ABUSE TRACKER

CHILE
GlobalPost

Chile’s Roman Catholic Church said Friday it has defrocked a priest after finding him guilty of sexually abusing three minors.

A church tribunal found that Rene Benavides committed the abuse while serving as a priest in the city of Los Andes in the 1990s.

“The tribunal has imposed on the priest the perpetual punishment of expulsion from the clerical state, which is the maximum sanction available under church law,” the Chilean church said in a statement.

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

AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Stephen Crittenden | Dec. 20, 2013

SYDNEY The papal nuncio to Australia, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, claimed diplomatic immunity in response to repeated requests for archival documentation that might assist a prosecutor with her inquiry into sex abuse, copies of correspondence released this week show.

In the end, though, Gallagher decided to turn over documents sought as part of the New South Wales Special Commission of Inquiry. In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Friday, Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Truth Justice and Healing Council, said Gallagher told him the Apostolic Nunciature had handed over the documents Dec. 6.

The Truth Justice and Healing Council was established early this year to coordinate the church’s response to the royal commission. Sullivan said when he took on the role he had made it clear that the church would cooperate fully with the commission. “That was the instruction from the church leadership and the same applies to other inquiries.”

“Although we’re very clear that the relationship between Australia and the Vatican is conducted through the appropriate diplomatic channels, we’ll produce the documents the inquiry needs,” Sullivan said.

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

INDIA
The Hindu

The priest who is accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl surrendered before Judicial Magistrate (Uthamapalayam) Geetha, who remanded him in judicial custody for 15 days.

He has been lodged in Madurai Central Prisons, according to a report from Theni.

Parish priest of St. Antony’s Church, Pettai, Fr. Gnanapragasam Selvan allegedly raped the girl, who became pregnant.

Hunt on for doctor

When the priest’s efforts to pacify the girl’s poor parents failed, he approached doctor S. Meenakshi from Tirunelveli Town, who surgically removed the foetus, according to police.

It was buried in the graveyard under the control of St. Antony’s Church administration.

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

CANADA
Windsor Star

Dave Battagello
Dec 20, 2013

A decision will be handed down in Sarnia’s Superior Court in February following the conclusion of a trial this week of a former Windsor priest who was said in court to have sexually abused at least a dozen early-adolescent girls in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Gabriele Del Bianco is facing 18 counts of sexual assault-related offences for his alleged involvement with young girls.

Final submissions by both Crown and defence lawyers were made on Wednesday and concluded Thursday to Justice Joseph Donohue. He indicated his judgement will be handed down on Feb. 24 at 10 a.m. in Sarnia’s Superior Court, said assistant Crown attorney Aniko Coughlan, who is handling the case.

The trial began in October with four of Del Bianco’s alleged victims testifying in court.

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

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Catholic Defense League

(St. Paul, MN) The Minnesota Catholic Defense League called on Minnesota Public Radio to immediately release all pertinent and credible information they have regarding any sexual abuse scandals.

“It has become clear that Minnesota Public Radio is in possession of information that might be relevant in preventing potential child abuse,” said David Strom, spokesman for the League.

“Over the last four months, Minnesota Public Radio has released a steady stream of stories about allegations of priest abuse,” said Strom.

“We find it disturbing and completely hypocritical for MPR to criticize the church for withholding information when, in fact, they appear to be holding back information to benefit their editorial schedule.”

The CDL pointed to a December 19th story involving a former Catholic priest accused of abuse. His name and possible misconduct was previously unknown to the public. CDL officials questioned why MPR waited until yesterday to release this story.

The accused former priest, Harry Walsh, is currently employed by Wright County as a sex education teacher, and has regular contact with vulnerable youth.

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

MINNESOTA
Patch

Posted by James Warden (Editor) , December 20, 2013

After weeks of cover-up accusations against the Catholic Church, church supporters are now making cover-up allegations of their own … against the news organization that’s largely responsible for breaking the story on clergy sex abuse.

A Friday statement from the Catholic Defense League of Minnesota said Minnesota Public Radio appeared to be withholding information on clergy sex abuse in order to benefit their editorial schedule.

MPR has played a significant part in driving coverage of the clergy sex abuse scandal. Its coverage included information from a church official who left in frustration after she thought the church didn’t respond adequately to abuse allegations.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis had originally won court approval to seal a 2004 list of priests who had been “credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors in the archdiocese.” But the growing uproar convinced the church to reverse course. It released a list of accused priests Dec. 5.

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat.

December 20, 2013 1:42 pm | Author: Jerry Berger

Last week was tough for St. Louis priests who became bishops with a notable exception. As reported here first (and became a tipsheet for the Post-Dispatch and television stations) Pope Francis dissed Cardinal Raymond Burke and Cardinal Justin Rigali , knocking them off a key church panel that taps new bishops. And Memphis Bishop Terry Steib was criticized for keeping silent about a Tennessee priest, Fr. James Murphy, who allegedly molested kids in clergy sex orgies.

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

ROME
Catholic News Agency

Rome, Italy, Dec 20, 2013 / 12:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Velasio de Paolis told 31 new priests of Legionaries of Christ that their perseverance shows “the love of Christ” that can overcome the past scandals of their congregation and purify and renew it.

“You have suffered, and you have realized the suffering that other Legionaries – beginning with the founder – have caused in the lives of others. And the suffering of others has helped you to understand and carry your own suffering,” the cardinal said in his homily before the priestly ordinations Dec. 14 at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome.

“By your decision and by your faithfulness, by your suffering and by bearing the shame of other Legionaries’ sins, you have enabled the purification and renewal of the congregation itself, and you have made it more beautiful in its service to Regnum Christi and to the Church,” he said, referring to the congregation’s lay association.

In 2006 Pope Benedict XVI removed the Legion of Christ’s founder Father Marcial Maciel from ministry and ordered him to spend the rest of his life in prayer and penance. The priest has been the subject of accusations that he sexually abused seminarians. He was also revealed to have led a double life in which he fathered children and allegedly abused some of them as well. Fr. Maciel died in 2008.

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

GlobalPost

Jason Berry

In November 2012, on assignment for GlobalPost and National Catholic Reporter, I traveled to the University of Tübingen in Germany to interview Professor Hans Küng about the Vatican investigation of the main leadership group of American nuns.

Küng, along with Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger), are the most renowned Catholic theologians of the last half-century. Their conflicts, which date back several decades, mirror a divided church.

In the early 1960s, when the shy, bookish Ratzinger taught at Tübingen, he had no driver’s license, and bicycled up steep hills of the medieval town. Küng drove a convertible and sometimes gave him rides. Both priests were liberal advisors at the reform-driven Second Vatican Council (1962-65). In 1968, when student protestors disrupted Ratzinger’s class, he began a steady move to the right. In 1979, as a Vatican cardinal, he revoked Küng’s license to teach theology for challenging papal infallibility.

Küng, with tenure, shifted his teaching focus but escalated his criticism of a monarchical papacy; he accused John Paul of reducing bishops to yes-men, undercutting Vatican II reforms. Later, he called Ratzinger “the Grand Inquisitor” after the cardinal who scorns Jesus, while persecuting heretics in The Brothers Karamazov.

With a ceaseless tide of books, speeches and interviews, Küng became an international figure, and as founder of Global Ethic Foundation, has drawn international leaders into dialogue on ethical norms for peaceful world development.

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

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Dec. 20, 2013

Statement by Frank Meuers, Minnesota SNAP leader, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Phone: 952-334-5180 Email: frankameuers@gmail.com)

Today, like yesterday, Minnesota citizens and Catholics learned the names of accused predator priests. And today, like yesterday, the information was made public by responsible news outlets, not by church officials.

Minnesota parents and parishioners should thank the Star-Tribune for revealing Fr. Ambrose Filbin and Fr. Harold Whittet are accused of sexual misconduct and Minnesota Public Radio for revealing that Fr. Harry Walsh is a credibly accused child molester.

[Star Tribune]

And that’s just in the last two days. Such revelations have been steadily trickling out in the Twin Cities for months.

And virtually every new name of a proven, admitted or credibly accused child molesting cleric has been made public despite, not because of, Catholic officials.

Minnesota parents and parishioners should also be outraged that Twin Cities Catholic officials kept the credible allegations against Fr. Whittet and Fr. Filbin secret for more than 11 years.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

First In a Series

By Kathy Kane

We tell them “to tell.” This generation of children and young people are taught to tell a trusted adult if someone speaks to them inappropriately, touches them inappropriately. There are books from when they are young that describe the areas of their body which are private. We have background checks for all who interact with them at school and on sports teams. They have been more informed and educated than the generations before them and they trust that as adults we would never put them in harm’s way. As adults we would do as we instruct them, we would ‘tell.” We would never withhold information from them even if there was just the possibility of a person being a threat to them.

When the news broke that Fr Paul had been allowed to stay at Our lady of Calvary for many months while being investigated, my immediate thoughts went to the children of the school and parish. Not just their physical safety but their psychological well being. Keeping information from children concerning their safety flies in the face of all that they have been taught and that we hope to instill in them should they face an abusive situation in their young life. Tell someone…don’t keep a secret…don’t hide it.

This could have happened at any parish as we are all part of one large system. A system that has spent countless time and money over the past few years with high priced consultants and pages of new documents. The best scenario this all produced was to keep a priest at a parish while he was being investigated and withhold this information from the parents. Oh how far we have not come.

I have seen the reactions of children when a predator was exposed…I can’t imagine the reaction when it is revealed that trusted adults had information and kept it from them and their parents. Even the most remote possibility that a person in their life could have harmed children…the remote possibility and this information was kept from them.

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

IRELAND
Sydney Morning Herald

For decades, “bad” Irish girls were sent away to convent-run laundries, where they worked for no pay in awful conditions for years on end. Now, writes Jane Wheatley, survivors are finally getting compensation.

Martina Keogh was 16, selling newspapers outside a Dublin cinema, when a fight broke out on the street beside her. She was arrested along with the girls involved, sent to court and convicted of disorderly conduct. Her punishment would be two years’ incarceration and unpaid labour in a convent laundry run by nuns.

It was 1964, the year the Beatles released A Hard Day’s Night, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton married for the first time and 5000 more American troops were sent to fight in Vietnam, but Martina would know nothing of all this. Instead, she would spend her days washing and ironing and her nights in a locked dormitory with bars on the windows.

On a hot, sunny day earlier this northern summer, Keogh takes me back to the convent in Dublin’s Sean McDermott Street, an imposing four-storey brick building now silent and empty of life. Set into a panel of the big, wooden, double-entrance doors is a small, eye-level grille. Keogh recalls being escorted there by a garda (policeman): “The shutter across the grille slid back and I could just see eyes looking out,” she says. “The garda said, ‘Got another one for you here, Sister.’ ”

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

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | Dec. 20, 2013 All Things Catholic

Not so long ago, the yuletide season at the Vatican meant calm. The pope and the Curia went into semi-hibernation while hearing Advent sermons from the Preacher of the Papal Household while the system was on a basic hiatus, with no real drama rolling out of Rome until well into January.
In the Francis era, however, there’s no “off” switch, which makes me very glad I’ve been in Rome this week.

The pope marked the period around his 77th birthday on Tuesday with a series of decisions and gestures that collectively amounted to another important chapter in the “Francis revolution.” A tick-tock of notable developments includes the following.

* On Sunday, the Italian daily newspaper La Stampa published another blockbuster interview with Francis, this one featuring comments from the pope on conservative American criticism that his economic ideas are Marxist and a rare definitive papal response to speculation about what he might do, in this case a firm “no” to the idea of women cardinals.

* On Monday, Francis announced an earthquake at the Vatican’s all-important Congregation for Bishops, in effect steering the body away from a hard-line position on the culture wars and toward a more centrist stance. For Americans, the most notable change was bringing in Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., and taking away Cardinal Raymond Burke.

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

DETROIT (MI)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Thursday, December 19, 2013

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

Yesterday, Archbishop Allen Vigneron’s public relations mouthpiece admitted that three times, a brave victim urged Detroit Catholic officials to take action against the priest who molested her but was still on the job.

The third time, Detroit Catholic officials took action: they offered her therapy.

That is incredibly irresponsible.

Three times, Detroit Catholic officials acted selfishly, callously, recklessly and deceitfully. Three times, they opted to protect a predator priest, and their own reputations and wealth, instead of protecting vulnerable kids.

Shame on every single Detroit archbishop, bishop, priest, defense lawyer and public relations staffer who helped Fr. Harry Walsh stay in ministry around unsuspecting families.

A special shame on archdiocesan public relations man Ned McGrath who told the Detroit Free Press yesterday that he and his church colleagues and supervisors “could have done better to follow up if anything was done” by St. Paul-Minneapolis Catholic officials to address the accusations against Walsh.

That’s baloney. McGrath knows better. But he – like thousands of other corrupt Catholic officials across the world – pretend that their reckless secrecy is somehow a “goof” or a “slip up.” It’s not. It’s part of an ancient, deliberate pattern of protecting the church hierarchy from embarrassment and lawsuits and prosecution, and letting parents and families and kids essentially fend for themselves.

Adding insult to injury, McGrath also said that “Detroit Catholic officials are reviewing their procedures now,” implying that something may be wrong with the formal abuse policies of the archdiocese.

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

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 20 December 2013)

Child-abuser Father Finian Egan was supported by the Catholic Church and powerful friends but he was finally brought to justice by three of his victims, with help from Broken Rites.

Egan, who sexually assaulted children from his parishes on multiple occasions during his long career in Sydney, has been sentenced to at least four years’ jail.

Three women who were sexually abused as children by Egan have slammed the Catholic Church for harbouring him in the priesthood for five decades.

Egan had been found guilty of seven counts of indecent assault and one count of rape in relation to attacks on these three girls, who were aged 10 to 17, in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in Sydney and on the New South Wales central coast.

Egan was sentenced on 20 December 2013.

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

DETROIT (MI)
Deadline Detroit

The sex scandals in the Catholic church are not over.

Patricia Montemurri of the Detroit Free Press reports that the Detroit Arcdiocese conceded on Thursday it could have done more to track former priest Harry Walsh after a woman repeatedly complained to them in 1993, 2002 and 2011 about being molested at age 15 by the priest while he was at the Holy Redeemer parish in southwest Detroit Detroit in 1965-67.

“We could have done better to follow up if anything was done” by St. Paul-Minneapolis Catholic officials to address the accusations against Walsh, Detroit Archdiocese spokesman Ned McGrath told the Freep. He said Detroit Catholic officials are reviewing their procedures .

Minnesota Public Radio first reported on this matter this week after obtaining church documents.

Montemurri writes:

Walsh has worked mostly at Minnesota parishes since 1969. He is no longer a priest, and was dismissed from the priesthood by the Vatican in 2012. He works as a sex education counselor for young people in the Minneapolis area. He denied he abused the Detroit woman, according to the radio report.

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

IOWA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013
For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

He worked in Davenport parish
But bishops told no one about him
SNAP: Catholic officials still “endanger kids”
Their “continued secrecy” violates church policies
Those who “saw, suspected or suffered abuse must speak up,” group says

A twice accused predator priest, who worked at a Davenport parish, now teaches sex education to youngsters in Minnesota. Until today, Catholic officials in several dioceses succeeded in keeping the allegations against him secret.

According to a lengthy Minnesota Public Radio investigation, Fr. Harry Walsh worked at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in Davenport from 1963 to 1965.

He also worked in the 1960s in Detroit, “where he would later be accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl. She reported the abuse to the Diocese of Detroit in 1994.”

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Later, in Minnesota, Fr. Walsh was accused of molesting a boy.

He now “teaches sex education to troubled teenagers and vulnerable adults in Wright County, an hour west of the Twin Cities.”

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging Davenport’s Catholic bishop to “aggressively reach out” to any others Fr. Walsh may have hurt in Iowa.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, say that Fr. Walsh “likely can be put behind bars” for his crimes, but little will happen “unless Catholic officials in Davenport, Detroit and St. Paul act responsibly and shout from the rooftops about this dangerous man and beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police right away.”

“Davenport Catholic officials let Fr. Walsh work there and have access to kids there and hid his crimes there,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s director. “Now, they have a civic duty to help police see if he can be prosecuted and kept away from kids. And they have a moral duty to seek out others Fr. Walsh may have assaulted and offer them help.”

“The odds are that there’s at least one person in Iowa who was wounded by Fr. Walsh,” said Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP’s outreach director. “That person may well be struggling today with suicidal thoughts, addictions, shame, isolation, depression or self-blame. He or she needs to be found and helped and reassured that the abuse wasn’t their fault and that healing is possible.”

St. Paul/Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt told the Vatican in March 2012 that the alleged abuse of the Detroit girl included “kissing, sexual touching, and simulated sexual intercourse.”

MPR reports that “Fr. Walsh was ordained a priest in Ireland in 1960 by a Catholic religious order called the Redemptorists.”

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

ROME
Vanity Fair

By Michael Joseph Gross

Despite headlines about a powerful “gay lobby” within the Vatican, and a new Pope promising reform, the Catholic Church’s gay cardinals, monks, and other clergy inhabit a hidden netherworld. In Rome, the author learns how they navigate the dangerous paradox of their lives.

Naked but for the towel around his waist, a man of a certain age sat by himself, bent slightly forward as if praying, in a corner of the sauna at a gym in central Rome. I had not met this man before, but as I entered the sauna, I thought I recognized him from photographs. He looked like a priest with whom I’d corresponded after mutual friends put us in touch, a man I had wanted to consult about gay clerics in the Vatican Curia. My friends told me that this priest was gay, politically savvy, and well connected to the gay Church hierarchy in Rome.

But this couldn’t be that priest. He had told me that he’d be away and couldn’t meet. Yet as I looked at the man more closely, I saw that it was definitely him. When we were alone, I spoke his name, telling him mine. “I thought you were out of the country,” I said. “How lucky for me: you’re here!” Startled, the priest talked fast. Yes, his plans had changed, he said, but he was leaving again the next day and would return only after I was gone.

During the previous few days, I had heard a lot about this man. I had heard that he is a gossip, a social operator whose calendar is a blur of drinks and dinners with cardinals and archbishops, principessas and personal trainers. Supposedly, he loves to dish male colleagues with campy female nicknames. But I would never have the experience firsthand. The priest was embarrassed: to have been chanced upon at this place; to have had his small evasions revealed. The encounter was awkward. No, he did not wish to discuss the subject I was interested in. No, he did not think the subject worthwhile. These things he made clear. We left the sauna and, after further conversation, civil but stilted, went our separate ways.

I could understand his discomfort. But in Rome these days the topic of gay priests in the upper reaches of the Holy See is hard to avoid. In February of this year, not long before the College of Cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel for the conclave to choose the 266th Pope, the largest Italian daily newspaper, La Repubblica, reported that a “gay lobby”—a more or less unified cabal of homosexual power brokers—might be operating inside the Vatican. According to the newspaper, the possible existence of this gay lobby was among the many secrets described in a two-volume, 300-page report bound in red and presented to Pope Benedict XVI by three cardinals he had appointed to investigate the affair known as “VatiLeaks.” That scandal, which raised fresh suspicions of endemic corruption within the Curia, had broken the previous year after Paolo Gabriele, the papal butler, made off with some of Benedict’s private papers and leaked them to the press.

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

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Ruben Rosario
rrosario@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 12/19/2013

Little Charles Vincent Lachowitzer believed nuns had no legs and were celestial beings who could fly like angels.

He was sure Sister Mary Timothy would just grab him and float up in the air as the then-second-grader mightily bolted one day toward her for safety to escape a boy chasing him in the playground of St. Pascal Baylon Catholic School on St. Paul’s East Side.

So he was shocked when he ran to her at full tilt and knocked her on her butt, revealing stocking-covered gams under the ground-hugging habit skirt.

“You have legs!” he cried out.

Sister Mary Timothy patiently explained after she got up that priests and nuns are human, like him, except that they dedicated their lives in obedience and servitude to the Lord.

That’s the day he decided that he wanted to become a priest.

That resolute pledge, though, would take a decidedly varied and unconventional detour that would first lead to jobs as an educator and superintendent, logger and fisher of fish before he became a fisher of men.

Now, five decades later and long removed from that playground discovery, Lachowitzer finds himself chief deputy of the embattled Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He is squarely thrust, whether he likes it or not, in the middle of a simmering, publicly embarrassing clergy sex abuse scandal that shows no signs of letup.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Derby Telegraph

A PRIEST accused of sexually abusing three altar boys now faces charges against four more alleged victims.

Francis Paul Cullen, who was extradited from Spain on a European arrest warrant, appeared at Derby Crown Court today.

None of the charges have yet been put to him in court.

Prosecutor Sarah Knight said: “We are aware of four further complainants and there are likely to be further charges.”

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

INDIA
The Hindu

P. SUDAKAR

Police are on the lookout for a Roman Catholic priest in connection with the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl student here. They are also searching for a doctor, S. Meenakshi of Tirunelveli Town, who reportedly conducted the termination of pregnancy.

Police said the parish priest of St. Antony’s Church in Pettai, Fr. Gnanapragasam Selvan, hailing from Kailasapuram near Puliyampatti in Tuticorin, allegedly committed the crime. When the girl’s parents came to know of her pregnancy, they took up the issue with the priest, who reportedly promised to give “adequate compensation,” besides taking care of the medical expenses of her mother, a cancer patient.

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

MINNESOTA
KARE

[with video]

MINNEAPOLIS – As news develops about the handling of clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the men who take to the pulpit on a regular basis are caught in the middle.

“Some have lost a lot of confidence in our church leadership,” said Father Mike Tegeder, pastor of St. Frances Cabrini Church in Minneapolis. “You feel kind of betrayed.”

Tegeder is no stranger to voicing his critique about the church leadership over the years. Recently he has said Archbishop John Neinstedt should resign.

“There comes a point where you really have to express your deep concerns,” he said.

But he’s not alone in his critique of the current leadership. A number of other priests have made headlines over the last several weeks publicly voicing their critiques of the archbishop.

“It is highly unusual to have a level of priestly resistance we’re seeing here,” said Charles Reid, University of St. Thomas professor and expert in Canon law.

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

TOLEDO (OH)
Blade

BY TK BARGER
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR

An associate pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Sylvania has been named the diocesan administrator of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo and was introduced Thursday morning at a news conference at the Catholic Center.

The Rev. Charles F. Ritter’s duty as administrator will be to lead the diocese during an interim when there is no bishop. The former diocesan bishop, Leonard Blair, was installed as archbishop of the Hartford, Conn., archdiocese on Monday.

Father Ritter takes up the bishop’s appointment schedule, to a degree, to represent the diocese within its territory and in the larger church, but he does not have the same responsibilities as a bishop.

Father Ritter described his new responsibility by using a nautical analogy.

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

VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

VATICAN CITY, December 20, 2013 – The motu proprio canonizations of John XXIII and the Jesuit Peter Faber on the one hand, and the incisive and determined interventions in the organizational structure of the Roman curia on the other are the most demanding juridical actions taken by Pope Francis during the first nine months of his pontificate.

Among these latter a prominent place belongs to the shakeup in the leadership of the congregation for bishops, the crucial dicastery that works most closely with the pope in the appointment of Latin bishops in much of the world: Europeans, Americans, Australians, and Filipinos (the appointment of prelates for missionary territories in Asia and Africa are overseen by Propaganda Fide).

After personally selecting the new secretary of the congregation in the person of the Brazilian Ilson de Jesus Montanari, his old acquaintance as a neighbor at the Roman residence on Via della Scrofa, and after ordering his personal secretary Fr. Fabián Pedacchio Leániz to continue spending his mornings working in that dicastery, where he has been an official for a few years, the pope confirmed last Monday as prefect the Canadian cardinal Marc Ouellet.

Not only that. But as he has already done at the congregation for Catholic education, here as well he has reshuffled the members of the dicastery. With confirmations, new appointments, and removals.

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

AUSTRALIA
Daily Examiner

Adam Davies 20th Dec 2013

CONVICTED paedophile priest Finian Egan has been sentenced to at least four years jail for child sex crimes committed in New South Wales more than three decades ago.

A jury found Egan, 78, guilty last month in the Sydney District Court of seven counts of indecent assault and one count of rape between 1961 and 1987.

He committed the crimes while he worked as a Catholic priest at Leichhardt and Carlingford in Sydney and The Entrance on the Central Coast.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

December 20, 2013

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

A prominent Sydney Catholic priest who sexually assaulted young girls from his parishes on multiple ocassions during a 40-year career, has been sentenced to at least four years’ jail, with a judge describing his acts as a “flagrant and gross breach of trust” against those he had power over.

One of Father Finian Egan’s victims wept quietly as the 78-year-old was sentenced to a maximum of eight years jail with a non-patole period of four years in the Downing Centre District Court on Friday, while another expressed elation at the result.

Earlier this year the 40-year church veteran was found guilty of seven counts of indecent assault and one count of rape in relation to attacks on girls aged 10 to 17 in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Many of the attacks occurred on church grounds against girls whose families the priest had befriended.

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

AUSTRALIA
9 News

Father Finian Egan had escaped punishment for sexually abusing young girls for more than 50 years.

But now the frail and elderly Catholic priest has been jailed for at least four years for abusing three young NSW girls over the course of three decades.

Egan’s victims, whose lives were irrevocably damaged by the abuse inflicted on them, stood in the District Court in Sydney on Friday and watched as he was falteringly led away to spend his first night in jail.

He will be 83 years of age by the time he is eligible for release.

Egan enjoyed a position of power and privilege as a Catholic priest at a time when, among religious communities, priests were considered among the elite of society.

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

SCOTLAND
Inverness Courier

Three men have been reported to the Crown office and the procurator fiscal in relation to the investigation into historical physical and sexual abuse at Fort Augustus Abbey.

Police Scotland say it is still an ongoing investigation, initiated by Highland and Islands Division in March, and has extended to liaison with a number of law enforcement agencies both across and out with the UK.

“We understand that it is very difficult for victims of abuse to speak about their experiences and a helpline run by Children 1st is available to provide support and advice to those who may be affected by the investigation,” said a spokeswoman.

“These call takers, who are trained to provide advice and guidance, can refer callers or forward any relevant information to the police, or to the appropriate agency to provide further support locally.”

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

SCOTLAND
BBC News

Three men have been reported to prosecutors in connection with alleged abuse at a former Catholic boarding school in the Highlands.

Police Scotland said they had spoken to a number of victims and witnesses in relation to reports of historic abuse at Fort Augustus Abbey school.

They said officers had also worked with law enforcement agencies abroad.

In September, a man was charged in relation to claims of physical and sexual abuse at the former school.

Fort Augustus Abbey school on the banks of Loch Ness was run by Benedictine monks but closed down in the 1990s.

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

SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Three men have been reported to prosecutors in connection with allegations of historic sexual and physical abuse at a former Catholic boarding school.

The police investigation concerns monks who taught at the Fort Augustus Abbey school in the Highlands in the 1960s and 70s. It has since closed.

Police said they had been investigating since March following a report from a former pupil and further allegations from a BBC documentary.

Charity Children 1st has set up a dedicated support line for anyone affected.

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

SCOTLAND
BBC News

By Mark Daly
BBC Scotland Investigations Correspondent

The Catholic Church in Scotland has been criticised for its handling of reports of historic abuse at two prestigious catholic boarding schools.

Former pupils of Fort Augustus Abbey school and its preparatory school Carlekemp claimed no senior clergy had sought out victims to offer support.

A BBC Scotland investigation into claims of abuse at the schools was broadcast in July.

After the story escalated, bishop Hugh Gilbert promised victims help.

The Catholic church’s initial reaction to the Fort Augustus scandal was to direct attention to the Benedictines – the religious order which ran the schools in the Highlands and East Lothian.

Dom Richard Yeo, the Abbot President of English Benedictine Congregation, which unites autonomous Roman Catholic Benedictine communities of monks and nuns, apologised and admitted his organisation made mistakes in dealing with allegations of child abuse.

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

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

COMMENTARY

by TOM HOOPES 12/19/2013

Is the Legion of Christ reformed? What would reform even look like? A historic meeting in Rome that begins Jan. 8 hopes to provide some of those answers.

They are a long time coming. It has been five years since members of the Legion of Christ, founded in 1941, began privately admitting that their late founder, Father Marcial Maciel, had not been the saintly man they made him out to be: He had fathered children and was “probably” guilty of abusing seminarians.

I was executive editor of the Register (as well as a member of the Legion’s closely associated lay movement Regnum Christi) when the news broke. I stopped attending Regnum Christi meetings immediately and told any Legionary who would listen that I was done with the movement.
Not many would listen.

The culture in the Legion of Christ made it very hard for Legionaries to simply admit that the founder was as bad as the facts showed him to be. Publicly, the Legion was only saying, “We can confirm that there are aspects of his life that weren’t appropriate for a Catholic priest,” and there was an effort to sum up what he had done as “misdeeds.”

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN DECEMBER 20, 2013

THE Catholic Church has won a NSW Supreme Court bid to deny two alleged victims of child sex abuse access to records about their alleged abuser, a member of the Marist Brothers order at the centre of the current royal commission hearing.

The decision comes just days after the church’s barrister, Peter Gray SC, told the commission it was committed “to ensure that nothing is concealed or covered up in respect of what church personnel did or failed to do”.

Court documents seen by The Australian reveal the church’s national committee responsible for caring for those who suffer child abuse itself challenged the victims’ request to seek documents about the late Edward Hosey.

Both alleged victims, who cannot be named, claim they were sexually abused by Hosey at two Marist Brothers’ schools in Sydney during the 1960s and 1970s.

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

ALABAMA
Alabama 13

HOOVER, AL – Six more charges have been filed against a Hoover man who was arrested last week in connection with the sexual abuse of a child.

The Hoover Police Department reports that in addition to charges in Shelby County, Jason Hankins has been charged with first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, production of child pornography, first-degree sexual abuse, sexual abuse of a child less than 12 years of age and electronic solicitation of a child.

The Hoover Police Department says the additional charges involve the same victim, and a higher bond was secured due to the “horrific nature of the offenses, the age of the victim and the need to protect the community and other potential victims.”

They report he recently resigned from his job at the Family Life Center at Shades Crest Baptist Church.

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

ILLINOIS
The Regional News

Written by Tim Hadac

Archdiocesan officials confirmed this week that they are investigating an allegation of sexual misconduct made against the Rev. Michael W. O’Connell, 56, who served as pastor of Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park from 1997-2012.

  At issue is behavior that allegedly occurred nearly two decades ago at Our Lady of the Woods, officials said.

  O’Connell previously served at St. Michael Parish in Orland Park from 1983-89, where he was part of a team that helped establish Our Lady of the Woods.

  He currently is on leave as pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish on Chicago’s North Side. According to the Rev. Shawn Gould, administrator of that parish, O’Connell “denies this allegation.”

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

TENNESSEE
Christian Post

BY NICOLA MENZIE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
December 19, 2013

A Memphis, Tenn., pastor is being held on a $1 million bond for allegedly sexually molesting a young family member for years. When the 16-year-old reported the alleged abuse to her mother early on, the woman chose to pray for God to end the abuse instead of reporting the alleged crime to earthly authorities.

Michael Bryant, 48, pastor of Hour of Restoration Church of God in Christ for the past three years and previously an elder at Greater Community Temple COGIC, is accused of taking advantage of the woman’s work schedule to abuse her teenage daughter.

For the last two years, Bryant would enter the girl’s bedroom whenever her mother was at work or asleep and expose his genitals and fondle her, WREG-TV reports investigators as saying.

When the girl turned to her mother for help, Bryant admitted to fondling her. However, the teen’s mother prayed that God would remove “these thoughts” from Bryant’s mind, instead of taking her daughter’s story to the authorities. It was not immediately known how Bryant and the girl were related.

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

TENNESSEE
WREG

[with video]

(Memphis) Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich wouldn’t confirm if others could be charged in a sexual assault case against a Memphis COGIC Pastor.

Michael Bryant was charged Wednesday for Sexual Battery by an Authority Figure after police said he fondled and exposed himself to an underage family member.

In the affidavit, investigators reported that the victim told her mother about the abuse a year ago.

However, the affidavit said the mother never turned the information “ over to authorities because both Pastor Bryant and the mother decided they would pray that the Lord remove these thoughts from his head.”

“In the state of Tennessee, every adult has the duty under the law if they suspect that a child is being abused,” said General Weirich.

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

TENNESSEE
14 News

[with video]

MEMPHIS, TN –
(WMC-TV) – A pastor is under arrest, accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old on and off for the past two years.

Michael Bryant, 48, was taken into custody at a gas station on Hickory Hill Road and Knight Arnold Road after a warrant for his arrest was issued.

Bryant is the pastor at Hour of Restoration COGIC.

According to the police affidavit, the teen said Bryant has been touching her inappropriately at least two to three times a week for the last two years. The affidavit says that the last time she says Bryant touched her was Monday, which is the same day the abuse was reported to police.

Police say in the affidavit that the alleged victim told an adult about the abuse a year ago, but it went unreported until Monday. They didn’t go to authorities with the case because both the pastor and the teen’s mother decided they would pray that the lord would remove these thoughts from Bryant’s head.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

An elderly NSW priest who sexually preyed on young girls for three decades has been jailed for at least four years.

Father Finian Egan, who ‘escaped punishment for 50 years’, will be 83 when he is eligible for parole, Judge Robyn Tupman ruled in the District Court in Sydney on Friday.

Egan, who sat with one hand on his face during the sentencing, made no reaction as it was handed down.

His victims stood and watched in silence as he was taken away to jail for the first time.

The Catholic priest sexually abused three girls between the ages of 10 and 17 while he worked in various dioceses in Sydney and the Central Coast in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

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

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune Updated: December 19, 2013

But they were named in internal archdiocesan memo on parishes with history of clergy sex abuse.

Five priests named in a 2002 archdiocesan internal memo about parishes with “some connection to a history of clergy sexual abuse” were not on the list published earlier this month by Archbishop John Nienstedt.

One of the men in the 2002 memo but excluded from Nienstedt’s list is former cleric Harry Walsh, a native of Ireland who has left the priesthood and now teaches sex education for Wright County.

Nienstedt said Thursday evening in a statement that the list he issued Dec. 5 “was not intended to be complete or final.” He didn’t explain why Walsh’s name was not on the list or been added since its initial release. Nienstedt said reviews of three other priests have not yet been done. A review of the fifth priest, who is still active in ministry at an east metro church, concluded there was “no credible or substantiated claim of sexual abuse of a minor.”

The August 2002 memo names 17 men as “priests with known abuse histories.” Two of those 17 are missing from Nienstedt’s list: the late Revs. Ambrose Filbin and Harold Whittet.

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

AUSTRALIA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: Michael Madigan
Posted: 12/20/2013

BRISBANE — That the whimsical, sweet-natured, self-defeating comic creation Charlie Brown could be used by a pedophile to lure his victims is not the worst piece of evidence to come out of Australia’s Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse.

A predator priest’s creation of his own little “Brown family” has provided one of the more poignant parables for a crime that so ruthlessly sabotages childhoods.

But the six-person royal commission, appointed by Australia’s Gov. Gen. Quentin Bryce in January, will hear much worse before the task is completed in 2015.

A priest calling himself Fred Brown allegedly developed a cult-like following among a group of teenage girls way back in the 1960s.

The testimony of one of those long-ago girls, Joan Isaacs, now 60, drew audible gasps from the public gallery last week as she told the commission how one member of the group had “Fred Brown’s” child.

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

CANADA
Sarnia Observer

By Neil Bowen, Sarnia Observer
Thursday, December 19, 2013

The verdict in the sexual abuse trial of former priest Gabriele DelBianco is set for Feb. 24.

Crown and defence lawyer submissions to Justice Joseph Donahue wrapped up Thursday

The key issues are possible consent to sexual activity and the reliability of the evidence.

DelBianco pleaded not guilty to 16 offences involving four teenage girls during the 1980s.

The trial started Oct. 16 and testimony from four women, now in their 40s, ended in October. DelBianco chose not to testify.

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

DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

By Patricia Montemurri
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

A onetime priest at Detroit’s Holy Redeemer parish is at the center of a another priest sex abuse controversy involving the embattled Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis.

Documents obtained by Minnesota Public Radio reveal that a woman contacted the Archdiocese of Detroit in the early 1990s to complain that the Rev. Harry Walsh molested her when she was 15. Walsh was posted at Holy Redeemer parish in southwest Detroit in 1965-’67.

An Archdiocese of Detroit spokesman said today that Detroit Catholic officials should have done more to track the former Holy Redeemer parish priest after they received the same complaint in 1993, 2002 and 2011.

“We could have done better to follow up if anything was done” by St. Paul-Minneapolis Catholic officials to address the accusations against Walsh, Ned McGrath said, adding that Detroit Catholic officials are reviewing their procedures now.

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

UNITED STATES
The Raw Story

By David Edwards
Thursday, December 19, 2013

A privacy advocate on Wednesday told Congress that she had discovered that it was common practice for data brokers to sell the names of rape victims and HIV patients for about 7.9 cents each.

Speaking to members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, World Privacy Forum Executive Director Pam Dixon described herself as a “moderate” when it came to data brokers, but shocking research convinced her that the industry was in need of regulation.

“The data broker industry as it is today, does not have constraints and it does not have shame,” she explained. “It will sell any information about any person regardless of sensitivity for 7.9 cents a name, which is the price of a list of rape sufferers which was recently sold.”

“Lists of rape sufferers, victims of domestic violence, police officers’ home addresses, people who suffer from genetic illnesses,” Dixon continued. “Complete with names, home addresses, ethnicity, gender and many other factors. This is what’s being sold and circulated today.”

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

TENNESSEE
WBBJ

Statement from Eddie Mallonee, Pastor Accused of Plotting to Poison Wife

UNION CITY, Tenn. — A former Union City pastor accused of plotting to kill his wife along with his mistress released a statement, Friday morning.

Former Second Baptist Church Pastor Eddie Mallonee and church member Shelly Moran were placed on supervised probation after a plea bargain.

The pair are accused of planning for two years to poison his wife Cathy while on a mission trip to Honduras.

Despite the alleged attempt on her life, Cathy, Mallonee’s wife of more than 34 years, has been by her husband’s side during court proceedings.

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

AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Posted on December 19, 2013 by lewisblayse

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse had a wasted day today. Commissioner McClellan spent most of the time questioning Lismore bishop, Geoffrey Jarrett (see previous posting) about the Pope Benedict ruling in 2001 that bishops should report paedophile priests to the Vatican.

Jarrett had been recalled for this purpose. Jarrett Lismore had not observed this directive from the Pope because he was not aware of it until 2006, following a conference on canon law. “Directives can come to the bishop who – they go to the chancery and they will remain there on the file and perhaps not be remembered or acted upon,” Jarrett said.

McClellan put the obvious proposition to Jarrett that “So if the protocol is observed, relatively fewer cases would end up being reported to Rome, wouldn’t they,” with Jarrett giving the obviously expected reply that “I suppose so. But the evidence is that, nonetheless, there have still been many cases reported.”

One of the three cases Jarrett had reported to the Vatican took two years for a reply to be sent that the offender offer a Mass for his victims on Fridays. That priest is now retired and living in the presbytery with other priests in Lismore. Jarrett has not opted to remove his priestly faculties. However, he said he would have written to the priest in 2004 to tell him he was not allowed to have contact with children, but couldn’t recall whether he had written to remind him of it since then.

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

MINNESOTA
KARE

Harry Walsh wasn’t on the list of 30 priests but church documents obtained by MPR show he’d been accused of molesting a 15-year-old girl and 12-year-old altar boy decades earlier.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – When the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released of a list of priests accused of sexually abusing minors, it prompted complaints from victims’ groups that it was incomplete.

Harry Walsh wasn’t on the list of 30 priests. But church documents obtained by Minnesota Public Radio show he’d been accused of molesting a 15-year-old girl and 12-year-old altar boy decades earlier. The archdiocese contributed to a financial settlement for the girl. Nonetheless, two archbishops allowed him to continue working in parishes until the fall of 2011.

Walsh tells MPR he never abused children.

Archbishop John Nienstedt asked Pope Benedict last year to defrock Walsh when he learned of the abuse allegations, and Walsh agreed to leave.

Archdiocese spokesman Jim Accurso wouldn’t say why Walsh wasn’t on the public list.

KARE 11 editorial partner Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) reports that Walsh now teaches sex education to troubled teenagers and vulnerable adults in Wright County. He signed a new two-year, $1,508 a month contract earlier this year, according to public records, to provide “medically accurate sexuality education, pregnancy prevention and STI prevention to high risk youth or adults.”

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

UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on December 19, 2013

One brother is Obama’s chief of staff. The other is an embattled former top deputy to St. Paul’s Archbishop, charged with covering up sex abuse and refusing to cooperate with the police. Put together, the McDonough brothers show how bad timing and bad moral decisions may push two former “superstars” into very public and very embarrassing falls from grace.

Denis the Politician
Appointed White House Chief of Staff in January 2013 after a career as a foreign policy advisor, “hard-charging” Denis has been called one of the most efficient chiefs of staff in recent memory. Insiders on both sides of the political spectrum say that the White House “has never worked better.”
Unfortunately, that may be not enough to save him. According to the New York Times:

Mr. McDonough’s failure to head off the health care problems surprised those who see him as a man of discipline and attention to detail. But current and former administration officials say that after 10 months on the job, one problem may have been that he stretched himself too thin and tried to do too much himself. …

Kevin the Priest Older brother Kevin is facing a fall from grace of his own. But unlike Denis, this fall is of his own making—what many are calling his “insidious and criminal” cover-up of child sex abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Now, he’s refusing to cooperate with the police. For 17 years, Kevin was top-deputy to the archbishop, one of the most powerful jobs in the archdiocese.

As Vicar General, McDonough was. according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, “revered for his work with the poor” and “charmed legislators as chaplain of the Minnesota Senate.”

But while he was charming cops and politicians alike, recently exposed documents show that he was actively covering up for child sex offenders in the priesthood. Although McDonough was the chief child protection officer in the Archdiocese, he, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, “had a key role in at least three cases of alleged priest sexual misconduct that, combined, have resulted in a lawsuit against the archdiocese, a priest in jail, the resignation of a top archdiocesan official and calls for the resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt.“

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

NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

Road to Recovery, Inc.
P.O. Box 279
Livingston, NJ 07039
862-368-2800
roberthoatson@gmail.com

December 19-20, 2013

Catholic League President Bill Donohue is using Catholic League resources and lobbying in order to publicly identify a minor child who has alleged sexual touching by a Catholic clergy member

The minor child’s allegation has led to the “stepping down” of Archbishop of Minneapolis/St. Paul, John Nienstedt, while the allegation is investigated

It is time for Cardinal Timothy Dolan to intervene and stop the Catholic League’s violation of the letter and spirit of the United States Bishops’ Conference Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People

What: A leafleting and press conference calling on Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop
of New York, to prevent the Catholic League, headquartered in the Archdiocese of New York, from pursuing and releasing publicly the identity of the minor child who has alleged an act of sexual touching by the Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis/St. Paul.

When: Saturday, December 21, 2013 from 4:30 PM until the conclusion of the 5:30 PM Mass.

Where: In front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets,
Manhattan.

Who: The co-founder of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New
Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families; survivors of clergy sexual abuse; advocates, and supporters.

Why: Since a child came forward recently in the Archdiocese of Minneapolis/St. Paul,
MN, to allege that Archbishop John Nienstedt touched him in a sexual manner during a group photo shoot, Catholic League President, Bill Donohue, has called for anyone with video or audio recordings of the event to contact him. Donohue wants to publicly identify, demean, and embarrass the victim, pressuring him to retract or withdraw his allegation. Donohue’s bullying tactics are injurious to the child victim. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the leader of the Archdiocese, needs to intervene and instruct Donohue to:

1) Cease and desist regarding his intention to publicly identify the victim;
2) Stop attacking victims and their families, advocates, and supporters;
3) Abide by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
“Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” in both letter and spirit.

Contact: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800

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

MINNESOTA
Marshall Independent

December 19, 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — When the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released of a list of priests accused of sexually abusing minors, it prompted complaints from victims’ groups that it was incomplete.

Harry Walsh wasn’t on the list of 30 priests. But church documents obtained by Minnesota Public Radio (http://bit.ly/1fImo8k ) show he’d been accused of molesting a 15-year-old girl and 12-year-old altar boy decades earlier. The archdiocese contributed to a financial settlement for the girl. Nonetheless, two archbishops allowed him to continue working in parishes until the fall of 2011.

Walsh tells MPR he never abused children.

Archbishop John Nienstedt asked Pope Benedict last year to defrock Walsh when he learned of the abuse allegations, and Walsh agreed to leave.

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

CALIFORNIA
Daily Journal

December 17, 2013, 05:00 AM Daily Journal Staff Report

The former finance director of a Menlo Park seminary and university and her secretary will stand trial in April for allegedly taking more than $200,000 and stealing a donated Mercedes Benz.

Jennifer Margaret Morris, 58, is charged with four counts of felony embezzlement. Her former secretary, Evelyn D. Vallacqua, 45, is charged with three embezzlement counts for allegedly helping issue several improper reimbursement checks to her boss and accepted unauthorized severance payments from St. Patrick’s Seminary and University.

Both women pleaded not guilty to all charges and were scheduled for trial April 7.

The seminary launched an audit after learning Morris used her personal credit card for reimbursed work purchases to accumulate airline miles. The audit reportedly uncovered that, between October 2006 and 2012, Morris made $166,000 worth of unauthorized personal purchases for which she also reimbursed herself from seminary funds and overpaid herself at least $36,000 from 2011 to 2012.

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

ISRAEL
The Jewish Press

Following Rav Elon’s conviction, Rabbi Chaim Druckman invited him to teach at Yeshivat Or Etzion.

By: David Morris Published: December 19th, 2013

Rav Motty Elon was sentenced today to six months community service and a 15 month prison sentence on probation for three years.

He was also fined 10,000 NIS as compensation for the victim. Rav Elon was convicted in August on two counts of sexual assault on a minor.

Rav Elon’s response, outside the court, was to call the allegations/charges/conviction “lies” – and he said he welcomes the community service order – ”I’ve been doing community service for 40 years, and I would love to do so until I’m 120.”

This was the culmination of a public process which started on 15th February 2010, with an announcement censuring Rav Elon on the Takana website; the ‘private’ process, within Forum Takana, began several years previously.

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

AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Stephen Crittenden | Dec. 19, 2013

SYDNEY A diplomatic standoff appears to have developed in recent months between the Vatican and the New South Wales Special Commission of Inquiry into sex abuse, chaired by Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen.

Copies of correspondence released by the Special Commission this week show the papal nuncio to Australia, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, claimed diplomatic immunity in response to repeated requests for archival documentation that might assist Cunneen with her inquiry.

The inquiry was established in November 2012 to investigate sexual abuse by two priests of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, Fr. Denis McAlinden and Fr. James Fletcher (both deceased), following allegations made by a senior New South Wales police whistleblower, Chief Inspector Peter Fox. The commission continues to inquire into and report on matters relating to the police investigation of the diocese.

The New South Wales Crown Solicitor’s Office made the request on Cunneen’s behalf Aug. 30 and again Oct. 22, asking for copies of any relevant documents held in the archives of the Apostolic Nunciature in Canberra or the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome.

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

UNITED STATES
Truthdig

By Sonali Kolhatkar

At first glance, Time magazine’s “Person of the Year,” Pope Francis, is a mess of contradictions. On the one hand, he has vehemently denounced the evils of global capitalism, calling it “a new tyranny.” However, as pontiff, he heads the Catholic Church, which has been characterized as “probably the wealthiest institution in the entire world.” And, although the pope has championed the importance of women in the Catholic Church, saying in an interview, “The woman is essential for the church. … The feminine genius is needed whenever we make important decisions,” he continues to oppose as strongly as any pope before him the ordination of women, and considers abortion to be evil. How do we make sense of Pope Francis’ views?

It turns out that his critique of capitalism is actually nothing new. According to human rights activist Blase Bonpane, a former Maryknoll priest and adherent of “liberation theology,” “It’s been going on for a long time. If we take the 19th century, we had Pope Leo XIII who gave us the encyclical ‘Rerum Novarum,’ which followed directly from ‘The Communist Manifesto.’ The pope agreed with practically everything in the ‘Manifesto’ by talking about how people go into the factories and are ruined, whereas materials come out of the factory ennobled. And that was followed by another encyclical by Pius XI called ‘Quadragesimo Anno’ in the 1930s, 40 years after Leo XIII’s encyclical. These were anti-capitalist documents.” In fact, according to Bonpane, “Pius XI called for a living wage and defined it very well as ‘one worker in the family, time for vacation, an ability to save money, to have a decent life, to pay for all of your needs.’ So we have not always complied with what the popes are talking about but they have had many anti-capitalist statements going back to John the Baptist who said, ‘If someone has two pairs of shoes, give one to someone who doesn’t have any.’ So [this sentiment] has been in the history of the church despite its opulence.”

In that sense, Pope Francis represents a break not from the long-term tradition of the church, but from his immediate predecessors. Bonpane said, “I think it’s a dramatic change for him to focus on the liberation theology elements [of Catholicism], which is to downplay dogma.” In addition to his recent statements denouncing the ills of modern global capitalism, there are reports of the pope quietly stepping out of the halls of the Vatican at night to help poor and homeless people. If that’s not enough to cement his progressive economic policy credentials, Pope Francis has also provoked the ire of right-wing shock jock Rush Limbaugh, who accused him of “ripping capitalism” and being a Marxist.

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

ILLINOIS
The Raw Story

By David Ferguson
Thursday, December 19, 2013

A middle school teacher in Buffalo Grove, Illinois is accused by two women of sexual impropriety years ago when she mentored them at a Christian camp in Wisconsin. According to NBC News, the second woman came forward this week to corroborate accusations that Cherie Carlson engaged in sexually predatory behavior when she was a teenage camp counselor.

On Wednesday, Rob Stafford of Chicago’s NBC Channel 5 spoke with Monika Ebly, who was 16 in 1996, when she says she witnessed Carlson molesting a camper.

Ebly says she observed Carslon and a girl who NBC is calling Jane Doe lying under a blanket while Carlson visibly fondled the girl’s genitals.

“Cherie had her hand under the blanket and was fondling Jane’s genitalia,” said Ebly.

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

PORTUGAL
Sol

O pároco da Golegã suspeito de abuso sexual de duas crianças ficou hoje obrigado a pagar uma caução de 3.500 euros e a entregar o passaporte, estando proibido de sair da área de residência e de se aproximar de menores.

As medidas de coação foram lidas aos jornalistas depois de quase quatro horas de interrogatório no Tribunal da Golegã, onde o padre chegou cerca das 14:30 acompanhado por dois agentes da Polícia Judiciária.

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

PORTUGAL
A Bola

«A PJ identificou mais uma alegada vítima, a segunda, e deteve o padre António Júlio Santos, por abuso sexual de criança. E poderão surgir mais raparigas queixosas.»

«Fonte da Polícia Judiciária de Leiria, que investiga o caso, confirmou a notícia avançada pelo JN na edição de dia 7, onde se adiantava que a PJ acreditava que existiam “mais vítimas”. A primeira queixa chegou de uma escuteira da Golegã, de 12 anos, e a outra terá a ver com uma menor associada a uma instituição ligada também à igreja da Golegã, crimes concretizados no espaço de um mês.»

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

PORTUGAL
TVI24

[Summary: A priest from Golega, suspect of sexually abusing two children, was required to pay a deposit of 3,500 euros and surrender his passport. He cannot leave the residence area or approach minors.]

O pároco da Golegã suspeito de abuso sexual de duas crianças ficou esta quarta-feira obrigado a pagar uma caução de 3.500 euros e a entregar o passaporte, está proibido de sair da área de residência e de se aproximar de menores.

As medidas de coação foram lidas aos jornalistas depois de quase quatro horas de interrogatório no Tribunal da Golegã, onde o padre chegou cerca das 14:30 acompanhado por dois agentes da Polícia Judiciária.

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

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

A credibly accused predator priest now teaches sex education for Wright County (according to Minnesota Public Radio). We call on county officials to immediately fire him. And we call on St. Paul/Minneapolis Catholic officials to explain why they continue to keep silent about the allegations against him.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Fr. Harry Walsh reportedly molested at least two kids. A settlement was paid to one of them. He studied to become a “sexologist” and had a lengthy “affair” with a married parishioner (such conduct is now illegal in Minnesota).

Yet until a brave church whistleblower pushed him, St. Paul Archbishop John Nienstedt did nothing. And until MPR’s report this morning, no one knew that Fr. Walsh shouldn’t be around kids.

For nine years after Nienstedt, Archbishop Harry Flynn and nearly 200 US Catholic bishops pledged “zero tolerance,” Minnesota Catholic officials endangered kids, broke their promises and hid the accusations against Fr. Walsh, letting him work in a parish and giving sex education.

Shame on these two men, on Fr. Kevin McDonough, and on every single Catholic employee who aided and abetted this predator and knowingly put children in harm’s way.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

December 20, 2013

Gay Alcorn
Columnist

So fraught has any discussion of rape and sexual assault become, so enmeshed in gender politics, so prevalent – from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, to the Stephen Milne rape saga, even Julian Assange’s refusal to travel to Sweden to face rape allegations – that it seems any crime involving a sexual element is highly charged.

The reason why sex offences are so emotional is understandable given how we have grappled with them historically. The notion that rape was a property crime against a father or husband was not fully abandoned until marital rape was outlawed in Australia in the 1980s.

And whatever the law says, conversations in offices and pubs will still mention a woman’s sobriety or short skirt if she later claims she was raped, particularly by someone she knows.

The law has been reformed in the past 30 years, and the attitudes of the police and courts to victims transformed. Maximum jail sentences have increased, and the definitions of what constitutes rape changed, all to emphasise the seriousness of sex crimes and to make it easier for victims to seek justice. And none of it has budged conviction rates; the Office of Public Prosecutions says that just 45.1 per cent of all sex cases last year that went to trial led to a conviction, down from 54.8 per cent in 2004.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
This is Local London

By Clare Buchanan

A former boss of a Richmond care home and a priest have denied 14 charges of child sex offences dating back to the 1970s.

John Stingemore, 71, of Stonehouse Drive, St Leonard’s on Sea, East Sussex, appeared at Southwark Crown Court today, along with 66-year-old Father Anthony McSweeney.

Mr Stingemore, who managed Grafton Close care home, pleaded not guilty to five counts of indecent assault, one of taking indecent images of a child and one of indecency with a child.

Mr McSweeney, of Old Brighton Road North, Pease Pottage, pleaded not guilty to two counts of indecent assault, one of taking indecent images of a child, three of making indecent images of a child and one of possessing indecent images of a child.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
EDP24

Staff Reporter
Thursday, December 19, 2013

A former Norwich Catholic priest and a former children’s home manager denied sexually abusing a string of boys more than 30 years ago.

Father Tony McSweeney, 66, and wheelchair-bound John Stingemore, 71, are accused of molesting lads at the now closed Grafton Close Children’s Home in Hounslow, west London.

McSweeney – who officiated at the 1990 wedding of boxing legend Frank Bruno and his ex-wife, Laura – was a trainee priest at the time of the alleged attacks.

The once part-time chaplain at Norwich City FC, was leading the congregation at St George’s Church in north Norwich when the claims against him emerged.

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

MAINE
Portland Press Herald

By Kelley Bouchard kbouchard@pressherald.com
Staff Writer

The Rev. Robert P. Deeley, newly appointed bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, promised Wednesday to protect children, serve the poor and the sick, and continue efforts to strengthen Maine’s parishes and grow the priesthood.

Maine Catholics and people who know Deeley have great expectations for Maine’s new bishop, seeing shades of Pope Francis in the Boston-area native who has served in the Vatican.

Others are concerned that Deeley, who is now auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston, is a “company man” who won’t bring the change that critics want in the way the church handles issues such as gay rights, abortion and sexual abuse by clergy members.

The Vatican announced Deeley’s appointment by Pope Francis at 6 a.m. Wednesday, ending a 17-month wait for news of a new leader for Maine’s 193,392 Catholics. Deeley will be formally installed as bishop during a special Mass on Feb. 14 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland. …

PLAYED ROLE IN CLERGY ABUSE RESPONSE

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is a cadre of bishops in Rome that since the abuse scandal has largely been responsible for responding to hundreds of complaints against clergy members. Deeley was assigned to help reduce the backlog, Garabedian said.

Cafardi, the expert on church law, dismissed the idea that, because Deeley was in the Boston archdiocese during the abuse scandal, he was in some way directly involved. Cafardi, a co-author of the National Review Board’s report on the abuse scandal, said that in the extensive research and interviews done to assemble the 2005 report, Deeley’s name never came up.

“That’s the kind of guilt by association that I hope most Christians would avoid,” Cafardi said.

Local and national anti-abuse groups have called for Deeley to open the diocese’s records on abusive clergy members, and do what more than two dozen archdioceses around the nation, including the Archdiocese of Boston, have done already: publish the names and judicial outcomes of priests who are accused of abuse.

In a statement issued shortly after Deeley’s appointment Wednesday, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a national victim advocacy group, said the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was integral in an orchestrated cover-up of abuse, and called for transparency about priests’ past crimes.

“This is a bare-minimum public safety step that every prelate should take,” the group said.

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

AUSTRALIA
Courier

By Pat Byrne Dec. 19, 2013

A FORMER Christian Brother, convicted in 1997 over the indecent assault of two Ballarat school boys, was today jailed for three months over a fresh charge of indecent assault dating back to 1974.

Yet Stephen Francis Farrell, 62, who pleaded guilty to molesting his now third school boy victim, walked from Ballarat Magistrates Court after lawyers immediately appealed the jail term.

Magistrate Michelle Hodgson said Farrell had exploited his position of power to sexually abuse a 10-year-old boy in his care, adding the community must know that the courts denounce such behaviour.

“Slowly but surely we have come to realise many of these sexual predators are people who have taken advantage of positions of power,” Ms Hodgson said.

“We forget in a more secular 2013 the power the church wielded over families.”

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

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated on 18 December 2013)

A former Catholic priest (aged 60 in 2013), who is charged with sexual offences against children in towns (including Moree and Armidale) in northern New South Wales, appeared in Armidale Local Court again on 18 December 2013 for an administrative procedure. The court extended his bail. The prosecutors and the defence have reached “substantial agreement” in relation to many of the facts regarding the case and the defence team is expected to submit a written plea-offer, the court has been told.

The ex-priest is charged with a total of 138 sexual offences against boys and girls.

These charges relate only to those alleged victims who have spoken to a special team of detectives (named Strike Force Glenroe) in the NSW Police. The investigation is continuing and detectives are prepared to hear from any more persons who have information about this matter.

The court decided to continue (until further notice) a non-publication order regarding the ex-priest’s name and residential details. This non-publication order can be reviewed at an approprite stage in the prosecution process.

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

AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Abuses by the Marist Brothers order of the Catholic Church have continued to be the focus of the current hearings of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It has heard further evidence from the Marists’ former Sydney head, Alexis Turton (see yesterday’s posting), and a victim known only as DK.

DK was abused by three brothers at the Marist Brothers’ school, St. Augustines (see previous posting) in the city of Cairns, in QueenslandState. One of the abusers was Brother Ross Murrin (see previous posting), who is still in prison for abuse offences at a Marist primary school at Daceyville, and at St. Gregory’s College in Campbelltown. He pleaded guilty to those offences in 2009.

DK told the enquiry that, after the abuse by Murrin, “I received a number of floggings, and was treated differently by the Brothers. I remember being excluded from school event, and feeling like they were trying to get me to leave the school.”

Marist Alexis Turton further enhanced the bad reputation of the Catholic Church with regards to cover-ups. One Brother had been the subject of several complaints, including that he abused a student who then suicided. In 2009, another Brother provided a list of 18 children who might bring claims against him. This list was placed on the Marist secret files, and a copy was sent to the Catholic Church Insurance company.

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

CANADA
Blackburn News

By Chelsea Vella on December 18, 2013

Final Crown and defence counsel submissions were made in the trial of a former priest at Sarnia’s courthouse Wednesday.

Gabriele DelBianco is being tried on 18 counts including sexual assault and gross indecency allegedly involving four teenage girls during the 1980′s.

In Crown submissions, Aniko Coughlan alleges that DelBianco abused his position of trust and authority within the church and used his role to create opportunities to be alone with the complainants. She says parents trusted him with their children, even allowing them to go on overnight trips.

DelBianco’s lawyer Andrew Bradie argues none of the complainants claimed they engaged in the sexual acts because DelBianco was an authority figure, but rather because he was charismatic. More than one woman describes him as being like “rock star”, testifying that it made them feel special to be chosen by him.

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

AUSTRALIA
9 News

A former Victorian Christian brother and teacher must be jailed for exploiting his position of power to sexually abuse a 10-year-old, a magistrate says.

But Stephen Francis Farrell walked from the Ballarat courtroom after appealing against his three-month jail term for molesting the boy, his third schoolboy victim.

Magistrate Michelle Hodgson jailed Farrell, 62, for indecently assaulting the boy while teaching at St Alipius School in Ballarat in the mid 1970s.

She said a message needed to be sent to the wider community that those who abused their roles of trust would be punished.

“Slowly but surely we have come to realise many of these sexual predators are people who have taken advantage of positions of power,” she said on Thursday.

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

AUSTRALIA
New South Wales Police Force

Former Catholic Brother charged with historical assaults upon two school boys – Strike Force Avia

Thursday, 19 December 2013 12:43:53 AM

Sex Crimes Squad detectives have arrested a former Catholic Brother for alleged historical sexual offences against two children at a western Sydney school.

Strike Force Avia was established in October 2011 to investigate alleged assaults upon a number of children on school grounds at a Catholic college at Blacktown and a Catholic primary school at Lalor Park in the 1980s.

Three men – two teachers and a former Catholic Brother – have previously been arrested and charged by Strike Force Avia detectives.

About 11.30am yesterday (Wednesday 18 December 2013) a fourth man, a former Catholic Brother, was arrested at Penrith Railway Station and taken to Penrith Police Station.

The 58-year-old Lithgow man was charged with 20 offences in total, comprising two counts of buggery, 13 counts of indecent assault on male, and five counts of indecent act with male, relating to offences against two boys aged between nine and 11.

The incidents are alleged to have occurred between January 1980 and May 1981 when the former Brother worked at the Catholic college in Blacktown.

He was refused bail to appear at Penrith Local Court today (Thursday 19 December 2013).

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

AUSTRALIA
The Advocate

An unnamed Tasmanian could help NSW police investigate allegations in a case of child sex offences.

Yesterday, a former Catholic Brother was arrested in relation to alleged assaults upon a number of children on school grounds at a Catholic college at Blacktown and a Catholic primary school at Lalor Park in the 1980s.

NSW police say the Tasmanian person could be integral to the case.

The 58-year-old Lithgow man was arrested in Penrith and charged with 20 offences: two counts of buggery, 13 counts of indecent assault on male, and five counts of indecent act with male, relating to offences against two boys aged between nine and 11.

Anyone with information about sexual abuse should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or use the Crime Stoppers website. Information is handled in confidence.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A former Catholic Brother has become the fourth person charged in relation to historical sexual offences against two children at a western Sydney school.

Strike Force Avia was established in October 2011 to investigate alleged assaults upon a number of children on school grounds at a Catholic college at Blacktown and a Catholic primary school at Lalor Park in the 1980s.

Three men – two teachers and a former Catholic Brother – have previously been arrested and charged by Strike Force Avia detectives.

Sex Crimes Squad detectives arrested a fourth man, a former Catholic Brother, at Penrith Railway Station about 11.30am (AEDT) on Wednesday and took him to Penrith Police Station.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A former Catholic brother will face court today accused of sexually abusing two boys at a western Sydney school in the 1980’s.

Police arrested the 58-year-old Lithgow man at Penrith railway station around midday yesterday and charged him with a total of 20 sex offences against two boys who were aged between nine and 11.

The charges include two counts of buggery, 13 counts of indecent assault and five counts of indecent acts.

The incidents are alleged to have occurred between January 1980 and May 1981 when the former brother worked at a Catholic College at Blacktown.

He is the fourth man to be charged by detectives investigating alleged assaults on a number a children at the college, as well as a Catholic primary school at Lalor Park in the 1980’s.

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

TOLEDO (OH)
Blade

BY KEITH C. BURRIS
COLUMNIST FOR THE BLADE

This week, I met a courageous woman. She lives in Chicago now, but she comes from Toledo: Barbara Blaine. She is founder and president of SNAP — Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

Back in 1985, as a victim of abuse, she chose to speak up. Her road was a lonely one. She was told two big lies: Your case is unique. And, we will do something about it. Ms. Blaine says those lies hurt as much as the sexual abuse.

She started SNAP as a support group. It grew to become a watchdog with chapters in every state and many other nations.
SNAP and the people involved with it love their church. They are not destroyers. They are injured believers. They believe the church cannot heal until it really changes how it deals with clergy child abuse.

Ms. Blaine maintains that this has not happened, that abuse still goes on, and that the institutional response is to cover up.

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

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: CHAO XIONG , Star Tribune Updated: December 18, 2013

No details of the discussion were disclosed, but more talks are set.

St. Paul police investigators and archdiocese representatives met Wednesday to discuss clergy sex abuse allegations after Chief Thomas Smith had criticized church leaders for not cooperating.

Investigators met with the Rev. Charles Lachowitzer, the vicar general of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, as well as an attorney. Smith’s department said before noon that it would release “basic details” of the meeting later.

But by 4 p.m., the only update provided by the police, via Twitter, was that “officials answered some questions and set plans for discussions in near future to answer others,” adding that further details “will not be public at this time.”

The archdiocese issued a brief statement: “We had a productive and amicable meeting today and concur with the St. Paul Police’s account of our meeting.”

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

MINNESOTA
KSTP

[with video]

By: Cassie Hart

St. Paul police met with the lawyers for the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, as well as two top clergy members to talk about the laundry list of misconduct allegations against priests.

Archbishop John Nienstedt was not there. He volunteered to temporarily step down, while police investigate the case against him.

A young man claims Nienstedt inappropriately touched him in a public setting, during a confirmation ceremony in 2009.

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

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN DECEMBER 19, 2013

ONE of Victoria’s most senior Jewish figures questioned over allegations of child sexual abuse has launched legal action against the head of a victims’ advocacy group.

In a writ lodged in the Victorian Supreme Court this week, Rabbi Abraham Glick accuses victims’ advocate Manny Waks of defaming him in a series of online articles and Facebook posts.

Rabbi Glick has alleged Mr Waks published articles that falsely implied he had perjured himself in court, was guilty of child sexual abuse and had admitted to abusing children.

Rabbi Glick, the former principal of prestigious Jewish school Yeshivah College, was stood down last week after allegations he raped a student in the school’s synagogue were levelled at him.

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

VATICAN CITY
Kansas City Star

December 19
The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican is outsourcing more of its financial reform to big-name consulting firms, tapping McKinsey & Co. and KMPG to advise it on modernizing its communications operations and bring its accounting up to international standards.

The decision was made Thursday by the commission of inquiry into the Vatican’s overall financial health created by Pope Francis as part of his reforms.

Already, regulatory compliance firm Promontory Financial Group has installed two dozen people at the troubled Vatican bank to review its accounts and make sure they conform to international norms to fight money-laundering and terror financing. Promontory is also advising the Vatican’s other main financial institution, APSA, which administers Vatican real estate.

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

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | Dec. 19, 2013 NCR Today

Rome

The press for Vatican reform in the Francis era continued to gather force today, as the Vatican announced it has awarded contracts to two major international consulting firms to ponder a reorganization of its communications operations, as well as to bring its accounting procedures in line with international standards.

Among other things, the moves confirm that the Vatican’s traditional reluctance to compromise its independence by allowing outsiders to examine its internal workings has given way under Francis to a new desire to tap secular expertise.

In both cases, the consultants have been selected by a papal commission to study the Vatican’s economic and administrative structures set up by Francis in July. That body is composed of eight members, all but one of whom are laity, and is led by Maltese economist and businessman Joseph F.X. Zahra.

The Vatican said the contracts were awarded after what it described as a “competitive bidding process,” but it did not specify how much is being paid for the firms’ services.

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

UNITED STATES
NPR

[with audio]

“Who am I to judge?” With those five words, Pope Francis “stepped away from the disapproving tone, the explicit moralizing typical of popes and bishops,” writes columnist James Carroll. Francis made that statement in July, in response to a reporter’s question about the status of gay priests in the Church. In a new article about Francis in The New Yorker, Carroll describes the pope as having “unilaterally declared a kind of truce in the culture wars that have divided the Vatican and much of the world.”

Carroll was a seminarian and a priest during another great period of change — Vatican II, which, under the leadership of Pope John XXIII, led to reforms that modernized the church. As a priest from 1969 to 1974, he served as Boston University’s Catholic chaplain. He left the priesthood in part over his disagreements with the leadership after the death of Pope John and the beginning of what Carroll describes as a counterrevolution. He’s now an author and a columnist for The Boston Globe. His New Yorker article is called “Who Am I to Judge? A Radical Pope’s First Year.”

“It’s not new for popes to be critical of the free market economy, and it’s not new for popes to be concerned about the plight of the poor,” Carroll tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “But with Pope Francis there’s a centrality, a passion and an urgent insistence that’s unique that we haven’t seen before.”

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

UNITED STATES
Arkansas Times

by Gene Lyons

Somewhere in the midst of an avalanche of sickening revelations about child sex abuse by Catholic clergy it occurred to me that if the Vatican sought an appropriate penance for its sins, it would go mute on issues of sexual morality for about 100 years.

Needless to say, that’s not about to happen.

Instead, habemus papam. (We have a pope.) Catholics have witnessed the unprecedented resignation of Pope Benedict, widely seen to have failed utterly to cope with the church’s grave crisis — perhaps even in his own estimation — and the remarkable accession of Pope Francis.

During the months since his selection, the 76-year-old Argentine has stirred an outsize response throughout the world — galvanizing not only the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, but members of other faiths and even the irreligious with a shrewd blend of public theater and spiritual humility.

Writing in the New Yorker, James Carroll reports that “even ‘kick the Pope’ Orangemen in Northern Ireland love Pope Francis. The press is obsessed with him. Time recently named him Person of the Year.”

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

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH DECEMBER 20, 2013

THE punishment for a Lismore paedophile priest as ordered by the Vatican was to live a life of prayer and penance and offer mass every Friday for his victims.

This was despite him admitting to his numerous “crimes”, the royal commission into institutionalised responses to child sex abuse has been told.

He remains a priest living in retirement in the Lismore presbytery and has not been stripped of his rank or had his “faculties removed”, as the Catholic Church describes being returned to the lay world.

The revelations came during damning evidence by the Bishop of Lismore, Geoffrey Jarrett, who said that he had not known for five years that the Vatican had required bishops to report all child sex abuse complaints to Rome. However, the commission heard that the first letter to the world’s bishops from the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith about the new edict in 2002 was written in Latin.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Wednesday 18 December 2013

A New South Wales bishop was unaware for five years of a directive from the pope to refer complaints of child sexual abuse containing “a semblance of truth” to Vatican investigators.

The royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Thursday heard investigators acting on orders from the pope decreed in 2002 that some complaints of sexual abuse had to be referred to Rome.

Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett of Lismore told the commission he was not aware of the decree, first issued in 2001, until 2006.

“Any awareness of that requirement, even though it existed in 2001 … really didn’t come to my attention until much later,” Jarrett said.

Since becoming aware of the directive, Jarrett has referred three priests to the Vatican. He said he has been waiting more than two years for a response from Rome on one complaint.

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

ILLINOIS
Comcast Sportsnet

A follow-up to an NBC5 Investigates report about a teacher accused of sexual abuse. Last month we told you about a suburban mom who accused a woman named Cherie Carlson of sexual abuse years ago. Carlson is now a middle school teacher in Buffalo Grove but used to work at a Chicago church and religious camp in Wisconsin. Now another woman tells NBC5 that she witnessed the alleged abuse.

“Were you surprised by the allegations against Cherie Carlson?” Rob Stafford asked.

“Not at all,” Monika Ebly said.

In the summer of 1996, Monika Ebly was 16 years old. She was a member of the North Side Gospel Center in Chicago who worked at the church camp in Wisconsin. She says one night inside this cabin she saw girls camp director Cherie Carlson fondling a girl we are calling Jane Doe.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

December 19, 2013

Adam Cooper

Victims of a man who sexually assaulted 11 boys more than three decades ago when he was a community leader are angry at what they consider a light jail term.

Barry Francis Watson, 73, will serve a minimum of 2 1/2 years in prison for abusing boys in his care as young as seven when he was a leader in the Anglican Church’s youth group, CEBS, between 1969 and 1979.

Watson was found guilty in October of 12 charges of indecent assault on a boy aged under 16. He then pleaded guilty to another six charges.

On Thursday County Court Judge Rachelle Lewitan imposed a maximum jail term of four years but the sentence has upset some of Watson’s victims.

One called out to Watson as he was led from the dock, and outside court, he and others spoke of their disappointment to prosecutors.

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

TENNESSEE
WREG

[with video]

December 18, 2013, by George Brown

(Memphis) A COGIC pastor was arrested for sexual battery by an authority figure.

Michael Bryant, 48, is accused of molesting a 16-year-old family member for years.

Investigators said for the last two years, Bryant would sneak into her bedroom when her mother was asleep or at work, expose himself and fondle her.

He’s been the pastor at Hour of Restoration COGIC in Hickory Hill for the past three years. He was also an elder at Greater Community Temple COGIC.

“Knowing him, I wouldn’t believe it,” said Leonard Gray.

Gray says he never saw any signs. He looked up to Bryant at his church.

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

AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Catholic Bishop of Lismore admits during Royal Commission into child sex abuse he failed to report cases to the Vatican

BY THOMAS ORITI
December 19, 2013

A Catholic Bishop in northern New South Wales has admitted to a child abuse inquiry he did not abide by an instruction from the Pope for five years.

The Bishop of the Diocese of Lismore, Geoffrey Jarrett, has been recalled to give evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney.

In 2001, the Pope ordered Bishops around the world to report any allegations of child sexual abuse to the Vatican if there was a “semblance of truth” in the case.

Reverend Jarrett became a Bishop in the same year.

A complaint was made against Lismore priest Father Paul Rex Brown in 2002, but it was not referred to the Vatican at the time.

Reverend Jarrett has conceded he was not aware of the Pope’s requirement until 2006, saying some directives “may not be remembered or acted upon”.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

December 19, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

A Lismore Catholic priest who sexually abused children was ordered by the Vatican to “live a life of prayer and penance” and offer a Mass every Friday for his victims, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been told.

But the “overwhelming majority” of clerical sex abuse cases are not reported to Rome because the Vatican wants to know only about incidents which occurred within the past 10 years, the Commission heard. The Bishop of Lismore, Geoffrey Jarrett, did not pass on any complaints for five years, probably because a directive from the Pope to do so was filed in a drawer and forgotten, he told the Commission.

In a day of astonishing revelations about the Australian Catholic church’s lackadaisical attitude to child sex abuse allegations, Bishop Jarrett admitted he did not pass on a 2002 complaint in which a woman alleged she “walked in on Father [Paul Rex] Brown in the act of sexually abusing a child in the sacristy of the cathedral” in 1959. That alleged incident preceded Father Brown’s abuse of Mrs Jennifer Ingham in the late 1970s by two decades.

When Bishop Jarrett eventually reported the separate case of a Lismore priest accused of “numerous” incidents of child sex abuse, with reparations of $50,000 already paid, the Vatican took two years to issue the punishment of offering Mass on Fridays. That priest is retired and lives in the presbytery with other priests in Lismore, Bishop Jarrett said. The Bishop has opted not to let him keep his priestly faculties, but said he would have written to the priest in 2004 to tell him he was not allowed to have contact with children. “I can’t recall whether I have written to remind him of it ever since,’’ Bishop Jarrett said.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Stephen Crittenden
theguardian.com, Thursday 19 December 2013

The Vatican’s representative in Australia is claiming diplomatic immunity in response to repeated requests for documents that might assist the NSW inquiry into child sex abuse.

Copies of correspondence released by the commission this week reveal the diplomatic stand-off between the papal nuncio, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, and the chair of the special commission of inquiry, Margaret Cunneen SC.

The Cunneen inquiry was established last November to investigate sexual abuse by two priests of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, Father Denis McAlinden and Father James Fletcher (both deceased), following allegations made by a NSW police whistleblower, chief inspector Peter Fox.

The NSW crown solicitor’s office made the request on Cunneen’s behalf on 30 August and again on 22 October, asking for copies of any relevant documents held in the archives of the Apostolic Nunciature in Canberra or the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in Rome.

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

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

By Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio
Dec. 19, 2013

When beloved priest Harry Walsh retired two years ago, parishioners of St. Henry’s Catholic Church in Monticello, Minn., decorated a VFW hall with paper shamrocks and musical notes to say goodbye.

They sang, gave speeches and cried. Walsh, then 77, had served as the parish’s music minister for nearly a decade.

Harry Walsh, former pastor of St. Henry Catholic Church, during festivities in his honor Nov. 12, 2011 at the Monticello VFW Post.

“You developed close personal relationships with everybody and that gave us all the ability to trust you with all of our personal lives,” one person wrote on a tribute website for the Irish-born priest. “You have blessed this community immeasurably.”

But Walsh had a secret. He’d been accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl and 12-year-old altar boy decades earlier, according to church documents obtained by MPR News, and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis contributed to a financial settlement for the girl.

Nonetheless, archbishops Harry Flynn and John Nienstedt allowed him to continue working in parishes until the fall of 2011. And neither bishop called police or warned the public.

More recently Walsh wasn’t included on a list of 30 “credibly accused” priests released Dec. 5 by the archdiocese. Nienstedt said the disclosure of those names was important to restoring trust and could help protect children from harm.

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

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Mara H. Gottfried
mgottfried@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 12/18/2013

St. Paul police met with the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis vicar general Wednesday, the day after the police chief said the archdiocese has not cooperated with investigations into alleged clerical sex abuse.

“At today’s meeting, officials answered some questions and set plans for discussions in near future to answer others,” St. Paul police said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

The meeting was with Vicar General the Rev. Charles Lachowitzer and an archdiocese attorney, according to police, who also said additional details wouldn’t be public at this time. Archdiocese spokesman James Accurso said church officials had no immediate comment about the meeting.

Police Chief Thomas Smith expressed frustration Tuesday that investigators’ request to speak with clergy staff had been refused, and that the archdiocese planned to make only an attorney available to police. After Smith’s public comments, the archdiocese issued a statement saying that Lachowitzer would accompany an attorney to the meeting.

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

AUSTRALIA
Telegraph

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH DECEMBER 19, 2013

THE punishment for a Lismore paedophile priest as ordered by the Vatican was to live a life of prayer and penance and offer mass every Friday for the intention of his victims.

This was despite him admitting to his numerous “crimes”, the royal commission into institutionalised responses to child sex abuse has been told.

The priest involved remains a priest although he is in retirement and $50,000 was paid to a victim by the church.

His identity remains a secret although he was reported to Grafton Police, to the NSW Ombudsman and to the Commissioner for Children and Young People and has been banned from unsupervised contact with children.

The Bishop of Lismore, Geoffrey Jarrett, has been recalled to the commission to be quizzed about how many priests he has referred to the Vatican under its 2001 edict that cases of clerical child sex abuse must be referred to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

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

MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

Esme Murphy

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – St. Paul police met with a top official from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Wednesday as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

The meeting comes a day after an explosive allegation against Archbishop John Nienstedt, who’s since agreed to step aside until the investigation is complete.

The meeting was also a response to a public claim by St. Paul police that the archdiocese is not cooperating with abuse investigations.

In a brief statement on Twitter, St. Paul police said Wednesday afternoon that officials of the archdiocese answered some police questions and agreed to meet again to answer other questions.

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

UNITED STATES
The New York Times

“A Pope’s New Path on Child Abuse” (editorial, Dec. 7) rightly commends Pope Francis for establishing a commission to deal with the sexual abuse of minors. Such abuse is a sin and a crime, one especially heinous when perpetrated by a representative of the Catholic Church.

But contrary to a suggestion in the editorial, the church has been responding vigorously to this crisis for years. In 2002, the American bishops established the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.” It draws respect worldwide, as the church in other countries and organizations here address a problem that crosses every level of society and that occurs in families, schools and youth programs.

Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI instituted concrete steps, including declaring the possession of child pornography as possible grounds for exclusion from the clerical state.

Over the last decade, instances of sexual abuse have plummeted, as we instituted a zero-tolerance policy on sexual abuse of minors, background checks, education in how to maintain a safe environment, and removal of credibly accused clerics. …

(Bishop) R. DANIEL CONLON
Joliet, Ill., Dec. 11, 2013

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

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — News headlines in 2013 about turmoil at the Vatican bank and an arrested monsignor who served as a Vatican accountant seem to be modern-day illustrations of a famous line from the First Letter of Timothy in the New Testament: “For the love of money is the root of all evils, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains.”

But from his office near the Vatican gas station, a young Swiss lawyer is working to prevent the greedy or corrupt from misusing the Vatican’s financial structures, which serve its own operations and those of dioceses, schools, hospitals and charitable activities around the world.

Rene Brulhart, 41, is director of the Vatican’s Financial Intelligence Authority, charged with establishing procedures and checks to ensure Vatican institutions cannot be used for money laundering or the financing of terrorism. He also investigates suspicious transactions and works internationally with other government financial-intelligence units to fight financial crime.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The IOR is closing down all accounts belonging to account holders who do not fit one of five categories of people and institutions which the Vatican bank is allowed to have as clients

VATICAN INSIDER STAFF
ROME

The Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) is continuing the process of closing down the accounts of lay account holders, who do not fit into any of the five categories of clients the Vatican bank is legally allowed to have. The process, which began last July, is proceeding as scheduled and has not yet concluded. This is partly because not all of the letters sent to clients who are no longer allowed to have any relationship with the IOR (over a thousand of them) specify the same deadline for the closure of each respective bank account, ANSA reports.

“In July 2013, the IOR updated its policy in relation to the categories of clients which the Vatican bank can offer its services to. These categories are: Catholic institutions, clergy, employees or former employees of the Vatican with salary and pension accounts, embassies and diplomats accredited to the Holy See,” an IOR spokesman told ANSA. This was a joint decision of the IOR’s supervisory board and the Commission of Cardinals and was published on the IOR website on 31 July. “Relations with clients that do not fit one of these categories, will cease,” the IOR informed.

The account closing down process “must not be confused with the interruption or suspension of relations with clients suspected of violating the anti-money laundering laws in place. This responsibility lies with the Vatican authorities that have been tasked with enforcing the law and supervision.”

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

UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Time’s Person of the Year Pope Francis. John C. Nienstedt suggests St. Josephine and Eucharist to solve clergy abuse. Baloney, David Quinn! (Again)

Pope Francis the miser of dark secrets vs. Edward Snowden the herald of truths

Francis lives in the Vatican Palace surrounded by PR media stunts army vs. Snowden living in asylum at the kindness of an atheist country Russia

The sharp contrast between Time’s Person of the Year, Pope Francis, and its runner-up, Edward Snowden, are morally apart: Pope Francis perpetuates Vatican secrecy and its cover-up of thousands of bestial pedophile priests in all Catholic churches worldwide…while Edward Snowden reveals the NSA’s Top Secret files about all Americans and all peoples and all nations worldwide.

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

UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on December 18, 2013

I try to steer clear of commenting on the actions of William Donohue, the president of the Catholic League. I would tell you why, but that’s another post in itself.

Bill, you screwed up.

But I can’t stay silent on this: Today, Donohue issued a press release called St. Paul & Minneapolis Archbishop Nienstedt Deserves Justice. I have no disagreement with the title: everyone deserves justice. But the press release goes on to call for vigilante justice against a boy who disclosed alleged abuse to an employee of the largest Minnesota Archdiocese. And that’s a HUGE problem.

He says in the release:

The Catholic League is asking those who were there to share with us any information they have. Specifically, we are interested in obtaining a tape recording, or set of photos, of any Confirmation ceremony in 2009 where Archbishop Nienstedt was present; presumably, the alleged victim was standing next to the archbishop. Also, we are asking anyone who knows anything about the accuser (someone knows who he is) to come forward.

Let’s talk about the problems with his argument.

There is the obvious: he is trying to bully an alleged sex abuse survivor. Not only that, but he is drawing a line in the sand, saying that he is going to go after anyone PERSONALLY who comes forward to disclose abuse. I don’t have words to describe my rage and disgust at his actions.

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

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

If the child abuse scandal is Pope Francis’ Achilles Heel, then Archbishop Niensted’s Minneapolis/St. Paul Archdiocese is the pressure point. Nine months have passed since Francis became Pope. He has not yet directly and convincingly either condemned this abuse and the clerics who enable it or offered a proposed solution to curtailing it.

Moreover, has Pope Francis ever really publicly criticized any bishop over child abuse, in Rome or when he was in Argentina? Indeed, as recently reported, the first compensation payments to Argentine priest abuse survivors were just made recently to victims of a priest convicted almost a decade ago, while Francis was the senior local Church leader, see:

[GobalPost]

Even Francis’ recent appointment as a US bishop of a cleric, who reportedly admitted under oath to destroying approximately 50 suspected abuser priests’ files, suggests that Francis may underestimate the seriousness of the abuse crisis.

[SNAP]

The rapidity with which Archbishop Nienstedt stepped aside after a single allegation of improper touching is surprising.

See:

[Minnesota Public Radio]

This is especially surprising, since Kansas City’s Bishop Finn has continued to serve as bishop even after a criminal conviction relating to his failure to report timely a priest child pornographer.

Of course, Archbishop Nienstedt has also been a key leader of the anti-gay marriage crusade. As the US bishops gear up again to make this a key political “wedge issue” in their new efforts to help conservatives try to gain control of the US Senate in 10 months (and thereby help maintain a conservative US Supreme Court majority), Archbishop Nienstedt’s absence may be desirable for the hierarchy’s political purposes as well.

Archbishop Nienstedt’s sudden withdrawal surely suggests that more troubling revelations about other Minneapolis scandals could soon be coming. Depending on the police investigation results, this could possibly even include the establishment of a grand jury and even potential indictments.

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

MINNESOTA
KSTP

St. Paul police say some questions have been answered and they set plans for more discussions during a meeting with the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Wednesday.

The meeting comes after St. Paul Police Chief Tom Smith said Tuesday archdiocesan officials have not been very cooperative on priest sex abuse cases. He urged the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to be more forthcoming with information on previous allegations of sex abuse.

Two clergy and attorneys were in attendance for the archdiocese at Wednesday’s meeting. No details will be made public, according to a Tweet from St. Paul police.

In a news conference Tuesday Smith, “I want to let the public know one thing: let me be very clear on this. We have through written and verbal requests made clear our desire to speak to individuals connected to the archdiocese and we have been told no.”

Smith says police have not had the access to interview clergy members in recent investigations into the previous allegations. As late as last week, Smith said they were told no.

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

WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

The Green Bay-area priest tapped Tuesday by Pope Francis to lead the Diocese of Marquette, Mich., testified in a 2011 deposition that he destroyed documents relating to priests accused of sexual abuse.

Father John Doefler, 49, an Appleton native and vicar general of the Diocese of Green Bay, will be installed as the bishop of Marquette early next year. In announcing his appointment Tuesday, Green Bay Bishop David Ricken said, “I could not be more delighted.” Ricken said Doerfler “has excelled in his service to this dioceses…and has been a trusted adviser on moral and canonical issues.”

But the advocacy group, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, blasted Doerfler’s selection, saying he destroyed what may have been criminal evidence, including psychological reports of priests accused of sexually assaulting minors.

“We find this decision really perplexing,” said SNAP Midwest Director Peter Isely of Milwaukee. “Doerfler destroyed virtually all of the abuse records in Green Bay.”

Doerfler, who is a part-time lecturer in moral theology at Sacred Heart School of Theology in Franklin, testified in a lawsuit involving convicted pedophile John Patrick Feeney that he destroyed the records as part of a record retention policy put in place by then-Bishop David Zubik. He said psychological reports, except those involving current claims, were destroyed to comply with federal privacy laws.

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