ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Catholic World Report

May 11, 2013

Washington D.C., May 11, 2013 / 01:04 pm (CNA).- The latest report on child protection in the U.S. Catholic Church found a total of 11 credible allegations of abuse of minors by diocesan clergy in 2012, with a 20 percent decrease in the numbers of new credible abuse allegations about incidents in the past 60 years.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, the U.S. bishops’ conference president, said in reaction to the report that Catholic bishops renew their “steadfast resolution” not to lessen their commitment to protect children and young people.

“We seek with equal determination to promote healing and reconciliation for those harmed in the past, and to assure that our audits continue to be credible and maintain accountability in our shared promise to protect and our pledge to heal,” Cardinal Dolan said May 10, the U.S. bishops’ conference reports.

The 2012 report on the implementation of the U.S. bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People was authored for the National Review Board and for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops by the bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection.

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VATICAN CITY
Miami Herald

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
VATICAN CITY — A prominent American priest of the Legion of Christ religious order has decided to leave the priesthood after admitting he fathered a child years ago.

The Legion said Saturday the Rev. Thomas Williams, a moral theologian, author, lecturer and television personality, had asked Pope Francis to be relieved of his celibacy and other priestly obligations. A friend, the Rev. John Connor, wrote in a Legion blog that Williams wanted to care for his son and the mother.

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MISSOURI
Columbia Daily Tribune

By BRENNAN DAVID
Saturday, May 11, 2013

The Archdiocese of Newark has paid $650,000 to settle molestation claims brought by five men against a former priest who also served in Boonville.

Gerald Howard, who was known as Carmine Sita while a priest in New Jersey in the late 1970s and early ’80s, was accused in a lawsuit of molesting the young men in the rectory of a Jersey City Catholic church, said Greg Gianforcaro, the victims’ attorney. The settlement was reached in mediation with the archdiocese.

“The abuse was bad,” Gianforcaro said. “These guys were sexually abused, and it was terrible.”

In 1982, Howard pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a boy in New Jersey, Gianforcaro said. That victim was not one of the five listed in the lawsuit, and he has since died of a drug overdose, he said.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

EILISH O’REGAN HEALTH CORRESPONDENT – 11 MAY 2013

CHILDREN have been left at serious risk of harm due to failures by social services in the south-east to properly investigate possible cases of abuse and neglect.

A damning inspectors’ report into HSE child-protection services in Carlow and Kilkenny uncovered a catalogue of poor practices that put children in danger.

While overall the services provided to children were safe, around 40pc of the staff were not vetted by gardai, the report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) revealed.

The findings showed:

• Gardai were not always notified of suspected physical, sexual abuse or neglect of a child. Some “informal” contacts with gardai about suspicions were made but they were not always recorded.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Fiona Gartland

The adversarial nature of the criminal justice process is unsuited to dealing with sensitive issues like child sexual abuse, a conference on childcare was told today.

In a paper presented at the Voice of the Child conference in Dublin, consultant psychologist Dr Rosaleen McElvaney said responses to children who report sexual abuse need to take account of sexual abuse as a crime but they also need to take a broader perspective than a forensic one.

They should take account of children’s needs for therapeutic intervention and protection when required, she said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Church Times

by Madeleine Davies
Posted: 10 May 2013

A FORMER Archbishop of York, Lord Hope of Thornes, failed to report allegations of child abuse to the police or independent child protection agencies, an investigation has suggested.

A joint investigation by The Times and The Australian newspaper in Sydney reports that Lord Hope was told of accusations against the Very Revd Robert Waddington (right), a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral, in 1999 and in 2003. He removed the Dean’s permission to officiate in 2005 but did not report the allegations to the police or child protection authorities. Dean Waddington, who was Dean of Manchester from 1984 to his retirement in 1993, died in 2007.

Allegations of abuse were first made in England in 2003 by the family of a former chorister at Manchester Cathedral, Eli Ward. The Right Revd Nigel McCulloch, who was Bishop of Manchester from 2002 until his retirement this year, was made aware of the allegations by the diocesan child protection adviser, but a diocesan child protection report claimed that “little could be done” unless the victim himself came forward.

On Friday, Bishop McCulloch said he had been “shocked and saddened” to learn of the allegations. He had asked his chaplain to contact the child protection officer for the diocese “in order that the correct procedures following such allegations could be properly followed”.

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SCHWEIZ
Gayosterreich

Schweiz: Priester ihrer Ämter enthoben – Nach kreuz.net geht’s nun gloria.tv an den Kragen

Chur/Vaduz: Zwei der Betreiber der NS-freundlichen und homophoben Webseite ‘gloria.tv’, die katholischen Priester Reto Nay und Markus Doppelbauer, wurden von ihren Erzbischöfen ihrer kirchlichen Ämter enthoben. Auslöser der ‘Hetzjagd’ sollen laut Nay zwei homosexuelle Aktivisten aus Deutschland, ein Ex-Katholik und ein Priester, sein.

“Amtsenthebung: Der Bischof von Chur, Msgr. Vitus Huonder, hat mit Datum vom 15. März 2013 den Pfarradministrator von Tujetsch (Sedrun), sur Dr. Reto Nay, des Amtes enthoben.
Chur, 15. März 2013
Bischöfliche Kanzlei Chur”

Diese Meldung auf der Webseite des Bistums Chur sorgt für Aufregung, ist doch Reto Nay – gemeinsam mit Markus Doppelbauer, einem Diözesanpriester aus Vaduz, und der Theologin Eva Doppelbauer aus St. Pölten – einer der Betreiber der Webseite ‘gloria.tv’. Ähnlich wie die homophobe Hassseite ‘kreuz.net’ versteht sich das Portal als ‘private Initiative, die nicht direkt mit der kirchlichen Hierarchie verbunden ist’ und die ‘Wahrung, Förderung und Ausbreitung der katholischen Kirche und des katholischen Glaubens’ zum Ziel hat. Darunter verstanden die Betreiber offenbar auch Hetze gegen Homosexuelle – derzeit vor allem auf der englischsprachigen Version der Webseite, weil bekanntlich die konservative Regierung dort die Ehe auch für gleichgeschlechtliche Paare öffnen will (wir berichteten mehrmals) – oder die Verharmlosung des Nationalsozialismuses.

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SCHWEIZ
Kirchenblatt

10. Mai 2013 – Unzufrieden mit der Antwort der Kirchen auf den Missbrauch von “Verding- und Heimkindern” ist der Verein “Netzwerk Verdingt”. Vereinspräsident Walter Zwahlen (Bild) wirft den Kirchen wie auch anderen Akteuren vor, sie hätten sich nicht entschuldigt. Der Verein will zudem Schadenersatz für die Betroffenen. Wolfgang Bürgstein, der im Namen der Bischöfe am “runden Tisch” mit dem Verein sitzt, weist die in den Medien gegen die katholische Kirche erhobenen Vorwürfe zurück.

Es stimme ganz einfach nicht, dass sich nur Bundesrätin Simonetta Sommaruga am “Gedenkanlass für Opfer von fürsorgerischen Zwangsmassnahmen” Mitte April in Bern entschuldigt habe, erklärte Bürgstein, Generalsekretär der Nationalkommission Justitia et Pax, gegenüber Kipa. Der Präsident der Schweizer Bischofskonferenz (SBK), Markus Büchel, habe bei dem Anlass klar betont, dass die “begangenen Ungerechtigkeiten und Vergehen, ja sogar Verbrechen” schwer auf den Kirchen lasten. Im Namen der drei Landeskirchen bat er die Betroffenen um Vergebung. Den Menschen, die ihre seelischen und körperlichen Wunden bis heute schmerzlich empfinden, gelte der “Respekt und unsere mitfühlende Solidarität”. Die Kirchen würden aus den Fehlern der Vergangenheit lernen.

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OSTERREICH
Die Presse

MANFRED SEEH (Die Presse)
Ein ehemaliger Schüler des Stiftsgymnasiums Kremsmünster zieht gegen das Stift und einen Ex-Internatsleiter vor ein Zivilgericht. Als Beweismittel dient auch ein „Presse“-Interview.

Kremsmünster/Steyr. „Der Kläger wurde als Schüler des Konviktsgymnasiums und des angeschlossenen Internats in Kremsmünster jahrelang systematisch und wiederholt körperlich misshandelt und seelisch gequält.“ So beginnt eine Zivilklage, die nun das Landesgericht Steyr, Oberösterreich, abzuhandeln hat. Der Kläger tritt unter dem Pseudonym Roland H. auf. Er ist 45 Jahre alt. Und sieht sich als Opfer eines – wie er der „Presse“ sagt – „menschenverachtenden“ Systems. Des „Systems Kremsmünster“.

Wie kam es zur Klage? Schließlich hat das Stift vor dem Hintergrund diverser, großteils Jahrzehnte zurückliegender Missbrauchs- und Misshandlungsfälle Aufarbeitung betrieben. Es hat vor allem mit der von der Kirche eingesetzten Klasnic-Kommission kooperiert. Nach Angaben des Abtes Ambros Ebhart wurden 38 Fälle gemeldet, davon 29 wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Schülern. Mehr als 700.000 Euro seien von der Klasnic-Kommission allein an Opfer aus Kremsmünster ausbezahlt worden.

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BELGIEN
Katholisches

[Summary: (Brussels) The Belgian church is facing financial collapse. The annual accounts of the dioceses have large losses in a country that was particularly affected by the pedophile abuse scandal]

(Brüssel) Die belgische Kirche steht vor dem finanziellen Zusammenbruch. Die Jahresbilanzen der Diözesen weisen große Verluste auf in einem Land, das besonders vom pädophilen Mißbrauchsskandal betroffen war. Die Kirche des ethnisch zwischen Flamen und Wallonen geteilten Landes, das bis vor einem halben Jahrhundert eine blühende katholische Landschaft war, durchlebt eine schwere Krise. Die Priesterseminare sind weitgehend leer, die Zahl praktizierender Katholiken ist auf einen treuen Kern zusammengeschrumpft. Die Bischöfe genießen nur mehr einen Hauch des Ansehens und des Gewichts im öffentlichen Leben, die sie einmal hatten. Progressive Bischöfe wie Leo Kardinal Suenens, Erzbischof von Mecheln-Brüssel und die von ihm zu Bischöfen beförderten Gleichgesinnten brachten die Säkularisierung des Landes und die Entfremdung der Gläubigen von der Kirche voran.

Auf Kardinal Suenens liberale Kirche folgt entchristlichte Gesellschaft

Seit dem Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil, bei dem Kardinal Suenens als Teil der Rheinischen Allianz zu den großen „Machern“ gehörte, propagierten in Belgien selbst führende Kirchenvertreter wie der dominikanische Theologe Edward Schillebeeckx eine „in der Moderne aufgehende“ Kirche. Pädophile Kinderschänder, wie der frühere Bischof Roger Joseph Vangheluwe von Brügge, der noch nach seiner Bischofsweihe Neffen schändete, erledigten den Rest. Symptomatischen Höhepunkt fand die Entwicklung im Juni 2010 mit einer skandalösen Schändung des Grabes von Kardinal Suenens in der St. Rumold-Kathedrale von Mecheln als übler Dan-Brown-Kopie durch eine Sondereinheit der belgischen Polizei auf der Suche nach belastendem Material im Zusammenhang mit dem Pädophilieskandal. Gefunden wurde nichts. Was die zuständige belgische Gerichtsbarkeit nicht daran hinderte, die Schändung der Totenruhe nachträglich für rechtens zu erklären.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

Die Diözese Regensburg ist meilenweit von einer transparenten Aufklärung sexueller Missbrauchsfälle entfernt. Beispielhaft zeigt das die über 50 Jahre andauernde Vertuschungsgeschichte des ehemaligen Domspatzen-Direktors Georg Friedrich Zimmermann.

Mitte April 2013 hat sich der neue Regensburger Bischof Rudolf Voderholzer erstmals zu den Missbrauchsfällen in katholischen Einrichtungen seiner Diözese geäußert. Auf die Frage, ob er nach der Durchsicht der entsprechenden Akten weiteren Handlungsbedarf sehe, antwortete er gefällig, aber unkonkret. Es beschäme ihn, mache ihn betroffen, „was alles ans Tageslicht gekommen ist.“ Alles müsse aufgeklärt werden.

Doch wer ist Adressat dieses Appells? Sein eigenes Ordinariat, das sich bislang weniger an der Aufklärung denn an der Verschleierung der Zusammenhänge beteiligte? Sein Vorgänger Gerhard Ludwig Müller, der zwischenzeitlich zum Präfekten der Glaubenskongregation aufgestiegen ist und daher seine eigene Unzulänglichkeit als vormaliger Regensburger Bischof aufklären müsste? Oder die Zunft der Journalisten, die Bischof Müller 2010 pauschal in die Nazi-Ecke neben Joseph Goebbels rücken wollte?

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DEUTSCHLAND
Lauterbacher Anzeiger

Briefwechsel zu Missbrauchsfällen und Rolle der Kirche – Gespräch in Mainz ohne Pfarrer lehnt Rathauschef ab

(cke). Die Einstellung der Missbrauchsstudie durch die Katholische Kirche und die noch immer ausstehende Entschuldigung von Kirchenverantwortlichen aus dem Bistum Mainz gegenüber den Opfern, die vom ehemaligen Grebenhainer Pfarrer Wolfgang Grabosch sexuell missbraucht worden waren, hatten Grebenhains Bürgermeister Manfred Dickert im Februar veranlasst, einen Brief an den Mainzer Bischof, Kardinal Karl Lehmann, zu schreiben. Der Rathauschef, in dessen Gemeinde sich ein Teil der widerwärtigen Taten ereignet hatten, hatte in seinem Schreiben eine klare Entschuldigung der Kirche und einen ehrlichen Umgang mit den Missbrauchsfällen gefordert (der LA berichtete).

Im März bekam Dickert Antwort aus Mainz. Nicht von Kardinal Lehmann selber, sondern vom Justiziar des Bistums, Professor Michael Ling. Insgesamt enttäuscht war der Rathauschef von dessen für ihn unbefriedigenden Stellungnahme. Dennoch war er bereit, das von Ling in dem Brief gemachte Gesprächsangebot anzunehmen. Das teilte Dickert dem Justiziar in einem weiteren Schreiben im April mit, verbunden mit der Bitte, dass auch der Grebenhainer Pfarrer Helmut Grittner und ein Vertreter des LA an der Unterredung in Mainz teilnehmen sollten. Das wiederum lehnte Ling ab und teilte das Manfred Dickert in der vergangenen Woche erneut schriftlich mit.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
Rapid City Journal

[the report]

Mary Garrigan Journal

Of the 471 allegations of sexual abuse that were made against Catholic clergy in 2012, one originated in the Diocese of Rapid City, according to a diocesan spokesman.

The annual compliance audit report by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop was released this week, and it found the fewest allegations of clergy sexual abuse reported since the USCCB began doing the audits in 2004.

Like the majority of the 2012 allegations, the Rapid City case dates from decades ago, and the priest involved is deceased. No details were provided about the local priest or church in the report.

Nationwide, the majority of the 2012 cases date from the 1970s, but the Rapid City allegation was from the 1950s. Eleven of last year’s allegations against diocesan priests involved children who were under the age of 18 in 2012.

There were 397 allegations made against 313 diocesan priests and deacons in 2012 and another 74 against religious order priests who are not employed by a diocese. Of the diocesan allegations, about 84 percent of the victims were male. Half were between 10 and 14 when the abuse began. An estimated 17 percent were between 15 and 17, and 19 percent were under age 10.

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Ashley Luthern of the Journal Sentinel May 10, 2013

Wauwatosa police have completed a second investigation into a local priest and decided not to pursue charges after a forensic interview was performed with a child.

The mother of the child contacted police when her daughter told her that Father Robert Marsicek kissed the child’s lips and rubbed her back and buttocks, according to a police report obtained Thursday by the Journal Sentinel.

Marsicek has already been removed from his posts at two parishes and two schools after he was accused of inappropriate contact with children.

According to police, the girl’s statement changed during a forensic interview, and the interviewer thought the girl had been coached or overly questioned by her mother about her interactions with the priest.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish News

A CATHOLIC priest who admitted embezzling £145,000 of parish funds to give to a woman apologised for his actions yesterday as he avoided going to prison.

However, as Fr Conleth Byrne – who was given a two-year suspended sentence – left Downpatrick Crown Court he still gave no explanation for stealing the money from his former Co Down parish.

Judge David Smyth said while Byrne maintained he took the money for charitable purposes “given the size of these I have approached this with some scepticism”.

Byrne pleaded guilty last month to defrauding Loughinisland parish over a 19-month period between 2008 and 2009.

The court had heard that Byrne, who was parish priest at the time, gave the money to Marie Hanna who came to the village’s parochial house claiming to be in “dire need” of financial help after being released from prison.

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • May 11, 2013

I have several links that Catholic readers have sent me in recent days. I’m going to be traveling on Saturday, and won’t be able to post. Maybe this’ll hold you. Here we go…

1. Phil Lawler wants to know why Msgr. Stephen Rossetti, despite a catastrophic record of failure in advising Catholic bishops on how to handle pederast priests, remains one of the bishops’ top advisers on the issue. Excerpt:

“Just as the banishment of lepers was fueled by medieval myths, the hysteria surrounding child sexual abusers is exacerbated by myths about those who suffer from sexual deviancies. Child molesters incarnate our deepest childhood fears… Our myths about child molesters come more from the projections of what lies within our own inner psyches than from the truth about who these men are.”

Does that quotation suggest that the author is motivated primarily by a desire to protect children from sexual abuse? Would it surprise you to learn that the author was–and to this day remains–one of the most influential voices advising Catholic Church leaders on the handling of sex-abuse cases?

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

Reviewed by: Michael Dudley

WHEN the First National Conference on Residential Schools convened in 1991 in Vancouver, the opening address was delivered by the Chief of Xat’Sull (Soda Creek) First Nation, Bev Sellars. She described how she and the other children at the residential school at Williams Lake, B.C. were treated “like dirt” by the white priests and nuns, ridiculed, and programmed “like robots” to believe that they belonged “to a weak, defective race.”

For Sellars, this wasn’t an education; it was instead, “training for self-destruction.”

A lawyer who at one time worked with the B.C. Treaty Commission, Sellars here recounts in this frank, angry and defiant memoir the full story of her own dehumanizing programming at the school in the 1960s, and how she narrowly avoided self-destruction herself.

While the tragic history of Canada’s arrogantly racist experiment in cultural genocide has been documented in such major works as J.R. Miller’s Shingwauk’s Vision (1996) and A National Crime by John Milloy (1999), Sellars’ book joins a smaller but growing body of residential school autobiographies such as Basil Johnston’s Indian School Days (1988) and Theodore Fontaine’s Broken Circle (2011).

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AMANDA GEARING AND MICHAEL MCKENNA From: The Australian May 11, 2013

FORMER Anglican church officials have admitted they believed a former school headmaster had abused children at a north Queensland boarding school, despite telling a victim during mediation over a compensation payout that his allegations were not proven.

For more than six years, Anglican officials dismissed the allegations of Queensland pensioner Bim Atkinson that he had been sexually abused between 1964 and 1968 by the Reverend Robert Waddington, the former headmaster of St Baranabas boarding school in Ravenshoe, on the Atherton Tablelands.

In documents and letters obtained by The Weekend Australian, senior church officials in England and Australia told Mr Atkinson, now 59, that Waddington had denied the allegations and his claims were “not proven”, despite an internal investigation.

Mr Atkinson made his first complaint in 1999 — when Waddington was living in retirement in York — but dropped the case after being told the former school principal was near death after surgery for throat cancer. Waddington did not die until 2007.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MICHAEL MCKENNA AND AMANDA GEARING From: The Australian May 11, 2013

A CLERGYMAN who allegedly raped boys at a north Queensland boarding school in the 1960s has claimed he was ordered to take female hormones by his headmaster, who encouraged the “romantic love” of children among staff.

Former Anglican brother Peter Gilbert – sentenced to seven years’ jail in 2006 for the rape and indecent assault of children in the 1980s in South Australia – has blamed St Barnabas headmaster the late Robert Waddington for turning him into a pedophile.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

[with video]

An alleged abuse victim of the former Dean of Manchester Cathedral says he wants an apology from the Church of England over an alleged ‘cover-up’.

Eli Ward told ITV News he was “groomed” by the Very Rev Robert Waddington, who died in 2007.

The former Archbishop of York, Lord Hope of Thornes, has denied covering up allegations that Waddington sexually abused choirboys.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill Crime Editor
Published at 12:01AM, May 11 2013

A senior Anglican clergyman suspected of serial child abuse was “very calculating”, a former Church of England child protection officer said yesterday.

The Rev Ray Morris said he interviewed the Very Rev Robert Waddington, former Dean of Manchester Cathedral and once the head of education for the Church, in 2004 about allegations that he abused schoolboys when a headmaster in Australia. This means the Church investigated Waddington, who died at 79 in 2007, three times without referring him to the police.

Lord Hope of Thornes, who was Archbishop of York from 1995 to 2005, examined allegations against him in 1999 …

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

Statement from Lord Hope issued through Bradford Diocese where he is assistant bishop:

Throughout my time as bishop and archbishop I always adhered to the statutory practices of the Church of England concerning safeguarding.

I strenuously deny (and am obviously disappointed at) the suggestion that myself or my team at the time would have acted negligently in this or any other safeguarding matter.

Under the Church of England’s 1999 Policy on Child Protection which was in effect at the time (but which has subsequently been reviewed) Paragraph 31 states:

There is no automatic legal obligation on the Church to refer allegations by adults to the police or social services. However it is essential to consider whether children may still be at risk from the abuser or alleged abuser and, if so, to ensure that appropriate steps are taken to safeguard them, and these will involve reporting the matter to the social services or the police.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY DONNA DEENEY – 11 MAY 2013

A pervert priest exposed as a serial paedophile by the Belfast Telegraph has taken his secrets to the grave, never having faced justice.

Fr John McCullagh (80) was found dead in the Maghera retirement home he fled to after it was revealed he had sexually abused a girl in Londonderry for seven years from when she was just eight-years-old. The priest never revealed the full extent of his depravity against young girls, with many more victims thought to have remained silent.

It was not until her 18th birthday in 1989 that his victim finally broke down and confided in her parents about the years of abuse she had been subjected to.

She said McCullagh would take her for drives in his car and that “there is not a road in either Co Derry or Donegal that I wasn’t abused on”.

Other victims did come forward in the wake of the Belfast Telegraph expose, but McCullagh never faced justice in court.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Posted Sat May 11, 2013

The policeman who blew the whistle on an alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse in the Hunter Valley’s Catholic Church says he is mentally exhausted after five days in the witness box.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox says he was directed to stop investigating allegations of child sexual abuse by two Maitland-Newcastle Catholic priests.

His claims sparked a New South Wales Special Commission, with the public hearings getting underway this week.

Peter Fox finished giving evidence late yesterday and says the inquiry is taking its toll.

“I feel very drained,” he said.

“I think I’d be lying if I said that I felt any other way.

“It’s been a difficult process – five days in the witness box answering questions is mentally exhausting.

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AUSTRALIA
Dubbo Photo News

Troy Grant – former police officer and now Member for Dubbo – has long campaigned for justice for the victims of sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic clergy. As a young rookie detective when he spearheaded an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in the Hunter region of NSW. This week, Troy Grant gave evidence at the Special Commission of Inquiry, established by the NSW State Government to investigate allegations of police and clerical interference into the investigation of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church. He spoke with JEN COWLEY following his appearance before the enquiry.

The Commission of Inquiry before which you appeared this week is different from the Royal Commission set down to open later in the year, isn’t it?

Yes. This is the Special Commission of Inquiry established by Premier O’Farrell after Detective Chief Inspector (Peter) Fox made specific and serious allegations about potential (police) interference in investigations he was undertaking in the Hunter region involving two Catholic priests accused of being paedophiles. Those investigations related to Father Denis McAlinden and Father James Fletcher.

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CANADA
Calgary Herald

BY DARYL SLADE, CALGARY HERALD MAY 10, 2013

An emotional former church youth volunteer fought back tears Friday as he apologized to the parents of a half-dozen boys he sexually abused and used to make child pornography over a five-year period.

“I’d like to apologize to the court and I’d like to apologize to the parents. I’m very sorry for my actions,” a sobbing Roderick Kyle Janssen, 36, told provincial court Judge Catherine Skene at the conclusion of his sentencing hearing in provincial court.

“I realize it hurt you guys. I just apologize for everything. I want to do everything I can to ensure this will never happen again. I will take all the programs I can. I don’t want this to happen again.”

Earlier, Janssen’s lawyer, Kim Ross, argued for a total sentence of eight to 10 years for the six counts of either sexual assault or sexual interference on the six boys, as well as making child pornography of some of them and distributing many of the 78,841 images and 3,374 videos in his collection.

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UNITED STATES
Pravda

By: Rasul Gudarzi

U.S. , A country that claims to defend human rights and even criticizes others in this regard, not only has failed to control violence, but it has spread and deepened, both in society and in the U.S. Army, which contradicts international principles and rules.

The first article of the declaration on ending violence against women defines the following:

“For the purposes of this Declaration, the term ‘violence against women’ means any act of violence based on gender, or is likely to result in harm, physical, sexual or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”

The issue of sexual assault in the U.S. keeps repeating. A new report has revealed an increase of about 35% of sexual assault cases in the military. The U.S. Defense Department reported that last year there were 26,000 cases of sexual crimes in the United States Armed Forces. Report data accounts for almost 70 attacks a day, and also notes that one in five female soldiers in the U.S. has been the victim of unwanted sexual contact by their colleagues. …

The acts and perverse behavior are being developed in a remarkable way in the U.S., among them we can mention the sex scandals in Catholic churches in the country and the legalization of gay marriage in several states. The root of the scandals that emerged in the Catholic Church is in the prohibition of marriage of priests, which has involved even the bishops themselves in various child abuse scandals and pedophilia.

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.

NORTH CAROLINA
WSOC

By Allison Latos
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Sexual abuse cases against the Charlotte Diocese could face months of delays, leaving the accusers waiting longer for their day in court.

Seth Langson represents four people who claim priests in the Charlotte Diocese abused them.

According to Langson, the abuse occurred more than 30 years ago.

“Victims of sex abuse often take decades to come forward,” he said. “There is a lot of shame.”

It’s been nearly three years since Langson filed the lawsuits.

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 Singleton Argus

The Special Commission of Inquiry into matters relating to the police investigation of certain child sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle started on May 6.

The Premier announced the NSW Government proposed to establish a Special Commission of Inquiry into matters raised by Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox in an ABC Lateline interview regarding the handling of certain child sexual abuse allegations.

Public hearings, held in the Newcastle Supreme Court, will continue until May 17. The inquiry will then sit from June 24 until July 12.

For our coverage of the first week’s sitting, courtesy of reporter Elle Watson, check out the following:

Top sex crime cop gives evidence: The commander of the state’s Police Sex Crimes Squad has given evidence to the Commission of Inquiry this morning.

Police: Fox was a troublemaker: The NSW Police Force has painted whistleblower Peter Fox as a troublemaker who passed on confidential documents to journalists to undermine the sex abuse investigation he was excluded from in 2010 in the hope he could write a book about it.

Conduct of officers ‘corrupt’: Former police office Troy Grant has denied claims that he warned Peter Fox about the “Catholic Mafia” – senior police who deliberately ­hindered investigations into ­paedophile priests.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

Saying New Jersey’s top Roman Catholic cleric should feel more “public pressure and public embarrassment” for protecting a priest charged with molesting a boy in 2001, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney on Friday discussed his reasons for joining politicians statewide to call on Newark Archbishop John J. Myers to resign.

Declaring “I’m a Catholic,” Sweeney this week said he came to believe that the archbishop must go as more details emerged about the Rev. Michael Fugee, a onetime assistant pastor at a Wyckoff parish, and how the archbishop returned him to ministry even after he was accused of groping a 13-year-old boy.

In a meeting with The Record’s editorial board Friday, Sweeney said he supports legislation to expand New Jersey’s statute of limitations on civil suits against sexual offenders and touted his role in enacting a law that monitors sex offenders with ankle bracelet tracking devices.

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NE YORK
New York Post

By JULIA MARSH
Last Updated: 7:38 AM, May 6, 2013

EXCLUSIVE

It was a pedophile’s paradise.

That’s how Marlene Hodge, now 52, remembers the girls dorm at a New York boarding school for deaf children, where she and nearly a dozen former students allege a staffer molested his charges at night for almost 20 years.

“I would pretend to be asleep hoping he would eventually go away,” Hodge told The Post, saying the alleged assaults by dorm dad Joe Casucci at the New York School for the Deaf in White Plains have been seared into her memory. …

Hodge said she was encouraged to come forward after a group of Wisconsin men sued the Catholic Church for sex abuse they suffered at the hands of a priest in the ’50s.

She believes the New York School for the Deaf was aware of the abuse for “a long time” because she says her classmates reported it to staff. She said she regrets not telling anyone at the time, including her own mother, who was the PTA president.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Wall Street Journal

By DOROTHY RABINOWITZ

Last Christmas Eve, his 18th behind bars, Catholic priest Gordon MacRae offered Mass in his cell at the New Hampshire state penitentiary. A quarter-ounce of unfermented wine and the host had been provided for the occasion, celebrated with the priest’s cellmate in attendance. Sentenced to 33½-67 years following his 1994 conviction for sexual assault against a teenage male, Father MacRae has just turned 60.

The path that led inexorably to that conviction would have been familiar to witnesses of the manufactured sex-abuse prosecutions that swept the nation in the 1980s and early 1990s and left an extraordinary number of ruined lives in its wake. Here once more, in the MacRae case, was a set of charges built by a determined sex-abuse investigator and an atmosphere in which accusation was, in effect, all the proof required to bring a guilty verdict. But now there was another factor: huge financial payouts for victims’ claims.

That a great many of the accusations against the priests were amply documented, that they involved the crimes of true predators all too often hidden or ignored, no one can doubt.

Neither should anyone doubt the ripe opportunities there were for fraudulent abuse claims filed in the hope of a large payoff. Busy civil attorneys—working on behalf of clients suddenly alive to the possibilities of a molestation claim, or open to suggestions that they remembered having been molested—could and did reap handsome rewards for themselves and their clients. The Diocese of Manchester, where Father MacRae had served, had by 2004 paid out $22,210,400 in settlements to those who had accused its priests of abuse.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic Observer

Suggestions made that it may be best if Cardinal O’Brien retires outside the country

Cardinal Keith O’Brien has been advised to leave the UK after stepping down from public life and in light of his recent admissions over his conduct that have caused great difficulty for the Church.

Last week the retired Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh began moving into the Church-owned home in East Lothian that he had been planning to retire to for a number of years prior to his recent statement that his behaviour had fallen short of what was required of his office.

Sources close to the developments told the SCO that—in spite of recently getting approval from the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, to retire as planned to Our Lady of the Waves parish in Dunbar—there had been a late push for the cardinal to leave the UK ‘for the good of the Church.’

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UNITED STATES
Catholic World Report

May 10, 2013
By Catherine Harmon

This week saw several moments of high drama in the on-going (soap opera-like?) controversy involving the Vatican and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. To recap:

On Sunday, Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Religious, told a group women religious leaders that last year’s doctrinal assessment of the LCWR was conducted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith without consultation or input from the Congregation for Religious. According to the National Catholic Reporter, Cardinal Braz de Aviz said that the CDF assessment caused him “so much pain.” The assessment, which found “serious doctrinal problems” in LCWR materials and programs and which put Archbishop J. Peter Sartain in charge of revising and reviewing the group’s statutes and publications, was reaffirmed in its findings by Pope Francis, according to a statement released last month by the CDF.

From the NCR article:

[Cardinal Braz de Aviz] said that his office — which is tasked with overseeing the work an estimated 1.5 million sisters, brothers, and priests around the world in religious orders — first learned of the move against the U.S. sisters’ group in a meeting with the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith after the formal report on the matter had been completed.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Catholic News Service | May. 10, 2013

WASHINGTON The annual audit of diocesan compliance with the U.S. Catholic church’s “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” found a drop in the number of allegations, number of victims and number of offenders reported in 2012.

Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which gathered data for the report, found “the fewest allegations and victims reported since the data collection for the annual reports began in 2004.”

Most allegations reported last year were from the 1970s and 1980s with many of the alleged offenders already deceased or removed from active ministry.

StoneBridge Business Partners, which conducts the audits, said law enforcement found six credible cases among 34 allegations of abuse of minors in 2012. The credibility of 15 of the allegations was still under investigation. Law enforcement officials found 12 allegations to be unfounded or unable to be proven, and one was a boundary violation.

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POSTED BY BARBARA BLAINE ON MAY 10, 2013
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

When will Catholic officials stop trying to play ‘gatekeeper’ and ‘screen’ child sex abuse reports? Why don’t they just tell people ‘if you see, suspect or suffer clergy child sex crimes, call law enforcement directly?’

The answer is clear: they want victims and witnesses to come to church officials first, giving them the chance to destroy evidence, fabricate alibis, intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, and start their extensive and expensive damage control and public relations maneuvers.

Some may feel comfort in the short, vague announcement on the Trenton diocesan website about Fr. Fugee. We don’t. It’s more about looking good than doing good.

These two bishops should name the parishes Fr. Fugee was in. They should personally visit those parishes. They should beg church members and staff “Please, ask everyone you know, ‘Did Fr. Fugee hurt you?’” They should instruct them to seek out former church members and staff who may have quit or moved or stopped coming because Fr. Fugee hurt one of them.

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NEW JERSEY
Digital Journal

By Brett Wilkins
May 10, 2013

Newark – The Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey has paid $650,000 to settle sex abuse claims against a pedophile priest who allegedly sexually assaulted numerous children in the 1970s and ’80s.

The Newark Star-Ledger reports that the settlement was paid to five men who claim to have been sexually abused by Rev. Carmen Sita, who pleaded guilty in 1982 to sexually assaulting a boy at St. Aloysius Church in Jersey City. Sita was sentenced to five months’ probation, after which time he changed his name to Gerald Howard and was transferred by the archdiocese to a parish in the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri.

Peter Gerety, the archbishop of Newark at the time who has been implicated in at least one other clergy sex abuse cover-up, never informed the public about Sita’s name change. While in Missouri, the transferred priest would allegedly go on to sexually abuse at least three more children. He was arrested in 2010 and charged with three counts of forcible sodomy, three counts of attempted forcible sodomy and two counts of kidnapping.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WSAZ

[with video]

UPDATE @ 4/29/13

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) — A congregation is in shock after their pastor was arrested and charged with three counts of sexual abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian.

“[The church] is in limbo, don’t know what we’re going to do,” said a member of the United Gospel Mission who asked not to be identified because of the nature of the crimes.

Deputies from the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office tell WSAZ.com that Johnnie Franklin Winnell of Gypsum Lane in Elkview confessed Friday to abusing the young girl. Capt. Sean Crosier said the abuse happened during several years.

Neighbor Patricia Strickland says she’d never imagine the man she’s lived beside for 20 years could do such things. She said her young granddaughter even plays at Winnell’s house and, while she trusts him, she feared the worst when she heard the news.

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FLORIDA
ABC 7

[with video]

By George Solis, Reporter

SANIBEL ISLAND, FL –
Community Concerns of the recent arrest of Charles Nave, who was charged with child porn, were addressed during a service at his church on Sunday.

Nave’s mother is an Associate Pastor at Sanibel Community Church, and his wife and kids are members.

To the surprise of some, both attended services Sunday morning where the issue was brought up.

Behind the sacred walls, the pastor delivered his sermon.

“If we hide stuff it will always take us further than we intended it to go and will cost us more than we thought it would,” said Pastor Daryl Donovan.

Pastor Donovan delivered that message to address obvious questions about the arrest of Charles Nave — known to many as ‘Chad.’

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CONNECTICUT
NBC Connecticut

By Liz Dahlem and LeAnne Gendreau | Thursday, May 9, 2013

Bristol Police have arrested a youth group leader from a Plainville church man after finding more than 500 images and 13 videos of child pornography on his computer.

Jonathan Spann, 28, of Bristol, appeared in court on Thursday to face an illegal possession of child pornography charge and has been ordered to have no contact with anyone under the age of 16. He is also prohibited from using a computer.

Police started investigating in February 2012 after a special agent from the Department of Homeland Security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in Hartford called local police about a local IP address accessing a child pornography Web site, according to an arrest warrant application.

When police seized Spann’s computer, they recovered around 3,000 images of child porn from “unallocated space” on hard drives, indicating that the files had been deleted, according to police.

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CONNECTICUT
WTNH

Published : Thursday, 09 May 2013

Jamie Muro

BRISTOL, Conn. (WTNH)– A youth minister from Plainville faced child porn charges in Bristol, Thursday night.

The arrest warrant for Jonathan Spann details a man initially in denial about his alleged activities, then later admitting to investigators that he’s been downloading child pornography for almost seven years.

In February of 2012, Bristol Police received a call from a special agent from the Department of Homeland Security. A lead was developed from a website called “Liberal Morality” that was a child pornography website.

An IP address would, eventually, lead them to the home of a married Bristol couple, Jonathan Spann and his wife Christina Dube.

The arrest warrant states that in his first interview with police, Spann only admitted to accessing adult pornography. But when police first accessed his hard drives, they discovered many images of child pornography in “free space.”

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NEW JERSEY
Clerical Whispers

The Catholic archbishop of Newark, John Myers, on finding out that a confessed pedophile priest in his diocese was still palling around with kids, first denied the charge, then defended the fraternization.

And we wonder why children continue to be raped by Catholic leaders.

Because Catholic archbishops don’t care about the rape of children nearly as much as they care about bashing loving gay adults in immigration reform, or bashing women.

Rev. Michael Fugee confessed to fondling the genitals of a 13 (or 14, depending on the account) year old boy.

He was convicted of criminal sexual contact, but an appeals court through out the verdict based on the jury incorrectly hearing a part of the priest’s confession – but the overall confession remains in tact. He did it.

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NEW JERSEY
Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson

Without any foreknowledge or approval of the Paterson Diocese, Fr. Michael Fugee, a priest of the Newark Archdiocese, engaged in ministry with youth in the Diocese of Paterson. This happened, as far as we now know, on one occasion several years ago at a retreat house in the diocese while with a group from a parish of the Trenton Diocese. He was under a restriction not to do so without proper supervision from the Archdiocese of Newark and legal authorities. The first awareness that diocesan leadership had concerning these activities of Fathr Fugee wthin the diocese came from the most recent media accounts.

If anyone has any information about inappropriate behavior on the part of Father Fugee, please notify your County Prosecutor’s Office. Please also inform the diocese by contacting Monsignor James T. Mahoney, Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia (973-777-8818, ext. 205) or Sister Mary Edward Spohrer, S.C.C., Chancellor (973-777-8818, ext. 248).

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

FRIDAY MAY 10, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

At a time when the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark is the focus of intense scrutiny over its handling of a priest accused of molesting a child, the diocese representing parishes in Passaic and Morris counties is asking for information about “inappropriate behavior” by the cleric, who was barred for life from working around children.

The Diocese of Paterson, in an unusual move, prominently posted on its website a message asking members of the public to report any information about the priest’s attendance at youth retreats — in apparent defiance of a legal ban on such action — within its three-county territory.

Bergen County prosecutors are investigating the Rev. Michael Fugee, who allegedly molested a Wyckoff teenager more than a decade ago, for possibly violating an agreement he signed with the archdiocese promising never to minister to children.

But it recently was revealed that Fugee joined several youth group excursions, including one to a retreat house at Lake Hopatcong in Morris County, within the Paterson Diocese. The diocese said in a statement, placed at the top of its website, that officials only know of that one event, which was in 2010, but they are encouraging anyone with information about “inappropriate behavior” on Fugee’s part to inform diocesan staff.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Post

By Michael Gryboski , Christian Post Reporter
May 10, 2013

Reported cases of priest abuse from last year have been the lowest since 2004, according to an annual compliance audit of Roman Catholic Church dioceses in the United States.

In 2012, there were six credible cases of abuse found of 34 claims, with 15 of those allegations still under investigation, reported the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).
The audit itself was performed by StoneBridge Business Partners, a multinational organization founded in 1994, on behalf of CARA.

The audit further found that nearly all of the dioceses who took part in the audit were found in compliance.

Sister Mary Ann Walsh of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops told The Christian Post that the findings “offer hope and inspire confidence in the church’s programs of Safe Environment.”

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the 2012 Annual Report by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the subject of sexual abuse:

The survey, done by an institute at Georgetown University, shows how utterly absurd it is to maintain that the Catholic Church continues to have a problem with priestly sexual abuse. Of the nearly 40,000 priests in the U.S., there were 34 allegations made by minors last year (32 priests, two deacons): six were deemed credible by law enforcement; 12 were either unfounded or unable to be proven; one was a “boundary violation”; and 15 are still being probed. Moreover, in every case brought to the attention of the bishops or heads of religious orders, the civil authorities were notified.

Not counting those of unknown status, in 88 percent of the total number of cases (independent of when they allegedly occurred), the accused priest is either deceased, has been dismissed from ministry, or has been laicized.

Most of the allegations reported to church officials today have nothing to do with current cases: two-thirds date back to the 1960s, 1970s and the first half of the 1980s. As usual, the problem is not pedophilia: 19 percent of the allegations involving those who work in dioceses or eparchies, and 7 percent of religious order priests and deacons, involve pedophilia. In other words, the problem remains what it has always been—an issue involving homosexual priests (85 percent of the victims were male).

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NEW JERSEY
Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton

We have recently confirmed that a serious breach of compliance with our child protection policies has taken place in one of our parishes. As a result, Father Michael Fugee, a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, who would not have been given clearance to minister in this diocese if procedures had been followed, was present among some of our youth during several parish events.

It is important to remind everyone throughout Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean Counties of the Diocese’s policies and processes that have been in place to keep children and youth safe in our parishes, schools and other agencies. To review these policies, visit http://www.dioceseoftrenton.org/protection

We again urge anyone who has been sexually abused as a minor by a member of the clergy or another representative of the Catholic Church, or anyone who knows of someone who was, to report that abuse through the diocesan Abuse Hotline.

To report sexual abuse of minors call our hotline 1-888-296-2965
or contact us at abuseline@dioceseoftrenton.org

Please note: All allegations are reported by the Diocese to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.

For more information about Father Michael Fugee’s ministry
in St. Mary Parish, Colts Neck, click HERE.

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NEW JERSEY`
The Record

FRIDAY MAY 10, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton posted a forceful message on its website this morning about a priest who attended youth ministry events in its parishes without permission, following the example of the Paterson Diocese, which took similar action earlier this week.

The message, which fills most of the Trenton diocese website – www.dioceseoftrenton.org — discusses the Rev. Michael Fugee’s “serious breach of compliance with our child protection policies” by his involvement with a Colts Neck parish youth group. The statement encourages victims of sexual abuse by clergy, or people who know victims within the diocese’s four-county territory, to report any allegations to the abuse hotline.

Fugee, who allegedly molested a Wyckoff boy more than a decade ago, recently was revealed to have attended numerous youth retreats in apparent violation of an agreement he signed with prosecutors not to minister to children. Bergen County prosecutors immediately opened an investigation when alerted about the activities in late April.

On Wednesday, the Diocese of Paterson posted a statement on its website calling on anyone with information about “inappropriate behavior” on Fugee’s part to inform diocesan staff. A spokesman for Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli said the diocese also sent the message to all 110 parishes in Passaic, Morris and Sussex counties and plans to publish it in the next edition of The Beacon, the diocesan newspaper. So far, officials have not heard any complaints.

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HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 10, 2013

From yesterday’s Honolulu Star Advertiser:

Catholic Church, priest named in lawsuit alleging molestation

A New Jersey man filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that he was sexually molested when he attended St. Anthony’s parish and school in Kailua from 1978 to 1981 when he was about 10 to 13 years old.

The suit filed by the man under the fictitious name of John Roe No. 11 is against the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii and the Rev. Anthony Bolger, one of the priests at the school during that period.

The lawsuit also alleges that the man was sexually molested by the late Rev. Joseph Ferrario, a priest at St. Anthony’s at the time who later was installed as bishop of Honolulu.

Patrick Downes, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church here, said the Diocese of Honolulu has no comment at this time. Bolger could not be reached for comment.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY JOELLE CASTEIX ON MAY 10, 2013

LA’s archbishop claimed disgraced predecessor wouldn’t engage in “public ministry.” Now, he’s apparently – and quietly – reversed himself, further betraying thousands of abuse victims and hundreds of thousands of parishioners.

Today’s LA Times reports that Archbishop José Horacio Gomez is violating his pledge to forbid Cardinal Roger Mahony from performing confirmations. And Gomez is giving no explanations.

In the midst of a scandal, under the glare of klieg lights and the outrage of parishioners, bishops will promise anything and everything to everybody. Later, when public attention wanes, they’ll go straight – but quietly – back to “business as usual.” This is the sad, simple truth that most of us foolishly and repeatedly ignore and that enables bishops to keep right on endangering the flock, concealing the truth, and recycling the molesters.

This is the “same old, same old.” Bishops say they’ll oust credibly accused clerics at the first allegation, and they don’t. They say they’ll be “transparent” about clergy sex abuse cases, and they aren’t. They say they’ll monitor predator priests, and they don’t. They’ll pledge to treat victims with compassion, then they don’t.

Why can bishops get by with this? Because they’re monarchs. Because their flocks tolerate it. Because the public has a short attention span. Because we want to believe the best about others. Because we let ourselves be convinced that deliberate cover ups are actually just “mistakes” and that bishops are “learning” and “reforming” when they’re not.

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UNITED STATES
Jesuit.org

Fr. Timothy P. Kesicki, S.J., to Head U.S. Office for Society of Jesus, Largest Order of Priests and Brothers in Roman Catholic Church

(WASHINGTON, D.C., May 10, 2013)—The Society of Jesus in the United States announces that Father Timothy P. Kesicki, S.J., has been named the next president of the Jesuit Conference. Fr. Kesicki, who was appointed by Father Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus, will assume his new position August 1, 2014. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Jesuit Conference is the liaison office that coordinates the national work of the Society of Jesus, the largest order of priests and brothers in the Roman Catholic Church.

Fr. Kesicki, currently serving as the provincial of the Chicago-Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus, says, “This assignment comes at a very exciting time for the Church and the Society of Jesus here in the U.S. and around the world. Clearly, the election of Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope in history, has highlighted the Jesuit vocation. Going back to St. Ignatius himself, we Jesuits have always put ourselves in service of the Church to minister where the needs are the greatest. I look forward to helping the Society continue its mission with a renewed zeal, strategic use of our resources, and commitment to serving in Christ’s name here and around the world.”

Fr. Kesicki first met the Jesuits when he was an undergraduate at John Carroll University in Ohio, where he studied political science. During his Jesuit formation he studied at Loyola University Chicago and the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, Ca. After being ordained in 1994, his first mission was with Jesuit Refugee Service in Adjumani, Uganda.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON MAY 10, 2013

A Chicago Jesuit, Fr. Timothy P. Kesicki, has been tapped to head the Jesuit Conference. That’s a mistake. http://www.jesuit.org/blog/

In recent years in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases, Kesicki has done, at best, an inadequate job. At worst, he has done a reckless, callous, and deceitful job.

We’re saddened to see yet another complicit Catholic cleric being promoted. Once again, a clear signal is sent to Catholic employees: “Your clerical career will never suffer no matter how egregiously you ignore, conceal and enable child sex crimes.”

Recent troubling Jesuit cases in which Kesicki has been involved include:

[Chicago Tribune]

–the 2011 revelations of abuse reports against Fr. Robert A. Wild, Marquette University President and former head (for six years) of the Chicago Jesuit Province

–the 2010 ouster of admitted abuser Fr. Larry Reuter, an ex-president of Loyola Academy

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
dotCommonweal

May 10, 2013
Posted by Grant Gallicho

Remember how in January, after nearly a decade of legal filibustering, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles finally made public the priest-personnel files it agreed to release as part of a 2007 settlement with abuse victims, except the files were heavily redacted, and remember how those files contained damning memos detailing the lengths to which archdiocesan officials — including Cardinal Roger Mahony — went to shield abuser-priests from civil authorities, and how soon after those memos made news, Archbishop Jose Gomez garnered praise for announcing that Mahony would “no longer have any administrative or public duties,” and how several media outlets reported that Mahony had been “barred from public ministry,” except he really hadn’t, and then he took to his blog to dress down Gomez for “not once over these past years…[raising] any questions about our policies, practices, or procedures in dealing with the problem of clergy sexual misconduct involving minors,” yet, as Mahony’s then-spokesman explained, he had “cleared his calendar of confirmation appointments this year”? Well, he’s doing them again.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Since Easter, he has officiated at eight services, including one last week in which he anointed more than 120 youths at a Wilmington parish.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Tim Townsend ttownsend@post-dispatch.com 314-340-82210

The St. Louis Archdiocese doesn’t exactly alert the press when it has what Archbishop Robert Carlson called sad news about clergy sexual abuse.

On May 1, the archdiocese quietly posted a statement from Carlson on its website saying he had permanently removed the Rev. Leroy Valentine, 71, from ministry. An internal, lay investigatory board had determined that “incidents” taking place “in the 1970s” which had been “only recently brought to our attention” were credible, Carlson said.

The archdiocese also published an article in its weekly newspaper, the St. Louis Review, about Valentine’s removal saying the “allegation of abuse occurred in the 1970s.”

A closer look at Valentine’s story reflects a 30-year journey that neatly embodies the Roman Catholic church’s struggle to deal with its sexual abuse troubles over that time.

It’s a sad story – Carlson is right – about a priest who has been repeatedly accused of abuse, and yet neither the law nor the church can prove it. So the archdiocese, despite proclaiming again and again through the years that no allegation against Valentine has been found credible, says he’s “been monitored and supervised continuously since 1999.” He is not guilty. He is not innocent.

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UNITED STATES
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

May 9, 2013

Safe environment programs reach 99 percent of targeted audience
Diocese of Lincoln, five Eastern Rite eparchies still non-compliant
Auditors recommend expansion of audits into parishes

WASHINGTON—The annual audit of diocesan compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People found a drop in the number of allegations, number of victims and number of offenders reported in 2012.

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), which gathered data for the report, found “the fewest allegations and victims reported since the data collection for the annual reports began in 2004.”

Most allegations reported last year were from the seventies and eighties with many of the alleged offenders already deceased or removed from ministry in the priesthood.

StoneBridge Business Partners, which conducts the audits, said law enforcement found six credible cases among 34 allegations of abuse of minors in 2012 itself. Credibility of 15 of the allegations was still under investigation. Law enforcement found 12 allegations to be unfounded or unable to be proven, and one a boundary violation.

Almost all dioceses were found compliant with the audit. Three were found non-compliant with one article of the Charter. The Diocese of Lake Charles, Louisiana, was faulted because its review board had not met in several years. (The diocese had no allegations during that time). The Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was faulted because auditors could not determine if parishes provided safe environment training to religious education students and volunteer teachers. The Diocese of Baker, Oregon, was faulted because students did not receive safe environment training while a new program was being developed. The diocese has since begun training.

The report can be found at http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/child-and-youth-protection/upload/annual-report-on-the-implementation-of-the-charter-for-the-protection-of-children-and-young-people-2012.pdf

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UNITED KINGDOM/AUSTRALIA
7 News

AFP
May 10, 2013

LONDON (AFP) – A former Church of England archbishop has denied claims that he covered up allegations of child abuse against a senior clergyman, which were revealed in Friday’s Times newspaper.

David Hope, who served as Archbishop of York between 1995 and 2005, said he “strongly resisted” accusations that he withheld from police claims made by choirboys and school pupils against Robert Waddington, a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral, in order to protect the church.

According to the joint report carried out by the London Times and The Australian newspaper, Hope was told of the claims in 1999 and again in 2003.

Waddington, who died in 2007, was stripped of his right to conduct church services but the claims were not passed on to police or child protection agencies, the Times reported.

“I didn’t report to the police,” Hope told the Times. “With hindsight, probably there ought to have been (a report). He (Waddington) was in such a fragile and frail state.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Catholic Tide

This entry was posted by Colin Real on May 9, 2013

Baltimore, Md., May 9, 2013 / 12:01 am (CNA).- Amid allegations of financial indiscretion and an “inappropriate adult relationship,” Monsignor Edward J. Arsenault has resigned as head of a Maryland treatment center for Catholic priests and religious.

“This is very difficult news, and we are keeping this situation in prayer,” Sheila Harron, Ph.D., chief operation officer and interim CEO of the St. Luke Institute, said May 6.

“We are committed to continuing to move forward, to providing high quality care for priests and religious, and to supporting a culture of healthy ministry in the Church.”

The New Hampshire attorney general is investigating Msgr. Arsenault after the Diocese of Manchester discovered evidence of improper transactions of diocese funds. The diocese reported the discovery to authorities out of concern illegal acts may have been committed. The diocese discovered the evidence while reviewing a claim that he had an inappropriate relationship with an adult.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A Catholic priest who admitted giving £145,000 of church money to a woman has been given a two-year sentence suspended for three years.

Fr Conleth Byrne, 78, took the money from church funds in the parish of Loughinisland, County Down.

The money was taken over a 19-month period between 2008 and 2009.

The priest, who is now retired, pleaded guilty last month to fraud by abuse of position just before his trial was due to begin.

About £45,000 has been repaid and a judge has ordered Fr Byrne to repay the outstanding £100,000.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian May 11, 2013

THE Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, is one of several senior Catholic clerics investigated by NSW police for allegedly concealing the pedophile crimes of a priest, according to documents tendered to a state inquiry.

Internal police documents, tendered to the NSW special commission of inquiry into child abuse, said Strike Force Lantle was formed in 2010 to investigate allegations that clergy concealed the crimes of serial pedophile priest Denis McAlinden.

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SCOTLAND
The Tablet

10 May 2013

A lifelong friend of Cardinal Keith O’Brien says that he will challenge any attempt to force the prelate out of Scotland.

Fr John Creanor, parish priest of Our Lady of the Waves, Dunbar, the parish where Cardinal O’Brien is currently living, was responding to rumours that the church hierarchy intended to block the cardinal’s plan to retire to a church-owned house in the East Lothian town.

He told The Tablet: “I’m prepared, if the rumour is more than just a rumour, to instruct my legal team to challenge the Vatican directly. I’m 72 years old. I have nothing to lose. But I do not accept that the Vatican has the power to exile a retired priest, effectively banish him from the country, or deny him access to a house of which I am the landowner.”

He said a petition in the parish had been started urging the cardinal to stay. The cardinal’s resignation of Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh was accepted in February following allegations of sexual impropriety.

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SCOTLAND
The Tablet (UK)

Elena Curti, Deputy Editor
10 May 2013

The return of Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien to Scotland has for many Catholics rubbed salt into the wound, two months after his admission of sexual misdemeanours and abrupt departure from office weeks before reaching the official retirement age of 75.

According to this narrative, the cardinal heaped scandal on the Scottish Church and the best thing he could do now is to disappear without trace. After all the hurt and embarrassment he has caused, it is easy to understand why some might resent the cardinal continuing with his plans to retire quietly to a church-owned house in the East Lothian seaside town of Dunbar.

It has been reported that the Vatican itself has told the cardinal to leave Scotland and that ‘church leaders’ want him to stay out of public life. However, Bishop Stephen Robson, an auxiliary of St Andrews and Edinburgh, has told The Tablet that the Church has a duty of care to Cardinal O’Brien and that he will be treated in the same way as all other retired priests.

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AUSTRALIA
Special Commission of Inquiry

Thursday, 9 May 2013: Transcript – Day 4, [PDF, 842kb]

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

VIEW THE TRANSCRIPTS OF THE INQUIRY HERE

HE’D spent five days in and out of the witness box, but Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox was unwavering when asked the same question for the fifth time during his cross-examination yesterday.

Yes, he thought the police strike force set up to investigate child abuse cover-ups within the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese was set up to fail.

Yes, he ignored orders from superiors and shared information with a journalist; yes he lied to colleagues; yes he thought his standing down from the investigation was corrupt; yes he thought police handling of the investigation was a sham; and yes, he thought senior Catholic clergy should be called to account.

During his final cross-examination before the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle yesterday, Mr Fox was accused of a ‘‘character assassination’’ of several police appointed to roles on Strike Force Lantle.

The strike force was set up in 2010 after a string of revelations by the Newcastle Herald raised questions about senior Catholic clergy and how they handled allegations against disgraced former priests Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 10/05/2013
Reporter: Suzie Smith

A police force intelligence document tendered by the head of the NSW Sex Crimes unit, Superintendent John Kerlatec, to the Special Commission of Inquiry into Clerical Abuse in the Hunter region, NSW, revealed three priests were named as part of a possible paedophile conspiracy and that the Catholic Church had required a victim to “sign a deed” that they’d not pursue any civil or criminal actions.

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, REPORTER: The New South Wales special commission of inquiry into clerical abuse in the Hunter region has heard that police were warned of the danger of a possible paedophile ring as far back as 2004.

A NSW police force intelligence document was tendered in a statement by the head of the New South Wales Sex Crimes unit, Superintendent John Kerlatec.

The document also named three priests as part of a possible conspiracy and said that the Catholic Church had required a victim to “sign a deed” promising they would not pursue civil or criminal actions.

John Kerlatec also told the inquiry that an internal police email showed there was no great urgency in the handling of child sexual abuse allegations in the Hunter region

Suzie smith reports from Newcastle

SUZIE SMITH, REPORTING: Today was the fifth day of the special commission and on the stand an unwilling witness detective Superintendent John Kerlatec, the head of the New South Wales Sex Crimes squad.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Belfast Telegraph

A former Archbishop of York has denied covering up allegations that a senior Church of England clergyman sexually abused choirboys.

The Very Rev Robert Waddington, a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral, who died from cancer in 2007, is said to have groomed and abused a chorister in Manchester in the 1980s, The Times reported.

He is also said to have targeted a pupil at a boarding school in Queensland, Australia, of which he was the headmaster in the 1960s.

Lord Hope of Thornes, who was Archbishop of York from 1995 to 2005, was informed of the two claims in 1999 and 2003, the newspaper said. He spoke to Mr Waddington about the allegations and then banned him from taking church services but he did not pass on the claims to the police, it added.

Lord Hope wrote to the North Queensland Diocese in 1999 and said Mr Waddington was “deeply sorry for anything he may have done to offend” and that the clergyman offered “an unreserved apology”.

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UNITED KINGDOM/AUSTRALIA
CNN

By Laura Smith-Spark and Richard Allen Greene, CNN
updated 9:26 AM EDT, Fri May 10, 2013

London (CNN) — A former archbishop of York was accused Friday of covering up child abuse by a Church of England clergyman who has since died.

The accusations against the late Very Rev. Robert Waddington are the result of a joint investigation by the Times of London and The Australian newspaper, based in Sydney.

The Times alleges that Waddington, who died in 2007 from cancer, abused choirboys and school children, and that the former archbishop of York, David Hope, failed to report the abuse claims to police or child protection authorities after he was made aware of them in 1999 and 2003.

The former archbishop, who was made Lord Hope after he stood down in 2005, said he had followed the legal requirements of the time.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times

By Sam Levin Fri., May 10 2013

Another day, another dispute with the St. Louis Archdiocese regarding allegations of child sex abuse. The case of Father LeRoy Valentine, however, involves a long and complicated history of accusations that span several decades and allegations of repeated inaction by those in charge. And victims’ advocates say the archdiocese today is still trying to downplay Valentine’s proven abuse.

“This is disturbing,” David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, tells Daily RFT. “Rather than err on the side of being open and transparent, [St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson] chooses to be vague and deceptive.”

The support group for clergy abuse victims — in response to a recent announcement that Valentine has been permanently removed from ecclesiastical ministry — is alleging that officials with the archdiocese failed to supervise Valentine over the last eleven years and is trying to cover up some of the past cases of sex abuse today.

Archdiocese officials, however, say in a statement that they investigated all accusations and properly responded to allegations they found to be “credible.” Valentine, they say, “will continue to live in a monitored, secure environment.”

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on May 10, 2013

The Archdiocese of Newark has paid $650,000 to settle molestation claims brought by five men against a former New Jersey priest now awaiting trial on unrelated sex charges in Missouri.

The settlement, announced Thursday by a lawyer for the men, recalls one of the darker chapters of the archdiocese’s role in the clergy sex abuse crisis.

The Rev. Carmen Sita pleaded guilty in 1982 to sexually assaulting a teenage boy at St. Aloysius Church in Jersey City. Sentenced to five months’ probation, Sita changed his name to Gerald Howard and was soon shuffled to a parish in the Diocese of Jefferson City, Mo.

The Newark archbishop at the time, Peter Gerety, never informed the public of the name change. Howard would go on to molest at least three more children in Missouri, authorities said. Charged in 2010, he remains jailed on $1.5 million bond while he awaits trial.

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PUERTO RICO
Catholic Culture

Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves of San Juan, Puerto Rico, has declined to discuss reports that the Vatican has sought his resignation, after the public release of a letter in which he defended himself against Vatican criticism.

A Puerto Rican radio station has released the leaked text of a letter from Archbishop Gonzalez to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. In the letter the archbishop says that he will not willingly step down, and denies the accuracy of complaints against him. The complaints reportedly included charges that the archbishop had protected priests from sex-abuse charges, interfered in local politics, and abused his power.

The archbishop told reporters that he would not comment on the matter, saying that “I’ll only deal with the Holy See on it.” But he did ask the faithful in Puerto Rico to pray that the truth would be revealed. Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, also declined to speak about the leaked letter.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

[the report]

CWN – May 10, 2013

The clerical abuse scandal cost American dioceses $112,966,427 in 2012, according to a report released on May 9 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Only 56% of those funds were allotted to settlements ($50.4 million) and therapy for abuse victims ($7.2 million). The remaining funds were spent on attorneys’ fees ($35.3 million), support for offenders ($11.8 million), and other costs ($2.6 million), according to the 2012 “Report on the Implementation of the Charter for Protection of Children and Young People.”

The clerical abuse scandal cost religious institutes an additional $20,139,384 in 2012. These expenses brought the total cost of the clerical abuse scandal to American dioceses and religious institutes between 2004 and 2012 to $2,621,516,566: $2,242,949,048 for dioceses and eparchies, and $378,567,518 for religious institutes.

During the 2012 audit period, 34 minors alleged they were abused by a priest or deacon. The report found that six allegations “were considered credible by law enforcement,” while 12 “were determined to be unfounded or unable to be proven.” One was determined to be a “boundary violation,” and 15 were still under investigation.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Paul Maguire, AAP
Updated May 10, 2013

A Hunter Valley Catholic priest suspected of sexually abusing children over four decades boasted he would beat any charges against him, a special commission of inquiry has heard.

When police arrived on his doorstep in September 2005 with an arrest warrant, Father Denis McAlinden allegedly said, “I was previously charged with child abuse matters and I beat those charges, so if I am around long enough, I will beat these charges too”.

But the 72-year-old, who had terminal cancer, was not charged and died soon afterwards.

The commission, which began in Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday, is investigating the way police and the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese handled child sex allegations, particularly those involving Fr McAlinden and Father James Fletcher, who is also dead.

The NSW commission was established after Hunter Valley Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox alleged church officials covered up criminal offences and, along with some police, hindered investigations.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

Fri 10 May 2013

The former Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, said he responded to and reported abuse claims against a former Dean “correctly” when he learnt about them in 2003.

He said he was “shocked and saddened” to learn of the claims, dating back to the 1980s, and reported the matter to the Archbishop of York and a child protection officer immediately.

In responding to and reporting this tragic alleged abuse, I believe that I and the child protection officer followed correctly the then current 1999 guidelines laid down by the Church of England.

This is a particularly sad story of abuse that has brought deep and lasting distress to a young boy who had put his trust in the Church.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

Published on 10/05/2013

The priest accused of sexually assaulting young boys and girls in children’s homes has given evidence for the first time.

Church of England priest Gordon Trevor Rideout admitted being “touchy feely” to children in the care homes he visited in the 1960 and 1970s. But he denies indecently assaulting 16 boys and girls as young as five-years-old in children’s care homes in West Sussex, Essex and Hampshire between 1961 and 1973.

The 74-year-old pleaded not guilty to 37 sexual offences, including attempted rape, as he gave evidence at Lewes Crown Court on May 8. Rideout, of Filching Close, Polegate, was asked if he was a “touchy feely kind of person” by defence QC Frances Oldham.

He replied yes, adding, “If a child was miserable or upset I would hug or kiss them, perhaps more so when they were a little, not big children. By little I mean five, six and seven-years-old. I would hug them by putting my arm around them as you would do a child if they had fallen over or were miserable.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

Published on 10/05/2013

A Derry priest at the centre of a child sex abuse controversy a number of years ago has died.

Rev. John McCullagh (78) passed away suddenly in Maghera on Wednesday.

It’s understood Derry’s Diocesan hierarchy was first alerted to the allegations against Rev. McCullagh in 1994.

In 2000, the Co. Tyrone born priest made an out-of-court settlement when he paid £12,000 of his own money and wrote a letter of apology to a woman from the Derry Diocese who accused him of abusing her over a 10 year period, starting in 1979, from when she was just eight years-old.

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NEW JERSEY
The Jersey Journal

By The Jersey Journal
on May 10, 2013

The Archdiocese of Newark has paid $650,000 to settle molestation claims brought by five men against a former Jersey City priest now awaiting trial on unrelated sex charges in Missouri, The Star-Ledger reported yesterday.

The settlement, announced yesterday by a lawyer for the men, recalls one of the darker chapters of the archdiocese’s role in the clergy sex abuse crisis.

The Rev. Carmen Sita pleaded guilty in 1982 to sexually assaulting a teenage boy at St. Aloysius Church in Jersey City. Sentenced to five months’ probation, Sita changed his name to Gerald Howard and was soon shuffled to a parish in the Diocese of Jefferson City, Mo., The Ledger reported.

The Newark archbishop at the time, Peter Gerety, never informed the public of the name change. Howard would go on to molest at least three more children in Missouri, authorities said. Charged in 2010, he remains jailed on $1.5 million bond while he awaits trial.

“It frankly horrifies me that this priest was allowed to move on and run amok,” said Greg Gianforcaro, the Phillipsburg attorney who announced yesterday’s settlement. “There is no excuse for it.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Bognor Regis Observer

THE BISHOP of Chichester has welcomed the sentencing of a priest for historic sex offences against young boys.

Keith Wilkie Denford, 78, was jailed for 18 months for the offences which took place between 19 and 27 years ago.

The priest, from Broad Reach Mews, Shoreham, was sentenced on Thursday, May 9, at Hove Crown Court after being convicted of two indecent assaults on a boy then under 16, in or near Shoreham, and one indecent assault on another boy also aged under 16 and also in or near Shoreham, on dates between June 1987 and January 1990.

He was found not guilty of a third charge of indecent assault against the first boy after a three-week trial, also at hove, on Friday, April 5.

Another man, Michael Mytton, 69, of South Road, East Chiltington, East Sussex, was sentenced to a total of nine months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

An accused NSW pedophile Catholic priest who died before being charged seemed unsurprised and amused when confronted with an arrest warrant.

A Hunter Valley Catholic priest suspected of sexually abusing children over four decades boasted he would beat any charges against him, a special commission of inquiry has heard.

When police arrived on his doorstep in September 2005 with an arrest warrant, Father Denis McAlinden allegedly said, “I was previously charged with child abuse matters and I beat those charges, so if I am around long enough, I will beat these charges too”.

But the 72-year-old, who had terminal cancer, was not charged and died soon afterwards.

The commission, which began in Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday, is investigating the way police and the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese handled child sex allegations, particularly those involving Fr McAlinden and Father James Fletcher, who is also dead.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Former Archbishop denies cover-up over paedophile priest who escaped prosecution over child abuse claims

By HUGO GYE

One of Britain’s top churchmen has denied that he covered up the crimes of a paedophile priest who attacked choirboys and schoolchildren.

When David Hope was Archbishop of York, he was twice told that Robert Waddington, former Dean of Manchester, had been accused of exploiting his position to molest young boys.

Waddington was disciplined by Church officials and banned from holding services, but the allegations against him were never passed on to police.

The former Archbishop, now Lord Hope of Thornes, yesterday admitted he should have told officers about the sexual abuse claims because he was worried about the health of the paedophile.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Donna Boynton TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
dboynton@telegram.com

WORCESTER — In a highly emotional sentencing hearing at which one man was ejected from the courtroom and the defendant refused to comply with the terms of her sentencing conditions, a Worcester District Court judge sentenced a follower of the Church of the End Times to one year supervised probation for assaulting an Uxbridge police officer.

Samantha Drury, 19, of Woonsocket, R.I., was found guilty last month of assaulting an Uxbridge police officer during an altercation at the 41 Murphy’s Way home of the church leader and his estranged wife on Oct. 2.

Judge Michael L. Fabbri sentenced Ms. Drury to one year supervised probation, and then issued a list of conditions that included finding a job within 30 days, perform 50 hours of community service in an agency related to public safety, and submit a written letter of apology to the Uxbridge Police Department.

Upon hearing that last condition, Ms. Drury jumped to her feet.

“He attacked me!” she said, refusing to write a letter of apology. “You can arrest me now. He owes me an apology.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Teresa Watanabe and Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times
May 9, 2013

When Archbishop Jose Gomez stripped his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, of public duties for mishandling clergy sex abuse cases, a church spokesman said the retired prelate’s life would remain largely the same with one exception: confirmations.

No longer would Mahony preside at springtime rites in which teenagers receive the sacrament that marks full passage into the Catholic Church, the spokesman said.

But three months later, Mahony is back doing confirmations. Since Easter, he has officiated at eight services, including one last week in which he anointed more than 120 youths at a Wilmington parish.

His presence has caused controversy, with some parents threatening to pull their children from the liturgies and at least one parish priest asking that Mahony not attend. It has also raised questions about why Gomez’s rebuke of Mahony, an unprecedented move that won him praise from victims and their supporters around the world, had so little lasting effect.

Gomez’s January letter to the region’s more than 4 million Catholics seemed to rule out any conspicuous place for Mahony in the archdiocese. Noting that the cardinal had “expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care, ” Gomez told the faithful, “Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties.”

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GALLUP (NM)
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., May 6, 2013

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent

GALLUP — Roman Catholic Bishop James S. Wall made a dual-purpose public announcement late Friday. In an email sent to the media 5 p.m. Friday, Wall announced the departure of a top chancery official while also advertising for his replacement.

James P. Hoy, an ordained deacon in the Diocese of Gallup, is resigning as the diocese’s chief financial officer after 14 years, Wall said. Hoy is slated to depart June 30.

“He is leaving the diocese to take a financial position in the non-profit sector and to be with his wife who as (sic) been on a temporary assignment with Western New Mexico University in Silver City, New Mexico,” Wall said. “We are grateful to Deacon Hoy for his dedication and service to the Church and to those that he has helped over the years.”

Wall said the diocese will begin its search for a new CFO immediately, and officials hope to have the position filled by July 1 on either a permanent or pro tem basis.

Wall’s email included an online link to the Diocese of Gallup’s employment opportunities page, which features a summary of the job requirements. That page contains another link to a more detailed job description.

According to the job description, the CFO position is “an ecclesiastical office” with qualifications and duties established in the Catholic Church’s 1983 Code of Canon Law. It includes responsibility for the Gallup Diocese’s budgeting, accounting, investments, risk management, human resources and employee benefits.

In addition to being an “active practicing Roman Catholic in full communion with the Church,” applicants must have at least a bachelor’s degree in finance or accounting and 10 years of professional experience. They will need to be able to oversee grant applications, review legal documents and interact with diocesan attorneys.

Since Wall became bishop four years ago, he has declined multiple media requests to confirm the level of Hoy’s educational training and professional experience for the CFO position. During the past decade, numerous priests have raised concerns with chancery officials and the media about Hoy’s qualifications. All media questions about Hoy’s qualifications — in personal interviews with the bishop and through written requests — have been ignored by Wall and Hoy.

Hoy was initially hired by the late Bishop Donald E. Pelotte. According to the Official Catholic Directory, Hoy became a deacon in 1996 while living in Show Low, Ariz. He then moved to Gallup to take over the diocesan budget and finance office.

Hoy’s successor will be employed by a diocese that advertizes itself as one of the poorest Catholic dioceses in the country. In addition, the Gallup Diocese continues to incur unpublicized financial expenses related to settlement money and legal fees from clergy sex abuse lawsuits and an unknown number of out-of-court sex abuse complaints.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

FRIDAY MAY 10, 2013

By ALFRED P. DOBLIN
RECORD EDITORIAL COLUMNIST

Alfred P. Doblin is the editorial page editor of The Record. Contact him at doblin@northjersey.com. Follow AlfredPDoblin on Twitter.

NEWARK Archbishop John J. Myers is going to the mattresses. The archdiocese has hired Michael Critchley, a criminal defense lawyer who famously got Michael “Mad Dog” Taccetta, a member of the Lucchese crime family, an acquittal back in the 1980s. Showtime’s “The Borgias” should move its shooting location to Newark.

Myers is under fire because the archdiocese allowed the Rev. Michael Fugee to participate in youth events despite both Fugee and the archdiocese entering into an agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office barring Fugee from such contact.

The priest, who resigned last week, had been convicted of groping a minor, but the conviction was overturned on a technicality. Rather than face a new trial, Fugee made a deal with prosecutors and part of that deal was no unsupervised contact with children and no ministering to children.

However, Fugee went on youth retreats and had one-on-one contact with children in the Newark archdiocese, as well as in dioceses outside of Newark, without the consent of those bishops. The Newark archdiocese has continued to claim it has done nothing wrong.

This would be just reprehensible if it occurred in the private sector; it is something baser, something more vile happening in the Roman Catholic Church. This institutional arrogance was at the heart of the national scandal of priests sexually abusing minors for decades while church officials did nothing to stop it, in many cases enabling the abuse. High-ranking clergy closed their ranks around predators, all to save the face of the institution rather than protect children. Actually, it was less about saving face and more about saving money. Predators are costly.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Kathleen Hopkins
@KHopkinsAPP

TOMS RIVER — The boy at the center of a sexual abuse case within Lakewood’s Orthodox Jewish community had no friends in fifth and sixth grade and none in the summer camp he attended those years, he shyly testified on Wednesday.

So when camp counselor Yosef Kolko let the boy sing solos with the camp choir and gave him the lead role in the play the summer after fifth grade, in 2007, that made the boy feel “awesome,” he told a jury of nine men and seven women.

“I respected him,” the boy, now 16, said of Kolko. “He was one of the cool counselors.”

The following August, the boy returned to Yachad, the summer camp that is run by the Yeshiva Bais Hatorah School on Swarthmore Avenue in Lakewood. He and some other boys in his class told the head counselor they wouldn’t return to camp unless Kolko was their counselor, he said.

“I looked up to him,” the boy told the jury. “I tried to develop a personal relationship, because there was an inkling to be close to the counselor, and because I didn’t have any friends.”

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Kathleen Hopkins
@KHopkinsAPP

TOMS RIVER — The father of a former Lakewood boy who accused his camp counselor of sexual abuse wanted to handle the matter discreetly, within the Orthodox Jewish religious community, he testified in court on Thursday.

The man, formerly a prominent rabbi in Lakewood’s Orthodox community, said he just wanted to be sure the counselor, Yosef Kolko, quit working with children, sought therapy and stayed away from his son, the man told a jury.

But when months had already passed after he had brought the matter to the attention of a respected rabbi who promised to handle it discreetly, and learning that Kolko was still working at the summer camp where his son was molested, the father said he broke with Jewish tradition and sought justice with secular authorities.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON May 10, 2013

The head of the NSW sex crimes squad has told the Special Commission of Inquiry that the early response by police to claims of sex abuse cover-ups within the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese appeared to lack urgency.

Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec was shown documents when he took the stand at the commission in Newcastle this morning.

Mr Kerlatec said he recalled having several conversations with Detective Inspector Paul Jacob when Strike Force Lantle was established in late 2010 to investigate claims of sex abuse cover-up.

Under cross examination by Mark Cohen, acting for Mr Fox, Mr Kerlatec was referred to reports which he agreed did not reflect a lot of urgency on the part of police investigations.

He also agreed that while an investigating officer appeared keen to proceed quickly, he was being ‘‘shut down’’ by his superior officer, Detective Inspector Dave Waddell.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON May 10, 2013

The commander of the state’s Police Sex Crimes Squad has given evidence to the Commission of Inquiry this morning.

The commission heard Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec was regularly briefed about Strike Force Lantle – an investigation into the concealed sexual abuse by Maitland-Newcastle Catholic clergy.

Superintendent Kerlatec said one of the country’s best sex crimes investigators Detective Inspector Paul Jacob, who is yet to given evidence, was assigned to give assistance to local detectives investigating the matter.

Earlier in the week, whistleblower Detective Chief Inspector Fox, said the Strike Force had been set up to fail by corrupt police who were not interesting in properly investigating paedophilia within the church.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

May 10, 2013

Paul Maguire
AAP

A Hunter Valley Catholic priest suspected of sexually abusing children over four decades boasted he would beat any charges against him, a special commission of inquiry has heard.

When police arrived on his doorstep in September 2005 with an arrest warrant, Father Denis McAlinden allegedly said, “I was previously charged with child abuse matters and I beat those charges, so if I am around long enough, I will beat these charges too”.

But the 72-year-old, who had terminal cancer, was not charged and died soon afterwards.

The commission, which began in Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday, is investigating the way police and the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese handled child sex allegations, particularly those involving Fr McAlinden and Father James Fletcher, who is also dead.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

David Gibson | May 9, 2013

(RNS) Even as an annual review this week gave Catholic bishops high marks on sex abuse prevention policies, officials with the church’s own oversight agencies expressed serious concerns about “recent high-profile failings” in several dioceses.

The latest scandal has shaken Newark, N.J., where Archbishop John Myers failed to stop a priest from ministering with children in several parishes even though he assured prosecutors that he would enforce a lifetime ban on the priest’s access to children following a molestation case.

Newark Archbishop John J. Myers is facing fierce criticism for his handling of a priest who attended youth retreats and heard confessions from minors in defiance of a court-ordered lifetime ban on ministry to children. Religion News Service photo by Ed Murray/The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.

Myers initially defended his oversight of the Rev. Michael Fugee, but under increasing pressure he reversed himself; Fugee then resigned from ministry, but ongoing calls for Myers to step down have generated new headlines almost every day.

“I’ll be honest with you, Newark is disheartening,” said Bernie Nojadera, head of the Office of Child and Youth Protection at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “It is like taking steps backwards.”

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SCOTLAND
The Scottish Sun

By ASHLIE McANALLY

AN elderly nun yesterday denied hitting a girl with a carpet beater while she was head teacher at an approved school.

Anne Kenny, 79 — known as Mother Rosaria — said there was no truth in claims she was violent to three pupils at Dalbeath school in Bishopton, Renfrewshire.

She told Paisley Sheriff Court she never imposed corporal punishment on kids under her care in the early 1970s Questioned over allegations she hit Catherine Logan, 57, with a carpet beater, she added: “We had no carpets to beat.”

The nun was later asked about accounts of events given by her accusers. She said: “They may have gone through these experiences some time in their lives but not at Dalbeath.”

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Friday 10 May 2013

A NUN who was headmistress at an approved school has denied assaulting any girls in her care.

Anne Kenny, 79, known as Sister Rosaria, taught and was the deputy head at Dalbeath approved school between January 1965 and July 1966 before taking on the role of headmistress.

She told Paisley Sheriff Court that was the last time she worked with young people and she resigned from the approved school system because there was due to be an administration change.

Kenny was asked about the approved school regulations the school abided by, in particular disciplining and punishment.

Defence QC Ronnie Clancy put to her that in certain circumstances corporal punishment was permitted and asked if she ever imposed it. She answered: “Never” and again added that it was “forbidden”.

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SCOTLAND
Evening Times

A NUN accused of assaulting girls at an approved school told a court that corporal punishment was “forbidden”.

Anne Kenny, 79, known as Sister Rosaria, began giving evidence yesterday at Paisley Sheriff Court.

She told her defence QC Ronnie Clancy she joined the Good Shepherd Order in 1956 and worked in an approved school in Wales from 1959 until 1964 when she moved to Dalbeath approved school in Bishopton.

Kenny, of Manchester, and Agnes Reville, 77, of Newcastle, are on trial accused of assaulting girls at the nun-run school.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

A NUN who was headmistress at an approved school yesterday denied assaulting girls in her care.

Anne Kenny, 79, known as Sister Rosaria, told Paisley Sheriff Court that corporal punishment was forbidden at Dalbeath approved school and that she had never imposed it.

Kenny, who became headmistress of the school in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, in July 1966, is accused of three charges of assault dating from the 70s.

She told the court they would sometimes use detention to punish someone who was being “obstreperous” but that no physical intervention was used and the girls would have to walk themselves to the detention room.

Asked by defence QC Ronnie Clancy if there was any truth in claims made by the three alleged victims that she was violent towards them, she said: “None whatever.”

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NEDERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad

De schadevergoedingen voor misbruikslachtoffers in de Rooms–Katholieke Kerk lopen in totaal op tot boven de tien miljoen euro. Die verwachtingen sprak Wim Deetman donderdag uit op Radio 1.

Deetman is voorzitter van de commissie die onderzoek deed naar het misbruik in de kerk. Hij zei in het radioprogramma Goedemorgen Nederland dat nog niet de helft van de zaken is behandeld. In totaal is er nu al 3,7 miljoen euro uitbetaald aan slachtoffers.

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PUERTO RICO
Newsmax

Thursday, 09 May 2013
By Edward Pentin

Edward Pentin reporting from Rome — Pope Francis is facing what is being described as the first crisis of his papacy: a Puerto Rican archbishop who is refusing to obey numerous Vatican requests that he resign.

Archbishop of San Juan, Roberto Octavio Gonzalez Nieves, has been accused by the Vatican of an array of alleged serious offenses: protecting pedophile priests, abusing his power, promoting Puerto Rican independence from the U.S., and supporting a law that could grant same-sex couples living together hereditary rights and health benefits.

According to La Stampa, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Vatican’s department for bishops, visited Gonzalez Nieves on December 15, when the archbishop denied the allegations. In a “tense meeting,” Ouellet asked him to step down and to ask the Church for a new position elsewhere.

But Gonzalez Nieves says the accusations are politically motivated and has accused a cardinal and a former Puerto Rican governor of being behind the allegations. He has also put up a vigorous defense, writing an angry letter to Ouellet two months after their meeting that was leaked to the Puerto Rican press.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

The former Archbishop of York has been accused of covering up allegations that a senior member of the Church of England had abused choirboys and school pupils.

By Alice Philipson 10 May 2013

Lord Hope of Thornes was told of the accusations against the Very Rev Robert Waddington, a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral who was made responsible for Church schools, in 1999 and then again in 2003.

The then archbishop did not refer the allegations to police or to child protection agencies, according to The Times.

Following the accusations, Lord Hope, who was then the second most senior bishop in the Church, revoked Waddington’s right to conduct church services and also ordered internal investigations into the alleged abuse.

However, concerns over Waddington’s state of health meant the Archbishop failed to report the case to the authorities. He now admits there “ought to have been” a report.

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UNITED KINGDOM
News 24

London – A former Church of England Archbishop has denied claims that he covered up allegations of child abuse against a senior clergyman, which were revealed in Friday’s Times newspaper.

David Hope, who served as Archbishop of York between 1995 and 2005, said he “strongly resisted” accusations that he withheld from police claims made by choirboys and school pupils against Robert Waddington, a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral, in order to protect the church.

According to the joint report carried out by the London Times and The Australian newspaper, Hope was told of the claims in 1999 and again in 2003.

Waddington, who died in 2007, was stripped of his right to conduct church services but the claims were not passed on to police or child protection agencies, the Times reported.

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UNITED KINGDOM/AUSTRALIA
BBC News

Sexual abuse complaints against a Church of England cleric were not referred to police by then Archbishop of York, David Hope, it has emerged.

The Times said the now Lord Hope was made aware of the allegations against the former Dean of Manchester, Robert Waddington, in 1999 and again in 2003.

It involved an Australian school pupil and a Manchester Cathedral choirboy.

Lord Hope insisted he acted strictly in line with child protection policy in force in the Church at the time.

Banned as priest
Allegations were put to Lord Hope in 1999 that Mr Waddington had abused a pupil several decades earlier at a school in Queensland where he was head teacher.

Then in 2003, a former choirboy at Manchester Cathedral claimed he had been abused by Mr Waddington during the 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

The head of the NSW Sex Crimes Squad has conceded alleged child sexual abuse in the Hunter Valley’s Catholic Church was not investigated with much urgency.

On day five of the special commission of inquiry’s public hearings at Newcastle Supreme Court, the commander of the NSW Police Sex Crimes Squad Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec was giving evidence.

The probe is examining claims by abuse whistleblower Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox he was directed by superiors to stop investigating the allegations of abuse by two priests in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, James Fletcher and Denis McAlinden.

Detective Fox’s barrister, Mark Cohen, suggested police emails showed there was not much urgency among Strike Force Lantle investigators to examine the claims.

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UNITED KINGDOM/AUSTRALIA
The Independent (UK)

ROB WILLIAMS FRIDAY 10 MAY 2013

Sexual abuse claims against a cleric in the Church of England were not referred to police by a former Archbishop of York, David Hope, it was alleged today.

According to The Times newspaper Lord Hope of Thornes was made aware of accusations against the former Dean of Manchester, Robert Waddington, in 1999 and again in 2003.

Waddington was stripped of his right to conduct church services but Lord Hope did not report concerns to police or child protection agencies.

The allegations relating to an Australian school pupil were reportedly put to Lord Hope in 1999 and a subsequent allegation relating to a Manchester Cathedral choirboy was made in 2003. Mr Waddington, who died in 2007, denied the allegations.

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CALIFORNIA
Appeal-Democrat

May 09, 2013

By Rob Parsons/A-D Reporter

A Wheatland pastor pleaded not guilty on Thursday to 16 felony counts of sexual child abuse in connection with a year-long sexual relationship with a teenage girl.

If convicted on all charges, Brian Clay Gray faces up to 11 years and three months in state prison and must register as a sex offender, said Shiloh Sorbello, deputy Yuba County district attorney.

Judge Julia L. Scrogin appointed the Yuba County Public Defender’s Office to represent the minister, though Gray said he hopes to retain his own attorney.

“My sister is working on that for me,” Gray told the judge.

The 51-year-old pastor of the Anchor Baptist Church was arrested early Wednesday after his wife’s brother — a police officer in Kansas — reported the abuse to the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department.

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