ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
ABC – Religion and Ethics Report

[with audio]

Wednesday 8 May 2013

An official enquiry into an alleged cover-up of sexual abuse among Catholic priests in the NSW Hunter Valley has heard claims that a “Catholic mafia” inside the police force may have hindered investigations. Police whistleblower Peter Fox said he had heard that a group of officers “aligned to the Catholic church were attempting to discourage …investigations into clergy”. The man who allegedly told Inspector Fox about this so-called mafia, the policeman-turned-National Party MP Troy Grant, says he never used the phrase. But there are strong historic and cultural ties between the Catholic Church and police forces in Australia and, especially, the United States. For many Irish immigrants, a job on the force was a respectable passage out of social disadvantage. There are even formal organisations for Catholic police such as the NSW Police Guild of St Christopher in Australia; the New York Police Department Holy Name Society in the US; and the Catholic Police Guild of England and Wales.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

By MARK HAYWARD
New Hampshire Union Leader

MANCHESTER – Annual reports that Catholic Medical Center files with the IRS make no mention of a consulting contract between the hospital and the Rev. Msgr. Edward Arsenault, the Catholic priest under investigation for possible financial improprieties and an improper relationship with an adult.

The financial reports appear to contradict a statement released Monday, when the Manchester hospital acknowledged it signed a contract for consulting services with Arsenault in 2009, after he resigned from the hospital board of directors.

A hospital spokesman on Tuesday said he could not comment, citing an investigation by the New Hampshire Attorney General into Arsenault, who sat on the hospital board for 11 years.

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AUSTRALIA
Special Commission of Inquiry

Tuesday, 7 May 2013: Transcript – Day 2, [PDF, 749kb]

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NEW JERSEY
PolitickerNJ

By Minhaj Hassan | May 8th, 2013

KEARNY – Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday he has exchanged phone conversations with Archbishop John Myers, but hasn’t seen him personally.

Myers, who is archbishop in Newark, has been targeted by Senate Democrats to step down, given the recent revelations that his diocese allowed a priest to spend time with minors when he was legally forbidden to do so.

Christie, who had been attending a ceremony at the Hudson County Correctional Facility today, did not say much more.

“We have exchanged phone conversation but have not met with each other, no,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON May 9, 2013

HE denies ever using the term ‘‘Catholic mafia’’, but former police officer Troy Grant fired plenty of shots into senior Catholic clergy at the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle yesterday.

READ MR GRANT’S STATEMENT BELOW:

Mr Grant, now the state MP for Dubbo, delivered a scathing assessment of ‘‘senior individuals within the Catholic Church’’, and in the process delivered a significant wound to the testimony of Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox.

On Monday, Mr Fox told the inquiry that Mr Grant had warned him about a ‘‘Catholic mafia’’ existing within Newcastle’s police ranks which had hampered police investigations into paedophilia cover-ups within the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | May. 8, 2013

VATICAN CITY Pope Francis met Wednesday with leaders of orders of Catholic sisters and nuns from around the globe, telling them that the lives of consecrated persons are a “light in the world.”

“What would the church be without you?” the pope asked at one point in the audience, telling the sisters the church “would be missing maternity, affection, tenderness” without them.

The meeting, a private audience held in the Vatican’s Pope Paul VI Hall before Francis’ weekly Wednesday audience in St. Peter’s Square, was between the pope and approximately 800 members of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), a membership organization of some 1,800 global leaders of congregations of women religious.

The meeting was much anticipated because leaders of the sisters’ group said they could not recall the last time a pope had met with their general membership.

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NEW MEXICO
The New Mexican

By Tom Sharpe
The New Mexican

An Albuquerque man is suing the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and others, claiming the church failed to do anything about the priests who molested him during his childhood more than 25 years ago in Alamogordo.

Eran Joseph McManemy “has only recently begun to realize that his shattered life is, in fact, a direct result of the abuse he suffered at the ‘holy hands’ of these three sick priests,” says the complaint filed Monday in state District Court in Santa Fe.

The complaint alleges the Rev. Wilfred Diamond began to sexually abuse McManemy soon after he became an altar boy in St. Jude’s Parish in Alamogordo in 1987, when McManemy was 8 or 9 years old.

Diamond retired in 1988, and his temporary successor did not molest McManemy, the complaint says, but when the Rev. Daniel R. Barfield was appointed permanent pastor in 1990, Barfield “also sexually, physically and psychologically assaulted and abused Eran,” the complaint alleges.

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WISCONSIN
Patch

By Viviana Buzo

Wauwatosa police have opened a second investigation on the Wauwatosa priest who was suspended from his duties at St. Pius X Church for allegations of sex abuse, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The department confirmed with the newspaper that another investigation has been opened against Father Bob Marsicek but would not give additional details.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 9, 2013

Jason Gordon

A former police officer and current state MP, Troy Grant, told a special commission of inquiry into the handling of child sex abuse claims that he never used the term ”Catholic mafia” and had never encountered any interference from police during his investigations into paedophilia by priests.

Mr Grant described Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox as ”a meticulous investigator” but he denied ever saying to him that a ”Catholic mafia” existed within the ranks of police in Newcastle, where the inquiry is being held.

On Monday, Mr Fox had told the inquiry that Mr Grant had warned him about a ”Catholic mafia”. The claim was made in the context that police investigations into the alleged cover-up of child sex abuse by Catholic priests had been shelved or hampered.

As a police officer, Mr Grant investigated and charged paedophile priest Vince Ryan in 1995. Mr Ryan was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in jail for offences relating to 31 victims.

”I’m sure I would remember using the term,” he told the commission on Wednesday. ”It’s a great phrase, a cracker of a phrase that I might use in my role as a politician.”

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 8, 2013

Sexual abuse victims seek more time to sue

BY SCOTT M. REID / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Charmaine Carnes still remembers the sick feeling she had the first time her gymnastics coach sexually molested her.

“I was 8 or 9 years old the first time I felt dread. My coach, Doug Boger, was reaching into my leotard, then under it …” Carnes told the state Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
“Then I was silent,” Carnes said.

More than three decades later, Carnes and two other former gymnasts who said they were sexually abused by Boger spoke about the abuse that has haunted them, altering the course of their lives, and about how current law prevents victims from pursuing civil actions against the abusers.

Carnes, Ann Malver and Monica Lenches testified in Sacramento in support of a bill that would extend the statute of limitations in child sexual abuse civil cases. The bill cleared the committee later Tuesday.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Kathleen Hopkins
@KHopkinsAPP

TOMS RIVER — Opening arguments just concluded in the much-anticipated trial of a Yeshiva teacher from Lakewood accused of sexually abusing a boy he met at a summer camp where he worked as a counselor.

Yosef Kolko, 39, of Geffen Drive, is on trial before state Superior Court Judge Francis R. Hodgson in Toms River.

The trial is expected to lift the shroud of secrecy surrounding rabbinical councils to which allegations of sexual abuse within the Orthodox community had traditionally been brought.

Kolko is accused of sexually abusing a boy he met while working as a counselor at Yachad, a summer camp at the Yeshiva Bais Hatorah School on Swarthmore Avenue in Lakewood. The boy has accused Kolko of molesting him between September of 2007 and February of 2009, when he was between 11 and 12 years old.

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WISCONSIN
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | May. 8, 2013 NCR Today

The retirement of Fr. James Connell, a priest of the Milwaukee archdiocese has been in the pipeline since last fall, the priest told NCR Wednesday morning, hoping to quash rumors that he was being reprimanded for outspokenness in his defense of victims of clergy sex abuse.

The retirement is not related to the letters Connell sent to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in April calling for an investigation into Newark, N.J., Archbishop John J. Myers and his handling of a priest accused of the sexual abuse of a minor, Connell told NCR in an email message.

An announcement of Connell’s retired appeared on the website of his Sheboygan, Wis., parish this week. Connell will step down as pastor of St. Holy Name of Jesus & Saint Clement Parishes June 18 when the new pastor Fr. Matthew Widder will be installed.

“Last October I celebrated my 70th birthday,” Connell wrote in his email message. “At that time I requested to retire from full-time assigned ministry beginning June 30, 2013. Archbishop Jerome Listecki granted my request. So, the assignment of my replacement is in order and was expected.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Lateline

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 08/05/2013
Reporter: Suzanne Smith

Former policeman turned state parliamentarian,Troy Grant, told the special commission of inquiry into the handling of child sexual abuse in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese that members of the Catholic Church had interferred in his investigation into sexual abuse.

Transcript

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: More dramatic evidence has been revealed at the new Special Commission of Inquiry into the handling of child sexual abuse in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese in NSW.

Former policeman, now state parliamentarian Troy Grant says a Catholic priest he was investigating was tipped off by a Catholic nun before his arrest. And he refuted claims he’d suggested a Catholic mafia existed within the police force.

Suzie Smith reports from Newcastle.

SUZIE SMITH, REPORTER: National Party MP Troy Grant joined the police force in 1988. As a 25-year-old he took on the case of Father Vincent Ryan. By the late 1990s, 31 Ryan victims had come forward. But Troy Grant says his investigation was obstructed by senior members of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese.

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NEW MEXICO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON MAY 08, 2013

Our hearts go out to Eran Joseph McManemy. It takes real courage to take legal action that safeguards kids and exposes corruption.

Some may find it hard to believe that one boy could be sexually assaulted by three priests. But we in SNAP see cases like this far more often than most would suspect. It’s important to keep in mind that among Catholics, priests are held in very high esteem and kids are trained to trust and revere and obey them.

We call on New Mexico Catholic officials to immediately disclose the whereabouts of the two accused priests who are apparently still alive and to force them into remote, secure, independent treatment centers so they’ll be kept away from kids.

Fr. David Holley is one of America’s most notorious and prolific predator priests. We believe that perhaps dozens of Catholic officials knew of or suspected and ignored, concealed and enabled his heinous crimes over decades. Shame on every one of them. And shame on Catholic officials in New Mexico, Massachusetts and elsewhere who have done little, if anything, to aggressively seek out and comfort his dozens of victims.

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SCOTLAND
Vatican Insider

Media reports say the Vatican has apparently ordered the cardinal to leave Scotland after his alleged involvement in a recent sex abuse scandal

VATICAN INSIDER STAFF
ROME

British cardinal, Keith O’Brien, who was recently implicated in a Church sex abuse scandal, will not be able to spend the rest of his days in Scotland, as he had intended to do, but is being forced to leave the UK.

According to Glasgow daily The Herald, Rome suggested the cardinal leave the country. The newspaper quoted figures close to the cardinal as sources. Cardinal O’Brien was forced to resign and was banned from participating in the Conclave that voted Francis as Pope, after he admitted to “improper conduct” with priests in his former archdiocese.

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IRELAND
RTE News

A former priest has been remanded on bail after he was charged with sexually assaulting two altar boys in the sacristy of a church in Co Cork over 20 years ago.

Patrick Crowley, 62, was brought before Cork District Court where he was charged with nine counts of sexually assaulting the boys.

The State alleges that Mr Crowley sexually assaulted one boy on six occasions and the second boy on three occasions on various dates between 1 September 1989 and 31 May 1990.

The court heard evidence of arrest, charge and caution and that Mr Crowley, of Cuan Mhuire, Athy, Co Kildare, made no reply to any of the charges when they were put to him after caution.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas C. Fox | May. 8, 2013 NCR Today

Mercedarian Missionaries Sister Filo Hirota called upon a group of global women religious leaders to further integrate peace and justice efforts into community life.

She spoke Sunday before a gathering of some 800 women at the triennial assembly of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG). Hirota has been a long time member of the UISG’s Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation board (JPIC).

Peace and justice work is not one of many things we do, but “it is a way to live the consecrated life,” she told the women.

It is important and necessary, she said, that the peace and justice vision and commitment is owned by all the members of the congregation “and that an adequate structure be set up that would enable and facilitate living that commitment.”

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist
on May 08, 2013

By Joseph F. Vitale

Imagine a schoolteacher had been charged with criminal sexual contact and later admitted he twice fondled the genitals of a young student under his care. Imagine his employer, the local school board, had been notified of his behavior but, instead of stripping him of his teaching post and firing him, simply reassigned him to a different location, where the teacher would still be able to have contact with students. All of us, of course, would be outraged and sickened.

We would also expect this teacher would go to prison and that those who allowed him to continue having contact with children would be fired from their jobs. Sounds about right, doesn’t it? But that’s not what happened in the case of the Rev. Michael Fugee and his employer, the Archdiocese of Newark.

In 2003, Fugee was convicted of criminal sexual contact and sentenced to five years’ probation, in addition to registering as a sex offender under Megan’s Law. Later, his conviction was overturned on a technicality and, instead of retrying the case, prosecutors permitted Fugee to enter pretrial intervention, on the condition that he sign a binding agreement.

That agreement states Fugee “may not have unsupervised contact with or any duties that call for the supervision/ministry of any children or children under the age of 18.” The document goes on to state “this includes, but is not limited to, presiding over a parish, involvement with a youth group, religious education/parochial school, CCD (or Sunday school), confessions of children, youth choir, youth retreats and day care.” The agreement also prohibits the archdiocese from assigning him to any of those duties.

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NEW JERSEY
PolitickerNJ

By Matthew Arco | May 8th, 2013 – 10:22am

TRENTON – A week after Gov. Chris Christie laid into his presumptive gubernatorial challenger for calling for Newark’s archbishop to resign, the Senate’s top Democratic lawmaker joined the ranks of officials calling for the state’s highest-ranking Catholic official to step down.

Senate President Steve Sweeney issued a statement Wednesday demanding Archbishop John Myers resign surrounding controversy over allowing a priest who previously admitted to groping a boy to continue working with children.

“As the days go on, it becomes clearer and clearer that Archbishop Myers cannot remain in his position,” Sweeney said.

“Those who are put in a position of trust, whether it be through elected office, as a coach or as a person of faith, must be held to a higher standard,” he said. “And when we are talking about children, that need to trust those in charge leaves absolutely no margin for error. Archbishop Myers must step down now.”

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on May 08, 2013 at 10:33 AM

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney this morning joined in calls for the resignation of Newark Archbishop John J. Myers over his supervision of a priest who violated a lifetime ban on working with children.

Sweeney (D-Gloucester), joins Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex) and Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen) in seeking Myers’ ouster. Advocates for victims of sexual abuse also have demanded Myers step down.

While politicians rarely venture into the affairs of the Roman Catholic church, let alone demand the resignation of an archbishop, Myers’ handling of the Rev. Michael Fugee has drawn sharp criticism from across the country.

“As the days go on, it becomes clearer and clearer that Archbishop Myers cannot remain in his position,” Sweeney said in a statement.

Fugee, who admitted fondling a 13-year-boy in a confession to police 12 years ago, attended youth retreats and heard confessions from minors behind closed doors through his association with St. Mary’s Parish in Colts Neck, The Star-Ledger reported late last month. On Saturday, the pastor and two youth ministers resigned.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By ABQnews Staff on Wed, May 8, 2013

A former altar boy, now a man of 34, alleges in lawsuits that three priests at St. Jude Parish in Alamogordo molested him for years, the Alamogordo Daily News reported.

Plaintiff Eran Joseph McManemy also claims in his lawsuit that church officials knew that one of the priests had been sexually abusing boys since the 1960s but did nothing to stop him, the Daily News said.

That priest, the Rev. David Holley, left a long trail of molestations at churches from Worcester, Mass., to parishes in New Mexico and Texas, the paper reported.

Holley was sentenced in 1993 to 275 years in prison for sodomizing and molesting eight other boys in Alamogordo, the Daily News said. He died in prison in 2008 at the age of 80.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Barry Roche

A former priest has been remanded on bail after he was charged with sexually assaulting two altar boys in the sacristy of a church in Co Cork more than 20 years ago.

Patrick Crowley (62) was brought before Cork District Court today where he was charged with nine counts of sexually assaulting the two boys.

The State alleges Mr Crowley sexually assaulted one boy on six occasions and the second boy on three occasions on various dates between September 1st, 1989 and May 31st, 1990.

Det Garda Donal O’Connell gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution and told the court that Mr Crowley made no reply to any of the charges when they were put to him after caution.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian May 09, 2013

A CATHOLIC nun provided false evidence to a police investigation and was involved in tipping off a pedophile priest on the night before his impending arrest, NSW MP Troy Grant says.

Mr Grant, a former policeman who led the prosecution of priest Vince Ryan for child abuse during the 1990s, said the nun and another senior cleric from the NSW diocese of Maitland-Newcastle had deliberately interfered with his investigation.

Mr Grant did not name the nun, while the senior cleric, Monsignor Patrick Cotter, has since died.

Speaking yesterday after giving evidence to the NSW special commission of inquiry into child abuse, Mr Grant said the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions ultimately decided against charging the pair with perverting the course of justice.

“I do still disagree with that decision. I don’t blame them for it, I just disagree . . . I hope anyone who has become a victim since that day isn’t a victim because the DPP decided not to act,” Mr Grant said.

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KENYA
Standard Digital

Updated Wednesday, May 8th 2013
By Lucas Ng’asike

LODWAR; KENYA: A Catholic priest charged on Tuesday in a Turkana court for allegedly sodomising a student has committed suicide.

The priest, Father John Manzi was found dead hours later on Tuesday night at the Catholic Diocese of Lodwar in Turkana Central district.

The cleric had appeared before a Magistrate’s court in Lodwar where he denied the sodomy charges and was released on a Kshs 100,000 bond pending hearing of the case.

He was not to live to face trial as the priest hanged himself with an electric wire in his house hours after leaving court.

Turkana Central deputy OCPD, Mr John Onditi confirmed the priest’s death saying diocese workers discovered his lifeless body Tuesday night.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Neil Keene
From: The Daily Telegraph
May 09, 2013

FORMER policeman and Nationals Party MP Troy Grant has vowed to tell “any inquiry that wants to hear it” about his knowledge of decades of alleged child sex abuse cover-ups within the Catholic Church.

A nun who allegedly tipped off a paedophile priest the night before police were to interview him was among those within the church in Mr Grant’s sights yesterday as he spoke outside a commission of inquiry being held in Newcastle.

The Dubbo MP said he had evidence of senior clergy cover-ups dating back to 1974, which he would share with the inquiry in its second round of hearings next month.

“Their level of culpability has never been tested in the court, they’ve never been questioned or put before their peers to answer for what they did,” he said.

“What they did in 1974, 1975, 1981 and then 1995 meant that a lot of (church abuse) victims need not have been victims, that’s where the tragedy is.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline

[with video]

Former policeman turned state parliamentarian,Troy Grant, told the special commission of inquiry into the handling of child sexual abuse in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese that members of the Catholic Church had interferred in his investigation into sexual abuse.

Transcript

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: More dramatic evidence has been revealed at the new Special Commission of Inquiry into the handling of child sexual abuse in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese in NSW.

Former policeman, now state parliamentarian Troy Grant says a Catholic priest he was investigating was tipped off by a Catholic nun before his arrest. And he refuted claims he’d suggested a Catholic mafia existed within the police force.

Suzie Smith reports from Newcastle.

SUZIE SMITH, REPORTER: National Party MP Troy Grant joined the police force in 1988. As a 25-year-old he took on the case of Father Vincent Ryan. By the late 1990s, 31 Ryan victims had come forward. But Troy Grant says his investigation was obstructed by senior members of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese.

The former policeman told the inquiry a senior nun visited his home during the investigation. The same nun also gave him a false statement.

TROY GRANT, MEMBER FOR DUBBO: The nun provided me with false evidence and played a active role in tipping off the priest the night before I arrested him.

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel May 7, 2013

Wauwatosa police have launched a second investigation into a local priest who was removed from his posts at two parishes and schools for suspicion of inappropriate contact with children.

The department confirmed Monday that a new investigation of Father Robert Marsicek is ongoing but declined to provide additional information about the allegation.

Both the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and Marsicek’s religious order, the Society of the Divine Savior, known as the Salvatorians, said they were unaware of a new probe. And the principal of Wauwatosa Catholic School, where an earlier allegation was raised, did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

Marsicek was suspended from ministry at St. Pius X Catholic Parish in Wauwatosa, Mother of Good Counsel Parish and School in Milwaukee and Wauwatosa Catholic School after a teacher at Wauwatosa Catholic reported in March that Marsicek inappropriately touched a young girl.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

By MARK HAYWARD
New Hampshire Union Leader

MANCHESTER – The former high-ranking Catholic Church official now under investigation for improper use of church funds earned a $169,900 salary at his job at a Maryland treatment facility, where he abruptly resigned last week.

The Rev. Msgr. Edward Arsenault earned the salary as president and chief executive officer of St. Luke Institute, residential and out-patient clinic for clergy, priests, nuns and brothers in need of mental health and spiritual treatment, wellness and educational programs.

On Monday, the Diocese of Manchester announced that it had suspended the priestly privileges of Arsenault while investigations proceed into possible illegal use of church funds and an inappropriate adult relationship on his part.

Just days before the announcement, Arsenault resigned the job at St. Luke, which he had held since October 2009. Arsenault has also resigned as chairman of the board of St. Luke Centre, a sister institution in Manchester, England.

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ROME
The Tablet (UK)

7 May 2013

Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, head of the Vatican congregation that deals with religious orders, has criticised the way the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith carried out a controversial investigation of a body representing more than eighty per cent – 46,000 – of US nuns.

The Brazilian cardinal spoke on Sunday at the tri-annual general assembly of the Rome-based International Union of Women Superiors General (UISG), telling the women leaders he was never consulted on the investigation into the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

Cardinal Braz said that his office first learned of the move against the LCWR in a meeting with the CDF after the formal report on the matter had been completed. He said he told Cardinal William Levada, who was then-prefect of the doctrinal congregation, that the matter should have been discussed between their two Vatican offices.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

By Maureen Fiedler | May. 7, 2013 NCR Today

I read with fascination Joshua J. McElwee’s story about Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, the prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and his talk to the International Union of Superiors General in Rome. And in it, I saw some glimmers of hope.

After all, how often do cardinals complain about their fellow cardinals in public? And how often do they suggest the need for women’s leadership in the church? Braz de Aviz did both.

First, Braz de Aviz made public his personal “pain” over the fact that he was “left out” of the discussions about the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) and the mandate that came down last year from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

That issue was no doubt on the minds of the 800 women attending the meeting. Franciscan Sr. Florence Deacon, the current president of LCWR, gave a presentation to the group detailing the “serious misunderstandings” between LCWR and the doctrinal congregation.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler | May 07, 2013

Today’s bizarre public statement from the Vatican press office, denying what any intelligent observer recognizes as the truth, does contain one nugget of reality.

The statement denies that there has been any difference of opinion between Cardinal Braz de Aviz and Archbishop Müller, when the cardinal has already made their differences public.

The statement claims that two Vatican congregations have been collaborating closely, when the cardinal has already revealed that one congregation didn’t know what the other was doing.

On those matters, the Vatican statement does not—how shall I put it?—correspond very closely with reality. However, when the statement adds that Cardinal Braz de Aviz and Archbishop Müller met yesterday, there no reason to doubt that is true. It seems likely that other Vatican officials (one or two names come to mind) insisted on that meeting. And it is worth noticing what the two prelates were said to have agreed upon; they “reaffirmed their common commitment to the renewal of Religious Life, and particularly to the Doctrinal Assessment of the LCWR and the program of reform it requires, in accordance with the wishes of the Holy Father.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

By Ken Briggs | May. 7, 2013 NCR Today

Everybody knows what Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz went through. The lordly office that polices doctrine pulled rank on him, lowering the boom on American sisters without telling him.

We’ve all been left out of the loop. The picnic plans got switched, unbeknownst to us, or the boss crossed us up by ignoring to mention that the plum job we’d expected was going to someone else. The varieties are endless.

Cardinal Braz de Aviz says the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith dumped the indictment on the sisters without informing him and he’s now gone public about it.

The flurry of reactions ranged from “inappropriate” to “heroic” An insider within the pressure cooker conformity of the Vatican had broken ranks and protocol by griping about the treatment he and, by implication, the sisters had received.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Dr. Jeff Mirus May 07, 2013

The defense of the Leadership Conference for Women Religious by the president of the International Union of Superiors General would be funny if it were intended as a parody. Read the story and you’ll see what I mean.

According to Sister Mary Lou Wirtz, the problem is simple:

Since Vatican II, obedience and authority are understood differently.
So we have to look at what Gospel leadership means today.
The LCWR hopes for an open discussion of this.
But there is no openness to the Gospel at the Vatican.

In other words, Sister Mary Lou pulled standard response number 1A out of the drawer and filled in the name of the group in question on this occasion.

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ROME
GlobalPost

Jason Berry

Should Pope Francis continue a punitive strike against the mainstream organization of American nuns? Is the survival of the group representing 57,000 liberal US nuns even on His Holiness’ radar screen? And if not, how do the group’s leaders put it there?

These questions will be hovering when the pope meets Wednesday morning with 800 women superiors of religious orders across the globe for one hour, before his weekly audience that draws 10 times as many people. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious — an American organization — has four members in the International Union of Superiors General, representing 700,000 sisters from across the world.

In April 2012 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — historically, the office that monitors strict compliance with church teaching — put the LCWR under supervision, a kind of receivership.

CDF prefect Cardinal William Levada, who soon retired to a condo in California, scored members of the LCWR for “radical feminist” initiatives; he appointed Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain to vet their writings, speakers and rewrite their guidelines.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

by ESTEFANIA AGUIRRE/CNA/EWTN NEWS 05/08/2013

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican’s doctrine congregation has released a statement saying the media misreported a cardinal’s remarks about the ongoing reform of a group of American sisters, but an inside source at the department says it is confused because the matter is their “exclusive responsibility.”

An official at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith told CNA May 7 on the condition of anonymity that the congregation is “perplexed” by Cardinal João Braz de Aviz saying it did not discuss with him their decision to require an American group of religious superiors to undergo reform.
“We are perplexed because the matter is the exclusive responsibility of the congregation and we aren’t stepping on anyone’s toes,” the source said early on Tuesday afternoon.

The decision was the outcome of a four-year assessment that found the Leadership Conference of Women Religious promoted “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith” and dissent from Church teaching on topics including the sacramental male priesthood and homosexuality.

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VATICAN CITY
Business Standard

Pope Francis has told nuns from around the world that they must be spiritual mothers and not “old maids.”

Francis also warned the sisters against using their vocations for personal ambition, saying priests and sisters who do so “do more harm to the church.”

Francis has complained frequently about such “careerism” in the church, a buzzword that is frequently used to describe Holy See bureaucrats.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

By NICOLE WINFIELD 05/07/13

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican on Tuesday denied there were any internal divisions over its crackdown on the largest umbrella group of U.S. nuns after a top Vatican official complained that he had been sidelined by the reform project.

The head of the Vatican’s office for religious orders, Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, was quoted over the weekend as saying his office wasn’t consulted or even advised by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith about its decision to overhaul the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents 80 percent of American sisters. He said the crackdown had caused him “much pain.”

The Congregation last year placed the Leadership Conference under the authority of a U.S. bishop after determining that the sisters took positions that undermined Catholic teaching on the priesthood and homosexuality while promoting “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”

Braz de Aviz was quoted by the National Catholic Reporter as telling an international gathering of sisters in Rome on Sunday that he only learned of the Congregation’s crackdown after its report had been completed. He said he told the then-prefect of the Congregation, U.S. Cardinal William Levada, that the issue should have been discussed with his office but wasn’t.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

Tzedek, the Jewish organisation which has been established to end the silence on child sexual abuse within the Jewish community, has made an application to appear at the Royal Commission into child abuse.

Manny Waks, founder and CEO of Tzedek and well-known human rights campaigner in the Jewish community has enlisted the help of Maurice Blackburn principal and Tzedek President Josh Bornstein, and will apply for leave to appear at the Royal Commission.

Maurice Blackburn is working with a legal team that also includes Victorian barrister, Daniel Star, Anton Hermann from Minter Ellison and lawyer Joel Vernon, who is also Secretary on the Tzedek board.

Mr Waks established Tzedek in December 2012 as the first organisation in Australia dedicated to the issue of child sexual abuse within the Jewish community. In 2011, Mr Waks publicly disclosed that he had suffered child sexual abuse, making the brave decision to tell his story in a bid to help others speak up and break the cycle of silence.

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NEW MEXICO
Alamogordo Daily News

By Milan Simonich, Texas-New Mexico Newspapers
Posted: 05/07/2013

SANTA FE — A former altar boy, now a man of 34, alleges in lawsuits that three priests at St. Jude Parish in Alamogordo molested him for years.

The plaintiff, Eran Joseph McManemy, also says the Catholic church’s hierarchy knew that one of the priests had been sexually abusing boys since the 1960s but did nothing to stop him.

This priest was the Rev. David A. Holley, who left a long trail of molestations at churches from Worcester, Mass., to ones in New Mexico and Texas.

Finally, in 1993, Holley was sentenced to 275 years in prison for sodomizing and molesting eight other boys in Alamogordo. He died in prison in 2008 at age 80.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

Alessandro Speciale | May 7, 2013

VATICAN CITY (RNS) In a bid to improve its checkered record on financial transparency, the Vatican on Tuesday (May 7) signed a cooperation agreement with the U.S. agency that fights against financial crimes.

The Vatican’s Institute for the Works of Religion, known as the Vatican Bank, has a long history of secrecy and scandals, and it has reportedly been involved in several shady operations during the course of its history. In recent years, top bank officials have been put under investigation by Italian magistrates for alleged money laundering.

For decades, the Vatican Bank operated outside of international oversight, thanks to the Holy See’s status as an independent state.

Facing increasing international scrutiny, the Vatican set up an independent financial watchdog, the Financial Intelligence Authority, in April 2011 as part of its effort to bring its financial practices in line with international standards.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

NEIL KEENE From: The Daily Telegraph May 08, 2013

FORMER police officer and National party MP Troy Grant has made explosive claims about cover-ups of child sex abuse within the Catholic church, including deliberate actions by a nun to tip off a paedophile priest.

Speaking to media after giving evidence at a special commission of inquiry in Newcastle this morning, Mr Grant said that while he never encountered a “Catholic mafia” within the police force, there was certainly collusion within the clergy to hide serious sex offences.

“There were individuals who acted completely inappropriately, commensurate with their pastoral care. I believe they acted illegally,” he said.

Those people allegedly included a nun who Mr Grant claimed tipped off a priest, later convicted of child sex offences, the night before he was due to be interviewed by police.

He said he had evidence of senior clergy cover-ups dating back as far as 1974.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian May 08, 2013

A CATHOLIC priest being investigated for pedophile crimes was tipped off by a nun before his arrest, the former investigating policeman and current NSW MP Troy Grant says.

Mr Grant, the Nationals MP for Dubbo in the state’s west, said he is prepared to give evidence of this as well as alleged cover-ups by senior clergy to the NSW special commission of inquiry into child abuse next month.

Speaking outside the hearing, after giving evidence this morning, Mr Grant said that church officials had colluded to hide serious sex offences.

“There were individuals who acted completely inappropriately, commensurate with their pastoral care. I believe they acted illegally,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

AAP

A special inquiry has heard factions in the NSW police force wanted to prevent a full investigation of alleged sex abuse by priests in the Hunter region, but another witness denied speaking of a “Catholic mafia” in the force.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told Special Commissioner Margaret Cunneen he formed the belief that parts of the NSW force didn’t want the abuse allegations probed in his investigations, which involved possibly hundreds of victims, over several years to December 2010.

This concern led him to lie about his investigations to colleagues and breach a direction not to speak to journalists, he told the special commission of inquiry in Newcastle on Wednesday.

It also made him reluctant to stop investigating and hand over his files, he said.

Inspector Fox said he had also unearthed links between alleged abuse by priests in the Hunter Valley and priests in other parts of the state.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian May 08, 2013

A NSW MP and former police officer who successfully prosecuted a pedophile priest in the state’s Hunter Valley has denied claims the force interfered with investigations into the Catholic church.

Giving evidence to the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry this morning, Troy Grant explicitly denied claims by a serving detective, Peter Fox, that he once claimed a “Catholic mafia” existed within the police.

“It’s (a phrase) that obviously grabs attention. It’s one that I’m sure I would remember ever saying, it’s one that nobody who knows me would expect me to say,” Mr Grant said.

“I have never had any reason to report any type of activity that would be perceived to be any form of Catholic mafia or any interference from the police force at any time,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON May 8, 2013

FORMER police officer Troy Grant has told the Special Commission of Inquiry into the handling of child sex abuse claims that he never used the term ‘‘Catholic mafia’’ and had never encountered any interference from police during his investigations into paedophilia by priests.

Mr Grant, now state MP for Dubbo, described Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox as ‘‘a meticulous investigator’’ but he denied ever saying to him that a ‘‘Catholic mafia’’ existed within the ranks of Newcastle police.

On Monday, Mr Fox had told the inquiry that Mr Grant had warned him about a ‘‘Catholic mafia’’. The claim was made in the context that police investigations into the alleged cover-up of child sex abuse by Catholic priests had been shelved or hampered.

As a police officer, Mr Grant investigated and charged paedophile priest Vince Ryan in 1995. Ryan was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in jail for offences relating to 31 victims.

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AUSTRALIA
Northern Star

Jessica Grewal 8th May 2013

A FORMER Northern NSW priest is facing more than 100 child-sex charges spanning two decades.

The 59-year-old, who can not be named, was before the Armidale court for a string of related offences on Wednesday when he faced 64 additional charges.

Police allege he repeatedly assaulted six boys and three girls in the 70s and another boy and two girls in the early 80s at Moree, Narrabri, Inverell and Armidale.

Charges include 11 counts of sexual intercourse without consent and 52 counts of indecent assault.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC
May 8, 2013

A court in northern New South Wales has refused to lift a suppression order preventing the naming of a former priest charged with 125 historic child sex abuse offences.

At Armidale Local Court today, Magistrate Karen Stafford ruled there can be no publication of the accused’s name or any information which could lead to his identification, or his place of abode.

In October and January, officers from Strike Force Glenroe laid 61 charges against the defendant relating to the alleged abuse of three girls and six alter boys in the Moree and Armidale areas.

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AUSTRALIA
Armidale Express

A former Catholic priest accused of committing historic child sex crimes has been charged with an additional 64 offences.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faced Armidale Local Court on Wednesday to face charges related to the alleged assault of three girls and six boys during the 1980s.

He was subsequently charged with further offences related to the alleged assault of three more accusers.

One of his alleged victims, an altar boy in the Moree parish, was allegedly assaulted on several occasions between 1982 and 1985.

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NEW JERSEY
The Jewish Voice

WEDNESDAY, 08 MAY 2013 11:03 BY NOA ZIVYON

After years of countless threats against a New Jersey boy and his family, at long last the trial of his accused molester Rabbi Yosef Kolko is set to being this week.

Yeshiva teacher Yosef Kolko— who is the nephew of notorious pedophile Rabbi Yehuda Kolko— will face a jury this week for accusations of sexually abusing the young boy during summer camp six years ago, according to court documents.

When a religious council of Orthodox Jews refused to take legal action against the man, his family turned to the Office of the Ocean County Prosecutor to seek justice.

As a result of seeking prosecution outside the confines of the Orthodox world, the victim’s entire family was ostracized by residents of their local community in Lakewood, New Jersey. Likewise, several community members took it a step further hoping on board a “terror campaign” to bully the family into dropping charges against the teacher by distributed flyers throughout the town which proclaimed the boy’s father had made a “mockery” of the Tanakh by committing the “terrible deed” of using a secular jurisdiction.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Online

By Deacon Keith Fournier
5/8/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Sexual abuse by Catholic clergy needs to be disclosed, exposed, prosecuted and explained. This Pope will do that. He will also address the evil which lies at the root of the problem

The exposure of sexual sin among Catholic clergy is not accidental in its timing. It is a part of a time of purification. Such sexual activity, particularly when forced on a child by one in a position of power – priest, bishop or deacon- is an act of evil in its most heinous form. It constitutes a spiritual plundering and attempt to destroy a soul. It is also criminal – and it should be prosecuted. There have been other times in the history of the Church when the clergy have been corrupted. God always begins His Spring cleaning in His own house. As the Apostle Peter wrote to the Church of the first millennium during another great missionary age: “the time has come for judgment to begin with the House of God.” (1 Peter 4:17)

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) – On April 5, 2013, Pope Francis met with Archbishop Gerhard L. Muller, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). Among the topics discussed was clerical sexual abuse. The new Pope made crystal clear his high regard for the strong approach of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, to confronting this evil.

He directed Archbishop Muller to continue the zero tolerance approach of Benedict XVI and to “act decisively” against sexual abuse. He charged him to carry out “due proceedings against the guilty.” After the meeting the Vatican released a statement which included these directions to the CDF:

“To act decisively concerning cases of sexual abuse – First of all by promoting measures for the protection of minors, as well as in offering assistance to those who have suffered abuse, carrying out due proceedings against the guilty, and in the commitment of bishops’ conferences to formulate and implement the necessary directives in this area that is so important for the Church’s witness and credibility.”

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AUSTRALIA
Otago Daily Times

Wed, 8 May 2013

Catholic Church officials and clergy, not police, obstructed investigations into allegations of child sexual abuse by NSW priests, a special state government commission of inquiry has been told.

The evidence given by state MP for Dubbo and former police officer Troy Grant contradicts the account of the man at the centre of the inquiry, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox.

Mr Grant, who as a policeman investigated sex abuse in 1995, denied he had told Insp Fox there was a “Catholic mafia” within the police force that hindered investigations into the Hunter Valley allegations.

Commissioner Margaret Cunneen today began hearing the third day of evidence in Newcastle into allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in the Hunter, including assertions by Insp Fox of a cover-up by the church and that senior police had ordered him to stop his investigations.

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AUSTRALIA
Big Pond News

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

The opposition says victims who emerge as a result of inquiries into sexual abuse won’t be compensated.

Victims who emerge as a result of ongoing inquiries into child abuse won’t be able to claim compensation because of the NSW government’s reporting cap, the opposition says.

Changes to the victims compensation scheme prevent victims of sexual assault, domestic violence or child abuse from making a claim more than a decade after the crime.

This will leave many victims of historical abuse excluded from compensation, Opposition Leader John Robertson says.

‘This is a disgraceful act from the O’Farrell government,’ he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Liberal

AN INQUIRY into the handling by police of certain child sexual abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle has heard that former policeman and Dubbo MP Troy Grant rejects having used the phrase “Catholic mafia”.

A national newspaper yesterday reported that Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox had told the inquiry that the MP used the phrase when referring to police interfering in his own investigation of a paedophile priest.

But counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan SC, is also reported to have told of a sworn statement in which the MP denied he used the phrase or that police had hindered or obstructed his investigation.

Mr Grant is scheduled to appear before the special commission this morning.

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NEW MEXICO
Las Cruces Sun-News

By Milan Simonich / msimonich@tnmnp.com
Posted: 05/07/2013

SANTA FE — A former altar boy, now a man of 34, alleges in lawsuits that three priests at St. Jude Catholic Church in Alamogordo molested him for years.

The plaintiff, Eran Joseph McManemy, also says the Catholic Church’s hierarchy knew that one of the priests had been sexually abusing boys since the 1960s but did nothing to stop him.

This priest was the Rev. David A. Holley, who left a long trail of molestations at churches from Worcester, Mass., to ones in New Mexico and Texas.

Finally, in 1993, Holley was sentenced to 275 years in prison for sodomizing and molesting eight other boys in Alamogordo. He died in prison in 2008 at age 80.

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AUSTRALIA
New South Wales Police Force

Former Catholic priest charged with 64 additional offences – Strike Force Glenroe

Wednesday, 08 May 2013 11:55:52 AM

A former Catholic priest has today been charged with 64 additional offences relating to alleged historical child assault offences.

The 59-year-old man faced Armidale Local Court today (Wednesday 8 May 2013) on charges relating to alleged child-sex offences against six boys and three girls in the 1970s and 1980s.

During his appearance, the man was additionally charged with 64 offences relating to alleged assaults against one boy and two girls, aged from nine to 19, between 1982 and 1985 in Moree, Narrabri, Inverell and Armidale.

They include 11 counts of sexual intercourse without consent; 52 counts of indecent assault; and one count of committing an act of indecency.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON May 8, 2013

A former police office turned politician has denied ever using the term “Catholic Mafia” to describe senior police who interfered with his investigations into Catholic Church paedophilia.

Nationals member for Dubbo, Troy Grant, was the second witness to give evidence on day three of the Commission of Inquiry into the alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

Mr Grant rejected claims by Detective Chief Inspector Fox that he said there was a “Catholic Mafia” – members of senior police hindering investigations into sexual abuse by priests.

“I have no reason to have used that term because I have and saw no interference with my investigation,” Mr Grant told the commission.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Stephanie Loder
@Loder1

A support group for clergy sex-abuse victims wants two New Jersey Catholic bishops to reach out to parishioners and get them to report any allegations of abuse by a priest who once confessed to touching an underage boy.

The bishops of the Diocese of Trenton and the Diocese of Paterson should reach out through church bulletins and websites to help victims step forward with any instances of abuse involving the Rev. Michael Fugee, who until recently worked at St. Mary’s parish in Colts Neck with its youth ministry, said David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

In a letter sent to to Diocese of Trenton Bishop David O’Connell and Diocese of Paterson Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli, SNAP members wrote, “We strongly urge you, as church leaders in the areas where Fr. Fugee ministered — officially or unofficially, with or without permission — to appeal for victims and witnesses to come forward and report any abuse.”

Fugee, a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark, resigned last week. Parishioners at St. Mary’s in Colts Neck say Fugee had been involved with a parish youth group in defiance of an agreement with Bergen County prosecutors that he not work with children.

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AUSTRALIA
7 news

By Dan Cox, ABC
Updated May 8, 2013

A former New South Wales policeman turned state MP has denied describing some senior Hunter Valley officers as the “Catholic Mafia”.

Nationals MP for the state seat of Dubbo Troy Grant has given evidence on the third day of the Special Commission of Inquiry into how New South Wales Police and the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese handled allegations of child sexual abuse by two priests.

Previously Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox said Mr Grant described senior officers as the “Catholic Mafia” because they are “aligned to the church”.

But Mr Grant has told the court that the phrase grabs attention, and he would remember it if he had used it.

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AUSTRALIA
Big Pond News

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

A former Catholic priest is accused of 124 child sex offences after scores of additional charges were laid against him.

The 59-year-old man faced Armidale Local Court, in the NSW New England region, on Wednesday, when prosecutors laid 64 fresh charges.

He remains on bail until his next appearance in the same court on July 3.

Police allege the offences relate to alleged assaults on a boy and two girls, aged from nine to 19, that took place in the early 1980s at Moree, Narrabri, Inverell and Armidale.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

SIMON BLACK THE DAILY TELEGRAPH MAY 08, 2013

A FORMER Catholic priest who is facing a slew of charges relating to alleged child assault offences has been hit with an additional 64 charges during an appearance before Armidale Local Court today.

The 59-year-old man, known only as “the man” due to legal reasons, was due to appear on charges relating to alleged child-sex offences against six boys and three girls in the 1970s and 1980s.

During this appearance he was charged with an additional 64 offences including 11 counts of sexual intercourse without consent; 52 counts of indecent assault; and one count of committing an act of indecency.

The new charges relate to alleged assaults against one boy and two girls, aged from nine to 19, between 1982 and 1985 in Moree, Narrabri, Inverell and Armidale and come as part of ongoing investigations by Strike Force Glenroe, which was established in July last year to investigate claims of sexual abuse by the former priest, and comprises detectives from the Sex Crimes Squad and the New England and Barwon Local Area Commands.

The man is also at the centre of allegations of cover-ups of sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church after he told a court in 2004 he had made an admission to clergy in 1992 that he had performed oral sex on boys.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local North Attleboro

By Andy Metzger
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
Posted May 07, 2013

North Attleborough —
Recalling painful memories of crimes that occurred years ago, survivors and their family members asked lawmakers to do away with the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse and to increase penalties for certain types of rape.

“I think it’s my fault because I didn’t scream or yell for help. I had Lifeline and I didn’t push the button. I was frozen, numb. I couldn’t speak. Why didn’t I yell? What could I have done to stop him? Why did it hurt so much?” Lisa Flint, of North Attleborough, a woman whose speech and movements are limited by cerebral palsy and who was raped in college, told lawmakers. She said, “This is what my world has been like since May 15, 2000. I ache for some kind of peace within. I have something he wasn’t powerful enough to take and that is hope. I hope someday I can make a difference for someone else.”

Accompanying Flint before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, Rep. Elizabeth Poirier (R-North Attleborough) said she has known Flint since she was a child and said her rapist was sentenced to 20 years, making him eligible for release after 15. Poirier and Flint support legislation (H 1568) that would allow for life sentences for those convicted of raping people with disabilities.

“It is an aggravating circumstance, and should be recognized as such under the law,” Poirier said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

A former policeman turned New South Wales MP is today due to give evidence at an inquiry into child sexual abuse within the Hunter Valley’s Catholic Church.

It is the third day of the Special Commission of Inquiry into how New South Wales Police and the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese handled allegations of child sexual abuse by two priests.

Former Hunter Valley policeman, now Nationals state MP for Dubbo, Troy Grant is expected to give evidence, followed by Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox.

The first two weeks of the inquiry is looking at the circumstances in which Peter Fox says he was told to stop investigating allegations against former priests Denis McAlinden and Jim Fletcher.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

May 6, 2013

EDITORIAL

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox will take the stand on Monday in the first public hearings of the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into whether the Catholic Church hindered his and other investigations into child abuse.

The inquiry is welcome for victims in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese. It comes as non-church research shows most complainants feel they have been re-victimised by the relevant institutions and reports suggest a shortfall in NSW policing has left child abuse suspects uncharged.

But the start of the investigation also raises important issues of overlap with concurrent federal and Victorian inquiries.

In particular, the public needs to be sure key evidence and testimony in Victoria about allegedly suspect clergy can be used readily and legally by the NSW inquiry.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[Victims want action from two NJ bishops]

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 07, 2013

Most Reverend David O’Connell
701 Lawrenceville Rd
Trenton, NJ 08648

Dear Bishop O’Connell,

It has recently surfaced that Fr. Michael Fugee has violated his signed agreement with prosecutors to have no contact with children. He spent time in your diocese.

Fr. Fugee admitted child sex crimes, was charged in 2001, and convicted in 2003. He was sentenced to lifetime probation and to register as a sex offender. His conviction was later overturned on a technicality. To avoid a retrial, Fr. Fugee signed an agreement with prosecutors to enter a treatment facility, attend therapy, and stay away from children. That agreement was also signed by Fr. Fugee’s Catholic supervisors in the Newark Archdiocese.

We strongly urge you, as head of a diocese where Fr. Fugee ministered, to aggressively appeal for victims and witnesses to come forward and report any abuse. Announcements should be made not only in the diocesan newspaper, but in parish bulletins and from the pulpit during Sunday Masses throughout your diocese. The announcements should encourage anyone who witnessed, suspected or experienced abuse or cover ups or misdeeds to contact law enforcement, not church officials.

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NEW YORK
Law 360

By Andrew Scurria

Law360, New York (May 07, 2013, 4:24 PM ET) — New York’s highest court ruled Tuesday that a Catholic priest’s abuse of a minor over more than five years could not be treated as a single occurrence under insurance policies issued to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, saying the diocese must pay deductibles for each policy it was covered under.

Affirming a lower appellate court decision, the New York Court of Appeals held that under the state’s so-called unfortunate event test, the separate instances of abuse shared too few characteristics to be considered a repeated…

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KENYA
Standard Digital

By Lucas Ng’asike and Moses Nyamori

Turkana, Kenya: A Catholic priest has been arrested and arraigned in court for allegedly sodomising a Form Three student in Lodwar.

Father John Manzi was charged in a Lodwar court with indecently committing the act contrary to section 11(A) of the Sexual Offences Act of 2006.

The priest pleaded not guilty before acting Principal Magistrate Harrison Barasa and the case was set for hearing on June 5.

He was released on a bond of Sh100,000 with one surety of a similar amount or cash bail of Sh80,000.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Ham & High

by Tim Lamden
Tuesday, May 7, 2013

A man charged with harassment in relation to police investigations into a Temple Fortune rabbi will stand trial in July.

Samuel Erlanger, 37, will appear at Willesden Magistrates’ Court for trial on July 11 as part of ongoing investigations into orthodox rabbi Chaim Halpern, 54, leader of Divrei Chaim Synagogue in Bridge Lane, Temple Fortune.

Mr Erlanger, of Powis Gardens, Golders Green, denied one charge of harassment without violence at Hendon Magistrates Court on Thursday.

He was arrested in January on suspicion of harassment via telephone following incidents alleged to have taken place between December 25 last year and January 23 this year.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Tuesday 7 May 2013

Colette Douglas Home
Columnist

I too looked at the picture of the old man in the check shirt with mixed emotions – all of them uncomfortable.

The caption was a shout of outrage. It said disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien was moving boxes into his Dunbar house. His holiday home (owned by the church) would now be his retirement home. The subtext was: he’s getting off with it.

My first instinct was to avert my gaze. I was sorry his whereabouts had been drawn to my attention. I was repelled by the invitation to condemn him and I regretted the implication that there would be or should be a witch hunt.

Lynch mobs are dehumanising. No accused person is all bad and no accuser is all good.

And yet could it be right that the Cardinal’s post-scandal retirement mirrored so closely the one he had already planned?

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MARYLAND
U.S. Catholic

SILVER SPRING, Md. (CNS) — Msgr. Edward J. Arsenault, president and CEO of St. Luke Institute in Silver Spring, has resigned in the wake of an investigation into an alleged inappropriate adult relationship and the uncovering of possible illegal financial dealings in the Diocese of Manchester, N.H.

The resignation of Msgr. Arsenault, a priest of the Manchester Diocese, was effective May 3. It was announced in statements issued by the institute and the diocese.

The investigation does not involve St. Luke Institute, a treatment facility for Catholic clergy and religious, the institute said in its statement.

Msgr. Arsenault held senior positions in the diocese from January 1999 to February 2009 and was the diocese’s principal spokesman at the height of the clergy sexual abuse scandal a decade ago. He joined St. Luke Institute in October 2009.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

Posted by Robert A. Gahl J.r. on May 7, 2013

In October of 1999, at the end of a meeting of departmental chiefs in the Vatican, I confronted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and challenged him. The meeting was meant to discuss available options for dealing with the already-burgeoning international crisis of sexual abuse. Everyone in that room aimed for justice, especially for the victims, but also for the accused. Ratzinger was leading the curial push to decisively deal with perpetrators who were still a threat because of some weak-minded administrators and their policy to move criminals first to treatment and then back into ministry.

I had been invited by the Congregation for Clergy to present an ethical analysis of the extrajudicial, administrative practices used by the church to prosecute cases of clerical sexual abuse. At that meeting, I highlighted the risks of violating the natural right to a fair trial. The cardinals expressed differences of opinion regarding their concern for the rights of the accused and the terrible wounds of the victims who had been abused by those whom they had held in sacred trust. Despite his gentleness, Ratzinger demonstrated deep determination to satisfy justice.

Ratzinger did not aim for a middle place between the competing interests of the victims and of the accused, but to ascertain the truth, reach a verdict, and impose a just penalty, all while doing everything possible to heal the victims and repair the damage done to the church and society. After noting my concern for judicial due process, he indicated his unshakeable commitment to do everything possible to root out abusive clergy, fully cognizant that he could be criticized by canon lawyers for eliminating traditional steps in ecclesiastical trials designed to protect the rights of the accused.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Reuters

By Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON | Tue May 7, 2013

May 7 (Reuters) – The regulator of the Vatican bank on Tuesday signed an information-sharing pact with the U.S. agency that tracks suspicious financial transactions, part of an effort by the scandal-ridden bank to improve its international image.

The bank, which manages money mostly for dioceses and religious institutions and is known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), has traditionally been isolated from the international regulatory system.

It has been rocked by three decades of scandals, including the 1982 incident in which Roberto Calvi, an Italian known as “God’s Banker” because of his Vatican ties, was found hanged under London’s Blackfriars Bridge.

More recently, Italian magistrates have been investigating the IOR for money laundering. The IOR has assets estimated between 6 and 7 billion Euros.

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VATICAN CITY
The Motley Fool

By Associated Press
May 7, 2013

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has signed an agreement with the U.S. Treasury Department to exchange financial information as part of its efforts to comply with international anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing norms.

It’s the fourth such agreement inked by the Holy See as it seeks to improve its reputation in global financial circles following a series of scandals at its bank and a money laundering investigation launched by Rome prosecutors.

The agreement was signed Tuesday in Washington by Rene Bruelhart of the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency and Jennifer Shasky Calvery of Treasury’s financial crimes enforcement network.

The Council of Europe’s Moneyval committee, which is evaluating the Vatican’s financial transparency, noted that the Vatican was limited in its ability to share information by its requirement to have such bilateral agreements in place.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston.com

By BOB SALSBERG
Associated Press / May 7, 2013

BOSTON (AP) — An attorney who helped lead an $85 million child sexual abuse settlement against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston before revealing that he had been a victim of child molestation urged state lawmakers to raise the statute of limitations on sex-abuse lawsuits.

The measure, heard Tuesday by the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, would give victims until age 55 to file civil claims against their alleged attackers. Under current Massachusetts law, most victims have only until age 21 to bring civil lawsuits, according to backers of the legislation.

‘‘It’s not going to be complete justice, there will never be complete justice,’’ attorney Eric MacLeish said before meeting with lawmakers.

‘‘But this bill will be so helpful for so many people and I would like to think that it could have been helpful to me,’’ he said, adding that he would argue for the bill from both the standpoint of a lawyer and abuse victim.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Triers Bischof Stephan Ackermann hat gestern zwei Pfarrern, die des Missbrauchs schuldig sind, endgültig gekündigt. Ein weiterer Pastor bat aus diesem Grund selbst um seine Entlassung. Alle Fälle sind strafrechtlich verjährt

Die Nachricht, dass zwei katholische Pfarrer aus dem Saarland sich wegen erwiesener Missbrauchs taten künftig nicht mehr kirchlich betätigen werden, erreicht die betroffenen Gemeinden auf höchst unterschiedliche Weise. Während Bischof Stephan Ackermann den Missbrauchs-Opfern in einem persönlichen Schreiben sein Bedauern darüber ausdrückte, „was sie an Leid erfahren mussten“, erreichte die Gemeinden die Nachricht offenbar nicht zeitgleich. Nach Informationen der SZ wurde die Burbacher Gemeinde St. Eligius, in der der Pfarrer Klaus K. (71) 30 Jahre lang bis zu seiner ehrenhaften Entlassung in den Ruhestand im September 2011 gewirkt hatte, bei einem Gottesdienst am Wochenende über die Entlassung K.s aus dem Klerikerstand in Kenntnis gesetzt. K. hat erwiesenermaßen mindestens zwei Mädchen missbraucht, wurde dafür jedoch nicht strafrechtlich zur Rechenschaft gezogen, weil die Fälle verjährt waren. Eine der Betroffenen hatte jedoch bereits Ende der 1990er Jahre den damaligen Trierer Bischof auf die Taten des Burbacher Pfarrers hingewiesen. Das Bistum reagierte jedoch abweisend (!!!). Ackermann, der auch Missbrauchsbeauftragter der Bischofskonferenz ist, bekannte bereits Ende 2011 schwere Fehler des Bistums in diesem Fall. Pfarrer K. war an Heiligabend 2010 überfallen und schwer verletzt worden. Der Fall wurde nie aufgeklärt, doch die Vermutungen gingen dahin, dass Rache für die Missbrauchstaten im Spiel war.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

wenn das Bistum bereits Ende der 90er Jahre darauf hingewiesen wurde, dass es zu sexuellen Übergriffen durch Pfarrer K. kam, waren die Taten zum damaligen Zeitpunkt noch nicht verjährt:
Warum nahm das Bistum die Hinweise nicht ernst und vereitelte somit wissentlich eine mögliche Bestrafung des Täters?

Hätte durch eine adäquate damalige Reaktion des Bistums Trier – wenn es denn die Hinweise Ende der 90er Jahre ernst genommen hätte – weiterer Missbrauch durch Pfarrer K. verhindert werden können?

Kann das Bistum Trier versichern, dass im Fall K. keine Hinweise auf mindestens ein weiteres weibliches Opfer vorliegen, welches noch relativ jung und – somit verständlicherweise – noch nicht bereit ist, über den Missbrauch zu sprechen bzw. ihn anzuzeigen? Kann das Bistum Trier ausschließen, dass es Hinweise auf mögliche weitere Übergriffe von Pfarrer K. gibt, die noch nicht verjährt sind?

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OSTERREICH
ooe@ORF

Eine Zivilklage, die ein Missbrauchsopfer gegen das Stift Kremsmünster eingebracht hat, enthält schwere Anschuldigungen gegen den angeklagten 79-jährigen Ex-Pater, aber auch gegen Lehrer und Erzieher. Es ist die Rede von Gruppenvergewaltigungen und Scheinexekutionen.

Bereits Ende 2012 brachten zwei ehemalige Klosterschüler eine Feststellungsklage gegen das Stift ein, in der es um die Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfälle bzw. ein Eingeständnis der Mitwisserschaft geht. Ein Urteil ist noch ausständig.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON May 8, 2013

Peter Fox believed the senior police who ordered him to cease investigations into paedophilia within the Catholic Church were deliberately sabotaging the case.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox resumed his evidence for the second day of the Commission of Inquiry into the alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

Inspector Fox told the inquiry the December 2010 meeting with senior police, during which he was ordered to cease investigating any matters relating to sexual abuse by the clergy, was “sinister”.

“I thought the direction was motivated by other matters that weren’t honest and were corrupt,” Inspector Fox said.

When he protested, Inspector Fox was told he would have no role or function in the new investigation dubbed Strike Force Lantle.

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RHODE ISLAND
Telegram & Gazette

By Shaun Sutner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
ssutner@telegram.com

WAKEFIELD, R.I. — During a brief court appearance in district court this morning, Worcester Bishop Robert J. McManus pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of a property damage accident.

He is scheduled to appear in traffic court next Wednesday to answer to a charge of failing to submit to a chemical breath test.

The bishop, 61, was arrested in his hometown of Narragansett, R.I., Saturday night.

Bishop McManus was in a hit-and-run accident with a 2008 Hyundai on Boston Neck Road at Bridgetown Road, about two miles from his vacation home in Bonnet Shores, a picturesque waterfront neighborhood.

The driver of the car that the bishop’s 2012 Honda allegedly hit, police dispatcherJohn Smith, called 911 to report the bishop was driving erratically and crossing the center line. He then followed the bishop to his home at 215 Col. John Gardner Road, where police arrested him.

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UNITED KINGDOM
North-West Evening Mail

A RETIRED South Lakes priest has been sentenced to eight months’ jail for the indecent assault of a teenage boy.

Andrew John Folks, of Winfield Road, Sedbergh, was priest-in-charge of a church in the Langdales when he abused the then 15-year-old.

The 70-year-old pleaded guilty in Carlisle Crown Court today to one count of indecently assaulting the victim and another of attempting to indecently assault him.

Judge Tina Landale described the offences as a gross breach of trust.

Folks was placed on the sex offenders for 10 year.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Westmorland Gazette

A VICAR who sexually assaulted a teenager after becoming infatuated by his physique has been sent to prison for eight months.

Andrew Folks, 70, was priest-in-charge of the Langdale parish at the time he got to know the boy, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

As the boy grew up the married clergyman became more and more obsessed by his good looks, prosecuting counsel Katie Jones said.

And when the boy was about 15 Folks fondled the muscles on his chest and abdomen for his own sexual gratification, and then asked to look inside his trousers and touch his private parts, she said.

Folks – who is now retired and lives with his wife in Winfield Road, Sedbergh – pleaded guilty to one charge of sexually assaulting the boy and one of attempting to do so.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A former clergyman from the Lake District has been sentenced to eight months in prison for indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy.

The offences date back to when 70-year-old Andrew Folks was a priest in Langdale.

At Carlisle Crown Court today he pleaded guilty to one charge of indecent assault against the boy and another of attempting to.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON May 7, 2013

CONVINCED that moves to stop his investigation into the cover-up of paedophile Catholic priests were ‘‘sinister’’, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox lied to colleagues, breached police protocols and grew convinced that his work was being sabotaged.

‘‘The pricks can shove it,’’ he wrote in a personal diary only hours after he had been told by a superior to cease his investigations.

Mr Fox spent his second day before the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle yesterday, admitting that he breached police protocols and directions, and describing a strikeforce set up to investigate Catholic Church cover-ups as ‘‘a sham’’.

Under heavy questioning from Counsel Assisting, Julia Lonergan SC, Mr Fox admitted that he lied to police colleagues about the whereabouts of victim statements that he was asked to bring to a meeting in December 2010.

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RHODE ISLAND
MassLive

By Kevin Koczwara, MassLive.com
on May 07, 2013

Worcester Diocese Bishop Robert McManus pleaded not guilty to charges of drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident Tuesday morning in a Wakefield, R.I., courthouse.

Bishop McManus was arrested on Saturday night in Narragansett, R.I. after he was involved in an alleged hit-and-run accident on Saturday evening. Police said the man hit by McManus followed him and called police to report the accident.

McManus released a statement Monday when news broke about the arrest, saying that he made an “error of judgement” when he decided to drive after drinking alcohol during dinner.

According to Narragansett Police, Bishop McManus allegedly hit a vehicle that was stopped at a red light on Boston Neck Road and continued to the driveway of his home at 215 Col. John Gardner Road. The driver of the car McManus allegedly struck followed him and called police to report the incident.

Police report that officers arrived at McManus’ driveway at 10:32 p.m. and observed fresh damage to the driver’s side of his vehicle, a 2012 Honda Accord. An officer at the scene reports that McManus was swaying in a circular motion while standing and was “unsteady on his feet.” Officer report McManus slurring his words, and police had difficulty understanding the Bishop while he spoke. He also struggled to find his wallet, his face was red, his eyes were severely bloodshot and an officer smelled alcohol on his breath when he spoke, according to the police report.

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RHODE ISLAND
ABC 6

Dee DeQuattro
ddequattro@abc6.com

Worcester Bishop Robert McManus pleaded not guilty to charges of driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident Tuesday morning in Wakefield District Court.

McManus was released on $1,000 personal recognizance. He also faces a civil charge of refusing to submit to a breathalyzer test.

On Saturday Narragansett Police responded to the area of Boston Neck Road and Bridgetown Road after a report of a hit-and-run accident.

On the scene a man identified as John Smith said his vehicle was struck by another vehicle that proceeded to drive to 215 Col John Gardner Road.

Police arrived at the home to find Bishop McManus standing outside his 2012 Honda Accord. The vehicle has sustained damage to the driver side consistent with the accident.

McManus, according to police, was swaying and slurring. He stated he may have hit the other vehicle and not realized it.

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WORCESTER (MA)
dotCommonweal

May 7, 2013
Posted by Luke Hill

Worcester, Massachusetts, Bishop Robert McManus was arrested Saturday night at his family’s vacation home in Naragansett, Rhode Island, on charges of drunken driving, leaving the scene of an accident, and refusing a chemical test.

“I made a terrible error in judgment by driving after having consumed alcohol with dinner,” McManus said in a statement. “There is no excuse for the mistake I made, only a commitment to make amends and accept the consequences of my action.”

That’s all well and good…as far as it goes. I don’t want to make more of this relatively straightforward DUI incident than necessary, but Bishop McManus’s terrible error in judgment extended beyond driving while intoxicated. It also included his decision to flee the scene of the crime after, apparently, causing the accident by rear-ending the other driver’s car. (A neighbor “noticed minor front end damage to McManus’s dark-colored Honda Accord the following morning.”)

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RHODE ISLAND
Fresno Bee

The Associated Press
Monday, May. 06, 2013

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The leader of a Roman Catholic diocese in Massachusetts charged with driving drunk in Rhode Island pleaded not guilty and was allowed to remain free on $1,000 bail at his arraignment Tuesday.

Worcester Bishop Robert McManus, 61, wearing a white clerical collar in court, did not speak during the two-minute hearing, letting his lawyer enter the not guilty plea on his behalf to charges of driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident.

“I have instructed him not to comment,” his attorney, former Rhode Island House Speaker William Murphy, said outside.

Murphy referred reporters instead to a statement McManus issued Monday is which he apologized for “a terrible error in judgment” by driving after drinking wine at dinner.

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RHODE ISLAND
Boston Globe

[with video]

Worcester bishop McManus arraigned on drunken driving, leaving the scene of accident charges in R.I. court

By Brian Ballou, Travis Andersen and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Bishop Robert J. McManus, the leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester, kept silent in court today as his attorney entered a not-guilty plea to charges that he was driving drunk during a crash last weekend and then fled the scene.

McManus, 61, was released on personal recognizance after his attorney, Bill Murphy, told Fourth Division District Court Court Judge Walter Gorman that his client, a Massachusetts resident, waived his right to an extradition hearing.

The arraignment lasted about two minutes. McManus, who appeared in the black suit with white clerical collar usually worn by Roman Catholic priests, did not speak. After the arraignment on the two misdemeanor charges, Murphy spoke briefly with reporters as McManus stood silently by his side. …

According to a report written by Narragansett Police Officer Kevin L. O’Connor, McManus was standing outside his Honda when he arrived.

“I could detect a moderate odor of alcohol emanating from his mouth as he spoke. McManus’s face was red and his eyes were severely bloodshot,’’ O’Connor wrote, adding that it took McManus 15 seconds to get his wallet out of his pocket. “I asked McManus what had taken place, McManus started speaking and slurring his words to the point it was difficult to understand.’’

O’Connor said McManus then told him that “he may have hit a vehicle but he didn’t realize he did.’’

McManus was arrested by O’Connor after McManus failed three field sobriety tests: Following the officer’s finger as he moved it in front of McManus’s eyes, walking an imaginary line for nine steps, and standing on one leg while counting to 10.

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CHICAGO (IL)
University of Chicago

Date: Wednesday, May 8, 2013 – 12:15pm – 1:30pm
Location: Room V
Contact info (email or phone):
Brett Swearingen: brett.swearingen@gmail.com
Laura LaPlante: laural@uchicago.edu

The St. Thomas More Society, along with Law Women’s Caucus, Christian Legal Society, and Criminal Law Society present

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke

“How the Priest Abuse Crisis Strengthened My Faith”
Wednesday, May 8th, 12:15 pm
Law School Classroom V

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Ireland’s newest and youngest Catholic bishop has used his appointment to weigh into the abortion controversy.

Pope Francis announced the promotion of Father Denis Nulty, 49, from Slane in Co Meath, as the new Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin.

He will take up the high-ranking role left empty for more than three years as a result of the child abuse scandals that rocked the church.

In his first public address as Bishop-elect, Fr Nulty praised a demonstration at Knock Shrine in Co Mayo on Saturday against the planned laws to allow abortion in certain medical circumstances.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 7, 2013

Note to ThinkProgress blogger Tara Culp-Ressler: You got it all wrong. A RAPIST is the one who makes the victim feel worthless, dirty and filthy. Not the victim’s educational background. And using Elizabeth Smart? That’s pretty low … Are you blaming her and her faith for how she feels about the crimes committed against her?

It doesn’t matter if the victim is a prostitute or a Mormon, or if she received abstinence education or was schooled in a free-love philosophy. She will feel ashamed. She will feel violated. She will feel dirty and disgusted.

Why? Because rape is not about sex, as Culp-Ressler and ThinkProgress are insinuating here. Rape is a crime of power. By making the shame a victim feels afterward attributable to her education on sexuality, Culp-Ressler is embracing a philosophy similar (but far less intense and fatal than) Honor Killings, where rape victims are killed because they have been sexually “ruined.”
Again – Rape is not about the sex!

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging two New Jersey Catholic bishops to discipline church employees who let an admitted predator priest work recently in their dioceses.

They also want the bishops to warn their flocks about the priest and aggressively seek out anyone who “may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or misdeeds by him.”

Leaders of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) are writing the bishops in Trenton and Paterson about Fr. Michael Fugee.

SNAP wants both prelates to seek out anyone who may have information or suspicions about Fugee’s crimes or misdeeds to law enforcement. Fr. Fugee, a Newark archdiocesan priest who was forbidden to be around children, has worked recently in the Trenton Diocese and the Paterson Diocese.

The letters were sent to Trenton Bishop David O’Connell and Pateron Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli.

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ILLINOIS/WISCONSIN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON MAY 07, 2013

One week. Catholic officials couldn’t keep a monk away from children for one week, even after the monk was forbidden to have contact with children and had been arrested and charged with a felony for attempted child abduction and misdemeanor disorderly conduct.

Where’s the outrage by Chicago area Catholic officials? It’s their flock that the monk likely assaulted. Where’s the outrage by Wisconsin Catholic officials (especially Milwaukee’s archbishop). It’s their flock that the monk’s supervisors likely endangered (by callous or careless supervision).

Here’s the short version:

On April 25, Thomas Chmura of the Benedictine order in Wisconsin drove up to a 14-year-old girl who ran away after repeatedly being asked to get in his car. Authorities said he later admitted he had approached the victim for the purpose of sexual gratification and had also offered rides to teenage girls several other times in recent weeks.

On May 2, he was “ordered back to jail,” the Chicago Tribune reports, “after authorities said that, during a routine check of the abbey by court officials, children were found to be present in the complex. That violated the conditions of Chmura’s bond, which forbids him contact with anyone under the age of 17, prosecutors and police said.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian May 08, 2013

THE detective at the centre of a NSW inquiry into child abuse within the Catholic church disobeyed orders not to contact journalists or witnesses after a confidential police investigation was launched into the alleged cover-up of these crimes.

The NSW Special Commission of Inquiry yesterday heard that Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox sent an email to Newcastle-based journalist Joanne McCarthy containing details of this inquiry in December 2010, just hours after being told not to contact her.

This and other emails between the two included the identity of potential witnesses, as well as Detective Fox’s personal reaction to being told he would play no part in the investigation.

“The pricks can shove it . . . the whole thing stinks and they can bit (sic) me,” he wrote, the inquiry heard. He told the inquiry he subsequently attempted to deceive his bosses about his relationship with Ms McCarthy.

He also remained in contact with potential witnesses, despite being told contact with these people would be made by detectives assigned to an existing police strike force carrying out the investigation.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline

[with video]

Detective Chief Inspector, Peter Fox told the Newcastle unquiry into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church that he had lied to colleagues because he thought they lacked integrity, commitment and professionalism.

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The New South Wales policeman at the centre of a special commission into the handling of sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church has admitted he deliberately ignored directions from his superior to cease contact with the media. Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox faced intense scrutiny on day two of the inquiry in Newcastle. Peter Fox said he lied to colleagues because he thought they were not police with integrity, commitment or professionalism. In one email read to the inquiry, he described his superiors as pricks who should shove it. As Suzie Smith reports, there was a total breakdown of trust between DCI Fox and some of his superiors.

SUZIE SMITH, REPORTER: Day two and new insights into the relationship between Peter Fox and his police bosses. Again, in sharp focus a critical meeting in early December 2010 at the Waratah police station in Newcastle. DCI Fox told the inquiry he intentionally disobeyed an order from the Newcastle commander Max Mitchell to bring all his investigation documents. Those documents included an explosive witness statement which he didn’t hand over because he told the inquiry he didn’t trust Commander Mitchell or his fellow officers. “So you lied to the police at the meeting?” she said.

PETER FOX (ACTOR’S VOICE): Oh absolutely yes, I deliberately kept them myself, but I realised there was other knowledge by police that I had them.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

Words cannot solve the crisis of clergy and nun sexual abuse of children and minors.

Only action can.

That’s why it’s disheartening, to say the least, to read Pope Francis speech about a “courageous” defense of children to protect them from abuse at the end of the Mass he celebrated on Sunday.

But words, it appears, are the extent of it.

Here’s a link to a news story:

[Ottawa Citizen]

Pope Francis, and Pope Francis alone, holds the power to remove Diocese of Kansas City- St. Joseph. MO Bishop Robert Finn and Archdiocese of Newark, NJ Archbishop John Myers and to remove them now, at this very moment, in the next minute, the next hour and all of today and tomorrow for as long as he occupies the papacy.

And not only these hierarchs but all the others who did not courageously defend children but actually put them and kept them in harm’s way by protecting their perpetrators and covering-up the rape and sodomy these children suffered by the priests and nuns that were and are part of these hierarchs’ responsibility as moral and spiritual leaders.

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AUSTRALIA
Special Commission of Inquiry into matters relating to the Police investigation of certain child abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle

Monday, 6 May 2013: Transcript – Day 1, [PDF, 1036kb]
Monday, 6 May 2013: Opening Remarks of Julia Lonergan SC, PDF, 169kb]
Monday, 6 May 2013: Opening Address of Commissioner Cunneen SC [PDF, 174kb]
Monday, 22 April 2013: Directions Hearing for Term of Reference 1 [PDF, 156kb]
Wednesday, 13 February 2013: Opening remarks of Commissioner Cunneen SC and mention [PDF, 88kb]

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Patriot-News

By Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com

The Rev. Robert M. Gillelan, Jr., pastor of Prince of Peace parish in Steelton on Monday was selected diocesan administrator by the College of Consultors of the Diocese of Harrisburg.

Gillelan had previously assisted in the running of the diocese, serving as Vicar General/Moderator of the Curia for the late Bishop Joseph P. McFadden.

McFadden died Thursday of a heart attack at the age of 65.

“My previous position as Vicar General has helped to prepare me for this new role,” Gillelan said in a written statement released to the news media. “I appreciate the confidence the College of Consultors have in me by electing me to this position.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 06, 2013

Fr. Robert Gillelan is the new temporary head of the Harrisburg Catholic diocese. We hope he’ll promptly post on the diocesan website the names and whereabouts of all the child molesting clerics who have worked or lived in the Harrisburg area.

Some 30 US dioceses have done this. It’s the least Catholic officials can do to help protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded. It’s irresponsible for church bureaucrats to recruit, ordain, hire, train, transfer and protect pedophile priests, then merely suspend them when they become admitted, proven or credibly accused predators.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 7 May 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father:

– appointed Fr. Denis Nulty as bishop of Kildare and Leighlin (area 4,170, population 255,400, Catholics 239,400, priests 171, religious 369), Ireland. The bishop-elect was born in Slane, County Meath, Ireland in 1963 and was ordained a priest in 1988. Since election he has served in several pastoral and administrative roles, most recently as vicar forane for the Duleek Deanery, chairperson of the Council of Priests in the Diocese of Meath, and pastor of St. Mary’s a Drogheda.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 7 May 2013 (VIS) – “The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life have for some time been collaborating on a renewed theological vision of Religious Life in the Church. The concern of the Holy See, expressed partially in the Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the United States, is motivated by a desire to support the noble and beautiful vocation of Religious so that the eloquent witness of Religious Life may prosper in the Church to the benefit of future generations.”

“The initiatives of the Holy See in this area are concerned primarily with the faith of the Church and its expression in Religious Life. The Church’s faith—in the loving plan of the Father who sent his Son to be our Saviour, in the inspiration of Sacred Scripture, in the gift of grace through the Sacraments, in the nature of the Church guided by the Holy Spirit—this faith is at the heart of the Evangelical Counsels. It motivates the passion for justice shared by so many Religious women and men, and it seeks ever to be expressed in active charity towards those most in need.”

“Recent media commentary on remarks made on Sunday, 5 May, during the General Assembly of the International Union of Superiors General by Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life, has suggested a divergence between the CDF and the Congregation for Religious in their approach to the renewal of Religious Life. Such an interpretation of the cardinal’s remarks is not justified. The prefects of these two Congregations work closely together according to their specific responsibilities and have collaborated throughout the process of the Doctrinal Assessment of the LCWR. Archbishop Gerhard Muller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Braz de Aviz met yesterday and reaffirmed their common commitment to the renewal of Religious Life, and particularly to the Doctrinal Assessment of the LCWR and the program of reform it requires, in accordance with the wishes of the Holy Father.”

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