ABUSE TRACKER

LOWELL (MA)
Boston Herald

Monday, August 5, 2013

By:
John Zaremba

A high-ranking Catholic priest was released on $500 bail today on charges he paid a prostitute for sex behind a cemetery in Lowell, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s office.

Rev. Monsignor Arthur M. Coyle was arraigned this morning in Lowell District Court on a charge of paying for sexual conduct, a spokeswoman for Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said. The Rev. Coyle is due back in court on Sept. 16, the DA’s office said.

Coyle was ordained in 1977 and received the title of Prelate of Honor in 2012, according to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. He had been serving as episcopal vicar of the Merrimack region for the Archdiocese since 2008.

Coyle has taken a voluntary administrative leave from his assignment as a result of his arrest, the Archdiocese of Boston said in a statement.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Monday 5 August 2013

Further allegations have been made of sexual and physical abuse by monks at a former boarding school.

Pupils of the Catholic Fort Augustus Abbey school recently told a BBC Scotland investigation that they were molested and beaten by monks over a period of three decades from the 1950s.

Abuse was also carried out at Carlekemp, its feeder school in East Lothian, it is claimed.

Both schools are now closed. …

Detective Chief Inspector Pamela Ross said: “Further individuals were identified as part of the investigation and following recent media coverage, a further number of former pupils have come forward to speak to us.

“We understand that it must be very difficult to speak about such matters but if anyone has any information about this case, they are encouraged to come forward and report this to police. Any such reports will be directed to the inquiry team and investigated and dealt with very sensitively by trained officers.”

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on August 5, 2013

or Unfair Command Influence, Part 2: The Bully Pulpit, Exclusive Access and a Conviction

If you had any questions as to why California’s child sex abuse victims desperately need a civil window, today’s news should close the deal.

The Bully Pulpit

California Catholic News published a July 31 email from Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, urging parishioners to write their representatives and tell them to vote “no” on SB 131. In fact, the Archbishop has even put together a website to make the letter-writing process easier.

Canon Law says that the Archbishop holds the keys to the salvation of his flock. So when he asks Catholics to write letters, he really isn’t asking … if you know what I mean.

It’s the Bully Pulpit at its most powerful.

One would think that Gomez, after all of the apologies he made in January, would be first in line to demand transparency and justice for victims and accountability for wrong-doers.

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LOWELL (MA)
Lowell Sun

By Grant Welker, gwelker@lowellsun.com
UPDATED: 08/05/2013 12:40:05 PM EDT

LOWELL — The Rev. Monsignor Arthur M. Coyle, a Merrimack Valley official with the Archdiocese of Boston, was arrested for sexual conduct for pay in Lowell Sunday afternoon.

Coyle was allegedly arrested with a prostitute behind the Polish Cemetery on Boston Road. As his arraignment in Lowell District Court Monday morning, Coyle was given a court-appointed lawyer. He plead non-guilty and was ordered to return to court on Sept. 16. He was released on personal recognizance.

Coyle, the episcopal vicar for the archdiocese, lives at the rectory at St. Rita’s on Mammoth Road. The 62-year-old was arrested at 5:45 p.m. and bailed out, according to an arrest log.

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SCOTLAND
Ecumenical News

A senior Scottish Catholic bishop has issued a strong apology to victims of child abuse that received praise from prominent members of the community, but was rejected by former church social worker after a step that was described some as landmark announcement.

The Catholic Church announced for the first Sunday that it will publish audits compiled by its National Office of Child Safety of all allegations made against priests, staff or volunteers and how these were resolved.

Later in 2013, the church will release audits dating back to 2006, when co-ordinated procedures were first implemented in Scotland and it will continue this process each year.

The Catholic Church also announced it is also preparing a more detailed report for publication in 2014 that will refer to all historical cases stretching across all Scottish dioceses.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WCVB

LOWELL, Mass. —Monsignor Arthur M. Coyle, a priest with the Archdiocese of Boston, was arrested for sexual conduct for pay in Lowell Sunday afternoon.

According to the Lowell Sun, Coyle was arrested with a prostitute behind a cemetery.

He was arraigned Monday morning and held on $500 cash bail

Coyle, a native of Weymouth, was ordained a Priest in May 1977 at Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. In July 2008, he was appointed Episcopal Vicar for the Merrimack Region.

Coyle was named a Prelate of Honor in December 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Patch

Posted by Tony Catinella (Editor) , August 05, 2013

A catholic priest from Weymouth was arrested on Sunday in Lowell for paying for a prostitute.

Monsignor Arthur M. Coyle, a priest with the Archdiocese of Boston, was arrested for sexual conduct for pay, according to WCVB.com

Coyle was arrested with a prostitute behind a cemetery.

He was arraigned Monday morning and held on $500 cash bail.
.

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BELLEVILLE (IL)
News-Democrat

BELLEVILLE — The St. Louis-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests will hold a rally at 1:30 p.m. today outside the offices of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville and Bishop Edward K. Braxton.

The rally will address what SNAP alleges is a concern by victims of sexual abuse by priests about Braxton’s spending, including a trip to Africa last month and another remodeling of the bishop’s house in Belleville.

A message left Monday morning on the voicemail of Braxton’s administrative assistant was not immediately returned.

According to David Clohessy, executive director of SNAP in St. Louis, the victims will publicly call for Braxton to “reveal who paid for the trips, and his alleged new kitchen renovation, and beg him to stay home,” and monitor priests who have been removed from ministry after being suspected of sexually abusing children.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | Aug. 5, 2013

ROME
Revolutions are funny things. Some are launched by one group but hijacked by others, as in Egypt, where liberal democrats have become bystanders to the real contest between the army and the Muslim Brotherhood. Some are born amid great idealism that quickly becomes a smokescreen for hypocrisy, as in the various communist uprisings.

Still others fizzle out, while a handful eventually produce new systems that, despite their flaws, really do change the world — the French and American revolutions, for instance.

It’s too early to know which trajectory will apply to the upheaval launched by Pope Francis, in part because at the level of structures and personnel he still hasn’t made many sweeping changes, and in part because the parallels are inexact anyway — Catholicism, after all, is a family of faith, not a political society.

Perhaps the lone certainty is that a revolution is, indeed, underway. In mid-July, the Italian newsmagazine L’Espresso ran a cover story on the new pope under the banner headline “Ce la farà?” The phrase translates roughly as “Will he make it?” or “Will he pull it off?” …

To take the most obvious example, there’s long been an in-group/out-group distinction in the Vatican, between a majority who show up for work and try to do their job, and an elite minority who run “the game” — who monopolize access to the pope, who control the allocation of personnel and resources, and who otherwise pull the strings of power on the basis of patronage and political savvy.

As recently as four months ago, this game was in full swing. Ambitious personnel knew precisely who they should try to befriend, which receptions to attend, which movements they should cozy up to, which devotions to embrace and so on. Many Vatican officials found that repugnant, while others worked it to perfection, but in any event they knew the lay of the land.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By NICK BRAMHILL, IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Monday, August 5, 2013

The son of Bishop Eamon Casey has told of his anger at the way the Catholic Church treated his father following revelations that he had had an affair and fathered a son with American divorcee Annie Murphy.

In an interview in the Irish Times Boston-based Peter Murphy said his father received far more punishment than he deserved from Catholic Church leaders, after he was forced into exile and forbidden from saying in Mass in public ever again.

He said the subsequent paedophile scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church over the past 20 years put into perspective his father’s so-called ‘crime’.

And he also revealed that Casey, 86, who returned home to Ireland in 2006 and is now in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer’s felt lasting pain at being banned from performing Mass publicly because he never lost his devotion to the Church.

He said: “It was ridiculous. I mean, six years’ penance in a foreign country and then the five years he spent in England made it even more egregious and more painful because of how close he was to his goal and all he wanted to was go home and say Mass. Was that so terrible?

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BELLEVILLE (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims blast bishop on spending
He remodels home again & goes abroad
And he’s still paying 7 or 8 predator clerics
Only two of 17 abusers have been defrocked
Church is monitoring & housing none of them
Group says “kids still at risk” 20 years after crisis erupted
Despite pledging “openness,” diocese won’t reveal # of victims
SNAP: Once “ahead of the curve,” Belleville diocese is now “far behind”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will disclose that Belleville’s Catholic bishop (who’s admitted misusing church funds before):

— is renovating his home again, for the second time in seven years, and
— quietly went to Africa last month (and has several times in recent years).

They will urge him to:
— urge him to reveal who paid for the trips, and his alleged new kitchen renovation, and
— beg him to stay home, house predator priests, monitor them, and
— reveal how many boys and girls have been sexually assaulted by Belleville priests.

WHEN
TODAY, Monday, Aug. 5 at 1:30 p.m.

WHERE
Outside the Belleville Catholic Diocese HQ, 222 S. Third St., Belleville IL

WHO
At least one long-time Belleville Catholic and activist along with two-three members of a support group called SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), including a St. Louis man who is the group’s long time director

WHY
It’s been exactly 20 years since the first of 17 Belleville clerics was accused of molesting a child and suspended. In what was a then-unprecedented scandal, over the next three years, the diocese saw roughly 10% of its active duty priests ousted because of credible child sex abuse allegations.

Only two of them, however, have been defrocked. Seven are still being paid, SNAP believes. And none are being watched, the group says, needlessly leaving kids at risk.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Patriot-News

By Patriot-News Op-Ed
on August 04, 2013

By Wayne Fontana

Testimony from the trial in Pittsburgh involving alleged child abuse by a former Pittsburgh Public Schools police officer underscores the need for better safeguards for our children and clearer reporting procedures for school officials if they suspect child abuse.

That is the goal of my legislation that would require school district authorities to report possible child abuse to authorities within 24 hours.

My bill would remove the current confusing patchwork of reporting requirements involving school officials when they believe there are instances of child abuse in school. My legislation makes all school officials mandated reporters of suspected child abuse.

Witnesses at the trial testified that they were abused by the former school police officer on school premises as far back as 1998, yet no student came forward with abuse allegations at that time.

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CALIFORNIA
California Catholic Daily

The following email came to Bob McPhail, Cal Catholic editor, on July 31.
Archdiocese of Los Angeles

Moderator of the Curia/Vicar General

TO: Bob
FROM: Rev. Msgr. Joseph V. Brennan, Moderator of the Curia / Vicar General
SUBJECT: AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ

Archbishop Gomez has asked me to send the following important message to you:
Friends, my brother bishops and I in the California Catholic Conference are asking all Catholics to contact their Assembly members and Senators and urge them to vote “No” on Senate Bill 131.

SB-131 fails to protect all victims of childhood sexual abuse, discriminates against Catholic schools and other private employers, and puts the Church’s social services and educational mission at risk. We have set up a website that will enable you to easily email your elected officials directly: http://bit.ly/18nEUiB.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

One of Scotland’s most senior Catholics has apologised amid claims of sexual and physical abuse by monks at a former boarding school in the Highlands.

Alleged victims who attended the Catholic Fort Augustus Abbey school told a BBC Scotland investigation that they were molested and beaten by monks over a period of three decades from the 1950s.

It has also been claimed that abuse was carried out at Carlekemp, its feeder school in East Lothian. Both schools are now closed.

Five men said on the Sins Of Our Fathers documentary, screened last Monday, that they were raped or sexually abused by Father Aidan Duggan, an Australian monk who taught at Carlekemp and Fort Augustus between 1953 and 1974.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

by STEPHEN MCGINTY
Published on the 05 August 2013

FORT Augustus Abbey school in the Highlands was once Scotland’s most prestigious Catholic boarding school, based on the banks of Loch Ness and run by an order of Benedictine monks.

However, evidence has emerged that over a 30-year period pupils were victims of serious physical and sexual abuse including rape.

An investigation by BBC Scotland alleged that two headmasters, Francis Davidson and Augustine Grene, covered up abuse by monks.

Father Aidan Duggan, an Australian monk who taught at Carlkemp, a preparatory school in East Lothian and Fort Augustus was said by five former pupils to have raped and sexually abused them between 1953 and 1974.

One former pupil told his parents that he had been raped only to be called into the headmaster’s office and told that lying was a mortal sin, it was reported. Duggan returned to Australia in 1974 and became a parish priest in Sydney. However, no warnings were made by the Benedictines and he allegedly continued to abuse. He died in 2004.

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SCOTLAND
This Week

Christopher Walls, abused at what was one of Scotland’s top Catholic schools, says Church needs to make amends

LAST UPDATED AT 12:09 ON Mon 5 Aug 2013

A MAN who was sexually abused as a child by Benedictine monks at one of Scotland’s most prestigious Catholic schools has complained that an apology from the Bishop of Aberdeen at the weekend was “a bit thin” and had only been offered because the Church felt cornered.

Christopher Walls, now in his sixties, said: “You don’t get absolution when you go to confession just for saying sorry. You’ve got to have a firm purpose of amendment and that involves taking action. And you’ve got to make good the damage you did. And there’s no hint of that.”

Walls was physically and sexually abused when he was a pupil more than 50 years ago at Carlekemp Priory School in North Berwick, East Lothian, which served as a feeder prep school for Fort Augustus Abbey School in the Highlands. Both schools have since closed.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Monday 5 August 2013

THE response of the Bishop of Aberdeen Hugh Gilbert to the allegations of child abuse at the Fort Augustus Catholic boarding school contains none of the language we have become used to from the church over the years on this difficult subject.

No avoidance, no aggression, no denial – only humility, an apology and an apparent willingness to act. As the latest move in a long-running and shameful scandal it is a potentially striking change in direction from the leadership of the Catholic church in Scotland.

The statement, delivered by Bishop Gilbert during mass yesterday, is remarkable for three main reasons: its speed, its tone, and what it says. The latest allegations around Fort Augustus were made in a BBC Scotland programme just a few days ago and yet here we have a quick and heartfelt apology. Should anyone doubt what a change this represents, contrast what Bishop of Aberdeen has said with the reaction of his predecessor Mario Conti in 1998 to the allegations of abuse against nuns at the Poor Sisters of Nazareth homes. Even though one of the nuns was later convicted, the claims were described as fantastical. It was also implied that at least some of the accusers had been tempted by the promise of compensation.

Yesterday’s statement by the Bishop of Aberdeen is entirely different and effectively calls for a police investigation in to the allegations around Fort Augustus. This is another striking break with the past. Historic scandals in the Church appear to show that the standard response to allegations of abuse was to move the accused to another parish, or another country, and hope the problem would go away (in the case of Fort Augustus, one of the priests facing allegations is now living in Australia). Certainly, the Church always appeared reluctant to refer such matters to the police. Whether allegations are true or not, this is no way to deal with such a serious matter.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

[with audio]

5 August 2013

One of Scotland’s most senior Catholics has apologised on behalf of the church for decades of physical and sexual abuse of pupils at a boarding school.

The Bishop of Aberdeen, Hugh Gilbert, addressed parishioners at Fort Augustus in the Highlands.

His statement came after the BBC found evidence of physical and sexual abuse by monks at Fort Augustus Abbey School and its prep school in East Lothian.

The Benedictine order which ran the schools, has already apologised.

Christopher Walls, a victim of abuse at Fort Augustus, told the Today programme’s Justin Webb that he was abused both sexually and physically.

“It was horrendous,” he said, “I was hit with a stick repeatedly… in just about very lesson.”

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

by STEPHEN MCGINTY

Published on the 05 August 2013

THE “secret archives” of the Catholic Church in Scotland could contain allegations of sexual abuse by as many as 100 priests and other staff in cases stretching back 50 years, according to the former head of the Church’s working party on child protection.

Alan Draper, who compiled a report on “problem priests” in the nineties, dismissed the Church’s plans to publish annual audits of sexual abuse allegations against priests as “window dressing”.

The claims came on the day a bishop apologised for sex abuse at two Scottish schools run by the Church.

Retired social work director Mr Draper said an independent commission should be allowed access to the archives of each of the eight dioceses in Scotland.

As chairman of the Catholic Church’s working party on child protection, Mr Draper identifed 22 “problem priests” by analysing a ten-year period between 1985 and 1995. Based on that study, he believes records covering the past half century could identity as many as 100 priests and individuals associated with the Church who were accused of sexual abuse.

Yesterday, the retired deputy director of Stockport social work department said: “This organisation [the Church] now lacks all credibility. This is a step, but it is a very small step, and it is not appropriate for the Church to lead this process.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Monday 5 August 2013

David Leask
Reporter

ONE of Scotland’s most senior ­Catholics has issued a heartfelt apology to victims of child abuse in a move described as a landmark step in the church’s attitude towards the issue.

Leading experts and a child abuse victim praised yesterday’s announcement by Hugh Gilbert, the Bishop of Aberdeen, that the allegations surrounding Fort Augustus Abbey in the Highlands had shamed the church.

His comments marked a new direction for the church, which has previously faced accusations of dismissing such claims.

During mass at a church near the school, which shut in the 1990s, he said: “It is a most bitter, shaming and distressing thing that in this former Abbey School a small number of baptised, consecrated and ordained Christian men physically or sexually abused those in their care.”

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SCOTLAND
Huffington Post

One of Scotland’s most senior Catholics has apologised to pupils amid claims of sexual and physical abuse by monks at a former boarding school in the Highlands.

Alleged victims who attended the Catholic Fort Augustus Abbey school told a BBC Scotland investigation that they were molested and beaten by monks over a period of three decades from the 1950s.

It has also been claimed that abuse was carried out at Carlekemp, its feeder school in East Lothian. Both schools are now closed.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

Police have received further reports of alleged abuse by monks at a former Catholic school in the Highlands.

An investigation was launched last week after a BBC programme uncovered evidence of physical and sexual abuse at Fort Augustus Abbey School.

In a statement, Police Scotland said it was liaising with law enforcement agencies in the UK and beyond.

The Church has apologised for what happened at the school, but victims have demanded action rather than words.

The Police Scotland statement said: “Further reports have been received from former pupils in the past week.

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NEW JERSEY
Courier-Post

Written by
Jim Walsh
Courier-Post Staff

CAMDEN — A Camden man who claims he was molested as a child by a South Jersey priest can argue in court he repressed memories of the abuse for more than 40 years, a federal judge has ruled.

Mark Bryson contends he was repeatedly assaulted in the late 1960s by the Rev. Joseph Shannon at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Camden. But Bryson also says he only remembered the abuse in February 2010 — an assertion key to a lawsuit he filed last year against the Diocese of Camden.

Bryson’s awareness of any alleged abuse could affect the two-year statute of limitations for his lawsuit. Bryson, who now lives in Ohio, contends the 24-month period began when his memory returned.

In contrast, the diocese contends the deadline passed two years after Bryson’s 18th birthday.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Sun (Australia)

PAUL WARD AAP AUGUST 05, 2013

A SENIOR Scotland Catholic has apologised to pupils from a former boarding school in the Highlands amid claims of sexual and physical abuse by monks, two of whom are believed to be Australian.

Alleged victims who attended the Catholic Fort Augustus Abbey school told a BBC Scotland investigation that they were molested and beaten by monks over a period of three decades from the 1950s.

It has also been claimed that abuse was carried out at Carlekemp, its feeder school in East Lothian. Both schools are now closed.

Five men said on the Sins Of Our Fathers documentary, screened last Monday, that they were raped or sexually abused by Father Aidan Duggan, an Australian monk who taught at Carlekemp and Fort Augustus between 1953 and 1974.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

[video]

One of Scotland’s most senior Catholics has apologised on behalf of the church for decades of physical and sexual abuse of pupils at a boarding school.

The Bishop of Aberdeen, Hugh Gilbert, addressed parishioners at Fort Augustus in the Highlands.

His statement came after the BBC found evidence of physical and sexual abuse by monks at Fort Augustus Abbey School and its prep school in East Lothian.

The Benedictine order which ran the schools, has already apologised.

Bishop Gilbert’s address is the first time a senior Catholic cleric has spoken publicly about abuse at the abbey schools.

He told parishoners: “It is a most bitter, shaming and distressing thing that in this former abbey school a small number of baptised, consecrated and ordained Christian men physically or sexually abused those in their care.

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SCOTLAND
The Guardian

By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent
04 Aug 2013

The Rt Rev Hugh Gilbert, Bishop of Aberdeen, expressed his “horror and shame” during a mass at Fort Augustus and said abuse by monks at the former Fort Augustus Abbey School was a terrible tale of broken trust and integrity.

His statement followed a television documentary that found evidence of physical and sexual abuse by monks at the Highland school, and its prep school in East Lothian.

The Benedictine order that ran the schools, has already apologised, but Bishop Gilbert’s address was the first time a senior cleric had spoken publicly about abuse at the abbey school, which closed in 1998.

He said he wanted to be with parishioners in Fort Augustus in the wake of the allegations.

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SCOTLAND
The Guardian

Press Association
theguardian.com, Sunday 4 August 2013

One of Scotland’s most senior Catholics has apologised to pupils amid claims of sexual and physical abuse by monks at a former boarding school in the Highlands.

Hugh Gilbert, the bishop of Aberdeen, said the allegations were “bitter, shaming and distressing” and that he supported the police inquiry.

Alleged victims who attended the Catholic Fort Augustus Abbey school told a BBC Scotland investigation that they were molested and beaten by monks over a period of three decades from the 1950s.

It has also been claimed that abuse was carried out at Carlekemp, its feeder school in East Lothian. Both schools are now closed.

Five men said on the Sins Of Our Fathers documentary, screened last Monday, that they were raped or sexually abused by Father Aidan Duggan, an Australian monk who taught at Carlekemp and Fort Augustus between 1953 and 1974.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The old Children’s Homes will feature prominently in the Royal Commission. This will be because of two factors. Firstly, due to a myriad of factors, the abuse rate was very high. Secondly, there have already been a few enquiries specifically concerning them. Consequently, there will not be much need to encourage people to put the “Homes” on the agenda.

What will be necessary is increased attention to the Girls’ Homes. It has been a feature of the debate on the Homes issue that most attention has been on the Boys’ Homes. It may well be that there were more victims from the Boys’ Homes than from the Girls’ Homes. However, it is the opinion of this author (whose sister was in the Salvation Army Girls’ Home in Toowoomba for many years) that there are other factors at play.

The most likely one is the difference in where abuses were most likely to occur. With the Boys’ Homes, the abusers usually worked at the Home itself. While there are exceptions, notably “Neerkol” and “Nazareth House” at Wynnum (see previous postings), with regards to the Girls’ Homes, the abusers came from outside the Home itself.

In some cases, for the girls, the abuser was a visiting priest or an outside worker, such as a bus driver. These have tended to be reported because it was still possible to identify the abuser, even if it was somewhat more difficult than identifying direct employees, such as in the Boys’ Homes.

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WASHINGTON
Seattle Times

By Lornet Turnbull
Seattle Times staff reporter

An Austrian priest who gained global attention two years ago with his call to disobedience for Roman Catholics everywhere is bringing his message of church reform to Seattle.

Father Helmut Schüller is on a 15-city tour across the U.S., where he’s been advocating for female and married priests, more tolerance for gays and wider participation by laypeople in leadership — positions at odds with church policy.

Stripped last year by the Vatican of his title of monsignor because of his activism, Schüller has been banned on this tour from speaking at some Catholic churches.

His Catholic Tipping Point tour, sponsored by several liberal reform groups in the U.S., coincided with Pope Francis’ recent visit to Brazil, where the Argentine urged young Catholics to “shake up the church … ”

It also comes in advance of the first meeting this October of a group of cardinals charged by the pope with examining ways to revise the Vatican constitution.

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NEW YORK
Valley News

Steve Nelson
For the Valley News
Sunday, August 4, 2013

Memory of a difficult event in my life was sparked by a recent report of a sexual scandal at Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Manhattan. A lawsuit filed by 19 former students claims that two rabbis abused them in the 1970s and ’80s. New York Times columnist Frank Bruni wrote recently about how the incident revealed the same pattern in Orthodox Judaism as in the Catholic Church. He observed that spiritual leaders with special access to children had been identified in civil and criminal actions as the perpetrators and were protected by the powerful “caretakers” of their faith.

The story was, sadly, familiar. In early 2001, a colleague at my school leaned into my office and warned that a very insistent lawyer wanted to speak with me and would not take “no” for an answer. “Mr. Nelson needs to hear what I have to tell him.” I took the call. He informed me that he had just filed a civil action against my school and one of its teachers, seeking $21 million in damages. He got my attention.

The plaintiff, a former student, claimed that the teacher had a sexual relationship with him beginning in the 10th grade and continuing through his college years. The suit was eventually withdrawn. Fortunately for me, the events took place before my tenure began. The teacher denied the allegations and, while never convicted or found liable in civil court — the plaintiff student succumbed to litigation fatigue — was placed on leave the day of the call and, after I investigated, never invited to return.

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SCOTLAND
The Independent

NICK RENAUD-KOMIYA SUNDAY 04 AUGUST 2013

One of Scotland’s most senior Catholic clergymen is to apologise for three decades of abuse at a boarding school.

Hugh Gilbert, Bishop of Aberdeen, will tell his parishioners of his “horror and shame” over the revelations that monks raped and sexually abused children at Fort Augustus Abbey School.

A BBC investigation, aired last Monday, heard accounts from former male pupils of physical violence, rape and sexual assault by monks over 30 years at the school.

The bishop will offer an apology on behalf of the Church, in the hope of repairing its reputation following a series of scandals.

Speaking to the Scotland on Sunday newspaper, Bishop Gilbert said the “sins and failures” of the Catholic Church in Scotland must be acknowledged before the damage can be repaired.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

HUGH Gilbert will say sorry for the hurt caused to victims at Fort Augustus Abbey over three decades.

BBC Scotland investigation that they were molested and beaten by monks over a period of three decades from the 1950s.

It has also been claimed that abuse was carried out at Carlekemp, its feeder school in East Lothian. Both schools are now closed.

Five men said on the Sins Of Our Fathers documentary, screened last Monday, that they were raped or sexually abused by Father Aidan Duggan, an Australian monk who taught at Carlekemp and Fort Augustus between 1953 and 1974.

Fr Duggan died in 2004 but some abuse claims relate to men who are still alive. Police are investigating the allegations.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By JOANNE HART, FINANCIAL MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED: 16:42 EST, 3 August 2013

Diplomats in London have been thrown into chaos after Britain’s biggest bank, HSBC, sacked them as customers and gave them 60 days to move their accounts.

Their situation has been made far worse because other banks have been closing ranks and refusing to take their business.

More than 40 embassies, consulates and High Commissions have been affected. Even the Vatican has been given its marching orders.

The Pope’s representative office in Britain, the Apostolic Nunciature, has banked with HSBC for many years but was told to find another bank.

One diplomatic source said he believed HSBC feared being exposed to embassies after it was fined $2billion (£1.32billion) by US authorities last year.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

by STEPHEN McGINTY
Published on the 04 August 2013

ONE of Scotland’s most senior Catholics will apologise today on behalf of the Church for almost three decades of abuse of pupils at a boarding school.

Hugh Gilbert, the Bishop of Aberdeen, will tell parishioners at Fort Augustus church in the Highlands of his “horror and shame” over the revelations that monks raped and sexually abused children at the school in the village.

In a further attempt to repair a reputation tarnished by a series of scandals, the Church is also planning to publish for the first time annual audits dealing with sex abuse allegations against the clergy in each of Scotland’s eight dioceses.

Publication of the audits – compiled by its National Office of Child Safety – this autumn are intended to show that the Church takes all allegations against priests seriously and details will be provided back to 2006, when co-ordinated procedures were first put in place across the whole country. The exercise will then be repeated annually.

The Church is also preparing a more detailed report for publication next year that deals with all historical cases stretching across all dioceses in Scotland in an attempt to end the stream of damaging revelations, many of them dating back to the 1950s.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

[Read the Creditors Committee emergency motion here]

[Read Judge Randa’s Order: Randa_Order_7-29-13]

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Just days after U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa issued a key ruling in favor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in its bankruptcy, the church’s creditors are seeking an emergency order to determine whether Randa has a conflict of interest that should have been disclosed.

Randa ruled last week that forcing the archdiocese to tap the $50 million-plus it holds in a trust for the perpetual care of cemeteries would substantially burden its free expression of religion under the First Amendment and a 1993 federal law aimed at protecting religious liberty.

In a highly unusual move late Friday, lawyers representing the archdiocese’s creditors — primarily sex abuse victims — filed a motion asking U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley to compel the release of any records showing whether Randa and his wife Melinda have purchased any plots or crypts in one of the archdiocese’s cemeteries, or whether they have any interest as heirs or beneficiaries of several relatives known to be buried in them.

Depending on what they find, the motion says, the lawyers say they may seek to vacate Randa’s order and ask him to recuse himself from the case.

“Judge Randa’s decision was so indefensible in so many ways that we suspected there was reason to investigate any involvement he might have with the cemeteries,” said Marci Hamilton, a First Amendment scholar who is representing the creditors committee on the issue.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

29 July 2013
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will be conducting private sessions in Perth this week.

Chief Executive Officer, Ms Janette Dines, said private sessions are conducted in an informal setting in the presence of one or two Commissioners.

“People who have come to a private session tell us that it was a positive and worthwhile experience,” said Ms Dines.

“We understand how difficult it can be for people to come forward and talk about what happened to them. There are trained counsellors available to provide immediate support to anyone in distress. We also encourage people to bring a support person with them such as a friend or family member.”

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

29 July 2013
Representatives of Aboriginal community organisations met with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Geraldton today.

Commissioner Helen Milroy and Commissioner Andrew Murray hosted a meeting to talk about ways to make it easier for Aboriginal people to engage with the Royal Commission.

The Royal Commission’s Chief Executive Officer, Ms Janette Dines, said the Royal Commission encourages community-based organisations to make submissions to the Royal Commission, and to support their clients who may be wishing to come forward and tell their story.

“Organisations as well as individuals have the opportunity to talk to the Commissioners and share their experiences, expertise and knowledge,” said Ms Dines. “We will return to West Australia as many times as it takes to hear peoples’ stories.”

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Both the NSW government enquiry and the Victoria Parliamentary enquiry were primarily concerned with the Catholic Church. Cardinal George Pell is of the opinion that child sexual abuse enquiries are part of some sort of plot to discredit his organisation.

Now that these two enquiries have been completed, except for the final reports, attention will return to the Royal Commission itself, which covers all organisations interacting with children. However, it will not hold public hearings for at least another two months.

In the meantime, this blog will continue to cover background and related issues. One important component is the issue of the old-style children’s homes. This has seen several state and federal enquiries in the past, but the approach has been fairly disjointed. The series of articles on individual homes will continue during the next two months, with a view to identifying gaps and common points from previous data on the issue. Hopefully, this will encourage more people to put in submissions to the Royal Commission.

Another aspect deserving of attention, is that of gaining maximum public attention and understanding of the issues involved. Sometimes this may even include public demonstrations of various kinds. Some methods of doing this will be discussed.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Cardinal George Pell and Catholic Church in Australia are very sensitive to criticism. They are also very influential in Australian politics, and have not hesitated to use that power. There are two glaring examples of this that have occurred in recent times.

The first was the T-shirt protest against Pope Benedict’s visit to Sydney in 2008 for the Catholic Church’s World Youth gathering. Although Pell specifically denied having an influence on the NSW State Labor government, the arrangement to have the then Premier, Maurice Iemma, pose for a photograph with the Pope, and Iemma’s family, indicated otherwise. Iemma was known as a very committed Catholic.

The upshot was an extraordinary law passed by the NSW Government, which made it an offence to “annoy or inconvenience” participants in the World Youth event. Even wearing a T-shirt with an anti-church message carried a fine of $5,500. Victims of clergy abuse were subjected to this law, along with those opposing the church’s social policies.

Police and volunteers from the State Emergency Service and Rural Fire Service were enabled to direct people to cease engaging in conduct that “causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in a World Youth Day event”. One on-line site was selling T-shirts with the message “$5500 – a small price to pay for annoying Catholics.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Aug. 2, 2013

A year and a half after the Vatican ordered the main representative group of U.S. Catholic sisters to place itself under the control of three U.S. bishops, many sister-leaders still consider complete compliance with the order “unacceptable,” the head of the largest order of sisters in the Western Hemisphere said Thursday.

Many members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) do not think they can give complete control of their group over to the bishops, Mercy Sr. Pat McDermott told NCR Aug. 1.

“The points of direction for the future, I think are unacceptable — that the bishops would be looking at our materials, our publications, giving direction to the assembly,” said McDermott, who as president of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas leads about 4,000 sisters serving in the U.S. and 11 other countries.

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MICHIGAN
Patch

Posted by Brooke Tajer (Editor) , August 02, 2013

A 62-year-old Novi resident and Catholic priest has plead guilty to two federal child pornography charges, according to reports.

An article in the Novi News states that Timothy Murray made the pleas July 24.

Murray pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography, the article states.

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VENEZUELA
Ultimas Noticias

ÚN | Mariana Duque.- Fue detenido un sacerdote de 35 años de edad por denuncias de presunta violación, actos lascivos y amenazas de muerte.

La detención ocurrió el pasado martes 30 de junio en horas de la tarde por una comisión de la Brigada de Violencia a la Mujer y la Familia del Cuerpo de Investigaciones, Científicas, Penales y Criminalisticas (Cicpc).

El sospechoso trabajaba como párroco de una iglesia de la parte alta de la ciudad de San Cristóbal en el estado Táchira.

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VENEZUELA
Ultimas Noticias

ÚN .- El Ministerio Público logró privativa de libertad para el sacerdote de la capilla Juan Pablo II de San Cristóbal, Isaías Albarrán Villasmil (35), quien fue aprehendido el pasado 30 de julio, por su presunta responsabilidad en el abuso sexual de tres mujeres y dos adolescentes en el estado Táchira.

Durante la audiencia de presentación, el fiscal 6º de esa jurisdicción, Juan Sánchez, imputó al presbítero por la presunta comisión de los delitos de violencia sexual en grado de tentativa, amenaza gravada y violencia agravada.

Tales delitos están previstos y sancionados en la Ley sobre el Derecho de las Mujeres a una Vida Libre de Violencia, así lo precisa una nota de prensa del MP.

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SCOTLAND
East Lothian News

A former East Lothian-based Catholic boarding school has become the focus of abuse claims following a BBC investigation.

Accounts of physical and sexual abuse spanning 30 years have been revealed at Carlekemp Priory School in North Berwick and Fort Augustus Abbey School in the Highlands. Both schools are now closed.

The allegations emerged following an investigation by BBC Scotland which said it had spoken to 50 former pupils about their experiences at the schools which were run by Benedictine monks. Carlekemp was a prep school for Fort Augustus Abbey School.

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UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A Southern Baptist ethicist has endorsed an online petition urging greater transparency about sexual abuse occurring in evangelical churches.

Ben Mitchell, Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., added his signature to “A Public Statement Concerning Sexual Abuse in the Church of Jesus Christ” posted July 17 by Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE), an advocacy group led by Billy Graham grandson and Liberty University law professor Basyle “Boz” Tchividjian.

“I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t want to go on the record as opposing sexual abuse in the church,” Mitchell said in an e-mail exchange Aug. 1. “Everyone should know it’s a problem. If they don’t, they need to scan the morning news. It’s simply abhorrent that anyone, children or adult, is abused sexually in a church or by church members.”

Nearly 1,500 people had added their names to those of an original 72 signers as of Aug. 2. A goal of 2,000 signatures is sought for an initiative that has been reported by news outlets including ABPnews and Religion News Service. It was the lead story in the July 28 issue of World Magazine, a conservative Christian publication that carries news, cultural analysis, editorials and commentary based in Asheville, N.C.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON Aug. 3, 2013

During the past six weeks those living in the aftermath of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church have been confronted with a stream of devastating evidence.

Evidence proving that – for at least 60 years – the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese carried the knowledge that some priests posed a risk to children.

So with these proceedings now drawing to a close, the question remains: do the survivors feel validated?

ELLE WATSON reports.

Four decades after Peter Gogarty was abused by defrocked priest James Fletcher, the Vacy man stood before a highly-publicised inquiry and cross-examined the former head of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese.

The date was July 15, 2013. And Mr Gogarty made history.

“I was nervous about it but I was absolutely determined to do it,” Mr Gogarty said.

“It was a significant and symbolic thing to do because here was someone, not a barrister, asking a bishop (Michael Malone) the questions.”

Mr Gogarty is not a solicitor or a barrister but held his own in a crowded room of senior counsel and a packed public gallery.

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

By Andy Furillo — afurillo@sacbee.com

A priest who crawled into the bed of a 13-year-old girl to molest her when he was an overnight guest in her parent’s home admitted his betrayal to his victim and her family Friday in a case that unnerved Sacramento’s Catholic community for more than 20 months.

“My actions were of a weak and sinful man,” the Rev. Uriel Ojeda said in his first public admission to molesting the girl – first when he worked at Holy Rosary Parish in Woodland and later after he had been transferred to Our Lady of Mercy in Redding.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Eugene L. Balonon then sentenced Ojeda, 33, to eight years in prison for touching the girl in a manner that “constitutes substantial sexual conduct” under the California Penal Code.

Ojeda’s remarks came in front of a courtroom nearly packed with supporters who have maintained his innocence from the day of his Nov. 30, 2011, arrest through the no-contest plea he entered July 5.

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KENTUCKY
Harland Daily Enterprise

The former pastor of the Loyall Church of God was sentenced to 20 years in prison Wednesday on his conviction for two counts of second-degree rape and two counts of second-degree sodomy. The victim was 14 at the time the offenses occurred.

Special Judge Robert Costanzo followed the jury’s recommendation on sentencing Jeremy Caraway to five years on each count to run concurrently.

Costanzo agreed to allow time served be credited toward the total sentence.

Caraway will be required to serve 85 percent of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

Caraway, 38, originally was indicted on two counts of second-degree rape, two counts of second-degree sodomy, two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, two counts of first-degree unlawful transaction with a minor and one count of the use of an electronic communications system to procure a minor for a sexual offense.

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KENTUCKY
Daily News

Associated Press

A judge has sentenced a former pastor in eastern Kentucky found guilty of sex charges involving a girl younger than 14 to 20 years in prison.

The Harlan Daily Enterprise (http://bit.ly/14N5Tz7) reports the judge followed the jury’s recommendation when he handed down the sentence Wednesday for 38-year-old Jeremy Caraway.

Caraway is the former pastor of Loyall Church of God in Harlan County.
Jurors found him guilty earlier this year on charges of rape, sodomy and sex abuse.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Bedfordshire on Sunday

Written by STEVE LOWE

MORE claims that Jimmy Savile visited a Catholic boys home accused of sexually and physically abusing its children.

For many years there have been allegations of abuse at the former St Francis Boys Home in Shefford.

The home was run by the St Francis Society,as part of the Catholic Church.

Two former boys have won out of court settlements against the church, which still refuses to admit to former priests abusing the residents of the home. Many of them are now taking out a ‘class action’ against the church, which guarantees them anonymity, as potential victims of sexual abuse.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON AUGUST 02, 2013

Now that the criminal process against Fr. Uriel Ojeda has ended, we hope we’ll see civil lawsuits soon. Criminal prosecution often deals with one “bad apple.” Civil suits almost always deal with the “bad apple” and the corrupt “barrel.”

Putting a predator behind bars protects kids in the short term. Exposing his complicit colleagues protects kids in the long term, by deterring reckless, callous and deceptive behavior in the future.

Moist of those who commit child sex crimes can’t be deterred. But most of those who conceal, ignore or enable child sex crimes CAN be deterred. But they’re best deterred when they are exposed and held responsible. Civil litigation can do this.

Harsh penalties won’t make many child molesters pause before breaking the law. But harsh penalties will make many employers pause before making irresponsible decisions about hiring and supervising and responding to abuse suspicions or reports.

There’s more to learn about how Fr. Ojeda committed these crimes. We strongly suspect that other current or former Sacramento Catholic church employees and members have information that law enforcement should have. We believe at least a few Catholic officials saw or suspected illegal or inappropriate action by Fr. Ojeda but kept quiet.

We hope that anyone who has any knowledge or suspicions – about clergy sex crimes or cover ups – will find the courage to step forward, call police, expose wrongdoing, protect kids and start healing.

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CALIFORNIA
New York Daily News

BY DAVID KNOWLES / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2013

Not all Catholic priests who abuse minors escape justice.

A California superior court judge sentenced Father Uriel Ojeda, 33, to eight years in state prison on Friday for molesting a teenage girl multiple times.

“My actions were those of a weak and sinful man,” Ojeda said in court.

Ojeda pleaded no contest to sneaking into the young girl’s bedroom at her parents’ Sacramento home on the night he was ordained and climbing into bed with her as she slept.

“You traumatized me,” the girl told him in a letter that was read in court by Deputy District Attorney Allison Dunham. “And you thought I would never tell anyone, didn’t you? But you thought wrong.”

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Democrat

The former Woodland priest Father Uriel Ojeda apologized to the girl he molested and her family Friday in Sacramento County Superior Court as he was being sentenced to eight years in state prison.

Ojeda also said he was sorry to officials in the Catholic Church, other priests in general and the supporters who have consistently backed him throughout the years he has been accused of the molestation.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Eugene L. Balonon sentenced Ojeda, 33. He was facing 20 years in prison, but took a no-contest plea to charges that he molested the girl, who was 13 years old at the time, when he was a priest at Holy Rosary Parish in Woodland.

“You traumatized me,” the girl told him in a letter that was read to the court by the prosecutor.

“I have committed a crime and a serious sin,” Ojeda told the judge. “I would like to ask everybody for forgiveness and that they do find mercy for me.”

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COLOMBIA
Telegraph (Australia)

A ROMAN Catholic priest has reportedly been sentenced to 19 years’ jail for heading a criminal gang in Colombia.

According to the Medellin daily El Colombiano, a court has revoked an earlier decision to absolve Oscar Ortiz, parish priest in the hamlet of San Antonio de Pradothe.

The High Court in Medellin ruled on Thursday that he was the mastermind in a gang known as the Demobilised Fighters of El Limonar.

Most members of the gang, which engaged for 10 years in kidnappings, drug trafficking and extortion, are former right-wing paramilitaries.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By FIONA HENDERSON Aug. 2, 2013

THE Ballarat Centre Against Sexual Assault’s referrals have risen 25 per cent in the wake of the state government’s inquiry into institutionalised sexual abuse.

However, the Ballarat CASA, along with the 14 other Victorian CASAs, have been refused federal government funding to help survivors and their families through the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse.

The CASA Forum Peak Body said its 15 members provided the most comprehensive and extensive services to sexual abuse victims, including trauma counselling, advocacy and police liaison.

CASA Forum spokesperson Carolyn Worth said the three agencies allocated $45 million in mid-July to help victims, including Relationships Australia, Berry Street and Drummond Street, were excellent in relationship counselling and family support services but did not have the resources to deal with victims.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Aug. 2, 2013

The U.S. archbishop who was given expansive oversight by the Vatican of American sisters will attend their annual gathering in mid-August and will speak of his role as their church-mandated overseer.

Unclear, however, is whether Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain will take questions from the approximately 900 women, leaders of the various orders of sisters across the country, who are expected to attend the event.

News of Sartain’s presence at the assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) comes amid continuing uncertain times for the group, an umbrella organization of U.S. sisters that the Vatican ordered to revise in April 2012 and gave the archbishop wide authority over its statutes and programs.

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CALIFORNIA
Sacramento Bee

Severely admonished by the girl he molested and the parents who turned him in, Rev. Uriel Ojeda apologized to them at his sentencing today.

He also said he was sorry to officials in the Catholic Church, all priests and to the supporters who backed him from the day of his arrest, saying, “My actions were of a weak and sinful man.”

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Eugene L. Balonon then sentenced Ojeda, 33, to eight years in state prison, on the priest’s no-contest plea deal entered last month to charges that he molested the girl who was 13 when he was a priest at Holy Rosary Parish in Woodland.

“You traumatized me,” the girl told him in a letter that was read to the court by the prosecutor.

Dressed in jailhouse orange in front of a courtroom that was packed nearly to capacity with his supporters, Ojeda said, “I am sorry” and “I ask forgiveness.” Soon to be laicized by the Vatican, Ojeda said, “I’d like to, as a final act as priest, to apologize to all priests who serve faithfully before God, for bringing shame to the priesthood.”

“I have committed a crime and a serious sin,” Ojeda told the judge. “I would like to ask everybody for forgiveness and that they do find mercy for me.”

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

By Andy Furillo and Cynthia Hubert — afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento Superior Court judge today sentenced a Catholic priest to eight years in state prison for molesting a teenaged girl.

Father Uriel Ojeda, who pleaded no contest to the crime, made his first public statements on the issue prior to the sentencing.

“My actions were those of a weak and sinful man,” he said. The victim and her family submitted written statements, calling Ojeda a coward who betrayed their trust.

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CALIFORNIA
KRCR

SACRAMENTO, Calif. –

A former Redding priest was sentenced to eight years in prison Friday, after pleading no contest to molesting a minor.

Uriel Ojeda, 33, entered the plea in a Sacramento County Courtroom almost a month ago.

Ojeda admitted to serious sexual misconduct with a 13-year-old girl.

In exchange for the plea, six other counts, all involving the same girl, were dropped.

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CALIFORNIA
Record Searchlight

By Record Searchlight staff
Posted August 2, 2013

SACRAMENTO – A former Redding priest who pleaded no contest last month to molesting a teenage girl was sentenced today to eight years in prison.

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda, 33, who faced 20 years in prison if he had been convicted at trial, took a plea bargain in July that called for an eight-year sentence.

The Sacramento Bee reported that Ojeda made his first public statements on the issue prior to the sentencing.

“My actions were those of a weak and sinful man,” The Bee reported him as saying.

The victim and her family also submitted written statements, calling Ojeda a coward who betrayed their trust.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Democrat

The Sacramento Bee reported Friday morning that former Woodland priest Uriel Ojeda was sentenced to eight years in state prison for molesting a teen-aged girl.

Father Ojeda was sentenced in a Sacramento County Superior Court. Ojeda had previously pleaded no contest to the crime.

According to the Bee, Ojeda said at his sentencing that “”My actions were those of a weak and sinful man.

The victim and her family submitted written statements, calling Ojeda a coward who betrayed their trust, the Bee reported.

“I know I did the right thing,” the victim wrote. “I told.”

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
CBS Sacramento

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – A Roman Catholic priest has been sentenced to eight years in prison for molesting a 13-year-old parishioner.

Rev. Uriel Ojeda pleaded no contest to molesting the girl in early July. As part of the plea deal, the district attorney dropped six of the seven molestation charges.

The 32-year-old priest has been a parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mercy parish in Redding since 2009, leading up to his arrest in 2011. Before that, he served at a parish in Woodland, where he met the young girl. She came forward to the church with the allegations in late November 2011.

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COLOMBIA
Caracol

Ante la negativa de una juez de concederle la libertad al sacerdote Issac Ramírez, implicado en un supuesto caso de abuso sexual a uno de sus acólitos menor de edad, hoy la defensa del religioso acudirá a la figura jurídica del Habeas Corpus.

De acuerdo con el abogado Elmer Montaña, la juez que decidió negar la libertad lo hizo amparada bajo argumentos que violan el derecho al debido proceso de cualquier sindicado, que goza de la presunción de inocencia.

Explicó que por esta razón interpondrán un Habeas Corpus, que establece que en un término de 36 horas la justicia debe definir si una persona se encuentra detenida de manera injusta.

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CALIFORNIA
Vertigo Politico

Cientos de páginas de archivos secretos de iglesias publicadas este miércoles pusieron de manifiesto las penosas trayectorias de decenas de sacerdotes de órdenes religiosas, hermanos religiosos y monjas acusados de abuso sexual de menores de edad cuando trabajaban en la arquidiócesis católica romana más grande del país.

Los archivos incluyen el caso de un sacerdote que admitió posteriormente haber tenido contacto sexual con más de 100 muchachos mientras prestó servicios durante años en varias parroquias del sur de California.

Los documentos, divulgados bajo los términos de un arreglo por 660 millones de dólares alcanzado en 2007, son el primer atisbo sobre lo que sabían las órdenes religiosas sobre los comisionados que colocaban en escuelas y parroquias católicas en el área de Los Angeles. La arquidiócesis misma liberó por orden judicial este año miles de páginas sobre sus propios sacerdotes que fueron acusados de abuso sexual, pero el panorama de la pederastíaa en Los Angeles seguía siendo incompleto sin los archivos de las órdenes religiosas.

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CALIFORNIA
Univision

Uno de los documentos muestra el caso del cura Rubén Martínez, quien admitió contactos sexuales con más de 100 niños

LOS ANGELES – Cientos de páginas de archivos secretos de iglesias difundidos el miércoles pusieron de manifiesto las penosas trayectorias de decenas de sacerdotes de órdenes religiosas, hermanos religiosos y monjas acusados de abuso sexual de menores de edad cuando trabajaban en la arquidiócesis católica romana más grande del país, reportó The Associated Press.

¿Qué castigo crees que merecen los sacerdotes involucrados? Opina en nuestro Foro.

Los archivos, agrega, incluyen el caso del sacerdote Rubén Martínez, quien admitió posteriormente haber tenido contacto sexual con más de 100 niños de entre 9 y 12 años de edad.

Martínez confesó que los abusos incluyen sexo oral y masturbación mientras prestó servicios durante años en varias parroquias del sur de California.

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VENEZUELA
El Nacional

EL NACIONAL WEB
1 DE AGOSTO 2013

El pasado martes una comisión de la Brigada de Violencia a la Mujer y la Familia del Cuerpo de Investigaciones, Científicas, Penales y Criminalisticas (Cicpc), detuvo a un sacerdote de 35 años de edad por denuncias de presunta violación, en San Cristóbal, estado Táchira.

El sospechoso que trabajaba como párroco de una fue denunciado por actos lascivos y amenazas de muerte.

El sacerdote fue presentado al Ministerio Público (MP), el cual dictaminó una medida privativa de libertad en su contra, por delitos establecidos en la Ley sobre el Derecho de las Mujeres a una Vida Libre de Violencia. El caso está a cargo las fiscalías 6 y 16 del Ministerio Público, quienes investigarán las cuatro denuncias que supuestamente tendría de mujeres en edades comprendidas entre los 14 y 22 años.

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MEXICO
Sexenio

Monterrey, México. ¿Cuál sería la luz que podrían tener los niños que han sido víctimas de abusos sexuales cometidos por sacerdotes? Después de eso, ¿se puede seguir teniendo fe? ¿Cuánto tiempo pasará para que llegue una sanación?

Al menos una docena de víctimas que estudiaron en la escuela Guadalupe Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, en San Pedro Garza García en Nuevo León, saben de esto.

El 27 de noviembre del año pasado, padres de familia obligaron al sacerdote Manuel Ramírez García a que se entregara a las autoridades por besar y hacer tocamientos a los alumnos de quinto de primaria.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Promoter of Justice at the Vatican Tribunal, Giampiero Milano, has forwarded to the Italian judicial authorities a formal request asking them to interrogate Monsignor Nunzio Scarano as part on the ongoing investigation into the prelate’s activities. Scarano, bishop of Salerno near Naples in southern Italy, has been accused of money laundering. Father Federico Lombardi , the Director of the Vatican Press Office, confirmed this move when questioned by journalists about the case against Scarano

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Vatican City, August 2 – The Vatican spokesman on Friday confirmed the Holy See’s unusual move of issuing a warrant for cooperation from Italy in a probe into Msgr. Nunzio Scarano, who led a key Vatican accounting unit until shortly before his arrest by Italian police on June 28. The prelate, who headed analytic accounts at the Vatican’s asset-management agency APSA, was jailed along with a former Italian spy and a financial broker for allegedly trying to smuggle 20 million euros into Italy. All three were recently denied release from jail to house-arrest for showing ”marked criminal behavior” and ”common ruthlessness” according to a judicial assessment Wednesday.

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CHILE
La Tercera

Caso Karadima: Hoy continúa interrogatorio por demanda civil contra el Arzobispado

Esta semana comenzó la ronda de interrogatorios en el marco de la investigación previa a la demanda civil contra el Arzobispado de Santiago, que interpusieron las víctimas de abuso sexual del sacerdote Fernando Karadima.

Ayer prestó declaración como testigo el presbítero Eliseo Escudero Herrero en la Tercera Sala de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago, y para hoy está citado el sacerdote Francisco Javier Errázuriz Huneeus.

Tras ser interrogado por el ministro de fuero, Juan Muñoz Pardo, el plesbítero Escudero señaló que “yo entiendo que el caso de Karadima como tal, del punto de vista eclesiástico está terminado hace tiempo, y del punto de vista civil también, entonces ahora realmente no entiendo los objetivos que tiene todo esto”

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CHILE
El Dinamo

El ex párroco de El Bosque será interrogado el próximo 8 de agosto en calidad de acusado en el convento ubicado en Parque Bustamante de Santiago, donde el sacerdote cumple penitencia tras ser condenado por el Vaticano por el delito de abuso sexual.

El sacerdote diocesano Francisco Javier Errázuriz Huneeus (83), conocido como el padre ‘Pachi’, es uno de los citados a declarar por el ministro de fuero Juan Muñoz Pardo en la ronda de interrogatorios por la investigación previa a la demanda civil contra el Arzobispado de Santiago, que interpusieron las víctimas de abuso sexual del sacerdote Fernando Karadima.

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: August 2, 2013

Statement by Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director, 314-862-7688 SNAPdorris@gmail.com

Presbyterian officials kept an accused predatory minister on the job in Boca Raton for a year before finally ousting him because of credible allegations that he sexually exploiting a teenage girl.

Shame on them.

Rev. Kirk A. McCormick of Grace Community Church should have been suspended immediately. It is outrageous that this perpetrator would be allowed around children while investigations of his sexual abuse with a minor occur. We urge the church officials to put the safety of children ahead of everything else. And we urge them to discipline those responsible for this inexcusable recklessness.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Democrat

Published By Daily Democrat
CREATED: 07/31/2013

Pope Francis made two statements of historic proportion Monday. He said of gays: “If they accept the Lord and have good will, who am I to judge them? They shouldn’t be marginalized. The tendency (to be homosexual) is not the problem. They are our brothers.”

What a heartening declaration from the Roman Catholic pontiff. We hope it helps open the minds of some vocal Christians opposed to gay rights.

We also were heartened to hear the pope carefully distinguish between being gay and being a predator. Chastising reporters for dwelling on possible homosexual affairs by priests, he said they are matters of sin — not crimes like sexually abusing children.

It is a distinction that opponents of gay rights often blur, and the pope’s reminder is timely. His church in California is strongly opposing a bill by state Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, that would help victims of abuse. SB 131 should be approved as quickly as possible, and Gov. Jerry Brown should sign it.

Current state law allows childhood victims to sue abusers or abusers’ employers until age 26, or three years after psychological problems have been linked to the abuse. Beall wants victims to have another chance: SB 131 would open a one-year window Jan. 1, 2014 to file suit. One year is the most that victim advocates think can pass — partly because of intense lobbying by the church and some non-profit organizations.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on August 1, 2013

I had the pleasure of being a guest on KABC radio this morning, discussing secret personnel documents finally released by religious orders in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Click here for the audio.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

By Richard Gazarik

Published: Friday, August 2, 2013

Members of one of the oldest parishes in the Roman Catholic Greensburg Diocese have appealed to the Vatican to overturn Bishop Lawrence Brandt’s decision to remove a popular pastor and place the church under the administration of another parish.

More than 100 parishioners of St. Bruno’s Catholic Church in South Greensburg joined in the appeal to the Congregation for the Clergy, a ruling body for administrative issues relating to priests and parishes, to stop what they fear is the first step toward closing the 94-year-old church that has been staffed by Benedictines from St. Vincent Archabbey since it began as a mission in the early 1900s.

Diocesan spokesman Jerry Zufelt said Brandt is aware of the appeal but does not know any details.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Manya Brachear Pashman
Tribune reporter
August 1, 2013

A Chicago-based religious order on Thursday acknowledged sending a clergyman accused of inappropriate behavior to Argentina, the same day a victim’s advocacy group criticized the order for allowing him to remain in the ministry.

Brother Richard Suttle now works under the supervision of a monitor in Buenos Aires and is “not involved in any work with children,” the Rev. Rosendo Urrabazo, who oversees Claretian Missionaries in the United States, said Thursday. Urrabazo also confirmed that the order and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix investigated an accusation of inappropriate behavior against Suttle in 2008.

“A meeting was held with the victim to make amends to him,” Urrabazo said in a statement. “Bro. Richard has been removed from any ministry with children and assigned internal work for the Order.”

Urrabazo did not respond to questions about a June newsletter produced by the religious order’s United Nations ministry that listed Suttle as part of its team. The ministry at the U.N. is a human rights project that, among its priorities, addresses youth unemployment and development.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic Observer

The head of the UK’s largest group of Benedictine congregations has said he intends to co-operate fully with a police investigation into allegations of abuse at a boarding school in the Highlands that was run by his order.

A spokesman for the Scottish Catholic Church said he was horrified by the allegations made in a BBC documentary this week but stressed events at the schools fell out with the jurisdiction of the Scottish Catholic Church and hierarchy.

Dom Richard Yeo, abbot president of the English Congregation of Benedictines, said allegations of abuse, at the monk run schools Fort Augustus (below) in the Highlands and Carlekemp Priory School near Edinburgh had appalled him and he was ‘very sorry for any abuse that happened’.’

Dom Yeo said he was also liaising with senior figures in the Scottish Catholic safeguarding office, an agency of the Church that oversees child protection policy within the Church. Once the police inquiry was complete, he said, the Benedictines were likely to conduct their own investigation. He said that he had been aware of a few cases of alleged abuses at Fort Augustus made by some individuals over the past three years.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Sydney

Yesterday afternoon there wasn’t a dry eye in the Newcastle court room at the Special Commission of Inquiry into alleged cover ups of Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church.

It was the last day of the 8 weeks of hearings: 33 closed hearings, 41 witnesses, 100 summonses, 100 private hearings, and the community, directly and indirectly impacted by the devastating allegations of sexual abuse of children in the care of the church.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Friday 2 August 2013

Sarah Nelson

As allegations mount this week about sexual and physical abuse by monks at Fort Augustus Abbey School in the Highlands, it must appear there are endlessly-unfolding paedophile scandals in the Catholic Church.

This will not just distress Scotland’s many Catholics themselves: it can encourage a sectarian prejudice which in parts of Scotland unfortunately remains tenacious.

Is there something about the Catholic Church which has encouraged this abuse, or is the answer much more complex? And can something positive come from all these revelations of cruelty and distress?

Here are some questions which people like myself, who have worked with sexual abuse for many years, might help to answer.

Is it Catholic doctrine – i.e. do particular religious beliefs cause sexual abuse?

Usually not: victims we have met come from many different religions, denominations and sects. Rather, aspects of values and structures often found in religious bodies have made it easier for a minority to abuse for years without being exposed or stopped.

These include special authority (“a holy man wouldn’t do that”); special status (“this would so damage our reputation, we must protect it”); trust and deference by the faithful, which allow ready access to children; authoritarianism or hierarchy; and the value of obedience.

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BRASIL
IPS

RÍO DE JANEIRO, 2 ago 2013 (IPS) – La presidenta de Brasil, Dilma Rousseff, promulgó este jueves 1 la ley que garantiza atención en la red estatal de salud a las víctimas de violencia sexual, pese a la fuerte presión contraria de sectores religiosos conservadores que la consideran una puerta abierta a la despenalización total del aborto.

“Si una víctima de abusos concurre de aquí en más al hospital, su personal deberá cumplir con todo el protocolo de atención”, destacó el ministro de Salud, Alexandre Padilha, al informar sobre la sanción presidencial de esta norma que entrará en vigencia dentro de 90 días.

La flamante ley 3/2013 solo reglamenta los procedimientos autorizados en la atención multidisciplinar en la red pública de salud para mujeres víctimas de violencia sexual, pero no modifica ninguna de las normas vigentes en cuestión de interrupción del embarazo.

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BRAZIL
Authin Mail

AFP

BRASILIA — Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Thursday ratified a law aimed at protecting victims of sexual abuse which has been condemned by the Catholic church as a first step toward broader legalization of abortion.

Four days after Pope Francis ended a week-long visit to Brazil, the world’s most populous Catholic country, Rousseff signed the text into law without any veto, her office said.

The legislation mandates that victims of sexual abuse receive emergency treatment in public hospitals and get access to medication to prevent unwanted pregnancies such as the “morning-after pill.”

The Catholic church and pro-life groups had urged the president to veto at least some of the most controversial passages of the legislation.

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FLORIDA
New Times

By Kyle Swenson Thu., Aug. 1 2013

For the past year, a pastor at a Boca Raton church has been serving up the good word from the pulpit while higher-ups in the faith look into allegations that he was sexually involved with a teenager in the 1980s.

Kirk A. McCormick has been a pastor for the past 18 years at Grace Community Church, a Presbyterian congregation on West Camino Real. But in early June, the pastor abruptly “renounced the jurisdiction” of the congregation’s parent body, the Presbyterian Church (USA).

McCormick’s decision came just as testimony was to begin in an inner-church trial over the accusations. By bailing from the faith, McCormick dodged the proceedings — which leaves the matter in a kind of unresolved middle ground.

The allegations stem from McCormick’s time as an assistant pastor at a church in Newport Beach, California, in the late 1980s, when McCormick was in his late 20s. The alleged victim was a 17-year-old member of the church’s youth group at the time. It wasn’t until 2012, in a letter addressed to the church in California, that she revealed her alleged sexual relationship with McCormick.

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ARIZONA
My Fox Orlando

YUMA, Ariz. (AP) – A Yuma church’s former youth pastor has escaped a possible prison term and instead been sentenced to probation for purchasing two sex toys for a young girl.

The sentence imposed Wednesday by a Yuma County Superior Court requires 44-year-old Robert Eric Warren to serve 36 months of supervised probation. He’s also required to register as a sex offender and successfully complete sex offender treatment.

The Yuma Sun reports that Warren recently pleaded guilty under a plea agreement to one count of criminal trespass with a sexual motivation.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

• Read Fr. Joseph Di Peri’s personnel file from the Marianist order here

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on August 01, 2013

A court-ordered release of personnel files involving religious-order clergy members in California has revealed the name of another New Jersey priest accused of sexual abuse.

The Rev. Joseph Di Peri, now deceased, was removed from ministry in New Jersey in 2003 after the Archdiocese of Newark learned he had been credibly accused of molesting a teenage boy in the late 1970s at Chaminade College Preparatory High School in West Hills, Calif.

At the time of the alleged abuse, Di Peri was serving a one-year stint as a teacher and dorm chaplain at the school, run by the Marianists, an order of brothers and priests.

Former Archbishop Peter Gerety granted him leave from Newark after Di Peri told him he would benefit from a warmer climate because of health concerns, the 27-page personnel file shows.

Despite Di Peri’s removal from ministry, the archdiocese did not publicly disclose the allegations or the fact that he had been placed under a “permanent monitoring system,” according to the files. The documents indicate he was living in a retirement home in the Diocese of Trenton.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
DFW Catholic

Los Angeles, Calif., Aug 2, 2013 / 02:03 am (CNA).- As the first set of religious orders’ files on accused sex abusers in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is released, one leading priest has urged prayer for victims and continued efforts for child protection.

“Please continue to pray for the victims and their families and all impacted by this terrible tragedy in the history of our Church,” said Monsignor Joseph V. Brennan, Moderator of the Curia and Vicar General for the L.A. archdiocese.

“Let us all continue to remain vigilant and work together to protect children and young people from all harm,” he added in an Aug. 1 message to priests, deacons, parish life directors and principals of the archdiocese.

“The archdiocese and our Catholic community of faith in Los Angeles remain committed to the assistance of victims, protection of children and the prevention of abuse.”

The file release is part of the $660 million abuse settlement reached in 2007. The first set of files has documents from five religious orders: the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the Marianists, the Benedictines, and two orders of religious sisters.

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GERMANY
The Raw Story

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS (Reuters) – An investigation into rumors of neo-Nazi activity at a seminary in Bavaria has resulted in two student priests being expelled for imitating the Nazi salute and making jokes about death camps, two bishops announced.

The commission probing rumors of neo-Nazi activity at the seminary in Wuerzburg also found a third student had said participants in recent anti-racism marches in the southern German state deserved “a smack in the face”, the bishops said.

Rumors of a “brown (Nazi) network” at the seminary began circulating in early May, including talk of a party in its basement pub to mark the Nazi leader’s April 20 birthday. Using the symbols of Nazism or glorifying it is illegal in Germany.

The independent commission found no proof it had taken place but even the hint of neo-Nazi sympathies was deeply embarrassing for a Church still struggling with the fallout from revelations of sexual abuse of minors by priests in recent years.

“All forms of xenophobia, racism and extremism are incompatible with Christianity,” Bamberg Archbishop Ludwig Schick told a news conference in Wuerzburg on Wednesday.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

PAUL MAGUIRE AAP AUGUST 02, 2013

AFTER eight weeks of testimony casting light into humanity’s darkest corners, the emotional impact of a NSW inquiry into church abuse came down to one moment.

It happened as a nervous 37-year-old man stepped from the witness box.

Haltingly, he’d just read a 10-minute statement describing the appalling treatment he’d endured throughout his teens at the hands of Hunter Valley Catholic priest James Fletcher.

The packed gallery of Newcastle’s Supreme Court, many of them in tears, broke into spontaneous applause.

The man, who can only be identified as AH, explained how the abuse contributed to his alcoholism, his broken relationships, depression, business failures and a suicide attempt.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Washington Monthly

By Ed Kilgore

We’re all used to litigation involving efforts by religious institutions and individuals to exempt themselves from “secular” obligations like non-discrimination or giving employees access to contraceptives. But a ruling today by a federal judge in Wisconsin carries the debate into territory that its intended beneficiaries, the Catholic Church, may regret given the pounding they will get in the court of public opinion. Here’s the bland basics from the National Catholic Reporter:

The $57 million that Cardinal Timothy Dolan transferred from the coffers of the Milwaukee archdiocese to a fund for the maintenance of cemeteries is off the table and cannot be used to pay claimants in bankruptcy proceedings, a federal judge in Milwaukee ruled Tuesday.

Dolan, of course, is now Archbishop of New York and President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and a major public figure in all sorts of church-state issues. His transfer of all that money into cemetery funds was deemed “shocking” by the Editors of the New York Times because it was clearly intended to keep it out of the hands of plaintiffs in 575 separate lawsuits against the Milwaukee archdiocese alleging sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. Now that the archdiocese has filed for bankruptcy protection, it has sought in court to claim a religious liberty right to keep the transferred money off the table in the resolution of creditors’ claims, and Judge Rudolph Randa has agreed, citing the Catholic belief in the Resurrection of the Body as privileging the cemetery fund.

So victims of clerical abuse will not secure justice, but cemeteries will be well-tended.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Los Angeles Time

From Associated Press
August 1, 2013

BOSTON — James “Whitey” Bulger’s defense team released photographs showing the reputed Boston gangster’s softer side — including images of him cuddling with animals — in a possible prelude to him taking the stand in his racketeering trial.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Fred Wyshak complained to the judge that Bulger’s lawyers were merely trying to bolster his image after weeks of testimony from prosecution witnesses who described killings and extortion schemes he is accused of committing.

The photos show Bulger holding dogs, a parrot and even a goat. Others show him with his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig, and one appears to show him on vacation, smiling, shirtless and sitting on a wall overlooking the ocean.

“This is obviously an attempt to salvage Mr. Bulger’s public reputation by publishing dozens of photos with him holding all sorts of animals,” Wyshak said. “I don’t know if being an animal lover is going to salvage his reputation.”

One photo that probably won’t help Bulger’s defense shows him sitting with a priest who was identified Thursday as Msgr. Frederick Ryan, the former vice chancellor of the Boston Archdiocese who was defrocked for allegedly sexually abusing teenage boys in the 1980s.

Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, who sued the archdiocese on behalf of two men who said they were abused by Ryan as teens, said one of his clients and a man who used to work with Ryan both identified the priest as Ryan after seeing the photo published in the Boston Globe.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The NSW Government enquiry into cover-ups of child sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Church’s Newcastle-Maitland diocese ended today with evidence from Maureen O’Hearn who ran the “healing and support” unit.

Tears again flowed at the enquiry when she read out victims’ statements from two of Fr. McAlinden’s victims. The abuse was separated by an almost unbelievable 32 years. McAlinden first offended in 1949, according to Ms. O’Hearn. She said she had dealings with 28 victims from between 1949 and 1984 who had been abused by McAlinden. He died in 2005, never having been held to account for his crimes against children. This was simply because he was protected by the Catholic Church during all those years, and possibly with complicity from the NSW police establishment.

This is what the enquiry report must focus upon.

One of the two victims’ statements noted that McAlinden was “an extremely bad tempered, evil man who was a sexual predator of little girls” who was “kept hidden by the Church.” She said that someone must be held accountable. The other victim said that she wondered what her life would have been like if she had never encountered McAlinden.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By John Gehring, Published: August 1

Something unexpected and extraordinary is happening in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis is rescuing the faith from those who hunker down in gilded cathedrals and wield doctrine like a sword. The edifice of fortress Catholicism – in which progressive Catholics, gay Catholics, Catholic women and others who love the church but often feel marginalized by the hierarchy – is starting to crumble.

While that analysis carries a hint of hyperbole, a pastor with a natural instinct for engaging people and leading by example is now steering the ship at the Vatican. The change of tone and style in Francis’s papacy is striking. In recent decades, many Catholics got the message that a “smaller, purer church” was the top-down model preferred by Rome. A new spirit not felt since the reforming Second Vatican Council began five decades ago is now stirring in the air. …

Some have falsely accused gay priests of causing the clergy sexual abuse crisis. Pope Francis clearly rejects that ugly slander. His words also stand in contrast to a 2005 Vatican document, which said that men with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” should not be ordained or allowed in the seminary. Pope Francis seems to be sending a message that being a good priest has nothing to do with sexual orientation, a point obvious to most of us in the pews but a revelation to some hard-liners.

In addition to his comments about gay clergy, Pope Francis told reporters that the church must do a better job reaching out to women. While he did not open the door to conversations about female clergy, Francis insisted that women play a central role in the Catholic faith. “We don’t yet have a truly deep theology of women in the church,” he admitted.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

Victims of paedophile priests Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher have come forward to report historic abuse as recently as the last two months.

On the final day of public hearings, Zimmerman Services healing and support co-ordinator Maureen O’Hearn said she knew of 28 victims of McAlinden and more had come forward during the eight-week special commission of inquiry.

Ms O’Hearn said the earliest report of abuse by McAlinden was in 1949 and the latest 1986.

She said victims had come forward from as far away as New Zealand and interstate.

Ms O’Hearn, who facilitates counselling referrals of victims and assists them going to police, has worked closely with Strike Force Georgiana – a Hunter sexual abuse task force that had resulted in 11 people being charged with 440 offences involving 110 victims .

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By Sandra Hernandez
August 1, 2013

On Wednesday, five Catholic religious orders publicly released some 1,700 pages of personnel files to victims of sexual abuse. The documents, which include myriad records that in some cases detail abuse, are yet another reminder of the vast scope of the clergy abuse scandal that resulted in hundreds of lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church.

As The Times’ Victoria Kim and Harriet Ryan reported, the newly released files indicate that Father Ruben Martinez, who belonged to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate order, was among the worst offenders.

At 521 pages, Martinez’s file is the longest and chronicles decades of molestation that began soon after his 1968 ordination. In the 1980s, at churches in Pacoima and Wilmington, two mothers raised concerns about Martinez’s behavior with altar boys. But it was several years later, when Martinez himself complained of fatigue and burnout from parish work, that he was sent to therapy at a New Mexico center for troubled clergy.

After completing the treatment in 1991, he was allowed back into ministry by Father Paul Nourie, a newly appointed head of the order, even though Nourie wrote that he had “every reason” to believe the veracity of complaints of Martinez’s “alleged misbehavior with younger males.” Calling him “blessed and gifted,” Nourie sent Martinez to an Imperial Valley church, where he was soon working with youth.

The newly disclosed personnel files are deeply disturbing not just because they indicate that pedophile priests were placed back in the ministry even after problems were brought to the attention of the religious orders, but also because of what they don’t disclose. It remains unclear just how much information church officials shared about priests with troubled histories.

According to A.W. Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine monk turned counselor, religious orders normally operate independently of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. But the orders are required to share information with the archdiocese when they send a priest to work in parishes in Southern California.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Mail (UK)

Priest confessed in therapy sessions to molesting more than 100 boys, including his own brother, 5, having sex with male prostitutes and frequenting gay strip clubs

A Catholic priest admitted to a psychiatrist he had molested more than 100 boys, including his 5-year-old brother, had sex with male prostitutes and visited gay strip clubs while serving in a Californian parish for years, according to explosive documents released overnight.

Ruben Martinez’s vile confessions are among nearly 2,000 pages of secret church documents on a dozen religious order priests, brothers and nuns accused of sexually abusing children while working in the Los Angeles archdiocese over several decades.

The papers, released under the terms of a $660 million settlement agreement reached in 2007, are the first glimpse at what religious orders knew about the men and women they posted in Roman Catholic schools and parishes around LA.

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CALIFORNIA
Pasadena Weekly

By Christina Schweighofer 08/01/2013

A reformist Roman Catholic priest from Austria who was barred from a Catholic parish in Boston in July will speak at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Friday.

Helmut Schüller and a group he represents and cofounded, the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, advocate greater lay participation as well as the ordination of women and of married people as a solution to the priest shortage. They have also called for the church to rethink its position toward remarried and gay people.

A soft-spoken, charismatic man, Schüller runs the parish of Probstdorf, a small town 30 minutes from Vienna. In the 1990s he served as the Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn’s vicar general. In 2011, the Austrian Priests’ Initiative issued an “Appeal to Disobedience,” asking other priests to allow lay people of both sexes to preach. Seventy percent of Austrian Catholic priests and a vast majority of the Catholic faithful support the campaign, but the Vatican reacted by stripping Schüller of his formal title of monsignor.

In June, the initiative stated that it was hopeful Pope Francis will “lead the church in a new fashion.” But the Pope said in an unrelated press conference on Monday that his predecessor, Benedict XVI, had closed the door to female priests. He added that the church needed “a deeper theology of women” but did not specify.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Aug. 1, 2013

CONSIDERING its relatively narrow terms of reference, the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into alleged cover-up of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church has achieved much of value, even before its findings have been handed down.

The commission was set up by the O’Farrell government to investigate explosive allegations, by Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, of obstruction to police investigations of abuse by priests over many years.

But it has managed to illuminate much more than that specific issue, extracting unprecedented admissions and some surprising pieces of evidence from church figures, including some who had held very senior roles.

It is important to remember that the commission was established before the then prime minister, Julia Gillard, announced a full federal Royal Commission into the much broader issue of sexual abuse across a wide spectrum of organisations.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Aug. 1, 2013

ONE of Australia’s worst paedophile priests raped a boy with a cane at a Hunter Catholic school in 1979, smiled as he said “this is for being a cry baby”, and then caned the sobbing boy’s hands.

Father John Denham was in his 30s when he raped a 12-year-old boy across a school desk in 1977 and left him bleeding but silenced after threatening to tell the boy’s violent father.

Denham targeted boys whose families were stricken by recent tragedy, gave them alcohol and molested them.

He used the school intercom to call victims to his room, fondled boys as they read religious texts in front of class, and molested a boy as he prayed on his knees while in church.

In a Sydney court yesterday Denham, 70, said the word “guilty” 25 times to confirm another 18 victims, only three years after pleading guilty to molesting 39 boys.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Aug. 1, 2013

LATEISHA Pirona, 8, sleeps with a heart locket beneath her pillow.

“That’s Daddy,” said her mother Tracey Pirona.

“The heart is her Daddy and he’s close to her each night.”

It is one year since John Pirona’s disappearance, the discovery of his body five days later, and his funeral on August 8, 2012.

It is less than nine months since Mr Pirona’s suicide became the catalyst of the Newcastle Herald’s Shine the Light campaign that led to the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into child sex abuse allegations, and the federal Royal Commission into child sex abuse.

It is only now that Mr Pirona’s daughters Lateisha and Siennah, 12, have started asking questions about their father’s death.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Aug. 1, 2013

JOHN Sidney Denham was in his 30s when he prowled the halls of St Pius X School at Adamstown in the late 1970s and picked off victims at will.

Many were groped – some while reading the Bible during religion classes, after confession, at youth clubs, during “male bonding weekends” or in their altar boy garb while preparing for church services.

But as the 29 pages of agreed facts tendered to Sydney District Court Judge Ronald Solomon yesterday showed, Denham restricted his most violent sexual assaults and rapes to the most vulnerable children in his care.

They were the quiet boys, the sons of violent or alcoholic parents or from families described as “extremely devout”, “strict” or “ardent Catholics”, who invited Denham to dinner but were ignorant of the crimes he committed against their children, sometimes within earshot.

Denham targeted boys left shocked and numbed by recent tragedies, like the boy who experienced a succession of family deaths, only to have a priest’s “comfort” turn to forced sex and threats in his private quarters.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE MCCARTHY Aug. 1, 2013

ONE of Australia’s worst paedophile priests pleaded guilty yesterday to multiple child sex offences at a Hunter Catholic school as victims’ statements reduced people to tears at a historic inquiry into child sexual abuse.

John Sidney Denham, 70, pleaded guilty to 25 child sex charges involving 18 boys at Singleton, Wingham and St Pius X School, Adamstown, in the 1970s, and accepted another 23 indecent assault charges had occurred.

The 25 offences, including buggery, forced oral sex and indecent assault, were committed against boys aged 11, 12 and 13.

The guilty pleas came three years after Denham pleaded guilty to crimes against 39 boys in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, and 13 years after his first child sex conviction.

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