authorities said on Friday.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano — who had wrongly been identified as a bishop in earlier media reports — is accused of corruption, fraud and slander along with Giovanni Maria Zito, a former intelligence officer, and Giovanni Carinzo, a financial broker. They are all Italian.

According to Rome prosecutors, Mr. Scarano paid Mr. Zito 400,000 euros (523,000 dollars) to transport 20 million euros in cash from Switzerland to Italy on board a jet. The money belonged to a family friend.

The prelate’s lawyer, Silverio Sica, told the SkyTG24 news channel that Mr. Scarano had “tried to help friends that were important to him, who had suffered a loss,” and ruled out that he had made any personal gains.

The monsignor had been placed under investigation earlier this month for alleged money laundering in his home town of Salerno, southern Italy, and was suspended from his accounting role at Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) — the Holy See’s central bank.

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ITALY
The Washington Times

By Cheryl K. Chumley-The Washington Times Friday, June 28, 2013

A Vatican accountant has been arrested on charges of fraud and corruption related to a money-laundering scheme to bring $26 million from Switzerland into Italy aboard an Italian government plane, authorities said.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was arrested before the plane ever left the ground, The Associated Press reported. His attorney, Silverio Sica, said he’s accused of being a middleman for the scheme, which also allegedly involved his friends.

Monsignor Scarano was reportedly asked to convince a broker, Giovanni Carenzio, to give back $26 million he was going to invest on his friends’ behalf. An Italian secret service agent — Mario Zito — was supposed to fly to Switzerland, recoup the money and return it to Monsignor Scarano’s friends. But the broker changed his mind and the plot fell through, AP reported.

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ROME
Daily Mail (UK)

By HANNAH ROBERTS IN ROME

One of the Vatican’s most senior money-men has been arrested in an alleged plot to smuggle 20 million Euros into Italy on a government plane.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, the bishop of Salerno, and the chief accountant for the Vatican’s vast property portfolio, has been taken into custody along with an Italian secret agent Mario Zito and broker Giovanni Carenzio.

Scarano, 61, who worked at Deutsche bank before taking ecclesiastical vows, is accused of fraud, corruption, and other charges, as part of a wider investigation into the IOR Vatican Bank.

His nickname in Vatican circles was reportedly ‘Don 500 Euros’ thanks to his habit of showing people that he had only the largest bank note in his wallet.

The high profile arrests come just 48 hours after Pope Francis announced the line up for his commission into the Vatican Bank.

The so-called ‘Bank of God ‘ has been tarnished by scandal and suspicion for 30 years.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
El Universal

NICOLE WINFIELD – AP | CIUDAD DEL VATICANO | Publicado el 28 de junio de 2013

Un funcionario del Vaticano que ya estaba bajo investigación por un presunto ardid para lavar dinero, fue arrestado el viernes por una operación distinta: los fiscales dicen que trató de trasladar 20 millones de euros en efectivo de Suiza a Italia a bordo de un avión del gobierno italiano.

Monseñor Nunzio Scarano, recientemente suspendido como contador de uno de los principales departamentos financieros del Vaticano, está acusado de fraude, corrupción y otros cargos relacionados con el plan, el cual nunca se llevó a cabo, dijo su abogado Silverio Sica a The Associated Press.

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ITALIA
la Repubblica

La nomina di ieri di monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca come prelato dello Ior non è che il primo atto di una rivoluzione che in autunno porterà la curia romana a cambiare completamente pelle. Il 29 giugno, in particolare, festa dei santi Pietro e Paolo, è data ritenuta importante. In questo giorno, infatti, potrebbero essere annunciati gli spostamenti di alcuni capi dicastero, “promozioni” utili a ridisegnare la governance vaticana. Insieme, spostamenti che permetteranno al Papa di convogliare nei posti che contano energie nuove e soprattutto persone di sua stretta fiducia. Sul nome del nuovo Segretario di Stato, invece, vige il massimo riserbo. Così anche sulla data dell’annuncio.

A oggi in pole position c’è l’attuale presidente del governatorato della Città del Vaticano, Giuseppe Bertello, che in scia a quanto auspicava la “Pastor Bonus” di Paolo VI (la costituzione apostolica dedicata proprio alla curia romana), se nominato manterrebbe entrambi gli incarichi. In alternativa, un altro nome molto considerato da Bergoglio è quello dell’attuale nunzio in Venezuela Pietro Parolin, già numero tre della stessa segreteria di stato. Certo, il “nodo Bertone” non è ancora del tutto risolto: il quasi ottantenne segretario di stato, infatti, sembra puntare a una clamorosa, quanto improbabile, prorogatio di un anno.

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ITALIE
Atlantico (France)

Le pape François avait dit lors d’une audience privée, il y a quelques semaines, que le Vatican était “gangrené par la corruption”. Il semble que le souverain pontife ait eu raison. En tout cas, l’arrestation de Mgr Nunzio Scarano, évêque de Salerne, jette le trouble. Le prélat est en effet soupçonné de fraude et de corruption. Un membre des services secrets italiens et un intermédiaire financier ont été eux aussi arrêtés vendredi matin dans le cadre d’une enquête de la justice italienne sur l’Institut des oeuvres de religion (IOR), la banque du Vatican. Des dizaines de millions d’euros avaient été bloqués dans le cadre d’une enquête qui avait conduit, entre autre, au limogeage de la direction du IOR. Au fil des ans, des scandales retentissants ont entaché la réputation de l’IOR, des milieux criminels ayant profité de l’anonymat ou de prête-noms pour y blanchir leurs fonds.

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ITALIA
Corriere del Ticino

ROMA – Tre persone sono state arrestate oggi nell’ambito di un filone di indagine sullo Ior in corso alla procura della Repubblica di Roma.

Tra i fermati c’è monsignor Nunzio Scarano, responsabile del servizio di contabilità analitica dell’Amministrazione del patrimonio della Sede Apostolica (Apsa), l’organismo che gestisce i beni della Santa Sede.

Scarano, tra l’altro, è coinvolto a Salerno in un’altra indagine per ricettazione.
Le altre due persone arrestate sono l’agente dell’Aisi Maria Zito e il broker Giovanni Carenzio. Le ordinanze di custodia cautelare sono state firmate del giudice per le indagini preliminari (gip) Barbara Callari su richiesta del procuratore aggiunto Nello Rossi e dei sostituti Stefano Rocco Fava e Stefano Pesci.

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ITALIA
ANSA

Sacerdote dal 1987, mons. Nunzio Scarano prima di prendere i voti e’ stato funzionario di banca. Nei primi giorni di giugno e’ stato iscritto nel registro degli indagati della Procura della Repubblica di Salerno con l’accusa di riciclaggio in un’inchiesta su presunte donazioni, ritenute fittizie dall’accusa. Secondo l’ipotesi investigativa, in realta’ queste donazioni sarebbero servite a mascherare un maxi riciclaggio di denaro, che ruotava proprio intorno alla figura di Scarano. Il prelato – sempre secondo l’ipotesi investigativa – avrebbe contattato alcune decine di persone (56 gli indagati tra Salerno e provincia) e avrebbe chiesto a ognuno di loro la compilazione di un assegno circolare da 10mila euro, spiegando di dover ripianare i debiti di una societa’ immobiliare titolare di alcune case nel centro di Salerno.

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ITALIA
il Mattino

Guerra tra cugini. Scarano contro Scarano. È da una diatriba familiare che nasce l’inchiesta . Il prelato che velatamente accusa il cugino e il socio di questi di furto e un avvocato, Cecchino Cacciatore, che nel presentare le proprie indagini difensive consegna nelle mani degli inquirenti delle carte che «scottano».

A far partire le indagini, dunque, una denuncia presentata proprio da monsignor Nunzio Scarano ai carabinieri. Il prelato aveva subito, secondo quanto denunciato, un furto nella sua abitazione di Salerno di tele, monili in oro, argenteria, quadri d’autore di De Chirico, Labella e Guttuso, di un crocifisso dell’altare di San Pietro del Bernini, e infine di una pergamena in olio che rappresenta un vaso dello Scatizzi. Il tutto per un danno di circa cinque-sei milioni di euro.

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ITALY
BBC News

A senior Italian cleric has been arrested in connection with an inquiry into the Vatican bank scandal over allegations of corruption and fraud.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano works in the Vatican’s financial administration. A secret service agent and a financial broker have also been arrested.

They are suspected of trying to move 20m euros illegally into Italy.

Pope Francis ordered an unprecedented internal investigation into the bank’s affairs in the wake of recent scandals.

Monsignor Scarano has been under investigation by Italian police for a series of suspicious transactions involving the recycling of a series of cheques described as church donations through the Vatican Bank.

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ITALIA
il Mattino

SALERNO. Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, prelato salernitano, è indagato dalla Procura della Repubblica di Salerno, insieme ad altre 56 persone, per il reato di riciclaggio. Monsignor Scarano è addetto tecnico di prima categoria dell’Apsa in Vaticano, l’Amministrazione Patrimonio Sede Apostolica che gestisce i beni della Santa Sede in Italia. L’iscrizione di mons. Scarano nel registro degli indagati – anticipata dal quotidiano salernitano La Città – è stata confermata da fonti della Procura di Salerno.

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ITALIA
Corriere della Sera

ROMA – A neppure 48 ore dalla svolta di Papa Francesco che mercoledì 26 ha nominato una commissione di cardinali per raccogliere informazioni sulle reali attività dell’Istituto per le Opere Religiose, arriva una clamorosa svolta nei rapporti tra Stato italiano e Vaticano: un alto prelato, un funzionario dei Servizi segreti ed un broker finanziario sono stati arrestati nell’ ambito di un filone di indagine sullo Ior in corso alla Procura della Repubblica di Roma. Sono accusati di corruzione, calunnia e truffa: i reati riguardano la vicenda del rientro di una grossa somma in contanti dalla Svizzera. Le autorità vaticane si sono dette «pronte a collaborare» anche se al momento non avrebbero «ancora alcuna richiesta», ha spiegato il portavoce padre Federico Lombardi.

INDAGINI DELLA GUARDIA DI FINANZA – Gli arresti, dopo le indagini svolte dal nucleo valutario della Gdf, sono stati chiesti dalla Procura e confermati dal gip della Capitale, Barbara Callari. Il provvedimento cautelare ha colpito: monsignor Nunzio Scarano, 61 anni, fino a 24 ore prima capo contabile all’Apsa (Amministrazione del patrimonio della Sede Apostolica) – e da due settimane già indagato dalla Procura di Salerno per il crack del Pastificio Amato -; un ex funzionario del Servizio segreto interno, Giovanni Maria Zito, sottufficiale dei carabinieri, espulso dall’Aisi tre mesi fa; il broker finanziario Giovanni Carenzio, un italiano che lavora soprattutto all’estero.

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ITALIEN
N24

Die italienische Polizei hat den hochrangigen Vatikan-Geistlichen Nunzio Scarano festgenommen. Er soll in einen Geldwäsche-Skandal verwickelt sein. Ermittelt wird auch gegen einen Geheimdienstler.

Die italienische Polizei hat den vatikanischen Geistlichen Monsignor Nunzio Scarano wegen seiner mutmaßlichen Beteiligung an einem millionenschweren geplanten Geldtransfer festgenommen. Dem kürzlich suspendierten Funktionär der durch Geldwäscheskandale angeschlagenen Vatikanbank wird vorgeworfen, den heimlichen Transfer von 20 Millionen Euro in einem Regierungsflugzeug aus der Schweiz nach Italien geplant zu haben, wie Scaranos Anwalt Silverio Sica am Freitag mitteilte. Der Plan wurde letztlich nie in die Tat umgesetzt.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

One of the Hunter Valley’s top female detectives is today expected to give evidence at a New South Wales inquiry into child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church.

The first stage of the Special Commission is expected to wrap up this morning.

It is looking into claims by policeman Peter Fox that he was told by senior colleagues to stop investigating two Catholic priests.

Senior police officers, including Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, have given evidence over three weeks of public hearings in Newcastle.

It is expected the inquiry will this morning hear from Newcastle’s Local Area Commander, Superintendent John Gralton, and Detective Sergeant Kristi Faber.

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WYOMING
Billings Gazette

By MEGAN CASSIDY Casper Star-Tribune

CASPER, Wyo. — A former church janitor could spend nearly 20 years in jail after his second sex crime conviction in a decade.

James David Jaure is accused of multiple acts of molestation on young girls — some under 13 — while he was employed at Highland Park Church in Casper. Police allege Jaure allowed church members to believe he was a youth leader, which gained him access to the girls.

Jaure, 29, is listed under Wyoming’s Sex Offender Registry, but it is unclear by the police affidavit whether church employers were aware of this upon hiring him. According to the website, he was convicted on April 2, 2004 in Cheyenne for third-degree sexual assault.

Officials at the church were unavailable for comment late Thursday afternoon, and a witness listed in the affidavit declined to speak about the case.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: ROSE FRENCH , Star Tribune Updated: June 27, 2013

New state law gives victims of child sex abuse more time to file suits.

Hundreds of lawsuits with potential big payouts for victims of child sex abuse are expected after a new state law allows more time to sue accused perpetrators and the institutions where they worked.

The Catholic Church and other religious groups stand to be hit hardest under the Child Victims Act, according to victims rights advocates, who call the measure the nation’s most expansive such law.

So far, at least eight suits have been filed against Catholic entities since the law was enacted in May, and hundreds more could be on the horizon based on the number filed in other states where similar laws were enacted, advocates say. Two Catholic dioceses sought bankruptcy protection in two of those states.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston.com

By NICOLE WINFIELD / Associated Press / June 28, 2013

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A Vatican official was arrested Friday by Italian police for allegedly trying to bring 20 million euros ($26 million) in cash into the country from Switzerland aboard an Italian government plane, his lawyer said.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, already under investigation in a purported money-laundering plot involving the Vatican bank, is accused of fraud, corruption and slander stemming from the plot, which never got off the ground, attorney Silverio Sica told The Associated Press.

It was the latest financial scandal to hit the Vatican and came just two days after Pope Francis created a commission of inquiry into the Vatican bank to get to the bottom of the problems that have plagued it for decades and contributed to damaging the Vatican’s reputation.

Sica said Scarano was a middleman in the Swiss operation. Friends had asked him to intervene with a broker, Giovanni Carenzio, to return 20 million euros they had given him to invest. Sica said Scarano persuaded Carenzio to return the money, and an Italian secret service agent, Giovanni Maria Zito, went to Switzerland to bring the cash back aboard an Italian government aircraft. Such a move would presumably prevent any reporting of the money coming into Italy.

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ROME
Catholic Culture

Pope Francis has confirmed the role of Cardinal Velasio De Paolis as a special papal delegate to oversee reforms in the Legion of Christ.

In a letter to Cardinal De Paolis, made public by the Vatican on June 27, the Pope said that the Italian prelate’s role would continue until an extraordinary chapter of the Legionaries, to be held in 2014, at which the religious order will elect new leaders and approve a new constitution. The results of that meeting, the Pope wrote, should be “fundamental steps in the path towards the authentic and profound renewal of the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ and, indirectly, as well for the activity of the whole Regnum Christi Movement.”

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INDIA
The Hindu

The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a habeas corpus petition seeking the release of a parish priest, who had allegedly sexually-abused a 14-year-old girl in the US, and who is now lodged in Tihar Jail in New Delhi.

A Division Bench comprising Justices V. Dhanapalan and C.T. Selvam passed the order on a petition by one P. Pushpavathy, challenging an order of the Ministry of External Affairs, of March 8, 2011, requesting the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala House Courts, New Delhi, to inquire into the request for extradition of the petitioner’s brother, Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, to the US.

To facilitate the inquiry, an arrest warrant against Jeyapaul, who was wanted by the US authorities for alleged “criminal sexual conduct in the first degree”, under that country’s laws, was necessitated. The warrant was necessary as he was not available for the inquiry.

The petitioner said Jeyapaul was incardinated to the Catholic Diocese of Ootacamund and was ordained a priest in May 1982. He served as Assistant Parish Priest in St. John De Britto Church, Sathyamangalam, Erode district, from 1982 to 1983 and became a parish priest in 1985.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Bronislaus B. Kush, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

WORCESTER — Thomas H. Teczar, the defrocked Worcester priest who is serving a 50-year sentence in Texas for molesting an 11-year-old boy more than 20 years ago, may be released from prison because of medical problems afflicting the ex-clergyman.

Mr. Teczar, who was also publicly accused of sexually assaulting at least two Central Massachusetts boys, was formally removed from the priesthood by Pope Benedict XVI in September 2011.

Texas prosecutors and victims of Mr. Teczar were informed this week that the Parole Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is considering an early parole for the former priest and asked them to provide comments on any such action.

Ordinarily, Mr. Teczar would not be considered for parole until Oct. 23, 2019.

“I don’t know how they can possibly consider doing this,” said Dallas lawyer Tahira Khan Merritt, who represented eight of Mr. Teczar’s victims in civil litigation and who was later appointed a special prosecutor in Eastland County, Texas, for Mr. Teczar’s criminal case.

She said the recidivism rate for pedophiles is high and wondered how authorities would monitor Mr. Teczar, were he to be released.

Ms. Merritt said Mr. Teczar has been accused of abusing at least 14 boys.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 27

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

A dangerous predator priest is one step closer to being sent back to the US for trial. We are grateful for Indian court officials for their ruling today in the case of Fr. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, who molested girls in the Crookston MN diocese.

We’ve long worried about the safety of girls in India near Jeyapaul, especially since his bishop put him in charge of overseeing schools, knowing full well that he was considered a fugitive from US criminal authorities.

Jeyapaul is one of an increasing number of accused predator priests who are allowed to flee to other countries despite credible child sex abuse allegations or sometimes arrest warrants.

According to BishopAccountability.org, Minnesota Catholic officials “knew of rumors about inappropriate behavior by (Jeyapaul) in 8/04” but Jeyapaul “suddenly returned to India in 9/05.”

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INDIANA
WNDU

PLYMOUTH A Plymouth pastor has been called to take over a Fort Wayne parish after a priest was caught in a child abuse scandal.

The Plymouth Pilot reports that Father William Kummer will replace Reverend Cornelius Ryan, who was removed from his position at Saint Joseph Catholic Church earlier this month.

Ryan admitted to allegations of child abuse, after being confronted. The allegations reportedly involve an incident in Africa about 20 years ago.

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CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise

BY BRIAN ROKOS STAFF WRITER June 27, 2013

Bail remained at $65,000 Thursday, June 27, for Todd Michael Edwards, the man accused of sexually assaulting two teen girls who were members of a Mormon church in Menifee where Edwards was bishop.

Edwards’ defense attorneys had been seeking a bail reduction. But during a hearing Thursday morning in Riverside, Superior Court Judge Becky L. Dugan said the amount of bail was appropriate for the charges: sexual penetration with a foreign object while using bodily force, sexual battery and dissuading a witness.

Edwards, who turns 49 on June 29, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. A date of July 24 was set Thursday for a felony settlement conference.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

The Hunter’s most senior police are at odds over who ordered the search of whistleblower Peter Fox’s locked office in 2010.

Contradictory evidence has emerged before the Special Commission of Inquiry during the final week of examination into how Newcastle police dealt with allegations the church tried to cover up sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher – both now dead.

On Wednesday, Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey told the special commission that the then Commander Carlene York’s staff officer, Inspector Fay Dunn, requested the search of Chief Inspector Fox’s office.

Chief Inspector Humphrey said he had received a “panicked” call from Inspector Dunn, who had been asked “hard questions” by Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy.

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DALLAS (TX)
Tahira Khan Merritt, Attorney at Law

Today, Attorney Tahira Khan Merritt of Dallas has learned that ex-priest Thomas Teczar, currently serving a 50 year prison sentence in Texas for aggravated sexual assault of a child, is being considered for “medical parole.”

Teczar, formerly a priest with the Diocese of Fort Worth and the Diocese of Worcester, MA, has been accused of molesting at least fourteen boys over his career as a priest. To allow Teczar to be released on parole would create a dangerous public precedence for offending clergy currently incarcerated for child abuse charges throughout the country. Teczar has been and is still a danger to children and to the public regardless of where he lives. He should not be paroled.

Please take the time TODAY to fax your concerns regarding Teczar’s possible release to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice–Parole Division at (512) 406-5294.

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INDIA
Times of India

CHENNAI: Clearing the decks for the extradition of an Ooty-based fugitive priest – Fr Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul – to the US where he must stand trial for “first degree criminal sexual conduct”, the Madras high court has upheld his arrest and refused to quash it as illegal detention.

According to U.S. authorities Jeyapaul had sexually abused a 14 year old girl in 2004 while he was parish priest of a local church in Minnesota. He met the girl at a youth conference in 2004 and sexually abused her till 2005. Jeyapaul returned to India on August 31, 2005, to be at the bedside of his critically ill mother.

In 2011, the U.S. embassy sent a diplomatic note, requesting the union ministry of external affairs (MEA) to extradite Jeyapal to stand trial for the first degree sexual offence case, which it said, carries a maximum punishment of 30 years of jail term. The MEA, in turn, issued an order on March 8, 2011 requesting the additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Patiala House Court in New Delhi, to determine whether the extradition request was in order and whether a prima facie exists against Jeyapaul.

On April 19, 2011, the MEA filed an application for warrant for the arrest of the ‘fugitive criminal’. He was arrested on March 16, 2012 at Chimitahalli near Sathyamangalam in Erode district in Tamil Nadu and produced before the Delhi court on March 19, 2012. He has since been housed at the Tihar jail in Delhi.

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ITALIA
il Referendum

di Vincenzo Lentini

Lo scandalo dei preti pedofili in Vaticano scuote la Chiesa di Papa Francesco, di nuovo. Con questo ultimo caso la rete riporta alla luce una petizione che si può firmare online e che chiede a Papa Francesco misure concrete anti pedofilia. L’idea è della Rete “L’abuso” a tutela dei bambini, curata da Francesco Zanardi. Qui si può firmare la petizione che ha fino ad ora ottenuto 6768 sostenitori.

La denuncia di Don Poggi

Rapporti sessuali con minori (e non) spesso di nazionalità rumena avvenivano anche all’interno degli edifici sacri. L’accusa, diretta a ben 9 preti, stavolta è diversa perché arriva dall’interno e, per questo, fa ancora più male: a parlare, infatti, è don Patrizio Poggi, ex parroco di San Filippo Neri di Roma, sospeso “a divinis” e condannato nel ’99 a otto anni di reclusione, poi ridotti a cinque, per aver abusato sessualmente di cinque ragazzini tra i 14 e i 15 che frequentavano la sua parrocchia. Dopo il rifiuto delle alte sfere ecclesiastiche alla richiesta dell’ex parroco di poter tornare a dire messa, una volta scontata la sua pena, don Poggi lo scorso 8 Marzo presentò ai carabinieri una denuncia scottante contenente i nomi dei prelati coinvolti; ma non solo.

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ROMA
Aburzzo24ore

L’ennesimo scandalo dei preti pedofili esce allo scoperto grazie alla denuncia di don Patrizio Poggi, prete condannato a cinque anni per violenza sessuale nei confronti di minori, ex parroco del San Filippo Neri di Roma dice di sentire “il dovere di tutelare la Santa Chiesa e la comunità cristiana”.

Il prete dopo aver scontato la condanna voleva ritornare a fare il sacerdote, al rifiuto del Vaticano al suo reintegro ha riferito ai carabinieri i fatti di cui era a conoscenza.

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ROMA
Blitz Quotidiano

ROMA – Don Patrizio Poggi perdonato da Papa Ratzinger? Il sito Affari Italiani racconta nuovi particolari sulla vicenda dell’ex parroco del San Filippo Neri di Roma, condannato a cinque anni di reclusione per violenza sessuale su minori, è al centro di uno scandalo sulla pedofilia nella curia romana dopo la sua denuncia ai carabinieri, nomi e cognomi (fonte Il Corriere della Sera) di prelati e un circuito di prostituzione giovanile/minorile a beneficio di monsignori e parroci romani.

Nuovi inquietanti particolari continuano ad emergere dopo la denuncia di Don Patrizio Poggi. Secondo Affari Italiani

…dalle pagine della denuncia emerge che il sacerdote, sospeso “a divinis” nel 2010, era stato “perdonato” da Benedetto XVI. Il Papa emerito, cioè – stando a quanto detto da Poggi – nel 2011 aveva accolto il ricorso presentato dal prete contro il provvedimento che lo sospendeva e Joseph Ratzinger gli aveva accordato la “Restitutio ad integrum”, cioè la possibilità di tornare a esercitare il ministero sacerdotale. La questione è ancora pendente presso la Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede, alla quale Ratzinger aveva rinviato don Poggi per l’esecuzione della decisione papale.

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ROME
The Australian

JAMES BONE, ROME From: The Times June 28, 2013

A FORMER police officer pulled up outside a bar known as Twink – slang for a gay youth – next to Rome’s central station. He drove a Fiat Panda marked “Emergency Blood” so that he could park easily. Then he picked up Romanian “rent boys”, some under-age, for encounters with Catholic priests.

The explosive claim has been made by a convicted pedophile priest to Italian police in a case that threatens to rock the Vatican.

Don Patrizio Poggi, who served five years for abusing five boys aged 14 and 15 while a parish priest in Rome, named clerics who were alleged clients of the boys. They include four priests, two ex-priests and a military chaplain.

The boys were paid from E150 to E500 and sometimes more, Poggi said, and some encounters took place on church premises.

“I decided to file this complaint and co-operate with the law after long reflection and after a painful history of abuse and misuse of power that I have overcome thanks to the faith that guides me,” the defrocked priest told police.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MICHAEL OWEN AND VERITY EDWARDS From: The Australian June 28, 2013

SENATE President John Hogg says he will take no action against independent senator Nick Xenophon for wrongly naming in parliament an Adelaide priest as a perpetrator of clerical sexual abuse.

In a letter to Monsignor Ian Dempsey obtained by The Australian, Senator Hogg said it was not his role “to make judgments about the speeches made by senators”.

He said that he had already reminded senators “to use their great power of freedom of speech responsibly” after Senator Xenophon used parliamentary privilege in September 2011 to name Monsignor Dempsey as one of three priests who allegedly abused the former head of the Traditional Anglican Communion, John Hepworth, in a Catholic seminary in the 1960s.

Senator Hogg also noted in the letter that the Senate had agreed to publish a response from Monsignor Dempsey in September, becoming the first house of parliament anywhere in the world to allow unelected people to respond on the parliamentary record.

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ILLINOIS/WISCONSIN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com)

Norbert Maday, an ex-Chicago predator priest who was convicted in Wisconsin for molesting boys, will be released from prison in the next few weeks. We suspect he’ll move back to the Chicago area, and we call on Chicago Catholic officials to use their vast resources to warn families about him.

Maday was convicted in 1994 on three counts of sexual assault and one count of intimidating a victim and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

He was ordained in 1964 and graduated from St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein (in the same class with two other Chicago predator priests: Fr. Robert Mayer and Fr. Ralph Strand. Maday worked at St. John of God in Chicago (1964-66), St. Leo’s in Chicago (1966-1969), St. Louis de Montfort in Oak Lawn IL (1969-77), St. Bede the Venerable in Chicago (1977-83), Our Lady of the Ridge in Chicago Ridge Il (1983-89), and St. Jude the Apostle in South Holland IL (1989-1992). He was also the associate director of the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Youth.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

A prosecutor has disclosed that embattled Newark Archbishop John Myers is withholding documents about an admitted child molesting cleric, Fr. Michael Fugee.

Today’s The Record newspaper reports that “investigators still need to . . .secure more documents from the Newark Archdiocese that have not been turned over.” It quotes prosecutor John Molinelli.

We see this pattern often. In public, Catholic officials claim they’re cooperating with prosecutors. In private, they’re actually stonewalling prosecutors.

Moving promptly in the Fr. Fugee case is critical because Myers is still letting an admitted child molester live in an undisclosed Newark area Catholic parish. Myers refuses to put Fr. Fugee in a secure treatment center. And Myers refuses to disclose Fr. Fugee’s whereabouts.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

MONDAY, JUNE 24, 2013

Here is the victim impact statement submitted to Judge Ellen Ceisler by Billy Doe, as read in court by Assistant District Attorney Evangelia Manos:

Dear Your Honor,

My name is [Billy Doe]. I’m the victim of these horrendous men. My life and childhood have been destroyed by these men and the things they did to me. I went through something no child or anyone should go through. They have taken from me, and I will never get back, a lot of those things. For the past 14 years, I have tried to numb the pain and forget what they did to me.

Constant depression, anxiety, flashbacks, and reminder of the hell that I was dragged through. I quickly found myself spiraling out of control and getting into trouble, desperately trying to stop the pain. I tried to commit suicide numerous times, and had years of suicidal ideation. I spent years going to sleep, hoping I did not wake up. And in the mornings, I would dread living through another day. By 11, I was smoking marijuana, trying to stop my suffering, but it never seemed to go away.

I fell quickly into a life of addiction, and, as I got older, it got worse. It led me to a life of heroin addiction, jail, and many institutions. I tore my family apart and disappointed them for many years. Only after I got clean and brought this to light, we started to rebuilt our relationship, and it finally feels good to make my family proud of me. Even though I am a victim, I am now a survivor.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

MONDAY, JUNE 24, 2013

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

On June 20, defense lawyers for Father Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero filed motions to appeal Judge Ellen Ceisler’s “excessive and unreasonable” sentences.

On June 21, Judge Ceisler denied both motions. The defense can now appeal the judge’s decisions to Superior Court.

The court documents, however, lay out for the first time the details on how brutally the judge clobbered the defendants.

Let’s start with Engelhardt.

The jury convicted Engelhardt on three charges: endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault, and corrupting the morals of a minor. The jury convicted the priest of a fourth charge, conspiracy, but the judge said the jury made a mistake on that one, and she tossed the conspiracy charge as unproven.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 2013

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

Mariana Sorensen, author of two high-profile grand jury reports on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, has resigned from the district attorney’s office. Her last day of work was Friday, June 21.

Sorensen, an assistant district attorney in the special investigations unit, declined to be interviewed. A polarizing figure, she was regarded by victims advocates as a champion crusader, and by church critics as a Catholic-hating zealot.

The 2005 grand jury report on the archdiocese was a ground-breaking document nationally that exposed sexual abuse of minors by the local clergy. This reporter hailed it as a “literary masterpiece.” To the local archdiocese’s lawyers, however, it was “a vile, mean-spirited diatribe” that sought to convict the Catholic Church in the court of public opinion, based upon “an unfair and inaccurate portrayal of facts.”

Archdiocese lawyers may have argued over how the facts were portrayed, but they couldn’t argue with the weight of the evidence. The 2005 grand jury report was based upon 45,000 documents subpoenaed from the archdiocese’s own secret archive files. Those files, kept in a locked safe at archdiocese headquarters, catalogued the sins of priests over four decades.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

Adelaide Catholic Archbishop, Philip Wilson (pictured above) was director of Religious Education for the Newcastle-Maitland diocese and a teacher at the St. Pius X High School in Newcastle at the time of serious abuses there (see previous posting).

Peter Gogarty was a victim from this time and has expressed disbelief that Wilson knew nothing of the abuses at the school. Both Wilson and Mr. Gogarty are due to give evidence to the New South Wales government inquiry into clerical abuses in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese in the next couple of weeks.

In an earlier posting, the fact that Wilson will be permitted to give his evidence in private was criticized. This criticism remains valid. It was also noted that Mr. Gogarty was to give in-camera evidence, and this was considered “fair enough,” at the time.

However, that was on the assumption that it was Mr. Gogarty’s choice. It now transpires that it was the decision of the Special Commissioner, Ms. Cunneen, and not Mr. Gogarty’s wish at all.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

The case of Cardinal Bernard Law, in the U.S., came to light through investigative journalism. Similarly, the Newcastle-Maitland problems saw the light of day ultimately through the investigative efforts of Fairfax journalist, Joanne McCarthy, of the Newcastle Herald. For this she was awarded the title of Australian Journalist of the Year.

This week she gave evidence to the New South Wales enquiry into clerical child sexual abuse. There, she said that “It was about having the victims and their families looked after…I didn’t want to go the police…I wanted the police to investigate… It was my only aim.”

It is almost impossible for an investigative journalist not to become part of the story. It is much easier to cover the local school fete and similar low-involvement stories. Ms. McCarthy is not a hack. By the time she had heard a few victim stories, she could not avoid seeing the story through to its natural conclusion.

Those who have heard victims tell their stories (for the first time for many of these victims), the effect can be profound. Those who might be inclined to be critical of her should bear this in mind. They should ask themselves – What would I have done?

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CONNECTICUT
Norwich Bulletin

By JOHN BARRY
The Bulletin
Posted Jun 25, 2013

New London, Conn. —
A former teacher at a Sprague school accused of sending inappropriate texts to an underage student has been sentenced to probation.

According to the terms of a plea bargain agreed to in April, Robert Pfeiffer, 31, of Hebron, received a five-year suspended sentence and five years’ probation.

Pfeiffer will not be able to teach or coach during the five years of his probation. In addition, he is expected to have to submit to sexual offender status, in which he will be banned from unsupervised contact with minors. The terms of the deal don’t require him to register as a sex offender.

The plea bargain was made on the eve of Pfeiffer’s trial in New London Superior Court in order to spare the girl to whom he sent the messages the ordeal of testifying, said attorney Bernard Steadman, who represents her interests in court.

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CONNECTICUT
Turn to 10

NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) – A 31-year-old former teacher at a parochial school in Sprague has been sentenced to five years of probation for sending inappropriate texts to a female student.

Robert Pfeiffer of Hebron had pleaded no contest in April to a charge of risk of injury to a minor.

Prosecutors say Pfeiffer sent messages seeking a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student at the Academy for the Holy Family in 2010.

They say he resigned after telling the principal at the school he was texting hypothetical scenarios to ensure the girl would be able to say ‘no’ to boys in the future.

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CONNECTICUT
The Day

By Karen Florin
Publication: theday.com

Published 06/25/2013 12:00

A lawyer representing a former Academy of the Holy Family student described disgraced history teacher Robert Pfeiffer as a “groomer” and a “predator” as Pfeiffer was sentenced Tuesday in New London Superior Court for sending sexually explicit text messages to the student in 2010.

Pfeiffer, 31, of Hebron had pleaded no contest to risk of injury to a minor in April as attorneys were selecting a jury for a trial in New London Superior Court. Prosecutor Theresa Anne Ferryman offered him a five-year prison sentence, fully suspended, and five years of probation in exchange for the felony conviction and his inability to teach for the next five years.

The victim, who has since graduated at the top of her class and moved out of state, did not want to testify against Pfeiffer at his trial. Attorney Bernard Steadman, who served as a guardian ad litem for the teen, said she is thriving despite the incident with Pfeiffer and other trauma in her life. Steadman did not buy Pfeiffer’s defense that he had “sexted” with the girl to see if she would be able to “say no” to boys in the future.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

DULUTH, Minn. — A civil lawsuit has been filed against the Diocese of Duluth by a 55-year-old man who says he was abused by a priest as a young boy.

The lawsuit is the first in St. Louis County under Minnesota’s new law creating a three-year window for past victims of childhood abuse to file a civil suit against their abuser or the institution that may have allowed the abuse.

Michael DeRoche’s lawsuit asks for more than $50,000. It also wants the diocese to release the names of priests who have been “credibly accused” of molesting children.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

THURSDAY JUNE 27, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

The lawyer representing the Rev. Michael Fugee in his contempt of court case requested a hearing scheduled for next month to get an early look at evidence that prosecutors have amassed in recent weeks.

The July 25 probable cause hearing, said Michael D’Alessio, the lawyer, is meant to compel the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office to present some evidence that Fugee allegedly failed to follow a legal ban on ministering to children. The priest signed the agreement with prosecutors and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark in 2007 as part of a deal to dismiss a decades-old case that he allegedly groped a 13-year-old Wyckoff boy.

Prosecutors are continuing their apparently far-reaching investigation in the Fugee case. So far, they have seized two computers from the priest’s residence, conducted interviews and obtained thousands of pages of documents from the archdiocese, where Fugee worked in two office jobs until he resigned from the ministry last month, according to D’Alessio and prosecutors.

Fugee’s lawyer said he requested the public hearing before Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi to “find out the basis of the complaint.” D’Alessio would not present his own evidence but would be able to cross-examine any witnesses who testified for the prosecution.

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NEW JERSEY
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | Jun 27, 2013

After maintaining radio silence for a month, Archbishop Myers of Newark made another effort at self-exoneration this week in a Q. and A. with the National Catholic Register. To say that his A’s strain credulity would be an understatement.

Asked whether by returning Rev. Michael Fugee to ministry he had violated the U.S. bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children’s “zero tolerance” policy for all priests with credible accusations of clergy abuse, Myers said, “The memorandum of understanding worked out with the prosecutor’s office said he could function as a priest, but not with minors in an unsupervised capacity.”

That’s not the case. The memorandum makes clear that Fugee was not to minister to minors, period.

Myers continued: “The assignments I gave him were intended to increase supervision. He was in the chancery eight hours a day, and he was working with another priest to identify places where priests could participate in retreats. In that role, he had no contact with children.”

That’s far from the whole truth. Myers fails to mention that he also assigned Fugee to serve as a chaplain at St. Michael’s Medical Center without informing hospital administrators of the legal restrictions on him.

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ROME
International Business Times

By UMBERTO BACCHI: June 27, 2013

Italian investigators have opened an inquiry into claims by a convicted paedophile priest that an underage prostitution ring has been operating inside the Holy Roman Church with clergymen hiring rentboys for sex inside churches.

Don Patrizio Poggi, 46, told Italian authorities that a former Carabinieri pimped boys for nine clergymen.

Poggi, who served a five-year sentence for abusing teenage boys while he was a parish priest at the San Filippo Neri church in Rome, said he made the allegations to “protect the Holy Church and the Christian community.”

The boys were chosen because they were starving and desperate, he claimed, according to Il Messaggero newspaper.

The former policeman used to recruit the boys, mostly eastern European immigrants, outside a gay bar named Twink near Rome’s Termini train station. He reportedly sat in his Fiat Panda – marked “Emergency Blood” to avoid parking fines – to make his selection.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

SHANNON DEERY
HERALD SUN JUNE 27, 2013

HIGH-profile priest Fatherr Bob Maguire has been drawn into the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis after it was alleged an altar boy from one of his former parishes was the victim of abuse.

The 11-year-old was an altar boy where Fr Maguire was stationed in the early 1970s and says he was abused by another priest after doing odd jobs at his home for pocket money.

The alleged abuse did not happen at the parish church or home where Fr Maguire lived. There have been no allegations levelled at Fr Maguire.

A retired priest in his 80s, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on Wednesday was committed to stand trial in the County Court over the allegations.

Fr Maguire last night told the Herald Sun he was rocked by the allegations levelled at a man he had known since the 1960s.

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AUSTRALIA
Voiceless Victim

[Rudd returns as Aussie PM after ousting Gillard]

Many victims of child sexual abuse are mourning Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s overnight defeat at the hands of the smirking, conniving, grey haired boys club. I suspect she knew all along her time at the top would be short and that she had a limited opportunity to achieve real change before she would be taken down for the crime of being a successful, assertive woman.

Unlike many of our underachieving politicians, Julia did not waste her time in power. She made a genuine, positive difference to so many people’s lives and to our nation’s progress towards being a humane society.

The people she aided were not the ones who would help fund a privileged retirement from politics. Rejecting self interest for social justice, Julia Gillard stood up for the rights of the abused, the neglected, and the deserving. And she did it with grace, with conviction and with calm determination.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

Der kirchliche Missbrauchsskandal wird hierzulande, anders als in Irland, nie aufgearbeitet werden
Promt nach der Veröffentlichung des Endberichts der Kommission Wilhelminenberg (“Helige-Kommission”) reagierte, wie erwartet, die Wiener Opposition: ÖVP-Landesparteiobmann Manfred Juraczka zeigte sich “erschüttert” über das Ausmaß der Vorfälle, und FPÖ-Chef Strache empörte sich über nun angeblich nachgewiesene Vertuschung “von oben”.

Das Dokument selbst zeugt von einem aufrichtigen Versuch, aufzuklären. Der Leser dieses 344 Seiten starken Berichts kann sich zweifelsohne von dem, was sich zwischen 1948 und 1977 im Wiener Kinderheim abspielte, ein lebendiges Bild machen, und zwar aus sachlichem, geschichtlichem, juristischem sowie medizinischem Blickwinkel. Insbesondere das einleitende Kapitel “Das Leben im Kinderheim” liefert einen Einblick in einen Alltag, den niemand heutzutage gutheißen würde.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Die Presse

Zieht Rom (auch) unter Franziskus die Daumenschrauben gegen Kirchenkritiker an? Ein Vertrauensmann des neuen Papstes, Kardinal O’Malley, hat dem Sprecher der Pfarrerinitiative Schüller Auftritte in seiner Diözese Boston verboten.

Ist Helmut Schüller, der Sprecher der Parrerinitiave persona non grata im Vatikan? Wie verfährt die Kurie unter dem neuen Pontifikat mit Kritikern? Setzen sich hinter den Kulissen Bewahrer gegen Reformer durch? Verbirgt sich hinter dem freundlichen Lächeln von Franziskus ein konservativer Hardliner? Diese Fragen stellen sich angesichts der jüngsten Entwicklungen.

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SPANIEN
Mallorca

Zum ersten Mal wurde jetzt ein katholischer Priester in Spanien von einem Kirchengericht wegen Kindesmissbrauch seines Amtes enthoben.

Das Urteil aus dem März dieses Jahres wurde jetzt rechtskräftig, nachdem auch der Vatikan in Rom offiziell einer Entlassung des Geistlichen zugestimmt hat. Nach Angaben der mallorquinischen Diözese ist dies der erste Fall dieser Art in ganz Spanien.

Unterdessen wird gegen den Priester auch seitens der Justiz ermittelt. Bereits im März 2011 waren gegen den pädophilen katholischen Priester der Gemeinde Can Picafort Vorwürfe wegen sexuellem Kindesmissbrauchs erhoben worden.

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OSTERREICH
tirol@orf

Beim Aufarbeiten von Missbrauchsfällen in Tiroler Heimen will die Stadt Innsbruck ein Zeichen setzen und zwei Sozialehrenzeichen aberkennen. Das beschloss am Mittwoch der Stadtsenat, nachdem Historiker ein Gutachten präsentiert hatten.

Im Vorjahr wurde das Institut für Zeitgeschichte der Universität Innsbruck beauftragt, eine Studie über die Vorwürfe hinsichtlich Gewalt und Missbrauch durch mittlerweile verstorbene Sozialehrenzeichenträger der Stadt Innsbruck zu erstellen – mehr dazu in Träger von Ehrenzeichen am Prüfstand.

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ROM
Die Welt

In Rom werden angeblich minderjährige Einwanderer zum Sex mit Priestern gezwungen. Stimmten die Vorwürfe, wäre dies ein schwerer Rückschlag für den Papst. Er kämpft gegen Missbrauch. Von Tobias Bayer

Der ehemalige Carabiniere stellt wie immer das Auto in der Via Giolitti in der Nähe des Römer Hauptbahnhofs Termini ab. Er bleibt sitzen und wählt die Jungen aus. Meist sind es Roma, die ihren Körper für 150 bis 500 Euro auf dem Schwulenstrich feilbieten. Sie haben kein Geld, die Familie hilft ihnen nicht. Sie müssen sich verkaufen, um irgendwie über die Runden zu kommen.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 27, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

It is a common enough scenario: members of a group talking behind someone’s back about leaving them out of things. But this is not the reality television show Survivor – it is senior members of NSW Police, and the subject is the whistleblower Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox.

Chief Inspector Fox was so upset about his exclusion from the group that took over investigating allegations of Catholic paedophile priests in the Hunter region that he went on television and wrote an open letter to NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell claiming a cover-up.

The special commission of inquiry’s first term of reference is to look at why Chief Inspector Fox was asked to stop his investigations and if that was appropriate.

The inquiry has been told that in September 2010 the crime manager at Newcastle local area command, Detective Chief Inspector Brad Tayler, and the officer soon to take over from him, Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey, were told the brief that became known as Strike Force Lantle would be coming to them.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON June 27, 2013

A SENIOR police officer put in charge of Strike Force Lantle has told the Special Commission of Inquiry that he was ‘‘happy to take on the Catholic church’’ and his investigations weren’t deterred by the church’s might.

Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey has spent all morning on Thursday giving evidence to the inquiry, mostly under cross examination by counsel for Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, Mark Cohen.

Mr Cohen asked Mr Humphrey if there was an unwillingness within the Newcastle police command to take on senior members of the Catholic church after they had received a report from journalist Joanne McCarthy which alleged impropriety by senior church members.

‘‘There was certainly no reluctance on my part,’’ Mr Humphrey said. ‘‘I was happy to take on the Catholic Church.’’

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Thu, Jun 27, 2013

A number of religious congregations have told Minister for Justice Alan Shatter that they will be making no contribution to the Magdalene laundries redress scheme which is expected to cost up to €58 million.

The Irish Times understands at least two orders spoke to the Minister this week to say they were not in a position to make any financial contribution, although they would continue to look after former residents in their care.

At a press conference announcing the redress scheme yesterday, Mr Shatter said “there will be great disappointment in Cabinet if they don’t make a contribution”. Survivors and taxpayers would expect such a gesture, he added.

Under the redress scheme, recommended by a commission headed by Mr Justice John Quirke, survivors will receive payments of up to €100,000 and enhanced State pension entitlements in recognition of their time in Magdalene laundries. *

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IRISH TIMES
Joe Humphreys

Thu, Jun 27, 2013

The two main survivors’ groups gave contrasting reactions to the Quirke report, with some former residents warning they may bypass the redress scheme and go to the courts if the compensation package is not improved.

Members of Magdalene Survivors Together said that while the scheme acknowledged loss of earnings, it did not properly address the psychological, physical and emotional abuse experienced in the laundries.

Its director Steven O’Riordan said it believed about €75,000 was a “fair figure” for someone who had spent a year in a laundry, and more than three times the current offer.

The recommendation of €20,500 might compensate for loss of earnings in a year but each person should be entitled to at least double that for psychological and emotional damage, he added.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Thursday, June 27, 2013

After decades of being ignored, survivors of the Magdalene Laundries have finally been offered a compensation scheme by the State for their years of slave labour.

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

Along with a raft of medical and pension entitlements, the scheme prepared by president of the Law Reform Commission Justice John Quirke recommends survivors receive a sliding scale of payments depending on how long they spent in the institution.

The payments will range from €11,500 for women who spent three months or less in a laundry, to a maximum of €100,000 for those who were in a laundry for 10 years or more.

Justice For Magdalenes Research and the Irish Women Survivors Network based in Britain broadly welcomed the proposals, as did Bernadette Fahy who works with and provides support and assistance to a number of Magdalene survivors.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

DEARBHAIL MCDONALD LEGAL EDITOR – 27 JUNE 2013

WOMEN incarcerated in Magdalene Laundries will receive up to €100,000 as part of a redress scheme that could cost the State up to €58m.

Survivors who lived and worked for 10 years or more in the laundries will be entitled to a general payment of €40,000 plus an additional €60,000 for their forced labour.

Women who spent a year in a laundry will be paid €20,500, increasing to €68,500 for those incarcerated for five years. The maximum payment under the planned scheme is €100,000 for women who were in a Magdalene laundry for 10 years or more.

But the scheme has angered some survivors as lump-sum payments for longer term residents will be capped at €50,000, with the remainder released to survivors in tax-free weekly payments until they die.

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IRELAND
Reuters

By Conor Humphries JUNE 27, 2013

The Irish government has agreed to pay up 58 million euros (48.93 million pounds) to hundreds of women forced to work at the Catholic Church’s notorious Magdalene Laundries after a report found that a quarter of them were sent there by the Irish state.

The laundries, depicted in the award-winning film “The Magdalene Sisters“, put 10,000 women and girls as young as nine through uncompromising hardship from the foundation of the Irish state in 1922 until 1996.

Run by Catholic nuns, the laundries have been accused of treating inmates like slaves, imposing a regime of fear and prayer on girls sometimes put in their care for becoming pregnant outside marriage. One in 10 inmates died, the youngest at 15.

Under the compensation scheme, several hundred surviving inmates will receive up to 100,000 euros each, depending on how long they spent in the laundries, with a total cost to the state of between 34.5 million and 58 million euros.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

Daniel Fogarty
AAP

The Catholic Church’s processes for clergy abuse victims were detrimental to police investigations and failed to protect communities from offenders, the former head of Victoria’s Sex Crimes squad says.

The church processes actively and systematically dissuaded victims from reporting crimes to police and failed to make offenders accountable, Glenn Davies, a former Victoria Police detective inspector, said.

The Archdiocese of Melbourne was “inherently protectionist, elitist” and was dismissive of suggestions for change, Mr Davies said in a submission to a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into clergy sexual abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON June 27, 2013

There was never any reluctance by Newcastle investigators to confront senior members of the church hierarchy over child sexual abuse concealment, a senior police officer has told a Special Commission of Inquiry this morning.

Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey denied suggestions from whistleblower Peter Fox’s barrister Mark Cohen that detectives were discouraged from investigating the clergy.

Detective Chief Inspector Humphrey oversaw Strike Force Lantle – the Hunter investigation into sexual abuse concealment – after some of its officers left on sick leave.

Under heavy cross examination on his third day in the stand, the detective chief inspector denied claims the strike force had been abysmally managed by those officers.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

A senior policeman has told a NSW inquiry he has never been sure whistleblower policeman Peter Fox handed over all documents relating to child sexual abuse in the Hunter Valley Catholic Church.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox says he was told by superiors to stop investigating two priests, and claims the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese did not cooperate with police.

In testimony to the special commission of inquiry at Newcastle Supreme Court, Detective Inspector Graham Parker said police were given an official direction at a meeting in December 2010 not to speak to media.

That contradicts earlier evidence from other police that it was an informal order.

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OREGON
OPB

A Utah man filed suit against the Archdiocese of Portland Tuesday, saying he was sexually abused by a Seaside priest during the 1980’s.

43-year-old Scott Little alleges that when he was between the age of 10 and 12, he was sodomized on numerous occasions by Father Maurice Grammond.

Kelly Clark, Little’s lawyer, says “We plan to prove that the Archdiocese of Portland had enough experience with child abuse by the time this man was abused, that for them to put a priest like Father Grammond in ministry, unrestricted with no warnings, essentially amounts to misrepresentation, and if you will fraud.”

The lawsuit seeks more than $12 million in damages. Grammond is now dead, but he had denied any abuse.

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MINNESOTA
Northland’s News Center

June 26, 2013

Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) – A man, who claims as a child, he was sexually abused by a priest, has filed suit against the Catholic Diocese of Duluth, under Minnesota’s new Child Victims Act.

Michael DeRoche says he was abused by Father John Nicholson, who has since died.
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He was abused when he attended St. Rose in Proctor between the ages of 9 and 10.
The lawsuit claims the Diocese knew, or should have known, that Nicholson was a danger to children and should have stepped in to protect his victims.

In a written statement the Diocese said, “It deeply regrets any long-lasting and devastating effects of sexual misconduct on the part of the clergy and is committed to assisting victims and preventing future abuse.”

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel June 26, 2013

It’s been 44 years since Father Mel Hermanns sexually abused a boy at St. Lawrence Seminary in Mount Calvary in Fond du Lac County.

It’s been 23 years since a separate case of suspicious conduct “involving physical activities with minor males” was reported.

And 20 years since the Capuchin priest’s order paid for the seminary victim’s counseling, and sent Hermanns to a treatment center known for its programs for sex offenders.

But Hermanns was not removed from ministry until just last fall, and even then there was little public notification.

Hermanns’ name appears on a list of 23 current and former Capuchin friars removed for sexually abusing minors. It was released last week as part of an unprecedented audit commissioned by the Detroit-based Capuchin Province of St. Joseph, which operates parishes and other ministries in Milwaukee, to assess its sexual abuse policies and come to terms with its history.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By: Mark Stodghill, Duluth News Tribune

Fifty-five-year-old Michael DeRoche stood on the steps of the St. Louis County Courthouse holding a photograph of a 9- or 10-year old boy standing obediently straight with his hands tucked to his sides and his heels together.

DeRoche said he was that “little guy” and at the time of the photo he was being sexually abused by a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Duluth.

DeRoche said he wanted to put an adult face on that photo and keep any other children from being victimized by priests by bringing the first civil lawsuit filed in St. Louis County by a person alleging abuse under the Minnesota Child Victim’s Act. A new Minnesota law signed by Gov. Mark Dayton last month eliminates the civil statute of limitations for children who were sexually abused and allows a three-year window for past victims of childhood sexual abuse to file lawsuits against their perpetrator and the institution that may have allowed the abuse.

“I was this little guy that was hurt for over a year by a priest,” DeRoche said of his boyhood photograph before going on to explain why he brought the civil lawsuit. “It’s not to seek a vendetta or vengeance or hurt, but it is to find healing and hope for not only myself and closure, but for all the other kids out there.”

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ROME
The Times (UK)

James Bone Rome

The former Carabinieri police officer pulled up outside a bar known as Twink — slang for a gay youth — next to Rome’s central station. He was driving a Fiat Panda marked “Emergency Blood” so he could easily park.There, he picked up Romanian immigrant “rent-boys”, some underage, for gay encounters with Catholic priests around Rome.

That is the explosive account, according to new details made public yesterday, that a convicted paedophile priest gave to Italian police in a case that threatens to rock the Vatican.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Recommendations of Quirke report, all of which the Government says it accepts and will implement:
Survivors of the Magdalene laundries are to receive ex gratia lump-sum payments where qualification is “not dependent on proof of any hardship, injury or abuse”.

A woman who spent three months or less in the laundries will receive a lump sum of €11,500. For one year spent in the laundries it will be €20,500, and for five years €68,500. The maximum payment is €100,000 for women who were in a laundry for 10 years or more.

Women who are entitled to more than €50,000 through the scheme will receive a €50,000 lump sum, plus an annual payment calculated from the remaining sum, which would be paid weekly.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

The Justice for Magdalene’s Research group said that it broadly welcomes the publication of the Magdalene Commission Report by Mr Justice John Quirke today.

The survivor advocacy group said that the report satisfies many of their questions however, the organisation said they have a number of concerns.

Justice for Magdalenes Research -said today is another important day in the campaign to bring justice to all the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries.

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ROME
Legionaries of Christ

Here is a translation of the letter from Pope Francis to Cardinal Velasio De Paolis:
***
To my Venerable Brother Cardinal Velasio De Paolis

In an audience on May 27th, you explained the progress of the ministry of Delegate for the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ which my beloved predecessor, Benedict XVI, entrusted to you on June 16, 2010.

I would like to thank you for having brought me up to speed on what you have done in fulfilling this delicate task. As well, I would like to assure you that I have carefully considered what you presented to me in the report you sent with your letter on May 10th, as well as the content of the prior reports and the material regarding the Apostolic Visitation which took place in 2009 and 2010.

I confirm that your mandate will last until the celebration of the extraordinary Chapter of the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, which you will preside, and which will be held at the beginning of the beginning of 2014. The Chapter’s main tasks will be the election of a new Government for the Institute and the approval of the new Constitutions, which you will then take care to send me in order to examine them according to standard procedure. These will be fundamental steps in the path towards the authentic and profound renewal of the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ and, indirectly, as well for the activity of the whole Regnum Christi Movement.

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ROMA
ASCA

(ASCA) – Roma, 26 giu – Il Vicariato di Roma esprime ”sconcerto e indignazione” per la diffusione di parte del verbale di denuncia contenente i nomi di sacerdoti accusati dall’ex prete Patrizio Poggi in un servizio del Tg di La7 delle ore 20 di martedi’ 25 giugno. Il Cardinale Vicario, Agostino Vallini – si legge in una nota – esprimendo profonda amarezza per la diffusione di simili notizie calunniose che sparano nel mucchio in maniera generalizzata, manifesta piena fiducia nella magistratura e si dice pienamente convinto che sara’ smantellato il piano calunnioso, dimostrando non veritiere le affermazioni del Poggi, mosso forse da spirito di rivalsa o da risentimento personale. Il Dottor Pignatone, Procuratore capo della Repubblica di Roma – ricostruisce il comunicato – nel telegiornale ha smentito categoricamente che sacerdoti della diocesi di Roma siano indagati per pedofilia sulla base della denunzia dell’ex-prete Patrizio Poggi, dimesso nel 2007 dallo stato clericale per reati di natura sessuale su minori e che ha scontato la condanna nel carcere di Rebibbia.

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ROMA
ANSA

(ANSA) – ROMA, 26 GIU – Il cardinale vicario Agostino Vallini manifesta ”piena fiducia nella magistratura” e si dice ”pienamente convinto che sarà smantellato il piano calunnioso, dimostrando non veritiere le affermazioni” dell’ex prete Patrizio Poggi, che ha accusato nove sacerdoti di parrocchie romane di incontri sessuali con minori. In una nota del Vicariato di Roma si sottolinea che ”i sacerdoti calunniati si riservano ogni azione legale a tutela della loro personale onorabilità”.

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ROME
The Australian

JAMES BONE, ROME From: The Times June 27, 2013

THE Vatican is bracing itself for a rent boy scandal after a convicted pedophile priest apparently sought vengeance by informing on other child abusers in the Roman clergy.

Don Patrizio Poggi, who served a five-year sentence for abusing five 14 and 15-year-old boys at his parish on the outskirts of the Italian capital, has reportedly handed names to police. So far, four people have formally been placed under investigation by Rome magistrates.

The suspects are said to include a monsignor who is currently the secretary of an important bishop. Also being investigated is a former Carabinieri police officer suspected of recruiting under-age boys for the alleged prostitution ring.

The brewing scandal comes just weeks after Pope Francis confirmed the existence of a “gay lobby” in the Vatican to a visiting Latin American church group.

The apparent network inside the supposedly celibate and staunchly anti-homosexual Church is one reason why Pope Francis is working on a thorough house-cleaning of the Roman curia. Vatican watchers believe a far-reaching reshuffle of top posts is imminent. Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, current head of the governorate that runs the Vatican city-state, is tipped to take over from the powerful but divisive Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

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ROME
Adnkronos

Rome, 25 June (AKI) – Prosecutors are probing four high ranking Catholic churchmen over allegations they sexually abused young boys, several Italian media outlets reported on Tuesday.

The probe by Rome prosecutors comes after a former priest, Patrizio Poggi reported to police around 20 allegedly paedophile priests, among them five prelates including an unnamed Monsignor and the private secretary to a bishop.

Poggi also presented to police a young male witness and gave the names of the alleged sexual abuse victims.

The probe spearheaded by prosecutor Maria Monteleone is also investigating a suspected prostitution racket that arranged gay encounters for priests.

After a tip-off from Poggi, police tailed a former soldier and alleged ‘recruiter’ and observed him accompanying a teenage boy inside a Rome church.

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ROME
Catholic Culture

A former Catholic priest who was convicted on sex-abuse charges has reportedly given Italian authorities the names of 20 other priests who were involved in child prostitution.

Patrizio Poggi, who spent 5 years in prison, told police that several prominent clerics, including the secretary to an Italian bishop, were involved in a pedophile ring, Italian news agencies report. Prosecutors in Rome are actively pursuing the case.

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DEDHAM (MA)
The Patriot Ledger

By Lane Lambert
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Jun 26, 2013

DEDHAM —
A controversial, reformist Austrian priest will speak in Dedham as planned July 17. But it won’t be at a Roman Catholic church.

The Rev. Helmut Schuller was originally scheduled to be at 7 p.m. that day at St. Susannah Parish, but Cardinal Sean O’Malley has banned him from speaking on church property, because the Rev. Schuller supports married priests and the ordination of women.

Cardinal O’Malley said Boston Archdiocese property can’t be used for a talk that’s contrary to Vatican doctrine.

That action prompted a swift invitation from the Unitarian Universalist First Church in Dedham, a four-minute drive from St. Susannah.

The lay Catholic group Voice Of The Faithful said Wednesday the Rev. Schuller will speak there as the same time and day, July 17 at 7 p.m.

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VATICAN CITY
Fox News

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis is signaling he will sign off on the reform process of the Legion of Christ religious order, which was disgraced by revelations its founder was a pedophile.

In a letter made public Wednesday, Francis confirmed the order would convene a general assembly in early 2014 to elect new leadership and approve a revised set of constitutions.

He said these would be “fundamental steps in the path towards authentic and profound renewal.”

Then-Pope Benedict XVI took over the Legion in 2010 after a Vatican investigation determined its founder led a double life: The late Rev. Marcial Maciel sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children.

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ROMA
Affar Italiani

Il cardinale vicario di Roma reagisce tuonando al servizio televisivo che ha reso noto il verbale Poggi: “Sconcerto e indignazione in Vicariato… notizie calunniose che sparano nel mucchio”. E poi rinnova vicinanza, stima e affetto ai sacerdoti. Infine, avverte: “È questo il modo di fare informazione? È un modo per screditare la Chiesa e i suoi ministri? Ognuno darà conto a Dio del suo operato”. I prelati pronti alle querele

Mercoledì, 26 giugno 2013 – 15:19:00

Sconcerto e indignazione. Sulla spy story dei preti pedofili e sull’ipotesi che in città ci sia una cupola che gestisce presunti vizi dei prelati, cade come un macigno la reazione del Vicariato.
E’ Agostino Vallini che tuona. E per rispondere a quanto pubblicato dal telegiornale de La 7, si affida ad un comunicato tagliente e chiaro che suona come una scomunica. Scrive il delegato del Papa Francesco: “In merito alla diffusione di parte del verbale di denuncia contenente i nomi di sacerdoti accusati dall’ex prete Patrizio Poggi in un servizio del Tg di La7 delle ore 20 di martedì 25 giugno il Cardinale Vicario Agostino Vallini, esprimendo profonda amarezza per la diffusione di simili notizie calunniose che sparano nel mucchio in maniera generalizzata, manifesta piena fiducia nella magistratura e si dice pienamente convinto che sarà smantellato il piano calunnioso, dimostrando non veritiere le affermazioni del Poggi, mosso forse da spirito di rivalsa o da risentimento personale”.

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ROMA
Il Messaggero

Primi tre indagati dopo le rivelazioni di don Patrizio Poggi

ROMA – Ha descritto ai carabinieri la torbida vita sessuale dei religiosi: minorenni ”offerti” a monsignori e sacerdoti. Perchè, ha spiegato don Patrizio Poggi, «sentivo il dovere di tutelare la Santa chiesa». Eccola la denuncia choc che ha portato la procura di Roma alle porte del Vaticano. Nove nomi di religiosi sui quali il procuratore aggiunto Maria Monteleone sta cercando di fare chiarezza. A garantire «la serietà di Poggi», davanti ai militari, lo scorso 8 marzo, c’era monsignor Luca Lo Russo, consigliere della Santa Sede e, soprattutto, avvocato canonico dell’ex sacerdote nel procedimento per la riabilitazione, dopo la sospensione ”a divinis” per una precedente condanna per violenza su minori. Sono già tre i nomi degli indagati per sfruttamento della prostituzione minorile. E l’altro filone, relativo alla violenza sessuale, è ancora in fase preliminare.

RECLUTATORI
Il primo degli indagati è Giuseppe Buonviso, ex carabiniere, già coinvolto in un giro di prostituzione minorile. Dopo la denuncia di Poggi, i carabinieri lo hanno pedinato: accompagnava un ragazzo in una chiesa. Poi ci sono Giancarlo Aleandri, amministratore ”in nero” della Parrocchia di San Filippo Neri, e Marcello Righettini, direttore di un’agenzia per modelli. Racconta Poggi: «Buonviso frequenta e dimora presso la cappella di San Lauro alla Pisana. E’ un promotore e organizzatore di incontri e attività legate alla prostituzione maschile minorile, attraverso la quale reperisce ragazzi che introduce in Italia e mette a disposizione dei clienti». Poi l’elenco di sacerdoti e degli alti prelati: nove in tutto. «Buonviso – continua Poggi – con Aleandri e Righettini presenta ai clienti i ragazzi. L’ingaggio avviene utilizzando la disperazione e l’assenza di mezzi di sostentamento che caratterizzano la loro condizione sociale».

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

26 JUNE 2013

Survivors of Catholic-run workhouses have threatened to take the Government to the United Nations watchdog on torture over plans to pay some of them as little as 11,500 euro for their detention.

Women detained in Magdalene laundries slammed an offer and criticised the religious orders for not doubling the multimillion compensation package being put forward by the State.

Magdalene Survivors Together warned the Government to go back to the drawing board and take account of the emotional, psychological and physical damage they suffered, as well as loss of earnings for slave labour.

Maureen Sullivan, the youngest known survivor admitted to one of the laundries, claimed the figures “were totted up all wrong”. “They need to go back to the drawing board,” said Ms Sullivan, who ended up sleeping on the streets in England after she left the laundry in New Ross.

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IRELAND
Galway Bay FM

Galway Bay fm newsroom – The Government has unveiled a compensation scheme worth up to 58 million euro for the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries.　

The Sisters of Mercy ran the Magdalene laundry at Forster street in the city until it closed in 1984, and in April the religous order announced it was giving the property behind the former Anglo Irish building to Cope Galway on a 99 year lease.

The redress package – which is based on the recommendations of High Court judge Mr Justice John Quirke – provides for counselling services and medical cards for each of the women.

It will be available to around 700 women who were kept in the laundries – with payments ranging from between 11-and-a-half thousand and 100-thousand euro depending on the length of their incarceration.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Disgusted survivors of the Magdalene Laundries have branded the compensation package unveiled by the Government as appalling.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter yesterday detailed a list of payments for the women ranging from e11,500 to e100,000 depending on how long they spent in the hated institutions.

They will also be granted an “enhanced” medical card and will also be given a form of the State contributory pension.

Survivor Maria Gambole broke down in tears as she revealed her “disappointment” at the package.

She said: “This report is disgusting. I’m very disappointed. I am 78 and I can’t go on much longer.

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IRELAND
Times Colonist (Canada)

SHAWN POGATCHNIK / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JUNE 26, 2013

DUBLIN – Ireland will pay several hundred former residents of Catholic-run Magdalene laundries at least 34.5 million euros ($45 million) to compensate them for their years of unpaid labour and public shame, the government announced Wednesday following a decade-long campaign by former residents of the workhouses.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter apologized to the women — an estimated 770 survivors out of more than 10,000 who lived in the dozen facilities from 1922 to 1996 — that it had taken so long for them to receive compensation. The move marked the latest step in a two-decade effort by Ireland to investigate and redress human rights abuses in its Catholic institutions.

Shatter’s decision came four months after a government-commissioned probe found that women consigned to the laundries were broadly branded “fallen” women, a euphemism for prostitutes. The investigation found that few actually were, while most instead were victims of poverty, homelessness and dysfunctional families in a state lacking the facilities to care for them.

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ROM
Oberpfalznetz

Rom. (KNA) Die Staatsanwaltschaft in Rom ermittelt laut italienischen
Medienberichten gegen einen mutmaßlichen Prostitutionsring, der katholischen Priestern Minderjährige zugeführt haben soll. Der Kardinalvikar des Bistums Rom, Agostino Vallini, wies entsprechende Anschuldigungen eines vom Dienst suspendierten Priesters umgehend zurück. Hier würden Informationen verbreitet, die jeder Grundlage entbehrten, heißt es in einer am Mittwoch veröffentlichten Erklärung.

Der italienische Privatsender La7 hatte am Dienstagabend berichtet, ein wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger verurteilter ehemaliger Pfarrer habe der Polizei die Namen von neun Geistlichen genannt, die sich in der Rom regelmäßig mit minderjährigen männlichen Prostituierten getroffen haben sollen.

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ROM
Kleine Zeitung

[Summary: The Rome prosecutor has started investigations against nine priests for an alleged prostitution ring. The investigations are based on statements made by a convicted former Roman priest and allege the ring involved sexual abuse of minors.]

Tue prosecutor in Rome has started investigations against nine priests, for an alleged prostitution ring. The investigations are based on statements of sexual abuse of minors convicted former Roman priest.

Di Staatsanwaltschaft in Rom hat Ermittlungen gegen neun Priester wegen eines mutmaßlichen Prostitutionsrings aufgenommen. Die Ermittlungen basieren auf Aussagen eines wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Minderjährigen verurteilten ehemaligen römischen Pfarrers.

Der römische Pfarrer hatte der Polizei die Namen der in den Ring verwickelten Geistlichen genannt. Diese sollen sich in der italienischen Hauptstadt regelmäßig mit minderjährigen männlichen Prostituierten getroffen haben, berichtete die römische Tageszeitung “Il Messaggero” am Mittwoch. Die Zusammenkünfte sollen nach Aussagen des suspendierten Priesters von einem ehemaligen Polizisten organisiert worden sein.

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ROM
Sueddeutsche

Ein ehemaliger Priester hat die Staatsanwaltschaft in Rom auf den Plan gerufen: Er beschuldigt neun katholische Geistliche, einen Prostituierten-Ring mit der Vermittlung Minderjähriger beauftragt zu haben. Die Glaubwürdigkeit des Ex-Pfarrers leidet jedoch unter der Tatsache, dass er selbst in Haft saß – wegen Pädophilie.

Erneut erschüttert ein Pädophilen-Skandal den Vatikan: Nach Berichten verschiedener italienischen Medien soll ein mutmaßlicher Prostitutionsring Jugendliche an katholische Priester vermittelt haben. Erhoben hat die Vorwürfe ein ehemaliger Priester, Patrizio Poggi, der sich im März in einer Polizeiwache in Rom eingefunden und den überraschten Beamten die Namen von neun Geistlichen genannt hatte.

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