ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Some have said the Conclave needs to pick a Pope with a MBA degree. As someone who took courses at the Harvard Business School while getting my Harvard Law degree in 1968, the Pope doesn’t need a MBA degree. He can hire all the MBAs he needs. The new Pope needs authenticity and courage and a 21st Century Church management structure, instead of the present 16th Century petty Italian monarchical structure. The new structure, of course, really requires the Conclave to fix a date now for a general council to restructure the Church horizontally, as Cardinal Kaspar wisely has called for.

Even the Person the Popes claim to be Vicar for, Jesus Christ, reportedly thought he needed a horizontal structure in tiny Galilee, and He was Divine, and not just occasionally “infallible”. He also consulted and/or interacted with all, from the poor, the disabled, even sinners, to children, Samaritans and even Roman centurions. His followers listened to and responded to their fellow Christians. When was the last time a Pope chatted with any of the homeless who sleep nightly in the entrance ways of the souvenir shops on the Vatican’s fringes? Meanwhile, the Shadow Pope has commandeered a ten bedroom convent to house his books!

This Conclave will be the Cardinals’ last chance to take the initiative. After the massive media coverage of Vatican scandals, as well as the scandals of Cardinals’ O’Brien, Mahony, et al., the pressure on political leaders worldwide is building on them rapidly to clean up the Vatican’s mess if the Cardinals fail to adopt a concrete plan to do so now, which really necessitates calling for a council on a date certain at the Conclave.

Money may not be the root of all evil, but it seems to be at the heart of many Vatican scandals. This should not be surprising given the Vatican’s long history as an unaccountable and self-perpetuating monarchical clique. For the entire adult life of the current Vatican clique and their carefully selected Cardinals, they could assume comfortably they answered to no earthly power and were financially self sufficient. Not any more, whether they realize that or not!

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VATICAN CITY
Worldcrunch

Is Italy ready to take back the papacy after being shut out by the Polish John Paul II and Germany’s Benedict XVI? This truck driver’s son is the Italians’ best hope.

By Andrea Tornielli
LA STAMPA/Worldcrunch

VATICAN CITY – For four days the cardinals met in a spacious meeting hall for open discussions in six separate sessions of the pre-conclave General Congregation. But it is in the private one-on-one conversations where the strongest “papabili” have begun to emerge ahead of Tuesday afternoon’s opening of the conclave to choose a successor to Pope Benedict XVI.

Among the most likely candidates, there is growing support converging around the name of Cardinal Angelo Scola, 71, the Archbishop of Milan.

Firmly on the list of the possible candidates for pope since Benedict announced his surprise resignation last month, Scola could receive early votes from cardinals from the United States, Europe, and notably his native Italy, which still counts by far the biggest single voting bloc at 28 voting-aging “princes of the Church.”

Moreover, his Oasis Foundation, a Church-run initiative to open dialogue with the Muslim world, has helped Scola to establish relationships with leaders in the Eastern Rite Churches, for example with the influential Lebanese Patriarch of Antioch Bechara Rahi.

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VATICAN CITY
Macomb Daily

By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A pastor in Ontario wondered about behind-the-scenes politicking ahead of the conclave to elect the next pope. He could have read news reports or listened to briefings by the Vatican spokesman. Instead, he asked a cardinal. Less than an hour later, the response arrived.

“What I see is a real desire to know, and so evaluate, the papabili against criteria of qualities demanded by situations,” wrote Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban, South Africa, using the term “papabili” for cardinals seen as papal contenders.

The exchange occurred on Twitter, one of many online interactions that have made this papal succession unlike any other for Roman Catholics and observers of the church. While the election starting Tuesday will remain strictly secret, social media is providing a direct link to the events surrounding the succession, creating a virtual conclave that involves lay people in everything from voting to prayer.

“I think it’s fabulous for the church,” said Brother Martin Browne, a Benedictine monk in County Limerick, Ireland, who is following Vatican analysts and reporters on Twitter instead of watching general news coverage. “I think more people understand what’s going on now because there’s greater access to good information.”

No one will be posting updates from inside the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican will activate electronic jamming devices so no one can listen in or report out. “You obviously can’t have cardinals inside the conclave tweeting `Uh-oh, trending right now: new young cardinal from wherever,”’ said Greg Burke, a Vatican communications adviser.

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ROME
NBC News

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

It’s been 35 years since an Italian pope has ruled the Catholic Church, and some Vatican watchers believe the conclave that starts Tuesday could be the first to elect a pontiff from outside Europe.

While the Italians control a quarter of the votes, recent scandals suggest that they might be too beset by deep divisions to unite early around one candidate from their home turf.

The church’s influence in Europe is on the wane, and its biggest area of growth is in sub-Saharan Africa, leading some to suggest that it might be time to look beyond the traditional countries for a pope with global appeal.

“The Catholic Church has moved far beyond the notion that any one nationality has a peculiar aptitude for the Office of Peter,” said NBC News Vatican analyst George Weigel, author of “Evangelical Catholicism.”

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NEW JERSEY
CBS New York

MENDHAM, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — Police in the Morris County, N.J., borough of Mendham said they likely have some solid leads on whoever damaged a church monument dedicated to child sexual abuse victims.

As WCBS 880’s Levon Putney reported, the monument already has been destroyed once, and now the replacement has been damaged too.

Patrick Kelly is one of the child sexual abuse victims of the former priest at St. Joseph’s Church in Mendham. He said the vandalism was not completely unexpected.

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KENYA
Nation

By REV DR SAHAYA G SELVAM selvamsdb@gmail.com
Posted Sunday, March 10 2013

Your Holiness,

I am not a theologian, nor a church historian. I am a Catholic priest with some academic background and much pastoral experience with the younger generation. I have had the privilege of living and serving the people of God in four countries across three continents.

Having lived four years in Northern Europe, I have seen the situation of the church there, witnessed the struggle between the church and the larger society, and heard the political rhetoric among the followers of Christ.

However, I wonder; as the leader of the universal church would it not be more meaningful for Your Holiness to focus on the “joys and hopes” that the universal church promises, rather than get bogged down by the problems of the church in Europe and North America?

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SCOTLAND
STV

A leading Scottish solicitor believes a change to the law making it easier for sexual abuse victims to claim compensation could be considered in light of fresh allegations against the Catholic Church.

Cameron Fyfe is acting on behalf of six clients who claim they were abused by priests, two of whom came forward in the weeks since Cardinal Keith O’Brien resigned after admitting sexual misconduct.

It follows reports that bishops in the Scottish Catholic Church knew of 20 allegations of child sex abuse between 1985 and 1995.

Mr Fyfe said: “I’m acting for six clients who allege they were abused by priests, some in the 1980s, some in the 1990s. One we have raised a court action over in the Court of Session and one we’re just about to raise a court action over. The other four we’re currently investigating.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 9 March 2013 (VIS) – The chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, which will emit the smoke to indicate the election (white smoke) or non-election (black smoke) of a pope, was installed this morning, three days before the Conclave is scheduled to begin. That, however, is not the only change taking place in the chapel. Vatican Television is recording the preparations and those images are then distributed to all media outlets that request it for broadcasting around the world.

Work began on Tuesday, 5 March, at 1:00pm when restorers, electricians, mechanics, carpenters, seamstresses, assemblers, electronic technicians and other labourers from various areas of competence suddenly replaced the hundreds of tourists who visit the Sistine Chapel every day. “The Chapel is closed to the public. We are preparing for the Conclave,” employees respond to the questions asked by perplexed visitors who are trying to finish their tour of the Vatican Museums with a glimpse of Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam”.

Journalists are already in the know. The Director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., has been holding daily press conferences, giving a general overview of the proceedings of the General Congregations and explaining the images of the preparations that are being carried out around Vatican City. From within the Sistine Chapel we see scaffolding around the stoves that will burn the ballots to erect the stove pipe that releases the smoke from the roof of the chapel, shorter tubing for the scaffolding that will elevate the floor and create a uniform area to work on, lengths of cloth and the seamstresses sowing them together to create table covers…

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 9 March 2013 (VIS) – “The first order of business of the eighth General Congregation, which met yesterday evening and in which 145 cardinals participated, was to vote on the date to begin the Conclave. Cardinal Dean Angelo Sodano, expressing the wishes of all and after having consulted with the Cardinal Carmelengo Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B., regarding the preparations at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, proposed the date of Tuesday, 12 March. The overwhelming majority immediately voted in agreement,” reported Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office. “There was no difference of opinion between the cardinals and the percentage of votes in favour of to those against was around 10 to one. Moreover,” Fr. Lombardi added, “the full complement of Cardinal electors was already reached and it was no longer considered necessary to wait further, as they already had time to reflect on their decision.”

Fifteen cardinals intervened during the course of the Congregation and two newly arrived cardinals were sworn in, neither of which is a Cardinal elector: Cardinal Miguel Obando Bravo, S.D.B., archbishop emeritus of Managua, Nicaragua, and Cardinal Gaudencio Borbon Rosales, archbishop emeritus of Manila, Philippines.

During the ninth General Congregation that met this morning, the cardinals spoke about moving into the Domus Sanctae Marthae, which will be their residence for the duration of the Conclave. “It was agreed by majority that the move will take place on Tuesday morning, beginning from 7:00am, that is, the same day that the Conclave begins. A “Pro eligendo Romano Pontifice” Mass will be celebrated by the Cardinal Dean at 10:00am that morning in St. Peter’s Square. Rooms were also assigned, by lot.”

“This morning 17 cardinals intervened, speaking on the same general themes that have been previously reported, including: expectations regarding the new Pope, activities of the Holy See and its Dicasteries, and improving the Curia. In total, there have been 133 interventions in the General Congregations and, keeping in mind those scheduled for Monday, that number will probably reach 150.”

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VATICAN CITY
CBC News

News that German industrialist Ernst von Freyberg will take over as the new head of a financial body called the Institute for Works of Religion made a splash recently in the world’s media.

Under normal circumstances, the attention might seem misplaced. After all, the Institute for Works of Religion, known by its Italian acronym IOR, is a relatively small financial body with just 33,000 accounts and only $7.6 billion in assets — less than some Canadian credit unions.

But the IOR is no ordinary financial institution. It is better known by its unofficial name — the Vatican Bank.

Von Freyberg’s appointment to the top job came as the beleaguered institution struggles to regain credibility after decades of financial scandals that have seen the secretive institution being probed more than once for alleged money-laundering and other questionable financial matters.

Most recently, it has been trying to address findings that its banking standards — especially in the transparency department — aren’t up to the job.

Bitter infighting

So bitter has been the infighting that internal critics say they have been shuffled out in a bid to silence them and shield the bank’s inner workings from prying eyes.

Von Freyberg’s appointment fills the void left by the ousting of the bank’s previous head, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. The bank’s board of directors fired him last year for failure to carry out “the primary functions of his office,” according to a Vatican statement.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Saturday, March 9, 2013

A radio documentary has heard two Magdalene Laundry nuns defend the actions of the religious orders who ran the infamous institutions.

The Irish Times reports that two nuns involved in running Magdalene laundries have hit back at criticisms of the four congregations which operated the 10 such laundries in Ireland up to 1996.

The unnamed sisters spoke to the RTE radio programme The God Slot.

Sister B said: “All of the shame of the era is being dumped on the religious orders.”

When asked if an apology might be appropriate after the recent McAleese report on the laundries, Sister A responded: “Apologise for what?”

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MISSOURI
Daily Journal

By MARIA SUDEKUM Associated Press
First Posted: March 09, 2013

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — A newspaper known for unflinching coverage of the Catholic church scandal was rebuked by a bishop in its own backyard after calling for his ouster in a battle that illustrates tensions between U.S. bishops and groups that call themselves Catholic but aren’t sanctioned by the church.

The National Catholic Reporter, an independent Kansas City, Missouri-based weekly, called for Bishop Robert Finn’s removal or resignation in September, after he was convicted of failing to report suspected child abuse.

Finn, leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, later wrote in an editorial in his own diocesan newspaper that parishioner anger is growing over the NCR’s challenges to Catholic orthodoxy on topics ranging from the ordination of women to contraception.

In the last several years, church leaders have been trying to shore up the religious identity and mission of organizations that call themselves Catholic, including trying to bar groups from saying they have ties with the church if bishops believe the organizations stray from church teaching. Conflict over the issue intensified in the 2008 presidential election, when some Catholic advocacy groups backed Barack Obama despite his support for abortion rights.

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CALIFORNIA
LA Daily News

By Tim Rutten
dailynews.com
Posted: 03/07/2013

Cardinal Roger Mahony Sede vacante — “the seat is empty.” Thus the Roman Catholic Church, the world’s largest religious denomination, describes those interregna in which the throne of Peter, the West’s oldest monarchial institution, sits unoccupied, and there is no pope.

During this period, the church with its 1.2 billion members is governed by a daily meeting of the 207-member College of Cardinals, presided over by its carmerlengo, or chamberlain, the 78-year-old Italian Tarcisio Bertone. A close aid to pope emeritus Benedict XVI, he has said that any attempt to compel bishops to report pedophilic priests to civil authorities affronts “liberty of conscience” and that the church’s global abuse crisis stems from an “infiltration of homosexuals” into the priesthood.

Sometime in the next few days, the last of the 115 cardinal electors — only those under 80 can vote for the next pontiff — will arrive in Rome, and the college will decide on when to open the next papal conclave, probably by Monday. When it begins and despite all the controversy attendant upon his participation, there will be a number of reasons to welcome the presence of Los Angeles’ emeritus archbishop, Cardinal Roger Mahony, who did the right thing when he put aside demands that he not attend the conclave.

Thousands of pages of internal archdiocesan documents recently released as the final step in the 2007 legal settlement the Los Angeles church reached with more than 600 victims of clerical abuse
demonstrate once again that Mahony was sometimes malfeasant and frequently tragically mistaken in the way he dealt with priest-molesters in the 1980s and early 1990s. However, it’s long been known that these cases were hideously botched. After all, the archdiocese paid a $660 million cash settlement to the victims — the largest in the history of this wretched scandal — and Mahony has repeatedly and publicly apologized for his conduct, met often in person with those injured and, most important, implemented a set of child protection policies regarded as a national model of rigor.

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CALIFORNIA
The California Report

Reporter: Steven Cuevas

It’s not so easy for Father Willy Raymond to stay on top of what’s going in Rome.
He gave up cable news for Lent.

“I decided to fast from watching CNN, MSNBC and Fox News,” Raymond says in his Hollywood office where he runs a Catholic-based media company called Family Theatre Productions. But he’s not entirely unplugged. There’s still the radio and the Internet.

“There’s something really interesting right now,” he says, as he calls up a website on the computer. “Just go to Adoptacardinal.org and they will give you the name of a Cardinal elector and you can pray for that person.”

The communion of faith and technology might be something for a new pope to embrace. So says Sister Patricia Rayburn, who hopes the next pontiff will also be more enlightened about the role of women in the church.

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ROME
Canberra Times

March 10, 2013

Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age

After a week of general meetings, the world’s Catholic cardinals have settled on Tuesday, March 12, to start the meeting to select a new Pope.

At their second meeting of the day on Friday the assembled 115 cardinals who are under 80, plus dozens more ineligible to join the conclave because they are over 80, voted to go into seclusion from Tuesday.

Compared with the conclave of 2005, there have been public tensions and disagreements with non-Italian and non-Curia (Vatican bureaucracy) cardinals resisting pressure to move quickly and demands for answers to questions about Vatican scandals such as last year’s ”Vatileaks” crisis and the Vatican bank. The cardinals are also believed to want time to get to know each other and to have their staff research potential candidates before the conclave makes outside communication impossible.

The Italian and curial cardinals reportedly have been pressing for an early conclave. This would increase their influence as newer or more remote cardinals who do not know each other well would have less time to agree on the main challenges facing the church.

For first-world cardinals, these include the flight from faith by younger Catholics, loss of confidence in the church, the clergy sex abuse crisis and how to handle such controversial social issues as the place of women, homosexuality, gay marriage, abortion, divorce and remarriage, and the decline in priests.

For cardinals from the developing world, social justice, poverty, environmental issues and relations with Islam and other faiths take centre stage. For both groups, the government of the church and reform of the Curia have risen sharply up the agenda.

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VATICAN CITY
Los Angeles Times

By Henry Chu
March 9, 2013

VATICAN CITY – The chimney is up, the tourists are out and the cardinals are on deck.
Final preparations were underway Saturday in Michelangelo’s splendid Sistine Chapel for the conclave of prelates who will elect a new pope to head the Roman Catholic Church.

Journalists were given a look inside the famed chapel where the red-hatted cardinals, the “princes” of the church, will begin their secret proceedings Tuesday to try to settle on a new leader from within their ranks.

At the back of the frescoed interior sat the pair of stoves that will be the 115 cardinals’ only form of communication with the outside world. Ballots will be burned in one stove and special coloring chemicals in the other, their fumes mixing in a combined duct to create black smoke to signal an inconclusive vote and white puffs to show a new pope has been elected.

The chimney – a simple, skinny copper pipe – was installed by firefighters Saturday morning. It runs up the wall and out one of the chapel’s windows. The tiny smokestack on the roof is visible to tourists and pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square.

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VATICAN CITY
GlobalPost

Agence France-Presse
March 9, 2013

The Vatican on Saturday outlined the timetable for a conclave in the Sistine Chapel starting next week for a new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics after Benedict XVI’s resignation.

Here are the precise times for the papal election beginning on Tuesday:

— From 0600 GMT on Tuesday: The 115 “cardinal electors” move into the St Martha’s House residence inside the Vatican walls where they will eat and sleep cut off from the outside world for the duration of the conclave.

— 0900 GMT: Cardinals take part in a special “Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice” (“For the Election of the Roman Pontiff”) mass in St Peter’s Basilica.

— 1445 GMT: Cardinals either walk or take a minibus in strict isolation through the Vatican gardens from St Martha’s House to the Apostolic Palace.

— 1530 GMT: Cardinals hold a procession through the Apostolic Palace from the Pauline Chapel to the Sistine Chapel as they chant the Litany of Saints.

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ROME
Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA

Every day the Cardinals gather for our General Congregation meetings, and there are delightful breaks, coffee, and fraternity.

Almost every day I greet our new Pope, maybe have a cappuccino with him.

Trouble is, I don’t know which one of these Cardinals will actually be elected in the coming week. But it is one of them.

One of my brother Cardinals came to Rome with his suitcase, and with an open airline ticket to return home. But one of them isn’t going home. He will move into the special apartments designed as the residence for the Pope.

Once one of the Cardinals receives at least 77 votes, he will be asked by the senior Cardinal if he accepts the election to serve as the next Pope. Presuming he responds “yes,” he will then be asked, “By what name do you wish to be called?”

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ROME
Malta Independent

Saturday, 09 March 2013
by Laura Burke, Associated Press

Often cast as the social conscience of the church, Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson is viewed by many as the top African contender for pope.

The 64-year-old head of the Vatican’s peace and justice office was widely credited with helping to avert violence following contested Ghanaian elections. He has aggressively fought African poverty, while disappointing many by hewing to the church’s conservative line on condom use amid Africa’s AIDS epidemic.

Turkson’s reputation as a man of peace took a hit recently when he showed a virulently anti-Islamic video, a move now seen as hurting his papal prospects. Observers say those prospects sank further when he broke a taboo against public jockeying for the papacy — telling The Associated Press the day after Benedict XVI’s resignation announcement that he’s up for the job “if it’s the will of God.”

Speculation about the possibility of a pope from the developing world has swirled for years as the church’s growth has moved south. In Africa, between 1978 and 2007, the number of Catholics grew from 55 million to 146 million. Latin America counts 40 percent of the world’s Catholics. In contrast, Catholic communities in Europe are in decline.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Enterprise

By Joann Fitzpatrick
For The Patriot Ledger

Posted Mar 09, 2013

COMMENTARY —

Traditionally the election of a new pope gives the Roman Catholic hierarchy a chance to remind the world of one of its great religions and of how much influence the Vatican has.

Until fairly recently, the gathering of cardinals, the procession of red hats into St. Peter’s Basilica, crowds waiting for the puff of white smoke to indicate that a new leader has been chosen – all the attendant rituals and the secrecy of the process made for great theater. A sense of the mystique of the church pervaded.

Not this time. A measure of inscrutability is present in all religions and helps sustain them and their followers in the modern world. But events in recent years have stripped the Vatican of the mystery cloak that sheltered it so securely.

We always knew there was intrigue; it’s been the stuff of lore and literature for centuries. Now we know of financial scandal and, most alarming, of the persistent and worldwide cover-up of sexual abuse by priests.

What happens at the Vatican no longer stays at the Vatican, and what happens in the conclave to select a new pope is of far less interest than it used to be, even among the faithful. The men who run the church may use Twitter, but their outlook remains rooted in another time. They refuse to acknowledge that their efforts to keep Catholics tightly controlled have failed. Most Catholics practice their faith as they know and feel it, distanced emotionally and theologically from the Vatican managers who are so removed from the lives of their followers. These men rail against contraception as though they don’t know that the vast majority of Catholics in developed countries turn a deaf ear. Italy has one of Europe’s lowest birth rates, and it’s not because of the Mediterranean diet.

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ITALIA
Il Secolo XIX

[con video]

Savona – «Chiediamo che il cardinale Domenico Calcagno non partecipi al conclave»: la petizione è stata lanciata online, nella giornata di ieri, dalla Rete L’abuso – noi vittime di preti pedofili coordinata da Francesco Zanardi, grande accusatore dell’omertà nei confronti della pedofilia della diocesi savonese, dove Monsignor Calcagno è stato vescovo sino al 2007.

Nel 2003, in una missiva inviata all’allora prefetto della Congregazione per la dottrina della fede Joseph Ratzinger, Calcagno chiedeva consigli sul comportamento da tenere con Don Nello Giraudo, il sacerdote pedofilo condannato nel 2012 a un anno di carcere patteggiato per l’ultimo dei numerosi abusi, risalente al 2005 e unico tra i numerosi non caduto in prescrizione.

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ITALIA
Avvenire

Pedofilia, devastante piaga nazionale. Sono decine di migliaia gli orchi: insegnanti, allenatori, liberi professionisti. E preti: una percentuale numericamente minima rispetto ai 21mila pedofili accertati e soprattutto ai 40mila sacerdoti che tutti i giorni vivono con passione la loro vocazione, ma che dà scandalo proprio perché il crimine proviene da chi più di tutti deve proteggere gli inermi. La Chiesa oggi reagisce con energia, spesso più severamente della giustizia civile (ad esempio quando per i giudici il reato è ormai prescritto ma il colpevole viene dimesso dallo stato clericale).

Per questo la trasmissione delle “Iene” di domenica sera, che ha riproposto la storia già molto nota di Nello Giraudo (prete della provincia di Savona, ridotto anni fa allo stato laicale per le orribili azioni commesse) sembra voler a tutti i costi camminare con la testa voltata all’indietro e non vedere ciò che da anni accade.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

By JAN RAVENSBERGEN, THE GAZETTE March 8, 2013

MONTREAL — A Roman Catholic priest in Sorel-Tracy who was reportedly active for many years in a splinter arm of the scouting movement will remain behind bars until his next court appearance on Monday.

Father Daniel Moreau was charged Thursday with possession and distribution of child pornography.

Believed to be in his mid-50s, the priest was arrested at the Saint-Gabriel-Lalemant church on de Roi St., near Lalement St. in Sorel-Tracy, about 100 kilometres northeast of Montreal. The TVA network said neighbours looked on in stupefaction as the parish priest was taken away in handcuffs and placed in a patrol car — then driven away by police.

The Sûreté du Québec was acting on a request from a police force outside the province, Sgt. Daniel Thibaudeau of the SQ said.

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ITALIA
Il Secolo XIX

Savona – La Chiesa savonese ha annunciato l’immediata apertura di un procedimento di diritto canonico nei confronti del prete del seminario accusato da un ex seminarista di violenza sessuale su minore. È stato lo stesso vescovo Vittorio Lupi, in pellegrinaggio in Terra Santa, a dettare la strada da seguire dopo l’intervista choc rilasciata al Secolo XIX dal savonese violentato dal prete e dopo il deposito di ieri in diocesi di una lettera della stessa vittima.

La svolta è arrivata nel tardo pomeriggio di ieri al termine di consultazioni telefoniche tra il vescovo Lupi e l’ordinario diocesano don Antonio Ferri al quale è stato dato mandato di prendere in carico la situazione per arrivare ad una soluzione della vicenda. Sul caso dell’ex seminarista abusato e degli abusi su almeno un altro compagno di camerata, la procura non ha ancora deciso il da farsi.

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ROME
Washington Post

By Ashley McGuire,
Published: March 8

This morning as I stepped out of a café in Rome, I was greeted by a smiling man offering me a sprig of mimosa flowers.

Today is the Festa della Donna, or Women’s Day in Italy, and the mimosa is the flower traditionally given to women on this day.

I found it perfectly appropriate that I began a week long trip in Rome for the upcoming papal conclave on Woman’s Day. With the Catholic Church at the forefront of international news given recent events, many are using the opportunity to frame the Vatican and the Catholic Church more broadly as a place that excludes women. The next pope will be a man elected by 115 men, therefore women must have no role in the life of the faith, the logic goes.

I returned to my home for the next week, a friend’s apartment, with two cappuccinos in hand. My friend, a woman, is studying to be a canon lawyer, an ecclesiastical role that entails tremendous authority in adjudicating church matters.

When we couldn’t figure out the credentialing process, she called a friend who is a Vatican journalist, or a Vaticanista as they are known around here. But she was too busy carting around journalists and cardinals.

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VATICAN CITY
National Post (Canada)

Kristopher Morrison | 13/03/08

It is impossible to calculate the wealth of the Roman Catholic Church. In truth, the church itself likely could not answer that question, even if it wished to.

Its investments and spending are kept secret. Its real estate and art have not been properly evaluated, since the church would never sell them.

There is no doubt, however, that between the church’s priceless art, land, gold and investments across the globe, it is one of the wealthiest institutions on Earth.

Since 313 A.D., when Catholicism became the official religion of the Roman Empire, its power has been in near-constant growth.

The church was able to acquire land, most notably the Papal States surrounding Rome, convert pagan temples and claim relics for itself. Over 300 years, it became one of Europe’s largest landowners.

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VATICAN CITY
National Post (Canada)

Adrian Humphreys | 13/03/08

As the world waits for the Vatican’s conclave to select a new pope to lead 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, and the church’s sex abuse scandals dominate discourse on the incoming pontiff’s priorities, another decidedly worldly issue is also poised to take an immediate toll on the new Holy Father: money.

The public and private woes of the Vatican bank, long shrouded in secrets and whispers, might well prove to be just as challenging, if not as draining, as the lurid, faith-shaking damage of the clergy abuse scandal.

With a two-year probe by Italian authorities into money laundering, poor transparency, inadequate adherence to standards for guarding against criminal and terrorist financing, and questions over sudden changes in its leadership, the bank represents another crisis of morals, legalities and perception.

The importance of the Vatican bank in Pope Benedict XVI’s grand vision can be assumed from the urgency it held with the outgoing pontiff: among the last official acts before his shock retirement was overhauling financial leadership and church oversight.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Money may not be the root of all evil, but it seems to be at the heart of many Vatican scandals. This should not be surprising given the Vatican’s long history as an unaccountable and self-perpetuating monarchical clique. For the entire adult life of the current Vatican clique and their carefully selected Cardinals, they could assume comfortably they answered to no earthly power and were financially self sufficient. Not any more, whether they realize that or not!

So where’s the money? Much of the Vatican’s key funding comes from the USA and Germany, in contributions and governmental subsidies. Key financial officials, including the new head of the Vatican Bank, are also often from Germany or the USA.

Similarly, German political and legal clout in Europe and the USA’s clout everywhere are something the Vatican needs to manage or at least avoid. Can the Vatican salvage these subsidies and contributions and hold off national investigations merely by electing a new Pope? Not likely, the Vatican will need major reforms and that likely requires holding a Church council in the near future.

Any chance of managing the USA’s clout, including through the U.S. Supreme Court, was eliminated by the Shadow Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, and Cardinal Dolan’s recent inept effort to prevent President Obama’s re-election with a hopeless anti-contraception and gay marriage crusade. Dolan failed even to fraternally correct one of his fellow U.S. bishops who shamefully compared President Obama to Hitler and Stalin. What a great Pope Dolan would make!

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald– 09 March 2013

DISSIDENT priest Fr Tony Flannery has revealed his censure by the Vatican almost caused him to leave his Redemptorist order. Fr Flannery (inset), who has been a priest for 40 years, was disciplined last year over his views on women priests, contraception and homosexuality.

The 66-year-old is now facing possible excommunication for his refusal to sign a document retracting his views.

“At an early stage in this process I seriously considered whether the best thing for me to do would be to leave the congregation rather than bring this very awkward situation on them,” he told the Irish Independent.

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ROME
Los Angeles Times

By Henry Chu
March 8, 2013

ROME — Days away from entering the Sistine Chapel to help pick a new pope, Cardinal Roger Mahony on Friday called on Christians to embrace forgiveness and lamented the enmity and isolation that he said were at the root of such problems as gangs, hate crimes and war.

At a Mass in a medieval basilica assigned to him as cardinal, Mahony also asked for divine guidance for him and his fellow prelates as they prepared to begin the conclave that will name a new leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

“We pray that the Holy Spirit will be with us in this process,” said Mahony, dressed in purple vestments and the distinctive red cap given to all cardinals as “princes” of the church.

His voice echoed in the beautifully frescoed Santi Quattro Coronati church, his personal parish, which he said “links Los Angeles with Rome.”

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

by Paul Begala

It may take a miracle to fix the Vatican.

As the College of Cardinals meets in a secret conclave to select the next pope, thoughtful Catholics are asking why Roger Mahony, the disgraced cardinal-archbishop of Los Angeles, is attending and voting. His successor, Archbishop José Gomez, has relieved Mahony of all public duties as punishment for mishandling numerous cases of alleged sexual abuse of children by members of the clergy. But apparently the private conclave is not a “public duty.” And not a single cardinal has called for excluding Mahony.

In the National Catholic Reporter, Father Thomas Doyle, a Dominican priest and canon lawyer who advised attorneys for the victims, described Mahony’s conduct as a “self-serving obsession to first shortchange the victims and then to protect himself and the archdiocesan administration from the exposure of their despicable actions in sacrificing the innocence of children for the clerical image.”

When all things decent, moral, and Christian called for strength and truth and justice, Mahony dodged and denied. Archbishop Gomez called the conduct that occurred under Mahony “terribly sad and evil.” Mahony pronounced himself “amazed” at the reaction to the release of thousands of pages of documents revealing the deep duplicity during his tenure. In an interview with Catholic News Service, Mahony actually had the temerity to defend what he did and what he failed to do. “People say, ‘Well, why didn’t you call the police?’ In those days no one reported these things to the police, usually at the request of families,” he said. That surely comes as news to the 508 survivors and victims who filed suit against the Los Angeles archdiocese. They wanted justice when they were abused; they demand it now. So much for mea maxima culpa.

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DEUTSCHLAND
HPD

(hpd) Gestern nahmen viele Medien die Veröffentlichung des Berichtes über die Misshandlungen und den sexuellen Missbrauch im Kloster Ettal zum Anlass, empört auf die Zustände zu reagieren. Doch einige von ihnen versuchen tatsächlich, eine Art “Entschuldigung” für diese Zustände zu finden.

Bereits im April 2010 wurde bekannt, dass es im Kloster Ettal zu Misshandlungen und sexuellem Missbrauch durch Geistliche gekommen ist. Die Internatsschule des Klosters galt bis dahin – und zum Teil noch heute – als Ausbildungsstätte für die Elite. Sie hatte bis zur Veröffentlichung des ersten Berichtes einen tadellosen Ruf. Zumindest nach Außen hin. Denn die Zöglinge des Internates werden schon gewußt haben, was sich hinter den Mauern abspielte.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Augsburger Allgemeine

Das Kloster Ettal arbeitet die Vorkommnisse im Elite-Internat auf. Auch das Bistum Augsburg beschäftigt sich in zwei neuen Berichten mit den Verfehlungen Geistlicher. Von Daniel Wirsching

Es gibt viele Ettals. Zumindest in den Köpfen der Menschen, die in Internat oder Gymnasium des Benediktinerklosters ihre Jugend verbrachten. Und so können es die einen einfach nicht glauben, dass jener „Traumort“, an den sie nur gute Erinnerungen haben, die Hölle auf Erden gewesen sein soll. Das sind diejenigen, die nicht Opfer systematischer Misshandlungen oder gar sexualisierter Gewalt geworden sind.

Missbrauchs-Skandal im Kloster Ettal: Schmerzhafte Gewissheit

Sie wunderten, ja sie ärgerten sich über die immer wiederkehrende Schlagzeile des Jahres 2010: „Missbrauch in Ettal“. Manche kritisieren bis heute den Weg, den Klosterleitung und Opferverein nach anfänglichen Auseinandersetzungen eingeschlagen haben: den der schonungslosen Aufarbeitung. „Eine kleinere Gruppe der Opfer und wohl auch im Kloster steht dieser Verständigungsperspektive skeptisch bis ablehnend gegenüber“, heißt es in der gestern vorgestellten Studie des Instituts für Praxisforschung und Projektberatung München (IPP). …
außergewöhnlicher Härte exekutierte“.

Beauftragter der Diözese spricht von erschreckenden Einzelfällen

Einen großen Schritt vorangekommen ist auch die Aufarbeitung von Misshandlungs- und Missbrauchsfällen in der Diözese Augsburg. Das Bistum stand, neben Ettal, 2010 im Fokus der Öffentlichkeit – wegen Prügelvorwürfen gegen den damaligen Bischof Walter Mixa. Heute legt es den „Arbeitsbericht“ des ehemaligen Richters am Oberlandesgericht München, Otto Kocherscheidt, vor. Dieser war von März 2010 bis März 2013 Missbrauchsbeauftragter der Diözese, seine Nachfolgerin ist die Augsburger Rechtsanwältin Brigitte Ketterle-Faber.

Dem Bericht zufolge haben sich bei Kocherscheidt bis Ende 2012 171 Personen gemeldet, 37 Meldungen betrafen andere Diözesen oder Orden. Von den 37 Opfern, die Kocherscheidt kontaktierten, waren 25 männlich und zwölf weiblich. „Die meisten Opfer waren zur Zeit der Tat circa zehn Jahre alt, das jüngste sechs Jahre“, schreibt er.

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NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

Written by
Michael Izzo
@MIzzoDR

MENDHAM — A monument dedicated to victims of child sexual abuse has been destroyed for the second time in less than two years.

Local authorities say someone caused extensive damage to the 400-pound millstone that sits outside St. Joseph Church. No suspects have been identified.

Mendham Mayor Neil Henry said it appears the damage occurred late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

“It’s troubling that this happened again,” said Henry, who added that he was close to the situation because he personally knew some of the victims. “It’s beyond belief.”

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Russ Crespolini

March 8, 2013

For the second time in as many years a memorial at St. Joseph’s Church in Mendham Borough that was dedicated to the victims of child sexual abuse was defaced, Mendham Borough Police said.

According to Ptl. Chris Gobbi, an employee of Saint Joseph’s Church and School discovered vandalism to a monument on the west side of the church property. The monument consisted of a black granite millstone, two statues of children, and two plaques.

The monument was designed and built as a memorial to the victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and was dedicated in 2004 at St. Joseph’s where James T. Hanley, a pastor who has been defrocked, admitted to molesting children decades ago.

The damage from Thursday’s incident appeared to be limited to the two statues of a male and female child on either side of the millstone, Gobbi said. The male statue sustained cracks and chipping of the finish to the base, the legs and a ball behind the feet, the female child statue had been broken off at the ankles and sustained major damage where it struck the ground, including the loss of an arm, Gobbi said.

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TEXAS
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A Southern Baptist megachurch reportedly filed a police report on a church member who raised questions about news stories alleging that nearly 25 years ago leaders of the congregation failed to alert authorities about credible accusations of child molestation by a staff member.

Chris Tynes, a software engineer and member of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, for more than a decade, says he spoke with a detective about a complaint labeling him a “suspicious person, possibly violent” after he was ordered by security personnel to leave the church premises March 5.

Chris TynesTynes says he showed up at his church anyway, after a staff member who had previously scheduled a meeting with him backed out and relayed a message that there was no reason for them to talk.

Tynes said the whole thing started about a week ago after he watched an HBO documentary about the sexual abuse cover-up in the Catholic Church. With stories like the Penn State scandal and the pope’s legacy still fresh in his memory, Tynes posted on Facebook how upsetting he found the whole idea.

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UNITED STATES
ABC News

By Alyssa Newcomb
@alyssanewcomb

Mar 8, 2013

As the cardinal electors contemplate the merits of their peer group, from which one will likely be named pope, U.S. Catholics said sex abuse is the biggest problem facing the church, according to a new survey.

The survey, from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, found that 34 percent of U.S. Catholics believe sexual abuse is the most pressing problem. However 17 percent of those surveyed said they didn’t know the most important problem or they declined to offer an opinion.

No other answers elicited more than 10 percent of a response.

Credibility was named as the biggest problem by 9 percent of respondents, while an outdated church and a loss of followers garnered 7 percent each.

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UNITED STATES
Wall Street Journal

By Peggy Noonan

The next pope should be a man who can greet the world with a look of pleasure on his face, with a smile of joy. He should not come forward with the sad, bent posture of one who knows the world is in ruins and only the facades remain. He should be joyous anyway.

What he has ahead of him looks fairly impossible. He has to confront The Scandals in a way that allows the world to believe that they are over, that a corner has been turned and there will be no going back.

The Scandals seem now as great as the scandals that prefigured the Reformation. They are that dangerous to the Church, threatening to tear it down in the eyes of the world. The next pope must understand this. In his first months, he should take dramatic action, including the wholesale retirement and removal of as many as possible of those involved.

It would be wonderful if, at the moment the new pope is declared—Habemus Papem, “We have a pope”—not only the doors of the Vatican balcony were opened to reveal him but every window in the Vatican and the great doors of Saint Peter’s itself. Open the doors, be vital, invite sunlight, show the world that a new time has begun.

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SCOTLAND
The Times

Mike Wade

The Catholic Church in Scotland did not do enough to tackle child sex abuse by priests in a ten-year period from 1985, the Church’s own adviser has said.

Alan Draper was appointed in the mid-1990s to analyse the problem of sexual abuse by priests and to suggest how the hierarchy should respond to it. He wrote to Scotland’s eight bishops to try to assess the depth of the problem.

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ROME
Rome Reports

March 9, 2013. (Romereports.com) To say the cases of sexual abuse by priests has rocked the Catholic Church would be an understatement.

As Pope, Benedict XVI led the Church’s response, apologizing for the priests’ actions and meeting with victims. He asked Catholic institutions to be exemplary in the protection of children. Chicago Cardinal Francis George said the work, far from finished, must continue under the next Pope, even if abuse is no longer happening.

CARD. FRANCIS GEORGE
Archbishop of Chicago
“There are still the victims and the wound therefore is deep within their hearts and minds very often. And as long as it’s with them, it’s with all of us, and that will last for a long time. So the next Pope has to be very aware of this.”

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UNITED STATES
Christianity Today

Founder announces departure as beleaguered ministry requests dismissal of sex abuse lawsuit.

Jeremy Weber

C. J. Mahaney, founder of Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM), will step down as its president effective April 12 in order to focus on being a local pastor. The news comes shortly after the beleaguered network of churches asked a Maryland court to dismiss a lawsuit alleging its leaders covered up the sexual abuse of children.

Mahaney announced in a blog post that he “will be transitioning from the role of President” as SGM’s proposed new polity structure “takes effect” and replaces his current role with a new executive director position.

“In October, I informed the Board of Sovereign Grace that I was withdrawing my name from consideration for Executive Director as I don’t think my gifts and sense of call are the best fit for certain aspects of this new role. I then announced this to our pastors on November 1 at our annual Pastors Conference,” writes Mahaney. “I am eager to once again devote my attention to pastoral ministry. Returning to the pulpit of a local church last September has only confirmed for me what I believe God has called and gifted me to do: pastor, preach, and fulfill a role in building the local church for the glory of God.”

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SCOTLAND
Express

By: Rod Mills
Published: Sat, March 9, 2013

An academic, who compiled a report for the church on how to deal with abuse, has claimed not enough was done to tackle the allegations.

The fresh claims come days after Cardinal Keith O’Brien, 74, formerly Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic, stood down after being accused of sexual contact with young priests.

The Roman Catholic Church is no stranger to scandal, but until now, Scotland has not been engulfed by allegations of abuse. In the mid-1990s, Dundee University ethics lecturer Alan Draper was appointed to advise the church on sexual abuse and how to respond to it.

Mr Draper, chairman of an abuse survivors’ group In Care Abuse Survivors (Incas), asked Scotland’s eight bishops how much they knew.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

By RORY REYNOLDS
Published on Saturday 9 March 2013

THE victim of alleged sexual abuse by a Catholic priest in Scotland has spoken of his anger over how the Church handled the case.

The young man described repeated abuse from the age of nine or ten until he was into his early teens, in the 1990s.

He reported his experiences to the Church last year and although the priest was suspended, he has yet to receive any response regarding the investigation.

As he spoke out an academic and author of a report into abuse between 1985 and 1995 described priests being “out of control sexually, whether they be homosexual or heterosexual”.

The victim described several years of abuse at an east of Scotland church.

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PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

By Philip C. Tubeza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
8:49 pm | Friday, March 8th, 2013

MANILA, Philippines—Out of the 115-member conclave that will elect the next Pope, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle is one of only two cardinals who show “promising” signs of dealing adequately with the sex abuse scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church, according to a US-based group of clergy sex abuse victims.

In a statement posted on its website, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said Tagle and Vienna Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schonborn were the “most promising candidates” for the papal throne for sex abuse victims.

The group also identified Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin but he is not a member of the College of Cardinals.

The statement, titled “SNAP’s list of ‘least worst’ papal candidates,” said the three candidates “were chosen based on their words and actions with regard to the clergy sex abuse crisis.”

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Saturday 9 March 2013

THE Catholic Church in Scotland is facing further turmoil amid reports bishops knew of 20 allegations of child-sex abuse by priests between 1985 and 1995.

Academic Alan Draper was appointed to advise the Church on sexual abuse and how to respond to it in the mid-1990s.

He asked the country’s eight bishops at the time to reveal how much they knew and reports claim responding letters referring to 20 accusations have surfaced.

Mr Draper is understood to have called for independent experts to investigate further, but the bishops disagreed.

He told the BBC: “I was very concerned about their unwillingness to actually expose individual priests who were leaving double lives. They were very reluctant to do that, and I felt that was totally inappropriate.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
BBC News

By Jane Little
BBC News, Los Angeles

While their former archbishop takes part in the conclave to choose the next pope, Catholics in Los Angeles deal with his complicated legacy. Will clergy sexual abuse – and its cover-up by church elders – harm the Church beyond repair?

The Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverley Hills has seen a few popes come and go. This pretty Spanish mission-style church has been here since 1923.

Hollywood stars have been married in front of its altar. The funerals of Rudolph Valentino, Frank Sinatra and Alfred Hitchcock were held here.

Today its congregation is diverse: no famous faces in sight, but a mix of old and young, rich and poor, white and Hispanic – a mirror of the wider Catholic population.

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SCOTLAND
Truthdive

London, Mar. 9 (ANI): A former Roman Catholic Church’s adviser on child abuse has claimed that the church’s priests in Scotland were ‘out of control sexually’ under the leadership of the disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

Alan Draper has accused the Church leadership, of being ‘unwilling’ to expose supposedly celibate priests who were leading ‘double lives’ in the 1980s and 1990s.

Draper, a lecturer in ethics from Dundee University, was brought in to advise Scottish bishops on abuse allegations, but was removed after a disagreement, the Telegraph reports.

According to the report, he has disclosed that bishops were aware of 20 separate cases in the Church between 1985 and 1995.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

ACADEMIC Alan Draper, appointed to advise the Catholic Church on sexual abuse, said he wanted independent experts to investigate further but the bishops declined.

CATHOLIC Church bishops knew of 20 allegations of child sex abuse by priests between 1985 and 1995, says an expert brought in to probe the claims.

In the mid-1990s, academic Alan Draper was appointed to advise the church on sexual abuse and how to respond to it.

He asked Scotland’s eight bishops what they knew and got letters referring to 20 allegations of child abuse by priests.

Mr Draper says he wanted independent experts to probe further but the bishops declined.

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SCOTLAND
Ekklesia

By staff writers

9 Mar 2013

The BBC says it has seen evidence that Scottish Catholic bishops knew about 20 allegations of child sex abuse by priests between 1985 and 1995.

The academic who compiled a report for the Catholic Church in Scotland, detailing how to deal with abuse, says that it was not acted upon in a decisive or concerted way. Others allege that the Church “swept the issue under the carpet”.

In a separate development, the respected Catholic newspaper The Tablet said on 8 March 2013 that Rome confronted Cardinal Keith O’Brien with allegations concerning his own misdemeanours, which involved young adult men, months ago.

The magazine declared: “Cardinal Keith O’Brien was summoned to Rome as early as October 2012 to answer charges of sexual impropriety. It was previously thought that allegations of misconduct had not emerged until February 23, when a story was published in the Observer describing unwanted sexual advances allegedly made by the cardinal against three serving priests and a then-seminarian in the 1980s.

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SCOTLAND
The Tablet

8 March 2013

Cardinal Keith O’Brien was summoned to Rome as early as October 2012 to answer charges of sexual impropriety. It was previously thought that allegations of misconduct had not emerged until February 23, when a story was published in the Observer describing unwanted sexual advances allegedly made by the cardinal against three serving priests and a then-seminarian in the 1980s.

However, The Tablet can report that after a priest lodged an allegation with the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal O’Brien was asked to travel to Rome to answer the accusation.

The disclosure of the earlier complaint about Cardinal O’Brien’s sexual conduct also casts a new light on the acceptance of his resignation last November.

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SCOTLAND
The Guardian

Ben Quinn
guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 March 2013

The hierarchy of Scotland’s Catholic church was on the defensive again last night over claims that bishops knew of as many as 20 allegations of child sex abuse by priests in the 1980s and 90s, along with a separate revalation that the Vatican is currently considering the case of a Scottish priest accused of child sex abuse.

The claims about the 20 cases, which were made by an academic previously involved in advising the church on sexual abuse and how to respond to it, also came as a report suggested that Cardinal Keith O’Brien was summoned to Rome to answer charges of sexual impropriety as early as October last year.

O’Brien was forced to resign last month by Pope Benedict XVI, barely 36 hours after the Observer disclosed that three serving priests and one former priest were accusing him of “inappropriate acts” against them nearly 30 years ago.

While he made a dramatic admission last weekend that he was guilty of sexual misconduct throughout his career in the church, new questions about the handling of his case have now been raised by a report by the Catholic weekly, the Tablet, which claimed that he was called to Rome last year after a priest lodged an allegation with the Congregation for Bishops. A spokesperson for the Scottish Catholic church last said that he was unable to confirm the report as O’Brien is currently out of the country.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

CLERGY sex abuse victims have released a “dirty dozen” list of potential papal candidates – including Australia’s Cardinal George Pell – and are urging the Catholic Church to “get serious” about protecting children, helping victims and exposing corruption.

“We want to urge Catholic prelates to stop pretending that the worst is over regarding the clergy sex abuse and cover-up crisis,” said David Clohessy, director of the US-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

“Tragically, the worst is almost certainly ahead,” he said, adding that the truth of “widespread, longstanding and deeply-rooted” abuse and cover-ups has “yet to surface in most nations”.

The organisation cited a dozen cardinals from the US, Mexico, Honduras, Italy, Australia, Czech Republic, Canada, Argentina and Ghana accused of protecting pedophile priests and making offensive public statements.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Mail

By Ben Spencer

There was a widespread cover-up of child sex abuse in the Scottish Catholic church, it has been alleged.

Scots bishops reportedly knew of at least 20 allegations of abuse between 1985 and 1995.

The Church in Scotland insists child protection procedures have since improved dramatically and such cases are now rare.

In the mid-1990s, Alan Draper, a lecturer at Dundee University, was appointed to advise the Church on sexual abuse.

The BBC said it had seen letters to him from Scotland’s eight bishops which refer to 20 allegations of abuse by priests.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. ,Joshua J. McElwee | Mar. 5, 2013

Rome —
To help Americans get a handle on Cardinal John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, let’s set things up this way: Speaking solely about the force of his personality, there’s a sense in which he’s the Timothy Dolan of Africa.

Just like the always-effervescent cardinal of New York, Onaiyekan is a big, brash, smiling figure, a man who tends to dominate every room he walks into. He’s quick with a laugh, he loves to press the flesh, and he clearly relishes being the center of attention.

Yet beneath all the charm, Onaiyekan is also seen as one of the leading intellectual lights among the African bishops, as well as an influential political and moral authority in his own country and beyond.

Among the highlights from the interview:
• Onaiyekan expressed a degree of frustration with some of the oratory currently being delivered in the General Congregation meetings of cardinals: “No matter how brilliant you may think your speech is, do we really need it?”
• He said there doesn’t yet seem to be a consensus on how long the cardinals should wait before starting the conclave.
• He insists he doesn’t yet know who will get his vote to be the next pope, and says he’ll really start thinking about it only when the conclave begins.

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VATICAN CITY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on March 08, 2013

The National Catholic Reporter disclosed today that Vatican servers are blocking users from accessing www.bishopaccountability.org.

The famous author George Bernard Shaw once said that “all censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions.” By blocking the site BishopAccountability.org, the Vatican is proving Mr. Shaw very correct.

BishopAccountability.org provides a valuable service by providing facts about clergy sex abuse. They do this without being partisan and without skewing information. They are archivists of information, not any sort of propaganda organization. It is one thing for Vatican officials to turn a blind eye to these facts, as they have done for years, but it is quite another to attempt to prevent others from seeing them as well.

The very name of this organization shows exactly what church officials are afraid of; being held accountable for their decades of inaction on clergy sex abuse. Today, they finally took action, but once again, it was the wrong one. By refusing to allow themselves to be held accountable, they prove ever more how it is true that it is people, not polices that are the problem.

This is a cowardly move, and it should be known as such. We applaud BishopAccountability.org in their work, and the fact that they are trying to be silenced today proves just how much of an impact they have made, and despite this setback, will continue to make.

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VATICAN CITY
John Thavis

We now know the starting date of the conclave: Tuesday, March 12. And we know that the cardinals will process into the Sistine Chapel in the afternoon, which leaves time for the first ballot that evening.

If the balloting continues for three days without a new pope, the cardinals are to suspend the voting for a maximum of one day – for prayer, discussion and a spiritual pep talk. Then they resume voting, taking additional pauses – again, up to a full day – every seven ballots if there is no outcome.

After about 13 days, or about 34 ballots, if there is no candidate who receives the two-thirds majority needed for election, the cardinals move to runoff ballots between the two highest vote-getters, until a two-thirds majority is reached.

While all that seems fairly straightforward on paper, if the conclave goes more than a few days it may not be clear what’s happening on the inside – at least to the waiting world. For example, it’s doubtful we’ll be told exactly when a “pause for reflection” occurs, and how long it may last.

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ROME
USCCB Blog

By Sister Mary Ann Walsh

The conclave opens Tuesday, March 12, with the Conclave Mass Tuesday morning. The General Congregation voted on this during their afternoon session today.

Snow in the U.S. has delayed some media. WUSA, Channel 9 in Washington, was delayed by snow and expects to arrive tomorrow. Media are searching for photo ops, even asking if any cardinal will offer Mass at his titular church on Sunday. All cardinals have a titular church. That makes them clergy of the Diocese of Rome, which entitles them to vote for the pope, who is the Bishop of Rome.

We’ve scheduled a briefing tomorrow at 11 a.m., Rome time, with Archbishop Piero Marini and Msgr. Kevin Irwin. The briefing will focus on liturgical rites related to the conclave. Msgr. Marini, who was head of papal liturgical ceremonies during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, knows this area thoroughly and literally wrote the book on it. Msgr. Irwin, of the faculty of The Catholic University of America, is a professor of liturgical studies. Archbishop Wilton Gregory, who will offer commentary for ABC-TV during the Conclave, stopped by the office this morning. We invited him to come to the briefing, if only to be in the audience. He also is a liturgy expert. Depending on the schedule of the conclave, we hope to pursue other briefings.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

[with video]

By Anne Cohen

Published March 08, 2013.

Two employees of Yeshiva University spoke at a hearing Friday in favor of a proposed law that could potentially harm their own school, which is currently under scrutiny because of allegations it failed to address child sexual abuse over several decades at its high school affiliate.

Marci Hamilton, Paul Verkuil Chair in Public Law at the Cardozo Law School of Yeshiva University, and Rabbi Yosef Blau, rabbi and spiritual advisor at Yeshiva University, testified at a New York Assembly hearing in support of the Child Victims Act, which would enable adults who were abused as children to file suits against institutions they believe were negligent in protecting them.

Currently, anyone who failed to file such a suit by their 23rd birthday is barred from doing so by New York State’s statute of limitations on such crimes. The Child Victims Act would abolish those limits for cases going forward and open up a limited, one-year window during those abused in the past could file civil law suits against their alleged abusers and institutions that knew or should have known about such abuse committed by members of their staffs.

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ROMA
IVG

Savona. Francesco Zanardi è stato bloccato dalla polizia sotto il colonnato di San Pietro. Era partito alla volta di Roma per presentare la petizione contro il cardinal Domenico Calcagno, sottoscritta da 12.500 cittadini. La rete L’Abuso e Zanardi intendevano consegnarla alla segreteria di Stato Vaticana per chiedere che il cardinale, ex vescovo di Savona, non partecipi al conclave in quanto avrebbe coperto preti pedofili.

Zanarsi sostiene di essere in stato di fermo e che rischia di essere denunciato “per manifestazione non autorizzata”, mentre da parte della polizia si limitano a spiegare che “stanno valutando” la sua posizione. Zanardi accusa il vescovo Calcagno di aver insabbiato le responsabilità di alcuni preti pedofili quando era vescovo di Savona. L’intenzione ora di Zanardi è ora quella che se gli verranno riconsegnate dalla polizia le firme: “Le presenterò all’ambasciata vaticana in Italia”.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

The Vatican’s Clown Prince clique have convinced a majority of voting Cardinals to begin the election Conclave circus. Any other course, a month after the Shadow Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, threw in the towel and after eight contentious meetings to decide on a starting date, would just confirm to the 5,000+ media members present that Peter’s Barque, the Catholic Church, had already sunk.

The election circus will be held in the Sistine circus tent in two daily sessions for two days, then break for a day. By the fourth act on Wednesday, the Cardinals will most likely reach a decision because the three different groups of performing Cardinals will have made very clear their positions and level of support by then. The appearance of protracted conflict or indecision benefits no Cardinal. It will be clear by late Wednesday that further votes will be fruitless.

The Cardinals have only three options now:

(1) Maintain the hierarchical status quo and elect now another Pope, a Papal UberMensch or Superman, for life and hope for the best.

(2) Fix the Church leadership structure first now, and delay the election until a two-thirds consensus is reached on the needed repairs.

(3) Elect a new Pope now for a stated short term, perhaps three years, based the new Pope’s public commitment to call a council away from Rome to begin within a year to fix the Church structure and other problems by a majority vote. The Shadow Pope has just shown that Popes are no longer elected for life. If the new Pope, perhaps at the Vatican clique’s urging, were then to fail to honor his commitment, then another election would be held.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Register

By TOMOYA SHIMURA / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – Samantha Stribling instructed her students to put away their cell phones and bring all their backpacks in front of her desk.

Then she told them to lock the classroom door so they were shut out from the rest of the world.

Stribling, a religion teacher at Santa Margarita Catholic High School, wanted her students to experience what cardinals go through when they lock themselves behind the walls of the Vatican to select a new pope.

As the Vatican announced Friday the conclave – the voting process of selecting a new pope – will begin Tuesday, the local Catholic high school has been organizing mock conclaves in classrooms to promote interest and understanding of the historic event.

Twenty-six sophomores taking Stribling’s class hung photos of real-life cardinals around their necks and locked themselves away for an hour Wednesday to get a sense of what it’s like to be part of the conclave.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic Media Office

Following a number of enquiries about the policy of the Catholic Church in relation to the protection of children and vulnerable adults, the following statement was issued on Friday 8 March 2013:

The Catholic Church has had nationally agreed guidelines on the protection of children and vulnerable adults, since 1999. In this regard the Church was two years ahead of the Nolan Commission in England & Wales, which reported in 2001, see;

Scottish Catholic Church Responds to Nolan Report

The Church recognises that the statutory authorities are the responsible bodies for investigation. All allegations are notified to the police and anyone making an allegation of wrongdoing is advised to contact the police. All necessary steps are taken to remove anyone in danger from situations of risk.

A number of individuals have been involved over many years in the development of policies and procedures they have competence in many related fields. In 2003, to augment existing Diocesan protection staff, the Church appointed a National Director of Child protection. Ten years later that post now titled; National Co-ordinator remains a key part of our safeguarding structures.

The number of annually reported incidents in Scotland have been small since we began to audit and have only very rarely involved a member of the clergy. Where a report is made the matter is passed on to the police for further investigation and we consider it is the responsibility of the police and the prosecuting authorities to record incidents of criminal behaviour.

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NEDERLAND
Volkskrant

Hoewel merendeels mannen slachtoffer zijn geworden van seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk, zijn het vooral vrouwen die de hoogste schadevergoeding krijgen uitgekeerd.

De compensatiecommissie van het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik RKK heeft tot dusver aan zeven slachtoffers de maximale vergoeding van 100 duizend euro toegekend. Onder hen zijn vijf vrouwen, die reeds op jonge leeftijd zijn misbruikt door katholieke priesters die bij hun ouders thuis kwamen en zelfs als ‘huisvriend’ werden gezien.

Het grote aandeel vrouwelijke slachtoffers aan wie de katholieke kerk wegens ‘uitzonderlijk misbruik’ het maximumbedrag van een ton heeft uitgekeerd, is opmerkelijk. In de misbruikaffaire is de aandacht vooral uitgegaan naar jongens die op internaten zijn misbruikt. Ook in alle 127 uitspraken die de compensatiecommissie tot half februari heeft gedaan, zijn weinig vrouwelijke slachtoffers. …

Bij de meisjes gebeurde het meestal thuis

1. Je fantaseert en liegt
Een kapelaan die later tot pastoor in Roermond is benoemd, heeft een nu 73-jarige vrouw van haar 12de tot 26ste jaar misbruikt. Haar familie vond dat ze ‘fantaseerde en loog’ en plaatste haar in een tehuis voor moeilijk opvoedbare meisjes. Op 24-jarige leeftijd raakte ze zwanger van hem. Met pillen forceerde ze een miskraam.

2. Mijn oom de missionaris
Haar oom was missionaris die tijdens verlof in Nederland bij de familie logeerde. Het seksueel misbruik begon toen ze 4 of 5 jaar oud was. Op haar 16de werd ze enkele malen verkracht in haar kamer. Haar oom zette haar ‘door middel van bedreigingen en bangmakerij psychisch onder druk’.

3. Moeders vriend
De kapelaan had vanaf 1957 een verhouding met de moeder van het slachtoffer. Hij maakte deel uit van het gezinsleven. Het misbruik (met een vinger bij haar binnendringen, aftrekken en oraal bevredigen van de dader) begon toen ze 4 jaar was en ging door tot haar 10de jaar. Later heeft ze haar moeder tevergeefs gesmeekt de relatie met de geestelijke te verbreken.

4. Huisvriend
De vrouw was 9 jaar toen het misbruik begon. De priester was een soort huisvriend. Ze kwam ook vaak met haar broers in de pastorie om klusjes te doen. Op een keer sloot hij de deur en trok haar op schoot, betastte haar tepels onder haar shirt en stopte zijn vingers in haar vagina. Dat gebeurde daarna herhaaldelijk. Het was ‘hun geheimpje’.

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NEDERLAND
Powerwrouwen

Het grote aandeel vrouwelijke slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de Rooms Katholieke kerk is opmerkelijk.

In de kaffaires is tot nu toe vooral de aandacht uitgegaan naar jongens die op internaten werden misbruikt.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

BBC Scotland has seen evidence that bishops in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland knew of 20 allegations of child sex abuse by priests from 1985 to 1995.

Another alleged victim of abuse says his life has been ruined.

The man, named by the BBC as “Chris”, has encouraged others to speak out.

The Church said all allegations of abuse were passed to the police.

Chris, whose identity is not being published to protect his anonymity, is another who claims he was abused by his local priest.

He was not one of the 20 alleged victims identified in the decade up to 1995.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

The BBC has seen evidence that bishops in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland knew of 20 allegations of child sex abuse by priests between 1985 and 1995. In the mid-1990s, academic Alan Draper was appointed to advise the Church on sexual abuse and how to respond to it. The BBC has seen the letters which they sent in reply to Mr Draper. The BBC has also spoken to a man called Chris, who claims he was abused by a priest from the age of nine or 10 until he was into his early teens, in the 90s. Here is the Church’s response to the allegations:

The Catholic Church has had nationally agreed guidelines on the protection of children and vulnerable adults since 1999.

In this regard the Church was two years ahead of the Nolan Commission in England and Wales, which reported in 2001.

All allegations are notified to the police. The Church recognises that the statutory authorities are the responsible bodies for investigation.

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SCOTLAND
Telegraph

ROMAN Catholic priests in Scotland were “out of control sexually” under the leadership of the disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the Church’s former adviser on child abuse claims.

By John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor
7:45PM GMT 08 Mar 2013

Alan Draper has accused the Church leadership, of being “unwilling” to expose supposedly celibate priests who were leading “double lives” in the 1980s and 1990s.

Mr Draper, a lecturer in ethics from Dundee University, was brought in to advise Scottish bishops on abuse allegations but was removed after a disagreement.

He has disclosed that bishops were aware of 20 separate cases in the Church between 1985 and 1995 but he alleges that they were “reluctant” to take matters further and rejected his call for independent experts to be brought in.

He is now calling for files relating to Catholic Church in Scotland to be handed over to judge led inquiry.

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ROMA
La Repubblica

Zanardi voleva consegnare alla segreteria di Stato vaticana una petizione contro il cardinal Calcagno, che lui accusa di aver coperto dei preti che hanno abusato di ragazzini

L’intenzione era quella di presentare una petizione, sottoscritta da 12.500 cittadini alla segreteria di Stato vaticana per chiedere che il cardinale Domenico Calcagno non partecipasse al conclave “perché ha coperto dei preti pedofili”, ma Francesco Zanardi, portavoce della “Rete l’Abuso di Savona” è stato bloccato per un controllo dalla polizia italiana sotto il colonnato di San Pietro, nei pressi di Porta Angelica.

Zanardi sostiene di essere in stato di fermo e che rischia di essere denunciato “per manifestazione non autorizzata”, mentre da parte della polizia si limitano a spiegare che “stanno valutando” la sua posizione.

Zanardi accusa il vescovo Calcagno di aver insabbiato le responsabilità di alcuni preti pedofili quando era vescovo di Savona.

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ROMA
La Repubblica

Francesco Zanardi, portavoce della rete contro gli abusi dei religiosi, bloccato prima che riuscisse a consegnare 12.500 firme contro la partecipazione al Conclave del cardinale Calcagno. “Quando era vescovo insabbiò la responsabilità di un prete pedofilo”. E la Curia di Savona apre un procedimento canonico contro un religioso che tentò di abusare di un giovane seminarista

L’intenzione era quella di presentare una petizione, sottoscritta da 12.500 cittadini alla segreteria di Stato vaticana per chiedere che il cardinale Domenico Calcagno non partecipasse al conclave “perchè ha coperto dei preti pedofili” quando era vescovo di Savona, ma Francesco Zanardi, portavoce della “Rete l’Abuso di Savona” è stato bloccato per un controllo della gendarmeria sotto il colonnato di San Pietro, nei pressi di Porta Angelica.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

By James Cook
Scotland Correspondent, BBC News

The BBC has seen evidence that bishops in the Catholic Church in Scotland knew of 20 allegations of child sex abuse by priests between 1985 and 1995.

Another alleged victim of abuse says his life has been ruined.

An academic who compiled a report for the Church on how to deal with abuse says not enough was done.

The Catholic Church in Scotland insists its child protection procedures have improved dramatically since the 1990s and allegations of abuse now are rare.

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ROMA
Il Secolo XIX

Roma – L’intenzione era quella di presentare una petizione, sottoscritta da 12.500 cittadini alla segreteria di Stato vaticana per chiedere che il cardinale Domenico Calcagno non partecipasse al conclave «perché ha coperto dei preti pedofili», ma Francesco Zanardi, portavoce della rete “L’Abuso” di Savona è stato bloccato per un controllo dalla polizia italiana sotto il colonnato di San Pietro, nei pressi di Porta Angelica.

Lui sostiene di essere in stato di fermo e che rischia di essere denunciato «per manifestazione non autorizzata», mentre da parte della polizia si limitano a spiegare che «stanno valutando» la sua posizione. Zanardi accusa il vescovo Calcagno di aver insabbiato le responsabilità di alcuni preti pedofili quando era vescovo di Savona. Tra questi preti ce ne è uno che, secondo Zanardi, ad 11 anni abusò di lui.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Mar. 8, 2013

Rome —
The cardinals of the Roman Catholic church will begin voting for the new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics Tuesday, the Vatican has announced.

The decision to set the date for the vote, widely anticipated after five days of secret deliberations, came amid a reportedly unsure atmosphere among the cardinals.

Going into the final meetings, there was reportedly a lack of clear consensus among the cardinals on who the leading candidates are for the next pontiff.

Friday’s decision to set the date of the secret vote for the next pope, known as the conclave, came at the cardinals’ eighth meeting since the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI Feb. 28. They have been meeting daily, sometimes twice daily, since Monday.

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ROME
The Guardian (UK)

Lizzy Davies in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 March 2013

Cardinals of the Roman Catholic church will enter the Sistine chapel on Tuesday afternoon to begin the conclave that will elect the 266th pope, the Vatican has announced.

Eight days after Benedict XVI became the first pontiff in nearly 600 years to abdicate, a decision that stunned even his closest advisers and sent shockwaves through the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the process of choosing his successor would start on Tuesday afternoon after a morning mass in St Peter’s basilica. …

There is no obvious frontrunner. In an interview earlier this week with the Italian daily La Stampa, the American cardinal Donald Wuerl said the relative openness of the pool of candidates could result in a conclave that lasts longer than the last one, in 2005, which was over in two days. “There doesn’t seem to be a cardinal going into the conclave that everybody says is clearly going to be the pope,” he told the paper’s Vatican Insider website. “Of course they often say, he who enters as pope comes out as cardinal. So I think it is going to take a little while. How little or how long, that’s all in the hands of God.”

According to several reports in the Italian press on Friday, however, the field of candidates has narrowed, with two leading papabili gaining the support of two significant blocks. Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan and a known favourite of the emeritus pope, was reported to be the candidate of those who want to see big changes in the way the Roman curia is run, while Odilo Pedro Scherer, the archbishop of São Paulo, is tipped as the choice of those within the curia.

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VATICAN CITY
Telegraph (UK)

[with video]

The conclave, the centuries-old process by which a new Pope is elected, will begin on March 12, meaning Catholics should have a new pontiff by the end of next week.

Nick Squires in Rome
5:10PM GMT 08 Mar 2013

More than 150 cardinals, who have held discussions in Rome all week on the crises facing the Roman Catholic Church, announced the long-anticipated start date on Friday, 12 days after Benedict XVI resigned the papacy because of fatigue and old age.

The conclave will be held amid the utmost secrecy in the Sistine Chapel, famous for its frescoes by Michelangelo and other Renaissance masters. The longest conclave in the 20th century took five days, and most lasted between two and four days. …

There is a reformist bloc led by Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, which has the backing of many non-Italian cardinals, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, and Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Austria.

They have been appalled by revelations of nepotism and cronyism within the Holy See that were revealed by confidential documents stolen from the Pope by his butler and leaked to the media in what was dubbed the Vatileaks scandal.

The reformists are squaring up to a more traditionalist bloc led by Cardinal Odilo Peter Scherer, the archbishop of Sao Paolo in Brazil, and comprising many Italian cardinals, who are resisting calls for radical reform of the Curia, the Church’s governing body.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW in Rome

The conclave that will elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI will start next Tuesday, March 12th.

Papal spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, made the announcement this afternoon with a brief communiqué that reads

“The eighth General Congregation of the College of Cardinals has decided that the Conclave will begin on Tuesday March 12th, 2013. A “pro eligendo Romano Pontifice” mass will be celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica in the morning. In the afternoon, the Cardinals will enter into the Conclave”.

At first glance, the date chosen looks like a reasonable compromise choice between those who wanted to anticipate the Conclave as much as possible and those who wanted to wait until the scheduled start date of March 15th.

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VATICAN CITY
GlobalPost

Jason Berry

ROME — The Vatican announced this afternoon that the conclave of cardinals to elect the new pope will begin Tuesday, March 12, ending a week of meetings — called congregations — in which dozens of cardinals spoke amid discussions of the central issues facing the church. The cardinals adhered to a tight policy restricting access to the media in order to preserve decorum and a sense of fraternal confidence among the 115 who will vote.

Much of the speculation in the Italian press has lately focused on Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan, the largest archdiocese in the world with 5 million people, as a potential front runner.

“The other candidate,” wrote Andrea Tornielli, a respected religion writer for La Stampa, “expected to start with a good number of votes is the Brazilian Odilo Pedro Scherer, Archbishop of Sao Paulo, who has a long curial and Vatican experience and would have the support of some influential Cardinals of the Curia.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Pilot

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Cardinal electors assembled in Rome will begin voting for the next pope March 12.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, announced the date for the start of the election, known as a conclave, in a message to reporters March 8.

The first session of voting inside the Sistine Chapel will begin in the afternoon, following a morning Mass “Pro eligendo Summo Pontifice” (“for the election of the supreme pontiff”) in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Rules governing papal elections state that a conclave must start between 15 and 20 days after the Holy See falls vacant; but shortly before his resignation Feb. 28, Pope Benedict XVI issued a decree allowing cardinal to move up the start date if they choose.

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ROME
KTVQ

Posted: Mar 8, 2013 by Richard Allen Greene and Laura Smith-Spark – CNN

ROME (CNN) — The Catholic cardinals gathered in Rome voted Friday to begin the secret election, or conclave, to elect a new pope next Tuesday afternoon, the Vatican said.

The 115 cardinal-electors taking part in the conclave will enter the closed-door process after a morning Mass, the Vatican said. Only those younger than 80 are eligible to vote.

The cardinals voted Friday morning to accept the letters of explanation of two cardinal-electors who are eligible to vote for the next pope but will not attend the conclave: Keith O’Brien of Scotland and Julius Riyadi Darmaatmadja of Indonesia.

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VATICAN CITY
The Detroit News

By Nicole Winfield
Associated Press

Vatican City — Cardinals have set Tuesday as the start date for the conclave to elect the next pope, signaling that they were wrapping up a week of discussions about the problems of the church and who best among them might lead it.

The conclave date was set on Friday afternoon during a vote by the College of Cardinals. Tuesday will begin with a Mass in the morning in St. Peter’s Basilica, followed by the first balloting in the afternoon.

In the past 100 years, no conclave has lasted longer than five days.

That said, there doesn’t appear to be a front-runner in this election, and the past week of deliberations has exposed sharp divisions among cardinals about some of the pressing problems facing the church, including of governance within the Holy See itself.

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CANADA
Castanet

A priest from Sorel-Tracy has been arrested in connection with the posession and distribution of child pornography.

Daniel Moreau, 56, is scheduled to appear in court Friday morning for a bail hearing after he was charged Thursday at the Sorel-Tracy courthouse, via video-conferencing.

According to a website for local parishes in Sorel-Tracy, Moreau led worship at the Ste-Anne, St-Joseph and St-Pierre parishes.

His resumé is posted on the website and lists his work as a scout and church youth group leader. Moreau is also cited as the webmaster for the Montenach de Beloeil scouts group.

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ROME
GlobalPost

Jason Berry

ROME — Yesterday as cardinals huddled in secret meetings before the conclave, a leader of the women’s priest movement wearing her liturgical robes was arrested for unfurling a banner at St. Peter’s Square.

Today leaders of the abuse survivors’ movement called on bishops to fund penal centers for predator priests who avoided prosecution.

Such are the moments in a slow news town when one of the biggest stories in the world plays out behind closed doors.

SNAP — Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — held their event in a crowded hotel conference room, with St. Louis residents David Clohessy, the national director, and Barbara Dorris, in charge of victims’ outreach, releasing a two-page list of 20 steps the new pope should take to ensure children’s safety.

“Church officials should turn to secular professionals in cases not brought to criminal proceedings,” said Clohessy, who called for the church to fund remote, securely maintained residences for pedophiles. In endorsing what he admitted was tantamount to church penal centers, Clohessy said that many bishops have such facilities today, though they are not publicized and offenders “are not getting much treatment.”

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HAWAII
Disappeared News

by Larry Geller

A press conference and protest was held Wednesday outside of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in downtown Honolulu to urge Honolulu Bishop Clarence Silva to obey church directives demanding zero tolerance for child sexual abuse within the clergy.

At issue is the Bishop’s refusal so far to remove an accused predator, named in the lawsuit as Father George DeCosta, who is still an active priest in Hawaii even after two former students filed a lawsuit in state court on March 1 seeking damages.

Accusations against the priest were first raised in August and appeared in a local newspaper on the Big Island.

The alleged victims were able to come forward because of Hawaii’s new civil window law. The law, passed last year, gives victims of child sexual abuse a chance to seek justice in the courts no matter when they were abused. Some other states have passed similar laws, which are necessary because short statutes of limitations would otherwise preclude adults from filing suit for events that occurred when they were much younger.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

The conclave that will elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI will begin on Tuesday, March 12.

Voting on Friday evening, March 8, the College of Cardinals chose to open the conclave next Tuesday.

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VATIKAN
Frankfurter Rundschau

Von Joachim Frank

Kurz vor der Papstwahl kursiert das Gerücht über ein geheimes Sex-Dossier aus dem Vatikan. Ein Insider hat gegenüber „La Repubblica“ von einer „Gay-Lobby“ im Vatikan berichtet. Namen will der Insider nicht nennen. Noch nicht.

Die „Raben“ kreisen wieder über Rom. Corvi, so nennen die Italiener anonyme Informanten. In der Vatileaks-Affäre vor einem Jahr haben sie eine Fülle vertraulicher Dokumente vom Schreibtisch des Papstes an die Öffentlichkeit lanciert. Jetzt, kurz vor der Papstwahl, raunen die Raben von neuen Enthüllungen, insbesondere zum heikelsten und heißesten Thema der in Rom versammelten Kardinäle: Was steht in dem geheimen Dossier zu den Hintergründen von „Vatileaks“? Was ist dran an Informationen über schwule Netzwerke im Vatikan, Abhängigkeiten und die Erpressbarkeit hochrangiger Prälaten?

Die links-liberale Tageszeitung „La Repubblica“ hatte kurz vor der Abdankung Benedikts XVI. erstmals über angebliche Inhalte der 300 Seiten berichtet, die drei vom Papst beauftragte Kardinäle erstellt und ihm am 17. Dezember in zwei „rot gebundenen“ Konvoluten übergeben hatten. In derselben Zeitung antwortet jetzt ein Insider, der keinen Namen hat, aber einen „Goldring mit päpstlichem Siegel“ am Finger trägt, auf die Frage nach der behaupteten „Gay Lobby“ im Vatikan: „Verissima! Allzu wahr! Darauf können Sie wetten.“ Er könnte Namen nennen von Kardinälen und Monsignori, von Bischöfen und Funktionsträgern“, hochrangigen Leute aus dem Staatssekretariat und den wichtigsten vatikanischen Behörden.

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UNITED STATES
Leon J. Podles: Dialogue

Just when you think that the bureaucrats at the Vatican cannot do anything stupider than they’ve done before, they manage do outdo themselves:

One of the domain names of a website that is the primary source of information on clergy sex abuse cases has been blocked on the Vatican’s web servers.

Users on Vatican servers who try to access one of the four web addresses for Bishopaccountability.org, which tracks publicly available information on clergy accused of abuse, are told the page has been blocked because of “Hate/Racism.”

A Vatican spokesman said the site may be blocked because of an automatic filter system that checks words that appear on websites for explicit nature or inappropriateness.
————–

Bishopaccountability.org, which is a non-profit corporation in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, is run by a staff of two located in the Boston area.

A staple of those researching the decades-long clergy sex abuse crisis, the site includes links to reporting on abuse since the 1980s, a database of accused abusers throughout the U.S., testimonies of abuse survivors, and court documents from lawsuits and criminal prosecutions across the U.S.

Among its activities in the past year, the site has:

*Made available more than 8,500 pages of material detailing claims of sexual abuse by a group of Franciscan priests and brothers in California, after their court-ordered release in May 2012;

*Provided a detailed timeline of the witness testimonies and evidence in the trial of Msgr. William Lynn, a former official in the Philadelphia archdiocese who was found guilty in June 2012 of endangering children during his time at the archdiocese from 1992-2004, and;

*Given background information on the release of some 12,000 files documenting Cardinal Roger Mahony and the Los Angeles’ archdiocese’s handling of abuse cases in the 1980s, following the files’ court ordered release in February 2013;

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ROME
John Thavis

Covering the conclave would be a lot simpler for journalists if cardinals would just organize themselves into ecclesial “parties” and then vote the party line inside the Sistine Chapel.

Naturally, it doesn’t work that way. In the 21st century, it’s hazardous to peg any cardinal to a voting bloc and delineate conclave caucuses. There are several reasons, but the biggest is that it presumes a level of organization among cardinals that usually isn’t there.

That doesn’t stop intrepid reporters from trying, of course. For days we’ve been reading about the “Roman Party” in the conclave, which in theory includes many of the 41 Roman Curia cardinals (past or present) who will cast a vote, along with some of their 28 Italian confreres.

In fact, this may be the most cohesive group in the College of Cardinals – and recent criticism of the Roman Curia’s performance has probably led them to close ranks. These cardinals, if they’re on the same page, may well be able to deliver 40 or more votes to a candidate on a first ballot, which could generate enough momentum to carry the day.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Mar. 8, 2013

Rome

Journalism 101 teaches you to put your article’s bold claim at top, so people will pay attention, and then qualify it to death later if you must.

So, here’s my bold claim: Against all odds, the American cardinals are emerging as the anti-establishment insurgents of the 2013 conclave.

I say “against all odds” because it’s become conventional wisdom that over the last twenty years, the goalposts within the U.S. bishops’ conference have shifted to the right, towards defense of church teaching and tradition rather than accommodating secular mores.

Today’s leading lights are prelates such as Cardinals Francis George of Chicago and Timothy Dolan of New York. Despite being very different men, both are “evangelical” bishops more concerned with proclaiming the gospel than with internal church reform.

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VATICAN CITY
WGRZ

ROME (USA TODAY) — The Vatican will announce the start date for the conclave that will pick the successor to Pope Benedict XVI at 7 p.m. local time (1 p.m. ET) on Friday, Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said Friday.

The conclave could start early next week, Lombardi said.

The announcement will come after five full days of pre-conclave congregations with the College of Cardinals.

Before the congregations began Monday, Lombardi said the decision on the conclave’s start date would be made only after all the 115 cardinal electors expected to participate in the conclave were in Rome; the last of them, Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man of Vietnam, arrived Thursday.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Mar. 8, 2013 All Things Catholic

Rome —
Back in 1992, James Carville famously coined the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid” to remind the Clinton campaign staff of the winning issue in the race for the White House. If Carville were managing a campaign for the papacy in 2013, he might be inspired to coin a similar phrase: “It’s governance, stupid.”

If it wasn’t already, it’s become abundantly clear in the week since Benedict’s papacy ended and the sede vacante began that governance — or, if one prefers, business management — is a titanic concern.

Yet if the 115 cardinals who will soon file into the Sistine Chapel seem in basic agreement about the question facing them, they don’t appear to have an equally clear answer about who the right man is to be that governor.

Well before Benedict’s surprise resignation announcement on Feb. 11, many cardinals were convinced that something was rotten in the Vatican bureaucracy. Speaking on background, many cardinals have grumbled that when bombs go off in Rome, they’re the ones left to pick up the pieces in their dioceses and with their local and national media.

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ROME
GlobalPost

Jason Berry

ROME — Pope Benedict XVI’s farewell deprived the media of one of those rare events that rivet coverage across the globe: the solemn majesty of a papal funeral. Presidents and prime ministers seated in pews set a stately tone for the conclave to follow, as the cardinals retreat under tight security to elect the new pope, signaled by the white smoke sent up after burning their ballots.

Benedict’s resignation was visionary, laying a precedent for future popes to exit gracefully in the event of memory loss or diminished capacity. But the papacy is sede vacante — Latin for a vacant seat. The Vatican has issued a postage stamp emblazoned sede vacante to cash in on the moment.

For the media, the absence of a funeral means a news vacuum, which is being filled by reports on scandal-tarred cardinals in the abuse crisis, come to vote in the conclave; balkanized infighting of the Roman Curia; and quickening coverage, much of it speculative on the papabile, leading contenders for pope.

The Vatican has accredited 5000 journalists. Satellite trucks abound, and a three-story scaffolding for TV cameras faces St. Peter’s Square. At night, twenty feet away, homeless men sleep in doorways of gift shops.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 8 March 2013 (VIS) – “The eighth General Congregation that will meet this evening will vote on the date to begin the Conclave”, Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, announced. “It is likely,” he clarified, “that the Conclave will begin early next week: perhaps Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. It definitely will not be tomorrow or Sunday. Tomorrow a General Congregation will only take place in the morning and on Sunday it is expected that the cardinals will visit their titular churches in the city to pray. They are under no obligation to do so, but it is likely that they will.”

Before beginning the press conference, Fr. Lombardi noted that today is International Women’s Day and offered a bouquet of mimosas with a rose to a female journalist in representation of all women in keeping with the custom in the Vatican to give flowers to the women who work in the Holy See today.

Continuing, Fr. Lombardi reported on the sixth General Congregation, which took place yesterday evening from 5:00pm until 7:00pm and was attended by 151 cardinals. Two newly arrived cardinals swore the oath: Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man, metropolitan archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Cardinal elector) and Cardinal Adam Joseph Maida, archbishop emeritus of Detroit, Michigan, USA (non elector). The entire complement of 115 Cardinal electors who were expected has thus arrived. During the course of the Congregation 16 interventions were given.

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CANADA
CTV

CTV Montreal
Published Friday, Mar. 8, 2013

A priest accused of possessing child pornography will have to spend the weekend in jail before having a bail hearing.

Father Daniel Moreau was arrested Thursday at the St. Gabriel Lalement church in Sorel-Tracy, and was brought to court at 10:15 a.m. Friday, but will not have a bail hearing until Monday.

Moreau was only able to hire a lawyer on Friday, and the legal expert said he needed the weekend to study the charges. The Crown is opposing bail.

Parishioners who were in church while Moreau was arrested were shocked to see him led away in handcuffs.

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VATICAN CITY
Wanted in Rome

In the continuing absence of any date for the start of the conclave to elect the new pope the spotlight has turned to a quiet and unassuming Jesuit. Father Federico Lombardi is the head of the Vatican’s press office and Vatican Radio. It is through him that all official news of what is happening behind the closed doors in the Vatican is now being filtered.

Unlike his predecessor, the dynamic and charismatic Joaquín Navarro Valls who was one of the men closest to Pope John Paul II in or out of the Vatican, Lombardi has never had a direct relationship with either Pope Benedict XVI or with the powers in the Vatican curia. Paradoxically this may now be his very strength.

For years he has managed to mediate, often with considerable difficulty, between the angry and ever investigating media and the Vatican. Questions over sex abuse scandals, upsets over inter-faith relations, Vatileaks, the incarceration without trial of the pope’s butler, the Vatican banking investigations, all these have passed over his desk.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WBUR

Fri, Mar 08, 2013
by Caryl Rivers

Caryl Rivers: In 1983, at the age of 38, my brother hanged himself with his belt in a hospital ward and his once promising life was over, stolen away by years of abuse at a Catholic school. (AP)

Over the past two decades, the vast clergy sex abuse scandal has left the Catholic Church morally and economically devastated. It left my family devastated as well and caused more pain than I ever could have imagined.

In the 1960s, my brother went off to a high school run by the Christian Brothers. He emerged four years later terribly damaged and depressed. Along with dozens of other boys in the school, he was abused over the entire course of his time there by one of the priests, and he was warned not to tell anyone about it.

For years, he did not. Then, in his early 20s, he had a major mental breakdown from which he never recovered. A psychiatrist told my mother “I have never seen such ego destruction as what happened to your son in that school.”

A bright, caring, handsome young man, my brother struggled mightily to overcome his abuse, but he did not succeed. Although he married and had a child, his demons ultimately got the best of him. In 1983, at the age of 38, he hanged himself with his belt in a hospital ward and his once promising life was over, stolen away by years of abuse at a Catholic school.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

David Gibson | Mar 8, 2013

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The conclave to pick a new pope will begin as early as Monday, and likely no later than Wednesday, the Vatican said Friday morning. The final date was to be set by a vote of the cardinals later Friday evening.

The start date was an open question that has been dogging the cardinals, and reportedly dividing them as they gathered in closed-door meetings over the past week to prepare for the papal election.

Some of the cardinals — notably the American electors and several from Africa and Latin America — had balked at trying to hold the conclave too quickly, arguing that the more than 150 cardinals gathered here needed time in their General Congregation meetings to discuss the key issues facing the church and to size up potential candidates.

Others cardinals, notably those associated with the Roman curia, the Vatican bureaucracy, were pushing for a quick conclave, apparently in hopes of choosing a candidate to their liking before the cardinals from other parts of the world could rally around an outsider.

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ROME
Irish Central

By
IrishCentral Staff Writers

Published Friday, March 8, 2013

Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley has become a contender to fill the recently vacated position of Pope, at least according to Irish bookmakers Paddy Power.

The bets being placed on who the new Pope will be brought a surge of business to Paddy Power who believes the betting could set the record for a non-sporting event.

Rory Scott, spokesman for Paddy Power, said to the Christian Post ,”We’d be comfortable saying it’s a million dollar market and certainly it’s on track to be the biggest non-sporting event in Paddy Power’s history.”

“I think pope betting has really captured people’s imagination,” he added.

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CANADA
Global News

Group representing victims of sex abuse apologizes for dubbing a group of clergy the ‘Dirty Dozen’, including Ouellet

QUEBEC – A U-S based group representing victims of sexual abuse by priests is apologizing for offending Catholics by referring to a group of clergy as the “Dirty Dozen.”

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests issued a list yesterday called the “Dirty Dozen.”

It included Quebec`s Cardinal Marc Ouellet, considered a serious contender to become the next Pope.

The group says it put Ouellet on the list because it claims he refused to meet with sex-abuse victims.

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VATICAN CITY
RTE News

Roman Catholic cardinals will vote later today on when to start a conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict, the Vatican said, adding that the balloting would most likely begin early next week.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said a decision was expected for after 7pm at the end of an afternoon session of preliminary meetings known as “general congregations”.

Father Lombardi told a news conference that it was “likely” the conclave in the Sistine Chapel would start either on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

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VATICAN CITY
Channel News Asia

VATICAN CITY: Cardinals from around the globe will hold a conclave to elect a new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics next week, the Vatican said, although the exact date will be set later on Friday.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said a meeting of cardinals that ends at 1800 GMT would take a vote on the date for the start of the conclave.

“The conclave will be next week. It could be Wednesday. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, maybe even Thursday,” Lombardi said at a press briefing.

The Vatican said all 115 “cardinal electors” who will vote in the conclave are now in Rome.

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CANADA
CBC News

A priest from Sorel-Tracy has been arrested in connection with the posession and distribution of child pornography.

Daniel Moreau, 56, is scheduled to appear in court Friday morning for a bail hearing after he was charged Thursday at the Sorel-Tracy courthouse, via video-conferencing.

According to a website for local parishes in Sorel-Tracy, Moreau led worship at the Ste-Anne, St-Joseph and St-Pierre parishes.

His resumé is posted on the website and lists his work as a scout and church youth group leader. Moreau is also cited as the webmaster for the Montenach de Beloeil scouts group.

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