ABUSE TRACKER

SCOTLAND
The Gazette

Published 2 May 2013

A GRANDMOTHER who was sent to Dalbeth Approved School in Bishopton aged 13 has told a jury “it was a hellhole worse than prison”.

Paisley Sheriff Court heard that 57-year-old Josephine Hanlon was sent to the school by a court in 1970 because she was outwith parental control.

In evidence she alleged that one of the nuns Mother Martin and a fellow nun forced her to drink some kind of liquid.

Miss Hanlon told the jury: “Mother Martin and another nun poured something liquid down my throat and I went to sleep. That happened more than once.”

The witness, who has convictions for crime of dishonesty and assault, also said that on one occasion Mother Martin and two other nuns dragged her to a punishment room and left her there for two or three days without anything to eat.”

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SCOTLAND
Paisley Daily Express

May 1 2013 by Lynn Jolly, Paisley Daily Express

A nun accused of physically abusing girls at an approved school more than 40 years ago admitted to police that there was a punishment room on the premises, a court was told yesterday.

But 79-year-old Anne Kenny, known as Mother Rosaria, claimed it was only used for “cooling off” badly-misbehaved pupils.

And she said that none of the girls had been hit.

Kenny and 77-year-old Agnes Reville, known as Mother Martin, deny assaulting eight girls at Dalbeath Approved School in Bishopton, in the early 1970s.

Four former pupils have claimed in evidence that they were physically abused during their time at the school.

Yesterday at Paisley Sheriff Court, DC Moira Fyfe told the jury that she travelled down to Manchester on January 27, 2009, with DC Lesley McAuley, to interview Kenny.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotlant

Thursday 2 May 2013
A WOMAN told a jury she was dragged into a detention room at an approved school run by nuns and left without food or drink for two days.

Barbara Young, 58, claimed at Paisley Sheriff Court that one of the nuns who put her in the locked room was known as Mother Martin.

Ms Young was giving evidence at the trial of Anne Kenny, 79, known as Mother Rosaria, and Agnes Reville, 77, known as Mother Martin, who deny assaulting girls at Dalbeth approved school in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, in the 1970s.

Ms Young also claimed she was forcibly given some kind of drug by a nun and Mother Martin assisted.

Under cross-examination by Robert Anthony, QC, defending Mother Martin, the jury heard Ms Young was sent to Dalbeth for shoplifting and has theft convictions.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Paul Berger
Published May 02, 2013, issue of May 10, 2013.

It has been more than four months since Yeshiva University hired an international law firm to investigate allegations of emotional, physical and sexual abuse at a Y.U.-run high school.

Yet investigators working for the firm of Sullivan & Cromwell still have not contacted several former Y.U. school staff and students who described the abuse in a series of articles published in the Forward last year.

Meanwhile, many other former students who have been contacted say they refused to cooperate with investigators because they do not trust Y.U.’s motives. Such mistrust has only increased since Y.U. retained another international law firm, Greenberg Traurig, to fight a possible multiparty civil lawsuit.
Click for more stories about abuse at Y.U.

Barry Singer, a former student who has spoken to a Y.U. investigator, said the investigator “made it clear that she had nothing to do with any sort of defense that Yeshiva might mount.” But, Singer added, she also told him that Greenberg Traurig “can use whatever they gather” to defend against a civil lawsuit.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Williamsport Sun-Gazette

May 2, 2013
From Staff Reports , Williamsport Sun-Gazette

WELLSBORO – Thomas Shoback, 66, of Wilkes-Barre, a former Tioga County priest charged with sexual abuse of a child, was convicted in Tioga County Court Wednesday, according to a report from WETM teleision in Elmira, N.Y.

Shoback was found guilty on nine counts. He originally faced 32 counts, but most had passed the statute of limitations, the report said. According to state police, the incidents took place between 1991 and 1997 while he was a priest at St. Mary’s Parish in Blossburg. The victim is a former alter boy.

Shoback now could face up to 100 years in prison, the report said. He will be sentenced at a later date.

In earlier testimony reported in the Sun-Gazette, the victim told the court that Shoback began abusing him when he was 11 or 12 years old and that the abuse would happen three out of four Sundays each month when he stayed after Mass to help count the collection.

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CONNECTICUT
New Britain Herald

By LISA BACKUS
STAFF WRITER

A suspended Berlin priest accused of using the Internet to have inappropriate online relationships with young male parishioners is expected to enter into a plea agreement in New Britain court today.

Michael Miller, 43, was first arrested in July 2011 on charges he made inappropriate comments during conversations on Facebook with a 13-year-old boy whose family attended St. Paul’s Church, where Miller worked as a priest.

As part of the investigation, police seized several of Miller’s computers. Arrest warrants detail the results of the computer examination, which revealed that Miller was having inappropriate conversations with several teenage boys, most of whom were parishioners who met him through the church, according to police.

In the talks on Facebook, which were retrieved by the Digital Forensics Unit at the New Britain Police Department, Miller described for one 15-year-old boy the pornographic movie he was watching and said he preferred boys “because they know how the parts work.”

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

There is a pattern and it’s a sick and strange one.

Over the months, I have written at length about Kansas City Bishop Finn’s dreadful handling of a sex abuse case in his diocese, and have taken quite a bit of heat from the True Believers, who swallow uncritically the cult-like notion that criticizing a bishop who endangers children is the equivalent of hating Jesus Christ and His Catholic Church. (If you really want to have fun, read the whole series here).

Now we have Archbishop Myers in New Jersey and sex abuser Fr. Michael Fugee. The case is so much like the Finn case that it’s weird. Frank Weathers and Mark Shea have articles on the case, in which they link to local New Jersey reports, which themselves link to the original source documents at the heart of the matter, including this one, which apparently nobody wants to read.

I won’t go into details, since if you’re interested you can find the details at this link and elsewhere. But let me point out a few similarities.

Bishops, apparently, have unlimited hubris. Bishop Finn spent $1.4 million of diocesan funds to defend himself from criminal charges that threatened only a few thousand dollars in fines and that could easily have been plea bargained away, but that resulted in his conviction in criminal court. This is not because Finn was bravely defending the Church, for part of the case, in one Missouri county, involved a plea agreement, in which Finn glibly handed over ecclesial authority to a governmental entity so as to avoid prosecution. Bishop Myers, likewise, is going to the matt on this one, in a case where a cursory investigation shows he behaved without any regard to the safety of the children under his care and without any concern for an agreement he had made with prosecutors to keep child molester Fr. Fugee out of jail. Does it appear as if Bishop Myers is standing firm to protect the Church? No, as in Finn’s case, it’s to protect his own pride.

Bishops, apparently, don’t give a damn about the truth. The most liberating words ever spoken on earth are “The truth will set you free” (John 8:32). But in a February letter to priests, Bishop Finn defends his decision to allow Fugee to disregard the agreement the bishop made with prosecutors by claiming that Fugee was “acquitted” of the charges against him. Fugee was in fact acquitted of one charge, “endangering the welfare of a child” but convicted of “aggravated criminal sexual conduct”. While this conviction was reversed on appeal over a technicality, a new trial was ordered and was avoided because of a plea agreement, the terms of which the archdiocese is now thumbing its nose at. In other words, had the defendant indeed been acquitted of the charges against him, none of this would be an issue.

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AUSTRALIA
Advertiser

By Paul Bibby May 2, 2013

The abuse of children by priests and church workers often begins between the ages of six and 10, and generally only stops when victims take action to stop it or avoid it, a new study has found.

The report, They Didn’t Believe Me: Adult Survivors’ Perspectives of Child Sexual Abuse by Personnel in Christian Institutions, is the first Australian research drawing on church abuse victims’ experiences that doesn’t rely on church data.

The majority of the 81 participants reported that they had been abused repeatedly, often over several years, and that they were ”re-victimised” by the church and the criminal justice system when they reported the abuse.

Forty-four per cent of participants said their abuse began between age six and 10, with more than half of the women participants falling into this category.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Standard Speaker

BY MICHAEL P. BUFFER (STAFF WRITER)
Published: May 2, 2013

Diocese of Scranton Bishop Joseph C. Bambera issued a statement Wednesday on a Tioga County verdict convicting a priest from Wilkes-Barre of sexually abusing an altar boy for six years.

Thomas Shoback, 66, who once served as an assistant pastor at St. Joseph’s Church in Hazleton, was found guilty Tuesday of nine counts, according to a news report from WETM-TV in Elmira, N.Y. In his statement, Bambera said Shoback “is permanently removed from ecclesiastical ministry and his status as a priest will be referred to the Holy See for a final determination.”

The Holy See is headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church in Vatican City. The diocese cooperated with the investigation and prosecution of the criminal case against Shoback, a diocese news release said.

“At this time, I express my personal sorrow for the pain endured by those who suffered this abuse and extend my apology for any way in which the Church, and particularly its bishops, priests and deacons have failed them,” Bambera said. “I also reaffirm my personal commitment to exercise vigilance in our protection of children and young people and offer my sincere gratitude to all who worked so diligently to resolve this case.”

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UNITED STATES
Justia Verdict

Marci A. Hamiltoni

The movement to eliminate the child-sex-abuse statutes of limitations (“SOLs”) so that victims can obtain justice is stronger and more impressive than ever. Never before has there been so much activity in so many states at once. Last year, Hawaii enacted a 2-year window, and a few other states expanded their SOLs. (Such bills allow claims that would otherwise have been timed out, to be revived and brought to court during a specified period of time.) This year, windows, the extension, or elimination of SOLs are pending in many states, including Minnesota, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey. Plus Arkansas already eliminated its criminal SOL. This is progress!

Minnesota

The Minnesota House passed a statute of limitations (SOL) window bill yesterday. (Such bills allow claims that would otherwise have been timed out, to be revived and brought to court during a specified period of time.)

Illinois

Illinois let a bill that would eliminate the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse out of committee this week.

New York

And in New York, Assemblywoman Marge Markey’s Child Victims Act, which has been improved, and introduced for the seventh time, has the most co-sponsors in history.

Massachusetts

There will also be a hearing on a child-sex-abuse statute of limitations window, and a generous extension bill, before the Massachusetts Joint Committee on the Judiciary on May 7.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Sunday Dispatch

By Steve Mocarsky – smocarsky@civitasmedia.com – 570-970-7311

A Diocese of Scranton priest who was once assigned to several parishes in Luzerne County, including a Catholic high school, has been convicted of sexually assaulting an altar boy.

Diocese officials on Wednesday confirmed that the Rev. Thomas Shoback, 66, of Wilkes-Barre, was convicted Tuesday in Tioga County Court of Common Pleas on nine of the 32 counts with which he had been charged. Most of those counts exceeded the statute of limitations. Still, he reportedly could face essentially a life sentence.

State police had said the assaults took place from 1991 through 1997 when the boy was 11 to 17 years old, while Shoback was assigned at St. Mary’s Parish in Blossburg, Tioga County.

The diocese suspended Shoback in November 2011 when the allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Citizens Voice

BY MICHAEL P. BUFFER (STAFF WRITER)
Published: May 2, 2013

Diocese of Scranton Bishop Joseph C. Bambera issued a statement Wednesday on a Tioga County verdict convicting a priest from Wilkes-Barre of sexually abusing an altar boy for six years.

Thomas Shoback, 66, was found guilty Tuesday of nine counts, according to a news report from WETM-TV in Elmira, N.Y. In his statement, Bambera said Shoback “is permanently removed from ecclesiastical ministry and his status as a priest will be referred to the Holy See for a final determination.”

The Holy See is headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church in Vatican City. The diocese cooperated with the investigation and prosecution of the criminal case against Shoback, a diocese news release said.

“At this time, I express my personal sorrow for the pain endured by those who suffered this abuse and extend my apology for any way in which the Church, and particularly its bishops, priests and deacons have failed them,” Bambera said. “I also reaffirm my personal commitment to exercise vigilance in our protection of children and young people and offer my sincere gratitude to all who worked so diligently to resolve this case.”

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NEW JERSEY
CBS New York

COLTS NECK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — A New Jersey state assemblywoman is among those calling to have Newark Archbishop John Myers held accountable, after a once-accused pedophile priest suddenly popped up at Colts Neck Church youth retreats.

The Rev. Michael Fugee, a Newark Archdiocese priest, was convicted in 2003 of molesting a boy. The conviction was overturned by an appeals court, CBS 2’s Lou Young reported earlier this week.

Fugee, 52, entered into an agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office to avoid retrial on the abuse conviction after the groping incident six years ago. The agreement required Fugee, 52, never again to have unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18.

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TEXAS
KTRK

HOUSTON (KTRK) — The former pastor of a church in Chambers County is in jail, accused of sexually assaulting a child.

Eddie Shauberger, 58, was arrested in San Antonio, and is awaiting extradition back to Liberty County, where he used to live. He is charged with two counts of sexual assault of a child.

Shauberger is the former pastor of Oak Island Baptist Church in Chambers County. In the late 90s, he unsuccessfully ran for state representative.

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NEW JERSEY
Politicker NJ

By Matthew Arco | May 1st, 2013

CAMDEN – Controversy surrounding the state’s highest-ranking Catholic official spurred Gov. Chris Christie to blast his likely gubernatorial challenger as “irresponsible.”

The governor called reports about Newark’s archbishop allowing a priest who admitted groping a boy to continue working with children “disturbing,” but fell short of joining the call from several state lawmakers for Archbishop John Myers to resign.

“I will say this, leaders who make decisions purely based upon media accounts are irresponsible and they are grandstanding, and we don’t need more of that,” Christie said during a Camden news conference Wednesday.

Christie was asked whether he would join the ranks of multiple lawmakers – including his likely Democratic challenger, state Sen. Barbara Buono – who have called on Myers to step down. …

“All I know about this situation is what I’ve read in the paper and so that makes me very nervous,” he said. “Being written about in the paper all the time, I recognize that sometimes it’s accurate and sometimes it isn’t, sometimes it’s a complete story and sometimes it’s slanted by the people who write it to try to get a certain point across.”

The governor went on to say that what he’s read “is disturbing” and that he has “serious concerns,” but stopped short of joining Buono and others in calling for Myers to step down.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton

On May 1, 2013, Diocesan Officials confirmed the outcome of the trial of Father Thomas Shoback. Since November 2011, the Diocese of Scranton has cooperated with law enforcement’s investigation and prosecution of this criminal case. Now that the criminal justice system has brought this case to closure, the Diocese of Scranton recognizes that the announcement of this verdict will serve as a very painful reminder of the wounds many survivors carry with them, most especially those who were harmed by Father Shoback.

In response to the verdict, the Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, D.D., J.C.L., Bishop of Scranton, reacted, “At this time, I express my personal sorrow for the pain endured by those who suffered this abuse and extend my apology for any way in which the Church, and particularly its bishops, priests and deacons have failed them. I also reaffirm my personal commitment to exercise vigilance in our protection of children and young people and offer my sincere gratitude to all who worked so diligently to resolve this case. With the civil law process completed, in accordance with The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, Father Shoback is permanently removed from ecclesiastical ministry and his status as a priest will be referred to the Holy See for a final determination. While Church law has been and will continue to be exercised with regard to this situation, anyone who believes that they have been the victim of child sexual abuse is encouraged to contact law enforcement. Finally, I ask the faithful of the Diocese to join their prayers with mine to pray for the continued healing for all those impacted by child sexual abuse and all who search for healing, reconciliation and peace during this difficult time.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
WNEP

May 1, 2013, by Dan Ratchford

SCRANTON — The Diocese of Scranton put out a statement Wednesday afternoon saying the verdict against this priest accused of child sex abuse serves as a “painful reminder of the wounds” victims still carry.

According to a New York State TV station, Fr. Thomas Shoback of Wilkes-Barre, who once served at a church in Jermyn and other parishes in the diocese, was convicted Tuesday of sexual abuse at a parish in Tioga County.

The diocese suspended Fr. Shoback in 2011 when accusations against him were made.

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CALIFORNIA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Ordained a Jesuit priest of the California Province in 1985, Speciale’s post-ordination ministry was short-lived. He was accused in a 2004 lawsuit of having sexually abused an 11 year-old boy in 1985, at a Santa Barbara parish. Another lawsuit with accusations against him was settled in 1993. Speciale appears to have left the priesthood after 1989.

Ordained: 1985

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

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

A coalition of groups representing victims of sexual abuse called this afternoon for an investigation of Newark Archbishop John J. Myers by the National Review Board, an advisory organization created by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops in the wake of the clergy sex abuse crisis.

“Myers broke an agreement with prosecutors,” said Mark Crawford, New Jersey director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP. “He violated the church’s abuse policy. He endangered kids. He must be punished.”

Crawford, at an afternoon press conference across the street from the archdiocese’s headquarters, implored the review board and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the president of the U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops, to take action against Myers over his handling of a priest who violated a lifetime ban on ministry to children.

The Rev. Michael Fugee, 52, has attended youth retreats, heard confession from minors behind closed doors and traveled to Canada with children through his unofficial association with a Monmouth County church, St. Mary’s Parish in Colts Neck. Fugee’s activities were the subject of a lengthy story in the Sunday Star-Ledger.

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MISSOURI
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Hederman was ordained for the St. Louis archdiocese in 1975, and went on to serve as an assistant priest at a number of parishes. He was pastor of North American Martyrs parish and chaplain of Christian Brothers College High School in the 1990s when he was accused of having sexually abused a male high school student several years earlier. Hederman was subsequently sent out of the country to Belize. In 2009 another man accused Hederman in a lawsuit of sexually abusing him when he was a high school student in St. Louis in the early 1990s. Still in Belize, Hederman was removed from active ministry. He denied the accusations. In May 2013 Hederman remains on Leave of Absence.

Ordained: 1975

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ILLINOIS
The Doings

BY BOB OKON | bokon@stmedianetwork.com May 1, 2013

An advocacy group for victims of pedophile priests wants Catholic bishops to force priests who are removed from ministry because of abuse allegations to be confined in residential treatment centers.

But a spokesman for the Joliet Diocese said that would be an exercise of authority that a bishop does not have over such priests.

The Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, is calling for closer control of abusive priests — citing the case of a Joliet Diocese priest who has been living in Kentucky for more than 30 years and engaging in at least informal missionary work without being monitored, years after being removed from the ministry.

“If a bishop can insist that a priest not marry, not lobby for the death penalty, not lobby for Planned Parenthood or work anywhere other than where the bishop tells him he can work, it’s within the bishop’s power to tell him where he can live,” SNAP national director David Clohessy said.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
NorthJersey.com

WEDNESDAY MAY 1, 2013

BY PAIGE BRETTINGEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (RNS) When the Republic of Ireland apologized to the wayward girls who were sent to the Magdalene laundries for hard work and no pay, Teresa Bell felt encouraged. Surely, she thought, the government of Northern Ireland would do the same.

Nearly three months later, she’s still waiting.

Bell was one of thousands of young girls who were sent to the Magdalene workhouses run by Roman Catholic nuns when she got pregnant at age 16. She worked long hours washing clothes with no pay and little rest; after giving birth, her daughter was put in an orphanage.

Bell never recovered from the shame.

“I felt I was beneath everybody for 40 years,” she said. “It was only when I got a little older that it eased off a little bit.”

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NEW JERSEY
Why I Am Catholic

May 1, 2013 By Frank Weathers

He would see them up close and personal when I asked questions like, “Isn’t there an abbot in a remote monastery who needs a permanent dishwasher in the scullery for work while said dishwasher is not praying the Divine Office? Why is this man not sent there?”

Who is Father Michael Fugee, and why should you care? Folks in New Jersey are pretty familiar with him and his story. His handling, or mishandling, by Archbishop John J. Myers is pretty much the thing of which legends are made. Legendary ineptness, I mean.

Amid calls for a Vatican investigation, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers came under fierce criticism Monday for his handling of a priest who attended youth retreats and heard confessions from minors in defiance of a lifetime ban on ministry to children.

At the Monmouth County church where the Rev. Michael Fugee had been spending time with a youth group, angry parishioners said they were never told about Fugee’s background and they questioned Myers’ defense of the priest, the subject of a lengthy story in the Sunday Star-Ledger.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Punish Archbishop Myers. That’s what Catholic officials must do now.

Explanations, apologies, investigations – that won’t cut it.

Myers broke an agreement with prosecutors. He violated the church’s abuse policy. He endangered kids. He must be punished.

Otherwise, he and other bishops will keep putting kids in harm’s way.

Last year, Kansas City’s bishop was found guilty, in criminal court, of a very similar offense – endangering kids by letting a predator be near them. Even after a judge found the bishop guilty, no one in the church hierarchy denounced or disciplined him. Not one bishop uttered a peep. And the wrongdoing by bishops continues.

We predict Myers will apologize. He’ll “lawyer up.” He’ll promise to do better. He’ll pick some ex-prosecutor to look at his abuse policies.

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UNITED STATES
Renew America

By Marielena Montesino de Stuart

ESPRESSO with Marielena…
Recommended roast level: VERY DARK.

Cardinal Roger Mahony does not need an introduction – but what is The Papal Foundation all about, from Francis’ perspective?

The Papal Foundation is based in Pennsylvania. This is an excerpt of their mission statement, as printed on their website [bold added for emphasis]:

“The Papal Foundation began in 1988 as a response to the desire of Catholic clergy and laity in the U.S. for a unique, sustainable way to support the Holy Father and his witness in the world.

The vision was to establish an endowment that would

– Provide an additional source of income for the Holy See

– Strengthen the Holy Father’s ability to fulfill the mission of Saint Peter

– Set the standard for other nations and challenge them to establish similar foundation.

Income generated from the investment of capital creates a perpetual source of revenue. The portfolio does not invest in any companies that engage in activities inconsistent with our faith.”

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NEW JERSEY
National Catholic Reporter

Patricia Lefevere | May. 1, 2013

MENDHAM, N.J. About 70 advocates for victims of childhood sexual abuse gathered Sunday on the lawn of St. Joseph Church in Mendham, N.J., for the rededication of a monument to sex abuse victims that was vandalized twice in the last 17 months.

Almost as powerful as the sledgehammer that first destroyed the millstone monument in November 2011 was an article in the day’s Newark Star-Ledger disclosing that a New Jersey priest — Fr. Michael Fugee of the Newark archdiocese — who admitted in 2001 to molesting a teenage boy was allowed back in ministry to Catholic youth despite having signed a binding agreement barring him from unsupervised contact with minors.

The revelations in the article “show a terrible disregard for children,” said Theresa Padovano, co-director of the New Jersey affiliate of Voice of the Faithful, citing “lack of accountability” by church officials. She said all names of accused molesters should be made available digitally “so people can check them out” or abusers should go to prison where they cannot harm children.

Mary Gannon of Floral Park, N.J., said she worries for all children, not just her four grandchildren, and said she finds it impossible to understand how anyone could mistreat a child. She said she and her husband, Gerry, support survivors “because they’re still suffering all these years later.”

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UNITED STATES
PolicyMic

Kate Dowd

As a recovering Catholic, I have been waiting a long time for the Vatican to show the grace and love that Jesus preached, instead of the lavish, golden, and cold face it has shown to the world. The church has arguably failed to live up to its ideals for thousands of years, but as I grew from a naive, hopeful Catholic student into the person I am today, I started seeing the Vatican for what it is. When the papal conclave decided on the Jesuit Argentinian Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, however, I perked up and felt hopeful about the future of the Catholic Church for the first time in years. Blessed enough to have experienced a Jesuit education, and passionate as I am about issues in Central and South America, I was thrilled about the new pope.

He didn’t disappoint. When asked why he chose the name Francis, he replied, “For me, he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation.” He also vowed to take “decisive action” against sex abuse within the church, to rekindle the church’s relationship with science, support sainthood of Oscar Romero, a Salvadorian bishop who is considered a martyr throughout Latin America, and even shunned the luxurious papal apartment offered by the Vatican. The thing that caught me off guard the most, however, was when the new pope broke with tradition and held the traditional Holy Thursday washing-of-the-feet ceremony at a youth detention center, washing and kissing the feet not only of the young male detainees, but the female and Muslim detainees as well.

So when news came on Monday that a Brazilian priest was being excommunicated for resigning in opposition to the church’s stance on homosexuality, of course I was disheartened. As a straight ally and a female, my hope of change had been renewed with Pope Francis’ promise of working for the poor, despite the church’s stance on homosexuality and its refusal to even entertain the idea of female priests. Of course, change is slow and we should not allow these instances to deter us from continuing to work for change, but it is still sobering and frustrating when they happen.

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AUSTRALIA
New Zealand Herald

By Greg Ansley
5:30 AM Thursday May 2, 2013

Australia’s bid to prise open the secret world of endemic child sexual abuse in churches and other powerful institutions has stepped up a notch with revelations of the scale of perversion.

The Victorian inquiry resumed this week to admissions, contrition and apologies from the Catholic Church, which said it had paid A$30 million ($36 million) in compensation to about 600 victims of deviant priests in the state.

Next week the New South Wales special commission of inquiry will open its hearings in Newcastle, north of Sydney, in the diocese that triggered both the state inquiry and the federal royal commission into abuse of children in the care of religious, government and other institutions.

A key focus of the NSW hearings will be the late, defrocked priest Denis McAlinden, whose long-term abuse of dozens of children was known to the church but hidden as he was shuffled between Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, where he worked at Tokomaru Bay near Gisborne.

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MEXICO
Informe21

El arzobispo de una ciudad mexicana declaró que es más grave el aborto que el abuso de menores perpetrado por un clérigo. “Cualitativamente, es mucho más grave el aborto que la violación de niños por parte de sacerdotes”, indicó tras una misa el nuevo arzobispo de la Arquidiócesis de Tuxtla Gutiérrez (la capital del estado mexicano de Chiapas), Fabio Martínez Castilla, según lo cita el periódico local ‘Noticias voz e imagen de Chiapas’.

El prelado argumentó que cuando abusan sexualmente de un niño “se muere su futuro”, mientras que cuando una mujer aborta “es un asesinato”.

Sin embargo, el obispo reconoció que “cuantitativamente las dos cosas hacen mucho daño y merecen castigo”.

En cuanto a los sacerdotes que cometen pederastia, opinó que no deben ser solapados, sino encarcelados y expulsados de la Iglesia católica.

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MEXICO
Elgolfo

TUXTLA GUTIÉRREZ. Fabio Martínez Castilla, el arzobispo de la Arquidiócesis de Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, dijo, al término de una misa en la Catedral Metropolitana de San Marcos, que abortar es más grave que la violación de niños por parte de clérigos.

Aseguró que cuando un niño es violado por un sacerdote “se muere su futuro”, pero cuando se interrumpe un embarazo es “asesinato”.

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MEXICO
Fox News Latino

A Mexican archbishop is in hot water after making a statement calling abortion a much more serious offense than the rape of children by priests.

Fabio Martínez Castilla, the Archbishop of Tuxtla Gutiérrez in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas, said during a homily at the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Marcos that when children are sexually abused “their future is dying,” but that it doesn’t compare with abortion because “it is murder.”

“Qualitatively, abortion is much more serious than the rape of children by priests,” Martínez Castilla said, adding though that “both quantitatively do much harm and deserve punishment.”

Clarifying his comments, Martínez Castilla said that priests found molesting children should not be forgiven, but instead imprisoned and banned from the Church. He added priests shouldn’t be targeted because of the sexual abuse scandals that have haunted the Catholic Church over the last decade, but that “teachers, politicians, doctors and anyone who goes against the goodness and freedom of a child should be punished”.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

April 30, 2013|By Ruth Fuller, Special to the Tribune

The Benedictine monk accused of trying to abduct a 14-year-old girl in far north suburban Antioch last week is free on bail.

Thomas Chmura, 57, who resides at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Benet Lake, Wis., just across the state line, is charged with felony attempted child abduction and disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, authorities said.

Records indicate someone else who lives at the abbey paid the $5,000 required to bail Chmura out of jail.

Appearing in street clothes at a court hearing Tuesday in Lake County, Chmura told a judge, “I heard and I understand everything,” when asked if he understood the terms of his release.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

May 1, 2013

Mr. Al Notzon III
National Review Board
US Conference of Catholic Bishops
3211 Fourth Street

Washington, DC 20017

Dear Mr. Notzon:

We are child sex abuse victims who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Our mission is to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded.

Because of the Fr. Michael C. Fugee situation and other similarly reckless acts, we believe that Newark Archbishop John Myers should resign. He has repeatedly put – and continues to put – an admitted child molester around kids.

But even if that happens, that’s not enough. Kids will keep being hurt until bishops who enable child sex crimes are punished.

So we are seeking action from you, in your role as chairman of the National Lay Review Board.

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NEW JERSEY
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments as follows:

Left-wing Catholics, and ex-Catholics, tried in vain to get Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph to step down, and now they have their sights set on Newark Archbishop John Myers. Their goal is to bring down a bishop—any bishop.

Leading the charge against Archbishop Myers is the Newark Star-Ledger, which on Sunday said he should resign. The newspaper is guilty of journalistic malfeasance, and for this reason the entire editorial board should resign immediately. To be specific, the newspaper has violated the tenets of the Society of Professional Journalists by failing to accurately report on this issue: “Deliberate distortion is never permissible.”

I have documented the Catholic League’s case against the newspaper in a report, “Star-Ledger’s War on Archbishop Myers.” To read it, click here. Some politicians, all pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage, as well as long-time foes of the Catholic Church (cited in the report), have jumped on the bandwagon.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

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

The New Jersey director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests today will request an investigation of Newark Archbishop John J. Myers by the National Review Board, an advisory group created by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops in the wake of the clergy sex abuse crisis.

Mark Crawford, the longtime head of SNAP in New Jersey, said he is calling on the board to examine whether Myers violated the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in his handling of the Rev. Michael Fugee, a priest who attended youth retreats and heard confessions from minors in defiance of a lifetime ban on such interactions.

American bishops adopted the landmark charter in Dallas in 2002. It created a zero-tolerance policy for abusers, stating that any priest credibly accused of sexual abuse will not return to full ministry.

Fugee, 52, confessed to groping a teenage boy in 2001. He later signed a binding agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office barring him from working with children in any capacity as long as he is a priest. An official with the archdiocese also signed the agreement.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Jamie Manson | May. 1, 2013 Grace on the Margins

Rumors that the Roman Catholic church’s clergy sex abuse crisis is a problem of the past have been greatly exaggerated.

“The bishops’ public relations machine has persuaded the people that it is a problem that was, not that is,” Jeff Anderson says, “and that is a living lie. There have been superficial changes, but not fundamental changes.”

Anderson, one of the most well-known lawyers to bring a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic church, was part of a panel to promote the publication of Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal, a new book by journalist Michael D’Antonio.

The event took place April 23 in New York City’s Bleecker Street Theatre, one week before new revelations that, just across the Hudson River, Newark’s Archbishop John J. Myers allowed a priest who admitted to groping a 14-year-old boy to attend youth retreats, travel with a youth group on a pilgrimage to Canada and hear the confessions of minors.

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NEW MEXICO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 01, 2013

What a cold response by New Mexico Catholic officials to the latest heinous child sex abuse reports involving a predator priest: “We do not comment on pending litigation.” Can you imagine Jesus uttering such a callous sentence?

We applaud these brave men who are stepping forward, seeking justice and exposing wrongdoing. We hope they feel proud of themselves and relieved that they are taking action.

In our experience, when victims stay trapped in shame, silence and self-blame, they continue to suffer.

But when they find the courage to take action, they begin to recover. And they start revealing long-hidden painful information about abuse and cover ups that Catholics and citizens deserve to know.

We hope that every single person who saw, suspected or suffered abuse by O’Brien – or any New Mexico Catholic cleric – will come forward. It’s time to call police, protect kids, and start healing.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Crawley News

A MAN who says he was sexually abused when aged just nine by a vicar has said he was told it was “a part of God’s work”.

Canon Gordon Rideout, 74, is standing trial at Lewes Crown Court after pleading not guilty to 37 sexual offences against young boys and girls, some as young as five, in the 1960s and 1970s.

A total of 32 of the charges relate to Rideout’s time as an assistant curate at St Mary’s Church in Southgate, when he would visit a Barnados children’s home in Ifield.

Last Friday a man, who was in care at a home in Barkingside, Essex, during the 1960s said Rideout had put his hand down his shorts.

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NEWARK (NJ)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

They want national church panel to act
Group also seeks action by Cardinal Dolan
NYC prelate is America’s top Catholic official
SNAP: Myers must be “denounced and disciplined”
“Ignoring wrongdoing encourages wrongdoing,” it feels
“Until enablers are punished, abuse will continue,” victims say

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their allies will disclose that they are writing to

–New York City’s cardinal, who heads America’s bishops, and
–a national Catholic child sex abuse committee

urging that both promptly discipline Newark’s archbishop for “putting kids in harm’s way” by letting an admitted child molesting cleric be around children (even after having signed a legal agreement with prosecutors to keep him away from youngsters).

They will also harshly criticize Newark’s archbishop for what they call “a series of violations” of common sense, common decency, and the church’s own child sex abuse policy.

Finally, they will call on Newark area Catholics to stop donating to the church until Myers resigns.

WHEN
Wednesday, May 1, at 3:30 p.m.

WHERE
Outside the Newark Catholic Archdiocese headquarters, 171 Clifton Ave. in Newark, NJ

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IRELAND
Waterford Today

Statement by Bishop William Lee on “Review of Safeguarding Practice in the diocese of Waterford and Lismore”

“On behalf of the diocese of Waterford and Lismore I welcome this thorough review on safeguarding practice which was conducted by Mr Ian Elliott and the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church.

In the wake of this review I again offer my sincere apologies to all who have suffered as a result of abuse by Church personnel. To the survivors of child abuse, I wish to say that our thoughts and prayers are with you today. No words of apology or any gesture of repentance or sorrow can ever make up for the enormous damage you have suffered. I am truly sorry for what happened to you and I pray that the Lord Jesus will heal you and bring hope, love and peace back into your lives.

The Report follows a full review in late October last year of case files in the diocese as well as interviews with key personnel involved in the diocesan safeguarding service and also with senior personnel in the Gardaí and the H.S.E.

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UNITED STATES
Time

By Maia Szalavitz
April 30, 2013

Child abuse scars not just the brain and body, but, according to the latest research, but may leave its mark on genes as well.

The research, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that abused children who develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may experience a biologically distinct form of the disorder from PTSD caused by other types of trauma later in life.

“The main aim of our study was to address the question of whether patients with same clinical diagnosis but different early environments have the same underlying biology,” says Divya Mehta, corresponding author of the study and a postdoctoral student at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany.

To find out, Mehta’s team studied blood cells from 169 people in Atlanta who were participating in the Grady Trauma Project. Most were in their late 30s to mid 40s and were African American; some had been abused as children but all had suffered at least two other significant traumatic events, such as being held at gun- or knife point, having a major car accident or being raped. On average, the participants experienced seven major traumas. Despite these events, however, the majority were resilient: 108 participants never developed PTSD.

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NEW JERSEY
The Tablet (UK)

1 May 2013

The largest newspaper in the state of New Jersey has called for Newark Archbishop John Myers to resign after reporting that a priest who admitted to abusing a child was still active in ministry with children.

The Star-Ledger reports that Fr Michael Fugee admitted to molesting a teenage boy, but his conviction was overturned on a legal technicality. To avoid re-trial, Fugee underwent therapy and the archdiocese assured prosecutors he would never be permitted an assignment that would place him near children.

In fact, he has participated in several youth-centred events at St Mary’s parish, including weekend retreats. The newspaper report was accompanied by an editorial demanding that Archbishop Myers resign.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: STAR TRIBUNE EDITORIAL Updated: May 1, 2013

The Minnesota House could vote today on an overdue measure to allow victims of childhood sexual abuse more time to pursue justice through civil courts.

The Minnesota Child Victims Act would relax the civil statute of limitations, which is unduly narrow and protective of sexual predators. The Senate is considering a similar measure.

Sadly, those lobbying hardest to defeat the needed change include associations of schools, churches and child-care centers. They represent the very kinds of institutions that have dominated headlines for failing to protect children from sexual predators.

Is there really a need to remind the public that former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of child sexual abuse just last summer? Or that a Missouri Catholic bishop is still on the job after being convicted last year of a criminal misdemeanor for failing to report abuse?

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DEUTSCHLAND
kath.net

Andreas L. wurde im Januar vorigen Jahres zu sechs Jahren Haft verurteilt. Das Landgericht Braunschweig sah es als erwiesen an, dass er drei Jungen über mehrere Jahre sexuell schwer missbraucht hat

Salzgitter (kath.net/pbh) Der wegen Kindesmissbrauch verurteilte Pfarrer Andreas L. ist nicht mehr Priester. Ein von der vatikanischen Glaubenskongregation durchgeführtes kirchenrechtliches Verfahren führte zu seiner Entlassung aus dem Klerikerstand.

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ARGENTINIEN
Radio Vatikan

Das Bistum Quilmès muss einem Missbrauchsopfer 30.000 Dollar Entschädigung bezahlen. Das befand ein Gericht am Montag. Die Diözese ist ein Vorort im Süden der Hauptstadt Buenos Aires. Das Missbrauchsopfer ist heute 25 Jahre alt und war während seiner gesamten Kindheit Opfer eines pädophilen Priesters. Der Täter starb 2005, er trug das Aids-Virus in sich. In Argentinien sind seit 2002 vier Priester wegen Missbrauchsdelikten verurteilt worden. Die Haftstrafen betrugen zwischen acht und 24 Jahren.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: SPIKE CARLSEN , Special to the Star Tribune Updated: April 30, 2013

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson is a leading character in this book about clergy sexual abuse.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael D’Antonio has written books on topics ranging from mosquitoes to golf to atomic bombs. His latest book, “Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal,” examines the issue of sexual abuse and cover-ups in the Catholic Church. He took a break from his recent book tour to discuss the book’s Minnesota connection, why writing is like fishing and the tattoo he’d get if he walked into a parlor today.

Q: “Mortal Sins” dives headlong into a topic that’s offensive to some, painful to others and controversial to most. Why did you pick the topic of clergy abuse?

A: There always seems to be a time in our social affairs when it’s finally OK to tell the truth; a time when even those who have inflicted grievous harm are ready to talk. The time was right. A book like “Mortal Sins” allows us to look at even the worst things and come out with hope for the future. Plus, I like to challenge myself and challenge the reader, and I think “Mortal Sins” does that.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Gina Columbus
@ginacolumbusapp

COLTS NECK — John Santulli is upset to hear that a priest forbidden from having unsupervised contact with minors assisted with youth retreats sponsored by his parish, St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church.

“I’m surprised that this is something that wasn’t brought to the parishioners’ attention,” said Santulli, a 38-year-old Colts Neck resident and father of two who does not know the man at the center of the controversy, the Rev. Michael Fugee. “If a sex offender is in the church, I’m surprised that they would let that kind of person around children.”

Fugee, 52, was convicted in 2003 of criminal sexual contact involving a New Jersey boy. An appeals court overturned the conviction, and the priest eventually entered the pretrial intervention program, a rehabilitation program for first-time offenders, after a memorandum of understanding was signed in 2007.

The two-year program was completed, said Maureen Parenta, a spokeswoman for the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, but his criminal arrest record was not expunged, as such records sometimes are.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2013
THE RECORD

IT IS not complicated. Six years ago, the Rev. Michael Fugee entered into an agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office that he could not have unsupervised contact with children, minister to children or work in any position with children. In exchange, Fugee would not face a new trial for allegedly fondling a 13-year-old boy. That agreement has been breached.

Fugee had been found guilty by a jury, but that verdict was vacated after an appellate panel ruled that a part of Fugee’s confession to police that dealt with his sexual orientation should have been withheld from jurors. The deal with the Prosecutor’s Office eliminated the possibility of a new trial. It did not change the basic facts of the case or, more to the point, change Fugee. He should not have unsupervised contact with minors; he should not be ministering to children.

Yet that is exactly what has been happening for some time. And the Archdiocese of Newark, which is responsible for Fugee’s ministerial placement, sees nothing wrong. It contends the agreement made with Bergen County prosecutors bans Fugee from unsupervised contact with youth, not contact with youth. This is a wrong legal interpretation and it is an offensive moral interpretation.

Who is Newark Archbishop John Myers protecting: the children of his archdiocese or one of his priests who has run afoul of the law? This type of hierarchical arrogance led to the massive sexual abuse scandals that have blemished the good works of the Catholic Church, and this is exactly why U.S. bishops created a document, the so-called Dallas Charter, pledging zero tolerance for any credible accusation of sexual abuse of a minor.

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BRAZIL
Stabroek News

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – The Catholic Church has excommunicated a Brazilian priest after he defended homosexuality, open marriage and other practices counter to church teaching in online videos.

In a statement released late on Monday, the priest’s diocese said Father Roberto Francisco Daniel, known to local parishioners as Padre Beto, had “in the name of ‘freedom of expression’ betrayed the promise of fealty to the church.”

The priest “injured the church with grave statements counter to the dogma of Catholic faith and morality.”
The actions amount to “heresy and schism,” the statement said, the penalty for which is excommunication, or expulsion from the church.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

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

Greeting the deepest crisis of his 12-year tenure with silence, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers faced new calls for his resignation yesterday from two New Jersey lawmakers, who blasted him for allowing a priest to minister to children despite a lifetime ban on such interaction.

Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex) and Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen) said the archbishop has displayed “arrogance” and a lack of common sense over his handling of the Rev. Michael Fugee, 52, who admitted fondling a 14-year-boy in 2001.

Under the terms of a binding agreement with authorities six years later, Fugee and the archdiocese vowed the priest would not work in any position involving children.

“Enough is enough,” said Vitale, who has pushed for laws that aid victims of sexual abuse. “Based on everything that’s happened, not just in New Jersey but around the country and the world, you have to follow the spirit of the law, and they have not done that in this case. Zero tolerance is zero tolerance.”

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Valerie Vainieri Huttle

Newark Archbishop John J. Myers must go. I agree wholeheartedly with The Star-Ledger editorial calling for his immediate resignation. If he does not resign, the Roman Catholic Church should swiftly investigate his support and protection of the Rev. Michael Fugee, a priest who admitted to sexual contact with a minor.

The archbishop placed Fugee in various positions throughout the archdiocese, from chaplain at St. Michael’s Medical Center to co-director of the Office of Continuing Education and Ongoing Formation of Priests, to a parish in Rochelle Park. Myers shuffled Fugee into each new post after his history came to light.

There seems to be a blatant breach of the agreement reached with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Archdiocese of Newark to keep Fugee away from minors by Myers.

As a lifelong Catholic and a public official, I was outraged to learn of the archbishop’s efforts to promote Fugee and to continually expose children to him knowing his past behavior. Myers may have confused turning the other cheek with turning a blind eye, but lay Catholics have not.

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CONNECTICUT
Greenwich Time

Staff and wire reports
The state’s top federal prosecutor, who brought Fairfield charity operator Douglas Perlitz to justice for sexually abusing several young boys over the course of a decade in Haiti, is stepping down to return to the private sector.

U.S. Attorney David B. Fein, 52, of Old Greenwich, said Tuesday he is resigning effective May 13.

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CANADA
Rabble

BY GREG MACDOUGALL | APRIL 30, 2013

This past week in Montréal was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada’s Québec National Event, the fifth of seven such gatherings across the country.

From April 24-27, an estimated 12,000 visitors stopped in to the historic Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel, and some 8000 tuned in online, to engage in the process of learning about this history, what exactly the residential school experience meant for survivors and for the country as a whole, and how we can move forward.

“The important thing that I do want people to understand is that this is not an Aboriginal problem, this is not just for Aboriginal people to address. The issue of the impact of residential schools upon this nation is an issue that the nation as a whole needs to address, and then as a country, as a future nation of this world, we will be in a better situation when Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people have full mutual respect for each other, and that’s what reconciliation is all about,” says Murray Sinclair, Chair of the TRC.

There were a number of different activities over the four days. It began with the lighting of a sacred fire, and there was also a Survivors’ Walk and Procession before the welcome and opening ceremonies.

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ARGENTINA
Pagina 12

Alemania, México, Canadá, Estados Unidos e Irlanda son algunos de los países donde se multiplicaron las denuncias. Hay diócesis fundidas por las indemnizaciones que debieron pagar.

Después de siglos de silencio, la Iglesia Católica se ha visto expuesta en los últimos años a reconocer los abusos cometidos por sacerdotes en distintas partes del mundo por los que fueron condenados o se obligó a la institución al pago de indemnizaciones a las víctimas.

Uno de los casos más resonantes se dio a principios de febrero de 2010 con la denuncia de lo ocurrido en el Colegio Canisius de Berlín, Alemania. El diario Frankfurter Rundschau tituló: “Vergüenza enmudecida”, “Casos de abuso sexual en el Colegio Canisius de Berlín sacude a la Iglesia Católica. Más víctimas se presentan en otras escuelas”. Y ahí comenzó la discusión que deja en claro cómo las autoridades católicas han tratado de guardar silencio y esconder los graves hechos anteriores. Y eso que la misma Iglesia había sido sacudida por las denuncias de los abusos cometidos por sacerdotes y frailes en Irlanda, Canadá, Australia y Estados Unidos.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

Published on 01/05/2013

THE former leader of Scotland’s Catholics has emerged from hiding to move belongings from his official residence to the house in East Lothian where he plans to spend his retirement.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, 75, who was forced to stand down as Archbishop of St Andrews Edinburgh after admitting inappropriate sexual behaviour with priests, said he would move to the church-owned property in Dunbar when a successor is appointed.

He said: “My own home is in the north of Ireland, but I don’t want to go back to Ireland at the present time. All my friends are here in Scotland.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By T.S. Last / Journal Staff Writer on Wed, May 1, 2013

Three more men have filed lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and three of its parishes, alleging they were sexually molested by a priest in the 1970s and ’80s.

The priest is alleged to have initiated the abuse with massages, in one case using massage oil that he told his young victim had been blessed by the pope.

The lawsuits, filed in 2nd Judicial District Court in Bernalillo within the last week, come on the heels of a similar complaint filed against the archdiocese and St. Anthony Parish in Questa on April 2. They each accuse Rev. Michael O’Brien, now deceased, of sexual abuse while “grooming” them as altar boys.

Each lawsuit claims the archdiocese was negligent because it knew, or should have known, that O’Brien was a pedophile priest and did nothing to stop him, warn or provide counseling to the victims.
Though there was suspicion in each town about O’Brien’s relationship with boys, the archdiocese continued to assign him to northern New Mexico parishes in Las Vegas, N.M., Mora, Penasco, Questa and Taos, according to the complaints.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

[with video]

TIM KROENERT MAY 01, 2013

The Hunt (MA). Director: Thomas Vinterberg. Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp, Lasse Fogelstrøm, Susse Wold. 116 minutes

This excellent Danish film is difficult to write about in the context of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. One of the most unpalatable aspects of such abuse cases, notably within the Catholic Church, is the way in which the word and wellbeing of perpetrators has seemed at times to be given precedence over those of their young victims. No one would doubt that the reverse should be true.

Yet on the surface The Hunt appears to be a cautionary tale about the consequences of vigilance succumbing to paranoia. It centres on small-town kindergarten teacher, Lucas (Mikkelsen), whose life falls apart after he is wrongfully accused of abusing a young female student. To the viewer he is clearly a victim of persecution, and yet his persecutors’ actions are based simply on the fact that they have taken an alleged victim at her word.

Well, in a way. His ‘accuser’, Klara (Wedderkopp), is a sensitive and imaginative child, confused by the emotions of a pre-adolescent crush on her kind and handsome teacher. Her comments are first misconstrued and then blown out of proportion by genuinely concerned and well-meaning adults. She is the daughter of Lucas’ best friend Theo (Larsen) and so gets a front seat view of the subsequent fallout in Lucas’ life.

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NEW MEXICO
KOB

[with video]

More victims are coming forward following a lawsuit accusing a Questa priest of sexual abuse.

KOB Eyewitness News 4 reported earlier this month that a man, who isn’t identified, claimed he was raped as a child by father Michael O’Brien.

His lawsuit states it happened in the 1980’s, while he was an alter boy at St. Anthony’s in Questa.

Three new lawsuits claim O’Brien committed similar crimes at other churches, in places like Taos, Las Vegas and Mora.

In the lawsuits, the victims accuse the archdiocese of neglecting to properly screen, train and supervise the priest.

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NEW JERSEY
Catholic News Agency

Newark, N.J., May 1, 2013 / 12:05 am (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Newark asserts that a local publication is inaccurately portraying the continued ministry of a priest who was accused of abusing a minor.

On April 28, New Jersey newspaper The Star-Ledger published a story saying that the Newark archdiocese is allowing Father Michael Fugee, who was accused of sexual abuse of a teenage boy in 2001, to continue working with children.

The archdiocesan communications director, James Goodness, told CNA April 29 that “we have not assigned him to anything that places him in a situation where he is unsupervised with minors or in fact has any ministry with minors.”

Diocesan-approved incidents have always been supervised and in accordance with an agreement with a local prosecutor’s office, Goodness said, and other occasions when Fr. Fugee has had supervised contact with minors were done without the archdiocese being involved in the decision-making process.

In 2001, Fr. Fugee told police he had twice groped a teenage boy’s crotch while they were wrestling in the presence of the boy’s family members. One instance took place while he was on vacation with the boy’s family in Virginia in 2000, he said, and the other was about a year prior to that.

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UNITED STATES
The Courier-Journal

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Peter Smith

The Catholic hierarchy’s handling of sexual abuse is getting mixed news this week.

An investigative reporter is challenging the case against Philadelphia Monsignor William Lynn, who last year became the first high-ranking Catholic official to be convicted and sentenced to jail for covering up sexual abuse by a priest.

Meanwhile, the archbishop of Newark, N.J., faces claims that he knowingly allowed a priest to minister with children despite a legal agreement forbidding him from doing so — reached to avoid a re-trial of the priest on a sexual-abuse charge.

***
First, Philadelphia.

A star witness who testified against a former priest accused of sexual abuse — and whose conviction led to that of Lynn’s — has serious credibility problems, and prosecutors themselves questioned his reliability.

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BOSTON (MA)
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Dreamworks is making a movie about the Boston pedophile priests phenomenon as was investigated and reported by the Boston Globe. We propose (here below) important fundamental scenes for the movie because this movie must put Boston in its proper historical role in the United States of America and in the whole world — in the epic Vatican Catholic Priests Sodomy of Biblical Proportions – committed by 80 pedophiles priests in Boston who were members of the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army – named aptly after John Paul II who said nothing and did nothing to protect children during his longest papacy of 27 years , read our related blogs

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PENNSYLVANIA
WETM

Reported by: Marissa Perlman
Email: mperlman@wetmtv.com

Blossburg, Pa. (WETM-TV) – A former Tioga County priest charged with sexual abuse of a child has been convicted.

Thomas Shoback, 66, of Wilkes-Barre was found guilty of nine counts.

He was originally charged with 32 crimes — but most were found to be past the statute of limitations.

Pennsylvania State Police say the crimes happened between 1991 and 1997 while Shoback was a priest at St. Mary’s Parish in Blossburg.

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VATICAN CITY
Windsor Star

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press | Apr 30, 2013

VATICAN CITY – A top Vatican official sought Tuesday to temper expectations of an imminent reform of the Holy See’s dysfunctional bureaucracy, even though Pope Francis has made clear it’s a key priority.

Monsignor Angelo Becciu, under-secretary of the Vatican secretariat of state, said it was “absolutely premature to put forward any hypothesis” about the reform and that Francis was still in a “listening” and discerning phase.

Cardinals who elected Francis pope in March insisted that fixing the Curia, as the Vatican bureaucracy is known, was a top concern. They want the Vatican, which is known for its slow pace and aloof attitude, to be more efficient and responsive to the needs of church leaders in the field.

Leaks of papal documents last year exposed the Curia as a dysfunctional Italian family business full of petty turf battles, political intrigues and corrupt business practices.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

Tuesday April 30, 2013, 9:30 PM

BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
The Record

After the Rev. Michael Fugee finished serving probation on allegations that he groped a teenage boy on several occasions at his Wyckoff home more than a decade ago, a review board of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in Newark examined his case.

Despite an initial — later recanted — confession by Fugee and trial testimony from the boy, the review board found that no sexual abuse occurred. The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome confirmed those findings.

And so, in late 2009, based on that conclusion, Archbishop John J. Myers returned Fugee to the ministry.

On Tuesday, victims’ advocates pointed to that action as the one that enabled Fugee to become involved in a new controversy: He attended several youth group retreats with a Monmouth County parish — even though he had signed an agreement with prosecutors that explicitly forbade his involvement with youth for as long he continued being a priest.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Amid widespread speculation about a complete and quick reorganization of Vatican departments and rumors in the Italian media that Pope Francis was going to close the Vatican bank, a top Vatican official told everyone to calm down.

“It’s a bit strange; the pope still has not met the group of advisers he chose and already the advice is raining down,” said Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the substitute secretary for general affairs in the Vatican Secretariat of State.

The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, ran a front-page interview April 30 with Archbishop Becciu, whose job is similar to a chief of staff.

Asked about rumors that Pope Francis intended to close the Institute for Religious Works, commonly called the Vatican bank, Archbishop Becciu said, “The pope was surprised to see attributed to him phrases that he never said and that misrepresent his thought.”

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on April 30, 2013

A teacher at Anaheim’s Servite Catholic High School is accused of posing as a girl to get teenage boys to send lewd pictures of themselves. He was arrested in February and faces numerous charges.

In 2011, a teacher at JSerra High School in south Orange County was arrested on charges of lewd conduct with a 14-year-old girl. The mother found texts he has shared with her daughter and reported to police. According to the mother, she also tried to report to the school, but was rebuffed. An independent committee found that the teacher, Ricardo Aldana, had been suspended from another teaching position for inappropriate contact with students. Aldana is scheduled to go to trial this month.

What do these cases have in common? Because of the digital trail of social media, a cover-up was virtually impossible – even after JSerra students wore “Free Aldana” t-shirts, and Servite tried to dilute the news of the sexual abuse with the announcement of a new head football coach.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger

on April 30, 2013

Declaring “enough is enough,” a state senator this afternoon called on Newark Archbishop John J. Myers to step down, at least temporarily, while authorities investigate his supervision of a priest who has worked with children despite a binding agreement barring such interaction.

Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex) said Myers’ handling of the Rev. Michael Fugee displays “arrogance” and defies common sense as the Roman Catholic church tries to regain the trust of parishioners in the wake of the clergy sex abuse crisis.

“Based on everything that’s happened, not just in New Jersey but around the country and the world, you have to follow the spirit of the law, and they have not done that in this case,” said Vitale, who has pushed for laws that aid victims of sexual abuse.

“Zero tolerance is zero tolerance,” Vitale added. “It’s not subject to someone’s interpretation or whim. There’s a potential for this person to reoffend, and if there’s any potential for that to happen, they just can’t be there. Being around children at all is just patently unacceptable.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Der Tagesspiegel

von Claudia Keller

Es war die erste große öffentliche Anhörung zur Aufarbeitung von Fällen sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs – und sie fand im “Wohnzimmer der Republik” am Pariser Platz statt. Dabei wurde klar, wie enorm die Probleme sind, vor denen die Betroffenen noch immer stehen.

Sie wollten sich nicht in irgendeinem Tagungszentrum irgendwo in Berlin treffen. Für die erste große öffentliche Anhörung zur Aufarbeitung von Fällen sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs sollte es ein prominenter Ort sein. So haben der Unabhängige Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Bundesregierung und die Betroffenenverbände die Akademie der Künste am Pariser Platz ausgewählt – das „Wohnzimmer der Republik“. Das Signal ist wichtig: Menschen, die als Kinder in Schulen, in Sportvereinen, von Priestern oder vom eigenen Vater gedemütigt, misshandelt und missbraucht wurden, werden nicht mehr an den Rand gedrängt. Die Räume der Akademie der Künste sind hell und von viel Glas umgeben.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

The sentencing of Father Charles Engelhardt and former Catholic school teacher Bernard Shero, originally sentenced for Thursday, has been postponed until June 12.

A clerk in Judge Ellen Ceisler’s office said today that the sentencing most likely would be postponed, at the request of defense lawyers. Lawyers in the case say the date of the sentencing was moved to give them more time to study trial transcripts, which just arrived April 11.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

Since he became the district attorney’s star witness, “Billy Doe” has had a remarkable run of good fortune in the criminal courts.

The charges from two previous arrests in 2009 and 2010, both for retail theft, were dropped in 2010 after witnesses in both cases did not show up for court.

On Jan. 7, 2011, a judge dismissed a charge of possession with intent to distribute narcotics, after ruling that police did not have probable cause on June 9, 2010 to stop Billy Doe on the street. When police searched Billy Doe, they found 56 bags of heroin in his shorts. However, the late Judge Adam Beloff ruled the heroin was inadmissible as evidence; the charges were dropped and the case dismissed.

Billy Doe’s most recent arrest, a simple drug possession case on Nov. 10, 2011, has been continued nine times in 18 months. During that time, Billy Doe appeared as a prosecution witness at two trials testifying against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

But now that the trials are over, and Billy Doe is done as a witness in the criminal courts, that last drug possession charge is about to disappear.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

Sunday, April 28, 2013

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

During the trial last year of Msgr. William J. Lynn, Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington advised the jury to pay attention to the judge’s instructions, and to not be swayed by Lynn’s “very skillful, very crafty, very well paid defense attorneys.”

Blessington’s comments, as well as the judge’s absence of admonishment, are among the more colorful issues being argued in more than 300 pages of appeals court documents filed in Superior Court.

On April 12, Judge M. Teresa Sarmina filed a 235-page opinion, defending her handling of the 13-week trial that resulted in the June 22, 2012 conviction of Msgr. Lynn on one count of endangering the welfare of a child. The monsignor is now serving a three-to-six year prison term imposed by Judge Sarmina.

In her opinion, Judge Sarmina defended the rhetorical excesses of the prosecutor, as well as her decision to allow into the Lynn case 21 supplemental cases of previous sex abuse, dating back to 1948, three years before Lynn was born, to show a pattern of bad behavior in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priest

Dear Cardinal George:

There are at least 112 publicly accused Chicago archdiocesan priests. A few are behind bars, some are deceased, but where are the rest?

Dozens of them could well be just like Fr. Carroll Howlin, the suspended Joliet priest who was exposed on Friday by the Chicago Tribune. They could well be living and working among unsuspecting families, neighbors, colleagues and children. And they could be sexually violating children now.

Why? Because you and your colleagues refuse to house, monitor, supervise and treat them.

One ousted Chicago area predator priest (Fr. Vincent Bryce) admitting molesting a child but now works in St. Louis on the edge of a Catholic college campus. In 2010, a credibly accused Texas predator priest (Fr. Frank Paduch) was found working in Berwyn across the street from a school. In 2003, a criminally convicted Delaware priest (Fr. Kenneth J. Martin) was found living in your home and working in the Chicago archdiocese. That same year, (Fr. John D. Murphy) was found working at the Shedd Aquarium.

So we’re talking about very real threats, not theoretical ones.

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UNITED STATES
On the Irish Waterfront

In spring 1998 my wife Kristina Chew was baptized, confirmed, and received into the one Holy, Roman, and Apostolic Catholic Church by a St. Louis child rapist named Gary Wolken. The conversion adventure was wholly K’s doing (looking forward to that testimony in print!) though as the lone congenital Catholic extant in this house, I remain bedeviled by the sordid legacy of a now long-incarcerated pedo-cleric. I do feel guilty of unwittingly if revealingly placing Kristina—and a then-infant Charlie, who Wolken once insisted on holding in his skanky mitts—in harm’s way, thanks to my self-short-selling, ‘here comes everybody’ Catholic localism and fatalist, rank and file mentality, which combined to sentence K. to a lame, seventh-grade-level season of RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) catechesis, served up by an unctuous, sex-criminal parish priest whose heart was clearly not in the gig (would that he even had a ‘soul…’).

Gary Wolken had only recently arrived at Our Lady of Lourdes following a stint in a treatment facility for sex offenders, a lifelong status confirmed during his previous assignment at a parish in Chesterfield, a sprawling exurb in far West St. Louis County best known as a haven for professional hockey players and retired Cardinals (of the diamond not the cloth). Wolken had in fact launched his career in sexual assault at age fifteen; his first victim—like his last and God knows how many more in between—was a five year old boy.

St. Louis may well chart the most insularly Catholic terrain in all God’s creation. Though during seven years in residence I never was asked, “where’d you go to high school” (it was probably obvious to all that wherever it was, it was no place St. Louisans woulda heard of), the Gateway City’s reputation for muted tribalism was as well deserved as it was inscrutable to this Irish Jerseyan. At night the streets of the city run empty, all precincts. It finally took a slightly tipsy N. Jersey Irish-American nun, who’d attended grad school at Saint Louie U., to edify me during a conversation on a street corner in a different city, where we’d crossed paths at a history conference not long into our heartland stint. “The Germans,” Sister Mary knowingly leaned in to confide to me “do their entertaining in the home.”

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NEW JERSEY
Religion News Service

Mark Mueller / The Star-Ledger | Apr 30, 2013

NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) Amid calls for a Vatican investigation, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers is facing fierce criticism for his handling of a priest who attended youth retreats and heard confessions from minors in defiance of a court-ordered lifetime ban on ministry to children.

At St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Colts Neck, where the Rev. Michael Fugee had been spending time with a youth group, angry parishioners said they were never told about Fugee’s background, and they questioned Myers’ defense of the priest, the subject of a lengthy story in The Star-Ledger.

“It’s complete craziness that the church can let this happen,” said John Santulli, 38, a father of two at St. Mary’s. “I’m a softball coach, and I need a background check just to get on the field. Every single person I spoke to today said, ‘Oh my God. I didn’t know about this.’ It’s incomprehensible.”

Fugee, 52, is a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark and under Myers’ supervision. His work at St. Mary’s, however, was in the neighboring Diocese of Trenton, where Bishop David O’Connell has ordered the pastor of St. Mary to bar Fugee from any church activities, a spokeswoman said in a statement.

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CANADA
Canada.com

Michael Woods
Published: April 30, 2013, 10:21 am

OTTAWA — Canadians may never learn the full history of the Indian residential school system because the federal government and a commission responsible for studying the matter are at odds over how to assemble the facts, the auditor general has found.

The federal government and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have disagreed on basic questions such as who will cover what costs, the time frame that should be covered, and which documents are relevant to the historical record, according to the report tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

The result, the audit found, is that with only 15 months remaining in the commission’s five-year mandate, no one knows what’s needed to create the historical record, what remains to be done, and how much time and money is needed to do the job.

“We are concerned that the lack of cooperation, delays and looming deadline stand in the way of creating the historical record of Indian residential schools as it was originally intended,” said Auditor General Michael Ferguson.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
American Journalism Review

From AJR, October 1998

Second half of article

By Alicia C. Shepard
Alicia C. Shepard is a former AJR senior writer and NPR ombudsman.

WHAT FINALLY RAN IN THE INQUIRER on April 14, 1997, after about eight months of reporting, was a relatively short story (167 lines) by Cipriano on the bottom of the Metro section front. The headline and deck: “Archdiocese’s Center Gets Little Use. More Than $500,000 Went into `Multimedia’ Project. Its Envisioned Function Wasn’t Fully Realized.”

The article zeroed in on the actual cost of the $500,000 “multimedia conference center” built in 1991 and 1992 on the 12th floor. But there was no mention of parish closings. It also reported that the cardinal had bypassed established review processes for large spending and some work had been carried out without required permits. Rossi says failure to get the permits was due to “honest mistakes.”

The story infuriated the archdiocese. Bevilacqua denounced it as “fallacious” in a church bulletin mailed to every member, and an official wrote a letter to the editor, saying the story contained “numerous inaccuracies and distortions.” The letter was sent, according to Neumann’s memo, with the proviso that it be printed in its entirety or not at all.

Neumann wrote a strong rebuttal to then-Editor King, suggesting the archdiocese was trying to “once again bully the Inquirer” and that the paper shouldn’t print the entire letter. “The primary point of the letter is false,” Neumann wrote. “The letter says the archdiocese did not spend $500,000 on the multimedia center. In fact…Brother Joseph [of the archdiocese] confirmed that in a meeting with Ralph Cipriano and two Inquirer editors…. In addition, the former archdiocese building supervisor, Bill Scarborough, said on the record that the actual cost, with overruns, was $575,000.”

The Inquirer printed the church’s letter as written, along with an editor’s note rebutting each point of criticism. “Ralph Cipriano,” King wrote, “has been objective and ethical in his reporting.”

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PHILADELHIA (PA)
The Philly Post

Joel Mathis

Well, this is interesting. Ralph Cipriano—the same reporter who once sued his bosses at the Philadelphia Inquirer for libel over his aggressive coverage of the Catholic Church in Philadelphia—has a piece in the National Catholic Reporter, suggesting that Msgr. William Lynn, convicted last year of helping cover up the abuse of children by priests in the Philadelphia diocese, was wrongly convicted.

At the center of Cipriano’s case is this: Lynn was convicted of covering up the abuse of a boy—known at trial as “Billy Doe“—by then-Rev. Edward Avery. But Avery, now defrocked, still denies committing the crime. He says he pleaded to charges in the case in order to avoid dying in prison if convicted.

Cipriano, who has also contributed to PhillyMag writes:

It was Avery’s guilty plea that led to the June 22, 2012, conviction of Lynn for endangering the welfare of a child, namely Billy Doe.

It was the first time in the nation that a member of the Catholic hierarchy had been convicted and sent to jail, not for touching a child, but for transferring a known abuser priest from one parish to another, while failing to adequately supervise him.

But if you believe Avery, Lynn is sitting in jail for a crime that never happened. And he’s not the only one.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

[Star witness’ story in Philadelphia sex abuse trials doesn’t add up]

by NCR Editorial Staff | Apr. 30, 2013

Editorial

Two Philadelphia cardinals in succession, John Krol (head of the archdiocese from 1961 to 1988) and Anthony Bevilacqua (1988-2003), for decades knowingly protected priests who had sexually abused children, sometimes savagely, hiding their actions from civil authorities and from the Catholic community they were supposed to serve.

We are certain of those assertions because a grand jury in Philadelphia managed to subpoena thousands of pages of documentation and to accumulate hundreds of hours of testimony before issuing, in 2005, a stunning report detailing years of sexual abuse of children by priests and cover-up of the abuse by cardinal archbishops.

It was discovered in 2011 that a third cardinal, Justin Rigali, since retired, had essentially disregarded provisions of the bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, ignoring credible claims of abuse against more than a dozen priests and bypassing the archdiocesan review board.

The cardinals were abetted in hiding the crimes by an insider group of clerics that included Msgr. William Lynn, as well as Edward Cullen, who went on to become bishop of Allentown, Pa., and Joseph Cistone, currently bishop of Saginaw, Mich.

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KENTUCKY
Harlan Daily Enterprise

by Joe P. Asher
Staff Writer

The jury trial for Jeremy Caraway, who was indicted for rape is scheduled to begin today in Harlan Circuit Court.

Caraway, 38, of Loyall, is the former pastor of Loyall Church of God. He faces two counts of second-degree rape, two counts of second-degree sodomy, two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, two counts of first-degree unlawful transaction with a minor and one count of use of an electronic communications system to procure a minor for a sexual offense.

The charges stem from alleged incidents from May 2011.

According to the Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, Caraway is scheduled to appear before Judge Robert McGinnis with his attorney Linda West. West has represented Caraway throughout most of the proceedings.

The alleged victim is a female who was under the age of 14 and attending Caraway’s church when the alleged incidents occurred. The evidence against Caraway includes Facebook and other electronic communication between Caraway and the minor, according to police.

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KENTUCKY
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 30, 2013

HARLAN, Kentucky — The trial is beginning for a former eastern Kentucky pastor facing counts of rape and other charges involving a girl younger than 14.

The Harlan Daily Enterprise (http://bit.ly/15X5L6k) reports the proceedings against 38-year-old Jeremy Caraway were scheduled to begin Tuesday in Harlan Circuit Court.

Caraway is the former pastor of Loyall Church of God in Harlan County. He is charged with rape, sodomy, sex abuse, unlawful transaction with a minor and use of an electronic communications system to procure a minor for a sexual offense.

Police say the girl attended Caraway’s church at the time of the alleged incidents in 2011.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Robert “Bob” Marsicek was ordained a priest of the Salvatorian order in 1968. He ministered in parishes in the dioceses of Green Bay WI, Phoenix AZ, Birmingham AL, Sacramento CA, and Milwaukee WI. He was also chaplain for the Boy Scouts during the late 1980s and through the 1990s in Sacramento. Marsicek was the subject for years of complaints from parents, teachers and others that he violated boundaries with children. His personnel file shows that his superiors repeatedly told him to stop hugging and touching children. In 2005 the mother of a five year-old girl reported to the parish school that Marsicek, who was pastor, had indecently touched the girl. In May 2012 Sacramento police launched an investigation of Marsicek after a woman reported that the priest had molested her two sons in the late 1980s and early 1990s while he was their parish pastor. Milwaukee bishop Lestecki and Salvatorian provincial, Rev. Joseph Rodrigues, knew of the investigation; Rodrigues explained that Marsicek was not removed from ministry in Milwaukee at the time so as not to disrupt the California investigation. In March 2013 Marsicek was placed on leave after a parish school teacher reported that she observed him on several occasions inappropriately touching a little girl. Subsequently, a woman claimed that allegations against Marsicek go as far back as his time in the Green Bay diocese in the 1970s. Marsicek has denied wrongdoing, stating that he was merely being affectionate with the children. In April 2013 he is said to be living under supervision in his order’s Milwaukee provincialate.

Ordained: 1968

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SCOTLAND
Evening Times

THE policewoman in charge of an investigation into alleged abuse by nuns 40 years ago was probed by top brass after wearing a Loyalist “No Surrender” badge on her uniform at a Rangers game, a court was told.

Nuns Anne Kenny, 79, known as Mother Rosaria, and Agnes Reville, 77, known as Mother Martin, deny assaulting eight girls at Dalbeth approved school in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, in the 1970s.

Yesterday, the jury at Paisley Sheriff Court heard Detective Constable Lesley McAuley – also known as Lesley Strachan – was in charge of the probe into alleged wrongdoing at the approved school.

One of her colleagues who worked with her on the inquiry in 2009, PC Nigel Gilmour, who has since been promoted to sergeant, was asked by defence QC Ronnie Clancy, representing Kenny: ” Was Lesley McAuley in the driving seat,” and he replied: “Yes.”

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SCOTLAND
The Scottish Sun

A POLICEWOMAN probing claims of abuse by nuns was caught wearing a ‘No Surrender’ badge at a Rangers game, a court heard yesterday.

DC Lesley McAuley was spotted with the Loyalist sticker on her uniform, a jury heard.

And she is also facing assault charges, including allegations of a racist attack.

The cop worked on the probe into Anne Kenny, 79, and Agnes Reville, 77, known as Mother Rosaria and Mother Martin.

At the nuns’ trial at Paisley Sheriff Court, the jury heard how the policewoman was removed from football duties after the picture emerged.

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SCOTLAND
STV

A nun accused of physically abusing girls at an approved school more than 40 years ago admitted to police that there was a punishment room on the premises, a court has heard.

However, 79-year-old Anne Kenny, known as Mother Rosaria, claimed it was used only as a “cooling off” room for badly behaving pupils and she added that none of the girls was ever hit.

Kenny and 77-year-old Agnes Reville, known as Mother Martin, deny assaulting eight girls at Dalbeth Approved School in Bishopton where they were head teacher and deputy head respectively in the early 1970s.

Four former pupils have claimed in evidence that they were physically abused during their time at the school. Christine Logan, 57, claims that, aged 14, she was tied to a pipe in a cupboard and left there for two days without food.

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SCOTLAND
Paisley Daily Express

Apr 30 2013 by Lynn Jolly, Paisley Daily Express

The policewoman who investigated two nuns accused of abuse was pictured wearing a Loyalist ‘No Surrender’ badge on her uniform at a Rangers game, a court was told yesterday.

DC Lesley McAuley faced a probe by the force’s top brass, it was revealed.

Nuns Anne Kenny, 79, known as Mother Rosaria, and Agnes Reville, 77, known as Mother Martin, deny assaulting eight girls at Dalbeath Approved School in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, in the early 1970s.

Yesterday, the jury at Paisley Sheriff Court heard that DC Lesley McAuley – also known as Lesley Strachan – was in charge of the probe into alleged wrongdoing at the approved school.

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OSTERREICH
KroneI

n den Zivilverfahren zweier ehemaliger Missbrauchsopfer gegen das Bregenzer Zisterzienser- Kloster Mehrerau ist nun der erste Vergleich geschlossen worden. Im Falle eines heute 58- jährigen Mannes, der Ende der 1960er- Jahre als Internats- Zögling unter anderem vergewaltigt worden sein soll, einigten sich die beiden Parteien auf eine nicht genannte Entschädigungssumme.Es wird in dieser Sache keine weiteren gerichtlichen Vorgänge geben”, erklärten am Dienstag Mehrerau- Sprecher Harald Schiffl und Doshi.

Missbrauchsopfer forderten Schmerzensgeld

Geklagt wurde das Kloster im vergangenen Jahr von dem 58- Jährigen sowie einem 46- jährigen Mann. Beide forderten, unabhängig voneinander, Schmerzensgeld und Verdienstentgang in Höhe von 200.000 bzw. 135.000 Euro.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Tom Roberts | Apr. 30, 2013

Following is a letter Fr. Connell sent today to CDF after hearing from the spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark

April 30, 2013

Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Vatican City State
Europe

Dear Archbishop Müller,

Yesterday I sent you an email letter regarding Archbishop John Myers of the Archdiocese of Newark (USA) and his handling of an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against Fr. Michael Fugee. I also sent a copy of that email letter to Archbishop Myers. Within a few hours yesterday, James Goodness, the Director of Communications and Public Relations of the Archdiocese of Newark, replied to me and his email is below.

Please notice that the fourth paragraph of Mr. Goodness’ email reads: “Archbishop Myers did send all information surrounding the allegation, including the court documents and the Review Board materials, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith following the conclusion of the Archdiocesan Review Board’s investigation. The Congregation subsequently, after a complete review of the materials, concurred that there was no sexual abuse and that Fr. Fugee could return to ministry.”

I have two questions.

First, is it correct that Archbishop Myers sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) all the information regarding the Fr. Fugee allegation, including all of the court documents that I mentioned in my email to you yesterday (Fr. Fugee’s confession to the crime and the Memorandum of Understanding that stipulated requirements agreed to by Fr. Fugee and the Archdiocese of Newark in lieu of a court trial)?

Second, is it correct as Mr. Goodness states that the CDF “concurred that there was no sexual abuse and that Fr. Fugee could return to ministry”?

Archbishop Müller, a thorough and prompt explanation of this situation is needed.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on April 30, 2013

Archbishop Myers continues to show his contempt for New Jersey’s kids and laws. Now, the burden falls to his bosses, his peers and his flock.

His bosses – from Pope Francis (the head of the church) to Cardinal Timothy Dolan (the head of America’s bishops) – must, at the very least, strongly and publicly denounce Myers. He’s deliberately endangering children. And he’s making a total mockery of every pledge and promise the Catholic hierarchy has made for decades about allegedly “reforming” their approach to clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

Myers’ peers – America’s bishops (not just those in New Jersey) – must similarly denounce him. Ignoring wrongdoing encourages wrongdoing. And in November 2002, America’s bishops committed themselves to “fraternally correct” their colleagues who violate church abuse policy, as Myers has clearly and repeatedly done. America’s bishops must, if they are to have any credibility on abuse, speak up loudly and clearly now.

Myers’ flock must also take action. They must stop donating to any institution even remotely connected with the archdiocese. We urge them to contribute more generously than ever before, but to contribute to organizations that protect kids, not endanger kids.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

[Documents from The Star-Ledger
• Read the Rev. Michael Fugee’s agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office

• Read the Rev. Michael Fugee’s confession to police

• Read Archbishop John J. Myers’ February letter to priests about the Rev. Michael Fugee]

By Kaitlyn Anness

Rev. Michael Fugee has been working with church youth groups unofficially at the St. Mary’s Parish in Colts Neck for years, even after admitting in 2001 to touching a 14-year-old boy inappropriately.

According to The Star Ledger, Fugee confessed in 2001 to groping a 14-year-old boy while working at the Church of St. Elizabeth in Wyckoff.

As a result, Fugee was put on 5 years probation and underwent therapy. Fugee also signed a binding agreement to stop any work with children, in any capacity.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By
MATT KEOUGH,
IrishCentral Intern

Published Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Nearly 30 years after he was originally convicted, former priest Bill Carney has finally been arrested in London. He will soon appear in court to face the charges of sexual abuse made against him, according to the Irish Sun. Having avoided punishment of any sort, and receiving $39,283 from the Catholic Church to leave the priesthood, his case has been called “tragic” and “nothing short of catastrophic.”

Dating all the way back to the 1970s and 80s, a priest in Ayrfield, Dublin, by the name of Bill Carney used his status as means to prey on innocent children and is only now being truly punished.

A BBC article from 2010 exposed Carney’s horrific nature and the glaring wrongdoings of the Catholic Church in efforts to cover up another child abuse scandal. The article cites the Murphy Report, from the current case against Carney. It states, “The Commission is aware of compliments or suspicion of abuse against him in respect to 32 individuals. There is evidence that he abused many more children.”

Ordained in 1974, Carney, a priest and scout troop leader surrounded himself with children. He created a seemingly fun-loving environment with swimming trips, free soda, and a personal video player. The pedophile then began to terrorize the children, both girls and boys, who admired and trusted him.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
From:The Australian
May 01, 2013

A PEDOPHILE priest at the centre of a NSW special commission of inquiry was allowed unsupervised access to Aboriginal children in Western Australia years after the Catholic Church hierarchy was first warned he was involved in child sex abuse.

Denis McAlinden, who is thought to have abused dozens of children over several decades, moved from the Catholic diocese of Maitland, in northern NSW, to a remote parish in the Pilbara during the 1980s.

There he replaced another parish priest, Adrian van Klooster, who had moved from Wollongong in NSW and was subsequently convicted of indecently dealing with children under 13.

During his time in Western Australia, McAlinden repeatedly took Aboriginal children on unsupervised swimming trips to a local beach, during which he allegedly abused two young girls.

These revelations, contained in a 1992 court transcript, raise serious questions over the conduct of church officials who allowed McAlinden access to vulnerable children and whether there may be further victims unknown to police.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

[Documents from The Star-Ledger
• Read the Rev. Michael Fugee’s agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office

• Read the Rev. Michael Fugee’s confession to police

• Read Archbishop John J. Myers’ February letter to priests about the Rev. Michael Fugee]

by Tom Roberts | Apr. 30, 2013

Following is a letter sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Fr. James Connell, a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and an outspoken advocate for victims of clergy sex abuse. Keep checking website. More to come on the story from NCR reporter Brian Roewe.

April 29, 2013

Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Vatican City State
Europe

Dear Archbishop Müller,

I am a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee (USA), a canon lawyer, and an advocate for victims/survivors of Catholic clergy sexual abuse of minors.

I request that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) investigate within a Church penal process Archbishop John Myers’ handling of the matter concerning the Reverend Michael Fugee.

Yesterday, The Star-Ledger, a newspaper published in Newark, New Jersey (USA) printed a story titled “Newark archbishop allows priest who admitted groping boy to continue working with children” which declares that Archbishop John Myers, the Archbishop of Newark, allowed the Reverend Michael Fugee to continue in priestly ministry even though Archbishop Myers knew that Fr. Fugee had confessed to the crime of sexual abuse of a minor. Here is the link to the on-line version of the newspaper article http: [Star-Ledger]

In addition, the on-line version of the newspaper also published two key documents.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

April 30, 2013

AAP

The Catholic Church’s insurer has paid out about $30 million to 600 Victorian victims of child abuse, its CEO says.

Catholic Church Insurance CEO Peter Rush said the organisation did not make payouts related to offences that occurred after the date the church had knowledge of an offender.

He confirmed that his organisation did not insure offences committed by pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale after 1975 when then Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns became aware of his offences.

Mr Rush said there were at least two confirmed cases, including Ridsdale, where they stopped paying insurance and said there would have been more.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Editorial
From:Herald Sun
May 01, 2013

THE Catholic Church should hang its head in shame after being forced to admit its priests abused children while their superiors covered up their crimes.

But whether the church understands the enormity of its transgressions remains a burning question.

Once again, the same excuse was offered for the cover-up as for the crimes.

In years past, child abuse was seen as a sin, not necessarily as a crime. But to offer that as an explanation is to ignore what any reasonable person would regard as an offence that should be reported to police. That was as true then as it is now.

But the former Bishop of Ballarat admitted the Catholic Church “effectively facilitated” sexual abuse by leaving known paedophiles in place.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Annika Smethurst
From:Herald Sun
May 01, 2013

PAEDOPHILE priests were advised never to admit guilt as a way of limiting payouts to victims, the Catholic Church’s insurer has said.

Catholic Church Insurance has paid out about $30 million to 600 Victorian victims of child abuse since 1990.

Chief executive Peter Rush told the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child abuse that the company used to tell clients not to admit anything to victims and that minimising payouts was its primary motivation.

“In the early 1990s I am confident that that would have been the way that we would have advised our clients, quite wrongly,” Mr Rush said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Stuart Rintoul
From:The Australian
May 01, 2013

CATHOLIC Church insurers have paid out $30 million to 600 victims of abuse since 1990 and have revealed the existence of an “exclusion list” of priests they would not indemnify the church against because they were known by the church to be offenders.

Catholic Church Insurance chief executive Peter Rush said the insurer refused to indemnify the church against claims involving pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale for offences committed after 1975 after it “ascertained” that was when Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns learned of his “propensity to offend”.

He said the same “prior knowledge” test was applied to pedophile priest Michael Glennon and revealed that CCI did not cover the church in a $450,000 out-of-court settlement in 2006 with Emma Foster, who was raped when she was in primary school, along with her sister Katie, by pedophile priest Kevin O’Donnell and who took her own life in 2008.

The settlement paid to Foster, the amount of which was revealed at the inquiry for the first time, was nine times the $50,000 cap paid to victims under the church’s Melbourne Response process at the time, which is now capped at $75,000.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by David Gibson,Religion News Service | Apr. 29, 2013

Analysis

New York —
A former adviser to Sarah Palin and attorney with a long record of advocating conservative causes will become the first spokeswoman for the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the USCCB announced Monday.

The addition of Kim Daniels, who is a leader of the conservative media lobby Catholic Voices USA, seems aimed at revamping the hierarchy’s communications strategy, which many bishops say has been hampered by a lack of coordination and an authoritative spokesperson.

Under the new structure, Daniels will speak for the president of the bishops’ conference — currently New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan — while the USCCB’s media office will continue to speak for the bishops as a whole.

Daniels’ hiring also looks like an effort to satisfy Dolan’s goal of finding an “attractive, articulate, intelligent” laywoman to help recast the hierarchy’s image, which many feared was starting to be seen as unfriendly to women because of legal battles like the fight against the Obama administration’s contraception mandate.

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WISCONSIN
CBS 58

by Chris Patterson

Story Created: Apr 29, 2013

BENET LAKE — 57-year-old Thomas Chmura, a monk at St. Benedicts Abbey, is charged with attempted child abduction and disorderly conduct after allegedly trying to pick up teenage girls in his van. Reports from some of Chmura’s potential victims eventually led police to spotting his van and arresting him.

A 14-year-old girl told police an elderly man offered to give her a ride home, and told her to get in the car when she declined his offer. Chmura sped away from the girl after she continued to refuse his offer for a ride. The girl reported the incident to a staff member at her high school.

The next day Chmura was spotted by an Antioch police officer and pulled over. Chmura admitted to police he attempted to give rides to 5-10 teenage girls using the same van registered to St. Benedicts Abbey located in Benet Lake, WI.

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NEW JERSEY
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | Apr 30, 2013

A week after John J. Myers was installed as archbishop of Newark in October of 2001, a priest of the archdiocese named Michael Fugee was indicted for groping a 14-year-old boy 14 months earlier. In April of 2003, Fugee, who had admitted abusing the boy, was convicted of aggravated criminal sexual contact and sentenced to five years’ probation, community service, and psychological counseling. He was also required to register as a sex offender and to receive community supervision for the rest of his life.

In the meantime, Myers, possessor of a doctorate in canon law, was appointed to serve on the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which drafted the bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, approved in 2005. The document provides that “for even a single act of sexual abuse of a minor whenever it occurred which is admitted or established after an appropriate process in accord with canon law, the offending priest or deacon is to be permanently removed from ministry.”

In 2006, Fugee’s conviction was overturned on a technicality. Rather than retry the case, the district attorney entered into an agreement with the archdiocese stipulating that the archdiocese

shall not assign or otherwise place Michael Fugee in any position within the Archdiocese that allows him to have any unsupervised contact with or to minister to any minor/child under the age of 18 or work in any position in which children are involved. This includes, but is not limited to, presiding over a parish, involvement with a youth group, religious education/parochial school, CCD, confessions with children, youth choir, youth retreats and day care.

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