ABUSE TRACKER

SCOTLAND
Scotsman

Published on Friday 1 March 2013

THE Vatican knew of allegations against Cardinal Keith O’Brien five months ago, it was claimed today.

Reports said a priest lodged a complaint in October about “inappropriate behaviour” by the former Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh in 2001.

The priest is said to have written directly to Rome because he did not think he could trust the church hierarchy in Scotland to handle the matter.

His claim is said to have been taken seriously and led to the Vatican contacting Cardinal O’Brien and a “deal” being brokered by Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Montreal for the departure of the leader of Scotland’s Catholics.

Cardinal O’Brien quit as archbishop on Monday following revelations at the weekend about allegations from three other priests and one former priest of inappropriate behaviour dating back to the 1980s. The cardinal contests the allegations.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Pink News

by Scott Roberts
1 March 2013

It has emerged that a fifth claim of “inappropriate behaviour” towards a male priest has been made against Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

The 74-year-old, who denied the first set of allegations last weekend, resigned as leader of the Scottish Catholic Church on Monday.

He was due to retire this month but the resignation was brought forward.

The allegations surfaced last Saturday one day after Cardinal O’Brien told the BBC that male priests within the Catholic Church should be able to marry female partners.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Age

Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age

The great baroque builder Bernini produced many masterpieces in Rome, but none exceeds the twin colonnades that sweep from St Peter’s Basilica around most of St Peter’s Square, designed to be a pair of great arms in a gesture of embrace to the world.

Today half of one of the arms has an ugly grey cover protecting restoration work, making it look wounded and weakened. As a metaphor for the Catholic Church, this too is apt. The church has just entered the interregnum, as the period between popes is called, with many leaders and commentators saying it is in crisis, making the choice of the next Pope, the 266th, more vital than usual.

Benedict XVI himself spoke of the ”turbulent waters and rough winds” he experienced during his papacy in his final public address on Wednesday, and was unusually trenchant in other recent speeches, excoriating the divisions that ”disfigure” the church. Before his election he denounced ”filth in the church”, an apparent reference to clergy sex abuse.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Australian Times

By Thomas Jones on 28 February, 2013

He will still wear the white robes, still be addressed as ‘Your Holiness’ and still live in the Vatican city-State, with a view of the dome of St Peter’s Basilica. But when his retirement becomes official later today Pope Benedict XVI will lose one important entitlement.

As Head of State, Pope Benedict has absolute immunity from legal action. When he becomes ‘Emeritus Pope’ that immunity will wither away, leaving him open to potential legal action.

UK-based Australian human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson predicts “that some victims of priests whom he (Pope Benedict) has refused to defrock, and who have gone on to commit crimes against those victims, may seek to sue him for damages for negligence.”

Mr Robertson made the comments in relation to Pope Benedict’s response to cases of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Age

March 2, 2013

Jane Lee

MANY Christian Brothers still refuse to believe convicted paedophile Robert Best is guilty, a brother has told a state inquiry.

The disgraced Catholic brother was convicted in 2011 and jailed for 14 years and nine months for sex crimes against 11 boys at schools in Ballarat, Box Hill and Geelong.

Best was ordered to serve 11 years and three months in jail before he would be eligible for parole.

Brother Barry Coldrey told the parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse that he was not a spokesman for any religion. But he said he believed that a culture of denial still pervaded the Christian Brothers order in Australia. ”Even at this minute there are many brothers who refuse to believe Robert Best is guilty despite overwhelming evidence,” he said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

by Sandro Magister

ROME, March 1, 2012 – The chair of Peter is empty. Joseph Ratzinger has left it with a clean break, and has left the future governance of the Church to a successor who is unknown to him, just as he is still unknown to the very cardinals who will elect him.

One cannot recall, in the last century, a previous conclave so much in the dark and so vulnerable to external and internal pressure.

But today it is the “fourth power,” that of the media, that is granting no truce to the cardinals called to conclave.

One of them has already fallen, the Scottish Keith Michael Patrick O’Brien. In one of his last acts as pope Benedict XVI expedited his resignation as archbishop of Edinburg, and he himself has announced that he will not go to Rome for the election of the new pontiff.

Another is former archbishop of Los Angeles Roger Mahony, censured by his own successor, José Horacio Gómez.

A third is former archbishop of Brussels Godfried Danneels.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
NPR

[with audio]

by Sylvia Poggioli

February 28, 2013

Today is the last day of the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI. Just two weeks ago, the German-born pope stunned the world by announcing he would be the first pope to resign in 600 years. After eight years on the throne of St. Peter, Benedict leaves behind a church in crisis.

Since the announcement, bulletins issued by the Vatican have ranged from the lofty — how Benedict will retire to a life dedicated to prayer and study — to the mundane, such as the details of packing the pope’s personal belongings and what he’ll leave behind.

In a sign that even the Vatican was totally unprepared for the resignation, it took two weeks to decide Benedict’s new title and what he would wear.

And while the cardinals publicly praise Benedict for his courageous act, privately many are reassessing his legacy. …

David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests (SNAP), says Benedict has been credited for meeting with and apologizing to victims, and issuing new guidelines on handling cases, but he has not sanctioned one bishop for covering up abuse cases.

“Pope Benedict came into office knowing more about abuse than any other Catholic official on the planet, and I think many victims and many Catholics had some real hope that he would clean house, and he clearly didn’t,” Clohessy says.

The sex abuse cloud will hang over the conclave to elect the new pope. As will a confidential report on last year’s embarrassing leaks of private papers that revealed corruption and turf battles within the Vatican. Benedict has left the report for his successor’s eyes only, but many cardinals are already asking to be briefed on its contents.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ROME
The Daily Beast

Jul 27, 2010

For residents of Rome, the sight of courting priests is hardly an anomaly. But a recent exposé is rocking the Catholic Church.

In the basement dining room of Le Mani In Pasta, a trattoria in central Rome, a young, glossy-eyed couple stare at each other across a table for two. They smile and blush over a private joke. There is no handholding or kissing, but they are clearly more than friends, even though they are both wearing dark shirts and the telltale white clerical collar.

For residents of Rome, the sight of courting priests is hardly an anomaly. The phenomenon is a well-known secret here, and one that was largely ignored until last weekend, when the Italian weekly magazine Panorama published a shocking exposé called “Le Notti Brave Dei Preti Gay,” or “Good Nights Out for Gay Priests.” Investigative journalist Carmelo Abbate spent 20 days undercover posing as the boyfriend of a man who ran in gay clerical circles, secretly videotaping the sexual escapades of three Rome-based priests. Abbate caught the priests on hidden camera dirty dancing at private parties and engaging in sex acts with male escorts on church property. He also caught them emerging from dark bedrooms in time to celebrate mass. In one postcoital scene, “Father Carlo” parades around seminaked, wearing only his clerical vestments. Abbate’s “date” even had sex with one of the priests to corroborate the story. “This is not about homosexuality,” Abbate, who is not gay, told NEWSWEEK. “This is about private vices and public virtues. This is about serious hypocrisy in the Catholic Church.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VIRGINIA
WAVY

Rachel West

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) – A Chesapeake pastor is facing a felony charge, accused of internet crimes involving a child.

Kelly O’Sullivan with the Chesapeake Police Department told WAVY.com the Chesapeake Police Internet Crimes Against Children unit began an investigation into Haden Conrad of the 1200 block of Orville Avenue.

Thursday, officers served several search warrants at both his home and place of business in the 1200 block of Chesapeake Avenue, O’Sullivan added. Police took a computer from each location.

Conrad, 32, was charged with computer solicitation of a child under 15, a class 5 felony.

Friends and neighbors told WAVY.com Conrad is married with two foster children, who were taken away from the couple.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VIRGINIA
Daily Press

By Tyra M. Vaughn 757-247-7870

CHESAPEAKE—

A 32-year-old Chesapeake man was arrested and charged Wednesday with soliciting a child using computer, police said.

Haden Conrad, of the 1200 block of Orville Avenue, was charged with computer solicitation of a child under the age of 15, said Kelly O’Sullivan, a Chesapeake police spokeswoman, in a news release. As of Thursday morning, Conrad remained in custody at the Chesapeake City Jail.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VIRGINIA
WTKR

[with video]

Chesapeake, VA. – Chesapeake police have arrested a pastor and former police chaplain for computer solicitation of a child, officials tell NewsChannel 3.

According to Chesapeake Officer Kelly O’Sullivan, the Chesapeake Police Internet Crimes Against Children unit conducted an investigation involving 32-year-old Haden Conrad, of the 1200 block of Orville Avenue.

One of the places investigators searched was a church on Chesapeake Avenue.

The website for ‘Chesapeake Avenue United Methodist Church’ lists Haden Conrad as its pastor. He’s been there since 2011.

Until yesterday, Conrad was a Chaplain for the Chesapeake Police Department.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
National Post

Chris Purdy, Canadian Press

EDMONTON — Former Stephen Harper strategist Tom Flanagan has been widely and swiftly condemned for suggesting that people shouldn’t be jailed for looking at child pornography.

The remarks will end the distinguished career of the University of Calgary political science professor on a sour note as the university announced his resignation.

“Comments made by Tom Flanagan in Lethbridge yesterday absolutely do not represent the views of the University of Calgary. In the university’s view, child pornography is not a victimless crime,” University of Calgary president Elizabeth Cannon said in a statement.

She said Flanagan was already on leave and would remain so until his retirement on June 30, 2013. Flanagan had submitted his retirement papers in January but the university had not announced it.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHILE
Cooperativa

El arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, respaldó a su antecesor, el cardenal Francisco Javier Errázuriz, tras las críticas realizadas por el The New York Times por haber fallado en el combate contra los casos de abusos sexuales cometidos por religiosos.

La publicación incluyó a Errázuriz entre los cardenales que dirimirán al próximo Papa, pese a su actuación en el caso Karadima, donde presuntamente desatendió las denuncias de las víctimas.

“Lo que yo le puedo decir es que el juicio al padre Fernando Karadima ha sido posible en la Congregación Para la Doctrina de la Fe gracias a que se han entregado los documentos”, dijo Ezzati a 24 Horas.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHILE
El Observatodo

Por Andrés Miranda

Hace un par de días el periódico estadounidense, The New York Times puso al cardenal chileno, Francisco Javier Errázuriz como uno de los cuestionados para el Cónclave debido al encubrimiento que habría incurrido al no recibir a las victimas de los abusos sexuales del sacerdote Fernando Karadima.

El periodista, Juan Carlos Cruz fue uno de los primeros en denunciar a Karadima y es uno de los principales críticos del Cardenal Errázuriz, que ya está en Roma para participar en el Cónclave para la elección del próximo Papa. Cruz, conversó con El Observatodo, y manifestó su esperanza en este proceso, eso sí, cuestionó al igual que The New York Times la participación del purpurado chileno en el proceso eleccionario del sucesor de Benedicto XVI.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHILE
info Catolica

(Cooperativa) Mons Ezzati aseguró que «el juicio al padre Fernando Karadima ha sido posible en la Congregación Para la Doctrina de la Fe gracias a que se han entregado los documentos».

El arzobispo de Santiago, S.E.R. Ricardo Ezzati añadió que respeta «la postura de cada persona, pero que no sólo basta con lanzar una denuncia, las denuncias tienen que ser probadas».

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Stuff

He quotes Amy Winehouse and, unlike Benedict XVI, actually taps out his tweets himself.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi is an erudite scholar with a modern touch – and that is seen by some as just the combination the Catholic Church needs to revive a church beset by scandal and a shrinking flock.

Benedict’s culture minister at the Vatican, Ravasi consistently makes the short lists of closely watched candidates to be the next pope.

He is one of the favorites among Catholics who long to see a return to the tradition of Italian popes.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
San Francisco Chronicle

Flavia Krause-Jackson, Bloomberg News

Friday, March 1, 2013

March 1 (Bloomberg) — Pope Benedict XVI’s life began in a picturesque Bavarian hamlet near Adolf Hitler’s birthplace. He will see out his days at a small Vatican monastery called “The Mother of the Church.”

Joseph Ratzinger, who at age 5 told his father he wanted to be a cardinal, will leave a mixed legacy after becoming the first Roman Catholic pontiff in 600 years to relinquish power, religious scholars from Rome to the U.S. said. The pope left the Vatican by helicopter for the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. His pontificate came to an end at 8 p.m. in Rome yesterday, when his Swiss guards were replaced by Vatican police at the palace and the Holy See’s flag was lowered.

While celebrated for theological tracts including books on the life of Jesus Christ, Benedict’s leadership of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics was also scarred by scandals involving priestly child abuse and leaked papal documents. His parting gift to the next pontiff is a secret file on the case called “Vatileaks,” which Italian media say divulges a network of sex and graft in the church. The reports “don’t correspond to reality,” according to the Holy See.

“He leaves a church in crisis in various ways: from internal governance, to low morale, the sexual abuse, the loss of young people, all the older ones that have left, the evangelicals encroaching and secularists all over,” said historian R. Scott Appleby, director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Editorial

A PUFF of white smoke emerging from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel will announce the election of a new pope.

But it might also signal surrender. Better a cannon shot to declare a war within the ranks of the Catholic Church that can be won only by a warrior pope.

The successor to Benedict XVI must be a fiercer pope to remind its clergy they once followed a fiercer God.

While the church is slow to accept more modern challenges of homosexuality, abortion, even contraception, it is sexual abuse, particularly the abuse of children, that should bring down a wrath instead of a whimper.

Pope Benedict recognised this abuse as an “evil” but did not lead his bishops to strike it down. In his private safe, under lock and key, waiting for his successor to make a judgment, is a dossier said to contain even more startling and profane revelations than have been levelled at some of the most senior figures in the church.

What is already known of the church’s cover-ups requires more than a confession and more than a penance in restoring what has been taken from the lives of its victims. It demands a purge of those the church has protected by keeping secret their sins.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
CNN

[with video]

By Laura Smith-Spark and Hada Messia, CNN
updated 7:10 AM EST, Fri March 1, 2013

Rome (CNN) — With the dust still settling from Benedict XVI’s historic resignation as pope, the focus in Rome turns to the future Friday as Roman Catholic cardinals prepare to meet to discuss a timetable for picking the new pontiff.

A letter issued by the dean of the College of Cardinals on Friday calls the cardinals to come together Monday morning for the first in a series of meetings, known as general congregations.

There will be a second session Monday afternoon, according to the letter from Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
CNN

[with video]

The events that will lead to the election of a new pope are starting to take shape.

The Catholic Church’s cardinals will start general congregations – meetings that precede a conclave to elect a new pope – on Monday at 9:30 a.m. at the Vatican (3:30 a.m. ET), with a second session set for later that day, according to a letter issued Friday by the dean of the College of Cardinals.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
CBC News

Loreen Pindera CBC News

A Roman Catholic scholar visiting Montreal from Australia is laying her bets on Quebec’s Cardinal Marc Ouellet to succeed Benedict XVI as pope.

Tracey Rowland, the author of a book on Pope Benedict’s theological writing and Dean of Melbourne’s John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family, said Ouellet’s breadth of experience makes him an ideal candidate to replace the retired pope.

Early in his priesthood, Ouellet spent several years working in Colombia and among his six languages, he speaks fluent Spanish — apparently with a Colombian accent.

Rowland said that experience in the developing world, combined with Ouellet’s status as a Canadian — not to mention, a French Canadian — put him ahead of any cardinal from the U.S.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
CBC News

A provocative cardinal hailing from Quebec could be the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church after pope emeritus Benedict XVI officially stepped down Thursday.

Considered by some to be a favourite for the position, Cardinal Marc Ouellet is one of three Canadians who will participate in a conclave to select the next pope.

The Le Motte, Que., native’s current role at the Vatican has him overseeing the appointment of bishops. He is also an active member of several Roman Catholic commissions and committees.

But Ouellet’s rise through the church’s ranks has not been without controversy. In 2010, his comment that abortion was a “moral crime,” even in the case of rape, drew heavy criticism.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
National Post

Tristin Hopper | Mar 1, 2013

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Canadian considered a contender for the papacy, was instrumental in brokering the recent resignation of U.K. Cardinal Keith O’Brien, according to Britain’s The Times.

Cardinal O’Brien, the U.K.’s highest-ranking clergyman, stepped down on Monday after first one priest — and then four others — stepped forward to accuse him of making sexual advances. In a statement, Cardinal O’Brien said he would skip the upcoming conclave to select a new pope, saying that he did not want to attract undue media attention while in Rome.

According to a Thursday report in The Times, one of the priests took his complaint directly to the Vatican fearing that it would not be taken seriously by Scottish officials.

“His allegation was taken seriously … and in a deal brokered by Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Montreal, Cardinal O’Brien resigned,” it reads.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Michelle Boorstein

Friday, March 1

The last time a pope was picked, Ann Hagan Webb was one of the best-known faces of the demand for church reform. After surviving sexual abuse for years by her childhood priest, the Massachusetts therapist’s life in the mid-2000s was consumed by rallying at parishes around New England and tracking priest court cases.

Today, as cardinals gather in Rome to select the next pope, the 60-year-old catches updates on the news — and feels ambivalent even about that. “I shouldn’t watch, but I do.”

Webb now limits her activism to working with clients — some Catholic, some not — who suffered child sexual abuse. Her choice is emblematic of a community of survivors who have largely given up on changing the church.

“I went from trying to change the church to accepting the fact that they won’t [change], and anyone that’s still in the church has blinders on,” she said this week. “At this point, my opinion is they are corrupt to the core and there’s not a single cardinal we can find who would be a good pope because there’s no such animal.” …

Terry McKiernan, head of the largest research database on clergy and abuse, said of the survivor community: “For a lot of people, it’s not a community anymore…. I think a lot of people who were involved in the early days, they’ve run out of steam.”

Survivors who are confronting the topic now face a very different culture than even a decade ago, when victims were accused of lying and scandals in other places such as Penn State and the Boy Scouts hadn’t surfaced. Fixing religious institutions isn’t as central to a society that has less faith in them.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEDERLAND
Volkskrant

Een erkend slachtoffer van seksueel misbruik stapt naar de rechter om de kerk aan te klagen voor zware mishandeling. De 59-jarige man wil ook erkenning en compensatie krijgen voor het fysiek geweld dat hem als tiener jarenlang is aangedaan door meerdere priesters op een Limburgs internaat. .

‘Ik ben één keer oraal verkracht, maar kreeg bijna dagelijks klappen en trappen. Ik ben vijf keer letterlijk het ziekenhuis in geslagen. Maar over de mishandeling geeft de congregatie niet thuis’, zegt hij in een interview met de Volkskrant.

Getuigenverhoor
Het is voor het eerst dat een misbruikslachtoffer een rechtszaak begint over mishandeling. Zijn advocaat Martin de Witte heeft een verzoek tot een voorlopig getuigenverhoor voor de Bredase rechtbank gedaan, dat op 11 maart wordt behandeld. Als de rechtbank het verzoek inwilligt, zal onder anderen ook Wim Deetman als getuige worden opgeroepen. Deetman was voorzitter van de onderzoekscommissie die seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk onderzocht.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEDERLAND
KNR

‘S-HERTOGENBOSCH – Naar aanleiding van uitspraken van de voorzitter van de Klachtencommissie, mr. Wiel Stevens, over klagers wier klacht bij gebrek aan steunbewijs ongegrond verklaard wordt, is aan de KNR een aantal vragen voorgelegd. Eén van deze vragen luidde of de KNR deze slachtoffers ‘in de kou’ laat staan. Ons antwoord bleek in de media niet goed overgekomen te zijn, vandaar dat we het hier nog eens willen herhalen en toelichten.

De KNR laat geen mensen in de kou staan. Dat is de reden waarom hogere oversten vanaf het begin gezegd hebben, met de bisschoppen, dat verjaring niet telt. Waar slachtoffers bij de burgerlijke rechter nul op het request zouden ontvangen, krijgen bij de procedures van de Klachtencommissie alle klachten, hoe oud of verjaard ook, een kans. En waar slachtoffers bij de burgerlijke rechters een hoge bewijslast opgelegd zouden krijgen, is deze bij de procedures voor de Klachtencommissies teruggebracht tot het aannemelijk maken van de klacht. Het kan desondanks zijn dat klachten in de ogen van de Klachtencommissie niet aannemelijk zijn – om welke reden dan ook. Het idee dat er werkelijke slachtoffers zijn van seksueel misbruik wier klacht ongegrond wordt verklaard, is in de ogen van de KNR onverdraaglijk. Juist daarom is de Klachtencommissie de opdracht gegeven de lat van de aannemelijkheid zo laag mogelijk te leggen.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Examiner

Scott McCabe
Staff Writer – Crime

A Maryland man has been indicted for failing to register as a sex offender while working as a music director at three D.C. churches.

Gary Darrell Mabry, 33, is a talented pipe organist, but he also had three prior convictions in D.C. and Prince George’s County for sex abuse of children and has spent six years in prison for those crimes.

Now, he’s back behind bars, facing three counts of failing to register as a sex offender. At his arraignment Wednesday in D.C. Superior Court, Mabry pleaded not guilty. He remains in custody awaiting a detention hearing.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

No, a nun won’t be pope — but there could be female cardinals, without changing any church law

Posted by Melinda Henneberger

No, the next pope will not be a nun — yet there could well be major changes in the role of women in the church, even without any changes in current church law. Though it’s not widely known, nothing precludes women from serving as cardinal-electors, even though they can’t be ordained as priests. So the new pontiff could easily appoint female cardinals — and send the message that women really are important leaders in the church.

No, the next pope won’t be making any big announcements, either — not on Day One or Day 1,001 — about changes in the church’s position on priestly celibacy, or heaven knows, abortion. Yet before he left St. Peter’s on Wednesday, Benedict XVI himself made clear that change is a constant, even in the Eternal City, when he referred to the church as a “living body,” always in flux.

In fact, important changes have already happened, just recently. Though the news was overshadowed by Benedict’s retirement, German bishops have cautiously voiced approval of the use of the morning-after pill in cases of rape.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

There is little sympathy for victims of sexual abuse within the Christian Brothers, a member of the order has told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry.

In fact, the order has developed a culture of denial, historian Barry Coldrey says.

‘At the moment, the mood is sullen, angry and certainly little sympathy is expressed for victims,’ Dr Coldrey told the inquiry into sexual abuse within religious organisations in Melbourne on Friday.

‘No one ever won an election in the Christian Brothers by expressing sympathy for victims.’

Dr Coldrey said there were members who refused to accept the guilt of Brother Robert Best, who was convicted of abusing 11 boys over a 20-year period.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Patrick Caruana, AAP
Updated March 1, 2013

Many Christian brothers refuse to accept that one of their ranks is guilty of the child sex crimes for which he was convicted, a Victorian inquiry has been told.

Members of the order also lack sympathy for sex abuse victims, Christian brother and researcher Dr Barry Coldrey told the parliamentary inquiry into sexual abuse within religious organisations.

Dr Coldrey said some brothers had not accepted that Robert Best, who was convicted over the abuse of 11 boys over a 20-year period, was a pedophile.

“Even at this moment there are many brothers who refuse to believe that Robert Best is guilty,” he told the inquiry in Melbourne on Friday.

He said some would still visit Best in prison.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ROME
GMA News (Philippines)

By NAOMI O’LEARY, Reuters
March 1, 2013

ROME – On the final day of Pope Benedict’s papacy, a victim support group asked the United Nations to censure the Vatican for failing to protect children from sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.

Speaking at a press conference meters from the walls of the Vatican City on Thursday, the head of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said his group had made a formal submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

“It’s a long submission of 30 pages based on government reports by five different nations,” David Clohessy told reporters, surrounded by photographs of children he said were members of his organization, at the age they were abused.

“We hope that the UN speaks out very forcefully and says that the Vatican is in violation of the treaty that it agreed to honor.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CASPER (WO)
Star-Tribune

Posing as a youth group leader, James David Jaure was able to gain the girls’ trust, witnesses told police. He was always at the group meetings on Wednesday nights, talking and counseling the children.

In reality, Jaure was the Highland Park Church janitor with a criminal record. In 2004, the now-28-year-old, also known by the last name “Juare,” was convicted of third-degree sexual assault of a minor in Cheyenne. He is now living in Evansville.

Upon learning this information, parents and other youth workers at the church expressed concern about Jaure’s Wednesday night presence and his particular interest in the young girls.

On Feb. 7, a father reported Jaure to Casper police. His daughter told a forensic interviewer she had been sexually assaulted by Jaure in the church’s basement.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
The Daily Campus

By Brandon Bub, Michael Dearman

Emails: bbub@smu.edu, mdearman@smu.edu
Institutional reform necessary within Catholic Church

It is no secret that the Catholic Church is either directly or indirectly responsible for some of the worst atrocities perpetrated by a single institution in history. The Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades and witch hunts throughout the medieval era are just a few “incidents” that left tens of thousands of people dead.

However, I do not want to make this a “Let’s talk about how horrible the Church is” column. I might not be a Catholic anymore, but I come from a family of them and I feel like I have a vested interest in the state of the institution. I do not want to treat the Church as some monolithic entity that has consistently sought to oppress heretics, minorities and nonbelievers. The Church is linked to unspeakable crimes, but such crimes are committed by individuals, and I do not want to absolve these individuals of guilt by attributing it to something larger than them.

Nevertheless, as evidence has grown to illustrate the systemic nature of sexual abuse (and subsequent cover-ups of that abuse), it becomes clear that institutional reform is necessary. Priests who abuse children or other members of their congregation should rightly be defrocked and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

The same ought to be true of clergy members who know of such abuse and willingly cover it up: much like how Joe Paterno and members of Penn State who covered up Jerry Sandusky’s abuse were dismissed from the university, so too should priests who try to protect the reputations of colleagues by moving them to other parishes to prevent crimes from being found be stripped of their Holy Orders.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Wicked Local Cape Cod

By Shayne Looper
GateHouse News Service

Posted Feb 28, 2013

I am neither a Catholic nor the son of a Catholic (to misquote the prophet Amos), and I disagree with Rome on a wide array of ecclesiastical and theological issues. Yet here I am, rising to the defense of the Catholic Church in the face of media attacks that seem to me to be patently unjust.

The journalist Sheila Liaugminas attributes the recent spate of biased stories about Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church to “lazy journalism and tendentious reporting.” She is being charitable. The slanted stories and offensive editorials are motivated by something darker: by a disrespect for the Church in general, for Catholics in particular and for conservative beliefs, in toto.

Consider the Feb. 15 Newsweek article by Tim Parks titled “Benedict’s Act of Grace” and subtitled “John Paul II left the church a mess.” There is a sense of disdain throughout the article. Rather than using papal names, the author repeatedly refers to John Paul II as Wojtyła and Gregory XVI as Ratzinger. He chooses inflammatory adjectives to describe the pontiffs: “reactionary,” “arch-conservative,” “interminably glamorous” (John Paul II) and “unimpressive” (Benedict XVI).

Michael Moynihan’s Newsweek column, “Good Riddance, Benedict! Why the pope was a moral failure,” is, if possible, even more disrespectful. The lead calls Benedict “the failed pontiff” and the article characterizes the 85-year-old ailing pope’s retirement as an abandonment of his post.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
9 News

The Catholic Church’s processes of dealing with sex abuse victims often makes mental and emotional wounds worse, a psychologist has told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry.

Dr Joseph Poznanski told the inquiry into sex abuse within religious and other organisations that victims often came to him expressing despair and helplessness after dealing with the church’s compensation process.

He said the church’s psychiatric assessments would downplay the effect of sexual abuse on victims.

“In the majority of cases this is more like salt to festering wound,” he told the inquiry in Melbourne on Friday.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott kmellott@tribdem.com

— Notification of two additional civil lawsuits on behalf of former students at Bishop McCort Catholic High School who allege they were sexually molested by the late Brother Stephen Baker were filed in Blair County court on Thursday.

Altoona attorney Richard Serbin filed the notice, the first step in the civil action, to be served on Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular; Province of the Immaculate Conception; The Very Most Rev. Father Robert D’Aversa, T.O.R.; Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown; former Bishop Joseph V. Adamec; and Bishop McCort Catholic High School.

Adamec was named because, while he is now retired, he was in charge of the diocese during the time when Baker was working at Bishop McCort, which was at that time a diocesan high school.

In 2008 the school became independent of the diocese.

D’Aversa was leader of the Province of the Immaculate Conception order during the years Baker worked for the diocese at Bishop McCort, Serbin said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune Chronicle

March 1, 2013

By PHIL RAY Special to the Tribune Chronicle , Tribune Chronicle | TribToday.com

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. – An Altoona, Pa., attorney has filed two additional notices of lawsuit against officials of the Roman Catholic Church and Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown, Pa., stemming from sexual abuse allegations against the late Brother Stephen Baker.

Attorney Richard M. Serbin filed the summons in the Blair County Courthouse.

The victims were identified as John Doe 78 and John Doe 79, pseudonyms for McCort students allegedly abused by Baker when he served as an instructor at the school in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Serbin filed three John Doe summons on Monday. He said Thursday he was still reviewing case files and that other notices of lawsuit, called summons, would probably be filed.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA
Annenberg TV News

[with video]

By Dawn Megli

Rita Milla has been litigation with the church over abuse allegations for more than two decades.A Los Angeles woman and alleged priest sex abuse survivor spoke out Thursday on the changes she wants to see in the Catholic Church. Rita Milla appeared with Attorney Gloria Allred to discuss the lawsuit she filed against the LA Archdioses and Catholic priests, calling for change in the Catholic Church.

Milla claimed she was abused by seven different priests over a four-year period at several Los Angeles-area churches in the 1980’s. When she eventually became pregnant, she says the men sent her to live with some of their relatives in the Philippines to hide her pregnancy. According to Milla, her parents were told she was studying abroad at the time. When she returned with an infant daughter, the priests offered no assistance. Milla sued for $21 million in 1984, according to the Los Angeles Times.

At Thursday’s press conference Allred provided a statement on the lawsuit which said, “In 1984 we filed a lawsuit on behalf of Rita against the LA Archdiocese and the seven Catholic priests who had abused her. On the day that we filed this lawsuit all seven priests suddenly disappeared from their parishes making it difficult or impossible to serve them with the lawsuit.”

While the LA Archdiocese said they would help find the missing priests, the Church aided in the cover-up and an obstruction of justice, said Allred.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
CTV (Canada)

CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013

As Benedict XVI’s papacy ended Thursday with crowds of well-wishers at the Vatican showing their support, clerical sex abuse victims continued to call for action against child predators within the Church, disappointed in what they see as a failure by the pontiff to take real action.

The U.S.-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, announced on the same day that it has submitted a report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, blasting the Vatican’s handling of the “ongoing worldwide sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.”

The Vatican has pledged to report to the UN on its efforts to protect children from abuse and sexual violence.

But SNAP said little has been done to address the problem.

The group teamed up with the Center for Constitutional Rights, a non-profit legal group,to produce its submission to the UN, which outlines how Church policies and practices have enabled priests to take advantage of children.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
Irish Times

STEPHEN COLLINS

The Government has rejected a call by Fianna Fáil to reinstate a full-time Irish ambassador to the Vatican to coincide with the election of a new pope.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said last night there were no plans to revisit the issue, and he described as “inappropriate” any attempt to politicise Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to retire.

Fianna Fáil whip Seán Ó Fearghaíl said the election of a new pope in the coming weeks would be the perfect opportunity to appoint a full-time ambassador once again to this important role in Rome.

“Ireland has always had an ambassador in this important post, and now that the Government are saying the economic picture is improving there is no need for any further delay in my view,” said Mr Ó Fearghaíl.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

SCOTLAND
Scotsman

By RHIANNON WILLIAMS
Published on Friday 1 March 2013

THE archbishop who is temporarily replacing Cardinal Keith O’Brien spoke of the “pain and dismay” he shares with worshippers, as he took Mass for the first time since being appointed.

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia told those gathered at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh yesterday that he understood the archdiocese was in a “state of shock for the loss of its shepherd” following the cardinal’s resignation.

The Pope appointed the Archbishop of Glasgow to govern the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh until a permanent replacement is chosen.

Benedict XVI, who stepped down yesterday after nearly eight years as pope, named him apostolic administrator after Cardinal O’Brien resigned from the post on Monday amid allegations, which he contests, of inappropriate behaviour towards fellow priests.

Archbishop Tartaglia told the congregation: “I am glad to be with you today, even if I wished, very much wished, that the circumstances were other than they are. I want first of all to say that I appreciate that this archdiocese is in a state of shock for the loss of its shepherd.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Mike Wade

The resignation of Cardinal Keith O’Brien was triggered by a claim of inappropriate behaviour towards a priest in 2001, that was lodged with the Vatican in October.

Details of the accusation emerged for the first time last night. It is the fifth such allegation to be made public but the first, historically, to have been made by a priest or former priest against the former leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

OHIO/PENNSYLVANIA
WYTV

Attorneys from Boston and Johnstown, Pa. are teaming up in at least one lawsuit against Catholic religious leaders accused of allowing Brother Stephen Baker access to hundreds of children at schools across the Midwest that he allegedly molested.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who successfully negotiated high-five figure settlements for 11 former students that were molested at Warren’s John F. Kennedy High School and St. Mary’s Middle School, and Johnstown attorney Richard Serbin, who has filed two other lawsuits on behalf of Bishop McCort students that were allegedly molested by Baker, filed another lawsuit Thursday in Blair County Court.

Serbin filed a second lawsuit Thursday on behalf of another alleged victim. Earlier in the week, he filed a lawsuit for three other victims.

A Greensburg, Pa. attorney, Susan Williams, has filed two lawsuits for seven total clients.

Serbin said on Tuesday he expects the number of clients and lawsuits to grow. He has a number of clients that have alleged abuse and is in the process of investigating their claims.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

FIJI
Radio New Zealand

Posted at 23:02 on 28 February, 2013 UTC

Fiji police say they have questioned a Catholic priest who is suspected of having committed several rapes.

A police spokesperson, Naina Ragigia, has told the Fiji Times that the priest is the prime suspect in a series of alleged rapes.

She said a complaint was lodged last week and since then other victims have come forward.

The Archbishop elect Father Peter Loy Chong says he is aware of the incident and has spoken to the priest concerned.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
KSTP

His name and his abuse had been hidden for decades.

“I was John Doe 76C,” the now-45 year-old recalled.

Then Jim Keenan lifted the veil of anonymity and went public.

And lost.

“It just felt empty. It was over,” Keenan thought.

He was a 13 year-old Apple Valley alter boy when, he said, his parish priest abused him. The abuse continued for two years, Kennan alleges.

When Keenan was 38, he sued the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona, which ultimately led to his name being revealed publicly. But last year, the Minnesota Supreme Court threw out the case, deciding the statute of limitations had long since expired.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

WISCONSIN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Steve Geier on February 28, 2013

Very sadly, today, Benedict XVI finished his time as Pope without ever once apologizing for his involvement in covering up the crimes of Fr. Lawrence Murphy, who sexually assaulted me and over 200 other students when we were youngsters at St. John’s boarding school for the deaf, operated by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

We pleaded with Benedict, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger and the head of the powerful head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Faith (CDF) to remove Murphy from the priesthood so he could harm no other children. The Pope had at his desk thousands of pages of direct criminal evidence and testimony that Murphy had destroyed and was likely destroying the lives of so many young deaf children. We wanted the Pope turn Murphy over to criminal authorities, and alert the deaf community and the public about this dangerous man.

The Pope never doubted Murphy’s guilt. Yet, he allowed him to remain in ministry in good standing as a priest, Murphy’s secrets kept safe by the church. As one final gesture, when Murphy died in 1997, we begged Cardinal Ratzinger and officials of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to not allow Murphy to be buried as a priest. That, we felt, was the least the church could do, given all the harm that Murphy had caused us. Instead, the Vatican and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee one more time ignored our pleas, and Murphy was buried in his full priestly vestments his today. Murphy’s grave stone today still identifies him as a priest.

Fr. Murphy may have stolen our bodies, but it was Pope Benedict who stole our voice.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA

It is now 8:01 PM on Thursday, February 28, 2013, and history has just been made: the Church has a Sede Vacante/Vacant See of Peter, but we still have a Pope Emeritus living.

Bells pealed all over Rome continuously from about 4:55 PM to 5:15 PM, the window of time for the Pope’s helicopter to depart the Vatican and fly to Castel Gondolfo in the mountains outside Rome. It was Rome’s final tribute to a Pope whom Catholics and the world came to admire and cherish.

A Sede Vacante, but no Funeral Rites to be performed; no lying in state; no major Funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square. So different than the last 600 years.

Tomorrow morning, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Dean of the College of Cardinals will send a special letter to all the Cardinals of the world informing them officially that the See of Peter is now vacant, that no one is holding the Keys of Peter. Because of the advance notice by Pope Benedict, most of the Cardinals of the world are already here in Rome.

Most likely our first gathering, or General Congregation, will be on Monday, March 4. Since the proceedings of those General Congregations are secret, except for official announcements, I will not be able to post new Blogs nor Tweet on the confidential issues and discussions.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

FIJI
The Fiji Times

Margaret Wise And Felix Chaudhary
Friday, March 01, 2013

SCANDAL is threatening the Catholic Church in Fiji as police confirmed the questioning of a priest in connection to allegations of rape by multiple victims.

It all began when a complaint of an alleged rape incident was lodged at a police station in the Western Division last Saturday.

Police said investigations established there were more than one victim and since then “other victims have come forward”.

“I can confirm that a Catholic priest has been questioned and is the prime suspect in a series of alleged rape cases,” said Naina Ragigia, the west media police spokeswoman.

“After the initial report was received on Saturday and after investigations had begun, it was established that there were more than just one victim. Other victims have come forward and investigations are continuing before charges are laid.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
PolicyMic

Kiki Van Son

Benedict the XVI is officially no longer pope. While he cited poor health and a demanding schedule as the main reason, this hasn’t stopped competing explanations from entering the fray. While allegations that the pope was involved in some sort of gay cover-up, or is even gay himself, many are overlooking a little-remembered incident that occurred last March, when suspicious financial activity surrounding the Vatican’s account No. 1365, opened in 2009 with JPMorgan Chase, caused the global bank’s branch in Milan to shut it down.

The account was operating as a sweep account, which facilitates an automatic flow of money at the end of each business day from cash accounts to investment accounts, where the money accrues higher interest. The account was primarily being swept to Vatican accounts in Germany. However, an estimated $1.5 billion had been processed in the short amount of time that the account had been opened, according to Italy’s leading financial newspaper II Sole 24 Ore.

Speculation over money-laundering led JPMorgan Chase to question bankers at the Vatican who ultimately failed to provide an explanation. The Vatican has been under scrutiny for its lack of financial transparency since JPMorgan Chase’s decision to close the account, but no further comment has been made by either party.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Within a few hour period, (1) the ex-Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, left all the Cardinals his “final” marching signals, (2) his oldest colleague, Hans Kung, gave his informative assessment and a final warning , and (3) a major human rights group filed a comprehensive report with the well regarded UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on the Vatican’s worldwide cover-up of priest rape of children supporting the Committee’s pending summons to the Vatican to account shortly. The Vatican is subject by international treaty to the Committee’s juridiction and has for over a decade failed to comply fully with its treaty oligations.

Today’s final signals to Cardinals are set forth in Cardinal Mahony’s unexpected report accessible by clicking on at:

[Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA]

Hans Kung’s brief and perceptive assessment of the current papal election situation is accessible by clicking on at:

[The New York Times]

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BOSTON (MA)
WCVB

BOSTON —Local Catholics and victims of the church sex abuse scandal are speaking out Thursday, and some say Cardinal Sean O’Malley should be the next pope.

Bernie McDaid, a clergy sex abuse victim from Peabody, was one of the few victims to meet with Pope Benedict XVI. He believes the crisis played a huge role in the pope’s decision.

“Change is here, folks, whether you like it or not. It’s here,” McDaid said.

Now, McDaid is looking past his differences with O’Malley, saying he understands the gravity of sexual abuse and has truly listened to the victims.

“Sean O’Malley should the next pope and very well could,” he said.

He said unless the church hears the voices of victims, “I believe the church is doomed.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

Posted: Thu, 28 Feb 2013

The Supreme Court has this week refused to hear a case from the Catholic Church that it could not be held responsible for abuse committed by one of its priests because he was not an ’employee’. This means the Catholic Church can now be financially liable for child abuse by priests working under its control.

The case arose when a Portsmouth woman brought a civil action against the Church after claiming she was abused by a priest at a children’s home run by the Church.

The woman, identified in court as Miss E, was seven years old when she was admitted to the Firs Children’ Home in 1970. She alleges she was sexually abused by Father Wilfred Baldwin, a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth, who died in 2006.

In November 2011, High Court judge Mr Justice Alistair MacDuffs ruled that the church is legally responsible for sexual abuse committed by its priests. This week’s ruling by the Supreme Court has now confirmed that decision.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MEXICO
Aljazeera

[with video]

Nearly 90 million Mexicans profess to being Catholic and will be closely watching who is chosen to lead the Church.

Catholics in the country who allege they were sexually abused by members of the clergy, say they are still waiting for the Vatican to acknowledge their suffering.

Millions of Mexicans and people throughout Latin America have abandoned the church in the past decade.

Many are demanding a change in the Church’s attutude towards sexual-abuse victims when the new pope succeeds Benedict XVI.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

[the court decision]

Owen Bowcott, Legal affairs correspondent
The Guardian, Thursday 28 February 2013

The Catholic church could facing spiralling compensation costs after an attempt to avoid liability for abuses committed by priests and nuns was dismissed by the UK supreme court.

The decision will have implications for a wide range of organisations by expanding the principle of “vicarious liability” to other churches, local authorities, charities that rely on volunteers, as well as Scouts and Guides. Lawyers said it could even affect claims involving Jimmy Savile’s abusive past.

The refusal by the UK’s highest court even to hear the church’s challenge that clerics are not “akin to employees” marks the end of a potential legal escape route from responsibility for compensation.

Lawyers for the trustees of Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust had appealed against a decision in the court of appeal that they had a duty to compensate a young girl for alleged beatings inflicted by a nun and sexual abuse perpetrated by a priest as long ago as the 1970s – if the facts of the abuse were established.

But in a statement issued this week, the supreme court said it had refused permission to appeal “because the application does not raise an arguable point of law of general public importance”. It believes the issue has now been settled.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on an op-ed by Hans Küng in today’s New York Times:

Yesterday, I took on the unfair reporting by the Times on the pope [click here for my Newsmax piece]. Today, I will address one of Benedict’s most virulent critics, Hans Küng, an embittered ex-Catholic theologian.

Küng says the pope “irritated the Protestant churches, Jews, Muslims, the Indians of Latin America, women, reform-minded theologians and all pro-reform Catholics.” He blames the pope (when he was Cardinal Ratzinger) for covering up the sexual abuse of minors, and cites “Vatileaks” as a problem. He also says the two major scandals of his tenure were giving “recognition” to the “Society of St. Pius X, which is bitterly opposed to the Second Vatican Council, as well as of a Holocaust denier, Bishop Richard Williamson.”

It is true some Protestant churches were angry after the pope welcomed Anglicans into the Church; Küng fails to mention they lobbied hard to join. Jews have warmly embraced the pope, though some were unhappy when the Latin Mass was being promoted. However, as Rabbi Brad Hirschfield recently said, “It is unfair to complain about a text, which has its own parallels in Jewish liturgy….” Yes, there were Muslims who misunderstood the pope’s 2006 speech when he warned against severing the link between faith and reason; rioting and murder followed, unwittingly proving his point. In 2007, the pope didn’t win the plaudits of some Indians in Brazil when he criticized “the utopia of going back to breathe life into the pre-Columbus religions,” but he won points for being honest. Catholic women have embraced the pope, save for those who share the dissident views of the “reformers.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A woman who claims she was sexually abused by a priest is set to sue the Roman Catholic Church after it was refused a last chance to reverse a ruling holding it responsible.

The church argued it could not be held liable as no formal employment relationship with its clergy existed.

It lost a High Court case in 2011 and has now been refused permission to take the appeal to the Supreme Court.

The woman said she was abused a priest of the Portsmouth Diocese.

Lawyers for the claimant, who is set to pursue a civil case, said it was the first time a court had been asked to rule on whether the “relationship between a Catholic priest and his bishop is akin to an employment relationship”.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA
Patch

LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A Southland woman who sued the Roman Catholic Church 1984, saying she was sexually abused by seven priests, including one who impregnated her, plans to return to the limelight today to discuss the abdication of the pope and the propriety of having Cardinal Roger Mahony help elect the next one.

Rita Milla said she was sexually molested over a four-year period, starting when she was 16, when she was a volunteer at St. Philomena’s Church in Carson. She sued the church after her daughter, Jacqueline, was born, eventually settling with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Coinciding with the pope’s last day in office, Milla will hold a news conference at the law offices of attorney Gloria Allred late this morning. Allred said her client wants to talk about what the next pope should do about sex crimes in the church, about Mahony’s inclusion in the conclave that will elect his successor, and about evidence of a church cover-up in her own case, which dragged out for more than 20 years.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ROME
Reuters

By Naomi O’Leary

ROME | Thu Feb 28, 2013

(Reuters) – On the final day of Pope Benedict’s papacy, a victim support group asked the United Nations to censure the Vatican for failing to protect children from sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.

Speaking at a press conference meters from the walls of the Vatican City on Thursday, the head of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said his group had made a formal submission to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child.

“It’s a long submission of 30 pages based on government reports by five different nations,” David Clohessy told reporters, surrounded by photographs of children he said were members of his organization, at the age they were abused.

“We hope that the U.N. speaks out very forcefully and says that the Vatican is in violation of the treaty that it agreed to honor.”

The SNAP submission argues that the Holy See has violated the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which it signed in 1990, on four counts including a failure to cooperate with criminal investigations and failing to protect children.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

HuffPost Italy | By Stefano Baldolini Posted: 02/28/2013

The theologian Hans Kung has always been very hard on Joseph Ratzinger’s papacy, and was particularly disappointed by Pope Benedict XVI’s last audience. He did not expect that the resigning Pope would decide to stay in the Vatican to wield his influence. A situation without precedent.

Two Popes in the Vatican?

Let’s be clear, I don’t have anything against Joseph Ratzinger. I wish him all the best. I have nothing against a nice life, in a place where one can rest. We are the same age. … Initially I thought that retreating in a convent to pray was a good decision. But now it seems this is not the plan. It is very dangerous to have a former pope living in the actual Vatican. Who does not live in a monastery. He will not live with monks, but with nuns who were at his service in the Vatican when he was pope. He will have the same secretary, Father George. He wants to remain in contact with cardinals and with the new pope. I was afraid of a “shadow pope” in the Vatican. Now it seems confirmed. He is certainly interested in prolonging his line, otherwise he would not have done it like this.

What could happen?

He is not exactly going on a mountaintop to pray. Rather, he will have the possibility to intervene constantly. It is a dangerous situation. I see many conflicts. I live near Lake Constance, where we had the Council of the Western Schism, with as many as three popes. It was the 15th century. The situation was obviously different then. … But if, for example, the future pope says, “it is necessary to discuss the celibacy of priests,” as the current Cardinal of Scotland has said, whoever doesn’t want this will turn to the old pope [for support].

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Spectator

Freddy Gray
2 March 2013

In a corner of the Sistine Chapel, below Michelangelo’s hell, is a door to the little chamber they call ‘the room of tears’. Some painter-decorators are in there, frantically doing the place up. That’s because, in a matter of days, a new Pope will be led into the room. According to tradition, at that moment, as he first contemplates the magnitude of his role, he will weep.

A myth, you might think. But we can be sure that the next Supreme Pontiff — whoever he is — will have plenty to sob about. Since Benedict XVI’s resignation two weeks ago, each day seems to have brought yet more bad news. Scandal is swarming around the upcoming papal conclave like a Biblical plague.

There’s the poor old Scottish cardinal Keith O’Brien, who resigned on Monday after reports of ‘inappropriate acts’ with fellow priests. There’s the two American cardinals, Roger Mahoney and Timothy Dolan, facing renewed accusations that they protected paedophile priests in their dioceses.

And then the big one: the theory that the real reason Benedict resigned was not ill-health, but because he was so appalled by the findings of an investigation he commissioned into the so-called ‘Vatileaks’ affair. The Italian newspaper La Repubblica has been publishing extraordinary claims that the 300-page Vatileaks dossier proves that Benedict was forced out by an ‘underground gay network’. Whispers of sodomy and bribery abound.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

The Vatican admitted on Thursday that it had secretly bugged clergy within the Holy See as part of the investigation into the Vatileaks scandal, which resulted in the Pope’s butler being imprisoned for stealing confidential pontifical documents.

By Nick Squires, Rome

Like much of the rest of his papacy, Benedict’s last day in office was overshadowed by claims of secrecy and intrigue.

An Italian news magazine, Panorama, claimed that Vatican authorities had conducted, and are still conducting, an extensive covert surveillance programme, tapping the phone calls and intercepting the emails of cardinals and bishops in the Curia, the governing body of the Catholic Church.

The surveillance operation was to weed out Vatican insiders who may have helped Paolo Gabriele, the butler, steal and leak to the press compromising papal documents, in a scandal that rocked the Catholic Church and reportedly contributed to Benedict’s decision to resign.

The Vatican confirmed that secret surveillance had indeed taken place, but on a far smaller scale than that portrayed by Panorama.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATIKAN
Spiegel

Von Annette Langer

Wenige Stunden vor dem Rücktritt des Papstes sorgen Gerüchte aus dem Vatikan für Unruhe: Benedikts wichtigster Helfer, Kardinalstaatssekretär Bertone, soll laut einem Magazinbericht dafür gesorgt haben, dass die Kurie überwacht wurde. Keine gute Ausgangssituation für das Konklave.

Rom – Der wichtigste Helfer des scheidenden Papstes, Kardinalsstaatssekretär Tarcisio Bertone, soll systematisch Vatikanangehörige ausspioniert haben. Ziel sei es gewesen, ein mutmaßliches Netzwerk um den wegen Dokumentendiebstahls aus dem Privatbesitz des Papstes verurteilten Paolo Gabriele auszuleuchten. Dies berichtet die heutige Ausgabe des italienischen Wochenmagazins “Panorama”.

Demnach habe Bertone den Chef der Vatikan-Gendarmerie, Domenico Giani, damit beauftragt, Telefongespräche, Unterhaltungen und den E-Mail-Verkehr von Bischöfen und Kardinälen zu überwachen. Es handele sich um die “massivste und flächendeckendste Abhöraktion”, die es je im Vatikan gegeben habe. Detailliert sei aufgezeichnet worden, wer den Vatikan zu welcher Uhrzeit betreten und wieder verlassen und wer sich mit wem getroffen habe. Beweise für die Behauptung führt “Panorama” nicht an.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

Papst Benedikt XVI. ist gescheitert. Er gesteht dieses Scheitern ein und zieht sich ins Schweigen zurück. Ein Schweigen, das diesem Mann des Wortes besonders schwerfallen dürfte. Da ist also auch Größe, die der Gegner anerkennen muss – auch ich, der ich ein Buch mit dem Titel “Der gefährliche Papst” geschrieben habe. Am Ende ist Joseph Ratzinger kein gefährlicher Papst geworden, sondern ein tragischer.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

DEUTSCHLAND
Bankkaufmann

Berlin (ots) – Papst Benedikt tritt zurück – und die Deutschen ziehen ein insgesamt recht positives Fazit seiner Arbeit.

In einer repräsentativen N24-Emnid-Umfrage bewerten 52 Prozent der Befragten die Arbeit des Papstes als “eher gut”. Nur 23 Prozent der Deutschen halten die Leistung Benedikts XVI. für “eher schlecht”.

Trotz des insgesamt eher positiven Urteils sehen die Deutschen bei der Katholischen Kirche einen klaren Reformbedarf. 78 Prozent der Befragten halten grundlegende Reformen in der Katholischen Kirche für notwendig, nur 12 Prozent sehen keinen Reformbedarf. Bei Frauen ist der Wunsch nach Reformen mit 83 Prozent deutlicher ausgeprägt als bei Männern (72 Prozent).

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

DEUTSCHLAND
Neues Deutschland

Berlin (nd). Für »unwahrscheinlich« hält es der Religionswissenschaftler Hubertus Mynarek, dass der wahre Grund für den Rücktritt von Papst Benedikt XVI. ein Sexskandal im Vatikan ist, wie italienische Medien mutmaßen. Dabei geht es um ein angeblich im Zuge der Vatileaks-Ermittlungen aufgedecktes geheimes Netzwerk homosexueller Priester. »Jemand, der wie Ratzinger Jahrzehnte in der Kurie tätig war, dürfte von solchen Berichten wohl kaum überrascht sein«, sagte der ehemalige Dekan der Katholisch-Theologischen Fakultät der Universität Wien im Interview mit »neues deutschland«. Hingegen hält es Mynarek für »nicht abwegig«, dass auf den Papst wegen dessen Eingriffen in die Vatikanbank Druck ausgeübt wurde. Er erinnerte in diesem Zusammenhang an Papst Johannes Paul I., der sich mit Machenschaften des päpstlichen Geldinstituts befasst hatte und 1978 nach nur 33 Tagen Pontifikat überraschend verstorben war.

Hoffnung auf Reformen in der katholischen Kirche nach dem Rücktritt von Benedikt XVI. hat Mynarek nicht.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

DEUTSCHLAND
Presseportal

Aschaffenburg (ots) – Anlässlich der Ausstrahlung des Filmes “Und alle haben geschwiegen” fordert das ehemalige Heimkind Alexander Markus Homes, dass die Kirchen endlich Verantwortung für die Gräuel übernehmen, die den Heimkindern angetan wurden. “Es ist völlig inakzeptabel, dass trotz der bekannten Fakten die Kirchen sich noch immer aus der Verantwortung stehlen. Es findet keine umfassende Aufklärung statt und die Kirchen sind auch nicht gewillt, die Opfer angemessen für das erlittene Leid zu entschädigen”, so Homes.

Der Buchautor von “Prügel vom lieben Gott”, dessen Erstveröffentlichung 1981 maßgeblich zum Bekanntwerden der Missstände in den christlichen Heimen beitrug, sieht aber nicht nur die Kirchen in der Verantwortung: “Es ist beschämend mit ansehen zu müssen, wie staatliche Institutionen mit der Frage der Heimkinder und mit dem Missbrauch in kirchlichen Einrichtungen umgehen.” Weder der Runde Tisch Heimerziehung noch der Runde Tisch Sexueller Kindesmissbrauch hätten laut Homes akzeptable Ergebnisse gebracht. “Es ist höchste Zeit, dass die Kirchen endlich offen legen, wer damals bei Misshandlungen und sexueller Gewalt wegschaute oder die Täter durch Schweigen gedeckt hat. Wenn die Kirchen das nicht von alleine hinkriegen, muss der Staat ihnen auf die Sprünge helfen.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Catholics4Change

February 28, 2013 by Susan Matthews

Community concern over St. John Vianney, a psychiatric treatment facility for priests, was addressed last night. The meeting was held in response to a recent incident of a patient trespassing on Bishop Shanahan property during school hours.

Unlike most other treatment centers, St. John Vianney allows “approved” patients to leave their premises to walk through the neighborhood.

Please note it was a parent who finally called the police after the archdiocesan high school administration neglected to take action in regard to her concerns.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

In a press conference this morning, the Vatican spokesman discussed the allegations made by an Italian news magazine about the Vatican Secretary of State placing the Curia under surveillance for a year

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

“During the Vatileaks affair the Vatican’s investigating judge may have ordered some interceptions and checks; nothing major, just two or three.” The director of the Vatican Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, said this during this morning’s press conference, in reference to some claims made by Italian current affairs magazine, Panorama.

“Interceptions and surveillance activities were not as described,” Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi said, in response to journalists’ questions regarding the content of an article published by Panorama magazine, on an investigation apparently ordered by the Roman Curia, involving the interception of telephone calls during the Vatileaks scandal.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Bendigo Advertiser

By Vince Chadwick, Barney Zwartz
March 1, 2013

PROMINENT Australian Catholics have rejected claims by Cardinal George Pell that the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI weakened the papacy, and dismissed notions the Sydney Archbishop was angling for the top job.

It came as the Pope had a last day to match his shy personality, with surprisingly little ceremony.

He was to meet cardinals from around the world, followed by a private parting ceremony in a Vatican courtyard in mid-afternoon, followed by a helicopter flight across the Vatican, the world’s smallest state, to the papal retreat of Castel Gandolfo near Rome.

Earlier, Cardinal Pell – in Rome, where he will help choose Benedict’s successor – said that the resignation could set a dangerous precedent.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Democracy Now!

[with video]

As Pope Benedict XVI steps down today, we turn to a former Catholic priest who was silenced and expelled by the Pope, then Cardinal Ratzinger, in the 1980s. Matthew Fox chronicles his story in the book, “The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved.” Pope Benedict’s tenure was marked by several scandals — most notably his handling of the widening sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, including allegations that he ignored at least one case of abuse while serving as a cardinal. Documents show that in 1985, he delayed efforts to defrock a priest convicted of molesting children. “I will take the Pope at his word here when he says he is tired. I would also be tired, too, if I had left as much devastation in my wake as he has,” Fox says. “I think that the Catholic Church as we know it, the structure of the Vatican, is passé. We are moving beyond it, it has become a viper’s nest. It is really sick what is going on — obviously to cover up the pedophile priests.” [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

Guest:

Matthew Fox, Author of over two dozen books, most recently, “The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved.” He is a former Catholic priest who was first stopped from teaching Liberation Theology and Creation Spirituality by Cardinal Ratzinger, then expelled from the Dominican Order to which he had belonged for 34 years. He currently serves as an Episcopal priest.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Tom Roberts | Feb. 27, 2013

Analysis
A coincidental confluence of monarchical events occurred in 2005, during the period between the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI.

In a span of less than three weeks, John Paul died (April 2), Prince Rainier of Monaco died (April 6), Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles were married (April 9) in England, and Benedict was elected pope (April 19).

Through all of it the international media followed the flow of mourners, celebrators and ornately bedecked imitations of bygone eras as they made their way from castles to famous churches and back. It was a manner of reverse time-travel. All of the braided gold rope and draped epaulettes, feathered hats, shiny silver helmets, chests full of medals, gilded coaches, and endless reminders of dead kings and popes was enough to almost convince one that an age of Renaissance princes had somehow been recreated.

But there were differences, quickly apparent, among the pageants. In England and Monaco, amid joy and sorrow, the principals, privileged as they might be, walked as 21st-century intruders upon ancient ceremonials. They bore contemporary, real-life scars of tragic deaths and love gone sour. There was no retreat into some insular spirituality, no hiding away in a religious culture, though religion brought the most profound meaning to the events. The talk in these settings was not about some metaphysically infused heroic suffering. It was just suffering of the human sort, which is holy enough, the kind most of us bear no matter how elite, the kind where relationships need tending and there are children and others to worry about. In London and Monaco, the artifacts of royalty were symbols in service to a faded reality.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

GERMANY
The New York Times

By HANS KÜNG

Published: February 27, 2013

TÜBINGEN, Germany

THE Arab Spring has shaken a whole series of autocratic regimes. With the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, might not something like that be possible in the Roman Catholic Church as well — a Vatican Spring?

Of course, the system of the Catholic Church doesn’t resemble Tunisia or Egypt so much as an absolute monarchy like Saudi Arabia. In both places there are no genuine reforms, just minor concessions. In both, tradition is invoked to oppose reform. In Saudi Arabia tradition goes back only two centuries; in the case of the papacy, 20 centuries.

Yet is that tradition true? In fact, the church got along for a millennium without a monarchist-absolutist papacy of the kind we’re familiar with today.

It was not until the 11th century that a “revolution from above,” the “Gregorian Reform” started by Pope Gregory VII, left us with the three enduring features of the Roman system: a centralist-absolutist papacy, compulsory clericalism and the obligation of celibacy for priests and other secular clergy.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By FIONA HENDERSON
Feb. 28, 2013

A VICTIM of clergy sex abuse has called on members of a parliamentary inquiry to recommend the establishment of an independent watchdog to protect future generations.

Peter Blenkiron was one of five victims who gave evidence in Ballarat this morning to the Victorian Parliamentary into child sexual abuse by members of religious organisations.

In his submission, Mr Blenkiron also pleaded with the inquiry members to put measures in place that would stop further victim deaths.

In an emotion charged morning, several victims broke down while detailing their horrendous abuse, prompting inquiry chairwoman Georgie Crozier to praise their “extraordinary courage” in speaking out.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Age

March 1, 2013

ANNE Ryan’s 25-year career as a Catholic school teacher ended abruptly in 1996 when her job came under threat over her trying to expose sexual abuse.

”I resigned that day,” Ms Ryan told a parliamentary inquiry into institutionalised child abuse sitting in Ballarat on Thursday.

Fellow Catholic school teacher Michael Crowe also told the inquiry his career had been destroyed for trying to report inappropriate priest behaviour.

”I’ve been persecuted, harassed, bullied,” Mr Crowe said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
The Center for Constitutional Rights

[the report]

Groups Submit Report on Worldwide Sex Abuse Crisis

press@ccrjustice.org

February 28, 2013, New York and Rome – Today, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed an alternate report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child documenting the ongoing worldwide sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. The UN committee has summoned the Vatican to report on its record of ensuring children are protected from sexual violence and safeguarding children’s well-being and dignity, the first time the Holy See will have been called to account for its actions on these issues before an international body with authority. The first meeting will take place in Geneva in June.

The SNAP-CCR report to the Committee lays out the depth and breadth of the problem, the policies and practices within the church that have both enabled and perpetuated the sexual violence, and the principles in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and one of its Optional Protocols which the Vatican has violated.

Said Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Attorney Pam Spees, “When the Committee on the Rights of the Child meets in June and demands answers from the Vatican on its handling of the epidemic of sexual violence in the church, it will be a historic day for survivors. The church has put itself and its reputation above the welfare of children at every step, in many cases knowingly moving a pedophile priest from one congregation to the next to keep things quiet, allowing the priest to continue to operate and have contact with children. This UN body has authority to determine whether the Holy See has violated the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It’s a long overdue calling to account.”

The Center for Constitutional Rights filed a case with the International Criminal Court on behalf of SNAP against the pope and other high-level Vatican officials for crimes against humanity in September 2011 and provided additional documentation in the case in April 2012. The prosecutor is currently reviewing the evidence.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA

This morning at 11:00 AM, Pope Benedict XVI met with all of the Cardinals who were in Rome for the Conclave. It was a very moving and touching event as we were participating in the final apostolic work of our Holy Father. His words to us:

Dear beloved brothers

I welcome you all with great joy and cordially greet each one of you. I thank Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who as always, has been able to convey the sentiments of the College, Cor ad cor loquitur. Thank you, Your Eminence, from my heart.

And referring to the disciples of Emmaus, I would like to say to you all that it has also been a joy for me to walk with you over the years in light of the presence of the Risen Lord.

As I said yesterday, in front of thousands of people who filled St. Peter’s Square, your closeness, your advice, have been a great help to me in my ministry. In these 8 years we have experienced in faith beautiful moments of radiant light in the Churches’ journey along with times when clouds have darkened the sky. We have tried to serve Christ and his Church with deep and total love which is the soul of our ministry. We have gifted hope that comes from Christ alone, and which alone can illuminate our path.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Feb. 28, 2013

John Allen is offering a profile each day of one of the most frequently touted papabili, or men who could be pope. The old saying in Rome is that he who enters a conclave as pope exits as a cardinal, meaning there’s no guarantee one of these men actually will be chosen. They are, however, the leading names drawing buzz in Rome these days, ensuring they will be in the spotlight as the conclave draws near. The profiles of these men also suggest the issues and the qualities other cardinals see as desirable heading into the election.

During the run-up to the conclave, most of the buzz around papal candidates is generated by pundits and church-watchers, as opposed to the cardinals who will actually vote. As an index of broader opinion in the church, the buzz is often illuminating; as a guide to what might actually happen, it can be of limited utility.

The “Great Asian Hope” in the 2013 conclave could turn out to be a case in point.

On the buzz meter, the clear winner is Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila in the Philippines, whose nickname is “Chito.” He’s young, articulate, smiling, and media-savvy, with a reputation for simplicity and humility. Tagle is hugely popular back home, and tends to wow people wherever he goes.

Among the cardinals, however, there’s another Asian who might seem a more compelling choice: Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith (formally, Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don) of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

For one thing, Ranjith is 65, ten years older than Tagle, and probably right in line with the ideal age profile: Not as young as John Paul was in 1978, meaning he wouldn’t have an overly long papacy, but not as old as Benedict XVI in 2005, meaning the church probably wouldn’t face another transition too soon.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Mercury News

The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY—The Vatican is playing down an Australian cardinal’s comments that Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign was “slightly destabilizing,” saying cardinals are not media savvy.

Cardinal George Pell told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the pope “was well aware that this was a break with tradition, slightly destabilizing.” The comments were interpreted by the Italian media as unusual criticism of the pope.

But in the interview, Pell also seems at pains to defend the pope, saying: “He felt that because of his weakness and sickness … that he just didn’t have the strength to lead the church.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA
Los Feliz Ledger

[James Ford – Los Angeles archdiocese]

By Colin Stutz, Ledger Contributing Writer

LOS FELIZ

—For two months in 2010, Our Mother of Good Counsel Catholic Church on Vermont Avenue had Rev. James Ford—who had previously been involved at least one sexual abuse case of a minor—conduct mass at the parish.

According to OMGC’s Father James Mott, Ford was dispatched to OMGC by the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Mott said he was unaware of Ford’s history.

Ford was listed as a priest who had sexually abused a minor, from 1968 to 1971, at Holy Family Catholic Church in Orange, in a 2004 report released by the Los Angles Archdiocese titled “Report to the People of God: Clergy Sexual Abuse.”

More details of Ford’s abuse, some 340 pages—and the possible cover-up by the Archdiocese—were released on the Archdiocese’s website Jan. 31st. A total of 12,000 pages in all were posted, the result of a court order, detailing 128 priests that have been accused of molestation of minors.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
KOSU

Filed by KOSU News
February 28, 2013

Today is the last day of the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI. Just two weeks ago, the German-born pope stunned the world by announcing he would be the first pope to resign in 600 years. After eight years on the throne of St. Peter, Benedict leaves behind a church in crisis.

Since the announcement, bulletins issued by the Vatican have ranged from the lofty — how Benedict will retire to a life dedicated to prayer and study — to the mundane, such as the details of packing the pope’s personal belongings and what he’ll leave behind.

In a sign that even the Vatican was totally unprepared for the resignation, it took two weeks to decide Benedict’s new title and what he would wear. …

Before becoming pope, as theological watchdog, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had overseen many cases of clerical sex abuse.

David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests (SNAP), says Benedict has been credited for meeting with and apologizing to victims and issuing new guidelines on handling cases, but he has not sanctioned one bishop for covering up abuse cases.

“Pope Benedict came into office knowing more about abuse than any other Catholic official on the planet, and I think many victims and many Catholics had some real hope that he would clean house, and he clearly didn’t,” Clohessy says.

The sex abuse cloud will hang over the conclave to elect the new pope. As will a confidential report on last year’s embarrassing leaks of private papers that revealed corruption and turf battles within the Vatican. Benedict has left the report for his successor’s eyes only, but many cardinals are already asking to be briefed on its contents.

Massimo Franco, author of numerous books about the Vatican, says the scandals have revealed Benedict to be a poor manager and a victim of the powerful administrative apparatus known as the Roman Curia.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Global Post

Over the last half century, the place known as Holy Wisdom Monastery in Westport, Wisconsin, has changed as the Catholic Church has changed.

And today as history is made with Pope Benedict XVI resigning, the first pontiff to do so in 600 years, this simple, white building here with its modern architecture as a symbol of a global Catholic Church that is deeply polarized, and which some fear could even be fracturing.

But it wasn’t always that way.

In the early 1950s, Holy Wisdom Monastery was a Catholic girls’ school run by the Sisters of St. Benedict. In time, the school closed, and in 1966 the sisters, spurred on by the reformist ideals of the Second Vatican Council, transformed it into a retreat center, one that thrived in the confident spirit of a church opening its windows to the modern world — the metaphor used by Pope John XXIII in summoning the world’s bishops to the council in Rome.

In the 1990s, the nuns there established a strong interfaith spirit, they undertook a rigorous environmental effort toward “sustainability’ and they welcomed gay couples into the church and its services. By the year 2000, the nuns transformed the monastery into an ecumenical institution, welcoming a Presbyterian woman minister. And that was the point at which they crossed an irreversible line. Having a Protestant woman ministering in the community threw their identity as a Catholic women’s order into question.

The sisters decided to leave the diocese and end their formal affiliation with the Catholic Church. As they saw it, they were maintaining the monastic ideal of Benedictine spirituality by opening the place to others. In the process of leaving the Catholic Church, the nuns made their own power move, of sorts. They held onto the deed to the land with the position that their faith community was true to the interfaith spirit of Vatican II. Their message, though never formally stated, was sledgehammer blunt: the male hierarchy has gone backwards and we’re moving forward. They quite literally held their ground.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Belfast Telegraph

28 February 2013

Pope Benedict XVI has promised his “unconditional reverence and obedience” to his successor in his final words to his cardinals, a poignant farewell before he becomes the first pope in 600 years to resign.

The pontiff appeared to be trying to defuse concerns about possible conflicts arising from the peculiar situation of having a reigning pope and a retired one.

Delivering an unexpected speech today, Benedict also urged the “princes” of the church to set aside their differences as they elect the next pope, urging them to be unified so that the College of Cardinals works “like an orchestra” where “agreement and harmony” can be reached despite diversity.

He said he would pray for the cardinals in coming days as they choose his successor.

“Among you is also the future pope, whom I promise my unconditional reverence and obedience,” Benedict said in his final audience.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA
Renew America

By Randy Engel

On Monday, February 25, 2013, at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, Calif., Cardinal William Levada gave a media conference at which he defended the presence of retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony at the upcoming papal conclave in Rome. Readers of The Rite of Sodomy will recall that St. Patrick’s Seminary was where the now deceased homosexual predator Bishop Joseph Ferrario used to bring his young prey David Figueroa for homosexual liaisons.

So it appears a bit hypocritical that Cardinal Levada would use the same location as an occasion to defend the Homosexual Collective, clerical and secular, by claiming that there is a sharp divide between homosexual men and “pedophile priests.” According to Levada, “By nature homosexuality is a not a predatory activity, it is a sexual activity that the Catholic Church does not condone.” By contrast, he states “pedophile priests are violating the sanctity and purity of young people.”

Liar, liar pants on fire, Cardinal Levada.

How is it possible that the former Archbishop of San Francisco, the Sodom of the Pacific, and the former Prefect for the Congregation for the Faith which routinely deals with clerical sex abuse cases against minors and vulnerable adults can argue that homosex is not predatory sex?

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

SCOTLAND
BBC News

The Archbishop temporarily replacing Cardinal Keith O’Brien has spoken of the “painful and distressing times” affecting the Catholic Church.

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia will celebrate mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh later.

It will be his first service as administrator of the Archdiocese of Edinburgh and St Andrews.

Cardinal O’Brien is contesting allegations of inappropriate behaviour made by four priests in the 1980s.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien stepped down on Monday amid allegations he behaved “inappropriately” to three serving priests and a former priest.

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia is due to tell worshippers they are having to bear the impact of sad events and disturbing media reports.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

WORCESTER (MA)
My Fox Boston

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) – A Roman Catholic priest who once served at a Fitchburg parish has avoided jail time after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography and stealing from his church.

The Rev. Lowe Dongor was sentenced Wednesday in Worcester Superior Court to 2 ½ years in jail, with the entire term suspended for five years of probation.

The 37-year-old Dongor was assigned to St. Joseph’s parish when he was initially charged in 2011. Prosecutors said child pornography was found on his computer, and he was also accused of stealing church collection money.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Victorian enquiry into sexual abuse in religious organisations has heard how a teacher who blew the whistle on a priest who was abusing a student, was hounded out of his job.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

Editorial

February 28, 2013

Our hope is slim and sliding rapidly away but hope’s DNA is resilience and therefore we will hover over it until the hour strikes when hope is slain and an abdicating pontiff punts the largest crisis in the Roman Catholic Church in the last 500 years into the Vacant See.

In the waning hours of his papacy, we hope that Pope Benedict XVI removes criminally convicted Bishop Robert Finn as head of the Diocese of Kansas City- St. Joseph, MO, lifts the seal of secrecy from the documents that Vatican knows detail the crisis, and removes from the priesthood all of the priests who are credibly accused whose cases have been sitting for years within the protection of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

In the name of all that is good and holy we hope that Pope Benedict, who can express his own sense of desolation adrift from a Lord he felt was sleeping, understands what those raped and sodomized by priests and nuns live with each day.

We hope he knows that they are burdened, scarred and haunted by depression, loss, confusion, anger and the void of being held back from the gate of spiritual solace by the memories of the desecration of their young bodies by priests and nuns.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Daniel Nee

A Roman Catholic priest from Brick Township who was arrested in July 2012 on sex charges has been indicted on those allegations, as well as in two additional incidents – one of which includes a third victim.

The seven-count indictment against Fr. Marukudiyil C. Velan, 64, was handed up by an Ocean County grand jury Feb. 7, court records obained by Patch show.

Velan, who was known as “Father Chris” to parishioners at Visitation Roman Catholic Church on Mantoloking Road in Brick, where he last served, was arrested July 14, 2012 and charged with a single count of criminal sexual contact against an adult victim, and one count of criminal sexual contact plus one count of endangering the welfare of a child against a victim who was a minor.

At the time, County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford said Velan, whose full name is Velanmarukudiyil J. Christudas, was arrested after a woman filed a report saying Velan came to her house and had “inappropriate contact” with her as well as her minor child.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ALASKA
Alaska Dispatch

February 26, 2013

The Catholic Archdiocese of Anchorage is moving forward with plans to defrock a long-time priest suspected of inappropriate behavior with five women. In 2009, the archdiocese forced Father J. Michael Hornick to resign for inappropriate physical contact with two adult women, according to a Catholic Anchor Online article dated May 2011.

After another complaint surfaced in January 2011, the archdiocese immediately suspended Hornick of all priestly ministries; he could no longer identify himself as a priest or wear priestly clothing, the Catholic Anchor reported.

Archdiocese spokesman Father Thomas Brundage told KTVA the priest broke the church’s code of conduct with “occasional touches, and then attempts at kissing.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic, has criticised the Pope on his last day, describing his historic resignation as destabilising, while questioning his political prowess.

Cardinal Pell, Australia’s representative at next month’s secret conclave to elect a successor, said Benedict XVI was a “brilliant teacher” but “government wasn’t his strong point” in a candid interview on the eve of the pope’s departure.

“I think I prefer somebody who can lead the Church and pull it together a bit,” Cardinal Pell said.

He pointed to the so-called “Vatileaks” scandal, in which Benedict’s butler leaked secret papal memos revealing intrigues between rival groups of cardinals, though he said it was “very easy to be wise after the event”.

“I think the governance is done by most of the people around the Pope and that wasn’t always done brilliantly. And I’m not breaking any ground there – this is said very commonly,” Cardinal Pell added in a later radio interview from the Vatican.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
The Center for Constitutional Rights

I. General Considerations: Overview

As a result of the efforts of survivors and advocates who have come forward in different countries over the past few decades, often with considerable personal sacrifice and risk, the widespread and systemic rape and sexual violence of children by priests and others associated with the Roman Catholic Church is now well-documented and incontrovertible.4 The revelations of sexual violence by clergy arising in recent years in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, the United States and elsewhere demonstrate that the rates of abuse in any one country or diocese are not an anomaly but part of a much larger pattern and practice. In light of these revelations, some observers have estimated that the number of victims of sexual violence occurring between the years 1981-2005 is likely approaching 100,000, and will likely be far greater as more situations continue to come to light in Latin America and Africa.5

Commissions of inquiry and grand juries have been convened in Canada,6 Australia,7 and Germany,8 as well as the United States, some of which will be discussed below. Ireland has seen a number of inquiries, resulting in the Ferns Report,9 the Ryan Report,10 the Murphy Report,11 and the Cloyne Report.12 There have also been Church-appointed commissions, as well as non-governmental reports setting forth widespread and systematic sexual violence within the Catholic church, in Belgium,13 Germany,14 The Netherlands,15 and the United States. In September 2011, Amnesty International issued a report finding that the abused of children in Catholic-run institutions in Ireland amounted to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.16

Every investigative body that has studied these situations has identified the same policies and practices that allowed the sexual violence to proliferate and that furthered the harm to the direct victims. Without exception, each of these inquiries has reached the same inevitable conclusion: The primary concern of Church officials in these cases has been to protect the reputation of the Church and its priests – not the best interest of the child. This conclusion was perhaps most succinctly expressed by a grand jury in the United States when it observed that Church authorities “continued and/or established policies that made the protection of the Church from ‘scandal’ more important than the protection of children from sexual predators.”17 Similarly, the Ryan Commission in Ireland found that: 2 Cases of sexual abuse were managed with a view to minimizing the risk of public disclosure and consequent damage to the institution and the Congregation. This policy resulted in the protection of the perpetrator. When lay people were discovered to have sexually abused, they were generally reported to the Gardai.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[Fghting for the Future]

Posted by David Clohessy on February 27, 2013

■Victims blast Vatican in new United Nations filing
■In 30 page document, they say church breaks UN convention
■SNAP says top Catholic officials submit one report 14 years later
■Group accuses Holy See of falling short on prevention & extradition

WHAT:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a news conference, two clergy sex abuse victims who are long time leaders of an international support group for victims will disclose and discuss a new 30 page filing calling on a United Nations committee to act against Catholic officials for multiple alleged violations of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (which was ratified by the Vatican).

WHEN:
Thursday, February 28 at 2 p.m.

WHERE:
Orange Hotel, 86, Via Crescenzio, 00193 Roma (St. Peter)

WHO:
Two clergy sex abuse victims who are leaders of the US-based international support group SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a Missouri man who is the organization’s long time director

WHY:
SNAP is filling a new 30 page report with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) that is highly critical of the Vatican’s past and current handling of clergy sex crimes and cover ups. It’s the first time SNAP is making a formal appeal to the UN for help with the crisis. (The CRC oversees compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1990.)

Later this year, the CRC will question Vatican officials on their compliance/non-compliance with the Convention. The CRC will then report publicly on its concluding observations.

The Vatican ratified the Convention in 1990 (under Pope John Paul II). In 1994, in its first report to the CRC, the Vatican made no mention whatsoever of the issue of clergy sex abuse though even then, top church officials had extensive knowledge about pedophile priests and complicit bishops around the world.

In 1997, the Vatican’s second report to the CRC was due. It was finally submitted about 14 years late. (And the Vatican is ten years late in filing its first required report under a similar agreement called the “Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, which was due in 2003.)

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BOSTON (MA)
WBUR

By Deborah Becker February 28, 2013

BOSTON — Among those closely watching as Catholic cardinals gather in Rome to choose the next pope are clergy abuse survivors and their advocates in Boston.

The survivors say the next church leader faces unfinished work on the clergy abuse scandal since it first erupted in Boston 11 years ago. Some of them say that the man who led Boston through the crisis should go on to do the same as head of the world’s Catholics.

Bernie McDaid was among the first clergy abuse survivors to meet directly with Pope Benedict XVI in 2008. McDaid says while that event was important, it was largely symbolic for survivors and for the pope.

“When I confronted him he grabbed my arms and he wouldn’t respond to anything I said — he would just say ‘Yes, yes, my son,’ ” McDaid said. “There was no dialogue. He was there in a spiritual fashion for his church and that’s understandable, but that’s not why I was there.”

One of the reasons McDaid was there was because Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley arranged the meeting, bringing not only survivors like McDaid but a book with the names of 1,000 survivors from Boston that he asked the pope to bless. McDaid says O’Malley’s experience in Boston prompted the Vatican to appoint him to help with Ireland’s abuse scandal in 2010. …

“This is a man who has a record of being brought in to the diocese in an uproar over sex abuse and of quieting the anger and restoring calm. He has restored calm but he has not been transparent,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, with the group BishopAccountability.org. Her group started tracking abusive priests around the world once the scandal broke in Boston.

Barrett Doyle points out that it took years for O’Malley to release a list of accused abusive priests in Boston and when he did, in 2011, it was not complete.

“What’s disturbing is that his public relations is so successful that he is now being considered as pope,” she said. “As pope he would be nicer to victims but just as protective of accused priests.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo might be in Rome preparing to elect the new Pope, but he will be keeping in touch with local Catholics on the archdiocese’s website.

A new page, archgh.org/conclave, launched this week with background information on the secret election process for a new pope, live updates from the Vatican’s news office and a new blog about DiNardo’s trip titled, “When in Rome.”

“That will be updated as frequently as we get a post from the cardinal, whenever he has time available,” said Jonah Dycus of the archdiocese’s communications office. “Obviously, when the conclave starts there will be no transmissions.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
YouTube – Channel 4 News

Published on Feb 27, 2013

Alex Gibney who made a documentary on church sex claims says the Catholic Church covered up “crimes”, but Father Robert Gahl from Rome’s Pontifical University says the pope dealt robustly with abuse.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Paul Berger
Edited By Jane Eisner

Published February 28, 2013, issue of March 08, 2013.

Rabbi George Finkelstein was quietly forced out of Yeshiva University High School for Boys in 1995 because of inappropriate wrestling with students that some of them considered abusive.

But the Forward has learned that the wrestling did not stop after his departure from Y.U. It continued during Finkelstein’s next two posts, as dean of a Jewish school in Florida and as director general of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue in Israel, where he worked until abruptly resigning this past December.

The most recent wrestling incidents documented by the Forward were in 2009.

Finkelstein, 67, has been a respected figure in the Modern Orthodox community for decades, first as an administrator at Y.U.’s high school in Manhattan and later at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue. But allegations that he behaved inappropriately with boys have trailed him for at least 30 years, according to dozens of interviews with former students, colleagues and peers in the United States.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Ruben Rosario
rrosario@pioneerpress.comtwincities.com
Posted: 02/27/2013

You can’t get more red-blooded American macho than Al Chesley. Now 55, he is still — at 6 feet 3 inches and at least 250 pounds — a bear of a man, a former NFL middle linebacker nicknamed “Mad Dog” who played on a Philadelphia Eagles team that went to the Super Bowl.

But at age 13, he was but a child — putty in the hands of a larger-than-life and revered neighborhood police officer who loosened him up with booze, showed him porn flicks, then molested and raped him for nearly five years.

“He told me that he wanted to teach me how to become a man — how ironic,” Chesley said this week about his childhood molestation. It took him more than three decades to overcome the guilt and shame to brave speaking about his victimization.

“I thought I would go to my grave (without coming forward),” he said. “Any kind of abuse is horrible. But when a man abuses a boy, I think it’s just extra horrible. It screws you up as a man. It kills your spirit.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Cardinals are about to begin the spectacular sideshow in Rome to try to save many in the Catholic Church’s hierarchy from criminal prosecution and/or financial bankruptcy. The Catholic Church’s current salvation is, however, really in the invisible hands of Protestant political leaders in Berlin and Washington DC, as the Church’s salvation during the Reformation was principally in the hands, not of the Council of Trent, but of the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor, then ruler of much of Europe and the Americas.

The Vatican Cardinals’ sinful ways have been publicly exposed, but other subservient and unorganized Cardinals acting alone, even with a new Pope, are not expected to have the clout to change these Vatican Cardinals’ unChristian ways, notwithstanding the mystical webs that will be spun to the contrary over the next few weeks.

Some Cardinals desperate recent ploys, such as mentioning permitting married priests and the “morning after pill” and calling for the election of almost any Cardinal but a European, especially an Italian, may have helped some uninformed journalists meet a daily deadline, but are really just insignificant distractions. The audacious attempts of imminent ex-Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, and others like Cardinals Mahony (LA), O’Brien (Scotland) and Egan (NY), to portray themselves as victims are both pathetic and predictable. Similarly, Cardinal Pell’s surprising criticism of the new ex-Pope for mismanagement and resigning are too little too late and likely just some defensive posturing as Pell faces soon an extensive royal commission investigation in Australia.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
Galway Advertiser

By Kernan Andrews

THE DIFFERING reactions to the Magdalene Laundries over the years have been mirrored in the responses to Patricia Burke Brogan’s Eclipsed, which will have a staged reading in Galway next week.

Set in 1963 in a convent laundry at St Paul’s Home for Penitent Women in Killmacha, Eclipsed explores the practice of making pregnant and unwed Irish mothers work as ‘penitents’, supervised by nuns who regarded them as vessels of evil. In these laundries the women were treated as virtual slaves while their infants were forcibly put up for adoption.

Eclipsed will be given a performed reading by eight of Galway’s leading actresses in the Druid Lane Theatre, on Friday March 8 at 8pm.

The cast is Órla McGovern, Fiona Kelly, Helen Gregg, Liz Quinn, Sarah O’Toole, Laura Crosby, Lynelle Colleran, and Andrea Kelly, who also directs.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
Irish Times

MARIE O’HALLORAN

More than 700 women have contacted the Department of Justice about eligibility for supports and the fund to be established for survivors of the Magdalene laundries, the Minister for Justice has said.

Alan Shatter also told the Dáil Minister of State Kathleen Lynch and he would shortly meet the four religious congregations involved, for talks about the McAleese report.

Their discussions would include the need to access the laundries’ records again to assist with the operations of the scheme that will be established for the women, he said. He reiterated the Government’s commitment to address the Magdalene laundries’ issue “as quickly, effectively and compassionately as possible. That is the least we can do for the women who were admitted to and worked in the laundries.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.