ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
RTE News

Informal talks on the process of electing the next pope have begun in Rome but the starting date of the closed-door conclave to choose Benedict’s successor is not expected.

The idea is to have the new pope elected during next week and officially installed so he can preside over the Holy Week ceremonies starting with Palm Sunday on 24 March and culminating in Easter.

The general congregations, closed-door meetings in the interregnum between a papacy and the conclave to choose the next one, will hold morning and afternoon sessions in an apparent effort to discuss as much as possible in a short time.

The Vatican seems keen to have only a week of talks so the 115 cardinal electors – those under 80 – can enter the Sistine Chapel for the conclave next week.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY | Mon Mar 4, 2013

(Reuters) – Roman Catholic cardinals filed into the Vatican on Monday for preliminary meetings to sketch an identikit for the next pope and ponder who among them might be best to lead a church beset by crises.

They arrived by private car, taxi and minibus at the gates of the Vatican for gatherings known as general congregations, closed-door meetings in which they will get to know each other and decide when to start a conclave to choose a man to lead the 1.2 billion member Church.

The Vatican appears to be aiming to have a new pope elected next week and officially installed several days later so he can preside over the Holy Week ceremonies starting with Palm Sunday on March 24 and culminating in Easter the following Sunday.

Pope Benedict left the Church in a state of shock when he announced last month that he would be the first pontiff in 600 years to resign instead of ruling for life. He formally stepped down on Thursday, leaving the papacy vacant.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wall Street Journal

By JEANNE WHALEN

Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien apologized on Sunday for “sexual conduct” unbefitting a priest and said he would play no further role in the public life of the Catholic Church.

The apology followed his abrupt resignation last week as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh after allegations surfaced that he had inappropriate relations with seminarians stretching back to the 1980s.

Cardinal O’Brien initially contested those allegations and had said he was seeking legal advice. But in a statement Sunday he said: “In recent days certain allegations which have been made against me have become public. Initially, their anonymous and nonspecific nature led me to contest them. However, I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.”

He added: “To those I have offended, I apologize and ask forgiveness…I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Digital Journal

By Eko Armunanto
Mar 3, 2013

The disgraced U.K. cardinal finally admits his bad sexual conduct. O’Brien initially rejected the claims, saying he was resigning because he did not want to distract from the upcoming conclave that will pick a successor to the resigned Pope Benedict XVI.

Following the accusation of inappropriate behaviour and his resignation as reported here in Digital Journal by Robert Myles and Greta McClain, a CNN report Sunday said Cardinal Keith O’Brien acknowledged having engaged in unspecified sexual misbehavior and promised to play no further part in the public life of the church.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien resigned Monday from his position as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh after a newspaper published unnamed priests’ accounts of unspecified inappropriate behavior.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien who was, in fact, forced to resign by the pope last week, made a dramatic admission that he was guilty of sexual misconduct throughout his career in the Roman Catholic church.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

Published on Monday 4 March 2013

TO THE original shock of allegations of “inappropriate” conduct against Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, came the sudden resignation from office.

Now, after a weak denial, comes an apology to the Catholic Church and the people of Scotland and an admission that his sexual conduct had at times “fallen below the standards expected of me”. In the short statement, he also asked for forgiveness from those he had “offended”.

First denial, then resignation, now admission: there is no text or form of words that can lighten the blow this admission has delivered, both to the Church and to Cardinal O’Brien personally. The allegations were not of one isolated incident, but a sequence of them, said to involve four priests on separate occasions.

Despite this, there will be many inside the Church who will seek to find it in them to understand and to forgive. For contrition, atonement and forgiveness are central tenets of the Christian faith. And a pledge of celibacy is the hardest to maintain, more especially in a liberal age when forms of sexual expression deemed unacceptable until recently have now been embraced as a sign of our respect for diversity and inclusiveness. The response of many will be caught between these conflicting cross-currents of expectations of the highest standards of behaviour on the one hand and understanding of human weakness on the other.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
The Guardian, Sunday 3 March 2013

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who was forced to resign by the pope last week, has made a dramatic admission that he was guilty of sexual misconduct throughout his career in the Roman Catholic church.

In a short but far-reaching statement issued late on Sunday, the 74-year-old stated that “there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal”.

The former archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, and until recently the most senior Catholic in Britain, apologised and asked for forgiveness from those he had “offended” and from the entire church.

O’Brien was forced to resign last week by Pope Benedict XVI, barely 36 hours after the Observer disclosed that three serving priests and a former priest were accusing him of “inappropriate acts” against them nearly 30 years ago, in a formal complaint to the pope’s ambassador to the UK.

The cardinal had “contested” those allegations, while his officials said he was taking legal advice.

But now O’Brien has effectively admitted he had been breaching the church’s strict rules on celibacy and its bar on homosexuality since he became a priest – and during his 10 years as a cardinal.

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on March 03, 2013

■“No one from Curia should be made pope,” victims say
■Group also wants some older cardinals out of Monday meeting
■SNAP worries Vatican insiders are tied to corruption & last 2 popes
■“That makes ‘cleaning house’ & exposing cover ups tougher,” it says
■Victims urge top church staff to try to persuade some peers to “go home”
■SNAP: Sodano & 5 other “complicit” cardinals should be sent away or stay away

WHAT
At a news conference, holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims will urge the College of Cardinals to
–elect a non-Curia member as the next pope, and
–try to persuade several elderly “complicit colleagues” – who can’t vote in the conclave but may attend Monday’s General Congregation meeting – to stay home this week because of their involvement in hiding clergy sex crimes.

WHEN
Monday, March 4 at 3:15 pm

WHO
Two leaders of an international support group for clergy sex abuse victims called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including the organization’s long-time executive director

WHERE
The Orange Hotel at 86 Via Crescenzio in Rome (+39 06 686 8969)

WHY
Roughly 90 prelates – too old to vote in the conclave – will take part in the General Congregation of Cardinals meetings, which start Monday at 9:30 a.m. SNAP believes that a number of them (Sodano, Connell, Egan, Castrillón Hoyos, Law, McCarrick, and others) are guilty of – or credibly accused of – protecting child molesting clerics. Their peers should push them to stay home, or they should do so voluntarily, the group feels, for the sake of the church and to avoid heaping more pain on wounded victims and betrayed Catholics. (SNAP will hand out copies of a list of them with explanations and links.)

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UNITED KINGDOM
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on March 03, 2013

Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s apology is weak, vague, belated and thus hollow sounding. We simply do not believe he denied the accusations because his victims were anonymous.

Still, it’s encouraging and healthy any time any corrupt Catholic official is publicly exposed and experiences any consequences – however slight – for abusing trust, hurting others and hiding misdeeds. It would have been far better had church figures in Rome and in the UK publicly condemned or disciplined O’Brien. It’s only a tiny step forward when wrongdoers essentially get to pick their own punishment.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

By NATALIE WALKER
Published on Sunday 3 March 2013

MOST of the seats at the 7:30pm Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh last night – the first after Cardinal O’Brien’s shock confession was announced – were empty.

The service began with a reading of the cardinal’s statement. It was evident that some of the congregation had heard the news and shuffled nervously and uneasily in their seats.

Those who had clearly not heard what had happened could be seen turning to friends in shocked disbelief. Some of them looked utterly stunned. One woman sat open-mouthed with tears in her eyes as news of the former archbishop of the diocese was revealed.

It was a very different feeling from the Mass just seven days ago when the allegations first came to light. Unlike last Sunday, the media were told they were not welcome – with members of the press asked by a number of people to leave the neo-Gothic cathedral.

Seven days ago most people were standing by the cardinal, believing the allegations to be untrue. Most went out of their way to speak to the press, calling the claims “lies” and “rubbish”. But that loyalty had been replaced with anger – much of it aimed at the media.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

By STEPHEN MCGINTY
Published on Sunday 3 March 2013

THE zenith of the ecclesiastical career of Keith O’Brien took place amid the sunshine of St Peter’s Square when, in the autumn of 2003, he was presented with the red beretta of a cardinal, so coloured to reflect his new vow to shed his blood for the good of the Catholic Church.

In a public display which other cardinals were said to have considered unbecoming he brandished a saltire with the enthusiasm of a football fan at Hampden to the delight of photographers whose pictures ran on the front page of newspapers around the world.

In the nadir of the ecclesiastical career of Keith O’Brien he returns once again to the front pages, not as a vision of joyous Catholic scotia, but of an old man crushed by cardinal sins.

How can Catholics come to terms with the janus faced leader of the Catholic Church: the cardinal who described gay marriage as a “grotesque subversion” in the knowledge that his own sexual conduct had “fallen below the standards” expected of a priest.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

His admission came after more details of allegations against him emerged, with accounts of long parties known as “ragers”.

The man who quit as Britain’s top Catholic cleric has admitted sexual misconduct – after previously threatening legal action over the claims.

In an astonishing about-turn Cardinal Keith O’Brien said his “sexual conduct has fallen beneath the standards expected of me”.

His admission came after more details of allegations against him emerged, with accounts of long parties known as “ragers”.

He had earlier said he “contested” allegations made against him by three priests and a former priest and was taking legal advice.

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VATICAN CITY
Baltimore Sun

Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor
Reuters
6:31 p.m. EST, March 3, 2013

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Preparations for electing Roman Catholicism’s new leader begin in earnest on Monday as the College of Cardinals opens daily talks to sketch an identikit for the next pope and ponder who among them might fit it.

The idea is to have the new pope elected during next week and officially installed several days later so he can preside over the Holy Week ceremonies starting with Palm Sunday on March 24 and culminating in Easter the following Sunday.

The general congregations, closed-door meetings in the interregnum between a papacy and the conclave to choose the next one, will hold morning and afternoon sessions in an apparent effort to discuss as much as possible in a short time.

The list of challenges facing the crisis-hit Church could take weeks to debate, but the Vatican seems keen to have only a week of talks so the 115 cardinal electors — those under 80 — can enter the Sistine Chapel for the conclave next week.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

The Shadow Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, appears to have presented Cardinals with a very serious dilemma. The Vatican’s financial misdeeds had recently led Italian banking regulators to seize millions of dollars of Vatican cash, reportedly due to Mafia related money laundering. The regulators on January 1 closed down the Vatican’s credit card facility, reportedly related to financial irregularities. A major multinational bank recently refused to do business with the Vatican in Milan. The head of the Vatican Bank was recently abruptly fired. A senior Vatican financial cleric was just shipped to South America.

Reportedly, three senior Cardinals investigated these matters thoroughly and gave the Shadow Pope a secret 300 page dossier about these matters, yet Ratzinger will not let voting Cardinals read it. Reportedly, the dossier was a major factor in Ratzinger’s sudden resignation.

Some Cardinals have reportedly promoted the use of the Vatican Bank. For example, last April Cardinal Wuerl gave wealthy American donors from the Papal Foundation a tour of the Bank, apparently to show how how sound and safe it was. Has Wuerl read the report? Cardinal George by his recent reported remarks seems comfortable with being denied access to the report. He may have forgotten how aggressive and determined U.S. Federal prosecutors nailed Chicagoan, Al Capone, on financial and tax crimes. Given the current adverse legal environment for some Cardinals, can they be too careful?

Cardinals hopefully have consulted their respective criminal lawyers to make sure they are acting legally with respect to this major dossier on “Cardinal Sins”. They do not want to be legally exposed to RICO-type charges they were part of a conspiracy to cover up illegal financial transactions with racketeers and/or other illegal groups. Some Cardinals evidentally have enough to do just trying to avoid criminal endangerment charges for their alleged cover-ups of priest rapes of children, and ought to avoid any prospect of racketeering charges on top of that. If the new Pope they now elect fails to curtail any potentially illegal conduct referred to in the dossier, will any Cardinals be held responsible as well for such failures? If htey do not know fully what id in the report, how can Cardinals be sure?

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UNITED STATES
OpEd News

By Mary Shaw

So now Pope Benedict XVI has retired, and the cardinals will be choosing a new leader.

Meanwhile, sentimental Catholics and others have been praising the now-former pontiff. They call him a holy man. However, in looking back through his record, I see much that is downright unholy.

Perhaps most obvious is his role in the cover-up of clergy sex abuse.

Back in 2001, when we still knew him as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the British press leaked a confidential letter from Ratzinger to all Catholic bishops ordering that “the church’s investigations into child sex abuse claims be carried out in secret,” and asserting “the church’s right to hold its inquiries behind closed doors and keep the evidence confidential for up to 10 years after the victims reached adulthood.” In other words, keep it all under wraps until the statutes of limitations expire. How “holy” is that?

In 2002, he discounted the whole issue, referring to the media coverage of clergy sex abuse as a plot to discredit the Church. How “holy” is that?

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UNITED KINGDOM
Raw Story

By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, March 3, 2013

AFP – Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric on Sunday admitted sexual misconduct and offered his apologies to the Church and the people of Scotland.

A statement released by Cardinal Keith O’Brien read: “I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Deutsche Welle

Britain’s former top Catholic Church official has admitted that his sexual conduct had fallen short of the required standard. Keith O’Brien had been due to vote in the conclave for a new pope before his resignation.

In a statement released on Sunday, O’Brien – who stood down as head of the church in Scotland last week – apologized “to those I have offended.”

“I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal,” O’Brien said in a statement posted on the Scottish Catholic media website.

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ROME
Sydney Morning Herald

BARNEY ZWARTZ
March 04, 2013

As cardinals gather in Rome to elect a new pope, the Catholic Church faces either a Vatican Spring or a new ice age, says its most senior theologian, the dissident Hans Kung.

The most urgent need, Dr Kung wrote in The New York Times last week, was a pope ”not living intellectually in the Middle Ages”. Otherwise the ossified institution risked shrinking into an increasingly irrelevant sect, he wrote.

Many Catholics, unsettled amid the ”turbulent waters and rough winds” to which Pope Emeritus Benedict referred in his final public speech last week, share Dr Kung’s trepidation.

Part of the problem is that there are at least a dozen plausible candidates, amid an ocean of imponderables. The church, US surveys show, is ready for the first non-European pope in 1500 years, but there is a strong counterargument for returning to an Italian – after all, the pope is the bishop of Rome.

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CANADA
Times Colonist

They found the bodies in the slush and ice of Fraser Lake. Four children, aged eight and nine, lying according to Canadian Press reports huddled in each others arms “capless and lightly clad,” frozen in the final dark embrace of a January night. The temperature was -30 C.

Maurice Justice and Allen Willie were eight years old. Johnny Michael and Andrew Paul were nine. All four were runaways from the harsh confines of the church-run Lejac Residential School. It was Jan. 2, 1937, when their bodies were found roughly six miles from the school and less than one from the Nautley Reserve, which was their believed destination. They had just wanted to go home.

On Feb. 19, the Times Colonist published another CP story, this one bearing the headline “Residential-school deaths topped 3,000: study.” The “study” is being conducted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission with research manager Alex Maass making public preliminary residential-school-death lists. To date, the count stands at 3,000, but Maass told CP it would undoubtedly rise as she and fellow workers continue their search through thousands of archived documents. The true count will never be known, because annual reports on school deaths ceased in 1917. Maass says it had obviously become policy to no longer report them.

While the preliminary report is careful to name disease the largest single killer of residential school children, Maass notes: “The schools were a breeding ground for TB. Dormitories were incubation wards.” And never more so than when the great influenza epidemic swept the world in 1918-19, and infected children were left in school dormitories to become innocent carriers of death.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Washington Post

By Anthony Faiola

Sunday, March 3

LONDON – Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who stepped down as Britain’s highest-ranking Roman Catholic cleric last week amid allegations of inappropriate behavior with priests, backed away from earlier denials and admitted Sunday to committing acts of sexual misconduct.

The admission was a blow to the church’s hierarchy even as cardinals prepare to meet in Rome on Monday to select a date for the conclave to pick a new pope. In Britain, the admission was considered a confirmation of what observers here have called a prime example of church hypocrisy, given that O’Brien, 74, emerged as leading voice against gay rights and had launched a campaign to block the legalization of same-sex marriages here.

Last Monday, outgoing Pope Benedict XVI effectively forced O’Brien’s early retirement a day after a British newspaper published accounts by four men – including one former and three current priests – who alleged the cardinal had initiated intimate contact with them. When the reports first surfaced, O’Brien, who was the head of the church in Scotland since 2003, had denied the charges through a spokesman.

However, on Sunday, O’Brien conceded in a statement on an official church Web site that his conduct had “fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.” He vowed to “spend the rest of my life in retirement,” adding that “I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland.”

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SCOTLAND
Aljazeera

The cardinal who until recently served as Britain’s highest-ranking Catholic leader acknowledged unspecified sexual misbehaviour and promised to play “no further part” in the public life of the church.

The statement of Cardinal Keith O’Brien on Sunday came few days after his resignation from his position as archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh following a newspaper article that included unnamed priests’ accounts of unspecified inappropriate behaviour.

O’Brien initially rejected the claims, saying he was resigning because he did not want to distract from the upcoming conclave which is due to pick a new pope.

But on Sunday, the Church of Scotland issued a statement quoting O’Brien as saying that there had been times “that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal”.

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UNITED STATES
Consortium News

March 3, 2013

A half century ago, the Catholic Church had a chance for reform in the Second Vatican Council, with a young advocate in Joseph Ratzinger. But reactionary popes shunted reform aside, with Ratzinger later joining them as Pope Benedict XVI. That lost hope has put the Church in today’s crisis, says the Rev. Paul Surlis.

By the Rev. Paul Surlis

A Church with a “disfigured” face. That is Pope Benedict XVI’s description of how the Catholic Church sometimes is seen because “of sins against the unity of the church.” He said this in his last public Mass, but he offered no reflections on the role he himself played in this disfigurement, especially by his consistent refusal since around 1968 to embrace the structural changes and progressive teachings endorsed for the Church by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

Benedict, as Joseph Ratzinger, an expert at the council, explained and enthusiastically endorsed the reforming trends of the council. After each of the council’s four sessions, Dr. Ratzinger wrote a pamphlet-length account of what had transpired during the preceding session and these reflections were subsequently collected in a book, Theological Highlights of Vatican II.

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VATICAN CITY
PolicyMic

Areej Elahi-Siddiqui

The Vatican admitted to secretly carrying out wiretaps on the clergy within the Holy See on Thursday, stating they were part of the investigations into the Vatileaks scandal that rocked Rome last year.

Although the church holds that the surveillance, which was done to find if any other Vatican insiders were involved in helping Paolo Gabriele, the then-Pope’s butler who had stolen and leaked compromising papal documents to the media, was done on a very small scale, an Italian news magazine says otherwise.

According to Panorama magazine, Vatican authorities – with Tarcisio Bertone, the No. 2 at the Vatican in the lead – had not only tapped the phones but also read emails of Church emails to find more information about the Vatileaks scandal. Panorama’s journalist Ignazio Ingrao, said that “everyone was spied on in the Vatican” in efforts that seemed eerily like a “Vatican Big Brother.”

Panorama also added that this was “the biggest and most detailed wiretapping operation ever conducted in the sacred palaces was conducted.”

Panorama added that the wiretapping is ongoing now.

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CASTEL GANDOLFO, ITALY
Huffington Post

Lightning doesn’t strike twice. Or does it?

Various Italian news sources reported Sunday that a mild earthquake had struck Rome and surrounding areas, including Castel Gandolfo, the former pope’s temporary home.

According to the Agence France-Presse, the earthquake had a local magnitude of 2.5 and was felt in Rome, Ciapino, Marino and Castel Gandolfo. So far, no reports of injury or serious damage have been relayed to the Italian Department of Civil Protection.

Italian news blog Blogo reported that, according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the quake originated at a depth of 10.5 kilometers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Spectator

Some wag has gone around Rome putting up spoof ‘Vota Turkson’ posters. This is a reference to the Ghanian Cardinal Peter Turkson, who has been much-tipped to be the first black Pope. Turkson has a lot of support, it seems, and not all of it sardonic. Many Catholics say now is the time for an African Pope. And there’s a sense that it might take someone from the developing world to knock the Roman Curia — widely thought to be an arcane and corrupt body – into shape.

But as I’ve written in this week’s magazine, a number of Vatican insiders think that, far from being an outsider, the next Pope must be an Italian. Only an Italian, it’s said, can understand and fix the complex problems within the Curia. The name I heard most often last week was Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Ravasi is said to have the right mix of intelligence, media appeal and personal holiness to be Pope. But there are strong arguments against him, too. He lacks administrative experience, his deputy at the Pontifical Council for Culture has just been accused of sex abuse), and there are questions over his language skills.

A safer bet would be that the next Pope will be called Angelo – either Cardinal Angelo Scola, the Archbishop of Milan or Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the Archbishop of Genoa and President of the Italian Episcopal Conference. Scola is a theologian of immense ability and standing in the Church; while Bagnasco, the son of a baker, is a devoutly orthodox, genial fellow who’s also an adept politician.

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UNITED STATES
WBIR

Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who stepped down as archbishop last week amid accusations of sexual impropriety, on Sunday apologized for past sexual conduct.

O’Brien issued a statement Sunday saying he had contested early allegations made against him because of their “anonymous and non-specific nature.” He offered no specifics Sunday, but did apologize for his behaviour. …

Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, lauded O’Brien’s recusal as an important precedent for a church where priests have been disciplined for abuse but church leaders who failed to halt the abuse have been largely unscathed.

“Cardinals who are tainted by the crisis cannot choose the person who will solve it,,” .McKiernan said in a statement. “…If they are involved in the deliberations and the votes, they will taint the outcome, damaging the legitimacy of whoever is ultimately chosen.”

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SCOTLAND
USA Today

Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY
3:07p.m. EST March 3, 2013

Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who stepped down as archbishop last week amid accusations of sexual impropriety, on Sunday apologized for his past sexual conduct.

O’Brien issued a statement saying he had contested early allegations made against him because of their “anonymous and non-specific nature.” He offered no specifics Sunday, but did apologize for his behavior.

“I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal,” his statement said. “To those I have offended, I apologize and ask forgiveness. To the Catholic Church and people of Scotland, I also apologize.

“I will now spend the rest of my life in retirement. I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
ABC News (Australia)

By Europe correspondent Philip Williams, wires

The former head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, has admitted his sexual conduct had “fallen below the standards expected of him”.

In a statement issued by the church on Sunday, Cardinal O’Brien apologised and asked for forgiveness after appearing to admit to sexual misconduct.

“I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal,” he said in the statement posted on the Scottish Catholic media office website.

“To those I have offended, I apologise and ask forgiveness. To the Catholic Church and people of Scotland, I also apologise.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Telegraph

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, formerly the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in the UK, signalled that he did make homosexual advances towards young men.

By John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor
8:14PM GMT 03 Mar 2013

He confessed that his “sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected” and asked for forgiveness from those he had “offended”, as well as the entire Catholic Church and the people of Scotland.

The former Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh – who only a week ago was on course to take part in the election of the next Pope – said he would now withdraw completely from public life.

His admission came as fresh details emerged of the allegations of “inappropriate” behaviour against him by four men – three priests and one former priest.

For the first time, it emerged that the accusations included attempting to touch, kiss, or have sex with them.

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SCOTLAND
Huffington Post

By RAPHAEL SATTER 03/03/13

LONDON — The cardinal who until recently served as Britain’s highest-ranking Catholic leader on Sunday acknowledged having engaged in unspecified sexual misbehavior and promised to play “no further part” in the public life of the church, a statement that comes at an awkward time for the Vatican.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien resigned Monday from his position as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh after a newspaper published unnamed priests’ accounts of unspecified inappropriate behavior.

O’Brien initially rejected the claims, saying he was resigning because he did not want to distract from the upcoming conclave of cardinals that is due to pick a successor to Benedict XVI, who resigned the papacy Thursday. O’Brien also said he would not attend the conclave.

But on Sunday, the Catholic church in Scotland issued a statement quoting O’Brien as saying that there had been times “that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Telegraph

Hypocrite Cardinal O’Brien admits sex acts – in a vague apology that will make things worse

By Damian Thompson

I’m deeply unimpressed by Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s vague and guarded admission that “there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal”. Does he really think he can leave it at that? After raging against gay marriage with a ferocity that was – I suspect – intended to make the English bishops look wimpish and therefore butter up the Vatican?

Scottish Catholics in particular have the right to ask: What the hell do you mean by “sexual conduct”?

And what are we supposed to make of this? “In recent days certain allegations which have been made against me have become public. Initially, their anonymous and non-specific nature led me to contest them.”

Sorry, I don’t follow the logic. The Cardinal must have had a good idea who was making the claims, and what behaviour was involved. You can’t contest allegations, as he did, just because public ignorance of the charges leaves you a certain amount of breathing space.

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SCOTLAND
The Guardian

Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 3 March 2013

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, forced to resign by the pope last week, has admitted to sexual misconduct and issued a sweeping apology to individuals he has “offended” as well as to the Catholic church and Scottish people.

In a short statement issued soon after 5pm on Sunday, O’Brien admitted “there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal”.

The former archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh made no detailed admissions but apologised and asked for the forgiveness of all those he had offended, and for the forgiveness of the entire Catholic church.

Barely a week after O’Brien insisted he was contesting allegations published in the Observer of misconduct against fellow priests, he effectively admitted he had been guilty of sexual misbehaviour since he was a priest and during his 10 years as a cardinal.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Telegraph

A BRITISH cardinal has admitted his behavior fell “below the standards expected of me” after allegations of sexual misconduct.

Keith O’Brien resigned last week after claims of sexual impropriety. In a statement, Cardinal O’Brien has also apologised “to those I have offended … to the Catholic Church and people of Scotland”.

Cardinal O’Brien resigned as head of the Catholic Church in Scotland on Monday in the wake of claims that he made sexual advances towards priests.

“In recent days certain allegations which have been made against me have become public,” said the cleric. “Initially, their anonymous and non-specific nature led me to contest them.

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SCOTLAND
CNN

(CNN) — A cardinal at the center of an international scandal over alleged sexual abuse reversed course Sunday, acknowledging wrongdoing.

“I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal,” Cardinal Keith O’Brien said in a statement.

Until days ago, O’Brien was the archbishop of Scotland.

O’Brien has been dogged by allegations he abused four men studying to be priests in the 1980s.

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SCOTLAND
Sky News

Cardinal Keith O’Brien has admitted that there have been times when his sexual conduct “fell beneath expected standards”.

The 74-year resigned as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh last week over allegations of improper behaviour up to 30 years ago.

In a statement issued by the Catholic Church in Scotland, he said: “In recent days certain allegations which have been made against me have become public. Initially, their anonymous and non-specific nature led me to contest them.

“However, I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Mail

Britain’s top Catholic Cardinal O’Brien admits his ‘sexual conduct fell well below the standards expected of a priest and archbishop’ as he sends himself into retreat

By Sam Webb and Alex Gore

Britain’s most senior Catholic admitted today his ‘sexual conduct’ fell well below the ‘standards expected of a priest’.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien made the statement in response to allegations of ‘inappropriate’ behaviour levelled against him by three priests and a former priest.

He apologised, asked for forgiveness and said he will play no further part in the Catholic Church.

The cleric resigned as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh a day after the allegations stretching back 30 years were published last Sunday.

He said today: ‘In recent days certain allegations which have been made against me have become public. Initially, their anonymous and non-specific nature led me to contest them.

‘However, I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.
retreat.

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SCOTLAND
Paisley Daily Express

Cardinal Keith O’Brien has admitted that his sexual conduct had at times “fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal”.

The cardinal, who was Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric, stepped down from his post as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh last week, a day after three priests and a former priest made allegations of “inappropriate” behaviour against him.

In a statement issued by the Catholic Church in Scotland, he apologised and asked forgiveness from those he had “offended”.

“I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal,” the statement said.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic Media Office

3 March 2013

Statement from Cardinal O’Brien

“In recent days certain allegations which have been made against me have become public. Initially, their anonymous and non-specific nature led me to contest them.

However, I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.

To those I have offended, I apologise and ask forgiveness.

To the Catholic Church and people of Scotland, I also apologise.

I will now spend the rest of my life in retirement. I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland.”

ENDS

Peter Kearney
Director
Catholic Media Office
5 St. Vincent Place
Glasgow
G1 2DH
0141 221 1168
07968 122291
pk@scmo.org
www.scmo.org

Notes to editors:

1. This is the only statement, which Cardinal O’Brien will be issuing.
2. Cardinal O’Brien will not attend the Conclave to elect the new Pope.
3. Cardinal O’Brien is now out of the country and will not be available for interview.

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SCOTLAND
Portage Daily Graphic

ESTELLE SHIRBON, Retuers

Sunday, March 3, 2013

LONDON – A Roman Catholic cardinal who resigned as head of the church in Scotland apologised on Sunday for sexual conduct which he said had “fallen below the standards expected of me”.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien was Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric until he resigned as archbishop on Feb. 25 and said he would not take part in the conclave to elect a new pope. The announcement followed newspaper allegations of inappropriate behaviour with priests.

“I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal,” he said in a statement posted on the Scottish Catholic media office website on Sunday.

“To those I have offended, I apologise and ask forgiveness. To the Catholic Church and people of Scotland, I also apologise. I will now spend the rest of my life in retirement. I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland.”

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

Cardinal Keith O’Brien has admitted that his sexual conduct has at times “fallen beneath the standards expected of me”.

In a statement, he apologised and asked forgiveness from those he had “offended”.

He also apologised to the Catholic Church, and to the people of Scotland.

The cardinal resigned last Monday after three priests and a former priest made allegations of improper behaviour against him.

Cardinal O’Brien had been Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric when he stood down as the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh.

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BRAZIL
PolicyMic

Jake Horowitz

1) He is from Brazil.

Scherer leads the archdiocese in Brazil, the world’s largest Catholic country with a total population of 6 million Catholics. Being from Sao Paulo, Scherer is accustomed to dealing with social problems, as this city has 11 million people and faces high poverty rates, crime, and youth unemployment. Pope Benedict XVI named Scherer as the seventh Archbishop of Sao Paulo on March 21, 2007. In October 2007, the Pope announced he would make Scherer a Cardinal.

2) He is considered to be a moderate.

Scherer is considered to be theologically moderate. He is considered to be conservative within Brazil, but holds more centrist political views than Pope Benedict XVI, who opposed “liberation theology” in the Church in Latin America in the 1980s. Liberation theology is a leftwing movement which believe the Church should ally itself with the poor politically. Benedict called this theology “a singular heresy” but Scherer has been more moderate. He backed its focus on social injustice and poverty, even though he criticized it for using “Marxism as a tool of analysis.”

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BRAZIL
Huffington Post

By Roque Planas Posted: 02/11/2013

With Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation, it may be Latin America’s turn to take control of the papacy, and some point to Brazilian Archbishop Odilo Scherer as the leading candidate.

Though the Vatican has been led by an unbroken chain of Europeans, demographics make a compelling case to look to Latin America to fill the vacancy. Some 42 percent of the world’s Catholics now live in Latin America, making the region home to the largest group of Catholics on the planet, according to Reuters. Europe is home to just 25 percent of the world’s Catholics.

Darci Nicioli, Auxiliary Bishop of Aparecida, told Brazil’s G1 that Scherer is one of five Brazilian cardinals in the running for the Papacy.

“All Cardinals less than 80 years old are candidates and can vote to choose the new Pope, but we know that depends on the Holy Spirit,” Nicioli told Brazil’s G1. “So we’re going to prey hard so that the best Cardinal is selected.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Brazil’s Cardinal Odilo Scherer is being proposed as a candidate to be next Pope by some Italian cardinals from the Roman Curia, including Sodano and Re, but they also want an Italian as Secretary of State

Gerard O’Connell – Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

In 2005, some influential cardinals from the Roman Curia worked for the election of Joseph Ratzinger. Today, eight years later, informed sources both within and outside the Vatican confirm that a new group in the Vatican are seeking to bring for the first time in history a Latin American to the See of Peter, accompanied by a Secretary of State who is Italian, or an Argentinian of Italian-origins. Among the proponents of this initiative are two leading cardinals – Angelo Sodano, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, and Giovanni Battista Re. Other important Italian curial cardinals could join this initiative.

The candidate to be pope of this group is the Archbishop of Sao Paolo, Brazil, Odilo Pedro Scherer, 63, who worked in the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops from 1994 to 2001. He worked for some time with Cardinal Re, who became head of that Congregation, and later ensured that he became a bishop. Scherer is a well-respected Latin American prelate, of German extraction. A man of measured and less Latin style , he speaks Italian well.

His name has circulated in these days as a possible successor to Benedict XVI. His sponsors aim to bring the first South American to the See of Peter, but bringing at the same time with him – almost as part of a ‘ticket’ – a Secretary of State who knows the Roman Curia well. Among the names being mentioned for this second post is that of Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, the Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy. Another name being suggested for the post of Secretary of State is that of Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. Sandri had the post of ‘Substitute’ – that is the third ranking position in the Vatican, in the last phase of the pontificate of John Paul II and the beginning of Benedict XVI’s reign.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

In eight days cardinals will enter the Sistine Chapel for the start of the Conclave. This is the Church’s first Sunday without a Pope and there is no Angelus prayer today

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

The window from which the Pope usually pronounces the Sunday Angelus prayer remained shut today. This is the Catholic Church’s first Sunday without a Pope. St. Peter’s Square is full of pilgrims but no one is looking up at the papal studio window because this Sunday no one will be appearing at it. The curtain has already come down on the great media circus surrounding the Conclave and the rosaries recited by faithful are the only thing that breaks the silence which fell after Benedict XVI’s departure. Now that the papacy is vacant, there is no longer any reference to Benedict XVI either as Pope or Bishop of Rome in the Eucharistic prayer during mass celebrations. Parish priests have prepared a new version of the prayer.

As the Church strides towards the Conclave which is due to start on 11 March, the complete picture of Benedict XVI’s resignation is gradually forming. Ratzinger showed no less courage in resigning because “of the limits of old age and (…) the discernment on the exercise of responsibility that God had entrusted to him, than John Paul II who stuck it out until the end, despite his illness. Ratzinger’s decision is above all a reminder of one’s responsibilities, especially for cardinals who have the task of electing the Pope’s successor.

On the Church’s second day without a Pope – day two of the sede vacante period – Fr. Federico Lombardi commented on the achievements of the outgoing pope, now Pope Emeritus, and their significance, also for those who will have to work with the choices that will shape the future of global Catholicism. To emphasise the spiritual nature of the papal election, the Vatican spokesman referred back to one of Wojtyla’s core texts with a preface signed by Joseph Ratzinger.

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Eric Linton | March 03 2013

Roman Catholic cardinals, fearing that Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation has weakened his office, will ask the next pope to pledge in his inaugural address that he will serve until his death, European media report.

According to the Sunday Times of London, an unnamed cardinal told the Corriere della Sera newspaper of Milan that the rule that a pope has the right to resign of his own free will can’t be changed, “but for the future we need to safeguard the freedom of the church from external influences.” The fear is that a future pope could be pressured into stepping down.

On Friday, Benedict said he was “not abandoning the Cross, I am staying in a new way,” the Times reported. This was seen as a response to Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, a former personal secretary to his predecessor John Paul II, who said of his resignation: “One doesn’t step down from the Cross.”

Benedict has agreed that three cardinals who investigated the “Vatileaks” scandal would give their peers details of their secret report, which he received in December. Some have speculated that the report is so damaging it precipitated his resignation. The Vatican has denied allegations that it reveals a gay sex scandal in the Vatican that has left top clerics open to blackmail.

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VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

Non-European pope could pair up with Vatican official ‘in presidential-style ticket’

Cardinals gathering Rome are reportedly considering electing the first ever non-European pope, who could pair up with a Vatican official as his secretary of a state, in a scenario likened to a presidential ticket.

By Tom Kington, Rome
3:59PM GMT 03 Mar 2013

The idea would satisfy calls from non-Euoprean cardinals to give the papacy a global appeal, while convincing Vatican insiders that an experience hand would manage the Curia.

At 9.30am on Monday, most of the cardinal electors will assemble at the Vatican for the first day of consultations ahead of voting for Pope Benedict XVI’s successor in a conclave now expected to start around March 11.

Marco Tosatti, a Vatican expert, said that Brazil’s Odilo Scherer, 63, the archbishop of Sao Paulo, was now being supported by two key Vatican officials, former secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone, who is taking on the role of Chamberlain during the conclave, and Angelo Sodano, the dean of the College of Cardinals, who is overseeing the pre-conclave meetings.

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IRELAND/UNITED KINGDOM
Journal

A LONDON-BASED law firm is providing advice to a number of survivors of the Magdalene Laundry system who currently reside in the UK.

Hodge Jones & Allen worked with many of the claimants of the Irish Redress Board – set up for survivors of Ireland’s residential institutions – and is now representing those who were also held in Magdalene Laundries between 1922 and 1996.

Senior Partner Patrick Allen said, “We are working closely with the victims of the Magdalene Laundries to ensure that as many of them as possible receive the fair, decent treatment and compensation that they deserve.

“We will work tenaciously for these women to fight for their justice and to right the wrongs that they have endured over the years.”

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IRELAND
Longford Leader

Published on Saturday 2 March 2013

The fact that Newtownforbes was an industrial school with a laundry attached makes it an entirely different situation to the Magdalene Laundries, according to one long-standing campaigner for the Magdalene women.

When speaking to the Longford Leader this week Sally Mulready, Council of State and leader of the Step by Step Project which has sought justice for the Magdalene women for the last 14 years refused to be drawn on whether those in Industial schools should be entitled to redress under the new package currently being formulated by Judge Quirke.

She did however state that a redress system had been put in place for those who had suffered, and it was her understanding that they had “been very well compensated for the time they spent in industrial schools”.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

A recently published report into the Magdalene Laundries found direct State involvment in the institutions.

The Taoiseach has already apologised to survivors on behalf of the State, calling their treatment “a national shame”.

Efforts are now underway to secure adequate compensation payments for the survivors.

Spokesperson of the Justice for Magdalenes group Claire McGettrick said the group was “still in the process of digesting (the findings of) the McAleese report”.

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VATICAN CITY
The Australian

JOHN FOLLAIN, VATICAN CITY
From: The Sunday Times (UK)
March 04, 2013

CARDINALS plan to ask the next pope to pledge in his inaugural address that he will serve until his death, unlike Benedict XVI, whose resignation, they believe, has destabilised the Catholic Church.

Doubts have emerged about the impact of Benedict’s decision as the cardinals begin a series of meetings, known as general congregations, to discuss the church’s future.

Italian reports suggest some church leaders believe Benedict’s departure has undermined the sacredness of the office. An unnamed cardinal told the Corriere della Sera newspaper it was impossible to abolish the rule that a pope had the right to resign of his own freewill. “But for the future we need to safeguard the freedom of the church from external influences,” he said, amid fears that a pope could be pressured into stepping down.

Oon Friday, Benedict said he was “not abandoning the Cross, I am staying in a new way”. This was seen as a response to Polish cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, a former personal secretary to Pope John Paul II, who said of his resignation: “One doesn’t step down from the Cross.”

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, March 3 (Reuters) – The Roman Catholic Church must open itself up to women in the next pontificate, giving them more leadership positions in the Vatican and beyond, according to a senior cardinal who will be influential in electing the next pope.

In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, 69, an Argentine, also said the next pope should not be chosen according to a geographic area but must be a “saintly man” qualified to lead the Church in a time of crisis.

He said one of the greatest challenges facing the Church was trying to win back those suffering from a “loss of faith” who had “turned their back on God” and the Church of their fathers.

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FIJI
Fiji Village

More charges are expected to be laid against a Catholic priest who is a prime suspect in a series of alleged rapes.

The priest appeared in Tavua court on Friday charged with one count of alleged rape and one count of alleged indecent assault.

Police confirm the priest is expected to be charged for three more offences.

Police had earlier confirmed that a complaint was lodged last week by a cleaner and since then other victims have come forward.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

Peter FitzSimons
Sports Columnist

The Fitz Files

Typical Vatican. For decades it has presided over a global system whereby numerous priestly paedophiles are endlessly moved on to continue their devastation in ever more dioceses, rarely calling them to account and even more rarely calling the cops. They even harbour some of the worst, and their enablers, in the Vatican itself! No calls for resignation there, nothing bar actively working to hide their institutional shame for the destruction of so many young lives.

But if just one priest may have possibly acted in a sexually harassing manner 30 years ago to other adult priests and – if it might generate some bad headlines for the pope himself – that priest is GONE!

So we have seen in Britain this week with Cardinal O’Brien, an outspoken anti-gay-marriage advocate who – and now there’s a surprise – is actually gay himself.

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SCOTLAND
Southern Reporter

Published on Sunday 3 March 2013

ROMAN Catholics in the Borders have been left shocked and saddened by the allegations of inappropriate behaviour levelled at Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

That was the view of senior figures from the local Roman Catholic community, speaking this week as Borders Catholics, readying themselves for the appointment of a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, now have to come to terms with the loss of their own cardinal after his sudden resignation on Monday.

Cardinal O’Brien, now ex-Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, is noticeable by his absence from this week’s events in Rome, where church’s leaders have gathered for the conclave to elect a new pope, as the 85-year-old Pope Benedict steps down today, becoming the first pontiff in more than 600 years to resign.

A frequent visitor to the Borders, the cardinal has been accused of inappropriate behaviour towards priests in the 1980s – allegations he contests.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

FATHER John Robinson, 71m has called for an open investigation into the claims against Cardinal Keith O’Brien and other historic allegations against churchmen.

A VETERAN priest has accused the Catholic Church of decades of cover-up and a conspiracy of silence.

Father John Robinson broke ranks yesterday to call for an open investigation into allegations made against Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

He spoke out after Church leaders sent a letter to Scotland’s priests telling them not to talk about the claims of inappropriate behaviour, which are denied by the cardinal but are being investigated by the Vatican.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

THE claims are centred on Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s time as spiritual director of St Andrew’s College in Drygrange, in the Borders.

A STATEMENT from Cardinal O’Brien is expected within days after more details of the allegations against him emerged last night.

The cleric – who was Britain’s most senior Catholic until his resignation last week – has remained silent since issuing a brief statement on Monday.

He said the allegations are “contested” and that he is taking legal advice. However, Monday’s statement did not refer to them.

He did apologise to anyone he had offended during his career.

But he is coming under growing pressure as more information about the claims emerges.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Sunday 3 March 2013

WHEN people turned up for mass a week past Saturday evening at Our Lady of the Waves Church in Dunbar they knew that it would be conducted by Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

What they did not suspect, however, was that it would be his last as Britain’s most senior Catholic.

The Cardinal, who was due to retire next month on his 75th birthday, had previously intimated that he was keen to move from Edinburgh to the East Lothian seaside town where he is a familiar figure.

Herbert Coutts, vice-chair of the church’s parish council, told the local paper: “The intention was that he would do masses in Dunbar as he could, so to speak, because there is a shortage of priests and our priest covers both Dunbar and North Berwick, so that would be of assistance to him.”

Whether that will now happen is anyone’s guess. Hours after telling one member of the congregation to “keep carrying the flag” for the Catholic Church, O’Brien was accused by three priests and one former priest, who is now married, of “inappropriate behaviour”.

What seems likely is that O’Brien would have known this was in the pipeline as he preached at Our Lady of the Waves. His four accusers, none of whom has yet been identified, circumvented the hierarchy of the Scottish Catholic church, and took their grievances directly to nuncio Antonio Mennini, the Vatican’s ambassador to Britain. The result was O’Brien’s resignation.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

[with video]

3 March 2013

One of four men who made claims against Cardinal Keith O’Brien in the days before he resigned said he went public despite being warned he could damage the Catholic Church’s reputation.

The former priest and three current priests complained to the Pope’s representative to Britain, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, in early February about the Cardinal’s alleged inappropriate behaviour.

Cardinal O’Brien contests the claims against him.

Catherine Deveney is the journalist who reported allegations of inappropriate behaviour against Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By:Leslie Scrivener
Feature writer, Published on Sun Mar 03 2013

Joanna Manning, former nun, award-winning religion teacher, advocate for the poor and activist-intellectual, was battle-weary.

For decades she had challenged the Catholic Church, arguing for women’s ordination, the right of priests to marry and accountability in repeated sexual abuse crises.

So Manning, once the public face of the reform movement in Catholic Canada and a persistent burr in the side of the church establishment, decamped a decade ago.

She is now a priest in the Anglican Church.

“I did go through a period of grieving for the loss of the vision I’d grown up with after Vatican II,” says Manning, now 69, referring to the 1962-1965 council to modernize the church. “But the church hierarchy had shut down and retreated . . .

Critics say the Catholic Church hierarchy is disconnected from many if not most of its followers on issues of reform. Theologian Hans Kung writes that a recent poll in Germany shows 85 per cent of Catholics say priests should be allowed to marry, 79 per cent say divorced persons should have permission to remarry in the church and 75 per cent favour ordaining women.

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UNITED KINGDOM
icRenfrewshire

Mar 3 2013

A former priest who reported Cardinal Keith O’Brien to the Vatican over allegations of “inappropriate” behaviour has attacked the church’s response to the complaints.

The Cardinal, who was Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric, stepped down from his post as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh a day after the allegations by three priests and a former priest stretching back 30 years were published last Sunday. The Cardinal is contesting the allegations and is taking legal advice.

The 74-year-old cleric tendered his resignation to Pope Benedict in November, citing age and “indifferent health”. He had been widely expected to step down next month when he turns 75.

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POLSKA
Newsweek

Na nic papieskie wytyczne i deklaracje biskupów – ofiary księży pedofilów w Polsce nie mogą się doprosić sprawiedliwości. Kościół ich zwodzi, przeciąga sprawy, a najczęściej po prostu milczy.

Tomaszowi sił do walki dodała niedawna wypowiedź biskupa Tadeusza Pieronka o tym, że pedofilia to odwieczna namiętność, a w ogóle Kościół ma ważniejsze sprawy na głowie niż zwalczanie jej we własnych szeregach. – Straszne chamstwo – mówi. – Biskup Pieronek wyraził jednak to, co my, ofiary księży pedofilów, od lat wiemy. Że Kościół traktuje nas z pogardą. I nic się w tym względzie od lat nie zmienia. Zupełnie nic.

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CANADA
The Whig

By Greg Van Moorsel, The London Free Press

Friday, February 22, 2013

They stand out in any cemetery — not because they’re the biggest or smallest tombstones, although they do range from towering monuments to remarkably modest markers.

No, children’s graves command our attention in cemeteries because we instinctively feel the incongruity of young lives cut short before they have a chance to leave a mark.

We’re reflexively drawn to the abrupt endings and often untold stories behind those lives.

Now, imagine several thousand kids’ graves — some more than 100 years old, some known but not yet found, still others lacking the simple dignity of names attached.

New, unpublished research has, for the first time, put a preliminary figure to the death toll of children while attending Canada’s Native residential school system. Mining through one million records, researchers working for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have concluded at least 3,000 young lives were lost. Disease, malnutrition and accidents killed. So did devastating fires and harrowing ordeals like runaways freezing to death.

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VATIKAN
Frankfurter Allgemeine

02.03.2013 · Angelo Sodano ist als Dekan der mächtigste unter den mehr als 200 Kardinälen. Papst wird er aber wohl nicht werden. Selbst für manchen Kardinal ist Sodanos Gesicht auch die Fratze des Bösen.

Von Daniel Deckers

De jure ist der Dekan des Kardinalskollegiums der Erste unter Gleichen. De facto ist er der Mächtigste im Kreis der mehr als 200 Kardinäle. Selten wird das so deutlich wie nach dem Tod oder – wie jetzt – Amtsverzicht eines Papstes. Der Kardinaldekan leitet die Aussprachen (Generalkongregationen), in denen sich die Kardinäle vor dem Beginn des eigentlichen Wahlakts (Konklave) über den Zustand der Kirche Rechenschaft geben, und er steht der öffentlichen Messe vor, die vor dem ersten Wahlgang gefeiert wird. Kurz: Er ist für eine kurze, aber alles entscheidende Zeit nach innen wie nach außen das Gesicht der katholischen Kirche.

Nach dem Tod Johannes Pauls II. hatte Joseph Kardinal Ratzinger diese herausgehobene Position inne. Und er nutzte sie. In seiner Predigt während der Messe „Pro eligiendo Romano Pontifice“ geißelte er die „Diktatur des Relativismus“. Einen Tag später war er Papst. So wird es mit Kardinaldekan Angelo Sodano wohl nicht kommen. Weniger weil der Geistliche 85 Jahre alt ist. Vielmehr sehen selbst Kardinäle im Gesicht eines der Ihren auch die Fratze des Bösen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

Auf Empfehlung des “Runden Tisches Sexueller Kindesmissbrauch” hat die ehemalige Bundesbildungsministerin Anette Schavan Studien zu Ausmaß & Folgen sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs in Auftrag gegeben und die Familienministerin Schröder Kampagnen zu dessen Prävention, wozu auch die Inszenierung eines Kindertheaterstücks zählt.

Ein Kommentar von Kirsten Diercks

Gestern Abend hatte nun dieses Theaterstück gegen sexuellen Missbrauch am Berliner Renaissance-Theater Premiere für ein geladenes Publikum. Eine deutschlandweite zweijährige Tournee durch Schulen soll folgen. Wieder einmal geht es darum, den Kindern klar zu machen, dass sie auf ihre eigene Wahrnehmung vertrauen und “Nein!” sagen sollen, wenn sie körperliche Annäherungen, gleich welcher Art, nicht mögen.

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GERMANY
Sueddeutsche

Joseph Ratzinger hat als Papst Benedikt XVI. wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse in das römisch-katholische Weltbild integriert. Doch ging es ihm niemals darum, dieses Weltbild zu verändern. Stattdessen hat er versucht, Adam und Eva, die Erbsünde und die christliche Vorstellung vom Bösen in die moderne Welt hinüberzuretten.

Von Markus C. Schulte von Drach

Manchen gilt Joseph Ratzinger als Philosoph: Papst Benedikt XVI. hat sich in den vergangen Jahrzehnten einen Ruf als großer Theologe und tiefer Denker erarbeitet. Eine der wichtigsten Aufgaben, denen er sich während seines Pontifikats verpflichtet fühlte, war, Glaube und Vernunft zusammenzubringen.

Nun ist Vernunft mehr als logisches Denken und rationales Verhalten. Auf jeden Fall aber gilt es gemeinhin als vernünftig, wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse zu berücksichtigen. Und auch Joseph Ratzinger hat sich als Kardinal und Papst wiederholt bemüht, den katholischen Glauben in Einklang zu bringen mit dem, was Wissenschaftler über das Leben und den Kosmos bislang herausgefunden haben.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Tammoxsche Gedanken II

In meinem greisen Alter schlägt man sich mit über Dekaden eingeübten Gewohnheiten herum.
Man freut sich immer noch auf Montag und Donnerstag, weil man die großen Titelgeschichten in SPIEGEL und ZEIT lesen möchte.

Jene beiden wöchentlichen Periodika, die einem schon so viele Bauchschmerzen verursacht haben, die aber immer noch die besten sind, die es in Deutsch gibt.

„Früher“ waren die Titelgeschichten irgendwie besser. Informativer und mit mehr Lesevergnügen.
Ich weiß nur nicht, ob „früher alles besser war“, oder ob ich als Leser durch das Internet, das TV und qualitativ verbesserte Tagespresse einfach auf einem höheren Wissensniveau bin, so daß ganz natürlich die langen Geschichten der Wochenblätter keine zusätzlichen Erkenntnisse bringen können.
Immer wieder falle ich darauf rein bei meinen Lieblingsthemen tolle Geschichten zu erwarten. Gestern, also der aktuellsten SPIEGEL-Ausgabe, gab es selbstverständlich eine große Vatikan-Titelgeschichte, „der Kampf um Rom“.

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GERMANY
Frankfurter Allgemeine

[Tsunami in Rom]

03.03.2013 · The Roman Catholic Church and its approach to the sexual abuse of children and youths. An interview with the long-time promoter of justice of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, Auxiliary Bishop of Malta.

Von Daniel Deckers

Monsignor Scicluna, in October 2002, you were appointed by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to investigate allegations of clerical child sex abuse. Why were you chosen?

I was no newcomer to the Roman Curia. After studying civil and canon law, I began working in 1996 at the Roman Catholic Church’s highest court, the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. In one of the positions I held there, I served as secretary of a commission that produced the draft of an important document regarding the nullity-of-marriage process.

This document was released by the Holy See in 2002 under the title of “Dignitas connubii.” While I was working as secretary of this commission, I attracted the attention of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

What was someone versed in canon law doing in the congregation of faith, and as a “promotor iustitiae” at that?

The congregation was never just an administrative body. It was also a tribunal. It is charged with investigating the most serious crimes defined by canon law, matters that include the breach of the seal of the confessional and the sacramental absolution of accomplices in sexual misconduct. In such cases, a prosecutor known as the promoter of justice, “promotor iustitiae,” is appointed. This position had been vacant since 1995 and was filled in 2002.

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MONTANA
Billings Gazette

By Cindy Uken

BOZEMAN – As a 13-year-old Catholic boy growing up in Twin Bridges, population less than 400, D Gregory Smith knew he was different from other boys his age.

His hormones were ablaze, kindled by his attraction to other boys and men.

It was the 1970s. There was no Internet. There were no TV characters that seemed to support what he was feeling.

“The only thing I knew was that it seemed wrong because nobody else had those feelings,” said Smith, now 47. “I grew to understand that both church and society frowned on people who were gay and that it wasn’t OK.”

As a young teenager, Smith felt hopeless. He feared he would shame himself and his family if he could not squelch his attraction to other males. He felt there was no place in the world for him.

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CANADA
The Daily Courier

If ever there was a play steeped in truth, however ugly that truth may be, Where the Blood Mixes hits the proverbial nail on the head.

It also strikes deep in the heart and mind, shedding much-needed light on a part of Canadian history that is, on all levels, shameful.

Penned by Kevin Loring, the play peels back the layers of memory that are carried like a protective blanket by First Nations survivors of the brutal residential schools where thousands of young children were forced to live by the Canadian government.

Forcibly taken away from their families and communities, the church-run school system existed from the 1870s through the 1990s, leaving a legacy of physical, mental and sexual abuse, and thousands of deaths, in their wake.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by NCR Editorial Staff | Feb. 28, 2013

Editorial

Pope Benedict XVI is leaving us, a weary, ailing and spent man. More than 60 years a priest, he gave himself entirely to the church. Elected pope almost eight years ago, he wanted to re-evangelize Europe, only to watch its churches’ pews empty. With church laws and apologies, he tried mightily to right a sex scandal, but he failed to bring to account the enablers of the abusers. Benedict preached and taught keenly as a theologian, but his words as a pastor were muffled.

In the end, the weight of office became too much for him, at age 85, to carry.

Was it the person or the structure that finally failed us?

It seems he will be remembered most in history for the way he left the papacy, the first pope to resign in modern times. His final legacy, then, has yet to be written. It will certainly be shaped in part by his surprisingly beautiful and pastoral encyclicals and his book-length reflections on Jesus. And it will depend, as well, on what follows. This is a critical time for the church.

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UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times

On Thursday, Pope Benedict XVI became the first pontiff in nearly 600 years to willingly step down from his position. What kind of man will the cardinals who have gathered in Rome from around the world choose to be his successor? We asked Catholics from a variety of perspectives to write about some of the qualities they would like to see in a new pope.

Sackcloth and ashes

By Sister Eileen McNerney

The first words that I would like our new pope to say are, “For the next 40 days, I will be wearing sackcloth and ashes in repentance for the sins of our church.” The horrendous scandal of sexual abuse has pained me deeply, and I know that I am not alone in how I carry this sadness. I believe that a strong symbolic gesture from our next pope could do much to heal this pain. I want him to lead us in fearlessly facing the challenges of the Catholic Church in this postmodern age, forthrightly exploring issues that might threaten to divide us. And I pray that he will always have before him the words that Jesus used in calling St. Peter, the first pope: “Do not be afraid!” The new pope will need our loyalty and our prayers, and he has mine from the start.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

From:The Australian
March 03, 2013

WANTED: Bishop of Rome, Shepherd of the Flock, Vatican City Head of State, CEO, CFO and COO – fluency in multiple languages preferable. Few selection panels could have a task as demanding as that facing the papal conclave. Whoever the cardinals elect to succeed Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, one thing is certain: those expecting doctrinal change will be disappointed.

Adherence to doctrine and tradition has been the institution’s strength over 2000 years and will remain so. Western liberals who want an end to an all-male clergy and the church’s resolute opposition to abortion should remind themselves that the word “catholic” means universal; the church is far bigger than the West. Popularity is no measure of the validity of revealed truth or doctrine, but those in the church’s emerging strongholds in the developing world are generally comfortable, anyway, with its centuries-old teachings.

Nonetheless, the 266th pontiff must embrace administrative reform and good governance if the church is to maintain credibility in the public square. Brisbane’s Archbishop Mark Coleridge, who worked for Pope John Paul II and in the Vatican Secretariat of State, showed sound insight when he suggested that the 115 electors seek out a pastor and evangelist with a proven track record of strong and good governance and mud on his boots rather than an academic or a curialist (Vatican speak for bureaucrat). Among the favourites, Italian cardinal Angelo Scola, who has run the dioceses of Milan and Venice, fits the bill. Among the dark horses, so does George Pell, though he won’t thank us for saying so.

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EGYPT
Ahram

For the first time in 50 years, Egypt’s Catholic Church will take part in the upcoming papal elections in the Vatican.

Spokesman of Egypt’s Coptic Catholic Church Father Rafiq Greish announced Saturday that the Church’s archbishop, Patriarch Antonios Naguib, will head to the Vatican Tuesday to attend the Papal conclave of the College of the Cardinals, during which the next Pope will be elected.

Bishop Antonios was appointed as a member of the College of Cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By DANIEL J. WAKIN

Published: March 2, 2013

VATICAN CITY — The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, who last week renounced what for nearly 600 years has been a lifelong office, will reverberate for years to come and could change the nature of the modern papacy, starting with the election of his successor.

Vatican experts and some church leaders said that Benedict’s decision holds the potential to set limits for future popes, to make them more subject to pressure from critics and to feed the perception that they are not just spiritual leaders of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics but chief executives managing the vast multinational conglomerate that is the church, with its franchises around the globe and headquarters in the Vatican state.

“If Jack Welch looked like this wonderful 85-year-old gentleman and he stepped down, wouldn’t you say, ‘Bravo, Jack?’ ” said Cardinal Edward M. Egan, the retired archbishop of New York, who called Benedict’s decision the sensible and logical thing to do. He was one of many cardinals to rally publicly around Benedict’s choice, a radical step for an otherwise deeply conservative theologian.

Now as 115 cardinals gather here to elect a new pope, with initial meetings on Monday to decide the conclave’s date, Benedict’s decision confronts them, and will confront future popes, with a host of new factors.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By TP O’Mahony
FOR the first time in the 2,000-year history of the papacy there will be two popes in the Vatican, living in close proximity. And the unprecedented situation created by Pope Benedict XVI’s surprise decision to resign could well serve as a template for the future.

Fr Andrew Greeley, the Chicago-based sociologist and author of The Making of the Pope, believes popes in the future may serve for fixed terms, thus removing the need for voluntary retirement. Under the current Code of Canon Law, however, only a pope can enforce that provision.

The code itself, the updated version of which was promulgated by Pope John Paul II in January 1983, provides for a papal resignation. Canon 332 states: “Should it happen that the Roman pontiff resigns from his office, it is required for validity that the resignation be freely made and properly manifested, but it is not necessary that it be accepted by anyone.”

This unexpected resignation, though, creates real difficulties. An editorial in the English Catholic weekly The Tablet identified the core problem: “There is a real danger of splitting the loyalties of hitherto faithful Catholics, particularly if the new pope does things, as he is more or less bound to do eventually, that depart from the policies of his predecessor and near neighbour”.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

An American pope is an unlikely prospect — but more likely than last time

By Michelle Boorstein

Published: March 2

When someone becomes pope — God’s representative on Earth to Catholics — he dons all white, takes the title “his holiness” and is greeted even by top cardinals with a kiss of his ring. Can a cardinal who pals around with Stephen Colbert fill such a vaunted role? How about one with a style so simple that he serves tuna sandwiches and chips to even his most important guests?

Yet these two men — Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston — are being talked about as contenders for the papacy, marking the first time an American has ever been seriously considered.

A U.S. pope has long been viewed as a highly unlikely possibility, partly due to the nation’s reputation as too informal in contrast with the heavily ritualized, even mystical Vatican culture. An even larger obstacle, experts on Catholicism say, is the image of the United States as a global superpower reputedly under the sway of Wall Street and the CIA and morally corrupted by Hollywood.

But this year, “it’s a whole new ballgame,” as O’Malley said at a news conference Thursday. The stage has been set, he and others say, by Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to eschew convention and retire.

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ROME
Philly.com

Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Posted: Sunday, March 3, 2013

ROME – Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., hasn’t decided whom he will vote for in the papal election, but he has a clear vision of the kind of man the church needs.

He must exude holiness and have a gift for making the Catholic faith compelling to those who have rejected what they know of it, he said Saturday.

When the new pope is introduced, “He needs to step out onto that balcony and he needs to say, ‘Christ is with us. We need to listen to him. He has the answers to the questions of the human heart. He shows us a better way to live than the secular world can offer.’ ”

Wuerl, 72, who was bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2006, spoke at St. Peter in Chains, his titular church in Rome. Historically the cardinals were the priests of Rome, so the pope assigns each of them a church here.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

By
Jordan Graham

As Cardinal Sean O’Malley prepares to meet with 114 other cardinals in Rome tomorrow to pick the date for the conclave where they will select the next pope, he isn’t forgetting the faithful back in Boston.

O’Malley, who in 2006 became the first cardinal to have a personal blog, has posted an account and photos of his journey to Vatican City and the events leading up to last Thursday’s resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, at cardinal
seansblog.org.

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NEW YORK
The Province (Canada)

By Rachel Zoll, The Associated Press
March 3, 2013

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Challenging a White House mandate for birth control coverage in health insurance, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan sounded like a general rallying the troops.

“The only thing we’re certainly not prepared to do is give in,” Dolan said at a national bishops’ meeting last November. “We’re not violating our consciences.”

Weeks earlier, he had appeared in a far less formal setting, at New York’s Fordham University with comedian Stephen Colbert. From the 3,000 cheering audience members, one student considering the priesthood asked whether he should date. Dolan said it could help decide the right path, then quipped, “By the way, let me give you the phone numbers of my nieces.”
___

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the Roman Catholic Church prepares to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, The Associated Press is profiling key cardinals seen as “papabili” — contenders to the throne. In the secretive world of the Vatican, there is no way to know who is in the running, and history has yielded plenty of surprises. But these are the names that have come up time and again in speculation. Today: Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
___

Catholic News Service calls him a happy warrior for evangelization. Kean University historian Christopher Bellitto calls him the bear-hug bishop. Dolan, 63, is an upbeat, affable defender of Catholic orthodoxy, and a well-known religious figure in the United States.

He holds a job Pope John Paul II once called “archbishop of the capital of the world.” His colleagues broke with protocol in 2010 and made him president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, instead of elevating the sitting vice-president as expected. And during the 2012 presidential election, Republicans and Democrats competed over which national political convention the cardinal would bless. He did both.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

March 4, 2013

Barney Zwartz

Cardinal George Pell must not become pope because it would rub salt into the wounds of clergy sex abuse victims, according to leaders of the world’s biggest victim advocacy group.

The call by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which has more than 12,000 members worldwide, came as retired Australian Cardinal Edward Cassidy suggested clergy abuse would not be prominent in pre-conclave discussions by the cardinals this week.

SNAP leader David Clohessy said Cardinal Pell was high on the list of cardinals who were morally compromised over abuse.

”I hope he doesn’t even get a vote to avoid rubbing salt into the fresh wounds of not just victims but betrayed Catholics as well.”

Mr Clohessy said Cardinal Pell blamed the sex abuse crisis on the media, claiming it was a smear campaign against the church.

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SCOTLAND
The Scottish Sun

By AAMER ANWAR

THE Pope, before stepping down, said the Catholic Church “had faced stormy weather” and “at times it felt like the Lord was sleeping”.

For victims of sexual abuse this was a sickening distortion of the truth.

The Church, which claims to support family values, has turned a blind eye to the abuse of children in their care for generations.

The institutional response was not to hand over priests to the police, but to relocate abusers thus allowing them to simply carry on. When victims, usually practising Catholics, have spoken out they are described as being “motivated by greed”, whilst their abusers receive plaudits for past good deeds.

Before becoming Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, Joseph Ratzinger was the second most powerful priest in the Vatican, in charge of an organisation once known as the ‘inquisition’, the ultimate enforcer for any priests that broke the rules.

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WYOMING
Laramie Boomerang

By The Associated Press

• Sunday, March 03, 2013

A 28-year-old janitor accused of leading multiple young girls to believe he was a youth group leader at a Casper church and then taking advantage of that trust has been charged with five counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

KTWO-TV reports ( http://bit.ly/WyxNSu) James Jaure made his initial appearance in Natrona County Circuit Court on Thursday.

Jaure, a registered sex offender, is accused of sexually abusing three girls from a Highland Park Church youth group over several months last year. The alleged victims told investigators Jaure asked them to text sexual photos to him and he would text some in return.

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ROME
CBS News

By Alicia Budich

Preparing to meet with 114 of his Cardinal Brethren Monday morning in Rome, The Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan told Bob Schieffer that while he was looking forward to talking with the other cardinals, praying with them and getting to know one another, difficult topics — including the Church’s sexual abuse scandals — will probably also be a part of their conversations.

Schieffer asked whether or not the congregation meetings, which start on Monday, would address things like transparency and the cover-up of sexual crimes and pedophilia. Dolan insisted “There’s no cardinal with his head in the sand when it comes to these issues.” Dolan elaborated, saying that the afflictions of the world including “sexual immorality, perversion, abuse of children -that affects all elements of society and culture, are particularly hideous when it comes to the Church. And that that will be an issue? I predict it will.”

Pope Benedict XVI alluded to some of these issues on Wednesday in his last public address as Pope. He told about 150,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square that over the eight years of his papacy, the church “has seen moments joy and light, but also difficult moments… there have been times when the seas were rough and the wind against us, as in the whole history of the church it has ever been – and the Lord seemed to sleep.”

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ILLINOIS
Patch

By Karen Chadra

The pastor of a church on the north side of Elmhurst shocked his congregation Sunday by reading a letter of confession from his former associate pastor—a letter that described a sexual relationship with an underage girl.

West Suburban Community Church Senior Pastor Jim Lennon announced to his congregation Sunday, Feb. 24, that 41-year-old Darin Evans admitted to “an inappropriate physical relationship with an adolescent minor girl that continued for a few years.”

Lennon contacted Elmhurst police, who opened an investigation and went to Ohio to interview Evans. The investigation remains open, and Evans has not been charged with a crime, Deputy Police Chief Dominic Panico said Tuesday. He declined further comment.

“We’re praying for the (girl) and her family,” Lennon said in a phone interview. “We have experienced the close reality of evil and we’re just relying on our faith in Jesus Christ to get us through this awful situation. We’re just devastated.”

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

‘There has been a constant drip of scandal connected to sexual abuse in the run-up to the conclave”

The View From The Vatican By Philip Willan in Rome

Sunday 3 March 2013

With rumour and intrigue swirling around the Vatican as cardinals prepare to elect a successor to Pope Benedict, the last thing the Roman Catholic Church needed was the ignominious departure last week of Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

The allegations against the cardinal are said to have been presented about a week before Pope Benedict announced his intention to step down on grounds of age and ill health – the same reason O’Brien gave for his own resignation last November, which the Pope originally said he would accept at some stage in the future, possibly on O’Brien’s 75th birthday on March 17.

Creating further confusion, on the day it was announced that O’Brien’s resignation had been accelerated, the Vatican published a statement saying the Pope had accepted the resignation on February 18 – a week earlier under canon 401, clause 1 of the church’s Code of Canon Law.

That clause refers to the obligation of bishops to present their resignation on reaching their 75th birthday, and makes no mention of ill health or “other grave causes” that can also be invoked for a bishop’s resignation.

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

Reviewed by: Roger Currie

Posted: 03/2/2013

THE surprising news that Benedict XVI became the first pope in more than 600 years to abdicate as head of the world’s Roman Catholics has given added currency to the latest book by Garry Wills, one of North America’s most prominent Catholic scholars.

In Why Priests?, The Real Meaning of the Eucharist, the Pulitzer Prize-winner, whose previous books include Papal Sin and Why I Am a Catholic, wonders aloud about the history of the priesthood. In light of sexual abuse scandals that have plagued the church in recent years, especially since Benedict succeeded John Paul II in 2005, Wills spends almost 300 pages exploring the idea that the church could survive quite well without priests.

He emphasizes repeatedly that he has nothing personal against priests. Indeed, as a young man he spent five years in a Jesuit seminary, studying to become one. But now he seems to argue that the priesthood may have been a major mistake in the evolution of the church since the time of Jesus Christ.

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AUSTRALIA/UNITED KINGDOM
The Telegraph

•Charles Miranda in London
•From: News Limited Network
•March 04, 2013

TWO priests are under investigation by church authorities both in Australia and the UK amid allegations they sexually abused at least two boys in the 1960s and 1980s.

News Limited can reveal one of the priests, Father Gordon Bennett, died in 2011 but not before the church had been told the priest, who was sent to Australia in September 1985, was being accused of child sex offences.

The victim, who asked not to be named, had been writing to the church in the UK and later Australia with his claims for more than five years prior to Fr Bennett dying at the age of 90.

The victim, now aged in his 60s, last month retained legal counsel and is to pursue a claim of damages against the Catholic Church in Australia or in London where last Friday the UK’s highest court ruled clerics were akin to being “employees” of the church and thus diocese are liable.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Observer

Editorial

The Observer, Saturday 2 March 2013

Two venerable national institutions have been engulfed in recent weeks by allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour by senior officers. One of them is trying to reassure victims that it is taking their concerns seriously. The other is the Catholic church in Scotland.

The Observer last week revealed that three priests from the archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh and one ex-priest had made an official complaint to the Vatican stating that they had been subjected to “inappropriate” advances by their boss, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the most senior Catholic churchman in Britain. Since then, the response of the Scottish Catholic hierarchy has been lamentable. When asked why the cardinal had failed specifically to deny the allegations, the church’s spokesman in Scotland claimed that O’Brien did not know what he was being accused of. Yet a few days earlier the Observer had provided him with details of the complaints before we published the story.

Rather than offer help and spiritual guidance to the four men, there has been barely concealed hostility and calls for the men to “out” themselves.

Nor can these incidents be examined in isolation. The frequency with which stories of aberrant sexual behaviour within the Catholic clergy throughout the last 40 years have occurred suggests that the church has a systemic problem.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

By EDDIE BARNES
Published on Sunday 3 March 2013

CATHOLIC priests in Scotland should be told either to sign a renewed pledge to remain celibate or asked to leave their posts, according to an adviser to the Vatican.

Professor John Haldane, a Roman Catholic academic based at St Andrews University, is proposing the radical step following Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s resignation last week amid claims that he had engaged in “inappropriate behaviour” with four priests and one former cleric.

The cardinal’s case is being dealt with by the Vatican but, with a stunned Church hierachy in Scotland seeking to pick up the pieces after the revelations, Haldane – one of the most respected figures in the church – warns that fresh steps are required to prove that priests across the country are abiding by their original vows so such “scandals” can be avoided.

In an article in the Catholic newspaper The Tablet, Haldane asks how “in scandal-scarred Scotland” should the Church renew its vocation. It should include, he says, a call to “engage directly with the clergy, proposing a clear option: remain in holy orders subject to signing a private but strict renewed solemn vow of celibacy; or failing willingness to do that, be restored to the lay state.”

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

DANI Garavelli talks to a gay priest about living in the shadow of shame cast by the conflict of his vocation and his sexuality

LOOKING back from a distance of more than 20 years, Fr Joe can see that his decision to join the priesthood was motivated in part by his homosexuality. Coming of age in the 1970s, when there was still a huge stigma attached to coming out as gay, it provided an alternative to getting married and having children.

“I was hugely idealistic and genuinely believed in the priesthood, but I think it was also the only respectable way to be Catholic and single,” he says. “I wouldn’t have recognised it at the time, but I think I was trying to escape having to tell my family about my sexuality or even having to face up to it properly ­myself.”

Once ordained, however, he realised being gay in a church which considers ­homosexuality to be intrinsically disordered brings problems of its own. Prey to the same temptations as everyone else, but unable to talk openly about them, many homosexual priests find themselves feeling undervalued and ­isolated. Trying to navigate their way in a highly sexualised society, with little or no pastoral support, it’s hardly surprising if they sometimes find it difficult to keep their vows.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Some conservative Catholics like to dismiss almost any change in current Catholicism as “Protestant” and then point to the difficulties mainline Protestant denominations have faced trying to make the Gospels relevant to the real world of everyday Christians. Difficult yes, but clearly necessary and doable. These traditionalist Catholics then usually point to growth statistics in countries where Catholic bishops have, in effect, helped pump up birth rates by preventing accessible family planning and increased priests’ ordinations among impoverished young men with few other professional opportunities.

The criticism of Protestant reforms is mainly premised on an ignorance about what really happened and didn’t happen as a result of the Reformation, a subject few Catholics are taught. The artificially pumped statistics will deflate as family planning and educational choices are increasingly made available. This will continue to occur steadily in countries like the Philippines, where voters just approved accessible family planning despite strong Catholic hierarchical opposition. Inevitably, this trend will follow among Catholic populations in South and Latin America, Africa and Asia and has already started to happen.

For almost five centuries amidst European monarchical wars and rivalries, the Vatican has been able to postphone modernizing the papacy as Luther, Calvin and others fairly called for, given the clear conflicts between papal practices and Gospel mandates. The other European monarchs have been effectively gone for a century, the papal monarchy’s bubble has just burst and the mystical smoke is quickly dissipating. Reformation 2.0 is well underway and 117 senior celibates in red dresses cannot prevent it, as they are quickly finding out.

As Cardinals retreat behind Vatican walls, while Protestants, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Barack Obama, appear increasingly as Luther’s and Calvin’s potential successors in helping to reform medieval Catholicism? The 2005 papal election Conclave followed the myopic media madness about Pope John Paul II’s funeral. The 2013 Conclave follows the pathetic Vatican escape of Joseph Ratzinger, now the first Shadow Pope, with Georgeous Georg, and the continuing media shock at the magnitude of the Vatican’s moral chaos. The scandals just keep on coming with no end in sight, one more troubling than the next.

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VATICAN CITY
Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA

It is a great grace to be meeting with and speaking to so many Cardinals from around the world, all of us given the incredible task of electing the next Pope.

But one aspect of this search has been to quietly compile a list of those criteria and characteristics which both the Cardinals and Catholics are looking for in our next Successor to Peter. The result: there is no human being on earth who could meet all of those requirements!

Among some of the musings–we need a Pope who: speaks at least six languages fluently; who has served as a pastoral priest and bishop for many decades; who has extensive administrative and financial experience; who is an intellectual and scholar; who is an ordinary person who can relate to people; who can relate to college graduates and to migrant farm workers; who can proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that attracts hundreds of millions of new followers; who spends hours each day in prayer, while appearing on numerous television programs; who can understand Latin, and be on Facebook and Twitter at the same time; who can engage young people while consoling the elderly; who can speak clearly about Angola in one moment, and Tibet in the next; who can overnight increase vocations to the priesthood and to religious life. And that’s just the beginning of the list!

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

2 March 2013

By John Cornwell

The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrung his hands above his head in triumph as he emerged as Pope on to the balcony of St Peter’s eight years ago. He had won!

He had longed to be Pope. He has loved being Pope. He expected to die as Pope.

Two weeks ago he announced in Latin he wasn’t up to it any more. Up to what? He spent most of his time writing and took time off to tinkle on the piano and stroke his cat.

He’s been waited on hand and foot. He has his handsome secretary Georg Ganswein to do his every bidding.

There’s been talk of frailty, encroaching dementia, mortal illness. There’s been pious spin about a holy act of ‘humility’.

But one of his predecessors, sprightly Leo XIII, who died 110 years ago, went on until he was 93. Benedict knew from the start, aged 76, that he would grow old in office.
We’ve heard about the so-called papal ‘resignation’ almost 600 years ago. But there wasn’t one. There were three rival Popes back then, and one of them was a psychopath.

They were sacked by a council of all the bishops and cardinals to get back to one Pope at a time. Since then, every Pope has died in office.

Resignation isn’t in Benedict’s vocabulary. The real reason he has quit is far more spectacular.

It is to save the Catholic Church from ignominy: he has voluntarily delivered himself up as a sacrificial lamb to purge the Church of what he calls ‘The Filth’. And it must have taken courage.

Here is the remarkable thing you are seldom told about a papal death or resignation: every one of the senior office-holders in the Vatican – those at the highest level of its internal bureaucracy, called the Curia – loses his job.

A report Benedict himself commissioned into the state of the Curia landed on his desk in January. It revealed that ‘The Filth’ – or more specifically, the paedophile priest scandal – had entered the bureaucracy.

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CHILE
El Economista

James Hamilton, una de las víctimas de abuso sexual de un influyente sacerdote chileno, volvió a acusar de encubrimiento de ese delito al cardenal chileno Francisco Javier Errázuriz, y exigió que éste no participe del cónclave para la elección del sucesor de Benedicto XVI.

Hamilton, médico de profesión, denunció junto a otros cuatro feligreses haber sido abusado sexualmente en los años ochenta por el sacerdote y formador de obispos Fernando Karadima, quien fue declarado culpable por el Vaticano y sentenciado a “retirarse a una vida de oración y penitencia”.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Ralph Riegel and Barry Duggan– 01 March 2013

THE appointment of six new Irish bishops will be delayed for months after Pope Benedict XVI opted to leave the promotions to his successor.

Just two of eight vacant bishoprics were filled by the Pope over the past three years, with Irish church officials admitting it was now likely to be “some time” before the remaining six were filled.

One senior bishop said Ireland would have to wait for major diocesan appointments until the Papal conclave to elect Pope Benedict XVI’s successor was concluded.

“I would say that whatever is going to happen in the next month has already been decided and would have to be sanctioned by the Holy Father,” The Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, Dr Eamon Walsh said.

“After that we will have to wait awhile.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Observer

Kevin McKenna
The Observer, Saturday 2 March 2013

Of all the theories advanced explaining why the Catholic priesthood attracts so many young gay men, this is the most valid: it is a direct consequence of the church’s official attitude to homosexuality and the way that this has insinuated itself into the fabric of what we might call a traditional Catholic family with its roots in Ireland.

In such an upbringing homosexuality is still treated as the sum of all sins. Catholic families long ago found a way of dealing with abortion, extramarital sex and divorce, the other three horsemen of the Catholic apocalypse, whenever they occurred close to home, but not homosexuality.

The others could all be processed and interpreted as very human failings stemming from the powerful instinct of physical desire and our need for affection and love. The Christian virtues of understanding, compassion and forgiveness are built to outlast initial shock and hurt in these “acceptable” moral failings. Not so homosexuality.

For how many Catholic parents have secretly prayed that their son “does not turn out gay” or obsess about their response if the eldest boy shows no interest in football and insists on taking a shower every day and buying all his own clothes? The church’s pastoral care and guidance for its own gay community is nonexistent. Catholic gays are non-people in my church; they are “los desaparecidos” and one day many of us will be called to account for how we have treated them.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Observer

[O’Brien priest worries that church wants to ‘crush’ him – The Observer]

Catherine Deveney
The Observer, Saturday 2 March 2013

What is it about a gold mitre, a flowing robe, a flash of cardinal red that so clouds our judgment? It is as if we believe these things hold a kind of magic. Don them and the wearer becomes pure and invincible. No human urges, no troublesome sexuality. Some people are naively enthralled by hierarchy. Priest, good. Bishop, better. Cardinal, best of all. The four complainants in the Cardinal O’Brien affair, who have accused him of inappropriate behaviour, haven’t rated much sympathy within this strange moral hierarchy. “Who are they?” I have been asked all week. “Where are they?” has been another frequent question. But I have rarely been asked: “How are they?”

A narrative has begun to be embroidered on the cardinal’s magic mitre. A fairytale. He is named but his accusers are not, and therefore the accusations are invalid. Let us be clear about one thing: the three priests, and one former priest, who have made complaints are not anonymous. They have given sworn, signed statements to the papal nuncio. The unnerving thing about the hunt to “out” these men (my phone has not stopped ringing with offers to “make it worth my while”) is that it suggests people who have suffered traumatic events have no rights over how to tell their story, or how much information is made public. We demand not just that the appropriate authorities know names – we, the public, should know them, too.

In purely human terms, the story of Cardinal O’Brien’s resignation is tragic. He had spent a lifetime reaching the upper echelons of his church, but after allegations of inappropriate behaviour made in the Observer last Sunday his fall from grace took just 36 hours. Not one of the four complainants takes any satisfaction from that. This is not about the exposure of one man’s alleged foibles. It is about the exposure of a church official who publicly issues a moral blueprint for others’ lives that he is not prepared to live out himself. Homosexuality is not the issue; hypocrisy is. The cardinal consistently condemned homosexuality during his reign, vociferously opposing gay adoption and same-sex marriage. The church cannot face in two directions like a grotesque two-headed monster: one face for public, the other for private.

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PENNSYLVANIA
ABC 23

[with video]

The Principal of Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown is on Administrative Leave. The school’s Board of Trustees taking that action earlier Friday. Ken Salem is getting paid during his absence. The school is not making specific comments not even confirming the reason why Salem is on leave. But his Attorney issued a strongly worded statement Friday afternoon which indicated Salem is on leave because of the scandal surrounding Brother Stephen Baker. In the past few weeks, former McCort students came forward claiming Baker sexually abused them while he served as a Trainer at the school in the 90’s. Salem’s Attorney denied Salem knew anything about that while it was happening.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

The Hague is above Pope, Vatican, Religion. The Hague must prosecute Benedict XVI now to prove secular International Justice reigns over ALL Religions and Despots

This is the FINAL CALL for The Hague to take Benedict XVI in to the International Court of Law to face – final justice – and only justice – for all hundreds of thousands of Catholic children all over the world who are victims of his crimes against humanity.

The Hague must not forfeit its – final moral voice – over the Pope and the Vatican because the world’s children and the world’s women and the world’s poor who are the victims of crimes against humanity depend on it.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WTAJ

By: Aaron Cheslock

Updated: March 1, 2013

JOHNSTOWN, CAMBRIA COUNTY – Principal Ken Salem was removed as Principal of Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown today.

The school’s board of trustees released a statement saying that Salem will be removed immediately, but did not explain why. The spokesman for the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese says it was the board’s decision, but they weren’t given a reason either. WTAJ News talked to concerned parents Friday night.

We went to Bishop McCort’s basketball game on Friday to talk to parents, a school official was telling parents not to talk to us, and wouldn’t let us talk to the basketball coach.

But the parents we did talk to want to know if Ken Salem’s firing had to do with the alleged sex crimes of Brother Steven Baker.

Salem’s Lawyer says Salem didn’t know about Baker’s alleged crimes. But parents like Laura Neatrour want answers.

“I want to know why, because I do like Mr. Salem as a person and as the Principal, I think he did a wonderful job.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
WTAJ

WTAJ News has learned late Friday afternoon that the Board of Trustees at Bishop McCort High School has placed Principal Ken Salem on paid administrative leave.

A spokesperson for the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese confirmed it was the boards decision entirely to place him on leave.

The Bishop McCort Board of Trustees released the following statement:

“Dear Bishop McCort Family,
The entire Bishop McCort Catholic High School Board of Trustees would first and foremost like to thank you for your continued support. Without your support, countless children and their families in the Johnstown area would not be able to receive a high quality Catholic academic and spiritual education.

Effective immediately, Mr. Ken Salem will no longer serve as Principal of Bishop McCort Catholic High School. In Mr. Salem’s place, the Bishop McCort Board of Trustees has unanimously appointed our current Assistant Principal, Dr. D.A. Gardill, to fill the position of Acting Principal on an interim basis.

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