ABUSE TRACKER

CANADA
Leader-Post

BY KERRY BENJOE, LEADER-POST JUNE 18, 2013

Five years have passed since the federal government apologized, on behalf of Canada, to all Indian residential school survivors for the abuses they suffered at the schools.

Some survivors believe abuse by the federal government continues, but in a much different form.

Moses Redman, a survivor, waited years for an opportunity to tell his story.

In November, he went through the Independent Assessment Process (IAP) but instead of leaving with a sense of relief, he left feeling angry and frustrated.

The process is part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. It is a way for a former student, who was abused, to settle out of court. It is the only way a survivor can make a claim, unless he or she has opted out of the settlement agreement. Those who opted out have to go to court.

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AUSTRALIA
Gippsland Times

THE Catholic Bishop of Sale has apologised to victims of child abuse in a statement in the June issue of the church newspaper Catholic Life.

Bishop Christopher Prowse said the criminal activity of abusers filled him with “utter contempt” and described abusers within the church as “Judas’s”.

“Over the years, I have sat with victims and listened to their horrendous testimonies,” he wrote.

“Their experience of abuse as children has sickened me.

“Their bravery and survivor instincts have inspired me.

“Their pain continues.”

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GEORGIA
Actionsnewsjax

ST. MARYS, Ga. — Hiding behind his front door, Deacon Jones Rivers tells Action News he’s been framed, and that police allegations claiming he molested at least a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old are false.

“What they accused me of I didn’t do,” said Rivers. “I can’t prove it because they really set me up good.”

Rivers says the mother of his child is the accuser.

“It’s a woman that I dated and got pregnant,” he said.

The Deacon didn’t want to show his face and according to police there was much more to hide. Inside Rivers’ home, investigators found computer hard drives packed with homemade child pornography. Police also found hundreds of pornographic DVDs, all of which a seven year old victim claims Rivers made him watch.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By MICHAEL POWELL
June 17, 2013

Sam Kellner is a man twice shunned and living in a deepening shadow.

Five years ago, this gray-bearded and excitable man with a black velvet yarmulke spoke out about the sexual abuse of his 16-year-old son by a prominent Hasidic cantor. As Mr. Kellner helped investigators with the Brooklyn district attorney’s office search for other young Orthodox victims of this man, the Orthodox establishment grew ever angrier at him. The rabbi at his Hasidic synagogue in Borough Park, Brooklyn, denounced Mr. Kellner as a traitor and forbade parishioners to talk with him on the street. Yeshivas barred his sons. His businesses dried up — he pawned his silverware to meet his bills. And he still fears that he will never find a marriage match for his son.

“I felt murdered and abandoned,” Mr. Kellner said. “I’m ruined.”

This, however, was a prologue to a worse situation. In April 2011, after the district attorney’s office gained a conviction against that cantor, Baruch Lebovits, the prosecutors turned around and obtained an indictment of Mr. Kellner. They said, based on a secret tape and the grand jury testimony of a prominent Satmar supporter of Mr. Lebovits, that he had tried to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from Mr. Lebovits.

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IRELAND
Irish Human Rights Commission

[the report]

IRISH STATE FAILED TO PROTECT AND VINDICATE THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN MAGDALEN LAUNDRIES – REDRESS SCHEME MUST REFLECT IMPACT OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS EXPERIENCED

Issued : 18 June 2013

The Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) today published its Follow-up Report on State Involvement with Magdalene Laundries saying the State failed in its obligation to protect the human rights of girls and women in Magdalen Laundries. The IHRC is calling for a comprehensive redress scheme that provides individual compensation, restitution and rehabilitation for the women in accordance with the State’s human rights obligations. The IHRC also makes a number of recommendations regarding measures needed to ensure similar wrongs are not repeated in the future.

The IHRC Follow-up Report reviews the facts set out in the Report of the Interdepartmental Committee chaired by Senator Martin McAleese and assesses the human rights implications for the State of what occurred in Magdalen Laundries. It also revisits the findings of the IHRC’s 2010 Assessment Report on the Magdalen Laundries in light of the information now available. The IHRC concludes that girls and women placed in Magdalen Laundries did not have their human rights fully respected in relation to equality, liberty, respect for private life, education, and to be free from forced or compulsory labour or servitude.

Speaking at the Launch of the Report, Professor Siobhán Mullally, IHRC Commissioner said:

“The Report of the Interdepartmental Committee (IDC) confirms extensive State involvement in Magdalen Laundries but it falls short of drawing any conclusions on the human rights obligations of the State. To fill that gap, the IHRC has reviewed the findings of the IDC report against a range of human rights standards. We conclude from the evidence available that the human rights of girls and women placed in the Laundries have not been fully respected. The State acted wrongfully in failing to protect these women by not putting in place adequate mechanisms to prevent such violations, and by failing to respond to their allegations over a protracted period. Credible allegations of abuse should always be promptly, thoroughly and independently investigated.”

Professor Mullally continued:

“The IHRC is calling for a comprehensive redress scheme that provides individual compensation for the impact of the human rights violations which occurred to each individual woman who resided in the Laundries. The extent of such violations and their ongoing impact needs to be factored into the determination of individual compensation and ongoing supports in order to go some way to vindicating the rights of these women. Measures should also be put in place to guarantee that these women have restitution in terms of lost wages, pensions and social welfare benefits. Rehabilitation supports including housing, education, health and welfare, and assistance to deal with the psychological effects of the time spent in the Laundries should be made available to them.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

ED CARTY – 18 JUNE 2013

Compreshensive compensation is needed for survivors of Magdalene laundries including unpaid wages and pensions and rehab for forced labour, a watchdog has claimed.

The Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) said Martin McAleese’s investigation into the institutions fell short as he did not draw any conclusions on the human rights obligations of the State.

The commission called on the Government to stop caring for the intellectually disabled in psychiatric institutions and to allow people who were adopted, either formally or informally, to trace their birth relatives.

Professor Siobhan Mullally, IHRC commissioner, said its follow-up report was filling a gap left by the McAleese inquiry.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE IRISH HUMAN Rights Commission has said lessons must be learned from the breaches of human rights experienced by girls and women living in Magdalene Laundries during the 20th century.

“The State must never be complacent in the way it treats those at risk of discrimination,” Sinead Lucey, Senior Enquiry and Legal Officer of the IHRC said at the launch of the body’s Follow-up Report on State Involvement with Magdalene Laundries.

The publication outlines in what ways the State failed in its obligations to protect the human rights of its female civilians. It calls for a comprehensive redress scheme to provide survivors with restitution for lost wages, pensions and social welfare benefits; rehabilitation supports including education, health and welfare; monetary compensation; and assistance to deal with the psychological effects of being in the laundries.

The review examines the facts laid out in Martin McAleese’s February 2013 report, assessing the human rights implications for what occurred in the infamous institutions.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Tue, Jun 18, 2013

Comprehensive compensation is needed for survivors of Magdalene laundries including unpaid wages and pensions and rehab for forced labour, a watchdog has claimed.

The Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) said Martin McAleese’s investigation into the institutions fell short as he did not draw any conclusions on the human rights obligations of the State.

The commission called on the Government to stop caring for the intellectually disabled in psychiatric institutions and to allow people who were adopted, either formally or informally, to trace their birth relatives.

Professor Siobhan Mullally, IHRC commissioner, said its follow-up report was filling a gap left by the McAleese inquiry.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Irish Human Rights Commission has called on the Government to establish a comprehensive redress scheme for all former residents of Magdalene Laundries.

The agency wants the scheme because the State failed to protect the human rights of the women.
The IHRC also called on the Government to strengthen protections for people with disabilities living in institutions.

It wants to see an end to the practice of caring for people with intellectual disabilities in psychiatric institutions and to apply lessons learnt from the Magdalene Laundries.

The recommendations are made in a follow-up report on the McAleese Report of last February on State involvement in the Catholic Church-run laundries.

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IRELAND
Laois Nationalist

The Irish Human Rights Commission says the State failed in its obligation to protect the human rights of girls and women in the Magdalene Laundries.

It is calling for a redress scheme that provides individual compensation for every woman that lived there.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Eslarner Zeitung

Leider müssen wir Sie wieder einmal mit der Causa “Diözesan-Kirchenmusikdirektor Georg Friedrich Zimmermann (+ 1984)” befassen, und dies wird – wir bedauern die Angehörigen (vor allem auch vieler Opfer!) – so lange regelmässig wiederkommen, bis die Angelegenheiten um Zimmermann, Zeitler, Schrembs & Co. vollständig aufgeklärt sind. Nicht nur “wenn es hilfreich” ist, muss es einen Abschlussbericht der Diözese geben, sondern es muss ihn deshalb geben, weil gem. unserer bisherigen Recherchen durch das bisherige Verschweigen kirchliche Karrieren zerstört, Leuten nahezu deren Leben genommen wurde während andererseits kirchliche Karrieren, man ist versucht zu schreiben “besonders gefördert” wurden. Wir haben auch immer noch die sog.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Stadt Zeitung

Viele Menschen, die Pfarrer Thomas Schilling nahe stehen, sind über den sexuellen Missbrauchsvorwurf gegen den Geistlichen bestürzt. Schilling ist seit 2007 im Zusamtal tätig.

Von „Bestürzung“ über „ganz schlimme Sache“ bis hin zu „Vorverurteilung“ lauten die Reaktionen auf das Bekanntwerden des Vorwurfs des sexuellen Missbrauchs gegen den Pfarrer der Pfarreiengemeinschaft Thürheim mit den Pfarreien St. Martin (Pfaffenhofen), Maria Hilf (Unterthürheim) und St. Nikolaus (Oberthürheim), Thomas Schilling. Der Geistliche wurde vom Bistum Augsburg von seinem Amt abgerufen beziehungsweise beurlaubt.

Der sexuelle Missbrauch soll sich Anfang der 1980er-Jahre im Ausland zugetragen haben. Pfarrer Thomas Schilling war damals im Orden der Benediktiner tätig. Die Staatsanwaltschaft sei über den Sachverhalt informiert worden, so der Sprecher des Bistums, Nicolas Schnall. Schilling ist seit 2007 im Zusamtal tätig.

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo! Movies

By Jeff Sneider | The Wrap – Sun, Jun 16, 2013

Oscar-nominated actor Matt Damon is being sought to star in Tom McCarthy’s untitled movie about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reportage on the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal, numerous individuals close to the project have told TheWrap.

Anonymous Content and Rocklin/Faust are producing the movie with Participant Media, which was planning to co-finance the film with DreamWorks before Steven Spielberg’s studio pulled out of the sure-to-be controversial drama on Thursday.

Producers are now shopping the prestige project around town, with Warner Bros. the leading contender to distribute.

Described as being in the tonal vein of “All the Presidents Men,” the story follows the Catholic Church’s decades-long cover-up of its pedophile priests in Massachusetts.

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VEREINIGTE STAATEN
Movie Pilot

Matt Damon könnte bald für ein neues Filmprojekt in seine Heimatstadt Boston zurückkehren. Zumindest, wenn sich der Tweet von Jeff Sneider (The Wrap) bewahrheitet, der den Schauspieler mit dem neuen Film von Thomas McCarthy (Station Agent, Win Win) in Verbindung bringt. Der bisher namenlose Film beruht auf der Reportage des Boston Globe, welche den Missbrauchsskandal der Katholischen Kirche in Boston aufdeckte. Die Reportage gewann 2003 den Pulitzer-Preis. Ein Jahr ermittelten die Journalisten für ihren Enthüllungsbericht, der am Ende Kardinal Bernard Francis Law zwang, die Leitung des Erzbistums Boston niederzulegen. Ihm wurde vorgeworfen, pädophile Priester, die sich des Missbrauchs an Kindern schuldig gemacht hatten, nicht etwa anzuzeigen, sondern einfach in andere Diözese zu versetzen.

Matt Damon hat noch keinen Vertrag unterschrieben, jedoch soll er schon länger mit dem Projekt in Verbindung stehen. Bereits Anfang April, als IndieWire bekannt gab, dass Thomas McCarthy den Kirchenskandal verfilmen wird, wurde ein hochrangiger Schauspieler mit dem Film in Verbindung gebracht. Bei dem Schauspieler sollte es sich auch vor zwei Monaten schon um Matt Damon handeln. Sollte die Zusammenarbeit klappen, wird Matt Damon den Journalisten Mike Rezendes spielen, der für den Boston Globe den Kirchenskandal aufdeckte. Die Vorbereitung für das Projekt begann bereits vor zwei Jahren, seitdem hat Thomas McCarthy gemeinsam mit Josh Singer das Drehbuch geschrieben. Produziert wird das Drama von DreamWorks. Wann die Dreharbeiten beginnen, steht noch nicht fest.

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AUSTRALIEN
religion@ORF

Drei emeritierte australische Bischöfe fordern mit einer Onlinepetition ein neues allgemeines Konzil, um gegen Kindesmissbrauch in der katholischen Kirche vorzugehen.

Aufklärungskommissionen könnten zwar Ursachen für Pädophiliefälle und Mängel im Umgang damit analysieren, aber nicht die nötigen Reformen für eine wirksame Prävention durchsetzen, begründete der frühere Weihbischof in Sydney Geoffrey Robinson (75) laut deutscher katholischer Nachrichtenagentur KNA seine Initiative. Unterstützt wird Robinson vom emeritierten Weihbischof für Canberra, Patrick Power (71), sowie von dem amtsenthobenen Bischof von Toowoomba, William Morris (69).

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WASHINGTON (DC)
DFW Catholic

Washington D.C., Jun 18, 2013 / 12:04 am (CNA).- A dismissed request that the International Criminal Court investigate U.S. clergy sex abuse as a crime against humanity misunderstands the nature of the Catholic Church, the Vatican’s U.S. lawyer has said.

“It’s no surprise, as the claims against Benedict are based on a fictitious theory of how the Catholic Church works,” said Jeffrey Lena, the Holy See’s attorney in the U.S., told CNA June 17.

“It’s not a monarchical structure. The monarchical structure is a convenient fiction that plaintiffs use in order to tie local problems to the Holy See.”

The International Criminal Court said in a May 31 letter to the Center for Constitutional Rights that there is not presently a basis to proceed with a request for an investigation of former Pope Benedict XVI and other Vatican leaders for crimes against humanity, the Associated Press reports.

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ILLINOIS
Southtown Star

By Janet Lundquist jlundquist@stmedianetwork.com June 17, 2013

Updated: June 18, 2013 2:09AM
A man who claims that a Joliet Diocese priest sexually assaulted him more than 36 times on various religious retreats during the 1970s has filed a lawsuit against the priest and the diocese.

Former priest Lawrence Gibbs supervised the retreats at his cabin in Wonder Lake, Ill., where Daniel Gorski, now of Wheaton, claims Gibbs gave several teenage boys alcohol and pornography and had them play games, swim and perform other activities naked.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

Cardinal George Pell of Australia is having a well-earned three-month holiday in Rome at his palatial digs, Domus Australia. According to his spokesman, Pell will be catching up on some “reading” before going on a “pilgrimage” through Greece, and possibly, Turkey.

Here we see George with his favourite book he will be catching up on.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

I’m reading Dara Horn’s novel The World to Come (NY: W.W. Norton, 2006) right now, and was taken with this passage when I read it last night:

One night when he was still a young man, the headmaster dreamed that he had died, and had arrived in the next world. When it was the headmaster’s turn to appear before the divine throne, the Holy One took him by the hand and brought him to a small door. The door opened, and the headmaster found himself in a luminous room filled with books: shelves and tables loaded with books, manuscripts in high stacks all over the floor. the headmaster looked around the secret library and smiled. He was sure this room was the place that had been reserved for him in paradise. But as he reached to take a volume off the shelf, the divine hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder and held him back. “These are all the books you were supposed to have written,” the Holy One said. “Why didn’t you write them?” (p. 194).

That parable grips me, of course, because it’s written for me: the books I should have written would fill many a room, and I’ll have much to answer for, I know, when I meet the Holy One, because I’ve left those books unwritten. And used my tongue so loosely, unwisely, and unkindly when it could have been telling stories far more important than the louche, lazy words wont to pour freely out of my mouth.

But I’m struck by Dara Horn’s work, too, and I keep returning to it, because she has a strong traditional Jewish sense of the power of stories, of storytelling. She has a strong Jewish sense of the formative role that stories play in creating cultures and grounding the lives of families. …
Which belong to all of us . . . .

As I read Dara Horn, and as I read the news last week that the International Criminal Court in the Hague had declined to take the case filed by survivors of childhood sexual abuse who wanted Vatican officials prosecuted for covering up this abuse, I keep returning to the biblical story of little David and mighty Goliath. I’ve meditated about that story in the past on this blog as I’ve commented on the very difficult fight that survivors of childhood sexual abuse by Catholic authority figures and those of us standing with these survivors face.

So much money, so much institutional power, so many tentacles everywhere in political life, cultural life, educational life throughout the world . . . . It’s not at all easy for those seeking to stand up to such institutional power and speak the truth to it–especially when stories like the one that has played before our eyes in recent days in Newark, New Jersey, just keep right on happening in the Catholic church, demonstrating to us that no power at all appears capable of stopping Catholic officials from continuing to cover up sexual abuse and endanger children’s welfare.

As Jason Walsh predicted back in 2011, the Hague criminal court has declined to hear the case of abuse survivors against the Vatican, because the Hague court y has an exceptionally high bar when it comes to actions like this. And as David Clohessy’s press release for SNAP re: the Hague’s decision notes, the Associated Press has noted all along that the odds against the Hague opening an investigation of the Vatican are “enormous.”

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ITALIA
Repubblica TV

Un’inchiesta della procura di Savona indaga su sospetti abusi avvenuti nella Santa Sede nei confronti di ragazzini. Coinvolti nomi dell’alto prelato. Francesco Zanardi, di Rete ”L’abuso” racconta ai microfoni di Radio Capital le dichiarazioni di un testimone. Intervista di Niccolò Carratelli e Jean Paul Bellotto

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ILLINOIS
Patch

By Joseph Hosey

A Wheaton man is suing the priest he claims “brutally raped” him dozens of times when he was a teenage altar boy.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of 49-year-old Daniel Gorski against former priest Lawrence Gibbs also names the Diocese of Joliet, former Bishop Joseph Imesch and former Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Ryan as defendants. Gorski’s wife, Kandice Gorski, is listed along with her husband as a plaintiff.

The lawsuit said Gorski was an altar boy at Christ the King church in Lombard when Gibbs was a priest there. In 1977, Gorski started making repeated visits to Gibbs’ Wonder Lake cabin to attend religious retreats.

While at the cabin, Gibbs provided the 13-year-old Gorski with alcohol, and after drinking it the teen “perform(ed) activities naked in front of” the priest, the lawsuit said.

Gorski was also “exposed to pornography, fondled and brutally raped by Lawrence Gibbs at his cabin,” the suit said.

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UNITED STATES
Berger’s Beat

June 17, 2013 12:13 pm | Author: Jerry Berger
In January, for the first time ever, a United Nations panel will question Catholic officials on how and whether the Vatican is honoring an international children’s rights treaty. And this week, in Geneva, that panel will hear from two SNAP leaders, including David Clohessy of St. Louis, who argues that the church hierarchy continues to hurt and endanger kids. On Wednesday, Clohessy and SNAP’s Barbara Blaine will meet for three hours with the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child Committee.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue raises questions about media interest in allegations that the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium was involved in sexual crimes:

There has been a rash of stories about U.S. State Department employees taking drugs and cavorting with prostitutes. In addition, the Ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, was accused of soliciting prostitutes and minor children. While all of these alleged crimes are reprehensible, the Catholic League only has interest in the charge that Gutman “routinely ditched his protective security detail in order to solicit sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children.” (My italics.)

No media outlet was more outraged over minors being molested by priests than the Boston Globe, but it has shown no interest in this story; it has not run a single piece on it. The New York Times ran one story; the Washington Post ran one story, but unlike the Times, it never mentioned “minor children”; the Los Angeles Times, like the Globe, ignored the story altogether.

Most disturbing is CBS News. It deserves credit for breaking the story, but what it did on June 11 was indefensible. Here is what it said: “One specific example mentioned in the [Inspector General’s] memo refers to the 2011 investigations into an ambassador who ‘routinely ditched…his protective security detail,’ and inspectors suspect this was in order to ‘solicit sexual favors from prostitutes.’”

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ROME
Vatican Insider

A torchlight procession is to be held in memory of Vatican teen Emanuela Orlandi who went missing 30 years ago, in an attempt to shed light on her disappearance

GIACOMO GALEAZZI
VATICAN CITY

A procession to break the long silence and cast light on the “coincidences” that remain unexplained. It will begin in St. Apollinare Square and end in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican. The itinerary chosen for the procession that will take place on 22 June to commemorate the mysterious disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi – the daughter of a Vatican employee – thirty years ago, is a symbolic one. It traces the route the missing girl used to take to get home, a route she never took again, a route Emanuela’s brother, Pietro Orlandi wants to take once more to shed light on the truth, in his search for justice. “We are asking Pope Francis to join us in our moment of prayer in St. Peter’s Square and to hand the tape recordings of the negotiations that went on between the Holy See and the kidnappers, over to the courts,” Pietro Orlandi told Vatican Insider.

Orlandi wants answers to one aspect of the case in particular. Marco Fassoni Accetti was the key witness in the disappearance, who helped find the flute Emanuela allegedly had with her at the time. Accetti’s confessor at the San Giuseppe De Merode College in Rome was Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, currently the Vice Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church and secretary of Agostino Casaroli (Vatican Secretary of State) at the time of my sister’s disappearance, used to take the calls on a phone line coded 158,” Pietro Orlandi said. On 17 July 1983, a tape was found containing a recording of the Vatican and the kidnappers negotiating a swap: the girl, in exchange for Wojtyla’s attacker, Ali Ağca and the setting up of a direct phone line to the Vatican Secretary of State, Casaroli. A girl could be heard moaning in the background, pleading for help and saying she did not feel well.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A Jesuit priest of the Missouri Province, ordained in 1950, Campbell has been credibly accused of the sexual abuse of at least 13 people. Five of those who have come forward were former students at St. Louis University High School, where Campbell taught and resided for many years. One of them disclosed that Campbell sexually abused him during counseling sessions, saying that the sexual activity would cure the boy of his insecurities. When allegations against Campbell emerged in 1987, he was barred from contact with children. When additional allegations surfaced the following year, Campbell was removed from public ministry in St. Louis and sent to live at Regis College in Denver. In 1993 he was barred from all public ministry, according to the Jesuits. Campbell died in April 2009.

Ordained: 1950
Died: April 10, 2009

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DEUTSCHLAND
Anwalt Strafverteidiger

Die Staatsanwaltschaft Bonn ermittelte gegen einen Geistlichen wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern (§ 176 StGB). Der Beschuldigte soll sich in einem katholischen Kindergarten vor einem dreieinhalbjährigen Mädchen entkleidet haben. Dem Priester wurde die exhibitionistische Handlung vor dem betroffenem Mädchen und einer Erzieherin des Kindergartens vorgeworfen.

Der Beschuldigte, der bereits seit zehn Jahren den Kindergarten betreut, bestritt im Strafverfahren die Vorwürfe. Nachdem die Staatsanwaltschaft weitere Zeugen vernommen hatte, die den Mann entlasteten, stellte sie das Verfahren mangels Tatverdachts ein.

Obwohl es noch nicht zum Strafprozess kam und er somit auch keine Strafe zahlen musste, blieb das Strafverfahren nicht folgenlos für den Mann. Der Priester wurde nämlich vom Erzbistum Köln zwischenzeitlich beurlaubt und musste aus der Dienstwohnung ausziehen. Aufgrund dieser Folgen und der Missachtung der Unschuldsvermutung, bekam der Geistliche schon während des Strafverfahrens große Unterstützung aus seiner Gemeinde.

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CALIFORNIA
The Tablet (UK)

17 June 2013

The Diocese of Stockton, California is considering bankruptcy in the wake of costly settlements stemming from clergy sex abuse cases, and associated legal costs.

“We have paid out over US$15 million in settlements, judgments, and legal affairs,” said Bishop Stephen Blaire. “So we have depleted, virtually depleted, our reserves.”

He added that the diocese has less than a million dollars left in reserves following legal settlements against priests including Fr Oliver O’Grady, who admitted to sexually abusing 25 children.

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AUSTRALIA
The Tablet (UK)

17 June 2013

A senior Adelaide priest named in the Australian Parliament as having sexually abused the former Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion more than 40 years ago is to seek redress from a parliamentary privileges committee.

Mgr Ian Dempsey was named in Parliament by Independent Senator Nick Xenophon in 2011 as one of three clergy who had allegedly abused Bishop John Hepworth. Dempsey vigorously denied allegations.

Mgr Dempsey, a former vicar-general and naval chaplain, told The Tablet he was “very relieved” by a recommendation last week by the South Australian Director of Public Prosecutions that no charges be laid on the basis of Hepworth’s allegations.

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WISCONSIN
NBC 26

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay says its investigation has cleared a retired priest of sexual abuse allegations.

The diocese issued a statement Saturday saying an investigator it hired concluded the allegations were unsubstantiated. So Bishop David Ricken has lifted all restrictions on public ministry against the Reverend Justin Werner.

Werner was accused in April of abusing a minor in the 1970s at St. Edward Parish in Mackville, near Appleton. Werner denied the allegation.

Werner is in his 80s and has been a priest more than 50 years, according to a letter to members of St. Bernard Parish in Appleton, where he served as an assistant in recent years.

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PHILIPPINES
ABS-CBN

by Ira Pedrasa, ABS-CBNnews.com
Posted at 06/17/2013

MANILA – Stories of priests having sexual affairs and siring children are no longer new in the Philippines. But where are these reports most common?

According to the “Altar of Secrets: Sex, Politics, and Money in the Philippine Catholic Church”, author and award-winning journalist Aries Rufo said: “Despite their vow of celibacy, or maybe because of it, priests having affairs or siring children is not a new phenomenon in the Philippines. In some dioceses, the problem has become the norm rather than the exception, particularly in Pampanga.”

Citing sources, Rufo said almost one-third of Pampanga’s more than 100 priests had or have illicit relationships.

Instead of shunning the priests and giving them the boot, however, the community there appears to have given them the support, with the number of church-goers even rising to hear them deliver their homilies.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Monday, June 17, 2013

Vatican City, 15 June 2013 (VIS) – In a declaration published this morning, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the Press Office of the Holy See, made it known that: “The Commission of Cardinals for oversight of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), with the approval of the Holy Father, has appointed ‘ad interim’ Msgr. Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca as Prelate of the Institute.”

“In his capacity as prelate, Msgr. Battista Ricca will act as secretary of the meetings of the Cardinals’ Commission and will attend meetings of the Board of Superintendence in accordance with the Institute’s statutes.”

“Msgr. Battista Ricca, who was born in Offlaga in the province of Brescia, Italy, in 1956, is part of the Diplomatic Service, serving in the First Section of the Secretariat of State. He is also Director of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the Domus Internationalis Paulus VI, the Domus Romana Sacerdotalis, and the Casa San Benedetto.”

“As can be recalled, he succeeds Archbishop Piero Pioppo, currently Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, who held the post from 2006 to 2010.”

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ILLINOIS
Patch

Posted by Charles Menchaca (Editor), June 17, 2013

A West Chicago priest who was sent to prison for criminal sexual assault of a St. Charles teen could be headed back to his native country, according to media reports.

Alejandro Flores, 40, served about 80 percent of his four-year sentence and was released on parole June 6, according to Illinois Department of Corrections records. From there he went to a detention center while officials determine his immigration status, the Associated Press reports. If Flores can’t stay in the U.S., he might be deported back to his native Bolivia.

Flores pled guilty in 2010 for sexually abusing a St. Charles boy from St. Mary’s Church in West Chicago. The 13-year-old boy’s mother contacted police after her boyfriend found the priest and the boy in a “suspicious position” at her home, the Associated Press story said.

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UNITED STATES
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

Jun 14, 2013

Website is unique religious/nonprofit partnership
Provides resources to help stay safe online, build faith
Guides parents and children with Internet, mobile devices, other technology

NEW YORK – The Internet Ministries Department of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese (GOA) and the Communications Department of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have launched www.faithandsafety.org, a resource for adults to help children safely navigate the online and mobile worlds. The website and complementary social media channels (http://twitter.com/faithandsafety and http://facebook.com/faithandsafety) address safe use of the Internet, mobile devices, and other technologies, while emphasizing the positive use of technology to support children’s faith.

The initiative, funded in part by a grant from the Catholic Communication Campaign, which receives donations from U.S. Catholics, was launched in recognition of June as being Internet Safety Month.

“Our children look to their parents for wisdom and guidance. However, many parents feel inadequately equipped to help their children traverse the unfamiliar terrain of the digital social world,” said His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America. “This joint initiative between our two Churches is a positive step in helping parents equip their children in the digital world. We have a responsibility to the Lord Himself Who said, ‘Let the children come unto Me’ (Matt. 19.14).”

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NEW YORK
Staten Island Advance

By Maura Grunlund/Staten Island Advance
on June 17, 2013

Prior to presiding at a joyous Father’s Day debt-burning ceremony at St. Ann’s R.C. Church in Dongan Hills, Cardinal Timothy Dolan had some bad news for ailing parishes as he acknowledged that church closings are on the table as part of the Archdiocese of New York’s, “Making All Things New,” initiative.

The cardinal’s final decisions are expected to be implemented on Jan. 1, 2015. A letter from the cardinal that was read at weekend masses at parishes throughout Staten Island confirmed what was previously reported in the Advance, that the parishes of St. Joseph’s and St. Mary’s in Rosebank and Immaculate Conception in Stapleton will be headed by one pastor as a prelude to the parish restructuring program.

While the three parishes will operate independently and no mention was made of shuttering any of them, the cardinal indicated that they will be working together to determine their future viability.

The cardinal made it clear in his blog and last week’s Catholic New York that he thinks there are too many parishes and that he wants to trim the $48 million that the archdiocese spends each year to operate its churches and schools. The archdiocese already has shuttered some parish schools — including those at St. Joseph’s, St. Mary’s, and Immaculate Conception — in its move to a regional education system.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AAP June 17, 2013

ORPHANS who say they were abused as children in Salvation Army homes are demanding compensation from the Christian charity.

A group of about 20 held a silent protest outside the charity’s Sydney headquarters on Monday, urging the Salvos to contribute to a reparations fund to help rebuild victims’ shattered lives.

A spokeswoman for Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN), the organisation representing alleged victims, said many of the protesters had been terribly abused between the 1920s and 1980s.

“Heinous crimes were committed against them while in the care of the Salvation Army,” Leonie Sheedy told AAP.

“The boys and girls in those homes suffered sexual rape, beating, floggings,” she said.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Claire O’Sullivan
Irish Examiner Reporter

Kathleen Whelan was one of about a dozen former Magdalene laundry survivors who travelled to Cork’s City Hall to meet the Lord Mayor as he signed a book of apologies for the women.

At 17 years of age, Kathleen was sent to the Good Shepherd laundry in New Ross, where she spent eight years washing and ironing clothes without pay.

In 1968, when the New Ross laundry closed, the 25-year-old moved, with the nuns, to the Clifton convalescent home in Montenotte — run by the Good Shepherds.

Nearly 50 years later, she still remains in the care of the nuns. “Clifton was a totally different set up. We get paid for our work and everything,” she said. “That was because the health board had a part of it.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

John P. Martin, Inquirer Staff Writer
POSTED: Monday, June 17, 2013

A pension fund for priests cited as a priority in a $200 million fund-raising campaign by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has fallen precariously short of money, and church officials want parishes and retired clergy to help cover the shortfall.

In meetings this spring, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput told priests the plan had been underfunded, poorly managed, and was spent on rising health-care costs for clergy, according to three priests who attended or were briefed on the talks. Chaput said the fund needed $90 million to be solvent but had less than $4.5 million, they said.

Clergy living at the archdiocese’s Delaware County retirement villa and other church-owned facilities are expected to contribute 40 percent of their pensions to the archdiocese, the priests said. And parishes’ annual assessments to the pension fund will rise from $6,700 to about $9,300 per priest, they said.

The changes come two years after the archdiocese ended a fund-raising campaign that made shoring up the priests’ pension plan one of its goals.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Filipino cardinal stressed this after his book presentation on Friday evening

GIACOMO GALEAZZI
VATICAN CITY

“The Curia is in need of purification and reform. Every Curia needs purification in order to guarantee the truth” Filipino cardinal, Luis Antonio Tagle told journalists Friday night, when asked if Curia reform was necessary.

Cardinal Tagle was born to a Chinese mother, in Manila, where he is now archbishop. He is a parish priest, rector of a seminary, a theology and philosophy professor, a Second Vatican Council scholar and belongs to Giuseppe Alberigo’s Bologna school of thought. When he finished presenting his book, “Easter People: Living Community”, Tagle answered a question about the Vatican bank (IOR): Is reform needed? “Possibly, after all, Ecclesia Semper Reformanda Est,” the cardinal replied.

At the age of thirty, Cardinal Tagle found himself penniless in America. He earned a living working in a library, transporting packages and boxes. His mother (a former employees – as was his father – of Equitable bank) broke down in tears when she found out. But Tagle would not accept any money from his parents or his brother who was living in the U.S. The cardinal makes good use of television and the internet: He appears regularly on Filipino television, giving commentaries on Sunday readings and his catecheses for young people have been published on the web weekly since 1999. The text contains a series of meditations inspired by the modern world on the one hand, but on the other are deeply rooted in the Gospel of the Resurrection. This can only be adequately proclaimed by prophetic and missionary communities that follow the spirit of the New Testament Church and promote hope and solidarity.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JUNE 17, 2013

LOOPHOLES in safety checks for people working with children including neighbourhood sporting groups and lifeguards are to be the first target of the royal commission into child sex abuse.

Commission CEO Janette Dines, yesterday said that the commission had decided to make the issue the first topic for public submissions because it had been highlighted as a concern by victims’ and survivors’ groups.

In most states, individuals need to apply for a Working With Children Check but screening checks vary between states and include a police check, criminal history check, relevant employment proceedings and findings from professional disciplinary bodies. It will be the subject of the commission’s first call for public submissions as they continue hearing the stories of victims in private sessions.

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MINNESOTA
Fairbault County Register

June 16, 2013

by Paula Gibbins – Register Staff Writer (pgibbins@faribaultcountyregister.com) , Faribault County Register

The priest at St. Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Blue Earth is facing criminal charges.

Father Leo Charles Koppala was charged with 2nd-degree criminal sexual conduct in Faribault County District Court on Monday, June 10.

The alleged victim was an 11-year-old girl.

The incident allegedly occurred on Friday, June 7.

Koppala was arrested by Blue Earth Police Chief Tom Fletcher on Saturday, June 8 in the early evening.

According to the complaint, Koppala had been invited to the victim’s grandmother’s home for dinner on the evening of Friday, June 7.

At some point during the evening, the grandmother received a phone call. The alleged victim was in the basement watching TV when Koppala came downstairs as well.

The complaint states that the defendant kissed the victim on the cheeks and lips. It also states, “(The victim) said that Koppala put one hand on her lower back and the other hand on her chest.”

Also while downstairs with the victim, the complaint states the defendant, “told (the victim) that when she was done with school, he wanted to come to her house so they could be free together. Koppala told (the victim) that he loved her.”

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

The Victorian Parliamentary enquiry, as well as the NSW government enquiry into clerical child sexual abuse, have had a hard time getting answers from bishops, at least in public. The bishops have been able to be a bit “invisible” through the use of several devices.

In the past, churches have used the device of shifting paedophile clergy around as a way of hiding them (see below).

Cardinal Pell has long used the invisibility cloak proffered by sympathetic media outlets, such as CathNews. Here, he is usually cut out of the photograph of him escorting Ridsdale into court (see image above).

The Geelong bishops were able to avoid questions from the Victorian Parliamentary enquiry last month, by hiding behind the cloak of the former bishop. It was, apparently, all his fault, but he could not appear because of age and health excuses. Result: invisibility intact.

Pell, himself, used an even better cloak, as befits his rank. He could repair the flaw in the bishops’ cloaks (see below). He hid behind a dead predecessor, whom he blamed for everything. Result: invisibility inviolable.

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Raquel Rutledge of the Journal Sentinel June 15, 2013

An investigation into alleged abuse by Father Justin Werner, a retired priest, has concluded the accusation was unsubstantiated, the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay announced Saturday.

Werner was accused in April of abusing a minor in the 1970s at St. Edward Parish in Mackville, just north of Appleton. Werner denied the allegation.

According to Saturday’s statement from the diocese:

An independent professional investigator concluded the allegation was unsubstantiated and restrictions on Werner’s ministry have been lifted by Bishop David Ricken.

Werner had been temporarily restricted from performing any public ministry pending the outcome of the investigation.

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WISCONSIN
Green Bay Press-Gazette

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay said Saturday it has cleared the Rev. Justin Werner in allegations of abuse of a minor at an Outagamie County church in the 1970s.

It said Werner, a retired senior priest, was cleared following an investigation.

“The independent investigator has concluded the allegation against Father Justin Werner is unsubstantiated,” the diocese said in a press release issued Saturday afternoon.

Restrictions on Werner’s ministry have been lifted by Bishop David Ricken.

“At the same time, we as a diocese must be diligent in our due process to ensure the safety of our children and to advocate on behalf of victims/survivors,” the diocese said in the release. “Therefore, the investigation regarding the allegation of abuse from the 1970’s continues.”

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WISCONSIN
Post-Crescent

GREEN BAY — An independent investigator could not verify an allegation that the Rev. Justin N. Werner abused a child at St. Edward Parish in Mackville during the 1970s, according to a statement Saturday from the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay.

Because the allegation could not be substantiated, Bishop David L. Ricken has lifted the temporary restrictions that prevented Werner from performing public ministry.

The investigation into the alleged abuse from the 1970s will continue, but Justine Lodl, director of communications for the diocese, said the investigation no longer will involve Werner.

“There is an allegation, so we need to continue to investigate because the perpetrator hasn’t been found,” Lodl told Post-Crescent Media. “They haven’t been named.”

In April the diocese acknowledged it had received an allegation of abuse of a minor against Werner, a retired priest, and that he was restricted from public ministry pending the outcome of an investigation.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Kathleen Hopkins
@Khopkinsapp

LAKEWOOD — The choice before a deeply religious father was one he never wanted to make.

His son had been molested by a fellow Orthodox Jew, and the local rabbis to whom he reported the abuse did nothing to remove the offender from his positions as camp counselor and schoolteacher.

The father had to choose: He could follow Orthodox tradition and allow the local rabbis to continue to handle the matter, or he could go to the police.

The father went to the police. Now the molester, Yosef Kolko, is headed to state prison.

But some in the community saw the father as the offender for involving the secular authorities in an Orthodox matter. He was ostracized from his community in Lakewood, where he was a respected rabbi, Ocean County prosecutors said. He resigned from his job at Lakewood’s prestigious rabbinical college and moved his family to the Midwest.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Claire O’Sullivan
Irish Examiner Reporter

His defence comes after the UN committee that led to its establishment raised serious questions about the inquiry.

Speaking in the Dáil, Mr Shatter brushed off recent complaints from the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) the report was “incomplete” and lacked “many elements of a prompt, independent, and thorough investigation”.

“The Irish Government is satisfied that the McAleese Report is an independent, comprehensive, factual account of these institutions … It also showed that many of preconceptions about these institutions were not supported by the facts,” he said in response to questions from Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald and Independent TD Maureen O’Sullivan.

In a recent letter to Irish UN representative Gerard Corr, the vice-chair of UNCAT was highly critical of the inquiry headed by former senator Martin McAleese.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH JUNE 16, 2013

IT was supposed to be a fun birthday surprise, a male stripper for Kimberly Harrington’s 30th birthday.

But the risque yet innocent gesture organised by her friends brought all of Kimberly’s childhood horror flooding back.

Memories of when she was a little girl playing with her toys in the back garden and the next door neighbour would lift her over the fence and take her into the garage for what he said was their “special game”.

She was so young she can’t remember when the sexual assaults began, but she can recall exactly when they stopped – the day her parents moved house when she was just six years old.

Now a mother herself, Kimberly, 30, wants to tell her story because she wants judges who sentence child sex offenders to realise that just because abuse occurred when the victim was still a child, it doesn’t mean you ever forget.

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WISCONSIN
NBC 26

By Cassandra Duvall

GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Catholic Diocese says an investigation into alleged child abuse has been ruled unsubstantial.

On April 20, the Diocese said it received the allegation of abuse against Father Justin N. Werner, a senior (retired) priest. Werner was temporarily restricted from performing any public ministry until an investigation could be completed. The alleged abuse was said to have happened at Saint Edward Parish in Mackville during the 1970’s.

The Diocese said an independent investigator has concluded the allegation against Father Justin Werner is unsubstantiated.

The restrictions of Fr. Werner’s ministry have been lifted by Bishop David L. Ricken.

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GREEN BAY (WI)
Fox 11

Published : Saturday, 15 Jun 2013

GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Catholic Diocese says an allegation of abuse of a minor by a priest has been deemed unsubstantiated.

On April 20th, the diocese said it had received the allegation against Father Justin Werner, a senior (retired) priest.

The abuse, which Fr. Werner denied, was alleged to have happened at St. Edward Parish in Mackville in the 1970s.

Fr. Werner was temporarily restricted from performing any public ministry pending an investigation.

According to a statement from the Diocese Saturday, an independent investigator has concluded the allegation against Fr. Werner is unsubstantiated.

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CALIFORNIA
Mercury News

The Associated Press
Posted: 06/15/2013

STOCKTON, Calif.—The Roman Catholic bishop of Stockton is warning parishioners that his diocese might run out of money before it has paid damages to all of the people who have sued over clergy sex abuse.

The Modesto Bee reported Saturday ( http://bit.ly/13IoGyx) that Bishop Stephen Baire said in a letter read to the 35 parishes he oversees that the diocese might have to file for bankruptcy, but that a decision hasn’t been made.

Baire told The Bee that the main reason the diocese’s finances are in such bad shape is because of the $32 million it and its insurers have so far paid out to settle 34 lawsuits arising from the actions of former priests.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Rev. Chester “Chet” Gaiter professed vows as a Jesuit brother of the Missouri Province in 1962. He worked as an infirmarian for Jesuit communities in Kansas City and St. Louis before attending divinity school. Gaiter was ordained a priest of the Society of Jesus in 1976. During his priesthood he pastored several parishes. He served also as a campus minister and religion teacher at Cardinal Ritter High School in St. Louis. Gaiter retired in the mid-1990s, reportedly due to problems with memory loss, which led to a diagnosis of early Alzheimer’s disease. In the 2000s two men – who came forward separately – accused Gaiter of having sexually abused them while they were Cardinal Ritter students in the 1980s. One of the men accused three other priests as well, two of whom taught at Cardinal Ritter High, and one of whom the man said began to molest him when he was a third grader in a St. Louis parochial school. This accuser said the priests plied him with alcohol and drugs. Gaiter died in 2010.

Ordained: 1976
Died: Aug. 14, 2010

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Katholisches

(New York/Den Haag/Rom) Zwei amerikanische Organisationen, die laut Eigendefinition „für die Rechte der sexuellen Mißbrauchsopfer durch katholische Priester“ eintreten, haben bekanntlich beim Internationalen Strafgerichtshof in Den Haag ein Dossier hinterlegt, mit dem sie fordern, daß Papst Benedikt XVI., Kardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Kardinal Angelo Sodano und Kardinal William Levada wegen Verbrechen gegen die Menschheit der Prozeß gemacht wird. Sie hätten nämlich Vergewaltigungen und sexuellen Mißbrauch gegen Kinder in der ganzen Welt toleriert und die systematische Verschleierung möglich gemacht. „Eine sehr interessante, unangemessene und zudem utopische Aktion, die endlich die gewaltigen Anstrengungen ans Licht bringt, um jeden Preis den laizistischen Angriff auf die Kirche fortzusetzen“, kommentierte die katholische Seite UCCR.

Die meisten Medienberichte ergriffen Partei für Papst Benedikt XVI., betonten dessen vielfältige Bemühungen und Initiativen Klarheit zu schaffen und dem Mißbrauch Riegel vorzuschieben. Der Vorstoß beim Internationalen Strafgerichtshof könnte sich als Bumerang für antiklerikale Bestrebungen erweisen. Allerdings besteht durch die überzogene, antikirchliche Aktion der beiden amerikanischen Organisationen die Gefahr, vom eigentlichen Übel, dem Phänomen Pädophilie abzulenken, die in der westlichen Welt zunimmt.

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DEN HAAG
Katholisches

(Den Haag) Der Internationaler Strafgerichtshof (IStGH) mit Sitz in Den Haag hat den Antrag abgelehnt, gegen Papst Benedikt XVI. zu ermitteln. Zwei amerikanische Organisationen hatten das katholische Kirchenoberhaupt zur Anzeige gebracht. Sie forderten eine Strafverfolgung wegen angeblicher „Beihilfe“ vatikanischer Behörden beim sexuellen Mißbrauchsskandal der Kirche in den USA. Der Vatikan habe Informationen vertuscht und sei damit mitschuldig und da der Papst der oberste Verantwortliche der Kirche ist, sei gegen ihn zu ermitteln.

Bei den beiden Organisationen handelte es sich um SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), eine Organisation, die sich als Hilfsorganisation für Mißbrauchsopfer darstellt und CCR (Center for Costitutional Rights), einer linksextremen Vereinigung. Siehe den Bericht: Wer sind die Organisationen, die Papst Benedikt XVI vor den Internationalen Strafgerichtshof zerren wollen?

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

Kein Papst „darf in die Fußstapfen seines Vorgängers treten“, sagt der Chef der Glaubenskongregation, Erzbischof Gerhard Ludwig Müller in Rom. Jeder müsse sich treu bleiben; denn theologisch beziehe sich der vom Heiligen Geist jeweils neu berufene Papst direkt auf Petrus, „den Fischer mit Stärken und Schwächen, den Jesus rief, um die Kirche aufzubauen“. Mithin folge Franziskus, früher Erzbischof von Buenos Aires, „nur chronologisch“ auf Benedikt, sagt der ehemalige Bischof von Regensburg, den Franziskus seit seiner eigenen Wahl am 13. März als Chef der wichtigsten Kongregation schon oft empfing. Müller sieht bei Franziskus Neuerungen in der Form, so bei der Kleidung oder bei einer offeneren Sprache wie jetzt über Korruption und eine homosexuelle Seilschaft an seiner Kurie. Gleichzeitig gebe es theologisch aber Kontinuität. Die derzeit in manchen EU-Staaten eingeführte Gleichstellung gleichgeschlechtlicher Partnerschaften verurteilt Müller als „Anschlag auf die Ehe“. Man werde „Homosexuellen nicht gerecht, wenn man die Ehe zwischen Mann und Frau relativiert“.

Als schönes Zeichen theologischer Kontinuität beschreibt der 1947 in Mainz-Finthen geborene Müller die Enzyklika zu Glauben und Verkündigung, die Franziskus bald veröffentlichen werde; „unabhängig, von wem die Einzelteile genau entworfen wurden“, sagt Müller und geht so auf den Text ein, den Papst Benedikt XVI. nach Angaben von Vatikansprecher Federico Lombardi weitgehend abgeschlossen hatte, bevor er am 28. Februar zurücktrat. Einer Bischofssynode sagte Franziskus dieser Tage: „Dies ist eine Enzyklika, die von vier Händen geschrieben wurde, denn Papst Benedikt begann sie und gab sie dann mir. Ein starkes, schönes Dokument, das uns allen helfen wird. Das meiste war seine Arbeit, ich habe sie abgeschlossen.“

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By RACHEL DONADIO
Published: June 15, 2013

ROME — Three months into his papacy, Pope Francis took his first significant step on Saturday toward making changes at the troubled Vatican Bank, naming a trusted prelate to fill a key vacancy in an indication that the pope intends to keep a close watch on the institution.

In a statement, the Vatican said Francis had approved of the nomination of Msgr. Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca as interim prelate of the bank, a top post that allows him access to its inner workings.

The appointment is Francis’s first for the Vatican Bank. The bank’s reluctance to reveal its client list has put it under intense pressure in recent years to meet European norms to prevent money laundering as a condition for using the euro.

Monsignor Ricca, who manages the Vatican residence where the pope has chosen to live as well as others there, will report to a committee of cardinals led by the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and will be present at all board meetings, the statement said.

In one of his final acts as pope, Benedict XVI in February named Ernst von Freyberg, 54, a German aristocrat and industrialist, as the first non-Italian president of the bank, nine months after his predecessor, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was ousted in a boardroom coup after intense internal power struggles.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Steve Scherer
VATICAN CITY | Sat Jun 15, 2013

(Reuters) – Pope Francis made a key appointment to the Vatican bank on Saturday, part of a clean-up of the institution which has a history of murky financial dealings and is being closely watched by the European money-laundering watchdog.

Francis backed the naming of Monsignor Mario Salvatore Ricca as prelate for the bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), a Vatican statement said.

The prelate reports to the commission of cardinals that oversees the bank, attends board meetings and has privileged access to its famously secret financial activities. The job had been vacant since 2011.

Shortly before resigning, Pope Benedict named Ernst von Freyberg, a German lawyer, to be IOR’s new chairman, replacing Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who was ousted eight months earlier for allegedly neglecting his duties.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Updated June 14, 2013

Paris Arrow

Shame on The Hague for refusing to investigate on Benedict XVI and the Vatican’s crimes agains humanity’s children for over HALF A CENTURY OF THE 20TH CENTURY. As we pointed out, Excerpt: “Even the International Criminal Court application about such crimes has been stymied by catholic-run legislators and jurists” . Read more here Vatican Last Tsar Benedict XVI resigns as Vatican Pontiff of Vatican Catholic Church. It’s deceitful to say “Roman Pontiff” of “Roman Catholic Church”http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/02/vatican-last-tsar-benedict-xvi-resigns_13.html —

But SNAP will persist and continue to give more evidence, see news below. May those judges at The Hague bring the final justice to children victims of the Vatican of the 20th century – once and for all – before Benedict XVI dies.

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VATICAN CITY
DFW Catholic

Vatican City, Jun 15, 2013 / 06:31 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The commission of cardinals that oversees the so-called Vatican bank has filled a key position by naming Monsignor Battista Ricca the secretary for the board and the commission itself.

Vatican press office director Father Federico Lombardi announced the appointment of Msgr. Ricca in a June 15 statement.

“The Supervisory Commission of Cardinals Institute for Works of Religion, with the approval of the Holy Father has appointed Msgr. Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca Prelate of the Institute,” Fr. Lombardi said.

His role will involve serving as the secretary for the meetings of the cardinals’ commission and assisting in meetings of the Board of Superintendents.

Msgr. Ricca currently oversees St. Martha’s House, where Pope Francis has decided to live, as well as several other Vatican houses around Rome.

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UNITED STATES
Toledo Blade

The International Criminal Court has rejected a request by clergy sex abuse victims to investigate former Pope Benedict XVI and Vatican cardinals for possible crimes against humanity.

The tribunal, based in The Hague, told attorneys for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests on May 31 that it did not have jurisdiction over what the survivor’s network claimed.

Attorneys for the victims had argued the global church maintained a “long-standing and pervasive system of sexual violence” despite promises to swiftly oust predators.

The Toledo survivors organization argued that rape, sexual violence and torture are considered crimes against humanity as described in the international treaty that spells out the court’s mandate. The complaint also accuses Benedict and Vatican officials of creating policies that perpetuated the damage, constituting an attack against a civilian population.

But the court wrote in its letter to victims’ attorneys that it can only investigate crimes committed after the tribunal was formed and can only examine “the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.”

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HOLLYWOOD (CA)
We Got This Covered

June 15, 2013

Lauren Humphries-Brooks

Matt Damon likes bringing major social issues to the big screen. He did it most recently with hydrofracking in Promised Land, he tried to do it in Green Zone, and now he’s interested in handling the Catholic Church sex scandal in Tom McCarthy’s new film.

Damon is reportedly the frontrunner to star in McCarthy’s film about the Boston Globe reporters who hunted up and broke the story that Cardinal Bernard Law was moving priests accused of sexual assault into other parishes, effectively covering up the sex scandal. Law was America’s Senior Catholic Prelate, the Archbishop of Boston, and the first high-level official to be accused of covering up child molestation charge within the Church. He resigned as Archbishop in 2002, but not before sixty-five parishes in the Archdiocese had to be closed down.

The scandal that was broken by the Boston Globe had far-reaching consequences for the Catholic Church, and seems like perfect fodder for a social reform film. McCarthy’s film wants to be a sort of All The President’s Men-style drama, which means that it would trace the journalists covering the story, and presumably the attempts at cover-up. McCarthy has been working on the script with Josh Singer (The West Wing) for awhile now. With Matt Damon interested and potentially involved, and DreamWorks already on board, it sounds like the film is moving closer to actual production.

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CALIFORNIA
Monterey County Herald

By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Staff Writer
Posted: 06/14/2013

It won’t likely put a dime in his pocket, but the man molested as a teenager by fugitive priest Antonio Cortes won an emotional victory on Friday.

Judge Thomas Wills sanctioned Cortes for failing to appear for the second time in a lawsuit filed by “John Doe,” striking the priest’s original answer that denied the allegations in the case.

The ruling wipes the slate clean, as though Cortes never responded to the lawsuit, and clears the way for the victim to claim a default judgment and damages against the priest, who is believed to be in Mexico.

The plaintiff’s attorney, Chris Lavorato, said he will ask Wills to award his client between $5 million and $10 million within the next 60 days.

Lavorato said he realizes the likelihood his client will see any of the money is nil, but it would hang a judgment over Cortes’ head and help heal a wound in the victim’s heart.

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FLORIDA
marcoislandflorida.com

The former head priest at St. Leo Catholic Church in Bonita Springs has been removed from the priesthood in the wake of two-year-old charges he mismanaged his duties at the parish, fathered a child and disobeyed the bishop.

Stan Strycharz did not appeal the decision made by a three-judge panel of priests not connected with the Diocese of Venice. Bishop Frank Dewane issued a letter to St. Leo parishioners last weekend explaining the outcome of the canonical trial.

“They declared that Mr. Strycharz no longer has the ‘power, office, function, right, privilege, faculty, favor, title or insignia’ of the ministerial priesthood. This means that he is unable to function anywhere as a priest,” Dewane wrote.

Strycharz had the representation of a lawyer chosen by him, according to Dewane’s letter.

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VATICAN CITY
WSAV

Updated: Jun 15, 2013

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis took his first major step in reforming the troubled Vatican bank on Saturday by tapping a trusted prelate to help oversee its management, in a sign he wants to know more about its activities.

Francis signed off on naming Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca as interim prelate of the Institute for Religious Works.

It’s a key job that has been left vacant since 2011: The prelate oversees the bank’s activities, attends its board meetings and, critically, has access to all its documentation. The prelate reports to the commission of cardinals who run the bank and is currently headed by the Vatican No. 2. That gives Ricca a virtually direct line to the pope.

Ricca is currently director of the Vatican hotel where Francis lives and other Vatican-owned residential institutes for clergy. They include the Domus Internationalis Paulus VI, the central Rome residence where the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio always stayed on visits to Rome and where he famously paid his bill and bid farewell to the staff the day after he was elected pope.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

A priest who worked at St Luke’s Church in Stone Cross is being investigated for ‘sexually motivated’ inappropriate behaviour during his time as a nurse.

Stephen Sheridan, who worked at the Stone Cross church as assistant curator, is accused of behaving inappropriately with patients between 2002 and 2010 while working for the NHS in Worthing.

Mr Sheridan was ordained as a priest by the Diocese of Chichester in 2007.

The Diocese of Chichester has provided a report to the nursing watchdog, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), which is leading the investigation into Mr Sheridan’s alleged misconduct.

In 2008 he is accused of behaving ‘inappropriately’ to a ‘vulnerable’ 16-year-old girl and sending her text messages, a birthday card.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – The Spirit of Things

Sunday 16 June 2013

Patricia Feenan was a ‘cradle Catholic’ with a strong loyalty to the Church.

Learning of her son’s sexual abuse by the parish priest, a family friend, shattered her world and rocked her faith in the Church.

The launch of her book Holy Hell in late 2012, prompted ABC’s Lateline interview with (then) Detective Sergeant Peter Fox, whose allegations into the handling of child sex abuse cases triggered the Royal Inquiry into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Michelle Mulvihill’s family Sunday lunches were regularly attended by a half dozen young priests, so it was no surprise when, as a psychologist, she worked with the Catholic Church’s Toward’s Healing program as a mediator/facilitator.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

Bei seinem ersten Auftritt im Regensburger Presseclub hinterließ Bischof Rudolf Voderholzer einen weitgehend positiven Eindruck. Beim „Thema“ sexueller Missbrauch indes wirkt er engagiert, allerdings auch schlecht informiert. Sein Pressesprecher hat dabei ein ganz eigenes Verständnis von der Wahrheit.

Er wirkt herzlich. Auch bedacht, ruhig und diplomatisch. Trotz klarer Positionen. Als Bischof Rudolf Voderholzer am Donnerstag zum ersten Mal seit seinem Amtsantritt den Regensburger Presseclub besucht, antwortet er lange und ausführlich auf alle Fragen, die ihm gestellt werden (auf dem Podium moderieren Christine Schröpf, Mittelbayerische Zeitung, und Karl Birkenseer, Kirchenspezialist der Passauer Neuen Presse).

Das gilt für den recht lockeren Einstieg zum finanziellen Engagement für Hochwasser-Opfer im Bistum. „Man möchte eigentlich gleich anpacken und mithelfen“, sagt Voderholzer. Oder auch für seine fußballerischen Vorlieben („Der FC Bayern und der Jahn Regensburg müssen sich mein Mitfühlen jetzt teilen.“). Die zum Teil recht speziellen Fragen, die PNP-Redakteur Karl Birkenseer zu Liturgie und Glaube („Wird man in Zukunft nur katholisch sein, wenn man frömmer wird?“ „Worin zeigt sich die eucharistische Frömmigkeit?“) stellt, und die selbst bei manch begeistertem Katholiken im rappelvollen Presseclub – Journalisten sind deutlich in der Minderheit – für Ermüdungserscheinungen sorgen, berühren ein Steckenpferd des Bischofs und sorgen für längere Referate.

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DEUTSCHLAND
taz

Komm zu den Katholiken / da gibt es immer was zu beten”, heißt es im kürzlich vom WDR zensierten Rap “Dunk dem Herrn” der Comedienne Carolin Kebekus. Das – also der suggerierte Reim – ist natürlich grob übertrieben. Aber die Missbrauchsfälle der letzten Jahrzehnte sind weiterhin nicht aufgearbeitet, und auf den weiter zurückliegenden lastet schwer der Mantel des Vergessens.

Und künftig? Künftig hat das Berliner Erzbistum mit dem Franziskaner Josef Schulte eine weitere “Ansprechperson” für Fälle des Verdachts sexuellen Missbrauchs durch kirchliches Personal – quasi als klerikales Pendant zu der Psychologin Sigrid Rogge, die seit 2011 “Missbrauchsbeauftragte” des Erzbistums ist (ein Begriff in leichter semantischer Schieflage, aber daraus muss man nun wirklich keinem einen Strick drehen).

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger

Bergisch Gladbach.
Medien berichteten am Mittwoch, dass die ehemaligen Heimkinder, die in einem Knabenheim in Bergisch Gladbach-Moitzfeld missbraucht wurden, keine Entschädigung für die Leiden erhalten sollen, die sie in der Diakonie-Einrichtung erdulden mussten. Pfarrer Jürgen Hohlweger, Vorstand der Bergischen Diakonie Aprath, des ehemaligen Betreibers der Einrichtung, stellt dazu klar: “Diese Meldungen sind falsch. Pressevertreter haben hier zwei unterschiedliche Sachen in einen Topf geworfen.”

Am Montag hatte die Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland angekündigt, Opfer von sexueller Gewalt durch Bedienstete der Kirche mit 5000 Euro pro Fall zu entschädigen. Daraufhin rief ein Missbrauchsopfer aus dem Bensberger Heim bei der Diakonie Aprath an und fragte nach, ob er Anspruch auf diese Abfindung habe. Dies wurde von Seiten der Diakonie verneint. Hohlweger: “Daraus wurde abgeleitet, dass wir nicht zahlen wollten. Bei den Fällen in Bensberg handelt es sich aber nicht um Personen, die von Amtsträgern der Kirche missbraucht wurden.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Atheist Media Blog

Nürnberg: Bewährungsstrafe für Ex-Mesner nach Missbrauch und Vergewaltigung von Kindern

Vor dem Amtsgericht in Nürnberg spielten sich am gestrigen Donnerstag dramatische Szenen ab. Das Gericht verurteilte einen Mesner in Ruhestand wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs und Vergewaltigung von Kindern zu einer zweijährigen Bewährungsstrafe.

Der heute 69-Jährige hat sich an zwei Mädchen, die heute 21 und 22 Jahre alt sind, in der heimischen Gartenlaube, in der Küche, im ehelichen Schlafzimmer sowie in der Sakristei sexuell vergangen. Von den insgesamt sechs Fällen war einer eine Vergewaltigung.

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NEW YORK
UB Reporter

By SUE WUETCHER

Published June 13, 2013

UB law professor Susan Mangold will open the Newman Center’s annual Bridge Lecture Series on June 19 with a legal update on the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal.

The talk by Mangold, co-director of the Family Law Program in the UB Law School, and all remaining talks in the series will take place at 7 p.m. in the Newman Center, 495 Skinnersville Road, across from the Creekside Village apartments on the North Campus.

All talks are free and open to the public.

The aim of the lecture series, now in its 11th year, is to connect the UB family to the surrounding community.

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

By Sue Nowicki
snowicki@modbee.com

It will be 20 years next month since Oliver O’Grady last served as a priest in the Stockton Diocese. Yet the impact of the notorious pedophile’s 22 years at five parishes remains huge — on his victims and on the diocese’s finances.

To date, more than two dozen of O’Grady’s victims have collected nearly $25 million in damages from the diocese and its insurance providers, including a $1.75 million settlement announced last week. That does not include an additional $500,000 scheduled to be paid over the next several years in one case, and there are two additional O’Grady lawsuits pending.

Compare that with about $7 million awarded for all other clergy abuse lawsuits against six priests and one Catholic brother, including the largest, a $3.75 million award against the Rev. Michael Kelly last year. Two more lawsuits are pending against him.

Sunday, a letter from Bishop Stephen Blaire was read in all of the diocese’s 35 parishes and 14 missions, or small churches, from Lodi to Turlock and from Tracy to Mammoth. It referred to the “evil of sexual abuse” and stated: “The cash reserves from which these payments are made are all but gone. The money that remains for handling these cases is a small fraction of what is needed to face pending lawsuits as well as any new claims.”

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ITALIA
Menti Informatiche

[Google Translate]

[Bing Translator]

Quell’uomo mi parlava di orge, anche con minorenni, all’interno del Vaticano. Del coinvolgimento di altissimi prelati, uno indicato come papabile all’ultimo Conclave. E poi riferiva di casi di corruzione, con denaro pubblico e della Chiesa. Io ho registrato tutto. Ho passato mesi a studiare il caso, ma era troppo delicato, perché c’era di mezzo la vita di ragazzi giovani. Così alla fine ho deciso di non fare denunce pubbliche, di agire con la massima discrezione e di affidare il materiale alla Procura di Savona che ha affrontato con coraggio i casi di molestie ai minori da parte di sacerdoti. Volevo che fossero loro a capire se si trattava di un ricatto o no. Ma la verità andava accertata”. Francesco Zanardi, lei attraverso la sua rete “L’abuso”, da anni si batte contro le violenze sessuali compiute da sacerdoti, come è cominciata questa storia? Erano i giorni del ‘corvo’, dei veleni in Vaticano. Sono stato contattato da un uomo che diceva di essere il manager di una multinazionale. Sosteneva di essere stato coinvolto in un giro di festini e di prostituzione, anche minorile, all’interno del Vaticano. Raccontava di esserne disgustato e di volerne uscire.

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ITALIA
La Stampa

Summary: The Savona prosecutor has acquired audio recordings produced by anti-pedophilia Francesco Zanardi that are believed to contain a description of alleged orgies where some high Roman prelates entertained themselves with men and boys.

SAVONA
C’è un risvolto savonese, se così si può dire, nella vicenda della «lobby gay» che secondo dichiarazioni attribuite a papa Francesco sarebbe attiva in Vaticano. La Procura di Savona ha infatti acquisito alcune registrazioni audio, prodotte dall’attivista antipedofilo Francesco Zanardi, e che conterrebbero la descrizione di presunte orge in cui alti prelati romani si intrattengono con uomini e ragazzi e perfino con minorenni.

Le telefonate registrate tra Zanardi e il manager di una multinazionale con sede a Londra che frequenta il Vaticano e, a suo dire, avrebbe introdotto negli ambienti della Curia romana giovani e giovanissimi per scopi sessuali, sono state ascoltate dal procuratore di Savona Francantonio Granero e, vista l’evidente competenza territoriale della Procura di Roma, trasmessa già da qualche tempo ai magistrati della Capitale.

Ieri sera su questa e altre vicende, compresi i casi savonesi denunciati da tempo, Zanardi è comparso su La7 nella trasmissione Servizio Pubblico di Michele Santoro.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 15, 2013

In its first month of private hearings in Sydney, the royal commission into child sexual abuse has referred four matters to police and been warned that child sexual abuse continues in Australian institutions.

The commission has issued formal notices to 10 different religious, educational, recreational and government bodies requiring them to provide it with documents. One such notice yielded 100,000 documents.

With private sessions expanding to Brisbane this week, and later to other cities, the commission plans to shake off its ”bland” legalistic image with promotions on radio and other media to encourage more survivors to come forward, commission chief executive Janette Dines said.

But gathering records will be a ”big problem” because some of the cases it has been told of date back as far as the 1920s, and many institutions had no record-keeping requirements in earlier times, Ms Dines said.

About 5000 people have called or written to the commission since it was announced in November. It has received 2200 phone calls since April.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By David Gibson| Religion News Service

The death of liberal Catholicism has been proclaimed so often in recent decades that few even bother to check to see if the body still has a pulse.

But a fledgling organization of priests believes the obituaries are premature, and as the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests gathers this month to discuss an agenda for church reform, its leaders are pointing to support from the laity as well as inspiration from the top: Pope Francis.

“For me, his papacy so far has been a lifesaver,” said the Rev. Dave Cooper, a priest from Milwaukee who is head of the AUSCP, which will hold its second annual assembly at Seattle University from June 24-27.

Not that Francis is a starry-eyed liberal who is about to ordain women priests or turn the church into a representative democracy. He’s not. Rather, it is the new pope’s repeated exhortations for the church to engage the world, to be humble and open to dialogue, and above all to show people — including Catholics — a welcoming face that has buoyed Cooper and others in the AUSCP.

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CANADA
Global News

WINNIPEG – A Manitoba judge is expected to decide next week whether testimony from two brothers who allege they were sexually abused by an Orthodox priest should be considered jointly.

The brothers have testified they were abused in separate incidents during the summer of 1985, when they were pre-teens and lived and worked with Seraphim Storheim.

The Crown is asking the court to admit the evidence of each brother in the other’s case.

Defence lawyer Jeff Gindin opposes the move, saying it would be prejudicial to use one man’s testimony to try to bolster the other’s allegation.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Christopher Mainella has indicated he might decide by next week whether to separate the cases, and the defence says it might then seek to have one of the cases dismissed due to lack of evidence.

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UNITED STATES
The New Civil Rights Movement

Breaking: Crimes Against Humanity Case Against Pope Benedict Rejected By International Court

by DAVID BADASH on JUNE 14, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI will not be formally investigated or charged for crimes against humanity the International Criminal Court at The Hague has just announced. The case, brought against Benedict and several Vatican cardinals by Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), was rejected on grounds of jurisdiction and evidence.

The tribunal, based in The Hague, “told attorneys for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests that ‘there is not a basis at this time to proceed with further analysis,’” an AP article in The Huffington Post states:

“The matters described in your communication do not appear to fall within the jurisdiction of the court,” a court official wrote in a May 31 letter to the Center for Constitutional Rights, the nonprofit legal group that represents the victims. The legal organization released the letter Thursday.

Pam Spees, senior staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, said her group was confident it could collect enough evidence as new abuse victims come forward to press the tribunal to reconsider.

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VATICAN CITY
DFW Catholic

Rome, Italy, Jun 14, 2013 / 12:44 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican is not at all surprised the International Criminal Court rejected a request by an abuse victims’ advocacy group to investigate Benedict XVI for crimes against humanity.

“We have always thought that the Court would answer this way, given the unfounded accusation,” the Holy See’s press office director, Father Federico Lombardi, told CNA June 14.

The court rejected a request from the U.S.-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests to investigate Benedict XVI and certain cardinals for crimes against humanity, according to a May 31 letter from the court.

It stated there is “no basis” for the network’s claims that the abuse was perpetrated by the Vatican.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

The Riverview Home run by the Salvation Army, until its license was revoked by the Queensland Government in 1977, is another of the institutions requiring a second look by the Royal Commission. All records were claimed to have been lost in the 1974 floods. The principal accused abuser, Captain Lawrence Wilson, was acquitted of all charges against him. However, the matter is far from settled in the minds of many.

It was ranked as the worst institution in Queensland by the 1998 Forde Inquiry. It was where many Indigenous “Stolen Generation” children were sent. The 1914 Annual Report of the Chief Protector of Aborigines notes than several boys were sent there (see reference below). The Home was also the destination of many of the “child migrants”.

In 1956, the UK Home Office’s John Ross led a fact-finding committee to investigate Australian child migrant institutions, and found unfavourable conditions and poorly-trained staff in the 26 institutions it visited. The Committee’s confidential report blacklisted five institutions, among them the Salvation Army Riverview Boys’ Home.

On 7 December, 2010, at Old Parliament House, Canberra, in a closed event, the international leader of The Salvation Army, General Shaw Clifton, issued a national apology to former residents of Salvation Army Homes. The author was not invited to this function (nor to the national apology by Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull – too radical!).

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

International Criminal Court dismisses abuse claims against the Vatican

By Alessandro Speciale| Religion News Service, Updated: Friday, June 14

VATICAN CITY — A campaign to hold former Pope Benedict XVI responsible for crimes against humanity floundered on Thursday (June 13) as the International Criminal Court in The Hague threw out a case filed by victims of clergy sex abuse.

The case had been presented in September 2011 by SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, accusing the pope and other senior Vatican officials of failing to stop abusive priests.

According to a SNAP statement, the court’s prosecutor’s office said on May 31 that the file presented against leaders of the Roman Catholic Church does not meet the “preconditions of the court” and thus “do not appear to fall within the (court’s) jurisdiction.”

Court officials could not be reached for comment, but The Associated Press reported that the court letter said it can only examine “the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.”

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

. . .Three Missouri Catholic employees have made a list of church “whistleblowers” who have reported clergy sex crimes. The list, just posted by BishopAccountability.org, includes Sr. Jean Christensen of Kansas City, former nun Lynette Petruska of St. Louis, who’s now a barrister with Chet Pleban’s law firm and Fr. Joseph Starman of Lincoln County (now deceased). . .

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

s interviews with the Vatican Bank’s president, Ernst Von Freyberg, multiply, general director, Paolo Cipriani, says the Church needs the IOR because without it, it would lack freedom. Meanwhile, the Vatican is choosing to invest money in consultants and advisors

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

The Church’s financial independence is not only “essential”, it is “an obligation”, the Vatican Bank (IOR)’s general director Paolo Cipriani said in a surprise comment to Italian newspaper Il Giornale. The interview was part of the IOR’s media strategy, featuring the bank’s new German president, Ernst von Freyberg, as a protagonist on more than one front. After Ettore Gotti Tedeschi’s brutal dismissal, the Vatican hired prestigious global executive search firm Spencer Stuart to select the IOR’s leaders and chose von Freyberg as top man.

Von Freyberg was selected at the last minute, after Benedict XVI had announced his resignation. According to Vatican Radio, three months after he was hired, von Freyberg started holding “a series of interviews with qualified representatives of the international press,” including newspapers and news agencies such as the Financial Times, Le Figaro, Reuters and Associated Press.

Three key messages emerged from the interviews with von Freyberg. Firstly, the President of the IOR has not spoken to the new Pope in person about the bank, despite the fact that he stays at St. Martha’s House when he is in Rome. Secondly, the Vatican Bank’s main problem is not to do with its previous management (the bank’s operations were picked to pieces by the judiciary) or its suspicious accounts. Its real problem is its image and communication. This is why one of the first decisions von Freyberg took was to hire an external company to help with Vatican communications, despite the fact that the Holy See already has a Press Office, a Pontifical Council for Communication, a newspaper, a radio and television broadcaster and as of last year, a communications advisor for the Secretariat of State, the American journalist Greg Burke. CNC – Communications & Network Consulting was chosen as the Vatican’s communications company.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) not to investigate or prosecute Pope Benedict XVI:

On September 13, 2011, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) announced that it had asked the ICC to prosecute Pope Benedict XVI, and other high ranking Catholic leaders, for “crimes against humanity.” The next day I wrote a letter to Luis Moreno-Ocampo at The Hague detailing the fraudulent, dishonest, politicized, and anti-Catholic history of SNAP (to read it, click here). Our goal was to subvert their efforts. We won.

The ICC has officially tossed the bogus complaint filed by SNAP and the Center for Constitutional Rights; the latter is a far-left wing group that specializes in defending Muslim terrorists sitting in Guantanamo Bay. The ICC rejected the bid to even investigate the Holy See.

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MISSOURI
Associated Baptist Press

Additional charges alleging sex crimes by Pastor Travis Smith come as the Southern Baptist Convention takes a stronger stand against child abuse.

By Bob Allen

A Southern Baptist pastor in Missouri awaiting trial for alleged sex crimes now faces additional charges filed June 10.

Local media report that the Moniteau County prosecutor filed new charges of statutory rape and statutory sodomy against 42-year-old Travis Smith for alleged incidents in 1998 and 1999 involving a female aged 14 to 15 at the time.

Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church in Stover, Mo., now faces a total of six felony counts ranging from forcible rape to sexual abuse. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Monday, June 17, for the new Class C felony charges, which are punishable by up to seven years in prison.

The new charges coincide with this week’s passage of a Southern Baptist Convention resolution calling on churches to take a firm stand on protecting children from abuse. Early reviews of the statement were mixed.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota SNAP

Letter to the Editor, intended for publication

Any charges of child sexual abuse are extremely hard and depressing to read about. But in the recent case of Fr. Leo Koppala, there are three crucial ‘silver linings.’

First and foremost, an eleven-year-old girl was so brave and thankfully found the courage to immediately tell a trusted adult what she experienced at the hands of Fr. Koppala. Secondly, the trusted adult was brave and smart enough to contact local law enforcement immediately. And third, the police and prosecutors moved quickly to arrest Fr. Koppala. There is no doubt in my mind that the actions listed above will serve to protect others and prevent further harm.

These actions are very encouraging to me. As a girl that grew up in rural Minnesota. I was repeatedly molested by a Catholic priest, Fr. Joseph Jeyapaul. Sadly, in my situation he managed to flee overseas to his native country of India. But my case and these new charges against Fr. Koppala, show that times are changing and that sometimes, when victims speak up about such heinous crimes, their actions help to protect other children.

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MINNESOTA
Fairmont Sentinel

June 14, 2013

Jodelle Greiner – Sentinel Staff Writer

BLUE EARTH – Father Leo Charles Koppala, 47, of Blue Earth, has been charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct and will face an initial court appearance 1:30 p.m. Monday.

The charges stem from an incident June 7 in which Koppala allegedly engaged in sexual conduct with a child under 13 years of age, with the defendant being more than 36 months older than the child. Maximum sentence for the felony charges is 25 years in prison and a $35,000 fine.

Koppala, the priest at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Blue Earth, is being held in the Faribault County Jail.

Previous news reports have indicated the child is an 11-year-old girl. The statement of probable cause released by Faribault County has the child’s age and name redacted, as well as the name of the adult looking after the child and the location of the incident.

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UNITED STATES
ritualabuseinfo

The Ticking Clock on Child Abuse May 31, 2013 Law and Justice
Marci Hamilton battles the deadline that cheats victims.

By Rebecca Webber

The Cleveland kidnapping case, the Sandusky scandal at Penn State and the revelations from prestigious private schools like New York’s Horace Mann remind us that child sex abuse can happen anywhere.

“Twenty to 25 percent of children are sexually abused,” says Marci Hamilton, a professor at Cardozo School of Law. But it often takes victims years to come to terms with what was done to them. “A survivor needs decades to come forward. They’re trying to deal with so much and they can’t put it all together,” she explains. In the meantime, their abusers are typically targeting other children. “Many perpetrators continue abusing into their elderly years,” she says.

That’s why Hamilton has been on a decade-long crusade to eliminate statute-of-limitation rules on sex abuse crimes. The rules vary by state but typically require the victim to file charges or a lawsuit within a specific time frame, sometimes within as little as one year after the abuse took place or after the victim reaches a certain age (usually between 18 and 21). These limitations, says Hamilton, keep many victims from outing their abusers.

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UNITED STATES
Stop Baptist Predators

Christa Brown

On June 12 at their annual convention in Houston, Southern Baptists passed a resolution reminding church members to report child sex abuse to legal authorities.

Here’s what it says: “RESOLVED, that we remind all Southern Baptists of their legal and moral responsibility to report any child abuse to authorities . . . .”

Thus, Southern Baptists “RESOLVED” to “remind” people to obey the law . . . i.e., to do what they should be doing anyway.

But for Southern Baptists, a reminder to obey the law took a convention with 5000 delegates and heaps of hoopla. And of course, it’s still just talk. It doesn’t actually do anything at all. It sure as heck doesn’t impose any consequences on pastors who choose not to obey reporting laws and who instead keep quiet about sex abuse allegations against their clergy-cronies.

Southern Baptists also “RESOLVED, that we strongly urge Southern Baptist churches to utilize background checks” to screen prospective employees and volunteers. So, again, it took the vote of 5000 delegates to “urge” churches to use this bare-bones minimum of safeguard measures? And it’s still just talk, nothing more.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2013

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

Judge Ellen Ceisler just sent two innocent men to jail.

Even people inside the district attorney’s office know that Father Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero are innocent.

It should have never gotten this far. Billy Doe told an unbelievable story about a former altar boy being passed around like a pinata among three rapists. It’s an x-rated fractured fairy tale makes no sense in any of its various versions. Billy Doe should have been laughed out of the D.A.’s office.

Instead, when Billy told his improbable tale, the D.A. and a couple of gullible prosecutors bought it. Whether they were blinded by misguided empathy, political ambition, or hatred of the church, it doesn’t really matter. It was as if they all got high on whatever Billy was peddling.

It was a story with no corroborating witnesses or evidence, just the tales of a drug-addled goofball who had been and out of 23 drug rehabs in the past 10 years and had once bragged to a drug counselor that he was a natural salesman. In court he proved his point; perhaps he’ll switch from selling drugs to selling used cars.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

Post by T.F. CHARLTON

A number of developments in the lawsuit against Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) have taken place since I first covered it for RD back in early March.

On May 14, a second amendment was filed to the suit:
[The suit] adds three new plaintiffs, making a total of 11. Five plaintiffs are now using their real names, and the rest are pseudonyms. It accuses church leaders of conspiracy, negligence, misrepresentation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

On May 17, however, Maryland Circuit Court Judge Sharon V. Burrell dismissed most of the suit on the grounds of statute of limitations: under state law, civil charges must be brought in many cases of child abuse within three years of the victim turning 18. If Burrell’s ruling stands, only the two remaining plaintiffs who are under 21 (both of whom are from Virginia) will be able to bring suit against SGM.

On May 29, Susan Burke and William O’Neil, lawyers for the plaintiffs, filed a motion for Burrell to reconsider her decision. They plan to appeal if this request is denied. Burke has also stated that “Going forward with a civil lawsuit does not in any way prevent criminal actions—perhaps may even make it more likely.”

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VATICAN CITY
NPR

[with audio]

by SYLVIA POGGIOLI
June 13, 2013

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are a grave sin. But the existence of active gay prelates in the Vatican bureaucracy known as the Roman Curia has been considered a poorly held secret for centuries.

Robert Mickens, Vatican correspondent for the British Catholic weekly The Tablet, says the normal definition of a lobby as an organized group of people pushing a specific agenda does not apply here.

He prefers to call it a gay subculture.

“Many of these people in the Vatican that are gay and even acting out are extremely conservative,” Mickens says. “These are not people that want to change the church’s teaching on homosexuality — not at all.

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CALIFORNIA
Hollywood Reporter

6/13/2013 by Borys Kit

Participant Media remains on board as co-financier and Tom McCarthy is attached to direct.

DreamWorks is quietly parting ways with the untitled movie project that chronicles the Catholic Church’s decades-long cover-up of its pedophile priests in Massachusetts as uncovered during a

Participant Media, which remains a co-financier, and producers Michael Sugar and Steve Golin of Anonymous Content and Rocklin/Faust’s Nicole Rocklin and Blye Faust are now shopping the project, which has Tom McCarthy attached to direct.

Multiple suitors are already lined up and the prestigious nature of the project will surely lock this up.

The movie project tells of how the Globe’s “Spotlight Team” reporters spent a year interviewing victims and reviewing thousands of pages of documents and discovered years of cover-up by Church leadership. Their reporting eventually led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, who had hidden years of serial abuse by other priests, and opened the floodgates to revelations of molestation and cover-ups worldwide that still reverberate today.

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CALIFORNIA
Variety

JUNE 13, 2013

WB said to be front-runner to land drama

Justin Kroll
@krolljvar

Stuart Oldham
News Editor
@s_oldham

DreamWorks has decided not to go forward with director Tom McCarthy’s untitled feature about the Catholic Church’s cover-up of its pedophile priests in Massachusetts, uncovered by the Boston Globe.

Participant Media is still on board as producers and is shopping the film around town with Warner Bros. as the projected front-runner to land the drama.

Variety reported in October that “Win Win” helmer McCarthy and scribe Josh Singer (“The West Wing”) had been tapped by Anonymous Content and Rocklin/Faust to work on the project, which follows the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who exposed the scandal.

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CANADA
CBC News

Roderick Janssen, a former church volunteer, was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in prison for a list of offences related to sexual assault and child pornography.

Janssen, 37, had earlier pleaded guilty to 18 charges including possessing and making child pornography and sexually assaulting 10 young boys from 2006 to 2011.

The youngest victim was 6-years-old.

The mother of one victim, who cannot be identified because of a court order, spoke after the sentencing.

“It wasn’t long enough as far as I’m concerned. They definitely need to look at the fact, when you’re piling charges on top of charges and they’re only getting one set time, it shouldn’t be concurrent. It should be individual.”

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CANADA
Calgary Herald

BY DARYL SLADE, CALGARY HERALD JUNE 13, 2013

Calling him an untreated pedophile and a sex offender who is a substantial risk to reoffend, a judge sentenced former church youth counsellor Roderick Kyle Janssen to 14 years in prison Thursday for sexually abusing six young boys.

Provincial court Judge Catherine Skene also declared Janssen a long-term offender and placed him under community supervision for another 10 years after his release. Janssen was given double credit for time already spent in custody, leaving him with nine years and eight months to serve in prison.

“Mr. Janssen suffers from pedophilia and used opportunistic social strategies to gain trust of mothers of the boys,” Skene said in giving her sentence on Thursday.

“He is sexually attracted to boys and he used his friendship and trust through the church to take them on trips, to use hot tubs and go on other outings. Mr. Janssen went to excessive lengths to get close to them.”

Janssen pleaded guilty in November 2011 to 18 charges, including six for sexually abusing the boys, mostly aged six to 13, and a dozen counts related to child pornography.

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UNITED STATES
The Tech

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has decided not to investigate or prosecute the former pope and other leaders of the Roman Catholic Church on allegations of covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests.

Victims of sexual abuse filed a complaint in 2011 asking the court to prosecute Benedict XVI, then the pope, and three other Vatican officials for what they called an international and systemic cover-up of sexual abuse that amounted to “crimes against humanity.”

The court responded in a letter dated May 31 that after analyzing the complaint, it determined that the matters “do not appear to fall within the jurisdiction of the Court.” The letter said that “some of the allegations” fell outside the court’s jurisdiction, which is to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

The Enoggera Boys Home in Brisbane, which was run by the Anglican Church, is another of the homes deserving of a closer look by the Royal Commission.

Earlier postings have drawn attention to the need for greater scrutiny of Australian volunteers going to South East Asian “orphanages”. The Enoggera Home serves as an example of why this is necessary. Former Queensland police officer, Graham Leonard Noyes, used his position as a volunteer at Enoggera to abuse a boy. Something of the power distance between victim and abuser stands out here.

While full time “carers” have been able to be tracked down for punishment, it is much more difficult to track down volunteers who may go to several institutions for short periods of time. These abusers are afforded a certain degree of anonymity because of poor record-keeping, and the likelihood victims will have a poor memory of them, which interferes with identification. Victims are inhibited from coming forward because their case is not only likely to be disbelieved, as many of the perpetrators were very prominent members of society, but offences are also very difficult to prove.

Many attacks by volunteer visitors and people taking children out for the day on excursions, probably have not been reported for this very reason. The issue of volunteers should be raised at the royal commission, in the context of both historical cases in Australia and current cases in other countries.

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UNITED STATES
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel June 13, 2013 1

The International Criminal Court at The Hague has declined to investigate Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and other Catholic leaders for the church’s handling of the sexual abuse of children, the advocacy group the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests announced on Thursday.

SNAP and the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights accused the Vatican officials of crimes against humanity in a September 2011 complaint. It included three Wisconsin cases, including that of the late Father Lawrence Murphy, who is believed to have molested as many of 200 deaf boys, and the destruction of documents Dioceses of Milwaukee and Green Bay. SNAP’s Midwest director, Peter Isely of Shorewood, was among the victims and advocates who traveled to the Hague in the Netherlands to support the filing and lauch a 12-city tour of Europe to draw attention to the charges.

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UNITED STATES
ABC News

By RACHEL ZOLL AP Religion Writer
NEW YORK June 13, 2013 (AP)

The International Criminal Court has rejected a longshot request by clergy sex abuse victims to investigate former Pope Benedict XVI and Vatican cardinals for possible crimes against humanity.

The tribunal, based in The Hague, told attorneys for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests that “there is not a basis at this time to proceed with further analysis.”

“The matters described in your communication do not appear to fall within the jurisdiction of the court,” a court official wrote in a May 31 letter to the Center for Constitutional Rights, the nonprofit legal group that represents the victims. The legal organization released the letter Thursday.

Jeffrey Lena, the U.S. attorney for the Vatican, had called the 2011 request to the court a “ludicrous publicity stunt.”

“The common thread running through all these cases is the mistaken idea that ‘everything is controlled by Rome,'” Lena said Thursday.

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CANADA
National Catholic Reporter

Isabella R. Moyer | Jun. 13, 2013 NCR Today

News from Winnipeg, my neck of the woods, was highlighted in Dennis Coday’s Morning Briefing on Wednesday. Archbishop Kenneth William (Saraphim) Storheim, Canada’s highest-ranking Orthodox church cleric, is accused of assaulting two young boys more than 25 years ago. His trial is currently underway.

Storheim had been on the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests’ radar for years, according to Melanie Sakoda. She also acknowledged that his trial is possible because Canadian law does not offer him statute of limitations protection.

Fr. George Mulligan is a risk analyst for Praesidium Inc., a Texas company that gives training and assistance in abuse-risk management. He spoke last month at a mandatory workshop for all priests in the archdiocese of Vancouver. According to a report in The B.C. Catholic, Mulligan said, “What the Canadian Church has done from day one is be transparent, respond, enter into conversation, and tell its leadership at every level what was going on.” In this sense, he believes the Canadian bishops did a better job responding to the sexual abuse crisis than their American brothers to the south.

This is small comfort and doesn’t take away the anger at each new headline — and there have been too many headlines for too many years. The sexual abuse of children by clergy and religious first became national news in Canada with the 1988 reports from the Mount Cashel Orphanage in Newfoundland. Reports of other abuses spread like wildfire. Our government and churches have been dealing for decades with the aftermath of the residential school abuses. In 2009, Antigonish Bishop Raymond Lahey made headlines when his laptop was seized at the Ottawa airport and found to be filled with child pornography. Now we have the accusations against Archbishop Storheim.

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